USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time, Volume I > Part 36
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
Memphis, where a public hall was converted into a hospital and the wounded re- ceived treatment. There Mark watched by his brother's side until he passed away on the evening of the sixth day after the accident. One touching thing connected with this part of the noted humorist's life was the conversation which took place between the two young brothers a few nights previous to the steam- boat explosion while they were on the same boat. They were talking of dis- asters on the water and were pondering over the best method of action in the face of danger. Both agreed that whatever happened the best plan would be to stick to the boat. A few days later Henry was injured.
ONLY SON OF SATAN.
Years after, as dark was visiting the different points on the river he noted the changes that had taken place in his former home, Hannibal, Missouri, and also in Muscatine. In his book to which reference is made above, he has the following to say of Muscatine: "I lived in Muscatine a while, but the place now has a rather unfamiliar look; so I suppose it has clear outgrown the town I used to know. In fact, I know it has, for I remember it as a small place- which it isn't now. But I remember it best for a lunatic who caught me out in the fields one Sunday, and extracting a butcher knife from his boot proposed to carve me with it unless I acknowledged him to be the only son of the devi1 I tried to compromise on an acknowledgment that he was the only member of the family I had met, but that did not satisfy him. He wouldn't have any half measures. I must say he was the sole and only son of the devil and he whetted his knife on his boot. It did not seem worth while to make trouble about a little thing like that; so I swung around to his view of the matter and saved my skin whole. Shortly after he went to visit his father and he has not turned up since. I trust he is there yet."
A MUSCATINE SUNSET.
The above unpleasant remembrance of the distinguished writer is offset by the following beautiful description of the summer sunsets as Clemens remem- bers them:
"And I remember Muscatine-still more pleasantly-for its summer sun- sets. I have never seen any on either side of the ocean that equalled them. They used the broad smooth river as a canvas, and painted on it every imaginable dream of color, from the mottled daintiness and delicacies of the opal, all the way up, through cumulative intensities to blinding purple and crimson confla- grations which were enchanting to the eye but sharply tried it at the same time. All the Upper Mississippi region has these extraordinary sunsets as a familiar spectacle. It is the true sunset land. I am sure no other country can show so good a right to the name. The sunrises are also said to be exceedingly fine. I do not know."
CARAVANSARIES.
IOWA HOUSE, AFTERWARD PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE.
From an article written by Suel Foster and published in the Weekly Tribune in 1874, we learn that "Robert Kinney was the first landlord, who put up a
MOGMAN & KENT."
PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE
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THE OLD "PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE," FIRST BUILT IN 1836 AND THEN CALLED THE "IOWA HOUSE," NORTHWEST CORNER CHESTNUT AND WATER STREETS
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
sign and kept tavern in Muscatine. He was a native of St. Clair county, Illi- nois, in the great American bottom opposite St. Louis, where they raised the biggest, fattest, laziest, drollest, oddest, good-for-nothings-one of the very best men we ever had here. He kept travelers, boarders and a hospital. This hotel was 16x30 feet, one and a half stories, divided into three rooms below and three above, the first frame building in the city. It was built in the fall of 1836 on the northwest corner of Chestnut and Water streets. The first ten years of its history would make a most wonderful volume, with Mr. Kinney for its hero." Mr. Kinney died in Salem, Oregon, March 2, 1875.
Subsequently the landlord was William Fry. Under his management it served as the first theater in Muscatine, the dining room being occasionally turned into an amusement hall. The hotel was at one time known as the "Black Horse" from the wooden sign of a horse fastened to a post on the corner. John G. Stein was for some time its popular landlord. He conducted affairs there until his death in 1872, when the name was changed by the new landlord, G. Bitzer, to the Pennsylvania House. In the spring of 1880 this old hostelry was torn down to give way to a more modern structure.
LAWSON HOUSE, OR OLD VANATTA HOTEL.
The second frame building erected in Muscatine and for many years the best of its kind, was built in the spring of 1837 for John Vanatta, by William Gordon, who was assisted by Henry, John and James Reece, Jonathan Pettibone, L. C. Hine and James Craig. All these men boarded at the Iowa House, Kin- ney's famous hostelry. Vanatta opened a tavern in the building as soon as it was completed and he was succeeded by John Coleman. This tavern stood on the southwest corner of Iowa avenue and Second street. In 1839 Josiah Parvin was the smiling boniface and remained there until about 1840, when he re- moved to a new hotel he had built and named the Kemble. In the spring of 1869 this historic old building, which had stood for thirty-two years, was re- moved to a lot on Third street. This hotel was for a number of years the best in Bloomington.
MUSCATINE HOTEL.
Frederick Miller, a Pennsylvania German, and blacksmith by trade, moved to Bloomington with his wife and seven children in 1844, and through Stephen Whicher, agent, bought a lot and double log cabin on the northwest corner of Fourth and Mulberry streets, for which he paid $400. Later he built a brick structure in which he opened a blacksmith shop. The population of the vil- lage at that time was 1,400. Much of his work was for farmers from Linn, Johnson, Cedar and Jones counties and even farther. He soon converted the blacksmith shop part into hotel quarters but built another shop on the corner of the lot on the alley and Mulberry street, put out his hotel sign and opened the business of blacksmithing and hotel keeping. In 1848 or thereabouts Mr. Miller built the Muscatine Hotel, then two stories high. When Mulberry street and the court house square were graded, it left the hotel six feet above the level of the street, necessitating an under story to the property, which, with addi-
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
tional improvements, is as the house now stands. This was a busy hostelry up to the time of the advent of railroad transportation.
THE AMERICAN HOUSE.
On the northwest corner of Iowa avenue and Second street was erected and opened in 1840 the third hotel in Bloomington by T. S. Battelle, and called the American Hotel. The building was 45x72 feet, and two stories in height. In 1866 the property was sold to G. A. Garrettson and others, who erected the Merchants Exchange National Bank building on its site. The old hotel had several landlords, but space will not permit naming them.
CLOVER HOUSE.
In 1841 the first brick hotel was built by Josiah Parvin. He was short of rooms in his old hotel, the Lawson House, so he built a part of the present Kemble House, standing on the northwest corner of Second and Walnut streets. It was first two stories in height and when Second street was graded it became necessary to put a lower story under it. At the time of the grading, T. M. Isett owned the building and he added to the rear of it. Later A. Smalley added another section on the west side of the structure. This hotel has had a number of names : first, Parvin Hotel, Clover House, Mason's Hotel, Eichelber- ger House, National Hotel, and eventually and at the present time, the Kemble House. It has had a number of proprietors in its time. In 1854 the building was sold by Colonel Isett to T. W. Clover for $10,000. It was then refurnished and opened by Mr. Clover as landlord. B. A. Mason was the proprietor in 1857 and changed the name of the hostelry to Mason's Hotel. In 1867 John Eichelberger, a former resident, took charge of the place, which at the time was known as the St. Charles Hotel. It became the Kemble House in 1885, and as such is now serving the public, with B. C. Ludlow as proprietor.
PALMER'S TAVERN.
A frame building was built by Suel Foster on West Second street, just east of McQuesten & Sawyer's store in 1838. It was one story high and the roof sloped down to the front and over a porch, which was supported by posts or pillars. It stood a little back from the street. This became Captain Jim Palmer's tavern. Captain Jim was kind and courteous, like Landlord Stein, but his house was not quite so quiet, as he kept a bar. But Captain Jim knew his business and usually kept his customers in hand. It was a good place to stop. When a man had no money he was treated as well as the man who had plenty. His sign, erected on a crooked stick, was the most prominent object on Second street.
Captain Jim Palmer was a large, rather fat old man. He was a good cus- tomer at his own bar and was a character in a way.
PARK HOUSE.
Jonathan Neidig erected a building for hotel purposes on the southeast cor- ner of Fourth and Mulberry streets, opposite the court house, in 1851, con- taining twenty-six rooms and was called the Pennsylvania House. Isaac Neidig
PARK HOUSE.
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PARK HOUSE, BUILT IN 1851, SOUTHEAST CORNER OF MULBERRY AND THIRD STREETS, SHOWING ITS APPEARANCE IN 1877
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
was its first landlord. In 1852 the building was enlarged, making its entire frontage ninety feet. It was originally three stories in height, but when the street was graded another story, as in many other buildings in the town, was built under it, making it four stories in all. This hotel had various changes in name. It was first the Pennsylvania House, then the Irving, afterward Park, then Scott House and again Park House. It was known as the Wilson House and the name of Park being very popular, for the third and last time it was known by that appellation. This hotel had various proprietors, both men and women, and many vicissitudes until it dwindled down to merely a rooming house. It was destroyed by fire December 15, 1881, and afterward rebuilt three stories high and converted into a business block and tenement house. It is now owned by the Martin Bitzer estate.
SCOTT HOUSE.
The Scott House, which stands on the southwest corner of Iowa avenue and Third street, was finished early in 1852 and occupied as a hotel. The first pro- prietor of this house, which was opened as the City Hotel, was William Kyle. In 1856 it was known as the Boston House, with Booth & Joiner as proprietors. In 1858 it was called the Nevada House. Ellsworth & Dugdale were the land- lords. In 1872 J. K. Scott, ex-marshal of the city, refitted the old hotel build- ing then known as the Myers House and changed its name to the Scott House. Scott in 1873 left this hotel to take charge of the Park House on Fourth and Mulberry, which he changed to the Scott House. Scott's successor in the Scott House was a Mr. Wyard, who changed the name to the Wyard House. The hostelry afterward became known as the Grange Hotel, whose landlord was Apollis Cone. In 1874 it became the Nevada House under Anton Fritz, and in 1875 it again became known as the Scott House, under its former proprietor, J. K. Scott, who remained there until his death. It has been under various man- agements since.
OGILVIE HOUSE, NOW THE COMMERCIAL HOTEL.
The present Commercial Hotel, formerly the Ogilvie House, was first started in 1849 by Adam Ogilvie and Brinton Darlington. It was not completed until 1851, and cost about $15,000. It was opened in the spring of 1852 by D. W. Clover. In 1854 the proprietors were Usher & Thayer, and in 1856, Lowe & Eichelberger. It would be tedious to give all the names of the proprietors of this hotel. In 1875, R. M. Baker, proprietor of the Ogilvie, changed the name of the hotel to the Commercial House. In 1883 many changes were made in remodeling the building and refurnishing its rooms. At that time J. J. Phillips took charge. In 1885 Willis G. Jackson of Chicago, bought the building of R. M. Baker and it was again remodeled as it now appears. At that time a banquet was given, attended by the elite of Muscatine and many invited guests from abroad. George W. Van Horne, then editor of the Tribune, on that oc- casion in part said: "I am not certain when the foundation was laid, but the ancient structure gave tone to our first inhabitants at a very early day. When
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
the railroad came here its walls heard the welcoming address of Mayor J. H. Wallace and the response of the mayor of Chicago. But it has heard other sounds and seen other sights. It witnessed the departure of the soldiers during the Civil war, the sad partings, the glad welcomings, the sobs of the widow and orphan. The place is also hallowed for other things. It has harbored Joseph Cook, Ingersoll, Swing and Patten, Mrs. Livermore and Siddons, Emerson and Twain, Anna Dickinson and Eliza Young, Wendell Phillips and Fred Douglas, T. Starr King and Talmage, Proctor and Parton, Saxe and Pierpont and gov- ernors and senators almost without number." There have been many land- lords in the Commercial House. The present proprietor is P. P. Potter.
HOTEL WEBSTER, NOW HOTEL GRAND.
On the southwest corner of Second and Cedar streets stood a two-story brick house, erected in 1842-3. There was a wooden building in the rear that was erected some two years earlier. The brick structure was built by Thomas Johnson (called Big Dog Jim while he was United States marshal of Iowa). This property finally drifted into the possession of Colonel T. M. Isett and later it passed into the hands of Jacob Oppenheimer until W. W. Webster purchased it. These buildings were removed by Mr. Webster in 1877, who commenced the building of a business block on the corner. This building was three stories in height, having six large granite columns in the front. This he used as a monu- ment, show room and work shop, that is, the ground floor and the upper floors were used as a drill and dance hall and by Company C for a drill room. In 1883 the building was remodeled and converted into a hotel, being opened as the Hotel Webster. To produce this result a donation of $6,000 was made to Mr. Webster by the citizens. It was the handsomest building in the town and became at once the leading hotel. It was opened March 5, 1884, under the management of Arnold Barber, who had several successors as landlords until Dr. E. B. Fulliam became its owner, when he changed the name to Hotel Best. This continued until 1897, when J. G. Dermedy, the present proprietor, obtained possession and gave the hostelry the name of Hotel Grand. Previous to this the building had been remodeled by a three-story addition 40x60 feet, being built to the rear of it. In 1909 Mr. Dermedy obtained the title to the building and in 1910 remodeled it to meet with the tastes of his patrons. These changes cost Mr. Dermedy probably $15,000.
MUSCATINE AN INDUSTRIAL CITY.
Since 1843, when the Cadle steam sawmill, the first in the county, was started, the manufacture of lumber in Muscatine has been of vast importance to this locality, and when at the height of its prosperity the business became tremendous in its scope. The Mussers, the Huttigs, Hersheys, Roach, Cook and others engaged in the traffic for many years, placed upon the market hundreds of millions feet of their product. Their yards and plants each cover acres of ground and the mills are equipped with modern and expensive machinery. There is at this time the Hershey Lumber Company, still maintaining an immense
CHOTEL.
FRED MILIERS ORIGINAL HOTEL.
Fred Miller's Log Hotel, Fourth and Mul- berry Streets
LOVER HOUSE. CLOVER HOSE.
Clover House, 1855
OGILVIE HOUSE.
WHOLESALE GROCERS.
Commercial Hotel (at first the Ogilvie House) as it appeared in 1875
Old Vanatta Hotel, or Lawson House, opened in 1838, on ·present site of Cook, Musser & Company State Bank
American House, 1840
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
plant, as is also the Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company, Roach & Musser Company, Muscatine Lumber & Box Company, and South Muscatine Lumber Company. The Roach & Musser Sash & Door Company sends its products of high-grade mill work-parquetry flooring, leaded art glass, mantels, grills, etc .- into many states of the Union.
Muscatine has its machine shops, plow works, woven wire works, wagon manufactories, awning factory, broom factory, iron works, harness factory, clay pipe factory, bottling works and various other manufactories.
An important concern among the manufacturing industries of Muscatine is the Barry Manufacturing Company, which was formed in 1886, for the purpose of making plumbers' supplies, but more particularly a lead "trap," patented by a member of the firm. The firm was then composed of N. Barry, Sr., P. J. Barry and N. Barry, Jr. The concern in its infancy was a very modest one; indeed, but now the Barry plant is one of the largest of its kind in the country. Some years ago the buildings were enlarged and here is manufactured machinery for button making that is used in the Muscatine factories and others throughout the country.
In 1892 Heinz, the famous pickle man of Pittsburg, established in Musca- tine a branch for the manufacture of a portion of his "Fifty-seven Varieties," which gives employment to many men, women and children. At one time "Friends Oats," a breakfast food, was manufactured here, but finally the com- pany went into "the trust" and the mill grinds no more.
The Zeigler Canning factory was brought to Muscatine from What Cheer, Iowa, in 1909, through the efforts of the Commercial Club. The building is located on Hershey avenue and in the season for canning gives employment to a large number of people and affords a market to the farmers for their produce.
FRIENDS OATS.
In 1879 a mill was started in Muscatine, the products of which eventually developed into large proportions. Here was made and placed upon the market Friends Oats, a breakfast food which rose to great popularity. The mill is located on Front street and is still standing, being now used more as a ware- house than anything else, as the company manufacturing the product, some time since joined the trust, when the mill was closed down.
MANUFACTURE OF PEARL BUTTONS.
The making of buttons from mother of pearl was introduced into the United States about 1855, but at that time the shells were brought from China. In 1890 not one fresh water pearl button was made in this country, but ten years later the industry constituted the second most important branch of the trade, and to J. F. Boepple, a former resident of Muscatine and later of Davenport, belongs the credit of having initiated the making of buttons from fresh water clam and mussel shells in the United States. Mr. Boepple learned the art of pearl button making in his native city, Hamburg, Germany. In 1891 he formed a company here for the manufacture of the article from the "unio," or "nigger
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
head" shells, as they were commonly termed by the people living in localities indigenous to the product, which were originally found in great banks along the river front of Muscatine. From that small beginning one of the great in- dustries of this city has grown until today the pearl button output from the Muscatine factories rivals, if it does not surpass, that of any city in the world.
It is said that at least 4,000 people, men, women and children, are given em- ployment in the manufacture of pearl buttons in Muscatine. Many women and girls work at home stitching the buttons on cards; others are in the finishing departments of the factories.
From a small beginning the button industry in Muscatine has grown to huge proportions. From one small factory many large ones is the record of the pres- ent day, and now a half hundred concerns are engaged in turning the shell into buttons that find a market all over the globe. Among the more prominent fac- tories may be mentioned the Automatic, Bishop & Hagerman, Empire, Fred C. Grau, Hawkeye Pearl, Hirsch & Company, Ideal, McKee & Bliven, Model, Muscatine, Pioneer, Richards-Smith Company, Schildberg Brothers, Schmalz Brothers and Vienna, with an annual payroll of over $1,000,000.
The scope of the button industry in Muscatine is tremendous. This city is recognized as the button center of the world, and since the inception of the manufacture of these useful little articles, Muscatine men have branched out in all directions. For example, one local concern has factories in Keokuk, Can- ton and Oskaloosa, in which a total of 385 men are employed. All up and down the Mississippi, Illinois and rivers at farther distances the sheller and manu- facturer have gone forth from Muscatine to spread the fame of the town and incidentally pile up a few millions of dollars.
George E. Curtis, a noted newspaper correspondent, visited this vicinity some time since and the following article from his pen was published :
HOW CLAMS ARE DUG.
Clams are captured in a curious way. The "clammer" goes out on a flat- bottomed boat, with a rack fastened upright on either side. Upon this rack are hung rods of heavy wood, or light gas pipe, and at intervals of four or five inches are tied strings with a wire bent in the shape of a hook at the end, but without barbs. When the fisherman comes to a favorable place he lowers the rod into the water and drifts slowly down stream. It is the habit of the clam to lie with his mouth open up stream, to catch little morsels of food that are carried down in the water and when one of those wire hooks touches his tender lips, the wretched fool grabs it, closes his shell upon it and holds on as hard as he can for fear it will get away. Under favorable circumstances every hook on the pole will be occupied by a clinging mussel after ten or fifteen minutes of drifting, when the boatman will hoist it and hang it on the rack at the side of his boat and keep on until all of his hooks are filled, when he rows ashore and throws the clams into a kettle of hot water to kill them.
When life is extinct the shells open easily. The clams are removed and fed to hogs, while the shells are sorted according to their quality and piled away to await the arrival of the launches belonging to the button manufacturers,
HENRY HEINZ
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
which run up and down the river at frequent intervals and buy them for $20 a ton. There are button factories at Davenport, Muscatine, La Crosse, Rock Island and several other cities. Many civilized Indians are engaged in clam- ming and make fairly good wages for a lazy life. It requires a good many clam shells to make a ton, but a skilful "clammer" can accumulate that many in a week or ten days and thus earn an average of $2 a day, while he is always expecting to find a pearl which may be worth thousands of dollars.
CLAM AND MUSSEL HATCHERY.
In 1910 the United States government established a clam and mussel hatch- ery, near Fairport, in Sweetland township, and there erected buildings for the purpose on a tract of land comprising sixty acres. Here, at the tail end of 1909, ground was broken for the necessary buildings, and by the fall of 1910 several structures were erected, attractive to the eye, and built in conformity with their purposes. These buildings consist of cottages for the government employes, pump house, laboratories, etc. The director is Dr. R. E. Coker, of Washington, D. C .; superintendent of fish culture, W. T. Thompson, late of the Leadville station ; scientific assistants, Thaddeus Surber, in charge of infection work; H. W. Clark investigating mussel and pearl formations; foreman, W. B. Gor- ham; shell expert, J. F. Boepple; engineer, W. H. Wallett ; superintendent of construction, Claudius Wallick.
The government was led to make this move by the threatened extinction in the Mississippi river and its important tributaries of those species of clams, which have been so generously taken from their beds in the past fifteen years for the manipulation of pearl buttons. The Bureau of Hatcheries was led to undertake an investigation of the artificial propagation of the clam and mussel and provide, if possible, means of restocking the depleted streams of their most valuable product. The experimental results were very satisfactory to the in- vestigating scientists, hence the hatchery station at Fairport and the growth of flattering hopes in the breasts of the pearl button manufacturers and the thou- sands of men, women and children dependent upon the industry for a liveli- hood.
THE HIGH BRIDGE.
The high bridge was finished May 8, 1891, and on that day four carriages containing representatives of Muscatine, under the direction of Superintendent C. Lillibridge, made the first crossing over the bridge to the Illinois shore. The bridge was not formally opened at that time, however, owing to formalities be- ing necessary between the bridge company and the Milwaukee Construction Company in regard to the acceptance of the work. This was accomplished a few days later and the bridge then opened to the world. The Muscatine Bridge Company was organized in 1888 by a number of resident merchants and busi- ness men, and capitalized at $200,000. $52,600 of stock was subscribed and $60,000 in bonds were issued. Work commenced on the structure in the fall of 1889, and it was finished May 8, 1891. The bridge is one-half mile long and has six spans. It is of cantilever order and fifty-five feet above high water Vol. I-20
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