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SUNNYVALE, SANTA CLARA COUNTY
Sunnyvale, fifteen years old, was built on what was once a grain field. It is eight miles west of San Jose and is on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railway. Today, there is a bustling, wide-awake town which is growing by leaps and bounds. There are factories, canneries, splendid business houses, a first class grammar school, a bank, several churches, two lumber yards, two garages, and a live Chamber of Commerce. The manufacturing industries represent an outlay of over $1,000,000. It was incorporated December 24, 1912. Among the industries are the following: The Joshua Hendy Iron Works is the pioneer foundry of California, the launching of which dates back to 1856. It was not, however, until 1906 that operations were begun in Sunnyvale. So extensive have these operations been that scores of men are given year-round employment. Mining machinery is one of the chief outputs, although they are making marine steam engines, steering engines, warping engines, and ship fittings for the Government. All kinds of cast iron castings and all types of machine work are also ably cared for. The daily casting capacity of the foundry is thirty tons. Orders from India, China, South America, and many other foreign ports have been filled. It was indeed a lucky day for Sunnyvale when the Hendy Iron Works located here. It was equally fortunate for the iron works to find, near San Francisco, so desirable a location. Sunnyvale pulls for and gets the big things that are to be passed out. The firm of Libby, McNeil & Libby, well known throughout the United States, operates the year round, and has perhaps the most extensive plant on the coast. They employ a large number of helpers, many of whom own their homes and are getting real enjoyment out of life. The Jubilee Incubator Company is the pioneer manufacturing plant of Sunnyvale, it having been established some sixteen years ago, although for forty years incubator construction has been Mr. Besse's favorite pastime. The Jubilee Incubator and the Jubilee Brooder have been made famous because of their hot-water system, and they are not only shipped into every state in the Union, but Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Africa, China and other foreign countries have ordered liberally. With a season beginning early in May and running until nearly the close of the year, the Sunnyvale Canneries give employment to from 200 to 250 persons. The season of 1922 is looked forward to as the banner season, and to that end extensive planning has been done. The Three Leaf Cot Manufacturing Company is one of the interesting manufacturing companies of the Pacific Coast, giving delightful employment to a large number of people, and turning out a finished product that is eagerly sought far and wide-that of a bed, a chair, a table, and a settee, all in one, combined with a collapsible folding tent, thus making camp life a pleasure, picnicing a dream, and an overland trip an ideal outing. A girl can set up the entire outfit unaided. Patent Filing and Drawings For the Three Leaf Cot by Alfred and Charles Clough Ninety-five per cent of the output of the Hydro-Carbon Companies is exported, paint oil and mineral turpentine being the chief products. Added to this is the famous rubber oil waterproofing for auto tops-a commodity that is winning favor wherever introduced. The Rumely Products Company operates twenty-six branches in the United States and many in foreign countries. The one in Sunnyvale furnishes a distributing point for California, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico, and is caring for the business in a highly creditable manner. Mr. W. Reineke, the superintendent, has been well schooled in Rumely Products, which fact can be duly attested by the increased business. The claim of the company is that "20,000 farmers save all their grain by using Rumely Ideal Separators." There is one of a chain of many of the California Packing Corporation's plants located in Sunnyvale, and so strongly is it officered and financed that it is always regarded as a real contender in the race for supremacy. The products of this plant wherever introduced, have, by popular vote, been placed among the foremost in their line. A man once said: "I know there's money, and plenty of it, in poultry, for I have put lots of it in, and as I never got it out, I know it's still there." Mr. E. A. Lodge, manager and owner of the Pebble Side Poultry Farm, knows, too, that there is plenty of money in poultry, for he is getting it out every day, and seeing is believing. Perhaps there is no greater section in California for successful poultry raising than in and around Sunnyvale. J.Fred Holthouse, a life-time resident of Sunnyvale, and whose study has ever been along the line of improved pumping methods, is the builder of the most complete pumping plant systems that are in use today. To meet demands of a rapidly growing community, men with keen vision have launched into the dry goods business, clothing business, grocery business, meat business, hotel and rooming business, restaurant business, hardware business, drug business, as well as furniture, electrical supplies, feed and fuel, bicycle, plumbing, blacksmithing-in short, Sunnyvale is a veritable bee hive of industry. In the matter of churches Sunnyvale is represented by the Baptists, Congregationalists, Catholics, Episcopalians and Methodists. A free municipal library was established by the good women of the W. C. T. U. soon after Sunnyvale sprang into existence, and was taken over by the own after an organization was perfected. A very large selection of choice books are at the disposal of the residents, including the country circulating library. Nearly every known order is represented here, and the individual who bears the proud distinction of being a "jiner," can have some place to go every night in the week, where he finds divertisement from his daily grind at the old tread mill. The movies, too, contribute their full quota in the way of entertainment, the best and up-to-minute reels alone being shown. The show house is a good one, well ventilated, ably managed, and a real oasis in the desert to many. Sunnyvale has one newspaper, the Standard, published by A. T. Fetter. The town's latest improvement is a new packing house built by the California Prune and Apricot Growers, Inc. It is one the line of Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1920 the South Shore Port Company, with eighty directors in Santa Clara County, made ready to finance and engineer the project of obtaining a direct waterway for the transportation of the products raised in the valley. Several sites were examined and selection was finally made of Jagel's Landing, a few miles north of Sunnyvale. Work was begun in July, 1920, and will be completed this year (1922). An immense dredger was procured and a canal two miles long with a basin 300x600 feet at the landing was started and is now nearly completed. Boats of 500 tons will operate in the port and will act as feeders of large boats which sail from San Francisco. This waterway will connect three of the richest valley in the State-the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Santa Clara. The officers of the company are: Paul H. Fretz, president; R. B. Roll, George Jagel, Jr.; secretary, C. L. Stowell; treasurer, W. McLaughlin. Transcribed by Linda Grettty, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922
Visit the Sunnyvale Heriage Park Museum http://www.heritageparkmuseum.org/museum.html Canneries Hold Important Place in Sunnyvale History
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SUNNYVALE PIONEER FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES
F. E. Cornell-first postmaster
Niels Nickolas Nielson-owner of the Sunnyvale Garage
W. K. Roberts-Newspaperman and Justice of the Peace
Granville Savage
Hon C. C. Spalding
other Santa Clara County Biographies
The First Eichlers-----Sunnyvale Manor
RETURN TO SANTA CLARA COUNTY- THE VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT HISTORY Main Page
July 16, 2005