After immigrating from Germany in 1868, Max Ullman spent most of the next dozen years traveling over Georgia, changing jobs and cities frequently, looking for a place big enough to achieve his ambitions. Shown here, he eventually found opportunity in the Brunswick, Georgia, liquor trade. Ullman parlayed that success into a handful of enterprises that made him a fortune, only to meet his undoing in the national financial panic of 1893.
From an extensive biography of Ullman in “Biographical Souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida” (1889), we learn that Max was born in Munich, Germany, in June, 1847, the son of Nathan and Theresa (Neustadter) Ulman. His family appears to have been wealthy, able to educate Max with private tutors and given a business education by serving an apprenticeship in a Munich banking house. Ullman appears to have avoided conscription into the army. Although his future in Germany would seem assured, exhibiting the restless spirit that marked his life, at the age of 21 Ullman boarded the steamship, Cimbria, shown below, for America.
Landing in New York, Ullman spent 1869 clerking in Pittston, Pennsylvania, but seeing better opportunities South, left after a year for Albany. Georgia. That city had become prominent in the nineteenth century as a shipping and market hub, served by riverboats and railroads. Seven lines met in Albany, and the town bloomed as a center of trade. Ullman worked as a clerk there for a year, was dissatisfied, and in 1870 moved on to Camilla, Georgia, about 30 miles south. There he went to work for Samuel Mayer, a merchant who would become important to him in achieving his future.
Ullman worked for Mayer for three years in a Camilla merchandise business “but finding the place was not large enough for him,” he sold out his share and returned to Albany. “In order to improve his business capacity,” according to his biography, Ullmann then took a job with Myers & Brother, wholesale tobacco and cigar dealers in Savannah, 225 miles on the other side of the Georgia. While Savannah should have been large enough to satisfy his ambitions, Ullman stayed only three years before returning to Albany to work with Mayer in the cotton trade.
That move also might have been triggered by motives other than ambition. Max had fallen in love with Mayer’s daughter, Francis. She had been a little girl of 12 when they first met but the attraction was mutual and at the age of 19 she and Max, 25, were married in July of 1877. But even marriage could not temper Ullman’s restless drive to get ahead. He moved 40 miles north to Americus, Georgia, and started his own merchantile business. Americus, more than twice the size of Albany, was known as the "Metropolis of Southwest Georgia," a reflection of its status as a cotton distribution center. He remained there until 1882, “but the field not being large enough for him,” according to his biography, Ullman moved to Brunswick, Georgia, 200 miles east, a city he likely had visited as a traveling salesman from Savannah. An Atlantic port city, Brunswick was experiencing boom times as timber harvests and sawn products from regional forests were being shipped from there all over America.
Another incentive for Ullman was the presence in Brunswick of Sam Mayer, his wife’s father. Mayer offered Max an executive position in a wholesale grocery and liquor business he had started with a partner. Called Mssrs. S. Mayer and Glauber, the firm rapidly became known for its large business volume, much of its profits from alcohol. Within four years Glauber was gone and the company became S. Mayer and Ullman, doing business on Bay Street at the foot of Mansfield St. The partners marketed their own brand of whiskey brought to them in barrels by land and sea. They decanted the liquor into ceramic jugs and sold them to area saloons, hotels and restaurants. Max rapidly was becoming rich.
He was able to move Frances and their growing family into a spacious frame house at 509 London Street, shown below. By this time, the couple had known considerable sorrow, as a daughter, Helen, had died in infancy. They would know more heartache when another daughter, Theresa, died at only eight years. Three other daughters would grow into adulthood.
Despite those losses, Max Ullman, after years of seeking a place adequate to satisfy his ambitions, found a home in Brunswick. And Brunswick took to Max. With a matter of months he was recognized as one of the city’s “up and coming” businessmen. When the Brunswick Inland Steamboat Co. was organized in 1844, Ullman was elected president. With the erection of the Oglethorpe Hotel, shown here, he became a director. While continuing to be connected with the liquor trade, he also was president of the Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company, selling beer, soft drinks and ice.
Ullman also plunged headfirst into the social and political life of Brunswick, becoming a member of the Royal Arch Masons, Knights of Pythias, American Order of United Workmen, and the Order of B’nai Brith. From contacts made through these organizations he was encouraged to run for Brunswick City Council. He won and served for three years raising his name and reputation in local estimation.
The high point of Ullman’s career was his organization of the Oglethorpe National Bank in July 1887 with capital of $100,000. Max was president, harking back to his early training in a Munich banking house. For its initial years the bank flourished, growing significantly. When Oglethorpe National Bank was chartered in 1889, it built an imposing 3-story red brick building on Jekyll Square West, shown here, featuring a distinctive cupola As a national bank, the institution could issue its own currency. Although its bills are very rarely seen today by collectors, they would look similar to the one shown below.
In 1893, after years of growth, Ullman’s banking business fell victim to a severe national recession. Caused in part by a run on the gold supply, profits, investments, incomes, and the stock market all fell sharply. Unemployment soared, some estimates reaching as high as 18.4%. Particularly hard hit was the banking sector. Ullman’s bank was over extended, weakening as people were defaulting on loans.
The Oglethorpe National Bank was closely tied to another Brunswick bank, run by a friend, W.E. Burbage, on which Ullman was a director. He owed Burbage money. Max had reached out to a banking associate in Savannah for a $15,000 loan but had been refused. On May 18, 1893, he walked to his office with Burbage, “chatting pleasantly,” Unknown to anyone Ullman had hidden on his person an opiate pill and a pistol. When Burbage asked him about repaying the loan, he replied “All right, wait a moment,” and stepped into an adjoining bathroom.
The Atlanta Constitution told the rest of the story: “Burbage, waiting, heard a report which he thought was a chair falling. Finally when Ulllman did not return he went for him, and found his body sitting upright on a bench with a bullet hole in the center of his forehead and blood flowing in a rapid stream to a pool that had already formed below.”
The news of Ullman’s suicide spread rapidly and the streets around the bank crowded with anxious citizens. The immediate effects on other Brunswick banks that day and later was minimal. Burbage’s bank was expected to survive but Oglethorpe National was bankrupt, its liabilities hopelessly outweighing assets. Many with accounts, including the City of Brunswick, lost significant amounts of money. Ullman’s other business enterprises, including the brewery, suspended operations, as the effects of the event rippled through the community. The news of Ullman’s bank failure and suicide was reported in newspapers nationwide and even overseas.
While some citizens of Brunswick worried about their money, others, in particular his family, were mourning the untimely death of a man who had brought his restless spirit to the city, found wealth in selling wholesale liquor and other comestibles, used his resources to create local businesses, and gave his energies to public service. Two days after his death, accompanied by a delegation from the Knights of Pythias and Ullman’s synagogue, a special train from Brunswick took Max’s body back to Albany.
Met there by another delegation, the mourners formed a long procession for a slow and solemn march to the cemetery. At the grave, Jewish rites were conducted by two rabbis. As reported by the Albany Daily Herald: “Then all that was flesh of Max Ullman, whose sad demise had touched the hearts of the people of the whole state, was laid to rest beside the graves of his two little daughters who had gone before.” Later the family erected a large monument over the site, one capped by a figure of “Grief.” The inscription for Max cites him as a “beloved husband” of Frances and in an unusual touch, the date of their marriage.
Note: Once again it was just a single jug on an auction site that brought Max Ullman to my attention, prompting me to research his life, one of more than usual interest and accomplishment. Most important in chronicling Ullman’s career was “Biographical Souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida,” published by F.A. Battey & Co. of Chicago in 1889. No author listed. Details of events surrounding Ullman’s suicide are drawn from newspaper stories.
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