In the early 20th century, the canning industry was the engine that drove Johnson County.
Canning plants could be found in nearly every city and town throughout the county. More than 53 million cans came from local canners in 1942 alone. The county was the top producer of canned goods in the state of Indiana.
The industry has faded away locally, but its impact is still being felt.
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“People don’t think that the canning industry or any small industry like that would affect them. But in reality, it did. This was one of those things that put Johnson County on the map,” said David Pfeiffer, director of the Johnson County Museum of History.
That heritage is the focus of “Pick, Peel, Preserve: Canning in Johnson County,” a new exhibit opening today at the Johnson County Museum of History. Museum curators will take people back into time when canning was king, using photographs, historic documents and people’s own recollections of the canning plants.
The hope is that people think more about the business of canning and how it’s contributed to our community, even now that it’s gone.
“We want them to see what a forgotten industry that was. It was such a big part of county history for 30 or 40 years. It employed all kinds of people, brought migrant workers and other people from all over,” Pfeiffer said. “It broadened our whole county.”
Through researching their own collection and other sources, Pfeiffer and museum curator Emily Spuhler gleaned fascinating tidbits of information about the county’s canning industry.
According to research , Johnson County had 5,560 people working in the canning industry in 1942. Though the figure does include migrant workers as well as permanent residents, that is a significant portion of the county’s 22,000-person population at the time.
The county was the top canning producer in the state, and 21st nationally.
“Johnson County has always been known as an agricultural county. It has good soil, it has the right ingredients for agriculture,” Pfeiffer said. “A lot of those statistics, we didn’t know until we did the deep dive into the research. So it was pretty cool to see that Johnson County was that big.”
One of the most well-known companies was J.T. Polk Canning Co. The business was started in a Greenwood kitchen in 1872 and grew to be the largest cannery west of Baltimore, shipping its goods around the world.
“Because people saw how successful Polk was, canning companies just started appearing. It provided economic support, because they used local farmers first, then farmers statewide to grow the produce. They used people of all ages as workers, both men and women,” Spuhler said.
Canning businesses could be found in Franklin, Greenwood, Bargersville, Trafalgar and Edinburgh. Companies such as the Franklin Canning Co., Hoagland Canning and Morgan Packing all had plants in the county.
The Rider Canning Co. in Trafalgar is tied to one of the most well-known canning companies in the world. Red Gold, the Elwood-based company, sells its canned goods all over. But the business was originally named Orestes Canning. They purchased the Trafalgar company’s Red Gold label, and changed the name of the company.
“Orestes Canning thought it was a better name, that Red Gold sounded great,” Pfeiffer said.
The idea for the exhibit grew from a desire to focus on a part of local history that touched the entire county.
“We wanted to get an exhibit that covered the whole county, not just Franklin or Greenwood. From the ‘30s to the ‘60s, when smaller canning companies started going by the wayside, almost every town in the county had a canning company,” Spuhler said.
In telling the story of local canning, Spuhler highlights how important the industry was for employment as well as feeding the country. The industry helped temper the impact of the Great Depression by providing steady contracts for farmers to sell their produce, Pfeiffer said.
Aspects of the exhibit look at the process of canning, how produce went from farm fields to safely sealed cans. Images in the exhibit show the plants, the workforce and people waiting in lines to be paid.
A large part of the exhibit takes stories and memories from longtime residents, who recall how much canning impacted the county and may have even worked in the plants themselves.
“We have stories from people who were here working, we have some oral history that people could remember the smell of ketchup in the air around the plants,” Spuhler said.
The exhibit will run through mid-October. To kick it off, the museum will host an opening night event at 6 p.m. today. People will be able to browse through the exhibit and light refreshments will be served. Ashley Mann, an expert in canning from Minnetrista, the home of Ball Canning, will give a presentation on home canning.
“We’re not really touching on home canning as much in the exhibit, but it’s had such a resurgence in the past few years that we thought it would be cool to look at,” Pfeiffer said.
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"Pick, Peel, Preserve: Canning in Johnson County"
What: A new exhibit looking at the local canning history and how the industry impacted the county.
Where: Johnson County Museum of History, 135 N. Main St., Franklin
When: Through mid-October
Opening reception: 6 p.m. today, featuring a presentation by Ashley Mann from Minnetrista on home canning.
Information: johnsoncountymuseum.org
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