A Brief History of the Plainville Packing Company Part II

Often During the 1930s, the cities of the two largest factories, Vincennes and Washington, would advertise “Vincennes Packing Corporation Week” usually near Thanksgiving. The company would coordinate with local grocers by running newspaper ads, offering special prices and encouraging window displays featuring their products. It was also hoped the event would remind shoppers that their products were locally grown and prepared locally. The local newspapers would often run a story or article focusing on the importance the industry was to the communities. Some example ads are below.

January 1929 newspaper ad welcoming employes to Vincennes for a sales meeting.

Vincennes Sun-Commercial November 1926 ad encouraging stocking up for winter

“Grown in Daviess County – Packed in Daviess County” Washington Hearld November 1935

In 1933, during severe economic conditions nationwide, the company is doing so well that the Vincennes Packing Corporation acquires ten refrigerated railcars for shipping their goods across the country. Refrigerated cars are chosen not for cooling the products during shipment, but for preventing the canned and bottled goods from freezing during transport in extreme cold temperatures. Being heavily insulated, these cars also had the capability of providing modest heat to keep the contents from freezing.

New company owned railcars at the Vincennes canner, July 1935. Note the catsup bottle just after CORP. on the sign above the first railcar

Color scale model of the packing company cars

Despite the depression, business remained strong for the company throughout the decade. The 1940s bring World War II and government contracts for canned goods. In 1942 the company again expands. It purchases a canning facility in Swayzee, Indiana. It is a town in Grant County, north central Indiana, another area known for growing and canning tomato products.

        In May 1947, it is announced the Vincennes Packing Corporation has purchased a processing and packing plant in Lockport, New York. It is reported the Lockport plant was purchased to strengthen the company’s position in the Northeast as “included among the many customers for the company’s products are a number of the finest food outlets New England, New York and Philadelphia.” By now the company has consolidated operations into five factories, Plainville, Swayzee, Washington, Vincennes, and Lockport, NY.

Labor had always been an issue for both the farmers and the canning factories in the area. From the time the canneries first appeared in Elnora and Washington, and throughout their existence, numerous ads can be found in the newspapers of the day seeking help for both factory and field work. Planting, cultivating and harvesting food grade crops such as tomatoes and green beans, was a very labor-intensive process as mechanized farming was still in the early stages of development.

June 1944 want ad for help by the Vincennes Packing Corporation

Conditions at the factories were challenging also as many tasks such as sorting and peeling was done by hand.  The work was also seasonal. Several hundred workers, men, women, boys and girls were often employed during peak season - late July through October.  Labor was such a critical issue during WWII that the US Government supplied the local canneries German POWs to work in the fields and assist local farmers with the harvest.

A December 1947 letter from a former German POW addressed to the “Management and Employees of the Vincennes Packing Company” is received by the company. In it Arno Bohm expresses his thanks for his treatment while working for the packing company. He is apparently in Russian occupied east Germany as he writes “it is too bad we cannot get a good picture of America but our press is hostile to America.” He continues “I have nothing but good remembrances, and an American check for $5.00 for which I can get nothing over here… …My stay in Vincennes will always be remembered, for there I lived without worry, only with my thoughts of getting home soon and now that I am home, I yearn to be back overseas in Vincennes.”

Most employers of any size in the county Such as Corcoran, Coca-Cola, Reliance, B&O and others sponsored company sports teams for local athletic leagues.  The Vincennes Packing Corporation was no exception, sponsoring their team the “Packers.” This uniform was worn by Robert Schwandner Sr. and is in the Daviess County Museum’s collection.

It appears Vincennes and Washington were the only ones to operate year-round, and not every year. Operations depended on many factors.  After the Swayzee and Lockport factories were acquired, they were year-round also.

As the 1940s end and the 1950s begin, new challenges bring changes to VPC.  Competition not only with other products in the marketplace but competing for seasonal field help became a critical issue. Central Indiana farmers had developed a relationship with seasonal migrant workers and eventually employed the bulk of them during the harvest season. The Rider plants and properties along with Lockport are eventually closed and sold. Locally, farmers are scaling back the acreage dedicated to producing tomatoes, green beans and such account of the intense labor involved. Tractors have replaced mules and horses and mechanized farming is growing. Focus is placed on raising less labor-intensive crops.

As noted earlier, over the years VPCs operations are shuttered one by one due to the various conditions previously described. By the late 1960s, the Swayzee facility is the only one still engaged in the canning business.

In 1968, the Vincennes Packing Corporation is operating a single canning facility in Swayzee, Indiana. A local news article details the products of the company at the time.

It describes “the company is currently putting the Surefine label on 80% of its processed production.” As it had done from the very beginning, it is also engaged in placing private labels on its canned and bottled goods for such companies as IGA and Stokley-Van Camps.

Also, true to its roots back to the Plainville Canning Company and 1909, VPC is still bottling catsup… in 14-, 20- and 26-ounce bottles along with industrial size number 10 cans (approximately 1 gallon) at Swayzee. Chili sauce, another product from the very beginning, is canned in 14 ounce and number 10 cans. Additionally, another decades old product, tomato juice, is being packed under the Surefine label in 46 ounce and in number two cans (equal to two and ½ cups).

Original founder Ernest Killon Sr. of Washington is listed as owner and Ernest Killion Jr. of Vincennes operator.

One year later, in 1969, the company is in receivership and dissolved. 

The story of the Plainville Canning Company, through all the changes - Tecumseh-Plainville Packing Company, The Mid-West Packing Company and finally Vincennes Packing Corporation is an interesting chapter in local history. There are many more fascinating details to the story.

The company Ernest Killion, his father Nathan Killion and Ollie Gilliatt founded in Plainville in 1909 lasted nearly 60 years.

Ernest Killion Sr. died just short of his 92^nd birthday on January 6^th, 1979.

This article was compiled by Chris Palmer, a member of the Daviess County Historian team.