Elkhart County, Indiana - Chapter 14: Elkhart's Public Matters, 1916

City Control of Public Utilities - The Town Corporation - Becomes a City - The City Court - Police and Fire Departments - Prof. D. W. Thomas and the Schools^ Mrs. a. E. Babb - Mrs. Margaret Stevens - Brick Central School Built - Ward Schools Erected in 1873-83 - High School Buildings - Additions and Sanitary Improvements (1886-90) - High School Building of 1893 - Progress from 1894 to 1900 - Grand High School of 1912 - Other School Houses - School Statistics - Superintendents and High School Principals - General City Progress Since 1905 - The New Municipal Building - Elkhart-Carnegie Public Library - Elkhart Postofficb - Public Parks and Cemeteries - The Soldiers' Memorial - Elkhart Gas and Fuel Company - The Elkhart Water Company - The Indiana and Michigan Electric Company.

The public departments and public utilities connected with either the village or city corporation of Elkhart were of gradual growth. The "bucket brigade," which was organized as a crude protection against iire even before the place became a village in 1858, did not develop into the present paid department until 1894, and the village marshal did not grow into a metropolitan force governed by a board of commissioners until about the same time. Among the utilities of general use not directly controlled by the municipal corporation, but public in all their essentials, gas was first supplied, then water, and lastly, electricity.

utilities, the city is empowered to become a stockholder in any concern so privileged. Twenty-five years is the maximum term for such franchise. Before a contract can be entered into it must be approved by the Board of Public Works, which, in turn, must present a proper ordinance to the Common Council confirming such contract. Thus the public is protected by both the state and the city.

Although the free schools of the city are usually not classified as public utilities, strictly speaking they lead them all, and the board of education which has direct control of them is more a creature of the state and the county than of the city. Of all the institutions working for the betterment of the community, the public schools were most established as a system, crude though it was, when Elkhart was embodied as a village.

In 1858 a petition, signed by many of the electors of the place, was presented to the county commissioners, and in response thereto the board ordered an election for voting upon the question of incorporation. The vote was taken on June 29th and out of 216 ballots a majority of fifty-four was in its favor. Accordingly, the Board of Commissioners declared at their September session that the village be incorporated as the Town of Elkhart. The first trustees chosen were P. Morehouse, Virgil Young and A. P. Simonton.

Elkhart remained in the list of towns for seventeen years. In that period the population, the manufacturing and commercial interests and the territorial area had expanded rapidly, and it was the verdict of the progressives that the old form of government had been outgrown. Therefore, on April 28, 1875, the issue of city or town government was placed before the citizens. Result : For incorporation, 575; for a continuation of the town system. 561. On May II, 1875, the following officials of the first municipal government were elected : Mayor, Henry C. Wright ; clerks, Ben Brown and J- D- Wood; treasurer, Henry Bearup; marshal, C. J. Gillette; assessor, B. O. Manchester; civil engineer, C. M. Proctor; chief of fire department, E. A. Campbell ; attorney, O. T. Chamberlain.

Councilmen: first ward, Charles Walley and John Cook; second ward, C. W. Green and S. S. Strong; third ward, D. S. Simonton and William Gravit ; fourth ward, John Salkeld and Frank Jauriett ; fifth ward, Jacob Arisman and J. S. Kinsey; sixth ward, Taylor Arisman and David Kegereis.

response to a demand by lawyers who protested against the loss of time and inconvenience occasioned by going to Goshen when it was required to conduct litigation arising within the corporate limits of Elkhart which fell under the jurisdiction of justices of the peace. Between 1881 and 1891 the court was of little more consequence than as pertaining to matters usually discharged by notaries public, but its jurisdiction was adjusted and broadened by a legislative amendment engineered by O. Z. Hubbell, in 1891, and under the new municipal code of 1905, by which the term of all city officers was fixed at four years, the duties of the municipal judge were also extended in scope and importance. The city judge has now exclusive jurisdiction over all violations of municipal ordinances, and concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit or Criminal Court, in all cases of petit larceny. If a case is brought before him in which he considers that the punishment which he is authorized to assess is not adequate to the crime charged against the defendant, he may hold the prisoner to bail for his appearance before the proper court, or commit him to jail in default of such bail.

For some years a marshal was elected by the people to preserve order. Now, under a state law passed in May, 1893, there is an adequate force under the executive direction of a superintendent and under the general superintendence of the Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners, the members of which are appointed by the governor. Daniel Weaver was its first president.

In 1894 the paid Fire Department of Elkhart was organized, with Mac Dotson as chief. The central, or No. i station, is at the old City Hall on Franklin Street, and there are four other houses in different parts of the city for the protection and operation of the steam and chemical engines, hose carts and hook and ladder. For most purposes the pressure in the water mains is sufficient protection against fire, but engine power is always available.

The fire alarm system has been especially improved of late years ; in the year 191 5 alone, twelve miles of fire alarm wire was strung. All of the horses have also been taken from the Central Fire Station and a motor truck installed at No. 2. It is the intention to equip all the outside stations with motor-driven apparatus.

ing December 31, 1915) it is seen that the department comprises a chief, his assistant, a secretary, five captains and seventeen firemen, and that it costs about $22,000 to maintain the department.

W. H. Riblet, superintendent of police, reports under him, two sergeants, a humane officer, two turnkeys, a matron, and fifteen patrolmen, and it costs nearly $20,000 to maintain the department.

But the public school system of Elkhart is her greatest pride, in the full sense of the adjective, and that it has reached its high standard is largely due to the ability and faithfulness of the late Prof. D. W. Thomas. He served as superintendent of the city schools for twenty years and holds the record both in length and value of service. Before assuming his post at Elkhart, Professor Thomas had been for more than a dozen years superintendent of the Wabash (Indiana) schools. He had long been a member of the State Teachers' Association, and in 1882, with J. K. Waltz, a former superintendent of the Elkhart city schools, he organized the Northern Indiana Teachers' Association, and was a charter member of the Northern Indiana Superintendents' Club. In fact, he was a leader in his profession, especially in the northern part of the state, and was also a prominent figure in the National Educational Association. His death in 191 5, after he was selected an associate editor of this history, was a great loss to the schools, and was a personal bereavement to thousands who had been touched by his earnest and inspiring personality.

The writer is therefore pleased to republish one of Professor Thomas' historical and narrative papers, so welcomed by the local press, which was originally brought out in the Elkhart Daily Truth. Reverting to a period commencing three years befor-e the incorporation of the town, he says: "In 1855 the Bodley brothers, who then had charge of the schools, having found a lady in the person of Mrs. A. E. Babb, who could teach algebra, literature and French, threw the town into a state of agitation by offering her a position as a teacher at a salary of $30 per month. The idea of giving a woman any kind of a position by which she could make $1.50 a day

"Thus popularized, Airs. Babb taught with success for a time in the public schools, and afterward for several years conducted a private school of her own. Since then, though not engaged in the school work, she has lost none of her zeal for the cause, and has always been the leading spirit in the organization of libraries and the formation of literary and other societies for disseminating and popularizing pure and wholesome literature, her home now being a center for the work of the Ladies' Literary clubs of the city.

"Airs. Margaret Stevens, one of the four who composed the corps of teachers in 1861, taught in the first primary department of the public schools from that date until 1884, except the four years from 1876 to 1880. Although for the most part she was required to make 'brick without straw,' and although her room was always crowded, sometimes numbering 125 pupils she filled this important and arduous position faithfully and well. Perhaps no one has ever taught in Elkhart who is remembered more kindly than she. Many of her pupils, now grown to manhood and womanhood, and who yet bear the impress of her kind heart and gentle manners, say 'Well done, good and faithful teacher.'

"After the destruction of the old school house in 1866, it was determined to erect a building worthy of the name and commensurate with the needs of the enterprising little town. Accordingly in 1868 was completed a four-story brick building at a cost of $45,000. School opened in this building September 5th, with the following corps of instructors: A^alois Butler, Miss Nellie Smith, Mrs. A. M. Clark, Miss M. A. Bonnell, Miss Rainy, Miss Ostrander and Miss Mary Hawley. Of these. Miss Bonnell began teaching under Mr. Conn in 1866 and taught consecutively for 16 years. Miss Hawley commenced teaching in 1868 and is now completing her thirty-second year of continuous service in the school room. Commendation of these estimable ladies and successful teachers is unnecessary. The number of re-appointments they have received from successive

"The people were justly proud of their new building, but some bewailed such extravagance and claimed with much assurance that the time would never come when there would be children enough in Elkhart to fill the rooms thus provided. However, in 1873, only five years later, it was found necessary to provide more room, and a four-room, two-story brick building was erected in the Fourth Ward at a cost of $10,000. In 1875 '^ similar structure was erected in the Fifth Ward. In 1877 John Weston deeded to the school eight city lots in northwest Elkhart, with the proviso that a certain described school house should be erected thereon within a year. In compliance with his agreement a two-story brick (known as the Weston building), containing two school rooms and a recitation room, was erected in 1878 at a cost of $5,000. In the following year (1879) a similar building (the Beardsley) was constructed in northeast Elkhart. In 1875 lots were purchased and a one-story frame was put up in East Elkhart, but the accommodations were soon found to be inadequate and in 1883 a two-story brick building was erected at a cost of $5,300, the two lower rooms only being completed. In the same year, the Christian church on Middlebury street, was bought for $1,400 and a school opened.

"With all these additions there was a demand for more room and better accommodations, especially for the High School. To meet this need, in 1884, the school board erected an eight-room High School building on High street, adjoining the Central building, on the west ; and then the fourth story, in the now old building which included the High School room, was abandoned. In the then new building, the High School and recitation rooms were on the first floor, the upper grammar grades on the second, and the library, museum and superintendent's office in the room connecting the old and the new building. The entire cost of this structure including the furniture and the steam-heating apparatus for both buildings amounted to about $25,000.

"In the years 1886 and 1887 two rooms were added to the Fourth Ward building and two to the Fifth Ward. Two rooms in East Elkhart were finished and furnished and the Middlebury street school house remodeled and one room added, the aggregate cost of these improvements being about $12,000. From a sanitary point of view the improvements in 1887 and 1888 are of the greatest importance.

"It having come to the knowledge of the school authorities that there was an abundance of pure, fresh air and sunshine going to waste in Elkhart, it was determined to utilize a portion of it for the benefit of the school children. Accordingly arrangements were made and carried into effect for the proper heating, lighting and ventilation of the ward buildings. In the accomplishment of this object, the rooms were reseated, new heaters purchased, direct radiation from stoves cut off, and fresh and foul air flues provided ; the black boards were repaired and new ones made where needed, the schools were furnished with number-tables, form-models and beads, reading charts, maps and globes, supplementary readers, dictionaries and other books for teachers' desks ; some chemical and physical apparatus, quite a number of specimens for the museum, about $500 worth of books for the library, and a very fine telescope purchased from Prof. H. L. Smith, of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., were added. The cost of these much needed improvements and supplies for the time indicated, aggregates about $3,000.

"In 1890, two rooms were added to the Beardsley building, at a cost of $3,500, and in 1891 a two-room building was erected at the corner of Cleveland avenue and South Seventh street, at a cost of $5,000.

"The dark and poorly ventilated rooms in the Central school building, the crowded condition of all the rooms and especially that of the High School, rendered it imperative that more and better facilities be supplied. To meet this demand, in January, 1893, the new High School building was completed, at a cost of $36,000. This is a two-stor)' stone structure, located at the corner of Pigeon and \^istula streets. The High School Assembly room, with a seating capacity of 200, and four commodious recitation rooms, furnished with single desks, occupy the second floor. On the first floor are four recitation rooms, the superintendent's office and a Ubrary room, containing more than 5,000 volumes, selected with especial reference to the needs of students in the High School and the grammar grades. "Besides, a chemical laboratory and biological and physical science rooms have been fitted up with all the modem improvements and the necessary appliances for the teaching of chemistry, physics, physiolog>', zoology and botany, according to the latest and most approved methods of teaching these subjects.

"During 1894 four rooms were added to the Weston building, and the others thoroughly renovated, thus making a good six-room building, practically new. It is supplied with water, wire hat-racks, flush closets, and the Hess system of heating and ventilating, the whole constituting for the money expended, the most convenient and the best arranged school building in the city. It cost, completed and furnished, $10,000. Five years later the over-crowded condition of the schools rendered it imperative that more room, should be provided. Accordingly at the request of the school board and by the unanimous vote of the city council bonds were issued and extensive additions to the Fourth and Fifth \\'ard buildings were made and improvements in the way of closets, heating and \'entilating apparatus, in the other buildings amounting in the aggregate to more than $20,000.

from the one-room building in 1838. the schools have increased so that at the present time (1900) there are nine buildings, containing 65 school rooms well equipped for school purposes with 2,800 sittings."

The grand climax of school construction in Elkhart was the completion of the splendid new high school, or Central Building, in 1912. at a cost of $250,000. It has imposing colonnaded entrances both on South Third and West High streets, and occujjies half of a city block diagonally across from the public library. It is a stately three-story structure, massive in appearance, yet architecturally beautiful, and it seems more like some important government building tban a schoolhouse. Once within, however, the visitor sees that nothing in the way of forethought, or expenditure, has been spared to bring to the advanced pupils of the public school system every modern advantage of equipment. Manual training, domestic science, laboratory investigation, business training, the latest in sanitary precautions, good light, scientific heating and ventilation, and tasteful and pleasant surroundings are all included in the educational scheme as worked out in this splendid Central school, w^hich contains the offices of the city superintendent and is the headquarters of the metropolitan system of education.

Besides the old high school building at the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and \'istula Street, are the following ward schools: Fourth, southwest corner of Tenth and Harrison; Fifth, South Second, between Redding Avenue and Prairie Street ; Weston, North Michigan between Cedar and Laurel streets ; South Side School, Cleveland Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets ; Beardsley, Johnson between McPherson and Baldwin streets ; East Elkhart, Gladstone Avenue between North and Center streets; Middlebury, southwest corner of Middlebury and Prairie, and VVillowdale, in the north part of the city.

There are about 5.000 pupils in the Elkhart schools and over 100 teachers ; of the latter twenty-two are on the teaching staff of the high school, which has an enrollment of nearly 580 scholars. In 1886 the total enrollment was 1,982 and in 1899, 2,669; for the same years, the number of pupils in the high school was 96 and 299, respectively, and the teachers, four and six. The present value of school property is about $550,000.

Since 1868 the city superintendents of schools and principals of the high school have been as follows : Superintendents - Valois Butler, 1868-70: J. K. Waltz, 1870-74; J. M. Strasburg, 1874-75;

The present board of education consists of the following: E. G. Crone, president; W. C. Davis, treasurer; J. P. Ohmer, secretary; J. A. Wiggers, superintendent of schools.

Elkhart has shown a marked development within the past fifteen years both in civic and industrial progress. Its streets have been improved, park area extended and the existing public grounds beautified, its water, lighting and transportation systems broadened and perfected, and a general advance made along all the lines of metropolitan life. This progress is indicated, in general by its increase in population and valuation of taxable property; other items are also given for the year ending December 31, 191 5.

Elkhart now covers an area of seven square miles. It has about seventy-five miles of streets, of which seventeen are paved. Its transportation facilities are conserved by twelve miles of electric street railways and its sanitary status is maintained at par by some forty miles of sewers and forty-five miles of water-mains.

Elkhart's progress is typified by her handsome Municipal and Superior Court Building, completed in 1916, which stands on the northwest corner of Second and High streets. It was built at a cost of $100,000, and is virtually three stories in height although its lofty basement is somewhat depressed below street level. Its exterior or buff Bedford stone and gray brick is remarkably harmonious. The building- stands 87 by 104 feet on the ground and is 63 feet in height. The main interior features are the Superior Court room and Council Chamber, each 40 by 56 feet and 20 feet high. The court room is finished in mahogany and is lighted through a graceful glass dome, while the headquarters of the common council are handsomely furnished in quarter-sawed white oak and ornamented in relief. The building is of steel frame work, with concrete foundations, and necessarily is provided with modern fire-protection devices, plumbing and heating apparatus, ventilation and a complete vacuum cleaning plant.

The Elkhart Public Library was opened to the public October i, 1903. The building, on the northeast corner of South Second and East High streets, is a gift from Andrew Carnegie and cost $35,000. Although it is about the usual size of library buildings in cities of the population of Elkhart, it is already too small to properly accommodate the number of volumes now on its shelves. For some years previous to the establishment of the public library a small library was maintained by the ladies of Elkhart, but the desire of the people of the city to have a library adequate to the needs of the town resulted in the present institution. It is now equipped with 25,000 books, covering all conceivable subjects and selected with great care to fit as nearly as possible the character of the city. Nearly 200 magazines and periodicals are subscribed for, so that the latest word on a subject may be found here.

It is the aim of the library management to make the library a bureau of information for every inquiring mind in the city, and its privileges are largely extended to the neighboring towns and country districts.

The present library board is as follows: F. A. Reed, president; E. G. Machan, vice president; R. W. Monger, secretary; Mrs. Livy Chamberlain, Mrs. A. R. Beardsley, Mrs. L. M. Simpson and Rev. R. J. Wade.

There have been two librarians : ]\Iiss Katharine Sage, who served from October, 1903, until June, 1905, and Miss Ella F. Corwin, who has served from Jime. 1905, to the present time.

The Elkhart Postoffice is one of the comparatively new and decidedly attractive buildings of the" city, and the postal facilities, as furnished by the general government, constitute a public convenience, which, from long usage, has come to be considered a necessity. The building itself is centrally located on Main Street and was completed in November, 1905, at a cost of over $62,000, which, with grounds and furnishings, brought the total expenditures for the property about up to the amount appropriated by Congress,

The present postoffice force comprises the superintendent and his assistant, superintendent of mails, superintendent of the money order department, and about thirty carriers and clerks. There are three sub-stations and seven routes in the rural free delivery. In fact, Elkhart is one of the leading points in the postal service in Northern Indiana. Its annual receipts are about $160,000.

Elkhart is highly favored in ease of access to beauty spots, provided both by nature and the city's co-operative work in the improvement of the several beautiful tracts which have been donated to the public: to say nothing in detail, at this point, of the charming grounds of the St. Joe \'alley Chautauqua, within easy reach of the people of Elkhart, as well as the Lake Winona Assembly Park, more distant, but still within the scope of thousands of cultured men and women. Elkhart and St. Josephs rivers and Christiana Creek, which unite within the municipal limits, all present beautiful stretches of scenery along their banks ; the locality where the two main streams mingle their waters is especially picturesque. There are eight city parks, which cover over loo acres, under the direct management of a superintendent and responsible to "the Honorable Mayor and Board of Public Works ;" each park has also a special caretaker. The two public cemeteries hold the same relation to the municipal government.

McNaughton Park, perhaps the most popular of the public out-of-door resorts, is located south of South Boulevard in a beautiful bend of the St. Joe River. With its drinking fountains, wading pool for children, swings and slides, tennis courts, croquet grounds, baseball diamond, rustic bridges, pretty flower beds and natural beauties, McNaughton Park is very popular both with individuals and families. As John McNaughton donated to the city the thirty-five acres comprising the park, it was fittingly named in his honor.

Island Part:, on East Sycamore and both rivers, is also a delightful spot, and draws many concert and picnic parties. Studebaker Park, lying along the Elkhart River on the north side of McDonald Avenue, has also a tennis court, croquet ground and baseball diamond, and the commencement of an interesting menagerie. Riverside and Beardsley parks - the latter containing the beauti- ful monument erected to the founder of Elkhart - are charming resting places, north of the St. Joseph River and west of North Main Street. Rice and Willowdale parks are the newest, but are still almost in a state of Nature. Virtually all the city parks are adjacent to either the St. Joe or Elkhart rivers and, looking to their further extension and improvements, the common council has passed an ordinance for the protection of all river banks through the building of retaining walls and other adequate means.

Of the cemeteries Grace Lawn and Rice,' the former is by far the older, and has been in course of improvement and beautification for many years. It lies on the north side of Middlebury Street from the Elkhart River to Cemetery Street.

Outside of city control are also two other cemeteries - Pleasant Plain, at Oakland and Lusher avenues and St. Vincent (Catholic) on Twenty-first, between West Franklin and West Indiana avenues.

Among the architectural attractions of Elkhart, in connection with those out-door features which please the eye and appeal to civic pride, is the beautiful soldier's monument erected and donated by the late Silas Baldwin, one of Elkhart's foremost citizens. Mr. Baldwin, as all know who have resided in the city for any considerable length of time, took an active part in bringing the Michigan Southern to Elkhart, was afterward postmaster of the place, and long prominent in the afifairs of the First National Bank. His son, Frank Baldwin, was killed at the age of eighteen on the battlefield of Stone River, having been already promoted to a lieutenancy for bravery. The memorial at Elkhart is therefore a tribute of fatherly love as well as to Union patriotism. Mr. Baldwin did not live to see the completion of this memorial shaft, which was not dedicated until the August following the date of his death. May 22, 1889.

The Elkhart Gas and Fuel Company is one of the great public service utility companies operating in that city under her municipal franchises, and is the oldest institution of that kind in continuous existence. It was established in 1871. The offices and warehouses of the company, which provide for the dispatch of its large business and the display of such goods as fixtures, stoves, lamps and heaters, are of modem construction and situated at the corner of South Main and High streets. Just east of the administration and sales building is the large manufacturing plant of the company. In these buildings and yards are not only produced gas, but its by-products, tar, coke and ammonia. The tar is extensively shipped to roofers and to concerns engaged in the manufacture of electric conduits and the making of creosote. The demand is sufficient to consume as fuel the output of coke, while the ammonia is readily sold to refrigerating plants and ice factories.

The Elkhart Gas and Fuel Company is capitalized at $500,000, and is a branch of a Grand Rapids corporation which operates gas and electric properties at various points in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. It obtained possession of the old Elkhart gas works in December, 1909, and steady improvements in appliances, buildings and processes have progressed continuously since. Its system of distribution comprises about fifty miles of mains.

This company was incorporated in 1884, and the water works which furnish the domestic supply and much of the fire protection of the city were first put in operation at that time. H. E. Bucklen is president of the company and Elliott Crull, superintendent. The supply is drawn from a series of artesian wells and a system of galleries, modern, machinery forcing it into the mains that run to every section of the city. With the increase of population and the consequent increased demand from private consumers, business houses and manufactories, the pumping and filtering plant and the system of distribution have been constantly expanding, and for a number of years the annual consumption has been considerably above 1,000,000,000 gallons. Some forty-four miles of street mains are in use.

For nearly ten years past the corporation named has controlled the electric light and power throughout the St. Joseph Valley, and perhaps no other public utility concern has done so much for Elkhart, as its interurban lines, many minor manufacturing plants, and at least one great corporation (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern), are supplied with electric power through its transmission systems, while the public thoroughfares and numerous business houses and manufactories depend almost entirely ujxin the Indiana & Michigan for lighting purposes and for the operation of electric fans and other ventilating devices.

Elkhart is the center of the widely-extended activities of the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, and a description of its development, as a whole, and its outgrowth at Elkhart, in particular, is therefore given in the words of J. P. Ohmer, its superintendent. "The Indiana and Michigan Electric Company," he says, "is the Indiana corporation serving the people of the St. Joseph valley with electrical energy for light and power purposes directly or indirectly from Elkhart, Ind., to Watervliet, Mich., which is approximately 20 miles north of Benton Harbor, and in addition thereto street and interurban railways operating in said valley from Goshen to Watervliet, Mich., and those radiating therefrom.

"To be more explicit, - it wholesales electrical energy to the Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway which operates a local street car system in Goshen, Elkhart, Mishawaka, South Bend, Laporte, Michigan City, Indiana and has interurban lines operating in and between said cities ; also to St. Joseph Valley Traction Co., vvhich operates a line of railway easterly from Elkhart, through Bristol for a distance of approximately 15 miles, and which road is being extended easterly to approximately the Ohio-Indiana state line ; also to the Benton Harbor & St. Joseph Railway & Light Company, which distributes electricity for light and power purposes in the cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Mich., on Lake Michigan, and a local street car line in and between said cities, together writh an interurban railway extending southerly and easterly to Dowagiac, Mich., and northerly for 20 miles to Coloma and Watervliet. This railway and light company also distributes this electrical energy in the villages of Coloma, Watervliet and Eau Claire, Mich., as well as in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. The Indiana & Michigan Electric Company also wholesales electric energy to the Southern Michigan Railway Company, which operates an electrical railway between South Bend and St. Joseph, Mich., through Niles and Berrien Springs. The Indiana & Michigan Electric Co., neither directly or indirectly except for railroad purposes, disposes of any electrical energy in Goshen, New Carlisle, Laporte or Michigan City. In Michigan City the railway company does not procure its power from the Indiana & Michigan Electric Co.

"In Elkhart, Ind., where one of its hydro-electric plants is located, it distributes and sells all of the electricity that is used in that city for light and power purposes. In Mishawaka, Ind., where it has franchises by which it can distribute energy for all purposes, it at present distributes electrical energy for power purposes only, selling only such amounts of energy as are necessary for illuminating purposes in the manufacturing establishments to which it sells energy for power purposes. In addition to this power business it also has a contract with the municipality of Mishawaka, which municipality distributes said energy for lighting and small power business. In South Bend, Ind., tlus company maintains and operates in conjunction with its hydro-electric plants a large steam plant and here it distributes and sells all of the electrical energy used for lighting and power purposes, both by the city and the inhabitants thereof, except such amounts as may be manufactured by private plants.

"In Niles, Mich., this company has a franchise for a limited section of the City of Niles by which it can dispose of electric energy to be used for power purposes only. In Buchanan, Mich., where one of its hydro-electric plants is located, it disposes and sells electrical energy for both light and power purposes to the municipality, as well as to the inhabitants thereof. Similarly, at the \'illage of Berrien Springs, where is located the fourth hydro-electric plant, it distributes energy for all purposes, except street illumination, for which it delivers energy to the mimicipality.

"It also distributes a small amount of current in the \'illage of Rolling Prairie and sells to a few customers just west of Laporte through an agreement made with the Indiana Railway Co. The approximate population which it serves directly or indirectly is 125,000.

"The Indiana & Michigan Electric Co. power is developed from four hydro-electric plants located in the St. Joseph River, one having an approximate head of 18 feet located in this city, the second with an approximate head of 20 feet located at Twin Branch, three miles east of Mishawaka. the third having a head of approximately 10 feet at Buchanan, Mich., and the fourth having a head of approximately 20 feet at Berrien Springs, Mich., together with a steam plant centrally located at South Bend, Ind., and operated in conjunction with and parallel with the above mentioned hydraulic plants. All of said plants are interconnected electrically with practically two parallel transmission lines.

"The Indiana & Michigan Electric Co. is the result of the consolidation merger or purchase of numerous companies originally existing independently in the St. Joseph valley. It was incorporated in the State of Indiana ]\Iay 11, 1907, at which time it took over a number of independent companies.

"In this city the first electric company was organized by Etna Kuhlman in 1892. It was known as the Home Electric Light & Power Co., and had for its officers Dr. G. W. Spohn, President; E. Kuhlman, Secretary; W. H. Hornberger, Vice-president and J. E. Micks, Treasurer.

"The first plant was located south of the Lake Shore railroad at the corner of Willard Street and was put into operation on Thanksgiving day, 1892.

"Later, the plant was moved to Elkhart ave., near Jackson Street, and was operated by hydraulic power from the St. Joseph River. This plant was entirely demolished more than fifteen years ago and the electric plant was moved and reconstructed on the north side of the river along the Big Four railway, near Beardsley avenue, and was designed so as to utilize both steam and hydraulic power. This is the plant called by the Indiana & Michigan Electric Co., plant "A," and was abandoned during 1914 as an operating plant.

"The hydraulic development in Elkhart dates back to 1867, when The Elkhart Hydraulic Co. was organized, and in 1868 they constructed a dam in the St. Joseph River at Elkhart. This dam was a log dam with a head of ten feet and on the south side of which was the old fashioned race-way from which water was drawn for various manufacturing enterprises, and each manufacturer owned in connection with the real estate on which his factory was located certain quantities of water which were used for power development purposes for his factory. In 1882 the St. Joseph Hydraulic Co. was organized and purchased from the owners of the dam certain water rights and this company constructed the race-way on the north side of the river which supplied manufacturing establishments, among which was the Home Electric, or the Elkhart Electric Company. This company, however, did not own any of the water rights but leased approximately 300 horse power, from the owner of the . hydraulic properties.

"In January, 1901, the Home Electric Light & Power Co. was merged into the Elkhart Electric Co. In September, 1903, the Elkhart Power Co. was. organized and purchased both of the above mentioned hydraulic companies, and this, the Elkhart Power Co., was later purchased by the Indiana & Michigan Co. In 1913 the Indiana & TMichigan Electric Co. completed the reconstruction and raising of this Elkhart dam and building a new power house, from which they are now developing energy in conjunction with three other hydraulic plants and a steam plant at South Bend."