January 2

ON THIS DAY in North Carolina history…

1926:

The address is the only place it could be. Or at the very least should be. The corner of Cucumber and Vine Streets in Mount Olive, in Wayne County, is the home of the original acre and factory of the nation’s best selling pickles, the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Mount Olive has, by the way, neither mountains nor olives. It is named for the biblical Mount of Olives.

Formally incorporated ON THIS DAY in 1926, it starts with 13 local businessmen putting in $19,500 each to buy an acre and 3,600 square foot building that will pack and sell pickles. That initial investment also buys a factory superintendent and a salesperson. The salesperson does not need to audition for the job; to begin with, this whole idea is his. He has already proven his sales ability by pulling in the original 13 investors and selling them on the idea that a pickle factory could work in Wayne County. His name is Shickrey Baddour, an immigrant from Lebanon who had seen cucumbers rotting in the fields because there is no way to process them.

Within a couple of months the original 13 investors had grown to 21, and the Mt. Olive Pickle Company was off and running. From a factory where most of the work was done by hand in 1926, today it is one of the most modern and innovative in the country. And they produce America’s most popular and best-selling brand of pickles.

~Kevin E. Spencer, Author, North Carolina Expatriates

Pictured:
-Mt. Olive Pickles
-The corner of Cucumber and Vine