Levy, M.

M. Levy was born in Alsace, France, on June 3, 1837, and immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1852 before moving to Port Gibson, Mississippi. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Sixteenth Mississippi Infantry in 1861, fought in several major battles, and was eventually captured and paroled. He traveled to California via the Isthmus of Panama in 1863, operating butcher shops in Sonoma, Fairfield, Tulare, Lemoore, and Visalia.

In April 1900, Mr. Levy moved to Fresno County and established the first butcher shop in Laton under the name M. Levy & Company. The business expanded into Coalinga in 1905 with the purchase of the Crescent Market, incorporating as the Crescent Meat Company where he served as president alongside partners Albert Levy and J. H. Zwang. Married in Portland, Oregon, to Gida Zwang, with whom he had five surviving children, he was also an extensive sheep and cattle operator in Warthan Canyon and Arizona, as well as an active fifty-six year member of the Odd Fellows until his later years.