A brief history of Peoria - University Library

42...PE0RIA
Co., Henrj' Singer. Agt.; Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., A. A. Godecke,.
Agt.; Pabst Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, L. Holzapfel, Agt.; the
the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association, of St. Louis, ^^ . Kohl,.
Agt., and the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company, of Chicago. J.
L. Wall, Agt.
The industry is in a healthy stite in our city, and we venture to
say that there is no other one industry in our midst that has the
wellfare and progress of the city more at heart, or that does more
towards promoting it.
DRUG TRADE
The wholesale drug business of Peoria may well be placed in
the same class as its two other leading merchandise lines : groceriesand
liquors. It is estimated by conservatiue merT that the volume
of business in the drug and chemical line will amount to not less
than three million dollars per year. This does not include retail
druggists, who number about forty. The time has been when retail
druggists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri were obliged to
look to Chicago or the East for their supplies, but that period has
passed. Peoria, with its characteristic energy and push, has rap-
idly come to the front as headquarters in this part of the 'Country
for drugs and chemicals.
It is not denied that Chicago and St Louis are great distributingpoints
for goods. Still, Peoria claims and holds a large share of
the wholesale business in this line in the West, and disputes with
success every inch of territory with the two former cities. And
why not? Without the great expenses and taxes of the larger cit-
ies; with equal access to eastern markets and other sources of sup-
plies; with freight rates to points within her territory equal, and in
many instances lower than from Chicago or St. Louis; houses doing
business on their own capital, an advantage that some houses in
other cities do not possess, and an advantage which cannot be overcome
by others who do; it is therefore no wonder that Peoria has
kept pace with the onward movement in wholesale drugs for the
past thirty-odd years, and is now the largest distributing point for
that line of goods of any city of its size in the United States.
That the wholesale drug trade of Peoria is not of an ephemeral
growth is shown by the fact that oue firm (Colburn, Birks & Co.)
has been in business thirtj'-three consecutive years.
As to pharmaceutical ar:d manufacturing chemists (whose interests
are so closely allied to the wholesale drug business), Peoria
holds her own; and everyone who is conversant with this class of
the drug business knows that the largest botanical laboratory in the
United States, if not in the world, is that of Allaire, Woodward &
Co.'s.
SutlifF it Co.. dealers in drugs, and physician's supplies, do an
extensive business in their line, as do Wm. Ohl & Co., manufacturing
pharmacists and chemists.
MILLING
Three large flour mills are in operation here, thus furnishing a