History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I, Part 64

Author: Green, George E
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 636

USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 64

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The Vincennes Tractor Company, one of the city's most recent indus- tries, was incorporated May 10, 1911, and is capitalized at $50,000. The officers of the company, who are virtually its promotors, are J. Napier Dyer, president ; Frank L. Oliphant, vice president ; Benjamin F. Nesbitt, treas- urer ; James Bradley, secretary. The other stockholders are Edward Wat-

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son, Eugene Hack, Charles Bierhaus, Anton Simon, Herman Brokhage, Ray A. Graham, Jos. L. Ebner, H. B. Davis, R. M. Robinson, J. L. Riddle, J. T. Barrett, C. C. Winkler, Wm. McC. Alsop. The company manufac- ture gas engines, to do the work of ordinary traction engines, only the ma- chines have greater horsepower and are geared for higher speed than the latter. In addition to hauling ten to twelve heavily-laden wagons over the road, the tractor engine is constructed to furnish motor power for threshing machines, corn shredders, etc. It is especially built for field work in draw- ing heavy plows, which are among the company's manufactured products. The tractor plant is one of the costliest manufacturing establishments in the city, costing $175,000. It produces its own electric light and is pro- vided with a great system of water works by means of which it is possible to flood its buildings in case of fire in a very short space of time.

The Vincennes Milk Condensing Company, of which John A. Risch is president and treasurer, and Wm. 'A. Beach, manager, was organized in 1908. Its stockholders are all men prominent in the business life of Vin- cennes. Its plant is as perfect as money and experience can make it, and the milk and cream sold by the company is as pure, sweet and harmless, after passing through the various processes of centrifugalization for the removal of dirt particles, and pasteurization for the extermination of germ life, as the snowflake on the mountain peak-undefiled, uncontaminated. This purity, this excellence and this positive guarantee against disease and death insure a pure food article. Every part of the plant, to which the management invites inspection, will bear the closest scrutiny. It is so per- fect in conception, construction and effectiveness, that the company invites the public to investigate its claims for superiority. And what is true of its cream and milk is also true of its ice cream and butter.

The post office and federal building, erected in 1903-4, is one of the notable institutions of the city which has to do, more or less, with the business and industrial life of Vincennes. It is a substantial-looking stone structure of symmetrical proportions, located at the corner of Busseron and Fifth streets. The post office department, which utilizes the greater por- tion of the building, is open day and night for the accommodation of the public, and has a patronage numbering 35.000 people, of which a large number are residents of the rural districts of Illinois, just across the Wabash. It is built of Bedford stone, and required nearly two years in construction. The collector of internal revenue for the seventh district has headquarters in the building, and his annual collections amount to nearly $5,000.000, the bulk of which is paid by the Murphy Distilling Company, the Old Vincennes Distillery Company and the Eagle Brewery. The first postmaster of Vincennes was General W. Johnson, a distinguished citizen and able man, of whom mention has hitherto been made, and whose com- mission was dated April 1, 1800. His successors, in the order named, have been as follows: Henry Hurst, April 1, 1802; Wm. B. Copeland, July I, 1802; Wm. Prince, January 1, 1803; General W. Johnson, July 1, 1803;

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W'm. Prince, March 31, 1812; John D. Hay, July 1, 1813 : Geo. R. C. Sul- livan, March 8, 1817; Samuel Hill, April 5, 1827 ; Jolin Scott, September 7, 1829; James W. Greenhow, September 27, 1843; Elihu Stout, August 16, 1845; Lewis L. Watson, May 12, 1849; James Dick, March 26, 1853; John Moore, April 6, 1857 ; Hubbard M. Smith, March 28, 1861 ; Wm. N. Denny, April 8, 1869; Wm. D. Lewis, January, 30, 1882; James E. Kackley, May 26, 1885: Allen Tindolph, June 25, 1889; Royal E. Purcell, April 8, 1893; Thomas H. Adams, May 13, 1897; and Jolin W. Emison, January 6, 1906, who is the present incumbent and who was reappointed January 20, 1910. For many years the Vincennes office was the receiving and distributing depot for the whole Northwest Territory, receiving mail matter for adja- cent offices when mailing packages were made up for the important cities of the east. As the north and west became settled it remained a distributing office within circumscribed boundaries of these sections and continued as such until after 1864, when the postmaster's salary was regulated by the amount of matter handled by him. he being allowed a per cent for receiving and remailing the postal material. About this time, says H. M. Smith, the law was changed and the office became a salaried one, the amount being regulated and based upon the local business, and that law still obtains. *During the time that Hubbard M. Smith held the position of postmaster, the money order business was established, and the postmaster was allowed a small per cent upon the number of orders issued, this being the only per- quisite additional to his salary. When the office was a per cent one, says Smith, unless the sum exceeded $5,000 per annum, the postmaster received only the per cent, let it be little or much, without any allowance for clerk hire; if the business exceeded $5,000, then he received a $5,000 salary and clerk hire. According to our informant, this law was unjust and inequit- able, inasmuch as the postmaster was sometimes required to pay out almost as much for assistance as his personal salary amounted to. During the Civil war, when the mails became heavy, $300 was allowed for a clerk. The business demanded two assistants, and the postmaster was expected to make up the deficiencies for clerk hire from his own pocket. During the first years of the Civil war the postmaster paid out nearly all he received as salary from the government for the clerical force of the office, and but a mere pittance remained for his own services. But about 1867, the post- master, in making his quarterly report, increased his expense account $90, and the department was kind and considerate enough to allow same in his annual settlement. "As a matter of history," says Dr. Smith, "the writer should add a word about 'shin plasters,' as our postal currency was de- nominated during the Civil war. Some of the old inhabitants will remem- ber that after the war had well commenced, all gold disappeared from cir- culation, and soon followed the disappearance of silver coin. The people were put to such straits for small change that a few men issued personal

*H. M. Smith, Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes, page 87.

CITY HALL AND PUBLICLIBRARY

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checks, from five cents up to fifty, one Watson, at Terre Haute, and one James, at Rockport, I think, supplying the demand. The government at last came to the rescue and issued postal currency of the denomination of five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents. A batch of $6,000 was sent to the postmaster here and he was held responsible for the same, in good money, whether it was burned or stolen. It was to be given out to business men for greenbacks as change. It did not prove a bonanza to the postmaster. But the tale is too long to tell, and I will only cite the reader to what was one of the 'tales of woe' incident thereto. In those days the older citizens will remember that the only money in circulation was greenbacks and postal currency, individual promissory notes, and counterfeit bills were not un- frequent ; and all mutilated bills, whether treasury notes or postal bills, were required to be accepted for postage stamps by the postmaster, he being ordered so to do, and to transmit the same by mail to the treasurer of the United States, who was to return a draft in exchange for same to the post- master. Postmaster Smith, by order, was compelled to comply with this unjust ruling as will be shown. He was fortunate in getting equivalents back after transmissions generally, but he was 'left with the pouch to hold' on one batch sent off to the amount of $43. Although sent from his office in a through brass lock pouch for Indianapolis, the mail train was burned on which this pouch was being carried, and because no speck of the bills was found by the special mail agent, W. N. Tyner, refusal was made of payment to the postmaster. It was proved by witnesses that the money was mailed, and that it was wholly burned, but because no vestige of the bills was found Uncle Sam, who 'is rich enough to give us all a farm,' through his overserupulous Secretary of the Treasury Spinner, denied jus- tice to the postmaster. After many years, when principal and interest amounted to nearly $100, the congressman from the Vincennes district suc- ceeded in getting a bill for reimbursement before the House to the point of having it printed, and there it stuck. Correspondents all over the country took up the case, and all said a long deferred just bill was about to be paid by the government, in which opinion they lamentably erred. 'Corpora- tions have no souls,' it is said, and the only consolation that the then post- master now has left to him in his declining years, is the knowledge of his having stock in the father of all corporations-the United States Govern- ment-and he can advisedly say 'this is my government, if he is but a small junior partner.' His first experience in postage tax, says Dr. Smith, where the amount was paid in money (it being prior to the time of stamps), and according to the distance the letter was carried, when under 600 miles, and near that, was twenty-five cents per half ounce. Not having sent letters a distance exceeding 600 miles, the highest cost to him was that sum from Kentucky to Missouri. The drop in postage, from twenty-five cents for 600 miles, to two cents from San Francisco to Europe, a distance of at least 6,000 miles, is very perceptible, to say the least."

The Vincennes Board of Trade. with which body the Merchants' and

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Manufacturers' Association and the North End Commercial Club acts in conjunction, was organized in 1883, when N. F. Dalton was elected presi- dent, Edward Watson, vice president, George M. Oxford, secretary, L. A. Wise, assistant secretary, and Jos. L. Bayard, treasurer. The first board of directors of the organization were John H. Rabb, Gustave Weinstein, Peter R. McCarthy, E. M. Thompson and Ed. H. Smith. In 1885 Edward Wat- son became president of the board, and filled that office for twenty-five years, during which time, through his personal and individual efforts, the institu- tion did remarkably good work for the city by inducing manufactories to lo- cate here and in otherwise bringing about results having a tendency to pro- mote the growth and prosperity of the city. Owing to the pressure of busi- ness engagements Mr. Watson resigned as the executive head of the or- ganization in January, 1910, William H. Vollmer becoming his successor. Mr. Vollmer, who resigned his position in January, 1911, to take up the duties of Treasurer of the State of Indiana a month later, proved himself to be a valuable man as president of the board. An illustration of this fact was had less than six months after he accepted the office at a meeting called by him and held in the Grand Opera House, when $90,000 for a factory fund was raised in ninety minutes. Three days later the amount was in- creased to $100,000. These are startling figures, indicating the enterprising, liberal and progressive spirit of the people of New Vincennes. As colossal as they seem, they are not more astounding than $130,000-the gross amount raised within six days for the erection of a Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation building, after Major Wm. Penn Gould contributed $50,000 to- wards the enterprise.

Vincennes is not doing small things these days. Besides voting $160,- 000 for interurban subsidies and assenting to the county commissioner ap- propriating $50,000 for a soldiers' monument she has under consideration the building of a complete system of sewerage to cost a half million dol- lars and the construction of paved streets calling for the expenditure of many thousands.

And these are some of the reasons tending to show that there is no place in the West which offers better advantages in all departments of ac- tive life than the Old Post. To-day Vincennes is one of the most pro- gressive and energetic towns in the state; and there is no reason why she should not be. With a population of 20,000 souls, comprising the most intelligent and thrifty people to be found in any community, business men's clubs having the moral and material support of the better element of citi- zens, bent on harmonizing, multiplying and developing her commercial, manufacturing and industrial interests, she is bound to forge to the front. In the midst of one of the finest agricultural sections in the world, with other natural advantages that few localities possess, educational opportuni- ties unsurpassed, religious and social conditions equaled by but few cities of her size, a climate of salubrity that imparts a perpetual and healthful glow to the cheek, with raw materials of all kinds easily accessible, with

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transportation facilities as good, if not better, than any other city in the country, and low freight rates which correspond with the schedules made for larger shipping points, she holds out superior inducements as a place in which to live and pursue business avocations, or to settle down to a life of elegant ease. She has attained proportions that permit her citizens to build homes on the gentle bluffs forming the banks of the Wabash, or upon the graceful hills further to the north, east and south, which localities provide most beautiful sites for private residences and are gradually be- ing selected for that purpose. It is doubtful, indeed, if a more finely-pro- portioned division of river bluff, bottom and gently-rising uplands exist anywhere for the location of a bristling city.

If Vincennes had no other features of attractiveness aside from the rich and inexhaustible coal fields by which she is surrounded, she would still be more inviting to manufacturers than many towns which are clamoring for them by attempting to portray advantages they do not possess and offering inducements they can not deliver. The extensiveness of the coal fields have enabled the railroads to give manufacturers a thirty cent rate on that product to this point. It has made freight rates from Vincennes to New York practically the same as they are from Chicago to New York.

But coal is not the only desideratum to manufacturing establishments Vincennes has to offer. Natural gas as fuel has supplanted coal to a very great extent, and manufacturers who formerly used coal in unlimited quan- tities have learned that gas is cheaper and more desirable in other respects. Oil, which is obtained just across the river in such enormous quantities that an attempt to estimate its volume would be simply futile, could be substi- tuted as fuel for both coal and gas in the event that either became ex- hausted; of which there is no likelihood, at least in the near future.

Oil is as essential to the manufacturing world as a tail is to a kite. And reference to the oil fields, of which Vincennes is only on the outer edge and, in all probability above the surface of the same pool that under- lies Bridgeport, is apropos at this juncture. To those who have never given more than ordinary thought to oil production, and the immense for- tunes that have been made and lost in handling the product, the figures will appear amazing, if not preposterous. Comparatively few people who have now been living in the Bridgeport oil fields (from which Vincennes de- rives incalculable benefits) for about five years realize the enormity of the industry, which has increased the land values of every acre of ground in Lawrence county more than one hundred per cent. The Bridgeport oil fields, within a few miles of Vincennes, are the most wonderful in the world, not only on account of their great productiveness, and because every well in the field possesses ten different formations of producing sand-(vir- tues not found elsewhere)-but because the volume of production is almost uniform from day to day and the staying qualities of each well is ever present. The first well in the Bridgeport field is just five years old, having been brought in by Gibson, Veach & Miller in May, 1906, on the farm of

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Casper Lewis-an 80-acre tract, now having twelve or fourteen wells which have netted the owner over $200,000 in royalties. The O'Donnell farm, on which the first well was sunk about four and a half years ago, has netted the owner in royalties $300,000. As yet this land-which comprises 160 acres- has not been fully developed, having only twenty wells producing from 1200 to 1500 barrels per day. The Thorne farm, not at all desirable for agricultural purposes, yields its $400 per day in oil royalties. "Doc" Rogers, who was a teamster in poor circumstances before the boom struck his neigh- borhood, is receiving $4,000 a month off of thirty acres. Oscar Smith, from a sixty-acre lease, is collecting $200 a day. Miss Jennie Seed, with only twenty acres, is making $125 a day, and Isaac Boyd, Lute Miller, O. Baltzel, Joseph Griggs, F. P. Eshleman, and hundreds of others are receiving royalties from small and unproductive farms averaging from $120 to $450 per day.

The aggregate amount of money invested in pipe lines in Lawrence county will run up into millions of dollars. The Indian and Central refining companies have $5,000,000 invested in their plants. The Ohio Oil Com- pany's station, equipped with the largest pump in the world, having a capac- ity of 45,000 barrels per day, pumps oil direct to the Atlantic coast. Three contractors employed to drill wells in the Bridgeport fields use a hundred sets of tools valued at $350,000, and they pay experts for manipulating them over $2,000 per day. There are nineteen miles in the chain of wells on sectional farms in Lawrence county without a single break, many of the wells producing 1000 and some of them from 1200 to 1500 barrels daily. Two fast trains of five coaches each run on time from Vincennes every day for the transportation of men and machinery to and from the oil fields. Most of the machinery used, however, is obtained from four machine shops in the field, which manufacture engines and boilers, repair the same, and do heavy welding and blacksmithing, being equipped with steam hammers and electric cranes. These four plants, with their stock and appurtenances, are valued at $300,000. There are also five supply stores in Bridgeport en- gaged in selling pipes, fittings, etc., which carry stock valued at $500,000. Five lumber yards furnish the material for constructing tanks and rigs, and from $25,000 to $35,000 per day is paid to tank builders. In the neigh- borhood of 1500 wells are located in Lawrence county, and it cost $7,500,- 000 to drill them, while it cost $2,250,000 to build tanks to receive the oil. Since oil was first struck in the Bridgeport field over $5,000,000 have been paid land owners in bonuses, and the royalties paid them on the production of the wells will total the enormous sums of $35,000,000 or $40,000,000, the Standard Oil Company alone paying from $35,000 to $40,000 per day to different oil producers. Fifteen hundred dollars a day is paid to teamsters. Roustabouts laborers earn $75,000 per month, and for the same period pumpers and superintendents receive $200,000. The reader has only been given an insight into the Bridgeport oil fields from a monetary stand- point. Attention has been called to this particular feature of the industry because it has, or, at least, did have, a direct bearing upon the commercial

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life of Vincennes. Had the aforesaid fields not been in operation the panic of 1907-8, which was not noticeable in this city, would have made in all probability its presence keenly felt.

The future of Vincennes is assured, and it is only a question of time until she will rank with the leading cities of Indiana. We therefore drop the curtain on the scenes of sadness, darkness, despair, grandeur, good- ness and glory characterizing the Vincennes of the past, and by the shades of the illustrious dead, through whose deeds of valor, patriotism and love of country we are permitted to enjoy the blessings that came from them to us as a nation, state and municipality, urge you of to-day to defend, uphold and protect these sacred heritages, and to extol the beauties and advantages of the old town, whose present fame and future glory will add greater lustre to the chapters of her brilliant history.

NOV 1 8 1931

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History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I, Part 64

Author: Green, George E Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 636

Author: Green, George E
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 636