Aimmee L. Rodriguez - The Harris Company

FAMILY REUNION, 1909. The Harris family had a reunion at the home of William and Regina Falkenstein in Anaheim, California. The gathering was to celebrate the visit of Dr. Lesser Herschkowitz from San Francisco. Johanna (seated, center) was Morris second wife. She had seven children with him but raised the entire clan as if they were her own. Pictured here from left to right are (first row) Morrey Anker, Alvin Asher, Melville Harris, Harold Harris, and Stanley Falkenstein; (second row) William Falkenstein, Regina Harris Falkenstein, Leah Steinart Harris, Gertrude Asher, Johanna Harris, Eda Harris Asher, Rose Harris Anker, and Herman Harris; (third row) Arthur Harris, Philip Harris, Leslie Harris, Isadore Asher, Selmar Anker, Dr. Lesser Herschkowitz, and Rudolph Anker.

PATRIARCH OF THE HARRIS FAMILY. Morris Herschkowitz was a merchant and owner of business properties in West Prussia. He came to America in 1848 to seek freedom, settling first in Georgia and later in Kentucky. In 1853, he returned to Germany to visit his parents, married, and had four children, Emma, Rose, Zara, and Lesser, before his wife died of childbirth complications. He eventually remarried and had seven more children: Eda, Philip, Regina, Hulda, Herman, Leo, and Arthur. As Morris and, later, his sons, came to America, Morris brother, Leopold Harris, of Harris and Frank in Los Angeles, advised them to drop the family name Herschkowitz for Harris.

FIVE HARRIS BROTHERS, C. 1909. Pictured here from left to right are Philip, Leo, Arthur, Lesser, and Herman. Philip, Herman, and Arthur were the brothers that started the Harris Company. Their younger brother Leo ran a country store in Lancaster in 1912. His interest, however, was more in line with land management. He owned considerable acreage in alfalfa and even had interest in a gold mine. Their older brother Lesser obtained his medical degree under the name Herschkowitz from the School of Medicine at the University of Berlin. Thus, he was the only one of the Harris children to retain the family name. He practiced in Los Angeles then moved to San Francisco in 1896. He was a noted physician and served on the California State Board of Medical Examiners.

PHILIP HARRIS, C. 1895. When Philip first arrived in 1885, he worked for his brother-in-law Rudolph Anker, a dry-goods merchant in San Bernardino, California. He was not too impressed with the dusty little town and left to work for another brother-in-law, Simon Goldsmith, a dry-goods and shoe merchant, in Santa Ana. In 1893, Philip married Anna Hirschfield and proceeded to start his family. They had three sons: Leslie, Harold, and Melville. After a couple ventures with his brother Herman, he left to work as a salesman for his uncle Leopold of Harris and Frank in Los Angeles. In April 1905, Philip returned to San Bernardino to open Harris with his brother Herman. Seven months later, his wife passed away. With hard work and the help of his sisters to watch over Melville, Harris was a success. Two years later, Philip married Leah Steinart. Early employees remember Philip greeting the salesladies with a cheery, Good morning, merry sunshine. When Philip left the San Bernardino store in 1909 to manage the new Harris store in Redlands, the employees sorely missed him.

FIRST LOCATION IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA, 1905. Harris first location was on the bottom floor of the Armory Building at 462 Third Street between D and E Streets. They had a mere 25 feet of store frontage and an upstairs neighbor called Company K, who were lucky enough to have a balcony on which to watch parades. The stores opening was announced in the local newspaper: On Wednesday, April 19, we will formally open our doors to the public of San Bernardino and vicinity.... A cordial invitation to visit our store is extended to all. We are strangers among you, but have come to stay and we want to get acquainted.... We have come here prepared in every way to do a large Dry Goods business. If courteous treatment, low prices, good goods and honest methods are appreciated here then we will certainly have no difficulty in gaining your trade. We mean every word we say and say just what we mean.... try us. Harris has it for less.