Canning Factory at the turn of the 20th century. It no longer stands. It stood on the site where the Post Office is now located.
Recollections of Hester A. Neild:
“Another memory so clear is that of the sprawling old tomato cannery not far from Slaughter Creek. In the summer and fall, there was always a tangy smell in the air from the cooking tomatoes, and there were long lines of trucks and horse-drawn wagons loaded with tomatoes, waiting to be unloaded. They were unloaded for weighing, scalding, skinning, canning, labeling, and then the filled cans were loaded for hauling away on the Old Emma Giles steamboat, which came to the Island twice each week. Later, after the new “State Road” was built to the Island, hauling was by truck. From our house, we could hear the talking and singing of the Colored workers above the clatter and hissing of the machinery and the steam used for scalding. It was quite an adventure to walk through that busy hive of industry, and be warned “don’t come too near the hot furnace, or belts driving the machinery, or the conveyors carrying the buckets of tomatoes and cans”.
Recollections of Hester A. Neild:
“Another memory so clear is that of the sprawling old tomato cannery not far from Slaughter Creek. In the summer and fall, there was always a tangy smell in the air from the cooking tomatoes, and there were long lines of trucks and horse-drawn wagons loaded with tomatoes, waiting to be unloaded. They were unloaded for weighing, scalding, skinning, canning, labeling, and then the filled cans were loaded for hauling away on the Old Emma Giles steamboat, which came to the Island twice each week. Later, after the new “State Road” was built to the Island, hauling was by truck. From our house, we could hear the talking and singing of the Colored workers above the clatter and hissing of the machinery and the steam used for scalding. It was quite an adventure to walk through that busy hive of industry, and be warned “don’t come too near the hot furnace, or belts driving the machinery, or the conveyors carrying the buckets of tomatoes and cans”.
