Leopold Lazarus
Lazarus family portrait
Values Codes I – E – L
Leopold Lazarus was born in France in 1827.
Lazarus left France in 1848 at the age of 21, to seek his fortune in America.
Along the way
Leopold Lazarus journeyed from New Orleans to California.
In California, Lazarus engaged in the mercantile trade and mining.
St. Helena
In 1862, he moved to St. Helena, California.
Lazarus operated a general merchandise store in St. Helena until 1875.
In 1866, he was appointed as the Agent for Wells, Fargo & Company in St. Helena.
Civic
Leopold Lazarus was elected City Treasurer and served five terms.
Family
In 1863, Lazarus married Julia Straus, a native of Alsace.
The couple had four children: Alfred, Leon, Leontine Rose, and Sylvain.
Sylvain Lazarus seemed to inherit his father’s adventurous spirit and spent time in Nome, Alaska before returning to California, where he became a lawyer and then judge in the Superior Court of San Francisco.
Greeting postcard from St. Helena, CA
Sources
- Lin Weber, Under the Vine and the Fig Tree: The Jews of Napa Valley (Jewish Historical Society of Napa Valley, 2003).
- Henry Michalski and Donna Mendelsohn, Napa Valley’s Jewish Heritage (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2012).
- Jewish Historical Society of Napa Valley, info@jhsnv.org
Lauren Chevlen is curator of this Leopold Lazarus exhibit.
