San Francisco County

Biographies

THE AMERICAN SUGAR REGINERY

THE AMERICAN SUGAR REGINERY, owned and operated by the well-known firm of Havemeyer & Elder, New York, is the successor of a small refinery originally known as the Bay Refinery, which was established in San Francisco about 1860. In 1879 several gentlemen formed a combination with $300,000 capital and purchased the Bay Refinery for $250,000, enlarging its capacity to about 11,000,000 pounds per annum, and changing its name to the American Sugar Refinery. In 1885 a new company was formed, under the style of the American Sugar Refinery Company, with a paid-up capital of $1,000,000; and the works was remodeled and its capacity largely increased. In March, 1889, the property was purchased by Messrs. Havemeyer & Elder, and since then important improvements have been made, so that at the present time the daily output is larger than that of any other refinery on the Pacific coast. The buildings are situated on Battery, Union, Sansome, Filbert and Front streets, and are connected with tide water. The cost of the plant is $1,250,000. Here two-thirds of the entire crop of crude sugar produced on the Hawaiian islands is melted and refined, nearly 80,000 tons being annual received from that country alone, besides large quantities from Java, Manila and Central America. Employment is given to about 500 men in the refinery, and fully as many more are engaged in making barrels, boxes, sacks and other supplies for the refinery and in discharging the cargoes of the vessels which bring the raw sugar. The monthly pay roll is over $20,000.

An extensive cooperage establishment in connection with the refinery has recently been erected, fully equipped for manufacturing barrels by machinery.

The refined product finds a market in the various States and Territories of the Pacific slope, and is shipped as far East as the large cities on the Missouri river, brokers being employed in all the principal cities of the West to sell it. A large export trade is also carried on with Mexico, British Columbia, the Hawaiian and other islands of the Pacific and Japan.

The employes of the refinery have organized themselves into a Mutual Aid Society, the members of which, by the payment of a small fee monthly, are entitled to weekly benefits if sick or disabled for work, and in case of death their legal heirs receive a handsome sum.

Mr. Henry C. Mott, the active manager of this great industry, is a New Yorker by nativity and education. He took charge of the American Sugar Refinery in the fall of 1889, coming from New York city, where he had been connected with Messrs. Havemeyer & Elder’s extensive business for fifteen years, and hence is thoroughly prepared by long training and experience to discharge the duties of his responsible position. Mr. Mott is a gentleman in the prime of young manhood, and one prime element of his successful career as a business man is his courteous manner.

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker.

Source: “The Bay of San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 653-654, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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