In 1927, a writer in the Pantagraph opined, “Probably no other family in Bloomington has played such a prominent part in the mercantile history of the community as the Livingstons.” In the 1850s, teenage brothers Sam and Aaron Livingston emigrated from Hessen, Germany, to the U.S. They first arrived in Cincinnati, where their uncle Mayer was in business and where they learned English. In 1852, they relocated to Illinois, bought a horse and wagon, and traveled from farm-to-farm peddling. Aaron reached Bloomington in 1853 and rented a shack on the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets for a clothing store. A few months later, Sam opened a clothing store on the southwest corner of Main and Front streets. Thus began the retail empire of the Livingston family. (See Folder 14 for listings of businesses.) [(summarized from article in the Pantagraph, February 10, 1927]
The empire expanded as other Livingstons arrived from Germany, as descendants entered the family businesses or established their own, and as they married into other Bloomington Jewish families. Items in Folder 1: Livingston Family History, provide some genealogical details; other information is readily available in collections and books in the Mclean County Museum of History. Particularly noteworthy in the Livingston Family Collection are materials in Folder 5: Livingston/Ochs Family History. The Sigmund Livingston materials (Folder 11) provide information about his founding of the Anti-Defamation League in 1913.
The Livingston family were members of the Moses Montefiore Temple, as well as other cultural societies and organizations in Bloomington. Today’s Bloomington would be radically different if Aaron and Sam Livingston had not established themselves here in 1853.