USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 57
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 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
We have to do with clubs and their significance. And by that it is understood that we mean women's clubs in particular.
In 1883 a group of women, namely Mesdames Eanna Mont McRae, Charles Humphrey. Wilbur Serviss, Abijah C. Jay, William Miles, Har- riet Hulley, 3. H. Forrest, Mary Buchanan, Myron Price, Jason Will- son, also Misses Emily Greenman, Carrie Joues, Hattie Buchanan, Nan Maple. Candace Zombro and Alice Davis were called together by Mrs. Carrie Arnold to form the first club in Grant county. They allied them- selves with the Chautauqua movement and named their group the "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Club." Later this organization became The Wednesday Afternoon Reading Circle, which still survives.
It would be very interesting if one could know why Mrs. Arnold instituted this first elub in Grant county. If you asked her she might be able to give you a satisfactory answer. The probabilities are, how- ever, that she would not. The motives of what are truly social activities lie too deep for quick discovery and before the apparently most insignifi- eant of initiations of this order the thoughtful student stands very
392
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
humble. Superficially we might quote that clubs are for women who do not know how to study alone. But we are not content to be trivial, And we know that art is the least consideration in an art club no matter how conscientious the members may be in presenting their carefully worked- out program. Just as there is something bigger in a research club than research ; and in a drama club than the reading of plays.
The most direct good that the club serves the greatest mumber of women is that it is an escape from isolation. And before this isolation we fall, and to placate it we take the trouble to dress, to walk through rain and sun, to endure antagonistic personalities and to "waste time," in the superficial sense. But do we waste time, really ? I suspect that if we did, we would never go there again. But we do go again, At least once the week.
We suspect, moreover, that every persistent club woman is an uncon- scious but nevertheless sincere and successful student of human nature. Why do I cook and wash dishes three times the day ! Why did I marry? Why did I bear children that have the same prospect before them, over which I am not wildly enthusiastic ? Why do the old die with a rather certain feeling that life is good? How does Mrs. A manage to live with a man that seems to be erratie, irresponsible, insincere? These ques- tions are as old as the cave-woman, but they plague us and so we meet every week, and between whiles of having to listen to a paper or a talk we work away at our problems, studying the living objects sitting about us for data and premise.
Donbiless some vague but determining sense of a need of a philosophy guided that first club woman of Indiana, and if so we have not changed very much in thirty years and more. The first woman's club in the United States was at the home of Mrs. Harmony in Posey county. We grimmble when we have to put aside house cleaning or preserving and dress for emnb, and yet we go. We sit there and compare values and weigh and consider and then, coming home, we prepare the supper with a feeling that somehow we have got as near the solution of things as the other woman. We are a little more tender to our kith and kin that evening, feeling somehow that advantages oven up. And it is significant that in any club, whether it be an art club in Marion, a literary club in Jonesboro or Gas City, a research club in Van Buren or in Fair- mount, or the barkin Soap (Inb at Farrville, the surcessful member, the one that has honors thrust upon her, is the one that has developed mwans of demonstrating sympathy in the most directions. Every club linds itself more or less unconsciously critical of personal invasion, of unwanted aggressiveness. Naively an ideal of self-restraint is imposed on the individuals by the group. There is something tonie in this spon- taneous morality. The club is thus a chunsy, wasteful means of self- enture but it is the best we know, in our imperfect grasp of the means of life. And this value is quite apart from the nature of the club.
There would seem to be more club-advantages for men than for women in the ordinary community. But this discrepancy is only appar- ent ; not real. Groups of men associated for sport, lodges, labor unions, bands, "smoke houses" and also the saloon, for the nonamed element serves men as efficiently as the correct, conventional elutb assists women. By meeting and talk folks get a line on life, no matter if they do com- municate in cipher and wear masks. They learn after many trials and failures how to discount, how to transcribe and how by approximation to discern values.
And perhaps women with their oue afternoon of leisure the week in their rather more formal clubs are still at a disadvantage as regards the less centrally organized social life of the men. Sometimes it would
393
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
seem that men have gotten a more precious thing out of their rather more desultory association than women. And that precious thing is sex solidarity. Men have coined the phrases "a square deal"' and *honor among thieves," to use where the simple term honesty will not serve. Somewhere in the history of their social development men got together, and there they stay. They understand each other. They stick together. Perhaps when women's clubs relate more nearly to their actual problems in life; perhaps when they are franker about their vital concerns; when true pride is fostered consciously and respect for sellhood takes the place of prudery, women's elubs will have taken on the dignity of prop- aganda where -- as they remain now merely cultural forces. To which, of course, civic and suffrage clubs are the exception.
And that the complexion of the clubs in Grant county is changing is certain. Femininism is in the air. It materializes as some form of race-protection : suffrage, economie independence, child welfare. It is nebulous, but it is there and the new woman, wide-eyed and preparing to act, watches the storm center shift. She is preparing to meet the issue-preparing awkwardly and with many interruptions, but she is preparing. She, sooner than the man, is aware of the pervasive electric- ity of modernity. There will be heat and then light. And doubtless it is women that, snatching the man-made instruments From the hands of their factors, shall Focus these otherwise paralelled and sometimes neutralizing beams. And wherever there is dross, there we shall tind fire. And only purity can stand the test of flames. This will remain.
Motherhood doubtless cultivates the soul of women: Her relations with the opposite sex, guided only loosely by instinctive prohibitions, doubtless corrects her faults of will through the infliction of direct penalties; but it is surely through training in the organized association among her own sex that women shall gain use of the intellectual tools to master the problems that are their inevitable heritage for these lat- ter days.
To sum up: There are not clubs and chths. Clubs are clubs. Travel clubs and card clubs and sewing clubs are not merely preparatory. They are all bunglesome, it is quite true. when one compares the lumbersome means with the definite fineness of the point. But one chub serves quite as well as another to escape from the sense of isolation, to demonstrate Innan solidarity to those that have the gift of sympathy. And finally to train women to act together when they shall be called upon to fulfil their historical mission-the bruising of the serpent's head. The club is the woman's university, her true alma mater.
LAX. BOOSTER CLUBS IN GRANT COUNTY
Every community has its coterie of loyal, public-spirited citizens, although there may not be ten righteous in Sodom, and these progressive spirits are the salvation of the commonwealth. The word comercial carries its own suggestion-trade interests-and while most Grant county towns have their "booster" organizations, the first bona fide or- ganization of public-spirited citizens was the Marion Commercial Club, which served the community in active capacity for a score of years and lapsed into inactivity again, although not disbanded, and it still has money at its command if occasion required it.
The Marion Commercial Club, composed of representative citizens and business men, was organized April 26, 1892, although May 1 was established as the beginning of its fiscal year, and it immediately set
394
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
about providing permanent quarters. From the time of its organiza- tion the Commercial Club was an important Factor in both the commer- cial and social life of the community until it lapsed into inactivity after twenty years of service. The capital stock of the organization was tial at $54,000 and divided into three hundred shares of $180 each. As soon as these shares were on the market the stock was all taken, and in its days of greatest activity the club enlisted a great deal of foreign capital in building up local manufacturing and trade industries, Article No. I of its constitution and by laws reads: "The objeets of this organiza- tion shall be the promotion of the commercial and manufacturing inter- ests, and the general welfare of the city of Marion, Grant county, In- diana, and vicinity."
The precedent was established that one member should have one vote, and that none should hold more than five shares of stock, but as the years went by the stock was assembled until the Grant Trust & Savings Com- pany finally came into possession of the property, although most stock- holders had regarded it as a satisfactory investment. The club invested $13,751.25 in real estate on the east side of the public square and during the 1893 panie it employed labor continuously. It put $28,116.78 into the building, making it an investment of $11, 868.03 and it regarded that property abutting the public square was not liable to decrease in value under any circumstances. The prosperity of the club was such that the assessments for street and alley improvements were never placed of the tax duplicate, the income from rentals being sufficient to meet all eur- rent obligations. While the annual tax amounted to $900, no assessments on the stockholders were ever levied, but the shares of stock sometimes changed ownership until the club is inactive, although it has never been disbanded. J. L. Barley is president and W. IL. Wiley has been its con- tinuous secretary except for a short time when he was absent, the term of its existence having been fixed at fifty years. The Commercial (hb was organized in 1892, hought its building site in 1893 and January 1, 1894, occupied its property.
Since the Grant Trust & Savings Company acquired the property in 1911, it has modernized and changed the building, which will always stand as a monument to the progressive spirit of the citizens of the nine- ties. The simple fact that so many social functions were given at the Commercial Club led many to believe that it was a social organization -pleasure rather than business-but there was always revenue from the dance hall, and it was a popular resort for the amusement loving element of society. Many elaborate social affairs occurred there under the auspices of the club members and their immediate circle of friends, and the dance hall is still patronized by those of terpsichorean tendencies -not a few in the community. When the Marion Commercial Club was organized its official roster was: President, Major G. W. Strele: first vice president, James V. Sweetser ; second vice president, J. Scott Ind- hum; treasurer. George Sweetser; and W. II. Wiley is still secretary. The original board of directors was: G. W. Steele, J. V. Sweetser, J. S. Ludlum, George Sweetser, E. P. MeClure, A. B. Morrison, James Charles. Robert J. Spencer, Phil Lyons, W. C. Webster, John H. Wigger, George Webster, Jr., W. M. Serviss, G. A. Sonthall and Dr. W. R. Francis. The mortuary list from this board would leave only a few of its members still living in the community. A quarter of a century changes the personnel of any municipality.
The Commercial Club had committees on finance, membership, arrangements, city interests, railroads, natural gas, manufactures, laws, labor and arbitration, and among the active members were men promi- nent in community affairs, men of enterprise and influence. The associa-
395
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
tion prospered under their watchful oversight, and through their efforts the city has been benefitted in a material and lasting way. Their memory will be kept green, although the club has discontinued its special activi- ties. Their absence will long be felt around many Marion tiresides and the marts of trade will not soon forget their smiling countenances, for among them were affable, pleasant gentlemen. While the activities of the Commercial Club were numerous its latest stupendous effort was the distribution of a $100,000 factory fund within the first decade of the Twentieth century, and with this money the capacity of some plants was increased and others were added and the pay rolls made up in the vicin- ity were all benefitted from it. All are agreed that the way to build up a city is by installing industries, and the way to procure factories is to offer substantial inducements to them-buy them if necessary and the Commercial Club was always wideawake to community advancement. It was an open door through which outside capital and outside labor was invited, and while it was in active existence it was a public benefactor. Its inactivity is easily explained-the visitations from the Death Angel.
The Marion Chamber of Commerce was a second booster organization, less conservative, perhaps, than the Commercial Club, and while it flourished only a short time, its members still point with pride to its record-the nature of its acquirements. It was made up of the younger men of the community to whom the Commercial Club-a limited organi- zation-offered no opportunity, and Dr. E. O. Harrold was its first president and business manager. The Western Motor, later known as the Rutenbar Motor Company and the United States Glove Factory are monuments to its activities. It was organized in 1909, and A. C. Barley became its second president. It is now classed as inactive, along with the Commercial Club, neither organization having been formally dis- banded although each had its part in community advancement. When the Chamber of Commerce was no longer active there was still a booster spirit in the community, and the Marion Civic Assembly, organized carly in 1911, of which Dr. W. A. Fankboner became first president, was the result, and the annual industrial exhibits were an outgrowth of the Civic Assembly's activities. Doria Tracey had charge of the initial exhibit, and when E. S. Kinnear became president the 1913 industrial exposition and automobile show, with Doctor Harrold as manager, was another unqualified success, the Marion Civic Hall or market house being for- mally opened to the public with this exhibit. While the Civic Assembly did not care so much for the market house proper, it was interested in a public hall of sufficient capacity to accommodate community needs and cooperated with the city council and the Trades Council in complet- ing it. The good of the whole people is the motive of the Civic Assembly, and while it does not take itself seriously it is glad to bring conflicting interests together and mite them.
President Kinear of the Civic Assembly recently gave utterance to the following bit of loyal sentiment:
"There never was more money in Marion and vicinity. There never were more acres under cultivation in the county. There never were more factories in full operation in Marion. I understand that a train load of goods are manufactured and sent out to the outside world daily from Marion. Most of the factories can use more men. Opportunity is smiling as never before on Marion. The thing that confronts ns is to keep things in the high gear. After we lost our oil and gas we slipped into low gear. It took a long time to get moved up to intermediate gear. But now everything seems to be going forward in a strong and sub- stantial way. The thing that confronts us as citizens of Marion is to
396
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
keep Marion moving. We must adopt some definite plan of procedure and all get behind it and boost.
"Nearly every one admits something is missing in Marion. What is it?
"Most business men say it is the lack of a commercial club; we have no organization prepared to transact business for Marion. Stop and think what this means. Is there any business in Marion that would run of its own accord ? Certainly not.
"Someone has to give the needed supervision to make anything a success. Think of a city the size of Marion struggling along blindly in the dark with no organization directing her industrial growth. Then you will have some small conception of how good a town Marion is to go along and recover from such a loss as that of natural gas and off without a commercial club.
"Now they tell us we are to have natural gas again, and no doubt there are many other good things that could be seenred for Marion if we had a strong organization for the sole purpose of seenring them. Thear on all sides that the old Commercial Club didn't do this and the Chamber of Commerce failed to do that, but the real facts in the matter are that they both did much good.
" The facts are we have a fine citizenship in Marion. The thing to do is to bring the good things to the surface where they can be seen. With that idea in mind the Civic Assembly was formed. The sole purpose of this assembly was to make a booster out of every man in Marion, and much good has been accomplished, so much so that men are talking on all sides of a commercial club of a new and different kind, and on all hands I hear men talking of such a movement.
"As a movement of this kind means much for Marion, every man in Marion should help boost it and help it blossom into a reality, with the best brains in Marion behind it."
The Civic Assembly is committed to any policy that will better the community, and while the three booster organizations have had their mis- sion, there is a growing sentiment in favor of further combination of interests -an active organization enlisting all the forces --- and it will have fulfilled its purpose when a larger association is efected. There is no war among existing organizations, but merged int rest & the end in view, Marion and all Grant county towns are engaged in bott congen and domestic or internal commerce. Grant county products are sold the world around, and there are booster citizens in all the centers. Fairmount. Jonesboro, Gas City, Matthews, Upland. Van Buren, Sweetser, Swayzer and the cross road trading points all have their loyal patrons, and loyalty to home enterprise is the secret. Mail order business is under the bans, and there was opposition to the parcels post because the people were afraid of its influence on local patronage-commercial centers. The inter- change of merchandise and property is an established condition, and beside the splendid retail commercial houses there are a member of whole- sale distributing agencies within the bounds of the county -- small jobbers galore who are making a success of some partienlar line of business. and there will always be the middleman in Grant county. So much capital has been invested in improvements that Marion will always be a trade center. While catalogues of mail order houses are seen in some Grant county homes, there is a commendable spirit of business loyalty in the community.
These booster agencies have all had their part in shaping the public conception of the business proposition, and Grant county is composed of a united people. Some one possessed of "The Big Idea" lately gave expres sion to the following outburst of enthusiasm :
397
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
"Ever since old Noah built that little old ark, then looked it over and said, 'This is the finest old ark that ever was,' we have been talking in superlatives.
"The manufacturer says that his produet excels that of all of his com- petitors. The merchant that his goods are of the finest quality; The farmer that he grows the best erops. The laborer that he is the most skil- ful in his particular line of endeavor. And so on ad infinitum.
"Live citizens speak of their town in the same way ; they try to drive home the big idea with a punch; that their town excels all other towns, their industries are the greatest, their streets are paved the best, their homes are the most beautiful, their city is the best managed and governed. But ' Mr. Live Wire,' the town builder, the town developer, is confronted with the proposition that Missouri reaches out all over the country instead of being segregated within its own narrow borders, in short that in this superlative age everybody has to be shown, so ' Mr. Live Wire' must have facts to prove to the skeptical outside world where hus town excels- he minst show them. He is right up against the 'show me' barrier which has proved so disastrous to the dreams of so many ambitious cities.
". . Mr. Live Wire' realizes that this is too big a proposition for any one brain to handle, he must have help, so he forms his 'show 'em' or town building and developing organization, call it what you will, Commercial Club, Chamber of Commerce or Civic Assembly. He realizes that his town has to be organized. For a 'show 'em' movement without organiza- tion is like the great engine lying nnassembled within the builder's shop, until it is assembled or organized if you please, it is helpless, just so many parts, but when it is assembled it conquers distance, time, removes mon- tains, conquers the sea, in fact successfully overcomes all of the ancient obstacles to travel.
"'Mr. Live Wire,' being far seeing, realizing this important truth, forms his organization, has the benefit of the combined ideas, energy and enthusiasm of the members and proceeds to 'show 'em.'
"Now Mr. Marionite, are you insulated or are you a ' Live Wire?' Do you believe in your town or do you not ? If you believe in the town, you are far too wise a business man not to comprehend that energy spent withont organization is just so much energy wasted.
"The 'civic assembly' is your 'show 'em' organization; get in line. Join the Civic Assembly and 'show 'em' that Marion does excell. " 'Do it Now.' "'
The Marion Press has been an able second to the booster spirit, and Marion advertisers have been quick to recognize the drift of things --- current events given an impetus along with their business ads, and W. 11. Sanders, an editorial writer, recently summed it up as follows:
" The foundation of a city's growth is factories. This means towns situated as Marion is situated. The way to get factories is to go after them, but going after a factory means something besides a mere junkel. It means something more than a visit to the institution. Going after a factory is not exactly what one would regard as a social eall.
"Factories are established and kept going as a business proposition. Back of it is the so-called ' Almighty Dollar.' So long as the present sys- tem that recognizes rights in individual property continues this same so-called 'Almighty Dollar' will continue to be the inducement, and this is likely to mean a good while.
"The owner of one of these factories must be shown that by coming to Marion he may be able to acquire more of these dollars than he can hope to acquire by remaining where he is. This increase may be brought about in various ways. In the Marion case it will come chiefly by enabling the manufacturer to increase the size and therefore the ontput
398
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
of the plant, inasmuch as direet bounses are no longer to be considered in most cases the inducement to move mmist appear on stock preseriptions.
"There are thousands of manufacturers throughout the country who have reached the limit of their present capacity, with orders and pros- peets ahead that demand an enlargement of the plant. In many of these instances the manufacturers lack the capital that the increase demands. The past history and present condition of the business may be such as to justify or even to demand the enlargement of the plant which would be impossible withont this increased capital. There are instances in which sites also are not available. Anyhow, there are many factories -snecessful business institutions-that could be induced to come here, provided a certain amount of stock is taken by the people of Marion.
"If Marion had an organization prepared to take a certain mount of stock in enterprises of this kind, there would be little trouble in find- ing these enterprises-little trouble in locating establishments by the score. This of course would in no way conflict with the Civic Assembly and similar organizations. On the contrary it would be supplementary to such organizations and the one would cooperate with the offers.
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.