Republished from our newsletter, Atsmi Uvsari, Issue 19, Summer 2008, written by Rochelle Kaplan.
Early Ogden Jews
Ogden lies between Corinne and Salt Lake City. On the 1870 Ogden Census, we find Fred J. Kiesel, merchant, worth $5000, from Wurtenburg, who in 1889 was elected mayor of Ogden, Prussian-born D. Levy, merchant worth $1000, Prussian-born Samuel Auerbach, merchant worth $2000, William Cohen, worth $1800, from Prussia, and his large family: Vina, his German-born wife, and five children born in California, Montana, and Utah. Also enumerated are Prussian-born J. Plonsky, merchant worth $2000, and his family, D. Mendelsohn and Julius Mendelsohn, merchants each worth $1200, Lewis Gross, Jacob Levi, and H. Cohn, salesmen born in Russia, and F. Auerbach, and J. Auerbach, Prussian-born merchants each worth $2000. The 1867 Pacific Coast Directory list Auerbach & Bro., general merchants, Cohn & Co., and Cohn & Munter, dry and fancy goods merchants, all of Great Salt Lake City. Ogden also was home to Ad and Abraham Kahn, brothers listed as A.K. & Bro. in the 1890 Utah Directory.
Abe Kuhn, on his ninetieth birthday, recounted some of his adventures for a June 1927 article in the Ogden Standard Examiner. At ninety, he still worked at the Kuhn building on Washington Avenue, purchasing hides in the winter and selling them the other seasons. Born in Bavaria, he came to New Orleans at fifteen and finally settled in Ogden in 1865 after sixteen years out west. He recalled hearing of the gold fields in Colorado and headed west with his brother Adam, rigging up a wagon and supplies. In the 1860s, he operated two mercantile stores in Denver. They would buy gold dust in Montana and later sell it in Denver. The article notes, “Loaded with the precious dust, the two brothers, after months in Montana, took stage to Denver, acting the part of penniless travelers to avert any suspicion of their riches. More than once they went without food and begged 50 cents of fellow travelers for victuals. They paid the highest price for dust in Montana, $17.75 an ounce, and sold it for $40 an ounce in Denver.”
The Kuhn brothers were cousins of the Kuhns of Kuhn-Loeb bankers in New York City. Fred Kiesel donated land for an Ogden school and a public park in Idaho.
Brith Sholem Congregation was organized in Ogden in 1890; articles before then in the Ogden newspapers announce Jewish High Holy Day services. The synagogue dates to 1916 and is Utah’s oldest continuously operating synagogue, although the congregation lacks a rabbi. Congregants lead the services.
