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Muncie Timeline
The Muncie timeline provided below is from the article, “We`re So Ordinary, We`re Unique: The Enduring Legacy of Muncie as Middletown.”
Muncie was incorporated as a city in 1865.
The Pre-Industrial Stage began in the 1820`s-mid 1880`s.
In the 1830`s, the founding (pioneer) families, Martin Galliher and Rhoda Ann Ogden Galliher first came to Muncie. Their children were: Martin Jerome (1847), Susan Zonetta (1850), Ida (1856), and Charles (1854).
Martin Galliher lived in Muncie until his death on June 29, 1887. Rhoda Ogden Galliher passed away on July 3, 1893.
The Galliher siblings were active business owners and managed enterprises such as: a pharmacy, a medical practice, an insurance agency, a retail trade store, and a printing and publishing company.
The Industrial Stage coincided with Martin Galliher`s death in 1887. The Industrial Stage officially emerged in the mid-1800`s-middle 1980`s.
Emergence of a factory city began on September 15th, 1886 when natural gas was discovered in Eaton, Indiana. This was referred to as the Trenton Field (gas covering five thousand square miles, including 17 counties in Indiana).
Mid-1890`s: 7 glass plants, 14 fabricators of steel or iron, 2 carriage works, 4 washing machine factories, 2 hub and spoke factories, 1 pulp company, and numerous other facilities.
1900: Muncie defined as a working class community where “people made things” to benefit society.
1890-1920: Major contributions to local industry came from 2 families: the Ball family, manufacturers of glass for home canning and commercial packaging; and the Kitselmans, manufacturers of woven wire fencing and other wire-related products.
1920`s: Ku Klux Klan controlled the city`s government and political system.
1920: General Motors Corporation built 2 manufacturing facilities in Muncie. These facilities made transmissions and the other made automobile batteries. They coincided with Warner Gear Company (1902) that later merged into the Borg-Warner Corporation.
Industrial Stage profile was identified with “jars and cars” by World War II (1941).
Between 1920-1945: the Ball Family (Edmund B. Ball and Frank C. Ball, along with their wives) acquired assets of a defunct, normal school and donated property for a branch campus in Muncie.
1929: The small college of Muncie had grown and was granted independence as Ball State Teachers College.
1954: Westinghouse Corporation built a massive factory for construction of transformers.
1962: Ball Brothers Manufacturing Company announced it was closing operations in Muncie.
1965: Ball State Teachers College (after surpassing 10,000 students) became Ball State University.
In the years 1974-1975 and 1981-1982, two major recessions resulted in massive layoffs.
The shift in economic power in America from the northeast and midwest to the south, southwest, and west, and by the end of the century, the effects of a globalized, world economy.
The De-Industrial Stage began in the mid-1980`s to present day. Actually began in 1984 when community leaders began searching for a new economic model. They wanted to diversify local economy in the direction of its service sector. These included Ball State University, Ball Memorial Hospital, and retail shopping outlets like Wal-Mart, Meijer, and Menards.
1996: Borg-Warner sold half of its transmission business to a company in Mexico.
1998: General Motors closed its Delco battery manufacturing facility. Ball Corporation relocated to company headquarters in Colorado during the Spring.
2009: Borg-Warner closes its Muncie plant.
Post-Modern/Hybrid Industrial Stage
2010: October-Magna Powertrain expands its transmission components (automotive industry) operation in Muncie, Indiana.
2010: October-Progress Rail Services (a subsidiary of Caterpillar) begins manufacturing locomotives in the Westinghouse building off of Cowan Road in Muncie, Indiana.