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Private company

E. C. Hazard and Company

19th century American grocery importer

E. C. Hazard and Company was a major grocery importer, manufacturer and distributor in 19th-century and early 20th-century America. In particular, E.C. Hazard and Company has been credited with pioneering the U.S. domestic manufacture and distribution of "fancy groceries" — a term that referred to processed canned, jarred and bottled food products (now commonly found throughout modern-day groceries and supermarkets).2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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E. C. Hazard facilities at Shrewsbury, NJ
Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

E. C. Hazard and Company was a major grocery importer, manufacturer and distributor in 19th-century and early 20th-century America. In particular, E.C. Hazard and Company has been credited with pioneering the U.S. domestic manufacture and distribution of "fancy groceries" — a term that referred to processed canned, jarred and bottled food products (now commonly found throughout modern-day groceries and supermarkets).2

The story

The firm was founded in 1850 by Edward Clarke Hazard, born April 4, 1831, at Mumford's Mills near Peacedale, Rhode Island; he died February 2, 1905, at his home "Shrewsbury Manor" in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Hazard attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and at age 18 went to New York City to enter a trade. There, "with horse and wagon, he became engaged at vending soap and fancy goods with B. T. Babbitt," particularly imported grocery items. In 1850 he opened his own grocery firm, which he called E. C. Hazard and Company. Frank Green was his original partner.

He lived in Greenwich Village, first at 22 Grove Street, and then 36 Grove St in 1858 just before or after his second marriage, to Emily (Emma) Howe, the daughter of Stewart D.Howe, a Patent Medicine manufacturer and his wife, Robetta. Edward and Emma had two sons, Edward Howe Hazard (born 1861) and Charles Hazard (born 1863). Emma died on May 12, 1880, age 42, and Hazard married for the third time on November 23, 1880, to Florence (Frances) Adaline Frothingham. She was born July 4, 1863, in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Hazard had eight children with Florence, 5 sons and 3 daughters. The children were: Elmer Clarke Hazard, Bowdoin Frothingham Hazard, Florence Elsworth Hazard, Elizabeth Robinson Hazard, Frank Green Hazard, Helen Franklin Hazard and Arnold Watson Hazard. Eldest daughter Florence married Austrian Prince Francis von Auersperg on June 14, 1899, and thereafter was known as "Princess von Auersperg." They divorced in January 1915 after the Prince demanded that she place her fortune from her father in his name. She married New York businessman John Joseph Murphy of New York in May 1915. Murphy was the son of New York State Senator Edward Murphy Jr.; Elizabeth married Harry Lord Powers, son of a NY builder, banker, politician, and NY Parks Commissioner (1884–1888) on June 26, 1908. Helen married Alfred Nash Beadleston, forty years her senior, who was senior partner of Beadleston & Woerz Brewery (Empire Beer) in 1909. After his death 12 years later, she married Julian McCarty Little of Newport, RI. Elmer, who married Pearl White of Philadelphia, was a doctor in Long Branch, New Jersey, and founded Hazard Hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey.

From Wikipedia’s article on E. C. Hazard and Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

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