Desloge is an unincorporated town in St. Francois County, Missouri. As its name suggests, it built up around the Desloge Consolidated Lead Company in 1824, founded by patriarch of the prominent Desloge Family, Firmin René Desloge. Early on, the town consisted of little more than company offices and housing for workers. Fired destroyed original Desloge processing plant in Bonne Terre in 1883, after which the company opened a new plant in Desloge, improving the fortunes of this small mining town. As mining operations developed, merchant opportunities grew, attracting the first Jewish settlers to the town. While there never was a robust Jewish population in Desloge, there are a few notable merchant families that made Desloge their home in the early 20th century.
One of the prominent early Jewish families were the Millers. I.W. Miller and his wife Jennie (neé DeHovitz) owned quite a bit of real estate in Desloge and worked to bring their family to town. Sam Miller opened Ready-to-Wear, a clothing shop in town; Louis Miller opened a grocery store; and Jack DeHovitz, Jennie's brother, ran The Good Luck Store, a dry goods store.
Louis Sachs was the first member of his family to arrive in Desloge. After struggling for a year after immigrating to New York from Lithuania, Sachs moved to Missouri to live with his in-laws Ethel and Ephraim Cohen. Sachs's wife and children joined him in Missouri a year later in 1906. Once his family arrived, Ephraim convinced Louis to move to Desloge, citing the opportunities for peddling in the mining towns. He worked as a peddler, traveling to the mining towns throughout St. Francois County before opening a store of his own in Desloge.
Robert Sylvan Kahn came to Missouri from Minsk, initially settling in St. Louis before moving to Desloge in the early 1900s. In Desloge, he opened Kahn's, a dry goods store, before helping is brother, Jack, immigrate in 1906. The two brothers then ran Kahn's together.
Cohen Ioannides, Mara W. Jews of Missouri: An Ornament to Israel (Self Published: 2021)
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