Simon Koshland

Simon Koshland was born to a German Jewish family in Ichenhausen, Bavaria in 1825. In 1850, he immigrated to Sacramento via Panama with his older brother where they opened a general merchandise store. In 1862, he moved to San Francisco after his store was burned down in a flood where he and his brother opened a wool house named Koshland Brothers. The company eventually morphed into Koshland & Sons and became the leading wool house in America. Koshland retired in the 1890s; his sons and sons-in-law continued the family business.

Koshland was married Rosina Franenthal of Philadelphia; they had 8 children: Isidore Koshland; Joseph Koshland (1854-1940); Marcus Simon Koshland (1858-1930); Henrietta Koshland Sinsheimer (born 1860); Caroline Koshland Greenebaum (1863-1946); Frances Koshland Haas (1865-1949); Montefiore T. Koshland (born 1868); Abraham Koshland (1869-1944); and Jesse Koshland (1871-1966). He was a member of Ohabai Shalome Congregation; and later Temple Emanu-El. He died in 1896. His daughter Frances married Abraham Haas and his son Marcus married Eleanor Haas, the daughter of Abraham Haas.