Images(2)

Candy Kettle

PeriodCirca 1875 - 1900

Place MadeU.S.A.

MediumCopper

Dimensions9.25 × 28 × 22.5 in. (23.5 × 71.1 × 57.2 cm)

ClassificationsOccupational Equipment

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Foster in Memory of Reginald G. Foster, 2023

Object number2023.8

DescriptionLarge heavy gauge copper candy kettle, with rounded body and thick rounded lip rim. The kettle is fitted with two steel bracket handles riveted to the kettle just below the lip rim.
Curatorial RemarksCopper kettles such as this round-bottomed vessel were familiar pieces of equipment in 19th century candymaking shops and factories. Sugar, the main ingredient of most candy, scorches very easily. The shape of this pot distributed heat evenly, preventing hot spots and burning. In addition, the copper is non-reactive and so did not leave an unpleasant taste in the final candy product. Although it would have been a relatively expensive piece of candymaking equipment when Sylvanus Heckman started his new business venture on Throckmorton Street, once purchased the copper vessel lasted for decades.NotesThis kettle came from the Freehold Candy Factory on Throckmorton Street in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Owner and operator Sylvanus Carl Ludwig Heckman was born in 1821 in Hesse, Germany. Heckman originally trained as a cabinetmaker. After emigrating to the United States in 1844, he settled in Brooklyn. During the Civil War, Heckman lived and worked in Wisconsin, then in Missouri, returning to Brooklyn after the war for a few years. Heckman married Catherine Rebecca Calenberg, and the couple had six children: Leah (born 1855), Titus (born 1856), Mary (born 1860), Gustave (born 1864), Emilia (born 1865), and Annie (born 1872). Sometime after 1869, the Heckman family relocated to Freehold, where Sylvanus turned to candymaking instead of cabinetmaking. He opened a wholesale candymaking factory on Throckmorton Street. The firm apparently did wellHeckman made and sold a variety of candies both retail and wholesale, and apparently also maintained a wagon route for the business which he later sold to his son Titus in the spring of 1882. An advertisement in the 12 May 1881 issue of the Monmouth Democrat noted that "S. Heckman, the Freehold Confectioner" also ran an ice cream parlor and sold toys, dolls, cigars, "ice cold soda water" and much else at the establishment on the corner of Main and Throckmorton Streets.The factory suffered minor damage when a fire broke out in June of 1880. A newspaper article in May of 1881 noted that "Mr. Heckman has established a successful business here, and has a reputation for making good candy and ice cream." The Heckman sons worked in the famiily business, operating the firm after their father's retirement and later death until 1910, when William Heckman sold the firm to Fred Jennings. William had also operated another candy store, this one in Englishtown. Sylvanus Heckman died at the age of 74 on November 25, 1895. His obituary noted that he had caught a cold around the time of a second fire that broke out in the factory in January 1894, and "was never well again." That fire was much more serious than the first, causing extensive damage to the family's personal residence which was located above the factory and store. Heckman's wife, Rebecca, was apparently an active participant in the family business and must have known how to make candy, ice cream, and other confections. She placed an advertisement in the Freehold paper in the spring of 1898 announcing that she had "opened a first-class Confectionary and Fruit Store..." One of Sylvanus Heckman's employees, fellow candy maker William Ammann, married Heckman's eldest daughter Leah.The Association has a photograph of the Heckman storefront taken in or around 1875. Sylvanus Heckman is seated in his wagon, while his wife, sons, and daughters stand nearby. Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard stands on the site of the Heckman Candy Store and Factory today.

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