“Borax” Smith’s West End Companies & Successors

West End Chemical Company

Certificate No. 883, Thirty Shares to Anna L. Hollinger, May 1, 1920. Geo. C. Ellis, Asst. Secretary; J. R. Blair, Vice President.

Certificate No. 3269, Thirty Shares to Thomas I. Hunter, December 11, 1924. J. R. Blair, Auditor; F. M. (Francis Marion) Smith, President.

West End Consolidated Mines Corporation

Certificate No. 2101, Forth Shares to Anderson and Co., June 30, 1941. H. D. Budelman, Secretary; F. C. Ninnis, President.

West End Extension Mining Company

Certificate No. 2382, Five Thousand Shares to George C. Ellis, June 2, 1924. Norman P. Ellis, Asst. Secretary; F. M. (Francis Marion) Smith, President.

West End Consolidated Mining Company

Certificate No. 2806, Ten Shares to Jack Nees, March 14, 1907. Dennis Searles, Secretary; B. (Benjamin) F. Edwards, Vice President.

Certificate No. NY20, One Hundred Shares to J. Warren Miller, 1914. Dennis Searles, Secretary; B. (Benjamin) F. Edwards, Vice President.

Scrip Certificate No. 2791, Unissued.

Stauffer Chemical Company

$100 Bond Certificate RC13331, to Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis Inc., July 23, 1975. R. A. Fullman, Treasurer; H. B. Morley, President and CEO.

$1000 Bond Certificate RM34912, to James Chesley-Beale, Jr., October 11, 1968. M. M. Covington, Treasurer; Hans Stauffer, President.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Mines, American Potash and Chemical Corporation and West End Chemical Company (organized by “Borax” Smith, of Trona, California,) were divisions of Stauffer Chemical Company in the 1960s. 

Kerr-McGee Corporation

Registered $1,000 8-1/2% Sinking Fund Debenture, Due June 1, 2006, No. M3380, to White Weld & Company, Inc., October 6, 1976. William E. Keimann, Secretary; Dean McGee, Chairman of the Board.

Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp., which took over the Stauffer Chemical Co.’s West End plant in late 1974, extracted borax, soda ash, and sodium sulfate from Searles Lake brines.  In addition, Kerr-McGee was producing co-products such as lithium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride and even bromine.  Kerr-McGee was also building a new soda plant at at the existing Trona site.

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