San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MANTECA CREAM AND BUTTER COMPANY
Among the enterprising business
concerns of San Joaquin County is the Manteca Cream
and Butter Company, owned by Chris Christiansen, Floyd Richards, Peter
Christiansen, and Theodore Larsen, who, by their intelligent industry, have
contributed largely to the development of this section. Even before they located at Manteca the four
partners had long years of valuable experience in the same field, so that their
subsequent success and present prosperity are not at all surprising.
The original plant was organized in
1896 by a group of local farmers, and was conducted as a kind of skimming
station, to which the neighboring ranchers were accustomed to bring their
milk. For about fifteen years the
station was known as Cowell’s Switch, and this plant was the chief source of
revenue to the ranchers, who conducted dairies and sold the cream. Following this, a small butter business was
gradually being developed, and after 1918, manufacturing was carried on
extensively. As a result of both natural
growth and the excellent management afforded by the gentlemen named above, the
well-equipped plant is now turning out seven times the volume it produced in
1918. To better facilitate the work, the
company has recently added new and modern machines, and will soon be compelled
to enlarge again. Manteca Butter, the
copyrighted trademark, is known far and wide in the central part of the
state. The company employs four men and
two women; and is turning out 18,000 pounds of butter per week, necessitating a
fast fleet of four trucks, continually on the go, collecting milk twice a day
from the ranchers.
The two Christiansen brothers were
born in the village of Fjeldso, Denmark, where they
received an excellent common schooling, and in the middle of their teens took
up the butter making trade. Chris
Christiansen came out to America in 1912, and located at first at San Jose; but
three weeks later he established himself in the creamery trade at Bakersfield,
where he remained for three years, and to that town in 1914 his brother Peter
followed. Chris is married and has a
wife and two children; and he maintains a residence in Manteca. Floyd Richards was born at Rivana, Kansas, and came west to California as a young man
in 1896 he has been identified with the butter trade of this county as an
expert, operating also in Kern County for over seven years; and he was
associated with the Christensen brothers prior to their removing to this
county. Mr. Richards also lived in San
Diego County still earlier before migrating to San Joaquin and Kern counties;
he is married and lives at Manteca. Mr.
Larsen is a native of Denmark, and came to America in 1890 when he was
twenty-five years old. He went to
Phillips, South Dakota where he became prominent as an extensive stock
breeder. In 1918 he came to Manteca and
he has recently associated himself with the company.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1607. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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