History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 71

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882


USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 71


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WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO.


Following closely upon the opening of the pole docks of F. S. Sterling & Co., the Western Union Telegraph Company recognized the great advantages offered by Monroe as a dis- tributing point and entered into negotiations by which they secured about nine hundred feet of dock room of the Sterlings. They then moved their yards from Toledo to Monroe and made it their distributing point for the central division, which includes all points governed by the central standard of time, or the entire portion of the United States between Buffalo and Omaha. This division is in charge of J. D. Dickinson, superintendent supply de-


THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY


ASTOR, LENOX AND TILBEN FOLLOATIONS.


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BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.


partment at Chicago, with C. L. Peck in- spector at Monroe. Some idea of the immense amount of their business at Monroe may be formed from the fact that the yards at Monroe employ from eighty to one hundred men, and have in stock an average of one hundred and twenty thousand poles, costing about two dol- lars each. An average of two hundred cars is sent from the yards here each month and shipped to all points in the central division.


PAPER MILLS.


Among the larger industries of Monroe may be counted the paper mills. Probably the oldest mill in the West, and one of the old land- marks around Monroe, is the Raisinville mill, four miles west of the city. It was built in 1834 by Christopher McDowell, and for many years was the only mill of the kind in Southern Michigan. The first steam dryer ever used in the West was set up in this mill, in the latter part of the fifties. After passing through vari- ous changes it came into the possession of Jacob Mitchell in 1862, but the introduction of new and improved machinery and the cost of cartage to and from the mill rendering it an unsatisfactory investment, in 1887 it was finally closed. The Monroe Paper Company, which consisted of Jacob and Leonard Mitchell, was organized in 1866, using the old mill until 1874, when the present mill was built and a specialty made of wrapping paper. Of this they manu- facture about twelve hundred tons annually, most of which finds a ready market with Michigan wholesalers.


The Monroc Manufacturing Company, of which J. R. Rauch is president, S. P. Jackson vice-president, and C. A. Jackson secretary and treasurer, has a mill 250x60 feet, and gives on an average employment to about twenty- five men. They daily manufacture an average of about five tons of wrapping and express paper, mostly going to the wholesale market of Chicago.


The Richardson Paper Company, of which J. C. Richardson is president, C. C. Richardson vice-president, and M. H. Richardson secretary and treasurer, manufacture from two and one- half to three million pounds of straw wrapping paper annually, from which their revenue is in the neighborhood of forty thousand dollars.


Their sales are mostly in the New York, Phila- delphia and Detroit markets. The company was incorporated with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, and is the outgrowth of a mill built in 1882 by Frank S. Sill and operated by him until 1884, when he sold it to Richard- son, Tangeman & Scott, of Lima, Ohio.


A peculiar enterprise under a great deal of difficulty was inaugurated in the spring of 1888 in the manufacture of cloth binder's board by F. Waldorf & Son, their two-story mill, 35x55, now averaging from two and one-half to three tons of that article each day, and giv- ing constant employment to from fifteen to twenty men.


ISRAEL EPLEY ILGENFRITZ,


One of the leading nurserymen in the United States, and whose push, vim and sterling busi- ness qualities have done much toward building up one of the leading industries of Monroe, is the sixth child and second son of Jacob and Catherine (Epley) Ilgenfritz, and was born August 13, 1824, near Little York, Pennsyl- vania.


Although thoroughly Americanized he is of German ancestry, the first Ilgenfritz who came to America emigrating from Strasburg over two hundred years ago and settling in the wil- derness on the banks of the now celebrated Conemaugh, three and a half miles northwest of Little York. On his death his eldest son fell heir to the farm of three hundred and twenty acres, together with a smaller tract of land adjoining, on which he built a grist mill and distillery. When the Revolutionary War began he was already an old man, but his eldest son, Frederick, the grandfather of Mr. Ilgenfritz, served through the war, and at its close settled on the old homestead, where he died in 1822. He had six sons, John, George David, Jacob, Frederick and Daniel. John emigrated to Ohio, settling in what is now Mahoning county about 1801 or 1802. He lived to an extreme old age, and many of his descendants are still living in Mahoning county. George also moved to Ohio in 1832, and all of his brothers with the exception of David and Daniel, the former dying at Lafayette, Indiana,


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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.


the latter now living near Kalamazoo, Michi- gan. Frederick's brother Martin inherited the grist mill, and his youngest brother, Samnel, learned the blacksmith's trade and lived his whole life in Little York, becoming quite wealthy. His eldest son, William, held the office of prothonotary in Little York for some twenty years.


The Ilgenfritz family in the olden time were noted, the men for their great muscular strength, and both men and women remarkable for their great independence of spirit.


Jacob, the father of Mr. Ilgenfritz, after serving in the War of 1812, for which a short time before his death he received a bounty warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land from the Government, lived near Little York until about 1830, when he moved to near Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. There he followed the occupation of agricul- turist until the spring of 1853, when he moved to Monroe, where he died October 23, 1863, after raising a family of twelve children, six boys and six girls.


The early life of Mr. Ilgenfritz was spent on a farm, with the occasional advantages of a few weeks' schooling during the winter season, until 1843, when he went to Bellefonte, Center county, Pennsylvania, and embarked in the nursery business there.


In the fall of 1846 he visited Monroe, and in the spring of 1847 he moved from Bellefonte to Monroe, bringing with him a small stock of trees, which he planted on Monroe street, just south of St. John's Catholic church. In the spring of 1848 he bought a half interest in the nursery of E. H. Reynolds, on the land adjoin- ing St. Mary's church. Most of the shrubbery around the house of Father Joos, where their office then was, was planted by him. In a short time Mr. Reynolds sold out his share in the business to Mr. Jesse Beardsley, who shortly afterwards sold it to Mr. Ilgenfritz, making him. the sole owner in the fall of 1849 of the Monroe Nursery. In the spring of 1850 the firm was changed to Ilgenfritz & Bentley (Mr. A. R. Bentley purchasing a half interest), and so continued till about 1856, when it again came into the hands of Mr. Ilgenfritz by the with- drawal of Mr. Bentley. Abont 1863 Mr. Ilgen- fritz admitted Mr. Amos Kellogg and Daniel Ilgenfritz to partnership (each having a quarter


interest), the former continuing about a year, the latter leaving the firm in 1876. After this Mr. Ilgenfritz continued the business alone until his sons came in with him, when the firm name was changed to I. E. Ilgenfritz & Sons.


Starting with a small plant, about 1850 it was enlarged by the rental of the Edmonds' farm. About 1856 the first part of the Waterloo farm of about two hundred acres was purchased. In 1858 the railroad farm, of one hundred and sixty five acres, came into his possession, and in 1872 he acquired the title to the Clark farm of seventy acres. This latter was used as packing grounds for about a year, when it was found necessary to be more central, and the present grounds adjoining the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern depot were gradnally pur- chased of the Rev. Mr. Safford and others.


Probably one of the happiest moments of Mr. Ilgenfritz's life was when about 1855 he became the owner of his first property on Elm street, on Anderson block No. 1, which is now known as the homestead lot. The old log ยท house was formerly used as an Indian trading post. Here he lived for thirteen years, and it it now used as a dwelling house by his son Theodore.


December 24, 1846, he was married to Mary; daughter of Michael and Margaret (Walters) Fishburn, whose children are : Margaret E., born February 17, 1849, and married February 15, 1871, to Thomas Osborn, a well-to-do farmer living near Teenmseh ; Harriet F., born June 29, 1850, and married May 15, 1872, to J. M. Loose, well known in connection with the Red Clover Company, of Detroit; Charles A., born September 5, 1852, married September 13, 1881, to Miss Sadie Ketcham, of Saginaw ; Albert W., born October 23, 1854, died May 2, 1855; Theodore E., born May 3, 1856, married Feb- ruary 6, 1877, to Kate Lafontain, of Monroe, and now living in the old homestead house ; Wilbur F., born June 21, 1858 ; Edgar C., born May 11, 1860, married November 5, 1884, to Hattie Harvey, grandchild of Captain Harvey, well known to the older citizens of Monroc ; Frank L., born April 16, 1862; Mary E., born April 11, 1864; Thomas I., born March 25, 1866; Kate V., born December 24, 1867, and Lilla A., born December 15, 1869.


All of the Ilgenfritzes two generations ago, with the exception of Mr. Ilgenfritz's, great-


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BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.


uncle, Samuel, were Democrats; he married into the Hay family and they converted him into a Federalist. Mr. Ilgenfritz is a strong Republican, and yet, such is the estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens, that he has been thrice elected to represent his ward (the fourth) as alderman in the city council - in 1875-6, in 1887-8, and 1889.90; the ward on an averege vote of 180 usually going Demo- cratic by about 40 votes, at the last term gave him a majority of 21 votes.


Since about 1851 Mr. Ilgenfritz has been a constant member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for most of that time has held the office of class-leader, steward and trustee. He has always been liberal according to his means in contributing to all church work, and in all his dealings showed that his profession of faith was not a cloak to cover the garb of hypocrisy.


Devoting his entire time and energy to his chosen calling he has earned a reputation throughout the country which makes him an umpire from whose decision there is no appeal in questions as to the name and variety of any fruit, and while for many years he was foremost at fairs and exhibitions, he now has only time to devote to his constantly increasing business.


We take the following from the fourth annual report of the secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan.


" We were back again at Adrian in time for the S A. M. train for Monroe. A sandwich and cup of coffee sufficed for a breakfast, and aboard the train for Monroe, where we arrived in time for a substantial dinner at the hospi- table mansion of I. E. Ilgenfritz, who is the Nursery King of the State.


THE MONROE NURSERIES.


" Directly in front and adjoining the Michigan Southern Railroad depot are the ex- tensive packing houses and ornamental grounds of this establishment. A description of the buildings and grounds may not be inappro- priate here. The main packing house is 40x156 feet, two stories high, with cellar for heeling in such trees and plants as are required for spring sales and would be likely to take injury through the winter if left in the open ground ; another advantage is, it facilitates early shipments in spring. This cellar extends under the entire


building, and is entered at either end by door- ways of sufficient size to admit of team and wagon loaded with trees. The bottom is laid with a coat of cement four inches thick, and this again covered eighteen inches deep with fine sand for laying in the roots of trees and plants. Here thousands of trees and plants can be safely stored out of all danger of injury from wind and weather, ready for shipment a month or more before any can be moved from the open ground. In fact, at any time during the winter months, should mild weather occur, they can be handled from these cellars. The ground floor is used for boxing, marking, etc., and affords ample room for thirty or forty men to work. On one end of this floor are the business offices, and underneath the grafting room. The upper story is used for manufac- turing and storing boxes used in packing trees, and for the storing of tools, &c.


" So indispensable to their extensive business have the proprietors found the heeling cellar above mentioned, that they were erecting and had nearly completed another building, 50x156 feet, with walls of masonry fourteen feet high, and set in the ground six feet, to be used exclu- sively for this purpose.


" The ornamental grounds attached to these buildings are nine acres in extent, and were made up of city lots covered with dwellings, which the Messrs Ilgenfritz have purchased and torn down or removed, until they have the present area all to themselves, and situated in one of the most advantageous and pleasant parts of the city. The grounds were somewhat low in their natural state, and the proprietors have been at great expense in filling and leveling. They have covered several aeres with fine soil for the growth of ornamental plants, to the depth of from two to six feet. It was a vast labor, but Mr. Ilgenfritz remarked : ' The soil should be laid on until it pleased him, if it required a depth of ten feet.' There is ' a heap of vim' in this man, I. E. Ilgenfritz. These grounds were in part already planted to the finest varieties of ornamental flowering plants and shrubs, and the coming season they will be entire filled.


" From the ornamental grounds I accom- panied the proprietors to the farms, where the heavy stocks of fruit and ornamental trees are grown. There are three in all, covering up-


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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.


wards of three hundred acres in extent. All such stocks of trees are wonderful. The quantities of special leading varieties - 50,000 Baldwin, 50,000 Greening, 20,000 and 30,000 Spy, Canada, etc .- were no unusual quantities to be found in single blocks. The soil where these nurseries are located is a rich alluvial, underlaid with clay, covering the limestone formation at most but a few feet below the sur- face, and cropping out in numerous places. The cultivation was the nearest perfection to be met with anywhere. I much doubt if throughout the whole extent of these grounds a barrow load of weeds could have been gathered. All the grounds are underdrained. Mr. Ilgen- fritz informed us not a rood of ground was used for nursery purposes without first being thoroughly tiled, the cost of which varies from forty to one hundred dollars per acre.


"In the way of the newer varieties of fruit tree stock, these men were found no way behind their eastern and western competitors. Among the apples were Grimes' Golden and American Beauty in large quantities, and many other novelties I was surprised to find in such quantities. This seems to be the soil for grow- ing the pear ; finer specimens, of all ages from one to three and four years old, can be found nowhere in the State; nor have I seen finer blocks of pear trees at Rochester, Geneva, or Syracuse, and the quality fully up to the demand. The cherry and peach are not so heavily grown ; but the proprietors have a keen eye to the prospective demand, and plant in proportion.


" And yet one important branch of this ex- tensive establishment was hardly up to the de- mand of the times: I refer to the ornamental department. They should have some glass houses, a propagating house, a specimen plant house, etc., and now that they are finally estab- lished on their newly acquired and long coveted grounds, they should be added at once. Prep- arations were already being made for their erection, and early in the coming season will find them completed. The increasing demand for hardy evergreens must require a much larger stock than were noticed here, and on inquiry we were informed that they were pre- paring for a heavy stock in this department the coming season. Their one and two-years-old grape vines were particularly fine ; one block


of 11,000 Concords, this season's cuttings, were extra. But in the immense stocks of the apple, their fine growth and healthy condition, the uniformity of size and form of tree, the neatness and order of planting, with rows as straight as lines of light, and extending in some blocks for a mile or more in length, are found an abun- dant source of meritorious praise.


"Some idea of the magnitude of this estab- lishment may be gained by referring to the amount of stocks planted during the past three years. On referring to the registry for 1871 the planting for that year footed up to upwards of 600,000. In 1872 their setting reached 650,000. These two lots were cut to the ground in the spring of 1873. They are a magnificent lot of trees now, and ready for market, standing from five to seven feet high, well branched, and as desirable a lot to select from asone would wish. In 1873, 400,000 were planted; again in 1874 400,000 more. The fall of 1875 and spring of 1876 will find this establishment in possession of nearly one million trees ready for market.


" Tree planters of Michigan ! give these gen- tlemen a trial ; they are worthy of your patron- age, and your own interests will be served by so doing. They have had their share in the disasters of the unprecedented cold winter of 1872 and 1873 ; the loss was very great. After becoming convinced of the damage done, they resolved to destroy all that were known to be injured, and upwards of $20,000 worth were committed to the flames."


The above from the report of 1874 can hardly be improved upon in describing the buildings and nursery of Messrs. Ilgenfritz, except to add a few words showing their present condition. The main building is 40x156 and two stories high, with a wing 175x50, having a drive-way and platform be- tween for shipping, etc. The cellars under- neath are used for trenching, and those under the wing have the Howe truss roof. The extent of the nurseries gives constant employ- ment to about seventy-five men, and consists of the packing grounds, office and main building, nine acres in extent, where they propagate all kinds of choice ornamental stock, such as tree roses, rhododendrons, choice shrubs, vines and ornamental trees.


The railrord farm on the north side of the river stretches along the Lake Shore & Michi-


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BUSINESS INTERESTS OF MONROE.


gan Southern tracks a mile and a quarter from the river, and covers one hundred and eighty acres ; on this there are five barns, having a floor space of over one thousand square feet.


The Waterloo farm of two hundred acres is located on the southwesterly city limits, and has four hundred square feet of weathersheds and barns.


The Clark farm is situated on the north- westerly city limits, where about seventy acres are devoted to the cultivation of evergreens and ornamentals, and on which are five hundred square feet of barn room.


The homestead lot on the north side of the river, between the two bridges and opposite the residence of Mr. Ilgenfritz, is used for stables and general storehouses, making in all nearly five hundred acres under cultivation for nur- sery purposes.


The Monroe Nurseries do not make a spe- cialty of any one thing, but have over two million trees, consisting largely of apple, peach, pear and cherry in all stages of advancement, and aim to carry in stock all kinds of fruits indigenous to the soil, always striving to have only the best varieties.


NURSERIES.


One of the industries of Monroe of which the average resident has but little conception of the magnitude, is the nurseries. Beginning less than half a century ago it has developed from less than two to nearly a thousand acres under cultivation. In our survey of the culture of fruits, let us commence at the beginning. Gradual and experimental work of the culti vator has given rise to a branch of industry in Monroe that has widely surpassed the most sanguine dreams of its founders, and from the employment of a few in 1840, furnishes means of subsistence to several hundreds of industri- ous citizens.


In the tropics, amid the luxuriant vegetation of that great natural hot house, nature offers to man, almost without care, the most refresh- ing, delicious and nutritious fruits ; but in the temperate zones nature is more harsh, the genial warmth and sunshine of one season being followed in quick succession by cold winds, ice and snowstorms. In a perpetual struggle man is engaged in ameliorating and


transforming nature, and it is in the face of obstacles that man as the gardener arises and forces nature to yield to his art. Up to within a comparatively few years the profession of nurseryman was unknown, each farmer raising for himself such trees and plants as best suited his tastes. But in time the sturdy tiller of the soil found that the special study of trees and plants, by systematic and well-planned experi- ments and carefully noting the results, gave a much finer variety and. a more profitable market. Thus naturally the business gradual- ly fell into the hands of a certain few who made a study of it, and the result was that Monroe has become a large and growing nur- sery center, the soil and climate being from certain natural advantages especially adapted to the growth and production of strong, hardy and well ripened trees. This, together with its central location, midway between the East and West, and the abundant railroad advantages afforded, gave the fullest opportunities for the development of the business.


As early as 1840 Bixby, Mattocks, Hartwell and others had nurseries on a small scale, but probably the first one established as a distinet business investment was in 1841 by E. H. Rey- nolds on about two acres of land on Elm street, where the residence of Father Jose now stands. In 1847 I. E. Ilgenfritz came to Monroe from Bellefonte, Pennsylvanin, with a small nursery stock, and opened an office at the same point in partnership with Mr. Reynolds, who soon after withdrew from the business.


These were indeed primitive times and days of small beginnings, and the man who would then have predicted that in less than a genera- tion the business would have assumed the gigantic proportions it has, would have been looked upon as a visionary enthusiast, and even a few years before the war a man from another portion of the State coming to Monroe with a view of starting in the business, and seeing the fifteen acres of apple trees set out by Mr. Il- genfritz, backed out, thinking that already more trees had been planted than would ever be sold, and there was no use for him to enter into competition.


There is no subject considered by the farmer of equal importance as the variety of the trees in the orchard he may plant. Has he an infe- rior breed of horses or cattle, his old stock is worth something for work or meat, and he can


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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.


turn them off with no material loss and replace with improved breeds. But on planting an orchard the ground is dedicated to the tree and as a rule the variety planted, and if, after five or ten years of anxious waiting and patient toil, the variety is found worthless by the ignorance of the purchaser or knavery of the . nurseryman, the evil is not so easy to remedy. Hence the work of the honest nurseryman comes in, to not only make new varieties, but by careful attention to the nature of the soil and exposure when growing, to use judgment in placing his trees where they will mature to the best advantage.


Forty years ago men grew their own trees; a few years later nurserymen peddled their stock from farm to farm with horse and wagon, rarely going more than a hundred miles from home, and the greater portion of stock came from eastern nurseries. Now the active canvasser with his sample book and glib tongue convinces the farmer that he has just the trees wanted, and takes orders for spring and fall delivery, at which seasons a carload or more of stock is shipped to the point most desirable for distribu tion, and the nurseryman whose reputation for honest dealing and knowledge of his business stands the highest is, especially if ably repre sented by his agents, apt to get the cream of the trade. Aside from the facilities for immediate and speedy transportation, the Monroe stock, being acclimated to the soil, was found to be much better adapted to the western soil and climate, and gradually supplanted the eastern market in the leading sorts most profitable to this locality.


We find E. H. Reynolds in 1841, followed by I. E. Ilgenfritz in 1847, from which in 1876 we have I. E. Ilgenfritz & Sons, and known as the Monroe Nurseries ; Reynolds again in 1850 as the Monroe City Nursery, and joined in 1866 by S. B. Lewis, until 1880, when the partnership was dissolved and the Floral City Nursery started by Lewis, and Reynolds Nur- sery by Reynolds.




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