"We worked from 5:50 a.m. to noon with 45 minutes for lunch, then from 12:45 to 6:45 p.m.," said Mrs. Anna McAbee of Kearney, who worked as a young girl at the cotton mill.  There was no forty hour week.  She represented a labor force of about 3,500 who were employed in the bustling city of Kearney during the late 1880's and early 1890's.  The promotional literature of the era heralded the "Kearney Gait", a Chamber of Commerce logo for "full speed ahead" as well as the "Minneapolis of the West" originated by Col. W. W. Patterson, one of Kearney's founding fathers.

          This fast growing community, incorporated for only 15 years, had doubled its population to 6,770 from 1885 to 1888 and was said to have doubled it again before the "boom" was over.  Research provides an excellent example with a comparison of the city directories for they, too, double in size.

         The promise of unlimited power for manufacture, first from Kearney Canal water and soon after through electric power utilizing the same energy source, provided the impetus for growth and expansion.  Sources vary as to the number of firms which were built and went into production.  Maud Marston Burrows, Kearney attorney and newspaper writer, mentions forty industries in her report on the Kearney boom for the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1937.  Her research was prompted by a lawsuit which necessitated enumerating the manufacturing enterprises in Kearney in the 1880's.  The 1973 Kearney Centennial Booklet lists at least 25.  There are 15 plants in industrial production today according to Steve Hatcher of the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce but now they draw a sharp line in defining the term, industry, and insist that a tangible product be created.

          No single area in the city dominated in plant sites. Many were situated along the tailrace of the Kearney Canal, in West Kearney, downtown near the railroad, and in the vicinity of Kearney Lake. The Hibberd Brickyard was located at the site of the Catholic High School in the northeast and the Kearney Oat Meal Company was erected near the Union Pacific coal chutes in east Kearney.

          Information about these product industries is varied and contradictory.  The Kearney Flour Mill and Elevator Company which was founded by R. L. Downing and John J. Bartlett ranks as the first major industry and operated for 25 years before it was purchased by Frank F. Roby.  Downing and Bartlett came to Kearney from Lowell where they had been since the early 1870's.  "They treked over the old army pontoon bridge across the Platte River and started business in Kearney," according to a clipping from The Kearney Tribune published in 1937 loaned by Catherine Bahnsen. Mr. Downing built the first small elevator and started the Kearney Flour Mills with Mr. Bartlett who was from England.  They exported much grain to England and other European markets.  "In the late eighties the land, being new, raised immense crops of wheat and many nights the mill and elevator were kept open until midnight to receive the wheat that rolled into Kearney," the clipping continues.  This lineup of vehicles is often repeated today whether loaded with wheat or corn during harvest time in the Platte Valley.

          Mr. Richard Hibberd of Staffordshire, England, enlarged his brickyard during the expansion period and was able to produce 40,000 handmade "soft" bricks daily.  One article lists 1650 men on the payroll and another states that 6590 employees were needed.  Mr. Hibberd built and rented small, square cottages to house his employees nearby and a spur of the electric railroad ran to his brickyard.  As a new resident of this community in 1965, I recall noticing some of these homes are still located on the hill north of the city.
 
         The second largest brickyard was located south of the present day Corral Cafe and was called the Kearney Pressed Brick Company.  It claimed to be the first brickyard in the world operated by electricity and had a daily capacity of 25,000 dry pressed bricks.  Clay for the process was dug at the site of the Kearney Country Club according to Maud Burrows and a special track was built to bring the clay to a Union Pacific spur to the factory.  This company involved a cash investment of $40,000.  During the boom period the Hibberd firm and Kearney Pressed Brick companies as well as the Hurley Brick Works and the Bill Mannix Yard were unable to keep up with the building needs of the area.
 
         The B. W. Huston family of Burlington, Iowa built the Kearney Pickling, Canning and Vinegar Works near the Kearney Pressed Brick Company east of the tailrace.  They employed 100 - 150 people during the season and in 1891 put up 1 million cans of corn, tomatoes and other vegetables besides 6,500 barrels of pickles.
 
          The Kearney Paper Mill was built of brick and stone and was well equipped with the best machinery available.  A large acreage of ground was reserved for storage of straw used in their production of strawboard.  Farmers found a ready market for tons of straw which they had burned previously.  Mill capacity was eight tons of paper a day.  The West Kearney Woolen Mill Company was built in 1889 west of the paper mill and was a large frame two story building.  These two firms along with the Hurley Brick Yard were built near the famous Kearney Cotton Mill, mentioned at the beginning of this article.

          The presence of a cotton mill in Kearney, Nebraska, surprises many visitors who tour the Frank House and ask questions about the historical background for building the mansion.  In July 1889 the Kearney Enterprise issued a special edition called the "Cotton Mill Extra" announcing the final plans for building this plant, "a cotton mill far from the land of cotton and farther from the land of cotton mills."  The cotton was shipped from Texas.  The mill was electric, generated by water power from the Kearney Canal with Cottonmill Lake as the reservoir for storage of water.  Most historical references mention that no profits were made during the entire operating period, but J. G. Lowe, president of the Farmers' Bank, who was paymaster at the cotton mill, was the chief source of information regarding its operation for an article printed in the Kearney Daily Hub on March 8, 1919. The following quote refutes these loss claims:

        Although a boom day enterprise, the cotton mill did not owe its final failure to the collapse of the boom.  Indeed, the manufacture of cotton was continued as a plying enterprise long after the spectacular bursting of the bubble.  For nine years the mill did an immense business, quite worthy of the tremendous outlay for building and equipment.  It put out muslin and ninequarter sheeting of a quality equal to Fruit of the Loom or Lawrence Double L. The entire product was shipped to Chinese markets by Putnam-Hooker, cotton wholesalers at Cincinnati, who later took over the machinery.  Scarcity of skilled labor and, to a lesser degree increase of freight rates, finally rendered its further operation not feasible, and the mill shut down.

         The Nebraska Ice Company situated on the shores of Kearney Lake was an imposing structure near the power plant and canal.  It employed at least 150 men during production and also had a Union Pacific spur to handle shipments.  The Union Pacific itself was the largest patron of the company.  The George W. Frank Improvement Company operated the firm for a time and then leased it to a company with Ira Johnson and C. P. Shur at its head.

          A 30 minute drive around Kearney today reveals a building boom in all areas, whether its expanding industrial production, erecting new houses by single unit and by tract or adding new businesses.  Kearney has recovered its industrial initiative and the number of manufacturing companies today nearly match in number the 1890 period.

---

Back to :Buffalo Tales Homepage

Back to Buffalo County Historical Society home page