USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 16
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136
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
Huntington was divided into three wards and the common council was made to consist of two councilmen from each ward. At the election on November 3, 1873, William A. Berry and Patrick O'Brien were elected councilmen from the First ward; Cyrus E. Briant and William McClure, from the Second, and Samuel T. Morgan and Samuel Buchanan, from the Third.
Following is a list of the mayors since the incorporation as a city : George W. Stults, 1873; Samuel F. Day, 1878; Lawrence P. Boyle, 1880;
FIRST NATIONAL
HALL.
BANK
WEST SIDE OF JEFFERSON STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM MARKET, 1871
Samuel F. Day, 1884; William Randolph, 1890; Z. T. Dungan, 1892 ; S. T. Cast, 1894; Z. T. Dungan, 1898; D. C. Anderson, 1902; J. Fred France, 1904; D. C. Anderson, 1906; Milo Feightner, 1909; Patrick M. McCarty, 1913.
During Mayor Anderson's second term, after his election in 1906, the term of the mayor was changed from two to four years and his time was extended to three years and eight months, or until the election of Mayor Feightner in 1909.
City Clerks-John Skiles, 1873; J. R. Wagner, 1874; L. T. Bagley,
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
1876;' Joseph M. Black, 1886; L. T. Bagley, 1890; William Schwartz, 1892; E. Q. Drummond, 1894; Charles Cutshall, 1898; Joseph A. Carroll, 1904; James Beeber, 1906; Harry I. Young, 1909 (re-elected in 1913).
City Treasurers-Joachim Fernandez, 1873; Patrick O'Brien, 1874; H. S. Shaff, 1878; John M. Hargrove, 1884; Olin S. Bay, 1894; Henry F. Kase, 1902; George A. Grass, 1906; F. E. Strauss, 1909. Mr. Strauss was the last man to be elected to the office of city treasurer. At the close of his term the municipal funds were placed in the hands of the treasurer of Huntington County and the office of city treasurer was abolished.
City Attorneys-B. F. Ibach, 1874; H. B. Saylor, 1878 (served till July, 1880) ; B. M. Cobb, 1880; B. F. Ibach, 1882; O. W. Whitelock, 1888; J. B. Kenner, 1891 ; F. Fred France, 1896; U. S. Lesh, 1902; W. A. Bran- yan, 1904; E. O. King, 1906; W. B. Hamer, 1909; Fred H. Bower, 1913. Mr. Bower served but two months-January and February- 1914, when he was succeeded by the present city attorney, Milo N. Feightner.
The city council at the present time is composed of seven members- two from the city at large and one from each of the five wards. Those elected in 1913 were: Harmon H. Hendricks and Wilhelm J. Doell, at large; Fred G. Gemmer, First ward; John A. Kline, Second ward; William J. Morgan, Third ward; Frank A. McCauley, Fourth ward ; Clarence F. Juillerat, Fifth ward. Regular meetings of the council arc held in the council chamber in the city hall on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month.
From the most reliable sources of information at hand, it appears that the first attempt to organize a fire-fighting company in Huntington was on December 31, 1856, when a meeting was held in Purviance's Hall for the purpose of organizing a volunteer fire company. Fifty men enrolled themselves as members, the name of the "Neptune Fire Com- pany" was adopted and Peter Sipes was elected foreman. The company decided upon a uniform of white trousers, red shirts and glazed caps. When they made their first appearance, rigged out in their new costumes, an old resident remarked : "They look fine on dress parade, but we'll see if they are of any account when a fire breaks out." It was not long until the company had an opportunity to try their skill in extinguishing a fire. A hand engine was ordered and soon after its arrival in Huntington the ladies of the town served a banquet in the courthouse for the members of the company. The boys were there in full uniform, but scarcely had they taken their seats at the tables when an alarm was sounded and it was found that Alfred. A. Hubbell's tannery, on the bank of the canal, was on fire. The new engine was hurried to the spot, the boys grabbed the handles and at it they went. But the leathern hose burst and scattered
138
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
more water upon the bystanders than was thrown upon the blaze. Some of the company tried to bind up the hose with their handkerchiefs, but their efforts were futile and the tannery "went up in smoke." Thus the first battle resulted in defeat, through no fault of the Neptune Fire Com- pany, being due entirely to the defective hose.
Independent Hose Company No. 1 was organized on April 2, 1878, after the city government was inaugurated, and articles of association were filed in the office of the county recorder on the 16th of May. The company was composed of twenty members, among whom were: W. L. Kinkade, Frank Gerard, J. F. Slusser, Elias Craft, James W. Gusman and G. W. Stults. The motto of the company was: "Where duty calls there you will find us," and the articles of association provided that the members, in attending fires, should obey the orders of the fire chief.
Shortly after Huntington was incorporated as a city a fire department was organized with William McGrew as the first chief. Brant & Fuller's History of Huntington County, published in 1887, describing the depart- ment as it then existed, says: "The working force is divided into four companies and numbers 130 men. The equipment is two steam engines, 2,500 feet of hose, and a full supply of ladders, hooks, buckets, carts, etc., and a team of trained horses. The city owns a substantial brick engine house, two stories, and surmounted by an alarm bell. There are two cisterns in the First ward; one cistern in the Second ward, with Flint Creek traversing diagonally the entire ward, furnishing a constant supply of water, and the river on the south end of the ward; one cistern in the Third ward, and the river on the whole north side thereof. The cisterns are of 1,000 barrels each. The department is under the efficient management of Samuel Buchanan."
Various changes have been made since the above was written, and the quotation has been introduced chiefly that the reader may see what progress has been made in the city within the last quarter of a century. Flint Creek has been converted into a sewer and its waters are no longer available for extinguishing fires. A waterworks system has been installed and the department depends more upon the city water supply than on the river and cisterns. The old volunteer fire companies have been disbanded and the city now has a paid department consisting of a chief, an assistant chief, and ten men, all skilled in the art of fighting fires. The equipment is as good as that usually found in cities of 15,000 population. The old brick engine house at the corner of State and Cherry streets is the headquarters of the department, where the chief, assistant chief, two drivers, one engineer and four hosemen are stationed. Sta- tion No. 2, on East Market Street, is supplied with a driver and two hosemen.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
An echo of the past is found in one of the reports of the chief at the time of the fire at the bagging factory in 1886. When the first steam engine was bought by the city, no horses were purchased to draw it to fires. Instead, a contract was made with the owner of a team to report whenever an aların was turned in and take the engine to the scene of the fire. In the report mentioned the chief states that the owner of the team "appeared promptly and hitched his horses to the engine, but one of them balked and we could not persuade him to pull the engine up the hill."
The first systematic effort to provide the city with a system of water- works was made in the fall of 1886, when the city council employed J. D. Cook, an expert engincer of Toledo, Ohio, to make a map of the city, showing the lines of the water mains, and design a system of water- works. Mr. Cook finished his labors in the fall of 1887 and submitted the results to the council. His estimate of the cost was from one hundred twenty thousand to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. After a thorough consideration of the plans the council in 1888 advertised for bids, but they all ran higher than was anticipated and were therefore rejected. Some changes were then made in the plans and in 1889 bids were again advertised for, but again they were unsatisfactory and all were rejected on January 16, 1890.
On Friday, February 7, 1890, a number of local capitalists got together and organized a company for the purpose of building water- works. The same day a mecting was held with the waterworks com- mittee of the council and the local company submitted a proposition to build and turn over to the city, for the sum of $1, a complete system, the city to assume the indebtedness incurred by the company in the construction of the plant. The men who organized the company and submitted this liberal proposition to the city were: William McGrew, Julius Dick, John Roche, George J. Bippus, C. E. Briant, E. T. Taylor, Jacob Boos, Robert Simonton, George V. Griffith, Bals Eisenhauer, Edward T. Brown, and a few others.
On March 10, 1890, an ordinance accepting the offer was passed by the council and approved by the mayor. Some amendments were made to this ordinance in June following, but they did not change the material features of the contract. The company then selected a site for a pumping station on the north bank of the Wabash River, between the Mount Etna and Salamonie gravel roads and entered into a contract with the Bough- ton Engineering Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for the construction of the plant. Work was commenced in September, 1890, and five wells, vary- ing in depth, were driven about one hundred feet apart. A pumping sta- tion and engineer's house were started and in October the work of laying mains upon the streets of the city was begun.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
The contract called for eleven miles of mains, and, notwithstanding the latenesss of the season when the work was commenced, all but about five hundred feet were laid by April 1, 1891, when the first test was given. Through a slight error in construction a break occurred near Drover's pond, but it was repaired in a short time and since then the city of Huntington has been supplied with plenty of pure water. New wells have been added from time to time until now there are twenty-seven. At the pumping station there is a reservoir that holds 1,000,000 gallons, and on Oak Street a large standpipe has been erected that holds about four hundred thousand gallons, so that it is hardly possible that the city should ever experience a water famine.
For many years after the town was founded the streets were unpaved, with stumps standing here and there, and in muddy weather some of them were almost impassible. After the town was incorporated in 1848, a few of the principal streets were graded and graveled, but it was not until after the city government was inaugurated in 1873 that anything like permanent street improvements were considered. Even then several years elapsed before Huntington saw its first paved street. In 1893 the council ordered Washington and William streets paved with brick. The former was completed that year and William Street early in the year following. Then Market Street was paved with brick for almost its entire length, Franklin, Warren, Cherry, Poplar and Jefferson followed, until at the present time Huntington doubtless has more miles of paved street than most cities of its size. Other streets have been paved with a combination of crushed stone and tar, which makes a substantial roadway at less cost than brick or asphalt and has proven satisfactory on thorough- fares where there is not much heavy traffic. All the principal streets are provided with good cement or brick sidewalks.
Owing to the fact that the city is situated upon a site that is under- laid with a bad variety of limestone, the construction of sewers has been a rather expensive undertaking. But by taking advantage of natural formations a good sewer system, consisting of nearly twenty miles, has been gradually developed. The largest of these sewers is the Flint Creek sewer, which follows the old bed of Flint Creek from the northern limits of the city to the Little River. The once unsightly bed of this creek, filled with tin cans, old shoes and other rubbish, has been made a subter- ranean passage twelve feet in width and nearly ten feet high, through which telegraph and telephone wires are carried in cables. Into this main channel empty lateral sewers, draining all the northern part of the city. About eighty thousand dollars were expended in converting the old creek into a sanitary drain, but it has been money well spent. Another large sewer is the Rabbit Run sewer, which runs through the southern
141
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
part of the city. It is likewise the outlet for a number of smaller lateral sewers.
On Monday evening July 22, 1889, a meeting was held at the court- house for the purpose of discussing the advisability of organizing a board of trade. Leopold Levy was made chairman of the meeting and Thomas G. Smith was chosen secretary. After various propositions had been discussed, Benjamin F. Biliter, O. W. Whitelock, Thad Butler, David
LEOPOLD LEVY
Marx and W. C. Kocher were appointed a committee to prepare a plan of organization and call another meeting when they were ready to report.
A meeting was accordingly called on Friday evening, August 2, when Mr. Biliter read the report of the committee, which was adopted and twenty-two members were enrolled. The membership fee was fixed at $10 and a committee was appointed to solicit members. On Monday
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
evening, August 19th, a meeting was held, at which the com- mittee reported 100 members secured and $500 collected. Then followed the permanent organization and election of officers. Leopold Levy was chosen president; N. B. Schaefer, John J. Young and Mathias Luber, vice-presidents; C. E. Briant, O. R. France, George J. Bippus, W. C. Kocher, J. B. Kenner, Robert Simonton, Samuel F. Day, E. T. Taylor and David Marx, directors. This board was active for several years in its efforts to promote the business interests of the city, after which it became somewhat apathetic and finally passed into history.
Leopold Levy, the first president of the Huntington Board of Trade, was for many years closely identified with the business interests of that city. He was an unswerving Republican in his political views and in the summer of 1898 was nominated by the state convention of that party for the office of state treasurer. He was elected in November, and entered upon the duties of the office on February 10, 1899. In 1900 he was again elected for a term of two years, which expired on February 10, 1903. Mr. Levy was a successful business man, a public spirited citizen and made a competent state official. While a resident of Huntington, he was always ready to aid any and every movement for the promotion of the general welfare. He died on April 8, 1905, aged sixty-six years.
The present Commercial Association, commonly called the Commer- cial Club, which is in a measure a successor of the old board of trade, was organized in 1911, when twenty-three men met in the offices of the Huntington Business University and appointed committees to under- take the work of forming a permanent organization. A banquet was given a little later, which was attended by nearly three hundred of the city's representative business men, over two hundred of whom signed membership cards in the new association. After the banquet, constitution and by-laws were adopted and a board of directors was elected. J. F. Bippus was elected the first president; J. W. Caswell and H. E. Rose- brough, vice-presidents; Ira B. Potts, secretary, and Frank Felter, treasurer. Mr. Potts was unable to accept the office of secretary and C. B. Williams was elected to the vacancy.
This association does not in any way interfere with the work of the Factory Fund Association mentioned in another chapter, but devotes its energies to providing for conventions, the Chautauqua, etc., and in advertising in a general way the advantages of Huntington as a busi- ness center and residence city. The rooms of the club are in the Lesh Block, on West Market Street, where visitors to the city are always wel- come. The officers of the association in 1914 were as follows: J. W. Caswell, president; Ira B. Potts and Z. T. Dungan, vice presidents ;
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
C. B. Williams, secretary, and Frank Felter, treasurer. The standing committees, on each of which is one of the board of directors, are: Municipal affairs and public improvements, Z. T. Dungan; industrial conditions, J. F. Bippus ; public amusements and entertainments, L. E. Marx; civic improvements, Frank Felter; country relations, Oliver Kline; transportation and deep waterways, B. J. Bartlett; finance, M. B. Stults; public health, Dr. C. H. Good; membership, Ira B. Potts ; press and publicity, Jacob Dick; education and social welfare, E. W. Cole.
An old newspaper account states that the first postoffice in Hunting- ton was kept in a log house on West State Street, but fails to give the date when the office was established or the name of the first postmaster. The account says, however, that a wooden shoe box was used as a recep- tacle for mail. With the growth of the city the postoffice facilities have kept pace. Free delivery was introduced some years ago and new car- riers have been added as occasion demanded, until all parts of the city are supplied. The present postmaster is Francis I. Stults; R. R. Glenn is assistant postmaster; nine clerks are employed in the office; there are eight regular and two substitute carriers in the city, and nine regu- lar and five substitutes upon the rural routes that provide daily mail to a large territory. The office handles about twenty-five tons of second class matter every week, in addition to the large volume of first-class mail and the constantly increasing business of the parcels post. Annu- ally, the receipts of the office amount to about fifty-three thousand dollars. The greatest need of the office is room adapted to the handling of the large volume of mail that has to be received and transmitted at present under considerable disadvantage. Congress has already appropriated $95,000 for the establishment of a permanent postoffice building at Hunting- ton, and the lot at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Warren streets has been purchased as a site. Every one of the twenty-eight people employed in the office, as well as the people of Huntington generally, are hoping that the Government will soon start the work of building.
The office of city marshal has been abolished and in its place a police department has been established. In the spring of 1914 this force con- sisted of a chief, assistant chief, a night desk sergeant and three patrol- men. No better evidence of the law-abiding sentiment that prevails among the people of Huntington is needed than the mere fact that a force of seven men is able to maintain order in a city of more than thirteen thousand population.
During the first administration of Mayor D. C. Anderson the council passed an ordinance authorizing the erection of a city hall. The lot at the southwest corner of Market and Cherry streets, immediately north
1
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
of the city engine house, was selected as the location, bonds were issued and the contract was let on July 14, 1903. The cost of the building was $30,000 and it was dedicated on December 29, 1904, soon after Mayor Frances has been inducted into office. On the first floor are the headquarters of the police department, cells for prisoners, etc. The second floor is given to the offices of the city clerk, city engineer, mayor and waterworks department, and on the third floor is a large assembly hall. The building is of Bedford limestone, with iron stairways, hard- wood finish and a red tile roof, and affords comfortable accommoda- tions for all departments of the municipal government.
CITY BUILDING, HUNTINGTON
Since the incorporation of Huntington as a town in 1848, the increase in population, as shown by the United States official census reports, has been as follows :
1850
594
1860.
1,664
1870
2,925
1880
5,206
1890
7,328
1900
9,491
1910.
10,272
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
Under the provisions of what is known as the "Proctor Act," a law recently passed by the Indiana Legislature, incorporated towns and cities were required to make an estimate of the population at the close of the year 1913, for the purpose of regulating the number of retail liquor licenses. The Huntington estimate in accordance with the pro- visions of this act shows the population of the city on December 31, 1913, as being 13,960.
According to the city clerk's report for the year ending on December 31, 1913, bonded indebtedness of the city was as follows :
Waterworks bonds $12,500.00
City hall bonds 12,000.00
Street and sewer bonds
2,456.05
Total
$26,956.05
The item of street and sewer bonds represents only the city's share in the construction of new streets and sewers, as these improvements are paid for in the main by assessments against the property benefited, and improvement bonds issued constitute a lien upon such property and form no part of the municipal debt.
The receipts for the year were as follows:
Cash on hand at close of the year 1912 $ 42,312.94
Received from current taxes 69,403.35
Sewer assessments
13,411.48
Assessments for street improvements 21,651.75
Liquor licenses
6,800.00
For municipal waterworks 21,772.87
From all other sources
8,596.26
Total receipts $183,948.65
The total expenditures for the year amounted to $156,972.15, leav- ing a balance in the treasury at the close of the year of $26,976.50. The principal items of expense, or disbursement, during the year are shown in the following table :
Waterworks orders redeemed $ 40,199.65
Bonds redeemed and interest on debt. 19,318.06
Salaries of city officials 5,168.00
Salarics of councilmen 1,400.00
Street department 11,707.23
Street lighting 8,437.90
Police department 4,756.65
Fire department 9,118.35
Vol. I-10
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
City hall
$ 1,592.10
Sewers 2,308.73
New pavements 4,071.35
Board of health 570.98
All other disbursements
48,323.15
Total
$156,972.15
In the table, the item of street lighting includes the total cost of maintaining the municipal electric lighting plant, established by the city some years ago, but which supplies current only for the street lights. Private consumers are furnished with both gas and electric light by the Huntington Electric Light, Gas, Fuel and Power Company, which was incorporated in the fall of 1890. On April 1, 1914, the Indiana Public Service Commission granted the petition of the City of Hunting- ton to issue bonds to the amount of $30,000, bearing interest not exceed- ing six per cent per annum, to remodel and reconstruct the municipal lighting plant, and to enter the field of commercial lighting. The ques- tion of establishing a general municipal lighting plant was submitted to the voters at the city election in 1913 and carried by a substantial ma- jority, but at the end of June, 1914, nothing definite had been done in the way of issuing the bonds or reconstructing the plant.
Huntington's financial affairs have always been well managed. Every bond issued has been paid when due, and at no time in the city's history has she failed to pay the interest upon the public debt at the time stipulated in the agreement. In 1913 the value of taxable property in the city was $5,309,480, hence the bonded debt of $26,956 is only a little over one-half of one per cent of the value of the property in the city. And if the fact that property is generally assessed for tax pur- poses at a figure far below its actual value be taken into consideration, even a better financial showing could be made.
The six public school buildings in the city are valued at approxi- mately one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and a new high school building is under contemplation ; all the leading religious denom- inations are represented by comfortable and commodious church edifices ; the various manufacturing establishments distribute thousands of dol- lars through their pay-rolls every month ; three steam railroads and one electric line furnish excellent transportation and shipping facilities; the mercantile establishments compare favorably with those in cities of similar size; the city had two daily newspapers and several weekly and monthly publications; the professions are ably represented ; the patron- age given to the excellent public library indicates a cultured population,
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
and all these things, together with the efficient fire department, a plenti- ful supply of pure water for domestic use, twenty miles of paved and well kept streets, a fine city hall, lodges of quite a number of the fra- ternal societies, and the presence of an industrious, order loving popu- lation, all combine to make Huntington one of the gem cities of the Wabash Valley.
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