USA 1930's - Ceylon MN

H. P. Andrews

An USA Five Cents Merchant Trade token from H. P. Andrews, Grocery & General Store of Ceylon, Martin County, Minnesota. Opened in 1908 and operated till he died at age 63 in 1943. The store was purchased by Henry Saggau in 1945 and was know till 1949 as Mrs. Harry P. Andrews Grocery.

SPECIFICATIONS Value 5 cents Alloy Aluminum Diameter 27.3 / 25.4 mm Thickness 1.4 mm Weight 1.68 gms Shape Octagon Edge Plain DieAxis O°
	TC-171701

Obverse : Image of a bow-tie at center with name H. P. ANDREWS, above along periphery, and town CEYLON,   MINN. below in two lines, all within dot-circle.
Reverse : Large 5 ¢ at center with the legend GOOD FOR on top and IN MERCHANDISE below at bottom along the periphery, all within dot-circle.

Please also see the very similer H. P. ANDREWS, 10¢ token 25¢ token and 50¢ token.

The owner of the Grocery store Andrews, and Christensen, the owner of the Hardware store were brothers-in-law. They together built probably the two most beautiful business buildings in town. Entering through a common door, the stores were on either side of a stairway which led to apartments above. It was operational in 1930. Gerald Rosenberg remembers they had "four" grocery stores in town when he was in school (1945-1956). Two of the Christensen's sons are still living, and ran their Hardware store until maybe the early 1990's. A construction business is using the buildings now for their enterprise.

The Ceylon Post office was established on l899 Oct.16th, by Frank Kellogg, who became Ceylon's first postmaster. Kellogg's son-in-law, Henry P. Andrews succeeded him as postmaster in 1904 till 1915. The city of Ceylon grew up very fast around the Northwestern Railroad tracks, which stretches across Martin Co. The older Post Office established in 1862 at nearby Tenhassen closed. Any other details about H. P. Andrews Grocery ? Please send me any information.

Ceylon Post Office

TC-171701 Henry P. Andrews General Store & Grocery 1908-1944; Mrs. Henry P. Andrews Grocery 1945-1949 I wonder if Frank Kellogg the first Postmaster of Ceylon is connected to Frank Kellogg (1856-1937) who lived in St. Paul Minnesota, and was Senator(1917-1923), was Secretary of State(1925-1929) under President Calvin Coolidge, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.

The token was scanned at 300 dpi and the images are displayed at 240 dpi. This token was obtained for me in the 2002 December by Larry Dziubek a collector of Tokens in Pittsburgh from Jim Strong. I thank them both and Gerald Rosenberg for the history.

See also the Ceylon MN token site for more stories.