Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 29: Industrial Development, 1916

An industry which for a time during the sixties promised much to Cannelton, and whose failure in fulfilment came about through outside rather than local causes, was the ship-yard undertaken in the spring of 1863 by Samuel King, who removed at that time from Jeffersonville to Perry County. Although born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (October 16, 1821), he came of seafaring stock, his father, John W. King, having commanded a sailing vessel in the West Indies trade for many years, and his mother, Nancy Shaw, was also of a New England coast family.

Purchasing from Dow Talbot the saw-mill at the extreme upper edge of Cannelton which had been originally owned by the pioneer, Israel Lake, he entered upon the independent trade of boat building which he had followed through twenty-five years of work for others.

His first and most successful contract was with Captain John W. Carroll, of New Albany, for whom he built the hull of a fine side wheeler whose model proved notably fast, 255 feet long, 43 feet beam, 8 1/2 feet hold. At 4 p. m. Monday, November 2, 1863, the launching took place in presence of a very large crowd, the commander's handsome daughter christening the vessel with her own name, Pauline Carroll. The hull was then taken to New Albany where the cabin and upper works were added.

In February following, work was begun on a floating dock of enormous size, 250 by 110 feet, 30 feet high at the sides and 10 feet at the ends. For its construction 2,500 oak logs were sawed into nearly a million feet of lumber, a cost approximating $27,000. May 21, 1864, the large Ben Stickney was launched for the Southern trade, and some smaller craft, including Captain John Crammond's recess-wheel ferry boat Transit, were built complete at the Cannelton ship-yard, but the unwieldy dock proved a veritable white elephant upon King's hands.

It was eventually sold at great sacrifice, to be towed to New Orleans, and, as the wane of steamboating had already set in. King never fully recouped his fallen fortunes. He continued, however, to operate the sawmill until 1884, when he sold out to Anton Zellers and Sons, locating for the remainder of his life on a farm in the fertile bottom land of Union Township, between Derby and Dexter. By his marriage, October 16, 1867, to Rachel Indiana, daughter of Nicholas and Ann (Ewing) Vaughan, he had one son, whose son now resides on a portion of the inherited acres.

Another contemporary enterprise, of longer duration though now also defunct, was the pottery and tile works begun in 1862 by the Clark Brothers who then came to Cannelton from Summit County, Ohio, and for forty years were a prominent clan in local matters, being men of marked activity, interesting themselves in everything appertaining to the home of their adoption.

They were the offspring of Roan and Margaret (De- Haven) Clark, representing Pennsylvania ancestry, and the children were: 1. Roan, m. Lucinda Carson; 2. Abraham DeHaven, m. Emma Gest; 3. William, m. Alice Johnson ; 4. James, m. Rebecca Thompson ; 5. Elijah Curtis, m. Hester (Cotton) Clark; 6. Martha, m. Cyrus Clark, also of Ohio, but not a relative, although a nephew to Dr. Harmon S. Clark, of Cannelton.

The respective six households of "The Clarks" formed a numerous and happy family connection, given to cordial hospitality and figuring no less in the social life than in business and politics of their day. Not- withstanding the originally large relationship, but few descendants of Clark name still reside in Cannelton, the third generation having widely scattered into other localities, and a pottery started many years afterward by Clark Brothers represents altogether a different family, despite close similarity of names.

The first pottery was built in 1862 on the river front, for convenience of transportation, and the business increased to such an extent ($2,700 a month by 1877) that their own steamboat was purchased for carrying the finished product to Southern consumers. Several additions had more than doubled the capacity of the original plant, but from about that time there was a gradual decline in receipts. Death and other changes brought about different ownership. Freshet, windstorm and fire wrought irreparable disaster, so the work was finally shut down.

A three-story brick spoke factory was erected at the close of the war by a number of leading citizens, but owing to internal dissensions the project was abandoned after the expenditure of almost $8,000 on the building which remained idle until 1871-72. The Cannelton Paper Mill Company then took it over and began the manufacture of straw wrapping paper at the rate of 2,500 pounds in thirteen hours. Ten hands were employed and the stockholders were: Joseph F. Sulzer, president; Christian Rauscher, vice-president; Roan Clark, secretary; Peter Meyer, treasurer; John C. Shoemaker, Jacob Heck, Frederick Diener, Frank Brennan and Frederick Muller. Work continued some ten or fifteen years, but the edifice burned during one of the spring floods of the 'eighties when entirely surrounded by water and inaccessible to any fire protection. Its ruins long stood next to the Clark pottery.

Immediately south of the paper-mill a three-story brick flouring mill was built in 1868-69, under the name Superior Mills, with Gabriel Schmuck, Edwin R. Hatfield, Henry N. Wales, Joseph F. Sulzer, Thomas Tagg and Joseph Dusch as stockholders. Charles

Schmuck soon became associated with his brother and continued to operate the mill until 1880, when it was sold to the brothers, Philip R. and Leonard May. They were natives of Prussia, born respectively December 1, 1840, and May 23, 1842, the elder sons of Charles and Elizabeth (Jacoby) May, and at an early age were brought to Indiana by their parents, who made their home on a farm near Rome, until in 1864 Charles May was elected Sheriff of Perry County. The sons, Philip and Leonard, had enlisted in 1861 in Company B, Third Kentucky Cavalry, so on their return from the war it was to reside in Cannelton, where with other branches the May family has ever since been represented. After some twenty years of varying but usually indifferent success, in which the mill changed hands more than once, it finally suspended, peculiar ill-luck appearing to attend that quarter of town in which these industries of the 'sixties were located.

A chair factory, carried on from 1872 to 1876 by James R. Bunce and Thomas M. Smith, in a massive stone structure which Judge Ballard Smith had built in 1857 for a cotton carpet yarn factory, failed, and one or two later enterprises attempted in the same edifice accomplished little or nothing.

A shingle mill, started at the close of the war by John Stiltz, was later sold to the May Brothers and by them in 1880 to William Donnelly, but suspended a few years later and its site on the river is now occupied by the municipal water works and electric power plant.

The American Cannel Coal Company's coal slide and tip, which terminated their dummy tramway leading from their Sulphur Spring mines to the river, was the last industry maintaining operations in Cannelton's early manufacturing quarter, but when the sale of coal to passing steamboats became a negligible quantity, it was abandoned and demolished, about 1910, transportation by rail having forever drawn away business activity to the opposite end of town.

developed into one of her most considerable interests, had its beginning in 1864, when Peter Ludwig, John Hartman and James M. Combs invested some $3,300 in buildings and machinery, giving employment to about thirty-five men. First known as P. Ludwig and Company, the firm became Combs, Hartman and Company, in 1868, when they commenced making furniture - bureaus, wardrobes, tables, etc., - in addition to chairs. In spite of vicissitudes, such as the financial panic of 1873, and a fire on March 27, 1877, which swept away the entire plant at a loss of $32,000, with only $2,000 insurance, the company has gone on through many changes of ownership and is now part of the Chair- Makers' Union.

Ten stockholders - J. J. Walter, J. Hoby, L. Greiner, F. Rust, B. Wichser, J. Bergert, I. Scheuing, L. Schmidt and Henry Ehrensperger - founded the original Chair-Makers' Union in 1865, investing some $7,000 in building and equipment and doing most of their own work. The inevitable fire occurred July 27, 1881, without insurance, leaving no recources other than a standing book account, but the owners rallied promptly and the business was soon on a stronger footing than ever before.

Now one of Perry County's largest industrial establishments, its leading owners are Albert P. Fenn, one of Tell City's "native sons," and his brother-in-law, Jacob Zoercher. They are respectively, a son-in-law and a son of Christian Zoercher, Sr., born September 5, 1832, in Bavaria, who came in 1851 to America and in 1868 to Tell City, where he identified himself with the woodworking interests. While not strictly a pioneer, he lived there so long as to win for himself a place among the old and highly esteemed citizens, and through his marriage, in 1859, with Mary Christ, of Cincinnati, numerous descendants maintain the family name.

wagons drive into almost every township in Perry- County carrying chair frames to the labourers - oftenest women and children - who put in the cane seats by hand.

A local stock company of numerous share-holders in 1865-66 built an Agricultural Implement factory, expending $5,000 on building and machinery. Cotton and hay presses were manufactured for a short time, but the company failed and in 1869 ;the property passed into the hands of twenty-eight men forming the Cabinet-Makers' Union. As such its career has been of increasing success, interrupted only by fires, from which the organization has each time risen to longer life. Shipments are now, of course, by rail, but in the generation of river traffic, steamboats bound for Memphis or New Orleans would frequently tie up for several hours at the Tell City wharfboat taking on immense cargoes of furniture and chairs.

Schoetlin and Zuenkler, in 1865, started the Tell City Planing Mill, at an investment of $3,000, selling out two years afterward to a partnership of six men, whose interests were bought out, in turn, by Magnus Kreisle. He had learned the cabinet maker's trade in Germany, where he was born September 9, 1824, coming in 1844 to Cincinnati. Here he was married to Christine Eckhardt, and they moved in 1856 to Indianapolis where their eldest son, John M. Kreisle, was born June 28, 1857. Locating in Tell City four years later, Magnus Kreisle made it his home until his death, March 18, 1885, at which time he was in complete control of the planning mill business that is yet a family possession.

The Krogman distillery, established 1863 by Philippe and Krogman at a cost of $5,000, is another industry still operated by the family of its founder. August Krogman was born December 28, 1821, in Holstein, Germany, where his parents, Johann and Margrethe Krogman passed their lives. He learned the distilling business in his native land and came in 1855 to the

United States, working in a brewery in Davenport, Iowa, until 1858, when the tide of German-Swiss immigration brought him in its wake to Perry County.

Here he found employment for a few years in the coal mines at Cannelton, but settled in 1862 at Tell City, with his wife, Dora Schubert, whom he had married in 1856. He lived until October 5, 1905, and of the three children born to him the only son, William Krogman, carries on the inherited business.

Frederick Voelke, Jr., who founded the Tell City Brewery in 1861, might have been termed a braumeister by inheritance, being the eldest son of a skilled brewer in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, where he was born August 30, 1832. His parents, Frederick and Christine (Gerhardt) Voelke, left Germany along with thousands of others in 1848, coming first to Pittsburgh, but in 1850 to Troy, where the father at once engaged in his regular trade, which he carried on for six years.

The son and namesake, who had received an exceptionally fine musical education in Prussia, spent several years travelling with and playing for theatrical companies in the Middle West and South, but on August 12, 1856, married Nancy, daughter of Green B. Taylor, one of Troy's pioneer merchants. Here he settled and conducted the Troy Brewery until removing, in 1861, to Tell City, where he lived until July 26, 1911.

Ten children were born to his marriage and the mansion which he built is still one of Tell City's handsomest residences, on a site of commanding elevation in Eighth (Main) street, and is one of the very few homesteads in the town still occupied by the third generation of the original family. The brewing business had been discontinued before his death and the buildings were demolished when the property passed into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. William Krogman (Claudine Voelke). An artistically terraced lawn now beautifies their former site, and from the City Park gives to the stately old home a picturesque approach.

The pioneer breweries early opened by Reis and Endebruck and by Peter Schreck were not long in existence, but the business established in 1858 by Charles Becker and Alois Beuter has gone on as the Tell City Brewery up to the present Beuter withdrawing after one year's partnership.

Common beer was brewed at first, but since the erection, in 1870, of a three-story brick building at a cost of $3,000, the product has been lager beer of a quality not inferior to the Milwaukee or St. Louis article, whose widespread sale has done its part in adding to the fame of Tell City.

Within the decade of the 'sixties other men located in Tell City who left their mark upon the community's development and came to be looked upon by a later generation as 'early settlers,' although not original Swiss Colonists.

August Menninger, born November 21, 1826, at Frankfurt-am-Main, a son of Andreas and Barbara (Pauly) Menninger, engaged in 1860 in the sawmill industry at Tell City, building up an important business which he long managed with great success. He had been well educated in the Fatherland, and gave close attention to the public school system in his adopted home, that its every advantage might be gained by his children, of whom nine were born to him through his marriage in 1850 with Katharina Schmidberger, likewise a native of Germany.

August Schreiber, a son of Heinrich and Wilhelmine (Colshorn) Schreiber, born December 6, 1837, in Prussia, located at Tell City in the year 1866, twelve years after coming to America. His education in ancient and modern languages, as well as science, had fitted him thoroughly for the druggist's profession upon which he entered, making it a life work so that he attained the highest rank among pharmacists of

Active in the fraternal orders, he held positions of responsibility in each to which he belonged, and was the choice of his fellow-citizens as one of Tell City's early mayors. By his marriage, August 25, 1861, to Eva Schloth, a daughter and a son were born, of whom the latter follows in his father's professional footsteps and resides in the old home.

In military circles Tell City's ranking officer stands as General Gustave Kemmerling, though his record of gallantry had been written on History's page, for his native land no less than for his adopted country, before he came into Perry County at the close of the War Between the States. The son of John and Katharina (Hueten) Kemmerling, born December 9, 1819, in Rhenish Prussia, he was a commandant of militia in his birthplace during the revolution of 1848, coming two years afterward to America.

In 1861, at Cincinnati, he was made Captain of Company F. Ninth Ohio Infantry, and his repeated promotions tell the story of his bravery, - major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and brigadier-general, although on account of ill-health he declined this highest commission, tendered him after the battle of Chickamauga. Marrying in 1856, Gertrude, daughter of Benedict and Gertrude (Effinger) Steinauer, Tell City became his home in 1865. Of two children born to them only one survives, Captain Gustave Kemmerling, II, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, now government inspector of machinery and materials for the New York Ship-building Company, with headquarters at Camden, New Jersey.

While his settling in Tell City was early in the decade of the 'seventies, it was also as a wounded soldier that John T. Patrick became a citizen of the community where for two-score years his was a familiar figure. A slight irregularity of step served as a daily reminder of the battle of Stone River where he was wounded and disabled for further service, with Company G, Eighty-first Indiana Infantry, in which he had enlisted when only twenty years of age.

Born, April 6, 1842, in Crawford County, his parents were John D. and Mary (Powers) Patrick, both natives of Maryland, who came about 1840 to Indiana. John T, Patrick was a successful teacher in his young manhood, then served as Clerk of the Perry Circuit Court from 1876 to 1884. During this time he studied law and in May, 1884, was admitted to the bar, where he continued as an active practitioner until his death, June 19, 1915. He was twice married; in 1879 to Margaret Menninger, and in 1883 to Anna Menninger, both daughters of August and Katharina (Schmidberger) Menninger, and a numerous family of children survive their father, treasuring his precepts and his example.