of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 303-305
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 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 industries 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 employment 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 present 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 factories 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, Canton 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 manufacturer 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 an 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 manufacturer, 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 clamming 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 hatchery, 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. Gorham; shell expert, J. F. Boepple; engineer, W. H. Wallett; superintendent of constructlon, 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 investigating scientists, hence the hatchery station at Fairport and the growth of flattering hopes in the breasts of the pearl button manufacturers and the thousands of men, women and children dependent upon the industry for a livelihood.
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