USA > Missouri > Jackson County > The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county > Part 65
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
Richmond to arouse the secession sympathies of the North, and during his stay in Canada had so far perfected the organization that associations of them had been formed throughout the North and West. Many of the prominent men engaged in it were immediately arrested, but not enough to stop it. A raid by Price into Missouri was to be the signal of their uprising, and that raid was to be made in October. He entered the State with about 18, 000 men, by way of Pilot Knob, where he had a severe fight with Gen. Ewing, Sept, 27th. Ewing retreated, but contested his march again at Harrisonville, from the 27th to the Ist of October.
Price then continued his victorious march to the northwest, fighting at al- most every step, and gathering reinforcements as he went. His entrance into the State was signalized by an uprising of his sympathizers throughout the State. The woods were again swarming with them, as in 1861. The very bushes seemed to hear them as they bear leaves, and even as far north as Atchison county the old scenes of 1861 were being repeated. Union men were equally prompt to rise. Missouri and Kansas were placed under martial law, and every man capa- ble of bearing arms was ordered out. It was a time of the utmost excitement and agitation. There was but one cry-to arms! to arms !- and throughout the two States there was .but one employment-preparing for the fray. About the 26th of October Gen. Blunt was driven out of Lexington. On the 21st there was serious fighting at Little Blue, Col. Moonlight's command of Kansas troops, engaging the entire army. Col. Ford, with the Second Colorado, abandoned Independence, and there seemed to be nothing but fire and pillage in store for Kansas City. However, General Curtis, in command of the Department of Kansas and General Rosecrans, in command of the Department of Missouri gathered force fast enough to divert Price to the southwest. From Little Blue he moved up the road toward Kansas City, until he reached the Big Blue, at a. point where the roads for Kansas City and Westport cross. Here another sharp fight occurred. Thence Price turned toward Westport, and another fight occurred at that place. And from there he went south, fighting all the way. While these movements were being executed and these battles fought between Price's main army and the forces against him, fighting between smaller parties was going on all over the county, and north of the river in Clay, and adjacent counties. Price had sent out recruiting parties and his forces gathered fast, so that although he was in the State but little more than a month, and was fighting all the while, he left it with about 12,000 men more than he brought with him.
This was the last raid into Missouri, and, aside from bush-whacking, was the end of the war for this city. Peaceful pursuits were resumed, but the disorder and damage to the railroad enterprises in which Kansas City was interested, was such that nothing more was done on them that year except the Union Pacific, which was opened to Lawrence in December. The Missouri Pacific was so injur- ed that it had to ask for aid to repair the damage, which was given by St. Louis, under authority of the Legislature, to the extent of $700,000, in January 1865.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
CHAPTER XI.
A GREAT ERA IN KANSAS CITY.
The Close of the War-The Resumption of Railroad Construction-Seven Roads and the Bridge Completed Before 1870-Other Railroad Enterprises not Finished-Rapid Growth-Schools and Street Improvements-Population -Grown from 3,500 to 30,000.
With the beginning of 1865 the country adjacent to this city was in compar- ative peace. Many of the bush-whackers who had infested the country. had gone south with Price, in his great raid of 1864, and others were in winter quarters. Sherman and Grant were closing in on the rebellion, and there appeared to be good reason to believe that, so far as this part of the country was concerned, there would be no more war. The people began, therefore, to cast about them, and collect the fragments of fortunes and business, and prepare for the future. At this time the population of our city had fallen off to between three and four thousand, her streets were out of repair, her houses dilapidated, and her trade practically gone. Leavenworth, having been her most formidable rival before the war, had, during the struggle, been the headquarters of army operations, and had prospered while this city suffered. She had grown to be a city of about eighteen thousand, had secured control of the Southern Kansas trade, and a part · of the trade of New Mexico and Colorado. This city seemed to be well nigh out of the race for commercial supremacy, and would have been so regarded had it not been for her well demonstrated natural advantages, and the fact that the main line of the Union Pacific Railway started at this city, and was already in operation to Lawrence ; and the fact that the Missouri Pacific was nearly com- pleted. These gave heart to her citizens to renew the struggle, and an era of un- precedented activity followed.
Leavenworth, meantime, confident of ultimately securing a road to a con- nection with the Union Pacific, and also one from Cameron, thought to secure the Missouri Pacific also, and to that end voted four hundred thousand dollars in January, to build a road to a connection with it at this city.
THE SPRING OF 1865.
In February, the localities in interest obtained from the Missouri Legislature a charter for a road from Kansas City to Iowa State line, in the direction of Council Bluffs, by the way of St Joseph, and embracing what had been built of the Kansas City & St. Joseph Railroad from St. Joseph to Weston.
About the same time, the interest in the road to Fort Scott was renewed, and the Kansas Legislature was induced to memorialize Congress for a grant of land for it.
In the month of February, track laying was resumed on the Missouri Pacific, and it was progressing finely when March came, and with it the forests began to put out leaves, affording shelter for bush-whackers, when the bushes began to swarm with them. They cut off trade with adjacent parts of Missouri, and fre- quently visited the line of the Missouri Pacific, and robbed and stopped its hands. General Pope was appealed to for aid in suppressing them, but to no effect. He informed Governor Fletcher that the civil authorities must deal with them by civil process, and thus left this part of the State at their mercy. In May, a large force of them assembled near Lexington-three hundred and fifty was the estimate- and threatened to burn and sack the town. They seemed here to receive the first information they would credit of the collapse of the rebellion, and a large
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
party of them, under Bill Poole, went into Lexington, and surrendered. Others took to the bushes but gave little trouble after that.
The southern Kansas trade began to come back to Kansas City, the people of that part of the State finding, as before the war, that they could reach Kansas City much better than Leavenworth. Steamers again began to ply on the Mis- souri; the trade of New Mexico and Colorado were resumed, with all their old proportions, and improvements began to be made in the city. The revival of trade in the city was so rapid when military embargoes had been raised, and the natural laws of commerce were allowed full operation, that by the close of May, according to the Journal reports, twenty-eight million tons of freight had been discharged by steamers at the levee here.
In May, Colonel Van Horn and Mr. Hallowell bought the Journal of Com- merce from T. D. Thacher, who had purchased it of Mr. Abeel in May, 1863. It immediately took up the old strain of 1860, about railroads and improvements, and rallied the people about the old enterprises in which the city had been engag- ed before the war. It urged the re organization of the Chamber of Commerce, which had been so prolific and fostering a parent of enterprises before the war, and of which it had been the organ and advocate. It urged upon the people in every way possible the importance of unity and action-prompt and decisive. It did more at this particular procedure to arouse the people, than all other agencies combined, and remarshaled them to the struggle for commercial development as potently as ever trumpet or drum-beat marshaled soldiers to the fray. One of its editorials, taken from its files of August 3, 1865, is here appended, as a sample of the terse and inspiriting articles, with which its columns, at this period, were filled :
" There is a tide in the affairs of men-and the same is true of cities. We are now approaching the flood. If taken advantage of, we shall be carried on to fortune. If we do not act at the tide of our opportunities, our future history will be a record of failure and humiliation.
" The present is bright ; we can, if we wish to be, the architects of our own fortune. To be so, we must be earnest, industrious and enterprising. Visions of the future show half a dozen railroads converging at this point; it shows the river port for the plains ; a point of transshipment for the minerals, the wool and other products of the south, southwest and west, as also the articles from the east and foreign countries. It shows us the great central mart for the distribution of the wealth of half a continent-rich, powerful and magnificent. Providence never assisted a lazy man-fortune never smiled on an indolent community. The price paid for prosperity is labor, energy, enterprise. With a live policy-by throwing old fogy notions to the winds-by placing our mark high and working up to it, we shall become in two or three years all that we have described.
"The converse of this picture is easily realized. Our advantages are sought by others. Our natural advantages alone will never overcome the efforts of rival enterprise. If we rely upon them we shall become neutral ground-a passway of value to railroad corporations, but of no intrinsic power of our own. Prosperity must come from within ; it must spring from the city-from the people. Let us all make sacrifices in order to start the impulse in the proper direction-let us all put our strength to the work. Large property owners can give sites for mills, factories, etc. ; citizens can subscribe stock to work them; mechanics can build tenement houses for operatives If they produce ten per cent on the. outlay, don't raise the rent to twenty per cent. If houses are scarce, raising the price of rent will not increase the number. Let our people think and act promptly."
The many articles of this character published by the Journal about this time were designed, not so much to arouse the people to action, as to give direction to their efforts, and to unify them upon common enterprises and for common pur-
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
poses. They were read by a people ready and willing to act, and eager to attain the very objects there urged upon them.
It was in May that the Journal called the attention of the people to the fact that the base of business in this city would soon be changed from the levee, where it had always been, to "West Kansas," the " French Bottom"-as it was still called-and urged upon the city authorities the importance of opening the cross streets leading to it. Third, Fourth, Fifth and Ottawa (now Twelfth), were the streets recommended to be opened. In July, the city council negotiated a loan of $60,000 for the purpose, and appropriated it to the opening of those streets. This change of base brought about by the prospect that the business of the city would soon be done by railroad as much as by river, and the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific both terminating at the State line, would, of necessity, have to make their depots in the bottom.
REVIVAL OF RAILROAD ENTERPRISE.
In July the Chamber of Commerce, which had a sort of ephemeral and spas- modic life during the war, was re-organized, and became, as it had been before the war, the heart of the city-the focus into which was concentrated her wisdom and wealth, and from whence radiated her energies and efforts-and it became again, as it had been before the war, a most potent promoter of railroad' enter- prises. One of the first interests with which it concerned itself was the road to Fort Scott. The old Kansas Valley & Neosho company was revived and re- organized, with Col. Kersey Coates as president, and active efforts were at once begun to secure its construction. The city was urged to vote $200, 000 aid to it, and a proposition was submitted to the people on the 19th of September. While this proposition was pending, on the 14th of September Capt. Chas. Keeler commenced work on the road. About the same time the interest in the Kansas City & St. Joseph Railroad was revived, and Kansas City was asked to vote it $25, 000 to aid in its completion from Weston to Kansas City. This proposition was submitted to the people at the same time as the proposition for the road to Ft. Scott, and both were voted by the people by large majorities. In November following, John- son and Miami counties, Kansas, each voted the Fort Scott road $200,000, which was regarded as having secured its construction.
This road, as projected in 1856, was designed to run to Galveston, but of course could not get through the Indian Territory without first securing the right- of-way by a treaty between the Indians and the Government. This idea was taken up with the revival of the project, and the opportunity for such treaty was waited and watched for, and was soon presented.
During the war the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Shawnees, Kiowas, Wichitaws, Osages, Commanches, Senecas, Quapaws, and Cherokees, in whole or in part, had joined the Rebellion, which was held by the Govern- ment to have worked an abrogation of all treaties existing between them and the United States, and it was proposed, now that the war was over, to negotiate new treaties with them. To this end Judge D. N. Cooly, commissioner of Indian affairs, Hon. Elijah Sells, superintendent of the southern superintendency, Col. Parker, of General Grant's staff, Gen. Harney, of St. Louis, Thos. Nixon of Phil- adelphia, and others were appointed commissioners on the part of the United States to negotiate such treaties, and the Indians were notified to meet them at Fort Smith on the 5th of September for that purpose. The parties interested in this road saw, in this conference, the opportunity they desired to obtain the right for their road through the Indian Territory, and a delegation was made up for the purpose of attending the conference. The Kansas City delegation was ap- pointed by the Chamber of Commerce and consisted of Col. R. T. Van Horn, Col. E. M. McGee, Col. M. J. Payne, and Matthew Mudeater, the latter being a Wyandotte Indian. Silas Armstrong, of Wyandotte, Col. Wilson, Maj. Rey-
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY. ·
nolds and Gen. C. W. Blair, of Fort Scott, Gen. R. B. Mitchell, of Paola, and Col. Haines and Gen. Blunt, from other places, constituted the balance of the delegation. In the treaties that were made, these gentlemen were successful in securing the right of way for a railroad through the territory between Kansas and Texas, and, at the instance of St. Louis parties, a like right-of-way was secured across the Territory from east to west, which has since been secured by what is now known as the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad.
The interest in the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad, which at this time was known as the Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior Railroad, was revived early in the year. As heretofore stated, this road was partly built before the war in pursuance of a contract between this company and the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company by Mr. Quealy. The annual election for directors was held April 29th, at which Maj. W. C. Ransom was chosen president. The new direc- tors became very active, now that peace had been restored, and at once opened negotiations with Mr. Quealy for settlement for the work done by him prior to . the war, and for a new arrangment for the completion of the work. It also en- gaged John A. J. Chapman to make a survey of the river for a bridge, which work was completed in September, and a very favorable report made. The com- pany also opened negotiations with J. T. R. Hayward, who had been superinten- dent of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad before the war and with whom all ante bellum negotiations had been had, for a revival of the old contract between this company and the Hanibal & St. Joseph company, for the completion of the work. No satisfactory arrangement was ever made with Hayward, or with the company, until the latter part of 1866; but arrangements were made with Mr. Quealy, and work on the road resumed about the close of 1865. In this settlement with Mr. Quealy the company had to pay him more for the work yet to be done than the original contract price for the whole work, because of the advance, owing to the war, of material and labor, and therefore more aid had to be asked for by the company. But it was not until the following year 1866, that anything definite was done in this matter.
The Missouri Pacific, which had been progressing finely all summer, was finished September 21st, and opened for business with great rejoicing on the part of the people of this city.
The North Missouri, having obtained control of the charter of the Missouri Valley Railroad, as heretofore noticed, resumed operations also as soon as the country was free from bush-whackers, and began to push a western branch up the Missouri valley.
In October, D. R. Garrison, prominently connected with the Missouri Pa- cific, contracted with the Kansas City & Leavenworth Company, now known as the Missouri River Railroad Company, to build that road, and before the close of the month had commenced operations.
JEALOUSIES AND RIVALRIES AGAIN.
It was now manifest that, as between Kansas City and Leavenworth, the natural laws of commerce were all in favor of Kansas City, and there was no better feeling among a certain class of Kansas politicians toward Kansas City than had existed before the war. Senator James H. Lane, of Lawrence, took up the fight, favoring Kansas trade for Kansas towns. He projected an extensive railroad scheme for his State, embracing a road from Pleasant Hill to Lawrence, and one from Leavenworth, by way of Lawrence, to the southern State line in the direction of Fort Gibson. The scheme was to secure to Lawrence the terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and also the railroad which Kansas City had been so long laboring to have built to the Gulf of Mexico. Even at this early day St. Louis began to see the danger to her trade of building up Kansas City, and readily fell into and supported this scheme of Senator Lane, although the effect
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ST.
JAMES HOTEL
ST. JAMES HOTEL, KANSAS CITY, MO.
L. C. Alexander, Proprietor. Walnut Street, bet. Missouri Avenue and Sixth Street.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
of it would have been to connect the Kansas railroads with the Hannibal & St. Joe as to divert the trades of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas to Chi- cago.
In pursuance of this scheme, and to get his Gulf railroad into the field first, Senator Lane caused work to be commenced on that road at Lawrence, June 26th, and in October Major B. S. Henning took up his residence in that city and be- came superintendent of the road. In November Col. Vliet made a survey of a branch to Emporia, authorized by the charter. That same month the Pleasant Hill & Lawrence road was surveyed. The first rail was laid on the Atchison & Pike's Peak-the central branch of the Union Pacific-and Major O. B. Gunn commenced the survey of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe from Atchison.
THE EVENTS OF 1866.
At the session of the Kansas Legislature early in 1866, a bill was passed dividing five hundred thousand acres of land given the State for internal improve. ments, between the Northern Kansas Railroad, now the St. Joe & Denver; the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad, now the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf; the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch, from Fort Riley along the Neosho Val- ley, now the Junction City Branch of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, and to the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Fort Gibson Railroad, now the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern Kansas. By this act the Fort Scott & Gulf got twenty-five thousand acres.
In February Col. Van Horn, who had been elected to Congress in the elec- tion in 1864, introduced into the House of Representatives a bill granting cer- tain lands in Kansas to the Kansas & Neosho Railroad Company. Also a bill to charter a bridge across the river at Kansas City, and to make Kansas City a port of entry. All these objects were afterward attained in some shape. The bill granting lands to the Fort Scott Railroad became a law in July, and gave that road about 800, 000 acres. In the bill giving these lands to the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad, it was also given the franchise through the Indian Territory with a grant of land six miles on either side of the track. The bill was fought bitterly by Senator Lane.
The charter for a bridge was procured as an amendment to a bill chartering a bridge across the Mississippi at Quincy.
In February Messrs. Barnard and Mastin started a bank in Kansas City, which was succeeded by the Mastin bank; and the First National was started not far from the same time, with Maj. G. W. Branham at its head. Early in the spring Messrs. Marsh, Hilliker & Co. began the construction of a much-needed bridge across the Kaw River between Kansas City and Wyandotte, and it was finished and opened in December, with great rejoicings.
At the same session of the Kansas Legislature above referred to, the name of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Fort Gibson Railroad was changed to Leaven- worth, Lawrence & Galveston, and not long afterward the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad changed its name, by an action in court, to Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf.
On the 15th of May the first train was run, from Leavenworth to Lawrence, that branch of the Union Pacific Railroad having been commenced June 26, 1865, and pushed rapidly through in order to secure a land grant.
In July Congress chartered the Southern Branch of the Union Pacific Rail- way, with the right to run from Fort Riley down the Neosho River to Fort Smith. This has since become the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. And that same month the Senate confirmed the treaty with the Delaware Indians, by which their reservation in Kansas was sold for the benefit of the Missouri River Rail- road Company, which had just been completed between Kansas City and Leav- enworth.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
Before the close of the session of Congress in July, a bill introduced by Hon. Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, became a law, allowing the Union Pacific Rail- road to construct its line up the Smoky Hill Valley instead of up the Republican Valley. The original bill required the main line from Kansas City and the branch from Omaha, to connect at the Tooth meridian, between the Platte and Repub- lican rivers, in Nebraska. But this bill allowed each to adopt its own line and locate the point of junction at any place they might select within one hundred miles west of Denver. The main line from this city had then reached Fort Riley, and during the year 1866 the western freighting went from that place instead of Kansas City, and the mails were also received of the railroad at that point.
THE CAMERON RAILROAD.
At the annual election of officers in May, Col. Charles E. Kearney became president of the Kansas City, Lake Superior & Galveston Railroad Company. Although work had been commenced on that line January Ist but little had been done because of the deficiency of means. But no sooner did Col. Kearney become president than he threw into it that force and energy for which he is so characteristic, and like all other enterprises with which he ever became connect- ed, it was put immediately on the way to success. He laid the situation before the people of Kansas City at a meeting held at the court house on the 8th of May, and secured on the spot a subscription of $23,000. Committees were appointed to seek further subscriptions of aid, and at a meeting held on the 12th, $52,000 was reported, every dollar of which was promptly paid. This was within $25,000 of enough to complete the road, and a proposition for the balance was submitted to the people of the county, August 7th, and defeated by the rebel element in the country precincts, although Kansas City voted almost solidly for it. Work was begun immediately, and was pushed rapidly.
At the time Col. Kearney became president of this company, the board of directors, through their president, Maj. W. C. Ransom, was still endeavoring to revive the old contract with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, under which the work done before the war had been done. This contract had been made originally though Mr. J. T. K. Hayward, who was at the time superintendent of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road. At this time he had ceased to be superintend- ent, but represented himself to be a director in the company. Besides Mr. Hay- ward, Mr. Brooks, who at this time was in Europe, was the only man connected with the Hannibal & St. Joseph road who knew of the old contract, and Mr. Hayward was now assuring the Kansas City company that he was laboring to get it revived. He was actually deceiving them, and had already made an agree- ment with the Leavenworth people to procure a contract between them and the Hannibal & St. Joseph company, to build a road from Cameron to Leavenworth. Leavenworth had previously, during the war, procured a charter, as stated in the last chapter. Col. Kearney was not long in detecting Mr. Hayward's treachery, and was just as prompt to institute measures for his defeat.
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