For a list of the images in this collection click here and go to the SHSMO photograph database
sl 380 HARDY FAMILY, PAPERS, 1911-1982
sl 506 HARDY SALT COMPANY, ADDENDA
sl 510 HARDY FAMILY, ADDENDA, 1911-1982
sl 727 HARDY SALT COMPANY, ADDENDA, 1920-1990
Thomas Walter Hardy Jr. donated the Hardy Salt Company records to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on April 15, 1987.
Thomas Walter Hardy, a salesman for Morton Salt, began his own salt packing and distribution company in 1914. Hardy's business grew rapidly and incorporated as the Hardy Salt Company in 1916. The company was located at 22nd and Dock Street in St. Louis.
While vacationing near Lake Michigan in 1930, Hardy learned of the Robson Leather Company, an abandoned tannery with an adjoining salt well located in Manistee, Michigan. Hardy bought the tannery and built the Manistee Salt Works, a Hardy Salt Company subsidiary and manufacturer of all its salt. Hardy Salt also opened a branch office and warehouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By the mid-1930s, its annual distribution of salt across Maine, the Dakotas and the Southeast reached 100,000 tons.
Hardy Salt became the sole manufacturer of brine during its first ten years of operation. It also developed into a major innovator in the salt industry. During the course of its operations, the company built the first set of quintuple-effect evaporators used in salt-production; introduced flaked salt to the food industry; and pioneered the packaging of table salt in paper bags instead of cotton packets, preventing the salt from hardening and getting dirty.
Thomas Walter Hardy Jr. joined his father's salt plant after graduating from the Harvard Business School in 1939. He became president of Hardy Salt after his father's retirement in 1955.
Thomas Walter Hardy Sr. remained active in the Hardy Salt Company until his death in 1960.
Concerned with political and social issues, Thomas Hardy Jr. began flying the American and United Nations flags at the Manistee plant to symbolize "that we are part of the whole world and not just a part of Manistee." In his efforts to promote peace, Hardy chaired the St. Louis Chapter of Business Executives Move For Vietnam Peace from 1968-1970 (See collection 441.)
Hardy served as an executive board member of the Center for Defense Information and the Committee for the East-West Accord, both based in Washington, D.C.
Hardy sold the Hardy Salt Company to the Diamond Crystal Company of St. Clair, Michigan in April 1985.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Hardy Salt Company Records, 1914-1987, document the company's founding as a salt packing and distribution business, through its growth into a major salt manufacturer and distributor in the 1930s, to its sale in 1985 to the Diamond Crystal Company.
The collection primarily documents the Manistee Salt plant operations from 1931-1971. It includes Board of Directors' meeting minutes, Profit Sharing Trust meeting minutes, financial statements, articles about salt production, correspondence between Thomas Walter Hardy Jr. and his father, photographs of the Manistee Plant, and an oral history interview with Thomas Walter Hardy Jr (T-867). The records are divided into two series: 1) Business, 1920-1984 (folders 1 - 26); 2) Photographs, 1914-1960s (folders 27 - 30.)
SERIES DESCRIPTION
SERIES 1 - BUSINESS, 1920-1984, FOLDERS 1-26
Arranged alphabetically. Contains articles of incorporation, advertisements, bylaws, Board of Directors meeting minutes, correspondence, articles on salt production and the history of
Hardy Salt Company, legal deeds, Manistee Salt Profit Sharing Trust meeting minutes, and newsclippings.
SERIES 2 - PHOTOGRAPHS 11197-111353, 1914-1960s, FOLDERS 27-30
Arranged chronologically. Contains photographs of the Manistee Salt Works Plant, the production of salt inside the plant, the loading of salt into ships, sales representatives and other employees of the company. Also contains photographs of the exterior of the Hardy Salt Company in St. Louis. A photograph of Hardy Salt's original sales representative team from 1914 appears at the end of the series.
FOLDER LIST
BOX 1, FOLDERS 1-13
SERIES I - BUSINESS, 1920-1984
1. Advertisements, 1940s-1980s
2. Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, 1920
3. Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes, 1920-1926
4. Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes, 1927-1943
5. Correspondence on the Manistee Salt Plant photographs, 1958-1963
6. Correspondence between Thomas Walter Hardy Jr. and Thomas Walter Hardy Sr., 1955-1958
7. Correspondence between Thomas Walter Hardy Jr. and Thomas Walter Hardy Sr., 1959-1960
8. Financial Statements, 1922-1934
9. Financial Statements, 1935-1939
10. Financial Statements, 1940-1943
11. Financial Statements, 1944-1947
12. Financial Statements, 1948-1949
13. Financial Statements, 1950-1951
BOX 2, FOLDERS 14-20
14. Financial Statements, 1952-1956
15. Financial Statements, 1957-1960
16. Financial Statements, 1961-1966
17. Financial Statements, 1967-1973
18. History of Hardy Salt Company, Correspondence, Newsclippings and Articles about Salt, 1939-1984
19. Legal Papers, Deeds of Trust and Sale, 1935-1943
20. Manistee Salt Works, Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and Board of Directors, Meeting Minutes, 1931-1956
BOX 3, FOLDERS 21-30
21. Manistee Salt Works, Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and Board of Directors, Meeting Minutes, 1957-1966
22. Manistee Salt Works Profit Sharing Trust Meeting Minutes, 1957-1971
23. Promissory Notes, 1931-1935
24. St. Louis Independent Packing Company, Lease of Boiler Room from Hardy Salt Company, 1938-1941
25. Title Abstract of Lots 1-3, Block (6) of Maxwelltown, Manistee, Michigan, c. 1930s-1966
26. Title Abstract of Lots 52-65 Block (6) of
Maxwelltown, Manistee, Michigan, c. 1870s-1930s
SERIES 2 - PHOTOGRAPHS 11197 - 11353, 1914-1960s
27. Photographs 379.1-379.31
28. Photographs 379.32-379.53
29. Photographs 379.54-379.82
30. Photographs 379.83-379.160
ORAL HISTORY
T-867 Thomas Walter Hardy, Jr., Interviewed by Patricia L. Adams, October 6, 1987
31. Financial statements, 1974-1978
32. Financial statements, 1979-1986
INDEX
Business, f. 1-30
Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace, f. 18
Diamond Crystal Company, f. 18
Hardy, Lewis, f. 1-30
Hardy Salt Company, f. 1-30
Hardy, Thomas Walter Sr., f. 1-27
Hardy, Thomas Walter Jr., f. 1-26, 30
Manistee Salt Works, f. 1-30
Salt, f. 1-30
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
8001 NATURAL BRIDGE ROAD
ST. LOUIS, MO 63121
(314) 516-5143
E-MAIL: whmc@umsl.edu