Elkhart County, Indiana - Chapter 16: Industries, Banks and Newspapers, 1916

Long ago Elkhart outgrew that stage of her industrfal life when the establishment of a single manufactory caused a deep commotion in her midst. In fact, for the past few years, especially since the founding of her Industrial Association in 1906, it was only the industrious reporter who could closely note the enterprises of that nature which were continually being incorporated as elements of her progress. At the present time there are probably sixty incorporated concerns which are carrying along industries as varied in character as they are in scope. Automobiles in whole or in parts ; carriages and wagons for either millionaires or sturdy farmers, for ladies or babies ; band instruments of every description ; medicines for man and beast ; paper for books and newspapers, bristol board for artists and paper boxes for manufacturers and merchants ; brass and iron work, brick and cement, and rubber, flour and cereals ; ice and matches, tablets, and scales and harnesses - why, the reporter might fill a good-sized printed page with the leading manufactures produced by the industrial plants of Elkhart and then not exhaust the list. Without further anticipation, therefore, he will specially mention a few of the oldest and best known of such establishments.

The above is the official title of the industry which has given the Conn band and orchestra instruments an international fame. That such a statement is not beyond the literal truth is evident from the fact that they were awarded four superior medals at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, in the summer of 191 5. The Conn exhibit won the highest honors over seven competitors, the world's best in the manufacture of instruments for bands and orchestras.

The founder and owner of the industry is one of Elkhart's leading citizens. His father, a prominent educator of Northern Indiana, brought him as a boy to Elkhart, where he went to school for about ten years and then, still a youth, enlisted in the Union Army. Even then his musical talents earned him a position in the regimental band. Young Conn, after seeing considerable service at the front, re-enlisted in a company of Michigan sharpshooters, and within a few months had been promoted to its captaincy. He sptnt the last year of the war as a prisoner in Confederate prisons, and for a short time afterward engaged in business' at Elkhart. But his musical talents and his mechanical gifts soon evolved a simple improvement in the cornet mouthpiece which laid the foundation of C. G. Conn, Inc.

The commencement of Colonel Conn's - carreer as a manufacturer and a public man of broad caliber is thus given by one who writes from personal knowledge : lieing what might be called a practical musician, with great natural gifts in that art and greatest fondness for all its manifestations, he soon became identified with the line of manufacture which has made his name more familiar to the world at large than any other phase of his versatile career. He invented his famous "elastic face mouthpiece" for comets, which became so popular that he could not manufacture them fast enough. Beginning his manufacturing with himself as practically the only workman and with a lathe made from a sewing machine table, he was soon compelled by rush of orders to expand every part of the industry and become the directing head of a force of employes. The story of his persistent efforts and struggles to make financial ends meet while he was getting started as a manufacturer has often been told, and is familiar to all his friends and acquaintances in Northern Indiana. Having effected a wonderful improvement on the old-style cornet by means of his mouthpiece and by dint of shrewdest sort of business management getting a foothold in the uncertain field of manufacturing enterprise, he then applied himself to the study of the cornet with a view of bringing out the highest latent powers of that instrument. He secured patent after patent, each one representing some advance toward perfection in the cornet, and in time he produced what is known to the world of music as the "Conn Cornet." All the other modern brass band instruments are also now manufactured in Mr. Conn's establishment, and their excellence may be gauged by the fact that they are used by Sousa's Band and have received the highest honors at all the recent world's expositions. The manufacturing establishment for the production of the Conn instruments is mentioned in the history of manufacturing elsewhere in this work, and at this point it is only necessary to state that this industry has become, during the last quarter of a century, one of the foremost sources of the industrial prosperity which has marked the City of Elkhart.

This alone would entitle him to distinction and would be regarded a sufficient accomplishment to be called a life work by any man ; yet Colonel Conn has extended his efforts to the great public questions which concern the welfare of the country, to the social and economic problems of America, and to practical humanitarianism. In the early days when his business was just emerging from a small factory into one where success seemed sure, the democratic party at Elkhart nominated him for mayor. Contrary to the general course of municipal politics up to that time, he was elected, and gave the city such a practical, progressive and beneficial administration that it is still a high standard for others to be measured by. He was re-elected to the office, and was soon slated for further advancement in political honors. A normally republican district gave him a seat on the democratic side of the lower house in Indianapolis, where he was connected with important constructive legislation and gave much attention to the solution of the labor problems. In 1892 the thirteenth district, through its representatives assembled in convention at Michigan City, placed his name on the democratic ticket as nominee for Congress. In James Dodge, also a prominent Elkhart citizen and one of the most influential republicans of the district, Mr. Conn had a worthy opponent, but the result of the hotly contested campaign was that Mr. Conn went to Washington to represent the people of this district.

As congressman Colonel Conn was a man of mark from the time he took his seat, and both as a legislator and reformer left a lasting influence. It was in the field of journalism that he found the power needed in this assault upon some of the strongholds of municipal mismanagement which he found fixed upon the capital city. He purchased the Washington Times, the morning newspaper now owned by Frank A. Munsey, and instituted a campaign against vice and crime which for several years had run riot in the city. Directing his attack first upon the police association and the police force, he aroused public attention to the existing conditions and after bitter conflict, overcame the inertia of the powers for law and order, caused the dens of vice to be vacated, the gamblers driven from the city and crime reduced to a minimum. The severe strictures made upon the police force by the Times resulted in an indictment for libel against Colonel Conn, but the forces of persecution failed in their purpose and the colonel was acquitted at the trial. Having accomplished for the capital city what he started out to effect, he then sold his newspaper and returned to Elkhart.

Before going to Washington he was well known in the journalistic circles of Northern Indiana, for in September, 1890, he had founded the Daily and Weekly Truth. Mr. Conn is still identified with this enterprise as proprietor, and the history of the Truth will be found elsewhere in these pages. Since his retirement from Congress he has sought no further political honors. In 1900 he supported with personal efifort and money the candidacy of McKinley for President and did much to get out the largest republican vote in the history of Elkhart County.

From the little plant which turned out the elastic face mouthpiece for cornets to the massive plant which covers about three acres of ground on Elkhart Avenue and the St. Joseph River involved much hard labor, as well as a long stretch of years. All the original buildings were practically wiped out of existence by fire in 1910. The structures which replaced them were of the mission type, substantial and attractive, and include the office building, the metal working factory and the bell, valve and polishing departments. The products of the plant now include flutes, clarinets, saxophones, cornets, mellophones, alto horns, trombones, tenor horns, eupho- niums, bass horns, chimes, bells, drums and the drummer's equipment - in a word, all kinds of band and orchestral instruments. One feature of the Conn industry which has been established as the result of long experience is believed to largely explain the constant improvement of its output. Whenever an instrument is made for a genius or a mechanical expert in the musical world, careful measurements are taken of it and permanently recorded. H the instrument proves satisfactory to the user, the factory considers that it has a valuable stamp of approval on that particular article, and duplicates of it are thereafter put out, with confidence that they will give satisfaction. That is one of the most successful means which has been taken to establish the high Conn standards in the varied lines of manufacture.

The Buescher Band Instrument Company adds to the fame of Elkhart as a center of this line of manufactures. F. A. Buescher, the head of the company, has had forty years' experience in his line, and the business has been established at Elkhart for about half that time, aUhough the company has been incorporated only since 1904. The three distinct features of the Buescher instruments are known as the Multi-Pitch tuning device, the Epoch Valve system and the Split-no-tone bell. The manufactures include band instruments of all descriptions, all of which carry the special features mentioned. The plant of the concern is located on the corner of Foundry and East Jackson streets.

The Martin Band Instrument Company, another important industry in the same line, has been established since 1904. The family name attached to the company recalls to old musicians more than sixty years of experience as band instrument makers by several generations of the Martins.

The name of this great corporation does not convey the industrial magnitude of its operations. It conducts the largest manufactory in Elkhart and represents the largest special industry in the world. It has no rival in the manufacture of collapsible go-carts which have literally penetrated to all civilized parts of the world.

The products of its plant which covers seven acres of ground space also includes baby-carriages of every kind, bed side tables, shaving and toilet stands and costumers and card tables; but the collapsible go-cart, or baby carriage, is the article which has spread the trade mark "Allwin" around the world. Therefore, the details of its manufacture, as presented by a local paper, are interesting

The buildings of this plant are arranged in the shape of a "U." The raw materials arrive at one end, make the circle of the plant, and are shipped out as the finished product from the other end. Therefore, we will start at the doorway where the incoming freight is unloaded. Through this doorway 4,000,000 pounds of steel pass every year, and to watch the material as it enters one realizes that they will soon see some wonderful machinery if those long, awkward strips of steel are to be converted into graceful beautiful finished baby carriages. On the journey from the mills in its unfinished condition it necessarily accumulates a certain amount of rust which must be removed else the final finish of the carts you see will not be of a lasting nature. Every piece of steel going through the plant therefore must be specially treated to remove all rust before it starts its journey through the machines.

The first requisite for the cutting and shaping of this material is a set of tools and dies, so this is the next department that we find. From large blocks of steel, cut to the desired shapes and ingeniously assembled, are made dies, which, during the season, will cut and shape thousands upon thousands of units which go into the finished product. When these are completed and tested they are then ready for the press room, where thirty-two automatic presses continue their monotonous pound - every movement meaning a new part of a baby carriage. On our way out of this building we pass the forge and the shaping machine, which temper and shape the springs that are to protect baby's delicate spine from the bumps of the walks and roads. Here the parts start on diflferent journeys. Some are then ready to be assembled; others must stop awhile to be given a coat of pure tin and emerge so smooth and bright that only one skilled in the work can see that they are not nickel plated. Other parts go to the nickel plating room, where they must be ground to a surface, then freed from all oil and other impurities and finally put in the big nickel plating tanks for hours. Having thus completed the separate parts of the carriages, we are ready to bring them together. This is divided into two departments known as the rough and the final assembly. A carriage is assembled as completely as possible before it goes into the enameling room. This one department consumes in the neighborhood of 40,000,000 rivets every year. When the product leaves this department it has no wheels, no upholstering, or no wood parts. It is just beginning to take on the resemblance to a baby carriage, but it is ready for its trip to the enameling department. Here we find men busily engaged in dipping these frames into great tanks of enamel. They are then loaded on to metal trucks, which, in turn, are wheeled into huge ovens, where they must remain for four hours in a temperature of about 425 degrees to bake the enamel so hard that it will not chip or scratch under the hard service it is to receive as it totes baby here, there and everywhere.

In the meantime other departments are busily engaged in completing their parts of the carriage to have them ready for the final assembly. We find one department preparing the cross handles, another putting 2.400,000 feet of rubber tires per year on the wheels, still another making hoods, upholstering backs and seats and sewing up foot wells. Finally they all come together and start their final journey over the bench, which, in a short space of time, changes them from a collection of miscellaneous pieces into an attractive baby carriage. Each man i>erforms one step. One adds the seat and passes it to his neighbor, who puts on the back; another connects the cross handle; a fourth adds the hood; a fifth gives it its wheels ; a sixth trues up the wheels and thus it speeds along until it reaches the final inspector, where every point of the carriage is carefully looked over for defects. Each vehicle is folded and unfolded; every back, foot well and hood adjusted, and if anything is wrong, it is returned to be made right before it can be handed to the stock department. For thousands of square feet you will see carriages piled from the floor to the ceiling, all wrapped and numbered ready to be put into crates and forwarded to their destinations.

When one stops to realize that in the busy seasons of the year these collapsible carriages leave the final assembly bench at the rate of one every forty-two seconds, it is easy to appreciate what a task it is to see that every department is operating on a clock-work schedule. If one department should unavoidably fall down for even a short space of time, all departments before it will soon be overcrowded and those after it without work.

The manufacture of reed and wood carriages is an entirely separate proposition, because tlie machine plays very little part in their manufacture. There is the wood-working department, where the frames of the reed carriages are made and assembled and where the wood body carriages are prepared for the finishing department. These must all go upstairs, where reed workers will take strands of reed fifteen feet long, and with fingers that move faster than the eye can record, shape them into beautiful reed carriages. In the meantime the press room has made the metal parts for the frame, the rough assembly, and enameling departments have done their work, and after the reed body goes through the various steps of the finishing room, it is ready to be assembled, crated and shipped.

Many residents of Elkhart do not realize that in that city they have the largest factory of its kind in the world, shipping its product all over the globe. Should you journey to the public square of Johannesburgh, South Africa, you would find yourself face to face with a large sign telling that Sidway Baby Carriages are sold in that city, and with equal ease you can obtain them in Australia, New Zealand or Shanghai, China.

This is the wonderful factory which has grown up before the eyes of the residents of Elkhart in ten years. It was in 1905 that Charles A. Sidway came to Elkhart to establish the Sidway Mercantile Company as manufacturers of folding baby carriages. His death on the 3d of June of this year was a great shock to his many personal and business friends in the community, but the factory he leaves behind him will keep his memory before the residents of Elkhart for years to come.

The Sidway Mercantile Company was established at Elkhart by the late C. A. Sidway in June, 1903, and incorporated in May, 1906. It now employs between 500 and 600 people. It has offices and warehouses in New York, Chicago, Portland (Oregon) and London (Ontario), and agencies in both hemispheres. Its main offices and factor)' are at Elkhart.

industry. A graduate in the sciences at Yale and in the law at Cohmibia, the eastern colleges, holder of a medical degree from Rush Medical College, Chicago, and the master of special courses both in the Chicago Medical College and the Illinois State Eye and Ear Infirmary of Chicago - the doctor also practiced for several years in the Illinois metropolis before casting his fortunes with the Elkhart enterprise. In 1873 he began a special study of the relations existing between the eye and the brain ; the brain, the heart, the stomach and the other vital organs. These investigations and the devising of remedies for nervous and chronic ailments in his private practice led him to the establishment of the Dr. ]\Iiles Medical Company at Elkhart, in 1880. The grand dispensary connected with it supplies specialists who furnish information as to the proper use of the remedies manufactured by the company. The business was incorporated in 1885 and the massive building in which it is now transacted on West Franklin Street was erected in 1892. Not only are the proprietary medicines manufactured at the plant, but all the boxes, tubes, books, pamphlets and circulars used in the business are turned out by the factory, printery and bindery which are incorporated as departments of the concern. All the machinery is electrically driven. One of the unique features of the plant, which does not seem to be directly connected with its distinctive purposes, is the maintenance of a complete weather bureau, the office of which is on the top of the main building. It is equipped with full automatic weather recording instruments up to the standard of the government observation stations.

In 1873 F. B. Pratt and Wm. B. Pratt, his son, began the manufacturing of vehicles under the firm name of F. B. Pratt & Son, and inaugurated the plan of selling direct from the manufacturer to the consumer" without the use of the middle man or jobber. In 1882, Mr. F. B. Pratt's second son, Geo. B. Pratt, came into the business and the concern was known as the Elkhart Buggy Company. In 1888 a stock company was formed to be known as the Elkhart Carriage & Harness Manufacturing Company, the stock being taken by Frederick B. Pratt, Wm. B. Pratt, Geo. B. Pratt and Otis D. Thompson. In 1891 F. B. Pratt sold his stock to George

E. and Wm. B. Pratt. In 1894 Air. Thompson sold his stock to these gentlemen, so that the entire stock is held by them. The plan of selling the manufactured article is the same today as it was when the business started in 1873. Now, as then, the business is all carried on through corespondence ; but there are several decided contrasts, as well as similitudes. At first only a few persons were employed, both in the manufacturing and office forces; now there are about 300. In 1873 the plant was a small carriage and harness shop ; the plant now covers some nine acres of ground. Then automobiles were unknown ; for some years they have been an expanding class of the output. But the old and popular plan of selling direct to the consumer has been continued in the sale of the Pratt- Elkhart machines.

Established in 1897 and incorporated in 1903, the Noyes Carriage Company has a large factory on South Main Street. The business is capitalized at $150,000, and its manufacturing specialty consists of light vehicles. The plant employs about 150 people and turns out $250,000 worth of products annually.

The Crow Motor Car Company was incorporated in July, 1909, and the Black-Crow machines are the product of a merger of automobile concerns - the Crow Motor Car Company of Elkhart and the Black Manufacturing Company, of Chicago. The cars are manufactured in the factory at Elkhart, covering i>4 acres on North Main Street, and distributed from large sales rooms in Chicago. The presidents of the two Black Crow companies are M. E. Crow, of the Crow Motor Car Company and W. H. Black, of the Black Manufacturing Company. Six types of cars are turned out, varying from a two-passenger roadster to a seven-passenger touring auto. Within the past year or two, however, the company has been concentrating on a 30-horse power light touring car and also a roadster model. The cars from this factory are now generally known as the Crow Elkhart. When organized the capital stock of the company was $50,000, which was later increased to $100,000.

On May i, 1902, the Davis Acetylene Company commenced the building of acetylene gas generators at Elkhart. They equip entire towns as well as individual stores, factories and houses with illumination the equal of gas or electricity, and their apparatus is available in places where gas plants and electricity could not be supplied owing to the size of the village. The Davis Acetylene Company is successor to Davis and Price, Davis and Flint, and the Carbolite Construction Company, the business having been carried on in Chicago previous to its removal to Elkhart on the date mentioned. Augustine Davis is president of the company. The plant on Prospect Street, comprising two substantial brick and stone buildings, covers about 52,000 square feet of floor space, and includes within the scope of its output entire acetylene lighting plants and the apparatus for the o.xy-acetylene welding process.

Incorporated and organized in 1902 the company above named manufactures brass hose couplings and other specialties in that metal. Its plant occupies about two acres on Beardsley Avenue and Oak Street. Albert F. Hansen is president of the company.

For some years the manufacture of flour, feed and cereals at Elkhart has been chiefly in the hands of Burrell & Morgan and the Pancost Milling Company. The firm of Burrell & Morgan, which consists of A. H. Burrell and D. B. Morgan, was established in 1900, in with the purchase of the "City jMills," then practically idle. Two years later the lease and business were purchased by the "Harvest Queen Mills." They also obtained the railroad elevator at Mishawaka. The City Mills were overhauled, modernized and enlarged and used only for feed grinding, the flour department being held in reserve. The "Harvest Queen Mills" burned October 21, 1909. Five days later the City Mills were started and are now run to full capacity by water power. This firm makes all kinds of winter and spring wheat flour, buying all the winter wheat on the

The Pancost Milling Company was established in 1904 by W. S. Pancost, the veteran miller, and his sons, C. E., L. G. and E. V. Pancost. The head of the industry is a sturdy old citizen, nearing his eightieth year, and still active in business and other affairs. He has been a miller for sixty years, commencing to learn his trade in April, 1856. After he had mastered it, during the Civil war, he was operating a little mill in Goshen, opposite the court house. At that time and place he made the flour to feed the Forty-eighth regiment of Indiana volunteers, then in camp and about to start for the front. He also shipped flour to Ben Butler at New Orleans at the time of the siege of that city. The plant operated by the Pancost Company of the present was known to thousands as the Beardsley Mills and had been established since 1872. Numerous improvements have been made to conform to modern requirements, and the output of the company includes winter and spring wheat flour, graham, German rye and buckwheat flours, corn meal and feed of every variety, the last named including everything from chicken feed to baled hay.

The manufacture of scales for the use of retail merchants, householders and others, has been a leading industrial line in Elkhart for a number of years. It is represented by the Strubler Computing Scale Company and the Angldile Scale Company. Organized in 1906, the Strubler Company began business on Crawford Street in the old wrench factory, but soon erected the plant on Sycamore near Elm. Charles B. Brodrick is credited with contributing to the growth of the enterprise as much as anyone.

The name Angldile comes from the two words angle and dial, both of which are features of the manufactured article. The weight dial is unusually large, while the computing chart is placed at an angle on the scale, a unique feature. J. E. Cochran has been the large personal force behind its growth. He was a ranchman in his earlier days, and before locating at Elkhart in 1907 had operated two experimental factories at Dundee and West Pullman, Illinois. His plant at the latter town was burned and his start at Elkhart was from the hard bottom.

Although the St. Joe Ice Company operates a small plant in comparison with other Elkhart industries, it represents an old business and one which the public appreciates. It was established in 1881, when natural ice met the general demand. The business was incorporated in 1905 and the company now not only manufactures artificial ice, but ice cream.

The American Coating Company, which manufactures coated paper stock, has mills at the foot of East Marion Street. It was incorporated in 1910.

There are also the Briggs Magneto Company, makers of electrical magnetos, incorporated in 191 1; the Elkhart Rubber Company, established in 1906 as makers of rubber goods; the Foster Machine Company, manufacturers of screw machines and lathes, which dates from 1902 ; the Gossard Corset Company, established in 1907 : the Kuhlman Electric Company, which has been turning out lighting and power transmission apparatus since 1897; the Northern Indiana Brass Foundry, established since 1905 - and doubtless other smaller industries.

The oldest of the existing banks is the First National, which was chartered in 1863, and has been in continuous operation ever since. During the more than half a century of its existence it has had but four presidents: Philo Morehouse, 1863-64; Benjamin L. Davenport, 1864-80; J. R. Beardsley, 1880-87: and Charles H. Winchester. Mr. Winchester has held the presidency since 1887; his son-in-law, W. H. Knickerbocker, has been cashier since 1886. Silas Baldwin, the first cashier, served in 1863-67; John Cook, 1867- 84; J. A. Cook, 1884-86. The First National is capitalized at $100,000; surplus and undivided profits, $50,000.

org^anized in 1904. Norman Sage had been president of the latter until his death and had been succeeded by Charles T. Greene ( former cashier), who was at the head of its affairs at the time of the consolidation. The St. Joseph Valley Bank had had three presidents, viz.: A. M. Titcker, Norman Sage and J. W. Fieldhouse. When the banks were consolidated the following officers were chosen to conduct the new St. Joseph Valley Bank: John W. Fieldhouse, president; Herman Boreman, Jacob Goldberg, Charles T. Greene, Walter S. Hazelton and Frank A. Sage (who had succeeded Mr. Greene as cashier of the First State Bank), vice presidents; John I. Liver, cashier. The original capital of the St. Joseph Valley Bank was $25,000 ; which has been increased, from time to time, until it is now $100,000. The surplus of the consolidated concern is $50,000 and the average deposits $2,000,000. About a year after the consolidation the old home of the bank was vacated in favor of the premises which, much enlarged and improved, had been occupied by the State Bank, at the corner of Main and Franklin streets.

The Citizens Trust Company, with headquarters on South Main street, was incorporated by Dr. Franklin Miles and others in January, 1 9 10. Its capital stock in $75,000 and its affairs are under state supervision. Its officers are: Franklin Miles, president; Stephen M. Cummins, James H. Calkins and Cassius M. Lounsberry, vice presidents ; Louis M. Simpson, secretary ; James H. State, trust officer.

The Elkhart Truth, issued by the Truth Publishing Company, was founded October 15, 1889, by Charles G. Conn, the noted band instrument manufacturer of Elkhart. It was issued as a morning paper for several months, but since February, 1890, when it absorbed the Daily Sentinel, it has been an afternoon daily. A Sunday edition was at first issued, but that was soon abandoned. Truth was first issued as a six-column folio, with an eight-page edition on Saturday, both daily and weekly editions being published. After several enlargements the paper assumed its present form, in April, 1899. For the first two years the paper was issued from an office in the Blackburn block, but in December, 1891, the plant was moved to the quarters now occupied on South Main

The first issue of the Elkhart Daily Review was published August 12, 1872, with C. H. Chase and A. P. Kent as proprietors. Mr. Chase died May 8, 1899, ^"d the business was conducted by his partner, Mr. Kent, until the death of the latter. May 5, 1909. O. P. Bassett purchased the property in October, 1909, from the widows of the deceased, which has been the only actual change in ownership since the founding of the paper. In May, 1883, the Review Printing Company was incorporated for a period of thirty years, and reincorporated, in May, 1913, for thirty years. Since he became proprietor of the business, Mr. Bassett has been president and treasurer of the company. The Weekly Review, which was established in 1859, was abandoned by Mr. Bassett in January, 1910.