Cass County, Indiana - Chapter 33: Logansport - the City Op Bridges, 1913

Judge Horace P. Biddle, writing in 1892 of his first trip to Logansport, says: **We came from Winchester, Randolph county, in 1836. We made our way along Indian trails. We waded through mud, forded swamps and swam rivers as occasion required and jBuially reached Logansport, a village of 700 inhabitants with nearly as many more Indians, with plenty of good hunting grounds around the town. I was pleased with the gentle hills that surround it and with the meeting of the waters in this valley, and the charm is on me yet.''

Logansport is beautifully situated in the valleys of the Wabash and Eel rivers, occupying ground between the two rivers at their junction, and on both sides of the two rivers, with the hills rising to a height of 150 feet to the north and south. The town thus lying in the valley with the two rivers flowing through it, and uniting their waters in the very heart of the town, presents as picturesque a view from the hills on either side as any city in the state. Prom the fact that the rivers are spanned by eight wagon bridges and eight railroad and interurban bridges and from the further fact that the old canal ran through the town and in its day was crossed by eight or ten bridges, Logansport was well named the ''City of Bridges."

We will notice the improvements and progress the municipality has made since the advent of the whites and the disappearance of the red man of the forest. Logansport was incorporated as a city in 1838 and now has all the adjuncts and departments of a first class city.

Prior to the year 1875 Logansport had no system of waterworks and was dependent on wells, cisterns and water dipped from the rivers to supply the needs of the city, both public and private. During this year the subject was agitated and the city council determined to build a complete system of waterworks and to that end purchased of Cecil & Wilson the old Forest mill that then stood on the south bank of Eel river at Sixth street together with the accompanying power privileges and riparian rights of the river bank, from Sixth to Fifteenth street, including what is now River Side Park, but then a frog pond. The price paid for this property and water power was $40,000 and has proved a good investment for the city. In December, 1875, the city cou»eil awarded the contract for the construction of waterworks to H. R. Smith & Co., of Columbus, Ohio. They were to furnish the pipes, special castings, and place them in position. Cope & Maxwell, of Ham- ilton, Ohio, furnished the pumping house, machinery and fixtures, the entire works to be completed and placed in perfect working order for the sum of $135,000. The original contract provided for two pumps of a daily capacity of 1,500,000 gallons, each operated by water power wheels also a boiler and engine that would supplement the water wheels in case of fire or emergency. The works were completed and tested in September, 1876, and the first exhibition of the Logansport waterworks and its power and capacity to throw water drew large crowds of our ^ townspeople to witness the display amid general rejoicing. The original powerhouse at the foot of Eighth street has been several times enlarged, new pumps, water wheels and engines added until today there are three turbine water wheels with an estimated capacity of 350 horsepower. Eel river furnishes suflScient water to run one wheel the whole year through and all three wheels more than half the time, thus giving the city a very cheap power and greatly reducing the cost of operating the plant in comparison to steam. However, to guard against accidents and dry weather, 800 horsepower steam engines are held in reserve, which can instantly be attached to the pumps. The plant at this time has five jpumps with a daily capacity of 15,000,000 gallons but 5,500,- 000 gallons are the average daily amount now consumed. There are forty-two miles of street mains extending to all sections of the city, to the north, west and south sides as well as to the central portion between the rivers. The number of individual taps or consumers is 3,884 besides 217 fire hydrants.

This, however, does not include the city's share for fire hydrants, wkich, if added, would make the earnings run up to at least $33,000.00. In 1911 the city replaced the old wooden dam at Tenth street with a modern concrete dam at a cost of $12,000. The total estimated value of the city's waterworks and the power is $750,000. The city is about to contract for a filtering plant to cost from $60,000 to $100,000 to furnish

The first effort to organize a fire company in Logansport was made on January 11, 1836, when a public meeting was held in the old ** Seminary," comer of Fourth and Market, over which Dr. George T. Bostwick presided, and J. B. Dillon, the historian, acted as secretary. The town then contained less than 700 inhabitants and was composed largely of log houses, somewhat scattered except on Broadway, Market and Railroad, west of Third street, where the buildings were close together and a fire started in one might extend to others. The necessity for some concerted and systematic methods of extinguishing fires was felt to be imperative and a ** bucket brigade'' was oi^anized, buckets purchased and stored in a central place, a captain appointed to take charge and direct the men. A line of men would extend from the river to the location of the fire and buckets of water would be passed along the line and thus under the direction of the chief, effective work would often be done in those days of small one stoiy houses, but certainly of little avail against conflagrations in tall buildings of the present age.

The first fire in Logansport, of which we have any record, was the burning of Hines & McElheny's blacksmith shop, that then stood on Fourth street, opposite the courthouse. This occurred June 21, 1837. On November 27, 1846, a fire started in Washington Hall, southwest comer of Third and Market, where the bucket brigade did effective work a line of men passing buckets of water from the Wabash river to the place of the fire on Market street. From the incorporation of the town until 1854 no effort on the part of the city was made to organize a fire department and all previous work in that direction was wholly personal and independent, but on February 1st of that year the first city ordinance establishing a fire department was passed. T. H. Bringhurst was mayor at that time. The first regular fire company was the ''Summit No. 1*' which was organized February 4, 1854, with the following officers: T. H. Bringhurst, president; James Rogers, vice-president; S. L. McFaddin, secretary. Directors: D. Johnson, Daniel Mull, B. Z. Burch, W. T. S. Manly, J. N. Tousley.

These fire companies were voluntary and received no pay and raised voluntary contributions and erected engine houses. The ** Summit*' engine house, now the present engine house at 610 North street, was completed ready for occupancy in July, 1855. The Tipton Fire Company erected the Tipton engine house at what is now known as 217 or 19 Fourth street, opposite the Pharos office, and completed it in July, 1855. This was a brick building which continued to be used as a fire engine house until the paid department was organized, when it was sold. In 1854 the city purchased a hand engine 'from Hunneman & Co., of Boston and it was first used June 23, 1854, at a fire across the Sixth street bridge, by the Summit fire company. Prior to this only buckets were employed to extinguish fires. The Tipton hand engine arrived August 25, 1854, on a canal boat, ''The Silver Bell." The Summit engine cost $700 and the Tipton $805. In June, 1859, the Summit and Tipton engine houses received fire bells and were placed in position in the cupolas.

The first steam fire engine was purchased February 3, 1870, and was named **Chauncey Carter/* At this time the officers of the Tipton fire company were: C. B. Knowlton, George Sevan, S. B. Boyer, 6. J. Groves, 6. W. Brown, J. F. Carney. The ** Summit" officers were: S. T. Weirick, D. H. Mull, D. Comingore, Dan Redd. On October 13, 1869, the Champion Fire Company was organized in the Seminary and the Tipton hand engine was turned over to that company, after the arrival of the steamer. On April 10, 1871, the Independent Hose Company was organized with J. H. Ivans and and H. J. Larimore at its head. A fire company was organized in (Brown town) west side, January 19, 1871, with Dennis Uhl as foreman and D. R. Miller assistant.

On January 31, 1865, a grand supper and ball was given at the courthouse by the firemen and th^ proceeds, $346.75, was turned over to J. C. Merriam, treasurer of the Relief Society, for the benefit of soldiers' families.

December 11, 1872, the Champion company in the east end elected Rodney Strain foreman. At that time the company had fifty active men. Another steamer the **Clapp & Jones" was bought July 2, 1873. The Eureka Fire Company in Browntown was organized April 1, 1874, and the old Tipton hand engine was turned over to them for fire protection to the west side. The Summit company disbanded in 1873, because the second steamer was given to the Champion company on Fifteenth street.

A fire company was organized on the south side March 23, 1875, known as the ''Enterprise*' comply. We thus find independent fire companies organized in diflferent sections of the city, erecting engine houses and giving their services free, for mutual protection and bene fit. The city, however, in later years purchased hand engines for their use and when they were replaced in the center of the city by the two steamers, an engineer was paid to take charge of them, but paid only when needed to operate it. In 1875 the old canal was abandoned and the principal source of water was gone, which impelled the city to construct the waterworks and after its completion the fire department became much more efficient. The first water was pumped into the water mains on August 4, 1876, and the first fire at which the waterworks were used was on October 3, 1876, at a small fire on Fourth, near North street.

There was no way of announcing fires except by runners and ringing of fire bells, until 1877, when the city contracted with a Richmond fiiTQ to construct a fire alarm system invented by James McCullough, on April 6th of that year to cost $3,500. This system was only fairly satisfactory and in 1893 the **Gamewell," a new and improved system, was installed and now the city has sixty-two fire alarm boxes located in every part of the town, so that fires can be promptly announced from the remotest points and saving valuable time. That the fire alarm has proved a decided success is attested by the fact that thousands of dollars worth of property have been saved by the prompt announcement of fires since its adoption.

With the growth of the city and solid business blocks erected of tall dimensions, requiring improved and prompt methods of fighting fire with experienced firemen, the city reorganized the fire department November 5, 1879, and placed it on a financial basis, paying regular firemen to devote their entire time to the work, with H. J. Larimore as the first chief of the paid fire department. The city now has four engine houses, located at follows: West side engine house on Front street; one at No. 417 Fifteenth street; 610 North street, and southeast corner Sixth and Broadway, where all necessary hose carts, chemical engines, ladders and fire fighting apparatus of the most modem pattern may be found. At each engine house is kept a team of horses, trained, that at the sound of the gong move to their place, the harness drops on their backs and by a single snap is fastened and are off in a moment to the place of fire. John GriflSn is the present chief of the fire department and has twenty trained men under him who sleep at the different engine houses, ready for any emergency, day or night. There are two hundred and seventeen fire plugs distributed in every part of the city where fire hose can be attached. With an ample supply of water, the latest fire fighting machinery and a trained corps of firemen, the Logansport fire department is not surpassed by any city of the state. The total expense of the fire department the past year was $20,200.

The Logansport Jenney Electric Light & Power Company was organized October 2, 1883, for the purpose of lighting the city by electricity. The Jenney system had previously been adopted by the city council and the proposition of the company to light the city's streets for $5,500 for one year was accepted. The company was composed of local men, but backed by the Jenney Electric Light Company of Ft. Wayne, which company was manufacturing electric machinery. The oflScers of the local company were: A. R. Shroyer, president; Victor E. Seiter, secretai^, and Wm. Dolan, manager. Directors : P. W. Moore, J. S. Wilson, R. T. McDonald, J. N. Booth.

The company erected its plant on the city's ground at the north end of Eighth street, .consisting of dynamos run by one hundred and fifty horse-power Corliss engine and was put in operation January 1, 1884. The city paid an annual rental of $150 per street lamp and the contract with the city ran for ten years, at the expiration of that time the city erected its own municipal lighting plant on Eel river, just east of the water works and began operating it January 1, 1895, since which time the municipal plant not only lights the streets and public places, but also furnishes light and power to private consumers at lower rates than the majority of the cities throughout the country. The power

The unexpected patronage of private consumers has necessitated the enlargement of the original plant at different times since its first installment in 1894. At that time water wheels were put in to make use of the extra water power not required to run the water works, but the time that they could be operated was so limited that they have been taken out and the dynamos are now run exclusively by steam. The plant as reconstructed and enlarged now has five large dynamQS, two of which are run by direct connections with two turbine steam engines and the combined power of all the engines is equal to two thousand horse power with a boiler capacity of three thousand horse power. In September, 1911, a cable carrier to transport coal from the Vandalia railroad across Eel river, was constructed at a cost of $4,130 which has proven a great convenience and cheapens the handling of coal. The increase of business of the plant has been phenomenal and there are now four thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven consumers.

The actual cost of the plant is difficult to ascertain as in the beginning the different funds were not always kept separate but the estimated value at this time is $850,000, and the net earnings will pay ten per cent on this investment. For the past three years the operating expense and repairs have been only forty-three per cent of the gross income. The plant has been a money maker for the city in addition to lighting the streets and public halls.

Prior to 1893 Logansport^s policemen were subject to the political whims of the mayor and city council, and were changed as often as the party in power changed, but in that year the metropolitan police law was enacted by the legislature, placing this department under the control of a non-partisan police board, appointed by the governor, putting it on a civil service basis and entirely removing the department from local political influences.

In 1909, however, this law was changed, giving the mayor the power to appoint the police commissioners, which now consist of John W. McGreevy, John Brookmeyer and Joseph Wolfe, who have power to appoint policemen and direct their movements. The force as now constituted is composed of twenty men.

To facilitate the work of the department in 1911, the police board purchased an automobile police wagon or ambulance, at a cost of $3,625, and also a motorcycle which greatly aids the men in running down evildoers.

When Logansport was first laid out a dense forest covered the whole townsite. These trees had to be cut down and the stumps long remained. The first streets opened in the town were thus decorated with stumps around and between which travelers were compelled to make their way. The roadway between the stumps was the dark, native, alluvial soil and after a rain, presented more the appearance of a lake of Trinidad asphalt. For the first twenty years of Logansport 's existence as a town, a yoke of oxen hitched to a cart or log wagon, stuck in the mud on th6 principal streets was no unusual scene. Many amusing incidents are told of how the '* wags'' of the town would collect around the pioneer's outfit stuck in the mud and jeer and make caustic remarks about the handsome paved streets of this town on the Wabash, and what great conveniences were provided for the pedestrians, even seats were everywhere abundant, in the form of stumps. Gradually, however, the stumps decayed and were removed, although even in recent years walnut stumps are discovered in making excavations, that were left where they grew and were covered over when the streets were graded and improved. There is an abundance of gravel in the hills in and around Logansport, but it was many years before it was utilized in improving the streets. The majority of the city streets are sixty-six feet wide, forty-six feet of which is road way and ten feet on each side is taken up by the sidewalk. Many years ago all the principal streerfe were, graded and graveled, the gutters improved by bouldering with cobblestones and the sidewalks graveled. The first street to be improved by paving was Fourth street, in 1893-4, since then all the principal business streets have been paved with brick and in 1910-11 Broadway and North streets were improved with asphalt.

It is said that Logansport has more miles of cement sidewalks than any other town in the state, of its size, and a wonderful transformation from the conditions existing since the city was incorporated seventy-five years ago.

Logansport has never owned the building which has been occupied by its offices, but has always rented offices for municipal purposes. La the sixties the city offices were located at 428-30 Broadway; in the seventies, in the second story of the northwest corner of Pearl and Market ; in the eighties at 412-14 Fourth street, and for the past twenty- five years at the northwest comer of Third and Broadway. About twenty-five years ago the city purchased a large lot located on the southeast comer of Sixth and Broadway, upon which to erect a city hall, but has never been able as yet to build. Within the past few years, however, a small tax has been levied to create a building fund which now amounts to about $15,000, and the city contemplates erecting a commodious city hall and assembly room in the near future.

Until within the past twenty years Logansport has made no effort to secure or lay out parks. When the pioneers first platted the town it was a forest park. They knew nothing of parks, did not realize the future of the town and that the day would come when the forests would all disappear and the land be occupied by houses or cultivated fields and no place where the city population could get a breath of fresh air or sit and view the beauties of nature. In the early nineties, however, the citizens of Logansport began to realize their mistake and took steps to correct it, but the golden opportunity had passed. Land in the central part of the city was all built upon by private parties and the most desirable and advantageous ground for parks could not be had. Spencer Park given to the city' by Wm. Spencer in 1892, consists of twenty or thirty acres of land situated on the south bank of Eel river about a half mile east of the city limits but easily reached by street cars. This is a very beautiful park covered with fine groves of native trees and has been improved by drives, walks and pavilions, and is a great resort for picnics and meetings of all kinds during the summer season.

The ground composing Riverside Park was purchased by the city together with the water power in the establishment of the water worfas in 1875. It consists of about ten acres lying on the south bank of Eel river and extending from Tenth to Fifteenth street. This park was little more than a frog pond until about 1895, when the city began to fill it up and improve it. A driveway extends around it, a flowing well furnishes water and a fountain and other improvements erected. The trees have grown and it is fast becoming a beautiful park, and having a river frontage and being near the center of the city, is a very popular resort for the tired and pent-up population of Logansport down-town districts.

About 1908 the city built a cement wall along the north bank of Eel river, west of the Third street bridge and has otherwise improved a narrow strip of ground along the river, including an artesian well. This was named McKinley Park after our lamented martyred president. Judge D. D. Dykeman, who died Febmary 23, 1911, willed to the city a large tract of land lying to the northwest of town. He also bequeathed to Cass county a tract of woodland on the south bank of the Wabash river, four miles east of the city for park purposes. Although these bequests are in litigation, however, it is hoped the public may become possessed of them and hold them for a breathing place for our rapidly increasing population which will be more appreciated as time passes and our forests are destroyed.