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• 1 2022-12-01T21:35:47+00:00 Industrialization 20 The Rise of Manufacturing in Muncie plain 2023-02-22T23:39:05+00:00

  With the discovery of natural gas in the late 1880s in East-Central Indiana came manufacturing companies. The city of Muncie used access to natural gas, as well as other incentives, to attract new manufacturing businesses to the city, which led to rapid industrialization and growth. By 1900, Muncie had become a prosperous city with a population of more than 20,000 people.[1] It would remain an industrial city for most of the next century, until factories began to close and manufacturing work declined. Short histories of a few of the manufacturers that operated in Muncie can help us understand Muncie’s industrial history.
  
  The Ball Brothers Glass Company was one business that took the city of Muncie up on their offer of free gas and other incentives. Formed in 1886 in East Buffalo, New York, by the five Ball brothers (Lucius, William, Edmund, Frank, and George), the company soon to Muncie to take advantage of free natural gas. They built their factory on the south side of the city. By 1890 it was up and running, employing 125 people and producing three and half million jars annually. Its growth would continue and in 1922 the company would change its name to Ball Brothers Company. Much later, in 1969, it became the Ball Corporation.  
  
  The company hit its peak as a glass jar maker during the late 1940s and early 1950s, employing 3,000 people making around 700 million jars a year. But in 1962 the company decided to shut their Muncie plant down. On March 20, 1962, the last Ball jar was made in the city, and the 600 people who were still employed there were let go. The company would exit the glass jar business in 1996 and later, in 1998, would move its company headquarters from Muncie to Broomfield, Colorado.[2]
  
  The Indiana Bridge Company was another company that came to Muncie because of the Gas Boom. Organized by a group of local business leaders led by Theodore Rose, the company, formed in 1886 in Indianapolis. The company quickly moved to Muncie the following year to take advantage of the area’s abundant gas supply. It hired more than 50 workers and grew steadily. it would continue under local ownership until 1946, after which it would change hands several times and close briefly on two occasions. The company continues in operation at the same location in Muncie, one of many smaller manufacturing plants still active in the city.  In the early 1900s the company switched to just making structural steel products. The company is still going and making structural steel in Muncie to this day at the same location.[3] 
  
  
  The Kitselman brothers started Indiana Steel and Wire Company during the 1870s in Ridgeville, Indiana. Drawn in part by access to natural gas the brothers would open a factory on Muncie’s east side. The company made wire and galvanized steel, initially employing 50 people. The company would thrive through the first half of the 20th century. The company declined during the latter part of the century before declaring bankruptcy in 1998. The company would be bought out by Durrell Corporation later that year but efforts to modernize the plant failed and it closed permanently in 2002, laying off the last 107 employees.[4]
  
  Warner Gear Company began just as the Gas Boom ended. In 1901, Tom and Hugh Warner devised a new kind of differential gear and began manufacturing them with just 12 workers in a barn in Muncie. The company earned a contract from the Olds Motor Vehicle Company (later Oldsmobile) and local investors financed the company’s expansion. It grew to more than 1,000 employees by World War I. In 1928 the company would merge with Borg & Beck and a several other companies to form BorgWarner. By the middle of the 20th century the company would reach its peak with 6,100 employees and three plants in Muncie. But by the later part of the 20th century and into early 21st century the Muncie plants declined until, in April 2009, all operations in the city ended and the final group of 780 workers were laid off. 
  
  Warner Gear did not form in Muncie because of the Gas Boom but the industrial growth in the city made it a good place to start new manufacturing operations. Other businesses would continue to establish factories in the city. General Motors opened a plant, named the Muncie Products Division in 1920 with more than 700 workers manufacturing chassis parts for its automobiles. After closing for a time, the plant would reopen Chevrolet-Muncie in 1935. It would employ more than 3,000 people at its peak in the mid 20th century. But by 2006 the plant closed and the company laid off its last 480 workers. Delco-Remy, auto battery company based in Anderson, Indiana, also set up shop in Muncie. It bought a preexisting factory building in 1928 and refurbished it to make electrical storage batteries for automobiles. By the next year the plant employed 350 people and the employment there peaked at 1,700 during the 1970s. But, like other local factories, it would close, By the fall of 1998, it was shut down and the remaining 380 people were laid off.[5] 
  
  The Gas Boom spurred rapid industrialization in Muncie and the city would remain a manufacturing center through most of the twentieth century. Some local plants employed several thousand people and factory work was the most common way of getting a living. Working in manufacturing was hard and the jobs were insecure. The formation of unions would help workers have better lives.  But by the beginning of the twenty-first century, the city had lost much of its industrial base and factory work became less common.

   

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  [1] James Glass, “The Gas Boom in East Central Indiana,” Indiana Magazine of History 94, no. 4 (December 2000): 313-335.

  [2] “The History of Ball,” Ball Corporation, https://www.ball.com/our-company/our-story/history-timeline.

  [3] Muncie Evening Press, November 10, 1887.

  [4] Muncie Star Press, January 12, 2003; Muncie Star Press, December 25, 2002.

  [5] “Changing Gears: End of an Era,” Center for Middletown Studies, Ball State University, https://youtu.be/IjNn7Znl-s4; Muncie Star Press, February 17, 1998.