The Sperry Flour Company in Hong Kong

 

HF: The Company in Hong Kong: “The Sperry Flour Company has been interested in the flour trade of the Colony for upwards of forty years—a period considerably longer than any other similar company—and during the whole of this time it has lost no opportunity of studying the requirements of Eastern buyers, with the object of pushing business throughout the Empire of China. Starting in 1852 with a small mill at Stockton that had a capacity of 100 barrels, the Company—incorporated in 1884, and reincorporated under the laws of California in 1892—now has a larger output than any other flour-milling enterprise on the Pacific coast. There are eleven mills, ten of them situated in California and one in Tacoma, Washington, with a daily capacity of 10,000 barrels, or 40,000 sacks. The Company’s chief brands of flour are Sperry’s xxx or Green Girl, Pioneer or Mandarin, Anchor, Charm, Day, and Junk.

The president of the Company is Mr. Horace Davis, and the managing directors are Messrs. James Hogg and H. B. Sperry. The headquarters are at No. 133, Spear Street, San Francisco. There are branches at No. 13, Nanking Road, Shanghai, where Mr. J. R. Hargreaves is manager; and at No. 24, Robinson Road, Singapore, where Mr. C. E. Richardson is in charge.

The office at No. 7, Redder [Pedder?] Street, Hongkong, however, exercises a controlling influence over the whole of the Asiatic business, and here Messrs. W. S. Allen and G. V. Hayes are the resident managers.” (1)

Dodwell & Co., Ltd (original source: W Feldwick, Present Day Impressions p 562) “This company is  of long standing and well known in Far Eastern trading circles, as well as in Europe and America…It is the sole agent for the well-known Sperry Flour Company of San Francisco, and a large stock of that company’s flour is always carried.” (2)

W.S Allen was William Stanley Allen. (3)

The image shown on the Home Page is of the Sperry Flour Mill, Stockton, California, USA.  Undated Courtesy: http://stocktoncitylimits.com

Sources:

1. Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History. People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources, A Wright, London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.
2. Society: A Documentary History of Hong Kong, D Faure, HKUP, 1997
3. http://archive.org/stream/whoswhoinfareast

For information about the Company in Stockton, California, USA:

1. History of the Sperry Flour Company and Moody’s Mills, California, USA on santaclararesearch.net
2. The Sperry Flour Mills of Stockton by Renee McComb  The San Joaquin Historian page 7
3. Sperry Mill Fire, Stockton, 2nd April 1882 http://blogs.esanjoaquin.com/

Related Indhhk articles:

1. The Hongkong Milling Company
2. The Hongkong Milling Company, the flour mill site after closing – Kuomintang refugees
3. Alfred Herbert Rennie, The Hongkong Milling Company
4. Alfred Herbert Rennie, before moving to Hong Kong
5. Alfred Herbert Rennie, additional information