Early Years and First Two Families
Isaac Merritt Singer was born in Pittstown, New York, on October 27, 1811. He was the youngest child of Adam Singer (born Reisinger) and his first wife, Ruth (Benson). His father, a millwright, was German, immigrating to the United States in 1803, while his mother was from a family with roots in New England. They had eight children -- three sons and five daughters. The eldest daughter's name was Elizabeth Singer. When Isaac Singer was 10 years old, his parents divorced. After Adam Singer remarried and moved to Hannibal/Oswego County, Isaac Singer did not get on well with his stepmother. So when he was 12, he ran away. He later went to live with his elder brother in Rochester.
Singer's elder brother had a machine shop, and Isaac went to work there. It was there that Isaac grew to his full height of 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), and where he first learned the machinist trade that would become the basis of his fame and fortune.
However, at this stage, Isaac did not realize this. He would look for fame and fortune in another profession: acting. He called himself the best Richard of his time, but a contemporary critic said that his performance was not very good.
Isaac was married for the first time in 1830, to Catharine Maria Haley. They seem to have lived first in Palmyra, New York with her parents for a time. By the summer of 1833, Singer was working in Cooperstown, Otsego County, New York as a mechanic.
Isaac had two children by Catharine. Their first child, William, was born in 1834. In 1835, he moved his family to New York City, where he worked in a press shop. In 1836, he left the city as an agent for a company of players, touring through Baltimore, where he met Mary Ann Sponsler, to whom he proposed marriage (though he did not actually go through with it). He returned with Mary Ann to New York in 1837. That year, Isaac became the father of two children: his wife gave birth to Lillian, and Mary Ann to Isaac Augustus. His domestic life with Catharine did not prosper after this, but they were not officially divorced until January 23, 1860. Mary Ann found out that Singer was already married, so to escape the situation, he went to Chicago to work on the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.
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