Chase & Co.

 

By Kayla Simons, FCHoF Student Fellow 

Sydney Chase, Sr. (FCHoF 1963)

Joshua Chase (FCHoF 1962)

Chase & Co. was started in 1884 by Sydney and Joshua Chase. They started out selling insurance and investing in fertilizer and storage facilities but later became known for their citrus. The brothers bought their first citrus groves in 1886. Chase & Co. owned several packing houses and worked as marketing agents for associations and individual growers who wanted to maintain their own packing houses.

Arcadia

    

Isleworth

Manatee

Winter Haven

After the freezes of 1894-95, the company was hurt and turned to growing celery, becoming the first large-scale producer of celery. In 1904, Chase & Co. began to reestablish their place in the citrus industry by purchasing more groves and a fertilizer plant. 

They joined the Florida Citrus Exchange shortly after, but due to some conflict with Florida Citrus Mutual, three years later, they left. In 1928, they began to focus mostly on fertilizer. After Sydney died in 1941, Joshua took over until he died in 1949. The company still exists today as Sunniland, though the Chase family is no longer involved.