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Adam S. Eterovich

San Francisco

SPAGHETTI KING

Caesar Splivalo: He was born in November of 1849. He attended Santa Clara College 1858 - 1865. He became associated with the California Flour and Grist Mill in San Francisco founded in 1854 and in 1877 he took over the complete ownership of the mill, renaming it the Yosemite Flour Mills (this was from Beatrice Splivalo Shoemaker's notes (his daughter) July 1, 1948). An invoice of C.R. Splivalo and Company dated August 23, 1886 lists his company at 321 Sacramento Street under the name California Italian Paste Company. His estate in 1913 included a two story residence at 2756 Vallejo Street in San Francisco and land adjoining the home; 58 acres in San Mateo County known as the Belmont Terrace; and 538 acres in San Mateo County known as the Splivalo Ranch. He was known as the Spaghetti King. His home was at the end of Ralston Avenue in Belmont. His children were Adrian born 1880, Beatrice born 1879 and Raymond born 1883. His family came from Viganj, Dalmatia, Croatia.

COCONUT KING

Luke George Sresovich was born in Lopud, Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1850. His father was an architect and ship builder by profession. In 1866 he bade farewell to home and came to the new world in search of fortune. He remained in New York for a short time, and then took passage for California in the ship Andrew Jackson, arriving in San Francisco in 1867. He became a student at Santa Clara College. After the completion of his education he entered a large commission house, that of his uncle, John Ivancovich, as a shipping clerk. In 1870 he went into the wholesale fruit business on his own account on Sansome street. Early in the “seventies” heavy consignments of coconuts from Tahiti and other South Sea Islands were made to the San Francisco market, which was often overstocked, when the coconuts had to be thrown into the bay. Mr. Sresovich attempted to save the nuts by a drying process. Today his “Pioneer brand” of desiccated coconut is claimed to be the best in the world. It has taken the medals and premiums at all our State Fairs and exhibitions. At the World’s Exposition, at New Orleans, it was awarded a diploma; it also gained a medal at the Oregon state fair. His great fruit ranch at Byron is among the noted ones of the State, and will excel them all in certain varieties. He has also a large packing and drying establishment at San Jose. He also carries on a steady export trade with the South Sea Islands and Australia. Eighteen years ago he opened up a market for our fruit to Australia, Mexico, China and other remote countries. At the present time the yearly shipments to foreign parts aggregate over 200,000 cases. This is all the more gratifying from the fact that when the shipping of fruit to Sydney, Dunedin and Christchurch was first started, eighteen years ago, a very discouraging letter were received, stating that there was no market. The Australian fruit trade was grown to such dimensions that the steamers had to refuse large consignments in 1888 as they could not accommodate more that 16,000 to 20,000 cases by each boat. Mr. Sresovich is largely interested in the banana trade between the Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco. He has made contracts in Honolulu to raise and ship to this port large quantities of the luscious fruit. Five years ago the trade was less than one tenth of what it is now. He has also pushed the sale of fruits raised at Watsonville, San Jose, San Pablo and Soquel, by establishing packing houses in each town and transporting their products to other markets. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity, and is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Austrian Benevolent Society and the Croatian Slavonian Illyric Society. Some 15 years ago he married the daughter of a prominent farmer, who has blessed him with three children- one daughter, Evelyn, and two sons, George L. and Byron L., aged five and one year respectively.

PICKLE KING

Joe Vlasic: The industrial center of Los Angeles is named, aptly enough, City of Industry, California. Were it not for the palm trees and the age of its modern buildings, it looks very much like any other industrial center in America. It is the home of every conceivable type of manufacturing and distribution from pickles to torque wrenches. The Croatian mark can be found on virtually every type of manufactured goods and in nearly every service in California industry. The world’s largest pickle processor is Vlasic Foods which sells more of the product than its next three competitors combined. Vlasic Foods can hardly be called a solely California enterprise, for it has plants in Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Delaware and City of Industry, California. But there is no question that it is a Croatian enterprise. The founder of the company, Joe Vlasic, arrived in the United States as a boy in 1914. His father was a cheese maker and Joe followed in his footsteps, at first working in the family business and eventually purchasing his own milk and cream route. As his distributorship grew, he began to market margarine under his own label, Vlasco. The line expanded to a number of dairy products and relishes and by 1935 Joe Vlasic had his own building in Detroit. In 1942 he purchased the first order of twenty-five cases of pickles. During the post-war period Vlasic acquired one company after another controlling mid-western distribution of a wide range of food products. In 1959 a separate company was formed solely for the production of pickles. Under the direction of Robert Vlasic, a 1949 graduate of the University of Michigan, the company reversed years of diversification for consolidation. at the peak of its market and profit scale, the Vlasic Dairy Company was sold to Borden in 1963. Two years later Vlasic Foods Distribution company was sold to Continental Coffee. by 1970 Vlasic Foods was “the pickle company”, dealing in over one hundred varieties of pickles and peppers. As the multi million dollar empire spread nation-wide. Vlasic Foods acquired Early California Foods of Los Angeles in 1976. The City of Industry plant now employs over two hundred regular employees and nearly double that number at peak packing times.