the business section as each vehicle waited its turn to reach the auctioneer’s block. Some farmers would come to Lake City the night before so that they could be among the first in line to sell their produce. Government graders, auctioneers, and other officials would stand at the bean market where vegetables were quickly graded, purchased, and packed into hampers. The hampers were packed into trucks or nearby railway freight cars which carried this produce to the large eastern markets - New York, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston - and from there on to chain grocery stores and other large buyers. The News and Courier February 21, 1937
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The Bean Market photos provided by the James Vernon Epps collection
During a single day during the season, approximately twelve to fourteen railway cars and forty to fifty large trucks hauled the beans away from Lake City. The railcars routinely carried 450 hampers each while each truck hauled approximately half that number. The News and Courier February 21, 1937 In 1940, the Town Council elected necessary personnel to operate the produce market. They were Charlie Green as a manager, Wesley J. Singletary, and Edward C. Bowen as alternating bookkeeper and auctioneer, and Dewey Nettles as ticket marker. The News and Courier May 2, 1940 Around 1941 Lake City was the largest truck market in the United States and was known as the world’s largest string bean market, handling an average of one-half to three-fourths million hampers each year. Lake City News June 7, 1956 In 1949, Mayor Willie H. Cooke suggested moving the market from the present site at 111 Henry Street to a new location adjoining the Carter Manufacturing Company on South Acline Avenue because of the traffic situation. This never happened. The Produce Marketing Association of Lake City was chartered in 1956 with Joe Dew as president. The founding directors for this buyer-farmer non-profit organization were David G. Bowen, Booker Sparrow, LaMarr McFadden, Wilbur Brown, and Jim Moore. H. E. Godwin, who headed the commission to study the change over from city supervision to buyer-farmer supervision, was the market manager. At this juncture, the bean market essentially moved from the control of the city to the control of the farmers and buyers. Lake City News June 7, 1956 The major reason for the decline of the produce market was lack of good labor with another issue of more competitive markets elsewhere. Mr. Eugene Moore reminisced that our produce market was a great place for the small farmers in the 1930s and 1940s where if they had an acre or so of some produce, they could bring their vegetables in and sell them.
Kent Daniels Lake City native, retired teacher, and now Director of the Lynches Lake Historical Society
Continue to follow Kent in future issues of Vip as he sheds some light on the history of Lake City.
Sadly, the 1970s brought an end to the produce market here in Lake City. October 2019
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