Dean Karau's Kewanee history: Peter’s Pump Co. helped put Kewanee on the map

A 1903 Kewanee Daily Star Courier article described all of the smoke stacks visitors would see along the railroad tracks as they traveled through our hometown – those of Western Tube Co., Kewanee Boiler Co., Boss Manufacturing. Co., Peter’s Pump Co., and Kewanee Light and Power Co.

I knew about four of those Kewanee industrial concerns, but nothing about Peter’s Pump. Here’s what I’ve now learned about one of Kewanee’ most important businesses in the first half of the 20th century.

Peter E. Wistrand was born in Sweden in 1849, and arrived in Kewanee as a 20-something in the 1870s. He moved to Galesburg, but after a few years there, he married his wife Hanna in 1880, and they made Kewanee their home.

Wistrand worked for six years as a mechanic with the farm implement manufacturing business run by E. K. Hayes and H. H. Perkins (Perkins’ next business eventually grew into the Boss Mfg. Co.). After Hayes acquired Perkins’ share in the company, Wistrand became a drafter for Hayes’ pump business, as well as a patternmaker for Hayes’ corn planter enterprise.

In late 1866 when Hayes decided to move his company to Galva, Wistrand opted to stay in Kewanee and struck out on his own. He rented the old Kewanee Manufacturing Co.’s shop north of the train depot and set it up for general manufacturing and repair work, as well as for manufacturing pumps. The newspaper described Wistrand as “a good mechanic and a worthy citizen.”

In mid-June 1887, however, a disastrous fire destroyed the building. Wistrand had been the first to discover what he perceived as only a small fire. But by the time he had hitched his horses and wagon across the street, the flames grew beyond control in the wooden building saturated with old oil and paint. Nevertheless, within a week, Wistrand had resumed his business, setting up in the old company’s office which the fire had not reached.

Wistrand and William Taylor, of the Taylor Coal Chute Company, incorporated Peter’s Pump Company. As the story goes, the company name came about when Wistrand was installing a pump at a Kewanee residence on Tremont Street. One of the neighbors watching the installation asked the name of the pump, Wistrand said it didn’t have one, and the neighbor advised, “well, your name is Peter, so why not call it ‘Peter’s Pump!'’”

Wistrand was a prolific inventor, obtaining numerous patents for a variety of pumps and other implements, all of which he assigned to the company.

By 1889, Taylor sold his interest in Peter’s Pump. In 1890, Wistrand then sold an interest in the company to successful Kewanee businessman Fred Gunther and his two sons, William and Frank. Gunther, a German immigrant, had built a brick-making empire and had constructed many business buildings and homes out of his brick. Gunther also had become active in civic affairs.

In 1894, Wistrand sold the rest of his interest to the Gunthers. He eventually set up a new company in Galva and became a successful businessman and civic leader there. Gunther’s Kewanee business, however, continued to operate under the Peter’s Pump name.

At the time the Gunthers entered the business, it was housed in the same small wooden building to which it moved after the fire and was manufacturing and selling only one kind of pump and variations. But soon after the Gunthers acquired the entirety of the business, it grew, operating out of a new brick building and manufacturing five different kinds of pumps and also corn planters. And then the business really took off.

By the turn of the 20th century, the business occupied two acres of land along the north side of the railroad tracks and to the west of its intersection with Main Street. It had grown to nearly 50 employees and was selling its products across the Midwest and the Western United States. It also had added the Gunther hot water heater to its portfolio, which was doing a booming business.

Fred Gunther died in 1913, and William and Frank continued to grow the business.  The company expanded its sales across all of the U. S. as it continued to develop in the first half of the new century. It also sold its products outside of the country, including in Europe, India, and many countries in South and Central America. Peter’s Pump was another Kewanee company which gained a national and international reputation and further increased the world’s knowledge of our hometown.

Frank Gunther retired from the business in the 1930s. Peter’s Pump continued, but in the 1940s, the company reduced its manufacturing to only pumps. Additionally, some of the company’s land was sold to Demmler Bros. and then another piece to the city.

Finally, in 1946, Peter’s Pump sold its remaining land and buildings to Household Paper Products Co., a Detroit company searching for a distribution center. A few months later, Peter’s Pump sold its patent portfolio, pattern equipment, and all other material to Ferro Bronze Corp. of Moline and Davenport. Ferro would continue to manufacture pumps under the Peter’s Pump brand but no longer in Kewanee.

Peter’s Pump. Co. was an important part of the industrial landscape of Kewanee for nearly 50 years. And occasionally, a Peter’s pump pops up somewhere even today, a testament to the quality of the product made in our hometown.

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Dean Karau history: Peter’s Pump Co. helped put Kewanee on the map