If
Centralia had been searching for a trademark in its early
days, it would have undoubtedly selected the strawberry, for
it was most expressive of the city’s numerous products.
In the Aug. 6, 1910 Sentinel, Jabez Webster, an early
Centralia horticulturalist and nursery owner, lamented that
“today a few patches here and there take the places of the
fields of the olden days of strawberry prosperity. Most of
the grownups now living remember vividly, with lingering
pleasure, those strawberry seasons in which hundreds of
extra population from all points as they strung out in line
upon line in front of the pay window where strawberry
tickets were cashed. There was also the sight of a row of
wagons several blocks long, heaped high with boxes of large,
plump, red berries, awaiting their turn at the
refrigerator cars which were being rapidly iced in the
Illinois Central yards and which have at times made up a
whole train load, consigned to all points of the compass.”
In
looking over the local shipping data, Webster observed that
May 5 was the earliest date for ripened berries, and the 9th
was the earliest date for shipping. “From 1870 to 1892, he
continued, “Strawberry was king in Centralia.” Growing
strawberries was so popular that professional and
businessmen felt it necessary to have a patch in order to be
considered progressive. “Everyone who could lease or buy a
city lot went into business, and from fifteen to twenty-one
car loads of luscious berries were shipped each day for
Chicago every season. From 1870 to 1892 during strawberry
season, which lasted for twenty-eight to thirty days, from
40,000 to 85,000 cases of twenty-four quarts each were
shipped. At the time of the World’s Fair in Chicago,
strawberry production in Centralia had reached its zenith.
“On
account of so many places growing the berries in competition
with Centralia our system of cultivation and mulching with
hired labor was costing an average yield of $1.23 per case
to put berries on the market, and the bulk of the crop sold
for less that $1.50 per case. There was once a disposition
to cut the pay for picking to one and one-half cents per
quart (Michigan rate), but there was so much opposition that
the growers found it better to quit picking when the prices
got too low and let the balance of the crop rot. I have had
my ups and downs in strawberry growing. One year, I shipped
940 cases of twenty-four quarts each and had to quit when
the crop was a little over half picked. In the wind up, I
found the crop that year had netted expense by several
hundred dollars, but had I quit two days sooner, I’d have
made more. Strawberry growing has become a very risky
business except for those who have enough help in their
family to care for the crop.
“The
strawberry industry was a fine example of how one line will
develop another. When the crop was at its best, there was
often a scarcity of pickers, and while the careful grower
preferred to hire his neighbors who would work to suit him
and not destroy his plants, yet there were many times when
the growers had to take what he could get. In such times,
one would see colonies of tramps along the railroad, and
they got a hand there now and then―about all they
wanted. But, on the other hand there was a small army of
people who came from a distance of 50 miles or more to take
in the picking, and such people were worth having. They got
permission to put their tents in the vicinity of the patches
where they worked, and when the season was over, they went
away with the good feelings of the neighborhood with them.”
Mr.
Webster recalled the importance of. having large supplies of
small coins on hand to pay pickers. Often it was shipped to
Centralia from the mint. For the most part, berries were not
wasted. When it became unprofitable to pay pickers toward
the end of the season, owners often threw open their fields
for their neighbors and those less fortunate to clean them
out.
From time
to time, attempts were made to revive the strawberry
industry in the area, but it never regained the prominence
it had in the early years.