Morton Herzog and family
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Isaac Lehman (1824-1905) immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, from Dieberg, Germany, about 1849 and later moved to Pittsburgh. With his brother Moses, he manufactured children’s clothing. By 1886, the business employed 250 people in a four-story building at 646 Liberty Avenue. They later moved to 15 9th Street and then to 422 7th Avenue.
Isaac Lehman and his wife Amanda, of Baltimore, had six children, Milton, Hanna, Lina, Emma, Bertha and Blanche. Hanna Lehman married Louis Kingsbaker.
Moses and his wife, Fanny Frank Lehman, had four children, Irvin, Albert, Lillian and Chester. Irvin Frank Lehman (1876-1936) and Louis Kingsbaker continued the family clothing business under the name Lehman and Kingsbaker before Lehman moved on to the steel industry. He founded the Knox Pressed and Welded Steel Company, which merged with Blaw Steel Construction Company in 1917 to form the Blaw-Knox Corporation. Blaw-Knox became one of the largest steel manufacturers in the country with plants in England, France, Italy and Germany.
Irvin and his wife Fanny Klein Lehman lived in “Casa Colina,” a mansion in Fox Chapel built on property owned by the Kaufmann family. They had a son, David.
Irvin Lehman was one of the original trustees of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, which was founded in 1912 to consolidate philanthropic fundraising and distribution in the Pittsburgh Jewish community.
Albert Carl Lehman (1878-1935) attended Harvard University and spent five years in the wholesale boot and shoe business in Pittsburgh before going into the steel industry in 1906. He eventually joined Blaw-Knox, at first as vice president and later became president. In 1919, Albert Lehman established the Jewish Big Brother Club, dedicated “to rendering service to the boy who has gotten into trouble, and to helping the boy who may, because of conditions beyond his control, stray from the beaten path,” as Lehman explained in an essay. He was president of Montefiore Hospital when it moved to Oakland from the Hill District in 1929. He also served as a trustee of the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association.
Irvin and Albert Lehman were both trustees of the Carnegie Institute, serving with Marcus Aaron for a time. In 1929, in an attempt to bring high quality artwork to Pittsburgh, Albert Lehman established the Albert C. Lehman Prize and Purchase Fund, which provided up to $10,000 to acquire the “best purchasable painting” exhibited in each Carnegie International Exhibition and gave a $2,000 cash prize to the painter. It was among the largest prizes in the art world at the time. Prizes were awarded for five years.
Albert Lehman married Saidie Adler of Baltimore. For their tenth wedding anniversary, they hosted a “Japanese dinner dance” at the Rittenhouse in Pittsburgh’s East End. “All the women wore gorgeous kimonos embroidered in silk over their décolleté gowns, and the host presented each man with a Japanese suit,” read a notice in the Jewish Criterion in 1912. He later married Adele Guckenheimer, a cousin of Pauline Wormser Frank. Albert and Saidie Adler Lehman had a son, Murray. Adele Guckenheimer also had a son, Morton Herzog Jr., from a previous marriage. When Albert Lehman adopted Herzog, the boy changed his name to Alan George Lehman.
Alan “Bud” Lehman (1916-2002) married Jane Anathan. After returning from a tour in the Pacific Theater in World War II, he worked in the steel industry and later as a venture capitalist. Like his stepfather and step-uncle, Bud Lehman was also a trustee of the Carnegie Institute. Bud and Jane Lehman had two children, Ellen and Joanne.
Lillian Lehman (c.1881-1951) married Harvey Strassburger in 1907. She was a “distinguished amateur artist,” according to her obituary, and established several awards at the Arts and Crafts Center, now Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. On August 8, 1900, Moses Lehman hosted a party at the Chalybeate Springs Hotel in Bedford, Pa., to celebrate his daughter Lillian’s 20th birthday. Fifty years later, on August 8, 1950, one of the original guests hosted a party at the same hotel to celebrate Lillian Lehman Strassburger’s 70th birthday.
Chester Hamilton Lehman (c.1886-1959) also attended Harvard University before returning to Pittsburgh to work at Blaw-Knox. He was executive vice president of the company and vice chairman of the board of directors from 1937 until he retired as an officer in 1952 and as a director in 1958. Chester Lehman married Vivian Wolff (d.1977), the granddaughter of Nathan Gallinger. They were early members of the Westmoreland Country Club, a Jewish golf club in Westmoreland County. He was active in many philanthropic causes, and gave particular attention to the United Service Organization and the Boy Scouts. “During his last illness he spoke about his deep feelings for scouting and its ideals,” his wife Vivian Wolff Lehman later said in an NCJW oral history. “He deplored the lack of interest by modern youth in our flag.”
