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Industry
Martinsville, the county seat of Morgan
County, was platted in 1822 on the east bank of the White River. Both
Centerton and Waverly were first considered as the county seat, but several
influential citizens donated land in Martinsville for public buildings if it
would be located there.
The town is thought to have been named in
honor of John Martin of Washington County, Indiana, who served as one of the
first Morgan County Commissioners. A total of 42 blocks were included in the
first plat, with block 18 reserved for the courthouse square. The first
public sale of lots was in June 1822.
The area's first settlers were the Jacob
Cutler family, who came in the years preceding the town's founding. The
first hewn log house in Martinsville was built in 1820 by Jacob Cutler just
north of the northeast corner of the square. By 1822, some six families
resided in the new county seat. Among the first merchants in town were
Joshua Taylor and John Sims. Two early industries included a tannery,
established in 1824 by John Sims, and the Cutler family distillery.
Between the years 1835-1850, Martinsville
shipped a large volume of pork and grain via the White River. Several
coopers established shops here as a result of the shipping industry. By the
1850s, the town had grown significantly and included a woolen mill,
sawmills, flour mills, a wagon shop, and several furniture shops. Religious
congregations included Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, and Baptist.
The railroad arrived in Martinsville prior
to the Civil War, linking the town to Indianapolis and Chicago. In the
antebellum years, new vernacular and
Italianate style
commercial buildings reflecting a growing prosperity soon lined the
courthouse square.
Main Street, west side of
courthouse square, c.1915
A number of prominent industries were
established in Martinsville during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth
centuries. During the 1850s, Giles Mitchell established a brickyard on the
western edge of Martinsville; he later moved it to North Main Street. Brick
for the Morgan County Courthouse was produced at his brickyard. In 1895, the
Adams Brick Company was formed from a consolidation of three smaller brick
companies. The Adams Company utilized the shale found in the cliffs along
Blue Bluff Road in the northern part of the town. In 1909 the Poston Brick
Company was formed and built a plant next to the Adams Company. Neither
complex remains today.
Downdraft or beehive kiln,
Poston Bick Company, North Main Street
Another prominent business was the
Old
Hickory Furniture Company. The company specialized in making furniture out
of bent hickory poles, a popular form of porch furniture of the late 1800s
and early 1900s. The factory was located on Cherry Street in the west part
of town. It no longer exists.
Child's bow back rocking
chair manufactured by Old Hickory
Furniture Company of Martinsville
Old Hickory Furniture Company building, South Cherry
Street
The Indiana Willow Products Company
produced furniture remarkably similar to that of Old Hickory, its hometown
rival, yet it introduced innovations in chair design and in weaving
patterns. This display of furniture at an Indianapolis trade show in 1941 shows the decorative weaving patterns that became characteristic of
its products. The brick factory building, located on the south edge of town,
has been razed.
Display of Indiana Willow
furniture at an Indianapolis trade show, 1941.
Another manufacturer of wood
products—barrels, buckets, chairs and other items—was Davis Cooperage.
Located on Ohio Street south of the courthouse square, it is commonly
referred to as "The Bucket Factory."
Doll clothes pins and
barrel manufactured by Davis Cooperage.
"The bucket factory,"
South Ohio Street
An important seasonal industry was the
canning factory located on Douglas Street on the northwest side of
Martinsville. Opened by the Van Camp Packing Company in 1903, it began as a
small receiving station for tomatoes. By 1940, it had grown into a huge
packing plant with an annual payroll of over $70,000. The peak of the
company's employment occurred during the 1930s, when the National Recovery
Act employed nearly 550 people in tomato canning. Older Martinsville
residents recall bringing their produce into town in wagons and having to
wait hours in a line stretching for blocks before they could unload. A
tragic fire in 1940 destroyed the plant. In 1946, Brady Tomatoes, Inc.,
erected a smaller canning plant on the site. It is now home to Indiana
Gratings.
Van Camp Packing Company,
Douglas Street. Destroyed by fire in 1940.
Brady Tomatoes, Inc.,
plant, now Indiana Gratings.
A Martinsville industry known around the
globe was Grassyfork Fisheries. Established in 1902 by Eugene Shireman, who
had inherited a white elephant in the form of swampy farmland, Grassyfork
was by World War II the largest producer of goldfish in the world.
Having several ponds already on the property, and being one to make
opportunity of adversity, Shireman decided to try his hand at raising
goldfish. He started with two hundred fish, which he carefully tended until
he had more than enough to supply to department stores, pet shops, novelty
stores, drug stores, and florists. As the operation showed continued
success, Shireman bought up surrounding "worthless" farmland and expanded
his operation. Eventually, Grassyfork grew to over 1500 acres and 600 ponds.
By 1970, the year Grassyfork was sold to Ozark Fisheries of Stoutland,
Missouri, the annual production of goldfish had reached 40 million.
Grassyfork Office and
Showrooms, East Morgan Street
View
of Grassyfork fish ponds from Ferguson Drive in Shireman Estates
Grassyfork Fisheries
produced aquariums and related items at this plant on Cherry Street. The
cultivation of water lilies and other pond plants was also a large part of
the business.
The most famous industry in Martinsville was mineral water
sanitariums. Mineral water was discovered in 1889
by Sylvanus Barnard while drilling for natural gas. His discovery helped
Martinsville become one of the nation's leading health resorts. At one time,
Martinsville contained 11 different sanitariums. Click
here to
learn more.
Among the earliest mineral water spas was
the Martinsville Sanitarium, located in the northwest part of town. It
originated in 1892 with two predecessors. The Nutter and
Webster/Major/Artesian Sanitarium and the original Martinsville Sanitarium,
were frame structures built side by side. In 1897 and 1898, W. K. Bellis, an
Indianapolis bicycle manufacturer, bought both structures and combined them
into one large, rambling facility he named the Martinsville Sanitarium.
Linen postcard, c1940.
Martinsville Sanitarium,
2006
In 1916, Walter A. Kennedy bought the
sanitarium and embarked on an ambitious expansion plan. By 1927, he had torn
down and replaced the two early sanitariums with a massive
Tudor Revival
structure. Kennedy promoted the new and improved Martinsville Sanitarium
as "One of the Three Best Known Watering Places in America." Today, only
about one-fifth of the Martinsville Sanitarium exists. The surviving
building was the first hotel structure built in 1925-26.
The other surviving sanitarium is the New Highland Mineral Springs
Sanitarium, founded in the late 1880s. The first structure was built in 1896
by W. C. Banta and Dr. C. J. Keegan. A one story brick annex was built in
1924 incorporating a new feature: an inclined interior ramp linking the two
buildings. A five story brick addition was completed in 1929. On March 11,
1929, the original frame section of the complex was destroyed by fire. What
remains is a large part of the 1920s brick building.
New Highland Sanitarium
(1929), North Main Street
The access to transportation routes, the
development of a diversified industrial base and the popularity of the
town's sanitariums combined to produce a thriving economy for Martinsville
during the early-twentieth century. A number of the downtown's most
significant buildings date to the early twentieth century. The Martinsville
City Hall is one of the county's only examples of the
Renaissance Revival
style. The
Neoclassical First National Bank of Martinsville is
representative of many small town banks of this period. An unusual object in
the downtown area from this period is the neon sign on top of the
Italianate building at 22-28 East Morgan Street. Restored in 2001, this
sign reads, "Martinsville, City of Mineral Water."
Today, Martinsville remains as an
economically viable community. With the growth of the Indianapolis
metropolitan area, the town has balanced its dual identity as a bedroom
community and a typical Indiana small town. |
