Simon Goldbaum
Values Codes I – E – L
Simon Goldbaum’s store and print shop, San Luis Rey, CA, #WS1505
Simon Goldbaum was born in 1847 in Grabow, a Polish city in Posen, occupied by Prussia.
Along the way . . .
Simon Goldbaum came to America in the mid-1860’s, and arrived in San Francisco in 1868.
For 3 years, Goldbaum clerked at stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles before heading South.
He established a general merchandise store at Monserate in northern San Diego County.
For a time, he was in business with Simon Levi in Temecula.
He finally settled in San Luis Rey, near the mission of the same name.
San Luis Rey
Simon Goldbaum not only operated a general merchandise store, but also a hotel livery stable and a Western Union telegraph office.
He was also interested in farming and stock raising.
Goldbaum did interpreting for the Indian people with whom he dealt, as they had little schooling. This was all volunteer work.
He ran community dances, which were open to everyone.
The Goldbaum family also had a half-way house, where people could stay when they traveled by horse and wagon.
Civic
In the early 1880’s, Simon Goldbaum was Postmaster of San Luis Rey, appointed by President Grover Cleveland.
He was one of the trustees of the local school board.
Fraternal
Simon Goldbaum was a Mason.
Family
Simon Goldbaum married Margaret, a native of Berlin, in Los Angeles in 1886.
They had a son who died young and two daughters, one of whom died in her teens.
Simon Goldbaum died in 1918.
He had a Masonic funeral at the Masonic Temple.
Simon Goldbaum is interred in San Diego, California.
Margaret Goldbaum passed away in 1941.
Tombstone of Simon & Margaret Goldbaum, Home of Peace Cemetery, San Diego, #WS1508
Source
- Helen Goldbaum Baranov, “Simon Goldbaum of San Luis Rey, California,” Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly 13/2.
Linda Kern is curator of this Simon Goldbaum exhibit.
