USA > Indiana > An illustrated history of the state of Indiana: being a full and authentic civil and political history of the state from its first exploration down to 1879 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
403.230
622.426
1,076,768
Clover seed, bushels
18.320
60.726
61,168
Grass seed, bushels
11.951
37.914
17,377
Hope, pounds
92,796
27,884
63,884
Hemp, tous.
4,2022
Flax, pounds
584.469
97,119
37.771
Flaxseed, bushels
36,888
119,420
401,931
Sugar, maple, pounds
2,921,192
1,541,761
1.332,332
Zolasses, sorghum, gallons
881,049
2,026,21%
Molasses, maple, gallons.
130,325
292,908
227.880
Beeswax, pounds ..
34.525
12,019
Honey, pounds
939,329
1,224,489
395,278
Wheat, spring, bushels
161,991
Wheat, winter, bushels
6,214,458
16,848.2267
27,585.231
Cotton, bales.
14
3
122.914,302
Orchard products
CHAPTER XXXVII.
MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.
T HIE manufacture and trade of the State will be more par- ticularly noticed in the descriptions of the towns and places where they are carried on. Madison and some of the other towns on the Ohio, above the falls, have good natural advantages for manufactures. These are being employed to a good advantage, and every year carries the prosperous State of Indiana further along the highway of commercial prosperity. In the whole southwestern part of the State, and for three hundred miles up the celebrated Wabash, coal exists in good quality and abundance; and in the central portion of the State, as well as in the north, there is every facility for water power, and in the latter inexhaustible beds of bog-ore, so that when- ever labor for agriculture ceases to be in demand, it can be turned to manufacturing with good results. And, indeed, it is true that much labor is being profitably employed in the latter, while yet the pursuit of agriculture is on the advance. This is one of the many evidences of the steady growth in all the great industries of civilization applicable to the resources of the State. The wheat raised within the State is almost entirely manufactured into flour within its limits, though large quantities in the southeastern part are sent to Cincinnati, and some is transported north by the Wabash and Eric canal, and by the lakes to Canada and western New York.
There is no commanding position in the State at which even a fifth of the whole business will ever be concentrated. Madi- son, Indianapolis, Richmond, Fort Wayne, Logansport, Lafay- ette, Terre Haute, South Bend, Michigan City, Evansville, and many places on the Ohio, are all fast becoming great commer-
320
321
MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.
cial centers, and the railroads and other improvements now in progress, and the facilities that shall hereafter be afforded to the enterprising business men of the State, point to no par- ticular city with any assurance of its precedence. All parts and sections are progressing. It has truthfully been said that " the public convenience and the general good, not State pride, is building our cities."
The principal articles of export from the State, at the pres- ent time are pork and flour. The former is mostly produced in the southern, and the latter in the northern part of the State. To these great staples may be added horses, mules, fat cattle, corn, poultry, butter, most of the agricultural products of the West, and a wide range of articles of manufacture. The numerous canals and railroads which intersect each other at many points in the State, afford great facilities for trans- portation, so that our producers can reach any market desired at a nominal expense.
The disposition to monopolize in the trade of the State does not exist to a greater degree than is desirable or necessary in a healthy commercial State. During the civil war many attempts of this kind were made, which resulted either in making very large profits or in the utter failure of the specu- lator who engaged in them. The prospect of securing a large profit in a vast amount of produce which was made reasonably certain by the increasing demand for this merchandise became very exciting, and the flour and pork trader found it quite impossible to practice moderation in their calculations. The result was always damaging on the general trade. . When the trader failed the farmer generally suffered in pocket, and when he made heavy profits their feelings were outraged. This state of things led to a better regulated commerce. Farmers united in maintaining prices and protecting each other, and so great has been their strength and influence in the making and administration of the laws touching matters of trade that they have been enabled to regulate the cost of transportation, and to prevent, in a great measure, damaging fluctuations in the markets.
Commerce in the productions of the soil, for many years,
21
322
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
absorbed the attention of traders and speculators; but no sooner had the prosperity of trade created a demand for a general development of the agricultural resources of the State, than a special interest was directed to manufacturing. This was manifested as carly as 1840, and, from that year down to the present, a general prosperity has attended almost every manufacturing establishment in the State. It is said that the largest carriage factory in the whole world, to-day, is located in the State of Indiana, at the flourishing city of South Bend. This is the greater evidence of the enterprise of Indiana man- nfactures, when taken in consideration with the celebrated carriage factories of Connecticut, many of which have sup- plied, to a great extent, the markets of the old world. Fol- lowing are some statistical observations.
MANUFACTURING STATISTICS.
Classes.
1875.
1870.
1860.
1850.
Mfg. establishments
16,812
11,847
5,323
4,392
Steam engines employed
3,684
2,881
Total horse power
114,961
76,851
Total No. waterwheels
1,641
1,090
Horse power waterwheels ..
38,614
23,518
Hands employed
86,402
58,852
21,295
14,440
No. males over 16 years.
81,621
54,412
20,563
13,748
No. females over 15 years
3,791
2,272
732
692
No. of youths.
2,000
2,168
Capital employed
$117,462,161
$ 52,052,425 $18,451,121
$ 7,750,402
Wages paid.
35,461,987
18,366,780
6,318,335
3,728,844
Cost of material
104,321,632
63,135,492
27,142,597
10,369,700
Value of products
301,304,271|
108,617,278|
42,803,469
18,725,423
The above statistics of manufacturing in Indiana, for the years 1850, 1860, and 1870, were compiled from the re- ports of the Bureau of Statistics; those for the year 1875 have been gathered by the compilers of this work, while trav- eling through the State, and are, in nearly all cases, as correct as those taken from the reports. The column representing 1875 will show the unparalleled increase in manufactures in Indiana during the last five years. As a manufacturing State, Indiana is now considerably in advance of Illinois and Mich- igan, in proportion to her population, and she is rapidly leaving them in the rear in this great branch of industry,
323
MANUFACTURING STATISTICS.
which must, in some future day, become the great source of wealth in the States, instead of agriculture.
From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it is shown that there is over $100,000,000 now invested in manu- facturing in this State. Five years ago Illinois had less than
H. BATES, ESQ. See page 21.
$90,000,000 invested in this branch of business, while at the same time Michigan had but $70,000,000. Indiana, in the same year had but little over $50,000,000 invested in her fac- tories. How has this comparison been affected by a growth
324
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
of five years! It was estimated, in 1874, by one of the leading journals of Illinois, that the manufacturing capital of that State had increased thirty per cent. in five years. This would give Illinois $117,000 000 in manufacturing, in 1875, against $100,000,000 in Indiana. From this basis it will be safe to predict that in 1880 Indiana, in proportion to her population, will greatly exceed the State of Illinois in manufacturing enterprise. The comparison with Michigan, during the same period, is still more flattering to Indiana, than that with Illinois.
The same increase of prosperity is noticeable in the pro- duets of Indiana factories. In 1870 they were estimated at $103,617,278. From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it appears that the products of the various factories in the State, for the year ending September thirtieth, 1874, will exceed $300,000,000, showing an increase in five years of nearly $200,000,000. These estimates have been made with the greatest of care, and although they seem to overstate the pros- perity of the State during the last five years, yet they may be regarded as reliable.
It is true that the inquiries as to the amount of capital invested, and the amount of products, were not always suc. cessful, but means have been employed to correct errors, into which the answers of over-ambitious persons were calculated to lead us.
But the manufacturing industry of Indiana has not pros- pered in the last five years more than it will in the next. There is a brilliant prospect for a great future advancement in this branch of business. Indeed, this department of enter- prise cannot be regarded as more than fully begun; and from the present indications, its future growth is guaranteed.
-
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE MINERAL WEALTH OF INDIANA.
SECOND in importance among the material resources of Indiana are her minerals, as yet only partly discovered, and almost entirely undeveloped. In agricultural wealth the State has no equal, acre for acre, in North America; in min- eral wealth she is scarcely behind the richest States in the Union. In short, she possesses within her borders every ele- ment required to produce wealth, and stimulate progress. Physically, the surface of the country is, for the most part, gently rolling. In the southern portion, along the Ohio river, there are a few hills ranging from fifty to four hundred feet in height, but the average height is probably not more than one hundred feet. About one-eighth part of the State is prairie land, and the remaining seven-eighths, when in a state of nature, was set with a dense forest .*
About one-third of the State is still well timbered. The surface of the territory is well supplied with water courses. The Ohio river, one of the largest tributaries of the Missis- sippi river, flows along its southern border, and is navigable by the largest class of steamboats during the greater part of the year. The Wabash river rises in the State of Ohio, crosses Indiana in a southwesterly direction, and thence to its junction with the Ohio river forms the boundary line between Indiana and Illinois. For a part of the season this fine stream is navigable for steamboats as far up as Lafayette, about three hundred miles above its mouth. When the improvements now going on under authority of the General Government,
* We have been kindly permitted to use, in this chapter, the materials embraced in a pamphlet edited by Prof. E. T. Cox, State Geologist.
325
326
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
are completed, it is believed by competent engineers that it will be navigable as far up as Terre Haute, at all times except when stopped by ice.
Lake Michigan, one of the chain of great lakes between Canada and the United States, extends down into the north- west corner of Indiana, and furnishes ship communication with the immense iron ore deposits of the Lake Superior regions, as well as a channel of commerce with the Atlantic scaboard. In the northern part of the State there are numer- ous small fresh water lakes, from half a mile to ten miles in length, and from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width; the water is clear and pure, and in many of them very deep. They abound with fish of the finest quality for table use, and together with flocks of wild ducks and geese that frequent them in the fall and spring, afford fine amusement for sports- men, as well as an abundance of cheap and wholesome food. It must be borne in mind that in this country there are no laws against hunting or fishing on the public domain, water courses or lakes, but they are open alike to all .*
But more particularly as to the mineral resources. Coal, the most valuable of all minerals, exists in the State in great abundance. The measures, says Prof. E. T. Co.x, cover an arca of about six thousand five hundred square miles, in the south- western part of the State, and extend from Warren county, on the north, to the Ohio river, on the south, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles. The following counties lie within its arca: Warren, Fountain, Parke, Vermillion, Vigo, Clay, Sullivan, Greene, Knox, Daviess, Martin, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer, Perry, and a small part of Crawford, Monroc, Putnam and Montgomery. The coal is all bituminous, but is divisible into three well marked varieties: Caking-coal, non-caking-coal or Block coal, and Cannel coal.
The total depth of the seams or measures is from six hun- dred to eight hundred feet, with twelve to fourteen distinct scams of coal, though they are not all to be found throughout the entire area of the field. The seams range from one foot
* Prof. E. T. Cox.
327
MINERAL WEALTHI.
to eleven feet in thickness, and the field may, from the charac- ter of the coal, be divided from north to south into two zones; the western contains the seams of caking coal, and the cast- ern the non-caking or block coal.
There are, continnes Prof. Cox-and this gentleman is our authority on questions pertaining to minerals - from three to four workable scams of caking coal, ranging from three and a half to cleven feet in thickness. At most of the localities, when these are being worked, the coal is mined by adits driven in on the face of the ridges, and the deepest shafts in the State are less than three hundred feet; the average depth to win coal being not over seventy-five feet. The analysis of samples of caking coal, from different counties, are here inserted, and will serve to indicate its value.
The five feet seam at Washington, Daviess county, is as fol- lows: Specific gravity, 1,294; one cubic foot weighs SO.S7 lbs.
Coke 64.50
Volatile matter .. .35.50
Moisture @ 212º F. 5.50
Fixed Carbon. .60.00
Ash, white. 4.50
Gas .30.00
100.00 100.00
This is a bright black coal, makes a very fair quality of coke and yields four cubic feet of gas per pound, with an illu- minating power equal to fifteen standard candles. The five feet seam in Sullivan county is as follows: Specific gravity, 1,228; one cubic foot weighs 76.75 lbs.
Coke 52.50 Moisture @ 212º F . 2.85
Fixed Carbon .51.10
Volatile matter 47.50 - Ash, white .80
Gas 45.25
100.00 100.00
This is a glossy, jet black coal, makes a good coke and con- tains a very large percentage of pure illuminating gas. One pound of coal yields 4.22 cubic feet of gas, with a candle- power equal to fifteen standard sperm candles. The average calculated calorific power of the caking coals is 7745 heat
328
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
units; carbon being equal to 8080. Both in the northern and southern portions of the field, the caking coals present similar good qualities, and will be a great source of private and pub- lic wealth.
The eastern zone of the coal measures has an area of more than four hundred and fifty square miles. It is here that we find the celebrated Block coal, a fossil fuel which is used in the raw state for making pig iron. In fact this coal, from its physical structure and freedom from impurities, is peculiarly suited to metallurgical purposes. It has a laminated structure with carbonaceous matter, like charcoal, between the lamina, slaty cleavage and rings under the hammer. It is free burn- ing, makes an open fire, and without caking, swelling, scaf- folding in the furnace or changing form, burns like hickory wood until it is consumed to a white ash and leaves no clink- ers. It is likewise valuable for generating steam and for household uses. Many of the principal railway lines in the State are using it in preference to any other coal, as it does not burn out the fire-boxes and gives as little trouble as wood.
There are as many as eight distinct seams of block-coal in this zone, three of which are workable, having an average thickness of four feet. In some places this coal is mined by adits, but generally from shafts, forty to eighty feet deep. The seams are crossed by cleavage lines and the coal is usually mined without powder, and may be taken out in blocks weigh- ing a ton or more. When entries or rooms are driven angling across the cleavage lines, the walls of the mine present a zig- zag notched appearance, resembling a Virginia worm fence .*
In 1871, there were about twenty-four block coal mines in operation, and about fifteen hundred tons were mined daily. Now there are more than fifty inines in operation, and the amount mined daily will reach nearly five thousand tons, and the demand is increasing faster than the facilities for raising it. Miners are paid from one dollar to one dollar and twenty cents per ton, and the coal sells, on the cars at the mines, for two dollars and seventy-five cents per ton of two thousand pounds. The usual estimate, to cover all expenses for running
* Prof. E. T. Cox's pamphlet.
329
MINERAL WEALTH.
a mine, is fifty cents per ton, which leaves a net profit of from one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents per ton. Coal lands sell at from fifty dollars to five hundred dollars per acre, according to location and the extent of the investigations that have been made to prove the quality and quantity.
The following analysis will serve to indicate the quality of the block coal:
CLAY COUNTY, STAR MINE, PLANET FURNACE.
No. 1.
No. 2.
Ash, white
2.74
1.68
Carbon
81.60
83.68
Hydrogen
4.39
4.10
Nitrogen
1.67
1.67
Oxygen
8.88
8.17
Sulphur
.72
.70
100.00
100.00
Calculated calorific power equal to 8283 heat units.
These examples show a fair average quality of the block coal used in the blast furnaces of Indiana for making Besse- mer pig. The quality is alike good, both in the northern and southern parts of the field. Nine blast furnaces in Indiana, and others at Carondelet, near St. Louis, are using the raw block coal for smelting iron ores, and it gives universal satis- faction.
The Brazil blast furnace is sixty-one feet high, fourteen feet across the boshes, and has a closed top. It is using the Mis- souri specular hematite and red hematite iron ores. With three parts of the former and one part of the latter, the make is forty tons of two thousand two hundred and sixty-eight pounds per day, and with equal parts of each the make is thirty-five to thirty-six tons per day. Four thousand pounds of block coal are used to the ton of iron. The Missouri ores now cost, on an average, twelve dollars per ton at the furnace, being an advance over the year 1874 of more than three dol- lars per ton. One and a half tons of the specular ore will produce a ton of pig iron; of the red hematite it requires a little more than this quantity to make a ton of pig.
330
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
This certainly speaks highly for the block coal, as well as of the superior advantages offered in Indiana for the manufacture of iron and Bessemer steel rails. The cost of labor to make a ton of pig iron at the furnace in Indiana, is about three dol- lars and fifty cents .*
The great Indiana coal field is less than one hundred and fifty miles, by railroad, from Chicago, Illinois, or Michigan City, in this State, from which ports the Lake Superior spec- ular and red hermatite ores are landed from vessels that are able to run in a direct course from the ore banks. Lake Superior ore is similar in quality to that from the Iron Moun- tain in Missouri, and is as well adapted for making Bessemer pig. From the Iron Mountain to the block coal field, the dis- tance is two hundred and sixty-six miles by railroad. There are five railroads running from the coal field to St. Louis, and three to Chicago, and two to Michigan City.
Any carefully thinking business man can easily observe the advantages of this immense coal field to the future prosperity of Indiana. From it untold wealth will flow into private and public treasuries. To-day it lays comparatively dormant, awaiting only the combined efforts of capital and labor to make it the centre of activity and the fountain of material prosperity.
But we must not forget the cannel coal. One of the finest scams of this coal to be found in the country is to be seen in Daviess county, Indiana. Here we have a coal five feet thick, of which the upper three and a half feet is cannel, and the lower one and a half feet is a beautiful jet-black caking coal. The two qualities are united, and show no intervening clay or shale, so that in mining, fragments of the caking coal are often found adhering to the cannel. There is no gradual change from one to the other, or blending of the varieties where united, but the change is sudden and the character of the cannel coal is homogeneous from top to bottom.
The cannel coal makes a delightful fire in open grates, and does not pop and throw off scales into the room, as is usually the case with this variety of coal. The following is Prof.
·Prof. E. T. Cox.
331
MINERAL WEALTH.
Cox's analysis of this coal: Specific gravity, 1.229; one cubic foot weighs 76.87 lbs.
Coke
48.00 3 § Ash, white 6.00
- Fixed carbon 42.00
( Moisture @ 212º F 3.50
Volatile matter 52.00
Gas 48.50
100.00 100.00
Ultimate analysis of the same coal by the same gentleman: Carbon
71.10
Aslı .
7.65
Hydrogen
6.06
Nitrogen 1.45
12.74
Oxygen
Sulphur 1.00
100.00
From the above analysis it will be seen that this coal is admirably adapted to the manufacture of illuminating gas, both from the quantity it yields and its high illuminating power. One ton of two thousand pounds of this cannel coal yields ten thousand four hundred feet of gas, while the best Yonghiogheny coal used at the Indianapolis gas works, yields but eight thousand six hundred and eighty cubic feet. This gas has an illuminating power of 25.2 candles, while the Youghiogheny coal gas has an illuminating power of seven- teen candles.
Cannel coal is also found in great abundance in Perry, Greene, Parke and Fountain counties, where its commercial value has already been attested.
There are numerous deposits of bog iron ore in the north- ern part of the State, and clay iron stones and impure carbo- nates and brown oxides are found scattered over the vicinity of the coal fields. At some localities the beds are quite thick, and of considerable commercial value. Investigation is already showing that Indiana contains valuable ore beds, that will, at no distant day, contribute largely to her importance.
Indiana also contains immense and inexhaustible quantities of building stone, sufficient for all future purposes, of the very
332
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
best quality. Numerous quarries are already open and in suc- cessful operation.
There is an abundance of excellent lime in the State. This is gaining a wide reputation, and largely adding to the volume of the State commerce. It abounds in Huntington county in extensive beds, where numerous large kilns are kept in prof- itable operation.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
LAWS AND COURTS OF INDIANA.
A' S a work for reference, this volume would not be com. plete without a brief digest of the laws and courts of Indiana. IIence this chapter, in which we shall endeavor to give a complete, concise and simple exhibit of the latest revis- ion of the State laws. We have been aided in our selection of materials for this feature by some of the leading members of the Indianapolis bar .* The last revision of the State laws was accomplished in 1852, and the latest publication of the revised code, as amended, comprises all the public acts and general laws now in force. "Practice in civil suits," says Mr. Pierce, "is under the code of 1852, in which all distinction between law and equity, and all forms of action are abolished. All defenses, except the denial of the facts alleged by the plaintiff, are pleaded specially. On the second and following days of the term, the dockets are called by the court for plead- ings or defaults. Amendments to pleadings are allowed with liberality, somewhat in the discretion of the court."
Actions must be commenced by filing in the office of the clerk of the court, a complaint, in the name of the person or party interested, and the service of summons at least ten days
* We are especially indebted to Henry D. Pierce, Esq.
.
MM MOODY.
A, VAN
GUNDY
HON. JOHN SUTHERLAND.
. H.
YEOMAN.
JAMES
COMSTOCK.
334
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
before the first day of the term. Service may be made by publication. " A judgment rendered on service by publica- tion may be opened within five years, except in divorce cases, when the judgment may be opened within two years as to the subject of alimony and custody of children," and as to the merits of the divorce, when granted upon service by publica- tion. In the latter case the party obtaining the divorce is prohibited from marrying within two years from the date of the decrec.
Arrests are permitted in civil cases where the plaintiff or his attorney lodges with the clerk of the court an affidavit, specifying the right to recover existing debt or damages, and that the defendant is about to leave the State, with property, with intent to defraud the plaintiff. " An undertaking of the plaintiff must first be filed, with sufficient sureties, to pay all damages sustained by the arrest, if wrongful, not to exceed double the amount of the claim."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.