The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-24
UTAH SUGAR FACTORY
1t is One of the Largest in the United
States.
A Short Review of One of Utah's Home
Industries-The Men Who
Built It.

The Utah Sugar factory, located at
Lehi, is one of the largest in the United
States. For two years past it has been
turning out beet sugar of the best quality.
A short review of what lead to the estab-
lishment of these works will be of inter
est.
Sugar from sorghum was manufactured
in small way many years ago, and it
was then demonstrated that the Utah
cane was such as would produce excellent
sugar. For years the question of sugar
works was agitated, and finally the mat
ter began to assume tangible form by the
incorporation Of the Utah Sugar Company
in 1889. AS early as 1888 Arthur Stayner;
Elias Morris, Francis Armstrong, Amos
Howe and George W. Thatcher were
named as a committee with instruc-
lions to Investigate the possibilities of
producing, at a profit, sugar in Utah.
The idea at first was to manufacture it
from sorghum and with this in view the
gentlemen named visited Fort Scott,
Kan, and made an exhaustive inspec-
ton OF the factory there. The result of
the visit was recommendation that the
idea OF using sorg hum be abandoned and
beets used instead. The next visit was to
the beet sugar plant at Alvarado and
Watsonville, California, in 1889, and
when they reported it was in favor of the
beet, because they believed that vege-
table could be cultivated in the valleys of
Utah with better success than could
cane. Experiments proved that the
sugar beet grown in Utah was the equal
OF any known up to the present time,
and it was this that decided the
building of the factory, which has sprang
into existence during the past twelve
-
undertaking, it must be admitted, for it
involved TIE outlay of $500, 900 before one
pound OF sugar could be turned out.
There were many who doubted that sugar
would ever be made; there were those
who said that the building would never
be completed, even up to the time that
the corner stone was laid. But the gen
tlemen who had gone down deep into
their pockets to prove that sugar could be
made here at profit, were not to be de-
tered from their undertaking. They had
not gone into the business with blind
on, but their series of experiments and
Investigations had convinced them that
the end sought could be accomplished.
The work of erecting the factory at
Lehi began November 26, 1890, and the
corner stone was laid by MILFORD Wood
Decem Der 81, following. The present or
ganization of the company is as follows:
President, Elias Morris; vice-president,
George @. Cannon; secretary and treas
urer, James E. jennings; general mana
ger, Thomas r. Cutler; directors, George
@. Cannon, T. r. Cutler, II. j. Grant,
Moses Thatcher, Francis Armstrong,
James Chipman, James Jack, George NJ.
Cannon, William H. Rowe, John Beck,
Spencer CIawson, L. G. Hardy, Elias
Morris.
The main building is three stories high,
$50 feet long, and has an average width of
eighty-four feet. The annex, which con-
tains the boilers, bone black house and
lime kiln, is $50 feet long and about forty
feet wide. Both of these large buildings
are substantially built of brick. There
are six beet sheds 500x24 feet,
with a capacity for IA, 900 tons of beets.
The company has erected boarding
house which is 30x65, with an annex 24x60
and furnishes accommodations for
fifty people. There are four pulp
silos, $50 feet long, "a feet
wide and 10 feet deep. The coal bins
are 4Sx250 feet. These figures throw con-
siderable light on the magnitude of the
enterprise to the average mind. The water
supply of the factory is the lake, fed by
natural springs, with capacity of 4, co.,,
this there are eight artesian wells, from
sixty TO 135 feet deep, which furnish soft,
pure water, and have capacity of 800
gallons minute.
The first YEARS. run of the factory the
output was 1,250.00 pounde. This year
it has been nearly doubled.