Cabel & Kauffman – Successful Business Partners

One of the most successful 19th century business partnerships in Daviess County was Cabel & Kauffman Mercantile Co., established in 1852 by Joseph M. Cabel (1819-1901) and George Kauffman, Jr. (1832-1904).

Joseph Cabel, the senior member of the firm, was born near Strasbourg, France. He came to America in 1839. He traveled by steamboat from New Orleans to Evansville, Indiana and then by foot or horseback to the small village of Washington, Indiana.

George Kauffman, the junior partner, was born in Philadelphia. His family moved to Washington in the 1840s where his father, George Kauffman, Sr., was a businessman.

In 1852 Cabel & Kauffman Mercantile Co. opened a small dry goods store in a modest frame building on the southeast corner of Main and Second in Washington. Over the next 50 years Cabel & Kauffman expanded its business into groceries, boots and shoes, men and women clothing, carpets, glassware, cigars, and tobacco and became the most prominent retail establishment in Washington. To accommodate their growing business and expanded inventory, Cabel & Kauffman built three brick buildings—two of which were two-story—on the south side of the 200 block of Main Street and hired a large staff.

Cabel & Kauffman stores at 201-205 E. Main Street in Washington (ca. 1900)

The founders of Cabel & Kauffman Mercantile Co. & Cabel Coal Co.

Cabel & Kauffman administrative staff (ca. 1900). Seated behind the middle table are Joseph Cabel (left) & George Kauffman(right).

After the Civil War, the two entrepreneurs recognized that coal represented a new and promising business opportunity. The Ohio & Mississippi railroad that ran through Washington, from Cincinnati, Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri, was finished in 1857. During the railroad’s construction, rich beds of coal were found near Washington and several small mining operations started in Daviess County.

In 1870 the Cabel Coal Co. was organized by Joseph Cabel and George Kauffman and they bought many of the small coal operations and leases in Daviess County. When O & M Railroad Co. started using coal instead of wood to fire the boilers on its steam locomotives, demand for Daviess County coal jumped. By 1892 Cabel Coal Co. was operating five large underground coal mines in Daviess County that employed 600 men and produced 300,000 tons each year.

George Kauffman did not have any children. Joseph Cabel brought his two sons into the business. Austin F. Cabel (1852-1914), the eldest son, became the general superintendent and buyer for the Cabel & Kauffman mercantile and grocery business on Main Street. John V. Cabel (1866-1895), the youngest son, became principal manager of the coal mines operated by Cabel Coal Co. John V. Cabel died at the age of 26 and the Cabel family’s interest in mining was sold.

Joseph Cabel’s sons: Austin F. Cabel (1852-1914) & John V. Cabel (1866-1895)

Joseph Cabel was not only a successful businessman, but also a generous philanthropist. He donated the land on which the Carnegie Public Library in Washington was built in 1903. The site was named “Cabel Park” in his honor.

Following the death of Joseph Cabel and George Kauffman, the grocery, dry goods, and mercantile business they founded was carried on by Austin F. Cabel. After Austin died in 1914, the company was operated by his widow, Elva (BonDurant) Cabel (1866-1943) until a devastating fire on April 27, 1923 destroyed Cabel & Kaufman’s three stores and its entire inventory.

Smoldering ruins of Cabel & Kauffman after the April 27, 1923 fire

The real estate on the southeast corner of East 2nd and Main Streets was acquired by the Peoples National Bank and Trust Co. on which it built a five story bank and office building that was completed in June 1928.

This article was compiled by Bruce Smith, a member of the Daviess County Historian team. The photographs and etchings in this article were courtesy of the Daviess County Museum and can be viewed at daviesscounty.pastperfectonline.com. Comments or suggestions for future blog articles may be sent to the Historian team at daviesscountyhistorian@gmail.com.