Information Sheet

 

 

R         Reed-Harlin Company.

489                  Minutes of meetings, 1904-1978.

                                    One volume.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are minutes of meetings of the stockholders and board of directors of the Reed-Harlin Company, a wholesale grocery firm based in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri.  The re­cords be­gin with the organization of the company in 1904 as the West Plains Grocer Company, and con­tinue through its dissolution in 1978.

 

The West Plains Grocer Company was organized on 7 May 1904 at West Plains by John R. Reed, Benjamin F. Wood, William T. Harlin, James P. Harlin, and James M. Herd.  John R. Reed of Gainesville was the principal stockholder and president, and James P. Harlin of West Plains was resident manager of the company’s operations, until their deaths in 1949 and 1946, respectively.  Benjamin F. Wood became president in 1947, followed by J. B. Hard, who pre­sided at the time of dissolution.  The firm became the Reed-Harlin Grocer Company on 6 February 1912, and the Reed-Harlin Company in 1954.  During the company’s most successful period through the 1940s, the firm engaged in the wholesale grocery market in a multi-county area in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.  There were branch offices in Cabool and Willow Springs, Missouri, and Hardy and Mammoth Spring, Arkansas.  Declining revenue and increased expense led to the decision to liquidate on 8 November 1978, at which time negotiations were opened to sell the remaining assets to the General Grocer Company.

 

 

The earliest minutes in this collection were transcribed from excerpts selected and photo­cop­ied from the original record book, 1904-1942.  There is a gap in the records from 4 January 1919 to 19 December 1942.  The remaining records consist of original typewritten minutes, 1944-1978.

 

Shelf List for this collection
Index cards for this collection
Questions? Use our Researcher Registration Form
Return to WHMC-Rolla's home page.