The business census of 1880 — Chapman's count, and the men behind it

1880 · CHAPMAN'S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

Chapman's 1880 canvass is the town's first complete business census, and it is transcribed here whole. "The present business of Walkerton consists of four dry-goods establishments, one clothing store, two hardware and implement stores, three drug stores, one large furniture store, two hotels, one a very fine house, of which Mr. J. M. B. Giberson is proprietor, also groceries and restaurants, and two railroad depots, one grain depot, two millinery stores, two printing-offices; at one the St. Joseph County Republican is published, and edited by J. F. & W. C. Endly, and at the other the Walkerton Visitor is published and edited by Henry S. Mintle. There are also two meat shops, two saloons, one town hall, owned by Jacob Bender, one school-house and three churches. In all there are about 50 business men engaged here." No bank is named — the word does not occur in the Lincoln Township chapter at all — and the same chapter's trade passage gives the reason the town could support fifty business men: "Walkerton is a little town of much business, and being situated at the junction of two very prominent railroads, commands a wonderful amount of trade, especially grain. During the season of 1880 about 200,000 bushels of wheat were purchased at this point." The grain facility Chapman names is a "grain depot"; no elevator is named, here or anywhere else in this section.

The chapter's biographical sketches name the men behind most of the census lines. Abraham Barkley came in 1872 and opened a drug store, dealing in "drugs, groceries, etc.," having also studied dentistry. Dr. James F. Endly came in 1875, opened a drug store and practiced medicine; in July 1879 he and Dr. Richmond established The Van Guard, and after about three months he and his son — the sketch names the son Willie A.; the town passage's "W. C. Endly" is the directory-style rendering and the two are printed as their sources give them — purchased the printing office and started the St. Joseph County Republican. Henry S. Mintle established the Walkerton Visitor, a Greenback paper, its first number May 5, 1875, with 500 copies in circulation. Jacob Bender owned the fine brick store building whose upper story was Bender's Hall — the census's town hall — with an Odd Fellows Hall in the same building; Bender had come to Walkerton in 1864 after earlier careers in undertaking and milling elsewhere, neither of them seated here. J. M. B. Giberson, a harness-maker by trade who had come in 1853, opened the Walkerton Hotel after his army service and kept it until 1875, when he built the Florence House, the census's "very fine house"; the second hotel was the Empire House, John W. Kirtsinger proprietor. G. E. Libbey, who came in 1871 and opened a jewelry store dealing in watches, clocks, jewelry, silver-plated ware, musical instruments and sewing machines, carried stock of $1,500 with annual sales exceeding the stock. Reece & Hale (J. N. Reece and W. C. Hale) were the meat merchants. B. H. & E. J. Vincent opened a furniture store in the fall of 1876 "and were also undertakers," with stock of $3,000 and annual sales of $4,000 — Chapman's "one large furniture store." A. B. Rupel opened his harness shop in 1878; U. F. Townsend, a shoemaker, had come in 1870; T. J. Wolf was the clothier and his sister Maggie B. Wolf a milliner — the census's clothing store and one of its two millinery stores. The professions stand in the sketches too: B. H. Beall, attorney at law and notary public; H. N. Macomber, dentist, come 1879; Isaiah Poffenberger, physician and surgeon. And one line reaches the mill record below: E. J. Vincent, before his furniture years, "was packer in a flouring mill for a time" — the mill's place is not stated, and it is printed here at exactly that strength, as a trace and not a seat.

Sources:

1. Chapman (1880), Lincoln Township chapter, pp. 733–735 (the census and the wheat passage) and the chapter's biographical sketches (Barkley, Endly, Mintle, Bender, Giberson, Kirtsinger, Libbey, Reece & Hale, the Vincents, Rupel, Townsend, the Wolfs, Beall, Macomber, Poffenberger). Read first-hand, whole chapter.