HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (WTVF) — We all know a few businesses that have been there our whole lives. There's one business with a longevity that's pretty tough to beat. They're celebrating a major anniversary.
"I'm standing in front of my family's business," Robert Harper said, speaking from Hopkinsville Milling Company. "I'm the fifth generation of my family to work here. In Hopkinsville, we are the oldest locally-owned business."
The company started at a different location of Hopkinsville in the 1870s. At that time, it was Crescent Mills. They made flour and corn meal. The great uncle of Robert's grandfather ran it with a business partner. It eventually combined with another company, and in 1908, the Hopkinsville Milling Company was formed.
Robert first started coming there when he was 7-years-old. Grandfather Frank A. Yost was running it then, and he'd pay Robert a quarter to help sort things around his office. He'd also reward him with a cold Coca-Cola.
"Is this the guy with the quarters?" I asked Robert, looking at a portrait on the wall.
"This is the guy with the quarters!" he smiled. "It was so much fun for me to spend the day with my grandfather like that."
The long story of the business can partly be told in a flour and cornmeal bag archive kept in a large book.
"Here's the flour bag, and we have not changed those bags since the '60s," Robert said, flipping through bags of Sunflour and Sunflower products. "Here's some bags from the mid-'50s."
Robert showed a 1961 bag featuring Brenda Lee.
The Hopkinsville Milling Company is now celebrating a true milestone — 150 years since its beginnings in the city. So, what does Robert see as the reason for this longevity? Well, honestly, fads come and go, but biscuits and cornbread are eternal.
"People have continued to eat flour and cornmeal since they learned how to grind up wheat," he said. "I became president in 1997, president now for 27 years."
In taking his grandfather's old office, he carries on a lot of his traditions. The office has a lot of the same character of when the office building went up in the 60s. Robert always has Coca-Cola in glass bottles stocked up just like his grandfather did.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can e-mail me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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-Lelan Statom
