The sun., 1908-12-27
'SPRgCEBLs,
LEFT 4 FORTUNE ESTIMATED
Ar YEARLY S75yOO0,OOO.

Remarkable Career OF q German Vine
| Landed In This Country With 0rly
eS-EIis Successful Fight with sugar
Trust Here and In San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO. Dec. 20. - Claus
Spreckes. financially the most promin-
ent figure In California. died at 420
O'Clock this morning at the old family
home, 2o27 Howard street. The immedi-
ate cause Of his death was pneumonia,
contracted while on a visit to the East,
during which time he appeared before
the Ways and Means Committee In Wash
ington. He returned ten days ago.
At the bedside Of the aged flnancieE
when the end came were his granddaugh-
ters, Mrs Alexander Hamilton and Mrs
Harry Holbrook; his wife. his two sons
John d. and Rudolph spreckels. and the
attending physicians. Dr. c. M. Richter
and Herbert Moffitt
Adolph and Claus Spreckels, Jr., had
been notified of the critical illness of their
father and are now hurrying to San Fran
CISCO the one from the Eastern coast and
the other from Europe. with his sister
Emma. Rudolph Spreckels returned
from Honolulu only yesterday after
noon and was informed of his fathers
condition by wireless while still many
miles from this port. The Claus Spreckels
fortune. founded on the sugar industry,
is estimated at nearly SIS 900, 600. The
dead capitalist was 30 years old.
Claus Spr eckels left Germany, his
native land, to escape fighting, and he
spent the rest Of his life fighting. He
was a fighting man. but not a warrior.
He was 20 years old when. in 1913. he quit
his home to escape conscription. and he
landed at Charleston. 8. c.. with Ss in
his pocket. 1t was before the immigra-
ton laws required the money minimum
Of to-day. He began the struggle for
life working for grocer for his board
down in Charleston, and in that city,
in New York and Philadelphia, in San
Francisco and in Hawaii he fought his
way up in commercial battles, spanning
the continent and the seas till he was
one Of the richest men Of the country.
Nobody knows Of how many millions
he died possessed. He engaged in the
grocery business. brewing, sugar manu-
facture. chipping and in railroad build
ing, but his greatest energy went into
the sugar business where he made his
greatest profits. Harsh things used to
be said of him generation ago In con-
nection with the hard life OF the Slope
and the then Sandwich Islands. to which
he reached for his supplies; yet It was his
money represented in his con. Rudolph
Spreckels, which lately financed the graft
hunting in San Francisco and made
possible the work Of Francis j. Heney.
He fought the Sugar Trust to standstifl,
and it was obliged to leave him prac-
tically undisturbed in his own field Of
the West.
Very soon after Spreckels went to
work for his board in Charleston he
began to receive - a month with his
for another grocer for So q month and
board. This man he bought out in two
years. and seven years after his arrival
In this country he sold out, having made
considerable money. and came to New
York, He opened a grocery business
went to San Francisco and started In
the same business there. In few years
he sold out. had $50 900, bought brvw-
cry, sold that out and found himself
with SIS 900.
He bought an interest in a sugar re-
mheiy anu theu pouBnt tne Iennory. |
He got most Of his raw sugar from the |
Philippines. He didn't know enough |
about the sugar business. he found. 90 |
he went back to Germany and studied |
1t by going TO work there, and when he |
returned he knew all he needed to know |
about 1t. He realized that Hawaii was
a good sugar field and he, went there
and leased land and developed q big |
plantation. He built ships to carry his |
supplies from the Philippines and Hawaii |
and to trade la the East and his vessels
were the beginning Of the Oceanic Steam
ship Company. which now does most Of
the carrying between San Francisco and
the islands.
1t was in connection with the early
days OF his shipping venture that his
critics used to tell vivid tales Of cruelty
TO natives praotised by his captains under
his orders. Missionary speak ers used
even to report the cutting Of Of coniding
natives hands when they tried to board
the ships or the ships boats. But such
stories have long ceased.
Spreokels became q great friend OF
King Kalakaua Of Hawaii and il used to
be said that when Kalakaua needed money
he got it from Spreckels. Kalakaua.
sugar man which would enable him to
prefix a Sir or some equivalent Of IL to
his name, but there seems to be no record
of Spreokels having done so. Indeed.
II is said that when the Sugar Trust in
it's fight on him got foothold in Hawaii
Spreckels returned the insignia of his
nobility to the Kanaka King.
IL was when the trust was fighting him
and began TO work into his territory in |
the West by underselling him. according
to the records of the day, that Spreckels {
put 5000. 900 in his pocket 80 to speak, |,
and started eastward. He went to
and built the biggest refinery
in the country to combat the trust in its I
own particular field. Later he sold ou t 4
his Philadelphia business TO the trust
for 81 600 900 and was let alone in his own ,
field as long as he wanted to do the chief
sugar business there. When the business {
Of making sugar from beets began to be I
talked Of largely in this country Spreokels r
betook himself to Germany once more ,
and studied the beetroot sugar manu- ,
facture there. Returning to California /
he established factories for this manu-
facture there and engaged with farmers
in an extended section to produce a
certain number OF tons Of beets per year /
for number Of years to run his factories. :
20 developing farming out there. Later
he built railroad to carry his produce !
from Salinas and elsewhere. and it was
eventually by his railway that the Santa !,
Fe got an entrance into San Francisco. =
Through his interest In Hawaii Spreckels !
was instrumental in the negotiation of I,
he treaty with this country through !
which the duty was taken of OF Hawaiian y
sugar, Those islands then entered upon :,
heir era Of greatest success
Mr.. Spreckels's birthplace was Lamstedt, !