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 31

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 31


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chandising. He was one of the very first settlers on the site of the present town of Chico, for Gen. John A. Bidwell resided on the opposite side of the river. Here in November, 1861, he was married to Miss Sarah McNeill, a cultured lady, a native of Ohio, of Scotch and German extraction-the same who has been his helpmeet through the intervening years, and who still presides with great grace over his home. They enjoy the distinction of being the first white couple ever married in that beautiful little city. After about six years of mercantile life in Chico, and a total residence of ten years in Butte County, Mr. Pond returned East, and, as he expressed it, "cruised about" for two years. As almost invariably to those who have tasted the sweets of Western- and especially of California-life, the East was uncongenial to him, and in 1866 he returned, this time to San Francisco-to live here forever.


In this city he again entered mer- chandising, this time in the wholesale liquor business, as the head of the firm of Pond, Reynolds & Co., after- ward for many years known through- out the length and breadth of the coast for its commercial standing.


But mercantile life was not con- genial to one of such active tempera- ment and speculative turn, and after eight years Mr. Pond again retired with a competency.


Since his retirement, however, he has been even more busily engaged and more prominently identified with the various interests of the city than before. He is director in the San Francisco Savings Union, one of the largest and most substantial banks on the coast, and his name is


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not least among those which secure for it the confidence of the public. He is also the director in the Sun Insurance Company, and several other mercantile corporations.


In 1882 he was elected as one of the Board of Supervisors, in which his services so commended him to the confidence of his fellow-citizens, that in 1884 he was re-elected to the same position. In the Fall of 1886 Super- visor Pond was elected Mayor, not on strict party lines, but by a large and complimentary vote from all par- ties. How well he served is better evidenced by the fact of his re-elec- tion in the Fall of 1888. During the bitter contest of that memorable year in the political history of this city, Mayor Pond's name was unsmirched, and in the midst of the frictions of this current term he has without ob- sequiousness or compromise of his


integrity, retained the confidence of all factions.


He is a gentleman of liberal and varied culture, broadened, and not narrowed, by the conflicts of life. In self-reliance, in a higher sense of honor, and in breadth of sympathy with his fellow-toilers in "life's dusty way," he is a typical Californian.


He is only fifty-six, of fine physique for endurance, and in perfect health.


Our honorable and honest Mayor resides in a model American home on California street. He has been blessed with two sons and a daughter, but the latter died very young. The elder son, Charles Ed- ward, aged twenty-four, graduated from Yale in the class of 'S8, and gives promise of a successful career in whatever path he may choose. The younger, Samuel Frank, is a student in High School.


' The above sketch was written in 1890.


COL. HORACE D. RANLETT.


HORACE DODGE RANLETT.


HE subject of this sketch was born in Charlestown, Mass., April 4, 1842. He is the fourth son of Captain Charles A. Ran- lett, a well known shipmaster who for over forty-five years sailed out of Bos- ton, New York and other ports of the Atlantic to all parts of the world. Such a birthplace, the site of the first great battle of the Revolutionary War, "Bunker Hill, " would seem to give a boy a military spirit, and Col. Ranlett's long and honorable service in the National Guard of California will be an excuse for some record of his soldierly descent, as well as the fact that "in this Cen- tennial year" particular interest cen- ters in any long line of American ancestry. Two of his great grand- fathers fought in the Revolutionary War, one on the maternal side as a "minute man" at Concord, Mass., where, as Emerson says, " the em- battled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world," and where now the bronze "minute man" stands to commemorate the event. His father's grandfather, Captain David Low, served in Col. Cogswell's famous Essex County Regiment, in many of the hardest battles of the war. His own grandfather Charles Ranlett, was a sergeant in a com- pany from Augusta, Maine, in the war of 1812. To go still farther back he derives direct descent from Major Simon Willard of Lancaster, Mass., a celebrated Indian fighter in King Phillip's War, who married Mary Dunster, sister of Henry Dunster, the first President of Harvard College.


He is seventh in direct descent from Col. Thomas Stevens, a celebrated


armorer of London, England, who in 1629 supplied arms to the infant col- ony of Massachusetts, and also con- tributed four children as pioneers to the new world.


His ninth direct ancestor was Cap- tain John Low, who commanded the fleet that brought Gov. Jolin Win- throp to Massachusetts in 1860. There is also direct descent on the maternal side from a doughty knight, Sir Peter Dodge, who fought under Edward First of England iu 1306 at "Falkirk, Methven and Dunbar," from whom a coat-of-arms descends in the family. As a boy he grew up under the inspiration of the old battle-ground on which he lived and in the shadow of the great shaft which commemorates the event of the Battle of "Bunker Hill," June 17,1776.


Educated in the grammar and high schools of Charlestown, he en- tered the counting room of a large wholesale house in Boston, where he remained three years. He then went to sea and worked his passage as a sailor boy around Cape Horn in a clipper ship via San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan. There he engaged in mercantile business for a year and also a year in Shanghai, China; the latter in the house of Thomas Hunt & Co. Ill health in 1864 com- pelled him to return to his New England home, where after a short rest, he entered the office of his brother, then State Auditor of New Hampshire, as Chief Clerk, remain- ing with him a year, when with re- established health from the pure air of the Granite State, he again, in May, 1866, came to San Francisco, Cal- fornia, which has since been his home.


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Debarred, by absence from the country and ill health, from active participation in the war of 1861 (in which, however, his family and kindred were largely represented in the Union Army), the inherited military spirit could not be re- pressed, and soon after coming to this State he entered the California State militia, in Co. "B" (City Guard), First Regiment, where he served as private, corporal, duty sergeant, first sergeant, and second and first lieutenants successively. He then took command of the " Oakland Guard," a "separate" or "unattached" company of the Second Brigade, and for seven years was captain of that well-known organiza- tion, now Co. "A," Fifth Regiment. He then organized the "Fifth Ba- tallion," and reorganizing and re- building one company after another, as they were added to his com- mand, in different cities around the bay, he finally last commanded the regiment, of which he is justly styled the " father," and held the rank of colonel which rank he last held and resigned as Colonel of the Fifth Infantry Regiment, National Guard of California, going on the "retired " list in 1887, after 21 years of service, during 17 of which he was a commissioned officer.


As a copper dealer and expert, his reputation is too well known to the business community to require extended notice. For 22 years Colonel Ranlett has handled copper and other ores, being purchasing agent for the largest smelting works in the East, at New York, Baltimore, etc., and is now managing for the Oliver Ames & Sons' Corporation (the Boston owners) the working of the famous "Union Copper Mine," at Copperopolis. In his business during the past 20 years Colonel Ranlett has crossed the continent more than forty times, and has also been abroad to interview the English and French on copper matters. While in London in 1887 he was the recipient of many courtesies as a guardsman (from the National Guard of California) from the English Rifle Volunteers as well as the regular troops.


Colonel Ranlett is a Mason and Knight Templar, and served as a member of the Triennial Committee in the recent conclave held in this city. He resides in San Francisco, in the Western Addition, having a wife and two sons, the eldest of whom is now a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy.


IRA P. RANKIN.


IRA P. RANKIN.


HE sons of New England have cut a broad swath in the field of history. Their mother land has not only supplied great streams of population to fill the waste places of North America, but has supplied more than her share of talent and intellect as well as to add to the common stock. Among the men whom New Eng- land has sent forth, Ira P. Rankin is entitled to an honored place. He was born in Hampshire county, Mass- achusetts, in 1817. After receiving a good common school education he began clerking in a country store while still young. Leaving this em- ployment he went to Boston in 1835. Here he elerked in a dry goods store, and having learned the trade set up in business for himself.


The gold discoveries came and filled the minds of young and old with dreams of wealth and emprise. Mr. Rankin was no exception, and in May of 1852 he was animated with so strong a desire of transferring the sphere of his usefulness to the Golden West that he was unable to resist it, and sought our shores by way of Panama. On the trip were several men whose names afterward became of note in the history of California. On arriving at San Francisco he wisely concluded that there was as much gold to be found here as in the mines, and he at once started a shipping and commission business under the title of Rankin & Co. He located on Front street, then the front street of the city. He sold all sorts of mining supplies-provisions, dry goods, boots and shoes, etc., etc. In the spring of 1853 he built a new store on the corner of Battery and Clay streets, where that of Tillmann


& Bendel now stands. Two years subsequently Mr. Rankin moved to the location of the Golden Gate Mills on Battery street.


He was quite successful in the commission business, but he saw that there was a great industrial future before San Francisco, and that the foundry business, called into existence by the growth of the mining industry, offered the most advantages to a prac- tical man. In 1858 he therefore pur- chased an interest in the Pacific Foundry, which, until 1873, was car- ried on under the firm name of Goddard & Co. Mr. Goddard having died, the firm became known as Rankin, Brayton & Co., which title it has ever since retained. The estab- lishment has always kept well to the front in the iron industry, which owes not a little to Mr. Rankin's bus- iness tact and practical knowledge. Though so engrossed by the demands made on him by the great industry that he has so long controlled, he has always found time to attend to the call of country, religion and charity. He was a Republican as early as the Fremont campaign, and lived to see the party triumph. He was appointed Collector of the Port by President Lincoln and filled the position with ability and credit. He was twice an aspirant for Congressional honors, but, though not attaining them, owing to party divisions and other causes, he received a much greater than the party vote. San Francisco, where he was best known, stood by him nobly in 1856, and, had it de- pended on her, he would have been elected. He was an active member of the Vigilance Committee, and when the war broke out, did much to keep


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California in line on the side of the Union. Through his active exertions the California contingent was enabled to go to the front. He contri- buted liberally to the sanitary fund.


There are few public institutions with which he has not been connected. He has been a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce for twenty-seven years, and was its President during 1889. He was President of the Mer- cantile Library of which he is a life member. He is a Trustee of the Lick Trust. He was one of the Trustees of the College of California, which way succeeded by the State University. He was Chairman of the State Board of Commissioners for selecting a site for the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, as well as Chairman of the Building Committee, both of which positions he filled to the satisfaction of an adminis- tration opposed to him in politics. He


is President of the Engineers' and Foundrymen's Association of San Francisco. He is a leading member of the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and to Animals, and has done good work in both. He is a Trustee of the California Bible Society. He was married in 1841, but his wife died in 1881. He has no children. For over thirty- two years he has been a member of the First Congregational Church. Though he has passed the psalmist's three score and ten, he looks much younger. He is of lithe, smart figure -active both in mind and body, and has done much to build up the iron in- dustry on this coast. He is pleasant and gentlemanly in character, and is respected by his numerous em- ployes, for whose welfare he has al- ways been solicitous. He is truly a representative man.


JOHN REYNOLDS.


JOHN REYNOLDS.


ATING back to the days of al- chemy, its true, if not venerated progenitor, chemistry can point to a long series of triumphs-all, or nearly all, in the interest of human pro- gress and welfare. And the end is not yet. The science may still be said to be in its carly youth ; and, indeed, so far as its possible achievements are con- cerned, might be looked on as immor- tal. As the day can never arrive when nature would have unfolded the last of her wonderful secrets, San Francisco and San Francisco men have not been behindhand in the race for fame in the chemical domain, as witness the success achieved by some of its representatives among us. Of these, one of the oldest practical man- ufacturers and inventors, too, must be said to be John Reynolds, who hails from Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland, where he was born May 3, 1829, the year after Catholic emancipation.


Mr. Reynold's ancestors had been a power in the land, as they were one of the leading families of Breifine, as Leitrim was anciently called-one of the richest, most fertile and best cul- tivated parts of ancient Ireland, and linked with many memorable, some tragic, events in her checkered history. West Breifine was divided between the powerful families of the McGran- uills, the McGlaughlins and the Mc- Glancies. The old castle of Rynn, of which now only the walls are stand- ing, sheltered his ancestors, the Lords of the McGranuills. The name is to- day anglicized Reynolds.


Mr. Reynolds left school when not quite 14 years old to make acquaint- ance with the great world and its ways. He left home to go to his uncle, who was in the employ of James Muspratt & Sons, the celebrated chem-


ical manufacturers of England. His uncle was one of the foremen, and his uncle's son one of the clerks in the office, so that he was on good footing from the start, was well received and favorably treated.


He first studied the plumbing busi- ness, acquiring in that department a fair knowledge of the construction of chemical apparatus, that afterwards stood him in good stead. He then was desirous of learning how to build furnaces, and through the influence of his uncle was transferred to the brick- layers' department. There was a gang here steadily employed, and from them he learned how to construct the fur- naces, etc., themselves, should he ever need it. It, too, made him competent to superintend the construction of his own works. From this he went to the chemical department, where he re- mained three years, and acquired a thoroughly practical knowledge of manufacturing chemistry.


Being thus fairly well equipped, he turned his thoughts to the United States, where so many of his country - men for over two centuries had found their way. He was fascinated with the free institutions of the New World, and the opportunities they afforded to talent for advancement.


He arrived in New York on the "Patrick Henry," July 17, 1848. The name was an auspicious one for Mr. Reynolds, the year a bad one for his native land. He went to work at once at a chemical works at Newark, N. J. After spending a year there he went to Pittsburg, and was a few months at work in Birmingham, but not liking the place, and being mind- ful of Horace Greeley's aphorism, he started for Cincinnati. Here he was employed in the winter of 1849 by


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Howard & Marsh. The business was carried on very crudely, but he was not called on to remain there long, as the works were burned down in the following May.


Returning to Newark, N. J., he married. The lady on whom he had fixed his affections had waited there for him ten months. Having now an additional responsibility there was an additional inducement for him to be- stir himself. He might have gone to work in Newark at his old business, but his pride would not permit him to ask for employment after having been West. So he concluded, as he had changed his station in life, he would also change his business. He em- barked in the grocery trade, and started a store, with a boarding and lodging-house attached. He was fairly successful, and continued in the gro- cery trade till January, 1851. But he could not remain away from the chem- ical business; it had taken possession of his whole soul, and he yearned to get back to it and spend his life in a solution of some of its abstruse prac- tical problems.


Selling out he started West again. When in Cincinnati he had heard a great deal about St. Louis, and now made up his mind that this was the place for him. He arrived in St. Louis in March, 1851. Here Wm. Chappall & Co. carried on a very crude chemical works. This he was given charge of after a second interview with the pro- prietor. He remained there a year, during which time the consumption of acids increased with great rapidity. The result of this was that he formed a co-partnership with Nicholas Schaf- fer, the well known soap and candle manufacturer of that city. IIc built the Missouri Chemical Works, and run it profitably till April, 1854.


All at once Mr. Reynolds got the California fever, and got it badly, and sold out to Schaffer. From New York he and his wife sailed on the "George Law " for Aspinwall, where they ar-


rived in thirteen days. Taking the cars to what was then called the West- ern Terminus, they journeyed thence on muleback to Panama, a distance of over thirty miles.


" the most difficult road I have ever traveled." Some of the ladies rode side-saddle, some rode man fashion. From what he had scen of them on that memorable ride Mr. Reynolds says he would not be afraid to form a company of light cavalry of the gen- tler sex, go into battle and win. It took ten hours to Panama. Next day they embarked on the "Sonora," which, after a very pleasant voyage, reached San Francisco in fourteen days. Most of the passengers had limited their stay in California to two years, after which, loaded with sacks of gold, they were to return in tri- umph to the places whence they had departed.


Mr. Reynolds found a chemical works already in existence here, and was much disappointed thereat, as had he known it he would not have left St. Louis. And now Fortune, the fickle jade, seemed to turn against him, for he turned his attention to other kinds of business until the Fraser river excitement, when Mr. Reynolds was a victim, as well as others. He started with the crowd to Bellingham Bay. There was quite a diversity of opinion as to the best way in which to reach Fort Hope, the grand objective point. Mr. Reynolds and two San Francisco men concluded to send their " dunnage " by steamer. Meanwhile they, with many other squads, took the trail, by which it was said they could make Fort Hope in three days. Providing themselves with provisions for that time, twenty-three of them started out bravely. They hoped to meet indica- tions of mines, and perhaps to woo fortune on the way. But fate ordered it otherwise.


On the morning of the third day they hired an Indian guide. He


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brought them two days in the direc- tion of Fort Thompson before they discovered their mistake. It took them nine days to reach their desti- nation. They had no food, save wild nettles, which they boiled in their prospecting pans, and some snails that they caught in the morning. Some wild, unripe raspberries made those who ate them sick. These lay down and died. But thirteen made Fort Hope. The rest were never again heard from. Mr. Reynolds, it is hardly necessary to say, was back in two months from this, his first and last trip to the mines.


On his return things took a change for the better. He was engaged to build a small acid works for the gold and silver refinery on Brannan street. While waiting for material he went to work as assistant refiner. In a few weeks he became head refiner. He remained here until 1862, when, feel- ing that he was too long in the em- ploy of others, he started for Washoe. The old inspiration came. There he established the Nevada Chemical Works in conjunction with James Fraser and L. C. McKeeby. But the institution did not prosper, and in 1865 Mr. Reynolds left and returned to this city. So gloomy was the out- look that he gave his share to James Fraser to do as he pleased with it. His time was not lost, however. While in Carson City he experimented on refining bullion. This led to his pat- ent bar refining process, which he brought to perfection in the Brannan street refinery, then run by Kellogg, Hueston & Company The Govern- ment subsequently using this process without reference to the rights of the inventor, a suit was instituted in the United States Courts, and the rights of Mr. Reynolds vindicated-a ver- dict for $60,000 damages being re- turned. Other suits are pending.


In January, 1866, Mr. Reynolds started the California Chemical Works


on the San Bruno road, between Tweny-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets. The business here has grown year by year, till now the works have a capacity of turning out ten tons per day of acids and other chemicals.


Japan and South America are laid under tribute to furnish the raw ma- terial-the sulphur coming from the volcanic cone of Fujiyama, the ni- trate of soda from Chile and Peru. Acids for making nitro-glycerine, the separation of gold and silver from the ores, in refining bullion, coal oil re- fineries, woolen mills, cotton mills, paper mills, galvanizing works, tan- neries, dye works, sugar refineries, soda- water works, telephone works, for making land fertilizers, ammonia in gas works, white lead, etc., are pro- duced, showing how important and far-reaching the chemical industry is among us.


Besides the regular acids he has in- troduced the manufacture of blue- stone, copperas, sal soda, Prussian blue, glauber salts, Reynolds' patent solution of prussiate of potash, Rey- nolds' excelsior soldering solution and many others. The solution of prus- siate of potash was introduced as a substitute for red or yellow prussiate of potash, and is of great importance to woolen manufacturers in the matter of dyeing, as by its use gumming was obviated, bright, fast colors obtained, and all much more cheaply than by the old method. The good results achieved by its use have been borne testimony to by the officials of the leading woolen mills in this State and Oregon. The improvement in the re- fining of crude bullion consisted in dispensing with melting, alloying and granulating before separating with the acids. Other inventions have kept up the reputation of California in the domain of chemistry, and show that a great deal of the talent, as well as the enterprise, of the world has found its way hither.


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In 1870 Mr. Reynolds bought one- half interest in the natural carbonate of soda lake, known as the Ragtown Lake, in Churchill County, State of Nevada, and introduced hundreds of tons of it into this market at a loss of about $30,000 to himself through a loose and over-confiding copart- nership. The California' Chemical Works were all burned in 1878, and a loss sustained of, at least, $20,000 more than the insurance covered.


Mr. Reynolds, who is a widower, has but one living son, who has been Superintendent of the works for the past ten years, and the success of


which owes a great deal to his close and able attention.


The successful establishment of his factory for many years tested severe- ly, as he says himself, Mr. Reynolds' brain and muscle, but he adds, "Thank God, I am sufficiently re- warded for all my pains." Mr. Rey- nolds is also a considerable real es- tate owner in this city. He is of stout build, ruddy, robust and be- nevolent of features, giving one the impression of wearing a perpetual smile, and is not one of the least use- ful citizens who claim Hibernia as their fatherland.




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