"This manufactory is one of the most extensive of the kind in the country. It is located on South Illinois street, one square south of Union Depot, and is the oldest manufactory in the city. It was started in 1847 by C. H. Crawford & J. R. Osgood, for making lasts and other shoemakers' implements, and was then located near the site of the Union Depot. Six years later Mr. Crawford retired from the establishment, leaving Mr. Osgood as the only proprietor. The latter shortly afterward added the manufacture of staves and flour barrels to his other business. Finding his building too small, he erected on the present site of his establishment a three-story brick building, twenty-five by one hundred feet. This location, now in the heart of the city, was then in the open country, and it was deemed a hazardous investment in that day to locate so considerable an establishment so far from the business portion of the city.

"The manufacture of wooden hubs was added in 1866, when Mr. L. M. Bugby was admitted into the firm. Mr. S. H. Smith was admitted as an equal partner in 1866, and the manufacture of wagon and carriage materials was added. Thus began what has grown to be a very extensive business not only in this city but in the State at large, employing more than $1,000,000 capital. In February, I864, their establishment was destroyed by fire, involving a loss of $20,000. Within ninety days the manufactory had been rebuilt on a larger scale than before. In the year 1865 Messrs. Woodburn & Scott, of St. Louis, who had been doing a large business in the manufacture of wheels of various kinds, and who, in connection with a New Haven firm, had the exclusive right to manufacture the celebrated Sarven Patent Wheel, and had expended large sums in its introduction, disposed of all their patents and business to Messrs. Osgood & Smith. In order to obtain the requisite capital to conduct this extension of their business, Messrs. Osgood & Smith disposed of a one-third interest to Messrs. Nelson & Haynes, a wealthy house in Alton, Ill., who opened an establishment in St. Louis for the mnanufacture of wagon materials. The St. Louis house was known as Haynes, Smith, Co.; the Indianapolis firm, as Osgood, Smith & Co. Subsequently Mr. Woodburn purchased the interest of Messrs. Nelson & Haynes, and the St. Louis house then took the firm name of Woodburn, Smith & Co."

"At different times since, J. S. Yost, V. Rothrock and J. F. Pratt have been promoted from employes to members of the Indianapolis house. In 1869 the establishment obtained a controlling interest in the manufactory at Massac, Ill., for making carriage materials, a step that was taken for the purpose of supplying the St. Louis house with materials. In the same year they bought a large tract of timbered land in Orange county, Indiana, and erected a saw mill there to supply the Indianapolis manufactory with lumber.

"In 1870, the concern was transformed into a joint stock company, under the name of the Woodburn "Sarven Wheel" Company, with a capital of $250,000, making no change in the proprietorship, other than before stated. Since then the manufacture of the Sarven Patent Wheel has been a specialty. A busy and useful life was terminated by the death of the senior proprietor, Mr. J. R. Osgood, in June, 1871. The present officers of the Company are: Jacob Woodburn, President; S. F. Smith, Vice President and Treasurer; J. S. Yost, Assistant Secretary aud Treasurer; J. F. Pratt, Secretary; V. Eothrock, Superintendent.

"The Woodburn "Sarven Wheel" Company are now making wheels of all kinds, from those for the lightest buggy, weighing no more than eighty pounds, to those for heavy omnibuses and wagons; and now propose to apply the principle of their patent to railway cars. Their wheels find their way in large quantites to all parts of the United States. In addition to wheels, they manufacture carriage materials of all descriptions, plow handles, etc. The success of this establishment is due as well to the advantages of its location as to the efficiency of its management. Indiana occupies a peculiar position not only to this country, both East and West, but to other parts of the world, in its ability to supply to so great an extent such splendid timber for carriages, wagons and agricultural machinery. The supply in the Eastern States of timber for fine carriage work is being rapidly exhausted, so that the best manufacturers are now getting their choice timber from the West. It is a noteworthy fact that there is no carriage and wagon timber to be found in all the vast extent of country between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains; and that the supply for this immense prairie country, so rapidly filling up and developing, must come from a small belt of country of which Indiana is the center. This fact, in its bearings upon the future, is now engaging the serious attention of manufacturers.

"We have dwelt upon this enterprise at some length because of its being so triumphant an illustration of the great advantages of this point for manufacturing purposes; and because Mr. Woodburn may be considered the pioneer of this business in the West. In 1848, he and a fellow workman left Newark, New Jersey to seek their fortunes in the West, each bringing with him a spoke lathe. One settled in Cincinnati and the other in St. Louis. Commencing business without means they worked their way up. They made the first spokes ever manufactured by machinery west of the Alleghany Mountains, and thus started the immense business now being done throughout the entire west; and the substitution of machinery, thus introduced, for hard labor, has diminished the cost of this class of products from fifty to seventy-five per cent. The capital stock of the concern is $350,000; number of hands employed, one hundred and eighty; value of products last year, $250,000."