Glendale, California Biographies

        Francis J. W. Henry, founder of the firm of Henry-Brown Co., Inc., manufacturers of the famous “Sierra Club” ginger ale, is a native of Scotland and is a descendant from the Clan Gorden. He is a graduate from the Grove Academy and studied architecture and law until the Boer War broke out, when he volunteered for active service in South Africa with the Fifeshire and Forfarshire Light Horse volunteer regiment which formed a company of the Imperial Yeomanry, and for his services he received a medal with five bars. After his discharge from the army he returned to South Africa where he spent several years, finally coming to America and landing in San Francisco shortly after the earthquake and fire, and became an American citizen. An experimental laboratory was built at La Crescenta in 1916, and the following year the factory was established on Broadway in Glendale. In 1918 the Odd Fellows building, at 600 E. Wilson Avenue, was purchased and extensive alterations and additions have been made until the plant now approximates 30,000 square feet of floor space with an investment of $250,000.00. It is one of the best and most up to date equipped beverage plants in the west. The greatest skill and care is exercised in the manufacture of Sierra Club beverages, from the raw material to the finished products, and a visit through the factory is an education in efficiency and cleanliness. The factory is always open to visitors.

        Mr. Henry is the type of citizen interested in every movement for community betterment. He is a Knight Templar Mason, and Elk, a charter member of the Rotary Club, member of the Chamber of Commerce, and other community organizations, also the St. Andrews Society of San Francisco. Mrs. Henry is a native daughter of California, born at Santa Clara. Her father was a Forty-niner, and settling in Santa Clara Valley, became a very prominent and prosperous horticulturist and a member of the state legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. W. Henry have a beautiful home on Arden Avenue at Central.