“Tom’s is one of the earliest and certainly I’d say the biggest non-textile manufacturing concern to emerge in the community,” said Bush. Its headquarters expanded to a sprawling 38-acre complex with over a thousand employees baking all kinds of delicacies, from divinity to coconut slices and peanut logs. Richards later became the first of two Tom’s presidents to serve as mayor of Columbus.īy midcentury, Tom’s products were offered across the country, though the majority of sales were always in the South. Instead, Vice President Walter Richards took over, saw Tom’s through the Great Depression and led its growth for another 20 years. Huston continued inventing, and went bust betting his Tom’s stock on a frozen peach business that went belly up. Huston grew famous in his own right, featured twice in Time magazine as “The Farmer Boy Who Became Peanut King.” In 1929, he was also offered $4 million for the company (more than $60 million in today’s dollars), which he declined saying he wouldn’t know what to do with all of the money.īut while Tom’s had decades of growth ahead, it would not be at the hands of its founder. When Carver said no, Huston presented a bust of his famous face to Tuskegee and gave him a diamond ring that, scientist that he was, Carver placed in his “geologic specimen case.” They corresponded often, and in 1929, Huston offered Carver a job at Tom’s. There’s a really natural partnership there.”Ĭarver and Huston became not just associates but close friends. “Since Carver is trying to encourage farmers to focus more on the peanut, he has good reason to help find uses for that crop and to help drive demand for it. “We know that Carver’s driving impetus for creating all these new peanut products was that he was trying to help African American sharecroppers in Alabama get away from reliance on cotton, which drained the soil and was devastated by the boll weevil in the early 1920s,” said Rebecca Bush, exhibitions manager at the Columbus Museum. on slave ships in the 1800s, but was never particularly popular. The peanut migrated from Africa to the U.S. It was this latter aspect that caught the attention of George Washington Carver, another prolific inventor stationed just 45 miles away at the Tuskegee Institute. Even more importantly, it proved a boon for farmers in Georgia and Alabama, increasing demand for a crop that helped diversify the fields and ease a crippling overreliance on cotton. The Tom Huston Peanut Company quickly became an economic engine for Columbus. In 1927, the first buildings went up at the Columbus headquarters, producing peanut butter, snack crackers, candy bars and other treats along with the signature toasted peanuts. Local trials proved that it was a smash hit, and within just a few years, Tom’s was sold across the country. An upside-down triangle served as a logo, branded with the words “Tom’s Toasted Peanuts.” A modern version of that red Tom’s triangle can still be found on bags of chips across the Southeast. In 1925, he came up with his own roasting process and, crucially, an airtight glassine package that kept the peanuts fresh for months. With thousands of legumes in hand, Huston set about figuring out what to do with them. The sheller proved a boon to area peanut farmers, who gave Huston some of their crop in exchange. In the 1910s, he invented a mechanical peanut sheller, then moved to southwest Georgia after securing a manufacturing contract with the Columbus Iron Works. Like many in the region, he often shelled peanuts and rarely enjoyed it. Tom’s refers to John Thomas “Tom” Huston, a polymath who grew up on a Texas farm. Millions of consumers grab plastic packs of peanuts at convenience stores every day, unknowingly buying a product that launched its inventor to national fame and birthed a snacking empire. So many items purchased without a second thought today were once cutting-edge innovations, from hair spray to microwaves to wrist watches. And that’s what I’ve been to all these guys I’ve worked with over the years: I’ve tried to be a friend to them as well.” “Your supervisor wasn’t just a boss, he was your friend. Everybody knew each other and they got along,” said Johnson, who stuck with the place through ups and downs, through bankruptcy and half a dozen ownership changes. And even after Tom’s faltered, filing for bankruptcy in 2005, the factory continued on under a series of outside owners. At the company’s apex, an army of independent distributors delivered Tom’s to over 300,000 stores in 47 states. The first buildings at the factory date to 1927, and for most of its history, the factory served as both a corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing plant for Tom’s, which at times made more than 300 items but is most famous for its peanuts and potato chips.
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