The brothers who built Iowa's spice empire in 1873 — and brought Tone's to Ankeny in 1994.
In 1873, Jehiel Tone — born in New York and trained at a coffee-and-spice company in Michigan — convinced his brother I. E. Tone to head west with him. They settled in Des Moines, which had just become Iowa's capital, and founded Tone Brothers. The original staff was just Jehiel, I. E., “Aunt Mary,” and “Mother,” and it remained a family business for a century.
Within 25 years, Tone was selling coffee, tea, and spices across the region — the first company west of the Mississippi to sell roasted coffee, at a time when most people still roasted green beans at home over a wood stove. In 1888 the company changed the game by inventing the individual, pre-ground spice packaging still used today.
Tone Brothers grew as a century-long Iowa family business and is now part of a larger food company; corporate financials are not separately disclosed.
From a two-brother coffee-and-spice shop in 1873, Tone's became one of the country's best-known spice brands and an Iowa institution. Its Ankeny plant, completed in 1994, remains a major local manufacturer, and Tone's spices are found in kitchens nationwide.
Tone's is based in Ankeny, Iowa. Historic Iowa spice maker with a major Ankeny plant since 1994; now part of a larger food company
1873.
Jehiel Tone — co-founder (1873); trained in the coffee-and-spice trade in Michigan
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