CHAPTER XXI.
GROVE TOWNSHIP.

TWO PIONEER MANUFACTURERS.

In January, 1869, Johnson H. Needles and J. A. McWaid opened the first blacksmith and wagon shop in Atlantic, their establishment standing on the corner of Third and Walnut streets. Although their shop was only twenty by thirty feet, they commenced the sale of agricultural implements, which latter branch of their business, in after years, reached very large proportions. Surely cramped for room, they remained in this small building until 1871, when they erected a much larger structure on the corner of Third and Chestnut streets.

J. H. Needles was reared on an Ohio farm until he was nineteen years of age, when he learned the carriage maker's trade, and engaged in that line of work both in the Buckeye State and Indiana. In 1857 he located near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, still working at his trade, and remained thus employed until he settled at Atlantic in January, 1869. Mr. McWaid retired from the business in January, 1870, and three years afterward Mr. Needles built the substantial brick structure, noticed above, and in which he firmly established the large manufactory by J. H. Needles & Son (Charles W. Needles).

Job A. McWaid, ex-mayor of Atlantic, is also an Ohio man and is now in his seventy-first year, president of the Atlantic National Bank. He settled in Cedar county, Iowa, in 1854, and until he came to Atlantic, in 1869, followed farming in Cedar and Linn counties. His profitable partnership with J. H. Needles, in the blacksmith, carriage and wagon-making and the implement business, lasted until 1879. He then engaged in the sale of agricultural implements, and dealt in grain and coal, until 1882, in which year he superintended the erection of the Atlantic Packing House and the Atlantic Canning Factory, in both of which enterprises he was largely interested. He afterward operated the latter gigantic concern, continuing to take an active part in its management until 1901, when he sold out to J. W. Cuykendall and W. A. McWaid, his son. Interested in the Atlantic National Bank as a stockholder, he became its president in 1895, and in this capacity has since presided over its affairs. He was elected mayor of Atlantic in 1901 and again in 1903, is president of the library board, and has been honored with many other public offices. During his mayoralty he established a sewerage system for the city, inaugurated other important municipal improvements, and largely added to his already high reputation as a public-spirited citizen. He is benevolent and charitable in disposition, as well as a liberal giver to worthy objects, and there is no one who has done more to generally advance the best interests of Atlantic.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 234-235.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2018.