Butte County
Biographies
MORRIS KORN
MORRIS KORN.—A successful and prominent merchant of Chico, who has been a resident of the city since 1890, and one who has made his own way in the world from the time he was a small lad, Morris Korn is deserving of mention in the history of Butte County. The origin of the name Korn and further family history will be found in the sketch of Solomon Korn, who is mentioned on another page of this work.
Morris Korn was born in Boleslawitz, Russian Poland, February 22, 1861. When he was ten years old his father died and the following year he was taken out of school and sent to Kempen, in Posen, Germany, and apprenticed for three years to learn the dry goods business. While he was serving his apprenticeship he was paid no wages, only receiving his board, which was so meager that his mother often sent him food and money to buy enough to keep him from starving. He stuck to his task and learned the business, after which he spent one year at Newcastle-on-Tyne in England, peddling ladies’ slippers. In this way he learned to speak English and became familiar with the customs of a country other than his own and that of Germany. He saved his money and returned to Kempen, where he worked in a dry goods store for several years. Then he returned to his old home at Lutz, Poland, and clerking until he was twenty-one, he saved enough to begin business on a small scale for himself, and decided to go back to Germany and start there, as he was familiar with local conditions in that section. He started a dry goods store at Poln Wartenberg, and was building up a good business, when the edict was issued by Bismarck, then the chancellor, that all foreigners must leave the country. It was necessary for him to sacrifice his stock of goods and get out of the country. He had married, at Matziber, Germany, Carrie Peck, who was born in that country and was the mother of one child. At that time Mr. Korn had to leave his wife and baby in Germany until he could send for them. He could not go back to Poland, because he had married before serving in the army in Russia, so he decided to migrate to America instead of taking chances on Siberia or the Bismarck axe.
Arriving in New York in 1885, Morris Korn worked at anything he was able to do and in a year he had saved enough from his living to send for his wife and baby. In 1887, they came to San Francisco, and this energetic young man worked in a livery stable, in warehouses, and even waited on table in a hotel, any honest employment to keep body and soul together and his family from want. Six months later he went to Eureka and worked at piling lumber in a sawmill, then went into the woods and worked at logging for a time, after which he returned to San Francisco, and, on January 1, 1890, he arrived in Chico without a dollar. The next day he found work as a clerk in a clothing store and for eight years remained one of the most faithful of clerks, working seven days a week and never losing a day or taking a vacation. In 1898, having learned the English language, and having gained a wide acquaintance throughout the country adjacent to Chico, Mr. Korn desired to embark in business for himself. He had but one hundred twenty-five dollars with which to make a start, but he began on a very small scale, in the room he now occupies, and by his close attention to business soon established a good credit. He was laughed at for trying to start in business “in the hole in the wall and on nothing,” as they called it, when several others had tried to do business and failed. Nothing daunted, Mr. Korn threw all his energy into the business and, being a good judge of human nature, pleased the people by his square dealing and his patrons always returned.
He worked day and night and inside of three years could get all the credit he desired. He raised his family, kept them well clothed and sent them to the graded and high schools, and to the Normal or business colleges, as they chose, besides doing his duty as a citizen in all public movements. From time to time he invested in lots, which he sold at a profit. He bought a half block at Sixth and Wall Streets, and erected two residences, one of which he sold. He built his residence on Normal Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, a large comfortable and artistic house with a well-kept yard, making it a credit to the city. He bought twenty acres near Durham, which he set to almonds with his own hands. Besides lending money and having mortgages on farm loans, he is very patriotic, investing his money each day in War Savings Stamps, thus showing his love for his adopted country and that he appreciates the great advantages of its freedom.
Mr. and Mrs. Korn have had nine children, seven of whom grew up: Grace, Mrs. Senoski, of Portland; Ruth, studying to be a nurse in a hospital in San Francisco; David, employed with the Wells Fargo and Company Express in that city; Samuel, a salesman, residing in Portland; Lena, a student in Heald’s Business College in Chico; Henrietta, a graduate of the Chico State Normal School, class of 1918; and York, who was a high school student, now with Gummer and Kaufman, shoe merchants in San Francisco. Mr. Korn is a member of the Eagles and of the Chamber of Commerce of Chico. He is a Republican and aims to do his duty as it is requested of him. He has many warm friends in Butte County.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1122-1123, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies