The sugar devil, also known as a sugar auger or fruit lifter, is one of those sort of maple sugar related antiques that really catches your attention, both for the simple elegance of its design and symmetry and for its frightening appearance as some sort of medieval weapon or torture device. It should come as no surprise that sugar devils are highly desired by collectors of maple sugar related items.
Maybe it is just the attention grabbing name “sugar devil” that makes folks want to own something that feels a little bit taboo or dangerous. The equally popular names “sugar auger” or “fruit lifter” provide a bit of insight into how and for what these giant corkscrew-like tools were put to use. Sugar devils were used to break up the dense, dried, and hard sugar and fruit that was once packed tightly in casks, kegs, or boxes in much of the 19th century.
Image showing the variety of the shapes and styles of sugar devils and fruit lifters. Photo courtesy of Bob Roger.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, maple sugar was often sold packed into wooden casks. When the sticky sugar had sufficiently dried, it formed a nearly impenetrable cement that required a strong tool to break up into smaller chunks that could then be further reduced into usable pieces for granulation or dissolving in water to make a syrup. Sticky, sugar-rich, dried fruit that was similarly packed in casks, required a powerful tool to permit access to manageable amounts when purchasing from a store or cooking at home.
Bob Roger’s guide to fruit lifters and sugar devils.
For those wanting to learn more about sugar devils, a very useful guide to the varieties and patent history of different shapes and styles of sugar devils or fruit lifters has been put together by tool and corkscrew collector Bob Roger. Mr. Roger has kindly permitted me to share his most up to date version of this guide here, with the request that any use be purely for educational purposes.
You can view and download a PDF copy of Mr. Roger’s guide titled Fruit Lifters (a.k.a. Sugar Devils) by clicking on THIS LINK or by clicking on the image above. An earlier version of Mr. Roger’s guide was posted in 2007 on the website The Daily Screw, an interesting but no longer active website dedicated to the corkscrew collector.
This March 2023 contribution shares my research into the back story of the origins and history of an interesting collection of Native American wood and birch bark maple sugaring tools that were donated to the Tamarack Nature Center in Ramsey County, Minnesota for use in their maple syrup education program.
As discovered in research and interviews with surviving family members, the collection was acquired from the 1930s to the 1970s by a volunteer to the Nature Center who had a long association and friendship with a number of Ojibwe Indian families in east central Minnesota.
Modern example of the oval syrup flask with the little round handle.
When thinking of iconic symbols or popular images related to the maple syrup industry, one that quickly comes to mind is the glass flask shaped syrup bottle with the little round handle on the neck. Use of this bottle is unique to the maple industry and is instantly associated with pure maple syrup. About ten years ago a blog post claimed that the appearance or continued presence of the small handle on the neck of this bottle was a hold-over or an artifact of past designs for syrup jugs. Such elements are something known as a skeuomorph, “a retained but no longer functional stylistic feature.” The same Brooklyn Brainery blog writer went on to say “that the handles are a remnant from when most jars were large earthenware containers. The handle’s useful when you’re carrying five pounds of liquid, but not so much when you can easily grab the whole bottle in the palm of your hand.”
Perhaps, a better explanation comes from Jean-François Lozier, a Curator at the Canadian Museum of History, who was quoted online in a Canadian Reader’s Digest article to say, “maple syrup companies weren’t so much retaining an old pattern of a jug as reinventing it and wanting to market their product as something nostalgic.” Lozier, went on to add, “they were tying in the image of maple syrup with their product and the image that people still had of those crocks in the 19th-century.”
Drawing for Brooks D. Fuerst’s 1951 design patent for the oval syrup flask (USD162147).
While it is true that the little handles on the bottles have the appearance of being something of a holdover or throwback design element that was intended to show a connection to bottles and jugs of the past, the fact is that we really do not know why the bottle was designed with a little handle. What we do know is who first designed and manufactured that bottle, and by what company and when the bottle was first used for selling maple syrup. Brooks D. Fuerst of Sylvania, Ohio, was awarded with the design patent (USD162147) for the bottle in February 1951, after applying for the patent in June of 1949.
Image of a young Brooks D. Fuerst.
Brooks Fuerst (1905-1998) was an experienced designer of glass bottles and jars for food and liquid packaging and worked extensively with the Owens-Illinois Glass Company and the Libbey Glass Company, both in Toledo, Ohio, a place that is sometimes called the Glass Capital of the World.
The design for the syrup flask with the little handle on the neck was given the uninspiring title of “jug or the like” and it should be noted that the shape of the small handle on the original design was not actually rounded, but was more angular with two sharp corners. Brooks Fuerst assigned the patent to the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, either through sale, contract, or as an employee of the company.
Early examples of Cary’s Maple Syrup in the 1951 Fuerst bottle. On the left a 8.5 ounce bottle and on the right a small 2.0 ounce sample size bottle.
The Fuerst flask was first used in 1950 by the Cary Maple Sugar Company of St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 2-ounce, 8-ounce, and 24-ounce sizes. At that time, the Cary company used the flask to bottle two kinds of syrup. One was their Cary’s 100% Pure Maple Syrup, the other was their Highland Brand blended syrup, a mixture of cane and maple syrup.
Advertisement from a 1950 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine for Highland Syrup, featuring the Brooks D. Fuerst bottle.
Prior to the introduction of the Cary’s brand pure maple syrup in 1948, the Cary Maple Sugar Company had used the Highland brand for bottling pure maple syrup since 1919. Highland brand blended syrup continued in use to the mid-1960s and appears to have been discontinued after the Childs-Fred Fear Company sold the Cary’s brand to HCA-Doxsee Foods in 1966. The Cary’s brand of maple syrup continues to be sold to this day by B & G Foods.
Advertisement for Cary’s Maple Maker concentrated syrup – May 1953 Los Angeles Times.
The Cary Maple Sugar Company also used the 8-ounce Fuerst flask from 1953 to 1957 to sell their unique “Maple Maker” a highly concentrated maple syrup in which one ounce of concentrate mixed with water and refined white sugar would produce 16 ounces of maple flavored table syrup. This product was aimed at a cost-conscious buyer that wanted to enjoy “home-made” maple flavored syrup at a fraction of the cost of 100% pure maple syrup.
This was not the first design for a maple syrup bottle by a Fuerst. In fact, Brooks Fuerst’s older brother Edwin W. Fuerst (1903-1988) designed a similar bottle over 15 years earlier. It should be noted that, then and to this day, design patents were protected for 14 years.
Image of Edwin W. Fuerst.
With Edwin W. Fuerst’s earlier design, the patent was applied for in December 1932 before obtaining former approval in February 1933. Like with the 1951 syrup flask, the 1933 design patent (USD89301) was assigned to the manufacturer, Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Also, like the 1951 design, the first maple syrup company to use the design was the Cary Maple Sugar Company, this time in 2, 8, 12, and 24-ounce sizes. Edwin Fuerst, like his younger brother, was an experienced commercial artist that lived in Toledo and worked closely with the Owens-Illinois and Libbey Glass companies. Like Brooks Fuerst, Edwin was awarded dozens of design patents for artistic glass containers as well as attractive cut glass tableware from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Drawing for Edwin W. Fuerst’s 1933 design patent for the round syrup flask (USD89301).
The design of Edwin Fuerst’s 1933 syrup bottle, was titled “design for a jug.” It had a rounder shape to the body than the 1951 bottle and also featured a virtually identical, small, seemingly useless angled handle at the neck. The 1933 bottle featured a thick rectangular base that made it much heavier and more stable than the later more oval flask design. In contrast, the later 1951 flask features a series of short decorative vertical flutes or concave scallops near the base which were absent from the earlier bottle.
Advertisement for Cary Maple Sugar Company’s Highland Maple Sap Syrup featuring Edwin Fuerst’s round bottle – January 1937 Chicago Tribune.
It is not known for sure, but it appears that the Cary Company may have had exclusive rights to use both the 1933 and the 1951 designs during the beginning years of the manufacturing of these bottles. However, we do know that Quebec Maple Products, LTD out of Lennoxville, Quebec, also used this design as early as 1935 with their Old Colony brand syrup. Quebec Maple Products, LTD was owned by Robert Boright who had a close history with the Cary Company, first as the manager of their Quebec plant, then as the temporary company president following the death of George Cary in 1931.
Examples of Highland Maple Sap Syrup bottles. 12 ounce bottle on left and smaller 2..0 ounce sample size bottle on right.
In fact, considering that the 1933 design was in the works and initially submitted for a patent in 1932 during the period that Boright oversaw the Cary Company operations, it is possible that it was Boright’s idea and initiative to introduce the new bottle.
Ontario newspaper advertisements for Quebec Maple Products, LTD use of the Edwin Fuerst bottle. Old Colony advertisement on left from February 1935 The Windsor Star and Old Tyme Syrup on the right from October 1958 The Windsor Star.
When Boright left the Cary company and started his own Quebec Maple Products, LTD in 1933, he certainly had the inside scoop on the availability of the new design. And as far as can be seen, Quebec Maple Products, LTD only used the 1933 bottle for sale of their syrup within Canada, so they likely would not have been competing with the Cary company in the US or violating exclusivity agreements or US patent laws. Quebec Maple Products LTD continued to use the 1933 round bottle design well into the 1960s with their Old Colony and Old Tyme Brand syrups.
Examples of two different containers of Little Brown Jug Syrup. The ceramic container from 1920s is on left and the 1930s glass design with the loop handle on the neck is on the right.
The 1933 Fuerst bottle curiously resembles another bottle introduced in the 1930s, that of Little Brown Jug syrup out of St. Louis, Missouri. When Little Brown Jug blended syrup was introduced in 1921 or 1922, it originally came in a ceramic container shaped like a thick round disc on its side with a large loop handle on the shoulder. That design (USD61415) was patented by Joseph Klein in 1922. Around 1934 the Little Brown Jug Products Company shifted to a brown glass bottle in a design that was similar to their earlier ceramic design, with the addition of some notable differences, which happened to make their glass jug very similar to the 1933 round jug of Fuerst, such as a round loop handle on the neck and a thick glass ring or ridge at the juncture of the neck and shoulder. Surprisingly, the glass version of the Little Brown Jug, which only appears in advertisements from 1934 onward, is embossed with the design patent number of their earlier, and different, ceramic jug. One would think the Little Brown Jug company would have also obtained a patent on their new, slightly modified, glass design, unless they were concerned with accusations of copying Fuerst and instead wanted to reply on the precedent of their earlier design patent. It is also possible that Fuerst did the design for the glass version of the Little Brown Jug, and a design patent was never applied for. So far, research has yet to uncover a patent specific to the 1930s design of the Little Brown Jug.
Interestingly, a check of the 1926 and the 1933 catalogs for the Owens- Illinois Glass Company shows the same reinforced ridge or ring at the neck was standard design element for loop handled bottles and jugs at that time.
Use of the 1951 Fuerst bottle by the maple industry in 1960s and 1970s was primarily limited to the large packing companies with national sales and shelf space in grocery chains. It was rarely offered for sale in the catalogs of maple equipment dealers. It wasn’t until the 1980s, with the growing availability and appreciation of specialty glass containers that the flask bottle became a popular option with individual maple producers. By the mid-1990s, the handle design evolved from an angular shape to its current rounded form, finalizing the shape we easily identify today as a symbol of real maple syrup.
Image of the book “Sugar-Bush Antiques” with original artwork on the dust jacket by East Aurora, NY artist Rix Jennings.
For collectors of maple sugaring antiques, artifacts, and material culture, there is one book that stands out as a kind of beginners’ guide and check list to the many different items one might come across and chose to collect. That guide is the book Sugar-Bush Antiques by Virginia Vidler. The book was published in 1979 by A.S. Barnes and Co. a New York based textbook and encyclopedia publisher at the time.
Sugar-Bush Antiques was Vidler’s second guide book on antiques, following on the 1976 release of American Indian Antiques: Arts and Artifacts of the Northeast, also published by A.S. Barnes. She also later published a book in 1985 on collectibles and souvenirs related to Niagara Falls.
Virginia Vidler in her element searching for sugar-bush antiques at a New York sugarbush.
Although Virginia Vidler’s name is on her books as a sole author, in reality, all of her books were a joint project of Virginia and her husband Edward Vidler. As an amateur photographer, Ed Vidler’s main contribution was in providing the many black and white and color images of artifacts, antiques, sugarhouses, and sugaring accoutrement in this well-illustrated book. Vidler asked local East Aurora and Buffalo artist and illustrator Rixford “Rix” Upham Jennings to do the color painting to provide a unique and original cover design.
Image from the frontispiece of “Sugar-Bush Antiques.”
Virginia Vidler was interested in local New York and new England history and served as the historian for the Town of Aurora. Her interest in maple sugaring and sugar-bush antiques primarily came from her fascination and interest in researching and documenting history. Virginia and Ed Vidler’s son Don Vidler shared that they were not a family of maple sugar makers, although there was a great deal of sugaring in the countryside around them. According to son Don, it was common for the Vidlers to head out on the weekends for sugarhouse and antique hunting expeditions in western New York.
Image showing the well illustrated pages of “Sugar-Bush Antiques.”
More than simply a collection of photographs of old maple sugaring items, this book traces the history of the maple industry from Native Americans to early pioneers, and into the modern era. With a focus on the material remains of maple sugar and syrup making, there is a special emphasis on the changing technology of production and packaging as well as the change of materials from wood to metal as well as ceramic and glass. From the smallest and humblest wood or tin maple sugar mold to the large kettles, evaporators, or gathering tanks and onto the finest cut glass syrup pitchers, there is little that has been overlooked. Photographs, paintings and prints, and other printed ephemera like postcards and industry guidebooks and reports are also examined.
Additional example of pages from “Sugar-Bush Antiques” showing the many maple sugaring artifacts illustrated and described in the book.
According to Don Vidler, Virginia and Ed Vidler’s son, the Vidlers amassed a reasonably big collection of maple related antiques, some of which appeared in the photos in the book. Mrs. Vidler recognized that what is considered common place today, will someday be an antique and of interest to the collector. She was quoted in a 1985 newspaper article where she gave a bit of advice on her collecting strategy, noting “when you go to an auction at a farm in the sugar bush country, be sure to check out the items in the barns and behind the old sheds. That is where you will find the authentic sugar bush antiques that no one else seems to recognize.”
When the Vidlers were not running around the countryside visiting sugarbushes and sugarhouses, collecting antiques, or taking photographs, they spent most of their time running Vidler’s 5 and 10 in East Aurora, New York, a short distance from Buffalo. Vidler’s 5 and 10 was started by Ed Vidler’s father Robert Vidler in 1930 before brothers Ed and Bob Vidler took it over in the 1940s. Today, Vidler’s is known as the world’s largest 5 and 10 store. Virginia passed away in 1986 and Ed Vidler in 2019.
Sugar-Bush Antiques presents a good general overview of the wide range of tangible items that someone might consider collectible or of interest that represent or is related in some way to the business and activities of making, packaging, and selling maple sugar and maple syrup. Most sugar-bush antique collectors end up specializing in a few select areas or types of items like spouts, packaging tins, or sugar molds and develop a detailed knowledge of those items far beyond what one will find in this book; however, it is still enjoyable to sit down with a book like this and have a virtual museum tour at your fingertips. Fortunately, it is still possible to find used copies of the book through various online book sales websites.
Packaging maple syrup in plastic jugs is now commonplace and jugs are the primary container for retail sales. However, sixty years ago there were no plastic jugs and syrup was either packaged in metal or glass containers. When first introduced to the maple industry, plastic was modern and novel, but it was also an untried and unproven material. In time, the industry found what types of plastic worked best and settled on the familiar shape of a jug with a handle for its plastic containers. In getting to that point there were a few earlier, less well-known attempts at bottling syrup in plastic containers. Prior to the introduction of the jug shape there were a few other examples of plastic maple syrup containers.
The unique and instantly recognizable shape of the modern plastic maple syrup container got its start in the early 1970s when a pair of New England inventors and their companies introduced a new container made from a stiff, unbreakable plastic that could handle the requirements of hot-packed syrup and hold up to the rigors of shipping and transport.
Following the introduction of plastic jugs and increasing popularity of using plastic containers for packaging maple syrup in the 1970s, a group of new manufacturers entered the picture to meet the growing demand. It was during the decade of the 1980s that the plastic syrup jugs most commonly used by syrup makers today got their start, as well as some other manufacturers that operated on a smaller scale or for a limited duration.
1960s
Harry Chapman
Plastic squeeze bottle for maple syrup introduced by Harry Chapman in 1962. From the Collections of Matthew M. Thomas.
The earliest example of bottling with plastic containers was the efforts of sugarmaker Harry Chapman of South Wallingford, Vermont. In 1959 while still an engineering student at the University of Vermont, Harry began experimenting with different available plastic containers and settled on a polypropylene tubular squeeze bottle used for condiments and by the honey industry. In an interview with Harry, he shared that starting in 1962 he purchased bottles from an Albany, NY wholesaler in half pint, full pint, and quart sizes, and added a two-color, yellow and dark green, label on the clear containers using a silk screen set-up he built himself. Beside bottling syrup from the Chapman family sugarbush in the squeeze bottles, for a couple of years, Harry drove around Vermont selling the bottles to other syrup makers with roadside syrup stands and made numerous presentations promoting the use of this new technology and container.
Vermont Maple Orchards – Frank Rees
Carol Brown, Vermont Maple Queen in 1962 is show examining the Vermont Maple Orchards plastic syrup container in the shape of a sugarhouse. Image appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer – September 29, 1962.
Beginning in the spring of 1962, Vermont Maple Orchards of Essex Junction, Vermont began selling syrup packaged in a miniature plastic sugarhouse. This container was about a half pint in size and made from clear plastic with a pour spout fashioned to look like the smoke stack of the sugarhouse. The company promoted the benefits of plastic as being unbreakable and free from the threat of rusting. Frank Rees, General Manager of Vermont Maple Orchards at that time, was a chemist by training and was a part of the research in the 1930s to identify the sources of lead in maple syrup. As a result, he was sensitive to potential risks of solder leaching from metal cans into syrup and quickly embraced the potential of plastic as a packaging material. Tom Rees, the son of Frank Rees, recalls that the plastic sugarhouse was not a successful item and only sold for a couple of years, in part because the plastic used at that time, probably polypropylene, was not suited to the hot packing of maple syrup and soon after became brittle and hard. In fact, in a August 1962 letter from Malvine Cole, a spokesperson for Vermont Maple Orchards, to Frank Rees, she noted that when left in the hot sun in her car for a few hours, the plastic appeared to have softened and leaked syrup. Little is known about these plastic sugarhouses, such as where and how they were manufactured or who designed them. Their novelty at the time and short lifespan has made them a rarity and essentially unknown among collectors of vintage maple syrup containers.
Robert Bramhall and Robert M. Lamb
Pint sized plastic container for maple syrup introduced by Robert Bramhall in 1965. From the Collections of Tom McCrumm.
A third early plastic container was introduced in 1965 by Robert “Bob” Bramhall, Sr., the woodlands manager for the J.P. Lewis Company (JPL) working out of Beaver Falls, NY. Bramhall, who supervised JPL’s maple sugaring operation began experimenting in 1963 with the idea of bottling in plastic before settling on a square shaped container with a maple leaf design embossed on the side. Bramhall worked with the American Plastics Corporation in nearby Bainbridge, NY to manufacture the opaque cream and peach-colored containers. In the first year he had 50,000 pint-sized containers made with a quart size added the following year. According to Butch Bramhall, Bob Bramhall’s son, one of the reasons Bob looked at plastic was the shortage in the availability of metal syrup cans in the early 1960s.
The Bramhall plastic container came in pint and quart sizes. Photo by author from the collections of the International Maple Museum Centre.
Bob’s daughter-in-law Pat Bramhall added that Bob wanted to have a container that was smaller and easier for housewives to handle and use than the large half and full gallon tins that were most common at that time. After offering the containers for sale for about one year, in 1966 Bramhall transferred the sales of the containers to Robert M. Lamb’s growing plastic tubing and sugaring supplies company in Baldwinsville, NY. Lamb continued to advertise the container for sale through the end of 1969 when they were replaced by the new plastic syrup jugs coming out on the market.
1970s
Kress Creations – Elmer Kress
Examples of Kress Creations plastic jugs in one pint and a half gallon sizes. Photo by author from the collections of the International Maple Museum Centre.
Elmer Kress got his start as a potter when he opened Kress Ceramics in Seymour, Connecticut in the 1950s. According to his daughter Sarah Jean Davies, Elmer developed health problems related to exposure to ceramic dust and needed to make a change in his business. He sold the pottery business in 1967 and decided to give the manufacturing of plastic maple syrup containers a try under the name Kress Creations.
Kress had previously dabbled with producing small, novelty size stoneware jugs for maple syrup sales, so he had a familiarity and design idea in mind that resembled an antique loop handled stoneware jug.
Elmer and Mary Kress – Source: Maple Syrup Digest, March 1982.
Kress invested in his own blow molding equipment and made his containers from a new plastic called XT Polymer developed by the American Cyanamid Corporation out of Wallingford, Connecticut.
Early 1970s advertisement from ALCOA featuring the Kress syrup container and its use of the ALCOA pilfer-proof screw on metal cap. From the collections of the author.
XT Polymer was chosen by Kress because it could handle the hot packing of syrup. Kress jugs also featured a metal tamper-proof cap made by the ALCOA Company. Kress’ daughter tells that her father did not want his jug to look like cheap plastic, so he specifically used a heavier, glossier plastic that looked more like ceramic. XT polymer was more expensive, but Elmer felt it looked nicer. As an artist, Elmer Kress drew his own designs for the exterior sugarbush scene and did the one-color screen printing on site at the Kress Creations factory.
Elmer Kress working the screen printing machine – Source: Maple Syrup Journal, March 1982.
Kress jugs were originally released in early 1970 in pint and quart sizes, with half gallon and a unique three-quart sizes added later. The company outgrew the plant in Seymour and moved to a new facility in Oxford, Connecticut in 1975. The Kress operation was a true mom and pop business with the Kress family often taking weekend road trips around New England to peddle their containers out of the back of their car. Kress sold the plastic jug company in 1990 to a Southbury, New Hampshire firm, who in turn sold the molds to Pioneer Plastics in Greenville, New Hampshire who continued to manufacture and sell the Kress jug until around 2005. Elmer Kress passed away in 2005.
Bacon’s Sugar House – Charlie Bacon
Example od the iconic Bacon’s Sugar House plastic jug in one quart size. Photo by author from the collections of the International Maple Museum Centre.
As a syrup maker from Jaffney Center, New Hampshire, Charles “Charlie” Bacon was dissatisfied with metal syrup cans bursting when he shipped syrup across the country. Deciding plastics would be a better option, around 1967 he began researching food grade plastics that could handle hot packing of syrup. According to Bacon’s son, Jim Bacon, Charlie settled on high density polyethylene as the best option and, working from a simple sketch, had a wood form made in the shape of an old-fashioned crockery jug which was then made into a durable metal form for blow-molding by Hillside Plastics in Sunderland, Massachusetts. Early examples of Bacon jugs featured a metal cap with an interior heat activated seal.
Charlie Bacon – Source: Maple Syrup Journal, June 1982.
The first Bacon jug was available for sale in early 1971 in a one-quart size followed by a half gallon and a pint a few months later, and lastly, a one-gallon jug in 1973. Jugs were screen printed and distributed from the Bacon farm. Eventually, they were available in five sizes with either a standard one-color screen-printed design or option to do custom designs. Adoption of Bacon jugs spread quickly with the assistance of a network of dealers located around the maple region to more directly connect with nearby syrup producers. By 1980, Bacon was manufacturing a million jugs a year. Jim Bacon shared that his father never obtained a design patent on his jugs. Although he considered it, Bacon realized that it was not worth the expense of filing the patent paperwork since another maker could come along with a slightly different design that was virtually identical, and there was nothing Bacon could do about it.
Assemblage of different sizes of Bacon jugs from mid-1980s, including the short-lived salad dressing shaped bottle.
Bacon became concerned with the quality of manufacturing at Hillside Plastics in the early 1980s. In response, in 1983 he took his molds to the Hussey Molding Corporation of Manchester, New Hampshire for production. Bacon sold the jug manufacturing, printing, and sales to Hussey around 1986. A few years later, a sales agent for Hussey that knew Hussey was interested in getting out of the screen printing and sales portion of the syrup jug business, recognized that both Dave McClure’s Honey and Maple Products and Roger Ames‘ American Maple Products of Newport, Vermont were each buying a lot of jugs. The agent put McClure and Ames in touch and in 1988 McClure and Ames partnered to purchase the painting and sales portion of the Bacon Jug Company, opening a shop in part of the old Cary Maple Sugar Company warehouse in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Hussey continued to serve as their jug manufacturer. A few years later McClure bought out Ames and moved the printing and distribution to a new facility in Littleton, New Hampshire. McClure himself sold the Bacon Jug Company in 1997 to Dutch Gold Honey, Incorporated and its subsidiary, Gamber Container, out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who continue to own and operate the Bacon Jug Company from the Littleton location. Under the ownership of Dutch Gold and Gamber, manufacturing of the Bacon jug was moved from Hussey to Hillside Plastics of Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Charlie Bacon passed away in 2006.
R.M. Lamb – Bob Lamb
Examples of R.M. Lamb plastic jugs in half liter (16.9 ounces) and 1 liter (33.8 ounces) sizes. Photo by author from the collections of the International Maple Museum Centre.
Robert “Bob” Lamb, inventor and manufacturer of Lamb Naturalflow plastic tubing, also offered a blow molded plastic jug for maple syrup in the 1970s and 1980s. Described as a “pot bellied plastic jug” by Lamb, this container was shaped and colored to look like a stoneware loop handle jug with very rounded shoulders and a tapered base. These were made from XT Polymer plastic, similar to the Kress jugs, and silkscreened with a one color, old-time sugarbush scene created by an unnamed “famous French artist” according to information in a 1973 letter from Bob Lamb to Fred Laing at the University of Vermont. When first released, the Lamb jug featured a metal ALCOA tamper-proof cap, like the Kress jugs, and later replaced by a plastic cap. Not a lot is known about the Lamb jugs. They were released in 1973 in two metric sizes of 125 and 500 milliliters and were targeted for sale to Canadian maple syrup producers. Lamb felt that we were all going to be going metric in North America and it was wise to make his containers in metric sizes from the start. In 1975 Lamb expanded his line to include 1-liter and 2-liter jugs.
Lamb jugs were made of XT Polymer plastic, the same material used by Elmer Kress, because Lamb thought it made for a better looking container; however, the Lamb jugs were slightly more expensive than the Kress containers. The Lamb jug appears in advertisements in the Digest from 1973 through 1977 and in Canadian equipment sales catalogs in the early 1980s before being discontinued by 1985.
Fairfield Plastics – S. Allen Soule
Allen Soule, the Vermont inventor of the first lithographed metal can for maple syrup producers in the late 1940s, got into the plastic jug making business in 1975 when he purchased a blow molding machine for the manufacturing of small sized polypropylene plastic containers. Soule’s containers were designed for sales in gift shops and the tourist trade. Most of Soule’s jugs were made for use in bottling syrup from his Fairfield Farms brand pure maple and blended syrups. In addition to making containers for his own maple products, Soule sold containers to syrup makers under the name Fairfield Plastics. Soule’s containers resembled small ceramic jugs with short necks and loop handles and in some cases were made from a bright yellow plastic. According to John Soule, son of S. Allen Soule, Fairfield Plastics ended production in 1987 when the molding machine and molds were destroyed in a fire at their Fairfield, Vermont bottling plant. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate examples of the S. Allen Soule jug to illustrate here.
1980s
P.H. S. Syrup Jugs – Peter Stransky
Examples of Stransky jugs in 375, 250, and 100 ml sizes. Image Source: Photo by author. Photo by author from the collections of the International Maple Museum Centre.
Peter Stransky entered the maple business in the 1960s, selling maple syrup equipment out of Collingwood, Ontario, later adding syrup buying, packing, and sales to the company activities. Between 1967 and 1979, Stransky saw early success as the primary distributor of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association orange, white, and green metal cans. Stransky realized that if he made his own plastic containers, he could cut out the middleman for container purchases and have better control over quality and availability. In 1978, Stransky had molds designed for five smaller sizes of jugs, ranging from 3.4 ounces to a quart. His jugs were made by Olympus Plastics, a blow-molding company in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The containers were a round jug shape with a loop handle, a pronounced shoulder break, a reinforced ridge near the lip, and were painted with one color screen printing of a traditional maple sugaring scene. Stransky’s primary intent was making containers for his own packaging, but he also offered the containers for sale, primarily to Ontario and U.S. syrup producers. Manufacture and sale of the Stransky jugs continued until 1998 when Peter Stransky retired and closed his equipment and syrup sales business without selling or transferring the molds for his containers. Peter Stransky passed away in 2020.
Sugarhill Maple Containers – Dick Haas
Examples of Sugarhill containers in five sizes. Image Source: Brookfield Maple Products website.
Hillside Plastics got its start in 1967 as a small family-owned plastics company operating out of a horse barn in Sunderland, Massachusetts, blow molding containers for apple cider and fluid milk. As a young man in his twenties, Richard Haas began working as an employee at Hillside Plastics in 1969. In the early years, the company struggled and was not always able to cover Dick’s salary. Instead, Dick was occasionally paid in company shares, which ultimately led Dick and Janet Haas to purchase the company in the mid-1970s.
Hillside Plastics first made plastic jugs for maple syrup in 1970 when Charlie Bacon contracted with Hillside to do the blow molding of his new Bacon Jug (see Part II of this article in December 2021 issue of the Digest). When the Bacon Jug company decided to take their business elsewhere in 1980, Hillside Plastics, having learned a great deal about the plastic syrup jug business, formed Sugarhill Containers to manufacture and sell a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) maple syrup jug of its own design. According to Peter Haas, Dick’s son, demand for plastic jugs really increased in the 1980s when the large wholesale club stores on the west coast began to shift to shipping and selling syrup packed in plastic.
Haas family in early 1990s with Sugarhill containers, left to right Kate, Peter, Janet, Dick, and Greg Haas. Image Source: Peter Haas.
The company grew to a workforce of over fifty employees producing 60,000 jugs a day, necessitating a move in 1993 to a larger and new 47,000 square foot building up the road in Turners Falls. In addition to maple syrup jugs and even a plastic cabin-shaped container in 1995, Hillside Plastics expanded their catalog to manufacture blow-molded containers for a variety of other industrial, automotive, and food products; however, maple syrup jugs were always the centerpiece of their business.
Sugarhill Containers grew so popular over time that Dick Haas noted in 1997 that they were making more containers in one day than they made in an entire year in the early 1970s. The Sugarhill Containers are noted for being the leaders in developing and patenting the Extended Life (XL) exterior coating as a measure to reduce the air and moisture permeability of the plastic and better preserve the color grade of the syrup inside. Hillside has come up with other materials and design innovations, like developing a material for labels that would not wrinkle and could expand and shrink with the hot filling and cooling of plastic syrup jugs. In addition to producing Sugarhill Containers, Hillside Plastics does contract molding for other brands of maple syrup jugs, such as the Bacon Jug in the 1970s and again in the 2000s. Following the death of Dick Haas in 2010, the company continued to operate under the leadership of his wife Janet, and three children Peter Haas, Greg Haas, and Kate (Haas) Colby. The Haas family sold the business in 2015 to its current owner, Plastic Industries, Inc. and its parent company Carr Management, Inc.
T.A.P. Farm, Inc. – Chris Audley
Chris Audley seated with Bacon Jugs printed in French for Canadian market. Image Source: Maple Syrup Journal, issue 1, 1981.
Chris Audley, a Quebec syrup maker, became the Bacon Jug distributor for Canada in 1979. In 1980, at roughly the same time the Bacon Jug company made a shift in manufacturers away from Hillside Plastics to Hussey Plastics, Charlie Bacon and Chris Audley realized that importing American made jugs into Canada was too expensive. Instead, Charlie Bacon had a set of molds sent to Audley to begin manufacturing Bacon jugs in Quebec. Audley found a blow-molder near Montreal, Quebec and ensured jugs were printed in French and English as required for sale in Canada. Audley formalized his container business in 1982 when he formed company called T.A.P. Farm, Inc. with the T.A.P. name an acronym for Ton Acériculteur Provincal, meaning “your provincial sugarmaker.”
Audley’s T.A.P. Farm, Inc. unfortunately went bankrupt in 1983 when it unsuccessfully tried to launch 250 ml and 500ml foil-lined, cardboard containers for packaging maple syrup. Later that year, Audley sold the plastic jug portion of the business to Gerard Filion, a hardware store owner in St. Andrews East, Quebec who carried maple syrup making supplies and sold a good amount of Audley’s Canadian Bacon Jug.
Les Cruchons J.U.G.S. – Gerard Filion
Earliest Les Cruchons JUGS with looping handle and stepped shoulder. Image source 1983 Dominion & Grimm catalog.
In the late 1970s, Gerard Filion and his wife Lise were running St. Andrews Hardware store in St. Andrews Est, Quebec. Their store specialized in the sale of maple sugaring supplies, including the Bacon Jug supplied to Filion by Chris Audley, the Canadian distributor for Bacon Jugs. In 1983, Filion purchased Audley’s T.A.P. Farm, Inc. syrup container company and entered the plastic jug manufacturing business, calling his new company Les Cruchons J.U.G.S. Since he did not assume Audley’s Bacon Jug distributorship, one of the first things Filion did was develop his own jug design and molds.
Catalog image of Les Cruchons JUGS showing two jug designs. In the front row is the earliest variation with the stepped shoulder. In the back row is the later variation with an angled shoulder and squared handle. Image Source: 1994 Dominion & Grimm catalog.
His first jugs featured a step on the shoulder of the jug and a looping handle and were made under contract by a Montreal blow molding firm. In 1992, Filion purchased his own silk-screening machine and was doing the printing on the jugs in the back of the hardware store. Around 1994, Filion introduced a new jug design featuring a more angled shoulder and a squared loop handle. By 1996, this design replaced the stepped shoulder jugs and became the Les Cruchons jug shape that is still in use today.
Examples of the current Les Cruchons – Ampak jugs available and in wide use by syrup makers today.
The popularity of Les Cruchons syrup jugs grew fast and in 2000, Filion made the move to go into the jug manufacturing business full time and compete with the American manufacturers for a piece of the syrup jug market. That year he purchased a large warehouse production facility just across the border in nearby Hawkesbury, Ontario where corporate taxes were lower than in Quebec. He also began to do his own blow-molding of HDPE syrup jugs, as well as a variety of other food, pharmaceutical, and detergent containers. By 2005, sales had grown to include around five million syrup jugs a year produced in eleven shapes and sizes. Wishing to see the company grow, Filion made the decision in 2005 to sell Les Cruchons J.U.G.S. to Salvatore Nicastro and the AMPAK Corporation, investors from Montreal with experience in the plastics business and the necessary capital to fund the expansion. Gerard Filion and members of his family stayed on to assist the company for another 5 to 6 years. In 2014, Les Cruchons J.U.G.S., Inc. formally changed its name to Ampak Plast Inc., and continues to manufacture and distribute the Les Cruchons plastic syrup containers from their Hawkesbury facility.
As illustrated in this article, the story of the development and introduction of the jug-shaped plastic container for packaging maple syrup spanned three decades, from the 1960s to the 1980s. Although the industry continues to evolve and grow, the largest manufacturers in the modern syrup jug market can trace their origins to the 1980s and the earlier efforts, events, and individuals that paved the way for them.
This article first appeared in 2021 in three parts (Part I, Part II, Part III) in three separate issues of the Maple Syrup Digest. It has been condensed into one updated article here with the addition of a few more images, some images in color that were in black and white in the Maple Digest version, and few new details and lines of text.
Readers of this website may recall a similar post in the past outlining the relationship of the Vermont Maid Syrup company to other Vermont maple syrup and blended syrup companies. However, after seeing an August 2019 local-interest news clip from a Burlington, Vermont television station incorrectly describe the beginnings of the Vermont Maid company I thought I would write a more detailed, and accurate accounting of the company’s early years. Unfortunately, the presenters in the news piece didn’t do their research and repeated a popular, but inaccurate, narrative that Vermont Maid was started by the Welch Brothers Maple Products Company in Burlington in 1906 and was the first blended syrup on the market. Moreover, this news bit featured a representative from the Vermont Historical Society, in this case the Executive Director, affording the story a bit of unwarranted authority.
Earliest version of Vermont Maid Syrup tin and label from Essex Junction period, ca. 1920-1923. From the Tom McCrumm Collection.
Then on April 7, 1919 Fletcher sold his controlling interest in Vermont Maple Syrup Company, including the Essex Junction facilities, to George C. Cary, at that time one of the company’s minor shareholders.[2]
Group of Four Vermont Maid Syrup Ads that Appeared in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix Newspaper in February and March 1922.
Soon after in late April 1919 the Vermont Maid name was registered as a trademark by the Vermont Maple Syrup Company of Essex Junction and advertisements selling Vermont Maid blended cane and maple syrup began to appear at least as early as the fall of 1921.[3]
The first advertisement I have been able to find featuring the iconic logo of a young maiden at the center of an art nouveau styled shield and sporting a white bonnet in front of an outdoor scene of buildings, field, trees, and sky date to February 1922.[4]
Sugar Bird Syrup Tin, ca. 1916-1919. From the Tom McCrumm Collection.
Following the conclusion of a court case settling a disagreement between F.N. Johnson and George C. Cary over another syrup brand (Sugar Bird Syrup) that Cary incorrectly believed to be included in the sale of the Vermont Maple Syrup Company, Cary and his co-investors reorganized the Vermont Maple Syrup Company in June of 1922 and in February 1923 moved the company from Essex Junction to St. Johnsbury.[5]
Vermont Maid Syrup bottle and label from the St. Johnsbury period.
In 1926 F. N. Johnson returns to the story with a newly formed American Maple Corporation with the purchase of the Welch Brothers Maple Products Company of Burlington, Vermont, including their Pine and Marble Street bottling plant. That same year the American Maple Corporation also acquired Cary’s Vermont Maple Syrup Company and the Vermont Maid brand. By late 1926 or early 1927 the Vermont Maid brand had undoubtedly moved from St. Johnsbury to the old Welch Brothers plant on Pine and Marble Streets in Burlington. Following their various mergers and acquisitions the American Maple Products officially settled on the name of Vermont Maple Syrup Company in the spring of 1927.[6]
Large size single loop handle bottle with early, post-bonnet logo from Burlington bottling plant , ca. 1928-1932.
The Vermont Maple Syrup Company (formerly American Maple Corporation) did not hang onto the Vermont Maid brand for long and in October 1928 the Vermont Maple Syrup Company, including the Vermont Maid brand and the Burlington plant, was sold to Penick & Ford, Inc., a large national syrup company with products and interests in molasses, cane syrup, and corn syrup. The Vermont Maid brand continued to be bottled under Penick & Ford ownership in Burlington until it was sold to R. J. Reynolds in 1965. The plant continued to be used by RJ Reynolds Foods for bottling Vermont Maid syrup for another ten years, before the plant was closed and the bottle facilities moved to New Jersey in 1975.[7]
As stated at the beginning of this post, Vermont Maid Syrup or the the Vermont Maid brand was never a brand or part of the Welch Brothers Maple Products Company in Burlington. It is true that Vermont Maid was bottled in the same plant that was built for and once used by the Welch Brothers company, but Vermont Maid was neither started by Welch Brothers nor ever owned and operated by Welch Brothers. For some it may seem like splitting hairs, but good history is based on good research and it is important to get the story right. The confusion about that comes from the various companies and facilities that were consolidated and purchased by the American Maple Corporation/Vermont Maple Syrup Company. As for the idea that starting in 1906 the Welch Brothers first came up with the idea to bottle blended syrup combining maple and cane syrup couldn’t be further from the truth. There were literally dozens of syrup blenders at work at the same time if not long before the Welch Brothers formed in 1890.[8]
For collectors of maple syrup and Vermont Maid Syrup items, it is possible to find earliest tins and bottles with labels showing the Vermont Maid maiden wearing the white bonnet. These date from the short-lived Essex Junction period (ca. 1920 to 1923) and the St. Johnsbury period (1923 to 1926/27). The earliest labels also feature the words “VERMONT MAID” in an arched script above the word “SYRUP” at the top of the label. By the early Burlington period (1926/27 to 1929) the maiden has lost her white bonnet and the word “SYRUP” is no long present at the top of the label under “Vermont Maid”. All three of these earliest labels include a white panel or box with red print at the bottom of the label stating the town in which it was packed.
Left to right, earliest Vermont Maid Syrup labels. Left – Essex Junction period, middle – St. Johnsbury period, right – Burlington period.
Early bottle shapes include a clear glass round bodied, long neck form (see image near top if post) without a loop handle. Later a round bodied bottle with a single loop handle and reinforced lip at the junction of the neck and shoulder. It is not clear if the single loop handle bottle was used at the Essex Junction or St. Johnsbury bottling plant, but the single loop bottle was definitely in use in the early years of the Burlington bottling plant, ca. 1928-1932.
Example of early single loop handle bottle, ca. 1929-1932.
By 1930 the white box stating the location of manufacturing has disappeared. Advertisements from these early periods indicate that Vermont Maid syrup was packed in both tins and bottles with three sizes of tins and two sizes of bottle, as well as a sample size bottle.
Example of large size metal tin (ca. 1929-1932) and sample size glass bottle (ca. 1928-1929).
By 1932 the background behind the maiden has changed from an outdoor scene to a solid color and a lighter colored panel below the image of the maiden is replaced by a solid green background label.
Vermont Maid Syrup label with solid background in shield surrounding maiden and solid green primary label, ca 1932-1935.
The early bottles in both large and small sizes have a single loop handle. The slightly flattened, double loop handle bottle was patented and introduced in 1933, replacing the round single loop handle bottles.
1933 patent sheet for double loop handle bottle and example of early double loop handle bottle with 1935 copyright on logo.
After 1933 the Vermont Maid label witnessed subtle changes, most notably and useful for collectors, the addition and regular updating of the copyright date at the bottom of the label, with 1935, 1939, and 1942. Depending on the state labeling requirements for the state where the syrup was to be, labels varied based on their different ingredients and the amounts that were used. Some simply said “Made from Cane and Maple Sugar.” While others listed the percentages (85% cane and 15% maple) or in the case of a 1942 copyright label 50% Cane, 25% (Dextrose, Maltose, and Dextrines) and 25% Maple Sugar.
Examples of 1930s and 1940s Vermont Maid Syrup labels from double loop handle bottles with copyright years marked on label, left to right 1935, 1939, 1942, 1949.Vermont Maid Syrup example of standardized bottle for use by blended syrup companies during later years of World War II.
During the years of World War II, the War Production Board – Containers Division required all blended syrup companies to use a standardized bottle shape and size. Production of glass containers was limited by the government to a small range of specific bottle shapes and sizes to allow glass manufacturers to focus their efforts on more important wartime production and not creating specialty glass containers. As a result, like all other blended syrup, from around 1943 to 1947 Vermont Maid was sold in what was sometimes called the “stubby round” bottle, more commonly recognized today as a molasses or vinegar bottle. Following the end of the war, Vermont Maid returned to being bottled in the double loop handle bottle. Use of this bottle shape continued well into the late 1960s and possibly the early 1970s.
One might wonder from where did the idea for the maiden label and logo come? Having lost the right to use the Sugar Bird Syrup brand in 1921, George Cary and the Vermont Maple Syrup Company needed a new logo for their blended syrup and somehow settled on the Vermont Maid name. It is striking how similar the initial bonneted maiden on the Vermont Maid Syrup logo was to the bonneted maiden of the Sun-Maid Raisins logo, also introduced around this time.
Side-by-side comparison of early Vermont Maid maiden with white bonnet and Sun Maid maiden with red bonnet.
Sun-Maid Raisins began to display a maiden on their logo in 1915, predating the Vermont Maid Syrup logo, and the similarities between the two labels are. Interestingly, the image of the girl in the Sun-Maid Raisins logo is based on a real person named Lorraine Collett, although her likeness evolved over time. In contrast, it is not known if the Vermont Maid Syrup maiden was similarly based on a real person or was more of an imaginary caricature of a persona, more like the fictitious Betty Crocker.
There have been other uses of the name Vermont Maid as a brand, such as for cottage cheese, and there are other table syrups featuring maidens and the word “Maid” in their name like Dixie Maid, Kitchen Maid, and Yankee Maid. These all date to a period after this Vermont Maid Syrup began.
Example of tin for Towle’s Vermont Maid Pure Sap Maple Syrup, ca. 1910-1915. From the collection of Scott Benjamine.
But perhaps the most likely candidate for the source of the name and image was from an earlier Vermont Maid Pure Sap Maple Syrup that was bottled and canned by the Towle’s Maple Products Company in St. Johnsbury and St. Paul between 1910 and 1914. The Towle’s Company was more famous for their Log Cabin brand of syrup that came in cabin shaped metal tins. Towle’s bottled their syrups in their St. Paul plant until a fire in the fall of 1909 nearly gutted the facility. Needing a place to quickly set up a new plant while they rebuilt. George Cary of the Cary Maple Sugar Company sold the Towle Company his St. Johnsbury plant. Cary at that time was buying millions of pounds of maple sugar for resale to the tobacco industry and had not yet entered the syrup bottling and blending side of the maple industry. The Towle Company operated in St. Johnsbury for five years (1910 to 1914), bottling both their iconic Log Cabin Syrup label, as well as a host of other labels, including Towle’s Vermont Maid Pure Sap Maple Syrup, which unlike Towle’s Log Cabin Syrup was supposed to a 100% pure maple syrup. Considering this was in the period after the enactment of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, when testing and prosecution of adulteration was common, it is likely true that the Towle’s Vermont Maid syrup was 100% pure maple syrup and not a blend.
There is no strong indication that the Towle’s Vermont Maid Syrup label was used beyond the Towle Company’s presence in St. Johnsbury, although there are some grocers’ advertisements that continued to list Towle’s Vermont Maid Syrup for sale as late as 1918, possibly selling older stock that was bottled and canned a few years earlier. George Cary and his co-investors were certainly familiar with the Towle’s Vermont Maid brand and that it was no long in use when they trademarked the name in 1919.
For the student of advertising history and collector of Vermont Maid Syrup bottles and tins, the label and bottle shapes evolved over the years, sometimes reflecting the different ownerships and bottling facilities and sometimes reflecting the changing tastes in packaging design and function. What has not changed is the presence of a female maiden centered on a green panel, emphasizing the well-recognized color of the state of Vermont.
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[1] “New Maple Syrup Industry,” Rutland News October 17, 1916; “New Vermont Corporations: Canton Bros. of Barre and Vermont Maple Syrup Co. of Essex Junction,” The Barre Daily Times September 28, 1916;
[2] “ ‘Sugar Bird Brand’ Causes Suit in Court: George Cary Interested in Maple Sugar Suit in U.S. Court,” The Caledonian Record March 18, 1921.
[3]The Pittsburg Press September 30, 1921; Springfield Reporter December 29, 1921;
[4]Muskogee Daily Phoenix February 28, 1922; Muskogee Daily Phoenix April 11, 1922; Muskogee Daily Phoenix April 22, 1922; Muskogee Daily Phoenix April 15, 1922.
[5] “VT. Maple Syrup CO. had been Incorporated in St. Johnsbury,” The Barre Daily Times June 19,1922; The Landmark (White River Junction) February 22, 1923; Groton Times February 23, 1923.
[6] “Welch Retires from Maple Co.,” Burlington Free Press July 23, 1926; “Maple Corp. Has $600,000 Capital,” Burlington Free Press September 27, 1926; “American Maple Corporation to Put Out 2942 Preferred Shares,” Burlington Free Press November 11, 1926; Burlington Free Press November 23, 1926; Burlington Free Press February 28, 1927.
[7] “Maple Syrup Co. Sold to New Yorkers,” Burlington Free Press October 12, 1928; Penick & Ford Acquires Company,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle October 18, 1928; “R J Reynolds Tobacco Buying Penick & Ford LTD,” Burlington Free Press March 2, 1965; “RJ Reynolds Foods To Close Vermont Maid Syrup Plant, Burlington,” Burlington Free Press August 23, 1975.
[8] “Wanted Maple Syrup!,” Orleans County Monitor July 28, 1890; “A New Maple Sugar Company,” Burlington Free Press January 22, 1891.
For much of the twentieth century maple syrup was packaged for sale and shipment in metal containers. The first half of the century was witness to maple producers pasting paper labels onto bare metal gallon, half-gallon, and quart-sized tins. But by the mid-point of the century a new, more attractive and colorful option came onto the market.
Color lithographed square tins with maple sugaring scenes were first introduced for individual maple producers in Vermont for the 1948 season’s crop. Sugarmaker S. Allen Soule of Fairfield, Vermont developed the cans in 1947 after seeing olive oil sold in gallon size square tins with colorful graphics on the exterior, known as double O tins in the can industry.
1947 advertisement for S. Allen Soule’s maple syrup showing his new color lithographed can, which made available for sale to maple producers in the 1948 season.
In a March 2019 interview with S. Allen Soule’s son, John Soule shared that his father contacted the Empire Can Company in Brooklyn, New York and asked if they could make a can similar to the double O can, but for maple syrup. Empire Can said they could, and S. Allen Soule and his wife Betty worked with a New England artist to design the exterior featuring a sugaring scene on the two larger faces of the can and a short history of maple syrup and a few maple recipes on the side panels. The front panel read “Pure Vermont Maple Syrup” and initially included a blank white rectangle where the individual maple syrup producer could stamp their name and address.
Image of the four sizes of cans offered for sale by S. Allen Soule. Note the blue oval for syrup makers to add their name and address.
Of course, you could order a stamp with your sugarbush name from S. Allen Soule to go with your order of empty cans. A few years later the blank white rectangle was replaced with a more attractive blank blue oval. The initial cans were made in one gallon, a half-gallon and one-quart sizes with the focus on pushing the smaller quart size can as a more attractive size for tourists and more distant markets in the urban areas.
It should be noted that S. Allen Soule and his can and syrup packing and selling operation (later named Fairfield Farm) was not the same company as the George H. Soule evaporator and maple sugaring equipment company. George H. Soule and S. Allen Soule were cousins and both from the Fairfield area, but they were distinctly different families and businesses, despite the similar names and even the later reuse of the Fairfield Farms name by S. Allen Soule in the 1960s following the closing of G.H. Soule’s Fairfield Farms in the 1950s.
1967 Maple Digest advertisements for the Empire Can Company showing the three styles of cans it was offering, including the style developed by S. Allen Soule in 1947.
Following the success of S. Allen Soule’s introduction of the lithographed square tin, the Empire Can Company got into the business of directly marketing and selling color lithographed tins to maple producers in the mid-1950s, albeit with a different and even more generic design and label, to appeal to maple producers in states outside of Vermont. According to S. Allen Soule’s son, Empire Can’s entry in the can market as a seller and not just as a can maker was to the surprise of S. Allen Soule who was working under the belief that he had an exclusive arrangement with Empire Can Company.
Empire Can Company’s color lithographed generic maple syrup can.
1957 ad for the Stern Can Company’s color lithographed maple syrup can.
Empire Can’s entry in to the maple syrup can market was soon followed by the appearance of additional stock color lithographed square cans from the Stern Can Company of Boston, Massachusetts in the later 1950s and the Eastern Can Company of Passaic, New Jersey in the early 1960s. Maple producers had the options of buying totally generic tins or buying tins with labels of Pure Maple Syrup with their respective state names. States with specific cans printed with their names generally included Vermont, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Eastern Can Company square color lithographed cans introduced in 1967.
By the early 1970s production of stock square cans for the maple syrup industry had fallen off and it was becoming increasingly difficult to purchase square color lithographed cans in the United States. The Empire Can Company was the last large volume can producer and was not producing enough cans to meet industry needs. In addition, new production methods were resulting in more and more defective cans. Concerns about can availability worsened when the Empire Can Company announced it was getting out of the maple syrup can business in 1978.
In response, the Leader Evaporator Company formed Maple Country Can Company and in a controversial move, secured a public loan in combination with private financing to purchase and move the Empire Can Company equipment to a new facility under construction in St. Albans, Vermont. Maple Country Can Co. was a short-lived venture and closed its doors a few years later in 1980, selling its canning equipment to the New England Container Company in Swanton, Vermont.
Packaging maple syrup metal cans, including a reintroduction of the log cabin shaped can, continues to this day but the introduction of plastic containers in 1970 and the greater use of smaller and fancy glass containers in a wide range of shapes and sizes has pushed packaging in metal cans to the background.
1953 advertisement for the new Quebec round can for pure maple syrup.
In Quebec, a generic color lithographed can was introduced for maple syrup makers in the early 1950s. Moving away from the industry standard of a plain square metal can with glued on paper labels, the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture held a design competition in 1951 asking for submissions with a maple sugaring scene to illustrate their new 26 ounce round cans. According to one telling of this history, it is not exactly clear what was the initial winning design or if there was more than one design chosen, and unfortunately the name of the wining artist has yet to be discovered.
Examples of a range of different generic pure Quebec maple syrup round cans.
Over time, the design of the standard stock round can for maple syrup in Quebec has evolved and the design has changed. Unlike in the U.S., in Quebec square tins became less common. With the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture and the support of the Quebec Maple Producers Federation, round tins became the norm and are now something of an iconic symbol of the Quebec maple industry.
Image of the current version of the stock pure Quebec maple syrup round can.1920’s image of a Highland Pure Maple Sap Syrup round can from the Cary Maple Sugar Company out of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Although Quebec has embraced the round can, they were not the first to use if for packaging maple syrup. Maple King, George C. Cary was canning pure maple syrup in round, soup can-sized tins with color lithographed exteriors as early as 1923. Before Cary’s use of a round lithographed can, the Towle’s Log Cabin syrup company was canning blended maple and cane syrup starting in the late 19-teens. The Towle’s Log Cabin company color lithographed cans initially were limited to the Log Cabin Brand in its colorful cabin shaped tins with interesting scenes printed on all sides. In the early 1920s, The Towle’s company also began marketing Wigwam brand blended maple and cane syrup in a unique wedge shaped color lithographed can.
Most maple syrup today is packaged into clear glass bottles or plastic jugs, but back in the day when the maple industry was shifting from making mostly maple sugar to maple syrup and maple syrup was being promoted as a condiment to pour over foods, metal cans were the standard method of packaging for direct sale to a consumer.
The manufacture and use of metal cans for preserving and transporting foods and liquids dates back to the early part of the 1800s, but it wasn’t until after the American Civil War that production of metal food canisters became efficient and affordable enough for most food industries to begin to package their products into smaller sizes more convenient for purchase for home consumption. In addition maple sugar was being underpriced by the more popular refined white cane sugar, leading the maple industry to refocus its attention and production on maple syrup as different and unique from table sugar. The industry shift from maple sugar to maple syrup was fairly gradual, but was well on it is way in the 1870s and 1880s.
Advertisement from the 1870s do tell us that merchants were selling maple syrup readily packaged in one gallon and half gallon cans. This ad from the Manchester Journal in 1873 even advertised for “hermetically sealed cans” of maple syrup. We don’t know what these cans looked like, but we can be sure that they were hand made by a tinware maker who rolled or folded the sheet metal into shape and hand soldered all the seams. Suffice to say, many of the hand made cans of the late 1800s are rather crude in form and neatness. Most larger communities had can-makers at this time and it was a slow and laborious process which led many to to try their hands at developing automated can making equipment.
Into the later 1880s, maple syrup – like many liquids bought in larger volumes, such as cooking oil, motor oil, kerosine, paint, turpentine, and gasoline – were settling on packaging their products into tall rectangular metal cans with top handles and a small opening for pouring.
In most cases manufacturers or packers of products, especially those that were shipping their items to non-local markets, pasted a paper label onto one or more of the flat faces of these rectangular cans. Unfortunately, it is very rare for such labels to survive over a hundred years later and we don’t have many clearly dated examples of maple syrup labels from that time. The half-gallon tin to the left is a good example of a hand soldered can with a wire handle and a multi-color paper label for Maple Leaf Brand maple syrup from a packer or grocer in Cummington, Massachusetts possibly named Geo. L. Rowell. Unfortunately, I have not found any information about this brand or packer, so it is difficult to put age the can with any certainty, outside of probably being from the 1880s or 1890s.
One very precisely dated can that is labeled pure maple syrup is a Towle & McCormick Log Cabin Pure Maple Syrup can from 1888 or 1889. Towle & McCormick was an early partnership between P.J. Towle and J.A. McCormick that only lasted from early 1888 to April 1889. From that narrow window, we can very tightly date this Log Cabin syrup can. Whether, the very earliest of the Log Cabin syrup sold was actually pure maple syrup remains to be seen. It may have been, but it was probably a blend of maple syrup and corn syrup or cane sugar even then. What is notable about this small can, that was probably a half gallon or quart size, is the heavy gauge wire handle, the upright, rectangular shape, the round pour spout, the soldered seams, and the multi-colored label. I won’t say this was the earliest maple syrup can of this kind for sale to the consumer, but it was among the earliest.
As much as the maple industry loves to hate the Towle Log Cabin syrup company for its history of creatively pushing the limits of implying their syrup had more pure maple syrup in it than it actually had and for out marketing and out selling pure maple syrup, Log Cabin did still buy and sell an incredible amount of maple syrup and in doing so, led the way in packaging and advertising. One of the next best dated examples of the rectangular one gallon syrup can again comes from Log Cabin, this time dating to at least 1893. By this time the Log Cabin company was starting to settle into a style with their colors and logos that would continue for many decades beyond.
The advertisement above from the Seattle Post Intelligencer in November 1893, while not super clear, shows that it was solely the Towle’s Company at this point and the label featured an image of a wood plank framed winter scene of a log cabin with sap pails on the trees in the sugarbush and a man carrying sap to a boiling kettle of maple sap being tending by a women. The can itself has a handle made from a strap of metal rather than a heavy wire like the earlier can.
The photo to the left show a very similar Log Cabin can from roughly the same time ca. 1895, but with a slightly different label. Again this can is hand soldered with a a strap handle. The reason for noting the strap handle is that it is easy to think that the strap handle is a more modern feature of these style cans. The wire handle has an older feel and appearance than the strap handle and it probably did appear earlier. The strap handle replaced the more flimsy wire handle and has been used much longer as a carrying feature, but it is important to try and find well dated examples like these that show how early strap handles were in use.
In the 1890s, can making became a quicker process making use of both hand finishing with soldering work and machine processing with the cutting, stamping and molding of forms.
1897 Sears Catalog section for maple syrup listing different sizes and prices and illustrating an oblong square or rectangular can with paper label and strap handle.
The Sears catalog of 1897 included an image of a rectangular can of maple syrup with a paper label and what looks like a strap handle. Syrup could be bought by the gallon in bulk or in five gallon cans and one, one-half, and quart sized tins.
1906 advertisement for L. & J.A. Stewart’s square cans for maple syrup producers.
In 1901 there was a major change in the canning manufacturing world in the United States with the formation of the American Can Company. At that time American Can Co. began to buy up many of the larger can making companies and became the main supplier of mass produced cans to the larger food and packaging markets. The maple syrup industry was a bit more of a niche market and, at least in the beginning of the history of American Can Co., the unique rectangular shapes and sizes of syrup cans were not a target of their consolidation. As a result, local can makers, like L. & J.A. Stewart of Rutland, Vermont, still produced and marketed rectangular or square cans for the maple industry.
Around this time (early 1900s) we start to see rectangular cans with molded square panels on each face, such as with the example to the right from a 1906 Vermont Farm Machine Company catalog. Companies selling supplies to maple sugar and maple syrup makers started to offer these kinds of unlabeled syrup cans for individual producers, rather than forcing syrup makers to buy cans from the can manufacturers.
The shapes and sizes varied between manufacturers and volumes for different cans. Some were tall and rectangular in cross section, especially the one gallon cans, while others were tall but square in cross section. Still others were short cubes as illustrated in the image above from a French language Dominion and Grimm catalog from 1908.
As with the appearance of molded or embossed panels on the side of cans in the early 1900s, this period also saw the beginning of embossed text on cans, most commonly with the words “MAPLE SYRUP” on one face for cans sold to be filled by individuals producers.
Example of soldered seam can with an wire handle and embossed with MAPLE SYRUP on one face.Example of soldered seam can with strap handle and embossed with MAPLE SYRUP on one face.
In the first decade of the 1900s, can making became increasingly automated and the technology progressed such that by the 19-teens all cans were made using a locking, folded double seams to connect the side panels to the tops and bottoms of the can, providing a safe and leak-proof seal, eliminating the need for the sometimes sloppy and inconsistent quality of hand soldering.
Embossed unlabeled can with associated cardboard shipping box from 1930s Leader Evaporator Company catalog.
Although there were improvements in the kinds and qualities of sheet metals, for the next three decades there was little significant change in can making technology and appearance for metal cans used in packing maple syrup. Square or rectangular unpainted cans continued to be sold with bare metal exteriors to which personalized paper labels with names or brands, grades, and place of origin were glued on by the individual maple producer or packer.
In the 19-teens technology was also perfected to permanently apply color ink to sheet metal. As will be discussed in a following blog post, the Log Cabin syrup company would begin to use this technology by the 1920s, but it would take another couple of decades to take hold among maple syrup producers.
In the world of maple syrup collectibles and antiques, one of the most unique and sought after item is probably the miniature evaporator. Also known as salemen’s models, these little gems are scale models of full size maple syrup evaporators. From the perspective of maple syrup history, collectibles and collecting are a tangible way to literally hold history in our hands and miniature evaporators offer something to be learned about the history of maple syrup equipment sales.
Miniature evaporator with removable partitioned flat pan.
The use of miniature scale models was especially common with agricultural equipment salesmen, and one can find amazing and beautiful examples of all sorts of agricultural implements from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Miniature evaporator with top partitioned flat pan removed showing interior grates in fire box and faux painted fire brick lining.
Other similar functional scale-models were made as patent models to illustrate in miniature the design and operation of one’s invention and patent idea. While it is possible that a few of the miniature evaporators out there were made as copies of patent models, it is unlikely that they would have made it into circulation since such models were extremely rare. In some cases these scaled-down evaporators are referred to as toy or doll-house models or miniatures. It is possible that a few were simply made to be miniature examples for aficionados in the miniature collectibles community who enjoy recreating items from the past in smaller scales, somewhat akin to model railroading; however, the vast majority of these evaporators were made for and used as salesmen’s models by the major evaporator manufacturing companies.
Small miniature model of simple evaporator with front and back pans on a squared arch, probably not a salesman’s model.
Salesmen’s models were generally around 12 to 24 inches long although on occasion models were made a bit larger, on the order of three feet in length. Toy or basic miniature models tend to be smaller in scale.
The models were most often made completely of folded, soldered, and riveted sheet metal just like the full size evaporators that they were intended to illustrate. In the past, some maple syrup equipment companies employed travelling salesmen or arranged for local maple producers to work on the side as equipment dealers and product representatives.
Because of the large size and cost of most full-sized evaporators, with some as long as 15 to 18 feet in length, it was impractical for a travelling salesman to move around with a full-size floor model. However, most prospective buyers wanted to see in detail how the different evaporators were configured and constructed.
The salemen’s models were fully articulated with each individual component a separate piece, just like with a full-sized operational evaporator. They came with an arch for the base with moving doors and grates in the fire box.
Above were back pans and front pans, some flat, some with dropped or raised flues.
In some examples, the original wooden carrying case is still preserved.
Example of a Leader Evaporator Company miniature evaporator set with travelling case including settling tank, sap storage tank, and Monitor style sap gathering tank.
For the most part, salesmen’s models are pretty rare and highly sought after collectibles.
I’ve snapped a few photos of different examples over the years and found a few more searching online. In addition to evaporators, one can also find miniature sap gathering tanks and storage tanks.
Sugarmaker, maple antique collector and author Hale Mattoon of Chelsea, Vermont was kind enough to shared with me a few wonderful examples from his private collection.
Hall and Wright evaporator patented in US in 1889 (US patent 415635), 20 1/2 inches long from Hale Mattoon collections.Leader Special pans with drop flues from Hale Mattoon collection.Leader round bottom sap storage tank from Hale Mattoon collection.Monitor style sap gathering tank from Leader Evaporator Company, courtesy of Hale Mattoon collections.
A great part of studying and collecting maple sugaring antiques is also learning the stories of where they came from and how they were acquired. Hale Mattoon shared this story for how he added these Leader Evaporator models to his collection.
As Hale tells it:
I recall going with my father in the mid-1940’s to a business here in Chelsea operated by A.F. Sanborn and Son, who sold Leader Maple Sugaring equipment and supplies. Archie (A.F.) was an agent for Leader Evaporator Company and a good business man.
Archie passed away in 1955 leaving the business to his son Forrest Sanborn who was an agent for Leader, but for a short time. Forrest passed away in 1991, and shortly after Forrest’s widow sold the contents of the business and later the real estate. The new owner of the Sanborn house a few years after the purchase discovered a Leader sap bucket partially hidden in the basement of the house, to satisfy his curiosity he looked inside of the bucket and much to his surprise there was the model l evaporator, storage tank , gathering tank and pieces of literature on the storage tank and gathering tank, all Leader items.
The new owner of the house showed the models and literature to a friend of his and said, “What should I do with this?” The reply was, “A local maple sugarmaker should have these items!” Well, I was the lucky one to be contacted and invited to view these precious items, when I saw what I thought I was seeing, my heart rate exceeded all limits. After a nice visit for this purpose, it was time to negotiate a transaction of some sort, so I asked him what he would like for the Leader items. He replied.” I don’t want money as I’m interested in items from Tunbridge, Vermont (a border town south of Chelsea) as my ancestors are from Tunbridge and he asked if I had anything to trade. I could not think of anything I had right at the time, but told him I would check. Well, check I did and discovered I had an old wooden shipping box that had the lettering – RETURN TO E.C. SLEEPER-TUNBRIDGE, VERMONT. So I called the gent and told him I had a shipping box that was Tunbridge, related. He replied, “I would like to see it!” I took the box to show him and show him I did. E.C.SLEEPER was the gent’s great-grandfather. He jumped for joy thus a trade was made and two very happy people, too.
The Leader Evaporator Company headquarters in St. Albans has a few models on display including a larger version than I have seen elsewhere.
Miniature salesman’s model of Leader Evaporator on display at the Leader Evaporator Company plant in At. Albans, Vermont.Larger sized example of a miniature Kingbrand evaporator on display at the Leader Evaporator Company plant in St. Albans, VT.
A somewhat unique partnership between two giants in the maple industry occurred at the turn of the last century when the G.H. Grimm Company produced a specially designed sap pail cover for the Horse Shoe Forestry Company. The Horse Shoe Forestry Company was a new endeavour of Brooklyn millionaire Abbot Augustus Low. Low had purchases tens of thousands of acres of forest around Horse Shoe Lake in the Adirondacks with the intent of developing a large-scale modern and efficient maple syrup operation. Low also happened to be an experienced inventor with dozens of patents to his name, who, when faced with a problem or an opportunity, tried to make an improvement or come up with an entirely new design. In the case of maple sugaring, the lowly sap pail cover did not escape Low’s attention.
Baldwin image of sap pails with both red and yellow covers in use. Photo courtesy of the Adirondack Experience.
As one of the leading equipment manufacturers of the time, G. H. Grimm was the company chosen by A.A. Low and the Horse Shoe Forestry Company for purchase of many new evaporators, sap pails, spouts, and sap storage tanks. Numerous newspaper accounts from the late 1890s and early 1900s describe with awe the sheer size of the equipment orders placed with G.H. Grimm by the Horse Shoe Forestry Company. By the height of their operations, the Horse Shoe Company had built three large sugarhouses, factories really, to enclose as many as 15 of the very largest evaporators the Grimm Company made at the time.
Excerpt from an undated G.H. Grimm & Co. pamphlet promoting the “Horseshoe Cover” alongside the Grimm Spout No. 1. Collections of author.
Low and the Horse Shoe Company were such good customers for G.H. Grimm, the Grimm Company used their name as a selling point in their advertising. Noting in a 1907 ad to sell their sap spouts, that the Horse Shoe Company, touted as the world’s largest sugar maker, had purchased 50,000 of the Grimm spouts. No other sugarbush was even close to that large in scale and that number of spout begs the question were there also that many Horse Shoe-Grimm sap pail covers in use at Horse Shoe as well?
Although produced primarily for the the Horse Shoe Company, the Horse Shoe-Grimm sap pail cover was not for the Horse Shoe Company’s exclusive use. Grimm made the cover available for anyone to purchase and use. An undated G.H. Grimm promotional pamphlet informs readers that for twenty-five cents they will send you a a sample of a hookless No. 1 Grimm sap spout and Horse Shoe sap pail cover.
Baldwin image highlighting red sap pail cover. Photo courtesy of the Adirondack Experience.
A series of photographs taken by George A. Baldwin for the Horse Shoe Forestry Company in 1900 or 1901 includes examples of Low’s Horse Shoe – Grimm sap pail cover in action. One particular set of these images was hand colorized by Baldwin and depicts both the red and yellow sap pail covers in use in the Horse Shoe sugarbush.
Image of A.A. Low’s 1901 patent design for the Horse Shoe Forestry Company – G.H. Grimm sap pail cover.
A.A. Low applied for a patent on his sap cover invention on June 6, 1900, before being awarded patent number 668,313 on February 19, 1901. The cover itself was made
from two sheets of metal molded such that they formed a raised shape surrounded by a flat rim. The core in the center of the two raised sides was supposed to serve as an insulating air-pocket to help keep sap in the pail cool. The raised center also served to position the cover in the pail with the wide rim extending over the sides of the pail to keep debris and moisture from entering. It was necessary to use a hookless spout like the Grimm Spout No. 1 that would fit into the hole on the collection pail.
Detail of the logo embossed into the metal of the cover with the upturned horseshoe for the Horse Shoe Forestry Company along with the name G.H. Grimm & Co., Rutland, VT.
As a strong self-promoter and regular use of advertising and trademarks, the Horse Shoe – Grimm cover did not escape the hand of A.A. Low. Every Horse Shoe cover was embossed on both sides with the Horse Shoe Forestry Company name and logo as well as the G.H. Grimm and Co. name and location of Rutland, VT. Interestingly, the embossing also notes patent applied for, suggesting that the Grimm Company began producing the covers sometime in the second half of the year 1900.
Side view of the two colors and profile shape of the Horse Shoe -Grimm sap pail cover. This particular example is in the collections of the Adirondack Experience.
Ever thinking of improving efficiency in his sugarbush, Low had his sap pail covers painted red on one side and yellow on the other. The idea was that on each sap gathering run, the covers would be turned over after the pail was emptied. The two colors allowed the men gathering sap to see from a distance which pails had been collected and which had not. The G.H. Grimm promotional pamphlet noted that each cover is painted on both sides to prevent rusting, although it does not note the two color scheme.
The photos on the left from the collections of the Adirondack Experience are examples of the bright red and yellow colors used on each side of the Horse Shoe – Grimm sap pail covers. Note the hanging hole near the rim. This was not originally part of the A.A. Low design and was likely added at a later date by another maple syrup maker.
For those interested in the history of A.A. Low’s Horse Shoe Forestry Company maple syrup operation, check back in for additional posts on other aspects of the story including new, never before seen site maps and photos from the field. Eventually this research will be compiled and shared in the publication of my second book. For the time being, I am deep in the throes of field and archival research documenting and detailing the exact locations of Low’s maple syrup operations at Horse Shoe and recounting the broader history of use and development of Low’s estate.
And should anyone know the whereabouts of one of these Grimm-Horse Shoe Forestry Company sap pail covers that might be for sale, I would very much like to hear from you!
Chris Audley, a Quebec syrup maker, became the Bacon Jug distributor for Canada in 1979. In 1980, at roughly the same time the Bacon Jug company made a shift in manufacturers away from Hillside Plastics to Hussey Plastics, Charlie Bacon and Chris Audley realized that importing American made jugs into Canada was too expensive. Instead, Charlie Bacon had a set of molds sent to Audley to begin manufacturing Bacon jugs in Quebec. Audley found a blow-molder near Montreal, Quebec and ensured jugs were printed in French and English as required for sale in Canada. Audley formalized his container business in 1982 when he formed company called T.A.P. Farm, Inc. with the T.A.P. name an acronym for Ton Acériculteur Provincal, meaning “your provincial sugarmaker.”
