USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > History of Kansas City illustrated in three decades : being a chronicle wherein is set forth the true account of the founding, rise, and present position occupied by Kansas City in municipal America > Part 4
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These features continued to be the ruling factors in deter- mining the location of cities until after the American Revolu- tion. The cities of the United States, built before that time, were founded, not directly by royal hands, but by those holding royal patents for that purpose, and the same features seem to have been observed by them as were regarded by kings and conquerors for many previous ages in the old world.
Since the Revolution, however, cities have ceased to be founded in the United States by authority; the people have done it themselves, without supervision or interference from govern- ment. The sites have been selected by individuals or com- panies; the grounds staked off, and the lots offered for sale. This done, the balance rested with the people; and though the number of cities founded in this country west of the Allegheny Mountains is almost infinite, each of which was expected by its founders to rapidly become a great emporium, the people have built but few. The popular choice among the many rivals that
OLD GILLIS HOUSE
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have presented themselves in every section has been deter- mined by principies as well ascertained as those of old, and as easy of definition.
Defensibility has ceased to be a consideration, for in the interior of the United States we have had no foe that made it necessary. Contiguity to fertile country can scarcely be said to have exerted an influence, for this country is all fertile. Facilities for transportation, however, have exerted a very great and controlling influence. Having never been a warlike people, and having a country of wonderful and varied productiveness, the Americans are, of necessity, a producting and trading people. The chief consideration to such a people is transpor- tation, and the city, or the proposed city, possessing this feature in the highest degree, be it wagon roads, water-courses with keel- or steam-boats, or railroads, will be most prosperous; and the one that by such means, each in its age, has accommodated the country farthest into the interior has commanded the widest extent of trade. The history of interior cities is but a history of the development of transportation in its different forms. Where we find that a place now almost obsolete was once more promising than its rivals, we will likely find that it had the best transportation of the kind then employed, but that in some subsequent phase some rival took the advantage and the lead. Indeed, there are but few, besides the city at the mouth of the Kaw, that from the first have held the advantage over rivals in all phases of transportation development, or that stand to-day pre-eminent in this regard.
The importance of facilities for transportation in deter- mining the location and prosperity of cities cannot be better
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indicated than by a brief reference to the character, vocation, and habits of the class of men who determined the location of all our important Western cities, though they did not actually build any of them. This refers to the pioneer traders, trappers, and hunters who preceded the march of civilization from the Atlantic coast-a class now rapidly disappearing into tradition and history, because the wilderness, and the wild animals they loved to hunt are gone, and the red men, their companions, associates, and foes, are rapidly going. Daniel Boone was a type of the American element in this class, and also of the hunters who constituted a part of it, but most of them appear to have been of French origin or descent. They were divided into three distinct classes-hunters and trappers, traders, and voyageurs. This latter class were always in the employ of the traders, and it was their business to people the water-craft which the traders employed in transportation. The hunters and trappers were sometimes independent and sometimes in the employ of the traders. They penetrated far into the wilds and explored the unknown regions. They were the true pioneers. The furs and skins procured by them were sold to the traders or procured for them. The traders, originally independent, but subsequently under the direction of the great fur companies, established posts far into the interior of the wilderness, to which they transported articles suitable for traffic with the Indians, and such supplies as hunters and trappers wanted, and at which they purchased robes, skins, and furs, which they transported in turn to the borders of civilization. Irving gives an excellent history of this trade, and Fenimore Cooper, if his treatment of it in fiction was more imaginative, has immortalized it in a
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picture that is no less vivid than true. The men engaged in it were a brave, adventurous class, for whom the wilderness and association with wild animals and wild men possessed more charms than civilization. With a few articles of traffic, a gun and perhaps a few tools for constructing traps, they pushed their way hundreds and even thousands of miles into the untrodden wilderness, not knowing what moment they might fall in with some unknown ferocious animal or some band of hostile sav- ages. They put their canoes and rafts into streams and followed their course, not knowing to what falls or dangers they might lead. Their lives were a perpetual vigil, and they may be said to have lived with their finger on the trigger. The traders, mostly French, employed trappers as well as traded with them and the Indians, and as fur animals were chiefly found along streams, their posts were usually located on them or near their confluence. The latter were deemed the most desirable loca- tions, as they gave access to larger districts of country by keel- boats and pirogues, and hence more easily commanded a larger trade. Their only means of transportation was packing on their own backs, or on the backs of horses, and light water-craft which could be propelled in the rivers with pikes. The mani- fest great superiority of the latter method for conducting an extensive trade is sufficient explanation of their preference for the confluence of streams, as the latter gave them access to more than one valley and thus increased possibilities for trade. This explains, also, why the vicinity of Kansas City became so attractive to them when they came to know of it; for from here they had direct access to St. Louis and had also good com- mand of the Upper Missouri, Kansas, and Platte River valleys.
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Thus it has been made clear that the item of paramount im- portance, and the prime reason for the original settlement as well as the subsequent prosperity of Kansas City as a metrop- olis has been because of its superior transportational facilities. This fact has ever been patent to the mind of the merchant in Kansas City, and is an advantage that has been jealously guarded and fostered since the charter of the city was written.
AM-ENG. CO.ST. L.
COATES HOUSE,
CHAPTER IX.
Population of Kansas City in 1880 .- The Gould System of Railroads .-- Fight between the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Roads .- Combined as One Road .- Building of the First Custom-House and Post-Office.
During the first years subsequent to the Civil War the little city enjoyed a slow but healthy growth, and in the early '80's had a population of nearly 60,000. It was about this time that Mr. Jay Gould first became interested in lines of road leading into Kansas City, since when his operations led to many lively manipulations. This was the genesis: Mr. Gould was the chief owner of the Union Pacific, which, by its charter, was required to pro-rate in equal terms with the Kansas Pacific for California business -- a thing it had always refused to do. T. F. Oakes, Esq., who had for many years been general freight agent of the Kansas Pacific, had now become its gen- eral superintendent, and in that position was able to give the company most efficient aid in its long struggle with the Union Pacific for its charter rights. Early in the year he got Mr. Chaffee, of Colorado, to introduce into Congress a bill to com- pel the Union Pacific to respect the rights of the Kansas Pacific, and a large public meeting held in Kansas City gave it strong endorsement, and memorialized Congress on the subject. Similar action was taken at other places, with the result that the bill was reported favorably in March, with a
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good prospect of its becoming a law. Mr. Gould could not defeat the measure by opposing it; hence, in April, he sent agents to St. Louis, who succeeded in buying a controlling in- terest in the Kansas Pacific, and then withdrew the opposition of that company.
About this time a proposition was made by some of the mem- bers of the old Chamber of Commerce to revive that organiza- tion, but the scheme was modified in so far as a Committee of Commerce of the Board of Trade was appointed in its stead. One of its first acts was to memorialize Congress on the im- provement of the Missouri River. Soon after, and through the efforts of this Committee of Commerce, the Government sent its Commissioners to locate a custom house-and post-office, and after acquainting themselves with the views of the people and examining the different sites offered, they accepted the corner of Ninth and Walnut streets. The purchase price was $8,500 and the work of constructing the building was at once begun. In 1880 the post-office business grew from $98,948 to $123,953.09. During this year the real estate transfers were $1,943,350 in excess of those of 1879, and the cost of build- ings erected was about $2,200,000. The trade of the city in 1880 covered substantially the same territory in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas, as in former years, but was considerably extended into New Mexico, along the extension of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad. Little effort was made to extend it in any direction for the reason that the territory previously supplied from Kansas City caused such demands upon merchants as to tax their resources to the utmost. Kansas City still held her place
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as the leading Western market for stock cattle as well as beeves-the place to which farmers and feeders of surround- ing States, as far east as Indiana, resorted for their supplies. One new feature of this trade introduced during the year was the purchase of cattle for direct export to Europe. Manu- facturing, yet in its infancy, was beginning to take definite shape and to command increased attention. By the opening of mines in every direction the coal trade was assuming great prominence at the beginning of this decade, and the continued developement of this industry has made it one of the most im- portant sources of revenue with which the modern metropolis. of Kansas City has been blessed.
CHAPTER X.
The Drought of 1881 .- Did Not Prevent Continued Increase in Trade .-- Great Wave of Prosperity during the Next Few Years.
The drought of the summer of 1881, wide-spread and in- jurious as it was, was not sufficient to materially damage the trade of Kansas City, only reducing the percentage of increase. Merchants penetrated into more remote districts in Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, and Iowa than they had entered before, with profitable results. The trade of the country sur- rounding Kansas City showed an augmented tendency to con- centrate here. The average percentage of increase in leading lines of trade was 47.26. The percentage of increase in popu- lation was 27.17 ; in taxable wealth, 29.44; in internal reve- nue collections, 53.32 ; in post-office receipts, 26.28; in real estate transfers, 69.71; and in the capital invested in new buildings, 17.60. The buildings erected were of a better class than those erected in any preceding year. Maintaining its reputation as the leading beef-packing city of the United States, Kansas City this year took rank as second in summer packing of hogs and third in winter packing. There were some bank establishment changes, increase of capital and unimportant withdrawals from business. The increase in clearings from $101,330 in 1880 to $136,800 in 1881 shows how prosperous was the interest.
GRADING SCENE.
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The season of 1882 was very favorable for all those lines of production and industry in which the people adjacent to Kansas City were engaged. With success in live stock pro- duction, except in hogs, and abundant harvests, the country could not be otherwise than prosperous, and soon overcame the financial stringency resulting from the short crops of the pre- ceding year, and which curtailed Kansas City's trade during the first half of this year to an aggregate less than for a cor- responding period in 1881. After harvest, however, the situa- tion was entirely changed. There were extensions of trade also, and a growth of trade in localities penetrated the previous year by Kansas City railroads. For the whole number of cities, the clearings of which were reported, there was a decrease of 4.3 per cent, while for Kansas City there was an increase of 43.5 per cent.
It is safe to say that in 1882-83 the country from which Kansas City derives its trade had an accesssion to its popula- tion of fully 500,000. There was an increase' in its assessed valuation of nearly $100,000,000, and a large increase in its commercial property. Agriculture was equally prosperous in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. This prosperity served as the basis of a remarkable expansion in Kansas City in 1883. The compilers of the Directory estimated an increase of popu- lation of 12,733, swelling the aggregate to 93,733. Building was active, there being 1,172 permits issued by the city engi- neer. There was also much building done on additions out of the city limits The business of the post-office, which bears a direct proportion to the city's growth, amounted to $197,605.13, an excess of nearly $20,000 over the business of 1882. The
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real estate transfers, without any marked changes in values, were increased $288,661. The grain trade amounted to $22,047,946 as against $15,250,917 in 1882. The live stock trade was about $50,000 heavier. January 1, 1883, the aggregate capital and surplus of the banks of the city was $2,100,000 ; the deposits footed $7,275,000, and the loans and discounts $5,517,000. January 1, 1874, these items were respectively $3,000,000, $8,935,411, and $7,103,228. The jobbing trade in different lines increased from 15 to 50 per cent. The increase in the clearings of 1883 over these of 1882 ap- proximated 23 per cent.
Despite a wide-spread depression in business circles toward the latter part of the year, causing so much distress as to at- tract the profound attention of statesmen and publicists, the developing state of the country and the increase of trade re- sulting therefrom, in 1884, not only maintained an increasing volume of exchanges in Kansas City and an increase of clear- ings of 37.5 per cent, but insured the rapid growth and develop- ment of the city. The population statistics, as gleaned from the city Directory, show an increase, June 1, 1884, of 19,693 over June 10, 1883. The business of the post-office gained $29,543.92. The transfers of real estate for the year were larger than in 1883 by $3,518,604. The number of building permits increased 949, and the amount of money invested in new buildings $979,493, while the city's taxable wealth was augmented $7,144,685. At the same time the municipal debt was decreased $50,073.50, and the rate of taxation was reduced. The suffering in trade and collections was not. serious, and failures were few and unimportant.
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Owing to the exceptional vigor of the country with which Kansas City trades, incident to its newness, and the influx of capital and immigration, and the development of natural resources, it had suffered less from the recent depression than places differently located. The progress in 1874 had been very satisfactory, and that in 1875 was still more so, except in particular interests affected by local causes. The clearing- house statement is usually accepted as the best index to the general condition of trade. The percentage of increase for the years 1880-85 inclusive, that of each year based on the preceding year, is thus shown: 1880, 48.40; 1881, 32.90; 1882, 43.50; 1883, 23.00; 1884, 37.50; 1885, 26.18; average for six years, 35.24. It is doubtful if any other city in the United States could show as good a record for these or any other consecutive six years, and certain that most other cities did not show nearly so good a record. The population in- creased from 113,736 in 1884 to 128,474 in 1885, while the assessed valuation, that represents not over one-third the real valuation, increased from $33,900,000 in 1884 to about $39,000,000 in 1885. The number of new buildings erected during the year, for which permits were issued was 2,914, costing $5,758,629, as against 2,121, costing $3,562,788, in 1884, and 1,192, costing $2,583,295, in 1883. The cash receipts at the post-office increased from $227,149.05 in 1884 to $233,862.95 in 1885. The transfers of real estate amounted to $17,774,700 as against $12,120,840 in 1874, and $8,601,936 in 1883. The city debt was lessened $80,128.25.
During a somewhat protracted period the record of Kansas
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City had been one of progress. Space permits only of the showing of general results. All the details concentrating to the grand total cannot be given here nor can many important enterprises of various kinds be mentioned.
Kansas City having long since distanced all local rivals for the trade of the States and Territories lying to the west and southwest, both her own people and the people of the East were inspired with confidence in her future growth and im- portance, so that with the release of money for the purposes of enterprise and investments she was one of the first places in the country to feel the improvement and has profited by it to an extent unequaled by any other city. Her trade was largely increased by the revival in the territory which she had previously supplied and for which she had been the principal market, and new trade began, in 1886, to pour in upon her merchants from all quarters. The people had inaugurated a number of local enterprises of considerable magnitude and soon inaugurated others. Notable among them is the system of cable and motor railways, which, when completed, will be the most extensive and effective system of rapid transit in the world. The effect upon the city of this improvement of gen- eral business, the projection and completion of so many cable and motor railway lines and so much new railroad centering here, has been to attract very wide attention to Kansas City as destined soon to take high rank among the commercial centers of the country. Money was sent for investment from all parts of the country, and the land for two or three miles around the city was platted and sold and much of it built on. Property; in the business part of the city, advanced in value fully one
HANNIBAL BRIDGE OVER MISSOURI RIVER. (The Bridge that made Kansas City.)
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hundred per cent within the two years ending January 1, 1888, and residence property, favorably located, much more, while some unimproved property advanced more than one thousand per cent. The real estate transactions, for the year ending June 30, 1885, aggregated $11,261,781. The aggregate for the year ending June 30, 1886, was $39,181,732. For the year ending June 30, 1887, it was $88,302,637. While much of this business was undoubtedly speculative, it had a substan- tial basis in the increasing demand for homes and business places, for the population increased from 128,476 in June, 1885, reckoned on the basis of three and one-half to the name in the Directory, to 165,000 in June, 1887, reckoned on the basis of three to the name. The number of new houses built in 1886 was 4,054, costing $10,393,207. During the year ending June 30, 1887, 5,889 were built, costing $12,839,868. The assessed valuation of property in the city (about forty per cent of its real valuation) increased from $31,678,520 in 1885 to $53,017,290 in 1887, without any new valuation of real estate. The post-office receipts advanced from $233,- 862.95 in 1885 to $311,949.09 for the fiscal year of 1887. That this rapid growth was sustained by a corresponding pecu- niary increase was shown in the transactions of the clearing- house, which from $204,333,144 during the year ending June 30, 1885, increased to $353,895,458 during the year ending. June 30, 1887. Early in 1887 Kansas City passed New Orleans in the magnitude of her clearings and took rank as the tenth city in the United States, only New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, in the order named, exceeding her
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in this respect, and at the present ratio of increase she will soon pass Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Into the States and Territories commercially tributary to Kansas City is now pouring the accumulated surplus wealth of the East and within their borders are settling many of the energetic and enterpris- ing people of this country and Europe. With the construction of only such lines of railroad as this new population demands, and the development of the country incident thereto, the city and its trade must continue to increase at its present rapid rate.
The National Exposition, the Priests of Pallas and trades parades, and the visit of President and Mrs. Cleveland, in the fall of 1887, were potent factors in attracting widespread attention to Kansas City and drawing thither many thousands of people from the East, the South and other sections of the country, who thus became impressed with a sense of its great importance and its manifest destiny. These influences stim- ulated Eastern investment and accomplished much toward in- suring the city's uninterrupted progress through the succeeding winter. Another potent influence was exerted through the work of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Bureau, which did much in the way of inducing capitalists to make Kansas City the base of their operations in trade and manufacture. Else- where more detailed reference to these several subjects is given.
CHAPTER XI.
Effects of the War .- The First Public Schools .- Other Educational Interests and Institutions of this Decade.
Some years before the outbreak of the Rebellion a law was enacted appropriating twenty-five per cent of the revenue of the State of Missouri annually to the establishment and main- tenance of public schools. The measure met with powerful, and in some sections popular opposition, but for a season its beneficial effects upon the cause of public education were clearly recognizable. But when the war came, political rancor and the conflicting interests of different classes of the people exerted a malign influence upon this institution, which in time almost blotted it out, for it is a fact, to which old residents refer with regret, that until after the close of the war the cause of education in Kansas City was practically abandoned
The school system of Missouri had been completely destroyed by the war, and the people were slow to reorganize it; but in 1865 the Legislature passed laws for the organization of schools, specifying the modus operandi of levying and collect- ing taxes for the necessary buildings and other expenses. On the 15th and 18th of March, 1866, the Legislature enacted laws providing for the establishment of schools in cities, towns, and villages, with special privileges, which were approved March 19th. Under their provisions the Board of Education of Kansas City was organized August 1, 1867, with the following
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membership: W. E. Sheffield, president; H. C. Kumpf, sec- retary; J. A. Bachman, treasurer; E. H. Allen, T. B. Lester, E. H. Spalding. Immediately after the organization of the board, Mr. Kumpf retired, and Mr. A. A. Bainbridge was chosen to fill the vacancy thus occasioned.
At this time there was not a public school building in the city, and the entire educational system was in a state of pro- voking disorganization, there being absolutely no school accom- modations and not a dollar available for school purposes. The only buildings that could be secured for school purposes were church basements, old unoccupied dwellings, and tenantless storerooms. The board had before it an almost Herculean task, but the members were of one mind in their determination to give Kansas City the best possible educational facilities in the briefest possible time. Such accommodations as could be se- cured were rented and the schools were formally opened in rented rooms in October, 1867. They were scantily provided with necessary furniture and appliances, but for the most part the teachers were earnest and efficient, and the ball of educa- tional progress was set rolling with a momentum that was re- assuring to every solicitous friend of the cause. The number of children of the school age in the city at that time was only 2,150. Sixteen teachers were employed during the year. It is greatly to be lamented, from the point of view of the historian of this interesting period, that no adequate statistics of these pioneer public schools are to be found in the records of the school board. Mr. J. B. Bradley performed the dual duties of superintendent and teacher of the Central School.
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