USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 52
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The coal mining companies incorporated in this important group in- cluded the Saginaw Coal Company, operating the old "Saginaw" Mine; the Pere Marquette Coal Company, operating the "P. M." Mine, No. 2; the Barnard Coal Company, which owned the old "Barnard" Mine : the Chappell & Fordney Coal Company, operating Mine No. 1 : the Shiawassee Coal Com- pany, operating the Shiawassee mine; the Northern Coal and Transportation Company, which owned the "Jimtown" Mine : the Riverside Coal Company. operating Riverside Mine No. 1; the Uncle Henry Coal Company, which operated "Uncle Henry" Mine No. 1 ; the Standard Mining Company owning the Standard Mine No. 2; the Central Mining Company, operating Central Mine No. 2; and the Cass River Coal Company, which operated the Cass River Mine.
In addition to these properties, which were among the most productive mines in this section of the State, the Consolidated Coal Company also ac- quired a controlling interest in the Wolverine Coal Company, operating Wolverine Mines No. 2 and No. 3, located in Bay County.
Since the organization of the company, whose operations have been on a large scale and tended to unify the coal interests of the valley, several mines have been worked out and abandoned. These were the old Saginaw Mine. Uncle Henry No. I, Pere Marquette Mine No. 2, Chappell & Fordney Mine No. 1, Riverside Mine No. I. Standard Mine No. 2. Central No. 2. Cass River Mine. Barnard Mine and the Northern, or "Jimtown" Mine.
In order to maintain their production the company has in recent years opened up Pere Marquette Mine No. 3. and Chappell and Fordney Mine No. 2: and Riverside Mine No. 2 and Uncle Henry Mine No. 2 are now in course of development. The policy of the company has been toward high efficiency and economy of operation, and to this end all their mines are fully equipped with electric haulage and the latest approved cutting and drilling machinery. some of which is illustrated in the preceding pages. The problem of exces- sive water in the mines is ever an active one in the Saginaw coal field. and all the mines of the Consolidated Company are equipped with electric driven pumps, which are more dependable and economical of operation than the old steam pumps.
In 1908 the company installed a modern coal washing plant, on the old Eddy mill property just west of the Genesee Avenue Bridge, and it has been in continuous operation since that time. It handles approximately two hundred thousand tons of slack coal annually, removing all impurities from the coal and leaving the product bright and clean. The impurities average about fourteen per cent. of the total shipments to the washer, the operations of removing the dirt and slate producing a very high grade of fuel, namely. Washed Nut Coal for domestic use, and Washed Slack Coal which is in high favor with steam users.
The present directors of the Consolidated Coal Company are: William J. Wickes, Harry T. Wickes. Walter S. Eddy. Arthur D. Eddy. Stanford T. Crapo, James B. Peter, Robert M. Randall, Otto Schupp and George L. Humphrey. The officers are : William J. Wickes, president : Harry T. Wickes, Vice-president ; Otto Schupp, treasurer ; Robert M. Randall. general manager, and Charles W. Stiver, secretary.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
TIPPLE OF BLISS COAL MINE, SWAN CREEK
The Bliss Coal Company
About 1905, during the period of expansion of the coal business in Sagi- naw Valley, Aaron P. Bliss and Arthur Barnard began prospecting for coal in James Township, about five miles southwest of the city. Mr. Bliss owned a tract of eight hundred and eighty acres, which was thoroughly drilled up and several veins of high grade coal were discovered. The coal was then offered for sale, but no satisfactory bids being made by the coal companies operating in the vicinity, the owners decided to organize an operating com- pany to develop the coal beds. On May 6, 1905, the Bliss Coal Company was organized with Aaron P. Bliss, president, and Arthur Barnard. secretary and treasurer. C. E. Linton, for a number of years with the Sommers Coal Company, of Cleveland and St. Charles, was engaged as manager of the com- pany's operations.
After further drilling had been made to ascertain the lowest point of the intersecting veins, which had an outline formation much like a clover leaf, the exact location for the mine shaft was determined. This was at a point one and a quarter miles from Swan Creek Station on the line of the Michigan Central Railroad, which furnishes all facilities for shipping and for bringing the miners from the city to and from their work.
In August. 1907, work was begun on the shaft, which was sunk to a depth of one hundred and sixty feet. Entries were then run in three directions through the veins, modern mining equipment was installed, and everything made ready for extended operations. On January 8, 1908, the first car load of coal was shipped from this mine, and thereafter the production gradually increased until the maximum was reached in 1910.
In order to place the operation of the mine on an economic basis in rela- tion to modern methods and competition, the mine was electrically equipped with cutting and drilling machines, such as are illustrated in the preceding pages. Electric pumping machinery was also installed. The mine operat- ing on a single day shift employs on an average one hundred and eighty-five
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THE COAL INDUSTRY
men, and produces about eighty thousand tons of bituminous coal annually. The coal is of high quality. It is marketed almost exclusively in Michigan, being shipped to Grand Rapids, Petoskey. Cheboygan and other northern points, and to Lansing and other points in the southern part of the State.
C. E. Linton, who has ably managed the affairs of this company since its beginning, brought to the company an experience founded in the lumber business. Years ago, with his father and brother, he conducted the large wholesale yard and planing mill business known as A. Linton & Sons, on South Jefferson Avenue. His aptitude for figures and for determining costs of production, net profits, and comparison of the same by month and year, is illustrated by concise business forms compiled by him. By aid of these forms, which show the distribution of operating expenses, the tonnage produced and per centages of entry and room coal, the cost per ton and many other details he is able to display the exact condition of the business for every month. with comparisons for any month in preceding years.
The present officers of the Bliss Coal Company are: J. F. Brand, presi- dent C. 11. Brand, vice-president and treasurer : C. E. Linton, secretary and general manager. The officers comprise the board of directors. John T. Phillips is the efficient mine superintendent and underground expert, whose wide experience in mining is a valuable asset to the company. He is often called in consultation in meetings of the operators in relation to mining conditions and underground work in general.
The other large operators are the Robert Gage Coal Company, operating three mines at St. Charles and several at Bay City, and Handy Brothers, of Bay City, whose operations in Bay County are very extensive. The latter company, in order to tap new coal beds and to open up new territory for their product, promoted and built a railroad into the "Thumb." This is the Detroit, Bay City and Western, extending eastward to Caro and through Sanilac County, which will ultimately open a new outlet for this valley to the Last by Port Huron.
JOHN T. PHILLIPS, SUPERINTENDENT, AND CLARENCE H. BRAND. AT MOUTH OF BLISS MINE
CHAPTER XIX THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY
Sources of Sugar - Sugar-Making an Ancient Science - Early Experiments in Beet Culture - General Interest Aroused in Beets - Development of the Industry - The "Sugar-Bowl" of Michigan - Building Up the Sugar-Bowl - Practical Experi- ments Made - Bay City Capitalists Erect the First Factory - Youman's Beet-Sugar Rounty Law - Why Saginaw was Backward - Saginaw Sugar Company Organized- Dark Days for the Industry - Utilization of Beet Pulp - Opposition of Eastern Sugar Magnates - The "Trust" Control of Beet-Sugar - Value of Beet-Sugar Industry - Trip Through the Carrollton Factory - How Beets are Scoured - Slicing the Beets - Extracting the Sweet Matter - Purifying the Diffusion Jnice - Boiling Down the Rich Syrup - Converting the Syrup into Sugar - Granulation the Final Touch - Packing Sugar for Market - The Benefit to the Farmer - Single-germ Beet Balls.
C ULTIVATING the sweet-tooth is a favorite pastime of the American people, who now use their average weight of sugar in a year, at a cost of half a billion dollars. They are not content with being the greatest sugar-eaters on earth, but are continually demanding more, the quantity needed to satisfy the individual craving having increased from eighty-three pounds for every man, woman and child, in 1909, to eighty-nine pounds in 1915. This does not take into account the large quantities of syrup, honey and other sweets which they consume with seemingly equal relish.
Sugar, in some form or other, is in almost universal use in all parts of the world; and although the enlightened races have developed the art of sugar-making to a high degree, the semi-civilized peoples obtain their sweets in the crudest ways. The saccharine element is found, to a greater or less extent. in all fruit and vegetable juices, particularly those of the tropics, but the cost of production is so great as to render it of no commercial value. The economic sources of supply are limited to the cane, beets, corn and the juice of the maple. Large quantities of corn syrup, or glucose, are made from starch and other corn products, but no process has yet been devised to reduce it to the form of sugar at a moderate cost.
Sugar-Making an Ancient Science
The art and science of sugar making date back to the first century of the Christian era, when the sweet sap of the Indian reed or sugar cane was sought and reduced to a syrup. It was those versatile people, the Arabs, however, who introduced granulated sugar made by a process peculiarly their own. In time the art of refining sugar with ashes was made known to the Egyptians, who in the seventh century transmitted the knowledge to the Chinese. It is known that sugar was made in Persia also at a very early day, and from Arabia the culture of sugar cane and the extraction of its sweet content spread to many lands.
Until 1747, sugar was supposed to be the product of sugar cane only, but in that year Marggraf, a German chemist, demonstrated that it was a natural product of other vegetables, and especially of the beet-root. It was near the end of the century, however, when its manufacture from that source was begun in Silesia. Almost all the sugar consumed in Europe is now, for economic reasons, obtained from the sugar beet. The cultivation of beets and the care of the soil, in Germany, are objects of national concern ;
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THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY
the machinery used in the industry has reached a high state of perfection, and the workmen are skilled in the art. It is from them that the people of America have learned the science, and from them that the annual supply of beet seeds is imported.
Early Experiments in Beet Culture
The experimental period in the beet-sugar industry in the United States had its beginning as early as 1830, when a small factory for making sugar from beets was built and operated in Philadelphia ; and ten years later another factory was built in Connecticut. Both were failures because of careless methods of beet culture and the crude system and apparatus used in the factories; and furthermore, neither factory was well situated in a good beet- growing district. The industry was not revived until 1870, when a factory was set up at . Alvarado, California. Six years later the company failed, and not until 1879 was it reorganized ; but it has been in operation every season since. As late as 1888 the output of this factory was only two million pounds of white sugar a year.
The total product of beet sugar in 1887 was six hundred thousand pounds; and in 1893 it reached forty-three million six hundred forty-eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven pounds, all made in Virginia. Nebraska, Utah and California. The capital invested in the seven factories was two million dollars; and they consumed the product of twenty thousand acres of land, at a cost of cultivation of five hundred thousand dollars yearly.
In 189] the beet sugar industry had its practical beginning at Chino, California, thirty-three miles east of Los Angeles. Several thousand acres of waste land in lower Pomona Valley, at that time but recently reclaimed by irrigation, had been planted to the Mangel-wurzel beet. This variety of the sugar beet was well adapted to the soil and climate, for the crop was a complete success, the beets growing in many instances to the size of a man's body and extending a foot or more above the ground. The beets contained from ten to twelve per cent. of saccharine matter.
Meanwhile a large factory had been erected, and machinery such as was used in Germany was imported from that country. It was necessary also to bring over mechanics to set up the machinery and afterwards to operate it, so little being known in this country of the details and science of sugar- making from beets. The success of the Chino factory, owned by the Oxnard interests from the start, led to the planting of other tracts of land in Cali- fornia, and the erection of factories, so that in a few years the industry became well established on the Pacific Coast.
General Interest Aroused in Beets
It was not long before capitalists and farmers in other States were attracted to the possibilities of beet-growing and sugar-making, and experi- ments were made toward adapting the various seeds grown in Germany to the soils of different sections of the country. The selection of the proper seeds for each soil is a very important matter, and, in fact, combined with proper fertilization and intensive cultivation, is the key to success. Wher- ever sugar beets can be profitably raised and the factories are properly managed, the industry flourishes. In 1909 there were sixty-seven beet- sugar factories in operation in the United States, and sixty-five in 1915.
Although these factories produced one billion pounds of granulated sugar in the season's run, this vast quantity was but one-fifth of the nation's con- sumption. To supply the entire needs of the country, four hundred factories would be required, and thereafter at least ten new ones added every year to keep up with the increasing demand. That this expansion of the industry
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
will ever be realized is not probable, because of the immense quantities of raw cane sugars produced and imported from our insular possessions. The sugars are produced by cheap labor and shipped by cheap water transpor- tation to the great refineries, and so long as the sugar situation is controlled by the Havemeyer. Arbuckle and other large interests, there can be little hope of expansion of the beet-sugar industry.
Development of the Industry
The development of beet sugar-making within the last fifteen years in the Middle West is very interesting, and embodies an element of romance. The soils of the vast agricultural belt extending east and west between Central New York, Northern Ohio, and Georgian Bay in Canada, and the Straits of Mackinaw westward to the Pacific, are especially adapted to beet- growing. They are rich in certain constituents that impart to the white Slesvig beet a high sugar content, the percentage under proper cultivation ranging from twelve to twenty, with an average of eleven tons of beets to the acre.
The States of Colorado, Michigan and California, in the order named. are the largest growers of sugar beets, and, of course, produce the most Leet sugar which finds a ready market in the Middle West and the Western States. In Michigan, which follows Colorado so closely in point of produc- tion as to be of equal importance in the industry, the soil and climate are peculiarly adapted to the growth and culture of sugar beets; and there are fifteen factories in operation during the season's campaign, which begins in October and ends in January. The industry here cuts beets from an acreage exceeding one hundred and forty thousand, and the crop is worth nearly cight million dollars to the farmers of the State. The average test of beets for sugar content is about sixteen per cent; the skilled workmen number about eighteen hundred with an average wage of three dollars a day, while the common laborers, such as coal and lime passers, and unloaders, to the number of twenty-five hundred, receive an average of two dollars a day. To the communities at large further direct benefit is derived from the large purchases of coal and limestone, and to the railroads for hauling the beets and other supplies, and also the hundreds of carloads of refined sugar to the markets near home and to points at some distance.
The Sugar-Bowl of Michigan
The Saginaw Valley has been very aptly termed the Sugar Bowl of Michigan, from the fact that it is the richest beet-growing district in the Middle West. In this thriving agricultural section, once famed as the great lumber mart and producer of the clearest cork pine ever known to the trade, has sprung up a new industry of the soil. Where once stood the magnificent giants of the forest, eighty or one hundred feet clear and straight to the first branches, there now grow succulent beets rich in sugar content. The "sugar bowl" is about fifty miles in diameter, with Saginaw as its center, and within it are nine large sugar factories with an aggregate cutting capacity of seven thousand tons of beets per day of twenty-four hours. The season's run, of about one hundred days, produces about one hundred and fifty million pounds of granulated sugar. The other six factories in the State are widely distributed in good beet territory, as from Mt. Clemens, near Detroit, to Charlevoix, and to Menominee, in Upper Michigan.
The Michigan Sugar Company, capitalized at twelve million five hundred thousand dollars, is the largest producer in Michigan, and operates six large factories located at Bay City, Carrollton, Sebewing, Caro, Alma and Croswell. It is ably managed by conservative capitalists whose policy has ever been
SIX HUNDRED ACRE BEET FIELD AT PRAIRIE FARM
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
for the upbuilding of the industry, and the encouragement and promotion of the best methods of beet culture among the farmers. The protection afforded by the tax on raw sugar has been an important factor in shaping the success of the beet-sugar industry : and in the fight in Congress for retention of the duty, the industry has never had a more staunch advocate than Joseph W. Fordney, the popular congressman from this district.
Building Up the Sugar-Bowl
With this brief survey of the beet-sugar industry we will proceed with the history of the "sugar bowl," which embodies some features of unusual interest. Although sugar was first made in Saginaw Valley in 1898, the first efforts to awaken the farmers to the value of sugar-beet crops, and capitalists to the apparent profits of sugar-making, were put forth several years earlier. In this preliminary work much credit belongs to Joseph Seemann, as one of the men who educated Michigan and, indeed, a large part of the Middle W'est, to the opportunities and advantages of sugar-beet culture, a work which had a large influence in establishing an important industry in this State.
In 1884, while on a visit to the land of his birth in Bohemia, Austria- Hungary, Mr. Seemann became interested in sugar-beet culture and the science of sugar-making. That part of Bohemia was inhabitated principally by Germans, who were the pioneers of the beet-sugar industry in Europe ; and he was impressed by the numerous sugar factories throughout the province. Upon inquiry he learned that in a territory somewhat smaller than the State of Michigan, there were one hundred and thirty-one sugar mills, employing thousands of skilled workmen and converting the product of more than a million acres of land into fine white sugar. On returning home he gathered all the data on sugar-beet culture that was available and found that an industry deserving the name had not yet been established in this country.
Five years later Mr. Seemann again visited Bohemia and was greatly impressed and interested in the growing sugar industry. During his inves- tigation of the principal sugar mills, he conceived the idea of experimenting in beet culture in Michigan; and accordingly sent a kilo of Klein- wenzleben sugar-beet seeds to his business partner, Charles It. Peters. A large part of these seeds were soon after sent to Professor R. C. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, for experimental purposes to ascertain if the soil and climate of Michigan were adapted to their culture. In the experiments conducted in 1891 by the State agriculturists in Saginaw County, beets being grown principally on sandy loam soil, the size varied from one pound three ounces to four pounds eleven ounces, and the pro- duction ranged from twelve to thirty-two tous to the acre. On pine cut land twenty-four tons of beets were raised. The sugar content varied from ten and one-half to sixteen and one-half per cent., the beets grown on pine cut land going as high as fourteen and one-quarter ; and the co-efficient of purity was very high, ranging from eighty-one to ninety-three per cent.
A singular coincidence in connection with the experiments conducted at the Agricultural College was that Edwin C. Peters, a son of Charles H. Peters, who in 1893 was a senior student in the college, was assigned one acre of ground for sugar beet experiment. Ile prepared the soil, planted the seed, thinned out the young plants, attended to all the cultivation, and late in September harvested a very satisfactory crop of beets. To complete the experiment and leave a permanent record of the results, he was required to write a treatise on the subject, and this was the first written from original data and personal experience on beet culture in Michigan.
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THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY
Upon his return to America, Mr. Seemann brought a number of pam- phlets printed in German especially for the education of the farmers. Hle was thoroughly imbued with the advantages of establishing the industry in this country, and proceeded to publish in the German weekly newspaper. the Saginaw Zeitung, then owned by Seemann & Peters, an entire pamphlet in serial chapters. As this was printed in German it gave the German-Ameri- can farmers in this section of Michigan instruction as to the proper culture of sugar-beets. Some of these farmers who had emigrated from Germany in the sixties and seventies were somewhat familiar with the growing of beets, as conducted in their native land, and they became deeply interested in the subject, and afterward were among the first in this county to experiment with beet seeds. The publication of this pamphlet was the first comprehensive information given the people of this State on what has since developed into a large and important industry. The firm of Seemann & Peters at that time also published the Saginaw Evening News, and they made this medium the pioneer journal in Michigan to advance the beet-sugar industry.
.A few years later, between 1893 and 1898, Mr. Seemann contributed many practical and valuable articles to the State press, on the culture of sugar-beets, and aroused wide interest in the subject. In 1894 the annual production of sugar in the United States was only three hundred and five thousand eight hundred tons. This quantity, he pointed out, was less than one-sixth of the total consumption, amounting to two million and twenty- five thousand short tons, while the value of the imported sugars was one hundred and eight million five hundred and ninety thousand dollars. All the wheat and flour exported by America did not pay for the sugar it impor- ted. The greater proportion of our sugar supplies came from the cane grown in Cuba, Porto Rico, and some of the Southern States, although about forty per cent. of the raw sugar was imported from Germany. Furthermore the price paid the farmer for his beets was four dollars and fifty cents a ton, which was twenty-five per cent. less than the price received by the growers in Bohemia. The need for large increase of home production of sugar was therefore apparent, the advantage of the sugar-beet as a rotation crop was plainly evident ; and it only remained for progressive farmers and capitalists to join hands in establishing a new and prosperous industry.
The highest national and state authorities, Doctor 11. W. Wiley and Professor R. C. Kedzie, determined in 1895 that Michigan, for one hundred miles north and south of Lansing, by reason of its soil and climate, was well adapted to the profitable growing of sugar-beets. From the beginning it was apparent that the successful conduct of the business was an agricul- tural problem rather than one of manufacturing, and the first thing to be done was to ascertain if beets of proper quality and in sufficient quantity could be produced to justify the building of a sugar factory. For the business to be successful beets should yield from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty pounds of sugar to the ton, and sugar produced at a cost not exceding three cents a pound.
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