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Show Pg. 140 The Establishment and Growth of the Morgan Canning Company. Mr. James A. Anderson was at one time employed in the mercantile business of the John A. Guild Company of Rock Springs, Wyoming. This company handled a large amount of canned goods, prominent among which was canned peas, packed at Long Mountain, Colorado. It occurred to him that if peas could be packed profitably in Colorado, the same could be done in Utah. After studying the proposition over thoroughly he presented the matter to Mr. James Pingree, who was then cashier at the First National Bank of Ogden. He became interested, and in 1904 a company was organized, with a capital of $10,000.00. A small building was erected, which housed one viner, and one line of pea machinery. This was rather crude, compared with modern equipment and methods. The factory and equipment cost in the neighborhood of #12,000.00. Neither Mr. Anderson nor his associate knew anything about the processing of peas, so they hired what was supposed to be an expert processor. But as is often the case with so called experts; about 25% of the first year’s pack, of 4000 cases, had to be culled out Pg. 141 as swells, leeks, or springers, and thrown onto the dump pile. And instead of getting a dividend with which to reduce the debt, the profits were on the wrong side of the ledger. The next year 6000 cases were packed. And although the losses were too great to make any profit they were reduced somewhat over the year before. The Anderson Brothers were rapidly learning the details and technicalities of the business. In 1905 the Morgan Mill and Elevator Co., a local flour mill at Morgan, was sold under a forced foreclosure sale. On Mr. Anderson’s suggestion the same capitalists of Goden, who had started the Morgan Canning Co., authorized Mr. Anderson to bid on this mill property. It was sold to him on his bid of $6000.00. Thus the Pingree Anderson Milling Co. was organized with a capital of $10,000. It was about this time that Mr. Anderson induced some of these same capitalists, together with others, to establish a bank at Morgan. And the First National Bank of Morgan was organized with a capital of $25,000. The money being borrowed from these Ogden capitalists. In 1907 the Canning Co. packed |
