Biographical Information
Scope and Content Note: Name, birthplace, date of birth and uncertainty surrounding this, date of family's emigration to the U.S.

Parents' Occupations, 1899-1905
Scope and Content Note: Father's work as foreman in a glass factory near Brest-Litovsk, the company town and its Jewish owners, Russo-Japanese War and factory's closing.

Some Reasons for Emigration, circa 1907
Scope and Content Note: Plant closing, equality and inequality of status, parents' conversations in the home, inequality in the military.

Siblings
Scope and Content Note: Number of brothers and sisters, circumstances of siblings' emigration, places of birth.

Schooling in the Old Country, circa 1906
Scope and Content Note: Departure of Jews from factory town and travelling to school in neighboring village, the cheder and its physical setting, teachers, courses of instruction, Sigman's level of scholastic achievement in 1907, level of difficulty and the hard daily regimen, discipline.

Emigration to the United States, 1907
Scope and Content Note: Age of Sigman upon emigration, father's job at Hamilton Manufacturing in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, father's pay, circumstances of settlement in Two Rivers, friends from Russia living in Manitowoc and Two Rivers, period of residence in Two Rivers, brief description of father's job.

Mother's Entry into the Junk Business with Children, circa 1910?
Scope and Content Note: Lack of job security, learning the trade from the handful of Jews living in Two Rivers, collecting rags and junk with mother and siblings after school, Iman “the horse,” Sigman's job in Mann Brothers' pail factory from 1914.

The Mann Brothers and Their Pail Factory, circa 1913
Scope and Content Note: Mann family interest in the pail factory, factory's financial difficulties, department store ownership, Mann family departure from Two Rivers, their former community leadership, charitable activity, the Mann Public Library in Two Rivers.

Religious Observance in the Sigman Home, 1907-1915
Scope and Content Note: Number of Jewish families in Two Rivers, High Holy Days observance in Manitowoc, description of the old Manitowoc synagogue building, raising a minyan in Jewish homes, going to services in Manitowoc on the streetcar, the Golden family, maintaining a kosher home, going to the kosher butcher in Manitowoc, spoiled meat on the streetcar.

Schooling in Two Rivers, 1907-1913
Scope and Content Note: Placement in school immediately upon arrival in Two Rivers, second grade, brothers and sisters' placement in school, their completion of school opposed to Sigman's interruption of schooling to take job in the pail factory, siblings' subsequent careers, locations, difficulties of learning English in the second grade, mastery in the fourth grade through desire to read, use of the English and Yiddish languages in the home, mother's course in English at night school, support from the home.

Getting Along with Other Children, 1907-1913
Scope and Content Note: Lack of major problems arising from immigrant status, clothing, teasing, sympathetic teacher and classmates.

Peddling, 1907-1913
Scope and Content Note: Peddling, extra job setting pins in a bowling alley, difficulties with conflict between part-time jobs and classes, reason for quitting school, job in the pail factory, part-time job picking beans with other family members.

Journalism, circa 1917-1923
Scope and Content Note: Enjoyment of reading and desire to become a journalist, enrollment as special student at the Marquette University School of Journalism under a misconception, job as a Western Union messenger and a contact with the world of professional journalism, job as copy boy and journalist at the Milwaukee Free Press, job as sports and telegraph editor for the Appleton Post-Crescent, the eighteen-hour day, marriage with a newspaper-woman and resultant departure from the newspaper business for the ladies' and children's clothing business in 1923.

End of Side One (24:50)

Marriage and Business, 1924
Scope and Content Note: Starting the business with the financial sacrifice of Sigman's parents; husband and wife's work in the store.

Children
Scope and Content Note: Birth dates of son and daughter, decision on family size, modest boasting about the grandchildren.

Location and Description of the Sigman Business Establishment
Scope and Content Note: Reasons for locating outside of downtown, Two Rivers customers, curtain and drapery branch and children's takeover of business upon Sigman's retirement in 1967.

Jews in the Manitowoc Retail Trades, circa 1925
Scope and Content Note: Number, names, and natures of establishments, other occupations of Manitowoc Jews, family businesses, Borris family, their furniture store, community activities, work with the Manitowoc Coordinating Committee.

German Refugees in Manitowoc (Through Manitowoc Coordinating Committee), circa 1938
Scope and Content Note: Number of refugee families in Manitowoc, names of those who remained in the area, Hugo Rose and an anecdote on a ruse, his present activity, his early days in Manitowoc, help from Simon Schwartz.

B'Nai B'Rith in Manitowoc, 1927
Scope and Content Note: Date of founding of lodge, number of charter members, present membership, frequency of meetings, activities, connections with Zionism.

Unofficial Zionist Activities, A Listing, 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Listing of Jewish organizations in Manitowoc and their commitment to Zionism.

Reactions of Manitowoc Jews to German Nazism Before Establishment of the Manitowoc Coordinating Committee, 1933-1938
Scope and Content Note: Personal reactions, good relationships with German and Polish ethnics in Manitowoc and lack of connection with what was going on in Germany at the time, gradual penetration of Hitler's “ideas” among ethnic groups, B'nai B'rith response.

Pearl Harbor, World War II, and the Jewish Problem as Seen in Manitowoc
Scope and Content Note: Personal reactions to the war in Europe, Sigman's enlistment in World War I as the “war to end wars,” German friends, Sigman's children and the war.

Date of Retirement, 1950s, 1960s

End of Interview (15:35)