In the early 20th century, well-to-do women with an industrious streak had limited options for activities outside the home, with most turning to philanthropy and charity work.
Credit: WYSK
But in 1908, Rose Markward Knox – a housewife and mother accustomed to tending orchids and hosting dinners at her stately home in Fulton County, New York – suddenly found herself the head of the family enterprise when her husband died and left the business to her.
The business was Knox Gelatine, which went on to become a multi-million-dollar enterprise offering homemakers the ability to create artfully molded dinnertime creations like Tomato Aspic and Ham Mousse – and made Rose Knox one of the foremost American businesswomen of her day.
Historian Rachel Greenfield, who lives in Pine Plains, says Knox was the first woman to gain national recognition as a successful entrepreneur and industrialist.
“She didn’t go public with her role for six years, but once she did, she became an exemplar,” said Greenfield, who will be sharing photos and stories from Knox’s rise to fame at the Pine Plains Free Library on March 11 as part of Women’s History Month.
“She epitomized what we’ve come to think of as having it all,” she said. “She took care of her family, was active in the community, and ran a profitable business on top of that.”
The Charles B. Knox Gelatine Company — founded in 1896 in Johnstown, New York — introduced revolutionary change to American kitchens.
For decades, aspic-based dishes – which required a cooking staff with the time to slowly boil collagen-rich animal bones for gelatin — had been the sole privilege of the ultra-wealthy.
With its unflavored, unsweetened granulated crystals, Knox reduced hours of steamy toil to the simple act of opening a packet — ushering in a world of wobbly culinary creations affordable to all.
Credit: Ebay
Boxes of Knox Gelatine, with their distinctive image of a calf’s face – a nod to the calves’ bones that were the primary ingredient — became a familiar staple to generations of shoppers.
And while Jell-O – another New York invention, established in upstate LeRoy in 1897 — went on to enchant hearts and minds with its sweet, candy-colored jellies, fascination with Knox remains high, with fan groups dedicated to recreating the molded gelatin creations that were a mainstay of backyard picnics in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Greenfield, who has collected recordings of Knox’s notable speeches and interviews, says Knox had an uncanny ability to present herself as both a soft-spoken housewife and a shrewd businesswoman – a winning strategy at a time when women industrialists were viewed skeptically by their male counterparts.
“She would say, very cheerfully, that as a homemaker she had bought from grocers, and as a business owner she had sold to them,” Greenfield said. “She was telling people that she knew both sides of the business.”
Capitalizing on her gelatin’s benefits as a protein-rich, flavorless stabilizer, Knox also cornered her share of the market by playing up her product’s utility in preparing infant formula as well as food for diabetics and hospital patients. Many mid-century homemakers credited gelatin with growing strong hair and nails.
Knox died in 1950 at the age of 92. The business remained under family control until 1972, when it was sold to the Thomas J. Lipton food company. Knox Gelatine is now sold by Kraft Heinz in the United States and by Associated Brands, Inc. in Canada.
Greenfield noted that while Knox shared a hometown with another notable New York woman – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement – she never considered herself an activist.
“Women in New York state didn’t get the right to vote until 1917,” Greenfield says. “At that point, Rose Knox had already been running a company for nine years.”
Rachel Greenfield will present a history of Rose Knox, complete with pictures and voice recordings, at the Pine Plains Free Library on Saturday, March 11 at 2 p.m.