Plymouth Was a Bicycle Manufacturing Hub

by Anita Boetsma | Mar 13, 2026 | Business & Industry, Plymouth

Feature Image. Rialto line to see Smiley Burnette, ca 1952.

By Dennis Gibson

During the 1890s, the U.S. was in the midst of its first bicycle craze. Bikes helped bridge the gap between horses and automobiles. The boom awakened an interest in good roads, furthered the cause of women’s liberation and was even linked to changes in social behavior. Improvements in bike technology fueled the fad. Once it was both safe and comfortable to ride, everyone wanted in. The average cost of a bike in the 1890s was $75 – that’s $2,625 today!

Plymouth Cashes In On Bikes

The attitude toward women riders was still very conservative during the 1890s. There were questions of whether women should ride, how they should ride, whom they should ride with and what their reputation would be if they did ride! The long, heavy skirts women commonly wore also made biking difficult. Bloomers and shorter skirts were an option but could draw scorn and unwanted attention. However, suffrage advocates praised the bicycle as means of giving women more freedom.

Marshall County cashed in. Bicycle parts made in Plymouth were sold to dealers throughout the United States. There were two bicycle factories located here, as well as one that manufactured handlebars.

Built in 1891, covering nearly 50,000 sq. ft., even featuring its own fire department, the Indiana Novelty Manufacturing Company was one. It was the largest factory in the world that made wooden rims for bikes, as well as mud and chain guards. In 1893, co-founder George W. Marble patented a method of making one-piece bicycle rims from ash that were both lighter and stronger than metal ones. Two carloads of lumber were used daily and by 1895, the plant was producing 700,000 rims a year, as well as 100,000 sets of guards. Indiana Novelty supplied nearly all the leading bicycle companies in the U.S. and had agents in most principal cities, as well as Toronto, London and Paris. They made more than half of the wooden rims used by bicycle manufacturers.

Plymouth Cycle Manufacturing Co.

Safety bikes were the alternative to high wheelers, or penny farthings, introduced in the 1880s. Some sources credit Marble with inventions linked to these and other early types of bikes. Marble also created most of the machinery used by Indiana Novelty in the manufacture of its wooden rims. In 1892, he and several other founding members of Indiana Novelty formed the Marble Cycle Manufacturing Company, with the addition of W.D. Smalley, who also had years of experience in the bike trade, and was the namesake for their bike, the Smalley.

In 1894, the company was sold and became the Plymouth Cycle Manufacturing Company.

“It is estimated that the company made approximately 700 bikes a year for the first two years. The output was increased to 4,500 bikes in 1895, with hopes of making 6,000 for 1896. It was reported in the Plymouth Republican that ‘Plymouth Cycle had been operating for months at 13 hours per day. The factory was limited to 5,000 bicycles but now has orders for 2,000 more.’”

However, the country was in recession, and large orders that had been placed were never paid for. Plymouth Cycle was taken over by creditors Bass and McDonald. They reopened the factory in 1897 as the Elektron Cycle Company, but work was halted in 1898 and a judgment secured by former employees for wages due. The company’s machinery and materials were sold to the Shelby Manufacturing Company and moved to Ohio. The bicycle business that had boomed in the early 1890s became a thing of the past. According to the Department of Transportation, bike sales nationwide plunged 79 percent from 1897 to 1904. The craze was over.

Smalley pins.

Unfortunately, the MCHS Museum does not currently have a Smalley or Elektron bicycle to display, but we do have more good information on display in our transportation room. We always welcome donations of any items made by any Marshall County manufacturer! Our Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Mildred Bovee (1909-1979)

by Anita Boetsma | Mar 4, 2026 | Plymouth

Feature Image. Image of Esther Badiac, Mildred Bovee and Berniece Strang, ca 1958.

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we are highlighting some of the remarkable women who have improved the quality of life in Marshall County and beyond, not just for women, but for all of us. The following is a lightly edited story written in the 1980s by Betha Haag.

A Portrait of Mildred Bovee in Words

Some people do big things and some little

Some succeed each time – some fail

Some become famous and some never do,

And some put their fingers in so many pies

nothing comes through

But this lady with hair turning grey, blue eyes sparkling bright and a gracious smile to greet friend or foe, finds that in the end the foe always becomes a friend. She meets each challenge that comes her way with courage and wisdom, and never quits a task until completed and completed successfully.

This blue-eyed, eager, busy woman was born February 28, 1909 in the city of Chicago, the oldest of eight children. She was born under the sign of Pisces, and is intelligent, brave and outgoing. She has all these traits, and with her love of others she has a deep wish to make the world better, beginning with her own community and spreading out from there.

After high school, Mildred graduated from Trooks Commercial College in Chicago, and always worked in real estate and the building and loan field in the city.

In 1931, she married Carl Bovee in Chicago. They are proud of their two sons, Kenneth and Curtis, and their five grandchildren. But God works in a mysterious way “His wonders to perform”. Both boys developed an asthmatic condition when small, and the doctor suggested they get the boys out of the south Chicago air into some area where the air was clean and pure. Now where could anybody find better or purer air than in Marshall County? Not only is the air purer, but many other things are better about this locale.

They were impressed with Plymouth, and because of Carl’s previous business dealings with Allen Rudd, selected the Plymouth area. They moved here in 1947 and began operating a motel. The boys were never again bothered with any serious asthmatic attack after coming to Indiana.

Mildred Bovee will be remembered by many mothers and fathers, for she arranged for them to talk to their soldiering sons via ham radio. Through her kindness and thoughtfulness, happiness was given and lonely hours became perfect hours – not only between parents and soldiers, but between friends and relatives when sorrow struck, or when “Merry Christmas” was sent across the air waves to a daughter far away from home or an ill aunt. American Field Service students were thrilled to talk to their families, even though an ocean might separate them.

Mildred aided in all Civil Defense work when needed. She could never sit with idle hands when there were tasks to be done – especially if those tasks would help others.

Having started the motel business in West township, she became interested in the community and the 4-H programs. She became a 4-H leader and West township was the first to have an electric project, which Mildred instructed and directed. She was also active in the Parkview hospital auxiliary and in the work of the First Methodist Church. She also found time to manage the family business.

Her ham radio experience proved invaluable to the Civil Defense, and it served as a wonderful basis for 4-H leadership.

Mildred has served on many county boards, providing constructive ideas and suggestions to improve and implement programs for the community and the organizations. These organizations include the American Red Cross, the County Mental Health Association, Parkview hospital board of trustees and the Civil Defense board. Mildred was a member of the Parkview hospital board for 11 years.

As a member of the public relations committee of the Plymouth Business & Professional Women’s Club in 1958 with chairperson Bernice Strang, a survey of Plymouth industries and their products was conducted. Employment and potential expansion plans were also part of the survey.

With the cooperation of Plymouth industries and “The Pilot-News”, a week was designated as “Salute to Plymouth’s Industries”, with articles and pictures highlighting each industry. There were articles about this project in the “National Businesswoman”. One of the industries featured was Lemert Engineering, and the head of the business, Mrs. Eva Lemert, was then a member of BPW. Her firm had produced an invention that marked a great forward stride in the aircraft manufacturing industry. Eva Lemert and her firm’s invention were written up in two trade publications with a national distribution. An article also appeared in the “Independent Women Magazine” of Washington, D. C., and the 1961 issue of “Who’s Who in American Women” included her in their publication.

To this day, the members of the committee that promoted this project are convinced that their studies and actions were the inspiration to the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce when they later formed the Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation. This committee, Mrs. Bovee believes, convinced PIDCO that a woman should be on their board, whereupon BPW member Rosetta Beiter Casbon served as the secretary-treasurer for several years, serving with distinction.

Mildred has always had many hobbies. Besides her pet hobby, that of being a ham radio operator, was the making of lovely arrangements of everything from the most beautiful flowers to the lowliest weed. All through spring, summer and fall she gathered these items, and her completed arrangements would end up in the hospital, nursing homes, some sick room, or anywhere that they might add a little sunshine.

Her latest hobbies are macrame and lapidary. She and her husband Carl especially enjoy making lovely gems from just simple rocks. They have ordered their own equipment so that they may make them at home at their leisure, instead of using the club house equipment. They give away almost all the items they make.

Eight years after the Bovees moved to Marshall County, Mildred became a member of the Plymouth Business & Professional Women’s Club, and in 1958-1960 she served as president, when the membership reached 148. She gives the entire credit for her later attitudes, ambitions and achievements to the wonderful women she worked with through the years. Without the leadership abilities that she acquired through her BPW responsibilities, she would never have attempted to be active in politics on a local or county level or served on the various county boards.

In her new community of Hawthorne (a Leesburg, Florida suburb) she recently has become the editor of their community newsletter, “Penn-Notes”. It is just two years old, beginning with four pages and growing to the present eight pages. Last year she helped organize a tax aide service. She and 11 other qualified residents attended a two-day training session and twice a week they counsel any senior citizen in the county. These counseling sessions are held at Mildred’s church, the Methodist church, where she is also active in the Methodist Women’s group. Missing her hospital auxiliary work back here in Marshall County, she recently signed up for service at her local county hospital in Florida.

Mildred is in excellent physical health and keeps it that way by hiking, along with her husband, two and three miles a day. The rest of their waking hours are spent outdoors as well, swimming, golfing, playing shuffleboard and enjoying archery, the consumption of citrus fruits and the Florida sunshine.

Of her years as a member of the Plymouth BPW, Mildred has this to say: “We have had some great leadership in the club and the district, and I am certain that the newer women are availing themselves of all that the BPW Club has to offer its members.”

I will close this biography of a very wonderful person, one whom Marshall County hated to lose and one who hated to leave us, too. We close with her own philosophy of life, and I quote: “I feel that you are what you make of yourself or – we are our own destiny. As you well know, we are happiest when we are serving others.”

This is just one example of the personal stories and biographies contained in our archives. We welcome researchers to our library. The Museum is open from 10:00 until 4:00 from Tuesday through Saturday. Located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth, and our staff is always willing to help. For more information, call us at 574-936-2306. Check out our website at www.mchistoricalsociety.org.

Ben Shaffer Gets Bremen Some Artillery

by Anita Boetsma | Feb 28, 2026 | Bremen, War

Feature Image. Celebrating a monument for Union soldiers on Decoration Day, ca 1903

By Derek Jensen, President of Historic Bremen, Board Member, Marshall County Historical Society.

Benjamin Shaffer (1844-1912) was an interesting character in Bremen history. His father emigrated to Bremen from Germany and became a wealthy farmer. As a young man, Benjamin served in the Indiana 74th Volunteers (infantry) Company F during the Civil War.

After the war, Shaffer returned to Bremen and took up farming. He later moved to town and became an investor and also assistant town marshall in the 1890s. He was known for his rattlesnake hunting prowess. The Bremen Enquirer of August 25, 1910, states “Benjamin Shaffer killed seven rattlesnakes yesterday about two miles south of town.”

Honoring Civil War Soldiers

Shaffer was proud of his military service and honoring Bremen’s Civil War soldiers was a point of pride. He belonged to the Grand Old Army of the Republic post in Bremen. Through his efforts, Bremen was awarded a cannon for their cemetery in 1902. Shaffer helped to get the cemetery incorporated in 1903 and was named president of the cemetery association in 1904.

The May 16, 1902, edition of the Bremen Enquirer said: “Benjamin Shaffer, commander of the Hardzog Post G.A.R. of this city, is in receipt of a letter from Senator Beveridge stating that the ordnance bureau has instructed the commanding officer at Ft. McHenry, MD, to turn over to the Post one eight-inch Rodman gun and 20 eight-inch shells. The piece will not be mounted, and transportation charges must be borne by the Post. A carriage will be made for the gun here, and arrangements made for its immediate shipment. It will be mounted in the Bremen cemetery as a monument to the Union soldiers buried in unknown graves. It is a matter of regret that the arrangements could not have been completed in time for Decoration Day.”

Presenting the Artillery

The June 13, 1902, the Enquirer stated: “The cannon presented by the government to the Bremen G.A.R. arrived yesterday morning. Last Friday Mrs. Dr. Smith and Mrs. Marquet circulated a subscription paper and in a short time secured $200 to be used in paying transportation charges and mounting the piece in the cemetery. It will be placed at left of the main driveway, just inside the gate, and mounted on a pyramid of limestone 40 inches high and with a base of 10-1/2 X 12-/2 feet. At each side of the gun will be a small pyramid of shells. The gun is 10-1/2 feet long, 8-inch caliber and weighs about 3 tons.”

The gun was placed in a custom-cast tilting carriage made by the local Holland Radiator foundry, marked with “1902,” at a cost of $15.50. The town was able to celebrate the monument in style on Decoration Day of 1903, and the Women’s Relief Corps draped the cannon in flags for the ceremony.

About "Ben" Shaffer

Benjamin Shaffer.

When he died in 1912, Benjamin Shaffer was buried in the family plot, right next to the cannon. Having been survived by five daughters, his descendants in the area today include Senffs, Ruffs, Stouders and Jensens, including this author.

The Benjamin and Mary Ann Shaffer family.

The Marshall County Historical Society and Museum is located at 123 N. Michigan St., Plymouth. We are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 until 4. We have an unlimited supply of great stories and pictures in our archives!

Betty Jane Smith: A Culver Tragedy

by Anita Boetsma | Feb 20, 2026 | Culver, Visitor Stories & Oral Histories

Feature Image. From left: Betty Jane Smith; Mildred Isom, Betty Jane Smith, and Eleanor Turner (photo courtesy Mildred Isom)

By: By Mildred Isom, Edited by Jeff Kenney and Anita Boetsma

In July 2007, Mildred Isom, originally of Culver, sent an essay about her recollections of her friendship with — and subsequent grief at the death of — Betty Jane Smith, one of the four African American children drowned in the 1947 tragedy. Betty Jane was buried in Mildred’s band uniform, a fact which Mildred blocked from memory.

Betty Jane Smith was a member of our exclusive quartet of friends at Culver High School. She was an orphan who came from Chicago to live with her grandparents in our little farm town of Culver, IN, in the early 1940’s. The four of us were immediately drawn together into the same activities with the same goals. Marching Band, softball and other sports were our first choices but we soon we all joined Chapel Choir and the orchestra. Our band and sports teams went out of town each year to compete in contests statewide.

Betty Jane Smith.

Betty’s bubbly personality kept us all cheerful, and her long black sausage curls were natural. Never before and never after have I been a part of such a fun loving, loyal and hardworking group. Before long Betty’s cousins, Eleanor, Winston and Paul, arrived to live with the grandparents. Their parents were professionals in Chicago, a dentist, doctor and podiatrist. I did not even know what a podiatrist was at that time. Betty’s grandmother’s name was Augusta, but we all called her Ga Ga because the little ones could not pronounce her name. The grandfather was Lloyd Smith, a rotund, jolly white-haired gentleman who kidded us for our attempts at cooking but never failed to consume it. This family was one of the only two black families in our town and were not related. In Plymouth, a mere 10 miles north, blacks were not allowed in town after 6:00 pm. This was a mystery to us in our teenage years in the mid-1940s.*

More time was spent at Betty Jane’s house than mine. I was always invited for Friday night sleepovers, Sunday dinners and holidays. My mother had passed away many years before, my older sister was married, and my father worked long hours and was seldom home. Betty Jane, although much loved and always cheerful, still I think, felt like an orphan and basically so did I at the time. We were a comfort to each other and felt like sisters. During the summers one or more of the quartet joined us in swimming, fishing, bike riding and any kind of sports, music and babysitting.

On Friday nights during the summer, we usually rode our bikes around the north side of Lake Maxinkuckee to attend the free movies offered by the Culver Military Academy. During the winters we walked directly across the lake which was frozen over three months of the year. One Friday night I had the flu and did not go with them. About 8:30 p.m. my father came home and told me that he and two friends had pulled Betty Jane, Winston and Paul from the lake. They had fallen through a thin spot in the ice. Betty Jane’s cousin, Eleanor Turner, was the only survivor. Eleanor said that her brother, Winston Turner, had lifted and pushed her up onto solid ice before he succumbed. She was able to retrace her steps back to the starting point. Although my father was gentle in telling me, I doubt if he really ever knew how it affected me. My only real confidant at that time was Betty Jane’s grandmother. I remember visiting her once right after the event. We experienced tears, hugs and holding each other. As far as I remember, I never went back. I could never bear to again step into the house. This occurred when we were in the 8th grade.

Life went on, of course. Eleanor continued high school with us but we did not become any closer as she was the studious one and being chubby all her life, she did not care for sports. She did continue to be in the marching band. At our class reunion in 2001, she wrote saying she was married, living in New York and regretted she would not be able to attend the reunion.

After the reunion banquet, three of us left in the quartet met at Helen Sikora Zalas’ house, my longtime girlfriend’s, in South Bend, to carry on with our own reunion. After rehashing and chuckling about a lot of past incidents, Betty Jane’s name was brought up. Helen turned to me and said, “That was really nice of you to let them use your band uniform for Betty to be buried in.” I said something like “huh?” Then the other two girls told me the Band Director had asked if I would donate my uniform and I had said yes, so they transferred my medals onto a maroon cardigan sweater. Helen asked if I remembered going to the services. I had to say “no.” I was told we all marched fully uniformed down Main Street to the Evangelical Church for services and further to the cemetery. One of the girls said that the band director accumulated enough funds to purchase a new uniform jacket for me about a year later. I had no recollection of these events at the time and still do not.

As the years go by I still think of Betty Jane, and the way we were a long time ago.

*Editor’s Note: According to the Encyclopedia Britannica and other online resources, ”Sundown Towns” excluded people of color from being in town after sunset. This practice existed across the U.S. during the 20th Century.

The Museum is home to many stories like this one. Information about the history of Black communities in Culver is available as well. The Museum is open from 10 until 4 from Tuesday through Saturday at 123 N. Michigan St., Plymouth. For more information, call 574-936-2306.

Dedication of the Historic Firehouse

by Anita Boetsma | Feb 18, 2026 | Buildings & Historic Preservation, Plymouth

Feature Image. Fire House dedication, firemen standing in front of old firehouse, ca 1995.

The following article was written in the MCHS Quarterly on July 3, 1976, and the original firehouse was still in use after 100 years.

An Early City Hall and Engine Building

The City Hall and Engine Building, now housing our present fire department, was completed late in 1875. Built by Robert McCance and W.P. Beaton as contractors, the building cost $4,200. Alfred Morrison, Platt McDonald and W.D. Thompson supervised the construction for the city. The original building was 34 feet wide and fifty feet long, with brick walls 35 feet high and 18 inches thick to the second story with 12-inch-thick walls from there to the roof. The hose and bell tower was nine feet square and 59 feet high.

The first floor consisted of one large room in which the firefighting equipment was kept. Listed as the equipment owned by the department at that time was one hand engine, one hose cart, hose and hooks and ladders.

Upgrading Equipment

The first fire engine was purchased sometime between 1863 and 1868 and was, from all indications, a “sidestroke” engine. Five or six men to a side, pumping up and down vigorously, were able to produce a respectable, pulsating stream of water, procured from a cistern or the river. “Hooks” were long pike poles, usually with a pointed end as well as a hooked end. They were used for pulling down buildings in an attempt to smother fire and keep it from spreading.

The upper story of the new building had two rooms, one for the use of the fire department and the other used as a city council chamber and Mayor’s office. The building was described as being “large enough for the city to use for many years to come”, and so it has been.

Funding the Building

Possession of the building was taken by the city on February 21, 1876, and the dedication was marked with a grand ball, proceeds of which were $165.00. The volunteers had been staging balls for some time prior to this dedication ball for an earlier reference to one in January of 1868 noted receipts of $80.40. The annual Fireman’s Ball continues, each year being held in February, for the benefit of the Fire Department.

Honorary Member Certificate.

This is just one of many resources available at the Marshall County Historical Society & Museum, located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth. Call us at 574-936-2306.

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