USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume I > Part 31
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Elkhart Council No. 79, Royal and Select Masters, was chartered twenty years after the commandery, or to be more exact, on October 19, 1904. Its thrice illustrious masters : Herbert A. Graham, George B. Hoopingarner and Amandus M. Smith. Membership about 125. Starlight Chapter No. 181, Order of the Eastern Star, was organ- ized under charter dated April 23, 1896. Its worthy matrons have been : Juliette A. Stone, Franc Finn (past grand matron), Alice Car- penter, Martha McMillan, Ida Sanford, Adelaid Wishart, Elizabeth Floyd, Aimee Rush, Alice Straw, Lodema Sanders, Mary Sanborn, Sybil Bird, Beulah Rowan, Edna Burns and Gertrude Strego. Worthy patrons : Isaac Nadel, G. B. Hoopingarner, L. D. Sanford, C. A. Davisson, Edward Goard, Frank Towsley, J. O. Goff, A. M. Smith, Richard Turnock and J. G. Schact. Starlight Chapter has a membership of about 280.
THE BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS
None of the orders has made more substantial progress within the past twenty years than the Elks. Elkhart Lodge No. 425, of that order, was installed March 30, 1898, with twenty-seven charter members. Its present membership is about 600. The first exalted ruler of the Elkhart Lodge was R. C. Barney; the one now in the chair, H. C. Knight. Its property, or Temple, on South Main Street, with its handsome and commodious rooms for ritual, social and rest purposes, represents an investment of approximately $100,000.
THE WOODMEN AND THE FORESTERS
The Modern Woodmen of the World, Independent Order of Foresters and other orders have also old and tried organizations, the Foresters having been instituted since 1893.
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS AND RATHBONE SISTERS
The first Knights of Pythias body was Elkhart Lodge No. 75, instituted October 29, 1877, and the Uniform Rank of a later day is known as Elkhart Company No. 18. Elkhart Temple No. 14, Rath- bone Sisters, the women's auxiliary, was instituted in May, 1890.
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KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF THE MACCABEES
Elkhart Tent No. 3, Knights of the Maccabees, was chartered February 26, 1886, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen (Elkhart Lodge No. 23) in April, 1888.
The Ladies of the Maccabees are also very strong, their organ- ization (Indiana Hive No. 22) being formed in February, 1895, by Mary M. Danforth, supreme medical examiner, of Port Huron, Michigan.
PATRIOTIC BODIES
Elkhart has been industrious in organizing and supporting various organizations of patriotic origin connected mainly with the Grand Army of the Republic for the past thirty-five years.
Elmer Post No. 37, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized and mustered in, November 8, 1881, and the Women's Relief Corps connected with it in May, 1885. Shiloh Field Post and the Relief Corps were founded in 1883 and 1884, respectively.
Frank Baldwin Circle No. 14, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, was instituted in August, 1896.
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
The first industrial organization to be formed in Elkhart was the German Workingman's Society, in 1873. It had its own hall on South Main Street. In 1883 the first of the brotherhoods connected with the railroads was formed-Prospect Lodge No. 162-the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, in June of that year; in April of the following year John Hill Division No. 248, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, was organized and ladies' auxiliaries of them both were formed in the early 'gos. The cigar makers, metal pol- ishers and brass workers, tailors, retail clerks and others came into line with their unions, also in the 'gos, and such movements were so strong in the later portion of that decade that in 1900 (February Ioth) the Central Labor Union of Elkhart was organized under the charter of the American Federation of Labor.
ELKHART LECTURE ASSOCIATION
While Elkhart's character as an industrial center has fostered the growth of industrial organizations somewhat at the expense of purely social and literary clubs, there was one association which was
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an intellectual stimulus to all classes for a period of forty years. The Elkhart Lecture Association, to which reference is obviously made, both in its inception and growth, was largely due to E. C. Bickel, who is mainly responsible for the facts which follow.
Although the Elkhart Lecture Association was organized in 1879, the real foundation of the movement dates back to 1875, when E. C. Bickel, as secretary of the Elkhart Lecture Union, succeeded in securing a strong lecture course for the winter, and Mr. Bickel has been identified with the lecture movement in the city since that time. This first season's attractions were secured after a lengthy correspondence, it being before the day of lecture bureaus, from whom a full line of attractions can now be secured. During this first winter the citizens gathered to listen to a splendid list of plat- form celebrities. General Kilpatrick, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Professor Winchell, Abbie Sage Richardson and Hon. Will Cumback. No season tickets were sold and the venture was carried through at a financial loss. Three years passed before the infant movement was revived. It was in the fall that a number of citizens gathered together for the purpose of securing talent. At this meeting a plan was formulated which has been in operation ever since. A committee was chosen and organized as follows: Pres- ident, S. Maxon ; secretary and treasurer, E. C. Bickel ; Rev. M. W. Darling, J. S. Rice, D. H. Christophel and E. H. Jenkins. Season tickets were placed on sale after a course had been selected and from that time for many years, the association steadily grew stronger. After thirty-two years of splendid work it was merged into the Chautauqua movement.
The average number of entertainments was twelve each year and their scope was even broader than the title of the association implies, as concerts of a high order are given as well as lectures, both by home and national talent. The reputation of the Elkhart Lecture Association extended far, not a few who held its platform having names of world-wide fame. During the nearly forty years of its life such celebrities appeared in its courses as Henry Ward Beecher, Lyman Abbott, Mary A. Livermore, Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Justin McCarthy, Susan B. Anthony, T. Dewitt Talmadge, Lew Wallace, Frank W. Gunsaulus, John B. Gough, Joseph Cook, Rob- ert Collyer, John Henry Barrows, James B. Angell, Murat Hal- stead, Emil G. Hirsch, George Kennan, James Whitcomb Riley, Alexander Winchell, Hiram W. Thomas, F. Hopkinson Smith, Vol. 1-23
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David Swing, Anna Shaw, Clara Lonise Kellogg, Richard A. Proc- tor, Robert J. Burdette, George B. Cable, Bill Nye, George C. Lor- imer and S. P. Leland.
"Although I have lectured from Maine to Oregon, I have never met the equal of the Elkhart Association," were the words used by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore upon the occasion of one of her visits to Elkhart, and many are the words of praise that have fallen from the lips of the brilliant men and women who have appeared before its audiences.
Upon the occasion of Dr. Lyman Abbott's visit to Elkhart he was driven about the city by a member of the committee. "I don't care to see your handsome residences, I see enough brown-stone fronts at home," exclaimed the reverend gentleman. "I want to see the homes where your poor people live." Upon being informed that he had seen where the workingmen lived and that most of them owned their own homes, he was filled with astonishment and thought that he had at last found a modern Utopia. Later Doctor Abbott devoted nearly a page to Elkhart in the Christian Union, declaring that it was an ideal western town, and frequently thereafter he referred to it in his lectures.
The foregoing are but samples of the impressions left upon the minds of the noted characters who charmed and instructed the local public through the good offices of the lecture association. S. Maxon remained as president during the first few years, that is, from 1879 to 1883, when he was succeeded by H. T. Browning. After Mr. Browning's retirement in 1884, M. W. Darling, W. H. Thomas and W. H. Anderson served as presidents. E. C. Bickel, who was its first secretary and treasurer in 1879, served as treasurer from 1882 until the association was dissolved in 1907. D. H. Christophel, W. H. Thomas, A. P. Kent, W. H. Anderson and F. G. Stahr were secretaries.
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY CHAUTAUQUA
In 1906, E. C. Bickel entered into correspondence with Charles L. Wagner, secretary of the Slayton Lyceum Bureau, Chicago, and, through their joint labors, the annual meeting of the National Lyceum Association was held at Elkhart. As that body represented much of the best platform talent of the country, the Chautauqua movement was given an impetus which resulted in the winding up
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of the Elkhart Lecture Association and the founding of the St. Joseph Valley Chautauqua in 1907. W. F. Stanton was made president, and E. C. Bickel, secretary and manager and treasurer. The beautiful grounds of the Chautauqua are on the St. Joseph River, within easy access of Elkhart and other centers of population.
THE CENTURY CLUB
The Century Club is the leading organization of the kind in the city, and has come to stand for all that is stalwart in its social, commercial and industrial welfare. Its beautiful house, located on Main Street, just north of Jackson, was erected for the club by H. E. Bucklen at an expense of $20,000.
Quoting from a souvenir of the club issued at the time of the dedication of the new club house: "While at all times the Club may not have shown that enterprise and energy which some of the most exacting and unreasonable outsiders thought it should exhibit, it has always been alive to the best interests of the city, and has quietly fostered and furthered many an enterprise which today is the pride and honor of Elkhart.
Made up as it is of the men who have been at the very founda- tion of Elkhart's prosperity in the past, and of those who are today bearing the heaviest burdens of our present prosperity, the Century Club is fairly entitled to a very large share of the credit for the enterprise which our city manifests. The years intervening between 1892 and the present have been years of alternating depression and prosperity, and the Century Club, during the dark days of 1893 and 1894, through its committees and officers, as well as through its solid membership, did much to preserve and maintain the prosperity of Elkhart, which in the conditions existing are remarkable."
The architectural design of the front of this club home is very striking, while the general scheme of the interior in arrangement of rooms, as well as in decorations and furnishings, shows artistic taste. One enters the lounging room first upon ascending the broad stairs. This is finished in Flemish oak, similar to the other rooms on the main floor which comprise card room, billiard room, with specially constructed tables, gentlemen's parlor and director's room. The auditorium is a most attractive room with high ceiling and beautiful decorations; it proves alluring upon entertainment or dancing nights.
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CENTURY CLUB HOUSE
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The Century Club was organized for purely business and social purposes in 1892, when, at the request of Otis D. Thompson, who was then mayor of the city, and E. C. Bickel, a number of business men met to consider plans for the furtherance of the city's indus- trial interests. The gentlemen at that meeting were Otis D. Thomp- son, A. R. Beardsley, W. S. Hazelton, H. B. Sykes, G. B. Pratt, F. K. Fernald, J. W. Fieldhouse, O. N. Lumbert, E. C. Bickel and A. P. Kent. At a second meeting of these men the organization itself was completed and the club named "The Commercial Union," afterwards changed to "The Century Club of Elkhart, Indiana." The first officers of the club were : Strafford Maxon, president ; Otis D. Thompson, vice president ; A. P. Kent, secretary; Howard F. Smith, treasurer.
Almost immediately the officers and committee became active, working in the interests of the city and a great many industries have been located in Elkhart as the direct results.
The past officers of the Century Club are as follows :
1892-93-Strafford Maxon, president; A. Palmer Kent, secre- tary.
1893-94-Strafford Maxon, president; A. Palmer Kent, secre- tary.
1894-95-Otis D. Thompson, president ; A. Palmer Kent, secre- tary.
1895-96-Otis D. Thompson, president ; A. Palmer Kent, secre- tary.
1896-97-Cyrus D. Roys, president ; A. Palmer Kent, secretary.
1897-98-A. Palmer Kent, president ; Melvin U. Demarest, sec- retary.
1898-99-A. Palmer Kent, president; Melvin U. Demarest, sec- retary.
1809-1900-A. Hubbell Beardsley, president ; George H. Fisher, secretary.
1900-01-George B. Pratt, president; George H. Fisher, secre- tary.
1901-02-James H. State, president; George H. Fisher, secre- tary.
1902-03-Frederick K. Fernald, president ; Lorenzo C. Bartley, secretary.
1903-04-Livy Chamberlain, president ; Lorenzo C. Bartley, sec- retary.
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1904-05-Dr. Franklin Miles, president; Jacob C. Lane, secre- tary.
1905-06-Warren G. Hill, president; Fred A. Reed, secretary.
1907-08-Vernon W. VanFleet, president ; Fred A. Reed, secre- tary.
1908-09-Vernon W. VanFleet, president ; D. C. Thomas, secre- tary.
1910-11-A. R. Beardsley, president ; D. C. Thomas, secretary. 1911-12-W. J. Gronert, president ; V. G. Cawley, secretary. 1912-13-W. S. Hazelton, president ; F. Best, secretary. 1913-14-W. H. Winship, president ; R. Emerson, secretary. 1914-15-W. H. Winship, president ; R. Emerson, secretary. 1915-16-J. C. Fleming, president ; R. Emerson, secretary.
The present officers of the Century Club are: President, H. A. Graham; secretary, Ralph Emerson; treasurer, Bert D. House- worth.
The membership of the club is approximately 200, made up of business men who have the interests of the city at heart and who are today bearing their burdens willingly that Elkhart may enjoy the prosperity to which it is entitled, chiefly by reason of the fact that its many industries are flourishing.
The Public Service Board and the Century Club have been un- tiring in their efforts, and questions of great importance of Elkhart have been taken up and disposed of and advantages that could not possibly have obtained have been realized by this organization.
The fact that the Lincoln Highway passes through Elkhart is due to the Century Club, among other good works.
OTHER CLUBS
Elkhart has several active women's clubs, most of which are affiliated with the State Federation. The first club of this nature to be organized was the Fifteen Circle Association, formed in 1889 and incorporated in 1894 for literary, social and philanthropic pur- poses. Mrs. A. E. Babb endowed it with a library which, with later accretions, was turned over to the Carnegie Public Library in 1903. The Woman's Club was organized in 1902, the Woman's Art Club in the 'gos, and other organizations confined in member-
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ship to the one sex are the Twentieth Century Women's Club, Thursday, Current and Progress clubs.
Besides, there are the Jefferson and Elkhart Driving clubs, the Elkhart Choral Society and the Elkhart Socialist and Industrial associations.
CHAPTER XVI
INDUSTRIES, BANKS AND NEWSPAPERS
C. G. CONN, INCORPORATED-CHARLES G. CONN-TWO OTHER OLD BAND INSTRUMENT FACTORIES-SIDWAY MERCANTILE COM- PANY-THE DOCTOR MILES INDUSTRIES-ELKHART CARRIAGE AND HARNESS MANUFACTURING COMPANY -- NOYES CARRIAGE COMPANY-CROW MOTOR CAR COMPANY-DAVIS ACETYLENE COMPANY- ELKHART BRASS MANUFACTURING COMPANY- FLOUR AND CEREAL MANUFACTURERS-SCALE MANUFACTURERS -ST. JOE ICE COMPANY-OTHER PLANTS-ELKHART CITY BANKS-ELKHART'S NEWSPAPERS.
Long ago Elkhart outgrew that stage of her industrial life when the establishment of a single manufactory caused a deep commotion in her midst. In fact, for the past few years, especially since the founding of her Industrial Association in 1906, it was only the in- dustrious reporter who could closely note the enterprises of that nature which were continually being incorporated as elements of her progress. At the present time there are probably sixty incorporated concerns which are carrying along industries as varied in character as they are in scope. Automobiles in whole or in parts ; carriages and wagons for either millionaires or sturdy farmers, for ladies or babies ; band instruments of every description ; medicines for man and beast ; paper for books and newspapers, bristol board for artists and paper boxes for manufacturers and merchants; brass and iron work, brick and cement, and rubber, flour and cereals; ice and matches, tablets, and scales and harnesses-why, the reporter might fill a good-sized printed page with the leading manufactures pro- duced by the industrial plants of Elkhart and then not exhaust the list. Without further anticipation, therefore, he will specially men- tion a few of the oldest and best known of such establishments.
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
C. G. CONN, INCORPORATED
The above is the official title of the industry which has given the Conn band and orchestra instruments an international fame. That such a statement is not beyond the literal truth is evident from the fact that they were awarded four superior medals at the Pan- ama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, in the summer of 1915. The Conn exhibit won the highest honors over seven com- petitors, the world's best in the manufacture of instruments for bands and orchestras.
CHARLES G. CONN
The founder and owner of the industry is one of Elkhart's leading citizens. His father, a prominent educator of Northern Indiana, brought him as a boy to Elkhart, where he went to school for about ten years and then, still a youth, enlisted in the Union Army. Even then his musical talents earned him a position in the regimental band. Young Conn, after seeing considerable service at the front, re-enlisted in a company of Michigan sharpshooters, and within a few months had been promoted to its captaincy. He spent the last year of the war as a prisoner in Confederate prisons, and for a short time afterward engaged in business at Elkhart. But his musical talents and his mechanical gifts soon evolved a simple improvement in the cornet mouthpiece which laid the foundation of C. G. Conn, Inc.
The commencement of Colonel Conn's career as a manufac- turer and a public man of broad caliber is thus given by one who writes from personal knowledge: Being what might be called a practical musician, with great natural gifts in that art and greatest fondness for all its manifestations, he soon became identified with the line of manufacture which has made his name more familiar to the world at large than any other phase of his versatile career. He invented his famous "elastic face mouthpiece" for cornets, which became so popular that he could not manufacture them fast enough. Beginning his manufacturing with himself as practically the only workman and with a lathe made from a sewing machine table, he was soon compelled by rush of orders to expand every part of the industry and become the directing head of a force of employes. The story of his persistent efforts and struggles to make financial
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ends meet while he was getting started as a manufacturer has often been told, and is familiar to all his friends and acquaintances in Northern Indiana. Having effected a wonderful improvement on the old-style cornet by means of his mouthpiece and by dint of shrewdest sort of business management getting a foothold in the uncertain field of manufacturing enterprise, he then applied him- self to the study of the cornet with a view of bringing out the highest latent powers of that instrument. He secured patent after patent, each one representing some advance toward perfection in the cornet, and in time he produced what is known to the world of music as the "Conn Cornet." All the other modern brass band instruments are also now manufactured in Mr. Conn's establishment, and their excel- lence may be gauged by the fact that they are used by Sousa's Band and have received the highest honors at all the recent world's expo- sitions. The manufacturing establishment for the production of the Conn instruments is mentioned in the history of manufacturing elsewhere in this work, and at this point it is only necessary to state that this industry has become, during the last quarter of a century, one of the foremost sources of the industrial prosperity which has marked the City of Elkhart.
This alone would entitle him to distinction and would be regarded a sufficient accomplishment to be called a life work by any man ; yet Colonel Conn has extended his efforts to the great public questions which concern the welfare of the country, to the social and eco- nomic problems of America, and to practical humanitarianism. In the early days when his business was just emerging from a small factory into one where success seemed sure, the democratic party at Elkhart nominated him for mayor. Contrary to the general course of municipal politics up to that time, he was elected, and gave the city such a practical, progressive and beneficial administra- tion that it is still a high standard for others to be measured by. He was re-elected to the office, and was soon slated for further advancement in political honors. A normally republican district gave him a seat on the democratic side of the lower house in Indianapolis, where he was connected with important constructive legislation and gave much attention to the solution of the labor problems. In 1892 the thirteenth district, through its representa- tives assembled in convention at Michigan City, placed his name on the democratic ticket as nominee for Congress. In James Dodge, also a prominent Elkhart citizen and one of the most influential
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republicans of the district, Mr. Conn had a worthy opponent, but the result of the hotly contested campaign was that Mr. Conn went to Washington to represent the people of this district.
As congressman Colonel Conn was a man of mark from the time he took his seat, and both as a legislator and reformer left a lasting influence. It was in the field of journalism that he found the power needed in this assault upon some of the strongholds of municipal mismanagement which he found fixed upon the capital city. He purchased the Washington Times, the morning newspaper now owned by Frank A. Munsey, and instituted a campaign against vice and crime which for several years had run riot in the city. Directing his attack first upon the police association and the police force, he aroused public attention to the existing conditions and after bitter conflict, overcame the inertia of the powers for law and order, caused the dens of vice to be vacated, the gamblers driven from the city and crime reduced to a minimum. The severe stric- tures made upon the police force by the Times resulted in an indict- ment for libel against Colonel Conn, but the forces of persecution failed in their purpose and the colonel was acquitted at the trial. Having accomplished for the capital city what he started out to effect, he then sold his newspaper and returned to Elkhart.
Before going to Washington he was well known in the journal- istic circles of Northern Indiana, for in September, 1890, he had founded the Daily and Weekly Truth. Mr. Conn is still identified with this enterprise as proprietor, and the history of the Truth will be found elsewhere in these pages. Since his retirement from Con- gress he has sought no further political honors. In 1900 he sup- ported with personal effort and money the candidacy of Mckinley for President and did much to get out the largest republican vote in the history of Elkhart County.
From the little plant which turned out the elastic face mouth- piece for cornets to the massive plant which covers about three acres of ground on Elkhart Avenue and the St. Joseph River in- volved much hard labor, as well as a long stretch of years. All the original buildings were practically wiped out of existence by fire in 1910. The structures which replaced them were of the mission type, substantial and attractive, and include the office building, the metal working factory and the bell, valve and polishing departments. The products of the plant now include flutes, clarinets, saxophones, cornets, mellophones, alto horns, trombones, tenor horns, eupho-
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ALONG ELKHART'S MAIN BUSINESS STREET
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niums, bass horns, chimes, bells, drums and the drummer's equip- ment-in a word, all kinds of band and orchestral instruments. One feature of the Conn industry which has been established as the result of long experience is believed to largely explain the constant improvement of its output. Whenever an instrument is made for a genius or a mechanical expert in the musical world, careful measure- ments are taken of it and permanently recorded. If the instrument proves satisfactory to the user, the factory considers that it has a valuable stamp of approval on that particular article, and duplicates of it are thereafter put out, with confidence that they will give satis- faction. That is one of the most successful means which has been taken to establish the high Conn standards in the varied lines of manufacture.
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