Early Life and Career
His father, Isaac Touro of Holland, was chosen in 1762 as the hazzan at the Touro Synagogue, a Portuguese Sephardic congregation in Newport. After the British captured Newport, Isaac and his family moved to New York in 1780, and then in 1782 to Kingston, Jamaica. In 1783 Isaac died and his wife, Reyna, moved the family to Boston, to live with her brother, Moses Michael Hays. Reyna Touro died in 1787, and Judah and his siblings were raised by his uncle, a merchant who helped found Boston's first bank.
At least one book about Touro has indicated that he fell in love with his cousin, Catherine Hays, but was forbidden marriage by her father, who sent him on a trading voyage to the Mediterranean in hopes of ending the romance. In October, 1801, Judah went to New Orleans, where he opened a small store near the levee, he sold soap, candles, codfish and other exports of New England, eventually becoming a prominent merchant and shipowner, particularly after the Louisiana Purchase propelled the growth of the region and its commerce.
Though in poor health, he enlisted in Andrew Jackson's army in the War of 1812; physically incapacitated from fighting, he volunteered to carry ammunition to the batteries in the Battle of New Orleans, in which, on January 1, 1815, he was seriously wounded by being struck on the thigh by a twelve-pound shot which tore off a large mass of the flesh, so bad was his wound as to be given up for dead, but was saved by a friend named Rezin Davis Shepherd,a Virginian merchant. Mr.Shepherd helped nurse Judah back to health,and their close friendship continued throughout their lives. Following the war, he recovered for a year, then resumed building his business interests in shipping, trade, and real estate. Despite his many real-estate purchases, Touro made a point of never mortgaging current properties to acquire new ones, and lived a simple life in a small apartment, remarking, "I have saved a fortune by strict economy, while others had spent one by their liberal expenditures."
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