David Oppenheimer - Early Life

Early Life

David Oppenheimer was born in Blieskastel, Germany, as one of ten children. His father, Solomon, was a merchant and vintner. David's mother, Johanna (Johanette) Kahn, died when he was four years old. He was educated at the Collegiate School of Frankfurt am Main.

In 1848, after political upheaval and bad harvests, David Oppenheimer immigrated to New Orleans with his four brothers: Charles (Carl), Meyer, Isaac and Godfrey (Gottfried). He studied bookkeeping and worked in a general store. Upon hearing of the California Gold Rush, the Oppenheimers became traders in Placer County, California in 1851 and later Sacramento, California. David then worked in real estate and the restaurant business in Columbia, California. Here he married his first wife, Sarah (Christine), in 1857.

Following the decline of the California rush, the Oppenheimer brothers relocated to Victoria, British Columbia in the late 1858 to establish the Charles Oppenheimer and Company supply business. As the Fraser River and Cariboo Gold rushes took off in 1858–61 the Oppenheimers established stores catering to the prospectors and settlers in the Interior of the Colony of British Columbia at Yale, Hope, and Lytton in the Fraser Canyon, Barkerville in the Cariboo, and Fisherville at the Wild Horse Creek goldfield in the East Kootenay. They would later invest in real estate in Lytton and the Cariboo. With such a far-flung business, the Oppenheimers soon realized the importance of improving transportation and joined a group which successfully lobbied the colonial government in 1862 to build the Cariboo Road to Barkerville.

Despite business setbacks in 1866 and 1867, David was running the Oppenheimer Brothers warehouse in Yale by 1868 and was a partner in the firm by 1871. The wholesale provisioners company he started with his brothers in 1858 exists to this day as The Oppenheimer Group. David Oppenheimer was active in the Yale business community and entertained visiting dignitaries such as Governor-General Lord Dufferin. After over twenty years of marriage, with no children, David's wife Sarah died on October 15, 1880 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Cedar Hill Road in Victoria, British Columbia. Fire destroyed much of Yale in 1881, including the Oppenheimers' store. Since the gold rush had declined and railway construction had moved on, David moved back to Victoria, British Columbia and opened an import wholesale business with his brother Isaac in 1882. The following year David married his second wife, Julia Walters of New York, in San Francisco. Their daughter, Flora Jeanetta, was born in 1884 in Victoria.