James Athearn Folger (June 17, 1835 – June 26, 1889) was the founder of the Folgers Coffee Company

Folgers

Folgers Coffee is a major brand of coffee in the United States, part of the food and beverage division of The J.M. Smucker Co.-Company history:...

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Early years

Folger was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts

Nantucket, Massachusetts

Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...

, the son of Samuel Brown Folger and Nancy Hill. His father was a master blacksmith who had invested in a try works and bought two ships. They had nine children of which James was the second youngest. The Folger family roots can be traced back to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. On July 13, 1846 a 33 acres (133,546.4 m²) fire broke out in Nantucket's business section and burned the try works and ship. 11 year old James helped in the reconstruction.

Journey west

After the discovery of gold in California

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

, James (14), along with his brothers Henry (16) and Edward (20) set out in the autumn of 1849 on a ship bound for the Isthmus of Panama

Isthmus of Panama

The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...

. After a raft and hiking journey across the Isthmus, the brothers waited at Panama City

Panama City

Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...

 for quite a while before catching the Pacific mail steamer

Mail steamer

Mail steamers were steamships which carried the mail across waterways, such as across an ocean or between islands, primarily during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, when the cost of sending a letter was declining to the point an ordinary person could afford the cost of sending a letter...

 Isthmus on April 10, 1850. They entered the Golden Gate

Golden Gate

The Golden Gate is the North American strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Since 1937 it has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge...

 on May 5, 1850.

Work in San Francisco

Jim decided to stay in San Francisco instead of heading to the gold fields as a result of the high wages being offered. He helped reconstruct after one of San Francisco's many fires, similar to how he had in Nantucket. He helped build a spice-and-coffee mill for a man named William H. Bovee.

Founding of Folger's Coffee

In 1860 he founded the San Francisco coffee firm, known as the J. A. Folger Coffee Company, known today simply as Folgers Coffee.

Legacy

He is the grandfather of Peter Folger

Peter Folger

Peter Folger was an American coffee heir, socialite, and member of the prominent United States Folger family. He was also the long time Chairman of the board and President at the Folgers Coffee Company. He is the grandson of founder J. A...

, and the great-grandfather of Abigail Folger

Abigail Folger

Abigail Anne "Gibbie" Folger was an American coffee heiress, debutante, socialite, volunteer social worker, civil rights devotee and member of the prominent United States Folger family. She was the great-granddaughter of J. A. Folger, the founder of Folgers Coffee...

. Abigail was murdered in 1969, by members of the Manson family, along with her friend, actress Sharon Tate

Sharon Tate

Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...

 among others.

He is buried in the Folger family plot at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

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External links

• The Official Website of Folgers Coffee
• The Folger Way - Coffee Pioneering since 1850 - Ruth Waldo Newhall (1961) (no ISBN number)
• "The Nantucket Coffee Connection", by Robert F. Mooney. Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 48, no. 3 (Summer 1999), p. 24.