Stuart Brothers Corporation

Series 1 contains the business records of Sydney Octavius Chase and is divided into seven headings: Chase and Company, Florida Citrus Exchange, Trade Associations, Citrus Clearinghouse, Statistics, Business Interests, and Tung Operations. The Chase and Company files date from the early 1910s till 1934, but earlier records related to Chase and Company are filed under Business Interests. The Business Interests files include records related to Chase Investment and other groves that the Chases invested in. The Business Interest files also include records related to real estate ventures such as Fort Caswell, banking matters, and personal stock investments. Civic issues related to Sanford are also present. Topics include the Mediterranean Fruit Fly infestation, weather problems, and transportation. The latter occupies a large portion of all correspondence in Record Group I. Railroad rates are a major complaint and mention is made of a proposal to build a canal linking the Indian River and the St. Johns River and thereby reducing dependence on the railroads. The Florida Citrus Exchange records here and in Series 2 document the Chases' acrimonious and reluctant participation in that organization. The statistical records provide detail on prices at the local, state and national levels as well as costs related to production and distribution. The tung oil records document the operations at the Anderson and Jumpie Run plantations.

In the main, the order in Series 1 and 2 reflects the initial work done by Dena Snodgrass. The file numbers were those assigned at the time the collection was acquired in 1978. However, it is not altogether clear that the provenance of all the files was correctly identified at the time. This is particularly true of the statistical files which appear to have been generated by several people.