| The Pickle Factories |
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Around the same time as Crouse, Tremaine & Co. built the Highland Pickle Works, the family of William Needham, Sr. came to Highland from Stratford, Ontario, and settled in a home near what is now the southeast corner of M-59 and Milford Road. Here Needham's wife, Mary Ann, began putting up pickles in her kitchen. By 1890 the business - now known as the Domestic Pickle Works - had grown sufficiently to justify building a larger, separate building. This burned on July 18, 1894, but was rebuilt by October that same year and was soon swamped with orders. When the former Crouse, Tremaine & Co. plant burned in 1896, Needham purchased the site and relocated his own operation there, on the south side of East Livingston Road, just east of the railroad tracks. By 1899 he had also built a new home adjacent to the new factory, both of which are shown in the photo below.
