USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 30
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sash, doors, office and store fixtures, etc. Daniel Wilkinson died about twenty or twenty-five years ago, and his nephew, Walter Wilkinson, became his successor in the firm.
In 1870, when the Howe Sewing Machine Company was looking for a location for a western branch, a representative of the company came to Peru with a proposition to establish a factory for the production of the woodwork, the factory to have a capacity of nine hundred machines per day and employ from four hundred to five hundred persons. The citizens of Peru donated a site and a large portion of the building materials and the concern began work under favorable auspices. The factory had not been running long when the buildings were almost com- pletely destroyed by fire, causing a property loss of something like $200,000. E. P. Loveland and John Cummings, two well known citizens of Peru, lost their lives while trying to save the property by being caught by the falling roof. The plant was immediately rebuilt and continued under the name of the Howe Factory until 1875, when it was succeeded by the Indiana Manufacturing Company. Some donations were made to this company, which was regularly incorporated on July 1, 1875, with a capital stock of $500,000. Among the stockholders were A. N. Dukes, E. W. and M. Shirk, R. A. Edwards and A. J. Huffman. The company continued the manufacture of sewing machine woodwork, but added to it the manufacture of refrigerators and wooden rims for bicycles. Its products went to all parts of the United States and even to European countries and Australia. In 1881 it passed into the hands of a receiver- A. N. Dukes-who brought it out of its financial distress, increased the number of employees, erected some new buildings, reorganized it as the Indiana Manufacturing Company, and continued the manufacture of goods which annually found a larger sale. In 1912 there were 367 people employed by the company, but the great flood of March, 1913, again forced the works into the hands of a receiver, the loss by the flood being reported as $250,000. It has since been purchased by the Shirk interests and reorganized as the United States Refrigerators Company. It has often employed as high as five hundred people.
In 1871, the year following the establishment of the Howe factory, the Maris Wheel factory was started in South Peru, the board of directors being constituted of Messrs. Maris, Shirk, Clifton, Rettig, Con- stant and Smith. In 1874 the factory was purchased by John Clifton, Sr., and the next year a fire caused a loss of $20,000. The concern was then reorganized as a furniture factory, but a year later the buildings were so badly damaged by fire that the enterprise was abandoned. The Cliffton brickyards were once a paying industry of South Peru, many of the brick used in Peru having been made there.
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About the time this wheel factory was started, or perhaps a few months earlier, John Coyle built a flax and tow mill in Peru. The next year a Mr. Torrey, of New Jersey, became associated with Mr. Coyle and a bagging mill was added. Some years later Coyle & Torrey were succeeded by the firm of Lehman, Rosenthal & Kraus, who carried on the business for about twenty years. Mr. Rosenthal died, Mr. Lehman retired from the firm, and the mills were then operated by Charles J. Kraus & Sons, under the name of the Peru Bagging Company. For many years this mill had a large trade in the southern states, where its product was used in baling cotton. Jute bagging is one of the products affected by the tariff and this fact, together with the introduction of the cotton compress, rendered the business unprofitable and about 1909 the mills in Peru were closed.
Gardner, Blish & Company removed to Peru from Antioch (now Andrews) in 1872 and started the Peru Basket Factory, which also manufactured hoops for barrels. Six years later the firm failed and James M. Brown was appointed receiver. The factory then passed into the hands of the Citizens' National Bank, which leased the building to Lewis Benedict in 1880. In 1882 Henton and Talbot purchased the plant and about eighteen months later Mr. Henton withdrew, leaving Frank M. Talbot sole proprietor. He continued in the business until the spring of 1893, when he removed a part of the machinery away from the city, and in June the buildings were occupied by the Peru Basket Company, of which G. R. Chamberlain was president; Azro Wilkinson, secretary ; and J. J. Keyes, manager. For about a year the company ran a hoop factory in connection with the manufacture of baskets. This depart- ment was then abandoned. Some years later Mr. Wilkinson retired from the company and subsequently Mr. Keyes also withdrew, leaving Mr. Chamberlain in full control. In the winter of 1911-12 the buildings were partly destroyed by fire, but they were rebuilt and the company now employs about seventy people, turning out some two thousand dozen baskets weekly.
B. F. Dow & Company, who had previously been engaged in the manufacture of farm implements at Fowlerville, New York, came to Peru in 1880 and secured a donation of $10,000 to start a similar factory there. Buildings were erected north of the Wabash tracks and in May, 1881, the factory began business. The principal products were portable engines and threshing machines, which were sold over a large territory, and in connection was a foundry for the purpose of supplying all kinds of repairs for farm implements. By November, 1883, the firm had become so deeply involved financially that the works were placed in the hands of J. G. Blythe as receiver. His final report was made on January
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1, 1887, after which the buildings were allowed to stand idle for several years, when they were taken by the Carbon Company. They are now occupied by the Peru Electric Company.
About the time the Dow factory was established S. Tudor & Company started a packing house in South Peru for the purpose of packing butter, eggs and poultry for the New York market. Although not a large con- cern this house has continued in business and now employs about half a dozen people in handling poultry, eggs and dairy products. The old building in South Peru was burned and the firm removed across the river to Peru.
On June 13, 1881, the first telephone exchange was opened in Peru by the Bell Telephone Company. At that time the telephone was almost in its infancy and its future undetermined. Three years later Charles H. Brownell acquired the John Muhlfield planing mill, started in 1879, near the junction of the railroad and Cass street, and soon afterward he began the manufacture of sound-proof telephone booths for use in hotel offices and at public pay stations. In this business he was a pioneer and as the demand for booths increased he gradually relinquished the planing mill business and devoted his entire attention to the production of booths. In the course of time the business outgrew the old planing mill and a new factory-one of the best appointed in Peru-was erected in the western part of the city. The manufacture of bank and office fixtures was then added. . The works now employ about forty-five people and the product is shipped to all parts of the country. The old factory building is now occupied by the Peru Auto Parts Company.
THE NATURAL GAS ERA
Soon after natural gas was discovered in Jay and Delaware counties, the people of Miami county became interested in the effect to ascertain if gas existed in that part of the state. Articles of association for the Peru Natural Gas & Fuel Company were filed on October 25, 1886, setting forth that the company desired to be incorporated for a period of fifty years, with a capital stock of $5,000 and a board of directors con- sisting of James O. Cole, Milton Shirk, Charles H. Brownell, R. H. Bouslog, Charles C. Emswiler, Louis Mergentheim and Louis B. Fulwiler. This company bored three wells. The first was in the northern part of the city of Peru, where the drill went to a depth of 905 feet and pene- trated the Trenton limestone-the porous, gas-bearing rock-about thirty feet, but without finding gas. The second well was on the Jacob Miller farm, about a mile south of the city, where no better results were obtained, and the third well was on the Yonce farm, in Butler township. Here a
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small quantity of gas was found, but not enough to be of any commercial value.
A few Peru people were not yet satisfied and a company composed of some of the optimistic, who believed that gas could be found, drilled a well upon the Bearss farm about two and a half miles north of the city. Here the drill went to a depth of 1,041 feet and penetrated the Trenton limestone about thirty-two feet. Four successive failures con- vinced the most sanguine that gas could not be found in the immediate vicinity of Peru and no further efforts were made.
The Xenia Gas and Pipe Line Company was incorporated on January 25, 1887, with a capital stock of $50,000, divided into five thousand shares of ten dollars each. Among the stockholders were J. W. Coan, R. W. Smith, L. M. Reeves, J. S. Kelsey, John O. Frame, B. F. Agness, J. W. Eward, Frank Macy, D. O. C. Marine, James Hatfield, M. F. Tillman and O. P. Litzenberger. Sweeney & Company, of Kokomo, were employed to drill a well and went down 937 feet, or thirty-one feet into the Trenton limestone. Gas was struck soon after the drill entered the Trenton formation, but at the same time a strong vein of water was also struck, which had the effect of weakening the flow of gas. The fact was demonstrated, however, that gas existed in that part of the county and a second well was drilled, which yielded enough gas to supply the town for domestic purposes. The company drilled eight wells altogether, five of which were within the corporate limits of the town of Converse. Before the close of the year a few farmers living west of Converse formed a company and drilled a well to supply their homes with fuel. The Xenia (Converse) Real Estate Company drilled a well in 1889, which furnished enough gas to supply the electric light plant, the hoop works and the Peerless Glass Works; and the Garrison Brothers, a few years later, drilled a well to supply their grist mill.
The Amboy Gas and Oil Company was organized in April, 1887, and filed articles of association with the county recorder on the 6th of May. Its capital stock was fixed at $10,000 and the first board of directors was composed of J. Pearson, T. C. Overman, J. A. Baldwin, L. D. Lamm, A. A. Votaw, E. K. Friermood and W. H. Zimmerman. This company is credited with drilling the first successful gas well in the county. A Citizens' Gas Company was then organized as a mutual association, each member paying fifty dollars, which entitled him to the use of gas for domestic purposes as long as the supply lasted. This company struck one of the strongest wells in the Amboy field. In 1892 it was registering three hundred pounds natural rock pressure and was supplying forty families and two factories.
In the fall of 1887 the Citizens Gas and Pipe Line Company was organized at Peru with a capital stock of $100,000. The officers and directors of the company were as follows: J. O. Cole, president; R. A.
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Edwards, vice-president ; C. C. Emswiler, treasurer ; R. H. Bouslog, secre- tary and manager; the above officers and Milton Shirk, C. H. Brownell and Louis B. Fulwiler, directors. This company drilled its first well one mile south of Amboy, where a fair supply of gas was found. The second one was on the farm of David Haifley and proved to be a failure. Then a third well was drilled on the Abbott farm, south of Amboy, and turned out to be one of the best in the county. Several other wells were put down southeast of Amboy and Converse and when the company had three good wells the work of piping the gas to Peru was commenced. On October 21, 1888, the gas was turned into the mains. As the pressure in the first wells began to decrease the company went into Howard and Grant counties and leased lands, having about eight thousand acres at one time under lease. The first winter after gas was introduced in Peru the city was supplied by six wells, but a few years later, when the pressure fell off, twenty-four wells were brought into requisition to keep up the supply. In May, 1895, the plant of this company was sold to the Dietrich syndicate, which owned a number of gas works or natural gas plants in Indiana. R. H. Bouslog remained in charge of the plant at Peru as manager.
The discovery of natural gas in Indiana brought a number of new manufacturing enterprises into the gas belt. Among those which located in Peru was the Miami Flint Glass Works, which began operation in October, 1889. The factory was located in the northeastern part of the city, near the tracks of the Wabash and Lake Erie & Western rail- roads. John J. Kreutzer was at the head of the concern, which was known as an "eight pot" factory, and the product consisted of glass tumblers, bottles, etc. The works did a good business while the gas lasted, but when the supply of fuel failed the factory was closed.
Another manufacturing concern that was established in Peru during the natural gas era was the Standard Cabinet Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in January, 1893, with a capital stock of $25,000; Jacob C. Theobold, president ; John G. Killinger, vice-president; E. G. Huber, secretary; John Knuchel, treasurer. A number of the stock- holders of this company worked in the different departments. This factory did not close with the decline of gas, but is still doing a good business in the manufacture of small novelties in cabinet work, battery boxes for automobiles, etc. The cooperative feature has been discontinued and the company has been reorganized.
Nearly contemporary with the above is the Peru Electric Manu- facturing Company, which has already been mentioned. It was organized in 1893, with a capital stock of $100,000. J. O. Cole was president ; C. H. Brownell, vice-president; R. H. Bouslog, secretary, treasurer and
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manager. Besides these officers the directors were R. A. Edwards, W. B. McClintic, L. Mergentheim and F. M. Talbot. The company secured the buildings formerly occupied by the Dow factory, which had been vacated a short time before by the Carbon and Glass Company, of which the Peru Electric Company was virtually a. reorganization, located north of the Wabash tracks on Tippecanoe street. In 1910 the company went into the hands of a receiver, when a controlling interest was bought by C. H. Brownell and it was reorganized in its present form. Its chief business is the manufacture of porcelain insulators, which are shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada, and some are exported through jobbers in electrical supplies. From sixty to one hundred people are employed, owing to the demand for the company's products.
In 1900 the Peru Steel Castings Company was incorporated, after a lively campaign to raise a bonus by the sale of lots, with Philip Matter, of Marion, as president. About three acres of ground were secured in the western part of Peru and fifteen buildings were erected before the works were opened or while they were in progress. The aim of the company was to manufacture traveling cranes for large manufacturing establishments, heavy castings for ship builders and railroad companies, pumps, generators, air compressors, etc. At one time over seven hundred men were employed and the factory was one of the largest ever estab- lished in Peru. The first casting was turned out in August, 1900, and for a few years the company carried on an apparently successful busi- ness. Then the natural gas failed, a fire destroyed the plant and the works were closed, much to the regret of the Peruvians.
In the summer of 1901 the Home Telephone Company was organized with a capital stock of $30,000; Louis B. Fulwiler, president; Jerome Herff, vice-president; John E. Yarling, secretary and manager, and Joseph M. Bergman, treasurer. These officers and W. A. Huff con- stituted the board of directors. In May, 1902, an exchange was opened at No. 101/2 South Broadway. The company met with a ready patron- age and when the plant was sold to the Central Union or Bell Tele- phone Company in August, 1912, it was operating about 3,000 tele- phones.
The Peru Canning Company was incorporated on March 30, 1905, with the following directors named in the articles of association: Pliny M. Crume, Joseph Bergman, R. H. Bouslog, R. A. Edwards, P. H. Rob- erts and Joseph Andres. In the organization of the board R. A. Edwards was elected president; R. H. Bouslog, vice-president; Pliny M. Crume, secretary; P. H. Roberts, general manager; Joseph Berg- man, assistant general manager. On April 6, 1905, the company ordered machinery capable of putting up 1,200,000 two-pound cans annually
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and a little later a site was selected in Elmwood, on the Lake Erie & Western tracks. The factory was ready for opening by the time the canning season came on and has been in operation ever since, employ- ing from 250 to 300 people every year during the summer and fall months while the rush is on.
Late in the year 1905, R. H. Bouslog and R. A. Edwards, who owned some land just northeast of the city on the Chili pike, conceived the idea of platting their lands into lots and selling them, using the proceeds of the early sales to improve the streets and secure the location of new factories. A. N. Dukes, who also owned a tract of land adjoining, joined in the movement and the result was the Oakdale addition to Peru. The plat of the addition, showing 1,058 lots, was filed on Jan- uary 27, 1906, by the Oakdale Improvement Company, of which R. A. Edwards was president and F. M. Drumm, secretary. Then began a campaign for the sale of lots by the Peru Commercial Club. A sales committee, with Arthur L. Bodurtha as chairman, was appointed and the addition was widely advertised. The campaign lasted for several weeks, during which time about 700 of the lots were contracted for on the installment plan, and over 500 sales were actually consummated by the payment of installments.
Among the factories brought to the city through this movement were the Mallmann Addograph Company, the Kendallville Furniture Company, the Parkhurst Elevator Manufacturing Company, the Model Gas Engine Works, the Booth Furniture Company, Fox Brothers under- wear factory and the Chute & Butler piano factory.
The Mallmann Addograph Company, which manufactured adding machines, ran for about two years, when it encountered financial diffi- culties and wound up its affairs. The buildings then stood idle for awhile, but are now occupied by a basket factory operated by Moeck & Redmon, the latter of whom was formerly interested in the Hoosier Basket Works of Denver, which closed when the bank in that town failed in 1901.
The Kendallville Furniture Company has been succeeded by the Peru Chair Company, which makes a specialty of Morris chairs and employs about 50 or 60 skilled workmen.
The Parkhurst works were taken over by the Otis Elevator Com- pany and operated until some time in 1912, when the factory at Peru was closed. The buildings were then occupied for a while by the Brown Commercial Car Company, manufacturers of motor trucks, but this company is now in the hands of W. B. McClintic as receiver.
The Model Gas Engine Company manufactures a full line of gas engines, but pays special attention to gasoline motors for automobiles.
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Its wares have been exhibited at various automobile shows in different parts of the country and have been favorably commented on by trade journals. It employs about 300 men.
The Booth Furniture Company manufactures a general line of house- hold furniture and employs about 125 people in all departments; the Fox Brothers Manufacturing Company makes all kinds of ladies' mus- lin underwear and according to the last report of the state bureau of inspection employed seven men and 68 women; the Chute & Butler Company employ about 70 people, nearly all skilled mechanics, in the manufacture of their pianos and the instruments turned out at their factory compare favorably with those of the best piano factories in the country.
Some time after the Oakdale addition had become an established fact, the Great Western Automobile Works were established there, but without asking or receiving any bonus of any character. This company was started by local men with home capital. It manufactures passenger or tourist cars and has a capacity of about 300 vehicles a year. At the New York automobile show, January 5 to 10, 1914, the noiseless motors of the Great Western attracted a great deal of attention. These motors were fully demonstrated and explained by a representative of the Model Gas Engine Company, which constructed them, and by this means Peru was given considerable notoriety as a manufacturing city. The com- pany employs about 50 people.
One of the recent factories in Peru is the Auto-Parts Manufactur- ing Company, which came to the city about the close of the year 1909. In the fall of that year a canvass for the necessary funds to secure the factory was begun and in a comparatively short time reached a suc- cessful termination by the subscription of the amount required. This concern is a branch of a similar institution located at Jamestown, New York. As soon as the bonus was made up the buildings near the Wabash and Lake Erie & Western tracks, near the head of Cass street, formerly used by the C. H. Brownell telephone booth works, were purchased and within a few weeks the new factory was installed and in working order. It manufactures axles, brakes, shaft gearing and various other devices for automobiles and supplies a number of automobile factories with these parts.
In the early part of 1910 the Peru Commercial Club collected sta- tistics relating to the number of people employed in the manufactur- ing establishments of the city. Their investigation showed that in the leading factories 4,500 people were employed and the monthly pay roll amounted to a little over $210,000. Since then there have been but few changes in the situation. A few factories have increased their
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working force but others have made corresponding reductions so that the number of operatives and the amount of the monthly payroll remains practically the same. These figures did not include the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad shops, nor any of the factories that employed less than twenty-five people.
The last published report of the state bureau of inspection gives the following list of Peru factories, with the number of employes in each: Automatic Sealing Vault Company (concrete burial vaults), 6; Booth Furniture Company, 108; C. H. Brownell, 41; Canal Elevator Company, 10; Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad shops, 325; Chute & Butler Company, 67; Fox Brothers, 75; Great Western Automobile Company, 43; Hagenback & Wallace Shows, 500; Indiana Manufacturing Com- pany, 367; Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, 149; Model Gas Engine Company, 125; Moeck & Redmon Basket Company, 58; Otis Elevator Company, 105; Peru Auto-Parts Company, 68; Peru Basket Company, 68; Peru Canning Company, 266; Peru Chair Company, 51; Peru Electric Company, 70; Peru Gas Company, 13; Peru Ice and Cold Storage Company, 11; Standard Cabinet Manufacturing Com- pany, 78; Wilkinson & Pomeroy (planing mill), 18; Wabash Railroad Company, 1,222. In addition to the above concerns the bureau also inspected and reported upon a number of other employing concerns and giving the number of employees in each. Among them were two cigar factories, 16 employees; three coal and lumber companies, 38; three dry-goods and department stories, 70; two clothing stores, 22; six hotels and restaurants, 78; two laundries, 30; one transfer company, 11; five contractors and builders, 145; three bakeries, 35; and a number of miscellaneous small concerns that employed in the aggregate about 100 more.
THE OIL FIELD
No history of the industrial and commercial resources of the county would be complete without some account of the discovery of oil at Peru in 1897 and the excitement which followed. When the gas well was sunk in the northern part of the city in 1887 a small quantity of oil was found and the prediction was then made that oil would some day be found in paying quantities. But the prospectors just then were looking for gas and no attention was paid to the small quantity of petroleum.
In the spring of 1897, when it was realized that the supply of natural gas would not last much longer, about one hundred citizens, headed by David H. Strouse, formed a tentative organization, known
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as the People's Oil Company, to bore for oil. The first well was bored on the B. E. Wallace farm, just east of the Mississinewa river and proved to be a "dry hole." That well was paid for by each member of the company contributing ten dollars and the fund was exhausted in drilling the well. Then five-dollar subscriptions were taken to drill a well on a three-cornered tract of land belonging to A. N. Dukes "just north of the end of Miami street and near the boulevard." Some of the old stockholders in the original arrangement did not contribute to the drilling of this well, but when oil was struck on July 19, 1897, they claimed to be members of the company and hur- ried to pay their five dollars each, in order to retain their member- ship in what looked like a winning game.
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