Michigan has had a stable agricultural economy for over a century. In more recent years, it has accounted for about 22% of the state’s employment and grossed $101.2 billion annually according to the Department of Agriculture & Rural Agriculture. These impressive numbers did not come over night. Many industries had to be involved and succeed in order to make Michigan into the agricultural state it is today.
The packaging industry played a very important role in making Michigan agriculturally profitable. Many companies in northern Berrien County can be directly credited in making fruit markets such as the Benton Harbor Fruit Market so successful. Two of these companies were St. Joseph Iron Works and Saranac Machine Company. Their ideal location in Berrien County made these businesses become very profitable in manufacturing machinery to produce crates and baskets for the fruit belt.
St. Joseph Iron Works was founded as “Coleman & Anderson,” a small boat, wagon, and farming equipment repair shop, located on the southeast corner of State and Water Streets in St. Joseph, Michigan. It was not until 1883, when Edward N. Hatch bought into the company, that the organization transitioned from repairing equipment to manufacturing its own. By 1894, St. Joe Iron Works manufactured manhole covers, household hardware, and door locks.
Conscious of the growing produce industry, St. Joe began fabricating mechanical machinery designed to create baskets for the transport and sale of fruits and vegetables. By 1911, St. Joe Iron Works printed a catalog referencing the 41 different machines it manufactured. One of these machines was the veneer lathe, in which there were 14 sizes, the largest weighing 28,000 pounds and having the capability to spin a log five feet in diameter.
Saranac Machine Company, under Edward Craig and W.H. Ray in 1901, also noticed the increase in demand for mechanical machinery early on. They stepped away from their original aim to manufacture dental engines and motors and entered into the high class stapling machinery industry.
By 1910, Saranac Machine Company outgrew its facility and moved its factory to Benton Harbor, Michigan. Modern equipment was installed and, with the aid of an efficient executive force, the Saranac Machine Company developed one of the best regulated machine shops and designing department of its kind in the country.
Both St. Joe Iron Works and Saranac Machine Company became the training grounds for thousands of mechanics, machinists, and assemblers in Southwest Michigan. They continued manufacturing stapling machines until the 1940s when corrugated cardboard and plastics became the cheaper and easier method of shipping fruit and produce.
Some St. Joe and Saranac machines are still running to this day but typically have been heavily modified to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. The last company to produce veneer containers in Berrien County was Monte Package Company of Riverside. Monte transitioned their production from veneer basket to plastics and corrugates to meet today’s standards of packaging. They donated their twenty-two remaining St. Joe and Saranac machines to the North Berrien Historical Museum in 2014. This permanent display can now be viewed as the Southwest Michigan Crate, Basket & Veneer Machinery Collection at the North Berrien Historical Museum.