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 7
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The Rock Island Sash and Door Company is two years old in Wichita, but very much older outside the state. The ware-
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
house is on North Mosley avenue. No machinery is kept and nothing is worked up, all the material being shipped to Wichita from the head factory. A large stock of sash, doors and blinds is kept on hand and a very extensive business is done.
There is another sash and door house in Wichita that bears the title of the Wichita Sash and Door Company. This is located on North Water street. It is one of the oldest sash and door houses in the city and does an extensive business in sash and doors. It has its own modern planing mill.
The quality of the product sent out by these Wichita factories has had no little effect in giving Wichita a good reputation. The traveling representatives of these houses cover a territory com- prised by several states and the Wichita goods are shipped into the districts where sash and door factories are common. All the Wichita factories are up to the minute in every particular and are helping materially to make Wichita win.
LUMBER AND BUILDING MATERIALS.
By
C. A. LEASURE.
Prominent among the contributors to Wichita's commercial prosperity and eminence are her lumber and building material interests. That more materials of this character are marketed in and through Wichita than in any city of like size in the entire United States is the statement of wholesalers, whose experience and business connections enable them to speak with authority. Of course this will not pass without certain caviling exceptions being raised by some of Wichita's urban rivals in the South- west, but the clincher to this statement is the fact that the vol- ume of such business transacted here not only represents the local consumption of lumber and building materials, but also the stocks and supplies for 284 retail lumber yards, whose gen- eral management and purchasing agencies are located in this city. The retail businesses so represented are located through- out the states of Kansas and Oklahoma, the Panhandle of Texas, eastern New Mexico and eastern Colorado. The total number of cars of lumber marketed in the Wichita wholesale market dur- ing the last twelve months amounts well into the ten thousands, while during the previous year the volume was even larger.
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WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
In a wholesale way every prominent manufacturer of yellow pine and cypress lumber in the Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi district is represented in this city either by a per- sonal representative or through the numerous commission and brokerage houses. In like manner the manufacturers of what is known in trade parlance as Pacific coast products, such as cedar, fir, spruce, white pine and redwood, are represented in the Wichita market, together with the hardwood products, such as oak, birch, maple and the like. In such manner is Wichita the chief jobbing center of lumber in the Southwest.
In the line of manufactured sash, doors and interior orna- mental woodwork Wichita is not only a jobbing, but a manufac- turing center. Located here and representing a capitalization and investment mounting well toward the half million mark is the United Sash and Door Company, whose plant and equipment are unexcelled west of the Mississippi river. Other manufac- turers and jobbers in this line are the Western Planing Mill Company, an adjunct of the United; the Wichita Sash and Door Company, the Rock Island Sash and Door Company, and numer- ous other smaller planing mills operated by retail lumber yards as an adjunct to local business. These interests employ a corps of traveling salesmen, whose territory is bounded by the Rock mountains, the Gulf and the Missouri river.
Closely allied to the lumber interests are the brick, cement and plaster interests. These lines are all well represented in the Wichita wholesale market. All the manufacturers of Portland cement, the Iola, the United Kansas, the Monarch, the Fredonia, the Ash Grove and the Western States, maintain city sales forces, and from here the traveling sales force canvasses the southwest territory. The local consumption of cement, owing to the ex- tensive street paving work of the last twelve months and the erection of large public buildings, such as the Schweiter and Beacon buildings, the Catholic cathedral, the Commercial Club and the high school, has been a record breaker, being estimated at between 200,000 and 250,000 barrels. Brick and plaster are lines represented in the Wichita market largely through jobbers, The Lumbermen's Supply Company, the Jackson-Walker Coal and Material Company and J. H. Turner being representative concerns in this trade. The Wichita Silex Brick Company manu- factures and distributes here a brick unique to the trade, pure
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
white pressed brick, suitable for both exterior and interior use and for ornamental purposes.
Allied to this branch of the building material trade is the cement stone business, of which there are some twenty extensive manufacturers. The cheapening of cement, incident to the dis- covery in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, of a shale having ingredi- ents necessary for a practical cement product, is entirely respon- sible for the establishing of this industry. An idea of the extent of this business is best obtained from the fact that fully ninety out of every hundred domestic buildings erected in this city within the last three years have used this material for founda- tion purposes in preference to brick or stone, to say nothing of the many business buildings which have been erected in the recent past exclusively of this material.
In a retail way twenty-four lumber yards cater to the de- mands of the Wichita builder. Prominent among these are the J. W. Metz Lumber Company, the Long-Bell Lumber Company, the Rock Island Lumber Company, the Hill-Engstrom Lumber Company, the Schwartz Lumber Company, the Davidson-Case Lumber Company, the Pond-Comley Lumber Company, the Pratt Lumber Company, the Graham Lumber Com- pany, the Caldwell-Hoffman Lumber Company, the Chas- tain-Cathey Lumber Company the Ketcham Lumber Com- pany, the King Lumber Company, the Orient Lumber Company, the Zimmerman Lumber Company, the United Lumber Company, the South Side Lumber Company, the Shearer-Titus Lumber Company, and others. As shown by the records of building permits issued to Wichita builders, the aggregate of building operations in the city for the last twelve months is approximately $6,000,000, in which total these institutions have shared for lumber and like materials used.
Headquarters, offices and purchasing agencies for yards lo- cated in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and eastern Colo- rado, located in Wichita are the J. W. Metz Lumber Company, the Davidson-Case Lumber Company, the Rock Island Lumber and Coal Company, the Big Jo Lumber Company, the Kirkwood Lumber Company, the Hill-Engstrom Lumber Company, the Amsden Lumber Company, the Pond-Com- ley Lumber Company, the Stewart Lumber Company, and others. From these offices are managed and supplies purchased for 284 country retail yards, while several of the concerns mentioned
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WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
maintain hardware and implement stocks in connection with their regular lumber and building material business in many of their country points. The capital investment represented in these interests is expressed well up in the seven figures.
The Wichita College of Music was organized and established four years ago by its present president and founder, Theodore Lindberg, the well-known violin artist. The building at No. 351 North Topeka avenue, which is the home of Mr. Lindberg, was used as a college building the first year, where all departments of the school were conducted. The second year the college moved into its splendid building especially erected and planned for a school of music at Nos. 217 and 219 North Lawrence avenue, right in the heart of the city. This building contains music studios, reading-room, office, and the beautiful Philharmonic Hall, seating 700, with all modern appliances, stage settings, pipe organ, etc., and within the past year this enterprising school has completed its ladies' hall, "The Lindon," at No. 315 East Third street, used as a boarding department for young ladies who attend the Wichita College of Music. This is a four-story, fireproof brick building, perfectly modern in every detail. The aggregate value of real estate and buildings now owned and under the direct supervision of the management of the College of Music amounts to more than $75,000. During the season of 1909 more than 300 students attended the College of Music. The policy of the man- agement has always been to employ only first-class teachers. It does not believe in employing assistant teachers. The success of the graduates from the College of Music has been exceptional, many of them holding responsible positions with schools and colleges with salaries ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 per year.
The Arctic Ice and Refrigerating Company, of Wichita, Kan., is one of the prominent industries of the city. Its plant, which was established at Rock Island avenue in 1907, extends from ยท Rock Island avenue to the tracks of the Rock Island railroad, and has a frontage of 254 feet. The plant has a capacity for manu- facturing 120 tons of ice daily, and its cold storage capacity is 500 cars of perishable goods at one time. Through a pipe line system it is also enabled to furnish refrigerating service about the city. This furnishes space and power for the Arctic Ice Cream Company, which produces 500 gallons of ice cream per day, which is shipped throughout the Southwest. In addition, the National
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Bakers' Egg Company rents space, electric power and storage room in the plant. The officers of the Arctic Ice Company are: W. J. Trousdale, president ; J. Elmer Reese, vice-president ; W. H. Phillips, secretary and treasurer.
The Shelley Drug Company, located at 118 East Douglas, is considered to be the peer of any drug store in the Southwest. The interior fittings of the store are among the finest and most expensive in the United States, the fixtures being made of solid Honduras mahogany, trimmed in metal dipped in gold; the shelving all enclosed with heavy plate glass doors, while the top of the fixtures are studded with electric lights, giving a very handsome effect.
The soda fountain is of the same material, and is twenty-two feet long, with twenty-one tables, twelve stools and four buffets which will accommodate a party of six people each, making the seating capacity for the soda business of 120 people. Hot lunches are also served as well as the latest in cold drinks, and delicacies are served the year through.
On the outside of the store is one of the finest soda signs ever manufactured, representing a stream of soda flowing from a draught arm and filling the glass below. This sign is twenty-two feet in height and takes 396 Tungsten lamps to produce this effect.
The Shelley Drug Company bought the defunct Sharp-Vincent stock on May 30, 1909, closing it up for a week for decoration and repairs, and opening under the management of Mr. Chester D. Shelley, conducting the business at 126 North Main until Feb- ruary 4, 1910, moving at that time to 118 East Douglas avenue, one of the first drug locations in Wichita, George Matthews having opened at that location from 1876 to 1879, he then selling to M. P. Barnes and O. D. Barnes, the style of the firm being known as M. P. Barnes & Son until 1888, when the stock was sold and moved to other quarters, there being several different kinds of business in the building up to the time of the Shelley Drug Company occupancy.
Mr. O. D. Barnes, of the old firm of M. P. Barnes & Son, is now the principal owner of the Shelley Drug Company, but on account of his large property holdings does not take an active interest in the management of the drug store, leaving the entire management to Mr. Shelley, the junior member of the firm.
Mr. Shelley started in the drug business with his father at Hutchinson, Kan., about eighteen years ago, afterward coming to
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WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
Wichita with Wells W. Miller, at 248 North Main, for two or three years and after that with W. A. Stanford, at 102 East Douglas; C. H. Hutbell, at McPherson, Kan., and the Westhall Drug Company, at Oklahoma City.
After leaving Westhall's, Mr. Shelley was engaged in contract- ing in the oil fields of eastern Kansas and Oklahoma for three years, but when the oil business dropped went back to the drug business with H. B. Allen at 102 East Douglas, Wichita.
Mr. Shelley was married in March, 1908, to Miss Winnie Barnes, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. D. Barnes, moving to Okla- homa City, where he was connected with the Roach & Veazey Drug Company until he became interested in the present firm.
The Higginson Drug Company, of Wichita, Kan., corner of Douglas and Topeka avenues, is one of the oldest established retail drug houses in the city. It was organized and began busi- ness a quarter of a century ago, the first proprietors being Kerster & Romig. The style of the firm shortly changed to that of Kerster & Wallace, and later George Gehring and H. D. Higginson became proprietors. From 1904 to 1905 it was known as the Higginson Drug Company, H. D. Higginson proprietor. The company later became incorporated, and has since occupied its present location. The company has a trade that branches out to other states, from which orders are received daily. It has always borne the dis- tinction of living up to the letter of the law, and its reputation in this respect is far-reaching. Henry D. Higginson, at the retire- ment of Mr. George Gehring, in 1905, reorganized the business under the name of the Higginson Drug Company in the fall of 1905, and continued as the proprietor until May 11, 1910, when Frank J. Garrety became the proprietor, continuing the well- known name of the Higginson Drug Company. Mr. Garrety was born in Gettysburg, Pa., on April 19, 1885. He is a son of John J. and Lulu J. Garrety, natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Wichita in 1886, where the elder Garrety has siuce been engaged in the contracting business. Frank J. Garrety was educated in the public schools of Wichita, and began his business career by selling newspapers and shining shoes. He afterward obtained a clerkship with H. D. Cottman and worked for him for twelve years, when he opened the first moving picture show in the city at 410 East Douglas. From this he branched out until he had six show places, and sold out in April, 1910, and May 10, 1910, became the proprietor of the Higginson Drug Company. He is vice-
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
president of the T. M. A. and treasurer of the local Order of the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Garrety was married on April 5, 1910, to Miss Sylvia Cone, daughter of Rufus Cone, of Wichita. Mr. Garrety is also interested as a stockholder in the American Paper Manufacturing Company, of Wichita. He is the financial repre- sentative of the Mount Carmel Academy, of Wichita, and is quite an extensive holder of improved real estate in the city.
The Wichita Trunk Company, a prosperous and promising manufacturing enterprise of Wichita, Kan., was reorganized in 1909 with Mr. Frank S. Rose, president; Mr. T. P. Kelso, vice- president, and Mr. Albert J. Errickson, secretary and treasurer. It occupies 7,000 square feet of floor space on the second and third floors of the building at No. 119-121 South Lawrence avenue, and with its thorough equipment and experienced force turns out a fine and full line of high-grade trunks and valises, and in fact everything pertaining to that line of trade. The men at the head of this enterprise are trained to their work and under their prac- tical management, the business must soon outgrow the limits of retailing and take on the wider scope of wholesaling as well.
Mr. Rose was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1872, to Frank and Mary (Bullock) Rose, who, in 1882 moved to Atchison, Kan., where the father organized the Rose Trunk Company. After leaving school our subject entered his father's establishment and acquired a thorough knowledge of the business, spending ten years as traveling salesman and a longer period as active man- ager of the factory and business. He is a member of B. P. O. Elks, K. of P., I. O. O. F. and a 32d degree Mason.
In 1907 Mr. Rose married Miss Lillian Elenore, daughter of Isaiah Brown and Julia Turpin Harris, of St. Louis county, Missouri.
Mr. Errickson is a native of Greenwood county, Kansas, and was born in 1871. He acquired a common school and academic education in his native place and later was graduated from the Southwestern Business College, at Wichita. In 1897 he entered the employ of the Dold Packing Company, at Wichita, Kan., and continued with that concern, serving in different capacities till 1909, when he assumed his duties as secretary and treasurer of the Wichita Trunk Company. In 1901 Mr. Errickson married Miss Minnie Howard, of Eureka, Kan., and they have one child, named Charles Abner.
Mr. Errickson is active in fraternal orders, being a Mason, a
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WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
Knight Templar, a Shriner and an Odd Fellow. He also holds. membership in the Riverside Club and the Chamber of Commerce, of Wichita.
The Southwestern Mantel and Tile Company, J. E. McEvoy and James H. Murphy, proprietors, Wichita, Kan. This company was established on April 15, 1908, its specialties being interior marble, wall, ceiling, floor and fireplace tile, mantels, grates and furnishings. Its office is at No. 215 North Market street, Sedgwick Annex, Wichita. Mr. McEvoy is a native of Ohio, where he was born on October 4, 1851. He moved with his parents to Illinois, where he spent his early life in Grundy county, removing to LaSalle county, same state, in 1888. He obtained his education in the public schools of Illinois, and early learned the iron molder's trade. In 1878 he began work at his trade, which he followed for eighteen years, when he entered the mercantile busi- ness in Marseilles, Ill., later removing to Chicago, where he was engaged in the grocery business for two yeare. In 1908 Mr. McEvoy moved to Wichita, Kan., having spent one year prior to this at Coffeyville, Kan., where he was employed in a woodwork- ing plant. Since the establishment of the mantel and tile business in Wichita several buildings have received adornment from this house, among them being the Princess Theater, Marple Theater, and also the Court Houses at Eldorado and Anthony, Kan. Mr. McEvoy is a Past Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and is also a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was married in 1882 to Miss Julia Wood, a native of Illinois. Four children have been born of this union, viz .: Stephen E., Margaret A., wife of Thomas Slattery, of Morris, Ill., and Mary E. and Julia.
1
James H. Murphy is a native of Illinois, where he was born in Chicago thirty-two years ago. He learned the mantel and tile trade in Chicago with George Reese in 1894, and has since fol- lowed it, being a practical man in every department of the work, especially as a tile setter. Mr. Murphy was for a time located at Tulsa, Okla., prior to his moving to Wichita and forming a part- nership with Mr. McEvoy in 1908.
The Morton-Simmons Hardware Company is one of the big concerns of Wichita that is making the city known all over the country as a jobbing center. It is a concern that every citizen points out to strangers and travelers as being the representative business institution. The company is one of the five local houses
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
of the Simmons Hardware Company, of St. Louis, Mo., and Wichita takes it as a compliment that when Mr. E. C. Simmons, founder of the Simmons Hardware Company, was locating the local houses he selected the city as the logical and geographical center to which the merchants of this great Southwestern country would come for their goods. That his judgment was sound is proven by the fact that their business in this territory has been doubled since they located in Wichita. Their present building, fronting on East First street and extending from Mosley avenue to Rock Island avenue, was erected five years ago and contains more floor area than any other wholesale house in this locality. This building is 150 feet square, four stories in height, and back of it are the steam heating plant, axe handling department and loaded shell room. In addition to these are two warehouses on South Rock Island avenue, giving a total floor area of 108,888 square feet, or about two and one-half acres. The main building is thoroughly modern and up-to-date. It is protected from fire by an automatic sprinkler system, has messenger call boxes, inter- communicating house telephones and electric elevators. One hundred and fifteen men and women are required to carry on the business. The arrangement of the general offices is unique, being 150 feet long and but seventeen feet wide, and they occupy the entire south side of the second and main floors. This arrangement gives abundance of light to all desks. The city sales office is located on the first floor, for the convenience of the city trade. Adjoining and connected with the general office is a sample room in which there is an attractive display of samples of the most complete line of tools ever assembled under one brand-the cele- brated Keen Kutter-which was established by Mr. E. C. Sim- mons fifty years ago. There is also a rest room for employes and customers, where comfortable chairs, reading material-books, current magazines and periodicals-are placed at their disposal.
The Wichita Abstract and Land Company was organized in 1894 and has a continued existence since, increasing its books with the growth of the city and county. Mr. J. E. Farrow, the present owner of the company and its president, came to Sedge- wick county with his parents, James and Charlotte Farrow, in 1876, when six years of age. They settled in Grant township on a farm. The father died in Texas in 1900. The mother lives in Wichita. He attended the schools in Grant township and came to Wichita and took a business course in the Wichita Commercial
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WICHITA AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER
College and on graduating was connected with the school as a teacher for a year and a quarter. He was then appointed Deputy Register of Deeds, where he served for nine years and then for one year in the office of County Clerk. In 1910 he purchased the control of the Wichita Abstract and Land Company, to which he now devotes his whole time. He was married in 1894 to Miss Nellie I. Horts, daughter of S. H. Horts, of Grant township. They have three children-Clarice, Geraldine and Pauline.
WICHITA.
Some idea of the importance of the city and the opportu- nities it affords may here be obtained. In Wichita you will find :
The greatest broomcorn market in the world.
The best grain and stock market in Kansas.
The second largest distributing point for threshing machines in the world.
The second largest distributing point for agricultural imple- ments in the United States.
The home of more dry goods jobbing houses than any town in the state.
The center of the richest and largest agricultural section in the country.
The meat packing center of the great Southwest.
As fine a climate as is to be found anywhere in this latitude.
A larger percentage of home owners than can be found in any city of its size in the country.
The center of the best apple growing section in the West.
The finest concrete arch bridge in the state of Kansas.
The tallest business blocks in Kansas.
The largest single college building west of the Mississippi river.
The most extensive and beautiful public parks in the state.
Commodious city, county and federal buildings.
The most extensive distributing point in the West for motor cars.
An excellent sanitary and storm water sewer system, insuring good health to its residents.
The most popular convention city in the state.
City water that is as pure as can be found anywhere, by actual test.
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
Five big four mills with a capacity of 4,300 barrels of flour a day.
The home of 190 jobbing houses that handle more goods than are sold by all the jobbing houses of the state.
Headquarters for lumber dealers of the Southwest, where $10,000,000 worth of lumber is bought and sold yearly.
One of the finest distributing houses of the largest wholesale hardware company in the world.
ROSTER OF CITY OFFICERS OF WICHITA, KANSAS, 1910.
Election held first Tuesday after first Monday in April.
Election Commissioner-Murry Myers.
Mayor-C. L. Davidson.
Clerk-William Sence.
Auditor-Finlay Ross.
Treasurer-E. A. Dorsey.
Attorney-A. S. Buzzi.
Engineer-B. C. Wells.
Assessor-G. W. Bristow.
Marshal-F. S. Burt.
Police Judge-Jesse D. Wall.
Physician-Dr. F. H. Slayton.
Weighmasters-George Majors, A. W. Wallace, R. P. Dodds.
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