Manufacturing Businesses

Moline was founded as a manufacturing town, its industries growing from the power provided by the Mississippi River. An 1888 publication cited the value of Moline's manufacturers forty-five years after the city's establishment.

“A personal canvass of every industry in Moline furnishes the figures used herewith. They are not exaggerations. The capital invested in manufacturing enterprises at the close of 1887 was $7,935,000.00. The number of employees on the pay-rolls for the year was 3,768. The amount paid for wages, $1,859,000.00. And the aggregate of business transacted was $7,120,000.00—the largest in the history of the city. The number of men indicated, it is only fair to note, have not been employed continuously for the reason that here, as elsewhere, the ‘busy season’ occurs, and it is made the most of. The saw-mills, too, usually cannot run more than from seven to eight months, on account of snow and ice. But on the whole, the average mechanic and employe[e], the worker in wood and iron, is certain of regular employment twelve months in the year.”

-B. F. Tillinghast, 12 “Moline, Rock Island, and Davenport, Their Interests, Industries, Institutions (Davenport: Egbert, Fidlar & Chambers, 1888), 41.

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