UP ONE LEVEL

(From the Coon Rapids Centennial Book, 1963)

By the very nature of its location, Coon Rapids always was an agricultural town. As result the businesses on Main Street have been, in the most part, the kind which would serve the needs of such a community.

Lumber and flour were two great necessities of the pioneers. The first house was built from logs hauled to Panora to be sawn into lumber. Grain was taken as far as Des Moines to be ground into flour. Since there was no market for grain, farmers raised only enough wheat for flour and feed for their cattle. Albert Brutsche once took his wheat to Des Moines to a grist mill. When he arrived home he did not have very much flour left. The people along the way needed it so badly that he gave much of his to them.

The first mill in the area came by boat from Pittsburgh to Keokuk in 1854. From there it progressed by a small boat to Des Moines and then by team to Carroll County. It was set up and operated by Albert Brutsche. He was an early pioneer, who was born in Baden, Germany in 1832 and came to New York in 1853. He worked in Pittsburgh two years and came to Carroll County in 1856. This mill burned in 1859.

In 1861, a man named Winfred bought land and started to build a mill on the Raccoon River but work was suspended by the Civil War. In 1863 Crockett Ribble, then County Treasurer, bought the mill site and with the aid of the County, which voted $6000 worth of bonds for the purpose, built a dam and mill.

In 1890 the dam washed out and again in 1902 while being operated by Morris Mitchell. The mill burned in 1915. No vestige of these industries remains today.

Other early industries were rug weaving, blacksmithing and harness making. Children loved to drop into old Mrs. Cushman’s immaculate little house to watch her deftly sending her shuttle back and forth as she made rugs for the townspeople. Besides, since she had the only well with a rope and bucket in town, children thought it was the original “Old Oaken Bucket.”

Children were also entranced when they watched Ed Smith, Henry Wallace and Art Parkinson in their blacksmith shops work the bellows of their forges, heat the red hot horse shoes until the sparks flew, then toss them into a tub of water – and then lift the horse’s hoof and deftly nail the shoe.

As time went on, there was a creamery and poultry processing plant. In 1896, Peter Harkett was making cigars called “The Coon River” brand. Carl Caswell, carpenter and paper hanger, invented, developed and manufactured several articles useful to the trade, among them, a wall paper trimmer.

Not until about 1930, when Henry Wallace, one time U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and a former Vice President successfully developed hybrid seed corn, did Coon Rapids have any sizable industry. Another industry that owed its origin to Henry Wallace was the HyLine Chicken industry. At one time the Miller-McCarty Chick Company produced and shipped chicks all over the world.

In the mid century Armour and Company had extensive plants in Coon Rapids. These facilities made butter and processed poultry and eggs. These plants were closed in the 1960s.

Garst and Thomas Hybrid Corn Company

As a result of long, scientific research by Henry A. Wallace before he became Secretary of Agriculture and later Vice President, Coon Rapids became the home of what at one time was the largest hybrid seed corn plant in the world (pictures). 

This was anew idea when Roswell Garst and Charles Thomas first decided to go into the business. This was back in 1930 and the total production of seed corn was very small. The seed fields were located on the Garst farm. In 1931 the total production amounted to 1,000 bushels.

From this small beginning, the firm expanded and in 1955 over half a million bushels of Pioneer hybrid corn were produced and processed. The original “Town Plant” is still in operation in addition to a new facility located south of town.

The Garst and Thomas families have sold their interest in the seed corn company which has since gone through several name changes. It is currently known as The Garst Seed Company and is part of an international conglomerate. It produces high quality corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sorghum and sunflower seeds for farmers across the nation. Click here for additional historical information on The Garst Seed Company.

Please send additional information on early and current industries to dpcarp@longlines.com.