The family came from Ireland in 1852, the first Collins immigrant being my great-great grandfather, Dennis Collins. Dennis Collins immigrated to New Orleans with two of his cousins to begin a new life inthe prosperity of the gold-rush era. He was married to Ann Raftery on May 1, 1859. (Foley, Harriet E. And Thomas R. Pp.88-89) Taking advantage ofthe ability to purchase land cheaply, he settled in Illinois, where before farming he set up a blacksmithing shop. He worked his way into the farming industry with his invention of a plow that reduced the amount of time that it took to rotate a field.
Family life was simple, and although farming was not always a means of income, it was a means of self-sufficiency for the family. Dennis Collins began the family tradition of following a hard work ethic, and of making the economic survival of the family a task for each of its members. Dennis and his wife Ann had eleven children, living up to the stereotypical Irish Catholic family. The time that Dennis Collins spent in the United States was a transitional period in history, there were millions of immigrants who came to the United States and were trying to merge their cultures into one.
Laurence Dennis Collins, the next generation of my family, was born in Illinois in 1878. He was the ninth child, and second son of Dennis Collins and Ann Raftery. He fell into farming after his days working tor the National Guard. He had grown up in an agricultural home where although his fathers source of income came from blacksmithing, farming was a means of feeding the family. While Laurence Collins was enlisted in the National Guard, he moved from California to Washington D.C. He was also stationed in San Antonio,Texas, and the Philippines. Through his travels, he got to see many different types of farmlands and finally decided on settling in Riverside County.
My grandfather, Robert Emmett Collins, remembers growing up, ". . . going to more schools than grades" because they moved around so much (Robert E. Collins interview). Robert E. Collins was born on January 24,1913 in Southern California. The life of the children growing up in a family where they moved every year was difficult and made my grandfather desire the sedentary life of farming. When Laurence finally settled down, he was dedicated to the demanding life of the farm.
My grandfather grew up learning the ways of the farm and also learning the importance of agriculture to the economy. When the Depression hit in 1929, agriculture was hit hard. There was a drastic shortage in money among consumers, so many of the crops were not purchased. Harvests were either left to spoil or they were sold at low costs. Due to the lack of demand, many farmers were forced to sell out, burdened by the high cost of production and not selling the harvests to make up the cost. Many farmers had to sell off all or some of their land, as my great grandfather was forced to do.
In 1931 when my grandfather graduated high school, the family did not have enough money to send him to college. Although farming was of interest to him, he had previously held the desire to become a doctor. Stifling this urge, he became involved with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He moved first to Napa County, where he headed the department, and then to the Sacramento office. Since he held this position towards the end of the Depression, it enabled him to become familiar with the new ideas for salvaging agriculture. He learned the laws and regulations which governed farming at that time. Through his job with the USDA, he became further in support of organization in farming.
My grandfather married my grandmother, Gertrude Phyllis Mansur on March 12, 1935. She had grown up in Hemet Valley, her father being a farmer as well. Together they moved to Northern California where they began their life together. They had four children, Dennis Robert Collins, Michael Boyd Collins, James Patrick Collins, and Eileen Mary Collins (Outerbridge). The family was raised learning the value of a hard days work. Before my grandfather got completely settled into his own farm, however, he worked for many different agricultural services.
In 1940, he became a member and worked to aid the Agricultural Adjustment Association (AAA). Through this job, he could bring help to the small farmers of America. The AAA reduced surplus crops so that prices would not plummet. It was one of the many reform and relief programs of the Great Depression. It was created to help the government find ways to ease the suffering of the farmers.
During World War II, my grandfather ended up with a position on the War Board in Sacramento. This position entailed the responsibility of organizing supplies for the armed forces (namely agricultural supplies.) This experience led him to his political involvement in regards to farming. He knew that there were methods to work through the government, and that organization was the key to success. Around the time he held this position, he began farming in the fertile land which lay alongside the Sacramento River in Northern California. The irrigation from the Sacramento River looked enticing to someone who grew up farming in Southern California. He started out with a small orchard in Walnut Grove, the tiny agricultural town in the Delta. From this small farm in this small town, my grandfather began to develop roots stronger than those of his pear trees.
Beginning with his position with the USDA, he had instilled his belief in creating organization for farming. As a pear farmer of relatively small proportions he dealt with the problem which faced all small farmers at that time. Independent canneries had complete control over the prices that they paid for the fruit that was sold to them. Grower-canner relations were tense, creating bargaining sessions at each harvest time. The growers seemed to be losing ground each time. The turbulent feelings led to the call for the creation of a cannners association which was run by the growers. The growers needed to be conglomerated into one body to get the prices that they desired from the canneries. This task proved to be far more difficult than imagined due to the long felt sense of competition between growers.
Robert E. Collins was one of the founding presidents of the California Canning Pear Association (CCPA). This association created in 1953 was formed in order to accomplish the goal of organization for better cannery prices in the pear industry. A fellow founder of the association was Jack Z. Anderson who served fourteen years as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He was a representative of the Eighth District of California, the San Jose area (1938-1952). He was the chairman of the committee on Agriculture and Farm Problems from 1944-1952. Through his observations on this committee, and his own personal farming experience he became a strong advocate for the organization of a cannery association. "I had ample opportunity to observe at first hand the success so often obtained by organized farm groups and the indifference and lack of attention paid to the unorganized farmers." (Jack Z. Anderson)
This philosophy of organization breeds success was the foundation of my grandfather's work. He held a personal point of view that without an organized association the smaller farms would eventually be phased out. Anderson agreed and was the key force in organizing the CCPA. At first,the CCPA did not attract all farmers, and therefore did not work as well as it should have. However, in 1953 alone, more than fifty percent of the canning pears produced in California were sold to processors through the CCPA. The organization helped growers greatly that year and due to the positive effect, more growers became incorporated into the CCPA.
Prior to the creation of the CCPA, the canners had been controlling prices, causing them to fluctuate vastly between the years. In 1948 there was a shortage of pear crops, and the price for a ton of canning pears was 125 dollars. The next year, however, dealing with a similar shortage the prices ranged from 25 to 40 dollars a ton. The canneries were calling all of the shots, and the growers were at their mercy. (Robert E. Collins) In an interview between Gerald D. Marcus and my grandfather in 1988, m ygrandfather stated that after these two years serious work towards organization occurred. In reference to those two years, 1948 and 1949, he said, "a couple of years later it hit again . . . And it brought it very acutely to the growers mind that they had better try to do something to help themselves in a united fashion." (Robert E. Collins)
The creation of the CCPA was a manner of self-preservation to keep the growers producing. My grandfather went on to be the longest-term president of the CCPA, serving for six years.In the early 1960šs, my grandfather got involved in the creation of a grower organized cannery. This type of organization would allow the growers in a cooperative to raise the profits of their sales by being able to sell their canned product directly. When certain individual canneries closed down, the opportunity opened for the growers to take over. My grandfather was one of the founding chairmen of Pacific Coast Producers. This packing company was combined from United States Products (USP), the Stokely-Van Camp company, and a company called the Libby company.
This was a risky venture, since the growers previously would not have gotten involved in the business aspect of the industry. However, the venture proved to a wise one, and although the corporation remains solely a California and Oregon cooperative it is more successful than was anticipated. PCP accomplished the growers' goal of organizing, working in conjunction with each other rather than separate from each other. My grandfather served as a chairman of the board for this company for sixteen years. Today, the company carries the S&W label which is now nationally advertised.
Through these two major organizations my grandfather got involved in other associations and councils. He was a member of the Agricultural Council of California, the Council of California Growers, and the National Council of Farmer Coops. The work that he and other members of the California Delta accomplished was nationally acknowledged. He was considered various times as an under secretary to the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. Also he was looked at as the California State Secretary of Agriculture. These jobs, however, did not interest him. He was content farming, and only believed in organization and the political side of farming to ensure that the industry would continue on.
Recognition for the progress that my grandfather made was given in the form of awards from various organizations. The Sacramento County Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 1971 honored him with the Agribusinessman of the Year award. In 1972, the California Farm Bureau Federation granted him the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award. Also, the University of California at Davis awarded him the Centennial Citation for work in agriculture in 1968. These awards, though nicely commemorating my grandfather's achievements were not really what pleased him. He was much more pleased by the recognition he received from those he worked with, whose hands were covered with dirt as his had been.
He was often quoted or appearing in the local paper, The Sacramento Bee. There was a Country Life section in which the agricultural life wasrepresented and often my grandfather appeared representing the rural, hard-working Americans who feed our nation. My grandfather began working in agriculture when the economy was still recovering from the Great Depression. It was a time when agriculture moved from every manfor himself to a cooperative organized industry. Without the efforts madeby my grandfather and other individuals, many of the small farmers still thriving today would have been put out of business.
During the time in which he was president of the CCPA, he made a trip to Washington D.C. to discuss the problems in farming. Largely due to his connection with Jack Anderson, but also because of his work in organizing growers into an industry, he was invited to eat dinner at the White House. In 1972, he and my grandmother journeyed to the White House a rural couple who hardly knew what to do with themselves in sucha formal atmosphere. All that my grandfather told me about the trip was that at the dinner he sat next to a man whose last name in Polish means "pear." It was exciting to acknowledge that based on the work he had done in a small Northern California town he had been invited to eat dinner with the president. Meeting President Richard Nixon was a major accomplishment for a farm boy who did not even go to college.
The lack of further education in my grandfathers life did not stand inthe way of letting him accomplish his goals. He became a prominent member of the community, and his name and face was well known in theNorthern California area. In a 1963 issue of the Sacramento Bee, Robert Collins was featured on the cover of the Country Life section, and inside they printed a statement saying that, "Robert E. Collins. . . Represents the nationšs farmers, each one of whom, according to statistics, feeds persons." This quote represents the importance of the farmer in the lives of all the people of the nation.
While farming is often looked at as a career that is lower on the hierarchy of careers, it is an essential part of the world. Without industrial farming, there would be more hungry people in the world than there are today. The efforts of agribusinessmen like my grandfather have made the success of more farmers possible, and turned farming into a more industrial business. Although my grandfather's name may not go down in the history books, he will always be to me a major contributor to the growth of our nation. Just think of how many people he fed in the time of his service to the nation. For forty-five years he worked as a grower, and managed to improve the business for small farmers to come. In the era where computer technology is quickly overcoming us, it is important to look at the importance of preserving the traditional, and vital industry of agriculture.