Peppermint Kings
Thank You
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Belchim Crop Protection
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G & M Supply of Indiana
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Essex Labs LLC
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Dan Allosso
Part One
Origins of the U.S. Mint Industry
Some Recurring Ideas
- Like America itself, mint migrated from east to west
- The Peppermint Kings were interesting folks
- There's a lot of misinformation out there
Where the Peppermint Kings Reigned
Peppermint King #1
When: 1810-1840+
Where: Ashfield Mass.
Who: Samuel Ranney (1772-1837) and family
What: First mint
Ashfield was incorporated 1765, peppermint was there before 1800
The Ranney family was huge, repeating names across generations
The Ranneys were originally from Middletown, Connecticut
Migration of extended families is a well-known American behavior
Peppermint was not a subsistence crop
Ashfield was hilly and not suited to growing subsistence crops (e.g. wheat)
There were no drugstores
Much "medicine" was done without doctors, and was herbal in nature
Peppermint oil was the linchpin for a vast network of peddlers whose stock was headquartered in Ashfield
Samuel Ranney and his family supplied the peddlers with many of their goods
To supply their network of peddlers, the Ranneys grew peppermint near Ashfield
From the beginning, both American and English essences were marketed
English, "genuine" peppermint, sold at a premium over the American "imitation"
*
Starting in the 1830s the Ranney clan moved again, this time to Phelps, NY
At that same time, they began purchasing land in Michigan, as well
By 1850, Ashfield's population had declined by about 25%, due to a single clan's migration
The Ranneys were staunch abolitionists
Ashfield was the site of a famous religious controversy
- Massachusetts still had an official state church, Congregationalism
- Residents were forced to pay a tax to support it
- The Ashfield Baptists refused
- Congregationalists seized Baptist property and sold it
- The dispute eventually was settled by King George III
Samuel Ranney was involved in another religious dispute just before he moved to Phelps
Antidisestablishmentarianism reared its head in the Ashfield Congregationalists
(Ashfield's Dr. Charles Knowlton wrote the first birth-control guide in the U.S.)
*
Peppermint King #2
When: 1840-1890
Where: Phelps/Lyons New York
Who: Hiram (1810-1894) and Leman Hotchkiss
What: Hotchkiss, an American brand sold internationally
The Hotchkiss family was also large and wealthy, owning the largest general store in the USA, in Phelps
Hiram and his brother Leman Jr. operated stores and grist mills in Phelps and nearby Lyons
Hiram moved onto a farm estate near Lyons in 1833
The Erie Canal ran through Lyons, providing access to New York and world markets
Lots of peppermint was grown around Phelps, but mostly went to Ashfield
(*via the Ranneys)
The Hotchkiss brothers sent their flour to New York via the canal
Hiram had the idea to sell oil on the international market instead of domestically
The impetus was that the "gold standard" peppermint oil of the time was Mitcham, from England
It sold for multiples of the price of U.S. oil
He sent an unsolicited shipment of peppermint oil to Hamburg in 1839; they liked it, and ordered more
The rest, as they say, is history
*
In the 1840s he began shipping his oil in distinctive blue bottles from a local glass company
In 1851 Hotchkiss oil won an award at the London Exhibition of the works of Industry of All Nations
Taking a cue from England's Cadbury chocolatier, Hotchkiss was one of America's first name brands
"Hotchkiss International Prize Medal Peppermint Oil"
Medal-chasing became an integral part of the peppermint industry
Leman Beecher Hotchkiss Advert
*
The Hotchkisses and Ranneys soon began to compete for "western oil," from Michigan
Unlike the other two "kings," the Hotchkisses owned land but weren't farmers
Hiram started his own bank; at the time, banks could issue currency
*
Hiram and Leman, along with their rich uncle Calvin, had a complex relationship
By the time of his death, Hiram had financially ruined almost everything he touched
"He used the bonds of friendship and especially of family to cajole people to help and support him, even when it was clearly not in their best interests. He was
a bully who browbeat his opponents into submission and avoided his obligations until many creditors simply gave up and wrote off his debts."
- His brother eventually would have nothing to do with him
- His uncle Calvin also gave up and refused to help him
- His bank failed
- Dun and Bradstreet for years panned his business
- He basically ruined his brother's credit as well
- He lived out his life in the fancy Astor House in New York
- His wife and children were forced from their home
- He didn't come home for the Sheriff's Sale
The Hotchkiss heirs operated the business until it was sold in 1982
I bought myself some Hotchkiss souvenirs
Peppermint King #3
When: 1868-1930+
Where: Nottawa and Kalamazoo, Mich
Who: Albert May Todd (1850-1931)
What: Farmer, chemist, inventor, esthete, politician, activist, businessman
*
At age 18, he and his brother began raising peppermint
This brother, Oliver, later was a pioneer peppermint producer in Oregon
By his mid-20s, Todd was involved in many farming, mint, and business ventures
The predecessor of his eventual business was the Steam Refined Essential Oil Works in Nottawa
He invented a double-distillation process, and, with his son, the redistill
*
As business grew, he moved from Nottawa to Kalamazoo
Todd's trademark on his stationery
*
Todd's Headquarters in Kalamazoo, 1891
A.M Todd had a warehouse in North Judson
Todd was a remarkable example of the "self-made man" achieving the American Dream
Peppermint King
- Largest mint oil dealer in the United States
- His two farm estates, Mentha and Compania, were the largest mint farms in the USA
- Researched varieties, growing practices and machinery
- Expanded into the Western states
- Had his own brand, Crystal White
Social Activist
- His Mentha Plantation was a rural "model city"
- Much evidence of his concern for workers' morale
- He paid his workers well, and recruited women
- In 1902, he advertised the same hourly wage I got at my first job 61 years later!!
- Maintained connections to Jane Addams at Hull House
- Helped found the Rand School, a "socialist college."
- Co-founder of the Municipal Ownership League
The Mentha Plantation
*
Bibliophile and Art Collector
- In 1912 he and his wife took a 14-month European sabbatical
- He shipped back 30,000 pounds of books, artworks, etc.
- Huge benefactor of Kalamazoo library and museum
- Served on the boards of many non-profits and societies
- The Academy of Political Science
- The American Political Science Association
- The American Social Society
- The American Economic Association
- The American Association for the Advancement of Science
- The Stable Money League
- The Fabian Society
- The American Academy of Social and Political Science
- The Proportional Representation League
- The National Municipal League.
- He also contributed regularly to Kalamazoo's Cooperative Society.
Todd's Professional Memberships
Politician
- A successful businessman, he espoused socialist principles
- Elected to U.S. House 55th Congress
- Ran on "fusion" ticket; they were later outlawed
- Extremely critical of the big monopolies of the time
- Advocate for public ownership of essential utilities
- Associated with labor leader Eugene Debs
- Publicized and decried the Crédit Mobilier scandal
- Indiana politician Schuyler Colfax got caught up in it
*
"Todd did not despise business; he objected strenuously to monopoly and
the abuse of power enabled by concentrated wealth."
"The American people, Todd said, had been tricked into thinking that the nation's business interests were the interests of the money power."
Todd's family continued to run the business until it was sold in 2011
Part One and 1/2
Mint in the Mucklands
Virtually all production in the Midwest (which began in Michigan) was centered on organic "muck" soils
Where does Indiana fit in, and in particular Jasper County?
In the mid-1920s, a huge run-up in prices led to a massive expansion of production
In 1930 80% of the nation's mint was produced in Indiana
Indiana had 2700 of the nation's 3000 mint farms
Eight leading counties
- St. Joseph
- Kosciusko
- LaGrange
- Marshall
- Elkhart
- Noble
- Starke
- LaPorte
In the 1930s, things went backwards
- Overproduction
- The Depression
- Verticillium Wilt
- Subsidence
By 1940, Indiana acreage was reduced by about 75%
Indiana Mint Acreage
- 1929: 40600
- 1939: 9264
- 1968: 9480
- 2015: 12200
Jasper County only began production in the 1930s, via Gehring and Gumz*
In 1968, Jasper County led Indiana in mint production
There are approximately 1350 acres left
For a while, Newton County had some acreage, too
Mint Distillery on Coussens's farm
Otto Born harvesting mint ca. 1960
Part Two
The science behind the scent
Two quotes were the inspiration for this part:
"Of course, since peppermint oil was rarely kept more than a few years, it is impossible to know how the Hotchkiss oil of the 1920s compared to the Hotchkiss oil of the 1850s" -Allosso
"To a trained person looking at a chromatogram of an essential oil, it's a lot like the way a musician can look at a piece of sheet music and 'hear' the tune; likewise a chemist can 'smell' the oil by looking at its profile." -- Dr. Doug Walker, Essex Labs
Gas chromatography is the standard means of analyzing essential oils
How does gas chromatography work?
A "unit" of several components
- Gas Chromatograph
- Mass spectrometer
- Flame Ionization Detector
- Organic molecule libraries
"This is how I explain the process to my kids" -- Stacia Krause Ledbetter, Essex Labs
The analogy is a long garden hose, through which the sample passes. Different components take different lengths of time to pass through the hose
As each constituent "exits the hose" it passes through two machines that try to figure out what it is
Both machines very rapidly "blow up" the sample, analyzing its constituents by their weights and types of chemical bonds
The resulting values are "looked up" in a library of known "signatures" for the various constituents
A count is kept of the acquisition time (since the start) and how many samples of each constituent are seen
The result is the graph at the top of the printouts
The table below the graph shows the approximate percentages of each constituent, derived from the recorded counts
You can look up the constituents on Wikipedia; it's fun!!
Important notes
- There are many more constituents than the ones shown
- There are many many variables that impinge
- GC is a tool that cannot be used in isolation
- Ultimately, a human is the final arbiter
The final part of my investigation revolves around said human, known as a "flavorist."
About the cards
- The backing sheet "holds in" the scent
- The cards have a generic minty aroma
- Scratching eventually depletes the scent
- The strongest flavors are #2 and #4
- Spearmint oil really sticks!
- Best way is to cut them into strips
