Sam and Harry Schreiber
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Morris Schreiber (1877-1945) and Esther Baich Schreiber (1879-1934) immigrated to the Hill District from Odessa in 1903. They had four children, Harry, Sam, Rose and Sarah. Morris Schreiber started out peddling and later opened a candy store on Wylie Avenue. When the Schreiber family moved to Highland Park about 1920, he sold soft drinks and newspapers before taking over the Mellon-Stanton Garage. For many years, the family lived at 5521 Stanton Avenue, next door to the Rubin Family.
Harry Schreiber (1904-1937) and Sam Schreiber (1906-1987) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy in 1922 and 1926, respectively. Harry Schreiber opened the Forbes-Brady Pharmacy in Uptown in 1925 with start-up funds from his father and later opened a second pharmacy on the North Side. Sam Schreiber managed the pharmacy. Rose Schreiber was a clerk. Business declined during the Great Depression, and the brothers worked at odd jobs to supplement their income. Using contacts from the family garage, the brothers started the Schreiber Trucking Company in 1934.
Harry Schreiber married Rose Bonn in 1925. They divorced in Nevada in October 1933. On the day the divorce became final, Schreiber married Marian Syna, an immigrant from Poland. Harry and Marian Syna Schreiber had one child, Sidney Allen Schreiber. Harry Schreiber died in an accident in 1937 while helping a driver remove a cargo of plate glass from an overturned truck in Cresson, Pa. Marian Schreiber took over her husband’s half of the trucking business and became the secretary and treasurer of the company.
Marian Schreiber was active in promoting the federal War Bonds program during World War II. The staff of Schreiber Trucking invested 10 percent of their salaries in bonds.
Schreiber Trucking became one of the largest trucking companies in Pennsylvania. From its headquarters in East Liberty, the company managed 14 terminals from Chicago to Jersey City and offered service through New England, Canada, and the Mid-West and Great Plains. As the operation grew in the early 1950s, the coming and going of Schreiber trucks contributed to infamous traffic tie-ups on Washington Boulevard and yielded considerable media coverage. The company expanded its facilities in 1954.
In 1951, Marian Schreiber married William L. Rosenberg. The following year, William Rosenberg started the Wilton Storage Company. Harry and Marian Schreiber’s son, Sidney Allen Schreiber, was president of the storage company in the 1970s.
