The two partnered up to open a successful candle, soap and lard factory on Gilbert Street.

Chalmer D. Close – also known as C.D. – was born on September 7, 1832 in Genoa of Cayuga County, New York, arriving in Iowa City in the summer of 1854, joining his older brother – Manley T. Close – who had relocated here several months earlier.

At the outbreak of the Civil War (1861), the supply of Southern-grown cotton seeds decreased, forcing the market price of flax seed to skyrocket. Since a number of popular products could be made from flax seed – including linseed oil and flax straw, which is used to make linen and high-quality paper – many Iowa farmers began switching over to growing flax in their fields. The Close brothers quickly recognized this shift in the market, and wisely opened a linseed oil mill, also located on Gilbert Street, calling it M.T. Close & Company. Below are articles from Iowa City newspapers: (left) December 19, 1866, and (center & right) August 10, 1870 that point to the significance of the Close Brother’s Linseed Oil Mill…

over which C.D. and his sons eventually took full control.

A few years later, Manley Close established a paper mill on the Iowa River – near today’s Coralville Dam (see pic above). Using the flax straw produced at their linseed oil mill, the mill – at its peak, produced six tons of paper every day. but tragically, an explosion in 1875 killed six workers and the mill was never rebuilt.

The linseed oil mill was acquired by the National Linseed Oil Company in the late 1880s. Close continued to oversee operations of the mill until he died of pneumonia in 1890. The mill eventually closed in 1898.

“The linseed oil mills of C.D. Close and Son are among the staunchest business enterprises of Iowa City,” the Iowa City Republican noted on June 21, 1887. “When times are dull and other houses and manufactories shut down, Mr. Close keeps his mills going, giving constant employment to about forty men. They made a fine quality of linseed oil, which finds a ready sale.”

M.T. Close opened a paper mill in Coralville in the mid-1860s to utilize another byproduct of the oil mill, flax straw. The water-powered plant was located near the future site of the Coralville Dam, and produced six tons of paper every 24 hours. It also experienced one of the area’s worst disasters: In 1875, a chemical accident in the mill caused an explosion, killing six workers instantly and sending their bodies flying up to 100 feet in the air. Needless to say, that was the end of the Close Paper Mill.

The oil mill, on the other hand, went the way of many successful American businesses: It was absorbed by a larger corporation. In the late 1880s, the National Linseed Oil Co. bought the C.D. Close & Co. mill, in addition to the Cedar Rapids Linseed Oil Co. The conglomerate would eventually face an antitrust lawsuit from the Illinois Attorney General.

In 1898, National Linseed Oil Co. shut down the Closes’ old plant on 521 S Gilbert. It was bought up by Thomas C. Carson, who converted the mill into a grain elevator and warehouse. The building sold again in 1920, becoming a sheet metal and roofing business; in 1926, a carpentry shop. In the ’30s it became a bottling firm, oil heater and sheet metal manufacturing plant, and finally the home of O’Brien Electric Company.

Over time, the historic façade, floors and features had been stripped away, and in 1995 the South Gilbert Warehouse, as it was known, was removed from the National Register of Historic Places due to “loss of integrity.” Chef Bryan Herzic opened Orchard Green Restaurant and Lounge in the building in 2009, where it remains today.

Candle Factory, Iowa City Republican, October 21, 1856, p 3

The Flax Product, Iowa City Republican, December 19, 1866, p 1

Manufactures – Close Bros, State Democratic Press, August 10, 1870, p 3