1st Modern Hatchery - Clinton, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 23.069 W 093° 45.464
15S E 433821 N 4248747
Mr. Booth was a junior in high school when he got his idea, and put it to work. Slight delay when drafted into the Army during WWI, but then back to work.
Waymark Code: WMKQH9
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/17/2014
Views: 4
County of marker: Henry County
Location of marker: Price Lane (US 54), Katy Trail State Park, Clinton Trailhead
Marker erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Marker text
1867 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Railroads Encouraged Industry
At the end of the Civil War, the nearest railroad lay 35 miles northeast at Sedalia. Towns along the rails prospered. Others either voted for railroad bonds of faced decline. Henry County first entered the competition in 1867 when it contributed $400,000 toward the construction of the Tebo & Neosho Railroad. The Tebo was to be built from Sedalia to Fort Scott, Kan., by way of Clinton. Three years later the line was sold to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. (MKT or Katy).
The first train rolled into Clinton with great fanfare on the morning of Aug. 23, 1870. Many in attendance had never seen a train before. Within its first 10 years of rail service, Clinton's population grew 450 percent. Other railroads developed connections through Clinton. The Kansas City & Southern RR (late the Frisco) made its first run out of Clinton on May 6, 1883. The Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield RR began scheduled passenger service on Nov. 27, 1885.
In the heyday of Clinton's railroads (1870-1945), local industries exported enormous quantities of coal, pottery, flour, beer and baby chicks. From its humble beginnings in 1912, Royal Booth developed the first modern hatchery business in the U.S. Booth made poultry breeding a specialized industry by entirely systemizing [sic - meant systematizing?] the hatchery. From the 1920s to 1940s, the company advertised itself as the largest hatchery in the country with over one million eggs in incubation at a time. Clinton still takes pride in another nicknames: Baby Chick Capital of the World.
"In 1911 a Clinton High School assembly attracted Royal Booth to breeding and selling high-quality chickens and eggs. The monetary success from his endeavor convinced him to open the first commercial chicken hatchery west of the Mississippi River after his high school graduation. Booth Farms and Hatchery’s method of breeding only high-quality stock quickly became a lucrative family business and inspired other Henry Countians to open hatcheries. Christopher Gordon details how Booth’s method of poultry husbandry revolutionized the industry and helped keep Henry County prosperous through World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II."
~ The State Historical Society of Missouri
"The Hall brothers, Joyce, Rollie, and William, emerged from poverty in Nebraska in the 1900s by opening a bookstore. When the European craze for sending postcards reached America, the brothers quickly began merchandizing them and became the postcard jobber for the Great Plains. As business boomed they relocated to Kansas City in 1910 and eventually founded the Hallmark Cards gift card company, which soon came to dominate a national market.[249] Allen Percival "Percy" Green operated the A. P. Green Company in Mexico, Missouri. Green bought a struggling brickworks in 1910 and found a national market by transforming it into a leading manufacturer of "fire bricks," bricks designed to withstand high temperatures for use in steel plants and lining the boilers of ships.[250] In 1913, in the town of Clinton, Royal Booth, then a high school junior, began a business breeding purebred chickens. After serving in the Army in World War I, Booth returned to his booming enterprise. The growth of his Booth Farms and Hatchery had encouraged other area entrepreneurs to enter the poultry breeding business. Booth rebuilt his operation after a 1924 fire, and concentrated on breeding hens that laid eggs all year long. By 1930, Clinton's hatcheries had an annual capacity of over three million eggs, making Clinton the "Baby Chick Capital of the World" and benefiting thousands of farmers throughout the region; however, the industry declined and the hatchery closed in 1967" ~ Wikipedia [History of Missouri]