The Adaptable Wagner Corporation
BY JUDI HACHMAN
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Adaptability. That’s Stockton’s Wagner Corporation. Starting in1856 as the Pacific Tannery, it is known today as Pacific Storage Company.
Lured to California by the Gold Rush, brothers Charles and Jacob Wagner reverted to their traditional German trade and opened a leather tannery at the head of McLeod Lake in Stockton. At that time leather goods were not just desirable luxuries; they were necessities. The need for harnesses, boots and sturdy shoes was critical to the mining economy of central California.
The Wagner brothers brought tan bark from their coastal oak forests up the San Joaquin River and unloaded it at their business at the block bounded by El Dorado, Oak, Fremont and Hunter Streets in Stockton. In Humboldt County foresters had peeled the bark, dried it and ground it into chips. They leached out the tannins to produce tannic acid, a key component in the leather tanning process. The acid was then concentrated and shipped to Stockton in 50-gallon barrels. By 1880 the company was producing over 1,500 hides a month.
In 1865 the brothers formally organized their business as Wagner Brothers. Over the years, they took on financial partners and expanded their property holdings and increased tanning capacity. The company changed formal names several times, but it was always under the leadership of the Wagner family.
With a reputation for producing superior leather articles, Wagner tannery sent large shipments by train to the east coast for assembly into shoes, harnesses and other goods.
The combustible wooden structures of the buildings, coupled with boiling vats of acids and tanning solutions, produced a constant fire danger. The Tannery was plagued by fires in 1867, 1871, 1875, and again in 1918.
In the early part of the 1900s it became unprofitable to send leather goods to the east coast and foreign countries. With its offensive odors, the tannery in the heart of growing
Stockton was no longer desirable, and it ceased operation at the end of 1928.
With such a valuable piece of property, the end of the tannery business was the beginning of the enterprise we know today as the Pacific Storage Company. Using the large space once occupied by the tannery, and with a view toward the future prosperity of Stockton, the Wagner family converted their business into commodity storage. After its initial stages as general warehousing, the Pacific Storage company became agents for Bekins Moving and Storage. Today it has facilities in five northern California communities.
Lured to California by the Gold Rush, brothers Charles and Jacob Wagner reverted to their traditional German trade and opened a leather tannery at the head of McLeod Lake in Stockton. At that time leather goods were not just desirable luxuries; they were necessities. The need for harnesses, boots and sturdy shoes was critical to the mining economy of central California.
The Wagner brothers brought tan bark from their coastal oak forests up the San Joaquin River and unloaded it at their business at the block bounded by El Dorado, Oak, Fremont and Hunter Streets in Stockton. In Humboldt County foresters had peeled the bark, dried it and ground it into chips. They leached out the tannins to produce tannic acid, a key component in the leather tanning process. The acid was then concentrated and shipped to Stockton in 50-gallon barrels. By 1880 the company was producing over 1,500 hides a month.
In 1865 the brothers formally organized their business as Wagner Brothers. Over the years, they took on financial partners and expanded their property holdings and increased tanning capacity. The company changed formal names several times, but it was always under the leadership of the Wagner family.
With a reputation for producing superior leather articles, Wagner tannery sent large shipments by train to the east coast for assembly into shoes, harnesses and other goods.
The combustible wooden structures of the buildings, coupled with boiling vats of acids and tanning solutions, produced a constant fire danger. The Tannery was plagued by fires in 1867, 1871, 1875, and again in 1918.
In the early part of the 1900s it became unprofitable to send leather goods to the east coast and foreign countries. With its offensive odors, the tannery in the heart of growing
Stockton was no longer desirable, and it ceased operation at the end of 1928.
With such a valuable piece of property, the end of the tannery business was the beginning of the enterprise we know today as the Pacific Storage Company. Using the large space once occupied by the tannery, and with a view toward the future prosperity of Stockton, the Wagner family converted their business into commodity storage. After its initial stages as general warehousing, the Pacific Storage company became agents for Bekins Moving and Storage. Today it has facilities in five northern California communities.