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I'll admit I didn't know how much history was in this photo...According to Jerry Klein's book Peoria Industry, this factory on North Adams was built by civil war veteran Martin Kingman for his company Kingman Plows. In 1917 Robert Avery bought the company and employed 2,600 workers, but was bankrupt in 4 short years.
In comes Robert LeTourneau. He bought the company in the former town of Avery in 1941, building Tournapull tractors for the war effort, and who had the slogan "God runs my business."
LeTourneau sold to Westinghouse Air Brake Company (aka WABCO), which later became American Standard, then Dresser, then Komatsu-Dresser and now Komatsu.
Of note- LeTourneau has a statue in Glen Oak Park. Kingman School and Street are named after Martin Kingman, and the Averyville Neighborhood for Robert Avery.
posted by PeoriaIllinoisan at 7:22 PM
5 Comments:
The Komatsu (formerly known as WABCO) building along North Adams ... conveniently located just steps from the Hofbrau.
m.
Beat me to it, but the comment counter under the pic said 0. Grew up across the street from this place, would know it blindfolded.
JW (who moved from Peoria 18 years ago and find this fun.)
This structure is to be torn down in the next couple years.
Is Martin related to Dave Kingman?
Hi: I'm putting together a history of Kingman Plow Co. and Martin Kingman. I attended Kingman School in the early fiftys and lived on Madison in the 2400 block. Unfortunately Jerry Klein is incorrect. These buildings were built by Avery Company but in 1916 Avery bought the buildings now known as Bemis Bag from the Kingman family and named them Avery Plant No. 2. Klein's book now has everyone thinking the WABCO/LeTourneau buildings were Kingman's which is not true. Rich
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