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.

Tags: 1903, Armstrong, Cheney, O'Connell