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 66
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The board of directors of the company was called together on the ist of June, and Gen. John W. Reid and Col. T. S. Case were appointed agents to visit Boston and make a contract with the Hannibal company, and Col. Kearney immediately telegraphed Col. Coates, who at the time was in Washington, urging the passing of the bill granting lands and right of way through the Indian Terri- tory to the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad, to go to Boston and if possible stop the Leavenworth contract until they could get there. Col. Coates got to Boston on Saturday and found that the contract with Leavenworth had already been agreed upon, and was to be executed Monday. On the claim of a prior contract he got a stay of proceedings until Col. Case and Gen. Reid arrived. When they got there the first men they met were the Leavenworth delegation, in the ante-room of the railroad office. They met Col. Coates, succeeded in resur-
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recting the old contract, and when the company saw it they referred the matter to James F. Joy, their general western manager. Col. Coates had to go back to Washington and Gen. Reid to Baltimore, but Col. Case went and saw Mr. Joy and got him into an agreement that this old contract should be revived, provided Kansas City would procure congressional authority for a bridge across the river at this point. Col. Case returned and reported the contract to Col. Kearney, who immediately telegraphed Col. Van Horn in Washington. The next Monday a bill was to be reported by the committee on post-offices and post-roads, providing for the construction of bridges at Quincy, Clinton and other places. Col. Van Horn went immediately to the chairman of that committee and after some diffi- culty, and full explanations, got him to agree to admit an amendment providing for the bridge at Kansas City. Next morning as soon as the house opened, the reading of the minutes were dispensed with and the bill called up. Col. Van Horn offered his amendment, it was accepted, and the chairman then moved the previous question. While this was being done Hon. Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, came in and in the greatest haste drew up an amendment for a bridge at Leaven- worth ; but he was too late. The previous question had been seconded and his amendment could not be attached. The bill passed, and thus in twenty-four hours from the time the agreement with Mr. Joy, was reported in Kansas City, all its conditions were complied with on the part of Kansas City, and she had a double triumph secured over her rival.
This was a critical time for Kansas City, and the events just stated probably turned the scales in her favor ; for had Leavenworth secured the contract with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, Kansas City would have been left without help in the construction of her road. Levenworth would then have got the first bridge. She was already the terminus of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and had a branch of the Union Pacific, hence, the securing of the Hannibal & St. Joseph would have made her the railroad center of the Missouri valley. To Col. Kear- ney, Kansas City owes a debt of gratitude for his sagacity and promptness, as it does also to the other gentlemen connected with its affairs, for their efficiency.
On the 19th of August a party of engineers, under Col. O. Chanute, com- menced a new survey of the river for the bridge. On the 10th of November Col. Kearney began to advertise for materials for the bridge, and on the Ist of December he let contracts for its construction to Messrs. Vipont & Walker.
The securing a charter for a bridge, and the activity in organizing for its con- struction, caused the North Missouri Railroad Company to determine in August to terminate its western branch at Kansas City instead of Leavenworth, as it had proposed, and in October it let the contract for the immediate construction of the road to J. Condit Smith.
Meantime, August 22d, the favorable situation in which the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad had been placed by the land grant and charter through the Indian Territory, it was enabled to contract for the building of the road, and Col. A. H. Waterman & Co. were engaged to build the first hundred miles.
ST. LOUIS OPENS THE FIGHT ON KANSAS CITY.
With the concentration of railroads at Kansas City, the town began to grow rapidly. The immigration to Kansas at the close of the war was immense, and its trade demands were in proportion to its magnitude. More wholesale houses began to be opened, street improvements became active and rapid, and the devel- opment of the city began to be something unparalleled in American annals. It is stated by the Journal of Commerce, that during the years 1865 and 1866, not less than six hundred new houses were built.
This rapid growth, the concentration of railroads and business, alarmed St. Louis as early as 1865, and was the cause of her falling so readily into Senator Lane's railroad schemes. In 1866 she became much more frightened, and did all
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she could to foster the Pleasant Hill and Lawrence Railroad scheme, as a means of cutting off trade from this city. Her people owned the controlling interest in the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and at once began to use that line, which the people of Kansas City had labored so long and so earnestly in securing, into a means of oppression. In the summer of 1866 an arrangement was effected, based osten- sibly on wash-outs on the road between Kansas City and Lawrence, whereby all freights for points west of Lawrence were taken by way of Leavenworth instead of being transferred here, and at the same time more favorable rates were given Leavenworth than to Kansas City. Passenger fares were but fifty cents more between Leavenworth and St. Louis than between Kansas City and St. Louis. Kansas City was astonished to find that she had no sooner distanced the rivalry of Leavenworth, than she found St. Louis, her old friend, assuming the role the latter had been compelled to abandon. This fight has never ceased, but Kansas City has steadily gained, and the issue will be manifestly the same as in the case with all others. It is but a question of time.
TRADE AND PROGRESS.
At the beginning of the year 1867, the city council appointed a committee to compile a statement of the trade and progress of the city for 1866. This com- mittee soon afterward reported as follows :
Population 15,064
Buildings erected, 768, costing $2, 166,500
Total trade, all lines 33,006, 827
There were at that time in the city fourteen churches, two colleges, two academies, twelve primary schools, twenty-one dry goods houses, eighty grocery houses, thirteen clothing, eight liquor, fifteen boots and shoes, eight hotels, two daily papers and three weeklies, seven miles macadamized streets, and there were three railroads in operation, all terminating here-the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific, Eastern division, and the Missouri River. This latter road connected Kansas City and Leavenworth, and has since become a part of the Missouri Pacific.
On the 12th of March the Legislature, in amending the charter, defined the wards. The first was all east of Delaware street and north of Ninth, the second all east of Main street and south of Ninth, and the third all west of Main and Delaware streets.
THE CAMERON RAILROAD IN 1867.
On the 12th of March, 1864, the name of the Kansas City, Lake Superior & Galveston Railroad was changed to Kansas City & Cameron. The begin- ning of the year 1867 saw the company still lacking the means to complete the line. Col. Kearney and others went to Chicago to market $100,000 of Kansas City bonds, when they and Kansas City were violently attacked by the St. Louis press. In February they procured authority from the Missouri Legislature to mortgage the road, and succeeded in mortgaging it to the Hannibal & St. Joseph and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy companies. This, however, did not release the company from the necessity of raising the thirty thousand dollars which the people of Jackson county outside of Kansas City had once voted down, so the company got the proposition before them again March 19th, and it was again defeated. Mr. Joy then came forward with a proposition to take the road off of their hands release the people from the $60, 000 they had subscribed, and com- plete the road by November 31st, on condition that the city and Clay county would release to him the stock it held in the company. The city attempted to overcome the difficulty by an appropriation of $60,000, which was made in May, but it seemed not to meet the case, and in July it transferred its stock as Mr. Joy had proposed. From this time forward the work went on rapidly. The corner
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stone of the bridge was laid August 21st, and on the 22d of November the last rail of the road was laid, Col. Kearney, president of the company, and Mr. Gillis, the oldest citizen of Kansas City, driving the last spike. This was an occasion of great rejoicing. Col. Kearney sent congratulatory messages to the Board of Trade, Chicago, and the Chamber of Commerce, St. Louis. The former sent a warm response, but the latter did not respond at all. On the 21st of February, 1870, this road was consolidated with the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and soon after- ward became the main line of that road.
OTHER ROADS.
In the early part of 1867 Leavenworth attempted to get some legislation through the Missouri Legislature that would make the terminus of both the Platte county and North Missouri roads at that place, and to get an appropriation of half a million dollars through the Kansas Legislature for a bridge there. But this was promptly defeated in both places. In March the several roads known as the Atchison & Weston and Atchison & St. Joseph and St. Joseph & Savannah were consolidated by act of the Missouri Legislature under the name of the Platte Country Railroad, and authorized to build a railroad from Kansas City by St. Joseph to the Iowa line in the direction of Council Bluffs, and to build a branch from St. Joseph by Savannah to the Iowa line in the direction of Des- Moines.
OTHER INTERESTS.
The city grew rapidly during 1867, but there was no reliable report of its progress published. In February of that year the First National bank was re-or- ganized, with Howard M. Holden as cashier, and immediately entered upon that career of usefulness and prosperity for which it was so well known, and which raised its capital-then $100,000-to $500,000, Mr. Holden showed himself to be a courteous gentleman and a sagacious banker, and gained the confidence of all with whom he came in contact usually at the first meeting, and he soon became closely identified with the business movements and operations of the city. In its subsequent development he exerted a potent influence, as the sequel will show.
In April Messrs. Foster & Wilder became proprietors of the Journal of Com- merce, and that same month Mr. Thomas Pratt, of St. Louis, came to the city and purchased the franchise and charter of a gas company that had been formed, and went immediately to work to build the works. In July the people voted an appropriation for lighting the streets, and the works were put into operation in October.
By act of March 12th, 1867 the city limits were again changed, the west line being the State line from the river south to 22d street, the south line 22d street from the State line east to Troost avenue, the east line Troost avenue, north to 12th street, thence east to Lydia avenue, thence north to Independence ave- nue, and thence by the Quarter Section line to the river, which constituted the northern boundary. At the same time the city was divided into four wards. The first embraced that part of the city east of Main street between the river and Ioth street. The second embraced that part east of Main street and south of Ioth street. The third embraced all south of roth and west of Main street, and the fourth all west of Main street and north of roth street.
THE SCHOOLS.
The school system of Missouri had been completely destroyed by the war, and the rankling passions engendered by that struggle, made the people slow to re-organize it, when the Legislature in 1865 adopted laws for that purpose. On the 15th and 18th of March 1866 the Legislature had enacted other laws pro- viding for the establishment of schools in cities, towns and villages, with special
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
privileges, but it was not until the Ist of August 1867, that the Kansas City Board of Education was organized under the authority of these acts. The first Board was composed of W. E. Sheffield, President; H. C. Kumpf, Secreta- ry ; J. A. Bachman, Treasurer; E. H. Allen, T. B. Lester and E. H. Spalding ; J. B. Bradley, Superintendent and Teacher in Central School.
Immediately after the organization of the Board, Mr. Kumpf retired, and Mr. A. A. Bainbridge was chosen to fill the vacancy. There were at this time 2, 150 children of school age, living within the limits of the school district. There was not a public school building in the city. Disorganization reigned supreme. The city was utterly destitute of all school accommodations, and there was not a dollar available for school expenses. The buildings that could be rented for school purposes were old deserted dwellings, unoccupied store rooms and damp, gloomy basements in some of the churches. But the Board was in earnest, and every effort was made to put the schools in operation. In October, 1867, the schools were formally opened in rented rooms, which had been hastily and scantily furnished. Into these unattractive abodes the children were huddled together to receive instruction. A superintendent and sixteen teachers were employed during the year, but as no statistics of the school work are found in the records, it is impossible to give a satisfactory account of what was done. If the work in the schools was unsatisfactory, the energy of the Board was unabated. Preparations for a grand work continued. Sites were purchased, bonds issued and school-houses erected. The rapid and marvelous growth of the city, while it brought a large influx to the school population, did not produce a corresponding increase in the valuation of the taxable property of the district.
The next two or three years were years of great activity with the School Board. During 1868 it built the Washington, Humboldt and Franklin Schools; in 1869 it added the Central and Lincoln; in 1870 the Lathrop and Benton ; and in 1871 the Woodland. These have since been enlarged and others added as the increase of school population has required.
THE LOUISIANA RAILROAD.
About the middle of January, 1868, information was received in this city, that a company had procured a charter for a railroad from Louisiana, Mo., to Kansas City, and in March, 1868, parties arrived in the city to ask the people to take an interest in it, and in June the people voted it $250,000 aid Toward the close of the year, the company got the Chicago & Alton Railroad, of Illi- nois, interested in the project, and the line was speedily constructed from Louis- iana to Mexico, where it connected with the North Missouri Railroad. Owing to some difficulty about the issue of bonds in some of the counties, the balance of the road was not built at that time. The Chicago & Alton built a fine bridge across the Mississippi, at Louisiana, and operated through from Kansas City to Chicago over the track of the North Missouri until 1878 when it was built through to Kansas City.
KANSAS CITY AND SANTA FE.
At the session of the Kansas Legislature in 1868, a charter was procured for a railroad from Kansas City to Santa Fe, and in March the company was organ- ized at Olathe, with Col. J. E. Hays president, and Gen. W. H. Morgan, of Kansas City, secretary and treasurer, and books were opened for subscription of stock at the First National Bank on the 5th of June. In July the company was re-organized. P. P. Elder, president; Gen. W. H. Morgan, secretary, and Col. J. E Hays, treasurer.
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THE FT. SCOTT AND GULF.
When the Cherokee neutral lands were obtained by treaty, and ordered sold for the benefit of the Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, James F. Joy became inter- ested in the road and bought the land. In the spring of 1868 the American Immigrant company of Connecticut set up a claim to the lands, under a previous sale made by Secretary Harlan, but the difficulty was soon harmonized by assign- ment of their claims to Mr. Joy and the negotiation of a new treaty, which was approved by the senate in June, 1868. On the 15th of June, 1868, the city council of Kansas City relinquished to Mr. Joy its interest in the road, and on the 12th of December, that year, it was finished to Olathe; and to Fort Scott in December, 1869.
THE L., L. & G. R. R.
This road had been finished to Ottawa by the first of January, 1868. In May it received, by treaty with the Osage Indians, 8,000, 000 acres of land, upon which there was already much settlement. This was the origin of the Osage ceded land difficulty, which was not settled until 1876 when the United States Supreme Court decided it in favor of the people.
In November, 1868, the Neosho Valley Railroad Company put one hundred and seventy-five miles of their line under contract from Junction City.
THE NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD.
This line of road had been pushed quietly but rapidly through the year 1868, and on the Ist day of December the last rail was laid at the connection with the track of the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad, thus adding to our city a fifth road. The Kansas City & Cameron road soon became merged with the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and took that name; so that at the close of the year 1868, there were completed, the Missouri Pacific, the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and the North Missouri (now Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific), from the east; the Missouri River to the west was completed, terminating at Leavenworth; the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Road was in operation to Olathe, and the Union Pacific East- ern Division was operating to Sheridan, four hundred and five miles west of Kansas City, and but two hundred and twenty miles from Denver.
At the close of the year, the population was estimated at 28,000, and there had been 2, 000 houses built that year, which shows it to have been one of great activity and progress.
THE PROGRESS OF 1869.
In January, 1869, Colonel Coates laid the foundations of Coates Opera House, and the City Council chartered the Jackson County and Broadway Horse Rail- road Companies. In February a Board of Trade was organized, with T. K. Hanna, Esq., as president, D. M. Keen, secretary, and H. M. Holden; treasurer. This organization was rendered necessary, by the old Chamber of Commerce having ceased to exist; and during the year it was a most valuable organization. In March, the Paola & Fall River Railroad Company was organized. It had a spasmodic existence for several years, and graded part of the road between Paola and Garnett. This line was built from Paola to Leroy in 1880, as a branch of the Missouri Pacific, at which time the Holden and Paola Branch of that road was extended from Paola to Ottawa.
The Missouri Valley Railroad (now Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs) was completed February 27, and opened March Ist, making Kansas City's seventh railroad.
In March, the Missouri Pacific Railroad took an interest in the Pleasant Hill & Lawrence Railroad, and in June it was under contract. In March the city council submitted to the people an ordinance to aid the Kansas City & Santa Fe
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Railroad to the extent of $100,ooo between Kansas City and Ottawa, but it was voted down, because the people understood that Mr. Joy was interested in it, and intended to build it anyhow. This was found to be a mistake. In April contracts were let for building the Leavenworth & Atchison Railroad, and for the Atchison & Nebraska Railroad. On the 3d of that month, Kansas City, Kansas, was laid out, and on the 6th, the last stone on the Missouri River bridge was laid. Between that time and the 3d of July, the superstructure was put on, and the bridge was opened on the 3d with a celebration ; the first bridge on the Mis- souri River. In May, the Missouri Pacific Railroad began the agitation of a St. Louis and Santa Fe Railroad, to start from Holden, on their line, and run through Paola. Toward the latter part of the month, it was taken hold of by Colonel R. S. Stevens, and called the Missouri, Kansas & Albuquerque. It has since been built from Holden to Ottawa, and is operated as one of the Missouri Pacific cut- offs.
On the 3Ist of May, the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad was completed to Paola. In June Mr. Joy became identified with the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, and the company was re-organized, after which it was pushed forward rapidly. The Missouri Pacific Railroad was originally built on what is known as the broad gauge, and on the 18th of July, it was changed the entire length of its line to the standard gauge. On the 7th of Au- gust the council again submitted to the people a proposition to vote $100,000 to the Kansas City & Santa Fe Railroad, of which $25, 000 was to be expended in building a switch to the southern part of the city, and the balance on the line, between Olathe and Ottawa. This proposition was carried, and in October the line was surveyed. The foundations of the Nelson House, on the corner of Sec- ond and Main streets, were laid in the spring of 1869. Work was stopped on it in the fall, and it was sold the next year to the County Court, and was finished up in 1870 and 1871 as a County Court House.
During the year 1869 the growth of the city was rapid, and great improve- ment was made on the streets. There was also much discussion of the water works question, and a company was formed to build the works.
KANSAS CITY & MEMPHIS RAILROAD.
Early in the year there began to be a great deal of discussion relative to the building of a railroad to Memphis, and on the 26th of August a large convention was held at Springfield for the purpose of setting the enterprise in motion. Only a temporary organization was here effected, but afterward, Oct. 19, another meet- ing was held at Kansas City, at which all the parties interested, including the counties in Missouri through which the road would run, Arkansas, and the city of Memphis, were represented. At this meeting an organization was effected, under the provisions of the charter of the Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Supe- rior Railroad, procured by Col. Van Horn in 1857. It was under the same char- ter that the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad was built. The directors elected at this meeting were A. H. Humphreys, E. D. Harper, W. P. Cox, W. L. Strong, W. B. Nichols, G. W. Jones, J. M. Richardson, S. S. Burdett, W. P. Johnson, Col. A. A. Tomlinson, Col. C. E. Kearney, Col. R. T. Van Horn, C. M. Ferree and Col. J. D. Williamson.
In September, 1869, several companies in Missouri and Iowa were consoli- dated under the name of the Chicago & Southwestern Railroad Company, the object of which was to build a railroad from Davenport, Iowa, to the Missouri River. The line has since been built by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, and has one branch terminating at Atchison, and another at Leavenworth, while it makes connections to Kansas City over the Hannibal & St. Joseph from Cameron.
In November, 1869, the Kansas City College of Physicians and Surgeons
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was founded and incorporated ; and in December the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad was surveyed from Atchison to Topeka. This same month the Mis- souri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad reached Fort Scott, beyond which its progress was retarded by a league among the settlers on the Cherokee Neutral lands opposed to its progress, and by which the laborers were driven off. The Neosho Valley Railroad, now part of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, was finished between Junction City and Emporia that month also.
The Union Pacific, eastern division, by which name the Pacific Railroad from Kansas City had been called, had its name changed in March, 1869, to Kansas Pacific. Its bond subsidy extended only to Sheridan, and for nearly a year it stopped at that place, but in 1869 it effected arrangements for the construction of the line to Denver, and grading was resumed in the latter part of 1869.
AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
The year 1869 was one of the most prosperous in the history of Kansas City. Her business was rapidly extended with the extension of her railroad lines, and the extent to which building was done, was scarcely less than in 1868. Her population had increased to thirty thousand, and she had that year made four and a half miles of street. She had seven railroads in operation, three of which were yet unfinished, but progressing rapidly. These were the Missouri Pacific, the North Missouri, the Platte Country, the Missouri River, completed. The Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf, to Fort Scott, the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, nearly to Garnett, and the Kansas Pacific to Sheridan. At this time she was so much in the lead that the rivalry between her and other Missouri valley cities was rapidly ceasing.
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