H.G. Prince
| Business |
Cannery |
|---|---|
| Main Location |
Oakland |
| Active |
1914-1930 |
| Predecessors |
Cole-Portwood Canning Company, San Leandro Canning Company |
| Successors |
California Packing Corporation |
H. G. Prince was a jelly maker and later canner in the San Francisco Bay Area, formed as a successor to the Code-Portwood Canning Company around 1914[1][2]. The company's origins began in San Francisco as a jelly maker in 1868, moving to Fruitvale after the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906[3]. Cole Portwood was still listed as a separate company in 1912[4]. The company later expanded with a the purchase of the San Leandro Canning Company in May 1922[5]
Henry G. Prince, the principal, had been a fruit salesman[6] and supposedly had learned the trade working for Crosse and Blackwell[7]. Henry Prince died around 1922[8]. (Another story claims H.G. Prince died in 1917[9].
Prince was sold to California Packing Corporation between 1925 and 1930; product canned in their plants continued to have the H. G. Prince name on the labels through at least the 1940's[10].
H. G. Prince was an early adopter of trucks rather than the railroad to bring the crops to the cannery[11]. The cannery found that sending fruit by rail from meant stopping picking by 2:30 to get the crop to the railhead. With the trucks, crews could be picking til almost 5:00.
Locations
| Location | Years | Address | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fruitvale | 1921 | ||
| San Leandro | 1922 |
Photos
Photos of employees from Oakland Museum.
References
- ↑ Canned Foods: January 24, 1914: "A contrivance has been invented by Arthur Duncan, manager of H. G. Prince & Co., successor to Code Portwood Canning Co....
- ↑ May 1922 Western Canner and Packer
- ↑ H. G. Prince. OaklandWiki.
- ↑ Canned Goods: Chamber of Commerce Journal, July 1912]
- ↑ May 1922 Western Canner and Packer
- ↑ 1900 United States Census
- ↑ Panorama of employees caption, Oakland Museum.
- ↑ Obituary: Henry G. Prince, western Canner and Packer. The obituary lists his company as the successor to the Cole-Portwood Canning Company.
- ↑ Among the Trade: May 25, 1917 California Retail The May 25, 1917 California Grocer's Advocate: "Henry G. Prince, head of the H. G. Prince Packing Co. of San Francisco, passed away at his home this week."
- ↑ My father remembers that the Del Monte San Leandro was still canning some grades of fruit with H.G. Prince labels in the 1940's when he held summer jobs there
- ↑ June 1921 Canning Age