Jacob Kuhrts
Jacob Kuhrts (August 14,1836 – January 29, 1926) original spelling Kuhrt), nicknamed "Uncle Jake", left home at age 12 as a cabin-boy on an English clipper and spent 6 years sailing around the world before he eventually disembarked in Monterey, California in 1848. He then spent several years working at the Mission Dolores in San Francisco prior to the discovery of Gold in Placer county when he worked as a miner during the California Gold Rush. Later after travelling south to the small pueblo of Los Angeles around 1859 when the town had a population of less than 5,000, he became active as a teamster, a merchant, Los Angeles County Coroner (1870-1873),the first volunteer Fire Commissioner Chief in Los Angeles (1886-1900), and as a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1876 to 1877 and again in 1880 when he served as council president. He had the first 2-story brick building constructed in downtown Los Angeles (see picture below dated 1867) which also served as the family compound, retail store, and upstairs rental units. Personal Birth and death Kuhrts was born on August 17, 1832, in Tönning, Duchy of Schleswig, Denmark. He died at the age of ninety-three in