Budlong Pickle Company

In the 19th century, Chicago was a powerhouse of American agriculture. The Union Stock Yards was the center of American meatpacking, and the Chicago Board of Trade provided financial support for investment in agricultural commodities.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Agriculture |encyclopedia=Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/30.html |last=Raleigh |first=Chas. P. |date=2005}}

In addition to its dominance in meatpacking and the grain trade, Chicago was a center of American pickle industry in the late 19th century.{{Cite book |last1=Busch |first1=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nx58fczgtwIC |title=Morton Grove |last2=Mayse-Lillig |first2=Tim |date=2013 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-9881-9 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=7 |language=en}} Among the reasons for Chicago's pickle prominence were ample supplies of salt and a robust rail infrastructure.{{Cite web |last=Eng |first=Monica |date=2017-08-20 |title=City of Big Ag: The Crops Chicago Was Famous For |url=https://www.wbez.org/stories/city-of-big-agriculture-here-are-the-crops-chicago-was-once-famous-for/cd5f00e5-5d90-4ada-b65a-e9ce373fdf34 |url-status=live |access-date=2020-07-28 |website=WBEZ |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728153730/https://www.wbez.org/stories/city-of-big-agriculture-here-are-the-crops-chicago-was-once-famous-for/cd5f00e5-5d90-4ada-b65a-e9ce373fdf34 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 }}

The Budlong family, an old Rhode Island family and the namesake of Budlong Farm, were established farmers and picklers on the East Coast, with a large operation in Cranston, Rhode Island.{{Cite book |last1=Rapoza |first1=Lydia L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfYXUM-BxwYC |title=Cranston |last2=Miller |first2=Bette |date=June 1999 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-0158-1 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=7, 53–54 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBfXRFCtqX4C |title=The Underwriter |date=1896 |publisher=Fidelity Publishing Company |location=Chicago |pages=96 |language=en}}

In the late 1850s, Lyman A. Budlong (1829–1909) started a large farm in Chicago—in an area now named Budlong Woods—called the Budlong Nursery.{{Cite journal |date=1909-11-26 |title=Rich Truck Farmer Dead |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn00065127/1909-11-26/ed-1/seq-2/ |journal=Dakota Farmers' Leader |publisher=Chronicling America}}{{Cite web |title=Budlong, Lyman A. |url=http://digital.chipublib.org/digital/collection/rvw/id/1025/ |url-status=live |publisher=Chicago Public Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728211928/http://digital.chipublib.org/digital/collection/rvw/id/1025/ |archive-date=July 28, 2020 }} Dates of the Nursery's establishment vary, but it must have been in 1857, the year that Lyman first came to Chicago, or later.

The Nursery, nicknamed the "village of glass" after its many greenhouses, produced large quantities of cucumbers, onions, and other vegetables. It also grew flowers.{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://preservationchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CHRS_Chapter_3_Community_Area_4_Lincoln_Square.pdf |title=Chicago Historic Resources Survey |publisher=Preservation Chicago |pages=III-23–III-24 |chapter=Community Area #4: Lincoln Square |access-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-date=August 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814021043/https://preservationchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CHRS_Chapter_3_Community_Area_4_Lincoln_Square.pdf |url-status=dead }} Approximately {{convert|700|acre|km2|abbr=}} in size, the center of the farm was at what is now the intersection of California and Foster Avenues in the Budlong Woods section of Chicago's Lincoln Square community area.{{Cite news |last=Fuller |first=Ernest |date=1954-01-22 |title=Picklers Take Jokes, Bear Up Under Profits: Chicago Packers Lead in Volume |work=Chicago Tribune |id={{ProQuest|178612951}} |quote=Its first plant was near Lincoln and Foster avs …}}{{Cite news |date=1903-08-30 |title=Largest Pickle Farm in the World Is in Chicago |page=41 |work=Chicago Tribune |id={{ProQuest|173123333}} }} {{PD-notice}}

The Budlong Pickle Company, founded in 1857 or 1859, was initially part of the same enterprise as the Nursery.{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Eleanor Stackhouse |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofchicagona00atki/page/105/mode/1up |title=The Story of Chicago and National Development, 1534–1910 |date=1903 |publisher=Little Chronicle Publishing |location=Chicago |pages=105 |author-link=Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson}} {{PD-notice}}{{Cite book |last=Nickerson |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=npNbAgAAQBAJ |title=Lake View |date=2014 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-1119-5 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=88 |language=en}} In 1903, the Chicago Sunday Tribune called Budlong's the largest pickle farm in the world; as of 1928, the Tribune called "one of the largest pickle factories in the world".{{Cite news |last=Chase |first=Al |date=1928-07-04 |title=Budlong Buys Site for New Pickle Plant |work=Chicago Tribune |id={{ProQuest|180957190}} }} It sold approximately 100,000 bushels of pickled cucumbers per year during the late 19th century. In 1899, Joseph J. Budlong—Lyman's brother—patented a vegetable sorting device "particularly applicable to the sorting or grading of pickles according to size".{{cite patent|country=US|number=621788A|title=Vegetable-sorter|status=|pubdate=1899-03-28|fdate=|pridate=|gdate=|inventor=Joseph J. Budlong|invent1=|invent2=|assign1=|assign2=|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US621788A/en|class=}}.

The factory was located at the intersection of Lincoln and Berwyn avenues, and a special "pickle train" ran on the Chicago and North Western line to pick up its employees. The farm employed a number of laborers who had immigrated to the United States from central and eastern Europe. As of 1903, workers earned an average of $1.25 per day, or approximately ${{Inflation|index=US|value=1.25|start_year=1903}} today; some earned as little as 25 cents, or around ${{Inflation|index=US|value=0.25|start_year=1903}}.

The Nursery property was a golf course by the late 1920s, but the Pickle Company continued operations thereafter. Lyman Budlong had reportedly made at least $1.5 million (approximately {{Inflation|index=US|value=1500000|start_year=1909|r=-3|fmt=eq}}) from the Nursery as of his death {{Circa|November 1909}}.{{Cite journal |last=Watts |first=R. L. |date=1909-12-09 |title=Market Gardening |journal=National Stockman and Farmer |volume=33 |issue=36 |pages=881 |id={{ProQuest|853434495}} }} {{PD-notice}}

George L. Hathaway was Budlong's longtime president.{{Cite news |last=Heise |first=Kenan |date=1997-01-11 |title=George L. Hathaway, 97; Former President of Budlong Pickle Co. |language=en-US |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-01-11-9701110115-story.html |access-date=2020-07-28}} In 1945, Hathaway was presented with an award by the National Pickle Packers Association for demonstrating "outstanding fairness … in procuring pickles for the armed forces".{{Cite journal |date=1945-11-26 |title=NPPA Honors Army Buyers |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_food-production-management_1945-11-26_68_18/page/12/mode/1up |volume=68 |issue=18 |page=12 |journal=Canning Trade}}

Budlong had operations in Columbia, Mississippi, as of 1936;{{Cite news |date=1936-01-16 |title=Facts about Columbia, Mississippi |page=11 |work=The Baptist Record |url=https://archive.org/details/19360116/page/n9/mode/1up}} and in Ora, Indiana, as of 1940.{{Cite book |url=https://www.fulco.lib.in.us/genealogy-files/obituaries/obits_1940.htm |title=Fulton County, Indiana Obituaries, 1940 |date=1995 |publisher=Tombaugh House |editor-last=Tombaugh |editor-first=Wendell C. |location=Rochester, Indiana |chapter=Tuesday, September 10, 1940 |editor-last2=Tombaugh}}

In 1958, it merged with a Green Bay, Wisconsin–based food company specializing in pickles, which was later acquired by Dean Foods (now part of Dairy Farmers of America).{{Cite journal |date=September 1978 |title=Green Bay Foods Company |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_food-production-management_1978-09_101_3/page/8/mode/1up |journal=Food Production/Management |volume=101 |issue=3 |page=8}}{{Cite news |date=1958-12-26 |title=Budlong Pickle to Merge with Green Bay Food |work=Chicago Tribune |id={{ProQuest|182182995}} }}

Although the Nursery and Pickle Company no longer exist, a Chicago-based restaurant has taken on the Budlong name. The Budlong Hot Chicken was founded in 2015 by restaurateur Jared Leonard and currently has 5 stores in Chicago.{{Cite web |last=Woodard |first=Benjamin |date=2015-01-12 |title=Budlong Pickle Shop, Restaurant to Revive Lincoln Square's Pickling History |url=https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150112/lincoln-square/budlong-pickle-shop-restaurant-revive-lincoln-squares-pickling-history |url-status=dead |access-date=2020-07-28 |website=DNAinfo |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728170859/https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150112/lincoln-square/budlong-pickle-shop-restaurant-revive-lincoln-squares-pickling-history/ }}{{Cite web |last=Treon |first=Rebecca |date=April 11, 2018 |title=Chicago-based Budlong bringing its Nashville Hot Chicken to Denver |url=https://theknow.denverpost.com/2018/04/11/budlong-nashville-hot-chicken-denver/181842/ |url-status=live |website=The Denver Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415072727/https://theknow.denverpost.com/2018/04/11/budlong-nashville-hot-chicken-denver/181842/ |archive-date=April 15, 2018 }}

The Budlong name also survives in the Lyman A. Budlong Public School,{{cite web |title=Budlong Pickle Farm and Factory |url=https://rpwrhs.org/w/index.php?title=Budlong_Pickle_Farm_and_Factory |website=Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society}} and Budlong Woods, a part of the Lincoln Square community area.[https://www.thechicagoneighborhoods.com/neighborhoods/2018/10/6/budlong-woods Budlong Woods] 2018/10/6

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Category:Condiment companies of the United States

Category:Food and drink companies based in Chicago

Category:Manufacturing companies based in Chicago

Category:Defunct companies based in Chicago

Category:Pickles

Category:19th-century establishments in Illinois

Category:Food and drink companies established in the 19th century

Category:1958 disestablishments in Illinois

Category:American companies disestablished in 1958