Biographies
MOSES S. WAHRHAFTIG
The subject of the sketch was born about
1860 in the town of Kovel, government of Volhynia, Russia. His father was the chief rabbi of the
town and died before Moses was ten years old. For some time it was the ambition
of his mother and others who cared for his education that he should ultimately
occupy his father's position. Fate, however, decreed otherwise. One of his
guardians was a regularly admitted legal practitioner and prepared him for the
practice of law.
In 1882 M. S. Wahrhaftig
came to the United States, and after a few weeks' stay in New York arrived in
California, where he has resided ever since with the exception of about one
year spent in Oregon. Ignorant of the English language, and without means, he
was obliged for some time to eke out an existence by manual labor, especially
on farms, for which he acquired quite a taste. We thus find him in his early
career riding a hay-mower or rake, as well as walking behind a plow. Among his
other occupations were assaying and printing. To the latter art he contributed
most of his first ten years' residence in the metropolis of California. He was
initiated into the San Francisco Typographical Union in 1890, but in the same
year acquired a ten-acre tract of land at Orangevale, where his mother and a
brother and family settled with him. An invasion of locusts in 1891
caused considerable damage to his fruit ranch, and it became necessary for
him to fall back on the printer's case for earning a livelihood for himself and
the folks on the ranch. Coming to Sacramento, for some time he worked in the
printing offices of Carraghen and Anderson, State
Printing Office, A. J. Johnston's printing office and others until about 1894,
when the great railroad strike took place. He then conceived the idea that
another daily paper could be published in Sacramento, and The Daily Times was
thereupon founded. It supported the People's party, and lasted until after the
November elections. He then connected himself with the North California Herald,
a pioneer German paper published in Sacramento, for which he worked as
reporter, solicitor, and compositor. At the same time he was reading law. In
August, 1897, Mr. Wahrhaftig was admitted by the
Supreme Court of the state of California to the practice of law in all the
courts of the state, and later on in the federal courts. Judge A. P. Catlin recognized his ability by offering him room in his
own law offices. It did not take long before he acquired a lucrative practice
and ever increasing clientele. He has never left Sacramento, where he is now
located in the Nicolaus Building. His profession has
not rendered him exclusive. From time to time he contributes articles for
newspapers and has written some short stories dealing with Jewish life in
Russia. He is a member of several branches of the Masonic and Odd Fellows
fraternities, Sacramento Turn Verein, of nearly all
local Jewish religious fraternal or benevolent societies, and is affiliated
with almost every National Jewish organization, in all of which he takes a very
active interest.
In October, 1908, Mr. Wahrhaftig
married Miss Irma R. Levy, then a teacher in the public schools of Sacramento
county, and prominent in literary, art, and fraternal circles. She is the
daughter of E. R. Levy, a pioneer merchant of Folsom. His comfortable home has
been blessed with a son and a daughter.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 968-969. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.