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.
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.
A new project was recently launched in Vermont to document the many historic sugarhouses that dot the the state’s rural landscape. Be they abandoned, inactive, or currently in use, the project, led by Dori Ross, a maple syrup maker and founder of Tonewood maple products company, is aimed at creating a well-illustrated record of old sugarhouses, and where possible and appropriate, helping share information on preservation tools and funding opportunities for these iconic symbols of the maple syrup industry.
Sugarhouse Vermont website for documenting historic sugarhouses.
A major tool in gathering information on where these sugarhouses are found is on the Sugarhouse Vermont website where sugarhouse owners can fill out an online form to share details and information on the sugarhouse’s location as a prelude to a more intensive photo and written documentation by the project team.
Dori Ross, Sugarhouse Vermont project leader.
In addition to sugarhouse documentation and creating an inventory of old sugarhouses, another long term goal of the project is to publish a photo history book as a tool to preserve and share the story, beauty, and histories of Vermont sugarhouses. I am pleased to be a part of the project team as an advisor and the project historian and I plan to contribute a chapter on the history and evolution of the sugarhouse for the book. In addition to myself and Dori Ross, our project team has the assistance of Sawyer Loftus, an experienced journalist and University of Vermont student made available through the support of the UVM Center for Research on Vermont.
If you own an old or just plain older sugarhouse, or know where a less well known historic sugarhouse is located, please consider contacting us through the information provided at the Sugarhouse Vermont website. You can learn more about the project at the Sugarhouse Vermont website or read and hear more about it in a recent Vermont Public Radio story that aired on April 8, 2021.
The Vermont Historical Society’s journal Vermont History recently published an article I wrote on the origins of plastic tubing for making maple syrup. Specifically titled, “From Pails to Pipelines: The Origins and Early Adoption of Plastic Tubing in the Maple Syrup Industry,” the article examines the evolution of pipeline and tubing technology for gathering and moving maple sap with special attention to the relationship and interplay of the three men who carried plastic tubing from idea and experiment to commercial reality. The article appears in Volume 89, Number 1, Winter/Spring 2021 and is sent to all members of the Vermont Historical Society.
Unfortunately, since this is the current issue of the Vermont History and is hot off the presses, I am not permitted to share an electronic copy of the article for 6 months. But anyone can join the Vermont Historical Society and get the paper journal mailed to their door as well as online access to all their current and past journals (including this issue), all the while supporting the preservation and sharing of Vermont history.
This fall I will post a PDF copy of this article on this blog, so check back in September to get a copy.
I recently had the honor of doing a joint online presentation about Adirondack maple sugaring with Ivy Gocker, Library Director at the Adirondack Experience – The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Specifically, our presentation focused on the history of the maple sugaring operation of Abbot Augustus Low’s Horse Shoe Forestry Company in the Adirondacks 120 years ago.
If you missed it and would like to watch you the program, you are in luck. The Adirondack Museum recorded our ZOOM webinar and has graciously shared it on their website, which you can find at this link or by clicking on the image above. This program was made possible by a partnership between the Adirondack Experience and co-sponsored the Albany Public Library.
This article describes the designs, technology, and patents of the first evaporators for making maple syrup and maple sugar in the late 1850s and early 1860s and the men that were responsible for their introduction. Evaporators provided an advanced, faster, and more efficient way of reducing maple sap to syrup and sugar than the flat pans they replaced and were one of the most important technological advancements in the history of the maple syrup industry.
The article tells the story of well-meaning, but unsuccessful attempt to establish a commercial maple syrup operation on the Grand Portage Ojibwe Reservation in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The ridge running above Lake Superior in northern Minnesota is known for its high quality sugar maples, with some of the most extensive stands found on the Grand Portage Reservation. Looking for economic development opportunities, the State of Minnesota hit upon the idea of helping start a cooperative commercial maple syrup operation with the members of the Grand Portage Ojibwe community. Click on the article for the rest of the story.
Country Living magazine’s January-February 2021 edition features a one page spread in their What is it Worth section highlighting a collection of antique Log Cabin Syrup tins.
What is especially notable about these collectibles is that four of these tins in the spread are from my personal collection of Log Cabin Syrup memorabilia. In addition I was able to assist the editors with refining the accuracy and details of their short history of the Towle’s Log Cabin Syrup Company. The editors were nice enough to acknowledge my contribution and give this website got a nice shout-out too! It is great to see maple syrup related antiques and collectibles getting noticed and promoted in a national magazine. Click on the image above for a larger version of the page.
The Keene, New Hampshire online newspaper the Sentinel Source recently featured a great little history of Perley E. Fox and the Granite State Evaporator Company. Written by Alan F. Rumrill, the Executive Director of the Historical Society of Cheshire County, the article traces the path of Perley Fox from his birth in Marlow, New Hampshire to the midwest, and back to Marlow where he settled and entered the tinworks business and developed his own design of maple syrup evaporators. Working under the company name of Granite State Evaporator Company, Fox sold a full range of maple sugaring supplies and evaporators. You can read Mr. Rumrill’s article at this link.
This post continues the story of the fictitious John Shelby, the Maple Sugar Man of Barre, Vermont. Part One of the story, focusing in the events surrounding the origins of the name and the company can be found here.
Preston C. Cummings as he appeared in an advertisement promoting his candidacy for Barre Alderman in 1951. Barre Daily Times, March 3, 1951.
In 1945, five years after becoming an owner of the mail order maple products business with his purchase of the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company and the John Shelby label, Preston C. Cummings and Black Sign purchased the Vermont Maple Products Company. Buying out the South Royalton from Amos and Wendell Eaton, Cummings acquired the company name, their direct order mailing list, packaging equipment and supplies and their maple syrup inventory. The following year Black Sign changes its name to the Vermont Maple Products Company.
The company added Alfred W. Lane to its leadership in March 1947 ahead of plans for expanding the scale and sales of their operation. The following month the Cummings, Lane and R. Barton Sargent incorporated the Green Mountain Syrup Company occupying the same space as the Vermont Maple Products Company on Ayers Street in Barre. A year later, in February 1948, the Green Mountain Syrup Company formally changed its name to John Shelby, Inc. with Preston C. Cummings as president.
The trademarked name and imaginary signature of John Shelby as it appeared on the company packaging, promotional brochures, and maple museum.
At some point in the late 1940s or around 1950 the Vermont Maple Products Company added exhibits to their plant, started offering tours, and began calling it the John Shelby Maple Museum. The name of John Shelby, The Maple Sugar Man was formally trademarked by the Vermont Maple Products Company in 1951.
The eight mural paintings created in 1951 by Chelsea, Vermont artist Paul V. Winters for the John Shelby Maple Museum. The paintings depicted the evolution and history of maple sugaring. Image taken from a John Shelby Maple Museum brochure ca. 1963.
Cummings further expanded the museum in the spring of 1952 with the addition of eight of painted murals created by Chelsea, Vermont artist Paul V. Winters. The murals depicted the evolution of the maple syrup industry from Native American sugaring to the colonial period and onto modern sugaring methods and equipment. The museum was popular and well promoted and was relatively unique at a time when few collections of maple sugaring antiques were on display elsewhere in Vermont.
Cover of a John Shelby Maple Museum promotional brochure. ca. 1963.
Although the museum was a popular attraction it would appear that not everyone was pleased with how Mr. Cummings ran his business. In December of 1956 charges were filed in federal court against the Vermont Maple Products Company and Preston C. Cumming for violating the fair labor standards act. Specifically, Cummings was accused of paying employees under the then $1.00 legal minimum wage.
Image of Hal C. Miller, Jr. from news article in the Bennington Banner, April 14, 1964.
A few months later in March 1957 Cummings sold the Vermont Maple Products Company mail order operations, including the John Shelby name and museum, to Ezra R. Armstrong and Hal C. Miller, Jr. , both from Barre. Miller was an owner of the local Coca-Cola bottling company.
However, in selling the company, Cummings was not free of his legal troubles. It turns out that Cummings was also under investigation for tax fraud covering the years 1954, 1955 and 1956. Cummings was accused of filing false personal income tax returns and falsifying the taxable wages to employees he reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Cummings pled guilty in June 1960 on 16 counts and was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison. Later the following year, Cummings appeared in a newspaper advertisement as the manager of the Barre branch of the Eastern Investment Corporation.
Full color promotional postcard illustrating a color lithographed syrup can from John Shelby, The Maple Sugar Man.
At some point around 1960 it appears that Miller and Armstrong sold the Vermont Maple Products Company and John Shelby Museum to Louis Hall, an associate of Miller with the Coca-Cola bottling company of Barre. As owner and full-time manager of the maple museum, Hall was engaged in the day-to-day operation of the mail order business and the tourist attraction, even serving as the president of the Vermont Attraction Association for a few years. In 1966 Hall sold the John Shelby Maple Museum to Rudolph “Shorty” Danforth and Clifford Eaton. A year later the museum building was purchased and razed to accommodate the expansion of what was then the neighboring Carle and Seaver tire shop.
Ad for the House of Maple in Royalton, Vermont. Note the statement “New Home of the John Shelby Maple Museum.” This ad appeared in the Bennington Banner, June 28, 1968.
In 1966 Danforth and Eaton expanded their existing sugarhouse on State Route 14 in south Royalton to become a roadside maple themed restaurant called the House o’ Maple Vermont Sugar House. The artifacts and memorabilia from the purchase of the Shelby Maple Museum became a center piece and important attraction at the restaurant, bringing an end to the life of the fictitious John Shelby.
Color postcard of Danforth and Eaton’s House of Maple Vermont Sugar House, c. late 1960s to early 1970s.
In 1975 Clifford Eaton bought out his partner Shorty Danforth’s portion of the restaurant business and in turn Danforth purchased Eaton’s share of the maple museum collection. Not long after, Shorty Danforth (who was a large man) sold the maple museum collection to Tom Olson of Rutland. Olson gave the collection a new home as the centerpiece of the New England Maple Museum which he built and opened in 1977 in Pittsford, Vermont. The museum is still open to this day preserving and sharing the collections, painted murals, and legacy of the mysterious Maple Sugar Man, John Shelby.
Barre, Vermont was at one time home to the John Shelby Maple Museum and pure Vermont maple syrup packed by John Shelby, the Maple Sugar Man. Over time the artifacts in the John Shelby Maple Museum traded hands and later became the core of what is today the New England Maple Museum. But who was this John Shelby and where did he come from? As it turns out, there never was a John Shelby. Like some famous foods, it was a made-up trade name of the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company. But that’s not where the story gets interesting. Let me start from the beginning.
Max Schwarzschild. Burlington Free Press, February 13, 1940.
The Black Sign Maple Syrup Company was a maple syrup packing and maple candy company started around 1935 in Barre, Vermont by Max Schwarzschild. Max was an industrious man who emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1908. After working in sales and the imported food business in New York City and Chicago, he served in the United States Army during World War I. Later while in the Army’s Quartermaster Corps, he discovered Vermont when sent to the Green Mountain state to assist the Civilian Conservation Corps. After discharging from the Army, he moved to Barre, where he started a mail order maple syrup and candy company called Black Sign with the name a translation of his own German name, with schwarz meaning black and schild meaning sign or shield.
Advertisement for Black Sign Maple Syrup Co. on Prospect Street in Barre. Note the absence of name John Shelby in the ad. From 1937 Barre Directory.
Not long after starting his new company, Schwarzschild married a widow named Ethel Sheplee Sartelle and began using the name John Shelby to sell his maple products. It is not known exactly when or how Max Schwarzschild came up with the name of John Shelby. The earliest dated reference I could find of Schwarzschild using the name John Shelby was 1939. Perhaps he was self-conscious of his German heritage in the period between the wars and wanted a more Yankee sounding name on his label. For example, one 1940 newspaper article about Schwarzschild noted that his wife was “a member of the Shelby family of Barre who can trace their lineage back to Ethan Allen.” We know that she wasn’t a Shelby and examination of the city directories for Barre in the first half of the 20th century show no families with the name Shelby. It is hard to ignore the similarities between his wife Ethel’s maiden name of Sheplee and the name Shelby.
Early image of the building that housed the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company and later the John Shelby Maple Museum. Real Photo Post Card.
The Black Sign Company began operations on Prospect Street in Barre, but in 1938 built a new house for the business in Barre at the end of Ayers Street near the corner with West Patterson Street. The new Black Sign plant was equipped with modern equipment for the handling and bottling of maple syrup and manufacture of maple candy. After five years, successful advertising and attractive packaging helped the Black Sign company grow to 12 employees preparing and packing maple products to send to mail order customers around the country and around the world.
Former location of Black Sign Maple Syrup Company and the John Shelby Museum at the corner of Ayers and Patterson Streets in Barre, Vermont. See building in lower left in black and white photo from 1964 and the empty lot today in the color photo on the right.
However, in late June of 1940, it began to appear that there was another side to the story of Black Sign’s success when it was reported that Max Schwarzschild had been missing from work and home for a couple of weeks. Inquiries into his disappearance and possible whereabouts uncovered that earlier in the month he had secured a loan for $11,000 from a local Barre bank using 140 barrels of maple syrup he had in storage as collateral. Investigations of his business discovered that the barrels did not in fact contain maple syrup as expected but instead had been filled with water. Upon that realization, a warrant was put out for Schwarzschild’s arrest. By then he had been tracked to Chicago where local authorities detained him. Washington County Sheriff Henry Lawson then flew from Vermont to Chicago to return Schwarzschild to Vermont to face charges of grand larceny as well as additional charges for writing a worthless check for over $4000 to the Lamoille County Savings Bank. With Schwarzschild’s arrest and inability to meet bail, a Federal Judge put the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company into receivership and appointed Arthur Simpson, Director of the State’s Old Age Assistance Department and a stockholder and chairman of the board of directors of the Cary Maple Sugar Company, to manage the company during Schwarzschild’s incarceration and trial.
Cover of a promotional recipe booklet from the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company “Gathered by John Shelby.”
Further investigations revealed that Schwarzschild had previously arranged for the delivery of the barrels to St. Johnsbury where the syrup they contained was sold to the Cary Maple Sugar Company. Schwarzschild then had an equal number of barrels filled with water in the Barre warehouse. Unfortunately for him the bank had recorded the serial numbers on the original syrup barrels at the time of making the loan and the numbers on the water filled barrels did not match what was in the bank’s records.
While Schwarzschild sat in jail during the summer of 1940, further investigations revealed the extent of his unpaid business transactions and working on credit with liabilities totaling $80,000, including debts to the Cary Maple Sugar Company amounting to $40,000. Despite company assets adding up to $103,000 a United States District Court judge declared Max Schwarzschild and the Black Sign Maple Syrup Company to be involuntarily bankrupt. Arthur Simpson was then chosen as the Trustee to manage the bankruptcy of the company. In late October of 1940, a few days before Schwarzschild went on trial, the Black Sign Company was sold by Simpson to the People’s National Bank who in turn promptly sold the company to Preston C. Cummings of Burlington and Norbert C. Goettler of Montpelier. Cummings and Goettler quickly took possession of the plant and continued operations under the existing names of Black Sign Maple Syrup Company and the John Shelby brand. The following January Preston C. Cummings, his wife Nina B. Cummings, and new business partner Willis B. Venable of Barre formally filed articles of incorporation for the Black Sign Maple Products Company with $10,000 worth of stock.
Schwarzschild was found guilty and sentenced to two to four years in state prison at Windsor, Vermont. He served about one year of the sentence before being released but never returned to the business of selling maple products.
With that the first half of the Black Sign and John Shelby story come to a close….but wait, there’s more to be told in part two of this saga.
The 
