Over the centuries, farmers have plumbed the land and even waters for various crops. In the early 1800s, farmers along the Mississippi River were supplementing their regular farming income by fishing the Big Muddy for oysters.

They were not looking for oysters as a food supplement, but for the valuable mother-of-pearl the shells provided, for making ornamental buttons. Mother-of-pearl is also known as nacre. This is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer.

The nacre also makes up an iridescent outer coating of pearls. Nacre is found in bivalves, gastropods and cephalopods. Besides the mother-of-pearl, farmers would also find the occasional actual pearl as well.

The pearl button industry was a new phenomenon that began in the United States in Muscatine, Iowa. According to Terry Eagle, assistant director of the Discover History & Industry Center in Muscatine, “The Gold Rush of the Midwest was mother-of-pearl.”

Mother-of-pearl was prevalent in the clams and mussels along the Mississippi in Muscatine and the discovery made the city the Pearl Button Capital of the World. The Discover History & Industry Center highlights this history in its fascinating museum and displays of some of the tools that were used to farm the oysters from the riverbed.

The pearl button story goes back to Germany in the late 1800s and starts with John F. Boepple. “He was a button maker in Germany and he made buttons from all types of material, but the mother-of-pearl was the great money-maker,” Terry said.

He explained that buttons were not only a useful item, but ornamental. “There was a high demand for using ocean shells for mother-of-pearl.” These shells, though, were hard to come by and when Boepple received two mussel shells from the Mississippi River he realized these freshwater mollusks could provide him an expansive supply of mother-of-pearl.

Knowing the habits and needs of mussels, he determined just where the Mississippi would break and have the slow-moving currents where mussels thrive. He chose the riverbeds near Muscatine and in the1890s arrived and set to work.

Those living in the area were startled by the idea that Boepple considered the mussels a useful product, since locally they were just a navigational problem. “The rivers were choked with them,” Terry added.

It wasn’t long before Boepple started making buttons and soon others took notice. More people ordered more buttons and the area that had previously relied on lumber, logging and farming had a new industry boom.

Once the industry got rolling, Terry said, “1.5 billion buttons were made yearly; this was the Gold Rush of mother-of-pearl. Nineteen states around Iowa shipped here. There was so much shell that Boepple started hiring clammers up and down the river.”

This would have an effect on the mussel and clam population and would eventually devastate the supply. At the time the industry exploded, some locals, like the farmers, made an entire living at clamming, while others would simply supplement their income.

Occasionally, the clammer might find a pearl. ”When they found a pearl, they collected a handful, then they could take them and sell them to pearl brokers. They were mostly misshapen and used for hatpins and cosmetic jewelry, et cetera,” Terry explained.

At the museum, he addressed the lifestyle that surrounded this difficult and nomadic life. The clammers were just one part of the chain in pearl button production – there were also blankers, finishers and more.

Over time, Boepple’s machine grew old-fashioned and an Irish family by the name of Barry added electricity and mechanized the machine. The Barrys sold the machines to families who set up their own shops.

Boepple’s lack of industrialization eventually caught up with him and his shop closed; however, his knowledge later came in handy and he was hired to advise when officials created a hatchery to try to reintroduce the mussel population.

To learn more about the story of farming for oysters, stop by the museum, or log onto www.muscatinehistory.org

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com