USA > Indiana > Lake County > East Chicago > East Chicago, A Historical Description (1947) > Part 2
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Because of its favorable location on Lake Michigan many bulky raw materials can be brought to East Chicago
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industries by the cheap water transportation. 0il tankers carry the products of our refineries to the various lake ports. Less frequently ocean steamers come to the docks of the city bringing the materials needed from European coun- tries and carrying away products from East Chicago and ad- Joining cities. During a single year over forty different commodities were received at or shipped from the harbor.
Another advantage of the location of East Chicago on Lake Michigan, so obvious that it is seldom mentioned, is the availability of a cheap and an inexhaustible supply of water for drinking and industrial purposes at a low cost.
Being next door to Chicago, the commercial center of the Middle West, means that East Chicago industries have for a market close at hand, all' the industries and the four million people of the Chicago metropolitan area and a great portion of the forty million people of the Mississippi Valley®
East Chicago has an almost unlimited market from which to obtain labor as the exceptionally good means of transpor- tation make it possible to draw from the adjoining cities of Gary, Hammond, and Whiting as well as from the southeastern section of Chicago. As mentioned previously a survey made under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce some years ago showed that about half of the working population of East Chicago lived outside the city. Every day private cars, buses, the South Shore electric train, the New York Central, and the Pennsylvania disgorge workers for the mills of the city.
Many of the characteristics that made the land unsuit- able for farming were no hindrance to manufacturing. The level nature of the land made it desirable for industry and the sand from the ridges was used for filling in the low spots.
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Before the coming of permanent settlers, to East Chicag four railroads had crossed the site of the future city. history of railroads in the Calumet Region began with th granting of a charter by the territorial legislature o Michigan for the construction of a railway from Toledo to the Kalamazoo River. This road known as the Erie an Kalamazoo Railroad used wood-burning engines running ove tracks which were flat bars of iron, laid on long timbers Fuel.was obtained from the forests nearby and the water fro a ditch alongside the right-of-way. This road later became the Michigan Central and reached Chicago in 1852, the firs railroad to cross the Calumet Region. Later, the Michiga Central was absorbed by the New York Central system, whic today passes through the Indiana Harbor section of our city The next railroad, the Michigan Southern, went through the sites now known as Gary and Whiting to Chicago which 1 reached in 1854. This road later also became part of th New York Central system. In 1858, the Pittsburg, For Wayne, and Chicago, now known as the Pennsylvania, was com pleted to Chicago, passing through the sites of the futur cities of East Chicago and Whiting. In 1874 the Baltimor
and Ohio connected Chicago with the Atlantic Coast, paral leling the tracks of the Michigan Southern and passin through the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago. I 1903, when East Chicago was still in its infancy, the Per Marquette, whose headquarters are in Detroit, began servic to Chicago. Its line terminates at Porter, Indiana, fro whence it runs through East Chicago to Chicago over lease track. The Wabash also operates on leased trackage whil the Erie, the Monon, and the Nickel Plate run through Hammond. Mention should also be made of the Chicago, Sout Shore, and South Bend Railroad which furnishes excellen passenger transportation to Chicago.
The men who founded East Chicago appreciated the possis bility of the site for heavy industry and with this idea i mind began their activities by providing transportation facilities. For example, it has already been told hors
General Joseph Thatcher Torrence and his associate, Marcus M. Towle, organized in 1887 the Chicago and Calumet Terminal Railway Company to connect the various trunk lines which then traversed this region. This company is today the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal. Similarly, in 1896 Charles W. Hotchkiss, Walter J. Riley, and C. A. Westberg began a series of transactions which established a second belt railway, which became the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad in 1907. The East Chicago Company began construction of a harbor in 1901 and of a ship canal in 1904. While the transportation facilities of the community have continued to grow as when the United States Steel Corporation built the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Belt Line across East Chicago, the two belt railways and the canal set the stage for the industrial expansion which was to follow soon.
There has been much extension of the waterways since the harbor was opened in 1903. The East Chicago Company conveyed title for land for a canal to the Calumet Canal and Improvement Company in 1887. This company deeded the right of way to the United States government which did not accept it. So during the next few years the company extended the canal to the Grand Calumet on the south and the Jones Laughlin site in Hammond. ,The harbor at Buffington was the last addition of water facilities although the government frequently dredges the canal. In the same year the Buffing- ton harbor was completed, a subsidiary of the Interstate Terminal Warehouses purchased sixteen acres from the East Chicago Company on which it has built an excellent dock terminal which makes lake 'transportation available to enter- prises not located on the canal.
The importance of transportation may be illustrated by the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, the city's second largest steel plant. Iron ore comes by boat from the com- pany's mines in Michigan's upper peninsula as does limestone from eastern Michigan while coal comes by rail direct from the company's West Virginia and Pennsylvania mines in the
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winter and by rail and water in the summer. Zinc for gal nizing comes by rail from a smelter at Platteville, Wisc sin. Products are distributed by rail and truck. In fa East Chicago is located ideally for the manufacture of st situated as it is at a point where iron ore, limestone, coal can be brought together cheaply in a metropoli region using steel to manufacture the hundreds of produ needed by the people living in the upper Mississippi basi
Among the first industries to establish themselves the Calumet area were the G. H. Hammond Packing Comp (1868), the Aetna Powder Company (early 1880's), the Will Graver Tank Works (1888), the Standard Oil Company (188 and the Grasselli Chemical Company (1892). Most of the industries were for some reason not attractive to est lished communities and so Roscoe E. Woods calls this period of "nuisance industries." He adds, "Characteris requirements of these industries were large isolated tra of lands on good railroad transportation. "
Beginning with the building of the Inland Steel C pany's present plant in 1902 there was a rapid influx industries to East Chicago. By 1913 a survey of the inde tries of the city showed 32 industries employing over 10, workers. The United States Steel Corporation was begun Gary in 1907 and the South Chicago mills had been bu earlier. The Calumet Region had become in a decade one the world's busiest workshops.
The Inland Steel Company quickly became the cit largest plant and an examination of the plants listed by survey mentioned previously shows that 22 of the 32 ple took steel and shaped or formed' it in some fashion. P quently a plant bought its raw materials from some plants
American Car Company) which used them in making railroad oil cars. The rivets used in making these tanks may have come from the Champion Rivet Company. The rolls used to produce the steel plates by the rolling mill in many instances were cast in the Hubbard Steel Foundries. Other industries of the city such as, Harbison-Walker Refractories, makers of silica brick for building steel furnaces, and Linde Air Products, producers of oxygen and acetylene, found their chief customers in the steel plants. The Universal Portland Cement Company (in Gary near East Chicago) and the Gold- schmidt Detinning Company (now Metal and Thermit Corpora- tion) obtained their raw materials from the steel mills. Steel had become the dominant industry of the city and the region.
The first world war was begun in 1914. Strangely enough only five new plants were established in East Chicago during the war period, but the plants which were already here prospered greatly.
The history of the Inland Steel Company is characteris- tic of the history of the plants in this region. The com- pany had been organized in 1893 and had started a rolling mill in Chicago Heights with second-hand machinery. Their product was sold to manufacturers of farm machinery and to manufacturers of metal beds. In 1897, stockholders purchased the property of the East Chicago Iron and Forge Company which they operated as the Inland Iron and Forge Company. This plant was sold to the Republic Iron and Steel Company in 1901.in order to obtain funds with which to build a new open-hearth plant on a new location near the harbor which was being constructed in the lake.
The new plant started witht.four open-hearthtfufnaces, a the city or region and sold its products to other neight 32" blooming mill, a 24" universal mill, and several sheet ing plants. For example, the Graver Tank Works bought s mills. Two galvanizing pots were built in 1905, a new open- plates from the rolling mills and fabricated tanks for General American Transportation Company (then the Ger
hearth in 1906 and plans were made to build a sixth. More important was the purchase of the lease of an iron mine on
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refining plant in East Chicago in 1918. Next came the Consolidated Oil Refining Company which built the plant now operated by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) . In 1927: the Shell:Oil Company built a refinery in Hammond with tank farm, shipping dock, and offices in East Chicago, The Empire Gas and Fuel Company, a subsidiary of the Cities Service Oil Company, began construction of the city's third refinery in 1929.
Improvements in transporting petroleum products by pipe line and the economies of larger refineries caused oil pro- ducers to refine the petroleum in a few plants near the oil fields and to distribute the products by pipe line instead of the earlier procedure of shipping the petroleum by pipe line to many smaller refineries. The first indication of this new policy in East Chicago was the building here of a distributing station by the Phillips Petroleum Company in 1939. The next year the Shell Oil Company discontinued refining petroleum in their local plant. It is now used to store and distribute products refined in refineries located nearer the oil fields.
There are a few other small refineries and distributing points in East Chicago and the Calumet Region. Taken all together these several plants make oil the region's second most important industry.
Producing chemicals is the third most important indus- trial activity in East Chicago. . The oldest and most easily identified chemical plant is the E. I. Dupont de Nemours Company which was located here in 1892 by the Grasselli Chemical Company. Many of the products of this plant are used by nearby industries. For example, the oil refineries use quantities of sulphuric acid. Other products of the Dupont plant are sold to pharmaceutical firms in Chicago and elsewhere. Probably the Linde Air Products Company and the Air Reduction Sales Company would be classed in the chemical industry although the chief products of the first are
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oxygen and acetylene gas and the second company produc only acetylene.
Many other chemicals are produced in the city's oth plants as by-products. In many instances, were; the depar ment which produces the by-products an independent organiz tion instead of part of a large company making somethi different, it would be considered an important plant. Inland Steel Company, using it as an example again, need coke to reduce iron ore to iron in its blast furnaces. Co is made by driving the gaseous part of coal out by hea These gases contain many chemicals and the Inland, li ( other steel companies, collects these chemicals. From the are made by other companies a marvelous array of drug dyes, perfumes, and other products. Similarly, the o refineries make drugs, insecticides, and other by-produc in addition to the better known fuels and lubricants; t Cudahy Packing Company produces glycerine; and the Unite States Lead Refinery, Incorporated, produces such chemica by-products as concrete hardener and a weed killer.
The Universal Portland Cement Company presents a pecul iar problem to the writers who attempt to describe Eas Chicago industry. The plant was built in 1903 by th Illinois Steel Company. It is located in Gary but by f the greater number of its employees live in East Chicago The plant is located in the heart of this steel regid because one of the principal constituents of cement is th slag which results from making steel. In order to bring other raw materials by cheap water transportation, th company constructed a fine private harbor in 1927.
Roscoe E. Woods, in 1929 in the same article which wa a quoted previously, made the following prophetic statement:
In the future, industrial development must be guided by the location of diversified industries of the higher more intensive type, such as the W. B. Conkey Company,
Lever Brothers Manufacturers, Straube Piano Company, which will use less ground but hire more skilled, well-paid employees.
The industries which he mentioned were all located in Hammond, but a similar trend may be noted in East Chicago in the establishment of clothing manufacturing plants. Cloth- ing manufacturers usually locate their plants in areas of dense populations where there will be a plentiful supply of women who are willing to work for them. The first such company to be established in East Chicago was the Albert Given Manufacturing Company which started operating in 1919. This company now has near the western boundary of the city a large factory where it manufactures men's trousers. The Indiana Harbor section acquired a similar industry in 1927 with the establishment of the Singer Company, which became the Silver Trouser Manufacturing Company when it was incor- porated in 1934. Employment is seasonal in the clothing industry, but at the peak these two firms employ over 600 workers. It is interesting to note that there are now three other clothing manufacturing establishments in the Calumet Region.
Among the more than fifty industries now operating in East Chicago there are four which may be grouped together and described as metal refiners. All located in the Calumet section of this city, this group includes: the International Smelting and Refining Company and the United States Lead Refinery, Incorporated, both of which refine pig lead; the Metal and Thermit Corporation which recovers tin from tin- plate scrap; and the United States Reduction Company, pro- ducers of pure aluminum in various forms, Associated with the International company are two other subsidiaries of the Anaconda Copper' Mining Company: the Anaconda Lead Products Company, producer of white lead; and the Anaconda Zinc Oxide department.
There are other plants in East Chicago producing a va- riety of other products. Many like the Associated Box Com-
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pany which manufactures tin-plate boxes, carboy (acid) boxer and onion crates, and the East Chicago Pattern Works and th Swanson Pattern and Model Works perform services for the other industries in the region. There are others, such a the Dutch Cleanser plant of the Cudahy Packing Company and the Weber Insulations, Incorporated, a user of slag, which are located near the source of their raw materials. Still other firms are located here because of the advantages of this location for distributing their products. Examples of such firms are the United States Gypsum Company, manufac turer of construction materials, which built a plant on the canal in 1929 and the Famous Manufacturing Company, maker of paper presses and other machinery for over thirty years.
One final interesting fact should be pointed out. Mos of the industries which opened plants in East Chicago were small. Some failed and were taken over by other firms in the same line of business. Others, such as the Interstate Iron and Steel Company, once one of the city's largest rolling mills, have gone completely out of existence. The suitability of this location for industry is attested by the fact that of 32 organizations listed in 1913, 22 of them are still in existence, in most instances without even a change of name.
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Chapter 11I
THE POLYGLOT POPULATION
Founded after the beginning of mass immigration fre Central and Southern Europe in the 1880's, East Chicago h been cosmopolitan from its very beginning. When examined the names of the first settlers , or of individuals comil here in subsequent years suggest a variety of nation origins. Census reports contain statistical evidence pro ing definitely that East Chicago has always contain representatives of almost every type of person who has co to America and that no one nationality group has furnished majority of the population.
Hugh. Rigney, Irish barn boss; and Ferdinand Flack, a Germe whose wife ran a boarding house. William Graver, who bu East Chicago's first industry, was German, as was And Wickey, who came here in 1890 to found the Famous Manuf turing Company, and Caesar Grasselli, founder of Grasselli Chemical Company, was Swiss and Hazel Groves, nected with the National Forge Company founded in 1889, of Dutch extraction. The workers in the plants were e more varied in origin. Many of the early steel workers Welsh as these names suggest: William F. Hale, Will Williams, and Herbert Jones. Others, Daniel Dixon, Edr Cadman, and George Bird, for example, were English. Joh Keenan was one of several Irish mill (hands. Some times first individuals to come here of a nationality were ins mental in finding jobs for fellow countrymen. of this practice is furnished by John, Mike, and Gedyears. Sikora, Russians, who had a tavern and restaurant which patronized mainly by their compatriots. Similarly, Jo The newcomers represented an even greater variety of Blosky, who worked at Grasselli, was probably respons nations. There were John Pora, Joseph Steiner, John and for the development of the Croation community in "Oklahdalex Manta, John Vintilla, and Wolf Markovich, Rumanians; Hun as the Calumet section was called in those days.
was represented by Joseph Horvath, Steve Sabo, John Toth, and others, and Poland by Antoni Breclaw and Andrew Chrustowski among others. Henry, Elmer, and Fred Borque came from Canada.
The workers in the factories needed homes, food, and medical care. Gustaf A. Johnson, Paul Mysliwy, John Lesniak, and J. C. Pepin were early contractors. The latter had Charles and Nelson De Lor, fellow Frenchmen working for him as carpenters just as Johnson employed Frank G. Wall and other Swedes. Edward deBriae, who ran a bakery, was French; Charles Nassau, also a merchant, was Austrian; and Vincenzo Morelli, proprietor of a candy store and grandfather of Vivian Della Chiesa, radio and operatic star, was Italian. Peter Stamos, Greek, opened a restaurant in 1895. Isaac The first families came to East Chicago early in 188 Spector, agent for the Wabash Railroad, was a Chicago-born Working for the land company were George Lewis, an Americe son of a Russian Jew and Redmond D. Walsh, agent for the
Chicago and Calumet Terminal Railway Company, was obviously Irish. The first hotel was operated by John Reilands, German. Dr. Schlieker, postmaster and druggist as well as physician, was also German, as was Bryon Cheney, first Justice of the Peace. The list could be made much longer but it would only emphasize the diversified nature of the population of East Chicago during the first few years of its existence.
The town grew rapidly. There were 1,255 inhabitants according to the census of 1890. Although its growth was retarded by the panic of '93, in 1900 East Chicago had a population of 3411. Then came the development of Indiana Harbor with the result that in 1910 the population had One exa leaped to 19,098, an increase of over 460 per cent in ten
Nicholas Commadore, Sam Benante, Carmelo Radice, Rocco
EAST CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY 3601 GRAND BLVD. EAST.CHICAGO, INDIANA
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Giorgio, and many other Italians; John Lazarcik, John Fus Fred Kaeteik, Slovaks. There were too many to name fi most Central and Southern European countries, but probal mention should be made of certain individuals who were am the first of their group, such as Charles Perkins, Neg Nick Mayor, Serb; Peter Belzeski, Ukranian; and Alfr Lewin, Lithuanian. The influx from Europe continued unt the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The contribution Europe to East Chicago and the variety of nationaliti which came here is made clear by Table I, taken from Unit States Census reports for 1910 to 1940.
The table shows several significant facts about t development of East Chicago. First, the number of foreig born residents was probably greatest around 1920. By 192 the older immigrants were beginning to die, the total havi become 3,678 less by 1940 than in 1920 if the effect reporting 'Mexicans in a different category is taken in consideration .. Third, by far the greatest number of t foreign-born came from Central Europe and the Balkans, Ho ever, over forty nations were represented here in 1940. addition to members of the 22 European nationalities list in Table I there were 188 other Europeans including Norw gians, Latvians, Finns, Bulgarians, Spaniards, and other Newfoundland and Australia of the British Empire were repr sented although not as plentifully as Canada and Ireland White Asiatics included people from Turkey, Palestine, a Syria, as well as other places. Mexico was not the on Latin-American nation represented.
The census of 1930 showed the place of birth of t parents of native-born residents of East Chicago. TH information is assembled in Table II. This table shows th Poland had contributed about one-third of the foreign sto and almost one-fifth of the total population of East Chic at the time. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia contributed another third of the foreign stock. By 193 however, two new groups had grown to importance in th city, These were Negroes and Mexicans.
Table |
COUNTRY OF BIRTH OF FOREIGN-BORN WHITE RESIDENTS OF EAST CHICAGO
Census
Country of Birth
1910
1920
1930
1940
England
199
220
320
207
Scotland
96
87
245
155
Wales
109
81
31
Ireland
150
169
139
76
Netherlands
- 13
14
9
5
Norway
14
Sweden
473
348
380
238
Denmark
9
3
4
. 3
Switzerland
6
12
4
4
France
10
18
19
8
Germany
440
230
245
198
Poland
(1)
4,074
3,628
2,728L-
Czechoslovakia
(2)
715
1,494
930
Austria
3,201
1,706 (2)
114 (2)
486
Hungary
3,341
2, 154 (2)
1,451 (2)
1,366
Yugoslavia
(2)
987
1,516
1,190 1
Russia
1,730
837 (1)
357
361
Lithuania
(1)
613
686
549
Rumania
(1)&(2)
841
1,242
825
Greece
20
488
508
496
Italy
127
381
536
508
Canada
108
142
391
293
All Others
159
. 543
505
1,665(3)
Total
10,295
14,663
13,793
12,338
(1) Because of boundary adjustments following World War I, many persons gave their country of birth as Russia in 1910 and as Poland, Lithuania, or Rumania in later years.
(2) Because of boundary adjustments, many persons gave their country of birth as Austria or Hungary in 1910 and as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, or Rumania in later years.
(3) Disproportionately high because of the inclusion of 1,353. Mexicans formerly listed under "Other Races. "
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12
Belgium
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Table II
NUMBERS. OF FOREIGN BORN AND OF NATIVE BORN OF MIXED OR FOREIGN. PARENTAGE IN EAST CHICAGO IN 1930
Foreign- Born
Foreign- Parentage
Total
England
320
432
752
Scotland
245
180
425
Ireland
139
495
634
Sweden
380
459
839
Germany
245
981
1,226
Poland
3,628
6, 626
10,254
Czechoslovakia
1, 494
22.162
3,656
Austria
114
282
396
Hungary
1,451
1,849
3, 300
Yugoslavia
1, 516
1, 601
3, 117
Russia
357
403
760
Lithuania
686
688
1,374
Rumania
1, 242
998
2, 240
Greece
508
214
722
Italy
536
600
1, 136
Canada
391
353
744
Others
541
671
1, 212
Total
13,793
18,994
32, 787
There were very few Negroes in East Chicago until t outbreak of World War I cut off the supply of labor fre Europe. As Table III shows, over 1, 400 Negroes had cor here by 1920. The continued growth of industry during th 20's was accompanied by continued migration of Negroes that in 1930 they constituted almost one-tenth of the tot population of the city. This trend was slackened during t 30's by the depression, but their number increased abor twenty per cent during the decade and has probably gro more rapidly since 1940 as a result of the boom accompanyin
the second world war. Evidence in support of this statement is found in the fact that Negro pupils constituted about nineteen per cent of the pupils in elementary and junior high schools in 1945 although Negroes made up only eleven per cent of the population according to the census of 1940.
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