 s a young girl, Lida Empson persuaded her father, who was ailing from tuberculosis, to move to Colorado. He opened the "J. H. Empson and Daughter Cannery" in Longmont in 1887, later adding plants in Greeley, Loveland, and Ft. Lupton. In 1905, Empson's was the largest pea cannery in the world; a 1908 statistic states that it turned out 52,000 cans of peas per hour. A town history noted that the cannery employed "a small army of men, women, boys and girls". Women spent their days sorting and canning locally grown vegetables to be shipped to Denver. Along with other "domestic" types of labor such as sewing or teaching, canning was one of the few socially acceptable jobs for women at the turn of the century. Empson reaped a great deal of free publicity by naming his young daughter a junior partner, but her actual involvement in the company is a mystery. After her father's death, Lida Empson retired to a farm outside Longmont, near that of her friend and neighbor Minnie McIntosh. |
