A century ago, 75 Iowa manufacturers met at the Iowa State Fair to create an exhibition for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. That early group evolved into the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, now the state’s biggest pro-business lobbing organization.

“They realized they didn’t know each other very well, and recognized that it made sense for them to associate with one another,” said Jim Aipperspach, ABI’s president.

In 1899, Gov. Leslie M. Shaw of Iowa appointed a commission to represent the state at a preliminary meeting in St. Louis. It became the commission’s job to draw Iowa’s manufacturers together, and it was the commission that arranged that first meeting at the Iowa State Fair.

In its earliest days, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry was called the Iowa Manufacturers Association, and its formation was so volatile that some leaders quit from the stress. According to a recent article in Iowa Commerce magazine, Dr. A.C. Hutchins resigned after having been what Commissioner F.R. Conway called, “turned down, turned over, parboiled and roasted.”

Although gathering farmers together was easy, other manufacturers railed at the idea of being linked with their competition from distant corners of the state. It was only through the commission’s public pleas for a meeting at the state fair and calls for an organization to serve the whole state that the different factions fell in line.

The association accomplished its first goal: preparing exhibits for the World’s Fair. Iowa’s building was the first one completed on the World’s Fair grounds, and the state won many prizes for its exhibits, which included a model foundry, a demonstration of the advantages of steel construction, and displays of X-ray machines and an early calculator. At the fair’s end, Iowa’s building was leveled. The Iowa Manufacturers Association, however, stuck together.

One hundred years later, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry is celebrating it century of accomplishments. Of its founding members, 13 still participate in the organization. Today the group is made up of 1,500 Iowa companies. The original 13 companies were recognized at a ceremony in May.

Later this month, ABI representatives will tour the state in a custom bus owned by Jim Tyler, chairman of Atlantic Bottling Co. And a former chairman at ABI. Atlantic Bottling is a distributor of products from Coca-Cola Co. In keeping with the theme, Tyler has outfitted his vehicle with Coca-Cola memorabilia and fixtures.

During the trip, the tour group plans to give awards to more than 70 of the organization’s members that have belonged for more than half a century. The ABI has special crystal vases for its 100-year members and smaller versions for those that have belonged for 50 years or more.

The tour bus will get on the road Aug. 25, the day on which ABI was actually founded. That day, the group plans to be at the Iowa Capitol. There, Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Congressman Jim Leach are scheduled to speak.

After the festivities, 10 association members will file the bus owned and begin the long drive. They will head to Burlington where they will hold their first ceremony. Between Aug. 25 and Aug. 29, the group will also visit Davenport, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Mason City, Fort Dodge and Sioux City. Each stop will include an awards ceremony and snacks, Aipperspach said.

Although the tour was created to recognize the ABI’s longtime members and celebrate the organization’s rich past, it also serves to catapult the group into a stronger future. Flynn Wright Inc., an advertising agency, is doing press work for the tour, and Aipperspach says he hopes more companies, taking notice of the group and how much it has accomplished, will get on board.