This immigrant arrived in SLO without money and built ‘Oldest Business House’ in town
The Goldtree brothers advertised their store in the first issue of the first newspaper in San Luis Obispo, the San Luis Obispo Pioneer.
An advertisement that ran in the Pioneer on Jan. 4, 1868, called Goldtree Bros. “The Oldest Business House in San Luis Obispo. Established, 1856.”
Offering clothing, dry goods and furnishings, the store brought a bit of civilization to the cow town of San Luis Obispo. It also touted low prices, advertising wares “Cheaper than the Cheapest!”
According to the Jewish Museum of the American West, the Goldtrees changed their family name from Goldbaum and immigrated from the Prussia region of what is now eastern Germany or western Poland.
Nathan Goldtree, 18, arrived in San Franciso in 1856. Within a year, he moved to San Luis Obispo.
He and a friend were traveling peddlers until Nathan saved up enough to become a partner in a San Luis Obispo store.
Goldtree family runs stores in SLO County
Nathan would eventually oversee three stores, including shops in San Francisco and Monterey.
According to his obituary, he arrived in San Luis Obispo without money. Within eight years he had been successful enough that he dissolved his original partnership so his brothers could join him in the business.
By 1875, business was doing well enough that brothers, Nathan, Isaac, Marcus and Morris Goldtree were able to buy out other partners in a store in San Miguel. The brothers were a mainstay of local newspaper advertising in the latter half of the 1800s.
A May 1888 receipt shows Chinese merchant Ah Louis buying a sack of potatoes from the Goldtree brothers for $1.25.
Nathan was an early investor in what became the Pacific Coast Railway, the narrow-gauge line built from Port San Luis to San Luis Obispo, later reaching Los Olivos. He was also vice president and partner with R.E. Jack in the County Bank, and a promoter of the old wharf at Avila Beach.
Immigrant brothers include attorney, chaplain
Morris was an attorney. He and his wife, Helena, built a single-story home on Garden Street in 1887.
Later owners added the second story, and the house was converted to a 13-room bed and breakfast, Garden Street Inn, in 1989.
A certificate of co-partnership advertised in the Tribune on March 2, 1878, listed partners Nathan, Isaac, and Morris along with Isidore Schwartz.
Marcus Goldtree was listed as “Attorney in Fact” and in earlier times was listed as a partner in the stores. Nathan was often listed as living in San Francisco and is mentioned in the paper as coming to town to inspect the business.
Isaac was selected as chaplain of the American Legion of Honor, organized in 1881. The organization included other prominent landholders and newspaper editors, and was one of the few secret societies that allowed women to join without a sponsoring male relative.
At times, Isaac was also listed as living in Breslau in Germany.
On Jan. 24, 1874, the Tribune wrote, “PERSONALS — Ike Goldtree has started for Europe again. We wish him success in all his undertakings. He has ever been a favorite among our merchants, as he deserved and received the good opinion of most of the community.”
Investors and land owners
In addition to the stores, the Goldtree brothers were involved in real estate, banking, railroad development and chrome mining.
A 1883 Myron Angel history book shows the Goldtree brothers owning 9,000 acres, making them among the top landholders in the county.
On May 17, 1879, the Tribune said San Luis Obispo County was authorized to buy land from the Goldtrees for what became General Hospital at $75 per acre.
In that era, there were many failed businesses with partnerships breaking up and leaving bad debts. But the Goldtrees were able to survive the ups and downs of the economy.
The brothers did go to court if a deal went bad. There are several notices of auction over the years by the sheriff or constable to settle claims. The Goldtrees even took on the powerful local banker J.P. Andrews in court, according to a October 1881 filing.
The brothers were active in the Committee of 21, a group of businessmen who helped bring the Southern Pacific Railroad to build the unfinished Coast Line link through San Luis Obispo between Santa Margarita and Ellwood, now known as Goleta.
End of a partnership
By 1890, a legal ad indicates that the brothers had left the San Luis Obispo store and Nathan Goldtree was dissolving his partnership with Isaac Lasar.
By the late 19th century the brothers’ partnership had dissolved as they went their separate ways.
The Tribune reported that Marcus Goldtree died at his store in Guadalupe in May 1895. His young son went into the office and asked his father what the trouble was. The response was, “I have taken poison and want to die.”
A May 29, 1895 story, said Marcus was suffering from ill health and financial setbacks.
Morris Goldtree returned to Hamburg, Germany. A story in the Morning Tribune from November 28, 1914, quoted a letter from him documenting the horrors of World War I as Germany fought Russia.
By the early 1900s, the Goldtree store name no longer appeared in local display advertising. But the Goldtree company appears on news pages. San Luis Obispo had an area called the Goldtree tract served by a water company of the same name.
Nathan retired to San Francisco where he died in 1902 at age 64.
Nathan’s obituary said one brother was living in South America and two had returned to Germany. Either the South American brother never lived on the Central Coast, or this was a fiction to avoid retelling the tragic death of Morris.
The Goldtrees were memorialized with a Southern Pacific flag stop located between the Stenner Creek Bridge and the horseshoe curve behind the California Men’s Colony. It’s one of 12 named stops on the Cuesta Grade between Santa Margarita and San Luis Obispo.
A grain warehouse was built there in 1901.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
