Information Sheet

 

 

R         Towl, J. W.

475                  Papers, 1917‑1944.

                                    Five folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection includes correspondence and business records of J. W. Towl, a business­man at Potosi in Washington County, Missouri.  Included are letters and shipping receipts regarding the barite industry, mineral lands, and the Southeast Missouri Lead Company, 1918‑1939, an in­ventory of goods at the Towl store in Potosi, 1928, and receipts for subscriptions to the Mis­souri War Chest, Inc., 1944.

 

J. W. Towl was a general merchant and dealer in lead and barite (“tiff”) ores at Potosi.  He was a stockholder of the Southeast Missouri Lead Company, and was an owner of mineral lands and small farms in Washington County.

 

The Towl collection concerns the mineral industry in Washington County during the 1920s and 1930s.  Towl was a principal of the Southeast Missouri Lead Company, which seems to have been involved solely with barite ores during this period.  Much of the ore was extracted by inde­pendent miners from public and private lands at Cannon Mines in Washington Coun­ty.  The ac­cu­mulated ore was shipped by rail from Potosi to milling companies and mineral agents.  Among the firms and individuals noted in the collection are C. P. De Lore Company, Foote Mineral Company, J. C. Finck Mineral Milling Company, National Pigments & Chemi­cal Company, E. J. Boyer, Adel­bert E. Stocking, and J. M. Thompson.  The papers indicate that Towl attempted to sell some of his mineral lands during the 1930s, and that the Southeast Missouri Lead Company looked into the possibilities of selling the company's holdings to the United States government for incorporation into the national forest.

 

In addition to his interest in the mineral industry, Towl operated a general store in Poto­si.  The collection includes an inventory of his store, 1928, and several items of correspondence con­cerning the Potosi Chamber of Commerce and economic development of the town.  The last items in the collection are receipts for subscriptions to the Missouri War Chest, Inc., dur­ing World War II.

 

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