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by far the greatest number located in the town of Pella. The result was a number of new residence and business buildings were erected, new stores started and a general revival of industry took place.
A large store building was erected by H. Van Dam, which was the third important business building constructed in Pella. Here Mr. Van Dam and his sons conducted an extensive mercantile business for a number of years.
J. Berkhout conducted a very successful general store for many years on Washington street, on the corner afterwards occupied by Arie Boogaards as a residence.
A. G. van der Meulen opened a jewelry store on West Washington street on the corner that in later years became the residence of L. Stegeman and family. This was the beginning of the mercantile firm that afterwards became known as one of the largest and most successful business concerns in central Iowa, and is still doing an extensive business under the firm name of Van der Meulen & Company.
On Franklin street, on the corner west of the Garden City Feeder Factory, H. Kuyper opened a jewelry store that in later years developed into a general merchandise establishment that was conducted for many years on the corner where the Bell clothing store is now located, and up to recent years in the store room now occupied by Doedyn & Son.
In the block on Franklin street, west of the Garden City Feeder Factory, the Van Spanckeren Brothers had established a shoe shop, and Dikker & Van Gorkom a blacksmith shop. In the early years the mercantile business was scattered over Pella from the extreme east limits of the city to the west end of Washington street. For a long time B. H. Van Spanckeren, Sr., had a bakery on East 3d street, about two blocks south of the East Market Square.
At that time the main thoroughfare came up from the south through East 3d street to the southeast corner of the East Market, then cut across the Market to the J. J. Bousquet corner, thence north to Franklin street, west to Main, north to Washington and thence west to the city limits. For many years the business of Pella was located along this route, and Washington street was the most important business street of Pella.
Among the most prominent of the arrivals in 1849 was Mr. A. E. Dudok Bousquet. Not only was he a man of education and culture, but for those days he was a man of means, and being full of public spirit, he became an important factor in the commercial development of the community and a leader in all that made for the moral and educational improvement of Pella. Mention has already been made of his unselfish efforts to provide Pella with better transportation facilities. In addition to this he associated himself with Pella's first mercantile firm, Wolters & Smeenk. The financial strength which he added to the firm enabled it to carry a much larger stock of merchandise than any Pella had before, and also made it possible for the firm to erect the largest store building in the town, being the first two-story business block built in Pella. This was one block west of the northwest corner of the Square, on the corner known to the present generation as the G. Thomassen corner. Here, in the old "Pella Store," this enterprising firm carried on one of the most extensive mercantile establishments in Pella.
It was during these years that the first hog packing business had its beginning. In 1852 the firm of Bousquet, Wolters & Smeenk slaughtered and packed 500 hogs.