Carl Kohn was born in the Karlovy Vary Region of Bohemia, one of twelve children born to Simon and Sara Kohn. When he was still in his teens, he travelled to New Orleans, where his uncle Samuel had settled. Samuel had arrived around 1806 and quickly became prosperous—first as an innkeeper, then as a banker, financier, and real estate promoter. Soon after Carl’s arrival, Samuel—apparently satisfied with his accomplishments—set sail for Europe and made a new home in Paris. Carl, no doubt grateful for the assistance and introductions that assured his own success, wrote his uncle frequently, keeping him abreast of his life and news of America: Andrew Jackson’s reelection campaign, the Black Hawk War, and the nullification crisis in South Carolina. More than any subject, it was the outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever, which regularly gripped the city, that filled his letters to his uncle.

Like his uncle before him, Kohn made a small fortune in finance and real estate and was among the founders of the Atlantic Insurance Company and the Union National Bank. In 18,50 he solidified his position, marrying a daughter of the so-called New Orleans aristocracy, Clara White, daughter of Héloïse de la Ronde and Colonel Maunsel White. Clara’s father was a politician, merchant, and plantation owner, best remembered for cultivating hot peppers and producing a tabasco sauce which would profoundly shape New Orleans cuisine.

Carl and Clara had one child, daughter Eveline, born in 1851.