Kalman Haas (1847–1920) was an American businessman, co-founder of the Haas Brothers and member of the Haas family.

Biography

Haas was born to a

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family in Reckendorf, Bavaria, one of nine children including brothers Charles A. (b. 1825) and Samuel (b. 1827), and sisters Flora, Johanna, Sophia, Babete, Lena, and Anna. He immigrated to New York at the age of 15 with his brothers where they peddled notions saving money to travel West. The brothers first worked as miners and seeing that there was more money in retailing began to sell goods to miners. In 1854, he moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

where he founded a grocery store. (His cousin, Abraham Haas, co-founder of the ''Hellman, Haas and Company'' – which became

Smart & Final Smart & Final is a chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores based in Commerce, California, which developed through a series of mergers and expansions. The oldest of the combined companies, Hellman, Haas & Co., was founded in 1871 in Lo ...

– began his career at the firm). In 1868, he moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and co-founded ''Loupe & Haas'' with his brother Charles and Leopold Loupe. In 1875, Loupe retired and their cousin William Haas (1849–1916) joined the firm which was renamed ''Haas Brothers''. In 1875, there was a banking crisis in California due to a collapse in mining revenues and numerous banks closed including the

Bank of California The Bank of California was opened in San Francisco, California, on July 4, 1864, by William Chapman Ralston and Darius Ogden Mills. It was the first commercial bank in the Western United States, and considered instrumental in developing the Amer ...

and

Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles Farmers and Merchants Bank (F&M) was a lending institution (1871−1952) based in Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is recognized both for its architecture and its pivotal role in the economic development of early Los Angeles. Other, non-relat ...

(founded by fellow Reckendorf-native Isaias W. Hellman whose brother, Herman W. Hellman was a partner with Kalman's cousin Abraham in ''Hellman, Haas and Company''). As ''Haas Brothers'' was financially strong and the Hellman and Haas families were intertwined, Kalman announced that Farmers and Merchants Bank depositors could either redeem or transfer their accounts to ''Haas Brothers'' stores. The panic subsided and Kalman is widely credited with calming a moment that could have been disastrous; and both the Hellman and Haas families reaped the benefits of their efforts once the economy was restored. In 1886, he moved to New York where he served as the company's purchasing agent leaving the day-to-day operations to his cousin William as president and sons-in-law Leopold Klau and Carl Klau. Haas served as a director of the Mutual Alliance Trust Company. ''Haas Brothers'' exists today as one of the largest liquor distributors on the West Coast.

Personal life

In 1882, Haas married Harriet Fatman; they had three children: George Charles Haas, Edith Joan Haas Elser, and Robert Kalman Haas Sr. (director of

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and co-founder of the

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). Haas died in 1920. His granddaughter was aviator Betty Haas Pfister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Kalman 1840s births 1920 deaths American company founders American people of German-Jewish descent Bavarian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from California Businesspeople from Oregon Haas family Jews from Oregon People from Reckendorf