Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 17: Trade and Commerce - Uusiness Men, 1908

Tlie forests of Indiana teemed with fur-bearing animals from the French occupation until within our memory. There was a century and a half of fur trade preceding the settlement of the country. First the French traders, backed by companies with Canadian and French capital, carried up the rivers to the lakes thousands of bales of furs - then the Alackinaw Company, the American Fur Company and John Jacob Astor drew from this country great C|uantities of beaver, otter and less valuable peltries. Seventy-five years ago the beaver were over-plentiful in this state. During the twenties the firm of G. W. & W. G. Ewing, established at Ft. Wayne and Loganspoort, extended their agencies throughout the state. These two brothers from this trade are said to have amassed fortunes that amounted to two million dollars.

But the fur trade had reached its height and was on the decline during the settlement and organization of \'igo county. For a number of vears the merchants advertised cash or goods in exchange for skins and furs, but the business was no longer conducted on such an important scale as during the pioneer years and preceding period.

W'e will look at some of the first commercial ventures. Of Lucius Scott's little stock of goods exposed for sale in part of Dr. Modesitt's cabin, mention has been made. About the same time Curtis Gilbert's building became a store. Bills collected from the commissioners show that Demas Deming. who came in 1818. sold goods about that time. John Earle. father of the captain, was a storekeeper, and Isaac C. Elston, a little later. A list of the first merchants and traders can be obtained by examining the licenses issued during 1818 to the persons engaged in trade under the jurisdiction of this county. Toussaint Dubois was granted a license in March. He was an Indian trader. In April licenses were given to Crooks & Comjiany, Jacob Smith and Francois Mallett.

John Earle and Wasson & Sayre were licensed in May, and in June George Hussey was qualified. In .\ugust licenses were issued to Samuel Jacobs. Joseph Curtis and to James Jones (for both liquors and merchandise). D. Deming's license was given in November. In the same month liquor licenses were granted to Thomas Thompkins, John Mc- Mullen and Henry Redford. William Wallace was licensed to vend merchandise in December.

The record of licenses issued in 1824 shows some of the business institutions of that time. These licenses particularly designate some of the keepers of taverns in that year. Of these might be mentioned Samuel McQuilkin, who paid $20 for the license and also filed a bond. Israel Harris was another. A definite license for retailing liquor was issued to Francis Cunningham. To sell "foreign merchandise" likewise called for a license. J. F. and W. S. Cruft paid fifteen dollars for this privilege, William C. and David Linton paid thirty dollars, and Reynolds, Bonner & Early paid twenty-five dollars, these being three .of the important merchant firms of the time. A little later S. S. CoUett and Abraham Markle also took out licenses for vending of merchandise, and in May, 1825, Daniel H. Johnson & Company paid twenty-five dollars for a retail license. Chauncey Rose and John Campbell received licenses during 1825-26.

Col. Isaac Elston, one of the great men of Crawfordsville and founder of Michigan City, was one of the early business men of Terre Haute, and quite active here until the founding of Crawfordsville. He started a store with a dry goods box for a counter, but became dissatisfied with the business prospects here.

In these days of pure food legislation it is worth recalling that our lawmakers were concerned with the subject nearly a hundred years ago. On lanuarv 2, 1819, the legislature of Indiana passed "an act regulating the inspection of flour, beef and pork." The act provided that the commissioners of every county in the state "shall annually appoint a suitable person as inspector in each county, or flour, beef and pork ; and that from and after the passage of this act no owner, or owners, or agents, of flour, beef or pork, put up in barrels, as hereinafter mentioned, shall export, or olTer the same for sale or exportation, until it shall have been inspected in the manner hereinafter directed, under the penalty of treble the amount of the cost of such inspection, for every such offense, to be recovered in anv court having cognizance thereof, one-half for the use of the ])erson ]irosecuting for the same, and the other half for the use of a county seminary."

cents for every barrel of flour and ten cents for each barrel of beef or pork inspected by him. There was a penalty of fifty dollars for charging more than the legal fee. The flour was to be branded "superfine." "fine" or "middling." according to quality. The beef and pork were to be branded "mess" and "prime." according to quality, and a third grade was to be marked "cargo pork." and "where any such beef or pork shall be found to be tainted, spoiled or unfit for market, the same shall be condemned." Any person changing or erasing the brand of an inspector incurred a penalty of fifty dollars, one-half of which went to the informer and the other half "to the use of a county seminary."

The early records of the circuit court reveal some features of pork shipping. In the ^lay term. 1822. the supreme court sustained a decision of the circuit court in the case of McGrew vs. Jones. It appears that Jones had agreed to furnish a boat at his own charge and McGrew was to furnish one hundred barrels of pork to be transported to New Orleans, paying freight at two dollars a barrel. Jones furnished the boat, but McGrew did not deliver the pork, and judgment was entered against the latter.

March 10. 1824. Benjamin I. Gilman wrote to William C. Linton for information in regard to buying fat hogs to the amount of Sio.ooo to $12,000. and at the same time expressed a desire to engage in business at Terre Haute. He also made inquiries in behalf of another person who would visit here and buy cattle to the amount of $12,000. With this letter may be dated the beginning of the meat packing industry, which throughout the early history of Terre Haute and until after the war. continued as one of die leading business resources of the city. In the same year of writing the above letter Mr. Gilman established an office in a little brick house on the corner of First and [Mulberry streets.

Although pork packing began in Terre Haute in 1824. ^^'ith the enterprise of the Gilman Brothers (later of St. Louis), the highest point of the industry was reached during the decade of the late forties and early fifties. The following table, showing the number of hogs packed each year, will best show the rise and decline of the industry :

In T850 the principal packers at Terre Haute were H. D. Williams & Company. Paddock & McGregor. B. McKeen & Company, Nelson & Company, Humaston & Company, and Jacob D. Early. In 1858 it was estimated that the amount invested in the hog trade would reach $750,000, and besides this there was also a large trade in beef. Important as this industry was, it was small compared to the aggregate of grain products, since it was estimated that the shipments of grain from this city during the above named years would average $500,000 a year. During 1870-71 the only packing plant of considerable importance in the city was that of S. S. Earlv, and from that time the business continued to decline. The destruction of the old Early pork house by fire on May 28, 1890, removed the last permanent memorial of the industry.

The Courier of December 31, 1842, speaking of the pork packing industry, says : "We believe there is some prospect that a good deal of pork will be packed, or that many hogs may be slaughtered this season at Terre Haute. We understand that $1.50 in bankable money has been offered per hundred weight for a large lot of fine hogs - $1.75 being asked per hundred for the same. It is not unlikely that pork will yet command $2.00 - at least in cild scrip, before the season closes. We believe that good hogs are now selling at $2.00 and rising at that along the Ohio river."

A report was published in 1852 reviewing the industry for the past vear, in which it was shown that hogs were packed at every little town along the Wabash from Mncennes to Logansport. Near Terre Haute were York, Clinton, Durkee's Ferry, Montezuma. The total number of hogs packed at Terre Haute during 1851 were estimated at 66,604. and it was estimated that for the following year that number would decrease. The total along the river was estimated at 226,462 for 1851.

Jacob D. Early (1798-1868) started with nothing, ran a branch store at Salem, Indiana, for sixty dollars a year, and then returned to Flemingsburg, Kentucky, to earn two or three hundred dollars a year -for five years. .At the age of twenty-four he began, for himself with a capital of one thousand dollars which he had saved. He came to Terre Haute in 1835, where his brother, John D., had been a pork merchant and packer. The latter went to Baltimore, and left Jacob with the business at Terre Haute. Durin.e; his time JMr. Early was our greatest and most successful business man, and his was a very hospitable home.

Another of the well-known figures in the packing industry was Samuel Paddock, who began packing hogs on a large scale in 184S, and for some years was engaged in the trade either alone or in conjunction with Farrington, Williams & Company, and retired with considerable money, which he increased by other commercial endeavors. His fortune was swept away at the close of the war, and at the age of si.xty he returned to farming. Samuel Paddock (1806-1878) was a son of Col. Ebenezer. one of the first settlers, who came here in 1818. There were three sons of Ebenezer - Samuel. John and William - and the Paddocks have a numerous family connection. The Paddocks first lived in Prairie Creek township on the old "army road." Samuel, in 1830, bought the Truman Blackman farm, on which he lived until 1848, when he came into town.

Oiauncey Warren (1800-1868) was born in New Hampshire and came here in 1820 and spent the first five years in Roseville. He clerked* in Rose's store at Terre Haute, then became a partner and about 1832 bought out Rose's interest. He became very prosperous, but had to retire at the age of thirty-seven owing to a disease of the eyes. He again returned to business and was with his brothers, 1838-41, when he had to give up business again and was retired for the next twentyseven years. He was said to be the ablest of a very able family - quiet, unassuming, genial, very fond of a joke or funny story, as were the other brothers, and altogether a very fine character.

Levi G. Warren, who died in June, 1865, came to Indiana with his father and family in 1820 at the age of four years, and was the first of the three Warren brothers to die. He lived here for the greater part of the following forty-five years. Hugh McCulloch pronounced him one of the safest, most prudent and sagacious financiers connected with the banks of the state.

About 1850 William P.. Warren was in the dry goods business, having bought a nice stock of goods. .'X.bout that time he married Miss Sue Whitcomb. F. A. Ross tells of seeing the bride coming down the street on her way to the store, and thought she was a queenly looking woman. He watched her with curiosity, not knowing who she was until she went into the Warren store. Others also looked after the stranger, thinking she was the most beautiful woman they ever had seen in Terre Haute. She retained her beauty an'd sweet gentleness of manner to the end of her days.

and small children moved to Shelbyville. and William was a farmer boy till eighteen. He came to Terre Haute in 1834, and in 1839 the firm of C., L. G. & W. B. Warren was organized. W. B. Warren had several associates in business during the following years, and after leaving merchandising he became a well-known pork packer for about twenty vears. It is said that the foundation of the Warren fortune was fifty dollars, made by a flatboat trip to New Orleans in the early days.

Theodore Hudnut. the manufacturer, was the son of Joseph Hudnut, born in 1794, who removed from New Jersey to Kentucky, and Catherine Dalton, born at Stafford Court House, \'irginia, in 1796. Joseph Hudnut died in Kentucky, ]\Iarch 13, 1845, ''''"^^ l^'s widow passed away in 1874.

The son, Theodore, had but limited opportunities for education and was his own master from early boyhood. He worked as a carpenter until after his removal to Indiana in 1850, settling first in Charleston. Almost by chance there came to him a glimpse of the possibilities of an industry in which he was a pioneer, a founder and a leader as a great manufacturer. The sight of an old man making by a rude and primitive process from Indian corn the hominy which was used in most rural homes as an article of food suggested to him the advantages of a mechanical process for rapidly and cheaply turning into hominy the great cereal product of Indiana, and he foresaw that it would result in a great trade. It was several years before he could perfect the machine for crushing corn and establish the first mill, which was opened at Edinburg, Indiana, in 1850, and conducted with moderate success until the breaking out i;)f the Civil war, when Mr. Hudnut dropped his business to enlist. As a lieutenant in the Nineteenth Indiana, United States \'oIunteers, he served with the Army of the Potomac, but in less than a year was invalided and obliged to return to Indiana. His oldest son, John H., who had enlisted, also, in the regiment of Colonel Benjamin Harrison, was killed in an engagement at Rnssellville, Kentucky. The manufacture of hominy was resumed in a small mill at Indianapolis and the demand began to overtake and pass the production. The mills supply the .government with a large portion of the product. Forming a partnership with Ballard Smith, a lawyer, who contributed a little capital, but no experience, the plant was transferred to jNIattoon, Illinois, the center of a great corn belt. Machinery was added, but the business still lacked some element (jf success, and at the death of his partner jNIr. Hudnut again removed to Terre Haute in 1866, which offered exceptional advantages for an adequate su])ply of white flint corn. His first mill here was in the old John Duncan pork packing house at the corner of Swan and Water streets. With John S. Beach, a banker, as dormant partner. j\lr. Hudnut enlarged his plant in 1872. removing to the old Hod Smith grain warehouse at the corner of Third and Chestnut streets. He improved his inventions and in time added to his products grits, maizone, corn flour, etc.. and began fully to realize his early dream of a great new industrv and of popularizing the products of western corn, which was shown by his own prospering business, the competition of new rivals and the infringements upon his patents. He is the most extensive manufacturer of hominy in the United States, if not in the world.

The consumption of corn by hominy mills rose from nothing in 1850 to about 5.000.000 bushels a year and a foreign trade was added to a well-established American business. Mr. Hudnut established a new mill at Mt. \'ernon. on the Ohio, and at Pekin. Illinois, and elevators for collecting corn and selling agencies at other points.

The business was organized as a stock company in 1890. with Theodore Hudnut. president, at Mt. \'ernon : his son. Benjamin G.. secretary, in charge of the Terre Haute mills, which had been enlarged to a capacity beyond any in the country.

The promoter of this now mammoth enterprise continued at the head until his death, which occurred in Terre Haute on !Mav 12. 1892. when his son. Benjamin G.. succeeded to the presidency. Extensive plants were established at St. Joseph. Missouri, and at Baltimore, Maryland, together with additional properties at the foot of Chestnut street. These, with the plants at Mt. \'ernon. Indiana, and Pekin, Illinois, were operated by the company until 1902. when all were sold to the American Hominy Company, save the one at the corner of Third and Chestnut streets in this city. The Hudnut Company has operated this single plant since, manufacturing all kinds of food pellets of a high grade and handling all kinds of grain.

Besides being the hominy king, Theodore Hudnut was a man of decided and unusual strength of character. His reserved and somewhat abrupt manners concealed from many a warmth of heart and devotion to principle. Coming from a slave-holding famil\ , he was a lifelong Republican, and read the New York Tribune when it was unpopular. He was also charitable to the colored people, paid for the education of a young colored man and long after his death several families of the race were pensioners of his family. He was accustomed in a quiet way to befriend many, but when his gifts of money became known they would cease. He was a member of the Christian church, and it was only in its services that he overcame his reserve and revealed an eloquent and impressive power of speech. Without any special advocacv of temperance he had found much satisfaction in opening a great market for corn outside of the distilleries. It was said by those who knew him best that his most marked characteristic was honest)-, great exactness in his own affairs, and scorn for dishonesty. When his fortune had become large he said with pardonable pride, it was all clean money.

Once a brewerv, then a small flour mill, then a bigger one and now a very large mill is the history of the buildings known as the "Wabash Mills" at the foot of Main street.

It was an accident which led to this development by Mr. Willard Kidder, and the story will be told as it has been gathered here and there. ]\Ir. Willard Kidder, who was born among the Green mountains of Vermont, was seventeen years ago a member of a firm doing a prosperous business in general merchandise and staves and heading in Michigan. One item of the business was to handle lo.ooo barrels of apples in a season. A stray paper falling into Mr. Kidder"s hands had a "For Sale" notice of a flour mill in Terre Haute, which led to his visiting this city and to the purchase of the mill after a careful tour of inspection to southern Indiana and as far west as Kansas City. He began the manufacture of flour in Terre Haute in a mill grinding by stones one hundred barrels a dav. In a few years two run of stone were added, showing that the new miller was succeeding. In 1881 the stones were replaced by rolls to manufacture patent flour. This was the first roller mill in this part of the country, and it led to a revolution in Terre Haute's flour business. The improvement in the grades of flour and increased output led to large sales in eastern and European cities, where Terre Haute flour ever since has been in good demand and high favor. The Wabash mills were further enlarged to daily capacity of eight hundred barrels, which represents a monthly consumption of over ico.ooo bushels of wheat and an immence contribution to the farming community about us. Mr. Kidder was one of the first supporters of the board of trade established to promote manufactures in this city, serving as member, director or president, and this has at least led to Mr. Kidder's being solicited to aid many new enterprises, to which he has responded as freely as any man in Terre Haute. He never declines to examine any proposed enterprise and has contributed to many from a public spirit for the city's welfare.

He was a subscriber to the Fish Wagon Works, to a manila paper mill, to a wire nail mill, etc., enterprises which failed because of lack of support in most cases. He was a liberal subscriber to the proposed Terre

Haute & Mississippi railroad, the failure of which was one of Terre Haute's mistakes, and he gave freely to the donation which secured the piano case factory. He has subscribed to other enterprises whose chief recommendation was not personal profit, but that they would build up the city, increase the value of real estate and give employment to labor. He invested in the steam brick yard, and in the fork and tool works, an important and great enterprise for the city, though a loss to its owners. When the J. M. Xicholl's barrel, stave and box factory was burned its owner's emergency was compelling him to seek another location, but Mr. Kidder was one of the few to give him substantial aid in rebuilding here, and afterward in running his plant with a force of from eighty to one hundred hands. If Mr. Kidder's residence here led to the engagement of his brother-in-law. Mr. L. P. Alden, as superintendent of the Rose Orphan Home we owe to him a good citizen in that useful and philanthropic man. The exhibit above shows that Mr. Kidder's means have been distributed in developing the manufacturing and enterprises of Terre Haute which have w'idened the field of labor by giving employment to many men. He is. though a busy man, very accessible. His manner is frank and hearty. He gives the impression of being a man of liberal impulses and charita1>le judgment, guided by experience and common sense.

F. Nippert. born in France, the son of a teacher near Aletz, landed in New Orleans in 1839, and after several efforts at merchandising elsewhere in Kentucky and Indiana came to Terre Haute in 1844, opening what was known as the French store at northwest Second and Ohio. He retired from business during 1863-69, and visited Europe and Asia. On his return in 1869 he became connected with the nail works. His management of the concern for nineteen or twenty years reflected great credit, as was shown by the board voting to him in addition to his salary at the end of his service $3,000. But he refused to accept it for himself and distributed the sum -among his subordinates. He was a very intimate and confidential friend of Chauncey Rose, and represented him in the distribution of some of his large benefactions, being president of the Rose Polytechnic board. He was a quiet, reserved man, kind and unpretentious, and highly respected during over forty years.

F. T. Hulman and Ludowici came here together from Cincinnati and started a wholesale grocery with not over $2,500 capital and did well from the start. At a give or take proposition Hulman bought the interest of his partner, who started a new business in a one-story frame near Spinning Wheel corner (perhaps west of Fourth).

in the old country), but he was allowed to come with the proviso that he would look the field over and return home if it was not promising. Herman pinned his faith to Terre Haute. Ludowici for a time commanded the bulk of the trade in this district, but the young salesman was persistent and popular and drew customers on, while his brother attended to the management. The king of trade in this part of the country at the time was Bement. He bought coffee one hundred bags at a time, while the Hulmans did things on a very small scale. About this time F. T. Hulman lost his life on the ocean. His will divided his property among his relatives, which left Herman to Struggle to hold the business together, "keep the doors open" when the whole capital was due to the heirs. Family loyalty and the young man's pluck enabled the business to run longer than the "three months" or "six months" allowed by the other merchants to the young fellow who was trying to run it. There was, too, a very obliging banking house at the corner of Third and Main streets, known as McKeen & Turner, and about that time began the close friendship of Herman Hulman and W. R. ]\IcKeen.

Trade in those times had considerable bustle to it and certain signs of busy life not seen now. Hulman and some other wholesalers did not send salesmen out on the road as they do now. Buyers came from a hundred miles or more around. There was a continuous stream of wagons from all the surrounding country of Indiana and Illinois, setting toward Terre Haute, bringing in the produce of the country to what was then the chief shipping point. The country trade and the stream of emigration kept the main roads thronged with travel.

John B. Ludowici (1809-1880). born in Prussia, located at Terre Haute in 1850, and was a wholesale and retail grocer, alone and with F. Hulman. He was the builder of the National House, 1855-56.

William B. Tuell (born August 18, 1826, died December 3, 1883) when eighteen years old started to walk to Lafayette, Indiana, with his baggage on his back. He met a woman on horseback, who offered him a ride and persuaded him to continue to Terre Haute. After clerking for several years he bought out his employer, G. W. Langworthy, and was in business on his own account. In 1861 he was in partnership with George F. Ripley in a room in the C. C. Smith corner, and a year later moved to the John H. Barr building on Fifth and Main. Arthur Deming became a partner in 1867, the firm being Tuell, Ripley & Deming. After 1873 the firm conducted a wholesale business in the Deming block for a year or so. Mr. Tuell built, at a cost of about eighty thousand dollars, during the war, the elegant home now owned by W. R. Mc- Keen. In 1878 McKeen, Collett and Tuell bought the Terre Haute & Cincinnati (Southeastern) railroad. Collett operated it as receiver until

1879. when Tuell bou£::ht the interests of the other two, and extended the Hne to Worthington, making a road of forty-one miles. Mr. Tuell was in the real estate business, also a large dealer in lumber, and before the war was in ]3artnership with his brother-in-law. Colonel Topping, who was killed in the war. During the early sixties he was an oil operator in Pennsylvania, but the final results of this enterprise did not produce much.

Mr. Lucius Ryce died in church on Christmas morning while leaning on a cane inscribed with his name and that of Colonel Thompson. He was born in \ermnut in 1801, studied for the law, came west to Ohio and finally removed to Terre Haute in 1844. driving through in his carriage Irom Mt. A'ernon, Ohio. He began the dry goods business in partnership with F. R. \\"]iipple, and was the silent partner in Potter's hardware.

Martin Lindlev was one of the first merchants of Terre Haute and active in the early history of the county. He died at York in 1878. He had been a large merchant in New Orleans, where he lost $103,000 in one transaction. Fire broke him twice, and he was once swindled by a bad partner. At one time he was associated with Newton Booth in Sacramento as the leading wholesale grocer of that city.

On Ohio street: R. W. Thompson, 1 door west of hanl\;, practices In the higher courts of the state, in 6 counties of this (7th) judicial circuit, and in eastern Illinois.

Ladies' dress goods were cashmeres, de laines, merinoes, and alpacas. The "Wabash Store" advertised: Wide black silks; shawls; black and colored hosiery; French merinoes in colors, most genteel articles for dress; silk fringes and buttons and guimp for trimmings. This and other general stores sold dry goods, hardware, leather, etc., and took in exchange grain, beans, feathers, ginseng, beeswax, tallow, dried fruit, home-made linsey, etc.

W. B. Chamberlain, general store, Bost.-n Store, in 3-story building corner of public square and Market. Advertised ambng men's wear, velvet, satin and other fancy vests.

The foundry business of James Grover was bought out bv Joseph Grover about 1843. This was a pioneer manufacturing enterprise, without steam power, one horse being used to blow the bellows. Mr. Grover had conducted the foundry twenty-three years, during which time he had twice been burned out and had rebuilt. * -

The above list has been gleaned from a contemporarv newspaper, and of course can not be considered complete, including only those that advertised or were otherwise mentioned. But the leading business houses of the time are mentioned.

M. W. Williams & Co., sold out. Nippert & Dunn, dissolved. Edsall, Root & Co., dissolved. R. S. Cox & Son, R. S. Cox deceased. Chess & Gilkeson, sold out. Branch Bank, closing up.

Of wholesale merchants who helped to make Terre Haute conspicuous in this line of commercial activity one of the best known was U. R. Jeffers, who died suddenly July i, 1897. His first partnership in the wholesale notion business was with Messrs. Claussen and Bischowskv un- der tlie firm name of Claussen, Jeffers & T'.iscbowsky. For a period of about five years, from 1856 to 1S61. while a member of the firm. Mr. Jeffers drove over the country in a four-horse notion wagon, lie being the pioneer notion merchant who introduced the notion wagon in this section of the country. The wagon was a large, two-story affair and was covered with white canvas, the name "Claussen, Jeflfers & Bischowsky" standing out in prominence. These early notion wagons are well remembered by the old residents of the comity. In 1861 Mr. Jefifers sold his interest in the store to enter the army as a sutler with the Seventyninth Indiana \'olunteer Infantry, where he remained three years. Twice he was taken prisoner by the rebels, first at Chapel Hill. Kentucky, and the second time at Chickaniauga, at which times he lost in the neighborhood of $10,000 worth of goods. Returning to Terre Haute in 1864 he formed the firm of Jefifers & Miller (Henry Miller), which existed for four years, when Mr. ]\Iiller sold his interest to a Mr. Delano. The firm name then became Jefifers & Company, with Mr. Elisha Havens, who had been an employe of the former firm, associated in the company. In 1874 Mr. Jeffers retired and the firm of Haven & Geddes succeeded Teffers & Company. It was said that for a period of ten years from 1864 to 1874 U. R. Jeft'ers was the leading wholesale merchant of Terre Haute. During this period Mr. Jeffers made a fortune.

After his retirement from the wholesale business Mr. Jefl:"ers became associated in the woolen mill on East ^Fain street, which he managed with much ability until 1880. Later he occupied the building with a carriage manufactory, which was conducted by his successor, Mr. A. E. Herman.

Mr. Jeffers was a lover of fine stock and his name is connected with the history of the Vigo Agricultural Society and the Terre Haute Trotting Association. .\s early as 1877 he was connected with the \'igo Agricultural Association and held that position until the time of his death. For a term of years, beginning with 1878. he was president of the association. At one time he was also identified with the Terre Haute Poultry and Pet Society. As a suiierintendent of race tracks his fame has gone out through the length and breadth of the land, and many race men will learn of his death with sorrow. The Terre Haute track would never have been a record breaker had it not been for the work of Mr. Jeffers. He superintended the building of the Detroit track and his services were in demand to "put on edge" the leading western tracks.

began operation in March, 1868. The company was organized in Youngstown, Ohio, and he came west to plan a location for the mill. He visited Brazil and Greencastle and finally decided on Terre Haute. We had no large industries then, the Vandalia shops and the old Eagle foundry being the mainstay in that line. The location of the iron and nail works here was the entering wedge in the upbuilding of Terre Haute as an industrial center and much credit is due the men who were responsible for it. It brought here some three hundred iron workers, who were at that time the most highly paid class of labor in the country, and they added much to the development of Terre Haute. The location of this mill here had much to do with the coming of the Crawfords, who built the blast furnace and erected the north rolling mill, known as the Wabash mill. The nail mill was discontinued many years ago and its machinery thrown on the scrap heap, but the rolling mills were continued until a comparatively recent date, when they were absorbed by the trust and put out of business.

An interesting industry came to an end when the Vigo Blast Furnace ceased operation about 1895. This was the last one of the old group of Indiana furnaces to go out of blast. Cox's geological report of 1869, referring to this section of Indiana, says:

"On the whole, the country is abundantly supplied with iron ore of good quality, and the near neighborhood of the beds to the seams of block coal will soon make this one of the most important centers of iron production in the west."

On the west side of the Wabash river (at Durkee's Ferry or Tecumseh, in particular) in the bluish-gray shales are bands of clay iron stone and kidney ore concretions. Along the hillsides and in the ravines these pieces of ore are found in considerable quantities. They were formerly found in sufficient quantities to justify their being gathered up and carted to the Vigo blast furnace at Terre Haute to be mixed with the- Missouri ores and smelted.

The manufacture of clay products was a factor of importance from the very early davs of Vigo history. It will be recalled that the Ross brothers established the first brick factory at Terre Haute in the early twenties, and shortly afterward the unvaried wooden construction of the town was diversified by residences and business houses of brick.

taken place, and besides the making of "mud brick" from the alhivial clays, the finer and more durable clay products have been manufactured, introducing the use of the shales and clays that are found in abundance in various localities of the county. The clay industries along the west bluffs of the Wabash have developed rapidly in the past seven or eight years. The conditions are particularly favorable, since the presence of ample and suitable deposits of raw material is supplemented by abundance of cheap coal fuel, and a network of railroad lines to convey the finished products to market. Stoneware, vitrified wares, fireproofing, etc., are made in large quantities and of recognized excellence in this country. The Mgo Gay Company, established in 1901 for the manufacture of hollow brick, fireproofing, etc. ; the C. M. Miller Mining and Manufacturing Company, established in 1904 for making ordinary brick; the National Drain Tile Company (a plant established here in 1902) ; the Terre Haute Brick and Pipe Company, which began manufacture of paving brick, etc., in 1894, are among the important enterprises of this nature that have developed this industry in recent years.

According to the Bureau of Statistics Vigo county had, in 1905. 210 factories, standing, in this respect, sixth among the counties of the state. However, in "per cent, increase'' in the number of establishments between 1905 and 1900, Terre Haute excelled all the seven other largest cities of the state. This increase was 31.5 per cent, in Terre Haute, while South Bend stood next with 19.8 per cent., and Indianapolis. 16.2 per cent. Here is evidence of the rapid rise of Terre Haute as a manufacturing center. In the order of rank, based on the value of the increase in manufactured products over 1900. Terre Haute suffered from comparison with its rivals, the per cent, of increase being 11.4 per cent., against Evansville's 57.8 per cent.. Indianapolis' 38.6 per cent.. Fort Wayne's 34.3. South Bend's 18.2, and New Albany's 13.