USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 34
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The streets were named after the original proprietors of the town. Mr. James ereeted the first dwelling house of any prominence in 1870, at the south end of James street near the railroad tracks. Soon followed the establishment of the large paeking houses and stock yards, whose business forms the bulk of the city's trade. Some of the streets were made eighty and some sixty feet wide. James street, and all thorough- fares running parallel with it, have a direction bearing north 28° and 10' west- the variation of the needle being 11º east when the survey was made. The streets, excepting the one under a portion of the elevated railroad, cross at right angles. The original plat of the city was acknowledged by the proprietors, George B. Wood, Anna B. Wood, D. E. James, Nicholas MeAlpine and Maria MeAlpine.
In the fall of 1869 the estate of Silas Armstrong, lying within the corporate limits of the former Kansas City, Kansas, was surveyed, and laid out into blocks, lots, streets and alleys, so as to conform to the survey of the former city, by A. B. Bartlett and Silas Armstrong, Jr., administrators of the estate of the decedent. Some other additions have also been made to the former eity of Kansas City.
THE CITY INCORPORATED.
In October, 1872, the city of Kansas City, Kansas, was incorporated, and the first city election was held October 22, 1872, by order of Judge Hiram Stevens of the Tenth judicial district, and resulted in the elec- tion of the following city officers :
Mayor, James Boyle; councilmen, S. W. Day, Charles II. Jones, John McKnight, George Forschler and James Lundell; police judge, James Kennedy; city clerk, Cornelius Cushin; treasurer, Samuel Me- Connell; city attorney. II. L. Alden. The mayors of the city from its incorporation up to April, 1881, were James Boyle, C. A. Eidemiller, A. S. Orbison and Eli Teed.
In June, 1881, the governor of Kansas proclaimed the City of Kan- sas a municipality of the second class. The mayors serving were:
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Samuel MeConnell, from April, 1881, to April, 1883; R. W. Hilliker, from April, 1883, to April, 1885; James Phillips, from April, 1885, to April, 1886.
WHEN ARMOURDALE GOT A START.
Armourdale, embracing a part of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 15, and part of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 22, all in township 11 south, range 25 east, and being on the north bank of Kansas river about one and a half miles above its mouth, was laid out in June, 1880, by the Kaw Valley Town Site and Bridge Company. The company was composed of Boston capitalists, and of which Charles Francis Adams, Jr., was presi- dent, and John Quincy Adams, Charles Merriam, Nathaniel Thayer, H. HI. Hunnewell and John A. Burnham were members. At this time the company owned a large amount of land adjoining the original town site, some of which has since been laid out in additions and some occupied for manufacturing purposes. The first addition to Armourdale, ex- tending from Fourth to Tenth streets, was platted in June, 1881, by the same town company.
The city was incorporated in the spring of 1882, and the first elec- tion was held on May 5th. The officers were : Mayor, Frank W. Patter- son ; conneilmen, Nehemiah Sherrick, Daniel Herbert, E. W. Anderson, S. Snyder and Joseph Bradley ; police judge, John C. Foore; marshal, William Ross; city clerk, Granville Patterson. The list of mayors of Armourdale were Frank W. Patterson, from May, 1882, to April, 1884; George W. Parson, from April, 1884, to April, 1885; and Jacob Barney, from April, 1885, to April, 1886.
Early in the spring of 1882 the old school district, in which a school had been maintained for over twenty years, was divided, and that por- tion of the district containing the school house was set over to South Wyandotte. In May the Armourdale Distriet No. 9 voted bonds for a $9,000 school house, which was completed on October 5th. The officers of the school board were N. Sherriek, president; E. Sheldon, secretary, and F. W. Dryer, treasurer. A colored school was opened in the old wooden school building in the west end of the town. In the six years of the existence of Armourdale, it had aequired a population of 1,582.
Meanwhile Armstrong had been platted. It was a small com- munity resting on the hill above the Union Pacific Railway shops that had been bnilded south of Wyandotte in the sixties and seventies, before Armourdale had been thought of. In later years, as will be seen, Armstrong formed a connecting link between Wyandotte and Armour- dale by growing in between the two.
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THE PLATTING OF ARGENTINE.
Argentine, on the south side of the Kansas river, was platted in November, 1880, and originally contained sixty acres. James M. Coburn was the proprietor of the first town site. The location of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe transfer depot there was rendered necessary, in order to find room for side tracks, round-house, coal chute and sheds. A town sprung up at once, and, as the different business interests eon- tinued to seleet this as a location for manufacturing, the town grew accordingly.
In the original plat, the city extended from the Santa Fe railroad near a line parallel with Wyandotte street and from First to Fifth street. Attached to the original map of the city is the following :
"I hereby dedicate for public use the following described streets and alleys, as marked and described ou the plat of the town of Argentine, Wyandotte county, Kansas, herewith attached, to-wit: Sterling avenue (60 feet wide), running east and west between blocks 5 and 6; also Euclid avenue (60 feet wide), running east and west between blocks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9; also Bullion avenne (60 feet wide), running east and west between blocks 7, 8, 15 and 16-60 feet along the south side of block 9, being 30 feet off the north side of the Smelting company's land; also Metropolitan avenue (60 feet wide), being 30 feet off the south side of southeast quarter of section 20, township 11, range 25, and 30 feet off the north side of northeast quarter of section 29, township 11, range 25; also Silver avenue (60 feet wide), running east and west between blocks 18, 19, 21, 22, 13 and 23; also Ruby avenue (60 feet wide), running east and west between blocks 21, 22, 23, 25, 26 and 27; also First street (60 feet wide), running north and south between blocks 11, 12, 13, 23, 24 and 26; also Second street (60 feet wide), running north and south between blocks 9, 13, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26 and 27, except all of said street south of lot 46, block 27; also Third street (60 feet wide), running north and south between blocks 3, 4, 8, 9, 18, 19, 21 and 22; also a street (50 feet wide), running south between blocks 25 and 27; also Fourth street, running north and south between blocks 4, 6, 7, 8, 15, 16, 18 and 28; also Fifth street (30 feet wide), on the west side of blocks 5, 6, 7, 16 and 28, and also all the alleys marked on the plat of Argentine of the width shown.
JAMES M. COBURN, Trustee."
A GREAT SMELTER THERE.
The growth of the city was gradual. As the working capacity of the Consolidated Kansas City and Refining company, which was the first great industrial plant erected there, and that of the Santa Fe Rail- road inereased, the city grew. It suffered a slight setback a few years ago when the smelter closed. But this was offset by the Kansas City Structural Steel Company, which purchased the abandoned smelter plant in the spring of 1908 and installed the largest structural steel plant west of Pittsburg.
Argentine became the home of an industrious prosperous people. Its streets, both in the valley and on the hill, were lined with neat eot- tages and well kept homes, and many substantial business buildings were erected.
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PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.
The principal streets of the city were paved, and through the entire limits, from west to east, runs the Turner boulevard, one of the most beautiful drives in and around Kansas City. £ Metropolitan avenue, over which is operated the Metropolitan street railway line, was paved recently and new rails laid. The sewer system had been greatly en- larged in recent years and the lower portion of the city was protected from overflow of the Kansas river by a great levee faced with conerete and stone. This enabled the anthorities to install a system of sanitary drainage such as few cities have.
Nearly all of the religious denominations were represented in Argen- tine. The churches were well organized and well attended. A whole- some religious spirit prevailed in the city. The citizens early pro- vided those facilities for the education of the children. Three grade schools and a large high school, all well equipped and employing capable teachers, supplied the means of education.
The following served as mayors of Argentine: G. W. Gulley, 1882-3; E. G. Bliss, 1883-4; J. A. Healy 1884; W. F. Noyes 1884-5; G. W. Gulley 1885-6; T. J. Enright, 1886-8; G. W. Gulley, 1888-9; Steve March, 1889; Wm. McGeorge, 1889-91; J. O. Gaskill, 1891-3; F. O. Willard, 1893-7; C. W. Marston, 1897-9; C. W. Green, 1899-1903: Dr. D. E. Clopper, 1903-5; A. F. Jasper, 1905-6; H. R. Rossetter, 1906-7; C. W. Green, 1907-9.
KANSAS PATRIOTISM AROUSED.
A movement of the citizens of Kansas for the building in their own state of a great city, or an "emporium of commerce and industry," was inaugurated in the year 1875, eleven years before the present municipal corporation known to the world as Kansas City, Kansas, was formed by the consolidation of the cities, towns and villages that had been builded at and along the state line on the Kansas side. In pursuance of a notice published in the newspapers, a mass meeting of the citizens of Wyandotte county was held at Dunning's Hall, in Wyandotte City, on September 4, 1875, for the purpose of discussing the subject and devis- ing ways and means to assist in building up the commercial metropolis of the state of Kansas at the mouth of Kansas river. V. J. Lane was appointed chairman, and Nicholas McAlpine secretary.
After the chairman had stated the object of the meeting, Colonel Stephen A. Cobb introduced the following resolution, which passed unanimously : "Resolved, That a meeting of citizens of the state of Kansas be held at Dunning's Hall on Thursday, the 23rd of September, in the afternoon and evening, and that prominent citizens of the state be invited to address the meeting and become our guests."
On motion the following five persons were appointed as an invitation
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committee : H. W. Cook, John B. Seroggs, R. B. Taylor, V. J. Lane and Sanford Haff.
On motion a committee on arrangements and finanee was appointed, consisting of S. A. Cobb; Mayor Charles Hains of Wyandotte; Mayor Eli Teed of Kansas City, Kansas; E. L. Bartlett, Dr. Thorne, Thomas Viekroy, L. H. Wood, J. S. Stockton and W. J. Buchan. A committee of five on assessment and taxation was then appointed as follows: L. H. Wood, Mayor Hains, II. M. Northrup, J. J. Keplinger and N. MeAlpine.
CALL FOR A STATE MASS MEETING.
The following is a copy of the call published in the papers for a meeting to be held September 23, 1875.
"To the People of Kansas: The citizens of Wyandotte county, mindful of the fact that the increasing commerce of the Missouri valley must concentrate somewhere on the bank of our river for general exchange, and build up a great emporium at the point where such general exchange shall be made, believe that the necessities of trade and the laws of nature, facts not to be denied, have fixed that point at the mouth of the Kansas river. This commerce, for the most part, is the product of the industry, the intelligence and the resources of Kansas; the city which is its offspring, they believe should be on Kansas soil, subject to her laws and tributary to her wealth. They believe that city may be planted by wise and judicious action on the part of the people within the borders of their state. They believe a generous interchange of sentiment on the spot hy citizens of Kansas, with their fellow-citizens who reside at the mouth of the Kansas river, will convince the most skeptical and win him to their belief as to where that great mart shall be seated. Therefore, in no spirit of rivalry, as citizens of Kansas, solicitous of her welfare, they cordialty invite as many of the people of their state as can attend a public meeting, to be held at Wyandotte on Thursday, September 23, 1875, in the evening, to consider the subject. To such as come they pledge a hearty welcome to their homes."
A GREAT CIVIC DEMONSTRATION.
This invitation met with a very liberal response, there being 300 of the representative men of the state in attendance at the meeting on September 23rd. These guests were met at the depot by the citizens and escorted through the principal streets of the city in carriages. The following counties were represented by delegates in person : Douglas, Riley and Davis on the west; Leavenworth on the north; Johnson, Miami and Bourbon on the south : Franklin, Anderson and Allen on the south- west ; and Jefferson on the northwest. The following counties sent words of encouragement by letter: Shawnee, Crawford, Coffey, Linn, Osage, Pottawatomie. Saline, Ellis, Republic, Ellsworth and Atchison. The press was represented by W. H. Miller, of the Kansas City Journal ; S. M. Ford, of the Kansas City Times; H. Wilcox, of the Kansas City News and Chronicle; R. B. Taylor, of the Wyandotte Gazette, and V. J. Lane, of the Wyandotte Herald.
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The ladies had decorated Dunning's Hall where the meetings were held. Colonel S. A. Cobb was elected president, and the following gentlemen vice presidents: General W. H. M. Fishback, of Johnson county ; Theodore C. Bowles, of Franklin county ; Hon. John T. Lanter, of Anderson county ; Hon. L. J. Worden, of Douglas county ; Dr. George B. Wood, of Wyandotte county; Judge Williams, of Jefferson county ; . Gen. John A. Halderman, of Leavenworth; Hon. George A. Crawford, of Bourbon county; Judge Hiram Stevens, of Miami county ; Judge N. F. Acres, of Allen county ; and Hon. John K. Wright, of Davis county. Speeches were made by Colonel Cobb, Senator Harvey, Gov. J. P. St. John, Gov. George A. Crawford, Gen. J. A. Halderman, Hon. T. C. Bowles, Hon. John K. Wright, Hon. L. J. Worden, Judge Williams, Hon. W. J. Buchan and others. Letters and telegrams, all giving encourage- ment to the movement, were read from other parties, among whom were Ilon. J. J. Ingalls, J. R. Goodin, Byron Sherry, Gov. Osborn, George W. Veale, Chancellor Marvin, John Frazer, P. I. B. Ping and H. P. Dow.
COLONEL COBB'S LOGICAL ADDRESS.
The following is an extract from the speech of Colonel Cobb, which vividly portrays the natural advantages of the location at the mouth of Kansas river for the commereial metropolis of the state: "The terminus of one great line of railroad, the Kansas Paeifie, whose trade extends westward beyond our limits to the mining camps of Colorado, and the grazing fields of New Mexico-on the north of this line of railroad, her supplies and goods minister to the wants of the settlers in the counties of our state, lying west of the district drained by the Central Branch Union Pacific and the St. Joseph & Denver Railroads, until she reaches the neighborhood of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad of
Nebraska. Then extending westward, under the advantage of the pro rata bill passed at a recent session of congress, by way of Denver and Cheyenne, her influenees are felt, as the competitor of Omaha, on the plains of Wyoming and in the valleys of Utah. On the south side of the Kansas Pacific Railroad she has practically no competitor in the field of trade, and her business men solicit exchange over the whole expanse of country southward to the northern boundary of Texas, and westward to the limits of settlement this side of the Rocky mountains. Confining the question to our own state, the railroads which extend west- wardly from the mouth of the Kansas river drain every section of Kansas, except the counties of Leavenworth, Atchison, Doniphan, Nema- ha. Brown, Marshall, Jackson and portions of Jefferson, Pottawatomie and Washington. The Republican branch of the Kansas Pacific, which extends northward up the valley of the Republican river to Clay Center, Clay county, takes the trade of the northwestern counties, which would otherwise go to the Central Branch or St. Joseph & Denver roads to the
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line of the Kansas Pacific. The Kansas Midland road between this point and Topeka, and the line between here and Ottawa, are lines over which the trade of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the Leaven- worth, Lawrence & Galveston roads will respectively pass with the same facility with which it will to Atchison or Leavenworth.
"The people of Wyandotte county contend that the mass of trade carried on by these roads will follow the valley of the Kansas river to its junetion with the Missouri. They contend, other things being equal, that the companies owning these roads can afford to deliver freights cheaper at the mouth of the Kansas river than at any other point on the Missouri, because the grades of the roads are uniform and descending after they touch the valley of that river, while, to carry their freight to the original terminus, requires them to pass over elevated tracts of conn- try with heavy gradients. But things are not equal. Any great city in the Missouri valley will be tributary either to the greater cities of St. Louis or Chicago. The state of Kansas is by nature, tributary to St. Louis. To re-distribute passengers and freight bound to St. Louis from the principal portion of Kansas northward of this point, is to take them ont of a direct line for re-distribution. But the mass of the producers of Kansas will not engage in the business of re-distribution. They will dispose of their products where they can find the buyers and seldom go farther from home in quest of them than to the Missouri valley. The people of this county contend that they will go there where the greatest competition may be had, and that today no man can question that the grain elevators, the paeking-houses and the stock-yards at this point all demonstrate that the buyers of the staple products-grain and cattle- are far more numerous than anywhere else on the Missouri river. They contend that the mouth of the Kansas river is the natural site for the metropolis of the Missouri valley, and that all efforts to build it else- where will be futile. They believe that the failure of other places to become the metropolis is owing to no mistake on the part of the citizens of those places, but they simply lacked the thousand and one natural advantages that this spot so happily possesses. It is said 'faets are born, not made.' So of those great marts that spring up in the march of civilization across the continent. The people of Kansas would gladly have made their metropolis elsewhere, but this spot was born to be it, and they must accept the fact.
"In all I have said I have not spoken of the eastern connections of railroads with this point. To name them is sufficient. The Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern furnish rival lines and some competition to St. Louis. The IIannibal & St. Joseph, and the Kansas City & Northern to Moberly, and then the Missouri, Kansas and Texas supply like facilities to Chicago. Keeping in view these compet- ative lines alone, no other place in the valley of the Missouri approaches this advantage."
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This agitation was eontinned persistently throughout Kansas for eleven years before the agitators could begin to see that their hopes were to be realized.
THE GOVERNOR'S CONSOLIDATION PROCLAMATION.
In the year 1886 Governor John A. Martin, by virtue of an aet of the Kansas legislature, issued a proelamation that consolidated all of these cities and towns into one city to be known as Kansas City, Kansas. The proclamation follows :
GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION
Deelaring Kansas City, Armourdale and Wyandotte a city of the first class, under the name of Kansas City,
"State of Kansas, Executive Department, "Topeka, March 6, 18SG. "Whereas, it appears by certificate of the county clerk of Wyandotte county, Kansas, bearing date of February 16, 1886, and filed in this department on the 19th day of February, 1886, that the following cities, to-wit: Armourdale, Kansas City and Wyandotte, neither of which is a city of the first class, lying adjacent to each other, and not more than three-fourths of one mile apart, have attained, and that the aggregate population of said adjacent cities, as shown by the last census, taken under the laws of this state, now is fifteen thousand and upwards; and
"Whereas, it further appears by said certificate of the county clerk of Wyan- dotte county, Kansas, that the boundaries of said city of Armourdale are as follows: 'Commencing at the center of section twenty-two (22), township eleven (11) south, range twenty-five (25) east; thence west twenty-six hundred and forty (2,640) feet: thence north twenty-six hundred and forty (2,640) feet; thence east thirteen hundred and twenty (1,320) feet ; thenee north eight hundred and fifty-four (854) feet; thence east three hundred and thirty (330) feet; thence south six hundred and sixty-one (661) feet; thence east to the quarter section line running north and south through the center of section (15) in said township and range; thenee north eight hundred and forty (840) feet: thence east one hundred and seventy-five (175) feet; thence north four hundred and fifty-five (455) feet; thence east three hundred and five (305) feet ; thence north one hundred and sixty (160) feet: thence east five hundred and eighty (580) feet; thence south ten hundred and thirty-one (1,031) feet; thence south twenty-two degrees (22) and fifty minutes (50) cast, three hundred and twenty-five (325) feet; thence south eight hundred and ninety (890) feet: thence south thirty-two degrees (32) west. twenty-two hundred and twenty-one (2,221) feet to the place of beginning, having a population of fifteen hundred and eighty-two (1,582), as shown by the last census taken under the laws of this State; that the boundaries of said city of Kansas City are as follows: 'Commencing in the middle of the Kansas river, at a point where the same is intersected by the dividing line between sections four- teen (14) and twenty-three (23), in township eleven (11) south, range twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the line dividing the states of Kansas and Missouri; thence north along said state line to the middle of the Missouri river; thence up said Missouri river northwesterly to a point where the middle of the Kansas river intersects the same: thence up the middle of the Kansas river to the place of beginning,' and that said city has a population of thirty-eight hundred and two
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(3,802), as shown by the last census, taken under the laws of this state; that the boundaries of said city of Wyandotte are as follows: 'Commencing on the eastern boundary of the state of Kansas where the same is intersected by the Second Standard Parallel; thence west along said Standard Parallel to the northwest corner of section four (4), in township eleven (11) south, and range twenty-five (25) east; thence south to the southwest corner of section nine (9), in said town- ship and range; thence east to the southeast corner of said section nine (9) ; thence south to the north line of the right-of-way of the Union Pacific Railway Company (Kansas Division) ; thence easterly along the north line of said right-of- way fourteen hundred and fifty (1,450) feet; thence north thirty degrees (30) east, nine hundred and forty-five (945) feet; thence south eighty-one degrees (81) and forty-five minutes (45) west, one hundred and fifty (150) feet, thence north fifteen hundred (1,500) feet; thence cast to the cast line of the right-of-way of the Union Pacific Company (Kansas division) : thence south along the east line of the said right-of-way to the quarter section line running east and west through the center of said section fifteen (15), township eleven (11), range twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the center of the Kansas river; thence to the middle of the Kansas and Missouri rivers to the point of beginning,' and that said city has a population of twelve thousand and eighty-six (12,086), as shown by the last census, taken under the laws of this state.
"Now, therefore, I, John A. Martin, governor of the state of Kansas, do hereby declare and proclaim, under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by an act of the legislature of the state of Kansas, entitled 'An act to provide for the consolidation of cities,' approved February 11, 1886, and an act supplemental and amendatory thereof, approved February 18, 1886, the said citizens of Armourdale, Kansas City and Wyandotte, to be consolidated, and to be one city, and a city of the first class, under the name of Kansas City, subject to the provisions of an act entitled 'An act to incorporate and regulate cities of the first class, and to repeal all prior acts relating thereto,' approved March 4, 1881, and amendments thereto, and that the boundaries of the said consolidated city are and shall be the boundary line around the outside of the said several cities so consolidated, as follows: 'Commencing on the eastern boundary of the state of Kansas where the same is interseeted by the Second Standard Parallel; thence west along the said Standard Parallel to the northwest corner of section four (4), in township eleven (11) south, of range twenty-five (25) east; thence sonth to the southeast corner of section nine (9) in said township and range; thence east to the southeast corner of said section nine (9); thence south to the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section twenty-two (22), said township and range; thence east to the eenter of said section twenty-two (22); thence north thirty-two degrees (32) and thirty-six minutes (36) east, twenty-two hundred and twenty-one (2,221) feet; thence north eight hundred and ninety (890) feet: thence north twenty-two de- grees (22) and forty-five minutes (45) west, three hundred and twenty-five (325) feet; thence north to the quarter section line running east and west through the eenter of section fifteen (15), township eleven (11). south, range twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the center of the Kansas river; thence up along the center of said river to the section line between sections fourteen (14) and twenty-three (23), in said township and range; thence to the state line between the states of Kansas and Missouri; thence north along said state line to the center of the Missouri river; thenee up said Missouri river to the place of beginning.'
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