Soon after arrival, Judah Abraham opened a store on Murray Street in New York.

During the Civil War, he ran away to Chicago to enlist, but was brought back by his father.

At 14, he worked at Hart & Dettlebach of Newark, along with Simon Bloomingdale and Benjamin Altman for $1 a week.

[5] He had three children with his first wife and one with his second wife, Rose: His many notable descendants include grandson Donald B. Straus (son of his daughter Edith), an educator, author, and advisor; great-great-granddaughter Nina Rothschild Utne, a magazine publisher; great-great-grandson Peter A. Bradford, civil servant and nuclear power expert, and great-great-great-grandson Arthur Bradford, an author and director.

Abraham died on Cherry Island, near Alexandria Bay, New York.