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November 29, 2008

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: The early growth of the city of non-growth (Part III)

By Mike McCormick

TERRE HAUTE — Much optimism for Terre Haute’s 20th-century commercial prospects could be attributed to the arrival of one new industry.

Lured by railroads, distilleries, breweries, quality sand and an aggressive new Commercial Club, three glass companies located in Terre Haute during 1900.

Henry W. “Harry” Streeter’s Terre Haute Glass Manufacturing Co. was the first, locating in the vacated the large Cobleigh Piano Case Co. factory at 16th and Maple streets.

North Baltimore Glass Co., of North Baltimore, Ohio, headed by Albert Pfau and Chapman J. Root, was next. The firm built its plant across Maple Avenue from Streeter.

The Hays Glass Co. built a plant at 25th and Locust streets but, within a few months, it was acquired by Modes-Turner Glass Co.

Root severed his association with Pfau in 1901 to establish the Root Glass Co. at Third and Voorhees streets.

The glass industry fit in nicely with the city’s three distilleries, four garment makers, five brick manufacturers, four wholesale grocery houses, six newspapers, six banks, three telephone companies, and a multitude of other businesses including Standard Wheel Co., Terre Haute Brewing Co., Prox & Brinkman and Fouts & Hunter.

Hudnut Hominy Co., which introduced edible corn oil to the world in 1899, transferred two Vigo County mills to American Hominy Co. in 1902. And Terre Haute Shovel & Tool Co. sold its manufacturing plant to Charles F. Loudon Packing Co. in 1905.

Terre Haute Car & Manufacturing Co. was one of 13 companies united in 1899 to establish American Car & Foundry Co. By 1904, the Terre Haute plant employed 900 men, producing 30 freight cars daily and 400 tons of gray iron castings monthly.

The Terre Haute Paper Co., Columbian Stamping & Enameling Co., Highland Iron & Steel, National Drain & Tile Co., Commercial Distilling Co., People’s Brewing Co., Gartland Foundry, Ferris Stove Works, Langton Gun-Stock Co., Vigo Clay Products, Terre Haute Malleable & Manufacturing Co., Koeppen Mould Works, Braden Manufacturing Co. and Up-to-Date Manufacturing Co. became part of the commercial landscape before 1906.

The Terre Haute Electric Co., organized by William Riley McKeen, Demas Deming, John G. McNutt, John E. Lamb and John T. Beasley, acquired the assets of the Terre Haute Street Railway Co. to provide interurban service between Terre Haute and Brazil commencing Sept. 2, 1900. The operating company was Stone & Webster of Boston.

With the resurgence of industrial activity, unionism in Vigo County made a revival.

Terre Haute was a hotbed of labor activity before the Financial Panic of 1893. There were about 60 strikes in the city between 1877 and 1892 and it served as host of the 1881 convention that laid groundwork for establishment of the American Federation of Labor.

But unionism struggled during the Financial Panic. Wages plummeted and many local unions disbanded. There were signs of recovery in 1897. New locals were formed to accommodate new trades and abandoned unions were rechartered.

Between January 1900 and July 1902, there were 15 strikes in Terre Haute. Machinists were responsible for two national strikes. The rest were local. The most important was a nine-month boycott by firemen and trainmen of the Terre Haute Electric Co. in 1902, perhaps the bitterest labor dispute in Terre Haute history.

That strike — involving the local street railway and interurban company – had many ugly moments. Community leaders were justified in thinking that the city’s image was being damaged by the unpredictable episodes of violence.

The establishment of the Citizens’ Protective League (CPL) — headed by popular Terre Haute businessmen Adolph Herz, Spencer F. Ball and Morton Rankin — was instrumental in hastening a resolution favorable to the company,

Opposition to the boycott was the primary reason for its existence.

The CPL was composed of several civic leaders who had fueled boosterism in the 1870s and organized the Commercial Club of Terre Haute in 1899. The Retail Merchants Association and the Terre Haute Manufacturers Club were founded at about the same time.

The Commercial Club was were willing to advance cash to attract industry. A fund established to lure Columbian Stamping & Enameling Co. to Terre Haute exceeded $50,000. During 1905, the club could claim credit for 21 new businesses.

Despite obstacles created by the hard times, Terre Haute ranked second in 1900 among Indiana cities in the value of manufactured product and Vigo ranked second among Indiana counties in coal production. In 1902, Vigo’s 33 mines employed 1,800 miners.

Due to the hefty tax on distilled spirits, the Internal Revenue District which encompassed Terre Haute produced the third-largest receipts of any IRS district in the nation. Terre Haute’s Majestic Distillery was flaunted as the largest in the world

Standard Wheel Co. embarked upon a new venture in 1902 when it allowed Claude Cox, an alumnus of Terre Haute High School and Rose Polytechnic, to create the Overland Runabout, a pioneer automobile.

By 1908, Republic Steel closed Terre Haute’s iron and steel plants acquired from the Crawfords. However, Highland Iron & Steel maintained a rolling mill and the local economy remained remarkably diverse.

With 188 factories in place by 1910, few could quarrel with the assertion that “Terre Haute is destined to become one of the great manufacturing cities in this section of the country.” Of that total, 58 new plants had opened since 1900.

With all the industrial activity, it is not surprising that the 1910 census reported Terre Haute’s population at 58,157, an increase of nearly 60 percent in ten years. Vigo County boasted 87,930 residents.

Even the 1906 impeachment of Mayor Edwin Bidaman did not seem to dampen the prediction that it was only a matter of time before Terre Haute could boast that it was the “Pittsburgh of the West.”

Continued to next week

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