Weekend, February 19-20, 2022 – A MULTI GENERATIONAL FAMILY BUSINESS THAT LEFT AN ONGOING LEGACY

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES


WEEKEND, FEBRUARY 19-20,  2022


THE  602nd  EDITION

MOTT  APPLE  EMPIRE

BEGAN  IN

SARATOGA  COUNTY

IN 1842

FROM NEW YORK ALMANACK

Mott’s Apple Empire Began in Saratoga County in 1842

LYNDA BRYAN

You may have noticed that “Since 1842” appears on the label of all Mott’s apple products. That was the year Samuel Mott began selling apple cider and vinegar to his neighbors in Halfmoon, Saratoga County, NY. The Mott’s apple processing empire we know today grew from that humble beginning.

This fascinating story actually begins when Zebulon Mott moved his family after the American Revolution to a farm at what is now Market Road, and was then part of the Kayaderoasseras Patent. He and his wife Rebecca purchased the property in 1795. He had served in the Revolution and became a prominent man in Halfmoon’s early history. Zebulon was the Town Supervisor from 1801 to 1817, served in the New York State Legislature, was Deacon of the First Baptist Church that stood at the corner of Farm to Market and Pruyn Hill Roads and is buried in the Newtown Cemetery.

Zebulon’s brother Samuel, compiled and edited Mott’s Almanac. Zebulon’s son John Mott lived on the adjacent farm to the west of his parents Zebulon and Rebecca on the Kayaderoasseras Patent.

Samuel Roger Mott, John’s Son, was the last Mott to live on the farm in Halfmoon. Samuel spent many a day walking through the orchards with his grandfather Zebulon. There, he learned the tricks of the trade in processing the apples for cider and vinegar. Word got out and he started selling his product to his neighbors. The logo on every jar reads: SINCE 1842 and that was the year that Samuel, at 16 years old, began selling his product to his neighbors.

The cider was made by hitched horses that plodded in a circle, crushing apples between two large stones drums. This was a centuries old production process. As the demand grew so did the mill. The horses were replaced with a more modern method using waterpower and steam to operate the presses.

In 1868, at the age of 46, Samuel, his wife Ann Mary Coon, and 4 of their 5 children left Halfmoon and moved to Bouckville, in the Town of Madison, Madison County, NY, buying a 1/3 interest in a cider vinegar factory. On July 19th, 1870, Mott bought out his two partners Beach and Brown for $4,500. Samuel, like his grandfather Zebulon, served as town supervisor (for 17 years) and also as a member of the State Assembly.

Fourth generation John Coon Mott, Samuel and Ann Mary’s oldest son, and the last Mott to be born in Halfmoon, did not move with the family to Bouckville. He lived in the city of New York where he opened a cider mill of his own that was located where the Jacob Javits’s Convention Center is now, near Pier 76. Father and son merged their companies in 1879 forming the S.R. & J.C. Mott Company. In 1882 the mill in Bouckville was processing 14 carloads of apples converting them into 600 barrels of juice per day. A barrel contained 25 gallons, to give you an idea of their production. By that time there had expanded to distribution across the county and served international customers as well.

In 1900, the S.R. & J.C. Mott Company merged with the W.B. Duffy Cider Company of Rochester, NY, creating Duffy-Mott and was incorporated in New York in 1914. The newly formed company introduced many products that we are familiar with today and sold the company to Cadbury Schwepps in 1982.

Charles Stewart Mott, John’s son, studied the fermentation process in France and Germany. He began work in the family business, but at the turn of the century, he became the Superintendent of his uncle Frederick’s business, the Weston-Mott Wheel Works. They produced metal wheels for bicycles, carriages and rickshaw’s and later axles. They were offered a proposal to build a plant in Flint, Michigan and produce wheels for “Horseless Carriages.” Uncle Frederick, not wanting to move, turned the business over to his nephew Charles.

The success of the Wheel Works caught the eye of a new up and coming company. In 1913, Charles sold the business in exchange for stock in that new business – General Motors. For many decades he would remain the single largest individual shareholder in the firm, and accumulate wealth in excess of $800 million. He sat on the Board of Directors for 60 years until his death in 1973. It was Autos, not Apples that made him one of America’s first billionaires.

In 1926 he created the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation with a $320,000 endowment, explaining his reason in an often-quoted comment: “What I Am worth is what I do for other people.” The foundation celebrated its 95th anniversary this year. It now has more than $3 billion in assets and offices in three countries. His subsequent gifts of cash and stock made his foundation one of the largest in the country, and he donated more than $130 million dollars to organizations in his lifetime.

Photo: a horse-powered apple press.

Lynda Bryan, a life-long resident of the Town of Halfmoon, has also served as Town Clerk since 2010, and is Town Historian and President of the Halfmoon Historical Society.

This essay is presented by the Saratoga County History Roundtable and the Saratoga County History Center. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION

Our History

Nine decades ago, Charles Stewart Mott established the Foundation that bears his name in response to his deep concern about the welfare of Flint, Michigan, and an abiding affection for his adopted community. Initially, the Foundation served as a vehicle for fulfilling the Mott family’s charitable interests. It began to evolve in 1935, when Mr. Mott teamed with local educator Frank Manley to create community schools in Flint. Their innovative approach to using schools to meet neighborhood needs would become a national model. That project also served as a platform for the Foundation to expand international grantmaking and become a global force for positive change in the areas of education, civil society and the environment.

Four members of the Mott family have directed Foundation operations over the past 90 years: C.S. Mott; his son C.S. Harding Mott; William S. White, Harding Mott’s son-in-law; and Ridgway H. White, great-grandson of C.S. Mott. The Foundation that Mr. Mott launched in 1926 with a $320,000 endowment now has more than $3 billion in assets, offices in three countries, and a legacy of working with local organizations to strengthen communities around the world. The Foundation has given away more than it is currently worth, awarding grants totaling more than $3.2 billion to organizations in 62 countries.

Our Founder
Charles Stewart Mott (1875–1973) was an engineer, entrepreneur, public servant and philanthropist who dedicated much of his life, and wealth, to helping others. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he worked for his family’s Mott Beverage Co. after earning an engineering degree at the Stevens Institute of Technology. After his father died, he took control of the family’s wire-wheel company — located in Utica, New York — and made it profitable by manufacturing axles. He was invited in 1906 to move his Weston-Mott Company to Flint, Michigan, to produce wire wheels and axles for the emerging automobile industry. When W.C. “Billy” Durant organized the General Motors Corporation (GM) in Flint, in 1908, Mr. Mott sold 49 percent of his company to GM in exchange for stock. In 1913, he exchanged the remaining 51 percent of Weston-Mott stock for GM stock and became a company director. He served on GM’s board of directors from 1913 to 1973, a period in which the company became the world’s largest automaker.

WEEKEND PHOTO

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FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

Like other large cities, New York was devastated by fires in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1776, in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, a great fire swept through the city, destroying 493 buildings. Two more great fires, in 1835 and 1845, together destroyed approximately 1000 buildings and killed 50 people, including a number of firefighters. Fire safety improved in the late 19th and early 20th century, but firefighting remained a dangerous task. Following the 1907 drowning death of Deputy Fire Chief Charles W. Kruger in a flooded Canal Street basement, Bishop Henry C. Potter proposed a memorial to firefighters who had died while performing their duties.^[2]

Potter established a committee to build a monument, and was its first chairman, being succeeded by Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy’s. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment granted $40,000 to the project on July 17, 1911, and an additional $50,500 was raised through a popular subscription.^[1]

Although originally planned for Union Square, the memorial eventually ended up being built on the fashionable Riverside Drive, alongside which ran Frederick Law Olmsted‘s English-style rustic Riverside Park. The monument was designed by architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle and its sculptures are by Attilio Piccirilli. The site consists of a grand staircase leading up from the west, a balustraded plaza, and the Knoxville marble monument. Above the fountain, which extends from the box-like structure of the monument, is a large bas-relief scene of a horse drawn engine rushing to a fire. The monument is flanked to the north and south with groups of sculptures representing “Duty” and “Sacrifice”.^[1]

ANDY SPARBERG AND JAY JACOBSON KNEW TODAY’S PHOTO!!!

SOURCES

NYC ALMANAC

Funding Provided by:
Roosevelt Island Corporation Public Purpose Funds
Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD
Text by Judith Berdy

Edited by Deborah Dorff
ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2022 (C)
 PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS

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