The following was provided by Raymond Shaefer:

Information from The Heritage of St. Thomas book - page 41
FOREST HILL HATCHERY:

Henry Luebbering started a large scale poultry business in 1930. Putting up a 24' x 200' building, he began the business by starting with 4,000 baby chicks and 2,000 laying hens. During the first few years he was strictly in the egg business, shipping them to St. Louis, New York, and Boston. By shipping to the eastern markets he could make $2.00 per case more than by selling them locally.

In 1939, Henry started the Forest Hill Hatchery for the purpose of raising and marketing pedigreed New Hampshire Reds. Marketing pedigreed breeding stock required trap nesting each individual hen. To be considered pedigreed, each hen had to lay a minimum of 200 eggs per year with the eggs averaging 24 oz. per dozen. Individual records had to be kept on each laying hen under the direct supervision of the Federal Department of Agriculture. Only these hens that qualified could then be used for pedigreed breeding.

By 1942 the Forest Hill Hatchery had an incubator capacity of 50,000 eggs. However, in 1946, the Hatchery burned to the ground destroying all the incubators and equipment inside, including three power plants. Henry at this time was generating his own electricity since the REA had not installed electric power in the community prior to this time. The reason for the fire was never determined. After the fire a new building was immediately put up to replace the other and new equipment bought.

The baby chicks from the hatchery were marketed all over the United States with the only stipulation being that they reach their destination in no more than seventy-two hours. Most were shipped by parcel post. Orders came from as far away as the Mexican Dept. of Agriculture, but this was too far. However, eggs had no shipping requirements and some were shipped as far as Angel Island in the Pacific Ocean. Most orders for the coming season were completed as early as October of the previous year.

In 1950, the Forest Hill Hatchery quit the pedigreed business but continued to hatch baby chicks until 1958. During this time most of the chicks went straight to farm flock customers. It was during this time also that the A&P stores sponsored a contest similar to State Fair competition, to determine who could raise the best broiler chickens in the state. This was really the beginning of large scale broiler business. Luebbering's, Forest Hill Hatchery, was judged to be the third best broiler producer in the state.

In 1956, Henry and Christine Luebbering were joined in partnership with their son, Gerry and Pat Luebbering. At this time they fazed out the hatchery business and went back to strictly poultry. They supplied all the independent stores in Jefferson City and some of the chain stores, including Gerbes. At this time they had approximately 5,000 hens, with each hen individually caged. Production ran around 700 dozen per week. Their highest producing hen laid 320 eggs one year. It is very unusual for a hen to lay over 300 eggs in a year's time, with the average being around 270.

In 1967, Forest Hill Hatchery, after 37 years of operation, quit the business completely. Although Henry enjoyed to work and could see progress in both the quality and quantity, the poultry business was not returning enough profit for the amount of work required. He still has all the equipment and buildings and should poultry return as a profitable enterprise, Forest Hill Hatchery may operate again.