San Diego County Biographies
 
L. MENDELSON

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

 
was born at Zagorow, Province of Warsaw, Russian Poland, November, 1840. He was 
a descendant of the old Castilian Hebrews, and his grandmother still spoke the 
Spanish language. While at home he attended the public schools, learning Polish, 
Russian and German. He then spent two years studying in Germany, and there 
learned English, which he considers the most difficult of all languages. His 
father was a merchant, and the son's inclinations were turned in the same 
direction. In 1857 he went to London, England, and there entered the general 
merchandise store of Moses & Son, where were employed 2,000 clerks, remaining 
until 1860, when he came to the United States, spending one year near New York. 
He then went to St. Louis in 1861, and President Lincoln then calling for 60,000 
ninety-day men to meet the Southern insurgents, though foreign to the country, 
Mr. Mendelson at once took up arms for the land of his adoption, and enlisted 
May 8, 1861, in Company M of the Fourth Missouri Regiment, United States 
Reserve, Colonel B. Gratz Brown, under General Siegel, and was at the taking of 
Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. He was discharged in the city of St. Louis, 
August, 1861, and then went to Kentucky, remaining until the capture of Memphis, 
when he immediately went to that city and entered into the business of general 
merchandise.
        In 1863 he sold his interest and embarked for California by the Isthmus 
of Panama, arriving in San Francisco in October of the same year. After a short 
business career, he accepted a position as clerk, remaining until 1866, when he 
went to Anaheim, Los Angeles County, and there started a lumber business, which 
he continued about four years. Then going to Real del Castillo, Lower 
California, he opened a general merchandise store, selling out in 1886, when he 
was elected by the people to the position of Sindico, and as such immediately 
took the position of Representante del Ministerio (Prosecuting Attorney), 
holding the position until July 1, 1888. In 1887 he received also a position 
from the International Company, and in July, 1888, became general agent of the 
said company, and now holds a position under contract as steamship freight agent 
for the same company, both in San Diego and Ensenada, and to make out all 
consular and custom-house papers, and to pass steamers through the custom�house.
        In 1885 he was married to Miss Carmen Lamadrid, of Spanish descent, 
though a native of California. The family of Lamadrid still resides in Lower 
California, where they have a large stock ranch at Las Cruces. Mr. and Mrs. 
Mendelson have two children, both living.
 
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.-  154