 |
 |
History - Douglas & Company
|
|
Click here to go back . . .
In the mid- to late-1800s, developments in technology and transportation made it possible for commerce to expand west. Iowa, as an agricultural state, was a natural fit for the Sinclair and Douglas businesses. Thomas Sinclair moved his meatpacking company to Cedar Rapids by 1871. George Bruce Douglas’s father was one of the original partners in the oatmeal mill that became The Quaker Oats Company. George and his brother Walter, who first worked in their father’s mill, started their own business that marketed linseed oil and later, sold products made from corn. With the expansion of railroads, these businesses could transport goods to the East Coast and on to international markets. The railroads also brought immigrants to Cedar Rapids and provided a strong labor force. George and Walter’s business, Douglas & Company, touched many lives during its twenty-four year history.
In 1894, George and Walter became business partners and built a successful linseed oil company. In 1899, they sold the business, and by 1903, Douglas & Company began processing cornstarch. Their products included cooking starch and oil, laundry starch, animal feed, soap stock, and industrial starches. The company grew rapidly and was the largest starch works in the world by 1914. At the time, it employed 400 people and ground 10,000 bushels of corn per day. More buildings were added to the site, and by 1919, it consisted of thirty-six buildings on ten acres.
The company advertised nationally. Corn oil and cornstarch became essential cooking items and were used for making puddings, pie fillings, sauces, and baked goods. Millions of potential customers could see the product in Good Housekeeping, The Ladies’ Home Journal, and The Saturday Evening Post. In November 1918, Douglas & Company began running full-page ads in all three. Douglas & Company cookbooks showed customers how to cook with corn. Rationing during World War I increased the demand for corn products as an alternative to precious butter or lard. The U.S. food Administration encouraged substituting corn for wheat products. In 1917, the United States produced three billion bushels of corn, while wheat, fats, and meat were scarce. The 1910s brought a dramatic rise for Douglas & Company.
The business ended tragically. On May 22, 1919 at 6:00 p.m., the night shift had just begun and 109 men replaced the 327 day-shift workers. At 6:30 p.m., a devastating explosion leveled the starch works. A pillar of dust and flame shot one mile into the sky. Hundreds of windows shattered across Cedar Rapids. Water mains ruptured, making fire hydrants useless. Parts of Douglas & Company buildings landed two miles from the site. Forty-three workers died in the explosion.
Damage to Douglas & Company buildings totaled nearly $3 million. Although most buildings were destroyed, the shell of the table house remained. Plant owners salvaged three floors of the nearly seven-story building. A new office building remained mostly intact. The destruction attracted family and friends of the missing, as well as thousands of curiosity seekers. Douglas & Company hired a private security force to control the crowds. Within three days, local restaurants ran out of food for the waves of on-lookers. The search for survivors continued days after the blast. The heat from the ruins made progress slow. The Red Cross collected shoes to replace those burned while searching through the smoldering rubble.
Several agencies gathered to determine the cause of the explosion. They concluded that a fire, which may have originated in the “dry starch” section of the plant, caused starch to ignite and explode. Investigators never identified the cause of the original fire.
Douglas & Company bought a grave and marker in Linwood Cemetery for the unidentified and unclaimed remains of workers killed in the blast. The Douglas family decorated the graves of the men each Memorial Day.
While George and Walter enjoyed success and wealth, they also experienced great tragedy. Walter perished on the Titanic in 1912, after retiring to Minneapolis a few years earlier. With the loss of his brother and business partner, destruction of their company, and the deaths of forty-three employees, George’s health steadily declined. He died four years after the explosion.
In 1920, Penick and Ford, a Louisiana company, purchased the Douglas & Company site. The company is now know as Penford Products and continues to produce industrial starch at the site. A product line still uses the Douglas name in honor of the original owners.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
