My great grandfather, Louis Burg, built high quality buggies beginning in 1890 in his factory in Dallas City, Ill. I lived in Dallas City, Ill. long before we offered Nautilus Safety Toe shoes, Dansko shoes, Birkenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, and Birko balance and Birko sport arch supports. In 1908 Burg converted the factory in Dallas City, Ill. to produce automobiles called “Burgs”. Burg employed around 100 men including his 5 sons. Clarence Burg, the first grandchild of Louis Burg, spent the summer working at the Burg’s factory. Clarence said driving the first Burg car was a real thrill! Burg had a mansion built in Dallas City, about a mile north of the factory called the Stone House. The Stone House remains in Dallas City as a reminder of Burg’s success in business. The Burg factory was one of 1,000 factories across the nation producing automobiles. The Burg business did not flourish and the last of the 40 Burgs was made in 1910, the year my father was born. A high school principal at Dallas City, Loren Utsinger purchased one of the Burgs from Lloyd Mohr of Dallas City. Utsinger restored the Burg and it was shown in the Dallas City Centennial parade in 1959. The last buggy was made in 1919 at the Burg factory. I have a lithograph of the Burg car hanging in our family room. It is a cherished family heirloom that my dad found laying on the floor of the Burg factory. The Burg factory burned down and only one building is left standing. It is now an Italian restaurant. Homer L. Burg was born in 1885. He was the last of Lewis Burg’s children. He followed his older brothers as an upholsterer, salesman, plant superintendent, plant manager, and secretary of the company. Homer Burg wanted to build automobile bumpers in the Burg factory but his idea was turned down by Louis Burg. Homer went on to found the Moulder’s Friend, a sand conditioning machine company. We have founded lionfootweardirect.com offering Nautilus Safety Toe shoes, Super Birki, Allegria shoes, K-Swiss, Avia, Ryka walking and running shoes.

My great grandfather, Louis Burg, was born in Rhinephaltz Bavaria, February 10, 1943, 100 years before I was born. My great grandfather Burg would never have dreamed that his great grandson would have an online shoe business offering Nautilus safety shoes, Dansko shoes, Birkenstock chef shoes, Rockport shoes, Ryka, and Sandro Moscolinoi shoes. He was the son of John Burg, who, with his family sailed from LeHavre, France on a ship with a cargo of cotton and docked at New Orleans 49 days after leaving France. The family came up the Mississippi by steamboat and arrived at Keokuk, Iowa. Later they traveled by steamboat to Burlington, Iowa and settled on a farm. When Louis Burg was 15 years old he moved in with a sister in Quincy, Ill. Louis attended the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate, sitting only four feet from Lincoln. Louis married his childhood sweetheart, Cordelia Behme, who he met on a steamboat trip from New Orleans to St. Louis. Louis was 10 and Cordelia was 7, and were married on St. Valentine’s day 1867. Louis and Cordelia had 8 children, 5 boys and 3 girls. Their first born child, Clara, died at birth. Louis’s daughter Flora Burg was my grandmother who was my father’s’ mother. I also met Flora’s sister Carrie Pettit whem my folks visited her in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Louis After returning to Burlington Louis became an apprentice blacksmith in the plant of Burg, Funk and Co. and during the Civil War he “ironed wagons” at the plant. Louis Burg was a blacksmith, entrepreneur, inventor, and business man.
Louis later moved to Farmington, Ia where he opened his own blacksmith business. He invented a balanced road cart that was more comfortable to ride on bumpy roads than the standard cart of that time. He opened a small factory under the name L. Burg Carriage Co. This new cart became so popular that he had to expand his factory. He shipped carts to Europe, South America, and Australia. In 1889 a fire destroyed two of the four factory buildings. This was ruinous to the Burg fortunes as this was before they had insurance. Burg borrowed money from his mother to buy a new suit and took the train from Farmington, Iowa to Dallas City, Ill. When the train arrived in Dallas City, a crowd who had gathered at the train station was surprised by this well dress man and asked him what brought him to Dallas City. Burg told them he was looking for a place to build his new factory. He was soon meeting with the local banker and business men. They were so impressed that they helped raise the money to build three 50′ X 150′ factory buildings, one of them a two story building which is the only one still standing. This building is now occupied by an Italian restaurant. By the time the new factory was completed the style had changed from carts to buggies. Louis Burg hired craftsmen from St. Louis and around the country who knew how to build his new line of buggies. As these employees moved on they were replaced by local people. The Burg buggy soon earned a reputation for durability and was in high demand. Lewis Burg was extremely successful in the buggy business. I hope we are as successful with our brand name internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com offering free shipping for Nautilus, Birko balance and Birko sport arch supports, Allegria shoes, K-Swiss, Rockport World Tour shoes, and Avia walking and running shoes.

Dick Steele was my best friend when I was growing up in Oelwein, Iowa. I met Dick when I moved to Oelwein in 1951 and started school in the 3rd. grade. I would never have dreamed that we would offer Dansko shoes, Rockport shoes, Birkenstock chef shoes, Birko balance and Birko sport arch supports. I liked Dick the first time we met. Dick was kind of a rebel and never seemed to care too much about school work. He had this act of not understanding what was said or what he should be doing. We hung around together except when I was out for sports. When we were in the 7th grade I would go to Dick’s uncle Abe’s Schlitz Beer office and warehouse after school so Dick could do a little office cleaning. Dick’s uncle Abe would be there with a cronie drinking whisky and having a good time. They would tease Dick and me about cars and girls. Then Dick and I would go into the warehouse where Dick took a couple of pony bottles of Schlitz Beer out of the refrigerator. Sometimes we would drink 3 pony bottles of beer each. I thought it was really fun helping Dick clean the office. I also helped Dick and his dad Ed strip and replace window decals at some of their tavern accounts on Saturdays. I also went on trips with Dick and Ed to pick up cases of Hermons Pop from the maker in Cedar Rapids, Iowa which was about 65 miles south of Oelwein. Hermons had some of the best tasting flavored soda pop. This was way before we started our online footwear website www.lionfootweardirect.com offering Dansko shoes, Rockport shoes, Ryka, Alegria, Avia, Nautilus safety shoes,and K-Swiss.

I was attending the Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Ia with my father who was working at a booth for his employer – Green Colonial Furnace Co. This was many years before we started our online footwear sales for Dansko shoes, Rockport shoes, Birkenstock chef shoes, Ryka, and Sandro Moscoloni. The Cattle Congress is a big fair for farm related products and equipment. We were walking down the midway when my Dad spotted his sister, my aunt Edna, conducting a product demonstation. My father was shocked to see his sister looking like a carney worker with a lot of rouge on her checks working her product demo at the Cattle Congress. He had no idea that she would be there since she lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Aunt Edna was just as surprised to see us. She was making crepes using hand held irons dipped in a batter. She then dipped the irons in hot grease in a deep fat fryer. The irons made a crepe that was shaped like a butterfly. Then Edna would put powdered sugar on them and give them away to the crowd that was gathered to see the demonstration. The crepes were delicious! People were buying the crepe irons like hot cakes. Edna included a box of the mix to make the batter with each order. She used the money she made working shows and fairs to buy expensive furniture for their lake home outside Milwaukee. Aunt Edna and Uncle Ernie bought and fixed up houses and sold them at a tidy profit. I remember we were visting them at their lake home one summer and my dad asked Edna if she had anything to eat and Edna told him to eat a banana! Edna did not like to cook. I always admired my Aunt Edna because she had a lot of nerve and was not afraid to try new things. Aunt Edna is gone now but I still have fond memories of her and trips we made to Wisconsin. If you are looking for Free Shipping for brand name footwear like K-Swiss, Avia, Nautilus Safety shoes, Birko balance and Birko sport arch supports. go to our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com

The first four years of my life I lived in Dallas City, Ill, a small town on the Mississippi river. I never would have imagined I would end up offering Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Rockport shoes, Ryka, Sandro Moscoloni, Birkenstock chef shoes, Birko balance and Birko sport arch supports at our online shoe store www.lionfootweardirect.com. After we moved away to northeast Iowa we made many trips back to vist my dad’s parents who lived in Dallas City. Dallas City is located across the river from Ft. Madison, Ia, up the river a few miles on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. The road to the toll bridge in Fort Madison that crosses the Mississippi runs right by the Iowa state prison. The Iowa state prison was built around the time of the Civil War and is very foreboding with guard towers staffed with men armed with high powered rifles. My dad warned my brother and I that we should never do anything that would cause us to end up in this prison. When I was 12, and my brother Dan was 15, our dad said we should swim the Mississippi, a mile and a quarter across from Dallas City, as he did when he was a boy. We agreed to try it and on a hot July day in 1955 my brother and I attempted to swim across the Mississippi with our dad rowing the boat along side. We both dove in off the dock at Dallas City around noon and started the swim across the river. The current in the river was strong, but, using all the swimming strokes we worked our way across the Mississippi. At the time I can remember wondering if there was anything in the river that could harm us. I have since read articles about finding sharks teeth from bull sharks as far up as Minnesota. If I had known that at the time, I would not have attempted the swim. It took some time to complete the swim but Dan and I made it. In fact Dan turned around and swam all the way back across the river to Dallas City. I felt good about completing the swim but was glad it was over.