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Abraham Klauber & Family:
Report of an Interview With
Mr. Laurence M. Klauber,
233 W. Juniper Avenue,
San Diego, California,
Dec. 24, 1967
By Dr. Norton B. Stern
Abraham Klauber, father of the interviewee, was born in Bohemia in 1831. In 1848 he came to the United States, settling in New Orleans. From there he went to St. Louis, where he worked for a time, then went to New York, where he married Theresa Epstein, who was also from Bohemia.
Klauber had relatives in Sacramento and in 1851, he came to California, via Nicaragua. He contracted Yellow Fever on the way.
In California, he opened a store in Amador County at Volcano, and he prospered until the gold-mining began to slacken. Then, in 1858 he opened up a store and operated ranch property in Carson Valley in Nevada, where he remained until 1869.
Abraham Klauber was plagued with poor health all of his life, and evidently reading about the fine climate of San Diego, moved there in 1869. In San Diego, on March 30, 1869 he purchased two lots at 7th and I Streets, and opened up a store. The business was successively Klauber & Steiner, Klauber & Levi, and Klauber, Wangenheim Company, and the latter is the name used at present. Allan Klauber, a grandson of Abraham (Melville’s son) is the president of the corporation.
Abraham Klauber’s father was a butcher. His name was Jacob Klauber, his grandfather was a Rabbi. Jacob died when quite young and Abraham had to go to work to support his mother and sister. His sister and mother were later brought to America by Abraham and his sister married a man named Speigal in New York and moved to Portland, Oregon. Abraham Klauber had almost no formal education beyond the most elementary levels.
Abraham Klauber was a good businessman, though not expansion minded. He was a Mason, served a term in the San Diego Board of Supervisors, and was always fond of cattle and ranching. While in Amador County and later Nevada, he operated a freight hauling business.
He had very little social life in San Diego and never belonged to a synagogue. He was a great reader of books and magazines.
The ranch near Mindea, Nevada, is still known as the Klauber ranch, though the family hasn’t owned it for years.
Abraham was involved with real estate speculation and investment in the San Diego area. He belonged to a syndicate known as Steiner, Klauber, Chaote, & Castle which owned almost all of what is now East San Diego some 1,075 acres. Klauber also owned 1,800 acres of the district now known as Encanto, which was sold about 1907.
In Mendocino County, near Willets, [in Northern California], Klauber owned a 2,400 acre ranch, on which he raised cattle. The family used to vacation there.
Abraham Klauber and his wife had 12 children, 9 of whom survived into adulthood. The 12 were: Ella, born 1863 at Carson City Nevada. She married Gustav Wormser, moved to Deming, New Mexico, then back to San Francisco. Melville was born in 1865 in San Francisco, died in 1932 in San Diego. His son Allan is president of the family business now.
Clara, born 1867 in San Francisco, married Julius Wangenheim. Their daughter, Alice Heyneman, bore 3 children, a son and 2 daughters. The son is a professor of mathematics at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Alice was born in 1871 in San Diego, died in 1951, never married. Edgar born in 1873 in San Diego, operated the family business in Los Angeles, for many years. Herbert, born in 1875 in San Diego, died in infancy. Hugo, born in San Diego, attended Stanford University, was president of the family business after Melville’s death in 1932.
Stella, born in 1878 in San Diego, died 1942, never married. Arthur, born 1880 in San Diego, died in childhood in 1884. Leda, born in 1881 in San Diego, never married, now lives in La Jolla and is very spry, according to the interviewee.
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Laurence M., the interviewee, and the youngest of the 12, was born in 1883, December 21st, in San Diego.
The interviewee married Grace Gould, November 29, 1911 and they have 2 children, Mrs. David Means Miller, nee Alice, and Philip. They were born in 1913 and 1915 respectively.
The old family home at 30th and E Streets was built in 1888, and the family moved into it in 1892, after returning from San Francisco, where they had lived for a few years. It was there that the interviewee first became interested in snakes. Knowing of this interest, the Director of the San Diego Zoo asked Laurence M. Klauber to help in identifying some in 1932, when the San Diego Zoo really started to expand after the Exposition. In this way he became involved with herpetology and the Zoo. He is on the Board of Directors of the Zoo now.
His definitive 2 volume work on the rattlesnake was published by the University of California in 1956, and is now out of print. His private herpetology library is the largest and most valuable in the world. His collection of preserved snakes is located partly in the San Diego Zoo and partly in his home.
The interviewee graduated from San Diego High School after the usual attendance at elementary schools. Then he attended Stanford University from whence he graduated as an electrical engineer in 1908. For a time he worked for the Westinghouse Company in Pittsburgh, then in 1911, he went to work for the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. He eventually became President and Chairman of the Board of the corporation, from which he is now retired.
As a boy, he worked with his brother Hugo in a family-owned store at Campo, California. Later he worked for a time in the family business in Los Angeles, with his brother Edgar. This was a tobacco business.
Allan Klauber, president of the Klauber Wangenheim corporation has the family business photo collection.
Julius Wangenheim, brother-in-law of the interviewee was quite a mathematician. “He could calculate things in his head.” He was active on the Library Board in San Diego, with water development, and helped build up Balboa Park. He belonged to many organizations.
The family lived in San Francisco from 1885 to 1892, at 1324 Sutter Street. Abraham Klauber acted as the buyer for the San Diego firm during this period. They went to San Francisco because of the lack of good schools in San Diego.
The Klauber (Wangenheim) family know all the other Jewish families in town, even though they did not participate in Jewish affairs or activities.
The company—Klauber Wangenheim—sold groceries (wholesale) all throughout San Diego County and after 1903, when Imperial County began to develop, they sold there.
A Linoberg daughter lives in La Jolla.
Simon Levi did not get along with Abraham Klauber, so they split up. Levi’s children were Bert, Alice, and Sarah, who married Jay Jacobs. Edgar Levi, of San Diego, is a son of Adolph Levi and owns much land in Mission Valley now. He knows much San Diego area Jewish history.
Monroe Wertheimer was an early San Diego Jew who moved to Los Angeles where he started manufacturing orange wrappers then moved to Wisconsin. He married Melville Klauber’s wife’s sister. He originally had a small stationary store on F. Street.
The interviewee is writing the story of the life of his father, which he will send to the interviewer. Also, Alice Heynaman wrote the story of Abraham Klauber and had it privately printed in 1963—29 pages. See Serra Museum for additional interview material on Laurence Klauber
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