Collection is open for research.
Gift of Spencer M. Ehrman, Sr., September 1994 (Lib. Acc. 21941).
Spencer Mason Ehrman, Sr. was born in 1920 in Portland, Oregon. He studied at Yale University and then served in the United States Navy during World War II. After the war, he worked at his family's wholesale grocery firm, Mason, Ehrman & Co.; he later worked for Schuss Wholesale Grocery, and at one point was its owner. He then worked for S.E. Rykoff, and retired in 1983 as that firm's Pacific Northwest General Manager.
Source: Obituary on OregonLive (accessed May 30, 2025),
The Schuss Wholesale Grocery Company was founded in 1945 in Portland, Oregon, by Joseph Schuss (1880-1956). It filed for articles of incorporation in the state of Oregon in 1955 with Sol Siegel, Gerson F. Goldsmith, and Philip S. Greenberg (1928-1995) as incorporators. In April 1973, Greenberg sold the firm to S.E. Rykoff.
Sources: Obituary for Joseph Schuss, Oregon Journal, April 19, 1956, page 11; "Grocery Firm Files at Capital," Oregonian, February 24, 1955, page 8; "GF Branch Here Goes to Rykoff," Oregon Journal, November 12, 1974, Page 29; obituary for Philip S. Greenberg, Oregonian, December 8, 1995, page B11.
Mason, Ehrman & Co. (sometimes written as Mason-Ehrman and Company or Mason-Ehrman Co.) was a wholesale grocery firm based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1885 by future Portland mayor William S. Mason (1832-1899) and his business partner, Edward Ehrman (1854-1933). By 1934, the firm had wholesale houses in Astoria, Klamath Falls, and Medford in Oregon; and in Lewiston and Moscow in Idaho. After the sale of the houses in Klamath Falls and Medford in 1958, only the Idaho houses were still operational. The firm was defunct by 1970.
Sources: Obituary for William S. Mason in the Oregonian, March 21, 1899, page 1; obituary for Edward Ehrman in the Oregonian, August 2, 1933, page 1; "Grocery Upturn Seen," Oregonian, September 9, 1934, Section 7, page 1; "Grocery Firm Selling Out," Herald and News (Klamath Falls, Oregon), September 18, 1958, page 4A; "Check to Pay '48 Bill Found Delayed in Mail," Idaho Statesman, March 14, 1969, page 34; Portland city directories, 1969-1971.
Wholesale grocery ledger kept by Spencer M. Ehrman, Sr., Coll 1087, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of a ledger owned by Spencer M. Ehrman, Sr. of Portland, Oregon. The ledger lists wholesale grocery purchases, most likely made for either Mason, Ehrman & Co. or Schuss Wholesale Grocery Company, both of which were firms based in Portland. The ledger is divided into sections based on the type of product being purchased, and the pages provide information about the purchase date and quantity.
Mason, Ehrman & Co. product labels that were donated to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library with this ledger were processed as Coll 1086.
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