Hershel California Fruit Products

Summary

Business	Cannery
Active	1920 - 1956
Brands	Pacific Star, Contadina
Successors	Tri-Valley Growers

Summary

Hershel California Fruit Products was a prominent California canner, producing under the Contadina and Pacific Star brands. The company had canneries in San Jose and the Central Valley at various times; the principal was Aron Hershel, a Hungarian immigrant. The company first appeared as new owner of the Contadina cannery at Race and Moorpark in 1920. This plant had been built and run by the Aiello family since 1917, but disappeared from city directories in 1919 only to appear again as Hershel California in 1920, with Aron Hershel as the principal.

The headquarters was San Jose, with branch offices in San Francisco and New York. The company canned many products. A 1920 ad noted that they canned fruit, tomatoes, and cardoons, but listed tomato paste as their specialty. Hershel California then purchased the "Pacific Star brand in 1922. Hershel was active in selling the product to the easy coast That year, the company planned to can 150,000 cases of tomato paste; the purchase would increase their volume by 20,000 cases. Hershel also declared that 90% of 1922 pack had already been sold.

The company bought additional land at Race and Moorpark in 1925, and added a new building for $12,000 in 1928

By 1935, Hershel California had sold the San Jose cannery, and started construction on a new plant south of Lodi.

The San Jose cannery and Contadina brand eventually became part of Glorietta Foods, which merged into Tri-Valley Growers. The Modesto cannery eventually went to Tillie Lewis, which closed the plant in 1979 The Riverbank plant appears to have eventually become Sun Garden-Gagni The sale of old railroad land next to the cannery (and relinquishment of government restrictions from transcontinental railroad land grant) mentioned sale of land to Hershel

Locations

Location	Years	Address	Details
Lodi	1935-	Eight Mile Road, west of Cherokee Lane	(1935, "Lodi News":http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2761
Riverbank	1956	Stanislaus Street	Article about cannery building screening for waste solids ("Feb 1, 1956 Modesto Bee":http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PXMuAAAAIBAJ
San Francisco	1921	437 Eddy	Colocated with Hershel Rothenberg Company
San Jose	1920-1980's	Moorpark and Race Street	Turned into office buildings in the 1980s.
Woodland		???	Originally Matmor canning (14 car spur on SN). Name changed to Hershel sometime in the 1940's.

Details

Aron Hershel had been managing the company since 1920. Supposedly, He'd just gotten rid of his San Jose interests in 1935. Listed as proprietor of German Cooperage Company, 117 Brazil, SF in 1913. There's an Aron Hershel born in Romania in 1884, emigrated to the US in 1904, lived in San Francisco and San Jose by 1925, in Stockton in 1940, 55 years old, born in Targu Okna, Romania

Ancestry.com Lived in Daly City in 1910 (38 Theta Avenue, "top of the hill in Daly City!", with his brother Morris and family) and 1920, San Jose in 1925 (Fremont Street in Rose Garden). Estate of Aron Hershel also was in an appeals court case; supposedly, the Aron Cannery Company had been sold to Tri-Valley in 1956 for $1,000,000.

168 CalApp2D Page 659 There was also a suit in 1954 against Hunts for dropping prices in order to chase out a competitor citation of case Estate trustee formed in 1945. Picture of Mr Hershel in passport application. ( ancestry.com New cannery in 1935 had equipment built by the Canned Fruit Machinery Company of San Jose.

Eventually became part of Glorietta Foods cooperative which was taken over by Tri Valley Grocers in early 1980s.

See Modesto Bee article, December 3, 1979 about Tillie Lewis closing Modesto plant, and comments about Contadina in San Jose closing in 1978-1979.

Riverbank plant appears to have eventually become Sun Garden-Gagni ( November 9, 2009 Modesto Bee Sale of old mainline land (and relinquishment of government restrictions from transcontinental railroad land grant) mentioned sale of land to Hershel ( HR 1658