Early manufacturing in McCook

James McAdams, 1861-1951

Recently, during a discussion on new businesses in McCook, there were comments about some of the entrepreneurs McCook has been home to over the years.

Today we take a look at some of the early businesses in McCook. (In those early years, you might say that everyone who come west to settle this new country was an entrepreneur.) From the McCook Gazette Archives.

The City of McCook became a reality in 1882. The first McCook businesses took care of the immediate needs of the settlers and those who chose to make McCook the base of their operations -- the hotels, restaurants, general stores, specific stores, drug stores, hardware stores, livery stables, lumber yards, banks, and saloons. (Some businesses, buildings and all were moved from Indianola.)

McCook's steam-powered roller mill.

But in the 1890s manufacturing businesses began to appear, supplying the material needs of a city, which was going to be around for a long time.

The first business buildings built in McCook were wood frame structures, with pitched roofs and tall square facades fronting upon Main Street. These buildings were erected quickly, but several fires in the business district showed that such structures were fire hazards, and that downtown buildings should be constructed of brick. To produce the bricks for this construction The McCook Clay Products Co., known as "The Brickyard," was organized.

Originally there were four partners in the business, but only one, James McAdams, stayed in McCook for any length of time.

McAdams, a native of Chatfield, Minn., became one of McCook's leading citizens. He was a merchant, a contractor, and entrepreneur. Some of the buildings he constructed during his long career were St. Catherine's Hospital, the original St. Patrick's Church and School, the original courthouse, the Valentine School (East Ward) the original Central High School, and St. Catherine's Church at Indianola. A longtime member of the City Council, he served as Mayor of the McCook in 1911. (Mr. McAdams died in 1951 at the age of 90. Two of his grandsons, Jerry Bagan and Warren Farrell (father of Pat, of Farrell Drug) lived in McCook until recent years.

"The Brickyard" factory was located just south of what is now the West Sale Barn, and operated until sometime in the 1920s, turning out a distinctive red brick, which was used in the construction of many of the early McCook buildings. An existing home constructed of this brick can be seen at the corner of East Third and E streets in McCook.

In the 1893 Columbia Souvenir edition of the McCook Times Democrat there is a picture of Tony Probst, baker, so we know there was at least one bakery in McCook at that time, but alas, there is nothing written more about the Probst bakery.

There were also two cigar factories in McCook in 1893. In that day, most tobacco was smoked in pipes. Tailor-made cigarettes were unknown, though a few men (and perhaps some women) did roll their own cigarettes from nickel pouches of Bull Durham tobacco.

For most smokers, the cigar (stogie) was the king of smokes. Theaters and movie houses even had cases outside the building, with little pigeon hole compartments where a man could leave his cigar while at the show, and retrieve it when he came out.

Joseph Reitzenstein had his cigar shop in the lower level of the Boston Shoe Shop. He manufactured some 20,000 cigars per month, "Fine Havana Cigars," under the brand names of "Havana Trade," "Columbus," and "Grand Union B.of R.T." (Grand Union Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen).

In his shop, he also had billiard and pool tables for his customers -- who could smoke, and chew, and swear, and spit to their hearts content while they played pool in their all-male domain.

At that same time J.H. Bennett also produced 20,000 hand-rolled cigars per month at his shop in McCook, under the brand names of "Little Bijou," Carmen," and "Silva."

From the beginning McCook had felt the need for a grain mill, but it was not until after the turn of the century that a full service Roller Mill came into being. Mr. E.H. Doan, who had owned a water-powered mill in Anamosa, Iowa, succumbed to the lure of the new frontier, and in December 1899 settled in McCook. Soon after he brought into town a grain mill, which was steam powered, instead of the usual water powered mill that was in general use at the time---much to the consternation of his mother, who was sure that using steam to power the mill would cause a fatal explosion. (It did not.)

Mr. Doan hired a German immigrant, known as Mr. Paul to be his miller. Mr. Paul knew how to make good flour, which he did, but all during the time he was in McCook he suffered from a bad case of jitters -- he had left Germany to escape the draft and worried that the authorities would come looking for him. (They never did.)

The McCook Roller Mills not only produced good flour, it also ground grain for livestock feed, and ground corn for corn meal for human consumption. In those days the settlers consumed a great deal of corn meal.

Many a meal consisted of nothing more than cooked "corn meal mush," with milk, or perhaps a bit of butter and syrup. The settlers used a type of barter system at the mill -- exchanging corn for corn meal, and wheat for flour. For instance, farmers might bring in 10 bushels of wheat, and take home 30 to 38 pounds of flour for each bushel of wheat delivered.

The Doan Roller Mill was successful, and the mill's two brands of flour, "Pride of McCook," and "91-Patent" were well accepted. Mr. Doan delivered his flour to numerous stores in McCook and surrounding towns. However Mr. Doan was quite stubborn. If he found a merchant selling a competing brand of flour he would refuse to further supply that store with his flour.

After a few years Doan sold his flour mill and went into the cattle business. Slumping cattle markets caused him to lose everything. Later he got on his feet enough to purchase a small mill in Indianola, which he operated until his death in 1928.

Over the years, McCook has had innumerable small industries whose operators have worked hard to succeed and in turn have caused McCook to prosper. One of these small manufacturing ventures that continued until 1960 was a one-man broom factory, located at West 1st and A, operated by Lawrence Wasia. Mr. Wasia had been a farmer, but learned the broom making business from a fellow by the name of Ben Askey, who had sold his brooms locally for many years.

Mr. Wasia could turn out 12 brooms per hour, not a large production, but it provided Wasia (who was very conservative) with a comfortable living.

In a 1957 interview with the Gazette, Mr. Wasia mused on his business. "Right today I could sell 500 dozen brooms and 200 dozen whisk-brooms if I had 'em."

Mr. Wasia lamented that he had to obtain the broom corn for his products from Southwestern Colorado, "Because no one in this area raises that kind of corn."

Broom fiber is of various grades of quality, and Mr. Wasia made five different grades of brooms. Besides selling his products in stores in McCook, he had contracts for brooms in such places as Dallas and Salt Lake City. His brooms were purchased as fast as he could turn them out, even though he frequently worked 20 hours a day, sorting, scraping, and winding the corn stalks into brooms to fill his orders.

"When I work, I work", said Wasia. Mr. Wasia was working in his shop, making brooms on March 16th, 1961, when he suffered a fatal heart attack, at the age of 90.

Mr. Wasia is an extreme example of the work ethic shared by so many men and women who have labored in McCook and this region over the years. But their legacy of hard work and dedication still lives and is well known and respected throughout the U S. It is something in which we all can take great pride.

Source: McCook Centennial Edition, 1882-1982, Times-Democrat Souvenir Edition, 1893