San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1607
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 4/10/2010
MANTECA CREAM AND BUTTER COMPANY
Among the enterprising business concerns of San Joaquin County is the Manteca Cream and Butter Company, owned by Chris Christiansen, Floyd Richards, Peter Christiansen, and Theodore Larsen, who, by their intelligent industry, have contributed largely to the development of this section. Even before they located at Manteca the four partners had long years of valuable experience in the same field, so that their subsequent success and present prosperity are not at all surprising.
The original plant was organized in 1896 by a group of local farmers, and was conducted as a kind of skimming station, to which the neighboring ranchers were accustomed to bring their milk. For about fifteen years the station was known as Cowell's Switch, and this plant was the chief source of revenue to the ranchers, who conducted dairies and sold the cream. Following this, a small butter business was gradually being developed, and after 1918, manufacturing was carried on extensively. As a result of both natural growth and the excellent management afforded by the gentlemen named above, the well-equipped plant is now turning out seven times the volume it produced in 1918. To better facilitate the work, the company has recently added new and modern machines, and will soon be compelled to enlarge again. Manteca Butter, the copyrighted trademark, is known far and wide in the central part of the state. The company employ four men and two women, and are turning out 18,000 pounds of butter per week, necessitating a fast fleet of four trucks, continually on the go, collecting milk twice a day from the ranchers.
The two Christiansen brothers were born in the village of Fjeldso, Denmark, where they received an excellent common schooling, and in the middle of their teens took up the butter-making trade. Chris Christiansen came out to America in 1912, and located at first at San Jose; but three weeks later he established himself in the creamery trade at Bakersfield, where he remained for three years, and to that town, in 1914, his brother Peter followed. Chris is married, and has a wife and two children; and he maintains a residence in Manteca. Floyd Richards was born at Rivana, Kans., and came West to California as a young man, in 1896. He has been identified with the butter trade of this county as an expert, operating also in Kern County for over seven years; and he was associated with the Christiansen brothers prior to their removing to this county. Mr. Richards also lived in San Diego County still earlier—before migrating to San Joaquin and Kern counties; he is married and lives at Manteca. Mr. Larsen is a native of Denmark, and came to America in 1890, when he was twenty-five years old. He went to Phillips, S.D., where he became prominent as an extensive stock-breeder. In 1918 he came to Manteca and he has recently associated himself with the company.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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