The History of Farmway Co-op, Inc.
On a Saturday morning in October 1910, delegates from Mitchell County's 12 neighborhood
Farmer's Union organizations met at the Mitchell County Courthouse in Beloit, Kansas to
form a county-wide chapter of the Farmer's Education and Cooperative Union of America.
In 1911, the Cooperative was chartered as the Farmer's Union Co-op Association with its
priority to provide farmers, as a farmer-owned petroleum cooperative with fairer prices,
petroleum products, and services needed for their farming operations.
Its first major purchase included oil storage tanks located near the railroad in Beloit
and two draft horses used for the transportation of the and gasoline to producers.
In 1915, the name was changed to Mitchell County Farmers Union Co-op Association.
New services and products were continuously being offered at the Mitchell County Farmers
Union Co-op Association with the introduction of products, cream stations, grocery stores,
and new elevators with up-to-date equipment. The cooperative continued to grow.
At the 1948 Annual Meeting, members voted to start an expansion program and new elevators
were built at the Cooperative's locations in Mitchell County. Included in the expansion
were new service stations, plus new fertilizer facilities and bulk fueling sites.
The Cooperative expanded into Lincoln County. Due to this expansion, a committee was
appointed to find a new name for the Mitchell County Farmers Union Co-op Association. A
contest was held with 300 possible names submitted. Of those 300 names, three were
recommended to the Board of Directors.
The unanimous decision was on Farmway Co-op, Inc. Farmway Co-op, Inc. has come a long way
since that first meeting in the Mitchell County Courthouse in October 1910. 
Two former Farmway Co-op general managers, John Shulte (general manager from 1935 to 1969)
and Fritz Gwin (general manager from 1969 to 1986) showed the leadership qualities to be
elected and serve as Board Chairman of the regional cooperative Farmland Industries, Inc.,
Kansas City, board of directors. Retired CEO Byron Ulery (1986-present) was the recipient
of the distinguished Dreyer Award from Farmland Industries in December 1995. The Dreyer
Award was established in 1969 in honor of Frank Dreyer, a director of the Adams County
Consumers Cooperative in Brighton, CO. The Dreyer family established the award to
recognize a general manager in the Farmland System who best demonstrates leadership and
management ability resulting in the steady growth of a local cooperative. Byron Ulery
retired from Farmway Co-op on March 29, 2002.
Bob Fifield became the new CEO of Farmway Co-op on April 1, 2002.
The year 2006 marks the 95th Anniversary of Farmway Co-op, Inc. |
