Lewis Hahn Papers

Wonder, Nevada, located approximately 50 miles east of Fallon, was established in 1906 after the discovery of a rich quartz vein in a dry wash north of Chalk Mountain. Lewis “Lew” Hahn ( -1956) came to the town in the early days of the boom. He, among hundreds of other men, came to Wonder in search of riches in order to improve their financial condition. Hahn, in describing Wonder, calls it both a “Utopia” and “Valley of Despair.”

Hahn, originally from New Jersey, founded the Lew Hahn & Co. Mining Investments company and, by 1908, staked 5 claims in the hopes of striking it big. Hahn left Nevada around 1910 for New York. From 1918-1928 and again in 1937, he served as the managing director of the National Retail Dry Good Association. Beginning in 1928, Hahn managed Hahn Department Stores, which eventually became the Allied Department Stores. By the early 1940s, Syndicate-Alliance Trading Company, Inc., a mercantile wholesaler based out of New York City, had replaced Allied Department Stores; Hahn served as president of the company.

Deeply involved in the mercantile business during the 1920s and into the Great Depression, Hahn, along with others in the mercantile/retail world were concerned about holiday sales. 1939 was a particularly worrisome year as Thanksgiving, at that time traditionally celebrated on the last Thursday of the month, fell in the fifth week of November which left a shorter shopping period before Christmas. President Roosevelt, hearing the concerns from this sector and upon the suggestion of Hahn, elected to move Thanksgiving that year to earlier in November in the hope of allowing more time for holiday shopping. Unfortunately for retailers, moving Thanksgiving that year did nothing to boost sales.