Johann (John) Frederick Meyer
(picture probably taken in 1862 during his first stay in Richmond)
Born: 10/7/1817 Hanover, Germany
Died: 3/28/1874 Richmond, Virginia

Johann was a very knowledgeable and successful sugar refiner, who invented a magnetic extractor to remove iron during the cane sugar refining process. There are family legends about how his invention was stolen, how the Domino Sugar Company should have been his, but all of that is, almost certainly, family misconceptions. In fact, the Havemeyer brothers, the two men who began the original U.S. sugar company around the turn of the nineteenth century, actually offered Johann a position at their new factory in Brooklyn; and it was this employment offer that eventually prompted the Meyer's emigration from England.

The position was originally proffered in 1850, but Johann declined because his employer in England at the time gave him a new two-year contract with a raise to 300-pounds sterling a year (a respectable sum); and also because the Havemeyer's had not yet purchased the land on which they would construct their new factory. John indicated, however, that when construction was near completion, he would come to America and work for them. And so he did.

(In 1859, a new refinery was completed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and by 1864 was the most modern of its time. After the Sugar Trust was ruled unlawful in 1891, Henry O. Havemeyer and Theodore A. Havemeyer, sons of the original founders, were elected chairman and president, respectively, of the American Sugar Refining Company, which became Domino Sugar in 1900—the name influenced by the fact much of their sugar cane came from the Dominican Republic.)

It's unknown when Johann and his parents immigrated to England, but on August 26, 1859 at the age of 42, after signing his last will and testament, he left his family behind to immigrate to the United States—they followed a year later.

(In his will, his estate was estimated to be 900-pounds sterling, plus the contents of his house at 1 Bedford Place, St James, Bristol, England. He made his brother, Carston Meyer of Church St, Mile End, New Town, County of Middlesex, England, executer—Carston was also a sugar refiner.)

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