Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Shemanski, Joseph 1869 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com November 9, 2009, 11:19 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 199 - 200
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     The largest concern in its special line in the United States is the 
Eastern Outfitting Company, of which Joseph Shemanski is vice president and 
manager of the Portland house. This concern has been in existence for forty 
years in Portland and has long been regarded as one of the most substantial 
and important commercial enterprises of the west. The inception of the 
business was in 1887, when Isador Shemanski and Henry Sieroti, with a capital 
of six hundred dollars, started in business in San Francisco. Joseph Shemanski 
worked for them about nineteen months and in 1889 came to Portland with 
fifteen hundred dollars, and opened a small store at Third and Taylor streets, 
in which he installed a stock of curtains, blankets, bedding and such goods. 
He slept in the store and devoted himself closely to the business. Of the 
money which he brought with him he deposited five hundred dollars in the 
Portland Savings Bank and invested one thousand dollars in the store. He 
employed one assistant and after awhile moved to a better location at Third 
and Madison streets. About 1895, the business having grown to a point which 
promised well for the future, he enlarged the stock, adding a line of ladies' 
ready-to-wear garments, and from that time the volume of trade increased 
rapidly. In 1904 he leased a space one hundred by one hundred feet, at the 
corner of Tenth and Washington streets. He now employs eighty-six people in 
the Portland store and has one of the most up-to-date and popular men and 
women's clothing establishments in this city. The growth of the business has 
been due to his untiring efforts and sound judgment in catering to the tastes 
and wants of his customers and the uniform courtesy and fair dealing which 
characterizes the service rendered by the store.

     The Eastern Outfitting Company's main office is still in San Francisco. 
The officers of the Portland store are Isador Shemanski, of San Francisco, 
president; Joseph Shemanski, vice president; and Henry Sieroti, secretary and 
treasurer. The company now has thirty-four stores in various cities and towns 
on the coast, in which it employs over eight hundred people. It has eight 
buyers, maintaining a buying office in New York city and one in Paris, and is 
always thoroughly abreast of the times in its line of goods, quality and price 
being always right.

     Joseph Shemanski was born in Poland in 1869 and is a son of Marcus and 
Jeanette Shemanski, both of whom are deceased. He received a good education in 
the public and high schools of his native land and in 1887 came to the United 
States, going direct to San Francisco, to which city his brother Isador had 
gone in 1883. He has devoted himself to the upbuilding of the business, and 
his record at Portland is one of continued success, this being one of the 
leading stores owned by the company.

     On July 31, 1898, Mr. Shemanski was united in marriage to Miss Sadie 
Zanansky, who was born and reared in San Francisco, and they are the parents 
of two children, Adriemme, who is the wife of J. R. Fulop, of Portland, and 
Mirriam, who is the wife of Burton Lipman, of Seattle, Washington. Mr. 
Shemanski is a member of Harmony Lodge, A. F. & A. M.; Portland Consistory, A. 
A. S. R., and Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is a member and a director 
of the Chamber of Commerce, and belongs to the hospitality and retail 
merchants committees. He has membership in the Concordia Club and the 
Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, of which he was president for two terms. He 
is vice president of the Beth Israel Temple and was president seven times of 
the Aha Via Sholom synagogue. He is a man of unquestioned integrity, 
progressive ideas and enterprising methods, and commands the respect of his 
businees associates and the uniform confidence of the people of his community.

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