By Bob Cornett
Early Prescottonians, cowboys, city folks and miners enjoyed grinding and brewing their favorite, their one and only Arbuckles Ariosa Coffee:" The coffee that won the west." No brand sold more coffee in the U.S. than Arbuckles', and yet that name has passed into history - you may see a package on display at the Sharlot Hall Museum. Yet, the Arbuckle name has a story that needs to be told whether remembered or not.
The coffee's marketers, John and Charles Arbuckle, were true entrepreneurs. Prior to 1865, green coffee beans were the norm. They were sold by the scoopful from open barrels in drug and mercantile stores. The beans would then be roasted at home on a wood stove or in a skillet over the campfire. Burn a few beans and the whole lot would be off-taste. Furthermore, exposure to air soon caused the roasted beans to become stale and rancid. It would be years before vacuum sealing and pre-ground coffees became common.
In 1866, John, age 27, and younger brother Charles, ran a grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By experimenting, they came up with an egg-sugar glaze that sealed in the roasted coffee bean freshness yet did not alter the taste. John received a patent for this process in 1868. Now the home roasting process was not necessary and they could achieve more dependable uniformity.
Their creation was sold in one-pound signature orange, yellow and black packages: one hundred to the wooden shipping crate. The word spread like wildfire - you could buy many months' supply for your ranch or remote cabin and more easily enjoy fresh, consistently good coffee.
The brothers helped market their product by putting a peppermint candy in each package and later adding trading cards as well, not to mention package coupons that, when saved, were redeemable for useful items such as silverware, china, curtains, towels, scissors, razors, handkerchiefs and even wedding bands!
Business grew rapidly and they relocated to New York City in 1871. Soon 50 women were hand-filling packages for shipping. John had a strong bent for science and machinery, and with costs soaring, dealt with the manual labor bottleneck by inventing, with the help of a draftsman and machinist, a machine capable of filling, weighing, sealing and labeling all in one motion. Production jumped ten times over the old method. Soon they had the largest share of the coffee business in the U.S. and their wealth greatly increased. John was a multimillionaire by 1891. Brother Charles had passed away in 1890.
Since large quantities of sugar were required for his coffee processing, John entered the sugar business in order to obtain sugar at competitive prices. John was determined to pack and sell sugar in the same way, so he patented a machine to package two-pound sugar bags and thereby dented the retail market with this more convenient size. This act started the trade war with Henry Havemeyer, the sugar industry giant at the time. Havemeyer, in turn, purchased a major interest in a rival coffee company.
Henry Havemeyer was a leading force in the American Sugar Trust and realized his sugar market manipulation was challenged as never before. Arbuckle continued his competition by building a sugar refinery and kept lowering his prices below Havemeyers until both were selling below cost. By the time Havemeyer admitted defeat, losses by the two firms were estimated at $25 million. Shipping rebates, a Havemeyer advantage, were thwarted when Arbuckle bought his own ships. His new refinery, using the latest technology, produced a superior product at a lower cost beginning in 1898.
By 1901, the American Sugar Trust was broken and other well-known producers, including Spreckels Sugar, entered the market. Arbuckle believed that competition, not government interference, was the way to bust trusts.
Another trust battle he won was with the tugboat monopoly on the Hudson River - $50 for a tow from New York City to Albany, N.Y. So, he bought tugs, charged less and competition won again. Price was never arbitrary thereafter.
As a humanitarian, John believed NYC's air, overcrowding and hustle bustle were bad for health. Thus he bought several ships, outfitting them with rooms, recreation and dining facilities and towed them to sea at night so folks could benefit from fresh ocean breezes.
At Lake Mohonk (north of NYC), he built a retirement colony for older citizens needing assistance, fresh air and good food. Again, designing his own charities, he built hotels for the handicapped to learn trades and residence hotels for outdoor workers.
Straying even farther from coffee and sugar, he developed a method for using compressed air to re-float ships, which was used successfully when others had declared it impossible.
In 1911, he crusaded against import duties on foreign-grown sugar. He said such duties helped American sugar beet growers but hurt poor and average Americans. He said it was like depriving children of candy.
His health failed, caused mainly by malaria. He died in 1912 at age 74, thus ending his sugar duties battle with Uncle Sam.
Arbuckle Brothers introduced Yuban Coffee in 1913 (now owned by Kraft), a year after John's death. The special blend had been his favorite, served only at his annual Christmas dinner or given to friends as gifts. The name comes from "Yuletide Banquet."
His contributions demonstrated how entrepreneurs could change and improve the market system. Entrepreneurs seek personal gain, of course, but they can improve humanitarian services as well. Innovations and new combinations for efficiency can result from their input.
Curiously, today the Arbuckles Ariosa Coffee brand name has been revived and you can order it online for $15-$16 per pound, beans or ground. And you still get a peppermint stick in the bag as well!
Bob Cornett is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Arbuckle 002) Reuse only by permission.
No chuck wagon in the west was complete without Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee in the late 1800s, as depicted here in a display at the Sharlot Hall Museum.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(John Arbuckle) Reuse only by permission.
John Arbuckle (1839-1912), coffee magnate, inventor, trust-buster, humanitarian and entrepreneur.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bui139p)
Reuse only by permission.
Brisley's Drug Store in 1903 Prescott undoubtedly sold Arbuckle Ariosa Coffee, the most popular brand of coffee at the time.