Muscatine, Iowa
Muscatine is a city in Muscatine County, Iowa, United States. The population was 22,697 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Muscatine County. The name Muscatine is unique in that it is not used by any other city in the United States. Muscatine is the principal city of the Muscatine Micropolitan Statistical Area (2000 census population 53,905), which includes all of Muscatine and Louisa counties. Muscatine began as a trading post founded by representatives of Colonel George Davenport in 1833. Muscatine was originally called Bloomington when incorporated in 1839, but was changed to reduce mail delivery confusion as there were already too many Bloomingtons in the Midwest. Before that, Muscatine had also been known as "Casey's Woodpile". The name "Muscatine" is believed by some to be named after the Mascouten native American tribe. This seems somewhat unlikely, however, since the tribe existed almost exclusively in what is now Michigan and Wisconsin, and was lost to history almost a hundred years before the renaming of the town. More probable is that the town name was taken from the surname "Muscatine." Muscatine's slogan is: "Pearl of the Mississippi." The term refers to the prior days when pearl button manufacturing by the McKee Button Company was a significant economic contributor.
Notables:
Oscar Grossheim Muscatine photographer produced about 55,000 glass plate negatives from photos taken between 1887 and 1954. Grossheim reportedly was working on a small portable camera shared his ideas with Steve Eastman of Eastman-Kodak company; also trying to build a portable camera.
Jim Yong Kim - President elect of Dartmouth College, Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights, and a former director of the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS department (in 2006 he was listed as one of the top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine)
Norman Baker - entrepreneur, "Know the Naked Truth" (KTNT) radio pioneer, perfected the air-powered calliope
Dr.William L.Beckley Author-educator- Published -(Kendall Hunt Publisher 1997) "attended Drake University
Roy J Carver- entrepreneur and philanthropist
Sam Weier- Champion rugby player
C. Maxwell Stanley- engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, founder of Stanley Consultants, co-founder of HON Industries, and delegate to the United Nations.
Ellis Parker Butler- author
Lee Allen- medical illustrator
Max Allan Collins- author of screenplay of the movie Mommy, which was filmed in Muscatine's Wood Creek neighborhood in 1995. Also author of the graphic novel Road to Perdition, which became a screenplay and was filmed in 2002, starring Tom Hanks and Jude Law.
Terry Beatty- artist who has worked as a penciler and inker in the comic book industry.
Scot Halpin- fan who filled in for drums with the Who when Keith Moon collapsed during a performance at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1973.
Phil Vischer- founder of the Christian series VeggieTales.
St. Mathias Catholic ChurchDame Margherita Roberti (Jean Nobis), born and raised in Muscatine, gained worldwide fame as an opera singer. In 1971 she received her title, Dame, Italy's highest award to a private citizen, for having sung more Verdi heroines than any opera star in history.
Tim O'Dell- jazz composer