Claus Spreckles
| Claus Spreckels | |
|---|---|
Claus Spreckels
|
|
| Born |
July 9, 1828 Lamstedt, Lower Saxony, Germany |
| Died | December 26, 1908 (aged 80) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Industrialist |
| Known for | Founder of Spreckels Sugar Company |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Christina Mangels (1829-1910) |
| Children | 13, five lived to adulthood: John Diedrich (1853-1926), Adolph Bernard (1857-1924), Claus August (1858-1946), Rudolph (1872-1958), Emma C. (Spreckels) |
Claus Spreckels, formally Adolph Claus J. Spreckels (July 9, 1828 – December 26, 1908), (his last name has also been misspelled as Spreckles), was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also involved himself in several California enterprises, most notably the company that bears his name, Spreckels Sugar Company.
Spreckels was born in Lamstedt, Hanover, now a city of Germany. In 1846, he left his homeland to start a new life in the United States, with only one German thaler in his pocket. In 1852 he married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Christina Mangels (1829-1910), who had immigrated to New York City with her brother three years earlier. They had thirteen children, five of whom lived to maturity: John Diedrich (1853-1926), Adolph Bernard (1857-1924), Claus August (1858-1946), Rudolph (1872-1958) and daughter, Emma C. (Spreckels) m. Watson Ferris Hutton.
The family first settled in South Carolina, where Spreckels opened a grocery store business. Within a short time they moved to New York City, then in 1856 relocated to San Francisco, where Spreckels began a brewery. Spreckels entered the sugar business in the mid-1860s and came to dominate the Hawaiian sugar trade on the West Coast. His first refinery, built in 1867, was at Eighth and Brannan Streets in San Francisco, but by the late 1870s the Brannan Street facilities were running at capacity, so Spreckels chose a site in Potrero Point to open a larger sugar refinery with water access. He called his concerns the California Sugar Refinery.
...
Wikipedia