So many people today seem convinced of the notion that 19th-century history has little or no relevance to modern 21st-century life. And in that assumption, they couldn’t be more mistaken. Let’s look at the following example:
In the late 1800s, apple orchards containing trees originally planted and nurtured by Johnathan “Appleseed” Chapman decades earlier were still thriving across what is now northern Ohio. Some of those orchards became effectively used by a man who might himself be regarded as a latter-day Johnny Appleseed for his love for and promotion of the fruit. That man was Jerome Monroe Smucker.
Born in 1858 to Mennonite parents whose forebears had settled in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1819, Smucker was a farmer who possessed high moral and religious principles and harbored both an irrepressibly entrepreneurial spirit and a rock-solid work ethic.
After many years of hard work, Smucker had amassed four farms between Smithville and Orrville and then built a creamery to process milk produced on them. Smucker’s intent was to go into the cheesemaking business, an ambition he may have inherited from his Swiss ancestry. Smucker purchased equipment needed for the enterprise, such as a large copper vat and wooden hoops to form the large wheels of cheese he would produce. For whatever reason, however, Smucker did not fare well with the enterprise and in time abandoned the cheesemaking business altogether.
Still on the lookout for business opportunities, Smucker eyed the many apple orchards thriving on the farms around his hometown of Orrville and wondered if there might not be some sort of undeveloped market others had not envisioned. Many of those orchards contained trees that were known to have come from the nearby nurseries of Johnathan Chapman. In most cases such orchards served only the needs of the families who owned them, being the basic ingredient in pies, cakes, cobblers and many other popular dishes. The orchard owners also pressed cider which was the drink of choice across the Ohio frontier where good water was often unavailable. As a rite of autumn, farmers often laboriously made a batch of apple butter which was a tasty fruit spread served on homemade bread and biscuits.
The idea of producing apple butter in large quantities intrigued Smucker’s always active imagination because he had something of an ace up his sleeve in that regard. What he possessed was an old recipe for apple butter that had been handed down through generations of his family. It had been left to him by his grandparents who had come from Switzerland, settling in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1756. Jerome had always heard it said that the recipe made one of the finest apple butters that those who sampled it ever tasted. He wondered whether the recipe might hold the key to a new enterprise.
Smucker purchased a 40-gallon copper kettle to cook the apple butter in and began experimenting with the family recipe that included a closely guarded group of spices and seasonings. Eventually, he believed he had perfected the taste his ancestors had previously achieved.
Because a key ingredient in any apple butter is the cider that the apples are cooked in, Smucker decided in 1897 to build his own cider mill along Orrville’s main street, providing easy access for farmers who wanted to sell their fruit to the business. Smucker began to make his apple butter in ever larger batches, packing it in stoneware crocks made at the Hall & Erb Pottery just a few blocks from his manufactory, and at the Dalton Pottery located only several miles from Orrville. On the light gray cylindrical crocks from the Dalton Pottery, Smucker applied paper labels featuring a graphic of delicious-looking red apples and the name J.M. Smucker Co.
To market his products, Smucker loaded up a horse-drawn wagon with his apple butter and cider and set out to visit stores and individual buyers, traveling within a 20-mile radius of Orrville. Unlike most food manufacturers of the day, Smucker believed strongly that customers should be able to know exactly what it was they were eating, and he labeled the ingredients accordingly. It was a great innovation for the time.
Gradually Smucker increased the market for his products and he began to think about expanding his offerings. He purchased a wooden fruit press and processed a variety of other local fruits such as grapes, peaches, cherries and elderberries, with an eye toward creating fruit spreads, which also elicited an enthusiastic response from his customers. Smucker continued to utilize locally grown fruits and even today there are still residents of Orrville who fondly recall how, as youngsters, they picked apples from Johnny Appleseed’s trees for use by Mr. Smucker.
In 1921 the J.M. Smucker Co. became incorporated and in 1935 it expanded its operations nationwide. Jerome Smucker died in 1948 at the age of 89.
The Smucker name is a bit hard to trace from a genealogical standpoint. The surname was originally Schmucker when J.M.’s great-great grandfather came to America in the 1700s. The family name was later inexplicably changed to Smoker for about two generations. The family, however, is said to have grown uncomfortable with a name that suggested a relationship with tobacco use and began to spell it as Smucker.
And as they say … With a name like Smucker’s … well, you know.
