Levi Leiter

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Levi Ziegler Leiter (November 2, 1834 - July 8, 1904) was a Chicago businessman and partner of Marshall Field who co-founded what became the Marshall Field and Company retail empire.

Leiter was born to Joseph Leiter and Anne Ziegler of Leitersburg, the Washington County, Maryland town founded by his grandfather, Abraham Leiter. He married Mary Theresa Carver (1844-1913). Leiter died in Washington, D.C.

In 1865, Leiter and Field bought into a small dry goods business run by Potter Palmer. When Palmer left the company in 1867 to pursue real estate ventures, the company was renamed Field and Leiter. The two men built a six-story store on State Street in 1868. It was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. When Leiter retired from the company in 1881, the name was changed to Marshall Field and Company.

His eldest daughter Mary Victoria married the British Conservative statesman George Curzon, later 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, in 1885. His second daughter, Nancy, was the sponsor of USS Illinois (BB-7).^[1]