Indiana, a State of Change
(This history is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive history of the state of Indiana. The History Museum provides this for general knowledge about Indiana’s history.)
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Since 1860, there has been a large growth of industries in Indiana. As a result, people came from the U.S. and abroad to work in these new factories. By 1920, the growth of Indiana’s cities had begun.
In South Bend, James Oliver, the inventor of the Oliver Chilled Plow, started a factory to manufacture farm implements. People, many from other countries, migrated to northern Indiana to work in his factory. The Studebaker brothers had started, first, a blacksmith shop that eventually grew into the largest wagon manufacturer in the world (and then on to automobile manufacturing). These new factories needed huge numbers of laborers to keep the manufacturing process running.
To read more about James Oliver and his Chilled Plow CLICK HERE
To learn more about the Studebaker Company CLICK HERE
Specialized factories helped make other cities grow. Steamboats were made in Jeffersonville alongside the Ohio River. Many Elkhart factories centered on making band instruments. In 1891, the Wayne Knitting Mills in Fort Wayne started producing socks and clothing.
Around 1900, natural gas was discovered near Portland, Indiana. The northeastern side of the state saw growth centered on this new energy resource. The Indiana state government offered free gas (to run machinery and other things) to factories that would build in these areas. Natural gas allowed for the production of glass products.
In Muncie, the Ball Brothers Company, founded in 1887, was the most famous glass manufacturer. The Ball Company specialized in the manufacture of glass fruit canning jars. The company is especially known for its innovative technology in the production of glass jars. In 1930, one machine at the Ball plant produced 30 fruit jars per minute. Ball Brothers became even more self-sufficient by creating their own zinc and rubber production facilities to make lids and seals for their jars. They also had a paper mill that produced cardboard boxes used to ship their jars in Ball-owned railcars. By 1936, the Ball Company had 5 plants outside Indiana, but the Muncie plant remained the largest. The Ball factory in Muncie spanned 70 acres and employed 2,500 workers. The Ball brothers are also famous because they used some of their fortune to start Ball State University.
Unfortunately, the natural gas discovered in northeast Indiana lasted only approximately 15 years. Factories then switched to using coal for their energy needs. They continued to use sand and clay to make everything from glass to pottery.
With the technological advances in industrial production, steelmaking had become an important occupation in Indiana. Steel was now being used in buildings, homes and the flourishing railroads. There are three basic elements needed to make coal: iron ore, coal and limestone. A certain type of coal is burned and turned into a fuel called coke. Coke burns at very high temperatures that are needed to melt large quantities of iron ore and limestone. When iron ore and limestone are combined and heated together at high temperature, the useable steel settles towards the bottom of the kettle and limestone forms with the impurities and floats at the top of the heated mixture (this is then skimmed off the top of the molten steel and discarded—this is called slag).
Around 1900, the United States Steel Company began searching for a place to construct a new steel mill. The plant had to be in an area close to large supplies of iron ore, limestone and coke (coal) and had to have a way of getting the finished steel to places where it could be used. United States Steel built its new factory on the sand dunes beside Lake Michigan. By placing the factory here, ships could travel to the new factory via Lake Michigan to deliver the iron ore and bulk limestone. Railroads already existed that also could bring the limestone from southern Indiana to the shore of Lake Michigan. Coal and its by-product coke could be delivered by train from Pennsylvania (Indiana’s native coal supply could not be used to make coke).
This new city was named Gary after Elbert H. Gary, the president of the United States Steel Company. After U.S. Steel built the factory in Gary, several other factories and companies came to Gary, often called the Calumet Region of Indiana. Gary became a major industrial center that lasted for decades.
Now that steel production was inexpensive and easy to produce, Henry Ford’s invention of the modern factory production line and interchangeable parts would take full advantage of the steel industry. Nothing in our century has changed life so dramatically as the invention of the automobile. For many years, Indiana was the center of the automobile industry.
Elwood Haynes built one of the first successful cars. Haynes built his first automobile in 1894 and tested it on the Fourth of July in Kokomo. He started his car and drove it on Pumpkinvine Pike in Kokomo for a mile and a half at a top speed of 7 miles per hour. Haynes then brought in some partners, the Apperson brothers, and made some of the first cars sold in America. By 1916 his company had sold over 7,000 cars. Detroit then closed-in and forced the company into bankruptcy in 1924.
Automobiles were produced in more than 40 cities within Indiana. The largest of the Indiana automobile manufacturers was South Bend’s Studebaker Company. It produced its first car in 1901 (which was electric). The company continued making automobiles until it closed in 1963, after over 60 years in the automobile business.
Other famous automobile companies in Indiana included:
The Cole Motor Car Company started in Indianapolis in 1909 and closed in 1925. The Cole Company gave the first automobile in the history of the U.S. presidency to William Taft.
The Marmon Motor Car Company began as a flour mill machinery company. They soon concentrated on making a luxury car they called the Marmon. The last Marmon was produced in 1933 when the company went out of business.
Charles M. Schwab, the Bethlehem Steel tycoon, controlled another Indianapolis-based auto manufacturer, Stutz. He was determined to build an automobile-manufacturing empire. The Stutz Bearcat was one of the most popular sports cars of the 20s. The company failed in 1936.
One of the most famous Indianapolis automakers was the maker of the Dusenberg. Dusenberg automobiles were built only for the extremely wealthy. Most people today believe that the Dusenberg (and Auburn/Cord) vehicles were (and are) the finest automobiles ever built. However, by 1937, the Depression and changing tastes in automobiles had rendered the luxury cars obsolete. E. L. Cord, the owner of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg factory in Auburn, Indiana, sold his corporation and ended the era of the Indianapolis-built Dusenberg. You can visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum by CLICKING HERE
George Milburn of Mishawaka, Indiana, made a different type of vehicle. His automobile ran entirely on electricity. Mr. Milburn was a man of extraordinary energy and force of character. His Milburn Wagon Company reported the value of vehicles produced at the Mishawaka plant for the year ending July 1, 1873, at $446,652,000.00. However, during the same year, a controversy arose between George Milburn and the town of Mishawaka. George Milburn needed and asked the town officials for the railroad tracks to be extended from the factory to the Lake Shore railway main line. However, the mayor and other town council officials felt they could not agree to this request. The tension between Mr. Milburn and Mishawaka widened so much that by the end of 1873 the Milburn Wagon Works was closed and moved to Toledo, Ohio. The most famous Milburn automobiles were the 1918 electric coupes that President Woodrow Wilson’s secret service men drove.
Indianapolis was also the center of what became the most famous auto race in the world. The Indianapolis 500 was first held on Memorial Day of 1911 and still occurs every Memorial Day weekend. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built on 328 acres of farmland on the northwest side of Indianapolis in the spring of 1909. Four local business owners—Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby—originally planned the speedway as a year-round testing facility for automobiles. Only occasionally were there races at the track before 1911 that allowed the different automobile manufacturers to race their cars against each other. It was reasoned that if the public could view these races, they would be impressed to run to their nearest car dealership or factory and purchase one of these new vehicles. This is how the world-famous endurance race began.
The Marmon “Wasp,” the first winning car at the first Indianapolis 500-mile race in 1911.
The track has four turns that bank at 9 degrees each and measure 440 yards from entrance and exit of each turn. These four turns were then connected with long straights that made the track exactly 2.5 miles. The original surface of the track was crushed stone and tar, which proved to be very dangerous in the first opening race. In August 1909, 3,200,000 paving bricks were installed, laid on their sides in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. This gave the speedway the immortal nickname “The Brickyard.”
Poor attendance at several races throughout the year in 1910 caused the owners to redesign their racing plans. They decided on one, single race in 1911. They envisioned this race with a huge audience and offering the winner of the race a huge monetary prize. On May 30, 1911, the first Indianapolis 500-mile race occurred, offering the winner a purse of $14,250. Except for an additional race in September 1916, no race other than the Indianapolis 500 was to be held until the addition of the popular NASCAR stock car event, the Brickyard 400, that debuted in 1994. The 500 was suspended during America’s involvement in two world wars, 1917-1918 and 1942-1945, but held in all other years.
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