Bank of Daniel Meyer

The Bank of Daniel Meyer, a private bank, was founded in 1857 by German Jewish immigrant brothers Daniel and Jonas Meyer. The brothers arrived in California separately during the gold rush period in 1851-1852, having been tobacco merchants in the East Coast, USA. The Federal Government put an embargo on trade with the Confederacy during the American Civil War, which made the brothers' inventory of tobacco in San Francisco, CA quite valuable. They turned this inventory into a large profit from which they starting their banking operation (same reference as above).

Two additional brothers Mathias Meyer and Moritz Meyer eventually joined the banking business, though the company remained in Daniel Meyer's name only.

The Bank of Daniel Meyer was located at 212-214 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA. Two historically important and notable loans made by the bank include: (1) Important support to fellow German Jewish immigrant Mr. August Schilling: founder of the Schilling spice company, which operated out of San Francisco, California, from 1881, until 1947, when it was sold to McCormick Co., Inc., another large spice production firm. (2) Bank of Daniel Meyer is credited with having provided a very large loan at 9% interest to the City of Bakersfield, CA, after the downtown area of wooden buildings was destroyed in the big 1889 fire. Insurance paid off only a fraction of the amount needed to rebuild the town at the time, and other banks and insurance companies refused to provide the remaining needed funds. The townspeople of Bakersfield approached Bank of Daniel Meyer to request additional funding for the rebuild.

Bank of Daniel Meyer focused mainly on agriculture and mining operations in Nevada and California, financing much of California's grain export which was at the time the principal source of income for the state. The bank furnished funds for development of lead and mercury mining properties, with a focus on the Reno, Nevada and Virginia City, Nevada areas, establishing a bank at Reno, Nevada in 1887 with capitalization of $300,000.

Daniel Meyer was voted in as the first Treasurer of the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange (later to become the Pacific Stock Exchange).

The bank was dissolved soon after Daniel Meyer's death in 1911, at which time the Daniel Meyer estate was valued at more than $4,000,000: a very large sum in the early 20th century. The estate was distributed after paying an inheritance tax of $238,718. This was the largest such tax ever paid in the State of California up to that date.

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