Alameda County Biographies

ABRAHAM JONAS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 

	This history presents the record of no other citizen more thoroughly imbued with the 
spirit of public progress than Abraham Jonas. He has ever been a man of fair judgment, 
broadminded and sagacious, and in working for the public welfare he has looked beyond the 
exigencies of the moment to the possibilities and opportunities of the future. Oakland numbers 
him among its representative, useful and worthy citizens, to whose initiative spirit the city 
owes the establishment of one of its best known men's clothing and furnishing stores, the 
development of which has resulted directly from his resolute energy and unremitting industry, 
whereby the establishment has advanced from an humble beginning to its present large 
proportions. For almost thirty-five years he remained active in its management and only recently 
retired from its presidency and from active mercantile life, having won rest and leisure, which 
he now enjoys and which enables him to direct his energies into fields of public activity 
relative to the further growth and development of Oakland. He finds broad scope for his labors 
in his present position as president of the Chamber of Commerce.
	Mr. Jonas was born in Germany in 1855 and supplemented his public-school education by a 
commercial course, after which he sailed for America in 1875, with Oakland as his destination. 
He accepted a minor position in a clothing house, but his energy and ambition�his dominant 
qualities�brought him to the front and after two years' residence here he founded what is now the 
Hub Clothing Company, beginning business in a little store on Broadway, between Sixth and Seventh 
streets. The enterprise was established in a modest way, but during the thirty-six years of its 
existence its growth has been of a steady and healthful character. The business was in due time 
incorporated and at different periods when he felt that his trade would warrant Mr. Jonas removed 
to larger quarters, ultimately occupying one of the finest and most modern, business structures of 
the city at 1103 Broadway. As his sons Milton and Irving reached an age whereby they were qualified 
to take up onerous business duties and responsibilities they were admitted to partnership and the 
business was incorporated with Mr. Jonas as president, his elder son, Irving, as secretary and 
manager, and the younger son as vice president and assistant manager. These positions they still 
hold, although they have entire charge of the business, their father having recently retired from 
active participation therein. The store was established on sound, conservative business principles, 
to which close adherence has been maintained throughout the intervening years, and the result of 
this policy is seen today in the company's prosperity.
	Mr. Jonas is one of the leading figures in the affairs of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, 
in which he has served for several years as a member of the board of directors and as chairman of 
its finance committee. In the latter position he gave demonstration of his ability by placing the 
affairs of the chamber on a firm financial and business basis. His fellow members, recognizing his 
valuable services, elected him president, which position he now occupies. At the time of his 
induction into office a local paper spoke of him as follows :
	"To the work which President Jonas takes up he brings special qualifications. He has served 
successfully as president of the Merchants' Exchange, has held high station upon all occasions of 
ceremony and big commercial endeavor in the city's latter years. He has been a student of the city's 
conditions and her needs. He is possessed of masterful executive ability, is self-reliant, courageous 
and alert. The plans which he speaks of for the Oakland forward movement will be carried out by him 
to the letter.
	"Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce is an institution of established reputation. It is nation-
wide in its acquaintanceship and influence. It has priority of claim to favor by reason of 
accomplishment already wrought. It stands today in the forefront of all matters related to Oakland's 
vital interests; has in hand vast schemes for local advancement and deep-laid plans for yet further 
achievement.
	"The Oakland Chamber of Commerce is non-political and entirely free from danger of being made 
use of to further the low ambition of individual exploiters. It is free and untrammeled in its 
commercial and industrial policy and beyond the reach of selfish combinations. It stands for the 
city's dignity, and wealth, and industry, and power.
	"President Jonas takes the helm of the Chamber of Commerce at a moment fraught with portentous 
consequence to the welfare of Oakland. The immediate opening of the Panama canal, the construction of 
the Oakland harbor upon the Rees plans, the extension of the transportation facilities and 
centralization of terminals, the conquest of trade at home and abroad�the establishment of Oakland as 
the port of the Pacific�all these are possibilities and coming events of the highest importance. Upon 
the proper placing of this city in the rapidly approaching new situation depends its destiny for all 
time. If it is placed forward where it belongs it will outrun all other cities of the coast within ten 
years from the passage of the first commercial ship through the isthmus."
	Mr. Jonas was for many years a director of the Merchants' Exchange and in 1905 was elected its 
president, about which time the tunnel road was built. He took an active part in that movement, which 
connected Contra Costa and Alameda counties and which is the largest wagon road tunnel in the world. 
Mr. Jonas makes these connections with the different organizations mentioned the avenues by which he 
accomplishes important work of civic service, for he is at all times interested in the growth and 
welfare of Oakland and is untiring in his efforts to promote the city's advancement. For a number of 
years he has been a strong advocate of the consolidation of the city and county governments, has been 
chairman of the commission and has done everything in his power to bring this about as a means toward 
securing a "Greater Oakland." He has made a careful study of European and American conditions in city 
building and business development and believes in the concentration of power. So earnestly and 
steadfastly has he worked for such a consummation that he is often called "The Father of Consolidation." 
He hopes to live to see the consummation of the plan, which from the recent changes in the law may soon 
be realized.
	A man of wide charity, Mr. Jonas has of late years devoted much time to philanthropic work and 
during the San Francisco fire of 1906 he was vice president of the executive committee which had charge 
of the relief work and gave much of time and money to the cause. He is keenly alert to all measures for 
the relief of the worthy poor and in charities takes an active part. For years he has been a director in 
the Non-Sectarian Associated Charities. He is treasurer and a director of the Associated Charities and 
was appointed by Mayor Mott one of the five commissioners of the municipal wood yard, the purpose of 
which is the relief of the unemployed. 
	Mr. Jonas has extensive and important fraternal relations, being a member of the Masons, the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is past grand president of the 
Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, for the last fifteen years has been a supreme representative of the 
order and is the president of the synagogue of the First Hebrew congregation. For the last thirty-two 
years he has been a member of the board of directors and also treasurer for years of Oakland. He was the 
incumbent at the time when the old synagogue was built in 1886, and he is now promoting the construction 
of a new synagogue of which the city of Oakland may well be proud and which will soon be dedicated.
	Another important work in which Mr. Jonas has been engaged has been to some degree the assistance 
rendered Rabbi Friedlander in revising the Jewish prayer book, which as revised was afterward approved by 
the conference of American rabbis. This revised prayer book is now in use in the congregation and fills a 
long felt want in the interpreting of the modern spirit of religion.
	In 1881, in Oakland, he was united in marriage with Miss Katie Hartman of this city, and they are 
the parents of four children: Gertrude, wife of Otto Hirschman of New York; Corinne, wife of Morris 
Goldtree of San Francisco; and Irving and Milton, previously mentioned.
	His business career has been actuated by laudable ambition and characterized by unfaltering 
industry, combined with a close adherence to a high standard of business ethics. It would be difficult to 
point out any one characteristic as his most pronounced trait, for his is a most evenly balanced character, 
in which business capacity and power are matched by the recognition of life's purposes and the obligation 
of man to his fellowmen. The importance of the work he has accomplished along commercial, civic and moral 
lines in Oakland cannot be overestimated.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 92