Los Angeles-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Braun, Frederick William ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 3, 2006, 12:11 am Author: The Lewis Publishing Company California and Californians, Pages 36-37 FREDERICK WILLIAM BRAUN came to California in that hesitant and dubious period of the late ‘80s when the destiny of Los Angeles as one of the great metropolitan centers of the world was by no means assured. Mr. Braun’s activity as a wholesale merchant and manufacturer, covering thirty-five years or more, undoubtedly was a contributing factor in the present proud position Los Angeles enjoys as a great commercial center. Mr. Braun was born at Peru, Illinois, son of John and Katherine M. Braun, and grew up in that Illinois River town, attending public schools there. He graduated from the Chicago College of Pharmacy, and the early half of his business career was in the drug line. He was first in business as drug clerk apprentice at Mendota, Illinois; in 1878 he accepted a position as head clerk in the then leading drug store at Denton, Texas, and in 1880 establishing a retail drug store at Roanoke. He sold that store in 1883 and then established a wholesale and retail drug business at Colorado City in West Texas. Mr. Braun sold his Texas interests in 1888, and brought his capital to Los Angeles. In that city he was instrumental in establishing the first wholesale drug house south of San Francisco. He brought this business to large and prosperous proportions. In 1907 he sold out and immediately resumed business as manufacturer and wholesale dealer in assay and chemical laboratory machinery and supplies, scientific instruments, and apparatus for educational and industrial laboratories. One department of his business was for the importation of industrial chemicals and commodities. He had a house at San Francisco as well as at Los Angeles. His Los Angeles plant put out a line of laboratory machinery and appliances that were sold and distributed over practically the entire world. The Los Angeles and San Francisco houses founded by Mr. Braun are successfully prosperous going concerns with world wide distribution, managed by men who grew up in and with the business from their boyhood and who from time to time out of their earnings and profits acquired from Mr. Braun substantial holdings in the Braun Corporation and Braun Knecht Heiman Company. It is Mr. Braun’s ambition to see these younger men become the sole owners. Mr. Braun not only built up successful business institutions but allied himself actively with the general business interests of his community. He was one of the organizers and charter members of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, belonged to the Los Angeles Chamber of Mines, Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and Associated Jobbers of Log Angeles, which last mentioned carried on all the campaigns for freight rate adjustments that would enable the jobbing interests of Los Angeles successfully to bid for business against competition in territory that naturally belonged to the southern city. At this time, with the fight long since won, the story of the pertinacious attempts of the executive committee of the associated jobbers to get justice accorded the city seems almost incredible, but to the five members of that indefatigable body, Messrs. M. T. Newmark, J. O. Koepfli, Louis Scheller, C. C. Reynolds and F. W. Braun, it was at no time a joking matter. It was their firm front, their determination to accept no compromise that resulted in the concessions to the jobbing trade which it had a right to expect, but which could not have been attained but for the assiduous and intelligent labors of the executive committee, at whose conferences Mr. Braun was a constant attendant and astute advisor. Mr. Braun was a member of Los Angeles’ first Harbor Commission with two other members, Thomas E. Gibbon and George H. Stewart. This Commission pioneered in the development of what is now recognized as the fastest growing port in the world. Mr. Braun as a member of the Consolidation Commission was active in the campaign that brought San Pedro and Wilmington into the City of Los Angeles, thus providing the means for the creation of a worthwhile harbor for Los Angeles. For his staunch assistance in establishing the open shop in Los Angeles the city owes not a little to him for the economic liberty she enjoys. Mr. Braun in 1922 erected the F. W. Braun Building at Pico and Main streets, and in that structure he maintains offices in the handling of his private business interests. Mr. Braun has membership in the California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club and Congressional Country Club, Washington, D. C. Mr. Braun married Kathryn Elizabeth Bear, who was born in Decatur Illinois, and came to Los Angeles in 1891 with her father and mother, Major and Mrs. John W. Bear. Her father is a veteran of the civil war. Mrs. Braun died March 4, 1928, leaving one daughter, June Elizabeth, wife of John Pike, and three grandchildren, Kathryn Elizabeth, Barbara and Frederick. Additional Comments: California and Californians, Volume IV, Edited by Rockwell D. Hunt, A.M., Ph.D., Assisted By An Advisory Board, The Spanish Period, By Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez, The American Period, By Rockwell D. Hunt, California Biography, By a Special Staff of Writers, Issued in Four Volumes, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, 1932. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/bios/braun368gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.9 Kb