Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company Records, 1894-1959
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company
- Title
- F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company Records
- Dates
- 1894-1959 (inclusive)18941959
- Quantity
- 11 containers., (7 linear feet of shelf space.), (2500 items.)
- Collection Number
- Cage 338
- Summary
- Business and financial records, including daily reports of wheat prices, tax returns, expense records, property assessments, grain orders, general ledgers cash books and other records of a flour-milling company in Cheney, Washington, with interests in real estate, farm land, rents, stocks and bonds. Company officials included F.M. Martin, C.D. Martin and Elizabeth Goerling.
- Repository
-
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu - Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research use.
- Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
The F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company was founded in August, 1907, by Francis M. Martin (1858-1925) and J. F. Smith, with the assistance of Clarence D. Martin (1886-1955). The company was capitalized at $50,000 with 200 shares of common stock. F. M. Martin retained the controlling interest with 174 shares, Smith had twenty, C. D. Martin had one and two other investors held five shares. The founders were careful not to limit the company to operating a general grain and milling business. According to the Articles of Incorporation, the company's purpose included the ability "to buy, acquire, lease, own, control, operate, improve, sell, mortgage and convey any and all kinds of grain, mills, water power, electrical power, stocks, bonds, personal property and real estate, to borrow and loan money; and to do and perform any and all things deemed by the officers of said company as necessary in carrying out the general purposes [of the company]."
F. M. Martin was elected president and general manager and retained that position until his death in August of 1925. During the first decade of operation, the company was extremely successful. Profits were such that the company directors declared substantial dividends in the years from 1910 to 1916. In 1916 alone the dividend was $100 per share. The exception to this succession of prosperous years came in 1912 when a fire at the mill, causing over $20,000 in damage, forced the directors to defer issuing the customary dividend. The company expanded its operation in 1918 with the construction of a new and larger mill which was fortuitously completed just after the destruction by fire of the old mill.
Clarence D. Martin, son of principal founder F. M. Martin, succeeded his father as president and general manager in August, 1925. In November, 1932, C. D. Martin was elected governor of the state of Washington and, therefore, took up residence in the Governor's Mansion in Olympia. Until January, 1941, when he returned to Cheney, he left the operation of the business to his business secretary, Elizabeth Goerling, and his eldest son, William F. Martin. Early in 1943, after months of negotiation, Martin sold the mill to the National Biscuit Company for $1,000,000 cash. This was not, however, the end of the F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company. The company, which retained its headquarters in Cheney, had acquired substantial real estate, business and financial interests throughout the state of Washington as well as numerous stocks and bonds. In August, 1955, C. D. Martin died and the firm passed to his three sons. The company continued in business with Elizabeth Goerling as business secretary. The last entry contained among these records of the company is for December, 1959.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The records of the F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company contain financial and business records for the period 1907 to 1959. There are two series: unbound material and bound volumes. The unbound material contains daily reports of wheat prices and mill inventory for the decade of the 1920s. Income tax returns for the years 1927, 1929 and 1932 are especially interesting since they give a picture of the milling business in both the prosperous pre-Depression period and also when the Depression was at its height. A complete run of cancelled checks or check registers from December of 1941 to December of 1959 serve to document the financial dealings of the company in the 1940s and 1950s. There is no business correspondence series among the mill records. Some of that correspondence does exist, however, from the early 1930s to about 1954, included in the personal, business and political correspondence series of Clarence D. Martin Papers, 1896-1954, in the Washington State University Library. Other material in the unbound series, such as property assessments for 1920-1921 and 1925-1931, savings passbooks for January, 1943 through November, 1953, grain orders and prices, insurance forms and sample contracts, serve to enrich the financial picture of the mill.
The bound volumes include general ledgers, cash books, expense ledgers, receipt books and shipping records. The General Ledgers are the most complete financial picture of the company. They include entries dealing with apartment rents, farm rental property, accounts receivable, stocks, bonds, capital and undivided profits, capital gain and losses, insurance, expenses, taxes, dividends and interest. The General Ledger series includes volumes for the period 1923-1943 and 1949-1951, Included in the bound volume series is a ledger of dairy farm accounts and farm inventory for the years 1894 to 1901. This appears to be records of F. M. Martin's business interests prior to founding the mill. Also included in this series is a federal tax register of grain purchases of a Cheney brewery run by A. Schmid and later by J. Seible during the period January 3, 1910 to September 2, 1910.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
[Item Description]. Cage 338, F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
The records of the F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company are arranged in two major series: unbound material and bound volumes. The unbound material has been arranged in two sub-series: A) financial and wheat records; B) cancelled checks and registers. There was little discernable order to the original acquisition and therefore the processor grouped like material in chronological order, i.e., material on wheat prices and mill inventory records are placed together and then arranged chronologically within the sub-series. All dated material within the sub-series was arranged chronologically and undated material was arranged alphabetically and placed at the end of the sub-series. Cancelled checks and check registers were arranged chronologically within their own sub-series.
The bound volumes were arranged chronologically according to the earliest entry in each particular volume. Consecutive and related volumes were grouped together and then arranged according to the earliest entry within the group, i.e., cash books for April 1943- May 1945 and June 1945-August 1950 were arranged consecutively within their respective sub-series.
Together the unbound material and the bound volumes give an excellent financial picture of the F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company from its founding in 1907 to late in 1959. The bulk of the records cover the period from the 1920s through the early 1950s with the most complete records from the 1940s. Prior to the 1920s the extant documentation is the Journal which includes the Articles of Incorporation, 1907-1916, and some shipping records for 1910-1913. Although the mill was sold in 1943, the Company continued its other financial interests in real estate, stocks, bonds, and outstanding loans.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Series 1: Unbound MaterialReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box | Folder | ||
| 1 | 1 | Weekly Time Book 1
item.
|
November 1918-January 1919 |
| 1 | 2 | Assets 2
items.
|
1919 |
Wheat Prices and Mill
Inventory |
|||
| Box | Folder | ||
| 1 | 3 | 46
items. |
December 1920-October 1921 |
| 1 | 4 | 56
items. |
January 1922-January 1923 |
| 1 | 5 | 49
items. |
June 1923-January 1925 |
| 1 | 6 | 13
items. |
March 1925-June 1926 |
| 1 | 7 | 32
items. |
May 1925-January 1926 |
| 1 | 8 | 19
items. |
December 1925-April 1926 |
| 1 | 9 | 52
items. |
January 1926-December 1926 |
| 1 | 10 | 19
items. |
1926 |
| 1 | 11 | 36
items. |
January 1927-July 1927 |
| 1 | 12 | 53
items. |
August 1927-May 1928 |
| 1 | 13 | 94
items. |
December 1928-December 1929 |
| 1 | 14 | 79
items. |
April 1930-December 1930 |
Current Wheat Prices |
|||
| Box | Folder | ||
| 1 | 15 | 146
items. |
August 20, 1919-October 9, 1923 |
| 1 | 16 | 167
items. |
October 10, 1923-January 31, 1925 |
| Box | Folder | ||
| 2 | 17 | Wheat Inventory 2
items.
|
September 3, 1921 |
| 2 | 18 | Wheat Inventory 37
items.
|
undated |
| 2 | 19 | Property Assessments 98
items.
|
1920-1921; 1925-1931 |
| 2 | 20 | Corporation Income
Taxes 3
items.
|
1927; 1929; 1932 |
| 2 | 21 | Specification and Guaranteed
Analysis, Flour Bid, Sperry Flour Co. 1
item.
|
Spring 1935 |
| 2 | 22 | Savings Passbooks 2
items.
|
January 1943-November 1953 |
| 2 | 23 | Notebook of Grain Orders and
Prices 1
item.
|
August 9-October 19 (n.y.) |
| 2 | 24 | Insurance forms 27
items.
|
|
| 2 | 25 | Specifications for Fire
Protection 1
item.
|
|
| 2 | 26 | Standard Working Agreement for
Mill (Grain contract) 23
items.
|
|
| 3 | 27 | Cancelled Checks 110
items.
|
April 1, 1914-April 30, 1914 |
Check Registers |
|||
| Box | Folder | ||
| 3 | 28 | 1
item. |
December 1, 1941-April 16, 1942 |
| 3 | 29 | 1
item. |
April 16, 1942-September 3, 1942 |
| 3 | 30 | 1
item. |
September 3, 1942-January 13, 1943 |
| 3 | 31 | 1
item. |
January 13, 1943-June 14, 1943 |
| 3 | 32 | 1
item. |
June 14, 1943-May 7, 1945 |
| 3 | 33 | 1
item. |
May 7, 1945-January 9, 1948 |
| 3 | 34 | 1
item. |
January 9, 1948-February 28, 1951 |
| 3 | 35 | 1
item. |
March 1, 1951-November 6, 1953 |
| 3 | 36 | 1
item. |
November 6, 1953-December 31, 1956 |
Cancelled Checks |
|||
| Box | Folder | ||
| 3 | 37 | 121
items. |
January 1957-April 1957 |
| 3 | 38 | 120
items. |
May 1957-August 1957 |
| 4 | 39 | 122
items. |
September 1957-December 1957 |
| 4 | 40 | 114
items. |
January 1958-April 1958 |
| 4 | 41 | 122
items. |
May 1958-August 1958 |
| 4 | 42 | 104
items. |
September 1958-December 1958 |
| 4 | 43 | 102
items. |
January 1959-April 1959 |
| 4 | 44 | 107
items. |
May 1959-August 1959 |
| 4 | 45 | 104
items. |
September 1959-December 1959 |
| 4 | 46 | 173
items. |
December 1942-February 1950 |
| 4 | 47 | March 1950-February 1956 | |
Series 2: Bound VolumesReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | ||
| 5 | Ledger |
|
| 5 | Accounts (dairy) |
1894 |
| 5 | Accounts |
1898 |
| 5 | Inventory (farm equipment and
livestock) |
1901 |
| 6 | Journal. Articles of
Incorporation for F. M. Martin Grain and Milling Company; Constitution and
By-Laws Stockholders and Officers; Minutes of Board of Directors
Meetings |
August 15, 1907-August 1, 1916 |
| 7 | Account of all materials
purchased for the purpose of producing fermented liquors |
January 3, 1910-September 2, 1910 |
Account Book |
||
| Volume | ||
| 8 | List of Insurance Policies and
Companies |
1911 |
| 8 | Grain shipping
records |
July 11, 1910- May 16, 1911; May 8, 1912-July 11, 1913 |
| 8 | Sales Account Book |
November 1, 1932-January 29, 1938 |
| Volume | ||
| 9 | Daily shipping and receiving
records |
July 11, 1918-July 30, 1920 |
| 10 | Account book |
August 1, 1912-July 31, 1913 |
| 11 | Ledger. Apartment rents, rents of
farm land, stocks, bonds, insurance, wheat tickets, inventory, processing tax,
general mill business |
1923-1936 |
| 12 | Ledger. Apartment rents, rents of
farm land, buildings, accounts receivable, bank stock, bonds, flour sacks,
interest and dividends, insurance, misc. income, purchases and sales expenses,
wheat tickets, notes receivable, reserve for taxes, accounts payable
|
1937-1942 |
| 13 | Ledger. Mill business accounts
with bakeries |
1942 |
| 14 | Ledger. Mill business accounts
with bakeries; accounts with individuals |
1943 |
| 15 | Ledger. Accounts receivable,
apartment rents, rental property (farms and houses), stocks, bonds, capital and
undivided provit, capital gain and loss, insurance, misc. income, expense
control, notes receivable, taxes, accounts payable, wheat hedge, notes payable,
dividends and interests |
1949-1951 |
| 16 | Apartment Rent Book. Philena
Apartments, list of tenants |
January 1939-December 1943 |
| 17 | Expense Ledger. Daily, itemized
entries |
September 1, 1941-December 31, 1947 |
| 18 | Wheat Prices. Daily
entries |
March 2,1942-January 31, 1948 |
| 19 | Ledger. Loans outstanding by F.
M. Martin Grain and Milling Company (terms of loan, interest, schedule of
payments); Notes Receivable |
1943 |
| 20 | Cash Book. Daily list of income
and expenses |
April 1, 1943-May 30, 1945 |
| 21 | Cash Book. Daily list of income
and expenses |
June 1, 1945-August 12, 1950 |
| 22 | Receipt Book. Primarily rent
receipts |
August 1, 1947-October 13, 1955 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Flour mills -- Washington (State)--Cheney
Personal Names
- Goerling, Elizabeth
- Martin, Charlotte. waps (donor)
- Martin, Clarence D. (Clarence Daniel), 1886-1955
- Martin, Francis M., 1858-1925
- Martin, Frank M. waps (donor)
Corporate Names
- F.M. Martin Grain and Milling Company --Archives (creator)
Finding aid prepared by Stephen E.
Balzarini
2012
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
