Jacob W. 'J.W.' Davis

https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2017/07/18/know-who-jacob-w-davis-was...

Jacob W. Davis (born Jacob Youphes) (1831–1908) was a Latvian-born American tailor who is credited with inventing modern jeans by using sturdy cloth and rivets to strengthen weak points in the seams, and partnered with Levi Strauss to mass produce them.

JW, as he referred to himself and was commonly known, was born in the Russian Empire in an unknown town on the river Dwina outside what is now known as Riga, Latvia. He emigrated to New York City in 1854, where he changed his name to Davis and ran a tailor shop for a couple of years. His next stops were San Francisco and Weaverville in California. Neither of these seem to have worked out; he moved to British Columbia in 1858, and before returning to San Francisco in 1867, Davis met and married an emigrant from Germany, Annie Parksher (or Packscher). Together, Jacob and Annie had six children.

By 1871 Davis was in Reno, Nevada, routinely using rivets on the pants he made, first on duck, soon after on denim, and was beginning to be imitated by other tailors. He contacted Levi Strauss, his fabric supplier, to help him apply for a patent. Strauss later set up a sizeable tailor shop in San Francisco for the production of Davis' working pants, and Jacob and his family moved back to San Francisco for Davis to run this shop. As demand continued to grow, the shop was superseded by a manufacturing plant which Davis managed for Strauss. Davis continued to work there for the remainder of his life, overseeing production of the work pants as well as other lines including work shirts and overalls.

His son Simon Davis ended up running the Levi Strauss factory. Simon was instrumental in the company's rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake and designed a coverall that became the company's first nationally marketed product.

So while Levi Strauss sold work jeans, it was an obscure Jewish tailor working at 31 Virginia Street in Reno Nevada who added the rivets. A federal patent-infringement case filed in February 1874 in the U.S. Circuit Court of California, and housed in the National Archives regional branch in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, contains the facts.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_W._Davis
• "Jacob Davis: Pioneer Jewish Tailor of Nevada & His Copper Rivets That Made History". Jewish Museum of the American West. Jewish Museum of the American West. Retrieved March 28, 2015. link
• “ Rocha, Guy. "Myth #38 – Levi's 501 Jeans: A Riveting Story in Early Reno". Just Goods. Retrieved April 7, 2014. link
• “World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social ...” By Mary Ellen Snodgrass. GoogleBooks
• Mella Harmon, “Jacob Davis's Tailor Shop (site),” Reno Historical, accessed May 2, 2020, http://www.renohistorical.org/items/show/48.
• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/34391330/person/19...
• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/26288661/person/12...
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCCD-F9X
• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZMW-7PQ : 29 May 2021), J W Davis, 1870.
• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6P6-TB5 : 19 August 2017), J W Davis, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 202, sheet 82D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,078
• https://patents.google.com/patent/US139121
• Jacob William Davis in the California, U.S., Voter Registers, 1866-1898. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29899513?h=478fb4 “ Name: Jacob William Davis Age: 66 Birth Year: abt 1830 Birth Place: Russia Residence Year: 1896 Residence Address: 1635 Sacramento Residence Place: San Francisco, California, USA Naturalization Date: 14 Oct 1871,Naturalization Place: Reno, Nevada”
• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9GW-XCS : accessed 2 May 2020), J W Davis, Precinct 21 San Francisco city Ward 39, San Francisco, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 201, sheet 4B, family 82, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,105.
• Jacob N Davis in the California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939 https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29898860?h=b15fc1 Name: Jacob N Davis Birth Year: abt 1831 Death Date: 20 Jan 1908 Age at Death: 77 Death Place: San Francisco, California, USA
• The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. 22 Jan 1908, Wed • Page 6. < Newspapers.com >
• Jacob W Davis In California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1835-1931 <AncestryImage >
• Jacob W. Davis in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29898852?h=886478
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64433935
• See Jacob's letter to Levi Strauss Co: https://bendavis.com/our-brand/historical-letter-to-levi-strauss/
• “Know who Jacob W. Davis was? He invented Levi’s.” San Diego Jewish World, July 18, 2017. Story by Donald H. Harrison; photos by Shor M. Masori. < link > “… To date, [genealogist Kathleen Paini] Clemence has found nothing to indicate how J.W. and Annie came to know each other, leading her to suspect that perhaps Annie was a mail order bride – one of many women who came to the rugged Canadian mining country to be married. She noted that Seraphina, Annie’s sister, married Isaac Pincus, who was a business partner with the sisters’ cousin Adolph Packscher, and that Annie and J.W. Davis were married by the same rabbi just nine days later – so perhaps a shidduch had been arranged by Victoria’s tiny Jewish community.“ See also < PDF > Nevada State Museum, Carson City, NV.