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.

Interior N. M. Burgland's Meat Market

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

Interior N. M. Burgland's Meat Market, (ca. 1895). Photograph shows the interior of Burgland's Meat Market. There is a cashier's window and office on the left with butcher blocks and stools beyond. On the right are different types of butchered and cured meats such as hams, sausages and sides of beef hanging on hooks from the ceiling. There are barrels and a crock on the far right. The floor is made of wood and there is a gas lighting fixture in the center of the photograph coming from the ceiling. Location Depicted: 655 East Main Street, Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois

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 areas surrounding the quad cities to give us a glimpse of what it may have looked like inside.

Again from Helen Kohrs Gehrmann’s memoirs - "In February, the ice house was filled with ice and packed with sawdust. In late summer the ice would have melted and the sawdust removed, so that the building could be used for other storage. Hogs were slaughtered only from November through March, and the products were sold through a broker in St. , Missouri. The hams and bacon were wrapped in absorbent paper, and then parchment paper, sewed into muslin bags, dipped in "Chromeyellow" (glue) and hung to dry. They were packed and shipped to customers, as ordered. The original brand name was "Kohrs Crown", and the "Arsenal Brand" came into being later." Helen Kohrs, Henry and Johanna's third child, married William Gehrmann, and in 1898, Will Gehrmann became General Manager of the Company. The Henry Kohrs Packing Company has gradually developed and extended until it reached throughout the entire West. 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.

The rise and fall of log rafting on the river

Quoting from Conrad Kohrs autobiography "Then I went to St. Croix, Wisconsin, and got work running logs down the Mississippi to St. Louis. On account of getting on many sand bars the work was heavy. However, the trip was made and after a few days at St. Louis I returned to St. Croix by steam-boat and made another trip with a raft of lumber. I then went to St. Clair, about eighteen miles above Davenport, helped several rafts over the rapids and through the bridge at Davenport. This was the end of my river work and in the Fall I went to work in my brother-in-laws store." (Pages 5-6)

From the Quad Cities Times: By Roald Tweet
FOR ON THE RIVER | Monday, November 24, 2008 9:48 AM CST

When the first few white pine logs began floating down the Mississippi in the 1830s to sawmills at places such as Clinton, Davenport and Rock Island, the supply had seemed inexhaustable. It was the largest region for white pine in the world, covering 38 million acres — an area roughly the size of New England. But the demand for white pine turned out to be equally unlimited. It was easy to cut, and the wood was tall, straight, light and strong. It was considered the perfect wood for the new villages and farms springing up throughout the Midwest. The first logs that came downriver were free floating. Along the way to the mills, many were scattered by storms and floods, and were lost or ended up at the wrong mill. In 1843, a young riverman named Stephen B. Hanks — a cousin of Abraham Lincoln — devised a method of tying logs together into a loose raft 16 feet wide and between 400 and 600 feet long. The practice caught on. Soon, such rafts became a common sight on the river. Each raft was manned by a crew of about 20, who steered the raft with the use of long oars, or sweeps. During the trip downriver, workers lived aboard the raft, eating from a small cook shed at the stern.


On May 6, 1869, a new development changed rafting forever. Samuel R. Van Sant of the Van Sant Boat Yard at LeClaire, Iowa, gave Rock Island lumber baron Fred Weyerhaeuser a ride in his new sternwheel steamboat, which was specially designed with enough power to push large rafts. Weyerhaeuser was impressed. Within a few years, about 70 raftboats were taking ever-larger rafts of white pine down to the mills. Often, at the bow of the raft, a smaller steamboat was tied sideways to steer it. The new rafts, which were about 300 feet wide and up to 1,500 feet long, could carry as much as 10 million board feet of lumber. As a result, the Minnesota and Wisconsin forest began disappearing quickly. By the 1880s, as many as 500 rafts came downriver per month. By 1900, it was clear that the age of white pine was coming to an end. Weyerhaeuser moved from Rock Island to St. Paul, Minn., then out to Washington. On Nov. 18, 1905, the last log came upriver to the Weyerhaeuser Mill in Rock Island, where it closed for good. The white pine that remained grew smaller and smaller, until a single log no longer would support a raftsman’s weight. As the Ottumwa Belle came downriver in 1915 with the last raft, its captain stopped at Albany, Ill., to take aboard an honored guest — Hanks — who at the time was 94 years old. He had begun the raft industry in 1843, and participated in its end. Hanks took the wheel in the pilot house and steered the raft south to Davenport. As the last raft passed various villages and towns along the river, residents came down to the waterfront to witness the end of an era.


REFERENCE

1.Conrad Kohrs : an autobiography. by Conrad Kohrs. Publisher C.K. Warren, ©1977.

2. Quad Cities Times: The rise and fall of log rafting on the river: By Roald Tweet
FOR ON THE RIVER | Monday, November 24, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2009 from http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2006/06/08/on_the_river/river_tales/doc448853d715f43490678993.txt

The Gold Coast & Hamburg Historic District

The Gold Coast & Hamburg Historic District is situated on and below the limestone bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, the Hamburg Historic District lies north of Downtown Davenport and encompasses over 25 square blocks. A mixture of elegant mansions and simple homes, Hamburg was home to the middle and upper class German families who had immigrated to Davenport from their native Germany. Many of these immigrants came to this area with little money. They settled in Davenport, realizing the possibilities that were at hand with the ever expanding western frontier, and they made their fortunes here. These prominent residents were bankers, doctors, dry goods & grocery wholesalers, politicians, lumber barons, newspaper publishers, brewery owners, bakers, and retailers of all kinds. These German immigrants were instrumental in transforming Davenport from a 19th century village in the 1850’s into the 21st century city we see today.1

Reference
1. Gold Coast & Hamburg Historic District. Retrieved March 21, 2009 from
www.davenportgoldcoast.com/documents/WalkingTour07.pdf

Links
Take a quick tour of Davenport, Iowa Architecture

Gold Coast & Hamburg Historic District

Davenport Industry

From the Quad Cities Times: Q-C cigar making, brewing on display. By John Willard | Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:09 AM CDT

The Quad-Cities’ industrial heritage is not just about farm machinery and other heavy manufacturing. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, brewing and cigar making were major enterprises as the area’s German immigrants capitalized on businesses they had known in their homeland. The Quad-City region once counted a dozen breweries, and more than 30 small companies were producing cigars in Davenport in the late 19th century. 1

The Quad-Cities brewing industry had its beginnings with early German immigrants from the areas of Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria and Hamburg. Not only did they bring with them their hopes for a better life in the New World but also their acumen in a variety of professions and trades. They took their entrepreneurial spirit to such fields as brick making, (when the family came to Davenport in 1854, Claus Bielenberg found work as a gardener and "layer of brick walks" - quoting The ancestors and descendants of the Bettendorf-Kohrs and related families : a memorial to William Edwin Bettendorf, 1902-1979),. meat packing (i. e. Kohrs Packing Company), lumber (i.e. Mueller Lumber Company) and furniture making as well as brewing and cigar making. Early brewers included Ernst Zoller, Matthias Frahm, John Noth, Henry and Julius Lehrkind, Peter and August Littig and Ignatz Huber. 1

In Rock Island Illinois, Ignatz Huber obtained employment in a brewery, and after his first month's employment he purchased an interest in the concern, of which three years later he became the sole owner. From a small beginning Mr. Huber's business grew and his patronage increased until it became one of the city's principal industries, employing many men. He continued in business alone until the formation of the Rock Island Brewing Company, whereby Rock Island's three brewing plants were consolidated and a stock company organized. Then Mr. Huber turned over active management of the new enterprise to his son, Otto Huber. 1 Conrad Kohrs worked in the brewery for a short time for Ignatz Huber prior to heading for Montana. Quoting from Conrad Kohrs autobiography "I got employment in Huber's Brewery in Rock Island and worked there until the spring of 1855." (Page 5) 3


Ernst Zoller, who arrived in Davenport from his native Germany in 1848, founded a brewing empire that operated into the early 1950s under the names Davenport Malting Co., Independent Brewing Co., Zoller Brewing Co., Blackhawk Brewing Co and Uchtorff Brewing Co. Cigar making in the Quad-Cities followed a development course similar to that of the breweries as it grew from small, independent businesses to larger, consolidated firms. Most of the cigar factories in Davenport were in the west end, where many Germans lived and found work at the plants. 1

One of the most successful local cigar makers was Nicholas Kuhnen, who hoped his first shop in Davenport in 1854. By the 1880s, he was recognized as owning the largest cigar factory north of St. Louis and west of Chicago. Other successful cigar companies were the Ferd. Haak Cigar Co. and the Peter N. Jacobsen Cigar Co. Jacobsen began making cigars in northwest Davenport in 1880 as part of his hotel business. His son, Peter N. Jacobsen Jr., expanded the business and by 1903 had moved the cigar-manufacturing portion to a building that still stands at the southwest corner of 4th and Harrison streets. 1

By World War I, Jacobsen was producing an average of 250,000 cigars a week, including its “Jacobsen’s Brown Beauty” marketed to the working man. Despite competitive pressure from Florida and Cuba, Jacobsen remained the largest cigar company in the region until it closed in 1946 as cigarettes gained popularity.1

References

1. Quad Cities Times: Q-C cigar making, brewing on display. By John Willard | Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:09 AM CDT
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2006/07/11/news/local/doc44b3267904c0b453291413.txt

2. 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.

3.Conrad Kohrs : an autobiography. by Conrad Kohrs. Publisher C.K. Warren, ©1977.

Emigration from Schleswig-Holstein

Emigration from Schleswig-Holstein

After 1848 (gold rush in California and the uprising of 1848-51 in Schleswig-Holstein) the first significant wave of Schleswig-Holstein emigration to the United States occurred. These emigrants settled in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa. They were farmers who were eligible to obtain land if they were able to cultivate it. It cost between 400 to 1000 Dollars and hard work to establish oneself and flourish. The emigrants were mostly young men between 17 and 25 years of age. In order to emigrate, they had to get permission and be officially released from military duty. From 1880 to 1893 approximately 88, 000 (recorded) Schleswig-Holsteiner, roughly 10% of the Schleswig-Holstein population moved to North America, first the Holsteiner from Probstei and Segeberg, then the Schleswiger during Prussian times (1867). According to some advertisers the shortest and least dangerous route to take was from Hamburg to Hull, England, then by train to Liverpool and from there to America. Most emigrants arrived in New York through Castle Garden and later (1892) through Ellis Island, New York.1

Davenport, Iowa

The 170 + years of Germanic influence on Davenport, Iowa began shortly after the city’s founding in 1836. Danish political oppression in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Northern Germany fueled the exodus of Germans to America. Schleswig-Holsteiners seeking freedom found safe haven in Davenport beginning in 1848. Known as “48ers”, the well-educated and skilled people were deemed “freethinkers” and quickly settled into life along the Mississippi River’s edge and on farms in rural Scott County. Within twelve years, 20 percent of Davenport’s population of 3, 000 was German.2

Those Davenport German 48s battled oppressive forces in their homeland of Schleswig-Holstein while fighting for their right to live as they saw fit. Many veterans of that fight that began in 1848 left the region and found freedom in the United States, some of them in Davenport. About 200 men settled in Davenport following the fighting that ended with compromise in 1851 and 1852 between German forces and neighbor Denmark. But most members of the Davenport Society of Veterans of the Schleswig-Holstein Wars of Independence left long before Denmark finally conceded its claims on Schleswig in 1864. 3

References
1. Family Search: Research Wiki: Emigration and Immigration in Schleswig- Holstein. Retrieved 13 March 2009 from https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Emigration_and_Immigration_in_Schleswig-Holstein

2. German Life. June/July 2000. Favorite German-American Travel Destinations. Davenport, Iowa. Retrieved 13 March 2009 from http://www.germanl ife.com/Archives/2000/0006_01.html

3. Quad Cities Times German freedom fighters’ memorial etched in stone. By Mary Louise Speer | Friday, March 28, 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2009 from http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/28/news/local/doc47edcbfea5511732588179.txt




PLAT MAP
SHERIDAN TOWNSHIP 1905
No. 79 N. Range No.3 East of the 5th Meridian
Bordered on the North by Winfield Township, on the South by Davenport, on the East by Lincoln Township, on the West by Hickory Grove.

SECTION 9
Henry Meier
Ernst LeMarinell Est
Chas Meier
Bielenberg & Kohrs

SECTION 16
A.H. Lamp
Bielenberg & Kohrs
Joachim Muks
Chas Ehrsam


PLAT MAP
SHERIDAN TOWNSHIP 1882
No. 79 N. Range No.3 East of the 5th Meridian
Bordered on the North by Winfield Township, on the South by Davenport, on the East by Lincoln Township, on the West by Hickory Grove.


SECTION 9
Henry Meier
Ernst LeMarinell Est
Chas Meier
Bielenberg & Kohrs

SECTION 16
A.H. Lamp
Bielenberg & Kohrs
Joachim Muks
Chas Ehrsam

Another stay at the Hog Hotel’

Photo of Kohrs Packing Plant (Davenport, Iowa) 1910

Another stay at the Hog Hotel’

Quad Cities Times

By John Willard | Monday, June 19, 2006

Hog slaughtering is long gone from Davenport, but a vestige of the once booming industry still survives at the Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer plant, 1337 W. 2nd St.

Some Oscar Mayer employees who read a column in the Quad Cities Times by John Willard on Monday, June 19, 2006 about the city’s packing house heritage note that a portion of the five-story hog containment building at the plant, known to generations as the “Hog Hotel,” is still standing and stores spare parts for maintenance. Employees still refer to it by that name.

Jeff Merrill, a maintenance employee, said the structure is recognizable from the street by the wind-sock flying over it.

Another employee writes: “The Hog Hotel really was a hotel. At the end of each day, some animals were kept overnight to allow for a prompt start-up the next morning if there was a delay in new deliveries such as bad weather.”

As hog slaughtering moved to more efficient, single-story buildings designed for rapid mechanized movement of animals, such as the one that Triumph Foods wants to build in East Moline, the Oscar Mayer plant became obsolete. It nearly closed in the early 1980s.

The jobs were saved when the company shifted to food processing and transformed the turn-of-the-century plant to virtually an all-new facility.

The $10 million project included demolishing 86.000 square feet of space in the center of the plant relating to slaughtering and knocking down half of the 120,000-square-foot hog containment building, or “hog hotel.”

The remainder of the space was rebuilt as a maintenance center. Still in place is a spiral staircase leading to the fourth and fifth floors, with two-inch high risers that made it easier for the porkers to climb.

The “Hog Hotel” was among the improvements completed in the early 20th century by Kohrs Packing Co., which was acquired by Oscar Mayer in 1946. More than 3,500 hogs could be accommodated in rooms equipped with running water.

Kohrs, founded in 1872 by German immigrant Henry Kohrs, was among a half-dozen packing plants that thrived in west Davenport to satisfy the tastes of the city’s many Germans.

Today, Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer employs 1,600 people in Davenport, making it among the Quad-Cities’ five largest employers. Products include bologna and other cold cuts sold retail and to food services; wieners and Lunchables packaged cheese, meat and crackers packs.


References
Another Stay at the grand Hog Hotel. Quad Cities Times by John Willard
Monday, June 19, 2006

Retrieved on 22 February 2008 from
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2006/06/06/opinion/columnists/john_willard/doc4485075a86528694724421.txt

HENRY KOHRS (1830-1917)

HENRY KOHRS

1830-1917

In the spring of 1854 a young man, industrious in spirit and indomitable in determination, selected young and already thriving Davenport, Iowa as the place where he would earn his living. Up from grocer’s helper and clothing store clerk to builder of one of Iowa’s most exclusive meat packing houses—that, in brief, is the story of this intrepid man of progress. To the memory of Henry Kohrs, pioneer Davenport businessman and founder of Kohrs Packing Company, this site is respectfully dedicated.

Reference
Kohrs Packing Company, 75 Years, Davenport Iowa, Bawden Brothers, 1947 Published by Bawden Bros., Inc. Davenport, Iowa.

Kohrs Hams

Kohrs Packing Plant 1910

Photo of Kohrs Packing Plant (Davenport, Iowa) 1910

Vacancies at the Grand Hog Hotel

Quad Cities Times

By John Willard | Tuesday, June 06, 2006

For generations, the five-story, 120,000-square foot structure that loomed over west Davenport was the final destination for hogs in a meat processing operation that made the city one of the largest hog slaughtering centers in the nation.

Until it was phased out in the 1980s, the hog kill operation — under Oscar Mayer and its predecessor, Kohrs Packing Co. — had been a vital part of the city’s economy. Other packing plants such as Armour Packing Co. brought an overpowering odor to the west end, but residents didn’t seem to mind.

“We never complained about the smell. It was our daily bread,” a worker once recalled.

Now that Triumph Foods has the financial incentives to proceed with its $130 million pork processing plant in East Moline, let’s look back at the meat packing industry that once thrived in Davenport.

In 1895, the city counted more than a half-dozen packing firms producing bacon, pork, ham and sausage. Most packers were clustered along West Second Street near Fillmore Street, where the present Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer plant is today.

Davenport’s largest and most successful packer was Kohrs Packing Co. Founded in 1872 by Henry Kohrs, a German immigrant, the company grew from a corner butcher shop into an international supplier of pork products.

At the time Kohrs was acquired by Oscar Mayer in 1946, it was paying pork producers in excess of $5 million a year. During the 1920s and 1930s, the plant was a busy place as farmers and their Ford Model A trucks loaded with hogs rolled in from eastern Iowa.

Strategically located near the Mississippi River, a source of ice in the days before mechanical refrigeration, the plant was considered modern for its day. In an age before mechanization, its vertical design enabled animals to be lowered by gravity to the various slaughtering stages. The animals were bled, scalded in boiling vats to remove hair and butchered.

By the early 1980s, the plant had become obsolete for hog slaughtering operations, which had moved to efficient, single-story structures designed for rapid mechanized movement of animals.

Oscar Mayer’s Davenport plant shifted its focus to meat processing. The old “Hog Hotel” was razed in the early 1990s, along with other outdated spaces.

Today, Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer employs 1,600 persons in Davenport, making it among the Quad-Cities’ five largest employers.


Vacancies at the grand Hog Hotel. Quad Cities Times by John Willard Tuesday, June 6th, 2006. Retrieved on 22 February 2008 from http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2006/06/06/opinion/columnists/john_willard/doc4485075a86528694724421.txt

Kohrs Jar

PATENTED JULY 14, 1908

Business Card

Kohrs Jar "Diamond Shape"

VINTAGE FRUIT JAR MARKED
KOHRS, DAVENPORT IA.
BOTTLE IS 8 & 1/4" TALL
THE SHAPE IS A VERY ODD DIAMOND SHAPE.
NO DAMAGE, OLD ZINC LID

Kohrs Pure Lard

Worker remembers Hog Hotel’ smell

Quad Cities Times

By Mardel Peters, Davenport | Tuesday, June 20, 2006 

John Willard’s June 6 article on the “Hog Hotel” brought back memories of Oscar Mayer (Kohrs Packing Co.). We at Brammers Manufacturing (cabinets) were the building directly west of that plant. Wow! Talk about the odor! The east winds brought it all. I retired in 1989.

We all were so happy when the hog slaughtering ceased. There is no smell as bad as that was. Having lived on a farm as a child, I’d forgotten the pig smell, which was in a smaller dose.

I don’t envy the people in East Moline.

Mardel Peters

Davenport

References

Retrieved on 24 February 2008 from
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2006/06/20/opinion/letters/doc44971920838bf670033097.txt?showComments=true

Kohrs Packing Company Postcard

Kohrs Packing Company Postcard

50 lb Kohrs Crown Lard

Kohrs Crown Lard: 50 lb net. U.S. Inspected and Passed by Department of Agriculture Establishment No. 114, Davenport, IA.