John Sexton & Company , better known as Sexton Foods , was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses and truck fleets located in major metropolitan areas of the United States. The company was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1883 by John Sexton .
John Sexton
John Sexton was born June 29, 1858 in Dundas, Ontario to Michael and Ellen O'Connor Sexton from County Clare, Ireland. John Sexton worked in a general store in Niagra, Ontario 1874 – 1887. He immigrated to Chicago in 1877 and began working for various wholesale grocers in Chicago as a clerk and city salesman. During this time, he realized that there was an opportunity to specialize in selling quality teas, coffees and spices. In 1883, at the age of 25, John Sexton invested his entire life savings of $400 and formed a corporation with George A. Hitchcock named Hitchcock & Sexton Company which operated a retail tea, coffee and spice store. The first store was located at 300 N. State. In 1886, John Sexton bought out his partner and changed the name to John Sexton & Company.
Business boomed and John Sexton added 4 more retail stores in the Chicago area including one in Joliet, IL. This made Sexton one of the first retail coffee and tea chain proprietor in the United States. To help him run his growing business, he recruited his sister Mary Sexton Barton, another sister (O'Leary) and his brother James Sexton to move to Chicago from Dundas, Ontario. In addition to family, John Sexton relied on recruiting high quality employees by offering attractive wages and sales commissions.
As word spread of the quality food being offered by Sexton, restaurant and hotel customers were coming to the retail stores to buy tea and coffee. Sexton began to make sales calls on the Chicago restaurants and hotels. In addition, he purchased horses and wagons to make deliveries. Sexton also added dried and canned goods to his product offerings. By the late 1880s, Sexton decided to close the four retail tea and coffee stores and focus on wholesale groceries. In 1890, Sexton established an institutional department servicing hospitals, colleges, schools and orphanages.
John Sexton married Annie Louise Bartleman (born Chicago 1861) in 1886. The Bartleman’s immigrated from Tier, Germany in the mid-1850s. The couple had five children, Franklin (b. 1891), Thomas (b.?), Sherman (b. 9/12/1892), Helen (Egan) (b.?) and Ethel (Marten) (b.1896) the family home was 2263 Dayton Street on the north side of Chicago. All three sons and both sons in laws worked for the company in various roles.
A very big year for Sexton Foods was the first Chicago World’s Fair in 1892. The company saw tremendous demand from their products and allowed expansion to a larger building at the corner of Lake and Franklin Street in Chicago the following year. The company was incorporated in 1898. By 1907, John Sexton had 125 employees and had outgrown the State Street location. The company's next location was across the river on the corner of Lake and Franklin Streets in a six-story office and warehouse building. The building was organized into sales, warehouse, manufacturing and laboratory. At the new locaiton, Sexton expanded into the manufacture of pickles, relishes, spices and preserves. Company horses were stabled at a livery one mile west of the building. (See Tribune Article about hit and run accident involving a Sexton driver.)
As John Sexton & Co. grew, the Sexton name became synonymous with quality products. Some of the original brand names used by Sexton at this time included: Calumet, LaSalle, Pride of the West, Pyramid and Edelweiss (no doubt the result of influences from Annie Louise). Some innovations pioneered by John Sexton & Co. and still in use today are the #10 can and the wood pallet for shipping.
John Sexton was always looking for new under served markets and recruited salesmen in the major urban markets of Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Washington DC to call on the institutional trade. In addition to the major urban markets, Sexton recruited regional salesmen to call on the rural customers who required quality groceries to feed their work force. For instance, in rural Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, Sexton Salesmen called on lumber camps and mining camps. In the prairie and western states, Sexton Salesmen called on stockmen, ranchers, miners and grain farmers who had large work forces to feed. Orders were shipped from Chicago via rail to regional terminals where the Sexton Salesmen would arrange delivery to the customers. Common truck carriers would make the final delivery from rail terminal to customer.
Sexton Foods also had a mail order business led by Franklin Sexton that serviced the rural areas of the country. It was called the “Country Division”. The majority of the products sold were coffee, spices, flour, canned fruits and canned vegetables. However, paint, motor oil, nails and canvas were also sold. Sexton’s rural business flourished until automobiles became affordable.
In addition, Sherman J. Sexton began focusing on the institutional customers like hospitals and schools. Sherman would set up a Sexton Tasting booth at hospital and school administrator conventions where customers could sample some of the Sexton Products. This proved enormously successful in developing the institutional trade since no other grocery company was focusing on this huge market.
In 1915, a new 300,000 square foot multi-use building designed by architect Alfred S. Alschuler was built on the corner of Illinois and Orleans. The building housed the corporate offices, sales offices, warehouse and the manufacturing division named Sunshine Kitchens. Sunshine Kitchens manufactured private label sauces, soups and specialty products exclusively sold under the John Sexton & Company banner.
As automobile ownership increased, the mail order Country Division business slowed. Rural customers were more likely to drive to town to make frequent smaller purchases rather than large bi-annual orders from Chicago. The last country division catalog was published in the late 1930s. However, the Sexton Salesmen were successfully selling Sexton Products to the restaurant and hotel trade in the Midwest and Plain States. The estiblished network of salesmen set the stage for Sexton Foods' future expansion.
In 1928, John Sexton stepped down as president of Sexton Foods but remained the chairman. John Sexton asked his sons, Franklin, Thomas and Sherman who should lead the company. All agreed that Sherman was the best choice. Sherman became president of the company in 1928. Franklin remainded the treasurer and Thomas remained vice president of sales and marketing. John Sexton died while on vacation in Los Angeles in 1930. After his death, his wife Annie Louise became the chairman of the Company.
Sexton Foods
Under Sherman Sexton's leadership, Sexton Foods opened their first distribution center outside Chicago by renting a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York in 1933 and started the first Sexton professional salesmen training school. Henry A. Marten, husband of Ethel, lead the Sexton Salesman School until his death in 1954 in San Benito, Texas where Henry and Ethel had a winter home. During their winters there, Henry tried his hand at investing in wildcat oil well drilling.
Sherman also focused on advertising Sexton products in the restaurant, college, hospital and food service trade publications. In addition, Sexton Foods continued to sponsor trade conferences for hospital administrators, college dietitians and restaurant associations as a way to reach out to the institutional customers. Sherman also implemented The Sexton Cook Book published in 1933, 1941 and 1950, which compiled large quantity recipes of the Sexton Customers. Prior to the cookbook, Sexton Foods provided customers with annual hard cover diaries featuring customers’ large quantity recipes.
After World War II, the third generation began working for the company. During this time, there were over 25 grandson and grand sons-in-laws working for the company. Henry and Ethel Sexton Marten’s three sons, John Sexton Marten, Henry Kemper Marten, and Franklin Anthony Marten work for the company in various roles. The Sunshine Kitchens were headed by John Sexton Marten for a time. John Marten left to form his own food company in 1958, Fred's Finer Foods. His new company specialized in portion control frozen foods. John Marten saw frozen food as an enormous opportunity. Sexton Foods did not want to add frozen foods at the time since the capital investment was huge and would erode some of Sexton Foods existing product lines. Under John Marten, Fred's Finer Food grew rapidly and was sold in 1980. Franklin Anthony Marten ran the Chemical Manufacturing Division in Detroit for a while until he left the company to open a restaurant. Henry Kemper Marten, a World War II veteran, worked in various sales capacities on the East Coast until his retirement in 1987. During the 1950s, Sexton Foods experienced rapid growth as the nation began to dine out more and food service customers demanded more consistent quality products, credit and timely deliveries. Branch warehouses were opened in Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle and Hawaii. By the mid-1950s, Sexton had a coast to coast distribution network. The first Dallas warehouse for Sexton Foods was opened in 1941 in the building located at 1917 N. Houston Street. Up to three times a week, the Dallas branch would receive rail cars of groceries fro
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