One of the men destined to join the ranks of the sugar barons of Michigan was a pioneer John C. Liken. He was almost 70 years when the idea came to him, and even go beyond the dreams he had felt when he carved slats for a life as a poor immigrant in New York more than 50 years ago. Until 1900 he ran a big business in a small town, which he described as the father of the city, because his company creates jobs that brought people to town.
Its annualThe turnover in the years before 1900, in the modern equivalent of about $ 7.5 million. In a combination of company, which employs 200 employees, has operated four sawmills in the first place occupied in the production of staves, which he sent many in Germany, two mills, a retail shop for hardware, dry goods, food and Medicines 1884 has nine employees.
Compare the companies were in a small town in Michigan, "thumb". The city was Sebewaing, asmall collection of farmhouses on the eastern shore of Saginaw Bay, about 25 miles northeast of Bay City. Its inhabitants were day laborers who were working on a Liken establishments on one of the surrounding farms, or fishing in the great Saginaw Bay, the shores lapped a few steps from the city.
Sebewaing borrowed its name from the Chippewa word for Crooked Creek and some of his wealth from the rich fishing in the bay. Not long before the 19 Centurywent to the bottom, near the forest has fallen to the fast axis, to make way for German settlers, who quickly remove stumps task and the cultivation of plants.
Compare, native arrived in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany Walburga Kunkle, the woman who would become his wife, in Binghamton, New York. He was a native of Bavaria, and took the name of a nun who was canonized went to Germany from England in 748, to good works. S. Walburga, the patron saint of pestilence, famine anda variety of other ailments, including dog bites. John Liken had arrived in Binghamton after work for his passage on board a sailing vessel.
After the birth of her fourth child, Emma, in 1864, who are his brothers and sisters, Mary, came together in 1856, Hannah was born in 1858, and Charles, born 1859, moved the family of John and Walburga Sebewaing, settlement was a Lutheran, attracts fishermen, farmers and loggers. The population of the city on his arrival in 1865, not enough to proclaim aa village, but with the arrival of John Liken, who was about to change. He established a sawmill, where he made staves. Later he developed retail stores, a dairy farm, barns and ships, including a person in a single supplier for all goods and services required by the local agricultural community. The cream and cultures, he put on boats and shipped about 30 miles along the coast of Bay City, Saginaw Bay, a vibrant and growing, where the daily demand for food is grownforward with its growing population. In was in this context, shipping, met with Captain Benjamin Boutell owners and was the captain Boutell, who know the Sugar options.
The village is a village and the townspeople began to think of as the father Liken city. Having had two daughters and a son in the community, like his father were all in good shape, good health and good humor, was not unexpected that began Likensthe population too. Mary took for a man, Richard Martini and a few years later, leaving Hannah a young Christian Bach on the head (in more recent times again Christian has his middle name, Fred, as his baptismal name of preferred shares. Appears in Michigan Sugar chronicles written by Daniel Gutleben as CF Bach.) Charles and his wife Elizabeth settled in the community include the management of the affairs of his father.
John Liken Oldenburg had returned homeAt the age of eighteen years after the completion of four years of training in the business of barrels. Would sugar beet, because of this experience and have known surely would have been aware that men enjoyed at home had some success with them in Michigan, Bay County, where three plants were then in operation and another was and yet another course under construction in Saginaw.
A total of eleven sugar beet factories would soon pour into Michigan and profitsCity, when the hustle and bustle of the railways and others who would benefit from the construction of factories believed created. The excitement was moving among the farmers and investors in the Sebewaing flowed across the state. Compare it saw no need for more support from the usual methods, the city organizes meetings to call editors of local newspapers recruiting, hiring bands and front men, to farmers. He was convinced of the necessity of a beet sugar factory, and since a good part of the local wealth residedin its coffers, he saw no need to convince others to join the cause. The Likens had enough resources to build a factory.
He formed an ad-hock committee, composed of his son, Charles, Henry Richard Martini, the husband of his daughter Hannah, the daughter of Mary Mann, Fred Christian Bach. All three have important positions in the Liken the company for many years and all were in their late 30s, so rich in experience. Moreover, the three lived togetheron Center Street in Sebewaing martini with number 69, next to Charles at 68, and Bach at number 67, so the trio could convene in peace and without any formalities. If he and his committee approved the idea, the project would go ahead without the usual sale of shares to members of the community. They do not require a great deal of research on the role of the Committee. They had plenty of arable land available. Compare the family controlled a thousand acres on their own, whichcombined with other, eliminating the need for a beet train line to a factory on the shores of Lake Huron is to give away. They had the financial capacity.
John C. has been generous. Every one of his daughters and son enjoyed a full-time in their homes and all were well enough to invest in new refinery on its own, and each had management skills for a longer period to try. They had all the attributes necessary for success in saving the area of newa ... Experience in sugar beet. News of the activity in the Liken leaked into the community as a whole and inspired some growers to plant beet, even if a work is finished almost two years into the future. Beets, if you're ready for the market, were spent in Bay City for treatment.
Think about adding the missing ingredient for an otherwise perfect formula for success, he invited John Liken Benjamin Boutell and a few trusted by his friends to join the project. As a result,Compare to learn quickly at first hand, how did the camel's nose under the tent story. Boutell, no doubt pleased that his expertise was in demand for his money, fast, and the soldiers of the wealth of experience. Among them was John Ross, who would soon treasurer of the German-American Sugar Company, the last of the four sugar mills to be built in Bay County. Then came Frederick lumberjack Woodworth, William Smalley, William Penoyar and an owner namedWilliam Sharp. As noted men of the stature of Ben Boutell Penoyar and their interest in, the doors open, the more rich men are clamoring for a share in the new company. A pair of Thomas S. Saginaw Lawyers Watts Humphrey and Harvey came on board, as well as George B. Morley, the legendary banker and grain dealer. Rasmus Hanson, a wealthy timber merchant from Grayling, and later president of the German-American Sugar Company purchased, as in William H. Wallace, a quarry operator near BayDoor.
Without knowing it, Liken, Saginaw and Bay City investors, has led two different groups, which could be described as two separate circles of influence. Boutell investors circle consisted of Bay County, Woodworth, Ross, Smalley, Sharp and Penoyar. George Morley circle included James MacPherson, Humphrey, and William H. Harvey Wallace, all residents of Saginaw, although Wallace came from near and Port Hope has been a long time resident of Port Bay, aSnugging coastal village 13 miles north of Sebewaing. Behind the scenes was Ezra Rust, Saginaw resident rich, who won a fortune in the timber. While all of Bay County had the interests of investors in wood Group Saginaw MacPherson had only a wooden background. Hosting the two circles of sports in the fight against the fire, once the new company would begin.
Representative of what amounted contingent in three different groups, Boutell Bay City, Saginaw MorleyJohn Liken village and family in Watts Humphrey's Saginaw office in July 1901, raised the question of inclusion of the organization. Humphrey fame would come not from sugar beet processing, but the fact that his then 12-year-old son, George M. Humphrey, a tall day, as Treasury Secretary under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from which 1953-1957.
Wasting no time, the organizers had in hand, four representatives of construction companies, specializing inConstruction of processing plants for sugar beet. Were Fuehrman & Hapke, EH Dyer, Kilby manufacturing, construction and Oxnard. It was expected that once the shares were purchased by participants will receive a contract with one of four bidders. For Benjamin Boutell Bay City and his group, there was only one offer of their interest and that was one of the Kilby Manufacturing for $ 900,000. The price was a heavy $ 1,500 per tonne of beet cutting capacity, nearly double the $ 850 forEssexville ton price of the plant and almost $ 600 more per ton than the price for German-American sugar company, which is currently under construction. Oxnard, offering little more than $ 1,800 per tonne (including, as usual, a process Steffens) and Dyer was close to the lower of $ 1,416 per tonne for Fuehrman & Hapke charge of $ 1,320 per tonne, for a total consideration of $ 792,000 hit.
The first task for the election of officers and directors namedA normally quiet affair, when the founders were known as the Assembly in office Humphrey. Representatives of each of the three main groups of shareholders supported positions. Bay City forester, WC Penoyar was given the presidency and Sebewaing Christian Bach took up the post of Vice President of Saginaw and the group saw William Baker and Thomas Harvey seats secretary and treasurer. Benjamin Boutell and William Wallace joined the board of directors. Abovethe agenda was the question the decision to award the contract for the construction of the factory, which, as usual, complete turnkey operation. That is, if the temporary alliance between the Bay City, Huron County, Saginaw County and investors broke.
Boutell this amount, the low bid, made no difference, other than the Kilby presented would be accepted. For the group of Saginaw, this is equivalent to drawing a line in the sand. They believed firmly in the premiumlowest bid. Consequently, given the Saginaw-Sebewaing representatives who controlled three of the positions of the officers' and ignore the fact that his friends Boutell and 45 percent of companies are controlled and that only one member of their faction secured the presidency, the allusion to Fuehrman & Hapke. Boutell and withdrawn from society erased suggestion that someone other than Kilby was a factory in which it invests, had their subscriptions warehouse building, put their positions and retreatedby the Board of Directors.
When the dust settled, were Boutell and his co-investors and the contingent Saginaw held the majority stake of 55 percent between the control Rust Morley and broken families. The family of Ezra Rust Rust magnitude would have left traces in the city of Saginaw, in the form of a city park and a major road named after him. Ezra confidence in the sugar sector, a commitment that was an engineer came in a sugar factory, and have Cubanhis youth. Morley, instead of 5,000 shares in his own name, while the various members of the family held 4000 shares Rust. Relatives and friends of John Liken instead of 45 percent.
The sudden withdrawal of investors from Bay City requested a second choice. The presidency went to Thomas Harvey. John Liken son-in-law, Christian Bach, vice president and maintained a place at the table of government. Compare his son, Charles, has accepted an appointment as treasurer, but not to win space on the card. WilliamF. Schmitt, a small shareholder and Free Christian Bach's sister, Emma, was secretary. Tested over time and, after a fire, proved that his ascent was marked by his ability is not due to its relationship with the Bach family. In 1906 he took over the factory Sebewaing, which then led for six years before leaving the company for a senior position with Continental Sugar Company. Directors, in addition to Harvey, and Christian Bach, including William H. Wallace,Watts Humphrey, George Morley, James MacPherson, who has replaced Benjamin Boutell, and Richard Martini.
The contractor selected to build the factory, Henry Theodore Julius Fuehrman usually faced when Jules came from New York, where he had built a similar plant in Lyon, and before that, Pekin, Illinois. It 'appeared to break ground in September. With him, his partner, Theodore Hapke, the high value of the farmers of German origin was obtained becausehis knowledge of sugar beet and its ability to explain the subject in their native language.
Fuehrman were intensely with the construction of a sugar beet factory in Great Iceland, Nebraska, that has happened to his fortune in place after Germany, he has called home. It was the only son of Henry and Tulia Fuehrman of Braunschweig, Germany. From the age of fourteen, was an apprentice bricklayer in the business. Following the decision to prepare for the functions of aArchitect, is dedicated to the study of architecture in various polytechnics in his house. If 20 years, he joined the army and Germany is one year, and in 1882 emigrated to America, where after two years in Chicago, settled in Grand Island. We took a number of committees, including the design of the town hall, a church, a university, and finally the sugar beet factory in Oxnard in Grand Island.
Fuehrman successfulattracted the renowned architectural firm Post & McCord, the company would have the roof of Madison Square Garden and large iron structure for skyscrapers dotting Broadway and Wall Street and in 1931 to build the tallest skyscraper in the world, the Empire State Building was built. Post & McCord with the equally prestigious Society Ponte Americans have joined forces to ensure that the training facility Sebewaing was determined to be of solid construction. Serve with William H. Wallace onBoard of Directors, was the question whether the foundation was solid stone or concrete for the new building will be made without discussion decided. The stones from the quarry of Wallace, which is located 13 miles where they were carved from its expert working in squares that corresponded to the designer's specifications. Debris from the same source tracks for transporting equipment and then in the sugar beet factory. Already, the community enjoyed the fruits ofPresence of a sugar, better roads and found an economy richer than workers employed in many work teams is needed for a job that would soon gain recognition as one of the largest of its kind in the nation.
Join Emile Brysselbout, Fuehrman Hapke and partners, was also on hand. Brysselbout credentials include the recent construction of Charlevoix, Michigan sugar beet factory, and oversaw the construction of the Essexville.
TheFoundation stone laid October 21, 1901 set, but the lack of qualified technicians in the construction delay. Experienced designers have become a prize in a nation that had suddenly enough sugar beet factories. Twenty-five beet sugar factories were built from 1900-1905 in which tens of Michigan. In addition to the difficulties Fuehrman was absent. He left for Dresden, Ontario, to build a similar job for Captain James Davidson, a tycoon of Bay CityWho had decided to devote part of his wealth to the cultivation of sugar beet.
With appearances, Davidson has held a significance greater than for Fuehrman have is Sebewaing. William Wallace, always under a steady hand, where it was needed urgently approached Brysselbout noticed that Joseph Eckert for hire. Eckert was a man with a can-do reputation and who would brook no obstacle in the way to his goal. Eckert had just won a contract to West Bay ended Mendall BialyCity Sugar Company, where he had more than one third of the productivity gains.
Gutleben said that if he was engaged in Sebewaing Eckert of nature, the task of restoring the site. Weeds and wild flowers filled the room intended for a facility. The columns within that Wallace had been built on stone foundations were ready, as if ready to fall on Earth. Worse, there was no gear on hand to solve the steel in place or for the balance of its installation. Fuehrman promised a vaporEngine, but its application would have to wait until the steel construction work was completed in Dresden. It was April. The farmers wanted to know if they plant a crop of beet. "Plant 'em!" Eckert said, who then placed an order for the supply of a steam engine to Fuehrman & Hapke charge. Wallace says the loan. Fuehrman complexion the color of the liver pain in his next visit, he shot his innovative design for insubordination. Wallace, accompanied byBrysselbout with the decision by piece in a Fuehrman meeting.
One of the advantages, and Eckert Brysselbout staff was their ability to attract people with similar skills. Eckert Brysselbout inspired by the enthusiasm and the undisputed role as chief engineer Fuehrman after the failed attempt is to fire him, secured and well trained experienced operators, men like Hugo Peters, became a 1898 graduate of the University of Leipzig, the first factory would SebewaingSuperintendent. James Dooley below. He wore a reputation for the practical application of scientific principles and a cool head in emergencies. Eckert moved as outstanding engineers Eugene Stöckly and Pete Kinyon, a master to steal the creation of networks that the framework for the factories. Farmers in the vicinity, along with neighbors of William Wallace "Bill" at all, and John Liken experts, hard drive can-do business, he had full confidence that a factory would beamong them during the harvest, as promised. They started the second plant of sugar beet harvest in Huron County with results showing that, by chance, for itself and investors.
If the trees red and orange flames and cool breezes in the morning started in the morning dew dry before the farmers went out of their doors, the first county sugar beet collection of soldiers waited in orderly lines for men, women and even children approach them. An elevator, a device designed to solve the beets from the groundmaintained, operated by the farmer who would go into the field to a crawl. Harvesters would follow, the beets from the ground then went to knock the two together, to loosen the soil and then throwing them to expect some 'topping. Finally, automatic motor cars would meet the task, a task that extends from pre-cleaned and then topping beets in a shaken and thrown onto waiting trucks. But it was too brutal to work.
On October 10, 1902, has been done.The main building of 67 258 feet and five floors with 60,000 square feet, of brick and with the latest equipment, the industry has opened for business. In a city where the average home was less than 700 square meters, has been a big presence. It 'was one of the largest buildings in the Midwest and the largest built so far.
It was decided that one man in the county of Hurondeserves the honor of delivering the first load of beets to the factory, the man whose dream triggered the chain of events, the magnificent buildings are now at the end of the main street of the city took. It 'was John C. Liken. His family had about two months ago, on August 9, to celebrate his seventieth birthday and now age beyond which people normally set aside for the completion of physical work, led a team of four horses drawing a carriage full of festively decoratedwith sugar on the scales. Compare the family, applauded the addition of the constructors' championship, Bill Wallace, and a contingent of Saginaw, the advance of high stepping horses, and met Mr. Liken. Within a week, led by Peter Hugo a functional test, so that the water only from the factory to test the readiness and the harmony of the devices. After a few adjustments to correct the weaknesses in water-proof test, ordered to start cutting the beets ofOctober 27.
The farmers deliver the sugar beets with 13.23 percent, which collected nearly seven tons per hectare. After the story Gutleben, the work of more than 91,000 quintals of sugar extraction led to a return of 71 per cent larger than the West Bay City factory, the plant Essexville, Bay City Sugar Company and certainly Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo, and Dear first year of operation of the plant. The operationalResults reflect the Kilby built the Alma plant. The financial results were far greater, because the 48 250 tons of beets delivered Sebewaing farmers exceeded fifty percent of the 200-100 tons 19 100 Alma producers delivered the first factory for the campaign. Sebewaing breeders provided the greatest number of beet delivered from a single plant up to this point, according to the testimony of the confidence placed in Huron County farmer Wallace, Liken and Bach, trust, such as eventsreveals, this was not misplaced. Estimated profits for the first year of operation Sebewaing is about $ 140,000, 26 percent on sales and a 17 percent return on investment.
Soon, two important people who called the American Sugar Refining Company by Bill Wallace. They were Henry Niese, Head of Treasury operations of the company and WB Thomas (Thomas was president of the American Sugar Refining, December 20, 1907, after the death of HenryO. Havemeyer beginning of the month.). Their mission was to explore the candidates for admission to the Sugar Trust. The visit has caused a significant change in social composition, when Charles B. Warren, a Detroit attorney representing the interests of the American Sugar Refining Company represented arrived shortly thereafter to provide an investment of $ 325,000. The Company issued another 35,000 shares of a stock, which has bought 32 500; other partners each increased their participationabout 8.3 percent, effectively giving Warren a 50 per cent of the company with the other half in the hands of the family Liken (24 percent) and Morley Saginaw investors (26 percent).
The bloom of youth still graced the cheeks of Charles Beecher Warren, if you do not fall into Sebewaing as a gift from heaven, which appeared in today's dollar amount to nearly seven million dollars in a start-up managed exclusively by local investors. His youth, a young man dressed in asound education and a steely determination to make something of themselves. It existed before his time, would become the ambassador of the United States, two nations (Japan in 1921 and Mexico in 1924), write the rules governing the military service during World War II, the head of a large law firm and manages the affairs of a number of companies.
In 1903, during a visit to Sebewaing but not so like the authorities and respected attorney, he would have, but a nice young man with a bag full of money.He was fresh out of Saginaw, where he convinced the owner of the Carrollton plant his money in exchange for a share of 60 percent in the factory, built when Boutell Bay City company announced crowd of investors take Sebewaing. Would, in the course of a few years, with no more than half a million dollars in Michigan alone (60 million dollars current dollars), while sugar acquire companies that would be immediately to the New York office of the American Sugar ReportRefining Company is not for someone who had taken rooms in a boarding house near Cass Avenue in Detroit in 1900 is wrong.
His rise to power began six years ago, when he was appointed consultant associated with the U.S. government in hearings before the Joint High Commission in the Bering Sea dispute with Great Britain. The issue was perceived in England the right to seal harvest, despite the United States believes that would surely follow that practice of extinction. In 1900,was a partner in the law firm of Shaw, Warren, Cady & Oakes a company in Detroit, that a number of banks and industrial companies, led by the American Sugar Refining Company. A few more years, would the title of President of the Michigan Sugar Company, a position he held for 19 years would be in addition to the chairman of the Sugar Company in Iowa and Minnesota adopted at another stop. At the same time entered the international arena again, treatmentobserved performance awards won by lawyers coming in Europe and America. This time he appeared on behalf of the United States before the Hague Tribunal, a dispute between the United States and England in the determination of the North Atlantic fishing rights.
The son of a small town newspaper editor, Robert Warren, was called Bay City as his birthplace, but because of the nature of the profession of his father, moved from time to time, while growing, still in Michigan. He graduated firstattended Albion College and then graduated from the University of Michigan before attending the Detroit College of Law, where he graduated LL.B. At the Detroit College of Law, has studied with Don. Company M. Dickenson Dickenson and then moved, as was admitted to the Bar in 1893, the year he graduated. A few years later he joined John C. Shaw and William B. Cady to organize his own law firm, a company that would eventually throughout his career upside down. At first, displaying aUnderstanding the value of the macro-management, tended to see the installation from experienced managers and then they leave untouched, as it has made the daily requirement for management.
As Dear served as a training ground for the factory workers, Sebewaing acted as a school for the factory managers who were sent to all of America beet sugar and cane sugar factories of the American Sugar Refining Company and other companies. Hugo Peters moved to Dresden, to monitor JamesDavidson running and then took similar positions in Idaho, Utah, California and even the West Indies. In 1920, Peter turned his attention to the spectrophotometric analysis for the U.S. Bureau of Standards, serious contributions to the color analysis. Jim Dooley was a manager in Sebewaing for a few years after the operations director for all of Michigan Sugar Company, when it came to light in 1906. Wilfred van culverts, Sebewaing first chief chemist devoted most of hisTo improve the milling of sugar cane in Hawaii career. There he finally managed four sugar factories stand. Richard Henry Martini was reached Superintendent General Agricultural for Sugar Company and Michigan Henry Pety in Utah for a superintendent before returning to Michigan to manage the Mount Pleasant facility. The system further Sebewaing physical structures and equipment in the form of towers broadcasting, business auto, replacing the old battery operations, to expand the evaporator,modern centrifuges, storage bins and other equipment, turnips cut gradually expand the daily capacity of 600 tons per day on more than 5,000 tonnes per day caused.
Sources:
Estimated profits for the first year of activity: Records did not survive. The author determines a profit estimated by applying an estimated retail price of $ 5.12 for every € 100 of the talents of all available for sale and then deducted the cost estimated at $ 3.57 per centPounds.
GUTTLEBEN, Daniel, The Sugar Tramp - 1954 S. 182 on the purchase of sugar from the sugar trust, p. 177 concerning the organization of Sebewaing sugar and operating results, printed by the Company of Bay City duplication, San Francisco, California
Annual MICHIGAN, Michigan Archives, Lansing, Michigan
Sebewaing Sugar 1903, 1904
Wood Sebewaing, 1901, 1904
Bay Port Fish, 1901
Saginaw Courier Herald, July 11, 1901 - Report on the meeting of theShareholders of the Sebewaing Sugar baby.
Portrait and Biographical Album of Huron County
John C. Liken, Christian F. Bach, Richard Martini
U.S. Census Reports for Sebewaing, 1900, 1910
