Random Popular Food Brands That Have Been Around Way Longer Than We Thought (13 items)

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  (#6) Jell-O

  • Food

  Jell-O, as it's known today, is credited to Pearle Wait, a carpenter and self-taught apothecary of sorts from LeRoy, NY. Wait used gelatin to make raspberry, lemon, orange, and strawberry concoctions his wife, May, called Jell-O.

  Wait sold his product to fellow entrepreneur Orator Woodward in 1899, who handed off manufacturing responsibilities to Andrew Sam Nico. Jell-O slowly became successful, sold by the Genesee Pure Food Company in increasing quantities during the first years of the 1910s. 

  Consumers may have had four flavor options when it came to Jell-O, but there were still limited resources for heating and lighting one's home. After years of experimentation in the United States and Europe, inventors came out with a light bulb that could burn for several hours in 1879, but channeling electricity to the masses would take decades. In 1882, Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York helped light up areas of Manhattan, and, by 1925, about half of all American households had access to electricity.

   
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  (#8) 1932 - Amelia Earhart Could Have Enjoyed Frito Corn Chips After Her First Solo Nonstop Flight Across The Atlantic

  When Charles Elmer Doolin purchased what he needed to make corn chips from Gustavo Olguin in 1932, he opened up a market that would soon have nationwide appeal. Doolin began producing corn chips in San Antonio, TX, using factory methods comparable to those practiced by automobile manufacturers. First selling Fritos out of his car, Doolin's success caught the attention of Henry Lay, a potato chip manufacturer, during the mid-1940s.

  Lay, first employed by Atlanta-based Barrett Foods in 1932, acquired the company five years later. He grew his H.W. Lay & Company, with locations in Atlanta, Memphis, and Nashville, to dominate the snack market in the southeastern United States during the 1940s and 1950s. Lay first sold popcorn, potato chips, and other snack foods and, when he entered into a cooperative business arrangement with Doolin in 1945, began to sell corn chips as well. 

  The companies founded by Doolin and Lay merged to become Frito-Lay in 1961, nearly three decades after Amelia Earhart became the first female aviator to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Born in Kansas in 1897, Earhart moved around the Midwest with her family as a girl, later working at a Canadian military hospital during World War I. While there, she took an interest in aviation, entering into her first flying lesson under the guidance of female aviator Neta Snook in 1920. 

  By the late 1920s, Earhart was flying in air shows in the Boston area when pilot Hilton H. Railey asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?" Although she was in the passenger seat, Earhart became the first woman to make the flight from North America to the United Kingdom.

  In 1932, she piloted her own trip from Newfoundland to Ireland amid poor weather and mechanical difficulties, earning international acclaim.
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  (#11) Coca-Cola

  • Beverage

  Created by Atlanta-area pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton, Coca-Cola first touched consumers' lips in May 1886. Pemberton patented his "Coca-Cola Syrup and Extract" the following year, and in 1888 Asa Candler first undertook his efforts to acquire the formula and patent. By 1892, Candler was able to purchase the Coca-Cola Company in its entirety, incorporating it in the state of Georgia. 

  From 1892, Coca-Cola expanded in both business and brand under Candler's leadership. As syrup plants emerged nationwide, the distinct Coca-Cola flavor, script, and packaging proliferated around the United States. By the early 20th century, Coca-Cola was part of Americana, with advertisements for the drink greeting newly arrived immigrants from around the world. 

  The incorporation of Coca-Cola in 1892 coincided with the opening of Ellis Island. Located in the Upper New York Bay, Ellis Island became a central immigration processing center in the United States. In contrast to state-run immigration centers, Ellis Island was run by the federal government in order to centralize, streamline, and scrutinize individuals entering the country.

  Between 1892 and 1954, Ellis Island processed more than 12 million immigrants. Upon arrival, immigrants underwent medical examinations and legal inspections before being sent forth into the US.
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  (#3) Tabasco sauce

  • Food

  As a product of the McIlhenny Company, Tabasco traces its origins to 1868. Edmund McIlhenny created what would become Tabasco Original Red Pepper Sauce from his home state of Louisiana, using the same recipe that remains popular today.

  McIlhenny came up with a hot sauce that would add a kick to bland Southern food, incorporating seeds from a specific type of chili pepper - the capsicum frutescens. During the first year of production, McIlhenny sold just over 650 bottles of hot sauce, mostly to regional outlets along the Gulf Coast. He adopted the term "Tabasco," a Mexican Indian word that means either "place where the soil is humid" or "place of the coral or oyster shell." Two years later, McIlhenny got a patent for his Tabasco Sauce and soon expanded his product to markets across the US and abroad. 

  As McIlhenny set out on his business venture, the United States was similarly entering a new phase. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, former Confederate states slowly reentered the Union during the Reconstruction period. States were placed under martial law while they formed new governments. To rejoin the US, states had to meet several requirements, including acceptance of emancipation and ratification of the newly passed 14th and 15th Amendments. The latter extended citizenship protections and voting rights to African Americans.

  Tennessee was the first former Confederate state to reenter the Union, brought back in on June 24, 1866. During 1868, seven states - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia (later put back under federal control due to breaching the terms of reentry), Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina - all returned to the United States. 
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  (#7) Entenmann's

  • Brand/Company

  Founded in Brooklyn, NY, the first Entenmann's bakery was opened by William Entenmann in 1898. The German immigrant was born into baking, learning from his father before working in a bread factory in the United States. At his Brooklyn shop, Entenmann baked cakes, breads, and rolls, taking them to sell via horse-drawn wagon. 

  After his son became ill, the family moved to Bay Shore, Long Island, in 1900. William Jr. later took over for his father, helping the company thrive through the early 20th century. It wasn't until mid-century that Entenmann stopped making bread to focus on pastries instead. 

  While Entenmann was bringing baked goods to doorsteps in Brooklyn, the United States was in a conflict with Spain. When the US declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898, it was in support of Cuban and Filipino resistance to Spanish rule. At the time, Spain held Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and numerous Micronesian islands as part of its waning empire. Another contributing factor was the explosion of the USS Maine in February of 1898. With 268 sailors having lost their lives on board, the explosion triggered already existing tensions between the two countries, with Americans blaming Spain for the blast.

  After the formal declaration of war, the US undertook a three-month campaign in Latin America and the Pacific alike. Commodore George Dewey headed the naval fleet sent to Manila Bay in the Philippines, taking out its Spanish counterpart in about two hours. In the Caribbean, military troops and volunteers, including Theodore Roosevelt and the "Rough Riders," pushed the Spanish fleet out of Santiago Harbor, ultimately sending Admiral Pascual Cervera and his ships into the hands of the US Navy. 

  The conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed in December 1898, which ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the US. The US also became sovereign over the Philippines after paying Spain $20 million, and Spain gave up its claims on Cuba. 
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  (#2) Oscar Mayer

  • Brand/Company

  Oscar F. Mayer, an immigrant from Bavaria, came to the United States as a 14-year-old boy, settling in Detroit, MI, with his family. Mayer worked as a butcher from a young age, later relocating to Chicago, IL, where he transitioned to a role in retail. In 1883, Mayer and his brother, Gottfried, opened their Oscar F. Mayer & Bro. shop in Chicago, selling meat as a retail and wholesale commodity. 

  During the early 20th century, the Mayer brothers expanded, first purchasing a manufacturing plant in Madison, WI, and later branding their own meat products. The first yellow band was placed on Mayer meats in 1929. 

  Oscar Mayer wieners (the jingle didn't come out until 1963) were born the same year that Buffalo Bill's Wild West show kicked off in another section of the North American heartland. The show was founded in North Platte, NE, and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody launched what General William Tecumseh Sherman described as a "wonderfully realistic and historically reminiscent" show that brought the Wild West to life.

  The "Wild West, Rocky Mountain, and Prairie Exhibition" premiered on July 4, 1883. During its 30-year run, it featured its namesake, the former Pony Express rider and Indian scout, alongside cowgirl Annie Oakley, Native American warriors, fast-roping horseback riders, and a host of other acts. The show re-created the American West while simultaneously romanticizing it for audiences around the country. It garnered international attention, even traveling to London to perform for Queen Victoria in 1887.

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