By 1864, their half brother Maurice Kahn had immigrated to Brazil and Felix, at age 15, left in that year to join him in South America. He immediately became deathly ill and barely survived before going into the jewelry selling business with Maurice.
The following year, Lazard Kahn also left home at age 15, traveling in steerage to the Port of New York. He went directly to Indianapolis and then to Iowa, where he found work traveling from farm to farm selling lamps, learning English along the way.
Lazard moved to Cincinnati, but was immediately hired to be a stove black for a company in Nashville.Over the next three years he studied stoves and stovemaking, becoming an expert in the craft, was promoted to bookkeeper, and then purchased a share of the company.
Leaving Brazil, Maurice and Felix came to the United States in 1870, initially heading to Selma, Alabama. The following year, Felix started selling stove and stove accessories manufactured by the Martin, Henderson, & Company Stove Foundry of Hanging Rock, Ohio, one of the oldest foundries in the state.
Felix became associated with Martin, Henderson, & Company in 1872, who also hired Lazard at the same time, reuniting the brothers in Ohio. Knowledgeable, experienced, and hard working salesmen, the brothers made a name for themselves, but due to low capital on hand, were largely paid with shares in the company instead.
They sold so many stoves that they had become co-proprietors within four years. Another of their brothers, Sol Kahn, immigrated to the United States and established himself in Nashville where he operated a sales office for what was now Henderson, Kahn, & Company.
The always financially minded Felix, relocated to Cincinnati in the late 1870s, working out of the company’s office and warehouse there. He married Rachel (Simon) Kahn in 1876. Lazard married Coralie Berthelot (Lemann) Kahn in Donaldsville, La. in 1881.
As Thomas Henderson was aging towards retirement, the brothers made an offer to purchase the company outright from him for $21,827.52, approximately $682,000 in 2025. Lazard added to the offer, “we do not intend to negotiate for months over this offer. The proposition made herewith is just, and the only one we have and can accept.”
The deal was made on Feb. 21, 1882 and a new company, F. & L. Kahn & Brothers was born.
Sol was placed in charge of the foundry following the purchase which was repeatedly flooded in the early to mid-1880s. The Ohio River Flood of 1884, which inundated their factory and buried some of their patterns in mud was the final straw.
With the sales office, warehouse, and Felix’s family all being located in Cincinnati, the brothers looked to relocate to that region. Acquainted with the Kahns from business dealings, William Beckett, of Beckett & Laurie, and Alexander Gordon, of Niles Tool Works, convinced the Kahns to relocate their factory to Hamilton, which they did in 1884.
F. & L. Kahn & Brothers opened their new factory complex between the railroad tracks and East Avenue just north of the South Hamilton Crossing, today the site of J.N. Linrose, on Feb. 23, 1885. The majority of the workers from Hanging Rock were relocated to Hamilton to work in the plant, which became the first major manufacturing operation in East Hamilton.
Sol Kahn would not have an opportunity to see the successes to come, dying on Jan. 2, 1887. Felix lost Rachel to suicide, not long after, on Aug. 15, 1901.
By 1891, the company was producing 2,400 tons of stoves per year, including over five-hundred models of coal and gas stoves, selling them across the country and internationally. Their best selling product line was called Estate, and when the company incorporated on Dec. 31, 1905, Estate Stove Company was chosen as their new name.
Having established themselves as major industrialists, the Kahn Brothers, Lazard in particular, did not rest. Without the work of Lazard Kahn, in partnership with local banker Oakey V. Parrish and other local industrialists, Hamilton would have never become the manufacturing powerhouse it is remembered as being.
Lazard was the leading figure of the Edgewood Finance Company that developed the Edgewood neighborhood on Hamilton’s West Side and brought Macneale & Urban Safe Company to the city as an anchor for the community. However, this was just a warmup for the next consortium he led.
The East Hamilton Improvement Syndicate purchased the Hancock Family farm in 1891 and developed it into a massive residential neighborhood that eventually became an entire new ward of the city, Hamilton’s 5th Ward, in 1908. A second phase of this planned development in 1897 eventually became the home of Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company, Mosler Safe & Lock Company, Fred J. Meyer Manufacturing Company, and Hamilton Foundry.
Estate Stove Company continued to be a powerhouse in manufacturing throughout the height of the industrial era in Hamilton’s history. It was sold in 1943 and became the Estate Heatrola Division of Noma Electric Company who sold the company again in 1952 to RCA.
RCA Estate Appliance Corporation was acquired by Whirlpool Corporation in 1955. Hamilton Division, Whirlpool Corporation closed in 1961.
Although he only lived in Hamilton for a brief period in the 1890s, Lazard would go on to be a leading community figure in the community and was involved with several civic organizations. A fund left by his family was used to purchase the Lane-Hooven House and the Lazard Kahn Memorial Building next door for use by non-profit community organizations. Today they are the homes of the Hamilton Community Foundation and the United Way, respectively.
Felix Kahn died Sep. 10, 1924 followed by Lazard four years later on Mar. 7, 1928. Coralie survived until age 91, dying on Jan. 30, 1954.
Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects.
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