Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
CHAMBERLAIN PLOW COMPANY
CHAMBERLAIN PLOW COMPANY. The future manufacturing giant began as a small blacksmith shop in Orfordville, Wisconsin. H.H. Sater, later the superintendent of the NORWEGIAN PLOW COMPANY, made plows with a small anvil. A larger shop which utilized machinery was constructed in Brodhead, Wisconsin by C.W. Mitchell and others.
In 1877 William C. CHAMBERLAIN purchased an interest in the Wisconsin business and opened a branch office and salesroom in Dubuque. The name of the company at that time was Chamberlain, Mitchell & Company. The Chamberlain Plow Company was established on November 4, 1880, with a capital stock of $120,000, additional capital being added when the company was re-organized in 1885. Sixty men are employed in the shops and offices, and six traveling men represented the company throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota Territory.
Chamberlain Plow Company had a capacity of manufacturing 8,000 plows, 3,000 cultivators, 8,500 harrows and other machinery yearly. The main four-story high factory was located at the corner of Jones and Locust Streets while their 80X100 foot warehouse was on the First Street Extension on the levee. Transfer offices of the company were established at Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln and Minneapolis.
The 1884-1885 and 1886-87 Dubuque City Directory gave the corner of Locust and Jones as the address.