The First Jewish Residents of Los Angeles as Listed in the 1850 Census
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Morris Michaels born about 1831 in Poland (Prussia). In 1870 was in San Francisco. Morris L. Goodman born about 1826 in Germany. In 1860 Census in Los Angeles. Page 7 Phillip Sichel born about 1822 in Germany. In 1860 census in Los Angeles. Augustine Wasserman born about 1926 in Germany. No longer in Los Angeles after 1850 census. Felix Bachman born about 1822 in Germany. In 1860 census in Los Angeles. In 1870 in Utah. Died in SF. Joseph Plumer born about 1826 in Germany. Page 7 Abraham Jacobi (or Jacoba) born about 1825 in Poland (Prussia) These men were unmarried merchants and resided in their stores. Stern describes this as being (adjacent to each other) which were on the ground floor of a two story building on Aliso and Los Angeles Street. Vorspan describes this as four adjacent buildings. Alexander Bell mansion. Home adjacent lived Michaels and Jacobi, next door were Sichel, Plumer and Goodman; Wasserman and Bachman occupied the following house. Newmark, census p.42. Jacob Frankfort born about 1810 in Germany. In 1841, he was a tailor from New Mexico in the Workman party. iv. 278-9; In 1846 at Los Angeles ; up and down the coast 1847-8, In 1850, a tailor and married and resided with the Alexander Bell family. Later making a trip to Hon. and back on the General Kearny and Eveline, and obtaining a lot at San Franciso. |
Source: (See Bibliography)
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In 1857, a group of Germans living in San
Francisco bought twelve hundred acres of waste, sandy land, at two dollars an
acre, from Don Pacífico Onteveras, and on it started the town of Anaheim--a name
composed of the Spanish Ana, from Santa Ana, and the German Heim,
for home; and this was the first settlement in the county founded after my
arrival. This land formed a block about one and a quarter miles square, some
three miles from the Santa Ana River, and five miles from the residence of Don
Bernardo Yorba, from whom the company received special privileges. A.
Langenberger, a German, who married Yorba's daughter, was probably one of the
originators of the Anaheim plan; at any rate, his influence with his
father-in-law was of value to his friends in completing the deal. There were
fifty shareholders, who paid seven hundred and fifty dollars each, with an
Executive Council composed of Otmar Caler, President; G. Charles Kohler,
Vice-President; Cyrus Beythien, Treasurer; and John Fischer, Secretary; while
John Fröhling, R. Emerson, Felix
Bachman, who was a kind of Sub-treasurer, and Louis Jazyinsky, made up
the Los Angeles Auditing Committee. George Hansen, afterward the colony's
Superintendent, surveyed the tract and laid it out in fifty twenty-acre lots,
with streets and a public park; around it a live fence of some forty to fifty
thousand willow cuttings, placed at intervals of a couple of feet, was planted.
A main canal, six to seven miles long, with a fall of fifteen to twenty feet,
brought abundant water from the Santa Ana [p.213] River, while some three
hundred and fifty miles of lateral ditches distributed the water to the lots. On
each lot, some eight or ten thousand grape vines were set out, the first as
early as January, 1858. On December 15th, 1859, the stockholders came south to
settle on their partially-cultivated land; and although but one among the entire
number knew anything about wine-making, the dream of the projectors--to
establish there the largest vineyard in the world--bade fair to come true. The
colonists were quite a curious mixture--two or three carpenters, four
blacksmiths, three watchmakers, a brewer, an engraver, a shoemaker, a poet, a
miller, a book-binder, two or three merchants, a hatter and a musician; but
being mostly of sturdy, industrious German stock, they soon formed such a
prosperous and important little community that, by 1876, the settlement had
grown to nearly two thousand people. A peculiar plan was adopted for investment,
sale and compensation: each stockholder paid the same price at the beginning,
and later all drew for the lots, the apportionment being left to chance; but
since the pieces of land were conceded to have dissimilar values, those securing
the better lots equalized in cash with their less lucky associates. Soon after
1860, when Langenberger had erected the first hotel there, Anaheim took a
leading place in the production of grapes and wine; and this position of honor
it kept until, in 1888, a strange disease suddenly attacked and, within a single
year, killed all the vines, after which the cultivation of oranges and walnuts
was undertaken. Kohler and Frohling had wineries in both San Francisco and Los
Angeles, the latter being adjacent to the present corner of Central Avenue and
Seventh Street; and this firm purchased most of Anaheim's grape crop, although
some vineyard owners made their own wine. Morris L. Goodman, by the way, was
here at an early period, and was one of the first settlers of Anaheim. |
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