Henry Jastro (Jastrowitz)
Henry Jastro of Bakerfield,
#WS1388
Values Codes: I-E-L-P
Henry Jastro (Jastrowitz) was born in 1848 or 1850 in Hamburg, Germany
Henry Jastro arrived in New York in 1863 on the ship Simona.
Henry Jastro handled freight in Arizona, worked in cattle business in Wilmington (Los Angeles port area), and as a livestock drover and freighter for Phineas Banning on Catalina Island.
Henry Jastro then became a trail boss on cattle drives in the San Joaquin Valley, Nevada and Arizona.
Bakersfield
In 1872, Henry Jastro established a ‘first-class’ Bakersfield Brewry, furnishing beer to the area.
In 1874, he became an associate for the Kern County Land Company in Bakersfield.
It was Henry Jastro who advised Alphonse Weill to move to Bakersfield and become the distributor for his beer.
In 1885, Henry Jastro produced the first cotton crop in California
In 1890 he bought the Bakersfield’s Gas & Electric Company, with H.A. Blodgett, and added coal to its sales and distribution. This utility company later merged into San Joaquin Light & Power Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
In 1903, Henry Jastro was Manager of the Kern County Land Company, controlling 1,395,000 acres in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico, as well as the local utility company that Jastro owned.
Henry Jastro served as a board member of Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Company
He was a member of the Southern Hotel Association Board of Directors.
Civic
Henry Jastro served five terms as President of the National Livestock Association.
He was an active member of the California State Fair Association.
Between 1892-1916, Henry Jastro served on the Board of Supervisors. Many public works projects completed during his administration.
Fraternal
Henry Jastro was a member of both the Elks and Masons.
Family
Henry Jastro married May Baker, daughter of Colonel Henry Baker, founder and namesake of Bakersfield.
Together they has six children, three who survived to adulthood: Harry, May, and Carolyn.
May Jastro died in 1894.
She is buried in Union Cemetery, Bakersfield.
Henry Jastro died in 1924 while staying at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
He was buried in the Union Cemetery in Bakersfield with both Masonic and Elk rituals.
Henry Jastro Gravesite in Bakersfield
For more information on Henry Jastro, see the following:
- We Brought Sinai to San Joaquin, The Story of the Jews of Kern County, by Shirley Ann Newman, Temple Beth El, Bakersfield, CA 1998.
- Pioneer Merchants of Tulare County, California, by Annie R. Mitchell, WSJH, Vol. 2, Issue #3, 1970.
- “Jewish Businessmen of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare & Kern Counties,” from Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare & Kern, California, 1891, WSJH, V34, #4, 2002
Regina Merwin is Curator of this Henry Jastrow Exhibit.