USA > Kansas > Cherokee County > History of Cherokee County, Kansas and representative citizens > Part 15
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The amount of earth and rock taken out is
simply enormous. Excavations are sometimes made so large that the roof of a "room" may be 50 feet above the floor, or even higher. The whole force of miners may be employed in a single excavation. Of course, the rocks not containing ore are not hoisted to the surface, after the room is large enough for storing them, if the drifting is on a level ; but often the ore is so scattered through the stones that it is neces- sary to bring them to the surface. There is not much of what is called "free ore."
After the ore-bearing rock is brought up it is run through powerful crushers, which grind it into a fine gravel. It is then run through "jigs," where is is shaken thoroughly in water, when the heavier particles go to the bottom. The water is then lowered and the top part of the gravel is skimmed off and thrown aside. This is called "tailings," but it yet contains a low per centum of ore. The heavy part, at the bottom, is then taken out of the "jig," when it is ready for the smelter. Recently, some com- panies have put in what are called "sludge mills," which grind the "tailings" into a still finer gravel, and this is put through the same kind of process as last described. The owners of these mills usually buy the great dumps of "tail- ings" at such prices as will justify them in working over the entire quantity, sometimes as large as a great hill containing thousands of tons.
THE FEATURE OF UNCERTAINTY PRESENT.
On account of the fact that lead and zinc ores do not lie in strata, but in pockets. scat- tered here and there through the region, many persons fail in their mining operations. Thou- sands of dollars have been spent in prospecting. and ground has been abandoned in numberless
1
URDOCK 1898 1
HARDWARE
BUT ITS |STOVES RANGES BUGGIES
R.S.MILLIC
DEM LTAL
licious! C
-
-
Murdock Block, Galena
Court House, Galena
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
cases. In many instances abandoned shafts have been reopened and drifts started in other directions from those at first started, and these have led into the richest "finds" of ore. To those engaged in mining there are many inter- esting things. Some fail where others suc- ceed; some become suddenly wealthy by some fortunate turn. and afterwards strike a "streak of bad luck," and lose all they had formerly made; others have toiled on from year to year, battling always against adverse conditions, at last to "strike it rich," and in a few months be independent. There is a fascination about the business, and this, with the chances to make money, attracts many people and leads to the building up of a community of rugged, cour- ageous class of citizens who, besides gaining the comforts which wealth affords, add largely to the material progress of the county. Lead and zinc have done wonders for Cherokee County. In its wealth of metal and mineral it stands in the front rank among the counties of the State, and if not at the very head, it is a question of a very short time when it will be there.
THE WATER POWER OF THE COUNTY.
In the chapter of this book, under The Early Settling of Cherokee County, the fact is mentioned that Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa- chusetts, who was one of the attorneys for the first settlers of the county, in their controversy with James F. Joy, once planned to secure the franchise for the water power of Spring River, or that part of it which flows through Cherokee County, Kansas. This was more than 30 years ago. It is believed that, had General Butler won the suit which was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, and was decided
adversely to the people, in 1872, he would have pushed the water power project to the extent of making Southwestern Missouri and South- eastern Kansas a great manufacturing district, after the pattern of many in the New England States. General Butler was a far-seeing man. He foresaw that the time was then not far away when the manufacturing interests of Massa- chusetts and its neighboring States would move South and West; that the commercial require- ments of the country would make it necessary. But it was the mining interests of this section that chiefly led him to consider the feasibility of the project concerning which I now write, although the mining operations here were then in their inception. Joplin was then a mere vil- lage of board shanties and here and there a few habitations of better pretense. That was five years before the discovery of lead and zinc at Galena, or rather where Galena now stands, for the place was then unhonored and unnamed. The region was then a post-oak and black-jack wilderness hemmed in by hills and bluffs of flint and limestone, where an occasional tray- eler would sometimes halt to quench his thirst at a rippling stream, thinking not at all that he trod the surface beneath which lay untold stores of wealth. The Joplin district seven miles away, had begun to attract the attention of cap- italists in the Northern and Eastern States, and some of them had come and were beginning operations for developing its riches.
The development of the water power of Spring River, for more than the operation of an occasional grist mill, was left for persons coming upon the field at a later time. Perhaps it is better that it was so. There are turns in the affairs of men which lay hardships upon the in- dividual and later change for the benefit of the whole community, though lapses of time may
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HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
often intervene. Thirty years ago the oppor- tune time had not arrived for the undertaking here considered. The conditions of population and of material development were not such as would justify the undertaking then; but the absence of these did not hinder far-seeing men from judging that they would speedily come.
THE SPRING RIVER POWER COMPANY.
Within the last two years The Spring River Power Company, a corporation controlling all the money that it needs, has taken hold of the matter of harnessing the power of that river, and the work is largely on its way. Surveys have been made, lands have been purchased, franchises have been obtained and the work of building a mighty dam across Spring River, at Lowell, just below the mouth of Shoal Creek, is well under way. I was at the scene of operations on July 16, 1904, and the extent to which the work had been carried indicates that a gigantic enterprise is in progress. More than 300 men were at work ; and it is expected that by the first of January, 1905, the dam will be completed, the machinery put in and the company ready to furnish electric power to any point within a radius of 50 miles. History, gen- erally, does not have to do with matters of the future ; its province is to record the incidents and achievements of the past ; but in an instance where a great enterprise has been planned and the material operations have been begun, it can scarcely be improper to lay out before the reader the scope and purpose of the undertak- ing. Such is the matter in hand; and the ob- ject of this record is to preserve facts which, if not now set down, may escape the historian who, in the years to come, will enlarge upon that of which I now write.
The scope of the enterprise is planned to be broad, so broad as to meet the requirements laid upon it as the conditions may require from time to time along down the future. Besides the dam already under construction and well on its way to completion, another will be built at the south line of Cherokee County, where Spring River leaves the State of Kansas. By the course of the stream this is about 10 miles below Lowell, the point at which the first dam is being built. It is also said that the company will build a dam somewhere above Lowell, in Cherokee County, which will make three dams in the county. Besides these, the company in- tends to build a dam across the same stream, in the Indian Territory at a point a few miles west of Seneca, Missouri, on account of the rich ore fields in that district, as well as for other general purposes. But it is concerning the water power of Cherokee County that this chapter is being written. Mention is made of the fourth dam, as indicating the general scope of the company's planned undertaking.
The three dams in Cherokee County, if the whole energy of the stream can be conserved, will perhaps secure the application of 60,000 horse power : for Spring River is a magnificent stream of pure, limpid, spring water, with such a descent as admits of the feasibility of frequent dams along its course. Its main branch rises in Christian County, Missouri, not far west of Springfield. Its north fork rises in Dade County, Missouri, and Shoal Creek rises in Barry County, in that State. The main stream and all its branches flow through districts where there are many never-failing springs, some of which are large enough, in a single spring, to afford power for light-running grist mills and for other purposes.
The purpose of the undertaking, concern-
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
ing which this article is written, is to supply electric power for every kind of mechanical contrivance through which it may be profitably applied. It will be used in the operation of railway systems, for the transportation of pas- sengers and freight; in supplying light and power for use in the towns and cities of the dis- trict, and for the smelting of ores in the near- lying mining fields along the river, on either side. In a sentence, the purpose of the under- taking is to turn Cherokee County, with the other districts lying within reach of the seat of power, into a great manufacturing center, where the cheap power can be used in the pro- duction of the commodities of trade and com- merce ; where the energy of the cold stream, now flowing on toward the distant sea, may be turned into light and power, for the comfort and convenience of the people now living, and yet to live, along its shores, and this without destroying its quality or much interrupting its
course. That the water of this beautiful stream has flowed on for years, decades and centuries, deepening its channel among the hills and through the valleys, affords a presumption that it will continue to flow, and thus offer to those who dwell along its way the opportunity of securing the benefits which will help to lighten toil and open an easement from the drudgery of life : and acting on this presumption the com- pany entering upon the gigantic undertaking now in its inception will, before long, come to the test of the feasibility of the enterprise. The people will watch the progress of the great scheme with an eagerness proportionate with the vastness of the work to be done, and with the hope that disappointment will come neither to those who have it in charge, nor to those to whom its benefits will come. The water power of Cherokee County is foremost among the many advantages which its material resources afford.
CHAPTER XI.
THE RAILROADS OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION-RAILROAD PROPERTY TAX - VALUATIONS-RAILROAD MILEAGE IN THE COUNTY-THE LATEST LINE TO BE BUILT-BONDS IN AID OF RAILROADS-AN EARLY RAILROAD TIME TABLE-TRAVEL IN THE DAYS OF THE STAGE COACH.
Railroads are perhaps the chief factor in the accomplishment of the purposes of modern civilization. Though the activity which they give to methods in nearly every industrial un- dertaking lays a heavy strain upon the nerves of the people, making it questionable whether the facilities which they afford bring an ade- quate compensation for the tremendous outlay of energy, they are now considered indispensa- ble for maintaining the present social and com- mercial conditions of the country. The dread of distance and the loss of time have so lost ground as anxiety-producing elements that they are now no longer taken into account. With railroads the people accomplish in a day what, a generation ago, would have required a year. As the modern steamship, with its con- venience, comfort, luxury and speed, and the network of ocean cables which encircle the earth, have brought the fulfillment of the prophecy, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea," so railroads have accomplished a like condition on the continents.
At the close of the war, April, 1865, Seda-
lia, Missouri, on the Missouri Pacific, and Rolla, Missouri, on the St. Louis & San Fran- cisco, were the nearest railroad points to Chero- kee County. The nearer of these was more than two hundred miles away, and travel to and from either was made by stage or by private conveyance, either of which was slow and dreadfully wearing. Merchandise of all kinds had to be brought in on the slow-going freight wagons, many of which were drawn by oxen. It would take more than a month to make a round trip. However, those engaged in the work enjoyed it; and slow as the methods were in those pioneer days, life seemed to be as much worth the living as it is to-day, with all the modern ways and means which rapid-transit facilities enable the people to employ.
RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 1
As late as 1869, Pleasanton, Kansas, one hundred miles north of Columbus, was the nearest railroad point ; but by the latter part of that year the road was finished to Fort Scott. This was the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad. It was pushed on rapidly toward
-
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Columbus, and on April 8, 1870, the first freight train entered the town. This was a heyday for Columbus. On the 11th of April the first passenger train came; and on the 18th the people were given a free excursion to Fort Scott. These events marked the beginning of an era in the history of the town, as well as in the history of the county.
The building of the railroad south from Fort Scott was delayed by the opposition of the Land League; and even after it was finished to Baxter Springs traffic over the line was often interrupted. It was partly for the protection of the company's property, that soldiers were kept in the county as late as 1872, when the dispute between the settlers and James F. Joy was settled by the United States Supreme Court.
The Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Rail- road was finished to Baxter Springs the same year it reached Columbus, and the latter place remained the terminus of the road many years ; then it was extended to Galena, and on to Jop- lin, Missouri. It did more to develop the county than any other road, at least for a long time, as from the main line, in the north part of the county, switches were extended to the coal shafts then opening up for supplying the markets as far north as Kansas City; and the road had much to do in opening the great lead and zinc mines at Galena.
In the fall of 1872 the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, which had then been fin- ished to Carthage, Missouri, was extended west, to the east line of the State of Kansas. This was done by Edward Brown, who had built the road from Peirce City, Missouri, to Carthage. At the State line a town was laid off and named Brownsville. This remained the terminus of the road, from about 1868 until
1872, when the road was extended through Cherokee County. In the meantime a narrow- gauge railroad was built from Weir City, in the northern part of the county, to Messer, in the middle eastern part. This was independent of the other road, and as such it was operated three or four years. After the completion of the St. Louis & San Francisco road through the county, traffic on the narrow-gauge road ran down, and the road was torn up and aban- doned. It was a non-productive investment, even at its best.
While Brownsville was the terminus of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, the pro- moters of the contemplated extension were busy devising means for the carrying out of their plans. Townships were besought to vote bonds, all along the proposed route, and every other possible effort was resorted to for raising funds. Two towns were laid off, one east and the other west of the present town of Crestline. Some enterprising men at Carthage, Missouri, and a few from Cherokee County, got up an organization, issned bonds and sold them in the New York market, realizing many thousands of dollars upon them. They were entirely worthless ; and as soon as the victims found out the truth a criminal action was brought, and a number of persons in Carthage were arrested. The affair broke up a wealthy banker, whose son was the legal adviser in the fraud, and it is said that others were seriously damaged in a financial way.
The St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad was completed to Columbus in the fall of 1876, and on the first day of January, 1877, the com- pany's station was opened for business, under the care and management of J. M. Filler, who is still in charge of the company's business at Columbus, the company never having had any
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HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
other agent here. If he continues in charge until the first of January, 1905, he will com- plete 28 years of continuous service for the company.
In 1901 the St. Louis & San Franscisco Railroad Company bought the controlling inter- est in the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company, formerly the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad Company, and since the purchase the properties of the two companies are known as the property of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company. The stations of the two companies, in Colum- bus, were combined into one, in charge of J. M. Filler, of whom mention has been made.
In 1886-87 the Nevada & Minden Railroad. later known as the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was built through the county, from about the center of the north line of the county, to the southwest corner of the county, a distance of 25 miles, of which there are 24 miles lying in a direct line. This road crosses the St. Louis & San Francisco road at Sherwin Junction, six miles west of Columbus. It passes through the coal fields in the northern section of the county.
In 1894 the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway was extended from the company's main line, at Parsons, Kansas, to Mineral City, about nine miles northwest of Columbus, where the company had bought large tracts of coal lands. In 1901 this road was continued, through Columbus and Galena, to Joplin, Mis- souri, making the length of the line 52 miles, 32 of which lie in Cherokee County, besides more than 20 miles of side tracks and switches in the coal fields.
Besides the roads which I have mentioned, the Kansas City Southern Railway touches Cherokee County, at the northeast corner, hay-
ing a little more than three miles of track in this county.
In addition to the railroads which are de- scribed in the preceding paragraphis, Cherokee County is one of the few counties of the State of Kansas which have electric roads. About two miles of the Southwest Missouri Electric Railway lie in this county, having the city of Galena as its present western terminus. This road is soon to be extended to Baxter Springs, and probably entirely through the county.
RAILROAD PROPERTY TAX VALUATIONS.
Probably no other county in the State of Kansas has its railroad property so well dis- tributed as is found in Cherokee County. Out of the 14 townships of the county all but one have railroad property. Lyon township, in the southern central part of the county, has none. The following table, for the year 1904, shows the distribution of the county's railroad prop- erty valuation :
Townships.
Valuations.
Pleasant View
$ 32,268
Cherokee
93,418
Mineral
84,915
Ross
131.513
Sheridan
34,209
Lola
102,293
Salamanca
95.590
Crawford
111,758
Shawnee
54,908
Lowell
56,667
Garden
19,125
Spring Valley
102,859
Lyon
Neosho
38,682
Cities.
Baxter Springs
17,50I
Columbus
30.859
Empire
20.703
Galena
31,037
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
Scammon
8,705
Weir
24,579
Total Valuation $1,092,596
RAILROAD MILEAGE IN THE COUNTY.
In the following table, showing the mileage of railroads in the county, it will be seen that the St. Louis & San Francisco Company has a number of branches, and that these have a number of side tracks, the side tracks, in some instances, being more than the main lines of the branches. These are in the mining districts of the county.
St. L. & S. F. Division
Main Line Side Track
Short Creek
9.31
7.98
Cherryvale
2.18
19.12
Weir
2.01
14.91
Girard
.22
Joplin, north and south ... 25.55
22.71
Galena
1.99
5.32
Main, east and west ..
25.63
2.22
66.89
72.26
M. K. & T.
32.18
20.83
Missouri Pacific
25.03
1.19
Kansas City Southern
3.31
Totals
127.41
94.28
94.28
Total mileage of track.
221.69
THE LATEST LINE TO BE BUILT.
The Arkansas, Missouri & Kansas Railroad Company has lately made a survey through Cherokee County, entering the east side of the county near the middle of the east line, and running northwesterly, leaving the county at a point eight miles east of the northwest corner. The main line will be about twenty miles, in the county, besides a large mileage of side
tracks, as the road will lie through the coal fields. The road is now in process of construc- tion. When completed, it will add much to the assessable property of Cherokee County.
BONDS IN AID OF RAILROADS.
With one exception, the townships of Cherokee County have steered clear of rail- road bonds ; but in some instances the struggles were fierce and long continued. In the early days, following the close of the war, between the years of 1868 and 1880, a horde of "sharks," "grafters" and "confidence men" swarmed into Kansas, as well as into other States, for the sole purpose of securing fraudu- lent bonds upon every municipality not guarded against their wily, sinuous methods. Not all the smooth, artful schemers with which the country was then infested were sent out by railroad companies ; most of them were what are more recently called "promoters," bank- rupts, broken-down politicians and reckless ad- venturers, who had been spewed out of respect- able circles in the older States and cast away as worthless. They alighted here and there, in the West and in the South, and wherever an un- suspecting community could be found they set to work with a showing of fairness which would deceive the very elect. Petitions were circulated, elections were held, bonds were voted, issued and sold to "innocent purchasers," the promoters disappeared, and the people were left in a state of helplessness equaled only by their amazement at the deft, cunning manner in which they had been swindled.
Salamanca township, on November 7, 1871. voted to bond itself, in the sum of $75.000. to aid in the construction of the Memphis, Car- thage & Northwestern Railroad. The bonds
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HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
were issued and placed in escrow with the Secre- tary of State, at Topeka, pending the fulfillment of what the people understood as the condition upon which they voted the bonds. Some time afterward, and while the people were resting easy under the belief that their interests were safe, the bonds were turned over to the railroad company. The company then hunted up an "in- nocent purchaser" and sold the bonds to him, it is said, at a discount of about 50 per centum. The construction of the road was then aban- doned, and the people had nothing left but the figurative "gold brick" and a broad expanse of "blue sky." They took the matter into the courts, followed through a long course of ex- pensive litigation and came out losers. But the people are now paying off the bonds, and in a few years more there will be nothing of them left. The manner in which they are discharg- ing the task imposed upon them through fraud of the deepest dye displays courage of the rarest type.
As Columbus is situated in Salamanca township, its property owners have borne and are bearing their proportion of the burden of paying for something they never received. The Memphis, Carthage & Northwestern Railroad was practically nothing more than a railroad on paper, while the corporate existence of the com- pany remains only in the memory of a few of the old settlers of the county.
AN EARLY RAILROAD TIME TABLE.
I have before me the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad Time Table, No. 21, which took effect Sunday, November 27, 1870, at 8 A. M. The time table was handed me yes- terday (July 14, 1904) by E. L. Martin, a
locomotive engineer who helped in building the road through this place in the spring of 1870. His engine drew a construction train. While at Cherokee, 12 miles north of Columbus, he suggested Cherokee as the name of the station, and the name was given it. Mr. Martin has been an engineer for about 39 years, and he now runs an engine for one of the passenger trains between Columbus, Kansas and Spring- field, Missouri. According to the time table, Columbus had but one passenger train each way a day. This train left Columbus at 8:11 A. M., and arrived at Kansas City, a distance of 148 miles, at 4:00 P. M., requiring seven hours and 49 minutes to make the distance, which was less than 19 miles an hour. The pas- senger trains made stage connections at the fol- lowing places : At LesCygnes, for Butler, Ger- mantown and Sedalia; at Pleasanton, for Mound City ; at Fort Scott, for Nevada, Lamer and Humboldt; at Girard, for Osage Mission ; at Columbus, for Carthage, Oswego and Che- topa ; at Baxter Springs, for Seneca and Neo- sho, Missouri; Fayetteville, Bentonville, Van Buren, Fort Smith, Arkansas; Fort Gibson, Tahlequah, Perryville, Boggy Depot, Fort Ar- buckle and Fort Sill, Indian Territory; and Sherman, Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco and San .
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