Michigan Sugar Company stock certificate specimen 1970s  (sugar beets)

Nice collectible. Great vignette of a ox driven covered wagon (prairie schooner) with a pioneer family. Specimen (printer sample). Circa 1970's from issued examples. Hole cancellation through signatures. Measures approximately 12 x 8 inches.

Michigan Sugar Company is an agricultural cooperative (2002), based in Bay City, MI that specializes in the processing of beet sugar. Founded in 1906, Michigan Sugar sells beet sugar under the brand names Big Chief and Pioneer.

In 1897, the Michigan Legislature passed a bill offering the beet processors a bounty of one cent per pound of sugar produced in Michigan from Michigan-grown sugar beets, provided that the farmers received at least $4 per ton for beets of 12 percent sugar.

The Business Men’s Committee settled on Bay City as the locale for Michigan’s “Pioneer” factory. As a result, the “Pioneer Michigan Sugar Company” was organized and on Dec. 9, 1897, the stock subscription list was closed and some subscriptions even had to be returned. The factory was built in the Bay City suburb of Essexville.

In 1905, the Michigan beet sugar manufacturing industry began to encounter difficult times. Seven factories had closed because farmers turned indifferent to the appeals of factory representatives to grow beets.

More sugar beet companies would have gone under had not H. O. Havemeyer’s powerful and experienced American Sugar Refining Company stepped in and provided a helping hand. American Sugar, sensing the profit possibilities of the Michigan beet sugar industry, bought a substantial stock interest in many of the local companies.

In 1906, Havemeyer promoted the idea of merging six of the local companies in which his firm had a stock interest into one single company. This was achieved when Alma Sugar Company, Peninsular Sugar Refining Company of Caro, Pioneer Michigan Sugar Company of Bay City, Sebewaing Sugar Company, Sanilac Sugar Refining Company of Croswell and Saginaw Valley Sugar Company of Carrollton were merged and formed Michigan Sugar Company on Aug. 20, 1906.

During much of its history, Michigan Sugar was a publicly traded, private-sector firm. It was later a subsidiary of Imperial Sugar; after the 2001 bankruptcy of its former parent firm, Michigan Sugar became a cooperative in February 2002. Since that time the cooperative has been owned by a consortium of more than 1,000 sugar beet farmers, mostly located in Michigan's Thumb, who grow beets for processing.

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