USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. I > Part 21
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"Compound for sins they were inclined to By damning those they had no mind to!"
Hewitt was of that genus ecclesiastic that in an earlier civiliza- tion would have been a Rowland Hill, a Peter Cartwright, or a Lorenzo Dow. He was practical to intensity and was identified with Wichita from the date he came until he went away with many things not ecclesiastic, philanthropic or eleemosynary ; many things that tended to inoculate simon-pure worldly money (root
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of evil) getting lessons. Hewitt was a "stayer," a "fighter." He knew a king from a jack ; he could put "gaffs" on a chicken; he knew a thoroughbred "hoss"; he knew the mainspring that gov- erned men in ordinary life. He not only had a strong hold on the sheep and goats of his flock, but he commanded the respect of Wichita, as a man, by reason of his strong, forceful, energetic methods. His enthusiastic nature was Methodistic, from early training. He was a strong Presbyterian with a strain of Meth- odist alloy. He was the church militant. He might have been one of Hudibras' preachers, of whom he said:
For his religion it was fit To match his learning and his wit ; 'Twas Presbyterian, true blue ; He was of that ecclesiastic crew Whom all men grant To be the church militant, Who build faith upon The text of pike and gun, And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks.
Therefore, in enlisting Hewitt, we were getting a hold on his flock, securing an earnest speaker, who believed what he said; a good practical reasoner, who saw in the growth of Wichita the upbuilding of many churches. Hewitt was once criticized for accepting money from a saloon-keeper. He replied that he would always accept the devil's money to fight him with.
Day after day, night after night, we pounded, begged, argued, promised, threatened, persuaded. My recollection is, Governor Stanley made many speeches. He and others spoke until their voice was gone and their argument "thinner" than "hot Scotch" at 3 a. m., after a Burns banquet.
The subsidy raised was to be conveyed to five trustees. These men had to have the confidence of the people. One drizzling night a boy came to the writer's home with a note to get Colonel Mur- dock and N. F. Niederlander and go to the board rooms. In those days, to be notified was to go. We arrived at the rooms. There were perhaps 200 men present. It had been decided to select the five trustees to hold the so-called "half million" of assets. As usual, there were factions-the old crowd, the new crowd and
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the men who had no ax to grind. After calling the crowd to order and stating the object of the meeting, the chairman seated him- self, and twenty men were on the floor at once, shouting "Mr. Chairman !"
Things looked mixed. By accident, George Matthews was rec- ognized, and he nominated Sluss as one of the trustees. This was seconded. Then there was a roar. One man, who was hounded into giving anything, kicked on Sluss like a "Texas steer." Demands were made for adjournment; voted down; motion for electing by ballot; voted down; motion to elect by voting a ticket with five names; voted down. Some one moved to vote on each name proposed and seconded, until we had five selected; carried.
"Then many were called, but few chosen."
Scott Corbett was named and elected; a half dozen names proposed and rejected; Albert A. Hyde named and elected ; Rob- ert E. Lawrence named and elected; then a brigade named and voted down; then John M. (J. M. "Johnnie") Allen was named and elected; and we adjourned.
Note .- Four of the trustees selected were Presbyterians; Sluss was a Methodist. The meeting was a general, promiscuous crowd. Two-thirds of the crowd believed in Christianity, but did not believe in any particular scheme of final redemption after fore- closure, but by accident picked out five churchmen to handle the cash.
George Matthews evidently in his young days went to see a Methodist girl and attended revivals. One night George got the floor and moved that every man who was a subscriber to the fund go to the west side of the room and all non-subscribers go to the east side. The subscribers filled the west wall as "statoos," and soon the other crowd began to hunt holes. Little Pierce locked the east door and south door, so that "the way out" was through the west door, and the crowd of subscribers. The scheme was a regular evangelistic trick, but it worked in business just as it works in religion. Some weak men sur- rendered; some able-bodied ones got mad and "cussed." As a scheme it was a success ; as a policy is was damnable.
One night a boomer who owned twenty acres of land, that cost him $1,000 and which was platted as addition, into as many lots as it would make, got up on the floor and made a speech as to our general, particular and specific duty in the
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premises ; spoke of his purchase; his addition; its value at $200 per lot, running into many thousands, and everybody supposed he was going to donate at least half of the addition; but he didn't ; he gave two lots. The groan was such that he left the hall, and never made a deed.
As I remember, Oak Davidson's donation, it was three times as large as any other donation.
The donations being all made, the gathering in of the assets took as much labor as the bookkeeping of a receiver of a busted bank. At least ten per cent was so tangled as to be worthless. A large per cent was mortgaged. When appraised, the second time, for the Peel syndicate, the assets dwindled half. The amount of stuff that went into the Peel syndicate left but little available assets. Not enough was left to secure the indorsers on the notes in bank, to pay the borrowed money of the board.
The men who skinned the Board of Trade on the sale of land, for locations, themselves got skinned at the final "round-up."
The Peel syndicate was "peeled." One Greenwood in St. Louis and one A. K. Florida, who had connections in "Hengland" formed the Peel syndicate and floated the concern. They paid Wichita $150,000 and it is said received twice that sum for doing it. Florida killed himself.
Old Abe Hewitt, the Democratic mayor, who would not let any flag but "old glory" float on the New York city hall, was a heavy subscriber to the Peel fund, and now has a lot of lots for sale, at low prices. See "King-George" for list, at corner of Douglas and Lawrence avenue, second floor front.
Note : George is to give me a "rake-off" for this notice. Anyone buying after this date please notify me at 111 South Main street, room 1, second floor .- George is Geo. Spencer.
GENERAL INSOLVENCY.
A great many men claim their subscription to these industries "broke" them. This may be true in some instances, but in three, personally known to me, it is untrue, as follows:
No. 1. There is a duodecimo biped here who tells that the Dold and Whittaker "business" broke him. He paid Dold by material at 25 per cent profit, i. e., he paid $500 in $400 worth of "stuff." He beat his subscription to Whittaker on a technicality.
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No. 2. Another animalculae-souled stands frequently at the corner of Main and Douglass and "cusses" the Board of Trade generally, and Dold and Whittaker specially, for shortcomings on their contracts. He never paid a nickel on either contract.
No. 3. There is a bald-headed cadaver who uses profanity as semi-colons and periods in his ordinary conversation for greater emphasis. He cannot express himself on the "Eagle," Dold packing house, Whittaker plant, Burton car works, Garfield col- lege and other "things" without having a spasm ; almost an epi- leptic fit ; linguistic jim-jams. When he goes to "cussin" he gets choked up. His eyes roll like a "cullered pusson" drunk on " 'lection" day. He heaves like "hoss" with heaves; has blind staggers; froths like an insane canine; grunts like a hog with cholera ; squirts his poison like a tree-toad. This "critter" robbed a dead man; "boomed" on land way out of town, and so far as known made no donation.
When the board was raising money for Burton car works he refused to give a cent. One day nine men agreed to work on him in three squads. Squad one was to go at 10 a. m. and stay till noon; squad two, from 2 to 4; squad three, from 4 to 6. Squad one was W. P. Carey, A. L. Houck and the writer; squad two had Al Thomas, as for chairman; squad three was headed by Corbett. The three squads spent the day with this man. He swore six (6) hours without a break. The next day he was informed that the scheme was a put up job by Al Thomas to let him have a continuous "swear," and that no one supposed he would give a cent. He was so mad he swallowed a "cigar stub," as reported by Al Thomas to the board.
These incidents are given to show how men lie as to what caused their general insolvent condition.
Wichita's boom was, in fact, "busted" prior to securing either Burton, Dold or Whittaker, but we didn't know it. We hadn't heard it.
This was the condition of Wichita. Months and years rolled away after the boom busted before we heard of it.
'Twas the sheriff's rude voice, With a writ in his hand,
That roused the "boomer" frae his slumber.
'Twas the stopping of renewals on notes; the demand for currency, legal tender, circulating medium, specie, coin, hard
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cash, pence, shillings, pounds, rhino, blunt dust, mopus, tin salt, chink, "yaller daddies," that caused us to study numismatics in all its varied forms and phases.
'Twas the voice of the court: "That the plaintiff have and recover of and from said defendant the sum of ten thousand dol- lars," etc., that forced upon us the fact that the full-blown blad- der of our pride was losing air; that our El Dorado was "nit;" Pactolus, gone, Golconda vanished. We were no longer Nabob, Midas, Croesus, Gould, Astorbilt or Vanderfellow. We rode no longer. We walked, and were simply plain people. As Lon Hod- ings says: "Gildersleeve was Gildersleeve once more."
WICHITA EGOTISM.
Our egotism prompts us to claim all our successes as the re- sult of our great, throbbing, purring brain, working like a Corliss engine ; but our pride charges all ill success to the machinations of some unknown astrological devil. We don't consult soothsayers, as in the days "when Caesar in the senate fell, and the sun, in re- sentment of his slaughter, looked pale and hid his face a year after," but we still ha' some lingering superstitions in us and trace our misfortunes to some cause as idiotic as the augury of the sun-dried entrails of a white chicken, hatched by a "yaller" hen, on the anniversary of Caesar's birth. This, and all this, we do, rather than "fess" our vaulting ambition o'er leaped itself "and left us in the ditch."
THE OKLAHOMA BOOM.
One day Senator Plumb wrote a letter to Wichita that the Oklahoma opening band wagon was enroute, and that notwith- standing the personal feelings of Wichita and the Southwest, as to the effect on Kansas by this Indian Territory being thrown 'open to settlement, the only thing to do was to get into the band wagon and all take a ride. We "got" immediately. We had a meeting at once. We had Crocker and others here at once, and called a meeting at the Crawford Grand that was a "James Dandie."
Weaver, once a candidate for president, was here.
Charles Mansur, congressman from Missouri, was here.
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Old (Illinois) Bill Springer, afterward judge in the territory, was here. We played our hand for every cent that was in it. We were the home of David L. Payne, the original "Oklahoma Boomer," beginning in 1874. Bill Couch was one of our "things." Bill was the "Elisha" who caught Dave Payne's falling mantle ere it struck the dust in Sumner county. Wichita, by right of ownership, was the place to have the monster Oklahoma meeting. This meeting was a grand-stand play, and played to standing room only. Congress was absolutely paralyzed by our demon- stration, and passed the bill as soon as it could after our meeting.
This proved to us that Oklahoma as a buyer of goods, wares and merchandise, was to be our commercial solution. It has so proved. It is the customer that will never fail us. We will be its Kansas City. It will be to us in trade, "Kansas expansion."
When Oklahoma has two million people Wichita will be forced to add millions of capital to do business. The peopling of Okla- homa is Wichita's greatest source of prosperity.
Long live Oklahoma !
RECAPITULATION.
So much for the past ; the happy past; the red, red past, when it was a mile and a half through sunflowers from the "avenue" to the Eagle's home ; when on " 'lection" day the First ward ran to the Red river ; when, at night, o'er the drowsy town was heard the old familiar sound : 76, 42, 98, 21, 39, 64, 57, 22, Keno!
Adieu to the past, the diabolical and fiendish past; the pro- tested past; the past of foreclosures, fraudulent deeds and mort- gages, writs of assistance, proceedings in aid of execution, notices to quit and the multiform actions of relentless creditors to rob debtors.
Welcome ! thrice welcome ! the past of 1885 to 1888, when glad- ness shone in every face, hope beamed from every eye and the happiness and buoyancy crowded, packed and jammed into thirty- six square miles on the Big and Little Arkansas, never has been equalled.
Let natural Wichita pick up the burden that broke the back of the youthful Wichita, and under the pennant
In harmony, triumph; in unity, fall,
Be the banner sheltering all.
achieve victory.
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RETROSPECTION AND PROGNOSTICATION.
(Hindsight and Foresight.)
Wichita, commercially, in 1887, was a nude hope, based on a sight-draft drawn on A. D. 1899. The draft was protested, but we did not get notice of the "protest," and still worked "puts and calls," "blinds" and "straddles," "margined," "bullied" and sold "short." We knew we were all right.
But one summer day, We were "short" on cash, The devil was to pay And we went to smash.
The above beautiful sentiment is "cribbed" from Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, Dryden, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Ben Johnson or Sam Butler, I forget which, but I know that some ancient pen propeller dipped his quill into a solution of nut galls and logwood and "writ them air" four lines.
A. D. 1910.
The Wichita of 1910 is a grown man, a strong, healthy, able- bodied man, subject to a draft in a case of war. An entity of flesh, blood and iron, who in any commercial joust or tourney can sit firm in his saddle, give the horse his head, poise his bull- hide buckler and withstand the shock of any knight that dates to fight in open field under the rules of Charles th' Great, Martel and Ethelbert; the regulations of Donnybrook, the progressive and higher civilization of Rugby football, or, the rules of the Marquis of Queensberry, as amended by Congressman John Mor- rissy of New York and used by Fitzsimmons, Jeffries and Johnson.
The year 1874 was grasshopper milestone; 1886 was a boom milestone; 1889 was the milestone of depression, insolvency and bankruptcy. But the year 1910 is the renaissance of commerce. "The Kansas" palengenegis.
"Tis a promise, a hope based on the enterprises that have grown up since the boom waned, sickened and died.
Without departing from our plan, glance for a moment at- Burton Car Works, to be operated.
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Dold, a success from beginning.
Whittaker, to be operated soon.
Fairmount, a success.
Garfield (now Friends' University).
Lewis Academy, a success.
Rock Island railroad.
Midland railroad-Frisco, operator.
City building and County Court House. Forum. Miles of paving.
United States Court House.
Two thousand feet of brick frontage and ten-story buildings.
Hundreds of fine homes.
The finest city park in Kansas.
Water works unequaled.
Wholesale trade in many lines, all prosperous.
Four hundred commercial travelers.
Half million people in Oklahoma, with Wichita as nearest com- mercial capital.
Twenty to thirty prosperous manufacturing concerns.
At least $4,000,000 of new assets that are safe, permanent and secure more than we had in 1887, when we said we were a city.
Now, consider the water squeezed out of all values, and present values as the base to build on. Is it egotistic for Wichita to feel that
"Every prospect pleases and only man (some other man) is vile ?"
The rainbow in our sky is bright. Every color is visible save blue. In 1889 to 1898 blue was the predominant hue. In truth we may say that
A rosy red o'ercasts our sky ; Many happy faces illuming ; A hope there is in every eye, As just before the "booming."
Mankind is up and down. We've been down; we are rising. In all things we have the dark and the light, good and bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the sweet and sour, the false and true. In other phrase, existence is
Hope and despair; pleasure and pain. Darkness and light; sunshine and rain.
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Thro' the web of life are the shining threads and sombre ones.
Let us remember the past with its sorrowful lesson, yet give credit to the things of value; forget the bitterness. He without hope may well exclaim :
"They have tied me to a stake;
I cannot fly,
But bear-like, I must fight my course."
As Whittier says:
" Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through the trees."
Without hope, faith is a corpse. Hope spreads its golden wings and lures us mortals on thro' burn and briar, fen and forest ; through wind and storm, hail and rain. We forget all save the promise in the future. Hope is our anchor in business, as faith is the anchor of the Christian. Destroy hope and annihilate faith and we are but as wolves preying on each other.
Let every business man in Wichita proclaim that never before did the sun shine as bright, luring men to chase the butterfly.
Let the pessimist howl, and then outhowl him.
Let the "New Wichita" and the robust fragments of the "Old Wichita" with united brain and arm pull altogether. Each period of time produces its own leaders, in war and peace, literature, progressive civilization and commerce. The new men of Wichita, from necessity, must lift up and carry the load. The old bottles won't hold the new wine.
Let new Wichita under the banner : Harmony, Unity, Strength, Success, march to success and make Wichita in fact, what it was to our fancy in 1887, ere we, by industries and solid buildings, buttressed its foundations to ward off and break the storm that shook Wichita as an earthquake, and when the sky was cleared beheld our ruined fortunes, and yet realized the wisdom "that builded wiser than it knew." And at this date realize that our present worth and real valuable acquisitions are the things that we secured and builded when our property ceased to have a market value.
This closes the scheme of these chronicles. Though written for amusement, they may contain a lesson. Adieu.
May, 1910.
CHAPTER XXI.
REVIEW OF CITY
By KOS HARRIS.
"Gather rose-buds while we may ; Old time is still flying; The fairest rose-bud of today, Tomorrow may be dying."
To the Editor of the "Eagle:"
When Wichita is moss grown, when it reaches the second or third generation of the "lean and slippered pantaloon;" when some local chronicler prowls around to substantiate some myth ; verify some legend, or preserve some fading fact, then interesting to our grandchildren even unto the third and fourth generation ; when the preservative feature in town history overtakes us, then Wichita will eventually regret that nothing was done to call back the receding past. In an humble way, in by-gone days, the writer has written some pieces, published in the "Eagle," "Mirror" and "Beacon," which may contain a few grains of wheat, amongst its chaff, to put in a bound volume by some historical society. Wichita, so far, as a town, has taken no step to preserve any fact in its history. This paper is not broadcasted for pelf, nor the laudation of self, but simply to remind the people of Wichita and call their attention to the duty of the present to adopt some method to embalm the past, for the amusement and instruction of the future, when the present Wichita is counted and numbered in the census to be taken from year to year from the ghostly stones in the silent city on the eastern hill, that overlooks the city, which stones admonish the passengers on the Frisco train daily, that in the midst of life we are liable soon to be dead; dead as Adam, Rameses or a desiccated political hack. Simply to write a dry fact and file it away for the use of the historical artist to come after us, who will adorn it and preserve it, is neither labor nor waste of
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time; to write the future in detail, so as to be worthy of adoption by the future chronicler as a fact to be credited to the real author, will please your grandchildren, when ye are dust of ashes.
Many things have impelled me to write this piece, but the "motor" that caused me to work at the present moment was a letter written from Iowa, asking me to give my recollection as to the location of an old wooden building in the town in which I was born, in which my father had an office in July, 1861. It struck me that an appeal to the recollection of a nine years'-old- boy, proved that facts are fleeting, even amongst the denizens of a town in the whirl-i-gig of time. Wichita on some former occasions has adopted suggestions by the writer and his associates and in connection with this piece and its legends. I believe the sug- gestions made herein are worthy of attention. One infirmity of the human mind that has come under my notice, is the old resi- dential liar, who recalls facts that no contemporary ever heard of; another is the fact that some men remember absolutely noth- ing; and lastly, is the fact that some men remember vaguely, but conversation enables them to recollect facts. I received a let- ter last week from an old friend in an adjoining county, who an- swered a letter to me as to what took place in a land sale in A. D. 1875, where Frazier's drug store now is situated, and the answer of my correspondent, a succinct statement covering one page of typewritten matter, is as clear cut as a stamp on "a dollar of our daddies" just stuck from the United States mint. This and all this has moved me to call a meeting of myself and appoint a com- mittee to take hold of this matter and organize "The Wichita Historical Society," of which the mayor of the city of Wichita shall and his successors until time shall be no more, shall be the chairman; the city council to furnish the store-house for all the wares that are brought to the store-house, which are worthy of preservation, until that future day arrives when the city shall ·chronicle the past and monument it for the delight, amusement and pastime of the future people of Wichita forever. This society once formed, will endure and when Wichita, as Chicago, com- memorates its hundredth year, our hours of saving facts will be appreciated. The society can meet annually and elect its trustees and it recommended that for the first trustees, the following named persons be chosen: Chairman, Mayor B. F. McLean; Secretary, M. M. Murdock; Custodian, John Davidson ; Trustees, Doctor Fabrique, Ben Aldrich, M. W. Levy, Robert E. Lawrence,
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William C. Little, Mrs. J. H. Aley, Mrs. J. H. Black, Mrs. H. J. Hillis, Mrs. N. A. English.
These trustees to be elected annually, five men and four women, or if you want to be esthetic, five gentlemen and four ladies, or, if rough, five males and four females, as follows: Three, one year ; three, two years; three, three years. However, this is a matter of detail and to be governed by the wishes of the trustees. It might be a nice thing to elect three of these trustees for life, as in some New England towns. It would be a tribute to three pioneers, and pleasing to them as to the days of "sans teeth, san eyes and sans taste," approach and they shall live in the autumn haze of recollections, indulging in the pleasant memories of the days that are dead. Every city administration should be a mile post to re- member as the days go speeding by, recall the past, the rallying cry of former days and deeds of former years.
Wichita was organized under three trustees, C. A. Stafford, who lived on the land where Abe Wright and Al Bitting now live; Ike Elder, who lives in Harvey county; G. H. Smith, also called Little Smith, who owned the land from Eleventh street to St. Paul's church on Lawrence avenue, who was at one time John Steele's partner and who went into partnership with Uncle Jake Pittinger and then stole all the assets and ran away and from that hour even unto the present day, he hath not been seen or heard of by any man that dwells in Wichita.
The first mayor was Dr. E. B. Allen, and the first council was S. E. Johnson, Charles Schattner, George Schlichter, W. B. Hutch- inson, Dr. Fabrique and George Van Tilburg. Harry Van Trees was police judge and Bill Smith the first city marshal. Of these men columns can be written, which will redound to the credit of some and to the dishonor of others, in their conduct as men, citi- zens and officials. This administration may well be called the beginning of civilization in the Arkansas valley and through this administration was builded the Santa Fe railroad from Newton to Wichita. This was the pioneer civilization administration.
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