In 1910, The Mayor and City Councilmen of Linton wrote a letter to Congress. It is an interesting read from yesteryear, and it is reprinted in its entirety as follows:
Linton, Indiana, March, 8th, 1910.
To The Sixty-Fifth Congress Of The United States Of America, Washington, D. C.
Gentlemen:-
We, the Mayor and the City Council, of the City of Linton, Indiana, submit to your Honorable Body, the following report, relative to our commercial interests, in support of a bill now before you, for an appropriation of One-Hundred- Thousand-Dollars for the erection of a Federal building in the City of Linton, Indiana.
The reports submitted herewith are conservative, having been gathered from those in a position to know the valuations of the several enterprises here-in-after enumerated, and are statistical facts which will convey more accurate impressions of importance of the City as a commercial center, than could be otherwise given.
Coal Mining Industry;
The chief and basic industry of this City is Coal Mining, though since the development of the mining fields, other enterprises which naturally follow the fuel centers, have come until there is a diversity of interests which make Linton, not a mining camp, nor an overgrown town of unsubstantial buildings and temporary residences, but a modern thriving commercial City, where hundred of thousands of dollars have been and are being invested.
There are, within a radius of three miles of the City of Linton, sixteen coal mining properties in operation, representing an investment of One and One-Half Million dollars, employing twenty-five-hundred men, with a tonnage capacity of twenty-thousand tons per day and an average semi-monthly payroll of Seventy-Thousand dollars.
Coal mined in the Linton field is bituminous and it is said by coal dealers and consumers, that a better quality is not to be found.
Coke Industry;
Thirty-Five-Thousand dollars have just been expanded in the erection of Coke ovens for the purpose of testing the coke producing qualities of the coal in this field and the reports thus far are gratifying.
Arrangements have just been completed, and miners trains are now in service for the purpose of conveying miners from this City to practically all the mines within a radius of ten miles, the miners living at or near these mines having signified their desire to live in our City, if transportation to and from the mines could be had.
Rail Road Facilities;
Five rail roads enter our City, namely; Indianapolis Southern, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Effingham, Ill., a part of the Illinois Central System, giving direct connection with through service to New Orleans, La. That part of the road between Linton and Indianapolis, Indiana, was completed three years ago, giving an outlet at Indianapolis, for the East and North by way of the several great railway systems entering that City.
The Monon, Bedford and Bloomfield Division, coming into the City over the Indianapolis, Southern tracks, having an outlet to the main line of the Chicago and Louisville Division at Bedford, Indiana.
Southern Indiana, from Seymour to Terre Haute, Indiana, giving direct connection with through service over the Chicago Southern, to Chicago, Ill. and giving an outlet at Terre Haute, North, West and South by way of the Frisco System and East and West by way of the Pennsylvania and Big Four Systems, with outlet at Seymour, for the North, East and South by way of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern and the Pennsylvania System.
Vandalia, branch from the Indianapolis and Vincennes Division, extending into the Linton Coal Fields, doing a coal shipping and a local freight business.
Monon, leaving the Chicago and Louisville Division at Quincy, Indiana, and extending into the Linton coal field. This road completed two years ago.
Receipts at the local offices of the five rail roads entering our City, for the year just closed, were, Nine-Hundred-Eighty-Four-Thousand Dollars.
Local Industries;-
Rolling Mill with One-hundred-fifty ton capacity, employing One-hundred-sixty men. Investment, One-hundred-thousand Dollars.
Water Works System, with twelve miles of maines, Seventy Fire hydrants, with an unlimited supply of water for both City and Commercial purposes. Investment One-hundred-seventy-five-thousand dollars.
Gas Plant, capacity 250,000 cubic feet per day with holder capacity of Fifty-millions cubic feet per year, using 13-½ miles of maines and fifty miles of service pipe. Gas is made from the Coal from our local mines, the by-product selling at the highest market prices. Investment One-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars.
Ice and Cold Storage Plant, tonnage capacity of thirty five tons per day. Investment, Ten-Thousand dollars.
Flouring Mill doing a One-hundred-thousand dollar business per year. $50,000 investment.
Three Printing establishments with three weekly papers and two Daily Papers, employing twenty-five men. Investments, Twenty-five-thousand dollars.
Other enterprises of smaller note representing several hundred thousand dollars in investments, as; Machine Shops, Lumber Yards, Planing Mills, Cigar Factories etc.
Banks, Two, State and National.
Trust Companies, One.
Churches;
Seven, three of which have real estate investments of One-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollars. Four having real estate investments to the amount of Ten-thousand dollars.
Fifteen-thousand dollar Carnegie Library.
City Schools;
Enumeration, Nineteen-hundred-twenty-six.
Enrollment, Fourteen-hundred-ninety-eight.
Pay-roll last year, $14,377.64.
Pay-roll this year will be, $18.574.56.
Five School Buildings; One High School and four Ward Buildings, employing 32 teachers.
Value of the School buildings and Apparatuses, $78.000.
In addition to the regular grade work, of which there are eight, and the regular high school work, music and art are taught.
Commissioned High School with a nine months term.
The City owns the Electric Lighting System, which is conservatively estimated at $50.000.
City Improvements;
Brick Streets, Two miles
Macadam Streets, Three miles.
Cement Sidewalks, Sixty miles.
Sanitary Sewage system, completed, June, 1908, with 14 miles maines, at a cost of $75.000.
Farming Industry;
To say Linton is fortunate is a modest statement of the facts. Not only is the City and vicinity fortunate in possessing the great fields of coal, but in other things as well. No section of the country within the Great fertile valley of the Mississippi, can justly lay claims to better land adapted to agriculture.
Time and progress have also wrought changes in this respect. The drainage of swamps and the reclamation of marshes have added thousands of fertile fruitful acres to the territory. That were of but comparatively recent years bogs and thickets, covered with shrubbery and marsh grasses, are new vast fields of cereal.
Plethoric barns and granaries have taken the place of modest log stables and pens, and the spirit of progress and prosperity have superceded squalor and discontent.
In pace with these changes, the building of gravel and macadam roads has also been carried on without a burdensome taxation and a system of gravel and macadam roads not equaled by any locality south of Indianapolis, has been constructed.
We, the Mayor, and the City Council, of the City of Linton, Indiana, verify the foregoing statement.
/s/ Granville Riley, Mayor
/s/ Curt Dittimore, Councilman
/s/ Benj. Holcher, Councilman
/s/ Seph Inman, Councilman
/s/ Enoch Murphy, Councilman
/s/ Joseph Hurt, Councilman
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