“W. K. Lewis & Co. Mixed Pickles”
As an American Civl War reenactor and living historian, I have conducted a lot of research into the...mundane. I got "hooked" on food stuffs that would have been present in the "then/there", while looking for something completely unrelated; the research (and food container labels) had added to my period impression, and allowed me yet another "area of discussion" for living history presentations. My nineth "bit of a history lesson" regards pickles.
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William K. Lewis was born in Portland, Maine, Oct. 12, 1807.
In 1827, he was apprenticed to William Underwood, of Boston, an Englishman, and the ?rst manufacturer of pickles in the United States. After serving with Mr. Underwood nearly seven years, during which time he acquainted himself with the details of the manufacture, Mr. Lewis, in 1833, became a partner with his master. At the end of four years this partnership was dissolved.
Lewis took what he had learned from his time with the William Underwood Company and implemented the production of processed meats, preserves and sauces in a building on Broad St. in Boston – right next to his former employer.
In 1841, he associated his father with him, under the ?rm-name of William and William K. Lewis; and, at a later period, brothers Charles P., George F. and Edwin J. Lewis, became partners in the concern. The father retired from business in 1854, and died in 1859, at the age of eighty-two. The ?rm then assumed the name of W. K. Lewis and Brothers.
The company expanded in 1842, including a facility in Portland, Maine – Lewis’s hometown – that was producing “hermetically sealed meats, soups, fish, vegetables, poultry and milk.” These items were in an increasing demand as west-ward expansion flourished. Most particularly, the mass movement of people to California in 1849-1850 as part of the gold rush brought prosperity to canning companies like W.K. Lewis. Between the years 1849 and 1854 the company retained the Broad Street building but added to its capacity a factory on Purchase Street as well as three other buildings near the Broad Street storehouse & offices as part of the Tilden Block.
In 1859, Lewis purchased the right, under the patent of Gail Borden, to manufacture condensed milk; for which the company developed a factory at Shirley Village.
1865 saw the building of another condensed milk factory at West Brookfield. These factories utilized what was at the time the most state of the art machinery and technology to manufacture and can such products. By the late 1870’s the monthly production of the West Brookfield factory was at 36,000 one pound cans of condensed milk, as well as 6,000 quarts of what was dubbed as “plain condensed milk.”
The W.K. Lewis Company added a factory in Maine on the Isle au Haut, specifically to can lobsters, in 1860. This operation was enlarged several times and more factories were added to the ever-growing company holdings over the successive years within Nova Scotia and Halifax – as well as other towns along the coast.
The pickle production of the company was increased in 1869 when they established another processing factory in Lincoln, Massachusetts – a “noted pickle producing region.” In 1873 the Broad Street facilities moved to Somerville (a hop across the Charles River) and employed nearly one hundred men whom produced over ten million pickles a year.
There is a slight indication that by the later part of the decade the pickle enterprise hadn’t worked out that entirely well –
“Among the canned baked beans on the market were those of W.K. Lewis & Brothers, of Boston. The product spread quickly to distant points. An ad appearing in the Galveston (Texas) Daily News on Feb. 23, 1878 announced that three-pound cans of the beans were being “Sold by All First-Class Grocers in Galveston.”
“Had it not been for Lewis, the baked bean “freak[1]” would not have occurred in the late 1870s. A Gettysburg, Pa., newspaper, the Star and Sentinel, noted on Aug. 21, 1888 that “W. K. Lewis of Boston received the first patent[2] for canning beans, in 1877.”
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“Lewis had gone broke as a pickle dealer in Boston in 1875, being able to pay creditors only 50 cents on the dollar, according to news accounts of the time, but apparently rebounded because he knew his beans.” – (ROGER M. GRACE, Metropolitan News Company 2006)
[1] At the time, “freak” meant (in this context) “whim” or “fancy”.
[2] This statement (the 1888 “Star and Sentinel”, NOT the 2006 “Metropolitan News Company”) is somewhat misleading. The patent was awarded for an “improvement” in the canning process for pork and beans. Gilbert Van Camp had been putting up canned pork and beans (and many other food items) since 1861, and was awarded a U.S. government contract to supply Camp Morton, Indiana.
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References -
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. (1837). “Exhibition and Fair of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association at Faneuil and Quincy Halls in the City of Boston, September 18, 1837”. Boston, Massachusetts. Dutton and Wentworth.
Van Slyck, J. D. (1879). “New England Manufacturers and Manufactories, Three Hundred and Fifty of the Leading Manufacturers of New England”. Boston, Massachusetts. Van Slyck and Company.
Historic New England. “Gerkins from W.K. Lewis & Co., 56 Broad Street, Boston, Mass.,”. Retrieved 23 Nov 2017 from https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/capobject/?refd=EP001.01.045.07.01.004
Switzer, Ronald R. (2013). “The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce.” Norman, Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press. 376 pp.
Switzer, Ronald R. (1974). “The Bertrand Bottles: A Study of 19th-Century Glass and Ceramic Containers.” Washington, D.C. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 112 pp.
Brooks, D. (2015). “Friends of Schoharie Crossing”. Retrieved 02 Nov 2017 from https://friendsofschohariecrossing.blogspot.com/2015/10/more-small-details-wk-lewis-brothers.html
McLean, John C. (2012). “Lewis Pickle Factory, Lincoln, Massachusetts”. Retrieved 02 Nov 2017 from https://www.scribd.com/document/116631074/History-of-the-Lewis-Pickle-Factory-Lincoln-Massachusetts