Z 1863.000 Southern Package Corporation (Sopaco) Records

Z 1863.000
SOUTHERN PACKAGE CORPORATION (SOPACO) RECORDS

The Hazlehurst Box Factory of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, was incorporated with capital stock of ten thousand dollars in March of 1911. The original stockholders were M. A. Atwood, Bud Roberts, and H. J. Wilson. The company was created to supply boxes, bushel baskets, crates, and hampers for the rapidly expanding vegetable-produce industry in Copiah and nearby counties during the early twentieth century. The company's initial growth mirrored that of the lucrative truck-farming industry to which it catered. The Copiah County area soon became the single-largest producer of tomatoes in the world. Other cash crops included beans, cabbage, carrots, peas, and peppers. The Hazlehurst Box Factory and similar concerns in surrounding small towns worked ten months out of the year to manufacture the containers vital to this industry.

The local truck-farming industry was already in decline by the late 1920s, due to increasing competition from other agricultural states and improvements in packing methods. This situation was further aggravated by local economic problems stemming from the Great Depression. With less acreage being devoted to farming and a declining demand for fruit and vegetable containers, the Hazlehurst Box Factory and eight other mills of the region found it economically advantageous to consolidate in 1930. The resulting holding company, with capital stock of one million dollars, was known as the Southern Package Corporation (SOPACO).

The first board of directors of the company included H. J. Wilson and Alex Wilson of Hazlehurst; H. T. Funchess and H. F. Funchess of Center Point; R. D. Gage, Sr., and L. A. Kemp of Port Gibson; W. B. Alford, Sr., and E. F. Jones of Gallman; W. S. Henley and D. C. Simmons of Utica; A. S. Thomas and R. B. Thomas of Crystal Springs; J. W. Grantham, Sr., and J. W. Grantham, Jr., of Terry; and Robert E. Rea and Fred Furr of Wesson. Corporate officers included H. J. Wilson, president; J. W. Grantham, Sr., first vice-president; F. L. Furr, second vice-president; W. B. Alford, Sr., secretary; and Alex Wilson, treasurer.

Six of SOPACO's satellite box factories were eventually forced to close, as the local truck-farming industry continued to decline. However, the Hazlehurst and Port Gibson factories were expanded to accommodate the relatively steady demand for crates and other containers. Modern improvements were also made in the equipment and machinery used in their manufacture. Ammunition boxes were constructed for the military during World War II. By the 1960s, the company was actually supplying more boxes to Copiah County poultry producers than to local tomato growers. SOPACO was also a national supplier of containers for fruit, vegetable, and poultry producers.

From its founding in the 1930s until it ceased operations in the 1970s, SOPACO was an important mainstay for the economy of Hazlehurst and Copiah County. The Hazlehurst Box Factory was eventually dismantled for architectural salvage in 1980.

This collection includes minutes, customer files, appraisal reports, audit reports, accounting journals, procedures manuals, timberland plat books, and timber estimates of the Southern Package Corporation (SOPACO) and its subsidiaries. There is also a transcript of a Copiah County Chancery Court case involving SOPACO. The primary value of this collection lies in its documentation of the truck-farming industry that flourished in Mississippi, especially in Copiah and nearby counties, during the early to mid-twentieth century. Corporate minutes and selected items from customer files (series 2), including a corporate history, correspondence, financial records, legal records, maps, plats, photographs, printed material, and field reports, are also available in their original format.

1. Minutes. 1930–1955.
• Southern Package Corporation, 1930–1955.
• Port Gibson Veneer and Box Company, 1941–1950.
  Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
  Box 1
2. Customer Files. 1918–1966.
Rolls 1 (MF Roll # 36372)–166 (MF Roll # 36538)
Boxes 2–3
3. Appraisal Reports. 1927–1930.
• Hazlehurst Box Company, 1929.
• Port Gibson Veneer Company, 1929.
• Terry Manufacturing Company, 1927.
• Wesson Box Company, 1930.
  Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
4. Audit Reports. ca. 1930s–1970s.
• Copiah County Building and Development Company, 1941–1942.
• Cross, Inc., 1961–1966.
• Graves, Inc., 1944–1945; 1947–1950; 1953–1956; 1958.
• Graves Lumber Company, 1937–1948; 1950; 1954–1955; 1958–1960.
• Hazlehurst Box Company, 1943–1959; 1961; 1963–1966; 1973–1975.
  Roll 170 (MF Roll # 36541)
• Port Gibson Timber Company, 1943–1954; 1961.
• Port Gibson Veneer and Box Company, 1942–1966; 1968; 1971.
  Roll 169 (MF Roll # 36540)
• Southern Package Corporation, 1940–1945; 1948–1956; 1958–1961; 1963; 1967.
  Roll 167 (MF Roll # 36538)
• Wilson Investment Company, 1947–1968.
  Roll 169 (MF Roll # 36540)
5. Accounting Journal (Wilson Investment Company). 1952–1953.
Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
6. Procedures Manual (Hazlehurst Box Company). 1948.
Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
7. Plat Books (Timberland). ca. 1910s–1930s; 1950s.
• 1910s–1930s.
• 1950s.
  Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
8. Timber Estimates. 1926–1931.
• Claiborne County, 1931.
• Copiah County, 1926.
• Copiah County, 1927.
• Copiah County, 1928.
• Copiah County, 1928.
• Copiah County, 1930.
• Copiah County, 1931.
• Copiah and Hinds counties, 1929.
• Hinds County (East), 1931.
• Hinds County (West), 1930.
• Simpson County, 1931.
  Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)
9. Transcript (Copiah County Chancery Court). ca. 1936.
• W. E. Beall, et al., Complainants, v. Southern Package Corporation, et al., Defendants, No. 9595.
  Roll 168 (MF Roll # 36539)

Also available are Appendix 1, an inventory of microfilm rolls 1 (MF Roll # 36372)–170 (MF Roll # 36541), and Appendix 2, a box and folder list of selected material retained from customer files (series 2).