PETER H. VAN GORP

To a remarkable degree the history of P. H. Van Gorp's phenomenal rise from an
humble beginning to his present high place in the financial and industrial
affairs of Pella and of Iowa is a concrete exemplification of the fact that
opportunity is not beyond the horizon, but right here at home. He was born in
Pella in 1860 and helped his father to earn a living for the family when still
in his boyhood. At the age of twenty-one the best he could do, working with a
team, was to make $1.50 per day. This meant starting out before daylight on cold
winter mornings and working often until long after dark. At the age of
twenty-four he was married to Miss Nellie Pos, the daughter of another of
Pella's pioneer settlers. Until he was thirty-five, Mr. Van Gorp's experience
was that of most young men of the time. He tried many things with but
indifferent success, but he was learning, in the school of hard knocks, the
lessons that later fitted him to build up and develop, from a small beginning,
the chief industry of Pella, and one of the leading ones of the state.

Together with some others the idea was conceived of manufacturing an automatic
straw stacker for threshing machines. A small company with a capital of $3,000
was organized and Mr. Van Gorp was chosen manager of the enterprise. This did
not prove a great success, but the company continued the grim struggle for three
years, often threatened with complete failure by lack of sufficient capital.
About that time Mr. A. C. Van Houweling, now president of the Garden City Feeder
Company, invented and patented a self-feeder for threshing machines. The stacker
was consequently discontinued, and the Garden City Feeder Company, of which Mr.
Van Gorp was the promoter and organizer, has concentrated on these feeders, and
is today the largest independent feeder manufacturer in the world, with branch
houses scattered over the grain-growing states of this country and Canada, and
doing a business of over a million dollars annually.

Mr. Van Gorp is the secretary, treasurer and manager of the company, and with
two sons owns more than half the stock, which paid a stock dividend of fifty per
cent about eight years ago, and has paid from fifteen to twenty per cent cash
dividends annually on its stock since. Even in 1921, when most companies took a
heavy loss, this dividend was paid, and its surplus today equals twice its
capitalization.

Twenty years ago Mr. Van Gorp was practically without means, but now besides his
holdings in banks and other concerns, he owns over one thousand acres of good
Iowa land and a dozen city properties.

He is a stockholder, director and vice president of the Farmers National Bank of
Pella, a stockholder and director of the Des Moines Life & Annuity Company, and
is interested in a score of other enterprises. He is a public spirited man,
always in the forefront of any movement for the betterment of the community, was
fuel administrator during the war, has served on the city council, and is one of
the leaders in the Chamber of Commerce.