"At harvest time there could be so many
sacks of beans waiting to be processed that Marion Square Park
would be used as a storage spot with sacks covering the ground
under the trees."
One of the first fruit processing operations in the Willamette
Valley was the cider and vinegar works which Gideon Stolz established
in Salem in 1879. He never engaged in fruit and vegetable canning
but his cider and vinegar works was Salem's largest and most
important early business dealing with the manufacture and preservation
of food products. He operated the business on his own for a
number of years but then entered into a partnership with two
Portland businessmen and in 1886 incorporated as Pacific Cider,
Vinegar, & Fruit Preserving Company. They were located on
Trade Street opposite Cottage and used the millrace. A pickle
operation was added in 1889 and by 1890 they were producing
vinegar, cider, pickles, and fruit jellies, syrups, and butters.
The company relocated to Portland in 1891, and the Salem plant
was sold to Squire Farrar & Company, and later to Tillson
& Company in 1903, and Drager Fruit Company in the 1920's.
The packing plant, warehouse and equipment were destroyed by
fire in 1928. It is interesting that in 1894 Gideon Stolz himself
sold his interest in the Pacific Cider operation in Portland
and came back to Salem to start a new pickle and cider factory
in 1897 on Summer Street between Mill & Bellevue. In addition
to his former products, plus mincemeat, catsup, mustard, Worcestershire
sauce, horseradish, and sauerkraut, he had a bottling line for
soda beverages. He operated as Gideon Stolz Company under the
"G.S." label. In the 1930's & 40's many of the
products were discontinued as more emphasis was placed on beer
and wine. The factory site was purchased by Willamette University
in 1965 and is now occupied by student housing units and tennis
courts.
In 1885 Robert S. Wallace arrived in Salem and was instrumental
in securing land on a corner of the Willamette University campus,
opposite the Thomas K. Woolen Mill, for the development of a
fruit evaporator. The shape and location of the site provided
rail car loading on two sides, access to the millrace crossing
the property, and frontage on 12th Street. It was about one
acre in size and cost $500. The Willamette Valley Fruit Company's
dryer was built there in 1887 and in 1890 Robert S. Wallace
formed the Salem Canning Company and built a cannery adjoining
it. Tomatoes, peas, corn, beans, cherries, black raspberries,
plums, pears, and apples where among the products marketed under
their "Thistle Brand" name. In 1890, the stockholders
realized a return of almost $5,000 on their original $20,000
investment. Mr. Wallace died unexpectedly the following year
and several factors caused the company to be sold. It operated
under the Allen name briefly and as Oregon Packing Company from
1902-1905 when it burned. Following the fire, local growers
who relied on the cannery as their sole market, were served
for four years in a cooperative effort by the Mutual Canning
Company, but in 1910 the California Fruit Canners Association
secured ownership and brought to an end local ownership of Salem's
first cannery. Oregon Packing Company continued operating under
that name in a Southern Pacific warehouse near the railroad
station until 1935, but as a subsidiary of California Packing
Corporation (which it had become in a 1916 merger). In 1935
it was absorbed into the parent company and became known as
Calpak Plant #126. The site of the original cannery from 1887
is now the location of a parking lot on the Willamette University
campus.
The depression years of the 1930's was a hard period for canneries.
With unemployment so common and no money to buy commercially
canned food, most families canned their own fruits and vegetables.
Growers were left with no market for their crops; loganberries
might bring one to two cents a pound, strawberries - four cents
, Royal Anne cherries - two to three cents. To provide for the
large surplus of cherries, brining operations were established
and the bleached, pitted product was sold to maraschino manufacturers
in the East. As the Depression deepened a portable cannery was
established and made available to the public for canning their
own produce. Seed was given out by the Red Cross, cans were
furnished by the government, and the cannery, installed on a
truck bed, moved from town to town allowing people an allotment
of 25 & 50 cans per person in 1933 and 1934 respectively.
In the 1940's, when the canneries were frequently short of help
because the men were away at war or wartime industries, many
people worked their regular job during the daytime and also
worked the night shift at the canneries; offices let people
out early in harvest season so they could work in the fields,
and soldiers even came from nearby Camp Adair to help out. Young
people looked forward to being able to advance from picking
berries, beans, hops, etc in the fields to working in the canneries
when they became sixteen. Cannery work was hard but it gave
them money for clothing and for school in the fall. At harvest
time there could be so many sacks of beans waiting to be processed
that Marion Square would be used as a storage spot with sacks
covering the ground under the trees. In the late 1940's there
were 15 canning and freezing plants in Salem alone with many
more in surrounding towns. The soil & availability of irrigation,
the warm days and cool nights, the stable workforce, and the
long and successful history of quality fruits, berries and vegetables
all contributed to the explosion of canneries in the Salem area.
In the 1950's the Salem area replaced San Jose, California,
as the largest canning area in the world. A wartime shortage
of tin plate and the need for large quantities of the canned
product for the armed forces made the frozen product an important
alternative for the civilian market.
In July 1943 Salem joined the ranks of other communities
which developed school community canneries to conserve locally-grown
food for civilian usage and allow commercial canneries to
pack for military needs. The cannery facilities, with certain
limitations, were available to local farmers, Victory gardeners,
and anyone else with produce which they wanted to process.
Patrons brought their produce in by appointment, and the canning
was done under an expert's direction and was safely processed
in tin cans under highly controlled cooking facilities; it
thus took the drudgery of canning at home away from the busy
housewives. Oregon's eleven community school canneries were
entirely non-profit and publicly financed with the only cost
to the patron being six or seven cents a can, depending on
size.
The canneries described below are only a few of the many
which existed in Salem over the years, with their managements
and names changing frequently. The fertile soil of the Willamette
Valley and Salem area produced ample fruits and vegetables
for all and, although some canneries gained recognition for
particular products, e.g. Blue Lake for their pole beans,
all produced a broad range of products.
The Salem Fruit Union was formed and built a 2-story wooden
building on the SE corner of Trade & High streets in 1910
with rail access to both the Southern Pacific & Oregon
Electric. When the Hunt Brothers Packing Company built a cannery
on the river at the foot of Division Street in 1914 the Fruit
Union sold their canning line to the latter and concentrated
on packing and marketing fresh and dried fruit, and loganberries
in various forms. In 1920 the Salem Fruit Union was absorbed
into the Oregon Growers Association, but the latter dissolved
in 1923. The last of the Salem Fruit Union plant was razed
for part of the Pringle Park Urban Renewal Project in the
1970's.
The Hunt Brothers Packing Company mentioned above expanded
their one-story wooden building on Front Street in 1924 &
1925 and again in 1929 when they added a 2-story office building
on Division Street. The cannery closed at the end of the 1956
season at a time when it had 16 permanent and 400 seasonal
employees. The location was acquired by the Keith Brown Lumber
Company which is still operating at that location.
Running northward from North Mill Creek along Front Street
and the river was a cannery which over the decades had many
name changes. It was known as Salem King's Products Company
from 1917-1927. In 1929 Reid Murdock & Company, the largest
wholesale grocery distributor in America, bought the plant
and acquired more land in the area. All evaporating equipment
was removed and extensive remodeling was accomplished for
canning. They were a major supplier of canned fruit to the
Armed Forces during World War II. More recently the plant
was known as United States Producers from 1973-1975, and since
then as Truitt Brothers. When Truitt Brothers acquired the
plant they began a modernization program which made the 60-year
old plant one of the most efficient operations in the Northwest.
They diversified their line of products, acquired still more
land, and with efficient, stainless steel production lines
are able to produce a high-quality product with a minimum
of hand labor. They are now among Oregon's top 100 private
businesses.
A long association with the name "Blue Lake" began
when the first Blue Lake beans were planted in 1923 and the
variety captured over thirty percent of the canned green bean
market. Blue Lake Producers Cooperative was begun in 1937
as a reorganization of another company and operated out of
a plant in West Salem. It was one of three companies in Salem
authorized to provide dehydrated vegetables and fruit to the
military. The name was changed in 1946 to Blue Lake Packers
and produced under many labels, including "Jack and the
Beanstalk". Their beans received considerable publicity
from association with Lou Costello when he and Abbott made
a movie by that title in 1952. Both the movie and Blue Lake's
beans were promoted at grocery stores and restaurants and
Costello had over forty cases of the beans sent to his journalist
and radio commentator friends. By 1970 their sale were $12,000,000
and ninety percent of their production was canned and ten
percent frozen. They had twenty different products and their
plants had undergone several expansions. The company became
part of Agripac, Inc. in 1971 which has expanded operations
into eastern Washington.
Another name synonymous with canning in Salem for over fifty
years was Paulus. Three of the six sons of Elizabeth and Christopher
Paulus had careers in canning. Robert C. Paulus, the first
of the brothers to enter the canning field, started Robert
C. Paulus & Company in 1924 after having gotten several
years experience working with other companies. For their early
operations they leased from other canneries, but in 1927 Paulus
Bros. Packing Company was organized by he and his brother
George. When they added beets, parsnips, and carrots to their
line in 1927 it was the first time vegetables in any quantity
had been caned in Salem. Their earlier production was concentrated
mostly on gooseberries, strawberries, loganberries, sweet
cherries, raspberries, blackberries, pears & purple plums.
In 1942 Paulus Bros became one of three Salem companies authorized
to provide dried fruits and vegetables for the armed forces
and they leased additional canning and dehydration plants.
Their contributions to the war effort brought them awards
for outstanding
accomplishment as a food processor. From their early quarters
on High Street they expanded and soon had plants in other
cities, and in 1946 built a new cannery at 14th & Oxford
Streets, one of the largest in the United States. Following
World War II in November 1950 they packaged C-6 Army food
rations that had been designed by the quartermaster corps
for American troops engaged in combat. The 321 women and 86
men worked round-the-clock in three shifts. The C-6 package
was designed to sustain a soldier for emergency use in battle
(900 calories) and included meat and fruit items. In 1954
they were the largest independently owned canning firm in
the Northwest, and the sale of the company in 1955 to Dole
Hawaiian Pineapple Company marked the end of an era. Berries,
cherries, green beans, plums and pears were the principal
products from the Dole plant in the 1950's-60's. The canning
operation begun by the Paulus family ended in 1985 and canning
operations ceased but the building is still used for distribution.
Researched and written by Joan Marie "Toni" Meyering
Bibliography:
Lucas, William. Canning in the Valley: Canneries of the Salem
District. 1998
"Paulus Bros. Busy Packing Ration Kits", Capital
Journal newspaper, November 24, 1950
"V-Garden Products March into Cans In Dozen Oregon Community
Kitchens", Oregon Journal newspaper, August 8, 1943.
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