USA > Indiana > Wells County > Biographical memoirs of Wells County, Indiana : embracing a comprehensive compendium of local biography, memoirs of representative men and women of the county whose works of merit have made their names imperishable, and special articles by Hugh Dougherty [et al.] > Part 4
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA. 1204303
this was reported to Mr. Studabaker he called Mr. Worthington, the president of the road, and a number of directors to Fort Wayne and at that conference it was decided to take the work away from the contractors and put it in the hands of a receiver and if any profits were made they were to go to the contractors. A number of citizens were dis- cussed as to who should take charge of the work and put it through with as much haste as posible, when Mr. Studabaker proposed the writer, who was then twenty-four years old. Some objections to him were made on account of his age, but with Mr. Studa- baker's keen foresight he was determined to have control of the construction so that it might be put through as rapidly as possible and before any failure might occur with the Junction Railroad, so he proposed that the receiver should give a one-hundred-thous- and-dollar bond, which was promptly given by Mr. Studabaker signing the bond, with Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, and oth- er gentlemen. He brought it to Bluffton for the signature of the principal and on the next day the writer took charge of the enter- prise, hiring all labor, buying the material and securing the right of way. Among the first men hired to hew ties was Augustus N. Martin, who afterwards was elected reporter of the supreme court and was also represent- ative in congress three times from this dis- trict. There was much annoyance in getting the right of way, because of inany unfulfilled promises made by the men who undertook to build this railroad years prior to this time. One of the instances that now comes to our mind occurred on the farm of George F. Burgan, through which the road ran a mile north of Bluffton. He was very agreeable as to the question of amount and we agreed
with him what he was to have and told him to let the men go to work and we would be out and pay him next day. This conversa- tion was in the yard and he immediately stepped into the house, took down his rifle and said, "You will pay me now or the first man that steps' on my land will be shot," so we were compelled to return to Bluffton at once and obtain the money to pay him, for the men were there ready to go to work. From that time on the road had no better friend than Mr. Burgan. We had several law suits for rights of way, in which we found David Colerick, of Fort Wayne, a very able lawyer, always on the opposite side. After we had the right of way through the farms Colerick came to us and asked that there might be a cattle guard put in so that a crossing could be made for a client of his, that the latter might drive his stock from one side of the farm to the other. We said to him, "Mr. Colerick, we do not con- sider you a friend of the road, therefore do not believe we can grant your request in be- half of your client." He yelled out at the top of his voice, "Friend! I am no man's friend, nor road either ; I never had but one friend myself and he d-d nigh ruined me." His client did not get the crossing.
The intimation we had that the Junction Railroad and Louis Worthington, the presi- dent, were in financial straits caused great fears that the road never could be completed for lack of money, so it was agreed that the Junction Railroad would secure the iron and we would do the work and furnish the ties and bridges to complete the work to Bluffton and hold the one-hundred-thousand-dollar citizens' bond as security for what money we had advanced and would advance until the road was completed to Bluffton. The condi-
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tion of the bond was that the one hundred thousand dollars would be due whenever a train of cars would have run over the road from the city of Fort Wayne into the town of Bluffton, where Market street would cross the railroad. This made it extremely impor- tant that the road be completed to Market street, Bluffton, before November 30, 1869. As the time drew near for the completion of the road there had to be a large number of men and teams put on the grade and in the woods making ties and getting out timber, and the last month we had three hundred names on the pay roll, which required over thirty thousand dollars. On November 10, 1869, twenty days before the time was up, we had run a train from Fort Wayne to Market street, Bluffton, which made the citi- zens' bond binding and worth one hundred thousand dollars. Then came the great jolli- fication, large numbers of people coming in from all parts of the county with well filled baskets. A jolly time was had.
Up to this time there had been but one engine on the road, it being under the care of the writer, and the contractors, Byrd, Sturgis & Ney, refusing to surrender the possession of the road to the Junction Rail- road until they were settled with for their profits. The Junction road bribed the fire- man to run away with the engine. While the engineer was temporarily off his engine at Fort Wayne, the fireman cut loose and started it down the Pennsylvania track to Lima with all speed possible. This created great excitement at Bluffton and the question then arose in the minds of the wiseacres whether from a legal standpoint we had a railroad or not and it was a mooted ques- tion as to whether the one-hundred-thous- and-dollar citizens' bond could be collected,
but it was only a few days until a train of cars was placed on the road.
While Mr. Studabaker and the writer were delighted to have completed the road in time to leave them secure for what had been advanced, yet there was great trouble ahead. About fifty thousand dollars of the money which had been appropriated by the county commissioners to the railroad had been paid in by tax payers to the county treasurer, he having deposited it in our bank. We in turn deposited it in the Central Na- tional Bank of Cincinnati, but when we made the last payment to the laborers and for the material and our bank undertook to draw the money from the Central National Bank of Cincinnati, we were told that Louis Worth- ington had already drawn the money, claim- ing it due them as soon as the railroad reached Market street, Bluffton. After spending two days making every effort toget them to give up the money peacefully we em- ployed lawyers with the intention to force them to pay us the money, for the reason that we had never given the Central Na- tional Bank any authority to pay Mr. Worthington the money, and if they had ad- vanced it to him on his word they must rely on that for their pay. This settled one-half of the citizens' bond. The other half was settled so far as it could be done by the coun- ty commissioners by their ordering the county auditor to issue county orders cover- ing the other fifty thousand dollars, which was to be paid out of money as soon as col- lected for that purpose. The county com- missioners appointed Mr. John Studabaker trustee to take charge of these county orders, but Hon. Newton Burwell, who had just held a term in the lower house of the legis- lature and was quite active in politics, raised
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an objection to Mr. Studabaker being made trustee, because of his being a Republican. He had but little trouble in convincing the county commissioners that Mr. Studabaker could not be trusted with these county orders on account of his politics, this being made es- pecially easy because of there having been quite a contest over Manuel Popejoy, who was nominated as one of the commissioners on the Democratic ticket. However, when the committee appointed by the four hun- dred on the citizens' bond called on Mr. Popejoy and asked what he would do in regard to pledging himself to appropriate the money for the railroad, his reply was, "If the law warrants such an appropriation and I am elected I will vote for it." The signers of the bond knew there was no law authorizing a levy for railroad purposes, so they set about. to defeat him and did so by electing Louis Prilliman, a Republican. Thus Mr. Burwell's objection to Mr. Studa- baker on account of his politics was accepted by the commissioners as being sufficient to remove him, and it was proposed that the writer, whose politics was regular, be put in his place, and he was appointed.
This only increased trouble for the writer, as the county orders were then placed in his hands and he started to Cincinnati to exchange them for the citizens' bond. He found it in the hands of a pork packer named Joseph Rawson, who had advanced Mr. Worthington the money on the last half of the bond, this being the money that paid for the railroad iron. Although we offered to sell them at ninety cents on the dollar. they had no attraction for Mr. Rawson and he promptly declined to take anything but cash, so we returned from Cincinnati with a heavy heart, feeling it would be from one
to two years at least before the orders could be paid. The citizens' bond was now due, as the railroad had already reached Market street, Bluffton. When we reached Bluffton it was a late hour in the night and-we found Amos Townsend walking up and down the street waiting for us and said he had word that the taxpayers in the northern part of the county would enjoin us from disposing of the orders, if they were able to procure legal service on us.
We called on Mr. Studabaker and de- cided that there was only one thing for us to do and that was to get out of the reach of the officers and make some disposition of the orders. We concluded it was not safe to wait for a train the next morning and. after some deliberation, hitched up and went to Fort Wayne in a private rig. If we were unable to sell the orders in Fort Wayne we must keep on going, even to New York if necessary, until they were disposed of. We reached Fort Wayne a little before daylight. The writer, having traveled several nights and being much worried, was directed to go to bed until called by Mr. Studabaker. The next morning about nine o'clock we were directed to go to the First National Bank of Fort Wayne, of which J. D. Nuttman was president, and to take whatever paper he of- fered in exchange for the orders, but we were to go through the form of making a sale by first offering at par and when he of- fered ninety cents to agree to take it. We went through the performance and Mr. Nuttman handed over a paper together with two letters, one written to the auditor and one to the treasurer of Wells county.
As we were so nearly exhausted, Mr. Studabaker sent us home on train and he drove back. On our way home we opened
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the papers and found a certificate of deposit from Nuttman calling for the amount of the face of the orders, less ten per cent. to be paid when the orders were paid. When we got home we delivered one letter to W. H. Deam, treasurer, and one to S. M. Dailey, auditor. They opened the letters, which said that the First National Bank of Fort Wayne had bought the orders and would expect payment for them as soon as the money could be collected. Mr. Dailey, the auditor, in a very excited way, began to an- nounce to every one he met that the orders were sold and the money was in the Ex- change Bank of John Studabaker & Com- pany, ready to pay off the citizens' bond, all of which was glad news to every one who had signed the bond; but this was but the beginning of our troubles.
. In the first place, the paper held against the First National Bank of Fort Wayne would cause us to meet with a loss of ten per cent. on the orders and the six per cent. they would draw until they were paid, so we could not stand that staring us in the face and insisted upon Mr. Studabaker returning to Fort Wayne at once and exchange the certificate we had for the orders given Nutt- man. When we approached Nuttman, ask- ing what his understanding about the matter was, he very promptly said that he of course expected the ten per cent. and interest on the orders for his trouble in the matter. A very hot controversy ensued, but finally Nuttman agreed to settle for $300, to give up the orders and take back his certificate, which amount was paid by Mr. Studabaker. The certificate of deposit required twenty- eight dollars in government stamps, which made a loss of three hundred and twenty- eight dollars to start with, but that was bet-
ter than ten thousand dollars or more, as it would have been had we gone on with the arrangement first made.
But our troubles did not stop here; in fact, the clouds grew darker and darker un- til the writer made up his mind that disaster must follow, for his position before the pub- lic was a false one and especially interesting to those who were on the citizens' bond and directly interested in the matter, as having possession of the money. Yet he did not make any attempt to pay off the bond and return it to the original signers, as instead of having the money we had those spurious orders which were not worth anything from a legal standpoint.
These conditions continued for about three days, when the public began to get very uneasy and restless because we did not pro- ceed to pay off the bond. The excuse was of- fered that we were sick, worn out and must rest, and thereupon a committee was ap- pointed to take our place to redeem the bond. Then we were compelled to take some ac- tion, so the writer finally concluded that he would insist upon Mr. Studabaker signing his note to cover the amount of money which the commissioners had authorized the orders to be sold for and borrow the money out of our own bank to pay for the purchase of said orders, said fund to be reimbursed as the money was paid into the treasury. The public in the meantime were led to believe that the orders were owned and sent by Nuttman for collection.
When the writer reached this conclu- sion he found Mr. Studabaker in the woods and submitted to him his plan. At first he promptly declined to sign the paper, but up- on reflection he agreed to go to the bank and further discuss the matter and on our way
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up he was told that Captain Peter Studa- baker, who was a partner in the bank at that time, must not know what we were doing, that the fewer the people were who knew of it the less danger there would be of expos- ure if we got into court. It was finally agreed that we should give our note for the whole amount, which was nearly fifty thousand dollars, with John Studabaker as surety. When we reached the bank we made out the note, both signed it and pre- sented it to Captain Studabaker and told him to give us such exchange as could be used in Cincinnati to cover it. Then came a fierce demand to know what this meant. We de- clined to tell him and finally he consented and made out the papers. The writer went to Cincinnati, paid off the bond and brought it back and delivered it over to Mr. Dailey, the auditor, when there was a second jolli- fication. Everybody was light hearted but the writer, who knew we owed fifty thous- and dollars with no security except county orders which had been issued without war- rant of law, and these were worthless from a legal standpoint.
At that time there were a large number of orders out for bridges and the bounty for war purposes, which were being taken up by the treasurer for taxes. We made ar- rangements with the treasurer to retain all orders he took in which were authorized by law and exchange them for our railroad orders, taking him into the secret of the whole transaction, so that within a year we practically had them all taken up .. By this time our first railroad was completed to Bluffton and it was our time to rejoice, as we had escaped a calamity that might have been our destruction, for it is hardly to be ex- pected that the public would have ever taken
care of us, even though the building of the railroad was worth to the town and county ten times the one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Studabaker will never get too much praise for his courage and energy spent in behalf of the public in securing the first rail- road for Bluffton.
The building of the second road, running east and west through Bluffton, had been agitated from time to time for a number of years. At times a line was proposed from Lima to Logansport, at other times from Van Wert in a southwesterly direction and thence west through Crawfordsville, but fin- ally the narrow gauge fever struck the coun- try and Joe Boehmr and Dr. Evans, of Del- phos, Ohio, came along and proposed to build a road from that point through Bluff- ton west. At this time townships were au- thorized to vote aid which was done by Har- rison, Lancaster and Liberty townships. James Crosbie and the writer were given the contract to build the road from Bluffton to Warren. The iron covering that point of the road was to be furnished by the com- pany. The grade was constructed and the iron furnished, but before it was delivered it was necessary to have the officers of the company sign a note covering seven thous- and dollars for the iron. The note was signed by Joseph Boehmr, Dr. Evans, W. J. Craig and the writer. Mr. Crosbie and the writer were given notes covering their contract, executed by the citizens of Warren and payable when the road was completed to that place. These were paid promptly, but the seven
thousand dollars was unprovided for and after considerable manipulation the road was sold and the seven thousand dol- lars paid by the succeeding company, so that
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
Bluffton had the second railroad. From this small start it has since been converted into a standard gauge, with first-class day coaches and sleepers and with through trains from Toledo to St. Louis. It is now a credit to the city as well as the county and of great service to the people.
The building of the narrow gauge road without capital caused the promoters to make many promises they could not fulfill and they became quite unpopular. When the road proposed to locate the shops here, the proposition was turned down by a majority of thirty-seven in Harrison township. This was a misfortune to the citizens of Bluffton, but later on, when the Erie road proposed to come to Bluffton, they offered to give Bluff- ton the road for eighty thousand dollars, but they would not cross the river. Those who were active in railroad building up to that time having become discour- aged by the loss of the narrow gauge shops, took no part in it and the promoters of this enterprise were not aggressive enough to ac- complish their purpose, so the road was lost. Only second as a misfortune to the loss of this railroad is the loss of the Dayton, Union & Huntington road, which is destined to be built through Montpelier, building up that city to our detriment.
The next thing in the way of public im- provement in facilitating travel was in build- ing gravel roads. Interest began to spring up and it was finally decided to go to Rock Creek Center and have a meeting in the inter- est of such roads. W. B. Nimmons, an en- thusiastic promoter of this enterprise, hired a band to attend a meeting at Rock Creek Center in the interest of the proposed im- provements, but the presence of the band en- raged the people, doing more harm than
good, because they conceived the idea that Bluffton was trying to take them by storm. A little later on the Fort Wayne gravel road, extending from the county seat to a point three miles north, came up before the people for consideration, when Mr. Greenfield said he would carry the petition around and get signers if he had a guarantee that the road would be built. We provided the guarantee satisfactory to him and he secured the num- ber of signers necessary and the building of the road was contracted to Simon Bickle. About the same time a petition was circu- lated and signed by a sufficient number for a road extending from Bluffton to Barbers Mills, which road was built by James Cros- bie, Sr.
A little later on a road known as the Salamonie, running from Bluffton through Mt. Zion to the south line of the county, was built by D. D. Studabaker & Company. These roads were more expensive than those later on, as much more was required of the contractors and the contractor knew less about building them, but since that time there is scarcely a section line road in the county that is not graveled, there now being about three hundred miles of gravel road in the county
All the main ditches, which cost many hundred thousand dollars, have been made until there is no part of Wells county that is not thoroughly drained. It has been more difficult to construct the ditches entirely sat- isfactory to the farmers than any other im- provement that has been made. There was much dissatisfaction both with Little River and Rock Creek ditches, which were the larg- est artificial drains in the county, but the people along these ditches have learned that their best soil is in the bottoms and would
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
not now exchange their ditches for the money paid.
In our public buildings we have a court house that is equal to any of the counties around us and one which was honestly built. A self-constituted committee of citizens gave the matter attention during the con- struction of the court house and saw to it that the people of the county got value re- ceived for the money they paid out. The jail is modern and first-class, the county in- firmary and orphans' home are equal to any in this part of the country. Our school buildings are ample to take care of one thou- sand two hundred pupils, being located in three parts of the city where they are con- venient and under the eye of the parents.
Our manufacturing interests have grown from one blacksmith shop, owned by Sam Jones, and one repair and blacksmith shop, owned by Michael Karns, altogether em- ploying six men, to enterprises employing nearly six hundred men. The largest is the Red Cross Manufacturing Company, which makes wind mills, pumps and tower tanks, shipping much of their products to North and South America, Australia and New Zea- land. The Grimes Foundry and Machine Shops make a specialty of the Mascot pump- ing power, which is used in the oil fields for operating large oil leases. The Bluffton Manufacturing Company, the oldest con- cern in the world for manufacturing wash- ing machines, ship its goods all over the United States, as well as Europe. The Zero Mitten Manufacturing Company, employing nearly one hundred girls, makes mittens and gloves which are sold extensively in this country as well as in Canada. The Bluff- ton Folding Chair Works manufactures chairs, camp stools, lawn swings, etc., the
orders for which come from all parts of the country. In addition to these are the Aurora Fire Clay Company, the Indiana Scale Truck Company and the Bluffton Hoop Company, F. P. Adams Slackbarrel and Heading Fac- tory, Smith & Bell Saw Mill, J. M. Buck Handle Factory, the Bluffton Overall Com- pany, three flouring mills, the Mercer Lum- ber Company and a number of cigar factor- ies, all of which give steady employment to the laborers of the city.
In the produce line, from the little ware- house where Studabaker, Sale & Company's office now is, which held the grain and seed for the season, waiting for good roads to al- low it to be hauled to Fort Wayne, we have the Studabaker, Sale & Company's eleva- tors, with a capacity sufficient to fill the old warehouse in one day. In addition to this the H. C. Arnold elevator and the S. Tudor & Company, packers and produce shippers, carrying on a business of great magnitude. These three produce firms fre- quently check out more money from the banks of Bluffton in one day than con- stituted the entire deposits and capital of the bank in the early days. At that time one bank, with total deposits of eighteen thous- and dollars and fifty thousand dollars cap- ital, was more than ample to take care of the business of the town and county. It is now succeeded by two banks with a capital and surplus of two and fifty thousand dollars and one million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars deposits.
The dry goods merchants, then Messrs. Arnold, Bliss & Company, L. L. Holmes and S. Oppenheim, and Nathaniel Schles- singer, the only clothier, have been succeeded by four dry goods stores, any one of which will do as much
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
business per annum as all three of the former stores, besides which are four large clothing stores, any one of which sells more goods in three months than were sold by the one former clothing store in a year. There are now three large hardware stores, in place of the one which was owned by Henry Cook. We also have at the present time four large furniture stores and three undertaking estab- lishments.
The grocery business was represented by Sebastian Keeley and J. E. White. It is now represented by thirteen groceries, with every variety and quality of goods and having an excellent trade, though these are no more than adequate to supply the wants of the peo- ple. There are now five churches, with a. combined seating capacity of four thousand. The development of oil has been a means of enriching the farmers wonderfully in the southern part of the county, among the most prominent operators being W. A. Kunkel, Brown & Long, James McCormick, L. C. Davenport.
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