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 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
THE STRUGGLES OF THE EARLY BUSINESS MEN.
The many citizens of Wichita who now enjoy the later civiliza- tion of the present and all that goes to make up the enjoyment, schools, churches, theatricals, transportation facilities, and all that goes with a metropolitan city, little understand the struggles of the early settlers and those business men of an earlier day, whose shoulders bore the heat and burden of the fray. Each day brought forth its annoying struggle to keep Wichita to the front, and it was simply a survival of the fittest. The competition among towns was fierce. The Santa Fe built southward and Win- field and Wellington were rivals at our very door. These towns were in those early days no puny rivals, as they were exploited by active, energetic business men and a farming country as good as ours. The transportation lines in this interior West were determined to build up a large number of towns rather than any whose size and ambition would call for additional transportation lines. Such was the situation in Wichita in the early eighties. But with a wonderful tenacity and an unparalleled energy our
435
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
business men faced this perplexing situation. Location counts for something, but cities are made by the men in them, and Wichita today stands in her territory without a rival. The time has now come to cease thinking of Oklahoma City as a rival of Wichita. Oklahoma City is a marvel of energy, but it is a day's swing of a train from this city. It is in another state. It has a field very much like ours. It is and always will be the metropolis of the new state. It does not cut into our field like Hutchinson. The latter place is only forty-five miles away. Reno county is one of the best in the state. Hutchinson is full of energy. It naturally reaches west and southwest of us, and it commands a fine terri- tory. In the natural order of things it will wax stronger and grow, but it is in Wichita's field; it is within the charmed circle which surrounds Wichita; it is simply an integral point within the radius of the far-famed golden circle so graphically described by Prof. Eugene Fahl, of the Wichita Chamber of Commerce.
A LITTLE REMINISCENCE OF THE DAYS WHEN WICHITA WAS YOUNG-INSPIRED BY LOOKING AT THE BEACON BUILDING.
By KOS HARRIS.
In the days of long ago, on South Main street, just back of the old Eagle block, where the Boston store now stands, there stood a one-story paint shop, a blacksmith shop and about 75x100 feet of tall sunflowers. Across the street was a millinery store owned by Mrs. Louise Henderson; south of her store was a paint shop and a dwelling house, occupied by a painter, who often viewed · the "wine when it was red." In fact, very red and when it colored the cup. After looking on the wine, he usually whipped his wife and then went to the calaboose, owned by the city and built up with 2x4 studding to about eight feet in height. Next morning he usually pleaded guilty, his wife got the fine remitted and for one or two moons things ran smoothly at the paint shop. On the site of the paint shop and the blacksmith shop the present Beacon building now stands. Back of the old paint shop Karatof- sky, then one of the great merchant princes of the city, whipped his son daily, tri-weekly and weekly. "Karatof" had a second
436
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
wife about four or five years older than the son and the twain did not agree. Hence the regular mauling.
If, in 1874, 1884, 1894, 1904, any "biped" in Wichita had said that the old Cooper stable, which had just been torn down to make room for the Beacon building, would be torn away and on its site there would be a ten-story building such as the Beacon building, the said "biped" would have heard a "horse laugh," compared to which all other "horse laughs" would be as a whistle in a hailstorm. Indulging in reminiscences of the days of old; the days of gold; the days when Wichita was young and new and "life was sweet and bright as sparkling dew," I am reminded of the business world of Wichita at and near the site of the Beacon. building at the date of the paint shop and for some years afterwards. In 1878, contiguous to the Beacon building site amongst others were the following: George Y. Smith & Co. had a dry goods store, Caldwell & Titsworth had a queensware store, the Wichita Savings Bank was in the corner and Hollowell & Byers had a hardware store. All this was on the ground floor of the present Boston store. East to Market street from the old Eagle block was Albert Hess, grocer, now of the Wichita Whole- sale Grocery Company. Directly west of Hess was Dieter & Kaiser's new, up-to-date, modern barber shop and bathrooms. In this barber shop there was a workman, one Tony Bruhn. Tony was a Prussian drillmaster and also a boxer, and always wanted to put on the gloves and box. One day the writer got shaved, and after he got out of the chair Tony squared himself to box. The writer got his hat and coat and then hit Tony in the nose and ran out of the back door across a vacant lot now occupied by the United States postoffice, and did not go to the barber shop to get shaved until Tony sent him word that a general armistice had · been declared and the war was over. On the front part of this vacant lot there used to stand a little one-story building, and in this building some of the business men and professional men, as well as the married women of Wichita, in the early days, attended a kindergarten.
Butler & Fisher had a hardware store between Market street and Eagle block. Henry Bolte had a furniture store where Kress & Co. now are on Douglas avenue. Henry sold good furniture, and this article is written while I am sitting in a willow chair bought of Henry Bolte in 1877. Tom Jewell had a real saloon and Steele & Levy had a real estate office where Frazier's drug
437
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
store and George McNeal's barber shop are. The second floor of the old Eagle block contained the court room, the general political convention room, dance hall and reception room for state occasions, and also Little, Sluss & Hatton and B. D. Hammond, at- torneys-at-law, had their offices on the second floor; also the old Eagle office was in this building. Across the street, running from the Henry Schweiter corner east to Jackson & Walker's, was what was called the New York block, which, when built, was a thing of beauty. Six rooms of the ground floor on Douglas avenue were occupied as follows: Kohn Brothers' store; Charles L. Lawrence, druggist ; J. P. Allen, druggist; Allen & Tucker, grocers; Richards & Rogers, grocers, and T. H. Lynch, dry goods. In the second floor of the New York block there were some at- torneys and loan agents, the following being among the attorneys : Adams & Hill, L. B. Bunnell, Governor Stanley and H. E. Higgin- botham. Also, in the alley corner, was the Wichita "Beacon," H. C. Day, loan agent and N. McClees, loan agent.
West of the Boston store was the Eagle clothing house and what was called the Commercial block, now the National Bank of Commerce, American Express Company and Gibson's harness and saddlery store. The old United States land office was on the sec- ond floor and was occupied by attorneys: D. B. Emert, O. D. Kirk, J. F. Lauck, W. W. Thomas and Harris & Harris.
The buildings where the Kansas National Bank now is and the buildings immediately north and west to the alleys had liquor, liquor, liquor. In fact, this corner at that time was devoted to the legitimate business of illegitimate business. The liquor dealers in Wichita at that date who paid city license and did business openly and publicly were Beach, Brown, Dill, Ditman, Gardiner, Jewell, Keehler, Hollister, Schattrer Brothers, Ritter, Hoover, Lemcks, Vincent, Werner, and Schnitzler. The places now occupied by them are but a reminiscence and their names are almost faded from the memory of the residents of Wichita. Even in that early day the corner of Main and Douglas was the business heart of Wichita. Then it was, as now it is, the "beehive" corner of Wichita. The Beacon building is exactly 138 feet south of the "beehive" corner, where a man who wears a No. 10 boot steps on $1,500 worth of land every time he moves. Since those days time in its whirl-a-gig hath had many ups and downs for Wichita. Verily we have experienced the motto of Kansas, "To the stars from tribulations," or words to that effect or similar import. We
438
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
have sailed in the clouds, been dragged in the gutter, like a kite; decked ourselves in plumage like a peacock, a rag man and tramp and have had nectar and ambrosia, wormwood and gall. We have "bulled" real estate till the bull broke his neck. We have "beared" real estate until the bear hibernated for some years from shame. This and all this in one decade.
The "Beacon" had an humble beginning as well as some great men. Milt Gable got it. He made a mortgage on it to Billie Mc- Clure. He skipped the town. Harris & Harris foreclosed the mortgage. Frank Smith and Frank Fisher bought the plunder and continued the business at the corner of Main and Second streets. Cap White came in from his claim on the Ninnescah to edit the "Beacon," and for many years the "Beacon" had edi- torials on the brutality of the policeman's club, said policeman's club typifying the brute force in government in all its phases.
Wichita owes the Beacon building to Henry J. Allen as the great factor in this building. "All honor to him who won the prize" in this $350,000 raffle, gamble and bid on the future of Wichita. When we things that are now, are dead and gone, when the future babe shall carry the "Beacon" to our homes and the present babe reads the paper and carries on business and con- ducts the municipal affairs of Wichita, when the middle-aged man, who is in the "lean and slippered pantaloon" age, takes the grandchildren downtown to see the sights and some little tot asks, "Grandpa, who built the Beacon building ?" grand-dad will say, "The men of Wichita built it and paid for it without any mortgage on it, moved thereto by the spirit force, enthusiasm and pluck of Henry J. Allen, then editor of the "Beacon." His bones are out on the hill, but this building is his monument."
October 7, 1910.
THOUGHTS OF HELPING WICHITA.
By KOS HARRIS.
The writer was waiting in an office in Kansas City for an ac- quaintance, where an East St. Louis "preferred stock broker" of a manufacturing concern was distributing a prospectus that was dazzling. The thought occurred, if the facts alleged in the pros-
439
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
pectus were true, all the broker need do was to cross the railway bridge at St. Louis and sell all his stock in one day among the owners of idle money in St. Louis, who were seeking safe and permanent investment. The man who run the office came out of his private room, was approached by the broker and the reason he gave why he would not invest in the "preferred stock" has stuck in my mind like a "sand-burr to a sheep's tail" ever since. The statement made was about as follows:
"I live in Kansas City, am interested in its material welfare, taxable values, the growth of population and in all things that will tend to make it a greater city. Whatever benefits Kansas City has a remote tendency, at least, to help me. Whatever helps the state of Missouri in a measure benefits me. Whatever builds up Jackson county adds taxable property to Kansas City and helps every resident and property owner in Kansas City. All my in- vestments are in Missouri and nearly all in Kansas City.
"An investment in Illinois is merely an investment. An in- vestment in Kansas City is more than a simple investment. If I throw a stone in the Missouri river at Kansas City it creates a wave that is seen at the spot where I throw it, and this wave is carried a little distance, and then the water becomes smooth again, but I know where I threw my stone and where the biggest wave was. No investment I can make outside of Kansas City or the state of Missouri can benefit my town, county and state. I prefer to throw my rocks into the Missouri river at Kansas City. If you move your concern to Kansas City or Jackson county and the stock is good I might consider the same."
Is there not common horse sense in this reasoning? Is it not true that a Kansas man who puts his hard-earned dollars in an unknown scheme, away from home, risks his fortune, builds up an- other city or state and does not benefit his own home? Is it not true also that a Kansas man who invests in a Kansas venture has a better chance to win and that he also aids his own city, county and state? Every man in Wichita knows that he is in the best city, county and state in the Union. He believes it. The stranger who comes here realizes or he would not come. Why would we not as loyal patriotic Kansans and loyal citizens of Wichita prove our faith by our own works by sticking to Wichita, to Sedgwick county and to Kansas ?
The present mercantile concerns and manufacturing industries
440
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
in Wichita need more capital. The stocks and bonds of our own Wichita concerns are more worthy of investment and considera- tion than any outside stock can be. It is a plain proposition that if we invest in Wichita, in Sedgwick county or in Kansas we are benefitting the city, the county or the state and also we are help- ing our own friends at home. We benefit ourselves and we add wealth to Kansas and increase our own tax rolls. Wichita has put more than a million dollars into outside schemes outside of the state of Kansas, some of which are good and others of which have proven worthless. This more than a million dollars in Wichita buildings would have built buildings equal to the Boston store, the Barnes block, the Innes store, the Beacon building and the Schweiter building, and the result would have been a dividend at home, adding beauty to the city of Wichita and a million dol- lars to the tax rolls of Wichita and Sedgwick county to cut down the general annual tax levy.
The mere individual in this day and age cannot build the buildings that Wichita demands for the business homes of all its manufacturing and mercantile concerns that are here and those we desire to come. Wichita is in its infancy as a manufacturing town and as a wholesale town. Kansas City has one thousand capitalized concerns for mercantile and manufacturing purposes, and if Wichita succeeds some body of men must furnish the capi- tal for the man who has the brains sufficient to run the business but not money enough to enlarge it or put a new business on foot to compete with foreign concerns. Every bond issue by the city of Wichita should be owned by a Sedgwick county citizen.
When Wichita realizes that the building of a city is "a joint stock concern," in which every man should have a share; when we realize that keeping our money at home for home investments is a duty we owe to the city, county and state, as well as a profit to ourselves; when we realize that there is no place where an in- vested dollar is safer than at home, guarded by home people and by home laws ; when we realize that 50,000 more people to Wichita means an added percentage to every lot and every acre of land in, around and about Wichita; when we realize that if the city con- tinues to grow we will have to add bank capital to the present bank capital and manufacturing capital for the manufacturer and mercantile capital for the merchants; when all these facts melt into the mind of the property owners and residents in Wichita we will realize that a rock thrown in the Arkansas river
441
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
at Wichita creates a wave here and that a stone in Oklahoma, in Texas or Colorado will only be a rock thrown in the dark and only the investor can realize any benefit and in some cases he may not get any profit. The rock that creates the ripple when thrown in the river at Wichita is a benefit to the city, the county and the state.
THE MAIN NORTH AND SOUTH STREET OF WICHITA.
By THE EDITOR.
Everybody concedes that Douglas avenue is the principal busi- ness street of Wichita. For a long time the town revolved around the corner of Main and Douglas avenue. It has now outgrown this proposition. There was a time when it meant business dis- aster to get a block away from this corner. That day is past; in the natural order of things, as the town expanded, business had to go somewhere. It is now solidly intrenched between the bridge and the railroad tracks. It has deadened over the line; it has gone east of the tracks; it has gone west of the river. But the main push and volume is within the limits named above. The Masonic Temple is on North Topeka. Long-headed and careful business men like Joe Hollike, W. E. Jett, Professor Samuels, W. W. Pearce, Mason Nevins, Fred Aley, E. L. Martling and O. C. Daisy, aided and abetted by such careful men as Judge Dale, still sing the praises of Topeka avenue. Others as equally sagacious, like Butts & Son, Smythe Brothers, Arthur Pauline, Cone & Cornell, J. S. Giwosky, M. A. McClellan, and many others, still contend for Lawrence avenue. They cite the fact that Lawrence avenue is a section line and 200 miles long, and they show their faith by their investments and dollars. If anyone could tell to a dead moral certainty which would be the main cross street of the town, Lawrence or Topeka avenues, that one could make quite a bunch of money. Suffice it to say that the town has outgrown the corner of Main and Douglas idea, and the overflow is now taking place both north and south of Douglas avenue. There is at this time a spirited rivalry between Lawrence and Topeka avenue as to future supremacy.
442
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
THE MCKNIGHT LAND.
When the daily press of Wichita runs short of news it always begins on the McKnight land. This land and its status has be- come a matter of general public interest. This land consists of 123 acres of fine land, all within the city limits of Wichita. It is surrounded by the improvements of the city. This land is owned by Joseph Hudson McKnight. The purchase and conservation of this land has made Mr. McKnight a rich man. This holding is bounded on the west by Hydraulic avenue and on the north by Douglas avenue. Conservative business men estimate the value of the McKnight land at $300,000.
This land was originally the Hoover homestead. It was for- merly occupied by Samuel H. Hoover, the owner of the well- known Hoover orchard. Mr. McKnight came here from Anthony, Kan., and early saw the possibilities of Wichita. With wonder- ful foresight and excellent business judgment Mr. McKnight bought the Hoover land of the Black estate. It is rumored that the entire tract cost him approximately $6,500. That he made a fine investment no one will deny. The time will come when all of this land will be covered by the city of Wichita.
THE DRAINAGE CANAL.
The drainage canal is an unsightly gash cut through the city. It is supposed to take the meanderings out of the Chisholm creek. Chisholm creek was placed upon the landscape by providence, for what purpose only providence knows. Wichita in the past being located originally upon a level plain, has suffered considerably from high water. It was Finlay Ross, who was then mayor, who conceived the project of a drainage canal. Surveys were made, appraisers appointed and a line was run from Twenty-first street to Linwood Park. The canal cost $106,000. Some of the conserva- tives say it cost too much ; others say that it is useless ; others say that with this amount of bonded indebtedness-the envious call it Ross' folly-that it costs the city about $500 per month to pay the interest on the bonds. And still others say that it is a good thing. Its utility is to be demonstrated in the future. To make this drainage canal effectual the lower end of it should be ex- tended to the Arkansas river. Up to the present time the county commissioners have refused to take the matter of extension under
443
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
consideration. The time is not far distant when this extension will be made. At this time the drainage canal serves to drain the packing house district of flood water. This in itself is very im- portant. At some future time, when the city can afford it, it is designed to level the banks of the drainage canal, arrange a drive- way on both sides and plant trees and shrubbery and beautify the banks. All this is in the future, when the city is more prosperous and has a sinking fund of money to draw upon. We shall see.
THE OLD MUNGER HOUSE, THE FIRST HOUSE IN WICHITA "Eagle," April 24, 1910.
Such little interest has been taken in Wichita in local history, and so little has been done towards the preservation of articles of former days, which in years to come will be of great interest as historical souvenirs, that the recent action of the park commis- sioner in causing the removal and restoration of a log cabin, which is now in Riverside Park near the Zoo, should meet with public approval. This is one of the first efforts to preserve for posterity some of Wichita's early history. Commendable as was the object in this preservation of the cabin, it is lamentable that the his- torical value of the log cabin which Sam F. Stewart has removed from the premises of P. J. Conklin at 901 North Waco avenue has been challenged. It was carefully removed and put together to be an enduring souvenir of one of Wichita's first settlers. Mr. Conklin, who lives in the former home of the late "Commodore" W. C. Woodman, who lived in the original home of D. S. Munger, gave the log cabin to Commissioner Stewart to place in the park as a relic. Historical societies in Wichita for the next 300 years will pass many an interesting evening of discussion in trying to determine just exactly what was the first house in Wichita, and who was the first settler, and who was the real founder of the city. When it came time for the Osage Indians to be removed from what is now Wichita there was a race among settlers to prove up homesteads on the government land, and especially a race to lay out a townsite, as the hunters and traders who had long operated among the Indians had always marked the junction of the two rivers as the site for a city. Rival townsite companies were in a great rush to get a claim proved up in order to plat it for the town of Wichita. Eli P. Waterman proved up one claim, which he sold to William Greiffenstein, and D. S. Munger,
.
444
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
representing a land company composed of parties at Burlingame, proved up another claim. Both of these claims became parts of the townsite.
Mr. Munger was a native of New York state, where he was born in 1812. He was a hardy pioneer in several western localities and was living at Topeka when the land company induced him to take a claim at Wichita. He arrived in the spring of 1868, and at once set about building his house, which was more than a year in the course of construction. He left his wife and daugh- ter Mary in Topeka, as Mrs. Munger was not in good health and the daughter was attending Bethany Seminary. In the spring of 1869, however, Mary Munger, then fourteen years of age, joined her father in Wichita, and Mrs. Munger came on in the fall. Of the building of the Munger house, Mrs. Mary E. Munger Watson said to the "Eagle": "Father built the house himself, cutting down the cottonwood trees on what we called Teuchel island, because a man named Teuchel lived there. This was very near where the two rivers join. Father crossed the river in a skiff. He hewed the logs out with an adz and carefully joined them into a substantial house. He made three rooms downstairs and four rooms above. Later on we put on an addition on the south side, and this became the hotel office and had three upper rooms, and we also added a kitchen. For lath he used small wil- lows which grew along the river, and he burned his own lime for the mortar and plaster, and also used buffalo hair for the plas- ter. His lime kiln was on the river bank back of the house. He hauled the window sash, glass and flooring from Emporia. In those days, where most of the city of Wichita now is, was then nothing but prairie, and there wasn't a tree between the Little Arkansas river and Chisholm creek.
"Near our house was the Durfee ranch, which was a trading post, and this was on the river northwest of our house. The Indians used to come there to trade, and there were lots of soldiers stationed there when I first came to Wichita. I remember that I used to think it was a very rough place, and I used to keep out of the way, because I was only fourteen years old and I was afraid sometimes.
"Father was the postmaster, and I was the first deputy post- mistress in Wichita. In the little room on the north side of our house was our postoffice. This was a table about three feet long, and on it I piled up cigar boxes to make pigeon-holes for the let-
445
SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY
ters. Along about 1869 and 1870, when lots of travelers began to come to Wichita, father opened a hotel in our house, and it also became a hospital. Many cowboys were brought to our hos- pital and most of them had been shot. Father also was justice of the peace. To decorate the house father plastered the north gable on the outside and he stuck pebbles in this plaster to orna- ment it. I do not know where the cabin, now at Riverside Park, came from, but it must have been built after our house. It could not have been our barn, because we did not have a barn, except that I had a little shelter made of poles for my pony. I know what I am talking about, because I helped father. He made the shingles for the roof himself and I held the light for him when he worked at night."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.