Columbia Conserve Co. mss. II, 1932

Records of the Columbia Conserve Company, 1932, at the Lilly Library, Indiana University

Finding aid created by Ava Dickerson

Creator: Columbia Conserve Company
Title: Columbia Conserve Co. mss. II
Collection No.: LMC 2727
Dates: Nov. 1931 - Aug. 1932
Quantity:

Quantity: 1 Box

Quantity: 1 standard

Abstract: The Columbia Conserve Co. Mss. II, 1932, consist of newsletters and council minutes from the Columbia Conserve Company of Indianapolis, IN.
Location: Lilly - Stacks
Language: English .
Repository: Lilly Library
1200 E. Seventh St.
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-5500
Business Number: 812-855-2452
liblilly@indiana.edu
URL: https://libraries.indiana.edu/lilly-library

Historical Note

In 1903 Charles Hutchins Hapgood, a successful plow manufacturer, bought the controlling interest in the Mullen, Blackledge Company. His three sons, William Powers, Hutchins, and Norman, became stockholders. William, who had had nine years experience with Franklin MacVeagh's Wholesale Grocery in Chicago, first as assistant shipping clerk and later as head of the manufacturing department, assumed the managerial responsibilities of the company.

After losing the original investment, the company was reorganized in 1910 and moved to Lebanon, Indiana. Two years later the company moved back to Indianapolis locating on Churchman Avenue. Following the death of Charles H. Hapgood in 1917, the company adopted a program of workers' management and ownership operating through a workers' council. In 1932 following the employment of Powers Hapgood, John Brophy, Daniel Donovan, and Leo F. Tearney, labor troubles developed and culminated in the dismissal of the last three named leaders. A committee of four composed of Jerome Davis, Paul Howard Douglas, Sherwood Eddy, and James Myers was then appointed by the Council and Board of Directors to investigate the difficulties and submit a plan of settlement. On September 1, 1942, the employees struck for higher wages and the following year Marion County superior judge Hezzie B. Pike, dissolved the trust and ordered the stock distributed individually to all who had worked at Columbia for at least six months since January 1, 1925. From 1943 to 1953 the company again was back in the hands of the Hapgoods. In 1953 the plant was sold to John Sexton and Company, Chicago, which took possession on May 1. At that time the formulas were purchased by Venice Maid Company, Vineland, New Jersey.

Among long-term employees of the company were C. Estella Franz, a member of the Mullen, Blackledge Company, who joined the Columbia Conserve Company staff in 1903 heading the order department and Howard Herner, a member of the shipping department, who was engaged as bookkeeper in 1918, a few years later assumed the duties of treasurer of the company.

For fifty years the company manufactured twenty-seven varieties of condensed soup, twenty-one varieties of Ready-to-Serve soup, and other fancy products such as catsup, boned chicken, salad sprouts, and brown gravy with beef, which were sold under buyers' labels.

In addition to the material found in the collection, information on the company appears in Devere Allen's Adventurous Americans... (New York, [c.1932]), pp. 217-32; William P. Hapgood's "The High Adventure of a Cannery," Survey, LXVIII:655-58, 682, Sept. 1, 1922; John Bartlow Martin's Indiana: An Interpretation (New York, 1947), pp. 159-73; and Elfrieda Lang, "The Columbia Conserve Company Papers," The Indiana University Bookman, November 1957, pp. 18-23. Another account of the company is by Russell Edward Vance, "An Unsuccessful Experiment in Industrial Democracy: The Columbia Conserve Company," Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 1956. (D40 .V222)

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of newsletters (the "Columbia Cauldron") and council minutes relating to the Columbia Conserve Company in 1932.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following order: I. Regular Council Meetings. II. Special Council Meetings. III. The Columbia Cauldron. IV. Envelopes

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access:

This collection is open for research.

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Conditions Governing Use:

Photography and digitization may be restricted for some collections. Copyright restrictions may apply. Before publishing, researchers are responsible for securing permission from all applicable rights holders, then filling out the Permission to Publish form.

Related Materials

See Columbia Conserve Co. mss., also located at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Indexed Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Item], Columbia Conserve Co. mss. II, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift: 2011

Collection Inventory

Box 1
Folder 1
Regular Council Meetings
Box 1
Folder 2
Special Council Meetings
Box 1
Folder 3
The Columbia Cauldron , November, 1931 - August, 1932
Box 1
Folder 4
Envelopes