Editor’s note: This story appeared in The Vicksburg Post’s “Profile 2024” magazine, which was published earlier this year.

Exactly how and why a poor Latvian cigarmaker emigrated to the United States, came through Ellis Island, and wound up in Vicksburg, Mississippi in the late 1890s has been lost to time.

The results of that chain of events, however, created a legacy that has lasted well into the 21st century.

Samuel Marcus came to Vicksburg in the 1890s and started selling furniture in 1899. The business he created, Marcus Furniture, is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2024. It has been located at 1210 Washington St. since 1922, and brothers Steven and Miles Marcus are the fourth generation of the family to own the store.

“I didn’t do it. I kept it going. I didn’t set this up, my ancestors did. You’re expected to take care of this place. When you say, ‘The store,’ that makes us proud,” Steven Marcus said. “They’ll come out of their graves and haunt us if we mess this up.”

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Samuel Marcus and his wife Celia came to the United States in the late 1800s. Like a lot of poor European immigrants of the time, they soon left New York City to try and find their fortune in the country’s interior.

“Vicksburg must have been rockin’ in that time,” Steven Marcus said. “I think he must have just stopped here. Vicksburg was a river town, it was bumping, and I guess he thought he could make a living.”

Samuel Marcus was a cigarmaker in Riga, Latvia, which was then a part of Russia. He was having trouble finding success at that trade in the U.S., however, so he purchased a mule and wagon and became a peddler of various goods.

Celia, meanwhile, made and sold quilts to help support the family. She had sold some on credit and, one day, Samuel was talking to a customer who needed a set of chairs but couldn’t afford them. Celia suggested Samuel sell the chairs on credit, and the deal soon led the couple into the furniture business.

“I give my great-grandmother credit for the idea of the business,” Steven Marcus said.

Within a decade, Marcus Furniture was doing well enough to rent a storefront on Washington Street. It moved a block south in 1922, and in 1931 the family purchased an adjoining building that is used as a warehouse.

In 1915, the second generation of Marcuses moved into the firm. Samuel’s son Isadore began working soon after graduating from St. Aloysius College, and not long after Isadore’s brother Herman “Smoky” Marcus joined as well.

“(Herman) was an auto mechanic at the Packard dealership at Washington and Grove Streets. He would always be covered in grease and looked like he was bathed in soot, so everybody called him Smoky,” Steven Marcus said.

Isadore and Smoky were a perfect partnership. Isadore was a sharp innovator who handled the business side of things, while Smoky was a talented salesman.

“The wealth of information (Isadore) gave me, you can’t learn that,” Steven said. “We’re still using systems he created in the 20s. The man was a genius. He was an unbelievable businessman. He had a kind heart but a gruff exterior.”

The current owners said they have a similar dynamic. Steven and Miles Marcus share ownership duties, but Steven said he’s more of a natural salesman while Miles prefers to handle the business operations.

The brothers bought the business from their uncle, Richard, in 1997 to keep ownership in the family for a fourth generation.

“We both have our strengths and we excel with what our strengths are,” Miles said. “It’s fun, for the most part. I’ve been doing it 36 years and there’s always something new.”

Like previous generations, the brothers are also no strangers to sweat. Steven said the 60-year-old Miles frequently helps unload merchandise from delivery trucks. Smoky and Isadore were involved in day-to-day operations up until their deaths in 1989 and 1991, respectively.

“It ain’t one of those family businesses where the old guys made their money and took off. You’re working here,” Steven said.

1210 WASHINGTON STREET
In 1909, a couple of years before Marcus Furniture moved into its original location, a fire burned a building in the 1200 block of Washington Street to the ground. The latter was rebuilt in 1910, and in 1922 Samuel Marcus bought the building.

In the century since then, it has become a second home for the Marcuses. Both brothers, as well as many other family members, were involved in the business almost from the time they could walk.

“They’d let you sweep the floor or put a handle on a dresser, but you’d play,” Steven said. “It was huge fun. There were nooks and crannies you could get lost in.”

The play, Steven added with a smile, wasn’t all playing hide and seek. The basement was a playground for older children as well.

“I learned how to shoot dice and smoke cigarettes and play Tunk (a card game) in the basement with the fellas when I was 12,” Steven laughed.

Once the games started to turn from childish wonder to teenage rowdiness, however, Steven said he and his brother were required to earn their keep.

“At age 11 or 12 the manager said if you’re going to keep coming here, you’re going to work,” he recalled. “By accident I waited on a customer at 13 and made my first sale. It was in my blood.”

The four-story building at 1210 Washington Street has hundreds of similar stories from a century of operation. Wooden floors creak underfoot in the rear showroom and a freight elevator at the back of the store dates to the 1940s.

Miles Marcus said he occasionally unearths artifacts from the past that are littered throughout the building.

“I don’t want to be the one that empties this place out. There’s stuff from the 20s, from the 50s in here. It’s a time capsule of the furniture business,” Miles said. “I go up on that balcony and there’s stuff from when they used to repair transistor radios. We have appliance parts and haven’t sold appliances in 20 years.”

AN EXTENDED FAMILY BUSINESS
While the Marcus family has been a constant, Steven and Miles both said one of the secrets to staying in business for 125 years is Marcus Furniture’s extended family — its longtime employees and loyal customers who have also spanned multiple generations.

Warehouse worker Henry Howard has been with the company for 36 years, and his co-worker Andre Jones for 15. Office manager Barbara Antoine has been there more than 20 years and her mother Frances Antoine was there for 56. In fact, Barbara first worked in the store as a teenager and later replaced Frances when the latter retired.

“We’ve been very fortunate. We have a great client base and great employees,” said Steven Marcus, who himself has worked full-time at the store since 1981. “We have 10 employees who worked here 50 years or more. If you don’t have the spokes in the wheels, you’re not going anywhere.”

Steven added that some of the long-tenured employees who worked at the store when he was growing up in the 1960s and 70s were like surrogate parents, and the building itself was a second home.

“I can go home. I’ve been here since I was 6 or 7 years old. The store means something. If I get in a mess I can spend the night here,” he laughed. “I was very, very fortunate that we had not only my grandfather and great uncle here, but sales people who kept you in line.”

Having so many long-term employees creates a vast wealth of institutional knowledge — not just of how the business operates, but with customers — that adds a personal connection that’s hard to get at big box stores, Miles Marcus added.

“We have people that come in that say every piece of furniture in their house is from Marcus Furniture,” Miles said. “They know what we provide. They have a problem and we take care of it, for the most part. If they call us, they’re not calling an 800 number waiting on hold for 15 minutes to talk to somebody in India.”

Like the staff, a number of Marcus Furniture’s customers are also multi-generational. It’s helped build a rare connection between the two that goes well beyond the normal transactional relationship that ends at the cash register.

“Customer service is what we’re about. We offer a great product at a great price, and great customer service,” Steven said. “We have unbelievably loyal customers. I didn’t do it. They did it over the years.”

The unique relationship has also helped Marcus Furniture endure for a century and a quarter, and to become something more than just a downtown furniture store. It’s turned Marcus Furniture into a Vicksburg institution.

“I guess we’re too stupid to do anything else,” Miles Marcus laughed. “It’s a family business. There are not very many of them any more. It’s a good accomplishment to be in business that many years and still going.”