1880 - 1889
1880
Year Events
1881
Year Events
1882
Year Events
town form of government adopted by the community. The first mayor was George
M. Hillenbrand.
First Town Board - Jacob Blank, Jr., John Lehmkuehler, John Hillenbrand,
William Hillenbrand, Christian Schwier. The first officers served without
pay.
1883
Year Events
February - Town officers donated $153.06 of thier own money to pay town bills
June - Road Tax, Corporation Tax, a fire tax and a tuition tax were instituted to
collect revenue for the town
September - financial report showed a balance of $1.82 in the city's
accounts.
Also saw the beginning of serious street work with the delivery of two carloads of
rubble stone.
November - the slaughter houses which were located in town - John Krause and
Wittendorfer slaughter houses, were ordered to move outside town limits.
George H. Gabler came to Batesville in 1883 at the urging of the factories
to do their photo work. The factories were the Greeman Bros. Bracket
Company, the Union Furniture Company, The Batesville Coffin Company,
The American Furniture Company and Blank Brothers Furniture Company.
Eventually he began to do job-printing in connection with the photo work
and finally started the Batesville Budget. It was an independent paper so
Mr. Gabler changed the name to the Ripley County Independent. An earlier
paper was called the Farm and Fireside. Mr. Gabler left Batesville in 1895.
Louis Ollier Sr. was born in Alsace-Loraine, Germany in 1845. His family
emigrated to America in 1850 settling in Cincinnati. In 1883 he and his
family moved to Batesville and he opened the first professional barber-shop
in the newly incorporated town. Before that, Batesville citizens had been
served by amateur barbers. Mr. Ollier had operated a barber shop in
Cincinnati before moving to Batesville. He opened his shop in what was
later known as the Clem Feld building on Broadway. It was adjacent to the
New Ripley House. He bought the lot adjacent on the east to the Feld
building and built a brick business structure which he occupied until
returning to Cincinnati in 1908 where he continued barbering. He retired
on his 80th birthday and had the distinction of being the oldest working
barber in the united States. He died in 1928.
In 1883, there was a Boehringer sawmill near the northeast corner of Main
and Boehringer Street. William Siek and William Schein purchased the Henry
Doepker mill in 1888. Krieger and Son and J.S. Benham formed a partnership
handling lumber and other building materials in 1908 and Frank Nedderman
operated a planing mill on north Walnut Street in 1909 until he built a mill
on Smith Street in 1921. Sheer and Crowell advertized as painters in 1890
and John Schroeder was a wallpaper hanger and painter in 1907.
1884
Year Events
The Batesville Coffin Company was organized as a partnership in 1884.
Managed by J. Spiegel, it was "drumming up business" in 1890. Its factories
and equipment were purchased by George M. Hillenbrand,
agent for the Hillenbrand Co. on February 28, 1906.
The Nobby Clothing began. 1873 - Adam Lindenmeyer - merchant tailor from
Bavaria Germany. Opened a small tailor shop on East Pearl St. .
1884 - added ready to wear clothing. 1903 moved to 9 W Pearl. Later same year moved to George St. Business
closed in 2001
Property purchased for a Town Hall. Union or mechanics Hall was used for
town meetings now
May 1884 - town began collecting taxes from the C. I. St. L. & C Railway.
Name of Adolphine Street, now St. Louis Place, was opened to Mulberry
Street.
November 1884 - town Jail completed. Cost $211.55.
December 1884 - Ordinance passed to compel all inmates of the jail to break stone to pay
for their lodging in the jail.
1884 - Christian Schwier flour mill destroyed by fire.
John and William Hillenbrand were operating a livery barn, established for
the stabling of their own logging teams in connection with their lumbering
business in 1884. It was sold at public auction in 1892 which included the
building,, 2 lots and a stock of men's furnishing goods.
1885
Year Events
Laughery Valley Flour Mill built.
After being burned out of his country store at Steamboat Landing in 1885,
Frederick Talkenburg bought a lot at the corner of Main and North Street
and built a hotel which he owned and operated for many years as the Globe
House. When he died in 1898, his son-in-law, Adolph Vascou, took over the
management of the hotel until his death in 1899. Mrs. Vascou continued to
operate the hotel until about 1915
George A. Baas was born in Cincinnati in December 1862. He graduated from
the Louisville College of Pharmacy in 1885 and located in Batesville. He
opended a drug store in the Christ. Obergfell building called the Oak Palace
Hotel on the northest corner of George and Walnut Street. Later he bought
lots on the opposite corner and built a 2-story brick business and dwelling.
The store carried his name over the door in stained glass for many years
after Mr. Baas himself was no longer active in the business.
1886
Year Events
1887
Year Events
New fire engine ordered. John Pfalsgraf's barn to be rented for it's storage
until a fire house could be built.
April 1887 - permit granted to Mr. Haverkos from Oldenburg to set a line of telephone
poles along Main Street. This would connect Batesville and Oldenburg.
Fire company to meet at the Mechanics Hall (Big Four). Rent to be paid - $.50 per
meeting
July 1887 - Plans drawn up for new Town Hall
1887 (?) Stone Quarry opened by John Hillenbrand and Victor Oberting on
Hillenbrands land near Batesville.
December 1887 - Town Hall completed. Seperate quarters for the Town Board and
Fire Company. It was rented out for public gatherings for not less than
$5.00.
The City Barber Shop was operated by Louis Ollier across from the depot in
1887. Electric wires and lights were installed in the shop in 1890 for the
purpose of testing the dynamo and extra engine for the American Furniture
Company.
A minstrel company was organized in 1887. Calling themselves the Old
Plantation Minstrels they entertained at Mechanics Hall on December 11 and
were also billed at Morris the following Thursday.
The present day Eureka Band was called the Eureka Brass Band and was
organized in 1887. It succeeded the old Union Reed Band that became known
as the "Busted Band" because of financial difficulties. The Batesville
Budget declared in 1888 that "the old Union Reed band is masquerading under
a new name, the Eureka Band. We hope ‘they have found it’, but fear that
history will repeat itself after a few months and they will deserve the old
epithet ‘The Busted Band’."
According to the Batesville Budget, Wm. White ran a livery barn and feed
stable in 1887. In September 1905, the livery barn located just south of the
old depot was purchased by Henry Behrman. In August 1906 it was sold to
Joseph Meister of Sunman, who sold it to Monroe Greeman in January 1907. A
new livery barn was built for Monroe and Clarence Greeman at the East end of
Catherine Street on Park Avenue in 1907 and the old livery on George Street
moved to the new location.
Fred and Henry Wessel were making bricks in 1887 and Jacob Bachus was the
principal bricklayer for all the buildings in Batesville over a long period
of years. John Hillenbrand and Victor Oberting opened a stone quarry on
John’s farm near town in 1888, calling it the Mammoth Stone Quarry Company.
They furnished stone for the city’s streets in 1889 and the roadwork for the
Big Four Railway
Blacksmithing was alive and well in 1887 when Leo Kirschbaum was operating
his business on west Pearl Street. By 1892, John Hafner and Joe Mutz were
also running mills on Depot Street with Adam Mozer on Greeman Avenue. In
1905 Henry Winsor moved his shop from Catherine to Maplewood Avenue. In 1910
Mike Meister bought the Kirschbaum business, but in 1920 Goyert and
Wonning built a large new garage and sales building on the old Kirschbaum
site. This emphatically marked the end of the era of horse-drawn vehicles.
1888
Year Events
Feb. 14, 1888 - Dedication Ceremony for the Old Town Hall -
Masquerade Ball.
March 1888 decision by school board to build an addition to the school
building. $1500 issue by school board to cover the cost.
1888 - First city attorney appointed - James H. Connelley. $35 per year.
In 1888 the Blank Brothers factory at North Vine and Hillenbrand Avenue
was flourishing. It was called J. Blank Jr. & Company in 1891 and had been
organized in 1875. In 1901 it was purchased by Fred Mestermacher and William
Westerman who organized it as the Novelty Manufacturing Company. They made
small articles of wood including rolling pins, bread boards and other
kitchen accessories.
Henry F. E. Schrader came to Batesville from Indianapolis in 1888 and built
a dwelling house and tin shop. HFE and William Krieger were partners in a
hardware store in Huntersville, moving it to the Decker and Hoelker property
on Pearl Street in 1893. The business dissolved in 1902 with HFE continuing
the business alone. He sold the hardware business to John H. Thie in 1903.
In 1911 he built a 3 story brick store room and apartment house on the
corner of Elm and W. Pearl Steets. In 1923 he wrecked the old frame store
building on W. Pearl Street between Walnut and Elm and built a new tin shop
and furnace display room to be occupied by his son Reuben Schrader. He died
in 1928.
Henry H. Kramer started is career as a Batesville merchant in 1888-89. First
he leased a corner store at Walnut and Boehringer from John Gauck and opened
a grocery and general store. While he ran this store, his wife Anna Bertram
Kramer ran the former John H. Bosse store on West Pearl street. The Bosse
building origianlly had upstairs and downstaris gallery porches built around
the entire building. The H.H. Kramer store existed for more than 60 years.
H. H. Kramer operated it for 43 years but his wife worked there for 57 years
beginning when she was a young girl.
A new wooden covered bridge over Laughery Creek on the Napoleon-Brookville
Road was completed in 1888. It made travel easier across the creek and was
in use until the 1930s.
The Batesville Budget in April 1888 stated that the Tri-County Fair
Association had secured a suitable grove and race-trace site. It didn’t
state when or how or who was leading the organization plans at that time.
In 1892, the Fair Association built a dining hall at the Fair Grounds. They
enlarged the dance hall in 1902. It also leased a belt of ground 35’ wide
all around the inside of the race track to build a canal earlier tht same
year.
General Stores were operated by John Lehmkuehler on the north side of the
flour mill in 1888 and Charles Meyer at George and Walnut Street. In 1890
the Gold Mine Store opened for business on the north side of Broadway and
in 1892 Hillenbrand and Mitchell were running their store at the corner of
Main and Boehringer. H.H. Kramer operated his general store on Walnut Street
and Albert G. Zierer opened his in 1896. In 1903 the following stores were
in operation: John H. Wilker and Company, Nick Blank, P. Bosse and Company,
H. B. Greeman and Company, Fred Wessel and Chas. Meyer. The Case Variety
Store opened on George and Main Street in 1923.
Early Batesville boasted many bakeries. In 1888, Fred Gohr and Joseph Luesse
were baking, but in 1891 Wiliam Ellinger bought the Luesse bakery on
Broadway. Chas. Mueller and George Gabler were located on Main Steet. In
1893 John Huche succeeded George Gabler, then Louis Grossman in 1988 and
Adam Fehlinger in 1900. By 1901 William Weigel was baking and in 1902 Edward
Schmidt. Frank Gehring moved from Oldenburg to run a bakery on Main Street.
By 1907 Wiliam Kruezman bought the Fehlinger bakery and his son, John, took
over management in 1921. In 1922, E.A. Hart operated a confectionary and
Phillip Hoffman opened a pastry and bakery shop in 1926.
As early as 1888, the New Notion Store, operated by D.F. Wordeman,
photocopied pictures. In 1890, L. C. Powell was the proprietor of the Star
Photograph Gallery northeast of the depot and Jos. Pfeiffer opened his
studio in 1893. In 1894 J. F. Orbaugh located near St. Louis Church and in
1896, E. P. Hendricks Photograph gallery located on West Pearl Street. In
1901 a photographic business began with a partnership between Jacob Bohland
and E. H. Schafer but by 1906 it was the Bohland and Drescher Art Studio on
South Walnut Street. An Art Gallery was operated by A. A. Perrin at
Catherine and Main Streets in 1904 and E. W. Hayes succeeded him in 1917.
1889
Year Events
1889 - Stone for Batesville's streets were supplied with stone from
Hillenbrand and Oberting's quarry.
July 1889- ordinance passed prohibiting horse racing and target shooting in
the town.
1889- Batesville State Bank established
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