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Bluff City Factory Had Colorful History |
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Friday, February 8, 2002 The historic shoe factory at Maple
Avenue and Warren Barrett Drive (formerly Collier Street) that was
destroyed by fire Thursday night was among several local shoe factories
opened in the early 1900s. One of its more memorable events
occurred on Feb. 9, 1906. On that date a shipment of shoes went to Boston,
and this was the first western shoes to go to an eastern market. The factory building was built in
1904, making it just two years short of a century old. It was originally
Bluff City Shoe factory. Its first product was a soft shoe specialty made
by John Logan Jr., a cobbler since 1878. His workshop was first upstairs at
123 N. Main St. In March 1900, Bluff City Shoe Co. was incorporated with
the following stockholders: George W. Dulany, John Logan Jr., Harry K.
Logan, W.J.A. Meyer and William Hawksworth. The first factory was at 108 N.
Fourth St., and in 1904 the shoe factory moved into its block-long
building at Maple and Collier. After producing shoes there for
more than 20 years, in July 1925, Bluff City sold its plant and equipment
to International Shoe Co., which then gained control of all shoe
production in Hannibal. In 1928, the year of the stock
market crash that sent the country into the Great Depression, more than
2,300 workers were employed at Hannibal's shoe factories. They were
producing 6 million pairs of shoes each year. Ten years later, in 1938,
International Shoe announced it had manufactured a total of 100 million
pairs of shoes and that more than $40 million in wages had been paid in
Hannibal. In 1943 Bluff City was converted
into a facility for reconstructing army shoes. Shoe were rebuilt, not
repaired. More than 6,000 were rebuilt daily by 800 workers. In 1950 the
Bluff City factory was operated on a 50-hour work week. |