USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 101
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The building in which are located the offices and display rooms is of brick, sixty by one hundred and twenty feet. In the display room can be seen fine monuments of granite and marble, and beautiful statues. A cutting shed, twenty by forty feet, is in the rear. Among the stone buildings constructed by the Bunnell Monumental Works are the Murphy residence on Scioto street, the First Methodist Episcopal churchon Main street, the Southard residence in Marysville, and the West Liberty school building. Among the first of the mausoleums erected by the Bunnells are those of the Leeson, Edwins and Dehority families, of Elwood, Indiana; the Pepperday mausoleum at Mount Vernon, Indiana, and the T. P. Kite Mausoleum at St. Paris, Ohio.
URBANA ARTIFICIAL ICE AND COLD STORAGE COMPANY.
In the years 1888 and 1889 the winters were so mild that little or no ice was harvested, and in consequence the price of ice advanced from seven .
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to twenty dollars per ton. Artificial ice was being manufactured in adjoin- ing cities and the idea of establishing a plant in Urbana was looked upon with favor by some of the local business men. In April, 1890, the above-named company was formed by J. S. Kirby, John Mayse, C. O. Taylor, S. L. P. Stone, and Henry Helps, with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars. In the beginning a plant with ten-ton capacity was erected, but in 1903 a large brick building was erected and a twenty-ton plant installed, thus doubling the capacity and providing a cold-storage plant for butter, eggs, fruits, meats, furs and the like. Three teams and wagons are now kept busy making deliv- eries in the city, while considerable ice is shipped to other towns. Pure distilled water is also delivered to many customers in the city.
FLORISTS AND GARDENERS.
The beginning of the florist business in Urbana dates back to 1852, when the firm of C. H. & P. Murphey established the first greenhouse in the town. The Murpheys have been in the business continuously since that year and have built up one of the most extensive industries of this kind to be found in the United States, in a city the size of Urbana. They have an extensive plant in Oakland street, in the northeastern part of the city, and have a branch plant in Springfield.
As stated above the first firm of the Murpheys was known as the C. H. & P. Murphey Co. This was succeeded by C. H. Murphey in 1875 and in 1882 Murphy took his sons into partnership and the firm became known as C. H. Murphey's Sons. This firm was dissolved in 1884 and R. H. Murphey became the sole owner. In 1907 the present firm of R. H. Murphey's Sons took charge of the business.
The firm is now engaged entirely in the production of rose plants for the wholesale trade. During the past year they have grown over a million plants of two hundred different varieties. They ship plants to all parts of the country and find ready sale for all the plants they can produce. They have sixty-seven thousand square feet under glass and their extensive plants cover nine acres.
The Urbana Floral Company, on North Main street, is owned by Samuel W. Carey. It was established in 1901 and makes a specialty of ferns and geraniums. Carey started in with two greenhouses, seventy feet in length and now has seven greenhouses. The company does an extensive business.
J. J. Botkin has a greenhouse on East Lawn street. He devotes his plant to the culture of a wide variety of flowers for the cut-flower trade and
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to the raising of large quantities of celery, lettuce, and other garden vegetables. He started out with six hotbeds and now has more than two hundred and fifty. He also has more than six thousand square feet of glass-covered houses "for the growing of flowers and vegetables. His plant of nine acres is locally known as the "East Lawn Gardens".
Charley Freyhof started in with a few hotbeds in 1892 and has gradually built up a prosperous business in the raising of vegetables. He has three thousand square feet under glass.
CIGAR FACTORIES.
The first cigar factory in the city was established by W. T. Busser, who came from Pennsylvania in the fifties and began the manufacture of cigars about 1857. The wife of Busser was an expert cigarmaker and is said to have been the first woman in the town to work at the trade. Busser con- tinued in the business until about 1880. His business was then taken over by J. B. Hitt & Company, which latter firm was in continuous operation until 1910. The latter company also engaged in the manufacture of finecut chew- ing tobacco, and was for several years the largest tobacco company in the city.
The firm of Smith, Davies & Company opened a cigar factory in 1864 in the building now used by Cooper's hardware store and soon had a big business. They disposed of their factory to Adolph Nipping in 1872 and the new owner transferred the business to the room now occupied by the Model barber shop. Nipping did business in a small way for four years and then sold out to J. P. Herman. The latter continued in the same room occupied by Nipping and remained in the business until his death in 1914. His son, Frank, continued the business in a small shop in the rear of his home on North Main street until his death within the past year.
The largest cigar factory in the city is owned by Peter Armbruster and his three-story factory, 464 Sycamore street, turns out more cigars of the "stogie" variety than all the other factories in the city. In 1890 the Arm- bruster brothers, Peter and John, started a factory in the building now occu- pied by the Daily Citizen and from the beginning made fifteen hundred "stogies" daily. The business had increased to such an extent by 1899 that the brothers built a two-story brick building at 464 Sycamore street, adding a third story in 1908. The building has a basement which is utilized, so that there are now four floors wholly devoted to the business. In February, 1916, Peter bought his brother John's interest and has since been the sole owner of the factory. The cigar-makers are girls and from thirty to forty are given
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steady employment the year round. The chief brands are known as "1890", "A. B. S.", "A. B. C." and "New Armbruster". The most expert of the girls can turn out from one thousand to fourteen hundred "stogies" daily. It is estimated that this factory has made more than fifteen million "stogies" since it started operations in 1890.
Elmer E. Little established his cigar factory at 327 North Main street in November, 1896, and has been engaged in business continuously since that year. He employs two hands all the time and spends part of his time at his desk. His principal cigar is a five-cent brand, "El Toda". The firm of Murphy & Koehle on north Main street was established in 1898 and now employs nine cigar-makers. Their chief brand is known as "Alvaro". The Union Cigar Company, a partnership of G. A. Shetter and William Schief, dates from 1901. The two members of the firm are the cigar-makers of the company, and make two brands-"S. B.", a five-cent cigar, and "John Adams", a ten- cent cigar. John J. Downey is a jobber and manufacturer, with his place of business at 231/2 Monument Square. He has been in business since 1905 and employs four workmen.
THE MOHRLITE COMPANY.
The Mohrlite Company, an Ohio corporation, started its corporate existence in Urbana in January, 1916. This company purchased the patents, trade-mark, good will, models, patterns, etc., from the California Company, and that company quit active business January 1, 1916. Mohrlite fixtures have been manufactured since 1910.
The factory in Urbana, which manufactures all kinds of artistic lighting fixtures, was equipped and the actual manufacture of fixtures started on March 21, 1916. The first factory was located in the Dimond building on South Main street, with a floor space of three thousand square feet. The present factory building was built by the company and completed in 1916, and has a floor space of nearly nine thousand square feet. That the merits of the Mohrlite fixtures are recognized is shown by the fact that they were given the gold-medal award and honorable mention, the highest award given any lighting fixtures at the San Francisco International Exposition. Shipments for the first month in 1916 amounted to three hundred and twenty-seven dollars, and have increased until at the present time the output per month is more than seven thousand dollars.
The authorized capital stock of the company has just been increased from fifty thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars, and with orders being
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received from all parts of the world and installation being made in many of the public buildings in the United States, prospects for the future are very flattering. The present officers are : W. M. Dixon, president ; J. H. Brown, vice-president ; B. P. Dixon, secretary and treasurer.
THE OIL REFINING AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY.
The Oil Refining and Development Company of Urbana was incorpo- rated on November 17, 1916, with the following officers: Dr. C. B. For- ward, president; W. H. Warner, vice-president; A. J. Vance, Jr., treasurer ; Ross Warnock, secretary. 'The offices and buildings of the company are near the Pennsylvania depot. This company is still in its infancy and its promoters have every confidence in its ability to succeed. It proposes to manufacture three times as much gasoline from a given amount of crude oil as is done by the methods now in use. The process has been worked out by Doctor For- ward and the whole idea is one on which he has been working for several years.
SUMMARY OF INDUSTRIES OF URBANA IN 1917.
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to summarize the indus- tries of the city for the past hundred years. Many commodities once made in the city are no longer manufactured here. No longer does the city manu- facture steam engines, reapers, corn and wheat drills, plows, stoves and iron castings of all kinds, woolen goods, automatic telephones, alum, baking powder, soap, glue, leather, tile, brick, carriages buggies, wagons, rugs, beer, hominy, clocks, screw drivers, pumps, chairs, crackers, lawn mowers, wash- ing machines and wind mills.
The times have changed and while all of the products are manufactured in other places the probability is that none of them will ever again be made in Urbana. But other things have come to take their place. The summer of 1917 finds the following products manufactured in Urbana: Awnings, beef products, biscuits, buns, bread, butter, buckets, buggies, brooms, brushes, canned goods, cans, railroad cars, cigars, candy, cement blocks, dies, egg cases, electricity, electrical fixtures, furniture, flour, flowers, gimlets, harness, halters, hinges, injectors, ice, ice cream, jigs, meat products, mince meat, min- eral waters, oil cans, paper, pork and poultry products, roasted coffee, sash, "stogies", straw-board, saddles, tools and whisks.
There are a number of other articles manufactured on a small scale. Urbana, like every community, has its full quota of tailors, dressmakers and the like, all of which contribute in a small way to the industrial life of the city.
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Then there are the blacksmiths and woodworkers, who are as essential to the welfare of the community as the minister or teacher, and Urbana is well supplied with skilled artisans in these lines. The advent of the automobile has brought in the garage and the men who take care of it. Even the word "garage" was unknown two decades ago. The next historian of Champaign county will have to tell about the introduction of the hangar and the men who take care of it. Urbana is well supplied with skilled men in all trades. In addition to these mentioned it has its painters, paperhangers, well-diggers, carpenters, lathers, plasterers, masons, upholsterers, vulcanizers, shoe cobblers, etc., all of whom find their place in the industrial life of the city.
Mark Twain says that when Captain 'Stormfield went to Heaven the Captain saw a few things which surprised him, but the most startling was the sight of Shakespeare, the poet, a shoe cobbler from Tennessee, and a camel driver from Egypt, walking down the streets of Heaven arm in arm. The Captain could not understand why the immortal Shakespeare should be found in such company and turned to his guide for an explanation. "Here in Heaven," said his guide, "everyone is ranked according to the good he did on earth". "Even so," said the Captain, "but that does not account for this illy-sorted trio". "On earth", continued his guide, "Shakespeare did no more for his community, in proportion to the talents which God gave him, than the shoe cobbler and the camel driver did for their respective communities in proportion to their ability. Each of the three did the best they could and in Heaven are rewarded accordingly".
And so it is in Urbana, the humblest workman in the city fills as important a niche as the highest-paid workman in the city : the blacksmith and the jeweler are necessary and it is just as important for the farmer to have his plow fixed as to have his watch repaired. Sometimes we get the wrong perspective and need to detach ourselves from ourselves in order to get a new grip on the value of things around us. Does the fact that a man has clean or dirty hands make him any the less important in the eyes of his fellowmen? Where- fore would the lawyer be if it were not for the rest of mankind? Urbana boasts of men in more than a hundred different occupations and as long as a man is doing honest work he is entitled to the same consideration as every other man. The democracy of labor should bring us all to a common level.
INDUSTRIES THAT NEVER MATERIALIZED IN URBANA.
A study of the industrial situation of Urbana as revealed in the various enterprises which have attempted to get started here since 1900 shows some
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very interesting sidelights on human nature. Barnum said that one was born every minute and there have been some minutes in Urbana where the birth rate exceeded this number. The man does not live who does not want to make money and it is this desire which has been at the basis of all of the prosperous industrial plants of Urbana as well as of all those which have been otherwise. It is a long story and a sad story ; the story of unscrupulous promoters and unsuspecting investors. More than half a million dollars has been taken from Champaign county since 1900 which yielded not a cent to their investors, and the interesting thing about all these worthless investments is the fact that the people were warned against most of the vampirish financiers who bled the people of the county. A few of the most notable of these companies are noted in the following paragraphs, not that they made any history par- ticularly worth recording, but that future generations may read thereof and be profited thereby.
The story begins with the Hedge Fence Company which appeared on the horizon about 1900. The representatives of this company laid before a gullible public the possibilities of an investment in a company which they proposed to organize in Urbana for the manufacture of a kind of fence that would eventually girdle the earth. The people of Urbana heard the glad tidings and responded with a pecuniary promptness that augured well for the fence promoters. Even a judge of the local court subscribed stock and from the judicial bench in the court house to the humblest home in the county the subscriptions rolled in. Then the whole scheme was exposed-the pro- moters fled-the people lost thousands of dollars-and the first lesson in high finance had been learned by the people of Urbana.
It is hardly possible to follow in consecutive order the many schemes which in some mysterious manner appeared in Urbana following the suc- cess of the fence people. The next one on a large scale appeared in 1906 under the guise of the American Automatic Telephone Company. The Auto- matic Telephone Company, for the present purpose addressed as Autotelco, was conceived and born in sin. The strange thing about this enterprise is the fact that the people of Urbana were warned in a most striking manner that the scheme would end disastrously. A man who had formerly worked in U'rbana, but who at the time was living in Chicago, was placed in a position where he learned what the promoters of the Autotelco intended to do. This man immediately telegraphed the fact to Urbana, the news was spread around, but despite this forewarning, the promoters descended on the town like a plague of Egyptian locusts and five years later they left-and the people of Champaign county had contributed more than one hundred and fifty thousand
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dollars of their hard-earned money to these followers of Captain Kidd. This company, unlike the fence company, actually began operations and did make a pretense of acting in good faith. But it was only pretense-they were, so it might be said, only chloroforming their patients before robbing them. The fence people did not even stop to drug their victims; the Autotelco people had a more humane way about them.
These two enterprises are the most notable of several such enterprises. Among the lesser public larcenies may be mentioned the Eagle Glass Company which died "a-bornin'". It was dissolved on May 18, 1914, before it had made so much as a bottle, and was merged with a Cincinnati concern. This company did little more than thrust a pistol into the face of Urbana people and threaten to hold them up; it was a harmless highwayman. It got only about forty thousand dollars of the people's money. In the same class, but with more evil designs on the public, was the North American Chemical Com- pany of 1912. This company got so far as to build a very respectable looking sort of a building in the north part of town and even attempted to give the people a run for their money. The only trouble was that the run was all. in one direction and that was not towards the people of the town who had invested their money. This company was going to bring alum-bearing mineral from Georgia and manufacture commercial alum here in Urbana. Despite the fact that the source of raw material was so far distant the people of Urbana felt confident that the venture would be profitable. The people invested their money just as they had in the fence proposition, the Autotelco and the glass company-and within a year from the time the factory was started it was ready for the receiver's hands. He was the only one who received anything from it-and it was probably a very small amount.
Another enterprise in Urbana which fell by the wayside because of the rapacity of mankind and misplaced confidence was the late Niles Sanitorium. A good man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. John M. Niles, died a few years ago and left a fortune to the sanitarium and in their honor the sanitarium was rechristened. The institution not only received this benefit, but scores of people of Urbana and vicinity were led to believe that this institution fur- nished a profitable investment. People reasoned that men might traffic in fences or telephones or glass or alum, but certainly they would not traffic in human lives. But again they were mistaken. Another institution soon closed its doors. Urbana people had again lost all of their investments.
The Urbana Straw Board Company of Urbana went into the hands of a trust and at the time of its absorption it was doing such a thriving business
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that the magnanimous trust very considerately gave the local stockholders two shares for every share that they owned. The people could hardly believe it, but they had not reckoned with their benefactor. Within a short time the company went into the receiver's hands and was sold, and the erstwhile "bloated stockholders" of Urbana received a paltry fifteen cents on the dollar for their investment.
Enough has been said of these schemes to indicate their general character. Not all of them were reprehensible at the outset, but they developed Machia- vellian tendencies which boded ill for all who ventured near them. Some of these companies might have succeeded if they had been properly managed ; even the Autotelco might have succeeded if it had been properly managed. The alum industry probably failed because the process of manufacture had not been sufficiently developed beforehand.
WESTERN MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY.
Industries and business enterprises may come and go, but Urbana has one business institution which has weathered the vicissitudes of the country's financial fortunes for seventy-one years. That institution is the Western Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which is the oldest continuous concern in the city. There are few living in the county who can remember when it started in the spring of 1846, basing its legal existence on an act of the state Legislature, approved February 28, 1846. The incorporators of the com- pany were David Gwynne, Jacob Kaufman, Lemuel Weaver, William H. Harback, Philander B. Ross, Ira A. Bean, Theodore A. Wick, S. A. Winslow and Colin McDonald-names which stood for the best of everything in com- mercial life in those days. The first directors were David Gwynne, Ira A. Bean; Jacob Kaufman, Lemuel Weaver and Philander B. Ross. David Gwynne was first president, Ira A. Bean, the first secretary, and Seymour A. Winslow the first treasurer.
When the company was first organized, it was intended to handle only local fire insurance business and this policy was pursued until 1870. At that time the directors decided to extend its operations throughout the state, and the extension of the company's field has proved to have been for its best inter- est. Now, it is regarded as one of the best of the Ohio fire insurance com- panies. The business of the organization is confined exclusively to Ohio, and practically all of its policies are in cities and towns which have adequate fire protection. This is the principal reason for its remarkable success. Because of its conservative method of doing business, the company extends cheap and
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reliable insurance to its patrons, to whom it gives prompt adjustments and payments of losses.
The financial statement of the Western Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany for January 1, 1917, bears out the foregoing assertions. The amount at risk was $6.750,529; premium notes, net, $666,479: real estate, $12,000; furniture and fixtures, $900; cash in bank, $11,340.97; bonds and stocks. market value, $53.635; accrued interest on bonds, $514.59; assessments due, net, $1,850.67; losses unpaid and in process of adjustment, estimated, $1,497; losses paid in 1916, $29,108.29. Not only does the company show an excel- lent financial statement after its many years of faithful service, but it also owns one of the handsomest business blocks in Urbana, the same having been erected on Miami street in 1914.
It is interesting to recall the names of the officers of the company. This coterie of men is representative of the sound financial ability of Urbana. In 1881 J. H. Patrick was president ; Joshua Saxton, vice-president, William R. Ross, treasurer; Wilson Baldwin, secretary: Joseph S. Carter, general agent. The directors were J. H. Patrick, P. B. Ross. Joshua Saxton, C. G. Smith and J. S. Carter. In March; 1890, William R. Ross was elected presi- dent. He served the company in that capacity until 1915. C. A. Ross became secretary in December, 1898, and served until 1914. In that year. Charles A. Ross, Jr., assumed the duties of secretary and still retains them. In 1915, J. F. Brand, who had been general agent and treasurer since 1905. was elected president and still serves in that capacity. E. F. Cheney is now vice-president. . The directors are E. F .. Cheney, E. M. Crane. Joseph Valen- tine, Charles F. Johnson and J. F. Brand.
PUBLIC UTILITIES.
The public utilities of a city may either be owned by the city or by private corporations. A public utility, as the name indicates, refers to some public service which is enjoyed by the citizens at large. If a man owns a well on his lot, it is not a public utility as long as he uses it himself, but if all of the wells in the town but his were to go dry, then this particular well would become a public utility. For years water was not considered as a public utility in Urbana; everybody had his own well or spring; but in the course of time the village grew to be a town, the town to a city, and it was not possible for everybody to have a well. Furthermore, the demand for fire protection necessitated the installation of some kind of water service, and hence there came into existence the waterworks plant-the first public utility of Urbana.
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