Below are two historical milestones that William and Mary lived through that likely influenced their lives.
The first is an account of the 100th birthday of the United States' independence from Great Britain. It must have been an extraordinary feeling being an immigrant in the Midwest contributing to the growth of the new nation during its first 100 years. And yet at the same time to look forward with confidence at the unlimited potential that most certainly lied ahead.
The second is the discovery of natural gas in Indiana, which helped to transform the economy of the state and helped usher in the Industrial Revolution. Natural gas must have had some significant influence on William's tinning business.
America's 100th Birthday: Independence Day 1876
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In Parading Patriotism, a book by Adam Criblez published in 2013, the author described how urban Midwesterners from cities including Indianapolis “commemorated Independence Day in the half century culminating in the U.S. centennial. Initially, Fourth of July celebrations centered on civic-sponsored gatherings featuring parades, speeches, and toasts looking to the past to honor the patriots of the American Revolution. By 1876, however, private pursuits such as picnic outings, professional baseball games, and the purchase of patriotic merchandise dominated the day, and celebrants dwelled less on the past than on the nation’s potential.” Patriotic practices shifted as industrialization, immigration, and the Civil War “fundamentally altered the ideas about ethnicity, nationalism, and commemorative customs.” Midwesterners did not share a revolutionary past to “forge their patriotism from scratch, especially in cities increasingly populated by German and Irish immigrants as well as native-born migrants. But the absence of tradition proved no barrier to patriotic posturing. As Criblez put it, “Midwesterners contended that they were, somewhat paradoxically, not only archetypal Americans but that their particular geography and history uniquely positioned them to represent the best aspects of the American nation.” (Criblez)
The Indiana Gas Boom
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The discovery of natural gas in Indiana in 1876 helped to fuel the growth of industrialization in the Midwest and transformed the economy of the Hoosier state. By the mid 1880s, gas fever had swept the state and thousands of gas wells were created. The gas field discovered was the largest natural gas field in the world found up to that date, covering an area of 5,120 square miles. The best came to be called the Trenton Gas Field. Driller also found large quantities of oil in addition to the natural gas.
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The gas discovery stimulated the development of industry across northern and central Indiana. The Ball Corporation opened in Muncie, using the cheap fuel to make glass. Other manufacturers also moved into the area, including the Kokomo Rummber Company; Hemmingray Bottle and Insulating Glass Company; and Marine, Hart, and Company.
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Iron, tin plate, and other metal manufacturers, attracted by the cheap fuel, established factories. The cheap fuel was a primary reason U.S. Steel chose northern Indiana for their operations. Cities outside the field were piped gas, and the fuel was exported across the Midwest.
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Gas was found in Hamilton County, IN in 1887. One of the largest gas wells in central Indiana was drilled just north of Noblesville. It was nicknamed the “Wainwright Wonder.” This development attracted new industries to the county. One company was Bonita Glass Co, which started in Cicero in 1898 and helped boost population growth by 56% in Jackson Twp.
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It was a brief gas boom and brief economic boom for Cicero. In 1900 Indiana was the nation’s leading producer of natural gas. It was also that year that production from Trenton Field began to fall. Bonita Glass soon closed operations. By 1910 the once abundant resources had slowed to a trickle. Wasteful practices were to blame for rapidly depleted the gas field. Modern experts estimate that as much as 90% of the natural gas was wasted in ‘flambeau’ displays, flares used by owners of wells to prove that gas was flowing. Jackson Twp’s population decreased 28%.
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By 1903 factories' and towns' need for alternate sources of energy led to the creation of numerous coal-burning electric plants. By then new industry had moved into the state, and the decline of the gas industry did not have a major negative impact. The availability of cheap energy had drawn so much new industry that Indiana had become one of the leading industrial states of that time. Pockets of natural gas are still produced in Indiana. But today, Indiana consumes more than 100 times more gas than it produces. (Indiana Gas Boom; Madison, James H)
Trenton Gas Field in Indiana