E. J. Vodra Canning Co. Was an Early Food Processing Industry in Two Rivers

E. J. Vaudreuil Canning Company and fields, ca. 1903-1907 , HUBERT R. WENTORF PHOTO COLLECTION, LESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY

Edward Joseph Vodra was born on October 3, 1871, the eldest son of Leopold and Clementine (LeClair) Vodra, a pioneer fishing family at Two Rivers. Edward’s grandparents Francis and Priscilla Vaudreuil came from Canada in 1856, settling on the “French side.”

E. J. Vodra Canning Co. Factory at Two Rivers

1898 SANBORN MAP

When Edward was old enough, he joined his family to fish on the “big pond.” While hauling in the catch, crayfish were frequently tangled up in the nets and disposing of them was a problem. Rather than just throwing the freshwater crustaceans away, Edward had the idea of canning and selling them.

About 1896, the E. J. Vodra Canning Co. was begun on a site which later became the C. Reiss coal yards (now McDonald’s and Seagull Marina). The business grew rapidly. Thousands of pounds of live crayfish were shipped in from neighboring ports on Goodrich boats weekly. A steam boiler removed from an old barge provided steam for the canning process. In 1898, one thousand cases were sold by the only canning company in the United States which packed crayfish.

The business expanded to packing beans, tomatoes and peas. To accommodate the expansion, property was purchased on the south side of Two Rivers, west of School Street (now the location of Schwartz Mfg. Co.). Buildings for pea vine threshers, cooking, canning, storage and shipping were constructed north of the C. & N. W. R. R. tracks. The company also owned a viner station at Mishicot.

In July 1900, the company had several hundred acres sown to peas and was running two shifts of men to keep up with the peas that were being brought to the plant. In 1905, the company packed about a million cans of string beans.

In December 1900, the company was reorganized and incorporated with capital stock of $50,000. Officers were E. J. Vodra, Jonas Gagnon, Charles Hoffman, Peter Schroeder and William H. Voshardt – all well known business men of Two Rivers. John Hoffman was superintendent of the pea and bean canning operations. The company considered making their own tin cans, but this venture proved to be financially impractical.

On July 24, 1901, about 500 employees including pickers and field hands of the E. J. Vodra Canning Co. celebrated the close of the pea canning season at Picnic Hill. The workers marched from the plant to the picnic grounds in groups representing the different departments, led by a band.

E. J. Vodra attended National Canners’ Association conventions in Milwaukee (1902) and Washington, D.C. (1903). In 1904, he was issued a patent for a grading-machine with a stationary frame and an inclined shaking-screen to sort bean pods by size.

About this time, Edward visited Canada and found that Vaudreuil was the proper French spelling of the family name. Thereafter, the family went by this name. In May 1903, the business name was changed to the E. J. Vaudreuil Canning Co.

In 1907, E. J. Vaudreuil sold the company for $335,000 to the Wisconsin Pea Canners Co., which also acquired the Albert Landreth Co. of Manitowoc, which packed the “Lakeside” brand. The new company later became the Lakeside Packing Company (now Lakeside Foods). Vaudreuil was retained as manager of the Two Rivers plant, but resigned later that year.

In 1908, Vaudreuil left Two Rivers for Black River Falls in Jackson County to start a new canning plant and develop an industrial “model town” called ‘Vaudreuil’ on 3,000 acres in the Town of Brockway. He later opened canning plants at Owen in Clark Co., then at Eau Claire.

By 1930, Edward Vaudreuil had moved to California where he died on March 27, 1937. He was survived by his wife Olive (Gagnon) Vaudreuil, who he had married on November 23, 1897, and their sons Edward, Claude and George.

The Wisconsin Pea Canners Co. continued operations at Two Rivers until about 1919. The vacant packing plant and warehouses were then used for storage by local industries. By the early 1930s the buildings had become a fire hazard and were razed in 1934.