P.D. STORE TO CELEBRATE 24TH BUSINESS YEAR

Circa 1920's Postcard of the copper Queen Store in Douglas. Owned by Jean Walker and used with permission.

Yellow pennants inscribed with black letters line the show windows and proclaim the 24th anniversary of the Phelps Dodge Mercantile company with will be celebrated for 10 days beginning May 15 with an extensive sale of merchandise. Anniversary prizes to the number of 24 will be given away in commemoration of the day, to the persons whose names are drawn from the box which will contain the names of all those entering the store each day. Drawings will be made twice daily for eight days and four times during each of the two remaining days of the sale.

The yellow flags fringe the windows and furnish a background for the giant white birthday cake of the company which is decorated with yellow candles. Grouped artistically around the cake are the anniversary prizes which include a Universal thermal jug, summer hats for man and woman, motorer’s memory book, Universal scales, a box of luscious red and yellow apples, silver slippers, cuff link set, bead purse, smoking stand, box of cigars, man’s pair of shoes, table cloth and a 24-pound sack of flour.

The Phelps Dodge Mercantile company was established 40 years ago in Bisbee, and was then known as the mercantile department of the copper Queen Mining company. The store was organized by the mining company to meet the demands of the residents of the fast-growing mining camp for the necessities and conveniences of the towns of equal size. The mercantile needs of the community had been cared for by a small general store and several itinerant peddlers from the outside. The owner of the general store was anxious to leave the camp, and the mining company realized that a good general store was necessary for the continued growth of the camp.

The late W. H. Brophy was then a young man who had but recently arrived from Ireland, and had entered the employ of the owner of the general store as clerk, delivery boy and bookkeeper. Brophy was chosen by Ben Williams, then manager of the mining company, to handle the store for the mining company. He assumed the management and remained until 1917 when he left for service with the Red Cross overseas.

Beginning with a small room, a part of which was given over to the office of the mining company, the store grew to large proportions supplying not only the want of Bisbee, but of all the mining camps near. A store was established in the growing town of Lowell, another in Naco and then in Warren. In 1902, a large branch of the Copper Queen store was established in Douglas and the stores of the Phelps Dodge corporation in Dawson, N. M. and in Morenci were put under the direction of the general store offices in Bisbee. With the opening of the Burro Mountain camp at Tyrone, N. M. another store of the Phelps Dodge string was established.

In 1914, the stores were reorganized as a separate company under the name of the Phelps Dodge Mercantile company, and the growth has been continuous since. The mercantile company now operates stores at Bisbee, Lowell, Warren, Naco, Douglas, Clifton and Morenci in Arizona, at Tyrone and Dawson, N.M. and at Nacoazri and Pilares in Sonora.

Brophy was the general manager of the mercantile company from its establishment until 1917, when he resigned and was succeeded by W. a. Meyer, who served as general manager until 1924. Since Meyer’s resignation the stores have been under the management of P. G. Beckett, vice president and general manager of the Phelps Dodge corporation, with A. W. Liddell, assistant general manager of the mercantile company in charge of the operation of the stores.

C. C. McBride is at present manager of the Douglas branch of the mercantile company.

Transcribed by Jean Walker, 9 Feb 2026. Douglas Daily Dispatch, Douglas, AZ. 16 May 1926. Page 2.

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