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 22
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The first three ordinances passed by this council were amplify- ing, reaching out, "pioneer spreaders" and annexed to the city of Wichita, all that part of the present city lying on the south side of Douglas avenue, from Water street to the Santa Fe depot and also from Lawrence avenue to the Santa Fe depot on the north side and also from the corner of Murdock avenue and Lawrence avenue to Ninth street on the east side of Lawrence avenue, a
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strip of ground 150 feet wide and 1,200 feet long. This was done eight days after the council met and was for revenue purposes only, taxable purposes and is recommended to the present admin- istration for the benefit of those people who have sneaked their stuff outside the city limits to avoid taxes and yet at the same time have all the benefits and comforts of a city of 30,000 people.
Jim Hope's Administration will live as the "cattle trade" administration. The character of Jim Hope and his attributes demand a strong artist for their delineation and for the present, any attempt will be omitted.
Geo. Harris' Administration. George Harris' administration (present city treasurer) was the first great wheat year after the "grasshopper" and it was the year that old Eagle Hall was adorned, decorated and festooned with the fruitage of the "happy valley," as named by Commodore Woodman. The people at that time brought forth the first fruit, even as Cain did his sacrifice, to be offered up for the glorification of the Arkansas valley. At this gathering 200 editors from New York and Missouri called upon Wichita and 100 of them got full, fuller than geese and five "of 'em" got left and missed the train. Wichita, from that visit, got about three hundred columns of free write-up and in that pri- mordial stage of evolution from savage ways to modern civili- zation; in that primeval way, Wichita established its reputation for hospitality and self-abnegation by the surrender of the keys of the gates of the town to the visiting stranger. This freedom to all who visit us is known wherever the commercial traveler makes his way, wherever the newspaper circulates and wherever people whose blood runs warm as wine, congregate, smoke, talk and swap yarns. Some years ago a Boston man said to me, "Once I traveled out of Boston and stopped at many places and for some months I was completely a foreigner. One Sunday morning I reached Wichita and stayed there three days. The day I left ·Wichita was a regret. Some twenty years have rolled away since that trip and all that I now recall is that once out west I spent three days in Wichita and had the 'time of my life.' I cannot recall, at this time to mind, the name of a solitary individual I met, but if lease of life should be granted to me for more than 969 years, I shall always remember the three days I spent in Wichita, in the year A. D. 1876, in the 'early month of May, when green buds were a-swellin'."
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Greiffenstein's Administration. During Greiffenstein's time from 1878 to 1885, were glorious, great and triumphant years. The Frisco railroad and the Missouri Pacific railroad were built ; the Santa Fe went west to Kingman and south to Wellington; the Gas Company's franchise was granted; the water works franchise and the opera house, old Turner Hall at the corner of First and Market streets was builded by a syndicate and bonds were is- sued on five years' time at five per cent interest and stood to the patriotic citizens of Wichita to enable the Germans to build the old Turner Hall. These years were busy years, full of joy and profit and a modicum of tears. During the year A. D. 1879, 1,000 town lots were sold at a judicial tax sale for the average of $10.00, and at the present date there are $100,000 worth of real estate in Wichita held under that judicial tax sale. Pat Healy bought the lot where Gehring's drug store now stands for $100.00; a lawyer got the corner of Main and William streets for $100.00. A portion of Governor Stanley's home on Topeka avenue was in this same sale. Oak Davidson's old home at the corner of Murdock and Lawrence avenue was in this sale.
These years were formative years, were guiding stars, and their influence governed succeeding years. These years were the Douglas avenue years, when the Greiffenstein-Steele dynasty planned, directed and executed the things which were undertaken. This was when the war 'twixt Main street and Douglas avenue raged furiously. When a Main street man prowling on Douglas avenue was an ominous portent; when the rear room in Tow Jewell's saloon on Douglas avenue, where George McNeal's bar- ber shop is now situated, was the actual board of trade rooms for Douglas avenue. In this room it is said, Frank Tierman heated with "booze," agreed for $1.00, love and affection to build to Wichita the Missouri Pacific railroad and place the depot on the corner of First and Second streets on Wichita street and this was done one year before the location was made pub- lic. During these years, land was bought, that when sold, made enough money to keep the "wolf from the door," if men had been satisfied, but the blood was hot, the ambition was fired. The desire to obtain millions, and then came on the "boom;" then the deluge and then assets melted as "snow under an August sun." The result was insolvency, expatriation, misery, humiliation, deg- radation and death to many; proud homes were abandoned; ruin ate fortunes, thicker than fallen leaves, in Wichita, in each
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succeeding year, were witnessed on every hand; noble, generous, liberal men walked the streets of Wichita in agony; women of culture and refinement surrendered the jewels of prosperity to buy bread of necessity and adversity. Wedding gifts were bar- tered, sold and pawned to pay rent. Costly furniture was sold at second-hand stores to raise money with which to get out of town; and, in one case, known to the writer, after the fore- closure of a mortgage, the owner one Sunday took a carpenter and plasterer to the house, then situated north of Third street and west of Waco, and removed therefrom two mantels, one oak and one mahogany, which were then put in a piano box and shipped to Kansas City, Mo., and sold for $220, and the money was used to help establish a small business on Ninth street in Kansas City, that earned a portion of a livelihood for the family which in Wichita, in 1887, gave a reception that cost $500, includ- ing a dance at Garfield Hall, in honor of a daughter. Ye, who things recall, put on your thinking caps and tell who this was.
The writer was not in at that dance, but was named as the consignor about that time for a piano which was shipped to Kan- sas City. There is in all of us, as a writer says, "a streak of yaller." It seems to me that there is a germ of toadyism, syco- phancy, in most of us; a reverence for men who are (published) great; a bowing down before some shrine, either financial, social, spiritual or politic. The writer does not think he is filled with this toadyism quality above mankind, nor that he is a hero wor- shipper to any great extent. But whenever the subject of the building of Wichita comes up, there arises before his mind's eye the figure, acts and speech of Greiffenstein. The writer does not believe that Wichita has dealt generously or kindly with Greif- fenstein or with his family. It is said that republics are ungrate- ful. Towns, also, forget the sacrifices made by pioneers. The following lines are applicable all over Kansas to the pioneers who builded not for self alone, but from ambitious pride to leave behind a mark more lasting than brass or marble, in wide streets and avenues :
"There is now a city, a thousand sweet homes, On the land he plowed for his first sod-corn, And he, a stranger, aimlessly roams Where his wife died and his babes were born."
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Douglas avenue is Greiffenstein's creation. It was his dream to behold it from the bridge to the Santa Fe depot lined with business, and the broadest, busiest, wealthiest thoroughfare in all Kansas. He was not bereft of hate, and wanted the north end humbled, but it was the hatred of rivalry-not personal feel- ing toward anybody. It was the feeling expressed by a gentle- man of the English nation: "Individually, you fellows are all right, but collectively, I would like to see you all hung." With Greiffenstein it was simply a pride to build a town, defeat his rivals. He gloried in the building and the opening of the old toll bridge on the west end to free travel and in the location of the Santa Fe depot at the east end. He almost broke the back of the north end when he seduced the north-end capitalists to take stock in the toll bridge and thereby make their selfishness earn dividends for Douglas avenue. He was almost alone in his labors. The wealth and power of Wichita was against him, but it was extremely prudent wealth and unsacrificing power. In the beginning, Greiffenstein, with Jim Steele and N. A. English, were arrayed on the south side, with land, pluck and determina- tion, but without money. On the north end were Woodman, Joe Allen, Al Thomas, Lank Moore, Minger, Wilder, Horner, Houck, McClees, Davidson and Fraker. James R. Meade, vice-president of the First National Bank, interested in North Main street, also owned land on Douglas avenue, so that his efforts were neutral- ized, and neither side got full benefit of his labors. In the street, Sol and Kohn were north-enders, but Kohn went with Greiffen- stein. Eagle block was built and a dry goods store was built on the corner of Main and Douglas. The county offices were placed in Eagle Block, also the postoffice. The Wichita Savings Bank was located on Douglas avenue, and Douglas avenue commenced to win. The United States land office was the only thing left on Main street that drew business, except the First National Bank and Woodman's Bank. Greiffenstein went after the United States land office, and gave to the government free rent on the second floor of the building now occupied by Dr. Dorsey and the street railway company and Jackson's barber shop. The land office was moved and Main street gave a howl. Then the postoffice was moved by malign influence to the Baltimore Hotel, then the Occi- dental, and a bridge was built across the big river at Central avenue. Main street rested from its labors, but Greiffenstein redoubled his efforts and went to work to remove the postmaster
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and get a Douglas avenue man appointed in his stead and inci- dentally destroyed the Central avenue bridge by the election of Jim Steele as county commissioner.
Politics did not count much on the south side of town in these days. The question asked was whether or not a man was abso- lutely loyal to Douglas avenue. If so, then stand by him; and if not, then the Irish motto at the Donnybrook fair, "When you see a head, hit it," was adopted. N. A. English was considered some of a Democrat. Greiffenstein was counted and elected to the legislature as a Democrat; yet to establish and maintain the supremacy of Douglas avenue was more than politics; it was a religious faith, and its promises to its votaries were not of any spiritual condition or location after death, but it was victory over the north end and high prices for Douglas avenue lots when the battle was over.
The north end could have vanquished Greiffenstein in sixty days if it had loosened its purse-strings, but the men at the north end were "not built that way." They were built on prudent, cautious lines, and some of them were like the Methodist who boasted that he had belonged to the church for forty years and it had never cost him a cent. Many north-enders sympathized with and belonged to the north end, but would not pay sub- scriptions to build up the north end. As proof of this, Woodman at one time agreed to furnish the buildings where Tanner's book store now is on Main street and give the United States govern- ment free postoffice rent if the business men of Main street would pay him a portion of the value of the rental per annum. The building was furnished as Woodman agreed and the postoffice was placed therein by Colonel Murdock and for seasons the north- end business man paid rent, but Douglas avenue forged ahead. Main street lost some business and some prominent men and the rental was not paid to Woodman, and he then brought action for the balance due on rent, against the north-end men, who would not pay. And these north-enders defeated Woodman on the ground that it was illegal and contrary to public policy to agree to pay rent on a postoffice. This case went to the Supreme Court, and any one real curious to know who did not pay his rent for the postoffice while on North Main street can find out by consulting any lawyer in Wichita, as this case decided a principle which had not been decided very often.
This spirit dominated the north end from the beginning to the
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death of Woodman. Woodman was a foe that was a good fighter, that spent money, but being practically abandoned by his people, he quit the fight. Al Thomas moved his grocery from the Occi- dental, now Baltimore, to the building on the corner of Market and Douglas. Allen & Tucker moved their place from Main street to the present location of the National Bank of Commerce. Hess & Getto moved from the corner of Main to Greenfield's. Deter & Kaiser moved their barber shop. Joe Allen moved from First and Main to Roy Allen's present location. George Mathews. moved to the room now used by the Tornado Store. Charles Hill moved to the brick store now occupied by Stanford's drug store. Sam Houck moved from North Main to the present Houck hard- ware store. Tow Jewel moved to Tom Johnson's barber shop. Sluss, Hatton, Stanley, Wall, Balderson, Adams, English, all attor- neys, moved to Douglas avenue. Allen, Fabrique, Furley and McAdams, all doctors, moved to Douglas avenue. During these years the First National Bank failed, and as a consequence there- of, the officers were indicted by the United States grand jury. They were technically guilty of violation of the national banking act and were found guilty, but were thereafter pardoned. They returned to Wichita, but their influence as men was over. No one particularly blamed them for the failure of the bank. The paper they had taken in became worthless by reason of the panic of 1873, caused by J .. Cook and Henry Villard's failure. But when all these things came to pass, the backbone of Main street was broken. Its dream of being the business street of Wichita was over, and it is now considered on all sides that the dream of Main street as the business street of Wichita was over forever. In this connection it might be remarked that the first law office on Douglas avenue was Harris & Harris, over the street car office, at 193 West Douglas avenue, unless Bully Parsons is counted, who had no books and stayed in the card-room of Lew Dittman's saloon in the old building that has been replaced by the Royal on West Douglas avenue. Bully played "rounce" and the "devil" among the tailors with Greiffenstein, Colonel MeClure, Jim Steele and James McCulloch and others if business was dull, and some- times when business was not dull.
This may seem a digression from Wichita's history to a purely Douglas avenue write-up, but these days were so imbued in my mind, being a young and impressionable boy, that the Clan Doug- las Avenue won me over and I was loyal to Douglas avenue unto
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this day. The ends aimed at in these days were success and the glorification of Douglas avenue; hence my views of Wichita are full of Douglas avenue prejudice and bias. Greiffenstein loved his friends, and, though he was not a demonstrative man, he hated his enemies. Dr. Johnson said unless a man was a good hater, he was not worthy of confidence. Tested by this rule, Greiffenstein was worthy of absolute confidence, if he believed a man had purposely given him an insult or done him an injury Greiffenstein was a Socialist in Germany. He left college as a refugee in 1848, some time about the time that Charles Schurz and Joseph Pulitzer (New York "World" man) left the old country. Greiffenstein believed in liberty under law and also some liberty in defiance of law. His views of the prohibitory liquor law were so pronounced and are so well known that no comment is necessary. He came here on the prairie, established a trading post, lived in the open, helped to found the town, and the idea that a lot of puritanical pharisees should move in and control the town founded by him, and prohibit the use of beer, was as abhorrent to his feelings as a law, today, would be pro- hibiting the use of coffee and tobacco. Greiffenstein was not a snob nor an aristocrat. He was plain, simple and honest in all his dealings. I have no recollection of his ever wearing a collar or having his vest buttoned up. I do not say he never did, but I say that in daily association with him for years, I never observed that fact. He was not as old a man as he looked, with his gray hair and whiskers. He said to me one day, "Call me Bill; I do not like to be called Mister." Greiffenstein was Bill to his friends, always William to his wife, and he was Old Bill, "Sore-Eyed Bill," Dutch Bill and the "Douglas Avenue Dutchman" to the north end. He always rubbed and blinked his snow-blinded eyes, having been struck snow-blind in 1867 or 1868, wandering over the prairies, when he lost his bearings. He smoked cigars, but he loved his pipe, and with that pipe in his hand, held by its long stem, he smoked and the curling smoke ascended to the clouds, and after a time he gave an opinion. He was an oracle to his followers. He was Bismarck in the Douglas avenue fight; Jim Steele was Von Moltke. N. A. English was the crown prince and everything from the north line of Douglas avenue to the big river on the south were trained armies to do his bidding. He was an iron-gray town-building wizard. It may be that des- tiny located Wichita, and Colonel Murdock has often said, but
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it was Greiffenstein that made Douglas avenue. There are those that belittle his life and deeds, but the fact remains that he built Eagle Block on the bare prairie and afterwards built Douglas Avenue Hotel, and that, except English and Steele, all the popu- lation of Wichita was north of Douglas avenue. The north end bought his lots and moved on the avenue, after a most deter- mined effort to locate the depot somewhere north of Douglas avenue on Santa Fe avenue. Some near or distant day, Greiffen- stein will have a monument in Wichita, and, in my judgment, of the pioneers of Wichita, he will be the only one, because he is the only man who has impressed his individuality upon the minds of Wichita. Others may have some claims, but they must continu- ally prove them. Douglas avenue is Wichita, and Douglas avenue is Greiffenstein on both sides from Lawrence avenue to the bridge, except McLean's lumber yard and the Missouri Pacific depot.
Greiffenstein was not an uneducated man, as charged by many. He was unknown generally to the people of Wichita, as a man, citizen, reader, husband, neighbor, friend or parent. As a young man, I spent many pleasant days at the Greiffenstein homestead on South Water street. It was a home in the strictest sense of the word, and more luxuriantly furnished than any private house I had ever visited prior to 1874. Before this house was remod- eled, the hall ran through the center. On the north side was the parlor and dining-room and library. In 1874 a Miss Sallie Barker, of Paris, Ill., came to Wichita and lived at Greiffenstein's and gave Mrs. Greiffenstein lessons on the piano. So far as I know, her piano, Mrs. Charles Hatton's and Mrs. W. D. Russell's were the only ones south of Douglas avenue. I did not visit much on the north end, except on North Water street. There was an organ on North Topeka avenue, above Third street, that did not have as much music in it as the one Emil Warner had on Main street, where Rohrabaugh's store is now situated, that used to grind out doleful sounds on Sunday evenings, as if it had a bad cold or consumption. Harry Arrowsmith, who was here in those days, mailed a receipt to the house once for a severe cough and recom- mended the organ have a tablespoonful every hour until relief was given. The boys thought this a good joke, but the house voted it an insult. But to return to the mutton: Greiffenstein was a great entertainer of his friends, and especially his "Injun" friends. He used to entertain them in the pasture running from English street to Kellogg on the west side of Water street. From
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1874 until the Indians quit visiting Wichita, at least 200 Indians who came to Wichita from the territory were bivouacked in the pasture. One old buck was an acquaintance of Greiffenstein's of twenty-five years' standing, and he and his tribe put their tents in the pasture and killed and cooked beeves according to Indian gastronomy, without frills. Greiffenstein had outgrown his Indian customs, but his generosity led him to put up with his visitors as long as they called on him. In 1878, when Colonel Boon came to Wichita with his Indians that he was taking to the territory, Greiffenstein gave them a beef to kill and eat in the pasture, and about all Wichita called on them in the pasture. My judgement is that Greiffenstein's annual expenses were greater for those who lived upon, around and with him than his own family expenses. I remember on one Sunday afternoon a north-end man, who was off his beat and was down on South Water street, passed Greif- fenstein's home and saw so many men on the front porch that he went to Woodman's house and told him that the Douglas ave- nue gang was all down at Greiffenstein's and some devilment was on foot. The fact was, this was the usual thing for the Douglas avenue men to be on the front porch, as Douglas avenue was always planning something to the detriment of Main street and the glorification of Douglas avenue.
Joe Allen's administration will always be known as the sewer administration, and it was marked by economy and prudence, so far as the mayor had any voice in the expenditure of money.
George W. Clement's Administration .- This administration marked the advent of the new blood, the retirement of the pio- neer sentiment in city elections, and was the first administration after the boom was over and the bladder had burst. Clement realized that something must be done; that money must be paid on improvements to save our falling fortunes; that something permanent must be built, and though he was abused and cursed by some and supported by others, he resolutely pushed forward the asphalt pavement and the City Building, both of which are monuments to his zeal and courage.
John B. Carey's Administration .- This administration was one that had blame attached to it by reason of the insolvent condi- tion. Contracts had been made to pave the streets and erect the City Building. The contract for the jasperite pavement was procured by doubtful means. Captain Carey set his shoulder to the wheel to run the city as he ran his business; to run the city
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on as little money as law permitted, pay all honest bills, pay no money the law did not authorize, put his name to no ordinance that the law condemned, defeat the jasperite contract for pave- ment and pave Douglas avenue with asphalt. Carey failed of re-election by reason of the determination of what was known as the new blood or new element to be recognized in the city of Wichita, and, when "boiled down," the real fight on Carey was that the administration was too economical and would not wink at appropriations that the law would not authorize. Hence the new blood upheld Cox. Carey was an honest, fearless man, and his defeat was a rebuke to economy and the running of the city upon an open, legal basis, in which the business so far as the mayor was concerned was open to the world for inspection.
L. M. Cox's Administration .- This administration was the "funding administration." Money was due on maturing con- tracts, and the treasury was about empty. Money collected was used on current bills. The "sinking fund" was drawn against. Old bonds were paid by new ones, which were sold or exchanged. During this time the city lost money through Doran, county treas- urer, so that the expenses were greater than receipts. This admin- istration, by reason of its magnificent funding operations, came in for general cursing on all sides, before it was over, but the general condition of the city had much to do with this, as the August special session of congress, 1893, followed by the failure of two national banks, involving many depositors, the city felt feverish. Money was close and hard to get, and creditors pushed hard. The blame of being too free in the use of money attached to Cox's administration made the pendulum rebound and the demand was made for an economic administration by the leaders of all parties, and L. M. Cox, who defeated Carey, because he was too economic, was set aside for Finlay Ross, because Cox was too extravagant. Such are the vagaries of politics.
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