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Louis Rose Society
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Honoree
Louis Rose
Honored by: Donald & Nancy Harrison, San
Diego, California, July 6,
2005
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about
Louis Rose
Having written a biography of Louis Rose, I find it
difficult to summarize his life in just a few paragraphs. However,
here are some high points: He was born in 1807 in Neuhaus-an-der-Oste,
Hanover—today part of Germany. He immigrated in 1840 to New Orleans and
came to San Diego by wagon train in 1850 in the company of Judge James W.
Robinson, a former acting provisional governor of Texas.
In Old Town San Diego, he opened the Commercial House hotel, a saloon, and a
butcher shop, and quietly amassed his land holdings. In 1852, along with
Robinson and William Ferrell, he was elected to the City Board of Trustees. The
trustees paid off San Diego's mounting debts by selling land at public
auction. In 1853, as part of his duties as a trustee, he became a member
of the first County Board of Supervisors. During his career he also served
on the county grand jury and the school board and as Old Town's
postmaster. He also was a founder of San Diego Lodge No. 35, Free and
Accepted Masons.
Besides in Old Town, Rose focused his own land purchases in La Cañada de las
Lleguas and along San Diego Bay. In the former, he started the area's
first tannery at what first became known as Rose's Ranch, and later Rose
Canyon—property running today along both sides of Interstate 5 from
approximately Balboa Avenue to Gilman.
Rose brought a nephew, Nisan Alexander, from New Orleans to run the tannery, but
Alexander's untimely death discouraged Rose, who turned his attention to copper
mining in the Vista area and utilizing kelp growing off Pt. Loma to stuff
mattresses. Neither venture was successful, and Rose had to surrender his
mortgaged Rose Canyon property and other holdings to Lorenzo Soto to pay
off his debts in 1861.
After the Civil War was over, Rose had recovered enough financially to begin the development of Roseville, a townsite on San Diego Bay. He purchased a key piece of land from Sarah Robinson, widow of his old friend James in 1867. The purchase also included the Robinson's two-story home on Old Town Plaza, today known as the Robinson-Rose House. In 1869, Rose laid out Roseville, which today is part of Point Loma. The street known today as Rosecrans Street—after Civil War General William Rosecrans—was called "Main Street." Today's "Avenida de Portugal" was Rose's First Street; today's "Dumas Street" was Rose's Thirtieth Street. Depending on the curvature of the Bay shore, there were four streets on the bay side of Main Street, and four streets climbing the hills of Pt. Loma. Rose divided his blocks into 12 lots apiece.
Although he helped stimulate interest in
moving the city from Old Town to San Diego Bay, Rose's settlement was
overshadowed by that laid out by Alonzo Horton, who was far better financed and
more single-minded. Although he was 62 years old, Rose was married in 1869
to Matilda Newman, 33, who had been widowed when merchant Jacob Newman
died. The Roses' first daughter, Helene, died in infancy; the second
daughter, Henrietta, a school
teacher, never married, so when she died in 1957, so did Rose's line.
Although Rose, Horton and the Kimball Brothers, who laid out National City along
the Southern portion of the Bay, were rivals, they cooperated in their attempts
to lure a railroad to San Diego to link it with the Bay. Along with
numerous other San Diegans, these city builders were frustrated during
Rose's latter life by the railroads' preference for Los Angeles, notwithstanding
the obvious advantages of San Diego's Bay as a cargo port. Their dream to
make San Diego the terminus of a transcontinental railroad never were
realized.
Rose made and lost several fortunes during his lifetime, but he never lost faith
in San Diego. His famous quote about the prospects of his adopted city
was, "Just wait awhile and you will see."
In 2004, cities across the nation observed the 350th
anniversary of Jewish settlement in North America. San Diego marked the
occasion by officially naming a spot where Roseville touched the water as
"Louis Rose Point." It is on the boat channel at the foot of
Womble Street, and it is here where the Louis Rose Society plans to build a
monument to our city's first Jewish settler.
To contribute to the fund, please write a check in any amount to the Jewish
Community Foundation, 4950 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123. On the
memo line, please note that the check is for the "Louis Rose Fund."
Contributions of $36 or more confer automatic membership in the Louis Rose
Society, and the right to honor another Jewish San Diegan on this website.
—Donald H. Harrison, author, Louis Rose: San Diego's First
Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur.