Chapter 26

Chapter 26
pages 141 - 147

MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES.

     Besides the above manufactures, various others have been carried on to a greater or less extent. We have always had tailors and shoe and boot makers, who have made a portion of the clothing, etc., for our community; but a large portion of them have always been imported from the eastern cities, as articles of commerce. With regard to hats and caps, much the largest portion has always been imported.
     Formerly, Mr. John Ramsey had a small tan-yard and currying-shop, in which he manufactured leather; and Mr. Jacob Shaffner had a currying-shop, in which he dressed leather that had been tanned elsewhere: excepting the small amount of leather furnished by them, all that has been used in this part of the country has been brought from abroad. Several years ago, Mr. Shaffner withdrew from business, and Mr. Ramsey's health failed, and, after several years' affliction, he died, and now no tanning nor currying is carried on here, or hereabout.
     Since a pretty early time, we have had abundance of jewelers and silver-smiths here; but their operations have generally been confined to repairing jewelry, watches, and clocks. I do not know that any watch or clock was ever made in Peoria. Almost every house contains a clock, and nearly every man and woman in tolerably good circumstances carries a watch, and the most of ladies are ornamented, more or less, with jewelry; yet these are all imported into our state, and many of them from Europe.
     The same is true with regard to the harness and saddlery business. Although we have always had saddlers and harness-makers, we have always imported a considerable amount of goods in that line of business.
     Except a few articles, occasionally made by Mr. Whittemore and Mr. Weatherl, our cutlery and hardware has all been imported.
     We are woefully behind the times with regard to the manufacture of woolen goods; and those of hemp, flax, cotton and silk have never been attempted. Many years ago, more than twenty, Henry Hahn, with a set of black-smith's tools, without any of the ordinary machinery used for that purpose, built a steam-engine, and attached to it a carding-machine, on lot one in block 50, on Water street, and for a time carded wool with it; but after a while it was discontinued, for what reason I do not remember. About the time this went down, two brothers, the two Messrs. Henderson [correction: Messrs. McCulloch], built a small woolen-mill, which they worked a while, but not to much profit to either themselves or the community. We have now in full operation a clothing-mill, carried on by Mr. Charles Raymond, which is likely to prove a complete success.
     No rolling-mill has ever been attempted here, nor machinery for making railroad iron; and, what may seem more strange, we have always imported all our glass, of all kinds.
     Our great backwardness in going into these manufactures has been owing, in part, to our want of capital, but it is also owing, in part, to the great disinclination of most people to embark in a new business, to which they are not accustomed. There is, perhaps, no county in the world better adapted to the culture of hemp than Illinois; yet no one in Illinois, with whom I am acquainted, can be induced to raise hemp. Nor is there any better place for the manufacture of whisky; yet, until an imprudent man, as Mr. A. S. Cole was then called, tested its feasibility, no man could be got to go into it. But Mr. Cole having proved it to be a money-making business, many went into it, and, but for the foolish legislation of Congress on the subject, it would be one of the best businesses in the country.
     So would it be with several other branches of business, should some enterprising man break the way, and prove their feasibility. Where, on this continent. could glass freights, however, is perhaps the greatest argument in favor of making glass here. A large portion, and some times the largest portion, of the cost of heavy articles is on account of freights. Cotton is shipped from Memphis to Boston at a cost much greater than would bring it to Peoria. It is manufactured by machinery propelled by coal costing three times as much as coal at Peoria costs; by men eating food costing a fourth more than food at Peoria would cost; and then sold to us at a price that pays all these charges, and a profit to all concerned. Why not ship the cotton here at once, and save the extra expense of getting it to Boston, and the freight from Boston here, and the difference between the coal and food here and at Boston? Besides, patriotism—self-interest—prompts us to give employment to our own men, in preference to those abroad; or, if we lack competent men, to cause them to emigrate, with their families, to help build up our city.
     We have always had carpenters and house-joiners, but formerly it was a part of their business to make the doors and sash, and plane and tongue-and-groove the flooring by hand. All the machinery by which these things are now done is of modern invention; and as we had no poplar nor pine before the canal and railroads were made, to operate by hand on oak and walnut was a tedious and tiresome business. So hard was the wood that we used for floors, and so tedious was the operation of planing and tongueing-and-grooving such lumber, that I gave a man a cow to lay the floor in my kitchen, a room eighteen feet square from out to out. That floor, however, has been scrubbed and walked on for nearly twenty-six years, and is worth more now than a new pine floor.
     Now, the making of sash and doors and the planing of boards for joiner work are a separate trade. No carpenter or joiner would now think of making his own doors and sash, or planing his joiner lumber, any more than a shoemaker or saddler would think of tanning the leather used in the course of his business.
     The following are the principal carpenters and joiners in the city, and some of them are good architects: Chas. Ulricson, Valentine Jobst, Joseph Miller, sr., Henry Jacobs, McKenzie & Eckley, William Comegys, M. F. Meints, John Waugh, E. Baldwin, Ruley & Bro., Todhunter & Son, J. Buell, D. J. Bracken, W. J. Gardner, G. Herwig, Peter Blumb, Bramble & Lynch, Petherbridge & Stonier, G. L. Ryors.
     The following men have figured as carpenters and joiners in this city, but their names are not in the above list, because they have all gone to that bourne from which no traveler e'er returns', viz., Henry Gilbert, George W. Reed, Chester Hamlin, Thomas J. Hurd, David Markley, John S. Pierce, and Daniel Brestel.
     There are three principal planing-mills here, where materials are prepared for the house-joiners, and where sash and doors are also made on a large scale. They are owned and operated by Mr. William Truesdale, Mr. D. J. Bracken, and Messrs. Hicks & Herschberger. Some others make doors and sash, but on a smaller scale.
     A planing-mill has also lately been put in operation, on Washington street, by Messrs. Shield & Izatt.
     Of late years, the making of corn-planters has become a very considerable business with us. Messrs. James Selby & Co. do the largest business in this line. They tell me they work from fifty-five to sixty men, and that they made last year 1,600 planters, and only worked eight months in the year; and they sell all they make, at wholesale, for $60 each.
     Messrs. Hearst, Dunn & Co., and Messrs. Nicol, Burr & Co. (see Chap. XXII), are also carrying on this business, to a considerable extent, and all have machinery adapted to each particular thing, so that steam is made to do nearly all the work. Messrs. Hearst, Dunn & Co. also carry on the manufacture of saws and sickles for reaping and mowing machines.
     In the millwright business none have obtained a greater degree of public confidence than Mr. George Greenwood, Augustine Greenwood, and I. G. Reynolds. The latter also carries on the manufacture of mill-stones.
     The manufacture of starch here, in the midst of the greatest corn-producing region in the world, seemed for a while to be a failure; but, under the management of Mr. E. S. Willcox, it promises to be decidedly a success.
     Ever since the Germans began to settle in Peoria, the manufacture of beer has been deemed essential. Frederick Miller is the pioneer in this business. At a very early day, I judge about thirty-three years ago, he established a brewery, and for some years had the whole business in his hands; and had not much to boast of at that, for there were but few Germans here then, and the Americans had not learned to relish 'lager'. But the Germans have greatly increased since then, and many of the Americans, English and Irish have proved to be apt scholars in learning to use this beverage, and Friend Miller no longer has the whole thing his own way. There are now several breweries in the city, one, at least, of which makes more beer than Mr. Miller ever made.
     The following-named persons are in the brewery business, viz., Lutz & Lincoln, Gipps & Shurtleff, Joseph Huber & Son, Schmer & Fuchs, Wichmann & Co., and C. Bitz.

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