The crawl spaces had some junk in them. Earlier this year, I pulled an old maple syrup bottle out of the space beneath the family room. I searched for Griggs, Cooper (manufacturer/distributor/whatever) and found the following:

Griggs Cooper & Co. was founded in 1882 as a distributor of grocery products to stores in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, Montana and other states in the upper midwest. The Company was not only a distributor of grocery products but also a manufacturer of its own brands of crackers, cookies, candy, coffee, spices and jams and jellies under the ” Home Brand” and “Sanitary Products” labels.

And a court case.

Unfortunately, that still doesn’t exactly tell us how old it is.

Syrup Bottle

Syrup Bottle

Syrup Label

Syrup Label

Also, Val found an old newspaper in one of the crawl spaces. It is a complete comics section from the Sunday, February 25, 1940 edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It’s in pretty good shape, although it has some holes in it. It’s amazing that it survived in a seemingly damp, floorless crawlspace for nearly 70 years.

So, where were you on February 25, 1940?

The comics include:

  • Li’l Abner
  • Terry and the Pirates
  • Smitty
  • Our Boarding House
  • Out Our Way
  • Skippy
  • Katzenjammer Kids
  • Joe Palooka
  • Freckles and His Friends
  • Mickey Finn
  • Off the Record
  • Jane Arden
  • Joe Jinks
  • Little Mary Mixup
  • Polly and Her Pals
  • Abbie an’ Slats
  • Tarzan
  • Chief Wahoo
  • Fritzi Ritz
  • Ella Cinders
  • Bringing Up Father

Each comic takes up between a half and a whole page. For example, see the photo of Li’l Abner. The section is 14 pages long.

1940's Comics

1940's Comics

Li'l Abner

Li'l Abner