A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 30

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

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Even to name the hundreds who have prac- ticed the different handicrafts in the county dur- ing the three-fourths of a century that have elapsed since Warren set up his forge and com- menced the manufacture of improved tomahawks for the Indians is manifestly impracticable. No greater task will be attempted than to mention the more conspicuous pioneers in each township, taking each of the important trades separately.

John D. Ross and a man named Jewett were the first blacksmiths in the county after Warren, and they located their forge near his at Lakeport in the summer of 1833. Alexander Cassiday opened his shop there in 1836. Matthew Mayes, born in 1812 in Pennsylvania, located a farm in Galena township in June, 1834, and opened a blacksmith shop at the crossroads long known as Mayes Corners which was the first forge in the north part of the county and the second outside of Lakeport, one having been set up at LaPorte during the previous winter by some person now

unknown. Benjamin Brewer ran a shop in Galena township from 1836 to 1876, by which time he was eighty years old and ready to retire from active labor. Alonzo Merrill, who died January 6, 1904, in the Soldiers' Home at Marion, Indiana, was at the forge in the same township many years, commencing in 1850. William Harris was the earliest disciple of Vulcan to locate in Scipio township, his shop at Door Village dating from 1834, and he was followed the next year by an indefinite "Mr. Cobb." Door Village was a busy and promising place in those days and several smithies were established there-John and William Reed in 1837, Roswell N. Bennett in 1838 (his shop stood where the Methodist parsonage now stands and fifteen years later he moved to Union Mills where he died in 1868). Dyer Smith and Bigsbee & Company in 1839, Chester Heald in 1840, John Parkinson in 1849; Leland Lockwood in 1855, Thomas Doyle in 1869. Springfield township's first blacksmith was Abner Ross, who started at Springville in 1834 and in the following year married Esther Rose, which was the first marriage in the town- ship. Joseph W. Field, four years a soldier, ran a shop in the same locality several years after. the war. James H. Davis began blacksmithing somewhere in the county in 1834 and later moved to Lincoln township, where he had a shop on his farm. A man named Farmer arrived in Union township in 1835 and opened the first smithy in that township at Kingsbury. He died during the "sickly season" in 1838. Robert Mecum and Charles H. Ingram followed him in the business and shops were established at Catlin's Corners, Chautauqua Corners and Big Island in the same township. Byron was regarded as a very prom- ising place in 1836, and that year W. F. Talbot erected the first frame house there and occupied it as a residence and blacksmith shop, this being the first shop in Kankakee township. In Wills township the first forge was set up by John Hampton at the village of Independence in 1836, but was continued only about a year. Puddle- town, in the same township, sprang into promi- nence twenty years later, and Manford Waters and F. D. Dugan started a blacksmith shop there and ran it three years. Clinton township came next, in 1837, and a Frenchman, called "Bushee" by his neighbors, was the first blacksmith there,

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his shop at Bigelow's Mills being in operation about ten years. In 1852 Frank Howell estab- lished a shop at the same place and in 1858 David Carpenter took up the business at Haskell station. In New Durham William B. Webber appears to have been the pioneer blacksmith, lo- cating at the village of New Durham in 1838 in connection with the Medaris wagon shop which he bought out in 1850, buying also the black- smith shop of his rival, Amos Perrin, who had succeeded Daniel Pangborn in a shop opened the preceding year. William Pathe and Michael Burgher owned the place in 1876, and now it is but a memory. Squatham, the great rival of New Durham, had a smithy also, established by Henry Herrold in 1838 or 9. Otis had no black- smith shop until Solomon Colby came in 1858, and Holmesville was not supplied until well along in the seventies, but Jesse McCord and Francis M. Howell each began the business at Westville in 1850, the latter continuing until old age over- came him forty years later. John Decker did the first blacksmithing in Noble township, com- mencing in 1838 at the long-forgotten village of Belmont and continuing there five years. Ros- well N. Bennett, called Nelson by his familiars, who was the second blacksmith in Scipio town- ship, was also the second in Noble and the first at Union Mills, where he located in 1840. He died in 1868, his son bearing the same name succeeding to the business and continuing it until 1880, when he engaged in the hardware trade with Nathan D. McCormick. In 1884 he entered the profession of law. He served as county com- missioner, 1890-1894, and died in 1904. In 1847 W. H. Worden, who had been running a shop two years at Door Village, moved to Union Mills and continued the business. His son Hiram N. joined with him when old enough and is still at the forge in the same place, the father having died some years ago. Kannable & Wheaton started a wagon and blacksmith shop at Union Mills in 1850, in 1869 W. F. Williams was in the business, and now John Bohm occupies his stand. Cool Spring, being a township of many mills, much timber and fine farms, has had many black- smiths, Collins & Bosly, at Beatty's Corners in 1842 being the earliest mentioned and Calvin G. Jenks, located at Waterford in 1879, being the latest. No records of the first establishments in

this line at Michigan City and LaPorte, both of which had shops in 1833 and 1834, have been preserved.

Soon after Henly Clyburn and his party halted near the present site of Westville in March, 1829, to found a new home, they were joined by Samuel Johnson and William Eahart, who had come from their home in Berrien county, Michi- gan. These men were not carpenters, but knew how to frame a log cabin with the ax and raise it by the application of much muscle. The first man who plied the carpenter's trade in the coun- ty was Thompson W. Francis, who was born near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1815 and died at Michi- gan City, April 17, 1880. Eearly in 1832 he came from Cincinnati to Michigan City and then - al- most immediately went to LaPorte to settle down as a carpenter. At the close of the season, how- ever, he went to St. Joseph, Michigan, for the winter, and then located in Michigan City, where he passed his entire adult life as a carpenter, architect, contractor and builder. He built the first hotel, school and church in that city, in 1834, and was engaged on many of the old-time structures. His son Harry H. Francis was the founder of the Michigan City Dispatch. Asa Harper came from Rush county, Indiana, to La- Porte in the summer of 1832 and worked as a carpenter four years. He then changed to Michi- gan City and was a cabinet-maker and ship- builder until he retired to a farm near Waterford. Charles W. Cathcart and his younger brother Henry N. arrived in LaPorte, May 13, 1833, and worked as carpenters. They built the fifth frame building in the town, and several others, the 'second in New Durham township, the Stanton Mill in Cool Spring township, and did much other construction work. Their history has been given elsewhere. Ziba Bailey, born in the state of New York in 1807, was a carpenter in LaPorte between 1836 and 1842, then settled on a farm in Pleasant township, where he died at a great age. John Logan, now living in LaPorte, was a carpenter fifty years ago. William Adair, a na- tive of Ireland, came to the county in 1852, and to Michigan City in 1856, and worked as a carpen- ter until old age forbade further labor. Orville Tryon, a Vermonter, settled in Michigan City in 1836 and saw the first vessel enter the harbor. He became a ship carpenter and spent his latter

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years on a Noble township farm. Jacob R. Hall was the first carpenter in Scipio township and built many cabins for settlers. He was a Vir- ginian and came to this county in 1833, having been a ship carpenter. He built a part of the Michigan road and was for some years in public life, dying in 1875. George W. Reynolds, carpen- ter and millwright, born in New York in 1814, came to Scipio township May 4, 1835, and built many of the early mills and houses in the county. He was a justice of the peace thirty years. His relative, Daniel Shaw, of Kingsbury, born in, ness and carried it on fifteen years. In 1849 New York in 1814, was a carpenter in Union and Noble townships and in LaPorte, commencing in 1837, and was a justice of the peace afmost continuously after 1840. He became the oldest justice in Indiana in age and length of service. James V. Hopkins was a carpenter in Springfield township in 1835 and afterwards in Michigan City. James M. Ray, born in Offio in 1806, built many houses in the county, among them the first at Westville, built for Henty Clyburn. He was a very prominent figure in county affairs for many years. Allen Cummings, of Union Mills, commenced carpenteriay in 1838 and was long active in local interests. Nelson J. Titus, pro- prietor of the Hotel at Wellsboro, began his career as a carpenter in Noble township in 1857. . Seth P. Whitney, Wehtning in 1847, was a carpenter, cooper, miller and farmer in Hudson township. One of Galena township's early carpenters was Simeon Francis, who came there in 1835. A. J. Westervelt, born in New York in 1808 and a resident of this county from 1838 until his death about twenty years ago, was a carpenter and builder sixteen years. He was county appraiser five years. Dan Leaming was the first carpenter at Wanatah and built the house in which he re- sides, it being the second house on the west side of Hog creek at that place. Truman Barnes, in Galena township, was a carpenter and cabinet- maker and had a shop in section 15, where he made black walnut coffins. He was the first un- dertaker in that community and made the first hearse for the township. It was rather a rude affair, drawn by one horse, and was in use thirty years ago.

In the first years of pioneer life the shoe- maker was wont to go from house to house in pursuit of his calling until villages began to be

settled and he could find a central location where- in to establish his shop. Probably there were shoemakers at LaPorte and Michigan City in 1834, but they are not remembered and the first in the county, as shown by the authorities, was Mr. Bronson at Door Village in 1836. He re- mained about two years and was succeeded by Albert Currier, a brother-in-law of George Tower, the local tailor at the same period. In 1838 Mr. Harrison also opened a shoe shop there and the next year J. B. Higgins took up the busi- Nathan Thurber became the cobbler at Door Vil- lage and in 1870 Claus Peterson opened a shop connected with a small store. D. K. Brickett, the postmaster, began making boots and shoes at Springville in 1837, and continued up to 1853. In 1838 Alpheus Thurber, brother of Nathan, opened a shop in the same village of Springville and was in the business about five years. John Schoening ventured into the business there in 1868 and remained about ten years. Mr. Spar- row was the pioneer shoemaker at Independence, in 1837, and twenty years later L. C. Van Dusen opened a shop at Puddletown, in the same town- ship, which he continued until 1874, after which he kept a store in the same place until 1880. Mr. Van Dusen enlisted in the army as a saddler in 1863 and after six weeks was sent home on ac- count of ill health and told to await further orders; but his orders never came and he was never discharged, and forty years' pay is still due. Hudson's first shoemaker was Richard Smith, who began in 1838 and was followed in 1845 by Wm. Ferguson, and he in 1869 by Ed. Perry. Elisha Taylor started the making of shoes at Union Mills in 1841, and Morton & Booth engaged in it quite extensively in 1854, selling out in 1869 to Joseph Bailey. Richard Smith, 1843 to 1855 at New Durham, was ap- parently the pioneer cobbler in that township. Joseph H. Irwin and Herman Schultz were in the business at Westville a quarter of a century ago and Welcome Jerome, who was there then, is still in the trade. Addison J. Phillips, 1842 to 1844: John P. Mills, 1842 to 1857: William J. Smith, 1852 to 1862, and Mathias Kreidler, 1854 to 1856, were among the early shoemakers in La- Porte, and John Ordung is the oldest now en- gaged there in the business, having a record of

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thirty years. George E. P. Dodge & Company had a prison labor contract and manufactured boots and shoes a few years in the eighties at Michigan City, and the convicts at the prison now make their own shoes. The Dodge factory was the only establishment the county has ever had producing boots and shoes for the trade. At one time Mr. C. T. Dibble, who has just cele- brated his eightieth birth day, manufatured boots and shoes in Michigan City.

Not many of the early tailors are now re- membered. Robert Stanfield at Lakeport in 1837, Thomas Wood at the same place in 1839, William Costello at Independence in 1837, George Tower at Door Village in 1838, David Christman who sold out to James Flood and William Johnson at New Durham in 1839, Winters & Rogers at Union Mills in 1843 and Isaac Johnson, their successor, in 1848, Joseph Eddy in Cool Spring township, and Thomas Holman in Springfield, comprise the list of pioneer tailors who are now known.

Clayton Weaver, a prominent farmer who died recently at his home near Stillwell, was a mason in 1855 and worked on Shep Crumpacker's sawmill near Westville. John Ebert was a well known pioneer mason in Cool Spring township and lived to be quite old. George Seffens was the first regular plasterer in the county and plastered the first frame buildings erected in LaPorte, Michigan City and Door Village. He came to the county in 1833 and worked at his trade until 1860, making his home at first on Rolling Prairie, and at the latter date he moved to a farm in Center township, where he died. He was born in England in 1815, and his father brought to this country the first machinery for the manufacture of woolens that ever left the shores of England, and established the first woolen mill in the United States.

James Ray, a Hudson township farmer who had learned the trade when young, had a small shop at his home and did gunsmithing for his neighbors, beginning about 1853. Gordon's gun- smith shop at Bigelow's Mills, established in 1854, served a wide region for a long time. Berridge's shop at Union Mills was opened in 1866. Samuel J. Fosdick, a practical gunmaker, opened a place in LaPorte in 1849 and was succeeded in 1881 by his son, Charles R. Fosdick, who had learned

the trade under the parent's eye. Roman Eich- staedt has for many years been the gunmaker and repairer for Michigan City sportsmen.

Anson Harvey commenced the harness-mak- ing business at Union Mills in 1844 and two years later Archibald McAllister embarked in the same business at New Durham. No other ven- ture in this line is noted until 1864, when J. Jacob- son opened a shop at Bigelow's Mills. In 1874 Pope C. Weed and Henry Booth established a shop at Union Mills. In 1876 E. R. Fetzer was a harness-maker and policeman in LaPorte. Knuth & Company had a harness shop and grocery combined and W. Knuth was a saddler and harness-maker. William F. Mann, who was born in New York in 1836 and was a surveyor in the government service three years, came to LaPorte in 1873 and established a harness factory near the north end of Indiana avenue. He died about 1882. Under his tutelage his son Frank C. Mann, a former treasurer of the county, learned something of the business and was pre- pared to take his present place as an owner, director and manager of the extensive business of the LaPorte Harness Company. Here also we must mention the John Lonn Sons Company of LaPorte, extensive manufacturers of har- nesses ..

In a region so abundantly supplied with tim- ber suited to his use it was natural that the cooper should come early to LaPorte county and drive a prosperous trade. Two shops were set up at Hudson in the year 1833, one by Samuel Elliott, the other by E. Sprague, and a few years. later Seth P. Whitney was a carpenter and cooper in the same township, continuing until about 1880. D. L. Jackson had a cooper shop on his farm near Waterford during forty years, be- . ginning in 1837, and in the same neighborhood Eli Smith and N. W. Blackman emulated his example later. Mr. Smith was born on the At- lantic ocean and had quite an interesting life, one of the chief incidents in which he participated being the capture of the famous General Morgan. In 1840 a man who is remembered only as Mr. Clement opened a cooper shop at Union Mills and did well for several years. A. B. Wolfe was in the trade ten years, ending in 1865, at Beatty's Corners. At LaPorte there have been several small shops, one of which was fostered, if not

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owned, by Jacob Early, the flour miller and dis- tiller. J. C. Fisher, Charles A. Lindgren, B. Byberg and Henry P. Smith are named among the LaPorte coopers.

Robert Curran, an Irishman, born in 1822, was the earliest barrel maker in Michigan City of whom any record remains. He started a shop there in 1840 and ran it until the gold fever took him to California ten years later. Being success- ful at the mines he returned in 1868 and bought a farm at Waterford, where he died. The cooper- age operations of the late John H. Winterbotham at Michigan City far exceeded those of all others in the county combined and the firm of J. H. Winterbotham & Sons has long stood among the leading manufacturing institutions of northern Indiana. The founder of this house was born in Connecticut in 1815, moved to Ohio fourteen years later with his parents, married Miss Mahala Rosecrans there, and commenced his manufac- turing career as a prison contractor at Columbus, Ohio. Later he contracted for prison labor at Fort Madison, Iowa, and located there, remaining thirteen years, a portion of which time he was president of a national bank. In July, 1866, he came to Michigan City and bought an interest in the prison contract held by Jones & Chapin, who had succeeded Hayward & DeWolfe, cooperage manufacturers, and he set about extending the business and adding largely to the number of convicts included in the lease for labor. He bought his partners out in 1869 and took in his sons, John R. and Joseph, with whom John G. Mott became associated later. A large prison labor lease at Joliet, Illinois, was subsequently taken by the firm and offices were opened in Chicago. Cooperage and carriage bodies consti- tuted their product. Mr. Winterbotham was elected state senator on the Greeley ticket in 1872 and took a very active interest in political affairs as well as in the progress of Michigan City. He was the donor of the handsome monument in that city erected to the memory of Indiana's Union soldiers. In many ways Michigan City has benefited by his public-spirited munificence. By 1842 much was done in LaPorte in the line of barrel making, especially pork barrels, thou- sands of which were shipped to the Chicago market.

In the autumn of 1831 Jeremiah Willson, a

tanner and currier and just of age, came from Vigo county and set up a tannery on Hudson lake, in which business he continued three years, and then, having married a daughter of John E. Wills, he followed the advice of his father-in- law and became a farmer. About twenty years later he bought the farm where he died, in Cass township. He was a lieutenant in Garret Bias's militia company, elsewhere mentioned, and in 1853 he was sworn as captain of Company E, First Regiment, Ninth Military district of Indiana, to serve six years. He was deputy sheriff, constable and township trustee, and the father `of thirteen, four of whom lived to be grown. There is nothing to show what became of this pioneer tannery when Mr. Willson changed his occupation. Joseph C. Orr was the second tanner in the county and his place of business was in Michigan City, where he also ran a hotel in a log cabin. He started both ventures in 1834. Afterward he moved to New Cincinnati, Wisconsin, where he died. Then, in 1835, Aaron Conklin, an arrival of the preced- ing year, set up in the trade at Springville, selling out four years later to Leslie Rose, with whom in 1841 he formed a partnership to buy the store of Russell & Torrey. Rose sold the tannery to Ira C. Nye, father of Lieutenant Governor Mortimer Nye, who conducted it profitably many years. In the early days Joshua L. Wilson had a tannery near the pond that stood then at the west end of State street in LaPorte. In 1854 Christian Hauser bought the business, gave it the name of the Old Line tannery and continued it about thirty years. Gustavus A. Lell, later a farmer in Cool Spring township, was an assistant in the business a part of that time. Debre Brothers and Abbott, Bour & Company were the Michigan City tanners of the later days.

There is some evidence that brick was manu- factured in LaPorte county as early as in 1832. Levi J. Benedict, who came to the county in 1829, the year he entered his teens, kept several interesting relics while he lived, among them be- ing a piece of brick which he maintained was burnt in 1832 in the first kiln in the county. The location of that kiln and the name of its pro- prietor are unknown. The earliest brickmaking in the county of which any definite mention is made was by James. V. Hopkins, a carpenter who

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came to Springville in Springfield township, in 1835 from Ohio and made some brick for the purpose of building a tavern at that place. He sold out to Ingraham Gould, and after spending a little time at LaPorte and in Porter county lo- cated at Michigan City, ultimately buying the farm where he died, not far from the place of his proposed brick tavern. In 1833 contracts were let for the erection of a brick court house in La- Porte and for a log jail to be set on a foundation of hard burnt brick, and it has been said purely on conjecture, that the brick so used was brought by schooner from some distant point to Michigan City and thence hauled overland by wagon. But in view of the presence of suitable clay close at hand and of the ease with which brick could be made, it is more reasonable to suppose that Simon G. Bunce, the court-house contractor, made his own brick, or had it made, not far from LaPorte. The specifications of the court-house viewed in connection with the contract price, $3,970, almost preclude the theory that the brick could have been transported by water and wagon any considerable distance, and Mr. Benedict's statement proves that local kilns were burned at about that time. It is also a fact that brick chimneys were built in LaPorte and vicinity while the public buildings were under construction, and the Methodists built a brick church in the city in 1836, the first house of worship in the place, indicating that brick was reasonably cheap and therefore homemade. The names of the early brickmakers have not been preserved, but the Hoover brothers, Isaac and John D., began the business about 1856 and the family is still con- ducting it on an extensive scale in Center town- ship, where it originated. Later Conden Brothers & Company (C. J. F., C. B. and A. R. Conden, the last a lieutenant in the United States navy, and J. S. Hopper, head of the lumber firm of J .S. Hopper & Son) established the large yards and kilns now owned by Roeske Brothers, about three miles east of Michigan City, being the most extensive brick industry in the county. For many years M. R. Forney carried on the brick business and burnt extensive kilns on his farm on the northwest part of section 23 in Center township, north of LaPorte, but a few years ago he gave up the business. A patent process for producing sand brick is now in use by the American Pressed

Brick Company in Michigan City, who are turn- ing out a fine article. The brick is of a grayish white, not having the yellowish tint of the Mil- waukee brick, more resembling stone, and pre- sents an elegant appearance. The new and ex- tensive Cable Piano Factory of LaPorte and the new Catholic hospital of Michigan City are built of this brick. Tne sand dunes of Michigan City furnish abundant material and if much building is done with this brick, as seems likely, LaPorte county will put on an appearance as unique and beautiful as Milwaukee. The American Pressed Brick Company began business in 1903, and is a desirable and useful acquisition to Michigan City and the county.

Without alluding to the enormous business that has been done in cutting and shipping ice at the LaPorte lakes, some space must be given to the new plant of the Michigan City Ice and Cold Storage Company, commenced in the latter part of 1903 and put in operation in February, 1904. This is said to be the largest and com- pletest plant of the kind in Indiana. Airtight cans containing filtered and distilled water are im- mersed in salt brine from which the heat is ex- tracted by the circulation through it of com- pressed ammonia in iron pipes, and 400-pound blocks of pure ice are thus produced. Dr. J. B. Rogers is president of the company, William C. Schultz and Dr. F. R. Warren are vice presidents, H. W. Gielow secretary and treasurer, and Clar- ence Monahan superintendent and general man- ager. Dr. H. W. Wilson, William Miller, Will- iam E. Gielow and August W. Harbart, complete the directorate. Daniel W. Brown, of Indian- apolis, a former sheriff of La Porte county, organ- ized the company but dropped out before the plant was completed.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 30

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