USA > California > California gold book : first nugget, its discovery and discoverers, and some of the results proceeding therefrom > Part 25
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He visited New York on behalf of this enterprise, and after the most careful inspection of the refineries there, selected machinery for the Bay Sugar Refinery and shipped it to San Francisco. The result justified his forethought and skill, and when in 1866 he sold out his interest in the refinery to proceed to Europe and make a further study of sugar manufacture, he left a prosperous concern, and took with him a very substantial fortune.
While in Europe Mr. Spreckels made a thorough study of the beet sugar industry of Germany, even entering one of the factories at Magdeburg as a work- man to familiarize himself with the practical details. The result of his investigation demonstrated that it would not pay to establish beet sugar factories in California owing to the high price of labor there. If the conditions of manufacture had been favorable then as they are now, California would have had the beet sugar industry established a score of years before it has been by Mr. Spreckels. But having satisfied himself upon that vital point, he at once turned his mind to the practical detail of simplifying the processes of sugar refining in America, where there was an ever increasing demand. Accordingly he returned to New
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York, where he spent months elaborating his ideas and making costly experiments with new machinery. He ordered a new plant built, embodying all his improve- ments, and in 1867 founded the California Sugar Refinery at the corner of Eighth and Brannan streets, San Francisco, of which he was the sole owner and manager. This enterprise was a success from the start, as the sugar was superior to any other product on the market. It soon became necessary to enlarge the works, and two refineries were built, one in 1868, the other in 1878, to take the place of the wooden structure in which the original start had been made. The daily capacity of the California Sugar Refinery at this time was 255,000 pounds of refined sugar, and it employed a working force of 250 men.
It was during this period that Mr. Spreckels invented and brought into operation the processes of making hard and cube sugar direct from the centrifugals, and their introduction put him beyond competition. The old process took six days to perfect; by his invention the process was complete in twenty-four hours. From this point in his career Claus Spreckels was without a serious rival in his special line of manufacture, and he was known henceforth as "the Sugar King."
Meantime the Reciprocity Treaty with Hawaii went into operation, and although Claus Spreckels had opposed its ratification he was not slow to avail him- self of its commercial advantages as providing a near-by supply of raw sugar. Accordingly he visited the islands in the mail steamer which took down the news of the ratification of the treaty in 1876, and mnade a contract with the planters for all their sugar for a term of years. He thus had the entire control of Hawaiian
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sugar in addition to access to the open markets of the world, and it soon became necessary to enlarge the capacity of his refinery, the sugar from which found ready sale as far east as the Missouri river. Ten acres of land on the Potrero, South San Francisco, having a deep water frontage to the Bay, were bought, and the foundation stone of the present refinery was laid May 28, 1881. This is one of the most complete, as it is also one of the largest, sugar refineries in the world, and has earned its enterprising founder both fame and fortune. It is constructed of the most durable material, only brick and iron being used in the several
buildings. The filter-house is twelve stories high ; other buildings in the works are ten stories. The walls taper from three feet at the base, to sixteen inches at
the top, and form a landmark on the Bay. Over seven million bricks were used in their construction. There are three main structures, having a frontage to the Bay of about 400 feet. The entire plant is lighted by electricity. Every mechanical device for economizing labor and perfecting the refining process is in use in this great refinery. The barrel factory is outside the refinery. The laboratory, machine shop, warehouse and wharves are in keeping with the general plan and requirements of this establishment, which was com- pleted and in operation in January, 1883, at a cost of about $2,000,000. The ship and railroad car meet at the spacious wharves of the California Refinery on the Potrero. The daily capacity is equal to about 1,500,000 pounds, and it employs over 600 men, not to speak of the army of skilled labor for which it makes employ- ment in dependent industries.
At this point it may be well to refer briefly to the
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development of the sugar industry on the Hawaiian Islands consequent upon Mr. Spreckels' identification with that country, and which has been of such vast benefit to the trade and commerce of San Francisco and the entire Pacific coast. During 1876, the first Hawaiian treaty year, the total foreign trade of the islands was $4,052,811; during 1890, the last year in which the islands enjoyed the special advantages of the treaty in the sugar product, the total value of exports and imports were $19,985,505, and this enormous development in fourteen years is almost exclusively to be credited to the enterprise of Claus Spreckels, who invested not less than $5,000,000 on the islands in permanent improvements, irrigating canals, railroad, mills, etc., besides establishing a first-class steamship service and freight line between San Fran- cisco and Honolulu. The sugar export from the islands in 1876 aggregated 26,072,429 pounds ; and in 1890 it aggregated 259,798,462 pounds, whilst in 1891, 274,983,580 pounds of sugar were exported to San Francisco and bandled at the California Sugar
Refinery. Mr. Spreckels owns the largest sugar plan- tation in the world. It is located on the Island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian group; he also owns other plantations on these islands which yield one-half of the total output of sugar, and has a contract with the planters for the other half of the product for a long term of years. Ninety per cent. of the Hawaiian trade is with the United States, and practically it may be said with San Francisco.
The business enterprise of Claus Spreckels by sea and land built up American industries and developed American trade and commerce. American tonnage
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(either on the American register or built on the Pacific coast for Hawaiian owners) has been used almost exclusively in the Hawaiian trade since 1876. There have been built on the Pacific coast, mainly at San Francisco, for the Hawaiian trade since the reciprocity treaty went into operation, twenty-one sailing vessels, with an aggregate of about 8,000 tons, and for the inter-island trade, on the Hawaiian register, twenty- three sailing and fourteen steam vessels. The total cost was about $2,000,000, of which total 50 per cent. was for wages. In addition to this John D. Spreckels & Bros. built at San Francisco five of their steamtug fleet ; the latest addition, the "Fearless," being the largest, best-equipped and most powerful tug in the world, constructed entirely of steel at the Union Iron Works. These tugs cost over $250,000. In addition to these San Francisco built tugs, Messrs. Spreckels also built the ocean-going steamships Alameda and Mariposa, employed on the Australian mail service, at a cost of $1,000,000, at Cramp & Sons' ship-yard, Philadelphia; also the steamship Kinau, for the inter- island trade, and one steamtug at Messrs. Cramps' yard, at a total cost of $360,000 ; bought two first-class Clyde-built ocean-going steamships at a cost of $500,000 for the Australian and Hawaiian trade, one of which is now under the Hawaiian flag; built a 700 ton steamship at Glasgow for the inter-islands trade, besides building a steamtug at San Francisco for services at Honolulu. The annual expenditure for wages at San Francisco in shipping employed almost exclusively in the Hawaiian trade, exceeds $500,000; the additional outlay for supplies is also very large. The capital invested in building and equipping steam
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and sailing vessels for this trade has been at least $4,000,000. This expenditure has been made in large part by Mr. Spreckels and the commercial enterprises with which he is identified and controls, and is perhaps unequaled in the history of commercial development in any part of the world as the work of one man.
Returning to the sugar enterprises of the Sugar King, we find this gentleman visiting Europe in 1887 to again investigate the beet sugar business. His investigation was thorough, including every detail from the field to the factory. He shipped several tons of sugar beet seed to California, which was distributed free, and experimental plantings were made in various districts. Being satisfied with the results of these experiments, Mr. Spreckels bought a beet sugar plant in Germany, embodying the latest processes of manu- facture, and erected it at Watsonville, Santa Cruz county, having organized the Western Beet Sugar Company. It was started on October 20, 1888, and was so successful that its capacity was doubled in 1892. This factory made about 6,000 tons of beet sugar in the campaign of 1892, and has been the means of enriching the farmers of the fertile Pajaro and Salinas valleys, by making a certain market for a new agri- cultural product, which nets them an average of $50 per acre, and is capable of indefinite expansion. This practical experiment demonstrated the fact that beet sugar could be produced on a large scale in California under favorable fiscal conditions, despite the high price of land, labor and money ; and when the sugar duty was repealed by the Mckinley tariff, was the cause of inducing Congress to provide for the payment of an equivalent bounty on the home product. The beet
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sugar industry of the United States, as well as the cane sugar industry of the South, owed this to Claus Spreckels.
But this remarkable man founu, after the first year's trial, that he could not depend entirely upon the farmers for the necessary supply of beets, and he leased a large ranch in the neighborhood of Watsonville, upon which he planted and harvested 1,200 acres of sugar beets in the season of 1892. Another material draw- back was the cost of transportation of beets and fuel to the factory, and of the sugar to San Francisco for refining. The Watsonville factory was heavily handi- capped by the freight rates of the Southern Pacific railroad, and frequently the farmers could not get their beets shipped to the factory for weeks at a time. Mr. Spreckels determined to change these conditions. With his proverbial energy he organized the Pajaro Valley Railroad Company, secured a deepwater shipping point at Moss Landing, and built and equipped twenty-five miles of narrow gauge steel railroad, with side tracks over his Morocojo ranch. This railroad enables all the farmers in Pajaro and Salinas valleys to ship their beets to the factory, and gives them an outlet to a shipping point on the coast for their wheat and other produce, thus saving the long and expensive haul to San Francisco by the Southern Pacific. These joint enterprises called for an expenditure of close on $2,000,000 by Mr. Spreckels ; and the effect has been to enrich the district, and establish on a firm basis a great national industry. The Watsonville Beet Sugar Factory is the foundation and cause of the beet sugar industry of the United States, and Claus Spreckels was its founder and exponent. The Watsonville Beet Sugar
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Factory is the best equipped enterprise of the kind in the world, as Mr. Spreckels has added several import- ant improvements in the sugar making process ; and the farm operations in planting and harvesting the beets on his great ranch have been rendered almost perfect by the use of labor saving machinery, several of the most useful being originated on the spot. In all about 14,000 tons of beet sugar have been made at Watsonville since the factory started. Claus Spreckels, in 1889, organized the Occidental Beet Sugar Company, with a capital of $5,000,000, of which he and his son, John D. Spreckels, subscribed $2,500,000; but owing to the great industrial struggle in which he was then engaged with the sugar trust, no active work was done by this organization, and since his victory over the trust in 1892, and return to California, he has con- tented himself with doubling the capacity of the Wat- sonville factory and promoting beet culture.
Perhaps the most notable enterprise Claus Spreckels ever engaged in was his fight against the sugar trust, because it involved an industrial and financial cam- paign against the combined and organized sugar inter- ests of the United States outside of San Francisco, and fixed the attention of the commercial world for years. The sugar trust was organized in 1887, with a capital of $50,000,000, and when Claus Spreckels refused to join the monopoly and surrender control of his own business, the trust bought the American Sugar Refinery at San Francisco from certain Hawaiian planters, who began operating it with their own sugar on his refusal to contract to buy it, and started a war upon the California Sugar Refinery at its headquarters. This was in 1887-88. The challenge was accepted by
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Mr. Spreckels, who proceeded to the East, and after carefully studying the situation, bought a site on the Delaware river at Philadelphia, and there built the largest and most complete sugar refinery in the world. The corner-stone was laid on the 29th of October, 1888, and the great refinery was ready for operation in thirteen months. Considering the magnitude of the work, and the fact that the factory and wharves were capable of accommodating twelve of the largest ocean- going vessels at one time, and that they were erected on made ground, it was a feat in building which has never been approached, either before or since, in the United States or elsewhere. Nine acres of ground were covered by the Spreckels refinery at Philadelphia, . consisting of twelve enormous buildings, ten and twelve stories high ; and on the 10th of December, 1889, Claus Spreckels, the Sugar King, opened the campaign against the sugar trust in the East, and con- tinued the war until 1892, when the trust capitulated, buying out his Eastern interests and leaving him in undisputed possession of the territory west of the Mis- souri river. The construction of the machinery for the Philadelphia refinery and the building was superin- tended by Mr. Spreckels personally, and one or the other of his sons. The cost of this great enterprise involved an outlay of $5,000,000, which fact demon- strates the vast resources of " the Sugar King," when the enormous sums invested in his other enterprises by land and sea, in California and on the Hawaiian islands, are considered. It is only necessary to add that mean- while the American refinery of the trust had been absorbed by the California Refinery Company, and. that the Western Refinery Company was organized
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after the amalgamation. The California Sugar Refin- ery, built, organized and managed by Claus Spreckels, occupies the field exclusively under its new name on the Pacific coast and as far east as the Missouri river, and has the absolute control of all the sugar product of the Hawaiian islands.
It now remains to note the great commercial firm of J. D. Spreckels & Bros., which was founded in 1880 to transact a general shipping and commission business, and became incorporated in 1891. This firm, which is now the leading mercantile house on the Pacific coast, began its shipping enterprise with a two hundred ton schooner. Other sailing vessels were soon added to the pioneer craft, and in 1881 the Oceanic Steamship Company was organized with Mr. John D. Spreckels as president, Mr. A. B. Spreckels, treasurer, and the firm of J. D. Spreckels & Bros. as general agents. They at once set to work to develop Hawaiian trade, as their distinguished father had aleady set about devel- oping its sugar industry. Orders were given to Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, to build two three thousand ton iron steamships for the island trade, and without loss of time the "Mariposa " and the "Alameda " were built and put in commission. Meanwhile two steam- ships were chartered by the firm, and a fortnightly service to Honolulu was established. At this time the Pacific Mail steamers were performing the Australian mail service, and an arrangement between the two companies was come to regarding the Honolulu trade which was mutually satisfactory.
This state of things continued until 1885, when the Pacific Mail Company withdrew from the Australian route, and the Oceanic Company took it up. It had
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serious opposition, however, on the route, as Sir Wm. Pearce, the wealthy English shipbuilder and owner of the "Zealandia" and " Australia," which had been employed under the Pacific Mail contract continued to run his ships between San Francisco and Australia, touching at Honolulu and Auckland. Claus Spreckels saw that this opposition must be got rid of in the inter- est of the Oceanic Company. Accordingly he bought the steamships from Sir. Wm. Pearce by telegraph for $500,000, and expended about $350,000 additional in repairs and equipments on them at San Francisco. The " Australia " has since been admitted to American register. The " Alameda," " Mariposa " and " Zealan- dia " carried the Australian mail from that date up to 1891, when the "Zealandia " was withdrawn at the request of the New Zealand government, and a British steamship took her place. It was owing to the patriot- ism and enterprise of Claus Spreckels, however, that American commerce is now, and has been represented on the South Pacific, since 1885; and it is also due to that gentleman and his enterprising sons that San Francisco stands at the head of American ports in the employment of American ships in its foreign trade. The manufactures, trade and commerce of San Fran- cisco owes more to the enterprise, business capacity and integrity of Claus Spreckels individually, and the now incorporated firm of J. D. Spreckels & Bros., than to all other local agencies combined. This firm trans- acts the largest import and commission business on the Pacific coast, and its credit is established and respected throughout the commercial world.
J. D. Spreckels & Bros. own a fleet of six powerful steamtugs at San Francisco, fitted with every life-sa :-
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ing and wrecking appliance. Reference has already been made to these unequaled aids to commerce and shipping. Whenever practicable Messrs. Spreckels give contracts for machinery and ships to San Francisco firms. They also own a line of sailing vessels to Hono- lulu, and in their various enterprises employ over 3,000 men, and it is due to Claus Spreckels to say that while he has had men in his employ for thirty years, there has never been a strike or a man discharged except for cause.
J. D. Spreckels & Bros. also established a commer- cial company at San Diego, where they have built extensive wharves and coal bunkers, having a capacity of 13,000 tons. They control the Coronado Beach Com- pany, while Mr. Adolph B. Spreckels owns the electric and belt railroad at San Diego. The firm is also build- ing the Coos Bay and Roseburg railroad in Oregon, a standard gauge of 100 miles.
Mr. Claus Spreckels owns a ranch of 4,000 acres av Aptos, Santa Cruz county, on which he has erected a handsome mansion, and where a breeding farm has been established under the supervision of Mr. A. B. Spreckels. In short there is scarcely a branch of industrial development or line of commercial enter- prise with which Claus Spreckels, " the Sugar King," and his sons are not indentified on the Pacific coast, and every enterprise they identify themselves with succeeds.
In special lines, by way of summing up, the sugar refining and beet sugar industries of California have been practically founded and built up by Claus Spreck- els. To him also the Hawaiian kingdom owes its industrial development and financial stability. In 1884,
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when it became imperative for the Hawaiian govern- ment to establish a national currency and retire the depreciated silver coins in circulation, which had been introduced from Peru and other South American coun- tries for speculative purposes, Claus Spreckels bought this token money, and at his own risk had dies made and one million Kalakaua dollars coined at San Fran- cisco, in silver, of like weight and fineness as the Amer- ican standard dollar, and shipped the money to Hono. lulu. He also subscribed for $500,000 of Hawaiian national bonds, established a commercial house and banking firm at Honolulu, and as necessity required made advances to the Hawaiian government for public purposes, charging only legal interest, although the advances were often made without guarantee for repay- ment. No other man identified with the Hawaiian islands has done one-tenth part as much as Claus Spreckels in developing the resources, placing Hawaiian finance on a sound basis, and saving its business men from the burden of onerous and oppressive exchange. For this last mentioned service he encountered the enmity of those who had profited by these unreasonable exactions, but on the other hand he enjoyed the satis- faction of benefiting the bulk of the trading classes, while breaking down a crushing monopoly.
To the firm of J. D. Spreckles & Bros. is due the development of the foreign trade of San Francisco. Whilst the China and Japan trade was diverted to the port of Vancouver, by the Canadian Pacific, British competition on the Australian route was removed by this firm, as already narrated, and the Hawaiian trade became wholly identified with the commerce of the Golden Gate through Messrs. Spreckels' enterprise and
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business sagacity. They also expended large sums in shipbuilding, etc., at San Francisco, thereby employing skilled labor and helping to build up other brances of manufacture. In southern California they have main- tained the supremacy of American shipping, as their enterprise at the port of San Diego demonstrates. In short, the Messrs. Spreckels are merchant princes, whose great wealth has been acquired by legitimate business, in the employment of labor and the promotion of enter- prises of public utility and necessity, and their high reputation, which extends throughout the world of trade and commerce, is especially the heritage of California where it has been made.
OTEL DEL CORONADO AND CORONADO BEACH. Among the facts next to impossible of belief is that one in regard to the lively and beautiful town of Coronado, with its three thousand inhabitants, and metropolitan improvements. In 1885 it was appar- ently an island in the ocean, but in fact was an arm of land, just above sea level, extending down between San Diego bay and the ocean, the western point reaching within half a mile or so of the promontory upon which is situated the government light at Point Loma, and which is the highest marine light in the world. It was then utterly without human habitation, even to a fisherman's hut, and was covered with unsightly shrub- bery. It was about this time that the completion of the Santa Fe railroad to San Diego inspired five enter- prising citizens with a belief that this barren spot might be utilized. E. S. Babcock, Joseph Collett, Jacob Gruendike, Heber Ingle and H. L. Story formed
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a corporation, and obtained title to the "North and South islands" as they were called. These were all men of expanded ideas, and with entire confidence in the practical views of E. S. Babcock, who had been made president of the combination. In 1886 the first ground was broken, and the grand system of improve- ment commenced. What these included, the more than 350,000 visitors, composed of the best citizens of every land under the shining sun, can well understand. The first sale of lots took place in November, 1886. Ground was broken for the Hotel del Coronado in February, 1887, and in February, 1888, it was opened for tourists, with a railroad running from the hotel over this narrow arm, more than six miles easterly to the mainland, and thence to San Diego, the whole distance being about fifteen miles. A motor road was constructed to the ferry, about a mile and a half, and boats conveyed* passengers across the bay to San Diego. The town of Coronado was laid out, with the most generous provision for streets, which are wide enough to deserve the name of broadway for every one of them. Forty thousand shade trees were planted. The San Diego Union describes these as " the tropical palm, the sweet smelling orange, the dark-hued olive, the resinous cypress and pine, the historical fig, the graceful pepper and the towering eucalyptus." In the center of the island, on either side of Orange avenue, the principal thoroughfare which connects the ferry with the hotel is a pretty park abounding in a variety of the plants and flowers which this region is so prolific in producing. Boulevards have been constructed to the south and east for three miles along the beach, and to North island in the opposite direction, from which diverging roadways
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