USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana > Part 30
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upon his children opportunities for education, and implanted in them by precept and example the principles which guided him through life. In politics he was a Whig and later became an ardent
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Jacob. I Walker.
Republican, but never sought or accepted office at the hands of his party. In religion he was a stanch Pres- byterian and an officer of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's church when a pastor in Indianapolis. He received the contract for the erection of this edifice, as also for the First Protestant Episcopal Church in the city. He was at an carly period a deacon of the Second Presbyterian Church. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. Mr. Walker was married in 1837 to Mrs. Sarah A. Landis, of Harrisburg, Pa., to whom were born children, Thomas R. and Mary F., wife of George Knodle, a son of Adam Knodlc, an early shoe merchant in the city. He married again Mary A., only child of Thomas Lupton, who is of English descent and came from Chester County, Pa., to Indianapolis in 1835. The children of this marriage are Jacob L., married to Miss Keziah Rutherford, who is of
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CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.
Scotch-Irish extraction ; Edwin J .; Louis A., who married Miss Eugenia, daughter of Dr. D'Acucl, of St. Louis ; Robert P., and Harry L. The death of Mr. Walker occurred May 16, 1870, in his fifty- seventh year.
Dealing in real estate may be fairly enough classed among the subjects covered by the title of commerce, and in real estate the dealings have been very large. In 1873, during the period of speculative excitement, the sales amounted to $32,579,256. Since that time no record has been kept of them that will enable a comparison to be made. In a year or two later, in fact, the reaction came, and real estate was hard to sell and not always easy to give away if it had no special ad- vantages. Of the amount of sales in the past year or the year before no official statement is mnade, but the reports in the daily papers show that they ranged from five thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars a day, or an annual total of probably five million dol- lars. Among the first of our real estate dealers was the late James H. McKernan.
JAMES H. MOKERNAN was born at Wilmington, Del., in December, 1815. In his seventh year he removed with his family to Muskingum County, Ohio, where his father settled on a small farm of fifty acres, subsequently increased to seventy five. He was able only to enjoy the merest rudiments of edu- cation. At the age of seventeen he was left by the death of his father the sole support of the family, with no means other than the farm. But he was a brave-hearted boy in the battle of life. He worked hard, and rented land to eke out the inadequate yield of his own land. Among his neighbors his reputa- tion for business capacity, promptness, integrity, and prudence was most enviable. On attaining his ma- jority he had paid all his father's debts, erected a valuable dwelling, and accumulated money in addi- tion with which to start in business .. Heroism and self-dependence, combined with grasp of mind and energy, were inborn elements of his character. In 1836 he began trading in produce, and in 1837 em- barked with a partner in mercantile pursuits at La- fayette, Ohio. In 1842 he established himself in the foundry business in the same town, and in 1845 removed to Indianapolis, where he began his active
career with Jesse Jones as a dealer in dry-goods. But his tastes and talents inclined strongly to inven- tions and the mechanic arts. Whatever his imme- diáte occupation mechanical constructions, improve- ments, and suggestions were always floating in his mind, several valuable inventions having been pat- ented. A man of his energy quickly sought and created the widest field of action. He speculated in real estate, bought whole forests, built saw-mills to cut them, and erected streets of cheap but serviceable houses, extending Indianapolis on the southwest far beyond the dreams of its inhabitants. In the prose- cution of his real estate and other enterprises, how- ever, Mr. McKernan did not lose sight of a subject which had led him into many expensive experiments, -- the reduction of iron ore by means of ordinary Western coal. He had satisfied himself of its prac- ticability, and detected the defects in the operation of those who had attempted it and failed. So certain was the result in his mind that he determined to settle the question finally and fully. In the spring of 1867 he obtained the abandoned furnace of the Pilot Knob Company, at St. Louis, and after changing its construction made experiments which were completely successful, first-class iron having been produced. This was a great success for Mr. McKernan. He had fully realized his hopes, though every one before him, with vastly more capital-and better opportunities, but lacking his original theories and combinations, had failed. He had shown St. Louis a new source of business and prosperity of immense value. He found it necessary, however, to obtain additional means or abandon his enterprise. The St. Louis Board of Trade and several large capitalists urged him to remain and prosecute his work. Additional means were promised him, and under the promise of the Board of Trade and prominent citizens the work of the furnace was in 1867 resumed, and the results, after inconveniences resulting from his business associa- tions, were such as amazed everybody, and made iron- smelting with cheap Western coal a fixed fact. This success, however, did not in a pecuniary sense profit Mr. McKernan. He sacrificed all his prospective gains, and returned home no richer than he departed. St. Louis has reaped the benefit of his investigations,
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
and the iron industry has risen to be one of the prime elements of her prosperity. A leading journal stated that, " in view of all the facts, it becomes St. Louis to decide fairly what acknowledgment she owes to him who has achieved the great result in making iron, and whom she by failing in her promise forced to sacrifice all his interests and prospects in his own discovery." Mr. MeKernan returned to Indianapolis, and at once embarked extensively in real estate oper- ations. While liberal and indulgent with those in- debted to him, he was particularly prompt in the payment of all demands against himself. His daily life was marked by a ceaseless activity. Bold and confident in his temperament, he inspired others with like feelings. The praise of far-seeing men of sound judgment was ever awarded to him, and the success that erowned his efforts was of a character to consti- tute a publie as well as a personal benefit. In all personal relations he was social, frank, and courteous, and at his home hospitable and cheerful. In his religious views he was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. MeKernan was married to Miss Susan Hewitt, whose children were David S., Lewis, Joseph V., William E., and Leo A. The death of James H. MeKernan occurred in January, 1877, at his home in Indianapolis.
The lumber trade of Indianapolis is a very im- portant part of the total, the retail trade of 1882 amounting to $1,500,000. From the general state- ment of business it would appear that the total receipts of lumber for the year 1882 were 124,000,- 000 feet, and the shipments 66,000,000. Saw-mills cut 22,000,000 feet of veneer that year.
A specialty of the lumber trade is the trade in " hard wood" lumber, especially black walnut. Until the close of the war not much was done in this direc- tion, or in any general lumber business. For the first thirty five years of the city's history pine lum- ber was little used. Oak made the frame-work of houses, and poplar the weather-boarding, shingles, and finishing. But slowly, after the development of the railroad system, pine began to be used in the place of poplar, and later in the place of oak. Lum- ber-yards began to figure among the forms of trade that required capital and made money for the city.
By the close of the war the lumber business had grown into first-class importance. There were a dozen or more large yards in different parts of the city, some of them with mills to cut logs, some to cut veneers, and some with planing-mills, and sash- aod door-factories connected with them. The walnut lumber trade came later. In early times the black walnut was about the worst tree the farmer had to deal with. It was too brittle for good lumber, and too hard to be cheaply sawed. It was not good fuel, and did not make durable rails. In fact it was a nuisance. Now it is no uncommon thing to find a single walnut-tree that is worth more money than the whole farm it stands on. More than a thousand dol- lars worth of veneers have been cut from a single tree and left a considerable part of it. Even as late as 1868 there were hundreds of farmers and business men in Indiana and Indianapolis who were unin- formed of the value of walnut wood and threw it away as refuse or burned it as rubbish.
A saw-miller in Indianapolis about that time had collected quite a heap of walnut knots from the logs he had sawed, and had thrown them aside to burn in his boiler furnace when he could get time to split them. An agent of an Eastern lumber dealer saw them and the ill-posted sawyer sold them for fifty cents apiece. He was a little worried a day or two afterwards when he learned that they would have been cheap at ten dollars apiece if they were sound and well twisted in grain. The great demand for this kind of lumber for furniture, both in this coun- try and Europe, has thinned it out very greatly, and the trade in it is declining. It is impossible to give any idea of the development or decline of the walnut lumber trade, because no separate account or report has been made of it. In 1874 the Board of Trade report says the total receipts of lumber were 119,- 800,000 feet, of which about 60,000,000 was walnut lumber. The indications are that the total has never been so large since. The trade is still large, how- ever, and a large part of it is in logs brought here to be sawed up. There are ten mills here sawing walnut and hard woods, and eighteen dealers who handled in the year last reported in full, 1882, to December 31st, 38,000,000 feet. This shows a de-
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CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.
cline from 1873 of more than one-third. The pine lumber business, however, has kept on a steady ad- vance with other commercial interests, and occupies a score or more yards large and small, besides those attached to factories as stores of material. Oak ap- pears to hold its own as firmly as it did in the last generation. The demand for it as building timber has declined greatly, but it has been made up fully by the demand for it to make cross-ties for railway tracks. Hickory, birch, and sugar have never been accounted or used as timber, and elm but little more. They went for fuel when it was deemed worth while, and now good, well-seasoned wood of these varieties is a valuable product. Coal is slowly displacing wood, but has not done it yet. The amount of coal brought to the city appears from the partial report of the secretary of the Board of Trade to have been about 400,000 tons for the year ending Dec. 31, 1882, the last of which any report has been made.
Among the articles reported for the last six months of 1882-the last official statement published-are 20,000 bales of cotton, or 40,000 for the year; 40 car-loads of eggs, estimating in the same way ; 800,- 000 barrels of flour ; 801 tons of hides-the total value of all hides and pelts for the year is put at $1,500,000; 64,000 cars of general merchandise ; 46 cars of poultry-annual value of poultry, $1,000,- 000; 40,000 tons of ice ; 40,000 tons of provisions ; 36,000 barrels of salt; 640 cars of shingles ; 50,000 barrels of starch ; 2600 cars of stone; 26,000 bar- rels of tallow ; 43,000 hogsheads of tobacco; 300,- 000 rabbits shipped East and sold here in 1883 and winter of 1884.
In grain the trade has been steadily growing for a number of years. The receipts of wheat for the year ending April, 1883, were about 8,000,000 bushels; of corn, 17,000,000, as appears from the report of Secre- tary Blake. In 1872 a company was formed to build and conduct an elevator, and that year erected the first one west of the river on the St. Louis Railroad. It has a capacity of about 350,000 bushels. In 1874, Mr. F. Rusch, in association with two or three others, built Elevator B, the second one, with a capacity of 300,000 bushels. It was entirely destroyed by fire in June, 1875, but rebuilt at once in better shape,
and has been constantly busy since. Some three years ago, about the time of the completion of the Indianapolis, Decatur and Springfield Railroad, a third elevator was built by the company close to the
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Corner of Maryland and Tennessee Streets.
track, in the manufacturing suburb of Hanghsville, with a capacity fully equal to either of the older ones. Besides these there are several smaller in the city
Since 1877 the stock-yards have formed a con- spicuous element of the city's commerce. They were built by the Belt Road Company on one hun- dred and ten acres of the old " Bayou," or " McCarty farm," on the Vincennes Railroad, at the southern border of West Indianapolis, about two miles from the Union Depot. In convenience of arrangement, amplitude of supply, and completeness of shelter and means of shipment, they are pronounced by those familiar with all the stock-yards of the country un- surpassed by any, and unequaled by any but one or two. On the northeast corner of the grounds are the engine-house and machine-shop, the blacksmith-shop, the coal platform, and the pumping engine which forces water from a well about ninety fect deep into
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
two large elevated tanks or reservoirs, whence it is distributed all over the premises. At the north end, to the west of these buildings, is the residence of the superintendent ; south of this, about four hundred feet, is the " Stock-Yard Exchange," a large, hand- some, three-story brick building, with a front of about one hundred and twenty feet, and a rcar building, making a total depth of over one hundred and fifty fect. It is occupied as a hotel in the rear building and the upper stories of the front, and as offices of stock-dealers on the ground-floor. On the east of this is a large storage-house for hay and corn and stock- feed generally. On the west is a large stable for the finer grades of horses. Directly south of the Ex- change, and separated mostly by a broad passage-way of forty feet or so, are the stock stables, built of red cedar posts set deep in the ground, and planked up the sides and ends high enough to make a perfect shelter for the stock. On the roof of each is an attic, with lattice sides, the full length of the stable. There are five of these, separated from each other by a narrow passage for stock, fifteen fect or so in width. They are about a thousand feet long by one hundred and seventy- five wide, with broad passage-ways down the middle and smaller lateral ones between the divisions. Stock is received on the west side, where there are railway tracks connecting with the Belt extending along the entire length of the stables. From the receiving platform, which is covered with pens, a passage leads to the scale-room, where the animals are weighed and driven off to their quarters. The western stables are chiefly appropriated to hogs. When shipped away the stock is driven to the east side, where a platform the length of the stables, amply provided with shipping-pens, enables a train to be loaded in a very few minutes.
LARGEST RECEIPTS IN ONE DAY, 1882.
December 9.
8809 (Ilogs, 8809).
October 28
2026 (Cattle, 238).
October 28
4184 (Sheep, 1534).
May 10
316 (Horses, 26).
LARGEST SHIPMENTS IN ONE DAY, 1882.
January 4.
4125 (Ilogs, 4115).
October 28
1325 (Cattle, 794).
May 20.
4194 (Sheep, 1856).
July 4.
281 (Horses, 149).
Their business in 1882, the last year of which any statement has been made, is summed up as fol- lows : Hogs, 5,319,611 ; cattle, 640,363 ; shccp, 849,- ·936; horses, 50,795 ; shipments, logs, 2,298,895; cattle, 535,195 ; sheep, 780,395 ; horses, 48,361 ; Indianapolis delivery, hogs, 3,020,913; cattle, 106,- 178 ; sheep, 70,543 ; horses, 2533.
Until the completion of the Madison Railroad no business was done off Washington Street, except that a year or two a little family grocery was kept in a one-story brick on Indiana Avenue, at the corner of Tennessee Street. In 1847, however, commission- houses and pork-packing houses began to be estab- lished about the Madison Depot. Foundries and shops started up in convenient openings, and during . the war groceries, drug-stores, hotels, saloons, and eating-houses were put wherever they could go. Thus came business diverted from Washington Street. With this change, or a little preceding it, came the separation of different classes of merchan- dise into different establishments.
Below is given the annual live-stock report of the Indianapolis Stock-yards, prepared by W. P. Ijams, general superintendent. It will be noticed that as compared with the year 1882 there was a handsome increase in business, while it fell short of the business done in the years 1878, 1879, 1880, and 1881. The table given below is self-explanatory :
RECEIPTS.
llogs.
Cattle.
Sheep.
1Iorses.
Total for the year 1883.
931,121
121.448
254,653
18,800
Total for the year 1882.
653,597
114,746
288,698 15.987
Total for the year 1881.
1,129,894 144,144
225,622
9,505
Total for the year 1880.
1,321,376 132,655
142.726
9,288
Total for the year 1879.
1.123,409, 125,723
111,927
9,358
Total for the year 1878 ..
986,639 118,945
76,107
5,912
One month and 20 days, 1877.
104,696
4,150
4,857
685
Total Nov. 12, 1877, to Dec. 31, 1883. 6,250,732 761,811 1,097,696
67,545
SIIIPMENTS.
Hogs.
Cattle.
Sheep.
Horses.
Total for the year 1883 ..
443,900 102,342
237,612 17,725
Total for the year 1882.
324.786
91.042
268,695 15,097
Total for the year 1881.
637,520 120,611
203,246
8.900
Total for the year 1880.
599,514 110,659
132,904
8,901
Total for the year 1879.
464,953 104,845.
100,879
9,031
Total for the year 1878 ....
264,095: 105,117
69,897
5,770
One month and 20 days, 1877
8,027
3,021
4,772
662
Total Nov. 12, 1877, to Dec. 31, 1883. 2,742,795, 637,537 1,018,005 66,086
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CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.
INDIANAPOLIS DELIVERY.
lIogs.
Cattle.
Sheep. Horses.
Total for the year 1883.
487.221
19,106
14,041
1,075
Total for the year 1882.
329,008
24,714
21,003
966
Total for the year 1881.
492,374
23,533
22,376
665
Total for the year 1880 ..
721,862
22,096
9,821
387
Total for the year 1879 ...
658,456
20,878
11.048|
327
Total for the year 1x78.
722,423
14,328
6,210
165
One month and 20 days, 1877
96,790
629
85
23
Total Nov. 12, 1877, to Dec. 31, 1883. 3,508,134 125,284
84,584
3,608
LARGEST RECEIPTS IN ONE DAY, 1883.
December 4
12,775 (Hogs, 12,775).
February 17
1,705 (Cattle, 567).
September 8
3,065 (Sheep, 814).
April 29.
238 (Horses, 66).
LARGEST SHIPMENTS IN ONE DAY, 1883.
December 19
4,655 (Hogs, 3,352).
August 4.
1,902 (Cattle, 1,902).
September 8
3,460 (Sheep, 2,446).
July 1
221 (Horses, 87).
CHAPTER VIII.
CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS .- (Continued.)
THE DENCH AND DAR.
IN the general history is related the organization of the county and the early sessions of the first court. No more need be said here than that Judge William W. Wick was elected the first judge by the Legisla- ture at Corydon in the winter of 1821-22, and Hervey Bates appointed sheriff by Governor Jen- nings early in 1822. Both were residents of Con- nersville, and came here together in the early spring of 1822. The circuit consisted of Marion County, enlarged for judicial purposes by a considerable por- tion of the territory now composing Johnson, Hamil- ton, Boone, Madison, and Hancock Counties, with the following earlier-organized counties : Monroe, Morgan, Lawrence, Hendricks, Green, Owen, Rush, Decatur, Bartholomew, Jennings, and Shelby. The first session of the court was held at the house of Gen. Carr, the State agent, on Delaware Street opposite the court-house, Sept. 26, 1822. Judge Wick presided, with Eliakim Harding and James Mellvain as associates. James M. Ray was clerk by election the previous April, and Hervey Bates
sheriff by regular election in August succeeding his appointment. Calvin Fletcher was the first prose- cutor by appointment. Up to 1824, when the court-house was so far completed as to be available for the sessions, the first meeting was held at Carr's house, as the law had designated that place, and then an adjournment was made to Crumbaugh's on Washington Street,-or the place in the woods where the street was to run,-just west of the future line of the canal. We have no record of the lawyers in attendance at that first session of the first court of the county, and there is no certainty that there were any belonging to the town except Mr. Fletcher, the prosecutor, and Harvey Gregg, one of the founders of the Western Censor, the predecessor of the Journal. Mr. Fletcher long held a prominent place at the bar, and only left it to take the presidency of the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank.
HON. CALVIN FLETCHER .- Robert Fletcher, the progenitor in America of the Fletcher family, was probably born in Yorkshire, in 1592. He settled at Concord, Mass., in 1630, with a family consisting of a wife, two sons,-Luke and William,-and one daughter. In the direct line of descent from this pioneer was born, on the 4th of February, 1798, Calvin, the subject of this sketch, the eleventh in a family of fifteen children. Under the teachings of an excellent father and a mother of more than ordi- nary ability he learned those habits of industry and self-reliance which, coupled with upright principles, uniformly characterized his later life. While per- forming all the duties exacted from a boy upon a New England farm, he very soon manifested a great desire for a classical education. Depending upon his own carnings for the means by which to achieve his desire, he set about the preparation for college by pursuing his studies at Randolph and Royalton Academics, Vermont. After some vicissitudes he for a time abandoned study and began labor in a brick-yard in Pennsylvania. Circumstances soon after influenced his removal to Ohio, where he first taught school at Urbana, Champaign Co., and was sub- sequently private tutor in the family of a Mr. Gwin, whose fine library afforded him abundant opportunity for reading. He finally studied law with Hon. James
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
Cooley, afterwards United States Chargé d' Affaires te Peru. In 1819 be removed to Virginia, and was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court of that State, but his strong love of freedom and the rights of man caused him to renounce his intention, and returning to Urbana, Ohio, he became the law-part- ner of Mr. Cooley. In 1821, Mr. Fletcher settled in Indianapolis, the capital of the State, with his family, and was the first lawyer in that city. His business seen became lucrative. He later became prosecuting atterney, and associated with him as partners Ovid Butler, Esq., and Simon Yandes, Esq. On making the capital his home Mr. Fletcher actively interested himself in its prosperity, and readily won the confidence and esteem of its citizens. In 1827 he was elected State senator, in which office he was continued until 1832, when he abandoned politics, though a successful career was open to him had he chosen te fellow it. He was in 1825 appointed State's attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, em- bracing from twelve to fifteen counties. In 1834 he was appointed one of four to organize a State bank, and te act as sinking fund commissioner, which office was held for seven years. Frem 1843 until 1859, when the charter expired, he acted as president of the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank. Mr. Fletcher was a strong man physically, merally, and intellectually. He was equal to the emergency when justice to himself required an exhibition of strength, and in the same spirit he stood ready to befriend these who might have been otherwise injured. He was a lever of nature. He took mnch interest in the study of ornithology, and made himself familiar with the habits of birds, their instincts and charac- teristics. The domestic animals found in him a sym- pathizing friend. He was kind te them, and ever ready to acquire a knowledge of their dispositions and qualities, that he might turn it to their advan- tage. He was fond of the science of astronomy, and, in fact, of all studies that were elevating and ennobling. In his well-selected library of general literature, in addition to law-books, might be seen local histeries, periodicals, the works of Audubon, scheel journals, and miscellaneous works. In one leading trait his course was marked and earnest,-no
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