SOLOMON JACOBS
Solomon Jacobs, whose death occurred in San
Francisco in the year 1904, when he was seventy years of age, was born in a
little village in Poland, in the autumn of 1834, and there he received his
early education, in which connection his advantages were very limited. He was
little more than a boy when he came to the United States, and after remaining
for a time in New York City his ambition led him to seek a home in the West,
where he was destined to attain to marked success and an inviolable place in
popular confidence and good will. He was about seventeen years old at the time
of his arrival in California, in 1851, he having made the voyage around Cape
Horn. While enroute the vessel was shipwrecked, and he and a number of
companions were in an open boat on the wide seas for several days before they
were rescued by a passing vessel. The supply of food and water was soon at the
lowest point, and so fierce became the hunger of the men on the little open
boat that a decision was made that as a final resort one of the number would be
sacrificed, in order that his body might sustain the lives of the others. The
fattest man in the part was first selected for this purpose, but Mr. Jacobs,
the youngest of the number, was later chosen as the victim for this dire need.
Good fortune was his however, in that the men were rescued before it became
necessary to indulge in cannibalism. After this hazardous experience Mr. Jacobs
was finally able to continue the voyage to California, and after arriving in
Sacramento he there became identified with mercantile business, in which he
continued to be engaged during virtually this entire active career. He became
one of the leading dry goods merchants in the City of San Francisco, was
liberal and upright in all transactions, insistently gave to patrons the best
possible service, and built up a large and prosperous business. He was a loyal
and public spirited citizen, appreciative of the advantages that were his in
the country and state of his adoption, and his political allegiance was given
to the republican party and both he and his wife became representative members
of Temples Emmanuel and Israel, the leading Jewish congregations of San Francisco.
The maiden name of Mrs. Jacobs was Pauline Margelinsky, and she likewise
was a native of Poland, her death having occurred when she was about
seventy-nine years of age. Of the children the eldest is Joseph, who is a
resident of San Francisco, as is also Jennie, who is the wife of Isador Goodman;
Myer is a prominent member of the bar of this city and is individually
mentioned in the following sketch; Charles S. is a prominent importer and
commission merchant of San Francisco; Augusta is the wife of the late Julius
Heyman, who was born at Oakland, California and who was long and prominently
identified with lumbering operations and shipping enterprise, and was a
resident of San Francisco, their one child being a son, Robert J.; the three
younger children of the honored subject of this memoir are George T., Frank P.
and William, and all remain in their native city of San Francisco.
Louise E. Shoemaker transcriber February 29, 2004
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 97-98. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Louise Shoemaker