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| Durkee Mower Inc. Marshmallow Fluff |
One of the food staples of my youth is the iconic fluffernutter© - that sandwich containing a layer of peanut butter and a layer of soft gooey Marshmallow Fluff©. It was the most frequent choice for brown bagging lunch in elementary school. Being a tad weird, I also had a peculiar taste for a Marshmallow Fluff and grape jelly sandwich as well. Little did I know back then that there was a family connection to the yummy Fluff. But a look at the packaging will show it is manufactured by Durkee-Mower, Inc. - a company founded nearly 100 years ago by H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, friends who had served together in the 101st Supply Company of the Yankee Division during World War I.
Frederick Lincoln Mower (my seventh cousin twice removed - we have to go all the way back to the immigrant ancestor Richard Mower to connect) was born 03 November 1897 in Lynn, Massachusetts, the eldest of two children born to Frank Henry and Hattie Lincoln (Skinner) Mower. Fred graduated from Swampscott High School and served in World War I.
After his military service in the war, Fred returned to Lynn, Massachusetts, and along with Allen Durkee, began making hard candies, cooking at night and selling door-to-door during the day. In 1920, the two officially formed Durkee-Mower, Inc., with H. Allen Durkee assuming the mantle of President and Fred Mower serving as Secretary-Treasurer. At about the same time they purchased the recipe for their flagship product, Marshmallow Fluff - at a price of $500 - to help diversify their sales. The concoction had been developed by Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts. He had had moderate success selling the product, but with war rationing making sugar scarce, Query sold the name and formula to the new company. So with $1000 they had borrowed and one pound of sugar, the company started the manufacture of Fluff in a rented kitchen over a bowling alley. Durkee-Mower made their first sale of Marshmallow Fluff (under the name Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff) in 1920. In addition to Fluff, the company also dabbled in instant hot chocolate, but it's Fluff that remained the backbone of the company.
Fred married Gladys May Jenkins, and they had one daughter, Joyce. Among the organizations that Fred was
involved with was the Boys Club of Lynn where he diligently worked to
raise funds to build a gymnasium. In recognition, he received an award
for outstanding service to youth from Boys Club of America in 1955. Fred was also a Mason, belonging to Wayfarer's Lodge in Lynn.
Fred died on 4 August 1957 in
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and is buried in the Swampscott Cemetery in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
Make sure to take a minute to check out the Marshmallow Fluff Whoopie Pie Recipes
here.
Line of descent: 1-Richard Mower, 2-John Mower, 3-Richard Mower, 4-John
Mower, 5-John Mower, 6-John Mower, 7-Samuel Carter Mower, 8-Frank Henry Mower
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Sources
- "History of Marshmallow Fluff (https://www.marshmallowfluff.com/history-of-marshmallow-fluff/)
- "F. L. Mower, Swampscott, Dead in N.H.," Boston Herald, Boston, Massachusetts, 6 August 1957; GenealogyBank.com (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 23 October 2016), Newspaper Archives..
- "Swampsoctt's Sweet Past." Swampscott Patch (http://patch.com/massachusetts/swampscott/swampscott-fluff : accessed 23 October 2016.
- Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
- Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Mason Membership Cards, 1733-1990 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
- Ancestry.com, Find-A-Grave, database with digital images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 23 October 2016), Fred Lincoln Mower (Memorial #153899028).
