Image of Herman Kuchler, son of original store owner Isaak Kuchler, who died in 1897, standing in front of the Kuchler I and Sons Cigar Store located in Broom Hotel on Twenty-Fifth Street in Ogden, Utah, taken 1910.

According to historian Ava Kahn, “Jews [in the West] generally constituted a small percentage of a town’s population and were drawn into close relations with their neighbors through business partnerships, fraternal memberships, and civic leadership.”[1] The early Jewish community of Ogden exemplified this statement as they quickly started businesses and created gathering spaces to practice Judaism and to celebrate their culture. Some of these spaces included businesses of early Jews of Ogden, gathering halls such as the IOOF Hall on Grant Avenue, and even homes of congregation members such as Rabbi Lazras Lehrer. Congregation Brith Sholem and its synagogue are thriving today due to the efforts of these early Jews who organized the first congregation Ohab Sholem and campaigned for the establishment of the synagogue in 1921. Although small, the first Jewish community of Ogden and its surrounding areas during the late nineteenth century bonded together to create an eternal Jewish identity in Ogden.

The Kuhn brothers arrived in the area during the 1860s and opened and operated shops in Salt Lake City, Corinne, and Ogden, Utah. A. Kuhn & Bros., a wholesale furnishing good store, was the oldest and largest store of its kind in the West. The brothers opened their shop in Ogden in 1876 on the corner of Twenty-Fourth and Washington Avenue in the ZCMI building. ZCMI is believed to be the first American department store.

Jewish settlers came to Ogden well before the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) reached the city in 1869. These early arrivals included the Kuhn brothers: Abraham, Adam, and Nathan. The brothers were born in Weisenheim, Germany, to parents Joseph and Fanny Eichold. Abraham was born in 1838, and Adam in 1844. Abraham left Germany for America in 1852 and Adam soon followed two years later.[2] The Kuhn brothers arrived in the territory of Utah during the 1860s and opened and operated wholesale furnishing good stores in Salt Lake City, Corinne, and Ogden, Utah. A. Kuhn & Bros., also sometimes referred to as A. Kuhn & Bro., was the oldest and largest store of its kind in the West.[3] Adam, known as Ad, later took over the management and operation of these stores. 

The brothers opened a store in Ogden in 1876 on the corner of Twenty-Fourth and Washington Avenue in the Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) building, with Nathan Kuhn as manager.[4] The ZCMI company was considered the first American department store.[5] Although the evidence is unclear to indicate that the Kuhn brothers were part of the early congregation of Brith Sholem, they partook in Jewish worship and celebrations, and they had good relationships with early members of Brith Sholem, as the Kuhn name appears in various newspaper articles detailing these events.