Folgers

Folgers, one of the two dominant mass-market American coffees, originated in San Francisco in 1850, when fourteen-year-old James Folger arrived with his two older brothers. The Folger boys, from a long line of Nantucket whalers, sought their fortune in the California gold rush, but James, the youngest, went to work for Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills. By the age of twenty-four, Folger was a full partner. He survived bankruptcy in 1865, paid off all his debts, and thrived with J. A. Folger and Company. After Folger died in 1889, his son carried on. The salesman Frank Atha opened a Folger’s outlet in Texas, while the main plant supplied the West. In 1906 Folger’s was the only coffee roaster to remain standing through the San Francisco earthquake. During the Depression, Folger’s sponsored Judy and Jane, a daytime radio soap opera, and during World War II, James Folger III was appointed to the War Production Board. The war swelled California’s coffee-drinking population because many who had migrated to work in the war plants stayed, as did disembarking veterans.