USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 85
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In 1867 the Legislature passed a general law giving to common councils of cities power to procure steam fire engines and other necessary apparatus for the extinguishing of fires. On the 6th of July, 1871, the city council passed an or- dinance providing for a steam fire department, to consist of one engineer, two drivers, and four hosemen for each engine and hose-cart. In September of the same year a committee was ap- pointed to buy the necessary engine, hose-cart, hose, etc. An Amoskeag engine was bought at a cost of $4,500; hose cart, $550; one thousand feet of hose and three horses, $600; and harness, $84.25, making a total cost of $7,224.25. Since that time more expense has been incurred in the purchase of extra hose, furnishing engine house, etc. Four men are now employed-a chief, en- gineer, engine driver, and hose-cart driver, with salaries as follow: $775, $750, $600, $600. The engine house is a two-story building on Maple street.
The report of the department for 1881 says nine fires occurred during the year past.
The men belonging to the department are not uniformed, economy being exercised by the city in this as in other departments of the city gov- ernment. In case of destructive fire the engine owned by the Government and kept at the mili- tary depot responds to a call. Several of the manufactories of the place have fire hose that can be coupled to the engine or pump used in their work, and an incipient fire extinguished without calling on the department. The present chief (1882) is George Deming; engineer, James Fen- ton; drivers, P. M. Rose and Pat Cronan.
THE JEFFERSONVILLE, MADISON AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD.
The Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad, as it now exists, is the result of the con- solidation of the Madison & Indianapolis rail- road with the Jeffersonville & Madison railroad, later organized.
The survey of the former road was commenced in April, 1836, under the provisions of an act of the Indiana Legislature, passed in January of that year, providing for various internal improve- ments, among others "a railroad from Madison, through Indianapolis and Crawfordsville, to La-
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Fayette." For the construction of this road the sum of $300,000 was appropriated. The act gave the road the right to lay its track upon any turnpike or State road, under certain conditions. The survey was made by John Woodburn, con- struction commenced, and the road completed on April 1, 1839, seventeen miles north from Madison. Then work was suspended. This seventeen miles of road, equipped with two locomotives, two passenger cars and thirty four- wheeled freight cars, was leased by the board of improvements to Messrs. Branham & Co. for sixty per cent. of its gross earnings, until June I, 1840; again, to Messrs. Sering and Burt until June 1, 1841, at seventy per cent. of its gross earnings. In the meantime the line had been extended by the State, first to Vernon, then to Griffiths, which latter point it reached June 1, 1841, giving it a length of twenty-eight miles from Madison. It was operated from June, 1841, until February 3, 1843, by William Mc- Clure, as agent for the State. At the latter date the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad company was organized, and, in accordance with an act passed January 28, 1843, the road was turned over to the new corporation. This transfer was made in pursuance of determination on the part of the State to abandon the prosecution of internal improvements at the public expense, and to sell such as were then owned, to private corporations which should give a satisfactory guaranty as to their completion.
On the 17th day of June, 1842, the organiza- tion of the new company was completed by the election of James P. Drake, James Blake, Na- than Kyle, Zachariah Tannahill, John C. Hub- bard, John M. Given, James D. Ferrall, Adolph W. Flint, James Cochran, S. S. Gillett, John Lering, Nathan B. Palmer, and Harvey Bates as directors. These directors thereupon elected . Nathan B. Palmer president, and George E. Tengle secretary.
Certain formalities being complied with the company took possession of the road. The con- ditions of this transfer are interesting, considering the present importance of the road. According to the terms of transfer, the company bound itself to complete the road to Indianapolis on or before July 1, 1848, and to pay as annual rental until January 13, 1853, a sum equal to the net earnings of the road for 1841, namely, $1, 151,
and from that time until July 1, 1868, divide the profits with the State according to the length of road built by the State and company respect- ively. It was also provided that the State might redeem the road'at any time previous to 1868, by paying the amount actually expended by the company, with six per cent. interest, less the company's net profit. The road was completed to Indianapolis October 1, 1847, and on April I, 1851, the company issued its first mortgage, for $600,000. On the 28th day of February, 1852, the State absolutely sold the road to the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad company. This arrangement was, however, delayed by the failure of the company to fulfil its part of the contract to pay for the road $300,000 in four equal annual installments, and was not carried into effect until February 26, 1856.
On the 27th day of March, 1862, the road was sold, for purposes of reorganization, for $325,000. On the 28th day of March, 1862, the company was reorganized with the following officers: Frederick H. Smith, Nathan Powell, William M. Dunn, Jacob B. McChesney, Peter McMartin, E. H. Miller, Elihu Day, John Fer- guson, and E. Cauldwell, directors; Frederick H. Smith, president ; Thomas Pollack, secretary ; Thomas P. Matthews, treasurer. The capital was placed at $850,000, in seventeen thousand shares of $50 each.
The Jeffersonville Railroad company was incor- porated by an act approved January 20, 1846, with power to build a railroad from Jeffersonville, Indiana, to Columbus in the same State. The road was expressly granted the right to run its trains over the tracks of the Madison & Indi- anapolis road. The company organized under the name of the Ohio & Indiana Railroad com- pany, on the 17th of March, 1848, with James Keigwin, Samuel Meriwether, William G. Arm- strong, A. Walker, Woods Maybury, Benjamin Irwin, J. B. Abbott, J. D. Shryer, W. A. Rich- ardson, W. D. Beech, and Samuel McCampbell as directors, and William C. Armstrong, presi- dent, Samuel McCampbell, secretary, and J. G. Read, treasurer, as its officers. The name of the corporation was changed to the Jeffersonville Railroad company in 1849, and, in the fall of 1852, the road was completed.
The two roads were consolidated subsequent to 1862 as the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indian-
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
apolis Railroad company. This consolidation was a practical absorption of the older by the younger road, as the officers and directors of the Jeffersonville Railroad company were retained in office.
The entire road is now operated by the Penn- sylvania company as lessee, under a lease dated February 21, 1873, with the following directors and officers representing the stockholders: John P. Green, William Thaw, J. N. Mccullough, Thomas D. Thessler, G. S. McKiernan, Jesse D. Brown, Robert McKrees, James L. Bradley, J. H. Patterson, J. H. McCampbell, D. S. Caldwell, and Joseph J. Irving, directors; and George B. Roberts, president; George S. McKiernan, sec- retary and treasurer ; D. W. Caldwell, general manager.
JEFFERSONVILLE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Probably few cities in the United States be- yond the limits of the actual scene of conflict, felt the effect of the civil war so acutely as did Jeffersonville. It was, from its situation, natur- ally a property-room for the theater of war. There three Northern railroads met the Ohio river, and disgorged men, horses, arms, ammuni- tion, commissary and quartermasters' stores, all to be borne down the river or by the single track of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to the armies of the South and Southwest. Re- turning, the boats and cars brought their loads of moaning wounded for the hospitals at that point, and their long lines of dusty and travel- worn prisoners en route for Camp Douglass and Camp Chase. Louisville was the only point which possessed advantages equal to those of Jeffersonville as a point from which to teed, arm, equip, and reinforce the Federal armies to the southward, and Louisville had the river in its rear instead of its front, which was a fatal ob- jection. As a result of this conjunction of cir- cumstances there grew up at Jeffersonville, early in the war, a small city of store-houses, shops, and hospitals, added to, from time to time, as the exigencies of the service demanded, until the importance of the place to the army and to the North became enormous. There was no or- ganization, as there is of a military depot in time of peace. The place was under command of various officers detailed from time to time by heads of the various branches of the service, and its history and records are buried in those of the
Quartermaster, Commissary, Ordnance, and Hospital departments of the United States army. All that can now be ascertained on the subject of Jeffersonville's war record, comes to us from the personal recollections of men who were then residents of the city. Certain it is that the Jef- fersonville of that day was very different from the quiet city we now know. Its streets and squares were crowded with wagons by day, and infested by lawless hangers on of the army by night. Crime and vice were rampant, and, daily and hourly, there was the monotonous movement of the sinews of war to the front, and the pitiful return of its victims to the rear.
Probably the first military occupation of Jef- fersonville was early in 1862, when Lovell Rous- seau raised two Federal regiments and established a camp, pending his movement to the front, on a farm owned by Blanton Duncan, the well known Kentuckian who had entered the Con- federate army. This farm is on Spring street, close to the Springs property. Rousseau chris- tened his camp "Camp Joe Holt," and it held its name after it had ceased to be a camp and become a hospital, passing throughout the war as "Joe Holt Hospital."
Not long after the establishment of " Joe Holt hospital " the Government took possession of the Jesse D. Bright farm, three miles east of Jefferson- ville, and erected thereon a chapel and very com- fortable hospital buildings. The Bright hospital contained three thousand cots ; the "Joe Holt hospital," though smaller, was an excellent one, and had also a chapel, and these chapels now re- main among the few tangible reminders of the war, the former standing on Scott street and occupied as a church by the colored Baptists ; the latter owned and occupied by the only Prot- estant Episcopal church in the city. Dr. Gold- smith had general charge of the hospitals during a large part of the war.
Throughout the city there grew up, in addi- tiod to buildings named, and without pretence of order, a large number of warehouses, shops, and offices. They came into being as circum- stances demanded their creation, and again passed away, after the war, leaving only the re- port of their existence behind them.
In a piece of timber known as "Taylor's woods" was erected a barrack for the accommo- dation of the military guard of the place. Upon
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
the square now occupied by the Clark county court house were extensive army stables and blacksmith shops. In the square now enclosed as a city park were erected four large bakery buildings, where hard-tack by the car load was made for the army. Not far from the bakery buildings and on the line of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad, stood the row of buildings used for keeping quartermaster's stores. The commissary department also had large store-houses on the river front for receiving supplies shipped by water. In addition to the buildings named there were structures occupied by the ordnance department and a provost mar- shal's office.
The Government was, of course, compelled to purchase largely in advance, and the close of the war found an enormous accumulation of stores of every description at Jeffersonville. Such of these as were perishable were sold at auction, and it became necessary to find a place for the storage of such as were retained. The hospital buildings on the Bright farm were selected, and from that time until 1870 the stores remained in that place, awaiting the establishment of a per- manent depot for their reception.
THE MILITARY DEPOT.
In January, 1870, the city of Jeffersonville purchased, at a cost of $11,000, and deeded to the Government of the United States the land now occupied by the great military depot, from which the entire army of the United States is furnished with quartermaster's stores.
By joint resolution of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, January 31, 1871, all jurisdiction over the property was ceded to the United States, making it a military reservation, and it may be said to be controlled by the quarter- master-general of the army, under the authority of the honorable, the Secretary of War.
The immense building having been planned by Major-general M. C. Meigs, quartermaster- general of the army, and who still occupies that position, was begun in the spring of 1871, and completed for occupancy in February, 1874. Since that time, from year to year, improvements have gradually been made, especially upon the inside grounds, making the entire premises very attractive.
The building is fire-proof. The available
space for the immense storage under roof is 2,700,000 cubic feet, the exterior dimensions of it 3,205 feet 4 inches, and depth of the same 52 feet 2 inches. The interior corteil is 696 feet square. The area covered by the entire depth is four squares, and fronts upon four streets. With the tower building in the center, seen a long dis- tance, it is one of the most conspicuous struc- tures about the falls of the Ohio.
The depot, in its temporary and permanent form, has been commanded, since the war, by the following officers, in turn: Captain Tucker, assistant quartermaster United States volunteers, 1865; Captain J. N. Breslin, assistant quarter- master United States volunteers, 1866; Colonel R. C. Rutherford, quartermaster volunteers, 1866; Captain R. N. Batchelder, assistant quar- termaster United States Army, 1867; Major H. C. Ransom, quartermaster United States Army, 1868; Major J. A. Potter, quartermaster United States Army, 1869; Captain C. H. Hart, assistant quartermaster United States Army, 1870-72; Colonel James A. Ekin, assistant quartermaster general United States Army, 1872-82.
The present officers of the depot, military and civil are: Colonel James A. Ekin, commanding ; Captains Hull, Rodgers, and Barrett, military storekeepers; R. L. Woolsey, chief clerk; James G. Hopkins, superintendent; L. A. Allen, chief clerk to military storekeepers.
THE AVERAGE PAY-ROLL
uf regular employes per month amounts to $5,000. The stores handled since July 1, 1881, received into the depot up to December rst of the same year, amounted in value to the round sum of $273,420. There was paid to female employes, in the manufacture of clothing and equipage, from July 1 to December 1, 1881, $25,193.80. This last is a leading feature of the establishment, and gives employment to several hundred women of the city, which number, at times, when heavy and continuous orders for clothing and equipage are on hand, has run to over a round thousand.
THE OHIO FALLS CAR COMPANY.
The Ohio Falls Car company, the largest con- cern engaged in the manufacture of both freight and passenger cars in the United States, is located within the town of Ohio Falls, ad- jacent to the corporate limits of the city of Jeffersonville. The business was established
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
June 1, 1864, at which date the Ohio Falls Car and Locomotive company was organized, with a capital stock of $300,000, afterwards increased $428,500. The following were the first officers of the company : President, D. Ricketts ; secre- tary and general manager, Hıram Aldridge ; treasurer, J. L. Smyser. Its first directors were: D. Ricketts, A. A. Hammond, J. L. Smyser, W. P. Wood, and H. Aldridge.
On October 1, 1866, Mr. Joseph W. Sprague took charge of the works as president and gen- eral manager. The business of the company was not then of the best, its credit was question- able, and its stock selling far below par. Under Mr. Sprague's judicious administration a great change was wrought, the company was pressed with orders, the stock was brought up to par, and there was every prospect for a continued and increased prosperity.
So matters stood when, one night in 1872, the works caught fire, and, before anything could be done to prevent such a result, were completely swept out of existence. Fortunately a heavy in- surance was carried, and the building of the present magnificent system of fire proof and isolated structures was commence. These were still incompleted and the business of the com- pany barely resumed, when came the panic of 1873, which, with the long period of financial depression that followed, completely paralyzed the building and equipment of railroads in the United States, and compelled the company to suspend, and ultimately to dissolve and offer its property for sale to cover its indebtedness.
On the 7th day of August, 1876, was organ- ized the present Ohio Falls Car company, with Joseph W. Sprague as president and general manager, and R. M. Hartwell secretary and treasurer. Its directors were J. W. Sprague, S. A. Hartwell, J. L. Smyser, J. H. McCamp- bell, and S. Goldbach, and its capital stock $88,300, later increased to $400,000. The offi- cers have since remained the same, with the ex- ception of the appointment of R. S. Ramsey as general manager, made September 27, 1881, to relieve Mr. Sprague from overwork. The com- pany purchased the lands, buildings, machinery, stock, and tools of the old corporation, and at once began operations, first in a comparatively small way, gradually increasing to its present enormous proportions. The new company is
made up of nearly the same stockholders as the old, and any losses made by the former failure have been retrieved ten fold. The success of the institution has been largely due to the enter- prise and business tact of its managers, but not a little to natural advantages of location. The works are located about five hundred feet from the Ohio, and, being outside the city limits, a low rate of taxation is permanently secured.
The Ohio river affords the cheapest class of transportation for iron, coal, lumber and other supplies. The Jeffersonville, Madison & Indian- apolis railroad and the Ohio & Mississippi rail- road enter the premises by switches. By means of the railroad bridge over the Ohio river, located half a mile below the works, immediate connec- tion is made at Louisville with the southern net work of railroads of five feet gauge. Within a very small radius an ample supply of the quality of white oak, white ash, yellow poplar and black wal- walnut used in construction can be obtained at reasonable prices. Empty cars returning from the South insure very low rates of freight on yel- low pine, and the various brands of irons made from the rich ores of Alabama. Considering the convenience of receiving supplies and of the distribution of products, this location can hardly be surpassed for almost any branch of manu- facture.
The real estate upon which this extensive in- stitution is located embraces a large territory. The buildings which were first built are situ- ated upon out-lot No. 34, containing an area of about nineteen and two-thirds acres. Part of out-lot No. 23, containing about five and a half acres immediately west of out-lot No. 34, is used as a lumber-yard. The Falls View hotel, belonging to the works, is located upon this lot. River slip, containing about 13,800 square feet, lies opposite the works on the river bank. On this are located the engine-house, engine and pump for furnishing the water supply. Lot No. 9, Jeffersonville, containing about 5,060 square feet, secures a connection with the Ohio & Mis- sissippi railroad blocks Nos. 18, 19, 49, and 80, situated on the west side of Missouri avenue, were recently purchased by the company, upon which to construct new shops.
The buildings of the company, about fifty in number, are all nearly new, are of brick, and, with the exception of the cupola and pattern
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
lofts, are only one story high. The roofs are all covered with the best quality of slate. These buildings are arranged with high gables, with ample spaces between them, and are substan- tially fire-proof on the outside. The buildings are all thoroughly lighted, and most of them are amply provided with skylights of heavy plate glass. The machine shops in the freight and iron departments are provided with gas from the city mains of Jeffersonville.
Since Mr. Sprague took charge of the institu- tion in September, 1866, he has labored faith- fully for the interests of the company. He has, until recently, assumed personal charge of all the departments, having a knowledge of everything manufactured in the institution and knowing just when it is well done. The business of the company since 1876 has been unprecedently large. The company is at present employing between one thousand eight hundred and one thousand nine hundred men, and its pay roll amounts to nearly $55,000 per month. A num- ber of mechanics employed reside in Louisville and New Albany, coming to work on the early morning train over the Jeffersonville Short Line railroad, but, practically, the entire benefit aris- ing from the presence of the works is enjoyed by Clark county.
THE INDIANA STATE PRISON SOUTH.
For purposes of penal confinement the State of Indiana is divided into two districts by a line intersecting it from east to west about midway. All persons convicted of crime in the northern jurisdiction are liable to confinement in the Indi- ana State Prison North, which is located at Michigan City; those from the southern division are sent to the Indiana State Prison South, sit- uated upon one of the outlots of the extinct town of Clarksville, just beyond the line of Jef- fersonville. This institution was established in the year 1822, with the very small capital of one prisoner. The prison system of the State had not at that time been made the subject of any considerable amount of theorizing; it was, on the other hand extremely simple, being governed by a rule not unlike the famous recipe for cooking a rabbit-first catch your man, then find a person who has nothing better to do, who will take him as a boarder and guard against his changing hotels. Such a man lived at Jeffersonville and,
as Abraham Lincoln, when postmaster of a small Illinois town, had his office in his hat, so this early citizen probably made a kind of porta- ble jail of himself and carried this first Indiana convict about under guard. What crime led to this peripatetic incarceration, history relateth not -probably it was neither murder nor horse- stealing, for murderers were wont in those days either to die in their boots or go to Congress, and the horse-thief who took full swing in life, had full swing of a different order in punish- ment. We simply have the words of the record which give us this terse legend :
"For the year ending November 30, 1822, re- ceived, 1; remaining in prison, r; daily average, 1." We are justified in believing that the man who was received, the man who remained, and the man who constituted the daily average was one and the same individual.
The prison of to-day is of very different order. The daily average of prisoners confined for the year ending October 31, 1881, was 524; the number remaining in the prison on that date, 563.
The first lessee of the penitentiary was a man named Westover, who was killed with Crockett at the seige of Fort Alamo, in Texas. He was succeeded by James Keigwin, who continued in charge for eight years. Mr. S. H. Patterson be- came the lessee of the penitentiary, associated with Benjamin Hensley, in 1836. Their lease ran for five years. At that time there were 56 prisoners confined in the prison, and in 1841, at the close of their term there were 165. At the expiration of their lease they retired, and in 1846 Mr. Patterson contracted the entire prison work, for $10,000 per year. Under his contract, he built most of the old cell house. The prison was then located on West Market street, below the old Governor's house, and beyond the orig- inal plat ot Jeffersonville. At the beginning of his second term, Mr. Patterson had 205 convicts under his charge, and when he gave it up in 1856, there were 307.
Since 1822 the State of Indiana has developed from the embryo of organization and civilization to the full glory of its present greatness. With this advance in resources and intelligence has come an influx of foreigners ; with the growth of cities and the vast increase of facilities for trans- portation, there has come to be a class of profes- sional criminals within the State, and a daily
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