Muscatine County, Iowa

COMMUNITY NEWS


This article and picture was submitted by Fran Weber Braley
Source of article: Muscatine Journal and Tribune Jubilee Edition, December 11, 1915

Click here to see a picture of the Original Button Factory

WEBER BUTTON COMPANY SIGNALIZES
MOST PROSPEROUS YEAR BY EXPANSION

Back in 1896, when Muscatine was somewhat younger than she is now, and when the great pearl button industry was still in its infancy, there arrived on the shores of the Mississippi a young man with his wife and two little sons, who was destined to become one of the really big factors in the growth of the button industry, and who has since done more toward building that industry to its present strength than any other one man in Muscatine, and therefore in all the world.

This young man, at the time he arrived in Muscatine, was 28 years old. Today he is 48 years old and is the proprietor of the Weber and Sons Button Company, the largest concern engaged in the manufacture of fancy pearl buttons in the world. For nearly 20 years he has been fighting and struggling, devoting his all to a tremendous effort to realize his dream - that someday he might be foremost in his chosen endeavor - a dream upon the brink of whose railization (sic) he is standing today.

John Weber was born in Vienna, Austria 48 years ago. He grew to manhood in his native city, was married there, and by the time he left for the great United States in 1892 he had two sons of whom he was inordinately proud. These two sons have since grown to manhood and have now two sisters and several younger brothers.

Worked Foot Lathe

Mr. Weber tells of the time in Austria when he was working at his trade, how his eldest son, then a baby, used to play about his feet as he spun the old-fashioned lathe which was then the standard button making machine, and which he still keeps at his home in Muscatine, as a relic of the olden times.

He started in his chosen profession, or trade when he was 14 years old, and it wasn't long until he had learned all there was to know about the making of buttons. Upon his lathe he could turn out any size or any kind of button from almost any material. Wood, horn, shell and many other substances were used for button making in those days, and his machine performed all the necessary operations except carding the finished product. Mr. Weber has an idea that he could have managed that also if he had happened to think about it.

But in that day a button was started on a lathe and it was given its finishing touch on the same lathe. In that day button making was considered one of the arts, and a button maker had just as much chance to display an artistic temperament as in any of the famous arts and crafts.

And then the American tariff on buttons was raised and the business in Vienna, then known as the button center of the world, was ruined. Thousands of operatives were thrown out of employment and were forced to seek either new fields for their skill or new lines of employment. Mr Weber decided in favor of the former course and in 1892 he, with his wife and two little sons, landed in New York.

Called to Muscatine

Called for four years of work at his trade in Philadelphia, where he gained considerable notice in the button manufacturing world through his perfect mastery of the craft. Then Fred Beopple, who has since died, and who was at that time trying to make a success of a button factory in Muscatine, heard of young Weber and sent for him.

The young man bundled up his little family and came. That was in 1896. He went to work trying to put the Beopple factory on a paying basis, but after six months for private reasons, he left his position and promoted the Royal Button Manufacturing Company. Sis months later he withdrew from the Royal Button company.

When Mr. Weber came to Muscatine frame building were common on Second Street and there was in evidence none of the marks of a progress which have sprung up in the last twenty years. These evidences of prosperity and progress are attributed to the growth of the pearl button industry and in that growth Mr. Weber is accounted a determining factor.

Leaving the Royal company he participated in the organization of the Automatic Button company, only to leave that concern at the expiration of six months or so.

Six or seven years later, 11 years ago to be exact, Mr. Weber started in for himself. That was in 1904, and he located his factory in the building out on Park Lane which it has occupied ever since until last month, when the factory was moved into its fine new modern home at East Sixth Street and the Rock Island tracks.

Since that time 11 years ago when the Weber and Sons company came into being, the factory has grown wonderfully, and step by step the business of the factory has more than kept pace with the growth of the factory itself, until now the Weber and Sons Company has the distinction of being the largest factory in the world devoted to the manufacture of fancy pearl buttons exclusively. The output of the factory exceeds by far the output of its next nearest competitor.

The New Weber Plant

The new home of the Weber and Sons Company at East Sixth Street and the Rock Island tracks is a fine, new, modern structure, built of stone and concrete, and is what is known as a daylight factory. Its equipment is made up of the finest and most modern button making machinery possible to procure, and it employs between 150 and 200 operatives, including cutter, sorters, finishers etc. For the button making trade of today is not the button making trade of Mr. Weber's youth. Then one man did it all, now the different operations necessary to the finished button are highly specialized and a button cutter is not by any means a button finisher.

The European war has had an effect upon Mr. Weber's business exactly the opposite of its effect upon most industries outside the manufacture of munitions and supplies for the armies. In that by cutting off the European supply of buttons absolutely, a market for the Muscatine-made fancy button has been opened up whose equal has never before been seen in the history of the industry. And consequently the growth of the Weber company and its production is increasing by leaps and bounds.

It is interesting to note that when Mr. Weber first arrived in Muscatine there were but two button factories here. The possibilities of the Mississippi mussel had never been fully realized as a button producer, and it was not until Mr. Weber's exploits had been made known that its true possibilities were realized. Now Muscatine is teeming with whirring clanking button making machinery and there are more buttons shipped from Muscatine to the markets of the world than from any other city.

But despite the fact that every thing bears evidence to the great change in the industry and trade, Mr. Weber himself has not changed except that he is a trifle older and has gained some valuable experience in the business world.

A visit to his factory will not immediately discover the Boss. The visitor will note the cosy little business office where C.H. Schwandke, the business and sales manager holds sway, with its desks and stenographers and on a tour of the factory itself he will see and hear the busy, whirring machines with their operatives laden with the fine white dust from grinding of the shells. But he will not have seen anyone who bears even a remote resemblance to what a Boss should look like.

Then Mr. Schwandke calls, "Oh, John," and through the white dust, himself covered with it, and with hands whitewashed by the deposits, appears a man of medium stature who looks just like any of the other employes except perhaps that he will wear a cap and a dust covered coat.

And that is John Weber. He works among his employes, instructing here, adjusting a machine there, and all the time getting down to real hard labor just the same as any other operative.

And working with him in the factory are Louis, Jack, Bill, Charlie and Walter, all sons of Mr. Weber. They too will be found covered with dust. No, these five are not all. There are four more sons and two daughters. (Fran's note: Somehow an additional son was added!)

C. H. Schwandke, the sales and business manager of Weber & Sons has had wide experience in the button manufacturing industry. He has been with Mr. Weber four years now, and before that he was with the Batterson Wessels Company, jobbers in buttons. Before that he was on the road as a travelling salesman, and before that he held a responsible position in Tacoma, Washington. To Mr. Schwandke's knowledge of markets and conditions in general may be attributed some portion of the success of Weber & Sons, the world's greatest manufactures of fancy buttons.

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