Born in 1863, Jesse Levy was the second oldest child of Herman and Eva Rosenthal Levy’s eight children. The parents, Prussian born immigrants, settled in San Jose California, where Herman ran a dry goods store. Jessie would live much of his life living with two of his younger siblings, Emma and Clara. When Jesse was in his fifties, he and his sisters moved from San Jose to San Francisco. None of them married or had children.