Information Sheet

 

 

R         Midco Mercantile Company.

306                  Coupon book, ca. 1920.

                                    One item.

 

 

 

This is an unused coupon book from the general store at Midco, two miles north of Fre­mont in Carter County, Missouri.  The business was owned by the Mid‑Continent Iron Company, which op­erated an iron furnace and chemical plant at Midco until 1921.

 

The town of Midco was the center of operations of the Mid‑Continent Iron Company. The company purchased or leased several thousand acres in western Carter County in 1917, and had a blast furnace in operation by November 1918.  The company also erected facilities for making charcoal, houses for the employees, and a school for children of the workers.  A chemical plant was built during World War I for the recovery of wood alcohol and calcium acetate, by‑products of the charcoal making process.  Midco enjoyed only a brief period of prosperity.  The plant was not profitable following the war, and the community was decimated by an epidemic of influenza.  Operations ceased at Midco in 1921.

 

In compliance with Missouri law which forbade mining companies to transact any busi­ness not specified in their charters, mining companies organized their surface operations as wholly owned subsidiaries.  The iron company established the Midco Mercantile Company to operate its general store.  The business catered to the miners and their families, and served about 500 indi­viduals at Midco’s peak in 1919.  The unused coupon book from the store indi­cates that the ten dollar price of the coupons could be charged to an employee’s labor account with the company.  The coupons are in one, five, ten, and twenty‑five cent denominations.

 

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