SWEET HISTORY

 

Although our characters, settings and plots may be fictional, our historical western stories should remain true to important facts in order to make them believable for our readers. Thus, when we authors do research, obviously we check for dates of major events, inventions, the founding of states, cities and towns and the famous and infamous who inhabited them. But we also put emphasis in making sure the small historical things in our stories are factual as well.

Where am I going with this? Well, in the historical western time-travel, YESTERYEAR’S DESTINY, (which BTW, I hope you all will check out!), the main character, Angela Moore chews Juicy Fruit Gum quite regularly. However, transported back in time to 1890, stores didn’t sell that brand yet. So, was chewing gum available then? And if so, what kind? For that matter, when she looked around the local general store, what other kinds of candy would she see? Could she pick up a Hershey’s chocolate bar? How about a Tootsie Roll?

Hence, my post on the American candy industry from the 1800’s forward.

The brand name of the gum Angela did chew was called Adam’s Black Jack Gum.

 Thomas Adams first created the chewing gum in his kitchen by boiling chicle, a natural tree gum. In 1871, he received a patent on the popular gum and in 1884, he added licorice flavoring, the first flavored gum in the U.S. It was also the first gum to be offered in sticks.

Even though the history of candy-making dates back thousands of years, as major advances in candy production developed, it became a major industry. Penny candy in America could be easily produced and sold by the pound, from glass jars in drugstores and general stores. As sugar prices decreased, both home based candy makers and candy factories refined their skills with candy brittles, taffy, caramels and simple hard candies.

However, it wasn’t until the latter 1800’s that candy making became even more popular with the addition of an ingredient called chocolate. Before this time, powdered chocolate was primarily used to create hot chocolate as a drink. Chocolate became more popular with advances made to offer chocolate as a solid, not just a powder. The ingredient could be molded into a bar, used as a flavoring, as well as a coating. Milton Hershey was the first American to bring the chocolate bar into mass production with machinery he purchased from a German company.

 

Out of the hundreds of sweets that could be listed, below is a timeline of some of the favorites I recognize. Many retro candies and their founding companies have come and gone. However, a large percentage of American candies have been around for more than a hundred years.

Hope you enjoy the journey through Sweet History..

1847 Oliver Chase invents a machine for cutting lozenges, which were made into flavored candy wafers. Not until 1901 was NECCO Wafers introduced by the company it was named after — New England Confectionery Company.

1848 John Curtis produces the first branded chewing gum, made from tree sap, called The State of Maine Spruce Gum.

1854 The first packaged box of Whitman's Chocolate is produced.

1868 Richard Cadbury and the Heart-Shaped Box: The invention of the heart-shaped chocolate box by Richard Cadbury in the 19th century cemented the association of chocolate with Valentine's Day. These boxes were not just containers for chocolates; they were ornate and decorative, doubling as keepsakes.

1880s Wunderie Candy Company creates candy corn, which remains a best-selling Halloween candy.

 

1893 Quaker City Confectionery Company, located outside Philadelphia, introduces Good & Plenty which becomes the oldest retro candy still in production.

1893 Milton Hershey attends the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago and watches chocolate being manufactured. Impressed, he purchases the German equipment for his factory in Pennsylvania.

1893 William Wrigley, Jr. introduces Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum and Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum

1894 Milton Hershey creates what is known as the first “American” candy bar, although his famous Milk Chocolate Bar won’t be invented for a few more years.

1896 Leo Hirshfield, New York confectioner, introduces Tootsie Rolls, named after his daughter’s nickname, Tootsie.

 

1900 Milton Hershey introduces a variation of what will become the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar.

1900 Clark Gum Company introduces Teaberry Gum.

1901 Multicolored candy disks called NECCO Wafers first appear.

1902 New England Confectionery Company makes the first Conversation Hearts which remains a thriving Valentine’s tradition.

1904 Emil Brach starts Brach’s Candy.

 1906 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses appear in the famed silver foil wrapping. The town of Derry Church changes its name to Hershey. The first name for the popular candy was called Silvertops.

1906 The American Chicle Company, founded by Thomas Adams, introduces Chiclets, the candy-coated gum that uses chicle (derived from the sweet sap of a tropical tree and means chewing gum in Spanish) inside.

 

1911 Ethel and Frank Mars open a candy company in Tacoma, Washington. The company, later Mars, Inc., would become one of the largest, privately owned candy companies in the entire world.

1912 Life Savers, reportedly named because of their resemblance to life preservers, are introduced in peppermint flavor. The five-flavor roll isn’t marketed for another 22 years.

1912 The Whitman's Sampler box of chocolates debuts and is the first box of chocolates to include an index for chocolate lovers to pick exactly which piece they want to eat.

1913 Goo Goo Clusters is introduced, the first candy bar to combine milk chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, and peanuts.

1914 The Heath Bar is introduced by L.S. Heath & Sons.

1914 Mary Janes, a peanut-butter and molasses flavored taffy-type candies are created by Charles N. Miller in Boston, MA.

1916 George DeMet introduces the Turtle, a chocolate covered caramel and nut candy that resemblances a real turtle.  

 

Hope this post satisfied your “sweet tooth!”

Also, I sure hope you’ll check out my latest release, Yesteryear’s Destiny, an adventure-filled time-travel, available at Amazon and soon available at many more distributors.

 

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SHAMROCK  VS  CLOVER

 

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, the image that comes to my mind beside a leprechaun and Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick, is the green shamrock.

 

How many of you know the difference between a shamrock species of clover and the four-leaf kind? “Clover” is a generic term that refers to trefoils, or any of the 300 species that belong to the Trifolium family. These plants have leaves that are separated into three leaflets, but you may find four-leaf, five-leaf or even six-leaf clovers as a genetic abnormality.

 

“Shamrock,” on the other hand, comes from the Irish word, “seamrog,” and means “little plant.” It refers to the white clover species or the suckling clover species. Although a real shamrock only has three leaves, that doesn’t mean it’s not lucky. In Irish folklore, the number three is considered very lucky.

 

 Saint Patrick is said to have used the shamrock as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity. It has been used as a symbol of Ireland since the 18^th century and is registered as a trademark by the Government of Ireland.

 

So, remember, shamrocks are clovers, but not all clovers are shamrocks.

 

Around our house in North Carolina grew large patches of clover and I loved to search for ones with four-leaves. Over time I had collected a few and still have a couple pressed between plastic. Did they bring me luck? Who knows, but like finding pretty sea shells on our Florida beaches, I enjoyed the challenge of the hunt!

 Scientific studies have said that the odds of finding a single four-leaf clover is about one in 10,000.  However, when further analyzed, about a 5-foot square patch of clover could contain 10,000 sprigs and thus, one would have a chance of finding a four-leaf one.  

 I’ll conclude this bit of clover trivia with the popular decades old song I would sing while searching for those illusive four-leaf clovers.

 

I'm looking over a four-leaf clover
I overlooked before
One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain
Third is the roses that grow in the lane

No need explaining, the one remaining
Is somebody I adore
I'm looking over a four-leaf clover
I overlooked before

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John Gast, American Progress, 1872

I first saw this painting while researching Trail to Destiny, Book 1 of my Wheels of Destiny Trilogy. I found the painting both an inspirational and fascinating piece of historical western art. Not only did I admire its rich and detailed symbolism and the powerful meaning it gave to America’s westward expansion, but I understood the controversy it provoked as well. Although the original artwork is only 12 ¾ x 16 ¾, the painting viewed by most is a much larger reproduction.

Crofutt’s Trans-Continental Tourist’s Guide, 1872

John Gast, a Brooklyn based painter and lithographer, was commissioned by George Crofutt, the publisher of a popular series of western travel guides. With so many images of the western landscape already in circulation, Crofutt collaborated with Gast to create a new design. Crofutt included an engraving of Gast’s painting in his guidebooks.

In order to appreciate the images depicted in Gast’s painting, one has to realize the connection it had to the concept of “Manifest Destiny,” which was first authored by newspaper editor, John O’Sullivan in 1845, who claimed America had been chosen to carry out the duty of expanding the country all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Gast used his painting to tell the message that the United States was destined to migrate West and to encourage interest in Americans to forge their way across the western frontier. This manifest destiny ideology was common among many early Americans who viewed it as an economic opportunity to start anew. 

American Progress conveys a dynamic story. First, let’s take a look at the landscape. The right side represents eastern America with what is assumed to be the Mississippi River and the left side represents western America with the distant Pacific Ocean. Notice the eastern side is much brighter than the western side which grows darker with storm clouds above the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Reading into that, some viewers might interpret the east as safe and civilized and the west as a dark, uncivilized and untamed wilderness.

Second, take notice of the large, ethereal feminine figure in the middle of the painting. With the “star of the empire” on her forehead, she seems to be leading and lighting the way for the travelers from East to West. In her right hand she carries what most often is interpreted as a book of knowledge and she suspends a length of telegraph cable, depicting educational advancements and technological improvements and inventions.

Next look below her; men follow her on foot and by various methods of transportation – pony express rider on horseback, covered wagon, stagecoach, and steam engine. In the lower right, farmers work the land, a stone house, trees and a split rail fence nearby. On the road in the foreground, three men walk beside a horseman. One carries a shotgun and another holds a miner’s shovel on his shoulder. 

As sequential waves of Americans move forward across the plains towards the Rockies and beyond, their images tell a story about the importance of the frontier in American life and of the progress achieved through communication, development, transportation and expansion.

But when we look closely to the left side of the painting, we can see quite another dark and controversial meaning to that story. Bison, wild horses and a bear are seen retreating into the darkness. Several Native Americans look back, one bare-chested male raises a tomahawk and another carries a bow and arrow. A horse drawn travois carries a mother and child. Another woman walks beside it and looking over her shoulder.

In the nineteenth century, the new nation of the United States had great ambitions for its future and westward expansion was a common mindset among most Americans. Looking at “American Progress” today, one can appreciate the bright, positive side of Americans’ enthusiasm and energy for forging a bold path across the West, yet also understand the darker, negative side and sympathize with Native Americans being forced from their native land and way of life they were accustomed to.

Gast’s painting at the time he created it effectively conveyed a history of the past, the innovations of the present and a vision of the future. The original painting is now held by the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.