Contra
Costa County
Biographies
SIMON
BLUM
SIMON BLUM. Now retired from the active cares of business
life Simon Blum is still remembered as a pioneer merchant of Martinez, and
gratefully named among those who were instrumental in the early development of
the city. A native of France, he was
born in the northern part of that country May 22, 1834, and there attained
a common school education. At sixteen
years of age, being of an ambitious and enterprising spirit, he decided to immigrate
to America, his judgment bespeaking better opportunities for advancement in the
western world. Landing in New York City,
he was first employed in a wholesale mercantile establishment, where he
remained until the spring of 1853. The
same spirit which had prompted his first emigration now induced him to cross
the continent. After crossing the
Isthmus his voyage was completed on the steamer Sierra Nevada, and he arrived
in San Francisco in due course of time.
After a brief period spent in that city he came to Martinez, Contra
Costa county. The
town at that time consisted of between four and five hundred inhabitants, and
boasted one school building, a hotel, two churches and a small number of
dwelling houses. Mr. Blum purchased
a store of Captain Fogg, taking into partnership with
him a brother, the style of the firm name being S. Blum &
Bro. In his management of this business
Mr. Blum met with the success which had characterized his earlier
efforts. Their custom grew and they were
successfully established in the commercial life of the city when their building
was destroyed by fire in the spring of 1856.
With characteristic energy and enterprise, the young merchants
immediately rebuilt, and with the passage of time became the most extensive
merchants in the city. The business
continued until 1899, when Mr. Blum disposed of his interests and retired
to private life.
In the meantime, Mr. Blum had
studied and mastered the Spanish as well as the English language and was for
many years employed as interpreter and translator in the settlement of many of
the Spanish land grants. He has at the
present time in his possession many valuable papers of the early history of the
Spanish in California, and probably no man in the state could give more data on
this subject than he. He also became an
extensive land owner, being at one time the largest individual owner in the
county, though he has long since disposed of the greater part of his landed
property. In 1873 he built his present
residence in Martinez, a beautiful home in the midst of a well-tended lawn
covered with flowers and shrubbery and dotted here and there with fountains of
water.
In San Francisco, in 1861, Mr. Blum
was united in marriage with Leontine Alexander, also
a native of France, and to them have been born five
children, namely: Myrtle, Albert, Edmund, Rosa, and Hermine. Rosa married Lee Goldsmith, of San Francisco,
and Hermine married M. Strouse,
of New York, N.Y. Fraternally
Mr. Blum is identified with the Masons and Odd Fellows, and has been so
for many years, in both orders serving in an official capacity. What Mr. Blum has accomplished toward
the commercial development of the country cannot be computed. In addition to his store in Martinez he established
branch stores in various parts of the county and became an extensive dealer in
grain. He assisted materially in the
erection of the wharf and warehouses, and at one time owned three vessels, the Hermine Blum, the Melrose and the Martinez, all used
exclusively in the handling of freight and grain. The firm with which he was then connected was
known as Blum, Baldwin & Garvin, with offices on California street, San Francisco.
They were among the most extensive shippers in the west, a large part of
their produce finding its way to Liverpool and other European ports. Mr. Blum also assisted in the
establishment of the Bank of Martinez and served for many years as a director
of the same.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 606-607. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Donna Toole.
Contra Costa County Biographies