Category: Quebec

L’Hoir Comes to the Aid of the Sugarmakers

It is with great pleasure that this website has been given permission to share an English translation of an interesting and important article tracing the role of Cyrille Vaillancourt and the Georges L’Hoir Company in the manufacturing and adoption of aluminum sap collection pails and the effort to eliminate lead from maple syrup in Quebec.

The original article, written in French by Quebec historian Pierre Prévost, appeared in the Winter 2018 edition (Volume 30, No. 1) of Au fil des ans, Revue de la Société historique de Bellechasse (the Journal of the Bellechasse Historical Society). You can view the original article in French on pages 23 to 28 at this link.  For those interested in Quebec maple history, the Winter 2018 edition of this journal contains many other articles, all in French, related to the history of the maple syrup industry in the regional county municipality of Bellechasse, Quebec.

Many thanks to the author, Pierre Prévost, to the President of la Société historique de Bellechasse, and to the editor of the journal for agreeing to my request to translate and share the article on this website.

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L’Hoir Comes to the Aid of the Sugarmakers

By Pierre Prévost

 Au fil des ans, Revue de la Société historique de Bellechasse (Winter 2018) Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 23-28.

On April 10, 1936, American customs officers blocked three wagons of maple products shipped by the Quebec maple sugar Cooperative. Lead contamination is involved, the heavy and toxic metal that causes dreaded effects on the nervous system. Research performed in Vermont a few months earlier indicated the presence of lead in sap collected from maple trees. Since this observation, federal inspectors are vigilant and strict.

 

Americans want quality

Since 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act prohibited the sale of contaminated food on American soil. Americans had been burned in the 1920s by Canadian maple sugar that was often of poor quality and in which was sometimes found oat bran, brown sugar, and even pebbles. The minister of Agriculture of the time, Joseph Edouard Caron, then appointed Cyrille Vaillancourt to organize Quebec maple syrup producers and promote the production of quality sugar and syrup. On May 2, 1925, the “Cooperative of Quebec maple sugar producers” was born and a campaign to educate the maple industry was in full swing. In the fall of 1928, Plessisville located at the center of the maple syrup region, became home to the packaging and processing factory. Vaillancourt brought the maple industry to a level never before seen, and in the 1930s even managed to break the monopoly on purchasing Quebec syrup held by American George Cary. This time the problem is quite different and Vaillancourt must remedy it.

Cyrille Vaillancourt, 1946. Source: Historical Society of Alphonse- Gardens.

The chemists of the Plessisville laboratories do not give up. They find the presence of lead in the shipped syrup and, powerless, appeal to their colleagues from all walks of life. They get the support of Elphège Bois, director of the Department of Biochemistry at Laval University, who, after some experiments, manages to solidify the lead and extract it from the unsaleable syrup. The seized cargo is subjected to the treatment and the purified syrup is allowed to proceed Chicago.

However, the problem of contamination with lead oxides is found to occur in the early stages of maple syrup production, a bitter conclusion of the chemists from Plessisville. Lead is likely entering syrup from the collection and storage of sap. Spiles, sap pails, evaporation equipment, transport containers and tanks are targeted, because tinned iron and solder release a tiny amount of heavy metal when in contact with maple sap and syrup, which are acidic in nature, with a pH between 3.4 to 6.6. Aluminum would be the ideal replacement material but is too expensive for maple syrup producers. The main concern of Cyrille Vaillancourt, the manager of the maple sugar cooperative is to find a manufacturer capable of producing good quality aluminum buckets with a two-gallon capacity.

In a random conversation, Cyrille Vaillancourt hears about the director of a specialized stainless-steel factory located in Liège, Belgium. There was a big report in the news a few years earlier about Professor Auguste Picard who was the first researcher to access the remotest part of Earth’s atmosphere. In the meantime, with a restructuring of the Food and Drug Administration in 1938, Washington was tightening its control of food in the United States.

 

The expertise of L’Hoir

Auguste Piccard pose in front of the sphere manufactured at L’Hoir. This inventor is known to be one of inspirations for the author Hergé’s character of the teacher Sunflower. Source: Federal Archives of Germany.

Originally from Switzerland, Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) became an expert in physics and went to university in Brussels to teach. In 1929, Piccard submitted a daring project to the national scientific research fund recently founded by King Albert. Seduced by the idea of exploring the stratosphere in a balloon, the organization granted him the 400,000 Belgian francs required for the experimental manned flight in the upper atmosphere. Piccard needed a lightweight sphere made from a sufficiently robust aluminum that could withstand an environment where the pressure is only a tenth of that measured on the ground.

Piccard went to meet Georges L’Hoir, who then ran a beer can manufacturing factory in Angleur, on the outskirts of Liège, the cradle of the zinc industry and a former world capital of the steel industry. L’Hoir saw no problem with the request despite not knowing what the 2.1 meters in diameter and 3.5 millimeters thick sphere was intended for. This sphere will become the pride of L’Hoir and will help spread their notoriety throughout the world. “This is the first time that we’ve make a beer barrel in this shape! “(Reply by Georges-Armand L’Hoir to Auguste Piccard)

A first test set for September 14, 1930 was postponed due to adverse weather conditions. Early on the morning of May 27, 1931, near Augsburg, Germany, Auguste Piccard, assisted by engineer Paul Kipfer, took off inside the aluminum capsule supported by a balloon that had to expand to a diameter of 30 meters.

Ascending at the rate of half a kilometer a minute allowed him to realize the first pressurized flight while climbing to 15,781 meters, a height never previously reached by a living being and the first of a series of world records assigned to Piccard. Despite some pitfalls, the crew travelled 1,800 kilometers and finally landing on a glacier in Austria, before the reserves of oxygen ran out. Their return to civilization was triumphant and the news toured the globe.

Auguste Piccard returned to Georges L’Hoir’s factory to have a second, improved version of the capsule manufactured: the first having been battered by the squalls of wind during its second test, its tightness was no longer insured. On August 18, 1932, Piccard rose again into the stratosphere, this time with the Belgian engineer Max Cosyns. They reached 16,940 meters altitude.

 

Georges-Armand L’Hoir in Canada

Portrait of Georges-Armand L’Hoir. Source: Society for the History of Lévis.

The exploits of Professor Piccard caused a sensation on all continents and the notoriety of Georges L’Hoir followed in their wake. Cyrille Vaillancourt had found the man for the job to supply millions of revolutionary sap pails. He communicates with the Belgian manufacturer to let him know what he is seeking and sends him samples. A few weeks pass, other samples come back with a written proposal then they wait. To their surprise, in May, Georges-Armand L’Hoir arrives in Lévis, a few days before the royal couple, and knocks on Cyril’s Vaillancourt’s door. It is not L’Hoir’s first visit to American soil, since he monitored the production of buses intended for Belgian government during the Great War. On this trip he wanted to come back to America to establish a new factory. It is said that he was courted by the citizens of Kitchener, Ontario who were ready to build him a factory to accommodate his machinery. The ball was now in the camp of the people of Lévis, and Vaillancourt, administrator of the Caisse populaire de Lévis, worked out some scenarios.

Note: Lévis is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A caisse populaire in Quebec is most similar to a what is called a credit union in the United States.

With the support of his counterpart Valmore de Billy, president of the Caisse de Lévis, Cyrille Vaillancourt submits a proposal to his colleagues to build a factory for the production of aluminum sap pails in Lévis. The credit committee deliberates and considers two financing scenarios for this project: either a group of citizens endorses Georges-Armand L’Hoir for a loan of up to $ 20,000; or the Caisse builds the factory at its own expense and L’Hoir would rent the facility at cost plus 5% interest. The leaders of the Caisse choose the second option considering that L’Hoir is a recognized industrialist, who has a strong credit rating with banks in Belgium and France, and on the condition that he agrees to stay in Lévis if he wants to expand his factory. A disbursement up to up to $ 20,000 is allowed for the construction of a factory of about 180 feet by 40 situated on reclaimed land by the river, a little downstream from Hadlow Cove. L’Hoir will have to pay monthly rent while the Maple Syrup Cooperative guarantees the purchase of all the sap pails as long as their price and quality are maintained.

Around 1960, these ladies work to complete the assembly and the polishing of aluminum spiles. Source: Company History of Lévis.

The idea of living in a traditional Quebec house that was the birthplace of the poet Louis Frechette quickly seduced the Belgian industrialist. A factory built behind the attractive house would benefit from a dock and access to the Canadian National Railway. Georges-Armand L’Hoir probably made the best choice since a highly militarized Nazi Germany was threating Liège which is only a few away kilometers from the border with Germany.

The Lévis plant is ready to open in the fall of 1939, when the German troops invade Poland, an act which leads to the declaration of war. The metallurgist and his family in retreat from Europe, settled in to their new Quebec home, while the factory receives machining tools and await the arrival of aluminum.

 

A vast replacement operation

Everything is in place to produce sap pails intended for Quebec maple syrup producers. However, aluminum is scarce since the aeronautical industry requires huge amounts of the white metal for the war effort. This situation goes against the views of Adélard Godbout, the newly elected Liberal Minister who was recently elected in solidarity with Ottawa Liberals who supported the war effort but did not advocate for conscription.

An agronomist by training, Adélard Godbout campaigns for the promotion of trade between Quebec and the United States. To this end, he negotiates with the federal government and the Aluminum Company of Canada (ALCAN) to allow a meager but sufficient share of the aluminum for the L’Hoir plant to meet the demands for new sap pails. Using his influence in Ottawa, the prime minister facilitates a temporary supply which, without it, the L’Hoir factory would have to close its doors. Production at the factory is vital for soldiers since it manufactures military containers, among other things. Almost two years have passed since the American embargo on Canadian maple products when, in 1940, Godbout established a trade delegation from the provincial general assembly to New York to promote and highlight Quebec products.

The next three images show the evolution of the L’Hoir factory originally built in 1939 in the backfilled land, enlarged towards the west in 1940 with a serrated roof to let in natural light, then again in 1950. Source: Historical Society of Lévis.

Aerial view of the L’Hoir factory, after 1950. Source: Historical Society of Lévis.

The country waits in vain for the end of rationing on metals. In the September 1940 edition of the publication L’Abeille et l’erable, Cyrille Vaillancourt announces that the metal controller in Ottawa has rationed 400,000 sap pails to be available for the spring season of 1941. At this rate, he would not see the end of the replacement operation. Vaillancourt had reached an agreement with the two governments to subsidize the cost of the pail replacement program being administered by the Cooperative. The producers must turn in their old sap pails and pay a third of the cost of the new pails with the federal and provincial governments each picking up a third of the remaining cost.

In December 1942, the L’Hoir company obtains a letters patent, and forms a corporation under the name “Les Produits en Aluminium et Acier Inoxydable L’Hoir Inc.” to “manufacture, buy, sell, and import all kinds of products, articles, and merchandise in metal and conduct trade in general and in particular engage in transactions directly or indirectly, to industry or commerce, for objects manufactured from aluminum or stainless steel”. In 1943, Vaillancourt obtains a better position to affect the supply when he became and advisor to the wartime price commission.

When the war is over, aluminum becomes abundant again and industry experiences unexpected economic growth. The L’Hoir factory continues to produce maple syrup equipment as well as lightweight saucepans that are popular with housewives. However, their founder dies in 1948, leaving his son Georges in charge of the company.

During the 1950s, larger and larger objects are coming out of the factory. The factory produces tanks of all kinds and shapes, fixed and mobile, that are intended for different liquids, such as alcoholic beverages, dairy products, vinegars, and other food products. In the case of sap pails, the replacement program comes to an end in March 1960. In all, about 18 million sap pails were made at L’Hoir, before plastic begins to see increased use in the maple industry.

In 1984, the company experienced difficulties and was sold in a last-ditch attempt to save it from bankruptcy. Ultimately, the factory closed its doors and looked for a new tenant and use. The house where Louis Fréchette was born remains uninhabited since 1985 and its fate remains uncertain. On November 11, 2000, Georges L’Hoir died at the Hôtel-Dieu in Lévis. His factory was demolished a few years later and the sale of the property remains unfinished. Ironically, Georges L’Hoir’s Belgian factory in Angleur, near the center of Liège, still partly exists, and is currently occupied by Drytec, a pneumatic industrial company.

“Our home was not precisely rich, but its relative elegance contrasted with most other houses in the neighborhood. I still see her in her frame of old hairy elms, with its green shutters, on a white background, its veranda, and its vegetable garden. “(Louis-Honoré Fréchette)

Thanks to L’Hoir’s expertise, maple products have seen a significant reduction in lead contamination. Since that time, the lead content in maple syrup made in Quebec is tested. If the concentration is too high, above 250 parts per billion, the maple syrup is destroyed. Aluminum sap pails are now antiques. Nevertheless, they are still widely used and recognized by almost any Quebecer whether they are being used for maple syrup or not.

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Pierre Prévost is vice-president of la Société historique de Bellechasse and carpenter-joiner. (Photography : Marie-Josée Deschênes, 2017.)

The Intersection of Maple Syrup and Food Nationalism

In a short, thought-provoking article published in the fall of 2020, Dr. Brigit Ramsingh examined a moment in Canadian history when maple syrup and nationalism intersected and the ideas and promotion of food purity (versus adulteration) were equated with promoting the national spirit of Canada.

The article is titled “Purity & Maple Syrup: Racism, Anti-Racism, and Food Products” and appeared in the Autumn 2020 edition (No. 102) of Communiqué, the journal of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science.

Dr. Ramsingh’s article reminds us, that while we may see maple syrup as benign and free from political association today, foods and other iconic images have often been used as symbols of nativist identity and cultural association. We are reminded that in the past, and maybe even today, there may be meaning and power in the images and associations of maple syrup that are not always evident at first glance.

 

The Unique Vocabulary of Maple Sugaring – A Few References

With any specialized activity a certain lingo, slang, or jargon develops over time and space. Terminology may include unique terms and phrases  that form a vocabulary clearly understood by those that participate in the activity but which may be confusing or misunderstood by outsiders. The term maple sugaring is a good example of a term that is clearly understood by vast majority of people who make maple syrup to inclusively represent the entirety of the business of converting maple sap to some kind of maple syrup, sugar, candy, or confectionary product; yet, the term maple sugaring is confusing to outsiders and those not in the know.

Maple sugaring is an activity with a vocabulary all its own with terms and meanings that are broadly and universally understood by all maple producers across international borders. There are also regionally unique terms that are only used in different parts of the United States or Canada. In some cases, a term used in one region or state may be entirely foreign to another area. Other terms are now becoming antiquated with changing technology and the development of a more universal and less vernacular English language. Fortunately, a few individuals have taken time to document the terminology of maple sugaring which I have shared here.

First up is an article titled Maple Sugar Language in Vermont by Dr. Margaret M. Bryant, a professor of English at Brooklyn College, who spent time documenting maple sugaring vocabulary one summer in 1947 in Vermont. Dr. Bryant’s obituary described her as “an expert on grammar, linguistics, proverbs and folklore” suggesting she had a well-tuned ear and was sensitive to the importance of recording the cultural heritage of New England maple producers.  She was a founding member and president of the American Name Society, a group dedicated to the study of, origin, history, and use of proper names. Dr. Bryant’s study, published by the American Dialect Society, is notable for the time period in which it was gathered and published, namely in the era before the replacement of stock animals by trucks and tractors and before the replacement of metal sap pails by flexible plastic tubing. To read the article, click on the image of the article above or select this link.

I encourage readers to scan through the Bryant article and see how many terms she documented are familiar to them and still used today and reflect on what new or different terms are currently in use. Language evolves and changes; old terms die off and new terms are born. What would we include in an updated version of this vocabulary?

A slightly more humorous take on regional differences in the language of maple producers was  A sugaring vocabulary primer,  written by John Page, a former University of Vermont Extension Agent March 8, 1978. Published in the Bennington Banner newspaper, Page used the differences in maple jargon in Michigan versus the “correct” terminology of Vermont to shed light on the sometimes quirky or distinctive words adopted by maple producers over time.

On the French language front, there is an even larger collection of maple sugaring terms and phrases documented between 1984 and 1986 by the Quebec Office of the French Language. Organized like an alphabetical dictionary, the document is entirely in French, but with the aid of Google Translate, English speakers can stumble through and discover the many words and phrases unique to French-speaking maple producers and maybe even learn a few terms that will raise an eyebrow in surprise from our maple producing friends across the border. Compiled by Jude Des Chênes and published in 1988, the Vocabulaire de l’acériculture comprises 645 numbered terms and phrases.  The “Vocabulaire” does includes an index in English to the numbered entries, but all the entries are in French, so back to Google Translate for a more careful reading. Surprisingly, this “vocabulaire” is virtually unavailable in libraries in the United States, so hopefully this complete PDF of the dictionary is useful to interested readers.

Here are a few additional links to websites with more contemporary lists of maple syrup lingo:

https://saphoundsyrup.com/blogs/kettletender/maple-syrup-lingo

http://www.ctmaple.org/uploads/1/1/7/9/11794542/glossary_of_terms.pdf

https://www.hallfarms.com/maine-maple-sweet-talk

 

100 Years of Quebec Maple History – A New Book from the Quebec Maple Federation

To mark 100 years of maple production, in February, Quebec’s maple federation, Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec published a book on the history of maple sugaring and syrup making in Quebec titled Si l’érable m’était conté, 1920 – 2020: un siècle d’acériculture au Québec, which roughly translates in English to “If maple was told to me, 1920 – 2020: a century of maple syrup production in Quebec.”

The book is written in French and covers 16 chapters. It cost $22 CAD and can be ordered online at the Federation website. in addition there is a sample excerpt of the book, including the table of contents that can be found here.

The available copies may be limited, so if interested, I suggest one order online soon. I look forward to receiving my copy in the mail and will post a summary and review at a later date.

Recent Publications in Maple Syrup History

I want to share two relatively recent scholarly publications on maple syrup history topics that might interest readers of this website. One is a report of archaeological investigations in northern Michigan and the other looks at the formation and role of cooperative organizations in the modernization of the Quebec maple industry.

First up is an article published in 2018 in the journal Historical Archaeology titled “Sucreries and Ziizbaakdokaanan: Racialization, Indigenous Creolization, and the Archaeology of Maple-Sugar Camps in Northern Michigan.”  Written by John G. Franzen, Terrance J. Martin, and Eric C. Drake, the article presents the results of archaeological survey and excavations at four sites believed to have been the location of maple sugaring camps dating from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. In addition to presenting the results of their investigations, the rest of the article focuses on understanding what the archaeological remains tell us about sugaring in the past within the context of maple producers that were navigating and negotiating their way through two or more social, ethnic, and cultural communities, namely Euro-American and indigenous Anishinabe (Chippewa/Ojibwe).

Next up is a historical study by Dr. Brigit Ramsingh looking at the evolution of early twentieth century marketing with the maple syrup industry in Quebec that was presented at the  Dublin Gastronomy Symposium in 2018. Titled Liquid Gold: Tapping into the Power Dynamics of Maple Syrup Supply Chains, the article considers the early development, role, and relative influence of cooperative marketing and sales in bringing the Quebec maple sugar and syrup industry into the position of dominance it enjoys today.

Ramsingh is a historian and Senior Lecturer in Food Safety Management at the Central University of Lancashire in the UK who is the process of expanding the research presented in this article for an even wider look at the influence of co-ops across the maple syrup region in both Canada and the United States.

Citadelle Online History Exhibition

Citadelle, the maple syrup producers cooperative headquartered in Plessisville, Quebec with over 2000 members, has posted an excellent history exhibition on the organization’s website. Titled A Cooperative History: A Struggle for Survival of the Maple Industry, the story is presented in a more or less chronological fashion beginning in the 1920s and their collective efforts to secure a fair and reliable price for maple sugar and syrup.

The narrative  chosen to tell the early years of their history is an interesting, almost Robin Hood-like perspective.  Capitalist American maple sugar tycoon, George Cary, is presented as the evil villain who is vanquished by Cyrille Vaillancourt, the heroic representative from the government and champion of the small maple farmer. While there are certainly truths to the storyline that Cary was a barrier to the Quebec producers getting the prices they thought they deserved, the reality of those relationships and the industry in that era are not so simple.  As someone who has conducted extensive research on George Cary and the Cary Company, and even published a book about him,  I must say that role and relationship of Cary to Vaillancourt, the Quebec producers, and the industry as a whole, was a bit more complicated than the Citadelle presentation. But altruistic hero defeats the capitalist villain is always a much more interesting story.

The well-written and descriptive narrative text is available in both English and French and is illustrated with dozens of wonderful historic photographs. The story is broken into six sections, each with their own subsections – The beginnings of the Cooperative, Making a place in the Industry, The Quality Policy; The Catholic Heritage; Plessisville, World’s Maple Capital; and Producers of Pure Innovation.

Regardless of my feelings on the chosen tone of the narrative, the Citadelle history exhibition is a fantastic online addition to maple syrup history. With its presentation in both English and French, Citadelle should be applauded for sharing their history in such an accessible and informative format.

In addition to this special multi-tiered history exhibition, one can also read about the coop’s history and timeline at additional links on their website.

Evaporator Company Histories: Dominion & Grimm

The Dominion & Grimm Company is one of the longest continually operating maple syrup evaporator and equipment companies in Canada.  The company began when in October of 1892 it was announced that G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Company, incorporated out of Ohio, had opened a branch in Montreal Canada located at 63 to 67 King Street with W.A. Morrison as the initial factory manager. A year before the company also expanded into Vermont, opening a factory in Rutland.

Advertisement from 1892 for G.H. Grimm Mfg. Co. selling the Champion Evaporator from Montreal, Quebec.

As a branch of the American based Grimm company, the Montreal based Grimm facility manufactured the same Champion Evaporators as were being made in the original Grimm factory in Hudson, Ohio and in the new factory in Rutland. With the expansion to Vermont and Quebec, company founder Gustav H. Grimm focused their operations in Rutland and Montreal and sold the Ohio portion of the company in 1895.

Portrait of John H. Grimm, president of the Grimm Manufacturing Company, LTD.

In 1900, another company split was made and G.H. Grimm’s cousin, John H. Grimm bought the controlling interest in the G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. branch in Montreal. John H. Grimm then personally relocated to Montreal from Rutland to lead his new venture. Earlier in the year, John H. Grimm was listed in the 1900 census as a foreman in Grimm’s Rutland factory. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, John H. Grimm brought his two younger brothers Charles E. Grimm and Henry E. Grimm on board to help run the company in Montreal.

1909 advertisement for the Grimm Manufacturing Co. listing their Wellington Street address in Montreal.

There were now two Grimm companies on either side of the border, more or less selling the same maple sugaring equipment and supplies designed by Gustav H. Grimm. However, the Rutland Company now referred to itself as simply G. H. Grimm Co. with no use of the word manufacturing; whereas the Montreal company was known as Grimm Manufacturing Co., LTD., having dropped the G.H. initials.

Directories for Montreal show G.H. Grimm at 63 to 67 King Street in the 1890s. By 1901 the company had moved to 84 Wellington St and by 1908 was at 58 Wellington. It remained at that address on the corner of Wellington St and Queen Street until it was purchased and consolidated with the Dominion Evaporator Company.

In October of 1910, the Grimm brothers formally incorporated the Grimm Manufacturing Company, Limited under the laws of Canada with an initial capital stock of $150,000. The stockholders included J. H. Grimm, Charles E. Grimm, Henry E. Grimm, Wendell E. Grimm, and Charles E. Moore, all from Montreal at that time.

Color advertising postcard for Grimm Mfg. Co. illustrating their Wellington Street building. The appearance of the corner has changed little and looks much the same today.

John H. Grimm became a tireless advocate for better labelling laws and fighting against unscrupulous adulteration of maple syrup. His efforts were instrumental in the Province of Quebec passing a strict purity in labelling law that went into effect in 1915. As a prominent leader in the industry in Quebec as one of the largest manufacturing firms, he also strongly promoted cleanliness as a key to producing a better quality maple sugar and syrup. Grimm also was instrumental in forming an early co-op and producer’s association out of Waterloo, known as the Maple Tree Producers Association, LTD. This association and co-op formed to collectively market their maple syrup and work together to improve their quality and promote a label with assured purity. In time, Grimm bought out all of the members of this association and installed his own canning and bottling works at their Wellington Street facility.

To encourage maple producers and promote his ideals of improvement in the methods of manufacturing syrup and sugar, Grimm put up $500 in prize money for a syrup and sugar contest in 1913. Over 500 samples of Canadian syrup and over 200 samples of sugar competed for the prizes. A recent article that covers some of the history of Canada’s early maple co-ops provides additional detail on this aspect of John H. Grimm’s role in moving the Canadian maple industry forward.

John H. Grimm died in August 1941 at Grimmaple Lodge, his summer home near Mount Loyal, Quebec at the age of 77, a few months after the death of his wife. With his death, his brother Charles E. Grimm assumed the role of company president. Charles E. Grimm died only a few years later June 1943 in Montreal.

Ten years later, the Grimm family heirs and remaining shareholders of the Grimm Manufacturing Company sold the company to Sylva LeBrun of Montreal in 1952. LeBrun had started the Dominion Evaporator Company in Montreal in 1940 after selling off his interests in his earlier company, LeBrun – Lussier out of Waterloo, Quebec. The story of the LeBrun – Lussier company is covered in an earlier post in this series. In December 1953 it was announced that LeBrun had formed a new company called Dominion & Grimm, Inc. headquartered on Delorimier Street in Montreal.

Dominion Evaporator Company advertisement from 1944.

In combining the Grimm Manufacturing Company with the Dominion Evaporator Company, LeBrun brought together many years of experience and customer satisfaction. Together as one, Dominion & Grimm was able to offer a wide selection of maple sugaring supplies ranging from his own evaporator and arch designs, to those of the Champion evaporators and well-known Grimm cans, covers, spiles, and tanks.

Advertisement from December 1952 for Dominion Evaporators alerting sugarmakers to request their 1953 catalog.

Sylva LeBrun patented his own sap spout design in 1955 (CA510618), which became a mainstay in Canadian sugarbushes. Dominion & Grimm was known for carrying a wide array of spout styles. Hale Mattoon’s excellent book from 2017 titled Maple Spouts Spiles Taps & Tools contains a nice series of illustrations of the assortment of LeBrun designs and D & G inventory.

At some point, possibly after the formation of Dominion & Grimm, the company added home and commercial canning and sterilizing equipment as well as animal feed troughs and other assorted farm supplies to the products they sold.

Patent drawing for Sylva LeBrun’s 1955 sap spout design (CA510618).

Deteriorating health forced Sylva LeBrun into a kind of semi-retirement in the mid-1950s before he passed away in July 1958. In 1962, Dominion & Grimm, Inc. was sold to the Boileau family. A few years later, in 1966, the company relocated from Delorimier Street to a more modern and larger factory location in an industrial park in the Montreal neighborhood of Ville d’Anjou, where it remains to this day.

 

Dominion & Grimm , Inc. advertisement from 1955 promoting their sale of one gallon lithographed cans in four colors.

With the passing of Mr. Boileau in 1984, his daughter sold the company to long time manager Marcel Pepin and the company has remained in his hands to this day. Additional manufacturing sites have been established in Victoriaville and Thetford Mines, Quebec as well as warehouse and sales facilities in St. Albans, Vermont. In recent years the company has diversified beyond only equipment for the maple syrup industry to begin manufacturing biogas production equipment and the company now employs as many as 130 people.

Dominion & Grimm, Inc. catalog cover from 1961 with an image of their Delorimier Street facility.

 

 

 

Evaporator Company Histories: G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co.

The G.H. Grimm Company was one of the largest and most influential maple sugar evaporator companies of the late 19th and  all of the 20th centuries. The company began with Gustav Henry Grimm who was born in Baden, Germany in 1850. He came to new world in 1864 with his parents, settling in Cleveland, Ohio. A few years later as a young man, around 1870 Grimm moved to Hudson, Ohio with his new wife.  Grimm came from a family of tin workers, with the 1870 and 1880 census for the Cleveland area showing a number of other Grimms who immigrated from Germany to Ohio also listed as tin workers.

Image of Gustav Henry Grimm from 1987 Rutland Historical Society Quarterly article by Robert F. Moore.

The business of G.H. Grimm & Co. was established for manufacturing the Champion Evaporator in Hudson, Ohio in 1881 with the Champion marketed from the beginning as an evaporator for the making of maple sugar, sorghum, cider, and fruit jellies.  In the first year the company produced less than a dozen evaporators. Gustav H. Grimm applied for his first patent in November of 1881 (US254476) for a raised flue evaporator with Horace M. Clark, with the patent formally registered in March of 1882.

Patent drawing from Grimm and Clark’s 1882 evaporator design (US254476).

Over the next few years Grimm continued to make design changes and improvements to his evaporator and as Grimm Company history tells it, the first “real Champion evaporator” was tested in 1883. As the company expanded, in 1883 G.H. Grimm took on W. C. Parsons of Akron, Ohio as a partner. Over the next few years Grimm continued to tweak his 1882 patent with patented (US296743) improvements to various features and accessories to the evaporator as well as a patent (US316893) for the process of folding the sheet metal to form the distinctive raised flues.

1885 Patent drawing from Grimm’s method of folding metal to form raised flues (US316893).

Through the 1880s the company continued to expand its sales and distribution reaching into New England, Pennsylvania, and New York. In October 1888 the company was formally incorporated in Ohio as the G. H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. with an authorized capital stock of $50,000. The first president was W.C. Parsons with G.H. Grimm listed as superintendent.

 

 

 

Advertisement from 1885 for the Champion Evaporator from G.H. Grimm and Co. out of Hudson, Ohio.

Interestingly, there was another, completely unrelated, Champion Evaporator Company that operated in Berkshire, Vermont and later Richford, Vermont about this same time in the 1880s. This company was relatively short lived with evaporators in production from 1882 to about 1887. The history of the Richford, Vermont Champion Evaporator Company will be covered in greater detail in a separate post in this series on evaporator company histories.

Recognizing the need to be more centrally located in the heart of the maple sugar producing territory, in June of 1890, G.H. Grimm secured a lease for land alongside the railroad in Rutland, Vermont and over that summer erected a 120 by 40-foot one-story building. Manufacturing of new evaporators began in the fall and by December 1890 advertising for the company prominently displayed their locations as Rutland, VT and Hudson, OH. By April 1891 the company reported that it had put out 500 evaporators in the state of Vermont.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1895 for Rutland, VT showing first location of G.H. Grimm building on northwest side of Pine Street.

With the construction of the Rutland factory, G.H Grimm also moved his family from Ohio to Vermont and built a large, elegant new house at 201 Grove Street in Rutland.  This historic home is now listed on the Vermont State Register of Historic Places.

1891 advertisement for Grimm’s Champion Evaporator showing Rutland, VT and Hudson, OH as the locations of their plants.

 

In the fall of 1892 the Grimm Company further expanded into Canada. On October 28, 1892 Le Prix Courant, a business newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, under the heading of “new companies”, announced the arrival of the “G.H. Grimme Manufacturing Company (Limited)” incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio with Gustave H. Grimm of Montreal as general manager. Gustave H. Grimm’s younger cousin John H. Grimm, relocated to Montreal from Rutland, Vermont to run the Quebec branch of the company.

 

1893 advertisement listing Hudson, OH and Montreal, Quebec with an excellent engraving of the Champion Evaporator.

With facilities in Hudson, Ohio; Rutland, Vermont; and Montreal, Quebec the company had solidified their presence in the heart of the maple syrup producing world. The company was producing over 1,000 evaporators a year. In a 1894 tariff inquiry report to congress under the category of metal manufacturing companies, Grimm reported that in 1893 they produced 900 evaporators in the United States and 200 in Canada with an average price for a unit being $100 to $125.

Grimm’s move to Rutland signified a shift in his company focus towards New England and away from Ohio. A few years later the G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. formally separated itself from its Hudson, Ohio facilities. In addition, advertisements and publications for G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. no longer list Hudson, Ohio as one of its locations after 1893.

1904 advert for the Champion Evaporator Company of Hudson, Ohio.

Charles Bouton purchased the Hudson portion of the company in 1895, after which the Ohio manufacturing company under his ownership was called the Champion Evaporator Company or sometimes the Champion Evaporator Works. Presumably the Hudson “Works” were manufacturing the Grimm-style Champion Evaporator under license or contract for the G.H. Grimm Co., although that is not exactly clear.

The new Champion Evaporator Company in Hudson took a little time to get on its feet when in late 1895 and again in spring 1896 there were reports of the factory in Hudson closing. In August of 1896 it was formally announced that the Champion Evaporator Works in Hudson had been purchased by Bouton & Son. Bouton (sometimes misspelled as Bonton) was a hotel and livery owner in Hudson and had earlier acquired financial interest in the G.H. Grimm Company in 1886. Prior to his ownership of the Hudson Works, Charles Bouton’s association with G.H. Grimm was more than investor. In early 1895 he invented and patented (US546648) a sap pail and cover with the patent assigned to the G.H. Grimm Co. As owner of the independent Champion Evaporator Company, in 1900 Bouton patented his own evaporator design (US647798) in partnership with Clayton S. Bediant.

Bouton continued operation of the Champion Evaporator Company in Hudson until his death in October 1910. It is presumed the company continued under the leadership of his son Clarence Bouton, until his death in 1920. Following a stint in the Navy, Albert H. Schow acquired the company in the early 1920s and managed it until it closed in the early 1940s. As late as 1941, Schow was advertising to hire metal workers for the Hudson evaporator works. In 1942, Schow and the company were listed for unpaid taxes and later accounts in Hudson, OH newspapers suggest the company was forced to close operations in 1943 when supplies of sheet metal became difficult to obtain due to the war effort. In 1979, the city of Hudson rehabilitated the old Champion Evaporator Company factory space and opened it as a series of retail and studio shops, appropriately named “The Evaporator Works.”

Sanborn Map from 1900 showing later location of G.H. Grimm building across Pine Street from the earlier building.

Back to the G.H. Grimm story – business continued to stream in for the company in Rutland and in the summer of 1898 they began construction on a new three-story, 50 by 150-foot building with a spacious basement on Pine Street. Machinery was moved from the old location in the fall and the company was ready for business at its new location by the start of 1899.

Early 1900s Illustration of G.H. Grimm factory on Pine Street. Notice the building dimensions of 50 x 150 included on the drawing.

In 1900, the Grimm Company went through another reorganization when the Grimm cousins decided to split the Rutland and Montreal branches of the company into two independent companies. The Rutland operation became known as G.H. Grimm Company, sometimes just G.H. Grimm, with the word “manufacturing” dropped from the name. While the Montreal firm under John H. Grimm became Grimm Manufacturing Co., LTD., dropping the initials G.H. at the beginning of its name.

Catalog cover for The Grimm Mfg. Co. LTD out of Montreal.

John H. Grimm and his brothers Charles E. Grimm, Henry E. Grimm, and Wendell Grimm formally incorporated in Quebec in 1910. John H. Grimm and Charles E. Grimm continued to run the Montreal company for the next three decades until their deaths with John in 1941 and Charles in 1943. After their deaths, Grimm Manufacturing Co. LTD of Montreal was sold to Sylvan LeBrun and his Dominion Evaporator Company in 1953 to become Dominion and Grimm. A part of the LeBrun story was covered in the earlier posted history of the Waterloo Evaporator history and a later post will cover the history of the Dominion Evaporator Company and Dominion and Grimm, Inc. in this series on evaporator company histories.

Advertisement flyer from around 1901 for the improved Grimm Spout and Cover.

Although the first two decades of the G.H. Grimm Company witnessed many changes in organization and location, by the beginning of the new century things were largely settled from the standpoint of facilities and infrastructure. Gustave H. Grimm had found a permanent home for his family and company in Rutland with the plant on Pine Street and had narrowed his focus to just managing and leading the G.H. Grimm Company in Rutland. While still selling maple sugaring evaporators and equipment designed and patented by G.H. Grimm, the Montreal Grimm’s and the Hudson Champion Evaporator Company were no longer under Gustave H. Grimm’s control or his responsibility.

Reverse side of advertisement flyer from around 1901 showing Grimm Spout No. 1 and the special production Horseshoe Cover, patented by Abbot Augustus Low (US668313).

As G.H. Grimm worked to grow the Rutland company he was fortunate to be chosen by Abbot Augustus Low to be the evaporator and equipment supplier for Low’s massive Horse Shoe Forestry Company maple sugaring operation in the Adirondacks of New York. Low purchased at least 19 large sized evaporators and taps and pails to gather sap from as many as 50,000 trees. Grimm took advantage of the notoriety of Low’s sugarbush as the largest in the world and emphasized in their advertising that Low was using Grimm sap spouts. As noted in an earlier blog post, Grimm and Low also partnered even more directly when the Grimm company put A.A. Low’s patent (US668313) design for a sap pail cover into production. The Horseshoe Cover as it was known, was primarily produced for use by Low in his Adirondacks sugarbush, but Grimm also advertised its availability for purchase by any interested customers.

Examples of Pure Vermont Maple Syrup packed by the G.H. Grimm Company out of Rutland, VT.

It should be noted that in addition to manufacturing and selling maple sugaring equipment, for a period of time in the 1890s and early 20th century, the Grimm company in Rutland also bought maple sugar and maple syrup from producers in New England and New York and packaged it under the Grimm label. For example, in 1898 the Grimm company reported that by June it had shipped 10 tons of maple sugar and 6000 gallons of syrup which was about one third of the volume they had moved at the same time the year before.

 

 

One of the sheets of the patent drawing from July 19, 1904 showing Grimm’s sap spout no. 1 and his design for a sap pail cover (US765478). December 1904 patent drawing for Grimm sap spout designs for spouts no. 2, 3, 4, and 5 and sap pail cover (US778031).

The early 1900s saw G.H. Grimm expand his portfolio of sugaring equipment designs and patents (US729330, US765478, US778031) with a series of sap pail covers and sap spouts that were assigned numbers 1 through 5. The company continued to make improvements on their evaporators as well with three additional patents awarded for improvements to designs for sap preheaters and sap regulators (US884272, US962830, US1159213), with the final patent being awarded in 1915, posthumously following Grimm’s death in 1914.

Gustav H. Grimm died in Rutland on December 24, 1914 at the age of 64 from general paralysis. For a number of years following the death of G.H. Grimm, the company operated under the name of the G.H. Grimm Estate with his daughter Nella Grimm taking over management of company at age 36. After Grimm’s death the company continued to provide evaporators and equipment to the maple industry although at times it was forced to protect their interests in G.H. Grimm’s patent designs that made the company’s products popular. For example, see the 1918 case challenging the use of Grimm designs by three former Grimm employees that left the company to form the Vermont Evaporator Company.

Grimm’s evaporator patent drawing from 1908 with updated features (US884272).

Nella Grimm married John Crary Fox in 1923 in New York City. At time of her marriage Nella was described as executive head of the company but was living in Philadelphia and New York. Following his marriage to Nella Grimm, John C. Fox joined her in managing the company until his unexpected death from a heart attack in 1932.

The next 20 years are largely unremarkable for the company as it continued to maintain its market share as one of the five main evaporator manufacturers in the US and Canada. In 1951 Nella Grimm Fox decided to retire from management of the company and sold G.H. Grimm to Robert F. Moore of Rutland and Louis Veale of Montpelier. A few years later, Veale became ill and died in 1958, leaving the company in the hands of Robert F. Moore and his family with each of Moore’s sons working for the company before following separate career paths outside of the company.

Drawing for Grimm’s 1910 patent for a sap preheater (US962830).

Many of the details of the story of the Grimm Company after the sale of the company in 1951 have been told in a nice article by Robert F. Moore that appeared in 1987 in the Rutland Historical Society Quarterly. Here are some highlights of the next 40 or so years.

In 1964 The G.H. Grimm Company buys the Lightning Evaporator Company. (See the history of the Lightning Company in another post in this series.) In 1984, the Moore family sells G.H. Grimm to a group of Rutland businessmen known as the Grimm group. In 1985 the Lamb Naturalflow maple sap tubing company out of St. Bernhards Bay, New York became a subsidiary partner of the G.H. Grimm Company. And finally, in 1989 the Leader Evaporator Company of St. Albans, Vermont, purchased the G.H. Grimm Company and Lamb Naturalflow to become the largest maple equipment company in the world. Leader continued to manufacture the Grimm evaporators for a number of years before new designs and changing technology and health and safety requirements related to the use of lead solder led to their discontinuation. Leader operated the G.H. Grimm plant in Rutland for another 15 years before deciding to moving the majority of their operations to St. Albans in 2005; however, they still use the Pine Street facility in Rutland for a portion of their manufacturing.

Evaporator Company Histories: LeBrun & Lussier / Waterloo

1929 advertisement for LeBrun Evaporator.

The Waterloo Evaporator Company began under the leadership of Sylva LeBrun in Waterloo, Quebec. Born in nearby Shefford, Quebec in 1891, LeBrun opened a hardware store and sheet metal works on Main Street in Waterloo in the 19-teens. By 1919, he was manufacturing his own evaporator and other maple sugaring equipment.

In 1924 LeBrun obtained a Canadian patent for his evaporator and arch featuring a series of widely spaced drop flues. His patent is most notable for the addition of two designs of floats for controlling sap and syrup levels in the evaporator.

Drawing of evaporator and arch from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.
Drawing of first float regulator from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.
Drawing of second float regulator from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.

LeBrun expanded his hardware and manufacturing business in the early 1930s bringing on Claude Lussier, a younger partner.  Claude Lussier was born in 1916 to a mother with a maiden name of LeBrun, suggesting that the men were related in some way. Sylva LeBrun and Claude Lussier were described as next door neighbors and Lussier took on the role of god-parent to one of LeBrun’s children, further demonstrating the closeness of their business and family relationships.

1940 Sherbrooke Daily Record advertisement from for LeBrun-Lussier Sugar Evaporator.

The 1930s were tumultuous times for LeBrun. In 1934 a fire destroyed a large historic barn at his farm south of Waterloo. In 1935 he ran for a seat in the national assembly as a conservative; however, he lost that election. Still wishing to get into politics, in 1937 he was elected mayor of the village of Waterloo, a seat he held until 1941.

In January 1940, Sylva LeBrun broke away from the hardware and manufacturing business in Waterloo and opened a new business called the Dominion Evaporator Company in Montreal. He established the company on Le Devoir Avenue and soon after relocated with his family to Montreal. Following the death of Charles E. Grimm in 1943, LeBrun purchased the Grimm Manufacturing Company of Montreal in 1953, forming Dominion & Grimm, Incorporated. The history of Dominion & Grimm will be covered in another blog post.

Advertisement from 1945 for Lussier & Sons featuring the LeBrun & Lussier Evaporator.

With LeBrun leaving for Montreal, Claude Lussier took control of the Waterloo hardware and manufacturing company and by 1945, it was called Lussier & Sons, or Lussier et Fils in French.  Although the differences int the designs are not clear, the company continued to sell a “LeBrun” model and a “Lussier & Sons” model of evaporators.

1964 advertisement from the Sherbrooke Daily Record for Societe Ares Ltee, formerly Lussier & Sons.

 

Lussier & Sons continued in business until 1952 when they sold the hardware store and evaporator company to Raymond Ares and his son Andre Ares.  For a few years, the Ares family continued to operate under the name of Lussier & Sons selling the Lussier & Sons and the LeBrun evaporators.

By 1964 Raymond and Andre Ares had changed their company name to Societe Ares Ltee but continued selling the Lussier & Sons model of evaporator. In time, Andre Ares took over management of the company following the death of Raymond in 1975  and until it was sold to Ernest Bieri in 1982. Bieri had begun working for Ares and the company as manager in 1979. It appears that following the death of Raymond the company dropped the name of Societe Ares Ltee and began to refer to itself as l’évaporateur Waterloo by early 1976, with a note that it was previously Ares.

Waterloo Evaporators catalog cover, circa 1982.

In 1996 Waterloo Evaporators, Inc. combined forces with Small Brothers to form one company Waterloo/Small Incorporated which continued to be run by Bieri. (see Small Brothers company history post). Then in 2001 Waterloo/Small Inc. was sold to Lapierre Equipment, Inc. to form the largest Canadian manufacturer of maple syrup equipment and supplies.

 

Evaporator Company Histories: Small Brothers – Lightning Evaporator Company

By Matthew M. Thomas

Revised – March 2024

The story of the Lightning Evaporator is a history of a company that started in Québec, before expanding into the U.S. to become two separate companies. The Lightning Evaporator’s unique feature of raised flues began with the invention and patent (CA12270) by David Henry Ingalls of Dunham, Québec in 1881.

Patent drawing for David H. Ingalls Lightning Evaporator 1881 patent (C12270).

Even before he patented the design for the Lightning, Ingalls was awarded an earlier patent in 1878 (CA9528) for an evaporator with slightly raised flues, more like corrugations in the bottom of the pan. His 1881 design, which carried the title of “Lightning” evaporator was known as the first raised flue evaporator and was specifically invented for boiling maple sap and making maple syrup and maple sugar. It is not clear that Ingalls ever manufactured his invention for sale to sugar makers. What we do know is that he sold the Lightning Evaporator’s patent rights to the Small Brothers of Dunham, Québec.

The Small Brothers were originally Reid Paige Small and George S.  Small , both born in Dunham, Quebec in 1865 and 1861, respectively. The actual date that the Small Brothers began to the manufacture the Lightning Evaporator is not known with certainty. One source says they began production in 1889 while another says 1890. For example, labels on Small Brothers Lightning Evaporators made in the 1980s include the phrase, “famous since 1890.” Around 1893, George S. Small sold his piece of the company to his brother Stephen “Steve” J. Small, and Steve and Reid Small carried the company forward.

The Small family’s Maplewood Farm Sugarhouse.

George S. Small in turn created a maple confectionary company called the Canada Maple Exchange, first operating in Dunham, Québec out of the Small family farm and sugarbush known as Maplewood Farm, before later moving to Montréal.  G.S. Small sold his interest in the Canada Maple Exchange in 1910, but continued working for the company before going on his own with Smalls, LTD, in 1918.  G.S. Small stayed in the maple products business until around 1927.

Small Brothers’ factory in the old Seely Hotel in Dunham, image from cover of Small Brothers 1896 catalog.

In 1893 the Small Brothers moved their evaporator production into the old Seeley Hotel, a fine three-story brick building on the main street of Dunham, Québec dating to 1865. Also known locally in Dunham as the Relais de la Diligence, the old hotel building now houses a microbrewery and restaurant and other spaces for a variety of shops and services.

The Small Brothers quickly established themselves as a viable competitor in the fast-growing world of maple syrup evaporator manufacture and sales. The Small Brothers also added their own ideas to the design and manufacture of maple syrup evaporators, including a patented (C60447) float system to maintain proper sap levels in their evaporator. Reid joined in the fun of designing and patenting (C92054) his own sap spout in 1905. Business was so good that in 1906 they opened a second production facility less than 20 miles away but across the border in Richford, Vermont.

Advertisement for the Lightning Evaporator from the Small Brothers Manufacturing Company out of Richford, Vermont that appeared in the Burlington Daily News on January 14, 1919.
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Seven years later, in 1913, Reid P. Small and Stephen J. Small sold their Richford, VT operation of Small Brothers in Richford to Clarence. E. Whitcomb of Dunham, Quebec and Robert McElroy, an experienced tinsmith and plumber from Knowlton, Québec. Clarence E. Whitcomb happened to be related to the Small brothers as the uncle of Stephen J. Small’s wife Edith Augusta Whitcomb Small. In addition, Clarence E. Whitcomb and Robert McElroy were brothers-in-law, with Clarence E. Whitcomb married to Jane McElroy.

From that point forward, there were two separate, but connected Small Brothers companies that manufactured and sold the Lightning Evaporator, one in Dunham, Québec still under the control of R.P. and J.S. Small , and one in Richford, Vermont under the control of Whitcomb and McElroy. The Richford based company, despite not being owned by the actual Small Brothers, continued to use the Small Brothers Manufacturing Company name in their sales and marketing of the Lightning Evaporator.

 

In late 1926 Reid P. Small died of pneumonia and two years later his brother Stephen J. Small passed away as well. Soon after, in 1928 the Dunham, Québec Small Brothers Company was sold to Oscar Selby, a local general store owner from Dunham. The Selby family embraced their role as the new owners of the evaporator company and honored those that started it before them by preserving the name of of Small Brothers, Inc.

Drawing for C.E. Whitcomb’s sap spout patented (1154679) in the US in 1915 and in Canada in 1916.

It would appear from that period forward, with new ownership in Dunham, and with no further family ties to connect the companies straddling the border, the Richford, Vermont company ceased to use the name Small Brothers and began to exclusively refer to themselves as the Lightning Evaporator Company. The Lightning Evaporator Company manufactured and sold more than just evaporators. The company manufactured tanks and finishing pans as well and offered a full-range of maple sugaring supplies including their own patented spout. Like other equipment suppliers, Clarence Whitcomb invented an “air tight” spout that he patented in 1915.

Image of Whitcomb sap spout from Lightning Evaporator Company catalog, Richford, Vermont, date unknown.

In 1921 Clarence Whitcomb bought Robert McElroy’s interest in the the company, and Whitcomb’s his son-in-law G. Curtis Moynan became his business partner. Moynan, a long-time employee of the company had married Clarence E. Whitcomb’s daughter Fannie Elizabeth Whitcomb. In 1938, Clarence Whitcomb sold his share in the company to his son Carl Whitcomb, who then took his place as co-owner with G. Curtis Moynan. Clarence Whitcomb passed away in 1945.

Small Brothers MFG. Co. buildings in Richford, Vermont, circa 1920.

G. Curtis Moynan stepped away from the company 1953, selling his share to Carl Whitcomb, who became the sole owner. In 1964 Carl Whitcomb  decided to sell their operations to the G.H. Grimm Company of Rutland, Vermont. With this purchase, Grimm continued to manufacture and sell the Lightning Evaporator but moved the Richford production line to Rutland, which included bringing production manager Harlan Mayhew from Richford, VT to Rutland to continue overseeing the production of the Lightning Evaporator. The Grimm Company was sold to the Leader Evaporator Company in 1989. Sadly, the Lightning Evaporator design with its unique raised flues is no longer manufactured by the Leader Company.


Lightning Evaporators logo used in 1980s by Small Brothers in Dunham, QE and Small Brothers USA after division of Small Brothers and Lightning Evaporator Company.

The Dunham branch of Small Brothers Manufacturing Company continued under the ownership of the Selby family, first Oscar, who passed away in 1961, then his son Rowland Selby who passed away in 1985, and lastly by his son Steve Selby. Small Brothers re-established a branch in the United States opening a facility in Swanton, Vermont in 1984 under the name Small Brothers USA. In 1995 it was announced that Small Brothers of Dunham (and Small Brothers USA) had been sold and combined with Waterloo Evaporators of Waterloo, Québec, becoming Waterloo/Small. A few years later in 2001, Waterloo/Small was itself purchased by the St. Ludger du Beauce, Québec firm Lapierre to become Lapierre-Waterloo-Small. With the consolidation with Lapierre, the Lightning Evaporator name and design was eliminated from their production line.