Solomon "Sol" Weinberger, Idaho Springs, Colorado
Shown here standing behind the bar of his saloon, Solomon “Sol” Weinberger was a diminutive five feet, three inches, tall. His height had little to do with his reputation in Idaho Springs, Colorado, as a genial proprietor and civic-minded citizen of his adopted country. The diminutive Sol was born in July 1864 in a part of Europe then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Abraham and Henche Weinberger. At the age of 17 he emigrated to the United States, arriving in June 1881 aboard the steamer Normannia, shown here. In that move Sol apparently had been preceded by an elder brother, Simon, and two half-brothers, Herman and Nathan, all of whom had settled in Colorado, Simon in boom town Cripple Creek where he was running a saloon. Records indicate that Sol, a bachelor, may have been working in Simon’s saloon and living with Simon’s family that included his wife, Bettie, and son Bernard. In Cripple Creek Weinburger met his future wife, Anna Glauber, a w