DUBUQUE SHOT MANUFACTURING COMPANY

DUBUQUE SHOT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. In 1862 with Carter WILLIAM and Caleb H. BOOTH operating as partners, the William Carter & Company constructed its SHOT manufacturing works. Located "three miles west of the city," the Dubuque Shot Manufacturing Company was steam powered, employed four workers, and operated ten months annually. There were two furnaces which annually consumed 100,000 pounds of pig lead, 200 cords of wood, 125 tons of coal, and seven kegs of arsenic. Together with the cost of kegs and canvas bags for shot, the business cost $85,000 annually to operate. The products were 800,000 pounds of shot worth $95,000 and 200,000 pounds of bar lead valued at $18,000. The original partners were later joined by R. O. CHANEY and the business was renamed the William Carter and Company.

Fire destroyed the plant in November 1877 with an estimated loss of $11,000. The insurance that Booth had renewed the day before the fire was only worth $5,000, but the plant was rebuilt. By the end of the year the production had doubled. Shot was also made by dropping molten lead down a 150 foot mine shaft. Reports at the time indicated that this shot was better than that produced in the tower.

Considered the most successful alternative to the SHOT TOWER, the company was purchased in 1886 by the Western Shot Company with towers in Omaha, Nebraska and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1888 the "Booth & Carter" shot tower was torn down with the machinery shipped to Omaha.

The 1873-74 Dubuque City Directory listed White and 6th for the office.

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Source:

National Register of Historic Places," Online: http://weblink.cityofdubuque.org/WebLink8/1/doc/16333/Page83.aspx