H.G. Prince

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Summary
Business

Cannery
Main Location

Oakland
Active

1868-1930
Predecessors

San Leandro Canning Company
Successors

California Packing Corporation

H. G. Prince was a jelly maker and later canner in the San Francisco Bay Area. Henry G. Prince had learned the trade working for Crosse and Blackwell[1]. The company started in San Francisco as a jelly maker in 1868, moving to Fruitvale after the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906[2]. The company later expanded with a canner in San Leandro. Their San Leandro plant had formerly been the San Leandro Canning Company, and was bought in May 1922[3]

Henry Prince died around 1922[4].

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[5].

H. G. Prince was an early user of trucks rather than the railroad to bring the crops to the cannery[6]. 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

Cannery Buildings

Photos of employees from Oakland Museum.

References

  1. Panorama of employees caption, Oakland Museum.
  2. H. G. Prince. OaklandWiki.
  3. May 1922 Western Canner and Packer
  4. Obituary: Henry G. Prince, western Canner and Packer. The obituary lists his company as the successor to the Cole-Portwood Canning Company.
  5. 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
  6. June 1921 Canning Age