Jell-O: America’s Most Famous Dessert
By David Neth
Of all the ways Western New York has a claim to fame, Jell-O is certainly not at the top of the list. Yet the fruit-flavored gelatin dessert that started a cultural phenomenon has roots right in LeRoy.
Gelatin has been consumed, mostly as a dessert, for hundreds of years. The tasteless, odorless protein is made by extracting collagen from the boiled bones and connective tissue of animals and takes a lot of time to prepare. Before the days of gelatin powder, the liquid collagen required time to set and flavoring to be added later. It was popularized during the Victorian era as a dessert for royalty and members of the upper class. These desserts were set in intricate “jelly molds” and were usually prepared by servants. Eventually, it made its way to the U.S. but due to the time it took to prepare, gelatin was a rare treat. However, the trend grew and by the 1800s, it was so in-demand that it presented a need for an easier creation.
Gelatin Comes to LeRoy
On the other side of the state in LeRoy, carpenter Pearle Bixby Wait dabbled in making medicines in his free time. With the Knox gelatin, Wait realized that although it was good, it still required additional ingredients for flavor after it was prepared. So in 1897, Pearle Wait and his wife, May, discovered a way to add flavor to powdered gelatin. The first flavors were strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon. May named their new product Jell-O, combining the words “gelatin” and “jelly,” while maintaining the “O” ending that was popular for product names at the time.
Despite their love for making food, the Waits struggled to market their product with limited funds and little experience with advertising. Wait went door-to-door trying to sell Jell-O, but failed to spur any sort of significant sales outside of LeRoy. The couple also tried an advertising pamphlet, which featured a group of kids above a message that read: “We don’t get any more whippings! Our mama makes Jell-O for us and we don’t have to get into her jelly jars any more.” The ad – and its message – was quite different than what would later be featured in successful Jell-O ads and again didn’t bring in very many sales. On September 9, 1899, after two years of trying to market the dessert, the Waits sold the Jell-O formula and name to another LeRoyan for $450.
When Orator Frank Woodward’s Genesee Pure Food Company purchased Jell-O, he had already experienced some success in manufacturing and selling. Born in North Bergen in 1856, his family moved to LeRoy in 1860. His father made carriages and also went door-to-door selling books for extra money. When his father died in combat during the Civil War, Orator quit school at 12 years old to work as a stable boy and a footman for an attorney. Eventually, he began inventing things to sell, first seeing success in 1879 with a medicated nest egg that helped kill lice on hens as they laid and hatched eggs. The nest egg became a widely-known and used product throughout the U.S. and Canada. With the success of the nest eggs, Woodward was able to expand into other patent medicines including Sherman’s Headache Remedy and Raccoon Corn Plasters. Besides medicine patents, Woodward also branched out into food patents, of which his most successful product prior to Jell-O was a roasted cereal substitute for coffee and tea called Grain-O, marketed as a health drink in 1896.
Orator Woodward purchased the Jell-O product from Pearle Wait for $450 in 1899. Initial sales were disappointing, however, by 1902 Jell-O sales had reached $250,000.
Credit: LeRoy Historical Society – Jell-O Gallery
The following year, Woodward founded the Genesee Pure Food Company, which produced his successful Grain-O drink. When he purchased Jell-O from the Waits in 1899, the Genesee Pure Food Company distributed the new product as well. Like the Waits before him, Jell-O was not initially a runaway success for Woodward. In fact, the sales were so bad during the first year that on one occasion, while touring the Jell-O plant with his superintendent, A.S. Nico, Woodward offered the whole Jell-O business to him for only $35. Lucky for Woodward, the superintendent declined the offer.
Memorable Marketing
While initial sales for Jell-O struggled to hit outside of LeRoy, the Genesee Pure Food Company eventually flexed its financial muscle by taking out ads in national publications including Everybody’s Magazine, Boston Cooking School Magazine and Ladies’ Home Journal. The June 1902 ad in the Ladies’ Home Journal cost the company $336, nearly as much as Woodward paid for Jell-O in 1899. Along with the ads, the Genesee Pure Food Company published booklets that included Jell-O recipes for frappés and whips as well as new innovations such as Shredded Wheat Jell-O Apple Sandwiches and Jell-O Marshmallow.
Similar to Wait’s method of selling door-to-door, the Genesee Pure Food Company instead relied on a team of salesmen to help spread the word about Jell-O beyond LeRoy. These salesmen were well-dressed and visited towns throughout the Unites States to distribute the recipe booklets to households. Early salesmen also posted canvas Jell-O signs in each town and visited local grocers, who would then stock their shelves with cases of Jell-O for the impending demand. Another part of a salesman’s job was setting up store displays, which reacquainted customers with the Jell-O name beyond the recipe booklets.
To save money, the Genesee Pure Food Company advised its salesmen to deliver recipe books for free and referred customers to their local grocers to make the purchases, thus avoiding paying for traveling salesmen licenses in each town. Still, the workers faced arrests, threats and were even shot at in some towns. In response, the Genesee Pure Food Company published The Rights of Traveling Salesmen and Distributors for its workers, outlining the legal rights each salesman had. The major advertising push proved successful and by the end of 1902, annual Jell-O sales reached $250,000.
The Jell-O Girl was the face of the dessert for nearly 50 years. This image from a 1905 recipe book was likely illustrated by Franklin King, who used his daughter Elizabeth as inspiration.
Credit: Michigan State University Libraries
Two years later, the Dauchy Company in New York City – the Genesee Pure Food Company’s advertising agency – believed that the best way to not only showcase how easy Jell-O was to make, but also to show just how much kids loved it, was to include a child in the advertisements. Artist Franklin King was assigned to the task and he considered hundreds of children until he decided just to use his own four-year-old daughter Elizabeth. For the next four years, creating ads that included the “Jell-O girl” was a family affair for the Kings. Franklin’s wife, Florence, dressed Elizabeth and found props for her to use and Franklin photographed his daughter playing with empty Jell-O boxes, eating Jell-O or preparing it, which he then used to base his drawings off of.
When Elizabeth grew older, the Dauchy Company hired illustrator Rose O’Neill to take over the advertisements and maintain the Jell-O girl’s youth in her drawings. The Jell-O girl became an icon across the country. Little girls read of her adventures around the world in each new recipe book, Jell-O girl dolls were available and even her haircut became a favorite. Even though Elizabeth King became a grown woman with no association with Jell-O, the ads featuring her childhood likeness were used until 1949, when the Jell-O girl was finally removed from its boxes.
Housewives were a major target for Jell-O advertisements and recipe books, which not only promised that the dessert was easy to make, but light and inexpensive as well.
Credit: Michigan State University Libraries
Not only was Jell-O marketed to kids and for kids, housewives were also a major target of ads. In the early 1900s, as the trend of the American table shifted from heavy foods that required hours to prepare to meals of convenience and efficiency, products with quick prep times began to rise. Jell-O’s slogan of being “Delicate—Delightful—Dainty” resonated well with the new mindset of saving time, money and energy. Culinary experts and authors of cookbooks soon began recommending Jell-O and other convenience products as a way to cut back on the time spent in the kitchen.
During World War I, the Genesee Pure Food Company took advantage of the sugar shortages due to the war by advertising Jell-O as a dessert that did “not require [additional] sugar, cream or fats of any kind…” Consequently, due to the same shortage, the price of Jell-O increased for the first time, but it was still the cheaper alternative to fruits and other desserts. The 1920 recipe book For Economy Use claimed that whipped Jell-O could serve more people.
The Genesee Pure Food Company experienced several changes in the 1920s thanks to booming Jell-O sales. Having long since discontinued Grain-O, the company sought to focus more on its money-making Jell-O brand by selling off its patent medicine business to Orator Woodward’s son Donald. On November 5, 1923, in an effort to protect Jell-O as a trade name by closely identifying it with the business in order to prevent it from becoming a common noun, the Genesee Pure Food Company became simply the Jell-O Company.
The name change didn’t last long, however. Orator Woodward’s widow, Cora died in 1923, leaving Ernest, the oldest Woodward child, solely responsible for the future of the Jell-O Company. He had been managing the business since his father’s death in 1906 and eventually succeeded his mother as president. On December 31, 1925, Ernest helped negotiate the sale of the company for over $65 million to Postum Cereal Company, Inc. by an exchange of stock. The Jell-O Company became the first subsidiary of a large merger that included the purchase of Minute Tapioca, Log Cabin Syrup, Maxwell House Coffee and other similar companies over the next several years. Together, these companies were under the umbrella of the General Foods Corporation.
Jell-O was produced out of the North Street factory in LeRoy even after the Jell-O Company was sold in 1925. The factory was closed when General Foods moved production to Dover, DE, in 1964.
Credit: Michigan State University Libraries
Making Jell-O
The Jell-O factory in LeRoy originally covered 12 acres and employed 200 people. Eventually, the plant was expanded and at times there were up to 350 employees, many of which were women. Those who worked at Jell-O formed a sense of community, with workers helping new hires learn the ropes and the company even offered work to those in the community who were down on their luck. Likewise, the plant was open to the public for tours, where people could see the large barrels of sugar or the concentrated oil essences that gave Jell-O its fruit flavor. Prior to environmental laws, the flavor production of the day could be determined by the color of Oatka Creek, which ran right behind the North Street factory.
When the Genesee Pure Food Company began production in 1900, each package was prepared by hand. Glassine bags were shaped by gluing them over wooden blocks and dried on a U-shape wire mold. The bags sometimes cracked, causing moisture to clump the Jell-O powder, however, it was still the best way to package the product at the time. The bags were filled with a measuring cup, leveled with a stick and inserted into the cardboard boxes by hand.
As sales increased, the demand for additional workers grew and the New York Central Railroad added extra train cars to certain lines to bring in additional workers from Batavia to work at the LeRoy factory. On June 23, 1914, the Jell-O-making process was partially automated when A.S. Nico (who had turned down Orator Woodward’s offer to purchase Jell-O for $35) and Otis E. Glidden’s “Safety Bag” invention was patented. The seamless, sealed waxed-paper bag allowed powdered Jell-O to be sealed with a pressure crimp that promised to keep Jell-O “as pure and sweet as on the day it was made.”
The Safety Bag design not only helped maintain Jell-O’s freshness, but also gave it the shelf-life required for national distribution. Equally as impressive, the Anderson packaging machine produced 30 boxes a minute and relieved the need for some of the workers at the LeRoy factory. The company was so proud of the new technology that it displayed one of the machines at the 1915 Panama Exposition in San Francisco, as well as in its print advertising through the 1920s, proclaiming that, “This machine does everything but talk!”
As technology continued to advance over the next 40 years, the production of Jell-O required fewer and fewer workers at the LeRoy factory. The focus of LeRoy being the center of Jell-O faded over time with its parent company, General Foods, and on March 8, 1962, it was announced that production of all General Food products would be consolidated into one central location. Two years later, Jell-O production officially moved from LeRoy to Dover, Delaware.
After a property swap, and digging out the foundation by hand, construction of the clubhouse began with the laying of the cornerstone at 17th Avenue and Gilmore on August 11, 1940. Member Victor Zuck acted as master of ceremonies while his father, the Rev. John Zuck of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, blessed the cornerstone. After the stone was in place, society president John Bogdan delivered an address on the history of the club, declaring the day an achievement for the Ukrainians of North Tonawanda. A performance by the Ukrainian Dancers and a celebratory picnic followed the ceremonies.
The club building was completed just in time for the 1941 election of officers that December. Bogdan was once again elected president; in a very progressive move, Mary Namenanik was elected vice president. The sons and daughters of the society also organized themselves into the American-Ukrainian Youth Club of North Tonawanda, nicknamed “Club 17,” and began holding jam sessions, gatherings, a Halloween party, a May Day dance and a celebration of the pre-Lenten festival of Maslenitsa.
Bogdan, Zuck and the Rev. Zuck, among many others, were in attendance at the building’s first anniversary celebration. The guest of honor that evening was Alexander Slotiuk. A member of the Ukrainian National Association, Workingmen's Association Assembly 42, Ukrainian-American Sitch and president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America’s Buffalo chapter, he also gave the keynote address. The building’s anniversary grew into a major event for the club over the years, drawing judges, ward supervisors, aldermen and even Mayor Myles W. Joyce to the annual celebrations. While there was no band playing for their first birthday party, the Ukrainians brought in only the best entertainment in the ensuing years, hiring music legend Matt Piorkowski as often as he was available.
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, a dozen boys from the club were signed up and ready to ship out in less than seven weeks. Over the course of the war, society members formed a Red Cross sewing unit, held fundraisers to send cigarettes and newspapers to the soldiers and hosted Defense Dances with the aim of purchasing over $7,500 worth of war bonds. One of the largest wartime programs the society hosted was a March 1942 event that included entertainment from society members, the Arion Singing Society and the International Workers Order Dancing and Singing Club. A Mr. Takach was the principal speaker for the day’s event, while the Arion Singing Society presented four Polish songs, Ms. Tymash sang three Ukrainian folk songs and the IWO performed several folk dances.
In the post-war years, the Taras Shevchenko society became involved in the Western New York Ukrainian War Relief Committee. This regional branch of the United Ukrainian-American Relief Committee formed to discuss the problems arising from the displacement of Ukrainians, to raise awareness of the suffering of war victims and to address the plight of Ukrainian refugees. These efforts were funded, in part, by five slot machines in the club hall. The devices caused a small problem for Shevchenko bartender Peter Misuk, however, who was fined $25 when they were discovered by the North Tonawanda Police.
As the turbulence of the 1940s turned to the stability of the 1950s for the middle-class Ukrainians of North Tonawanda, family-focused activities came to the club. Card parties were held, bowling teams were formed and Easter dances with Paul Anton and his Orchestra were hosted. As the families grew, so did the club, with a new addition being opened in 1951. The society also opened its doors to other organizations, including the Swiftwater Council of the Improved Order of Red Men, the North Tonawanda Parent Teacher Association, Local 350 of the International Union of Electrical Workers out of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., the Fraternal Order Orioles and AMVETS Post 1946.
With the passing of the founding generation of the Ukrainian Society Taras Shevchenko in the late 1950s and early 1960s, their children began to take on more prominent roles. By the clubhouse’s silver jubilee, early member Stephan Kastelan’s son Stanley was president, while founding members William Nimetz and Ann Ruzylo were treated as honored and respected elders.
The next generation kept the American-Ukrainian Club on solid footing, renting out the hall to organizations, wedding parties and family gatherings. Parties, dances and fundraisers were still regularly held, but they began to lose some of their parents’ Ukrainian flair. In the 1970s, Niagara County’s population began to decline, only to accelerate again a decade later. The dwindling membership, coupled with an increase in taxes and fees, forced the club to sell its building in the spring of 1987 to a Lutheran congregation. Without a home for the first time in almost a half century, the Taras Shevchenko society returned to where they began: 728 Oliver. Meeting in the back hall of the Mirror Room Lounge, longtime President Howard Roeske Sr. was able to hold the organization of 22 members together for five more years but, as the outlook and opportunities for the society dimmed, it was decided to fold the organization.
On September 24, 1992, the Ukrainian Society Taras Shevchenko of North Tonawanda was legally dissolved and passed into history.
Leaders
Of the leaders of the early Ukrainian-American community, few were as prominent as John Woryk and Nikola Zaharkiw.
Woryk and his wife arrived in the U.S. in 1904 and, by 1910, had a house on North Tonawanda’s Seventh Avenue. Working at Buffalo Bolt, Woryk became an early driving force in the formation of the Ukrainian Society Taras Shevchenko. As a younger man, he served as the group’s treasurer and entertainment chairman; in his later days, he was a board member. When the society was raising funds to build the 17th Avenue clubhouse, he worked feverishly to see the project through. At a memorial held after Woryk’s passing, his importance to the Slavs of North Tonawanda was laid out. President Wasil Namynanik remarked, “(Woryk) was one of the leaders who founded the American-Ukrainian Society and he helped to build its hall. He was one of the few who made it possible to have a society and hall for the Ukrainian people of the Tonawandas.… (We extend our) respect to him as a charter member of our organization."
Similar to Woryk, Nikola Zaharkiw settled in the U.S. in 1905, finding work in one the Tonawandas’ paper mills before also working at Buffalo Bolt. Zaharkiw would open his home to the community and helped to form the Taras Shevchenko society. In his life, he was an assistant treasurer and board member, but after his death in 1945 his family carried on his legacy. Over the next 50 years, several family members sat on committees and served on the board, including service as secretary and president.
Employment
Most of the men of the Ukrainian community worked as laborers in the industries that thrived in the Twin Cities. Since its opening, Buffalo Bolt Company was a major employer of the Ukrainians but, in time, Spaulding Fibre Co. and the International Paper Company became popular employers as well.
While the majority were satisfied with the stability of having a factory job, one leader among the Ukrainians did take up the challenge of being an entrepreneur. William Nimetz, longtime president of Taras Shevchenko society, and his wife Mary, the former proprietress of a Payne Avenue grocery store, opened Nimetz Restaurant on Wheatfield Street in May 1946. Located at the very edge of Ironton, the restaurant was a modern addition to the Tonawandas’ culinary scene with mood lighting, artistic chrome, leather booths and a substantial bar. The food focused on American, Hungarian and Polish fare, but Ukrainian favorites like holubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls) could be found on the menu as well. Nimetz Restaurant was a dining destination until the couple retired in 1953.
Faith
While the Ukrainians of North Tonawanda were united in language, culture and tradition, they were diverse in their faith. Some attended the Roman Catholic churches while others were Orthodox, but the majority of the Christian faithful were parishioners of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church on Germain Street in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood.
Because of the strong connection to the parish, Father John Zuck, the longtime rector at St. John’s, would play a major role in the Lumber City community. He would baptize, wed and bury members from scores of North Tonawanda families. He was also involved in pivotal events of the community, from blessing the cornerstone of the American-Ukrainian Club to common occurrences such as hosting a card party in town.
Those who followed the Orthodox tradition would have a much longer ride to SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Buffalo’s Lovejoy district. Led by Rev. Ernest P. Wolkodoff, the Orthodox members were fewer in number, but still well represented in the community. Wolkodoff would often attend dinners hosted by the Taras Shevchenko society, performing the invocation or giving a speech. His flock in North Tonawanda was also a contributing factor in his efforts to establish Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Niagara Falls.
A number of Ukrainians also attended the Roman Catholic parishes in the city. Early on, Ascension Parish was home to a group of Slavs and, as the city grew and families moved, St. Joseph became their destination church. As members married within the greater North Tonawanda community, Ukrainians would eventually be found in the pews of Lutheran and Presbyterian churches as well.
Many of North Tonawanda’s largest ethnic groups were able to establish their own churches and missions. The Polish community was successful in opening Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic Church and Our Savior Polish National Church. The Hungarian community formed their own Reform Church and even the small Byzantine community was able to organize St. Stephen the Protomartyr parish. However, because of the large religious diversity, there was never an effort to organize a parish or church for the Ukrainians in North Tonawanda.
Today
Over the last half-century, the Ukrainian community that once thrived on the southern tip of Niagara County has slowly assimilated into the community. Those who still wish to embrace their Ukrainian heritage can visit the Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center on Buffalo’s East Side or the Ukrainian-American Civic Center in Black Rock.
There are still North Tonawandans who attend St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church (now on Elmwood Avenue). Varenyky are still cooked in Lumber City kitchens. A corner of the North Tonawanda History Museum is dedicated to the Ukrainians. Still, many of the clubs, dance groups and businesses of the once-thriving community are gone.
About the Author
Gregory L. Witul is a marketing and communications professional who also works on the ethnic and art history of Western New York. He has published articles for the Am-Pol Eagle and The German Citizen newspapers as well as the Polish American Journal. His previous articles for Western New York Heritage include “Aesthetic Industry: The Buffalo Stained Glass Works” (Winter 2010) and “The Architect of Polonia: Wladyslaw H. Zawadzki” (Winter 2014). The author would like to thank Howard W. Roeske Jr. for his assistance with this article.