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Newmark founded H. Newmark & Co. in Los Angeles in 1865. He retired in 1886, and Maurice H. Newmark was made a full partner. The present name is M.A. Newmark & Co.

In 1868, Major David B. Hamill entered, as junior partner, the firm of S. Hamill & Co., Keokuk, Iowa, of which his father, Smith Hamill, was the head. Smith Hamill died in 1890, and David B. became head of the firm. He died in 1916.

William Tackaberry was a junior partner in the firm of S. Hamill & Co., Keokuk, Iowa. He began a business of his own in the same city in 1868. Ten years later, he moved the company to Sioux City, and continued there as the Wm. Tackaberry Co.

Joel O. Cheek began traveling for the wholesale grocery house of Webb, Hughes & Co., Nashville, Tenn., in 1873. Later, he was admitted to partnership, the firm becoming Webb, Cheek & Co., and then Cheek, Norton & Neal. He formed the Nashville Coffee & Mfg. Co., in 1899. It was merged in 1901 into the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co.

Jekiel and Isaac E. Tone began the business of Tone Bros. at Des Moines, Iowa, in March, 1873, with one roaster and one spice mill. The business was incorporated in 1897. Jekiel Tone died in 1900, and Isaac E. Tone in 1916. The business is now (1922) carried on by W.E. and Jay E. Tone.

Edward Canby began business in Dayton, Ohio, in 1875, succeeding the firm of J.D. Beach & Co. He retired in 1886, and the business was left in charge of Frank L. Canby and P.J. Ach. The latter had entered the employ of Canby in 1877. He secured an interest in the business in 1882, and became a partner in 1890. When the company was incorporated as Canby, Ach & Canby in 1904, he was elected president. Mr. Ach has been very prominent in the affairs of the National Coffee Roasters Association since its organization.

Frank J. Geiger began in the tea, coffee, and spice business in Lafayette, Ind., under the name of Culver & Geiger. Mr. Culver, who had never been active, died in 1889, and in 1892 the Geiger-Tinney Company was formed with F.J. Geiger as president. The plant was moved to Indianapolis in 1901 with William L. Horn as vice-president, and Henry C. Tinney as secretary and treasurer. The name was changed to the Geiger-Fishback Co. in 1912, and Mr. Geiger retired. Frank S. Fishback acquired all the stock of the company in 1918, and the name was changed to the Fishback Co. with F.S. Fishback, president; John S. Fishback, treasurer; and F. C. Fishback, secretary.

S. Holstad joined the Thomson & Taylor Spice Co of Chicago in 1892. He left in 1901 and went to Minneapolis, where he became a member of the firm of Atwood & Hoisted. He withdrew in 1908 to form the firm of S. Holstad & Co., with Charles Ekelund and Alexander W. Kreiser as partners. After the withdrawal of Mr. Holstad from Atwood & Holstad, Mr. Atwood continued as Atwood & Co.

F.P. Atha began work as a coffee salesman with Holman & Co., Terre Haute, Ind. He went to San Francisco in 1899 and entered the employ of J.A. Folger & Co., and introduced Folger products east of the Rockies. He opened the Kansas City branch in 1907; and a year later, he was admitted to the firm and made vice-president and general manager.


The National Coffee Roasters Association

The first effort to organize the coffee roasters of the United States dates back to 1885, when several St. Louis coffee roasters came together in a kind of gentlemen's agreement not to cut the price of roasting green coffee, which had declined, owing to ruthless competition, from $1.00 to 10 cents a bag. The various parties to the agreement posted $500 checks each as forfeits, not to violate the price as fixed. After one year, a check was cashed; but the principal claimed his lapse was clerical and not in violation of the agreement. However, as a result of the argument that followed, the organization was disbanded.

Members of the Organization Convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, St. Louis, May 26, 1911 Members of the Organization Convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, St. Louis, May 26, 1911

Reading from left to right: W.B. Johnson, St. Louis; W.T. Jones, New Orleans; George Schulte, St. Louis; C.F. Blanke, St. Louis; Ben Casanas, New Orleans; Carl Stoffregen, St. Louis; Edward D. Hanly, Kansas City; H.C. Grote, St. Louis; James Menown, St. Louis; Frank P. Atha, Kansas City; Henry Petring, St. Louis; J.M. McFadden, Dubuque, Iowa; Joseph Maury, Memphis; T.F. Halligan, Davenport; F.J. Ach, Dayton; Carl Brand, Cleveland; Wm. Fisher, St. Louis; M.H. Gasser, Toledo; Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis; E.W. Bockman, Paducah, Ky.; Louis Christopherson, St. Louis; Felix Coste, St. Louis; W.E. Tone, Des Moines; Robert Meyer, St. Louis; Fred Roth, St. Louis; M.E. Smith. St. Louis; J.B. Dubrouilett, St. Louis; Floyd Norwine, St. Louis

As early as 1900, leaders of the trade's best thought began to urge the need of a national organization among coffee roasters.

As a result of informal meetings between men like Robert M. Forbes, Julius J. Schotten, Robert Meyer, and Messrs. Roth and Homeyer, around the luncheon table in St. Louis, to discuss trade abuses and bring about better trade co-operation, the subject of a St. Louis organization of coffee roasters began to be agitated about 1906. It was not until four years later, however, that the idea took definite form.

On September 14, 1910, the Traffic Association of St. Louis Coffee Importers was organized, starting out with a membership of ten firms, its chief object being to obtain an adjustment of freight rates to and from St. Louis as advantageous as those prevailing for Chicago and New York.

This associationβ€”of which Robert Meyer was the first president, and H.L. Homeyer, vice-president, J.S. Hartman, secretary, and G.H. Petring, treasurerβ€”was the forerunner of the National Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association organized in 1911 and now known as the National Coffee Roasters Association.

At the organization meeting of the national association twenty-six coffee-roasting establishments in the Mississippi Valley were represented at the conference held May 26–27 in the Planters Hotel, St. Louis. The objects of the new body were announced in the constitution, as:

First: To foster and promote a feeling of fellowship and good will among its members, and on broad and equitable lines to advance the welfare of the coffee trade and the consumer.

Second: To eliminate or minimize abuses, methods and practises inimical to the proper conduct of business.

Third: To assist in the enactment and enforcement of uniform pure food laws which in their operations shall deal justly and equitably with the rights of the consumer and the trade.

The association started with these officers: Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis, President; M.H. Gasser, Toledo, vice-president; W.E. Tone, Des Moines, treasurer, and W.J.H. Bown, St. Louis, secretary.

Meanwhile, as a result of an agitation started by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, a meeting of New York and eastern coffee roasters was called at the Fulton Club, New York, October 27, 1911, to discuss plans for a national organization. M. H. Gasser attended this meeting, and told of the plan of the western roasters to organize such an organization at a meeting called for Chicago the following month. The promoters of the eastern organization subsequently abandoned their efforts in favor of the western group.

Robert Meyer, St. Louis Robert Meyer, St. Louis
First president of the Coffee Roasters' original organization

At the first convention of the National Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association, held in Chicago, November 16–17, 1911, all the foregoing officers were retained, the office of second vice-president was created, and Frank R. Seelye was selected to fill it.

That the organization idea was popular among the roasters was evident from the fact that at the close of the convention it was announced that the membership was then seventy-one firms in cities as far east as Virginia and as far west as Kansas City. The convention demonstrated that the association was really a national organization, which quieted suspicions prevalent in some quarters of the trade in the east that it was chiefly a Mississippi Valley unit.

The first convention is remembered principally because of Hermann Sielcken's defense of the Brazil coffee valorization plan, which was then the big question of the coffee trade. The titles of some of the other addresses will serve to indicate how the scope of the association had enlarged since its organization a few months before: "An Attack on Valorization" by Thomas J. Webb, of Chicago; "Uniform Food Laws", by W.T. Jones, of New Orleans; "Penny-Change Systems," by R.W. McCreery, of Marshalltown, Ia; "Traffic and Freight Abuses," by W.E. Tone, of Des Moines; "Transportation Problems," by Carl H. Stoffregen, St. Louis; "Coffee Publicity," by F.H. Henrici, of Chicago; "Coffee Roasters' Costs and Accounting," by F.J. Ach, Chicago. The first convention proved a success, and attracted attention.

The second annual convention, held in New York, November 13–15, 1912, showed that the association had grown to a membership of 135 firms located in all parts of the country, and that its influence had extended throughout the whole trade. Valorization continued to be a much discussed subject. Hermann Sielcken and others again defending it in speeches; but the majority of the association seemed opposed to the scheme. Probably the most important feature of the convention was the report of the committee of nine men who had visited Brazil to investigate conditions there and to interest the Brazilian coffee growers in an advertising campaign. An address on this subject was made by the editor of The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, in which he suggested a plan for propaganda and advocated scientific research to find out the truth about coffee.

The election of officers resulted in the selection of F.J. Ach, Dayton, as president; Frank R. Seelye, Chicago, first vice-president; Ross W. Weir, New York, second vice-president; and Robert Meyer, St. Louis, treasurer.

The 1912 convention changed the name of the association to the National Coffee Roasters Association, dropping the words "Traffic and Pure Food" from the original title.

Julius J. Schottenβ€”1911–12 Julius J. Schottenβ€”1911–12
F.J. Achβ€”1912–14 F.J. Achβ€”1912–14
Ross W. Weirβ€”1914–16 Ross W. Weirβ€”1914–16
NCRA Logo
Frank R. Seelyeβ€”1916–17 Frank R. Seelyeβ€”1916–17
Ben C. Casanasβ€”1917–18 Ben C. Casanasβ€”1917–18
Carl W. Brandβ€”1918–21 Carl W. Brandβ€”1918–21 FORMER PRESIDENTS, NATIONAL COFFEE ROASTERS ASSOCIATION

The third convention, which was held November 12–14, 1913, in Cincinnati, demonstrated that the scope of usefulness of the association was still growing, as shown by the resolutions which approved better coffee-making publicity; favored a national coffee day; urged the appointment of inspectors at ports of entry to prevent the importation of green coffee under government standard No. 8; condemned the excessive watering of coffee and all coffee coatings; and provided for the appointment of an agent to visit Brazil to furnish members with "reliable" reports on crop flowering.

F.J. Ach was re-elected president; Ross W. Weir succeeded F.R. Seelye as first vice-president; W.T. Jones succeeded Mr. Weir as second vice-president, and Robert Meyer was retained as treasurer.

Secretary G.W. Toms, who had been appointed in April, 1913, reported that the association had made a net gain of thirteen members, bringing the total up to 144.

The membership of the association had been increased by twenty names when the fourth annual convention was opened in New Orleans, November 16–19, 1914, making the total 164.

Better coffee making, roasting economies, a national coffee week, and improved methods of handling green coffee in ports

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