Many of the most important positions in business circles of Watsonville are filled by young men, and their enterprise, sagacity and loyalty promise well for the future of the city. In this classification belongs Ed. J. Torres, who is manager of the Union Ice Company, and his success has resulted from hard work, devotion to duty and the ability to meet and master situations.
He was born October 8, 1897, in Monterey, in the county of that name, and is a scion of one of the oldest families of California. He is a son of Joseph and Mary (Diez) Torres, also natives of Monterey, and there he attended the grammar and high schools. After completing his education he became bookkeeper for the Independent Fish Company of Monterey and later entered the employ of the Union Ice Company of that city. He started as a driver of one of their wagons and utilized every opportunity to broaden his knowledge of the business, which he found much to his liking. As his experience increased he was advanced and in 1917 was sent by the company to Watsonville to take charge of their affairs in this locality. At that time the business was small and the ice was delivered by a horse-drawn wagon. Mr. Torres brought with him from Monterey a Ford truck and this was the first automobile truck used in Watsonville. Under his aggressive management the business has undergone a complete change and the trade has increased so rapidly that the company now requires five trucks for the delivery of ice to its customers. They recently built at Watsonville Junction a modern ice plant with a storage capacity of seven thousand tons and the first unit has facilities for manufacturing one hundred and twenty-five tons daily. It is one of the best equipped ice plants on the Pacific coast and a great asset to the business men of this locality.
Mr. Torres married Miss Mary Christianson, a native of Salinas, California, and they now have a daughter, Jean Marie. Mr. Torres is fully alive to conditions in the world of commerce and possesses the energy and resourcefulness necessary to cope with them, while his personality is one that inspires respect and confidence.
Source: History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California : cradle of California’s history and romance : dating from the planting of the cross of Christendom upon the shores of Monterey Bay by Fr. Junipero Serra, and those intrepid adventurers who accompanied him, down to the present day. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1925.