Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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

H. W. HELLMAN, 
 
the senior partner in the extensive wholesale grocery house of Hellman, Haas & 
Co., is not only one of the oldest but one of the most prominent business men of 
this section of the State, his active business career in Los Angeles County 
dating from 1859, when he began as a clerk in the forwarding and commission 
house of General P. Banning, in Wilmington. Resigning his position there in 
1861, Mr. Hellman engaged up to 1870 in the fancy-goods and stationery business, 
then closed out and spent a year in Europe. On his return to California he 
formed a partnership with Jacob Haas and opened a wholesale grocery store. 
Subsequently Abram Haas and Jacob Baruch became members of the firm. Under a 
judicious, independent management the career of the house has been one of 
continued growth and uninterrupted prosperity, until it now holds a commanding 
position in the business realm of Southern California. Their store and office 
occupy the two-story and basement brick building, comprising Nos. 209 to 212 
North  Los Angeles street, each floor being 60x180 feet in area. The firm 
carries a very large stock of everything in the line of staple and fancy 
groceries, tobaccos and cigars, drugs and liquors. They are among the grocery 
houses one of the largest importers of teas on the Pacific Coast, and are the 
sole agents for Southern California for the celebrated Blue Point oysters, 
Highland corn, Imperial pure spices, and Strattan & Strong's brands of cigars. 
Forty men are employed to transact the business of the establishment, which 
extends over Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and as far as El Paso, 
Texas. Over $500,000 capital is invested, and the sales amount to millions of 
dollars a year. Mr. Hellman is a native of Southern Germany, and was born in 
1843. At fifteen years of age he came to America, and his entire active business 
life has been passed in Los Angeles County.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 506
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler