Ashland Memories: Cahn leaves legacy as clothier, mayor and a Jew

When Jacob Cahn died in 1914, Ashland businesses closed their doors for an hour during his funeral, in honor of the much-respected clothier.

Zachariah Greenewald may have preceded Cahn as Ashland’s first Jewish businessman, but Cahn was a pillar of the community and the store he started remained in business well over a century.

Jacob Cahn was born in Germany on April 10, 1839. He came to the United States and settled in Ashland in 1861. He was naturalized in the Ashland Probate Court in 1866.

Jacob Cahn started a dry goods store in the Old Stone Corner in 1861. He stayed at that location until 1865, but transitioned from dry goods to clothing after a few years.

Cahn's journey to Ashland

In 1865, Cahn moved to the west room of the Miller House and brought in a stock of “Gentleman’s furnishing goods and Ready Made Clothing.” He invested twenty thousand dollars in what the news described as the largest stock of such ever brought to Ashland. It was also noted that he employed the best cutter and superior workmen in all departments, which would make Cahn’s clothing store “one of the best institutions of the kind West of the Alleghany mountains.”

In 1872, he returned to Germany to marry Regina Tillman, at the close of the Franco-Prussian War. The war was so recent that when they visited Paris after the wedding, some of the streets were still barricaded and they were unable to visit the Louvre.

After returning to Ashland, they lived on Sandusky Street. The couple had three sons, William, Louis, and Tillman, and a daughter, Fannie.

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In 1878, Cahn moved his clothing store to 43 West Main, where his firm’s name came to stand for “honest dealing and honest goods.” Cahn’s store boasted of being the “only clothing house in Ashland that [has] their goods marked in plain figures.”

Nathan Strauss, who came to Ashland from Louisville Kentucky, started working for Cahn in 1874. He became junior partner in 1880.

From clothier to mayor

In 1908, Cahn sold out his part of the clothing business to Strauss. At his retirement, he was the oldest merchant who had served Ashland continuously. Although retired from business, he took office as Mayor of Ashland, having been elected in 1907.

Jacob Cahn was a civic-minded leader of Ashland. He served on the village council, was elected as mayor of Ashland three times, and also was president of the school board, the hospital board, and the library board at various times.

Cahn left a bequest to Samaritan Hospital, among other things. He had also owned land, including a noted grove of woods that was then outside of town. His family made sure that this retreat became a park for the citizens of Ashland—known today as Cahn Grove.

When Rabbi Emil Hirsch of Chicago delivered Cahn’s funeral oration, he noted that Cahn could have denied his heritage to make his life in America easier, but instead he remained “at all times and in all circumstances a sturdy Jew.” Although a minority in Ashland, he was quietly forthright about his religion, and by his example, he dispelled prejudice among the Ashland citizens who knew him.

There can be no doubt that Jacob Cahn was widely admired in Ashland. Among the Ashlanders who traveled to Chicago to attend his funeral and serve as pall bearers were F.E. and P.A. Myers, Joseph Patterson, Nathan Strauss, and Duff Pancoast.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Cahn's influence in business and city politics left a mark on Ashland