Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Adair Adams Allamakee Appanoose Audubon Benton Black Hawk Boone Bremer Buchanan Buena Vista Butler Calhoun Carroll Cass Cedar Cerro Gordo Cherokee Chickasaw Clarke Clay Clayton Clinton Crawford Dallas Davis Decatur Delaware Des Moines Dickinson Dubuque Emmet Fayette Floyd Franklin Fremont Greene Grundy Guthrie Hamilton Hancock Hardin Harrison Henry Howard Humboldt Ida Iowa Jackson Jasper Jefferson Johnson Jones Keokuk Kossuth Lee Linn Louisa Lucas Lyon Madison Mahaska Marion Marshall Mills Mitchell Monona Monroe Montgomery Muscatine O'Brien Osceola Page Palo Alto Plymouth Pocahontas Polk Pottawattamie Poweshiek Ringgold Sac Scott Shelby Sioux Story Tama Taylor Union Van Buren Wapello Warren Washington Wayne Webster Winnebago Winneshiek Woodbury Worth Wright

An early Northrup, Braslan & Goodwin Co. catalog cover

Fall 1884, Jesse E. Northrup and Charles P. Braslan came to Minneapolis, Minn., from the eastern United States with the plan to start their own seed business. They set their sights on Minneapolis because they were interested in the potential of the hardiness, earliness, and productiveness of northern grown seed. They also saw Minneapolis as a natural distributing point for an undeveloped agricultural region.

The young men's new retail and mail order seed business opened under the name of Northrup, Braslan and Co. In 1887, A.H. Goodwin was admitted to the firm, and the company named changed to Northrup, Braslan & Goodwin Co.

One of the first color posters produced by Northrup, Braslan & Co.

Business volume increased rapidly. However, spending increased nearly as quickly. Financial relief came in 1894 when Colonel W.S. King and his son, Preston King, became involved in the company. Despite their efforts, a fire that destroyed the company's market building and pressure from farmers for contracted acres forced the company to declare bankruptcy.

Jesse E. Northrup

One More Attempt

The men decided to give the company one more try. On November 4, 1896, a new company, Northrup, King & Co., was incorporated with Jesse Northrup as President, Preston King as Treasurer, and Charles C. Massie as Secretary. Sales volume grew quickly; this time the company succeeded.

A reproduction of a large lithographed poster produced in 1916

In the beginning, the company relied heavily on catalog seed sales. Later, packet seed displays in retail stores made Northrup King a well-known name everywhere. Seeds were marketed under different brand names, including Sterling, Northland and Viking Brands.

In 1917, Northrup, King & Co. built a new main plant in northeast Minneapolis. The facility could handle 53 rail cars (the primary means of shipping seed at the time) with a strategic and advantageous location at the intersection of the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway.

1930 marked the beginning of a long stretch of acquisitions by Northrup, King & Co. Following is an outline of acquisitions from 1930 until the company became Novartis Seeds, Inc. in 1997.

Northrup King Co. acquisitions from 1930 - 1997
DATE	LOCATION	NAME OF COMPANY
1930	Bomburger Seed Co.	Los Angeles, Calif.
early 1940's	G. A. Klein Seed Co.	Los Angeles, Calif.
1958	Central States Seed Company	Lima, Ohio
1959	Andrews Seed Co.	Harrah, Wash.
1962	Whitman Seed Company	Yuma, Ariz.
1964	Nevada Alfalfa Seed Co.	Orovada, Nev.
1965	Pride Seed Company	Madison, Wis.
1967	R. S. Rice Seed Company, Inc.	Roseau, Minn.
1969	Woodside Seed Growers Company	Rocky Ford, Colo.
1970	Ed. J. Lyng Co. (resold in 1985)	Modesto, Calif.
1972	Sawan Division (name sold in 1986)	Columbus, Miss.
1972	Rudy Patrick Co. Plants	Sunnyside and Touchet, Wash.
1974	Missouri Hybrid Corn Company	Fulton, Mo.
1974	Kentucky Seed Co.	Louisville, Ky.
1979	Pieters Wheeler Plant	Gilroy, Calif.
1979	McNair Seed Co.	Laurinburg, N.C.
1985	Vegetable business of Goldsmith Seeds, Inc.	Gilroy, Calif.
1986	Sluis & Groot of California, Inc.	Salinas, Calif.
1987	Stauffer Seeds	Westport, Conn.
1988	Fredonia	Fredonia, N.Y.
1988	Coker's Pedigreed Seed Company	Hartsville, S.C.

With the purchase of new companies, Northrup, King & Co.'s territory spread throughout the United States. Meanwhile, research had come of age by the 1940's. Breeding programs were developed in the company, as it was clear that plant breeding would become the basis for continued growth in the industry.

Along the way, some milestones for the company include offering "Kingscrost" hybrid seed corn (1933) and production of the first yellow endosperm and early varieties of hybrid sorghum (1957). The company went from being a privately-held to a publicly-owned company in 1968.

One of Northup, King & Co.'s early advertisements

In 1976, Sandoz, Ltd. purchased Northrup, King & Co., and the company name was soon changed to Northrup King Co. In 1986 (while purchasing more companies along the way) Northrup King Co. moved its headquarters to its current Golden Valley, Minn., location.

The lawn and garden business was spun off, and eventually sold in 1993. The company began to focus particularly on field crops with an emphasis on corn, under the NK® Brand. The company worked closely with its sister companies Hilleshög Mono-Hy (sugarbeets) and Rogers (vegetables), which were subsidiaries of Sandoz.

One of the company's major milestones is the development of Bt corn, which was introduced to the market in 1996. (Click here to read about Northrup King Bt corn milestones).

In 1997, Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged to form Novartis, with the seed divisions of each company merging to form Novartis Seeds.

This photograph (1918) shows the Model Ts in front of the Jackson Street plant that were used by the sales force.

Northrup King Co.       Pride Seed Co.       Stauffer Seeds       Coker Pedigreed Seed Co. Ciba Seeds       Funk Seeds

Return to Novartis Seeds History