Image of Joseph Kraines in The Ogden Standard-Examiner attached to his obituary, The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Sat., Nov. 16, 1957.

Elizabeth Kraines yearbook photo in The Acorn, 1926, Weber State College. Elizabeth was the daughter of Joseph Kraines. [Click image to enlarge.]

Image of Ruth Kraines, daughter of Joseph and Clara Kraines, in The Ogden Standard-Examiner. The article mentioned Ruth’s new job in Oklahoma with the American Red Cross after doing her graduate studies at the University of Chicago, January 16, 1944. [Click image to view full image.]

Joseph Kraines was born in Russia on May 28, 1874, and settled in Ogden in 1906 with his wife Clara Kraines; daughters Elizabeth, Freida, and Ruth; and son, Isadore. Clara died in 1912 and Kraines remarried Rose Rosenthal in 1925. Rose was born on May 15, 1884, in Poland. She relocated to Denver, Colorado, with her parents shortly after her birth. She was previously married to David Rosenthal of Denver and bore three children. Rose passed away on November 18, 1973.[1]

Joseph’s daughter Elizabeth graduated from Ogden High School in 1921.[2] She later attended Weber Stake Academy, now known as Weber State University, in 1926. After attending college, Elizabeth married Lotus Niles and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ruth Kraines attended graduate school in social work at the University of Chicago. In 1944 The Ogden Standard-Examiner reported that she became a member of the American Red Cross at Borden General Hospital in Oklahoma.[3] Ruth married Jacob Lustig of Idaho Falls, Idaho, on April 7, 1946.[4] Joseph’s son, Isadore Kraines, died at the young age of 22 in 1925 from peritonitis.[5]

Advertisement in newspaper of Joseph Kraines’s business, Western Junk Co., The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Sun., Dec. 9, 1945.

Ogden Junk House advertisement in the 1921 Polk Directory of Weber County, Utah. Jacob Kraines owned and operated this business with his brother, David Kreines. [Click image to view full image.]

Although this image lists David Kreines as a pawnbroker in 1913, David also held jobs as a proprietor. First with his brother, Joseph Kraines, at Ogden Junk House until 1920 when Joseph bought the interest from David, dissolving their partnership. David became a proprietor for Pioneer Junk Co. until his death on December 12, 1938. [Click image to view full image.]

Kraines became a proprietor in Ogden, owning and operating several different junkyards, including Ogden Junk House and Western Junk Co.[6] Joseph partnered with his brother, David Kreines, in managing the Ogden Junk House at 1900-1912 Washington Avenue. According to a newspaper advertisement for the Ogden Junk House, the business specialized in “wholesale and retail dealers in all kinds of junk, pelts, wool, furs, and beeswax.” Regarding the spelling difference in the brother’s last names, no evidence has been located to figure out why the brothers spelled their last names differently, but it is obvious through mentions in newspaper articles and their obituaries that both were related as brothers.[7]

David Kreines was born in September of 1867, also in Russia, to Ben and Leah Kreines. He arrived in the United Stated in 1888 and settled in Ogden in 1905. David wed Sarah Schoenbaum on September 12, 1897, and had three sons: Morris, Leon, and Milton Kreines. He was also a proprietor, like his brother, Joseph, and managed two junk yard companies.[8]

In August 1919, a massive fire broke out on Washington Avenue, engulfing a macaroni plant, a few nearby homes, and devastating the Ogden junkyard of the brothers.[9] The fire did not stop the brothers from re-establishing their business, which took a new address on Washington Avenue. [10] In April of 1920, the Ogden Junk House office was located at 2014 Washington Avenue and the yard located at 2059-2061 Washington Avenue, although at this point the brothers parted ways and Joseph purchased all the interest of the business, making him the sole owner of Ogden Junk House.[11]

In 1921 David became proprietor of City Junk House and later Pioneer Junk Co., where he worked until his death on December 12, 1938. Before David became a proprietor, he was a pawnbroker at 160 Twenty-Fifth Street in 1913. He also lived on Twenty-Fifth Street in the 1920s before moving to 2108 Jefferson Avenue.