#alexanderkerr

[gab17bi]

#alexanderkerr was #right there are no more #wildforests in #japan #thelostjapan https://www.instagram.com/p/BwbXsX5JDZT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=162c2x2t1mpjy

[jana-hallford]

A Look at Kerr Canning Jars from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and the Lives of Alexander H. Kerr and Ruth Kerr

On Pinterest I have a pin board devoted to vintage and antique kitchen items. Many people are very sentimental about old kitchen wares – well-used utilitarian objects rich in memories of mothers and grandmothers, family chores and gatherings. Canning tools and jars are among these fondly remembered things, essentials in seasonal rituals of preserving food and making jams and jellies. 

On the shelves above the cupboards in my kitchen I have a collection of vintage kitchen items, including a few Kerr “Economy” mason jars made in Sand Springs, the little town where Neal grew up in the greater Tulsa area. “Kerr Glass Mfg. Co.” had a presence on Main Street in Sand Springs, Oklahoma from 1912 to 1965. The Kerr Glass Factory, built in 1916, was one of the locations where Kerr produced jars. (After 1965, other glass manufacturing continued for some years.)  The company moved its main office to Sand Springs towards the end of 1916, which remained until 1992.

Kerr “Economy” jars made in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. 

The firm was formed in 1895 by Alexander H. Kerr and his brothers Samuel C. and Thomas A. Kerr.  (The family name “Kerr” rhymes with “her.”)  They initially sold jars manufactured by others, then moved into producing their own. Kerr Glass made many kinds of glass jars and bottles, including lots of “packers” for food processing plants, but are best known known for their mason jars and home canning supplies sold to consumers. 

For more details about Kerr’s history, I recommend this article from the Society for Historical Archaeology: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/KerrGlass.pdf

I originally intended for this to be a short post about Kerr canning jars and the company’s presence in Sand Springs, back when this town in Tulsa County was a major hub of glass manufacturing. But my focus widened as I found myself fascinated by the people behind this business.

Alexander H. Kerr was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 4, 1862. He did not come from a wealthy background and not all of his early ventures went well. In time he founded and expanded the Kerr glass business, and his fortunes improved. His canning jar innovations included the first wide-mouth jar and the flat metal jar sealer. 

Alexander’s Christian beliefs were very important to him. A vocal and fervent advocate of tithing, he credited his success to adopting and adhering to this principle, and enclosed tracts about tithing in every case of jars he shipped. And he generously supported religious and charitable causes. Yet his life had a chapter some viewed as a scandal. In 1910 he divorced his first wife Amanda and married his young secretary, Albertina Sechtem.  At age 20, she was 28 years his junior.

(My mother always told me the only two people who know what goes on in a marriage are the two people in it, and as a long-time married woman, I must agree. Therefore I refrain from speculating on what happened to Alexander’s first marriage, and from judging any of the parties in the divorce.)

Clipping from The Oregon Daily Journal, 29 September 1910, Thursday, Page 1 , via ancestry.com: 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3343653/the_oregon_daily_journal/

Albertina Kerr, born July 13, 1890, died October 17, 1911 (aged 21),  namesake for the Albertina Kerr Centers in Portland, Oregon. 

Alexander and Albertina welcomed a son, John, in June of 1911, and traveled to the Oregon Coast and to Long Beach, California. But their happiness was short-lived. Albertina contracted typhoid fever and died in October of 1911 at age 21. She had been a strong advocate for needy children. On her deathbed, leaving behind an infant son, she asked her husband to “look after other motherless babies, too.” In her memory, Alexander donated their Portland, Oregon home for use as an orphanage. The facility soon reached capacity, and after he remarried, Alexander and his third wife Ruth raised money for a larger building named the Albertina Kerr Nursery. By 1967, foster care replaced the orphanage system, and today the Albertina Kerr Centers help people with developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs. A restaurant run by this organization is known for its cheesecake dessert served in a four-ounce Kerr canning jar.  Albertina’s portrait is displayed on the premises. 

Ruth Kerr became a major force in the Kerr company. The daughter of German immigrants, Ruth Bertha Elizabeth Kalbus was born in Bradley, Illinois on January 5, 1894. She grew up in a religious household, graduated from business school, and was hired as Alexander's secretary and bookkeeper in 1912. Alexander and Ruth were married a year later, on February 21, 1913. Together they had five children. (Several biographies state they had six children, but I suspect they are counting Albertina’s son John, raised by Ruth as her own. From what I’ve researched, it appears Alexander had a total of eight children: two with his first wife Amanda, one with Albertina, and five with Ruth.)   

Alexander H. Kerr died in 1927, and Tom Kerr, Alexander’s eldest son (from the first marriage) became president, with Alexander’s young widow Ruth as vice president. After Tom died in 1931, 36-year-old Ruth made history by becoming the youngest female president of a glass firm. It had been her intention to focus on her family and home, but as she said in an interview (linked below), when three key company executives died within a few years, it fell to her to take over. Ruth rose to the task and ran this business successfully as owner and CEO until her own death in 1967. The company continued as a leading manufacturer of home canning supplies (with an estimated 45 percent market share) until 1996, when it became part of the Altrista Corp. 

Today, Newell Brands Inc. (formerly Jarden Home Brands) owns the rights to  the Kerr home canning supply brand and produces and sells new glass mason jars embossed with the Kerr name and logo. They also create and distribute jars embossed with the Ball logo, another famous brand. (Ball was best known east of the Mississippi, with Kerr a bigger name in the West.) Ironically, the Kerr and Ball companies, once major competitors, now have their names living on through jars made in the same factory.

Kerr advertisement from 1949, with a coupon offering a free booklet on home canning plus 100 free jar labels. The address  is “526 Main St, Sand Springs, Okla.” (I’ve seen another ad with the address 788 Main Street, and others with Sand Springs post office boxes. Different addresses may have helped them track responses from ads in various publications, or perhaps orders were fulfilled at various locations. A history of Sand Springs gives the factory address as 354 Main Street.)

In this Kerr ad from 1949, I noticed Ruth uses her own name, “Mrs. Ruth Kerr,” rather than styling herself as “Mrs. William H. Kerr,” in the manner of most married women and widows of her day. Perhaps she was progressive about women using their given names, or maybe she just wanted their female customer base to know that the woman behind the business was named Ruth.   

Like her husband, Ruth was a devout Christian and a philanthropist. In 1937 she established the Bible Missionary Institute near downtown Los Angeles. It was renamed the Western Bible College in 1939, then Westmont College in 1940. By this time, it had taken shape as a four-year Christian liberal arts college, which it remains to this day. The college grew, and finding the right location for a larger campus took time. (The search may have had an extra layer of difficulty because from the beginning the school accepted students of all races, and some communities had trouble with that concept.)  Ruth Kerr and the trustees led Westmont to purchase a 125-acre estate in the Santa Barbara area, and move the college there in 1945. She is honored by the college as a beloved founder and benefactor. On Westmont’s website, there is a video about Ruth Kerr, with photos of her at different ages, and you can hear her speaking about her life and work.

http://westmontlegacy.org/?pageID=1005

 Ruth Kerr