12/28/2016:
For decades, downtown Fargo had a candy factory that made everything from marshmallows to chocolates. C.A. Everhart & Co. had its start in 1895 when Wisconsin native Charles A. Everhart came to Fargo. His first confectionary was located at 17 Roberts Street, in the area of today’s Renaissance Hall. The early factory sat near Fargo’s city hall, firehouse and post office.
In 1901, Everhart’s wholesale confectionary moved to the 800 block of NP Avenue, and a three-story factory was built between Seventh and Eighth Streets NP. The new building had 30,000 square feet and steam heat. The factory only sold its candy to dealers.
A few years later, in 1905, Everhart sold the company to the J.D. Grant Candy Company. Frank Chaney, an Everhart employee since he was 16, then opened his own candy shop in downtown Fargo. Charles Everhart’s brother George joined Frank Chaney, and the Chaney-Everhart Candy Company began. In 1914, they bought out a competitor operating out of the Everhart factory on NP Avenue, bringing the Everhart name back to the three-story building.
The candy business operated for years afterward, but Frank Chaney died in 1930, and in 1932, the business dropped from Fargo directories. George Everhart died in 1940. And on this date in 1942, a fire destroyed the three-story factory, home to decades of candymaking in downtown Fargo.
Remnants of the old business can still be found … on Ebay! Like a four-inch, glass paperweight marked with the Everhart brand.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources
"https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/everhart-co" https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/everhart-co
://fargohistory.com/resilience-and-rebound-virtues-of-building-in-brick/
"http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/uw/id/843" http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/uw/id/843
"http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/uw/id/8065/rec/2" http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/uw/id/8065/rec/2
"http://www.ebay.com/itm/Glass-Paperweight-C-A-Everhart-Co-Fargo-ND-Steam-Confectionery-Works-/171875421721" http://www.ebay.com/itm/Glass-Paperweight-C-A-Everhart-Co-Fargo-ND-Steam-Confectionery-Works-/171875421721