Archive for July 2nd, 2011

2
Jul

Plymouth Gypsum Company Organized

   Posted by: admin    in Gypsum mining

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 2, 1903

Plymouth Gypsum Company Organized

New $200,000 Corporation Will Build Large Mill and Enter the Market for Business.

Capacity 400 Tons 24 Hours.

L.E. Armstrong, J.T. Cheney, and M.D. O’Connell Are Incorporators of New Company Which Will Be Ready for Business February 1.

Every important step is completed in the organization of a new gypsum mill company in Fort Dodge.

The Plymouth Gypsum company is the title of the new company and it is due to the business sagacity and untiring zeal of L.E. Armstrong, founder of the Plymouth Clothing House of Fort Dodge that this important new industry is a substantial fact. Mr. Armstrong has been studying and planning for two years to do this, and  as a result of this mature though his associates in the new company feel encouraged to believe that they will meet with success.

Mr. Armstrong will be the president of the Plymouth Gypsum company and John T. Cheney treasurer.  The capital required is already subscribed. Teh capital stock of the corporation will be $200,000 ($4,789,896 today), divided into 2,000 shares of $100 ($2,395) each. The organization was completed on a basis of $50 a share ($1,197), so there is $100,000 ($2,394,948) capital fully paid in.

Mention of this new company was made in The Messenger early in the spring, when Mr. Armstrong secured the 30-acre tract of land immediately south of Oleson Park, adjoining and lying south of the Illinois Central tracks. That will be the site of the mill and careful underground examination shows that there is a splendid gypsum deposit which will be extracted by the modern mining methods. Thirty acres of the land is on the north side of the Illinois Central tracks, and forty acres on the south side.

The mill will be a four kettle plant with two dryers. The capacity will be four hundred tons per twenty-four hours. Artices (sic) of incorporation will be filed at once and operations on the mine will be begun at once. They plan to have the mill complete, and ready to fun, February 1, 1904. Mr. Armstrong will undertake the management of the business, and that means there will be plenty of energy and ability shown.

The surface value of the tract of land owned by the Plymouth Gypsum company is very valuable, being within one-half mile of the street car line and within one-quarter of a mile of the city limits.

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2
Jul

New Auto Co. Decides to Build

   Posted by: admin    in Automobile, Business

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 2, 1903

New Auto Co. Decides to Build

Has Purchased Site 200 by 160 Feet, West of Great Western Round House.

Start Work at Once.

Plans Are Now Being Prepared and Work on Machine Shop Will Commence Next Week – Four Buildings Are Contemplated.

The DeLaura Auto Manufacturing company will at once begin the erection of its plant in Fort Dodge on a site just west of the Great Western round house, where a piece of land 200 by 160 feet has been purchased. A side track will be run to the site of the new factory by the railroad company.

Final arrangements regarding the purchase of the site were made at a meeting of the board of directors of the new company held on Wednesday evening, at which Mr. DeLaura was present.

The buildings which will ultimately comprise the plant are a machine shop and boiler room, a paint shop, a blacksmith and wood working shop and a foundry. The first two will be erected at once. The machine shop will be 35 by 100 feet in dimensions, with an addition for the boiler room and the pain shop will be 35 by 60 feet.

Work on the plant will be hurried along as fast as possible. Plans are now being prepared, and it is hoped that it will be possible to commence work on the machine shop which will first be erected by next week, and that the factory can begin operations within five or six weeks.

(Editor’s note: This company was first mentioned on June 19, 1903.)

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2
Jul

An Impromptu Bull Fight

   Posted by: admin    in Animals, Clare

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 2, 1906

An Impromptu Bull Fight

Residents of the River Flats Frightened by Enraged Animal – Fortunately no one Injured.

A call for police to care for a maddened bull was sent into the city hall on Saturday afternoon by people residing along the river flats near the lower bridge over the Des Moines river. The call was responded to at once and for more than (an) hour two policemen and a half dozen men struggled with the enraged animal, in forcing it along the distance of a block to some stock sheds in the Illinois Central yards.

The bull was the property of C.O. Humbert, a stock buyer residing in the city. It, together with a large herd of animals, was being driven into the city from the west, when on reaching the rver (sic) flats it became maddened by the heat and exertion of the long trip and became unmanageable. Fear that it would riot the whole herd was entertained, at first, but it was finally separated from thema nd left in charge of one of the drivers, whom it attacked.

He was given assistance by several men working in the neighborhood, who managed to keep the animal from injuring or killing anyone, by long ropes fastened about its neck and held tight in several directions.

Finally when the poice (sic) arrived an effort was made to take it to the Illinois Central stock yards, where the remainder of the herd had been safely quartered, was made. The bull became more and more vicious, and only after an hour’s hard work was the trip across the tracks to the stockyards accomplished.

The bull was one of a large number which Mr. Humbert purchased several days ago from a farmer residing near Clare by the name of Schultz.

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