Isaias W. Hellman
Encyclopedia
History of the Jews in Germany
The presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...
banker and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and a founding father of the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
Biography
Born in ReckendorfReckendorf
Reckendorf is a community in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. With roughly 2,000 inhabitants, Reckendorf is a member of the administrative community of Baunach.-Constituent communities:...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Hellman and his brother Herman W. arrived in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on May 14, 1859 to join their cousins. Hellman went to work as a clerk in his cousins' dry goods store. He opened his own dry goods store in April 1865.
Hellman became Los Angeles' first banker almost by accident. As a courtesy, he stored his customers' gold and valuables in a safe
Safe
A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...
. One day, Hellman got into an altercation with a customer who had been coming in and out of the store gloriously drunk, withdrawing gold each time from a pouch stored in the safe. When the man sobered up, he was angry to discover he had spent most of his funds, and he lunged at Hellman. That interaction prompted Hellman to stop his informal banking operations. He got slips printed up that said I.W. Hellman, Banker, and started buying people's funds and issuing deposit books.
On September 1, 1868, Hellman and Temple
Francisco P. Temple
Francisco P. Temple served on the first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1852.-Biography:...
founded Hellman, Temple and Co., the fledgling city’s second official bank. In 1871, Hellman and John G. Downey
John G. Downey
John Gately Downey was an Irish-American politician and the seventh Governor of California from January 14, 1860 to January 10, 1862. Until the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, Downey was California's only foreign-born governor...
, a former governor of California, formed the Farmers and Merchants Bank, which became Los Angeles' first successful bank. Hellman lent the money that allowed Harrison Gray Otis to buy the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and Edward Doheny and Charles Canfield to drill for oil.
Hellman was also a major investor in trolley lines, putting in funds in 1874 to start the Main Street and Agricultural Park Railway, which traveled from the Plaza, the heart of Los Angeles's downtown, to Agricultural Park, a popular horse-racing track. Hellman eventually invested in many of the city's rail lines and with Henry Huntington formed the Los Angeles Railway
Los Angeles Railway
The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in central Los Angeles, California and the immediate surrounding neighborhoods between from 1901 and 1963. Except for two short funicular railways it operated on tracks...
in 1898 and the Pacific Electric Railway
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...
in 1901.
Hellman was also a major investor in Los Angeles's water, gas and electricity companies, and helped bring Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
to Los Angeles in 1876, which ended the isolation of the region. He was president of B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
in 1872 when the congregation built the city's first temple on Fort Street. In 1870, his cousin Isaiah M. Hellman was elected City Treasurer.
Rancho Cucamonga
Rancho Cucamonga was a Mexican land grant in present day San Bernardino County, California given in 1839 to dedicated soldier, smuggler and politician, Tiburcio Tapia by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant encompassed present day Rancho Cucamonga...
. In 1881, Hellman and members of the Bixby family purchased the 26000 acres (105.2 km²) Rancho Los Alamitos
Rancho Los Alamitos
Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from a Mexican land grant in southwestern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County, California. Los Alamitos means the Little Cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish, after the native Fremont Cottonwood trees there.Rancho Los Alamitos originally included...
(now home to Long Beach and Seal Beach). He also purchased the Repetto Ranch
Rancho La Merced
Rancho La Merced was a Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Casilda Soto de Lobo. The name means "Mercy of God". The northwest section of Montebello and the southeastern part of Monterey Park now occupy the area of...
(now Montebello) with Harris Newmark
Harris Newmark
Harris Newmark was a Prussian-American businessman, philanthropist, and historian. Born in Löbau in Province of Saxony Newmark emigrated to the United States in 1853, sailed from Europe to New York City to San Francisco, and finally settled in Los Angeles...
and Kaspare Cohn. Hellman and Downey also bought up swaths of Rancho San Pedro
Rancho San Pedro
Rancho San Pedro was one of the first California land grants, and the first to win a patent from the United States. The land grant was validated by the Mexican government at in 1828, and a US patent validating was issued in 1858...
from the Dominguez family. Hellman also owned much of Boyle Heights
Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
Boyle Heights is a neighborhood east of Downtown Los Angeles on the East Side of Los Angeles. For much of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights was a gateway for new immigrants. This resulted in diverse demographics, including Jewish American, Japanese American and Mexican American populations,...
with William H. Workman
William H. Workman
William Henry Workman was an American politician, banker and businessman. He served two terms as the 18th Mayor of Los Angeles, California.-Early life:...
.
In 1879, Hellman joined some public-spirited citizens led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney
Robert Maclay Widney
Robert Maclay Widney was an American lawyer, judge, and a founding father of The University of Southern California.He was born in Piqua, Ohio. He was the older brother of Dr...
, in what would be a significant legacy: the University of Southern California, the first university in the region. When Widney formed a board of trustees, he secured a donation of 308 lots of land from three prominent members of the community: horticulturist Ozro W. Childs
Ozro W. Childs
Ozro Childs was a Protestant horticulturalist, merchant, and banker in the 19th century in Los Angeles, California. He was a founding father of the University of Southern California.-Early years:...
; former California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
governor, Irish-Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
and businessman John G. Downey; and Hellman. The gift provided land for a campus as well as a source of endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
, the seeds of financial support for the nascent institution. A street on the USC campus is named after him.
Darius Ogden Mills
Darius Ogden Mills was a prominent American banker, philanthropist and, for a time, California's wealthiest citizen.-Biography:...
. He was reappointed twice and served until 1918.
In 1890, Hellman moved to San Francisco to take over the Nevada Bank, which had been formed in 1875 by four men known as the Silver Kings: John MacKay, James Flood, William O'Brien and James Fair. While the bank had once had $10 million in capitalization, it was almost broke by the time Hellman took over. When word got out about Hellman's involvement, millionaires and capitalists from around the world applied to buy stock. Hellman had $15 million in applications but only $2.5 million in stock to sell. Two of the biggest shareholders included Mayer Lehman and Lehman Brothers ($150,000) and Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss 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.-Origins:...
($120,000). Other shareholders included men Hellman had grown up with in Reckendorf who had become important businessmen in their own right, including Kalman, Abraham and William Haas, and David Walter.
In 1893, Hellman incorporated the first trust company in California, the Union Trust Company. He was president of the Nevada Bank from 1890 to 1898 and the Nevada National Bank from 1898 to 1905. In 1905, Hellman merged the Nevada National Bank with Wells Fargo Bank to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, the bank was run out of the home of Hellman's son in law at 2020 Jackson Street while the destroyed headquarters was rebuilt.
At the height of his power, Hellman served as president or director of 17 banks along the Pacific Coast and controlled $100 million in capital.
In 1897, Hellman bought a large parcel of land next to Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
where he built a mansion in 1903. He named it Pine Lodge after the sugar pines that dotted the property. His family later sold this land to the state of California, which made the property into the Sugar Pine Point State Park.
He also purchased the 35000 acres (141.6 km²) Nacimiento Ranch near Paso Robles
Paso Robles, California
Paso Robles is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Paso Robles is the fastest growing city in San Luis Obispo County: Its population at the 2000 census was 24,297; in 2010 it recorded some 29,793 residentsLocated on the Salinas River north of San Luis Obispo, California,...
and stocked it with cattle and horses.
Family life
He married Esther Newgass, of New York on April 14, 1870. Her sister, Babette, was married to Mayer Lehman, one of the founders of Lehman BrothersLehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
. The couple had three children, including son Isaias William Hellman, Jr., Clara, and Florence.