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Henry Rosenberg, Galveston business
leader and philanthropist, was born in
Bilten, Glarus
Canton, Switzerland, on June 22, 1824, to Johann Rudolf
and Waldburg (Blum) Rosenberg. With limited educational opportunities, he went to work at seventeen in a textile factory, where he and John Hessly, the son of
his employer, became friends.
Rosenberg followed Hessly to Galveston, Texas, where he arrived in February 1843
to work as a clerk in  Hessly's dry-goods store. He purchased half interest in
the store and acquired the remainder in three years' time, then built it into
the leading dry-goods store in the state by 1859. Rosenberg became a financier
and investor and was active in banking, real estate, and transportation. In 1866
he was appointed vice consul of Switzerland for the state of Texas. He became
Swiss consul three years later and held that position until his death. He began
banking as a director of the First National Bank of Galveston in 1868 and
expanded his interests in 1871, when he became president of the Galveston City
Railroad Company.
He was appointed city alderman the same year and served until 1872 as chairman
of the licenses and assessments committee. He served a second term from 1885 to
1887 and chaired the finance and revenue committee. He twice served on the city
library committee. He helped organize the Galveston Bank and Trust Company in
1874 and served as its president and manager. After buying out the other
stockholders, he continued the bank under the name of H. Rosenberg, Banker, and
functioned as its sole stockholder. Rosenberg was also president of the Gulf,
Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company from 1874 to 1877, during which time the
company laid its first fifty miles of track. He served as vice president of the
Galveston Wharf Company from 1889 until his death.
He was a vestryman of Trinity Episcopal Church from 1868 to 1883; he
contributed about half the cost of construction of
Eaton
Memorial Chapel in 1882. He withdrew his membership in 1884 and became
active in Grace Church. In 1886 he donated the Rosenberg Free School to the city
of Galveston. His civic contributions were not fully realized until after his
death. His will provided bequests to family and friends, followed by bequests to
various charitable and religious causes. Allotted in his will were $30,000 each
to the Galveston Orphans' Home, Grace Episcopal Church,
Letitia Rosenberg Women's Home and a fund to put
seventeen drinking fountains
"for man and beast"
around Galveston. Rosenberg's will also provided $65,000 for the construction of
a building for the Galveston Young Men's Christian
Association and $50,000 for erection of a heroes'
monument commemorating the Texas Revolution.qv
All of these projects were completed between 1895 and 1900. The rest of
Rosenberg's estate, more than $600,000, provided for a free public library for
the people of Galveston, the first free public library
in the state. Rosenberg married Letitia Cooper of Virginia on June 11,
1851. She died on June 4, 1888. He married Mollie Ragan Macgill (see
ROSENBERG, MOLLIE) of Hagerstown, Maryland, on November 13, 1889. Both marriages
were childless. Rosenberg died at Galveston on May 12, 1893, and was buried in
Ludon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.
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