People's Meat Market

From Upper Mississippi Valley Photo Archive: (http://www.uppermississippivalleyphotoarchive.org/)

Photographer: Grossheim, Oscar (1906). Photograph of the interior of People's Meat Market located at 323 East 2nd Street in Muscatine, Iowa. In the back of the room, three men wearing aprons stand behind the counter. Large pieces of meat hang on the wall to the left, and shelves stocked with canned goods are on the right. A sign on the wall to the left reads "We buy for cash & sell for cash Ask for anything but credit! All meats delivered C.O.D." Location Depicted 323 East 2nd Street, Muscatine, Muscatine County, Iowa


There exists no known photographs of Henry Kohrs first meat market/ butcher shop in Davenport Iowa to inform us as to what the establishment looked like inside. Fortunately, we can view photographs of other meat market/ butcher shops that were in the area surrounding the quad cities to give us a glimpse of what it may have looked like inside. In 1857, Henry opened a meat market on Harrison Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets supplied from a small slaughterhouse on West Second. This land and slaughter house was later purchased by Henry and it was here that he established the Kohrs Packing Plant. Meanwhile at the market on Harrison Street, he began making his rounds in an old horse drawn wagon to serve local customers. Henry continued this for almost twenty years, and in 1875 he branched. out into the business of packing and shipping meats, establishing the Kohrs Packing Company. 1

From the memoirs of Helen Kohrs Gehrmann, we have a delightful description of the market and dwelling at 310-312 West Second. "In the rear part of the market was a small room with an ice-box about 8 feet by 4 feet, lined with zinc, with two doors on top. The meat was kept refrigerated there. In front of it were two steps and father took a short nap there every afternoon while we girls stood watch for customers. The back room was also the workroom and in the center was a large block of wood called a 'rocker'. Above this ‘rocker’ were four shining blades with double handles and two men would walk around the chopping block, mincing the meat for sausage. There was also a bench with a stuffer for sausage. The basement was used for curing hams and bacon. There was the sausage kitchen in the rear of the market and it was here that grandmother "Geshe" held sway, cooking blood sausage, head cheeses, and other delicacies. Back of the sausage kitchen was the barn, and back of the grocery store was the smoke house where a big barrel was used to smoke bologna and other small things. There was an outside stairway from the second story. Near this stairway was a well with spring water and an iron pump. This well served the whole house and was still running in 1878 when some remodeling was done." 1.

References

1. The ancestors and descendants of the Bettendorf-Kohrs and related families : a memorial to William Edwin Bettendorf, 1902-1979 by Darlene Ward Paxton; L T Sloane. Decorah, Iowa : Anundsen Pub. Co., 1984.