1940's Historical Spice Tin-Martha Ann Fruitcake, USA

I KNOW MOST PEOPLE IN THE USA HAVE HEARD OF MARTHA ANN'S FAMOUS FRUITCAKE...BUT HAVEN'T HEARD OF THIS!
Grace A. Rush baked fruitcakes in her home in Cincinnati as gifts. About 1916, her sister gave a shopkeeper in New York City a sample. The shopkeeper ordered some cakes, and the business was begun. The company expanded its product line to include dates, ginger, sauces, puddings, nuts and other delicacies, which were sold in fashionable stores including Pogue's in Cincinnati and Bloomingdale's in New York. In 1937 the company built a factory on Madison Road in Hyde Park, Cincinnati. Here is her story.....
The Martha Ann fruitcakes made in Hyde Park and then Oakley by Martha Rush were not made with these low-grade ingredients. Her 200 year old English recipe called for ten varieties of fruits and five nuts, and was boozed up and aged several times with six year old, bonded brandy and sherry. Martha Stewart, look out! And, they were not just any fruits and nuts. The dates came from Iran and Iraq, the sultanas (golden raisins) and orange and grapefruit peels from Greece, the citron from Portugal. Add cherry, currants, figs, pineapple, and candied ginger. The filberts (hazelnuts) came from Turkey, the almonds from Spain. Add walnuts, pecans and hazelnuts. Oh yeah, and fresh creamery butter and eggs from Clermont County farms. The result was a dense, rich, flavorful fruitcake that was distributed widely in the U.S., and sold locally at Pogue’s Department Store.
Grace Rush was a typical Hyde Park housewife. She prided herself in her cooking. But before the Christmas season she made and aged fruitcakes out of her 3574 Burch Avenue house (more like mansion) for family and friends from St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Eire Avenue, where they were members. She was known for these delicious fruitcakes, from a 200 year old recipe she swiped from her next door neighbor on Burch, Emma Blanton.
A fortuitous situation occurred in 1917, during World War I, when Grace’s sister, a New Yorker, was shopping in Manhattan at Hicks & Sons Confectionery. She said her sister made a much better fruitcake than the ones they had on display. The owner told her to put her money where her mouth was. A small sample was sent, an order was placed, and Grace was in business. Grace’s husband, Wilfred Rush (1877-1957) , quit his job to oversee sales and distributing of the product, and they named the line of products after their daughter, Martha Ann.
The 3574 Burch Avenue home of Grace and Wilfred Rush, where Martha Ann fruitcakes got their start. It was later known as Ivy Manor by neighbors because most of the house was covered in English ivy.
The Enquirer told a story in 1955, recalled by Grace in the early days, during World War I. When she mixed the batter by hand, her wedding ring slipped off into the batter. She didn’t discover it missing until after the cakes had been shipped to soldiers in Europe. Several months later she received her ring, ,and a letter from a soldier, with a marriage proposal. The soldier said, “If this is not your ring, and you’d like another one, you can bake these cakes for me for the rest of my life, as my wife.” Grace, flattered, quickly declined, but sent the soldier another cake in gratitude, this time without a ring.
In the height of the Depression, in 1937, Grace Rush saw it necessary to expand her fruitcake business out of her Burch Avenue kitchen and build the Grace A. Rush Bakery building at 3715 Madison Avenue, that would bake and make her specialty cakes, cookies and candied fruits into the 1980s. In 1992 the fruitcake factory would be converted into the Duck Creek Antique Mall.
In 1922, Rush Fine Foods introduced the Christmas gift package, a marketing idea that became popular with mail order and other specialty food products companies. Theirs included a fruitcake, stuffed dates, candied citrus peels, maple nuts, and glaces fruits.
She handed the business over to her son Warren Rush, until his very public society divorce, and then her other son John (1904-1981) , took over the business, overseeing its sale in 1974 to the Millelacs Company of Madison, Wisconsin. By the time of the sale, they had two types of fruitcakes – the original dark Old English style, and a light rum boozed one. They also made crème de menthe and rum cookies, Kentucky bourbon pecan cake, rum pecan cake, brandy pecan cake, and holiday pudding in brandy. All that booze in one place!
The company lasted into the late 1980's, and then closed, ending Cincinnati’s locally made fruitcake legacy.
This tin was made by Tindeco in USA (1914-1965) but only made tins for Grace Rush from 1940-1965,
hear is a bit about them:
Tindeco began by just making tins for the American Tobacco Company in the 1920's.
By 1922 the product line had been expanded to include a variety of kitchen objects, plus items from several famous illustrators. Harrison Fisher’s signed artwork was used on fruitcake tins, while Harrison Cady did a series of Peter Rabbit children’s tins. Tindeco tins also included the famous Rolly Pollys and other gorgeous tins, which were often embossed and printed in seven or eight different colors.
Tindeco was sold to the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1935. The introduction of the metal beer can convinced the glass company management to buy two tin manufacturers to protect itself. Now known as the Owens-Illinois Can Company,plant #31, the factory continued to produce tins using fine lithography. In October 1944 Owens-Illinois sold the former Tindeco to the Continental Can Company of New York. Continental made Bayer Aspirin tins, Sucret boxes, Anacin and Excedrin tins, Sterno cans,beer trays and tobacco cans. During World War II a lot of work was done for the US Army,including olive drab oil cans, little ointment cans for burns, and machine gun clips.Continental closed the plant on July 9, 1965. Tins were now old fashioned; plastic was the modern way to package consumer products followed by cardboard boxes of today!
Some scratches and rust patina but colors and coat of arms emblem is great.
Measures 4.5" X 2.5" X 1"
(stand in photo not included)

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