The Andrus Brothers, Uri and Fred, came to Bloomington from New York and opened their organ and piano factory here in 1866. They had moved their business here from London, Ontario.
In 1872 they enlarged their factory at East and Monroe. On the first floor was their showroom and on the second and third floors the factory where organs were turned out at a rate of 8 a week! Employed by the Andrus Bros. were 20 to 25 men. They milled the wood for the organs on site using a "caloric engine." This information intrigued me -- what exactly was a caloric engine?
The one pictured below is at the London Science Museum -- it is a hot air engine -- a fire is built inside and the heat of the fire - not steam - drives the pistons/valves of the engine. If many of the factories in Bloomington were of this type, all the fires in the industrial section of town are easily explained! The oil and grease necessary to make this instrument function smoothly and the heat of the motive fire would be a terrifically dangerous combination! However, I have not found that any fire consumed the organ factory.
In 1879 the Andrus brothers, U. O. and F. M. both filed for bankruptcy and the organ factory passed into other hands. After that time, Uri was listed as a carpenter in the city and Fred as a piano tuner, and additionally, they operated a music store where they sold sheet music and pianos. Both died in Bloomington, in 1909 and 1905, respectively. They are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Fred was something of a character. During a court proceeding in 1874 for ejectment, Fred was nearly jailed for contempt as one of the jurors. The presentation of evidence to the jury was completed on the Tuesday, but the jury had not reached a verdict by Sunday. The judge had queried why the jury had not reached a verdict yet and it was apparently hung 11 to 1 and the one was Fred Andrus. But hanging the jury was the least of his offenses.
Fred was called to order and told to sit down by the bailiff for calling to a person through the courthouse window, because no juror was to have communications with a person outside the courthouse.
Andrus replied that he wouldn't, that he would talk as much as he pleased, and that (Bailiff) Platt couldn't put him down. Platt then took hold of him and pulled him down, and told him he would report him to the Court. Mr. Andrus asked Platt if he hadn't permitted B F Hoopes, another of the jurors to converse with some one outside, about bringing him a pillow . . .
And another juror inserted that he had completed a horse trade through the window with the permission of the bailiff.
Andrew testified to Judge Tipton when brought before him that:
. . . on looking down in the yard he saw Jud Spalding and one or two others, one of whom asked him if he wanted a cigar, and he replied (emphatically, being mad) in the negative. He admitted that he was pretty mad, that he had been out four days and three nights, without beds, in a close room, in hot weather, and that he was "red hot." He said that all the jurors had been sitting in the windows, and several of them had spoken to persons in the street.
General Bloomfield testified in favor of Fred Andrus, observing that he was a man of "violent passion" and that he had not meant any disrespect to the court.
Mr. R E Williams (an attorney) said that it was not an act of humanity to keep a jury in rooms of the court-house day after day, in hot, (sic) weather, like this, with no opportunity to wash themselves, sleep, or change their clothing; that a verdict brought about under such circumstances would look like an extorted verdict; it wasn't fair to imprison men in this manner who were guilty of no crime.
These were truly grueling conditions under which to keep a jury! The jury was finally dismissed, the case unresolved, to go have baths and change their clothing!