The Men Who Built Louisville

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INTRODUCTION

The Gilded Age ran from about 1870 to 1900. The name was coined in Mark Twain’s book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirized an era of social problems in the United States masked by a thin gold lining. The title came from Shakespeare’s The Life and Death of King John, in which the king is dissuaded from a second superfluous coronation with the argument: To gild refined gold, to paint the lily…is wasteful and ridiculous excess. The American Industrial Revolution, which occurred between 1865 and 1901, transformed the United States from a country of small and isolated communities into a compact economic and industrial unit. The Gilded Age was a period of rapid economic growth. Immigrants came to America seeking higher wages than Europe could provide, and with the readily available labor force, there was a rapid expansion of industrialization.¹ The Gilded Age was also a period of massive poverty and inequality, and only the select few had a high concentration of wealth. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2 percent of the American population owned more than one-third of the nation’s wealth, while the top 10 percent owned three-fourths of the money. The bottom 40 percent of the population owned virtually no wealth at all.

During the Gilded Age, railroads were the new industrial economy. Railroads made possible the development of new areas of commerce, as well as the factory system, mining and finance. The American Industrial Revolution depended on the ability to move raw materials, agricultural produce and manufactured articles quickly from production sites to cities, and railroads made that possible. During the Gilded Age, there was also a rapid development of the West in farming, mining and ranching. Industrial growth and westward expansion were ensured by the revolution in transportation and communications. During the 1870s and 1880s, the United States economy rose at the fastest rate in the country’s history, with real wages, wealth, gross national product and capital formation all increased. Transportation and communication forms were expanded, and new forms were created. Railroad lines expanded across the country, and new systems such as streetcar networks rose in large industrial cities. Telegraph lines gave way to the telephone, and gaslights gave way to electricity and the incandescent lightbulb.²

To power the manufactories, raw material was needed. The United States had two-thirds of the world’s coal, iron ore, petroleum and, in the West, gold, silver and copper. Kentucky already had rich resources in coal and timber to keep the factories running.

America needed manpower to fuel the Industrial Revolution during the Gilded Age, and there was an explosion in population, from 35,701,000 in 1865 to 77,584,000 in 1901. Immigration also helped with the need for labor. In 1890, 56 percent of the labor force in manufacturing and mechanical industries was of foreign birth or foreign parentage. Between 1865 and 1900, employees in manufacturing increased from 1,300,000 to 4,500,000, and factories built during this time period rose from 140,000 to 512,000.³ The agricultural revolution during the Gilded Age hastened the Industrial Revolution. An increase in production per farmer allowed a transfer of labor from the field to the factory without reducing the country’s food supply. New inventions and improved technology transformed the farm. New methods of farming, inventions in equipment and artificial fertilizers all helped to increase food production. The profit from agriculture could be used to buy manufactured goods and continue to stimulate the industrial and manufacturing revolutions.

Wealthy industrialists and financiers built the core of the American industrial economy, and these men helped expand the nonprofit sector through acts of philanthropy. Private money flowed into museums, hospitals, colleges, academies, schools, opera houses, public libraries and charities. During the Gilded Age, Louisville became an important city in industry, trade and commerce, following the national trend. Louisville experienced the introduction of new railroads, the extension of the old ones, the bridging of the Ohio River, the improvement of the Portland canal and of river navigation, the introduction of modern methods to every sector of business life and the erection of buildings devoted to commerce, manufacture and domestic purposes.⁴ To help fund the massive expansion of commerce, trade, manufactories and industries, Louisville saw an increase in banks to help fund the new projects, and with the growth of those banks, Louisville saw the rise of wealthy financiers.

Feeding Louisville’s massive explosion in factories and industrial centers required coal, coke and natural gas, which were provided by the mining industry. Railroads brought in the raw materials to power the plants and manufacture the products. Once the product was completed, the rivers and railroads were ready transportation methods. With railroads, Louisville could ship its completed products from the East Coast to the West Coast as well as north and south.

Louisville had a massive influx of Irish, German and other immigrants who flowed into the city and contributed to the available workforce. Former slaves who fled the South in search of a new home found jobs in Louisville in the rising industrial tide. Former Confederate soldiers leaving the devastated South also came to Louisville for a new life. Street railways helped workers find new housing outside the city limits and brought the workers into the workforce more easily.

The wealthiest industrialists and financiers helped build the Louisville Park System without government money. They helped found the Louisville Scientific and Industrial School and helped fund the Speed Art Museum. With wealthy citizens, Louisville could afford art and support local artists.

Louisville’s top products in industry, trade and commerce were tobacco, whiskey bourbon and plows. To feed the South’s and West’s needs for new technology in farming, Louisville became the largest manufacture of plows in the world. To help build the new infrastructure, the country needed cement. Louisville provided the best cement in the country. New infrastructure also needed pipes, and Louisville became the nation’s leader in producing cast-iron pipes for water and sewers. The city also led the country in jeans and wool cloth. Louisville produced, raised or made wagons, valises, trunks, chocolate, boilers, tinware, shoes, pork, lumber, newspaper and wrapping paper. Three large plants in Louisville were involved in artificial fertilizers. Paints, colors and varnishes formed a large and rapidly increasing industry. Millwrighting, copper and brass work and wire works were also growing industries. Louisville produced pickles and cider vinegar, chewing gum, patent medicines, plumber’s supplies, brooms, monuments, stonework, vitrified brick, firebrick, paving materials, terra cotta, clay sewer pipe, electrical and surgical instruments, steel and wood singletrees and neck yokes. All of these were thriving industries in Louisville. About one thousand people were involved in the publishing, lithographing, binding, electrotyping, stationery manufacturing and paper boxes businesses.

While the first part of this book addresses the general history of Louisville in this era, the second part examines the men who helped build the city of progress. Many were self-made men. With their accumulated wealth, the men of the Gilded Age gave their money to schools, charities, museums, parks and other philanthropic endeavors. Chapters will cover such industrialists as Dennis Long, who was the largest provider of cast-iron pipe in the nation; Benjamin Avery, who was the largest manufacturer of plows in the country; James Breckinridge Speed, who was president of the Louisville Cement Company and helped provide telephone service to the city; Andrew Graham, who held the record for the sale of the most hogsheads of tobacco in the history of the country and helped put Louisville on the map for the tobacco trade; John Morton, who was in the publishing industry and supplied schoolbooks to the South; Frank Menne, who owned the largest chocolate factory in the state of Kentucky; James T. Wilder, who was the largest druggist in the United States; the Frantz family, who provided leather; and John Leathers, who was in the jean cloth industry.

As you read about the men who were important figures in the Gilded Age in Louisville, you will learn that many did not come from privileged backgrounds or have college educations. Many of them were not originally from Louisville or even were immigrants. Many of them succeeded in their original profession that made them wealthy, but to increase their wealth, they branched out to other industries and finance, becoming directors of railroads, banks and other institutions and contributing to the improvement of the city.

CHAPTER 1

THE GILDED AGE IN LOUISVILLE

The end of the Civil War opened up the Southern states to the markets along the border, and Louisville became the center of trade and commerce. Trade and industry had a vigorous and successful start, and the city became prosperous. New railroads, the extension of the old ones, the bridging of the Ohio River, the improvement of the Portland canal and of river navigation, the introduction of modern methods in every sector of business life and the erection of buildings devoted to commerce, manufacturers and domestic purposes were all contributing factors to Louisville becoming an industrial city.⁵ After the Civil War, former slaves and their families flocked to Louisville and helped provide a ready source of manpower. Foreign immigrants found opportunities in the new industrial city. Ex-Confederate soldiers took advantage of the opportunities in the thriving commerce center that was undamaged by the war and was not under a military government and found a community that embraced them and their Lost Cause. Most of these men went into real estate, insurance and law. Louisville was the headquarters for the Military Division of the South until the federal government withdrew the troops from the southern states during the 1870s. Ex-Confederate soldiers such as Bennett Young, J.J.B. Hilliard, Basil Duke and John B. Castleman stayed in Louisville and became notable figures in the city’s Gilded Age.

Louisville had the advantage of the Ohio River, with its connection to many other navigable waterways. On February 18, 1870, the first bridge across the Ohio River at Fourteenth Street was completed, and on March 1, the first train crossed the bridge. In 1886, the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge was the first multimodal bridge to cross the Ohio River and allowed both a railway and two wagon ways, which allowed wagons, streetcars, pedestrians on foot and other animal-powered vehicles to cross into New Albany, Indiana, from Louisville. In 1895, the Big Four Bridge was completed. The bridge was a six-span railroad truss bridge that crossed the Ohio River, connecting Louisville with Jeffersonville, Indiana. The name came from the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis railways.

City of Progress plaque that was originally placed at the Louisville City Hall. It now resides in front of the Frazier History Museum. Courtesy of the author.

With the advent of railroads, Louisville had a cheap and easy method of communication with all the important points on the continent. Louisville had connections with the North, South, West and seaboard cities. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad was chartered on March 2, 1850, and the first train ran to Nashville for 185.23 miles in November 1859. In 1870, the Knoxville branch was opened to Lexington. On February 24, 1860, the Bardstown branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was completed and purchased by the L&N in June 1865. In November 1868, the Richmond line was completed. On January 19, 1877, the Cecilian branch was completed; in 1868, the Glasgow branch was completed under the control of the Barren County Railroad; and in September 1860, the Memphis branch was completed and was operated in connection with the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville and the Memphis & Ohio Railroads. On May 4, 1871, the Nashville and Decatur railroads were leased to the L&N, and on October 1, 1872, the South & North Alabama Railroad was completed. The L&N purchased the Cumberland & Ohio Railroad from Lebanon to Greensburg, which was completed in 1879. In 1879, the company also bought the Tennessee division of the St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad and the Kentucky division of the same railroad.

The L&N purchased the majority of stocks in other railroads, such as the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railway system, the Owensboro & Nashville Railroad and the Mobile & Montgomery Railroad. It leased the New Orleans & Mobile Railroad and the Pontchartrain Railroad. It leased the Southern division of the Cumberland & Ohio Railroad, the Indiana and Illinois division of the St. Louis & Southeastern Railroad and the Selma division of the Western Railroad of Alabama. It also purchased the Pensacola Railroad and the Pensacola & Selma Railroad. In 1885, the L&N had control of 2,027 miles of track and transported 569,149 people.⁶ The man most responsible for the expansion of the L&N Railroad was Victor Newcomb.

The first president of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was L.L. Shreve, who was appointed by the board of directors on September 27, 1851, and resigned in 1854. In 1884, the president of the railroad was Milton H. Smith. More than twelve thousand men were employed by the company, and the capital stock in 1885 was $30 million.

The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad main line ran from New Albany to Michigan City for 228 miles, and its branch, Chicago & Indianapolis Airline, which ran from Indianapolis to