Small Town Peanuts Thriving through Adaptation
By Alex Robles
Along every highway in Oklahoma you find “Small
Town America” and, too many times, these towns are mostly reminders of times long ago. Empty buildings paint the corners along the thoroughfares that once were the epicenters of our rural communities. Too many have fallen victim to the urban centric growth that population research has shown to become the trend of contemporary America. With this in consideration, when we find a business that succeeds and thrives in our rural economies, it gives us a renewed hope that our small communities aren’t forsaken. That brings us to the epitome of this tale, Mitchell and Mitchell, a business, a family, a friend. Mitchell and Mitchell is a 3rd generation “Farm Service Center & Garden Store”. It is currently owned and operated by Kyle and Ron Jones. Kyle Jones is the son to Ron and Judy Jones, and Ron is the sonin-law to John and Dorthy Mitchell. John and Dorthy were the first to start the Mitchell and Mitchell business and bring it to Marlow. Today you will find a number of services that the business provides, including: Feed, Seed, Fertilizer, and many other farm related services and products. However, what the company offers today is very different from what started the business. This is what is so beautiful about this business and it’s ownership. It's a testament to their business prowess and a lesson for many of us not only in the business space, but it teaches us a lesson about life and the need to become flexible and adaptable. “Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision, and change.” - Richard Branson This story is no different and it finds it beginning at the start of the 1930s. John and Dorthy Mitchell were cotton brokers from the Wynnewood area. They would buy cotton from the Marlow area and that is what ended up bringing them to this corner of Oklahoma. In 1938 John and Dorthy bought a building to store cotton in Marlow. They also used this to store grain, such as wheat and milo. They became a large broker of grain and transitioned this from civilian to governmental work by aiding in the efforts of WWII. They worked with governmental agencies to store cotton and grain for war efforts and continued this through the 1950’s after the war. John found business opportunities during this time by identifying the need for peanut farmers. This was 12
brought to light when John saw opportunities to utilize federal programs that provided some subsidies for farmers. These programs were focused on growing peanuts. John had a passion for partnering with farmers. This is a core value that has been maintained throughout the business and is still a driving force in today’s practices at Mitchell and Mitchell. John invested in more buildings and infrastructure in Marlow and ended up with a warehouse that could store 1,900 TONS of peanuts. This ability brought in the need to add a spur to the railroad track that allowed John Mitchell to load train cars with not only peanuts but also grains that would eventually make their way to Dallas. His gained knowledge of governmental programs and his passion for partnering with his rural neighbors lead him to help create local awareness of these opportunities that would eventually usher in a thriving peanut industry around the Marlow area. This business model would grow and take them all the way to the late 1990s. Along the way, John would seek out opportunities where the business could build upon its relationship with the farmers in its community. They would invest in dryers for the peanuts that farmers would grow. They would also use this for locally grown grains and grass seed. However, John's ambitions didn’t stop at the business, he also was heavily involved in the community. He and the business would be given a number of awards including the “Outstanding Citizen” award and the “Free Enterprise” award. John also became the mayor in Marlow in the early 1970s. The Marlow grown peanuts would also end up making a mark on “The Big Stage” when donated peanuts were given as a snack during a broadway show called “Moonlight and Magnolias” by Ron Hutchinson. This was also the timeframe when Mitchell and Mitchell would invest in their first Kubota tractor. This tractor would be used to load bulk fertilizer or move products around in the warehouse. What Ron had been most impressed with is that they used this machine from the mid 1970s until 2019 and in that time, they never “wore out the engine”. It got many repairs along the way, but it never left them “hanging”. They ended up replacing that tractor with a new model M5660 and they continue to use a Kubota tractor with pride. However, we all know that times change and Mitchell GPL Winter 2021
