Charles  P. Sindlinger

          Charles P. Sindlinger.  The name Sindlinger in Shelbyville has for over seventy years been associated with one line of business, the supply of fresh meat to the consuming public.  Two generations of the family have contributed their energies and management to the business.  They were pioneers in the matter of progressiveness, and progressiveness has been a factor in the business through all the years.  The head of what has developed into an extensive packing plant as well as a retail and wholesale market is Mr. Charles P. Sindlinger, who grew up in the business founded by his father.
          His father was  Phillip F. Sindlinger, a native of Philadelphia.  He went to Cincinnati in early life and in May, 1859, started his meat business at Shelbyville, Indiana.  Phillip Sindlinger had gone through a thorough apprenticeship not only as a local butcher, but with some of the big packing plants in Cincinnati.  In the evolution of the butcher and packing business the Sindlingers have gone through phases of experience that illustrate the pioneer stages of the industry.  Phillip Sindlinger on coming to Shelbyville gave service to his local customers of fresh beef killed three times a week.  He not only butchered the beef, but spent a good deal of time riding horseback over the country district to secure the animals, which he drove to his slaughter house.  In this department of the business Charles P. Sindlinger as a boy received a full share of training.  He became an expert cattle driver, learned to judge cattle, hogs, veal and sheep, and even as a boy he had earned the confidence of his father and was acting the part of buyer for the establishment, riding long distances over the country around Shelbyville.  It was to him very interesting work, but it exposed him to all kinds of weather, since he had to ride out several days in the week regardless of roads or weather conditions.
          Mr. Charles P. Sindlinger was born at Cincinnati, August 26, 1863, and was nine months old when his mother moved with him to Shelbyville.  He was educated in the schools of that town, and from the age of fourteen was regularly assisting his father in the shop.  His subsequent education was acquired by attending night schools, and he early developed into an astute and successful business man, and about 1886 took active charge of the business.  In those years practically all the work of preparing the meat was by hand.  He recalls how he made sausage by cutting up the meat on a block.  The Sindlingers introduced machinery and improved appliances as rapidly as they were developed, and for many years the Sindlinger plant has been a model of equipment, operated by electric power.  In 1921 Mr. Sindlinger built a new cold storage plant, with a weekly capacity for handling 300 hogs and twenty cattle.  His business now employs twenty persons.  The Sindlingers as packers specialize in pork products, and the output of their plant is distributed and sold to about seventeen towns around Shelbyville.  His plant has about 10,000 square feet of floor space, and in addition to the plant in town he has a large farm near town where hundreds of steer and hogs are fed, furnishing a steady supply for the packing plant.
          Mr. Sindlinger has been a strenuous worker.  He has enjoyed prosperity, and his prosperity has not been for himself nor his family alone, but has meant something of value to the entire community.  In addition to his meat business he is vice president of the Homestead Building & Loan Association, is a director of the Farmers National Bank, is president of the Forest Hill Cemetery Association, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and B. P. O. Elks.  As a young man he was quite active in politics.  During the World war he was chairman and team captain in all the five war loan drives, was also a member of the Red Cross board.  He is a member of the Indiana State Meat Dealers Association.
          He married  Miss Lillie Applas, of Ohio.  To their marriage were born four children.  Their son  Fred  was in training for service during the World war and was ready to go to France when he died.  The three living children are:  Harold, associated with his brother in business, representing the third generation of the family as meat dealers and packers at Shelbyville;  Miss Doris, who is a graduate of St. Mary of the Woods at Terre Haute; and  Charles, also in school.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT,  Vol. 3, By Charles Roll, A.M., The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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