The Encyclopedia Americana (1906)/Muncie

Muncie, mŭn'sĭ, Ind., city, county-seat of Delaware County; on the White River, and on the Chicago & S. W., the Lake Erie & W., the Cleveland, C., C. & St. L., the Chicago, I. & E., and the Cincinnati, R. & M. R.R.'s; about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis. A belt railway encircles the city and furnishes intercommunication among the lines which enter the city. Muncie is situated in an agricultural region and in a natural-gas belt. In the vicinity are coal fields and glass-sand, and the river furnishes good water-power. The chief manufacturing establishments are iron and steel works, glass works, machine-shops, canneries, pulp and paper-mills, menufactories for silver and silverplated goods, wagon and carriage works, and flour-mills. Other articles manufactured are gas engines and gas fixtures, men's clothing, knit underwear, caskets and undertakers' supplies. There is a large trade in the manufactures of the city, and in coal, farm products, and live-stock.

Muncie is the seat of the Eastern Indiana Normal University, a private school which in 1903 had over 400 pupils. The city has good public and parish schools, a public library which has over 14,000 volumes, a city hospital, court-house, and a number of fine churches. The government building cost over $80,000, and the new (I903-4) library building $50,000. The electric-light plant is owned and operated by the city. Pop. (1890) 11,345; (1900) 20,942.