Industrial Ladoga in 1878

Hughes House in 1880

Picture of the Centennial Block Building built by Alexander M. Scott and Daniel W. Yeagley in 1876.

Closeup of new Centennial Block Building

Notice the three old buildings that would have to be torn down to make way for the Hardware and Grocery Store

Ladoga Newspapers

Under the title “Newspapers date back to 1860,” Pauline Walters listed the newspapers that served Ladoga until the Leader disbanded on Sept. 29, 1950.  She wrote,  The history of Ladoga newspapers dates back     to 1860 when D. A. Burton published the first paper called The Ruralist. 

 There was a handwritten one-page newspaper at Haw Creek Academy called the Ladoga Weekly Herald, started by W.H. Boswell in1864.  This academy was located south of Ladoga.

            William Boswell stated the Ladoga Journal which was changed to the Ladoga Leader under Clint Kinder.  The next owners after Burton and Boswell were Milton Scott, Tom B. Bell, John Harney, Clint Kinder, C.M. Lemon, J. Frank Warfel, George Anderson, Norris Stoner, Mr. Wright, and W.S. Richey.

            On April 17, 1919, Wells Morehouse, his wife Mildred, and son Warren Powell of Tunkhannock took over the paper.

            After Mr. Morehouse sold, owners of the Leader were D. Harlow, Leroy Armstrong, and then in 1943, Kenneth Bennet owned the paper.  He disbanded the paper on Sept. 29, 1950.  The Ladoga Library has maintained microfilm of the Leaders.

            A few years later, Roscoe and Eula Gravit owned the Quality Printers and their son Donald was a printer.  They published a little four-sheet green paper called the Ladoga Crier which was circulated every Friday morning.  The paper was circulated in New Ross, Ladoga and Roachdale by mail routes and was free to each patron.  The Crier was later purchased by the Indiana Printing Company of Crawfordsville.  It was circulated to Boone, Hendricks, Putnam, and Montgomery Counties.

North side of Centennal Block in late 1800's

North side of square in color

East on Main Street in early 1890's

Hughes House in 1878

The old grist mill

Ladoga Water Mill

The first Ferris Wheel compared to one a century later.

Covered bridge south (Harshbarger Bridge)

Another view of the Harshbarger Bridge

Covered bridge over Raccoon Creek east of town

The Boys Band in the early 1900's

                                                                                   The White covered bridge in color

Industrial Ladoga in 1878

The Early Mills

Mills in and around Ladoga—taken from The History of Clark Township and Ladoga from 1828 to 1971 by Crystal Pauline Randel Walters.

No township or town can survive now nor could it survive then without some means of livelihood, and so it was with the early settlers. When people first settled in Clark Township in the 1830’s, they had to make a long, tedious and sometimes dangerous trip to Crawfordsville.  John Myers started a grist mill in the early 1830’s which was later bought by Joel Britts, Jacob Harshbarger, and C.H.R. Anderson, then purchased by James Daugherty.  He lived where Pete Parker does now.  In the 1870’s, Daugherty sold the mill to Washington (Wash) Bateman, and in 1865, Mr. Daugherty built a flour mill which became the famous and prosperous Daugherty Mill.  In 1862, C.H.R. Anderson and George Bradley built the Anderson Grist Mill on East Elm Street.  With three flouring mills, Wash Bateman operating Myers’ water mill, and the Daugherty’s mill on South Street, there was a reputation for stability for the community.  James Britts acquired an interest in the grist mill and the business continued until 1888.

There was a tannery or tan yard at the west end of South Street.  Mrs. Denny said the man’s name who started the may have been Burke or Burks.  He was the man who the products later on.  A tannery was a necessity because leather was needed for boots, shoes, and harnesses.  Henry Martin, George Verblett, Jacob Zimmerman and Dan Bonsack were the proprietors of the tan yard.  In the 1870’s, William P. and John D. Brown came here from Glena, in Floyd County, Ind.  William had been in the Civil War and there father was an old time country merchant in Floyd County.  John D. Brown, the younger, established a line of general merchandise.  Later, he joined Daniel W. Yeagley in the business, and they bought the tannery, and did a thriving business.  They used a product to make shoes and boots which they sold in their store.  Journeyman Craftsman or “Jeres,” as they were called were active in the making of boots and shoes which brought the Fuller and Manter families to Ladoga from their native state of Massachusetts.  James Darby, Lee Watson and other itinerant shoemakers worked at the Brown and Yeagley store, which was where the Masonic building stands.  Andy Gayhart, a Confederate veteran, was from Virginia.  He and his wife were married after the war in 1867 and came here that same year.

Peter Morris established the first woolen mill in Ladoga.  It was a three story building and was known as a carding mill.  In the 1850’s and 1860’s, this mill employed 20 to 25 people.  Instead of blowing a whistle to call the employees to work, they called them by drum beats.  At about 5:30, the watchman buckled on a drum and started the drum-beat all over town.  The Morris Mill was replaced by the Ladoga Woolen Mill which was located on east Elm Street alongside the Monon Railroad tracks.  This mill was built by Daniel C. Stover in 1863, and was later operated by Harney, Thomas, and Johnson; it took in the Morris Mill which was in the Harney-Thomas addition.  The Ladoga Woolen Mill was the best equipped of any of the mills.  It had three carding mills, over 500 spindles and forty looms.  It had a finishing mill and a fulling mill and produced yarns, flannels, blankets. broadcloths, jeans, and satinettes.  They also made the striped material for prison garb for all the penal institutions in the Middle West.  They employed over fifty people until going out of business in the 1880’s.     

        The plat book of 1878 shows a mill pond on Raccoon Creek just east the railroad track.  There was a raceway which carried water to power Washington (Wash) Bateman’s flour mill on the west side of the road across from the slaughter house.  D. Hardin had a saw mill on the north side of the creek and east of the road.  Powell and Co. had a saw mill very close to Hardin’s just south of the raceway and on the east side of the road.  The slaughter house was just above the raceway where the locker plant is now.  A.W. Daugherty had a steam flour mill on the south side of South Street, just east of Franklin.

           E. L. Snodgrass had a shingle mill on Sycamore Street just before it came to Main Street and C.H.R. Anderson and Bradley had a flour mill on the north side of Elm Street two blocks east of the railroad.  There was a woolen factory on the railroad tracks and a veneer mill on the east side of the railroad tracks at the north end of Franklin Street. That would be where Kenny Vice Ford is now on North Cherry Street.  It was in 1893 that Ladoga industry achieved another first.

The First Ferris Wheel

The town of Ladoga laid claim to the Chicago World’s Fair Ferris Wheel, designed by Pittsburgh, PA  bridge-builder, George Ferris.  Luther Rice and four other men of Ladoga built the Ferris Wheel which was placed in Ferris Wheel Park for a while after the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.  The four other men were Dick Gill, Wal Tapp.Calvin Brookshire and Nash.Obenchain.   It was then moved to St. Louis for the 1904 World’s Fair.  It was since become a staple in one form or another in all carnivals, fairs and amusement parks.  The original was a mammoth 250 feet in diameter and held 2,160 people.