Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 30, 1912, the founder of Muscatine, Iowa’s world-famous button business, John F. Boepple, died. Credited with making Muscatine the “Pearl Button Capital of the World,” the industry produced 1.5 billion buttons annually at the peak of production. Born in Germany, Boepple learned to make buttons in his family business before embarking for America in 1887 to find suitable mussel shells to push buttons. Searching rivers in Illinois before working his way west to Colum