Butt ns The Big Business of

There were two button factories located in Paducah in the 1930s—one was The McKee Button Factory at 1310 South Third Street. The second was the Paducah Button Factory located on Bridge Street. According to a 1931 Paducah Sun Democrat article, the button industry in Paducah provided a means of livelihood to approximately 600 people in the city.

Once the mussels were brought to the factories, the workers would soak the shells in large vats where sediment and loose dirt would be removed, creating a pearl-like appearance to the shells. Saw machines were used to cut out the button shapes. The saws consisted of steel discs that were held horizontally and rotated at a high speed. As the saw moved, water was thrown at it to prevent it from getting too hot. The workers at the factory (many of whom were women) had to continually sharpen the saws.

In 1937, the women of the McGee Button factory participated in a 10-day-long strike, demanding recognition of an employee union and an increased wage. By the end of the strike, they received recognition of the union and a 10 % wage increase.

It is possible to still find the leftover mussel shells from the button factory as the shells were used as infill for projects in and around Paducah.

In 1931 the McKee Button Factory’s Paducah operations were sending between five to six tons of discs per week to be finished at the McKee’s headquarters in Muscatine, Iowa. It was the invention and popularity of plastic buttons in the 1940s that eventually ended the local businesses.