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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/X_100_workers_2551_mod-1024x572.jpg\")
J. S. Crutchfield and other board members and staff enjoying a picnic at the Lean To, across from Boy’s House. [X_100_workers_2551_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>James S. Crutchfield and his daughter, Harriet<\/a>, had a deep affection for Pine Mountain and for Kentucky. His dedication to the School was evident during his service as a member of the Board of Trustees of Pine Mountain Settlement School from approximately 1933 until 1947. He was Board President for three of those years. Harriet was a member of the PMSS Advisory Board and a teacher <\/span>at Pine Mountain for two school years (1928-1930). For years afterward, she continued to keep up her <\/span>correspondence<\/span><\/a> and contributions to the School until ill health in the 1980s limited her activity.<\/span><\/p>\n James S. Crutchfield, PMSS Trustee, c. 1933-1947. Source: 1943 Pine Mountain Family Album. [pmss_1943_family_album.jpg]<\/p><\/div>During the boarding school days at Pine Mountain, James Crutchfield set up a small trust fund, held in guardianship by the senior class, for students in need of a loan. In 1935 Virgil Smith<\/a> was one of the beneficiaries of this fund.\u00a0Virgil used the loan to aid him in his job search and paid it back a year later.<\/span><\/p>\n James S. Crutchfield\u00a0was a well-known\u00a0 agricultural trade specialist and founder of the American Fruit Growers Association, Inc., a leader in the development of an organized marketing of produce on a national and international scale. <\/span><\/p>\n With his cousin, Robert Woolfolk he created the\u00a0Crutchfield-Woolfolk Company<\/span>\u00a0in 1903, and opened their first packinghouse in Cresent City,\u00a0Florida. The two cousins worked to refine the processes preparing fruit for shipment.<\/span>\u00a0James also helped to reform the industry’s standard trading rules and practices and was asked on several occasions to testify before Congress on fair trade practices in shipping perishable fruit.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n In 1919 the Crutchfield and Woolfolk firm\u00a0was incorporated as the American Fruit Inc. whose Blue Goose brand became well known particularly for its grapefruit.\u00a0 James S. was the primary creator of the Blue Goose brand.\u00a0He was president of the company from 1919 until 1939. Centered in Pittsburgh, PA, the company established the Blue Goose trademark as the first large-scale effort to identify the perishable fruits and vegetables that it sold to the consumer<\/span>\u00a0and to work for favorable shipping rates for customers throughout the country.<\/span><\/p>\n The well known BLUE GOOSE fruits and vegetables What the American Fruit Growers Association and the brand Blue Goose brought to the fruit growers was the concept of the “Private Exchange” an important sales outlet that was offered for the distribution of fruits and vegetables. Blue Goose was one of the largest of these exchanges<\/p>\n An important sales outlet is offered by the The private sales exchange, by handling the dis- [Brand, Chas. J..\u00a0\u00a0Marketing Fruits and Vegetables<\/em>, 1922. Published as a Confidential Edition Issued for Members of the American Fruit Growers Association, Inc.]<\/p>\n James S. Crutchfield’s daughter Harriet Crutchfield<\/strong> <\/a>helped to test the shipping methods and successes advocated by her father in her many “orders” of fruit for herself and her colleagues and students at Pine Mountain Settlement School. See her Journal<\/a> and her letters to her father.<\/span><\/p>\n As a holder in American Fruit, Inc., Crutchfield also worked with Porcher, Woolfolk, Rule, and Michael in the development of Deerfield Groves in Cocoa Beach in 1917.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/pmss_1943_family_album.jpg\")
\nadvertised and distributed by American Fruit
\nGrowers Inc., almost invariably bring better prices
\nthan the same qualities distributed under brands
\nthat have not been advertised either to the trade or
\nto the consumer.<\/p>\n
\nprivate sales exchanges or national distributors.
\nThey maintain an organized sales force throughout the
\ncountry which may be used by Individual growers or
\ncooperative associations not in a position to main-
\ntain their own sales organization, and who wish to
\nsecure the advantages of wide distribution ….<\/p>\n
\ntribution of the crops for many shippers variously
\nlocated can keep its sales force busy the entire 12
\nmonths of the year. The exchange maintains salaried
\nrepresentatives in the most important markets and
\noperates through bonded brokers at many other car-lot
\nmarkets.<\/p>\n