J. A. Folger


James "Jim" Athearn Folger, Sr. was an American businessman and the founder of the Folgers Coffee Company.

Early years

Folger was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Brown Folger and wife Nancy Hiller. His father was a master blacksmith who had invested in a tryworks and bought two ships. They had nine children of which James was the second youngest. The Folger family roots can be traced back to England. On July 13, 1846, a fire broke out in Nantucket's business section and burned the works and ship and 11 year old James helped in the reconstruction.

San Francisco

After the discovery of gold in California, James, along with his brothers Henry and Edward set out in the autumn of 1849 on a ship bound for the Isthmus of Panama. After a raft and hiking journey across the Isthmus, the brothers waited at Panama City for quite a while before catching the Pacific mail steamer Isthmus on April 10, 1850. They entered the Golden Gate on May 5, 1850.
James decided to stay in San Francisco instead of heading to the gold fields as a result of the high wages being offered. He helped reconstruct after one of San Francisco's many fires, similar to how he had in Nantucket. He helped build a spice-and-coffee mill for a man named William H. Bovee.
In 1860, he founded the San Francisco coffee firm, known as the J. A. Folger Coffee Company, known today simply as Folgers Coffee.

Death and legacy

J. A. Folger married Eleanor Laughran and was the father of James Athearn Folger, Jr., who married Clare Luning. James and Eleanor had three other children; John Athearn m. Nancy Try, Ernest Randolph, and Elizabeth. He is the paternal grandfather of Peter Folger, and the great-grandfather of Abigail Folger. Abigail was murdered in 1969, by members of the Manson family, along with her friend, actress Sharon Tate among others. He is also the uncle of Henry Clay Folger, founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
He died June 26, 1889 at the age of 54 and is buried in the Folger family plot at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.