The Clay Industry at Mason City, Ia. Mason City is a thriving city of industry which distributes its products over a vast area of rich territory. It has a population of about 12,000 and it is conveniently situated on the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago Great Western, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads, and also served by the Iowa Central. It has a good street railway service which extends as far as Clear Lake and makes the city in summer time a fashionable holiday resort. Its industries are varied, it has foundry and machine shops, large sash and door factories, planing mills, stone quarries, lime kilns and three extensive brick and tile yards. Its educational facilities are good and it has very fine public buildings such as the Military College and the Memorial University. It is, however, with the clay industries of the city that we are interested. (Brick and Clay Record, Windsor & Kenfield Publishing Company, Chicago, August 1903, Volume XIX, Number 2, Page 41)
Interesting Facts About Mason City, Iowa. Within the forks of Lime and Willow creeks, two beautiful northern Iowa streams, the rock ribbed banks and sand slopes of which, as they lie shaded beneath a fringe of sturdy oak and elm, cannot be excelled in all Iowa for natural beauty, lies Mason City. Mason City, Iowa, strategically located in the very heart of the best agricultural lands in the Mississippi Valley, and with natural resources in clay and rock formations, necessary for the successful manufacture of brick, tile, and cement, unequalled in America.
In all that goes to make up a progressive city, Mason City is a leader in Iowa. In water supply it is especially fortunate. Eight artisan wells furnish the supply, from which the water is pumped clear as crystal, cold and pure. No case of typhoid or other illness has ever been traced to the city water supply. The city owns and profitably operates its own plant.
Paved streets radiate in every direction from the main business part, comprising over twenty miles of beautifully smooth asphalt and cement, with some cedar block. The boulevards in residence and park districts are a delight to drivers and autoists. Four miles are in course of construction this year.
Over thirty miles of well laid sewer mains furnish the city ample sewer outlet, while plans have been adopted for the construction of a modern Emscher or Imhoff Sewage Disposal Plant, to be completed this year. When this plant is completed Mason City will have as complete and sanitary a sewage disposal plant as there is in America.
Streets are wide and as well lighted as ordinarily you will find in a city of double its size. Beautiful clusters of electroliers, placed by the enterprising business men of the city, line its main thoroughfares and make them light as day, while adequate arc and incandescent hangers light the city complete.
Close in parks, made beautiful under nature’s great handiwork, are owned by the city, and under the care of able and interested trustees are rapidly being beautified to equal the state’s best. Central Park Square, in the center of the business district, centered by a beautiful spraying fountain, and filled with rest seats, is admired and appreciated by all.
Churches are numerous, modern in design, and well attended. Three Methodist, two Catholic, one Baptist, one Christian, one Congregational, one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, two Lutheran, one Christian Science, one Adventist, and one Salvation Army Headquarters, make up the number.
Schools are modern and complete. Seven ward schools, containing sixty rooms, and a fine High School building, in which 80 teachers are employed, make up the public school system. The Catholics have excellent denominational schools, in as good buildings as have been erected for the purpose in the state. Flourishing business colleges and colleges of music and drawing are maintained in the city and liberally patronized.
The city maintains three first class hotels, European plan, in addition to many smaller hostelries. It has a beautiful library building. The postal receipts for the last fiscal year were $73,393.22. Many lodge and society homes are owned and maintained, including Masonic Hall, Elks Building, Odd Fellows Building, Iowa Hardware Mutual Insurance Association, Odd Fellows’ Orphans’ Home, costing over $100,000.00. Odd Fellows "Old Folks" Home, Knights of Columbus Building, and Knights of Pythias Building. Beautiful residence districts with prevailing fine homes surround the central business district.
Nine brick and tile plants manufacture more brick, tile and other clay products than any city in the world. Run day and night. Represent an investment of 2 1/2 millions of dollars.
Two cement factories, as large as any in the world, constituting an investment of three million dollars, have a present daily output of 10,000 barrels per day, soon to be increased fifty per cent. The automobile, gas engine, threshing machine, tinware factory, and iron foundry, manufacturing concerns of the city, call for much expert labor. The numerous wholesale and retail houses, as well as those mentioned, and the railroad terminals and other enterprises of the city make profitable employment for all who wish it in Mason City.
In railroads Mason City excels any city in northern Iowa and perhaps in the state. With six roads in all, it is a division point for three main trunk lines, and the home of one of the best interurban lines in the state. The main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul to all points west maintains a division point here. The Chicago & Northwestern has large shops and division point maintained here, and is now a division point for the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific between Des Moines and Minneapolis. Is on the line of the Chicago Great Western between Minneapolis and Omaha, and the Minneapolis and St. Louis between Minneapolis and Peoria, Ill. All roads furnish excellent freight and passenger service, north, south, east and west and, between them, at almost any hour.
The Mason City & Clear Lake Interurban owns and maintains excellent city service to all parts of the city, in addition to furnishing hourly electric service between here and Clear Lake, a northern Iowa summer resort ten miles west of Mason City.
Mason City is noted for the strength of its banks and other financial institutions. (In the last so-called panic in October, 1907, the banks paid out over their counters cash without limit. Did not go on clearing house basis, and did not use clearing house certificates.)
Five banks with combined capital and surplus…$1,000,000. Two loan companies with combined capital and surplus…$150,000.00. Bank clearings average weekly…$600,000.00. A total of $30,000,000.00 annually. Greater clearings than any city of like size in America.
With but two exceptions all industrial plants financed in Mason City by home men.
Numerous business blocks and hundreds of residences erected annually. More building enterprise annually than most cities of many times its size.
Is essentially a city of homes, as over seventy-five per cent of residents own their own homes. Civic pride is high, surroundings made beautiful. A stranger is always struck with the neatness, care and beauty of the buildings, grounds, streets, etc.
These facts are submitted as proof positive that Mason City offers unequalled advantages to labor and capital alike. To the manufacturer and wholesaler, because of unsurpassed railroad facilities, and the richness of surrounding territory. To the capitalist for investment for investment in and loans upon residence and business property. To the laboring man in profitable employment. To all alike in good municipal accommodations, good schools, good churches, and good city spirit. To such as wish to ally themselves with the attending prosperity of a growing city, there is no better place to go than to Mason City, Iowa. (Mason City Iowa, The Cement and Tile Center of the World, estimated 1912, no page numbers)