The gift from heaven
A new monthly series by villa resident and volunteer Jim Volgarino
Nine years elapsed from The Evangelical Association’s first discussions for establishing an old people’s home to actual groundbreaking for the Western Old People’s Home in Cedar Falls on August 21, 1911.
Bishop Samuel P. Spreng of the German denomination, headquartered in Cleveland, officiated at the event attended by members of the Association who were in Waterloo for the organization’s annual board meeting. Community members in the Cedar Valley were also present for what was described as a very significant event in the local newspapers.
The occasion capped a long process that began when the church expressed interest in establishing a home for aged members to serve a growing population in one of the denomination’s “western” states.
From 1902-1911, several sites were explored in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, but funding proved a formidable obstacle to get any location developed – at least until some former residents of Cedar Falls stepped forward to provide the land and a sizeable donation to construct what was described as “a grand and splendid building” by local and regional newspapers. Brothers Henry, Gus and Paul Pfeiffer had successful drug stores in Cedar Falls, Oelwein and Parkersburg, before selling those locations and moving to St. Louis to work in the pharmaceutical industry, where they formed the Pfeiffer Chemical company in 1901. Henry went on to purchase William R. Warner Company in 1908 and Gus became vice president; Paul got out of the business and moved to Arkansas in 1913. Over the next five decades, Henry and Gus purchased some 50 companies that can be traced to today’s Pfizer.
Family matriarch Barbara Pfeiffer had been a faithful member of the Evangelical Association which met at 9th and Clay in Cedar Falls, and the brothers never forgot their hometown. A donation in her memory from Henry and Gus finally brought the project to the city by offering the Pfeiffer homestead at 11th and Irving, where the original Western Old People’s Home was built, and $20,000, which in today’s dollars would equal approximately $645,000.
A board of trustees was formed to oversee the home’s operations, a building committee was tasked with getting the building built and furnished, and Rev. A.L. Hauser was hired as the home’s first superintendent.
Correction from January 2024 article:
In checking another ledger kept of the earliest residents I found the name of Amelia Rust's husband who I thought had died before she was accepted at the home. Turns out he accompanied her though his name didn't show up in the same list of residents where I found his wife. Rev. Frederick Rust was alive and well and lived at the home with Amelia until he died in 1923.
1912 photo of the first Building Committee.
