Samuel Arnstein appears only once in Leadville's recorded history as an entry in the 1880 census. The eighteen year old native refugee from New York (both of his parents had immigrated from Germany) was living at 109 West Chestnut Street. A single man, he cohabited with Louis Poznanski, two years his senior, who also hailed from New York. Both men reported themselves as being cigar merchants and may have been in business together, although Poznanski is also known to have worked as a barkeeper that year for Bernard Poznanski.