Karen,

The basket factory still exists along the river in Burlington today. The nursery known as Lagomarcino Grupe was I believe -this is off the top of my head - located south of Burlington near what is now Crapo Park. Lagomarcino Grupe somehow became a grocery supply company and by the 1950's merged with Benner Tea Company, another grocer supply company that still exists - I believe - in West Burlington on Mt. Pleasant St. I worked at Benner offices in the mid 1960's. We had a division called Lagy-Grupe.

Button factories were generally located around Muscatine however there was a recent article in the Burlington paper about a piece of button mfg equipment that some guy in Oquawka, Ill has acquired. I believe it mentioned button factories in Burlington and across the river in Illinois, but I have no information on this.