Background
He was born in Nuremberg, Kingdom of Bavaria on April 8, 1818.
He was born in Nuremberg, Kingdom of Bavaria on April 8, 1818.
He emigrated to the United States in 1836, at eighteen years old. He settled in Saint Louis, Missouri and worked in the grain and livestock shipping business. In 1854, he moved west to the Napa Valley in California.
A year later, in 1855, he sowed and harvested 1,000 acres of wheat in Solano County, California.
Shortly after, he expanded to over 14,000 acres near Fresno, California. In 1868, he purchased a bigger ranch in San Diego, California and grew wheat.
In 1860, the rest of his family moved from Saint Louis to California, and he established an office in San Francisco, California. In the late 1860s, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he became associated with Jewish businessmen like Harris Newmark (1834–1916).
In 1869, he purchased 60,000 acres of the San Fernando Valley from Pio Pico for United States$115,000 together with other businessmen from San Francisco, known as the San Fernando Valley Farm Homestead Association.
These acres included what is now Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and North Hollywood. By 1873, they raised 40,000 sheep on the ranch. When wool prices fell, they grew wheat instead.
To take the wheat from the valley to Santa Monica, California, he built a wagon path now known as Interstate 405.
In 1876, he turned it into a toll road. They also established the Lankershim Ranch Land & Water Company, a 12,000-acre real estate development in what is now known as North Hollywood, Los Los Angeles
Personal life
He relinquished his Jewish faith and converted to the Baptist faith. He died on April 10, 1882.
Legacy
Lankershim Boulevard in Los Angeles is named for the Lankershim family.
