Corp. History




		1940




		1950


	1955

			Click toEnlarge


	1970




		2003




		2004

In 1945, Art Depue of Maquoketa, Iowa, President of Central Steel Tube Co. in the Clinton (Commanche), Iowa area became engaged in the manufacture of Saw More metal cutting machines. To do so he built a new factory complex for his Maquoketa Company where the Jacob Becker Brick Company had been located in east Maquoketa (see above left - taken in the 1940s). Depue decided to consolidate all of his operations at the Clinton (Commanche). Meanwhile in Clinton, Michigan machinist and gas station entrepreneur, Don Thomas turned from the manufacture of tank turret gears for the war effort to the promising manufacture of small gasoline engines. By the end of 1946, his payroll had exploded to over 1000 employees and by 1949 he was literally buried in orders. Clinton Machine Company needed a new and larger home. In an interesting juxtaposition in 1950, Don Thomas moved his company from Clinton, Michigan to Maquoketa and Art Depue moved his Maquoketa Company plant to the Clinton Central Steel Tube plant area (Commanche, Iowa) retaining its original name and the Clinton Machine Company became Clinton Machine Company and later Clinton Engines Corporation with plants in Maquoketa and Clinton, Michigan.

Beginning at above left are pictures of the old Becker Brick Company of the 1940s, The Maquoketa Company property after Clinton Machine Company took possession of the 12 acre tract in 1950, Clinton Engines headquarters in 1955, the headquarters building in 1970, demolition of the factory complex in 2002, and the present headquarters building under renovation in 2004.


	After the arrival of Clinton Engines in 1950, the thunder sounded across the prairie as the company made 2000 to 3000 high quality gasoline-powered engines each day using so-called “untrained” farm labor. At left is an example of the the pride of Clinton Engine Corporation manufacturing - the small gasoline-powered engine, a “little guy” isn’t it? (click to enlarge).

		The term “untrained” was actually misleading. The labor force attracted to the plant came mainly from the farms where tinkering and fixing machinery and other things was the way of life. These uniquely skilled employees quickly propelled the company to world leader in the manufacture of small gasoline engines employees. More than 18

million gasoline-powered engines were pro- duced by the company and some $550,000,000 were pumped through the East Central Iowa economy. Local employee reports claim that begining in 1953, Maytag Corporation, a leading manufacturer of clothes washers in Newton, Iowa gave up in-house production of its Multi-Motor and used kick-start Clinton engines on its standalone clothes washers for a time until Maytag later changed to Briggs and Stratton motors.

In truth, the company WAS its people and those people were very important to Don Thomas. He frequently held pay days and handed out recognition awards in public in downtown Maquoketa for all to see. He used a profit sharing pay system that let the employees share in the success of the enterprise. He also often paid his employees in two dollar bills to identify employees to merchants and to show them how important economically his employees were to them. Don proudly kept the employees out in front of his company because they were important to him and to the local communities. Even Iowa Governors, Leo Hoegh and Harold Hughes came to Maquoketa to honor them for the 5,000,000th and 11,000,000th (respectively) engine manufactured by Clinton. The memories of this sort of respect and honor


	linger to this day in the minds of a great segment of the work force and that loyalty arose and gave impetus to the Historical Society effort to acquire the Clinton Engines property. (click to enlarge)

But, hard times were ahead when Don Thomas was unable to convince his partners to fund expensive machinery upgrades in order to remain competitive. Don sold the company to other interests hoping for the best but that didn’t work. Even a subsequent sale to the Martin Hoffinger interests was not totally successful, although Hoffinger was able to keep the company running in a greatly reduced scale for more than 20 years before closing the doors.

All of this effort and all of these people for the sake of a “little guy?” Well, not exactly. But when you talk about 5 million plus little guys, you’re talking major production and serious money in the Iowa economy. At left are Iowa Governor, Leo Hoegh, Don Thomas, and gold-plated engine “little guy” number 5 million produced by Clinton. Click for a closer look at the engine and the dignitaries. So far, we haven’t located that engine.

And when Clinton Engines crossed 11,000,000 engines manufactured and gave Iowa Governor Hughes the 11,000,000th “little guy” they were talking serious production and huge amounts of money put into the Iowa economy. In all more than 18,000,000 engines were manufactured at Clinton Engines, Inc. Our State Representative, Tom Schueller, located the engine given to Gov. Hughes and has arranged for it to be returned from Des Moines to its home in Maquoketa when the display area for it is complete. Talk about effective representation!


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