Cone Sisters - Early Life

Early Life

Their parents were Herman (Kahn) Cone and Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone, who were German-Jewish immigrants. Herman, who had immigrated from Altenstadt in Bavaria (South of Ulm) changed the spelling of his last name from Kahn to "Cone" almost immediately upon arrival in the United States in 1845, perhaps to become more American. Until 1871 the family lived in Jonesboro, Tennessee, where they had a successful grocery business. This is where the first five of twelve children were born, including Claribel and Etta. They then moved to Baltimore, Maryland.

The eldest Cone brothers, Moses and Ceasar, later relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina. They established a textile business they named Proximity Manufacturing Company (long known as Cone Mills Corporation, now a unit of International Textile Group). During World War I the textile mills that "Brother Moses" started would again increase their fortunes.

The two sisters, one with a grander personage and independent, the other garrulous and sociable, lived in adjoining apartments on Eutaw Street in Baltimore for fifty years. They both graduated from Western Female High School. Claribel attended Women's Medical College of Baltimore and graduated in 1890, to become a physician and pathologist. She then worked in the pathology laboratory of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Claribel became a pathologist but never practiced medicine. However, she did teach pathology and continued to study with other European researchers over the next twenty years. Etta was a pianist and managed the family household as more an implementer of Dr. Claribel's ideas. They traveled extensively to Europe together almost yearly on long trips starting in 1901.