The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Leiter, Levi Zeigler

LEITER, Levi Zeigler, American financier: b. Leitersburg, Md., 1834; d. 1904. He worked his way up in the retail drygoods from a clerkship in a country store to a partnership in the Chicago firm Coolidge, Wadsworth and Company. In 1865, together with Marshall Field, he sold his interest in that concern and they purchased a controlling interest in the drygoods establishment of Potter Palmer, the firm name then becoming Field, Palmer and Leiter. Upon Palmer's withdrawal it became Field, Leiter and Company until 1 Jan. 1881, when Leiter retired from the company and devoted himself to the management of his large real estate holdings and corporation interests. One of his daughters was Mary Victoria, Lady Curzon of Kedleston.