The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast, Part 17

Author:
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: San Francisco : The Journal
Number of Pages: 556


USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast > Part 17


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ists', blacksmiths' and miners' tools. Mr. Doble is the only one now living carrying on this business that was so employed at that early day. The firm had the exclusive agency of Messrs. Thos. Firth & Sons' celebrated Eng- lish steel from 1869. This agency Mr. Doble still retains. A great tribute was paid to his character as a man of integrity in 1886, when Messrs. Park Bros. & Co., L'd, of Pittsburg, Penn., proprietors of the great Black Diamond Steel Works and Lake Superior Copper Mills, ten- dered him the management of their business on this coast, consenting that he should retain the agency of Messrs. Firth & Sons and act for both, which he has continued to do ever since.


Mr. D. has taken a lively interest in street railroads, was many years a Director in the Sutter Street Rail- road and took an active interest in the construction of the Sutter Street Cable Road, the second of the kind constructed in this city. He was a Director and a large owner in the Oakland street lines from an early day, and until that system of street railroads, about two years ago, was sold out to Senator Fair. He was one of the promoters of the Blue Lakes Water Company, formed to bring the waters of the Blue Lakes in Alpine County to the great mother gold-bearing lode of California. It now supplies power to all the quartz mills from Plymouth to the Mokel- umne River, a distance of fifteen miles. The company is supplying water through canals and iron pipe a distance of over eighty miles. They also supply pure mountain water for all domestic purposes, and for irriga- tion, to the towns of Plymouth, Ama-


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dor City, Sutter Creek, Jackson and Ione City in Amador County.


Realizing the uncertainties of life, and with a view of perpetuating his extensive business and giving his two . sons an interest in the same, early in the present year he incorporated it under the name of the " Abner Doble Company."


In 1856 he was married to Margaret B. McFarland, of West Virginia. They have ever since lived in this city and raised a family of two sons and two daughters.


He is in politics a Republican, and a conservative worker in all matters pertaining to the interests of the city of his adoption.


He has been a member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and has belonged to the Free and Ac- cepted Masons for a third of a cen- tury.


Of strict integrity and steady hon- esty, and withal the architect of his fortune, he gives a worthy example to the young men of our day and generation.


HENRY LEE DODGE.


S a lawyer, a merchant, a law- giver and the holder of many re- sponsible positions of public trust, Henry L. Dodge has acquitted himself in such a manner as to obtain the esteem and confidence of the en- tire community and to secure for him- self a prominent place in the history of the State and city with whose interest his life, from early man- hood, has been so closely identified.


He is eminently entitled to a , lace in " The Builders of a Great City," and the short record of the princi- pal events in his life which is here given, while embracing only salient points without any surrounding of flattery, is sufficient to give the reader who shall come after us a distinct idea of the character of the man and the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries, while the many of to-day, both in his Eastern home and on the Pacific Coast who know him either person- ally or by virtue of his position, will be pleased to see this recognition of his services.


The family to which Mr. Dodge belongs is of English origin and has been known in the records of New England settlers since 1629, when William Dodge emigrated to America from Chishire, England, and settled in Massachusetts. His father, Nathan Dodge, was of American birth and one of the early settlers in Mont- pelier, Vt., where Henry L. Dodge was born on January 31, 1825. He received a first-class educa- tion, entering the University of Vermont in 1842. In order to com- plete his collegiate course at that institution he taught school for several winters, but his health fail- ing he abandoned study and devoted


himself to more active pursuits. Notwithstanding the fact that he did not complete his course at the university, his ability and attain- ments were recognized and an honorary degree conferred upon him. In 1847, having decided upon the law as a profession, he entered the office of Platt & Peck in Burling- ton, Vt., remaining there until the tales of '49 concerning the wonderful wealth of the gold fields in California excited his interest and imagination to such an extent, that he determined to test for himself the truth of the seductive reports. A company con- sisting of twelve friends was formed to make the trip. At that time it was no easy matter to reach California and on discussing the subject of how they should get to the land of promise it was decided to sail to Vera Cruz, and from thence cross the Continent through Mexican territory. This formed an entirely new departure in the methods of reaching this State, but proved altogether successful, The party going from Vera Cruz via the city of Mexico to San Blas and thence by sail to San Francisco which they reached June 1, 1849, in three months and a half from the time of leaving home without partic- ular danger or misfortune.


Naturally the mines were first visited, after which each one followed the bent of his inclinations. Mr. Dodge concluding that San Francisco offered opportunities better suited to him than mining, returned to that city after a short experience at the mines.


Ability of the kind possessed by Mr. Dodge was at that time an espe- cially valuable acquisition, and in August, 1849, when John W. Geary


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became Alcalde of San Francisco, Mr. Dodge was appointed clerk of his court. Shortly afterwards he was elected to the office of Secretary of the Town Council ( Ayuntamiento). During his term of office, which lasted up to the admission of Cali- fornia as a State in the Union, the procceds from the sale of water and town lots, amounting to nearly a million dollars, passed through Mr. Dodge's hands and were paid by him into the treasury. He also made and delivered the deeds for the property.


Colonel Geary showed his appre- ciation of Mr. Dodge's services, in 1850, when he was elected Mayor, by appointing him as his clerk. This position he resigned a year later to enter upon the practice of law, having been admitted to the State and Federal Courts. He remained in the practice of his profession until 1856, meeting with gratifying success.


San Francisco offered at that time a very promising field for a man of enterprising business talent, and Mr. Dodge in partnership with his brother, L. C. Dodge, established a wholesale provision house which froin its found- ing up to the present time has taken rank as one of the first mercantile houses of the State. For many years it was prominent among the firms doing business on Front street, and now occupies a large building on Market street, being known as Dodge, Sweeney & Co., and conducting an immense business.


Though Mr. Dodge has held many public positions it may safely be said that he has never sought office.


In 1861 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of a Supervisor of San Francisco and was elected to hold the same position during the following term; but before serving it out, resigned to accept a place in the Legislature to which he had been elected. In 1863, he was elected State Senator and served during two sessions with the marked approbation of his constituents and the public generally whom he served. The


business with which Mr. Dodge was connected had been very pros- perous, and in 1871 he determined to retire from active business life and return with his wife to their old home in Vermont. He had made a visit there in 1851, where he had married Miss Omira Bush, daughter of Hon. Roswell Bottum, of Orwell, Vt. He now settled in Burlington, Vt., where he remained for four years, during which time he was twice elected as Superintendent of Public Schools; but notwithstanding the esteem in which he was held, Mr. Dodge preferred the State of his adoption to that of his birth as a place in which to live, and in 1875 once more returned to San Francisco, where he still continues to reside and retain his connection with the mer- cantile house of Dodge, Sweeney & Co., of which he is the senior member.


He was honored in 1877 by the President of the United States, who appointed him a member of the Treasury Commission with Hon. F. F. Low and the late Hon. H. R. Linderman to inspect the affairs of the San Francisco Mint and Custom House. In December of the same year he received the appointment of Superintendent of the Mint, and during his administration of its affairs, for four and a half years, brought his business ability to bear upon them with such effect that for the first time in its history the expenditures of the Mint were reduced to within the appropriations made by Congress for its support, and returned to the treasury nearly $100,000 of the appro- priation; in recognition of which the Comptroller of the Treasury in his re- port said: "The Superintendent of the Mint at San Francisco has been and is distinguished alike for ability, fidelity and accuracy, having returned to the treasury about one hundred thousand dollars unexpended. This is an example worthy of commenda- dation and imitation."


Upon retiring from the position


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of Superintendent, having disbursed nearly two hundred millions of dollars, he turned over to his successor over thirty millions of dollars, and his accounts were found correct at the Treasury Department and promptly approved and set- tled.


In January, 1885, he was elected President of the Chamber of Com- merce of San Francisco and re-elected in 1886.


In January, 1886, he was appointed by the President a member of the United States Mint Assay Commis- sion which met in Philadelphia that year. In March, 1887, he was elected President of the Sather Banking Com- pany.


In politics he is a staunch Repub-


lican and has rendered signal service to his party on the coast.


In all respects Henry L. Dodge must be considered as a representa- tive man of San Francisco. As a Pioneer he has been identified with the growth of the city from its earliest beginnings to the present.


He is a life member of several associations, such as the California Pioneers, of which he was President in 1880, the Art Association, the Mercantile Library, etc. He is one of the Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University.


In matters of religion he is an attendant and Trustee, though not a member, of the Congregational Church in this city, and has done much in aid and support of that body.


JAMES DUNN.


JAMES DUNN.


divining instinctively that the new


30 N California, at least, Scotia's sons have not been left behind in the world and this portion of it was the race for fame or fortune. That proper field for his efforts, he came hardy, rugged land beyond the here in 1867, when only twenty-six Tweed-


"Land of Brown Heath and shaggy wood, Land of tho mountain and the flood,"


years of age. Previously to this, however, he had been in the States and Canada and back again, and was therefore no stranger to their ways, either commercial or political. He reached San Francisco via the West Indies from Liverpool to Panama. From Panama to San Francisco he voyaged in the "Montana," command-


Has given her full share to the army of workers who have so gloriously builded up the American Common- wealth during the past century. On every hand we find their names writ- ten in characters more enduring than brass or marble, engraven in the in- ed by Captain Cavarly, no stranger on dustrial records of their adopted this coast. He was soon at work country. We might point to many such in the history of San Francisco. James Dunn, the Superintendent of the American Biscuit Company, was born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1841, but was raised and educated in the fa-


again after his short period of en- forced seclusion from active business life, entering into partnership with Deeth, Starr & Campbell, well known as pioneers in the cracker baking business. They were bought out by mous city of Glasgow, and within the Boston Cracker Company in 1869. sound of Saint Mungo's bells. He This company afterward became graduated from the High School and known as the California Cracker then went forth to fight the battle of Company. With them he remained life at the early age of fourteen. He as Superintendent and Vice-Presi- served his apprenticeship to the bis- dent, but internal differences led to cuit and cracker baking business for his retirement from the company in 1886. He immediately started a new factory on Sansome and Broadway. This he run for a time, till the Cali- four years. After that he was put through a thorough course of train- ing in all the departments of business


and when old enough went on the fornia Cracker Company again in- road as traveling salesman. While vited him to become the arbiter of thus engaged he not only traveled all its destinies. Then a consolidation over Great Britain and Ireland, but of the two factories took place, and also France. During these trips he the name was changed to the Ameri- accumulated a fund of vast and varied can Biscuit Company, Mr. Dunn as- information and formed an intimate suming his old place as Superintend- acquaintance with the business world ent. While these events were in -its ways and methods. His ap- progress he had taken a brief trip to prenticeship and his traveling experi- the East in the interests of the trade. The business has grown wonderfully since Mr. Dunn took the helm 20 years ago. Then the capacity was only fifty barrels a day, now it is ences cover a period of ten years, during which all the secrets of the trade had been thoroughly mastered by him. At that time California was in the hey-day of her renown, and seven hundred barrels a day. Of


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course some of this phenomenal in- sesses indomitable perseverance and crease is due to the much larger de- is a thorough business man. Early mand brought by the progress of instructed in everything pertain- ing to the industry in which he has always been engaged, his life has not been marked by the struggles incident to the career of many, but has been one unbroken success. In person he is slender, of healthy though not of robust physique, fair of complexion, comely of feature, affable of manner, quick and decided and years, but on the whole it must be credited to the great business abili- ties, special skill and intimate knowl- edge of the trade possessed by Mr. Dunn. This is one more instance of how much personality has to do with success, especially in the field of California industry. Mr. Dunn was married in 1872, and has an inter- esting family of two girls and two sanguine of temperament, though boys. The eldest, Ritchie, a lad of possessing abundantly that Scottish caution which has passed into a proverb. We may consider him as yet but in the opening of a career which, judged by its past, is of great future promise. sixteen, accompanied his father on his trip to Europe in 1889, and was left at Geneva to complete his education. His youngest son, James C., Jr., is just five years old. Mr. Dunn pos-


E. H. DYER.


E. H. DYER.


HE production of sugar for the needs of a country is next in importance to its supply of bread and meat. In the United States the area suitable is con- fined to the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. It being impossible to produce sufficient cane sugar to meet our require- ments, from such a limited area, we must look to some other source of supply. The soil and climate of a large portion of the United States being identical with that of Europe, enterprising men were induced to attempt the manufacture of beet sugar in the United States, many years ago. And though 15 or 16 factories have been built in the United States and Canada during the last 30 years, until recently but one of this number has paid dividends to its stockholders; this exception has been that at Alvarado, Alameda County, erected in 1879, of which Mr. E. H. Dyer has always been the business manager and principal owner. Notwithstanding the refinery met with many mishaps, having had two boiler explosions, the last one leaving the factory a complete wreck, they have earned fair dividends. Even while the "sugar war" was rag- ing they continued to manufacture without loss, although prices reached five cents a pound for white refined.


To the perseverance and pluck of Mr. Dyer, and the efficient assistance


rendered by his son, Edward F. Dyer, who by his scientific and practical knowledge has made valu- able improvements in the method of treating the juice of the beet, the industry in this country owes its ex- istence to-day. Its success induced Mr. Claus Spreckels to build a factory at Watsonville and to organize a com- pany to build others.


With a wise fiscal policy over $100,000,000 now annually sent to foreign countries would be kept at home.


Mr. Dyer's part in bringing about this possible result is ably set forth in "Wood's History of Alameda County," published in 1883, from which we condense:


" E. H. Dyer deserves a high place in the history of Alameda County. No man has labored in her behalf with greater zeal and more untiring energy. Early in the history of the county he was quick to see her pos- sibilities, and with his characteris- tic push, energy and determination, he has labored despite almost in- surmountable difficulties, and suc- ceeded in establishing an industry in our midst the possibilities of which no human foresight can set the bounds. The 'Standard Sugar Refinery' is a monument to Mr. Dyer's success in the manufacture of pure sugar from an abundant pro- duct of our fertile valley. Millions


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of dollars are annually sent abroad for sugar, and the consumption is in- creasing at a rapid ratio. This suc- cess shows that push and energy are what are needed to keep for our own people the millions sent abroad for sugar. The 'Standard,' uuder Mr. Dyer's management, yearly throws on the market one and a half million pounds of pure white sugar well re- fined and equal to the best of cane. This grand result has been accom- plished under the most discouraging conditions for man to encounter and succeed. Failure has followed fail- ure all over the United States, but Mr. Dyer, since he first became con- nected with the business, in 1869, has 'stayed' with it, at times ventur- ing his all upon its success, taking the stand that, with a proper man- agement and understanding of the business itself, it might be made an abundant success. He claimed that our conditions of climate, our peo- ple and our mode of doing business were not properly understood by for- eign sugar makers that have here- tofore generally had the management of this industry, and the result justi- fies those views. Standing as we do to-day upon the summit, and viewing the fruits of the energetic, strong and pushing character of the subject of our sketch, we are led to inquire into the origin and lite of such a man.


" Ebenezer Herrick Dyer was born at Sullivan, Hancock County, Maine, April 17, 1822. He is decended from the Cushings, Sawyers, Thorndykes and Dyers, who were among the first English colonists of New England. Ephraim Dyer, his grandfather, was a soldier of the Revolution.


" With an education afforded by the public schools of his youth, he was early thrown upon his own re- sources, which, with the stern teach- ings of New England life, soon devel- oped his active mind and formed a symmetrical, energetic and pushing character. In his native town he em- barked as a merchant in business, which he soon enlarged, so as to em- brace the lumber trade and the ope- ration of the Sullivan quarries, which he conducted on a scale commensu- rate with his energy, furnishing large quantities of granite for Government works in different parts of the United States. Seeking a wider field he came to California via the Isthmus in 1857, returning in the Fall of the same year for his wife and two children. He returned to this State in April, 1858, settling at Alvarado, where he has since resided. His first wife dying, he married his second wife in September, 1864.


" He first engaged in stock raising. In 1859 he was elected County Sur- veyor of Alameda County, and re- elected in 1861. In the latter year he was appointed United States Dep- uty Surveyor by Surveyor-General E. F. Beale, and served in that capacity under various Surveyors-General. In 1869 he first became connected with the beet sugar business at Alvarado, with some of the leading men of the State. The first attempt was not a success, its management being in the hands of Messrs. Bonesteel and Otto, men brought out from Wisconsin "as experts." Mr. Dyer, although not a sugar maker, or with any previous knowledge of the business, had gath- ered information which led him to believe that, under proper manage-


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ment, the enterprise could be made a success. So strong was his faith that when the first company left in 1871 for Soquel he bought the factory buildings and lands adjacent, with an express determination to succeed. Repeated failures in this country made capitalists timid, and it was not until 1879 that he succeeded in pro- curing the sinews of war.


"In 1876 he was chosen by the Second Congressional District of California as a delegate to the Na- tional Republican Convention at Cin- cinnati, Ohio, which he attended; af- terward with his family visiting places of note in the East, including Wash- ington and the Centennial Exhibition. " In 1879 the Standard Sugar Manufacturing Company was organ- ized to manufacture sugar from beets. Mr. Dyer was appointed, and still re- mains, General Superintendent ' and Business Manager. Their earnings for the year 1882 were thirty-three per cent. on the investment. So much has capability, perseverance and pluck accomplished where failure had been predicted time and again."


Since the above was published Mr. Dyer has visited many of the largest factories in France and Germany, accompanied by his son, Edward F. Dyer, who is a chemist and mechani- cal draughtsman, and had been Su- perintendent of the Standard Sugar Refinery for three years; he received a prize of $1,200, awarded by the Department of Agriculture of the United States for the best essay on the manufacture of beet root sugar. In 1885 Mr. Dyer's son (Edward) and his nephew (Harold P. Dyer), who is a mechanical engineer and draughts- man, spent many months in one of


the largest beet sugar factories and works for the manufacture of beet sugar machinery in Germany, making plans and working drawings of the latest improvements in sugar ma- chinery.


In 1888, the " Pacific Coast Su- gar Company," of which Mr. Dyer is Manager, built a factory and refinery capable of working two hundred tons of beets a day at Alvarado. All the machinery for the new factory was make in this country from plans and drawings of the young men alluded to, who su- perintended the construction. They - are now engaged in making drawings of machinery for a large factory to be built at Salt Lake City, Utah, for the manufacture of sugar both from beets and sorghum.


Another change was made this year in the company. Several practical men connected with refining sugar in San Francisco and interested in cane sugar plantations on the Hawaiian Islands, convinced by the results ob- tained at the Alvarado factory that sugar could be manufactured from beets in California in successful com- petition with cane sugar imported from foreign countries, bought a con_ trolling interest in the works, and are making extensive additions, with a view of enlarging the capacity.


The company has been reorganized under the name of the "Alameda Su- gar Company." They have an exten- sive area planted to beets, with pros- pects of a very large yield. Mr. Dyer is still the largest stockholder.


Mr. Dyer has been twice married and has a family of three girls and three boys. The three boys and one girl are natives of this State.


WENDELL EASTON.


WENDELL EASTON.


UR modern business life has given rise to an endless number of professions, all called into an active exercise by its needs and those of an advanced civilization. The settlement of the western por- tion of the United States, and es- pecially of the Pacific Coast, has been conducted with such rapidity that the demand for land for home- steads and business purposes has come to be the greatest that the world ever saw. This has rendered the business of buying and selling real estate of unusual importance, in fact, created for it a great and separate department. For the mod- ern business world it may be said to owe its existence almost entirely to the necessities of the Nineteenth century. Hence it comes to pass that to attain prominence in it de- mands the possession of qualities equal to those called for to sustain the character and standing of a first- class merchant or a great financier. In San Francisco we have in the business a number of leading opera- tors who would do honor to any posi- tion in the community. Amongst those and amongst the men who have pushed themselves forward to a posi- tion of prominence not only in the purchase and sale of realty, but also in the community at large may be fairly reckoned Wendell Easton. Mr. Easton was born on the island of Nantucket, in 1848. He is thus a native of the Old Bay State, which has exercised such a potent and con- trolling influence in the American world of politics, business and let- ters. His ancestry came originally from Scotland, but had long since been domiciled in the western world. Though a native of Massachusetts,




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