This unassuming little matchbook actually has quite a tale to tell, and the first clue comes from the part of the matchbook called the saddle (not pictured) which reads "Top Quality Since 1851". The second clue is in the address, St. Louis 2, MO. The "2" is a postal code used prior to the current 5-digit Zip code, which dates the matchbook at more than 50 years old. So by the time this matchbook was produced, the company had already been in business for more than 100 years!
But "Good Housekeepers" is not not the name of the company, nor does it have anything to do with the well-known "Goodhousekeeping Seal of Approval". As the matchbook implies, we're going to start in 1851, when a young Samuel Cupples (1831-1912) arrived by steamboat to St. Louis to sell a shipment of wooden buckets, churns, and utensils. He was so successful that he decided to stay and build his business. By 1882, he had incorporated his business as Samuel Cupples Woodenware Co., distributing 1,000 items from 200 suppliers of household products. Over the years, he built a complex of warehouses (Cupples Station) of 23 warehouses in downtown St. Louis, connected by rail lines at the riverfront to facilitate loading goods.
In 1900, Cupples expanded his product line to include paper products when he purchased an envelope company. By then he had joined the Board of Directors at Washington University, donated company assets worth 4 million dollars and funded the construction of 3 campus buildings. His 1890 Richardsonian Romanesque mansion was purchased by St. Louis University and stands today as a well-known landmark.
The company expanded once more in 1917 to include rubber and charcoal products, becoming the Cupples Manufacturing Co. A short list of products includes napkins, toilet paper, waxpaper, paper towels, brooms, clothespins, clotheslines, Mason Jar lids, and matches.
Since none of us have any of these products on our shelves under this company name these days, it is safe to assume the company has gone out of business. Even after consulting historians at the St. Louis Public Library, there is no clue what year the company ceased being a viable business. By 1965, portions of his warehouse complex were coming down to make way for Busch Stadium and I-64. Some warehouses still stand and several have been transformed into hotels and lofts. While there are businesses located in St. Louis bearing the Cupples name, it is unknown if or how they are related to the original business started in 1851.
Note: While the Cupples Company manufactured matches and matchboxes, the matchbook pictured was made by a different company.
