Local oldtimers have cited that the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory would kick off its annual campaign — the opening of the factory to take in the just-harvested sugar beet crop — with a big barbecue picnic and celebration. This would usually occur in mid July to early August, depending on that year’s crop. But the … Read more
On May 24, 2011, Huguette Clark, one of the world’s richest women and subject of many TV reports last fall, died at the age of 104. Worth over an estimated half billion dollars, she grew up in New York’s Gilded Age, among the Guggenheims, Astors, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. When she died, she hadn’t been seen … Read more
JAN 1896 – Dyer and Capitain enter in agreement to sell bonds for the Cerritos Sugar Company. They agreed to sell enough bonds to raise $4[00,000?]. After that sum had been reached, they could begin to deduct their expenses and [earn/draw] a commission; all of this had to be accomplished before November 1, 1896. Apparently, … Read more
To the left is a late 1896 USGS map showing the lower portion of “the Downey” quadrangle, the upper portion of the Bolsa quadrangle and the west portion of the Anaheim quadrangle, but mainly focusing on Rancho Los Alamitos and the surrounding area. The sugar factory would be constructed later that year but the early … Read more
18 JUN 1897 – Land of Sunshine: A Magazine of California and the Southwest. p42- One of the busiest men and the same time the pleasantest in all Southern California is Frank J. Capitain of the Alamitos Land Co., which together with the Alamitos Sugar Co. has within twelve months laid out the town of … Read more
1904 – W.A. and J. Ross Clark establish the Montana Land Company to manage lands northeast of Los Alamitos (present north Long Beach and Lakewood). 1905 – Clarks have completed rail line from San Pedro to Salt Lake. Needing a water stop for trains, they purchase a desert ranch property and then develop the new … Read more
Susan Hathaway Bixby loved her Rancho Los Alamitos adobe, but positively hated the stench caused by the effluent from the new sugar factory. What this article would most significantly seem to indicate that Lewellyn Bixby was the main Bixby contact for the sugar factory, when it says, “In June 1896, J.Ross and W.A. Clark entered … Read more
Susan Hathaway Bixby loved her Rancho Los Alamitos adobe, but positively hated the stench caused by the effluent from the new sugar factory. What this article would most significantly seem to indicate that Lewellyn Bixby was the main Bixby contact for the sugar factory, when it says, “In June 1896, J.Ross and W.A. Clark entered … Read more
Los Alamitos—A Crackerjack Sugar Mill. An infinity of noises smiting upon the ear. ceaseless, never-ending, repetitive; the hum of myriads of wheels, whirling with spokes indistinguishable; the sung of belts gliding endlessly aloft, swinging from wheel to wheel; ibe noise of the beets, as churning and splashing through the water, they are inevitably drawn into … Read more
The December 1897 issue of the Sugar Beet Planter’s correspondent had a couple references to s activities at the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory. In the first he wrote: The [Chino] Champion says that the sugar company …has arranged to get molasses from the Alamitos factory to treat in the plant here.” Later he made a … Read more