The count of the transformation

1865–1909

The census lets the transformation be measured, decade by decade, at printed values: The county history gives the early scale in its own terms. Chapman, writing in 1880, records that the sales of the city's manufacturers in 1865 reached $565,000 — at wartime double values, he warns — that the products annually made would by 1880 reach $5,000,000, and that 2,500 men found constant employment in the manufactories. The federal Census of Manufactures then takes the series over. For the census year 1890, the Twelfth Census returned for the city of South Bend 208 establishments, capital of $11,252,887, an average of 5,750 wage-earners paid $2,504,562 in wages, materials costing $4,607,716, and products valued at $9,812,518. For 1900 the same table returns 302 establishments, capital of $18,156,638, an average of 8,257 wage-earners paid $3,409,687, materials of $7,510,806, and products of $14,236,381 — increases the census itself prints at 45.2 per cent in establishments, 61.4 in capital, 43.6 in wage-earners and 45.1 in value of products across the decade.

The Thirteenth Census, whose city figures were revised to count only establishments within the corporate limits, carries the series forward: South Bend's average wage-earners numbered 7,678 in 1899, 8,997 in 1904 and 11,789 in 1909, and its products were valued at $12,959,806 in 1899, $15,179,490 in 1904 and $27,854,527 in 1909. Its Indiana chapter states what the totals meant: "South Bend held second place in manufacturing among the municipalities of the state in 1909, having displaced Evansville from this position since 1904," and the increase of 83.5 per cent in its products across 1904–1909 "was due principally to the large increases in the manufacture of carriages and wagons, agricultural implements, sewing machine cases, and men's shirts, and to the establishment and growth of the automobile industry" — each of those industries over $1,000,000 in products, the city first in the state in carriages and wagons, and the manufacture of sewing-machine cases "practically confined to this city." The National Register's East Bank documentation adds the human proportion the dollar tables hide: in 1900, of 14,725 people employed in all occupations in South Bend, 9,512 — 65 per cent — worked in manufacturing. Two of every three jobs in the city ran through a factory gate. That is the transformation, counted.

Sources:

1. Chapman, History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1880), "Other Manufactories" — 2,500 men in constant employment; manufacturers' sales of $565,000 in 1865 at wartime double values; annual products reaching $5,000,000 by 1880. A county history's figures, printed as such.
2. Twelfth Census of the United States, Census Bulletin No. 143, Manufactures: Indiana (February 24, 1902), Table 4 — the city of South Bend at the censuses of 1890 and 1900: establishments, capital, average wage-earners, total wages, cost of materials, value of products, and the printed percentages of increase.
3. Thirteenth Census of the United States, Vol. IX, Manufactures 1909, Indiana chapter, pp. 310–311 — South Bend's average wage-earners and value of products for 1899, 1904 and 1909, with the chapter's narrative of the city's second place in the state, its 83.5 per cent increase, and its first place in carriages and wagons; the city figures revised to establishments within the corporate limits, per the table's footnote.
4. National Register of Historic Places, East Bank Multiple Property Documentation Form (1997/1999) — 9,512 of 14,725 employed persons in manufacturing in 1900.