Sam, Thad, Ralph and Harold continued in the food business, forming a partnership and, in 1946, incorporating into T.W. Garner Food Company, as it is known today. Over the years the ”four Garners”, as they were known, produced a number of food products, including a complete line of jams and jellies, horseradish and other items. They came up with a number of products under the Texas Pete brand name to complement their popular hot sauce. These included hot dog chili, honey mustard, seafood cocktail, green pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Buffalo wing sauce. Today the company is prospering as it celebrates its eightieth year in business. Members of the fourth generation of the Garner family have followed in their elders’ footsteps. The current factory, built in 1942 and added onto too many times to count, sits on the original Garner family home site in northwest Winston-Salem. And the legendary Texas Pete, proud of his cowboy heritage but also a proud North Carolinian, continues to thrive!
BEFORE THE FIRST DROP OF TEXAS PETE® HOT SAUCE WAS EVER TASTED, THERE WAS A DREAM IN THE GREAT IMAGINATIONS OF THE GARNER FAMILY. HERE'S THEIR STORY.
THE YEAR
WAS 1929...
FROM THE TABLE OF A NORTH CAROLINA BBQ RESTAURANT TO YOURS
In 1929, the onset of the Great Depression, Sam Garner and his wife, Ila Jane, affectionately known as ”Mother Jane”, were struggling to make ends meet for themselves and their seven children. The oldest of the clan, Paul, had gone off to school at Duke University. The next in line, Thad, decided to use his college money to buy a nearby barbecue restaurant. Along with the restaurant came a special secret recipe for a delicious barbecue sauce. Everyone requested a hotter version so instead they created a hot sauce: what’s known and beloved today as Texas Pete Original Hot Sauce.
The restaurant did not survive, but the barbecue sauce, made in the family kitchen, survived and prospered. People loved it! Soon the entire family was helping out to make the sauce and keep the family afloat in the hard times. Sam, who never met a stranger, traveled the back roads of North Carolina peddling their sauce. Thad, along with younger brothers Ralph and Harold, as well as Mother Jane and sisters Virginia, Elizabeth, and even young Margaret, were helping in the kitchen. Eventually the three sisters went off to college themselves, all graduating and moving on in their careers and/or marriage.
So how in tarnation does a spicy red pepper sauce from North Carolina end up with the name ‘Texas Pete’?
Well, the story goes like this: Sam Garner and his three sons Thad, Ralph, and Harold—were ponderin’ what they should name their new fiery sauce. A marketer suggested callin' it “Mexican Joe,” Sam insisted “It’s gotta be an American name! Sam figured Texas was known for spice and looked at his son Harold whose nickname was Pete, and well the rest is history!
