USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 18
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Referring to the work of the Enterprise Company, a booklet on Muncie,
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
"past, present and future," issued about the middle of 1892, states that "the class of factories [secured by the Enterprise Co.] has been of the best and most permanent kind, such as any city might well be proud of ; 2600 factory hands added in six months, this means an increase of 9,000 people. In view of all these facts it is not an idle prophecy to state that before five years Muncie will be a city of 50,000 people." And so it might have been but for contingencies that are not within the power of men to foresec.
Panic of 1893.
Mere mention of the year 1893 brings to mind financial panic and busi- ness depression, which was quite general all over the United States. But in Muncie occurred a combination of conditions such as probably no other city in the land experienced. This city, because of its flourishing factories, the splendid resources of natural gas, and the remarkable enterprise of the citi- zens, was in better condition to weather a financial panic than most places in the country, and it is evident from a study of events that Muncie suffered more from other causes than from the panic proper.
As having a slight influence on industrial confidence, it should be men- tioned that the first admissions that the gas supply was weakening were made early in 1893. Only in the preceding year the extravagant prediction had been made, by calculations based on conditions at Pittsburg, Penn., that the gas supply in Indiana would last "seven hundred years." Never- theless, Delaware county had all along refused the transportation of any gas beyond its boundaries, there being a strong public opinion on this point. Therefore, the Chicago pipe line companies had made little progress in en- croaching on the gas supply of this county.
Some intimations of the business crisis were felt in Muncie during the summer of 1893, but nothing serious occurred until the suspension of the Citizens National Bank in August. The splendid support given by the citi- zens to this institution, as told on other pages, did much to restore confi- dence, and as a matter of fact it can be said that the Citizens National affair was of only superficial importance, and indicated nothing alarming in the financial condition of the city.
Locally, Muncie suffered more from the smallpox epidemic that lasted from August into November, than from any other cause. The retail busi- ness and the general activities of the city were almost suspended during this time, and smallpox proved a strong ally of hard times in the attack upon the city's credit and resources.
Reference to the chronological record of this period will show indi- vidual examples of the results of the panic. There were one or two mer- cantile failures, several of the factories suspended temporarily or reduced their working force, and the feeling if not the actual fact of business stag-
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
aution was certainly present throughout the latter months of 1893 and through 1894.
A blow was struck from another quarter early in 1804. One of the chief acts of the second Cleveland administration was the Wilson tariff bill, providing for many important reductions in the tariff rates. Among these, the duties on glass were reduced almost half. The glass manufacturers at Muncie were not long in feeling the adverse effects of the measure. In February, 1894, the reason assigned for the shut-down of the Over glass works was the Wilson tariff bill. In the following fall, the results of the tariff reduction were seen in the horizontal lowering of wages of window glass workers nearly twenty-five percent.
Notwithstanding all these adversities, Muncie passed through the panic without permanent injury to her resources from that cause alone. The manufacturing interests by 1895 showed an increase in number of employes in nearly every establishment, and were in a fairly prosperous condition, as indicated by a careful statistical summary given by the News. . Again it is needful to.state that figures concerning industrial plants are almost invar- iably approximates, and cannot be relied on for literal exactness; yet the tables given by the News and summarized here are probably as close an estimate on this subject as can be made at any time :--
Name-
Number employes
Payroll monthly $35,000
Indiana Iron Works
800
Indiana Bridge Co.
160
6,500
Midland Steel Co.
400
22,000
Florence Iron and Steel Co.
300
12,000
Park Iron and Steel Co.
6.5
2.500
Muneie Iron and Steel Works.
135
4,500
Muncie Wheel Works.
150
5,000
Muncie Pulp Co.
100
4,000
Muncie Glass Co.
200
7,000
Hemingray Glass Co.
160
6,000
Muncie Casket Works.
35
1,500
J. II. Smith & Co. Bending Works
140
6,000
Patton Hallow Ware Co.
125
7,000
Nelson Glass Co ..
165
S,000
Ball Bros. Glass Factory
1,000
35,000
Common Sense Engine Co.
175
7,000
Port Glass Works.
125
6.000
Consumers' Paper Co
50
2,000
Whitely Malleable Castings Co
250
15,000
Dell Stove Works.
40
2.000
Boyce Handle Factory.
30
1,500
Maring, Hart & Co., Glass
250
12,000
Tappan Skoc Co.
150
3,000
Gill Broe. Pot Factory.
40
2,000
Muncie Underwear Co.
90
4,000
C. H. Over Glass Works
225
16,000
Whitely Reaper Works.
100
5,000
5,680
$241.500
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Many minor concerns increased the total of employes nearly five hun- dred, so that by this showing at least half of Muncie's population was iden- tified with and dependent on the manufacturing interests.
Postoffice.
Besides manufacturing, Muncie had many other interests and there were numerous changes that reflect the growth of the city during this period. By many students of statistics, it is claimed that one of the best indexes of a community's business prosperity is the postoffice. There are some figures at hand that are of considerable interest in this connection. Muncie post- office was elevated to the rank of second class on June 13, 1887, while John . E. Banta was postmaster. For a number of years the postoffice had been located in the Times building at the corner of Washington and Walnut streets. But soon after the completion of the Anthony block (which for some years was the finest business block in the city) the postoffice was moved to that building (February 13, 1888) and equipped with entirely new furniture. The receipts from stamps, etc., during the month of De- cember, 1887, were $991.17, and for the last three months of that year were $2,617.60. So steadily were the revenues kept up during the following year that on January 1, 1889, free delivery was begun, with three carriers. Dur- ing the first month of free delivery the reported receipts at the postoffice were $1,041, the largest known for any month up to that time, not even ex- cepting the holiday month of the year (December). During the first month of the new system the carriers delivered 18,800 letters, 4,114 post cards, 12,823 newspapers and periodicals, 65 registered letters-total number of pieces, 35,802. In November, 1889, the number of letters delivered had in- creased to 25,386, with a corresponding increase in other classes of matter. The total receipts for the last six months of 1889 were $7,328.39. An inter- esting contrast is shown between the figures representing the gross receipts of the office for the year ending June 30, 1885, and the year ending June 30, 1892. The receipts were, for these respective dates, $6,621 and $19,151. Thus during this seven year period covering the growth of Muncie from before the gas discovery to the height of its boom, the postoffice receipts showed an increase of three hundred percent, corresponding very closely to the numerical increase of population. Probably most of the people who admire the present beautiful postoffice building are unaware of the fact that, had it not been for the panic and the consequent paring down of all appro- priations in 1893, Muncie would have had a postoffice building at that time. A bill appropriating $150,000 for this purpose passed the senate, and a pro- vision setting aside $50,000 was placed 'in a House bill, but the measure failed at that session and the following year the national treasury was shut tight by the panic.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Municipal Improvements.
In the line of municipal improvements there are many developments during this period. In September, 1891, for the first time in ten years, a street commissioner was elected, his duties having been performed by the city engineer for a decade. The city engineer, in recommending this division oi duties, tells some interesting facts concerning the streets of the city :-- In 1882 Muncie graded all new streets out of the public fund of $2,811.75; in 1890 the total expended on streets for material and labor was $8,489.90. In 1882 there were fifteen miles of streets, no paved sidewalks and but one little sewer. "Now," Sept., 1891, "we have five miles of sandstone walk, five miles of brick walk, and two miles of cement walk; also over forty miles of graded streets and over ten miles of completed sewers."
As late as 1887 complaint was made about cows running about the streets and destroying lawns, resulting in the passage of an ordinance pro- hibiting that bovine privilege. About the same time another feature of town days was abolished in the removal of the hitch-racks from the public square. This brought out a protest from the farmers, and the merchants were active in the agitation to provide suitable places for hitching teams. Though the city now has many miles of first-class sidewalk, of flags, brick or cement, very little of it goes back of twenty years ago. In January, 1888, the council, after much discussion of the subject, particularized how sidewalks should be constructed; namely, the walks should be of sawed sandstone, six feet wide, the gutters of dressed limestone slabs, while grass should be grown between walk and curb. Though cement is now one of the most popular materials for sidewalks, and used entirely in many towns, its use has been sanctioned only a few years, as is evident from the fact that in 1890 James Boyce was forbidden by the council to lay a "new- fashioned" concrete walk on East Jackson street and ordered to make it of brick.
in street lighting the city took some important steps during these years. In 1838 the council gave a contract to the Natural Gas Company for light- ing the streets until December 1, 1889, at $120 per post annually. This method was by no means satisfactory. By the fall of 1890 both people and council were discussing the subject of street lighting. "Away with torches that blaze and glare on nice clear nights and blow out leaving the city in darkness when needed the worst." It was estimated that the natural gas, with the extensions of the system then demanded, would cost the city $5,000 annually, while the cost of an adequate and modern system of arc electric lights would cost only six or seven thousand dollars. Nothing was done immediately, but when the legislature passed an act in 1891 regulating the use of natural gas and forbidding the burning of flambeaux, the fear was
158
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
expressed that the law would apply to the flaring jets by which Muncie was lighted and that when the law went into effect in June the city lamp- lighters would lay themselves liable to prosecution. In the county at large · were thousands of such flambeaux, around the farm houses and along the roads, all of which must be shut off by the new law, and one editor could foresee the event of Muncie being left in total darkness, when the citizens would be compelled to carry lanterns about the streets. The editor exagger- ated the prospect, but he increased the weight of public sentiment for (lectric lighting. September 28, 1891, the council resolved to build its cwn electric light plant. The plant, located at North Elin and Wysor streets, was completed in the following February and the city's streets began to be lighted with one hundred arc lights.
In 1897 the Commercial Club boasted that the city had a complete sewerage system, costing $285,000. As already mentioned, the building of sewers had only begun during the eighties. It was not until September, 1889, that the council let the contract for the big outlet sewer, extending from near the L. E. & W. R. R. bridge to the Jackson schoolhouse, the cost to be $90,000. Connected with the sewage question was that of the dis- posal of garbage. The council in June, 1891, discussed the bad condition of the city dump in the rear of Wysor's mill, and finally recommended the building of a garbage furnace and the burning of the material collected by the scavenger wagons. But nearly two years passed before such a furnace was erected on North Walnut street.
Muncie's Suburbs.
Most remarkable of all the features of Muncie's growth was the development and upbuilding of suburban additions. In nearly every case these were the natural result of the establishment of factories and the build- ing of homes and a few stores within convenient distance. Such suburbs, with the factory as the center and cause of its being, were likely to continue and grow as long as the factory remained. The glass works, the steel mills and other big industries that have been in Muncie since the discovery of gas, are surrounded by homes and the necessary stores and institutions of a town center. While the expansion of the city was at high tide, con- fident real estate men projected several additions to Muncie that, with the partial collapse of the boom and also because there was little reason for the extension of the city in those directions, have now reverted almost to their original condition as meadows and woodland.
The beginning of Muncie's suburban growth is told, with the flavor of contemporary observation, by a reporter in the Daily News of February 29, 1888, describing his walk from the West Side to the river on the east.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
The first place visited was West Side, the new suburb across White river on Jackson street. Two years ago the Calvert homestead was the only residence in the neighborhood. Now there are dozens of new houses and contracts have been let for the erection of fifty more. One pleasing feature about West Side is that nearly all the residents own their homes. They buy a lot and build themselves a house. None of the land is in the hands of speculators. Lots can be purchased at reasonable rates. Hun- dreds of lots are offered for sale and it is a fine place to live.
The writer then tramped across White river to the Yorktown road. There the work of the surveyor was to be seen and many lots are sold and will be occupied by neat buildings in the spring.
Making a bee line from here the Middletown road was soon reached and we were at Winton Place. This subdivision was primarily designed by the late Dr. Robert Winton. The doctor had grand ideas about Winton Place, which, unfortunately, he was never able to consumniate. Neverthe- less he left Muncie a rich heritage in the beautiful avenues of maples. The doctor intended that this should be the popular driveway of the city. His original plans have been accepted by the city as a subdivision, and many lots have been sold. Mr. George Stafford has given a contract for the erection of about twenty houses in this subdivision.
A few hundred feet to the south the writer came to Ohmer avenue. This avenue is a new thoroughfare. Commencing at Middletown road it goes directly east, crossing Walnut street; from there, it extends to Mace- conia avenue. The avenue extends from there to the Burlington road. It will be 100 feet in width the entire length, will be graded and finished as a drive.
Without going the entire length of this long drive, we went south on the Fort Wayne Railroad. In a few paces we came to the rubber works. A little further along we came to the pulp works. At both of these manu- factories work is progressing very satisfactorily.
From here we went north northeast, angling across lots to the "glass district." All the way across the work of the engineer was everywhere to be seen. Every inch of ground was laid off for lots, streets, alleys and parks. Along here was also to be seen the line of the long switch which is to connect the "glass district" with the Fort Wayne Railroad. Besides the stakes, are to be seen foundations of houses, lumber for houses and other indications of municipal growth. All along also were the red stakes which denoted that the lots had been sold.
Arriving at the "glass district" the crops of last year are not to be scen. The immense red buildings of the Ball Bros. Glass Works are loom- ing up on the hill. A torch from their gas well stands as a sentinel of the work. To the east is a derrick, where a well is being put down for the Hemingrays.
Work has already progressed considerably at the Hemingray works. Yet the few large frame buildings and extensive foundations give no idea what the factory will be. The works will cover eight acres of ground.
Four and a half years later, in August, 1892, the suburban growth has extended to the north side of the river. Whitely was just beginning, while to the west, bordering Wheeling pike, the new place called Riverside was coming into notice as a residence district. Numerous improvements were
160
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
being undertaken along the pike and Hudson avenne, the Neely place of eighty-five acres being cleared for buildings. The West Side was already a place of cottages and factories. Avondale, in October, 1889, was said to have grown from two or three houses to one hundred, two years later was mentioned for its beauty and size, while in August, 1892, it had improved streets, street-car transportation by way of Ohmer avenue, and had a school population that taxed the facilities that could be provided. Congerville, with its two iron mills, engine works, architectural iron works, nut and bolt fac- tory, and many houses, was a new but very promising part of the city. In- dustry, the name given to the suburb that had grown up around the glass factory, was at that time denominated an unlucky suburb because of the numerous fires that had visited the factories there, but it was then and has continued to be one of the largest additions to Muncie. Boyceton, on the east side of the river, with Maring, Hart and Co.'s factories, had been projected by Mr. Boyce several years previously, and a number of houses had been erected by him for the benefit of the residents.
Fire Department.
The upbuilding of these suburbs brought the subject of fire protection into sudden prominence. The Muncie News in December, 1889, calls at- tention to the inadequacy of the fire department. The fire department was the same in force and equipment as when Muncie had seven thousand people, when there was no West Side, no Boyceton, no Avondale, no Anthony, no Galliher addition. There was only one station, water mains had not yet been extended to the outlying districts, and every time the engine company re- sponded to a call from a suburb the team was exhausted by the long run.
In 1892 Muncie was afflicted with many serious fires. Altogether there were 77 alarms for the year, against 43 for 1891. The total loss for the year was $418,616. Fourteen fires were beyond the reach of the water service. That this was a most serious condition is shown by the further statistics that these fourteen fires resulted in sixty percent of the total fire loss for the year. However, the frequency of disastrous fires in the factory district had aroused the council to action, and during the summer of 1892 it was decided to add a new fire station, to be located on Mulberry and Willard streets, to serve the factory district. In December of the same year the Muncie Glass Co. opened a third station, which, however, was a private equipment and had no connection with the city department. In 1896 Chief Shepp reported the total value of the two stations and apparatus as $24,236, with annual expenses for 1895 about $8,750. Though the population and extent of the city had doubled within the preceding ten years, the value of the fire apparatus and the expense of operating had not increased corre- spondingly. In 1896 there were eleven miles of water pipes, 189 fire hy- drants, and nine cisterns. In 1895, 118 alarms resulted in a loss of $77,907.
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CHAPTER XVII. PROGRESS AND CHANGE IN THE SMALLER CENTERS.
It is doubtful if a single adult resident of Delaware county during the years following the discovery of gas was unaffected by the spirit of devel- opment and the new energy that seemed to actuate all things. The county was very rapidly changed from an agricultural basis to an industrial-the greater wealth no longer came from the soil but from beneath it. Every landowner hoped for a share of the new wealth. Promoters were busy in every locality, organizing the citizens into associations for the development of gas wells, or the laying out of town sites, or erection of manufacturing plants. It would be impossible to say how much money was gathered in by promoters and speculators who had no further interest in the welfare of the county than to control a promising enterprise long enough to reap a golden harvest, then leaving the investors a bag to hold. One of the con- spicuous characters of this sort produced during the boom was one Col. John II. Grover, who, during his popularity, was called the greatest land organizer and village promoter in the country. In two or three years, after having made the circuit of the county, hie departed without having accom- plished anything to cause his name to be permanently identified with the county except as a promoter of enterprises that ceased to exist as soon as he withdrew his enthusiasm and persuasive influence. As an example of his work in the county, in February, 1893, he got together the farmers and villagers about Royerton, and organized the North Muncie Land Co., with half a dozen well known citizens of that vicinity as officers or directors. The plans were to build a city and manufacturing center, which would be an adjunct and worthy rival of the city of Muncie.
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At Eaton, where gas was first discovered, it was early planned to pro- mote the industrial and commercial growth of the town, with natural gas as a basis. The beginning of this era was regarded with pleasure by several men who had known the place as an unnamed locality in the wilderness. David Brandt, who died a few years ago, had been the proprietor of the store at "Hen-peck" in the forties and later had transferred his enterprise to the site of Eaton, and another resident at this period and one who took an active part in the development of industrial Eaton, was John W. Long.
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IHISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
who had been born on land that later became platted for the Eaton town- site and when a young man had carried the chain in laying out the village. In 1891 Eaton secured its glass works. In August, 1892, the Eaton Land and Improvement Co. was organized, and at once proceeded to acquire the Long farm cast of town, containing the limestone quarries. The Paragon Paper Co. was also organized in 1892, with Herman Bergoff president, and the building of the paper plant began in the fall. The Old Fort Manufac- turing Co. was another concern secured by the enterprising citizens about that time. The Eaton Bank Co. was promoted in 1893 mainly by Fort Wayne people, and the bank building was completed during the summer of 1893. In December, 1894, the Farmers State Bank began business, and about a year later the Bank of Eaton was organized. In 1893 Emil Baur came to Eaton and took charge of the Eaton Window Glass Co. He has since been an energetic factor in maintaining Eaton's industrial interests, and is the leading manufacturer of the town. He and Jocl Hamilton organ- ized the Eaton Manufacturing Co., which absorbed the Old Fort Manufac- turing Co. Mr. Baur is now president or proprietor of the Baur Window Glass Co., the Baur Gas Co. and the Eaton Manufacturing Co. Besides these, the largest industries of Eaton at the present time are the Western Flint Glass Co., of which John Foorman is president; the Carter Brothers, manufacturers and grain dealers, who represent the oldest established busi- ness connection in the town, the Carters having been engaged in milling here for more than forty years and also connected with the Brandts in mer- cantile affairs. The paper mill which has been idle since it was sold to the box board trust, has recently been reconstructed by A. B. Trentman and S. B. Fleming, preparatory to resumption of operations in the fall of 1907.
ALBANY.
The town of Albany probably benefited more from the gas discovery than any other town in the county outside of Muncie. As elsewhere stated, Albany had very little to distinguish it during the early eighties, and yet it was one of the oldest villages in the county. Fifty years ago, according to an old gazetteer. B. F. Cary was postmaster, L. Blake was the miller, Cary and Wingate, Allegre and Manning, and Ezra Maynard were proprietors of the general stores, and there were three doctors, one of whom also signed himself as a lawyer and justice of the peace. .
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