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Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..
Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Seither & Cherry Co., of Keokuk, saw a nice turnout for its 150th anniversary celebration held in Victory Park on Wednesday. The rain ended before the event started and those attending were treated to dinner and music to note the milestone.
Jerad Harness, left, and Nathan Gosnell provided the music for the Seither & Cherry Co. 150th anniversary celebration Wednesday in Victory Park.
Two cranes hoisted American Flags at Victory park as part of Seither & Cherry Co.’s 150th anniversary celebration, held Wednesday.
Seither & Cherry Co., of Keokuk, saw a nice turnout for its 150th anniversary celebration held in Victory Park on Wednesday. The rain ended before the event started and those attending were treated to dinner and music to note the milestone.
Jerad Harness, left, and Nathan Gosnell provided the music for the Seither & Cherry Co. 150th anniversary celebration Wednesday in Victory Park.
Two cranes hoisted American Flags at Victory park as part of Seither & Cherry Co.’s 150th anniversary celebration, held Wednesday.
A good number of area residents were on hand on Wednesday in Victory Park to help a local company celebrate a big achievement. Seither & Cherry Co. celebrated its 150th anniversary.
The company got its start in 1872 as a small tin shop. In those days, Seither and Cherry crafted coffee pots, lunch pails, boilers and cream separators. They also installed and serviced warm air furnaces.
The company’s longevity is likely because it has evolved with the times. There would not be much call for lunch pail production these days. The company evolved to building ovens for the curing of foam rubber. Ovens were designed and built in sections in the back shop of 25 N. Fifth St. and shipped by truck to customers’ plants. According to a press release from the company, those ovens were built like erector sets with every part numbered so it would go together correctly.
After only a few years of doing this business, DuPont developed an additive TVI for rubber curing, resulting in polyurethane no longer needing to be cured in ovens. All of the company’s orders were then canceled.
So, the company shifted gears again and transitioned into mass production of sheet metal duct work.
In 1948, the Seither family decided to sell the business and John Marion and Will Davis purchased the company. They ran the business until 1975. Marion also enjoyed journalism, writing many newspaper articles while owning the business. One article was featured in the Wall Street Journal and ultimately garnered the interest of a large national general contractor, Vogt & Conant, who purchased Seither & Cherry Co. since they were looking to expand to the Midwest.
The company was sold in the 1980s to an ownership team consisting of Bob Alspaugh, Mike Azinger, Bill Bergman and Larry Kideriksen. Alspaugh and Dideriksen left company ownership in the 1990s, with Azinger and Bergman remaining as majority owners.
In 2005, Chris Azinger and Paul Schulte acquired majority ownership and are the current owners.
“It’s taken a ton of really good employees to comprise 150 years and lots of hard work, by lots of good people and customers,” Schulte said at the Wednesday event.
For his part, when asked to think of what 150 years means to him, Azinger had a one-word answer, echoed by Schulte “Longevity.”
Both men said that much of the credit for the company’s success is due to their employees along with their great customers.
Most people locally recognize the company’s red trucks. That can be traced back to the 1950s.
The company is now located at 2537 Henkel Avenue, moving there in 1978.
At the celebration on Wednesday, there were items given away, the dinner was catered by Fat Jimmy’s Smokehouse and those attending were treated to music by Jerad Harness and Nathan Gosnell.
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Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High near 80F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
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