History of Elberta

       In the central part of Georgia where the red hills begin to roll into the flat land, there is situated the little town of Marshallville, home of Samuel H. Rumph.

       Mr. Rumph was an amateur horticulturist born in 1851 and had at an early age, developed a new variety of peach which was large, beautifully colored, deliciously flavored and yet hardy enough to ship long distances. In honor of his wife, Clara Elberta Moore, he named the hybridized peach, Elberta.

       The Elberta peach and the advent of refrigerated railroad transportation furnished the foundations that Georgia needed for a viable peach industry, and by 1890 both were born. From then progress was reasonably rapid and by the turn of the century, there were over 8,000,000 peach trees in the state and shipment of over 3,000 railcar loads were leaving Georgia on an annual basis, primarily heading for New York.

       The purchase of crates for the packing of these peaches became an important feature of the industry as it grew. Some of the crates were made by a mill erected for that purpose at the nearby town of Fort Valley, but its output was not enough to meet the demand.

       Consequently, John Middleton Simmons II, who owned and operated Simmons Manufacturing Company, a commercial veneer plant in Dublin, Georgia, was summoned back home to Houston County by many of the new peach growers who were also his relatives. Mr. Simmons readily became convinced that, indeed, the demand for crates was sufficient to support another mill. Therefore, in Marshallville, Georgia, in 1905, he established Elberta Crate Company named in honor of the Elberta peach.

       Shortly thereafter, a big demand for tomato crates developed in Florida and by 1915, a large part of the output of this plant was going in this direction. As a result, it was decided that a southward move would be advantageous.

       In Southwest Georgia, there were tracts of timber that would supply the demand for years, rivers that would supply cheap transportation of timber to the plant, and railroads that would continue the prompt delivery of crates to Florida and Georgia; therefore, Bainbridge, the county seat of Decatur, was selected as the logical place to move the mill.

       Assisted by World War I, demand for crates increased rapidly and by 1922, total demand was such that another mill was built in Tallahassee, Florida. Again, in 1928, output was expanded when Southern Crate and Veneer Company in Macon, Georgia was acquired. Also in this same year, the name of the corporation was changed to Elberta Crate & Box Company.

       Throughout the depression, the mills ran steadily, but when World War II arrived, further demand was put on the mills for output and additional in-plant expansion took place. Some of the labor force, during this period of time, were prisoners of war.

       Then in 1947, disaster struck. The Bainbridge plant was completely destroyed by fire. At that time, the Simmons family made a decision to liquidate some of the land holdings of the company and use the funds to build a more modern and efficient plant. This was completed in 1948 on the same site where it had sat since 1915 on the west bank of the Flint River.

       In 1952, four years later, the Bainbridge operation was both diversified and expanded to include the manufacturing of paper overlaid veneer. Expendable pallets were formed from this product and used by industries throughout the United States to reduce the cost of material handling.

       By 1977, it was evident that the Bainbridge and Tallahassee operations should be combined in order to improve efficiency, as well as raw material yield. Therefore, after fifty-five years as having served as the capital city’s largest industrial employer, the Tallahassee plant was closed and most of the buildings, machinery, and equipment moved to Bainbridge. Many Tallahassee employees moved to Bainbridge while others still commuted to daily.

       The company in 1986 bought Revell Crate Company in Avon Park, Florida and consolidated it into its operation. This plant devotes its time to stitching semi-finished goods together where the Bainbridge operation is integrated to the standing tree. Avon Park also serves as a warehousing operation for serving customers in South Florida. 1996 saw the continued expansion of Elberta Crate & Box Company. First was the acquisition of Growers Container Cooperative in Leesburg, Florida. This plant was involved in the stitching of semi-finished goods, as is the Avon Park operation. Also, there came the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility in Warrenton, North Carolina, which supplies box grade veneer to all of Elberta’s box manufacturing facilities. In 2003, Elberta acquired the assets of Marvil Package Company in Adel Georgia and Corbett Package Company in Wilmington, NC and further expanded operations at the Avon Park and Warrenton locations.

       Today, the state of Georgia ranks a poor third in peach volume and Elberta Crate & Box Company sells very few containers for shipping this product. Most of the company’s present business is connected with vegetable production rather than fruit. Perhaps coincidently, an ever increasing portion of our volume is moving closer and closer to the Bainbridge area as sweet corn, cabbage, pepper, beans and squash production in Decatur and surrounding counties increases each year.

       After ninety-nine years operating as a family owned business, Elberta Crate & Box Company ranks as one of the largest wirebound box manufacturers in the world. Today’s ownership and management team includes fourth generation descendants of the company’s founder. This longevity was built on product quality and unmatched customer service, and that focus will prevail as Elberta moves into the twenty-first century past its hundredth anniversary.