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Monday, February 14, 2011

The Marshall Canning Company of Texas, Sugar Land, Texas


This picture shows the Marshall Canning Company of Texas sometime in the 1930s. The building stood on the northwest corner of Main & Sugar Land streets. (Sugar Land Street is now named Kempner Street.) It's called Marshall Canning Company of Texas because headquarters were in Marshalltown, Iowa.


I'm not certain about the business arrangement between Marshall Canning & the Sugarland Industries, but it was a co-operative one. The plant processed vegetables grown by Sugarland Industries.

This building was originally the Sealy Mattress Company site. When the Sealy franchise in Sugar Land ended, Marshall Canning moved in. They moved to another building a few hundred feet north on the east side of Main in the mid-1950s.

I can barely remember the building in this picture. I think they'd taken the galleries off the front of the building on the left, and they may have changed the gables on the roof. All I can remember distinctly is the building seemed to be filled with lights when they operated at night. I remember seeing very bright lights through the many windows on the various floors. I recall it was noisy & seemed like a bee-hive of activity.

(Update) I forgot to say this picture plus explanatory text appears in the pictorial history entitled: "Images of America: Sugar Land." (See the info in the left-hand column of the first page of this blog, if you're interested in a copy.)

5 comments:

  1. Does anyone know when and why the canning company in Sugarland (and Marshalltown if you have that information) closed? I am a relative of lifelong (now deceased) citizens of Sugarland and my father before moving to the Iowa branch was a superintendent of the Sugarland Canning Company. I am trying to locate information for a personal project.

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  2. I'll try to find out more about Marshall Canning's history in Sugar Land. There are people here in town who may know the story. If not, I may be able to find info in newspaper archives.

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  3. Thank you. I appreciate your help.

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  4. Marshall Canning was acquired by Western Grocer of Marshalltown IA in 1909. They purchased the property in Sugarland in 1936. Western Grocer was sold in 1944 to Nathan Cummings, who merged it with other acquisitions into Consolidated Grocers Corp.

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  5. Thank you so much for this information. It is very helpful. I do recall seeing the factory during my childhood and recognize the photo above.

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