Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
✓ Unlimited website access 24/7 ✓ Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 ✓ The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime.
As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill.
Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code.
Promotional Rates were found for your code.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in or create an account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribe purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Thank you for signing in! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Checking back? Since you viewed this item previously you can read it again.
Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..
Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Since its inception Keokuk residents have been a civic-minded people who care about their community. From earliest days its dream was to become the industrial center of the west. Because of this, Keokuk has been and still is basically n industrial city.
This industrial growth has not been a steady one. There have been periods of decline which had to be overcome by great bursts of industrial development.
The last significant group of gains was back in the 1950s when C. Plin Mears determined to locate a number of industries here. I recall a conversation I had very vividly.
“Plin,” I said, “You have been elected President of the Keokuk Chamber of Commerce. I think I know you well enough that this into just a title that you want included in your obituary. You will be president of the Chamber of Commerce for one year. What do you hope to accomplish?”
With all the determination her could muster, he answered: “Fran, I’m going to bring a new industry to Keokuk if it’s the last thing I do!”
He flew his plane all over the country running down prospects. He spent his own money entertaining them. He talked and bullied his way through barricades here. He “sold” the merits of Keokuk in almost a one-man chamber of commerce effort.
Four firms located here as a result. They include St. Louis Gear, St. Louis Die Casting, Charleton-Smith Industries and Alliance Pattern. Through the years these plants have been in operation here, they have provided jobs on a steady basis to approximately 150 people, and in turn have generated almost $10 million of payroll for this community.
The biggest industrial development of this century was just prior to, during and immediately after the first World War. The building of the dam and hydro-electric plant here had received world-wide publicity — it was the engineering marvel of its day. And upon its completion Keokuk power could be had n plentiful supply and at a lower cost than traditional steam power. It was a great inducement for plants to locate here, especially those with big requirements of electricity.
Keokuk Electro-Metals Co. (Foote Mineral) was one of the many important industries that came here during the waterpower days. National Carbide (Air Reduction) was another.
Known then as United Lead, in 1916 the company that is now Midwest Carbide built its plant here. Sheller-Globe has experienced a number of changes in both names and management but the original “rubber” plant goes back to the earliest days of the horseless carriage when “Standard Four” made automobile tires there.
In 1918 a plant was built on Commercial Alley which made an unsuccessful attempt to manufacture steel gun barrels by the centrifugal steel casting method. This failure resulted in a number of hand changes and reorganizations and the site was completely abandoned in 1931. The Keokuk Steel Casting was closed until 1936, when Walter J. Miller came here from Pittsburgh, Pa., to form a company which re-opened the plant.
Iowa Fibre Box Co. was reorganized in 1920 although it did not actually begin operation until a year later. C. M. Rich was its first president and the company was the forerunner of Herner-Waldorf.
The outstanding period which preceded this was the 1880s and 90s with much of the development dominated primarily through the singular enterprise of a Mr. John C. Hubinger. Any industrial sketch of Keokuk, however slight, without the name of this gentleman who above all others did more for the advancement and improvement of the city would be barren indeed. He founded the J.C. Hubinger Co. and the J.C. Hubinger Bros. Co. (which still bears his name), along with the Keokuk Brick Co. and the Hubinger Telephone Co.. It was he, too, who built and equipped the largest individual electric light plant in the country to light the city with electricity along with giving it a splendid electric street car system.
The prestige Hubinger brought to the community along with the pride of its citizens, helped to attract other industries during his era. One of these was Decker Manufacturing which moved here in 1884. It had previously been in Rushville, Ill., where it was founded.
Some twenty years before this, in the 1860s was another time of great industrial growth. This period saw the development of giant pork packing plants, five brewers, seven distillers and rectifiers, and a lumber district that contributed greatly toward the construction of much of the middlewest.
This was the start, too, of giant wholesale firms which thrived here through the late 1800s and into this century. It was the day of S. Hamil & Co., Kelogg Birge Co., S.F. Baker & Co. These and many others supplied a wide territory with groceries, spices, coffee, tea and proprietary medicines, and made Keokuk one of the most important wholesale centers of the early west.
Great fortunes have been made here in the past, and the opportunity for industry is bright for the future.
Industries are constantly looking for places to expand and thrive. Many were attracted by the golden glitter of California but over-crowding and smog are causing eyes looking in that direction to dim. Air-conditioning helped to encourage the industrialization of the dessert southwest, but the lack of water is a problem. Many factories left New England and the east to locate in the Deep South — but cheap labor isn’t as cheap as it once was and getting a day’s work for a day’s pay has become a problem.
The great Upper Midwest, once more or less reserved as the bread basket of the country, is the one section of the U.S. left for great industrial development. And, more and more industry is looking our way!
The demise of the small family farmer has increased the labor pool in the agricultural belt — and the population of the area has a staunch midwestern base of ingenious, well-educated, hard-working citizenry.
Keokuk is located almost equidistant to a half dozen metropolitan cities and major markets — and with Ole Miss running along it shores, economical river freight is available for shipping, along with plenty of water which is becoming more and more valuable. Also in this day of “Energy Crisis” there is no shortage in Keokuk.
It is difficult to secure an accurate picture of manufactories here in the past over any period of time.
It is more difficult to look to the future.
But there have definitely been cycles of action. And the city could well be at the start of another. The “Investment in Tomorrow” project could transform a change in the period ahead as radical as that undergone in the early days when Indian teepees and pioneer cabins gave way to the lumber and flour mills, the brickyards, packing houses and other industries which represented the phase and growth of the early days of Keokuk.
Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High near 80F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Get the latest local and national news.