Skip to Main Content

Jello recipe booklet, 1924.
Jello recipe booklet, 1924.

On the Jell-O Trail

A quick way to make desserts from gelatin was first patented in 1845 by the inventor and philanthropist Peter Cooper. Now remembered for Cooper Union (the New York academic institution he endowed), he also built America's first locomotive engine and helped lay telephone cable across the Atlantic. Cooper had great hopes for his boxed dessert, but the product failed.

A LeRoy carpenter, Pearle Bixby Wait, next gave it a shot. His next-door neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, was doing well with a beverage called "Grain-O."

Wait adapted Cooper's idea for gelatin, then added four fruit flavors. For two years, he hawked Jell-O door-to-door. Met by a total lack of interest, in 1899 he sold the whole shebang to Woodward for $450.

When Wait died in 1915 at age 44, his widow had to take in sewing jobs and boarders to feed the family. "I often say to our kids, 'Just think, we could be rich and unhappy and living in the Bahamas!'" exclaims his granddaughter, Martha Lapp Tabone, 55, an elementary schoolteacher in Le Roy.

Woodward also met with initial resistance, but didn't give up. He assembled a stylishly dressed sales force and sent them off. He advertised heavily. Four years later, Orator Francis Woodward was a millionaire.

Salesmen always emphasized not just the product's convenience, but its beauty and sculptural variety. Jell-O addressed Americans who spoke all languages, and it soon became a symbol of national unity. Immigrants at Ellis Island were ritually served bowls of Jell-O under signs that read "Welcome To America."

Also see: Jell-o Museum

Explore Thousands of Unique Roadside Landmarks!

Strange and amusing destinations in the US and Canada are our specialty. Start here.
Use RoadsideAmerica.com's Attraction Maps to plan your next road trip.

My Sights

My Sights on Roadside America

Create Your Own Bizarre Road Trips! ...Try My Sights

Mobile Apps

Roadside America app: iPhone, iPad Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. On-route maps, 1,000s of photos, special research targets! ...More

Roadside Presidents app: iPhone, iPad Roadside Presidents app for iPhone, iPad. POTUS landmarks, oddities. ...More

Sight of the Week

Sight of the Week

Easter Island Moai in America (Mar 25-31, 2024)

SotW Archive

USA and Canada Tips and Stories

More Sightings