Herman Silver (1831–1913) was the chairman of the Republican County Committee in LaSalle, Illinois, superintendent of the United States Mint in Colorado, a collector of internal revenue, a railroad official and a member of the Los Angeles City Council.
He emigrated to the United States in 1848, and on the ship he exchanged Hebrew-English language lessons with a Catholic priest.
[7] He was next identified, in 1875, as "Register of Uncle Sam's land office at Denver, Colorado," with his former hometown Illinois newspaper's editorial comment that: The main inducement to Mr. S. to accept a government position in Colorado was the hope of the air in that region might be beneficial to his shattered health.
[8]The next year he was promoted to collector of internal revenue at the same location,[9] and then, in 1877, he was superintendent of the U.S. Mint in Denver.
Scofield, who had been a state legislator in Idaho, recalled of Silver in this era that: His associates were men of prominence and power.
Mayor William H. Workman noted that Silver and Crank "now own the controlling interest in the Workman-Goodwin franchise for First Street.
[14][15] In 1889 Silver was appointed receiver of the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway,[2] a fledgling steam railroad that ran from Sisters Hospital in Los Angeles to Santa Monica but had been crippled by rainstorms early that year and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
[2] In 1903, Governor Pardee appointed Silver to a two-year term as a state bank commissioner, and the commission elected him as its president.
[2][21] Silver was in the news in April 1907 when a baby boy, "dressed in rich clothing and carefully cloaked with a costly garment," was discovered on the doorstep of his home at 986 Magnolia Avenue.
[2] A funeral service was conducted in the family residence, 981 Magnolia Avenue, under the auspices of Masonic Lodge 392, with a minister and a rabbi officiating.
He gave $100 each to the Kaspare Cohn Hospital, the Jewish Orphans Home and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.