USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol I > Part 17
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WHEN KOKOMO WAS YOUNG.
Prior to the fall of 1886, Howard county was solely an agri- cultural community and Kokomo and the other towns of the county were trading points. Kokomo was a thrifty town of about four thousand people and was located wholly upon the north side of Wild Cat creek. There were no factories as Kokomo of today knows them. There were several small factories supplying local demands. The citizens were wideawake and progressive and doing well in a moderate way. About this time natural gas, which had been known in Pennsylvania and Canada for a number of years,
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was being developed in Ohio in and about Findlay. No effort had as yet been made to learn if it underlaid Indiana territory. Some enterprising Howard county citizens determined to make a test. Accordingly a paper, which can hardly be called a subscription paper but rather a memorandum of an agreement, was drafted as follows: "KOKOMO, INDIANA, March 22, 1886.
"The object of this paper is to ascertain if there are a sufficient number of persons in this city willing to subscribe one hundred dol- lars each for the purpose of boring for gas a distance of not less than two thousand (2,000) feet. The names of those willing to subscribe the above amount ($100), provided the scheme is prop- erly and satisfactorily organized, are as follows: A. G. Com- stock, D. C. Spraker, J. C. Blacklidge, J. M. Leach, S. Davis & Sons, Armstrong-Landon Company, R. Q. Wilson, J. C. Dolman, John W. Slider, E. Quaintance, Russell Dolman & Company, J. O. Henderson, J. McLean Moulder, W. H. Sellers, J. W. Cooper, J. B. Michener, Henry Hunt, Dixon & Company, Bell & Purdum, W. A. Stuart, G. W. Defenbaugh, George Stidger."
This paper, with the signatures, has recently been presented to the Carnegie Library for public preservation.
A. Y. Comstock and D. C. Spraker did most of the work of circulating the paper and securing subscribers. Although the citi- zenship of Kokomo and vicinity were liberal and progressive, they did not fall over each other in their eager haste to sign this agree- ment to pay one hundred dollars for boring a deep hole into the ground. Probably none of them had ever seen a real for-sure gas well. Some of them remembered the attempt to make a hole near the old Cromwell mill, and that, after going down several hundred feet, the tools became fast and the project had to be abandoned.
Mr. Comstock had been instrumental in promoting other enter- prises, notably the F. & K. Railroad, and so was a man of experience
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in such matters, but found he was up against the real thing in secur- ing the necessary signatures. The work of promoting this venture was commenced in March and it was mid-September before the necessary twenty-two subscribers were obtained and the prepara- tions for boring the two-thousand-foot hole were completed and the actual drilling commenced.
After the work of circulating this paper had commenced, but during the long wait while the necessary twenty-two men were being hunted, the first producing natural gas well in Indiana was drilled in near Eaton, in Delaware county.
THE SEARCH FOR NATURAL GAS.
The contract for drilling the well was let and the first "rig" ever seen by citizens of Kokomo was put up on the south side of Wild Cat, in a cornfield belonging to A. F. Armstrong, near the southwest intersection of Armstrong avenue and Water street.
All that section of country lying south of Wild Cat creek and west of the Lake Erie Railroad was then farm land and few and far between were the farm houses.
On the 6th of October the drill penetrated Trenton rock and natural gas burst from its confinement and gas well No. I was a reality. The gas was cased in and a pipe elbowed off about twenty- five feet from the well and ignited. Thousands of people came from far and near to see the wonder. It was not a large pro- ducer : the flames did not shoot high in the air; neither did it roar so tremendously as did some of the mammoth wells drilled in later ; but the well, such as it was, was easily worth going miles to see. It was not necessary to "bore two thousand feet." Gas was found in the Trenton rock at a depth of a little more than nine hundred feet. All the subsequent drillings discovered the gas deposits at
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practically the same depthi. Arrangements were soon made for drilling well No. 2 at a distance of about eighty rods southwest of No. 1. No arrangements had as yet been made for utilizing the find. The news, however, went out over the country like wild fire that gas had been found at Kokomo and people of various classes began flocking to Kokomo.
The earlier ones were men who were interested in exploiting gas wells, either in drilling gas wells or in leasing lands for gas wells and forming companies for piping and selling the gas. Another class of men were those who foresaw a rise in real estate because of the "find" and who rushed in to buy for the rise-the land speculator-and another class were the manufacturers, who were looking for a bonus and cheap fuel. Well No. 2, when drilled in, was a producing well and the belief was confirmed that Kokomo was in natural gas territory.
A BOOM IN REAL ESTATE.
In the spring of 1887 real estate was on a boom. Several syn- dicates from abroad had come in and invested in Kokomo and adja- cent Howard county real estate. The John Sherman or Mansfield syndicate was the leader in the amount and character of its invest- ment. The John M. Hamlin or Hamlin-Patterson syndicate was a close second. Several Kokomo people awoke to the fact that Kokomo real estate was a good thing to possess and the active competition rapidly advanced real estate. There was no less activity among natural gas men ; lands were leased for gas, the lessor agree- ing to pay so much per well annually so long as it produced gas in merchantable quantities, generally agreeing to drill a gas well for each forty acres of land within stated times, agreeing also to pay an annual rental of a certain price per acre until the wells
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were drilled. Companies were organized to pipe the gas to points where it could be used and to sell it when so piped. The Kokomo Natural Gas & Oil Company was organized to furnish Kokomo with gas.
The first years of these natural gas companies they were very liberal in their terms of sale, giving all a flat rate of one dollar per month for cook stoves, and one dollar and fifty cents for first heater, one dollar for second heater and seventy-five cents for each addi- tional heater per month for seven months each year; and the supply was not sparing, either.
About the same time factory men began to appear, seeking locations in the gas belt and free fuel and a bonus in cash or its equivalent as an incentive to come. Meanwhile several rigs were busy drilling wells, and practically all wells drilled east of a line extending southwest through the west line of Kokomo were pro- ducing wells, some of them being of mammoth proportions, notably one, known as the Shrader well, located on the Fred Schrader farm one and one-half miles southeast of Kokomo. This was probably the strongest producer in this gas field. When turned open and the gas ignited it sent up a great circular flame sixty to seventy- five feet in height, with a great roar that could be heard for miles. It lighted up the country for miles around and the farmers har- vested wheat after nightfall by its light.
The Hon. Daniel W. Voorheis, who was at Kokomo engaged in a cause in court, soon after this well was drilled in was taken out one evening to see it. After witnessing the wonderful dis- play of the burning well he declared it to be a sight worth a trip half across the continent to see. People were very wasteful of the gas in the first years after the discovery. They acted as if there was an inexhaustible quantity. Strong wells were opened and fired and permitted to burn for weeks, serving no good purpose except
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to light up the country. The writer recalls that the Byron Reed well south of town burned for several weeks, lighting up the coun- try for miles around and rendering the roads fairly light for a dis- tance of three or four miles out from town. In addition the farmers had large flambeaus burning throughout the night. Thus an im- mense quantity of this, the best of all fuels, was wasted. Prac- tically all the factories were operated by this fuel for several years. In addition two large pipe lines were put in to convey the gas to Chicago. Another line carried it to Logansport, another to Frank- fort and Lafayette and another to Peru. It appeared that everyone was making a heroic effort to exhaust the supply in the shortest possible time. And yet the suggestion at that time that the supply would be exhausted was scoffed at.
EXTENDING THE PIPE LINES.
The pipe lines that carried Howard county gas from home were: The Lafayette, which passed through Tipton county and into southeastern Howard. Murdock was at the head of this com- pany ; the Logansport line, which, passing to the west of Kokomo, entered the gas field on the Colonel Blanche farm and extended east on the south line of Center township and thence eastwardly almost to the' east line of the county, with branches to the south reaching into Tipton county. Hon. S. P. Sheerin was at the head of this company and it drew away the gas for about eight years. Their leases provided that the landowner should have a well drilled within one year from the making of the lease; it provided for a well for each forty acres of land, the deferred wells to be drilled at intervals of one year each; that the company was to furnish the owner or his tenant free gas for domestic use and to pay two hundred dol- lars annually for each well so long as it produced gas in merchant-
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able quantities and to pay a rental for the land not drilled on. This company leased nearly all lands on the south side. The Indi- ana Natural Gas Company had their pipe lines laid diagonally through Howard township to the pumping station west of Green- town, thence east into Grant county, and had the central and east- ern parts of the county leased for. The Peru pipe line extended into the northeastern part of the county; the Kokomo Natural Gas Company covered the country adjacent to the city; the Plate Glass Company had a large pipe line reaching east
from their factory several miles; the J. M. Leach Com- pany went east from the brick plant into Grant coun- ty; and the manufacturers' line extended east from North street to Jackson township. These several pipe lines were busily engaged in draining away the gas supply. For several years the pressure has been diminishing and the supply is now largely ex- hausted.
The Indiana Natural Gas Company, to comply with a pro- vision of the statute that the business of the natural gas companies should be to supply Indiana cities with gas before shipping to for- eign points, laid a system of gas mains in Kokomo soon after going into the gas field, established an office here and sold gas in competi- tion with the other company. Later, when the wells of the Kokomo company were exhausted, they supplied the Kokomo company's mains with gas and have been the chief source of the supply of gas for citizens of Kokomo since. For several years both companies furnished gas for the flat rate, but for the past six or seven years there has been a meter rate service of twenty-five cents per thousand feet. Not only has the rate been higher, but the service has been inadequate at times and the citizens of Kokomo are largely turning to coal for heating purposes.
The J. M. Leach Company has practically abandoned supply-
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ing natural gas to factories and is now quite extensively engaged in furnishing gas for domestic use at a flat rate of three dollars for cook stoves and four dollars and fifty cents for heaters per month.
PUMPING STATIONS.
To transport the gas in pipe lines to Chicago and other dis- tant points required additional pressure and thus pumping sta- tions along the pipe line was necessary. The main pumping station on the Indiana Natural Gas Company's line (Chicago) was located on the north side of the Kokomo and Greentown gravel road, on the west side of Wild Cat creek, one and one-half miles west of Greentown. A large, well-built pumping plant was constructed and a town plat was laid off adjoining, and quite a number of neat homes were built for their employes. Pipe lines from the various parts of their gas field converged to this plant. Recently, because of the failing pressure in the gas field, pumps have been put in the wells and the wells are now sooner exhausted by the pumping process.
Now, after twenty-two years' use, the natural gas supply is largely exhausted. The reckless waste of the early years, the wholesale use of it in the factories and shipping it away in many pipe lines have done a perfect work and the people of Howard county are now almost deprived of the best fuel for domestic use Nature ever furnished.
The first factory to locate at Kokomo because of the finding of natural gas was the Kokomo Window Glass Company, Richard Heagany, president. This company was subsidized by the donation of a site at the northeast intersectoin of North street and the L. E. & W. Railroad, and a cash bonus paid by individual subscription. They used natural gas in the making of the glass and did a good
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business for a few years, when a fire completely destroyed the build- ings. The company did not rebuild but removed to Hartford City and established a window glass factory at that point.
Those who had contributed to the cash bonus for locating the factory at Kokomo were very much disappointed at this action and discussed the advisability of taking legal steps to compel the return of the money thus paid out, as the company had acted in bad faith in taking the money and then moving away, presumably to get another cash bonus. The plant was built in 1887.
PAPER MILLS.
Another plant located and built in 1887 was the Kokomo Straw- board plant. This plant was built by Seiberling & Williams, on a ten-acre tract of land on the New London gravel road about one mile southwest of the city.
This plant was subsidized by two thousand dollars by the Kokomo Improvement Company and was expended in the purchase of the ten acres of land from A. F. Armstrong. The plant con- sisted of several large brick buildings with all the necessary ma- chinery for converting straw into paper board and apparently was a very permanent improvement.
This factory used natural gas for fuel and for several years did a good business and used a vast quantity of straw, making a market for all of the straw for many miles around. For several years Mr. Thomas Bauer was a familiar figure among the farmers of the county in buying their straw. The old Cromwell millrace was utilized in filtering the water with the waste from the straw- board mill.
Soon the farmers along Wild Cat below the mill began to complain of stream pollution, asserting that the poisonous chemicals
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used in bleaching the straw and board and escaping in the refuse from the mill poisoned the waters of Wild Cat, rendering the water unfit and dangerous for stock to drink, and that the refuse killed the fish in the stream. Finally suit was brought to prevent the allowing of the refuse to go into the stream. Damage suits were threatened. This uprising extended almost to the west limits of the county. Meanwhile the American Strawboard Company had been formed for taking over into one great corporation all the strawboard plants, and the Kokomo plant had thus been absorbed. Because of this opposition the Kokomo plant was closed and has since remained closed, except for a short time it was operated as a boxboard factory. It is not at all likely that the factory will ever again be operated. The silent walls only remain of this once active industry.
In the succeeding year two other paper mills were located south of the strawboard mill, on Kokomo creek. The first to locate was the woodpulp mill, with G. P. Wood as president. This mill con- verts quaking asp, second growth cottonwood and buckeye timber into wood pulp for the manufacture of paper. For several years after the location of this factory large quantities of buckeye and cottonwood timbers were purchased of the farmers of the county.
Very little quaking asp timber is grown in the county. The spruce timber used in the mill was shipped from northern Michi- gan, two large shiploads or cargoes being used each year.
The Newman Paper Company building was built adjoining the woodpulp mill and after a short time Mr. Newman sold out to Wood & Miller and the combined factory became known as the Kokomo Paper Company and the Kokomo Woodpulp Company, with I. N. Miller, president; G. P. Wood, secretary ; and C. L. Wood, treasurer. The two plants, including buildings and grounds occupied by the business, covers three acres. They manufacture I6
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wood fibre, board, barrel and box layers and have a market all over the country.
In the year 1888 William C. Smith, from Rockford, Illinois, came to Kokomo seeking a location for a bit factory in the gas belt. He was then engaged in operating a factory of this kind at Rock- ford. Upon arriving at Kokomo he fell in with J. R. Hall, Wick Russell and Garah Markland, innocent-appearing men but hustlers, who, providing a good conveyance, took him out past and beyond the extensive farm lands of A. F. Armstrong, on the south side, through Markland and Russell's farm lanes .beyond Pete's branch and almost to the bluffs of Kokomo creek, so far out that all that was visible of Kokomo was the top of the court house tower, and here in a beautiful woods pasture these gentlemen assured Mr. Smith would be an ideal location for a bit factory. It was at a point where the three farms owned by these gentlemen touched each other. Mr. Hall told Mr. Smith that if he would locate on his side he would donate six acres, including a part of a clover field : Messrs. Russell and Markland said they would each give three acres more. and actually talked this shrewd business man into locating there. Be it remembered that this location was away out in the country and in the interior of three farms, more than a quarter of a mile from any street or highway. When the writer of this expostulated with Hall, while surveying the site, and asked him how he could do such an act, he replied: "I intend to make this one of the most beautiful parts of Kokomo."
THE BIT WORKS.
The Rockford Bit Works was built that same year and com- menced a prosperous career that has continued to the present. The plant is a large, permanent brick structure. W. C. Smith was presi-
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
dent for many years, and Millard F. Brand was superintendent till 1894, and George J. Costello succeeded him.
In 1892 Henry C. Davis and his son, Henry C., Jr., bought an interest in the factory. In 1893 they and H. A. Bruner bought in all outstanding stock. They manufacture augurs, augur bits and carpenter chisels. The present floor space is about 25,000 square feet. In 1892 the number of men employed was from thirty to forty. In 1908 the number is one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty, and the pay-roll is eighty thousand to one hundred thou- sand dollars per year. The cpital stock is seventy-five thousand dol- lars. The officers are: H. C. Davis, president; H. A. Bruner, viice-president ; H. C. Davis, Jr., treasurer ; George L. Davis, secre- tary : George J. Costello, superintendent.
INDIANA TUMBLER AND GOBLET COMPANY.
The Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company came to Kokomo from Greentown in 1900 and became known as the Kokomo Glass Manufacturing Company, after having burned out at Greentown. This plant was organized at Greentown in 1894 by D. C. Jenkins, who had many years' experience in the glass manufacturing busi- ness, and knows the business from all sides. The Kokomo Glass Manufacturing Company's plant was burned out in June, 1905. The plant was not rebuilt at once, as the company debated the rebuilding proposition at great length. Many of the skilled operatives moved away to other towns having similar factories. At last, by the citi- zens of Kokomo offering them a liberal bonus, they resolved to rebuild under a reorganization known as the D. C. Jenkins Glass Company. They accordingly rebuilt in 1906.
The factory employs one hundred and fifty men and has a monthly pay-roll of eight thousand dollars.
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The output is a full line of glass table ware, milk bottles, fish globes and a general line of machine-made goods. They have two to three men on the road selling to jobbers. Seventy-five per cent. of their output is sold in carload lots. The officers are: D. C. Jenkins, president; Addison Jenkins, secretary and treasurer.
The Kokomo Wood Enameling Company was organized and the building erected about the year 1890. Thomas Bauer, the hus- tling straw buyer of the Kokomo Strawboard Company, was the leading spirit in this enterprise. This industry was located on the southernmost of the factory sites platted in Hamlin's Highland ad- dition. Its output was the various kinds of enameled wooden ware made from hardwood lumber, as knobs, handles, etc. It was claimed by the managers of this concern that they used five hundred thou- sand feet of hardwood lumber annually. They bought great num- bers of beech and sugar tree logs and thus made a considerable mar- ket for a class of timber that had not heretofore sold for lumber. While the plant was operated as an enameling industry, the kilns were visited with two or three disastrous fires. It was capitalized at fifty thousand dollars and employed one hundred men.
With the exhaustion of hardwood lumber it was changed to the Kokomo Nail and Brad Company.
KOKOMO RUBBER COMPANY.
The Kokomo Rubber Company was organized and incorpo- rated in 1895 and put up the first building forty by one hun- dred feet, two stories and basement, and began the manufacture of bicycle tires January 1, 1896. Each year afterward an equal floor space was added for seven years. Now the floor space is one hun- dred thousand square feet and employs two hundred and twenty- five men. It is incorporated for two hundred thousand dollars.
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
The pay-roll is one hundred thousand dollars annually. D. C. Spraker is president and manager, Milton Krouse is vice-president, George W. Loudon is secretary, D. L. Spraker is treasurer. The manufactures are bicycle tires, automobile tires and a specialty is made of solid vehicle tires for buggies. The product is known as Kokomo tires the world over. Shipments are made not only to all parts of the United States, but to foreign countries as well. This plant is located on the Lake Erie & Western railroad, just south of Markland avenue and fronts on Main street.
The Great Western Pottery Company was established in 1893 on West Morgan street by the present owners, the two Conrad brothers and Coxon, who is superintendent. The original size was four kilns. It now operates ten places. The buildings cover ninety thousand square feet of floor surface. When the factory was first built it was the only one west of Pittsburg. Nine years ago this company secured the same kind of a factory at Tiffin, Ohio, which has seven kilns, and has practically the same output.
The Kokomo plant employs one hundred and fifty men. ninety per cent. of whom are skilled workmen. The pay-roll is about ten thousand dollars per month. Their output is sanitary pottery ware and their shipments are in carload lots.
The Globe Stove and Range Works was organized in 1898. The plant is located on the P., C. & St. L. railroad and their grounds extend from the railroad to Market street and south from Broadway. The company began in a modest way, but have con- tinuously grown and expanded until the plant now consists of six large and substantial fireproof brick buildings. The buildings are all practically new, steam heated, electrically lighted and well venti- lated. The growth of this industry has been constant and is a credit to the management and the city and county as well.
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TOMATO GROWING.
Twenty years ago the Charles Brothers came to Kokomo preaching the gospel of tomato growing. Mr. A. A. Charles was especially enthusiastic in telling Howard county farmers what possi- bilities were in store for them in growing tomatoes on their fertile acres and recounted what had been done in Jersey and incidentally stated that he stood ready to help them by starting a canning fac- tory.
The promoters of the Brookside addition proffered these gen- tlemen a site for a factory and as a further encouragement made a donation of some choice lots. A considerable number of farmers agreed to grow acres of tomatoes at so much per ton, where they had heretofore been content with a single plant, and the canning industry had a beginning in Howard county. During these twenty years it has been a profitable business both for the grower and the packer. The Charles Bros. operated the Brookside Canning Fac- tory for several years with eminent success, canning sweet corn and peas as well as tomatoes.
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