Background
John Arbuckle was born on July 11, 1839 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Scotch parents, Thomas and Margaret (MacDonald) Arbuckle, who had settled in western Pennsylvania.
John Arbuckle was born on July 11, 1839 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Scotch parents, Thomas and Margaret (MacDonald) Arbuckle, who had settled in western Pennsylvania.
He obtained all the formal education that he was to have in the public schools of Allegheny City.
In company with his brother, Charles, he built up a business of roasting and grinding coffee and selling it in packages. In 1871 the brothers went to New York, where they greatly expanded their enterprise, soon gaining for it a national scope and reputation. This was made possible by Arbuckle's invention (in which he was aided by associates) of machinery for weighing, packing, and sealing the ground coffee.
After some years an arrangement was made with the Havemeyers, then the leading sugar refiners, to sell a part of their product in packages. Sales by the Arbuckle method were pushed rapidly, and the profits became so large as to attract the attention of the Havemeyer interests, which canceled the selling arrangements with Arbuckle and proceeded to take to themselves the profits from package sales.
Then in 1896 began a dramatic episode in the sugar industry; for Arbuckle, in open defiance of the Sugar Trust (American Sugar Refining Company), himself built a large refinery in Brooklyn and entered the sugar market as a formidable competitor, cutting sugar prices almost to cost. In retaliation the Havemeyers went into the coffee trade. The fight lasted five years and at the end of that period, after millions had been lost by both sides, it was not Arbuckle who capitulated--his refinery was still operating and the sugar magnates had withdrawn from the coffee business; but an armistice was declared. In order to make a fuller use of the harbor tugs that he owned and employed about New York he went into the business of towing canal boats between New York and Albany, cutting the rates for that service.
He resided in Brooklyn, where as a young man he had come under the influence of Henry Ward Beecher, and in the latter years of his life he gave much thought to plans for a Beecher memorial to be associated with Plymouth Church and to be a sort of club-house for young men and women, where evening classes could be maintained for vocational instruction. His will made provision for such a memorial and a few years after his death the Arbuckle Institute was opened in Brooklyn, adjacent to Plymouth Church.
Arbuckle became one of the leading importers of the country and his ships were known in many ports. He was believed to be the largest individual owner of shipping under American registry. His extensive interests on the sea led him to give attention to the raising and salvaging of ships. He invented important machinery for that purpose, which was employed in raising several vessels of the United States Navy.
Arbuckle was a rugged, farmer-like man in personal appearance, six feet tall, with a slight stoop. He remained all his life extremely simple and unpretentious in his habits.
In 1868 he was married to Mary Kerr of Pittsburgh.
