In 1947, A.C. Ferrell erected a bulk plant on a rail siding in East Atchison to help supply bottled gas to local customers.

A massive flood in Atchison in 1958 destroyed much of the company's merchandise, prompting A.C. to move the business from Commercial Street to rented space across the river in Missouri.

A.C. and Mabel's oldest son and middle child, current company Chairman James Ferrell,[6] enrolled in the University of Kansas in 1958.

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020,[10] Ferrellgas, like many companies, shuttered some of its offices and shifted its corporate headquarters from Overland Park, Kansas, back to Liberty, Missouri.

By the 1940s, the company was supplying refineries from Chicago to Buffalo, and following World War II, it expanded its pipeline network into New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

In 1986, Penn Central created a master limited partnership to spin off Buckeye and hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to act as lead underwriter.

The planned offering did not go well, and Goldman advised management that the placement would go better if Buckeye was split into its pipeline and propane components and sold separately.

[5] With the acquisition of Buckeye safely under its belt, Ferrellgas spent the late 1980s and early 1990s consolidating its operations and expanding into new geographical territory.

The need to access capital for acquisitions and internal growth gave James Ferrell the idea to form a Master Limited Partnership (MLP).

In 1998, investment bank Goldman Sachs brought James Ferrell an idea that would help him transition into retirement (although he later returned as Ferrellgas' President and CEO in 2016).

The acquisition of the Suburban locations added 13 million gallons and allowed Ferrellgas to enter Norman, Oklahoma, and Austin, Texas, for the first time.

On February 9, 2004, Ferrellgas announced its blockbuster merger with Blue Rhino Corporation,[17] the nation's largest provider of propane by portable tank exchange.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ferrellgas purchased shares of Blue Rhino (the company was traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol RINO) in a transaction worth approximately $340 million.

On the day of the merger agreement, James Ferrell called tank exchange the fastest growing portion of the retail propane industry.

[18] Blue Rhino was founded in 1994, around the same time of Ferrellgas Partners, L.P.'s initial public offering, and remains headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

At the Blue Rhino propane plant (LP gas), owned by Ferrellgas, located in Tavares, Florida in Lake County, a fire[22] broke out at around 10:30 p.m EDT on July 29, 2013.

Ferrellgas expanded its midstream operations on September 2, 2014, with the purchase of two salt water disposal wells[27] in the Eagle Ford Shale region from C&E Production, LLC and its affiliates, based in Bryan, Texas.

In June 2015, Ferrellgas agreed to acquire Bridger Logistics LLC for a fee of around $837.5 million[29] as part of its plans to expand its midstream services business.

[36] This change was necessitated because the average closing price of the company's common stock over a consecutive 30-day trading period had remained less than $1.00, which is an NYSE listing requirement.