USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > St Joseph > The Daily news' history of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. From the time of the Platte purchase to the end of the year 1898. Preceded by a short history of Missouri. Supplemented by biographical sketches of noted citizens, living and dead > Part 9
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
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Leavenworth and Denver, via the Smoky Hill Route, now covered by the Kansas division of the Union Pacific.
The company had an established route with the necessary sta- tions between St. Joseph and Salt Lake City. Chorpenning's line west of Salt Lake City had few or no stations, and these had to be built ; also some changes in the route were considered advisable. The service comprised sixty agile young men as riders, one hundred ad- ditional station-keepers, and four hundred and twenty strong, wiry horses. So well did those in charge understand their business that only sixty days were required to make all necessary arrangements for the start. April 3, 1860, was the date agreed upon, and on that day the first pony express left St. Joseph and San Francisco. In March, 1860, the following advertisement had appeared in the Mis- souri Republican of St. Louis and in other papers :
"To San Francisco in eight days by the C. O. C. & P. P Ex. Co. The first courier of the Pony Express will leave the Missouri River on Tuesday, April 3d, at - p. m., and will run regularly weekly hereafter, carrying a letter mail only. The point on the Mo. River will be in telegraphic connection with the east and will be announced in due time.
"Telegraphic messages from all parts of the United States and Canada in connection with the point of departure will be received up to 5 p. m. of the day of leaving and transmitted over the Placer- ville & St. Jo to San Francisco and intermediate points by the con- necting express in eight days. The letter mail will be delivered in San Francisco in ten days from the departure of the express. The express passes through Forts Kearney, Laramie, Bridger, Great Salt Lake City, Camp Floyd, Carson City, The Washoe Silver Mines, Placerville and Sacramento, and letters for Oregon, Washington Territory, British Columbia, the Pacific Mexican ports, Russian pos- sessions, Sandwich Islands, China, Japan and India will be mailed in San Francisco.
Special messengers, bearers of letters to connect with the express of the 3d of April, will receive communications for the cour- ier of that day at 481 Ioth St., Washington City, up to 2 :45 p. m. of Friday, March 30th, and New York at the office of J. B. Simpson, Room 8, Continental Bank Building, Nassau St., up to 6:50 p. m. of 3Ist of March.
"Full particulars can be obtained on application at the above places and from the agents of the company."
The start from St. Joseph was made at 5:30 o'clock p. m., directly after the arrival of the Hannibal & St. Joseph train from the east. There is some dispute as to who was the first rider. Mr. Bailey states that it was Henry Wallace, and Charles Cliff of this city, who was one of the regular riders of the Pony Express, states that it was
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Johnny Fry. The popular belief in St. Joseph is that Fry is entitled to the credit. The start proper was made from the original Pike's Peak Stables, which stood south of Patee Park, and which have since been replaced by a structure bearing the same name. A large crowd was collected about the stables and the Patee House. The rider started for the local office of the express company on north Sec- ond street, at the firing of a cannon. Here he received his dispatches and, without delay, rode to the ferryboat in waiting. At Elwood he met with another popular ovation, and galloped westward, followed by the cheers of the multitude. From San Francisco the start was made at the same hour, a steamer being used to Sacramento, where the pony service really began. From there the first rider, Harry Roff, left at 12 midnight.
The distance between St .. Joseph and Sacramento was covered in 232 hours. Riders out of St. Joseph went as far as Seneca, mak- ing the sixty miles in eight hours, and stopping for meals at Kenne- kuk. There were four stations between St. Joseph and Seneca. John Fry, John Burnett, Jack Keetly, Charles Cliff and Gus Cliff rode out of St. Joseph. Of these but two survive. Keetly lives in Montana and Charles Cliff in this city. They received $400 per annum and maintenance. While in St. Joseph they were quartered at the Patee House.
All the riders were young men selected for their nerve, light weight, and general fitness. No effort was made to uniform them, and they dressed as their individual fancy dictated, the usual costume being a buckskin hunting shirt, cloth trousers tucked into a pair of high boots, and a jockey cap or slouch hat. All rode armed. At first a Spencer rifle was carried strapped across the back, in addition to a pair of army (Colt's) revolvers in their holsters .- The rifle, however, was found useless, and was abandoned. The equip- ment of the horses was a light riding saddle and bridle, with the saddle-bags, or "mochila," of heavy leather. These had holes cut in them so that they would fit over the horn and tree of the saddle. The mochilas had four pockets, called "cantinas," one in each corner, so as to have one in front and one behind each leg of the rider ; in these the mail was placed. Tliree of these pockets were locked and opened enroute at military posts and at Salt Lake City, and under no cir- cumstances at any other place. The fourth was for way-stations, for which each station-keeper had a key, and also contained a way-bill, or time-card, on which a record of arrival and departure was kept. The same mochila was transferred from pony to pony and from rider to
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rider until it was carried from one terminus to the other. The letters, before being placed in the pockets, were wrapped in oiled silk to pre- serve them from moisture. The maximum weight of any one mail was twenty pounds; but this was rarely reached. The charges were originally $5 for each letter of one half-ounce or less; but afterward this was reduced to $2.50 for each letter not exceeding one half-ounce, this being in addition to the regular United States postage. Specially made light-weight paper was generally used to reduce the expense. Special editions of the Eastern newspapers were printed on tissue- paper to enable them to reach subscribers on the Pacific coast. This, however, was more as an advertisement, there being little demand for them at their necessarily large price.
At first, stations averaged twenty-five miles apart, and each rider covered three stations, or seventy-five miles, daily. Later, stations were established at intermediate points, reducing the distance between them, in some cases, to ten miles, the distance between stations being regulated by the character of the country. This change was made in the interest of quicker time, it having been demonstrated that horses could not be kept at the top of their speed for so great a distance as twenty-five miles. At the stations, relays of horses were kept, and the station-keeper's duties included having a pony ready bridled and saddled half an hour before the express was due. Upon approaching a station, the rider would loosen the mochila from his saddle, so that he could leap from his pony as soon as he reached the station, throw the mochila over the saddle of the fresh horse, jump on, and ride off. Two minutes was the maximum time allowed at stations, whether it was to change riders or horses. At relay-stations where riders were changed the incoming man would unbuckle his mochila before arriv- ing, and hand it to his successor, who would start off on a gallop as soon as his hand grasped it. Time was seldom lost at stations. Station-keepers and relay-riders were always on the lookout. In the daytime the pony could be seen for a considerable distance, and at night a few well-known yells would bring everything into readiness in a very short time. As a rule, the riders would do seventy-five miles over their route west-bound one day, returning over the same dis- tance with the first east-bound express.
The great feat of the pony-express service was the delivery of President Lincoln's inaugural address in 1861. Great interest was felt in this all over the land, foreshadowing as it did the policy of the administration in the matter of the rebellion. In order to establish a record, as well as for an advertisement, the company determined to
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break all previous records, and to this end horses were led out from the stations so as to reduce the distance each would have to run, and get the highest possible speed out of every animal. Each horse aver- aged only ten miles, and that at its very best speed. Every precau- tion was taken to prevent delay, and the result stands without a paral- lel in history : seven days and seventeen hours-one hundred and eighty-five hours-for 1,950 miles, an average of 10.7 miles per hour. From St. Joseph to Denver, 665 miles were made in two days and twenty-one hours, the last ten miles being accomplished in thirty-one minutes.
After running for seventeen months, the Pony Express closed in 1861, Edward Creighton having completed a telegraph line from Omaha to Sacramento. At the time of its death the express was owned by Ben Holladay, who had acquired the stage line of Russell, Majors & Waddell, and was operating out of St. Joseph.
The freighting business and stage lines continnued until driven out by the railroads. In 1861 Holladay ran the line from St. Joseph direct to California. The first coach left on July I and arrived at Placerville July 18, and the first through passenger was Major Sim- mington, one of the editors of the San Francisco Bulletin.
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CHAPTER VIII.
A REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF ST. JOSEPH FROM THE OVERLAND PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME .- THE EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF "PATEETOWN" .- EF- FECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR AND SEVERAL FINAN- CIAL DISTURBANCES .- THE BOOM OF 1886 AND THE RESULTS .- THE NEW ERA AND WHAT IT PROMISES.
The impetus given St. Joseph by the overland emigration and freighting caused the town to make rapid strides up to 1861, at which time a population of 11,000 was claimed and many substantial public improvements were shown. The streets were paved with macadam, bridges had been built across the different creeks that coursed through the city and considerable grading had been done in the hills. Besides being a supply point for overland freighters, St. Joseph was a hemp and grain market of prominence, and pork packing had be- come an inportant industry.
When the Hannibal & St. Joseph road became a fact business, which had heretofore closely hugged the river and market square, began to look to the southeast. John Patee was one of the foremost citizens of the place. He had platted his land in an early day, and when the Hannibal & St. Joseph road was projected had donated a strip of forty acres for terminal and depot purposes. This land stretches from Olive street south to Mitchell avenue, west of Eighth street. In the firm belief that the future St. Joseph would build up around the railroad terminals, and with the assurance that the depot would be located at Penn street, Mr. Patee built a magnificent hotel, which cost him about $180,000, and which was then the second largest and best appointed hostelry in the United States. However, he was somewhat disappointed, for the depot was located at Eighth and Olive streets.
"Pateetown," as that section of the city was nick-named, grew rapidly after the completion of the railroad in 1859. A market house was built at Tenth and Lafayette streets, which still stands ; business houses and hotels sprang up on Eighth and Tenth streets, south of
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Olive, and there was lively traffic. But the people up town were not idle either, for prosperity was ruling there too. Many brick business houses were built; among them the Pacific House, the Odd Fellow building at Fifth and Felix streets, Turner Hall, and several blocks on Felix, Edmond, Francis and Fourth streets. The town was spread- ing out. Graders were busy leveling the hills and filling up the val- leys, and the residence portion was being beautified with good homes.
Public improvements were confined mostly to grading the streets and to building bridges over the crooked creeks that coursed through the city. Smith's branch, which headed near the upper end of Fred- erick avenue, came down that street, crossed lots to and followed the course of Buchanan avenue, touched Faraon and Jule streets and flowed southwest to Eighth near Edmond street, thence across lots between the Kuechle brewery and Turner Hall to Sixth and Mes- sanie streets, thence south to where the gas plant is located, below Olive street, and thence west to the river. Though there was not much water ordinarily, there was a deep ravine which was often filled with a wild torrent when the rains were heavy. This creek was bridged wherever the travel demanded, and so likewise were Black- snake and Liniment creeks.
St. Joseph had progressive men at the head of affairs in those days. The people responded to every call, both from their private resources and with the public funds, and bonds were voted with a recklesness that is astonishing in these conservative laye. Any project that knocked for admittance was welcomed heartily, and led at once to the open purse. Some of this liberality is still being atoned for by the innocent taxpayer.
From 1861 to 1865-the rebellion period-St. Joseph, like other cities and the country in general, went backwards. Business was paralyzed, labor was unemployed and all conditions were disturbed. The growth and decline of the city is best illustrated by the values of real estate. In 1851 the assessed valuation was $651,000; in 1852, $784,000; in 1856, $1,040,653; in 1857, $3,313,000, and in 1860, $5,126,249. From the depressing effects of the rebellion the values fell in 1861 $1,859,224 below 1860. In 1862 a decline of $810,384 from the previous year was noted, and in 1864 the entire assessed valuation was only $3,384,145. Subsequently matters began to look up again. In 1866 the valuation reached $5,426,600, and in 1868 it was $7,000,000.
After the war St. Joseph made marvelous progress. During the first two years 3,000 buildings were erected. The era of prosperity
THE FIRST CITY HALL.
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continued until the panic of 1873. During that period the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad was extended north, the St. Joseph & St. Louis (now Santa Fe) road was built from Rich- mond, the St. Joseph & Denver City (Grand Island) was extended west, and the St. Joseph & Topeka was built from Wathena to Doniphan. This road was operated by the Burlington com- pany for a time and was afterwards abandoned. The first street car line was also built in 1866, from Mitchell avenue and Eleventh street to the Pacific Hotel.
In the latter sixties there was much street improvement and many miles of macadam were laid. During the same period the first. attempt at sewering was made. The creek known as Bush branch, which meandered from the neighborhood of Hall and Bush streets by a devious course to Fifth and Francis, was partially covered. Among the prominent manufacturing industries was the starch fac- tory, which has long since disappeared.
Recovering from the stagnation caused by the panic of 1873 and the grasshopper years, St. Joseph began a steady march of progress, which has continued up to the present. However, notwithstanding the fact that business the country over was paralyzed by the panic of 1873, there are local monuments to activity in building during the period of depression. The Missouri river bridge was completed in May of 1873. The court house, city hall, Tootle's opera house and asylum No. 2 were built in 1873-74.
In 1874 the first telephones were put in. In the same and during subsequent years the Charles street and Smith branch sewers were. built and the Bush branch sewer extended down Fifth to Charles. street.
In 1876 the Union street railway was built to New Ulm park, from Market square, and in 1878 the narrow gauge street cars were- put upon Frederickjavenue. Matters generally were looking up again by this time. In 1877-78 the St. Joseph & Des Moines narrow gauge road was built. In 1878 the Board of Trade was organized. At the. close of the decade the Krugs, Hax Bros., A. O. Smith, David Pinger and Connett Bros. were packing pork on a large scale, and at the. Union stock yards, on South Tenth street, there was a market in lively competition with Kansas City.
In 1880 the Missouri Pacific began to run trains into St. Joseph, and the next four years marked a period of steady progress. In 1880. the site of the old Odd Fellows' hall and Hax's furniture store at Fifth and Felix streets, which had been destroyed by fire, were cov-
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ered with the splendid buildings of the present. The Odd Fellows' building and Hax's faced Fifth street before the fire, the former being occupied by Bailey, Townsend & Co. The Faulhaber, Bergman and Stone buildings soon completed this block. R. L. McDonald built on Fourth and Francis streets at about the same time, and the imposing block of wholesale houses on Fourth street, north of him, followed at short intervals. The Turner-Frazer building, at Third and Charles streets, went up in 1881, and Nave & McCord built in 1882. The Tootle building on Fourth, between Felix and Francis streets, the large building at the northwest corner of Fifth and Edmond streets, and the Union depot, were built during the first eighties. The Cham- ber of Commerce, the Saxton building at Fourth and Francis streets, the Tootle building at Sixth and Francis streets, and the general offices of the Burlington railroad were built during 1883-84.
Real estate values were remarkably low in St. Joseph up to 1886. A wave of speculation swept the country at) about that time, and, though St. Joseph did not escape the craze, she suffered less than her neighbors from the reaction. On the contrary, the city was, generally speaking, benefited. From a complaisant lethargy there sprang en- ergy, progressiveness and confidence. Values went up, outside cap- ital was attracted, and to the conservatives there was unfolded a fu- ture of which there had been many early prophecies.
The first five months of 1886 saw real estate speculation at its height. Addition upon addition was platted and people scrambled to obtain lots at the first sale-to "get in on the ground floor," as the saying was. Real estate agents were without number, and on Francis street there was a Real Estate Exchange, where property was listed on the blackened walls of a store room. Among the first new addi- tions upon the market early in the boom was St. Joseph Eastern Ex- tension, then came Saxton Heights, Wyatt Park, McCool's, Walk- er's and others.
Suburban property had the call of the speculators. As an evi- dence of the permanent benefits of the real estate flurry one need but to compare the city of 1886 with the city of the present. At that time there were not more than fifty houses east of Twenty-second street, and few between that and Eighteenth street. All was in grass and of no value except to the dairymen, who pastured their cows there- on. McCool's and Walker's additions, on the north, were in small farms or vacant. Now Wyatt Park is a populous suburb of modern dwellings ; there is a street railway, there are paved streets, city water, churches, schools, fire protection, etc. The other additions likewise show up well. As a result of the boom the Wyatt Park, the Jule
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street and the Messanie street lines of electric cars are running today. As a result of the boom Krug Park and the city parks were opened and beautified. As a result of the boom St. Joseph has now many miles of streets paved with asphaltum, brick and macadam. And there is much more that might be added.
From 1885 to 1893 was the most momentous period in the city's history. To what has been mentioned above may be added the Rock Island railway, east and west; the Chicago Great Western, north and south ; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the St. Joseph Termi- nal Company. The Y. M. C. A. building, the Commercial block, Center block, Carbry block Zimmerman buildings, Irish-American building, Ballinger building, C. D. Smith building, Van Natta-Lynds building, Wyeth building, Crawford theatre, the Podvant and Dono- van buildings, Coulter Manufacturing Co.'s building, France build- ing, Central police station, Turner Hall, the Moss building, Samuels block, the Saxton & Hendricks building ; also those massive piles of architecture occupied by the Richardson, Roberts & Byrne Dry Goods Co .; Tootle, Wheeler & Motter; the Wood Manufacturing Co .; the Michau block, the Hughes building, and the block on the north side of Felix, west of Sixth street-all are to the credit of that prosperous era.
Blacksnake and Mitchell avenue sewers were built and the drain- age system of the city perfected, the city electric lighting plant erect- ed and the entire street railway system placed upon an electrical ba- sis. Numerous manufacturing ventures were launched, some of which did not survive, however ; notably the steel car works, the stove works and the nail mills.
A bureau of statistics and information did much during 1888-90 to attract the attention of eastern capital, and the Board of Trade was then, as now, a prominent factor for the commercial advance- ment of the city. The foundation of the present pretentious live stock market and meat packing industry was laid in 1887, and during the following five years three packing plants were established.
The financial depression of 1893 checked the progress of St. Joseph somewhat, and but little of magnitude was done until 1897, when a fresh impetus was given the city by the revival on a gigantic scale of the meat-packing industry. The stock yards passed into the control of Swift & Co. of Chicago, and two of the largest plants in the world-one by Swift & Co. and one by Nelson Morris & Co. -- were erected in 1897 and placed in operation in April of 1898.
The stock yards were completed and modernized and a live stock exchange of splendid proportions is now under construction.
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Other meat-packing concerns are negotiating for quarters, and it is predicted that in a few years St. Joseph will be one of the most famous live stock markets and most prominent meat-packing points in the country.
Real estate values, which fell during the period of depression, are looking up; many tenements are building, and the season of 1897-98 is marked as one of the most active in the history of the city for mechanics and laborers. There is, indeed, much in the prospect which the future historian may tell.
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CHAPTER IX.
THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF ST. JOSEPH .- THE OLD CITY CHARTER AND THE EVILS THAT WERE WROUGHT UNDER ITS PROVISIONS. - BONDS IS- SUED WITH ASTONISHING RECKLESSNESS .- THE CITY SCRIP AND OTHER METHODS OF RELIEF .- THE NEW CHARTER, ITS PROVISIONS AND VALUE. -HOW THE CITY IS GOVERNED.
As the community progressed and developed, the scope of the town charter became too narrow, and the people sought relief at the hands of the legislature. Accordingly, a new charter was ob- tained, early in 1851. The following, from the minutes of the town trustees, shows how the way was paved for the new municipal gov- ernment :
"March 24, 1851.
"Board met at the call of the chairman for the purpose of laying the city into convenient wards and for the ordering of election of city officers. Present : James A. Anthony, R. W. Donnell, Lewis Tracy, A. Dillon, W. M. Carter, James A. Cochran.
"On motion, ordered that the town be laid off for the purpose of elections into the following wards: First Ward is all that por- tion of the town lying south of Edmond street; Second Ward all that portion of the town lying north of Edmond and south of Jule street ; Third Ward is all that portion of the town lying north of Jule street, extending from the river to the eastern boundary of the city.
"On motion, ordered that an election be held on the first Mon- day in April, 1851, for the election of a mayor of the city, six coun- cilmen, two from each ward, and a city marshal. And that John A. Devorss, William Langston and Conrad Crawley be appointed judges of election for the First Ward, and that said election be held for the First Ward at the Missouri Hotel; that John Cargill, Joseph B. Smith and William Dillon be appointed judges of said election for the Second Ward, to be held at the office of Lewis Tracy, Esq .; that John H. Whitehead, David Frank and Neely Fitzgerald be appointed judges of said election for the Third Ward, to be held at the steam mill of John Whitehead."
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The following is a copy of the minutes of the first meeting of the mayor and council of the City of St. Joseph :
"Monday, April 14, 1851.
"City council met and took the oath of office and was duly organized. Present : His Honor the mayor, Israel Landis, William M. Carter, John Angel, James B. Pendleton, James A. Anthony and John H. Whitehead.
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