The Lowell Area Historical Museum presents a new weekly online series. Missing Along Main explores the buildings that once occupied Main Street but are no longer there.
135 South Broadway
In November, 1901, a stock company was organized with $6,800 to build and operate a canning factory to process local tomatoes and ketchup. The Board of Directors elected for the new Lowell Canning Factory were: Charles McCarty, President, J. C. Train, R. W. Swayze, John Kellogg, B. F. Wilkinson, R. VanDyke and James Gulliford. Dr. M. C. Greene and F. R. Ecker were chosen chairman and secretary and R. W. Swayze and D. B. Davidson were appointed tellers.
The factory was located immediately south of the Pere Marquette Railroad tracks on the east side of S. Broadway. The first building on the site was completed and the boiler and engine were ready for the 1902 season. A railroad side-track was laid to the factory doors and a sewer was run to the Flat River.
In October, 1902, they built a two-story evaporator building on the grounds to take care of the apple waste which had commercial value. It was a successful venture. Their first-year output was 60,000 cans of peaches, 15,000 cans of tomatoes and some apples. They closed for the season on November 20 because of their inability to procure more apple cans.
In 1906, Edwin Fallas (nephew of J. W. Fallas who founded Fallasburg) purchased the canning factory and moved his business to Lowell from Grand Rapids. He built a 30’x50’ cement storehouse and moved his machinery into the old Lowell Canning Factory building adjoining it.
He had a train carload of tomato plants delivered which were contracted out to be grown by local farmers within a 6 to 7 mile radius of Lowell. In August, 1906, when they were just beginning to can the tomatoes a fire destroyed the old factory building. Fallas was able to use his cement storage building, the large nearby barn and the premises of the Train estate temporarily to continue the business.
In the off season, Fallas’ factory made gallon-size tin cans beginning in 1909 at the rate of 6,000 per day. In 1910, a vinegar plant was installed and in 1911, they added corn and pumpkin canning. In 1916, 3 tons of mincemeat were canned and shipped to the Union Pacific in Omaha, Nebraska. The following February, Fallas bet his salesman, F. P. Hakes, that he couldn’t get orders for 2,000 dozen cans of mincemeat to be delivered in October. New equipment to make mincemeat was added and Hakes did get the orders.
This is the last jar of mincemeat made by L. W. Rutherford & Sons. Ingredients: raisins, apples, currants mixed fruit, frozen cherries, beef suet, and corned beef. They sold jars, like the one pictured in retail stores. They also contracted to supply in bulk to prisons and the Army.
Edwin Fallas founder of the canning factory was also a Civil War veteran. He served with Co. R 6th Mich. Calvary to 6th NY Battery, Custer Brigade, Shenandoah Valley, 2 years, 2 months. Shown above, in 1931, he was 86 years old.
In 1920, Fallas had a house moved nearby to become a boarding house for the factory. It had 11 rooms and was put on a block foundation with a basement.
In 1925, the business incorporated to become Edwin Fallas & Company. Fallas retired the following year and turned the business over to his son-in-law who renamed it L. W. Rutherford & Sons. Rutherford married Isabel Fallas in 1908 and joined his father-in-law in the canning business. Lawrence and Isabel had two sons, John and Richard, and two daughters, Mary Jane and Jean. Rutherford’s canned tomatoes were branded “Mary Jane” and “Jean.”
The statistics for 1936 show that they were canning 80 bushels of tomatoes per hour and that 80 persons were employed (20 men and 60 women). Priscilla Johnson Lussymeyer wrote: “I peeled tomatoes here. I was let out of school for one or two weeks in the fall of 1940, 1941, and 1942. It was the Rutherford plant then. Rutherford was the son-in-law of Edwin Fallas who started the company.”
Here’s Lawrence Rutherford standing at right of loading dock at Rutherford Canning Factory while men unload tomatoes. Identified on back as Charlie Nicholf(sp?), Lawrence Rutherford, Cliff Duval and his daughter.
By 1949, L. W. Rutherford & Sons maintained two warehouses, one in Minneapolis, MN, and one in Clovis, NM, from which they shipped their product to Western states. The Lowell factory distributed to the Eastern states. L. W. retired in 1959.
The last telephone listing for the business was in 1965.
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