A friend in town gave me a copy of Rufus Muirhead's obituary from the February 22, 1942 The Dalles Optimist Newspaper. I found the information very interesting. I hope you enjoy learning a little history of the cannery as well. First the obituary:

Funeral services for Rufus R. Muirhead, 54, and native of Minnesota, who died Sunday night at a local hospital, were held at the Zell funeral home Thursday afternoon at 2:30,

the Rev. Lloyd T. Anderson, pastor of the Calvary Baptist church, officiating. Internment followed at the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Mr. Muirhead, who resided on a Mill Creek ranch, had been engaged a number of years in the development of prune processing and canning. He and his son-in-law, James R. Barrett, won note for prune juice, maraschino cherries and tenderized canned dried prunes.

Mr. Muirhead is survived by his widow, Alice; five daughters, Mrs. James C. Barrett of The Dalles and the Misses Bessie, Mary, Alice and Katherine Muirhead of Seattle; a son, Samuel A. of Johnstown, R.I.; four sisters, Mrs. Flossie Ranger and Mrs. James A. Herndron of Seattle, Mrs. Lou H. Schueler of Vancouver, Wash., and Mrs. C.H. Marsdon of Culver City, Calif.; a brother, Percy A. Muirhead of College Place, Wash; and one grandchild.

The information in this obituary piqued my interest and so I called up Randy Barrett (he was referenced in the obituary as the "one grandchild") to ask some further questions.

How The Cannery Got Its Start

Randy's father was James R. Barrett, Rufus's son-in-law, who was listed in the obituary as working with Rufus Muirhead. Randy said that his father owned the property that was used for the prune drying and canning operation but that he wasn't involved more than that. This property was North of the current cannery location on Mill Creek.

After Rufus passed away, his wife Alice kept the business going as best she could. During WWII she struggled to get boxes, cans and sugar as these were all items that were rationed. Randy remembers that she would sell "simple syrup" , sugar that has been dissolved in hot water, when she could get the supplies. Randy said that Sam Muirhead, Rufus's son, worked for Boeing before the war and then joined the Navy and went off to war.

When Sam Muirhead came back from the war he was tired of taking orders, he said "I'm going to work for myself even if I starve." Sam claimed that a couple of the years he did almost starve. Sam and his sister Betty, a nurse in Hawaii during the war, took over the cannery from their mother, Alice, and worked to get it running again. Alice worked at the cannery until just a few years before her death. I don't know when Betty left the canning business, but at a certain point it was just Sam. Sam Muirhead sold the cannery to his nephew Randy Barrett in the mid 1970's. I bought the cannery from Randy in 2006.

I find this all so interesting and hopefully you'll enjoy learning a little more about how our small family-owned cannery got its start.