The Mountain Grove Camp Meeting Association was formed after a decision by a nine-man committee. It was decided on August 19, 1872 that the company would be a joint-stock company. Its capital stock in 1873 was $14,000. G.M. Shoop was a significant stockholder in the company. He was the manager of the campground and the association secretary during the 1870s. High-ranking members of the Mountain Grove Camp Meeting Association during the 1870s included Presiding Elder Barnes, Reverend S. Creighton, and the businessmen and politicians B.G. Welch, Mordecai W. Jackson, and A.J. Ammerman. The newspaper editor E.M. Wardin was also prominent within the association. In the early 1880s, the businessmen E.M.M. Low, Z.T. Fowler, and Lloyd T. Sharpless also became prominent in the association. The campground typically grossed approximately $4,000 per year during the 1880s.
