Spreckels | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 28, 2024 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.

December 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Isthmus

Volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands form in response to hot-spot magmatism deep below the lithosphere. As a volcano is moved away from the hot spot by motion of the Pacific tectonic plate, it ceases volcanic activity and a new vent forms.

Thus, a chain of volcanoes forms along the direction of plate motion, with younger volcanoes near the position of the hot spot.

As volcanoes emerge above the sea surface, they form a gently sloping volcanic shield; the period from when a new volcano breaks the sea surface to the end of shield building is estimated to last about 0.5 million years.

Throughout the growth of a volcano and for some time after completion of its shield, weight on the thin oceanic crust causes the volcano to subside. During shield building, rapid growth outpaces subsidence and there is a net increase in height and area. However, when shield building ceases, net subsidence submerges many areas formerly above sea level.

In addition, over long time periods, erosion is an important factor in changing the topography of an island. Erosion is difficult to model because there is no accurate way to determine the timing and magnitude of all events. (Price and Elliott-Fisk)

Maui is a doublet – that is, it originally consisted of two distinct islands which were later united. (USGS) West Maui and Haleakala lava flows joined to form a broad, low isthmus. (Holthus) The 7-mile wide valleylike isthmus earned Maui the nickname of the “valley isle.” (Britannica)

“The north side of the isthmus, the location of Pauleukalo Marsh and Kanaha Pond, consists of stream-transported sediments and beach material. The marshes have formed in coastal depressions. Kanaha Pond formed in weathered lava. During floods, freshwater overflows the wetland and the barrier ridge and discharges directly to the ocean.”

“The beaches along the north side of Maui’s isthmus are discontinuous and fronted by beachrock outcrops. Beach rock up to 790 ft offshore from the present beach indicates a general trend of erosion over the last few hundred years.”

“The south side of Maui’s isthmus supports a 4 mi long, gently curved barrier beach which separates Kealia Pond from the ocean. Water level fluctuates seasonally, forming a 400-500 acre shallow, brackish pond in winter and spring, and exposing extensive red-brown mudflats in summer.”

“The wetland is slowly filling with stream-transported deposits of terrigenous material and wind-blown beach sands. The pond’s

drainage outlet is periodically blocked by sand, but clears during heavy streamflows.” (Holthus)

The abundance of water in Nā Wai ʻEhā ((“The Four Great Waters”) – Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku (ʻĪao) Stream and Waikapū Stream are in central Maui) enabled extensive loʻi kalo (wetland kalo) complexes, including varieties favored for poi-making such as “throat-moistening lehua poi.” (CWRM)

Nā Wai ʻEhā once “comprised the largest continuous area of wetland taro cultivation in the islands.” Its “complex agricultural system of wetland kalo cultivation,” together with the abundant protein sources in the streams and nearshore waters, supported one of the largest populations on Maui.

The fertile kalo lands, complex system of irrigation ʻauwai (ditches) and abundant fresh water from Nā Wai ʻEhā sustained Hawaiian culture for 1,000-years.

Given the makeup of the Nā Wai ʻEhā, Waiheʻe River and ‘Īao historically would have flowed continuously to the coast; Waiehu Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast at least 95 percent of the time; and Waikapū Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast less than half of the time. (USGS)

While water was flowing in the river valleys, in about 1840 it was estimated that, “The isthmus is too dry to be fit for cultivation; it is in extent about twenty by fifteen miles. During nine months of the year it is a fine grazing country, and feeds large herd of cattle, that are mostly owned by foreigner.” (Wilkes (1840-41))

“The district of Wailuku is composed of valley and upland. The soil in the former is extremely rich and well watered; the upland, also, produces good crops when sufficient moisture can be had. Potatoes, corn, sugar-cane, and sweet potatoes, are the chief products of the windward side of the island.” (Wilkes)

“Between the beaches of Kahului and those of Maalaea and Kalepolepo lies a vast expanse of level land, forming an isthmus connecting east and west Maui, which as it exists is fit for nothing except the pasturage of animals and in some places not even fit for that owing to an entire destitution of water supply.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

“The area of this land is perhaps not less than fifty thousand acres, and capable, if irrigated, of producing many thousand tons of sugar. Most of this belongs to the government, and if the spirit of enterprise were rife among those in authority …”

“… this whole plain could be turned into a garden, for there is an abundance of water running waste upon the highlands of Haleakala amply sufficient if utilized for this purpose to supply the entire tract.”

“The subject of irrigation of this plain has been more than once brought forward for consideration, but no thorough investigations have been divulged, if they have ever been made, as to the best means of bringing down the waste water on to it, or the probable expense that would accrue, although the feasibility of the project is not to be doubted.”

“During the reign of Kamehameha V, some investigations were said to have been made, but as to their nature or comprehensiveness the public were allowed to remain in the dark, or to be satisfied with the dicta of his imperious ministry, that the engineering would be too costly and the whole affair too ponderous to be handled by the government.”

“This is certainly one of our first and greatest needs, and with reciprocity to back us there would be no fear of the result… We have heard of a suggestion to irrigate this plain, or a part of it, by water derived from the streams of Waiehu and Waihee, much of whose water now runs to waste.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

By the 1870s, growing plantation interests in the region sought out ways to turn what had become almost desolate isthmus lands and neighboring kula lands of Maui, green with cane.

Their economic plan was made viable by the passage of a Reciprocity Treaty between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 30, 1875; and subsequent ratification of the treaty by King Kalākaua on April 17, 1875.

The treaty went into effect on September 9th, 1876, and on September 13th, 1876, King Kalākaua granted issuance of the first Water License for construction of the “Haiku Ditch,” and drawing water out of streams of the Hāmākua Loa District.

The initial development of the ditch system was authorized as a part of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s program to promote prosperity for all the people of the Kingdom. (Kumupono)

Sugar was planted and the West Maui streams were diverted. In addition, five ditches originating in East Maui at different levels are used to convey the water from that region to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui.

In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hamakua, New Hamakua, and Kailuanui ditches. They cross about 20 gulches east of Maliko, all of which have more or less water at all times and large quantities after storms. (USGS, 1910-1911)

Wailuku Sugar was organized in 1862 by James Robinson, Thomas Cummins, J Fuller and agent C Brewer. 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 founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company (later known as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company – HC&S.)

The late-1890s saw internal family conflicts. Spreckels lost control of HC&S and in 1898; it became a part of Alexander & Baldwin Co. Following the 1948 merger of HC&S and Maui Agriculture Co., HC&S became a division of Alexander & Baldwin.

Fast forward to December 2016, Hawai‘i saw its last sugar harvest on the Maui isthmus. In December 2018, Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) announced that it had sold its 41,000-acre sugar plantation in Maui’s central plains to Mahi Pono LLC, a joint venture between Pomona Farming LLC, a California-based agricultural group, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.

Much of the sugar land is now in diversified farming (with orchard and row crops such as lime, lemon, orange, tangerine, coffee, avocado, macadamia nut, ‘ulu, onion, kale, lettuce, watermelon, bananas, coconut, and lilikoi) by Mahi Pono.

As of December 2022, Mahi Pono had planted more than 1.64 million trees on approximately 8,625 acres of land. In addition to our tree plantings, we have also prepared over 9,000 acres of grass pastureland to support our Maui Cattle Company grass-fed beef operations. Their products are typically sold under the Maui Harvest brand. (Mahi Pono)

February 6, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gay Queen Of The Waves

A 2020 Proclamation issued by Governor Ray Cooper of North Carolina states, “Whereas, North Carolina was a pioneer of East Coast surfing;”

“the April 2, 1910 edition of Colliers Weekly includes a letter from Wrightsville Beach resident Burke Haywood Bridgers describing surfing activity in our state as early as 1909;”

“an announcement in the Wilmington Morning Star on June 30, 1910 includes mention of one of the earliest surfboard riding competitions in the mainland United States and direct communications with Alexander Hume Ford”.

However, that claim appears to be suspect, given other publications that predate the 1900s claim. In the summer of 1888, several newspapers report a girl surfing at Ashbury Park, New Jersey – they refer to her as the “Gay Queen of the Waves.”

“A group of summer loungers on the beach at Ashbury park were watching the extraordinary antics of a dark-eyed bronzed-faced girl in the sea this morning. The object of all this interest and solicitude was beyond the line of breakers and standing on a plank that rose and fell with the swelling waves.”

“Her bathing dress was of some dark material, fitting close to the figure, the skirts reaching scarce to the knee. Her stockings wore of amber hue, adorned with what from the shore seemed to be vines and roses in colored embroidery. She wore no hat or cap.”

“Her hair, bound across the forehead and above the ears by a silver fillet, tumbled down upon her shoulders or streamed out upon the wind in black and shining profusion. Her tunic was quite sleeveless , and one could scarcely fail to observe the perfect development and grace of her arms.”

“As a wave larger than those which had gone before slowly lifted the plank upon its swelling surface, she poised herself daintily upon the support, her round arms stretched out and her body swaying to and fro in harmony with the motion of the waters.”

“As the wave readied its fullest volume she suddenly, quick as a thought, and with a laugh that rang full into shore, drew herself together, sprang into the air, and, her hands clasped together and clearing her way, plunged into the rolling sea.”

“There was a little cry from timid feminine watchers on the sand, but the smiling face was above water again while they cried, and the daring Triton was upon the plank again in another moment and waiting for a second high roller.”

“So she has been amusing herself and interesting the mob for three mornings. She is as completely at ease in the sea as you or I on land, and the broad plank obeys her slightest touch.”

“When she has had enough of it she will bring the plank into shore, she riding upon the further end and guiding it like a goddess over the erects and through the foam of the biggest breakers.”

“She comes from the Sandwich Islands and is making a tour of the country. Her father is an enormously rich planter. She arrived in the park a week ago with the family of a wealthy New York importer. She is at a fashionable hotel and is one of the most charming dancers at the hotel hops, as well as the most daring swimmer on the Jersey coast.”

“She is well educated and accomplished, and, of course, speaks English perfectly, and with a swell British accent that is the despair of all the dudes.”

“She learned to be mistress of the waves in her childhood at her native home by the sea, where, she modestly says, all the girls learn swimming as a matter of course, quite as much as girls in this country learn tennis and croquet.” (Morning News from Philadelphia Press, August 17, 1888)

Although she is not identified, historian Vincent Dicks has apparently suggested that the young first-ever East Coast surfer was Emma Claudine Spreckels, the only daughter of Hawai‘i sugar baron Claus Spreckels.

Claus Spreckels (1828-1908), a German-born immigrant, made his fortune by starting a brewery and later founding the California Sugar Refinery. When he went to Hawaii in 1876 he managed to secure sole supply of sugar cane and with it much of the West Coast refined sugar market. In 1899 he founded the Spreckels Sugar Company, Inc.

The businessman gave over $25 million to his five grown children but his favorite child was the only daughter, Emma Claudine Spreckels.

He gifted an entire city block in Honolulu to her and an endowment worth almost $2 million. However, in 1893, when Emma eloped with Thomas Watson, many years her senior, she failed to tell her father. (House and Heritage)

Then, Emma “returned to her father all property, bonds, etc., which he had placed in her name. These gifts amounted to nearly $2,000,000, and were, it is said, relinquished by a single stroke of the pen by Mrs. Watson after her marriage.”

“It is reported that Mr. Spreckels was opposed to his daughter’s union with Watson, and that upon his chiding her for her seeming ingratitude in marrying against his wishes, she decided to give up her fortune, and did so, it is understood, upon the advice of her husband.” (Mount Holly News, Jan 12, 1897)

Emma ultimately married three times: after Watson died in 1904 she later married John Ferris (with her father’s blessing) and then Arthur Hutton in 1922. Emma died on May 2, 1924 at Nuffield England.

November 17, 2021 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Closing Years of Spreckelsville in Spreckels’ Hands

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

The career of the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West consisted of building and breaking monopolies in sugar, transport, gas, electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks and breweries.

The first industry in which Spreckels succeeded was quite typical for German immigrants: beer brewing. In the spring of 1857, together with his brother Peter Spreckels and Claus Mangels, among others, he founded the Albany Brewery, the first large-scale producer of beer in San Francisco.

Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar. That year, he started the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but sold it three years later.

He then constructed 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.)

Spreckels came to Hawaii in 1876 on the same ship that brought favorable news of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. In effect, the treaty gave Hawaiian sugar planters a price increase of two cents a pound and thus set off an economic boom in the island kingdom.

Spreckels had originally opposed the treaty; but after it passed, he quickly made up his mind to take advantage of it. He decided that the arid central plains would be suitable for a sugar plantation if he could get water. Two years later he returned to Hawaii accompanied by a well-known California irrigation engineer, Hermann Schussler. (Adler)

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.

As a vehicle for carrying out his plans, Spreckels incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial Company in San Francisco on September 30, 1878. The authorized capital stock was $10,000,000, represented by 1,000 shares having a par value of $10,000 each. Claus Spreckels was the majority stockholder. At par, his holdings amounted to $5,200,000.

His interest and investment prompted the Hawaiian Gazette to say, “With an aggregation of brains, business enterprise and capital, this new company will infuse new life and health into the great sugar industries of Hawaii. …”

“It is more than probable that the Island production can be increased six-fold.” (Hawaiian Gazette. October 30, 1878) (The six-fold increase in production was realized in 11 years. (Adler))

In 1880 Spreckels engaged Joseph and Andrew Moore of the Risdon Iron Works, San Francisco, to build a mill with a capacity of about twenty tons a day. Construction of three more mills got underway the next year, with improved design based on experience with the first mill.

These mills were completed by 1882, and capacity was thus increased to about 100 tons a day. The crop for that year was estimated at 12,000 tons, a four-fold rise over the yield for 1880. (Adler)

The Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company was incorporated (1882) in San Francisco and went public; it took over the assets of the Hawaiian Commercial Company. Capital stock of the new company consisted of 100,000 shares of $100 par value. Purposes of the company as stated in the charter were much the same as those of Hawaiian Commercial.

After the incorporation of the Hawaiian Commercial Company, Spreckels moved swiftly to make his plantation the most modern and the most productive in the kingdom. (Adler)

Spreckels was the first island planter to achieve nearly complete control of sugar from growing to marketing. In this he set the pattern which the Hawaiian sugar industry.

The plantation, with its vast fields of cane irrigated by the Spreckels ditch, was the first link in the chain of vertical integration. The second link was the Honolulu firm of William G. Irwin and Company (Spreckels and Irwin), which acted as agent for the Spreckelsville plantation and also for others.

In the 1880’s and 1890’s it was one of the leading sugar agencies of the kingdom. The Irwin company also acted as agent for the Spreckels Oceanic Steamship Line, which during the last two decades of the nineteenth century dominated the transport of Hawaiian sugar.

Oceanic thus formed the third link in the chain of control. The last link was the Spreckels refinery in San Francisco, where most island sugar was refined.

Besides setting the pattern for vertical integration, Spreckels made many pioneering contributions to Hawaiian sugar technology.

Spreckels was the first to use a five-roller mill, instead of the usual three-roller of the time. (This increased the percentage of juice extraction from the cane, that also resulted in better drying of the bagasse (which could then be used for fuel)). (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use electric lights in the mill. (Electric lights permitted the mills to operate night and day, and thereby avoided the expense of shut-down during the height of the grinding season. His use of electric lights in 1881 preceded the lighting in Iolani Palace by five years.) (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use rail in hauling cane. (An ingenious system of permanent and portable track connected up with the existing railroad running to the port of Kahului.)

(At Spreckelsville, rails radiated in all directions from the mill buildings and also connected them with each other. Thus Spreckels found a solution for intra-plantation cane hauling, inter-mill and intra-mill transport, and for getting sugar directly to the wharf at Kahului.) (Adler)

Spreckels was the first to use a steam plow. (Among the advantages of the plow were that a greater area could be plowed per day than with oxen or mule teams; more effective plowing increased the sugar yield per acre; and there was a saving of man power.) (Adler)

Spreckels knew water was key to growing sugar and he built the largest irrigation ditch that had ever been undertaken in the islands. On his last trip to Spreckelsville, in August, 1893, Spreckels was making plans for an electric power plant to operate pumping stations. This would enable him to increase the water supply and hence the acreage in cane. (Adler)

The Advertiser observed, “The company means business. … A vast improvement will be noticeable in the commerce of this kingdom, and ere long, these islands so little known beyond the Coast states will be distributing their staple products all over the American continent.” (PCA, April 2, 1882)

The Gazette agreed, “Claus Spreckels has certainly made out of what was once considered worthless land a waving plain of cane. One must ride through these acres and acres of cane to fairly understand how great the enterprise is …”

“If this is gathering wealth to the owners and projectors, it is also scattering money among the Hawaiian people. We learned that during the construction of the mills the payroll of the plantation rose … A large portion of this must find its way into the pockets of the Maui people, native and foreign, another portion must come to Honolulu.” (Hawaiian Gazette, August 23, 1882)

In 1892 the plantation was called “the largest sugar estate in the world.” It contained 40,000 acres, of which 25,000 were good cane land. Twelve thousand acres were under cultivation. The fields extended for fifteen miles and were several miles wide.

The mills had a capacity of 30,000 tons a year, and were “fitted with the most perfect machinery and appliances which the ingenuity of man has yet devised.” (Adler)

But all was not rosy for Spreckels and his sugar plantations.

Upon public issue in 1882, the stock sold around $60. By the fall of 1884 the company was deep in debt, and the price was down to 25 cents. A personal loan by Spreckels of $1,000,000 and authorization by the directors of a bond issue moved the price up again. Good crop reports in 1885 reinforced this upward movement.

Then, in 1890, the U.S. Congress enacted the McKinley Tariff, which allowed raw sugar to enter the United States free of duty and established a two-cent per pound bounty for domestic producers.

The overall effect of the McKinley Tariff was to completely erase the advantages that the reciprocity treaty had provided to Hawaiian sugar producers over other foreign sugar producers selling in the U.S. market. The value of Hawaiian merchandise exports plunged from $13 million in 1890 to $10 million in 1891 to a low point of $8 million in 1892. (La Croix)

In the 1892 report of the board of directors, the stockholders were told in effect that the stock was valueless and the corporation deeply in debt.

The depressing effect of the McKinley bill on the price of sugar and the lack of water (no rain having fallen on the Hawaiian islands in a long period) were the main reasons given as an explanation for the disastrous turn which affairs had taken. (Adler)

“Fifteen gentlemen representing over eight thousand shares of stock in the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company met yesterday (17th inst.) in the law offices of Blake, Howison & Williams and expressed themselves very freely concerning the board of directors, who had permitted the affairs of the great corporation to become badly entangled”.

“It appears that at a meeting held when the report was ready for presentation several of the stockholders declined to accept the situation and suggested that an assessment might be levied and tile money thus raised be used to carry the corporation through the financial breakers.”

“This was agreed to and it was anticipated that the assessment would be about $1 a share. The good people who had invested their wealth in the Hawaiian Commercial Company were horrified by an invitation to come forward and yield up $5 a share.”

“This, the directors argued, would bring $500,000 into the treasury and would be needed, every cent of it. The date on which the assessment became delinquent was fixed at January 27th.”

“The levy was considered exorbitant, and a few days ago a number of stockholders, representing 10,000 shares out of a total of 100,000, met and appointed a committee to wait on Claus Spreckels, who is popularly supposed to have possession of 60,000 shares, or a controlling interest in the corporation, and ask him to withdraw the assessment altogether or reduce it to $1.”

“As Attorney Williams explained to the meeting yesterday: ‘Mr. Spreckels declined to listen to a paper which I had drawn up with care, and after investigation of the situation, politely requested them to vacate his office. They left.’” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 31, 1893)

Then, “a bitter family feud erupted, pitting Spreckels and his sons Adolph and John against his sons Rudolph and Claus A. ‘Gus’ Spreckels.” (Hamilton)

“There is litigation in the family of Claus Spreckels, the sugar king.”

“C. A. Spreckels, the youngest son, has begun it by filing a complaint against his father, Claus Spreckels, charging that the latter has conspired with John D. and A. B. Spreckels and other directors of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company to crowd the plaintiff and other stockholders out of the corporation.”

“Allegations of fraud to secure the desired end are made, with various revelations in connection with the business of the sugar company.”

“Claus Spreckels and the two elder sons are asked to pay $2,500,000 to the corporation as damages for their fraudulent conspiracy, and a demand is made upon the Court for an injunction to prevent the carrying out of the plans.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 12, 1893)

An out-of-court settlement of the suit in January, 1894, gave Gus Spreckels control of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company. His brother Rudolph became a director. Claus Spreckels and his other sons, John and Adolph, were ousted.

Hackfeld and Company replaced Irwin and Company as Hawaiian agent for the Spreckelsville plantation. Control of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company and of the Spreckelsville plantation thus slipped from the hands of the elder Spreckels. (Adler)

The upstart triumph was short lived, however, for in 1898 a competing firm bought out the company and ousted the brothers from its management. (Hamilton)

The buyers of HC&S included James B. Castle, S. N. Castle estate, William R. Castle, Henry P. Baldwin, and Samuel T Alexander. The firm of Alexander and Baldwin became Honolulu agent for the plantation in place of Hackfeld and Company.

“Stock once 25 cents, is up from $28 to $34 and over and will go to $50.” (PCA, October 13, 1898) “The stock of the company now passes largely into the hands of residents of Honolulu.” (PCA, October 15, 1989)

At the time of these last events Claus Spreckels was 70 years old. In his declining years, then, he saw the magnificent plantation which he had founded slip not only from his grasp but from that of his family. (Adler)

October 13, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) was perhaps the most successful German-American immigrant entrepreneur of the late-nineteenth century; he was one of the ten richest Americans of his time.

Though profitable, he sold his beer operation in 1863 and switched to a new field that would make him rich: sugar. That year, he started the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but sold it three years later.

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.

The Spreckelsville Mill was actually four mills in one complex (it was located just to the northeast of the present Kahului Airport, near the intersection of Old Stable Road and Hana Highway.) The town of Spreckelsville built up around it.

Part of the production innovation was the use of electric lights; the first recorded onshore use of electric lighting in Hawaiʻi was at Mill Number One of the Spreckelsville Plantation on Maui on Aug. 21, 1881.

To satisfy the curiosity of people anxious to see the “concentrated daylight,” Capt. Coit Hobron ran a special train from Kahului, and King Kalākaua, Widow Queen Emma and Princess Ruth were among those who came to view the lights.

Spreckels modernized and mechanized the sugar production process, from hauling cane to the mill, to extracting the juice, reducing the juice to syrup and producing sugar grains. The raw sugar was then packed and shipped to his refinery in San Francisco. (Miller)

Sugar is a thirsty crop and Spreckels built the Haiku Ditch that spanned thirty miles and delivered fifty million gallons of water daily, irrigating twenty times as much land as had previously been irrigated.

Looking to upgrade from the mule and oxen means of moving sugar to the mill (as well as reduce costs,) Spreckels built a narrow-gauge railroad to haul the sugar from the plantation to the mill.

By 1881, twenty miles of iron track were completed. The rail line also transported the processed sugar to Maui’s major port, Kahului. By 1885, Spreckelsville had forty-three miles of railroad, four engines and 498 cars for hauling cane.

Needing transportation to move his Hawaiʻi sugar for refining on the continent, he formed JD Spreckels & Bros. shipping line in 1879, which was incorporated as the Oceanic Steamship Company in 1881.

It was the first line to offer regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco, and his sons managed to reduce travel time immensely. While the sailing ship Claus Spreckels made a record run of less than ten days in 1879, by 1883 the new steam vessel Mariposa needed less than six days.

Spreckels incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company in 1884; it included four sugar mills, thirty-five miles of railroad with equipment, a water reservoir and the most advanced ditch system in the Pacific region. (Spiekermann)

Spreckelsville was the largest sugar estate in the world by 1892.

Claus Spreckels was a controversial figure. For friends, he was a man “with a fine presence, an open, pleasant countenance and a cheerful word for everybody.” Others, however, characterized him as impatient, implacable, and ruthless, driven by “Dutch obstinacy.” (Spiekermann)

Hawaiʻi served as only one of the venues for the Spreckels holdings. During the 1880s and early 1890s, he bought and built up several blocks of office buildings in San Francisco.

Claus Spreckels was a financial and an industrial capitalist. Obtaining, investing and multiplying money was his main business, and his role as a pioneer of Hawaiian sugar planting and Californian beet sugar production was merely an outgrowth of his desire to increase his fortune. (Spiekermann)

Although none of his firms survived, his name today is still mentioned in San Francisco and Hawaiian travel guides as an example of an exceptional self-made man: “The life of Claus Spreckels is one of the interesting and absorbing personal histories of which America is so proud.” (Spiekermann)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger