Letter from Joshua Coffin Chase to Sydney Octavius Chase (January 18, 1924)

Letter from Joshua Coffin Chase to Sydney Octavius Chase (January 18, 1924)

Chase Correspondence (January 18, 1924)

Windermere (Fla.)

Chase, Sydney Octavius, 1860-1941

Chase, Joshua Coffin, 1858-1948

Citrus fruit industry--Florida

Citrus--Florida

Chase and Company (Sanford, Fla.)

Orange industry--Florida

Oranges--Florida

Grapefruit industry

Grapefruit

Tangerine industry

Tangerine

An original letter of correspondence between brothers and business partners Joshua Coffin Chase and Sydney Octavius Chase. Topics discussed in the letter include operations on pineapple oranges at Isleworth Grove, fruit dealers' formation of a buyers' combination to buy fruit at lower prices, a shipment for grapefruit, and the spread of previously thinned-out tangerine trees.

Chase & Company was established by brothers Sydney Octavius Chase and Joshua Coffin Chase in 1884. The company sold insurance and later invested in storage facilities and fertilizer sales. Chase & Company was known mainly for its agricultural interests and maintained a series of citrus groves throughout Central Florida. The company was based out of Sanford and became one of the city's largest employers into the early twentieth century. By 1886, the Chase brothers purchased several citrus groves to expand their business, including Isleworth Grove in Windermere, Florida. Isleworth Grove covered a total of 1,300 acres along the Butler Chain of Lakes. Between 1894 and 1895, Central Florida was hit by several freezes and most of the citrus crop was destroyed. Chase & Company did not grow citrus crops again until 1904 when Joshua came back from an extended stay in California. Between 1894 and 1900, different types of pesticide equipment was created, including equipment driven by steam, machines, and horses.Randall Chase joined in the family business soon after his brother, Sydney Chase, Jr., did in 1922. Randall became the president of Chase & Company from 1948-1965. The Isleworth property stayed in the Chase family until 1984 when Franklin Chase, the son of Sydney Chase, sold the property to famed golfer Arnold Palmer.

Chase, Joshua Coffin

Original letter from Joshua Coffin Chase to Sydney Octavius Chase, January 18, 1924: box 49, folder 20.84, Chase Collection (MS 14), Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

1924-01-28

Digital reproduction of original letter from Joshua Coffin Chase to Sydney Octavius Chase, January 18, 1924.

Chase Collection (MS 14), box 49, folder 20.84, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Isleworth Collection, Citrus Collection, Chase Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.

Folder referenced in Chase Collection finding guide, http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pkyonge/chase.htm.

image/jpg

184 KB

1-page typewritten letter

eng

Text

Isleworth Grove, Windermere, Florida

Chase & Company Office, Sanford, Florida

Donation

History Teacher

Economics Teacher

Geography Teacher

Entire Chase Collection is comprised of four separate accessions from various donors, including Cecilia Johnson, the granddaughter of Joshua Coffin Chase, and the children of Randall Chase.

The displayed collection item is housed at Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Rights to this item belong to the said institution, and therefore inquiries about the item should be directed there. RICHES of Central Florida has obtained permission from Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida to display this item for educational purposes only.

Special and Area Studies Collections, University of Florida

Digital Collections (UFDC), University of Florida

Cepero, Laura

University of Florida, Special and Area Studies Collections

Warner, S.C. "Development of Marketing Citrus Fruits in Florida." Florida State Horticultural Society vol. 36 (1923): 198-200.

Hopkins, James T. Fifty Years of Citrus, the Florida Citrus Exchange: 1909-1959. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press: 1960.

"Joshua Coffin Chase (1858-1948)." Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Copyright 2012. http://floridacitrushalloffame.com/index.php/inductees/inductee-name/?ref_cID=89&bID=0&dd_asId=960.

"Sydney Chase Sr. (1860-1941)." Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Copyright 2012. http://floridacitrushalloffame.com/index.php/inductees/inductee-name/?ref_cID=89&bID=0&dd_asId=600.

Jan 18 1924

Mr. S. O. Chase,
Sanford, Florida.

Dear Syd:

ISLEWORTH: This will acknowledge receipt of yours of the 17th written after a visit to Isleworth. Note that the Pineapple Oranges are dropping extensively and you have instructed Browne to begin operations. It is barely possible that Pineapple Oranges shipped next week billed directly to New York will realize as much money as if we attempted to handle them in any other way.

The jam is still on. The dealers are banded together in a buyers' combination to steal the fruit at just as small a price as possible. Awfully sorry the weather conditions have been against the fruit holding on.

Note that you have instructed Browne to pick a couple of cars of grapefruit for shipment on Saturday provided weather conditions are right. Understood you to say over the telephone today that it was raining at Sanford.

Note that some of the tangerine trees that were thinned out two years ago and had plenty of spread to the branches picked as high as 22 field crates of tangerines. At this rate of increase there will be very little falling off in the number of boxes of tangerines we will move from Isleworth under the tree-moving program you have instituted.

Yours very truly,

JCC/FS

1-page typewritten letter