USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 52
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The Standard Oil Company, which has a large refinery at Kansas City, Missouri, has an extensive distributing plant in Kansas City, Kansas. The National Oil Company and a number of smaller concerns are also operating distributing stations.
A GREAT STEEL PLANT.
One of the most important industries that has been established in Kansas City, Kansas, recently, is the plant of the Kansas City Structural Steel Company, located in the Argentine part of the city in the old plant that onee was operated by the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company. The company was organized in 1906 and be- gan the manufacture of structural steel with a force of one hundred and fifty employees. The great demand in the central west for steel for buildings, bridges and viaduets gave the company an advantage in its trade. It has made a remarkable record in Kansas City and other cities in the rapid construction of the steel work for "skyscrapers."
The Western Terra Cotta Company built a large plant on the Missouri river front at the foot of Franklin avenue, in 1906, and is engaged in the manufacture of architectural terra cotta. It has a capital of $24,000 and fifty employees.
The Waggener Paint and Glass Company, manufacturers of paints and oils, is a new concern with a capital of $10,000. Its output for 1910 was $53,000.
The Kansas City Cut Stone Company and the Hydraulic Pressed Brick Company have large plants and contribute largely of materials for buildings. The former employs fifteen men and the latter forty.
The Ellis Planing Mill, one of several of its kind in Kansas City, Kansas, employs twenty-eight men.
UNITED ZINC & CHEMICAL COMPANY.
This eoncern, situated in the Kansas river valley above Kansas City, Kansas, is one of the largest chemieal works in the United States. The plant has been in operation several years with a capital of $300,000.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Its employees number ninety and the wages paid in 1910 amounted to $65,000. The output of chemicals was valued at $250,000.
WHERE FIRE ENGINES ARE MADE.
The Anderson Coupling Supply Company, manufacturing fire en- gines, couplings and fire department supplies, has a large plant in Kansas City, Kansas, and gives employment to a force of fifty skilled mechanies. The company's products go to nearly every city in Amer- ica and Europe.
BAKING COMPANIES.
The George Rushton Baking Company, capital $50,000, employs forty-two men and had an output in 1910 of $100,000.
The Nashold Baking Company has a capital of $20,000 and employs fourteen men.
ICE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES.
Aside from the packing companies that manufacture ice, there are several companies engaged in this industry for domestic and public uses. They are the Crystal Springs Ice Company, capital $100,000; George C. Newland Ice Company; Rock Springs Ice Company, capital $20.000; the Santa Fe Car Icing Company, capital $125,000; the Kaw Valley lee Company, capital $35,000.
OTHER MANUFACTORIES.
Kansas City, Kansas, Rosedale, and Bonner Springs are favored with many other important industries. Among these are the following :
The Pintch Compressing Company, capital $25,000; product, gas for railway car illumination.
Kimball Fowler Cereal Company, Rosedale, capital $25,000; em- ployees, twenty-three; wages $13,000; output $200,000.
Blacker Grain Company, manufacturers of chops and feed.
Wyandotte Tent and Awning Company, manufacturers of awnings ; capital, $7,000; number employed, seven; wages during the year, $4.800; output, $40.000.
J. Rashbaum & Company, manufacturers of garments; capital, $8,000; number employed, forty-three; wages during the year, $13,000; output, $50,000.
Wyandotte Egyptian Burial Vault Company.
The Wyandotte Carriage Company.
Myers Sanitary Milk Company, milk and ice cream ; capital, $30,000; number employed, thirty-three ; wages during the year, $6,000; output, $150,000.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
The Indiana Silo Company, plant in Rosedale.
DeCoursey Pure Milk Company, butter and ice-cream; capital, $12,000; number employed, sixteen; wages during the year, $6,000; output, $65,000.
F. S. Edwards, cigars; number employed, five; wages during the year, $4,000; output, $8,000.
George Grubel Bottling Works, carbonated water; capital, $25,000; number employed, eight; wages during the year, $7,000.
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.
The possibilities of Kansas City, Kansas, Rosedale, Bonner Springs, and the Kansas and Missouri river valleys, for a further increase of their industrial interests are promising. Railway and river transportation for raw materials and finished product, together with the abundant sup- ply of coal, gas and oil for fuel, give this community a decided ad- vantage over competitive cities.
Already Kansas City, Kansas, leaving out Rosedale and the rest of the county, shows this advantage over the rest of Kansas and of Kansas City, Missouri, in the figures presented in the official reports. Taking 1909 for example, the Kansas commissioners of labor and sta- tisties, in his report, shows that Kansas City, Kansas, employs in its industries twenty-four per cent of the total of persons employed in the industrial plants of the entire state; pays twenty-two per cent of all the wages distributed in the state, and also turns out almost one-half of the value of the entire product of all manufactories.
The figures follow :
City
Reporting
Employees
Wages Paid
Kansas City, Kansas
72
12,618
$7,054,880
Value Product $124,224,508
Topeka
137
3,973
2,532,967
15,708,599
Wichita
101
2,824
1,343,244
17,706,846
Pittsburg
41
3,149
1,914,570
3,455,230
Leavenworth
59
2,079
1,154,947
4,963,798
Iola
24
1,510
986,803
2,028,019
Parsons
18
1,159
822,308
1,550,961
Coffeyville
37
1,434
842,527
3,992,581
Atchison
23
832
442,628
3,721,415
Independence
23
857
550,200
2,028,016
All Kansas
1,918
51,628
$31,338,827
$264,133,757
The above table only represents those industries located in Kansas City, Kansas, for which full reports were made to the state office. Many other industries that have been inaugurated since 1909 are also not included in the figures of the report.
CHAPTER XL.
AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.
CROP CONDITIONS-TREES AND NATIVE FLORA-TYPES OF SOIL- LIMESTONES-EARLY FARM METHODS-BARNS AND FENCES-FALL WORK -THE GRASSHOPPERS-THE CENTENNIAL DISPLAY-MODERN FARMING- CEREALS-GRASSES-CLOVERS-FIELD. FORAGE AND SILO PLANTS-FARM TRUCK-VEGETABLE GARDENING-FARM AND CROP STATISTICS-EXPENSE OF RAISING CORN IN KANSAS-HORTICULTURAL STATISTICS.
By H. H. Kern, of Bonner Springs.
Wyandotte county produces more corn than the states of Wyoming and Idaho.
Wyandotte county produces more wheat than the states of Vermont and Mississippi combined.
Wyandotte county produces more oats than the state of Rhode Island.
Wyandotte county produces one hundred thousand bushels of potatoes more than New Mexico, or any other county in the state of Kansas.
Wyandotte county prodnees more vegetables than any five counties in the state.
Wyandotte county is the second county in the state in the produc- tion of fruit, and leads in the production of cherries, grapes and gooseberries.
Wyandotte county leads in the production of milk, other than that sold for butter and cheese.
Wyandotte county has a larger acreage in hardy perennial plants and summer flowering bulbs, producing more cut flowers, plants and bulbs for market than any county in the state. The most important of these are the peonies, Iris Japanese ( Iris Kaempferi), Iris German- ica, phlox, shaster daisies, Oriental poppies, day lilies, Tritoma, and many others. In bulbs, dahlias and gladiolus are the most important, and are raised by commercial growers, in large quantities, both for the bloom and bulb.
This statistical information is from the "Year Book of the United
488
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
States Department of Agriculture," 1909, and the reports of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture and Horticultural Society, 1909, 1910.
The location of Wyandotte eounty particularly adapts it to agri- cultural pursuits. On its eastern border is located the metropolis of the southwest, Kansas City, the railroad center and principal distrib- uting point of the west and sonthwest. Being situated so near the market, is a decided advantage to the agriculturist of this county, as it enables him to place his products on the market quickly, in the best condition to command the highest prices and at the least expense.
The county lies in the drainage basin of the Kansas and Missouri rivers near their junction and is about seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea level.
CROP CONDITIONS.
The elimate is especially suited to agriculture in all its branches, there being no extremes of heat or cold. The temperature varies but slightly from normal throughout the year. The summer temperature usually reaches one hundred degrees during July and August, but rare- ly in June or September-the highest temperature in forty-one years being one hundred and eight degrees in July. The winter temperature falls to zero or slightly below in January and February, less frequent- ly in December and very rarely in November or March-the lowest recorded in forty-one years being twenty-six degrees below zero in January. Periods of cold are usually of short duration, the mercury seldom remaining below zero for more than a few days at a time. Heated periods being relieved by cooling showers, this part of the state is not subjected to hot winds.
The crop season is long, extending from about the first of April to the middle or last of October, the first frost rarely occurring before the 15th of October and often not until after the 20th or 25th, and the latest in spring from about the last of March to the 5th of April, giving a growing season of about one hundred and ninety-five days. Snow rarely falls earlier than the middle of November, or later than the middle of March, the average annual snow-fall being about twenty-one inches.
The rainfall is amply sufficient for the needs of all crops. The average for the last forty-one years being 36.63 inches and the lowest for any one year 23.79 inches. There is an average of one hundred rainy days during the year, of which about sixty-seven per cent oecur during the growing season.
The prevailing winds in the spring are from the south and west, bringing the moisture-laden air from the Gulf region and insuring suffi- eient rain to put the ground in good condition to start the erop. Sum- mer winds are mostly from the southwest, being gentle breezes which
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IIISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
help to keep down the temperature. Very little wind blows during autumn, the harvest months being in many ways the most pleasant of the year. Winds of the winter season are almost entirely from the northwest, northeast winds being almost sure to bring rain or snow.
These figures were obtained from the local weather bureau, based on observations, covering a period of forty-one years, taken at the University at Lawrence, this being the closest recording point to Wyan- dotte county; therefore the observations apply very closely to that section of the state.
TREES AND NATIVE FLORA.
The general surface of Wyandotte county is undulating and bluffy. Of the land twenty per cent is bottom and eighty per cent upland; upland. ten per cent forest and ninety per cent prairie. The average width of the bottoms is one to two miles. Timber abounds to a greater or less extent throughout the county; its entire surface was formerly heavily timbered except the extreme northern part. The varieties, most abundant were red oak, black oak, burr oak, hickory, sycamore, mulberry, cottonwood, bass wood, walnut, white elm, red elm, hack- berry, Kentucky coffee bean, iron wood and ash. The native wild fruits and nuts are walnuts, hickory mits, hazelnuts, persimmon, pawpaw, wild grapes, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, plums, crab apples, red and black haws, dew berries, wild cherries, elderberries and service berries; native shrubs-wild rose, red bud, dogwood, wild currant, wahoo, buckeye, buekbrush, priekly ash, sumae, Indian cherry, hop tree, ete .; and native climbing plants- morning glory, silk vine, wild cucumber, pea vine, hop, bittersweet, moonflower, etc. There are more than two hundred species of native flowers, annuals and peren- nials. Of these the most popular are goldenrod, hardy asters, verbena, tiger lily, violets, morning glory, larkspur, bleeding heart, shaster daisy, blazing star, peas, iris, moon flower, phlox, milk weed, immortelles, etc.
TYPES OF SOIL.
The five most important and abundant types of soil found in Wyan- dotte county. well recognized erop producers the world over, are about equally distributed over its surface. They will produce all crops adapted to this climate. These soils contain a large amount of humus and derayed vegetation, obtained from the native forests which have been cleared. All the uplands are naturally drained. Those soils are best adapted to agriculture, which consist of a mixture of sand with a moderate quantity of clay and vegetable matter. The more humus or vegetable matter soil contains the blacker it is. The Wyandotte county soils are classified as follows: first, clay loam (rolling prairie) ; second, sandy loam; third, loess; fourth, limestone elay; fifth, alluvium.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Alluvium soils are found along all the banks and streams in the connty, the deposits varying in depth from five to sixty feet. The river bottom lands vary in width from one to two miles, and the ereek bottoms from one fourth of a mile to one mile in width. The principal rivers are the Missouri and Kansas; the creeks, the Wolf and Conney. These soils, which are produced by running water and floods, are com- posed of clay, sand, gravel, lime, silt, ete. The drift soil along the banks of the Missouri, produced by glacial action, is of a finer forma- tion, while the soil of the Kansas river, composed of the washings from the hills and mountains, contain a large amount of decomposed granite, and is a coarser formation, the sand being white in color and larger grained. The soils of the creek bottoms contain more loam and humus, and are darker in color. The bottoms lands, in the aggregate, comprise twenty per cent of the total area of Wyandotte county, and abundant- ly produce the finest Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes, cabbages, melons and farm and vegetable truck.
The loess soil extends chiefly through the northeastern portions of the county, along the Missouri river, and varies in depth from ten to thirty feet. It withstands droughts, and yields its moisture readily and fully to growing crops. Alfalfa roots measuring twelve feet have been dug from this soil and all crops grow well in it. It is especially adapted to growing fruits and vegetables. It rests on a lime-rock formation, and along the river the soil is sixty feet deep, with surface rolling.
Clay loam, is somewhat more rolling than the black prairie soil. It is a black soil, varying in depth from one foot to ten feet, and is composed of elay with sufficient sand to make it friable, and embraces the northern and northwestern portions of the county, covering about twenty per cent of its area. It is naturally drained and holds mois- ture exceedingly well ; all erops thrive well in this soil, but it is especially adapted to corn, Kaffir corn, broom corn, grass, wheat and forage plants of all kinds.
Sandy loam, with surface rolling and color dark, is from two to ten feet deep. A mixture of elay, sand and humus predominates, and is heavy when the elay is in excess. This soil extends over an area extending from Muncie to the west county line, along the Kansas river, and from the Kansas river on the south almost to the northern line in localities. This soil produces vegetables, farm truck and fruit of all kinds to perfection ; is easy to cultivate and well drained.
Red limestone elay is a clavey limestone soil, red or grey in color, found in the timber sections of the county and contains a large amount of humus or decaved vegetation. Clay soils require more labor in their preparation, and often manuring and frequent subsoiling, and should be well drained. The red clays in the southwestern portion of the
492
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
county produce fine fruits, grains, etc; in the north-central portion clay of an excellent quality is found. For several years past brick have been manufactured from it on a large scale.
Sandy loam, with surface rolling and color dark, is from two to ten feet deep, and is a mixture of clay, sand and humus. It is spoken of as light when the sand prodominates and as heavy when the elay is in excess, and in the aggregate comprises fifteen per cent of the total area of the county. This soil area extends from the Kansas river north to the prairie lands. In the same locality von will also find clay, sand and limestone soils. The sandy loam soil is rich in humus and well adapted to the growing of fruits, vegetables, wheat, oats, etc.
Sandy soils, almost pure white in color, predominate on the banks of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. The river sand is used in the manu- facturing of gray brick for building purposes and for sidewalks; also as a mortar for plastering, and in the erection of buildings and rail- road bridges.
There are more than twenty-five distinct types of soil in the county.
Immediately beneath the soil or stratum of earth, which affords nourishment to plants, is a mass of earth or roeks, unmixed with de- eaded vegetable matter, to which the term subsoil is applied. The subsoil may or may not be similar in its geological constitution to the soil, and, from the absence of vegetable matter, is lighter in color than the true soil. The subsoils are yellow, gray and red, or blueish, from the greater preponderance of the iron oxides. Subsoils are also more compact and tongher, being commingled with stony debris. In the western portion of the county, in the Kaw bottom as far east as Ed- wardsville, they are of a clavey nature, while in the eastern portion they are sandy. On the nplands the greater portion of the subsoil is of clay, and is best adopted to fruit growing.
Wyandotte's soils have stood the test of more than half a century, and will not wear out with modern methods of farming. Iler soils are productive withont artifical fertilization and her rainfall is suffi- cient to insure large erops. Soil fertility is, in faet, one of our most important resourees.
The late John G. Pratt located on seetion 10, town 30, range 23, sixteen miles west of Kansas City, in 1837; his farm has been in eulti- vation for sixty years and is producing good erops at this time. With the rotation of erops system it should still produce well for five hundred years to come.
Lands that are valuable produce large crops; soils that produce large erops are rich, for they contain a large store of plant food. If we are to retain our land in a high state of produetiveness and at a high value, we must maintain in our soils a large supply of every essential element of plant food.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
NATURAL GAS.
There have been bored in the county in the last ten years about forty wells, striking gas at a depth of from four to five hundred feet. About twenty of these wells are in operation. In the western part of the county, near Bonner Springs, this gas is used as fuel for light and heat in that place and surrounding country. The strongest gas wells are found below the Mississippi lime rock at a depth of from one thous- and to fifteen hundred feet, but to the present time no drillings have been made to this depth.
In drilling some of these wells, at a depth of four hundred feet, salt water was struck, which yields about four and one half ounces of salt per gallon of water-the salt being free from impurities.
In two wells small quantities of oil were found, and in one well traces of sulphur were present.
LIMESTONES.
Hydraulic limestone in immense quantities, covered with shale, is used for the manufacturing of Portland cement. At Bonner Springs it is found on the bluffs of the Kansas river, between Forest Lake and Bonner Springs, and the deposits eover several hundred acres.
The Bonner Portland Cement Company, incorporated, ereeted a plant with a capacity of 1,200 barrels per day. The shale on the surface is twelve feet deep and the rock for the manufacturing of the eement is fifty-eight feet deep, or a total of seventy feet shale and roek.
A light limestone, making a good lime, is abundant on the hills of the Kansas and Missouri rivers and along the small streams throughout the county. A blue limestone is found in limited quantities, used for building purposes, and a gray or a granite limestone, of inferior quality, is found in immense layers throughout the county. Sand- stone, not very compact, is quarried in the central and most elevated portions of the county. Brick clay is found in the central portion of the county.
EARLY FARM METHODS.
The old timer. in selecting a location for a new home, would settle near a good spring, if it was possible for him to do so, or near a good stream of water as a second choice; close to timber, or in the timber, near to a range for stock grazing purposes. The timber would serve as fuel and as material for the erection of buildings and fenees; it also abounded in game. With easy access to water, timber, range and game. he lived a compartively easy life. He would build either a box or log house. If there was a saw mill within a reasonable dis- tance and he decided to build a box house, he would ent the logs and
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
haul them to the mill, have the logs sawed into lumber and erect his house. This was a plain affair that was neither lathed nor plast- tered. As the house was constructed of green Inmber, the eraeks would widen as the lumber seasoned and thus admitting plenty of fresh air. While the house was being constructed, the family usually lived in a covered wagon.
Should the settler decide to build a log house, he would ent and hew the logs, and when this task was completed he would notify his neighbors that there was to be a house-raising on a certain day, at such and such a place, and invite them to assist in the raising. They would all attend and help until the last log was in place, and if it was still daylight they would assist in shingling the house. The shingles were home-made. Logs were ent; these were sawed into lengths of about two feet, and split two feet long, six to ten inches wide and nearly two inches in thickness. These shingles would wear for ages. The set- tler would then chink his house with pieces of wood to fill the eraeks; then he would fill, or cover these, with elay or plaster, and the house was completed.
BARNS AND FENCES.
Barns were usually constructed along the same line and of the same material, except that their roofs were covered with native grasses or straw. If the settler did not wish to be put to any extra labor he would plant a few poles in the ground, throw brush and poles on the roof and cover this with any material most convenient-corn fodder, sorghum stalks, grass or straw. Ile could also stand fodder on the ontside, or pile up straw, to break the wind. This style of barn also had its advantages, as the owner was not compelled to remove the manure. When so filled that stock could no longer get into it, it was easier to move the barn than to move the manure. Fertilizers were unknown and manure, as a farm by-product, had no value.
Fencing in those days was both expensive and laborious, the rail fence being most common. A laborer would ent and split on an aver- age of one hundred rails a day, at two cents each. These rails were eut into lengths of eight or ten feet and were laid eight to ten rails high, and staked and ridered to hold them in place, at a eost of sixty to seventy-five cents per rod. On the prairie, Osage orange, known as "hedge," was planted for fences, fence posts and wind brakes. These plants sold at the low price of three dollars per thousand. They are very hardy and thrive well on any well-drained soil.
Having completed the farm buildings, the farmer would proceed to clear the land. He furrowed the land with a jumping plow, with a cutter in front and a share similar to a shovel plow. Hle would drag the ground with a brush harrow, mark the ground with a single shovel, drop the corn by hand and cover with the hoe. The cultiva- tion consisted of plowing the crop with a double-shovel plow.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
FALL WORK.
In the fall the farmer would cut his corn; shock it in the field; sow his wheat in the corn stubble between the rows-the rows all run- ning one way-and cover it with a one-horse double-shovel plow. Dur- ing the winter he would husk his corn, feed it to his horses and other stock, or haul it to market. When the farmer cut his wheat with a cradle, two men with a eradle and hand rake would cut and bind, on an average, two acres per day. By this method of farming he would protect the chinch bugs and other injurious insects from year to year. As soon as the weather became warm, they would prey upon his wheat, and as soon as the wheat was cut the chinch bugs would leave that grain and migrate to the oat field. After the oats were cut they would attack the tame grasses or corn field, rapidly increasing from year to year. The first barbed wire invented was flat, about half an inch wide, with barbs on the upper and lower sides, and was first used by the Kansas Pacific Railroad in the latter part of the seventies.
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