Michigan Companies and how they got started

Sanders Sanders was first opened by Fred Sanders June 17, 1875 and started with a single retail shop in Downtown Detroit. Over the years the company concentrated on expanding its retail stores and eventually built up to over 57 stores in the Metropolitan Detroit area. These stores not only sold candy, fudge toppings, and baked goods, but also had fountain counters serving light lunches, as well as an assortment of desserts including the popular Ice Cream Sodas, Sundaes and Hot Fudge Cream Puffs. Faygo Pop  Faygo was founded in Detroit on November 4, 1907, as Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works by Russian immigrants Ben and Perry Feigenson. The original flavors of Faygo were based on cake frosting recipes used by the Feigensons in Russia. They made it on one day and the next the would sell by horse drawn wagon. Throughout the 20th century, Faygo steadily increased its production line. Faygo is credited with the spreading of the word "pop" instead of "soda" to mean "soft drink" in the Midwest. Faygo pop is manufactured in myriad flavors.

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Chris Craft Chris Craft started out as "Chris Smith & Sons Boat Company" in Algonac, Michigan. They got involved in building some highly successful racing boats. The famous Gar Wood won many of his early races in a Chris Smith & Sons Boat. Mr. Wood purchased the company and he and the Smiths were partners for about eight (8) years.

In 1922, Mr. Chris Smith left the old partnership to form a new company called Chris Craft, also located in Algonac, Michigan. This company was the first to mass-produce mahogany runabouts and utilities. As a result, Chris Craft became the largest manufacturer of boats in the world.

Jiffy Mix
After seeing a boy eat a pathetic homemade biscuit, Mabel White Holmes introduced the nation's homemakers to Jiffy, the first prepared baking mix, in 1930. The Holmes family still owns Chelsea (pop. 4,398) Milling Co. and markets Jiffy mixes.

Banner Tobacco Company & Globe Tobacco Company  Long before Detroit became renowned for the production of automobiles, the city had earned a solid national reputation for the manufacturing of cigars and chewing tobacco. Tobacco companies, in fact, were among the city's leading employers at the turn of the 20th century, and even in the mid-1920s it was estimated that 210 million cigars and 14 million pounds of chewing tobacco were produced in Detroit annually, providing jobs for some 10,000 Detroiters.  Detroit's history as a tobacco center dates to the years before the Civil War with the arrival in the city of Germanic and Jewish immigrants who brought with them the skills and techniques of cigar making from their European homelands.

Two Men and a Truck  In the 1980s, teen brothers Brig and Jon Sorber of Lansing ran a moving business with an old pickup truck. When they went to college, their mother, Mary Ellen Sheets, continued the business and franchised Two Men and a Truck, now with operations in 27 states.

Stormy Kromer CapsSince the early 1900s, Stormy Kromer caps, made in Ironwood (pop. 6,293), have kept ears and noggins toasty. Ida Kromer created the wool cap with tie-down earflaps for her husband, "Stormy," who worked on the railroad.

Tulips  In 1955, Vernin Veldheer planted Veldheer Tulip Gardens in Holland (pop. 35,048) with 100 red tulips and 300 white tulips. Today, the family-owned farm´s floral finery includes 5 million tulips and thousands of daffodils, hyacinths and daylilies.

Kirsh curtain rods -Charles Kirsch solved the problem of sagging curtains with his invention of a strong, flat curtain rod in 1907 and founded Kirsh Co. in Sturgis (pop. 11,285). Among the company´s later innovations were the telescoping flat rod and the adjustable traverse rod.

Gerber Baby Food  In 1927, Dorothy Gerber of Fremont (pop. 4,224) told her husband that, instead of hand-straining baby food for their daughter, his canning company could easily do the work. He agreed, and Gerber baby foods was born.

Gibson guitars In 1894, shoe clerk and woodworker Orville Gibson in Kalamazoo introduced his handcrafted mandolins and guitars with carved tops and backs instead of flat ones. He founded the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. in 1902 to manufacture the instruments. The company now is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn.

Honey Baked Ham - Harry Hoenselaar opened his first Honey Baked Ham Co. store in 1957 in Detroit and invented a machine that slices the ham in a single continuous spiral.

Vernors  140 years ago, James Vernor served the first glass of Vernor's in his pharmacy at 235 Woodward Avenue.   Higby and Sterns' Drug Store was young James Vernor's first good job as an errand boy. Vernor stayed with Higby & Sterns until the age of 19, when he enlisted in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. In July of 1865, he was discharged and returned home to Detroit. Almost immediately after his return home, he opened a drug store at 235 Woodward.  The most popular story, and one found frequently in the Vernor's Company's own literature, says that Vernor began experimenting with a formula for ginger ale prior to leaving for the Civil War. Upon returning from the war, he opened a wooden cask of his extract and found the taste he had been hoping to discover. The secret combination of ingredients, along with the four years of aging in wooden casks during the Civil War, perfected his ginger ale. Another story says he began experimenting with his formula after returning from the war.

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Daisy BB Gun  In 1888, Clarence Hamilton, inventor and co-founder of Plymouth (pop. 9,022) Iron Windmill Co., introduced a metal air gun. Lewis Cass Hough, company president, tried it and exclaimed, "Boy, that´s a daisy," which led to the founding of Daisy Manufacturing Co.

Palmer Paint by numbers In 1949, the Palmer Paint Co. in Detroit introduced paint-by-number kits with detailed outlines of paintings to be filled in by the artist.

La-Z-Boy In 1927, cousins Edwin Shoemaker and Edward Knabusch of Monroe (pop. 22,076) invented a wood-slat reclining porch chair, then upholstered it two years later. They considered calling it Sit-N-Snooze and Slack-Back, then settled on La-Z-Boy.

Hudson's  Founded in 1881 by Joseph L. Hudson, the store thrived during the growth of Detroit and the auto industry during the first half of the 20th century.  Famous for sponsoring the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the fireworks.  It had a great Chirstmas display.  At one time it boasted of being the 2nd largest department store in the US next to Macy's

Kellogs In the early 1900s, W.K. Kellogg and C.W. Post, by inventing and selling cold breakfast cereals, turned Battle Creek into the Cereal Bowl of the World.

Lafarge Cement Lafarge Corp.´s cement plant at Alpena (pop. 11,573) is the world´s largest. Opened in 1908, it now produces 2.5 million tons of concrete annually.

Whirlpool Whirlpool Corp., headquartered in Benton Harbor (pop. 11,719), was founded in 1911 in St. Joseph as Upton Machine Co. to produce electric wringer-washing machines.

Grinnell's Piano In l872 Ira Grinnell founded his piano firm in Ann Arbor. His brother, Charles, later joined him and they opened a store in Detroit in l882.  By 1955 they were the world's largest piano distributor and one of the leading piano makers.

Michigan Sugar Company   Michigan Sugar Company was formed in 1906 with six factories. Today, we have four operating factories (Bay City, Caro, Croswell, Sebewaing) and three warehouse terminals located in Michigan and Ohio. Our brand name of Pioneer Sugar was joined by Big Chief Sugar on October 1, 2004.