Place of Origin

United States ➔ Massachusetts ➔ Salem

Date of Composition

one book 1847, one no date

Description

These two recipe books, one dated 1847 and the other undated, are part of the library's collection of material relating to the George W. Pepper Company, the oldest candy manufacturer in America. The company dates back to 1806, when a Mrs. Spencer began selling Gibralters, a hard sugar candy, from a wagon in Salem, Massachusetts. After Mrs. Spencer's death, the enterprise was briefly taken over by her son, before being sold to the Pepper family in 1830. The new owners moved the business to Peabody, Massachusetts, in 1864. In 1897, George W. Pepper sold the company, but the family attempted to reenter candy business under the Pepper name in 1902, and for the following two years there were two Pepper candy companies operating in Peabody. After a long legal batter, the Pepper family renamed their business Peabody Candy Company, and in 1910, they sold it to the Burkinshaw family, who have run it ever since. Today, the company goes by the name Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie and has two shops, one in North Andover, Massachusetts, and another in Salem, its town of origin.

Since the company seems still to have been located in Salem in 1847, when one of the recipe books is dated, the books may been compiled there. In addition to the recipe books, the  library's collection includes two account books of George W. Pepper, dated 1876-1884 and 1883-1893; a stock certificate book of the company; a 1908 checkbook of Peabody Candy Co.; newspaper clippings; billheads; and a trademark registration for cough drops. There are also personal papers of George W. Pepper and Lille May (Tittle) Pepper, including a wedding booklet; and numerous photographs of George, Lillie, and Wilhemina Pepper, their house and candy factory on Elm Street, in Peabody, and of the factory workers.