The Young Coal Company Research and Reminiscences
This book describes a retail fuel partnership that existed in Waterloo, Iowa, from 1880 to 1987. Although technically not a history, the book has considerable historical content, especially as to the company's operations and the Young family that founded and operated the business throughout its existence. In the 1880's, the company's founder, Bade Johann Junge (later, John Bade Young) sold wood, coal, and coke out of a push cart. He also sold cement and harvested ice from the Cedar River until 1900 so that his employees would have year-round work.John Arthur (J. A.) Young bought the company from his father in 1905. As senior partner of the firm, J. A. resumed the ice harvests; brought his sons John Bryan, Robert Arthur (Bob), and Richard Homer (Dick) into the firm as partners; added fuel oil to the company's offerings; and began the manufacture of "artificial" ice.A heating company was added to partnership functions in 1942. Plumbing and air conditioning were added to heating in the next two decades. In 1950, the firm bought a small lumber company. Dick incorporated Young Plumbing & Heating Company (YPHC) and took it out of the partnership in 1967, the year after the ice business was ended. The coal company, through mergers, inherited a cold storage and another ice business. In 1979 the coal company sold its remaining ice and cold storage business. The fuel business declined drastically because of the popularity of natural gas, and John and Bob closed the partnership in 1987. The YPHC survived and exists today with over 140 employees. The book's author, James Van (Jim) Young, and his cousin John Burton (Jack) Young--both great-grandchildren of the founder--wrote about their summer employment with the firm. Jim's wife Virginia (Ginger) added her genealogical expertise, and over 200 photographs, most of them handed down by the family, add to the historical account referred to above.