A Little Bit of History
By Clara E. Scott
The article appearing today is from Historical Series – Mr. Corn Cob Pipe by Edna McElhiney Olson with permission of The St. Charles County Historical Society.
Have you ever wondered about the old fashioned corncob pipe? I will attempt to relay the information obtained from an article by Mrs. Olson that appeared in a newspaper of February 28, 1963.
Tradition of old “Doc” Carr of St. Charles, Missouri is very interesting. We know he lived in St. Charles in 1850, at 520 South Main Street and was an editor on the Clarion Newspaper here “in his younger days” in 1838. He is listed as an Indian fighter, editor, baggageman, and hunter.
His fame was that he is supposed to have invented the corncob pipe. He liked to whittle and he smoked a pipe, and enjoyed a “sweet smoke,” Pipes were hard to buy and he is thought to have dreamed of a pipe made of a corncob. We are told he spent hours whittling on the corncob until he perfected a fine pipe. He sold a pipe as soon as he finished making one for five cents. He failed to take out a patent, but at his age, he kept whittling away and made his money with his pipes.
A photo of “Doc” Carr at the historical society taken by R. Goebel is truly a fine picture dated 1856. The photo shows a kind face – under his whiskers, and he is proudly holding his corn cob pipe in his toothless mouth.
Off and on small corncob pipes were made here in St. Charles in small factories or shops; one was listed at the corner of Clark and Second Street. Another one is listed at Second and Jefferson Street in 1890.
During the year of 1895 the Missouri Corncob Pipe Company was formed here in St. Charles. Stock of $10,000 was sold. William Zlock was elected president, F.M. Patterson, Vice-President, Henry Kriechnaum secretary and A.A. Musoagel listed as treasurer. The Old Mill located on South Main and Booneslick was converted into a pipe factory. When the charter was secured, a popular new market was developed.
The farmers sold to the factories suitable cobs for pipes. Up to that time, farmers only regarded corncobs fit for fuel. Records show the first year, 2,256.929 cobs were worked up and forty-eight men employed six days a week the year round. New machinery was purchased and did the work of making and polishing these pipes. They installed their own lighting system of incandescent lamps of 12 and 16 candlepower. Due to the great danger of fire from the thousands of corncobs, automatic fire extinguishers were installed “all over the factory.” Records show these pipes were shipped to jobbers from Maine to the Pacific Coast and from the Gulf to the Great Lakes.
These pipes were usually sold for ten cents each. They were highly polished, substantially made and they became very popular and as the advertisements read “these pipes made a superior, delightful sweet smoke.”
Records show that by 1897, the demand for these pipes was so great capacity was increased to 125 gross per day. Steam power was installed and more men were hired.
Next this lowly cheap pipe was called Missouri Meerschaum Pipe. This factory furnished seed of a type of corn that grew on large cobs to the farmers with the understanding they could keep the corn but must being the cobs to the factory
Children in the neighborhood made “candy money” by filling their play express wagons with cobs, pulling their wagons to the factory. Mr. Ralph Dieker in an interview laughingly told of this. He said, “I am sure the cobs we brought to the factory were too small for them to use, but we were never turned down. We were paid five cents for a wagon full and the money spent for candy. It was my first experience in selling and children were treated so kindly we thought we were “big shots.”
St. Charles gained a reputation for making these corncob pipes but competition soon developed from a factory in Washington, Missouri that made a better pipe. This factory called Hirschl and Bendheim was established in 1871 and in 1872 another corncob factory was established in Washington called Missouri Meerschaum. Our record show when the pipe factory closed all their equipment was sold to Missouri Meerschaum Company. A third factory opened in Washington in 1941 called Buescher’s Cob Pipes.
Today, Washington is the only place in the world where the corncob pipe is made. The three factories manufacture over ten million pipes a year, employing approximately 175 people and range in price from 25 cents to $1.25 and the factories ship their product to almost every country in the world. Today, Washington Missouri is called Corn Pipe Capitol of the World.
It is the old story “of what could have been.” Our loss of this great factory was the gain of Washington, Missouri.
(As you read this article, remember the information was dated 1963)
