The roots of Gorton’s of Gloucester go back to 1849. John Pew & Sons was the first fish packing company in the city. Slade Gorton & Co. started packing salt-dried fish in barrels in 1868. Slade was the first to advertise his product—“Absolutely Boneless Codfish”—nationally. Gorton, John Pew, and two other firms merged in 1906 into Gorton-Pew Fisheries, becoming owners of the largest fishing fleet on the East Coast. By the 1950s, its frozen fish sticks in boxes with the distinctive man at the wheel reigned.