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VOL. 32, 192 WHITE RIVER
JUNCTION, VERMONT
By LOIS GOODWIN GREER |
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| If I were asked to
write a commentary upon the proverb,
"Great oaks from little acorns grow," I
should use exactly two words...Maple
Grove, for surely no better example
could be found which would more
comprehensively cover the topic than
this enterprise which, begun some
thirteen years ago in a farm house
kitchen, has today not only become one
of Vermont's most prosperous and
prominent industries but has
successfully invaded the commercial
world of New York and many foreign
countries. And the dynamic force behind
this achievement is, contrary to the
regular rule, a woman. |
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 Katharine
Ide Gray is a person of rare ability and
attainment. She is blessed with an
independence of thought, a fine
graciousness and a keen business sense.
These would have been as naught to her,
however, had she not also possessed a
remarkable clarity of vision which is
happily combined with an integrity of
purpose which the years seem to have
increase rather than diminished. It is
probably true that back in 1915 Mrs.
Gray did not visualize herself, twelve
years later, as president of three great
corporations, two in Vermont and one in
New York city, but she must have
foreseen the potential possibilities of
that summertime venture which she aided
and abetted.
"My daughter was a student of Home
Economics at Columbia University," she
told me. "The professors were always
urging the girls to try out at home the
things which they were being taught at
the school. Helen thought she would like
to do a little experimenting with maple
sugar, and incidentally she hoped to
find some occupation which would keep
her at home. She interested a friend,
Miss Ethel McLaren, in her scheme, and I
told them to go ahead and do whatever
they wished and that I would help them
all I could. We worked all one summer,
and finally produced some maple candies
that were quite delicious. By
experimenting we made our own recipes,
which policy we have always pursued.
Even today we use no recipes but our
own. It was rumored about that the girls
were making candy to sell, and finally
we had our first customer.
"Mrs. Henry Fairbanks telephoned down
that she would like some candy, and we
were all so excited over it," she said
laughing quietly, "that it required the
three of us to pack and wrap the box,
and even when Mrs. Fairbanks arrived
late in the afternoon we did not have it
exactly as we thought it ought to be,
and kept wondering all the evening how
we could have made it nicer.
"We built over a back shed into a candy
kitchen and worked diligently. Very
shortly we were making and disposing of
more candy than our quarters allowed,
and the demand exceeded that which we
could do alone. Therefore, we had to
enlarge our working force as well as our
kitchen. In fact we had to enlarge our
kitchens twice during our four years at
the farm."
"We soon realized," Mrs. Gray went on to
say, "if we were to develop and expand,
as seemed possible at the time, we must
have larger accommodations. Several
places were considered, but finally the
Governor Fairbanks mansion in St.
Johnsbury, which was for sale, was
chosen, and in 1920 we moved." No more
lovely spot could have been found in all
Vermont than this fine old house with
its traditional splendors, its winding
drives, its emerald lawns and spreading
maples; a place where sunshine and
shadow vie with one another to lure the
weary traveler within its sheltering
embrace.
This undertaking meant a large
investment; it meant doing things on a
much larger scale than had been
attempted heretofore; it meant an
intensive campaign of advertising; it
meant an organization which must be
directed and guided in a businesslike
manner-in short-it opened up wonderful
possibilities. In order to make it a
paying proposition many things had to be
considered which had never been thought
of before. For instance, in the farm
house the chief pursuit had been that of
maple candy making, and now with this
huge establishment upon her hands Mrs.
Gray had to devise devious ways and
means by which the tremendous "overhead"
would be diminished. And thus it was
that there was born the Maple Grove Tea
Room and later Maple Grove Inn, not
because it was the original intention of
these women to cater to the public in
any way except as to tickle the sweet
tooth, but because it became a necessity
to take advantage of every lucrative
opportunity and contingency.
Consequently, the spacious rooms in the
front of the house were converted into
guest rooms upstairs, while the lower
part was used for waiting room and
dining rooms all having fine old
fireplaces and many windows "looking out
upon spacious lawns, huge spreading
trees and inviting nooks among the
shrubbery." An ample guest house was
built adjacent to the main house which
provided for an overflow. The rear of
the building was re-modeled into modern,
well lighted and well ventilated
quarters for the candies. One has but
once to partake of the genial
hospitality, the delicious food and to
feel the quiet dignity of this charming
house to be converted forever to its
spell.
"Nothing is ever attained without a
struggle," said Mrs. Gray, "but
sometimes our struggles have seemed
almost too titanic to overcome. We have
had to fling out every possible line in
order to get our anchor firmly placed.
From the making of a few simple candies
we have developed into a business of
diversified interests. Today we are
making, in addition to our regular maple
bon-bons, over seventy different kinds
of chocolates, manufacturing maple sugar
and maple syrup and maple cream in
dozens of different ways, and recently
we have been developing another country
product which I will tell you about
later. Then, too, we needed a large
supply base for our syrups and sugar, so
we purchased a plant formerly owned by
the Vermont Farmers Co-operative Assn.,
at Essex Junction, Vermont, where all of
our syrup is reconditioned. We buy
directly from the farmers and they
deliver their syrup to this plant. This
corporation is distinct from the Maple
Grove Candies, Inc., and is known as
Maple Grove Products of Vermont.
"Again, in order to get a better New
York market for the candies and maple
products we opened a restaurant and
sales room incorporated under the name
of Maple Grove Products, in that city.
That enterprise alone requires a manager
in which capacity my daughter's husband,
Harold Gates Powell, acts most
efficiently.
"You see it has meant a continual
branching out. Some of the things we
have gone into would never have been
attempted except as we have been forced
into them. You know that old adage,
'Fools rush in where angels fear to
tread?' I sometimes think it very aptly
applies to us.
" Genuine Vermont dishes, real farm
products and maple sugar mixtures are
served in the 57th Street shop in New
York. To make it all a bit more
realistic the walls are decorated with
scenes from the Vermont hills in maple
sugar time, while rustic maple saplings
used here and there add a dash of zest
and a breath of the country.
During the winter months when the
Vermont roads are clogged with heaping
drifts of snow and the thermometer drops
perilously lower and lower which causes
the travelers to turn southward, there
is an additional activity going on
within the dignified old walls of the
Maple Grove home. Hundreds of barrels of
apples, and hundreds of pounds of meat
find their way into the kitchens, and
with spices and raisins and good maple
sugar the great copper kettles are kept
busy until tons upon tons of real
Vermont mince meat are made and shipped
to all parts of the country.
It is a lesson in higher mathematics to
go into the store rooms and try to count
the tubs and tubs of mince meat, the
hundreds of cartons filled with candies
or other maple products ready for
shipment. It is a revelation to the
layman to inspect the different
departments where the candies are made
from the first stages of simple fondant
to the intricate process of chocolate
dipping. It is also a pleasure to learn
that many of the present employees have
been with Maple Grove since the first
days of the enterprise at the farm. Mrs.
Powell now holds an important official
position in each of the three
corporations, while Miss McLaren, in
addition to her vice-presidency of the
Maple Grove Candies, Inc., is
superintendent of the candy factory.
Only a woman with a versatile brain, a
wealth of imagination and the executive
ability of a genius could conceive and
maintain a business of such magnitude
and multiform character. But more than
all this, Mrs. Gray maintains a
household with apparently the greatest
ease and efficiency which not only
commands the deepest admiration of her
friends but quite thoroughly routs the
one-time theory that a woman cannot
'keep house' and have a career at the
same time. The Powells make their home
with their mother and the two Powell
children, Donald and Katharine, have
found a big place in the heart of their
grandmother. Her face sparkles with
delight when she relates something of
their little activities.
To these mature years Mrs. Gray has
brought a wealth of experience. Born of
one of the finest families of northern
Vermont she has had the advantages which
social position and prestige always
give. During the years in which her
uncle Judge Henry C. Ide was Governor
General of the Philippines she was one
of the first white women, with the
exception of the wife of Gen. Corbin, to
cross the island of Mindanao through the
Moro country in an army wagon when a
military escort was constantly
necessary. She has traveled extensively
in the orient, in China and Japan, and
knows her own country from coast to
coast. Until the details of her business
occupied so much of her time she was
actively interested in all civic affairs
of her town and community.
With this background of education and
culture Mrs. Gray has contributed to
Vermont something which is priceless;
she is the personification of the truth
that a woman can be a devoted mother and
home-maker, and at one and the same time
assist tremendously in developing the
natural resources of her state to such
an extent that she is recognized as an
essentially outstanding figure in
Vermont's economic and industrial world.
It is inevitable that a person who has
done all this must command and hold the
attention of all who know her, or, of
her. |
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