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 33

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 33


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Francisco several years before it came into use in the Eastern States, and had Mr. Small taken the pre- caution to patent it, it would alone have yielded him a, fortune.


The inventive and mechanical fac- ulty possessed by this gentleman has also been of great practical ad- vantage to hundreds of others, who, having conceived an idea of value, were unable to develop it, and through his instrumentality num- bers of machines and devices have added to the working power of ma- nipulators of wood and the useful metals. Mr. Small is not only a skilled and experienced mechanic, but is an accomplished draughtsman and designer. Designing may be considered his "forte," and an im- portant branch of the business.


In 1876 the factory and works were removed from their old location to Nos. 574-576 Brannan street, near Fifth, where Messrs. I. H. Small & Son have enjoyed a monopoly, and still control the business in the lines of which they make a specialty. In August, 1886, the establishment was destroyed in the memorable fire which swept that portion of the city, but from its ashes, Phoenix-like, has risen a completely and thoroughly equipped factory for the production of wood-working and other machin- ery; a specialty, as said, being made of the former.


Mr. I. H. Small has thns seen our fair city grow from comparative in- significance to its present greatness and prosperity, and he may well take a pride in the general advancement and manufacturing progress in which he has been so largely interested.


This gentleman is an old and prominent member of the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows, in which great organization he is at present a


Past Grand. He has been for many years Treasurer of the order in San Francisco, and now fills that honor- able and responsible position. Heis a member of the Board of Directors of the I. O. O. F. Hall Association, and as such took a prominent part in the erection of the magnificent and stately building which rears its lofty walls at the corner of Market and Seventh streets, and which is the most elegant and imposing hall of the I. O. O. F. in the world. Mr. Small took a leading part in the sale of the old property on Montgomery Street, and has since been on the Auditing Committee in the new tem- ple


Mr. Small has been twice married, having lost his first wife by death some eighteen years ago. His son by this union, Mr. Charles Henry Small, is now his business associate, and has displayed rare ability both as a mechanic and a general business man. This gentleman was born March 2, 1852, and has been an invaluable addition to the firm orig- inally founded by his father. He is spoken of in the highest terms by all who know him, both in his busi- ness relations and social capacity.


The present wife of Mr. Small is an estimable lady whose maiden name was Julia Helen Gerow. The light of the household is a charming and interesting child of less than three years, with the pretty and poetical name of Gladys.


In addition to his prominent con- nection with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Mr. Isaac Il. Small is also a member of the A. O. U. W. and of the Knights of Honor, in the deliberations and operations of which societies he takes a lively and active interest and participation.


JOHN SPAULDING.


JOHN SPAULDING.


striking instance of the certain reward which follows the efforts of a man possessed of unswerv- ing integrity, close observation, in- domitable perseverance and strict attention to business is to be found in the subject of this sketch. John Spaulding comes of good old New England stock, and is a direct de- scendant of Captain Job Shattuck, who served with distinction in the old French war, and also in the Rev- olution. Captain Shattuck's wife, Sarah Hartwell, was a woman of strong characteristics. She was one of those patriotic women, known in her neighborhood, as " Mrs. David Wright's Guard," who, a few days after the 19th of April, 1775, hearing that Leonard Whiting, a noted Tory, of Hollis, N. H., would pass through Pepperell, collected at the Bridge over the Nashua river and when Whit- ing appeared, seized and searched him. Dispatches from Canada to the British in Boston were found in his boots.


Mr. Spaulding was born in the town of Milford, New Hampshire, March 2, 1827. His father was a farmer, but also owned sawmills, shingle mills and clapboard mills. Here the first twenty years of his life were passed. He attended the district school during the Winter months, and a good part of the time assisted his father upon the farm or in the mills. It was in this latter occupation that he developed a taste for mechanics, and obtained a knowl- edge of machinery which was of great value to him in after years. As he neared man's estate, young Spauld- ing had a longing to sce more of the world, and he started off, as many a New England boy had before and


since, to seek his fortunc. He first located at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he started to learn the trade of wood-turning. He soon found that he had made a mistake; that the avocation was not what he had fancied, and he pushed on to Boston. There he got work with a painter, and after a brief apprenticeship was soon making good wages. For some time he worked in the Old Colony Railroad Company's shops, and after- ward in carriage painting in South Boston. He was then 26 years of age. There was a steady emigration going on to California. Tales of the great fortunes to be made in the Golden State were current all through the East, and many of the brightest and brainiest of the young men of New England were among the number of those who were thronging to the new El Dorado. Spaulding caught the fever, and the Summer of 1853 found him in San Francisco. Like most new arrivals, his first point of destina- tion was the gold fields. He went to Sonora and located a claim which he worked for eight or ten months. He found his hard labor poorly re- paid, however, and resolved to re- turn to San Francisco. The young metropolis was at that time filled with a floating population, and em- ployment was scarce. He soon found an opportunity to obtain work in the redwoods of San Mateo County, of which he availed himself. The mill, which belonged to Col. E. D. Baker, was located on the Pulgas Rancho, at what is now known as Woodside, a few miles back from Redwood City, just at the base of the Coast Range. At this mill there were twenty-four saws in the gang and they used to do wonderful execution upon the pros-


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trate monarchs of the forest. Here Spaulding's experience in his father's mill in early days proved serviceable. At the time he began work, early in the year 1854, redwood lumber was worth $50 a thousand, and shingles $10. As other mills were started up, however, the market became better supplied, and by May the price of lumber had declined to $25 per 1000. About this time he engaged to work in another mill owned by Richardson Brothers. The mill- men became short of funds and offered to pay Mr. Spaulding for his work in lumber at $20 per 1000, but as it would cost him $22 to get it to San Francisco, he refused these terms and returned to the city. Two weeks after Mr. Spaulding left Richardson's mill it was blown up. After a few days in San Fran- cisco he went to Napa where he worked during the harvest season. When that was over he came back to San Francisco and resolved to remain here. For a short time he worked at painting and then went into the water business. He supplied water to the citizens before Spring Valley did, though his system was not so elabor- ate.


He bought a water-cart, and obtain- ing water from wells sold it to cus- tomers in different parts of the city. The charge generally was $1 for twenty buckets, each holding five gallons, and he made money by disposing of it at one cent a gallon. Having accumulated quite a sum in this business a desire to return East and revisit his old home came upon him. He at first thought he might remain there, but the people were too slow; he longed for the bustle and excitement of San Fran- cisco, and at the end of five months he was back again. He invested with a partner in the milk business, having a dairy on Brannan street, but after seven or eight months he disposed of his interest and soon afterward bought a route on the Herald newspaper. After the fail-


ure of that journal he bought a route on the Evening Bulletin, and also one on the Morning Call. These routes he retained until four years ago, and he considered them the best investment he ever made. For what he paid $2,200, he realized over $10,000, besides paying him a handsome monthly income during twenty-seven years. One day in March, 1865, Mr. Spaulding saw an advertisement in a Boston news- paper offering for sale the patent right of a newly-invented machine for cleaning carpets. He entered into correspondence with the par- ties, and as a result purchased the right for the machine on this coast. This was the beginning of his present large carpet-beating busi- ness. Since that time Mr. Spauld- ing has, by the exercise of his mechanical skill, made numerous im- provements which have been patent- ed, until the machines used by him are, without doubt, the most perfect in the United States. A few years ago he engaged in the manufacture of excelsior, but a fire destroyed the factory in Puyallup, Washing- ton, and the venture ultimately resulted in quite a loss to him. About this time he added a cleaning and dyeing business to his carpet beating, which has been very success- ful. To give an idea of the magni- tude of Mr. Spaulding's business, it might be said that last year the gross receipts were over $60,000. He con- stantly has from 35 to 45 hands em- ployed in the works, besides 12 car- pet-layers on the outside. When some additions to his machinery are completed, he will be able to beat and renovate 3000 yards of carpet per day. Some time ago, being dis- satisfied with the charges made by the Spring Valley Company for water, he dug a well on his prem- ises from which to get the supply for his boiler. The water contained much sediment, and cansed scales to form in the boiler, so he feared he should have to apply to the corpora-


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fron again. He set to work, however, and invented a style of boiler tubes by means of which the water is so heated and purified, that it enters the boiler perfectly clean ; there is no adhesion to the tubes and no scale. This invention, which he has had patented, saves him, he estimates, from $50 to $65 a month.


Mr. Spaulding has been twice mar- ried. By his first wife he had two children, a son and a daughter. The


former is in business with him, and the latter is married and living in this city. Mr. Spaulding is a mem- ber of Yerba Buena Lodge, I. O. O. F., and also of California Lodge, No. 1, Knights of Pythias. Although Mr. Spaulding's life has been a most active one, he is very well pre- served, and now, somewhat past middle age, his vigorous health gives promise of many years of usefulness to come.


N. W. SPAULDING.


NATHAN WESTON SPAULDING.


HE nane of N. W. Spaulding is well known to the people of the Pacific Coast as an inven- tor and as a representative business man. His ancestry is traced back to as early as 1630, and through two centuries and a half has the name come down connected with America and American affairs.


He was born at North Anson, Maine, on the 24th day of Septem- ber, 1829. Early in life he exhibited a mechanical turn of mind, and his father being a practical mechanic, and his uncle a millwright, their valuable assistance enabled him to rapidly acquire a thorough knowl- edge in these branches, and at the age of 20 he was competent to lead, and found employment as such in Boston and in Portland, Maine.


In 1851, he joined a party from his native State, determined to seek their fortunes in the new land of gold. They came to California by way of Panama. The mines being their objective point, they soon found themselves in old Calaveras. The friends here separated, Mr. Spaulding finding employment in the construction of the first quartz mill ever built in the State, the castings for which had been shipped around Cape Horn but were lost before reaching here In this dilemma, Mr. Spaulding went to San Fran- ci-co and made a new set of patterns for the mill, and Peter Donahne having just opened his foundry, on First street, engaged to make the castings for the same which he did, only one lot of work having been turned out of the foundry previous to the irons for this mill. But mining still had its charms, and in the Sum- mer of 1852, he and others cut with a


whip-saw over 20,000 feet of lumber, and flumed the bed of the Mo- kelumne River. After six months' unremitting toil their flume was swept away by a flood and all their hopes of a fortune vanished. After this he constructed the saw-mill on the headwaters of the Mo- kelumno River that cnt the lumber used in the construction of the old Mokelumne fume and canal, which he was also engaged in building. He subsequently built and con- ducted the first hotel in Campo Seco, at which place he married in the year 1854. In Angust of the same year a conflagration destroyed not only the hotel, but the town as well. After this he removed to Clinton, in Amador County, where he continued in the mill business and built two bridges which spanned the Mokelnmne River. Seeing the opening which existed for a new in- dustry in the State, he started a shop for the repairing of saws in Sacra- mento in 1859. Here it was that he invented the adjustable saw- tooth which has so completely revolutionized the business through- out the whole country. İm-


provement succeeded improvement, until the chisel-bit saw-tooth was introduced to the trade. In 1861 lie removed to this city, and in 1864 became associated with James Patterson and Charles P. Sheffield, the trio forming the Pacific Saw Manufacturing Company. The N. W. Spaulding Saw Company is, however, a distinct institution, be- ing incorporated under that name and of which he is the President and Manager. Its principal feature, distinct from the Pacific Saw Mann- facturing Company, is in manufact-


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uring large circular saws with in- serted teeth, and chisel-bits and saw-mill machinery.


As previously noted he has taken a prominent part in public affairs. Although he is by no means a pub- lic office-seeker, he served four years in the City Council of Oak- land, and was twice Mayor. He was the originator of many of the most substantial public improve- ments of our sister city. When President Garfield succeeded to the Executive Chair, he was appointed Assistant U. S. Treasurer, which he filled for four years, to the entire satisfaction of the country. During


that time over three hundred and twenty millions of dollars were safely handled by him, without the loss of one cent. He is a zealous Mason, and has held many of the higher offices in that fraternity. He has a residence in Oakland, and is the father of a large family. He is a picture of health and vigor, being tall and stately, six feet three inches high, and weighing two hundred and thirty-five pounds. A true friend, a good citizen, a man of good judg- ment and of quick perception as an inventor, he has made his mark, and is regarded as one of the best gen- eral mechanics on the Pacific Coast.


CLAUS SPRECKLES.


CLAUS SPRECKELS.


OR many years the name of Claus Spreckels has been a household word in California, and later throughout the length and breadth of the United States. What he has contributed to the development of the agriculture and industry of the Pacific Coast, and the impetus given by the enterprises in which he has been engaged to the commerce of San Francisco, will be better understood half a century hence than it is even to-day. As in many other nota- ble examples calumny and misrep- resentation have not failed to assail him. but for some time past, in the light of his eminent services to his adopted State and city, the voice of envy has been hushed, and little else has been heard save eulogy. His career would furnish ample material for a volume in itself, and as the record of the struggles and triumphs of a self- made man it would relate a story ofab- sorbing interest. But here we must be brief, and can only give the lead- ing features of a successful life spent in the service and betterment of his fellow-men.


Mr. Claus Spreckels was born in the kingdom of Hanover in the year 1828. But despite his sixty odd years he may still be regarded as in the prime of an active life. He sought the land of liberty ata comparatively early age, settling in Charleston, S. C., in 1846. Here his eldest son, John D., was born. For some years he carried on a grocery business in that city. He thence sought New York where his previous occupation was continued. In 1856 he directed his steps to Cal- ifornia and in this city established the Albany Brewery. Here he intro- duced some practical improvements


which for a long time gave the Albany a lead in the trade in this city. But his experience in the grocery line would not long allow him to remain outside of it. Accordingly, we soon find him determining to connect himself with the principal branch of the trade --- sugar refining.


In 1864, in conjunction with his brother, he established the Bay Sugar Refinery, now known as the Ameri- can. Mr. Spreckels conducted this refinery for two years. At that time the sugar refining interest in San Francisco was at its lowest ebb, and for long previously had been in a most unsatisfactory condition. The East had an almost virtual monopoly of the sugar trade of the coast, and the efforts at sugar refining here were for a long time marked by the wrecks of unhappy enterprises. The outlook was not inviting. This, however, in no way discouraged Mr. Spreckels. He had long determined to rev- olutionize the sugar trade. At that time, by the old method of refining, it took a period of six weeks to com- plete the operation. How to shorten it was the problem, and one to which Mr. Spreckels devoted him- self with untiring assiduity for a period of nearly two years. The difficulties were such as not one in a thousand would have successfully overcome, but he was not to be de- feated. Night and day he toiled. He made costly experiments. He put all his fortune in the venture, invented new machinery, and at last succeeded. The refining and clarify- ing processes were shortened, and twenty-four hours after the centrifu- gal process was completed, refined sugars were turned out. For the first time in history the terms cube


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and crushed sugar were given to the world of commerce. From this time forth the refining industry on the coast began building up until it attained the distinction of being the leading one, and now we not only do without Eastern supplies, but our sugars are distributed over the central States as far as the Mis- souri, and have been sold in New York and Chicago.


In 1867 Mr. Spreckels began refin- ing with the new processes in a small wooden building, which subsequently became the cooperage of a larger refinery. But such was the skill with which the business was con- ducted that new buildings had soon to be put up. What was known as the old refinery was erected in 1868; what was known as the new, in 1871. Together these had a capacity of fifty million pounds a year. It was now considered that the summit of possibilities had been reached, but here again all were agreeably disap- pointed. After long negotiation the Hawaiian treaty was concluded, and though at first Mr. Spreckels, in common with others, had opposed it believing it to be inimical to Pacific Coast interests, he made the best of it, and in his hands it was converted into a powerful engine for the fur- therance of our industries and com- merce. He conceived a gigantic project which was nothing less than refining the whole of the possi- ble sugar product of the Islands in this city. He also set to work to de- velop sugar planting on the Islands. There could be but one result of all this, and that was another, and, this time, a gigantic refinery. This was put up at the Potrero, where cargoescould be loaded and unloaded readily. It is 397 feet long, ten stories high, and cost fully two mil- lion dollars. It has a capacity of about a million pounds a day, and is one of the largest refineries in the world.


One would have thought that Mr. Spreckels would have been


satisfied with this achievement, but luckily such was not the case. From refining sugar to sugar growing in California was but a step. This he determined to take. The beet sugar business had been carried on here in a desultory way, but with no great success to those interested. He soon found out that the soil was especially suita- ble for it. The next thing was to learn something practical about not only the culture of beets, but the methods used in extracting the sugar. To this end he went to Germany in 1887, and made himself thoroughly master of all the process- es used both in factory and field. In 1888 he erected a $400,000 beet sugar factory at Watsonville and entered into contracts with the farmers in the neigh- borhood to buy up all the beets they could grow on 2,500 acres. The re- sult has been a great success, and in various parts of the Pacific Coast farmers are bestirring themselves in the matter, more especially as Con- gress has provided for the payment of a substantial subsidy, chiefly through the representations of Mr. Spreckels. He has also built eight- een miles of narrow gauge railroad from Watsonville through Pajaro Valley to deep water on the Pacific Ocean, to provide easy transportation for beets and other farm products.


But his fight with the Sugar Trust, culminating in the con- struction of a mammoth refinery in Philadelphia, is one of the crowning events of his career. Single-handed and unaided, he has waged suc- cessful war with one of the great- est combinations of capitalists ever known in the United States. An interview, published in a San Fran- cisco newspaper, gave in a salient manner the most interesting points of his business policy and charac- ter, as exemplified in that gigantic struggle. Having explained his pur- pose regarding the great refinery then in course of erection, and giving an emphatic denial to the statement


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that he intended to join the Sugar Trust, Mr. Spreckels said: "I never yet have goue into anything unless I could have it all my own way. I have the finest location in the world. There on the Delaware, I have a site that I paid half a million for, but I could get a million and a half for it to-day. Ships can come right up to my wharves with raw sugar, and on the other side are railroad tracks on which I can distribute all over the country. I will use my California re- finery to supply all local trade and points this side of the Missouri River From Philadelphia I can send sugar to Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans, and cut un- der the Trust prices."


Speaking of his beet sugar enter- prise, which is confined to Califor- nia, Mr. Spreckels said : "I do not believe in low wages. We do not want our workingmen re- duced so that they must live as do some of the laborers of Europe. I want my beet sugar industry protect- ed and nursed until, like a growing child, in time it will be able to stand alone. I believe that California alone can, in a few years, produce enough sugar to supply half the de- mand of the United States, and that California, Oregon and Washington together can produce enough to supply the entire country. Some of the land around Watsonville paid the farm- ers who raised sugar beets as high as $55 an acre. Beet sugar making has been tried here before, but the people did not know how to manage it. In the Sacramento scheme sev- eral years ago some $600,000 were lost. People were doubtful and hesitated about going in with me, but it was really not an experiment as I was sure of success before starting at Watsonville. We are going to put up ten factories in California like that at Watsonville, and have organized the Occidental Beet Sugar Company, with $5,000,- 000 capital stock. Having distribu- ted seed for experimental growing,


as a result I have now a map which shows me exactly where beets that yield the most saccharine grow best."


Through the growth of the sugar industry, fostered by Mr. Spreckels, the Hawaiian group has taken rank in the world of industrial States, while our trade with it has rapidly developed from small volume to an annual value of over fourteen mil- lions of dollars, and the fleet of Pacific Coast built vessels engaged in the Hawaiian trade have add- ed an unusually large proportion to our share of the American mercantile marine. The number of men employed in the various indus- tries thus created by Mr. Spreckels may be reckoned by thousands, and were our trade with the Islands, which is largely due to his enterprise, taken away, our mer- chants would find that a conspicuous portion of their business had slipped from their grasp.




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