Collection Item of the Week - Corneliussen Safe and Copper Vat

Last week the ad we featured from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book was a joint ad from the Pioneer Store Co. and the Alsager Bros. Meat Market.  This week our collection items are two of the largest and heaviest items we have from these businesses.  One is a 1870 safe made by the Diebold Safe & Lock Co. and the other is a large copper vat.

The safe is the original safe that had always resided in the S.R. Corneliussen & Co. building, which in 1911 became the Pioneer Store Co., and is currently the location for Reliance State Bank.  Due to new banking regulations involving dual control issues that required the purchase of a new safe, and due to minimal vault space, the bank donated the safe to the museum in April of 1999.  The safe had always resided inside a vault at the back of the building until 1972.  It was then moved to an inner vault of the bank and was used to store currency and coin until April of 1999.  More detail photos of the safe can be seen below.

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Alsager Bros. Vat

This large vat was used by the Alsager brothers for rendering lard and boiling sausages.  It was found in the basement of what is now Reliance State Bank, which is where the brothers had their meat market.  The Alsager Bros. Meat Market was in business in Story City for over 40 years.

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