E. C. Hazard and Company

E. C. Hazard and Company was a major grocery importer, manufacturer and distributor in 19th-century and early 20th-century America. In particular, Hazard and Company has been credited with pioneering the U.S. domestic manufacture and distribution of "fancy groceries" — a term that referred to processed canned, jarred and bottled food products (now commonly found throughout modern-day groceries and supermarkets). [Chauncey M. Depew, "One Hundred Years of American Commerce" (New York, N.Y.: D. O. Haynes & Co., 1895), p. 598.]

The founder

The firm was founded in 1860 by Edward Clarke Hazard, born April 4, 1831, at Mumford's Mills near Peacedale, Rhode Island; died February 2, 1905 at Shrewsbury, New Jersey. [Samuel T. Wiley, "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District of New Jersey" (Philadelphia: Biographical Publishing Co., 1896); E. C. Hazard obituary, "New York Times", 3 February 1905.] Hazard attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and at age 18 went to New York City to enter a trade. There, "with horse and wagon, he became engaged at vending," particularly imported grocery items. [Samuel T. Wiley, "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District of New Jersey" (Philadelphia: Biographical Publishing Co., 1896).] Eventually, he opened his own grocery firm, which he called E. C. Hazard and Company.

Hazard was married and had eight children, one of whom married a European nobleman and thereafter was known as "Princess von Auersperg." [E. C. Hazard obituary, "New York Times", 3 February 1905.]

The company

First located at No. 69 Barcas Street and later at Hudson and North Moore Streets in Manhattan, E. C. Hazard and Company opened a large factory around 1883 at Shrewsbury, the latter of which also became the adopted home of the Hazard family.

It was in Shrewsbury that Hazard and Company purchased a convert|165|acre|km2|sing=on tract on which it built "extensive factories, including handsome offices and one of the best-equipped laboratories in this country." The firm also grew many of its own agricultural produce on this Shrewsbury tract. [Samuel T. Wiley, "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District of New Jersey" (Philadelphia: Biographical Publishing Co., 1896).]

Among the consumer goods produced by E. C. Hazard and Company at its Shrewsbury facilities were ketchup, canned tomatoes (which the firm sometimes called by the archaic name "love apples"), canned baked beans and mushrooms, as well as asparagus, okra, peppers, tarragon, jellies, salad dressings, and various sauces. [Samuel T. Wiley, "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District of New Jersey" (Philadelphia: Biographical Publishing Co., 1896).]

Perhaps the best-known product it distributed, however, was made by another manufacturer: McIlhenny Company's Tabasco brand pepper sauce, which Hazard and Company helped to introduce nationally beginning in the early 1870s. [Shane K. Bernard, "Tabasco: An Illustrated History" (Avery Island, La.: McIlhenny Company, 2007).]

At its peak, Hazard and Company was said to have generated annual revenues in the range of $4 to $5 million. In 1907, however — two years after E. C. Hazard's death — the company ran into considerable debt. By the end of the year, it was in bankruptcy and eventually it went out of business entirely. ["Grocers Go to Wall: E. C. Hazard & Co. of New York Declared Bankrupt," "Washington Post", 22 August 1907.]

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