Wool Industry In Utah

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This page was last updated on May 16, 2024.

Merrion & Wilkins Company

Ogden, Utah

(based on extensive online newspaper research)

(Note on spelling: The "Wilkins" in the company name appears to be spelled both as Wilkins, and as Wilkens, depending on the source. Wilkins is used here because that is the spelling Russell Wilkins himself used when he filled out his World War II draft registration.)

The wool warehouse of the Merrion & Wilkins Company was at 3166 Wall Avenue just north of the Bamberger tracks. The warehouse was completed in May 1937 to replace leased space at the Ogden stock yard, where the company was active in the purchase of wool. The newly completed warehouse was the site of the its first wool auction, held in early May.

The company principals were James Lee Merrion and Russell J. Wilkins. Wilkins was a resident of Denver, with his office in the Denver Stock Yards. Merrion was a resident of Chicago, with his office at the Chicago Union Stock Yards. Merrion later retired to his sheep ranch in Colorado, and Wilkins retired to his sheep ranch in Nevada.

The wool auction at the Merrion & Wilkins warehouse in May 1938 was the first of the season west of Denver, with 1,750,000 pounds of newly sheared wool being offered. By July 1938 there were 3 million pounds of wool stored in the warehouse, and the auction later that month resulted in over 300,000 pounds being sold. The auctions became an almost monthly event, selling wool from growers throughout Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming, at prices ranging from 17 to 24 cents per pound. In July 1940, a total of 3.5 million pounds of wool from 350 growers was sold. The largest percentage of the wool sold and shipped outbound from the warehouse, was by rail, starting with the Bamberger railroad, which interchanged at Ogden with Union Paific, Denver & Rio Grande, and Southern Pacific.

As the Merrion & Wilkins wool warehouse was nearing completion in 1937, Bamberger added a spur from its mainline to serve the new Merrion & Wilkins wool warehouse. The spur connected with Bamberger's mainline at the toe of the east end of the grade for the overhead crossing of Wall Avenue and the Union Pacific tracks. The spur had a grade down from the mainline into the building. The combination of this grade, the sharp curve, short tail track, and low-height wire made this a nightmare for Bamberger crews to switch.

At times the large warehouse was extra capacity for the company's wool business, and the extra space was leased in part or in whole to various companies. Customer lists for the Bamberger railroad from the late 1940s or early 1950s show four or five customers located in the warehouse including Scowcroft, and another was the American Box company. Gordon Cardall, a Bamberger engineer in the 1940s, told of the railroad "always moving cars in and out of there." The spur was shared with the Royal Canning company, and the Royal Canning tail track north of the Merrion & Wilkins switch was just a little longer than a locomotive and one car. This meant that several moves had to be made to get the cars moved around, and cars spotted at Royal Cannning had to be moved in and out each time the Merrion & Wilkins warehouse was served.

The Merrion & Wilkins wool sales network included storage and auction sites in Denver and in Billings, as well as Chicago. The company first came to Ogden in 1929 and had begun buying wool on consignment from wool growers in 1935 as part of their participation in Ogden's annual livestock show. A July 1929 news item noted that Merrion & Wilkins was one of the largest sheep commission firms at Chicago. The sales from the Ogden warehouse continued growing until the company headquarters were moved to Denver in 1941. The Ogden wool warehouse was closed, and the owner at the time, Dell Stringham of Royal Canning company, began looking for a new leaser to occupy the warehouse.

In a November 1943 item in the Chicago Tribune newspaper, the Merrion & Wilkins company was shown as "one of the largest sheep and wool buying commission firms in the country, and has numerous wool storage warehouses located in the west and northwest."

The wool firm of Merrion & Wilkins was dissolved in June 1944, with the Chicago interests going to J. Lee Merrion and his self-named company, and the Denver, Ogden, and Billings interests going to Russell Wilkins, in the name of Wilkins & Company.

The first tenet for the vacant wool warehouse after Merrion & Wilkins left Ogden in 1941 was a battery case manufacturer. In 1948 Richardson Manufacturing company of Chicago moved in. But in 1952 the company moved its manufacturing facility to the old sugar factory in Hooper, leaving the Merrion & Wilkins building vacant again.

In Summer 1964, after closing its facility in North Salt Lake, the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors moved its locomotive parts warehouse from the North Salt Lake location, to the former Merrion & Wilkins wool warehouse. The EMD parts warehouse remained at that location until September 1982, when the staff and inventory was moved to a new location in Omaha, Nebraska. After EMD vacated the former Merrion & Wilkins building, a clothing manufacturer was located in the space.

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