By Shannon Butler
As we head into the brisk time of the year known as Autumn (AKA Fall, AKA Sweater Weather), it's pleasant to sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea. Did you know that Poughkeepsie was once the home to a major tea importing business that was run by a visionary woman? Perhaps some of you even remember heading down Route 44 to visit the G.H. Ford tea shop and purchase a cute little sampler tin. Gertrude Ford Ramsay came to this country with the notion that anyone could build a legacy if they focused on one thing at a time, and she managed to do just that.
Born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, in 1879, Gertude Helena Ford was the daughter of Edward and Anna Ford. When her father lost the family’s wealth, she became determined to take care of herself and not be a burden to her older brothers. In 1907, she ventured to New York City, where she began a small confectionery business, selling baked goods to major hotels. In 1914, she married Charles H. Ramsay, but unlike many women of her time who vanished into the world of wifely domesticity, she continued to improve on her business. After selling her confectioneries for several years, Gertrude decided to seek out a product that was more desirable during World War I, when sugar was harder to come by due to rationing. She soon stumbled into the world of tea. Gertrude began importing, tasting, and blending teas in the years just after World War I, and the G.H. Ford Tea Company was born.
As the only woman in America to oversee her own tea blending and selling, Gertrude had the opportunity to make improvements in the business with her own original ideas. She was one of the first tea merchants to begin placing the tea in small bags made of cheesecloth, which has resulted in our heavy use of teabags as opposed to loose leaf tea. One of the hallmarks of her business was that she refused to settle and only used the finest selection of teas from all over the world. This won her some fans in high places, including the Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII) and famous art collector Henry Clay Frick.
In 1941, she moved her operations and her family to Poughkeepsie, where she set up her small factory and shop on the corner of Dutchess Turnpike and Peckham Road. She found an old house in LaGrangeville and there she made a home for her family, which now included a son named Clinton. Clinton later became her business partner after serving in the Navy during World War II. Her favorite blend of tea was an “orange pekoe, a full bodied, fragrant brew” (that also happened to be the Duke of Windsor’s favorite; he even took some back home with him). In her later years, she claimed that her key to success was choosing to find, “one thing and stick to it. Concentration on one ideal, one profession, or one article of trade will bring success.”
Sadly, in 1963, Gertrude was involved in a two car collision, in which she was severely injured and her passenger was killed. She spent the remaining years of her life in a nursing home in Lagrangeville, where she died on August 22, 1965. She was 86 years old. In 1974, the business was bought by Alfred and Alice Bogad, who continued to run it until the 1990’s. The business was then sold again, and today it still exists and is located across the river in Shokan, New York.
References:
Poughkeepsie Journal - 16 Apr 1944, 23 May 1963, 10 Jan 1993
New York Times - 25 Aug 1965
https://www.ghfordtea.com/history
Images:
GertrudeFord-1944 - Photo of Gertrude Ford Ramsay, tasting teas in Poughkeepsie. From the Poughkeepsie Journal, 1944.
GHFordteas - Photo showing G.H. Ford tea tins from the Local History Collection.
https://mainandmarket.poklib.org/digital/collection/viewspok/id/960/rec/1 - Ford Tea Company on Route 44