Aaron Fleishhacker

Aaron Fleishhacker (February 4, 1820 – February 19, 1898) was a German-born American businessman who founded paper box manufacturer, A. Fleishhacker & Co.

Biography

Fleishhacker was born in 1820 to a Jewish family in Bavaria, Germany. In 1845, he immigrated to the United States first settling in New Orleans where he opened a retail store and then briefly to New York City before moving to San Francisco in 1853. He moved around the region selling his wares to miners travelling to Sacramento, Grass Valley, Oregon, Virginia City, Nevada and Carson, Nevada. He then returned to San Francisco where founded A. Fleishhacker & Co. with two manufacturing plants, one that made paper and one that made cardboard boxes. The company was nicknamed the "Paper Bag House" and the company became the largest box manufacturer in the West.

Personal life

In 1857, he married Deliah Stern of Albany, New York; they had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood: Carrie Fleishhacker Schwabacher (married to Ludwig Schwabacher), Emma Fleishhacker Rosenbaum (married to S. D. Rosenbaum), Mortimer Fleishhacker (1866-1953), Herbert Fleishhacker (1872-1957), Belle Fleishhacker Scheeline (married to S. C. Scheeline), and Blanche Fleishhacker Wolf (married to Frank Wolf). He died in 1898. He was a founding member of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.