Kahn Brothers Dry Goods

This history submitted by Virginia France (Kahn family descendant) through Woody Savage.

According to most sources, the Kahn Brothers firm had been in Bolivar since 1844. Like many immigrants, the Kahns migrated as a chain of siblings: Abraham came over first, and Simon joined him in 1840. Henry Kahn, born Hajim Loew Kuhn in 1811 in Nordstetten, Germany, sailed into New York in 1845 with his wife Louise, and his sisters Fanny, Emilie, and Fredora. Each of the three brothers entered the dry goods trade. In 1850, Simon and Henry were living next door to each other in Bolivar, while Abraham was boarding in Somerville.

Simon and Henry worked as partners in Bolivar. We have evidence of their business dealings because when a steamboat sank or blew up, the lost goods are often listed in newspapers. When the steamship Cumberland sank in September 1851, two boxes were enroute to H. and S. Kahn in Bolivar, and 16 packages to A. Kahn in Somerville.

In 1851, Abraham formed a partnership with Fredora’s husband Isaac Wolf to open a wholesale clothing and dry goods store in Louisville, Kentucky. Business increased, and Abraham moved to Philadelphia to expand into manufacturing clothing. The clothes were shipped by canal or, after 1852, by railway to Pittsburgh, and then by steamboat down the Ohio to Louisville (where the Wolfs were based and Kahn and Wolf had a major warehouse) and down the Mississippi to Bolivar, among other places.

In 1853, Henry Kahn bought his brother Simon out of their joint real estate. Simon moved to Muscatine, Iowa. For the next hundred-odd years, as the Kahn dry goods business expanded and contracted in Bolivar, the number of brothers it supported also fluctuated.

On April 20, 1861, in a report on a Confederate rally in Bolivar, it was noted that Henry Kahn’s store was one of the earliest firms to raise a secessionist flag, more than a month before Tennessee’s secession.

On December 17, 1862, a telegraph reached Bolivar detailing General Order No. 11, an order with serious implications for Jewish merchants:

Bolivar, Dec 17, 1862.

By telegraph from Headquarters 13^th Army Corpse (sic) Dept of Tenn

Oxford Dec 17, 1862. Genl Order No. 11

The Jews as a class violating every Regulation of trade as by the Regular Dept + also Dept orders, are hereby Expelled from the Dept within twenty-four hours from the Receipt of this order by Post commander. They will see that all of this class of people are furnished with passes and required to leave and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners unless furnished with permits from these Headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit Headquarters for the purpose of making personal applications for trade permits by order of Maj Grant

M S Grant

John A Rawlings A. A. G.

Lincoln countermanded the order immediately when a delegation of Jewish leaders appealed to him.

We do not know whether the Kahns were still in Bolivar when the order was issued, but at about this time, most of the family moved to Louisville, where Fredora and Isaac Wolf were running the warehouse for Kahn and Wolf. In 1865, Henry and his son Marcus are listed in the Louisville directory at 196 West Market Street, which became the family’s permanent address. Henry retired in 1868, remaining in Louisville with Louise.

In the war, the Kahn store building was destroyed when Union troops torched the square, in retaliation for the town’s support of Nathan Bedford Forrest. After the war, Marcus returned to Bolivar to reopen the store. He was soon joined by his younger brothers. Henry, Marcus, Isaac, Jacob and Samuel are all listed in the Bolivar census of 1870.

In late December 1876, a large fire destroyed several city blocks of Bolivar, including the town square and several homes. From the Bolivar Bulletin account of the fire:

… Now the corner was reached where the Kahn Brothers kept a large and rare assortment of dry goods. The Kahn boys who occupied the upper part of the store as a chamber, were aroused and hastened to secure the contents of their safe, which they did. Then, by the assistance of citizens, they tumbled out of the building a small part of the stock and lodged it around the Court House grounds … Losses: … H. Kahn and Sons: stock, $15,000. Insurance $7,000. Portion of stock saved in a damaged condition.

By January, their insurer had settled, the fire remnants were offered for sale at cash, and Marcus was sent East to buy more goods.

In 1877, the Kahns rebuilt on the corner of Main and Market. The new store is the one still standing on the corner of the town square. In the same year, Jacob built the Kahn house at 515 Main Street for his new wife, Fanny Rosenthal. Both buildings remained in the family through several generations.

Kahn Brothers often bought cotton, starting as a sideline to the store. They were frequently the purchasers of the first bale at Bolivar, and a couple of Kahns became full time cotton buyers. Various members of the family traveled extensively to acquire merchandise for the store. Typically, there were two trips a year to the northeast, for spring and fall lines, as well as occasional trips to Europe; one brother would be sent while another would mind the store in Bolivar. The social column in the Bolivar Bulletin would regularly mention Marcus’s return from a trip to buy goods; the same issue would often have a large ad about the merchandise.

Many of the ads were shorts intermingled with other stories and ads, sometimes nine in an issue:

“You Are Not In It / Unless you go to Kahn Bros.’ and buy your Spring and Summer Goods…”

“Anyone wanting a Nobby Hat / should be sure and call at Kahn Bros.”

“Ladies, why do you sit at home wearing your life away on a sewing machine when you can buy your Underwear ready made to Kahn Bros’. for less than the cost of the material?”

Other times, they would take out a big ad, with a banner extending across the entire top of the page:

“WE HOLD THE FORT! AND EXPECT TO KEEP IT. OUR GOODS AND OUR PRICES WILL PROTECT US…”

“GREAT SLAUGHTER in Mens and Boys and Childrens Clothing. $10,000 worth bought at a Bankrupt Sale and will be sold regardless of value at KAHN BROS.”

Or a compromise:

“The Kahn Bro’s advertised last week that their big ad would appear this week. The fact is they have not had time to prepare the ad. Their entire time has been consumed in opening and arranging their immense stock of new goods, and in waiting upon their constant stream of customers.”

Of the four second-generation brothers, Marcus eventually moved to Louisville and Isaac and Samuel to Memphis, leaving Jacob to run the store in Bolivar. Jacob had three sons and a daughter, Aubrey, Marie Louise, Robert Henry, and Adolphus. Marie Louise and Robert Henry moved to Pensacola, Florida, leaving Adolphus and Aubrey to run the store. In the Depression, when the store would no longer support both of them, Aubrey became a cotton buyer and insurance agent. Adolphus and his wife Laurine continued to run the store, with Laurine typically acting as buyer. After Adolphus’s death in 1958, Laurine sold the store to Charles Denton, who ran it for another 20 years. When it closed in 1978, it was the oldest surviving store in Bolivar, having offered the same line of goods since 1845, and in the same building since the Civil War.

Aubrey Kahn and the 19th Amendment

Tennessee was the last state needed to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. In August 1920, the 61st Tennessee General Assembly voted to ratify with a majority of one vote. Aubrey Kahn had been elected to the state House of Representatives in November 1918 for the 1919 legislative session as the representative for Chester, Hardeman, and Haywood counties. Unlike Representative Harry T. Burn of Niota who famously became the deciding vote after receiving a letter from his mother during the session, Kahn was a declared supporter of the amendment before the session began. As his son Jay Kahn put it, Aubrey's wife Myrtle would not have liked it had he voted against, and she was probably watching from the gallery. For legislative sessions, the couple would travel by train to Nashville from Whiteville, the closest stop with a direct connection. The sessions lasted several weeks twice a year, and the Kahns lived in one of the two major hotels, the Maxwell House or the Hermitage Hotel.

The political fight was a bitter one, with supporters of the amendment publicly accused by some opponents of accepting bribes, and listed on a "Roll of Honor" by proponents. The 1919-1920 General Assembly was Kahn's only foray into state politics.