A couple of days ago, I posed the following query - after the
observation was made that one of the recent space shuttle mission
members hailed from Beaconsfield:
Beaconsfield is also famous for another reason - hint - used to be a
mainly Iowa business, but has expanded to the surrounding states as
well.
Since no one bit, here's the answer - from the HyVee corporate site -
and there is a RR connection:
Hy-Vee was founded in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, who
opened a small general store in Beaconsfield, IA. In 1938 they
incorporated as Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc., with 15 stores and 16
stockholders. The current company name, Hy-Vee, is a contraction of
our founders' names.
In those early years, company offices were located in Lamoni, IA. The
company moved to Chariton, IA in 1945 to gain access to rail
services, and in 1948 constructed the first office/warehouse complex.
The corporate offices moved to West Des Moines in 1995.
http://www.hy-vee.com/default.asp?p=abouthyvee
Nick
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