Crex Carpet Company
Creator:
Paul Nelson
Illustration of three styles of rug manufactured by the Crex Carpet Company. Originally reproduced in a John H. Pray & Sons Company catalog (#30, page 38).
Bibliography
Myrick, Herbert. Creating New Industries. Chicago: Orange Judd Co., 1901.
Nielsen, J.G. The Book of Minnesota. St. Paul: Pioneer Press, 1903.
Nelson, Paul D. "The Greatest Single Industry? Crex: Created Out of Nothing." Ramsey County History 40, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 4–15.
Chronology
1898
The Northwestern Grass Twine Company moves its operations to St. Paul and occupies a cordage factory on Front Avenue near Dale Street.
1899
Two companies merge to form the American Grass Twine Company (AGT). The company begins experimenting with using grass twine to make wicker furniture.
1900
American Grass Twine buys the Walter A. Wood Harvester works on the East Side and begins making the Minnie Harvester, designed to use grass twine in grain harvest operations.
1903
AGT sells its harvester works and leaves the twine business to concentrate on wicker and rugs. Its wicker furniture catalog features 260 items.
1905
Michael J. O'Shaughnessy and other directors are found to have overvalued the company and wrongly taken $640,000 in dividends. They are forced to resign and pay the money back.
1908
AGT changes its name to Crex Carpet Company and gets a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In St. Paul the company builds a new warehouse and expands its factory twice.
1917
Synthetic wicker having replaced fiber wicker, Crex leaves the wicker furniture business. Employment at the St. Paul factory falls to around three hundred workers.
1920
Crex has its best year, earning profits of $447,000.
1925
The company's most profitable period draws to a close (between 1907 and 1925 it averaged annual profits of $140,000—about $3 million in 2014).
1926
Crex loses money for the first time: $30,000. Cheap grass rugs imported from Japan provide competition.
1929
The company's losses reach almost $400,000. The Great Depression begins.
1935
With the factory now closed and $24.90 in the bank, Crex Carpet Company declares bankruptcy.
Bibliography
Myrick, Herbert. Creating New Industries. Chicago: Orange Judd Co., 1901.
Nielsen, J.G. The Book of Minnesota. St. Paul: Pioneer Press, 1903.
Nelson, Paul D. "The Greatest Single Industry? Crex: Created Out of Nothing." Ramsey County History 40, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 4–15.