USA > Missouri > Jasper County > A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people > Part 37
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In 1889 A. H. Rogers of Springfield built a mule street car line from Webb City to Carterville and operated it until 1893, when he organized the South West Missouri Electric Railway Company, took over the roll- ing stock, car barn, etc., of the Webb City-Carterville Street Railway Company and built an electric railway from Joplin to Prosperity via Webb City and Carterville. A considerable difficulty was experienced in securing the franchise in Webb City, there being quite a senti- ment against an interurban line, many of the merchants feeling that a line to Joplin would have a tendency to take business away from the
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local merchant. By a great stroke of policy, Mayor Manker, of Webb City, secured the insertion of a clause in the franchise providing that the principal offices, power house, car barns, etc., should be located in Webb City ; and thus the second city in the county became the center of all the business activities of the now great interurban system. The importance of this coup d'etat will be more readily seen when it is called to mind that the road now has over 250 employees, fully one half of whom live in Webb City.
The South West Missouri Electric railroad was completed in the summer of 1893, the first car making the run from Webb City to Joplin on July 4th of that year. In 1896 the road purchased the Jasper County Electric Railway, running from Carthage to Carterville, the Joplin Electric & Galena Electric railways. This consolidation gave to Jasper county a splendid interurban service. In 1903 the company extended its lines to Duenweg and also to Smelter Hill and Chitwood in Joplin.
In 1906 the South West Missouri Railroad Company was organized and took over the South West Missouri Electric with its several holdings and the Webb City Northern Electric Railway Company-an extension which had been built north to Oronogo, Purcell and Alba. In 1908 the road extended its line from Joplin to Duenweg, thus making a complete belt of the mining district. The same year the Villa Heights extension in Joplin was also made.
It will be noted from the above that the system is a most important part of Jasper county and with this quick transportation makes all sec- tions of Jasper county neighbors. The line now has a total of over seventy-five miles.
It is a matter of pride to the county that there has never been a labor disturbance of any kind on the road. The employees are from the best families of the county.
In 1910 the Railway Company and A. H. Rogers built for the Electric Railway Club (an organization composed of the employees of the road) a beautiful club home. The building was furnished by the club and here a number of social functions for the members and their families have occurred.
The Jasper County Electric Railway Company, composed mostly of Carthage capital, was organized in 1892 for the purpose of building an electric railway from Carthage to Carterville and Webb City. After securing franchises in Carthage and Carterville, during which time many obstacles were overcome, work on the line was commenced in 1894 and the road completed in July, 1895. The road, which is now a part of the South West Missouri Railway Company System, at first entered Carter- ville from the south, running through the northern portion of Johns- town.
The South West Missouri Electric Railway acquired this property in 1896 and have since greatly improved the roadbed, service, etc. The opening of the Jasper County Electric brought into popularity beauti-
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ful Lake Side park, which from then to now has been a most popular pleasure resort.
ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE JASPER COUNTY ELECTRIC CLUB.
Beginning with 1904 the members of the Jasper County Electric Rail- way Club have held an annual banquet at which as many of the mem- bers as possible, with their wives and sweethearts, meet and spend a social hour. We copy here from the Joplin Daily Globe its account of the 7th annual banquet held at Webb City, December 14, 1911, as it will give an idea of the importance of these gatherings and the universal good feel- ing which exists among the employees of the road.
"The seventh annual dinner of the Electric Railway Club," says the Globe, "was held at the club house at Webb City last night. The ban- quet was served in the auditorium of the club house, which was hand- somely decorated with chrysanthemums, white carnations and roses. The pillars were festooned with pampas grass wreathed with holly. Sprays of mistletoe were hung on the chandeliers. In nooks and corners were palms and potted plants.
"Shortly after 8 o'clock the great crowd, numbering 150, filed into the banquet hall. The wives and daughters of the street railroad men served the dinner. It was after 10 o'clock before the menu, which be- gan with an oyster cocktail, followed by turkey and cranberry sauce, to the accompaniment of Pacific punch, then hot mince pie and coffee, was concluded. The smoke of a hundred cigars or more hung in contented clouds when Allen McReynolds, attorney for the Southwest Missouri Rail- road Company, assumed his duties as toastmaster.
"Mr. McReynolds presided happily and gracefully. There was a fine balance of wit and dignity, a rare blende of seriousness and levity in his observations, while his introductions were models of consciseness and aptness.
"'A year ago tonight,' said Mr. McReynolds, 'we dedicated this club house. It might not be amiss, then, to consider this occasion as the "feast of the passover." This club house, as most of us here know, is the property of the employes of the Southwest Missouri Railroad Company. I say employes, and I use the word advisedly, for we are all employes of this company from the president down to the trackman. Each of us has his work to do. Each of us is doing it. not merely in a routine way, not as a burdensome thing; but each of us is doing his part cheerfully and with enthusiasm. It can truthfully be said of the men of this company that the end of the day finds every man with a record back of him of work well done.'
"A number of newspapers were represented among the guests. Harry Moody of the Carterville Record, Arthur Rozelle of the Webb City Regis- ter, Hal Wise of the Webb City Sentinel, P. E. Burton of the Joplin News Herald and E. H. James of The Joplin Globe, responded to the call of the chair.
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" 'Once upon a time,' said the toastmaster, after the representatives of the press had testified to the pleasure of the occasion and to the im- portance of the great transportation system in the industrial develop- ment of the county-'once upon a time there was a president of the United States who coined the expression "innocuous desuetude," a con- dition into which he subsided shortly after the utterance. We have here tonight a namesake of that president, who, it should be said, has not reached that deplorable situation.'
"The Rev. W. M. Cleaveland, of the First Presbyterian church of Joplin, frankly acknowledged that he didn't know what 'innocuous desuetude' meant, but, without pausing to lament that fact, he declared it to be his intention of joining the Electric Railway Club if he could possibly qualify as a member.
"Mr. Cleaveland dwelt in an effective way upon the value of such meetings as this. 'The courtesy of the trainmen of the Southwest Mis- souri Railroad Company,' said Mr. Cleaveland, 'is not only a matter of local comment; it is known afar. It has given the road and the com- pany a reputation. This courtesy is not a mere superficial attribute. It is based upon a substantial foundation, the mutual confidence between the employer and the employed. This spirit of confidence finds sound expression in just such gatherings as this. These are great things. They make for fellowship. They make for trust. They are an advanced way of meeting one of the great issues before the people of today, the rela- tionship between capital and labor. It is widely known, and here at home it is a matter of intense pride, that in the conduct of this trans- portation company the strife and bitterness that are too often found are not found here. You are about five years ahead of the procession. This situation is necessarily the result of effort and purpose, both on the part of the company and on the part of the men in the company's employ.'
"Mr. A. H. Waite, president of the Joplin National bank, declared it to be his belief that 'the courtesy of the men on this road has been one of the vital factors in its signal and distinguished success.' 'As a matter of fact,' continued Mr. Waite, 'courtesy is a mighty important factor in the success of any business or any individual today. It is an accomplish- ment that any man, whatever his business, may well cultivate. For courtesy is no solitary virtue. It is found associated with the other qual- ities upon which success is built-steadfastness, energy, purpose. The success of this company testifies that all those qualities exist within its code and make up its character. And for the success it is and the qual- ities back of that success you and we are to be congratulated.'
"Mr. J. Silas Gravelle, secretary of the Joplin Y. M. C. A., and whose work as a juvenile court officer is well known, was presented as the Ben Lindsay of Jasper county. Mr. Gravelle said that half his time was spent in trying to get men to play. He insisted that play was an im- portant part in life, and if men would play, and play hard while they played, they would work just as hard when they worked. 'Socialability,' said Mr. Gravelle, 'is needed. This club house is a practical embodi- ment of my theory. Here you can get together. It brings you a relation-
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ship and a kinship which otherwise would not be possible. As I see it, it pays men to be good. It pays to be decent. I believe that socialability are great agencies in promoting decency; in making men good in a strong, virile, achieving sense.'
" 'The lawyer,' said Toastmaster McReynolds, 'has a hard time of it. His is a trying life. They say harsh things about the lawyer. His veracity is often questioned. I shall not discuss the subject. But I want to introduce a lawyer who, whether on the right side or the wrong side of a case, has never found it necessary to lie; a lawyer whose life and principles and position have been my inspiration-gentlemen, my father.'
"Mr. Samuel McReynolds, senior member of the firm of general at- torneys for the Southwest Missouri Railroad Company, spoke feelingly of his long connection with the company, of its growth to its present vast dimensions, and of the many times he had attended these banquets. Mr. McReynolds said he had always undertaken to give advice and would not depart from his custom now. With a happy illustration he impressed upon the trainmen the necessity for observation.
"W. G. Peterson of the Electric Railway Club; Edward Wise, rep- resenting the conductors, and M. Y. Campbell, spokesman for the motor- men, were called upon and in a happy vein outlined some of the diffi- culties that were encountered in their departments. The service the club was doing was well brought out by Mr. Peterson. Mr. Wise, veteran conductor, explained that if there was a vital difference between the con- ductors of this road and those of other roads the cause was this: 'On many roads a conductor is simply a cog in the machinery. On this road he is a man and is treated as such.'
"Mr. Campbell, speaking for the motormen, made it evident that he had profited by Mr. Samuel McReynolds' remarks on observation, be- cause after recounting in a humorous way the shock he had experienced when told he was to make a speech, he said: 'I have seen that old fellow here many times before (pointing to the elder McReynolds) and I want to say he looks good to me.'
"Mr. A. H. Rogers, in response to the toastmaster's introduction, said he was glad to be with the Southwest Missouri Railroad Company. 'I like the job,' said Mr. Rogers, 'and I'm glad also that so many of you who are not connected with the company were able to be here tonight. You've seen us right at home. You probably have a different impression now of a street railway company than you're accustomed to get from many of the magazine articles. It is a significant fact that many of our men who are here tonight have been with the company for a great many years. It is also a fact of significance that this road is today owned by the men who built it. In that respect it is unusual. From all those facts it may fairly be concluded that most of us here are pretty well satisfied with our jobs.'
"It was midnight before the banquet was ended. Tonight the ban- quet will be repeated and the trainmen who did extra work last night
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will attend the festivities, while last night's banqueters take their places in the schedule."
THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT
A Good Roads convention was held in Carthage September 22, 1898, for the discussion of road making and plans for the rapid construction of good roads all over Jasper county. Among the speakers were W. H. Moore, president of the Missouri Good Roads Association. Mr. Moore referred to the fact that there were 1,500 miles of public road in Jasper county, some of them well built and in a good state of repair. He said that the average cost of making a mile of good road was $2,000 and that the plan for covering Jasper county with 1,500 miles of good roads meant a three million dollar proposition.
At the conclusion of his address the farmers and business men of the Eastern district organized a good roads club, with the following officers: President, C. O. Herrington, Carthage; secretary, Henry Keim, Carth- age; vice presidents, Chas. Ballard, Sheridan township ; J. B. Wild, Sar- coxie township; I. H. Givler, Union township; Wm. B. McNew, Jackson township; Alonzo Elling, Madison township; David Potter, Marion town- ship; T. H. Bell, Lincoln township; Geo. Brunnet, Preston township; Jas. Campbell, McDonald township. This organization accomplished much good and was the means of building many of the good roads in the eastern half of the county.
JASPER-NEWTON COUNTY OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION
In 1890 the old settlers of Jasper and Newton counties organized an old settlers' association and annually since that date the pioneers have held either the latter part of August or the early part of September (as conditions from time to time indicated as best) a reunion and picnic at Moss Springs, seven and one-half miles southeast of Carthage. This celebrated picnic ground is admirably suited to a gathering of this kind for three reasons: (1st) Being away from any of the large cities and at a spot which had been left as nature made it, the scenes presented are much as they were in the days before the war and as the county, for the most part, was in the reconstruction days after the unpleasantness of 1861-5.
(2nd) Being away from any of the lines of railroad. it is necessary for the old timers and their friends to go as they did before the advent of the iron horse and the electric car.
(3rd) As the nearest boarding house to the picnic grounds is several miles away, the people who attend have to take their lunches with them and, as every one knows, the eating of a picnic dinner, using the green grass for a table and getting the drinking water from the friendly spring nearby, is one-half of the pleasure of one of these out-of-door gatherings.
Those of the citizens of this county who have never attended one of these great reunions have missed a rare treat; for these gatherings have
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been from the date of the organization of the association down to now great events in Jasper county's social happenings.
Of late years the annual picnics have served a two-fold purpose; they have been both a reunion and also a county exposition, where exhibits of all kinds have been made, and the taking of a premium at one of these gatherings is counted a great honor.
One of the most notable differences between these reunions and simi- lar gatherings held in the cities is the absence of small shows and other tented aggregations which detract from the exercises proper, and are conducted merely as a money-making scheme. At the reunions of this society there are morning and afternoon programs, held at the rustic pavillion constructed for the exercises, and from the platform the promi- nent speakers of the old school recount the joys and sorrows, the pleas- ures and the tribulations of pioneer life; and those of our own day and generation enliven the scene by songs and literary exercises. During the noon-hour, of course, the most important part of the program is carried out-the picnic dinner-and as everyone brings a well-filled basket and enough not only for the family but half a dozen friends be- sides, every one goes away, as we used to say, "filled to the neck."
We had thought to describe at length some one of the twenty-one re- unions which this organization has had, but we are at a loss to know just which one was counted the most important or the most enjoyable, and will not particularize further than to say that at the reunions held the latter part of this decade the attendance has varied from 5,000 to 10,000, and the programs of exercises have been of such a character that every one has been "the best ever."
The writer well remembers the first of these events which he had the pleasure to attend-the reunion in 1906. As we approached the ground, our party stopped at the Four Corners six miles south of Carthage- and from the north, south and west, as far as the eye could reach, were seen a stream of buggies, wagons and horsemen coming to the great re- union. Arriving at the grounds, so dense was the line of vehicles that we were obliged to tie our horses half a mile from the speaker's stand and the sea of people who surged to and fro in the grand old forest bespoke the importance of the gathering as a social event.
THE GRIPPE IN JASPER COUNTY
Early in 1890 an epidemic of what is now commonly called the grippe spread over Jasper county and in an incredibly short time had a thou- sand people sick with the ailment.
When the grippe first made its appearance, it was called the Rus- sian influenza, but the French name, La Grippe seemed more appropriate and the disease was so called by the people of America.
In Carthage it became necessary to close the schools for a short time, six teachers and three hundred and fifty pupils being sick with the grippe during the third week in January. Usually an attack of the
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grippe did not last longer than three or four days, but those few days equalled two weeks of any ordinary sickness, as the patient for a time was all in with the influenza. One of the grippe victims illustrated the peculiar feeling of the affliction as being like sea sickness, and illustrates it with the old story of the man who crossed the pond and experienced the sea sick feeling for the first time. He said: "The first day I thought that I was going to die; the second day, I was afraid that I wouldn't; and the third day, I was well."
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CHAPTER XXIX
MINES AND MINING
NEW PROSPECTING AND MECHANICAL ERA-DUENWEG-NECK CITY- REEDS-PROSPERITY-MINING AROUND CARTHAGE-ALBA, SARCOXIE AND ELSEWHERE-OUTPUT OF DISTRICT FOR DECADE.
During the nineties the mining industry spread over all the county, no longer being confined to the Joplin, Webb City, Carterville and Oronogo districts. We will, therefore, in this and the next decade treat the mining industries of the county as a whole and mention only a few of the important happenings to the end that the reader may have a gen- eral idea of the methods used, the value of the product and the extent of the operations.
NEW PROSPECTING AND MECHANICAL ERA
The year 1890 ushered in a new era both as to the manner of pros- pecting and the kind of machinery used. P. L. Crossman, of Oronogo, introduced the steam drill as a means of locating the mineral. Pre- vious to this time the prospector sunk a shaft and, if he struck mineral, developed the mine, but, if nothing was found, abandoned the prospect and tried his luck elsewhere. Mr. Crossman conceived the idea of drill- ing for the mineral and in a much shorter time and less expensive method, by the drilling of a number of holes on a tract, it was demon- strated with a reasonable certainty the extent of the ore beneath the ground.
The price of zinc had slowly risen until in December, 1889, it was quoted on the market at twenty-four dollars a ton. From January, 1, 1890, to August 1, 1893, the price ranged from twenty-one to twenty- three dollars, but the panic of 1893 caused it to take a slump and from the latter part of 1893 to 1896, it ranged from seventeen dollars and twenty-five cents to twenty-one dollars. Through a number of causes combined, the price began to rise in 1897, and rose by jumps until 1899, when it reached the phenomenal price of sixty dollars a ton. From these figures it will be noted that mining activities were very sharp dur- ing the early and latter nineties, particularly the latter part of the decade.
During the latter nineties the old windlass and horse hoister almost disappeared, excepting for prospecting purposes.
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DUENWEG
During this ten years a number of new camps came into great promi- nence and at the close of the decade Jasper county boasted of a half dozen new towns.
Duenweg, six miles east of Joplin, first came into prominence in 1895, when H. U. Dale, Josiah Bennett and others sunk the shaft that later was given the name of the Newsboy mine. The mine was a great producer and the forty acres of land which but a few years before was prairie land and on the market at ten dollars an acre now was sold for $40,000.
Duenweg in 1899 was spoken of as an infant wonder in the mining district. It was a phenomena, a prodigy and a lasting freak of remark- able richness. In 1898 land that a few years before could have been bought for a few dollars per acre was producing $37,656 monthly in lead and zinc. The camp took its name from the eastern heirs to the property named Duenweg. The town has two railroads, and is in line with the prosperity and advancement of the county so self-evident to everyone.
NECK CITY
Neck City, which at the close of the decade had some 600 inhabitants and which was a red-hot mining town, was at first called Hell's Neck, the mines being in the little bend of Spring river which like a neck circles around the camp and as the name indicates, it was the "warm thing"- that is, until the refining influences of the home life which came with a fixed town crowded out the rowdy element.
An interesting story is told of the original discovery of mineral at this point. Doctor Henry, a resident physician of Alba, three miles distant, was returning home one dark and stormy night from a visit to the sick in this neighborhood. To save distance he road his horse along a path through the timber. The night was far spent and the beacon stars were hid behind low-hanging clouds in the east. Drowsily the doctor rode along, mapping out plans for his visits on the morrow, when suddenly his hat was knocked violently from his head by an over-hang- ing limb. With muttered imprecations upon the limb the physician dis- mounted and felt around in the darkness for his hat. Finding it, he remounted and rode on. In a few moments his hat was again knocked off and the same trouble experienced in finding it. Five times this oc- curred in as many minutes, and the now thoroughly angry doctor tied his horse and sat down to wait for daylight, wondering at the strange happenings. In a short while gray streaks of light stole up from the east and Doctor Henry began to study his surroundings. He discovered his horse had lost his way in the darkness and had been traveling in a circle, thus passing under the same limb every few moments. The doctor further discovered that underneath this tree, partly uprooted by the storm, a fine bed of zinc ore had been uncovered. Miners went to work there and found some of the best zinc ore in the district. Continued work has revealed unusual quantities of zinc ore.
Vol. 1-22
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The output of the Neck mines for the first year averaged $7,000 a month. The Big India Mining Company controlled the mining interests of this camp.
REEDS
In 1898 mining activities were commenced at Reeds. For several years good lead and zinc prospects had been discovered in the vicinity of Reeds by farmers in digging wells, but no particular attention was paid to it until 1898, when zinc in large bodies was discovered near the sur- face, while lower down high grade ore was found.
It is related that one of the original prospectors bought his interest in the mine for a crippled cow and later reaped a fortune from the prospect.
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