Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOSEPH
WALWORTH SUTPHEN
SUTPHEN, JOSEPH WALWORTH, President, Pacific Packing Company, Los Angeles, California, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, July 15, 1883, the son of Paul Frederick Sutphen and Bertha (Davies) Sutphen, He married Miss Georgia Babcock at Cleveland, Ohio, June 17, 1908, and to them there has been born a son, Joseph Walworth Sutphen, Jr. Mr. Sutphen is descended of a family prominent in American affairs since 1652, when one of the early members was a Burgomaster of New Amsterdam, as New York was then known. Both sides of the family have been represented in the wars of the United States, Colonel George Davies, an officer of the Union Army during the Civil War having been his grandfather.
Mr. Sutphen was educated in private institutions of the East, his first schooling being at Newark Academy, Newark, New Jersey. He then went to William Penn Charter School at Philadelphia, Pa., and followed this with attendance at the University School, Cleveland, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1902. He then spent two years in Case School of Applied Science, the scientific branch of Western Reserve University, but left to take up the study of law in the Law Department of the same institution. He was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
At the conclusion of his studies, Mr. Sutphen was admitted to the Bar of Ohio and entered the offices of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, a firm of celebrated corporation attorneys of Cleveland. The members of this firm are among the leaders of the Ohio Bar and Mr. Sutphen, who was associated with them for about three years, gained an amount of valuable experience not usually afforded the younger members of the Bar.
In 1910 Mr. Sutphen severed his Cleveland connections and moved to Los Angeles, where, in September of that year, he opened offices for the practice of his profession. He made a study of the fruit industry and the transportation methods applied to it and within a short time became recognized as an authority on the laws dealing with these subjects. He became so closely identified with the citrus fruit business that at the end of his first year in Southern California he practically gave up his law practice to organize the Pacific Packing Company, a progressive concern, of which he has been President practically from its inception.
Although it is comparatively young, this company has already come to be regarded as one of the important adjuncts of the great citrus industry in California. It is engaged in the packing and shipping of citrus fruits and has 17 plants in California and Idaho, but the real inspiration for the company and foundation on which it rests is the system of drawing the Eastern buyers to the California markets, or source of supply, thus completely revolutionizing the method shipping fruit.
For many years the citrus fruit growers, outside of those members of great co-operative organizations, have shipped their fruits to Eastern markets without knowing what they would be paid for the product. They assumed all risks of depreciation in transit and demoralized or overstocked markets, and were compelled to take practically any price offered for the fruit, waiting from thirty to ninety days for their receipts. The buyers, on the other hand, were often forced to buy fruit of all sizes to get some of a size they especially desired and experienced various other inconveniences. In fact, in many cases the business was a losing proposition to both buyer and seller.
It was to obviate these various evils and to eliminate the expense of the middleman that Mr. Sutphen and his associates evolved their plan of selling for cash at the source of supply as expressed in the Pacific Packing Company. The result of this has been that the grower receives the best price for his fruit, receives payment at once and the buyer is given the opportunity of selecting his stock before it is placed on the cars. The first year of its existence the Pacific Packing Company shipped one thousand carloads of oranges and lemons and its operations have grown steadily since.
In connection with the work of the Pacific Packing Company Mr. Sutphen and his associates organized the California Fruit Auction Company, through which the selling of the crop is conducted. This company has proved of great benefit to the grower, the effect on the market of selling for cash in California being most pronounced. The market there is governed by supply and demand, this demand depending solely upon conditions in the combined markets of the United States and Canada and not upon those of any particular city or section.
Mr. Sutphen serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the California Fruit Auction Company and as such has an important part of its affairs and in those of the general industry, the entire citrus fruit product being valued at many millions of dollars.
The companies with which Mr. Sutphen is connected have won the confidence and support of a large percentage of citrus fruit growers who have benefited (sic) by the new method of marketing the fruit. The packing houses, located in the best citrus-producing districts, are equipped with modern machinery, insuring to the growers the highest grade of workmanship in grading and packing, while the auction business is in the hands of men highly trained in the selling of citrus fruits.
Mr. Sutphen still maintains his law practice, but as he confines himself to fruit and transportation law he may be said to be more closely connected with the fruit industry than with the legal profession. He is a member of Beta Theta Phi Club, of New York, and in Southern California is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Transcribed 6-30-11
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 775,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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BIOGRAPIES