KAHN OVERVIEW
The broad reach of the interrelated Kahn family in Leadville was extensive. Early records in the United States indicate that the Kahns enjoyed a prosperous status prior to their immigration to the US They did not share separate households or resources before coming to the US, nor do they exist in any US census records prior to 1870. [1] This gap in census data records between the United States and Germany strongly suggests that they arrived in the United States during the late 1850s [2] and the early 1860s, [3] based on other public records.
Ancestry tree chart for the Kahn Family. [4]
Jeffrey P. Grant. Lineage Chart for the Leadville Kahn Family. Leadville, Colorado: Temple Israel Foundation. 2021.
It is relatively certain that Isaac (B. Hessen, Germany, 1836), [5] Aaron (B. Hessen, Germany, 1845), [6] Henrietta (B. Hessen, Germany, 1833) and Marx Kahn (B. Hessen, Germany, 1831), [7] are all the children of Moses and Helena Kahn, [8] who would later migrate to Whiteside, Illinois around 1859. [9] This is where the American story of the Kahn family begins. [10] The pre-1860 arrival of the Moses and Helena family also subjected their sons, Aaron, Marx, Isaac and their brother Samuel (who did not reside in Leadville), to be drafted during the United States Civil War, with all four men registering in June of 1863, [11] although it is unclear whether any of the brothers, with the exception of Aaron, ever saw combat. [12]
The Jacob M. Kahn [13] household, which had close attachments to Moses and Helena’s sons — born in Hessen, Germany, migrated to the United States, and then continued on to Leadville at roughly the same time — never appeared in records for the same households. [14] Jacob Max (B. Hessen, Germany, 1848) and Julius Kahn (B. Hessen Germany, 1839), [15] are brothers, and the sons of Max and Caroline Kahn, [16] who also immigrated to the Midwestern U.S. around 1860. [17] Records also indicate that Moses and Max Kahn were brothers, making Jacob Max and Julius the nephews of Moses and Helena Kahn, [18] who would settle in Illinois and have regional ties that spawned a confluence of these relatives in Leadville during the same period of time. This leaves two additional Jacob Kahns of the same generation, and first cousins: Jacob H. (B. Illinois, 1869) who is the son of Isaac; and Jacob A., or “Jake” as he was most commonly called (B. Illinois, 1872), who was the son of Isaac’s brother, Marx Kahn. After residing in Leadville, most of the Kahns ended their life journeys in the same cities, such as Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. This makes all but one of the Leadville Kahn households descended from either of the two brothers, Moses or Max Kahn of Hessen, Germany. Data on the sixth and seventh Kahn households in Leadville, those of Joseph and Richard Kahn, is inconclusive. Joseph is likely connected to the family through either the Baer or Kahn households, or possibly both.
Clementine Raabe-Davies-Raabe (front) and her daughter, Lillian Davies, circa 1930. [33]
Kim Schmucker. Clementine Kahn Raabe and Lillian Davies. [Digital Image] Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com. 2021.
The Kahns are a “keystone” family, meaning that they are interconnected to many of the families who are critical to the history of Jewish Leadville. May and Hattie Kahn would marry into the prestigious Baer family. [19] Dr. Sol Kahn, named after Fanny Guthman Kahn’s brother Solomon A. Guthman, [20] also resided in Leadville from 1895 until 1899. [21] Dr. Sol Kahn would marry Lilie Rose, the daughter of a successful attorney and real estate broker in Denver and Leadville that connected him by marriage to the Barnett, [22] Heimberger, [23] and Altman [24] families. Hermina and Fanny Guthman, [25] Gertrude Berryman, [26] and Rosa May [27] all married Kahn men. Clementina Kahn, sister of Julius [28] and Jacob Max Kahn, [29] would marry Leadville confectioner Julius Raabe [30] before expatriating from Germany. She would later become romantically involved, marry, and have children with Temple Israel Cantor Ben Davies [31] in one of the congregation’s most public scandals on record. [32]
The Kahn family personifies the evolution of Jewish pioneer life in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries: a generation of migrants following the country’s westward expansion as merchants, peddlers and speculators. Their success set the foundation for the emergence of second-generation Jewish American professionals. Their parents began to prosper in their new country and soon afforded their children a secondary education. Of the first Kahns born in the U.S., Lee and Maurice, sons of grocer Isaac, and Solomon, son of grocer Marx, became prominent Leadville physicians after graduating prestigious East Coast universities. It also appears that most of the first generation of Kahns born in the U.S. at least had an opportunity to attend college and earn a degree. Some of the Kahns chose this path while others did not.
[See the rest of the footnotes on the other respective pages or a complete list with the bibliography.]
1 Year: 1870; Census Place: Mount Pleasant, Whiteside, Illinois; Roll: M593_290; Page: 203A; Family History Library Film: 545789
2 1900 United States Federal Census Year: 1900; Census Place: Leadville, Lake, Colorado; Page: 24; Enumeration District: 0049; FHL microfilm: 1240125.
3 Year: 1870; Census Place: Evansville Ward 1, Vanderburgh, Indiana; Roll: M593_364; Page: 141A; Family History Library Film: 545863
4 Jeffrey P. Grant. Lineage Chart for the Leadville Kahn Family. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2021.
5 Illinois, Cook County Deaths 1878–1922. [Index]. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health. “Birth and Death Records, 1916–present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.
6 Year: 1880; Census Place: Leadville, Lake, Colorado; Roll: 91; Page: 413C; Enumeration District: 080
7 Year: 1870; Census Place: Mount Pleasant, Whiteside, Illinois; Roll: M593_290; Page: 203A; Family History Library Film: 545789
8 Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data - Illinois, Cook County Deaths 1878–1922. Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health. “Birth and Death Records, 1916–present.
9 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Soundex Index to Naturalization Petitions for the United States District and Circuit Courts. Northern District of Illinois and Immigration and Naturalization Service District 9, 1840-1900.
10 Year: 1910; Census Place: Salt Lake City Ward 5, Salt Lake, Utah; Roll: T624_1607; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0141; FHL microfilm: 1375620.
11 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshall.
12 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); NAI: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 7 of 7.
13 JewishGen, comp. JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
14 Year: 1870; Census Place: Mount Pleasant, Whiteside, Illinois; Roll: M593_290; Page: 203A; Family History Library Film: 545789.
15 JewishGen, comp. JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
16 Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982. Austin Texas, USA: Texas Department of State Health Services.
17 1900 United States Federal Census. Year: 1900; Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126.
18 Year: 1870; Census Place: Mount Pleasant, Whiteside, Illinois; Roll: M593_290; Page: 203A; Family History Library Film: 545789.
19 Jeffrey P. Grant. Baer. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2019.
20 For more information on Solomon Guthman and his family, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/guthman.html
21 Trevor Mark. Guthman. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2018.
22 William Korn. Barnett. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2013.
23 Janice L. Fox. Heimberger. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2019.
24 William Korn. Altman. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2012.
25 Trevor Mark. Guthman. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2018.
26 Jeffrey P. Grant. Berryman. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2019.
27 Trevor Mark. May. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2018.
28 The Raabe Affair. Leadville, CO: The Leadville Daily Evening Chronicle. August 18, 1890. P4.
29 The Husband Returns. Leadville, CO: The Leadville Daily Evening Chronicle. August 25, 1890. P6.
30 For more information on Julius and Clementine Kahn Raabe and their family, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/raabe.html
31 For more information on Ben and Clementine Kahn Raabe Davies and their family, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/davies.html
32 For more information on the Raabe-Davies Affair, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/raabedaviesraabeaffair.html
33 Kim Schmucker. Clementine Kahn Raabe and Lillian Davies. [Digital Image] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com. 2021.
[See the rest of the footnotes on the other respective pages or a complete list with the bibliography.]
Bibliography
To cite any of the information in this biography, please use the following reference.
AUTHORS: Matt Hulstine, Trevor Mark, Jeffrey P. Grant
CONTRIBUTORS: Janice Fox
EDITOR: William Korn and Andrea Jacobs
SOURCE: Jewish Surnames/Kahn
PUBLISHED BY: Temple Israel Foundation. Leadville, CO; USA. 2022.
STABLE URL: http://www.jewishledville.org/kahn.html
