USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
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. In the past, and not very far in the past, the people have been badly bored by hasty or thoughtless action, and have suffered for it, and are likely to so suffer for a long time to come. Too casy acquiescence in the acceptance of things as they drifted, or as they were quietly guided by scheming and unseen hands, has wrought mischief in the past, and the people have repented bitterly their good nature or carelessness. The revo- lution in the school board-a revolution brought about by two or three shrewd co-workers-is one example. It was done because the people were not watchful enough or careful enough of the first or initiatory steps. Oi course the infernal hullabaloo set going by this event in our history should not be considered as a comparison with so good a thing as water works. But it is an example of what carelessness may do. The question is, are we ready to go to the expense of water works now, and just as we are com- mencing to build a $150,000 court house, $50,000 of which the citizens of Muncie will have to pay? It is a serious question, and should be so treated, and our worthy Councilmen should be loath to ask or urge the people to do that which may bring upon themselves a load of trouble that the people will not forget or forgive.
A water works ordinance was passed by the city council April 14, 1884, but on January 19, 1885, was repealed and a new ordinance passed, giving the mayor and clerk power to sign a contract for the erection of water works. The building of a municipal system was considered inadvisible or impracticable, and the contract was to be made with a private company. The contract was signed between the city and S. A. Wilson, A. L. Johnson,
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T. F. Rose and S. M. Highlands, who were to organize the Muncie Water Works Company. The plant was to cost not less than $100,000, and water was to be furnished the city at $5,000 annually. A direct pressure system was to be built, capable of furnishing "an ample and constant supply of good, pure water for fire, domestic and manufacturing purposes." Equip- ment to be brick building, two pumps, etc., with capacity of at least two million gallons per day; at least seven miles of water pipes to be main- tained, with eighty-five hydrants for fire. At any time after twenty years from the completion of the works the city was to have the right of purchase, either on terms of mutual agreement or as fixed by a board of threc. The works were to be completed on or before January 1, 1887. The company, thus empowered, went to work at once, and by the following spring the streets were well torn up by the trenchers and pipe layers.
Opposition to the contract made with the company by the city was still apparent. Many citizens had doubts and misgivings similar to those expressed by Mr. Ethell several years before. The council came in for a good share of criticism. In response to these objectors, Mr. T. F. Rose, a member of the water company, prepared a statement, in May, 1885, which is in effect a history of the water works up to that time, as also a defense of the action of the council and water company. Mr. Rose's article, in part, is as follows :
(Muncie Daily News, May 9, 1885.) The common council began to agitate earnestly the subject of water works as early as the summer of 1881, before any of the members of the late council were elected. That council employed a competent engineer, Frank Doran, of Richmond, Indiana, and on the 6th day of December, 1881, he furnished a complete plan and speci- fications with costs for "water works amply sufficient to meet the require- ments of the city until it has a population of 20,000." This was a plan for the works to be erected by the city and is substantially the same in size and capacity as the franchise granted to the company now erecting the works, except the pumping house will be located east instead of west of the city.
The subject of water works was discussed from time to time, by the council and city papers, until the adoption of the constitutional amendment prohibiting cities from incurring indebtedness in excess of two per cent of the taxable property. Our city tax duplicate at that time showed a value of about $2,000,000, which made the plan impossible.
During the summer of 1883 J. D. Cook, of Toledo, Ohio, whose eminent qualifications and abilities as a water works engineer will not be questioned, was employed to prepare plans, specifications, estimates and costs of water works for our city. All who have taken the trouble to examine the information furnished by Mr. Cook will not say the common council acted unadvisedly. On the 17th day of January, 1884, the plans were sub- mitted and shortly afterwards the council passed an ordinance establishing water works for the city of Muncie, to be erected by private parties and
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directed the city clerk to advertise for bidders. There were filed with the water works committee four propositions for the crection of the works.
The proposition finally accepted, after some changes, was presented some four or five months prior to its passage, and I can say in justification of the committee and council, a candid and careful consideration of the terms and requirements of the contract were discussed from time to time and fully understood by all. The proposition accepted was the best pro- posed, all who have examined will admit.
We learn from the records the expense of maintaining the present fire department will average over $5,000 per year, not including new fire cisterns every year or so, with the cost of an occasional fire engine thrown in. An estimate by the secretary of the Fire Insurance Board states that there is $2,500,000 worth of property insured annually in this city; with an efficient water works the rate of insurance will doubtless be reduced so as to save to the citizens from $3,000 to $4,000 annually. Then, as a financial prob- lem, has not the city council acted for the best interest of the city, to say nothing about the free use of water for public buildings and schools, flushing of streets and sewers, the increased fire protection, sanitary facili- tics, encouragement to manufactories, and beautifying our city by clean streets, green lawns, graceful fountains and beautiful flowers, all of which have a money value in the sale of property and the comforts of homes.
The water works company prosecuted its work with such expedition that on July 31, 1885, it notified the city council that the works were com- pleted and ready for use. On October 19, following, the council directed the use of the water works according to contract.
Streets and Sewers.
At every council meeting during 1884 the improvement of streets and alleys was new and important business. The city was awake to the neces- sity of improving the streets and creating a more sanitary condition than had existed in previous years. The beginning of sewer building, the organization of a board of health, and many other public improvements had their origin in the years just before the "big boom." The Jackson street sewer, the first large sewer, which was built in the spring of 1884, did not prove very satisfactory to the people because of faulty construction. It was called "cloaca magna" and denounced as extremely unsanitary and no improvement on the old methods of surface drainage.
Electric Lights.
The year 1885 marks the beginning of electric lighting in Muncie. In February of that year Mr. J. H. Wysor, while building a skating rink on North Walnut street, negotiated for the use of "Brush's electric lights" to be placed in the building; whether they were installed and were the first used in the city is not known by the writer. October 19, 1885, the council
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granted James Boyce permission to erect poles for electric lights in his mills, residence and storerooms. Mr. Boyce soon had a dynamo in oper- ation, and on December 19, 1885, the Boyce block and H. Klein's jewelry store were illuminated by electricity, which was quite as much of an event as the first exhibition of gas lighting had been some six years before. Mr. Boyce soon extended wires to other business houses, and from this time the use of electricity for lighting made rapid progress.
CHAPTER XV.
NATURAL GAS.
In the spring of 1886 the farmers of Delaware county prepared their fields and sowed them with grain, as had been done for many years. Under the sun and rain of summer the soil grew and matured the crops, and with the coming of fall the ripened harvests were stored away in anticipa- tion of a similar year to follow. Sturdy industry, average contentment, and material well-being were blessings possessed by the majority of homes throughout Delaware county, and the continuance of such prosperity was the most that was hoped for by nine persons out of ten.
And yet, before the year was out, all was changed. An awful force had struck the land, almost in a single night, and with the knowledge of a fluid wealth beneath their feet, men forgot the fruitful soil which for years had returned its regular reward to human toil. Beneficent Ceres was scorned, and men, in panic, worshiped Gas. Where had been the waving fields of green and gold, the earth was scarred by the burrowing drills, and skeleton derricks were strung in ghostly procession across the landscape. Quiet bucolic scenes became a roaring workshop of Vulcan and his devotees. An active gas field produces an awesome if not terrifying effect when first seen, and it is not surprising that many of the eastern visitors, on making their first visit to the gas fields and witnessing the tremendous power of a roaring gas well, fled in terror from the scene. The inert earth, which men have so long regarded as their surest stronghold against the tempests of the sky and the rage of the sea, all at once seems filled with the breath of life, and heaves with its exhalations as though preparing to revolt and overthrow the puny works of mankind. The pursuits and ambition of man changed in keeping with the new forces of the earth, and with the discovery of natural gas was ushered in a new era for Delaware county.
Old settlers used to speak of the "Indiana coon belt," a geographical description that referred to the area of big timber and flat and often swampy land in eastern Indiana. One of the best known products of this region was the coon, though the phrase "coon belt" received several additional meanings which were thought of when the term was used. It is a note- worthy coincidence, told the writer by an old resident, that the natural gas belt corresponds in area quite nearly with the "coon belt." Whether there
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is any scientific connection between the two, is an inquiry that has not been pushed with any profit.
Natural gas having played such an important part in the development of this county, it seems that a brief statement concerning the nature and origin of this fluid wealth will not be out of keeping in a history of Delaware county. A few years after the discovery of gas and while the development of the fields was at its height, a large party of scientists visited this section of the state for the purpose of observing and studying the gas field. As a result of liis observations, one of the party, H. C. Hovey, contributed to the Scientific American an article in which he describes in untechnical language the origin of this gas.
"Knowing that marsh gas and natural gas," to quote the substance of his article, "are nearly identical, the fair inference is that they share a similar origin. Stir the sediment at the bottom of a marsh, and inflam- mable bubbles arise. The gas they contain comes from decayed vegetable matter. So it is with the larger accumulations in beds of lakes and seas. The Spanish navigators found an area equal to continental Europe filled with an enormous mass of seaweed, single specimens being hundreds of feet long and their stems huge vegetable cables a foot in diameter. Imagine some ancient Sargasso sea to have had its mass of algæ caught in a bed of calcareous mud where it underwent slow decomposition. What a measure- less quantity of gas would have been manufactured and afterward im- prisoned in the surrounding limestone formed from the mud. The time would plainly come when, the work of decomposition being finished, no more gas could be made; but what had been created would stay there until in some way released. .
. The fact is at first hard to comprehend that natural gas, instead of being collected in a cavernous reservoir, is stored up in what appears to be solid limestone of the Trenton period. But this is true in the Ohio and Indiana gas fields. In the latter the Niagara limestone is always surface rock, being about 400 feet thick. Next below come nearly 600 feet of Hudson River and Utica bituminous shales, that appear to roof over and confine the true gas bed. The Trenton limestone is next to the shale and yields gas almost as soon as struck. Microscopic examination proves all gas rock to be porous, no matter how solid it may seem to be. . . The elevation of the Trenton rock is another im- portant indication. At Muncie and Anderson it lies entirely above sea level, and therefore there is no danger from salt water. Where it lies from 200 to 700 feet below sea level, no gas is to be had. This partly explains the fact that although the Trenton rock underlies perhaps fifty counties in the state, the productive gas region, as thus far developed, is limited to six or eight of them: Delaware, Blackford, Madison, Grant, Hamilton, How- ard, Tipton and Shelby."
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In March, 1890, there died at Eaton George W. Carter, the discoverer of the Indiana gas field. His name deserves lasting remembrance in Delaware county for this pioncer work. The discovery, or rather the reopen- ing, of the first gas well in Indiana, was described in the state geologist's report published about January, 1887. Dr. A. J. Phinney, of Muncie, fur- nished the information about the well, the substance of which is here given.
In 1876, at Eaton, a well was sunk to the depth of 600 feet, the hole being two inches in diameter. As the company was exploring for coal, no attention was paid to the flow of "an ill-smelling gas" which was obtained, at that depth, in sufficient quantity to produce a flame two feet in height. Gas was not thought at that time to possess any economic valuc. With the discovery and development of natural gas fields in Ohio, those formerly in- terested in the Eaton well became convinced that gas would be found in paying quantities there. Among those most sanguine of success were George W. Carter, of Eaton; W. W. Worthington and Hon. Robert Bell of Fort Wayne. These gentlemen, with some enterprising citizens of the town, or- agnized a company, and gave A. H. Cranell the contract for sinking the well. The hole had a diameter of eight inches the first 250 feet, and five and one-half inches for the remaining distance; height of the derrick was 72 fect. The bore was sunk 890 feet to Trenton rock, and after penetrating that 32 feet a satisfactory flow of gas was obtained.
Development of Gas Territory.
Shortly after the successful completion of the Eaton well, and before the close of the year, gas well No. I had been bored one mile east of Muncie, and at a depth of 898 feet gas was obtained with a pressure of 325 pounds to the square inch. In January, 1887, pipes were laid on Walnut street from the gas well and gas began to be used for heating the boilers in the electric light plant and in stores for light. The Kuhn and Highlands well near the gas works in south Muncie was opened January 14th, and the natural gas was used for the manufacture of coal gas. A few weeks later it was claimed that the Muncie Gas Co. was furnishing natural gas instead of coal gas to its customers. This was of course in violation of their con- tract, which had been made before natural gas was thought of, and in February the city council resolved to obtain an injunction restraining the company from any such substitution.
The gas field was developed with amazing rapidity. The sinking of wells suddenly became a profitable business of itself, and the demand for boring tools and experienced men to handle them was much greater than the supply. The farmers who had sufficient capital were eager to put down wells on their farms, or to lease their land to one of the many development companies that were formed about that time. Gas companies opened wells
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in all the smaller towns and supplied the fuel for lighting, heating and manufacturing purposes. On September 18, 1887, a well was opened at Selma, and in a short time pipes were laid throughout the village for light- ing. In November, 1887, the Muncie Natural Gas Co. reported nine pro- ducing wells, from which it supplied 1004 customers, through nineteen and a hali miles of mains and pipes, the entire cost of their plant being $78,- 148.88. By July, 1888, it was claimed that Delaware county had 35 pro- ducing wells. In January, 1889, a total of 39 wells was reported in the county, distributed as follows: Muncie, 25; New Corner, 1; Nixon's, I; Eaton, 2; and one each at Albany, Shideler, Boyceton, Selma, Daleville, Yorktown, Cowan, Oakville, Anthony, DeSoto. At the same time Madison county had 28 wells ; Grant county, 27; Randolph county, 9; Jay county, 17.
It soon became the boast that Muncie had no coal or wood yards, that twelve dollars a year paid for all the gas needed for fuel and light. Gas supply is unlimited, there is enough to last a thousand years, a well may be placed on every forty acres or even less and will continue to produce gas for all time. Such was the optimism developed at a time when nearly every day marked the increase of the gas output by millions of cubic feet. For several years the people indulged in riotous extravagance with nature's gift. It has been said that Americans are the most wasteful people on earth, and that they can afford to be because their natural resources are as yet beyond the limit of development. Certainly that was true of the natural gas belt twenty years ago. It was a glorious period, buoyant and enthusiastic, and the ambitions of men were as irrepressible as the roaring gushers themselves. Even now when men who were at the center of affairs during those days talk of the gas boom, they admit that they pursued a reckless policy but they speak with less regret than with pleasant recollection of a time when men were stirred to the utmost of endeavor and the very air was vibrant with a new-born enthusiasm.
The gas was allowed to burn night and day. At noontide as at mid- night, the roaring flamebeaux that stood by the roadside and at the cross- mads in the country consumed gas by thousands of feet, but never once was there a thought of checking it. The horizon was aglow with the flames from thousands of gas lights, and some farmyards were so brightly lighted that the chickens never knew the proper time to roost. One morning at two o'clock, while driving in from the country, Dr. Kemper observed a hen with her brood picking up insects within the circle of light shed by a roadside gas torch.
There was almost no limit to the methods devised for consuming gas without adequate returns or practical use. When a party of visitors from outside the gas belt came to town, it was a part of their entertainment to open one of the strongest gushers in the neighborhood and allow its roaring
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flame to leap heavenward until, in the words of the local chronicler, "it singed the beard of Jove." Only those who have witnessed one of those burning wells can have an adequate conception of what a magnificent spec- tacle it is. As a manifestation of nature's power it rivals heaven's thunder- bolts and all the forces of the air, and approaches the terrific effects of the volcano. Occasionally, when the gas was ignited before the removal of the derrick, the heat was so great that the derrick and every part of the surrounding structures were consumed so quickly that they seemed to have been blown away by the flames. Yet another diversion for the entertain- ment of visitors may be mentioned. Gas pipes were laid under the water in White river, and the gas allowed to escape through the water. Being ignited at the surface, the flames spread out over the water, giving the ap- pearance that the river was on fire. In fact, the water became so hot, after such a unique spectacle, that the fish perished and the vegetation along the banks was cooked.
Such were the principal facts connected with the discovery and exploita- tion of natural gas in Delaware county. As already stated, it heralded a new era in the country. In many portions of America it is an easy and familiar custom to divide time and events into two general divisions-"be- fore the war" and "after the war." But in addition to this history-marker, the people of Delaware county, as also in other parts of the gas belt, are very sure to designate the occurrence of events as either before or after the discovery of gas, so that, for purposes of local history, it would be an easy and apt means of placing events in their proper connection by adding the words "before gas," or "after gas." The history of Muncie and other cen- ters of the county after the discovery of gas will be taken up in succeeding pages, where the story of natural gas is closely involved with the material prosperity of these communities.
CHAPTER XVI.
NATURAL GAS MAKES A CITY OF MUNCIE.
Perhaps Muncie people did not immediately realize what the gas dis- covery meant for their material prosperity. But by the spring of 1887 the spirit of change, progress and enterprise was thoroughly active. On March 18 the Daily News announces in black type the arrival of the Muncie Boom, and as a concrete example says that Joseph Stafford intended laying out the eighty lots of the Winton place into streets and village property. Al- ready, it was reported, a syndicate of capitalists, representing two millions of dollars, had purchased real estate to the value of $150,000 in Muncie and vicinity. A few days later Col. Dan Meade and Nicholas Ohmer bought $60,000 worth of suburban real estate. The events of the next week or so proved beyond doubt that Muncie and vicinity were in the throes of a spec- ulative real estate movement, and that values were no longer based on real worth but on the air-blown estimates of the future.
In April real estate transfers involving large sums were of daily if not hourly occurrence. People began to talk of Muncie as the "Birmingham of the North," the older citizens began to dream of a metropolis, with mul- titudes of people thriving on the products of mill and factory, and to all it seemed that Muncie was at the threshold of an era of wonderful growth. Every time a new flow of gas was started, the hopes and plans of the citizens -and the prices of real estate-were given increased buoyancy. The fol- lowing is one of the parodies provoked by the boom, and part of the con- tents of the article that followed it, as printed in the Daily News (April 6)-
"Tell me not in mournful numbers That the town is full of gloom, For the man's a crank who slumbers In these bursting days of boom."
The boom is on.
Everywhere, on the corners, in the stores, and through the country you can find people casting their weather eye toward desirable pieces of property and asking, "what's the price?"
We thought it was warm last week but now it is hot and still heating. Nearly fifty men were here yesterday representing syndicates with immense capital, and large tracts were purchased.
Some business and residence property in the heart of the city is moving
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at good figures and the influx of strangers makes houses scarce, and rent is growing higher.
The deals yesterday were the largest in the history of the county, and confidence with which outside capitalists take hold of the property is a good indication that the boom is not one of mushroom growth, but one which has come to stay. Property in many instances can be purchased today for the same money it could three, four or five years ago. This shows that prices are not inflated and valued relative.
With the establishment at this place of factories, machine shops, car works, etc., Muncie cannot help but boom and become a city of 30,000 in- habitants in the next few years.
A few days later Muncie was the subject of an article in the Indian- apolis Journal, in which Muncie was described as follows:
"Six natural gas wells has Muncie. It is a thriving city of eight thou- sand people. Though small, it is metropolitan. Here are the essential con- veniences of the largest American cities, without their dust, disease and foul air. The Muncie citizen orders his groceries by telephone, his residence is lighted by artificial gas, his place of business by electric light. having choice of both systems, the Brush and Edison incandescent, his meals are cooked by natural gas ; there is a good fire department and the Gamewell fire alarm system ; he has three railroads, and will soon have an electric line of cable street railway ; there is a first-class system of water works; there is a good system of sewerage and clean macadamized streets; he sends his children to public schools that have no superior in the state, and they have the read- ing of a free public library of 6,500 selected volumes. Muncie already has taken rank as a manufacturing point, and of her eight thousand population more than a thousand are employed in her manufactories. Two factorics from Cincinnati are soon to remove to Muncie, and negotiations are pend- ing with a number of establishments in Pennsylvania and Ohio which are desirous of coming to the Indiana gasopolis."
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