Sauders Clarence - Clarence Saunders & the founding of Piggly Wiggly: the rise & fall of a Memphis maverick

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Mike Freeman

All rights reserved

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.207.7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Freeman, Mike, 1956

Clarence Saunders and the founding of Piggly Wiggly : the rise and fall of a Memphis maverick / Mike Freeman.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-285-4

1. Sauders, Clarence, 1881-1953. 2. Piggly Wiggly (Firm) 3. Grocers--United States--Biography. 4. Grocery trade--United States--History. 5. Supermarkets--United States--History. 6. Self-service stores--United States--History. I. Title.

HD9321.95.S28F74 2011

381.45641300973--dc22

2011012904

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

I dedicate my work to my family and friends who encouraged my effort. In 1980, I went to work at the Jefferson Square Restaurant. Located at 79 Jefferson in downtown Memphis, it was the site of the first Piggly Wiggly store. From that place came inspiration.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1988, THESIS FOR THE MASTERS

The author wishes to express his gratitude to Dr. Charles Crawford, chairman of his graduate committee, Dr. Berkely Kalin and Dr. F. Jack Hurley. The biography would have remained an unfinished idea without their instruction and editorial counsel. Dr. Crawford, more than anyone else, aided the author through many of the steps of research and writing. Mrs. Betty Williams of the Oral History Research Office deserves special recognition for her helpful advice. In 1987, the Department of History granted an endowment to the author for study at the Library of Congress and the Food Marketing Institute in Washington, D.C. The author gained valuable information with that endowment.

The author conducted most of his research at the Memphis Room of the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library and the John Brister Library of the Memphis State University. The staff at each institution gave to the author considerable assistance, especially Dr. John Harkins, in the early years of his research.

2011

So much has changed between then and now. Memphis State is now the University of Memphis. Its library is now the McWherter. Two of my professors have retired. Only Dr. Crawford, at this writing, still teaches and advises. I am proud to say that I kept in contact with many of the people who helped me then. They helped with countless other projects since, along with the additional work on this project. They have become my friends. Id like to single out Patricia LaPointe and Dr. Jim Johnson, formerly of the Memphis Public Library, and Ed Frank of the Mississippi Valley Collections, McWherter Library. No one can do any research project on any subject in Memphis without the assistance of the people who operate those two institutions, then and now.

Other organizations helped me with the Saunders project that I should have recognized before. The Piggly Wiggly Corporation twice sent me to Jacksonville, Florida, to interview retired company officials. Piggly Wiggly also opened its archives of company literature. I would like to thank Larney Crane, then president of the company, Ed Matthews, Melissa Ingram and Danny Barnwell. The Memphis Pink Palace Museum has a vested interest in Saunders. In the annex building is the replica of the first Piggly Wiggly store, complete with the turnstiles and paper price tags. The Saunders family willed to the museum many of Clarences antiques, which can be seen in the restored mansion. Thank you, Ron Brister, now retired, and the staff at the Pink Palace. Since 1988, many people have helped me in the revisions and additional research, most notably Frank Reuter of Berryville, Arkansas.

This project really did have its beginning in a bar. Owner Jake Schorr wanted me to find the history of the building we worked in, 79 Jefferson. He told me that this was where Saunders created Piggly Wiggly. I was thrilled. I thought I was inside the equivalent of Henry Fords first machine shop or Edisons lab. Maybe Saunders doesnt rise to the level of those two. But I had my goal, my purpose for the day. And thanks to my friends Tim and Hema Warren for providing me housing and company on my one research visit to Washington, D.C.

Lastly, I want to thank Bill and the late Mary Freeman, my dad and mom. They gave me every support long after I was supposed to be self-supporting. Near the end of my thesis research, they bought their first computer, a Mac. My uncle, Thomas McCloskey, happened to be there and was able to show me how to open and save so that I could complete the first version of this document over twenty years ago. Thank all of you again for your help.

Chapter 1

WHOLESALE GROCERY DRUMMER

I was a perambulating course in retail merchandising.

Clarence Saunders was born on August 9, 1881, into a family of dreamers. His parents were Abram Warwick and Mary Gregory Saunders. Abram was forty-seven when Clarence was born and the father of five children. Mary, his second wife, was twenty-six. She died when Clarence was just five years old.

The Saunderses had owned a plantation in Amherst County, Virginia. Abram Saunders fought with Confederate general Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War. Like many southern families, he lost his wealth during the war and Reconstruction years. No doubt Abrams careless handling of money was partly responsible for the loss. Years later, Saunders remembered him as a real, high flying Virginia gentleman who lived up everything he inherited by the time he was fifty. He never worried about money. For the 1880 census, Abram described himself as a dealer in novelties. Precisely what he sold is unknown.

Clarences half brother, Abram Warwick Jr., fared better than his namesake father. Warwick Saunders was eighteen when Clarence was born. He left Virginia with his wife for the West. Warwick operated weekly newspapers in Platte City and Columbus, Nebraska. He was a fearless crusader in his editorials. People he castigated often challenged him to fights in the streets. Warwick, in turn, was an eager brawler. He was not a successful businessman. The newspapers eventually failed, as did his publishing companies in Omaha, Nebraska, and Davenport, Iowa. Warwick often organized and promoted with little money of his own. He failed for two reasons, his son Harris later reasoned: Warwick often trusted the wrong people in his various partnerships and joint ventures, and laws of the day did not adequately protect the financially weak in business from the strong. Prosperity finally blessed Warwicks clan in 1916. That year, a momentous year for the Saunders family, son Josiah Ellis in Omaha founded one of the first auto leasing businesses in the country. The Saunders Leasing Corporation was prominent in the transportation leasing business through the 1960s.

In 1891, Abram Sr. moved his family to Montgomery County, Tennessee. He married again, to Lou Ella Saunders, who would bear him five additional children. For the one-time landowner, Abrams position was now an embarrassment. He was employed by the Corbindale Plantation as a common laborer and sharecropper. The plantation fronted the Cumberland River, west of the village of Palmyra, less than ten miles from the county seat, Clarksville. Nashville, the state capital, was fifty miles southeast. The plantation was three hundred acres of limestone hills and valleys in Middle Tennessee, suited for burley and dark fired tobacco, wheat and apples. The Corbin family sold tobacco, country hams and apples. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad crossed their property parallel to the river. The railroad operated a repair station on the plantation where Abram also worked as a carpenter.