Fading Ad Blog Rotating Header Image

August 17th, 2012:

Cimmet’s Gen’l Store – Wilkes-Barre, PA

© Frank H. Jump

© Frank H. Jump

HARRY CIMMET — From newsboy on the streets to one of the leading merchants of Nanticoke in less than thirty years is the proud record of Harry Cimmet, whose department store is one of the finest examples of its class in Eastern Pennsylvania. From the inception of the business he had gradually enlarged his establishment, in order to take care of the constantly growing trade that has come to him through honest endeavor to please and to give full value to all. His activities in civic affairs, in philanthropic work, in business, financial and fraternal organizations have brought him into intimate contact with his fellow-citizens, to mutual advantage and profit. Of pleasing personality and gifted with a keen intellect, he has gathered to himself a host of friends in the business and social circles of Nanticoke and vicinity, who regard him as a citizen of unusual worth to their community.

Mr. Cimmet is of Austrian parentage, born in Chicago, Illinois, April 15, 1884. His parents were Joseph and Molly Cimmet, both born in Austria, who emigrated to America and first settled in Chicago, later removing to Plymouth, Pennsylvania, thence to Wilkes-Barre. Harry Cimmet was educated in the public schools of Wilkes-Barre and went to work, when ten years of age, as a newsboy after school. At sixteen years of age he began in earnest, entering the clothing establishment of Charles Finberg and Company, in Wilkes-Barre, where he remained for three years, then going to his father, who was conducting a men’s furnishing goods store in Plymouth. He gravitated from this into the wholesale liquor business, establishing himself in Avoca, where he conducted this enterprise for two years. It displeased him and, in 1909 he came to Nanticoke, where he established himself in the business of general merchandise at No. 7 East Main Street. In a short time that place became too cramped for his growing trade and he enlarged the premises to meet the demand. His store later became a complete department enterprise and is now one of the leaders of Nanticoke, with Hoor space twenty-two by two hundred feet. He is one of the most progressive business men of the city, a charter member and immediate Past President Kiwanis International, a director and vice-president of the Miners’ Trust Company of Nanticoke. and actively associated with the Visiting Nurses’ organization and the Association for the Relief of Crippled Children. He attends the Nanticoke Synagogue, and is a member of Temple Israel at Wilkes-Barre. He married, in June, 1906, Dora Morris, daughter of Jacob and Bessie Morris, of Kingston. Their children are: 1. Sylvia, a graduate of Bloomsburg Norman College and now a student at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is preparing for an educational career. 2. Isadore, a graduate of Nanticoke High School, who has entered the University of Pennsylvania, taking the Wharton business course. 3. Harold, student at Nanticoke High School. Mrs. Cimmet is very active in charitable organizations. Oscar Jewell Harvey. From A history of Wilkes-Barré, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material (Volume v.6). (page 38 of 117)