USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 72
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Other industries included two iron foundries, a carriage factory, grain elevators and smaller industries relating to the trades. Special mention is made of the Old Coon Tobacco Works, in which cigars, plug, twist and smoking tobaccos were manufactured. Mention is also made of an establish- ment conducted by H. O. Dow & Company, which carried on an extensive business in agricultural implements. The jobbing trade of the city that year was estimated at two million five hundred thousand dollars, extending throughout southwestern Missouri and into adjacent sections of Arkansas, Kansas and the Indian Territory.
The Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis railway was completed from Kansas City to Springfield, May 25. 1881, opening direct communication with Chicago and other cities north and west of here. The subsequent extension of the road to Memphis and connection with the southeastern seaboard greatly increased the commercial importance of this city, which had now become the principal shipping point for the various products of a rich region, including cotton, wool, corn, wheat. oats, potatoes, onions and other vegetables, hay, tobacco, ginseng and a long list of miscellaneous articles. Ten thousand bales of cotton were handled in Springfield the first year. The trade in hides, furs and peltries had then grown to great proportions, while poultry and dairy products were beginning to assume importance as factors in the jobbing busi- ness of Springfield. The Frisco machine shops at North Springfield were giving steady employment to about two hundred skilled workmen and were in process of enlargement to double their capacity. The mercantile establishments embraced one wholesale house and representation of all leading lines of retail trade. Two extensive brick yards had a combined annual production of one
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million five hundred thousand dollars of the best quality of brick. The two towns were now connected by a street railway and plans for uniting the two corporations were being discussed following rapid progress in building up the vacant space between them, which has been filling up steadily ever since 1886, when the two Springfields became one.
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS.
Much of this vacant space has since been utilized in sites for factories, public buildings and various other institutions, while various metropolitan improvements have come in regular order, including waterworks, electric power plants and other things which conduce to the development of manu- facturing interests. Industries have multiplied here since that time, becoming too numerous for particular mention except of the most important. A hun- dred lines of industrial enterprise are represented by establishments, having an aggregate capitalization of millions of dollars. Their plants occupy some of the largest and most substantial buildings in the city, and they give em- ployment to several thousand skilled workmen and a host of other workers.
Springfield more than held her own during the decade from 1880 to 1890, a period in which few cities of the country made great gains, while there was retrogression in some sections in consequence of spasmodic growth. There was a steady improvement in conditions with constant development of established institutions and gradual addition of new ones. Greater gains were made in the following decade. Population increased from 21,850 in 1890 to 23,267 in 1900. The next decade was marked by extraordinary progress and an increase of 51 per cent. in the population of the city, which, in 1910, had reached 35.201. In a resume of progress, published by the Springfield Club, December 15, 1911, the population was estimated at 45,000. The assessed valuation, on 30 per cent. basis, was $16,537,740. Six hundred retail stores had an invested capital of $5,000,000; two hundred jobbing concerns, $2,- 000,000. Total sales aggregated $30,000,000 annually. Fifteen banks had a capital and surplus of more than $2,000,000, with deposits aggregating more than $8,000,000. This progress was due largely to industrial development. In five years Springfield had made a gain of 45 per cent. in the amount of capital invested in its manufactures.
Rapid development of timber and mineral resources in the country tribu- tary to Springfield and diversification of its agriculture have in the meantime added greatly to the extent and variety of the city's industries while building up other great concerns the prosperity of which promotes the continuous de- velopment of manufacturing enterprise. The establishment of a great electric power plant at Powersite, on White river, has added greatly to the advantages of Springfield and may be regarded as the initial step in a general movement
YMCA SomY '
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The Flight of the Metoor, Frisco Railway, near Springheld. No.
Doing Park Lake, Sp. the J. M.
Missouri State Normal School, Springfield, MMs.
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Y. M. C. A. Building. Frisco Railway Train. South Street Christian Church.
Woodruff Building.
St. John's Hospital. Doling Park Lake. State Normal School Building.
OLD LINE CARRIAGE & AUTO Co
OLD LINE CARRIAGE AND AUTO COMPANY.
.....
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CRESCENT PLANT
UNITED IRON WORKS COMPANY.
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FRISCO F
ARMPUANCOMPAN
1
SPRINGFIELD ICE ANI
MOOLL MILLS
OUR SOFT WHEAT PLANT
JOHN F. MEYER ANI
FRISCO
OLD SHOPS.
COLD STHMIE HOUSE
FRISCA
GERATING COMPANY.
2
SPRINGFIELD WAGON FACTORY
SPRINGFIELD WAGON COMPANY.
OUR HARD WHEAT PLANT
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HOLLAND -
MILLING COMPANY.
SPRINGFIELD CREAMERY COMPANY.
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for the utilization of long neglected resources of this kind in the Southwest. It may not be vain to imagine a day in which this power will not only drive the wheels of industry in this city, but will be used in conveying hither the products of a great scope of country in the hilly region to the south which might never have been reached by steam railroads and have been all but inaccessible by other means. Facilities of transportation will eventually bring into market much fertile land which lies among the hills in that section, as well as the products of its forests and mines. All this adds greatly to the prospects of Springfield as a manufacturing center but not more than a recent revival of interest here in the subject of home industries. All the factories of the city are more or less dependent upon the good will and patronage of friends and neighbors and public-spirited citizens generally, and especially many struggling industries in the early stages of development, which if they receive timely encouragement and assistance may grow into great institutions but which may otherwise be doomed to failure.
The Springfield Jobbers' and Manufacturers' Association, organized in 1910, had done much to promote co-operation in the upbuilding of the city's commercial and industrial interests. The following are members of the asso- ciation : Anchor Broom Company, Crighton Provision Company. Harry Cooper Supply Company, Creswell Lumber Company. Garner Office Supply Company. Hall Drug Company, Hermann-Sanford Saddlery Company, Heer Dry Goods Company, Holland Banking Company, Inland Printing & Bind- ing Company. International Harvester Company, Jarrett-Richardson Paving Company, Keet & Rountree Dry Goods Company, Landers Lumber Company, L. E. Lines Music Company, Martin Brothers Piano Company. G. D. Milli- gan Grocery Company. McGregor-Noe Hardware Company, Newton Grain Company, Quinn-Barry T. & C. Company. Rogers & Baldwin Hardware Com- pany, P. R. Sinclair Coal Company, Simmons Sales Company. Frank B. Smith Laundry Company. Southern Missouri Trust Company, Steineger Sad- dlery Company, Stewart Produce Company, Springfield Candy Company, Springfield Creamery Company, Springfield Grocer Company. Springfield Furniture Company. Springfield Hat & Clothing Company, Springfield Seed Company, Springfield Wagon Company, Union National Bank, Upham Shoe Company, E. B. Wilhoit Oil Company : Williams Lumber Company, Wood- Beazley Seed Company. Woods-Evertz Stove Company.
The association has been active in looking after the various interests which it represents, and needs only the united support of all concerned to become most influential in the development of the manufacturing and com- mercial business of this section. Much progress has been made in the in- provement of the freight rate situation here and more is to be expected with the continuous development of the spirit of co-operation in the community
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and the increase of transportation facilities, together with a somewhat slow but very certain growth of understanding in regard to the relative importance of various interests involved in the consideration of rate problems. The ad- vantage which accrues to manufacturing institutions of Springfield in several important lines by reason of abundance and consequent cheapness of raw material in this vicinity has been offset to a considerable extent by difficulties of transportation in the more remote sections of the Ozark region and the great differentiation in railroad rates between inland points, like Springfield, and those which are allowed the advantage of water rates in the adjustment of freight schedules by the powers that be. Navigation, actual and mythical. constitutes an important factor in the interstate rate problem which presents various difficulties from different points of view to be solved with the progress of events in the interest of the greatest good to the greatest number. In the meantime negotiations are in progress for the extension of Springfield's metropolitan electric traction lines to the different points in this vicinity, thus forming the nucleus for a great system of interurban lines which may play an important part in the development of this section. The evolution of the motor truck and widespread interest in road improvement are expected to- greatly increase facilities of communication in this vicinity. And while points hitherto deemed practically inaccessible for the purposes of general commerce or complete development are thus being reached, other lines of communication are being opened by building of new railroads, extension of old ones, while the improvement of the inland waterways proceeds apace. Actual deep water at Memphis and Little Rock may eventually do much toward establishing an equilibrium in freight rates, and, in the meantime, the continuous pressure for recognition of interests, like those of the manufacturing industries of the cities of the Middle West and Southwest, may force important modifications of railroad policy if not the adoption of new principles in the readjustment of freight rates for rapidly growing industrial centers like Springfield. This is but a cursory mention of the more important matters which the officials of the Springfield Jobbers' and Manufacturers' Association have constantly under consideration, together with a great number and variety of other questions affecting many interests and altogether involving the destiny of Springfield and the welfare of its people much more than some of them may imagine.
The present extent and variety of Springfield's industries may be repre- sented by a statement embracing general figures, facts of interest in regard to some and lists of others in proper order.
By far the most important of the industries of Springfield at the present time, the great railroad machine shops of the Frisco system, are interesting not only on account of the magnitude of the plant and the extent of its opera- tions but in the events connected with its development, a full account of which would constitute the epitome of the history of railroad and industrial develop-
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ment in this section, much of which has been otherwise related. These shops comprise three separate plants, the original Frisco shops, erected in 1873, on forty acres of land adjacent to North Springfield, now in the northeastern part of the city ; the shops of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company, built on Mill street near the western limits of the city after the construction of their road in 1880: and the splendid new plant in the north- western part of the city, erected in 1909, one of the most extensive and com- pletely equipped establishments of the kind in the country. Recent statistics show that the Frisco has been paying to the employees of its shops here on the average of more than a hundred thousand dollars per month. The number of its employees ranges between two and three thousand at different times. Other industries of the city, numbering something over a hundred, give employment to nearly eight thousand workers. The aggregate value of their annual products is about nine million dollars.
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS.
There has been rapid expansion of later years in the business of the public service corporations of the city and similar great institutions. The Springfield Water Works Company, the Springfield Gas and Electric Com- pany, the Springfield Traction Company and the Missouri and Kansas Tele- phone Company have made extensive additions and improvements.
The Springfield Ice and Refrigerating Company was established in 1889. Its plant, fronting on Mill street and extending through to Phelps avenue, in the block between those thoroughfares and Boonville and Campbell streets, furnishes cold storage capacity of 360,000 cubic feet and turns out from fifteen to twenty thousand tons of ice per annum. Its business covers Spring- field and tributary territory for a hundred miles around. The concern is capitalized at $150,000 and employs from thirty-five to forty men.
The Swift and Armour establishment, dealing in supplies of meat, poultry and eggs, fish, etc., represents a combination of industrial and commercial busi- ness, the magnitude of which it is difficult to estimate. Rebori & Company and the Stewart Produce Company have built up a great trade in fruits, which are also handled extensively by other concerns, while still others have specialized in vegetables, etc., all of this trade being closely related to the development of different industries.
The Eisenmayer, Link and the Meyer Flouring Mill Companies are operating establishments here which have a combined daily capacity of 3,300 barrels of flour, which, together with feed, etc., about 2,500 bags, makes their combined annual product worth about $5.750,000. Their combined storage capacity of their elevators in Springfield and vicinity is about 900,000 bushels.
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
The Eisenmaver mill was established in 1884; the Link mill several years later.
The three mills have eighty-seven employees on their pay rolls. The Link Milling Company's establishment is located on Phelps avenue and that of the Eisenmayer Company on Commercial street. The merits of their products are well known at home and abroad.
The John F. Meyer & Sons Milling Company are the proprietors of two mills in Springfieldl. One of these was rebuilt in 1895 from the plant of the Queen City Milling Company, purchased the year before. The other mill was erected by the Meyer Company in 1900, on a site in the eastern part of the city. Improvements have been kept up in these mills, both of which are equipped with the best of up-to-date machinery, and the excellence of their products commands a ready sale in competition with the best in all parts of the United States, while about one-fourth of their output is exported to Europe.
The United Iron Works, the largest manufacturing concern of its kind in the city, has two plants here, one occupying the building originally erected for the cotton factory on East Phelps avenue and the other known as the Crescent plant, located a half mile west of the other at the corner of Phelps and Prospect avenues. The Springfield plants are equipped for doing almost anything in the line of iron work that may be needed. Their specialties are ice and refrigerating machinery and railroad casting. They supply the Frisco company with all the great castings needed on its system. Orders for large and small jobs have been handled expeditiously and with such satisfac- tion that there has been a constant increase in the business of the concern since it was established in 1903. This business extends over the states of Missouri. Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, with frequent special orders from various points all over the United States. Several hundred men are employed. The institution is the outgrowth of a combination of the Sterling and Crescent works of this city and other plants located in Aurora and Joplin, Missouri, and Pittsburg, Iola, and Independence. Kansas.
SPRINGFIELD WAGON WORKS.
In point of age as well as of magnitude and other important respects. the Springfield Wagon Works is one of the most interesting manufacturing institutions of the city. Springfield wagons are known throughout all that portion of the United States in which wagon wisdom has been most widely diffused, comprehensive and correct during the past half century of prodigious development in this country. From the Mississippi river to the Pacific coast and from Canada to the Gulf and the Mexican border the strong light carry-
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all made here has been seen traversing the roughest of the Ozark trails and the roads across the plains and through the mountains beyond, while from year to year there has been a steady increase in the demand for the Spring- field wagon from agricultural sections, together with numerous orders for vehicles adapted to special purposes in the oil and lumber regions and in cities and towns in various sections of the country. For more than forty years the Springfield Wagon Works, established by Col. H. F. Fellows in 1872, has been turning out a wagon which has been winning favor in competition with the vehicles turned out by the greatest factories in the country. The Spring- field wagon lasts longer and gives more general satisfaction than any other wherever it has been tried. Why? The answer involves a statement of facts which reveals much of general interest in connection with manufacturing problems. Colonel Fellows was one of those far-seeing men who assisted in laying the foundations of the future prosperity of Springfield broad and deep by the establishment of legitimate enterprises based on natural conditions, making the most of opportunities and advantages afforded by a favored loca- tion. He began operations with a limited capital in a factory of moderate dimensions on Boonville street, near the Jordan branch of Wilson's creek, which supplied the water needed for steam and other purposes in the works. He called to his aid a number of honest and capable mechanics, whose skill and efficiency properly rewarded was counted upon as the first element of success in his undertaking. Of scarcely less importance was the material to be used, but this in those days was not so much of a problem as it has become with many manufacturers in later years. Work was begun with well sea- soned hickory, the toughest timber to be found among the choice products of the Ozark forests. This and second growth white oak have since been used exclusively in the construction of the running gear of the Springfield wagon, which in a few years became known far and near for its strength and dura- bility. Progress was made in the face of extraordinary difficulties, a com- petition which began when the first of these model wagons were offered for sale and which continued through four decades of struggle, perseverance and continuous triumph and development for this splendid memorial of home enterprise and business integrity. Meantime the forests in this vicinity were searched by various interests for their most valuable timber and the source of supply of the material needed in the manufacture of Springfield wagons was moved back to points more and more remote. The wagon-making in- dustry of the country, after a period of prodigious growth, began to be mono- polized. The name and good will of many a factory acquired in the days of honest wagon building passed into the hands of a syndicate to be exploited for all it was worth while it was sought to overcome the defects caused by the use of inferior material and cheap, inefficient labor by "ways that are dark and tricks that are vain." Few, indeed, are the institutions which have stood
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the tests of time in this extraordinary period more successfully than the Springfield Wagon Works, which, after overcoming the extraordinary ad- versity of total destruction by fire in 1883, was rebuilt in 1885 and has con- tinued making progress, until today, with a plant covering thirteen acres of ground at the intersection of Phelps avenue and Sherman street, it has be- come one of the bulwarks of the city's prosperity. Stored in the capacious yards there are over six hundred thousand feet of hickory timber and im- mense quantities of second growth white oak undergoing the old-fashioned process of seasoning by air drying, which requires from three to four years. In the factory are found a hundred and fifty workers, all skilled in their tasks and many of them veterans in the employment of the company. Through- out the factory is found indubitable evidence of the fact that it is up-to-date and thoroughly equipped. It is a unit electric motor plant. the motor having one hundred and seventy-five horse-power. Water is furnished by a reser- voir of 1.250,000 gallons capacity. Provision is made for fire protection by the automatic sprinkling system, supplied by direct pressure of the city water- works with the reservoir in reserve, operated by an independent system fire pump having a capacity of a thousand gallons per minute. The plant is pro- vided with special machinery for electric welding and other work in which manual labor has been succeeded by the latest appliances of mechanical in- vention. The greatest care and diligence are manifested in the operations of the works from the selection and preparation of the material. through all the processes of fashioning in perfectly fitting parts, to the assembling of the same in a finished product of rare excellence. Improvements have been made in the Springfield wagon from time to time with a view to insuring service- ableness. It is widely known as the only wagon made with second growth spokes and steel tire and is confidently claimed to be "the best wagon on wheels." The annual output of Springfield wagons is six thousand, with prospects for rapid increase in the number in the near future. The company, doing business with the moderate capitalization of seventy-five thousand dol- lars. is conservatively managed and under the direction of men who have grown up in the business fully imbued with the traditions of this unique establishment and having no interest except in its continuous growth and im- provement in accordance with the wishes of its founder. The officers are : H. F. Fellow, president and superintendent : Peter McCourt, vice-president : F. J. Curran, secretary and treasurer : Lewis Potter, assistant manager : George H. Booth, sales manager.
WELSH PACKING COMPANY.
The city of Springfield is not behind other progressive metropolises of the Middle West in the matter of a packing industry, for there has long been
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located here a modern and well-equipped plant-not so large, it is true, as the vast slaughter houses of the large live stock markets of the country-but large enough to meet local requirements and to supply a considerable terri- tory, with very promising outlook for the future. We refer to the Welsh Packing Company, successors to the Tegarden Packing Company.
This plant was established by A. Clas in the year 1896, which was con- ducted by him until it was sold to Tegarden Brothers, in May, 1904. Their business increased until it became necessary to enlarge the plant in 1908, in- creasing the capitalization to one hundred thousand dollars, the name being changed at that time to the Tegarden Packing Company. The Tegardens continued to operate the plant until in December, 1912, when they sold out to local business men, but the firm name was not changed until in January, 1915, when it was changed to the Welsh Packing Company, after the name of the firm's present efficient and popular city salesman, Thomas N. Welsh, who is also president of the firm. The other officers are: Thomas J. Glynn, secretary and manager ; L. J. Kennedy, treasurer.
Ninety-five per cent. of the stock of the firm is held by Springfield people. Both Mr. Welsh and Mr. Glynn have been connected with the firm during the past ten years, and are well versed in every phase of the packing house business.
The plant is situated one mile from the county road, on St. Louis street. The buildings are substantial, convenient and well adapted for the purposes intended, and thoroughly equipped with every up-to-date appliance. insuring rapid and first-class work ; in fact, this is one of the most modernly appointed packing plants in the country. All animals are carefully inspected by an ex- pert, both before and after killing, thus insuring the patrons of the plant good, wholesome meat. A specialty is made of curing mild hams and bacon, and these products find a very ready market throughout the state of Missouri, having made the plant famous.
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