David Oppenheimer
| David Oppenheimer | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 2nd Mayor of Vancouver | |
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In office 1888–1891 |
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| Preceded by | Malcolm Alexander MacLean |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Cope |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 1, 1834 Blieskastel, Bavaria (today Saarland, Germany) |
| Died | December 31, 1897 (aged 63) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Political party | Independent |
| Occupation | Businessman and author |
| Religion | Judaism |
David Oppenheimer (January 1, 1834 – December 31, 1897) was a successful entrepreneur, the second mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, and a National Historic Person of Canada.
David Oppenheimer was born in Blieskastel, then in the Kingdom of Bavaria, as one of ten children. His father, Salomon, was a merchant and vintner. David's mother, Johanna (Johanette) Kahn, died when he was four years old. He was educated at the Collegiate School of Frankfurt am Main.
In 1848, after political upheaval and bad harvests, David Oppenheimer immigrated to New Orleans with his sister Caroline Oppenheimer Stern and four brothers: Charles (Carl), Meyer, Isaac and Godfrey (Gottfried). He studied bookkeeping and worked in a general store. Upon hearing of the California Gold Rush, the Oppenheimers became traders in Placer County, California in 1851 and later Sacramento, California. David then worked in real estate and the restaurant business in Columbia, California. Here he married his first wife, Sarah (Christine), in 1857.
Following the decline of the California rush, the Oppenheimer brothers relocated to Victoria, British Columbia in the late 1858 to establish the Charles Oppenheimer and Company supply business. As the Fraser River and Cariboo Gold rushes took off in 1858–61 the Oppenheimers established stores catering to the prospectors and settlers in the Interior of the Colony of British Columbia at Yale, Hope, and Lytton in the Fraser Canyon, Barkerville in the Cariboo, and Fisherville at the Wild Horse Creek goldfield in the East Kootenay. They would later invest in real estate in Lytton and the Cariboo. With such a far-flung business, the Oppenheimers soon realized the importance of improving transportation and joined a group which successfully lobbied the colonial government in 1862 to build the Cariboo Road to Barkerville.
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