Gustav Goelitz

Introduction

Many people around the world recognize the name Jelly Belly Candy Company with its trademark smiling jelly bean. The corporation, headquartered in Fairfield, California, has international distributors in almost fifty countries and the company's signature tiny jelly bean is available on all five continents. Jelly Belly traces its roots to the entrepreneurial efforts of Gustav Goelitz (born March 28, 1845 in Osterode am Harz, Kingdom of Hannover; died March 16, 1901 in Belleville, IL), who came to the United States in 1866 and with his younger brothers, Albert and George, built a successful confectionery business, Gustav Goelitz Candy, in Belleville, Illinois, and later Goelitz Brothers' Candy in St. Louis, Missouri. The business failed during the devastating economic depression following the Panic of 1893. Returning to Belleville, Goelitz worked with his oldest sons as they started their own confection business. His sons then moved the company to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1898. Before Goelitz's death on March 16, 1901, in Belleville, Illinois, his sons began producing candy corn, a new buttercream treat that would ensure the continued success of the business. An examination of Gustav Goelitz's life reveals a young businessman who embraced the German-American community and worked diligently to build a business for himself and his family. The German nature of the business, that is the reliance on German-speakers as employees and the families' pride in their German heritage, remained present in the early years after his death and traces could still be found in the firm’s corporate culture well into the twentieth century.[1]

Family and Ethnic Background

Gustav Goelitz was born to Adolf and Augusta (née Domyer) Goelitz in Osterode am Harz, a community in the Harz Mountains at the southern edge of the Kingdom of Hannover (today part of the German federal state of Lower Saxony), on March 28, 1845. At the time of his birth, an uncle, August, was already living in the United States and two others, Louis and George, would soon join their brother in Pennsylvania.[2] After arriving in Pennsylvania, Gustav’s uncle George traveled to rural Monroe County, Illinois, in the southwestern part of the state, where he tried his hand at farming and eventually settled in the town of Waterloo. These relatives in the U.S. would later facilitate Gustav Goelitz’s migration to the American Midwest and help him settle in a prosperous German community.

Illinois enjoyed phenomenal growth in the two decades before the American Civil War. The state's population expanded by almost eighty percent in ten years — from 476,183 in 1840 to 851,470 in 1850.[3] Between 1850 and 1860, the population doubled to 1,711,951, a staggering increase in just one decade.[4] Foreign-born settlers made up about one eighth of the total population, or 111,892 persons in 1850. By 1860, the state had attracted 130,804 German settlers, a substantial number of the 324,643 foreign-born Illinoisans.[5] In other words, about one of every five residents of the state was foreign-born in 1860. Monroe and adjoining St. Clair Counties had a high concentration of foreign-born residents, many of them German.

German immigrants were drawn to St. Clair County and its largest town, Belleville, throughout the 1830s and 1840s.[6] Rich Mississippi River bottomland, access to river transportation, and the nearby presence of the well-established, regional commercial hub of St. Louis made the area ideal for settlement. The first large group of settlers came to St. Clair County in 1832.[7] They were members of the Gießener Auswanderungsgesellschaft (Giessen Emigration Society), a group of 500 immigrants that had originally come to Missouri to start a German colony. Appalled by slavery in Missouri, more than thirty families left the Giessen group, crossed the Mississippi River, and settled in St. Clair County, Illinois.[8] These settlers became known as the “Latin Farmers.”[9] Most were college educated intellectuals who saw a return to farming as preferential to urban living.[10]

This core group attracted a number of immigrants who left Germany after the Frankfurter Wachensturm (Storm of the Guards) in Frankfurt in 1833.[11] Most were from the Rhineland. Some of the immigrants who arrived after the uprising had been active in the attempt to unite the German states and were forced to flee and many more were sympathetic to the attempt to institute a parliamentary form of government for the German states. The German settlers started businesses, clubs, newspapers, and ran for political office. For instance, they formed the German Library Society of St. Clair County in 1836. In 1850, Belleville’s first mayor was Theodor Krafft, a member of the Giessen settlers. Two years later, Gustave Koerner, a German immigrant from Belleville, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.

This nuclear group again attracted political refugees after the failed 1848 revolutions. By 1850, 57.1 percent of the adult males in St. Clair County were foreign-born.[12] Germans made up 78.5 percent of that group.[13] In 1860, many of the adult German speakers in the St. Clair County area were first-generation German Americans born in Illinois. This created the core of the largest German settlement in the state.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the editor of the Belleviller Zeitung, called for St. Clair County's residents to take arms and many did.[14] Not waiting for Illinois to form its own “German” regiments, these early volunteers crossed the Mississippi River and joined one of several all-German-American regiments in Missouri. George Goelitz reportedly went to St. Louis to “fight mit Siegel.”[15] Union General Franz Siegel was also a German immigrant and a call to “fight with Siegel” was a powerful recruitment tool within the German-American community during the war.

After his completing his term of enlistment in the Union Army, George Goelitz returned to Waterloo where he ran a successful millinery business with his wife and daughter. They manufactured and sold women's hats and accessories. George Goelitz's preference to work within the German community would be echoed by his nephew, Gustav Goelitz, when he arrived in the United States.[16]

As the United States began the slow process of recovery from the Civil War, the Kingdom of Hannover entered the Austro-Prussian War. In 1866, after an initial period of neutrality, Hannover joined the conflict on the side of the Austrian Empire. The war, also known as the Seven Weeks' War, was brief as the name suggests, however, the consequences of a Prussian victory fundamentally changed the geography of the German Confederation. Hannover was annexed by Prussia and young Hannoverian men found themselves subject to conscription into the Prussian Army. As historian Mack Walker points out, emigration from Hannover rose in 1866 as the three-year conscription was something new for Hannoverians and “it meant entering the enemy camp.”[17] Many young men chose to emigrate rather than to face possible forced enlistment and the delay that the very prospect of conscription forced on their lives. Gustav Goelitz was among the young Hannoverians that left their birth country for the United States.

When Goelitz emigrated in 1866, he followed the path his uncles had taken a generation earlier. He stayed for a year with an uncle in the eastern United States and later joined his uncle George in Waterloo, Illinois, before moving to nearby Belleville. In Hannover, the twenty-one-year-old Goelitz had “engaged in merchandizing and later traveled for a large business house.”[18] In Belleville, he put these business skills to use as a salesman for William Theodor, a German-born baker and candy maker. Over the next two years, Goelitz learned to make candy and lived with Theodor and his family above their business on Main Street.[19] He also integrated into the thriving German-American community in southern Illinois. By the time Goelitz settled in Belleville, an estimated 90 percent of the city's population was from the German states or of German decent.[20] The community was mature, containing all the cultural and political elements of an area long settled. The young Hannoverian would have found the customs and language of his adopted home not unlike those he left behind. Albert Goelitz soon joined his older brother in Belleville and the two young immigrants went into business together.

Business Development

On July 26, 1869, Gustav Goelitz signed a promissory note to William Theodor for $1,700 (approximately $28,900 in 2011$) to start his own confectioners business.[21] He made and sold candy and confections from a store on Mascoutah Avenue that proudly displayed the sign “Gustav Goelitz” on the front, while his brother, Albert, delivered their goods to nearby communities from a horse-drawn wagon. The business was lucrative enough to support a family. In October that same year, Goelitz married Helena Huff, a German-American born in St. Clair County. Soon after, the business expanded and moved to East Main Street, near William Theodor's prior location.[22] By 1877, Gustav Goelitz Candy had begun to employ a third brother, twenty-year-old George.[23]

The Goelitz household expanded greatly over the next three years to include Gustav, Helena, their three oldest children (Adolph, Gustav Jr., and Augusta), brother George Goelitz, two apprentices in their teens, and a housemaid.[24] The maid and apprentices were foreign-born German speakers. In a city filled with German speakers, this was not uncommon but served to insulate the family within the German-American community of Belleville. Goelitz removed his growing family from his business address and settled them in a home on Jackson Street. This would be the family residence throughout the remainder of his life.

Gustav Goelitz’s decision to move his family away from his place of business was not simply for personal reasons. The business location needed room to expand as it grew into a factory that supported both the retail and wholesale trades. In 1884, the Goelitz brothers employed two full-time salesmen. One traveled via the growing regional rail network, delivering samples throughout southern Illinois, while the second continued the wagon deliveries begun by Albert in 1869. They employed five additional men to manufacture and sell their products, which included stick candies, caramels, and figurines and flowers for trimming cakes. The company also participated in a thriving wholesale trade in fruit and nuts, crackers, and “fancy groceries.” Gustav Goelitz Candies were well known throughout southern Illinois and the business soon outgrew its Belleville location. [25]

In June, 1884, Goelitz moved his growing business across the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri, which, like the region around Belleville, had a substantial German population. In 1880, fifty-four percent of the thriving river port's population was foreign born, and Germans made up forty-four percent of the foreign born population.[26] As in Belleville, Goelitz was comfortable conducting business primarily within the German-American community in St. Louis.

The business was reorganized under the name Goelitz Brothers' Candy Company and the firm set up shop in a prime location in the 400 block of North Main Street. In St. Louis, Goelitz Brothers' focused on its wholesale business and continued to expand while Gustav Goelitz's family continued to grow as well. By 1891, his family included Hermann, Johanna, Helena, Armin, and twins Frieda and Karl. Older siblings Adolph and Gustav Jr. worked in the St. Louis business and learned the art of candy making as well as the business skills necessary to run the family firm.[27] Unfortunately, the company faced insolvency before the two younger candy makers became full partners in their father's business.

The Panic of 1893 marked the beginning of the worst economic depression that the United States had faced up to that time. A series of railroad failures led to the collapse of banks that had invested heavily in the railroad industry. These failures, in turn, caused investor and depositor panics and led to runs on otherwise solvent banks. Creditors, desperately seeking capital to keep banks afloat, called in loans, which had a devastating effect on wholesale businesses like Goelitz Brothers' Candy Company that required credit for their operations.[28] While the country experienced the anxiety and, in some cases, desperation of high unemployment, economic uncertainty, and a cascade of business failures, Gustav Goelitz and his brothers found they were no longer able to pay their creditors.[29]

In mid-September of 1893, less than ten years after they had moved to St. Louis, Goelitz Brothers' Candy Company declared bankruptcy. Quite simply, the company could not meet its debts and, as creditors called for immediate repayment of loans, credit extensions became more difficult to acquire. Goelitz Brothers' assigned their assets to Mr. Henry Kortjohn, an attorney described as “a thorough scholar in the German language.”[30] Kortjohn had a working knowledge of the wholesale business as well. He had worked as shipping clerk at a wholesale dry goods business before becoming a lawyer.[31] Goelitz Brothers' machinery, stock of candy, groceries, cigars, and other items were valued at $18,000 at that time (approximately $464,000 in 2011$), a considerable amount of money.[32] Their outstanding debts are unknown. Gustav Goelitz did not attempt to go into business in St. Louis again.

Goelitz returned to Belleville after the failure of his St. Louis venture. His brother George remained in St. Louis and Albert continued to work in St. Louis but maintained a permanent residence in Belleville. Less than a year later, Gustav’s sons, Adolph and Gustav Jr., revived the family business under the name A & G Goelitz Confection Company. They pooled their personal savings and moved into a small storefront on East Main Street in Belleville.[33] Gustav Sr. worked for his sons and the family continued to live together in their Jackson Street home until 1898.

A & G Goelitz Confection Company moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1898 to take advantage of existing distribution networks for raw materials and finished products. Adolph Goelitz first went into business with his friend, William Kelley. They hired Kelley's cousin and Goelitz's future brother-in-law, Edward Kelley, as their bookkeeper. Adolph Goelitz was quickly joined by his brothers Gustav Jr. and Herman. They reorganized under the name Goelitz Confectionery Company and began making buttercream candies, candy corn in particular. At the time, buttercreams were a relatively new style of candy that consisted of sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, and vanilla, as well as other ingredients, such as honey, for flavor. The Goelitz Confectionery Company did not invent candy corn, but they found success by adapting to changes in candy production and following trends within the industry. Candy corn became extremely popular — it remains a seasonal favorite — and ensured the continued stability of the family business. Even today, Jelly Belly Candy Company claims that they continue to make candy corn using the Goelitz Confectionery Company’s original 1898 recipe. Given changes in the production of corn syrup over time, however, there have likely been some variations in the original recipe.

After his oldest sons left home, Gustav Goelitz fell back on his business experience and traveled as a representative of Sudder-Gale Grocery Company, a wholesale concern based in St. Louis. He and his family continued to live in Belleville until 1901. The family believed the loss of his business affected his health and contributed to his death at age fifty-five.[34] Goelitz died at his home in Belleville on March 16, 1901. His death was attributed to an abscess of the liver, a condition which is usually caused by a bacterial infection.[35]

Social Status, Networks, Family and Public Life

Goelitz was well regarded by his fellow citizens as an innovative entrepreneur who created a unique business in the city of Belleville and who provided steady employment for townspeople, as well as wholesale and retail goods of “superior quality.”[36] Gustav Goelitz Candy Company was considered one of Belleville's “best business houses” before it moved to St. Louis.[37] During his life, Gustav Goelitz and his family actively participated in the German community in Belleville. Although there is no evidence that he was a member of any religious organization, he was quite active in various clubs in the town.

In 1873, he and Albert were founding members of the Liederkranz (Garland of Song) Society, a singing club that promoted German culture and traditional German songs.[38] It was the largest singing group in Belleville and his future father-in-law, William Huff, was among the founding members.[39] The Goelitzs belonged to the male chorus of the society, which met and practiced every Tuesday and Friday. Albert served as the Liederkranz Society's treasurer when it was organized.[40] The group often performed for public events and was well known for its singing excellence throughout St. Clair County and the surrounding area.[41]

Gustav Goelitz was also a member of the Belleville Turnverein.[42] The Turnverein held an importand place in many German communities. Besides serving as an athletic organization that promoted strong minds and bodies through gymnastics and physical fitness, it served as a non-denominational meeting place for many so-called Club Germans who lacked church affiliation. It was often a social, political, and cultural touchstone within the community. The Turnverein was a popular and prosperous organization in Belleville and was one of the largest German sport groups in the nation.[43]

Goelitz also supported the Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW); he was a member of the Gerstaecher Lodge, Number 138. The AOUW was a fraternal order with rituals and practices similar to those of the freemasons. Certainly, Gustav Goelitz extended his network of business colleagues and acquaintances through his membership in the society. The AOUW provided assistance to members in financial difficulty and offered other benefits of a mutual aid society such as life insurance and dependent benefits. There were two AOUW lodges in Belleville and Goelitz chose to attend the German affiliate instead of the English-speaking group. The group met a few blocks from where the Goelitz family had their businesses.

Each of the Goelitz brothers, George, Albert, and Gustav, married German-American women who had been born in Illinois, raised in St. Clair County, and whose parents were immigrants. Gustav Goelitz chose to employ family members when he could and showed a preference for German-speaking employees both in his business and in his home. He often shared his home with family members and opened his home to his apprentices and shop clerks as was the custom at the time. Goelitz worked within the German-American communities in Belleville and in St. Louis whenever he could.

The second generation of candy makers ventured outside the comfortable confines of Belleville, but lived and worked in areas that were heavily German. Adolph, Gustav Jr. and Herman Goelitz were joined in Cincinnati by their mother and siblings after their father's death. Their sister, Joanna, married Edward Kelley and the Kelleys became permanent partners in the Goelitz Confectionery Company. The company moved to North Chicago in 1913 to take advantage of available property for expansion and faster shipping routes for their clients.[44]

Anti-German sentiment during World War One strained relationships within and outside the company. The well-publicized lynching of a German-American miner, Robert Prager, in 1918 in Collinsville, Illinois, and the subsequent acquittal of Prager's confessed murderers shocked the German-American community. Adolph Goelitz reportedly refused to stop speaking German in public despite his family’s wishes.[45] Company leadership was also in transition as “each of the family members had a turn at the helm.” Gustav Jr. left the business during that time. [46]

After World War One, Herman Goelitz took copies of the family recipes and moved to California. He founded the Herman Goelitz Candy Company. Because the two companies distributed to different regions of the country, Herman Goelitz and his decendents were not in competition with decedents of Adolph Goelitz and the Kelleys. Each of the candy manufacturers weathered the Great Depression, a truly difficult era for candy makers, to say the least, when credit restrictions affected most manufacturing firms. Both companies experienced a boom during World War Two. Most chocolate candy was reserved for service members. However, non-chocolate products such as the companies’ specialties, buttercreams and jellybeans, experienced a resurgence in popularity as they fulfilled American's desire for candy.[47]

The two companies continued to produce and sell candy wholesale through the 1950s and 1960s. They both remained privately-owned family businesses. The world sugar and wheat shortage during the 1970s global food crisis caused serious financial concerns for both firms. World consumption of sugar outstripped production from 1970 through 1974.[48] Sugar had averaged about ten cents a pound for most of the twentieth century. After reaching a record low of less than two cents a pound in 1967, the prices soared to over 65 cents in November 1974.[49] The steadily rising prices had a devastating effect on candy makers worldwide.

William Kelley, then president of Goelitz Confectionery, weathered the crisis through a temporary shutdown of facilities in North Chicago, while Herman Goelitz Rowland Sr., then president of the Herman Goelitz Candy Company, borrowed money to buy sugar to ensure that his company stayed afloat in California.[50]

Herman Goelitz Candy in California began producing a new type of mini jelly bean in 1965. Until that time, only the candy shell of jelly beans had been flavored; the sweet gummy inside was left unflavored. The new Goelitz mini jelly beans were flavored on the inside as well as in the shell. Future governor of California, Ronald Reagan, was a fan of the new mini jelly bean and reportedly ate the tiny confection on the campaign trail. He later wrote “we can hardly start a meeting without passing around a jar of your jelly beans.”[51] In 1976, entrepreneur David Kline approached Herman Goelitz Candy with the idea of producing Jelly Belly jelly beans, a special version of the mini jelly beans that would contain unique, gourmet flavors.[52] According to William Kelley, Jelly Belly sales skyrocketed after newly-elected President Ronald Reagan revealed his love of the tiny beans. More than 7,000 pounds of red, white, and blue Jelly Belly beans were served at the president's inauguration.[53] Kirby Hanson of the Ronald Reagan Library reports that “throughout the president's career, he continued to order sixty cases of Jelly Bellies a month.”[54]

The company restructured in 2001.[55] Herman Goelitz Candy and Goelitz Confectionery merged and changed the company name to Jelly Belly Candy Company. Herman Goelitz Rowland Sr. remained the Chairman of the Board of Jelly Belly Candy while Bill Kelley became Vice Chairman of the board. This marked the first time that the decedents of Gustav Goelitz created candy without the Goelitz name on its products. In 2011, the privately-owned company estimated that their gross revenue would be about 190 million dollars.[56] The fourth- and fifth-generation candy makers remain proud of their German-American ancestry and highlight their links to Gustav Goelitz on their website, as well as in their factory tours.[57]

Conclusion

Twenty-one-year-old Gustav Goelitz arrived in the United States with some experience in wholesale and retail sales. He settled in the predominantly German-speaking community of Belleville, Illinois, and used his contacts within the German-American town to learn a new trade and start his own business. He insulated himself and his family within the German culture of the community and chose to employ German speakers and participate in clubs and organizations with a distinctly German character. When his business failed in St. Louis, he chose an attorney who was fluent in German and who had a working knowledge of the wholesale business. Following the company failure, he returned to the protective German-American community in Belleville. Goelitz was respected in Belleville as an innovative businessman who provided the community with quality goods. His descendants continue to apply the family-oriented business attitude and standard of high quality to their business.

Notes

[1] I am indebted to Norma Walter at the Belleville Historical Society, Dana Prisacki at the Belleville Public Library, and especially Tomi Holt, director of communications at Jelly Belly Candy Company for helping me obtain information contained in this article.