The Man Behind The Brand – On the Jar
by Doug Gelbert
published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by Cruden Bay Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Open a copy of the Information Please Almanac and turn to the chapter on famous people. 4000 names and you won't know hardly any. But what about names everyone knows? Pillsbury, Kraft, Maytag, Hertz, Kellogg, Gerber. Nowhere to be found. How many names are more famous than Howard Johnson? Milton Bradley? Oscar Mayer? But who were these folks? Let’s take a look at the men behind the names we see on the jars in our pantries...
French's
Gerber's
Heinz
Hellman's
Mason
Max
Factor
Pond's
Smucker's
Vlasic
Welch's
And the man behind the brand is...
Robert
French
In
1880 Robert T. French was winding down a career as a New York
wholesaler of coffee, tea and spices. He had been born 57 years
earlier in Ithaca, New York but rather than move back to the farm in
retirement French had other ideas. He was going into business for
himself.
Together
with his sons George and Francis, French began to deal in a wide
assortment of products, from spices to bird seed. By 1883 the Frenchs
had moved upstate to Rochester and the little wholesale trade
continued to expand. Robert French died in 1893 without ever
considering the mustard that would propel the family name into
everyday American life.