USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 49
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THE NORTHWESTERN.
The work of constructing the Kansas City, Wyandotte and North- western Railway began in 1885, with Major E. S. W. Drought as the builder and chief local promoter. It was the original intention, as its name indicated, to give an air line to the northwest with the Black Hills country as the objective point. Under various administrations the line was extended to Virginia City, Nebraska, to a connection with the Rock Island; then built from St. Joseph to Beatrice. That was as far as the Northwestern was extended. The company failed and the road passed into the hands of a receiver, from whom it was purchased by the Jay Gould interests and made a part of the Missouri Pacific.
WHEN THE ROCK ISLAND CAME IN.
In 1889 the Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska, building across the state from St. Joseph through Topeka to the southwest corner, leased track- age over the Union Pacific from Kansas City, Kansas, to Topeka for a connection here. The line, after 1,100 miles had been built, became a part of the Rock Island system which was entering Kansas City from the east and north over the tracks of the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs. Before the real estate boomers at this point were aware of the significance of the move, $1,000,000 had been expended for terminals in the Armourdale part of the city.
THE CHICAGO-GREAT WESTERN.
The next line to come this way was the Chicago-Great Western, known as the Maple Leaf. It obtained a 999 years' trackage lease on the Kansas City, Wyandotte & Northwestern from Leavenworth to Kansas City, Kansas, and began at once to operate trains between Kansas City, Kansas, Minneapolis and Chicago, constructing expensive terminals in Kansas City, Kansas.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
About this time the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, known as the "Katy," sought an entrance to this point by building from Parsons to a connection with the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf and entering Rosedale over the tracks of the latter line. The terminals of the "Katy" were built in Rosedale.
AN ERA OF RAILROAD BUILDINGS.
In the years while the railroads were building ont through Wyan- dotte county into Kansas north, south and west, the railroads from the east-the Missouri Pacific, Burlington, Wabash, Alton, Milwaukee, Rock Island, Kansas City Southern and Frisco-were building into Kansas City, Missouri, from the east, northeast, south and southwest. Thus the present great railway center, straddling the state line, was builded, with a promise of soon becoming one of the leading railway points on the American continent.
RAILROAD VALUES AND TRACKAGE.
The total value of the railway property in Wyandotte county for purposes of taxation was fixed by the Kansas board of railroad asses- sors for 1910 at $10,876,482. The total mileage of main lines is only 79.87, by reason of the fact that the county, the smallest in Kansas and irregular in shape, has a length of only sixteen miles from east to west and its greatest width is eight miles. The Chicago-Great Western, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Missouri. Kansas & Texas, three important railway systems, enter the county over leased lines and have no main lines of their own. The Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe has three tracks on its main line, through the south side of the county, and the Union Pacific has a double track system. The Missouri Pacific also is double-tracking its main line along the Missouri river through Wyan- dotte county. These railway lines had more than 244.39 miles of side- traek, in 1910, and since then more than sixteen miles of side track have been added, all of which, if linked together, would make a line that would reach from Kansas City to St. Louis. The following figures indicate the value of property and the mileage of main and side tracks of the lines in Wyandotte county :
Railroad
Main Line Miles
Side Track Miles
Valuation
Santa Fe
11.22*
64.04
$3,047,780
Santa Fe, (Leavenworth Branch)
1.64
.35
78,766
Union Pacific
21.88 **
35.75
2,410,954
Missouri Pacific
14.82
27.03
1,018,615
*Three tracks.
** Double tracks.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Railroad
Main Line Miles
Side Track Miles
Valuation
Missouri Pacific (K. C .- N. W.)
18.60
9.21
1,019,321
Rock Island
45.62
882,557
Frisco
3.81
23.03
561,903
Chicago-Great Western
6.40
422,405
Missouri, Kansas & Texas
1.00
8.39
150,853
Kansas City Terminal
2.37
12.77
859.101
Kansas City Sonthern (Belt)
4.53
11.71
324,220
Totals, 1910
78.87
244.39
$10,876,482
GREAT RAILWAY SHOPS AND TERMINALS.
Of the eleven railway systems represented in the foregoing, four have extensive shops in Kansas City, Kansas, which represent more than $2,500,000 of the assessed valuation and employ more than 2,000 men ; these are the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, the Missouri Paeifie and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. The other rail- roads have repair shops and traeks suitable for their respective needs.
The railway lines have six great steel bridges spanning the Kansas river in Kansas City, Kansas, each costing not less than $500,000, while two other bridges are contemplated. One is to be constructed by the Edgewater Terminal Railway Company for the Missouri Pacific, and the other, by the Kansas City Junction Railway Company, both near the mouth of the Kansas river.
These lines all maintain separate freight and passenger stations in Kansas City, Kansas, and Rosedale, and efforts are now being made to bring about the building of a Union passenger station for the former, by the Kansas City Terminal Railway and Union Depot Company. This company is now construeting a new Union station in Kansas City, Missouri, which is to be used by all of the lines entering Kansas City, Kansas, and Rosedale. The railroad lines in Wyandotte county also maintain freight stations and trackage in the Missouri Kansas City.
EXTENSIVE RAILWAY YARDS.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company has the best equipped and most extensive system of terminals at this point, reaching from the state line through Kansas City, Kansas, to Turner, with fine passenger and freight depots, roundhouses, repair shops, a ear-ieing plant, elevators and live stock feeding yards.
The Union Pacific railway terminals extend from the state line west through the length of Kansas City, Kansas, with outside yards at Muncie. The Armstrong railroad shops, erected in the early days
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
when the road was building up the river valley from Wyandotte, are the largest plants of the kind in Kansas City. The company has plans for the erection in the near future, of a magnificent passenger station at Seventh street and Scott avenue.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific uses the Union Pacific tracks between Kansas City, Kansas, and Topeka; the Burlington traeks to Cameron for its Chicago line, and its own tracks for its St. Louis line. The company's extensive terminals parallel those of the Union Pacific in Kansas City, Kansas. Its shops, roundhouses, freight stations and elevators were recently built, and are thoroughly modern in construc- tion and equipment.
The Missouri Pacific system, which includes the Kansas City, Wyan- dotte & Northwestern, has terminals along the Missouri river from Quindaro to the state line, with its cypress yards in the Kansas river valley at Kansas City, Kansas, beside freight yards in the East Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. It has recently been enlarging its system of terminals in Kansas City, Kansas, under a subsidiary corporation known as the Edgewater Terminal Railway Company, which has erected a new passenger station at Third street and Washington boulevard, with entrance to trains facing the old Wyandotte levee, where steam- boats landed passengers in the early days, and within a few rods of the place where the Constitution hall stood.
The Chicago-Great Western had been using the tracks of the Kan- sas City-Northwestern Railroad from Leavenworth to Kansas City, Kansas, for fifteen years, but recently has been utilizing the main line of the Missonri Pacifie to Leavenworth. Its trains enter the pas- senger station of the Missouri Pacific in Kansas City, Kansas, but the company has extensive freight terminals of its own along the Missouri river from the North Bottoms of Kansas City, Kansas, to the state line, and across into Kansas City, Missouri.
The St. Louis & San Francisco, entering Kansas City through Rose- dale, has extensive terminals straddling the state line. The Missouri, Kansas & Topeka, using the St. Louis & San Francisco tracks from Paola to Rosedale, has constructed fine terminals in Rosedale.
NEW TERMINAL RAILWAY PLANS.
The Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, which recently sue- ceeded the Kansas City Belt Railway Company, is enlarging its system on both sides of the state line, while engaged in erecting a new Union station for Kansas City, Missouri. In the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas, extensive plans have been formulated for bring- ing the railroads to a common meeting point and carrying their pas- senger traffic across the Kansas river to Kansas City, Missouri, on an elevated structure. These plans as originally announeed provided for
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
a Union station for Kansas City, Kansas, but no announcement has been made to the date of this publication as to what is to be done to carry out the plan. The company, however, has acquired an exten- sive body of land in the Armourdale distriet for shops, a roundhouse, a large freight depot and several miles of tracks for freight handling.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, fifteen years ago, took over the belt railway system constructed by the Union Terminal Railway Company in Kansas City, Kansas. This valuable property, reaching the stock yards, packing houses and many of the large indus- tries along the Kansas river valley in Kansas City, Kansas, is now operated in connection with that railway system from this point to the Gulf of Mexico.
THE GREAT STILWELL ENTERPRISE.
In 1903, when Arthur E. Stilwell was promoting his great Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway, as an air line from Kansas City to the Pacific coast, he chose Kansas City, Kansas, as the future location for the terminals of that line. The Kansas City, Outer Belt & Electric Railway, then organized as a terminal Company, acquired a right-of- way through Kansas City, Kansas, from the month of Jersey Creek at the Missouri river to the Kansas river, at the west limits of the city. The right-of-way, including lands purchased and condemned, involved an expenditure of about $500,000. More than $500,000 also has been expended on grading and placing this roadbed in condition; so, on the completion of the Orient line in the near future, the terminals also will be made ready for use.
NEW MOVEMENTS.
Recently several important moves have been made on the part of other great trunk lines toward obtaining entrance to this territory, which have resulted in several new plans for terminals for the use of these lines. One of these, organized in Kansas City, Kansas, as the Kansas City Junction Railway Company, acquired about 600 acres of land, at a cost of more than $300,000, in the Missouri river bottoms at North Kansas City, Kansas, this tract to furnish sites for shops, round- houses, freight handling houses and extensive railroad yards. The purpose of this company was to construct a short line to St. Joseph on the east side of the Missouri river to provide entrance to the city for both steam and electric railways. A charter for a bridge to span the Missouri river at the north terminals of Fifth street in Kansas City Kansas, was obtained, and the right-of-way for the line to St. Joseph was purchased and is now being graded. No official announcement, however, has been made concerning the construction of the proposed bridge and terminal system.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
PIONEER TALES OF RAIL AND TRAIL.
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE-WAITING FOR AN ATTACK BY INDIANS-A NIGHT OF TERROR-SOME OF THIE MEN OF THE OLD "K. P."-THE EARLY DAY PAYMASTER-THE STATE LINE DEPOT-SLOW TRAINS IN THE "SIXTIES" -- EVERY CLERK A POLITICIAN-A PREACHIER-CONDUCTOR'S YARN-THE FAMOUS MUNCIE HOLDUP-SEVENTEEN DAYS IN A SNOW BANK-CURIOUS THINGS IN THE MAIL-TIJE CALIFORNIA FAST MAIL- THE PIONEER RAILROAD TELEGRAPHER-A "HOLDUP" ON THE TRAIL.
The trainmen nowadays who talk about a train robbery being exciting don't know what excitement is. A holdup isn't a circumstance alongside of some of the experiences the pioneer railroaders had with Indians in the early days of the old "K. P." and the Santa Fe. There are railroad men now who still speak of the the Union Pacific as the old "K. P." But one in partienlar, Robert Murphy, an engineer of Kansas City, Kansas, has seen as much railroad service as any man west of the Missonri river. There were two "Bob" Murphys on the old "K. P."- "Big Bob" and "Little Bob," the former now dead.
"How do you think one of these engineers who turn sickly white at the mention of train robbers-how do you suppose he would act if he saw a band of red devils, with tomakawks, coming toward his train ?" asked Murphy. "Or a herd of buffalo on a stampede just ahead? Or a pack of wolves howling and snarling about his train, while it is standing on the siding ont on the lonely prairie? Yes, or a race with a prairie fire." volunteered the white-haired engineer as a clincher. "Oh, but those were the good old days of railroading in the west."
"I remember the time when J. O. Brinkerhoff used to load us down with rifles and cartridges to shoot Indians with. And how we used to shoot away the ammunition at buffalo and antelope until we had none left to kill the Indians with. My, but how those old Henry rifles would shoot, and how those little antelopes could run-had to shoot twenty feet ahead of one if you got him."
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
The late Stephen S. Sharp, one of the builders of the road, related this experience shortly before his death : "We had sixty of those
460
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
rifles in our camp when we were laying track west of Ellis. That was in 1867. One day while we were all in camp at dinner there was a buffalo stampede. When we first heard it the noise was like thunder. The earth seemed to tremble. We looked across to the northwest and we could see them coming for miles-one great black mass of moving things. We barely had time to grab our guns and run to a little em- bankment at the side of the roadbed about three hundred yards away. There we formed in wedge shape. As the great bull leader rushed into our eamp we all fired at once and they tumbled over each other like freight ears going over an embankment. How many we killed I don't know, but there were more dead buffaloes piled up there than I ever saw before. The shots did the work, for by bringing down the leader and the advance guard the great rushing, maddened herd divided into two columns, one going to the right and the other to the left, and not a man of us was hurt. But we had buffalo meat for a long time, and we fed the people in every town from Ellis to Kansas City on it."
WAITING FOR AN ATTACK BY INDIANS.
A thrilling experience of the early days of railroading with those old Henry rifles was told by Charles P. Dennison, an old conductor, now dead : "I remember one time we pulled into Brookfield and the station agent came running out with a telegram from Brinkerhoff. The whole country had been aroused by reports of Indian massacres, and Brinker- hoff's telegram told us the savages were bearing down towards us, and we were liable to be attacked at any moment. I was running bag- gage then. We took on one hundred rifles and one thousand cart- ridges and some men from town to help man the guns, and when the train pulled out of Brookfield there was more excitement on board in a minute than a Kenturky fend would make in a week. Seared? Well, no : we were just aching for a fight. Every man on board was a dead shot, and with those old Henry rifles it would have been as easy for us as it was for our Kansas boys in the Philippines.
"Well," the retired conductor resumed after a pause, "we ran along some thirty miles without seeing any sign of Indians, until we took a siding to let the eastbound passenger have the right-of-way. There was a breakdown somewhere. At any rate we were on the siding a long time, and it was getting mighty tiresome. Some one proposed that we should all go hunting, except the engineer and another man, who were to stay behind and give the signal when the eastbound was sighted. We hunted about four hours in a eirele of three to five miles around the train. There was plenty of game and the firing was going on all the time. When we got under way again I counted twenty dead antelopes in the baggage car, besides some other game.
"I also made the discovery that out of the one thousand cartridges
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
we took on there were only a few left to shoot Indians with; but, as we were now nearing the end on the run. I thought I could get a fresh supply before we started back. But what do you think ? There wasn't a cartridge to be had in the place and we were to run back through that Indian country in the night. I could think of nothing else but the ammunition we had shot away, and I believed it would be just our hick to run right into a band of braves and all of us be tomahawked. When I broke the news to the others they were the maddest men you ever saw : said it was all my fault, and threatened to stop the train and string me up to a telegraph pole. I pursuaded them, though, that we had better make the best of it and if we were attacked we would give the Indians a hard fight, as heavy rifles were about as good in a hand to hand fight as tomahawks.
A NIGHT OF TERROR.
"I don't think a man on that train closed an eye that night. They sat in their seats and shivered like they had the old-fashioned agne, or paced up and down the aisles, spitting tobaceo juice on the floor and cursing me and the Indians, while sentinels stood in the engine cab or on the platformns, straining their eyes into the blackness of the night to catch sight or sound of Indians. Once when we took a siding to let a westbound train go by we thought it best for our own safety to eut the engine and baggage car loose from the train so that if the Indians eame we could give them the slip. The engineer said he could see the head- light of the westbound when it came over the divide fifteen miles away, and we could run until we met it if it was necessary. While we were huddled together in the baggage car, or on the engine, the minutes seemed like hours. It was a dreadful suspense and the coyotes were howling in that doleful, dismal way that used to strike terror to the heart of man ont on the prairie.
"The westbound finally passed us and then we resumed our night ride through the Indian country. Towards morning we reached Brook- field, and no more danger of being sealped by Indians. That was an awful night and if there are any men who were on that train living now they will remember it.
"Well, what did Brinkerhoff do about the ammunition ?" inquired a former construction boss.
"Brinkerhoff." laughed the old condnetor, "why, he charged up the whole business to the train crew. You see, the other train crews were doing the same thing, and Brinkerhoff said the company was hav- ing too much ammunition shot away and too few Indians killed."
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
SOME OF THE MEN OF THE OLD "K. P."
Among the men who became prominent in the early days of old Kansas Pacific may be mentioned Messrs. D. M. Edgerton and John P. Devereux, land commissioners. E. M. Bartholow was made superin- tendent because he was a relative of the president, John D. Perry. He was later land agent for the company. Ile had no experience in the management of a railway whatever. Hle boasted of having managed his railway without a collision. During his stewardship there was but one locomotive, and the schedule was not to exceed ten miles per hour. The line extended from Wyandotte to Lawrence, Kansas, thirty-nine and one half miles.
Thomas F. Oakes was the private secretary of Mr. Hallett at the time of the latter's death, and later became prominent in Kansas rail- way circles. At the time of his retirement from active business he was president of the Northern Pacific Railway.
Major Waterman was master mechanie and master car builder. The first consignment of freight offered was a lot of flour. It was loaded on a flat ear, and housing was built over it for protection. It was destined for Lawrence. C. Wood Davis was general freight and passenger agent at the time. He was living in Sedwick county when last heard from. IIenry Tuell came in charge of the first locomotive, and was the first engineer. He was succeeded by W. O. Heckett. Then came George Dean and John McDaniel, now of Bonner Springs. John Groadus, for many years chief of police of St. Joseph, Missouri, was the first eonduetor. Jacob O. Brinkerhoff ran the first passenger train. He was followed by Charles Wallis.
After the death of Samuel Hallett, Silas Seymour, a civil engineer, came from New York and took charge. He remained in Kansas but a short time, and went to Omaha as consulting engineer of the Nebraska line. John M. Webster was general freight agent ; John H. Edwards, afterwards a state senator from Ellis county, was general tieket agent ; J. E. Gregg, cashier and paymaster, and William A. Harris, who became a United States senator, was one of the civil engineers.
About 1867 the Pennsylvania railroad people took charge. W. W. Wright was general superintendent in January, 1867; George Noble, division superintendent ; S. T. Smith, anditor; T. F. Oakes, purchasing agent. Adna Anderson succeeded Wright, May 6, 1867. He had been chief engineer of military railroads in Virginia during the Civil war. O. TI. Dorrance was superintendent of the Western division and E. A. Reddington paymaster. E. S. Bowen, afterwards general manager of the New York, Ontario & Western, succeeded Mr. Anderson. Then eame O. S. Lyford, later president of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway. Mr. Oakes became general freight agent and Beverly R. Keim, general ticket agent. Robert E. Carr of St. Louis, succeeded
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
John D. Perry as president. The late Dudley E. Cornell, twice mayor of Kansas City. Kansas, became general ticket agent after Mr. Kein. Peter B. Groat was general passenger agent.
Among the early employees later residing in the vicinity of Kan- sas City, Kansas, were A. D. Downs, S. S. Sharp, Thomas A. Shaw, W. Il. Sills, of Kansas City, Missouri; J. O. Brinkerhoff, present general superintendent of the Kansas division and John MeDaniel of Bonner Springs; Willis 1. Converse of Denver, and C. C. Walburn of Kansas City, Kansas. To go back, who does not remember the old conductors, Jake Sproat, Al Cheney, Frank Calkins, John Phelps and L. G. Thorne, the latter now general manager of the Texas & Pacific. Messrs. V. J. Lane, of Kansas City, Kansas, Thomas Parks and T. A. Shaw, were contractors among the hostile Indians west of Junction City, near Ellsworth and Fort Harker. The Indians killed Mr. Parks near what was afterwards named Park's Fork, about 325 miles from the Missouri river.
THE EARLY DAY PAYMASTER.
Back in the seventies when the Kansas division of the Union Pacifie was called the Kansas Pacific, Major E. D. Reddington, who had served with distinction in the Civil war, was paymaster. At that time the paymaster was the biggest man connected with the road, in the esti- mation of the employees and the people living in the towns along the line, and his arrival in the pay car was usually the occasion for a great outpouring of the people. One night Major Reddington's car pulled into the town of Wallace. The major and his clerks were given a grand welcome by the people. They were escorted to a railroad boarding house and treated as royal guests. It was conducted by a buxom Irish woman who boasted that she set the best table at any town along the road. At supper that night every regular boarder turned up at the table looking his best. The Irish "landlady," as they called her, appeared in a neat calieo dress, all primped up and smiling.
"Tay 'r coffee ?" she asked with a pretty courtesy, as she passed from one guest to another.
The regular boarders understood it all, and they answered. "Coffee, plase, mum." Major Reddington, however, was a "Down East" Yankee and not much of a coffee drinker ; so when the question was put to him he replied with politeness: "I will have a cup of tea if you please."
It almost took the lady's breath away, and the look of disgust on her face caused the regular boarders to titter. Then she flared up: "Say coffee, ye omadahn, f'r we have no tay," she said, as she poured the major's cup full of steaming coffee.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
THE STATE LINE DEPOT.
It was a landmark for many years. It was built in 1865 by the Kansas Pacific and Missouri Pacific railway companies. The two Pacifie lines met at the state line. One had laid its tracks by the standard guage and the other by the southern guage, which, in width, was greater than that of the former. The solution of the connection of the two systems was found in the erection of the union depot. As a result the State Line Depot was built. It was a great building in the olden days and the fire that destroyed it in 1892, recalled to the old settlers many pleasant incidents that took place in the historie structure.
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