GRANGE TO START SERVICE STATION

Chieftain, April 11, 1935

After a couple of years of investigation, the Grange is in the gasoline and oil business in the county. A distributing station is under construction on a lot bought from A.M. Wagner on the cemetery road, northeast of Enterprise. A huge tank with a gross capacity of 12,000 gallons was installed Monday and is nearly ready for business.

The plant is on a hillside so that the gasoline can be handled entirely by gravity. A truck tank can drive above it and the liquid will flow down into the storage tank, from which it will be delivered to purchasers also by gravity.

The business is in the hands of a corporation sponsored by the Pomona Grange and known as the Wallowa County Grange Supply company. It buys its supplies in Seattle, Wash., for cash and contracts for their delivery here by truck. Sales are made to stockholder purchasers at regular retail prices and profits are distributed at regular periods. A man will be kept at the station to manage the business.

Three grades of fuel will be carried in stock, first and third grade gasoline and diesel engine fuel. The great tank has three compartments for these three fuels.

A Pomona committee consisting of J.G. Crow, Harold Thornburg, Roy Ralls, J.B. Foster, George Vance, Lewis C. Brandt and Fred W. Mastrude carried the new project thru to the point of incorporation and temporary officers of the company are J.B. Foster, president, and Lewis Brandt, secretary and treasurer. Permanent officers will be elected in a few days. Grange members are operating similar gas and oil stations in many other counties all over the country.