A mucky family business

Woodrow and Berenice Hadley know their dredging.

Berenice’s father, Albert Sparkes, owned the Sparkes & McClellan

Dredging Co. with her uncle, Rollo McClellan. Woodward Hadley, her

husband, spent more than three decades in the dredging business.

The Hadleys, who are waiting to celebrate their 65th wedding

anniversary next month, keep an extensive album of dredging photos in

their east side Costa Mesa home. The pictures are a black-and-white

record of multiple digs that were completed along coastal waters

during the first half of the 20th century.

The Sparkes & McClellan Dredging Co. was responsible for the

project that created Harbor Island, Berenice Hadley said. The

company’s name was changed to Newport Dredging Co. after her uncle

left the business.

These days, Harbor Island is one of Newport’s most exclusive

locales.

In addition to the Harbor Island project, Albert Sparkes’ ventures

included the Newport Harbor Yacht Basin and the development of Linda

Isle, which had the more ferocious name of Shark Island in the past.

The company had two dredge boats, Newport and Little Aggie.

Woodrow Hadley remembered working as a deckhand for the Standard

Dredging Co. in 1935 during the Newport Harbor dredging project.

“It’s really hard work. There’s nothing easy about it,” Woodrow

Hadley said.

In addition to his stint with the Standard Dredging Co., Woodrow

Hadley said he spent a decade with the Newport Dredging Co. and

another 20 years with another dredging business. After more than 30

years of helping to dig up underwater muck, he rose through the ranks

from deckhand to superintendent.

Berenice was also in the business, though her job didn’t take her

out on boats. For a time, she worked in the Newport Dredging Co.’s

office.

The dredging business meant spending a lot of time away from

Newport-Mesa, Woodrow Hadley recalled. Projects along California’s

coasts included work in the waters near San Diego, Ventura and Santa

Cruz.

He was also attached to jobs to create harbors in the Colorado

River town of Needles and in Yellowstone National Park.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at o7andrew.edwards

@latimes.comf7.