Edmund McIlhenny | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1815 (1815) Hagerstown, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | November 25, 1890(1890-11-25) (aged 74–75) Avery Island, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1868–1890 |
| Known for | Founder of and chief executive of company McIlhenny, Manufacturer ofTabasco sauce |
| Spouse | Mary Eliza Avery |
| Family | John Avery McIlhenny (son) Edward Avery McIlhenny (son) |
Edmund McIlhenny (/ˈmækəlhɛni/; 1815 – 25 November 1890) was an American businessman and manufacturer who founded the McIlhenny Company, which was the first to mass produceTabasco sauce.[1][2] While company legend attributes the invention of the sauce to McIlhenny, plantation ownerMaunsel White is said by some to have been the first to cultivate and make a sauce fromtabasco peppers in the United States, and gave the recipe and pepper pods to his friend McIlhenny.[3][4]
Born inHagerstown, Maryland, in 1815, Edmund McIlhenny moved toNew Orleans, Louisiana, around 1840, finding work in the Louisiana banking industry. He was of Irish and Scottish descent.[5][6][7][1] He had acquired a small fortune and became an independent bank owner.[8]
On June 30, 1859, he married Mary Eliza Avery. They had eight children.
During the Civil War, McIlhenny fled with his in-laws, the Avery family, to Texas, where he served as a civilian employee of theConfederate army, first as aclerk in acommissary office, then as a financial agent for thepaymaster.
TheSouth's economic collapse after its defeat ruined McIlhenny, who now lived with his in-laws in theirplantation house onAvery Island, Louisiana. It was there that McIlhenny tended the family garden, where, according to tradition, he grew a variety offruits and vegetables.[4]
According to one legend, McIlhenny was giventabasco peppers and a recipe fortabasco sauce by a friend, plantation ownerMaunsel White, who died in 1863[3] – though company legend says McIlhenny himself invented the sauce between 1866 and 1868. In 1868, he grew his first commercial pepper crop, selling the first bottles of his product the following year, which he calledTabasco brand pepper sauce.[4]
In 1870, McIlhenny obtainedletters patent for the sauce, which he packaged in cork-top two-ounce bottles with diamond logo labels very similar in appearance to those in present-day use.[9]
At first McIlhenny sold the product mainly along theGulf Coast in places including New Orleans,New Iberia, Louisiana, andGalveston, Texas. By the early 1870s, however, he had broken into larger markets, such as New York City,Philadelphia, andBoston, helped by major nineteenth century food manufacturer and distributorE. C. Hazard and Company.[10]
McIlhenny died in 1890, and apparently did not consider his production of Tabasco sauce to have been a particularly notable accomplishment. Indeed, he made no mention of Tabasco sauce in anautobiographical sketch composed toward the end of his life, nor was it mentioned in hisobituaries.[11]
Regardless, his successors, sonsJohn Avery McIlhenny andEdward Avery McIlhenny, realized that their father had created a foundation on which they could build a larger family business, and they shortly expanded and modernized the manufacturing process. Today eachcarton of Tabasco sauce bears a facsimile of McIlhenny's signature.
Edmund's father was a swaggering Scottish immigrant with a rebellious streak
a bearded New Orleans banker and gourmand of Scottish-Irish descent
