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| Birth: | 26 Apr 1828 in Preston, Lancashire, England |
| Death: | 14 Jan 1909 in Indianapolis, Marion, IN |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Thomas MARTIN b. 31 Mar 1800 in Preston, Lancashire, England |
| Mother: | Alice PARKINSON b. 15 Feb 1794 in Catterall, Lancashire, England |
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| Burial: 18 Jan 1909 Crown Hill, Indianapolis, Marion, IN 1 |
| Occupation: Brick Mason, Slater, Building Contractor |
| Changed: 20 Feb 2000 |
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Individual:
OBITUARY: From the "Indianapolis Star" 17 Jan 1909:
JOHN MARTIN'S LIFE CONTRACT IS CLOSED
Veteran Builder, Said To Have Erected "One-Half of Indianapolis," Expires
ONCE OWNED STATE HOUSE
Bought Old Capitol for Removal and Made Chicken Coop of Dome for Farm
Fifty years a building contractor in Indianapolis without one serious labor trouble was the record of John Martin, whose funeral is be held in the undertaking establishment of Kregelo & Bailey at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Martin died Thursday afternoon of heart disease affter a long illness.
Mr. Martin was often described as "the builder of one half of Indianapolis" and there is hardly a block in the downtown district that does not contain several structures erected by him. Business blocks, public institutions, churches and residences dot the city as monuments to him, and it is stated that he had forgotten many of the structures which had risen under his hand.
Mr. Martin started his career under Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, the father of Congressman Longworth, and a large contractor. This was in 1847, just after Mr. Martin had come to America from his birthplace at Preston, Lancashire, England. He was just a chimney topper, and when he came to Indianapolis, according to his own statement, he did not have enough credit to purchase a bag of cement. In 1848 he began his contracting business here, gradually reaching out after larger contracts until at one time he had almost 1,000 men working on his contracts.
BUILT OWN BRICKYARD
One of his largest "jobs" was the Central Hospital for the Insane. A peculiar incident happened at that time. Mr. Martin became involved in a quarrel with the firm which was supplying him with brick and was boycotted. The contractor immediately purchased a tract of land west of the institution and began making his own bricks. As a result practically all the bricks used in the building were from his own yard, and when the work was finished there remained behind him the little settlement now called Mickleyville.
Mr. Martin was also known among his friends as "the only Indiana man who ever owned the Statehouse." This was true, for when the old State House was sold to make way for the new one Mr. Martin bought it. The dome he carted to his farm south of Indianapolis and used for a chicken coop. The flagstaff was cut up into canes and presented to his friends. And there is now in front of the home at 227? North Alabama street, where Mr. Martin had lived since 1875, a large stone which was formerly a part of the old State House.
A story is told which illustrates the immense number of buildings which the contractor erected in Indianapolis. Several years ago he was driving with a reporter, who had asked him to point out his buildings as they passed. In the course of the drive, the two men reached the extreme northern limit of the city.
FOOLS THE REPORTER
"Now, I have you." said the reporter as he looked over the expanse of vacant ground. "Show me something out here that you built."
Mr. Martin calmly pointed to the Crown Hill Cemetery chapel, "Well there it is."
It is unusual, despite the large number of men whom Mr. Martin hired during his life, he never had any labor trouble. He was always looked on as a friend of union labor, and at a meeting of the union a night or two ago it passed a resolution in his honor. There are white men in Indianapolis who had worked for the contractor more than thirty years. Among the colored men whom he had employed there were men who had been in his employ even longer. They called him "The Big Chief."
There was a time in Mr. Martin's career as a contractor when the expenses of his firm amounted to $1 a minute, according to his estimate. At this time he had an army of men working for him on various structures in the city, which made the work of management exceedingly arduous. A church in one place, a business block in another, and half a dozen residences all required personal attention and detailed consideration.
Mr. Martin erected the first "sky-scraper" in Indianapolis, the Majestic Building. He was also contractor for the old convent of the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary's of the Woods, one of the historic buildings of the state.
Among the Indianapolis buildings erected by him are the Scottish Rite Temple, the Malott Building, the Atlas Engine Works, When Building, New York Store building, Marion County Court House, the old Grand Opera House, English Hotel, Grand Hotel, the old Bates House, Marion Block, St. Vincent's Hospital, Franciscan Monastery, The Blacherne, the Pembroke Arcade, the Ardmore and the Marion County Jail.
The contractor was 81 years old. His death followed within a week that of his son, John E. Martin, who had been engaged with his father in the contracting business. Mr. Martin had been retired ten years. He was a member of the Scottish Rite and Knights Templars.
The contractor is survived by four children, Mrs. Susie E. Ellis, Mrs. Martha Henring, Mrs. George Watson and Robert Martin.
This article is transcribed from Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion County , published 1893, Chicago, Goodspeed Bros. (pgs. 275-276). Also contains John s portrait and signature.
JOHN MARTIN. The building interests of Indianapolis form the back-bone of her greatest industrial enterprises. Not alone is the interest of the contractor directly involved, but all branches of trade incumbent thereto are thus goaded into active success. Trade profits every time a building is devised, and the avenues of enterprise thus opened afford vast opportunity for profit. The vast amount of capital invested here and seeking proper field of operations at this point, has led to the erection of magnificent edifices without number, and stimulated all the other branches of vocation that form a part thereof.
One of the successful builders and contractors of the city is John Martin who has without doubt built more brick buildings in Indianapolis than any other one man residing there. He was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, April 26, 1828, a son of Thomas Martin, who was also born there. The latter came with his family to the United States in 1848 and finally settled in Jennings County, Ind., where he died in 1869, having for some time been a resident of Cincinnati after coming to this country. He first followed the calling of a merchant and afterward gave his attention to farming, which business he was successfully pursuing at the time of his death.
The rudiments of the builder's art were learned by John Martin in Lancashire before coming to this country and while pursuing the paths of labor learned to read and write in a business way, that is, it was his duty in the factory in which he worked, to read the names of cards and tags to a clerk, and thus his first lessons were received. He was a very ambitious youth and often after working twelve hours a day he would attend night school, his tuition being paid in money which he, himself, had earned. During this time he also paid his parents for his board, according to the wages he received and as his salary increased he paid for his board in proportion, not because his father or mother demanded it, but because he was original and independent in all his ideas and did so by his own desire, from the time he was ten years of age (at which time he began working for himself) until his marriage.
During the three years that he lived in Cincinnati, he worked at his trade and upon coming to Indianapolis in 1849, secured the contract for putting on the slate roof on the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, John Wilson being the original contractor and Mr. Martin the sub-contractor, having learned the art of slating in England. In 1854 he began making his permanent home in Indianapolis and soon after secured employment with Mr. Taylor, the father of N.B. Taylor, but only continued as a journeyman for ten weeks. His first work here as a laborer was on the building now occupied by the Sun newspaper and the residence of Mrs. Hendricks, the widow of ex-Gov. Hendricks.
Some of the buildings which stand as monuments to his skill are the new Insane Hospital; the Reformatory for Women; the Butler University; city court-house; the new jail; the new Library Building; the chapel at Crown Hill; St. Vincent Hospital; the First Presbyterian Church; the Tabernacle on Central Avenue, the Christian Church on Fort Wayne Avenue; the Bank of Commerce; the Grand Opera House, the Denison; in fact he has built hundreds of buildings in the city and there is not a spot where he cannot point out some of his handiwork. He has also done work in different parts of the State and every year for many years past has built a church of some denomination.
He gives employment to from 200 to 250 men during the busy season, and is what may be termed an artist in his line and understands the business details of his calling in every particular. He came to the city with the determination of making a success, the extent and solidity of which should warrant a permanency, and how well he has prospered may be plainly seen in the high class of his custom and the excellent character of his work. In employing men he has always paid them what they earned and has therefore always had men who were skilled mechanics and practical and experienced workmen. In the building of the Insane Hospital his efforts were conspicuous. for rapidity and efficiency and in one season he manufactured the brick and built the building complete, including the smoke stack which is 175 feet high.
He is a Scottish Rite Mason, is a Knight Templar in Raper Lodge, No. 1, and is a member of the famous Indianapolis Drill Corps that has taken a prize wherever they have gone. When the new State house was built he bought the material of the old one and with it built the barn owned by Mrs. Hendricks. He has long manufactured his own brick and manufactured that which was used in the Insane Asylum. He built the old New York store, also the new one, and the old glass works.
He is in every sense of the word a self-made man, for he started in life with nothing but his clothes and a small amount of change, and although he has never been rich, he might have been, for out of the goodness of his heart he has given away a fortune, to those destitute and helpless beings always to be found in large cities. John Martin has never had trouble with striking workmen for he always paid his men promptly and gave them their full due, and has had had the happy faculty of winning them for his friends.
Among some of the other buildings worthy of mention which he has erected are the Fair Block, the John Smith residence, the market house. the high school on Pennsylvania and Michigan streets, besides many other school buildings, the Malleable Iron Works and the Brown & Ketchum Iron Works.
In 1850 he was united in marriage with Mary W. Hudson, a native of Marion County, Ind. by whom he is the father of six children, two sons and four daughters. Both his sons, Robert and John, are connected with him in business and are intelligent and promising men. Mr. Martin is the only man in the State who has owned the State house.
ARTICLE: "The Encyclopaedia of Indianapolis" by David Bodenhamer & Robert Barrows, published by Indiana University Press, 1994. ISBN# 0-253-31222-1 (pgs. 545/546).
"The English in Indianapolis also provided valuable skills and experience in engineering, machine-making, iron-making, and textiles, as well as many preindustrial craft occupations, particularly the building trades. Some became wealthy and highly prominent citizens, among them John Martin, a young skilled builder and slater who left Lancashire in 1848 and settled in Indianapolis in 1849. Martin was perhaps the city's most prominent builder ever, for among his buildings were the Grand Opera House, Butler University, hospitals, libraries, and many of the largest mercantile establishments. He also was a generous philanthropist." by William E. Van Vugt, Calvin College.
ARTICLE: (See reference note 18)
John Martin, the first president of the Indianapolis Builders' Exchange, was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, April 26, 1828. His father was a merchant and a farmer. The family came to America in 1848, landing first at New Orleans, and going by river to Cincinnati, where Mr. Martin remained until 1854, when he removed permanently to this city, and has lived here ever since. His first experience in Indianapolis however, was in the fall of 1849 when he came here temporarily and put a slate roof on the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, it being the first roof of that kind in the State. He also afterward built the brick work for the first steam heating in any public building in Indiana at the same institution.
Mr. Martin has been a contractor for brick work during his entire long career here, and is, with Mr. Springsteen, the oldest in that line in Indianapolis. he built the brick work for the first starch works, the first paper mill and the first glass works started in the city, and has done an immense amount of buiding of all kinds. So far as relates to the bricklaying, he had the contracts and directed the work on the Court House, The Women's Department of the Hospital for Insane, the Women's Reformatory, the university building at Irvington, the Soldier's Orphan's Home at Knightstown, Tomlinson Hall and the Market House, the Masonic Hall, First Presbyterian, Plymouth, and many other churches; St. Vincent's Infirmary; the Berkshire, McKee, Fair, Lorraine, Marion, and many other fine business blocks, a number of which are illustrated in this volume; English's and the Grand Opera Houses and the Denison and Grand Hotels. These are but a few of the many fine structures in the erection of which Mr. Martin has been prominent. He has at present contracts for the Commercial Club building, the new library and new jail; nor must it be forgotten that he has built many of the superb residences in the city. He was one of the organizers of the Builders' Exchange and its first president. He is also a member of the Scottish Rite and a Knight Templar. Mr. Martin is the only citizen of Indiana that ever owned an entire State House. In fact, he bought the State House that preceded the present one in this city, paying $250 for it. The investment was a good one, as he sold 1,800,000 brick obtained in tearing it down, and used a quantity himself besides. Mr. Martin ws married to Mary W. Hudson in 1850, and is the father of six children, all grown and settled in life. Two sons, John E., and Robert, are associated with him in business.
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- Text: Records of Crown Hill Cemetery, 38th St. & Clarendon, Indianapol
is, Marion Co., IN. John Martin bought six plots in Section 37. Only five of the plots were used. John (buried in plot #1307), his wife, Mary, Susan Ellis (his daughter), John E. (his son), and Unnamed Infant of Watson (his grandchild) are buried in unmarked graves. Personally visited by Chas. E. Martin on Saturday, October 28, 1995.
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