Elwood - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

ELWOOD, a city of Madison county, Indiana, U.S.A., on Duck Creek, about 38 m. N.E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1880) 75 1; (1890) 2284; (1900) 12,950, of whom 1386 were foreignborn. Elwood is served by the Lake Erie & Western and the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by an interurban electric line. Its rapid growth in population and as a manufacturing centre was due largely to its situation in the natural gas region; the failure of the gas supply in 1903 caused a decrease in manufacturing, but the city gradually adjusted itself to new conditions. It has large tin plate mills, iron and steel foundries, saw and planing mills, wooden-ware and furniture factories, bottling works and lamp-chimney factories, flour mills and packing houses. In 1905 the value of the city's factory product was $6,111,083; in 1900 it was $9,433,513; the glass product was valued at $223,766 in 1905, and at $1,011,803 in 1 9 00. There are extensive brick-yards in the vicinity, and the surrounding agricultural country furnishes large supplies of grain, live-stock, poultry and produce, for which Elwood is the shipping centre. The site was first settled under the name of Quincy; the present name was adopted in 1869; and in 1891 Elwood received a city charter.