USA > Indiana > Lawrence County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 34
USA > Indiana > Monroe County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 34
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At the beginning of the Spanish-American war the Indiana National Guard was composed of forty-one companies, making three battalions. or a total of two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two men.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE OOLITIC STONE INDUSTRY.
So far as has been ascertained by geologists and scientists, the peculiar and superior formation known as oolitic stone (fine grained limestone) is only found within a small belt of country not to exceed thirty-five miles in length and five miles in width, practically all in Monroe and Lawrence counties, Indiana. Bloomington is about the exact center of this famous stone belt, and Monroe county was the pioneer at developing the industry of quarrying this valuable geological formation. The first attempt was not far from 1850, when General Love opened the first quarry of the entire belt, near Stinesville. this county. Today, this stone and the celebrated "Bedford stone" (substantially the same) are known the world over, especially in the building circles of the United States, for there are thousands of structures of various kinds and sizes constructed from these wonderful formations.
During the days of the Civil war, in 1862, near Ellettsville, this county, the next quarry was operated by that pioneer stone master. John Matthews. It must be remembered that this industry did not jump into great prominence at first. because of the crude appliances and tools then extant for bringing forth this rich treasure from the earth. Then hand drills were used on the ledges, and stone was blasted out with powder and handled by hand-power derricks. It was not until 1873 that the first stone channeling machines were brought to this wonderful stone belt by John Matthews. This ma- chine -- a wonder in itself at the time-completely revolutionized the methods for quarrying and transporting stone, yet, for all that advancement, it re- mained still to provide some hetter mehods for transporting the stone from the quarries. The hand and horse-power derricks only carried a block of stone containing about eighty cubic feet, weighing 15,000 pounds, and no railroad company would allow more than one hundred and twenty-five cubic feet loaded on any one car. But with the modern equipment blocks of stone weighing more than forty tons and containing four hundred and fifty cubic feet are quarried and the stone cars today transport as much as seven hundred cubic feet of stone each. Again, since the introduction of improved ma- chinery, better channeling machines, steam drills and powerful derricks with
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wire cable, the development of this great industry has been rapid and indeed wonderful.
In 1912 there were in operation seventeen stone quarries, twenty- two stone mills and fifteen complete cut-stone plants, within Monroe county. The approximate value of these plants was fixed by the Com- mercial Club of Bloomington at two million dollars. This industry furnished steady employment to hundreds of workmen, at good wages. Of this immense output of buff and blue oolitic stone, large quantities were shipped to distant sections of this country and into Canada. There is scarcely a city of note on the continent that does not have one or more structures constructed from this valuable material-court houses, state houses, school buildings, great bridges, monumental work, orna- mental stone work, etc., all come in for their full share in the shipments just enumerated as coming from these Monroe county quarries. The industry is increasing with the growth of cities, and annually better facilities are being discovered by which to handle the business success- fully and more profitably.
The building of the new branch of the Illinois Central railroad to the south and west of Bloomington is fast developing a new stone field. Thousands of acres of entirely undeveloped stone formation of this superior stone is still to be found lying all around the environments of Bloomington. The same is true of excellent beds of clay and shale.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT.
On account of a seeming misunderstanding concerning the real quality of the "oolitic" and "Bedford stone," the following report. from State Geologist W. S. Blatchley was made in June, 1909:
To Whom It May Concern :
Many inquiries which have recently come to the department of geology relative to the comparative character and quality of the Indiana oolitic lime- stone at various points in the area over which it outcrops have led me to make the following brief general statement regarding said stone :
The oolitic limestone outcrops in Indiana from a point near Parkers- burg, Montgomery county. southward to the Ohio river, a distance of one hundred and forty-two miles. Throughout this length the width of the out- crop varies from two to fourteen miles, averaging about five miles. The conditions of its deposition were practically the same throughout this area,
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it being everywhere immediately underlain by the Harrodsburg limestone and overlain by the Mitchell limestone.
It is everywhere a granular limestone or calcareous sand rock, in which both the grains and the cement are carbonate of lime. That the variation in chemical composition is exceedingly small is shown by the following analyses, No. I being that of a sample from a leading quarry in Lawrence county, No. 2 from a similar quarry in Monroe county, and No. 3 the average from eight of the leading quarries throughout the area :
No. I. No. 2. No. 3. per cent. per cent. per cent.
Carbonate of lime (Ca CO3) .
98.27 98.11 97.62 .61
Carbonate of magnesia (Mg CO3)
.8.4
Iron oxide & alumina ( Fe2 O3+A12 (3) .15
.92 .16 .36
Insoluble residue .64
.86 .91
In all commercial quarries there is at the top a layer or cut of fine- grained huff stone averaging about seven feet in thickness, followed by three to five cuts of medium-grained buff stone, totalling twenty-one to thirty-five feet in thickness, the bottom one of these being underlain by one or two cuts of coarser-grained blue stone.
While the cut of fine-grained top stone (often called "marble") is most sought after, no one company or quarry can furnish a large amount of it. Moreover, experience has fully proven that the medium-grained stone from the middle cuts, which com- prises most of the output, contains fewer flaws, is fully as durable and is more uniform in color. Every quarry now operated can put forth, there- fore, different grades of stone, and the quarries of no one district have any advantage over those of another in this respect.
In conclusion I will say that the name "Bedford oolitic" was originally given this stone because the first quarries on a large scale were opened up near Bedford, Lawrence county. The name "Indiana oolitic limestone" has been adopted by this department. since by conferring upon it the broader name "Indiana" no one locality in the 'state will be advertised as against another, the stone in Monroe county being as typically oolitic and as ex- cellent in quality as that about Bedford.
EARLY QUARRYING METHODS.
The earliest settlers did not use much of the oolitic limestone because of the difficulty in quarrying it. After its valuable properties were dis-
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covered, it had some local usage, in which the stone was obtained by the liberal use of powder from the loose bowlders and outcropping ledges. It is almost the universal practice of country masons, where the stone is quar- ried by hand, to blast it from the ledges, and if the blocks are too large to handle, to break them with another charge of powder. With the invention of the channeling machine and the opening of the large quarries, the use of powder was discontinued, and at the present no powder is used except for removing stipping. The noise of the blast has given away to the clatter of the channeler. No channeling machines were in use in this stone belt prior to 1877.
PRICES AND TRANSPORTATION.
In 1866 James Needham, operating the Salem quarries, sold rough rock at thirty-five cents per cubic foot, and Ellettsville quarries were selling for the same rate. The stone that went into the Illinois state house was billed at one dollar per foot. In 1873 the Marion county, Indiana, court house was built with this stone, at thirty cents per foot, which price obtained prac- tically until 1877. In 1878 the Indiana capitol building was charged twenty- five cents per cubic foot. In 1881 the prices were: Milled blocks, twenty- five cents; scabbled dimension blocks and stone, thirty to thirty-five cents; sawed on all four sides, seventy-five cents per cubic foot. In 1891 prices, owing to improved methods, had declined to mill-blocks at twenty cents per cubic foot and four-sided sawed work at fifty cents. No material change was had until 1895, since which time each quarry has fixed its own prices. The average price, per lineal foot, of oolitic stone in 1907 was as follows : 3 by 8, sixteen cents ; 3 by 20, forty cents ; 5 by 20. sixty-seven cents ; 6 by 19, seventy-six cents : 8 by 20, one dollar : 11 by 19, one dollar and thirty cents per lineal foot. Monumental bases, thirty-five cents per foot ; statuary stock, gray or buff, fifty cents to one dollar.
COST OF SHIPPING. .
The freight rates on a hundred pounds of this stone (billed from Bed- ford) a few years ago were: To Chicago, eleven cents : Kansas City, forty- three cents: Cincinnati, Ohio, six cents: Indianapolis, seven cents; Iowa points, twenty-eight cents : Utah, fifty cents: New York, same as Iowa ; De- troit, twelve cents; Boston, thirty cents : Pittsburg, eighteen cents.
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LAWRENCE AND MONROE COUNTIES, INDIANA.
MONROE COUNTY QUARRIES-ACTIVE AND INACTIVE.
Oolitic stone has been quarried near Stinesville many years. There were four active and numerous inactive quarries there in 1907. Large quantities of stone have been shipped from there to distant points in the United States. Here the merchantable thickness of the stone is thirty feet. It is harder to quarry here than farther south in the belt. Probably the first man to open quarries here was Richard Gilbert, in 1827-28, from the east bluff of Jack's Defeat creek, three-fourths of a mile south of town. From these quarries came the stone for the abutments to the bridges over White river and Bean Blossom creek. But not until the building of the New Albany & Salem railroad, now the "Monon," in 1853, did this stone have a name abroad. It was then that Messrs. Watts and Biddle, of Pennsylvania, pur- chased twenty acres three-fourths of a mile west of Stinesville, and soon commenced their extensive operations. A substantial steam stone mill of six gangs, rocker-shaft pattern, was erected, and in 1855 they were prepared to furnish both rough and sawed stone to the trade.
The Chicago and Stinesville Stone Company was organized in 1889, and later was styled the Blue Creek Stone Company, which virtually had to suspend and go into the hands of a receiver on account of the great 1893 panic, but it was reorganized in 1895, as the Indiana Steam Stone Works. Two years later the quarry was abandoned. Other companies in the Stines- ville district are these: Big Creek Quarry, North Bedford Stone Company, Romona Oolitic Stone Company, George Henly Stone Company ; J. Hoad- ley & Sons Company, opened in April, 1905, is an immense quarry, and covers over twenty acres of land; Red Hill Stone Company, opened in 1903. was worked only one year.
In the Ellettsville district, in 1862, John Matthews opened the first quarry one mile north of Ellettsville village. They operated the first chan- neling machines and steam hoist, purchased about 1877, the same being a "Wardwell," for which six thousand dollars was paid, or the price of five such machines today. These quarries extend along the Clear creek bluffs for more than a quarter of a mile. Most of this stone is a beautiful buff, yet much of the blue variety also obtains.
A. E Matthews Cut Stone Company established in 1903. in the bed of the old Matthews quarry, an establishment for planing cut stone work. The capacity is twenty thousand cubic feet per year, with the twelve workmen employed-at least such were the figures in 1907: Another plant is the
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Perry Brothers Stone Company, successor to the old Perry quarries opened in 1862, along with the Matthews Brothers quarry of 1866, and which were in operation nearly forty years. The quarry at the upper mill was closed in 1896, then reopened and finally abandoned entirely in 1902. The Perrys have been heavy operators. In the spring of 1907 they organized a company known as the Ellettsville-Perry Quarries Company, and under a new lease opened up a quarry five hundred feet above the old quarry.
Another company is the Griswold & Chambers Company, of Chicago, who leased a part of the Perry holdings in 1907. They soon had in operation six gang-saws and one planer. The Eclipse Stone Company is on the northern outskirts of the village of Ellettsville. This is a Chicago concern and it has a fine stone mill building. This was installed in 1903 and saws stone only for the market, employing, in 1907, twelve men. In the famous Hunter Valley district is where the stone for the old Monroe county court house, erected in 1819, was taken from. The body of the building was of brick, but the basement was of this oolitic stone, and it was probably the first ever used for building uses in the county. In 1906 the present court house at Bloomington was constructed from stone near Ellettsville. The stone for the old court house was quarried, of course, by hand, but it stood the test of time and the invading elements of ninety years, as pieces of the stone are still to be had as positive proof of this statement.
As early as 1856 stone was sawed by hand in Bloomington by Jesse Carson, and it may still be seen in monuments at the cemetery west of the city. But not until 1891 did the quarries of this district assume much im- portance, after which they figured much in the great industry. The Morton C. Hunter Stone Company, organized in Bloomington in late years, placed in operation fine appliances for handling the valuable output. The Chicago & Bloomington Stone Company was the next to follow the Hunters in this district, opening in 1902. The Consolidated Stone Company, which was third in the valley, was opened in 1902. Then there is the later Consolidated companies, working a series of quarries hereabouts. The business of this corporation is simply prodigious. The Johnson quarry, Hunter Brothers' Stone Company, seven years ago employed thirty men and produced rough oolitic stone at eight cents per cubic foot.
The Star Stone Company was established in 1895, and developed at a depth of sixty-five feet. The Crescent Stone Company in 1893 opened up a half mile to the east of the Consolidated No. 2, and was worked until 1902, when a new opening was made to the west.
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LAWRENCE AND MONROE COUNTIES, INDIANA.
The Hunter Valley Stone Company is adjoining the Crescent quarry to the northwest ; this was opened in 1895 and constantly worked until 1906. It had been worked out to a depth of seventy feet, the deepest of any north of Bedford. Here fifty-four feet of merchantable stone is taken out. The grain is said to be almost equal to granite.
In the Bloomington district the South Side Stone Company opened its quarry in 1889, in the southwest part of the city of Bloomington. It was abandoned in 1893, and the property was purchased by the Henley Stone Company as the site for a stone mill, which was operated until it was ab- sorbed in 1910 by a new company.
The Central Oolitic Stone Company was formed in 1890 and a plant installed the next year, north of the city. The Hoadley Cut Stone Company, a quarter of a mile north of the Hoadley mill, was completed in 1906. In 1907 the state reports show there were in operation in this district four mills in Bloomington city and six active quarries and seven mills. The con- struction of the Illinois Central railroad has given a new impetus to the industry in this district.
In the Sanders district are located the Oolitic Stone Company. the Monroe County Oolitic Stone Company, the Empire Stone Company, the Achme-Bedford Stone Company, the Buffalo Stone Company, the Mathers Stone Company, organized in 1892, the Wicks Stone Company, the Chicago & Bloomington Company, all of which have been doing a successful business for a longer or shorter time.
In the Belt district are the quarries of the National Stone Company, United States Stone Company, Monarch Stone Company, Eagle Stone Com- pany. Clear Creek Company, Crown Stone Company, W. McMillen & Son and others. The last named. in 1907, had an output of 12.375 cubic feet in a single week. Forty men were then being worked fifteen hours a day, and received twenty-seven cents per hour.
In the Victor district. a more recently worked part of the stone region, in 1907 reported Johnson & Mathews Stone Company No. 18, the Cleveland Stone Company's quarry and smaller concerns, to which have since been added extensive works by numerous companies.
At this date. September. 1913. there are nearly a score of separate quar- ries within Monroe county, all turning out a large amount of stone, which finds its way to many states and into the walls of thousands of buildings, bridges, monuments and other structures. It is really the leading industry of the county and is a wealth producer.
CHAPTER XV.
BLOOMINGTON TOWNSHIP AND CITY.
Without being positive as to the exact date of the coming of the first settlers to what is now known as Bloomington, it may be stated for a cer- tainty that such settlers made their advent here as early as 1815-16, and possibly white men were here a year or so before these dates. The Indian power in all Indiana was crushed by the decisive battle of Tippecanoe in the autumn of 1811, at Battle Ground, near the present city of Lafayette. But it took a few years to fully satisfy the would-be immigrants that no further trouble with the red men would ensue. There has been, and is still extant, those partial evidences from old settlers that there were a few fami- lies who braved the dangers of this county between 1810 and 1811, but this is purely traditional. It is believed, too, that if such settlement was effected that early that Bloomington township had its share of pioneer men and women. As late as 1816 this county was all an untamed wilderness, without boundary or surveys, inhabited by wild animals and half subdued savages. All of the county north of the old Indian boundary was yet the property of the Indians, and so remained until the treaty of St. Mary's, Ohio, in October. 1818. It was then ceded to the government as a part of the "New Pur- chase." By the time of the first land entries at Bloomington, in 1816, there were a score of families already residing here. Among those who entered land here during the first four or five years after the first land sale -in fact all who entered land during that period-are the following, with the sections of land and year of entry :
David Rogers, section 33. 1816: Joseph Taylor, section 33, 1816: George Ritchey, section 33. 1816; George Hedrick, section 33. 1816; George Ketchum, section 6, 1816: Henry Wampler, section 6, 1816: Adam Bower, section 6, 1816: Thomas Smith, section 7. 1816: William Julian, section 7. 1816: William J. Adair, section 7. 1816: George Parks, section 8. 1816: John Kell, section 17. 1816: James Parks, section 17, 1816: John Owens. section 18. 1816: David Stout, section 19. 1816: Samuel Caldwell. section 19. 1816: Roderick Rawlins, section 20, 1816: Joseph Taylor, section 20. 1816; James Parks, section 20, 1816: George Hall, section 21, 1816: David
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LAWRENCE AND MONROE COUNTIES, INDIANA.
Raymond, section 21, 1816; Jacob Renderbach, section 25, 1816. All of the following came in 1816: Ebenezer Daggett, section 27; James Borland, section 27; Gideon Frisbee, section 28; John Lee, section 28; William Mat- lock, section 28; Samuel Camphries, section 28; Thomas Graham, section 29; James Clark, section 29; Abraham Appler, section 29; Christopher Es- linger, section 30; Henry Wampler, section 32; Henry Rodgers, section 34; John Thompson, section 34; Wheeler Matlock, section 34; Samuel Scott, section 34; William Jackson, section 35; John Jackson, section 35; Thomas Heady, section 36; John Griffith, section 15, 1817; James Matlock, section 18, 1817; James Wood, section 19, 1817, and all of the following came in 1817: John Buskirk, section 25; Lawrence Smoyer, section 29; Samuel Rogers, section 30; James Wood, section 30; Titan Kemble, section 31; Simon Chauvin, section 31; Chesley D. Bailey, section 32; Robertson Gra- ham, section 32; Granville Ward, section 35; N. Fletcher, section 35. In 1818 came William Goodwin to section 13; Thomas Barger, section 19; Abraham Buskirk, section 24; Stephen P. Sealls, section 26; O. F. Barker, section 30; Ebenezer Dickey, section 32; in 1820 came George Whisenard, section 6: Thomas Heady, section 24, 1821. These were the only entries in this township previous to 1822.
THE CITY OF BLOOMINGTON.
Bloomington, the seat of justice of Monroe county, is beautifully sit- uated fifty-seven miles southwest of Indianapolis, at the junction of the "Monon" and Illinois Central railway lines, on almost the highest elevation in Indiana, in the midst of an elegant country of gently rolling lands, here and there breaking into picturesque hills and romantic valleys, ever a feast to the eye of the beholder. The census of the United States in 1910 placed the center of population in the United States at a point within the city limits of Bloomington, the marker being a few feet from the Showers Brothers Com- pany's great furniture factory.
The first entries of land in which now includes the present city of Bloomington, all in sections 32 and 33, township 9, range I, and each for a quarter section, were filed by the following persons, on dates given : George Ritchey September 26, 1816; George Hedrick, same date; David Rogers, same date: Joseph Taylor, same date: Henry Wampler. same date; Chesley Bailey, February 5, 1817: Robertson Graham, May 26, 1817; Ebenezer Dickey, February 12, 1818.
It is likely that no one lived on the town site until 1816, at which time
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both Rogers and Graham built log houses. It is usually believed that these pioneer cabins were erected in 1817. In June, 1818, when the first lots were laid out, a wheat crop was growing on land purchased of Mr. Rogers. David Rogers entered the southwest quarter of section 33, on which a por- tion of the town was platted, but Jonathan Rogers afterward obtained a part interest in the land, as his name appears upon the deed which conveyed the land to Monroe county.
The town of Bloomington was ordered platted by the county commis- sioners April 10, 1818, and it was by the first board named "Bloomington." The county agent was ordered to oversee the work. He was instructed to make the public square measure two hundred and seventy-six feet, and to lay out lots sixty-six by one hundred and thirty-two feet, and the streets eighty-two and a half feet wide. The number of lots to be platted was left to the agent of the county. The first public sale of lots was advertised to take place at auction June 22, 1818, the notice of such auction was ordered published in the Western Sun, of Vincennes; the Louisville Correspondent, the Argus of Western America, the Western Eagle, of Madison, and the Liberty Hall, of Cincinnati. Jonathan Nichols was appointed to survey the town plat. The county records contain the following interesting order : "On motion of Bartlett Woodward, ordered that the agent of this county procure one barrel of whisky and have it at the sale of the lots in Blooming- ton." This was evidently thought as a stimulater to bidders for lots-some- thing to nerve up the inner-man, as it were! That the authorities were cor- rect in this, it needs only to be seen that the lot sales reached the large amount of $14,326.85 the first day of the sale. That might have been a wise move at that day, but today it would not work with the same results. It will doubtless be of interest to know who purchased these first Blooming- ton town lots, as many of the family names still are popular in this county and Indiana. They included John Scott, D. Thompson, Christian Eppinger, John Keys, Arthur Harris, W. A. Beatty, W. P. Anderson, William Lowe, Robinson Graham, David Sears. Floyd Cummings, Samuel Coleman, James Borland, George Hedrick, W. D. Hoof, David Rogers, James Dunning, James Newman, Jonathan Rogers, Thomas Smith, B. Miller W. D. Mccullough, Jacob B. Lowe, William Curl, Henry Wampler, Coleman Pruitt, Elias Goodwin. Abner Goodwin, Solomon Bowers, John Owens, Samuel Scott, Sr., Nathan Julian, Isham Sumter, Hezekiah Woodford, Benjamin Freeland, George Richey, David Matlock, Lewis Noel, Samuel Haslett, James Denny, John Buskirk, Z. Williams, Moses Williams, T. B. Clark, Eli Lee, Thomas
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