History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 83

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

a director in a bridge-building company, and one of the first stockholders in the Cincinnati Railroad. He was also connected with the Evansville and Indi- ana Railroad, which was never completed, and inter- ested in the North and South Railroad, in the In- · dianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Railroad, and in the Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. He was also an extensive dealer in real estate, laying out Allen & Root's Addition, and Allen, Root & English's Wood- lawn Addition, together with several smaller ones. He also found time to engage in building, and has erected no less than one hundred buildings within the city limits. Mr. Root is at present connected, as president, with the Indianapolis Stove Company, which was organized in 1850 and incorporated in 1857. This foundry is one of the most complete in the West. It has two moulding-rooms, and is sup- plied with all the latest improved machinery and other appliances to facilitate the business and econo- mize labor. The great amount of work done and the general prosperity of the business give evidence of the solidity, tact, and indomitable energy which characterize its management., Mr. Root is a member of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, of, which he has for many years been a vestryman. He was married, Aug. 15, 1861, to Miss Kate H. Howard, daughter of the late Maj. Robert Howard, of the British army, whose military carcer was an eventful and honorable one. Their children are Robert Howard, born Sept. 12, 1862 ; Edward Deloss, whose birth occurred Jan. 7, 1866; Devol- son, born Aug. 5, 1867 ; Allen, born. Aug. 15, 1871 ; and Harry B., born March 31, 1873. The last named is the only survivor of this number.

In 1858 the Redstone Brothers began the foundry and machine business on Delaware Street, between Louisiana and South, and soon after Spotts & Thomp- son began a foundry beside them, but both were burned in 1860 and abandoned. Cox, Lord & Peck established a stove-foundry at the crossing of Dela- ware Street and the creek in 1861, and kept it in operation for a few years, when they gave it up, and soon afterwards A. D. Wood & Co. took it and carried it on a few years. The Indiana Foundry Company at Brightwood, organized about three years

ago, also makes stoves. The Cash Stove Company, of South Pennsylvania Street, are the only other stove manufacturers in the city. The Ruschaupt foundry and machine-shop, on South Meridian Street, was absorbed into the Eagle Machine-Works.

In 1859, Chandler & Wiggins established the Phoenix Foundry and Machine-shop in a small way, at the crossing of Washington Street and the mill-race, on the east side. It was burned in a few years, and rebuilt and enlarged by Chandler & Taylor, who have since gone on with a steadily increasing business, and now have one of the most extensive establishments in the city. The Novelty Works were begun in 1862 by Frink & Moore, and changed to the Novelty Works Company in 1868, with Dr. Frink as presi- dent, and H. A. Moore, superintendent, and manu- factured a number of small articles, as hinges, latches, gas- and water-boxes, bed-irons, and the like. Some years ago the company built a large shop at Haughs- ville, but never did much there, and never recovered from the change.

Iu 1866, Mr. B. F. Hetherington began foundry- and machine-work in a modest way on South Dela- ware Street, and continued there till eight or ten years ago. Then he and Mr. Berner moved to a frame shop on the south side of South Street, at the alley along the east bank of Pogue's Creek. Hard and honest work gradually enlarged the business, and additions were made down the creek at the end of the old shop and westward into the creek. A serious loss by fire occurred shortly after this exten- sion, but was at once repaired, and work went on more energetically than ever. Again came a destructive fire, but the damage was immediately repaired. Then an extension was made clear across the creek about two years ago, and a large brick addition made on the west bank, so that now this really large establish- ment covers the whole width of the creek to the alleys on each side, and extends almost 200 feet down.

BENJAMIN HETHERINGTON .- John Hethering- ton was the son of a member of the English Parlia- ment, and resided in Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Eng- land, where he was engaged as a warper in a cotton- factory. He married, in Carlisle, Miss Ann Wilson,

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MANUFACTURING INTERESTS OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.

born in London, and had twelve children, the youngest of whom was Benjamin F., the subject of this biography, whose birth occurred Oct. 30, 1828, in Carlisle. His early boyhood was spent at school. At the age of twelve his father died, and a year later the mother, with her family, emigrated to America, his brother Christopher having already preceded them to the United States. Soon after their arrival they proceeded to Webster, Mass., where Benjamin obtained employment in a cotton-factory, but pre- ferring to encourage his mechanical genius, he at the age of nineteen became apprentice to the trade of a machinist, and continued thus engaged for two years. He then became a resident of Cincinnati, and an employé of the firm of Reynolds, Kite & Tatum.

At the expiration of two years-a strike having occurred in which he did not wish to participate- he removed (in 1852) to Indianapolis. Herc he was first employed in the foundry of R. R. Underhill, and later became foreman in the shop of A. G. Searl, with whom he afterwards formed a copartnership. The panic of 1857 having caused a general stag- nation of business, affected values, and reduced the wages for skilled labor, Mr. Hetherington engaged for one year in the foundry of Mr. Delos Root at a nominal sum, and was later employed by the Wash- ington foundry, owned by Hassellman & Vinton. The ten consecutive years following were spent in the employ of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louis- ville Railroad, after which he erected a small macliine- shop and began a career of independence. His ven- ture was successful ; business increased and encouraged him to purchase a lot and creet a foundry in com- pany with Frederick Berner and Joseph Kindel. This business association was continued for six years, when he disposed of his interest, and entering the firm of Sinker, Davis & Co., remained in this con- nection for three years. He then, with his former partner, Mr. Berner, built another foundry, and still continues his business interest with him. The de- mand for the work from their shops has greatly increased and rendered an increase in the dimensions and capacity of the foundry necessary. The princi- pals in the business have also associated with them their sons in special departments of the business.

Mr. Hetherington, in view of his success, may refer with pardonable pride to his industry, ambition, and integrity as the powerful levers that have brought him to a position of independence. In politics he is a Republican and actively interested in the politics of the ward in which he resides. He has been for years inspector of elcetion for this ward. He is a member of the Indianapolis Board of Trade and of Marion Lodge, No. 601, Knights of Honor. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and still inclines to that belief.

Mr. Hetherington was married in Webster, Mass., on the 21st of April, 1821, to Miss Jane Stephen, daughter of William Stephen, a printer, of Penrith, England, and his wife Diana. Their children were William, Frank, Mary W., Charles A., Benjamin, and Frederick A., all of whom, with the exception of Frederick A., are deceased.

Mothershead & Co., in 1864, established a hollow - warc and stove-foundry, and after conducting it some years with fair success, changed it to the Indianapolis Foundry Company, and now do a very large business in light malleable castings, making most of those for the great Beatty organ-factory, as well as for several other special demands. The Greenleaf foundry was begun in 1865, on South Tennessee Street, near the rolling-mill, increased largely, and in 1870 became the Greenleaf Machine-Works, making engines, shafting, railroad turn-tables, and other heavy work. Some ten or twelve years ago it suspended, and the building, after a short occupancy by another machine- factory, passed into the hands of Henry Hermann, of New York, who now carries on a large furniture-fac- tory there. The Dean Brothers built their first house on Madison Avenue, at the crossing of Ray Street, in 1870, and began business the first of the year 1871, doing a sort of general foundry and machine work, but within the last half-dozen years they have made a specialty of pumps, and particularly of one of their own invention. Two or three years ago the estab- lishment was enlarged by a handsome building on the avenue. The Vietor Machine-Works have been es - tablished within the last four or five years by Ewald Over.

THE ATLAS WORKS .- This is the largest estab-

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

lishment of the kind in the city or the State. The buildings it occupies in the extreme northeast corner of the city were originally intended for the manu- facture of cars, and were for a time used for that purpose, but proving unremunerative, the business was abandoned and the buildings left unoccupied till the organization of the Atlas Machine Company, the president and chief stockholder of which is Stoughton A. Fletcher, nephew and long associated in the bank with the late Stoughton A. Fletcher. It has been in operation about ten years, for a time having an office and wareroom on South Pennsylvania Street, oppo- site the gas-works, but for the last five or six years keeping all its business at the main establishment. The Corliss engine is a specialty of this company, though it makes anything in its line, and the excel- lence of the work and the thorough satisfaction it gives have created a demand for it all over the West, and also in foreign countries .. It is the most complete " express and admirable" piece of machinery that is now made of iron, and the Atlas gets little time to make anything else. The company employs about 500 hands, and turns out about $1,000,000 of work annually. The works have a railway connection.

STOUGHTON A. FLETCHER, JR., the fifth son of the late Calvin Fletcher, was born on the 25th day of October, 1831. His father was well known as an early pioneer in Indianapolis ; as the first lawyer who came to this city ; as a man who took a deep interest in the material, intellectual, and moral welfare of society in Central Indiana, and, for that matter, in the whole State. He believed in land, believed in labor, believed in schools, and believed that industry, guided by true Christian principles, made the noblest community on earth. Calvin Fletcher had eleven children, nine of them boys, and all of whom lived to adult years. Every child learned something useful, and learned to depend upon himself or herself. One son he placed with a carpenter ; another with a mer- chant; a third drove a team for an English company over the plains into Mexico, and rose to be secretary of the company ; six were early put upon farms and learned to plow and do all other kinds of husbandry ; and one in his teens was at the head of his father's farm. All of them had the best education the schools

of Indiana offered, while six of them either had a complete or partial collegiate education at the East. Thus, while the sons of Calvin Fletcher had the ad- vantage of intellectual training, they had the higher advantage of having learned from their father the dignity of labor and the nobility of a Christian life.

The subject of this sketch went through the same ordeal with his brothers, but united perhaps more than any other the qualities of his father and mother. He was early trained on the farm, and showed great aptitude in whatever pertained to agriculture or agri- cultural machinery. In 1850 he learned practical telegraphy, and many a message was sent by him that year in the old office on Washington Street. On attaining his majority he passed some time in a par- tial course at Brown University, Providence, R. I. In 1853 he became conductor on the Bellefontaine Railroad. In June, 1853, he ran the first train that started out of the Union Depot, and after two years as conductor he rose to be superintendent of the same road. He not only understood cars, but locomotives and railroad machinery. He could drive a locomo- tive like an old hand, and on the occasion that his brothers and sisters met (the first and only time together in Indianapolis), ran the engine out of the Union Depot with all the family on the tender, and carried them to his father's farm.

After some years in railroad enterprises he became, in 1858, the clerk and teller in S. A. Fletcher's bank, and applied the same practical energy to this as to the farm and railroad. He afterwards became partner in the same bank with F. M. Churchman. Here he remained until 1868, when his business duties led him into the gas company, of which he was president for more than ten years. As he studied farming, railroading, and banking, so he studied gas-making. In 1878 he, through various circumstances, became the head of the Atlas Engine-Works, where portable and Atlas-Corliss engines are turned out by nearly six hundred hands. As in other pursuits, "the eye of the master" is perceptible here, and a new energy was infused into the whole establishment when Stough- ton A. Fletcher, Jr., took hold of the Atlas Engine- Works. Its business extends over the whole Union and to distant foreign lands, and it is said to be the

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MANUFACTURING INTERESTS OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.

largest and best equipped concern of its kind west of the Alleghanies. He has his father's practical ideas with regard to the education of his sons. His eldest son, Charles, after studying at the East, took a regu- lar course in the Atlas Engine-Works, beginning at the lowest point and " graduating with honors." He is now secretary of the company, and traveling in South America in its interest. His second son is at Harvard University. He has also other business relations,-as partner in the large banking-house of Fletcher & Sharpe, and as director in the Indianapolis National Bank.

He is a quiet man, and not a speech-maker ; but no man more steadily attends to business or cares more for his fellow-man than he. He is public- spirited. He, with James M. Ray, Calvin Fleteher, James Blake, and others, was among the first who initiated the idea of a new cemetery, which resulted in Crown Hill, and was made president of the Crown Hill Cemetery Association in 1874, which office he still holds.

Mr. Fletcher has traveled much in our own country -- north, south, east, and west,-from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf. In 1874-75 he made the tour of Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. In 1856 he married Miss Elizabeth Barrows, of Augusta, Me. The children of this marriage are two sons and two daughters.

THE NORDYKE AND MARMON WORKS .- These were originally the Quaker City Machine-Werks, es- tablished here in 1873 by A. N. Hadley & Co., of Richmond (the Quaker city), from which they took their name. They have a frontage to the west along the east side of the Vincennes Railway of about 600 feet, mostly one story in height, abundantly lighted from both sides and roofed with slate, with an L ex- tending eastward to Kentucky Avenue, and with a whole settlement of shops in the rear along the avenue extending from near Morris Street to the lumber-yard along the Belt road, with which, as well as with the Vincennes road, the works have a connection by side tracks. The Belt road was not built when the works were, as they were occupied in 1873-74, and given up by Mr. Hadley in 1876, the year before the com- pletion of the Belt. The Nordyke and Marmon

Company took it then, and have since created a very extensive business, making a spceialty of grist-mill machinery and stones. A large portion of the rear buildings are occupied by the millstone-works, and a monthly publication called the Millstone is pub- lished here, the work being done in the building. The company employs about 300 hands now, and turns about from $600,000 to $700,000 worth of work annually.

ATKINS' SAW-WORKS .- Mr. Atkins began his business single-handed in the old Hill Planing-Mill on East Street in 1856. In a year or so he removed to Pennsylvania Street, in the old City Foundry, where he had the misfortune to be burned out once or twice. He removed to his present location on South Illinois Street, next to the Woodburn Sarven Wheel- Works, in 1860-61, and has gradually enlarged his business and premises till he now employs about 140 hands, with a pay-roll of $75,000 a year, and pro- duces an annual value of work of about $300,000.

ELIAS C. ATKINS .- The earliest representative of the Atkins family in America emigrated from England in the sixteenth century, and settled in New England. From his son Benoni was de- scended Rollin Atkins, father of the subject of this biographical sketch, whose birth occurred in Bristol, Conn. He was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Bishop, of the same city, and had children, -- George R., Elleņ (Mrs. Volney Barber), Harriet (Mrs. Lyman Smith), Mary Ann (deceased), Marietta (Mrs. Henry Stevens), and Elias C. The last named, the youngest of the number, was born June 28, 1833, in Bristol, Conn. His early education was confined to a period of three years at the grammar-school, after which, at the age of twelve, he was apprentieed to the trade of saw manufacturing, and continued thus employed until his seventeenth year. His thorough knowledge of the business and mechanical genius immediately caused his promotion to the po- sition of superintendent of the establishment. His evenings were devoted to study and reading, the lack of earlier opportunities having inspired a desire to improve such advantages as later and more favorable circumstances offered. He was, at the age of twenty-two, married to Miss Sarah J. Wells, of

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

Newington, Conn., whose family were of English extraction. One daughter, Hattie J., was born to this marriage. Mrs. Atkins' death occurred April 11, 1863, and Mr. Atkins was a second time mar- ried, to Miss Mary Dolbeare, of Colchester, Conn., who died March 11, 1865. Their only ehild was Willie D., whose death occurred Aug. 30, 1865.

Mr. Atkins, desiring a wider field of usefulness than was opened in New England, removed in 1855 to Cleveland, Ohio, and established the first saw- manufactory in that city. One year's experience convinced him that the saw industry could be de- veloped under more favorable conditions in Indian- apolis, and, disposing of his interest, he removed to the latter city in 1856, and developed the first and largest manufactory of saws in the State. Beginning with limited capital and the employment of but a single hand, the enterprise has increased to such proportions as to utilize the labor of one hundred and twenty men and furnish its products to a large area of territory in the Northwest and other points. Much of the machinery used in the various depart- ments of the mill is the invention of Mr. Atkins, and protected · by patents. He has also engaged ex- tensively in mining operations, having organized the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company of Indianapolis, with miues situated in Montana, of which he was for seven years general agent and for two years superin- tendent, with his residence at the mines. During this time all purchases and sales of products was made by him, and the profitable development of the property the result of his personal attention and financial ability. He also purchased seven addi- tional mines, which are at present the most produc- tive interests of the company. Other mining enter- prises in which he is interested have proved equally successful.

Mr. Atkins is in politics a Republican, but without ambition for office, his time being exclusively devoted to his various business pursuits. Both he and his wife are members of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. Mr. Atkins was a third time married, to Miss Sarah Frances Parker, daughter of Rev. Addison Parker, of Newton Centre, Mass. The children born to this marriage are Mary Dolbeare,

Henry Cornelius, Sarah Frances, Emma Louisa, and Carra Isabel. These children, with Miss Hattie J., constitute the present family of Mr. and Mrs. Atkins.

In 1867, Farley & Sinker, son of E. T. Sinker, began making saws on the corner of Pennsylvania and Georgia Streets, and carried it on successfully till Mr. Sinker went back to the machine-works on . the death of his father. Mr. Farley then, or soon after, opened up the same business on the east side of South Meridian Street, just below the Eagle Machine-Works. Henry Westphal & Co. are in the same business on the same street, farther south, and Barry & Co. occupy the old establishment on Penn- sylvania and Georgia Streets.

FILES were made for a number of years by Stein- bauer & Drotz on Pennsylvania Street, near the Union Railway tracks, but recently the proprietors seem to have gone into the coal business and aban- doned file-making.

THE MALLEABLE IRON-WORKS at Haughsville oc- cupies the building originally erected by the Novelty Company, and has added to it till the capacity has been enlarged tenfold, and one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the country has been completed. The death of the manager in the summer of 1882, while the buildings were in progress, caused a good deal of delay, but seems to have proved a less serious obstruction than was feared. No report of the amount or condition of business, however, has appeared, and nothing can be said definitely about an establishment which promised at one time to be one of the most important of the industries of the city and the State.

ARCHITECTURAL IRON-WORKS .- This establish- ment is well known all over the country for its superior iron house-work, especially for large and costly public buildings. It began in the manufac- ture of iron railings by Williamson & Haugh on Dela- ware Street, opposite the old court-house, in 1856. Some years later, Mr. Haugh's brother, Benjamin F., took the business and removed to South Pennsyl- vania Street, where his rails and iron columns, and other house-work, very greatly enlarged his business, and finding his quarters inadequate and

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MANUFACTURING INTERESTS OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.

not oversafe, the establishment was removed to the high level plateau west of the river and north of the National road, a half-mile east of the Insane Asylum. Here a series of large connected buildings, with a railway track into the main line of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western road was erected, and the company has gone on in a larger business than ever. Some three years ago Mr. John L. Ketcham entered the concern, and the name is now Haugh, Ketcham & Co. The establishment has done work for public buildings, State and national, court-houses and custom- houses, from Boston to Iowa City, and to States farther west. It employs over 100 hands all the time, and turns out about $200,000 of work a year.

HADLEY, WRIGHT & Co .- After leaving the Quaker City Machine-Works in 1876, Mr. Hadley, the founder, opened a machine repair-shop in the old Byrkit Planing-mill, on the northwest corner of Georgia and Tennessee Streets, in 1878. His busi- ness increased here to such an extent that, iu 1881, he had to find new quarters, and he bought the whole of the quarter of a square on the southeast coruer of Georgia and Tennessee Streets, except the resi- dence on the corner and some feet fronting Georgia Street. Here he erected an unusually solid three- story brick building, 102 feet on Tennessee Street, with a depth of 170 fect, and a front on Georgia Street which gives a length in that direction of 200. Besides, all the open ground in the rear of the build- ings is full of machinery, boilers, and other apparatus, while the north end of the opposite square is also filled with boilers. The business of the firm is to purchase second-hand engines and boilers, and put them in good condition, and sell or trade them to any who want that sort of work. They employ thirty hands, and do a business of $150,000 a year.

THE ROLLING-MILL was an enterprise like the old steam-mill, a little too early for the time and the de- velopment of the city, but it grew to fit its situation finally, and has become the leading metallic industry of the State. The projector was Mr. R. A. Douglass, who, with a Mr. Schofield, came here in 1857, and formed a company to carry on the enterprise. A railway track was made down Tennessee Street that same summer, and work begun on the building on the

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History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 83

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 942

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942