Mt. Pleasant Girls and Northern Utah Canneries ~ Mina Simpson Bjelke

Canning in the 1930's (compliments of http://www.media.utah.ed/.)

The 20th century produced dramatic changes and opportunities for women. The events leading up to statehood brought to an official end at least the practice of polygamy, and the state constitution restored women's right to vote and guaranteed other equal rights. Laws passed in 1911 and 1913 set maximum hours and minimum wages for working women. Technology dramatically altered women's lives, especially in urban areas. Electric service, indoor plumbing, central heating, and the small power motor revolutionized homemaking. The growth of commercial laundries and expanding factory production of clothing, processed foods, and other household items relieved women of many tasks and created hundreds of jobs for them outside the home. Manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, banking, and services grew rapidly in the early 20th century. The success of many of these ventures depended on women. (taken from Utah History To Go ~~~ Miriam B. Murphy History Blazer, November 1995 During these years Ogden, for example, became a center for the canning industry, and by 1914 Utah ranked fifth among the states in canning. World War I stimulated growth of this industry as 22 Ogden canneries secured government contracts. This industry relied on female workers; many were young and unmarried, but the seasonal nature of canning also attracted married women. The Utah Manufacturers Association (UMA) called canning "light work that could be done as well by women and children as by men." Tomatoes topped the list of canned items. Jets of hot steam followed by a cold spray loosened the skins, enabling women and girls to peel 14 to 16 bushels a day.


Young Women From Mt. Pleasant Participated In the Canning Industry


"I had the opportunity to take Mary and go to Clearfield to work in the cannery.  I left Wilma with Aunt Emma.  We made quite good wages, enough to pay the tuition and buy the books and get Mary the much needed clothes that high school required.  There was money left to pay the taxes and buy a few tons of coal.......I didn't buy myself any clothes, although it was a great temptation when I would go to Ogden to work with the girls while they did their shopping.  I was well-schooled that money can go only so far and this 'canning season' only lasted two or three months of each year.  I was happy when we were ready to go home from Clearfield.  The manager of the Woods Cross Canning Company came to me and thanked me for the interest I had taken in the girls and he asked me to come back the next year as campus matron.  I gladly accepted this position.  It meant a bigger check and nicer work.  The management liked me and the way I handled the girls.  They also told me to bring Don and that they would give him employment.  This helped make it possible for Don to go to high school when the canning season was over."


"The next year I got enough girls for both the Clearfield and Layton factories.  A man from the office came and took us on the train.  Printed rules were tacked in all  theapartments, but oh, how these rules had been bent and broken in the past. So I decided we  would live by the rules or take the consequences.  A week later when  I was making my final round of the apartments for the night, I discovered two of my girls were missing.  They had gone out through a back window.  I got in contact with the Ogden police.  They soon spotted them at the White City dance hall in Ogden.  They got back by midnight.  I was waiting for them, and when I told them to pack their clothes as I was taking them home on the5:00 o'clock train, they wept and pleaded.  But I tolt them thy were  only two out of almost one hundred girls there, and I intended to have discipline, and that no girl was going to be harmed while under my care if I would help it.  We reached Mount Pleasant at 1:00 o'clock p.m..  I phoned their mothers from the depot.  The train that took me back was due in twenty minutes.  How lucky I was because there stood Wilma.  She was staying with Aunt Emma who lived just a block away.  She had run to the depot when  the train whistled to see who got off the train.  I made the most of that twenty minutes.  I gathered my baby girl in my armsand wept because I had to leave her again.  It was a long trip back.  I reached Clearfield at midnight.  I didn't have any more girls try that trick for a number of years.  It had a good effect on all the girls."


"Discipline was fine and they accomplished so much work in a short time.  Often when I walked down to the plant I would hear the girls singing in harmony the songs of that day.  'The Utah Trail' and 'Springtime in the Rockies'.  The sweet harmony of so many voices almost drowned the grinding and clanging of the machinery noises.  It seemed they could work better and faster when they sang.  The community thought as much as I did of my singing Sanpete girls.  Some of them are grandmothers now.  But when I meet them they never fail to speak of the good times we had and how grateful they were that I had guarded them so closely when they were in my care.  I will never forget one year when I took a large group of girls to Clearfield.  The company sent me $250 to buy the railroad fares for the girls.  We were to leave the same day as Colonel Lindberg was to be in Salt Lake.  When I went to buy the tickets, out station agent suggested that I buy a construction ticket to Clearfield; this would entitle us to a special train from Salt Lake to Clearfield and save the girls walking to the Bamberger and waiting there, and also save on expenses for the canning company.  So that was what I did.  We were all delighted.  When we reached Salt Lake a man boarded the train to tell Mrs. Bjelke that her special train was all made up and waiting in Salt Lake.  When we arrived in Salt Lake there was no special train there for us.  The girls stayed in a group while I went in to the station master's office.  I  asked when my train would be ready.  Well, he was as confused as the other railroad men."


"It seems the president of the canning company, a Mr. Stringham, had just arrived with ten girls he was bringing from Heber.  When he learned the waiting special was for the canning company girls, he and the ten girls boarded the train and the special pulled out.  He thought the railroad company was very nice to furnish him a special train."


"Well there I was with about eighty girls waiting at the depot.  The girls were disgusted.  The city officials learned of the predicament and sent five plainclothes men to the depot to help me take care of the girls.  When they handed me their cards, I thanked them and said I really didn't need any help.  Then the hotel managers started to come, telling how many girls they could take.  I told them that we were going to stay in the depot until a train took us and our luggage to our destination.  Then the railroad president from Denver called me on the phone and told me to take my girls to the best hotels at their expense.  I told him no, that the girls were staying with me.  So another special train was made up at 12:00 o'clock midnight and oh, were those railroad men grumpy.  They didn't want to take any of our bedding.  I said, "Oh yes, they would take our bedding.  Getting to our apartments wouldn't help if we couldn't get some sleep."  So they took it along.  We reached the apartments about 1:30 a.m..  the police in Salt Lake said I must be a superwoman to take care of so many girls.  I told them that Iguess I wasn't so super, but the girls were a super variety.  They wanted the jobs so they could go to high school, and some of the older ones wanted to earn college money.  They were grateful to me that I made it possible for them to work and earn this money.  They looked at us with admiration."


"The many years (eight) I worked as matron for the Woods Cross Company were very pleasant and profitable for all of us."


"I took a large group of girls to Provo bench to pick strawberries three different years.  The girls didn't stand the heat too well and living conditions weren't very good, so we didn't go back" 


The above is taken from the book: "Utah Pioneers of the Second Generation by James William Pyper" pages 20-23.

Mina Simpson Bjelke in her later years.