Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

ailroad side tracks, originally installed for the school
desk factory. For a time, Payford Silos were
manufactured here. The various owners were C.W.
McMahan, A.B. White and David Russell.
In the 1920s, the site where the state shops are
located was used as the high school athletic field. A
change of the football playing rules caused the removal
of the field to the old fairgrounds.
The building has not been tenanted for many years:
although, in its 84-year history, many thousands of
persons found gainful employment there and justified
the promises of W.M. Welch.
The Clock Regulator
1s73-1937
by Bertha Finn
The clock regulator, last used in the Larson's Gift
Box, on the north side of Main Street, was originally
purchased by Fred Curry, town jeweler, in 1873.
The clock.cased in a large walnut box, has an ornate
top and the long silver-colered pendulum was declared
to weigh 30 pounds.
From Curry it passed to L.E. Tucker and then to E.S.
Stone, who owned it from 1904 to 1944. It hung in the
front of Stone's jewelry and repair shop against the east
wall and was used for setting repaired watches and
clocks. Townspeople also noted the correct time while
passing by the shop.
Mae Amelia Zeuch, in turn, owned the clock through
her purchase of the shop in 1944. The combination gift
and jewelry shop under the name of name of Ron-
Jean's, until 1973 when it was sold to Edith and
LaVern Larson and was called Larson's Gift Box.
The clock regulator was on the premises. however. it
took Bob Dirks to flnd it, take an interest in it, and
repair it. Bob started working in the shop in 1950.
The old and beautiful clock regulator was still
faithfully performing its duty when Larson's Gift Box
went out of business in 1987 and the regulator was
sold.
Bob Dirks and Edith Larson ofLarson ’s Gift Box are
pictured infront of an old clock used to set timepieces
in Anamosafor many years. After Larsons went out of
business, it was sold to a farmer in Central Iowa.
(Photo by Pat Worden Sutton}
1. Apiary—place where bees are kept; collection of
hives or colonies of bees kept for their honey.
2. Apiarist—one who keeps bees.
3. WAPSIPINICON BRAND HONEY — pure clover
honey produced by Snyder Apiaries, Anamosa, Iowa,
from 1884 to 1984.
Frank Chapman Snyder (1866-1948), a life-time
resident of Anamosa, started in the honey business in
1884. According to a Cedar Rapids Gazette article, he
traded a horse for 20 bee hives during the fall of that
year. Frank stated the fellow was a real horse-trader
because the honey business was supposed to be over for
the year. He was lucky because a late, wet fall kept the
clover in blossom and the bees brought in a good crop.
The business grew from 20 to 28 hives that year, and
eventually grew to 400 hives with an average of about
180.
One of my memories about the honey business is
that we always had a jar of honey on the table. Even
today, I still have a jar of clover honey available to eat
on bread or toast. One of my prejudices intact today is
that any honey I eat has to be produced by a local
A “Honey” of a Business
submitted by Tom Snyder
182
apiary.
My father, Tom Snyder (1903-1984), once recieved a
sample of sorghum honey from an apiarist in the south.
He wanted to buy clover honey from Iowa and mix the
two. I suppose some people would use it, but to me it
tasted like fall honey in Iowa: heavy and black and very
bitter. I'm glad my father said no to the idea.
A food distributer from Cedar Rapids required more
honey than we produced, so for a few years my father
bought clover honey from other beekeepers in eastem
Iowa. Once l saw 90,000 pounds of honey stored in 60-
pound cans waiting to be bottled. I thought we would
never get it all packaged!
Everyone in our family has been stung by honey
bees, but I have never been stung by a wasp or
bumblebee. Only people who have been around honey
bees agree, but honey bees give off a definite odor when
they are mad or about to sting. Other bees do not give
any warning.
When honey bees swarm, most people hold their
distance. I remember both by father and grandfather
going to a tree to capture a swarm of bees with no