Sacramento County
Biographies
CHARLES P. NATHAN
The imposing three-story store of Charles
P. Nathan, corner of J and Sixth streets, Sacramento, tells a story of the coming of the proprietor of that
establishment to the state capital. He landed in this country from his
native Germany at the age of seventeen, inexperienced, but with a good
common school education, and he had what every boy of his race inherits, an
inclination to work. Young Nathan was variously employed in the eastern
and southern states for three years, and the year 1869 found him in California. The $3 he had in his pocket when he landed on
American soil had grown a little, so he started in a little store, in a small
way, the business that now looms up three floors in Sacramento city. It is one of the largest stores in Northern California, modern in every respect, and is a department store, a
city emporium. It was practically begun in 1904 and finished in 1909,
being changed and remodeled at different times.
Charles Nathan was married October 26, 1873, to Miss Anna Joseph, the daughter of Michiel
Joseph, a clothing merchant in Sacramento. He died in 1876, and his wife in 1911. In the
Nathan family were born four children. Birdie, now the
wife of Dr. Arthur Lachmen, professor in the University of Oregon for several years, but now head of the
Arthur Lachmen Wine Company of San Francisco.
They have two daughters, Gertrude, aged twelve years, and Ruth, aged six.
Mrs. Lachmen was born July 25, 1874, and graduated from the San Francisco high school. Lillian Nathan was born in Sacramento
July 27, 1878, and graduated from the state university, and is now the wife of
Morris Ballin, a wholesale manufacturing and
furnishing goods merchant of San Francisco. Their two children are Edwin,
aged five, and Richard, two years old. Mitchell W. Nathan was born in Sacramento September 26, 1879, graduated from the University
of California, and is now general manager of the O. P. Nathan store in Sacramento. Mr. Nathan practically has always been associated
with the business, and under his competent management the establishment thrives
commercially. In May, 1905, he was married to Miss Isabell
Hammond of Sacramento, formerly of Utica, N. Y. They have a daughter, Caroline, born in May,
1906. Mitchell W. Nathan is a director of the Sacramento Chamber of
Commerce, and was president of the "100,000 Club" organized for the
purpose of lifting Sacramento's population to that figure. Emile Nathan, the
youngest son, was born December 3, 1883,
and after passing through the city schools, graduated from the University
of California. He was an earnest student and prominent in class
debates. He is now manager in a ladies' department in the store and
spends much of his time in New York
selecting for the store. In 1909 he married Miss Lillian Cottrell of
Berkeley, a fellow university student. Mrs. Charles Nathan comes from a
family of high educational attainment, many of its members being graduates of
well-known institutions, and her brother had the distinction of receiving his college
degree, in France, from Emperor Napoleon III.
Mr. Nathan is
largely interested in real estate and farm lands, owning six hundred and forty-
five acres five miles from
the city and three
hundred and twenty acres fronting on the Sacramento river, besides which he owns the entire store property. He has
practically retired from active business, and spends much time in Paris and New
York City, although
his winters are spent in California. Mrs. Nathan's mother died in June, 1911, at the age
of eighty-one. She left an estate valued at one-half million
dollars.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento
County, California, Pages 651-653. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1913.
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.