In 1945, self-made Art Depue of Maquoketa, IA, President of Central Steel Tube Co. in Comanche, Iowa (abutting Clinton) began making Saw More metal cutting machines and other industrial products. He set welding supervisor, Adolph Wildfang, to work. He built a new factory complex for his Art’s Maquoketa Company near the location of the old Jacob Becker Brick Co. at the corner of South Clark and East Maple Streets in eastern Maquoketa. In 1950, Depue consolidated his companies at Comanche making the Maquoketa plant available.

Meanwhile in Clinton, MI dynamic machinist, entrepreneur, and self-made Don Thomas turned from making tank parts for WW II to small gasoline engines. By the end of 1946, his payroll had exploded to over  1000 employees and by 1949 he was buried in orders and needed a new home. In 1950, Mr. Thomas moved his Clinton Machine company from Clinton, MI to Maquoketa while Art Depue moved his Maquoketa Company to the Clinton, IA area in Comanche, retaining its original name. Clinton Machine Company later became Clinton Engines Corporation with plants in Maquoketa and, for a time, Clinton, Michigan.

After its arrival in Iowa in 1950 Clinton Engines was producing 2000 to 3000 high quality gasoline engines per day using so-called untrained farm labor. ˜Untrained” proved inaccurate. The employees of the plant came mainly from the farms and small towns of the area where tinkering and fixing things with nothing was a way of life. These resourceful people quickly rammed the company to world leader, eclipsing Briggs & Stratton. More than 18 million engines were produced by the company and more than $550,000,000 pumped through the East Central Iowa economy and the economies of outlying areas in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.

In 1964, was honor of award of the Commerce Department ‘E’ Pennant for excellence in international trade that would be received. Clinton was one of the first companies in the country so honored.

The company WAS its people to the self-made Thomas. He put that belief into action holding public pay days and public employee recognition/award ceremonies, had a profit sharing pay system that let the employees share in the company success, and Don often paid his employees in two dollar bills to show their importance to the area economy. Don kept the employees in front of his company. He may have been the creative genius but that would have meant nothing without the kind of people who could energize his genius into products. The memories of this sort of downward respect linger to this day in the minds of most of those who worked there. It was that loyalty that arose at the last minute and impelled the Historical Society to acquire the Clinton Engines property.

L-R (1) Art Depue, aboard a 4-wheel tractor he invented, built the Maquoketa Co. the plant (2) Clinton Engines founder Don Thomas sold the company to the Charnay Group of New York, operated locally by Don Suhr (3), when bankruptcy ultimately occurred (4) Martin Hoffinger of New York bought Clinton out of bankruptcy and was able to keep the company running albeit at a greatly reduced scale for more than 20 years before finally closing the doors.