Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
IOWA IRON WORKS
IOWA IRON WORKS. Major participant in Dubuque's BOAT BUILDING. The firm of Rouse, Dean & Company, an iron foundry and machine shop, was established in March 1852 on the corner of Ninth and Washington STREETS. It later became known as Rouse & Dean. (1) The firm of Rouse and Dean was dissolved with the retirement of H. Rouse. C.B. Dean, William Hopkins, and J. McMurchy carried on business as Dean, Hopkins, & McMurchy. This firm became the Iowa Iron Works.
The Iowa Iron Works employed sixty men in the manufacture of movable and stationary engines, heavy steamboat work castings, and columns for buildings. The workforce earned about $3,000 per month and the sales of the company reached $75,000 annually.
In 1870 the first keel was laid for an iron vessel manufactured in Dubuque. The Iowa Iron Works, the vessel's manufacturer, named this steamboat the "Clyde," for the home in Scotland of William HOPKINS, a builder of ironclads during the CIVIL WAR and master mechanic. The company gained national attention for its construction. (2) The 96-foot-long Clyde was the second steel-hull vessel manufactured in the United States. The boat was still in operation in 1930. (3)
In 1871 the Iowa Iron Works constructed the Dubuque Marine Ways, the largest boatyard of its kind north of St. Louis and considered the best on the Mississippi River, at EAGLE POINT. (4) Iron and steel, supplied by its foundry on 9th and Washington STREETS, were carried to the river for assembly during the thirty-seven-year life of the business.
"Shoal water propellers," designed by John Dowler of the Iowa Iron Works, saved fuel and allowed boats to pass through very shallow water. Pioneering the use of these iron propellers in 1872, the Iowa Iron Works mounted them above the water line on the boat's stem. The first boat fitted with them was the "J. G. Chapman," a steamer built for the lumber trade. Reaction to the device, dubbed "Dowler's Humbug," was generally negative.
Iowa Iron Works of Dubuque constructed craft for every use. The King of Siam ordered an iron yacht that was delivered to him in 1876. The "Queen" was launched in 1884 for excursions on northwest Iowa's Lake Okoboji and was still in use through the 1960s.
In 1882 the company began to build the "featherwing wheel," which entered the water straight and left it straight; it was first put in the steamboat "Vixen" and proved a success. The same year the company moved its manufacturing site to the ICE HARBOR.
The "J. K. Graves," launched in 1885 by the Iowa Iron Works in cooperation with the DIAMOND JO LINE, was a giant raft-boat used to push rafts of logs to the mills. (5) Steel-hulled packets for carrying freight and passengers included the "Cherokee," the company's first boat of this type. The "Cherokee" boasted electric lights and the capability of carrying up to one thousand passengers. Constructing the "Ferdinand Herold" required 125 workers and cost $80,000. Railroad ferries with track laid on the deck were constructed to transport trains across the Mississippi where bridges were temporarily out of service.
Previous to the spring of 1886 the Iowa Iron Works had confined its boat work principally to iron hulls, but at that date it established a general shipbuilding department.
Concern about the condition of the U.S. Navy led to Congressional calls for modernization at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1891 the Iowa Iron Works received the contract to build Torpedo Boat No.2. Named the "Ericsson," the boat was outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and saw service during the Spanish-American War. In 1894 during the trial runs of the "Ericsson," the pistons broke because they had been built too light. The Navy penalty of $17,000 was a devastating pubic relations blow to the company which had looked forward to other government contracts.
In 1901 a contract was signed for the construction of the "SPRAGUE," the largest steam stern wheel towboat in the history of the Mississippi. Despite the death in 1902 of William Hopkins, the year proved the company's best with the Sprague nearly completed and the keel laid for the "Pelican," an enormous transfer steamboat.
In 1904 the Iowa Iron Works was reorganized as the DUBUQUE BOAT AND BOILER WORKS.
Boats Constructed by the Iowa Iron Works (6)
W.M. Hopkins 1871
J.K. Graves 1885
Jeanne Hopkins 1888
Joy Patton 1891
Charles H. Organ 1897
William K. Kavanaugh 1898
Robert E. Carr 1903
The 1858-1859 Dubuque City Directory listed Washington between 9th and 10th as the company address.
The 1880 through 1890-91 Dubuque City Directory listed the company at the northeast corner of 9th and Washington.
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Source:
1. Ship Building History.com Online: http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/5small/inactive/dubuque.htm
2. Tschirgi, Marie. "Large Boats at Built in Dubuque," Telegraph Herald and Times Journal, Apr. 30, 1930, p. 21. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DbBFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Pb0MAAAAIBAJ&pg=4662,5194645&dq=dubuque+boat+and+boiler+works&hl=en
3. Oldt, Franklin. History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Online: http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-27-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml
4. Ibid.
5. Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County, Iowa. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-26-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml
6. Ship Building History.com