WEBVTT - Levi Strauss 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:13.520 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.680 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And today's 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.120 episode was requested approximately one hundred years ago, if you 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.200 go by way of hyperbole by our listener other not 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.240 really one hundred years ago, but it feels that way. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:29.520 It was a very long time, and I have had 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:31.280 it on my list throughout that time, but I am 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.400 only just now getting to it for a variety of reasons. Uh. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.640 We are talking today about Levi Strauss, and his story 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.639 is really historically interesting because it touches on a lot 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.720 of important moments in US history. So he was an 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.480 immigrant who ended up in a business that was impacted 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.720 by and in turn affected the U s Civil War 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.800 and American clothing culture. He has a story that's tied 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.560 to the Gold Rush. He also had a vision for 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.320 his adopted city of San Francisco that he worked really 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:05.039 hard to achieve so the future generations would benefit from it. Uh, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.160 and his life in many ways is the story of 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.120 the United States in the nineteenth century from the perspective 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.120 of a Jewish immigrant who became a captain of industry. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:14.880 And before we get into a story, I will make 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.440 a confession, which is that until fairly recently, probably five 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.280 years this Shougo, I thought Levi and Strauss were two 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.240 different people that have been in business together. That's what 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:30.399 I'm saying. So clearly I missed this in history class 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.840 because even though people wear Levi's and you'd call it 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.800 Levi Strauss, I didn't realize that was one person's proper name. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.720 So I grew up in North Carolina, not all that 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.240 far away from Cone Mills, which is who made the 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.760 denim for Levi's five oh ones, for but two hundred 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.960 years or something, so like this is a piece of 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.240 history that is like I'm a little more steeped, and 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.320 I didn't have confusion about whether Levi and Straus were 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:01.040 two people. It's not my proudest moment. But in my defense, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.080 even though I am a clothes person, I don't think 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.200 I owned a pair of jeans of any flavor from 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.320 about until like two years ago. Like that's just never 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:18.400 been my things. So that's that's my excuse paltry, though 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.919 it may be that I just never examined Levi Strouse. 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.359 If it makes you feel better, I thought Hannah Barbera 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.560 was one person. It was a woman. Oh no, that'd 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:33.800 be funny, but no. So Levi was born Lub Strauss 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.680 on February eighteen twenty nine in Budenheim, Germany. His father, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.040 Hersch Strauss, was a salesman who sold household goods store 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.640 to door. His mother's name was Rebecca has Strauss, and 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.320 both she and Hersh grew up in Franconia. It's an 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.240 area in the north of modern day Bavaria which was 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.840 predominantly Jewish. Rebecca was Hersh's second wife. His first wife, 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.400 Martel Bauman Strauss, had died at the age of thirty five, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.799 leaving him with five children. Then Hersh and Rebecca had 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.000 two more children together, a daughter, and then Lub and Hersh. 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.960 Rebecca and their seven children lived in a three room 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.080 downstairs floor of a two story house. So this was 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.560 a time when Bavaria's udn Addict or jew law was 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.000 in effect that had started in the eighteen teens. In 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.320 this law seemed as though it offered Jewish citizens the 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.200 opportunity to pursue a number of jobs that had once 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.519 been forbidden to them, but in return it also created 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.640 really strict regulations for their lives. Among them, marriage and 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.400 immigration of new Jews was severely limited. All Jews had 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.280 to be registered, they had to take German names, they 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.760 could not own land, and even their language was codified 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.280 so all public records had to be kept in German. 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.520 They could not use Hebrew. For those someone like Hersh Strauss, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.680 who traveled through the area selling his wares, also served 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.360 as messengers and as community connectors during this time, and 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.360 in this profession, Kursh was sort of exempted from a 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.720 part of the Union edict. Working as a peddler, which 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:07.720 had been a traditional job for Jewish Men in the 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.800 area for a long time, was no longer considered an 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.440 acceptable career, but older people like Hirsh who weren't able 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.839 to pick up a new profession were allowed to keep 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.400 doing it. Yeah, it was expected that they would just 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.920 eventually die off, and so would that profession, and all 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:28.159 of the limitations of the Union Addict eventually inspired emigration. 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.239 One of the marriage laws that really created a problem 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.560 was that only the eldest son of any Jewish household 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.200 could get married, and so there were some workarounds, like 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.240 if another son that was younger wanted to marry a 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.760 widow that was acceptable, or if a couple that had 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.040 no children wanted to give up the slot, their eldest 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.039 son would have had to another family so they could 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.640 have two sons. Mary they could, but basically this really 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:56.480 limited the entire societal culture because all of these young 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.040 women could not get married, all of these young men 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.840 could not get married. It was frustrating. So eventually they 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.960 wanted to leave, and in eighteen thirty seven there was 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.479 a group of eighteen people that left. Eighteen young people 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.000 and two of Lub's older siblings were part of that. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.200 They left Germany to make homes in London and New York. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.359 In nineteen forty nine, one two more of the Straw's 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:23.279 children followed suit. In eighteen forty six, first died of tuberculess. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.440 Rebecca remarried soon after to hersh's brother, who was a 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.040 widower named Lippman, but Lippmann died just a few weeks 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.479 after the wedding. Lub was seventeen at that time and 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.200 two of his sisters were still living at home. An 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.800 immigration at this point was not easy. You couldn't just 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.040 pick up and leave. The Bavarian government had to approve 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.320 anyone who wished to leave the country, and you had 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.000 to prove that neither you nor anyone in your family 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.560 had any sort of criminal record, and that you could 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.039 afford to make the trip. On March seventeenth, eighteen forty seven, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.000 Rebecca Strouss filed an immigration petition in which she stated 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:00.880 that because she was a wi know she didn't have 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.119 the financial support anymore. She didn't know how she would 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.400 provide for her youngest son, but she had children in 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.000 the United States who could help her get settled there. 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.840 Lib was old enough to work and contribute to the 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.599 family's finances once they arrived, and for his part, Lub 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.719 wrote his own petition stating quote, no members of my 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.880 family will stay behind. I will share the faith that 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.560 has been assigned to me with them in foreign lands. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:29.520 I thus joined my mother and her plea. On June seven, 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.919 Rebecca and her children, so Lib and his two sisters 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.160 were approved for immigration, but they didn't leave immediately because 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.400 Rebecca needed to make sure that the family that had 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.520 gone on to New York had indeed made preparations for 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.200 the three of them to arrive and live there. They 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.800 finally made their way in the spring of eighteen forty eight, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.920 although the specifics of their transatlantic passage aren't really documented 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.280 or known. Jonas and Louis Strauss, Lib's brothers had both 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.120 become dry goods merchants in the city. They had opened 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.920 up a shop at three and a half Grand Street, 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.599 but by the time the family arrived, they had moved 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.240 to a more lucrative location at two oh three and 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.400 a half Division Street. They lived above the shop. Jonas 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.440 had also gotten married and started his own family, and 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:19.120 at some point Lub followed the example that his siblings 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.960 had and he changed his name to a more Americanized version. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.400 This was not uncommon, uh, and in the eighteen fifty 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.360 censes he is listed as Levi with a Y. He 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.080 also started working in the family dry goods business. While 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.600 he was there, he learned English really quickly so that 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.480 he could speak with business partners and customers, and he 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.360 applied for U S citizenship, just as his brothers had 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.400 done before him. The Strouse's dry goods business was doing 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.640 really well. They moved to another new location near Union 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.960 Market in eighteen fifty one, and as their family business 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.480 was growing, a new opportunity was making itself apparent across 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.360 the country as the California Gold Rush fostered New Town's 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:02.120 new prosperity and a need for dry goods. The Strauss 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.960 brothers did not want to miss a chance to capitalize 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.480 on this new market, but they also needed to keep 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.920 their established New York business going, and so the youngest 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.720 brother of the family was sent west. Five days after 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.080 he took his oath of citizenship. On January one, eighteen 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.000 fifty three, Lob Strauss, who was now going by Levi, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.360 left New York for San Francisco aboard the U. S 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.440 Mail ship Georgia, which was a steamer, and the family 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.480 had already loaded a shipment of merchandise aboard another ship 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.600 called the Winged Racer for Levi to take possession of. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.240 Once he reached San Francisco. The clipper Winged Racer was 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.000 sailing down around the tip of South America and then 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.679 north to California. Levi would make the trip in less time, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.920 traveling through Panama. This was, of course, before the Panama 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.599 Canal was built, so he took the steamer Georgia to 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.640 Panama and then traveled across that thin strip of the 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.640 country to Panama City on the Pacific side. It got 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.600 on another steamer there called the Isthmus and that was 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.240 bound for San Francisco. He arrived in San Francisco on 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.000 March thirteenth, eighteen fifty three. This was considered for a 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.559 lot of people a safer plan than trying to travel 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:15.640 overland from New York to San Francisco because uh, people 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.600 often did not survive that journey, or if they did 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.680 get to California, they got there in pretty sorry shape. Uh. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.400 This was a little bit of an easier move, and 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.160 the specifics of Levi's first days in San Francisco are 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.080 also unknown. He would have needed to rent warehouse space 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.120 for the goods that were coming in on the winged Racer, 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.440 and he would have needed to find lodgings for himself. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.680 He most likely had some letters of introduction to family 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.480 connections that had already made that journey west, so it 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.120 wasn't as though he just showed up and had to 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.560 figure everything out by himself. He had some security net 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.679 in place that merchandise that had been shipped showed up 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:55.040 two weeks after Leavi did on March, Unlike other merchants 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.560 who had to bid on merchandise that was shipped on 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.960 spec once it got to the port at San Francisco, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.760 Leavin knew what was coming. He just had to inspect it, 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.839 accept it, and then move it into the warehouse. As 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:07.839 I got to know the market in California, he could 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.960 ensure that future shipments contained items that would be the 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.160 most likely to move and to make the most money. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.480 And for clarity, the Strouss were not opening a retail 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.960 shop in San Francisco, even though they had sort of 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.640 a similar one in New York. They were basically setting 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.199 up a wholesale business that would sell stock to other 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.199 merchants for their shops. So Levi had to invest time 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.800 in developing really good relationships with other businessmen in the area, 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.560 and he was twenty four at this point. He wasn't 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.320 supporting a wife or family, so aside from attending synagogue 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:43.520 and participating in social events primarily within San Francisco's Jewish community, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.840 all of his efforts could be focused on establishing the 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.400 family's new West Coast firm. And he wasn't only working 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.800 with retailers in San Francisco either. He also traveled inland 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.120 to Sacramento, and he paid visits to smaller mining towns 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.720 to make deals with the shopkeepers there, and this was 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.360 an ongoing practice for the business that he pretty much 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.439 carried out forever. So when news broke of new or 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.280 strikes or a new town popping up, Strauss was smart 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.720 enough to go get into those towns that sprouted up 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.800 in those places really quickly and forged those new business partnerships. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.040 Coming up, we'll talk more about how Levi Strouss set 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.200 up the Strouss family business in San Francisco, but first 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.000 we will take a little break for a word from 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:35.120 a sponsor. So Levi quickly established a list of regular clientele, 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.760 and even as he had received shipment of that first 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.079 load of freight that his brothers had sent, there were 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.360 already two other shipments on the way. He was doing 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.360 business ostensibly for the company that his brother founded, which 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.480 was J. Strauss and Brother, but he was invoicing clients 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.440 sort of as a separate business as just Levi Strauss. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.600 In July etive, Levi sent a shipment of gold back 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.520 to his brothers. This was valued at a little over 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.720 ten thousand dollars at the time, which is estimated to 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.160 be close to a quarter of a million dollars in 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:10.959 modern currency. Of course, it's really difficult to make those estimates. Clearly, 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.520 the California office was doing really well. In spite of 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.880 the fact that there was something of a financial panic 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.400 going on in San Francisco that year, it didn't seem 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.400 to impact Strauss. By the end of eighteen fifty five, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.600 he'd sent more than eighty thousand dollars home in gold. Yeah. 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.680 One of the things that really made his business. It'll 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.240 come up over and over that even when their difficulties, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.920 they still managed to pull through and even do pretty well. 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.960 Like people will always need dry goods, they always need 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.720 clothes and linen's and household basics. So it was a 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.200 really smart business to be in in the first place. 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.600 In eighteen fifty six saw continued expansion of the Strouss 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:52.000 enterprise in California. Levis sister Fogla, who had changed her 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.160 name to Fanny when she moved to the United States, 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.360 moved to San Francisco with her husband, David Stearns, and 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.439 their children to assist with the growing responsive elities of 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.720 the business, and his brother Lewis also joined them. It 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.760 is possible, though unconfirmed, that his mother, Rebecca, made the 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.640 journey as well, and for the first time since moving 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.120 to the US. Levi actually had a home with an 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.880 address that was separate from his business, not living above 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.400 it or within it, indicating that there was this ongoing 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.440 trend of prosperity. The firm also changed names that year. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.640 It went from J. Strouss and Brother to J. Strouss 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:31.439 Brother and Company, maybe to acknowledge Levi's contribution, but on 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.960 all records in California it was listed as Levi Strausse. 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.520 Levi sent more than double the amount to New York 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.160 in eighteen fifty six that he had in eighteen five. 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.440 That amounted to approximately two d thousand dollars. Eventually, in 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.520 the late eighteen sixties, Levi changed the name of the 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.320 California branch to Levi Strousse and Company, recognizing his family 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:57.320 members contributions. Eighteen fifty six was also the year that 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.360 Levi Strouss became involved, along with his brother in law, 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.400 in the Committee of Vigilance, which was a vigilante group 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.400 made up largely of merchants that formed a combat the 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.960 city's growing political corruption and related violence. While business and 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.640 politics had largely stayed separate up to that point, concerns 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.800 over how businesses could be impacted by the lawlessness of 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.479 men and power led to the Committee of Vigilance nominating 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.960 and eventually electing many of the city's business leaders into 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.920 political office. So they picked people that they knew from 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.520 other merchants and put them in office because they thought 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.280 that was safer. And while Strauss did not seem to 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.240 have any political ambitions of his own, he did back 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.160 the political efforts of the committee. Those committees that there 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.640 were several of them and several places at this time period, 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.120 and in some places their activities were kind of controversial 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.320 because there was like an extra judicial violence capacity in 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:57.440 this combat of corruption, so it's like there's a whole 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.200 bigger story there. But his involvement was really about out 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:05.560 electing businessmen to city positions, and there had actually been 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.840 a similar committee in San Francisco several years prior to 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.880 this that was much more of like a vigilante law 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.320 force that thought that they would fill the gap between 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.520 the crime that was going on and the police that 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.160 were obviously to their minds, not doing anything about it. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.880 So that existed in San Francisco as well, although he 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:25.760 was not part of that at the time. In eighteen 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.880 fifties seven, the Strousse family experienced a financial loss. In September, 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.280 the SS Central America, which had picked up passengers and 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.080 freight in Panama, including a large shipment of gold, went 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.440 down in a hurricane off the US coast in the Atlantic. 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.400 More than four hundred people died and an estimated one 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.600 point five million dollars of gold was lost, including seventy 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.920 six thousand dollars that was en route to J. Strouss 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:57.040 brother and Company from Levi Strouss and Company. Incidentally, the 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.920 wreckage of the Central America was found and much of 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.320 the treasure recovered in although there was a significant legal 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.400 battle over who should get that gold. The thinking of 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.160 the Central America set off a financial panic. There was 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.880 a lot of gold that New York banks had been 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.720 expecting on that ship, so when it didn't show up 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.800 that was It was a significant economic disruption. And yet, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.480 as seems to be the pattern of his life, Levi 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.400 Strauss weathered this storm. Part of this was because his 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.000 brothers were the ones shipping him good so that meant 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.920 he didn't have to reassure a supplier of his good 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:33.680 credit and be like, no, no, I know, I lost 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:35.360 some money, but I will make it up to you. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.400 They were like yeah, we'll just keep it going. So 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.960 the Strauss family continued business as usual, and because other 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.040 entrepreneurs didn't have the credit or the leverage to do 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.040 the same thing, Levi's business flourished as others shut down. 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.600 By the end of the year, he was shipping gold 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.880 to New York once again, and he had expanded to 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.360 have offices in the city that were actually separate from 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.240 his warehouse. He was also taking shipments of raw materials 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.640 from suppliers outside the family, which he then leveraged in 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.200 deals that got him discounts on the goods that were 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.600 made from those raw materials. As the country found itself 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.080 in the grip of the Civil War, San Francisco's citizens 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.080 realized they could eventually be impacted by it. California had 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.960 entered the Union as a free state, as outlined in 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.280 the Compromise of eighteen fifty, but while most of the 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.320 city was loyal to the Union, there were some concerns 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.080 about some government officials wanting to ally with the Confederacy. 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.760 After a pro Union rally in the city on May eleventh, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.760 eighteen sixty one, at the junction of Montgomery Market and 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.159 Post Streets, a resolution was put forth that formed a 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.879 Union Committee of thirty four. This is a committee of 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.639 respected men who would uphold the ideals of the Union, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.280 phil vacant government posts, and keep an eye out for treason. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.159 Levi Strauss was one of the men named as a 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.840 member of this group, and one of only three Jewish 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.840 men included. Yeah, they were very worried that there were 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.840 people that were infiltry in California who were pro slavery, 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.520 and that it was gonna completely cause an upheaval of 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.240 everything going on in the state, and particularly in a 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.800 large city like San Francisco. So they really wanted to 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.080 try to keep an eye out and prevent such a problem. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.600 And when the troops that were stationed at the Presidio 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.399 were sent east to fight, it really left the people 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.400 of San Francisco a little bit uneasy and they were 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.879 fearful without protection, and the volunteer group known as the 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.880 Home Guard was founded that consisted of three thousand men 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.439 and it sort of served as a makeshift military force. 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.520 The Home Guard and the Union Committee of thirty four 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.520 actually disbanded though, when Leland Stanford was elected California Governor. 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:44.200 Stanford was a pro union Republican who was very well 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.440 respected successful and powerful, so the concerns of some sort 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.720 of pro Confederacy uprising that had led to the formation 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.440 of those two groups were pretty diminished under his leadership. 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.200 Strauss and his California business continued to do well through 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.560 all of this, and the prosperity of California's merchants helped 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.960 keep the country of floats through the Civil War. Strauss 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.440 had recognized the value of real estate fairly early on 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.440 and had invested in a number of properties throughout the city, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:14.920 which he often sold as a profit after holding them 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.680 for some time. Levi Strauss and Company also moved into 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.119 a new space that he purchased in eighteen sixty seven. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.080 This was a four story building on Battery Street that 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.520 clearly showed the company's success. The company was known for 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.560 its excellent and speedy service and the ability of its 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:35.240 employees to satisfy client needs with even the largest orders. Yeah, 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.000 there was a write up where they actually used the 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.960 word empowered to describe the salespeople and clerks at Levi 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.200 Strouse as being able, like they were empowered to meet 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.600 the needs and agree to deals with clients, which is 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.679 sort of a weird word to be using in the 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.840 eighteen sixties, but there it was. Unfortunately, the late eighteen 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.080 sixties also came with family loss, as Levi's half sister 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.680 Mary died in eighteen sixty six and his mother, Rebecca 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.679 passed three years later. After Rebecca's death, Levi traveled back 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.400 to New York, and he stayed there for a month, 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.400 presumably to help settle accounts and get her affairs in order. 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.840 There was also an embezzlement scandal at Levi, strouss and 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.680 Company in October of eighteen sixty six, when news broke 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.560 that a bookkeeper had taken five hundred thousand dollars and 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.120 left the country. While the company, not wanting to scare 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.000 away business partners, said that there was no money missing, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.000 it also made a statement in an advertisement that the 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.800 man in question, G. S. Goodman, was no longer with 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.080 the company it was not authorized to conduct business on 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.320 behalf of Levi Stroussing Company. This mix of messages seemed 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.920 to blow over. While Mr Goodman never saw any retribution 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:47.960 of the fact that he had taken money from his 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.600 employer quite a lot of money from his employer, neither 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.880 the company nor Levi strousse personally seemed to suffer any 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:58.160 negative fallout from it either. Yeah, that's one of those 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.239 stories where it's like they completely claimed that it had 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:04.520 not happened, so there is no record of it happening. 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:06.720 But then the fact that they're also like, but also 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:07.920 if you talk to that guy, he doesn't work for 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:13.080 us anymore. Um, you know, it does seem like it's 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:14.960 a little bit of a weird combination of things to 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.639 put out in the press. The company continued explosive growth 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.920 right into the eighteen seventies as Levi, who obviously had 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:26.000 an impressive business instinct, realized that he needed to expand 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:30.119 into international markets. At that point, his business had expanded 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.160 to supply merchants all along the Western Seaboard and into 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:37.400 Oregon and Montana, but he was also expanding farther into 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:40.160 the American Southwest, and then he started to reach out 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.520 to potential clients in Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii. Coming up, 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.720 we're going to dive into the thing that the Levi 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.199 Strouths name is most closely associated with today, which is 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:59.399 blue jeans. First, we're gonna have a quick sponsor break. 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:05.680 Jacob Davis, who presumably started at his yakub and americanized 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.760 his name when he got here. Was also a Jewish immigrant, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.960 and he had moved to the United States from Russia 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.359 as a young man. He, like Levi, also worked in 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.159 dry goods as a cutter and a tailor, although he 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.320 had also dabbled in the brewery business and some other enterprises. 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.720