History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 52

Author: Bradsby, Henry C
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co.
Number of Pages: 1032

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Overalls, Pants, Shirts, etc .- The factory of Samuel Frank is at 17 South Fifth street. The business was established in 1878. It has a four-story brick building 25x150 feet in dimensions, elevator, etc., and is operated by electric power, furnishing employment to eighty operatives in the building and gives out work to about two hundred others; one of the prosperous institutions of the city.

Carriage Factory .- A. E. Herman. This was commenced in 1886. It occupies a three-story brick 60x150 feet, and has steam power and employs thirty skilled workmen. It is situated 1,001- 1,007 Wabash avenue and 2-22 Tenth street.

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

Clift, & Williams & Co., Planing Mill .- This enterprise was established in a limited way in 1861, by Clift & Williams. In 1880 they were succeeded by Clift, Williams & Co., and in 1888 by the present company. The extensive and modern plant of the company occupies an area of 150x260 feet, upon which are erected a three-story mill 60x90 feet, and a two-story warehouse and office 40x70 feet, the two being connected by a covered bridge at the second floor, and the whole forming one of the most com- plete establishments of the kind in Indiana. The mechanical equipment embraces all the latest improved machinery usual to the trade, operated by a fifty-horse-power steam engine, and the loca- tion of the plant being adjacent to the trunk lines of railroad, affords the most convenient receiving and shipping facilities. Em- ployment is furnished to about seventy-five skilled workmen. The officers of the company are J. H. Williams, president, J. M. Clift, secretary and treasurer.

Cracker and Bread Factory .-- The chief enterprise of this character in this section of the State is that of Messrs. Miller Bros. & Co., which was originally instituted by John Houck, in 1881, the present firm composed of Christian F. and Henry G. Miller, and Christian Hansing, having succeeded to the business in 1882. The firm's factory is in a commodious building, 75x150 feet in dimensions, of which they occupy the entire ground floor for manufacturing purposes. It is equipped with a thirty-horse-power steam engine, a reel oven, and all the latest improved flour-sifting mixing, kneading and cracker-making machinery, having a capacity for converting about fifty barrels of flour daily into bread, crackers, cakes, and fancy biscuits of all kinds, employment being given to about twenty-five operatives, and three teams being required for delivering the product to the trade. It is located 22, 24 and 26 North Sixth street.

Slack-Barrel Factory .- The slack barrel factory of Mr. I. W. Griffith was founded in 1883, and has since been conducted with prosperity and success. The plant covers four city lots, and is con- tiguous to the railroad system of the city, the buildings, two in number, being suitable for the purpose. Thirty-five skilled coop- ers are employed, the products being hand-made flour barrels, and the annual output is about 100,000 barrels, the majority of which are used by the Hudnut Milling Company for their corn goods. It is located on Second street, 605-617.

Straw-Board Factory is situated on the railroad about six miles northeast of Terre Haute, at Ellsworth. It is a very impor- tant affair to our farmers, giving them a market for their straw. When in full operation it employs 125 persons. All the straw- board factories of the country are in the syndicate.

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

Citizens' Gas & Fuel Company .-- Next to the question of plentiful and cheap food comes the question of clothing and fuel. These are the fundamentals of advancing and an ever-growing and broadening civilization. When our naked, wild ancestors, fighting with the brutes for life in the darkest jungles, discovered fire which they originally found by rubbing sticks together, here was the im- measurable first step toward the world's mastery-not by the fierce instincts of destroying, but by the advances to that high, plain where reason, thought, memory and reflection rule with imperial power over all brute force. Heat, simply heat, is one of the most interesting and yet unsolvable problems that has yet confronted the scientific investigators. Is it a law of matter or simply a result? Is it merely a chemical action resulting from certain easily con- trolled conditions ? Is it, in other words, as Tyndall has expressed it, "A mode of motion?" To prevent the waste of artificial heat has been the first great problem in its use and improvements. A hole in the center of the roof was the incipient chimney as the old fire-place was the precursor of the Franklin stove and the fire- box beneath the steam boilers. This is about a parallel of the pine knot and greasy-rag lights that finally led to the electric lights that now fairly turn night into day. The advances here came slowly, but in the work of saving all or a large portion of heat that comes of combustion the discoveries have lagged in a marked degree. The use of steam and machinery has increased immeasurably the needed supply of fuel, and now one of the most important questions is that of cheapening its cost. The development of natural gas supply for both heat and light has brought us anew to the question of cheaper fuel and light outside the gas belts -- which is the world at large, as the natural gas is limited to very small districts, and in addition the supply in the best districts is limited. The failing of the supply of natural gas brings the wits of inventors face to face with the question of finding some cheap substitute to take its place when the wells cease to yield their supplies. When this demand is successfully met the failure of natural gas will not be seriously felt. The elements are full of fuel. They must be gathered, bottled up, as it were, and put to man's use. When a family's domestic fuel costs not hundreds of dollars every year but a few hundred cents, then only will the public rest content.

The Citizens' Gas & Fuel Company of Terre Haute was or- ganized in August, 1890, with the following officers: President, H. B. Townley; vice-president, Anton Hulman; secretary, Willard, Kidder; treasurer, Frank McKeen; superintendent, George B. Burns. Their plant is erected and mains and pipes are laid in the northern portion of the city. The company has the Archer process for

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

making the raw gas, and then the Mckenzie patents to fix, condense and purify it, and render it suitable for light and heating in all domestic purposes. They make a gas of 22-candle power, and for cooking and heating about the same per cent of heat as natural gas. It is intended as a substitute for natural gas, and can be made very cheap. This is a cheap gas made from the crude oil that is found in the wells of Terre Haute, and is intended to be used for lighting, heating houses and in cook stoves.

Tinware .- The Townley Stove Company use the upper floor of their business house in the manufacture of tinware. The company employs about twenty-five men in this department. This house was established in 1878 by Townley Bros., and incorporated as the Town- ley Stove Company in 1888; H. P. Townley, president, and Albert Harstine, secretary.

Piano Manufactory .- This important addition to the city is now erecting their large plant and expect to be able to commence work in the early fall. This is more than merely an accession to Terre Haute of a first-class industry, but it is an important index in the movement of the times. From the east to the west the industrial star, at least, is moving. The land of clocks, wooden nutmegs and wooden gun-flints, will, in a few years, instead of sending its mis- sionary peddlers to the wild west, be sending to our factories for most of the comforts and luxuries of life. The great factories are now going to the sources of supply, and this will soon reverse in toto the old way of shipping the raw material to the eastern factory and then shipping the products back over the same lines of transportation to the market. This old-fashioned process was on a par with the good old way of a stone in one end of the sack and the grain in the other.

Mr. C. J. Cobleigh is the proprietor of a piano case factory in Leominster, Mass., which he has been successfully operating some years. To keep in the fore of the times it became potent to lim that, at least to supply his western trade, it would be policy to estab- lish a factory in the west, and it was but natural that he should select Terre Haute as the eligible point for his new plant. He purchased the ground on Sixteenth and Maple avenue, and work was commenced in the spring of 1890 and are now (August) rapid- ly approaching completion. The entire buildings will cover an area of nearly three acres. The main building is handsome in archi- tectural design and is three stories. Ample steam power will be provided, and all new machinery and latest improvements will be introduced. It is calculated to commence with a force of 250 oper- atives, which will be increased as rapidly as the trade may justify. Mr. Cobleigh brings nothing from the east that enters into his Terre Haute factory except many of his most skilled and trusty employes

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who have been with him for years. These workmen command large salaries and will be a most important addition to the city's popula- tion-men who will own their own homes and who are accustomed to live as well as their employers.

This will be one of the completest factories of the kind in the country. The products will be all kinds of piano cases in the white, ready for varnishing, embracing all the latest designs for the best- grade instruments.

Kester Motor .- Terre Haute is forging to the front among the inventors in the new world of electricity. A most important motive power now being manufactured in this city is the Kester Electric Motor. This important industry has not more than fairly com- menced yet, but bids fair to revolutionize the old-fashioned motive power, and many of our small factories are now using the new mo- tors and pronounce them the best and cheapest in the market.

Buggy Factory .- In a preceding page is an extended account of the Keyes Hub, Spoke & Carriage Factory. In the latter part of July, 1890, owing to the immensity of the growth of busi- ness, it was determined to separate the carriage-making from the original purposes of a hub and spoke factory, and a joint stock company was organized with a capital of $35,000. The new company intends to immediately erect their own plant, leaving the Messrs. Keyes to devote their concern to the wheel business. The officers of the new carriage company are: President, J. H. Williamson; vice-president and general business manager, Lucius Lybrand; secretary and treasurer, D. E. Powers; directors, J. W. Miller, Robert Snider, J. H. Williamson, Lucius Lybrand and D. E. Power. Mr. Peter Husseny, of the Buckeye Buggy Com- pany, at Columbus, Ohio, has been secured as superintendent.

Creamery .- The Fort Harrison Creamery Company had every- thing in order and started in business in the spring of 1890. It. commenced running in a small way, but has ample facilities to increase with the trade to a large concern. Mr. King is president, and gives it his personal supervision.

Artificial Ice .- The Terre Haute Brewing Company put up their ice factory in the spring of 1890 and commenced operations. It is intended to be of thirty-five tons daily capacity.

Soap Factory .- You may, they say, measure any people's civili- zation by the amount of soap they use. It is but natural, Terre . Haute then, should have its own soap factory. Messrs. Grafe & Co. are now successfully making a fine line of toilet soaps. They found it necessary to add this department to their confectionary. Their place is located at 34 North Sixth street.

Riverside Woolen Mills .- This important industry was started

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in 1854, by the late G. F. Ellis, and operated in full to the time of his death, when for about five years they were portions of the time idle, and at times were operated in part only, by the estate. In 1890 an order of the court was secured and the property sold, and a stock company was at once formed with a capital stock of $30,000, all paid up, to remodel and add machinery, etc., and oper- ate the mill. The works were started again in May, 1890, with a force of seventy-five employes. The present capacity is 400,000 pounds of products. It is now making jeans, flannels, blankets and yarns. The machinery for doubling the capacity is purchased, and will be placed in position in the early fall of this year (1890). Officers of the company: Robert Geddes, president; G. Golder, secretary; Frank McKeen, treasurer, and J. W. Johnson, manager. The mill is situated on the corner of First and Walnut streets.

Paper Box Factory, of Elliott Bros. is at Fifth and Cherry streets; have the facilities for making 3,000 boxes per week. Most of these are disposed of in the city, and it is one of the great conveniences of our business men.

Telegraph .- The first telegraph line was strung through Terre Haute in 1849. This was a great day. It frightened the old ladies past whose houses it ran, lest it would tell all the family news, and interested the boys, who would put their ears to the poles and listen to hear the conversations over the wires. Until after the railroads came it was a very primitive affair. Mr. E. L. Norcross, in charge of the commercial office in this city, has been here since 1861. When he came there was one wire, from Cincinnati to St.

Louis. Now there are thirty-seven wires entering the office and five operators are in constant employ.

Business Men's Association has taken the place of the effort to organize a board of trade. This is one of the most useful and effective institutions of the city. It is for the purpose of promoting the general prosperity of the place and to properly encourage men looking for the most eligible business and manufacturing locations to come here. The headquarters are on Wabash avenue in the old Board of Trade rooms and are spacious and elegant. The Board of Trade was organized in 1884 and in 1887 it was succeeded by the Citizens Manufacturing Association, which was in operation two years, and in 1889 the present title was adopted. In it are the leading businesses of the city. The association has done and is doing a great deal to influence capital and manufacturers to come here. The di- rectors are Herman Hulman, John G. Williams, Elisha Havens, A. Hertz, B. G. Hudnut, John W. Cruft and Frank McKeen. The officers; H. Hulman, president, B. G. Hudnut, vice-president, Frank KcKeen, treasurer, and C. M. Thompson, secretary.

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

Terre Haute Water Works .- The plant is located on the river, at the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad crossing. Works were constructed in 1873. The new works, with a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons per day were commenced in 1888, and completed and the water turned on in the summer of 1890. These are as fine wa- ter works as the country affords.

Terre Haute Gas Works, incorporated in 1856, situated on the river, between Poplar and Swan streets. They have the Diall Artesian Well, 2,900 feet bore; commenced furnishing gas in 1858. Officers: Demas Deming, president, J. B. Harris, secretary, Henry Deming, treasurer, W. N. Diall, superintendent; Directors: D. Deming, D. W. Minshall, C. Fairbanks, J. W Cruft, H. S. Deming, M. Diall and I. B. Harris.

Coal .- For those manufactories already in operation and for those that are now being so rapidly added there is abundant cheap fuel. Terre Haute is in the center of one of the most valuable coal fields in America. Indeed the whole area of the city is built over a vast and almost unexhaustible coal deposit, and about her con- fines is found in every direction the hidden sea of coal-coal of every kind and quality except the anthracite. One fact of much significance is that while Vigo county is one entire coal field, yet the celebrated block and splint coal of Clay and Parke counties, and the bituminous coals of Vigo county in the region about the city, are so easy of supply that it may yet be many years before will arise the necessity to go delving and digging in our back yards for the black diamonds that will wait in perpetual patience. The mines that are worked in Vigo county are simply those of easiest access, many of those being strip banks and new ones of this kind are be- ing constantly opened. In 1865 when the oil excitement prevailed, a number of wells was drilled in search of the article. One well was located in the old canal bed near Main and Canal streets, anoth- er in the rear of the Terre Haute House, and a third on the river bank and which is now the artesian well. In each of these a num- ber of coal veins was penetrated. The vein of most importance lies under the city at a depth of 164 feet. Beneath this there are four more strata of coal of the following thickness: three feet nine inches, two feet, three inches and three feet. The upper vein is six feet six inches in thickness, which is thicker than the cele- brated block coal veins. However, because of the proximity of the city to other rich bituminous coal deposits, the mining of the vein would not be profitable, owing to the cheapness of this class of coal in the home market. By referring to a geological map of the ver- tical section of the land between Greencastle and Terre Haute, it was learned that the bituminous seam at Newburg, two miles west

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

of Brazil, is identical with the deposit under the city. The rock formation begins an ascent at the river and continues eastward. A sudden break is made in the coal at Newburg and Brazil, which are only two miles apart. At Brazil block coal is found and the belt extends eastward beyond Harmony. At Newburg, however, the block coal is not found. The subcarboniferous limestone strata which, according to the record of the artesian well bore is 600 feet deep, appears at the surface at Greencastle. It underlies the Bra- zil coal fields. Geologists say that there is no doubt but that the strata of limestone under the city and at Greencastle is identical, and support the statement by citing relative positions of other stra- ta to the subcarboniferous seam. Between the city and Newburg there is an upper vein. It does not reach Newburg, and is cut out before it reaches this city, being found at various points in the bluffs east of the city. From the river west the indications are that the strata begin an ascent. The surface vein east of the city commences again in the bluffs west, and the lower vein is also found. While drilling for water near the west bank of the river about four miles north of the city the six-foot vein was reached at a depth of about 160 or 170 feet. Coal of the bituminous quality is found south of the city, and also in Otter Creek township north. On all sides the seam appears to be present, and establishes the fact that Terre Haute is situated in the heart of a vast coal field.

Terre Haute will probably not secure natural gas in commercial quantities, but the coal deposits amply compensate for the absence of gas. In Indiana, where natural gas has been found, steam coal is quite high. In the northern part of the State this is especially true.

Manufacturers should take this fact into consideration before deciding upon a location. Should the natural-gas supply dwindle away at any time large, manufactories would be put to great expense in securing steam coal, which would place them at a decided disad- vantage. In this city, where good coal can be secured for making steam at 50 and 60 cents per ton, no such risks are taken. With immense deposits on all sides there is not the slightest liability of fuel coal ever becoming exhausted. Coal is now almost as cheap as gas.

On all lines of railroad entering the city there are large coal mines. The Vandalia line is especially favored. It passes through the heart of the Brazil block-coal district. Shipments over the Van- dalia are enormous and form a source of very large revenue to the Terre Haute & Indianapolis division. The Vandalia has a branch coal line extending south of Brazil for a number of miles. Many switches extend from the main line into the coal fields in and about

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Brazil, Knightsville and Harmony, and a number of switch engines is required to look after coal alone. The road has opened up an extensive territory south of Brazil by the completion of a branch to the Evansville & Indianapolis. When this line was built from Wash- ington to Worthington several years ago it penetrated the rich coal fields in Sullivan and Greene counties. New mines were opened,

and now the output is immense. About a dozen mines were opened in what is called the new territory. Accounts are read of rapid growth of western towns by reason of booms which are worked for all there can be gotten out of them. Every railroad built into the city has opened up new and valuable coal territory ; especially was this the case when the Evansville & Indianapolis road was built. Alum cave, a beautiful and romantic spot was so rich in this respect that a new town sprang up on the road called New Pittsburg. The Indianapolis & St. Louis is well located as regards the coal fields. There are extensive mines at Coal Bluff, Fontanet and Carbon. Considerable of the coal finds a market in this city, but the most of it passes in other directions. On the Chicago & Eastern Illinois road there are mines at Clinton, and also on the branch of the road which extends to Brazil. The branch passes through an excellent coal territory which has not yet been fully developed. The Logansport division of the Vandalia hauls the output from the mines at Minshall and Rosedale. The mines are quite large, and the coal is of a good quality of bituminous. On the Evansville & Terre Haute there are mines at Shelburn, Sullivan and other places. This road brings a large quantity of coal into the city. At Sullivan in drilling for gas an excellent quality of cannel coal was discovered. The question is being seriously considered of sinking mines to the vein which is about nine or ten feet thick. The coal would no doubt find a ready market. The Illinois Midland also has quite an ex- tensive coal traffic. It would be difficult to imagine a line of rail- road leading in any direction from the city that would not pass through coal lands. So extensive have the coal fields proven to be that good coal lands can be purchased at a very reasonable figure, and at little if any increase over the value of the land for farming purposes. When the Brazil block coal region was first opened it was not supposed that such an enormous coal belt existed. Early operators were so anxious to secure land that they paid as high as $200 per acres for it and even went beyond this figure. Coal lands have depreciated in value, and tested land can now be bought at from $75 to $100 per acre, depending largely upon its location and the facilities offered for mining it.

The coal traffic in Terre Haute is so large that it is a difficult matter to figure exactly upon the amount. A number of the large

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establishments such as the nail works, Wabash rolling mill, dis- tillery, flour-mills, etc., each consume a number of car-loads per day. Besides the coal shipped into Terre Haute the amount hauled in by wagon will aggregate a considerable quantity for the year. The most of it is received during the fall and winter months. It is bituminous, but in quality is not quite so good as that of deeper veins, though it answers many purposes.

At present the chief supply of coal in the county is from the mines in Nevins township. And here the principal mines are at Coal Bluff and Fontanet. These are operated by the Coal Bluff Mining Company, which was organized in 1875, and is officered as follows: J. Smith Tally, president; R. W. Rippetoe, vice-president ; L. D. Thomas, treasurer, and W. E. Eppert, secretary.

The mines in Coal Bluff were opened in 1875. The company has two shafts at this point. They are the " Edgar " and "Dia- mond " at this point, and at Fontanet they have three mines-five in all-the output of the five shafts being 250,000 tons annually. Coal mines were first opened in this place by Dan Webster in the early sixties. The quality of the coal of these mines may be taken as the average of the commercial coal of the county. It is a supe- rior article of gas and steam coal. The depths of the mines at Coal Bluff are thirty and sixty feet. At Fontanet the shafts are 125

feet and 150 feet in depth. Fontanet and Coal Bluff are immedi- ately on the line of the Big Four Railroad, and have the best facili- ties for shipment to all points of the country. They employ a force of 450 men. The company has a store in connection with its works. The business of this establishment in 1889 was $118,000.

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History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 52

Author: Bradsby, Henry C Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co. Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Bradsby, Henry C
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co.
Number of Pages: 1032