The Spreckels Sugar Company is an American

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

refiner that for many years controlled much of the

U.S. West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

refined sugar market. It is currently headquartered in

Brawley, California Brawley (formerly, Braly) is a city in the Imperial Valley and within Imperial County, southern California, United States. The population was 24,953 at the 2010 census, up from 22,052 in 2000. The town has a significant cattle and feed industr ...

History

The Spreckels Sugar Company was founded by entrepreneur, industrialist, newspaper publisher, and railroad executive

Claus Spreckels Adolph Claus J. Spreckels (July 9, 1828 – December 26, 1908) (his last name has also been misspelled as Spreckles) was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also in ...

(1828–1908) in February 1899. He founded the

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

Spreckels, California Spreckels is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California, United States. Spreckels is located south of Salinas, at an elevation of . Its population was 692 at the 2020 ce ...

, just south of the city of

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

, in 1897, but his descendants began to relinquish control when they started selling homes in the community to the public c. 1925. In 1891,

Henry O. Havemeyer Henry Osborne Havemeyer (October 18, 1847 – December 4, 1907) was an American industrialist, entrepreneur and sugar refiner who founded and became president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891. Havemeyer was the third generation of h ...

, who controlled The

American Sugar Refining Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

(The Sugar Trust), bought half of the stock of the

Western Sugar Company The Western Sugar Cooperative is a grower owned American agricultural cooperative originating from the Great Western Sugar Company in 1901. History The Great Western Sugar Company was incorporated in February 1901 by Charles Boettcher and other ...

, thus giving his company control of the Hawaiian sugar and of the markets west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. When it was completed in 1899, Spreckels' "Factory 1" was the largest sugar refinery in the United States and the third-largest in the world. Shipping to and from the plant was mostly by a private Spreckels-owned narrow-gauge railroad system connecting to the docks at

Moss Landing, California Moss Landing, formerly Moss, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Monterey County, California, United States. It is located north-northeast of Monterey, at an elevation of . It is on the shore of Monterey Bay, at the ...

. The factory was just north of the Salinas River at . On Claus Spreckels' death, his second son

Adolph B. Spreckels Adolph Bernard Spreckels (January 5, 1857 – June 28, 1924) was a California businessman who ran Spreckels Sugar Company and who donated the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum to the city of San Francisco in 1924. His wife Alm ...

(1857–1924) assumed the management of Spreckels Sugar Company. Adolph's wife's nephew, Charles Edouard de Bretteville, eventually took over as head of the company and in 1949 led a group that purchased control. In 1963, the family sold their interests to Amstar. In 1987, a management team bought out the Spreckels Sugar Division; in 1996, it was sold to Imperial Holly Corp. of

Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around th ...

, who owned it until 2005 when it was sold to

Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

Renville, Minnesota Renville is a city in Renville County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,287 at the 2010 census. U.S. Route 212 and County Highway 6 are two of the main routes in the city. History The city and county of Renville were named for ...

. Spreckels Boulevard outside Salinas, as well as Spreckels Road outside

King City, California King City (variant: Kings City) is a city in Monterey County, California, United States. It is located on the Salinas River southeast of Salinas, at an elevation of . It lies along U.S. Route 101 in the Salinas Valley of California's Cent ...

and Spreckels Boulevard in

Manteca, California Manteca (Spanish for "lard") is a city in San Joaquin County, California. The city had a population of 83,498 as of the 2020 census. History Manteca is a city in the Central Valley of California, located east of San Francisco. It was fou ...

, still bear witness to the mark Spreckels Sugar made in the area. American author

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

worked on ranches owned by Spreckels Sugar throughout the Salinas Valley in the early 1920s.

References

External links

* * * {{cite web , url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt3m3nd07h/ , title=Finding Aid to the Western Sugar Refinery Records, 1871-1949 , work=

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

, publisher=

Online Archive of California The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

Sugar companies of the United States Companies based in Imperial County, California History of Monterey County, California Salinas Valley Food and drink companies established in 1899 1899 establishments in California Business in Hawaii

History

See also

References

External links