Tulare County Biographies

J. Manasse

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, February, 2007

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	J. Manasse, one of the pioneer merchants of Hanford, Tulare 
County, California, was born in Germany in 1853. At the age of sixteen years he 
emigrated to the United States and came direct to California. He located at 
Snelling, the old county seat of Merced County, and entered the employ of Simon, 
Jacobs, & Company as clerk in their general merchandise store, remaining there 
until 1874. He then represented the firm in their small branch store at Grand 
View, a little village on the Southern Pacific Railroad north of the present 
town of Traver. At the auction sale of town lots at Hanford, in February, 1877, 
Mr. Manasse was present and purchased a lot on Sixth street, between Douty and 
Harris Streets. He then returned to Grand View, sawed his little store into 
sections and moved store and contents to Hanford, and thus established  one of 
the pioneer stores of the town. Business was conducted in the name of Simon, 
Jacobs & Co. until 1885, when the firm was succeeded by Manasse & Weisbaum, 
continuing very successfully until 1888, when the store building and contents 
were wiped out of existence by a destructive fire, and in the settlement of 
affairs the firm dissolved. In 1889 the firm of Simon, Manasse & Co. was 
organized, and resumed the general merchandise business in a store at the corner 
of Sixth and Douty Streets. Trade becoming so extended and greater facilities 
being needed, in the spring of 1891 they built their present handsome store, 50 
x 150 feet, with basement same size, to which they moved in May of the same 
year. With enlarged stock and increased facilities, they control an extended 
trade through the valley, also operating a branch store at Coalinga in the 
foothills of the Coast Range. Mr. Manasse was married at Hanford in 1880, to 
Miss Lilly Weisbaum, a native daughter of California. They are the parents of 
two children: Arthur and Reta. In 1877 Mr. Manasse was appointed the first 
Postmaster of Hanford, and held the position acceptably both to the Government 
and the people of Hanford for a period of five years, after which he resigned to 
attend to his increasing business interests. By a special election held August 
8, 1891, the town of Hanford was incorporated as a city, and Mr. Manasse was 
chosen to serve as one of the councilmen. He is a member of the A.O.U.W. of 
Hanford and of the B. B. Society of Merced.
 
Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, 
Tulare, and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, p. 384.