Answer Woman: What is origin of mysterious 1922 Asheville Citizen ad for '$355 bee?'

Today's burning question is about a mysterious ad that ran more than 100 years ago in the paper that was to become the Citizen Times. Have other questions for our staff? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at [email protected] and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: I’m a sociologist, and as part of my work I read a lot of 100-year old newspapers. I was reading the Saturday, May 20th, 1922 edition of the Asheville Citizen (precursor to your paper), and came across the weirdest advertisement on page 2.

The advertisement prominently features an illustration of a bee, with the text: “This Bee is worth $355. Do you want it?” There is no other information included, so your guess is as good as mine as to what a 1922 Ashevillian should have done if they wanted the $355 bee.

The $355 bee has been living rent-free in my head since I first encountered this ad a year ago. I have so many questions! What kind of bee would someone sell for $355 in 1922 (over $6,000 in today’s money)? Was this a prank? A scam? Who is the person that placed this ad? I just need to know more.

Answer: This question got multiple people in on the aforementioned rabbit-hole. While we couldn't find a firm answer, the search turned up some interesting theories.

Carissa Pfeiffer, a librarian at Pack Memorial Library, told the Citizen Times that she "probably spent too much time" looking into the matter. Her research on Asheville's beekeeping scene circa 1922 led her to a few theories around beekeeper Elton Warner.

"He wrote to the Citizen in 1918 about Asheville and its suitability for beekeeping and came here, founded his business in 1921 and was pretty prominent," Pfeiffer said. "He co-founded the State Beekeepers Association, he appears in a bunch of trade catalogs and trade journals, writing about the business of beekeeping."

The article says that Warner was possibly transferring his grapefruit and bee business from San Juan, "Porto Rico" (yes, misspelled) to Western North Carolina.

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Theory No. 1: No extra information was needed

One theory of Pfeiffer's, due to Warner's prominence as a beekeeper in the Asheville community, was that no extra information was included in the ad simply because his target audience would know to contact him.

"My best guess would be because he's the largest and most prominent beekeeper around, and that people sort of know of him since he's been reported on in the news since 1918, that maybe it's kind of an early sort of guerilla marketing campaign, right?" Pfeiffer said.

"'Are you interested in bees? Here's how much they could net you. You know how to get in touch with me if you need to. I don't even need to put my address in here.'"

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Theory No. 2: Illegal Puerto Rican bee trafficking?

Another theory, added by Pfeiffer in an email, was a bit more sordid. In 1922, the year the mysterious ad ran, Congress passed a law that banned the importation of adult honeybees into the mainland United States to protect the American honeybee population from disease.

Warner told the Asheville Citizen in his 1918 letter that his honeybee colonies, all based in Puerto Rico at the time, were worth about $10,000 in total. His specialty was breeding queens for sale.

In 1922, Warner's U.S. operations would have been active for less than a year. If he relied on exporting Puerto Rican bees for income, the Honeybee Act may have been a major issue for Warner's cash flow. Thus, Pfeiffer's second theory.

"The Library of Congress says this was possibly the first piece of U.S. legislation about honeybees," Warner said. "So maybe the political climate necessitated subtlety in advertising … (I don't really think this was the case, but wouldn't it be dramatic!)"

Pfeiffer added that there is evidence Warner was in financial trouble within two years.

"I don't see anything about the Honeybee Act being reported in the Asheville papers, although it probably caused large beekeepers like Mr. Warner some stress (he is in financial trouble by March 1924, and on top of that his wife passed away that February,)" Pfeiffer said.

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Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Mysterious 1922 Asheville Citizen ad selling $355 honeybee?