Background

Claus was born on July 9, 1828 in Lamstedt, in Hanover, Germany, eldest of the six children of Diedrich and Garinna (Back) Spreckels.

Career

In 1846 he came to America and found employment in a grocery store in Charleston, South Carolina, eventually buying the business. In 1855 he sold this business and removed to New York City, where he successfully ran a wholesale and retail grocery store. His brother Bernard, returning from California, induced him to dispose of his profitable New York enterprise and to move in 1856 to San Francisco. Here he again operated a grocery store, soon selling it, however, and engaging in the more profitable brewing business.

In 1863 Claus and his brother established the Bay Sugar Refining Company, getting their raw material from the Hawaiian Islands.

Two years later he sold his interest, and went to Europe to study the manufacture of sugar in all its aspects. Returning to California in 1867 with new ideas and improved machinery, he organized the California Sugar Refinery, and within five years the plant had grown to large proportions, with an output of fifty million pounds a year. He invented and patented, July 28, 1874, a method of manufacturing hard or loaf sugar.

Between 1881 and 1883, he completed the construction in San Francisco of the largest refinery on the Pacific Coast. Convinced of the commercial possibilities in the sugar-beet industry, he went to Europe and purchased machinery for a sugar-beet refinery, which he established at Salinas, California, near two large sugar-beet ranches which he had previously begun to develop. To connect these projects with San Francisco he financed the Pajaro Valley Railroad, opened in 1895 and completed in 1898.

Enraged at the competition and threats of the Sugar Trust, he dramatically carried the war into the enemy's country by constructing a three million dollar refinery in Philadelphia (1888 - 89), which he compelled the Trust to buy at his own price. He fought the transportation monopoly of the Southern Pacific Railroad by aiding in the financing of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railway, which later became a part of the Santa Fe system.

By organizing the Independent Light & Power Company (1899) and the Independent Gas & Power Company (1903), he compelled the San Francisco Gas & Electric Company first to reduce rates and improve the service to the people of San Francisco and then to purchase the independent companies. By organizing a rival street railway company (1906), he attempted to prevent the United Railroads under Patrick Calhoun from setting up an overhead trolley system on San Francisco's principal streets. Shortly after moving to California, Spreckels became deeply interested in the development of the sugar industry in the Hawaiian Islands, and eventually obtained from the King a concession of upwards of 40, 000 acres. This he proceeded to develop through the Hawaiian Commercial Company.

Over the control of this company and its rich plantations a family feud, which had been in existence for some time, came to a climax in 1899. After long and bitter financial and legal battles, the sons, Rudolph and Claus Augustus, defeated their father and their two brothers, Adolph and John Diedrich. They secured control of the company, reorganized its affairs, and sold their interests at a great profit. A family reconciliation was effected in 1905, and thereafter Rudolph became the active manager of his father's affairs.

Claus at his death left a fortune of not less than $15, 000, 000, two-thirds of which was invested in real estate, including the Spreckels Building on Market Street, the first skyscraper in San Francisco. He owned several fine residences, the one on Van Ness Avenue being partially destroyed at the time of the great fire. He gave generously to the welfare of San Francisco and its institutions.

He died in San Francisco in 1908.

Achievements

• For many years Claus Spreckels held a virtual monopoly of the manufacture and sale of refined sugar on the Pacific Coast, and was called the "Sugar King. " Besides, Spreckels gave the city of San Francisco a classical-style outdoor music structure (known as "Spreckels Temple of Music") to frame one end of the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. A number of streets in Aptos, California are named either for Claus Spreckels.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Spreckels (CA) (Images of America)

    (The community of Spreckels in the Salinas Valley was the ...)

  • Building on the Corner of Third and Market Streets for Claus Spreckels, Esq., San Francisco, CA

    (Original hand-painted architectural plans or original pho...)

  • The Claus Spreckels Building San Francisco

    (Spiral-bound softcover by Michael Corbett. Published by A...)

  • Claus Spreckels;: The sugar king in Hawaii

    (Claus Spreckels, The Sugar King of Hawaii)

  • Claus Spreckels, the Sugar King in Hawaii

Politics

He never sought office, though he was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1872.

Personality

He was a man of unusual force of character, endowed with boundless pluck, daring, and resourcefulness.

Connections

In 1852 he married Anna Christina Mangel.

Father:

Diedrich Spreckels

Mother:

Garinna (Back) Spreckels

Spouse:

Anna Christina Mangels Spreckels

Daughter:

Emma C Spreckels Ferris Hutton

Son:

Adolph Bernard Spreckels

Son :

Claus Augustus Spreckels

Son :

John Diedrich Spreckels

Son :

Rudolph Spreckels

Friend:

Walter M. Gibson

References

• The British Year-Book of Agriculture and Agricultural Who's Who 1908-09
• Contemporary Biography Of California's Representative Men: With Contributions From Distinguished Scholars And Scientists
• San Francisco Rock by Jack McDonough (1-Dec-1988) Paperback