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STARCH FACTORIES Waupaca Industries – Centennial Book Even in the early days it sometimes became necessary to try to stabilize the markets on certain crops. With the tremendous increase in the raising of potatoes in the 80’s and 90’s there were times when the market would be glutted with potatoes and as a result the prices would fluctuate widely. The A. M. Penney Company built one starch factory for the processing of some of the surplus potato crops into starch. This plant was located across the river from the present school, a short distance south of the present County Highway Shops. In an earlier year, John W. Evans purchased a piece of land east of the present Northwestern Cooperative and, with others, erected a starch factory with William Bothwell as manager. One of the original buildings was later sold to the Waupaca Concrete Products Company in 1920, this being the start in Waupaca of the Madison Silo Company. The Evans Starch Factory burned about 1918 or 1919 and the Penney Factory burned about a year later. The Waupaca Post June 21, 1883 There is a fair probability of Waupaca having a starch
factory this fall. If the projectors
conclude to consummate the plans that are under consideration it will be
running by the time potatoes are ready for market. A starch factory, to manufacture starch from potatoes, is what
has been wanted here for a number of years, but no one has taken sufficient
interest in the matter to find out whether it could be a profitable industry
for anyone to undertake. The potato
crop is abundantly sufficient to guarantee stock enough to supply a large
establishment. Whether the demand for
starch is such that it could be made here at a profit at the present price of
potatoes is a question one here seem capable of answering with any degree of
certainty. If it can be manufactured
here at a profit the general opinion is that owing to the superior quality of
our potatoes the starch would be of a better quality than that made East and would
bring a better price in the market. This is only conjecture, as there never has been a practical test
made. The matter is now being
thoroughly investigated and in the course of a few weeks something definite will
be decided upon. The Waupaca Republican October 14, 1889 The low prices of potatoes, should instill into the minds of the people in this city, the fact that a starch factory is needed and should be built here. A starch factory here, will increase the price of good marketable potatoes, and insure always a fair price for inferior stock. The farmer will not be at the mercy of the market. If the price does not suit for shipment, they will have a chance to turn them into starch. The starch is as staple as four for use in cotton factories and print works. The main reasons why a starch factory should be located here are three fold. 1st, it will give employment to a number of people, 2d, it will distribute money to the farmers who do trading here, 3d, the money returned for starch gives the owner more money to use in the potato buying and other enterprises here. By all means stick to the starch factory, stiffen up and start it. We understand a number of our enterprising business men have promised to do something toward it. The Waupaca Republican October 11, 1889 There is no question about it, when the potato buyer gets word from points where they have lots of cars in transit, consigned that “potatoes are drug in the market” “prices down” etc., it demoralizes the market and keeps the price low. But let a starch factory be built here and you would see the tubers move right along and business in the potato line would be lively no matter if the eastern fellows did cry “drug”. R. H. Bowman offers to donate land and water for a starch factory. Who will further set the ball rolling to get the business booming. Let the starch factory be built. The Waupaca Post October 17, 1889 Starch factories do not discriminate against any variety of potato. The largest yielders, therefore, can be raised, though such do not fetch the best price in other markets. ************ The meeting to consider the starch factory proposition,
held Monday night in the Business Men’s rooms, was a representative gathering
of Waupaca business men. M. R. Baldwin
called the meeting to order and was chosen chairman. Elmer Palmer was made secretary of the meeting, and held that
position with his usual grace and nonchalance.
Irving Lord was the orator of the evening and presented, in eloquent
words, some what the history of starch factories in the West, the method of
manufacture, the cost of the necessary plant and finally the proposition that
Mr. Hall wanted the city to consider. The proposition is briefly as follows. Let he city or its people raise $2,000 to be given as a bonus to the builders on the completion and operation of the factory, and a factory will be put up as soon as possible, that shall have a capacity of 3000 bushels of potatoes, or more, a day, and cost in the neighborhood of $10,000. It was further explained that the factory would be willing to contract for at least a thousand acres of potatoes for five years, at perhaps 20 cents per bushel, as they come from the field. It further appeared that 20 cents per bushel for unsorted potatoes was as good as 25 cents per bushel for sorted potatoes. It seemed to be the opinion of all present that such a factory would be a benefit to the town and surrounding country, and if as represented, worth the $2,000 bonus asked. On motion of Mr. Shearer a committee was appointed to look into the matter and report a future meeting, to be called when the committee should be ready. The members of the committee are as follows: C. J. Shearer, W. C. Baldwin, A. G. Nelson, A. J. Van Epps, and H. W. Williams. The Waupaca Republican October 25, 1889 The adjourned meeting on Monday evening, at the Business Men’s Rooms, to listen to the report of the committee in regard to aiding the establishment of a starch factory, was fairly represented. M. R. Baldwin called the meeting to order and E. H. Palmer was secretary. Caleb Shearer chairman of the committee reported, that that the committee recommended that the citizens of Waupaca raise $1,000 and the farmers $1,000, provided a company would build and operate a two-crusher factory. It is understood that Messrs. Wright & Co., will put in a plant worth from $8,000 to $10,000, provided they get guaranteed $2,000 bonus, and they will build at once, so as to be ready for operations early in the spring. A call is made elsewhere, for all the farmers who can be in Waupaca Saturday, to meet at the rooms of the business men’s association to discuss the question. It strikes the REPUBLICAN that this is something more for the interest of the farmers than for the city. If the establishment of a starch factory will forever make a market for all kinds of potatoes at a fair price, and at he same time enable farmers to get a good price for choice stock the majority of seasons, non one should hesitate to aid it. To be sure it is an enterprise that employs but few men, but then, if it makes this a central market for all time, it will be money well invested and may be the means of establishing other enterprises. Occasionally farmers come to market with potatoes that through various causes are so green from sun scald, that they have to haul them home. If a starch factory was in operation he could unload them there, no questions would be asked about the greenness, pocket his 18 or 20 cents per bushel and go home. One good reason why the farmer should help start a factory. The Waupaca Republican October 25, 1889 Farmers, you are requested to meet at the Business Men’s Rooms in Waupaca, on Saturday, October 26, at 3 o’clock p.m., to consider the joint proposition in relation to the immediate building of a Starch Factory. The hope of a substantial steady future market for potatoes should induce you to give the subject of establishing a Starch Factory serious attention. By order Com. Citizens of Waupaca. The Waupaca Republican November 11, 1889 The Wright, Hall & Co., starch factory is an assured fact. Mr. Bowman having already staked out he ground for it, and the building operations will commence at once. Messrs. Royal Green and R. H. Bowman give the right of way for a road extending from Woolen Mill street north, as an accommodation to farmers in that direction. The Waupaca Republican December 13, 1889 Going Up: Ready for Business in March A crew if twenty carpenters are busy this week on the Starch Factory, which is to be a building 40 x 120 feet, two stories high, exclusive of engine room, which will make the building twenty feet longer. The main building is to be of wood and the engine room will be of brick or corrugated iron. The finest machinery obtainable for the making of pure starch will be put in, and the intention is that the Waupaca starch, like the Waupaca potatoes will rank the best the world affords. The company is backed by outside and home men of means, who will spare no money in making the enterprise a success. Score another point for this potato center and give us another enterprise to add to the strides this city is taking upward. The Waupaca Republican December 20, 1889 The Starch Factory company are all ready to make contracts for potatoes for early spring delivery. ********** The “Dandy” made a break in noting the starch factory company last week, and this week it must have been figuring on the number of inches to its holiday advertising supplements, when it noted that the capital stock of the starch company was $200,000 paid up. A pretty stiff company that. ********* The names of the stock holders of the starch factory are Roberts & Oborn, Shearer & Jeffers, J. W. Evans, D. L. Manchester, H. J. Stetson, K. S. Burbank and G. W. Hall of this city, and Ed Oborn of Neenah. Officers: J. H. Woodnorth, president and treasurer; C. J. Shearer, secretary and Ed Oborn, superintendent. Executive Committee: J. H. Woodnorth, C. J. Shearer, John W. Evans. The capital stock of the company is 20,000. The company will be incorporated under the State law soon. The Waupaca Republican December 20, 1889 The Waupaca Starch Co., are now ready to make contracts for potatoes for next season. Parties desiring to enter into contracts can call upon J. H. Woodnorth or C. J. Shearer. The Waupaca Republican January 3, 1890 The immense structure for the manufacture of potato starch, is up and painted. The roof is of 3-ply tar paper and will be painted with two or three coats of roofing paint and sanded. The carpenters are working on the interior arrangements of the building. The foundation walls are laid for the engine room and if the good weather continues the brickwork will be laid soon. The company will push the work to completion as fast as possible. Waupaca is a most central place for a starch factory and this factory is located very nicely as regards facilities for running and transportation, as the spur from the Central, comes close to the factory. The Weyauwega Chronicle predicts that the demand for the starch does not augur very well for building any more than one factory in Wisconsin. The REPUBLICAN is very glad Waupaca has that ONE. The Chronicle says: In the course of its hunt for items of interest, the Chronicle has gleaned the following facts about potato starch. It is used principally in cotton factories, but little being used for other purposes. A bushel of potatoes will make from six to ten pounds of starch. The cost of manufacture, shipping and commission, is one cent per pound. For the past five years potato starch has sold at from 3 to 4-1/2 cents per pound. The principal point of manufacture is in Aroostook county, Maine, where there are 34 factories that combined, produce 6,000 tons of starch annually. The demand in this country for potato starch for all purposes annually does not exceed 9000 tons. It is estimated that ten new factories in the United States would ruin the business. From the above facts the prospects of more than one factory in the state of Wisconsin, are certainly not flattering. The Waupaca Republican February 28, 1890 The welcome notes of the starch factory whistle echoed out over the city on Monday to remind our citizens that that great enterprise and mammoth addition to the industries of Waupaca was about completed. There will probably be some work done this spring but the works will not be run to their full capacity until next fall. It has been noticed of late that the papers have mentioned a great combine on all the starch factories in the country, and the Oshkosh Northwestern says “Where is Waupaca?” It is learned that the syndicate embraced corn and gloss starch, not potato starch, therefore, Waupaca is not in that deal. The Waupaca Post March 20, 1890 The Starch factory started up on Monday morning, and is daily consuming 2,000 bushels of potatoes. Considering the condition of the roads the supply has been good and as soon as the highways become hard and farmers can market their crop, the factory will run at its highest capacity, 4,000 bushels a day. Mr. F. C. Nickerson, the expert starch maker is here, and the work is going on satisfactorily. The Waupaca Post March 20, 1890 A GREAT ENTERPRISE The Waupaca Starch and Potato Company and Its Factory Here. A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS, AND HOW STARCH IS MADE Six months ago, when a few enterprising men began to talk of starting a potato starch factory in this city, with a view of utilizing the many thousands of bushels of potatoes that are yearly left in the fields or fed to stock, few, even of the most sanguine supporters of the enterprise, imagined the magnificent plant that is now completed, and were the weather warm enough, would be daily turning out ton after ton of first class potato starch. The agitation started by Wright & Co., of Minneapolis, was heartily seconded by local capitalists and eventually the Waupaca Starch and Potato Company was incorporated, with J. H. Woodnorth as president, C. J. Shearer as secretary and R. N. Roberts, treasurer. A site was selected on the banks of the Waupaca river, near the Roberts & Oborn mill. Mr. Ed Oborn, a practical mechanic and F. C. Nickerson, of Minneapolis, a practical starch manufacturer, were put in charge of the construction of the works and today the factory stands, a monument to their energy and push. The factory buildings consist of a main building 80 x 60, two stories in height, with a lean-to 46 x 20, a dry house 100 x 44, and a boiler and engine room 40 x 20. The latter room is made of brick and is fireproof; the larger buildings are of wood and are painted a dark red color. They are solidly constructed, and much care has been taken to make them perfect in every respect. The modus operandi of potato starch manufacture is so little known that a POST representative decided to follow a load of potatoes from the time of its arrival on the farmer’s wagon, until is shipped east as first class potato starch. In describing the process, a description of the various rooms is also give and some idea of the adequateness of the undertaking may be gained there from. To commence at he beginning then, the honest tiller of the soil, having bargained with the company’s buyers, drives up to the end of the main building, where is placed a Howe controllable dump scale. After the load is weighed the wagon box is tilted and the potatoes disappear through a chute to the basement, from whence, by a link belt elevator, they are taken up to the storage room in the top of the building at the rate of 300 to 400 bushels per hour. This storage room has a capacity of 10,000 bushels and is located directly over the washing machines. The potatoes are let down from the storage bin to two washing machines, where there is a constant stream of running water and where they are thoroughly cleansed They are now ready to be made into starch and are conveyed by means of a lateral screw to two graters, having a capacity of 300 bushels an hour. In these graters the potatoes are crushed into a fine pulp. This pulp is then carried across a fine sieve through which the starch and potato liquid goes, leaving the pulp on top. By means of a centrifugal pump, the starch, which is then in liquid form, and the potato water are forced through pipes into large vats, or tanks. Of these there are nine, with a capacity of about 500 barrels each, being eighteen feet in diameter and seven feet in height and made of two-inch pine staves. The liquid settles in these vats, the potato water being drawn off by a system of sewerage and the starch into a vat in the center of the building from which it is pumped into the second story for cleansing purposes. In the cleansing room are four tanks, 16 x 18 x 4 feet, and in them the final separation of the liquor and the starch takes place. The water is entirely drawn off, leaving the starch in the form of a paste or putty. This paste is then conveyed to the drying room by hand boats. There are two drying rooms, the floors of which are made of slats, with about one inch space left between them. At the distance of a foot underneath is a like floor with the slats closer together and still a third under that. These rooms are kept at a temperature of from 160 x 180 degrees by a means of a Sturtevant 80 inch fan, sending warm air through 4,000 feet of pipe. As the paste dries it drops from floor to floor, being aided by the moving of the slotted floors, which is done by hand, until when it finally gets through to the room beneath it is fine as flour and is ready for packing. There are two packing rooms, under the two drying rooms and the starch is loaded into casks and sacks and handled into the cars, but 30 feet away. The machinery which supplies the power to make this transformation of a Burbank potato into starch, consists of an eighty horse steel boiler, 60 x 16 feet in size, and a fifty-horse power engine, the make of the Erie Cit Iron Works, Erie, Pa. The water is supplied from the river, 160 feet away, by a Roberts force pump, with a capacity of 500 gallons per minute. The hot air fan is run by a separate eight horse power engine, also of the Erie company make. As before stated the boiler room is fire proof and as there is no fire in the building except in the boiler room, the danger of a conflagration is very small. A tank holding about 100 barrels of water is kept constantly filled and any flow of the factory could be flooded at a moment’s notice. The capacity of the factory as stated, will be about 4,000 bushels of potatoes daily. Eventually, when the right kind of timber can be found, the company intends to add a cooper shop and manufacture its own casks. This will give employment to about ten additional men. All in all the factory seems to be as complete as it is possible for it to be, and when the clerk of the weather gives us milder temperature, its shrill whistle, summoning fifteen to twenty men to work daily, will re-echo in this new and important addition to the city’s manufacturies. The Waupaca Republican April 4, 1890 The steam whistle of the Starch Factory the past few days indicates that the Waupaca institution has commenced to grind potatoes and transfer the pulp into pure white starch. The price of the tubers will prevent a large run now, but the company desire to thoroughly test the works and will probably transfer some 80,000 bushels into starch this spring. The Waupaca Republican July 18, 1890 The Waupaca starch company is building a potato warehouse on the spur track west of the starch works 130 x 80 feet. It will be used for the storing and shipping of potatoes and starch. They are doing things up ready for a big business this fall. The Waupaca Republican April 17, 1891 The Starch Company will keep their factory open to receive potatoes, until May 1st. The Waupaca Republican September 9, 1892 The Waupaca Starch Factory will commence running Monday Sept. 12. Ed Oborn manager. The Company are ready for all the potatoes they can get; good, bad and indifferent. The Waupaca Republican August 18, 1899 FROM DR. WINGATE. In Regard to Pulp from the Starch Factory We take the following extract from a letter dated Aug. 12, from Dr. Wingate, secretary of the state board of health to Dr. H. L. Reed, health officer of this city. It explains itself: There is usually no danger from the material you speak of causing sickness, but it often produces a bad nuisance from the bad smell and that is all there is of it. This board has no power to do any thing in such cases only to advise with local boards of health, and that we can do just as well by writing as in any way, and better. The local boar of health has all the legal power to act that there is, and it is the duty of your board to take such action in the case as appears to you necessary. If there is a nuisance caused by the pulp from the starch factory you have full power to abate it, and we could do nothing but advise you as we do by this letter if we should go out there. Very truly yours, U. O. B. WINGATE Secretary. THE REPUBLICAN November 25, 1898 Accident at the Starch Factory Bob Ross who works at the starch factory came in too close contact with the main shaft Sunday morning while he was adjusting a water valve in one of the vats. As he passed under the shaft electricity or air sent his frock coat around the knuckle of the shaft which wound him up and sent him whirling about 200 revolutions a minute. Well it took just a minute to strip off every shred of clothing Mr. Ross had on and left him a number of feet away from the shaft. Strange to say only one rib was broken and although badly shaken and bruised he is getting along all right. Manager Bothwell says the knuckle was a safety one with all bolts counter sunken smooth and it is a wonder how it happened for workmen have been in the habit of going under there for years and no thought of accident was ever dreamed of. It just happened to happen and that was all, and it was a miracle that it did not prove a more serious accident. |