M. H. de Young

Michael Henry de Young (September 30, 1849 – February 15, 1925) was an American journalist and businessman. Early life De Young was born in St. Louis, Missouri. The family was Jewish. Michael in later years claimed that his father was a Baltimore banker of French birth, but he may have been a peripatetic jeweler and dry-goods merchant named De Jong or De Jongh. Michael was the son of Cornelia "Amelia" (née Morange; 1809–1881) and, supposedly, Miechel de Young (d. 1854), who married in 1837. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Morange, who served as the French Minister to Spain under Napoleon I, moved to the United States about 1815 and helped found the B'nai Jeshurun Congregation in New York in 1825. The de Young family moved from St. Louis to San Francisco in 1854. M.H. de Young's father was said to have died of a stroke during the journey. M.H. de Young attended and graduated from Heald College, a San Francisco college founded in 1863. Career