USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Historical and biographical. Comprising a condensed history of the state, a careful history of Wyandotte County, and a comprehensive history of the growth of the cities, towns and villages > Part 40
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY.
Keystone Iron Works Company, Central Avenue, corner Fourth; James Smith, president; T. B. Bullene, vice-president; L. B. Bul- lene, secretary and treasurer.
London Heights Home & Improvement Company, 51 Wyandotte National Bank Building; C. P. Pierce, president; L. H. Wood, vice-president; N. A. Mann, secretary.
McNair Land Company, 9 Odd Fellows Building; D. E. Tyler, secretary.
Merriam Park Land & Improvement Company, 523 Minnesota Avenue; S. Dingee, president; L. H. Dingee, secretary.
Missouri Valley Coal & Mining Company, 553 Minnesota Avenne; J. H. Austin, president; T. B. George, secretary and treasurer.
Orchard Place Land Company, 553 Minnesota Avenue; J. D. Husted, president; E. M. Smith, secretary and treasurer.
Riverside Improvement Company, 553 Minnesota Avenue; J. I. Reynolds, president; N. McAlpine, vice-president; H. H. Reynolds, secretary and treasurer.
Riverview Land & Improvement Company, 8 Odd Fellows Build- ing; Robert Gillham, president; D. D. Hoag, secretary.
Saratoga Springs Town Company, 523 Minnesota Avenue; S. Din- gee, president; L. H. Dingee, secretary.
Sunnyside Homestead Company, 8 Odd Fellows Building; D. D. Hoag, president; Winfield Freeman, secretary.
Swift & Co., North Berger Avenue, west of stock-yards; G. F. Swift, president; E. C. Swift, vice-president; L. Swift, treasurer; D. E. Hartwell, secretary.
The B. F. Pratt Consolidated Coal & Cooperage Company, Osage Avenue, corner Belt Railway; B. F. Pratt, president; A. Bloch, vice- president; E. D. Pratt, treasurer; T. L. Pratt, secretary.
The Gazette Company, publishers Kansas City Gazette, 720 North Sixth; G. W. Martin, president; J. J. Maxwell, secretary; J. F. Tim- mons, D. J. Griest, D. E. Cornell, directors.
The Whittaker Brick Company, Fifth, northwest corner New Jersey Avenue; W. H. Smith, president and treasurer; J. F. Getty, secretary; T. Dwight Ives, manager; George C. Little, superintend- ent.
United States Detective Bureau, 49 Wyandotte National Bank Building; F. J. Brown, president; J. E. Pritchard, secretary.
West Lawn Land Company, 553 Minnesota Avenne; J. D. Hus- ted, president; E. M. Smith, secretary and treasurer.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
White Church Town Site & Improvement Company, 553 Minne- sota Avenue; D. D. Hoag, president; W. H. Young, secretary; F. C. Woestemeyer, treasurer.
Wyandotte Coal & Lime Company, 553 Minnesota Avenue; L. H. Wood, president; J. B. Seroggs, vice-president; U. V. Widener, sec- retary; W. P. Overton, treasurer; C. K. Wood, auditor, S. E. Har- ness, general manager.
Wyandotte Consolidated Land Company, 8 Odd Fellows Build- iug; D. M. Edgerton, president; D. D. Hoag, secretary.
Wyandotte County Coal & Mining Company, 553 Miami Avenue; W. P. Overton, president; W. H. Young, secretary.
Wyandotte Loan & Trust Company, Minnesota Avenue, northeast corner Fifth; W. S. Beard, president; G. L. Kroh, vice-president; A. N. Moyer, secretary; C. W. Trickett, treasurer.
The public schools of Kansas City, Kas., bring up their portion of the grand advancement of the "Consolidated Cities." Nineteen schools show an aggregate of 6,000 pupils, while 2,500 eligible children, in addition to this number, do not attend school. This would bring the total up to 8,500 with a full attendance. To receive an accurate idea of the phenomeual growth of the public school system of the city, the statistics of 1887 should be considered, when less than 2, 100 scholars were enrolled, utilizing the efforts of forty teachers. At present 112 instructors are necessary, showing a precentage of gain of 160 per cent in teachers, while the enrollment percentage is nearly 200. It re- mains to be ascertained whether or not these startling figures have ever been equaled by any city in the United States, after the city had first attained a population of 10,000. The amount paid in salaries to the teachers in aggregate reaches the sum of $50,000. Other incidental expenses of the nineteen schools bring the total expenditure for the year up to $68,000 in round numbers. Owing to existing State laws, the board of education has been subjected to most severe financial straits, and it was with difficulty that the present high percentages were maintained by reason of this lack of funds. During 1889 about $80,000 of the building fund was absorbed by new sites and school edifices.
The course of study pursued is definitely outlined by weeks' work, and is very uniformly and successfully carried out by an efficient corps of teachers. The most conspicuous innovation is perhaps in the course of study in numbers. What may be called the combination method has been introduced by the board of education, and is being successfully
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY.
taught in all the schools. The results are that the pupils add, subtract, multiply and divide rapidly and accurately, doing away with old-fash- ioned methods. The present board of education has accomplished a large amount of work in all the territory over which it has control. The names of the gentlemen are as follows: William Tennell, W. T. Mead, Benjamin Franklyn, W. S. Beard, Joseph H. Gadd, James S. Gibson, Capt. J. P. Northrup, E. N. Towner, E. G. Wright, G. W. Loomis, J. S. Perkins and B. G. Short. The officers of the board are J. H. Gadd, president; Benjamin Franklyn, vice-president; J. P. Root, clerk; C. A. Dennison, treasurer.
A worthy and useful adjunct to the churches of the city is the Young Men's Christian Association, under the following management: Officers-D. E. Tyler, president; John W. Bunn, vice-president; B. F. Berry, treasurer; W. T. Taylor, recording secretary. Directors- D. E. Tyler, John W. Bunn, C. W. Trickett, W. H. Lewis, H. M. Sparrow, W. T. Taylor, B. F. Berry, W. S. Hannah, C. L. Simpson, G. W. Loomis, James Johnson, J. E. Wilson, Dr. J. C. Martin; George N. DeWolf, general secretary.
It will be of interest to many to know what has been done recently toward the erection of a new Y. M. C. A. building in this city. For some time past the members of the central branch have been making plans and preparations, and it was during the month of May that the first steps were taken. A meeting was called to see how the people in the immediate vicinity felt about taking hold of the new enter- prise, viz., the erection of a three-story Y. M. C. A. building, 50x110 feet, to be located at the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Cen- tral Avenue, to contain a gymnasium, hall, library and reading room, and to cost about $20,000. At this meeting more than 200 assembled in the Central Branch Y. M. C. A. hall. Enthusiastic speeches were made on the subject, and $1,800 was raised. A committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions and report at a meeting to be held the following week. The committee then went ont among the busi- ness men of the city and met with excellent success. Every one seemed to take an interest in the new building. At the next meeting the committee reported that over $3,000 had been subscribed, and two new members were added to the committee to solicit funds. The committee of management have felt for some time past that it was a disgrace for a city of almost 50,000 inhabitants not to have a Y. M. C. A. building, while other cities much smaller than this throughout the State were supporting one; but they fully realized the obstacles to
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
be overcome in locating a building which would be convenient to all in such a scattered city as this. They made a special study of the question, and at last, after looking the ground over, they found no more favorable location than the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Central Avenue. The new electric road now under construction to Armourdale will make this an accessible point for the people of the South Side, and the "L" road will bring the people from the north, east and west parts of the city within one block of the site selected. The committee feel that the city as a whole will take special pride in the new building and make it a great success. They have shown their belief by letting the contract for the excavating, which is almost completed, and are now making arrangement for the foundation. Mr. G. W. Loomis has been selected as the architect, and is now at work on the plans for the new building. The committee feel proud of securing the services of Mr. Loomis, as he has lately made a special study of the Y. M. C. A. buildings located in all the large cities between Kansas City and the Pacific coast, and he is full of new ideas which he will apply to the new building, thus making it the most com- plete in the West. There are three branches of the association here -the Riverview, room 10 Simpson's Block; that at 500 Minnesota Avenue, and that at 503 Kansas Avenue. The general secretary describes the field of labor thus: "The thousands of young men of our city; the mercantile young men of our offices and stores; the young men of our homes; the young men in our large packing houses at Armourdale and old Kansas City; the railroad men at Armstrong; the German and Swedish young men; the colored young men."
The growth of the city for the past few years is not to be com- pared with that of boom towns which rise, flourish and collapse in a single year. People have kept coming in all the time to engage in profitable business or to obtain employment at respectable wages. The increase in population, according to official statements published by the department of State, has been rapid and steady. The value of real estate changing hands has been constantly increasing, until in 1889 it was only a few thousand below $10,000,000, and this without any sign of wild cat speculation. There has never been anything to equal the building here. Magnificent churches and school buildings, imposing business blocks, and handsome residences have sprung up on every hand. Over 3,000 buildings, costing in round numbers $4,250,000, were erected in 1889. An army of men have been em- ployed in grading and paving the streets, constructing sidewalks,
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY.
1
sewers, bridges, culverts and viaducts for the public good. Improve- ments have been made in the street railway lines that insure first-class facilities for rapid transit. The railway companies whose lines enter the city have made extensive improvements in their terminals, and there are now a dozen schemes on foot that will involve an expendi- ture of millions of dollars in the city. In all lines of business there has been the greatest activity. Many new firms came in during the past year to share in the trade, and several magnificent stores were es- tablished. The banks, also, have had a successful career, and local bankers have experienced little difficulty in securing funds for Kansas City, Kas., patrons at reasonably good rates. The progress since con- solidation has been remarkable, but the signs betoken even greater achievements for the future. Capitalists and business men have learned of the city's natural advantages and of the fact that there is no better field for safe investments.
Kansas City, Kas., contains the bulk of those manufacturing interests which are the back bone of the two cities-the packing interests. The packing interests not only were the origin of Chicago's growth, but made her the queen of the West; so have the same interests made Kansas City her rival, and these packing-houses are located on the Kansas side of the line. What drew the packing men here was the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, into whose immense bosoms they could unload their offal with impunity, although to-day this is not such a necessary cousideration, as all the offal is now worked up into some marketable commodity. Kansas City, Kas., to-day is growing faster, not only than Kansas City, Mo., but than any other city in the West. It is about the only one of them all that was not disappointed by the census of 1890. When the great "boom," which was headed by the enterprise and energy of Kansas City, Mo., visiting this whole Western country, had subsided, Kansas City, Kas., did not pause in her onward march, partly because the packing-houses, dependent for their supply on the whole country west to the Rockies and south into Mexico, and drawing their custom from the world, continued to increase their busi- ness, every year cheapening the manipulation and bettering the quality of their products. The world has been calling recently for cheaper beef and better pork; Kansas City has nerved herself to supply these wants, and to-day disputes with Chicago her supremacy as the cattle and hog center of the United States. This is the principal reason for the continued growth of Kansas City, Kas. Another reason has been the city's wonderful real estate trade.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
As a manufacturing center, Kansas City leads all other cities in Kansas. The combined manufacturing capital of Topeka, Wichita, Leavenworth, Atchison and Fort Scott is not as large as that of Kan- sas City, if the reports of the State Bureau of Statistics are to be re- lied upon. Not only this, but of all the manufacturing in the State, more than one-third is done in Kansas City. This is, perhaps, sur- prising, but it is true. Under the forthcoming reports of Hon. Frank Betton, the State statistician, which is now in the hands of the printer, the figures representing the business of forty two of the leading estab- lishments in this city are given as follows:
Capital employed. $12,118,000
Value of year's product. 36,300,000
Cost of raw material. 32,288,000
Amount paid for labor.
2,554,000
Average number of employes 4,936
These forty-two manufactories do not include the immense shops of the several railway lines having terminals in this city, which give em- ployment to 3,500 men, whose annual wages amount to abont $2,000, - 000. Wonderful developments in the manufacturing industry were made during 1889 by the expenditure of almost $1,000,000 in the erec- tion of new establishments and in increasing the capacity of the older ones. The great Turner Smelter, west of the city, will employ from 400 to 500 men when under operation, and the annual product will amount to almost $2,000,000. The immense additions made by Swift & Co. to their dressed beef plant, the operation of a for some time idle plant by the Kansas City Packing Company, and the improvements made by other packers, will also increase the product and give employ- ment to several hundred more men. The Turner Furniture Factory has also been started, with twenty-five men employed. The Kansas City Glue Works and the Kansas City Desiccating Works have also been rebuilt, while other smaller manufactories have been started the past year that will add materially to the volume of manufactured products sent ont from this city. The various industries and the num- ber of each in the county are herewith given with considerable accuracy : Cement works, 2; corrugated iron, 1; radiator works, 1; silver smelter, 1; terra cotta works, 1; brick clay, 4; basket and box factories, 3; broom factories, 3; clothing factory, 1; cooperage, 2; desiccating works, 3; foundries and machine shops, 6; gas works, 1; harness factory, 1; hay stackers, 1; oil, 1; packing-houses, 8; planing-mills, 3; soap fac- tories, 3; soda water factory, 1; stock-yards, 1; vinegar works, 2;
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY.
wagon shop, 1; woodenware company, 1; iron bridge works, 2; wire works, 1; flour mills, 2.
As Kansas City has come to rival Chicago as a cattle market, so is she ambitious to vie with her in handling grain. The Rock Island Railway has been the first to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the bottom lands for the erection of elevators, and the past winter completed, at the intersection of Packard Avenue and its tracks, one of the largest elevators in the State, 40x100 feet, with a net ca- pacity of 125.000 bushels, at a cost of $60,000. It will not be used for storage purposes, but simply for transfer business. The location is excellent for convenient transferring, and the connections with other roads from the interior of Kansas and switching facilities are good.
One of the wealthiest men of Kansas City, Mo., has under contem- plation the erection of an elevator, to cost $300,000, on a piece of property he owns between the Keystone Iron Works and the yards of the Missouri Pacific Railway. The building will be stupendous in size, and will be fitted with the most improved machinery of the age. The old screen process for loading and unloading cars will be done away with, and the "suction " process adopted. It will be ready, it is hoped, for 1890 crops. Early in the summer of 1890 a local paper published the following: "The superstructure for the immense grain elevator on Carr Avenue was commenced yesterday. Fifty men were placed at work on the building. The foundation, which has been com- pleted, is 200x100 feet, and seventy-five carloads of stone were used in its construction. The building will be a mammoth structure-165 feet high above the foundation. It will take 400,000 bricks to build the smoke-stack. There will be 136 grain bins in the elevator. Twenty-five carloads of lumber were received yesterday, but it will take 300 carloads more to complete the great building. As soon as one story is completed, the machinery for that part of the building will at once be placed in position, so as to avoid the delay usually suffered in getting the machinery in position. It is promised, and most confi- dently expected, that the elevator will be in operation August 15. An army of men will be employed in the construction of the building."
About the same time a Kansas City, Mo , paper thus referred to a probable addition to Kansas City's milling facilities:
"Negotiations are pending for the erection of a mammoth flour- ing-mill in the Sixth Ward, between the Union Pacific and Rock Is- land yards. It is stated that the same parties that are interested in
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
the big elevator on Carr Avenue belong to this company. The con- tract will probably be awarded next week, and the mill will be ready for operation by January 1."
Another reference was the following:
"The announcement in the Times yesterday morning that a large flouring-mill would be located on the south side right away was the talk of the town yesterday. It was stated more authoritatively yester- day that Pillsbury, the flour king of the nation, would locate a flouring mill in the city within four months, with a capacity of 1,000 barrels per day. The location will be within a stone's throw of the immense elevator being erected by Pillsbury and others, near the Swift packing-house. Since the English capitalists bought out Pillsbury at Minneapolis, he has had his eye upon Kansas City. Pillsbury realized that Kansas City, with a tributary wheat country, unexcelled in the world, well drained by a network of railroads, was the point for the building up of vast flouring interests.
"The erection of the 1,500,000-bushel grain elevator was the first step in his plan to make this the milling point of the West, and the next will be the erection of the flour plant. From a reliable source it is learned that the mill will cost between $300,000 and $400,000."
Another paper said: "There are good prospects, as the result of recent agitation, of Kansas City soon becoming a milling center of prominence. She is at the gateway of a great wheat-producing region, and the establishment of large flouring-mills here is looked upon as a business venture sure and safe. One thing which has held back de- velopment in this line has been the absence of equitable freight rates, something which promises soon to be remedied."
Time only will reveal the history of these and other projects to enchance Kansas City's wealth and importance; but that all now talked of, or others, in some respects better, will in due time be car- ried forward, can not be doubted. Such enterprises are the marks of the giant strides of the city during the wonderful era succeeding the municipal consolidation. The sun never shone on a day more auspi- cious than that of the consolidation, which foretold the accomplishments of glorious progress and indomitable effort, manifest in the develop- ment of Kansas City, Kas., during the past few years. All conditions have been met and dealt with in a manner betokening courage, enter- prise and wisdom. The citizens have counseled together for a general good; an organized movement has taken the place of single efforts; a sphere of usefulness has shown itself to every man, woman and child
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY.
in the city, and all this for a cause of vast proportions, that of build- ing up a great city.
The march of improvement has been rapid and uninterrupted. It was accelerated during those years leading up to the pinnacle of the glories of the boom, which began to go the way of all earth in 1887; it did not falter afterward, and now is being persevered in with such success as to astonish all beholders. It is sweeping everything before it. Kansas City is in all things head and shoulders above any other city in the State; in some things she forges ahead of almost any other city anywhere. Capital, in seeking its proper and legitimate channels, has begged for admission here at low rates and has not been denied. The flood gates are open, and at every hand the carvings of skilled labor can be seen and identified as the enterprise and pluck of some righteous citizen. The tradesmen of the city all speak of the past few years in words of praise, as times have been good and their trade in- creased by new population. Fewer failures are to be recorded against Kansas City, according to population and capital employed, than any city in the West. The manufacturing enterprises of the city are well located, and prosperity has been the portion of every one of them from their incipiency to the present. One peculiar fact of all such estab- lishments located in the metropolis of Kansas, is that, no matter on how small a scale they have started, there is not one of them but has been enlarged to meet greater demands. Kansas City, since the con- solidation, has had no rival in the way of building, and the result each year shows an enormous increase over any former year in the history of the city. Homes free from the environment of intemperance is the inspiration of the Kansas City, Mo., man who builds his domicile here, and quick transportation between the two cities facilitates this manner of living to the fullest extent. A home in Kansas City, Kas., means also to the Kansas City, Mo., man, lower taxes, with equally as fine lo- cation, as good neighbors, as good schools, as well appointed churches as are to be found on the other side of the State line.
The twentieth volume of the Hoye, Kansas City, Kas., Directory, contains a good deal of information concerning this city, of which the following are excerpts:
" The situation of Kansas City, Kas., marks it pre-eminently as a manufacturing center, and the railroads are quick to see this and, whilst serving their own interests, are helping to foster this branch of com- merce. Among the various industries located here are cement works, corrugated iron works, terra cotta works, basket and box factories,
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
broom factories, clothing factory, cooperage, desiccating works, found- ries and machine shops, harness factory, hay stackers, planing-mills, soap factories, soda water and vinegar works, wagon shop, wire works, flour-mills, woodenware and iron bridge works. The amount of money invested in manufacturing plants is estimated at $14,000,000, the value of products $36,000,000, and the amount of pay roll for employes, $2,500,000.
" The number of new buildings erected during 1889 reached 3,000, at a cost of $5,000,000, and the prospects for a considerable increase in these figures are encouraging. Public improvements have kept pace with the times, and the municipal authorities seem fully alive to the importance of the situation, as is evidenced by the grading of six and one-half miles of street during 1889 at a cost of $100,000, and the paving of seven miles with cedar blocks, brick and asphaltum, and the curbing of seven miles, all this, of course, exclusive of the same class of work done by private individuals. The city now has twenty-three miles of paved streets, is lighted by electricity, has the Holly system of water works with a capacity of 60,000,000 gallons per day, and her track mileage in street railways consists of fifteen miles of double track and twenty miles of single."
Of the packing-houses it says: "The record of this industry is unparalleled in the history of commerce, and it is no wonder that the figures and statistics relating thereto furnish relishing food for the perusal of all those profiting by the trade. During the year just passed there were packed 499,383 cattle against 360,252 for the pre- vious year, an increase due to the fast increasing business done in the shipments of dressed beef, to which reference will be made later. Nearly 500,000 hogs more were killed in 1889 than in 1888, the total reaching the figures 1,715,000, and 200,000 sheep were disposed of in the same time. The export of dressed beef was 74,000,000 pounds in excess of that of 1888, and was represented by 215,444,000 pounds, figures which fairly gleam with satisfaction and can not be excelled by any other city in the country. As a manufactured article for shipment, oleomargarine exhibits a phenomenal increase, as the figures for three years will show as follows: 1887, 3,000,000 pounds; 1888, 6,000,000 pounds; 1889, 10,000,000 pounds, and the indications are that the output this year will show a further increase of 100 per cent."
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