Levi Strauss (Feb. 26, 1829-Sept. 26, 1902) was born in Buttenheim, Germany, to Hirsch Strauss and his wife Rebecca Haas. He immigrated with his mother and two sisters to New York City where his brothers Jonas and Louis operated J. Strauss Brother & Co, a wholesale dry goods business.
After representing his brothers’ company in Louisville, Kentucky, the family decided to open a branch operation in San Francisco. Levi arrived in March 1854, resided there with his sister Fanny and her husband David Stern, and created Levi Strauss & Co, which sold clothing, bedding, combs, purses, handkerchiefs imported from his brothers’ wholesale store.
A Jewish tailor, Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, invented a way to strengthen work pants with rivets and partnered with Strauss to mass produce them. The riveted denim pants, today known as Levi’s or simply as jeans, were patented in 1873.
Strauss helped establish Congregation Emanu-El, the first synagogue in San Francisco. It was an outpost of Reform Judaism. He also formed the Levi Strauss Foundation which in 1897 gave money for 28 scholarships to UC Berkeley as its first charitable donation. His story is told at the Levi Strauss & Co headquarters in San Francisco, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and at the home in which he was born in Buttenheim, Germany.
A lifelong bachelor, his fortune estimated at $30 million at the time of his death was inherited by a grandniece, Elise Fanny Stern, who had married Walter A. Haas. The Haas family descendants are owners today of Levi Strauss & Co.
Tomorrow, February 27: Elizabeth Taylor
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article