It is always insteresting to find out about the businesses that used to be in Bloomington. On this date 100 years ago, two gentlemen changed their occupations from peanut and popcorn sellers to manufacturers. Harry Hayden and Byrl Bowman purchased the rug factory at Franklin and Division Streets from Fred W Elder. Mr. Elder had operated the rug factory, which had been his father's for several years after his father's death, but he had received an opportunity to move to Texas and return to his work on the railroad in the traffic department of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient line.
Frank Elder was a resident of the YMCA (remember the post earlier this month on the men who lived there!!) and his mother Minnie Elder lived at 308 S Gridley. Hayden and Bowman were confectioners in the lobby of the Greisheim building. The plan was that Mr. Bowman would manage the factory. It would appear that the rug factory never was Mr. Bowman's main way of making a living as he never listed this as his occupation in the city directory or the census. Much later in life he was a caterer and the cook at the Scottish Rite Temple along with his wife. Mr. Hayden, however, did list himself as a manufacturer. Harry always lived with his mother and two brothers. Between 1900 and 1910 he was collector for the City of Bloomington and in 1911 he ran for Treasurer.
On September 22, 1921, the rug factory was gutted by a fire that started with an electrical fault. The only owner of the factory that was listed was Harry Hayden. The loss was fixed at $5000.