Levi Strauss (February 26,
1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German
-Jewish immigrant to the United States
who founded the first company to manufacture
blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Co., began in 1853
in San Francisco,
California
.
Life
Origins
Levi
Strauss was born Löeb Strauss in Buttenheim
, in the Franconian region of Bavaria
, Germany
, to Hirsch
Strauss and his wife Rebecca (Haass) Strauss. At the age of 18,
Strauss, his mother and two sisters sailed for the United States
to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun
a wholesale dry goods business in New York City
called J. Strauss Brother & Co. By 1850,
Strauss was calling himself Levi.
Business career
The family decided to open a West Coast branch of the family dry
goods business in San Francisco, which was the commercial hub of
the California Gold Rush. Levi was chosen to represent the family,
and after becoming an American citizen in January of 1853, he got
on a California-bound steamer which left New York for the isthmus
of Panama around February 5, 1853. He crossed the isthmus and then
caught another steamship for San Francisco, arriving in early March
1853.
Strauss opened his dry goods
wholesale
business as
Levi Strauss &
Co. and imported fine dry goods - clothing, bedding, combs,
purses, handkerchiefs - from his brothers in New York. He sold the
goods to the small general stores and men's mercantiles of
California and the West. Around 1856 Levi's sister Fanny, her
husband David Stern and their infant son Jacob moved from New York
to San Francisco to join the business.
Levi Jeans
In late 1870
Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada
tailor, started making men's work pants with metal rivets at points
of strain for greater strength. He wanted to patent the process but
needed a business partner, so he turned to Levi Strauss, from whom
he purchased some of his fabric.On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis
received
United States
patent #139121 for using
copper
rivets to strengthen the pockets of
denim work
pants.
Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing
the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing
Company in Manchester, New Hampshire
.
Philanthropy
In his later years Levi expanded the tradition of philanthropy
which he had begun soon after his arrival in San Francisco. For
example, he was a Vice President of the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children and gave money to a number of disaster
relief efforts, such as the great
Chicago
Fire. In 1897 he established scholarships for poor students at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Death
Levi Strauss died in 1902 at the age of 73. He never married, so he
left the business to his four nephews, Jacob, Sigmund, Louis, and
Abraham Stern, the sons of his sister Fanny and her husband David
Stern. He also left bequests to a number of charities such as the
Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum.
Levi's fortune was estimated to be around 6 million dollars.
He was
buried in Colma,
California
.
Honors
Mr. Strauss was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business
Hall of Fame in 1994.
Legacy
A Levi
Strauss museum is maintained in Buttenheim
, Germany, located in the 1687 house where Strauss
was born. There is also a Visitors Center at Levi Strauss
& Co. world headquarters in San Francisco, which features a
number of historical exhibits.
References
- Levi Strauss Company History
- 1850 Federal Census for New York
- Transcript, Levi Strauss vs. H.B. Elfelt, District of
California Circuit Court of the United States Ninth Judicial
Circuit, 1874. National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region
- Daily Alta California January 13, 1887
- Daily Alta California October 11, 1871
- San Francisco Chronicle, March 10, 1897
External links