BizAims

1822: Mathias Anderson Gedney (our founder) is born in Patterson N.J.

1825: John Quincy Adams becomes 6th U.S. President.

1836: Mathias goes to sea at 14, eventually helping to bring corn to Ireland during the potato famine.

1836: Davy Crockett dies at the Alamo as Texas declares itself a republic free of Mexico. Betsy Ross dies.

1849: Mathias sails around Cape Horn to California to join the 49er’s goldrush—finding enough gold to marry young Calista Jane.

1858: MINNESOTA BECOMES A STATE

1860: Abraham Lincoln elected President.

1863: Mathias gleans his first pickle recipes working for Northwestern Pickle Works in Evanston, Illinois.

1863: Lincoln frees slaves in the U.S.

1865: Lincoln assassinated.

1874: Calista Jane dies after birthing 12 Gedney children.

1876: Mathias finds more American and English-style pickle recipes when he joins the S. M. Dingee & Co. in Chicago.

1878: First bicycles made in U.S.A.

1879: Mathias re-marries and moves to Minneapolis with his own ideas for making pickles and related products. He searches for farmers to grow cucumbers —challenging the belief that the semi-tropical vine fruit won’t thrive in Minnesota.

1881: The first Gedney pickle plant opens - making Mathias Gedney’s recipes for pickle and condiments - at Lowry and Pacific Avenues in Minneapolis.

1882: Gedney products are delivered and sold directly from horse-driven “cash wagons.”

1883: The first skyscraper is built in Chicago. The Orient Express makes its first run from Paris to Istanbul. The Brooklyn Bridge opens.

1886: The Statute of Liberty is dedicated.

1893: Gedney company firmly established in Mpls., St. Paul, Chaska, Omaha, Kearney, Neb. , and Mauston,Wisc. Four sons are deeply involved in the company, with I. V. (Isadore) managing the main Minneapolis plant, Henry at the St. Paul picklery, Charles in Omaha, and John in charge of sales.

Already Mathias’ recipes are so well-received that production exceeds an annual 30,000 barrels of homemade, sweet, mixed and chow-chow, American and English-style pickles. Plus salad dressings, tomato catsup, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, imperial mustard, select olives and West India and Tabasco pepper sauces.

1893: Henry Ford builds his first automobile.

1895: Sales are expanded to North Dakota and Montana.

1888-1903: Repeated additions are made to Lowry plant and the M.A. Gedney Company is incorporated. Growing cucumbers in Minnesota is an unqualified success!

1901: Chaska plant expanded to make Mathias’ own recipe for sauerkraut.

1901: Queen Victoria dies. Marconi sends first radio message from Cornwall to Newfound land.

1906: San Francisco earthquake kills 700.

1910: Motorized trucks have replaced the horses, but they’re still called “cash wagons” and they're selling Gedney products directly to grocers and customers.

1914: WWI begins. Panama Canal opens.

1921: First radio broadcast of a baseball game.

1922: MInnesota’s F. Scott Fitzgerald writes “The Great Gatsby."

1928: Harry Tuttle (third Gedney generation, husband of I.V. Gedney’s daughter, Louise) starts up Gedney ladder as still operator in vinegar plant.

1929: Empire State Building is begun.

1929: The stock market crashes.

1941: US enters WWII

1942: The fourth generation comes to work when Harry’s son Gedney Tuttle, l6, begins sorting hand-picked cucumbers at the Isanti cucumber receiving station.

1945: With the passing of I.V. Gedney, Harry Tuttle II becomes President.

1945: World War II ends.

1946: Gedney’s “cash wagon-trucks” now sell directly to grocers with orders placed ahead of time. >>>Continue>>>Read the Part II>>>