Garner Foods

Food and Beverage ManufacturingNorth Carolina, United States51-200 Employees

Back in 1929, a 16 year old Thad W. Garner was graduating from Mineral Springs High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

By driving a school bus and delivering newspapers, Thad managed to save the considerable sum of six hundred dollars. The plan was to use the money for college.

But when a couple from Florida decided to sell their "Dixie Pig Barbecue stand", located just down the road, the young boy spied a real opportunity. For half his savings, Thad was to be the proud owner of the business, which could have just become another sandwich shop if it hadn't been for the handwritten, unique barbecue sauce recipe that came with the investment.

A fellow who owned a barbecue stand in Mount Airy asked if he could buy the special sauce to use in his restaurant, Thad agreed to sell him a gallon of the sauce.

Thad's mother, "Mother Jane", as she was affectionally known by the family, began making the barbecue sauce in pots on her cook stove in the family home. His father, Samuel was a natural-born salesman and began traveling to the North Carolina roads distributing the sauce to restaurants and grocery stores.

Samuel, Thad, Ralph, and Harold became known as the "Four Garners". Customers soon began to request a spicier sauce for barbecue and the "Four Garners" developed the most famous brand of Hot Sauce in the Southeast. Rather than alter the original recipe, they developed a new recipe with hot peppers, vinegar, and salt.

The brothers struggled to name this mighty sauce. The three brothers had a consensus agreement on the name "Mexican Joe" and were satisfied until their father insisted it should be an American name..."maybe Texas..." but "Texas what?"...At that moment Samuel's eyes fell upon his son, Harold, who was nicknamed "Pete". And thats how "Texas Pete" became a legend.

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