Development of the Beet-Sugar Industry 17 



industry, and in 1852 purchased from Faucett, Preston, 

 and Company of Liverpool, for $12,500, a complete outfit 

 of machinery for making beet-sugar. This arrived at 

 New Orleans in April, 1852, from where it was taken on 

 another boat to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It took 

 fifty-two ox teams four months to haul the machinery 

 from Fort Leavenworth to Provo, Utah, where it had 

 been decided to erect the factory. Five hundred bushels 

 of beet seed came with the machinery. The Deseret 

 Manufacturing Company, the corporation that was pro- 

 moting the industry, was unable to carry it on because 

 of the many unexpected expenses. The machinery was, 

 therefore, purchased by the Mormon Church and moved 

 to Salt Lake City, where it was installed in an adobe build- 

 ing at Sugar House Ward, where additional machinery was 

 received in 1853. On account of the difficulty that was 

 experienced in getting sugar to crystallize, sirup only 

 was made and the project was finally abandoned in 1855. 

 In 1864 the Gennett Brothers, Germans living in New 

 York, became interested in the beet-sugar industry. One 

 of them went to Europe to study the conditions on that 

 continent. On his return, 2300 acres of prairie land 

 were purchased at Chatsworth, Illinois, and the Germania 

 Beet Sugar Company was organized with a capital of 

 $200,000. The mill had a capacity of fifty tons a day, 

 but it was able to extract only a small part of the sugar 

 from the beets. In 1866, 4000 tons of beets were raised 

 on 400 acres. A series of unfavorable years induced the 

 company to move the plant, first to Freeport, Illinois, 

 and later to Black Hawk, Wisconsin, but it was never a 

 success. Some of the machinery was finally taken to 



