Cass County, Indiana - Chapter 28: Logansport's Early Merchants and Buildings, 1913

The first mercantile firm in Logansport was Walker, Carter & Co., composed of Geo. B. Walker, Chauncey Carter, who laid out the town, Jos. Holman, Mr. Carter's father-in-law and Anthony L. Davis. In the early part of the summer of 1828 they opened a general store in a log building on the northwest comer of Third and Market streets and in the fall opened branch stores at Attica and Fort Wayne. The branch stores were not a success and they closed them in 1832, but Mr. Carter continued the local branch. for many years in a building at about 216 Market street. About the same time Hamilton and Taber commenced business in a log house on the northeast corner of Market and Second streets, where the Barnett house now stands. This firm continued in business until 1835, when Mr. Hamilton retired and it was conducted for many years by Cyrus Taber and succeeding partners. The old firm of Merriam and Rice was the successors in direct line of the first firm of Hamilton and Taber, Taber & Pollard and Taber & Chase.

In the fall of 1828 Dr. H. Todd opened a general store adjoining his residence on the south side of Market street at what is now known as No. 213 Market street. The commissioners records show that Hiram Todd was the first merchant to be granted a license to **vend merchandise*' after the organization of the county in the spring of 1829.

About 1830 Jordan Vigus entered into a partnership with Mr. Todd under the firm name of Todd & Vigus, and they moved into a brick building which is still standing at the northeast corner of Broadway and Third streets. Later Dr. Todd retired and John Tipton succeeded him and the firm was known as Tipton & Vigus. After General Tipton 's death in 1839, Mr. Vigus continued the business alone.

The next business firm was George W. and W. G. Ewing, who opened a general trading house on the northeast corner of Third and Market, now occupied by Harry Ward's shoe store and continued for about ten years when they closed out.

In the year 1831 Ashford Carter and J. 0. Skelton started up in business in a log structure situated at No. 317 Broadway, where the Murdock hotel now stands. The following year they moved to the ^west side of Third street, then called Bridge street, just south of the alley between Broadway and Market, where they continued in business for several years under the firm name of Skelton & Carter. In 1834 Comparet & Coteau opened a store on the south side of Market street between First and Second. Later the firm became Scott & Comparet and the store was moved to the northwest corner of Third and IVIarket.

hotel on the corner of Third and Market, west to the alley. This was known as ** Commercial Row." In one of these rooms Gen. H. Lasselle opened a store in 1835-6 and continued in business until 1842. A little later Eldridge & Cummings began a general mercantile trade in the western end of ** Commercial Row.*' Still later James Williams, afterward succeeded by Hanna, McClary & Dart, opened a store at No. 310 Market street. Prom an old Logansport Herald of May 3, 1838, we copy notices of business firms of that date: **H. A. Smead & Co., clothing,^hats and shoes ; E. B. Strong, bookstore ; Drs. Brackett & Buchanan, office opposite Hanna, McClary & Dart's store; Dr. H. J. Alford, dentist office on Bridge street, north of Market ; James Prazer, jeweler on Bridge street; Geo. Myers, wagon maker on North street above the canal, near the basin; Mrs. Sarah Kinnear, milliner, over Jeroloman & Lytic 's drug store."

Mr. E. S. Rice, in a paper read before the Cass County Historical Society, May, 1907, gave a description of the business houses of Logansport in 1838, when he landed here in a canal boat, east of Berkley street, as the canal was then not completed through the town, but the boats were turned around in the canal basin, just east of that street. We repeat some of his reminiscences: **The business houses at that time were nearly all located on Market street, between Second and Fourth. Commencing at Second street, a two-story brick building occupied by the firm of Taber & Chase, successors of Ewing, Walker & Taber. The next room was occupied by Philip Pollard, both being dealers in general merchandise. A short distance to the east, in a one-story building, J. H. Kintner manufactured harness and saddles and on the south side of Market street Gen. N. D. Grover was engaged in the same business, in a frame building adjoining his brick residence on the alley now owned by Mrs. Kraut. General Grover was succeeded in a few years by Fuller and Clendening, who came from Troy, Ohio. Next to Kintner, on the north side of the street, in a small one-story building, was J. M. Ewing 's tailor shop; then came another one-story building, occupied by J. L. Miller, merchant and acting postmaster. At the southwest corner of Third and Market stood Washington Hall, a two-story frame hotel, owned by Cyrus Vigus, but at. that time kept by Jacob Humbert; from this hotel west to the alley was a row of two-story frame buildings, all built solidly together and divided into store rooms 18 or 20 feet wide, and was called * Commercial Row.' It was a plain building, weatherboarded and with doors and windows very much like a dwelling house. There were doors to the stairways leading to the rooms above, which were occupied by offices and shops of different kinds. The occupants were as follows : Gen. Hyacinth Lasselle, merchant, using the room above for a printing office, from which the Logansport Telegraph was issued weekly, which was then published by Mr. Lasselle and John B. Dillon, the historian; Snead, Kendall & Co., clothing, boots and shoes; Anderson & Atwell, dry goods ; Eldridge & Cummings, general merchandise ; Underbill & Co., hardware. The brick buildings opposite this block were erected a year or two afterward. The firm of Ewing & Walker, Indian traders, occupied a frame building, painted yellow, which stood on the* northeast comer of Third and Market, where Harry Ward's shoe store is now located. The Bringhurst drug store building, recently torn down and rebuilt at 310-12 Market, was occupied by Hanna, McClary & Dart, dealers in general merchandise. This building and the ^Mansion House, ' that stood on the southwest comer of Fourth and Market, were the only brick structures east of Third street. On the south side of Market from Third street to the alley, the buildings were all old, onestory affairs, with here and there a log house. The only occupants I can remember were Geo. Parker, barber; Joe Green, shoemaker and Mart Gridley, jeweler. In the space between the alley and the Mansion House stood the dwelling and garden of Geo. B. Walker. On the north side of Market street, from the alley east to Fourth street, there were three two-story frame buildings. The first occupied by S. P. Hopkins, dry goods dealer ; the second by Spencer & Rice, grocers ; and the third by Jeroloman & Ly tie's drug store. The other buildings were all one story. The corner where Porter's drug store now stands was occupied by Barton R. Keep as a hardware store. Across the street on the northeast corner of Market and Fourth stood the *01d Seminary,' a one-story brick building, the first public building erected in the county in 1828-9, 20 by 50 feet in size with the side to Market street, entrance door in the middle to a hallway running straight through the building, dividing it into two rooms of equal size. There were no business houses east of Fourth street. The embankment for the overhead Market street bridge across the canal reached to the alley west of the canal, now Fifth street. The Philip Leamy hotel, a brick structure, stood at the corner of Fourth and Canal streets, near the present Pennsylvania Railroad station. Israel Johnson was the only merchant on Fourth street. He lived in a brick house at 315 Fourth street, where the Stewart dry goods store is now located. He kept a grocery and cafe in a twostory frame adjoining his residence on the north. On the east side of Third street, near Market, John Dodd kept a restaurant in a brick building, which is still standing. Just opposite this was the office of Dr. G. N. Fitch, the bakery of Coulson & Clem and the shoe shop of Geo. P. Dagan. At the northwest corner of Third and Broadway, J. P. Berry kept a little store and adjoining which was the tin shop of A. M, Higgins. Next came the office and dwelling of Dr. Uriah Farquhar, whose daughter, Mrs. H. B. Peters, recently vacated; then came the office of Geo. Wierick, justice of peace. Opposite this, on the southwest comer of what is now * Court Park' W. T. S. Manly and Israel Neal had a furniture and undertaking establishment. On the west side of Third street, near the river, was McElheny Bros, blacksmith shop. Tipton and Vigus, successors to Todd & Vigus, was the only business house on Broadway, and was a small two-story brick, located at No. 317, where the Murdock hotel now stands."

This is a description of the business section of Logansport in 1838 by a pioneer merchant and is worthy of permanent record to show the future generations the names, location and character of the early merchants and their business houses.

The business of our merchants at this time was quite limited. The canal was not completed to the junction of the Ohio canal. No shipment of produce could be made without expensive hauling and it was equally difficult and expensive in getting goods here. The cheapest way was by steamboat to Lafayette when the water was high, then haul them from there. Farmers having a surplus were obliged to haul it to Michigan City, the nearest shipping point and return with salt and other articles, but it required a week to make the trip over the bad roads with on ox team.

However, in 1842, when the canal was completed down the Maumee river to its junction with the Ohio canal, giving us an outlet to Lake Erie, Logansport took a wonderful start, the nearest it ever came to a boom. The country north to the Tippecanoe river and beyond and for thirty miles south, became tributary to Logansport.

Produce of all kinds was hauled here from miles around, sold to our merchants and shipped by the canal to eastern markets. Our merchants, manufacturers and mechanics, all were busy, money be-

During 1842-3-4, large stone warehouses were constructed on the canal by Pollard & Wilson near the lock, by Jesse Millason at the northeast comer of Market and Fifth, by Rogers Bros, between Broadway and Market, by Peter Anderson on the southeast corner of Broadway and Fifth and by Israel Johnson between North and High streets. These old warehouses were busy places during the activities of canal days, have outlived their usefulness although still standing, but have passed into other hands.

In 1843 the following merchants located here: Henry Martin & Co., M. S. Butler; A. J. Field & Co., Stephen Munson, Wm. Brown & Son and Salsbury & Baxter. Heretofore, our only way to travel eastward was to go by canal to Fort Wayne and by pirogue down the Maumee river or by stage to Indianapolis, thence by the railroad to

Madison and by steamboat on the Ohio river to Cincinnati. But since the opening of the canal with its eastern terminus we could take a canal boat and travel night and day at the rate of six miles an hour. The rule was three horses or mules to a boat and changing horses every ten miles. Merchants could now, while navigation was open from six to seven months in the year, get merchandise from Cincinnati in four or five days and from New York it took about three weeks as it came by river steamer to Albany, by canal to Buffalo, by lake steamer to Toledo and from there by canal to Logansport. While our merchants duly appreciated the advantages of water transportation, as a great improvement over the pack saddle and ox cart, and enabling them to obtain large reductions in freight as well as more prompt service, still they labored under the great disadvantage of having navigation closed for half the year. It w^as customary in those days to purchase goods on six months' time. That was the understanding with manufacturers, jobbers and retailers. Just contrast that condition with the present. Now our merchants can telephone or telegraph to Chicago and have goods delivered in a few hours and every day in the year except Sunday and in emergencies even on Sunday.

son & McCarty, dry goods; Culbertson later going into the hardware business. They were located on the southeast corner of Broadway and Fourth. John T. Musselman was on the north side of Market between Second and Third. Tanguy and Barnheisel at No. 407 Broadway. Business began to move eastward and brick blocks were erected on Market, Fourth and Broadway. Bauchman & Puterbaugh located at No. 418 Broadway in general merchandise and the next door east T. G. Mitchell opened a boot and shoe store. A. J. Murdock came in 1852 and Henry Murdock in 1854 and J. W. McGaughy and W. P. Thompson, dry goods, on the south side of Broadway, east of Fourth street In this chapter we have mentioned the principal business men who were active in developing Logansport«in the first thirty or thirty-five years of its existence. Although many notable and worthy names may have been omitted, as there are no records from which a complete list could be taken and we had to trust to the memory of the old pioneers who have, however, at this writing all passed beyond this world's activities and there is not one left to tell the story of Cass county's first settlement.