Albany: From Potato Chips to Pea Soup and a World War

We receive lots of Albany history questions. A recent inquiry was fascinating. A gentleman from an historical group from the village of Elst, Holland asked if we knew anything about the A.A. Walter Co. in Albany. It seems someone in the village found an old 5 lb. can of dehydrated pea soup, from the World War II era, manufactured by A.A. Walter.

Oh boy, do we!

A.A. Walter Company

A.A. Walter was one of the first commercial potato chip manufacturers. Alexander and Alfred Walter were brothers from Fairhaven, Vt. who wanted to cash in on the potato chip craze at the beginning of the 20th century. They perfected what they thought was the best potato chip ever and moved their business to Albany.

In 1902 the brothers opened the Blue Ribbon Potato Chip factory at 4 Liberty St., one the first in the world. The factory had an endless source of potatoes from surrounding farms and a large supply of labor (mostly women) who lived in the South End in the early 1900s. Because Albany was a railroad hub they could ship all over the Northeast. Within several years the company re-located to a larger home at 51 -53 Liberty St.

It was so successful, that in 1925 the company moved yet again to 13 South Lansing St., and opened the first factory in the world devoted exclusively to potato chip manufacture.

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Fast forward to World War II. The Walter Co. secured government contracts to produce potato chips for the troops and to stock cafeterias and canteens in manufacturing plants across the country. The factory ran two and sometimes three shifts a day. At one point, it produced 7 million pounds of Blue Ribbon Potato Chips in 9 months. It made dehydrated potatoes and, apparently pea soup, for the troops.*

Why Elst Holland?

That’s a story related to one of the most famous and infamous operations of the War War II. Elst is located just north of Albany’s sister city Nijmegen and south of Arnhem, site of the “bridge too far” over the Rhine. It was called “Operation Market Garden”.

Operation Market Garden ( the 75th anniversary was last month – about the time we received the question)

Operation Market Garden was a British campaign, designed by Field Marshal Montgomery, planned for September 1944, to drop Allied airborne troops in Arnhem (slightly northwest of Elst in Holland), crossing the Rhine and driving into the Ruhr Valley. The plan called for securing a sixty mile long corridor for ground troops to relieve the British paratroopers in Arnhem. American airborne troops were tasked to capture the bridges at Eindhoven, and Nijmegen. The troops then were to rush up this corridor, but spent most of their time defending it from German attacks along the entire length.

The British airborne that dropped into Arnhem thought they were dropping into an area defended by second rate troops, in reality they dropped into first rate German panzers and infantry. There was a battle between British units and Germans near and in the village of Elst, but the Allies had to fall back to Nijmegen. The British were overrun in Arnhem, and the new Allied front line was advanced to Nijmegen. Operation Market Garden was considered a failure even though the front line was advanced sixty miles or so. The route from Nijmegen to Arnhem , which passed by Elst, was called the “Hell Highway”.

It’s not possible to determine if the can of soup arrived in Elst during Operation Market Garden (probably not) or in February 1945 when a huge Allied drive of 500,00 men amassed in the area for a push into Germany, or when the area near Arnhem was liberated several months later. There was a terrible famine in Holland in 1944 and 1945 and the food shortage continued for a number of years after the War**, so it could have arrived as part of American war surplus in those years.

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Whenever it arrived, it’s one of those odd artifacts that tells an interesting story about Albany and the world we live in; the stuff of history – local and global.

*In 1950 Alexander Walter’s son closed the factory, sold the company name and established another business, “Walter Foods”. He became the fish and chip king of Albany for just over20 years until the early 1970s.

**A cousin’s husband, living as teenager in Leiden, Holland during the War, told of the extreme famine, and eating tulip bulbs in desperation.

Thanks to Thomas Duclos, retired Associate Curator of the NYS Military Museum for his help. describing Operation Market Garden.

Copyright 2021  Julie O’Connor