Henry Hendricks

Henry Hendricks was the third child and second son born to Frances Isaacs and Harmon Hendricks. Born and raised in New York, he was educated by the same tutors as his brother Uriah, just two years his senior, whom he soon followed to Columbia College. On completing his studies at Columbia, Henry—like Uriah—entered the family copper manufacturing works at Belleville, New Jersey. Under the supervision of their uncle, Solomon Isaacs, Henry mastered the mill’s operations and became proficient in mechanical aspects of copper production. By 1827 he and Uriah were made partners to the enterprise. When the company was reconstituted as Hendricks & Brothers in 1830, Henry began to play an important role in management of the company at the company’s New York office. However, he never sought a leadership role and was apparently content to follow Uriah’s lead in the company’s business affairs. Over the years, his interest in the manufacturing side of the business declined, and he took on the role of general sales and marketing representative, visiting customers, collecting bills and contracting purchases of copper.

In 1829, when he was 25, Hendricks married 17 year old Harriet Tobias, whose sister Fanny had married Uriah three years prior. Their family grew to include eight healthy children, all of whom survived to adulthood, whom they raised in New York. Like his father, Henry maintained a strong sense of charitable duty and played an active role in the affairs of the Jewish community of New York. In 1825, he delivered a public oration at the dedication of the Elm Street synagogue of congregation B’nai Jeshurun. He later served on the board of the Hebrew Benevolent Society (founded 1821), and successfully advocated for the establishment of a Jewish hospital (now Mount Sinai Hospital) in 1852, for which he served as founding treasurer as well as trustee. Hendricks also joined his father-in-law, Tobias I. Tobias, as a member (and, later, as an officer) of the Society for the Education of Poor Children and Relief of Indigent Persons of the Jewish Persuasion, one of the country’s early Jewish charities, in 1827. His work with Benjamin Nathan, the husband of his sister Emily, for this group led to their joint participation in the founding of the Hebrew Assistance Society twelve years later. He died after a brief illness in the spring of 1861, just after the outbreak of the Civil War.

Henry Hendricks

mid–19th century