Wander south of downtown St. Paul, over the Mississippi River and the Robert Street bridge, and you’re bound to spot the billboard image of a firefighter on the side of a mid-sized factory warehouse.

That’s the home of a St. Paul food company that owes its origins to the Minnesota State Fair and the St. Paul Fire Department, as well as two families whose histories go back generations.

St. Paul fire captain Ken Freiberg served Firehouse 14 chili and oven baked beans in 1953. The State Fair beckoned. pic.twitter.com/Qoe0PLd0Zw — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 17, 2017

St. Paul Fire Captain Ken Freiberg always knew how to make a mouthwatering batch of chili. Freiberg began his firefighting career in St. Paul in 1943, and later oversaw Firehouse Number 14 on Snelling and Ashland avenues, where tradition had it that firemen cooked meals for each other. Freiberg became so well known for his oven-baked beans with molasses that in 1964 he opened a firehouse chili stand at the State Fair, his go-to destination during summer vacations.

Three years later, at the age of 55, he retired from the fire department and tapped his pension to launch Captain Ken’s Foods. Based on St. Paul’s Robert Street near Plato Boulevard, the food processing company this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The privately held company specializes in flash-frozen chili, mac and cheese, pot pie filling, taco meat and other microwavable fare, but Captain Ken’s is perhaps just as well known throughout Minnesota for participating in 65 civic events annually, from the Minnesota State Fair’s daily parade to the governor’s fishing opener, the St. Paul Winter Carnival and neighborhood festivals.

Company owners Mike and John Traxler or operating manager Kevin Kosel arrive in a 1923 Ahrens Fox Hook & Ladder Steamer-Pumper fire truck that fits nearly two-dozen fans on a good day.

Like Freiberg himself, the fire truck last fought fires from Firehouse Number 14.

“It’s great fun when you have fathers walking up to you saying ‘I was this high when I started riding that fire truck,’ and now they’ve got their kids on it,” said John Traxler, holding a hand at waist level.

Can I buy chili here? pic.twitter.com/3yz7sUZeak — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 17, 2017

Freiberg, who drove the same fire engine in the State Fair parade for 28 years, died in 2005 at the age of 91. “In 2001, we knew he was going to be out there, so we spotted him in the crowd and we pulled him on,” John Traxler said. “That was his last ride in the captain’s chair.”

His traditions, however, live on.

The company’s 25 employees purchased Captain Ken’s Foods from Freiberg around 1989, but it struggled for a time. John Traxler, who was on the board of trustees, suggested that he and his brother make a friendly bid for it. The trustees waffled and then rejected the offer.

Employees “were concerned about what was going to happen to their jobs, and whether (new owners) would relocate it to Chicago,” John Traxler said.

Michael Traxler, a hockey player, got to know the older brother of a plant manager on the ice, and the idea of a friendly purchase resurfaced some 20 months later. In 1999, with Freiberg’s blessing, employees agreed to sell the company to the investor-brothers, and a bit of local history was made. “Ken felt the Traxlers would be a good fit for the company,” John Traxler said.

The smallest dock pick-up ever for Captain Ken's Firehouse Chili, a St. Paul institution since 1967. pic.twitter.com/AVSo8DBlUz — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 17, 2017

As family names go, Traxlers and Freibergs are no strangers. Generations of Traxlers and Freibergs have farmed the land in Minnesota, sometimes just across a dirt path within yards of each other. John Traxler recalled seeing a property abstract where land had been sold from one family to another and then back again over the years.

These days, the company produces more than 30 pre-cooked and flash-frozen products, from baked beans to chow mein, most of them sold to institutional customers such as restaurants, casinos and schools or the national “broadliner” distribution companies that service them, such as Sysco and U.S. Foods. They do more limited business with retail merchants such as SuperValu, Target and Walmart.

“We touch 40 states, but we’re more regional in the upper Midwest,” Michael Traxler said.

In March, Captain Ken’s won the “Traditions” award from the city of St. Paul, which honors a longstanding St. Paul company that is active in civic life.

“That was nice recognition,” said John Traxler, who accompanied his brother to St. Paul City Hall for the honor. “Our plant manager (Richard Gavin) has been with the company for 44 years. And Kevin (Kosel’s) been there 34 years. All of us were down there to accept it.”