USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 20
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An institution, of which there were several examples in early Cass county, was the distillery for the manufacture of the whiskey
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
which, according to general knowledge, was a more universal beverage and consumed in more copious quantities in those days than at the present. In 1833 Jacob, Abiel and Benjamin F. Silvers put up a dis- tillery on the banks of Stone lake. the first manufacturing institution of Cassopolis. The frame was so large and made of such massive tim- ber that it required the efforts of a great force of men to raise it. Nearly all the male population of the central portion of the county assisted in the work, which took three days' time. The distillery was run to its utmost capacity for a number of years, and the farmers in the surround- ing country received a great deal of money from its proprietors for their surplus corn.
Each settler learned to be skilled in sharpening his own tools, and even fashioned out by homemade process some of the iron implements needed. But as soon as possible he resorted for the more important work to a regular blacksmith, it often being necessary to go for that purpose many miles. For instance, it is related that a settler on Beards- ley's prairie had to take his plowshare to be sharpened by Israel Mark- ham, who conducted the first blacksmith shop in the county on Pokagon prairie.
Over near the present Jamestown, in Penn township, a man by the name of Peck established a blacksmith shop about 1828, but did not remain long.
The early advent of carpenters and joiners to the county has been spoken of in an earlier chapter. As soon as the people advanced beyond the log cabin stage it became quite necessary to procure the services of a skilled builder in the construction of the houses.
With the art of clothes-making delegated so completely to the pioneer housewife, early Cass county would hardly seem a profitable location for a tailor. But there is record of one who located at Geneva about 1834, when that was still a village of some proportions. He was also employed in the same line for a time at Whitmanville.
The business activity of Edwardsburg was increased, in 1837, by the arrival of a hat maker named James Boyd, who later moved to Cassopolis, where he died. The business of hat-making was a common pursuit in the east during that time, but few found their way to the sparsely settled west. Mr. Boyd, however, made hats in this county tor six years, as the only representative the county ever had in that in- dustry, and he sold his hats in all parts of the county.
No one could forget the old-time sugar box. It was a necessary
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
article in every household, and, besides holding sugar, it often served other no less useful purposes. There are instances on record where the sugar box became the receptacle for the pioneer mail, where it was kept until the neighbors had time to call for it. Did the housewife need a sugar box, it was quite likely that she sent her husband to Ed- wardsburg. About 1837. a Mr. Keeler located in that village, and he- sides making these indispensable sugar boxes, he split out and softened and wove long strips of wood into baskets for the settlers' use. He was a character in the neighborhood, made verses as well as baskets. and in peddling his wares about the county he drove to his cart, in lieu of a horse, a patient ox named "Bright."
Perhaps not a month passed that some one who claimed special skill in a particular craft er to be a jack-of-all-trades-a wandering tinker, a cobbler, a tinsmith, etc .- did not pass through or locate more or less permanently in early Cass county. Though no historical record is kept of such mechanics, they are worthy of our attention so far as show - ing how much of the work now done by a regular mechanic was attended to at that time by the well known "tinker" character.
In pioneer days the same spreading tree that sheltered the village smithy usually cast its shade also upon the local wagon shop. The two industries were born twins and did not drift apart until the era of great factories set in and made the manufacture of vehicles at the crossroads shop an economic impossibility. In the carly years a wheelwright came to the county in the person of Benjamin Sweeney, who was located at Edwardsburg a number of years. He was also a civil engineer, and laid out many roads through the county.
We have alluded to the existence at the Carey Mission of a grist mill as early as 1826. At that time there was not another within a hundred miles. Hither the first settlers brought their meager grist. if they did not pound or grind it with some rude contrivance at home. It is hardly possible to assign an exact date for the location of the first mill in Cass county. But the Carpenter mill, on Christiann creek, near the site of Vandalia. - was probably built about 1828. All the burrs and other iron parts of the mill were brought from Ohio.
A few years later this mill became the property of James O'Dell, a miller, who located in Penn township in 1832. Mr. O'Dell was prominent in public affairs as well, serving as supervisor, and in other township offices, in the state legislature, and was a member of the first constitutional convention in 1835.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
As population increased other grist mills were established. Moses Sage built one in Adamsville in 1835, and such was the demand for flour that he ran it night and day for several years. Grist mills, as well as saw mills, were at first necessarily located by convenient water power. After the introduction of steam power the flour mills, as a rule, were centered in the villages, and where the best transportation facilities were offered.
Of sawmills there were a great number throughout the county. Job Davis had one in La Grange township in 1829, the first mechanical industry in the township. At the outlet of Jones lake, in the north- eastern part of the township, Henry Jones and Hardy Langston built a mill in 1830. Carding machinery was afterwards installed, this being one of the early attempts at the woolen industry in this county.
On Dowagiac creek, on the north border of La Grange township. and near the site of present Dowagiac, William Renneston built, in 1830. a woolen mill, bringing the machinery from southern Indiana. Three years later he built a grist mill at the same place. This was the beginning of the milling industry which has been carried on at that location to the present time.
The first sawmill in Porter was commenced on section 32, by Othni Beardsley, and was completed in 1831 by Lewis, Samuel and Jacob Rinehart, who ran the mill fifteen years. The lumber which was not bought and hauled from the mill by local purchasers was hauled to the St. Joseph river and thence rafted down to Mishawaka and South Bend, and much of it to St. Joseph.
Another early mill, erected in the early thirties, was built on the south branch of Pokagon creek. in section 6 of Jefferson township, by John Pettigrew, Jr. This contained an old-fashioned upright saw. All the machinery had been brought by wagon from Ohio. Primitive as it was, this mill supplied material for building many of the houses of the surrounding country, and some of its product was sold in Niles, South Bend and Elkhart.
Various sites along Christiann creek have contained mills at dif- ferent periods of history. The Shaffer-Beardsley mill was an institu- tion known for a number of years, having been built in 1836. Near by was the grist mill of Robert Painter, built in 1840, close to Painter's lake. llere he later installed a sawmill and machinery for woolen manufacture, but the vicissitudes of manufacture finally overtook the enterprise with failure.
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On that part of Christiann creek which lies in section 19, of Cal- vin, Daniel McIntosh and Samuel Crossen built the first sawmill in that township in 1832. It soon passed into the hands of Joseph Smith, who, in 1833, erected a distillery and manufactured and sold pure whiskey at 25 cents a gallon. In the fifties J. C. Fiero, a merchant at Edwardsburg, erected and operated a steam grist mill in that place, near the site of the present creamery. The mill was destroyed by fire in the spring of 1861.
In Peter Shaffer's mill, near this location, was sawed the lumber for the first court house at Cassopolis. The year 1831 is the date of the building of a grist mill near the present site of Brownsville.
Several tanneries did business in the county during the early years. One of them was located at Brownsville. It is thus seen that at various periods in her history Cass county has had a great many forms of man- ufacturing. As a country develops, certain forms of industry become profitable in certain stages of that development. A tannery could sup- ply a very evident need of the settlers, and might be operated profitably as a local institution for some years. But as soon as railroad transpor- tation become general and the centralization of manufacturing began, it would be necessary either that the tannery should enlarge to more than a local concern or go out of business entirely. The latter was more often the case. This process of industrial growth and decay is found every- where, and in itself illustrates the historical development of communi- ties.
The twenty-third annual report of the Michigan Bureau of Labor, giving the results of factory inspection made in Cass county in April. 1905, names the following industries, with the year of establishment :
At Cassopolis: C. W. Bunn, lumber, 1885. City Steam Laundry, 1900. Cassopolis Steam Laundry, 1902.
Cassopolis Manufacturing Company, 1900.
Cassopolis Creamery, 1902. Cassopolis Vigilant, 1872.
Milling Power Company, 1891.
National Democrat, 1850. R. F. Peck, cigars, 1904. Rinehart & McCoy, cigars, 1897.
At Dowagiac :
City Steam Laundry, 1903.
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Colby Milling Company, 1857.
Creamery Package Mfg. Company, 1903.
Dowagiac Gas & Fuel Company, 1892.
Dowagiac City Water Works, 1887.
Daily News, 1881.
Dowagiac Manufacturing Company, 1881.
Geesey Brothers & Cable, hoops and staves, 1903.
Win. Hislop, lumber.
Herald, 1892.
J. A. Lindsley, lumber, 1885.
Byron C. Lee, cigars, 1904.
Round Oak Stove Works, 1873. Republican Printing Company, 1857.
Standard Cabinet Company, 1899.
S. F. Snell, cigars, 1901.
At Marcellus:
Simon Brady, cigars, 1894.
H. S. Chapman, gasoline engines, 1888.
H. J. Hoover, lumber, 1895.
Willard MeDonald. butter tubs, 1900.
Marcellus Milling Company, 1891.
Marcellus Steam Laundry, 1903.
Municipal Lighting Station, 1902.
Marcellus News, 1872.
Reliance Cigar Company, 1905.
At Glenwood, the Hampton Stock Farm Company, staves and headings, established 1902, and at Pokagon, J. H. Phillips, lumber, estab- lished 1888.
As will be seen, the inspection did not include the villages of Ed- wardsburg, Vandalia and Union, where factories of equal importance with some of those mentioned are to be found. But from the figures given some interesting summaries are drawn relative to the importance of manufacturing industries in the county. At Dowagiac sixteen fac- tories and workshops were inspected, eleven kinds of goods were made or handled. The whole number of employes found at the time of in- spection was 880, indicating that in a city of less than five thousand population, one person out of five depends on these industries for means of livelihood. Of course the Round Oak Stove Works, employing, at the date of inspection, 590, and the Dowagiac Manufacturing Com- pany. with 165 employes, are the major industries. Taking the thirty- seven industries named in the report, it is seen that the aggregate num- ber of employes is 994. This approximates five per cent of the popula-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
tion of Cass county depending on what are officially designated as "fac- tory" industries. Were the data at hand for all the handicrafts and manufactories of the county, the proportion of those engaged in indus- trial pursuits would be much larger, perhaps at least ten per cent of the entire population.
With this general survey of the trades and factories of the pioneer times and the present, this chapter may appropriately be closed with some sketches of the largest and oldest of Cass county's manufactures. Many of the productive enterprises which have proved the industrial core of several communities in the county have been mentioned in connection with the history of such localities.
Cassopolis has never been a center for manufactures. In 1900 a large plant was built near the Grand Trunk depot for the manufacture of grain drills, the concern being known as the Cassopolis Manufactur- ing Company. At this writing the works have been bought by the Kel- logg Switchboard & Supply Company, who propose the inauguration of an extensive industry, the village having lent its support to the prop- osition by voting a subsidy of $7.000, providing the company expends $150.000 in wages within a certain time. The most substantial Cassopo- lis enterprise is the Power & Milling Company, which. as elsewhere stated, furnishes electricity and pumps water for the village and also converts large quantities of grain into flour and food products, thus making the village a good grain market. The plant of the Cassopolis Milling Company was built by J. Hopkins & Sons in 1882. and for a number of years the stone process of milling was used. W. D. Hop- kins & Company and W. D. Hopkins were successively proprietors, and in 1889. the plant having come into the hands of W. D. Hopkins and .A. II. Van Riper. it was changed to the full roller system and incorpo- rated by the name Cassopolis Milling Company. The plant was en- larged when the city water works were established in 1891, and again enlarged and readapted when the electric light plant was installed in 1895. The present proprietors are W. D. Hopkins. C. W. Daniels. Irving Paul.
Dowagiac is pre-eminently the industrial center of the county, and because of their importance in the history of both city and county some special account should be made of the Round Oak Stove Works. the drill works, the Colby mills and several other factories.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
ROUND OAK STOVE WORKS.
The late P. D. Beckwith came to Dowagiac in 1854 and built a small foundry and machine shop, 25x60 feet, on the east side of Front street near Park Place. The machinery was run by horse power, and he and one workman were then sufficient to do all the work. At first he made plow castings and did general repair work. The demand for plows was still light, despite the great improvement in agricultural methods since the pioneer period. In 1858 Mr. Beckwith bought a new site for his plant at the foot of Front street on the south side of the creek, where the drill works are now located. He improved the water power, and continued the manufacture of plows until the production was greater than the demand.
In the meantime John S. Gage, of Wayne township, had designed and patented a rude form of the roller grain drill and succeeded in get- ting Mr. Beckwith to buy an interest in the patent and to begin the man- ufacture of a type of machine which has been developed into one of the most useful agricultural implements that the farmers of the country have adopted.
In 1867 Mr. Beckwith made his first stove, fashioned on the print- ciples of the present Round Oak, but crude in workmanship and style. One of these stoves was placed in the Michigan Central depot, and be- cause of its excellent heating qualities and durability the company had Mr. Beckwith make several others for their use. With the stove and the grain drill as articles for manufacture, Mr. Beckwith in 1868 trans- ferred his location to a plot of two acres just across the section line in La Grange township and near the depot grounds. The works have re- mained here ever since, although the grounds have been extended to the bank of the creek. Here he erected a brick factory and installed machinery for the manufacture of stoves and drills. He patented his Round Oak stove in 1870. During the seventies the business passed through its most critical period. During the general financial stagna- tion over the entire country he was compelled to resort to personal solic- itation to dispose of his product and in meeting his obligations his abil- ity as a financier was tested to the utmost. But in a few years the bus- iness was established on a substantial basis, and the Round Oak stove works is not only the largest industrial enterprise of Dowagiac, but has made the name of its founder and the name of the city household words from one end of the country to the other. The name "Round Oak"
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can be found on stoves and ranges in the most remote localities, and the "Round Oak" furnace has gained an enviable reputation, and Dowa- giac is associated with no other fact in thousands of minds that know nothing of the city or its history.
From the first stages of the manufacture Mr. Beckwith built up his enterprise to splendid proportions, and since his death in 1889 the "Beckwith Estate" has controlled and managed the business with in- creasing success and growth. The present officers of the Round Oak Company are: Fred E. Lee, general manager ; A. B. Gardner, assistant general manager ; J. O. Becraft, secretary; J. A. Howard, manager of sales ; A. E. Rudolphi, assistant manager of sales; H. L. Mosher, man- ager of furnace and advertising departments; A. K. Beckwith, super- intendent ; and O. G. Beach, chairman.
As already mentioned, Mr. Beckwith began his Dowagiac career in manufacturing in a shop 25x60 feet. At the present time the floor space of the plant is 250.000 square feet and a new addition being constructed at this writing will bring that up to 300,000 square feet, or about fifteen acres of floor space. Mr. Beckwith began with one helper. At the time of his death about one hundred employes were needed to produce and sell the stoves, which by that time had become the sole line of manufacture. At this writing the force of employes is not far from eight hundred. And the managers are proud of the fact that the works are in operation practically all the time, the only shut-downs being at holidays for repairs. As is evident, such a force of employes in a city of five thousand forms the largest part of the population that could be classified in one group. Perhaps not far from half the population of Dowagiac depend on the Round Oak works for livelihood. Strikes and labor troubles have been unknown. It is estimated that sixty-five per cent of the employes have their own homes, and their character as cit- izens is much above that of the "factory average."
A few other items as to the manufacture may prove pertinent to historical inquiry. Every day the process of manufacture requires six- ty-five tons of pig-iron melted in two cupolas. The incoming shipments of pig-iron, coal and coke for this one plant are as large as the freight shipments for the entire city twenty-five years ago. About twenty years ago the firm decided to bring out a furnace to supplement their line of stoves and ranges. It took ten years to bring this type of furnace to the degree of perfection which satisfied the Round Oak people. Every item of criticism or advice from the purchasers of these furnaces was care-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
fully considered and often became the ground for an improvement. When the furnace was first put on the market there was much to criticise ; after ten years customers entirely ceased to suggest improvements or to find defects, and therefore the company knew they had at last made a perfect furnace. The two points of superiority first produced by Mr. Beckwith in his original Round Oak, namely, economy in consumption of fuel and durability through all the tests of usage, have been maintained throughout the existence of the business. The latest product of this plant is the Round Oak Chief steel range, which was brought out three years ago, and the present addition to the plant is a building for the manu- facture of ranges. The steel range was a success from the start, has never once proved a failure, and remarkable sales indicate its popularity. . It first only five or six were made each day; now the number is eighty-five and soon it will be a hundred. In the conduct of the business the one-price principle has always been maintained; no jockeying in prices has been indulged in, all customers have been treated alike, and a solid and sub- stantial basis underlies the Round Oak works in factory and counting rooms. In conclusion, a word should be said of the artistic cata- logues and literature with which the company brings their goods to the attention of the world. The best in the art of chromatic engraving and printing has been employed to produce the various booklets. The adver- tising, of which Mr. H. L. Mosher has charge, is in keeping with the class of goods which are sold.
DOWAGIAC MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
According to the statement made on the first page of this company's catalogue for 1906, Dowagiac grain drills were first made in 1866 and have since been continuously made on part of the present site-"the largest in the world devoted exclusively to the manufacture of grain- seeding machinery." The plant has grown from an eight-horse water- wheel plant to its present immense proportions.
The prototype of the famous Dowagiac drill was a shoe drill first brought into practical form by William Tuttle, a farmer of this section of Michigan. The first one made, in 1866, as stated, had wooden shoes covered with tin, and Philo D. Beckwith cast the first iron shoes. The mode of covering the grain by a chain, the second part of the invention, was the idea of Shepard H. Wheeler, a pioneer of Dowagiac. The first drill was put up and made ready for work in the wood-working and repair shop of John Crawford and Amos Knapp, and in February, 1867.
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the two inventors secured the first patent on the machine. A part of the present site of the plant-just south of Dowagiac creek on the west side of Front street-was purchased of Mr. Beckwith in 1868. The factory was burned down in 1872, but was soon rebuilt, and the plant has been increasing in size and amount of output ever since. The bus- iness was in the hands of various parties during the first few years. J. P. Warner, who invented the spring-tooth harrow in 1880, was the principal partner during the seventies and for a long time the plant was known as the Warner Drill Works. In November, 1881, a stock company was formed under the name Dowagiac Manufacturing Com- pany. In 1890 the stock was bought up by N. F. Choate. F. W. Lyle. C. E. Lyle. W. F. Hoyt and Charles Fowle. From the crude begin- nings of forty years ago the business has grown to what its owners claim it to be-the largest plant for the manufacture of seeding machin- ery in the world. At the date of the factory inspection of April, 1905, the number of employes given was 165, but the full force is between 300 and 350. the output naturally varying in different seasons of the year.
COLBY MILLING COMPANY.
As elsewhere stated, the milling interests are the oldest institutions of Dowagiac, William Renniston having built a carding mill in 1830. and a few years later a grist mill on the creek near the Colby Com- pany's present mill, on the northeast corner of section six in LaGrange township, where the Cassopolis and Dowagiac road crosses a branch of the Dowagiac creek on the mill dam. After being owned by several parties, this property was sold by Erastus H. Spalding in 1868 to Mr. H. F. Colby and became the nucleus of the present mills.
In 1857 G. A. Colby, a brother of H. F., had built a merchant mill at the head of Spalding street, and this was known as "the lower mill." to distinguish it from "the upper mill," which was the original Rennis- ton mill. though rebuilt by H. F. Colby in 1868. H. F. Colby soon bought the lower mill, and the milling interests of Dowagiac have since then been largely identified with the Colby family. The Colby Milling Company was organized in 1891, its first members being H. F. Colby, F. L. Colby and F. H. Baker. It is a copartnership, and in 1900 Mr. F. L. Colby sold his interest in the business to F. W. Richey. The firm is now made up of H. F. Colby, F. H. Baker and F. W. Richey. The upper mill is known as the Crown Roller Mills and the lower mill as the State Roller Mills.
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SAND BANDS.
The credit for producing this useful invention is due to Myron Stark. of Dowagiac, and William M. Farr has been associated in its manufacture for thirty years and is now the sole proprietor of the plant. Sketches of both these men will be found elsewhere in this volume and it is sufficient to say here that the factory has grown to be one of those that increase the reputation of Dowagiac as a substantial manufactur- ing center and bring outside wealth to this point.
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