From the Heinz web site:
"The first product was horseradish, and the glass of its bottle was clear. There was a reason: while competitors extended their horseradish with fillers, concealed from view in green glass jars, Founder Henry John Heinz took his stand on quality and proudly displayed his product in transparent bottles. See — No leaves, no wood fiber, no turnip filler.
Henry was 25. The food processing industry was even younger, and commercial preservation in cans and bottles had yet to earn the public trust; so the typical American diet was a dreary affair. Staples as of 1869 were limited to bread, potatoes, root vegetables and meat — usually dried, smoked or salted. Cucumbers and pickles were the salads of winter; grapefruit was a distant rumor, except in Florida; tomatoes were called "love apples," an exotic Mexican fruit. And, Henry Heinz was taking the first steps in a journey that would help to change all that, forever.
After horseradish came pickles, sauerkraut and vinegar, delivered by horse-drawn wagons to grocers in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Processing, packing and headquarters offices shared a two-story farmhouse in Sharpsburg, at the city's northern edge. But within five years, Heinz and partner L. C. Noble had moved to larger quarters, on their way to becoming one of the nation's leading producers of condiments. Heinz & Noble could count among its assets a hundred acres of garden along the Allegheny River — 30 acres of horseradish — along with 24 horses, a dozen wagons and a vinegar factory in St. Louis.
In the banking panic of 1875, this overextended young enterprise was forced into bankruptcy. Heinz then discovered that the grocers he had been supplying were unwilling to extend credit even to feed his family.
With brother John and cousin Frederick, he started over in 1875. In the depression brought on by the banking collapse, it was a difficult first year, but one in which a new product was introduced — tomato ketchup. Red and green pepper sauce soon followed, then cider vinegar and apple butter, chili sauce, mincemeat, mustard, tomato soup, olives, pickled onions, pickled cauliflower, baked beans and the first sweet pickles ever brought to market. The American table was brightening, along with the Heinz ledger."
The historical marker near the plant reads:
"From a start in 1869 selling bottled horseradish, Heinz built an international firm by 1886. He pioneered innovative advertising, quality control, and benevolent employee policies and transformed modern diets."