USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 37
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
into the Kansas river, which already was swollen, to such an extent as to flood the valley from blutf to bluff, from Junction City to the river's mouth at Kansas City. The June rise in the Missouri river coming at the same time had swollen that stream, and with the addition of these rains the Missouri and the Kansas waters meeting here inundated the entire valey from Turner to the Hannibal bridge to a depth of six to ten feet, and in some lower places to an even greater depth. Every bridge that spanned the Kansas river from Topeka to the mouth of the Kaw, except the Missouri Pacific Railroad bridge, which was weighted down by forty locomotives, was wrecked. IHundreds of homes were destroyed, business houses and factories wrecked, and other property damaged to an amount estimated at thirty-four million dollars in Kan- sas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. Business was almost entirely suspended for a period of three months, while the thousands of people who had been driven from their homes, and the railroads, the mannfactories and the great business concerns were righting things as best they could.
The flood had the effect of checking for a time the growth of the eity, but it did not check that undaunted spirit of our people. Before the end of the year plans were set afoot for the improvement of the Kansas river's banks to protect the property from future overflow. It took seven years, pending which there were overflows in 1904 and 1908, to set things in motion for the carrying out of these plans. The Kaw Valley Drainage law had been passed by the legislature, a board had been organized, engineering plans had been outlined, and almost endless litigation by opposing interests had been fought to a successful conclusion before the Drainage Board was able to start its improve- ments. With bonds voted by the people to the amount of $1,750,000, contracts were let, in 1910, for the widening of the channel of the river and the building of dikes on both banks from Turner to the month of the Missouri river, a distance of eleven miles. This has been an under- taking of such magnitude as scarcely to be comprehended by those who are unfamiliar with the conditions and circumstances. These im-
provements at this writing are nearing completion. The property in- terests along the river through the drainage district, representing a value of more than $40,000,000 in Kansas City, Kansas, and as great a value in Kansas City, Missouri, are now assured of protection from the overflow of the river even at a depth almost as great as that of 1903. The railroad companies, in conformity to the plans, are expending three million dollars to improve their property. Every bridge along the river in the district, nineteen in number, has been rebuilt. Al along this great valley there is now a feeling of absolute security and millions of dollars annally are invested in the building of new industrial plants, new business enterprises, new and better homes, and in all those things that are essential to the life of the city. To the unswerv-
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
ing loyalty of the members of the Drainage Board to the people and their interests is due credit for this grand achievement. The board has for its members William H. Daniels, president, Fred Meyn, Bernard Pollman, T. E. Myers and C. C. Craft.
MUNICIPAL WATER WORKS.
Important in the direction of progress for the city was the voting by the people, in 1909, of bonds for the purchase of the system of the Metropolitan Water Company, for its improvement and for extension of mains. The city took control of the plant in the autumn of 1909 and, under the management of a Water Board composed of P. W. Goebel, George Stumpf and J. E. Barker, it paid operating expenses and interest on bonds from the start, even while the improvements were under way. Under the control of the commissioner of water works, James A. Cable, who succeeded the Water Board, the plant has been thoroughly overhauled and many miles of new mains and many new hydrants have been installed, thus increasing the facilities for fire pro- tection and the distribution of water for domestic consumption. The total of bonds issued by authority of the people was $2,000,000, and the plant that has been builded is of sufficient capacity to supply water to all the city for present needs and for several years to come.
A MUNICIPAL ELECTRICAL PLANT.
On the expiration of the twenty-year franchise of the Consolidated Electric Light and Power Company the citizens of Kansas City, Kan- sas, realizing that cheaper electric lighting could not be obtained by a renewal of the franchise, voted $350,000 of bonds, February 14, 1911, for the construction of an electrical plant to be operated in connection with the municipal water plant, and for a distributing system sufficient for the entire city. The plans have been prepared and the electrical
plant is at the date of this publication under construction. On the completion of the plant it is estimated that the city can supply elec- tricity to the consumers at five cents a kilowat and to small manufae- urers at a rate of not to exceed three cents a kilowat, while are electric lighting for streets may be supplied at about one-half of the old rate of sixty-five dollars a year for each light paid by the city to the old company.
PARKS AND BOULEVARDS.
For many years the parks were neglected, because so many other things were needed, and it was not until a few years ago that agitation for the beantifieation of the eity by the laying out of parks and boule- vards was considered seriously.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
In March, 1907, the Kansas legislature passed a law giving the city authority to organize a park board, and gave this board the power to levy special taxes for a park and boulevard system. The law was de- clared valid by the supreme court, the way made clear for work, and the city began preparations to lay out a system equal to any in the country for a municipality of its size. George E. Kessler, a park engineer who is conducting the work of beautifying eight important cities-among them St. Louis, Denver, Indianapolis and Kansas City, Missouri-was engaged to make plans for parks and boulevards in Kansas City, Kansas, that it will take fifteen to eighteen years to complete the prejected system. The work was started, in 1909, when the park board began making Washington avenue a boulevard, one hundred feet wide, from Fourth to Eighth with a connection on Fourth street to the west end of the Inter- city viaduct. This boulevard was first extended to Eleventh street, from which point parkways and boulevards were built southwest to the City Park and northwest to Klamm Park, in conformity with the system that eventually is to embrace some twenty-five miles of boulevards and parkways.
The park system now has reached a stage in its development where the people of the city can point to it with pride. In the many parks, playgrounds and athletic fields that have been and are now building are embraced two hundred and thirty-two acres, while upwards of twelve miles of boulevards have been and are now building. The park and boulevard system was under the control of the commissioners pro- vided for by the act of 1907, until the commission government law went into effect. Then the park board was retired and the commissioners of parks and boulevards assumed entire jurisdiction over it. The men who served on the park board during its brief existence were Dr. S. S. Glasscock, James Sullivan and J. P. Angle; Dr. George M. Gray, who was mayor at the time the board was created, succeeded Dr. Glasscock. The system is now under control of the city commissioner of parks and public property, Henry E. Dean.
It should be known that the father of the park and boulevard system in Kansas City, Kansas, is Doctor Gray. The writer, in the ten years that elapsed before the law was passed, accompanied Doctor Gray in many drives through the city and almost the identical plan of boulevards that was adopted was mapped out by the eminent physician and surgeon.
THE NEW CITY HALL.
The new civic awakening, resulting from the commercial and indus- trial activity and the general growth of interests, has called for public buildings in keeping with the dignity of the metropolis of Kansas. The old city hall, a two story building erected the year of the consolidation, had outgrown its usefulness when, in the spring of 1910, bonds were
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
(CORNERSTONE LAID MAY 25, 1911.) CITY HALL IN KANSAS CITY, KAS.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
voted at a special election for the erection of a new city hall. The plans were at once prepared by Rose & Peterson for such a building as would meet the requirements of the city for years to come. The plans provided for a building reaching along Sixth street from Armstrong avenne to Ann avenue, covering a half block. The property adjoining the old city hall on the south was acquired and contracts were let for the south half of the building, which is now being erected, the proposi- tion being, after its completion, to raze the old city hall and extend the new building to Armstrong avenue as orginally planned. The corner stone of the city hall was laid April 25, 1911, and the work of construct- ing the south half of the building is to be finished by the end of the year. The building is to be fire-proof, containing splendidly arranged offices for all departments of the city government and, in addition, eventually it will contain a great publie auditorium sufficient in size to seat four thousand persons.
The city now has eight splendidly equipped fire stations and two others are being erected. These stations are so situated as to facilitate the fighting of fires in all portions of the city. There are four police stations in the city, other than the headquarters, situated with reference to the conveniences of this public service. The city workhouse in the Argentine district had in the twelve months of its existence proved to be one of the most effective remedies in solving the problem of what to do with the petit criminals, the idlers and the "hobo" class.
The city maintains an effective health department under the juris- diction of the commissioner of public health. Through this department the sanitation, the pure food and the health laws are effectively enforced.
THE KANSAS CITY, (KANSAS) POST OFFICE.
The first post office in Wyandotte was opened by Thomas J. Barker in the spring of 1857. He held forth in the old court house building on Nebraska avenue, where he and Isaiah Walker were keeping store. The postmaster brought the mail from Kansas City, Missouri, on horse- back. William Chick, of the banking firm of Northrup and Chick, maintained the service in that village for the first year out of his own poeket. The Wyandot Indians were great readers as a rule and it was chiefly to accommodate them that the post office in Kansas City, Missouri, was established. In 1863 Mr. Barker was sneeeeded as post- master by Richard B. Taylor who held the office three years. Mr. Taylor was succeeded by Elihu T. Vedder, who served until 1866. He was succeeded by Arthur D. Downs, who held the office until 1881. George B. Reichnecker was appointed under the Garfield Arthur admin- istration and held the office until 1885, when Vincent J. Lane came in under the first Grover Cleveland administration.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
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HAN.A.
POST OFFICE BUILDING.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
In 1886, when the cities and towns were merged into Kansas City, Kansas, many of the old citizens were disinclined to give up the name Wyandotte, and it was three or four years before the citizens of Wyan- dotte and Armourdale acquiesced and accepted the name of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Lane was the last postmaster of Wyandotte, serving under the first administration of President Grover Cleveland, in 1884-8.
It was under the administration of Mr. Lane that the first letter carrier service was inaugurated in the summer of 1887. Of the four first carriers then in the service, O. B. Johnson is now in this branch of government employ.
Mr. Lane was suceeded by O. K. Serviss, who served under the administration of President Benjamin Harrison. Under the second administration of President Cleveland, Frank Mapes was appointed postmaster and at his death was succeeded by Dr. Thaddeus Fitzhugh. Under the administration of President William McKinley, Nathaniel Barnes came into office, and he was succeeded by Ulyssus S. Sartin, under President Theodore Roosevelt, and the present postmaster, Wesley R. Childs was appointed under the last administration of President, Roosevelt, was re-appointed by President William H. Taft, and has served to date.
THE NEW POST OFFICE BUILDING.
It was under the administration of President MeKinley that the appropriation of $250,000 was made and the present post office building at Seventh street and Minnesota avenue was erected. in 1900. In 1909, the post office building having become too small for the increasing postal business of the eity, another appropriation of $150,000 was ob- tained and in the fall of 1910 the contract was let for an addition on the south and for raising the height to three stories. While this was being done a three story building on the north side of Minnesota avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets was used for the post office and the United States court.
The postal facilities have been enlarged from time to time until now the mail is delivered for all of the cities on the Kansas side of the state line at this point through the Kansas City, Kansas, post office. There are now six branch post offices and nineteen stamp and money order substations under the jurisdiction of the Kansas City, Kansas, postmaster. They are as follows :
Branch Offices: Argentine, No. 14 S. Spear avenue; Armour, No. 27 Central avenue; Armourdale. No. 604 Kansas avenue; Quindaro, 13th and Quindaro boulevard ; Rosedale, No. 1002 Kansas City avenue; and Stock Yards, Basement Stock Yards Exchange.
Sub-stations: No. 1. Thirteenth street and L. Road; No. 2, 823 Osage; No. 3, 704 Central avenue; No. 4, Fifth and Virginia; No. 5,
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Second and Metropolitan avenue; No. 6, Twelfth and Central avenue ; No. 7, Tenth and Ohio; No. 8, 1741 Quindaro boulevard; No. 9, Eigh- teenth and Central avenne; No. 10, Twelfth and Osage; No. 11, 1324 Kansas City avenne, Rosedale; No. 12, 1803 Parallel avenue; No. 13, 658 Quindaro boulevard; No. 14, 1968 North Third; No. 15, 1900 West Thirty-ninth street, Rosedale; No. 16, 520 Southwest boulevard, Rose- dale; No. 17, Tenth and Minnesota avenue; No. 18, 339 Northi Tenth ; and No. 19, Thirteenth and Wood.
At the beginning of the year 1911 there were twenty-four elerks in the main office and twenty-two clerks in the outside stations. Fifty- four regular carriers and seven substitute carriers are needed to handle the mail for the city under the free delivery system. Practically all of Wyandotte county outside of the city is served by rural delivery carriers. The receipts of the post office for the last year from the sale of stamps and money orders was $245,000.
STREET RAILWAY FACILITIES.
The present system of street railway lines, embracing about thirty miles of double track operated by electricity of an assessed value of about $4,000,000, had its beginning with the old mule ear lines in the seventies that were built by Dr. George B. Wood, Luther Wood, Byron Judd and a few other citizens. The Wyandotte line started at Nugent alley near Sixth street and pursued its way along Minnesota avenue to Third street, thenee around the bend over Ferry street to the Kansas river, and down James street to Sixth street, now Central avenue. At the state line it connected with the Corrigan line to the Union Depot and to Market Square, over what is now the Fifth street division of the Metropolitan system. Another mule car line was built from Union avenne along Mulberry, Twelfth and Bell streets to the stock yards and on to Armourdale. Later this was extended to Argentine and formed the basis for the present electric railway to that part of Kansas City, Kansas. A third line ran from Nineteenth and Main streets along the Southwest boulevard to Rosedale. These three mule car lines, each having one terminal in Missouri and one terminal in Kansas, constituted the street railway system until eastern capital began to invest in publie utilities in the busy western cities.
The first of these companies to be formed was the Inter-State Rapid Transit Railway Company, organized in Deeember, 1883, and chartered to build a line or lines of railway between Kansas City, Missouri, and Wyandotte and other points in Kansas. Prominent among the incor- porators were D. M. Edgerton and Carlos B. Greeley then of St. Louis, David G. Hoag of Wyandotte and S. T. Smith, Robert Gillham and James Nave of Kansas City, Missouri. The first election of officers was held on December 15, 1883, when D. M. Edgerton was chosen president,
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
S. T. Smith vice president, and David D. Hoag secretary. The original capital stock was $600,000. It was afterwards greatly inereased. The work of construction began in May, 1886, and in the following October trains, each consisting of a "dummy" engine and two small coaches, were operated from the Union Depot over an elevated structure to Riverview and thence on the surface to Edgerton Place at Fourth street and Lafayette avenue.
This road, promoted by its president, D. M. Edgerton, who had been receiver for the Kansas Pacific Railroad, was the first Kansas City enterprise of magnitude and it attracted world-wide attention. On Mareh 22, 1887, the tracks of the Inter-State Rapid Transit Company were consolidated with various other lines which the company was then constructing, and a new organization was affected under the name of the Inter-State Consolidated Rapid Transit Railway Company. Work on the tunnel division of the line from the Union Depot to Eighth and Delaware streets in Kansas City, Missouri, was begun in May, 1887, and the trains began running in April, 1888. This was a gigantic undertaking, the tunnel having been cut through solid limestone. It was first operated by eable.
Meanwhile the company was busy on the Kansas side. The branch from Fifth street and Virginia avenue to Chelsea Park was opened for traffic on July 4, 1887. A cable line on Central avenue from Riverview west to Eighteenth street, was constructed and placed in operation in May, 1888. This is now the Central avenue-Sheffield line, one of the best in all Kansas City. These lines of the Elevated system operated by eable and dummy power for a few years, were equipped with electrical power in the nineties and then began a realization of the bene- fits of modern street railway service.
The Metropolitan Street Railway Company was organized and in- corporated in July, 1886, by C. F. Morse, president ; W. J. Ferry, secretary ; A. W. Armour, treasurer. Its capital was $1,250,000, for which sum it purchased Thomas Corrigan's entire system of horse rail- ways in Kansas City, Missouri, and its first operation consisted in the conversion of these railways into cable lines. The first line, from the Union Depot to the Market Square, Kansas City, Missouri, was opened to the public May 1, 1887; the second, from the state line to Wyan- dotte, ran its first through train November 1st, following over what now is the Fifth street line. The power house, at the corner of Ninth and Wyoming streets, was built in the winter of 1887. The Fifth street line of this company ran from Tenth street and Minnesota avenue to Market Square in Kansas City, Missouri, over the old mule ear route. Another eable line was built by the company on Twelfth street down an incline and one to the stock vards around a loop, where it connected with the Armourdale line, operated by mule ears from the stoek yards.
In 1892-3 the West Side Railway Company was founded and the
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
West Side-now the "Wyandotte"- was constructed from Seventh street and IIaskell avenue, in the north part of the city, to Third street, and thence, by way of Third street, Minnesota avenue and Fifth street, across the Seventh street viaduct, and down Kansas avenue to the stoek yards.
By 1895, when it was apparent that street railway building had about reached the limit, a movement was started which ultimately re- sulted in the Metropolitan Street Railway Company absorbing or tak- ing control of every street railway line in the two Kansas Citys. Then began a period of renewed activity. All the lines were equipped for operation by electricity and several important extensions were made.
Under a renewal of its franchise, in 1902, the Metropolitan Com- pany constructed the line from James street over the James street viaduct to the stock yards. The line on Kansas avenue from Tenth street west to Eighteenth street was built and placed in operation. The Quindaro boulevard line of the Elevated system was extended from Edgerton Place to Nineteenth street, and, in 1911, to Quindaro. The Grandview line, now Central avenue, was extended to the City Park, and the Tenth street line, running from Minnesota avenue south to Kansas avenue and to the stock yards, was constructed. The company at the beginning of 1911 was preparing the construction of several im- portant extensions and new lines.
THE FIRST INTERURBAN RAILWAY.
In 1902 the Kansas City-Leavenworth Railway Company was organized by a company of Cleveland capitalists to construct an interur- ban railway between Kansas City, Kansas, and Leavenworth. The right-of-way had previously been obtained and while the railway was building a franchise was granted by the mayor and council for an en- trance to the city from Chelsea Park to Fourth street and state avenue. The line was completed and put. in operation in the following year. For a time it used a track built over the old Kensington route, on the west side of the city. to Grandview, entering Kansas City, Missouri, over the Grandview line. With the building of the great Inter-city viaduct in 1907, however, the entrance to Kansas City, Missouri, was made over the viaduct at Fourth street and Minnesota avenue. The company- now the Kansas City Western-has fifteen miles of traek in Wyandotte county. It is operated through to Fort Leavenworth, and owns and controls the street railway system of the city of Leavenworth.
FINANCIAL STRENGTH.
The banking interests of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte county, now represented by two national and sixteen state banks and Vol. I-22
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
two trust companies began with a little banking business established in old Wyandotte in the territorial days by A. B. JJudd, while Northrup & Chick were conducting a banking business in Kansas City Missouri. Mr. Judd early disposed of his interest to his brother, Byron who con- ducted the business for a few years. After the Civil war Hiram M. Northrup started the bank in Wyandotte which afterwards became the house of the Northrup Banking Company and for many years the city's leading financial institution. It went down in the erash of 1893, a few weeks after the death of Mr. Northrup. Another bank of the early days was the First National, organized in 1871, with Byron Judd as its president. Others connected with the bank at the time were D. R. Emmons, who sueeeeded Mr. Judd as president. and I. D. Wilson.
The banks of Kansas City and Wyandotte county have suffered along with like institutions throughout the nation. The list, with capital stock and deposits, on January 1, 1911, follows :
Name of Bank
Capital
Deposits
Commercial National
$300,000
$6,453,000
Peoples National
200,000
900,000
Kansas Trust
150,000
1,085,000
Exchange State
100,000
1,048,000
Banking Trust
200,000
400,000
Home State
25,000
225,000
Citizens State Savings
25,000
350,000
Fidelity State
25,000
106,000
First National, Bonner Springs
25,000
100,000
Farmers State, Bonner Springs
25,000
85,000
Rosedale State
20,000
190,000
Armonrdale State
20,000
354,000
Commercial State, Rosedale
20,000
100,000
First State, Argentine
12,000
175,000
Kansas State
10,000
140,000
Riverview State
10,000
170,000
Argentine State
10,000
150,000
Night & Day State
10,000
80,000
Edwardsville State
10,000
19,000
Central Avenue State
10,000
130,000
Total
$1.207,000
$12,260,000
The list does not include the Interstate National Bank at the Kan- sas City Stock Yards, formerly a Kansas bank but now occupying quarters in the new Exchange Building in Kansas City, Missouri.
Our institutions have kept paee with the progress of these eommer-
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
eial and industrial interests and the outlook for the future is most promising. Bankers, business men and those in touch with the finan- cial situation all agree that the city's future is bright.
William T. Atkinson, president of the Armourdale State Bank, is manager of the Kansas City, Kansas, Clearing House.
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