Manufacturer: (likely) J. & G. Meakin, England
User: Ballard & Johnson
Pattern name: (likely) Blue Atlantic
Distributor (likely) Albert Pick & Company
Date of compote/comport: early 20^th century

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Notes: The Ballard & Johnson company, founded by William W. Ballard, Jesse M. Johnson and ostensibly silent partner Hardage N. McGready, was incorporated in March 1910 with headquarters in Springfield, Illinois, after having already done business for many years under that name. The group's articles of incorporation stated they were "conducting hotels, restaurants, buffet and news service on trains."

At one time, Ballard & Johnson operated nearly 80 venues and was closely associated with the Wabash Railroad with an eventual chain of restaurants, lunchrooms, concessions and hotels, at least most of which were focused on serving passengers of the Wabash in the Midwest as well, apparently, as the C. P. & St. L. railroad. Business for the company with the Wabash, however, seems to have diminished around 1911.

The Wabash Railroad was a Midwestern bridge line that ran through the mid-central United States and had a checkered management and financial history. For the purposes of this small article pertaining only to the Ballard & Johnson Company, it is probably no coincidence that when the Wabash fell into receivership in 1911, that was also the point at which we found far fewer hits for Ballard and Johnson in our search.

One newspaper blurb, in the July 16, 1910, issue of the Hannibal Courier Post, said: "Mr. Ballard, of the firm of Ballard & Johnson, who operate a number of splendid eating houses on the Wabash railroad, was a Hannibal visitor yesterday. The firm also serves train lunches on the 'Banner Route.'" By serving "train lunches," we have an image of company employees going seat-to-seat in the coaches (and to train employees) and offering basically our 21^st century equivalent of brown-bag lunches, eaten without benefit of utensils or dishes – and not in any way a full dining car service.

A story in the March 29, 1908, issue of the Daily Review in Decatur, Illinois, announced a change in management of "the Wabash restaurant" by Ballard and Johnson, describing the company as having existing "restaurants in the Wabash stations at East St. Louis, Springfield and Hannibal, besides conducting the commissary service on Wabash passenger trains Nos. 8 and 9 West, and on the C. P. & St. L. railroad. [Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad]." This "commissary service," like the term "train lunches," could have been either delivery of prepared food to the trains to be sold to passengers and employees by railroad staff or  the sale of food directly to them by Ballard and Johnson staff.

We found the following incomplete list of 18 Ballard and Johnson locations spanning Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, that also included at least one interurban station in Lafayette, Indiana.

• Illinois
  Bloomington
  Bluffs
  Chatsworth
  Chicago
  Decatur
  Forrest
  Fairbury
  Jacksonville
  Peoria
  Springfield
• Indiana
  Lafayette
  Peru
• Michigan
  Detroit
• Missouri
  Hannibal
  Moberly
  St. Louis
• Ohio
  Montpelier
  Toledo

It should not be inferred, despite the use of the phrase "splendid eating houses" by the Hannibal newspaper, that these were by any notion grand dining destinations. More likely they strove however successfully to emulate the standards set by the Fred Harvey houses that provided prompt service and high-quality food for incoming rail passengers.

This impression, perhaps unfair, is based on blurbs found recounting, for example, a two-room "hotel" that was hastily erected with massive time constraints in just two weeks, and a scene of minor bedlam recounted when a train full of hungry Italian passengers poured out through open car windows demanding food from the Ballard and Johnson depot restaurant in Peru, Indiana.

Uncovering the breadth of Ballard and Johnson's holdings is a challenge – especially the hotels – because they were seemingly operated without the need to brand them with the company name.

In 1918, for example, the company bought the Hotel Wells in Logansport, Indiana, and held a contest to rename it. The winning name was Pennsylvania Hotel, because it was located next to the Pennsylvania Passenger Station in that town.

And for another example, in 1927, the company purchased the Bell Cafe in Decatur, Illinois, and held a contest to rename it as well. That winning name is not known.

By 1938, according to a story in the Decatur Daily Review, the last of the Ballard and Johnson restaurants had been sold after the original owners had died and the chain was broken up.

Despite the picture we put together from clippings of a ragtag chain of modest hotels and eating places – some of which were hastily built – to have chosen china as elegant as this comport/compote to topmark with their name, there must have been at least one venue, whether hotel or restaurant, that was large enough – or worthy enough in decor and menu – to justify this purchase by Ballard and Johnson.

The compote is unmarked except for a mystery N on the back in addition to the Ballard & Johnson topmark. Syracuse China made a very similar version of this pattern, but in carefully examining each detail of the pattern, it looks instead identical to the Blue Atlantic pattern by English pottery J. & G. Meakin. In its 1913 catalog, Albert Pick & Company – a major supplier of china and hotel supplies to the Midwest – featured a one-page spread of the Blue Atlantic Art Nouveau Decoration and went to some lengths to describe it in terms that restaurateurs would appreciate: "It is a hard English Porcelain Hotel Ware, possessing exceptional wearing qualities. … The underglaze blue decoration, on this pure white body, presents a most beautiful and attractive pattern. It has been subjected to an extremely hard firing. This makes the ware far tougher and thereby adds greatly to its service-giving qualities."

The white body compote is decorated in deep blue with three Art Nouveau-style floral and ribbon ornaments spaced around the interior of the bowl with a stripe around the outer rim and the stacked words "Ballard & Johnson" at the one o'clock position. The pattern is repeated on the underside of the compote's bowl and on its pedestal base.

Sources:
Hannibal Courier Post, 1910
Daily Review, 1908, 1911
Decatur Herald and Review, 1912
Huntington Press, 1913
The Pharos-Tribune, 1917, 1918, 1922
Decatur Daily Review, 1908, 1927, 1938
Albert Pick & Co. catalog, 1913

Contributors:
Susan Phillips: compote photos and research
Roland Burritt: research
Ed Phillips: research