David Strom, "Who Was Louis Rose?" San Diego Jewish Times, Dec. 31, 2004, p. 20:
Louis Rose: San Diego's First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur, by Donald H. Harrison Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, CA, 284 pages, $19.95.
Louis Rose was San Diego's first Jewish settler. He wasn't the first Jew to come to San Diego, but he was the first to make it his permanent home. At the time of his arrival in 1850, he was 43 years old. What had he done prior to reaching San Diego?
Louis Rose was born in Germany in 1807. Under Napoleon's rule, Westphalia, the part of Germany where Rose and his family lived, instituted Napoleonic reforms. "For Jews, none was more important than their emancipation." They didn't need official papers to move and live outside ghetto areas. They would not be restricted as to the professions they could choose. Even after the defeat of Napoleon, the democratic changes remained in force.
In 1840, at the age of 33, Louis Rose, traveling alone, arrived in the Port of New Orleans. There, like so many others in New Orleans' Jewish community, he settled and worked in the jewelry trade. In 1844 Rose was elected as a junior warden, a "position somewhat akin to second vice president" of a Masonic Lodge in New Orleans. (The fact that he was elected to this high office in this newly organized Masonic lodge, told a lot. He was well liked. Rose had been a member of the Masons in Germany). By 1846, just a few days after fulfilling the customary five years residence requirement, Rose became a naturalized citizen. And in 1847, he married.
For the newly married Louis Rose and his wife, Caroline, 1848 was not a great year. Business was bad; debtors were hounding them; money was scarce and business was definitely not "looking up." Rose decided to try his hand in another environment, Texas.
He left his wife with her sister, hoped to return in three months, and wondered if he would be moving to Texas. Instead, he decided, after more than three months in Texas to migrate to California where gold had been discovered.
On Feb. 3, 1849, Rose started his journey westward. Only July 25, for reasons never known to Rose or the other civilians making the journey to San Diego, the following occurred:
"One of our party (a Jew named Rose) was (by order of Major Van Horne) drummed out of camp. He was condemned without a hearing and thus disgracefully punished. A little brief authority in the hands of a damned fool, is ever exercised injudiciously, and therefore (except by accident) always injuriously. The 'Californians' feel the insult, but like good citizens bear it for the sake of their country's good..."
For Rose, the treatment he received from the government soldier was tolerable, but unfair. However, he felt comfortable knowing that the feeling against him was not universal; in fact, the other emigrants felt he had been treated unfairly and they looked after his belongings with care. When the wagon train reached El Paso, Rose decided to stay a few days to recuperate from the arduous journey.
Rose joined another wagon train going to San Diego. There he met James W. Robinson. Eventually Robinson and Rose became close family friends, business associates, land speculators, influential in San Diego's affairs, and lovers of their newly adopted home town, San Diego.
Louis Rose settled into the life of San Diego. He participated in local politics; he opened different businesses (some failed, others succeeded), bought many parcels of land and lost many parcels as well. Rose worked hard trying to make San Diego into a deep ocean port. Along with the help of many others, Rose helped to bring important railroad connections to the growing area.
Rose's personal life was not good. When he finally requested that his wife join him in San Diego, he discovered she had moved in with a man, and they divorced. Rose lived alone for many years, and, in 1869, his personal life improved greatly. He married for a second time. Rose was 29 years older than his new wife. She gave birth to a baby daughter in 1870.
Rose participated in building the Jewish presence in San Diego. He helped organize the first synagogue, and created a Jewish cemetery and burial society.
When Rose settled in San Diego in 1850, there was a national struggle taking place over advancing the cause of slavery in the country. California, like we often hear today, was talking about splitting into two states. One of the issues that forced this debate was the slavery issue. Rose stood against slavery. Eventually, he supported Lincoln's government during the Civil War. Then, like now, San Diego was a politically conservative place to live. Rose was not conservative. He was a feminist. Rose gave land to women in their own names—an almost unheard of idea in those days. Rose was a kind and gentle man, and he was loved by all.
Donald H. Harrison has written a readable and very comprehensive book about Louis Rose. Readers will learn a great deal about early San Diego and its pioneers. They will have a feel for what it was like to travel to a foreign world alone, without knowledge of the language, knowledge of culture, and yet to do more than survive. The book about Louis Rose, a true pioneer, is a must read.
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Dr. David Strom is a professor at San Diego State University. He teaches in the College of Teacher Education where he offers a course on Jewish History and Philosophy of Education.