A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 28

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

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And not only maple sugar and syrup but sor- ghum syrup was made. In the spring of 1857 Hon. Schuyler Colfax sent to Mr. J. Sutherland, from the patent office in Washington, a small package of sorghum seed. Mr. Sutherland drilled it in rows three feet ten inches apart, and planted a sixteenth of an acre. From the cane he made twenty-four gallons of molasses. Afterward for some years Mr. Sutherland, who was an officer of the LaPorte Savings Bank and president of the State Agricultural Society, attended every state fair at Indianapolis and observed no im- provement in the making of sorghum syrup. It had a strong, pecular taste and the general opin- ion was that unless some means of removing this and refining the syrup could be found, it would not come into general use. In 1861 when prices, that of sugar included, went up on account of the war, men began to cast about with renewed earnestness for some way of refining sorghum

syrup. In this Mr. Aaron H. Miller of this county, was probably the most successful. He ran the syrup through bone charcoal which ex- tracted all the vegetable matter and the peculiar greenish taste, and left an article the taste of' which satisfied the most fastidious. One difficulty was that the charcoal must be burned over ; but this was not expensive, adding only about ten cents a gallon, and it was practicable. Many citizens at once began bringing their syrup to Mr. Miller to get it refined. He not only invented the.refinery, but a rotary sugar evaporator, and wherever it was introduced and its practical workings observed it was pronounced superior to every other, and took the precedence even in Illinois where Cook's evaporator was invented and where its proprietors lived. The price of each evaporator was $50. These inventions were important, as sorghum was cultivated extensively during the high price of sugar. No man did as much to bring it into general use as Mr. Miller by these inventions. For several years he devot- ed his entire time, energy, means and attention to making this improvement. In 1861 enough syrup was raised to supply the population. Mr. Luther Rhodes also made a very fine article, though on a smaller scale. But local conditions did not favor the production of the cane and its cultiva- tion was abandoned.

On Tuesday, April 15, 1862, at 1 o'clock p. m., a meeting was held in the court house for the purpose of forming a joint stock company and erecting buildings and making other neces- sary arrangements to refine syrup and sugar from sorghum or Chinese sugar cane. Farmers and others were invited to attend and come prepared to inform the meeting as to how much sorghum each one would plant and cultivate that year in the county. If sufficient encouragement was given a refinery was to be built. The meeting was called by A. H. Miller, N. Gleason, R. Munday and others. The meeting adjourned to Saturday April 26, and spent itself mostly in discussion. The following December the matter was taken up again and some actual steps were taken to build a refinery in LaPorte. Negotations were entered into with Mr. R. W. Bender, a practical refiner, for a number of years connected with Belcher's sugar houses in Chicago, who consented to come to LaPorte provided certain aid were ex-

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tended to him, and a certain amount of cane were raised in the county. By A. H. Miller, R. Mun- day, S. Harvey, B. M. Newkirk, and others, a meeting was called to be held at the court house on Saturday, December 28, but it seems that the people adopted the plan of sending their syrup to Mr. Bender's refinery in Chicago to be refined at a cost of ten cents per gallon, and of course freight charges.

There was a time when the subject of hemp culture was agitated in the county. In 1848 Mr. S. MacDonald wrote to the Hon. C. W. Cathcart, who sent from Washington copious information and directions on hemp culture, published by David Myerle, who was considered an expert on the subject. Much interest was awakened, but the citizens did not enter into the culture of hemp to any great extent.

In 1842 some efforts were made in the direc- tion of silk culture. It was argued that this re- quired no very great skill, which was a fact. It was found that the mulberry could be cultivated "as easily as currant bushes,"that no more science was required in raising the worms "than in rais- ing a litter of pigs," and that, while more skill and better machinery than the common house reel were required in reeling the cocoons, any intelligent housewife could reel a very good silk thread for home use. Beyond this the culture of silk would not be profitable, though it was aruged that it would become profitable if the United States government would properly protect the in- dustry. At one time in Clinton township the culture of mulberry trees and the raising of silk- worms received considerable attention. In Sep -* tember, 1846, the commissioner's court ordered that Peter Doolittle of Clinton township, be al- lowed the sum of $2.25 as a bounty on fifteen pounds of silk cocoons, as per the certificate of William Moorman, a justice of the peace of La- Porte county.

Bog iron ore was once a product of the coun- ty. This is, or was, plentiful in certain marshy places along the Kankakee river, and about Mich- igan City. In 1847 preparations were made and during the following year a blast furnace was erected in LaPorte for the purpose of smelting the ore. C. W. Pomeroy was the leader of the enterprise. This furnace stood about on the pres- ent site of the King & Fildes woolen mill, and

some of the slag may be found to-day in Clear lake, where it used to be dumped from the furn- ace. The furnace, however, was in operation but a comparatively short time. Much wood and charcoal were required, the cost of transporting these and the raw material was great, and hence the cost of smelting was too expensive. It was impossible to compete with other furnaces. Bet- ter facilities and new and improved methods of mining and smelting elsewhere rendered the smelting of bog iron impracticable. The old smelting furnace was consumed by fire on Mon- day afternoon, April 7, 1862 ..

One of the leading natural products of the county is ice. The production of and trade in this article are enormous. The father of this in- dustry in this county was John Hilt, who came to LaPorte from Carroll county, Ohio, in the early fifties. The packing of ice for summer use was his first business venture. At that time the use of ice was not general as now, but confined to a comparatively few families who could afford luxuries. Mr. Hilt by diligent canvassing se- cured a sufficient number of customers to con- sume his very limited stock, and delivered ice to them daily during the summer season. In May, 1857, we find him advertising that the warm weather will soon be here and he has stored three hundred cords of ice which he proposes to dis- tribute through the city for 371/2 cents per hun- dred pounds; or, if a less quantity is taken, for one-half cent per pound. But the business stead- ily grew and in 1864, Mr. Hilt found himself financially able to go to California, and thence to Moline, Illinois. In 1871 he returned to LaPorte and became associated with Volney T. Malott, Esq., of Indianapolis, general manager of the Indianapolis, Peru and Chicago Railroad, for the packing of ice and shipping it to southern mark- ets. Extensive ice houses were built on the shore of Clear lake, and immense stocks of ice were stored for the summer trade. In a few years the business developed into one of the largest indus- tries of the kind in the world. The company soon had twenty-six ice houses, and stored an- nually over fifty thousand tons, the whole of which was shipped away.

In 1877 more ice was shipped from LaPorte than from any other place west of the Hudson river. The magnitude of the ice traffic was

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scarcely understood or appreciated even by the people of LaPorte. It furnished employment to a large number of men both summer and winter and was a special advantage in that it furnished work for a large number of laborers at a season when most other kinds of labor were scarce. During the storing season the firm of Mark S. Thompson & Company, who shipped exclusively to the Chicago market, employed about two hun- dred and fifty men, and kept twelve teams at work cutting and scraping the ice. This com- pany stored seventy thousand tons during the winter of 1876-7, and one thousand three hundred and sixty-seven carloads were shipped to Chi- cago, a portion of which was stored there. In April they had fifty thousand tons in their ice houses near LaPorte; and were shipping it away at the rate of ten carloads a week. During the summer they shipped from twenty-five to thirty carloads a day, and gave employment to about thirty men. They handled their ice almost ex- clusively by machinery, using the best and latest improvements of that time. Much of the ma- chinery which they used was of their own inven- tion, and many ice dealers throughout the coun- try were indebted to this enterprising firm for improved methods of handling the crystal blocks to the best advantage. They used a twenty-five. horsepower engine and a double elevator at their Clear lake houses, and at their Stone lake houses they used a sixty-five horsepower engine with three double elevators. They shipped direct from their houses to the cars and did all thir loading with machinery invented by themselves. They marketed nearly all their ice during the season.

The Northern Lake Ice Company of Louis- ville, put up about ten thousand tons. Their houses were located on the west bank of Clear lake. They used first class improved machinery throughout and shipped entirely to southern markets.

The Talmage Lake Ice Company had their houses on the south bank of Clear lake, at the foot of Detroit street. Their houses had a storage capacity of seventeen thousand tons and were all well filled. They had first-class facilities for handling ice, using steam power and loading directly into cars. They shipped wholly to Louis- ville.

The Hilt Ice Company had their largest

houses on Fish Trap lake and on the extreme north bank of Clear lake. They shipped entirely . to southern markets, Indianapolis being their chief place for selling. They shipped more or less during the entire season. Their business was incorporated in 1883 as the John Hilt Lake Ice Company, and it continued to grow. The very cost of cutting and packing the product formed by natural process out of the pure water of the lake, was immense, and put a large amount of money in circulation. The facilities for ship- ping enjoyed by the company permitted the dis- tribution of enormous dividends, and profits equal to the capital were speedily divided. It was a fortunate enterprise, inaugurated at the proper time, and managed with business ability in the interest of the stockholders.

At one time John Huttenlocker had an ice house on the east side of Clear lake, and J. H. Robertson one on the north side. Cromie and Harris of Lafayette built ice houses, and later on took the name of the Northern Lake Ice Com- pany of Louisville, Kentucky. These, however, have given way to the two great concerns which now monopolize the trade ; namely, the John Hilt Lake Ice Company, and the Knickerbocker Ice Company. The first houses of the Knickerbocker Company were built by Mark S. Thompson & Company, of Chicago. This afterward became the Washington Ice Company, and finally was consolidated with the Knickerbocker. The Metropolitan Ice Company, which built houses on the south shore of Clear lake, was also con- solidated with the Knickerbocker, and its houses torn down.

The Hilt company have three immense houses containing respectively five, six, and eight rooms. They store between fifty thousand and sixty thousand tons annually. Of this, LaPorte re- quires from seven to eight thousand tons; the remainder goes to the wholesale trade; sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, according as orders may be obtained and contracts made. There is seldom a market for the whole of it. During 1903 the most of it was shipped to Mich- igan for use in the fruit business. The Knicker- bocker Ice Company have two houses and store annually from seventy to eighty thousand tons, all of which goes to Chicago. On the shores of Fish lake, in Lincoln township, Swift & Company

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of Chicago have three large houses, and store from one hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand tons for the Chicago trade. There also are Haddon's ice houses on the shore of Clear lake west of Westville. Michigan City also has one ice house at the harbor, owned by George Switzer, and one on Roeske's pond owned by Judson Alexander, both for local trade. They both together store probably about ten thousand tons annually. In addition to these a plant has been established recently in Michigan City for the manufacture of artificial ice.

It should be borne in mind that handling such immense quantities of ice, where so much capital is involved, requires great wisdom and experience. One-third of the whole stock must be allowed for waste, and if the shipping is slow one-third will not cover the waste. When the stock is kept over a year, the loss is from four to six feet on the surface. If it is kept over until the third year it must be handled very carefully, which adds to the expense; for it has become practically a solid block of ice. It may pay to keep ice over if the following year nature does not provide a good stock and ice is scarce and the price high, but who can know? there is much of speculation in it. And yet it is estimated by one who is thoroughly trained in the business that, taking into consideration everything-the expense of cutting, storing, shipping, transportation and dis- tribution the ice industry of this county puts into circulation about $1,000,000 annually.

In addition to their ice business, Swift & Company, of Chicago, recently have started an- other industry. They are taking muck from Fish lake, transporting it to Chicago, mixing blood, lime, etc., with it, and thus manufacturing what is said to be an excellent fertilizer ; to what pro- portion this industry may grow, it is difficult to tell.

Of late years another industry has grown up at Michigan City. The sand which has been washed up from Lake Michigan and piled moun- tains high, has been found useful in polishing plate glass, and also in stove and range factories. The Lake Erie and Western Railroad ships over three thousand carloads of this sand annually to the south, the Monon ships about the same quan- tity in the same direction, and the Michigan Cen- tral ships over two thousand, five hundred car-

loads east to Detroit and other places. Here is a total of over eight thousand, five hundred car- loads of sand annually. The raw material costs nothing, and so brings no income to the county ; but the business requires labor in loading and transportation, and hence is a benefit; and while there is practically an inexhaustible amount of sand, yet under this steady demand some of the sand dunes on our lake shore are diminishing very noticeably. Hoosier Slide is not nearly as high and large as it used to be.

All this, to say nothing of the fact that about three miles north of LaPorte there is a vein of clay which is well adapted to the making of bricks, which has given rise to quite an industry in that line. But as this chapter treats of natural and not of manufactured products, brickmaking properly belongs under another head, where it will be suitably mentioned.

In February, 1886, coal was found in the county. Probably this was not the only instance. H. L. Holloway, in Kankakee township, in dig- ging a well sixty feet deep, found large quantities of soft coal. Joseph Stanton, while plowing in a field about forty rods away, found quantities of the same material. Copper has also been found in the same locality. Great expectations were raised, but the discovery came to naught. By whatever means coal or copper was deposited in that locality, it is not likely that either will be found in any paying quantity at sixty feet, in a glacial drift, of nearly twice that depth.

In the fall and winter of 1903-4, Peter Hack, a well known and respected citizen of Springfield township, determined to bore for oil. He had found indications on his farm of the presence of the valuable product. He sank a well to the depth of two hundred and seventy feet, when the drill struck hard rock. This well was abandoned and another sunk some distance away, in the hope of avoiding the rock; but the second well struck it at about the same depth. The drills in use could not penetrate the rock, and at last accounts Mr. Hack had sent to Chicago for others. Such efforts are far from in vain, however, they may result ; but, while we should not be too sure, yet by a reference to Chapter I, it will be seen that the strong probability is that neither gas nor oil will be found in any paying quantities in LaPorte county.

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Another product of LaPorte county is marl, or merle as some call it, which exists in paying deposits ; though as yet no factory has been erect- ed for utilizing it. Marl is namely carbonate of lime, of shapeless or irregular form. Other ele- ments may be combined with it chemically, and other substances may be mixed with it mechan- ically, but in proportion as this is the case the article is not pure. In the wet or damp state in which it exists in lakes or marshes, its color varies from a milky white to a dark brown, according as more or less of muck or other substances are mixed with it. On being exposed to the air, wet marl, which was at first white, turns to a blueish color on account of some chemical change. On drying, it becomes lighter in color, varying from slate to a light drab. The purest forms when dry are are white or cream colored. The grains or particles vary from granules to a fine powder and cohere very loosely. They effervesce and disappear in acid, leaving only small particles of insoluble organic material. Marl may and often does contain remains of shells, fishes, etc., but these are not necessarily any part of the marl itself. They sustain the same relation to the marl that fossils do to rocks. In other words, if the marl should become hardened into rock, the shells and fishes imbedded in it would be its fossils.

Marl is found only in existing or extinct lakes. When taken out of the water. it is of about the consistency of soft butter, though in many places it has not settled even to this con- sistency, but though appearing solid on the lake bottom, it is in reality very loose and easily stirred up, but as quickly settles again. When taken out of marshes or extinct lakes it is more solid and may be cut out and handled in blocks but with difficulty, as it sticks to the shovel. These blocks tend to settle down as dough would do, but not to become flat. Thus the consistency of marl varies from the undeposited loose material to that which may be handled in blocks.

Marl is used for several purposes, first as an ingredient in making Portland cement. A fac- tory with a capacity of making five hundred bar- rels daily, costs about $350.000, and to make this pay, there should be enough marl near by to last thirty years. A deposit of marl ten feet thick and one hundred and sixty acres in area, would

last such a factory that length of time, and hence is said to be workable deposits, or in a quantity which it will pay to work.

Marl is used also as a fertilizer of soils. When a soil has only one-half to one per cent. of the lime content, marl may be useful; when it has only one-quarter to one-half per cent. marl is certainly useful ; when it has less than one-quarter of one per cent. marl or some other liming is absolutely necessary. Most Indiana soils are clay loomy, or prairie soils and contain a sufficient quantity of lime; but the light sandy soils of the north are benefited by marl, and so, often, are mucky soils; for though these contain a requisite quanity of lime, it is not in the proper compound but is inert, and the effect of lime on such "sour" soils it to set up fermentation and promote de- composition and set inert elements free and make them productive. But marls contain little plant food and used alone are often a mere stimulant. The old saying holds good, "lime without manure makes the father rich and the son poor." Hence the value of marls in not sufficient to justify shipping them over long distance; they can be used with profit only in the vicinity where they are found. They are most useful in raising clover, peas, beans, grass, potatoes, corn and root crops, and for these crops the lighter soils of the north are especially adapted, and fortunately the marl deposits are near these.

Marl is used as a means of improving the mechanical condition of soils. Many clay soils when wet with rain do not allow the water to pass through with sufficient rapidity, they become water-logged and the air cannot penetrate them, they cake in dry weather, are difficult to till and the roots of the plants cannot come up through them. One of the best remedies for this is marl, which in time will also cement the particles of sandy soil together, causing the better retention of heat and moisture. Many of the beneficial effects of this lime deposit upon the mechanical condition of the soil are so minute that they can be observed only under a most powerful micro- scope, but they are exceedingly interesting and instructive.

Marl is used as a mineral food for poultry, supplying the necessary lime for the formation of egg shells, which the ordinary foods do not supply. No form of lime is more convienient, as

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it is in a state of fine division and easily assimilated. Farmers in the vicinity of marl de- posits have hauled up a load two or three times a year and put it where the fowls had free access to it, and they report that the chickens lay much better during the winter season.

Another use of marl is as a polishing powder for the scouring of silver, brass and other metallic articles. For this a powder is required, which is in a free state of division, of light weight and free from grit and other impurities, the very description of much of our marl; or at least it can be made so by grinding it when dry.

Marl has often been used as a material for the manufacture of ordinary quick lime for building purposes. In an early day, when lime was scarce, marl was the substitute. Large quantities of lime were made from it in St. Joseph county, much of which doubtless found its way into LaPorte county and was used here.

Marl may be used also in the place of lime- stone, in the manufacture of beet sugar. During the process of making sugar, lime is added to the juice of the beets, then carbonic acid gas is forced into the liquid, which, when released, precipitates the excess of lime, carrying down with it many of the impurities. It is the opinion of experts that marl can be used for this. From these seven uses, some of them exceedingly lucrative, it will be seen that marl is a very valuable deposit.

In Indiana marl is found only in the glacial drift, and in workable deposits only in the three northern tiers of counties. This is a significant fact which gives us a clue to its origin and forma- tion. When the great glaciers, for thousands and thousands of years, slowly plowed their way down from the vicinity of Hudson Bay, as de- scribed in the first chapter, they ground up much of the limestone which lay in their way, and took it along with them. When they melted, it was deposited and there in the earth it has been ever since. Vast deposits of this are in the hills and higher grounds surrounding our lakes. Carbonic acid will hold this lime in solution. Now rain water, absorbing a part of the gaseous carbon di-oxide of the air, as it does on its way to the earth, is a very weak form of carbonic acid. This soaks into the earth and wherever it comes in contact with limestone it dissolves and holds in solution a certain quantity of the carbonate of

lime, forming bi-carbonate of lime. This is what makes the hard water or limewater which we get from our wells. In many instances these under- ground veins of water break forth in springs and feed our lakes from below. When we put the water into our tea kettles and boil it, the heat sets free the carbon, and precipitates the lime, which forms a coating very much like marl on the bottom and sides of the kettle. Now each lake is a big tea kettle; that is to say, the water in the lake is much warmer than that which flows into it through the springs, and the consequence is that much of the carbon is set free, and the lime is precipitated forming marl which settles, is afterwards often covered with muck, and after being ages under pressure becomes hard. Hence it is that the larger deposits of marl are always found near these springs and not on the line of the surface streams which flow into or out of the lake. There are certain plants also which grow under water and absorb the carbon from the water and build it up into their own tissue and allow the lime to be deposited on their branches and else- where. Hence it is that marl is found on these aquatic plants. What has been written may give a general idea of the nature, uses, origin and formation of marl.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 28

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273