Ovson Egg - Founding

Founding

Breaking and freezing of eggs began in U.S. in the 1890s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. George Dole, who owned one of the first cold storage facilities in the United States, and former school teacher H. J. Keith were the first to open an egg-breaking business, the H.J. Keith Company. They also began separating yolks from whites and selling them as separate products. In 1898, Keith made a deal with H. A. Perry of Salinas, Kansas. Perry was the founder of Seymour Foods, and had invented a hand-operated yolk-and-white separator which dramatically improved productivity. Keith licensed this technology from Perry and dramatically increased production.

Morris Ovson was a Russian citizen who emigrated to the United States in 1904 and became an American citizen in 1909. Ovson found employment as an egg candler for the H.J. Keith Company. In time, Ovson became a processing operations inspector and opened new production and processing facilities for the company. Keith also sent Ovson to Europe to learn how to produced dried eggs. In 1917, Keith sent Morris to Shanghai to open a new dried and frozen egg production company, the Amos Bird Company (which became part of the The Borden Food Corporation).

But Ovson did not want to move to China. He had married the former Ida Karelitz in 1910, and the couple had three young sons (Leo, Gene, and Hank). Leo and Gene joined Morris into the frozen egg business. Morris Ovson returned to the United States in 1919, formed a business partnership with Keith, and founded the Ovson-Keith Egg Company. To secure additional capital, C. J. Bowman and W. F. Priebe became investors and associates in the firm, and the company name was changed to the Bowman-Priebe-Ovson Company.