FIRE DESTROYS MULLEN CO-OP
On Thursday, May 17th, 1956, at 9:30 a.m., a fire at the Mullen Co-Op soon engulfed the entire building including the creamery where a boiler exploded. The smoke could be seen for 40 miles. The Mullen volunteer fire department answered the call immediately, and soon were joined by volunteers from Thedford, Hyannis and Dunning, who fought the fire until mid-afternoon. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the buildings, including the creamery, garage, service station, office and feed store were a total loss. All oil, tires, feed, one oil truck and one employee's car were destroyed. Miraculously, the records which had been placed in a locked safe were still intact when the safe was opened a few days later after it had cooled down. Other books, including the account books, had been carried out and saved. Ladies in town volun-teered to make sandwiches to feed the firemen, who were busy keeping adjacent buildings wet down.
The following day, May 18th, a special meeting was called of the Board of Directors. Attending were Clarence Boyce, Chairman; Mac Osborne, Secretary & Treasurer; W.R. Machlan, Lucien Andrews, C.N. Boyer, A.J. Gragg and Gerald French. They called for a Stockholders meeting to be held May 23rd, at which time they agreed they would recommend action be taken to rebuild.
The employees all worked long hard days. A building formerly used by Bud Gorsuch as a garage, located just west of the Co-Op building was rented from Chester H. John-son. The office and essential equipment was moved in and opened for business Monday, May 21st. Hank Hohlfeld and another em-ployee, Jim Devine, set up a small steel building for a temporary service station and were pumping gasoline again by 5 p.m. on May 23rd. Another employee, Gerald Long, borrowed some cream testing equipment and had it set up in the Johnson building. By Wednesday night, May 23rd, he had tested 19 cans of cream. Firemen were still pouring water on the coals in the burning rubbish. Co-op truck driver, Leland Johnson, brought in a tractor and dump truck and cleaned out rubbish all day.
About 60 stockholders attended the special meeting held in the Johnson buiding May 23rd. A unanimous vote was cast to build back. Many members purchased additional shares and many more non-members joined for the first time.
On July 27, 1956, the directors spent the day deciding about the kind of building to build. Steel building salesmen and contrac-tors were consulted. The decision was to give the contract to Chester H. Johnson of Mullen for a brick and block building to be built for $65,000.00.
A diary kept during the construction, states, “Oct. 2, 1956 – Building going good; Nov. 24, 1956 – Men working on roof; February 25, 1957 – Floors almost complete.''
The grand opening celebration was held October 12, 1957 with over 600 persons attending. Sausage and pancakes, furnished by the Co-op and Crete Mills, were served to all comers. Mrs. LeRoy Anders and Mrs. Don Hall headed up the kitchen team, assisted by employees, customers and salesmen repre-senting Champlin Refining Company and Crete Mills. Virginia Hohlfeld was coffee chairman. Several business places sent bou-quets of flowers, including the Bank of Mullen, Commercial Hotel, Mathews Chev-rolet, and others. Chester H. Johnson fur-nished a flower for each lady attending.
Mrs. Leonard Starr assisted by registering all those attending. People registered from as far away as Houston, New York City, Kansas City, and Portland, Oregon. Steak knives, lollipops and balloons were given out along with other door prizes. To complete the big day, a dance was held in the feed room with a large crowd attending.