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The City of South San Francisco had its
beginning in the fertile brain of Peter E. Iler of Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1889-90 Mr. Iler obtained options on 3,500 acres
fronting on the bay of San Francisco, at San Bruno Point. Thereupon
the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company was
incorporated, with P. E. Iler as general manager. Among the large
holders of stock in the new enterprise were P. E. Iler, of Omaha and
M. C. Keith, of North Platte, Nebraska ; Henry Miller, Henry S.
Crocker, P. N. Lilienthal, E. R. Lilienthal, and Jesse Lilienthal of
San Francisco, with P. D. Armour, G. F. Swift and Nelson Morris,
millionaire meat packers of Chicago, owning a majority interest.
Among the parcels of land included in the Iler deal was
1,600 acres belonging to Miller & Lux, known as the "Home Ranch,"
upon which the present city of South San Francisco has been built.
The land company made two distinct districts of its big
tract, setting apart all of the land east of the right of way of the
bay shore railroad for factory sites, and all west of this line for
business houses and homes. The town site was surveyed and
subdivided, streets graded, concrete sidewalks laid, sewers
constructed, a water system developed through artesian wells, and a
pumping plant installed of sufficient capacity to supply water for
factory, household and fire protection uses.
An inner harbor with a channel to deep water was
dredged out and slips and wharves were constructed.
The Western Meat Company was organized and
incorporated, and eighty acres of land fronting on the harbor w,-re
conveyed by the land company to the meat company as a site for stock
yards, abattoirs and a meat packing plant, as well as for sites for
by-product factories, such as glue works, wool pullery, etc. On
December 5. 1892 this company commenced business.
The first house in South San Francisco was built by
John Nunn, in November 1891, at Grand and Cypress avenues. The same
month W. J. Martin erected the second building in the town, which he
used as a real estate office.
In April, 1892, W. J. Martin was appointed land agent
for the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company. Mr. Martin
then began a ceaseless campaign for the industrial development of
this city, which he has carried on with unflagging zeal and
remarkable success from that day to this. Through his efforts,
factory after factory has located here, until today a score of great
manufacturing industries are in active operation, with an aggregate
annual payroll of over one million dollars.
Beginning with the Western Meat Company in 1892, the
following-named industries 'have located and established plants in
the factory district of this city, viz : The Western Meat Company,
Steiger Terra Cotta and Pottery Company, the Baden Brick Company,
the W. P. Fuller Paint Oil and Lead Company, the South San Francisco
Lumber and Supply Company, The Corrugated Pipe Company, the Pacific
Coast Steel Company, the Pacific Car and Equipment Company, the
Federal Wireless Company, the Enterprise Foundry Company, the Meese-Gottfried
Company (site only), the Schaw-Batcher Pipe Company, the American
Marble and Mosaic Company, the Western Sand and Rock Company, the
Erickson & Peterson Machine Shop Company, the. South City Printing
Company, the Standard Oil Supply Company, the South San Francisco
Water Works Company, the Prest-o-Lite Company, the Wihls
Manufacturing Company, the Metallic Antimony Company, the Carson
Chemical Company, the Union Ice Company, the Fuel Oil Supply
Company, the Studebaker Service Company, the Union Stockyards
Company, the South San Francisco Glue Works Company, the South San
Francisco Wool Pullery Company, the South San Francisco Soap Works
Company, the W. P. Fuller Varnish Works Company and the American
Barium Company.
The only bonded indebtedness incurred is the $62,000
sewer bonds and a small additional sum still due on the second issue
of schoolhouse bonds.
South San Francisco has cheap fuel oil, gas and
electricity for power and light. It has a local supply of pure
water, abundant for all uses. It has a belt line railroad covering
its entire water front and manufacturing district, operated for the
benefit of its factories and connecting them with the main line bay
shore railroad.
Of its many operating industries, ten are rated at a
million or more.
It receives and forwards annually more than half a
billion pounds of freight over the Southern Pacific Railroad alone,
which means an average of thirty-five carloads per day of twenty
tons per car. This does not include the water and automobile truck
freights.
It has a well organized, clean municipal government.
With all its improvements its tax rate is among the
lowest of the cities of the state.
Over 50 per cent- of its dwelling houses are owned by the occupants,
and of these nine-tenths are workingmen. It is best of all a "pay
roll" city, where an average of $100,000 per month is paid out as
wages every month of the year.
In 1908 the belt railroad was built, having a length of
seven miles circling the water front, covering the factory district,
and connecting at both ends of the half circle with the Southern
Pacific Company's railroad, but owned and controlled by the Land and
Improvement Company.
On September 3, 1908, South San Francisco was incorporated as a city
of the sixth class, and the following named citizens were chosen as
city officials: Trustees Harry Edwards, Andrew Hynding. Thomas L.
Hickey, Daniel McSweeney, and Herman Gaerdes; clerk, Thomas Mason;
treasurer, C. L, Kaufmann, and marshal, Henry Kneese.
Since the incorporation of the city, there have been
completed twenty-one miles of concrete sidewalks and eight and
.one-half miles of paved streets.
The Bank of South San Francisco was incorporated and
opened for business July 15, 1905, with a paid up capital of
$50,000.
The electric railway from Holy Cross to the factory
water front was completed in 1913.
South San Francisco has a fine hotel, Carnegie library, a
progressive newspaper, a primary, grammar and high school, and a
well equipped hospital. There are three churches, Grace Episcopal,
Catholic and Methodist Episcopal Church.
There is a well organized Chamber of Commerce of which
Mr. E. Woodman is the Secretary Manager. Much of the development of
this part of the, a peninsula is due to the activity of this body.
South San Francisco is served by the Southern Pacific
and the United Railroads. It is located 9 miles from the Southern
Pacific's Third and Townsend Street Depot, San Francisco. The local
railroad between South San Francisco and Holy Cross, connects with
the United Railroads. The Bay Shore Highway from San Francisco, by
way of Railroad Avenue and San Bruno Avenue, passes through South
San Francisco, and connects with the State Highway at Uncle Tom's
Cabin in San Bruno.
The estimated population is 3,500.
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