Candy Corn

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   "Candy corn" is not mentioned at all in that great American classic, John
F. Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK (1999).
  "Candy corn" is available all over this Halloween season, as usual.  There
are 47,000 Google hits.  There's no mystery about "candy corn."  ProQuest and
Ancestry don't add anything to what you can get off Google.


(GOOGLE)
http://www.hauntedbay.com/history/candycorn.shtml
For those of us over the age of 25, when you think of Halloween candy
you think of candy corn, those sugary little spikes of Halloween cheer.
  They've been around for as long as I remember and even as long as my
 grandparents remember but did you know that they were invented in the
 1880's? Who the first person to make these tasty treats was is unknown
  but the Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia was the first to go into
    commercial production. However, the company most closely associated with
       this wonderful confection is the Goelitz Confectionery Company.
Founder         Gustav Goelitz, a German immigrant, began commercial production of
the         treat in 1898 in Cincinnati and is today the oldest manufacturer of
the         Halloween icon.


(GOOGLE)
http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/goelitz.html
The Goelitz Family: Candy Corn & Jelly Belly

The Early Years

          Shortly after the Civil War, two young brothers came to America
from their                              family home in the Harz Mountain region
of Germany. There were thousands like them, part of the huge wave of European
immigration that began in the 1830s and would well into the 20th century.

                             Gustav Goelitz and his younger brother Albert
traveled to Illinois to join an uncle who had emigrated in 1834. Within two
years, Gustav, 24 and Albert,                      21 opened a candy making
business in a Belleville, Illinois storefront. Gustav made the candy and handled
store operations. Albert sold the candy to the surrounding, towns
             and villages from a horsedrawn wagon. The business did well,
they raised families and opened additional plants. In time, Gustav's sons worked
in the business learning the trade.

    But economic upheaval intervened when the Panic of 1893,
one of the worst depressions in American history, plagued the country for the
next four years. Paper money was double the value of the gold backing it.
Widespread unemployment, falling                  prices and labor unrest
affected the Goelitz Brothers Candy Co. as it did thousands of businesses. Gustav and
Albert were forced to assign assets to creditors and sell the business.
Albert                  stayed on the road selling candy for another company until
his death at the age of 80. Gustav never recovered. He died in 1901, a week
short of his 56th birthday.

                 That was only the beginning. In 1898, Gustav's sons
continued the family tradition and established the candy making company we honor and
celebrate today. For the following                  generations of the Goelitz
family and their partners and in-laws, the Kelleys, making the highest quality
candy is a tradition

The Second Generation: Candy Corn Fame

                      The two eldest sons of Gustav had worked in their
father's candy business,                  then set out on their own. Adolph opened
a Cincinnati based candy company with the help of his friend and neighbor
William Kelley. Soon his brothers, Gus Jr. and Herman, would join him there. In
1901 they hired  Will Kelley's cousin, Edward Kelley, as a bookkeeper. Ed fell
in love with one of the Goelitz sisters, Joanna, and married her, formally
joining the Goelitz and Kelley clans into a family partnership. These family
members    would build the company beyond the wildest dreams of the previous
generation.

The turn of the last century was a good time for the candy business. Over a
thousand candy                  manufacturers in the country employed an
estimated 27,000 workers. Goelitz Confectionery Co. was one which prospered. By
1912, the company was turning away orders for lack of production capacity.


                                A factory town along the north shores of Lake
Michigan offering rail service and                  affordable land was
selected for a new plant. The move to North Chicago was a good one. When the income
tax was introduced in 1913, it forced many mom-and-pop candy makers to keep
business. Many failed, but Goelitz was                  already firmly
established. Butter creams, later known as mellocremes, were the primary products of
the company. While licorice, chocolates and peppermints were also
   available, butter creams kept the business growing for the next five
decades. The single best seller? Candy Corn.

According to tradition, candy corn was invented in the 1880s. Company records
show Goelitz    making candy corn by 1900.

They turned it into a runaway success, and became known for the finest candy
corn on the market.