Hi Mike,
Below is a cut-and-paste of a post I made on this subject a couple of years ago.
Regards,
Jon
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Montague Alexander Friedlander was born in San Francisco about 1858/59. His father was Alexander Friedlander, a peripatetic German Jew born in Hamburg around 1817. Alexander wandered from Germany, to England (where he met his wife), to California, and then to Scotland. There could well have been other stops in between. Once in Scotland Alexander established Alex. Friedlander & Co. at 23 Royal Exchange Square in Glasgow; the business first appears in Glasgow directories in the 1862/63 edition. The firm at various times dealt as a wholesale importer and shipper of tobacconists' furnishings, fancy goods, Havana cigars, cigarettes, walking sticks, jars, glass cases, scales, weights, leeches, etc.
Montague's mother was Sarah Assur, born in England about 1826. Sarah met and married Alexander in London in late 1856. The couple must have emigrated to California fairly shortly thereafter, for their son Montague was born there a few years later. Montague was their only child.
Alexander died in Glasgow in the fall of 1877, and the business was taken over by his wife, Sarah Assur Friedlander, and their son, Montague Alexander. By January of 1882 their partnership was dissolved, and the business was taken over by Montague and a man named John Burman Macaulay. The new partnership didn't last long, however, for in September of 1884 Macaulay was out and Montague remained as sole partner.
In 1886 Montague married Isabel Rose Meyer in London; the couple had at least three children, including one named Julius Assur Friedlander (1889-1951). It was Julius who took over the family business, with Montague retiring in June of 1919. Montague lasted a few more years before dying in NYC in December of 1922.
Note that Montague began being listed independently (although still associated with his father's firm) as a cigar merchant in the Glasgow directories in 1882/83. The dual listings for Montague and the firm of Alex Friedlander & Co. continued for decades. His father's firm appears to have been the more important, however, and continued appearing in phone books through at least 1954.
One final note. There were a variety of other Friedlanders in the UK around the same time apparently associated with the tobacco trade. I suspect, but don't know, that they were siblings or cousins of Alexander, suggesting that the family may well have had ties to tobacco in Germany dating back to the early 19th century.