The Marietta Daily Times, August 17, 1911
Board of Trade Undertakes to Raise a Bonus of $5,000
Plant would employ more than 100 men.
Half of money asked would not be due until wage expenditure has mounted to $75,000.
At a meeting Wednesday evening the Marietta Board of Trade got behind a movement to raise a bonus of $5,000 to secure a pearl button cutting plant for this city. A committee to secure the money was appointed. There is only two weeks in which to secure the industry, as a proposition that has been made by the manufacturers must be definitely accepted or rejected by September 1st.
About two weeks ago the McKee & Bliven Button company of Muscatine, Iowa, offered to locate in Marietta a plant that will employ in the neighborhood of 100 men, if the city will give it a bonus of $5,000. One half of this sum is to be paid to the company when it has completed its plant; the second $2,500 is not due until the concern has paid out in wages the sum of $75,000. The matter was taken up by the executive committee of the Board of Trade and thoroughly investigated. This committee has recommended that favorable action be taken.
Buttons from Mussel Shells
The concern is engaged in the manufacture of buttons from clam shells, of which there are said to be vast deposits in the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. Marietta is the natural center of the shell gathering and great quantities of the shells have been shipped from this point to cities where the factories are located.
The shell gathering has become quite an important industry in this section of the valley. Cutting plants can be established here and the expense of shipping the shells obliterated. The committee believes that there is no good reason why Marietta should not be the center of the button industry, with a finishing plant, as well as cutting departments, located here.
Proposition Looks Good
The matter was brought before the Board by President Ward after he had enumerated some of the things that the body has been doing of late and has told of some of the plans for the future. He believes that the McKee & Bliven proposition is a good one and he and the members of the executive committee believe that the city cannot afford to let it pass without acceptance.
Mr. Ward said that experts declare there is a supply of shells about here that will last for at least 25 years. In the past three years $75,000 worth of them have been shipped away from the vicinity. The cutting plants run the year around and employ men at from $10 to $16 per week. Local labor will be used, the only imported men being the business staff and experts who teach the shell cutting to the new employees.
Is Established Concern
The McKee & Bliven company has been in business for 27 years, is rated at $750,000 and has ten plants in operation. The plant it proposes to establish in Marietta would contain 100 machines and employ 110 or 115 men. "It seems to me," continued President Ward, "that the Board of Trade can put this over, but it is up to the Board of Trade. It is not a matter for the committee to tackle. The work must be done by the 1st of September, but if we can do it at all, we can do it in two weeks."
On motion of F. L. Alexander it was decided to accept the proposition and raise the $5,000 needed, after a number of the men present had expressed their opinions that the proposal was a good one and that the money could be raised without any great effort.
This committee was appointed to raise the bonus: H. G. Chamberlain, F. L. Alexander, T. M. Sheets, S. M. Thurlow, J. S. Goebel, L. Gruber, C. L. Bailey, T. B. Bosworth, John Kaiser, and L. N. Harness.
[The company of McKee & Bliven, button manufacturers, Edward M. Jones as manager, is listed at 123 Third Street in the Marietta city directories from 1912 through 1916. It is no longer listed in the 1919 directory, and 123 Third Street is shown as vacant, probably due to the lack of supplies and workers caused by WWI. McKee & Bliven reappear in the city directory at 123 Third Street in 1922, with C. E. Doty as manager. By 1924, the button company and Doty are gone.]
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