The Owosso Sugar Company - A History

As soon as the Saginaw Lumber Tycoon, Wellington R. Burt, celebrated his seventieth birthday August 26, 1901, when he was party to occupy a portion of its assets in the field of sugar beet timber awakening.

The mantra of real estate agents around the world "location, location, location." But in the business world in general, it should be, "Timing, timing, timing." Wellington Burt times in regard to his interest in sugar was bad.

Like many others, had filled theirDays in the fast again, but now moribund timber industry, had time on his hands and money in the bank. At first, as was the other, has spent many years in politics. He had a term from Senate (1893-1894) served then a U.S. Congress was looking for, but had the misfortune seat as a Democrat to run in 1900, the year opened the Republican star. Classified as one of the richest men in America, Burt vote on ideas for new investment and therefore you home sugar. MiseEyes in Owosso, Michigan, a village about thirty miles southwest of Saginaw, where he resided some remains clothed by the timber industry in villas along Washington Avenue. Too many attributes Owosso is the influence of Joseph Kohn, a sugar technologist living in Bay City, Michigan. Kohn also the chairman of the Michigan Chemical Company, which had been put in place to buy and then generates growing process of this City beet molasses number of factories. Its successto close in Michigan Chemical encouraged investors to pull when he talked about investment in beet sugar factories.

For Kohn, it was easier, more factories of sugar beet molasses in Michigan for most chemicals, alcohol, a fact built enthusiasm for the construction of another factory could be distilled. Fat with profits, attempted Michigan Chemical and its parent company, Pittsburgh plate glass factory in Owosso built by himself and did not need the interference of anotherMillionaire with time on his hands and money in your pocket. Wellington R. Burt was not invited to their ambition in a join venture with Michigan chemistry, and its going to be languishing behind a curtain of international events

The United States had agreed after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, to lower the import tariff for sugar in the Philippines, 75 percent general tax rate and the import of sugar from Puerto Rico, U.S. possessions, allowing fully free of duty. The Philippines had the added advantage of shipping up to 300,000 tons of duty-free, and Congress was the bill, which takes would be to approve a contract on reciprocity with Cuba dithering. The agreement of this country be granted a 20 percent preferential tariff.

the nation's newspapers devoted ample space to plan, dampening the spirits of those who showed for the first, a lot of enthusiasm on projects factory Burt had. Had a few more to join him in awas> Venture in Owosso, even if the happiness promised $ 200,000 for its staff and said that others had subscribed $ 50,000 more shares in. He convinced the farmers to grow beet sugar three thousand acres and a contract with the company experienced Fuehrman Hapke, from the building when it fell apart because investors will not come with the balance of the required investment - about $ 600,000 .

Michigan Chemical Company waited in the wings, while other investorsmaterialize. Elsewhere, the excitement of beet sugar factories just slowed down. Sixteen were in the United States 1900-1902, built eight in Michigan. Burt's attention turned to Alma, Michigan, where he met with more success through the combination of time and talent with those of Aimee Wright, another industrial Saginaw.

Owosso in 1902 was a good candidate for a sugar beet factory, like any city in Michigan, maybe better. He lines, established industry, a senior class andskilled workers, as well as an excellent agricultural region. Burt stepped aside, allowing the project to die stillborn. Fuehrman Hapke went to Sebewaing factory next year to build, creating a sugar beet most successful era. Michigan chemistry emerged from the shadows and took the reins.

Owosso was the home of two families with remarkable results in American politics. They both play different roles in the creation of a beet sugar factoryOwosso. The family of Alvin Bentley Bentley, whose grandson led, also named Alvin, achieved success with great personal effort in 1954 when as a junior member of Congress, he the strongest of the five victims of an armed attack wounded in Congress while the session was, it was. Four Puerto Rican terrorists thirty shots fired by visitors to the gallery on the floor of the House of Representatives chamber, the representatives discussed during an immigration bill.

The DeweyFamily had in the policies of the Republican Party since the formation near Jackson, Michigan, in 1854 it worked. In Owosso, in line with tradition, was one of the leaders of the political party then in power for the position of postmaster. Edmund O. Dewey, Thomas Edmund Dewey uncle, a future governor of New York and twice presidential candidate of the United States, was that the starting position with the presidency of William McKinley and ending with the presidency of WoodrowWilson. His brother George, the father of Thomas Edmund Dewey, secured the nomination in 1921.

Edmund Dewey, 1902, Wellington Burt Recovery Plan for a sugar beet plant in Owosso. He organized the purchase of a suitable site of 40 acres at the western end of Oliver Street, raised $ 10,000 and asked the Joint Board of Commissioners a bond sufficient to pass the cost to the right country. The municipality denied the band, and then the idea fails a second time, and for the same reason - aLack of enthusiasm.

Joseph Kohn has been introduced and shot himself in sugar Michigan, one of the richest nation, the family Pitcairn Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family controls the Pitcairn Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now known as PPG Industries) headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The glass company had almost completed the American dependence on Europe suitable for large sheets of glass showcases, counters and mirrors. Duringthe first day of the 20th Century, the company produced 20 million square meters of glass per year.

In seeking a source of potash for its glassworks, Pittsburgh Glass turned to Kohn, who are trying to do from sugar beet molasses extract, and instead he found could earn guaranteed profits from the conversion of molasses in the production alcohol. He also had the German-American Sugar Company (later served Monitor Sugar Company) as a consultant and before that held a similar position with KilbyManufacturing, which was very involved in turnkey, sugar beet factory construction projects. Kohn's Bay City Distillery, due to the large volume of molasses, has promised the three sugar factories and more from the German-American Sugar Company factory for the construction, substantial profits shot in Pittsburgh Glass.

John Pitcairn seen first bank of five years, from his immigrant parents, John and Agnes, together with two sisters in America and America has brought aBrother. Pitcairn amassed a personal fortune in railroads, oil, coal mines, and the founding of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in collaboration with John Ford, who is sixty, when his attention was attracted Kohn, potential and the failure of Owosso first Wellington Burt, Edmund Dewey then become a society of sugar beet.

Three is the charm of Owosso. October 29, 1902, the Owosso Sugar Company came to be activated at one million dollars. Over 75Percent of shares by members of the Pitcairn family and friends. 62 500 John Pitcairn of outstanding shares owned outright. A handful of Owosso residents have their names on the list of shareholders, including the Bentley above and brothers Alvin and George Edmund Dewey. George Dewey's son, Tom, the future presidential candidate, one day he would spend school holidays working in chamber sugar packaging of the new company.

The company was for presidentialCharles W. Brown, the owner of the newly crowned 5600 shares of stock. Brown was also the president of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Day after day went to the financial functions of 36 years Edward Pitcairn, one of many grandchildren John Pitcairn. Edward was in 1910, is treasurer of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass, a position that could keep the rest of his career. Carmen Smith, a lawyer with a long collaboration with Charles Brown, who moved from a period where the couple lived in Minneapolis,The responsibility for overall management of the new company. Moreover, he assumed the title of Secretary-Treasurer. He recently had his wife Isabella and their three children, Daisy, Carmen, Cedric and moved to Bay City, where he served as treasurer of the Michigan Chemical Company. Joseph Kohn has taken the role of the general superintendent of the factory.

Trained at the Institute of Technology in Prague, Kohn graduated in 1883 with a degree in mechanical engineering and process engineering. After hisSchool was used by Breitfeld, Danek from Prague and subsequently gained experience in a sugar factory in Moravia, a region in the czech Republic was present, but then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, and has also worked with the designer evaporator Hugo Jelenik. In Moravia, worked with Carl Steffen, the inventor of molasses sugaring process that bears his name. While Kilby Manufacturing Company employees, Kohn Kilby developed the set in the factory.

KilbyManufacturing has contracts to build two factories of 1,000 tonnes in Michigan, one after another in Owosso and Menominee. The two would hold the record as the largest sugar beet in Michigan, was made from 1,200 tonnes a plant in Mount Pleasant was built in 1920. In addition to the two plants of 1,000 tons, Kilby had a contract for a standard system of 600 ton in East Tawas. It would be a busy year for Kilby, who also contracts for three plants in Colorado, had ever received for a Fort Collins,Longmont, Windsor and Fort Collins wins the largest factory built by Kilby-1, 200 tons per day capacity slicing. The price for the Owosso plant to $ 675,000, on a per tonne of sugar was cut to $ 675 $ 1,197 lower than $ 785 in East Tawas and Menominee. In fact, the cost of factory built Owosso less per tonne of each slice factory in Michigan.

The Owosso plant came to life on 9 Without the usual fanfare in December 1903 assigned new beet sugar factories,Usually include bands, parades and much fun talking about opportunities for local celebrities and politicians attended. In a sense, more peaceful, Charles W. Brown, of Pittsburgh came and brought with him as a guest of honor, James Wilson, the Minister of Agriculture. He rose to national prominence when President William McKinley appointed him Secretary of Agriculture in 1897. His stature was such that President Roosevelt and Taft kept him as secretary, and onlysweep in the 1912 Republican nomination in a train from office, he completed his term of Woodrow Wilson. He served as Secretary of Agriculture 4 March 1897-3 March 1913, served the longest term served by an official of the U.S. government.

After a brief ceremony, the Secretary Wilson pulled the whistle cord, causing the beets out of the channel. was in contrast to many of the sugar beet factory built in Michigan, was the central figure, the local money and prestige on the line for the setFactory. The majority stake was far lived in Pennsylvania, their officers and managers elsewhere, Bay City, in the case of Joseph Smith and Kohn and Carmen near Pittsburgh for Brown and Pitcairn. It was not unusual for absentee owners to overlook the obvious - input by farmers. If a lack of farmer interest manifested itself does not cause heart palpitations in the boardrooms of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass. After all, who twenty years earlier, John Pitcairn forged a new AmericanIndustry from the ruins of similar but unsuccessful attempts, as he struggled away from the glass market in Europe, and has developed one of the largest and most modern factories of its kind in the world
Farmer apathy was a slight inconvenience, not a devastating blow for someone, the production of flat glass has been transformed into a single American industry had. The answer was at hand and Carmen Smith, has appointed its ambassador, had explored the possibilities of how to reach the walls of the building against the skyOwossians who had the surprise of the weekend throughout the summer of 1903 gathered to take in width and weight of the industry Goliath is growing in their midst. Of course, people's minds Pittsburgh Plate Glass great. They were thinking even bigger factory Sidewalk Superintendent imagine, bigger than any factory tour until that date. They were not only the construction of a sugar beet factory provides almost twice bigger than all the sugar factories are in the UKStates, were both on the board of the foundation of the largest sugar beet farms in the United States and the largest single farm operation in the east of the Mississippi River.

formed the south and west of Saginaw, Michigan was a vast marshy area during the last ice age. The bottom edges of the convergence of several major river systems, the Saginaw River, which was then and now flows 22 miles north of Lake Huron. The eighteen thousand acres of marsh served as an important stepBreeding ground for migrating waterfowl, ducks, geese, swans. It 'was the biggest natural habitat of wild animals in the American Midwest. Has properties that protect the low interest to farmers - frequent flooding. But that changed when Harlan B. Smith, a producer who speculates Saginaw buggy also in real estate, a partnership with two lawyers, Charles H. Camp, and George B. Brooks has come to acquire and then develop about 10,000 hectares of heathland. Your effortsSpanning fifteen years, a big drain which led to extended nearly two miles across the prairie, which enable them to convert hundreds of acres of marsh into arable land.

When Carmen Smith was looking for a long stretch in which an event of beet, while ensuring that the Owosso plant would all want to beet would have to install the Prairie Farm quickly and efficiently. Smith completed the purchase of 22 February 1903 and soon a steam excavator, aMonster to dig into the ground is designed to download Mucky immediately after the Saginaw River in the prairie. He bit into the ground in front and form a dam 20 feet high and creating a channel that used to be until the morning traffic from acres, he said, the country had half a million years expected to arrive giant mechanic.

Finally created Owosso Sugar Company thirty-six miles of levees, some of which eighty meters wide at the bottom, forty feet high and winds up.Others were designed by smaller, but all for the same purpose - and then drain the country dry. Roads crowned the tops of the levees and the pages turned to grass for use as grazing sheep. Half the country was drained by open ditches and a half have been with large pumps and discharge their cargoes sent to the nearby Flint River. Once it was dry, the reclamation was very similar to playing chess in twelve lines, place the parcels 1640 acres. Almost overnight, for aCapital expenditures of $ 400,000, Smith turned the Prairie Farm from a loss of activity of the larger properties and sugar beet in Michigan, and probably the United States, if not the world - ten thousand hectares. The new factory could now put aside concerns about an adequate supply of sugar beet.

Owosso Sugar Company's first campaign

The first campaign for the operating system Owosso Sugar Company, developed as usual, with factories Turnkey Kilby reached the guaranteed interest rate of 1,000 piecesTons of beets for twenty-four hours. Construction contracts usually require a new plant to make guaranteed interest rate for a time, through negotiations in September to one or ten days and usually occur under the supervision of engineers Kilby few days after the start. The same engineers could retire once the new owner the certificate of completion, delivery signed for the factory managers. The rate declined after the disk Owosso 'Factory achieved the guaranteed rate for the same reasons, probably share prices in most of the new factories in decline - the inexperienced operators.

Since the Prairie Farm was still in its infancy, produces less than turnips in subsequent years, the treatment period, defined as "campaign" by the industry, to last only 48 days to January 26, 1904. During her maiden voyage of the new wafer factory in an average of 542 tonnes, far short of the 1,000 tonnes required forDay. The second campaign was five days shorter, but almost doubled the target rate, reaching 930 tonnes per day for 43 days.

While the Owosso plant was under construction, the manufacture of sugar beet Lansing, Benjamin Boutella, a major investor in several sugar beet factories in Michigan and two years before, built by a lack of management control suffered. Cancer diagnosed early in 1902 his wife Amelia Boutella died Nov. 27 at the age of 52 years, despite its efforts to discoverHealing. Not having the heart to its commercial interests, sold the plant in Lansing, Owosso Sugar Company.

Kohn and Smith now had four main operations: two sugar factories, the Prairie Farm, and the Chemical Society of Bay City Michigan under their control during the year before having to use only chemical company of their time and thoughts. The Prairie Farm employs 160 people and 58 teams of draft horses and each of the two factories employed hundreds more in addition toWorkers of the chemical factory located in Bay City. The two managers, 45 were in constant motion, visit the property, headquartered in Pittsburgh, and participation in industry conferences In addition to meeting with members of Congress and the Department of Agriculture. In 1910 Joseph Kohn was the first to calculate the cost of doing so. He suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 52.

The year before his death Kohn, 8,500 acres of Prairie Farmbeen diked and drained with gravity and pumping systems and for the first time rose by a square mile of sugar beet. Peppermint provided additional revenue (35,000 pounds of mint oil in 1909), while the coal followed in importance behind beet.

For six years after the death of Kohn, Carmen Smith continues as before, assume responsibilities in addition to its Kohn, until 1916, when he put the two sugar factories under the direction of Charles D.Bell, who had served as a manager at Alma before joining the staff Owosso in 1907. Owosso Bell remained for sixteen years, so that after Michigan Sugar Company has acquired Lansing Owosso and factories in 1924, after which he returned to the family ranch in Los Alamos, Calif., where he soon discovers oil and retirement.

In 1920, aged 62, died Carmen Smith, like his friend and collaborator, Joseph Kohn, suddenly of a heart attack while driving homeby train from Chicago. Carmen Smith was a revolutionary era. Joseph Kohn in 1910, Joseph Kilby in 1914, John Pitcairn in 1916, and Carmen Smith in 1920 - those who had lived the dream of building a factory beet largest and most modern in the world sugar, then topping with the country largest single beet farm had passed from the scene. Unfortunately, that did not last.

According to the story of Daniel Gutleben of the sugar beet Michigan (The Sugar Tramp-1954), Pittsburgh plate glass, has expressed concern that the sugar beet Michigan, too small to compete with the large quantity of imported raw sugar refineries built to process, could not compete with the volume of sugar duty free into the country. He decided to both Owosso and Lansing, Michigan Sugar Company at a price, the press reported on the preference shares in more than $ 2,000,000. The Prairie Farm remained in the hands of the heirs of John Pitcairn.

Michigan SugarOwosso combined company operated for the next four years, until declining interest of farmers with the avalanche of imported sugar in 1928 caused the factory to close. Michigan Sugar is missing the main benefit once from the first owners - the Prairie Farm Could take place, Therefore, farmers do not grow turnips command when other crops, corn and soybean prices low for investment less attractive and less work. Reopened again for a year in 1933, was closed, however, kept hopeReadiness. Hope finally surrendered to the reality that farmers would not be returned. The factory buildings were sold in 1948. Evidence that the final failure of the Owosso Sugar Company had no rest, lay on the shoulders of the administration in the appointment of the Secretary Owosso Edward Bostock, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Michigan Sugar Company.

Sources:

Denslow, William R, and Truman, Harry S., 10,000 Famous Freemasons from A to J Part One (in terms ofCharles W. Brown's career with Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company)

MILLER, Ed and the beach, Jean R.. He has published the Hall of Fame, Saginaw, Saginaw Hall of Fame, 2000. (In terms of Wellington R. Burt)

GUTTLEBEN, Daniel, sugar Tramp - printed in 1954 by Bay City Duplication Company, San Francisco, California

THE CUREUX, history Keith Albee Township, Saginaw, County, Michigan, Chapter V, Prairie Farm.

Betzold, Michael, Detroit Free Press Magazine, December 26, 1993Utopia Revisited - an article describing the history of Prairie Farm.

Copyright 2009, Thomas Mahar - All rights reserved

served About the Author: Thomas Mahar as executive vice president of Monitor Sugar Company, 1984-1999 and as president of Gala Food Processing, a company packing sugar, 1993-1998. He moved in 1999 and now devotes his free time to write the history of the sugar industry. Wrote, Sweet Energy, the story of Monitor Sugar Companyin 2001 and Michigan History beet (Newsbeet, Autumn, 2006). Contact: Thomas Mahar E-mail

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