USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol I > Part 18
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CANNING FACTORIES.
WV. A. Bowlin and others operated a canning factory on the New London pike at the north end of Courtland avenue for several years, canning peas, corn and tomatoes. John Gennebeck and oth- ers started a third plant near the strawboard mill, which later passed into the possession of parties who have organized the Kokomo Can- ning Company and has been enlarged and improved until it is one of the best plants in the State.
The Kokomo Canning Company was incorporated in 1904. having been started by Josiah Kelly, who operated it until his death
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two years later. Upon the death of Mr. Kelly W. A. Bowlin took charge of the property for a season and subsequently it was operated under the trusteeship of the Kokomo National Bank until the pres- ent company was formed in February, 1904, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, the members of which were: T. C. McReynolds, L. J. Kirkpatrick, W. W. Barnes, J. W. Barnes, J. W. Learner, E. L. Danner, F. C. Falk and C. W. McReynolds. The plant was then located at the corner of Water street and Courtland avenue. In March, 1906, the company doubled its capital stock and bought out Grafton Johnson, owner of the Brookside and Howard County canning factories, the Kelly plant for the most part being removed to the grounds of the Howard County plant, which had in the start been the property of Jolin Gennebeck. In the end Mr. Gennebeck had ceased the active ownership of this industry and G. W. Landon. W. F. Ruddell and Grafton Johnson took it in charge. It was during this period that the Howard County and the old Charles, or Brookside, canning industries were consolidated. Graf- ton Johnson operated the two consolidated properties, which he soon acquired, for some time, when the three plants were consolidated, as stated, in 1906. The grounds include six and one-half acres, about three acres of which is covered with buildings. The plant repre- sents an investment of one hundred thousand dollars, and has never paid less than ten per cent., and sometimes double, on the capital stock. The active manager, who began the operation under com- bined discouragements, is C. W. McReynolds, recently elected presi- dent of the State Canners' Association.
It has facilities for packing a hundred thousand cans of vege- tables in a day without touching the ingredients with the hands. All is done by machinery.
The machinery and equipment are the most improved. The company packed more than three million cans the present season.
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The company is capitalized at fifty thousand dollars and was incor- porated in 1904. C. W. McReynolds is secretary and manager.
Homer Sailors and W. J. Dixon began a fourth packing plant in 1907 on the L. E. & W. railroad in the Park View addition. The canning industry in Howard county has proven to be as good as its most sanguine promoters promised.
In 1888 the Opalescent Glass Factory was located upon one of the factory sites platted by Mr. R. E. Patterson in the Hamlin High- land addition. A Mr. Henry, with a Frenchman skilled in the art. secured this site in donation and proceeded to erect buildings and began the manufacture of this glass. After a short time he sold out to local men, who secured the skilled services of Mr. Francois. This is not a large concern, but is a good business and very profitable. The capital stock is twenty thousand dollars and employs twenty men and has a monthly pay-roll of eight hundred dollars.
AUTOMOBILES.
Of the various manufacturing industries that have located in Kokomo probably none have obtained so wide celebrity as the auto- mobiles. Kokomo is widely known as the Automobile City. This fame has resulted from the two automobile factories located here.
The first was located here ten years ago, in 1898, just south of the rubber works. Like the rubber works, it had a modest be- ginning, but grew rapidly and is now a leading industry. It is said to be the oldest automobile factory in the United States. It is also said that Mr. Edwood Haynes is the pioneer automobile inventor of this country. In the beginning the Apperson Bros. were members of this automobile firm and it was known as the Haynes-Apperson Company. Somewhat later the Appersons withdrew and began the manufacture of automobiles independently. The Haynes cars have
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been entered in many races in competition with machines made in the best factories of this and foreign countries and have always given a good account of themselves, especially along endurance lines.
The Apperson Automobile Company is located on South Main street on the south side of Wildcat, where the Riverside Machine Works were located. The Apperson Bros. were the proprietors of this machine shop and when they decided to embark in the automo- bile business independently they converted the works into an auto- mobile industry and erected a large three-story brick building and began the manufacture of automobiles on a large scale. Their ma- chines are noted for power and speed. Their business is increasing rapidly and steps have been taken recently to greatly enlarge the factory.
PITTSBURG PLATE GLASS COMPANY.
Probably the most important of Kokomo's industrial con- cerns has been the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company plant because of its size, the long time it has been here and the amount of business done. This company was organized in 1888 and located on the east side of the P., C. & St. L. railroad and south of Vaile avenue. avenue.
The founders and promoters of this enterprise were individual capitalists, of whom Monroe Seiberling was chief. Conger and oth- ers helped, but Seiberling came here and made this city his home for years and did much in various ways for the material uplift of the city. He also associated some of the business men of this city with the company in building this plant. It has at all times been a large employer of labor, employing about five hundred and fifty men, and having a monthly pay-roll of thirty thousand dollars. This factory was an early and heavy user of natural gas and had its own natural
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gas plant, pipe lines and wells, reaching far out into the gas terri- tory.
Several years after the founding of this company the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company, a corporation formed for the purpose of com- bining all plate glass companies under one management, bought the stock of this company and made it a part of the Pittsburg Plate Glass system. Kokomo has been fortunate in that the plant has been operated almost continuously since its absorption in this sys- tem. The plant is now being rebuilt and otherwise improved, bring- ing it up to date and giving assurance to Kokomo that it will still continue to be a live plant and furnish employment for the men of the plate glass district.
MAKING WOVEN WIRE.
About fifteen years since some young men came to Kokomo from Ridgeville looking for a good business location for the manu- facture and sale of the Whitney woven wire fence machine and of the wire for weaving the fence in place. They also planned to weave the fence in their factory and sell it in rolls to fence builders. They located their factory at North and Union streets and soon were doing a fine business in the sale of machines and in building and selling different styles of fence, including many beautiful de- signs of ornamental fence.
A few years since a number of the business men and manufac- turers of the city decided that it would be a profitable and wise thing to greatly enlarge this business by building a plant to make the wire used in the fence business and to greatly enlarge the fence building department, and thus the Kokomo Steel and Wire Company was formed. The stock is very largely held by Kokomo and former Kokomo citizens. It is an independent company and is handicapped
WIRE & NAILDEPARTMENT
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KOKOMO STEEL & WIRE CO.
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by being compelled to buy billets from the steel trust. The com- pany has two plants, the fence plant on North street and the mill proper on West Markland avenue. They manufacture plain and galvanized fencing wire, wire rods, barbed wire, market wire, wire nails, staples, wire fencing, etc. They ship their goods to all parts of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Both plants give em- ployment to a large number of men. A. A. Charles is president ; A. V. Conradt, vice-president ; George W. Charles, treasurer, and J. E. Fredrick, secretary.
J. B. Michener established the Star Machine Works on North Main street in 1874 and did a general repair business for various kinds of machinery, employing twelve men and doing a business of twenty-five thousand dollars per annum. After his death the busi- ness and plant passed into the control of the Standard Motor Com- pany. This company continued the repair business and manufac- tured small gasoline engines and saw swedges. In 1904 the K., M. & W. Traction Company purchased the plant for a repair shop and car barns. In 1906 the Superior Machine Tool Company occu- pied the building used for the repair of machinery, being a building thirty by three hundred feet. The company is engaged in the manu- facture of upright drills. They are in position to do all kinds of repair work and the building of special machinery.
Ford & Donnelly, at the corner of North and Buckeye streets, have been operating a machine and repair shop for many years. These machine and repair shops are very useful industries to the people of Howard county.
The Knerr Board and Paper Company's plant is located north of North street on the L. E. & W. Railroad, and is one of two like mills owned and operated by Cincinnati parties. The manufactures of the company are folding paper box boards, binders and trunk boards and double board used for bookbinders' and shipping cases. The plant employs seventy-five hands.
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KOKOMO BALE TIE COMPANY.
The Kokomo Bale Tie Company, formerly known as the Schild Fence Company, is located on North street between the L. E. & W. and the P., C., C. & St. L. railroads and manufactures the Schild fence, bale ties for baling hay and straw and farm gates, and is pre- pared to furnish standard makes of telephone and telegraph wires and wires for cement posts. The company handles plain and gal- vanized fence wire, barbed wire, nails and staples and high carbon coil spring wire. Fifteen men are employed.
Of the many industries not already mentioned and contributing to the industrial life and growth of Kokomo and to the prosperity of Howard county may be mentioned the Columbia Pottery and Manufacturing Company, north of Morgan street, on the L. E. & WV. Railroad ; the Kokomo Brass Works, on North Smith street, the Kokomo Box Company, located on North Smith street, occupying the Petroleum Hoop Company's former plant : the Kokomo Hoop and Lumber Company, at west end of Mulberry street : the National Mitten Works, East High street; the Ulrich Manufacturing Com- pany, Wall street : the Colonial Brick Company, East High street ; the Kokomo Cash Lumber Company, West Elm, adjoining the L. E. & W Railroad; the Pinnell-Stroup Lumber Company, Buckeye street between Elm and Broadway streets.
It is claimed that the manufacture of the Hoosier Standard grain measures is the oldest manufacturing business of the county. This was commenced at Greentown in 1853 by Joseph M. Loop and removed to Kokomo in 1877 and continued by John N. Loop, the son.
FLORICULTURE.
In recent years there has sprung up a new industry in our midst. In 1891 W. W. Coles came to Kokomo from the vicinity
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of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and engaged in floriculture on East Jefferson street in a modest way. His business met a popular de- mand and grew rapidly until now he has seventy thousand square feet under glass, all fragrant with blooms of all kinds. Mr. Coles does a large and profitable business. Mr. Coles is an active com- petitor at the state fairs for premiums in his department and wins a large share of the first premiums. Coles, the rose man of Kokomo, is giving the city a good name abroad. His place is known as the Maple Hill Rose Farm. Since Mr. Coles introduced the business into this community three other greenhouse plants have sprung up. Fred Kelly, on East Sycamore street ; Tom L. Knipe, on East Mark- land avenue, and W. A. Bitler, South Buckeye street.
That this business is doing a good work among the people of the city and surrounding country is evidenced by the many homes that are rendered beautiful and attractive throughout the growing season by the many cultivated blooming plants surrounding the home and in the winter season by indoor blooming plants.
THE TRACTION COMPANY.
The Kokomo, Marion & Western Traction Company is the suc- cessor of the Kokomo Railway and Light Company and was organ- ized in 1902 and besides furnishing interurban traffic operates the city street car system, lights the streets of Kokomo and provides electric lights for the homes of her citizens. The street car track mileage of Kokomo is ten miles and six street cars are run upon these lines for tlie regular service. There are fifty miles of electric light wires in the city and fourteen hundred consumers of electricity for light and power, where five years ago there were but three hun- dred and fifty. The power house is a large brick structure along the L. E. & W. Railroad, rendering it easily accessible with fuel.
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The whole system, including the interurban service, uses one hun- dred and ten men.
The artificial gas plant was constructed for a city of four thou- sand people and is wholly inadequate for the present city of Kokomo.
The city is amply provided with a water works system taking water from a series of deep wells in a seemingly inexhaustible sup- ply of good water.
Kokomo and Howard county possess more of the material ad- vantages of life and fewer of its disadvantages than almost any other like community. As has already been noted, its lands and im- provements are of the very best; the city of Kokomo has a very large number of very busy factories of the very best kinds, affording steady employment to thousands of workmen. While the greater number of her factories were built for the consumption of natural gas for fuel when the gas began to fail they were changed to burn coal and practically all are now fitted for burning coal.
Some eighteen years ago a belt railroad was built from the P., C. & St. L. Railroad around the south side of the city, reaching nearly all of the factories on the south side and providing them with convenient railroad facilities. The other factories of the city have been provided with railroad switches, spurs and side tracks until nearly all Kokomo factories are reached by railroad cars and can have coal direct from the cars. Rates have been made at the coal mines and with the railroads until the factories are able to have cheap fuel.
The facilities for shipping coal to the factories here are good now, but promise to be better in the near future. The city in a little more than twenty years has quadrupled in population. All that country south of Wild Cat , which was farm land when the bit fac- tory was located, is now improved city properties, with paved streets. city water and city lights and the bit factory itself, which was then
KOKOMO RUBBER CO
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KOKOMO RUBBER WORKS,
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
far out in the country, is now well within the city. The future is bright with promise.
Howard county and Kokomo in their prosperous career have experienced very few disappointments. Two or three will here be referrd to.
TROUBLE OVER RAILROAD BONDS.
A matter over which there seems to have been considerable dis- satisfaction at the time, grew out of the building of the Indianapolis & Peru Railroad. It appears that the company lacked fifty thou- sand dollars of having money enough to finish the road to Peru and were unable to sell their bonds. The company therefore decided to ask the counties through which the road was being built to aid by loaning the credit of the counties, that is, while the railroad bonds could not be sold, the bonds of the counties could be sold. The com- pany therefore proposed that if the counties would issue bonds and loan the money thus raised the company would reimburse the coun- ties as soon as possible for the loan. In accordance with this plan, on the 21st of August, 1851, C. D. Murray and William J. Holman. representing the company, came before the commissioners and asked them, for the county, to issue bonds to the amount of ten thousand dollars and take railroad stock to that amount on condition that the other counties raise the balance. The board took the matter under consideration until the next day, when they agreed to do so, pro- vided the county could be indemnified against loss by any failure of the company.
To meet this condition the following persons entered into a written obligation to indemnify the county against loss in the ratio of the respective amounts subscribed by each, on condition that if they had to pay the losses the stock should be theirs :
William J. Holman, $4,000; C. Richmond, $500; John Bohan,
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$1,000 ; Austin North, $500 ; William Brown, $500; George Deffen- baugh, $500; John Dale, $500; J. D. Sharp, $1,000; F. S. Price, $1,000; J. M. Skein, $500.
Whereupon the board ordered the auditor to subscribe for four hundred shares of stock at twenty-five dollars each, and that county bonds bearing ten per cent. interest and to run for ten years be issued to the amount of ten thousand dollars. The bonds were subse- quently issued and were signed by Tence Lindley, Richard Nixon and John Knight. Certificates of stock were issued on delivery of the bonds.
At the December term, 1853. C. D. Murray, agent of the Peru & Indianapolis Railroad Company, came before the board and rep- resented that the Peru & Indianapolis Railroad and the Indianapolis & Madison Railroad companies had consolidated their interests, that this consolidation was a sufficient guarantee for the payment of the bonds and interests due the county and therefore moved that the certificates of stock be canceled and the guarantors be released. The commissioners made an order in accordance with the motion; the certificates were surrendered as collateral and the guarantors were released as securities.
The company for a time continued to pay the interest and par- tial payments on the principal. But the road was being operated in a new and sparsely settled region, which at best could furnish but a limited amount of business. Their business was not sufficient to pay a large operating expense and to pay ten per cent. interest on a large debt besides. The company therefore was forced into bankruptcy and the road was sold. The failure of the railroad company caused the county to lose the balance unpaid of the ten thousand dollars originally advanced to the company, which was about six thou- sand dollars, principal and interest. There was considerable criti- cism of the board for releasing the guarantors.
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This criticism by those pioneers throws a strong side light upon them. They have appeared heretofore as men of great generosity and broad sympathy for each other, that the privations of the new country had developed a spirit of broad friendship and unselfishness that rendered them incapable of taking advantage of another's gen- erosity. It has been repeatedly asserted that they freely left their own work to help another without any thought of pay or help in re- turn ; but here we have an instance of certain public-spirited citizens of the community, pledging large amounts for an enterprise that will help the entire community all alike, and which will be worth many times its cost, being held responsible for this debt by their fellow citizens and the commissioners, who released them criticized for do- ing so.
It manifestly would have been unfair to have held these few men responsible, who were no more benefitted than others, for this debt when it was of vast general benefit to the whole county.
This instead of being reckoned a misfortune to the county, was probably the best investment ever made. It was the pioneer rail- road and gave the county an early direct line to the business center of the state.
THE DOXEY FACTORY.
Another matter over which there was much dissatisfaction was the Doxey factory matter. In the spring of 1874 C. T. Doxey, of Anderson, came before the city council and represented that he was looking for a location for a large factory and that if Kokomo wanted it she could have it by offering proper inducement. After returning home he sent the following letter which more fully explains his scheme :
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"Anderson, Indiana.
"To the Mayor and Honorable Council of the City of Kokomo, In- diana :
"Gentlemen-Enclosed please find a plan of heading, stave and bent factory, which I have now arranged to put up at this place. The building will be brick, iron roof. Will be the largest and best arranged of any in the state and perhaps the best in the United States. Propose to make circled heading from beech and red oak : lead keg staves and heading and oil barrel staves and heading. The above machinery will all be placed on first floor. The second story propose to use for bent work. My engine is from eighty to one hundred horse power ; will use two large boilers. The machinery to be all new or good as new. The factory will employ from forty to eighty hands besides those who may be engaged in cutting and hauling timber. It makes a market for your elm, red oak and beech timber ; and as have built three factories of this kind and have had four years' experience, and have had perhaps the largest trade in cooper business of any one in the state, think it would be safe in say- ing. 'It will be a success.'
"Have a good location here and in locating at your city will be a loss in many ways. Would respectfully make the following prop- osition : If your city will donate five thousand dollars, one-half to be paid when building is completed and one-half when it is in opera- tion, will locate at Kokomo. It may require from forty to sixty thousand dollars to carry on the business. Will bind myself to have said factory in operation by the Ist of September this year. Would come at once. What action on the above proposition you choose to take, please do so tonight, as I have part of the machinery pur- chased and want to commence the building at once. Very respect- fully yours. C. T. Doxley."
This was read to the council May 15, 1874, and a committee
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was appointed to look after the matter. It is supposed to have acted favorably on the proposition, as we find this record. Septem- ber 4, 1874:
COMMITTEE'S REPORT ON DOXEY FACTORY.
"Gentlemen-Your committee which was appointed to exam- ine the stave and heading factory of C. T. Doxey would respect- fully report that said factory is now in operation according to the terms of Mr. Doxey's contract. Signed by committee.
"Mr. Davis moved the report be concurred in and that an order for five thousand dollars be drawn in favor of C. T. Doxey.
"This motion prevailed with one dissenting vote."
There was not a little opposition to making this donation by some of the most substantial citizens, who asserted that it was illegal and bad policy to hire factories to locate here with money from the city treasury. The other party contended that property would be benefited by locating factories here and that the only real fair way to subsidize them was by taxation. As there was an overwhelmn- ing sentiment for locating factories at Kokomo, and thus to increase industrial activity, the donation prevailed and Doxey's factory got the five thousand dollars.
The factory operated for a few years and then from some cause stopped. The machinery was moved away and for several years the silent buildings bore mute testimony to where Doxey's fac- tory had been. The proprietors of Kirkpatrick & Scott's addition to Kokomo had made a liberal land donation to the factory expecting the operation of the factory would cause that part of Kokomo to build up. The closing of the factory stopped business in that part of town and there was no more market for lots. The closing of this factory was the sorest disappointment Kokomo has experienced.
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In the abundant prosperity of the past twenty years and in the location of many much more important factories than Doxey's ever was she had well-nigh forgotten this experience. The historian now consigns it to a place with the window glass company and the straw- board company and is glad that these are all.
EARLY FINANCIAL HISTORY.
BY MILTON GARRIGUS.
Like all other states of equal age, Indiana has tinkered with many kinds of currency and learned by bitter experience. An inter- esting and intelligent review seems to require starting with colonial times and tracing theories, trade, banking laws and panics in nation and state to 1861.
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