Universal Laboratories, Dassel

Creator: Peter J. DeCarlo

Color image of the Universal Laboratories Building, 2009.

Universal Laboratories Building, 2009. Uploaded by Wikimendia Commons user Elkman.

The Universal Laboratories building played a key role during World War II by ensuring that the United States had an adequate domestic supply of the essential crude drug ergot. As war threatened to cut off imported supplies of crude ergot, Universal Laboratories developed an effective collecting and processing operation in Dassel.

In 1937, Lester Peel was managing a yeast manufacturing firm known as Rice Laboratories. Established in 1935, Rice Laboratories had just moved into a new building on the northern edge of Dassel. The yeast produced by the company was an additive in animal feeds. Peel discovered that farmers in the area were discarding their ergoty grain to avoid contaminating flour and feed. He began buying the ergot, with plans to market it. He called the new ergot enterprise Universal Laboratories.

Peel hit on his idea at a good time. Ergot was a crop fungus, but it also had many medical uses. The United States imported almost all of its ergot from Europe. But, as unrest and war raged, Europe proved unable to provide a stable supply. Universal Laboratories filled that void. Peel ran both businesses out of the same two-story building. In the early days of the ergot operation, Universal Laboratories took up only a corner of the first floor.

Grain bought from elevator operators was fed into small mills. The mills put an even flow of ergoty grain onto a conveyor belt. Women seated beside the belts picked out the grain, leaving the ergot kernels on the belt. The ergot dropped off the end of the conveyor into a trough to await bagging. Universal Laboratories may have had as many as six of these machines at one point, staffed by a dozen women.

Universal Laboratories also created a small cottage industry in the Dassel area. Local residents picked up sacks of ergoty grain at the lab and sorted it at home. Pay was based on the amount of ergot returned to the company. Universal Laboratories sold the crude ergot to pharmaceutical firms. The company quickly became the main domestic ergot supplier to Eli Lilly, an established firm and a major producer of ergot-based drugs.

Lilly was willing to buy as much ergot as Universal Laboratories could collect. To increase his harvest, Peel taught farmers and elevator operators about the value of ergot. He wrote a pamphlet about it as early as 1939. It described ergot's importance in the pharmaceutical field and explained how to harvest and clean it.

Meanwhile, World War II placed the world's ergot supply in jeopardy. Ergot was important in stopping bleeding and treating posttraumatic stress disorder. In the early 1940s Eli Lilly joined the educational campaign Peel had been conducting. With Lilly's backing, the campaign to educate farmers spread across the northwest. The campaign and the stress put on the world's ergot supply combined to increase business for Peel's company.

Universal Laboratories become the center of ergot production in the United States, dominating the war years. To increase production the company leased an elevator in downtown Dassel. The processing of ergot became more mechanized. In the postwar years Eli Lilly remained Universal Laboratories' main customer. Lilly credited Universal Laboratories with shifting the ergot market from one of importing to one of domestic production.

Universal Laboratories remained profitable in the face of European competition by streamlining production. In 1952–1953 the company remodeled its Dassel plant with a new grain cleaner and a larger elevator leg. A gable-roofed monitor was added on the west side of the building's north end. Universal Laboratories continued supplying Eli Lilly until the late 1960s, when the firm stopped buying crude ergot in favor of products from European companies. Although Universal Laboratories held on for a few years longer, it eventually closed down its ergot business in 1975.

The building stood empty until 1996 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Local citizens and others renovated the facility, which became home to the Dassel Area Historical Society. It is one of the most unique historical society buildings in Minnesota.

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DeCarlo, Peter. "Universal Laboratories, Dassel." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/structure/universal-laboratories-dassel

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First Published: April 14, 2014

Last Modified: April 10, 2025

Bibliography

Dassel Minnesota. Dassel History Center & Ergot Museum.
http://dassel.com/history-center/

Gardner, Denis P. Minnesota Treasures: Stories Behind the State's Historic Places. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2004.

Universal Laboratories Building. National Register of Historic Places nomination file, reference number 96000191.
http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/nrhp/nomination/96000191.pdf
Editor's Note: This nomination file was the main source used in the writing of this article.

Related Resources

Primary

Anderson, Wilton, (general Manager, Universal Laboratories, 1959–1975), interview by Jeffrey Hess, Hess, Roise and Company, 6 June 1995.

Duke, Jim, (Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture), interview by Cynthia de Miranda, 26 June 1995.

"City's Pigeons Work at Drug-Sorting Job." New York Times, October 21, 1941.

"Ergot, the Rye Fungus, is Valuable." Grain and Feed Review 30 (June 1941): 22.

"Funeral Held for L.R. (Les) Peel." Dassel Dispatch, December 3, 1959.

"How to Clean Ergot From Rye." The Grain and Feed Review 30 (August 1941): 26.

Johnson, Irene, (secretary, Rice Laboratories and Universal Laboratories, 1935–1944), interview by Cynthia de Miranda, Hess, Roise and Company, 22 June 1995.

Kosek, Louise, (employee, Rice Laboratories and Universal Laboratories, 1934–1943), interview by Cynthia de Miranda, Hess, Roise and Company, 21 June 1995.

"Leases Elevator." Dassel Dispatch, October 2, 1941.

"Major Industries in Dassel Other Than Seed Corn." Dassel Dispatch, September 18, 1941.

"Move to New Building." Dassel Dispatch, October 21, 1937.

"Mushrooms Source of Childbirth Drug." New York Times, April 26, 1951.

Peel, L. R. Ergot: A Valuable Crude Drug. N.p: [1939?].

"Produce Ergot Artificially." New York Times, May 30, 1941.

Staba, Emil John, (Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Minnesota), interview by Cynthia de Miranda, Hess, Roise and Company, 23 June 1995.

"To Build Yeast Plant." Dassel Dispatch, July 22, 1937.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. "Import and Export Statistics," In Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Calendar Year 1945. Vol. 1 Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. "Ergot: Synopsis of Information, No. 15 of Industrial Reference Service," In Chemicals, Drugs and Pharmaceuticals. Vol.1, Pt. 2. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946.

Williams, Louis O. Agricultural Handbook 172: Drug and Condiment Plants. Washington, D.C. : U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1960.

Secondary

"Ambruster, Rusby-and Ergot." Journal of the American Medical Association 95 (6 September 1930): 722–729.

Barger, George. Ergot and Ergotism. London: Guerney and Jackson, 1931.

Bove, Frank James. The Story of Ergot. New York: S. Karger, 1970.

Burdon, Thomas Sheldon. "Ergot: History, Pharmacology and Therapeutics." M.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1931.

Claus, Edward P., Varro E. Tyler, and Lynn R. Brady. "Ergot." In Pharmacognosy. Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger, 1970.

Davis, M. Edward, et al. "A New Active Principle in Ergot and its Effects on Uterine Motility." American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 29 (February 1935): 155–167.

"Drug for War Neurosis." Science News Letter 45 (27 May 1944): 343.

"Ergot: A Veritable Treasure House." Tile and Till 33 (May 1947): 51–53.

"Ergotrate. . .Gift of Research." Tile and Till 22 (January 1936): 4–6.

"Ergot in Modern Obstetrics." Physician's Bulletin (January–February 1936): 3–13.

"Drugs and the War." Business Week. May 10, 1941.

"High Values for Rye Ergot." Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales 51 (1 March 1940): 137.

"Human and Animal Ills Caused by Ergoty Grain Forces Discounts." Grain and Feed Review 27 (December 1937): 39–40.

"It Heals, It Burns." Newsweek. October 29, 1945.

Jackson, Charles O. "The Ergot Controversy: Prologue to the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act." Journal of the History of Medicine 23 (July 1968): 248–257.

"The Lilly Chicken Coop." Lilly Review (September 1941): 4.

Moir, J. Chassar. "The History and Present-Day Use of Ergot." Canadian Medical Association Journal 72 (15 May 1955): 727–734.

Morton, Julia F. "Ergot." In Major Medicinal Plants: Botany, Culture and Uses. Springfield, IL: Thomas Books, 1977.

Neill, J. C. "Britain Wants Ergot from N.Z.!" New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 63 (15 November 1941): 397–400.

"Prescriptions Compounded Here." Tile and Till 35 (January 1949): 18–21.

Pharmacopoeia of the United States. Easton, PA: Mack Publishing Company, 1947.

Wood, Horatio C., et al. The Dispensatory of the United States of America. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1937.

Youngken, Heber Wilkinson, Jr. "Ergot-A Blessing and a Scourge." Economic Botany 1 (October–December 1947): 372–380.

——— . "The Pharmacognosy of Domestic Rye and Wheat Ergots." Master's thesis, University of Minnesota, 1940.

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Universal Laboratories Building, 2009. Uploaded by Wikimendia Commons user Elkman.

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Universal Laboratories, Dassel

More Information

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Turning Point

In 1937 Rice Laboratories manager Lester Peel starts processing ergot in a corner of the company's building, beginning a surprisingly important industry in Dassel.

Chronology

1935

Rice Laboratories is established in Dassel with Lester Peel as its manager. The company manufactures yeast for livestock feed.

1937

Rice Laboratories constructs a new building. While intended for yeast production, Peel starts an ergot enterprise in the northwest corner of the first floor.

1940

Sixty thousand pounds of domestic ergot are collected.

1941

One hundred thousand pounds of domestic ergot are collected. Minnesota is the center of domestic ergot production, and Universal Laboratories the only plant producing it.

1940s

With World War II raging, European production of ergot slows, allowing Universal Laboratories to rule the market. The company begins an advertising campaign to inform farmers across the nation of ergot's value.

1952

A large elevator is added to the Universal Laboratories Building along with a small gable-roofed monitor. The ergot business has completely overshadowed yeast production at Universal Laboratories.

1959

Lester R. Peel dies of a stroke.

Late 1960s

Eli Lily drops Universal Laboratories as a supplier of ergot, diminishing business.

1975

Universal Laboratories ceases production.

1996

The Universal Laboratories Building is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2014

The Universal Laboratories Building houses the Dassel Area Historical Society and Ergot Museum.