The Dark Side of Family Business

This chapter mentions Hiram Hotchkiss's death on October 27, 1897 and points out how the account of his life was printed across eight columns. It also talks about Hiram's obituary that recounts the inaccurate story of how Hiram had singlehandedly invented the peppermint oil business and listed all the awards he had won for his peppermint oil. The chapter contradicts the obituary's' portrayal of Hiram as a benevolent and self-made entrepreneur. It emphasizes how Hiram was actually a monomaniacal autocrat who blustered and bullied his way toward a success that, despite his claims, he never really achieved. It also highlights the story of Hiram's business conduct that illustrates the extent to which he believed that the rules of society did not apply to him.

Global Peppermint

This chapter reviews how peppermint began its history in North America when roots of the recently discovered hybrid were imported to newly independent British colonies at the start of the nineteenth century. It recounts the Ranney family that concentrated on bringing medicinal peppermint essence to American consumers, as well as the Hotchkiss brothers and Albert May Todd that exported large quantities of peppermint oil back to Great Britain and to Europe. The chapter examines the national and international scope of the peppermint oil industry in the recent past. It reviews the significance pf growing peppermint and distilling oil as a personal, day-to-day activity that changed the lives of many individual American farmers. It also mentions Mary Clark of Galien from Michigan as one of the farmers whose personal stories included peppermint oil.

Peppermint in America

This chapter recounts the arrival of peppermint in Connecticut, which was the time Samuel Ranney, the first peppermint king, was growing up in Middletown. It mentions the first appearance of peppermint in colonial America in the early 1760s with advertisements for peppermint essence in the New York Mercury and the New York Gazette in 1763 and 1764. It also talks about advertisements for “Essence of Peppermint” that were appearing in other New York newspapers, three Boston papers, and as far away as Pennsylvania and Georgia by 1770. The chapter explains how peppermint essence was first manufactured in the London suburb of Mitcham, where hybrid peppermint plants were first commercially cultivated around 1750. It also looks at the markets for both English and American peppermint-based medicines that were well established and growing quickly by the last decade of the eighteenth century.

Migration

This chapter explains explain why migrants to western New York like the Ranney family looked farther west and bought parcels in Michigan even as they began making new farms in Phelps. It explores the pattern of sparse frontier settlement that extended all the way to the French village and British garrison at Fort Detroit. It also discusses the acquisition of western lands that highlighted the competing agendas of rural settlers and urban speculators. The chapter talks about brothers Andrew, Nahum, and Archibald Burnett, who moved to Phelps after 1813 and became the source of the first peppermint planted in Western New York. It also deals with peppermints that were simultaneously planted and distilled around Phelps as it became economically important in Ashfield.

Epilogue

This chapter summarizes the development of the peppermint oil industry under the leadership of three families of peppermint kings that were prominent during distinct moments in the economic history of the United States. It recounts the earliest commerce in peppermint oil in colonial America and peppermint's culture and distilling in the early republic. It also analyzes the rurality of the peppermint kings as the common element that describes their attitudes and actions. This chapter describes the agency of the peppermint kings that confutes the widely accepted depiction of peripheral agriculturalists that was increasingly dominated by centralized economic power. It also examines the initiative of rural people and the ways they resisted mainstream American trends, which contributed to the understanding of rural America.

Essence and Peddlers

This chapter examines the history of Ashfield in Massachusetts and the essence-peddling business run by the Ranney family and their friends. It also looks into the development of a wholesale peppermint oil market and the expansion of the Ranney family across the western frontier. It also discusses how Ashfield's peppermint oil business grew rapidly from the time that Samuel Ranney first planted peppermint roots in the town around 1812. The chapter reviews the Yankee peddlers of Connecticut and the Jewish peddlers of the second half of the nineteenth century as the two well-documented groups of peddlers in most histories. It describes how essence peddlers became the subjects of songs, jokes, cartoons, and the source of a slang term for “skunk,” a contemporary search for the term “essence peddler” in historical writing.

Introduction

This chapter focuses particularly on the people who became peppermint kings. It recounts stories of the peppermint kings and illustrate elements of rural life in nineteenth-century America. It also shows that people moving to the nineteenth-century agricultural frontier remained deeply embedded in family networks that shared information, retained ties of affection and obligation, and did business across the miles. The chapter provides a multigenerational look at families that shows dynamic, fluid movement of people, and capital between old eastern and new western communities. It mentions Brian Donahue, who observed that commercial farming continued in many New England towns until the end of the nineteenth century and the decline in agriculture was balanced by substantial appreciation in the value of farmland being abandoned.

Peppermint Bank

This chapter recounts how Hiram Hotchkiss opened his own Peppermint Bank in order to avoid the difficulties he continually had with local bankers. It explains how Hiram used his Peppermint Bank primarily as a payment mechanism for his essential oil business. It also discusses how Hiram spent his money in western New York and in Michigan to pay for oil rather than loan his notes into the local market. The chapter traces back free banking, which was the dominant regulatory system for antebellum banks that has taken too much of the blame for economic instability before the Civil War. It also explains that free banking refers to the ability of banks to be established without legislative charters, but the lack of state charters does not imply that the banks were allowed to print money indiscriminately.

Prize Medal Oil of Peppermint

This chapter focuses on Hiram and Leman Hotchkiss, who dominated the local business, created a national brand, and declared themselves peppermint kings. It describes the Hotchkiss peppermint business that involved a shift toward modern business practices that aligned with Hiram and Leman's predilections for conflict and controversy. It also illustrates the difficult economic transition of the nineteenth century. The chapter suggests how Hiram and Leman Hotchkiss viewed themselves not as peripheral players in a changing world of trade and finance dominated by New York City but as formidable competitors at the center of their own commercial network. It also talks about London's Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851, where Hiram and Leman Hotchkiss's peppermint oil won one of the 102 prize medals awarded to Americans.

Crystal White

This chapter centers on Albert May Todd, who became familiar with the peppermint plants local farmers grew and the stills they used to process mint hay into oil when he was a young man. It explains how Albert discovered that the light amber color of most American peppermint oil was caused by resins that damaged the oil's flavor. It also analyzes Albert's development of a proprietary method to in order to remove the resins in peppermint oil. The chapter recounts how Albert marketed his Crystal White brand of peppermint oil and menthol crystals in 1875. It also mentions how Albert won a gold medal for his Crystal White Peppermint Oil at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.