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John Hamlin constructed a flour mill on Kickapoo Creek
in 1830 and thus began Peoria's first major industry.
E.F. Nowland's pork packing plant in 1837 started
another. Strong early industries included casting
foundries, carriage factories, pottery makers, wholesale
warehousing, glucose factories, furniture makers, and
ice harvesting.
At the time Andrew Eitle began his brewery (1837) and
Almiron S. Cole built his distillery (1843), no one
could foresee Peoria would become the world leader in
the distilling industry. During this era Peoria
had 22 distilleries and several breweries. They
produced the greatest amount of internal revenue tax on
alcoholic beverages of any single revenue district in
the U.S. The great wealth enabled Peoria to
begin a building boom of magnificent private homes,
parks, churches, schools, and municipal buildings.
Farm machinery manufacturing was initiated by William
Nurse in 1837. Toby and Anderson's steel plow of
1843 met with nationwide success. Kingman Plow
Co., Acme Harvester Co., Selby, Starr & Co., and Avery
Manufacturing Co. were once dominant in Peoria.
Keystone Steel & Wire (1889) developed the world's first
woven wire fence and has been the nation's leading
independent wire manufacturer for over 100 years.
In the 1880's Peoria businesses such as Rouse Hazard Co.
were worldwide dealers and importers of bicycles and
bicycle accessories. One cycle manufacturer,
Charles Duryea, eventually developed the first
commercially available gasoline-powered automobile in
the U.S. in 1893.
As agricultural implement production declined, earth
moving and tractor equipment companies emerged to make
Peoria the world's leader in this field. The
Benjamin Holt Co. and the C. L. Best Tractor Co.
combined operations in 1925 to form Caterpillar Tractor
Co. In 1935 Robert G. LeTourneau's earth moving
company began production of innovative scrapers and
dozers and evolved into Komatsu-Dresser, Haulpak
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