Editor’s Note: As part of Congregation Beth Israel’s 150th anniversary celebration, San Diego Jewish World editor Don Harrison gave an after-dinner speech to the CBI Men’s Club on Wednesday, July 18, sketching ten Jewish pioneers of San Diego. Here is an edited version of that talk.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO– Having written a book about LOUIS ROSE, and subsequently having helped to form the Louis Rose Society for the Preservation of Jewish History, I could go on all day about him. But I won’t. He was recognized in 2004 with the naming of Louis Rose Point for him on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in America. We made sure the Point was named Louis Rose Point, so that people wouldn’t expect to see a field of flowers there as they do at Rose Canyon and perhaps in Roseville.
Rose Canyon was named after Rose because he owned the land along what is now I-5, between Balboa and Gilman. He built this area’s first tannery there, saving citizens a bundle of money on finished leather goods, which previously were imported from the East Coast. He made money too, and not being one to waste anything, also operated a butcher shop in Old Town. Other businesses were a general store, a hotel and a saloon.
Later he laid out Roseville, running 30 blocks along San Diego Bay and about 8 blocks wide in what is today the Point Loma area of San Diego.
As a result of efforts by the Louis Rose Society, a sister school relationship was established between Cabrillo Elementary School in Point Loma and an elementary school in Rose’s birthplace of Neuhaus an der Oste, Germany. A faculty member and the principal of that school will be visiting Cabrillo in October. Meanwhile, elementary students here have been learning German. Their counterparts in Germany speak English.
Besides being a land developer and a tanner, Rose was a civic leader. He served on the county’s first grand jury in 1850; he served on the City of San Diego’s Board of Trustees for several years after winning election in 1852. He was chairman of that body, which was equivalent to being the mayor. He also was on the original County Board of Supervisors, which was responsible for determining the routes for public roads along paths that we now think of as the I-5, 1-15, and I-8. He helped incorporate the San Diego and Gila Railroad, hoping to attract a transcontinental railroad to San Diego Bay. He was a member of the Masons. His optimism about San Diego was expressed in his favorite saying, “Just wait a while and you will see.”
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2) LEWIS FRANKLIN — Whereas Rose came from Germany, Franklin came from England. He initially settled in San Francisco and has the distinction of hosting in his tent the very first High Holy Day services conducted on the West Coast, in 1849.
The following year, 1850, he was the featured speaker at High Holy Day services. He talked about how people must help San Francisco, then a frontier town, to reach its potential. But he didn’t follow his own advice, moving down to San Diego in 1851 and on October 6, hosting two other Jews –Jacob Marks (also known as Mark Jacobs) and Charles Fletcher — at his home to observe the High Holy Days. It was seven Jews short of a minyan but the event is considered the first religious observance in San Diego.
Franklin served as a quartermaster when the “Fitzgerald Volunteers” mounted up in pursuit of the Luiseno Indians who had attacked the Warner ranch. Rose was a volunteer private. Antonio Garra, the ringleader, was brought to San Diego by another unit of the volunteers, and was executed at El Campo Santo, the cemetery along San Diego Avenue in the Old Town area.
Franklin, who was in business with Thomas Whaley of Whaley House fame, later decided to build what for San Diego was then a “sky scraper”–the three-story Franklin Hotel, facing the Old Town Plaza. A brother, Maurice, joined him in San Diego, and things went well until Maurice married Victoria Jacobs, the daughter of Mark Jacobs.
Franklin could be mean and sarcastic — as was evidenced in a famous report by a Grand Jury of which he was foreman. He savaged the city, its leadership, Indians, Blacks — almost everyone was a target for his scorn. Victoria couldn’t stand him — in fact refused to come down to dinner on any evening that Lewis was at the hotel. Eventually the tension became too much, and the brothers became engaged in a bitter lawsuit to divide up their property. There were no radios, televisions, DSI’s, or much of anything else in San Diego, and court battles accordingly were a favorite source of entertainment. The Franklins aired out their dirty linen in public, much to the enjoyment of many San Diego residents.
Eventually, Maurice and Victoria picked up and moved to San Bernardino, where Maurice became an active civic leader. I’ll return to Lewis Franklin a little later.
3. CHARLES FLETCHER-– He was a merchant from Bohemia, only 22 years old in 1851. Jacob Marks, who lived at the same boarding house as he did, was 13 years older and from Poland. At the time they observed Yom Kippur at Lewis Franklin’s house in 1851, they were business partners in a general store. But the partnership broke up.
Fletcher was elected to the already bankrupt San Diego Common Council in January 1852, thus being the first Jew to be elected to the forerunner body to today’s City Council, but it was a short-lived victory. That same month the state Legislature, cognizant of San Diego’s disastrous financial situation, revoked the City of San Diego’s charter, and created a 3-member board of trustees to restore fiscal order to the city.
With the fiscal situation in such a mess, Fletcher decided to dissolve his partnership with Marks and to remove to the West Coast. And, no, he wasn’t related to the Fletcher family that later made it big in land development and in savings and loans. Nor for that matter was Rose related to the people of Rose Toyota.
4. JACOB MARKS/ MARKS JACOBS— One of the troubles of having what sounds like two first names is that people can get them confused, but tax and property records indicate that Jacobs Marks and Mark Jacobs were the same fellow.
Jacobs in 1851 served as the city’s tax assessor, which was well and good, except that the taxes assessed were rarely collected. Jacobs hosted the High Holiday services of 1854 in his home.
One of his family’s chief claims to fame was that his daughter, Victoria, kept a diary which recorded day-to-day happenings in San Diego during the time of her engagement to Maurice Franklin, but stopped at the time of her marriage. I said “happenings,” but “non-happenings ” would be a closer description. Life in San Diego wasn’t very exciting. The diary wasn’t very exciting at all, but it is one of the few records we have of what life was like on a day-to-day basis in that time.
5) JOSEPH S. MANNASSE— A short man, Joseph Mannasse was known as Mannasse Chico to differentiate him from his brother Hyman and cousin Moses. From Prussia, Mannasse migrated first to New York in 1850, and then by ship to San Francisco. He moved down the coast in 1853, starting J.S. Mannasse & Co.
In 1857, Marcus Schiller, became his junior partner even though he was older than Mannasse. Still named J.S. Mannasse & Co., their company purchased goods wholesale in San Francisco and sold them retail in San Diego. As currency was scarce, Mannasse & Schiller often accepted produce and cattle in trade, which they would then have to sell. On occasions, they were paid off in land. For a while, Mannasse & Schiller owned all of Rancho San Dieguito, and their land holdings stretched from modern-day Carmel Valley to modern day Encinitas and up into Carlsbad.
When one of their customers suddenly pulled up stakes and moved back east, J.S. Mannasse & Co. sued to recover the man’s California assets. In their claim, the partners listed the kinds of goods he had purchased on credit. The list, here alphabetized, shows the wide variety of goods one might purchase from them: bandana, blue blankets, boots for misses, brandy, a brogan (heavy shoe), broom, buttons, calico, candles, cassimere, chocolate, cinnamon, clothesline, combs, corn, corn meal, cotton spool, cravat, flannel, gingham, gloves, grease for axels, hat (straw), handkerchiefs, hose (socks) for children, ink stands, knives (pen and butter), linen, manta (rough cotton fabric), marbles, mugs, napkins, neckerchief, onion, overshirts, pantaloons, paper (for “segars”), pen holder, peppers, pistol balls, powder, rebozo (Spanish shawl), ribbons, rosary, salt, scissors, shirts, shoes of various descriptions, silesia (twilled cotton fabric), silks, slippers, soap, sugar, syrup, thimble, tobacco, tooth brush, tumbler, turpentine, vinegar, window sash and yeast powder.
Mannasse was a member of the City Board of Trustees that agreed in 1867 to auction off land in the area now known as downtown. The man who wanted the auction, and the only bidder, was Alonzo Horton.
6) MARCUS SCHILLER– Schiller immigrated from Prussia to New York in 1840, and made his way to Talledega, Alabama, where he became a citizen. He took goods from Alabama to San Francisco in 1853, only to find they weren’t needed. He sold his stock at a loss. When he moved to San Diego he first went into business with Moses Mannasse, a cousin of Joseph’s. Later he joined Joseph Mannasse as a junior partner.
More than business, Schiller was interested in building Jewish institutions. In 1861, the following letter appeared in the Weekly Gleaner, a Jewish publication in San Francisco. It read: “San Diego–A meeting was held by us, the few Israelites at the above place. Mr. Marcus Schiller being called to occupy the chair, he opened the meeting by stating the object of the call to form ourselves into a congregation. This proposition was unanimously adopted… Since we could number ten persons only, it was resolved to call our congregation Adath Yeshurun and resolved also that we solicit the Reverend Dr. Julius Eckman, the editor of the Gleaner to aid us in instructing us by sending us a form of Rules and Regulations for our guide, and hereby enable us to succeed in our laudable undertaking.”
Adath Yeshurun evolved into Congregation Beth Israel. Among the leading spirits of Adath Yeshurun were Mannasse, Rose, and Schiller,” it was recalled in 1922 by Samuel I. Fox. “Services were held principally on the holidays at one of the residences, very often at the home of Marcus Schiller, who was president of the congregation.”
Rose subsequently sold at a nominal price five acres of land for a Jewish cemetery in the area between Roseville and Old Town, where Sharp Cabrillo Hospital is located today. Joseph Mannasse donated wood to build a fence. When Adath Yeshurun passed out of existence, the cemetery became the responsibility of the new Congregation Beth Israel. Located between Old Town and Roseville where Sharp Cabrillo Hospital stands today, the cemetery land was sold by vote of Congregation Beth Israel, and the people buried there were reburied in the Pioneers Row section of Home of Peace Cemetery.
Schiller also served on the city Board of Trustees and was on the three-member board that voted in 1868 to set aside 1,500 acres of land for a city park — today’s Balboa Park. You can see a plaque honoring him and the other two trustees affixed to the archway between the Laurel Street Bridge and the plaza leading to the Museum of Man.
7) HYMAN MANNASSE –– Although Joseph and Hyman Mannasse were brothers, they were competitors in business, and also in affairs of the heart. Hyman’s store was in the Casa de Bandini, today called the Cosmopolitan Hotel, in a different part of Old Town than his brother Joseph’s store.
When Joseph sold calico at 25 cents a yard, Heyman sold it at 20 cents. Joe sold cravats for $2, Heyman had them at $1. Joe sold overshirts at $2 and up, Heyman at $1.75; Joe sold tooth brushes for $2, and Heyman for $1. Lucky for Joe, he sold many items which Heyman did not have in stock.
Heyman was married in 1863 to Hannah Schiller, the sister of Marcus Schiller. The wedding ceremony was performed by Louis Rose. However, the marriage didn’t last. Hyman headed for Arizona on a cattle drive, leaving Hannah without money. Eventually she divorced Hyman and married Joseph. Heyman stayed in Arizona, and eventually was killed in an armed robbery of his store there.
8) MOSES MANNASSE — the cousin lived in the San Pascual area near today’s Wild Animal Park. He took a local Mexican woman as his wife, and his children were brought up as Christians — which was not an uncommon occurrence in pioneer Jewish families. Another well-known pioneer Jewish family in which intermarriage occurred was that of Abraham Klauber, a merchant who came later in the 19th century.
Moses Mannasse is best remembered for what is known as the “San Diego incident.” He had witnessed a stabbing, and when the Grand Jury convened in the fall of 1859 to decide whether to indict they wanted him to testify. Trouble was, he was two doors away from the old brick courthouse, upstairs in the Franklin Hotel, attending High Holy Day services. The grand jury sent someone to fetch him, but he declined to go to the court house, explaining that 10 people were needed for a minyan — and he was the 10th.
When the emissary returned to the court house, the explanation didn’t go well. So they sent the sheriff to fetch him. Again he refused. On the third time, they sent a posse, whose members marched him out of the High Holy Day services, interrupting them. They sat him down in the witness box and asked what he remembered about the altercation he had witnessed. He declined to answer, folding his arms over his chest in silence, until nightfall. The holiday thus expired, he then testified.
Lewis Franklin was besides himself. As far as he was concerned this was the worst insult to the Jewish people since the sacking of the Temple by the Romans in the Year 70 CE. He wrote letters to Jewish newspapers around the country, telling his distress over the incident. Letter writers debated whether Moses had been right to refuse to testify, or whether he simply should have arranged for a recess in the Holy Day proceedings, testified, and been done with it.
9) SIMON LEVI — Before Simon came to San Diego, Abraham Klauber set up a business in 1869 in Alonzo Horton’s New Town, today known as downtown. Samuel “Sig” Steiner became his partner, with Steiner traveling often to San Francisco to do the purchasing. Simon Levi was a nephew of Sig Steiner.
When Simon Levi came to this area in 1873 initially it was to work for Louis Wolf in Temecula. Eventually he joined Uncle Sig Steiner and Abraham Klauber in a company then called Steiner, Klauber & Co. Soon Simon’s brother, Adolph, arrived. When Steiner retired, Abraham Klauber decided to handle the San Francisco buying end of the business, and Simon Levi and Klauber’s son, Melville, were left in charge of the wholesale house at 7th and Island.
In 1888, in a new building, disaster struck when fire destroyed the premises of Klauber & Levi along with $250,000 in goods. The company rebuilt, and brought in a partner, Julius Wangenheim. Wangenheim married Klauber’s sister, Laura, and Levi, feeling like a third wheel, asked to be bought out.
Simon Levi later formed Simon Levi Company, which serviced general stores in Baja California, Southern California, Arizona and even New Mexico. He served on the Board of Trustees of the city, and in executive positions with the San Diego Telephone Company and San Diego Gas and Electric Light. He helped to form one of the first banks here, San Diego Building & Loan. Simon Levi was the second president of Congregation Beth Israel, succeeding Marcus Schiller.
10) ADOLPH LEVI — Rob Levi recently wrote a fine biography sketch of his great-grandfather. After working for a while with his brother Simon, Uncle Sig Steiner, and Klauber, Adolph Levi decided to go into business up in Julian. With Joseph Marks, he operated a general store in the brick building today known as the Julian Drug Store. It is still a landmark.
Under their arrangement Marks operated the store, and Adolph carried on a ranching business up in Warner Springs — or he did until his bride, Eleanora Schwartz arrived from Germany. She didn’t like living in the back country one bit, and eventually Levi and Marks dissolved their partnership, and Adolph Levi moved down to San Diego.
He became a partner in the Diamond Livery Stables, with offices where today’s Spreckels Building now stands. Eventually Levi sold his interest in Diamond Livery Stables and opened Levi Hack and Transfer Company, which offered sightseeing tours to Coronado. Eventually he got out of the transportation business altogether, and got into real estate. For a while he owned large tracts of La Mesa, Mission Valley, Lakeside, Kearny Mesa and Rancho Penasquitos.
Adolph was the third president of Congregation Beth Israel as well as a leader in the Lasker Lodge of B’nai B’rith. He helped to underwrite the construction of Mercy Hospital.
Adolph’s daughter Selma had a daughter Helen, who married Elliot Cushman, father of Steve Cushman, the former port commissioner. Another granddaughter was Ruth Schulman, wife of longtime community leader Victor Schulman. Other grandchildren were Richard Levi and Norman Levi, the latter being Rob’s father.
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All of these pioneers were people who were willing, like Joshua and Caleb, to leave their community behind, go forth into a new land, and, rather than being overwhelmed by the potential problems, they saw the possibilities.
After they established themselves, typically as merchants, they started building families and the Jewish community. It is interesting to note that the Jews of the West were elevated to high office well before the Jews of the East were. That was because they lived among and made friends in the Gentile community from the very beginning of their experience. Because they were literate, they could participate in the affairs of government. Because their neighbors knew and trusted them, they were elected to high office and helped to build the communities in which they lived.
Throughout the West, you will find towns and important places named for Jews. And throughout the West, Jews were elected during the early 19th century as mayors, legislators and governors.
This online publication, San Diego Jewish World, has a slogan. “There is a Jewish story everywhere.” Now you know why this is particularly true in San Diego and throughout the American West.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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