The Berliner Family

Meyer Berliner (d.1895) moved his family to Corry, Pa., from Wellsville, New York, in 1866. In the late 1880s, Meyer and his son Jacob Berliner started M. Berliner and Company, a tallow rendering business. The company did business across a region stretching west to Utah and south to Tennessee, but went under after only five years.

Jacob Berliner (d.1917) and his sons Lawrence and Manfred started the Corry Hide and Fur Company in 1900. The mail-order business on West Main Street, in Corry, purchased furs, skins and hides from trappers across North America, often selling its merchandise through representatives in New York, London and Leipzig, Germany. The company also dealt in trapping and rendering supplies and incidental products such as ginseng root.

The operation grew, and, by 1912, Corry Hide and Fur had a staff of 15 employees and a large warehouse and boasted of “50,000 shippers in all America.” The brothers started the Berliner Leather Company in 1914, billing it as the “successor to the Corry Hide and Fur Company,” although the two enterprises operated simultaneously for a time. The onset of World War I brought increased competition for hides, and the business worked hard to meet demand.

Business slowed in the early 1920s, after Manfred Berliner (1880-1924) died and Lawrence Berliner (c.1881-1969) relocated to New York City with his mother. While in New York, Lawrence Berliner remained active in the industry and joined the New York Hide Exchange in its early days. He returned to Corry in the 1930s before permanently relocating to Florida in the 1940s with his sister-in-law and nephew. Over the years, he occasionally submitted articles about Corry to various publications.

For More Information

•  Berliner Family Papers finding aid