Isaac Magnin

Isaac Magnin (or Moeijen) was born into a Jewish family in Assen or Groningen, the Netherlands in 1842.^[1][2][3][4] His father was from Russia and his mother, Dutch-born.^[2] He moved to the United States with his parents when he was eight years old.^[2][3]

He worked as a businessman in Texas and New Mexico.^[2] During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he served in the Union Army.^[2] He then worked as a pushcart peddler in New Orleans, Louisiana.^[5] Next, he moved to London, where he established an arts goods store.^[2][5] A decade later, in 1876, he set sail for San Francisco via Cape Horn, with his wife and children.^[2][5] There, he worked as a frame carver and gilder for Solomon Gump, an art and antique dealer and owner of Gump's.^[5] By 1880, he was listed in the census as the keeper of a fancy bazaar.^[2] With his wife, he was also the co-founder of I. Magnin, an upscale women's clothing store in San Francisco.^[2]

He was interested in socialism.^[5]

He married Mary Ann Cohen on October 8, 1865, at the Great Synagogue of London.^[1][2] They had eight children: Samuel, Henrietta, Joseph, Emanuel John, Victor, Lucille, Flora, and Grover.^[1][6] They attended the Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.^[2]

He was a freemason, having joined in London and gone up the ranks in California.^[2] Magnin lived at 1478–1482 Page Street, San Francisco, and his two daughters lived in the attached unit, the building was designed by Newsom and Newsom.^[7]

He died on January 27, 1907, in San Francisco, California.^[1] He is buried at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.