REMEMBERING ROGERS: Factory Made Chips For Almost Four Decades

No One Seems To Know Why Rogers' Only Potato Chip Factory Went Out Of Business Around 1961

The Proctor Potato Chip Factory exists today at the corner of South Second and Sycamore streets in Rogers. The company produced chips for Northwest Arkansas for almost four decades.
The Proctor Potato Chip Factory exists today at the corner of South Second and Sycamore streets in Rogers. The company produced chips for Northwest Arkansas for almost four decades.

Did you know the delicious smell of cooking potato chips treated the residents of Rogers for almost four decades?

I did not know it until Bill Clark contacted John Burroughs of the Rogers Historical Museum requesting information about a potato chip company in Rogers. John did some research and found it was started by L.M. Proctor and his wife at their home at 703 S. Third about 1923. The Proctors operated the Proctor Potato Chip Co. until 1944, when Mr. Proctor died. The business was sold to William Seward Puckett and continued under the Proctor name. Sometime during the late 1940s, the factory was moved to 800 S. Second St. The last known reference to the company was in the 1961 City Directory.

I began my research on several Internet sites devoted to Rogers’ history asking for help from anyone who knew about the Proctor Potato Chip Co., and was amazed at the number of people who contributed information. Here are some memories:

Margaret Stratton said she knew Latt and Mary Proctor about 1942 when she was about 7. “The potato chips were made in a building (garage?) behind the Proctor’s home at 703 S. Third. They were friends with my parents … Mary outlived Latt and died in the Wilmoth Nursing Home in Rogers. They had no children, just a Boston terrier (the first one I had ever seen). Mary’s brother, Guy (Anderson?) delivered the chips (5 cents a bag) in an old-time station wagon. I seem to recall that they also sold starch from the potatoes to Model Laundry.”

Tom Hughes, a route salesman for the company in 1952, commented on the building at 800 S. Second St. (still exists), “It was never a showplace but clean inside. It resembled one of the military buildings sold off after World War II and may have been one. They turned out a top-notch product as far as I was concerned. In the summer of 1952, there was a severe shortage of potatoes. Seward (Puckett) and Twila (his wife) scoured the South one weekend and came up with a truckload. Many other companies stopped delivering chips. I had several housewives tell me since they could not buy potatoes on the market, they were substituting chips. I’m not sure that was a good thing but it paid off for me. One of the route salesmen that preceded me was a native of Rogers named ‘Junior’ Roller … who was very well liked.”

Karen Russell Burk (Russell’s Five & Dime) asked her brother, Carl Russell, his memories of the company: “We went there on a ‘field trip’ as a Cub Scout den in the late ’40s. Got to tour the plant, which wasn’t very big at all as I recall. Watched the chips being made, but about all that I can remember of that was getting to sample chips right after they came out of a big vat of hot oil and got salted. I am sure that was what we were all focused on … being grade school-aged boys.”

Bonnie Grimes contributed: “I remember going with Bill’s (her husband) father, Mack Grimes, to deliver potatoes to the factory in 1947. They gave samples and they were delicious.”

Josh Jones and Carl Russell came up with records of a minor legal case from 1955-56 that described the Proctor Potato Chip operation in detail. Here are some excerpts: The company was owned by William Seward Puckett, assisted by his wife, Twila. The principal business of the company was manufacture and distribution of potato chips, but they also distributed pickles, salad dressing, mustard, pork skins, corn sticks and similar items. The products were delivered to 350 stores, schools, and retail establishments in three counties in Northwest Arkansas by W.S. Puckett and his employee, B.B. Bland. At the time, the staff consisted of Ruth Morris, foreman, and three other ladies. The ladies were paid $18-$20 per week and their duties included frying the potatoes in vegetable oil, salting, weighing, sacking and packing the chips in pasteboard boxes. The work week was 40 hours or more and included cleaning and janitorial duties. The cooking oil was delivered to the factory in 55-gallon drums and one and one-half barrels were used per week.

No one seems to know why Rogers’ only potato chip factory went out of business about 1961, but Seward Puckett became Rogers’ mayor in 1960.

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JAMES F. HALES IS AN AUTHOR AND LOCAL HISTORIAN. HIS COLUMN APPEARS MONTHLY IN THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS.

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