F , I! 1 f UC } INDIANAPOLIS: ITS iIiYjSNTAOBS FOB Gommerce and Manufactures. PUBLISHED AND COMPILED BY THI Manufacturers and Real Estate Ex:GHiA.isrc2-E. INDIANAPOLIS : WRIGHT, BAKER & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 33 and 35 South Illinois Strbst. 1874. INDIANAPOLIS: ITS ADVANTAGES FOR COMMERCE AND MANU FACTURES. ITS ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY. The first settlement upon the site of Indianapolis was made early in the year 1819, before the cession of that portion of the State to the United States by the Indians, in pursuance of the treaty of St. Mary's in 1818. Though there has been some difference as to the person and arrival of the first settler, the conclusion of those most familiar w'th the history of the city is that the honor, such as it is, belongs to George Pogue, a blacksmith, who came from the Whitewater settlement and built a cabin near the point where Michigan street crosses the creek named after him. He was killed by the Indians in 1821. The next settlers were the McCormicks, who located near the river where the present National road bridge stands. On the 11th of January, 1820, the Legislature of the State appointed ten Commissioners to select a site for the future capital — Congress having provided in the act of April 19th, 1816, admitting the State into the Union, that she should bave four sections of any unsold public lands that might be selected, as a, gift. Five of the Commissioners accepted the appointment, and in the spring of 1820 traversed the White River valley in pursuance of the duty they were charged with. That was the central region of the State, and, therefore, the proper place of search. Opinions were divided between the Bluffs of White Kiver, sixteen miles south, Conner's settle ment, about the same distance north, and the present location. Three votes finally fixed the selection here over two for the Bluffs. The choice was made on the 7th of June, 1820, and confirmed on the 6th of January, 1821. The town was laid off in the summer of 1821 by Alex ander Ralston, who had assisted in the same work at the National cap ital, and, no doubt, thence derived the idea that gave Indianapolis its four grand "avenues." As the course of the river bending to the east cuts off a part of the southwest section, an equivalent was given in a portion of a fifth section on the west side of the river, the site of Indi- anola. A mile square- in the center of the main body of the "donation," on the east side of the river, was "platted" ; ten streets ninety feet wide at distances of four hundred and twenty feet parallel with the meri dian, crossing ten streets of the same width, except Washington — one hundred and twenty feet wide — and at the same intervals at right angles to the meridian, with a central space of a circular form, aur- lounded by a street, for the Governor's residence. Prom the opposite- angles of the four blocks adjacent to the Circle four avenues diverged, bisecting the quarters of the plat into eight huge right angled trian gles. The streets and avenues were named after the States of the Union at that time, as far as they would serve; but the principal street was- called Washington. Those bounding the plat were called, from their locality, East, West, North and South, and the central streets crossing at the Circle were called Market and Meridian. The blocks formed by the intersections of the streets were quartered by alleys parallel to the- streets, one half being thirty feet wide — many now converted into streets — and the other fifteen feet wide, each quarter containing three lots, and the length of the lots varying a few feet, according as they abutted on the broader or narrower alleys. The "outlots" constituting the remainder of the "donation," a half mile wide on each side of the plat, were laid off subsequently, more in small farms than in city lots. These are all as densely built up now as the original plat, while as- much more has been platted and added by the.owners since, conforming- generally, except in the width of the streets — usually reduced to sixty feet, sometimes less — to the original survey. The name of Indianapo lis was suggested by Jeremiah Sullivan, a member of the Legislature- from Jefferson county, afterwards one of the State's Supreme Judges,. and was adopted by acclamation, though one member, with anti-Napo leonic prejudices, favored "Suwarrow," and General Marston G. Clark, brother of the celebrated George Rogers Clark, who took the northwest territory from the English, was strongly for "Tecumseh." The first sale of lots was held on the 10th of October, 1821, and after several days three hundred and fourteen had been sold at an aggregate price of $35,596.25, of which one-fifth was paid down. The highest priced lot was on the northwest corner of Washington and Delaware streets, opposite the Court House. It brought $560. The next.was west of the State House square, and brought $500. The average was about $200„ The current of settlement and sale was eastward from the river, where the first pioneers had, with the backwoods instinct, built their cabins. A visitation of chills and fever, due to the dense vegetable growth and the malaria produced by decomposition — now and for many years as infrequent a disease as any — had warned their followers to get further away from the river bottom. During this year crops failed, and pro visions were mainly brought on horseback through sixty miles of track less forest from Connersville, to which the new village was attached for judicial purposes. On the 31st of December, 1821, Marion county wu- organized with a large attachment for "judicial purposes" of territory now constituting five adjacent counties. From the fund derived from the sale of lots was supplied the means to build the Court House — used as the State House for ten years; a Treasurer's office and residence; a Governor's house in the Circle — but never occupied except by public offices; a small office for the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and the pres ent State House begun in 1832 and finished in 1835. The Court House- ¦was begun in 1822, and so far completed as to receive the Legislature- in 1825 upon the removal of the capital from Corydon, Harrison county., The first jail, of hewed logs, was built in 1822. Indians remained in the vicinity for some years after the location of the capital, and the .murder of nine Shawnees by six white men, some miles north of Pen dleton in the* spring of 1824, created a good deal of apprehension of a bloody retaliation. But the arrest, conviction, and execution of three of the murderers pacified the savages. These were the first instances of the legal execution of white men for killing Indians in the history of the United States. A census taken in this year (1824) showed one hundred families on the "donation," composed of one hundred and seventy-two -voters and. forty-five unmarried but marriageable women, indicating a population — allowing for the unusual proportion of single men in a new settlement — of six to seven hundred. The first regular post office and postal service were established on the 7th of March, 1822, the mails pre viously having been an affair of private enterprise or accommodation. "The first stage line for passengers was established on the Madison road in 1828. The capital was ordered to be removed to its new location by -an act of January 25th, 1824, and Samuel Merrill directed to execute it. He did so in the following November, and the Legislature met for the first time in Indianapolis on the 10th of January, 1825, holding its session, as above intimated, in the Court House, the Senate in the second story and the House in the court room below. No Governor's residence was occupied as such till 1839, and it, on account of inconvenience, was sold in 1865, and now the Governor has no residence but such as he may own or rent, a liberal allowance for the latter purpose being made by the State. The first private school was opened in 1821. The first church built for that purpose was erected in 1823-4, and belonged to the Presbyterians. The celebrated Oriental scholar and eccentric ¦George Bush was the second, pastor, filling the place from 1824 to 1829. The first Sunday-school — composed of all denominations and called the Union school — was opened in April, 1823. The first public school ¦house — rented to private teachers till the establishment of the free school system — was the old Seminary, built in 1833-4. The first news paper — the Indiana Gazette — was issued in January, 1822. The first Market House was a shanty in the Circle; but another, and now the only one, though greatly enlarged, was built in 1832 directly north of the Court House. The first municipal organization was effected in the same year by the election of five trustees. Previously, the only law was the State statutes, and the only officers, squires and constables. Five wards were formed, enlarged to six after the reincorporation of 1838. This government continued till a city charter was granted in 1847. The first fire company was formed in 1835, and the first engine, half the ¦cost of which was paid by the State, procured in the fall of the same year. The first banking facilities were afforded by the branch of the old State Bank, organized in 1834. In 1825 Alexander Ralston made a survey of White River to determine the practicability of making it permanently navigable, but nothing ever came of this or subsequent •efforts in that direction. A little steamer, intended to carry stone for - 6 lithe National road bridge across the river, came to the town in the spring of 1831, but was nearly wrecked on a bar going back, and no other ever eamo within reach. The first dry goods store was opened in 1821 ; the first saw and grist mills in the same year; the first foundry in 1832 west of the river; the first steam mill— a sad failure— inl832. 'This epitome of the history of the city's origin is deemed a fitting introduction to an account of its development and an exhibit of its present condition. GROWTH. With the removal of the Capital in 1824-5, came a strong impulse to settlement, which was pretty nearly lost after 1827. The population in 1826 was 760. In 1827 it consisted of 529 white and 34 colored males, and 479 white and 24 colored females, a total of 1,066 — an average growth of nearly 50 per cent, in a year. In that year there were three churches — the Presbyterian, with thirty members; the Baptist, with thirty-six; the Methodist, with ninety-three, and the Union Sunday School with one hundred and fifty pupils. There were twenty-five brick, fifty frame, and eighty log houses — six of the brick houses being two stories high. It was claimed that $10,000 worth of goods had been sold during the year pre ceding, including two hundred and thirteen barrels of whisky and one hundred kegs of powder, the latter showing a large reliance upon game for food. The proportion of whisky — something likeFalstaffs "sack"— was due to the fear of malarious diseases and the — lack of milk. At this time, though the plat had been a good deal cleared of trees, the outlots were all dense forests, and for years after trees were standing on what are now some of the principal streets. The town was confined to a nar row strip along Washington street. The annual meetings of the Legis lature made some excitement in the village, but beyond that, there was little difference between the Capital and other county towns, except that its central location, subsequently so vital to its development, was against it. The population in 1830, so far as can now be ascertained, did not exceed 1,200. In 1839. at the "corporation" election, 324 votes were east for President of the Board of Trustees, (who had no opposition), in dicating an adult population of some 400 or 500, and a population of 2,000 or 2,500. In 1840 the census made it about 4,000. In 1850 it was about 8,000; in 1860, 19,000; in 1870, 52,000, on a second authorized enumeration — 48,000 by the first — and is now, calculating upon the best attainable data, about 100,000. Its aggregate business has grown from $10,000 in 1827 to $114,000,000 in 1873; its belt of settlement along one street to over two hundred miles of paved and lighted streets; its little squad of mechanics to 10,000 skilled workmen, supporting a population of 40,000; its single stage line per week to 78 railway trains per day; it& occasional four-horse wagon, with goods from the Ohio, to nearly 600,000 cars per year ; its village insignificance to the place of the largest wholly inland city in the United States. The first indications of the possibility of such a development appeared as the first railroad, from the Ohio river at Madison, came within available reach in 1845, and they grew stronger after the completion of the road, on the 25th of Septem ber, 1847. Railroads, already contemplated or in progress, under th«» -jA—^TTSi^ .3J.' . 'llijli w ._ _.'."_&> ~ ; - . ¦ -irz ""^TZ-^ ! zm=rs$f. S'PAUt MINNESOTA / I 'ATONNA^ ^ mm 4' rfip-l, \ 4 -?Jp-^a jO -3--- Jm^w ^ I O n* i ._} ,t\°q "C EDSRRKPID 3UNC1USLUFFS S ^ B K- A, N i v s I A - ;«; '""V « fjK* hFOTEp°,n(\ -f *¦< V *U/t *I>je2» / ><£^+ ir? i ! s? |W> 1-1— r# - i « i -? * I,- 7ffe il&s1"*^ < 5j* <£ j^ #1 *^J » 7v.ni* — tf " L< ict .MASHfl-LE _ J. /'r c^ ¦»t6 n N 'I oaltoh' oiv*?£ isini-rj #'AHr£AS»^\, W//'// 1 fpli 'oWB*£SS~4 , <#_$ lj - r | _ Aj I /, W . Yt/nrtiT . \liJ/s oft lie Iiirtiann (bnl mrikf.v al\ i /V//> ityutJiem /Minna Irlm "One isbitprr/orioflu' | rrM/Mlr/i flrMtm/l (lip of 'Grew 'Britair). F: XT' .L AJIATIOV H STATE LINES HPROPOSCD R.R , H FINISHED R P. /rff LOCATION AND ^r^-' TRIBTTTABY, AGRTCULTITRAI^ "'.,'6? ,'".:'-:^-.- f^^---/ .'V-' ~7r/i.7ar?apQ?is ' INDIANA J 3i 3> IA XAi? W JLXS . itimulus of the success of the Madison road, were pushed on vigorously In 1850 the Bcllefontaine road was opened for business, and finished ifl 1852; in 1851 the Peru road was opened, and finished in 1854; in 1852 the Jeffersonville road was completed to a connection with the Madison at Edinburgh; in 1852 the Terre Haute road was opened; in 1852 the Lafayette road was ready; in October, 1853, the Cincinnati was. in ope ration, followed by the Central in December, 1853. These eigbt roads speedily converted the backwoods village into a city; and even the promise of them, with the one already completed, sbowed decided results in the business of 1850, and the population increased to 8,p0p, majnjy the addition of the two years between the fall of 1847 and January 1850. The success of one road cou]d not ulone have instigated sucji activity of railway concentration here. There was another and an irre- sistable influence at work. This was the city's CENTRAL SITUATION. Indianapolis is the geographical center of the State, and the most central town of the rich, populous and powerful section of the Union west of the Alleghenies and east of the Mississippi, between the lakes and the Ohio. The most direct lines of communication between the sea board and the Mississippi would naturally pass through it, as would those striking the most available points for exchange of products between the lakes and the South. The generally level surface of the country invited railways, and the conveniences of the city pointed to it as an admirable terminus or " cross-roads." Thus it came that so many started from various directions to meet there. And with these came facilities for transportation that shame the uncertainties, the perils, and the speed of most river transportation, and yield nothing in capacity, either. The original eight roads have become thirteen — one rapidly approaching completion — and they have put this center in a far more favorable situ ation for commerce and manufacturers than most cities that are favored by rivers, which freeze up or overflow every year, and run dry every other year. But this primary influence could not have produced such a result as Indianapolis exhibits in 1874, unless aided by powerful subor dinate influences. It would have made a large and prosperous town, but not such a center of constantly and rapidly accumulating rnanufactures and trade as Indianapolis is. Every county in the State, but seven, can bereaved by rail, and of the seyen five can be reached by steamboats. CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. First among these auxiliary influences may be noticed the character of the country in and about the city. It is a vast plain, occupying a large portion of the central section of the State, diversified but not broken by undulations, sometimes rising into moderate hills, and profusely watered by small streams, but nowhere so abrupt or swampy as to pre vent easy reduction or filling. The inequalities facilitate drainage with out affecting ready and cheap improvement and occupancy. The room for expansion is practically illimitable. A city of ten millions would not, in any direction, be inconveniently divided or crowded by impassa- 8 ble barriers. Every foot, for twenty miles about the present boundaries, can be easily and as cheaply converted into city lots as the portion -with in them. To this cause is due the facility with which mechanics, rail road hands, men of moderate means of all occupations, have been able to make themselves owners of their homes. It is the source from which Indianapolis derives the boast it may justly make, that "there is no city in the Union or the world where so large a proportion of the residences are owned by their occupants." There are many tenement houses, cer tainly, but the ease with which cheap lots may be obtained in the con stantly widening suburbs, is a standing inducement to labor to make itself a proprietor instead of a tenant. A few yards further walk from business to residence makes all the difference between the cheap lot of this year and the cheap lot of last year. The latter rise steadily in value, but illimitable room adds others as cheap, or cheaper, all the time. . This. uniform ease of expansion shows its effect, also, in the location or removal of manufactories requiring large space to the suburbs. The radiation of railways in all directions makes all points of the spreading circumfer ence equally accessible, and uniformity of surface makes locations equally cheap. This tendency to equalize the exterior with the interior will be much assisted by the completion of the Belt Railway, now in progress, which circles the whole city at a short distance from its bound aries. Its primary object is to facilitate the transfer of railroad freights, but it must operate directly to enhance the value of outlying property, and create small centres of settlement about the remote manufactories, which will spread inward as the city spreads outward. The obvious advantages of these exterior locations for manufactories have caused sev eral to be removed trom more central points, and more will go as the interior rises in value andthe exterior becomes nearly or quite as conve nient for them. In the older portions, where coming business crowds upon existing business, lots are costly, of course, but cheapen as they advance toward the suburbs, which are daily advancing upon the farms and forests about them. Another of these auxiliary influences is the propinquity of the city to AW INEXHAUSTIBLE COAL FIELD. The coal field of Indiana covers nearly 7,000 square miles of the southwestern section, capable of yielding 70,000,000,000 (seventy bil lions) tons, and is traversed by five western railways diverging from the city. They strike its eastern limit where the beds rise close to and even above, the surface, at an average distance of fifty miles. Tha coal being of uniform quality, this abundance of means of transportation is ample security against oppressive freights. All qualities of coal are found in this field, from the "block" — a mineral charcoal, free from sulphur and phosphorus — to the strong steam and gas making bituminous. Within fifteen years it has almost wholly supplanted wood as a fuel for all purposes, though much of the country is densely timbered, and wood is still cheap, comparatively. The " block " coal is the chief element of the city's success as a manufacturing point. While good for steam pur poses, it is especially good for iron-working in all its stages. It require* no coking to smelt, or puddle, or roll iron. It burns like charcoal «r wood, freely and without running together or agglutinating. Its blocks! burn as they lie, like sticks of hickory. It seems made purposely for smelting furnaces, rolling mills, and steel making. And there can be no better place found than Indianapolis for either. Two rolling mills have been in operation for years — one for rails and the other for bar and rod iron — and the quality of product in both is unsurpassed. The best ra'ls in this country are those re-rolled in the rail mill; and Pittsburgh often sends to the bar mill for the toughest and best metal used in the finer manufactories. Blast furnaces have been much talked of,' but the •general depression in the iron market has delayed more positive effort. The "block" coal and its mines present several distinct, and of some it may be fairly said, unequaled advantages. 1. It needs no coking for any form of iron work, as it contains no ¦deleterious element, burns without " running," can't choke a blast fur nace, and can't damage the product in any way. 2. It is the best mineral fuel known for steel. 3. It is good for steam, but it is accompanied by other seams of admirable steam and gas coal. 4. It is easily mined, in many cases by "drifting " into hill sides, in others by shallow shafts ; it is free from explosive gases; it is readily broken out of the seam in blocks of any desired size; the mines are •easily drained. 5. The land on the surface is amply able to support by its products all, and five times as many, as can work below it. 6. Five railroads — one nearly completed — cross the field all along •an arc from the southwest to northwest, probing every available outcrop and accessible seam, and assuring the manufacturers, by their competi tion, against unjust freight charges. 7. The field is practically inexhaustible, as there is block coal enough in it to make all the iron of the world, and supply all its fuel for a thousand years. To this source must be attributed the rapid develop ment of our iron industry. The amount of coal brought to the city in 1873 was 268,560 tons, costing $1, 300,000, against $1,213,000 in 1872, and About $600,000 in 1871. IRON INDUSTRY. This is now the third in value of products, and second in number of men employed. Until 1848, or after the completion of the first railroad, it was, though sedulously nursed by some few citizens of more ardor than capital, a very feeble and uncertain industry. A foundry was es tablished in 1832 west of the river, and maintained for a few years, but failed finally. Others followed, with little more success. But with the advent of railway facilities a change came, and some machine shops and foundries were started then that would not know themselves in theit present' huge proportions. The coal, though known and used to some extent as early as 1850 or 1851, was not understood as it is now. Its pe culiar fitness for iron work was still a secret. And it has come into gen eral use within little more than a decade. But the city was the center of a great and rich agricultural region, and needed engines and mill 10 gearing, and threshing machines, and other implements, and came here "for them. This was the first impulse. The manufacture of iron followed the manufacture of implements from iron. The development was rapid, and is increasing steadily, enlarging old establishments, creating new ones, and bringing here successful ones long established in neighboring- cities. Now the city makes all kinds of stoves and hollow-ware, gas- posts, water and gas-pipes, house fronts, railings, rails, jails, bars, rods, engines, mill-work, saws, files, edge tools, malleable iron, and the like, to- the amount, in 1873, of $3,800,000, employing $2,200,000 of capital and 1,500 men, representing a population of six thousand. The city's situa tion, its connection with the "block " coal field, its railway facilities, and the success of its iron enterprise, attested by their steady growth in spite of the general depression, are very sufficient indications that it is the right place for the manufacture of Bessemer steel and the smelting of iron. A fourth auxiliary influence in the development of the city is the advantage it possesses in the HARD WOOD AND LUMBER TRADE. The "bottoms" of the Wabash, White River, and Blue River, with. the intervening uplands, contain the best Black Walnut growths in this country. They also contain the bulk of all that is produced in the country. Indiana is the -Black Walnut State, and Indianapolis lies in the center both of the State and of this productive region. Naturally the trade in this valuable lumber turns to this city. Though the growth of the last ten years, mainly, it is now one of our most important inter ests, and is to the "hard wood" trade of the whole country what Chicago- is to the grain trade, or more, for it does a larger proportion of the whole business of the country. Last year there were fifty millions feet of walnut sold here, at an aggregate cost of $2,500,000. The capi tal employed amounted to nearly $1,000,000 and twelve or fifteen mills, with five to six hundred hands, were engaged in its production. In the- production and sale of "white wood" or poplar lumber, and of oak, , hickory, beech, elm, and other timber used in building and wood manu factures, Indianapolis enjoys, from its favorable situation, unequalled advantages, and controls the bulk of the whole business. So, too in coopers' stock, staves and hoop poles. This is brought here in the rough from all parts of the State, and manufactured by seven establish ments, handling thirty millions of staves annually, worth $1,000,000. Some of it is made into barrels here, but more is shipped to other points. when ready for "hooping." Of pine lumber about fifty million feet are sold yearly, at an aggregate cost of $1,200,000; of shingles and laths. ¦thirty million are sold, worth $120,000. There are thirty-four lumber yards in the city, of which about half deal more or less exclusively in black walnut. The manufactures of wood in various forms as by planing mills, agricultural implement works, wagon and carriage facto ries, sewing, maobines, boxes, furniture, cars, cooperage, and the like -exclusive of lumber, amounted, in 1873, to $5,800,000, employins- $2,l?93,u00 -of capital and 2,178 hands. The aggregate of lumber and. 11 wood manufactures is about $10,500,000, employing nearly $3,000,000 of •apital and 2,700 hands, representing a population of about 11,000. PORK AND CATTLE TRADE. Indianapolis is not less the center of the "pork" than the "hard wood" region of the West. The most productive hog country is that where the black walnut is most abundant. With adequate facilities for transportation this wonld have been the chief pork packing center of the Union. Forty years ago the first attempt to pack pork here was made. The slaughtered hogs were bought of farmers and only cut and cured by the packers. The product was sent off by flatboats down the river. The enterprise failed, but was renewed in 1839 or 1840 in much the same fashion, but succeeded better, and for some years carcasses were bought of farmers for "goods" or cash, packed, and shipped by flatboats on the spring freshet on the river. After the completion of the Madison Rail road, slaughtering, as well as packing, was done largely, and from that day the pork interest has grown, and until recently has been the leading industry of the city in value of product. Now it is second only to lum ber and wood manufactures. Three large establishments for slaughter ing and packing were erected in -1873, each capable of disposing of fifteen hundred to two thousand hogs per day. There are now five of these huge pork houses hero, and one (Kingan's) is the largest in the world. The aggregate product in 1873 was $0,614,000, or 549,100 hogs, a meagre showing, because three of the five packing houses were barely ready to begin with the season, and this, with the effect of the panic, greatly reduced the business confidently anticipated. Yet it still stood next to that of St. Louis. For 1874 there is no doubt that it will stand next to, if it does not go beyond, that of Cincinnati. There is no rea son why it should not be the first in the country. The natural business. and produce drainage of Indianapolis extends (as estimated by the Na tional Crop Reporter, and as the map shows plainly enough,) to thirty- four counties in Indiana and eighteen in Illinois, producing 2,345,602 hogs, With about 800,000 of surplus. This belongs here, and once directed to its natural reservoir, it will bring with it twice as much, or more, that now goes elsewhere, for "business makes business." The pork business of 1874 will not fall short of 700,000 hogs, and is as likely .to reach 800,000. Besides the large, hog product of the region natu rally tributary to the city, and the great advance in the centralization and manufacture of it, two causes co-operate to assure both its perma nence and expansion. 1st. The climate here, as attested by the most experienced packers, is that medium between extremes of heat and cold which produces the best condition of the carcass for cutting and curing. It is not so cold as to freeze the meat externally, and thus confine the animal heat to the interior and around the bone, tending to decomposi tion, and apt, in any case, to produce an unpleasant smell and taste; and it is not so warm as to retard cooling long enough to allow decom position to set in. 2d. The command, from home sources and by means of railroad transportation, of an unlimited supply enables packer* to prosecute their business all the year round, thus relieving the market 12 f the annual rush during the early part of the winter, and providing krmers with a constant market and a ready means of converting their ¦crops into cash, when the demand for them, in their natural form, falls -off. The considerations that determine the value of Indianapolis as a pork center apply with equnl force to cattle. The value of stock, in the region of the city's natural produce drainage, is almost exactly that ¦of the hog crop, nearly $24,000,000, while a much larger surplus remains .after home use, being 319,000 head, worth $12,770,000. Of sheep the number is 800,000, with 267,000 surplus, and 2,800,000 pounds of wool. 'Of horses, mules, and jacks 520,000, worth $25,000,000. Here are all the elements of supply, transportation, central location, abundant food, and a wide market to make one of the largest and most profitable Stock Yards in the country. And measures have already been taken to •establish one equal to any demand. GRAIN TRADE. Still another of the influences that have contributed to the extraor dinary growth and prosperity of Indianapolis, and are certain to con tinue their operation, is the advantage of a wide command of one of the richest grain sections of the continent. This has only within it few years been improved with much energy, but the effect of that few years -of effort is such as to show that the grain trade may rival any interest here. The region naturally tributary to the city produces 118,000,000 bushels of corn, 15,000,000 bushels of wheat, 18,000,000 bushels of oats, •600,000 bushels of rye, 333,000 bushels of barley, with an aggregate value of $61,540,510, of which 7,000,000 of bushels of wheat, 70,000,000 of corn, 540,000 of rye, and 300,000 of barley are in excess of home con sumption, worth in the aggregate $39,575,000. The mill product of -grain for 1873 amounted to $2,000,000, with $635,000 of capital. The trade in grain itself amounted to $3,000,000. It has grown so rapidly that the private elevators could not manage it, and a large one, west of the river, was erected in 1873. The extension of means at once showed itself in an expansion of business, and now this large elevator is totally nnable to meet the demands upon it, and large amounts of grain are orced to be sold from the cars without adequate inspection. This ¦necessitates a second and larger elevator, which will be begun at once. It is not unlikely that two will be added, so unprecedented and unexpected