swold; G.M. Hall; John
L. Davies & Co.; Bell, Conrad & Webster; Sprague, Warner & Co.; Lee &
Murbach; A. Stephens & Co.; and Whiting, Goeble & Co.

In the period between 1876 and 1900 the following became well known:
Sprague, Warner & Griswold; Reid, Murdoch & Fischer; E.B. Millar Spice
Co.; Wm. M. Hoyt Co.; Franklin MacVeagh & Co.; Sherman Bros. & Co.; H.C.
& C. Durand; A.H. Pratt; McNeil & Higgins Co.; J.H. Bell & Co.; J.H.
Conrad & Co.; Steele-Wedeles Co.; Krag-Reynolds Co.; Arbuckle Bros., and
Puhl-Webb Co.

H.C. Durand organized the wholesale grocery house of Durand & Co. in
1851. Calvin Durand entered the firm in 1879, and the name was changed
to H.C. & C. Durand. Adam J. Kaspar began to work in a retail grocery.
In 1875, he went with the wholesale grocery firm of James Forsythe & Co.
and two years later with H.C. & C. Durand. In 1894, the name was changed
to Durand & Kasper. H.C. Durand died in 1901, and Calvin Durand died in
1911. Durand & Kasper merged, 1921, with Henry Horner & Co. and McNeil &
Higgins into the Wholesale Grocers Corporation.

Samuel A. Downer founded the Excelsior Mills (Downer & Co.) in 1853.
Sidney O. Blair entered the employ of the company in 1871. E.B. Millar &
Co. took over the business in 1878, incorporating under that name in
1882. Mr. Blair retired in 1913, and W.S. Rice was elected president. He
died in 1918, and Mr. Blair was re-elected president; with W.C. Shope,
vice-president; and C.S. Mauran, secretary and treasurer.

In the spring of 1862, Albert A. Sprague came to Chicago from Vermont.
With Z. B. Stetson he formed the firm of Sprague & Stetson, wholesale
grocers. Mr. Stetson retired the following year, and a new partnership
was formed with Ezra J. Warner, under the name of Sprague & Warner. In
1864, O.S.A. Sprague, a young brother of the senior partner, was
admitted to the firm, which was reorganized under the style of Sprague,
Warner & Co. Under this name it has since continued. About the year
1876, machinery was installed, and the roasting of coffee began. Oscar
Remmer entered the employ of the company in 1878 at the age of 16, and
became manager of the mill department in 1895. In 1912, he was made a
member of the board of directors, and was elected vice-president in
1919. O.S.A. Sprague died in 1909, Ezra J. Warner Sr. in 1910, and
Albert A. Sprague in 1915.

In 1865, A.M. Thomson, at that time a salesman for A.H. Blackall, owner
of the American Mills, arranged with a M