San Joaquin County
Biographies
BERNHARD FRANKENHEIMER
BERNHARD FRANKENHEIMER, a
retired merchant of Stockton, was born in Bruck, near Erlangen, Bavaria, May,
1826, a son of Loeb and Yereth (Sutro) Frankenheimer. The father, a merchant of
Erlangen, died at the age of seventy-five, and the mother somewhat younger. Her
brother Emanuel was the father of the celebrated mining engineer, Adolph Sutro,
of Sutro Tunnel fame, now of Sutro Heights, San Francisco. Samuel, an elder
brother of our subject, came to America in 1842, and went into business first
at Gainesville, Alabama, with a cousin as partner, under the style of Pfeiffer
& Frankenheimer, in general merchandise. In 1848 they moved to New York
city, where they carried on the manufacture of clothing until 1887, when they
retired from active life.
The subject of this sketch, on his arrival
from Europe in 1844, went by sea from New York to Mobile, where his brother
Philip was doing business as an importer of fancy goods, by whom he was soon
afterward put in charge of a branch store in Macon, Mississippi. There he
remained until 1848, and from 1848 to 1850 was similarly employed in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Mr. B. Frankenheimer came to California in
1850, by way of Panama, arriving in July, and settled in this city, engaging in
the business of clothing and gents’ furnishing goods, under the style of
Frankenheimer & Co., having a partner for a few months before the close of
that year. In 1851 and part of 1852 his cousin, Adolph Sutro, who had come to
America in 1850, was his partner, under the style of Sutro & Frankenheimer;
but trading was distasteful to Mr. Sutro as a life pursuit, and he soon
embarked in his professional career of engineer, realizing fame and fortune,
besides satisfying the demands of his higher aspirations. The subject of this
sketch had as a partner with him a younger brother, Abraham, from 1855 to 1867,
under the firm style of B. & A. Frankenheimer, after which they resumed the
style of B. Frankenheimer. The subject of this sketch continued the useful and
necessary drudgery of mercantile life until 1866, when he retired from his old
business. Since then he has occupied himself a little with the less arduous
labor of real-estate dealer, the habits of a life-time forbidding absolute
withdrawal from business.
Mr. Frankenheimer was married in this city,
in 1864, to Mrs. Sarah (Shulman) Honigsberger, born also in Bavaria, December
20, 1833, a daughter of Simon Shulman and his wife, by birth a Miss Behr. Mrs.
Frankenheimer had two children by her first husband: Cecilia Honigsberger, now
Mrs. Louis Kahn, of Oakdale, Stanislaus County, who has three children, Joseph,
Rheta and Bertha; Fannie Honigsberger, now Mrs. Jacob Haslacher, also of
Oakdale, who has two children, Alfred and Beatrice. Mr. and Mrs. Frankenheimer
have three children: Louis H., born September 2, 1865, educated in the public
schools and business college, was a clerk in his father’s store for nearly a
year, and in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, three years. Returning to Stockton, he
went into general insurance here, January 1, 1889, representing several
companies in different lines. He is a member of Stockton Parlor, No. 7, N. S.
G. W., and a young man of more than ordinary business promise. The other
children--Samuel, born April 19, 1871, and Julius, born November 24, 1873--are
attending the high school of Stockton this year (1890).
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 515. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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