As early as 1850, there were efforts to bring together and organize groups that fought for the betterment of working conditions throughout Indiana. There was a group of Indiana artisans that formed the Indiana chapter of Mechanics’ Mutual Protection. Started in New York, this organization was organized to protest the inclusion of convict labor with machine factory work as early as the 1830s. The organization quickly moved to Indiana and fought to increase wages, obtain better educational opportunities for workers, and look after the families of workers who were ill and could not work.
The opportunities that the Mechanics' Mutual Protection sought to have implemented were the first major revisions that the state of Indiana saw in labor reform. This organization sought out local lawmakers who would eventually implement laws throughout the state. They strived for these changes despite the thought of the mid-19th century that factories and businesses were independent and should be free from government oversight. The Mechanics' Mutual Protection and the organizations that would later join the fight in labor reform had a long and hard fight to achieve their goals.
This stop contains an important part of the early formations of labor organizations. At this stop, the Kenosha History Center holds an early constitution of the Mechanics' Mutual Protection from 1849. This constitution would have been very similar to the one the Mechanics' Mutual Protection organization used in Indianapolis, Indiana, when they formed in 1850.
]]>By 1880, Indianapolis was the third-largest meat-packing city in the country. One of the businesses in the city was the Deschler meat packing company in the backyard of their property on 423 California Street.. The Deschlers immigrated to Indianapolis from Germany in the 1860s and quickly established themselves in the food industry. They later would merge with another food industry company nearby and continue to build a prominent food business in the city.
The Kingan and Company meat packing plant at Maryland and Blackford Street in Indianapolis, Indiana, was larger than Deschler’s. Belfast resident Samuel Kingan founded his meat-packing company in Northern Ireland in 1845. Kingan opened additional factories in Brooklyn, New York, and Cincinnati, Ohio, before establishing the Indianapolis plant in 1863. An article in The Indianapolis Star boasted that workers at the new facilities would kill and pack 2,500 hogs per day.
Kingan and Company recruited mostly Irish immigrants for jobs at the plant. Employment opportunities drew more Irish to the nearby community. Some new arrivals sent their belongings directly from Ireland to the Kingan plant. Immigrants from all over Ireland lived in small homes and boarding houses in the neighborhood surrounding the plant.
The workers at the Kingan and Company meat-packing plant often endured long hours and dirty, dangerous conditions. The factory was loud with the sounds of squealing hogs and processing machines. Witnesses described conveyors of dead animals passing through crowds of workers at all hours of the day. The workers used cleavers to chop the meat going by, leaving blood and entrails all over the factory floor. Most of the employees were Irish men, but photos from the time show some women and children at work in the plant. Child labor was not uncommon in the 19th century. Many working-class children needed to earn money to help support their families, even though child labor is harmful to kids’ health and development.
The multiple stops on Blackford Street encompass the sites where both the Deschler and Kingan meat-packing facilities operated. Further north on Blackford Street, looking toward California Street, the Deschler Meat Packing Company operated. Further south on Blackford, at the intersection of Blackford and Maryland Street, one can look at the former site of the Kingan and Company meat-packing plant. Both sites played a major role in the history of Indianapolis and its industry.
]]>Isaac Blackford was born on November 6th, 1786, in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He was the only child of Joseph and Mary Blackford. Joseph, a merchant and revolutionary war soldier, died in 1800 when Isaac was 14. His mother remarried Thomas Coon in 1801. Isaac's half-sister Charlotte was born in 1802.
Blackford attended Princeton and graduated in 1806. He studied law under his mentor and future father-in-law, Colonel George McDonald, for a year before accepting a position at a large firm in the area. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1810. Isaac married Caroline McDonald in 1820 and had a son, George Blackford. Caroline McDonald died shortly after George's birth in 1821. George Blackford died in 1846 due to medical complications in Kentucky. Isaac never remarried.
He left the Supreme Court in 1853. Two years later, he took a job as a justice in the Court of Claims in Washington, DC. He died on December 31st, 1859, due to complications from pneumonia. Blackford was transported back to Indianapolis with the help of his friend, an Indianapolis lawyer and land speculator, Calvin Fletcher. On January 12th, his body was placed on display in the Capitol and then buried in Greenlawn Cemetery on Friday, January 13th, in an iron coffin. His remains were moved to Crown Hill Cemetery in 1868, a few years after that cemetery opened.
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