Polk Topeka, Kansas, city directory, 1905, Part 2

Author:
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Polk
Number of Pages: 727

USA > Kansas > Shawnee County > Topeka > Polk Topeka, Kansas, city directory, 1905 > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The schools had a somewhat uncertain tenure until 1867, when they passed under State control. Judge John Guthrie, our present postmaster, was a mem- ber of the first school board created under the new law, and helped to bring order out of the chaos of those days.

WASHBURN COLLEGE.

Washburn College was founded in 1865, by the Congregationalists of Kansas. It is thoroughly interdenominational in all its work. It has a campus of 160 acres, and eleven buildings. Its total property is valued at $498,000. Its prop- erty values in buildings and equipment have increased about $180,000 within

W. I. Miller Lumber Co.

LUMBER AND ALL KINDS OF BUILDING MATERIAL.

213 East Sixth. Both Phones 204.

YOU WILL FIND SECURITY FOR YOUR IDLE MONEY IN INVESTMENTS OFFERED BY Merriam Mortgage Company.

24 RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY.

the last three years. Excluding pamphlets, there are upwards of 15,000 volumes in its library. There are ninety-six teachers upon its various faculties, and the enrollment for the present year approximates 700. The College is working upon a university basis, and comprises a preparatory school, school of liberal arts, school of fine arts, medical school, law school, and a dental school.

THE COLLEGE OF THE SISTERS OF BETHANY.

The College of the Sisters of Bethany was founded in 1860, for the Christian education of young women, and has been an effectual factor for the Episcopal Church both within the diocese of Kansas and those of neighboring States. It comprises five stone buildings, including its own heat and electric-lighting build- ings ; all situated within three blocks of the State Capitol, in a park of 20 acres. The property valuation is $330,000. It has a library of 1,600 volumes, and an excellent gymnasium. It has a faculty of fifteen teachers. There are 153 en- rolled for 1904-5, not counting special music and art pupils.

CHURCHES.

We have 72 church organizations and 69 church buildings; a Railroad Y. M. C. A. building, completed, costing $40,000, and a building projected for the city association that will cost $75,000. Our chancel-rails are plain and our pulpits unadorned, but we have a brand of piety that will be triumphantly rec- ognized in the New Jerusalem. Topeka is a city not " proud with spires and turrets crowned," but noted rather for the simplicity of its homes and the virtue and sobriety of its people. We have a few people in Topeka who spend most of their time meandering along the parapets of the sky, contemplating the beauties of the Promised Land, but most of our citizens exemplify a practical Christianity that makes this world and this city better places to live in. They do not believe that a man ought to be " on better terms with angels and seraphs than with his children, his servants and his neighbors." The seventy-two church organizations in this city are always found in supporting distance of every movement for the intellectual, social and moral progress of men.

LIBRARIES.

" Libraries are the wardrobes of literature, whence men, properly informed, may bring forth something for ornament, much for curiosity, and more for use." - Dyer.

State Library . 65,000 volumes.

City Library 22,000 volumes.

Washburn College Library 15,000 volumes.

Bethany College Library 1,600 volumes.

Total 103,600 volumes.

In addition to these four libraries, with over a hundred thousand volumes, there are numerous smaller libraries in the clubs and private organizations, to

Good Grades. :: Low Prices.

213 EAST SIXTH AVENUE.

W. I. MILLER LUMBER CO. Both Phones 204.

Merriam Mortgage Co.,

REAL ESTATE LOANS. FIRST-CLASS MORTGAGES ALWAYS ON HAND. COLUMBIAN BUILDING.

RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY.

which a large proportion of our people have access. It is not far from the exact figure to say that our public and quasi-public libraries contain 150,000 books. In this connection it is not inappropriate to refer to an incident in early history. In the primitive solitude of this embryonic city, in 1855, an organization was formed with this pretentious appellation : "The Kansas Philomathic Institute." Nothing small or insignificant about that name! This society, or rather this "institute," gave the first dramatic performance ever put upon a Topeka stage. The play was called "The Drunkard," and the "box receipts " were devoted to the founding of a library. This was the nucleus around which grew the superb libraries of to-day. Two of the members of the " Philomathic Institute," Dr. and Mrs. S. E. Martin, are still honored residents of the city.

NEWSPAPERS.

"Words of genuine eloquence, spoken, thrill the passing hour; printed, they inspire the ages."

The Topeka Association offered E. C. K. Garvey, of Milwaukee, a small sub- sidy to " establish a good and respectable weekly newspaper, without unnecessary delay, in Topeka." The subsidy was accepted, and, on Independence Day, 1855, the first Topeka newspaper was published. It was called The Kansas Freeman. Space forbids even a chronological enumeration of the newspapers that followed the Freeman. After the mutations of half a century, we now have thirty-eight newspapers in Topeka,- one more than were published upon the whole continent when our national independence was asserted. These papers are classified as follows: Daily, 4; weekly, 14; monthly, 18; quarterly, 2: total, 38.

The press has been the most potential instrumentality in the upbuilding of our city. There is more power in a case of brevier, clothed with intelligence, than in a Government arsenal. An average generation has come and gone since Mr. Garvey started The Kansas Freeman, and proclaimed its policy to be "Free Kansas." The veteran editors moulded the sublime destiny of this city and State, and around their historic names clusters a halo of patriotic gratitude. "Strengthened and sustained by an unfaltering trust " in the ultimate triumph of right, they beckoned the people up to an advanced standard of life. I am not commissioned to sermonize or moralize, but I cannot refrain from classifying the two kinds of papers we have had in this city,- followers and leaders. The' editors of one class readily assimilated themselves to prevailing conditions, - serenely floated upon the tide. They kept a barometer by which they foretold the advancing and receding waves of popular thought. They ascertained what the people believed, and then proceeded to believe the same themselves. They never expressed an opinion upon any subject upon which society was divided without going up into the watch-tower and taking a horoscope of the field of

LOWEST PRICES ON BUILDING MATERIAL.

213 East Sixth Avenue.

W. I. MILLER LUMBER CO. Both Phones 204.

MERRIAM MORTGAGE CO.

Sell Securities to Sleep On.

26 RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY.

their patronage. This class of editors cry "Hosanna " to-day and "Crucify Him" to-morrow. They cannonade a man while he lives and canonize him when he dies.

The other class was dominated by " strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands." They revolutionized the ideas and purposes of the times. In- stead of asserting that society must go forever round and round in the same beaten circle, they boldly struck out and led the people across the fields of prog- ress. They were always ahead of the advancing column, and neither "critic calumny " nor " squint-eyed detraction " deterred them from an invincible pur- pose to move on. These intrepid editors gave us boys the heritage of a ready- made city and a State full of marvelous opportunities for personal advancement.

BANKS.

Topeka has three National and four State banks, including one savings bank. On the first day of November, 1904, their aggregate capital, surplus and depos- its, were as follows:

Capital

Surplus

$970,000.00 281,518.00

Deposits

.5,851,545.46

The history of commercial transactions proves that, in prosperous times, the entire volume of money in the country changes hands 120 times a year. Here we have nearly six million dollars available for commercial demands every hour in the day. If each dollar will do a hundred and twenty dollars' worth of busi- ness, the cash in our banks will transact an annual volume of business of more than six hundred and seventy million dollars, or over two millions a day, Sun- days excluded. Not as a feature of contemporaneous history, but of speculative curiosity, I asked the county clerk how much cash the assessors found in this city on the first of March. They discovered $366,723. St. Luke tells us that in the early days of the Christian era " there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." Caesar Augustus didn't exclude Indians, or the residents of Topeka, who had gold and silver and paper currency, on the first of March. But, according to apostolic history, "All went to be taxed, every one into his own city." The mandatory decree of Caesar Augustus was no more emphatic than the legislation of Kansas. Six millions in the banks; one- third of a million taxed! Great Caesar Augustus! Is this a city of liars ? An affirmative answer to this interrogatory would be an imputation that I am not willing to cast-not now. This disparity between the cash in the banks and that returned for taxation is so marked as to justify a passing allusion, even here. We challenge Wichita, or any other Kansas city, to beat this record.

PLASTER YOUR HOUSE WITH ACME CEMENT. W. I. MILLER LUMBER COMPANY, Sole Agents. 213 EAST SIXTH AVENUE. BOTH PHONES 204.

SPECIAL LOW RATES ON LARGE LOANS MERRIAM MORTGAGE COMPANY,

COLUMBIAN BUILDING, SIXTH STREET.

RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY. 27

MILLS AND ELEVATORS.

Ever since Ruth gleaned in the harvest-fields of Moab, and married Boaz, the wheat king of that generation, and passed from a life of penury and servitude to become the queen of the richest home in Bethlehem, men and women have been vitally interested in wheat and flour. An absorbing interest clusters about this beneficent cereal, whether contemplated from the experience of the Moabitish gleaner or the later and more practical operations of the milling centers, such as Topeka and Minneapolis. No other commodity so fittingly typifies American progress and industry as wheat and flour. They are the symbols of our greatness. According to Giles's History, when the meeting to organize the Topeka Associa- tion was called to order the chairman occupied a sack of flour, in the absence of a chair. Flour, therefore, performed an important office in the very beginning of this city of mills and elevators. Topeka is the primary grain and flour market of the West. We have ten mills and elevators, capitalized at $624,480, employ- ing 209 men, with an annual wage-roll of $151,100, and turning out a yearly product worth $3,961,670. Our mills have a daily capacity of 5,100 barrels, and their spindles are humming and wheels moving day and night. The abstract statement that Topeka mills turn out an annual product worth four million dol- lars, but imperfectly expresses the magnitude of this industry. Topeka flour reaches the markets of the world. In passing along the streets of a European city, a few years ago, I saw displayed in a shop window a sack of Topeka flour. I took off my hat and saluted it as a messenger of peace and progress from the best city on the planet.

THE TOPEKA POSTOFFICE.

In March, 1855, F. W. Giles was commissioned postmaster at Topeka. He received the first U. S. mail-pouch on the first day of May following, at the post- office, near Second and Quincy streets. October 1, 1879, free delivery was estab- lished in Topeka. Postoffice statistics are unerring indices of the magnitude of a city's business. During the last fiscal year the Topeka office received $151,- 288.01 for stamps, cards, and newspaper wrappers,- equivalent to nearly eight million two-cent stamps. Let some one who has a genius for figures compute the time and labor consumed in licking all of these stamps, and the number of miles the tongues of our people have traveled in performing the task !

It cost the publishers $23,530.95 postage on the newspapers mailed in Topeka last year. Judge Guthrie issued money orders aggregating $301,299.07 and paid $596,773.05, showing that our people received almost $300,000 more than they sent,- a " balance of trade" of nearly a thousand dollars a day in favor of Topeka. Judge Guthrie is the paymaster of the Government for all of the Kansas rural routes, and disbursed to carriers upon these routes last year $583,- 627.

Do not fail to figure Lumber Bills with W. I. MILLER LUMBER CO. 213 EAST SIXTH AVENUE. BOTH PHONES 204.

Merriam Mortgage Co.

We always have on hand mortgages in de- nominations to suit investors, and of a kind that are the safest obtainable remunerative investments for your savings and trust funds.

28 RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY.

The total volume of business done at the Topeka office last year was $2,433,- 044.16, an increase of 31.3 per cent. over the preceding year.

MANUFACTORIES.

Topeka is not a great manufacturing city, but exclusive of its railways it has a capital of $4,350,780 invested in manufacturing enterprises, employing 4,431 people, to whom is paid annually $2,373,705. These concerns used $8,931,779 worth of raw material last year, and turned out finished products worth $14,- 698,725. Incidentally it might be mentioned that Topeka boasts the largest. creamery in the world, with a capacity of 28,500 pounds of butter per day. Last year's output was nine million pounds.

RAILROADS.

Topeka has four railroads - Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, and Santa Fe. Upon these roads are 40 passenger trains a day, running into and out of Topeka. The Rock Island makes Topeka an important point upon its system, and contributes largely to the material interests of the city. But To- peka is distinctively a Santa Fe town. Its shops located here employ at this time . 1,822 men, with a yearly pay-roll of $1,113,901. They use, in these shops, raw material worth $1,450,314, and turn out engines, cars, machinery, etc., valued at $2,053,815.

The general offices of the road are also here, and there are employed 980 of- ficers, heads of departments, clerks, and operators. The Santa Fe was the con- ception of a large-hearted and big-brained Topeka pioneer, Col. C. K. Holliday. From a humble beginning it has grown until its iron arms are long enough to reach almost half around the globe. Col. Holliday projected this road upon an imposing scale. A judicial incident pertinently and humorously illustrates his majestic plans for this great railway. An intermeddler challenged the legal right of the road to build its lines to Galveston, San Francisco and Chicago under its charter. Col. Holliday was a witness, and detailed, graphically, the expansion of the system. The main line of the road at first ran to Atchison, instead of Kansas City, as now. When cross-examined about the Kansas City line, the Colonel said that that was a part of his original plan, and so on through all of the manifold extensions. The Gulf line was a part of the original plan. The Pacific Coast line was a part of the original plan. The Chicago line was a part of the original plan. George R. Peck argued with great earnestness and cogency that the company had not gone beyond its chartered powers in constructing these lines. The opposing lawyer ridiculed Mr. Peck's argument, and referred, derisively, to " Col. Holliday's original plan." " Why," said he, "if Mr. Peck's argument is sound, this road could tunnel the Pacific Ocean, build a line across the Orient, tunnel the Atlantic back to New York, extend from New York to Chicago, con-

W. I. MILLER LUMBER CO. Dealers in LUMBER 213 E. Sixth Ave. Both Phones 204.

SECURITY THE FIRST CONSIDERATION.

YOU FIND IT IN INVESTMENTS MADE THROUGH MERRIAM MORTGAGE COMPANY.

RADGES' TOPEKA DIRECTORY. 29

necting with its present terminus, and thus circumnavigate the globe,- and do all of this under its present charter." Mr. Peck stopped him and said, " Permit me to say, sir, that that was Col. Holliday's original plan." Mr. Peck won his case.

OUR PEOPLE.

The conspicuous feature of this article is its omissions. As my memory goes trooping back over the years that intervene between my early boyhood and 1905, eminent names and illustrious events crowd each other so closely as to preclude their recital. To particularize would be hazardous, anyway. Scores of people and hundreds of incidents are worthy of passing notice, but no sketch can be so ample in scope and so comprehensive in detail as to do all exact justice. I have been tempted to mention a few of the men and women "reared in the rugged nursery of toil," who endured the privations of pioneer life, and bequeathed to us a city fully equipped with the elements of life and progress. But I dare not at- tempt it.

A little girl in the Potwin schools, a year or two ago, was required to write a composition on Topeka. She told of its schools, libraries, churches, paved streets, and its many physical attractions, and closed with this sentence: " Topeka has a good many noted people, among whom are Simon Greenspan, Sam Radges, and Papa." Simon Greenspan's name has been transferred from Topeka to the directory of the Eternal City ; Sam Radges is still here, publishing the finest di- rectory known to the printer's art; while the third member of the trinity of no- tables is vainly resisting the encroachments of time in an effort to hold his place in the " young crowd."

To catalogue heroes is a dangerous task. Too many people disagree with you as to who are heroes and what constitutes heroism. But there is not a marked dissimilarity between our people and those of other cities.

Our religion is varied, and our politics checkered. We sometimes " pray with the pious and drink with the dry." We have prohibitionists enough to close all the breweries, and antis enough to drink all of their beer; Republicans enough to vindicate protection, and Democrats enough to exemplify free trade; Popu- lists enough to sustain free silver, and gold-standard men enough to prevent the debasement of our currency. We have schools enough to banish ignorance, and churches enough to extirpate vice; saints enough for the blessings of the Al- mighty, and sinners enough for the smiles of the devil. We have married men enough to prevent a large accumulation of moneyed men, and grass-widows enough to make the city look like an alfalfa-field. We have people enough to start an empire, and patriots enough to sustain the Goddess of Liberty in her majestic pilgrimage around the world.

Shelley said, " Hell is a city much like London." If he were here now, he would add, " Paradise is a city much like Topeka, Kansas, U. S. A."

Lumber Orders Delivered Promptly. W. I. Miller Lumber Co. 213 East Sixth Avenue. Both Phones 204.

LOWEST RATES

ON REAL ESTATE LOANS.

MERRIAM

MORTGAGE COMPANY.

STREET AND AVENUE GUIDE.

NUMBERING OF LOTS AND HOUSES .- ADDITIONS, SUBDIVI- SIONS, WARD BOUNDARIES, VOTING PRECINCTS, ETC.

[ Copyrighted by SAM RADGES, Topeka, Kansas, 1905.]

Numbering of Lots.

Lots are numbered from two base lines: First avenue, dividing the north from the south ; and Topeka avenue, dividing the east from the west. Commencing at number one with the odd numbers on the west and south side of the street respectively.

Lots on the streets and avenues south of the Kansas river are 25 feet front by 150 deep, except where streets and alleys run parallel, and are uniformly numbered, the number of a lot on one street corresponding precisely with the lot in the same location on every other street. The lots north of the Kansas river as originally platted are seventy-five feet front, the entire frontage bearing the same number.

The following illustration of the two principal thoroughfares will show the location of lots in accordance with the official plats: .

Sixth Avenue, EAST of Topeka Avenue.

Topeka avenue to Harrison street, 1 to 24. Harrison street to Van Buren street, 25 to 48.

Van Buren street to Jackson street, 49 to 72. Jackson street to Kansas avenue, 73 to 96. Kansas avenue to Quincy street, 97 to 120. Quincy street to Monroe street, 121 to 144. Monroe street to Madison street, 145 to 168. Madison street to Jefferson street, 169 to 192.

Jefferson street to Adams street, 193 to 216. Adams street to Holliday street, 217 to 240. Holliday street to Washington street, 241 to 284.

Washington street to Peter street, 285 to 310. 1

Peter street to Hancock street, ) Numbered north and south. Hancock street to Klein street, Klein street to Branner street, Branner street to Chandler st., 311 to 330. Chandler street to Lake street, 331 to 352. Lake street to Lime street, 353 to 374. Lime street to Lawrence street. 375 to 396. Lawrence street to Locust street, 397 to 416. Locust street to Lafayette street, 417 to 440. Lafayette street to Leland street, 441 to 462. Leland street to Liberty street, 463 to 484. Liberty street to Lamar street. 485 to 506. -

Sixth Avenue, WEST of Topeka Avenue.

Topeka avenne to Tyler street. 1 to 24. Tyler street to Polk street, 25 to 48. Polk street to Taylor street, 49 to 72. Taylor street to Western avenue. 73 to 96. Western avenue to Fillmore st., 97 to 120.

Fillmore street to Clay street, 121 to 144. Clay street to Buchanan street, 145 to 168. Buchanan street to Lincoln st., 169 to 192. Lincoln street to Lane street. 193 to 218. Lane street to West street, 219 to 242.

Kansas Avenue, SOUTH of First Avenue.

First avenue to Second street. 13 to 36. Second street to Third street, 37 to 72. Third street to Fourth street, 73 to 108. Fourth street to Fifth street, 109 to 144. Fifth street to Sixth avenue, 145 to 180. Sixth avenue to Seventh street, 181 to 216. Seventh street to Eighth avenue, 217 to 252. Eighth avenue to Ninth street, 253 to 288. Ninth street to Tenth avenue, 289 to 324. Tenth avenue to Eleventh street, 325 to 360.

Eleventh street to Twelfth st., 361 to 396., Twelfth street to Thirteenth st., 397 to 432. Thirteenth st. to Fourteenth st .. 433 to 468. Fourteenth st. to Fifteenth st., 469 to 504. Fifteenth st. to Euclid avenue. 506 to 546. *Euclid avenue (or Seventeenth street) to Eighteenth street, 615 to 649.

Eighteenth st. to Nineteenth st., 651 to 685. Nineteenth st. to Twentieth st .. 687 to 721. South of Twentieth street, 723 to 733.

* As shown by plat of Walnut Grove addition, south of Euclid avenue.

W. I. MILLER 213 East Sixth Avenue.

LUMBER Both Phones 204.

Co.

INDEPENDENT

TELEPHONE

THE TOPEKA INDEPENDENT TELEPHONE CO.

Largest exchange in Kansas. Established in 1902, and has made the most remarkable growth of any plant in the West. All cop- per metallic circuits. Our equipment is the best and most modern type, and is strictly up to date. Our aim is to serve our patrons well at any cost.

We have extensive Toll-Line Connections, with direct wires and quick service.

ORDERS FILLED PROMPTLY AND YOUR PATRONAGE SOLICITED.

INDEPENDENT LOCAL LONG PASTAK! TELEPHONE

INDEPENDE

TELEPHONE

DEPENDENT

TELEPHONE

Please observe the quality of the printing in th executed by CRANE

Long

Kenesaw

Juni

KANSAS.

Liu

Stockville

PHELPS

Minden

Eaton o

FRONTIER

Homerville

. Holdredge

.IADA

Rock F

Frederick ericksburgho

Equality

·Sacramento

Osco

Medicine Cr.

Moline

BUR

Batin O

Republican S

/Watson

Indianoa FURNAS

FRANKLIN

HARLAN

Cr.

Orleans

Deaver

City

Canby

Devizes

Fredericksburg6

creek

Burntwood & Jeronley

Cedar Eluffe

Long Lsla.

der

Gladstone B

Vaughn

Hernd

Plato o

Jo Marney

-Ludell

ICT

DE CA'T U R Norcatur

Altory C

RTON

Stuttgart.

CHI.

IbatodY

Sykes o Jennip. Jackson O

Lawnridge

Little Beato

Mirage

IC- si Shibboleth

Ilion O

Hawkeyeo

New Almelo

Polenta

Houston o

GAdamison-Rockport

Fork

Gemas

Chicago

New Albino

to Bradford (son

Bonair

Nico

GRACH A MJ

Hobart

Olean o Militirook

Kebar

Round OCorert

OMound

Free

Tapley Dial Q

Vincent? S.Side O

Grand Centre & Delhi

Boa

PAC

· Grainfield

Salina

Mendou

East Wolfo

TurkviLe

Paradise

"o Wa Keeney

Fairport

Blue Stem o

WALLACE

R.O

Banner

Russell Springs

Hays City

Butte

Jerome

! Fort Haye

Russell

Romer Run

Augustine

Easdale o

Eranebec Forest

Gelatine

Farnsterth o

Dennis

Enshurch Roland

Pleasant

Vorbeck of

Cuttso

Bromwell

Êtrelí

Kansada

Crosse

o Drake

ville

SHAntzBARTON Bush

Sipoldale

Albert

Rotevil

Benq

Ainsworth o

Plummer o

· Sutton

Man

.Fenton Puts amo

cnp º Francis

AstrValley

OfTellmanville

Dundce

Raymond

O Silverly

Cowboy o

Kidderville

Loyal o . Eminence

HODGE MANN

*. W

Scward

Ratt Lem

Emory KEARNEY

Creola

Georgeº Boot

worth . Hudson

!Buckner

Garfield

STAFFORD!

Deerfield

Essex Kalvegiftup Hetto

Kinsler

D.Y Macksville

wauke

Purdy ville

Bell

Lewis nelpre Livingstono

Leesburgh

Basin

Plymell o

Dry Basin

SOLT'orte Kearney

Manhoe O

. o Wabash

STANTON Surprise Veteran O

Conductor o

HASKEL LStowe

Lonelake

fo Whitman

L'lysse's 6

Montezuma

Santa Fe

ToHess

Mingeo

o Platte City o

ionville

|City

Locos

Sun City Mingona

Mumford L

Lake CityO

Pegg o

Boppleton

Sharu

Nescatunga Medicine Lodge

COMANCHE

BAR B

O Duckworth Deerhead

Roun

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Polk Topeka, Kansas, city directory, 1905, Part 2

Author: Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Polk Number of Pages: 727

Author:
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Polk
Number of Pages: 727