Isaac & Sadie Wax
Values Codes I – E – L
Isaac (Wachs) Wax was born in 1879 in Stepan, the Ukraine, to Shmuel and Faigye Wachs.
Isaac had three brothers: Max, Sam, and Hyman, and one sister, Florence.
Along the way . . .
Isaac Wax came to America, entering the country in Boston, in 1904.
He settled in Brooklyn, New York and sent for his wife, Sadie.
He worked as a carpenter.
Utah
In 1914, Isaac Wax and his family moved to Salt Lake City, where because Isaac’s cousin, Louis Block, lived.
Wax worked as a peddler, meat packer, and hide buyer.
Isaac, Ida, Morris & Sadie Wax
In 1923, Wax moved to Salina, Utah. The family lived in the back of a Boston Store.
Sadie ran the general merchandise store, while Isaac traveled to rural parts of Utah, peddling dry goods.
In 1928, Isaac Wax bought property in Loa, Utah, a town that was lacking in Jewish community.
There, he ran the Loa Co-op, which was known as “Ikie’s Store.”
Isaac Wax’s Loa Co-0p Store
Community
Isaac and Sadie Wax attended services at Congregation Montefiore, the Conservative synagogue in Salt Lake City.
Congregation Montefiore, Salt Lake City,
circa 1973
Family
Isaac Wax married Sadie Weisblatt (b. 1887) around 1904.
They had 4 children: Harry (b. 1906), Yetta (b. 1908), Ida (b. 1913), and Morris (b. 1920).
In 1945, Harry Wax founded the San Diego Janitorial Supply and Chemical Company in San Diego, California. His brother Morris Wax joined him in business the following year, and by 1954, they incorporated as Waxie Sanitary Supply, which now includes businesses in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, and Utah.
Waxie is still family owned; CEO Charles Wax is Morris Wax’s son.
Isaac Wax died, in 1962, in Salt Lake City. He is buried in Montefiore Cemetery.
Sadie Wax died in 1966, and is buried in the Shalom Mausoleum in the Greenwood Cemetery in San Diego, California.
Source
- Donald H. Harrison, “Isaac & Sadie Wax: Pioneer Jews in Rural Utah,” Western States Jewish History 46/4.
Samantha Silver is curator for this Isaac and Sadie Wax exhibit.
Schmuel & Faigye Wachs, Isaac’s Parents