The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 16, 1903

Webster City Meets Heavy Loss

Northwestern Felt Show Company’s Plant Burned to the Ground Monday Night.

The City’s Leading Industry.

Company Was Capitalized at $100,000 and Employed 105 People – Insurance was Only $36,000, Making Loss Reach Fully $56,000.

Webster City, June 16 – The plant and stock of of the Northwestern Felt Shoe company burned here on Monday night about midnight. The fire started int eh basement and spread before effective work could be done by the fire department. This morning nothing but the smoking ruins remain of what was a prosperous industry employing one hundred thousand dollars of capital, using the labor of 105 persons in the plant, aside from several hundred who worked on the products of the factory in their homes. There was $36,000 ($862,181 in 2010 dollars) of insurance only, and the net loss will be about $56,000 ($1,341,170).

It was a most unfortunate blow to the leading industry of Webster City. The institution was getting on a splendid foundation and looked forward to a steadily growing business. It is too early yet to know what the policy of the stockholders will be in the matter of rebuilding the plant.

The company was working into a large and increasing business and had every prospect for a successful season. It had only recently raised its capital stock to $100,000 ($2,394,94) of which $75,000 ($1,796,211) was paid up. As a result of the fire, George (last name unreadable), who came from New York and invested his capital in the plant, is left practically without a dollar, and the loss is almost equally heavy upon other stock holders.

The loss is divided as follows:

The cause of the fire is a mystery. When discovered by the night watchman it had secured a good start in the basement. The building is situated across the river on the east side, and has no city water protection. The volunteer department did its best, but could not check the flames. The machinery fell thru from the third story to the basement, and the building was left an utter wreck. Only the books and a few minor articles could be saved. The company has $20,000 ($478,989) of shoes stored at other places about town, all of which are contracted to be delivered by September 1.

The loss which the fire will occasion to Webster City is evidenced by the fact that the weekly pay roll amounted to $700 ($16,764).

(Editor’s note: The inflation calculator converts the following amounts from 1903 dollars to 2010 dollars: $700 to $16,764;$12,000 to $287,393; $20,000 to $478,989; $36,000 to $862,181;$56,000 to $1,341,170; $68,000 to $1,628,564;$75,000 to $1,796,211; $92,000 to $2,203,352; $100,000 to $2,394,948. I have also put these amounts in the text in italics for easy reference.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 13, 1905

Coalville Has More Coal Veins

Favorable Prospects for New McEwen and Collins Mine.

The Shaft Has Been Finished

Was Pushed Down at Very Rapid Speed – Will Install Machinery and be Ready to Work Fifty Men by Next Winter – Excellent Facilities.

William McEwen of Coalville, was in Fort Dodge on Saturday and was able to report very favorable conditions on his new mine he is opening at Coalville. The Collins Brothers are interested with Mr. McEwen in the new mine which is located under the town of Coalville just alongside the railway track and near to the store. Many people had supposed that the coal deposits in this part of the town had been mined out long ago, but Mr. McEwen has demonstrated in his preliminary work of the past six months that there is a fine coal deposit there and he firmly believes it is of considerable size.

The prospecting drill demonstrated that there are two seams of coal, one at a depth of about 65 feet and the other about 80 feet down. Both veins are of lump coal of good quality and the top vein is about three and one-half feet thick and the lower four feet thick.

As soon as this was demonstrated and other drill holes had revealed the proof that a good many acres surrounding them were underlaid in the same way, Mr. McEwen started sinking a shaft and has just completed the work. It is a large shaft with three compartments, two for hoisting and the other for ventilation. The work was crowded with three shifts of men working eight hours each and the entire shaft was put down at an average speed of four feet per day. They went through some soft ground that required careful handling and through a great deal of very hard rock that needed large charges of dynamite. It was by no means an easy job to do so and the speed accomplished was very creditable.

Hoisting machinery will be installed and they will get the mine in shape to put large quantities of coal on the market this winter. Being right on the railroad track, they will be well equipped for shipping their product. They expect to work about fifty men net (sic – should be next) winter mining coal. There is but little water in the mine. They are able to hoist all that accumulates in the sump in twenty-four hours in about an hour and a half each day.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 13, 1905

Co-operative Store at Moorland

Company is Incorporated at The Farmers Elevator Company of Moorland

Many Farmers are Interested

The Company Plans to Handle Every Kind of a Business That Would be Needed There – Will Operate An Elevator, a Store and Real Estate.

Articles of incorporation were filed with the County Recorder in this city this morning, incorporating “The Farmers Elevator Company of Moorland.” This company has among its stockholders all the principal business men of that place as well as many farmers of the  surrounding country.

The articles of incorporation give considerable space to the kind of business the company is to engage in. The company has among its objects the operation of a grain elevator, the running of a co-operative store, which will handle dry goods, groceries, hardware, farm implements, boots and shoes and in fact all other products ever handled by a general store and will in addition transact real estate business.

The elevator is also to be run on a very liberal basis and the company will handle grain, live stock, swine, sheep and all dairy products. The company is organized in a way to indicate that it meant to absorb all business interests in that town.

The articles of incorporation do not give the capital stock, but allows for an increase in the stock up to $25,000 while the company is to have $3,000 paid up stock in the treasury on its date of incorporation which is June 10.

The president of the company is to be Joe Fiala. The vice president is T.A. McCarville. James A. Halligan is secretary while E.J. Halligan is treasurer. The other stockholders in the ocmpany on the date of its incorporation are as follows. F.G. Cochran, E.C. Kusterer, Joe McCarville, E.S. Fiala, Joseph Stanek, B.E. Peterson, F.H. Blunck, M.J. Barrett, N.L. Ornis, and Mr. J. Frosland.

(Editor’s note: The inflation calculator gives the amount of $598,737 in 2010 dollars for the original $25,000, and $71,484 for the original $3,000.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 22, 1903

A Bread War Has Commenced

Fort Dodge Bakers are at Outs Over the Delivery Wagon Question

Price Cutting May Be Expected

Columbia Restaurant Has Dropped From 3 Loaves for 10 Cents to 2 for 5 Cents

For (sic) Dodge is having a bread war which will vie in fierceness with the sewing machine war, if present indications are followed to their logical conclusion. As a result, Fort Dodge people may expect to have cheap bread for some little time to come.

Hostilities have been pending for some little time and have grown out of the action of some of the bakers in putting delivery wagons on the street.

At that timeo (sic), bread was selling for five cents a loaf for six for a quarter. Soon after that, some of the bakers who were without wagons, lowered the price of their bread to 10 cents for three loaves, claiming that in this way, they were making no more money than their brethren who had the expense of wagons to bear, and were charging 5 cents a loaf or six loaves for a quarter.

This caused other price cutting until finally a meeting was called on Wednesday evening at which an effort was made by the bakers who do not deliver bread to have the delivery wagons taken off, and sell the bread thru grocery stores or from the bakeries, as the straight price of five cents or six loaves for a quarter. Some of the bakers with wagons agreed to this, but others refused, and the meeting broke up, after a protracted session, without accomplishing anything.

The first gun in the bread war was fired this morning, when the Columbia restaurant began to sell at the rate of two loaves for 5 cents, dropping from three loaves for ten cents, which they had been previously charging. Counter action on the part of the other bakeries came and the situation will probably become interesting within a short time.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 20, 1903

Dressmaking School Closes

Stoppage Was Unexpected

Pupils Who Paid Money in Advance Inclined to Think They Have Been Victimized

The Diamond Cutting School which was opened in Fort Dodge some little time ago, to teach neophytes the art of dressmaking, has come to an untimely end. The ambitious pupils who joined the class and paid over $10 each as a guarantee of their good faith, are left disconsolate and are putting down that amount of money in their account books as expended in the acquiring of experience.

The Diamond Cutting School came to Fort Dodge some time ago, rented rooms and started a day school. The pupils who started in this day class had nearly finished their course.

About three weeks ago, a nigiht school was started. There were three scholars in the night school, and seven or eight who took their instruction in the day time. The terms of the school were $20 altogether, $10 to be paid in advance, and the remaining $10 after the completion of the course.

The night scholars paid their money down and took six lessons. On Friday night, May 8, they told the teacher that they could attend day school for a week, as they were to have a vacation. To this the teachers agreed. On the next Monday morning, when the scholars reported for duty, they found a note on the table saying that the school would be closed for a few days and asking the pupils to take the work  home.

Since this time the teachers have not appeared, and the scholars are of the opinion that they have left the city and do not intend to return. It is stated by one of hte pupils that a lady and gentleman answering to the description of those who were here, are about to open a school in Webster City.

The names given by the teachers while in Fort Dodge were Mr. Gerl and Clara Tracy. They paid their bills so far as known, up to the time of leaving town.

(Editor’s note: I am not sure about the man’s name. It starts with Ger, but it looks like the fourth letter may only be partially there. I’ll try to do more research on this and update this post if I find out anything more.)

Northwest Chronicle: May 14, 1890

Permanent Fair Grounds

Few Enterprising Citizens Subscribe to Buy The Property.

It Will be Held in Trust Until the Agricultural Society is Able to Buy It. Webster County Will Have its Annual Fair, Right Along.

The fair grounds are as good as bought for the future use of the Webster County Agricultural Society. Several of our leading business men, who have no use for the word fail, got together as soon as it became apparent that the effort to get the general public to purchase the property would not work, and each subscribed a sufficient sum to make the total amount asked for the property.

The property is to be held in trust, one of the gentlemen who donated acting as trustee for the rest, until the Webster agricultural Society is able to buy the same. This deal makes it a settled thing that the Agricultural society will continue to be at  home to the people of this and adjoining counties on the “round prairie.” This fact should please everybody in the county.

It is now positive that we will  have yearly fairs, which means the getting together of the people of this community once a year to exchange greetings, to demonstrate the ability of many among us, which at the same times hows the work of the rich producing soil of Webster county, and the industry and frugality of her inhabitants.

The Chronicle has watched with anxious eyes the different steps taken toward the purchase of this property, and is delighted to know that the dark cloud which hovered over our heads for so long a time had a silver lining.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 1, 1905

This illustration provided courtesy of Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents website.

For All Trades

Webster City Company Will Build Ingenious Tool.

Webster City, May 1 – Articles of incorporation for a new manufacturing company in this city have been signed. The organization is to be known as the National Hatchet company and will manufacture a patent tool which can be put to many uses. The officers of the organization are:

E.E. Valentine, Webster City, president; W.A. Norton, Marshalltown, vice president; G.A. Smith, Laurel, secretary; H.R. Dodge, Webster City, treasurer; J.R. Morris, Jewell, Kan., manager.

The company is capitalized at $50,000. The tool they will manufacture can be used as a hatchet, hammer, wire cutter, leather punch, nail puller, screw driver and has detachable jaws upon it. With a change of jaws the tool adds the following to its many uses: A hoof trimmer, pruning knife, bailing applier, stock marker, pipe wrench and some others.

(Editor’s note: I found a website with an illustration of the tool. It is posted with permission of the Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents and Stan Schulz, DATAMP “Wrench steward”  & editor, Missouri Valley Wrench Club newsletter. You can visit this page for more information. )

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 1, 1905

Broom Factory Flourishes Here

Manufacturing of the Housewife’s Weapon of Defense Against Dirt.

Process of Making Described

Starting in a Small Way The Business is Constantly Growing – Output of 125 Dozen Brooms Per Week at The Present Time.

One of the most flourishing small manufacturing concerns of the city is the Fort Dodge Broom Company, located at 425 Central avenue. The factory is owned and managed by the Brennan Brothers, formerly of Waterloo. They came here in the spring of 1903 and started their plant on April 5 of that year, induced by a grant of six months’ free rent. The business is in a flourishing condition their trade being about four times as great as it was when they first started. Four men are now employed in making brooms and turn out over one hundred and twenty-five dozen per week. These are sent to the outside trade for the most part.

This indispensable weapon of the housewife against dirt is made from broom corn grown in Oklahoma and shipped here for a consideration of from fifty to one hundred dollars a ton, according to the grade. The raw materials is packed in large bales and is a mass of tangled whisks. To straighten these out and knock off the seed is the first step, one of four, in the making of a broom.

The next one is that of sorting the different lengths which is done by a boy at a long table. After he sorts them into four piles of different lengths he ties each pile into a bundle and  passes it to the men at the tying machines. Here the broom is made up, step by step.

First a handle is taken and run through a hold in the center of a revolving wheel where it is securely clamped. Then, taking a bunch of whisks from the pile, he bonds the bases and places them against the handle. They by foot power, he fastens it in place by a wire.

Again he selects a bunch of whisks and goes through the same process, although laying them end to end with the first bunch. Gradually the outer portion of the broom is reached, suing finer grades of material. Then the whole is secured at the base by a piece of cloth fastened by wire and a tin guard railed with staples.

After these steps the unfinished article reaches the stitching machine. This machine is run by a gasoline engine and has a capacity of forty dozen brooms per day. A single broom is securely clamped into position and shoved between the needles. These pass through the broom and catch the cord at the other side with the eyes, drawing it through the broom. This action is repeated until that row of stitches is finished. The broom is completed by being stitched in four rows and by having the label pasted on the handle.

This process is similarly used in the manufacturing of all the five different grades of articles made here. The only difference is in the class of material employed. These articles are sent all over the state and as they bear the label with the name Fort Dodge printed thereon, form quite an advertisement for the city.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 28, 1905

Five Story Office Building Proposed

Thomas Snell, Millionaire, Would Do That for the Town.

Has Had the Plans Prepared

Fire Proof Structure at Corner of 8th Street and Central Avenue Wold Be built as an Office Building – Wants Half Room Rented.

Plans are out for a large five story office building that will be erected on the southeast corner of the intersection of Eighth street and Central avenue, opposite the Oleson Drug Company.

The building, if the proper arrangements can be made, will be put up by Thomas Snell.

Mr. Snell has always had large interests in Fort Dodge, and has taken this manner of expressing his regard for the town.

The plans call for a structure fireproof in every particular. The dimensions are 65 by 140 feet, and the estimated cost will be from $150,000 to $175,000. The plans are arranged with a court which may be used as a light shaft if at any time later it is decided to extend the building on east the full 120 of the Snell lot that faces on Central avenue.

The building will of course front on Central avenue and will extend clear back to the alley next to the Crescent restaurant. It will be the most modern in every way, and will be by far the finest building in the city. The first story will be furnished for store rooms, and the four upper floors will be fitted for office use exclusively. There will be 100 rooms on these floors. The building will be supplied with double passenger elevators, and there will not be one of the details of the up-to-date office building left out of the structure.

The plans are now in the hands of Frank Farrell who has been for many years the local agent of Mr. Snell, and he will at once make an attempt to comply with the conditions that must be met before the work of erection is started.

The only thing that is needed for the assurance of the building to Fort Dodge is the renting of two of the four upper floors, and Mr. Farrell hopes to be able to do this without any great amount of trouble.

(Editor’s note: In 2010 dollars, the building would cost between $3,592,422 and $4,191,159.)