All About Coffee Part 90

Differences were finally settled in conference; but the experience taught the American interests that they could survive in any territory only if at all times they were able to provide their own cargoes for their own boats, as had been accomplished with nitrate in South America.

J.H. Rosseter, the Grace manager, who later became well known as director of operations of the United States Shipping Board during the war, undertook an extended trip to Central America in 1912 to study the situation at close range. There was only one product of Central America that was available in cargo quant.i.ties, namely coffee; and naturally his attention was drawn to the possibility of carrying coffee to San Francisco to provide return cargoes for ships of the Pacific Mail, or a.s.sociated lines, carrying merchandise for the Central American countries.

While in Guatemala, Mr. Rosseter outlined a future policy in regard to Central American coffees; the basis being his firm determination that coffees grown in Central America, and logically and geographically tributary to San Francisco distribution, should come to San Francisco in largely increasing quant.i.ties.

Up to that time San Francisco had received, on an average, only 200,000 bags of Central American coffee annually for the ten preceding years; while Europe had received about 1,500,000 bags a year. The quant.i.ty necessary to make San Francisco a factor would call for an importation, on an average, of 750,000 bags--a quant.i.ty almost four times as large as then established.

This was an extremely ambitious undertaking, considering the conditions then prevailing in Central America. European countries were firmly entrenched in the coffee business in Central America, with Germany leading in Guatemala, France in Salvador and Nicaragua, England and France contending for superiority in Costa Rica, and the United States getting only the leavings.

The European countries held their position in the Central American Coffee trade by liberal financing, and a thorough knowledge of the varying qualities of coffee produced on the different plantations. San Francisco, the only important port in the United States dealing in Central American coffees, had neither strong financial entrenchment in Central America nor expert knowledge of coffee quality. Year after year, San Francisco merchants had depended on consignments chosen by the consignors. This rendered quality selection of coffees by the importers impossible.

Rosseter, being primarily a steamship man, tackled the proposition from the standpoint of transportation, figuring that if he could establish and maintain preferential steamer service to San Francisco, and steady freight rates, a great step would be accomplished toward the desired end. This led to his interest in the Pacific Mail Company, of which the final outcome was his present position as vice-president of the reorganized Pacific Mail Company. In that capacity he maintained, practically throughout the entire period of the World War, freight rates on coffee from Central America to San Francisco that gave that Pacific port an immediate and definite advantage.

This gave merchants in San Francisco the chance to build up a steady trade, and prevented other ports in the United States from entering into serious compet.i.tion with San Francisco as a distributing point for Central American coffees. The view taken by Rosseter was as far-sighted as it was broad. He argued that with the end of the war there would be no strength in a scattering distribution of Central American coffees by New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco; and the only promise of maintenance of the business for the United States would be in maintaining unity of distribution in one port of the United States, namely San Francisco.

The first year open to European compet.i.tion after the war showed that San Francisco was well able to maintain its lead in Central American coffees. Today, the mortgages formerly held by European merchants on the native coffee plantations, and the control thereby of the produce of these plantations, are in the hands of American merchants; and what is more, out of general merchandising and importing by merchants of San Francisco there have developed expert coffee departments in all of the larger houses. The years of the war brought the product of virtually all plantations in Central America to the intimate knowledge of these expert coffee departments; and today the advantage that Europe formerly had--of knowing exactly what a specific plantation produced--is possessed by San Francisco merchants.

This is no small advantage when we consider that in Guatemala and Costa Rica, qualities vary from plantation to plantation, and that often on adjoining plantations there is from three to five cents a pound difference in quality, from the standpoint of cup merit.

One can not buy coffee in Central America as in Brazil, as these countries are not highly organized commercially, and the importers here are forced to a.s.sume the role of the Brazilian _commisario_ and banker.

The crop has to be financed from six to nine months before it is brought to the port; and the securities covering such advances are at best of questionable value, on account of political insecurity, and the ever-threatening earthquakes, and the uncertainty of the elements.

Distribution of the coffee after it has been brought to San Francisco also involves many difficulties, notwithstanding that the demand is good. This will be better realized when we consider that the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Mexico, and eastward as far as the Rocky Mountains, embraces a population of about 8,000,000, whose annual consumption is estimated at 400,000 bags; and that, as already stated, treble that quant.i.ty was imported to San Francisco in 1919.

In 1900, ninety-nine firms were engaged in the green coffee importing business (some were roasters also) in New York; six in Philadelphia; twenty-eight in San Francisco; twelve in New Orleans. In 1920, there were two hundred and sixteen in New York; thirty-one in San Francisco; fifteen in New Orleans.

_Green Coffee Trade Organizations_

Previous to the organization of the roasters, the only kind of coffee organization in this country of more than local importance was the New York Coffee Exchange, which came into existence in 1881, the organization meeting being held in the offices of B.G. Arnold & Co., at 166 Pearl Street, New York. The Exchange was incorporated December 7, 1881, the incorporators being Benjamin Green Arnold, Francis B. Arnold, William D. Mackey, John S. Wright, William Sorley, Joseph A. O'Brien, H.

Clay Maddux, C. McCulloch Beecher, Geo. W. Flanders, and John R.

McNulty. B.G. Arnold was the first president. Soon afterward, rooms were rented and fitted up for trading purposes at 135 Pearl Street, at the junction of Beaver and Pearl Streets, and only two blocks away from the more pretentious structure now housing the Coffee Exchange. Actual trading operations did not begin until March 7, 1882.

The New York Coffee Exchange was the world's first coffee-trade organization of national proportions. Havre's exchange was inaugurated in 1882, under the name of the Coffee Terminal Market. Five years later, coffee exchanges were opened in Amsterdam and Hamburg; while the exchanges of London, Antwerp, and Rotterdam did not come into existence until the year 1890. The exchange in Trieste, Italy, was organized in 1905; while the Coffee Trade a.s.sociation of London was started in 1916.

The first exchange in Santos was started in 1914.

The success of the New York Coffee Exchange led to its imitation in other coffee ports of the United States. Baltimore started a similar organization, early in 1883, under the name of the Baltimore Coffee Exchange; but after a short existence, it petered out. New Orleans organized a green coffee trading a.s.sociation in 1889, as a coffee committee of the Board of Trade. It is still active. The Green Coffee a.s.sociation of New Orleans, Inc., which is distinct from the Coffee Committee, was established January 7, 1920. San Francisco did not have a trading exchange until 1918, in which year the Green Coffee a.s.sociation of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce began operations.

_Growth of the Coffee-Roasting Trade_

The wholesale coffee roasting business in the United States seems to have started in the closing years of the eighteenth century. In February, 1790, a "new coffee manufactory" began business at 4 Great Dock Street, New York, and the proprietor announced that he had provided himself at considerable expense with the proper utensils "to burn, grind and cla.s.sify coffee on the European plan." He sold the freshly roasted product "in pots of various sizes from one to twenty weight, well packed down, either for sea or family use so as to keep good for twelve months."

A second roasting plant started up at 232 Queen Street, New York, nearly opposite the governor's house, toward the close of 1790. This second coffee roasting plant was known in 1794 as the City Coffee Works. James Thompson operated a "coffee manufactory" at 25 Thames Street in 1795. In this year there was also the "Old Ground Coffee Works" in Pearl Street, formerly Hanover Square, "three doors below the bank at number 110,"

operating "two mills, one pair French burr stones" but no orders were accepted here for less than six pounds, at "two pence advanced from the roasting loss."

Other coffee manufactories followed in the large towns of the new states; and, always, the coffee was treated "on the European plan." This meant that it was "burnt over a slow coal fire, making every grain a copper color and ridding it all of dust and chaff." There was usually a difference in price of three to four pence a pound between the green and roasted product. Packages of roasted coffee under the half-dozen weight were sold in New York in 1791 for two shillings and three pence per pound, allowance being made for grocers at a distance. In those days, the favorite container was a narrow-mouthed pot or jar of any size. This was the first crude coffee package. In retailing the product, cornucopias made of newspapers, or any other convenient wrapping, were first employed; but, with the introduction of paper bags in the early sixties, the housekeeper soon became educated to this more sanitary form of carry package, and its permanence was quickly a.s.sured.

The following were listed in Longworth's _Almanack_ as coffee roasters in New York in 1805: John Applegate; Cornelius Cooper; Benjamin Cutler, 104 Division Street; George Defendorf, 83 Chapel Street; William Green; Cornelius Ha.s.sey, 14 Augustus Street; Joseph M'Ginley, 28 Moore Street; John W. Shaw, 43 Oliver Street; John Sweeney, Mulberry Street; Patience Thompson, 23 Thames Street.

Elijah Withington came from Boston to New York in 1814. He set up a coffee roaster in an alley behind the City Hall and engaged a big, raw-boned Irishman to run it. This was the beginning of a coffee roasting business that has continued until the present day. Withington dealt in Padang interiors, Jamaica, and West Indian coffees, and numbered many society folk among his customers. Withington's business removed to 7 Dutch Street in 1829: and the firm became Withington & Pine in 1830.

The roasted coffee business in New York had grown to such proportions in 1833 and gave such promise, that James Wild considered it a good investment to bring over from England for his new coffee manufactory in New York a complete power machinery equipment for roasting and grinding coffee. There was also an engine to run it. It was set up in Wooster Street opposite the present Washington Square.

Samuel Wilde, son of Joseph Wilde, of Dorchester, Ma.s.s., came to New York about 1840 to make his fortune. He was a young man with vision; and first applied himself with diligence to the hardware and looking-gla.s.s business. When he found that most of his customers were theaters and saloons, his religious scruples bade him abandon it, which he did.

Meanwhile, in 1844, Withington's pioneer roasting enterprise had admitted Norman Francis and Amos S. Welch as general partners, and Samuel and Charles C. Colgate as special partners, under the style of Withington, Francis & Welch. It so continued until 1848, when Samuel Wilde--who had selected the coffee business as more honorable than the one in which he started--was admitted, and the firm became Withington & Wilde.

Mr. Withington retired in 1851, and Samuel Wilde a.s.sociated with him in the business his sons Joseph and Samuel, Jr., the t.i.tle becoming Samuel Wilde & Sons. Samuel Wilde, Sr., died in 1862. The t.i.tle then became Samuel Wilde's Sons. Joseph Wilde died in 1878, and Samuel Wilde, Jr. in 1890, the business being left to and continuing with a younger brother, John, from 1878 to 1894, when John's son, Herbert W. Wilde, became a member of the firm, which continues the old t.i.tle at 466 Greenwich Street, as Samuel Wilde's Sons Company, having been incorporated in 1902. John Wilde died in 1914.

Another grandson of Samuel Wilde is William B. Harris, who engaged in the coffee roasting business in Front Street from 1904 to 1917. From 1908 to 1918 he acted as coffee expert for the United States Department of Agriculture. William B. Harris is a son of Samuel L. Harris, who married a daughter of Samuel Wilde, and who for a number of years was connected with Samuel Wilde's Sons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PIONEERS IN THE ROASTED COFFEE BUSINESS OF NEW YORK CITY

With approximate dates of their entry into the trade]

Although a number of roasters and grinders for family use were patented in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, the coffee merchants depended almost entirely on English manufacturers for their wholesale equipment until 1846, when James W. Carter of Boston brought out his "pull-out" roaster. This machine, and others like it, encouraged the development of the coffee-roasting business, so that when the Civil War came, coffee manufactories were well scattered over the country. The demand for something better in coffee-machinery equipment was answered by Jabez Burns with his machine for filling and discharging without moving the roasting cylinder from the fire.

Among the early grocery concerns in New York that were also coffee roasters were: R.C. Williams & Co., starting as Mott & Williams in 1811, changing to R.S. Williams & Co. in 1821, to Williams & Potter in 1851, and to its present t.i.tle in 1882; Acker, Merrall & Condit Co., founded in 1820; Park & Tilford, founded in 1840; Austin, Nichols & Co., founded in 1855; and Francis H. Leggett & Co., founded in 1870.

There were twenty-one "coffee roasters and spice factors" in New York in 1848. Among them were: Beard & c.u.mmings. 281 Front Street; Henry B.

Blair, 129 Washington Street; Colgate Gilbert, 93 Fulton Street; Wright Gillies, 236 Washington Street; and Withington, Wilde & Welch, 7 Dutch Street. In this year, two coffee importers, fourteen tea importers, and forty-one tea dealers were listed in the _City Directory_.

The _Directory_ for 1854 listed twenty-seven coffee roasters and spice factors, among them, in addition to the above, being Peter Haulenbeek, 328 Washington Street; Levi Rowley, 102 West Street; William J. St.i.tt, 159 Washington Street; and George W. Wright, 79 Front Street. In those days not all the wholesale coffee factors were roasters; there was much trade roasting by a few large plants.

While the coffee-roasting business of Samuel Wilde's Sons appears to be the oldest in New York, having descended in a practically unbroken line from 1814, several others continued considerably past the half-century mark, and among them special mention should be accorded to: Levi Rowley's Star Mills, dating back to 1823; Beard & c.u.mmings, 1834; Wright Gillies & Bro., 1840; Loudon & Son, the Metropolitan Mills, 1853; and the Eppens Smith Co., present day successors of Thomas Reid's Globe Mills of 1855.

The Star Mills in Duane Street became a real factor in the wholesale coffee-roasting business on Manhattan Island about 1823. At a later date, Levi Rowley secured control, and under his able direction the business flourished. Benedict & Gaffney bought the Star Mills from Rowley in 1885. A few years later the firm became Benedict & Thomas, then Thomas & Turner, and finally the R.G. Thomas Co. R.G. Thomas sold the equipment in 1920, ending the manufacturing end of the business just about a century from the time it started. Mr. Thomas is now with Russell & Co. Before being identified with the Star Mills, he was for twenty years with Packard & James, 123 Maiden Lane.

While still a lad of nineteen, Wright Gillies came from a Newburgh farm in 1838, and obtained a clerkship in a tea store in Chatham Street, now Chambers and Duane Street. He branched out for himself in the tea and coffee business at 232 Washington Street in 1840, removing in 1843 to 236, which had a courtyard where he installed a horse-power coffee roaster. In the same building, over the store, lived Thomas McNell and his wife. Mr. McNell afterward became a member of the firm of Smith & McNell, proprietors of the Washington Street hotel and restaurant, for many years one of New York City's landmarks.

The coffee business, thus started by Wright Gillies, is still conducted, as the Gillies Coffee Co., by the same family and at practically the same location; and it is interesting to note that the roasting room still has the original arrangement, partly below the street level but with the machinery in view from the sidewalk. This arrangement was characteristic of the old roasting establishments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GROUP OF OLD-TIME NEW YORK COFFEE ROASTERS, 1892

Standing, left to right, W.H. Eppens, Fred Reid, unknown, Julius A.

Eppens, Fred Eppens. Seated, left to right, John F. Pupke, Thomas Reid, Henry Mayo, Fred Akers, Alexander Kirkland]

James W. Gillies, a younger brother, came from Newburgh in 1848 to a.s.sist in the enterprise. Young Gillies superintended the horse-power roaster and drove the light spring delivery cart. Soon the firm became Wright Gillies & Bro. Fires visited the business in 1849 and in 1858; but each time it arose the stronger for the experience. Wright Gillies retired in 1884, and James W. Gillies a.s.sumed entire charge under the name of the Gillies Coffee Co. He continued active until his death in 1899. The business was incorporated by his children under the same name in 1906.

Edwin J. Gillies, son of James W. Gillies, started a separate coffee business at 245 Washington Street, in 1882. In 1883 he admitted as a partner James H. Schmelzel, a fellow Columbia alumnus. The enterprise was successful for many years, being incorporated under the t.i.tle of Edwin J. Gillies & Co., Inc. It was consolidated in 1915 with the business of Ross W. Weir & Co., 60 Front Street, Edwin J. Gillies becoming a vice-president (with L. S. Cooper also vice-president) of the corporation of Ross W. Weir, Inc.

Burns & Brown started in the coffee roasting business in 1853 in an old building at the corner of Washington and Chambers Streets for which they paid an annual rental of one thousand dollars. This was the beginning of the Metropolitan Mills, opposite to the present location of Loudon & Son, 181 Chambers Street, the latest successors to the business. Burns & Brown continued for two years, when they failed, and Wright Gillies & Bro. succeeded, and put in Ebenezer Welsh as manager. Later, Wright Gillies & Co. sold out the plant to Capt. Edward C. Russell, who a.s.sociated with him his son-in-law, Edward A. Phelps, Jr. At the dissolution of this partnership in 1870, the firm became Trusdell & Phelps. Mr. Phelps succeeded Trusdell, and sold out to Loudon & Stellwag in 1877. They were succeeded by Loudon & Johnson in 1879, and this firm continued until 1910, when James D. Johnson retired, and the firm of Loudon & Son took charge. These were J. Carlyle Loudon and his son, Howard C. Loudon, who died in 1911. The firm name of Loudon & Son continues.

One of the most vigorous personalities of the sixties, and one whose influence extended well into this generation, was Thomas Reid. Born in Bridgeport, England, he came to the United States as a boy, and started his business career as a grocer's clerk in Brooklyn. Within three months after landing, he bought out his employer. He entered the wholesale coffee-roasting business at 105 Murray Street, New York, in 1855, in partnership with a Mr. Townsend under the style of the Globe Mills, which were the predecessors of the Eppens Smith Co. now in Warren Street. Jabez Burns, inventor of the Burns coffee roaster, before this a teamster for Henry Blair, was at one time bookkeeper for the Globe Mills. In 1864, Mr. Burns sold to the Globe Mills the first roasters of his manufacture--two one-bag, four-foot machines that were given a place alongside of four of the old-style Carter pull-outs.

Mr. Townsend died the first year of the Globe Mills' existence; and Thomas Reid continued without a partner until 1863, when he became a.s.sociated with John F. Pupke, as Pupke & Reid. The business was then at 269 Washington Street. Thomas Reid was resourceful and enterprising; also he had vision. He saw the day of package coffee coming, and nearly "beat" John Arbuckle to it. As early as 1861 we find him advertising in the _City Directory_, "spices put up in every variety of package."

Lewis A. Osborn, 69 Warren Street, New York, and 81-83 South Water Street, Chicago, was advertising "Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee--put up only by Lewis A. Osborn" in 1863-64. Thomas Reid appears to have acquired this brand and to have begun its exploitation as "Osborn's Old Government Java," a ground package coffee, and certainly one of the earliest package coffees. However, this brand never attained the national vogue achieved by John Arbuckle's package coffee, which first appeared in 1865, although the name Ariosa was not given it until 1873.