held in cold storage until the hens cease lay-in in September, when they are sold.
The company's business here is in the very capable hands of the genial G. G., or "Bert" Jeck, as he is known to his host of friends
An idea of the volume of business fone and the benefit to this city and surrounding territory of this concern can best be estimated when one knows that the total paid out last year for products of all kinds was over a half million dollars.
The Olson Knitting Company.
The Olson Knitting Company, the concern which operates the Atlantic knitting factory, was established at Elk Horn in 1905, with Willis Rattenborg as president, and S. C. Pedersen secretary and treasurer. Carl Lauritzen, the manager of the business, became associated with the concern four and a half years ago.
The business was operated at Elk Horn for about four years and early in 1909, seeing the advantages of locating in Atlantic, the company decided to remove here; the factory has been in constant operation here since. The weekly payroll is about $ 200. The factory's product is knit goods of all descriptions. If the yarn used by the factory in a year, were placed end to end, it would reach around the earth, 25,000 miles.
The Kimballton Construction Company.
This live concern has had a growth since its inception which reads like a romance. From the time the company started business on the 29th of November, 1904, to the present time it is a story of hustle, of push and energy and tireless industry, till today it enjoys a business of which its managers and the city may well be proud and has a payroll of close to one hundred and fifty dollars a day. The company started at Kimballton, under the name of the Kimballtown Hydraulic Stone Works, when N. B. Bennedsen, T.G. Jensen and George Henningsen bought tools, cement moulds and raw material to the amount of $ 312 and started to make tiles and blocks. In the fall of 1905 N.B. Bennedsen sold out his interest to Henningsen & Jensen and they continued the business in Kimballton. By this time the business had grown and yards were built in Audubon, Hamlin and Brayton. In 1906 and 1907 they sold the Audubon and Brayton yards and in April, 1908, incorporated the company under its present name. The paid up capital was then $ 12,000. The paid up capital is now $ 50,000. The company operates besides its plant in this city, plants in Kimballton, Elk Horn and Creston.
The company employs a side-walk gang which makes about 600 square feet of sidewalk daily, a bridge gang is now working in |
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this county, with a pay roll of about $ 2,000 per month, making the total pay roll of the company around $ 130 a day, or $ 3380 per month. The total sales for last year were over $ 117,000.
This article has given but a few of the facts about the company. It might go on indefinitely telling of interesting things in con-nection with the business, but it is sufficient to say that the concern is one of the "comers" of this section and if hard work and persistent hustling can bring it about will be a million dollar concern some day.
The Daisy Stock Remedy Co.
One of Atlantic's live manu-facturing concerns, which does more business in a quiet way than a lot of concerns in other cities which make more noise than anybody, is the Daisy Stock Remedy Company, which embarked in the business of making stock remedy in this city five years ago, and which has shown so satisfactory a growth as to be a constant source of wonderment and pride to the friends of the men who are interested and a source of gratification to the men who have their money invested.
The organization of the company came in 1907, when in October of that year James E. Bruce as president, C. W. Bruce as vice president and F. H. Townsend as a manager embarked in the business and the company was started with a capital stock of $ 25,000. The business grew from the start under the very able management of Mr. F. H. or "Daisy" Townsend, from whom the corporation and its products take their names. The business last year was better than $ 100,000 and this year will go beyond that by a big figure. The principal products are Daisy Stock Conditioner, Daisy Worm Powder, Daisy Hog Remedy and Daisy Stock Dip. The only fly in the ointment with the men who are in the company is the fact that they do not sell any appreciable amount of their goods in this county. They sell largely in every state in the west and in every county in this section but here their sales have been small and they have commenced to think "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." However, they are not kickers but boosters par excellence, every one of them, and are always found on the firing line for everything which augurs well for the good of their city and vicinity.
The Shrauger & Johnson Company.
Unlike some of the older and slower towns of Iowa, Atlantic has a class of business men who believe in the word "boost," with a capital B, and none of them show it better than the Shrauger & Johnson Co., manufacturers and wholesalers of copper-cable lightning rods and fixtures, static machines, barn door latches, |
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easy hoists, Ulbrich seed corn testers and racks, Glenwood neckyoke centers, yokes complete and neckyoke attachments; and individual electric light plants for homes, churches, halls and societies.
The firm was incorporated in January, 1909, under the laws of Iowa, with a capital stock of $ 50,000, and so very rapidly has its business grown branched out that the great states of Iowa and Nebraska are covered with agents of the company, while South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Wyoming are dotter over with a busy band of workers, spreading the fame and showing the goods of Shrauger & Johnson. To show what sort of goods are made and how they are handled it need only be said here that the volume of business done by the company during the past year was more than doubled over that of the first year.
The home of this factory is in the center of the business district of Atlantic and is a most creditable establishment in every particular. The factory and office building is a new modern steel and concrete structure, measuring one hundred and fifty feet and is well lighted and sanitary as well as architecturally a credit to the surrounding neighborhood. A busy force of workmen and machines are busily engaged here all the time and the company bids fair to rival any of its competitors in other states.
The company recently closed a successful campaign of stock selling which will result in an extension of the business of considerable extent in the near future.
Central Iowa Poultry and Egg Company.
This business was established in the city about twelve years ago and for the last six years has been in the hands of P. A. Casey, whose business methods and genial personality have made many friends for the company here. Since the inception of the business the firm has enjoyed a nice increase in business done and has added materially to the investment each year by substantial improvements. In 1910 the company spent ten thousand dollars for a modern ice making plant, having added the manufacture of artificial ice to their business. The plant packed and shipped during 1911 over a million pounds of poultry and over 25,000 cases of eggs. The company paid for freight last year $ 27,000, for labor nearly $ 20,000 and handled nearly $ 300,000 worth of produce.
The new ice plant building, which is equipped with the most modern machinery, is 36x36 and the company will turn out a quality of ice there which will make customers of all who
(Cont'd on Page 15)
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