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 5
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. Flour Mills-Howard Mills Company, Watson Milling Com- pany, Kansas Milling Company, Imboden Milling Company, Red Star Milling Company.
Furniture-Western Furniture and Manufacturing Company.
Gas Mantles-Incandescent Light and Supply Company.
Gates-A. F. Diggs.
Grain Bins-Kansas Metal Granary Company.
Grain Tanks-Wichita Construction Company, Kansas Metal Granary Company, Western Iron and Foundry Company.
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Harness and Saddles-L. Hays Saddlery and Leather Com- pany, McComb Bros., J. W. Gibson, E. Haskin, C. L. Pearson, C. O. Pollock, T. M. Powell.
Jap-a-Jap Salve Jap-a-Jap Company.
Jewelry Makers-E. G. Gallant, Varney Jewelry Company.
Ice Cream-Arctic Ice Company, Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company, Bissantz Ice Cream Company, Wichita Creamery Company Bon Ton Bakery.
Ice - Arctic Ice Company, Crystal Ice Company, Steffen- Bretch Ice Company, Midland Ice Company, Wichita Ice and Cold Storage Company.
Joist Hangers-Western Iron and Foundry Company, Wichita Stove and Iron Works.
Lithographers, Engravers and Designers-Capper Engraving Company, Near Lithograph Company, Western Lithograph Com- pany, Wheeler Lithograph Company, Wichita Engraving Com- pany.
Mattresses-George Weterhold, G. T. Nolley.
Mentholatum-Mentholatum Company.
Metal Goods-Martin Metal Manufacturing Company.
Model Makers-Union Model and Machine Company, Wichita Pattern and Model Works, Arkansas Valley Fence Company.
Newspaper Ready Prints-Western Newspaper Union.
Novelties-Wichita Novelty Works.
Overalls, Etc .- Cox-Blodgett Dry Goods Company, Johnston & Larimer Dry Goods Company.
Packers of Meats-Cudahy Packing Company, Jacob Dold Packing Company.
Paint Makers-Hockaday Paint Company.
Paper Boxes-N. E. Owens.
Planing Mills-Eagle Planing Mill, Kansas Planing Mill, North End Planing Mill, Peerless Planing Mill, H. B. Taylor, Van Tuyl & Irwin, Western Planing Mill, Wichita Sash and Door Company, Wichman Bros.
Pop-Cox Bottling Works, Allen Bottling Works.
Refrigerators-E. J. Drake.
Rug Makers-Wichita Rug and Carpet Company.
Sash and Doors-United Sash and Door Company, Wichita Sash and Door Company.
Sash Weights-G. C. Christopher & Son, Western Iron and Foundry Company, Wichita Stove and Iron Works.
33
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
Shirt Makers-Pioneer Shirt Company.
Stock and Poultry Foods-Otto Weiss, American Alfalfa Food Company, Wichita Alfalfa Food Company.
Stoves-Wichita Stove and Iron Works.
Suspenders-Wichita Suspender Manufacturing Company.
Tents and Awnings-W. C. Langdon, Ponca Tent and Awning Company, Wichita Tent and Awning Company.
Tire-Setting Machines-Brooks Tire Machine Company.
Toilet Preparations-Jap-a-Jap Company, Mexican Manufac- turing Company, Zona Toilet Company.
Trunks-McComb Bros., Wichita Trunk Company.
Underwear-Steiert & Co., Pioneer Shirt Company, Walker Bros.
Vinegar-Wichita Vinegar Works.
Yeast-Fleischman Yeast Company.
Zinc Etchings and Half-Tones-Wichita Engraving Company, Capper Engraving Company.
WICHITA HAS-
Wichita has an armory.
Wichita has one tannery.
Wichita has eleven parks.
Wichita has ten theaters.
Wichita has five railroads.
Wichita has four ice plants.
Wichita has six sanitariums.
Wichita has five flour mills.
Wichita has six planing mills.
Wichita has a fair association.
Wichita has three creameries. Wichita has four box factories.
Wichita has one paint factory. Wichita has six iron foundries. Wichita has one school of art. Wichita has a Deaconess' home. Wichita has one casket factory. Wichita has twenty-four hotels. Wichita has four alfalfa mills. Wichita has two glove factories. Wichita has six steam laundries.
34
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Wichita has forty-five churches. Wichita has an automobile club. Wichita has a mattress factory. Wichita has six broom factories. Wichita has four cigar factories. Wichita has four bottling works. Wichita has one canning factory. Wichita has two daily newspapers. Wichita has an interurban railway. Wichita has sixty-four freight trains daily. Wichita has two furniture factories. Wichita has one monthly magazine. Wichita has one hundred attorneys. Wichita has nineteen public schools. Wichita has nine weekly newspapers. Wichita has four express companies. Wichita has 552 streets and avenues. Wichita has the State Masonic Home. Wichita has seventy miles of paving. Wichita has one shirt manufacturer. Wichita has fifteen machine shops. Wichita has two wholesale jewelers. Wichita has one telephone company. Wichita has ten wholesale coal dealers. Wichita has eight typewriter agencies. Wichita has 604 registered automobiles. Wichita has thirty labor organizations. Wichita has 500 "Knights of the Grip." Wichita has one wholesale furniture house. Wichita has two engraving companies. Wichita has three large overall factories. Wichita has thirty-five miles of trolley wires. Wichita has an excellent public library. Wichita has two trunk and grip factories.
Wichita has forty-six daily passenger trains. Wichita has four large department stores. Wichita has seventy-two secret societies. Wichita has two wholesale hardware houses.
Wichita has two hide and wool houses.
Wichita has five wholesale grocery houses. Wichita has five sporting goods houses.
35
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
Wichita has sixteen publishing houses.
Wichita has three wholesale drug houses.
Wichita has two wholesale paper houses. Wichita has three manufacturers of cornice. Wichita has a large art glass manufactory. Wichita has three saddle and harness factories.
Wichita has six wholesale fruit dealers. 1390090
Wichita has three wholesale hay dealers.
Wichita has three wholesale meat dealers.
Wichita has three manufacturing jewelers. Wichita is to have a new $50,000 children's home.
Wichita is to build two $100,000 churches this year.
Wichita has the commission form of city government.
Wichita has a $150,000 auditorium under construction.
Wichita will build a $150,000 high school this year.
Wichita has 150 miles of natural gas pipe.
Wichita has eleven state and national banks.
Wichita has more than 100 general contracting firms. Wichita has three commercial organizations.
Wichita has two special trade organizations.
Wichita has two building and loan associations.
Wichita has a population of over 55,000 boosters.
Wichita has five wholesale dry goods houses. Wichita has fourteen manufacturers of medicines.
Wichita has fifty implement houses and agencies.
Wichita has twenty private schools and colleges.
Wichita has three wholesale barber supply houses. Wichita has forty-six wholesale lumber dealers.
Wichita has three concrete machine manufactories. Wichita has a milling capacity of 3,800 barrels a day. Wichita has a central fire station that cost $31,000. Wichita has thirty-two wholesale grain companies.
Wichita has the two youngest firemen in the world. Wichita has seven benevolent and charitable homes. Wichita has two of the finest country clubs in the state. Wichita has three of the handsomest parks in the state. Wichita has a Melon Arch bridge that cost $100,000. Wichita is the largest broomcorn center in the world.
Wichita has a steel fence post and stock feeder factory. Wichita has two electric and telephone supply houses. Wichita has two posts of the Grand Army of the Republic.
36
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Wichita has two hospitals-the Wichita and the St. Francis. Wichita is the acknowledged musical center of the Southwest. Wichita has a new live stock exchange costing $50,000.
Wichita has the Peerless Prophets Carnival Association.
Wichita has a library of city directories from 150 cities.
Wichita has four manufacturing and wholesaling confec- tioners.
Wichita has a stamp club that is one of the largest in the state.
Wichita has a wholesale publishing house of souvenir post cards.
Wichita has one of the largest broom factories in the United States.
Wichita has a right to the title "The Peerless Princess of the West."
Wichita has a drainage canal and concrete bridges which cost $120,000.
Wichita has a score of artificial stone plants and one large brick plant.
Wichita has the home office of one life and two fire insurance companies.
Wichita is building a strawboard mill costing one-half million dollars.
Wichita has two packing houses that consume a carload of salt every day.
Wichita has golf and tennis players that range among the champions of the West.
Wichita has a large wholesale optical house that does a gen- eral optical business.
Wichita has twenty motor car houses that hold agencies for fifty different cars.
Wichita has the biggest bank clearings of any city of its size in five states.
Wichita has just completed a mammoth storm water sewer that has cost $297,000.
Wichita has four large floral greenhouses covered by 100,000 square feet of glass.
Wichita has a Young Men's Christian Association building that cost $100,000.
Wichita has builded 500 new buildings in the first four months of 1910. These buildings represent an outlay of $2,000,000.
37
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
Wichita has bright prospects for a $4,000,000 union depot and track elevation.
Wichita erected new homes and business blocks costing $4,000,- 000 last year.
Wichita has thirty-five miles of street railway and more being constantly installed.
Wichita has the finest Masonic building, devoted exclusively to Masonry, in the world.
Wichita has now building the Orient railway shops that will cost $1,000,000 and will employ 1,000 men.
Wichita has a retail credit directory with names of 11,000 buyers, published by the Merchants' Credit Bureau.
Wichita has army and navy recruiting stations for the United States and a United States weather bureau.
Wichita has under construction two ten-story office buildings- the Beacon Building and the Schweiter Block.
Wichita has the largest exclusive gasoline light factory in the United States. It is called the Hydro-Carbon Light Company.
Wichita has sixty-seven street cars, thirty-one of which are in operation at all times. This includes four of the finest trailer cars in the West.
Wichita has within its vicinity an annual production of wheat amounting to 50,000,000 bushels, twice that many bushels of corn, and other cereals in proportion.
Wichita has Union Stock Yards and two packing houses. The packing houses employ 3,000 men and their combined products amount to 50,000,000 pounds annually.
Wichita has nine of the finest buildings devoted to business interests in the state-the Boston Store, six stories; the Smyth Building, six stories; the Caldwell-Murdock Building, seven sto- ries; the Beacon Block, ten stories; the Butts Buildings, six sto- ries ; Michigan Building, seven stories; Commercial Club Home, five stories; and Schweiter Building (under construction), ten stories.
A WORLD MARKET FOR BROOMCORN.
The story of Wichita's wonderful growth as a broomcorn cen- ter is old to members of that line of business-the men who make that market, who own the big warehouses, or who come here from the East, the North, the South and the West to get their supplies -but it still is new to many who have not yet heard that Wichita
38
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
is, in truth, the greatest broomcorn center in the whole world. Wichita sprang into prominence in the broomcorn world within a few short months. So rapidly did it become the big center of that important industry that the people here at home, though they realized and appreciated the city's other advantages, did not know that it was a broomcorn market until it had been leading all others in volume of business for a year or more. That was due, perhaps, to the well-known fact that broomcorn men are modest about their business affairs. They tell no one what they are doing, and make no boasts of prosperity nor complaints of adversity. They take things as they come, boost their city as pri- vate citizens, and add their considerable to its bank clearings without asking anything in return.
It was in the fall of 1904 that the American Warehouse Com- pany was organized in Sterling, Kan., with the intention of mak- ing Wichita its headquarters. It was the first of the many broom- corn dealers now here to establish an office in this city. Late that year II. K. Lindsay, now president of that corporation, came to Wichita and opened an office in the Sim Building, at the corner of Douglas and North Emporia avenues. That was the entering wedge. Associated with Mr. Lindsay were the late Robert Find- lay, one of the oldest dealers in the state, and half a dozen or more men equally prominent in the business in this and other states. Arrangements were made for storage, and ultimately the company purchased what formerly was known as the Burton Car Works, north of the city, converting the big buildings into ware- houses, and changing the name of the place to "Amwaco," a name derived from the abbreviation of the corporate title of the company.
Other dealers followed the American into Wichita, until within a very few months this city became known as the Arcola of the West, and by another season it was leading even the Illinois mar- kets as a distributing center. Today there is hardly a manufac- turer in the country-none who uses Western brush-who does not make from one to half a dozen trips to Wichita every year. They come not only from all parts of the United States, but also from Cuba, Mexico and elsewhere.
Throughout the Wichita market, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico brush is distributed among the manufacturers everywhere. Among broomcorn dealers, growers and users, the Wichita mar- ket is looked upon as standing in a class by itself, far above those
39
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
in the Illinois field, which held supremacy for so long. Its loca- tion near the big Western field, as well as its railroad facilities and the class of dealers found here, has made it.
Following its establishment on a firm basis came the big Southwestern Broom Company, which built at Wichita one of its largest plants, as well as its most complete. In 1909 it com- pleted its buildings in the north part of the city, and commenced turning out gross after gross, and carload after carload of brooms, from an equipment that cannot be surpassed and that is capable of completing 1,000 dozens of brooms of all grades every day in the year.
A FEW OF THE MANY BIG THINGS THAT WICHITA IS DOING NOW.
Wichita's wholesale and jobbing business already amounts to about $40,000,000 annually, and each week's growth is marvel- ous. Within a radius of 100 miles of Wichita there is produced annually 50,000,000 bushels of wheat and 100,000,000 bushels of corn. Wichita sold products which it manufactured in 1909 to the value of nearly $10,000,000. Wichita's live stock market han- dled nearly 100,000 more cattle in 1909 than in 1908, and between 10,000 and 20,000 more hogs. Wichita's Board of Trade handled 30,000 cars of grain during the year 1909. Wichita's eleven banks are each holding on deposit an average of over $1,000,000, or a total deposit of $12,000,000. Wichita contracted for 505 new business and residence buildings, valued at $2,000,000, in the months of January, February, March and April, 1910. Wich- ita, through its Union Stock Yards, in 1909, handled about 800,- 000 hogs, nearly 200,000 cattle, 25,000 sheep, 4,000 horses and mules. The total number of cars of live stock handled was about 15,000.
WICHITA BANK TAXES IN 1910.
Wichita banks will pay taxes in 1910 on a total valuation of $1,063,530. This is a total increase for the eleven institutions included in the list of $132,210 over their total, in 1909, $931,320. In reality the increase is $3,300 more than that, as the Commer- cial Bank in 1909 paid on that much real estate, which since that time has been transferred. While its valuation on this account shows a decrease in 1910, in reality it has increased, as its per-
40
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
sonal property valuation in 1909 was $13,200, as compared with $13,500 for 1910.
The new bank at the stock yards is not included in the list, for the reason that it was not organized until after April 1, 1910.
Banks are assessed for personal taxes on their capital stock, surplus and undivided profits, less their real estate where they own any. The figures here given include the real estate where any is given:
1909.
1910.
Increase.
American State
$ 75,000
$ 110,000
$ 35,000
Fourth National
300,000
330,000
30,000
Kansas National
200,000
220,000
20,000
National Bank of Commerce.
200,000
220,000
20,000
State Savings
25,000
25,000
Gold Savings
11,320
26,000
14,680
Citizens' State
15,000
23,000
8,000
Stock Yards State
11,000
12,390
1,390
Commercial
16,500
13,500
*300
Merchants' State
51,000
52,640
1,640
Wichita State
26,500
31,000
4,500
Totals
$931,320
$1,063,530
$135,510
The country banks, of which there is at least one in nearly every town in the county, show similar increases as a rule. It is probable that their valuations would run the total property on which Sedgwick county banks pay taxes up to the neighborhood of one and one-half millions.
CONTRACTORS AND CRAFTSMEN HELP MAKE A GREATER WICHITA.
The growth and development of Wichita has made this city the home of the greatest construction companies and material supply concerns doing business in the Southwest. These con- cerns are not only carrying on enormous building operations in the city, but are reaching out over all the territory and making successful bids on practically all of the important construction work that is being done in this part of Kansas and the territory
*Real estate 1909 not included 1910, $3,300.
41
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
south of it. Wichita is the Mecca, too, of artisans of every class. Carpenters, bricklayers, stone masons, cement workers, electri- cians, and representatives of all the other building crafts are here in greater numbers than they can be found in any other city in Kansas or in the Southwest, and their number is constantly increasing with the increasing demand for workmen in the build- ing trades.
The reputation of Wichita as the city which has the most massive and modern buildings to be found in the State of Kansas has spread all over the Middle West, and it is this reputation that has attracted here some of the best equipped construction companies in the country.
These are employing their capital, their equipment and their men in the construction of the finest and largest office and busi- ness buildings ever erected in Kansas. All over the business dis- trict of Wichita the massive steel and concrete frames of uncom- pleted buildings give evidence of the greater Wichita which is coming, and coming soon.
It is a significant fact also that nearly two thousand new resi- dences were erected in Wichita in 1909. The number to be built in 1910 may even pass the two-thousand mark, and each succeed- ing year is certain to pass all former records in this line.
These building operations also explain the presence of the numerous local concerns that handle large quantities of building materials of every description. No other city in Kansas has so many thriving dealers. No other city in the state handles so many planing-mill products as Wichita. There is no other city where so many brick and so much cement are used. Every class of building material has a ready market here, and in some lines the materials cannot be produced fast enough to meet the demands.
The material and construction companies are coming to con- stitute one of the important commercial interests of the city, and with such a flattering prospect of a rapid growth to a city of 100,000 people, there is every reason to believe that these interests will be enlarged and extended from year to year.
The pay roll created by these building operations is another thing that is promoting the Greater Wichita. Thousands of fami- lies here are supported by the work of builders, and Wichitas artisan element is as prosperous as that of any city in the United States.
42
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
THE WHY OF WICHITA'S GREATNESS AS A RAILWAY AND JOBBING CENTER.
Annual pay roll, $1,500,000. Annual passenger receipts are $1,000,000. Railways employ 2,000 persons in Wichita. Annual freight receipts, all lines, are $6,000,000. Annual freight tonnage in and out, 3,000,000 tons. Wichita has sixty-four freight trains that handle 1,500 cars of freight daily. Brought to the live stock market 15,000 cars of stock and took out 5,000 cars. Wichita railways handled jobbing business totaling $40,000,000 in 1909. Wichita mills produce over 800 carloads of flour and other mill- stuffs every month. Wichita is the largest broomcorn market in the world, handling 40,000 tons annually. The railways hauled out 60,000,000 pounds of packing-house products, worth $10,000,- 000. Five railway systems handled into and out of Wichita mar- ket 24,000 cars of grain in 1909. Wichita has forty-six passenger trains every day, which handle 3,000 passengers in and out of the city. Passenger earnings for July of 1910 were 35 per cent greater than July of 1909, which was the banner month for all railways.
WICHITA DOES THINGS-HENCE ITS PROGRESS.
Here are some of the things Wichita is doing, as all may learn upon investigation: Protecting its park system and residence section by the construction of a costly concrete dam and river embankments. Extending its boulevard system along the banks of the rivers. Assisting in the making of excellent wagon roads leading into the city from every direction and making sand roads disappear. Spending a million dollars a year in paving and street improvements. Putting nearly half a million dollars into drain- age and sanitary sewers. Erecting $6,000,000 worth of build- ings. Building the greatest convention hall in the state. Build- ing the finest high school building in the state. Building $525,- 000 worth of church edifices. Increasing its bank clearings mil- lions of dollars annually. Increasing its building permits $2,000 .- 000 a year. Gaining in bank deposits $1,000,000 a year. Gaining in population at the rate of 5,000 a year. Building an extensive Interurban Railway system. Building the finest modern car shops in the West. Building a paper mill at the cost of $500,000. Erecting two ten-story office buildings, the first in the state, one
43
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
of which is the new home of "The Beacon," in the heart of Wichita.
A FEW BIG THINGS WICHITA HAS.
Wichita has an area of twenty square miles. Wichita has 400 miles of streets. Wichita has 500 miles of cement walks. Wich- ita has 110 miles of sanitary sewers. Wichita has forty miles of storm sewers. Wichita has thirty-five miles of paved streets. Cost of sanitary sewers constructed, $450,000. Cost of storm sewer constructed, $325,000. Sanitary sewers under contract, forty miles. Cost of sanitary sewer under contract, $225,000. Cost of pavement constructed, $1,250,000. Pavement under con- tract, ten miles. Cost of pavement under contract, $500,000. Wichita has 200 acres of public parks, worth $725,600. Other city property worth $477,000.
PROPERTY VALUES IN WICHITA.
The final figures, recapitulations and estimates for the reports for 1910 from the County Assessor's office were furnished by the staff in Major Bristow's office :
Number of acres of taxable land under cultivation. 451,797
Number of acres of taxable land not under cultivation. 163,464
Total number of acres of land taxable. 615,261
-
Average value per acre with improvements $ 48.36 Aggregate value of all lands taxable. 29,757,936.00
Number of improved town lots. 2,089
Number of unimproved town lots. 27,581
Total number of town lots 29,670
Average value of town lots $ 71.62
Total value of all real estate. 31,883,036.00
Aggregate value of all town lots. 2,125,100.00
Total value personal property, City of Wichita. 13,700,600.00
GEO. W. BRISTOW, County Assessor.
.
44
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING WICHITA.
By
C. L. DAVIDSON.
The next issue of "The Book of American Municipalities will contain some interesting information concerning Wichita. The data has just been compiled by Mayor Davidson's secretary, at the request of the Municipal Information Bureau of Chicago. Among other things, the book will show: Wichita has an area of 18.75 square miles. The assessed valuation for the year 1909 is $44,444,451. Revenue from all sources, $468,088.04. Revenue from licenses, $12,000. Revenue from police court, $11,000. Bonded indebtedness, $1,108,697.02. Special benefit indebtedness, $755,323.93. The City of Wichita has never defaulted payment of a debt. Wichita has eighteen grade schools and one high school. The average school attendance is 6,643 daily. One hundred and forty-five teachers are employed in the public schools of Wichita. Wichita has ten colleges and technical schools. Wichita uses 5,000,000 gallons of water daily. Two hundred and sixty-eight arc lights, costing $66 each, and 418 vapor lights, costing $27 each, are kept burning to light Wichita's streets. There are 130.66 miles of sewer in Wichita now and thirteen and one-half miles are under construction. There are 3491/2 miles of unim- proved streets in Wichita and 251/2 miles of improved streets. Sixteen and two-tenths miles of streets have been improved the past year, at a cost of $898,012.58. There are 8,000 telephones in use in Wichita. There are 100 miles of gas mains in Wichita. In 1908 the expenditures for public improvements were as fol- lows: Storm water sewer, $400,000; paving, $100,000; concrete bridge, $300,000; fire station, $25,000. Proposed improvements to be made at once: Auditorium, $150,000; high school building, $135,000; new sewer and paving, $500,000.
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