LaPorte County, Indiana - Chapter 20: Factories, 1904

Wagons And Carriages

In pioneer days the same spreading tree that sheltered the village smithy usually cast its shade also upon the local wagon shop. The two indus¬ tries were born twins and did not drift apart until the era of great factories set in and made the manufacture of vehicles at the crossroads shops an economic impossibility.

The earliest wagon shop in the county of which mention is found was that of Theodore Parker at Door Village in 1833, the year the business' life of that Scipio township metropolis began. He did his own blacksmithing. Hiram Parker built a tavern there the same year. Noth¬ ing more is known of the Parkers, who dropped out of history as abruptly as they entered it, leav¬ ing no trace. Possibly this shop was sold to Bigsbee & Company, or to Dyer Smith, who had wagon shops there in 1839, with smithies at¬ tached. Ten years later John Parkinson engaged in the business rather extensively for those times, and in 1855 Leland Lockwood embarked in the trade at the same point. After a few years no more wagons were made at Door Village by any one regularly engaged in the occupation.

Galena township has been the greatest manu¬ facturing center in the county outside of the two townships containing cities, ' and possessed a wagon shop as early as 1835, when Shubael Smith, then a resident for two years, had a shop a mile west of Mayes' Corners, where Mathew

Mayes ran a blacksmith shop at the same time. Mr. Smith was a Methodist exhorter and often preached in the neighborhood. His entry of gov¬ ernment land was a part of section 8. Loami Shedd started a small shop a little east of Center school in 1841. Eight years later John B. Smith opened one on the New Buffalo road, then much traveled. Perhaps the latest to be opened and the one that will be best remembered by the present old inhabitants was the one started by Truman Barnes in 1857 a mile or so north of Center school and continued as a wagon and furniture factory for twenty years. When Independence and Puddletown were rivals for the municipal honors of Wills township the former was able to boast of one institution that the latter never had, for it contained during some years a wagon shop established by T. Chapman in 1837. This man was a brother of Dr. Jared Chapman, who was an active character in the township after 1830. The shop opened at the village of New Durham in 1838 by William S. Medaris, who afterward owned the sawmill at Durham station, attained some size before it was abandoned, for after William B. Webber, who was his black¬ smith from the outset, bought him out in 1850, lie in one year, 1852, turned out 114 wagons and buggies and mounted 300 steel plows. William Pathe and Michael Burgher succeeded to the business before it passed out of existence a quar¬ ter of a century ago. In the same township there was a small wagon shop at Otis for some years and Westville has had two or three. At that place Jacob J. Mann, who founded a factory for the manufacture of agricultural implements and in¬ vented a successful gun of great range and power, was making wagons in 1848. B. M. Zener and Levi Field were in the business there in 1884. Probably Dr. Bosley was the first wagonmaker in Coolspring township, at Beatty's corners in 1842, and Jeremiah W. Bevington at Waterford until about 1884 was the last. H. P. Ellsworth followed the business at Kingsbury about twenty years until he was appointed the first Grand Trunk agent at that place in 1873. Moses Emery, hotel-keeper, canal boatman, lawyer and farmer, was also a wagon builder about twenty > ears in Hudson township until along in the sixties.

At a date not recorded, but prior to 1853, a man named Bagiev had an extensive wagon fac¬ tory in La Porte. The names of those who pre¬ ceded him in that line are not remembered, but there were several shops in the place, beginning about 1835. R was in the Bagley factory that Milliam C. Pitner learned the trade and laid the foundation for the business he established in i860, the memory of which is perpetuated by the fast dimming sign on the old- factory at the comer of -Monroe ar.d Jefferson streets. His son Fred M., eventually became a partner in the concern and continued the business after his father's death, selling out later to Koepke & Gehrke, who in the current year will discontinue. Mr. Pitner was born in Ohio in 1835 and came to LaPorte in 1853 to enter the Bagley shop as an apprentice. He died in 1891, having won an honored name and success in business. A por¬ tion of the Pitner plant was burned by an in¬ cendiary fire in April, 1886. In 1871 William C. Megner, a native of Prussia, began an appren¬ ticeship with Mr. Pitner and June 8, 1887, at his present location, he opened a business for himself and has prospered. He has two sons engaged with him. J. L. Bovd began making light ve¬ hicles in 1864 at the southwest corner of Clay and Walker streets and continued a little more than twenty years. William H. Drew in 1865 established the LaPorte carriage manufactory on the east side of Adams street north of Main, which was maintained bv him more than twentyfive years. The Eagle carriage and wragon works first on Main street and then on Madison opposite Hall's opera house, was founded about 1876 by John F. Craft, a painter, who, during the twentyeight years of his management has had a num¬ ber of blacksmiths and wagonmakers doing busi¬ ness in conjunction with him. Miller & Wild, C. J. Swanson, William H. French, Ira Barber and others have had similar establishments in LaPorte in recent years. The Spring Wagon Company, of which D. B. and D. H. Turnbull are the chief owners, began operations in 1901, using the Turnbull patent spring for heavy wagons as the leading feature of its product. The business is small, but has a hopeful outlook. The largest enterprise the county has had in the manufacture of vehicles is the LaPorte Carriage Company, owned by local and Chicago capital.

At Michigan City the manufacture of wagons and carriages has never been carried on to any considerable extent, the industry being confined to a few small shops run chiefly for repairs. The J. H. Winterbotham concern, employing prison labor, made carriage and buggy bottoms for some years in conjunction with the cooperage business, the late W. B. McCartney, who came to Michi¬ gan City from Columbus, Ohio, in 1871, being in charge of that branch.

Agricultural Implements

When agriculture was first undertaken by white people in LaPorte county the implements used were almost as primitive as those of the ancient Israelites. The flail was in common use, winnowing was done by hand rnd plows were made with wooden moldboards, iron shoes and homemade stocks and beams. The pioneer was to a great extent his own mechanic, shaping the woodwork for his implements and sometimes do¬ ing a little rude blacksmithing on his own ac¬ count. In those days manufacturing was not specialized and centralized ?s it has come to be now and the inventor had not arrived to put the farmer in a shaded seat behind a spanking team of horses for almost every operation in the field and had not given him the steam-driven separator for his threshing. As each community acquired its blacksmith and wagonmaker the farmer found expert help in his implement making and repair¬ ing, and after some years the bulk of the business was taken over by the small factories that began to spring up here and there. First of these in the county was that established in 1840 and for some years conducted by Chester Heald at Door Vil¬ lage, where he had a small foundry and made a few rough and awkward threshing machines. Two years later, early in 1842, Joseph Lomax and Abel Lomax, Jr., commenced the manufacture of winnowing machines at LaPorte and advertised in the newspapers that they would make a new, original and superior machine, small, convenient and durable, differing greatly from the common model of that period; that it would clean grain faster and more perfectly than any other fanning mill then in use, and that they would take mer¬ chantable produce for pay. The Lomax family came to the county about 1836 and located in Pleasant township, the two named coming later to LaPorte. Joseph Lomax was associated with Wilbur F. Storey in the publication of the LaPorte Herald . In 1846 Jacob Early was man¬ ufacturing the fanning mills under a contract with the Lomaxes and some litigation arose be¬ tween them and was carried to the supreme court. The decision of that court is found in 7 Blackford's Indiana Reports, page 599. The business languished because of insufficient capi¬ tal, and in 1852 Ellis Michael, of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, came to LaPorte and took it up, adding such improvements to the machine from time to time that in 1859 it was practically reconstructed, and in March of that year it was introduced to the market as new under the name of the Michael fanning mill. In 1869 P. G. Winn came into the business and the firm of E. Michael & Company was formed. Later, about 1882, Ellis Michael went into the drug business with C. H. Michael and the firm of E. Michael & Company was composed of Edward F. and E. Howard Michael, in whose hands it continued its very satisfactory growth, and a few years later Charles H. Michael acquired an interest and then the sole control, which he still holds. He has greatly enlarged the product of the plant by add¬ ing the manufacture of ladders, stepladders, lawn swings, chairs and settees, and other ar¬ ticles made of wood, and the little enterprise of 1840 is now a concern of extensive proportions, the oldest manufacturing industry in the city. The present proprietor was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, in 1851 and has lived in LaPorte since he was in his infancy. Ellis Michael passed away at his home in LaPorte on Saturday, October 16, 1897.

In 1848 Jacob J. Mann, who was carrying* on a country wagon and blacksmith shop at Westville, and his son Henry F. Mann, who had learned the trade in the shop, invented a harvest¬ ing machine and put several of them in opera¬ tion that season. A patent was issued to them June 19, 1849, and that year they made ten. The harvester was not a practical success and they spent four years in a further study of the subject before they built another. In 1853 they filed a caveat on their improvements and received their second patent June 3, 1856. The machine they turned out in 1853 was exhibited at the state fair held that year at Lafayette and was awarded the first premium in competition with the popular harvesters of the day. In 1855, under the firm name of Jacob J. Mann & Company they built a factory at Westville and dur¬ ing the dozen years following they made and sold about two thousand harvesters, some of them being built by John D. Stewart at LaPorte. The elder Mann died at Westville in 1868 and the business was then dis¬ continued. The son had moved to LaPorte some years prior to that and in 1861 invented a cannonr hereinafter mentioned, the manufacture of which took him to Pittsburg. A few years ago he re¬ moved to Utah, where he now resides.

John B. Fravel manufactured Galling s im¬ proved wheat drill for a short time at LaPorte, about 1848, under a license from the patentee. Under a similar arrangement and at the same place Fowler & Garrison made the Harkness patent hayrakes, about 1849 hut became enmeshed in the law, as a reference to 3 Indiana Supreme Court Reports, page 189, will show. In 1852 Nathan P. Huckins, resident of the county since 1832 and who died in 1875, built a small factory at Door Village and made winnowing machines for several years.

The next date encountered, 1853, is an im¬ portant one in the history of LaPorte, for in that year the mammoth Rumely institution had its in¬ ception in the establishment of a little machine shop on ground still occupied by the concern. Two brothers born at Baden, Germany, Meinrad

Rumely in 1823 and John in 1818, landed in New York, the one in 1848, the other in 1849, having learned about all that the leading mills of Ger¬ many and France could teach them about the manufacture of iron and steel. Meinrad had been in the great works of Markelsheim, France, since his fourteenth year and was an expert of un¬ usual mechanical ability and inventive genius. His ambition guided him to the new world as soon as his contract in France was completed and his elder brother followed him. They first found employment in a machine shop at Massillon, Ohio, where they remained three years, but the desire to own their own shop was strong within them and Meinrad started on a tour of observa¬ tion while John took a new position in a foundry at Piqua, Ohio. In the fall of 1853 they located in LaPorte and opened their place of business under the firm style of M. & J. Rumely, doing all of their work themselves. The two men had skill, industry and enterprise in large measure and the younger was a prolific inventor. It was not long until they had an improved plow on the market, in 1856 they commenced building separators, in 1861 stationary engines were added, then boilers and traction engines, spark arresters, friction clutches, ice elevators, and other machinery and appliances. At the United States Agricultural fair at Chicago in 1859 their engine and separa¬ tor won first premium in a heavy competition, and they have won many similar triumphs since then. The younger man purchased his brother's interest in 1883 and in the next year added a sawmill. In 1887 the business had attained such size and its operations were so widespread, ex¬ tending to all civilized countries, that incorpora¬ tion became necessary and the present organiza¬ tion, named the M. Rumely Company, was ef¬ fected and chartered under the state laws. Each year new buildings have been erected, that for 1903 being a large and handsome machine de¬ partment on Main street and that contemplated for 1904 being a beautiful and commodious office structure at the comer of Main and Madison streets. Meinrad Rumely until almost his last days gave the business his personal attention, but the manufacturing department is in charge of his son William and the office is managed by Joseph, another son, both of whom possess the character¬ istics which have enabled the institution to pass from one success to another until it has become the largest manufacturing industry in the city, employing four hundred men or more. It is the oldest business in the city under the continuous management of its founder. Since the above was written Meinrad Rumely has passed away. His demise occurred on Thursday morning, March 31, at 3:30 o'clock, and caused universal sor¬ row. At his funeral on Tuesday, April 5, the business houses of the city were closed, and the business men of the city, the pastors of the churches, as well as the Rumely employes at¬ tended in a body.

Another of LaPorte's large and old estab¬ lished enterprises is that of the LaPorte Wheel Company, formerly the Niles & Scott Company,, and originally, at its foundation in 1870, Gregory, Turnbull & Griffin. It occupies the original building, now greatly extended, erected for an unsuccessful paper mill in 1867. The output comprises vehicles, agricultural and mechanicaL wheels of many kinds and a large assortment of small wooden parts of machines and implements. From 1870 to 1902 William Niles, the oldest liv¬ ing white person born in LaPorte, was the presi¬ dent of the company and during that time he and Emmet H. Scott, his brother-in-law, had the management and built up a vast business. The company was reorganized in 1876 as the Niles & Scott Company, incorporated in 1881, and again reorganized under the present name in 1902, when Messrs. Niles and Scott withdrew from the business. A line of metal wheels and parts has been added in later years and the plant requires about three hundred operatives.

In February, 1885, for reasons that seemed to involve political and labor questions, the man¬ agement of the Oliver plow works in South Bend: indicated a desire to find a new location and the people of LaPorte became much interested. Meetings were held and negotiations opened, but after a brief period of hope the project fell through and the Olivers continued in business at the old stand.

Furniture, Pianos, Etc

terial was produced for most of the furniture used by the pioneers in home, school and meeting house. Nicholas W. Closser, who settled in Scipio township in 1834 and who has been men¬ tioned in connection with a sawmill enterprise, made the first bedstead and table that were pro¬ duced in that township or as far as is known, in the county, having any attempt at finish or orna¬ ment. In 1880 the late Benjamin T. Bryant had at his home in Clinton county, a bedstead, bureau, bookcase and stand which were made in the first furniture factory started in LaPorte' (date un¬ known) and they were made of lumber cut from .trees that grew on his father's land in New Dur¬ ham township. The earliest cabinet shop in the county of which there is any record was opened at Independence, Wills township, in 1835 by Elias Axe, and the next was that of Arnold Sapp at Bigelow's mills in 1837. Both had disap¬ peared ten years later. William Sheridan, a na¬ tive of Ohio who came to LaPorte in 1833 at the age of 21, located in the new village of Lakeport in Hudson township in 1837 and opened a cabi¬ net shop. He probably worked at the same trade at LaPorte during his residence there and may have been the first furniture maker in the county seat. He died in 1873. Asa Harper, born in North Carolina a few months later than Sheri¬ dan, reached LaPorte also in 183*3 and worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. He soon became interested in Cool Spring and Michigan town¬ ships, removed to that region in 1835, an(I i*1 1836 to Michigan City, where he worked at the same business and as a ship carpenter until 1856, when he settled on a Cool Spring township farm. He died there twenty years ago. Another very early venture of the same character was that of Ingraham Gould at Springville, Springfield township. Mr. Gould located at that place in 1834 and built a tavern, which he kept until 1848. In 1838 he opened a store, selling it the next year, and in 1845 Pl,t UP a turning lathe and for some years did a large business in the manufac¬ ture of bedsteads and other furniture requiring turned work. He was once a candidate for county treasurer but was unsuccessful. About the year 1847 E. B. Stroup opened a chair and cabi¬ net shop and ware room in LaPorte. The editor of the Whig was invited over and, presumably for a consideration, was "surprised and gratified to find such a tasteful and extensive establish¬ ment." He inspected the several departments and was shown "specimens of furniture equal to any either east or west, and prices cheaper," which led him to urge his readers to patronize home industry.

F. W. Meissner, born on the Rhine in 1823, emigrated to America in 1854 and located in La¬ Porte to enter the grocery business. In i860 he organized the firm of F. W. Meissner & Company and commenced the manufacture of bedsteads. Several changes occurred in the membership of the firm and from time to time additional lines were taken on, and gradually a large furniture manufacturing business was built up. In 1868 Robert Buck, J. Camfield and Henry Masch be¬ came partners with Mr. Meissner and greatly extended the business. Washington Wilson, Fred Ahrens and others were at different times connected with the firm, and eventually it was acquired by Mr. Buck and the name changed to the Buck Furniture Company, as it now stands. The factory is one of the city's best enterprises and still occupies the original site of i860. It was burned a few years ago but rebuilt in better form. In the autumn of 1862 a bedstead factory Was started by the firm of Reynolds, Weaver & Smith at Westville. Weaver sold out to his partners in 1865, and in 1869 they disposed of the business to Charles Ruggles, who changed to the manufacture of wood-bottom chairs and continued about eight years. William J. Smith, a North Carolinian who came to LaPorte as a child in 1836 and was a shoemaker in his early manhood, went to Westville in 1868 and from then until 1878 was employed in the chair factory.

In the records of the Old Settler's Association for the first annual meeting, held June 22, 1870, the following entry appears: "After dinner and some pleasant chatting the society was again called to order and a beautiful chair was pre¬ sented to the oldest settler of the county, Levi J. Benedict, Esq., of Westville, in a few chosen remarks by the president, Hon. C. W. Cathcart. The chair was manufactured by the Messrs. Fargher, of the city of LaPorte, and was donated to the society for this purpose. Mr. Benedict then presented the society with a walnut cane, which was made out of the roof-tree of the first house built in New Durham township. The house was erected in March, 1829, by the widow Benedict and Mr. Henly Clyburn. The Messrs. Fargher had not been established long in the manufacturing business. Thomas, the head of the firm, was a Manxman, born in 1843. About 1874 William C. Weir took an interest in the business, and a few years later the productive department was discontinued and the establish¬ ment became exclusively a furniture store owned by Weir Brothers. In 1872 the LaPorte Chair Company was formed for the purpose of making caneseat chairs. In the following year Washing¬ ton Wilson became its president and R. S. Morri¬ son secretary, a large brick building was erected at Washington street and Indiana avenue, and the business was given an impetus that carried it well through the Centennial year. Air. Morri¬ son was cashier of the First National Bank at that time and Mr. Wilson was at the head of Wil¬ son & Fraser, owning the lumber yard established in 1856, and of W. Wilson & Company (Mr. Morrison being the company) operating the pio¬ neer coal business in the city. These and other in¬ terests grew more rapidly than the chair factory and were more promising, so about 1880 that enterprise was discontinued. About 1876 two cabinet shops were set up on Fifth street, that of Isaac Yettermann near the corner of D and that of P. Ernmay at G, but they lasted only four or five years. The pioneer mattress factory of the county appears to have been established at Door Village in 1864 by a very indefinite "Mr. Smith.'' Within a few years past an enterprise called the Quisisana, turning out fine art furni¬ ture made on orders and after special designs, has grown from a very small beginning to such respectable proportions as to warrant the erection of a building in 1904 to cost $20,000, which build¬ ing at this writing is far in the course of con¬ struction.

The Rustic Hickory Furniture Company is well worthy of mention in this connection. It is an incorporated stock company with J. C. Travis president, Warren W. Travis secretary, and Edward Hamley treasurer. It manufactures rustic hickory chairs, tables, etc., for lawns porches and outdoor wear. Its goods are made of "econd growth hickory and put together in the wrongest manner possible ; it is next to im¬ possible to knock them to pieces with an ax; they are often thrown a great distance by the manufacturers or their agents to test their durabil¬ ity. The stock comes from the southern part of the state. The company began business in July, 1902, in the Banks and Hilt stock barn which was made into a factory for their use. They shipped large orders away and had two-thirds of their stock made up into goods when they burned out, the fire occurring on April 18, 1903. Before fall they began rebuilding on State street near the Pere Marquette railroad station, on a more ex¬ tensive and convenient scale. The new factory is 50x200 feet, besides engine room and dry kiln, and was completed ready for occupancy in October, 1903. The company went immediately to work and has been very busy ever since. They thought they had stock enough for a year, but .their orders were so large that they made it into^ goods in a comparatively short time. Their goods go mostly to the east, but they have shipped goods as far north as Winnepeg, and as far west as California. They employ twenty-five men.

George F. .smith of Michigan City invented and perfected the Alaska refrigerator, and in October, 1877, the Smith Refrigerator and Manu¬ facturing Company was formed to put it on the market in large quantities. R. G. Peters of Manistee, Michigan, was the president, Charles Hurd secretary and treasurer, and Smith vice president and superintendent. In 1880 the con¬ cern occupied four large buildings and employed eighty-five hands. In 1882 a reorganization of the company was had, with George W. Bullis of Ann Arbor, Michigan, president, Charles Hurd secretary and Uriah Culbert vice president and superintendent. After a few more years the business was wound up. Ford, Johnson & Com¬ pany (J. S. Ford, H. W. Johnson and R. A. Hitchcock), the Hitchcock Chair Company (in¬ corporated in 1881, J. S. Ford, R. A. Hitchcock, C. H. Purdy and H. W. Johnson), both prison labor contractors, and J. P>. Thompson & Com¬ pany (Joseph B. Thompson, William B. Hutch¬ inson and William M. Cochrane) have been ex¬ tensive producers of chairs at Michigan City dur¬ ing the past quarter of a century.

The LaPorte Herald , April 19, 1862, con¬ tained the following item : "We have seen a musi¬ cal novelty at the melodeon factory of Mr. Nichols in this city containing rare qualities. Mr.

N. has just completed an invention which will add well earned laurels to his reputation as a manufacturer, already as extensive as any man need desire. It is put up in a compact and neatly arranged case and affords greater extremes of power and qualifications than we ever heard be¬ fore in an instrument made with reeds.,, The factory alluded to was of short duration and of limited size, and is mentioned only by way of introduction to the account of LaPorte's latest manufacturing enterprise, the great piano works of the Hobart M. Cable Company. This indus¬ try was obtained in the latter part of 1903 by means of inducements extended through the La- Porte Land Company, formed for the purpose and handsomely backed by the business men and property owners of the city, and its plant was constructed during that winter and the following spring on land donated for its use. The com¬ pany had been manufacturing the Hobart M. Cable pianos at 494-510 Clybourn avenue, Chi¬ cago, and the Burdette organs at Freeport, Illinois, and had its offices and sales rooms at Steinway Hall, Chicago. A rapidly growing trade compelled the company to enlarge its Chi¬ cago plant or relocate it at some other point, and the latter alternative was decided upon, LaPorte being selected in competition with several other cities. The new factory opened May 1, 1904, with 350 employees, and it is intended to increase this number by fifty per cent, as the works come into full operation. The officers of the company are Hobart M. Cable, Sr., president; Hobart M. Cable, Jr., vice president; Howard B. Morenus, secretary and treasurer ; John L. Smith, mechani¬ cal superintendent of piano factory ; S. N. Swan, mechanical superintendent of organ factory. These gentlemen constitute the board of directors. The plant is one of the most complete of its kind in the world and has a capacity of forty finished instruments daily, as against fifteen at the abandoned Chicago works.

LTnder the heading of this section it is appro¬ priate to mention another recently acquired in¬ dustry in LaPorte, that of the Planett Manufac¬ turing Company, the largest exclusive picture frame and moulding factory in the United States. This plant was transferred from its previous location in Chicago early in 1903 as the result of negotiations with the LaPorte Land and Improve¬ ment Company whereby certain inducements were offered and accepted. Charles F. Planett is at the head of the concern and under his manage¬ ment, he being an expert operative in every branch of the work, it has grown from a one-man shop to a factory requiring ,1 50 hands. The re¬ moval to LaPorte was due to the fact that the business had outgrown its Chicago quarters. The output of this factory consists of every kind of finished moulding for frames and similar uses; in its operation lumber is consumed by the mil¬ lion feet, and the world is the market.

The Planett factory tends to draw to La¬ Porte other companies which take the mouldings of the Planett factory and work them up ir.tc picture frames. Already two have come - the La¬ Porte Picture Frame Company, and the Mott Brothers. Each of these concerns employs a large number of hands, and several salesmen, and ships away stacks of picture frames.

Planing Mills And Shingles

The first sash made in LaPorte county were the product of John Garwood's handiwork. He came from Warren county, Ohio, in 1831, and for some time made the rude little one-light sash for the log schoolhouses in the community. It was not until railroads were well in operation that machinery was introduced into the county for making sash, doors, blinds, and other products of the planing mill. The early history of the busi¬ ness is not clearly traceable, but one of the earliest ventures in the line was undertaken about i860 by Dille & Johnson at Westville. John Dille worked as a young man in a planing mill at Valparaiso. Together with Johnson he bought the machinery and transferred it to Westville, where it continued in operation nearly thirty years. The dressed and finished lumber, turned ox yokes, whiffletrees, cradles, etc., and drove a very successful business. William W. Clark was in possession in 1884.

Michigan City has for many years been pre¬ eminent among Hoosier cities in the production and distribution of planing mill commodities, lath, shingles, and the like products of the forest Without pausing to record dates and particulars there may be mentioned such firms as Deming, Woods & Company (succeeded by Smith, Wells

& Company), Cobum, Jones & Company, J. S. Hopper & Son, Scott, Hauser & Company, Sny¬ der & Berryhill, among the pioneers, and the A. R. Colbom Company, now in operation. This large planing mill was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1903, but was immediately rebuilt. La- Porte lias had but one establishment of tnis kind that attained to any importance, that founded by the late August Backhaus, who died in 1903. Mr. Backhaus was a native of Germany. He made his home in LaPorte at an early day and at the time of his death was president of the La¬ Porte Sash and Blind Company, successor to the firm of A. Backhaus & Company, and also of the J Street Milling Company. L. Schumm was asso¬ ciated with him for a long time. The Loomis Manufacturing Company was in the business at LaPorte for a few years between 1874 and 1882.

Iron Furnaces, Foundries And Machine Shops

Indiana's first great geologist, David Dale Owen, called the public attention to the existence in nearly all regions of the state of extensive fields of bog iron ore and predicted that it would be¬ come a great source of wealth. In 1837 he was gratified to say in his report as state geologist that a company had been formed to erect a furn¬ ace at the Eel river falls, and within the ten years ensuing the matter was taken up with consider¬ able enthusiasm and much capital was invested in the business in more than half the counties in the state. The Indiana Gazetteer for 1849 spoke of the inexhaustible beds of such ore and sug¬ gested that when labor for agricultural purposes should cease to be in demand it would be em¬ ployed in manufactures. As late as 1873 State Geologist E. T. Cox thought the much-abused Kankakee marshes would be brought into more favorable notice through its iron ore when some plan should be devised for converting the marsh plat into fuel. Packard left the inference and Chapman said that no considerable attempt had been made in that direction in this county. Such an enterprise was inaugurated, however, and large hopes were indulged that it would rival the similar venture that met with much success dur¬ ing some years at Mishawaka and at Sligo (the latter being where Charles Crocker, the Cali¬ fornia railroad magnate, founded his fortune, in

Marshall county). August 21, 1847, the La¬ Porte Whig announced that a blast furnace would within a year be erected in LaPorte, to be run by steam and to employ a large number of hands. Three months later C. W. Pomeroy ad¬ vertised in the same paper that laborers and 250,- 000 bushels of charcoal were wanted for the new blast furnace, and the paper, with manifest ela¬ tion, called editorial attention to the announce¬ ment. February 19, 1848, the editor of the Whig described a visit he had made to the furnace and told of the great stores of ore that had been found, large quantities of which had already been hauled to the ground, with much stone and other material. The plant being com¬ pleted, machinery installed and heaps of ore ac¬ cumulated, the proprietor of the establishment, C. W. Pomeroy, set the works in motion, July 4, 1848, amid very general rejoicing. In the fol¬ lowing March Mr. Pomeroy lacking capital to pursue the business properly, the LaPorte Iron Manufacturing Company was incorporated, stock subscriptions were opened and the Whig urged the people to invest liberally, pointing out the abundance of ore and the cheapness of coal. But the business languished and in a few years died as did all the other like enterprises in the state when the railroads made better iron more cheaply accessible, and the furnace building was converted into a machine shop, which burned as described elsewhere. The Clear lake mills of King & Fildes now occupy the site. E. M. Bryson, whose sawmill in New Durham township has been men¬ tioned, came to LaPorte in 1856 and worked in that shop until he entered the army in 1861. In the following decade William and N. Wandel had a foundry near the wheel works for a few years, and J. N. Brooks opened a machine shop at the corner of Indiana avenue and Washington street. A little later this shop was moved to Clay and Washington, and William M. Chap¬ man became a partner, the firm style being J. N. Brooks & Company, while Edgar B. Brooks, who had been a workman in the original shop, opened for himself at Monroe and Washington. Sey¬ mour's foundry (Ira and Grant, as I. Semour & Son), Washington street, near Indiana avenue, was in operation at about the same time and made chilled plows. John W. Ridgway's foundry was burned in 1875 and rebuilt. The first foundry and machine shop in the county was opened at Door Village in 1840 by Chester Heald, who also made threshing machines. Thomas C. Reynolds was a watchmaker and machinist at Westville later and made a self-propeller attach¬ ment for steam engines. In 1864 Charles W. Carter had a shop at Westville.

Under this head should be mentioned the Automobile Company, for the manufacture and repair of automobiles, and the General Chande¬ lier Company, both of which are recent institu¬ tions ; but one of them, the automobile company, is already doing considerable work.

Each of the two cities in LaPorte county has enjoyed the benefits of railroad repair shops and factories for building cars. Michigan City now has both while LaPorte has neither. In 1853, on the completion of the railroad now called the Lake Shore, repair and machine shops were lo¬ cated in LaPorte by the company and a large round house was established. This industry con¬ tributed very materially to the growth and pros¬ perity of the town and its removal to Elkhart in 1870 was the severest blow to business that the county seat ever suffered. Years were re¬ quired to repair the damage occasioned by this loss, now happily overcome and forgotten. Among the efforts put forth to supply the place of the departed shops was the formation in 1872 of the LaPorte Car Manufacturing Company, with B. B. Arnold as president, Lafayette Crane secretary and D. B. Howe superintendent, to oc¬ cupy the buildings vacated by the railroad shops. Mr. Arnold was proprietor of the eating house at the railroad depot, Mr. Crane was, and is yet, a dealer in hardware, and Mr. Howe was brought to LaPorte to devote his entire attention to the factory. Mr. Arnold died in 1876 and the busi¬ ness was soon after wound up.

* The Michigan Central repair shops at Michi¬ gan City were established at about the same time as those at LaPorte and are still maintained, in¬ creased in capacity. They are favorably re¬ ferred to in the report of State Geologist Cox for 1873, at page 470.

Company at Michigan City, founded in 1853 by Mason G. Sherman, M. D. Dr. Sherman was born in Barre, Vermont, January 15, 1805, and twenty-one years later located in St. Lawrence county, New York. Three years he spent in South America, then, in 1832, went to New York and studied medicine, practicing there after grad¬ uation until 1844, when he went to Canada, then to California, and in 1852, back to New York, at Ogdensburg. In 1853 he came to this state and contracted with the New Albany & Salem Rail¬ road to furnish it with cars. For this purpose he induced Messrs. Haskell and Aldridge, Ogdens¬ burg gentlemen, to join him and they built a factory at Michigan City, doing business as Sher¬ man, Haskell & Company. In 1855 Dr. Sherman sold his interest, one-third, to John Barker and resumed the practice of his profession, remaining at Michigan City. He defeated John H. Bradley for the legislature and served two terms, became an army surgeon during the war, was afterward defeated for the state senate by John H. Winterbotham, and died in 1881 while still in the prac¬ tice. His wife was killed by a skyrocket July 4, 1858. John Barker settled in Michigan City in 1833, the year its first buildings were erected, and engaged in merchandising in the firm of Carter & Barker. In 1842 he married Miss Cor¬ delia E. Collamer of Sandy Hill, New York, whom he had met while she was visiting her brother, Danvers G. Collamer, then cashier of the bank at Michigan City, and in 1844 their son John H. Barker was born. The father engaged in several successful enterprises and was one of the foremost business men of the town when he bought Dr. Sherman's interest in the car factory in 1855, an(t the firm became Haskell, Barker & Aldridge, later Haskell & Barker. John H. Barker, when of sufficient age, took a clerkship in a wholesale shipping house in Chicago, then en¬ gaged in mercantile pursuits in Springfield, Illinois, three years, after which he returned to Chicago and entered the wholesale grocery trade. In 1868 he came back to the city of his birth and was in the grocery business until 1877, when John Barker died and was buried in Greenwood cemetery in a beautiful spot where Mrs. Barker reposes bv his side. By that death John H. Barker was brought into the car factory and the business was reorganized, having been incorpo- rated as the Haskell & Barker Car Company in 1871. John H. Barker became the president and general manager, Nathaniel P. Rogers secretary and John W. Ogden treasurer. The Barkers, father and son, have contributed liberally of their time and means to the welfare of Michigan City in every wray that has been opened to them* especially through the churches and charities of the city. The magnificent hospital now nearing completion at Michigan City was made possible bv the public-spirited beneficence of John H. Barker. The car works experienced a healthy and prosperous growth from the outset and pro¬ vides the means of support for a very large pro¬ portion of the city's population. During the war it built cars for the government and employed at times as many as 400 men. By 1876 the regular* payroll contained more than 600 names and by 1880 the annual business was in excess of a million dollars. The splendid supply of hard¬ wood timber in the immediate vicinity, the facilities for transportation by rail and water, the close proximity to Chicago, and other considera¬ tions made the location peculiarly advantageous. The company has always kept even pace with the progress of improvement in its line of work and is now preparing to install a new plant for the manufacture of steel cars on an extensive scale, which additional department amounts to the in¬ troduction of a new industry to the city and will require several hundred additional operatives.

Woolen Fabrics And Knit Goods

The first weaver's loom in LaPorte county was made in 1834 by N. W. Closser at Door Village and his wife did the first weaving. Some years later the old Vail mill in section 36, Union township, was converted into a woolen mill and it was operated as such for a time with indifferent success and discontinued. Perhaps two or three other slight efforts were put forth in the same direction about that time, but the facts are not clearly ascertainable and it is certain that the in¬ dustry was not represented in the county in 1848. April 22 of that year the editor of the LaPorte Whig expressed surprise that some one had not undertaken the manufacture of woolen goods at the county seat and suggested the banks of Clear lake as an ideal spot for such a venture, water transportation, local demands and the proximity of many flocks of sheep being considered. The subject was mentioned several times in subse¬ quent issues of the Whig and Mishawaka's woolen factory then in operation was mentioned. The editor's wish remained ungratified until the close of the rebellion, when two woolen factories were established in LaPorte and are still in active and successful operation. John Fildes, Sr., a native of England, came to LaPorte in 1864 from Pennsylvania and purchased the old Pomeroy furnace property, above mentioned, which he transformed into a woolen mill. In the follow¬ ing year Frederick C. King, a brother of Polaski King, purchased an interest and the firm of Fildes & King was formed with sufficient capital to enlarge and improve the mill and extend the business. The establishment was called the Clear Lake Woolen mills. Mr. King was a New York man by birth and was a merchant at LaGrange, Indiana, when he embarked in the enterprise named and removed to LaPorte. John Fildes, Jr., bought his father's interest in the business in 1871, and the firm continued under the same style, subsequently reversing the names. The younger Fildes was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1837, and came to LaPorte with his parents in 1864 to assist in the business from its inception. The establishment is now owned by a corporation and is managed by Edgar D. Barrows, whose first connection with it was as bookkeeper more than twenty years ago.

At about the close of the war Samuel and Leo Fox located in LaPorte and inaugurated the busi¬ ness, now known as the LaPorte Woolens mills, under the name of Fox Brothers. Samuel suc¬ ceeded to the business at Leo's death and con¬ ducted it successfully until he died in 1901, wrhen it was reorganized under the name of Samuel Fox's Sons, with the widow and three sons as owners. The young men gave the concern an impetus that has doubled its business and com¬ pelled a large accession to the plant under their management. It is one of the most prosperous industries in the city.

It is apparent, upon a review of the industrial history of LaPorte county, that manufacturing has from the first been an important and increas¬ ing factor in the county's growth and prosperity. The prolific products of a rich farming country formed the basis of one group of enterprises be¬ ginning with gristmills and including foodstuffs, whiskey, leather, woolen fabrics, etc. ; the great ranges of hardwood timber gave rise to another group, comprising all the extensive wood indus¬ tries; the multiplicity of available waterpowers iumished by nearly a dozen streams and branches in the several townships invited the establishment -of plants in the first instance, and the develop¬ ment of rail and lake transportation has con¬ tributed to their growth and brought others. Of disappointments and failures there have been few in proportion to the whole number of ventures Gradually the cities of LaPorte and ^Michigan City have become the manufacturing centers of the county, and the progressive people at both places are wide awake to the opportunities afforded by a central location and excellent trans¬ portation, combined with all the elements that constitute desirability for residence. The county has enjoyed immunity from labor troubles, prob¬ ably for the reason that its workingmen are of superior average intelligence, comfortably situ¬ ated, fed and clothed, and largely own their own homes and have fixed local interests. During the of 1903 a storm cloud arose above the Haskell & Barker car works at Michigan City and trouble among the employees was threatened, but the management met the situation boldly and the operatives kept cool heads, with the result that the difficulties soon subsided. That factory employs about 2,200 men and its payroll aggre¬ gates about $100,000 monthly, from which it is seen that its relations with the men are of great local concern. The liberality of John H. Barker, the controlling officer, in his treatment of the men, his loyalty to their interests and to the city at large, and his never failing impluse to do the best thing for the largest number have always been marked and in the crisis referred to served to suppress the efforts to produce discontent in the shops.

This section of our history may be appro¬ priately closed with some industrial statistics of the United States census for 1900 pertaining to LaPorte county.

Table

The following details extracted from the latest report of the State Bureau of Factory In¬ spection exhibit the industriest of LaPorte at the close of 1902, with the number of employees in each: Robert Buck & Son, furniture, 36; Great Western Manufacturing Company, bicycles, 77; Guenther Brothers, brewery, 6; H. J. Heinz Com¬ pany, pickles, 45 ; King & Fildes Company, woolens, 140; LaPorte Carriage Company, car¬ riages and buggies, 220; LaPorte Sash & Door Company, 25; LaPorte Woolen Mills (Samuel Fox's Sons), 60; John Lonn Sons Company, harness, 40; Lorig & Weber, flour mill, 6; C. H. Michael, fanning mills, lawn swings, etc., 18; Niles & Scott Company, wheels, 100; Quisisana, art furniture, 21 ; Reliance Manfacturing Com¬ pany, pants, 90; M. Rumelv Company, threshers and engines, 218: Spring Wagon Company, wagons, 10. Michigan City had the following: A. R. Colborn & Company, planing mill. 20 : C. L. Fethke & Sons, cigars, 20; J. S. Ford, John¬ son & Company, chairs, 590; Greer- Wilkinson Lumber Company, planing mill, 72 ; Haskell & Barker Car Company, 2,000 ; Henry Lumber Company, planing mill, 50; Lakeside Knitting Company, wool gloves and mittens, 305 ; Michi¬ gan Central railroad shops, locomotive repairs. 46: Ohlemacher Brick Company, sand brick, 25: Reliance Manfacturing Company, shirts, 265; Root Manfacturing Company, planing mill, 75: Tecumseh Facing Mills, gloves and mittens, 240: W estern Caneseating Company, cane seats. 170;

J. H. Winterbotham & Son, cooperage, ioo ; Ph. quoted above, are the Studebaker wagon works Zorn Brewing Company, 14. at South Bend, with 2,250 hands, Standard Oil

It is worthy of note that the three largest works, Whiting, 2,025, ar*d Haskell & Barker factories of the state, as shown by the report Car works, Michigan City, 2,000.