Pearl Button Factoryruth@myindianahome.net
There were at least five button factories in Madison. The one which was the largest and more well known, was "The Pearl Button Company," owned by Charles B. Melish. He was from Cincinnati and had manufactured pearl buttons on a small scale there. He thought it a promising business, so removed to Madison in 1901. The City of Madison assisted his business with a loan during an effort to build up Madison's already growing industry. This factory was located at the corner of Poplar and Vaughn Streets, facing the Ohio River. The address was 116 Poplar Street. Mr. Melish lived with his wife, Nellie at 610 E. Second St. in 1903 according to the City Directory. In the 1907 directory, Charles B. Melish is listed as the president and treasurer, and Geo. I. Davis was the secretary. By 1909, Mr. Melish is listed as the proprietor and was living in Chicago, Illinois. George I. Davis was the manager. Melish must have moved back to Madison by 1912, as he was living at 406 W. First Street. In the 1927 directory, he was living with, apparently a second wife named Caroline at 208 Elm Street and still listed as being associated with the Button Factory. In an article written by Jack M. Eaglin, in the "Good Old Days" magazine (Feb, 1982), he explains that the shells were taken from the river, then boiled and the body removed from them. The dried shells were then transported to the factory where they were tempered and cut into buttons by cutters and then highly polished. In one of George Miller's articles, he recounts what Charles Burkhardt, a former employee of the button factory (1917-1919), remembered about the button factory: "In the cutting room where they cut the blanks there were 60 machines and all machines were in use, operated by 60 men, William Eaglin was cutting room foreman. Then there were 10 automatic machines which ground the blanks to thickness, cut the recess or fisheye. There were about 10 women in this department and Leonard Feuerstin was foreman. In the basement they soaked the shells in large tubs to make them cut better. Here three men worked loading the buckets for the cutters to pull up to the cutting room. In the front end they worked about 10 women sorting, weighing and packing buttons. George I. Davis was foreman." Charles R. Klein wrote in a Madison Courier article on Sep 26, 1949: "On the main floor as you entered on the right was the office and on the left (north side) was a large room where many women and girls worked, some sorting buttons while others sewed them (by hand) on cards. The place employed a number of women workers and in addition to these people, small tin boxes filled with loose buttons, cars, thread and needles were sent out into town for women to sew the buttons on the cards in their spare time in order to make a little extra money. As a boy I carried these boxes to a number of homes and back to the factory and made a little extra change myself.... On the south side of the building was a large stock pile of mussel shells, many times piled higher than the level of Poplar street." Howard Denton says that the women who sewed the buttons at home for extra money could earn about 50 cents for sewing ten dozen cards. While Charles Burkhardt states: "As near as I can find out, the small ones were worth 55 cents a box and the larger ones 35 cents a box to the many women who sewed them. I don't recall how many buttons were in a box, but I do know a woman could make about $2.50 a week in her spare time." By the 1930s, plastic fasteners and metal zippers had replaced the pearl buttons. There is a small article in the Madison Courier dated Feb 9, 1928 about Favius Gwin of Shoals, who operated one of the largest button factory cutting plants in the U.S. at Vincennes. He was interested in taking over the Pearl Button factory in Madison. Howard Denton, previously mentioned, states that the button making machinery was sold to a concern in Shoals, Indiana in 1934. I would suppose it was Mr. Gwin who made the purchase. Howard Denton also says that during 1913 and 1914, two other small button cutting plants were open. One was in a part of the building now occupied by the Key West Shrimp House on Ferry Street. "As a result of a strike at the main Pearl Button Company, Joe Minor and a brother together with some former Melish employees began button operations at the above Ferry Street site. Further, Andy Aberdeen also started a button factory on an ally off the far end of North Walnut Street. Both of these splinter attempts were unsuccessful and folded after a year or so." Another button factories mentioned in Howard Denton's 1977 article was the one located in Fulton on Park Avenue. It was operated by the Potter family. This Fulton plant mainly cut blanks which were later made into finished pearl buttons by other factories. It operated until 1919. Jefferson County Business & Industry
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