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Pacific American Fisheries Records, 1875-1994

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.; Huntoon, Bert W., -- 1869-1947.; Hube, George E.; Biery, Galen.
Title
Pacific American Fisheries Records
Dates
1875-1994 (inclusive)
1899-1967 (bulk)
Quantity
132 linear ft., (173 boxes, 22 folders, 46 rolled documents)
Collection Number
XOE_CPNWS0021paf
Summary
The collection documents the interests and activities of Pacific American Fisheries, Inc (PAF), one of the largest processors of Pacific Salmon in the world. PAF conducted salmon canning operations on Puget Sound and in Alaska between 1899 and 1965, with headquarters located in Bellingham, Washington. The collection spans the period 1875 – 1994, and includes corporate and administrative records, correspondence, financial, property, engineering and operational records, and also fish supply records, shipping records and a large body of reference material. The collection also contains the records of affiliated and subsidiary companies including Deming and Gould, Hoonah Packing Company and the Pacific Packing and Navigation Company, as well as personal papers of former employees including Galen Biery, George Hube and Bert Huntoon.
Repository
Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Goltz-Murray Archives Building
808 25th St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
Telephone: (360) 650-7534
cpnws@wwu.edu
Access Restrictions

A small number of personnel records are restricted until further notice (see inventory for specific folder and volume numbers). The remainder of the collection is open to the public.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding the finding aid was awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Pacific American Fisheries, Inc., one of the world's major salmon canning operations, operated on Puget Sound and in Alaska between 1899 and 1965, with headquarters in Bellingham, Washington. As one of the world's largest processors of Pacific salmon, PAF claimed a global market and had operations of regional, national, and even international significance. PAF contributed many significant innovations to the development of the industry, including floating canneries, mechanized salmon processing and ship building. As PAF flourished in the early twentieth century, the center of Pacific salmon canning moved north from the Columbia River and Puget Sound to Alaska as the company opened new canneries to exploit the untapped and less regulated resources of British Columbia and remote districts of Alaska. The company's fortunes declined from the 1930s onwards, affected by the abolition of fish traps, uncertain salmon supplies, and corporate changes that transfered directorial power to individuals with no ties to the fishing industry.

In 1898, Count Roland Onffroy, a French immigrant, organized the Franco-American North Pacific Packing Company, a large salmon cannery on Fairhaven Harbor, South Bellingham Bay. The company ran into technical and financial difficulties during its first season but still managed to purchase the Wright Brothers Fishing Company in 1898. The following year, 1899, two brothers, Frank and E.B. Deming of Chicago, purchased the Franco-American plant and also the Northern Fisheries plant at Anacortes, Washington. The Deming brothers organized these companies into the Pacific American Fisheries Company. In this same year, they purchased Eliza Island in Bellingham Bay, and built a new cannery on the site. Cannery operations on Eliza Island, however, were deterred by the absence of a water supply. By 1900, Eliza Island became a shipyard to build and repair smaller vessels and fishing equipment.

The Demings retained Count Onffroy as resident manager until 1900, when E.B. Deming came to Bellingham to take over as general manager and vice-president. Onffroy, always the promoter, obtained eastern financing to organize Pacific Packing and Navigation Company (PPN) in 1901. This company consisted of more than thirty canneries on Puget Sound and in Alaska, including PAF properties. In 1903, PPN collapsed and went into receivership and Offray left the operation. In 1904, the Deming and Gould Company purchased the PAF and Northern Fisheries properties from the receiver and re-organized it into Pacific Fisheries of Maine. In 1905, PPN was dissolved, and PAF took over the remaining properties. At this point, PAF's corporate structure and management stabilized, with E.B. Deming as its president, assisted by his brother Frank, who ran the Chicago office until his death in 1916.

For the next several decades, PAF increased their holdings and expanded their territory in both Alaska and Washington. In 1906, PAF embarked on its first Alaska venture with the purchase of Alaska Fisheries Union Cannery at Chilkat Inlet, an operation that was moved to Excursion Inlet in 1908. The company attempted some early product diversification through the Drayton Harbor Oyster Company, a subsidiary which operated from about 1908 through 1911, and also established the Commercial Point Shipyard on Bellingham Bay in 1916. During this decade, the company rapidly expanded its Alaska operations, acquiring a salmon saltery at Thin Point near King Cove, canneries at Port Moller and Nelson Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula, and a small cannery at Makushin Bay near Unalaska, built at the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Encouraged by the dramatic increase in demand for salmon during World War I, PAF made further purchases in 1917. The company obtained holdings in Gambier Bay, acquiring the Hoonah canneries in Southeast Alaska, the Katalla Cannery at Bering River, and a salmon saltery at Squaw Harbor on Unga Island. The company also constructed the Ikaten cannery, which processed both cod and salmon, and acquired canneries at Herendeen Bay, Metlakatla, Ketchikan, and Port Walter. In 1925, PAF made a brief foray into British Columbia, responding to the British government's plans to limit its imports to countries within the British empire (thus eliminating PAF's most lucrative foreign market). Seeking to negate this threat, the American firm purchased a cannery from the Skeena River Packing Company in B.C. When the British government reversed its import restrictions, PAF exchanged the Skeena River Cannery for a cannery site and three fish traps at Point Roberts, Washington.

In 1928, seeking to finance another major Alaska expansion, PAF went public and listed its stock on the New York Stock Exchange, reorganizing the company under Delaware law as Pacific American Fisheries Inc. In 1935, the company floated another major stock issue, enabling acquisition of canneries at Nushagak, Naknek, Alitak, Zachar Bay, and Petersburg. These properties supplemented a lease agreement with the bankrupt Northwestern Fisheries company which provided an option to buy thirteen additional Alaska properties (acquisition of these properties was completed in 1935). In 1932, company president and sometime treasurer E.B. Deming became PAF's chairman of the board, and Archie Shiels was appointed as the new president and treasurer. Shiels had been a vice-president since 1924 and treasurer since 1928. In 1934, the aging Deming sold his controlling interest in PAF to the Chicago Corporation, a syndicate of Eastern financiers. The Demings sold their controlling interest in Deming and Gould to PAF in the following year, rendering the original company a wholly-owned subsidiary and ending the Deming's involvement in PAF operations. By 1935, the Bellingham cannery, warehouses, docks, office building and other facilities were incorporated into a subsidiary known as Bellingham Warehouse Company.

The end of the 1930s saw the closure of the Eliza Island Shipyard, and transfer of the small boat unit to the newly expanded Commercial Point Shipyard. During World War I and World War II, the shipyard was used to produce military vessels for the U.S. war effort. In 1939, company restructuring gave managerial control of operations to an executive committee of the board of directors, diminishing the control of operating officers. By 1946, when John A. Green assumed PAF's presidency, the board of directors was dominated by financiers and businessmen from San Francisco, Seattle, Alaska, and the East, none of whom had direct connections with the salmon canning business.

PAF's need for support services and product diversification led to the creation of several subsidiaries, most notably its research division. In 1950, PAF's existing research department was incorporated into the subsidiary, Pacific Laboratories, Inc, responsible for the company's patents and trademarks. Seeking further diversification, PAF acquired a controlling interest in Cedargreen Frozen Pack Corporation, which had farms and plants in the Seattle area and eastern Washington to produce and pack berries and vegetables. This operation, never very profitable, was phased out in 1961-1962. The prohibition of fish traps in Alaskan waters in 1956 signified an end to PAFs dominance in the regional fishing industry. Unable to absorb the increased cost associated with a seine and gill net fishery, the company sought to diversify by going into the king crab business. These efforts failed to generate sufficient profit to maintain operations. Stanley G. Tarrant, company president from 1956 to 1965, oversaw the final decade of PAF operations. By 1965, the PAF board was dominated by non-cannery people, unaccustomed to the cyclical and unpredictable nature of the salmon canning business. These interests took advantage of the opportunity to sell off assets and realize $30 per share of stock, most of which had been purchased at $10 per share. A few company personnel remained for a time to sell off canneries and other assets, including the Bellingham property which was sold to the Port of Bellingham in 1966, and later became the site of the Alaska Ferry Terminal. The sale of the Pacific American marked the passing of an era and the end of an industry which witnessed an immense amount of history and served to helped to define the character of the region.

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Content Description

Records in the Pacific American Fisheries Records at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies collection document the interests and activities of the company and its subsidiaries through the period 1875-1994, with the bulk of materials dated 1899-1967. Due to the diverse nature of the business, records were scattered within various company departments or PAF subsidiaries, and many remained in the possession of former employees. Employees including Galen Biery saved the history of PAF by salvaging select records when the company ordered the remainder burned upon its demise in 1965. The surviving material is sporadic its coverage of time, events and subjects. The collection spans the period 1889 to 1994, with the bulk of materials dated from 1899-1967. The collection contains three primary record series: records of Pacific American Fisheries (comprising the bulk of the collection); the records of its subsidiaries and affiliated companies; and personal papers of PAF employees including Galen Biery, George Hube, and Bert Huntoon.

PAF materials comprise corporate and administrative records, correspondence, financial, property, engineering and operational records, and also fish supply records, shipping records and a large body of reference material. Although incomplete, corporate records provide a brief overview of PAF's organizational structure and operations from the mid-1930s through the 1960s, through incorporation papers, stock records, and annual reports. The Secretary's Administrative Files, generated by Beatrice Anderson between 1947 and 1967, also document many of the company's daily activities and operations during the 1950s and 1960s. Anderson's records include subject and resource files, and contain a set of navigational and radio code books used by PAF fishing vessels and canneries. Company correspondence dated 1899-1965 is separated into internal and external correspondence, arranged alphabetically by subject and correspondence. Internal correspondence documents many of PAFs operational activities (including its cannery operations) while external correspondence reflects the company's daily dealings and transactions with businesses and individuals on a local and regional level. The collection contains only a small number of financial records. Financial materials include account statements, journals and ledgers, financial statements, and invoices documenting the expenditures and income of PAF. Although invoices date from 1900-1906, the bulk of the financial records span the period 1917 through the 1960s.

Property records comprise a valuable source of information about PAFs holdings in the Puget Sound and Alaska. Property records include maps, surveys, legal agreements and correspondence relating to PAFs ownership and sale of lands. The collection also contains survey files and tideland applications pertaining to property in Alaska. Researchers should note that the collection's reference materials contains a large number of maps which further document PAF's property holdings and interests. Engineering records comprise a valuable source of information regarding PAF designs and patents for fishing and canning equipment, and reflect many of the technological changes affecting the fishing and canning industry during the twentieth century. Records include Survey Department records generated by PAF employee B.W. Huntoon, and a large number of engineering drawings and plans for PAF canneries, equipment and vessels, many of which were drawn and maintained by G.E. Hube.

Operation records include PAF's fishing and custom canning agreements with other companies, production records, including packing reports, quality control, some personnel and payroll records, and equipment and supply purchases. A particularly valuable series of records are those generated by the research department, which the company created after World War II to assist in the diversification of its product lines. The department was incorporated into a wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Laboratories, Inc. in 1950. The records of this department include correspondence, bulletins, reports and subject files covering many important activities and innovations in the industry, including files relating to a fish leather venture in the late 1940s. PAF's fishing operations are further documented in Fish Supply records, which comprise fishing agreements, trap records and location maps, statistics, licenses and applications, and a large section of trap files. Besides documenting the location and licencing of PAF traps, the records contain catch statistics for salmon and crab, correspondence regarding the proposed elimination of fish traps, and articles concerning Japanese encroachments on fishing territory in the North Pacific. Researchers should note that the reference section of the PAF collection also contains numerous plats of fish traps and fish trap locations – these are described individually in the PAF map catalog. Ships and Shippings records meanwhile contain a small number of logbooks and operational records of various company owned vessels.

The reference series contains source material documenting the background and history of Pacific American Fisheries and the major changes affecting the fishing industry from the turn of the twentieth century through the late 1960s. Company and Industry History files include manuscripts, articles and interviews regarding PAF and its fisheries which were gathered by long-term employee and local historian Galen Biery. Superintendent's Reference Files contain company-maintained reports, bulletins and regulations (dated ca. 1924-1966) issued by government bodies such as the Alaska Department of Game and Fish and the US. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as industrial organizations including the National Canners' Association. Publications include copies of PAF's company magazine, The Shield, and newsletter, PAFISCO News, and other industry-related articles, bulletins, pamphlets and journals. The collection contains copies of the Pacific Fisherman journal and annuals dated 1908-1966. Reference files also include photographs depicting employees, canneries and plants, vessels and products, and significant number of maps documenting areas and property in the Puget Sound and Alaska, PAF fisheries and fish traps, navigation maps and plats of PAF canneries and properties. Maps are described individually in the Center's map database.

The collection also contains the records of affiliated and subsidiary companies including Deming and Gould, Hoonah Packing Company and the Pacific Packing and Navigation Company. Spanning the period 1898-1964, these records are arranged alphabetically by name of company, and are primarily corporate and financial materials with some correspondence. The Deming brothers were stockholders in many of these companies prior to their being bought out by Pacific American Fisheries. The final record series contains a small number of personal papers of former PAF employees including Beatrice Anderson, Galen Biery, the Demings, George Hube and Bert Huntoon.

This valuable collection documents the rise and fall of the fishing industry, the proliferation of fish traps and canneries into new and uncharted locations, the consolidation of the industry into a streamlined operation from fish harvest to final marketing, the increasingly mechanized approach to these operations, labor relations (particularly in relation to Chinese, Japanese and Native American labor sources), women's work, the exploitation of salmon, king crab and other commodities, government involvement in the fishing industry, subsequent labor and fishing regulations, international agreements and the effect of these laws on the industry as a whole.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Pacific American Fisheries Records, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is organized in accordance with the following series and sub-series arrangement:

  • Series I. Pacific American Fisheries Records 1875-1994
    • Sub-series 1. Corporate records 1907-1966
    • Sub-series 2. Secretary's administrative records 1929-1967
    • Sub-series 3. Correspondence 1899-1965
    • Sub-series 4. Financial Records 1899-1974
    • Sub-series 5. Property Records 1875-1967
    • Sub-series 6. Engineering records 1888-1971
    • Sub-series 7. Operations 1900-1965
    • Sub-series 8. Fish Supply Records 1913-1965
    • Sub-series 9. Ships and Shipping Records 1918-1964
    • Sub-series 10. Reference Material 1896-1994
  • Series II. Subsidiary Companies of PAF 1898-1964
    • Sub-series 1 : Alitak Fish Company 1956
    • Sub-series 2: Annette Island Packing Company 1917-1926
    • Sub-series 3: Booth Fisheries Company 1911-1932
    • Sub-series 4: Cedargreen Frozen Packaging Company 1930-1961
    • Sub-series 5: Deep Sea Fishing Company 1899-1933
    • Sub-series 6: Deming and Gould 1900-1964
    • Sub-series 7: Drayton Harbor Oyster Company 1908-1911
    • Sub-series 8: Friday Harbor Packing Company 1908-1936
    • Sub-series 9: Hoonah Packing Company 1911-1915
    • Sub-series 10: Metlakatla 1918-1919
    • Sub-series 11: Northern Fisheries Company 1904-1905
    • Sub-series 12: Pacific Cordage Company of Washington 1926-1928
    • Sub-series 12: Pacific Packing and Navigation Company 1900-1906 (bulk 1901-1903)
    • Sub-series 13: Spring and Humpback Fish Company 1900-1933
    • Sub-series 14: Wright Brothers Fishing Company 1898-1900
  • Series III. Personal Papers of Company Employees 1889-1976

Acquisition Information

The Pacific American Fisheries records comprise several donations of archival material. Mrs G.E. Hube, widow of the PAF engineer and vice-president donated the first group of records to the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies in 1980. In 1981, Walter Green, brother of former PAF president Jack Green, donated a series of PAF annual reports to the Center. Cornerstone Columbia Development Company also donated a small number of financial records to the Center in November 1988.

Long-term PAF employee Galen Biery salvaged a significant body of PAF records. After PAF's closure in 1965, Biery rescued select company records before the remainder were piled in a parking lot and burned. He donated a small quantity of records from the PAF research department to the Center. The Biery family donated the remaining records to the Center in September 1995, following Galen Biery's death. Other materials escaping destruction included approximately 20 feet of company fish trap records and property records, discovered in a former PAF warehouse used by Western Washington University in the late 1970s.

Whatcom Museum of History and Art transferred a series of PAF engineering drawings and G.E. Hube's technical library to the Center in May 1995, and transferred additional Hube material in June 2001. In July 2001, the Bruce Methlin transferred administrative files generated by PAF secretary Beatrice Anderson to the Center. In December 2003, Fairhaven resident and local historian Gordon Tweit donated materials including financial records, maps and engineering drawings generated by PAF and its affiliate and subsidiary companies.

Processing Note

Initial efforts to process the collection were haphazard and incomplete. Galen Biery, a longtime PAF employee and well known Bellingham historian, helped arrange materials donated by Mrs. Hube. August Radke, former member of the WWU history faculty also helped to identify various records and series. In 2000, Tamma Farra, a graduate student in the WWU archives and records management program, processed the entire collection as it then existed, completing work initiated by graduate student Sharon Howe. In 2002, Lisa Cohen merged the administrative records of Beatrice Anderson, former PAF secretary, into the collection. In 2004, Ruth Steele and Amber Raney re-engineered the PAF collection and its finding aid, with assistance from Rainbow Koehl, integrating materials that Gordon Tweit donated to the Center in December 2003.

Processing Note

To learn more about problematic content in our collections, collection description and teaching tools (including how to provide feedback or request dialogue on this topic), see the following Statement About Potentially Harmful Language and Content.

Bibliography

Radke, August Carl. Pacific American Fisheries, Inc. : a history of a Washington State salmon packing company, 1890-1966. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Fisheries--Alaska--History--Maps.
  • Fisheries--Alaska--History--Photographs.
  • Fisheries--Alaska--History--Sources.
  • Fisheries--Pacific States--History--Maps.
  • Fisheries--Pacific States--History--Photographs.
  • Fisheries--Pacific States--History--Sources.
  • Fisheries--United States--History--Sources.
  • Salmon canning industry--Alaska--History--Maps.
  • Salmon canning industry--Alaska--History--Photographs.
  • Salmon canning industry--Alaska--History--Sources.
  • Salmon canning industry--Pacific States--History--Maps.
  • Salmon canning industry--Pacific States--History--Photographs.
  • Salmon canning industry--Pacific States--History--Sources.
  • Salmon industry--United States--History--Sources.

Corporate Names

  • Deming and Gould.
  • Hoonah Packing Company.
  • Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.--Archives.
  • Pacific Packing and Navigation Company.

Form or Genre Terms

  • Maps.
  • Records (Documents)

Original Finding Aid prepared by Tamma Farra, with revisions by Ruth Steele.
2004

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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