Evaporator Company Histories: Vermont Evaporator Company

In August 1916, three men started the Vermont Evaporator Company in North Clarendon, Vermont, a small community south of the city of Rutland.  These men were Robert H. Moroney, Gus W. Fish, and Thomas J. Ford. All three men had been employed at the G.H. Grimm Company in Rutland and decided to break off and start their own maple supplies company.

From the beginning they intended to manufacture and provide a full range of maple sugaring supplies from evaporators, to gathering tanks to pails and spouts. Their first factory occupied a 34 x 70 foot, one-story building near the North Clarendon railway station. They employed 10 men in manufacturing duties and five men as a travelling sales force that ranged from Ohio to Maine. In addition to manufacturing and sales of maple equipment, the company also bought and sold bulk maple syrup.

Image from inside an early Vermont Evaporator Company maple sugaring guide showing their round gathering tank and sap spout.

While the company started off strongly, things began to get difficult a couple of years later.  In April 1918, representatives of the G.H. Grimm estate (Grimm dies in December 1914) sued Moroney, Fish, and Ford for patent infringement in the manufacturing of maple sugaring spouts that were too similar to sap spouts patented by G.H. Grimm in 1903 and 1904. The claim argued that while employed with the Grimm Company, Fish (for 10 years as a mechanic), Ford (for 5 years as a salesman), and Moroney (for 5 years as a stenographer and salesman), the men learned the details of the design and manufacturing process of the Grimm spouts. In addition, they allegedly took advantage of their access to Grimm’s customer lists in establishing their own business. The lawsuit sought to enjoin the Vermont Evaporator Company from producing similar sap spouts and to determine what profits had been made in their two previous years of producing and selling the spouts.

Not deterred by the lawsuit against them, in July 1918 the company moved to Rutland from its building in North Clarendon. In Rutland they leased space in the Vermont School Seat Supply Company building on Strongs Avenue. Later that same year Moroney, Fish, and Ford formally incorporated the Vermont Evaporator Company with a capital stock of $50,000.

 

Despite their best efforts, the new evaporator company was unable to meet its financial obligations and filed for voluntary bankruptcy in May 1920. By the time of the bankruptcy, G.W. Fish had left the company and it was in the hands of Moroney and Ford. A series of trustees were assigned to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings and the company continued in operation, albeit a bit bruised.

The level to which the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to operate following their bankruptcy filing is unclear. News reports indicate that there was a small work force in place at the company in March 1921 when a coal car came off the railroad tracks adjacent to the building housing the evaporator company, crushing the brick walls and windows and shifting the building about a foot off its foundation. To make matters worse, in April 1921 the corporation lost its charter for non-filing or non-payment of its state taxes. In May of that year the patent infringement case was scheduled to go before a federal equity judge; however, the results of that equity ruling are not known. Chances are good that, with their limited resources resulting from the bankruptcy filing in the previous year, they settled the case with the Grimm estate out of court.

The company suffered another setback in April 1923 when a fire started in a nearby building in Rutland and spread to the evaporator company and other buildings. The destruction decimated their factory building, leaving R.H. Moroney and T.J. Ford with losses and damages totaling $44,156.26.

Following the losses of the April fire, the Vermont Evaporator Company left Rutland, Vermont and re-opened for business in St. Regis Falls, New York. In November of 1923 a new Vermont Evaporator Company of New York was incorporated with T.J. Ford as President and R. H. Moroney as Vice-President. A new factory was soon under construction on Main Street in St. Regis Falls with a full assembly of automated metal working presses, shears, and brakes delivered and installed. Metal workers and mechanics from Vermont were brought on board as were a group of 10-15 local workers.

With its move to New York and greater access to markets outside of New England, the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to expand its production and sales through the late 1920s and into the 1930s. Unfortunately, fire struck again, damaging the company offices in May 1937 and again in December 1938. With the setbacks from the fires and a desire to consolidate their facilities and expand their manufacturing space the company opted to move again, this time from St. Regis Falls in Franklin County to Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, New York. By the time of this move, Thomas J. Ford had moved on from his leadership role and the company was solely under the direction of Robert H. Moroney.

In August 1941 the Vermont Evaporator Company leased the three-story brick Mercantile building on Crescent Street near the river in the older part of Ogdensburg. By November the company was open for business in its new space and by January the following year, it had begun shipping evaporators out by rail.

Vermont Evaporator Company maple utensils catalog with an image of “The Famous Vermont Evaporator” on the cover.

The Vermont Evaporator Company was also a buyer of bulk maple syrup, taking in hundreds of 55-gallon metal drums full of syrup each year. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the Vermont Evaporator Company was described as the largest packer of maple syrup in New York state. Their location in St. Lawrence County, New York was advantageous to their business as syrup packers, since St. Lawrence County maple producers traditionally made the most syrup of any county in New York and New York was most often the second highest producing state in the U.S.

Business continued with little change through the 1950s and 1960s; however, in the early 1970s the city of Ogdensburg introduced an urban renewal plan that required demolition of the older manufacturing buildings near the river, including the block that included the Vermont Evaporator Company. In 1972 the city moved forward with their plans using the powers of eminent domain to force R.H. Moroney to sell the Vermont Evaporator Company building. Demolition was planned with a June 1 deadline to vacate the buildings.

Cover of a Vermont Evaporator Company catalog showing their factory building in Ogdensburg, New York. Sadly, this building has long since been demolished.

Although there was great disagreement and legal wrangling over the details and final price paid for the buildings, R.H. Moroney realized that things were coming to an end for the Vermont Evaporator Company in Ogdensburg. In anticipation of the loss of his building and the adverse effect it would have on the company, Moroney sold the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company of St. Albans, Vermont in the spring of 1972 with the sale announced in the July 1972 issue of the Maple Syrup Digest. Following the sale of the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company, R.H. Moroney retired from the maple business before passing away in 1982.

Leader continued to manufacture and feature the Vermont Evaporator in its line-up of evaporators for many more years. Eventually improved technology, along with health and safety requirements to eliminate lead in their products forcing a shift from soldered seams to welded seams, led the company to introduce new evaporator designs and replace many of their legacy models and brands, including the Vermont Evaporator.

There happens to also be a modern Vermont Evaporator Company located in Montpelier, Vermont that makes excellent backyard sap evaporators employing small flat pans and barrel stoves. This modern Vermont Evaporator Company only shares a name with the company described in this blog post and is not affiliated with the company that was run by Robert Moroney for so many years.

 

Evaporator Company Histories: True & Blanchard – Monarch Evaporator

The beginnings of the True & Blanchard Company date back to 1844 when William W. True, at the young age of 22 opened a tin shop in Newport, Vermont. In time the small shop took on a wider range of business and services. With the addition of E.C. Blanchard in 1886 and the purchase of the stock and storefront of another existing hardware merchant in Newport, True & Blanchard Co. became a full-service hardware store.  In 1894 the firm added another partner in the arrival of J.R. Akin.

As a hardware concern, True & Blanchard carried and sold a variety of maple sugaring tools and equipment and as early as 1890 were advertising as agents for the sale of the Bellows Falls patent evaporator.

1891 advertisement from the North Troy Palladium newspaper showing True & Blanchard as sales agents for other evaporators including the Bellows Falls Pattern Evaporator

In 1893 they began to manufacture their own evaporator and arch under the label Monarch Evaporator designed by W.W. True. The Monarch name was adopted as their brand name for maple sugaring equipment.

1897 advertisement from the North Troy Palladium.

Under the Monarch name they also designed and sold their own hauling tank, storage tank, sap pails and pail covers, and carried the Eureka sap spout. In later years they expanded their evaporator line beyond the Monarch Evaporator to include the Imperial Evaporator and the Royal boiling rig.

Page from a True & Blanchard sale pamphlet ca. 1915, note the Imperial Evaporator, Royal Boiling Rig and Sugaring Off Outfit and the Monarch style Sugaring Off Outfit.

Although E.C. Blanchard left the business in 1906, the company kept “Blanchard” in the official company name. The True & Blanchard company continued to expand over the years, building new and larger facilities in Newport, both for maple sugaring equipment and other company ventures.  In 1909 demand for Monarch sugaring tools had grown to such a degree that the company needed more room for production of sugaring equipment and acquired an existing two-story building alongside the Canadian Pacific railroad in Newport. The building was referred to as the Monarch Sugar Tools Factory. Other changes in the company included selling-off the jewelry sales portion of the company and erecting a new brick fire-proof garage in 1913.

Early 1900s True & Blanchard Co. catalog for maple sugarmakers’ supplies.

W.W. True patented (US1096328 / CA156779) his own evaporator design in 1914 which featured a tapered flue pan that tilted on a hinge at the mid-point when the flue pan met the front pan. This design became known as their Imperial Evaporator.

W.W. True 1914 patent for hinged flue pan and evaporator, US1096328.

In August 1914 the leadership of True & Blanchard Co. formally incorporated the Monarch Evaporator Company in the state of Vermont as an independent subsidiary of the True & Blanchard Co. with W.W. True as president and J.R. Akin as vice president.

The True & Blanchard Company was doing so well in the hardware business through the teens that they chose to focus their efforts on the hardware and retail side of things and divest itself of its ancillary businesses like the maple sugaring supplies. As a result, in the spring of 1919 W.W. True and J.R. Akin sold the Monarch Evaporator Company to the Vermont Farm Machine Company of Bellows Falls, VT.

With this sale, the production equipment for the manufacture of the Monarch Evaporator, as well as the other maple sugaring supplies were moved to Bellows Falls. Everett Hunt, True & Blanchard’s production manager for the Monarch sugaring tools in Newport also moved with the production line to Bellows Falls.

Page from 1920 Vermont Farm Machine Company catalog describing the Monarch Evaporator in their product line.

The Vermont Farm Machine Company continued to manufacture and offer the Monarch Evaporator during the remainder of its years of operation before the business failed and ceased operation in 1926. The Monarch name and line of evaporators died with the closing of the doors at the Vermont Farm Machine Company. The history of the Vermont Farm Machine Company will be covered in a future post.

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.

Evaporator Company Histories

Interests in studying maple history include tracing the development of the maple syrup industry from a simple disorganized seasonal farming activity to an organized and technologically advanced specialized agricultural product. One of the ways to outline that history is through a review of the arrival, departure, expansion, and consolidation of the many maple sugar and syrup equipment and evaporator manufacturers in the US and Canada through the late 19th and the first half of 20th centuries.

To that end this is a brief introduction to my plans over the next few months to present a series of short histories of the most notable maple equipment companies; outlining the major moments in their histories; tracing the beginnings, consolidations and mergers, and in some cases demise of each company.

The list of companies or evaporator brands I plan to cover, in no specific order includes:

– Vermont Farm Machine Company
– True and Blanchard
– Cook’s Patent Evaporator
– G.H. Grimm
– Dominion and Grimm
– Vermont Evaporator Company
– Small Brothers
– Leader Evaporator Company
– George H. Soule
– Waterloo

 

 

It is likely that some of my readers and connoisseurs of maple syrup history might have thoughts or suggestions for other additional companies I might want to consider – I am more than open to suggestions for additions. Please send your suggestions through the contact us section of this website. My focus in doing this series is not to highlight the history of individual products, inventions, or patents that are limited in scope, such as a particular model of sap spouts. 

Rather, I plan to look at the companies and their founders and leaders that made a broader contribution to growing the maple syrup industry. I am also limiting my period of focus to companies that were formed and in business between the 1860s and the end of World War II (prior to the onset of the introduction of plastics to the maple industry). 

Have You Ever Wanted Your Own Maple Museum?

For most fans of maple syrup history, the idea of having your own maple museum would be nothing more than a pipe dream. Well dream no more. For the right buyer, the New England Maple Museum in Pittsford, Vermont can be yours, as reported in the December 4th edition of the Rutland Herald.

The unique sugarhouse shape of the New England Maple Museum complete with cupola and smoke stack.

Yep, a ready-made maple museum, complete with a wide array of artifacts, maple history exhibits, and extensive gift shop is currently on the market. Unfortunately, unexpected serious health issues have led the owners Mike and Mary Blanchard to their decision to sell the museum started by their friends Tom and Dona Olson 41 years ago.

We wish the Blanchards well in dealing with their health concerns and hope that a good match can be found to keep the museum open and sharing the maple history story.

 

Maple Syrup Collectibles – Miniature Evaporators

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.

 

Digging into Maple Syrup’s Past at Michigan State University

As an archaeologist by training, I am always keeping my eyes and ears open for new reports and research on maple history with a particular archaeological bend to it. One such project that recently popped up and caught my attention is from a group of archaeology graduate students at Michigan State University.  Through their efforts to learn about and protect interesting and important archaeological remains on the Michigan State University campus the Campus Archaeology Program discovered that the archaeological remains of a long since demolished sugar house were hiding in the Sanford Woodlot right on campus.

Like most curious archaeologists, these archaeology students wanted to know more about their discovery and soon learned that for many decades of the 20th century, the Michigan State Forestry Department supported a maple syrup research and demonstration program. Like most maple syrup research programs, this included a working sugarbush and sugar house. Archival research revealed that the first sugar house was built around 1915 and was used for approximately ten years before being lost to a fire. A replacement sugar house was built on the same site and was used through the 1930s to the 1960s at which time the structure was torn down.

Photo of MSU Forestry Department sugar house, taken around 1934. [From MSU CAP blog post] Photo Source
What remains of the sugar house location are now an archaeological site that has caught the interest of the Campus Archaeology Program. Under the direction of archaeology doctoral students Jack Biggs and Jeff Painter, the CAP intends to investigate and map the sugar house remains in greater detail and maybe even do a little archaeological excavation.

I’ve always been interested in the history of the maple syrup program at MSU with a particular attention to the work of Forestry Professor Putnam Robbins. “Put” Robbins came through the MSU Forestry program as a student in the 1940s, where he researched and wrote his 1948 Master’s Thesis on the effects of tapping location on maple sap flow, before becoming an MSU Extension Forester. As an Extension Forester in the Forestry Department he was encouraged to continue his interest and applied research with the maple industry.

MSU Forestry Professor Putnam Robbins demonstrating the insertion of a paraformaldehyde tablet in maple tree tap hole.

My interest in Robbins centers around the history of work he did with Robert Costilow, an MSU campus microbiologist, to develop a tablet to be inserted into the tapholes of maple trees with the idea that the anti-microbial effects of paraformaldehyde, its active ingredient, would increase the volume and prolong the flow of maple sap during the tapping season. Known as the PF tablet, the tablets did that job quite well but it was discovered that this chemical application also were harmful to the long-term health of the maple trees and it was subsequently banned for use in the maple syrup industry in the US and Canada in the 1990s.

Of course, the PF tablet history does not directly play into the sorts of things that the archaeologist might learn from their investigations of the remains of the MSU sugar house, but it goes to show that the MSU forestry department and maple syrup program made significant contributions to the history of the maple industry. Who knows, maybe the detailed look into the history of this program coupled with on the ground archaeological investigations of the Campus Archaeology Program will expand our knowledge and appreciation even further.  I, for one, am glad that they are looking and giving it the attention it deserves and will be following their progress reports on their blog and the Campus Archaeology Program Facebook page.

 

UPDATE –

Research by the Michigan State University Campus Archaeology Program continues to learn more about the history and role of the sugarhouse in the campus’ Sanford Woodlot.  See their November 7, 2018 blog post for an update on their progress.

The Grimm – Horse Shoe Forestry Company Connection

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!

Recommended Reads: Excellent Sources on the Culture and History of Maple Syrup

People occasionally ask me what are the best books to learn about the culture and history of maple syrup and I usually respond with the same three books. It is true that there are a wide variety of other books, articles, and reports that cover various aspects of maple history. But these are usually focused on a particular topic or geographic area, some of which are featured elsewhere in this blog.  In contrast, these three books have a much greater breadth, are well-researched and well-written and, and give the average reader a bit more to chew on. The three books are – The Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing, published in 1950,  Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont: A Short History by Betty Ann Lockhart, published in 2008, and Sweet Maple: Life lore & recipes from the sugarbush published in 1993 by James M. Lawrence and Rux Martin.

The Maple Sugar Book

Written by Helen and Scott Nearing, although it was primarily researched and written by Helen, tells the story of how one couple in the 1940s left the city for the Vermont woods, took up a simple homesteader’s life and learned the ways of living with the seasons, including maple sugaring in the springtime and sustainable organic farming all year round. Along the journey Helen became fascinated with the history and lore of maple sugaring, and finding no satisfactory book written on the topic, decided to write one herself. As a result, this book could be described as the first detailed and well-referenced study published on the history of maple sugar. The first third of the book begins  by situating maple sugar in the broader context of sweeteners in our historical and modern culture. The book then moves to a survey of early historical accounts of Native American sugaring before launching into a chapter titled “The Early Settlers Make Syrup and Sugar”. This nicely referenced chapter traces the evolution of non-Indian sugaring from its most primitive forms in the 1600 and 1700s up through the early 1900s.

The middle portion of the book describes in great detail the process of running a sugarbush and the making and marketing maple syrup and maple sugar in the 1940s and 1950s in Vermont. By maple industry standards at the time, the Nearing’s maple operation was relatively state of the art, including the use of a metal pipeline system connecting dumping points in the sugarbush to sap collection tanks at a lower elevation.

Helen Nearing working the evaporator. Taken from the cover of the 50th Anniversary edition of “The Maple Sugar Book” published in 2000 by the Good Life Center.in the sugarbush to sap collection tanks at a lower elevation.

The final portion of the book contains the Nearing’s thoughts and philosophy on work, sustainability, and living within one’s means and how and where maple sugaring fit into that equation for them.

It is interesting to consider that, while written in the 1940s and published in 1950, this book itself, in addition to the history it presents, is now something of an artifact and of historical interest.

To really understand the Nearing’s back to the land approach and the ins and outs of the operational side of their maple sugaring endeavor, one also needs to pick up their book Living the Good Life: How To Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World which was first published in 1954. This book explains the role and economic importance of the making and sale of maple syrup and maple sugar in their idealized, but not quite real, attempt at living a frugal and sustainable lifestyle.

Margaret O. Killinger’s 2007 biography of Helen Nearing titled The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing is also an important companion piece to understanding and explaining some of the otherwise unstated motivations and realities of the Nearing’s decision to get into maple sugaring and how they made it a success. Similarly, the 50th anniversary edition of The Maple Sugar Book, published in 2000 includes an epilogue by Greg Joly that provides additional context and back story on how The Maple Sugar Book came to be written in the first place and what became of the Nearing’s maple operation after they left Vermont for Maine in 1952.

Copies of this book are pretty easy to come by with many printings both in hardcover and paperback over the years, although, as mentioned above, the 50th anniversary edition has interesting additional information and commentary.

 

Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont

The most recent and the most thorough treatment of maple sugaring history is the book Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont: A Sweet History by Betty Ann Lockhart. Published by The History Press, his book is written from the perspective of Lockhart’s home state of Vermont as a central unifying theme, but let’s face it, when talking about maple history, Vermont was the center of the maple universe. Lockhart has been deeply involved in researching, writing about, and promoting maple syrup history since the early 1980s. In addition to this book, she along with her husband have written and produced a variety of articles, films and videos, and teaching materials, including a quality control manual for maple producers. She’s a very active member and contributor to the Vermont Maple Festival held each April in St. Albans. Suffice it to say, she knows the ins and out of the history of maple syrup making.

Presented in a more or less chronological fashion, the chapters cover a wide range of topics and major themes in the history of maple, including Native American sugaring, the evolution of sugaring technology, the beginnings of maple research and science, trade organizations and the promotion of maple products, and the effects of government regulations just to name a few.  Close to my heart, since I wrote a book about the man and his legacy, is a chapter on the corporate giant George C. Cary.

One of the things I like most about the book, in addition to the great illustrations and accessible writing style, is that Lockhart provides footnotes with references for her narrative. All too often popular history books are written without sufficient or sometimes any reference to supporting documentation, and we are just supposed to accept their “story” at face value. This book, thankfully does not fall into that trap. This book is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the history of maple syrup and maple sugar and is still in press and available online through The History Press and at other outlets.

 

Sweet Maple

While this book is not exactly heavy on the history side, it has a special place in my heart as one of the first books to introduce me to the broader culture and history of maple syrup and sugar.  With its 8.5 x 11 inch size and excellent color photos and drawings, Sweet Maple: Life, lore & recipes from the sugarbush initially comes off as more of a coffee table style book. But don’t let that fool you.  Vermont authors James M. Lawrence and Rux Martin bring a strong knowledge of the maple world to their work and were careful in their writing and research. Overall the book presents a broad cross section of the variety of people and topics of interest connected to maple. The chapter on the origins and history of sugarmaking is tightly presented, yet still wide-ranging.

Like with the Nearing’s book and the Lockhart book, Sweet Maple does the reader a service by providing a bibliography, historical timeline, helpful glossary of maple sugaring terms, and a now partially out-dated list of sources for maple museums, equipment dealers, syrup and candy sales, and publication sources. Of course, as is true of nearly every popular publications related to maple syrup, including the Nearing’s and Lockhart books, there is a collection of maple themed recipes, no doubt developed and tested by recipe experts.  Published in 1993, Sweet Maple has been out of print for many years but can still be found in used bookstores and online at sources like www.abe.com and www.amazon.com.

 

In a future post I will share some of my favorite books on maple syrup history written from a local and regional focus.

More on the Maple Syrup History of Bellechasse, Quebec

Following up on his massive publication from 2016, Quebec historian, author, and sugarmaker Réjean Bilodeau has put out a equally sizable second companion volume titled L’histoire de l’acériculture et des sucriers de Bellechasse: Notre Affirmation Régionale, which translates in English to The history of the maple industry and maple producers of Bellechasse: Our Regional Affirmation. As with the earlier volume, this book is entirely in French, but with the wonders of google translate website or phone app, one can navigate their way through a text that is chock full of maple syrup history centered on the producers and equipment manufacturers of the Bellechasse region.

Like in volume one, Bilodeau presents additional up close and personal histories of many more sugarbushes, sugarhouses, and maple syrup producing families in the Bellechasse and includes over 600 black and white images and 56 pages of color photographs. With so many families and companies featured between volume 1 and volume 2, it is hard to imagine that there is a maple producer in Bellechasse that Réjean has yet to acknowledge and present!

Volume two continues to pay homage to Bilodeau’s central theme that the Bellechasse region of Quebec has been the birthplace of most of the important technological innovations in the modern maple syrup industry. The Bellechasse region has so thoroughly embraced this notion that they have officially taken to referring to to the region as “Berceau Mondial de la technologie acéricole” or the World Cradle of the technology of Maple Syrup.

Of course, this is entirely debatable and trends towards the exceptionalism approach to writing history, where the focus is on defending claims to being the first, or the largest or the greatest or the oldest something or other. Bellechasse certainly was an important place for technological development, but it wasn’t the only place, it wasn’t the first place for most things, and what it did produce was not done so in a vacuum. What came out of Bellechasse did so in connection to and as a result of earlier innovation from elsewhere in the maple syrup world.

Of special note to me is a section of the book that recounts research into the early application of vacuum technology to plastic tubing for gathering maple sap and the IPL company’s invention of the Sysvac vacuum system that adapted vacuum technology for milking cows to the movement of maple sap for use with plastic tubing in the early 1970s. Bilodeau describes the arrival of the Sysvac system a game-changing moment in the history of maple syrup.

Bilodeau pays special attention and detail to telling the story of the origins and development of the IPL and CDL, Inc., the maple equipment companies headquartered in Saint-Lazare-de-Bellechasse including its growth and expansion into markets in the United States. Other chapters recount Réjean’s battle with cancer, sharing of the recognition and praise he has received for the first book, as well as a chapter telling the story of the early settlement of Bellechasse and how it relates to the early development of maple sugaring in Quebec.

For the maple historians among us, the book also outlines Réjean’s role in the leadership, development, and presentation of an exhibit of historic artifacts related to evolution of maple syrup making in Bellechasse. For those unable to view the exhibit in person, Réjean kindly included color photographs of every one of the exhibition cabinets. The exhibit only ran through November of 2017 but it is reported that Réjean Bilodeau is leading a plan to develop a permanent exhibit or even museum dedicated to an expanded telling the Bellechasse maple history story.

Yours truly even got a special mention in this volume when Réjean recounted his delight to discover that I had featured his first book on this blog.  Réjean was kind enough to refer to me as, in his opinion, “the most important maple historian on the south side of our border” (translated from French).  That is certainly hyperbole and the sort of exceptionalism I referred to earlier that I tend to reject, nevertheless I will try to live up to such high praise every day.

In spite of an ongoing battle with cancer, Réjean is wasting no time on researching and writing volume three of this series. With so much material in volume one and two of this series, it remains to be seen what volume three will include. Rest assured, Réjean Bilodeau has more things to say and will continue to spread the word of the importance of Bellechasse in the history of maple syrup.

Only 1,000 copies of the book have been printed, and it is not clear of a second printing would be planned. So, when they are sold out they are gone. As with volume 1 of this series, I purchased my copy of volume 2 through the Canadian maple equipment dealer CDL for $60 US plus $33.80 for shipping.  Try contacting CDL in Quebec to place an order by email or phone at 418-883-5158 ext. 337.