A Series of Firsts

in East Boston

Advertisement from 1852 Boston City Directory.

Boston Sugar Refinery, once located along Lewis Street between Webster and Sumner Streets, was the first industry established in East Boston. By the 1850s, it employed 200 people, processing 25 million pounds of imported raw sugar a year.

This refinery is credited with developing granulated sugar in 1853, to replace sugar cones and loaves. Workers raked moist refined sugar on a steam table until it was thoroughly dried. Then they used sieves to separate the crystals by grade. Eighteen years later, Charles Hersey of South Boston improved on the labor-intensive process; he patented a granulating machine that was soon a part of every sugar refinery. Granulated sugar made precise measurements possible and contributed to Boston’s success as a leading candy maker.

In 1887, Boston Sugar Refinery was among the first to be absorbed by what became known as the Sugar Trust—a monopoly that grew to control 98 percent of sugar refining in the U.S. The Sugar Trust first combined East Boston’s sugar refinery with another refinery in the city, and then closed it. By 1901, Boston Sugar Refinery’s buildings were used as warehouses.

Before Boston Sugar Refinery developed a way to make granulated sugar, people used sugar nips with sharp blades to cut sugar pieces off a sugar loaf or cone.

This detail from O. H. Bailey’s 1879 bird’s-eye view of East Boston shows the Boston Sugar Refinery buildings—indicated with a number 12—as they appeared at that time, stretching all the way from the corner of Sumner and Lewis streets to the waterfront.

Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at Boston Public Library

By 1892, the date of this Bromley insurance map, Boston Sugar Refinery had been absorbed by the American Sugar-Refining Company, also known as the Sugar Trust. Their name appears on the buildings, with the Boston refinery as lessee.

Atlas of the City of Boston, East Boston by G. W. Bromley & Co., Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at Boston Public Library

Most of the raw sugar processed at all Boston refineries came from Cuban plantations, such as the one depicted on this 19th century illustration. The plantations were manned by enslaved and indentured workers.  Cuba finally abolished slavery in 1886.

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As Boston Sugar Refinery was being built, East Boston was in its early years of being transformed from pasture land into a planned neighborhood. William Sumner describes the construction and challenges of establishing the sugar refinery in his 1858 book, History of East Boston.

“A piece of land 220 feet square was purchased on the East Boston Wharf Company for $8,000, and the erection of the building was commenced in the spring of 1834, before the ferry was opened; it was not finished till 1836. The building is of brick, 136 by 75 feet, and eight stories of unequal height, but averaging eight feet the foundation walls are of stone, five feet thick at the bottom, resting on a bed of blue clay 40 feet deep; the brick walls are three feet thick at the base, diminishing successively in the third, fifth, and sixth stories, and above that having a thickness of 16 inches. About 2,200,000 bricks were used in its construction.” (p. 679-680)

John Brown, one of the co-founders of Boston Sugar Refinery, had traveled to England to learn about their sugar refining methods and machinery. In what may have been a bit of industrial larceny, he incorporated what he had learned at the East Boston refinery, making it one of the first U.S. refineries to use modern European methods.

Source: Historic & Archaeological Resources of the Boston Area: A Framework for Preservation Decisions. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1982, reprinted 1991.

Sugar refineries processed raw sugar into white sugar, removing all remaining molasses. Before the development of granulation, the refined sugar would be formed into cones or loaves and sold that way.

 

William Sumner in his 1858 book, History of East Boston describes the difficulties the refinery had accessing sufficient water for operations. Eventually a 260-foot well dug at the corner of Maverick Square proved successful, supplying 30 gallons of water a minute. Neighbors filed complaints about soot created by the refinery’s use of huge amounts of coal—5,000 tons a year in the 1850s. The company responded by raising the chimney 30 feet. Another issue was the “reburning of animal charcoal.” The “stench” forced people to keep their windows closed.  Reburning was moved to another site on the refinery’s property. (p. 681-685)

Additional source: A Sketch of the Recent Improvements at East-Boston, Printed by J. T. Buckingham, Boston, 1836.

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Among Charles H. Hersey’s inventions was the Hersey Granulator, which he patented in 1871. Vastly more efficient than the labor-intensive sugar granulating method introduced by Boston Sugar Refinery, the Hersey Granulator was soon a standard piece of equipment in every refinery in the country. A few years later, he also invented the Hersey [sugar] Cube Machine. Charles Hersey and his brother, Francis, owned Hersey Manufacturing Company in South Boston.

The Hersey brothers’ machine shop was located at the corner of East and Second streets in South Boston.

Illustration from Gillespie, C. Bancroft. Illustrated History of South Boston. Inquirer Publishing Co., 1900. p.166.

Sources: Gillespie, C. Bancroft. Illustrated History of South Boston. Inquirer Publishing Co., 1900.

The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Being the History of the United States (Vol 17), published by James T. White & Co., 1920.

In 1887, New York industrialist and refinery owner Henry Osborne Havemeyer consolidated the majority of existing refineries, including the Boston Sugar Refinery, into a “trust,” called the Sugar Refineries Company (SRC). Its secretary and treasurer, John E. Searles, author of the chapter “American Sugar,” in One Hundred Years of American Commerce: A History of American Commerce by One Hundred Americans, 1795-1895, wrote that as part of Sugar Refineries Company, “the autonomy of each of the refineries was preserved but all the capital stock of the several companies was held by a board of trustees, who issued against it certificates of common interest. These [27] trustees, as the stockholders, elected the directors and managers of the several properties, thus insuring unity of action; and, through economy of management and prevention of over-production, the financial results were eminently satisfactory.” The state of New York thought that for the public, financial results were not “eminently satisfactory.” In 1890, New York’s attorney general charged SRC with violating the anti-Trust act, and won. In response Sugar Refineries Company closed shop in New York, incorporated in New Jersey in 1891 as the American Sugar-Refining Company, and continued to take over refineries and controlling more and more sugar refining in the country. Its informal name—the Sugar Trust—remained unchanged.

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When the Sugar Trust was formed in 1887, it included four Boston sugar refineries and controlled 80 percent of sugar refining in the U.S. The following year, 20 plants that had been taken into the Trust were reduced to 10. According to the 1897 Congressional Record, some, like East Boston’s sugar refinery and Standard Sugar Refinery in South Boston, had been combined; others were dismantled. By 1892, American Sugar-Refining Company [the Sugar Trust] had gained control of 95% of sugar production in eastern U.S. Only Revere Sugar remained independent, as well as two small refineries in Louisiana.

What was once Standard Sugar Refinery in South Boston was still in operation in 1900, under the name of American Sugar-Refining Company. It employed 1200 men, ran operations around the clock, and produced 600 barrels of granulated sugar a day. By the following year, its buildings were being used as warehouses.

Sources include Gillespie, C. Bancroft. Illustrated History of South Boston. Inquirer Publishing Co., 1900; Vogt, Paul. The Sugar Refining Industry in the United States. University of Pennsylvania, 1908; and the 1897 Congressional Record.

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In 1890, when the Sugar Trust controlled all but Revere Sugar Refinery in Boston, sugar refining was the second largest manufacturing industry in the city. A decade later it was the first.

Source: Vogt, Paul. The Sugar Refining Industry in the United States. University of Pennsylvania, 1908.

In 1904, more than 355 million pounds of raw sugar was imported into Boston.

Vogt, Paul. The Sugar Refining Industry in the United States. University of Pennsylvania, 1908.

Not according to the federal government, which filed suit against the American Sugar-Refining Company (ASR), after it took over the last independent sugar refineries in Pennsylvania in 1892 and gained control of 95% of sugar refining. In United States vs. E. C. Knight Co [one of the PA refineries], the government charged that ASR violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, who in 1895 ruled in favor of ASR. The justices wrote that Congress could not regulate manufacturing [like refining] only interstate commerce. ASR—the Sugar Trust—was left to control virtually all sugar refining in the country, with the exception of Revere Sugar in Boston.

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Resources

  • Butler, Allison E. “A Sweet Beginning: The U.S. Sugar Monopoly,” Origins. Published by History Departments of the Ohio State University and Miami University, January 2019.
  • 1897 Congressional Record Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the Fifty-Fifth Congress, First Session; also Special Session of the Senate, Volume XXX, Government Printing Office, 1897.
  • Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage.  Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1859.
  • Depew, Chauncey M. ed. 1795-1895 One Hundred Years of American Commerce: A History of American Commerce by One Hundred Americans. “American Sugar,” by John E. Searles. D. O. Haynes & Company, 1895.
  • Graney, Mimi. Fluff: The Sticky Sweet Story of An American Icon. Union Park Press, 2017.
  • Fisher’s National Magazine & Industrial Record, Vol III. Edited and Published by Redwood Fisher, New York, 1846.
  • Historic & Archaeological Resources of the Boston Area: A Framework for Preservation Decisions. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1982, reprinted 1991.
  • Mescher, Virginia. “How Sweet it is: A History of Sugar and Sugar Refining in the United States.”
  • The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Being the History of the United States (Vol 17), published by James T. White & Co., 1920.
  • “The Planters’ Monthly, Vol 1,” published by Planters’ Labor & Supply Co., Honolulu. Oct 1882.
  • Rolph, George Morrison. Something About Sugar, Its History, Growth, Manufacture and Distribution. John J. Newbegin Publisher, 1917.
  • Seasholes, Nancy & The Cecil Group. Sites for Historical Interpretation on East Boston’s Waterfronts. Boston Redevelopment Authority, 2009.
  • A Sketch of the Recent Improvements at East-Boston, Printed by J. T. Buckingham, Boston, 1836.
  • Sumner, William H. History of East Boston: With Biographical Sketches of its Early Proprietors, and an Appendix.  Boston: William H. Piper and Company, 1858.
  • Vogt, Paul. The Sugar Refining Industry in the United States. University of Pennsylvania, 1908.
  • Ward, Artemas. The Grocer’s Hand-Book and Directory. Philadelphia Grocer Publishing Co. 1883.
  • Zerbe, Richard. “The American Sugar Refining Company 1887-1914: The Story of a Monopoly,” The Journal of Law and Economics, Volume 12, No. 2, October 1969.
  • About sugar cones and nips
  • Excellent overview of history of sugar, “How Sweet it is: A History of Sugar and Sugar Refining in the United States,”
  • For commodities histories, specifically that of sugar:http://www.commodityhistories.org/research/sugar-industries-cuba-and-java  status of Cuba in world sugar market

Acknowledgments

  • Warm thanks to Nancy Seasholes for her expertise and support.
  • Heartfelt thanks to Allison E. Butler, JD, whose help in understanding the Sugar Trust and identifying sources was exceptional.