The Columbus Creamery Company was registered with the state of Montana for incorporation on April 6, 1906 by several prominent citizens of the community. Among the founders were J.B. (Joseph Burt) Annin and George H. Simpson. Annin, a Methodist minister born on October 26, 1865 in Leroy, New York, moved to Columbus in 1892 where he operated a mercantile business and was elected to the Montana State Senate in 1914. He died on June 22, 1918. Simpson, a Canadian born on March 15, 1856, moved to Columbus in 1893 and served as the secretary for the Columbus Creamery Company. He was also an attorney, justice of the peace, and for a time, Deputy Assessor of Yellowstone County. He died May 25, 1927. The Columbus Creamery Company ceased operations sometime prior to April 6, 1926 when the corporation was officially designated as inactive by the Montana Secretary of State office.
The by-laws of the Columbus Creamery Company consist of four handwritten pages with signatures of the officers and stockholders. The original five articles of the by-laws were adopted March 31, 1906. They address: authorization to construct a facility, state the purpose of the company is to manufacture butter and cheese from milk obtained from local milk producers, delineates the selling of shares to stockholders, designates it as a cooperative, sets rules as to the disbursement of dividends, defines stockholders' meetings, establishes officers and a board of directors as well as their respective duties, and outlines the creation and issue of stocks. The by-laws were amended on June 5, 1906 to establish rules regarding borrowing money for company operations.
This collection is open for research.
The original handwritten bylaws of the Columbus Creamery Company were donated to Montana State University in the summer of 1967 by Jim Annin of Columbus, Montana.
This collection was processed 2012 September 21