A red rose. A candy heart that says "XOXO." There are many ways in which sentiments are shared during the Valentine's Day season. People have always enjoyed turning things into symbolic gestures -- even slipping a ring on a finger during a wedding ceremony whilst reciting the words, "as a sign of my love" is an example. Another saying often repeated, "take this as a token of my appreciation" denotes an object as a symbol of goodwill. In the United States (and elsewhere to varying degrees), candy has become symbolic with Valentine’s Day and since the holiday is right around the corner, this month we are taking a look at the history of candy in Tiffin.
Candy making itself can be considered a symbol of a long-standing tradition for small towns in America, and believe it or not, its popularity was evident in years of Tiffin city and Seneca County directories, many of which have been digitized onto the Seneca County Digital Library (SCDL). Peruse through any select year between 1870 and 1920, and you will see several. Even the surrounding villages, including Risingsun, West Lodi, Green Springs, Republic and Amsden could claim their own "candy maker."
By the early 20th century, candy making was a remarkably prosperous industry. At this point there were close to 400 candy factories in the United States and many innovative procedures were being developed. "Candy factories began popping up everywhere", states candystore.com, and it was not uncommon, like so many other types of family-owned businesses during this era, to see the candy maker running his or her business out of one's own residence.
F.W. Grammes was one of the original candy-makers in Tiffin. A brief history is in the Tiffin's 75th Anniversary Souvenir on the Seneca County Digital Library. http://bit.ly/SCDLGrammes
If you come across a candy maker in a Tiffin city directory, you will often discover the candy makers in our town operated from their homes. Others sold candy in their restaurants, soda fountains/ice cream shops, cigar shops, bakeries and grocery stores. Putting the list together (see sidebar), it seems as though Washington Street was lined with candy options.
Why so many? (One has to wonder how many dentists there were!) Well, how often have you tried to ingest some horrid form of medication? Candy was somewhat of a homeopathic form of medicine that, in a way, still continues--think of fruit-flavored cough drops. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians routinely took honey, licorice root, cloves and ginger for digestive problems and other ailments. (As a child, whenever I got sick, I always got excited when the doctor said it was one of those cases where I got to take the bubble-gum flavored antibiotic! And on the contrary, to this day I detest grape-flavored candy because it reminds me of Dimetapp).
While many of the advertisements within the documents on SCDL don't specificy what types of candy the businesses carried, there are a handful that do. Kahler & Marines, a long-standing candy business in Tiffin, lists bonbons as one of its specialties. Traditionally, bonbons are actually exchanged by the French for New Year's Day. Like Chinese fortune cookies and our candy hearts with messages, the French will provide a motto with a box of bonbons when they gift them to one another. "This is the time for the renewal of friendship and the confirmation of acquaintance" (Researching Food History blog).
J.T. Campbell & Co. is listed in the city directories as an "agent of Huyler's Candies." Huyler's was a chain founded by an ice cream shop owner who started making molasses chewing candy. As the business grew, it begun training novice chocolatiers and candy makers, including Milton Hershey, who was even
Unidentified children buying chocolate in Bowling Green, Ohio in the 1950s. This photograph belongs to the Wood County Public Library and is part of its Weldon Dukes Collection on Ohio Memory. http://bit.ly/SCDLWeldonDukes
employed at Huyler's for a short time. Huyler's began distributing samples throughout the region "accompanied with literature which proclaimed it was recommended by doctors and physicians for coughs and colds." By 1910, J.T. Campbell & Co. was one of over 50 Huyler's-branded locations in the country.
Another Tiffin business, Weidling & Leiby, is listed in the city directories as being an "agent of Martha Washington Chocolates," a confectionery which operated in Washington D.C. From 1906-1932, Martha Washington Chocolates was trademarked as such until it became the Elie Sheetz Candies Company (named after its founder) through the 1940s and at one point operated 15 factories and 200 retail shops. Additionally, Weidling & Leiby’s advertisements in the Tiffinian (look at the May 1920 issue as an example) specify they carry Nunnally's chocolates, the "candy of the south"--"fresh every 10 days via express." During its heyday, Nunnally Candy Company, based in Atlanta, made five million pounds of candy per year to distribute in stores throughout the East, Midwest and South United States. It closed its doors in 1978.
Much like today’s home bakeries, the dozens of businesses making candy at one time in Tiffin testify to our continued sweet tooths!
Works cited:
Biggerstaff, Valerie. “Nunnally summer home on the river” Dec 11, 2018; Updated Jan 21, 2020.
http://www.thecrier.net/our_columnists/article_a2490eaa-fce7-11e8-bc55-4f361399944c.html
“BonBons: Gift on New Year's Day in France”. Jan. 2, 2018 http://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2018/01/bonbons-gifts-on-new-years-day-in-france.html
“Candy: History and the Making of Sweets”. https://www.candystore.com/candy-history/
Gale, Neil. "Elie Sheetz - Martha Washington Candies Company". Digital Research Library of Illinois. June 25, 2017. https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2017/06/elie-sheetz-martha-washington-candies.html
Seneca County Digital Library, Tiffin City Directories. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27
Tiffinian, May 1920, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/53057/rec/3
Walkowski, Jennifer. “History of Huyler’s Candy Company”. https://buffaloah.com/a/del/374/huyhist.html