Excerpt from San Diego County, California, Vol. 2: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, August 16, 1853, and is a son of Claus and Annie Christina Spreckels, who in 1854 removed to New York city, where they remained for two years and then went to San Francisco. In the schools of the latter city John D. Spreckels pursued his education to the age of thirteen vears and then attended Oakland College at Oakland, California, for three years. He next went to Hanover, Germany, where he became a student of mechanical engineering and chemistry in the Polytechnic College which he attended until 1872. On his return to San Francisco he received practical busi ness training in his father's sugar refinery. He did not seek the benefit of parental influence but began work as a laborer. Gradually he worked his way upward as he acquainted himself with the various phases of manufacturing and sale, and between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-four he was superintendent. He then went into the laboratory and in 1876 he was sent to the Sandwich islands, where he made analyses of sugar for a year. Returning to San Francisco, he spent another year in the laboratory, after which he again went to the Sandwich islands for the purpose of erecting a sugar mill and developing a plantation for his father. Mr. Spreckels had charge of the construction of the mill and its operation for nine months, after which he once more returned to San Francisco and organized the firm of J. D. Spreckels Brothers, ciommercial importers, operating eight sailing vessels between_ the Hawaiian islands and San Francisco. In 1882 he established a steamship line to Honolulu, running two steamers, and in 1884 he put in operation a line from San Francisco to Australia and New Zealand, the boats of which are still engaged in passenger and freight traffic between San Francisco and those countries.

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