The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 603

JOSEPH P. KOHLS.

Joseph P. Kohls, a well known merchant of Yakima, engaged in the shoe trade, was
born in Shakopee, Minnesota, in 1888, a son of Henry H. and Regina Kohls. The
father engaged in general merchandising in Shakopee for more than thirty-six
years, becoming one of the pioneer merchants and leading business men of that
city. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, but established his home in Minnesota in
1861 and passed away in Yakima in 1908, when he had reached the age of
sixty-five years. He had sold out his business in Minnesota and had come to the
northwest to identify his interests with this city. His widow survived him for
but three months.

Joseph P. Kohls was the ninth in order of birth in their family of eleven
children. He acquired a public school education in Minnesota and afterward
attended Gonzaga College in Spokane, where he pursued a commercial course. He
next entered the shoe business in connection with his brother, Benjamin J.
Kohls, opening a store in 1910. Success attended the new venture and as time
passed on their patronage increased owing to their reliable business methods
and the excellent line of goods which they carried. The death of Benjamin J.
Kohls occurred in the year 1916 and since that time Joseph P. Kohls has
conducted the store alone, enjoying a very liberal patronage. He was located at
No. 113 East Yakima avenue until January, 1917, when he removed to No. 203 East
Yakima avenue, where he has a store twenty-five by one hundred and ten feet. He
carries a fine stock of high-grade shoes and employs four clerks in the conduct
of the business, which is steadily growing.

In 1912 Mr. Kohls was united in marriage to Miss Eva M. Paradis, of Yakima, who
was born at Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, a daughter of Joseph and Mary Paradis,
who removed to Washington in 1910 and are now living in Seattle. Mr. and Mrs.
Kohls have two children: Bernard Joseph, three and a half years of age; and Mary
Louise, a little maiden of but a year and a half.

The parents are members of St. Joseph's Catholic church and Mr. Kohls is
identified with the Knights of Columbus. He belongs also to the Modern Woodmen
of America and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is an interested
member of the Commercial Club and in politics maintains an independent course.
The nature of his activities aside from those already mentioned is indicated in
the fact that he has membership in the Yakima Valley Business Men's Association,
in the Yakima Home Guard and in the Country Club. Aside from his shoe business
he has become interested in farm lands near Priest Rapids. He is actuated in all
that he does by a spirit of progressiveness and enterprise that stops not at the
successful fulfillment of his plans but develops other plans leading to still
larger and more important results. Yakima claims him as a substantial citizen
and one whose efforts have furthered the welfare and development of the
community.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.