Origin of Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams

I cannot believe what I just found. From time to time, I will google an ancestor's name to see what will reveal itself. I will check the results in internet articles, images, and google books. 

Today, I googled 'T E Fogalsang' and found the How To Sell magazine from April 1926. This magazine issue contains an article of how Thomas & Frances Fogalsang began their business, Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams. They began their operations out of their home in April of 1923, and overcoming challenges and obstacles, grew their business. The article is titled 'The Fogalsangs' is written by Edward Mott Wooley. The article reads:

'Recently I crossed the continent by automobile, and more than once we spoke of the universality of the commonplace, prosaic prune. Every hotel and restaurant in the United States apparently has prunes, fresh or dried, of its menu. In the Santa Clara Valley, in California, where they raise half of all the prunes in the world, we ate the fresh fruit, right off the trees. Purple and juicy, it bears slight resemblance to the wrinkled black objects we have for breakfast at home.'

'This, however, is not a story of breakfast prunes, but of a glorified, candified prune originated out in San Francisco by Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Fogalsang. I was familiar with stuffed dates, but stuffed prunes were a new one on me. So when I heard about this unique business I wrote to Mr. Fogalsang and asked him to tell me about it.'

"My wife and I," he says in response to my inquiry, "originated a process for working the prunes and for making the cream. Prunes are a valuable health food, and we saw no reason why they should not be eaten as candy as well as other fruits.

"In April, 1923, we started to make these prune-creams in our home. Very soon the business became too large for the house and we opened a store. We tried at the start to put it on sale in the stores and to have the jobbers handle it. The stores, however, insisted that before they took it we would have to create a demand. The jobbers asked forty per cent for handling the candy.

"In view of these obstacles we decided to operate along new lines. We could not afford to advertise, so I started out to sell our new product myself. 

"I canvassed office buildings, industrial plants, and homes, and gradually worked up a parcel post business. At first it was a little difficult, of course. People had never heard of prunes made into candy. We gave away samples, and each sample generally meant a sale. As soon as people found out it was a good candy, and the price right, they began to boost for it, and our sales increased.

"We have done no advertising; our customers do that for us. We steadily employ four persons besides my wife and myself. And now we are making pineapple and cherry creams, as well as the prunes. Last year we used ten thousand pounds of prunes.

"There was a great deal of hard work for us at the start. Last Christmas-time we worked from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m., often. What we have done besides putting out a new article is to make a high-grade candy at a popular price. Now we would not think of putting it in the hands of stores or jobbers.

"We have had many chances to sell a half-interest, and recently we refused a nice offer for the whole business, with our recipes. Our next year's contract will be for twelve thousand pounds of prunes and fifty thousand folding boxes."

Below is a copy of the article as it appears in the How to Sell magazine from April 1926. I never imagined I would come across the origin story of Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams. What a find!