-The Morey Mercantile roasted and packaged the coffee sold in this tin. The tin was then an advertising piece that customers kept and could reuse as a canister; this one was for prunes. The lid for this tin is plain (this makes sense as this was the basic coffee). The coloring and wear patterns of the lid are similar to the canister/tin and it may be original.
-This item was collected by Don Wilson, an antique dealer who collected items related to/from the Morey Mercantile.
-See also HCC MSS .714
-The C.S. Morey Mercantile Company was founded in Denver in 1884 (C.S. Morey or Chester Stephen Morey was born in Wisconsin, served in the Civil War and attended the Eastman Business College in Chicago in 1867. In 1872 he settled in New Mexico for health reasons and worked as a western sales rep for Sprague & Warner & Co. who helped him start his own business in Denver in 1884). In 1901 Morey's son J.W. joined the company eventually taking over as president. The popular Solitaire brand was started in 1902. In 1905 J.W. Morey married Mable Feldhauser and they had one daughter Katherine Laura (who later married John A. Ferguson--see HCC 84.436.1-.5. In 1910 the company changed its name to The Morey Mercantile Company and by 1925 occupied 253,000 square feet in downtown Denver. The company remained an important Colorado business until it closed in 1956.
-See also article by William L. Myatt, Colorado Magazine 1961--copy in DFA object file