The first entry in the original minute book of San Diego Building & Loan is shown to the left.  CLICK on the small photo to see a large photo. Return by hitting BACK in your web browser.       San Diego July 11, 1885 Minutes of meeting held at Office of E.W. Morse for the purpose organizing a building & Loan Association.           Present: E.W. Morse, J.H. Snyder, H.V. Emory, C.P. Noell, M. Sherman, Bryant Howard, J.M. Asher, H.W. Gould, M.D. Hamilton, A. Blockman, Geo. W. Marston and Geo. B. Hensley.           Meeting called to order at 8 P.M by A. Blockman who explained the object of the meeting.           On Motion Bryant Howard was elected Chairman and Geo. B. Hensley, Secretary.           The following subscriptions to stocks were then taken H. Maybury M. Blockman Bryant Howard   ....  Sherman ...... 50 shares 50   " 50   " 10   "  5   "

The Union noted on July 28, 1885 that "Properly managed, and the names of its directors is a substantial guarantee that it will be, the association will be of . . . lasting benefit to San Diego".  The first directors were Abraham Blochman, Martin D. Hamilton, Bryant Howard, Simon Levi, George W. Marston, Ephraim W. Morse, Allen Overbaugh, Capt. Matthew Sherman, and John Snyder.  Moses A. Luce was counsel.  All of the stockholders, who included the directors, appear to have been individuals who occupied leadership roles in the community.

The firm became San Diego Federal Savings & Loan Association in 1937.  The name was changed to Great American First Savings Bank in 1984.

HISTORY of the FOUNDERS

An item in the Union suggested that Abraham Blockman was the impetus behind the founding of the association.  Blochman was born in the province of Alsace in France in 1834.  In 1851, he suffered through a tortuous journey across the Isthmus of Panama and up the west coast of California on his way to the gold fields.  He moved his family to San Diego in 1881 after having made a name for himself as a businessman and rancher, although he was dead broke due to a series of financial reverses.   The Blochmans quickly became some of San Diego's leading citizens.

Bryant Howard, born in Buffalo in 1835, settled in San Diego in 1867.  In 1885, he was City Treasurer and president of the Consolidated Bank.   He was also a director and founder of the Savings Bank of Southern California in Los Angeles where he had business interests, due, perhaps, to the fact that his wife was from that city.  In the 1870s, Howard moved to England for several years where he worked to promote trade between that nation and southern California.  He served as treasurer to several San Diego organizations, including Engine Co. No. 1 to which he gave a fire bell in 1885.  It immediately sparked controversy.  The bell didn't ring loud enough to suit most citizens.  (The bell today stands in front of the Central Fire Station on B Street between Front and First Streets).

Martin D. Hamilton lost an arm while fighting in the Civil War and was active in the Grand Army of the Republic's Heintzelmann Post No. 33.  He had be elected City Assessor on the Republican ticket.  His home was in Sherman's Addition.  He owned a ranch near Jamacha.

Simon Levi began his southern California business career in the then important stage coach stop of Temecula early in 1873.  He moved to San Diego in 1876, entering the grocery and general merchandise business as a partner with Samuel Steiner, who was his uncle, and Abraham Klauber.  Levi developed a sales force that covered most of southern California, the territories of Arizona and New Mexico, and Baja California.   The leadership he showed in business was carried over into the community.  He served on the Board of Trustees of the city, and in executive positions with San Diego Telephone Company and San Diego Gas and Electric Light.

George White Marston was born in Wisconsin in 1850 and moved to San Diego with his parents in 1870.  After a brief stint as clerk at the Horton House, he entered the mercantile field.  He was a bookkeeper in the general merchandise firm of A. Pauly, who was a founder of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce.   His wife's father was the brother of Union editor Douglas Gunn.

Ephraim Weed Morse was born in Amesbury, Mass., in 1823; in 1849 he came to California where he was stricken with a fever while mining.  He moved to San Diego for his health and became a businessman, a City Trustee, a lawyer, an organizer of the Bank of San Diego, and a road and railway builder.  He is one of a few San Diego leaders mentioned in the same breath with Alonzo Erastus Horton by those who knew them both.

Ancestors of Moses Augustine Luce included Normans who fought with William the Conqueror in England and a grandfather who fought on the U.S. side in the War of 1812.  Luce himself fought in the Civil War.  He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing a wounded comrade under fire.  As vice president and counsel of the California Southern Railroad, he fought an important battle with Leland Stanford when he won the right to have the train routed to San Diego through Barstow and San Bernardino, instead of the long way through Los Angeles.  Moses Luce is the grandfather of Gordon C. Luce, who became president of the firm in 1969.

Original stockholders, in addition to the directors, included Marie Sarassin Blochman (the independently wealthy wife of Abraham Blochman), the firm's first woman shareholder and one of three to own fifty shares.  Pioneer Hiram Maybury of San Jose, who had real estate interests in San Diego, and Bryant Howard were the other holders of the maximum number of fifty shares each.