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Those Good Peas: The Morgan Canning Company in Southfield, Utah
Those Good Peas: The Morgan Canning Company in Southfield, Utah
by Ruth West Gregory
In 1904 James A. Anderson, of Morgan, Utah, and James Pingree, cashier of the First National Bank of Ogden, organized a canning company in Morgan with capital of $10,000, thereby giving birth to the Morgan Canning Company.
Mr. Anderson, formerly employed by the John A. Guild Store in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he had sold canned peas packed in Long Mountain, Colorado, felt peas could be as profitably packed in Utah as they were in Colorado. With his beginning capital James Anderson erected a small building to house one viner and a line of pea processing machinery. The combined equipment and factory cost approximately $12,000.
Unfortunately, the first year the company lost money. And although another loss was sustained the following year, it was reduced somewhat over the previous year. Because of a poor market, no profit was realized from the eight thousand cases of peas canned in 1908. At the close of the year, Mr. Pingree called a meeting of the stockholders for the purpose of changing the management. At the meeting James Anderson stated that the canning venture had seemingly failed, and he would purchase the stockholders stock in the amount which they paid for it. Everyone sold except a Mr. Scoville of Ogden. Three years later the Andersons bought him out. This transaction gave James A. and Joseph Anderson sole ownership of the canning company.
A bounteous harvest was produced in 1909, and the canning business was an assured success if money could be secured to purchase cans. The farmers were willing to wait for their money until the pack was sold, but the day soon arrived when a carload of cans was standing on the tracks and there was no money to release it. Loads of peas were waiting to be threshed, but it appeared everything would be shut down. Jim Anderson, however, secured a loan in time and the cans were released. A small profit was realized, and the Anderson brothers were assured the business would succeed.
In 1910 the company packed thirty thousand cases of excellent quality peas. In 1911 the previous year's production was surpassed. The Morgan Canning Company's struggle for existence was paying off — each year was better than the last. This growth necessitated enlarging the plant and reorganizing its personnel.
Immediate needs had been met by enlarging the original factory, but by 1916 the company had so outgrown its capacity that a new plant was necessary. A large, modern factory was constructed about a quarter of a mile from the old site. Mr. Anderson's experience and powers of observation as he visited other canning plants were utilized in installing the latest and best equipment in the new factory. The factory was now able to produce twelve thousand cases of peas per day. In half a day, the new plant packed as much as the first factory packed in an entire season.
The demand for the Anderson product was so great the brothers began searching for a location for a northern factory. Pea seed was planted in several valleys in the Intermountain Area to help the Andersons decide where it would be most profitable to locate their new factory.
U.S. Farm Bureau members in the Smithfield vicinity were interested in securing a new industry in that area, and a committee was appointed to contact the Anderson brothers about the possibility of locating their proposed factory in Smithfield. Frank Winn, secretary of the Farm Bureau, was appointed chairman of the committee. William H. Hillyard and Peter Hansen were committee members appointed to work with Mr. Winn.
The minutes of the Smithfield City Council dated March 12, 1918, state that a special meeting was called to hear from members of the Farm Bureau. J. H. Meikle, president of the Bureau, stated,
James Anderson appeared before the council and explained the need for other privileges for the proposed factory.
On March 20, 1918, J. H. Meikle again spoke to the Smithfield City Council of the desire of the members of the Farm Bureau and the people in general for the city to purchase the site for the canning factory. The following resolution was then presented to the council.
The resolution was unanimously adopted. A motion was also passed to enter into a written agreement with the Anderson brothers concerning the gravel necessary for factory and road construction and also for running a water line to their factory property.
Early in 1918 Charles Fry, an employee of the Morgan Canning Company, was sent to Smithfield in order to contract the planting of five hundred acres of peas in that vicinity. Frank Winn, of Smithfield, was employed by the Anderson brothers to accompany Mr. Fry and help him in this task, but Mr. Fry returned to Morgan with only a portion of the necessary acres contracted.
In March 1918 Jack Rich, a field man from the Morgan Canning Company, traveled to Smithfield in an attempt to secure the remaining necessary contracts. Again Frank Winn was employed to acquaint Mr. Rich with the farmers and to encourage them to support this new project. Unfortunately, when Jack Rich had to return to Morgan he still lacked forty acres of the necessary contracts. William L. Winn, father of Frank, told Mr. Rich to report the full five hundred acres contracted and said he would see that they were planted if he had to plant them himself.
Later in March the seed peas were shipped by the Utah-Idaho Central Railroad to Smithfield and stored in a warehouse. Three varieties of peas, Early Alaska, Yellow, and Green Admiral were planted that year. The cost of seed peas to the farmer was $8.00 per bushel.
Two weeks after Jack Rich returned to Morgan he was asked to move his family to Smithfield to act as field man for the new factory. The machinery for the factory was brought in from Morgan on a two-ton Federal truck, which was used later to haul the first load of lumber for the factory from the Anderson Lumber Company in Smithfield.
The next few months Smithfield was a beehive of activity. The peas were being planted and the factory and machinery had to be ready to care for the crop at harvest time. Jack Rich assisted the farmers with planting, irrigating, and harvesting the crops. W. R. Eddington, superintendent of the Morgan Canning Company, and F. LeRoy West, formerly employed at Morgan, moved their families to Smithfield and became foremen in the construction of the first viners and warehouse. This warehouse, sixty by thirty feet with a cement foundation and brick walls, was started in March of 1918 and completed on July 3 of that same year.
The first pea crop was harvested that same July. The farmers mowed the peas with a hay mower and then hand loaded them by pitchfork on to the wagons to be hauled to the viner shed. At the viner they were unloaded by hand, threshed from the pods by machinery, and transported by conveyor belt to the factory, a distance of about thirty feet. The peas were then run through cylinder-type graders, blanched and carried on to picking belts where women picked out and discarded the cull peas. From the picking belts the peas were carried to the filler, then to the closing machine, and to the cookers. After cooking the cans were placed in large cooling vats and after cooling were stored in the warehouse where they were to be labeled and boxed for shipping.
Top: Farmers hauling peas into the viner at the first factory in Morgan, about 1918. Bottom: Morgan Canning Company in Morgan about 1918.
In 1918, thirty thousand cases, twenty-four cans to each case, were canned of the Yellow and Green Admiral pea varieties. The Early Alaska variety, ready for harvest before the canning plant was completed, was left in the fields to seed. This seed was threshed and stored in the viner shed to be milled later. That year the farmers realized a yield of one and one-fourth to one and one-half tons per acre.
Most of the Morgan Canning employees returned to Morgan that first winter, but Jack Rich and Jack Howard remained in Cache Valley and were employed at the Amalgamated Sugar Factory. The new Morgan Canning Factory in Smithfield induced quite a migration of Morgan residents to Smithfield. They were seasoned employees, well qualified in their trades and were also general handymen wherever they were needed.
As building and canning activities of the new company increased, capable men of Cache Valley joined with the Morgan employees. In several cases both husband and wife worked for the factory and many times their children became Morgan Canning employees.
The first office building was a small frame shack built as a lean-to on the east side of the warehouse. When the new office was constructed, F. LeRoy West purchased this small office building, which is still in use today.
Meanwhile in the fall of 1919 the Anderson brothers began drilling test holes to see how deep they would have to dig for a firm footing for the foundation of a new factory. Villadsen Brothers of Salt Lake City, with Tom Knudson as foreman, were the contractors for this building. Everyone worked diligently through winter and spring to complete the new building before the pea harvest in 1920. Cement was poured all winter by using gravel that was heated by steam-filled pipes running under the gravel. This also kept the cement from freezing while it was setting. Also built at this time was a new office located just east of the factory. Both buildings were ready for occupancy in July 1920 and are still in use at the present time by the California Packing Company.
Smithfield City was unable to furnish enough water to operate the plant so a well was dug in the northwest corner of the warehouse. This well was not successful and caved in. The second well was dug at the north end of the warehouse in the spring of 1920. It was constructed by digging four-foot depths at a time, pouring cement into forms, and allowing the cement to harden. Then four more feet of dirt were removed below the cement ring and this was left to settle. After settling, four more feet of cement were poured and this method continued until an eightyfive-foot well was completed, which supplied most of the water for the factory until 1928.
Several viner sheds were built in different areas of Cache Valley to help in the threshing of the peas. During the construction of these sheds, workers were transported by railroad and accommodated with sleeping cars, work cars, and a cook car. One day while working on the viner shed at Wellsville, an employee placed some tar on the stove in the cook car to melt. When LeRoy West went to see if the tar was melted he found it ready to boil over. He grabbed the bucket handle to throw the hot tar outside, but he could not get the door opened fast enough. The bucket of hot tar dropped on the floor setting fire to the sleeping car. The car was completely destroyed with the men's clothing, tools, and personal belongings. The burning car was hurriedly unhooked and pushed away from the cook car. After that incident, the men lived in tents.
Viner sheds were built at Hyde Park, Greenville (North Logan), Providence, Miliville, Hyrum, and Wellsville from the fall of 1919 to the spring of 1920. Peas from these outlying districts were threshed, boxed, loaded onto flat cars, and hauled to the factory in Smithfield by the Utah-Idaho Central Railroad. This was a slow process, and the peas were on the road so long many of them soured and had to be discarded. Some time later peas were hauled into the factory by trucks.
In 1924 the Anderson brothers branched out again in their building program and constructed a bean processing plant at Hyrum, Utah. This factory employed 77 men and 153 women on double shift during the bean run, with an annual payroll of $24,000 a year. The Andersons also purchased a milk factory at Franklin, Idaho. Sometime later this building was converted into a canning factory.
The employer and employee relationship of the Morgan Canning Company was very close. The Anderson brothers were concerned about the welfare of their employees and their families. Entertainment for employees and their families was provided at opportune times. Each Christmas employees received a bonus in their pay envelopes, and they and their wives were occasionally entertained at a party at the Joseph Anderson home in Logan. LeRoy West well remembers the many Christmas toys and cedar chests he made for his children and others in the Morgan carpenter shop with the permission of his employers. H. B. Fry was in charge of organizing socials and benevolent assistance for employees.
When the new east warehouse was constructed about 1923, the employees helped lay a hardwood dance floor and built an entertainment room on the second floor at the south end of the building. This was equipped with a kitchen, tables, dishes, and the necessary items for the parties, dances, and dinners that were held there during the winter months. Following each pea campaign the employers would entertain the employees and their families,
During the winter months, steady employees of the company labeled cans, made packing boxes for shipping, and performed other needed repairs. Seed peas were shipped in from Idaho and these were cleaned and sorted during the winter and provided employment for many people.
At the early plant in Morgan, women earned the tremendous amount of $.12 an hour, with floor ladies earning the fabulous wage of $.22 per hour. Mary Howard remembers when women threatened to strike for higher wages at the Morgan plant and management's reply was to go ahead and strike, the women would be replaced with Mexican labor. Steadily employed men earned $140.00 per month, with an average work day of ten to twelve hours. During an emergency, George Phillips worked seventy-two hours without leaving the factory in Smithfield. One man said he worked twenty-five hours in one day because he did not take a noon hour.
The factory at Smithfield used only one shift of workers who would often start a shift at 5:00 or 6:00 A.M. and work through until after midnight. Women sometimes worked nineteen hours, and during a campaign it was not uncommon to work all night. There was no cafeteria so everyone carried a lunch or wives or family members of the employees brought the workers a hot meal to the factory. Joseph Anderson often brought hot rolls and drinks in to revive the employees at work; and after each campaign was over the employees were treated to sandwiches and drinks or a breakfast.
The Morgan Canning Company, true to the expectations of James and Joseph Anderson, became a very successful business enterprise. Unfortunately, James Anderson contracted pneumonia and died very suddenly in November of 1926. The employees of the Morgan Canning Factory were saddened by his loss. Three months later Joseph Anderson died of a heart attack.
Although the widows of James and Joseph Anderson attempted to keep the factory operating, without the leadership of the Anderson brothers, the factory only limped along. In the spring of 1928, the plants were sold to the Utah Packing Corporation, now the California Packing Corporation. Many of the Morgan Canning Factory employees stayed on with the new company, and in some cases their children have gone to work for the company, which is still operating at the present time.
UTAH CLAIMS WORLD'S LARGEST PEA CANNERY
"Smithfield has a capacity of 25,000 case of peas per day. A woman who boasted that she 'put up' 300 quarts of fruit and vegetables each season was told that the Smithfield plant could do the work in 20 seconds. . . .
"The main factory is 80 feet wide and 84 feet long. Its three stories are built of brick and concrete. The two warehouses are of the same construction. One is 350 feet long by 70 wide. Another is 370 by 71/ 2 feet. .. .
"The plant has a fully equipped machine shop to keep the equipment operating at all times."
Western Conner and Packer (October, 1926)
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