USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 23
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John H. Barker, President, Elected 1883, W. J. McBride, Vice President, Elected 1907, Charles Porter, Secretary, Elected Jan, 30, 1907,
In 1852 the first railroad passed through Michigan City, on its twentieth birthday, one night say, when Indiana and the rest of the western world was young. But this youth was full of vigor. the country was eager for railroads, which meant prosperity, the railroads needed equipment for their rushing trade. One road east
ran and west, busy with the up-building of the even newer Mississippi Valley; in 1853 another ran to Michigan City from the south, bringing purchasers and settlers to the doors and carrying away what the busy merchants offered for sale. Lake Michigan was already active with ves- sels and an occasional steamer transport- ing goods to this market and encourag- ing the search for the natural riches along the shores. Here was timber within easy reach, iron to the north and coal to the south,-everything for their manufacture, yet cars were purchased and brought from five hundred miles away.
Here was opportunity. Demand was increasing, supply was inadequate, and at the proper moment opportunity was seized. The Monon-The New Albany
and Salem, The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad, The Chicago, In . dianapolis and Louisville Railway, as it has progressively been called-had de- cided to reach Michigan City in 1853, but even before that date it knew that it wanted freight cars; three young men from Ogdensburg, New York, wanted work, and they hurried out of the east to begin a larger business.
In 1852, which date marks the founda- tion of the present corporation, the firm name was Sherman, Haskell & Com- pany, composed of Dr. Mason C. Sher- man, Frederick Haskell, and his brother- in-law, Hiram Aldridge.
The firm put up crude buildings on a piece of ground of about two acres, bounded by Sixth street on the north, Seventh street on the south, Elstou street in the east and the Monon right of way on the west, which had been pur- chased by them. Michigan City was at that time a struggling city of perhaps fifteen hundred, and had survived the period of early booms, had kept alive during the panic of 1837 and the exodus to California of 1849, and was now slow- ly entering upon a career of steady and
HASKELL & BARKER CAR COMPANY -- BIRDSEYE VIEW OF PLANT TAKEN FROM TOP OF HOOSIER SLIDE
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
I87
well founded prosperity. The days when all traffic was on Lake Michigan or in schooners across the prairies and through the woods of Indiana, were passing though not yet gone, and the new life of the railway was still a nov- elty. It had not yet been decided that the railway was to become the mighty force in commerce as we know it today.
In 1855 Dr. Sherman retired, and in
pendent and began work in a store to learn the details of business with E. J. M. Hale.
After three years in Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, he decided to go west, and thus, after gaining experience in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, where he was em- ployed in dry goods houses, he came, finally, in the spring of 1836, to Michi- gan City. Here he met his cousin, Jacob Carter, with whom he formed a partner- ship for general merchandising under
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HASKELL
ND
BARK
VIEW IN PLANING MILL
his place came new energy and a new name, that of John Barker, a pioneer resident of Michigan City.
John Barker was born in Andover, Massachusetts, December 14, 1814, of New England Puritan stock. He was brought up on a farm, the youngest of eight sons and three daughters. As a boy he went to public school and later to Phillips Academy at Andover, but at eighteen he left home to become inde-
the firm name of Carter & Barker.
At the end of three years he bought out his cousin's interest and formed a new partnership with William Best. Bar- ker & Best continued from 1839 till the illness of Mr. Best compelled him to retire.
Mr. Barker had found Michigan City a frontier village at the head of Lake Michigan; in it he had weathered the panic of 1837 and the unprogressive days thereafter, but he liked life here,
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
and he was determined to make more than a country town of his selected home. He had been one of the leading citizens to push the harbor works when the government made no progress with it, he had foreseen the advantages to be obtained from the coming railroads, and he had been among the first and most energetic subscribers to stock.
In 1852 he associated with C. E. De- Wolfe in partnership, but only for the purpose of retiring from general busi-
In 1869 John H. Barker, the son, as- sumed the direct management of the Haskel & Barker Car Company and John Barker, the father, retired from the active business, removed to Chicago, where he made his home till his death on March 21, 1878. It is to the memory of John Barker that this record of forty-five years of industrial activity is dedicated. When Mr. Barker joined it, the firm'
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VIEW IN PATTERN SHOP
ness to give himself to the larger inter- ests which demanded his time and atten- tion. He was then a shipper of grain, he had elevators and a pier of his own, and his affairs had made him acquainted with the growing activities of the whole west. He soon saw the value of the new industry and, on the retirement of Dr. Sherman in 1855, Mr. Barker purchased a third interest. From that moment on, the history of the car works is indissolu- bly connected with the life of John Barker.
became Haskell, Barker & Aldridge. They were ambitious, and besides freight cars they made passenger coach- es. Then they added to their output threshing machines of the Woodbury patent, hand corn shellers, and reapers of the J. J. Mann patent, which was at that time a machine popular in Indiana, the home of its inventor.
But the panic of 1857 prostrated the business of the country and threatened :o
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NOON HOUR IN THE ERECTING SHOP
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
end their infant industry. There was nothing to do.
In 1858 Mr. Aldridge retired, and the firm now became HASKELL & BARKER. In spite of hard times Mr. Barker would not give up; he had begun to make freight cars.
For two years more the firm continued manufacturing freight cars according to the demand of the time. Their output in
eral manager was filled by John H. Bar- ker, the son, on the retirement of John Barker, the father.
John H. Barker was born in Michigan City, February 4, 1844, in a house which is still standing. He attended Racine College two years and a half, and at the age of eighteen went to Chicago and en- tered the grocery house of J. H. Dun- ham; he was later with Pollard &
VIEW IN MACHINE SHOP (AXLE TURNING AND MACHINE BORING)
1860 was at the most only a few cars a month ; they employed a force of 60 men, they had small buildings occupied by the shops and the factory covered an area of two acres.
In 1869 Haskell & Barker were mak- ing two cars a day and they occupied buildings covering two acres. The mark- ed growth of the company may be dated from this year, when the position of gen-
Doane, but in 1864 went to Springfield, Illinois, to start the wholesale grocery of Smith & Barker; he moved to Chicago again in 1867, establishing the wholesale grocery of Meeker & Barker, but in 1869 he came to his home in Michigan City. and has ever since been connected with the car company.
In 1871 the firm was incorporated as THE HASKELL & BARKER CAR COMPANY, the name by which it has from that date
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
191
been known. At the time of its incor- poration Frederick Haskell was made President, John Barker Treasurer, and Nathaniel P. Rogers Secretary. John H. Barker was the actual manager although without title until the office was created in June, 1879.
In 1879 the Haskell & Barker Car Company had increased their capacity so that they had 500 men on the pay rolls,
countant, and remained with it through- out its long career till the time of his death. Mr. Rogers was born in Plym- outh, New Hampshire, November 22, 1838, of illustrious American ancestry. His great grandfather, the Reverend John Rogers, was graduated from Har- vard College in 1732. His grandfather, Dr. John Rogers, was graduated from Harvard in 1776, and moved to Plym- outh, New Hampshire, in 1781. His father, Dr. Samuel Rogers, studied and
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VIEW IN WOOD SHOP
and their output was 1,000 cars a year. 'i ney had long ago given up the con- struction of anything except freight cars.
In 1883 Frederick Haskell retired by the sale of his interests, and John H. Barker became President, with Nathaniel P. Rogers Secretary and Treasurer, who remained in this position until his death.
In 1864 Nathaniel P. Rogers became connected with the company as an ac-
practiced medicine there. His uncle, for whom he was named, was not only a dis- tinguished lawyer by profession but was known throughout the United States as a philanthropist; he was editor of the New Hampshire Statesman and was as- sociated with William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and Horace Greeley in the abolition movement ; writing, his non de plume was "The Old Man of the Mountains." Mr. Nathaniel Peabody Rogers had a wide acquaintance in the
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
country, and thousands of men and firms having business with him felt that, by his matchless tact in conducting corre- spondence, they had come into close touch with him. His counsel was of great value, his judgment was of the best and he was a potent factor in bring- ing the Haskell & Barker Car Company into its present condition. He saw the car works grow from infancy to strong manhood, and he gave a fostering care to the interests of Michigan City also. He was always foremost in inaugurating and carrying forward any beneficial ob- ject, in public enterprises he was one of the first to be called, and without his untiring energy the city would have lack- ed many of its attractions and adorn-
The Haskell & Barker Car Company is the most complete factory for the con- struction of freight cars in the United States, and employs more men than any manufacturing establishment in the state of Indiana. Its plant covers more than one hundred acres, it has three thousand five hundred men on a pay roll approxi- mating $150,000.00 a month, uses one hundred million feet of lumber, one hun- dred and fifty thousand tons of iron for wheels, axles, plates, bars, structural ma- terial and- other minor items, seventy- five thousand tons of coal, of which twen- ty-five thousand tons come from Indiana
VIEW OF BLACKSMITH SHOP
ments today. Mr. Rogers died univers- ally loved and mourned, on Saturday, December Ist, 1906.
In 1903 the payroll was $100,000.00 a month, they had 2,200 employees, and a yearly capacity of 10,667 cars.
On January 30, 1907, Mr. Charles Porter was elected Secretary, and the same year Mr. W. J. McBride, formerly Vice President of the American Car and Foundry Company, was elected to fill the newly created office of Vice Presi- dent of the Haskell & Barker Car Com- pany.
mines, and can count its output at 15,000 cars a year.
If placed on one track these freight cars would form a solid train one hun- dred and twenty miles long, stretching two times between Michigan City and Chicago; and, reckoning forty tons to a car, would carry in one load the entire United States Navy with its six hundred thousand tons displacement.
Here there is less assembling done than in other plants, because everything is made on the spot excepting springs, axles which are forged in the rough else-
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
where, and couplers which are supplied by the railroads ordering the cars.
Within the yards are forty-five build- ings consecutively numbered, and the freight car in its manufacture passes through many of them before it is finish- ed. The five great departments are called :
THE FOUNDRIES,
THE IRON WORKING SHOPS, THE WOOD WORKING SHOPS, THE ERECTING SHOPS, THE PAINT SHOPS.
Besides these, are :
THE PATTERN DEPARTMENT,
The Wheel Foundry has a capacity of 450 33-in. wheels a day, averaging in weight 650 pounds each.
The Gray Foundry has a capacity of 50 tons a day.
The Brass Foundry has a capacity of five tons a day.
In the Malleable Foundry five open hearth and four reverberating furnaces are used for melting, with a melting ca- pacity of ten to twenty-five tons each ; there are also 30 annealing ovens with a capacity ranging from fifteen to twenty- five tons each. In the open hearth fur- naces producer gas is used, which is
a
RIVETING SHOP
THE REPAIR DEPARTMENT,
THE YARDS.
THE FOUNDRIES.
Wm. Hamilton, Superintendent.
Today the Foundries are composed of the Malleable Iron Foundry begun fif- teen years ago, the Wheel Foundry, the Gray Iron Foundry, and the Brass Foun- dry. They occupy six buildings and em- ploy 800 men including night and day forces, with ten foremen and five clerks for record and time keeping work.
The Malleable Iron Foundry has a capacity of 140 tons a day.
made in the company's own gas plant.
In the Wheel Foundry are operated two 92-in. cupolas and 170 annealing pits.
In the Gray Tron Shop one 72-in. cupola is used for melting.
In the Brass Foundry an Air Refining Furnace is used.
One hundred and fifty tons of coal are consumed each day in the Foundries, while ninety tons of brick are each week required to keep the ovens in repair.
THE IRON WORKING SHOPS.
The Iron Working Shops employ 500
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
men, occupying six buildings, and are composed of the Blacksmith Shop, the Machine Shop and the Structural Steel Working Shop.
The Blacksmith Shop is divided into the departments for Wrought Iron Forg- ings, the Bolt-making department, and the Riveting department.
In the department for Wrought Iron Forgings ten of the old men blacksmiths
One large pair of rolls for making levers, and
One machine for making nuts.
In the Bolt-making department, are : Thirteen bolt heading machines, Four shearing machines, and Three eye-bender machines.
In the Riverting department are :
Three hydraulic riveting machines, and
A
VIEW IN THE BOLT THREADING SHOP
are retained, but the mechanical equip- ment consists of eight Bradley hammers, four large steam hammers and one drop hammer of 1100 pounds. There are :
Five bending machines called Bulldoz- ers, one of which bends a sheet of iron Io inches by 11/2 to the shape required, Two large forging machines,
Two large shearing machines, One large straightening machine,
Eleven compressed air riveting ma- chines.
In the Machine Shop are made all rod iron materials for the cars ; here all dril- ling, punching and work of this nature is done, and here the rough axles are finished, and the wheels placed on them.
The equipment consists of :
Fifteen lathes for the axles, and Six boring machines for the wheels.
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POURING METAL
THE BULLDOZER
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
THE WOOD WORKING SHOPS.
All the timber is cut to size before it reaches the factory, but here it is pre- pared and made ready for assembling. There are fifteen boilers and six engines, and two air compressers, supplying pow- er by which the material is lifted and the machinery operated.
The Wood Working Shops have two divisions, that for
Heavy Wood Work and
The Planing Mill.
In the Heavy Wood Work division are about 225 men in one building. These men operate
building over fifteen hundred feet long.
The processes in assembling and con- struction are :
The making of truck,
Of bodies,
Of frames, and
Of roofs.
One thousand men are engaged in these processes. The trucks are put to- gether at one end of the building, and upon them is laid the floor from timbers already furnished to size from the Wood Working Shop. On the floor is erected the body of the car with its wood and iron rods and braces; the car is then
ERECTING SHOP
Ten saws (by electricity). Six timber planers, Six hollow chisel mortises, and Thirty boring machines.
In the Planing Mill are one hundred men in one building, who operate : Fourteen planers, Six cut-off saws, and Three rip saws.
THE ERECTING SHOPS.
Here the car itself is made. After the wheels are cast, and the now finished axles are fitted to them they are dragged into this erecting or setting up shop, a
posted, as making the frame is called The roof is constructed separately and carried on an overhead trolley to the body, upon which it is properly adjusted.
THE PAINT SHOPS.
Each car receives the first rough coats of paint, then the finishing coat of the color preferred by the road to which the car goes. The final touch is given by the stencil, which letters the road's name, its official number, capacity and size, and the manufacturer's name.
The wheels, before they are accepted by their purchasers, are subjected to pre-
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THE HASKELL & BARKER CAR COMPANY OFFICE
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
cise analytical and physical tests estab- lished by the companies to whom they are sold, and their average life is weil understood, but wheels have been known to run 200,000 miles before being de- clared unsafe. In special wheels for fast or time freight cars, a mileage guaranty is given to cover 60,000 miles. A thirty ton car takes a 600 pound wheel, a forty ton car a 650 pound wheel, and a fifty ton car a 700 pound wheel.
THE PATTERN DEPARTMENT.
Patterns for all pieces used, and for every railroad ordering cars, are kept here classified and labeled. Two build- ings are reserved for the purpose, and twenty pattern makers are engaged.
JACOB SEEGER, OLDEST FOREMAN
THE PAINT MILL
THE REPAIR DEPARTMENT.
Three buildings and a force of 100 men are necessary to keep in order the apparatus of the shops. Everything used by a machinist, a carpenter, a tinsmith and a mason is here repaired or replen- ished, and the cars themselves, if they seem defective, are given a final over- hauling, but seldom are cars repaired after having left the yards, since they then receive, in the shop of the purchas- ing railroad, any attention required.
THE YARDS.
Within the Yards is a complete rail- road system of itself. Five hundred men, four engines, twenty-four horses and IIO cars are used in the various activities
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
199
connected with the construction of a freight car.
The average number of outside cars unloaded a month, with material pur- chased for supplies, may be taken as II25, in the proportion almost of one car of coal to four of lumber and seven of iron.
The Haskell & Barker Car Company plant is a city. Here is a complete gas
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ED KENT, OLDEST EMPLOYE
plant, electric power station, independent telephone service and fire plant.
Among these three thousand five hun- dred employees are a few who saw the earlier cars turned out before the civil war. Jake Seeger entered the service in 1859, a lad of fourteen, fresh from Germany; he joined the army in 1861, but soon after returned to the company
A FINISHED GONDOLA
and has been with it ever since. 'Old man' Ed Kent came here in 1860, and excepting for four years of the war has been continuously on the payrolls. Oth- ers can number their forty years, and their children add their energies to that of the parents. Some of the older ent- ployees are disappearing ; only last year, on April 29, 1906, the consulting en- gineer, H. C. Williamson, passed away. He was born in Kiel, Germany, of old Danish stock from the Baltic, July 12, 1836. He came to the United States when sixteen years old, working as a machinist in Cincinnati and elsewhere, but in 1870 he began work at the fac- tory ; he was advanced from foreman of the foundries to the position he occupied at his death. Many of the patents owned by the Haskell & Barker Company he alone, or with the cooperation of Her- man Pries, now general superintendent. invented and the industry owes much to his creative skill.
100000
GREAT NORTHERN
A FINISHED BOX CAR
VIEW IN PRESIDENT BARKER'S PRIVATE OFFICE, SHOWING HIM IN CONFERENCE WITH VICE PRESIDENT McBRIDE
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THE LATE N. P. ROGERS.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
Instances of two generations working side by side are not uncommon, and three generations have at the same time responded to the morning whistle. This note has been sounded almost every working day for fifty-five years.
From the first, in 1852, many of the
This personal interest extends not only to the employees, but through them to the place itself, where they live. There is this advantage over a large city, that the factory is not lost in its surround- ings. No attempt is made here to super- vise or to influence the life outside work-
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PAINT SHOP
employees were of sturdy German stock, and their descendants have spread from here over a great part of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. In later years the migra- tion has been rather from eastern Eu- rope and even from Syria, but each workman receives the courtesy which is his due.
ing hours, but Michigan City would not be what it is if this industry were not a part of it. The streets, the parks, the churches and the library and the hos- pitals are models of their kind, and everything has its share in the prosperity of the Haskell & Barker Car Company.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Conclusion.
The historical part of this work now approaches its conclusion. Much that might have been written must be passed over for want of space, but in the pre- ceding chapters it has been shown that Michigan City is "a city not without foundations," for it was born of a defi- nite plan and purpose and its location was chosen for particular reasons. The little stream which came down from the interior marshes to the sandy platform on the lake and offered at its mouth the most favorable site for a harbor and commercial city which Indiana possessed on its limited coast attracted the atten- tion of public men throughout the state. For years uncounted the spot had been a camping ground on an important trail when the French first came to it and gave the stream its picturesque name, Riviere du Chemin, the river by the trail, which very probably was a translation of the Miami Indian name for the creek. The Miamis were at that time in posses- sion of the region, having been settled there for several years. When they re- tired before the advance of the Pottawat- tomies their name for the stream was lost, but the new tribe at once adopted the name of the French, translating it into the Pottawattomie tongue as Me- ch-wy, and so it was known in the tribe for more than a hundred years. The Americans on their arrival, after strug- gling with the French name for a time in various corrupt forms, such as Dish- maugh, finally converted it into good En- glish and called it Trail Creek.
Here Elston placed his town, knowing that a city must grow up on the spot. He and his associates did not feel that the choice of the place as the seat of justice of the new county was essential to the ultimate success of the enterprise, for that rested upon the harbor and the great state road leading to it from the interior, but it was felt that such a choice would be an advantage and at first it was thought to be practically assured be- cause there seemed to be no reason why any other town in the county should ap- proach this one in size and importance. When Bishop Davenport, in 1832, was gathering the material for his "Pocket Gazetteer, or Traveller's Guide through North America and the West Indies," published in 1833 and extensively used by emigrants and prospectors, he receiv- ed at Indianapolis such information as to lead him to insert this notice: "Mich- igan, town and capital LaPorte Co., Ia .. " and in the notice of the county on an- other page he said, "County town, Mich- igan." This hopeful anticipation of the fact was doomed to disappointment, but doubtless it expressed the prevailing opinion at the state capital at the time.
The main point was that in the steady growth of the state from south to north, from the waters of the Ohio to the open navigation of the lake, a great city was bound to spring up at the point designat- ed by the Michigan Road survey as the most eligible for a commercial port. The settlement of Madison began in 1811, Indianapolis was laid out as the capital
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INTERIOR OFFICE VIEWS HASKELL & BARKER CAR CO.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
in 1821 and in 1831 Michigan City was accepted as the third branch of the tripod of prosperity and its destiny was mani- fest.
All this had a modifying influence on the character of the city's founders and pioneer builders. Elston, the originator, Samuel Miller, the first permanent resi- dent and business man, Joseph C. Orr, the first home-builder, and those who in 1833 and in the years following came to join in the commercial and industrial life of the place, were not frenzied specula- tors of the class which was so plentifully represented at that time in the middle west, but they were for the most part sober, calculating men of affairs who had reasoned the thing out and did not depend upon luck for the realization of their hopes. The few speculators who did stop to invest soon moved on to more exciting fields. In the business and social life of the village there was from the first a community of interest and a fixity of purpose which was largely lack- ing in most of the pioneer settlements of that restless and excited era. At the very beginning there was a feeling of permanence and of certainty, evidenced by the establishment of cultured homes, of schools, churches and social institu- tions, of hotels, shops and large stores, and by the undertaking of municipal improvements. Even the buildings dem- onstrated the spirit of the place, for frame houses were put up in the first year of settlement, 1833, and we have seen Charles Cleaver's testimony that in October of that year he found a brick building already occupied. The govern- ment preparations for the construction of the harbor were beginning, the Michi- gan Road was open and in use, a site for a lighthouse had been selected and deeded over and it was an early certainty-all these substantial prospects, together with the rapid settling of the region,
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