Founder Started With $250 Cash

The O. S. Stapley Company, which celebrates its 60th Anniversary this week, was founded in 1895 by Orley Seymour Stapley, then 23 years old.

Stapley's life was rich in the pioneer romance of Arizona, and the hard toil which went with it. He came here from Utah in a wagon caravan as a boy of 10.

His schooling, begun in Utah, was continued in Mesa, where his father farmed. At the age of 16 he went to work for Frank Miller, a dairy farmer, at a wage of $25 a month and board. He worked 15 to 17 hours a day. During his last six months with Miller, he drove the stagecoach Miller operated between Phoenix and Mesa.

At the Phoenix end of the run he became acquainted with the Henry E. Kemp & Company hardware store. This, he decided, was the life for him. His interest in the business led the company to offer him a job at the princely wage of $45 a month. Out of this sum, Stapley paid $18 for board. He slept in the store.

In August, 1894, Stapley was married to Polly May Hunsaker of Mesa, a union from which six sons and three daughters were born. As a wedding present to the young man, his employers raised his pay to $50 a month.

The panic in the fall of 1894 hit the Kemp Company hard and in 1895 it failed. Within a week, the farsighted
young man, was established in business with his father-in-law in Mesa. He saw a great future in hardware and the new inventions of the farm implement industry.

Young Stapley put $250 into it—money frugally saved out of his small earnings. His father-in-law put in $300 more and they borrowed $250. Their opening stock was purchased from Talbot and Hubbard in Phoenix to a value of $865, getting $65 on credit.

Always active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was called on a mission to Mississippi in 1898. Selling his share in the business for $3,200, he repurchased the whole store on his return two years later.

Born in 1872, Stapley died in 1942.

Arizona Republic (Phoenix Arizona)
Sunday, March 6, 1955
transcribed by Rhonda Holton
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He served in the Arizona State Senate in the early 1920's.

He established a chain of hardware stores throughout the state, with his first store located in Mesa, Arizona.

-City of Mesa Cemetery walking tour