The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches, Part 55

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882]
Publisher: [n.p.
Number of Pages: 1154

USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 55

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A telephone wire runs to the water works, another runs to the farm of R. W. Gentry, both places three miles from the city; all the railroad offices and shops, banks, hotels, etc., have their telephones. The terrible sleet storm of 1882 destroyed or injured almost every wire in the city. When the work of repairing them was completed, at a great expense, about $2,000, Mr. Anderson, the manager, received an offer from the Missouri Telephone Company. On the 15th day of May, 1882, he sold his fran- chise to the above company, and the Telephone Exchange, of Sedalia, is now run by the above company.

SICHER'S PARK.

This is one of the finest public or private enterprises in the city. It contains fifty acres of beautiful prairie land, a half mile west of Ohio street, and is reached by the street railway. The grounds belonged to

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HISTORY OF SEDALJA.

the Fair Association until 1880, when they were purchased by Messrs Joseph D. and Frank E. Sicher, for the sum of $10,000. When the ground was purchased, the improvements on it consisted of a board fence around the outside, a mile track around the amphitheatre, and one or two rough board buildings. In the past two years $30,000 has been expended in improving and beautifying it, and it has been transformed. First a splendid hotel has been erected in the center of the park. It contains the most spacious hall in all Central Missouri, and this is used for a din- ing room and an amusement hall. The Sedalia fair is also held on these grounds. Therefore all buildings necessary for such purposes have been constructed. There is a splendid mile track and a half mile track. The grand stand will seat 5,000 people. Five hundred people can be seated at dinner, at one time, in the dining room of the hotel. The floral hall, the agricultural implement and machinery pavilion, the farm products hall are all spacious and handsome buildings, erected for the express pur- pose of public exhibitions. There are numerous refreshment stands, band pagoda, directors' and secretary's buildings; in short, all the conven- iences to be expected in a first class park or fair grounds. The grounds contain also a beautiful lake of five acres, with an island containing one acre; several wind mills pump water from deep bored wells. There are two enormous ice houses on the banks of the lake. Besides the wells and wind mills, the grounds have a main pipe leading from the city through which an additional supply of water is received from the city water works. The grounds have been filled with shade trees, and around the hotel laid off in flower beds and covered with arbors and ornamental shrubbery. There are 250 sheep pens, 150 covered stalls, and 120 open stalls for cattle. The park hotel is lighted by gas; has hot and cold water, and all other modern improvements; a fine restaurant, and is now the popular resort. During all seasons of the year, there are public and pri- vate parties there; balls, school exhibitions, concerts, roller skating, base ball games, races, military parades, and similar amusements. This is the only institution of the kind in Central Missouri, and it is becoming more beautiful and more popular every day. It shows at once the metropolitan character which the city has begun to assume.

In 1881, Cricket Still, of Kansas, and Nellie Archer, of Greenridge, Pettis County, Mo., rode three twenty mile races at the park. These were the most remarkable contests ever witnessed in the city. All three were won by Miss Archer. Ten thousand people witnessed the first race.

SMITH'S OPERA HOUSE.

Was built in 1867-8, by Gen. George R. Smith. It is 141 feet long, sixty feet wide, and has a seating capacity of 400 on the main floor, and

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

a gallery running around the entire auditoriu, which will accommodate 400 more. The stage is twenty-five feet deep, and thirty-five feet wide. There are four private boxes which will each accommodate six persons. Beneath the stage are large dressing rooms for ladies and gentlemen. The hall has a front and a back entrance, and is on the second floor of the building. On the second floor, in front of each side of the entrance stairway is a spacious office. On the ground floor are two store rooms, each thirty-five foot front, and 141 feet deep. The entire building is lighted by gas, aud has windows in the rear and on both sides of the building. The ceilings are beutifully frescoed and the drop curtain is one of the finest pieces of painting in Central Missouri. The building cost originally $25,000, and in 1881, improvements and changes were made upon it, which cost $2,500. The Opera House is the property of Mrs. Cotton and Mrs. Smith, daughters, of Gen. Smith.

THE FREE READING ROOM.

This institution is now located in White's building, on Ohio street. It is the out-growth of the old library association, which was organized in the middle of March, 1871, by Dr. Shattuck, Col. Jaynes, S. L. Highley- man. Chas. G. Taylor, Jno. Montgomery, Jr., Prof. G. W. Ready, Judge Jno. S. Cochrane, and other. This old association languished in a short time, after having done an immense amount of good, and started the most important of all city projects, the building of the water works. After lying inactive for about five years the association was re-organized in 1679 by twenty-five ladies, and continued by them until 1880. In 1880 thirty- eight prominent citizens of the city made a written agreement to give a certain fixed annual subscription. This made it solid.

In 1880 there were three hundred volumes in the library, besides many periodicals and newspapers.

In 1881 there were six hundred volumes, an increase of three hundred. and a large addition likewise to periodicals and newspapers.

Expenses in 1880

$ 305

in 1881 $ 300

Visitors and readers in 1880

350

Visitors and readers in 1881

470

Decrease in expense

$ 5

Increase of readers and visitors 190

The readers are increasing as the value and size of the library augments This will grow to something larger. Thanks to the liberality of a few public spirited citizens who are intelligent enough to know what a power- ful means for good such an institution is, and to the untiring, unselfish, and unflagging labor of a few earnest and influential women, it is a fixed fact, prosperous and growing.

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

The ladies who have taken the most active part in the support and man- agement of the institution are Mrs. John G. Allen, Mrs. J. H. Mertz, Mrs. F. A. Sampson, Mrs. L. A. Ross, Mrs. C. Demuth, Mrs. M. E. Smith, and Mrs. Joseph G. White.

CHAPTER VII .- COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ENTER- PRISES.

History of the Railroads and the Machine Shops-Statistical Facts as to Number of Employes and Amount of Money Expended-The Postoffice-History and Business- Banks-Hotels-County Buildings-Flouring and Other Mills-Elevators-Manu- factories-Telegraph Office-Brewery-Building Associations-Insurance Offices- Lumber and Coal Yards-Histories of all Above Institutions, together with Valuable Figures Concerning the Value of Buildings and the Amount of Business Done, and Reliable Digest of Figures Concerning Specific Lines of Business.

From the time that Sedalia was founded nature and circumstances seem to have united to confer favors upon her. In the first place the founder of the city was a wise, hard-headed, far-seeing man. He chose.a garden spot in almost the centre of a great continent as the site of his town; then the war came on, and hundreds of men from north and south, east and west, saw the spot and learned that it would be a good place "to cast in their lot;" then, when the war was over, the new people of energy and intelli- gence flocked in to help those who were already here; then the people built railroads, and all these advantages combined have made Sedalia a great business center within fifteen years.

The city had four hundred inhabitants and twenty business houses six months after the arrival of the railroad.

As early as 1863 the wholesale trade of the few houses furnished sup- plies to the south and southwest, amounting to half a million dollars.

In 1865 the population of the town had increased to one thousand, and the business of the town had increased four fold; the town contained two newspapers, one hotel, that alone did a business of nearly $48,000 per annum, and at least four times as many business houses as in 1861.

In 1866 there was at least $250,000 expended on new buildings; there was an increase of five hundred in population. Our first National Bank with a capital of $100,000 was established; churches were built; additions were made to the city, and the town was recognized as the business center of Central Missouri.

From the close of the war until the present time, the town has rapidly advanced in all respects. To-day the city has a population of fifteen thousand, personal and real property assessed at $2,681,310, but in reality worth at commercial estimates six or seven million dollars; eighteen Church buildings, and nineteen congregations; school property, public and

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

private, worth $100,000; three thousand and six hundred and sixty-seven school children. Now, in the year 1$82, the city is growing with as great rapidity and with as much solidity as it ever has since its founding.

Nothing is more convincing to the practical people of the present day then facts and figures. A digest of facts and figures will be given before entering upon a detailed account of the business institutions.

The following table of figures was prepared by the writer of this history under the direction of the "citizens committee,"-Col. A. D. Jaynes, J. R. Barrett and O. A. Crandall-which was chosen to visit Washington and lay before a committee of Congress Sedalia's claims for an appro- priation to build a postoffice edifice.

STATISTICS OF THE CITY OF SEDALIA, MO.

Prepared in May, 1882, by the proper authorities, and showing the extent of her various business interests, population, value of assessable property, etc.

SEDALIA POST OFFICE. (Compiled from Official Statements.)

Gross receipts of office from the sale of stamps, postal cards, wraps, etc., and from money orders issued: 1878, $86,628; 1879, $95,628; $1880: $108,805.

Increase in above items of gross receipts from Jan. 1, 1878, to Jan. 1, 1881, $22,786.

Total amounts of money handled in office, by sale of stamps, postal cards, envelopes, wraps, foreign and domestic money orders, etc., etc., 1878, $152,862; 1879, $175,825; 1880, 196,377; 1881, $192,904.74.

Increase in amounts handled from Jan. 1, 1878, to Jan. 1, 1881, $44,515. Increase from Jan. 1, 1878, to Jan. 1, 1882, $40,042.74.

Total number of pieces of mail originating in the Sedalia office based on the official count made-seven days in Dec., 1880, $1,329,000.

Excess over 1880, very large.

Total number of registered letters handled: 1878, 11,281; 1879, 13,752; 1880, 17,030.

Increase in number from Jan. 1, 1878, to Jan. 1, 1881, 5,759.

Net proceeds to the Post Office Department from the Sedalia office, in 1880, $13,907.

Increase in money order business in first quarter of 1882, over first quar- ter in 1SS1, $964.91.

BUILDINGS, ADDITIONS, IMPROVEMENTS.

( The data for the following statements were gathered by an expert, who made a careful personal canvass of the entire city and subject.)

Money spent by citizens of Sedalia for the erection of new buildings,

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

additions, repairs, and general improvements, including the money sub- scribed to build the Sedalia, Warsaw & Southern Railroad in 1880, $500,000.

For buildings, additions and general improvements alone, including improvements by R. R. Co. in 1881, $615,000.

For same from Jan. 1, 1882, to May 1, 1882, $80,000.

Grand total for two years and four months, $1,195,000.

RAILROADS.

(Copied from official figures furnished by Heads of Departments in Sedalia.)

Total value of railroad property in Sedalia, including real estate, Mis- souri Pacific Railroad shops, K. & T. Division shops, General Hospital, Superintendent's and Dispatcher's offices, Union Stock Yards and miscel- laneous buildings, $250,000.

Number of men employed in Sedalia by Railroad Companies: 1880, 362; 1881, 562; increase, 200.

ITEMIZED STATEMENT OF VALUE OF VARIOUS RAILROAD PROPERTY.

New brick shops in course of erection, $20,000; Missouri Pacific Shops and machinery, $75,000; K. & T. Division Shops and machinery, $50,000; General Superintendent's Office, $20,000; General Hospital, $30,000; other buildings, $15,000. Total, $210,000.

APPROXIMATION.

Cash receipts for freight received at this station in 1881, $240,000; cash receipts for freight shipped from city in 1881, $140,000. Total receipts in Sedalia for freights, 1881, $380,000.

GRAND AGGREGATE, 1881.

Total amount spent for material in all departments, $230,000; total expended for labor in Sedalia, in all departments, 1881, $496,000; Amount spent for new buildings, yards, etc, 1881, $40,000. Grand total for 1881, $766,000.

Tickets sold at Sedalia Depot in 1880, $83,717.45; in 1881, $111,126.10. Increase in sale of tickets in one year, $27,408.65.

BANKS.

Cash capital, $300,100; cash deposits, as per statements made Jan. 1, 1882, $834,545.37.

BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS.

In 1882, assessed value of capital, $182,554.

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS.

(From Oficial Reports of City Oficers.)

Population in 1882, according to the number of school children listed by the agent of the School Board, 15,584; number of school children, 3,667; expended on grading, etc., of streets and alleys in 1881, $35,079.95; on new water mains, $5,700; by Sewer Companies, $4,000; for new Water Works Dam, $10,000; assessed value of real and personal property in 1881, $2,373,124; same in 1882, $2,681,310; increase in assessed value of real and personal property in one year, $308,186; Paid in to City Treas- urer for special licenses alone, 1881, $10,304.39.

CITY AND COUNTY ASSESSMENTS AND COMMERCIAL VALUE.

(From Official Statements.)

Assessed value of real and personal property in the County in 1881, $7,139,774; assessed value of real and personal property in the County in 1882, $8,102,011; increase in 1882, $962,230; assessed value of real and personal property in City in 1881, $2,681,310; increase in one year, $308,- 186.

Commercial values of personal and real property in this City and County are double the assessed values.

Commercial value City property in 1882, $5,362,620; commercial value of same in County in 1882, $16,204,022.

MISCELLANEOUS.

(Compiled from Data gathered by an Expert by a careful Personal Canvass.)

Wholesale trade of Sedalia in 1881, $2,500,000; live stock shipped from Sedalia by local and county dealers, $2,000,000; trade of mills and grain, $372,000; retail grocery trade, $500,000; hides, wool and furs, $130,000; saloon business, $200,000; Expenditures by the Street Railway Company, $15,000; Expended by the Sedalia Gas Light Company, for new build- ings, apparatus, reservoirs, mains, furnaces, etc., in 1880-81, $48,000; by Sicher Bros., on the Driving Park, Park Hotel, etc., $25,000.

The sources from which the above figures were gathered are reliable. They have also been compiled by an expert and reliable party. To the best of my knowledge and belief they are correct and fair estimates.

C. E. MESSERLY, Mayor of Sedalia, Mo.

THE RAILROADS.

Sedalia has been greatly assisted in her growth and prosperity by her railroads. She does not depend on them altogether, for there is enough in the country itself to make the place prosperous, still it is now a great rail- road center. The enormous machine shops, which employ such a large

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

force and consume so much material, are the largest institutions in the city. The railroads, therefore, first deserve attention.

From Sedalia to St. Louis by the Missouri Pacific Railroad the distance is 189 miles; from Sedalia to Kansas City, ninety-one miles; from Sedalia to Lexington and the Missouri, fifty-two miles; from Sedalia to Hannibal and the Mississippi River, 143 miles; from Sedalia to Chicago, 366 miles; from Sedalia to Denison, Texas, 433 miles.

LEXINGTON & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD.

In 1858 a corporation, known as the Lexington & St. Louis Railroad Company, secured a charter from the State to build a road from Lexing- ton, Lafayette County, to a point on the Pacific Railroad, at or near Georgetown, then the county seat of Pettis. When the charter was granted, it was the general belief that Georgetown would be on the line of the Pacific Road, but when the road was located where it runs, leaving Georgetown three miles to the north, it was determined to run the L. & St. L. R. R. through Georgetown to intersect the Pacific Railroad at Farmers City, six miles east of where Sedalia now stands. Considerable work was done upon this route in 1859-60, and Farmers City bid fair to be what Sedalia is now. Then the war came on and the work was abandoned. When the war closed Sedalia had become the prominent town of Pettis County, being the base of supplies (after the completion of the Pacific Road in 1861) for armies operating in western and southwest Missouri.

In 1867 the old Lexington & St. Louis Railroad Company was reorgan- ized, and after a long and bitter contest, Sedalia was fixed upon as the point of intersection on the Pacific Railroad, and in June of 1869 the matter was finally settled and a complete organization effected. The unexpended bonds of Lafayette County issued to the old corporation were transferred to the new, and a liberal fund subscribed by the county court. On the 6th of March Pettis County also voted for an ample sub- scription to build the roadbed through Pettis County to the Lafayette County line. April 11 ground was broken in Sedalia and a grand demon- stration made, and a large force put to work and good progress made before the winter of 1869 set in. Sedalia at once made rapid strides towards greatness. The certainty of becoming a railroad center induced hundreds to locate here, and improvements increased on every side. Money was plentiful and merchants and mechanics were doing a lucrative business. The road was finished and opened to the public in 1871, and it is reckoned as the best paying road for its length in the west. It runs from Sedalia to Lexington, a distance of fifty-five miles, over some of the richest and most beautiful prairie country in Missouri. The products of Lafayette, Saline and the northwest portion of Pettis find an outlet to

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

market over this road. It was operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, with two trains per day running each way, from a short time after it was completed. It was subsequently sold to the Missouri Pacific Railroad, when the Pacific was under the control of Commodore Garrison. When Gould bought the Missouri Pacific it became a part of that system, and is now known as the Lexington branch of the Missouri Pacific. Hughesville and Houstonia, two villages in Pettis County and on the line of the road, have grown up and became permanently estab- lished since the building of the road.

THE M., K. & T. RAILWAY.

By an act of the Legislature of Missouri, passed March 20, 1860, a charter was granted the Tebo & Neosho Railroad Company. The pro- jectois of this road hoped to build a road from Neosho, Newton County, then a prominent point in the southwest, to run in a northeasterly direc- tion, and intersect the Missouri Pacific at a point somewhere near the "high points of the Tebo," which it was then thought would be the line of the river route of the Pacific. The war came on, and during the excite- ment and turmoil this project was almost forgotten.

When the war closed a new class of people flowed in and filled up the country ; people alive to all important enterprises. The town of Neosho had been ruined by the ravages of war, and was no longer a place of importance. A number of parties resurrected the old charter, and went to work to have it so changed and amended as to authorize the building of a road through about the same section of country, but with different points of terminus.

The Legislature in March, 1866, so amended the charter as to author- ize the Tebo & Neosho Railway Company to build a line from Fort Scott, Kansas, to run northeast, and cut the Missouri Pacific at a point west of the Lamine River, which is eighteen miles east of the present city of Sedalia, and Muddy Creek, which is due north and east of Sedalia. The exact point of intersection was not designated because the managers thought they could get a large subscripton from Sadalia, if they ran the line through the city. Col. Thomas L. Wilson was the leader of this scheme, and made a horse-back survey of the proposed line. After a great deal of preliminary figuring, promises, threats and plans, the citizens of Sedalia voted to subscribe $50,000 to the stock in the year 1866. Col. Wilson, the first president, did not seem to have the necessary confidence of the people, and the city refused to turn over the $50,000 until they knew what would be done with it.

In 1866, in the month of May, Col. Asa C. Marvin of Sedalia was elected president of the company. He had been an old and respected citizen of Henry County, Mo., was in the Union army of this section during

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

the war, was provost marshal of Sedalia, and was known to be a man of business tact and energy and the strictest probity. This fact awakened the confidence of the people all along the proposed line, and the people of Sedelia knew Col. Marvin so well that they at once turned over to him the $50,000 in bonds. Work was actually begun on the road in June, 1867, at Fort Scott, Kan. In September, 1867, "ground was broken " at Sedalia, with formal ceremonies and amidst much rejoicing. A small force of men was kept constantly at work in Pettis and Henry Counties, Mo., until more money could be procured from the other counties. The president made a report in September, 1868, telling what had been accom- plished since the start, and this report was most encouraging to all.

In July, 1867, the following amounts had been subscribed for the road: Bourbon County, Kan., $150,000; Henry County, Mo., $150,000; Seda- lia, $50,000; private subscriptions, $60,000; Fort Scott, Kan., $50,000; Clinton, Mo., $25,000. Total amount, $615,000. All this sum was expended in grading the road-bed, and as yet no provision had been made to purchase iron and rolling stock.

Pettis County now subscribed $75,000 for the building of the N. E. extension to Boonville.

It now became necessary to do something for the extension of the road northeast from Sedalia to intersect the then North Missouri Railroad at or near Moberly, Mo. It was almost as easy to get a county to issue bonds in those days as it was for a spendthrift to give his note. The counties along the proposed Northeastern Extension all subscribed with prompt liberality and gave their county bounds to the road. In 1868, work was commenced on this extension.

Over one hundred miles of road-bed had been completed at the begin- ning of 1869. But still no provision had been made for buying the iron and rolling stock. The people began to think that they would be called on for more money or bonds, as the only way out of the dilemma. Some predicted that a train would never run over what was built. The faint- hearted and short-sighted croaked and grumbled. But so much energy, time and money had been spent that there was 100 miles of splendid road- bed through a rich country and that was too valuable to be abandoned. The managers knew that. Eastern capitalists knew that likewise.

In October, 1869, The Union Trust & Loan Company of New York entered into a contract to complete the road, iron and stock and operate it. The name of the road was at the same time changed to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. This name it held for ten years, until 1881, when it was bought by Jay Gould and is now called the Kansas & Texas Division of the Missouri Pacific Railway.

This company had a grander scheme in view than the mere completion of the road, between Moberly, on the north, and Fort Scott on the south,

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HISTORY OF SEDALIA.

as shown by their subsequent acts. They laid their plans to run it north to Hannibal and the Mississippi River, there to connect with the great north- west system of railroads that run to Chicago and the great lakes. The next move was to get the right of way through the Indian Territory. They got it by an energy and sagacity that showed they were masters of the situation.

The next thing they had to do was to build the road to the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas. This made the only grand diagonal line of road through the west central part of the United States from the great lakes to the gulf, and left Sedalia the centre of this grand trunk line.

The company had millions of money and the ablest men to manage it. And as soon as they took hold of it the line was alive with men to com- plete it. Col. Marvin had done wonders with the means at his command, and deserves much honor for it, posthumous though it be.

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The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches, Part 55

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald Publication date: 1882] Publisher: [n.p. Number of Pages: 1154

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882]
Publisher: [n.p.
Number of Pages: 1154