Historic Treasure of the Week - January 13, 1991
By Tim Weir and Cindy Weir
Vigo County Historical Society
Historic Treasure of the Week - January 13, 1991
By Tim Weir and Cindy Weir
Vigo County Historical Society
Candy company was largest of its kind
On the back shelf in the General Store of the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley is a cardboard box made by the Mewhinney A.B. Candy Co. of 125 N. Ninth St. in Terre Haute.
What about Mewhinney Candy? Unless you collect old store advertising items, you probably don’t realize that one of the largest confectioneries in the United States was once located here in Terre Haute.
The founder of the Mewhinney A.B. Candy Co. was Albert H. Mewhinney (MeWhinney, old spelling). He was born in 1848 and reared near Riley. He came to Terre Haute at the age of 19.
He worked for the W.H. Slade Candy Co. until 1874 when he bought the establishment and formed the firm of White (Jacob White) and Mewhinney Confectioners & Bakers, located at 119 Main St. By 1880, Mewhinney A.B. Baker and Confectioner was at 425 Main St.
The year 1883 found Mewhinney in partnership with Herbert Harrison and open for business at 25-27 S. Sixth St. The partnership was known as Mewhinney & Harrison, Wholesale & Retail Confectioners, Bakers & Dealers in Foreign & Domestic Fruit.
In 1898, the A.B. Mewhinney Co. was incorporated. A year later the business, which had grown from a small store to a large manufacturing company, moved to its last location at 125 N. Ninth St., eventually expanding to 123-129 N. Ninth St. After this last move, Albert’s two sons, Omar C. and Charles A. Mewhinney, became active in the business and helped oversee the 125 to 150 employees.
Mewhinney made candy in many forms from peanut brittle, sold in boxes, peanut butter, sold in cans, to candied fruit, sold in glass jars.
The boxes and labels for the cans and jars were produced by the Mewhinney Paper Box Factory also located on North Ninth Street.
On Jan. 4, 1918, Albert Mewhinney, the father and founder of Mewhinney Candy Co., died after a short pneumonia-type illness, following his wife who had died two years earlier, and leaving the business in the hands of his sons.
The business lasted into the late 1920s, but facing economic hard times and poor management, closed its doors about 1930. In 1927, the Mewhinney A.B. Candy Co. remained solidly in the hands of the family: Omar C. Mewhinney, president; Charles A. Mewhinney, secretary-treasurer; and Fred B. Mewhinney, sales manager.
By 1929 the Mewhinney family seemed to be losing control of the company, as the list of company officers reflects: F.B. Mewhinney (former sales manager), president; A.C. Ageing, vice president; and L.A. Barber, secretary-treasurer. No sales manager was listed.
And by 1931, the company was out of business, and Terre Haute’s claim to one of America’s oldest and largest confectioneries was gone.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.