We lost a great benefactor to our community when Faith Davies died in 1996 at age 91. Not only was she one of the most generous people, she witnessed and was intimately connected with the growth of the largest and most important business in our pre-Silicon Valley, the Food Machinery Company, or FMC.
When James Lick (1796-1876) brought trees from all over the world to his estate and mill in the Agnew area, he inadvertently brought a pest from China that invaded all of the fruit orchards in the Valley of Hearts Delight. Faith’s great uncle, John Bean, invented a chemical sprayer to kill the scale pest.
Bean then created The Bean Spray and Pump Company to manufacture the product. While the farmers needed the sprayer, the company needed a salesman. Bean’s nephew was a young vigorous Los Gatan, John Crummey. He would start out each morning riding his bicycle with a Bean Spray Pump strapped to his back, stopping at every farmhouse between San Jose and Gilroy. He sold a lot of pumps and showed great promise. Bean soon advanced Crummey to head his company.
Adjacent to the sprayer plant on Julian Street was the Anderson Barngrover Manufacturing Plant, known principally for its Anderson Prune Dipper and fruit processing equipment.
In 1928 the two firms were merged together to become the Food Machinery Company. It soon became the largest employer in San Jose, and then a nationwide concern. Berkeley banker Paul Davies was hired to handle the merger of the two companies. Davies married one of the Crummey’s three daughters, Faith. He eventually took over the reins as president and expanded the business to be worldwide. Its products added chemicals and military equipment for World War II, notably fire trucks and amphibious landing craft. (A not-much published story was about the demonstration of the amphibian to the military at Anderson reservoir – upon launching, it sank out of sight, drowning all aboard. The fault was corrected and thousands of amphibians landed marines and soldiers on the pacific atoll beaches.)
But Faith Davies was a very special quiet person. My then wife, Naomi, first met her when they were volunteering together at the San Jose Day Nursery. Mrs. Davies gave to almost every legitimate nonprofit agency in the Valley and never sought credit for her good deed, vigorously avoiding any recognition.
In later life she had trouble with her eyesight, making reading very difficult. In her final years I would occasionally bring books-on-tape to her at her home on University Ave. When she found out that I lived on a part of the property where she and Paul lived while awaiting construction of their home, she told me a good story. The Davies lived there in the late 1930s, and their rented house was on the corner of Morse and Fremont Streets. Hospitable people, they invited the owners of the house, two spinster sisters, for cocktails to become better acquainted. After Paul took each order, he retired to the kitchen bar to prepare the drinks. Immediately Faith joined him and cautioned him not to make the drinks too strong for the women were quite elderly.
When the drinks were served, one of the ladies took one sip of her drink, put it down without a word, and did not touch it again until everyone else was finished. Paul noticed this and asked if he could bring her something else, perhaps something non-alcoholic. She replied, “You can bring me another, but this time put some whiskey in it!”
Leonard, having grown up just a couple of blocks from Faith’s house on University and the Crummey’s on Park at University (best Halloween scores ever), it would be great to see you write something on the development of that stretch of University. There have been poorly researched fluff pieces run by the Merc in the past, but it would be nice to hear about it from a true historian. Just a suggestion for a future piece.
A very interesting read, but it seems a lot of details were omitted. For instance, we are told that John Bean invented a chemical sprayer, but not a word was said about any self-esteem workshops or public assistance programs that might have helped him on his way. Are we supposed to believe that Bean simply saw a problem and ingeniously turned it into an opportunity? How are readers brought up to see themselves as government dependents supposed to digest the story of a self-reliant man? Tell me, how are we compassion-conditioned readers supposed to see this as a human interest story when it lacks a single hardship, persecution, or social unfairness tug? Are you sure there wasn’t at least one “you’ll never amount to anything” school official in John Bean’s childhood?
About the Bean Spray and Pump Company we are told none of the information we now know is critical when evaluating a local business. For instance, how did the company demonstrate its civic spirit, its compassion for the needy, its outreach to the unskilled and unaccomplished. Are we supposed to consider Bean Spray and Pump a success simply because it survived and prospered? Aren’t we supposed to expect something more than jobs, goods, and services from our business community?
What kind of health plan protected John Crummey on those torturously long bicycle rides? Was his bike outfitted with proper safety equipment, an ergonomic seat, and impact-resistant handlebars? Remember, this was a time before paved roads and pneumatic tires. Oh, the carpal tunnel pain he must have suffered! I hope it didn’t keep him from filling out the many forms necessary to collect Worker’s Compensation.
That Crummey went on to take the reigns of the firm is not surprising. Obviously, Bean Spray and Pump was under no obligation to recruit from underrepresented classes or help rectify past injustices. So I ask: how were others supposed to better themselves if the men of achievement refused to give them something. Start at the bottom, work hard, and prosper: that seems to pretty much sum up the Bean company’s shameful creed. Definitely a dark time in America’s history.
I’m so glad we now know better.
Frustrated finfan, you can be such a jerk, overbearing and crass.
It just happens that in 1962 upon my discharge form the US Navy. There were no jobs to be had, there was no unemployment insurance moneys available for discharged Navy personel, NADA.
I got a job at John Bean, Division of FMC. I was able to learn enough about casting that I recieved my Journeymans Card while there, Ignacio De Lafuente was the Union Rep., now soon to be Oaklands new Mayor.
Granted, FMC never was good at building anything that floats. They were not boat builders.
I left FMC when I got married, never to return. Lay offs during holiday never were accepted as cool.
Non the less John Bean was an employer in our valley. I look back and see that many of our corporation, pre Dot Com Dot Gon, were here and contributed to our economy.
With out the knowledge I acquired at John Bean I might not have been able to develope the wave guides for HP and the special castings for Ames NASA and The Schutle Craft.
You are very prolific, yet you are very insecure about your face.
I was able to change my community because I simply changed myself. Try it you’ll like it.
Leonard, I truly appreciate all that you have gathered thru your life time. I look forward to more of your sharing with us.
In this our valley of Hearts delight, we are still the rulers of our Valley. Politicans come and go as do Egos. The Priest of our past are always welcomed into our lives. Remind us and we will follow.
The Village Black Smith