In August 1916, three men started the Vermont Evaporator Company in North Clarendon, Vermont, a small community south of the city of Rutland. These men were Robert H. Moroney, Gus W. Fish, and Thomas J. Ford. All three men had been employed at the G.H. Grimm Company in Rutland and decided to break off and start their own maple supplies company.
From the beginning they intended to manufacture and provide a full range of maple sugaring supplies from evaporators, to gathering tanks to pails and spouts. Their first factory occupied a 34 x 70 foot, one-story building near the North Clarendon railway station. They employed 10 men in manufacturing duties and five men as a travelling sales force that ranged from Ohio to Maine. In addition to manufacturing and sales of maple equipment, the company also bought and sold bulk maple syrup.
While the company started off strongly, things began to get difficult a couple of years later. In April 1918, representatives of the G.H. Grimm estate (Grimm dies in December 1914) sued Moroney, Fish, and Ford for patent infringement in the manufacturing of maple sugaring spouts that were too similar to sap spouts patented by G.H. Grimm in 1903 and 1904. The claim argued that while employed with the Grimm Company, Fish (for 10 years as a mechanic), Ford (for 5 years as a salesman), and Moroney (for 5 years as a stenographer and salesman), the men learned the details of the design and manufacturing process of the Grimm spouts. In addition, they allegedly took advantage of their access to Grimm’s customer lists in establishing their own business. The lawsuit sought to enjoin the Vermont Evaporator Company from producing similar sap spouts and to determine what profits had been made in their two previous years of producing and selling the spouts.
Not deterred by the lawsuit against them, in July 1918 the company moved to Rutland from its building in North Clarendon. In Rutland they leased space in the Vermont School Seat Supply Company building on Strongs Avenue. Later that same year Moroney, Fish, and Ford formally incorporated the Vermont Evaporator Company with a capital stock of $50,000.
Despite their best efforts, the new evaporator company was unable to meet its financial obligations and filed for voluntary bankruptcy in May 1920. By the time of the bankruptcy, G.W. Fish had left the company and it was in the hands of Moroney and Ford. A series of trustees were assigned to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings and the company continued in operation, albeit a bit bruised.
The level to which the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to operate following their bankruptcy filing is unclear. News reports indicate that there was a small work force in place at the company in March 1921 when a coal car came off the railroad tracks adjacent to the building housing the evaporator company, crushing the brick walls and windows and shifting the building about a foot off its foundation. To make matters worse, in April 1921 the corporation lost its charter for non-filing or non-payment of its state taxes. In May of that year the patent infringement case was scheduled to go before a federal equity judge; however, the results of that equity ruling are not known. Chances are good that, with their limited resources resulting from the bankruptcy filing in the previous year, they settled the case with the Grimm estate out of court.
The company suffered another setback in April 1923 when a fire started in a nearby building in Rutland and spread to the evaporator company and other buildings. The destruction decimated their factory building, leaving R.H. Moroney and T.J. Ford with losses and damages totaling $44,156.26.
Following the losses of the April fire, the Vermont Evaporator Company left Rutland, Vermont and re-opened for business in St. Regis Falls, New York. In November of 1923 a new Vermont Evaporator Company of New York was incorporated with T.J. Ford as President and R. H. Moroney as Vice-President. A new factory was soon under construction on Main Street in St. Regis Falls with a full assembly of automated metal working presses, shears, and brakes delivered and installed. Metal workers and mechanics from Vermont were brought on board as were a group of 10-15 local workers.
With its move to New York and greater access to markets outside of New England, the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to expand its production and sales through the late 1920s and into the 1930s. Unfortunately, fire struck again, damaging the company offices in May 1937 and again in December 1938. With the setbacks from the fires and a desire to consolidate their facilities and expand their manufacturing space the company opted to move again, this time from St. Regis Falls in Franklin County to Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, New York. By the time of this move, Thomas J. Ford had moved on from his leadership role and the company was solely under the direction of Robert H. Moroney.
In August 1941 the Vermont Evaporator Company leased the three-story brick Mercantile building on Crescent Street near the river in the older part of Ogdensburg. By November the company was open for business in its new space and by January the following year, it had begun shipping evaporators out by rail.
The Vermont Evaporator Company was also a buyer of bulk maple syrup, taking in hundreds of 55-gallon metal drums full of syrup each year. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the Vermont Evaporator Company was described as the largest packer of maple syrup in New York state. Their location in St. Lawrence County, New York was advantageous to their business as syrup packers, since St. Lawrence County maple producers traditionally made the most syrup of any county in New York and New York was most often the second highest producing state in the U.S.
Business continued with little change through the 1950s and 1960s; however, in the early 1970s the city of Ogdensburg introduced an urban renewal plan that required demolition of the older manufacturing buildings near the river, including the block that included the Vermont Evaporator Company. In 1972 the city moved forward with their plans using the powers of eminent domain to force R.H. Moroney to sell the Vermont Evaporator Company building. Demolition was planned with a June 1 deadline to vacate the buildings.
Although there was great disagreement and legal wrangling over the details and final price paid for the buildings, R.H. Moroney realized that things were coming to an end for the Vermont Evaporator Company in Ogdensburg. In anticipation of the loss of his building and the adverse effect it would have on the company, Moroney sold the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company of St. Albans, Vermont in the spring of 1972 with the sale announced in the July 1972 issue of the Maple Syrup Digest. Following the sale of the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company, R.H. Moroney retired from the maple business before passing away in 1982.
Leader continued to manufacture and feature the Vermont Evaporator in its line-up of evaporators for many more years. Eventually improved technology, along with health and safety requirements to eliminate lead in their products forcing a shift from soldered seams to welded seams, led the company to introduce new evaporator designs and replace many of their legacy models and brands, including the Vermont Evaporator.
There happens to also be a modern Vermont Evaporator Company located in Montpelier, Vermont that makes excellent backyard sap evaporators employing small flat pans and barrel stoves. This modern Vermont Evaporator Company only shares a name with the company described in this blog post and is not affiliated with the company that was run by Robert Moroney for so many years.