Chad Hansen recently brought by the newspaper office a rusty gallon can filled with nine century old tally books that apparently once belonged to the Scoular-Bishop Grain Company.
The Hansens found the books while remodeling a house at 644 Central Avenue. A previous owner of the house also previously owned a building at Second and Bloom Street which was once housed the general offices of the Scoular Company. It is assumed he may have found the books in that building.
The oldest entry appears to be from 1902 and while apparently not all inclusive, the latest entry is from Dec. 31, 1921. The book may represent business affairs at locations other than Superior.
The books are filled with bookkeeping entries. Some related to account balances and many are related to inventory held by the company’s elevators including ones at Superior, Webber and Lovewell.
Some examples include the following for the Superior inventory on Oct. 31, 1918. The elevator contained 800 bushels of corn valued at $1.44 per bushel and 3,500 bushels of corn valued at $1.25 per bushel. The elevator also contained 6,640 bushels of oats valued 70.5 cents per bushel, nine bushels of rye valued at $1.40 a bushel and 4,300 bushels of barley valued at $1.045 per bushel.
The elevator’s total inventory was valued at $16,800.23.
All entries are handwritten. Pages are 3.5 x 8 inches.
Among the entries there appears to be alphabetical lists of companies and individuals in various states that the company apparently had business dealings with. With the company name was also listed the apparent name of the bank that company was doing business with. Listings included ones like Geo. H. Meyers, Hoehne, Colorado, First National Bank of Trinidad, Colorado, Minden Grain Company, Minden, Nebraska, Minden Exchange National Bank, Midland Grain and Coal Company, Miltonvale, Kansas, State Bank of Miltonvale; Miller & Knight, Lake Valley, New Mexico. Sierra County Bank, Hollsboro.
On Dec. 5, 1913, the Scoular company received a statement from Superior Manufacturing Company for bolts, iron and other materials used at the elevator in the amount of $1.65.
On Dec, 6, 1913, it appears M.W. Douthitt, a name recognized as a stockman with interests southwest of Superior, bought grain and was charged $36.97.
The original Scoular elevator in Superior was located alongside the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad tracks on the east side of Bloom Street. It was destroyed by fire on April 5, 1920, A heavy snowfall hampered the fire department’s effort to control the fire.
While it has been adapted for other uses and added onto, the company’s office building still stands at the southeast corner of the Second and Bloom. For decades it housed a grocery store.
George Scoular was also one of the owners of a frame building east of the elevator office that housed a chicken incubator factory. In later years it was used as a blacksmith shop.
One of the daybooks indicates it covers the time period from Feb. 14, 1920,to Dec. 31, 1921, but there are no entries related to the fire. The first entry is for Feb. 19,1920, and that has a note that it was transferred from another book. There are no entries between Feb. 28, 1920, and June 16, 1920, which indicates the company may have had similar books for various locations and this one was not used in connection with the Superior elevator that was destroyed by fire. In this general time period, there were six elevators being operated in Superior. All had different owners.
Rather than rebuild on the original site, the company a few years later purchased the closed Superior Terminal Elevator, a concrete structure built in 1918. Scoular ran that facility into the 1980s. Today it is owned by Aurora Cooperative.
The Scoular company has grown until today the company website claims 1,400 employees and $8 billion in sales for fiscal year 2024 with more than 100 offices, grain elevators and processing facilities in North America and Asia. The company reports having traded 1.3 billion bushels of grain in fiscal year 2024.
The company’s global headquarters is located in Omaha. George Scoular founded Scoular Grain and Lumber Company in Superior in 1892. The family home was located at Tenth and Commercial. George Scoular died in 1930 but his wife, Kate, continued to make her home there until her death in 1966.
Hansen plans to give the books to the Nuckolls County Historical Society.
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