San Diego County Biographies
 
M. GERMAN

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


the leading jeweler of San Diego, who occupies spacious sale‑rooms at 845 Fifth 
street, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 24, 1855, of Scotch-French and 
German parentage. His maternal ancestors are the famous Mullenburgs of 
Philadelphia and Astors of New York.  His father was a commission merchant, 
dealing mainly in grain. In 1860 they moved to Freeport, Illinois, carrying on 
the same business. The subject of this sketch there attended the common schools, 
and later learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. From 1875 to 1880 he 
traveled through the Territories, prospecting and mining, settling at El Paso in 
1880, and opened a first-class jewelry store, which he continued for two years, 
and then returned to the Territories and lost heavily in mining speculations.
        In June, 1885, he was married at Las Vegas, to Miss Grace N. Bruce, a 
native of Cumberland, Maryland, and a lineal descendant of Robert Bruce. Her 
maternal grandfather, Colonel Daniel C. Cresap, was of Revolutionary fame, and 
her father, Henry Bruce, a prominent lawyer of Maryland. Her father and his 
brother-in-law, William Price, were appointed by the Legislature to draft the 
code of Maryland, which was adopted. Her cousin, Francis S. Key, was the author 
of the celebrated poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
        Mr. German arrived in San Diego in the fall of 1885, immediately opened 
a small jewelry store, enlarging as circumstances demanded, and during the three 
years of the boom his business averaged $100,000 each year.  He does both a 
wholesale and retail business, and sells to dealers as reasonably as they can 
buy in Eastern markets. He carries a large stock of jewelry and diamonds, has a 
manufacturing establishment and employs sixteen men in the business. He also has 
an art department, carrying bronze pictures and a fine class of artistic wares, 
also plated and silver ware,�in fact, everything pertaining to the wrought gold 
and silver department, with skilled workmen to attend to manufacturing and 
repairing.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  124