[DIV class=feed_details] [H4]Amazing, I didnt realize that Rogers sugar was from here. [/H4] Interesting Link: [A href="vny!://www.vancouverhistory.ca/"]vny!://www.vancouverhistory.ca/[/A]
[H4] [/H4] [H4] [/H4] [H4][A href="vny!://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=a2dedf24-20d8-42c5-a845-ecb41c26802c"]vny!://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=a2dedf24-20d8-42c5-a845-ecb41c26802c[/A][/H4] [H4]116 years ago today[/H4] [H4]Chuck Davis, Vancouver Sun[/H4]Published: Monday, January 29, 2007
[DIV class=para12 id=article] Just two weeks after B.T. Rogers oversaw the first production of sugar at his brand-new plant on the Vancouver waterfront, he proudly guided a number of local notables through the place.
That tour happened January 29, 1891 -- 116 years ago today -- and the Vancouver Daily World gave it extensive coverage.
The "prominent citizens" on that tour included just about everybody who was anybody in the not-quite-five-year-old city. Mayor David Oppenheimer led the party, which included six aldermen, CPR officials, the U.S. consul, bank managers and others.
Benjamin Tingley Rogers had performed an extraordinary feat. At age 24, this ambitious Philadelphia-born man had persuaded Vancouver city council to give him a $30,000 subsidy to build his refinery.
Rogers' father, Samuel, was a professional sugar maker and B.T. had learned the trade early. When he discovered that Canada was building a railway to the Pacific, putting it in easy reach of the Philippines -- source of most of North America's sugar at the time -- he acted quickly.
The story is told, thoroughly and colourfully, in John Schreiner's 1989 book, The Refiners. Incidentally, the first sugar produced was purchased by Mayor Oppenheimer for his Oppenheimer Brothers wholesale food firm.
Both companies are still around.
For more local history: www.vancouverhistory.ca
[DIV align=center]© The Vancouver Sun 2007[/DIV][/DIV]
