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Barnard Gratz

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | 700+ words | Copyright

Barnard Gratz , 1738–1801, American merchant, b. Langensdorf, Upper Silesia. Having worked in his cousin's countinghouse in London, Gratz emigrated (1754) to Philadelphia, where he became a fur trader. Within a few years he and his brother Michael Gratz, 1740–1811, established a firm that acquired tracts of land in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois for pioneer settlement and ran boats on the Ohio River. The brothers signed the nonimportation resolutions against the Stamp Act and gave invaluable aid to the patriot cause in the American Revolution when they ran supplies through the British blockade. Later, Barnard helped to amend Pennsylvania's and Maryland's constitutions so that Jews could hold office. Michael was the father of Rebecca Gratz.

Bibliography: See W. V. Byars, ed., B. and M. Gratz (1916).

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