Lingle: Madison 1871

William S. Lingle gave an enthusiastic endorsement of Madison. The West Lafayette journalist was not a completely un-biased observer. He was the son of Hinds of Madison, who was first married to his mother.

“We have been accustomed of late years to hear Madison spoken of as one of the dead cities of the Northwest, and while everybody conceded the rare beauty and remarkable healthfulness of her situation, the insisted they every element of development had been paralyzed and her days were numbered.

Everybody who knows Madison by heart, loves the place—loves the people, and while mourning her departed greatness, they were ready to believe that when a good man died in the tribulation of such ‘earth-earthy’ places as Lafayette or Chicago, he went straight to Madison for eternal purpose. But we enter protest against the popular verdict, and having visited Madison within the past ten days, we beg to say if sin her behalf that if dead she is a very lively corpse. By courtesy of old-time friends we went through her shipyard and marine railway, where one hundred and fifth men are employed—through her starch factories, where labor, the soul of a city’s growth, finds remunerative rewards, and were eighteen hundred bushels of corn are consumed daily! We visited its extensive sirup factories, where the saccharine, maple flavored, golden and toothsome, is manufactured from corn on the Belgian process. We found, in short, to epitomize the memoranda of a three days’ inspection, that the manufacturing industry of this modern Herculaneum averages over a million dollars a per month.

Actual production and value of raw material. She manufactures saddle trees by the thousand, and can launch a new steamboat for her marine railway every sixty days—all complete, with engines, boilers, and entire outfit of Madison manufacture. Dead, indeed! Why there is not a vacant house in the city-not one.

Of course there is not the bustle and activity that distinguished Madison in that earlier epoch when her line of railway monopolized and all commerce and communication with Indianapolis and the State stated the erection of new works of greater capacity. The total cost of the new works will amount to about $800,000. When the mains and connections shall all have been completed, an abundance of pure water, both for manufacturing and household purposes will be supplied to consumers of low rates.”