Column: Remembering John Larson and his concrete career
Published 12:00 am Friday, March 1, 2002
Here’s a quick recap of the last column about John Peter Larson.
Friday, March 01, 2002
Here’s a quick recap of the last column about John Peter Larson. He was the son of Danish immigrants, born in Hamilton County, Iowa, and came to Albert Lea at the age of 11, driving a pony cart. John went into the concrete construction business in 1903, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and was married in 1919.
Now, as the man on the radio says, &uot;Here’s the rest of the story.&uot;
In the early 1920s, John and a cousin, Walter Simonson, were the owners of a firm which was really expanding.
People were demanding better local streets and roadways between towns. The Larson-Simonson Concrete Construction Co. was soon doing major street, curb and gutter work and state highway paving projects as far west as Winner and Belle Fourche, S.D., all over south Minnesota., and down into Iowa. In fact, John used to joke about &uot;paving the whole state of Iowa.&uot;
An article about Larson in the Jan. 2, 2002, issue of the ECM Post Review of North Branch said, &uot;The work in those days was labor intensive, and sometimes as many as 125 men formed a crew. The crews lived in camps, fully equipped with food, lodging and other comforts. Equipment was moved from place to place by rail.&uot;
In 1926 the firm sustained a serious loss. Simonson accidentally cut his hand and eventually died of what was then called &uot;blood poisoning.&uot;
John was dismayed by the death of his cousin. His younger brother, George Larson, then joined the firm which was soon renamed the Larson Construction Co.
During the 1920s. John lived on East Fifth St. and his firm had its shop and office near the corner of S.E. Marshall St. and Columbus Ave.
The Depression years of the 1930s created serious financial problems for the firm with the loss of business and deferred street and highway paving projects.
World War II and the first part of the 1940s gave the Larson firm a needed financial boost. The Post Review article explained it this way: &uot;Concrete projects included streets and highways, but now included construction for increased agricultural production such as feeding floors for expanded beef production, milking parlors, large hog houses, granaries, barns, chicken and egg production and vegetable warehouses.&uot;
In 1946 Larson became aware of an extensive street improvement project in Rush City, Minn. He won the bid to give this community new curbs and gutters, sidewalks, driveway approaches and street lighting posts or standards.
It took 16 months to complete this project in the Chisago County community about 45 miles north of St. Paul. During this time John and his wife, Ida, became friends with the local folks and decided to move from Albert Lea to Rush City.
With the assistance and positive promotion of Rush City’s business leaders, Larson started a new firm in a former creamery building. This firm was the Rushcrete Products Co. Their specialty was concrete street lighting standards or posts. (A good example of this type of post can be seen on East Main St.)
His wife, Ida Anderson Larson, died in 1960 and is buried in Albert Lea’s Graceland Cemetery. He continued the association with the Rushcrete firm and some contracting activities until 1969. On Jan. 28, 1972, John Peter Larson died at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. He’s buried next to his wife at Graceland Cemetery.
To update this column, I called the Rush City Chamber of Commerce to see if the Rushcrete Products Co. or a successor firm was still operating. The answer was negative and the former creamery building once used by Larson’s company no longer exists.
Again, special thanks goes to Mike Olson of Albert Lea for the newspaper clipping which inspired this and the previous column. And very special thanks goes to MaryHelen Swanson for permission to both quote and to use information from the excellent article in the Jan. 2, 2002, issue of the ECM Post Review of North Branch.
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Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.