WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Levi Strauss 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:06.640 Happy Saturday. The US Patent Office granted a patent to 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.200 Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss one hundred and fifty 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.760 years ago today. That was the patent for Improvements in 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:19.280 Fastening Pocket Openings, which is generally recognized as the patent 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.119 for the first blue jeans. We covered Levi Strauss and 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.479 the development of blue jeans, along with other parts of 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.160 his life and career in our August eighth, twenty eighteen episode, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:35.680 and that is today's Saturday Classic Enjoy Welcome to Stuff 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:45.760 You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.640 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:53.080 Tracy V. Wilson. And today's episode was requested approximately one 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.320 hundred years ago, if you go by way of hyperbole 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.800 by our listener other not really one hundred years ago, 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:01.920 but it feels that way. It was a very long time, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.360 and I have had it on my list throughout that time, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.160 but I am only just now getting to it. For 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:10.119 a variety of reasons. We are talking today about Levi Strauss, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.600 and his story is really historically interesting because it touches 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.679 on a lot of important moments in US history. So 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:18.960 he was an immigrant who ended up in a business 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.600 that was impacted by and in turn affected the US 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.880 Civil War and American clothing culture. He has a story 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.319 that's tied to the Gold Rush. He also had a 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.560 vision for his adopted city of San Francisco that he 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.800 worked really hard to achieve so that future generations would 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.000 benefit from it, and his life, in many ways is 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.600 the story of the United States in the nineteenth century 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:45.600 from the perspective of a Jewish immigrant who became a 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.040 captain of industry. Before we get into his story, I 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.000 will make a confession, which is that until fairly recently, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.440 probably five years is Shigo, I thought Levi and Strauss 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.360 were two different people that had been in business together. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:03.120 That's all I'm saying. So clearly I missed this in 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.920 history class because even though people wear Levi's and you'd 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.240 call it Levi Strauss, I didn't realize that was one 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.360 person's proper name. So I grew up in North Carolina, 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.680 not all that far away from Cone Mills, which is 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.480 who made the denim for Levi's five oh ones for 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.920 two hundred years or something, So like this is a 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.280 piece of history that is like I'm a little more 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.240 steeped in I didn't have confusion about whether Levi and 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.480 Strauss are two people. It's not my proudest moment. But 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.200 in my defense, even though I am a clothes person, 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.480 I don't think I owned a pair of jeans of 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:44.240 any flavor from about nineteen eighty five until like two 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:49.519 years ago. Like that's just never been my things. So's 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.720 that's my excuse paltry. Though it may be that I 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.680 just never examined Levi Strauss. If it makes you feel better, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.920 I thought Hannah Barbara was one person. It was a woman. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:06.000 Oh no, that'd be funny, but no. So. Levi was 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.400 born Lueb Strauss on February twenty, sixth of eighteen twenty 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.720 nine in Budenheim, Germany. His father, Hirsch Strauss, was a 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.000 salesman who sold household goods store to door. His mother's 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.760 name was Rebecca has Strauss, and both she and Hirsch 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.919 grew up in Franconia. It's an area in the north 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:28.079 of modern day Bavaria, which was predominantly Jewish. Rebecca was 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.360 Hirsch's second wife. His first wife, matel Baumann Strauss, had 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.120 died at the age of thirty five, leaving him with 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.520 five children. Then Hirsh and Rebecca had two more children together, 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.320 a daughter, and then Lub and Hirsh. Rebecca and their 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.520 seven children lived in a three room downstairs floor of 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.360 a two story house. So this was a time when 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.920 Bavaria's Udenadict or Jew law was in effect that had 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.200 started in the eighteen teens. In this law seemed as 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.160 though it offered Jewish citizens the opportunity to pursue a 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.720 number of jobs that had once been forbidden to them, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.520 but in return, it also created really strict regulations for 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.520 their lives. Among them, marriage and immigration of new Jews 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.840 was severely limited. All Jews had to be registered, they 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.840 had to take German names, they could not own land, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.599 and even their language was codified so all public records 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.720 had to be kept in German. They could not use 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.800 Hebrew for those someone like Hirsch Strauss, who traveled through 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.240 the area selling his wares, also served as messengers and 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.240 as community connectors during this time, and in this profession 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.200 Kirsch was sort of exempted from a part of the 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.560 Udon edict. Working as a peddler, which had been a 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.760 traditional job for Jewish men in the area for a 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.919 long time, was no longer considered an acceptable career, but 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.320 older people like Hirsh who weren't able to pick up 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.599 a new profession were allowed to keep doing it. Yeah, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:54.920 it was expected that they would just eventually die off, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.440 and so would that profession, and all of the limitations 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.839 of the Uden edict eventually inspired emigration. One of the 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.159 marriage laws that really created a problem was that only 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.840 the eldest son of any Jewish household could get married, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.160 and so there were some workarounds like if another son 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.000 that was younger wanted to marry a widow, that was acceptable, 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:18.159 or if a couple that had no children wanted to 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.200 give up the slot, their eldest son would have had 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.360 to another family so they could have two sons Mary 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:27.800 they could, but basically this really limited the entire societal 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.480 culture because all of these young women could not get married, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:33.479 all of these young men could not get married. It 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.120 was frustrating. So eventually they wanted to leave, and in 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.880 eighteen thirty seven there was a group of eighteen people 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.200 that left. Eighteen young people and two of Lub's older 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.040 siblings were part of that. They left Germany to make 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.480 homes in London and New York. In nineteen forty and 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.359 nineteen forty one. Two more of the Strass children followed suit. 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.360 In eighteen forty six, Hirsh died of tuberculosis. Rebecca remarried 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.360 soon after to Hersh's brother, who was a widower named Lippmann, 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.159 but Lippmann died just a few weeks after the wedding. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.359 Loub was seventeen at that time and two of his 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.440 sisters were still living at home, and emigration at this 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.120 point was not easy. You couldn't just pick up and leave. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.000 The Bavarian government had to approve anyone who wished to 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.880 leave the country, and you had to prove that neither 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.279 you nor anyone in your family had any sort of 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.240 criminal record, and that you could afford to make the trip. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.120 On March seventeenth, eighteen forty seven, Rebecca Strauss filed an 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.160 emigration petition in which she stated that because she was 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.440 a widow, she didn't have the financial support anymore. She 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.240 didn't know how she would provide for her youngest son, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.000 but she had children in the United States who could 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.080 help her get settled there. Lib was old enough to 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.400 work and contribute to the family's finances once they arrived, 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.520 and for his part, Loub wrote his own petition, stating quote, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:54.680 no members of my family will stay behind. I will 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.719 share the faith that has been assigned to me with 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.600 them in foreign lands. I thus joined my mother in 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.000 her place Poe. On June twenty sixth, eighteen forty seven, 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.360 Rebecca and her children, so Lub and his two sisters 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.640 were approved for immigration, but they didn't leave immediately because 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:12.840 Rebecca needed to make sure that the family that had 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.960 gone on to New York had indeed made preparations for 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.640 the three of them to arrive and live there. They 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.240 finally made their way in the spring of eighteen forty eight, 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:25.360 although the specifics of their transatlantic passage aren't really documented 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.760 or known. Jonas and Louis Strauss, Libb's brothers, had both 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.720 become dry goods merchants in the city. They'd opened up 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.560 a shop at three ninety three and a half Grand Street, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.080 but by the time the family arrived, they had moved 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.760 to a more lucrative location at two three and a 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:45.000 half Division Street. They lived above the shop. Jonas had 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.120 also gotten married and started his own family, and at 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:52.760 some point Lub followed the example that his siblings had, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.400 and he changed his name to a more americanized version. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.320 This was not uncommon, and in the eighteen fifty census 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.120 he is listed as Levi with a Y. He also 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.640 started working in the family dry goods business. While he 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.160 was there, he learned English really quickly so that he 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.440 could speak with business partners and customers, and he applied 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.600 for US citizenship, just as his brothers had done before him. 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.960 The Strauss's dry goods business was doing really well. They 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.960 moved to another new location near Union Market in eighteen 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.440 fifty one, and as their family business was growing, a 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.440 new opportunity was making itself a parent across the country, 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.040 as the California Gold Rush fostered new towns, new prosperity, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.240 and a need for dry goods. The Strauss brothers did 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.640 not want to miss a chance to capitalize on this 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.680 new market, but they also needed to keep their established 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.760 New York business going, and so the youngest brother of 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.560 the family was sent west. Five days after he took 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.560 his oath of citizenship. On January thirty first, eighteen fifty three, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.640 Loeb Strauss, who was now going by Levi, left New 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.360 York for San Francisco aboard the US mailship Georgia, which 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.839 was a steamer, and the family had already loaded a 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.200 shipment of merchandise aboard another ship called the Winged Racer 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.560 for Levi to take possession of once he reached San Francisco. 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.240 The clipper Winged Racer was sailing down around the tip 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.880 of South America and then north to California. Levi would 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.120 make the trip in less time, traveling through Panama. This was, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.720 of course, before the Panama Canal was built, so he 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.079 took the steamer Georgia to Panama and then traveled across 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.440 that thin strip of the country to Panama City on 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.760 the Pacific side. They got on another steamer there called 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.920 the Isthmus and that was bound for San Francisco. He 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.680 arrived in San Francisco on March thirteenth, eighteen fifty three. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.559 This was considered for a lot of people a safer 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.040 plan than trying to travel overland from New York to 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:51.080 San Francisco, because people often did not survive that journey, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.360 or if they did get to California, they got there 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.079 in pretty sorry shape. This was a little bit of 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.440 an easier move, and the specifics of Levi's first days 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.400 in San Francisco are also unknown. He would have needed 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.520 to rent warehouse space for the goods that were coming 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.040 in on the winged racer, and he would have needed 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.080 to find lodgings for himself. He most likely had some 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.600 letters of introduction to family connections that had already made 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.839 that journey west, so it wasn't as though he just 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.240 showed up and had to figure everything out by himself. 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.920 He had some security net in place that merchandise that 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.400 had been shipped showed up two weeks after leap I 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.040 did on March thirtieth. Unlike other merchants who had some 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.840 bid on merchandise that was shipped on Speck, once it 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.560 got to the port at San Francisco, Levi knew what 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.120 was coming. He just had to inspect it, accept it, 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.559 and then move it into the warehouse. As he got 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.920 to know the market in California, he could ensure that 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.000 future shipments contained items that would be the most likely 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.640 to move and to make the most money. And for clarity, 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.320 the Strausses were not opening a retail shop in San Francisco, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.480 even though they had sort of a similar one in 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.360 New York. They were basically setting up a wholesale business 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.400 that would sell stock to other merchants for their shops. 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:03.920 So Levi had to invest time in developing really good 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.200 relationships with other businessmen in the area, and he was 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.840 twenty four at this point. He wasn't supporting a wife 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.840 or family, so aside from attending synagogue and participating in 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.960 social events primarily within San Francisco's Jewish community, all of 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.080 his efforts could be focused on establishing the family's new 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.520 West Coast firm. And he wasn't only working with retailers 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.160 in San Francisco either. He also traveled inland to Sacramento, 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.920 and he paid visits to smaller mining towns to make 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.880 deals with the shopkeepers there. And this was an ongoing 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.559 practice for the business that he pretty much carried out forever. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.680 So when news broke of new or strikes or a 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.320 new town popping up, Strauss was smart enough to go 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.920 get into those towns that sprouted up in those places 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.200 really quickly and forge those new business partnerships. Coming up, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.760 we'll talk more about how Levi Strauss set up the 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.920 Strauss family business in San Francisco, but first we will 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.160 take a little break for a word from a sponsor. 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.960 So Levi quickly established a list of regular clientele and 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.320 even as he had received shipment of that first load 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.800 of freight that his brothers had sent. There were already 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.040 two other shipments on the way. He was doing business 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.760 ostensibly for the company that his brother founded, which was 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.040 Jay straussan brother, but he was invoicing clients sort of 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.679 as a separate business as just Levi Strauss. In July 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.880 eighteen fifty five, Levi sent a shipment of gold back 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.760 to his brothers. This was valued at a little over 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.000 ten thousand dollars at the time, which is estimated to 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.440 be close to a quarter of a million dollars in 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:47.280 modern currency. Of course, it's really difficult to make those estimates. Clearly, 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.800 the California office was doing really well. In spite of 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.400 the fact that there was something a financial panic going 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:55.840 on in San Francisco that year, it didn't seem to 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.920 impact Strauss. By the end of eighteen fifty five, he'd 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.800 sent more than eighty two thousand dollars home in gold. Yeah, 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:04.960 one of the things that really made his business. It'll 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.520 come up over and over that even when they are difficulties, 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.240 they still managed to pull through and even do pretty well. 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.960 Like people will always need dry goods, they always need clothes, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.240 and linens and household basics, so it was a really 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.800 smart business to be in the first place. In eighteen 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.240 fifty six saw continued expansion of the Strauss enterprise in California. 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.960 Levi's sister, Fogela, who had changed her name to Fanny 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.360 when she moved to the United States, moved to San 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.720 Francisco with her husband, David Stearns, and their children to 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.600 assist with the growing responsibilities of the business, and his 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.640 brother Lewis also joined them. It is possible, though unconfirmed, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.560 that his mother, Rebecca, made the journey as well, and 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.040 for the first time since moving to the US, Levi 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.679 actually had a home with an address that was separate 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.360 from his business, not living above it or within it, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.520 indicating that there was this ongoing trend of prosperity. The 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.120 firm also changed names that year from Jay Strauss and 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:05.520 Brother to Jay Strauss, Brother and Company, maybe to acknowledge 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:09.600 Levi's contribution, but on all records in California it was 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.920 listed as Levi Strauss. Levi sent more than double the 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.120 amount to New York in eighteen fifty six that he 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.040 had in eighteen fifty five. That amounted to approximately two 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.480 hundred thousand dollars. Eventually, in the late eighteen sixties, Levi 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.040 changed the name of the California branch to Levi Strauss 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:32.400 and Company, recognizing his family member's contributions. Eighteen fifty six 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.600 was also the year that Levi Strauss became involved, along 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.320 with his brother in law, in the Committee of Vigilance, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.160 which was a vigilante group made up largely of merchants 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.640 that formed a combat the city's growing political corruption and 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:49.120 related violence. While business and politics had largely stayed separate 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.280 up to that point, concerns over how businesses could be 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.520 impacted by the lawlessness of men in power led to 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.600 the Committee of Vigilance nominating and eventually electing many of 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.720 the city the business leaders into political office. So they 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.400 picked people that they knew from other merchants and put 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.120 them in office because they thought that was safer. And 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.040 while Strauss did not seem to have any political ambitions 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.720 of his own, he did back the political efforts of 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.920 the Committee. Those committees, there were several of them and 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.160 several places at this time period, and in some places 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.160 their activities were kind of controversial because there was like 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:31.880 an extra judicial violence capacity in this combat of corruption. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.840 So it's like there's a whole bigger story there. But 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:40.360 his involvement was really about electing businessmen to city positions, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.400 and there had actually been a similar committee in San 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.320 Francisco several years prior to this that was much more 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.280 of like a vigilanti law force that thought that they 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.400 would fill the gap between the crime that was going 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.280 on and the police that were obviously to their minds, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.800 not doing anything about it. So that existed in San 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:00.800 Francisco as well, although he was not part of that 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.880 at the time. In eighteen fifty seven, the Strauss family 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:08.960 experienced a financial loss. In September, the SS Central America, 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.520 which had picked up passengers and freight in Panama, including 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.600 a large shipment of gold, went down in a hurricane 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.000 off the US coast in the Atlantic. More than four 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.880 hundred people died and an estimated one point five million 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.360 dollars of gold was lost, including seventy six thousand dollars 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.160 that was en route to J. Strauss brother and Company 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:34.320 from Levi Strauss and Company. Incidentally, the wreckage of the 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.560 Central America was found and much of the treasure recovered 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.600 in nineteen eighty eight, although there was a significant legal 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.640 battle over who should get that gold. The sinking of 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.440 the Central America set off a financial panic. There was 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.160 a lot of gold that New York banks had been 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.000 expecting on that ship, so when it didn't show up 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.960 that was it was a significant economic disruption. And yet, 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:58.760 as seems to be the pattern of his life, Levi 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.680 Strauss weathered this storm. Part of this was because his 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.280 brothers were the ones shipping him goods, so that meant 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.200 he didn't have to reassure a supplier of his good 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:09.960 credit and be like, no, no, I know, I lost 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.600 some money, but I will make it up to you. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.679 They were like, yeah, we'll just keep it going. So 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.240 the Strauss family continued business as usual, and because other 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.359 entrepreneurs didn't have the credit or the leverage to do 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.840 the same thing, Levi's business flourished as others shut down. 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:26.840 By the end of the year, he was shipping gold 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.199 to New York once again, and he had expanded to 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.600 have offices in the city that were actually separate from 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.520 his warehouse. He was also taking shipments of raw materials 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.879 from suppliers outside the family, which he then leveraged in 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.480 deals that got him discounts on the goods that were 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.879 made from those raw materials. As the country found itself 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.359 in the grip of the Civil War, San Francisco's citizens 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.360 realized they could eventually be impacted by it. California had 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.240 entered the Union as a free state, as outlined in 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.560 the Compromise of eighteen fifty, but while most of the 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.600 city was loyal to the Union, there were some concerns 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.960 about some government officials wanting to ally with the Confederacy. 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.080 After a pro Union rally in the city on May eleventh, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.000 eighteen sixty one, at the junction of Montgomery Market and 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:16.399 Post Streets, a resolution was put forth that formed a 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.119 Union Committee of thirty four. This is a committee of 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.919 respected men who would uphold the ideals of the Union, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.520 fill vacant government posts, and keep an eye out for treason. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.439 Levi Strauss is one of the men named as a 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.040 member of this group, and one of only three Jewish 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.080 men included. Yeah, they were very worried that there were 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.320 people that were infiltrating California who were pro slavery, and 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.840 that it was going to completely cause an upheaval of 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.480 everything going on in the state, and particularly in a 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.000 large city like San Francisco. So they really wanted to 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.600 try to keep an eye out and prevent such a problem, 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.480 and when the troops that were stationed at the Presidio 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.640 were sent east to fight, it really left the people 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.680 of San Francisco a little bit uneasy and they were 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.159 fearful without protection. An a volunteer group known as the 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.160 Home Guard was founded that consisted of three thousand men, 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.760 and it sort of served as a makeshift military force. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.720 The Home Guard and the Union Committee of thirty four 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.800 actually disbanded though, when Leland Stanford was elected California governor. 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.920 Stanford was a pro Union Republican who was very well respected, successful, 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.120 and powerful, so the concerns of some sort of pro 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.280 Confederacy uprising that had led to the formation of those 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:32.040 two groups were pretty diminished under his leadership. Strauss and 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.920 his California business continued to do well through all of this, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.520 and the prosperity of California's merchants helped keep the country 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.480 afloat through the Civil War. Strauss had recognized the value 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.359 of real estate fairly early on and had invested in 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.520 a number of properties throughout the city, which he often 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:51.879 sold as a prophet after holding them for some time. 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.639 Levi Strauss and Company also moved into a new space 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.040 that he purchased in eighteen sixty seven, so was a 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.399 four story building on Battery Stree that clearly showed the 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.879 company's success. The company was known for its excellent and 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.119 speedy service and the ability of its employees to satisfy 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.760 client needs with even the largest orders. Yeah, there was 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.320 a write up where they actually used the word empowered 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:21.000 to describe the salespeople and clerks at Levi Strauss as 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.960 being able, like they were empowered to meet the needs 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.159 and agree to deals with clients, which is sort of 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.800 a weird word to be using in the eighteen sixties, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.720 but there it was. Unfortunately, the late eighteen sixties also 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.119 came with family loss, as Levi's half sister Mary died 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.520 in eighteen sixty six and his mother, Rebecca passed three 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.199 years later. After Rebecca's death, Levi traveled back to New 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.399 York and he stayed there for a month, presumably to 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.160 help settle accounts and get her affairs in order. There 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.520 was also an embezzlement scandal at Levi, Strauss and Company 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.040 in October of eighteen sixty six, when news broke that 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.120 a bookkeeper had taken five hundred thousand dollars and left 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.640 the country. While the company, not wanting to scare away 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.919 business partners, said that there was no money missing, it 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.560 also made a statement in an advertisement that the man 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.240 in question, G. S. Goodman, was no longer with the 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.800 company it was not authorized to conduct business on behalf 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:18.600 of Levi Strauss and Company. This mix of messages seemed 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.159 to blow over. While mister Goodman never saw any retribution 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.760 of the fact that he had taken money from his employer, 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.000 quite a lot of money from his employer, neither the 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.640 company nor Levi Strauss personally seemed to suffer any negative 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.720 fallout from it. Either. Yeah, that's one of those stories 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:39.160 where it's like they completely claimed that it had not happened, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.520 so there is no record of it happening. But then 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.240 the fact that they're also like, but also if you 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:44.800 talk to that guy, he doesn't work for us anymore. 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.840 You know, it does seem like it's a little bit 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:51.600 of a weird combination of things to put out in 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.399 the press. The company continued explosive growth right into the 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.920 eighteen seventies, as Levi, who obviously had an impressive business instinct, 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.600 realized that he needed to expand into international markets. At 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:07.639 that point, his business had expanded to supply merchants all 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:11.520 along the Western Seaboard and into Oregon and Montana, but 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.080 he was also expanding farther into the American Southwest, and 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:18.720 then he started to reach out to potential clients in Canada, Mexico, 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:22.199 and Hawaii. Coming up, we're going to dive into the 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.440 thing that the Levi Strauss name is most closely associated 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.840