Priester's Pecans

Let us tell you a little story about a handshake partnership and the beginning of Alabama's largest gourmet handmade candy company. Fort Deposit, Alabama, is located 35 miles south of Montgomery. The little town of 1,200 sprouted during the Revolutionary War around a military ammunition depository. And around the little town sprouted pecan trees. Lots of them. By 1935 there was a healthy trade passing through, with automobiles buzzing back and forth on the main highway between Mobile and Montgomery. Mr. Lee C. Priester owned and operated a Texaco station that serviced these travelers. But his customers wanted more than gasoline. Mr. Priester, or L.C. as he was always called, decided to offer refreshments and a little taste of the South. L.C. hired a local man named Caesar to help him gather pecans. Caesar knocked the ripened nuts down from the trees with a long stick and gathered them in sacks to bring to the porch of L.C.'s home. There the pecans in shells were bagged for sale next door at the service station.