Shipley Baking Company Records

Collection

Identifier: MC 954

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Content Note

Most of the material was saved by Garvin Shipley, one of the co-founders of Shipley Baking Company and uncle of the donor.

Included are the records of the Shipley Baking Company of Fort Smith and Fayetteville, as well as the records of the W. G. Shipley Baking Company of Fayetteville and McAlester, Oklahoma. The collection also includes some material on the Shipley family, Fort Smith, the First Baptist Church of Fort Smith, and some information on the Cotton Holsum Bakeries of Alexandria, Louisiana, whose owners were connected to Garvin Shipley by marriage.

Dates

1922-1934

Creator

Shipley Baking Company (Fort Smith, Ark.) (Organization)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

Restrictions apply. Negatives are restricted.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

The Shipley Baking Company was established in 1921 in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) by B. H. (Harry) Shipley, Sr., and his brother W. G. (Garvin) Shipley, who had previously worked for Van Buren baker Tom Edmondson. Smaller plants were opened in Oklahoma in 1923 (McAlester) and 1924 (Muskogee), and a bakery was purchased in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1926. The Fayetteville plant was closed from about 1932 until 1934, all products coming from Fort Smith by train. In 1937 the Dickson Street (Fayetteville) bakery was built.

In 1945 the plants were divided, Harry Shipley running the one in Fort Smith, and Garvin Shipley, his wife Grace Cotton Shipley, and his daughters Grace Lucille Cowan and Martha Doris Shipley Leach forming the W. G. Shipley Baking Company in Fayetteville and Oklahoma. Harry Shipley had married Maud Curtis (daughter of W. L. Curtis, an early member and chairman of the Board of Deacons of the First Baptist Church of Fort Smith) and had two sons (Harry, Jr., and Curtis) and two daughters (Juda Jane and Sally). Harry, Jr., a graduate of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and the American Institute of Baking, Chicago, went into the business in Fort Smith with his father.

The Garvin Shipley family ran the bakeries in Fayetteville and Oklahoma. Garvin's son-in-law Howard Cowan (married to Lucille) running the Oklahoma bakeries, while Garvin and his son-in-law Frank Leach, Sr. (married to Martha Doris), operated the one in Fayetteville. Garvin's daughter Lucille Shipley Cowan later took over the bakery in McAlester, and the one in Muskogee was closed.

In 1958, Harry, Sr., and his two sons bought out the Garvin Shipley family in Fayetteville. Curtis, a 1955 graduate of the University of Arkansas, started working in Fort Smith and Harry, Jr., went to Fayetteville, then in 1962 Harry, Jr., returned to Fort Smith and Curtis took over operations in Fayetteville. In 1986 Harry, Jr.'s son, Frank Shipley, came into the business, bringing the company's management into the third generation.

The Shipley Baking Company supplies eastern Oklahoma, McAlester, and Tulsa, as well as western Arkansas as far south as Mena, northern Arkansas as far east as Mountain Home, and southern Missouri.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (9 Boxes, 1 Tube)

Additional Description

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged chronologically by format.

Acquisition Information

The Shipley Baking Company Records were donated to the Special Collections Department by William Curtis Shipley of Fayetteville, Arkansas on June 28, 1989.

Most of the material was saved by Garvin Shipley, one of the co-founders of Shipley Baking Company and uncle of the donor.

Measured drawings were made in 1996 by the University School of Architecture according to the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey. A set of six sheets of these drawings was added to the collection in 2001.