Antique 1920s Wayne Brand Cut Refugee Beans Can Label 🫘 General Anthony Wayne, Edgett-Burnham Company, Newark NY, Gold Embossed

🫘 Wayne Brand Cut Refugee Beans, Packed by the Edgett-Burnham Company of Newark, New York

A general in a cocked hat looks out from a gold frame on this can label, under the words ESTABLISHED 1863. He is Anthony Wayne, the Revolutionary War commander Wayne County, New York is named for, and the Newark cannery that packed these beans made his portrait the registered trademark of its WAYNE BRAND. On the other end of the label a decorated dish is heaped with cut green beans, above CUT REFUGEE BEANS and PACKED BY EDGETT-BURNHAM COMPANY, NEWARK, NEW YORK.

It is printed in cream, green and red on deep navy with a gilt border and gilt frames, and it is embossed: turn it over and the general's profile and the bowl of beans are pressed through the paper in relief. It is a flat label that never went around a can. The photographs show one example; every label is the same printing.

📜 What the Label Says

• Brand: WAYNE BRAND, "Trade Mark Registered in U.S. Patent Office"
• Product: Cut Refugee Beans, Fancy Quality, contents 1 lb. 3 oz.
• Packer: Edgett-Burnham Company, Newark, New York, "Established 1863" (printed twice)
• Portrait: General Anthony Wayne in a cocked hat with a cockade, marked "Trade Mark Reg. in U.S. Pat. Office"
• Size: 11 x 4 1/4 inches
• Era: 1920s; the firm took the Edgett-Burnham Company name in 1908

🏭 A Cannery on the Erie Canal

The business began in 1863 as the Wayne County Preserving Company, started by Ezra Edgett of Camden, New York, with an earlier partnership, Edgett & Totten, among its predecessors. It settled on the west side of the village of Newark, on the Erie Canal and later the enlarged Barge Canal, with the West Shore Railroad running alongside, so its cases could leave by water or by rail. The company is said to have canned turkey and geese for Union troops during the Civil War.

After Ezra Edgett's death, attorney Edwin K. Burnham joined the firm in 1889, and in 1908 it was incorporated as the Edgett-Burnham Company. It packed under a family of names, Faultless, Wayne, Winsom, West Shore, Burnham and Newark, and later canned corn, peas, beans and beets on contract. Perfection Foods bought the company and ran the plant until 1973, and the old cannery ground became Cannery Row Plaza.

The company's own papers survive. Cornell University's library holds 80 cubic feet of Edgett-Burnham records dated 1854 to 1930, among them daily reports from the packing and canning departments, farm and corn accounts, and photographs of the people who worked there.

⚔️ Why a General Is Selling Beans

Wayne County, New York was formed on April 11, 1823 and named for General Anthony Wayne, so a Wayne County cannery calling its line WAYNE BRAND and putting the general on the can was hometown pride and patriotism in one picture. Wayne was born near Paoli, Pennsylvania on January 1, 1745, became a brigadier general in 1777, and fought at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Stony Point. In 1794 he won the Battle of Fallen Timbers, which led to the removal of Native American claims to Ohio. He died at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1796.

His nickname has a legend of its own. The story goes that in the winter of 1781, with his Pennsylvania division in quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, an eccentric soldier called Jemmy the Drover, or "the Commodore", landed in trouble, and Wayne would not spare him a flogging. "Anthony is mad!" the man is supposed to have shouted, and Wayne's Pennsylvanians decided the name fit. Historians tracing the tale back through print have found its earliest version in 1829, in a Philadelphia magazine called The Casket.

🌱 The Refugee Bean

Refugee is an old green snap bean, named for the French Huguenots who brought it into general cultivation. American seedsmen were selling it by 1822, and it stayed one of the most widely grown green-podded beans well into the twentieth century, which is why "Cut Refugee Beans" needed no explaining to a grocery shopper.

⚖️ One Pound, Three Ounces

The CONTENTS 1 LB. 3 OZ. line is the kind of statement the Gould Net Weight Amendment made law. Signed by President William Howard Taft on March 3, 1913, it required food packages to be plainly marked with their weight, measure or count, after federal inspectors found short-weighted and under-filled packages on a large scale.

🎁 Good For

• Framing for a kitchen, pantry or farmhouse wall
• Can label and grocery advertising collections
• Wayne County, Newark and Erie Canal history
• Anyone with a Revolutionary War or Anthony Wayne connection

❓ Questions People Ask

Who is the man on the label?
General Anthony Wayne, namesake of Wayne County, New York. The cannery registered his portrait as the trademark of its Wayne Brand.

Is it embossed?
Yes. The portrait and the bowl of beans are raised, and both show in relief on the back of the label.

How big is it?
11 x 4 1/4 inches.

Was it ever on a can?
No. It is a flat label that was never applied.