Chase and Company - Lee P. Moore - General Manager, 1966-1967

Series 4 is arranged alphabetically by subject and consists of a subject file found at the Belair estate in 1990. The records were originally taken from the Sanford offices of Randall Chase and Sydney Octavius Chase, Jr. when it was closed in 1979. Audits from Cecilia Johnson and labor files found in Randall Chase's home were added to the series. The content of the series reflects all of the Chase business interests including Chase and Company and Chase Groves, Inc., successor to Chase Investment.

The series reflects the tremendous upheaval in the Florida fruits and vegetable industry in the 1960s and 1970s. The percentage of fruit destined for the juice plants increased as major firms constructed tank farms with large holding capacities thus allowing the processors to sell product off in an orderly manner in accord with market demand and prices. This also lessened the impact of freeze events as the processing capacity of the industry was able to manage larger quantities of damaged fruit. Another change was the shift southward of Florida's agriculture, particularly in citrus. Corporate farming also came to dominate Florida agriculture. Small growers, lacking the capital necessary to compete, sold out to larger interests just as some of the small to middle-sized packers were bought out by larger packers and processors. Chase and Company was no longer a large firm, relatively speaking, and in the changing Florida environment the investors had to choose between selling out or attempting to leap into the upper ranks of the larger businesses. These changes are clearly discernable in the Chase records for this period. The shutting down of the fresh fruit operation, the selling off of groves in the Sanford area, and the purchase of Indian River district groves in St. Lucie County are all evidence of the industry-wide trends. Chase and Company's entry into the Everglades region is also documented. Labor problems become a focal point of meetings and memoranda. Also included in these records are various buy-out proposals and evidence that the directors were considering a number of different financial and investment strategies to counteract inflation and rising labor costs.