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The Westerly Historical Society OTTO SEIDNER: A Profile by Thomas A. O’Connell
We Preserve Memories of the Past |
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Originally published in the Westerly Historical Society Newsletter, December 2008 and February 2009
Part 1: Otto Seidner, a Westerly businessman, was an active figure in the town’s commercial life for over half a century, He was an entrepreneur, a manufacturer, a philanthropist, and somewhat ahead of his time, an environmentalist.
One could begin this story by talking about his famous mayonnaise and other delicatessen products made at his Friendship Street plant. However, he should also be regarded as an early environmentalist. His concern was for air purity in Westerly’s North End. He particularly focused his attention on the space between his food processing plant and an impending coal yard to be constructed a few feet away on the other side of the street.
Here’s the situation: In the early 1940’s the Ralston Purina Company announced that it would build and operate a coal yard in Westerly. Train loads of coal would arrive. The coal would be unloaded and stored close to the Seidner Mayonnaise Company. Otto Seidner quickly realized the inherent danger to the area becoming polluted with coal dust and malodorous bituminous fumes. He reasoned that the fine particles of coal dust would easily invade the walls and windows of his plant, tainting and spoiling his products. His resolution was to take Ralston Purina to District Court. He sought an injunction which would prevent that company from building the coal yard. Seidner, Inc. v. Ralston Purina Co., 1942, 67 R.I. 436, 24 A. 2d 902 was to become a celebrated case in the field of land use law.
The elements of the narrative of the Seidner trial which were later recounted in a 1960 case (Commerce Oil Refining Corp., v. William W. Miner Et Al.) are offered here by way of explanation of the situation Seidner found himself in.
The plaintiff, Otto Seidner, Inc., at the time of the suit and for many years before had operated a mayonnaise factory in a predominantly industrial section of the town of Westerly, Rhode Island. The defendant, as the lessee of adjoining land, proposed to construct a coal yard into which coal would be dumped from railroad cars standing on a siding. The plaintiff’s bill in equity sought to enjoin the construction of the coal yard on the ground that coal dust would necessarily be carried by the wind into the mayonnaise factory contaminating its product and thereby preventing it from carrying on its business to its irreparable injury. It was not disputed that the proposed location of the coal bins was only 75 feet from the nearest corner of the plaintiff’s building and certainly there can be not doubt that coal dust in mayonnaise would, to say the least, adversely affect its saleability [sic].
At the trial an expert witness with many years’ experience in the coal business, called by the plaintiff, testified that he did not see how coal dust could possibly be prevented under certain conditions of wind from getting into the plaintiff’s factory even with the precaution in the way of canvas covers during the unloading process which the defendant proposed to take. An expert called by the defendant testified that although there would be dust from the defendant’s yard there would be no appreciable in view of the covers the defendant proposed to use and that in any event unless there was a high wind the dust could not travel over 100 feet.
On the basis of this testimony the trial court granted the injunction prayed for…
Nevertheless, in spite of those findings the Supreme Court of Rhode Island reversed…saying
“We have carefully considered the relevant evidence in this cause, being almost entirely opinion evidence, on the question whether substantial damage to the complainant will be practically certain to result from the operation by the respondent of its proposed business, in the place and in the manner in which the respondent intends to operate it; and we are of the opinion that it has not been proved by clear and convincing evidence that such damage will be practically certain to result.”
Considering the time in which Seidner brought suit – the result was almost inevitably not to fall in his favor. In today’s “green” thinking posture, Seidner might have joined forces with the Environmental Protection Agency to fight the Ralston Purina Company. But, then again, ponder that thirty years later Otto Seidner was still in business.
A glance at this man’s background will shed some light on his character and motivation to succeed in the difficult years of the early and mid 20th Century.
Otto Seidner, the son of Jacob and Emma Seidner, was born at home on Gold Street, Stonington, Connecticut on Wednesday, July 18, 1894. The elder Seidner, an immigrant from Austria Hungary, had earlier settled in Philadelphia. He worked there as a tailor, and met, and married a landsman, Emma Beck. Around 1888 the couple moved to Stonington. “There they began operating a clothing store with a tiny adjoining delicatessen on Water Street,” under the name, Jacob Seidner and Son.
After Jacob’s passing during World War I, Otto assumed the distribution of the mayonnaise portion of the family’s business. He would deliver his products on a route which stretched between Mystic and Westerly driving a horse and wagon. Within a few years he was able to open delicatessens in Mystic and in Westerly’s Welch Building at 43 Broad Street. (Providence Journal-Bulletin January 16, 1972) People so loved his wares that business boomed. Soon the time came when Otto needed to find larger manufacturing quarters than those he used at the Mystic location.
In December, 1921, Charles P. Eccleston, President of the Westerly Industrial Improvement Company, announced that plans had been drawn up and agreements signed with Otto Seidner “for the location of a building on Railroad Drive [Friendship Street].” Just the previous week Seidner had sent a letter to Clifford W. Campbell, Chairman of the Industrial and Manufacturing Committee of the [Westerly] Board of Trade, apprising that group that he had outgrown his Mystic manufacturing space. He wondered if Westerly had room for his burgeoning business.
Seidner was told that there was indeed land to suit his needs just northeast of the grain business on Railroad Drive. There was also a railroad siding nearby to handle his shipping requirements.
Seidner’s Mayonnaise Company set to work immediately building a 40’ x 80’ brick building, which it filled with the most modern, sanitary manufacturing and bottling machinery. (Westerly Sun December 12, 1921) That building would undergo four additions over time. Today, eighty-seven years later, the building still stands opposite Agway, Inc. on Friendship Street. Presently, Architectural Woodworking and the Kitchen Emporium occupy the building,
The Westerly and Pawcatuck City Directory, 1928-1929 indicates that Seidner also ran a potato chip factory at 101 Canal Street.
Overtime the Seidner food line in addition to the core product, Seidner’s Mayonnaise, spread out to include Seidner’s Russian Dressing, Seidner’s Horseradish, Seidner’s Marshmallow Spread, and Seidner’s Potato Salad. Occasionally Seidner enhanced his products’ visibility through the issuance of pocket-sized booklets, i.e.: Salads by Seidner (ca. 1936), Salads, Sandwiches and Seidner’s (1926) and a Bridge Score Pad.
Message in a Bottle
Another advertising ploy Seidner devised was to use the Atlantic Ocean to carry his message. Steering his yacht, Muriel II, (his daughter’s name) to a point somewhere southeast of Block Island on July 30, 1933, he cast into the sea12 eight ounce bottles bearing this message. If the finder will return this slip to Otto Seidner, Inc., Westerly, R.I., with a note telling where and when it was found, he will receive a box of Seidner food products.
As fate would have it, almost a year later the company received this letter: Otto Seidner, Inc. Westerly, R.I. Gentlemen: This slip was found by myself on June 12, 1934 at Ouvidodo Caixeira in the port of Fasa Grande, Islands of Flores, Azores s/Francisco Furtado Luis
Mr. Luis received his box of Seidner comestibles soon thereafter. (Westerly Sun July 19, 1934)
The famed Antarctic explorer, Commander Richard E. Byrd, carried 170 gallons of Seidner’s Mayonnaise on his Antarctic Expedition II. G.O. Shirey, M.D., the expedition’s Medical Officer wrote; “ We chose Seidner’s Mayonnaise in preference to many [15] other advertised brands, because of its exceptional flavor and extremely high egg content, the latter feature making it a rich and nourishing food in one of the best forms. You are to be congratulated upon a product as fine as this.” (Salads by Seidner)
When Commander Byrd’s crew constructed a weather station at the South Pole, the explorer sent Seidner “a small piece of metal insulation…bearing” his autograph and a “letter declaring the commemoration the anniversary of Commander Byrd’s Expedition.” (Westerly Sun June 4, 1936) |
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