California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

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


HENRY HAGEN.  The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this work, is the son of Philip and 
Katherine Hagen, and a native of Germany, horn at Manheim, June 5, 1836. In the year 1852 he came 
to California, and made San Francisco the seat of his success. After holding for four years different 
positions, for various parties, he began a retail cigar and tobacco business on the south-east corner of 
Fine and Montgomery streets. He then was engaged as assistant by Messrs. Kohler & Fronting, where 
he acquired a thorough knowledge of the wine trade, and gave rise, after leaving that firm, to the 
California Wine Depot, on the north-east corner of Pine and Montgomery streets, which he managed 
with success for a number of years. In partnership with his brother Peter, who died June 11, 1880, he 
bought, in 1877, in Napa County, the Cedar Knoll Vineyard, which contains four hundred and thirty-six 
acres of land, of which one hundred and fifty acres are at present bearing grapes, and each year Mr. 
Hagen enlarges their number by a perceptible extension. Not only the vineyard is of note, but also the 
houses and implements necessary for the conversion of its produce. Of these, the most worthy of 
mention are the wine and fermenting cellars, and also the sherry house. The products of this vineyard 
enjoy a very favorable reputation among the wine-consuming community of this and other counties.