Ask almost any old-time Iowan with a rural background about Peters’ Hatchery in Newton and they will likely remember the famous advertising jingle played on WHO Radio in Des Moines for years: “Peters’ chickens now — raisin’ chickens now — everything’s gonna be alright — with Peters’ chickens now.”
My parents were married on Feb. 10, 1925, and I’ll bet they started buying chicks from Peters’ Hatchery that very same year. Why? Because they were guaranteed not to die! How could that be when they were shipped all over Iowa by railway express or parcel post the very day they were born?
A.G. (Albert George) Peters, who spent 30 years studying every facet of the life of a chicken, founded his certified hatchery in Newton in the early 1900s. He was born in Scranton, Penn., in 1877, later moved to Lima, Ohio, and for a number of years served in Extension Poultry Husbandry for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During this time he researched and pedigreed two special breeds of chicken for a period of 18 years. Migrating to Iowa, he started culling poultry with his own “Peters method” for nine years. By this time, he felt he was ready to start his own hatchery where he would guarantee every chick to live the first two weeks. Sounds a little like a fairy tale, doesn’t it?
Reading his rather complete history from a full-page story published in the Newton Daily News on Sept. 28, 1926, leaves a person somewhat flabbergasted and puzzled. Just how could one person accomplish this very successful business in such a short time? But, as the detailed story points out, “Here was a man with an idea that most anyone would say couldn’t be done!” Prior to this time, a good many chicks died in each shipment during the couple days on the road by parcel post or railway express. But not Peters’ chicks. The very few that might expire were replaced or need not be paid for.
This reproduced full-page article about Peters’ Hatchery is now at our Jasper County Museum, along with pictures of the Peters family. Also, a one-and-a-half hour long video that I made features A.G. Peters’ granddaughter, June Hurtt, who still maintains a residence in Newton just down the street from the former hatchery.
June Peters Hurtt, born June 28, 1924, is a lively octogenarian who spends her winters in Florida and her summers in Minnesota, with “coming and going” stops here in Newton to visit her daughter, Roxie Ashby, and extended family. June’s father, A.V. (Verle) Peters and her uncle C.E. (Clell) were the only two sons of Albert George and Anna Belle Peters, and were part of the Peters Hatchery for many years.
In her teen years, June also worked at the hatchery sexing chickens, culling eggs and even loading sacks of feed for the many contract chicken growers who furnished the multitude of eggs during the hatching season. She even raised her own chickens on the hatchery property to make extra money, which she preferred to baby-sitting. She has many fascinating stories to tell about her younger days there at Peters’ Hatchery.
I was so glad to capture some of this great history directly from a family member who had lived during those hustling, bustling days of hatchery history. My video history, captured in May 2010, came at just the right time when June was back home. My niece, Linda Miller, had quite a visit with June on their flight together from Florida and suggested I make contact with June.
I was able to arrange one final tour of this large, somewhat spooky, vacant hatchery shortly before the City of Newton had it dismantled. A group of Mennonite workers from eastern Iowa spent several weeks salvaging much of the valuable native lumber before heavy equipment moved in, crushing the remains and hauling it away. Nothing now remains of this most unique piece of history but the land.
During the final tour, June and her daughter Roxie did much reminiscing, which I captured on video. We traipsed from the general offices through the large incubating rooms that, during peak seasons, hatched over 2 million eggs annually. They recalled the frantic activity taking place in the shipping areas where tons of jute packing boxes were used.
When I asked June what baby chicks sold for back in her day, she remembered males were $4 per hundred. The females were a whole lot more because they would lay hundreds of eggs. Production of a Peters hen averaged as many as 207 eggs per year. During peak years, thousands of chicks were ordered that couldn’t be shipped. They were simply overloaded. It was a flourishing business, and folks didn’t mind spending a little more for “guaranteed” chicks because they got their money’s worth.
June’s husband, John, who passed away in 1985, also was active at the hatchery for a number of years. June still has John’s “Certificate of Proficiency” from the Interstate Chick Sexing Institute in Boone, dated January 17, 1947. It verified his completion of the five-week chick sexing course, with final proficiency tests showing 97 percent and 98 percent during the last six days of training. It further verifies his ability to separate the sexes of baby chicks with an average speed of up to 700 chicks per hour!
While the large Peters’ Hatchery facility at 1119 N. Third Ave. E. is now only a memory, the large two-story brick home of the Peters family still sits majestically up the hill to the west. This was the original Mershon Mansion built in 1867 by James Rowe Mershon, and acquired by Mr. Peters shortly after he arrived in Newton. It was divided into four lovely apartments later, with Grandma and Grandpa Peters’ spacious accommodations upstairs facing west. Martha Polson, a bookkeeper at the hatchery, and her husband Harold had the upstairs east apartment for years. Martha also was choir director at our Catholic church for many years.
June and her family occupied the large downstairs apartment. During our tour of this lovely old mansion with my son David, whose company now owns the property, June related all kinds of historic events when she was a girl. Her grandfather had tennis courts and a swimming pool built to the west on this vast piece of property. Later, June and her husband had a fine home built on that plot, which remains today.
These few highlights of Peters’ Hatchery, which was indeed one of the most prominent and leading hatcheries in the Midwest, are only the tip of the iceberg. Anyone interested in reading the reproduction of the full-page story or viewing the historic video will find it on file at our museum. Better yet, give me a jingle and you can borrow my copies.
Olden Days appears on Wednesdays in the Daily News. Contact the writer at mcneer@pcpartner.net.