The National Poultry and Egg Company. This institution is one of the largest of its kind in the West, and is located on the corner of Fourteenth and Main streets. Under the able management of G. E. Hanna, it has steadily increased its capacity and enlarged its business operations until at the present time it employs an average of fifty-four men and women a month and pays out in wages almost $30,000 each year. The plant and machinery represent an investment of about $70,000 and its sales are over a half million dollars a year. It is engaged in buying and selling poultry, eggs and butter, and ships fancy dressed poultry to eastern markets.
Deer Creek Creamery Company. This company has a capital stock of $10,000; employs eight men and four girls, with an annual payroll of $8,000. In addition to the employees in the local office, it also employs twenty men in the country to operate its numerous cream stations. The company manufactures over a half million pounds of butter a year, and it puts up and sells in Atchison from 80,000 to 100,000 gallons of milk every year, in addition to 6,000 or 8,000 gallons of ice cream. Over $125,000 annually is paid out to Kansas farmers for cream; about $25,000 of this amount going to farmers in the immediate vicinity of Atchison. It is one of the growing institutions of the city, and the excellence of the products it turns out is the cause for its constant increase of business.
Atchison is also the home of two large manufacturers of saddlery. The Atchison Saddlery Company is the successor to Louis Kiper & Sons and occupies a large building on Kansas avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. Its officers are George Diegel, president; George T. Lindsey, vice-president, and Henry Diegel, secretary-treasurer. It has a capital stock of $150,000; employs seventy-nine people. It ships its products into many States of the West and has been doing an exceedingly large business in the past few years.
Kessler-Barkow Saddlery Company was incorporated several years ago, with G. T. Bolman, president; F. A. Barkow, vice-president, and H. B. Kessler, secretary and treasurer. This company has a capital and surplus of $85,000, and employs sixty-five people, and has an average annual payroll of about $40,000.00. It manufactures harness and saddles for the jobbing trade exclusively and has large accounts with the Blish, Mize & Silliman Hardware Company, Montgomery, Ward & Company and Sears, Roebuck & Company.
The Atchison Leather Products Company is another growing institution of Atchison, the officers of which are the same as that of the Kessler-Barkow Saddlery Company. This company are producers of cut leather parts of all kinds, and are large buyers of scrap leather. It has a capital stock of $7,000.00 and employs fifteen people. Its sales for 1915 amounted to over $65,000.00, and it also handles various leather specialties and automobile accessories.
Atchison is also the home of three large mills. The Blair Milling Company, the Cain Milling Company and the Lukens Milling Company, and these mills handle an average of 20,000 to 25,000 cars of grain annually, and ship out finished wheat and corn products of 4,000 to 5,000 cars every year. The Lukens Milling Company has recently erected cement storage tanks for storage of grain, of the capacity of 125,000 bushels, and the Blair Elevator Company, which is operated by J. W. and W. A. Blair, in 1915, also erected cement storage tanks to the capacity of 200,000 bushels. The growth of the mills of Atchison is logical, for they are located in a rich agricultural section, and consequently the mills are among the most important enterprises in the city. In each case the mills of Atchison are being operated by the sons of its founders. The Blair mill was established by E. K. Blair, in an early day of the history of Atchison, and is now managed by his sons, J. W. and W. A. Blair. The Lukens mill was founded by David Lukens, who came to Atchison in 1857. He operated a sawmill and raised corn in Missouri bottoms until 1877, when he built the Diamond Mills, now conducted by his sons, Arthur Lukens, Edwin Lukens and David Lukens. The original Cain Mill Company was established by John M. Cain and Alfred Cain, and its successor, the Cain Milling Company, is operated by Douglas M. Cain, the son of Alfred Cain.
Atchison is also the home of two of the largest wholesale hardware stores on the Missouri river, both of which began operations here at approximately the same time. The operations of the Blish, Mize & Silliman Hardware Company are the largest of the two companies. This company travels thirty men and has an office and store force of eighty-eight men and women. It has an annual payroll of $115,000.00. It was founded by D. P. Blish, E. A. Mize and J. B. Silliman, who were all related by marriage. The company began in a small way as a successor to J. E. Wagner & Company, and has branched out in its business until it covers several States and territories. It occupies a magnificent re-inforced concrete fire-proof structure at the corner of Fifth and Utah avenue, and its business has been increasing from year to year.
The A. J. Harwi Hardware Company is owned and controlled largely by F. E. Harwi, the son of its founder, and a full account of its operations appears in a sketch of the life and career of A. J. Harwi in this history.
Atchison is particularly proud of the fact that it is one of the best jobbing centers in this part of the country, and in this connection the wholesale grocery business is well represented in the two splendid firms of the Dolan Mercantile Company and the Symns Grocery Company. The Dolan Mercantile Company was established by W. F. Dolan, one of the pioneers of Atchison, who started in a small way as a retail grocer merchant, and died leaving a splendidly established wholesale grocery business, which is now conducted by M. J. Horan and Leo Nusbaum. This house, under the able management of these two young men is rapidly making for itself a big reputation among wholesale dealers and grocers. In addition to jobbing regular lines of merchandise this company has recently installed its own plant for the manufacture of fluid extracts, baking powder and pancake flour, and also roasts its own coffees. It has a large traveling force, visiting the States of Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, and the Dolan brands are well known throughout this whole territory.
The Symns Grocery Company was established by A. B. Symns, who came to Kansas from West Virginia, with his three brothers, in 1858, where he settled in the town of Doniphan and engaged in mercantile pursuits, until he removed to Atchison in 1872. He opened a wholesale and retail grocery here in that year, and continued in business without a partner until March, 1878, when the firm became Symns & Turner, under which name it was run until 1880, when it was changed to A. B. Symns & Company. It was subsequently incorporated into the Symns Grocery Company, and at the death of A. B. Symns, the business was run by J. W. Allen, J. E. Moore, C. A. Lockwood and Tom Gray. It operates in about the same territory that the Dolan Mercantile Company operates in, and its present enterprising management is keeping up the splendid reputation established by its founder.