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 6
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
ONE MONTH ONLY-JANUARY, 1910-IN WICHITA, KANSAS.
In spite of the winter weather, the month of January broke all records for building permits in Wichita. The total was nearly three-quarters of a million dollars-in exact figures, $735,075. Of
GL Davidson .
45
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
this amount, $625,400 was for business buildings, $107,500 for dwellings, and the remainder for various small structures.
It may be noted here that four and one-half million dollars were spent for new buildings in Wichita in 1909. From all indi- cations, the present year will greatly exceed this record.
The street railway company announces that it will spend $700,000 this year for new power house, new car barn and other improvements.
The Union Stock Yards Company, having just completed a large and costly exchange building, states that $50,000 more will be spent this year to take care of the rapidly growing live-stock interests.
The street railway company completes its loop in the down- town district to relieve the congestion of the busiest streets.
The City Commissioners let contracts in January for ten miles of paving.
Wichita's postoffice is made distributing station for postal supplies in the Southwest. The postmaster also finds that the average daily business of the postoffice has doubled in four years.
Second annual Pure Food Show is held-a big success.
Three new buildings are started for new motor car companies.
Beautiful library building at Fairmount College is dedicated.
Plans are accepted for $150,000 high school building to be built this year.
International Harvester Company will have new four-story home built.
Wichita is healthy. Report of Health Department shows twice as many births as deaths in the city in 1909.
Two thousand birds are exhibited at the State Poultry Show.
Deposits in Wichita banks amount to eleven million dollars and are constantly increasing.
Construction work started on ten-story "Beacon" Block.
Highly successful automobile show is held.
The First Methodist Church decides to erect new building, to cost about $100,000.
A $300,000 hotel is one of the good things of which Wichita has received the promise the past month.
Plans are adopted for the $125,000 Auditorium which the city is to build this year.
The Terminal Association, organized to systematically handle the freight-switching problems of the milling, packing and stock-
46
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
yards district, has planned extensive improvements and additions to the track facilities of that section.
Contract is let for the Catholic Cathedral, which will be an imposing structure of Bedford stone. It will cost, when ready for use, about $200,000.
Foundation is put in for the five-story Commercial Club Build- ing, to be occupied exclusively by that organization.
Wichita is the most rapidly growing city in the Southwest. It is situated in a rich and productive agricultural district and its large wholesale and manufacturing interests are placed in close touch with a profitable market by means of seven railway lines operated by five railway systems. Surveys are being made to connect the city with its most important neighbors by electric lines and it is expected to be only a few months until an extensive interurban system is in operation. The city has plenty of good water. It has natural gas for domestic and factory use. It has many splendid churches and excellent schools. It has many miles of paved streets, fine parks and driveways, a forest of shade trees in all parts of the city, and a mild climate unexcelled by any inte- rior city. Wichita has three live commercial organizations, and an inquiry addressed to either the Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Club or the West Side Business League will bring such information as you may wish.
ONE MONTH ONLY-FEBRUARY, 1910-IN WICHITA, KANSAS.
The most interesting news of the month to Wichita was the statement given out by the general manager of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway that the contract had been let for the road's repair shops to be built in Wichita. The first unit of the shops will be built this year, and will furnish employment to 200 men at the start. The amount to be expended on this work is about $350,000.
Three miles of additional paving is ordered by the city.
Five new business houses are to be erected in one block on North Main street.
The postmaster finds that Wichita's postoffice did 30 per cent more business in January, 1910, than it did in January, 1909.
A new wholesale firm is organized to handle supplies for bakers, and will begin business March 1.
47
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
The Crane Supply Company, wholesale steam fittings and plumbers' supplies, announces that it will begin immediately the erection of a six-story building to accommodate its growing business.
The Wichita Natural Gas Company announces the expenditure of $400,000 to increase the capacity of their plant and lines to keep up with the increasing demand for gas.
The Farmers' and Bankers' Life Insurance Company is organ- ized in Wichita, with $250,000 capital stock, and a large surplus. Local capitalists are at the head of the company, and stock is being rapidly subscribed.
The beautiful new building of the Riverside Country Club is completed.
A new photo-engraving plant starts business, making two engraving companies in the city.
A wholesale bakery company will build a three-story home for its business, commencing. work on it immediately.
A new theater, costing $75,000, and having a seating capacity of 1,600, will be built this summer. It is intended to make it the finest in the state, and to have it ready for use by September 1, 1910.
Stock is being sold by a company which proposes to build an interurban line connecting Wichita with Chester, Neb.
Buildings and improvements to cost $300,000 are to be added to the Wichita plant of the Cudahy Packing Company, as an- nounced by the officers of the company. This company completed recently additions which greatly enlarged their plant, and the additions now ordered will call for the employment of over 300 more workmen when the new equipment is ready for operation, which is expected to be not later than next September.
Fifty new cattle pens at the stock yards and a new hotel to accommodate shippers are two improvements ordered by the ·directors of the Stock Yards Company.
The most valuable corner in Kansas, at Main and Douglas, will be cleared this spring for the erection of a ten-story store and office building. The plans were originally made for an eight- story structure, but the great demand for office rooms caused the change to a larger building.
A half-million-bushel grain elevator, which will be a bonded warehouse, is one of the good things of which February brought the promise. The project will give great impetus to the grain
48
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
business of Wichita, which is now one of the principal factors of the city's growth, and is a step toward making her the grain market of the West.
The total cost of public and private buildings and improve- ments now under construction and planned for construction this year in Wichita is nearly eight million dollars.
Wichita is increasing in population at the rate of about 20 per cent a year, while the business interests of the city are advan- cing by leaps and bounds, and nearly every wholesale and manu- facturing company is enlarging or planning to enlarge its facili- ties. Every day marks the addition of a new business establish- ment in the city. The building of new railroads and interurban lines, which are assured, will open up an immense territory hitherto scarcely touched by the local companies. Wichita is a clean, beautiful, energetic city, and offers advantages to home- builders and business-builders unsurpassed by any city in the Middle West. The city's growth is conspicuously free from any "boom" movement or wild speculation.
THE WICHITA GRAIN MARKET.
By
W. F. MCCULLOUGH, President Wichita Board of Trade.
One of the most interesting studies in connection with the growth of a city is the tracing of the birth and development of the various lines of industry and trade that go to make up the busy whole. Very good advice it is, that we cultivate the habit of looking forward; yet there can be no denying the fact that a sober and conservative estimate of the future can only be arrived at by studying the events that have already transpired. Prophecy of the future growth of the city, state or nation is only well informed when the events and accomplishments of the past war- rant us in believing in great possibilities for the future.
With this in mind, a consideration of Wichita as a central grain market cannot be complete without going back to the begin- ning of the city and following the development step by step. We find the young city's first shipping fame is founded on great cattle shipments; that the product of the ranges for hundreds of
49
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
miles were driven here to finish by rail the remainder of the trip to market. That this should come first was but natural, for the country had not as yet settled down to soil cultivation. This stage was, however, soon past, for a country so rich in soil could not remain a cattle range.
Year by year, thousands of acres of the virgin soil were broken out and the staple and principal crop was, from the first, winter wheat. The soil and climatic conditions were found to be peculiarly adapted to this cereal, and then was founded the great empire of wheat, the crop that has made Kansas famous, the crop of which she produces annually more than any other state in the Union, and which has made the farmers of central and western Kansas the most well-to-do of any similar body of men in any section of the country.
This, however, is anticipating, for at the time of which we write the steam gang plow and the grain header were unknown, and even the self-binder had hardly come into use. Wheat rais- ing was not the "bonanza farming" that it has since become, yet so prolific was the soil, so earnest were the tilers, and such great distances was it hauled that Wichita became the greatest wagon wheat market in the United States. It came from far and near, from every direction, and in such quantities that unloading and shipping facilities were overtaxed. Grain elevators ran day and night and were still unable to care for the streams of wheat poured in from the surrounding country. There were no rail- roads west and south of Wichita at that time, and grain was hauled to this market distances of fifty and sixty miles or more, and old residents remember the time when lines of wheat wagons extended from the Douglas avenue bridge to the Santa Fe tracks, waiting their turn to unload. Many of these had to wait until the next day before they could be relieved and start on the home- ward trip.
This situation was entirely changed by the building of rail- roads into the section of the state west and south of us. On these railroads numerous small towns and shipping points sprang up, and while the growth and settlement of the country contrib- uted to Wichita's growth in many ways, it put an end to her distinction as a wagon wheat market.
During this time, however, Wichita was but undergoing a transition period from a country shipping point of grain to a wholesale grain market-the same transition period that is neces-
50
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
sary in this and any other city in changing from a local trading point, dependent upon the trade of such territory as can reach it by country roads, to a wholesale market, commanding the trade of states. Where the establishment of these new shipping points cost us the wagon trade of the territory in which they were located, we now handle the grain shipped from those points and from many others-in all a territory many times larger than we originally controlled. Where it was formerly handled in wagon loads, now it changes hands in carloads, and where formerly Wichita shipped wheat to other markets, it is now the market itself for the wheat from a great portion of Kansas and parts of Oklahoma and Nebraska.
This new condition of affairs began to be in evidence about the year 1901, although it was of small moment until two years later.
In 1903 the Wiehita Board of Trade was organized. There had formerly been a commercial organization known by the same name, which had been very effective in building up and pro- moting the growth of the city. The new Board of Trade was formulated, however, strictly as an organization of the grain dealers, and for the grain trade, along the lines of similar organ- izations in other cities. It was not noted for its strength at that time, every member realizing that to build a grain market required a long, hard effort. The charter membership at organ- ization was fourteen, and several of these were not actively engaged in the grain business, but loaned their influence and membership to the new concern for its assistance. The value of memberships at organization was $25 each, and the question may well have entered into the minds of the members, whether they were worth that amount.
However, it is necessary for everything to have a beginning, and this was the beginning of the grain organization of Wichita. From this time forward its growth has been steady. It has been necessary to overcome the competition of older established mar- kets, coupled in many cases with freight rate adjustments, which rendered it well-nigh impossible to compete with them. Also was it necessary before material growth could be made that these discriminating rates be overcome and that we impress upon the railroads the necessity for our recognition as a market. Year by year, and one at a time, the various drawbacks have been overcome and reduced, materially assisted in some cases by the
51
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
interstate commerce commission, until now, although many ad- justments are still necessary, we are in a position to hold our own and more than this, to grow.
The membership of the trade is limited to fifty at the pres- ent time, and these are all sold, and practically all in the hands of active grain merchants. None of them can be bought today for less than $800, which by comparison with the price of $25 at the time of organization tells better than anything else the growth of the business.
During the crop year of 1909 there were handled by the mem- bers of the Wichita Board of Trade 24,326 cars of grain, three- fourths of this being wheat, as befits a market located in the wheat belt of the state which raises a greater amount of wheat than any other. The season of 1910 will, no doubt, surpass this, as the receipts during July and August, the two heaviest months, were in excess of the same months last year.
Look at the map and fix the wheat belt of Kansas and Okla- homa, and find, if you can, a more favorable location for a great grain market and milling center. Why should we not grow? A review of present conditions and a comparison with a short time ago is the best encouragement, and fully justifies the faith of our people.
We have six terminal elevators, with a total storage capacity of a million and a quarter bushels, and a handling capacity of 125 cars of grain daily. We have five flouring mills, with a daily capacity of 4,100 barrels of flour, requiring 15,000 bushels of wheat per day to satisfy their needs alone. All of this built up in six years from practically nothing. With anything like the growth in the future that we have enjoyed in the past, Wich- ita will before many years take her place among the great pri- mary grain markets of the country.
A GREAT MOTOR CAR CENTER.
Wichita is not only the greatest city in the Southwest, but the greatest motor car center in the West. That's what Wichita stands for in the motor world. With her twenty or more garages and agencies, which sell on the weekly average $20,000 worth of motor cars, she ranks well up with the large motor car dis- tributing point of the United States.
More cars were sold in 1910 from the Wichita motor car
52
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
houses than were sold from the agencies in Kansas City, Mo. Wichita agents supply Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas with motor cars-the greatest motor car country in the world.
Fifty or more of the leading motor car factories are repre- sented in Wichita, and no matter how fastidious the purchaser may be he can find the latest motor car invention or accessory, for the Wichita agents keep right up to the dot.
At one time this year there were forty-five cars filled with motor cars on the tracks in Wichita. Wichita is the greatest distributing point for the Reo, Ford and Auburn motor cars west of the Mississippi. Collectively the motor car dealers are not only great hustlers and active business men, but are town boost- ers as well. A car very seldom goes out of Wichita on a long trip unless it bears a "Wichita Win" banner. The dealers not only find pleasure in disposing of their cars, but enjoy the prestige the sales give Wichita.
For fine garages and up-to-date machine plants for sick mo- tor cars Wichita is equipped with the best. Several of the ga- rages are two stories in height and have unusual storage room. Most of the fine garages have been built during the past two years.
The very latest models in motor cars are received in Wichita because the demand for the latest motor cars come in from this section. The motor car owners of this section of the country cannot enjoy motoring unless they have the very latest product from the factory. For this reason every year sees the habitual motorist with a new model car.
Wichita has been a motor car city for just about a decade. To speak of driving over the streets of Wichita in a motor driven vehicle ten years ago would have indicated real "battyness." Every one thought the Schollenberger boys near the dead line of sanity nine years ago when they startled the horses with the snorts of their noisy little motor car. There was much talk a little later when A. S. Parks ambled down to his sash and door plant on Rock Island avenue in a Locomobile. But when other men began to take up the idea of the motor car every one had to admit that there was something destined for the vehicle.
Since then Wichita has been adding motor cars until now it has more private motor cars on the city tax rolls than any other city in the state. Eight hundred motor cars are owned
53
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
in Wichita and new names are showing up in the city clerk's office every week.
Motor car interest in Wichita does not need urging. Every man that can scrape together the spare simoleons hies himself to the motor car store and invests in a gasoline barouche. The Wichita Automobile Club has been an important factor in mak- ing Wichita a large place on the motor car map. It has logged the principal roads out of Wichita and has mapped several runs, which are followed by the most enthusiastic motorists.
The era of good roads which is dawning in Sedgwick county can be traced to the appearance of the motor car. When the motorist began to travel over the country roads he found that they were mighty poor. Agitation for better roads commenced immediately and its fruition has come in the thirty-six miles of new sand and clay roads, which will soon make Sedgwick county the county of the best roads. The Wichita Automobile Club contributed $2,000 towards the building of these new roads.
Plans are being made for the reorganization of the Automo- bile Club and plans for sociability runs will be considered. A big motor car show has been planned, at which all models of the best motor cars known to the motor world will be exhibited and demonstrated.
THE WICHITA RAILROAD & LIGHT COMPANY.
The Wichita Railroad & Light Company was organized in 1900 and have charge of all operation of thirty miles of street railway track in the city of Wichita. The passenger business has doubled in the last two years, and the character of the service and size of cars have been greatly increased.
The passenger car equipment consists of sixteen large double truck pay-as-you-enter cars, and twenty-seven single truck closed winter bodies, twelve single truck open cars and eight large double truck, baseball trailers. The regular service varies from eight-minute headway to twenty-minute headway, according to the amount of business done on the line. The most important line is the stock yards line, operating to the north end of the city, and passes the courthouse, several large flour mills, the Cudahy and Dold Packing companies, Union Stock yards and Missouri Pacific shops and the roundhouse. The second line in importance is the Topeka avenue, operating past the Masonic
54
HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Temple, Elks Club, Y. M. C. A., the St. Francis Hospital, the Kansas Milling Company and terminating at the Watson Mill- ing Company at Seventeenth and St. Francis. The third line, the west side, operates on the west side of the river, past the Missouri Pacific depot, the Wichita Hospital, Masonic Home and out towards Friends University. The passengers on this line also reach Mt. Carmel, Battle Creek Sanitarium and the new Orient shops. The South Main line operates south, passing the city building, Hamilton Hotel and reaches the League baseball park, two miles out. The Emporia avenue line goes south on Emporia avenue through the residence district.
The College Hill line operates straight east two and one-half miles, passing all depots entering the city and reaches the Wich- ita Country Club. The Fairmount line operates north two miles from the College Hill, passing the cemeteries of the city, and ends at Fairmount College. The Pattie avenue line operates south and east of the railroad in residence district, and serves one of Wichita's prettiest parks, known as Linwood. The Cleveland avenue line operates east of the railroads through the residence district and serves McKinley Park. Waco avenue line operates northwest of the Missouri Pacific tracks, through residence dis- trict, and serves the territory west of the Little River at Eight- eenth street. The Riverside Park line operates west from the courthouse through the largest and prettiest park in the city. It also passes the water works and reaches the Riverside Park Club. Passengers will take Riverside car to see Riverside zoo, which contains" as many animals as many of the cities of ten times Wichita's population. The Wonderland Park line oper- ates west of Douglas to Wonderland Park, the largest amuse- ment park west of Kansas City, located on Wonderland Island. This line also serves the Sedgwick county fair grounds.
The company is spending large sums of money in improve- ments in cars, tracks, pavement, shops and improved power plant.
THE SASH AND DOOR INDUSTRY IN WICHITA.
Wichita is one of the most important planing mill and sash and door centers in the West. More sash and doors are shipped out of Wichita in a year than from any other city in the South- west. This is due partially to the great number of yards of the
55
WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
city, which are supplied with sash and similar products by the local mills and factories and also to the location of Wichita. In the early days Wichita was a supply station and it has continued to be such ever since. The sash and door companies ship on an average of two cars of sash, doors, etc., every week.
One of the largest factories in Wichita is the United Sash and Door Company. It has three warehouses on South Rock Island avenue. Its mill is the Western Planing Mill, which has recently been remodeled, a new dry kiln installed and more machinery put in.
This factory does a wholesale sash, door, glazing, paint and varnish business. Acres of glass are stored in the basement of the large warehouse and this can be glazed by expert glass men into almost any design and shape desired. All the doors of the common variety are glazed at the plant.
Sash and doors are made at the factory. The forms are cut at the planing mill and assembled in the factory. Two huge door presses which press the door frames together are kept busy all the time. There are numerous sandpaper machines, which give the doors and sash a smooth, even finish.
One hundred and fifty men are employed in the sash and door plant. During the winter months night work is done. All the local deliveries are made by a motor truck recently purchased.
The United Sash and Door plant has more than 150,000 square feet of floor space and every foot of it is used. It has its own lighting and generating plant and is a modern sash and door factory in every sense of the word.
The Western Planing mill is an adjunct of the United Sash and Door Company, which is well known over the Southwest. This mill has every modern woodworking machine known to woodworkers and all the work is under the supervision of a skilled foreman. Every man employed in the mill is an expert.
The largest dry kiln in the state is a feature of the planing mill. There green lumber from Louisiana, Canada, and, in fact, every part of the globe, is dried and prepared for use. The turn- ing department does unusually fine work, as does the stair de- partment. All sorts of saws can be seen there, but in spite of the many maiming instruments very few accidents occur.
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.