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The collection is made up of the papers from four different small business enterprises Vere and Evelyn Westwood engaged in during the 1950s to the 1960s. The collection includes papers from Hub's Market, Western States Brick Co., Westwood Acres, and Westwood Inc.
One of the couple's business endeavors was a grocery store, Hub's Market. Evelyn's stepbrother, James Herbert "Hub" Petersen, came to the couple with the idea of buying Carl's Market in Murray. Apparently Petersen had experience with grocery stores, and the three bought the building and Hub's Market Inc. was incorporated in January 1958 with Vere Westwood as the president/director. The grocery store struggled to make a profit. In May 1960 the Westwoods leased the building and sold the store's inventory to Glen Schmidt, at which time the Westwoods added a drive-in to the grocery store. The lease shifted to a number of people until 1966, when the Westwoods decided to get out of the grocery business, as they had not turned a profit and perhaps only broke even. In 1966 Max Schmidt bought the store and drive-in.
While trying to make the grocery store work in its early days, in January 1961 Shirlef Powell and his wife, Betty, offered Vere Westwood an option to buy 5,000 shares of United Brick Co. common voting stock. Westwood decided to take the opportunity. Shortly thereafter, Westwood formed Western States Brick Co., leased the United Brick Co. property in Lehi, took over the brick making plant and the clay mine. Unfortunately, Westwood lost money in the venture, choosing to turn it back to those from whom he leased it shortly after beginning to run this business. The corporation was officially dissolved in December 1963.
The Westwoods also owned a house construction business in Orem for a short period. Vere and Evelyn Westwood moved to Orem in 1946, buying three acres of land. Vere built two small homes and a duplex in addition to his own home on the property, renting out the additional homes. As opportunity presented itself, Vere and Evelyn bought land adjacent to their home in the late 1950s, and Vere divided up the land into a subdivision he named Westwood Acres. Vere built and leased the new houses until he received Federal Housing Authority approval of the subdivision in 1967, allowing the lessees to purchase their property. Apparently Vere's house building business was finished in 1967.
Vere Westwood's earliest business venture was to haul vanadium ore during World War II. After the war, Vere used his trucking experience to move houses across the state, and Vere stayed tied to his mining interests throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Westwood's trucking and mining enterprises are organized under the series Westwood Inc.
The collection includes financial papers, correspondence, record books, ledgers, photocopies of photographs, timecards, invoices, legal papers, and other documents pertaining to the four businesses in which the Westwood family engaged in the 1950s and 1960s.
The donors had placed the items in separate boxes pertaining to the four businesses: Hub's Market, Western States Brick Co., Westwood Acres, and Westwood Inc. It was difficult to arrange the collection chronologically, as these business enterprises overlap. Therefore, each of the businesses was arranged as a series, and the series are organized alphabetically.
The original order was difficult to determine in this collection. Therefore, within each series the collection was also arranged alphabetically. Each original folder was labeled, and the new label contains the information from the old labels.
A few items stand out in the collection. The Westwood Inc. series includes items concerning uranium mining and protecting one's family from nuclear fallout. Included in the Westwood Acres series are pamphlets for homes, including floor plans and outdoor designs typical of the time period.
Vere Westwood Family Business Papers, 1941-2004, Utah State Historical Society.
Gift of Verlyn Westwood, 2004.
The Vere Westwood Family Business Papers are the physical property of the Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their heirs and assigns. Please contact the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this collection.
Maps and blueprints have been pulled and are available in Mss C
1564.
Box 16 is shelved with the oversize collection.