Remembering Early Altoona Citrus Industry

By Ed Lisle - The Sandspur Cracker

    Continuing from last week’s story, here is the rest of the story about the Altoona Packing Company as told by E.H. Webb.
    “Lawton Long was one of the truck drivers, Noel F. Harbison was another, and Wallace Kight was one of the ‘goat’ drivers. ‘Goat’ trucks were used mostly to get field boxes of fruit out of close, difficult groves. Many had steep, sandy hills.
    “Inside the packing house: Bill Collins acted as house foreman when I first went to work there. He also was a fruit buyer as was Ira Williams. Later (1939, I believe), Alfred L. ‘Booty’ Collins became house foreman and remained as such until he left for military service. I left for military service in May 1941.
    “Graders: Clare McWhorter, Jess Allen, and sometimes packers if needed.
    “Packers: Fannie Bertine, Annie L. Graham, Pearl Stewart, Nellie Shores, Grace Coffee, Mrs. J.P. Jones, Mrs. (name not given) Andrews, Mrs. Monroe Peacock, and Adelis C. Parker are some of those I can remember.
    “Lee Sikes dumped the fruit into the machinery. James Tyndal trucked the empty boxes away and looked after the boiler. I remember one time, he let the water get too low and turned more water into the super-heated boiler and it blew the safety plug. Most of us thought the whole packing house had blown up. A.D. Bertine trucked the packed fruit to the rail cars or the freight trucks with four-wheel trailers. Others who worked in the loading area were: Wilbur Jarrett, ‘Peavine’ Aycock, Monroe Peacock, (name not given) Venable, and Junior Brantley. In those days, the packing box was a two bushel ‘Bruce’ wire-bound or the old 1-3/5 bushel nailed box. Frank Ball was the night watchman.
    “Altoona Packing Company did a lot of bulk loading in the double-deck rail cars. Several of us started referring to it as Altoona ‘Bulking’ Company. Excelsior was used as padding on the decks. Load the bottom and the upper deck let down from the sides. Bulkheads were made in the doorways.
    “Mr. Hannibal Lightfoot, always the entrepreneur, was the first person I remember who shipped his own fruit from Altoona Packing Company to himself. When his carload of fruit was ready to roll for Chattanooga, Tennessee, he would catch the passenger train and be there when it arrived. He supervised the selling, then returned to Altoona and began arranging for his next carload. In this way, he got a better return per box for his fruit. Now it wasn’t long before others started a similar operation. (Ed says, ‘Umatillan, David Adams said his Daddy and Momma followed his example. They followed their citrus to Poughkeepsie, New York and opened up their own fruit stand. Business was slow and on the advice of the locals they hired a couple of young boys from the neighborhood to help around the stand and bag oranges. It worked.’) Luther T. Johnson was a wheeler-dealer in the business. Soon, he had fruit stores across Pennsylvania, New York, and into Ohio. In fact, he was the main reason why Altoona Packing Company increased its volume so rapidly. Also W.F. Austin & Sons first had their fruit processed and shipped by Altoona Packing Company to their stores up north. J.W. Murphy and sons, Saxon and Curtis, had a truck route through west Florida and into Mississippi. His fruit had to be fancy grade and wrapped individually (each orange) and packed in the old 1-3/5 bushel nailed box. Most of the trucks with four-wheel trailers went to Jacksonville and delivered to Refrigerated Steamship Lines bound for northern markets.
    “Some of the old-timers in the fruit inspection whom I can remember are: Henry Peavy, Bill Baker, Frank Stevens, Frank Gillespie, Frank Saxon, Charles Williams (brother to Dr. R.H. Williams), (name not given) Taylor, and (name not given) Martin (lived just each of Weirsdale on Highway 42). Frank Stevens later became ‘key man’ or supervisor for Leesburg area. There was no closing time in those days and the inspector had to stay until all loading was finished and then write the certificate of inspection. I had to glue stamps in the amount of the charges on the back of the certificate. Later, this was changed so the shipper could pay the fees by the month.
    “When I first went to Altoona Packing Company, all rail cars had to be ordered through the agent at Umatilla. The billing was done by Umatilla agent, S.B. Johnson, though the billing point was Altoona. Steve Johnson copied his first train order at Altoona as did Lewis White, also. Later (1939 or 1940), Joe Powell became agent at Altoona. The ACL RR (Atlantic Coast Line Railroad) never hooked up electricity to the depot and Joe would come over to the office at Altoona Packing Company to type his waybills. He said that electric lights were much better than a kerosene lamp. Joe also relieved Steve Johnson of the work at Confer Station. Mr. Confer built the packing house that later became S.A. Fields & Company, then B.G. Anderson & Company, Grand Island Fruit Company, and lastly Golden Gem Growers. Mr. Confer only shipped his own fruit from his grove near the packing house at first. He compelled the ACL RR to designate his siding as Confer Station because it was a mile shorter than Altoona and therefore saved freight charges. A.A. Fields & Company greatly enlarged the plant and shipped a much greater volume of fruit. When B.G. Anderson and Banks Bencini bought the plant, they also continued to expand. Banks Bencini was a good bookkeeper and of great help to me. Their target for each season was a million boxes. Their anticipated earnings was one quarter cent per box. Henry Smith, maintenance supervisor, built most of the machinery. He built the first packing stands that allowed the packer to put the finished box onto the conveyor moving to the closer. Later, he built the ’Snapping Turtle’ lawn mower. (Ed says, ‘The best and toughest lawn mower I ever had.)
    “The first year I was at Altoona Packing Company, M.M. Cathree was the auditor. He would point out short-comings but offered no solutions. The last three years I was there, Harry L. Winter was the auditor. A finer gentleman I never met. He was an excellent auditor and would suggest better ways to get the job done. I truly appreciated the remark he made after the last audit before I left for military service. He leaned back in the desk swivel chair, placed his feet upon the desk, and said that he wished all his accounts were as easy. (E.H. Webb, February 1990)”
    What a treasure of history from Mr. Webb. Maybe some of you recognized someone you knew. If I counted correctly, he mentioned 66 names who were tied in with the citrus industry, not to mention the homes in Altoona. We owe Steve Johnson a big thanks for opening up his storage of memories. There may be more.