Erazm Jerzmanowski

Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski Dołęga coat of arms (2 June 1844 – 7 February 1909) was an industrialist, philanthropist and patron of art, soldier, who took part in the January Uprising of 1863–1865.

Biography

Born to Franciszek Jerzmanowski and Apolonia Kamila Kosowska, Erazm graduated from high school in Warsaw in 1862, and then began education at Polytechnic Institute in Puławy.

With other students he joined the January Uprising in 1863. He fought under commands of general Marian Langiewicz. After the uprising failed, he was interned in the castle of Olomouc in Galicia.

Jerzmanowski was set free and forced to go abroad. He went to Paris for emigration in 1864 and studied at the Polish School in Montparnasse. Later he moved to Metz to study at the School of Engineering and Artillery. In 1870 he participated in the Franco-Prussian War as an officer of the French Army.

In 1882 he was a co-founder of Equitable Gas Light Company in New York, as a vice-chairman and later chairman where he led this company for 13 years. He was a founder of gas companies in Chicago and Baltimore and owned gas factories in Indianapolis. In 1896 Jerzmanowski bought a palace in Galicia and settled in Prokocim, near Kraków, where he died in 1909.