Henry J. Heinz
The Pickle King and "57 Varieties"
Copyright 2009 by Daniel Alef
First Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 9781608043170
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Heinz is a household name. Nearly everyone knows it because of that ubiquitous bottle of ketchup bearing the Heinz keyhole logo. Search Google images for "ketchup" and there it is, Heinz ketchup bottle in image after image. It's found in every kitchen, in every restaurant, across the nation any in many countries abroad. Who would have thought that the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the major food processing concerns on Earth, could have been built on pickles and horseradish. Even its founder, Henry J. Heinz, probably didn't.
When Henry first went into the food processing business he was just trying to earn a living doing something he really enjoyed: cultivating his garden and helping his mother make horseradish. But a strong work ethic, passion for quality, and an uncanny instinct for sales and marketing resulted in an empire. He followed a winding road, one often filled with ruts and sinkholes, before reaching the top. What sets him apart, what sets so many of the great titans apart from the masses, was not simply good fortune, but his passion and perseverance; how he managed to pick himself up after utter failure, dust off his clothes, and move forward. Some of these attributes of success can be traced to his childhood.
Heinz was born October 11, 1844, in the Birmingham section of Pittsburgh. His father, John Henry Heinz, was a brick manufacturer who had emigrated from Germany four years earlier, and his mother, Anna Margarethe Schmitt, was a recent German immigrant who married John just after her arrival in 1843. They imbued their son with a Prussian-like Protestant work ethic mixed with religion and family values.
When Henry was six the family moved to Sharpsburg, PA, a German community a few miles down the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. John purchased a home with some land where they could grow their own food. All the children were required to tend to the garden under Anna Margarethe's tutelage. Although Henry attended school in Etna, first the Church School--his mother wanted him to become a minister--followed by public school and later Duff's Commercial College, he was drawn to the family garden from his earliest years. When he was eight, he carried fresh vegetables in a handbasket and peddled them to his neighbors. He also helped his mother jar horseradish.
Slowly the garden grew and by the time he was 12, Heinz was farming nearly three and a half acres. He began carting the produce by wheelbarrow and later by horse and wagon to Pittsburgh. He also became quite adept at making horseradish. By 1861 the 17-year-old was grossing $2,400.
The food processing industry in America at the time was in its infancy and not highly regarded; the products were laced with chemicals and often tainted. Food preservation was not a highly refined science; it was more of an art. Families tended to preserve their own foods. Horseradish, the pungent root cultivated since antiquity and used as a condiment and medicinal herb in Europe and the U.S. was a Heinz family specialty. Traders supplied it in green, opaque bottles to obscure the contents; adulteration was common. Heinz too the opposite tack. He placed the grated horseradish in clear glass bottles to demonstrate its purity and quality.
By the time Heinz was 25, his horseradish and produce business was flourishing, so in 1869 he formed Heinz, Noble & Company with his friend, L. Clarence Noble, scion of a wealthy Pittsburgh family, to produce "pure and superior" horseradish, sauerkraut, pickles and other bottled products under a new brand, the "Anchor Brand." Heinz believed his business would expand rapidly because of the explosive growth of another industry, railroads.
Railroad lines were interlacing America. The discovery of oil by Col. Edwin L. Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania, ten years earlier, brought massive railroad construction to the state, home to America's booming oil regions. Moreover, in May of that year, Leland Stanford hammered the golden spike linking his Central Pacific Railroad with Union Pacific to create America's first transcontinental railroad.
Heinz as the salesman and food processing manager, and the Noble family contributing much of the capital, was a winning combination, with a brisk rate of growth based primarily on pickle products. The company established its headquarters in Pittsburgh, followed by a vinegar plant in St. Louis and a warehouse in Chicago. According to Heinz biographer Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr., "By 1875, the plant was producing 15,000 barrels of pickles a year with mass production and specialized equipment of their own design."
Heinz had an artistic touch. Always seeking distinction in the presentation of his products, he designed a variety of unique glass bottles and decanters. He also focused on branding the products to appeal to grocers, wholesalers and the public.
In 1869, Heinz married Sarah "Sallie" Sloan Young. After a honeymoon in Niagara Falls they returned to Pittsburgh where he resumed his work. The newlyweds were quite religious. Daily prayers were an ever present ritual at home, and they attended the Lutheran Church (though they subsequently transferred to the Methodist Church). Sundays were devoted to church and to the Sunday school program, an avocation Heinz would continue for the rest of his life. Heinz also volunteered to tithe ten percent of his profits to the church.
Although the business was prospering, there were ominous signs on the horizon. Jay Cooke & Co. one of America's most powerful banks, failed in 1873, and thrust the nation into a grave economic spin and a steepening depression. The Panic of 1873 visited bankruptcy on tens of thousands of firms; unemployment mushroomed uncontrollably. At first Heinz, Noble seemed impervious to the economic storm with steady sales and production. Heinz concentrated on marketing and sales in the Pittsburgh area while Noble and his brother focused on Woodstock, Ill. and St. Louis. Heinz was also introducing new products and in 1875 began experimenting with walnut and tomato ketchup.