Grounded in Generations, Rocks, and Resiliency: The Story of Mayville Limestone, Inc. - Part 3

The following is a multipart historical piece on Mayville Limestone Incorporated. The information was compiled using these sources: “From Mayville to Milwaukee: The Visual Culture of the Iron and Steel Industry in Southeastern Wisconsin” by John H. Kopmeier, Jr., “Wisconsin Iron” by James C. Percival, “Lime Industry in Wisconsin” by the Wisconsin Historical Society, “Mayville’s Oldest Industry Celebrates 125 Years in Business” by Mayville Limestone, Inc., The Dodge County Pionier, The Mayville News, Daniel Seurer, Mayville Limestone, Inc., and these books: “Fifty Years in Business: Golden Jubilee Souvenir of the Chas Ruedebusch Co. Mayville, Wis.” by Chas Ruedebusch, “When Iron was King in Dodge County, Wisconsin 1845-1928” by George G. Frederick, and “Kilns and Crushers Vol. 3: Dodge County WI” by Daniel Seurer and Joel Valle.
The first decade after the turn of the 20th century was one of great celebration for Charles (Chas) Ruedebusch and his companies. On June 1, 1903, Ruedebusch’s department store, the Chas Ruedebusch Co., resiliently reached its 50th anniversary, also called a golden jubilee. The debt that once threatened the store in its first decade of business and wartime profit drops had by then lost their strangling hold.
In the souvenir book written for the store’s golden jubilee, Ruedebusch wrote, “To this day it is a pleasure and satisfaction for me to think that my business did not suffer as some had prophesied.”
The business’ avoidance of such a dismally prophesied fate cannot solely be attributed to Ruedebusch despite his large efforts.
“The success of any business of some importance is dependent to quite an extent upon the character of its employees,” stated Ruedebusch. “I must say that in this respect I was particularly fortunate. With very few exceptions, all of my employees were diligent, honest, and faithful workers.”

The same is true for Mayville Limestone, Inc. today as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.
“It takes a lot of dedicated employees to reach this [milestone],” stated general manager Elliott Smith, the great-great-great grandson of Chas Ruedebush. “It takes the willingness to adapt to an ever-changing market and to have a versatile workforce to be able to make those changes and assist in those changes.”
Back in 1905, the increasing success of the Mayville White Lime Works brought the need to expand its dedicated workforce. The company advertised a wage of $1.65 for a nine-hour workday.
“Economically speaking, a worker at the lime works was better off than a blast furnace worker [at the iron companies]. The lime worker labored nine hours per day for $1.65, receiving 18.3 cents per hour. The blast furnace worker labored for twelve hours per day for $1.90, receiving only 15.8 cents per hour,” explained George G. Frederick, author of “When Iron was King in Dodge County, Wisconsin 1845-1928.”
Wisconsin became the nation’s third-largest producer of lime from 1907 to 1914, and by 1924, Mayville White Lime Works employed roughly 100 people.
However, Chas Ruedebusch never lived to see such growth. On January 16, 1915, Ruedebush died at the age of 82. Less than a month later, Chas’ department store was robbed of several hundred dollars’ worth of goods.
After Charles’ passing, his son Carl H. Ruedebusch became president of the Mayville White Lime Works and served in that position until 1957. Great change came to the company with Carl’s assumption of the presidency. That same year, the lime works began producing agricultural lime (aglime), which became the company’s primary product by the 1940s and still is today. Aglime is used to adjust the PH levels of agricultural fields by neutralizing soil acids.
The adaptation to producing aglime contributed to Mayville White Lime Works’ ability to maintain business beyond the 1920s and 1930s. In those decades, many area lime works consolidated and iron companies, such as the Mayville Iron Co., “‘blew out’ [their] blast furnaces for the last time” due to paper and construction industry changes and ever-increasing iron production costs.
Though Mayville White Limes Works was able to adapt to the changing market of the Roaring Twenties, a new challenge arose. Before dawn on Thursday, July 24, 1924, a fire consumed the lime works. The crusher, conveyor, brand-new machinery, one kiln, and the trestles of the building they were housed in were completely destroyed. The other two lime kilns were damaged in the fire. By the next day, clean up had already begun, and on Saturday, Carl Ruedebusch arrived in Chicago to plan the rebuilding of the lime works with an architect. All three lime kilns were repaired and operating within a year after the fire.
Within a year of loss, there was also gain. In December of 1924, the Mayville White Lime Works was awarded a patent for “lime-dried,” a mixture of fresh lime and ground limestone. While it is unclear what the intended use of the mixture was beyond its relation to aglime, the awarding of the patent displays Mayville White Lime Works’ resilient determination to remain in a declining industry by changing the market.
The stock market crash of 1929 flung the United States into the Great Depression. The economic burden of the recession was felt nationwide, but especially in Mayville, where the steady closures of iron plants had already created a high unemployment rate. Morale was almost nonexistent within the city, where people prayed for the reopening of the iron companies to provide relief. But reopenings never came, and some grew tired of the grievous atmosphere.
A statement by an unnamed reporter in a 1933 edition of “The Mayville News” read, “Mayville isn’t dead–just suffering from too many pallbearers. Let’s not hold a wake for our city, except to wake it up. A bit of gumption and optimism will do more good than a lot of wailing.”
Good came to the Mayville White Lime Works and the city in 1934, when the lime works was contracted by the federal government to provide 65,000 tons of aglime as part of the New Deal. As part of the contract, the aglime was sold to drought-stricken farmers in northern Wisconsin at half the usual cost of $1.25 per ton with no freight expenses charged. The contract increased operations at the lime works, which brought in more workers and, by doing so, gave hope to the community.
By the end of the Great Depression, the once bustling lime industry in Wisconsin had dwindled. In 1940, only 11 lime producers still existed in the state, including Mayville White Lime Works.