USA > Indiana > Centennial history and handbook of Indiana : the story of the state from its beginning to the close of the civil war, and a general survey of progress to the present time > Part 24
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Inter-State Migration .- A factor that has figured in the fluctuations of our population is the inter-state migrations. The restless Ameri- can with illimitable new fields of promise forever opening up before him has been much of a mi- grant, and a series of charts of 1890 (Statistical Atlas of Eleventh Census) shows some interest- ing facts in our population history. By an esti- mate based on the places of birth of those then residing in the different States it was computed that the emigration of native Indianians to other States had been more than 550,000, while the immigration from other States to ours was under 450,000. The various Eldorados' of our native Hoosiers were, first, Illinois, Missouri and Kan- sas. In lesser numbers they were scattered to Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minne- sota, Wisconsin and far-away Washington, while some were traced to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia. Flor- ida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California, making in all not less than thirty-eight States with an infusion of Hoosier citizenship. This scatters our na- tive Indianian from ocean to ocean and from
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* See population charts, pp. 154, 155, 157.
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Canada to Mexico and the gulf. On the other hand, we have received citizens from no less than thirty-one States, the chief contributors be- ing Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Vir- ginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. It is a rather curious fact that several States that con- tributed to Illinois and Ohio and other contigu- ous localities sent no emigrants to Indiana.
The tables of the last census show no change in the tendencies of two decades ago. The net loss of Indiana by inter-state migration is shown to be about 275,000, and the foreign immigration has not equaled that number .*
Centers of Population .- The center of popu- lation of the United States, as it moved steadily westward since 1790, was located in Indiana in 1890, or was, at least, then first published, and it still rests there. In 1890 it was twenty miles east of Columbus, Bartholomew county. In 1900 it was six miles southeast of Columbus, and by the last census (1910) it was in Bloomington, Monroe county.
The center of population of the State of Indi- ana was in 1880 at New Augusta, in Marion county. After that it moved slowly northward, and in 1910 rested at Zionsville, Boone county.
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS
From the war period until the close of the century, when the electric railway was intro- duced, transportation improvement was directed to roads and steam railroads, and an account of the development of these logically precedes that of the industrial development, since the latter, to a great degree, followed as a result of trans- portation facilities.
Wagon Roads .- The old question of wagon roads, with which the State and various counties have wrestled from the beginning, still engages the citizens of the State as an unsettled problem. There are still many miles of bad roads that operate as a handicap to the rural population and affect the market profits of agriculture, but the situation is vastly improved. As has been set forth elsewhere in this volume the first system of roads that opened up the country consisted of so many mere openings through the forests that were fairly untravelable for parts of the year.
From these, road-making progressed to the macadam, the plank and the gravel roads. Up
to the time of plank roads all the highways were publicly owned and maintained. With the intro- duction of the comparatively expensive plank im- provement private capital was invested and many roads were surrendered to corporations that did the improving and got their returns from the travel, the mileage being charged and collected at toll-gates located at intervals along the way. This private ownership of roads continued much more extensively after improvement by grave! set in. In time, however, the tide of sentiment turned once more to free roads maintained at public expense, and in 1889 a law was passed providing that the toll roads of any township could be purchased upon a vote of a majority of
The Ox-team was a primitive but sure way of transportation in the pioneer days.
the citizens in the township. A petition of fifty freeholders to the county commissioners could bring the question to vote, and if it carried and the purchase was made county bonds were to be issued and a special tax levied in the township. Since then the roads have been bought up until very few remain. Indeed, as far back as 1899 (the last available statistics on this point) there remained but 141 miles of toll roads, this total existing in seven southern counties. There were at that time 11,027 miles of free gravel road.
The statistics for 1911 (Fourteenth Biennial Report, Department of Statistics) show that the total mileage of free gravel roads was 25,289.76 in addition to 37,235 miles not graveled. The total expenses for gravel road repairs, exclusive of bridges, that year was $1.555,300.57, and for bridges $1,269,644.21. Other costs, such as "viewing," surveying, etc., amounted to
* The State's gain must be referred to the birth-rate.
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$21,114.04, making a grand total of $2,846,058.82 that Indiana spent in one year on her free gravel roads, exclusive of the road work exacted from the rural citizens for the upkeep of the 37,235 miles of "unimproved" or common dirt roads. The gravel road bonds that were outstanding amounted in all to $23,441,332.37.
An inquiry as to the distribution of this im- provement reveals that the expenditures ran all the way from $15 in Floyd county to $91,406.72 in Marion, and the mileage all the way from one mile in Steuben to 1,000 in Parke. The counties that had progressed farthest in the good-roads movement, as measured by the improved mileage at that date, were Parke, 1,000; Wayne, 913.75; Clinton, 790; Putnam, 741.50; Madison, 732.48; Wells, 700; Hamilton, 650; Boone, 626; Grant, 623; Randolph, 600; Henry, 525; Jackson, 551.25; Tipton, 550. All other counties have a mileage under 500.
It is worthy of note that there is a lack of correspondence between the road expenditures in the various counties and their mileage. For example, Parke with its 1,000 miles, expended for repairs in 1911 $23,125.06, and Wayne's 913.75 miles cost $8,866.55. On the other hand, Marion spent $91,406.72 on 383.02 miles, besides $112,257.83 for bridges, and Vanderburg put $30,150.64 on 130 miles. Many similar discrep- ancies are revealed by the tables and the deduc- tion is twofold. The cost of road building varies in the various counties owing to the presence or absence of road material ; also efficiency and hon- esty in the expenditure of road funds varies with various county authorities, which proposition may be pretty well established by an analysis of the tell-tale statistics.
It is undoubtedly true that one great detriment to general and uniform road improvement is the lack of State supervision, and at the present writing there is a movement afoot looking to leg- islation that shall establish such supervision.
State Geologist Blatchley's report for 1905 is devoted almost entirely to road-making and the distribution of road materials. In it may be found much valuable information on this subject.
It may be added that interest is now turning to the comparatively recent proposition of con- crete roads, which are being tried in some lo- calities.
Expansion of the Railroad System .- In a
previous chapter we have dealt with the begin- nings of the railroad era and the conspicuous impetus this new system gave to the State's de- velopment during the fifties. As to that begin- ning we need only say here that its phenomenal activity was but a promise of the tremendous growth to follow. By 1860 there were 2,126 miles of track laid in the State. The mileage by 1870 was 3,177 ; by 1880, 4,963 ; by 1890, 7,431 ; by 1897, 8,606 (Bureau of Statistics report for 1897). This meant not only the main but all auxiliary tracks. In 1914, by the figures of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, the total tracks laid amounted to 20,277.90 miles, and the mileage covered by main tracks, representing the actual distance traversed by the various roads, was 7,224.50 .* This mileage compassed within an area less than 150 miles wide by 250 miles long means a network of roads, the entangled character of which can best be appreciated by reference to a present-day railway map. There are only two counties in the State, Switzerland and Ohio, on the Ohio river, that are untouched by this great modern innovation. In the other ninety counties there are few spots that are not within wagon-hauling distance of some rail- way station, and the great majority of these counties are traversed by more than one line. More than a score of county seats and other towns may be called railroad centers, being the meeting points of three or more lines, while four- teen lines radiating like spokes from Indianapolis make it the railroad hub of the commonwealth. As many may be found streaming from various directions to the northwest corner of the State to focus at Chicago, the great mart of the lakes, and this fairly gridirons the counties in that locality, particularly Lake and Porter. The multiplication of lines has been by far the greatest throughout the central and northern parts of the State, and this is an index to the localities of greatest devel- opment in all directions.
This alone reveals a growth of the transporta- tion system that far outstrips the dreams of the most sanguine promoters of fifty years ago, but what the map does not show is the tremendous.
* The trunk lines, branches and local roads as severally named for appraisement by the State Board of Tax Commissioners num- ber something like a hundred and fifty, and the separate mileage runs from .30 of a mile for the "Central Railroad Company," of Indianapolis, to 391.20 miles for the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. This road, which traverses the length of the State, has also two or three collateral branches.
CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
161
advancement in equipment as well as in increased mileage. The changes in roadbeds, rails and rolling stock are a vast factor in the results ef- fected by the railroads. Where a locomotive of the fifties hauled perhaps fifty tons over a frail rail of strap iron, one of to-day will pull more than a thousand tons, exclusive of the weight of the cars, over a ponderous T rail laid on an im- proved roadbed, and increased speed and greater frequency in running are part of the story when
reached the vast sum of $208,941,570-certainly a very respectable contribution to the taxables of the State. As an industrial factor they have been of no less importance. With the innovation of the locomotive an adverse argument raised was that the handling of traffic on a large scale with a minimum of manual labor would throw out of employment a great many men who teamed for a living, and thus ruin an industry. It did not take long to demonstrate that the immense stim-
30 W.TMARCY JO JEWELER WATCHES CLOCKS & PULVERWARE.
LA MAKENNUCALE
Washington Street, Indianapolis, 1902, looking east from the corner of Illinois Street. It is interesting to note that no automobiles are seen upon the street at that date.
we consider the shifting to and fro of the State's traffic. So rapid are the improvements in this respect that the descriptions of a few years ago are now obsolete.
Railroad Valuation .- As a factor in the wealth of the State the railroads have figured immensely since their introduction. The story of the increase in this respect is, of course, the story of railway development, and we need only note the present status. The property of the various roads, including tracks, rolling stock and improvements on rights of way, as valued by the State Board of Tax Commissioners for 1914,
ulus to traffic created a labor-employing industry beside which the old teaming industry was triv- ial. As against the comparatively small class of wagoners, office employes, trainmen, yard men, station agents, railroad laborers, shop men and others came newly into existence as so many distinct classes of wage-earners, and these work- men have increased steadily in numbers as the roads increased until to-day there is an army of 70,000 in Indiana alone with a total monthly payroll running into the millions .*
* Report Public Service Commission, 1914. In the tables of this report 34 "operating roads" are listed.
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ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.
Rapid Development of the Interurban .- The great and growing rival of the steam rail- road is the electrical railway which has had a development in Indiana second to that in no other State. If the growth of the former has been phenomenal that of the latter has been amazing, and electricity as well as steam has inaugurated its own era of change and progress. As a sys- tem of transportation it is, virtually, coeval with the century, as the first interurban line entered Indianapolis in 1900. That city now has fourteen lines, radiating to all points of the compass, and is said to be the greatest interurban center in the world. At that center one may take a car any hour in the day that will take him directly to, or reach by connection almost any part of the State. Without change of cars he may go as far in the four cardinal directions as Dayton, South Bend, Terre Haute or Louisville. The total interurban mileage in operation April 30, 1914, was 2,168.43 (Report of Public Service Commission) ; and the total assessed valuation amounted to $27,- 173,747. More than 9,000 persons are employed in the system and the aggregate salaries and wages of the employes for a year are about five and a half millions of dollars.
The following figures furnished by Mr. Joseph A. McGowan, of the T. H., I. & E. Traction Company, give some idea of the growth of traffic during the first fourteen years of interurban ac- tivity: In 1900 the passengers to and from In- dianapolis amounted to 378,000, and by 1903 the travel had increased to 2,348,000 for the year. Other figures were: 3,275,000 for 1904; 4,000,- 000 for 1905; 4,500,000 for 1906, and about 5,- 000,000 for 1907. In 1913 there were 6,640,433, or a daily average of 18,192. The average daily number of cars that arrived and departed in 1914 was 676, and for the accommodation of this huge and growing traffic a "terminal" union station, the first of its kind in the country, was built at a cost of a million and a half of dollars.
The peculiar advantages of the electrical sys- tem of transportation are derived from the abil- ity to transmit power over long distances from a central plant. This means a greater economy in a system of train service, and thus we find that the cost of traveling has been reduced at least a cent per mile as compared with that
which formerly prevailed on steam railroads. Another important feature is the frequency of train service, the schedule being hourly instead of bi- or tri-daily, and still another, the greater accommodation afforded the traveler, the electric car making stops with a frequency that would be altogether impracticable in steam train service.
Social Effects of the Interurban .- The gen- eral result of these conveniences has been a no- table social modification in various ways. The wonderful changes wrought by the locomotive have been carried further and multiplied with unparalleled swiftness and impetus by the trolley car. In the first place the vast increase of travel among people who formerly traveled little, means a more mobile population, educated as the gen- eration before was not to cosmopolitan ideas. This means an increase of enlightenment, and enlightenment is a stimulus to progress. The rural population is brought nearer to the city and is the gainer thereby. It has also brought the urban. population nearer to the country, within limits, by opening the way to country resi- dence, and the larger element, perhaps, in the "back-to-the-land" movement consists of those who never would have moved beyond city limits but for cheap and convenient transportation to and fro. As a consequence of this land along the interurban lines is being divided into small holdings at greatly enhanced prices. Both the steam and the electric railroads have added greatly to the revenues of the State by the en- hancement of property values, and it has been affirmed that between 1900 and 1909 there was an increase of more than a million dollars in the valuation of farm property, due to the develop- ment of the interurban.
The commercial effects of the new transporta- tion system are also notable. Small local ship- ments can be sent and received with much greater facility where there are points of deliv- ery and acceptance all along the nearest line. A farmer can, with ease, ship direct to a customer in the city, and merchants can receive directly and with dispatch commodities from distant points. As an illustration of the convenience and commercial value of this: New Castle, in the castern part of the State, is in the market for roses of superior quality, but the fact that roses are fragile and perishable adds to the risk of production in proportion, as the market is diffi-
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ult of access. By virtue of the interurban a lorist in Indianapolis on receiving an order for oses can telephone to New Castle, have them out on a certain car, meet the car on its arrival und thus within two or three hours receive his lowers fresh from the soil where they grew. That this must be a great aid to the flower in- lustry is obvious, and other industries are sim- larly stimulated.
Urban Effects of Electric Transportation .-
moved outward, old residence sections have changed in character, and in the readjustment real estate values have fluctuated in a way that the shrewdest speculator could not have foreseen twenty-five or thirty years ago, while as a social factor it has relieved vastly the old-time enforced congestion of large centers. In brief, nowhere has the new departure in transportation worked out a greater revolution than in city life and city conditions.
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Indianapolis Traction and Terminal Station. The first and largest union terminal station in the country. Opened to the public State Fair week, September, 1904. Building was planned by and built under the di- rection of Hugh J. McGowan.
The interurban electric system dates from the discovery or development of what is called the 'alternating current." whereby the electrical force could be transmitted over long distances. For ten years or more prior to that this motive power was employed in urban transportation, and the changes wrought since its introduction are quite an important part of the history of cities. In the first instance it has made easily accessible the outlying contiguous territory ; this has made practicable suburban living, and the result has been unprecedented shiftings of urban population. A large class of residents have
One more effect should be noted, and that is the shifting of trade as a result of interurban conveniences, and to the advantage of the larger centers. People from the country and the smaller towns now go to the cities for their shop- ping in large numbers, and it is said that the "trading population" of Indianapolis is about twice that of its actual residents. On the other hand, this is having a retroactive effect, for the country tradesman, under the spur of necessity and in order to exist, has adopted new methods and put new energy into his business. In nu- merous cases the country store has vastly im-
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proved ; their trade is not only coming back to them but increasing, and many who once thought the interurban spelled ruin for them are finding instead that it means prosperity.
First Electric Lines in Indiana .*- The first successful operation of an electric railway in this country was in the city of Richmond, Virginia, in January of the year 1889. Not long after this the railway in the city of Lafayette, Indiana, the first in the State, was equipped electrically. Soon afterward the Fairview Park line in Indianapolis was operated with electric cars, and other elec- tric railway plants followed in quick succession.
The first person to take up the building of in- terurban electric lines in Indiana was the Hon. Charles L. Henry, former member of Congress. He first became interested in electric railways in the fall of 1891, in the city of Anderson, and soon thereafter began to contemplate the possibilities of interurban electric railways. In 1893, he con- ceived the idea of building an interurban serv- ice between what was then known as the "Gas Belt" cities. However, the panic of 1893 brought everything to a standstill, and for many months nothing was done. In the winter of 1893-94, he made the first estimates of cost and prospective earnings, together with a blue-print map covering the lines from Anderson to Marion, Anderson to Elwood, and Muncie via Anderson to Indian- apolis, exactly as they were afterward built, ex- cept that the line to Elwood was first planned to run through Frankton instead of west from Alexandria, as it was finally built. Soon after, he commenced securing options on land for a private right of way for a line from Anderson to Alexandria, and from Anderson to Elwood. The possibilities of the enterprise constantly grew on him, but he could not convince any one able to furnish the necessary capital that it would be a profitable venture, so that no substantial prog- ress had been made when the financial depres- sion, incident to the great political campaign of 1896, spread over the country, paralyzing all business enterprises.
In the meantime the desirability of interurban electric railway service had attracted the at- tention of many other people. Among these was Noah J. Clodfelter, who took up the project of
building a line from Indianapolis, via Anderson, to Marion, and was much heard of in the pub- lic prints during the next few years, and finally, in the year 1898, he did some work toward build- ing a line from Marion south to Fairmount. He laid rail in the city of Fairmount, which after- ward passed, by receiver's sale, to the Marion Street Railway Company, and was used as a part of the line built by that company from Marion, via Fairmount, to Summitville.
In September, 1897, Mr. Henry organized the original "Union Traction Company" and com- menced the construction of an interurban line from Anderson to Alexandria, and on January 1, 1898, the first interurban car in Indiana ran from Anderson to Alexandria, a distance of eleven miles. Early the next year this road was extended to Summitville, making a total distance of seventeen miles, at which point connection was afterward made by the line built from Ma- rion, south by the Marion Street Railway Com- pany, a like distance of seventeen miles, giving a continuous line of thirty-four miles from An- derson to Marion, but owned by two different companies.
The successful operation of the cars on this first section of the interurban system induced him to take up with George F. Mccullough, of Muncie, who then owned the electric railway in that city, the proposition of joining their interests and building a line from Muncie, via Anderson, to Indianapolis.
Fortunate, indeed, for the future of electric railways in Indiana, there came to Indiana on New Year's Day, 1899, Mr. Hugh J. McGowan. Coming as the representative of the Dolan-Mor- gan Syndicate, which had recently purchased the Indianapolis street railways, he at once com- menced the development of that system, and soon made it the best city railway system in the country. To Mr. McGowan, Mr. Henry presented the interurban project then under consideration, and later, through his introduction, Messrs. Henry and Mccullough took up the matter with Mr. Randal Morgan of Philadelphia, who agreed to join with them in the organization of the "Union Traction Company of Indiana," a con- solidated company, which would embrace the electric lines in the cities of Muncie, Marion, Anderson and Elwood, and interurban lines con- necting, and including the proposed line from
* Mr. Henry invented the word "interurban" for this class of railroads. Edited by M. R. Hyman from information supplied by Hon. Charles L. Henry.
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