On April 1, 1921 the makers of Dixie Cups moved into their new 80,000 square foot factory in Wilson. The president, Hugh Moore, had a flash of fear.
“The space seemed so vast that I had a moment of panic, thinking we had overbuilt,” he recalled years later.
Moore didn’t worry for long. The "Individual Drinking Cup Company" as the business was then named, was so successful that the building was expanded three times in the next ten years, to more than 600,000 square feet. The landmark cup on the roof appeared in 1925.
Success was the result of constant innovation—in products, production methods, and marketing. During the 1920s, the company introduced Ice Cream Dixies—2.5 ounce servings of ice cream in decorated cups. Moore insisted that only the very best dairies were allowed to put their ice cream in and their name on the cups—which also prominently displayed the Dixie logo. Ice Cream Dixies were quickly followed by decorated drinking cups, which were soon joined by matching plates and food containers. Always guided by Moore’s foundational principle: “We sell health,” the company moved into single-use products for soda fountains and restaurants in the 1930s.
The workforce grew as the company prospered, eventually employing between 1300 and 1500 people at the Wilson plant. What percentage of them were women is uncertain, but photographs of cup production through the decades show mostly female workers. This is not surprising, since the work, which required attention, quick hands, and hours of standing, was not otherwise strenuous.
In 2016, the National Canal Museum’s exhibit “Dixie: Easton’s Cup of Health and Happiness,” drew many Dixie workers, retirees, and their families. Conversations with them revealed the multi-generational loyalty the company had inspired, as many people told us of parents and even grandparents they had worked alongside in the building on 25th Street.
One woman’s story illustrates why so many workers stayed with the company: she went to work at Dixie in the late 40s, a week after graduating from Easton High School. She met her husband at work, and in 1951, she took the company’s generous maternity leave: nine months, with pay. She returned to work, and stayed until her second child was born in 1953.
She returned to Dixie in the early 60s, and worked until her husband’s Bethlehem Steel wages reached the point that they could do without her income. During their visit to the exhibit, the couple, now in their early 90s, spoke warmly of the life-long friends they had made at work, and the pride they still took in working for Dixie.