Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BOEPPLE, John
BOEPPLE, John. (Hamburg, Germany, 1854--Muscatine, IA, Jan. 1912). Founder of the BUTTON INDUSTRY along the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Dubuque's thriving pearl button industry developed after Boepple found clamshells in the Mississippi near Muscatine, Iowa. These offered, at half the cost, as much luster as the more expensive ocean clamshells then used to make buttons.
Because of disputes with his partners, Boepple offered in 1899 to bring his company to Dubuque if the city would reimburse his moving expense. This never occurred.
Driven from the company he started, Boepple became a buyer of shells for other companies. While visiting Dubuque in 1902, he expressed his alarm at the detrimental effects the industry was having on the supply of clams in the river. Ironically, Boepple cut his foot on a piece of clamshell and died from the resulting infection.