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August 8, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Transportation Determines the Flow of Population’

John Diedrich Spreckels was born August 16, 1853 in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest of five children of Claus and Anna Spreckels. (The siblings were: Adolph Bernard (1857-1924), Claus August (1858-1946), Rudolph (1872-1958), Emma Claudina (1869-1924) Spreckels.)

The family moved to New York and then to San Francisco where he grew up. He studied at Oakland College and then in Hanover, Germany, where he studied chemistry and mechanical engineering in the Polytechnic College until 1872.

He returned to California and began working for his father, who had grown extremely wealthy in the sugar business. In 1876 he went to the Hawaiian Islands, where he worked in his father’s sugar business.

Sons of the Hawai‘i “Sugar King” (Claus Spreckels) formed John D Spreckels and Brothers (John, Adolph and Claus Spreckels.) On December 22, 1881, the Oceanic Steamship Company was incorporated in California.

It was the first line to offer regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco, and it reduced travel time immensely. While the sailing ship “Claus Spreckels,” made the trip in less than ten days in 1879, the new steam vessel Mariposa required fewer than six days to make the run in 1883.

On November 8, 1883, the Mariposa delivered Mother Marianne Cope, the leader of a small group of Franciscan Sisters who sailed to Hawaii to help “procure the salvation of souls and to promote the glory of God.” (She is now Saint Marianne.)

John became very wealthy in his own right.

In October, 1887, he married Lillie Siebein in Hoboken, New Jersey, and together they had four children. They first lived in Hawaii and then in San Francisco.

In 1887, Spreckels visited San Diego on his yacht Lurline to stock up on supplies. (Nearly forty years earlier (1850,) Honolulu-born William Heath “Kanaka” Davis, Jr. (1822 – 1909) had arrived in this part of California. Davis purchased 160-acres of land and, with four partners, laid out a new city (near what is now the foot of Market Street.) He built the first wharf there in 1850.)

Impressed by the real estate boom then taking place, Spreckels invested in construction of a wharf and coal bunkers at the foot of Broadway (then called D Street). That boom ended soon but Spreckels’ interest in San Diego would last for the rest of his life.

“You have often heard the remark that San Diego is a one-man town. Personally I feel proud to live in San Diego when it is referred to as a one-man town … this afternoon you can’t give our great leader enough glory.” (Mayor Wilde of Spreckels, November 15, 1919; San Diego History))

Spreckels became an investor in the Coronado Beach Company in 1889, buying out Hampton L. Story’s one-third interest and over the next three years, s bought controlling interest in the company and became the sole proprietor of the Hotel del Coronado. (Coronado History)

He established Tent City, a large vacation campground that sprung up near Hotel del Coronado. Tent City grew quickly — from 300 tents in the first year to more than 1,000 three years later, and attracted visitors from across the nation as an affordable vacation alternative.

“To be candid, I did not entirely fancy the idea at first, and then for a time I was doubtful of the success of the place. I was somewhat of the opinion that it might detract from the popularity of the resort proper and the hotel,” Spreckels said in a 1903 interview. “But Tent City has … established itself as firmly in my favor as in that of the public.” (San Diego Union Tribune)

In 1892, Spreckels bought a failed streetcar operation and launched the San Diego Electric Railway Company. Spreckels’ business played a key role in San Diego’s growth, providing access to areas such as Mission Hills, North Park, Kensington and East San Diego that were largely undeveloped at the time.

For a time, Spreckels was owner of the San Francisco Call, then a morning newspaper. While still living in San Francisco he continued his investment in San Diego, buying the San Diego Union newspaper in 1890 and the Tribune in 1901.

He moved his family permanently to San Diego immediately after the 1906 earthquake and moved into his new mansion on Glorietta Blvd. in Coronado in 1908. That structure survives today as the Glorietta Bay Inn.

In the next decades Spreckels became a millionaire many times over, and the wealthiest man in San Diego.

At various times he owned all of North Island, the San Diego-Coronado Ferry System, Union-Tribune Publishing Co., San Diego Electric Railway, San Diego & Arizona Railway, Belmont Park in Mission Beach.

He built several downtown buildings, including the Union Building in 1908, the Spreckels Theatre and office building, which opened in 1913, the San Diego Hotel and the Golden West Hotel. He employed thousands of people and at one time he paid 10% of all the property taxes in San Diego County.

“Transportation determines the flow of population,” said Spreckels, and throughout his ownership of the streetcar system he extended it from downtown to new areas where he owned land, such as Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and Normal Heights.

He invested millions in the San Diego & Arizona Railroad, the “Impossible Railroad”, which finally opened a rail link to the east in 1919, after 13 years under construction.

Spreckels organized the Southern California Mountain Water Company, which built the Morena and the Upper and Lower Otay dams, the Dulzura conduit and the necessary pipeline to the city.

Spreckels contributed to the cultural life of the city by building the Spreckels Theatre, the first modern commercial playhouse west of the Mississippi.

He gave generously to the fund to build the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and, together with his brother Adolph B. Spreckels, donated the Spreckels Outdoor Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park to the people of San Diego just before the opening of the Exposition.

Spreckels died in San Diego on June 7, 1926. His biographer, Austin Adams, called him “one of America’s few great Empire Builders who invested millions to turn a struggling, bankrupt village into the beautiful and cosmopolitan city San Diego is today.” (San Diego History Center) (Lots of information here is from San Diego History Center and Coronado History)

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JohnDSpreckels-1901-WC
JohnDSpreckels-1901-WC
JohnDSpreckels-SanDiegoRailwayMuseum
JohnDSpreckels-SanDiegoRailwayMuseum
John D Spreckels
John D Spreckels
The_Hotel_Redondo,_ca.1900
The_Hotel_Redondo,_ca.1900
Tent City, a vacation land for the common man of the early 20th century
Tent City, a vacation land for the common man of the early 20th century
Streetcar_barn--Mission_Cliffs_Gardens_on_Adams_Avenue_circa_1915
Streetcar_barn–Mission_Cliffs_Gardens_on_Adams_Avenue_circa_1915
Spreckels Theatre
Spreckels Theatre
Oceanic_SS_Co
Oceanic_SS_Co
Mariposa-Oceanic_Steamship_Company-1883
Mariposa-Oceanic_Steamship_Company-1883
John D Spreckels Mansion-Coronado-San Diego
John D Spreckels Mansion-Coronado-San Diego
JD Spreckels driving 'golden spike' on the San Diego & Arizona Railway_November_15_1919
JD Spreckels driving ‘golden spike’ on the San Diego & Arizona Railway_November_15_1919
Hotel-Del-Coronado-Beach-1900
Hotel-Del-Coronado-Beach-1900
Double-decker_San_Diego_Electric_Railway,_5th_&_Market,_Sept_21,_1892
Double-decker_San_Diego_Electric_Railway,_5th_&_Market,_Sept_21,_1892
Coronado_Ferry_Co_Ramona_circa_1910
Coronado_Ferry_Co_Ramona_circa_1910
Coronado Ferry Landing
Coronado Ferry Landing
Class_1_Streetcar_5th_and_Broadway-San_Diego-1915
Class_1_Streetcar_5th_and_Broadway-San_Diego-1915

Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Oceanic Steamship, San Diego, Spreckels

December 17, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Oceanic Steamship Company

“The arrival yesterday morning of the Suez, the first of the line of the Oceanic Steamship Company, which proposes to run regularly between these Islands and the Coast is an event of importance.”

“It has become quite apparent of late that the rapidly increasing trade on this route requires more and better accommodation than we now have, both for freight as well as passengers.”

“We are assured by the President of the Oceanic Company that they will have in actual service on this route, before the end of twelve months, two boats which are being specially built for them, and that the Suez is merely chartered as a pioneer.” (Daily Bulletin, June 15, 1882)

During the decade of 1875-1885 Pacific Mail operated a monthly service to New Zealand and Australia, via Hawai‘i. It could not handle the growing demands in the fast developing community in Hawaii.

Sons of the Hawai‘i “Sugar King” (Claus Spreckels) formed John D Spreckels and Brothers (John Diedrich, Adolph Bernard and Claus August Spreckels.) On December 22, 1881, the Oceanic Steamship Company was incorporated in California.

The company had its roots in a fleet of sailing vessels created in 1878 by Claus Spreckels, then a major sugar planter in Hawaii, to move raw sugar to his refinery in California.

Claus built the California Sugar Refinery in 1867 to process sugar. While grocers, then, sold “sugar loaves,” Spreckels introduced the European process of packaging granulated sugar and sugar cubes (so customers could more easily divide the portions.)

In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he acquired the fee simple title to the Wailuku ahupuaʻa.

That same year, Spreckels founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company, which quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands.

In 1882, Oceanic Steamship first chartered ships, then owned and operated their own fleet. The first of the fleet was the Mariposa, launched on March 7, 1883.

The large steamers provided more cargo space than was needed for sugar, so they expanded into merchant shipping more generally.

It was the first line to offer regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco, and it reduced travel time immensely. While the sailing ship “Claus Spreckels,” made the trip in less than ten days in 1879, the new steam vessel Mariposa required fewer than six days to make the run in 1883.

On November 8, 1883, the Mariposa delivered Mother Marianne Cope, the leader of a small group of Franciscan Sisters who sailed to Hawaii to help “procure the salvation of souls and to promote the glory of God.” (She is now Saint Marianne.)

Likewise, the family enterprise controlled the sugar trade and, from 1884, the mail service on the San Francisco-Honolulu stretch as well. In 1885, steamer service was extended to New Zealand and Australia. (Spiekermann)

When Pacific Mail decided not to continue their service from San Francisco, Oceanic Steamship submitted a proposal and was ultimately awarded the contract with Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (terms of the contract required a British firm be involved.) (Plowman)

The Oceanic Steamship was economically dependent on trans-Pacific mail contracts from the US government, which at the time were awarded through a political process by act of Congress.

Oceanic thrived when it had the contracts but fell into economic problems when it didn’t. Meanwhile, the Spreckels family’s position in the sugar business was overtaken by other firms, calling into question the basic reason for the shipping company’s existence. (McMillan)

As a result the line was sold to Matson Navigation Co. in 1926 and operated as a Matson subsidiary thereafter. (The Mariposa was sold in 1912 to the Alaska Steamship Company. On December 18, 1917 it sank after hitting a Straits Island reef off the coast of British Columbia.)

With increasing passenger traffic to Hawai‘i, Matson built a world-class luxury liner, the SS Malolo, in 1927. At the time, the Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22 knots. Its success led to the construction of the luxury liners Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline between 1930 and 1932.

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Oceanic_SS_Co
Oceanic_SS_Co
Schedule Cover of the Oceanic Steamship Co
Schedule Cover of the Oceanic Steamship Co
Oceanic-Steamship-Company-Ad
Oceanic-Steamship-Company-Ad
Mariposa-Oceanic_Steamship_Company-1883
Mariposa-Oceanic_Steamship_Company-1883
The_Oceanic_Steamship_Company's_Steamship_Advertisement-(WC)
The_Oceanic_Steamship_Company’s_Steamship_Advertisement-(WC)
Oceanic_SS_in_conjunction_with_Union_SS-1900
Oceanic_SS_in_conjunction_with_Union_SS-1900
Advertising of the Oceanic Steamship Co., 1889
Advertising of the Oceanic Steamship Co., 1889
Mother Marianne, far, right, led a group of six volunteers from the Sisters of St. Francis to Hawaii
Mother Marianne, far, right, led a group of six volunteers from the Sisters of St. Francis to Hawaii
John D Spreckels
John D Spreckels

Filed Under: Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, Oceanic Steamship, Spreckels

July 5, 2013 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William G Irwin

William G Irwin was born in England in 1843; he was the son of James and Mary Irwin.  His father, a paymaster in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed with his family for California with a cargo of merchandise immediately after the discovery of gold in 1849. The family then came to Hawaiʻi.

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G. Irwin and Claus Spreckels constituted the partnership in the firm, which maintained offices in Honolulu. The role of the agent had greatly expanded by this time.

William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In addition, Irwin and Company acted as an agent for the Spreckels-controlled Oceanic Steamship Company and required, for a time, that Olowalu’s sugar be shipped to the Spreckels-controlled Western Sugar Refinery in San Francisco by the Oceanic Line.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

By 1909, William G Irwin and Company’s fortunes had declined and, reaching retirement age, Irwin reluctantly decided to close the business. In January 1910, the firm of William G. Irwin and Company merged with its former rival C. Brewer and Company.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1913, Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which maintained large holdings in Hawaiian plantations. He had extensive business interests in California, as well as in Hawaiʻi, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank of San Francisco in later years.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Irwin had a CW Dickey-designed home makai of Kapiʻolani Park.  In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction, on the former Irwin property, of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawaiʻi who served in World War I.  It’s where the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial now sits.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project, introduced by Governor Lucius E Pinkham and the Board of Harbor Commissioners in 1916, was declared to be the “most important project ever handled in Honolulu Harbor.”

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

On September 3, 1930, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into an agreement with Hélène Irwin Fagan and Honolulu Construction and Draying, Ltd. (HC&D), whereby HC&D sold some property to Fagan, who then donated it to the Territory with the stipulation that the property honor her father and that it be maintained as a “public park to beautify the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.”

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees (shading a parking lot;) Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

The William G Irwin Charity Foundation was founded in 1919 by the will of his wife to support “charitable uses, including medical research and other scientific uses, designed to promote or improve the physical condition of mankind in the Hawaiian Islands or the State of California.”  The 2010 Foundation report for the Foundation indicated its value at over $100-million.

Among other activities, it funds the William G Irwin Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine, which was created with gifts from the William G Irwin Charity Foundation of San Francisco, and, with a transfer of funds in 2003, the Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

The image shows the Irwin home at what is now the Natatorium.     In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Aloha Tower, C Brewer, Dickey, George Irwin, Hawaii, Irwin Park, Kapiolani Park, King Kalakaua, Natatorium, Oceanic Steamship, Privy Council, Punahou, Spreckels, Sugar

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