married Ruth Van Stevenson in Salt Lake City and they had two children. He moved to Santa Fe in 1896. In Santa Fe he worked for and later became president of Seligman Brothers after his father died in 1903. He retired from Seligman Brothers in 1914 when he was appointed Santa Fe Postmaster by President Woodrow Wilson, a position he held for six years. At the time of his death, he held the rank of Major in the New Mexico National Guard. Jim and Ruth Seligman made their home against Ft. Marcy Hill on Hillside street where it joins Marcy street. I well remember spending time in their house as a child after Uncle Jim died. In 1929 he opened The Old Santa Fe Trading Past shown above in 1949, eight years after his death.
. He an his brother were both were 32nd degree Masons. However, he was not interested in politics as was his brother, Arthur According to his obituaries in 1941, he was noted as a soft-spoken man of varied interests. He was considered an expert in Navajo weaving and blankets, Indian jewelry, a dedicated historian (always insisting on historically factual newspaper reporting), a man of fine music, fine theatre, and the reading of history, member of the New Mexico Historical and Archeological Societies, and a member of the County School Board. One of his obituaries (New Mexican December 15, 1941)states that "He deplored the erasing of landmarks, the making-over of a beautiful old city into efficient but ugly structures. He kept his own store as a masterpiece of the old Santa Fe charm." Ironically, as I said, his store shown above was torn down and made into a parking lot during the early 1950's.