The Life of HENRY H. OLDS
Henry Holmer Olds was a famous pie baker in New Haven Connecticut in the 1800s. His delivery wagons furnished dealers daily and made specialty pie shipping arrangements by Express to dealers in any part of the New England states in cases of 16 or 32 pies. Perhaps his most famous move was to hire William R. Frisbie in 1869 to help him sell his pies in Bridgeport, CT.
In 1871, The W. R. Frisbie Pie Bakers was founded in Bridgeport, and Frisbie took over Olds' business and established his routes. In 1903, after the death of William R. Frisbie, his son Joseph P. Frisbie became president of the bakery and expanded from production of a few hundred pies per day into a thriving enterprise with routes that
covered most of the New England states.
Although it was Charles Schwartz of Brooklyn, NY who originally applied for a U.S. patent for a "Spinning Toy," the well know Frisbie of today emulates from the Frisbie pie plate that was tossed from one person to another in a spinning motion. Today, much of the history of H. H. Olds & Co., New Haven Pies, and the W. R. Frisbie Bakery is forgotten, but the Frisbie craze that began at Yale in 1920 lives on. Discus throwing itself began in 776 B.C. as one of the Pentathlon events at the Greek Olympics. The winner of the game received the Discus as his prize.
Henry Holmer Olds was born to this earth in 1825 and born to heaven in 1888. He rests at
Evergreen Cemetery.