Mendes I. Cohen (1796-1879)
MSA SC 3520-1818
Biography:
Mendes I. Cohen was born in Richmond, Virginia on May 26, 1796 to Israel I. and Judith Solomon Cohen. The family had nine other children: Jacob, Joshua, Solomon, Philip, Benjamin, Joshua, Edward, David, Maria. After Israel's death in 1803, Judith Cohen moved the family to Baltimore. Mendes I. Cohen worked with his brothers at Cohen's Lottery and Exchange and later at Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. and Brothers Banking House. Cohen left Baltimore in 1829 to travel abroad, and between 1829 and 1835, he visited England, Russia, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt, in addition to the majority of countries in Central and Western Europe. Cohen became the first American to tour the Nile Valley. Upon his return to the states, Cohen was elected to the House of Delegates from Baltimore City in 1847, the first Jewish member of the Maryland General Assembly; his brother Jacob had been one of the first Jewish elected officials in the state two decades earlier. During the Civil War, Cohen was a member of the State Peace Convention, and later acted as Vice President of the Baltimore Committee of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. Mendes I. Cohen remained a bachelor throughout his life, and died on May 7, 1879 without heirs.
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