USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Remington > History of the town of Remington and vicinity, Jasper County, Indiana > Part 14
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SAND PIT.
I N the fall of the year 1889 the people of our town became greatly worked up over the prospects of the development of a new industry, namely, the mining, crushing and shipping sand for use in the manufac- ture of glass. It is generally known that the northern part of Carpenter township is composed of very sandy soil; but near to Carpenter's creek the sand is of a different nature or texture to that found on our ordinary sandridges. Parties in prospecting along this creek through Carpenter's grove, about one and one-half miles north of Remington, made the discovery that the sand encountered, which was in large lumps of a rocky character, appeared to be suitable for the manufacture of glass. They accordingly had some of it shipped to Kokomo, Indiana, and had it tested in a glass factory there, and it was pronounced by the experts to be of excellent quality and quite suitable for use in man- ufacturing glass. Accordingly, Messrs. Smith and Keiger, of Kokomo, undertook to prepare and ship this sand to the latter place and elsewhere, and they proceeded to build the necessary buildings and placed therein the machinery required for crushing and pulverizing the sand stone, which they found in great abundance in the pit they opened up. The machinery used by them was very strong and was pro- pelled by a powerful steam engine. The discovery of this sand was made by the contractors of our new school house, which was built in 1889, they being men who lived in Ko- komo, and consequently familiar with the glass works of that place, and the sand required for their use. Some of the sand used in the construction of the school house was procured from our sand pit, and through that circumstance the contractors were led to investigate the same, and made the discovery of the value of the material there, to be obtained in great quantities. The first work done at the pit was on a small scale, and by hand and horse power
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only, but they soon put in a small steam engine, which they used for a short time, but this was not deemed suffi- cient, and accordingly they purchased one of far greater power, also adding larger and more powerful crushers, and they soon had the business in fairly good shape. The first move that Messrs. Smith & Keiger made, after investigating the pit, was to purchase forty acres of land, being a part of the old John Jordan farm, from Mrs. Indiana Balthis, who had come into possession of it by descent. They were compelled to pay a large price for this land, although it was practically worthless for any other purpose. It is a part of the first and oldest farms improved in this county, but being on either side of the creek, it is very broken and hilly, covered with scrubby timber and practically worth- less for farming purposes. The firm has cleared off the timber to some extent and used it for fuel to run their engines, some for sills for their new building and some piling. The pit was opened in February, 1889, on the southwest side of the creek and immediately on the creek bank. The greatest difficulty now to be encountered was to get this sand to the railway after it had been properly crushed and ready for market, but this difficulty was finally overcome by the railway company building a spur or branch track from the main line to the sand pit, running close up to the mill, so that the sand could be loaded from the crushers onto the cars without extra handling. The length of this branch railway was a little more than one mile. This sand enterprise proved to be a good thing to some of our townspeople at least, as it afforded employment for quite a number of our otherwise idle men; usually there were from fifteen to twenty of our men thus employed at about $1.25 per day. This was not high wages to be sure but it was much better than being idle and securing nothing. The firm sent a man here named Elliott whose duty it was to have entire control over the works, as the general super- intendent. He was a man that was well calculated for this work and he was generally well liked by those who had any
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business transactions with him. But after a time the men employed concluded that they were not being paid enough for their labor, and they accordingly demanded higher wages. This demand Mr. Elliot would not accede to, and they threatened to strike for higher wages, which they did, those quitting the work being Charles Bush, Elias Johnson, Louis Cronenwett, William Fieldson and others whose names we do not now recall. The entire laboring help quit work excepting Joseph Turner, who remained with the firm and attended to his duties. Mr. Elliot was not greatly disturbed by this strike, for the following day he had a complete and new set of employes consisting of William Holland, John Grubb, Peter Mann, Joseph Ellis, Howard Black, George Johnson, Edward Lock, Samuel Ellis, William Mann, Ira Cheek, P. Hollingsworth, and two brothers named Fowler. Mr. Geo. Johnson was the engineer and William Holland was made foreman of the employes. The Railway com- pany made one trip each day to the sand pit for sand which they hauled to Kokomo. The business seemed to flourish for about two years .when operations were suspended and the firm was reported as having failed. They had been at great expense and they probably lost several thousand dol- lars here.
CARD PLAYING.
0 URING the first ten years of the existence of our town there was little if any card playing or gam- bling for money done. But during the next decade the place was very well noted and advertised for its members who indulged in playing cards for money, and during the year 1881 Royalty & Co. had charge of a pool and billiard room in Remington. It was there that the writer began to associate with card players. They were allowed to occupy a back room in which to play cards, and this was soon recognized as a "poker joint." In this way
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we soon became a frequent visitor to this room where cards were played for money, but being rather distrustful of these games it was a long time before we were induced to par- ticipate in them. There were about five persons who re- sorted to this room for the express purpose of gambling for money and they were all experienced card players. The writer had had no experience in the business hence he was loth to take any part in it. It was always quiet here in the day time and there would occasionally congregate sev- eral of the younger men of the place. We would then purchase a nickle's worth of filberts or nuts of some kind and then play draw poker, to see who would take them all.
. This sort of game did not last a great while until we commenced gambling for pennies, and then for five cents a corner. In this way, the game was encouraged, and the gang of young men who indulged in it now numbered some eight or ten persons, who were known as poker players; this was along about the year 1881 and 1882. Finally the pool and billiard hall fell into the hands of A. Watson; he permitted card playing in the rear .room also, but the change of management of the hall had a tendency to par- tially break up the gang of poker players, who had habitually congregated there to play for money. The greatest amount of the gambling was now done there in the night time, and on Sundays.
Almost every Sunday there was a crowd of these sports assembled in Watson's rear room for card playing; gaining their entrance into the room by slyly stealing around the back way, and being admitted by a rear door, after coming up through the alley. The games that were now played, were for much larger stakes than those formerly played, ranging from ten cents to one dollar a corner, and the younger and smaller players were not now admitted into the room, when games were being played. But being barred out from this room did not seriously affect, nor stop the smaller games. For back on the lot then owned by Jared H. Fountain there was a barn, and
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in this place they would meet and play cards, sometimes remaining there all day and all night. In the interior of this barn, there was a tightly closed oats bin, and in this bin was where the playing was done; outsiders could not see the light on the inside. But after a time Mr. A. Hardy leased the barn, and having knowledge of what had been going on there, he kindly and very politely requested the gang to secure other quarters for their business and amuse- ment. This was done by resorting to May's or Chappell's grove in the summer seasons and when it was not too cold or wet to be out of doors. Mr. May being apprised of what was going on on his premises, made a vigorous kick against it, and the party became wary of going there, and ยท only did so when they were sure they would not be dis- covered or found out by Mr. May. If he caught them there, they were at once unceremoniously fired off from his premises. After a while this sort of business became irk- some, and they began casting about for some more secure and convenient rendezvous, and finally located themselves in the ice house on the corner of Illinois and North Rail- way streets, where J. S. Barnes & Co., have one of their hay barns. When the ice was nearly, or all out, this was a very convenient place for their business; the only drawback to it being, that it gave one away who had been playing there, by the saw dust which would naturally cling to one's clothing. The place was controlled by Oliver B. McIntire, and when he discovered what was going on in his ice house, he ordered the gentlemen to immediately vacate his premises, and they of course "did not stand on the order of their going, but they went at once."
The next place that they considered suitable, for the . successful prosecution of their science, was a small barn which is now owned by Mrs. Cambe, but at that time it was in the care of James Pefley. The crowd would gather there when Mr. Pefley was not about, but if they were caught there, they were hustled out with a considerable degree of vigor, which proved to be the case on several
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occasions, when the boys were compelled "to scatter like bad cats." Finally they were obliged to leave the place for good.
The next place selected was known to the boys as the "sky parlor." It was the name given by the card players, to the upper story of Hathaway Bros. Elevators. It was not a suitable place, as every man who indulged in a game there could be detected by the chaff and dust which adhered to their clothing. Yet they were obliged to retain this place for about one year, for the lack of a more con- venient one.
After occupying this place for a year or so, they con- ceived the plan of locating their headquarters in the west corn cribs or bins, which were then owned and controlled by Mr. O. B. McIntire. This proved to be a very good place, when the cribs were not filled with grain. This resort was soon discovered, but no one interfered except some of the gambler's wives, who became so annoyed as to break up the games for a short time only; some of the boys, parents also raised objections, and some of them were escorted home, under the influence of a lath, in the hands of an angry father. Finally these cribs were torn down and removed and the gang was again compelled to look about for another location; and this brings us down to the winter of 1886 and 1887; we find the gambling fraternity in possession of one of the rooms upstairs in the Exchange block, which was a very convenient and pleasant resort. There was also another room in the same block and which was used for the same purpose, but in this latter room, there were larger stakes played for, and more prominent gamblers of this place and also other towns around resorted to this latter place. After a time, however, both rooms were given up for other purposes or uses, and the smaller fry of the fraternity now began to resort to empty freight cars, which soon appeared to be too public and they were aban- doned.
There was yet another poker room opened up in one
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of the rooms on the south side of the railway, which was managed and controlled by two men who were cousins; they run it for perhaps two or three months, when it changed hands, and continued to exist until the spring of 1889, when it was also abandoned. After this there were a few persons who would hold select gatherings for the purpose of playing poker, and they held their meetings in the same room in the Exchange building which they had some time previously abandoned, and others would some- times hold their select meetings in the rear of one of the pool halls. Another place where they frequently met was on Indiana street south of the railroad, in a little building called " Bachelor's Hall." The habit of card playing for money is a great evil, and one that is hard to break off. It has ruined many a nice and otherwise useful man. It is common almost everywhere today. It should be stopped, but it seems the law and officers are powerless to stop it. Men will leave their work to engage in card playing and losing their money; one can see it going on almost daily. We will say for Remington, however, that those engaged in this unlawful business are men of good disposition, and it is rarely if ever one hears of a racket among the gamb- ling fraternity.
SECTION FOREMEN.
I N 1859 and 1860, after the railway was first built through this place, then Carpenter's station, the road was as all new roads are, in a very bad condi- tion, and the company was obliged to place six or eight men on each section. The man who first had charge of the section through here, was a Mr. Low Marlatt, this . being while Mr. William Foster, now of Goodland, Indi- ana, was the superintendent of the railway, and a Mr. Frank Gallino was the road master. Mr. Marlatt did not remain here very long, and his place was assumed by Mr.
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William Williams, as foreman of this section. Mr. Williams was the man who put in the switches, and he did this work in 1861.
. Mr. Williams was superceded by Mr. Timothy O'Con- nor as section foreman during the year 1862, who came here from Logansport, Indiana, and at once moved into the section house, which then stood upon the site now oc- cupied by Daniel O'Connor, as a residence. Mr. O'Connor in addition to his duties as the section foreman, boarded his men who were at work under him on the railway, there being at this time about six of those employes. Mr. O'Connor was a brother-in-law of the road master, Mr. Gallino. Mr. O'Connor made and saved quite a consider- ably amount of money which he derived from his services to the railway and from boarding railway hands, and in a few years he invested his savings in the improvement of his lots which he had purchased. He finally gave up his rail- way position, and ventured in the grocery business with whisky and beer as a side line, which he sold by the quart for a time, and in this business he was quite prosperous, and as well to do in this world's goods as perhaps any other merchant of the town. He remained in this business until his death, which occured on the 9th day of May, 1887. His remains were taken to Logansport and there interred.
The man who succeeded Mr. O'Connor as foreman of the section was Mr. Thomas Rooney, who entered on his duties in 1874. Mr. Rooney was an Irishman, and did excellent service for the railway. It is proper to say that we now have two sections which intersect at Remington, and each of these sections now require a foreman. They both together have some six miles of track which had to be worked and kept in good repair, and in early days it required a great deal of labor to do this. The foremen were hired by the month, and the hands under them were hired by the day. The foreman's wages were forty dollars per month, and the laborers' wages were one dollar and twen- ty-five cents per day. These prices remained for thirty
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years without much change in them, and it will be readily seen, that the men could not become wealthy at these figures. Mr. Rooney held this position until during the year 1878, when he was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Tuberty.
Mr. Tuberty kept the control of his section for several years, and was finally succeeded by Mr. H. Donahue, who only remained a short time, being superceded by Mr. S. Sparks, whose stay was of short duration also. Mr. William Lawrence was his successor. Following now in regular order, we have the names of the various section foremen of Remington, viz .: Israel Lisk, H. W. Gwinn, Martin Ryan, William Rooney, Thomas Doran, Michael Ryan, John Donahue, Henry Hoover, James Britton, Henry Delzell, Michael Smith, John Strawn, John Smith, Henry Hassett and Matthew Messena. This being up to 1882, at which time the section was divided as above mentioned, and we have had two foremen in place one. The company then also built two new section houses, one at the west and one at the east parts of town. A man now by the name of Reese Roby took charge of the east section as its foreman. He remained in charge of this position for about six years, and then it was turned over to William Holland, and at this time John Smith had charge of the west section. He retained control of this section for about six years, when becoming careless of his duties caused by too free use of liquors, he was requested to resign, which he did, and Mr. George Johnson was placed in charge of the section. Charles Schneckenbarger soon succeeded Mr. Johnson, and the changes following soon occurred, viz .: Charles Bush, Henry Hassett and George Jay. About the year 1886, Bruce F. Tedford was placed on the west section, but he only remained there a short time, when he left it and immediately went on to the east section, taking the place of William Holland. Mr. Tedford took this section about the year 1887, and he has proven to be a faithful employe, and still retains the place at this time, 1894. He has pur- chased a nice property in the northeast part of town, on
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Illinois street, and he is deserving of his comforts. The west section fell into the hands of John Meehan in 1888, and he also still holds possession of the position. We have overlooked three men who held the position of section foremen, and will here name them. They were, Henry Lynch in 1860; Benjamin Rowe in 1887, and Theodore Sheets, none of them remaining in the employ of the com- pany but a short time. This covers a period of about thirty-four years.
HAY SHIPPING INDUSTRY.
I e 'N the year 1868, Mr. Henry Downing an English- man located in Remington, and engaged in the pur- chase and sale of hay. He bought the residence house that Joseph Lewis had built in 1860, which stood on the southwest corner of Indiana and Railway streets, and immediately east of this residence he built a large hay barn, in which he handled his hay interests. He continued in the hay business for ten or twelve years. Mr. Downing was an energetic man, and he also engaged in buying and shipping stock in connection with his hay busi- ness. After remaining in the hay business for about twelve years, he sold out his interests in that line to a Mr. M. J. Yeagle, who had been doing a small business in hay prior to this time. But Mr. Yeagle, owing to his laxity in pay- ing promptly for his purchases, did not keep the good will of his customers. He was also slow in paying his hired help, and it was but a short time until he was compelled to quit the business. Previously to this Mr. Downing had been doing business on borrowed capital from Mr. A. Thompson, of Rensselaer, and he had not been successful in his hay enterprise; he was thus compelled to sell his hay barn to Mr. Thompson, to pay his indebtedness. Soon after Mr. Thompson got possession of this barn, during the year 1884, it was destroyed by fire.
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The Hathaway Bros. also handled hay, and they built what is now known as the west hay barn, which is at pres- sent operated by Patrick H. Maguire. Hon. Anson Wol- cott also built a commodious hay barn in the western part of Remington, and he was also a dealer in hay here in 1886, and for some years afterward. Mr. John A. Thomas was in company with Mr. Wolcott for several years and attended to the buying and shipping. This Mr. John A. Thomas had been a farmer south of Remington for several years, and had also been engaged in the milling business in Remington a short time prior to his engaging with Mr. Wolcott in the hay business.
In 1885, Mr. Michael J. Costello engaged as a dealer in hay, and had as an assistant at that time, in the person of Mr. Patrick H. Maguire. They quit the business in 1886, and Mr. Maguire went to Kokomo, Ind., where he remained until the year 1890, when he again returned to Remington, and leased the hay barns from the Hon. Anson Wolcott, bought new hay presses, and at once again embarked in dealing in hay. In 1891, Mr. Maguire handled a great deal of hay and he gave employment to a great many hands, to run his presses and haul hay and load cars. When Mr. Maguire first came to Remington in 1882, he was engaged in the flax mill, breaking flax and shipping the lint to eastern markets. This mill was built by a Mr. Switzer in 1882, and he had Maguire employed as his general manager. There was during this time quite a considerable flax grown here by the farmers principally for the seed, and they sold the straw to Switzer and Maguire; this straw business became quite an industry here for several years, but the flax mill was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1885, the land purchased by Mr. Costello, who built another flax mill on the site in 1887, but the flax growing business having been now abandoned by the farmers this mill was soon converted into a store house for the storage of hay.
Jacob S. Barnes came to this locality in 1884, from
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the State of Kentucky, and commenced working in hay as a day laborer; he continued in this way for two or three years, when having secured the financial assistance from Mr. Treat Durand, and having leased the Durand hay barn which is situated on the west side of Illinois street, between Railway and North streets, he engaged in the purchase and sale of hay, on his own individual account. Prior to this, Oliver B. McIntire had been dealing in hay in the quarters mentioned above, and Mr. Barnes was in reality his suc- cessor. He at once had a new barn built, on the east side of the premises, one hundred feet long by thirty feet wide. Mr. Barnes also had an office and hay scales built in close proximity to his barns. He also built a third barn in 1891, and he now has three barns in close communication with his office and scales. He sends out his hay presses in all directions over the country, and presses the hay which he buys from the farmers, hauls it into town, and loads it into cars, if he can get them, and the market is suitable, and if not he stores it in his barns. He now has two partners in this business, who are men of financial means, the firm being known as J. S. Barnes & Co., they are each year doing an immense business in this line. Barnes is a man of limited means of his own, but has the financial backing of some of our wealthiest men. He sold a large amount of hay in 1891 and 1892, and it is said he made a handsome profit on it. He became a citizen here in 1884. He owned a small building or dwelling house in Wilbur's addition to Remington, which he sold to his brother in 1885, who had just located here also, and who lived but a short time. Mr. Barnes farmed the Plunkett place in 1885, and then he commenced in the hay business as a hired hand for Mr. O. B. McIntire. He became a partner of McIntire's after this. He employes during the hay pressing season usually about twelve good men. Mr. Maguire also does an equal amount of business in the hay trade to Mr. Barnes, and employs as many men. They are both upright business men, and useful citizens.
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MILLING INTERSETS.
9 HE first mill ever introduced in Remington was about 1879, and it was done by the Hathaway Brothers, and established in their elevator. It was only intended mainly to grind feed for stock, and it was not destined to live long in this place; it soon ceased to be of any material use to the people, and its operations were suspended.
After this the Remington grist mill was established in 1880, by Mr. Fred Huffman, in the McDougle building on South Ohio street, and adjoining the harness shop of Chas. L. Wilson on the south. It was a small affair, but did a great deal of grinding in its way. It was intended only for a corn mill, and ground nothing else except meal and feed, never attempting to make any flour. The machinery was placed in this leased building, and the mill continued oper- ations there until 1886, when it was removed to John Pugh's blacksmith shop. Mr. Huffman had in the mean- time sold this property to John A. Thomas, who had asso- ciated with him, John F. Stone, as a partner. They con- tinued the business together for two or three years, when they sold out to Lock Brothers. The property now changed hands in rapid succession as follows: Lock Brothers sold to E. F. Emery, Mr. Emery sold to Mr. Bowman, and Bowman to Robert S. Shearer, Robert S. Shearer sold to John Pugh, Mr. Pugh sold back to Robert S. Shearer, and Shearer now sold again to Messrs. Royalty and Lyon. The mill was then in the room now occupied by J. S. Barnes & Co., as a hay barn. This barn was originally built by William Haver for a livery stable, in the year 1868. Mr. McIntire was the owner of this building, and the mill remained in it until he wanted to use its for a hay barn. Lyons now sold his interest to J. O. B. McDougle, and Mr. McDougle built a small house on his lot adjoining the post-office, and the mill was moved into 12
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