Kaufman, Charles A.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Kaufman, Charles A., president of the Charles A. Kaufman Co., Ltd., New Orleans, was born in Germany, June 15, 1845; a son of Jonathan and Helen (Firnberg) Kaufman, both natives of Germany. Jonathan Kaufman, the father, followed the avocation of a merchant in Germany, and after having removed to the United States, in the year 1850, lived in retirement until the end of his life. His death occurred in 1851. His wife survived him until 1890. To their union, 12 children were born, only three of whom are living at this time. Charles A. Kaufman, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of the 3 children. He attended a private school at Opelousas, La., and later in New Orleans, being prepared in the latter for entering Harvard university, but was deterred from going there by the begining of hostilities of the Civil war. Instead of going north to the university, he entered the service of a wholesale dry goods house at New Orleans, and there continued about 3 years, following which he became a salesman in a retail store, and continued in this latter connection for 4 years. Following these 7 years in the dry goods business, wholesale and retail, he formed a partnership with the late Marks Isaacs, under the firm name of Kaufman & Isaacs, and launched into business on Dryades street, in New Orleans, this being in the year 1878. The business prospered from the beginning, and this firm name remained unchanged throughout about 22 years of successful merchandising. In 1900 the long-standing partnership was dissolved, and the firm of Charles A. Kaufman Co., Ltd., was organized, with Charles A. Kaufman, president; Arthur I. Kaufman, vice-president, B. Kiam, treasurer, and Claude M. Kaufman, secretary. Along with the above officers of the corporation, the board of directors also include the name of Percy S. Kaufman, who is a stockholder in the organization. There has been no change in the personnel of the officers and directors since the original selection of these at the time of the incorporation of the business at its beginning, and under their direction and management the business of this firm has prospered from its start, and continues its healthy growth and expansion. Chas. A. Kaufman's interests and activities are by no means confined to this big mercantile business. He is also a member, respectively, of the board of directors of the Commercial-Germania Trust & Savings bank, and of the Stern Foundry & Machine Co.; also a member of the sewerage and water board of the city of New Orleans, his commission in the latter capacity expiring in the year 1921. Mr. Kaufman was married in April, 1869, and is the father of 6 children, namely: Arthur, Cora, wife of B. Kiam; Bertha, now Mrs. N. S. Stern, of New Orleans; Claud M., Percy S., and Viola, wife of Stanford M. Beers, of New Orleans, commission broker. Mr. Kaufman has long been widely known throughout the commercial and financial circles of New Orleans, and contiguous and tributary regions, and his connections and associations are very extensive. His long and successful record as identified with the community of New Orleans conclusively shows him as a public-spirited citizen, at all times fully alive to the best interests of the people among whom lie lives, and readily co-operating in any movement directed toward conserving those interests. He is a man of the highest sense of personal integrity and unswerving loyalty, and upon those sterling qualities his successful career is founded and has endured through many adverse conditions and discouraging situations under the weight of which a less stable character could not have survived. He is fittingly numbered among the city's most successful and dependable men of large affairs and complex business activities.

Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 229-230. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.