The Story of the Pennsylvania Refinery*

By Dan Gutleben, 1962

The urge for a history of the Pennsylvania Refinery developed about 1935 when Henry Worcester of Revere suggested that some individual in each refinery center should process the history of his neighborhood. He, himself, through his assistant, Frederick Holcomb, had started such a project under the title of "The

Sugar Refining Industry of New England." It was completed in 1939 and is a masterpiece, not only historically but as to King's English.

THE SEARCH

If the start has to be made from scratch, a good starting point is the Hall of Records. The plot plans give names of early owners. The name Hilgert was men­ tioned in connection with the purchaser of Pier 46 where National's Pennsylvania

Division now stands. Following through the old City Directories, it was learned that John Hilgert built the Girard Refinery on 5th Street near Girard. Af'ter this fact had arrived then, right out of the ether, came an Archivist who offered (for

$25.00!) an Underwriters' Diagram of Pier 46, dated 1883, which was entitled

Pennpylvania Sugar Refining Co. It illustrated the floor plan and listed the equipment. It also showed an elevation with the main building exactly resembling the building shown on a lithograph of the Kensington Screw Dock where Ship builder

Vaughn had fashioned Stephen Girard's fleet of Clippers, the greatest merchant marine on the seven seas. The lithograph, dated around 1850, was found in 1933 in the office of Captain Loveland who was engaged in tug boat service in the vicinity. The next step was to search the directories of neighborhood cities for the name Hilgert. Thus in the Chester issue was located one Edwin Hilgert, Foreign

News Editor of the Chester Times. This was a windfall. Edwin, a courteous and cooperative gentleman, was the grandson of John Hilgert and the nephew of Charles

M. Hilgert who moved the refinery to the Delaware River. Edwin referred to a

* Condensed from the unabridged history by Dan Gutleben from the Pennsylvania Refinery Log. front page splurge in the Philadelphia Public Ledger dated August 3, 1882 for the tragedy of Uncle Charles ' gamble.

Mrs. Gutleben spent many hours in the library in the early '30's searching out material that referred to sugar refineries. In the 1909 files she found a series of muckraking articles from which historical facts can be extracted pro­ vided the searcher applies a discerning mind and screens out the prejudice. It became popular around 1909 and profitable for muckrakers to "wield the big stick over the malfactors of great wealth."

THE MUCKRAKERS

While the muckrakers were employing their talents in searching out the sins of the refiners, the Government customs agents, not to be outdone, also got into the act. They were concerned in the matter of cartage and weighing of the raw sugar. As recorded in the Chronicler's thesaurus: "Bjeasts of burden have always been fed generously by appreciative masters, For practical reasons the breakfast and lunch periods have always coincided with the conventional, i.e. just before the whistle calls the craftsmen from refreshment to labor. This old custom was followed by the crews of longshoremen who used horses to draw raw sugar, dutiable at 2 cents per pound, from the ship's side to the warehouse. A large scale was provided and by approval of all concerned, each horse-and-truck unit was weighed in the morning and noon just before discharging began. The tare thus obtained was used for the rest of the day. After 15 years of this practice, a customs agent suddenly discovered an "irregularity" as recorded in the public print in

April 1912 as follows:

"Among the ingenious methods employed was one that really was worthy of a better cause. This was to have the horses weighed after they had partaken of a meal and were almost 20 pounds heavier because of the feed and water consumed. By the process of digestion the horses would become lighter, but, it is said, the

Government will claim that no deductions were made. While the difference in the weight of a load of sugar under these alleged circumstances was but slight, the aggregate for a year, it was said, represented a large amount."

- 2 - PIONEER JOHN HILGERT

Thus it was disclosed that late in the 1860 1 s, John Hilgert, an Austrian cavalry man, discouraged with the continual warring, left Europe and brought his family to Philadelphia. He planned to enter the sugar refining industry and sought a site, preferably on the Delaware River to f acilitate handling the raw material which came by schooners from Cuba and Puerto Rico. The crude Cuban sugar mills of the time produced, besides raw sugar, an end-product molasses that contained at least five pounds of extractable sugar per gallon. The raw sugar was exported to

America for refining into white . Furthermore the molasses with the high sugar content and its comparatively low import duty was available at a low price. This circumstance encouraged molasses refiners in America to elaborate the molasses into raw sugar, which was sold to white sugar refiners in competition with raw sugar from Cuba. The molasses refineries were referred to as "smear houses."

Additionally the exhausted molasses from the smear houses was refined for table use or sold for stock feed, The Cuban molasses was shipped in hogsheads direct to

Philadelphia in low-cost tramp schooners . Hilgert's plan contemplated the con­ struction of a smear house similar to that of W. J. McCahan's a couple of miles down the Delaware River. Parenthetically a character anecdote about the canny Irish­ man relates that he started out as a teamster as many an Irishman did. Among his accounts was the contract for hauling the hogsheads of molasses from the dock to the predecessor of the great McCahan sugar refinery. During one of the cycles of depression in the sugar business, the molasses plant was handed over to him to pay for the cart,age bills . In 1892 he extended the smear house into a refinery for the production of white sugar. HILGERT BUILDS GIRARD REFINERY

Hilgert determined that the ideal spot for his works was the famous old Ken­ sington Screw Dock and ship yard at the foot of Shackamaxon Street on the Delaware

River. This yard had fallen into obsolescence and was idle. A survey was made for

Hilgert in 1868 and he was about to take possession but sentiment of the shipyard's former glory had inspir ed an excessive monetary esteem. Accordingly Hilgert located

- 3 - his works on Fifth Street near Girard Avenue where St. Peter's Church now stands.

He styled it the Girard Sugar Refinery. Here the refiner y operated profitably 'til

1881 albeit under heavy expense for cartage from tidewater. When Hilgert retired, the plant was taken over by sons John, Peter and Charles M. Son John was the sugar boiler, having acquired the art at the Chester Sugar Refinery, which once occupied the present site of the Scott Paper Company in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1881

Peter died and John retired, leaving Charles, the youngest, in charge and sole owner by purchase of his brothers' shares.

CHARLES BETS ON THE WRONG HORSE

In the meantime a fire damaged the idle shipyard buildings. The highly es­ teemed atmosphere depreciated in value to a point within reach of a sugar refinery and Charles bought Pier 46, 48,000 square feet, for $100,000. He proceeded at once at great expense for new equipment and labor to reconstruct the refinery at the new site. Then he ordered molasses from Cuba by schooner loads for accumula­ tion against the season when his plant should be completed and operations would begin. One of those cyclical slumps was about to settle down upon the land. When the first schooner arrived, the market had fallen. This was disappointing but was one of the vicissitudes of trade! However, the same misfortune befell the second cargo and the third. Hilgert borrowed from his relatives to cover the losses while ship after ship continued to add to his distress. He was possessed of the gambling instinct and sugar was a gambling operation. A few good cargoes would recoup his losses. The good j udgment that had established him in the esteem of the business community would reassert itself. Then another cargo arrived with a heavy loss. Tariff manipulations in Washington upset prices. Sugar imports and duty charges demanded cash. Finally his losses were overwhelming and his borrow­ ing sources were exhausted. As a last desperate effort to gain relief he forged an acceptance payable at his office at the refinery in 60 days. He still had hopes that "his ship would come in!" Nevertheless evil days befell the sugar in­ dustry. The market continued i n unprecedented manner to fall and the expected date of completion of his refinery extended beyond the date of his forged

- 4 - acceptance. Hilgert sank deeper and deeper until he became crazed in mind and ill in body. Then on the morning of August 1, 1882, he bid his wife and five-year-old daughter good-bye and vanished without trace.

His wife returned to the homestead of her late father, Remsen, to live with her bachelor brother. She reverted to her maiden name and the little daughter was raised in ignorance of her father's affairs. The father's families were shunned and no knowledge of them ever reached the little girl. The sheriff sold the assets of the refinery and the Hilgert relatives threw in their fortune to save the family name. In the excitement, the newspapers branded Charles Hilgert an absconder, with which the Chronicler cannot agree. He was actually a man of estimable qualities, only in his youthfulness and inexperience, he bet on the wrong horse.

At the suggestion of Edwin Hilgert, the Chronicler and his wife visited

Miss Liddie Hilgert, sister of Edwin's, who lived at the Presser Home for Retired

Musicians in Germantown. For many years Miss Hilgert's cousin, the "little daugh­ ter" of her Uncle Charles, had lived nearby but without the knowledge of either of them. Not long ago Charles' daughter had come upon a 500-dollar insurance policy that had been issued to her by her father. This policy was uncollectable until her father was declared legally dead. The policy had compounded into a tidy sum.

By order of court a notice was therefore published to permit the insurance company to pay the proceeds of the policy to Charles' daughter - now a grandmother. This notice came to the attention of Miss Hilgert and she penned a letter to her cousin.

This letter was like a message from the tombs. During the reunion that followed, the cousin learned for the first time that her father was one of the three sons of Grandfather Hilgert and that there was an imposing number of cousins of delight­ ful quality living nearby. When the cousin called at the Presser Home, she brought with her her grown-up daughter and in her card case, a photograph of her father which matched the one in Miss Hilgert's possession.

SMEAR HOUSE STATISTICS After President John A. McCarthy of the Pennsylvania Sugar Co. died in 1939, there was located among his effects, the minutes of the Pennsylvanis Sugar Refinery

- 5 - (1883-1896) which took over the debacle left behind by Charles Hilgert and oper­ ated a smear house 'til about 1896 when Segal began jockeying f or the purchase of the site. Finally Old Man Rich, assistant secretary to W. J. McGahan, (1896-1918) supplied certain intimate details. W. J. had built a smear house in the 1880 1 s and a refinery in 1892. Through his familiarity with the business, he took over the presidency of the Pennsylvania Smear House when it became reorganized in 1E83 .

He agreed to serve as agent for the purchase of molasses for the refinery and the sale of its products. His compensation was to be one-third of the net profits after $5130 is deducted therefrom. No compensation is to be paid unless the net profits exceed $5150, presumably the cost of the bonded debt. The statistics of operation from April 1883 to February 1895 report a purchase of 22,113,000 gallons of molasses and a sale of 113,092,000 lbs. of raw sugar averaging about 83 purity.

The total dividends for the 13 years equalled $77,680. The refinery closed after

1895 because of the insurrection in Cuba.

NEWHALL'S MONUMENT

Rich also disclosed the address of Supt. J.P. Fernald's widow and daughter from whom photographs of the plant and some of the men were obtained. Engineer

Newhall, the builder (1845-1921) of McGahan, National at Yonkers, Arbuckle, Warner, and others, was no longer living when the search began, but his son, George, living near Philadelphia, reported that his father bad many arguments with Segal. Newhall spent the first million on the foundations and steel structure. He insisted on a generous factor of safety even at the expense of the equipment. The machinery could easily be re-constructed piece-meal as finances warranted but the factor of safety of the building and foundation is fixed and could be revised only at great expense. This policy was appreciated in succeeding years as the capacity was more than doubled. In 1931 a 750-ton steam accumulator was erected on the roof of the pan house and at the same time a 600-ton water tank on the roof of the char house.

No reinforcement of steel or foundations were ever required except some local steel work. When the 1000-ton sugar bin was built on the 5th floor of the melter house some of the columns and foundations required re-inforcement. At least 7000-tons

- 6 - of additional loads were added without any concern except to check Newhall's

factor of safety.

WALTER WAYTE

When the time came to consider operation George Earle conferred with Engineer

Wilhelm Baur who suggested that Walter Wayte be commissioned to prepare a report

on the condition of the refinery. To clarify the situation the background of these

two famous engineers will follow and then the headache of producing sugar.

"Walter Wayte was a charming, vivacious, highly cultured Irishman, always ready for a prank on friend or foe; generous with the money of his own or that of his friends." Thus was he characterized by his friend Duperu.

Wayte's sugar career started in the engineering department of the H. & E.

Refinery in Brooklyn where be met Assistant Superintendent B. T. Rogers. This acquaintance led to Wayte's employment in 1890 to serve as construction engineer, and subsequently, superintendent of Rogers' British Columbia Sugar Refinery in

Vancouver. One morning in 1894, B. T. arrived at the refinery in ill humor, being harrassed with business affairs and somewhat of excessive eye-opener. As he passed through the plant he examined the sugar barrels and was displeased with their con­ dition, declaring they were improperly dried. Wayte's adventitious appearance

spark-plugged the explosion under which there was the implication of dereliction on the part of the superintendent. Wayte retorted, "Mr. Rogers, if you were as dry as those barrels, you would have no fault with them." Exit Wayte.

Wayte now returned to H & E and on March 1, 1896 he was sent to the Western Refinery by F. o. Matthiessen to assist Manager Rothmaler in modernizing the works. Here started the life-long friendship with "Dupe" Duperu and Ben Sprague. They were the three musketeers, "One for all; all for one." They pooled their money, clothes and technical experiences and they worked under intensive discipline. In

1900 after Rothmaler's death, the three transferred to the Oxnard, California fac­ tory where Wayte became general engineer of the American Beet Sugar Co. The other two entered the operating division where they rose to the position of factory

superintendents. Af'ter tbe Congressional law for "Free Sugar in Three Years" had

- 7 - been promulgated there was an exodus of beet technologists into cane. Duperu was appointed by George Rolph as superintendent of Crockett, while Ben Sprague went to the family plantation in Adeline, Louisiana. In 1916 he moved the useable parts of the Adeline Mill to Savannah and engineered the construction of t he Re­ finery. This is the place where he made his mark.

WILHELM BAUR

The Oxnard, California9 factory had been designed by the peerless Wilhelm Baur. After the Franco-Prussian War, in which he had achieved a br illiant r ecord as an officer, he immigrated to America and joined the engineering staff at H & E.

From here he was sent t o New Orleans t o modernize the Louisiana and New Orleans

Refineries for A.S.R. Co. When this work was completed in 1894, the Oxnard Brothers commissioned him to serve as consulting engineer for the Oxnard Const ruc­ tion Co. He built all of the Company's early plants, and all of these are still in successful operation except Oxnard, California. This factory was abandoned as of 1959. The factory's territory could produce a profit of $1000 per acre wit h a crop of lemons, and beets cannot meet such competition. As t o Baur, Ben Sprague mused, "Dear old Baur, he used only light mosselle wine f or washi ng his teeth. " In the college student fellowships at Baur 1 s Alma Mater, the boys used t o arrange a row of bottles of assorted wines and liquors. Each bott le represented a letter of the alphabet and as each student took a jigger out of a bottle he appropri ated a letter to spell a word, the longer the wor d t he greater the degree of accomplish­ ment. Anyone could spell "Kat z. 11 The goal was "Nebuchadnezzer. " After 1906 Wayte established himself as a consulting engineer. He built the "20 Mule-Team" Trena Works in California and other industrial plants and a completely electrified beet sugar factory at Corcoran, California. Then he moved to New York where he supplied cane-mill machinery t o Cuba and ot her tropi cal countries.

At the Bor ax works, t he operators were overwhelmed with excessive foaming in the evaporators. By way of groping for a remedy, a f oam index was established by stirring samples of liquid in a gradua ed glass, each test bei ng st andard as to

- '8 - quantity of liquid and period of stirring. Measuring the depth of the foam provided l the index. The task was assigned to a laboratory boy. He was instructed to follow each cycle of testing with a soap washing and a thorough rinsing of the glass. The routine grew mcnotonous. One noon when the staff returned from lunch, they found the kid desperately trying to produce foam but the sample refused. Speculation and investigation disclosed that the boy had forgotten to rinse the soap out of the test jar. Thus the lad's delinquency contributed to the solution of the foam problem. In the sugar house it has long been known that a few slivers of Ivory soap will stop foaming in the vacuum pan.

The Cocoran construction job was administered by Wayte and his assistant,

Lee Camp, a skinny product of Texas, who later became chief engineer of the Atkins chain of mills in Cuba. A big bold pipe fitter weighing exactly twice as much as

Lee, applied a disparaging epithet, which means fight in Texas. Lee's upper cut bounced off like a tennis ball from a stone wall but the big fellow, in his effort to dodge, fell flat into the soft concrete on the second floor. Wayte hap­ pened to se~ the performan9e and,· before the fitter could ·collect himself, Wayte rolled him out of the window. Then he cautioned, "Lee, never start afight unless the gate receipts are guaranteed. "

SEGAL GETS KEYS TO VAULT

Wayte's removal to New York occurred in 1911. Here he had the opportunity to renew acquaintance with Baur who still kept company with the old associates of the American Beet Sugar Company at 32 Nassau Street. Just at this time the nine-year-old legal wrangling, accompanied by one suicide, since the Pennsylvania

Refinery had been built in 1902, had been successfully completed and Receiver Earle gave thought to initiating operation. The refinery had been built by one Adolph

Segal, "the man with the golden touch" and the evidence was clear that his purpose in building the refinery was to unload it on the principal competitor at its nuisance value and with great profit. He had accomplished a similar stroke in 1895 when he built the U. s. Sugar Refinery in Camden, where the Campbell Soup Co. is now located. Here he boasted that he made a million dollars. In the

- 9 - words of a reporter, Se gal had declared that the Sugar Trust monopoly does not

relish competition and will buy and dismantle any independent refinery that may

be built. He expected the new project to multiply the Camden profit by five.

Through his hypnotic instinct, he induced the president of the bank, which

George Earle subsequently resurrected from bankruptcy, to "give him the keys to

the vault," The story of Se gal's operations is of record under the muckraking magazine articles of 1909 above referred to.

MARK SPELMAN

In the spring of 1911 George Earle appointed Mark R. Spelman, a former rail­ road man, to the presidency of the new Pennsylvania Sugar-. Co. Spelman was an aged

gentleman of high repute, promoter and former president of George Meade's Gramercy

Refinery. However, he had arrived at an age where operating no longer held any attraction. He preferred the comforts of a swivel chair and a secretary to keep him supplied with scratch pads and pencils. In his younger days he had directed

the construction of the Gramercy Refinery in order to produce business for the

Yazoo & Mississippi branch of the Illinois Central R.R. of which he was general a gent. His tenure at Pennsylvania was short. To provide convenience for his in­

spection of the dock, a sugar truck was fitted with a grandfather's chair. Going down the steep runway, the boys lost control and the old man collided with a stack

of sugar bags. This was the end. He was relieved of his hardships and gleefully returned to his farm in Hyde Park.* * This situation recalls the announcement of Walter Blanchard, the distinguished engineer, Technical Director of Tate & Lyle's West Indies Sugar Co. and incident­ ally uncle of the famous West Point football star, Doc Blanchard. Upon his retirement in 1958 .he wrote that "his head was still working but he began to find it t oo much effort to go out to business lunches, so he thought he'd better quit as a legend rather than as an obvious wreck." One morning during the War, when he arrived in down-town London, he found his office completely destroyed with all of his records.

- 10 - After Spelman's departure, Col. Louis J. Kolb took time out from the man­ agement of his famous bakeries ("Bond Bread") and performed administrative ser- vices for the sugar company. The Colonel was a man of delightful manners, and he posessed especially the quality of diplomacy. As vice president of the refinery he was sometimes called upon to pacify some unhappy customer. On an occasion such a customer came in with fire in his eyes. He demanded $500 to cover his loss due to departure from his written instructions as to deliveries. The Colonel court­ eously asked the wild man to compose himself while the matter was investigated. The customer was right. The Colonel made out a check for $500 and handed it to his guest with an apology for the shipper' s error. This swept the customer off his feet. He tore up the check and threw it into the Colonel ' s waste basket. Most friendly re­ lations were established. Parenthetically, the military title was acquired by way of an appointment from civilian status to grace the Governor's staff at the State capital. When the Colonel was fitted with his first uniform and presented himself for inspection, John McCarthy remarked that he now understood the meaning of "hor­ rors of war."

WAYTE'S REPORT

In 1911 Wilhelm Baur was invited to prepare a report of the refinery. He was wined and dined at the Union League Club and taken to the refinery. He was no longer in the mood for a complicated job of this nature and so he recommended Walter

Wayte. As previously noted, the refinery was built with a robust structure. Also the principal items of equipment conformed to the latest and most rigorous specif­ ications. However, as funds became depleted certain parts that could be changed and reconstructed after operation got under way, were of temporary construction.

There were some miles of copper piping all of thin gauge of sufficient strength to start operation. All of the fundamentals were of the most substantial quality that engineering skill could provide. Wayte's report was enthusiastic and highly favorable. The refinery was ready to produce~ The outstanding quality of New­ hall ' s plant was so impressive that Wayte did not apply minute scrutiny to certain operating details, small but essential. Then the Board appointed him to operate the works. - 11 - HEADACHE STARTS

Here an amazing circumstance presented itself. The plant had never turned a wheel. One Gormally had purchased the lot and pier contiguous to the pan house and built up a mountain of manure collected from the Philadelphia truckers and fire houses. This manure was allowed to ferment and "ripen" and was then shipped by the carload to the thrifty farmers. The traffic grew t o large proportions. The chem­ ical reaction evolved ammonia, which the tall pan house, acting like a chimney, drew in at the basement and discharged through the roof ' s monitor. Enroute this gas attacked the brass centrifugal screens and baskets and the copper piping through­ out the pan and char houses. The weakness thus infused was hidden and did not appear till Wayte ·st~rted operations. Furthermore small tributary lines were lack~ ing. The electric generators, driven by DeLaval turbines at 26,000 r.p.m. had never been tried. The renowned DeLaval works in Sweden had built extraordinarily effecient machines, even according to modern ,· cientific principles, but metals and oils had not been discovered that could stand such terrific loads.

The rehabilitation of the works proceeded through the winter of 1912. Pipe lines were freezing in the boiler ,house. Wayte had no faithful sergeants who were willing to endure the hardships. At length the refinery was judged ready to run.

A week later, on April 4, 1912, the SS Frances arrived from Manzanillo with the first carge of raw sugar ever to be delivered to the Shackamaxon Street wharf. On the 11th, melting got under way and carried on by fits and starts, as was to be ex­ pected with a plant that had never turned a wheel since it was built 10 years earlier. Pipes failed, tanks overflowed, machinery broke down.

The DeLaval turbine expert was constantly on the job but he could not coax continuous delivery of power from the 26,000 r.p.m. power turbines. The screetch of the 32,000 r.p.m. turbines driving the centrifugal pumps was so terrifying as to drive the workmen out of the planto Wayte ordered a 500 KW engine generator set and two more boilers with new Murphy stokers to replace the crude machines of 1902.

- 12 - On April 20 the liquor reached the pan floor. Then before anyone knew it, the thin copper coils collapsed and sent a slug of sugar into the boiler feed tank.

This shut down the works. After the tank and boilers were cleaned out operation floundered along. Wayte's office was on the 6th floor just under the evaporator supply tanks. These were in charge of Frank Konczak, who later developed into the expert centrifugal repair man under the Hoodless regime. There was nothing between

Wayte's desk and the tanks except a dried-out wooden floor with wide cracks. Every time Frank's youthful indiscretion caused an overflow, Wayte's desk and head were deluged with syrup and Wayte tore up the steps to fire Frank. This operation was accompanied with great violence but said violence was limited to the verbal variety as Frank could reach the exit to Delaware Avenue ahead of Wayte. The next day

"Sergeant" Jack McGahan, later one of Bill Hoodless' faithful foremen, searched out Frank's boarding house and brought him back.

One Sunday in June one of the char filters exploded, presumably because of the evolution of C0:2 in the partly washed, tightly closed filter. Great mystery was made of the accident. Dupont's experts claimed that it was caused by internal pressure, but Wayte thought that only dynamite could create such havoc.

Early in 1913 Wayte got his generator and the two boilers, while melting continued amid frequent interruptions. The appropriations were exhausted. What with plant deficiencies and lack of a trained organization, poor Wayte was on the spot. Breakdowns harassed him day ~nd night. Finally, by mutual agreement, his three-year contract at $12,000 per year, having run half its course, was liquid­ ated. In great relief he departed for a vacation in Hawaii, flourishing his roll of $6000 in bills as· he passed through the house to bid farewell to the men. The plant was shut .down to await the discovery of a Moses to direct the path to suc­ cess. The damaging emanations from Gormally's manure pile eventually was removed when the property was acquired by the Sugar Company for use for plant extension.

Vigorous search for the statistics of Wayte's operations brought no results till about 1950 when, through the kindness of Carl Morse, Superintendent of the

Western Refinery in San Francisco, there came an opportunity to browse through the

- 13 - old library. Here was found a tabulation of the .sugar production of most of the

American refineri es for various years. There was Wayte's record of 6,000,000 pounds for 1912 and 7, 000,000 for 1913.

DRAMATIC SEARCH

Sometimes the search f or sugar house history becomes as dramatic as the history itself. The processing of t he Pennsylvania history required about ten years of elapsed time wherein the Chronicler and his good wife searched many mag­ a zines and news files in the Franklin Institute, Early in 1944 a most fruitful source of hist ory was found by accident. It happened that the Chronicler paid a visit t o t he Fletcher works, which in past years had built sugar house centrifugals but was now devoting itself for the most part to drying machines. Here, "mirabile dictu" as the Roman ' s used to express a big surprise, the guide assigned to sugar engineer visitors was Engineer Leslie Griscom. It was learned that he had erected the D'Olier direct connected centrifugals at Corcoran for Wayte in 1908. Further­ more he was Wayte's plant manager at Pennsylvania. Leslie, a regular sugar tramp, supplied a diary of all the gruesome details of operation of the refinery. Sub­ sequently he wrote voluminous letters for the Chronicler's information about his experiences both in Philadelphia and Corcoran. These letters supplied the only recor d of the period of 1912 and 1913 .

A NEW SKIPPER ARRIVES

In February, 1913, W. H. (Bill ) Hoodless left Croswell, Michigan to become

General Superintendent of the Michigan Sugar Company's six plants. One evening a few weeks later while relaxing in his apartment in Saginaw, he bemoaned the low estate to which beet sugar had fallen because of the reduction of the Federal im­ port tari ff. Congressional "free sugar in three years" was expected to abrogate t he dut y on Cuban sugar and aft er that, the beet sugar industry would collapse!

The r aw March weather of 1913 added t o t he gloom. Bill was perusing a contemp­ orary t irade against the Sugar Trust and the story of Receiver Earle's fight to extri cate the Pennsylvania Sugar Refinery and other assets of the defunct Real

- 14 - Estate Trust Company out of the clutches of the octupus. He picked up his pen and

dispatched an application to George Earle in Philadelphia. Having just recently

moved from Croswell to Saginaw, he got his spelling jumbled. The street as

spelled in his letter did not exist. This occasioned confusion until a telegram

was delivered at his office asking why he did not reply to the telegrams and lett­

ers. The light dawned. The telegraph and post offices gave up their secrets.

Bill proposed a meeting in Philadelphia between trains on Saturday afternoon. When

he reached the Real Estate Trust Building according to agreement, an obtuse elevator

operator informed him that the Sugar Company's office had moved to the foot of

Chestnut Street and was in charge of Sales Manager Jerry Sullivan. Bill hotfooted

it to the sales office and found it closed. To appease his disappointment, he

crossed the street to get a bite of nourishment and somewhat of liquid fortification.

On his return, the door was still closed and locked but a typewriter was clicking

within. Then he announced his presence and his feelings by giving the door a vio­

lent kick. Sullivan, being unacquainted with Western mannerisms, showed vigorous

resentment accompanied by the evolution of heat and profanity! Bill was growing

tough himself! Finally Sullivan became conciliatory and demanded "Who the hell

are you anyway?" The reply floored him! For. three hours George Earle, Colonel

Kolb and John A. McCarthy had been waiting impatiently for Bill at the Real Estate

Trust Building! The storm subsided. As soon as Sullivan could collect his thoughts, "\ he sent Bill away in a taxi and informed headquarters that the "Lochinvar out of

the West" was finally located and was moving up Chestnut Street.

The august executive committee surveyed Bill. They registered disappoint­

ment because of his youthfulness. The job that had baffled them for years demanded

an experienced head! They proposed that he accept second place under Gerbracht.

Bill informed them that Gerbracht, in case they didn't know it, had just expiated

thru a jail sentence the penalty for defrauding the Government by falsifying raw

sugar weights. Furthermore, he had come to Philadelphia with the idea of becoming

boss. Besides, if they had a sugar refinery at all, why didn't they take him down

- 15 - to see it instead of wasting time in idle talk! 11 John A." and the Colonel took

him to the Works. Without lights, and with pea soup overhead, the place looked

spooky. Bill decided to go back and take his chances with the sinking beet houses.

During this t ime his character impressed itself upon the Committee, and in their

anxiety, they tried to stampede him into a contract. However, Bill told them he

would first have to sever his present connection which might require some time.

He then sped towards the railway station, stopping long enough for a chat with

Henry Wilkens. Henry was a sugar boiler at the Franklin Refinery and had been

loaned to Croswell during several campaigns. He used to tell Bill that there was

an old hulk of a refinery on the banks of the Delaware that was seeking a Captain.

When Bill got back to Saginaw, the depressing view of Philadelphia brightened.

The opportunity of putting over so forbidding a job became attractive. He severed

connections with Michigan and took charge of the Works on Shackamaxon Street,

Philadelphia, in April, 1913. He reported to the five bank presidents who composed

the receivers' committee that $265,000 was needed to prepare the plant for oper­

ation. The bankers threw up their hands. The court had not empowered them to

incur debts! However, Earle insisted that the committee's moral obligation demanded

that each man share the burden of resurrecting the wreck. It was something new

and unheard of for a banker to advance his own money for a hazardous job. Never­ theless, they exchanged money for notes and these represented the only unsecured

indebtedness that was ever incurred by the ref1nery. All subsequent improvements

and expansions were paid for out of the till. Bill Hoodless was now Manager.

The narrative will hereafter replace the familiar appellation of "Bill" with the more respectful., though not less affectionate 11 w. H." Bearing in mind the kibitzing of the Manager in Michigan, W. H. was disturbed that no official cognizance was taken of his conduct at the refinery. Earle eased his mind by telling him that no one member of the committee was competent to drive from back-seat. W. H. was to as sume the rol e of Moses. He brought on Henry Wil­ kens, Charlie Manning, George Gardopee, Frank Harvey and expert sugar boilers

Jakes Sondheimer and Richter. Every man donned a working jacket and applied him- - 16 - self assiduously. The standard rate of wage during the construction period was

$12, 50 per week. Potatoes were priced at 15 cents per bushel.

W. H. Hoodless arrived late in the Spring of 1913 , There was much work to be done to place the refinery in a position for operation. He joined with the gang and by Fall, refining got underway. In the urge for economy and haste, the constructors had omitted many auxiliary pipe lines . No overflow pipes had been installed as evidenced by the heavY crust of dried syrup on the floors. One of

W. H, 's first jobs was to provide overflow pipes and to assign a gang with scrapers and shovels to clean the floors from the accumulations of Wayte's operation.

BILL'S REFINERY BACKGROUND

His only experience in a cane sugar refinery had been obtained in a season's work at the Jersey City refinery while Tom Kavanagh was superintendent. w. H. as Superintendent of ;the Croswell, Michigan plant which was under the control of the American Sugar Refining Company, was sent to the refinery during the off-season to perfect himself in the art of sugar boiling. When he presented himself to

Kavanagh (later manager of McCahan's) he was subjected to the usual gruff recep­ tion. Under the proper occasion and provocation, W. H. returned the compliment with such vigor that Tom sensed intellectual and technological superiority in w. H. Thereafter the twain became brothers and W, H. had the run of the plant, which was prohibited to all but a few confidants . W. H. made good use of his cruising freedom to acquire information about refinery operation which stood him in good stead when Earle called him to the helm at Shackamaxon Street.

BILL TAKES OVER

There was no squeamishness about W. H.'s performance as boss nor any limit­ ation to his territory. He wrote a dissertation on char house operation, supple­ menting his own information with extractions from some faithful old workmen who knew routine but not cause and effect - and this dissertation served as a model for many years. He lived at the refinery after the manner of the beet sugar house superintendents during the 90-day campaign. He proceeded with vigor and independence

- 17 - of action to push operation and develop the plant. Buying raw sugar, refining it and the general direction of the sales of the product came under his cognizance.

George Earle, the great resuscitator of broken-down businesses, immediately learned that the right man had been found. Earle's visits t o the refinery were confined to the enjoyment of the sight of activity. Once he invited w. H. to join him at lunch with the "bank presidents" at the private dining room atop the Finance Building.

W. H. found this enjoyable (and economical!) and therefore appropriated it as the permanent prerequisite of his job! Thus consultations in respect to refinery oper­ ations were conveniently accomplished and incidentally financial contacts were made that eventually brought him affluence to a high degree. Earle was always on the look-out for a bargain and the profit of his prescience in matters of investment was always available to W. H. Earle used to "tell him, "William, if anybody offers you an option on anything without charge, take it. No matter what it is; if it doesn't cost you anything, take a chance. It might rise."

By this time operation became more or less routine but the little dramas, failures and successes continued as they have a habit of doing with a variety of men and machines in industrial plants. Many an old timer joined the crew and accepted the Boss' discipline with enthusiasm. Like Old Karl Gerbemann, who died in a German sugar house at 89, having worked in the same place for 65 years. w. H. and his crew practiced the doctrine of "thereness". "This doctrine contains romance, poetry, morale, religion, and pure unadulterated faithfulness."

Some years later the two distinguished presidents, Bill Wallace and Joe Abbott, were convening in Washington. Bill stated that he had told George Earle he'd better take good care of Hoodless as his old job in Michigan was held open for him. Joe replied, "Bill, if you take him back, we'll pay his salary."

AS TO WAYTE

When War I brought on feverish demand, he bad opened offices in New York for the exploitation of Watson-Laidlow-Cresson Morris centrifugals and other sugar house equipment. He was a master salesman. He supplied machinery in great quant-

- 18 .:. ities to keep the Cuban mills in operation. He acquired a luxurious country villa and a sea-going yacht, "The Sunshine," so that there would be no delay in reaching his customers, since the War Department rationed public travel under the slogan,

"Is this trip necessary."

Capdevielle, later a man of all work, including public relations at Atkins'

Punta Alegre mill in Cuba, recalls a visit about 1917 at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When he stepped into a barber shop he met his old boss, Cliff Bellows, General

Superintendent of Fajardo. The twain began a discussion about massecuite pumps, when suddenly a loud voice came out from under a white cloth and hollered, "Put in a magna pump, driven by a back-geared motor." The voice was Wayte's. He had come on his yacht from the Lesser Antilles where he was building two small mills.

The Sunshine was anchored at the local dock. Having urgent business at his office

Wayte took passage on a high speed steamer to New York and so he invited Capdevielle to use the facilities of his yacht to take him t o the coast where he could get transportation back home to Baton Rouge.

Accordingly Cap., anticipating the desireability of good relationship with the nine swedes who constituted the crew, picked up two cases of rum at 25 cents per bottle. After the yacht got out to sea, something went wrong with the machinery, which slowed the ship to a crawl and the auxiliary sails were useless as there was no wind. After a week Cap became impatient. He threw a big party which put 8 of the Swedes under the table, including the bewhiskered one who was called "Captain Pinafore." Then Cap, remembering Wayte's advice, that to reach the u. s. or Mexico all that was required was to steer westward, joined conversation with the quarter master who was on duty at the steering wheel. Cap had two bottles left. The only sober Swede left on the ship then turned over the wheel to Cap and proceeded to work on the bottles. Presently a good wind came up and early in the morning :they found themselves in the Brunswick, Georgia, Harbor. Cap convinced the Port officers that it would be OK to let him off as he had to get back to Baton Rouge to answer the draft calll

In January 1919 Wayte started the erection of 22 Watson Laidlow self-discharge, .,. l,9 - 24 x 48 centrifugals for affination at Crockett for his friend Duperu. On account of War conditions it was necessary to have them built in America. As of 1961, these machines, built by Cresson- Morris, were still in operation, affining up to 3500 tons of raw sugar daily.

Under date line of March 19, 1919, at San Juan, Puerto Rico, "Facts About

Sugar" reported as follows: "Sunshine in Distress. The pleasure yacht belonging to W. J. Wayte encountered a serious storm and is somewhat damaged. Mr. Wayte with

Mrs. W yte and friends have been cruising around the Caribbean for the past two months, and two weeks ago anchored the Sunshine here for provisioning. A few hours after she left port she met a gale that took everything but the mainsail. Her hold • began to fill, and it was with difficulty that she turned about and again made port.

She may remain here indefinitely. The Waytes and their guests took a steamer for New York,"

After 1921 there was still a considerable demand for sugar machinery but this gradually deflated as the depression approached the aftermath of the "Dance of the

Millions," Throughout his life Wayte had driven himself unmercifully. He made radical departures in his urge for improvements. Many of his installations, like the Trana chemical plant, had to start from scratch as there were no patterns to guide him, The nervous energy expended on his work eventually took its toll.

Then came retirement and not long thereafter the end of his career. His dynamic urge had brought affluence to his principals. As for himself, "the only money he enjoyed was the money he spent."

Capdevielle became attached to Punta Alegre after its construction in 1921.

Among his duties was to gather laborers and keep them happy. There was also an assortment of other duties. At one time the mill was threatened with a shortage of oil, He heard that a trainload of tank cars had just been dispatched from the

Port of Cienfuegos and headed for one of the American mills, not many miles from

Punte Alegre. Forthwith he got into one of the Punta's locomotives and ran down to A, S. R. Company's mill where an obliging conductor pushed the cars upon his track.

Before morning he had the cars discharged into Punta's oil storage tanks. Not till - 20 - then did he realize that the oil had been consigned to Jaranu! There was of course nothing to do but to apologize, which he did gladly and with a reasonably clear conscience.

Capdeville also contributed to the dispatch of shipments of raw sugar to

Philadelphia under the Atkins contract.

By 1921 the conclusion of the War permitted consideration of plant improve­ ments. At this time Bill Hoodless invited the Chronicler - former roommate in

Caro, Michigan - to join the Pennsylvania staff as engineer. A plan had been evolved to build a sugar mill northwest of Miami, Florida. The impulse had been stimulated when the directors made their periodical visits to Florida to escape the

Philadelphia winters. They thought that the conditions that could produce the tall everglades could produce sugar cane . A 10-ton pilot plant was built in 1920 and the first crop, through unusual climacti c conditions, promised glittering poss­ ibilities. Also there was a project in the offing to construct an industrial alcohol plant adjacent to the refinery in Philadelphia and a by-product installation for dry ice and for yeast for stock feed. Furthermore there was much work to be done in the refinery, which had suffered deterioration during the War. The old unsan­ itary wooden floors, which were originally installed, were still there. Further­ more there was urgent need for a new steam and power plant. Fortunately the refinery was posessed of a robust treasury and there was no prejudice against applying its services generously without the red tape of directorial appropria- tions except for large installations. This circumstance presented an attractive prospect to the new engineer! The refinery was operating on a toll agreement with E. Atkins, whose chain of Cuban mills delivered the raw sugar, while the Atkins organization, in coop­ eration with the refinery staff, sold the products. Atkins did not buy raw sugar.

He produced it upon his own plantat i ons. The profits fluctuated with the market and Atkins was not subjected to the distress of buying high ..and selling .low. Compet­ ing refineries made large profits on the rising market and lost tremendously when

:.. 21 - the "Dance of the Millions" suddenly expired. Treasurer Henry Jones of Pennsylvania suffered no sleepless nights.

The only loss in the refinery operation, connected with the "Dance of the

Millions" affected Master Mechanic Bill Booth. The refinery was equipped with two raw sugar melters, consisting of 87-inch perforated baskets hung on vertical re­ volving spindles like centrifugals. These melted about 12,000 tons of washed sugar per week. The floating detritus was raked off the surface while the metal scrap and an assortment of coins, which were the by-products of the crap games , were bagged with the floor sweepings in the Cuban warehouses. During the flush period an occasional loss of a peso or an American quarter wasn't considered worth the search, but when they fetched up in the melter in Philadelphia, duty paid, they furnished the incentive for a thorough cleaning of the melter on the week-end on

Sunday morning. When the market declined the incentive that originated in Cuba vanished. To stimulate the return, Bill surreptitiously planted a dollar in the melter and stood by while the melter man made a complete job of cleaning. This served effectively for 3 months when Bill had to dig into his jeans for another dollar.

Early in the 1940 1 s, Bill Hoodless began to feel concern for the future of his refinery and his boys . There was also some criticism by certain state comm­ issions in respect to the ownership of a large percentage of its stock by a single bank. Then by good fortune it came about that National Sugar Refining Company became interested. Accordingly on January 1, 1942, the Pennsylvania Refinery became the Pennsylvania Division of the famous New York Refinery, and two fine crews of sugar craftsmen became amalgamated.

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