A Not So Sweet Tale

Ideas do not always succeed, not even when 'experts' believe they will succeed.  This blog is about one of those times when education, experience, and determination did not succeed, a historic failure most of you may never have heard about.  A respected, successful businessman from Larned, John Bennyworth, was a strong advocate for the effort, and he acted on advice from professionals whose early efforts led them to believe their research would bear fruit.  They sincerely thought that producing refined white sugar from sorghum cane was 'just around the corner.'

My research for Prairie Bachelor first made me aware of the effort to produce refined white sugar from sorghum cane, having learned about it from entries in Isaac Werner's journal and further research in local newspapers.  Later, after my book was published, I discovered a wonderful paper by Homer E. Socolofsky titled 'The Bittersweet Tale of Sorghum Sugar' published several years ago in "Kansas History."  For those readers of "Prairie Bachelor" who would like more information about the failed Sorghum Sugar effort, I recommend Socolofsky's article, and you may want to look up "sugar mills" in the index of Prairie Bachelor to read more about local efforts.

There were many reasons why the idea of sorghum sugar had momentum.  First, Kansas farmers were getting disappointing prices for the crops they were raising in the late 1800s, and the idea of a different crop was appealing.  Second, white sugar was expensive enough that a cheaper, sorghum sugar would be competitive.  Third, it was believed that the sorghum sugar might be sweeter.  And fourth, white sugar production in the south had been disrupted by the Civil War, which resulted in higher prices, opening the door for a competing means of producing white sugar, especially until the Southern sugar cane fields recovered.

Although the process of refining sorghum sugar had not been perfected, scientists were reporting the optimism of advancing technology, and the U.S. government Laboratory was predicting advancement, which led to government funds becoming available.

In 1880-1881 there were three sorghum sugar mills in Kansas:  The Marion County Pioneer Sorgo Sugar Factory, The Central Arkansas Valley Sorghum Sugar Association at Larned, and the Ellsworth Sugar Works.  Between 1884 and 1894 the U.S. government poured $509,000 into Sugar Manufacturing experiments, as well as private investors.  Thirteen of the twenty-three locations in which the federal government research was invested were located in Kansas, with 75% invested in materials and machinery.  

Kansas communities that invested in sugar factories included Hutchinson, Sterling (2 Mills), Dundee, Kinsley (a relocation from Larned), El Dorado, Conway Springs, Pratt, Medicine Lodge, Topeka, Ness City, Fort Scott, Bavaria, Douglass, Attica, Meade, Liberal, Arkalon, Minneola, and Garden City.

There were several reasons why the production of Sorghum Sugar failed, including the success of beet sugar.  Farmers discovered that they could profit more from feeding sorghum to cattle than trying to profit from sales to a potential sugar market.  The Sorghum Sugar boom for white sugar-making failed, and some of those who had promoted Sorghum Sugar suddenly suffered a loss of memory about their previous promotions.  

In "Prairie Bachelor," I quote from a letter to the editor:  "Let me ask in the name of common sense what right the press of Kansas has for denouncing the people for doing the very thing that they have been recommending."  This disappointment is only one example of the struggles farmers on the Kansas Prairie faced in the late 1800s as they explored crops and methods suitable for the prairie.