The Muscatine County Preservation Committee is on a mission to try to save a century-old “pump house” at the Fairport Fish Hatchery near Muscatine, a place crusader Terry Eagle claims there’s important national history known as, “the gold rush of the Midwest.”
Eagle, who is curator of the National Pearl Button Museum in Muscatine, said the decaying giant pump house building that sits on the banks of the Mississippi River at the hatchery, should be declared a national landmark and would be an ideal tourist attraction that would be an avenue for the non-profit museum.
He says few people really know the story behind the famous pearl button industry that once employed about 500 in Muscatine and countless more outside the community.
Eagle explains that at the turn of the 19th century, the Pearl Button industry was a world-wide phenomenon, a sign of wealth in many countries if you were seen with pearl buttons on your clothing, nearly all of them were made in Muscatine and harvested from not only a then mussel-heavy Mississippi, but rivers throughout the Midwest – mostly shipped to Muscatine.
Two families, named Weber and McKee, opened businesses that produced the shiny white buttons, the McKees employing as many as 300 during the summer months, including farmers who would supplement their income when they weren’t in the fields. It has been reported there were years as many as 1.5 billion buttons were produced.
Eagle says the industry helped double the population of Muscatine in the early 1900’s, many working in the industry to shell pearls from 30 different species of mussels, bringing “people from all walks of life.”
Eagle explained there were railroad lines built especially for the industry to get the pearls to Muscatine from at least 19 different states and said the industry had worldwide acquaintances with history — even from as far away as Australia.
The pearl button industry was the brainstorm of German immigrant John F. Boepple, who came to America in 1890 and eventually died when his foot became infected after stepping on a sharp mussel on the river’s shores.
Eagle said Boepple was highly dedicated to making pearl buttons, not fond of the highly successful modernized blanking industry that cut button-sized circles with machines from mussel shells. Most of the machines, Eagle said, were even made in Muscatine by Barry Manufacturing. He said there was a time when Muscatine had more patent applications than anywhere else in the state.
When plastic buttons became the new rage toward the middle of the century, the pearl button industry quietly went away “like a whisper,” leaving the industry to struggle. Eagle said China now makes nearly every button used in the world.
Eagle, who married Madeline of the McKee family years ago, says he not only has a personal interest in preserving not only his family’s history, but also what was once a giant pearl button industry that should be an important part of the American textile history, and that of Muscatine County. He says it’s barely mentioned in Iowa history records.
Eagle says the empty pump house building (also known as the boiler house) has some unique architecture and is another piece to the button industry, hoping it can be marketed to become a national treasure that would attract tourists and sportsmen from all over the world.
He said the state of Iowa is finally starting to “wake up” regarding the pearl button history, and the hatchery even has a team from the University of Iowa looking into the restoration of mussels in the Mississippi, boasting a Lucille Carver funded biological research facility at the 40-acre hatchery. The facility hopes to help restore clean water in the longest river in North America to its purity through the natural work of mussels, an animal that will filter 15 gallons of water a day.
“I would have loved to have seen the river back then,” Eagle said, noting mussels were so thick it was said there were portions of the Mississippi a person could walk on before millions of mussels were fished in the early part of the 19th century.
Eagle says he’s also working on a partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) in trying to save and restore the pump house building, which the preservation group is attempting to get on the National Register of Historic Places. The hatchery is located eight miles East of Muscatine on Highway 22.
Working with the university, the government is replenishing the river with mussel larva to reproduce. After all, the area is rich with history, from hosting German POWs during World War II used in the industry to hosting the first federal biological research station in the country, established in 1908. He said there were even a group of national scientists who lived in the area above the hatchery at one time that studied the river and it’s habitat.
He said some of that history includes stories of mussel miners working to find that ultimate pearl. He said there was one found in the Dubuque area that sold for $1,000 back in 1905, a giant sum of income in those days, but he said that same pearl later sold in Chicago for $5,000 and still later in New York for $25,000. It eventually made it’s way to worldwide limelight in a European history museum archive. He says even the Smithsonian Museum have some history of the industry.
The DNR has taken a number of steps to try to tear down the aging pump house building on the hatchery’s 18-pond campus, established in 1929, but Eagle says the problem is that few realize the proud history of the area and the uniqueness of the industry, which has now disappeared in the past decade.
Eagle described the building, constructed in 1912, as “beautiful,” and said structural engineers say it’s sound, although two flat roofs on the building made of concrete may be the biggest concern. He said the group has applied for several grants in hopes of improving the structure. He also wants to create a satellite pearl button museum at the hatchery in the University of Iowa building.
Calling it a “great project,” Eagle said the Muscatine area history should be no different than places like the Amana Colonies or Pella, a community that celebrates a rich Dutch heritage annually.
Eagle says the area should be known as the “Mother of Pearl,” noting, “We have a national story to tell — we need to exploit it.”
He said the Muscatine area is missing the boat, noting it should be celebrating the proud history of the community that helped develop some of the worldwide giants that manufacture in the community today. He says there could be festivals and other events centered on the industry and noted the hatchery area could play a major role of that attraction, helping families from throughout the nation learn about an industry that sold buttons all over the world.
He suggests that the people of Iowa get behind the preservation movement, noting, “We have a lot of work to do.” Eagle is also working with Iowa State Historical Preservation Office to help save the building.
He said it’s an important part of not only local history, but also American history. “If it disappears, it’s one piece of American history that’s gone forever,” Eagle finalized.
Anyone interested in learning more about the working Fairport Fish Hatchery or the Pearl Button Museum can visit www.muscatinehistory.org or call Eagle or assistant curator Angie Weikert at 563-263-1052.