Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 15: Manufacturing Enterprises at Cannelton, 1916

At the time the town plat of Cannelton was raised and re-surveyed with additions, Thomas Brashear, John Briggs, James Hay and Thomas Hay were the only resident lot-owners aside from the American Cannel Coal Company, whose officers were Stephen Fairbanks, President; Henry Loring, Secretary; Andrew T. Hall, Treasurer; Jacob Beckwith, James Boyd and Hamilton Smith, Directors. Jacob Beckwith owned 726 shares of stock; Francis Y. Carlile, 250; Fairbanks, Loring and Company, 72 ; Perley W. Chamberlain, 36; Stephen Fairbanks, 30; Hamilton Smith, 12; Andrew T. Hall, 10; besides an otherwise varied distribution of the remainder.

The general offices, which had previously been in Boston, were moved during 1846 to Louisville, where for many years afterward the director's meetings were held. Through the activity of James Boyd who, as lessee, had assumed control of operations in 1843, the annual production of coal had increased from a few thousand to almost a half million bushels; all of the soft, bituminous variety, semi-coking with a sulphurous parting. Practically no cannel coal was ever found in any paying quantity, though the original belief in its existence had furnished a name (Lucus a non lucendo) to the promoting company and to the city itself.

Such extensive fuel shipments, besides those of lumber and other products in large quantities, brought Cannelton prominently before the notice of capitalists seeking investments, so men of large means in the East, as well as in the important river cities of the Middle West and South became interested in this locality. By the Indiana Legislature of 1847 twelve charters were granted for manufacturing companies designed to carry on business at or near Cannelton.

As illustrating the class of men embarking upon these enterprises, several of the projected undertakings, with their incorporators, shall be mentioned, although only one was carried to success, - the present Indiana Cotton Mills, founded under the name Cannelton Cotton Mills. Of the original Indiana Cotton Mills the incorporators were John Helm, (Governor of Kentucky, 1850-1851,) Charles A. Lewis, George W. Meriwether, Thomas N. Lindsey and William F. Pettet, all Louisville men except the first, whose home Was the ancestral "Helm Place" in Hardin County, near Eiizabethtown.

Louisville also provided incorporators for the Taylor Cotton Mills in Angereau Gray, Edward H. Hobbs, Ira Smith, John S. Allison, David Hunt and John McLean, Jr., besides Zachary Taylor (President of the United States, 1849-1850,) Joseph P. Taylor and William Taylor. The Taylors were allied by blood to the Hawes family, pioneer settlers of Hancock County, Kentucky, for whom its county seat was named Hawesville, hence had personal ties with the vicinity of Cannelton, but their factory was a structure on paper only, though Taylor Street in the town serves as a reminder of ''Old Rough and Ready's" heroism in the Mexican War, having then been named.

The Ward Cotton Mills represented Ward, Ward, Johnson and Jones, of Louisville. Robert J, Ward, one of the wealthiest men in Kentucky and one whose name a fine steamboat bore, is still remembered best as the father of the renowned beauty, 'Sallie Ward.' Her career of social triumph was a national topic, lasting through four marriages and half a century of fame whose echoes yet linger wherever tales of fashion are told.

Ward mills, went no further than articles of incorporation, although some year later Anderson established in Meade County, Kentucky, near Grahamton, a cotton mill which was long operated by the water power of Doe Run. The Cannelton Glass Manufacturing Company had at its head Stephen M. Allen, of Boston, with Frederick Boyd, of Cannelton, and George A. Lewis. Griswold, Weisiger and Hanna, of Louisville, incorporated the Cannelton Paper Mill; and the Cannelton Foundry represented Beckwith, Beatty and Beatty.

Few, if any, industrial projects of the late 'forties could claim men of higher distinction than the incorporators of the Cannelton Cotton Mills. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1864-1873; Charles T. James, of Rhode Island, United States Senator, 1852-1858; Elisha M. Huntington, Judge of Indiana District Federal Court, 1848-1862 ; Randall Crawford, of New Albany ; James Boyd, of Cannelton ; John N. Breden, Jacob Beckwith, Perley W. Chamberlain, James Low, Thomas M. Smith and Hamilton Smith. Of these the last two were brothers, born in New Hampshire of old Colonial stock, who had come to Louisville some years earlier, and to Hamilton Smith is due all praise as a foster-father to the young community which Francis Y. Carlile had established.

Full organization of the Cannelton Cotton Mill Company was effected September 22, 1848, though its name soon became the Indiana Cotton Mills, and the following officers were then chosen: William Richardson, President; Alfred Thruston, Treasurer; Hamilton Smith, Secretary; William F. Pettet, Thomas C. Coleman, James C. Ford, Lewis Ruffner, C. W. Short, Oliver J. Morgan, Perley Chamberlain and William McLean, Directors.

The number of stockholders had been augmented by forty or more, so that all the names will not be given here, but among the more prominent of those who held shares were the distinguished brothers, Robert Dale

Owen and Richard Dale Owen, of New Harmony ; the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, founder (1857) of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, and later a Confederate General; Maunsel White, of Louisiana, grandfather of Chief Justice Edward D. White, of the United States Supreme Court from 1910 to the present; Henry Bry, also of Louisiana; James E. Breed, John S. Morris, Eusebius Hutchings, John B. Smith, Willis Ranney, S. H. Long, R. G. Courtney, John M. Robinson and Brother; Robinson, Peter and Carey ; all of Louisville, where the control of the stock came ere long to be held.

Such concentration of capital and influence seemed to forecast the inevitable further development of Cannelton's peculiar advantages for manufacturing. Within easy access were bountifully deposited nature's valuable gifts - coal for motive power; iron for all its various uses ; clay for pottery and brick ; sandstone for building; timber for the construction of boats to ply the majestic river. Encouraged by these generous resources some of the most sanguine optimists even went so far as to predict that the Cannelton Cotton Mill would prove the first movement on a large scale eventually resulting in the transfer of the seat of cotton manufacturing from New England, no less than from the Mother Country, to the inexpensive power and lowpriced food of Southern Indiana. A Utopian vision !

The early spring of 1849 found, nevertheless, Cannelton in a period of amazing activity, everyone busy, newcomers arriving daily, to engage in every variety of occupation. Among these was naturally a journalist, to lend the aid of printer's ink in giving publicity to such a promising settlement as the young community. Charles Holland Mason, of New Hampshire, who had been in Louisville for a year or so, following his graduation from law school, came to Cannelton through the influence of Hamilton Smith, and at once decided to begin a journalistic career.

initial number of Perry County's first regular newspaper, The Cannelton Economist, whose prospectus described it as "A weekly journal devoted to the establishment of manufactures in the South and West, to agriculture and the cause of labour." For tv/o-and-ahalf years, or until November 15, 1851, when its ownership changed hands, the paper was characterized by its zeal for home institutions, the strong, dignified tone of its editorials, and the exceptional standard of its literary selections.

General Charles T. James, of Providence, Rhode Island, one of the Eastern stockholders, who had already built and equipped several successful mills, was placed at the head of the construction of the Cannelton Cotton Mills, as general manager and supervising architect. The active architect and contractor was Alexander McGregor, another Rhode Island man, residing in the twin capital of Newport, where he was a civil engineer on the Government work at Fort Adams. Higher testimony to their professional skill could not be paid than the edifice itself, an imposing model of rare grace and symmetry, which has often been pronounced the handsomest factory building in the state if not in the Union.

That beauty, no less than substantial utility, was sought by its designers is indicated by the pair of lofty towers which overtop by many feet the five-story building in whose western fagade they are the central feature, dominating the long front with its two-story wings. In the northern tower a ponderous bell of cathedral-like tone was ensconced before its walls were complete, and served as a summons to the operatives until 1914, when - worn thin in places where its iron tongue had struck for three-score years - it had to give place to a modern steel bell, which still signals the same hours from cock-crow to curfew as its predecessor so long announced. A broad flight of stone steps leads from the ground to the main entrance between the towers, and the wide doorway is crossed by a stone lintel on which is carved "Erected 1849." This was elevated to its place by Architect McGregor on Friday, September 7, 1849, the thirty-fifth anniversary of Perry County's organization. The premises lying between Washington, Adams, Front and Fourth Streets, were a donation from the Coal Company, and the original plan called for the erection of tenements to face either side of an esplanade running from the principal entrance westward to the river, but the idea was abandoned after planting two rows of trees down the centre. A tramway was built from the mill grounds to the quarry in the hill east of town where at least two hundred men were employed ^ as stone-cutters. Practically as many more were occupied in the work of excavating for the foundations, and other operations upon the immediate site.

With so much in progress along such varied lines, it was difficult to ascertain in advance the precise day when the first stone of the mill would be laid, and the event could not be announced in time to make it a formal occasion. Although the people and the labourers themselves knew not until almost the very hour that the deep foundations of their factory were to be commenced on Monday, May 21, 1849, yet when the first massive block of sandstone was turned down into its permanent resting-place, quite a concourse of attentive spectators had assembled to witness the notable scene.

In behalf of the stockholders James Boyd made a few impromptu remarks assuring their cordial cooperation in the upbuilding of "this hitherto quiet, unobtrusive settlement that has begun, of late, to attract some public notice." Alexander McGregor spoke, as the architect, in response, urging that no 'penny-wise and pound-foolish' notions should enter into the conduct of affairs, but that a fair and judicious use should be made of all means and opportunities.

Boston not long before as pastor of the Unitarian Church, and whose eloquent address included the remark : "When we consider the many local advantages which the erection of a cotton factory at this place enjoys; its immediate neighbourhood to a splendid sandstone quarry that can turn out at small cost an article that would decorate a palace ; also a rich and extensive coal-mine, both approachable within a few rods ; when we consider the abundant supply of water, the magnificent scenery and salubrious climate, and especially the locality on the very banks of the great and beautiful Ohio, with every facility for transporting merchandise to the remotest corners of the world, who can doubt the speedy triumph of such a project and the ultimate realization of the most sanguine expectations of Cannelton's warmest friends."

"In conclusion," said he, "let me announce that the first stone of the Cannelton Cotton Mill is now laid, in the name of God, in due and ancient form, hoping that His All-Seeing Eye, that looketh with complacency on all laudable undertakings, will guide and govern our steps, preserving us all in health and strength during the erection of this edifice."

By December the building was under roof and in the following April the first shipment of machinery, two hundred and fifty tons in weight, arrived from Taunton, Massachusetts, on the steamers Empire and Magnolia. Under contract of two years' engagement, experienced operatives from Eastern factories were brought in the autumn of 1850, and on December 18 the steamer California, (commanded by Dwight Newcomb,) unloaded the first shipment of cotton ever consigned to Cannelton, 129 bales.

During this month some carding was begun, and George Beebe wove the first cloth on January 7, 1851, when thirty looms were started and about seventy hands were given work, the number being increased from day to day until spring found 108 cards, 372 looms and 10,800 spindles in use, operated by 300 em-

Ziba H. Cook, of Ballston Spa, New York, was the first resident general manager of the mill, arriving October 26, 1850, and taking up quarters in the large seventy-room hotel erected by the Coal Company and just opened to the public under the name Perry Hotel. It was conducted by Captain Edward Ayers, who resigned command of the Louisville and Henderson packet Madison Belle to become keeper of the new inn.

The building occupied the corner of Front and Adams Streets, and a portion of it yet stands, as the offices and mould-rooms of the Cannelton Sewer-Pipe Company, into whose possession the entire square passed in 1908. Several changes of proprietorship occurred before its disuse as an hotel, but it was never a successful venture, and it was partially remodelled for residence purposes by Hamilton Smith, president of the Coal Company, who made it his home for some twenty years. His eldest daughter, Martha Hall Smith, was there married to Alfred Hennen, Jr., of New Orleans, and they also maintained for several years a separate establishment in the big old house prior to their moving across the river to "Fern Cliff," a Kentucky estate formerly owned by Frederick W. Dohrmann, of Cincinnati.

During 1850-51 the cotton mill company erected a superintendent's residence from designs furnished by Ziba H. Cook, who then brought his family from the East. Its longest tenant, however, was his successor, Ebenezer Wilber, who resided there almost forty years, or until his death in 1892, his widow (Margaret Jackson) and family continuing to make it their home for some ten or twelve years longer.

After a period of vacancy and neglect, it was given a thorough renovation by the mill people in 1912, to become again a home for their general manager, Lee Rodman, and his wife, (Margherita Welling) and in its prominent situation at the comer of Washington

The Cannelton Cotton Mills, whose name was soon changed to the Indiana Cotton Mills, commenced operations with complete mechanical success, but entire financial disappointment so far as the stockholders were concerned. The directors had promised them a dividend of ten per cent, the first year, but instead of this more money was required.

Horatio Dalton Newcomb, of Louisville, treasurer of the company, advanced $30,000 of his own means in 1852, and the following year leased the plant at an annual rental of $10,000, coming out with a personal profit of double that amount, over and above all expense. At the end of a third year he bought the property outright, for a debt of over $200,000 against it, and the stock - or a controlling interest therein - was owned for the next thirty years by members of the Newcomb family.

It came to be realized that more direct personal supervision of resident interested parties was the only means of economical commercial operations, and this brought into Cannelton in the early 'fifties three men of marked executive ability, whose influence upon the community's life and growth was felt in many different v>7ays during their generation.

Dwight Newcomb, a brother of Horatio D. Newcomb, came to Perry County in September, 1851, to look after his brother's interests in the cotton-mill, with no idea of permanent residence, but remained a citizen until his death in 1893. These brothers belonged to a family of twelve children, born in Franklin County, Massachusetts, to Dalton Newcomb and his wife, Harriet Wells, both natives of the Bay State and living in moderate circumstances. Their education Was received in the common schools, and about 1840 the two brothers came to 'the South,' as Louisville was regarded, where their Yankee shrewdness laid the foundation of the wealth subsequently attained.

Dwight Newcomb clerked for five years in his elder brother's grocery, then engaged in steamboating for another five years, building in 1849 his own boat, the California, whose command gave him the title of Captain for the rest of his life. He was for a time president of the Indiana Cotton Mills, and in 1855 leased the American Cannel Coal Company's mines, under the firm name, D. Newcomb and Company, the other partners being H. D. Nevv^comb and James C. Ford. The investment of $42,000 proved extremely profitable, a total dividend of $400,000 eventually remaining after repayment of the original capital.

Captain Newcomb never married, but always lived in bachelor ease, taking a vacation of two or three months each year, and after retiring from active business indulged a fondness for wide travel in Europe and America. His first home in Cannelton was a stone residence on the river front (now included as part of the Sunlight Hotel) built according to his own designs, with massive oaken finish and furniture, which its name of "Oak Hall" indicated. This, however, he grew tired of and abandoned for a number of years. In 1882 he bought the conspicuous brick dwelling adjoining St. Luke's Episcopal Church, built in 1868 by Judge Charles H. Mason, and lived there until his death, July 4, 1893. His heirs sold the residence and its furnishings to various parties, and the nickname of "Newcomb Place," given it by later occupants, remains the only memento of the Captain himself.

Ebenezer Wilber was born, 1814, the year of Perry County's organization, but far away from its confines, - in Rensselaer County, New York, and was one of the four children of Samuel and Amy (Cook) Wilber, his mother belonging to a Rhode Island family of extensive Colonial connections. His education was received in his home of Schaghticoke, with one year's training at Lansingburg Academy.

the first superintendent of the Indiana Cotton Mills, and through him came to Cannelton in 1850. He first undertook a course of practical experience in textile manufacturing in a New York factory as a preparation for the position which he came West to fill, and the uniform success of his long management of the Cannelton plant proved the thoroughness of his training, down to the minutest detail.

The directors of the mill, in 1858, after five years' appreciation of his valuable services, presented him a costly silver tea and coffee service with massive salver, suitably inscribed, and the connection between superintendent, stockholders and operatives remained on terms of exceptional harmony until the close of his useful life, in 1892. He was married in 1853 to Miss Margaret Jackson, of Cannelton, and two sons - out of their five children - are yet living in Perry County.

Hamilton Smith is a name without which Cannelton's history might never have been recorded as it stands, since to his admirable foresight and the powerful arguments of his pen must be attributed, more than to anything else, that degree of public attention drawn to this region and leading to the material development of Perry County's natural resources at a vital period of national growth.

He was the son of Judge Valentine Smith and Mary ("Polly") Joy, his Wife, born September 19, 1804, in Durham, Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the homestead of pure Georgian architecture which an ancestral Smith had built during the year 1736, and which stands in excellent preservation in 1915 in unbroken possession of the family, the personal property of Griswold Smith, Esq. The Smith lineage goes back to Old Hough, England, and their heraldic bearings show the same three wheat-sheaves that are quartered on the shield of Captain John Smith of Virginia. John Winthrop, first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his successor. Governor Thomas Dudley, both were direct ancestors of Hamilton Smith.

At the age of twenty-one, after careful preparations, Hamilton Smith entered Dartmouth College, that already venerable and revered institution, the Alma Mater of Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Salmon P. Chase and many other truly great Americans. There he won Phi Beta Kappa honours and was graduated summa cum laude with the class of 1829. During a part of these years Chase was a fellow-student, and a friendship there grew up between the two young men which lasted under conditions of unusual warmth and intimacy until the death of the distinguished Chief Justice.

Three years later, in 1832, after reading law in the Washington offices of William Wirt and Levi Woodbury, young Smith came to Louisville and entered upon the practice of his chosen profession, following it for fifteen years with notable success. During the disturbed financial conditions of the 'thirties his keen judgment as the representative of sundry large Eastern bankers and merchants contributed to the accumulation of what was then regarded as a handsome fortune. In at least one year his practice amounted to over $30,000 - certainly exceptional at the time, and probably the largest of any attorney then in the West.

His love for the beautiful in nature and art led to the creation of an ideal country estate, "Villula," on the Bardstown pike a few miles from the city, and a showplace among Louisville's suburban homes even long afterward when owned by the Trabue family, of Hawesville. Hither he brought his first wife, Martha Hall, of Bellows Falls, Vermont, but she died in 1845, after bearing him seven children, of whom but two attained maturity, - Hamilton, Jr., and Martha Hall (Mrs. Alfred Hennen) both deceased.

In 1846 he was again married, to Louise Rudd, younger sister to the wife of Judge Huntington, of Indiana, a favourite in Louisville's choicest circles, where her beauty and accomplishments made her an acknowledged belle, ranking alongside her life-time friend, the famous Sallie Ward. Of this union eight children were the fruit, some of whom were born in Cannelton, where several are buried in Cliff Cemetery, beside their parents in the family tomb.

In 1847 Mr. Smith commenced a series of articles in the Louisville Journal (then edited by George D. Prentice) clearly showing the advantages in power of the extensive Western coal-fields over the Eastern waterfalls, and the necessary profits which must accrue from building up manufactories in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, near to coal and to cotton, and on the great natural highways of the continent. Similar contributions to De Bow's Commercial Review, Hunt's Western Magazine, the National Intelligencer and other important periodicals had their effect, of whose results the present generation are yet the beneficiaries.

It was the desire of practically demonstrating the truth of these arguments and inaugurating a new industry that promised so much for the future of the West and the South, which led public-spirited men of Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi to organize the company for building the Cannelton Cotton Mills.

Hamilton Smith was among the foremost of these, one of the heaviest investors, and in the unexpected financial difficulties which grew out of the novelty of the enterprise, with other causes, a large part of his private fortune was sunk beyond redemption in the sacrifice sale of the mill to the Newcomb family. Another instance of the ill-luck proverbially attending the originators of daring and untried ventures.

In December, 1851, he removed with his family to Cannelton, as president of both the cotton-mill and coal companies, taking up his residence in the river wing of the original hotel building at Front and Adams Streets, which was remodelled for his occupancy and where he lived for the next twenty-two years. Severing his connection with the American Cannel Coal Company, in 1873, he then removed to Washington, but had been there less than two years when - on February 8, 1875 - he died suddenly of heart disease. Death came so swiftly that no words were spoken to his family, nor any recognition made by him of the loved ones around. Unconsciousness took instant possession, and the brilliant light of his life was quenched in darkness without the faintest flicker such as usually foretells the approaching moment of dissolution.

making her house the abode of culture and refinement where, in addition to every material luxury, rare art treasures and a library numbered in the thousands, there was always the greater attraction of family affection unbroken and unalloyed, showing it in the truest sense a home.

Of unfailing kindness and consideration to those outside her immediate circle, in works of charity and piety she was a shining example to the community, her purest joy being to uplift in God's praise before His altar her superb soprano voice, of exceptional range and finished cultivation.

Cannelton was in her husband's thoughts to the last, and within the month of his demise he was actively negotiating plans toward its further advancement, looking to his own return thither, which would probably have been effected within a reasonable time had his life been spared.

But when he came back it was in the silence of death, to depart no more. His obsequies were conducted with solemn simplicity in the sable-draped St. Luke's Church on March 9, 1875. The day was intensely cold, yet the church was crowded and the funeral procession of unequalled length. A pathetic feature was the empty phaeton in which he had driven for many years, drawn by his favourite horse, "Preacher," which one

Through the snow-clad streets and up the winding road to Cliff Cemetery, amid tolling bells from every steeple in Cannelton, the long cortege took its way to the spot selected years before for his last resting place, where all that was mortal of Hamilton Smith was laid, to sleep the sleep that knows no waking, beneath the whispering boughs of two immemorial oaks that have long kept their watch and ward far above the rippling waters of the Beautiful River he loved so well.