The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-09-06
.STOCKHOLDt 2SOF
.BIGPHOSPHATECO
HOLD ANNUAL MEETING AND
ELECT oFFIcERs-MANY
OTHER OWNERS OF
PHOSPHATE LANDS
IN NASHVILLE.

The stockholders in the Independent
Phosphate Company held their annua
meeting in this city Monday, and ON
GERS for the ensuing year were elect
ed. The company is the holder o
something over 1900 acres of pnos
plate lands in Maury and Hickman
counties, and is probably the larges
of it's kind. 1t is combination o
about twenty-eight of the leading
phosphate companies of the country
all of the individual holdings having
been joined together.
At the meeting all of the old Officers
were reelected. A. C. Read, of thi
city, is the President of the company
w. de C. Kessler, of Pensacola, Fla.
Vice-President; William d. Rhea, o
this city, Secretary, The Executiv,
Committee is composed of the follow
ing A. c. Read, w. de C. Kessler, T
c. Meadows, of Buffalo, New York
]. w Huger of Montgomery, Ala.
and John H. Carpenter, of Columbia
Tenn.
p, M. Estes, of this city, had charge
of the organization of the company al
the outset, drawing all of the deeds
etc. Another prominent attorney In
connection with the consolidation Of
the various firms was Private John
Allen of Tupelo, Miss.
The most prominent stockholders Of
the organization are A. G. Read, John
H. Carpenter, W. de G. Kessler, T. G.
Meadows and ]. w. Huger. The hold
ings of the company lie in Maury and
Hickman counties, comprising the IA
nous Leatherwood tract and the Estes
Bend properties. Most of the hold
ings are being actively worked. How.
ever, the largest individual tract. the
Leatherwood, has not been touched as
yet, as a railroad will have to be built
to reach it, This tract contains over
thousand acres. Other important
lands in their possession are the Sat
terrified tract, comprising about 225
acres, the Solita tract, which contains
approximately $50 acres, and the va
rious tracts contained in the Estes
Bend properties, which comprise about
400 acres.
1t was stated by one of the members
of the, Executive Committee that the
sole purpose of the meeting was the
annual review of business and election
of officers However, it is regarded
as extremely significant that nearly all
of those prominently Connected with
the phosphate industry in Tennessee,
and who are outside of the big COM
pany, were also in the city Monday.
Nothing could be learned as to a con-
ference held between the stockhold-
ers of the independent company and
the other owners of phosphate lands
1t is said that the meeting was held
with the object of general shake-up
in the organization, but IL this was the
case the changes failed to materialize.
Labor troubles and the introduction
of new drying machinery, which is
said almost to revolutionize the phos-
phat industry, are understood to have
been the chief troubles of the COM
pany thus far in its history.
The work on the lands ofAhe inde-
pendent company from this time on,
it is said, will be largely done over
the same ground that has been FOR
merly covered. 1t seems that the
ground has been gone over and the
rock most productive of phosphate
taken out, but the exhaustion OF this
richer deposit has caused the price of
the standard grade to advance so that
the ground will be worth a second
working.
The company is said to have sold
enormously to the export trade some
time ago before the advance In prices,
and the recent troubles have caused
some uneasiness as to their ability to
deliver. It has been rumored That the
of the outside owners in such
large numbers Cd the same day as the
meeting of the independent company
might have been significant-Nash-
vile American.