Antique 1930s Isaacs Can Label 🥫 Ellendale, DE, American Historic Success Story!

Who Packed Isaacs Brand Peas? 🫛 Isaacs Brand Sifted Early June Peas, John S. Isaacs, Ellendale, Delaware

Size: 11" x 4 1/2" ~ Little to no wear.

This little can label carries one of the great American success stories. It's an antique 1930s pea can label from John S. Isaacs of Ellendale, Delaware, never wrapped around a can. The man whose name is on it went from a sixth-grade education and a tenant farm to more than 8,100 acres and one of the biggest lima bean canneries in the world.

🔍 What's on it

A long wraparound label on cream with a yellow border. On the left, a panel of plump green pea pods and leaves under an ISAACS BRAND ribbon, with CONTENTS 1 LB. 4 OZ., SIFTED and EARLY JUNE PEAS. On the right, a lake in the mountains with evergreens, a tent on the shore and a sailboat on the water, with the brand and the peas named again and PACKED BY JOHN S. ISAACS, ELLENDALE, DEL. In the middle, PACKED BY JOHN S. ISAACS, GROWER AND PACKER OF HIGH GRADE CANNED FOODS, ELLENDALE, DELAWARE. A small 2988 is printed up the left margin. The back is plain, with the design showing faintly through.

🌱 From a tenant farm to 8,100 acres

John Sudler Isaacs was born on August 22, 1889, near Greenwood, Delaware, from a Sussex County family that goes back at least to the American Revolution. His father, John Ponder Isaacs, had sold his share of the family land in 1892 and bought a small farm around Greenwood. He went to school only through the sixth grade before working full time on the family farm, and then on a tenant farm. The family story goes that when he married Mary C. Lofland in 1908, the young couple had to borrow money just to buy a table and chairs to sit on. By 1914, with baby J. Howard and four-year-old Earle to feed, he was out to earn more: the family kept about a dozen dairy cows and sold the milk, and ran a small general store right on the farm.

For years the family grew tomatoes, sweet corn, peas and lima beans for the Draper cannery on a 50-50 split of the proceeds. He bought the 50-acre Wells farm in Slaughter Neck in 1928 and the 110-acre Simpson farm north of Milton in 1929. Then in 1935 his son Hobby suspected the Draper Canning Co. was underpaying the family for their crops, and once they checked it out, Isaacs decided to build his own cannery at the corner of Route 30 and Cedar Creek Road near Ellendale. It was ready to pack in September 1936, and he stuck to peas, lima beans and asparagus, staying away from tomatoes and their up-and-down market. That's when this label, with "Grower and Packer" on it, comes in. The Isaacs cannery grew into one of the largest producers of canned lima beans in the world.

During World War II the cannery sold straight to the military under its own label, with a big V on the front and a special emblem on the back designed by Walt Disney. In 1942 Isaacs bought a controlling 51 percent of the Eagle Poultry Company, paying for it by selling an unfinished plant in Georgetown to Swift, and by then he was a millionaire. He was one of Delaware's first real "agribusinessmen," using new machines and methods in farming, timbering and food processing, and he ended up with more than 8,100 acres. He died on July 29, 1950. The family's Isaacs & Sons businesses were wound up in 1962, still solvent and doing well.

The State of Delaware put up a historical marker for him in 2016 at Cedar Creek Road and Isaacs Road in Ellendale. The chimney of the old bean cannery still stands there, and so does the cannery's garage across the street.

🏡 Display

Imagine hanging this antique advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! That long label looks great framed in a kitchen, and it's a perfect gift for anybody from Ellendale, Milton or Sussex County, or anybody named Isaacs.

Old labels like this are a reminder of a bygone era, and the lithography on them is unparalleled even to this day, in my opinion. Museums have galleries of them, and more and more collectors are seeking them out to preserve their history. They aren't making any more vintage labels, obviously, so once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries, they will be very difficult to acquire.