Karpen Furniture Company, Chicago. Founded by Solomon, who was later joined by his brothers.
Solomon Karpen - He was born on January 7, 1858 in Wągrowiec father Moritz (1823-1886) and mother Johanna née Cohen (1835-1902). He was the eldest child and also the first of nine children.
When Solomon was fourteen years old, his parents decided to emigrate - from Berlin to London and Glasgow, where they sailed to the United States. Eventually they settled in Chicago, where eight years later Solomon - to the company with his younger brother Oscar - founded the company S. Karpen & Bros. It specializes in the production of upholstered furniture. At the beginning of the twentieth century it has become in this field the largest producer in the world. At that time even employed seven workers. Furniture manufactured by Karpen today can even be found on Capitol Hill - the headquarters of the US Senate.
He died on October 24, 1936 in Chicago, and was buried in the local Jewish cemetery , where he had already buried his parents. The company remained in the hands of the descendants of the family Karpenów to 1951, when it was bought by tycoon market cheap furniture - International Furniture Co. (The new owner paid for S. Karpen & Bros. $ 3.5 million, according to today's conversion rate would be almost 30 million).
Karpen's wife was born in 1862 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Ernestine Schwalbe. They were married February 17, 1884 and in the same year was born their first child. Ernestine lived Solomon twenty years, died in Chicago March 26, 1956.
Loads more here
http://immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=105Lots of stuff on the net.
