California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ALPHONSE WEILL. The distinction of being the longest-established merchant in 
Bakersfield, Kern county, belongs to Alphonse Weill, who has been engaged in mercantile 
pursuits here for upward of thirty years. Beginning business in a small way, be built up 
a good patronage, and as the demand for his goods increased he, from time to time, en- 
larged both stock and store, and is now carrying on a thriving trade. Since the completion 
of the W r eill block, which he erected on Nineteenth street, between Chester avenue and K 
street, he has occupied the whole of the first floor, devoting one room to hardware, one to 
groceries, and one to dry goods, managing, in fact, a department store. 

Born December 21, 1852, in Alsace-Lorraine, then in France, Alphonse Weill was 
brought up and educated in his native country, and was there employed as a clerk for a short 
time. Immigrating to the United States at the age of eighteen years, he disembarked in 
New York City in June, 1870. Two weeks later he came to California and located first 
in Havilah, then the county seat of Kern county. This section of the state was then 
but sparsely populated, there being no railways in the valley, and but little to invite the 
attention of the new-comer. For a year he engaged in clerking there, and was afterward 
similarly employed in San Francisco for another year. Settling in Bakersfield in Septem- 
ber, 1872, Mr. Weill worked for about a year as a clerk, and then started in business on his 
own account. Putting in a small stock of general merchandise, he devoted his entire at- 
tention and energy to the details of his business, which has grown to a large proportion, 
and is now one of the most extensive and lucrative in this part of the county. A man 
of much enterprise, public-spirited and progressive, Mr. Weill has been the encourager 
and promoter of different beneficial projects, and was one of the original stockholders of the 
Southern hotel and of the Bakersfield water works, although not now a shareholder in 
either. He is one of the principal owners and incorporators of the Jewett Oil Company, 
which has valuable producing oil property in Kern county. In 1889 Mr. Weill sustained a 
great loss by the burning of his first block, which he built in 1887, but he has rebuilt it, 
and now occupies the entire first floor. His residence is pleasantly located at the corner 
of Seventeenth and H streets, and is ever open to his large circle of friends and acquaint- 
ances. 

October 15, 1882, Mr. Weill married Henrietta Levy, of San Francisco, and they have 
four children, namely ^Blanche, who was graduated from the University of California 
in iqoo; Irma, a student in the same institution ; Adele, and Lawrence, attending the 
Bakersfield high school. Politically Mr. Weill is a stanch Republican, but has never been 
an aspirant for official honors. Fraternally he belongs to Bakersfield Lodge, F. & A. M., 
which he joined in 1873 or 1874; to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and to the 
Eagles.