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 28
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THE PIONEER RURAL MAIL CARRIER.
W. L. Appling, of the Horton & Appling Real Estate Com- pany, 520 East Douglas avenue, was one of the first rural mail carriers to carry mail from the Wichita postoffice. He was the first carrier to go over the thirty-one miles of route number 1, which included the northern part of the county. When Mr. Appling rode behind his span of young mules on that first day of October, 1900, he unknowingly was beginning a strenuous life. Here is his story as told to a reporter for "The Beacon":
"Remember my first trip? Well, I guess I do. I shall never forget it, I know. I had experiences on that day enough to last me the remainder of my lifetime. I felt rather smart when I crawled in behind my span of young mules, which I thought were the best in the country, for I was doing a government job which had never before been done in the state. It was a muddy day. In some places the roads were so deep in mud that even my trusty mules could hardly pull the buggy through. I started at 8 o'clock and thought I would be through by noon, for I had very little mail to carry. But there's where I got left. At every farmhouse I stopped the farmer would have to have a full ex- planation of the new system of the mail. Some of them couldn't see how the government was going to deliver mail free of charge without increasing the taxes. The idea of Uncle Sam sending them their mail without a cent of charge looked to some of them preposterous on the face of it. I remember the actions of one farmer for whom I had mail.
"His house was a short distance from the school, and as I
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was going past there at the noon dismissal I gave the letter to one of his children, whom I saw coming out of the school. The farmer saw me do it and nearly broke down a barb wire fence in getting to my buggy. 'Hey, there, Appling,' he cried, angrily, 'don't you give that mail to any boy of mine. I won't take it.' I tried to quiet him and told him the old story of Uncle Sam's goodness, but he would have none of it. He kept on insisting that the government couldn't possibly do such an unheard of thing without going into bankruptcy. He declared up and down that it was a political scheme of the Republicans to get more taxes from the people. He was a Democrat, by the way, and in spite of all the figures and statements made by the postoffice officials, I couldn't make him believe that there was anything fair in the deal. He didn't take his mail, either. He went to the postmaster later, I was told, and told him that he didn't want his mail sent out by a rural carrier. I never delivered any more mail to him."
Note .- Gen. W. L. Appling is now the quartermaster general of the Department of Kansas, and very deservedly prominent in political and Grand Army circles .- Editor.
THE OLDEST MAIL CARRIER IN WICHITA.
The oldest carrier in the service of the Wichita postoffice de- partment is George Chouteau, who lives at 316 North Emporia avenue. For twenty-five years he has been blowing a whistle, handing out an anticipated letter and making everyone feel bet- ter. During this bi-decade and a half the days he has missed handing out a message could be counted on both hands. He is well up in years now, but manages to cover his route as easily as the younger men. He became a city mail carrier October 18, 1885. When he started out on his run through the south part of town George Chouteau didn't find pavements, street cars, or motor cars. He rode a "nag." Delivering mail in the South End then was like going on a day's journey. He took all day to it. Leaving the Garfield Hall on West First street, where the postoffice then was, early in the morning, he sometimes would not get in until the roosters began to welcome midnight. He says that carrying mail now is something of a snap to what it was twenty-five years ago.
Another old-timer, and one of the originals, is E. B. Walden.
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He isn't a carrier now, being superintendent of them, but he made his debut in Uncle Sam's ranks as a carrier. Mr. Walden rode a horse, also. He had a part of the South End of Wichita and a part of the North End. In speaking of those times, he said, the other day: "Conditions then were very different from what they are now. For one thing, the houses didn't have any num- bers. We didn't mind this, for we soon learned the names of the people who lived in houses and we picked out the owners of the letters by the house, instead of the number on the house. Then, too, there were plenty of streets, in fact, too many, but there were no names on them. It is difficult enough to deliver mail when you have the street and the street number, but you can imagine what it was like to deliver mail-and lots of it- when you didn't know the address of the party. . Many a time I have had to read the addresses on an envelope by the light of a blinker. In those days a blinker was a great thing for Wichita, and there was sort of a novelty in doing this. All of us were detectives. We had to run down the people. Even the people didn't know their whereabouts, and after the list of names was made out I found that several thought they were living on Meade avenue, when they really lived on Washington. In the South End it was sparsely settled. When I first went out with my sad- dle bags filled with mail and a loud whistle, people didn't know what to make of me. I didn't think I looked formidable, but this little incident, which I remember very well, will show that I did, at least to some persons.
"Late one Saturday afternoon I came to a street away down in the South End. I can't recall the name of it now, but it had very few houses on it. I had a letter addressed to a woman whose house I knew. As I rode up I saw her sitting in the window. I waved a letter so she could see it and expected her to come out to the curb to receive it. But, do you know, she didn't budge? I whistled as loudly as I could, but still she didn't move. It was against our orders to take the mail to the door, so I rode away carrying the letter. Next day I went by there and whistled. You ought to have seen her rush out and take that letter. Residents in that section afterwards told me that she thought I was a police- man when I drove up the first time, and she was afraid to go out. That may seem funny to you, but the other fellows on the line had the same trouble. I am sure we were as placid-appearing a bunch of men as could be found in the city, and to think we were taken
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for desperadoes, when we were working for the government! This was a standing joke among us for several months."
Orsemus Hills Bentley, the editor-in-chief of this work, is a native of the state of New York, having been raised upon a farm in Wyoming county, of the Empire State. He is the son of Gideon Bentley and Emma Hickox McClenthen, both natives of Onondaga county, in central New York. At an early age the parents of Mr. Bentley went West, as it was called in those days, and settled upon a farm at Arcade, near the city of Buffalo. Here Mr. Bentley spent his boyhood and was a student of Arcade Academy, one of the best schools in that portion of New York state. At eighteen, Mr. Bentley began teaching school, which avocation he followed for two years. At the end of that period he took up the study of law in Arcade, Buffalo and Cleveland, and was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio. He was married to Flora X. Harris, in Cleveland, and soon after, and in the year 1880, he settled in Wichita. For more than thirty years he has been a resident of Sedgwick county. While devoting his time principally to the law, his activities have gone into other lines. Railroad building, farming, ranching, the raising of Hereford cattle, and Poland-China hogs have engaged his attention. He owns a fine ranch in Kingman county at this time, which is well stocked with pure-blood cattle. He was the promoter and princi- pal builder of the Kansas Midland Railway, from Wichita to Ellsworth, and has assisted in promoting other railway enter- prises. He has figured in many notable law suits in Kansas, among others, the Fairchild murder case, in Harper county; the Nutting murder case in Sumner county, and the Carter-Lane case in Sedgwick county. Mr. Bentley served in three sessions of the Kansas legislature as state senator from the 29th senatorial dis- trict. He is one of the best Spanish scholars in this portion of Kansas, reading, writing and speaking this language like a native. Senator Bentley has a distinct literary turn, is a great reader, having literary taste of a high order. He has written much, worked on newspapers, and is a ready public speaker, being in great demand in political campaigns. During his residence in Kansas Senator Bentley has taken an active part in all of the state and local campaigns for the Republican ticket. His acquaintance is state wide.
In his business he has acquired a competency, and he has just sold the tenth house which he has built in Wichita. He has been
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at the head of the following well known law firms in Wichita : O. H. and J. C. Bentley ; Bentley, Hatfield & Bentley, and Bentley & Hatfield. For more than a quarter of a century he has been associated in business with the Hon. Rodolph Hatfield, one of the distinguished lawyers of Sedgwick county. Senator Bentley is a thirty-third degree Mason, and has traveled extensively in this country, and has lately taken a long trip to Panama and South America.
Senator Bentley's energy, literary taste, social and business standing, his wonderful acquaintance and familiarity with Sedg- wick county and Kansas is amply reflected in this history of Sedgwick county .- By a Lawyer Friend.
W. R. Stubbs, governor, was born November 7, 1858, at Rich- mond, Ind. While an infant, he was taken to Iowa, and remained there until he was twelve years of age. He then came to Hesper, Kansas, with his parents, and began work for Samuel Davis at 50 cents a day. He went to school in the winter and got a lim- ited education, which he improved later on when his circumstances became better by going for a year or two to the university.
At the age of twenty-two he bought a span of mules and went to work on the grade of a railroad then building, and remained in that work until about 1903, when he had as high as 5,000 men working for him.
About that time his neighbors drafted him for the legislature. He was then forty-six years of age, and had never been into a township or county caucus or convention. Since entering public life a few years ago he has been a member of the legislature, speaker of the house, state chairman of the Republican party, and is now governor. This is his history in brief.
Note .- In a county history so complete as this we have thought proper to give a place to the chief executive of this great state, who has always been a consistent friend of Sedgwick county and whose relatives largely reside upon our southern border. The sketch of the governor was prepared by his secretary, David D. Leahey, one of the best newspaper men of Kansas .- Editor.
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THE BENEFACTIONS OF TOM SHAW.
Tom Shaw runs a music store on North Main street in Wichita. He is a modest man, little given to show. Some years ago, he inaugurated the plan of serving a Thanksgiving Newsboy's din- ner in this city. He does this all by himself and never makes any fuss about it. Each Thanksgiving day he gathers up about 100 newsboys in this city, and marches them to some good eating house, where he proceeds to fill them up with a good turkey din- ner. He makes no distinction between the blacks and the whites, it matters not how poor they are, how ragged or unkempt, he marshals the line and marches along Douglas avenue, and reach- ing the dining hall they do the rest.
Tom Shaw has no imitators and no one envies him the place he holds in the affections of hundreds of men, who were for- merly newsboys and the recipients of his bounty.
His methods are unique, and he does things in his own way; no fulsome advertising, no fuss or feathers, he simply marches with the boys and feeds them with a lavish hand. In his simple benefaction his neighbors respect him, and the boys love him. Their parents swear by him, and the world is better off for such men whose gifts are so modest and unobstrusive .- Editor.
MRS. L. S. CARTER.
By ELBERT HUBBARD.
I've been out to Wichita giving a lecture for Mrs. Carter, and again I stand with hat in hand, out of admiration for a beautiful life well lived. My awe is not alone for a woman who can make money out of one of my amusing lectures, but it is out of respect for certain sterling qualities which some day will become universal and cease to be the exception.
Mrs. Carter turned her eightieth birthday some years ago, and has asked her friends to forget it. She is well, happy, active and takes a highly intelligent interest in the world's events. She is going to school. She believes in manual training, crema- tion, deep breathing, and hold that President Roosevelt is only in process-that he is not yet completed-otherwise he would not be tepid on equal suffrage and violent in all else. Mrs.
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Carter says she expects to see grammar kiboshed in every public school. She wants children taught to draw, model in clay, paint, sing, and says they ought to get acquainted with bees, birds. butterflies and know all the flowers and trees by name.
Mrs. Carter wore a new white satin gown that she had bought in honor of my coming. She looks like Mary Baker Eddy, and probably knew it. She had arranged the stage-setting as a library scene-looking after every detail, even to a bunch of White Hyacinths on the table, and a spray of the same for the lapel of my Prince Albert.
Mrs. Carter has not a living kinsman nearer than a second cousin in the world, therefore she chooses her friends. Cer- tainly she has cause for gratitude. All of Wichita is her family. The woolsack and the ermine do not overawe her, much less "the cloth," which she declares is for the most part shoddy. She says that in order to be poor in Kansas, you have to waste an awful lot of time and money. Mrs. Carter holds that a woman is as good as a man, if not better, and yet she does not urge that woman should make all the laws for man nor at- tribute the world's damnation to him, beside. She keeps a woman stenographer and a man-of-all-work. She makes at least five thousand dollars a year, and gives most of it away in educating girls to lives of usefulness.
In twenty years Mrs. Carter has sold over half a million dollars' worth of books to Kansas and mostly full sets of finely bound books, too. She showed me a letter from Houghton, Mifflin & Company, wherein they said that hers was the first order for a full set of Emerson that came to them from Kansas.
Her own library cost her ten thousand dollars, and she has given it to Fairmont College at Wichita, a school for girls, con- ducted under the auspices of the Congregational Church. And lookee, neighbor, this library contains full sets of Tom Paine, Voltaire and Ingersoll. Wichita does not fletcherize the lint when a good thing is offered.
So here is a woman, born in Vermont, transported to the prairies, reaching out for the last lap of the century run, whose mind is vigorous, alert, active, appreciative, and who is never ill, but works ten hours or more a day, who delights in New Thought and Free Thought, and has no quarrel either with God or His children. Isn't it beautiful ?
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MRS CARTER'S BIRTHDAY.
Today is Mrs. L. S. Carter's birthday. She is 82 years old, or to be more explicit, 82 years young, as any one who knows her would testify. Friday was Mr. Fred Smyth's 52nd birth- day, and Junior Smyth is 19 years old today. The three of them celebrated their birthdays together and had a regular birthday feast at the Smyth home on North Topeka avenue.
Mrs. Carter has completed another year of usefulness. She is as energetic as ever and doesn't even consider that she needs a vacation this warm weather. In the summer time she always wears white to please her friends, she says, as they absolutely in- sist upon it. While in her heart she would rather wear something just a little bit darker, as laundry bills take a lot of money that could be used where Mrs. Carter thinks it is needed more. The only ornament that she ever wears is her Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution pin.
Mrs. Carter resides in the Ferrell flats on East Second street. She has four rooms and a bath, but she has decided that four rooms are too many for her so she is going to rent two of the rooms. Her office is in the Michigan building and is one of the prettiest in the city. It is finished in buff, has awnings at the windows, a marble wash stand, an electric fan and other con- veniences. Mr. O. D. Barnes, who is the owner of the building, has given the room to Mrs. Carter for the rest of her life. Since 1904 her office has been in the Winne building. When the new Barnes building was completed Mr. Barnes told Mrs. Carter that she was to have a room in it for life. Mrs. Carter thought he was joking and didn't accept, although he repeated the offer several times. When the new Michigan building was completed Mr. Barnes simply wouldn't take "No" for an answer and Mrs. Carter was installed in a room that was many times an improve- ment on her old one. She is quite enthusiastic about Mr. Barnes, and says that every one should take off their hat to him.
Since her last birthday she has put eleven hundred and sev- enty-five dollars worth of steel furniture in the new Carnegie library. Year before last she donated her own library, which is valued at $8,000 to the college. This year she gave to the Y. W. C. A. 25 volumes of a de luxe edition of Walter Scott; 40 volumes of little classics ; 6 volumes of Victor Hugo, five yearly subscrip- tions to magazines, and enough other books to fill a bookcase.
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The Fairmount "down town" studio was furnished recently by Mrs. Carter. Fairmount is not the only thing that is benefited by the generosity of Mrs. Carter. She helps lots of other things and persons that are never heard of. She received lots of pres- ents today-among them a case of mineral water that had no name signed.
One thousand two hundred dollars to the Children's Home, put in three metal drinking fountains, two for horses, one for men .- Daily Beacon, July 11, 1910.
KOS HARRIS.
Kos Harris, whose writings adorn many pages of the history of Sedgwick county, is a unique character of Wichita and a versatile and well known writer in Kansas. He is a distinguished lawyer of Wichita, where he has practiced since the early 70's. . Kos has acquired a competency, and as he says himself, he can now keep the wolf from the door. He is a town booster and a town builder. He has been active in railway and other building. He has been a most successful practicing lawyer at the bar of Sedgwick county and he possesses so much good humor that it is a delight to do business with him. At one time, when Kos Harris was building his present office building on South Main street in Wichita, he received a letter addressed to Mr. Kozarris. This name amused him so that he at once named his building the Kozarris building, putting that name on the front in bold let- ters, and since that time this building has been known as the Kozarris building, and so it will remain to the end of the chap- ter. This incident is characteristic of the man whose whole life has an undercurrent of quiet humor. Kos enjoys life to the limit and while a careful, painstaking lawyer, and a dangerous antag- onist in a law-suit, after the battle is over he is a friend of all parties, and his good nature and good humor smoothes away all of the rough edges and animosities of the litigation. I wish that there were more men in Wichita like Kos Harris, light-hearted, witty and entertaining; loyal to his friends, and forgiving to his enemies .- Editor.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SOME PROMINENT BUILDINGS IN WICHITA.
The city and the public utility-corporations are going to make extensive improvements during the present year, but they will not be far ahead of the individuals and private corporations of the city. The indications are this will be the biggest year in the private building line in the history of Wichita. No less than $2,000,000 is to be spent in buildings, aside from those which "The Beacon" mentioned earlier this week. This is assured at the present time, though the year is but little more than one month old. It will not be surprising if this amount is more than doubled before the end of the year.
Following is a list of most of the business buildings for which contracts have been let or upon which work has been commenced since the first of January, 1910:
Beacon building, South Main street, 75x140, ten stories and basement, cost $350,000; Schweiter building, corner Douglas and Main, 70x136, eight stories and basement, cost $275,000; Butts building, 100x140, corner First and Lawrence, six stories and basement, cost $125,000; Commercial Club building, First and Market, 50x140, five stories, cost $62,000; J. F. Hollicke, motor car building, North Topeka, 50x140, three stories, cost $35,000; Catho- lic cathedral, cost $200,000; First Methodist church, cost $100,000; First Presbyterian church, cost $100,000; Grace Presbyterian church, cost $20,000; O. C. Daisy, South Topeka avenue, 50x160, three stories, cost $30,000; L. F. Means, West Douglas, 50x130, two stories, cost $12,000; Roy Reeves, West Douglas, 25x100, two stories, cost $8,000; John Wentzel, corner Pine and Main, two- story brick, cost $8,000; W. H. Fitch, North Main, three-story brick, cost $8,000; Jott & Wood, addition, Santa Fe tracks, cost $25,000; A. S. Parks, building for International Harvester Com- pany, cost $100,000; Western Planing Mill, St. Francis, 30x62, two stories, cost $7,000; J. F. Hollicke, 1219 East Douglas, 25x72, two- story, cost $6,500; Stewart & Burns, garage, North Lawrence, 95x
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140, cost $12,000; W. H. Gaiser, St. Francis, 42x125, two stories, cost $10,000; H. D. Cottman, East Douglas, 25x100, two-story, cost $8,000; Mrs. Emma Cox, South Market, 25x140, two stories, cost $12,000; Metz Lumber Company, North Main, 40x140, two stories, cost $20,000; Carey Hotel addition, $50,000; L. W. Clapp, 25x100, two stories, $5,000; W. S. Brown, two-story, 25x140, cost $12,000; People's Ice Company, Fifteenth and Santa Fe, 30x150, two stories, cost $35,000; C. A. Preston, North Market, two-story flat. 50x140, cost $16,000; W. O. Truesdale, addition North Rock Island, cost $15,000; Mrs. Mary Dotson, Main and Lewis, two- story flat, cost $20,000. The total cost of these buildings is $1,682,500.
Last year there were 1,400 dwellings built in Wichita, and it is safe to predict at least 1,500 will be built this year. At the average cost of $2,000, which is very conservative, these dwell- ings would aggregate $300,000. This amount, added to the sum that will be paid for the business buildings already contracted for, makes certain the expenditure of, approximately, $2,000,000, to say nothing of the buildings which may hereafter be contracted for during the year. The new high school will cost $150,000, and "The Beacon" neglected to include it in the list of public build- ings published a few days ago. After leaving it out, the im- provements of a public nature, by the city itself and the public utility corporations, amounted to over $5,000,000. A million of this vast sum to be expended in 1910 will be spent for paving. The public and private improvements during the present year will total more than $7,000,000.
NEW BUILDINGS WORTH TWO MILLIONS IN THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF 1910.
The building of large cities was ever attended by romance. The hero of this modern age is he who dares to build something larger, broader, grander, than anything of the sort of a previous age or period. Man's mission in the world is to create, to con- struct. Every man of consequence has a longing to do something bigger and better than any other man has done it. And that is the way of Wichita in her building. Her citizens are filled with ideals of a larger, more beautiful, more firmly grounded city. The working out of these ideals forms the romance of building
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the greatest city of the greatest state in the Union-Wichita, of Kansas.
Perfection in anything is rare. The struggle for perfection is one of man's rarest virtues. The struggle for civic perfection is more rare and more worthy of large reward. In the building of a city there is more than the mere shaping of materials into buildings of four, six, or ten stories height. There are beauty and symmetry and safety to be considered. In Wichita all are taken into consideration. The time for throwing up flimsy struc- tures for the service of a few years has passed. The builders of modern Wichita are grounding their foundations deeply, rein- forcing their superstructures solidly and finishing interiors and exteriors simply and beautifully. Not only beautifully and solidly does Wichita build, but rapidly. Once determined upon building a Wichitan goes about his task with alacrity. Hundreds are con- stantly imbued with the spirit, and they, with their unending activities, have made the city famous as the fastest growing urban community in the state.
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