Kansas City, Missouri

“ It was at one time known as T'Vault Creek for W. G. TÄVault, Oregon's pioneer editor, who lived at Dardanelles, near what is now Gold Hill.
KANSAS CITY, Washington County. Kansas City is the name of a crossroads community about six miles north-northwest of Forest Grove. It is said that the name was applied because some settlers from Kansas City, Missouri, established themselves there. The writer has not been able to find the name Kansas City on the Washington County post office list and apparently the locality never had a post office called Kansas City. ”

“ There are no large towns on the Madison branch, either in Kansas or Missouri, and the country which that branch serves is largely agricultural, Kansas City being the nearest and most natural market for the products of the territory. ”

“ Passing trains whistled loudly and frequently. The shores became more populated.
“Two miles more and we’ll round to full view of Kansas City, young men,” said he. “We’ve crossed the whole and entire state of Missouri, three hundred and ninety miles—from one great city to another great one.
“St. Louis—Kansas City! Each in her day has been the Gate to the West. In 1847, Independence, over to the left, was going back, and even the new boat landing of Westport was within the year to be called Kansas City. ”

“ The great elevated railway, a wonderful structure, which connects Kansas City, Missouri, with Wyandotte, is owned and managed by men of Kansas City, Kansas. The city in Kansas has a great area of level ground for the accommodation of manufacturing enterprises, and I noticed a good deal of speculative feeling in regard to this territory. The Kansas side has fine elevated situations for residences, but Wyandotte itself does not compare in attractiveness with the Missouri city, and I fancy that the controlling impetus and capital will long remain with the city that has so much the start. ”

“ There is a fine system of parks and boulevards. There are trolley lines to Kansas City, Mo., Topeka, and Leavenworth, bridges across the Kansas river within the city limits, electric and cable street railroads, a system of water-works supplied from the Missouri river. National and State banks. The city contains the State Institution for the Blind, the Kansas City University, Western University College of Medicine and Surgery, and Bethany and St. ”

“ Atchison is named after a famous pro-slavery advocate, who came to Kansas, with his due quota of "border ruffians," for the avowed purpose of making Kansas a slave State. Topeka is an Indian name; Santa Fe is a Spanish landmark, tall as a lighthouse builded on a cliff. At the Missouri line is Kansas City, so named because this metropolis is created by Kansas. The metropolis is in Missouri; but is made rich and great by Kansas men and products. Kansas has not a large city in its borders, because this Kansas City has engrossed the great business interests of a great Commonwealth. ”

“ While here I visited Wyandot on the North side of Kansas River, the same side as Kansas City on the Missouri. This is a very new free state settlement and although but of recent origin has many fine houses, stores and hotels. Possessing a very good site for a city with a good landing, it will be in time, when the resources of Kansas are developed, a thriving place. Kansas City is built on a bluff rising from the river bank and expensive grading was necessary to secure an area for houses. ”

“ No institution in this State occupies a more beautiful and sightly location. It is situated at an elevation of 275 feet above the Missouri river, and overlooking the winding course of that stream for miles, with the city of 324Atchison at its feet and with the view north and west unobstructed for miles, it is the wonder and admiration of all who behold it. ”

“ Thus, even in the years of the Civil War, there was no apparent set-back. Of the aggregate of 1900, 63·7% lived in “rural districts” (i.e. those outside all places of a population of 2500 or upwards) , and 27·1% in the three great cities of the state, St Louis (pop. 575,238) , Kansas City (163,752) and St Joseph (102,979) ; 5·2% were negroes—their increase from 1890 to 1900 being less than half as rapid as that of the whites; and 7·0% only were foreign-born. Slightly more than half of all foreigners are Germans ”

“ The total value of live stock marketed is over $200,000,000 annually. It also ranks first in the sale of yellow pine lumber, and third as a general lumber center. In greater Kansas City are nearly 1,500 factories. ”

“ Americus, an incorporated city of the third class in Lyon county, is a station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., 9 miles northwest of Emporia, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper, churches of various denominations, good public schools, etc. Its location in the rich valley of the Neosho river gives it a good local trade and makes it an important shipping point. The population in 1910 was 451. ”

“ This, for that time, enormous bulk of business, passed over the Santa Fé trail which is now almost exactly the route of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad.
At the close of the Civil War in 1865, during which Kansas City, in common with all the border towns of Missouri and Kansas, was disturbed by the conflict, a tremendous immigration began to flow westward through the city. Railroad enterprises in Kansas and beyond were opening up the country for settlement, and the families of those who had lately been engaged in war rushed westward to take up the vacant lands offered them. ”

“ The city spends annually in maintenance and operation over $1,900,000, the main items of expenditure being about $500,000 for schools, $225,000 each for the fire and police departments, $160,000 for the water-works, $85,000 for street cleaning and sprinkling, and $75,000 for street lighting. ”

“ EARNEST, LEON G., Sgt., 2128 Noble St., Anniston, Alabama. FRYER, RUSSELL C., Pvt., 511 S. Cottonwood St., Iola, Kansas. FORD, FRANK J., Pvt., 3509 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri. GILLESPIE, FRANK P., Pvt., 1901 E. 32nd St., Kansas City, Missouri. GRAY, GORDON, Pvt., Oswego, Kansas. GRAVES, WALTER, Pvt., 1331 Appleton Ave., Parsons, Kansas. HALL, ALBERT W., JR., Pvt., Plainville, Kansas. HAMRICK, GUY W., Pvt., 1114 Lafayette Ave., Wichita, Kansas. HERBST, WALTER F., Pvt., 1806 Lawn Ave., Kansas City, Missouri. HEWETT, AUGUSTUS E., Pvt., 1109 E. 14th St., Kansas City, Missouri. ”

“ The educational institutions within a short distance include the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas, William Jewell College, Park College, and Baker University. There is a comprehensive system of public schools, supplemented by special schools. ”

“ An important feature of the business of Kansas City is in the investment and loan and trust companies, which are many, and aggregate a capital of $7,773,000. Loans are made on farms in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa, and also for city improvements.
Details of business might be multiplied, but enough have been given to illustrate the material prosperity of the city. ”

“ KANSAS—COLORADO—NEW MEXICO. Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad—Land Grants—Farming Statistics—Immigration and Settling—Colorado—New Mexico—Santa Fé—Colossal Hotels—Archbishop Lamy—The Rio Grande.
We have now taken a new point of departure. In a few minutes we are in the State of Kansas (in which Kansas City is not, it is in Missouri) and the western world lies before us. We have crossed the great river by a bridge 1387 ft. long, which cost 200,000l. ”

“ This is the largest town in North Missouri. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri river; has quite a city appearance; the streets are paved, and the business houses are chiefly brick, and of a substantial character. This, and three other towns within seventy-five miles, are striving for the mastery—Kansas City, Leavenworth and Lawrence. Time only will determine which will win. But there is bound to be one large commercial center somewhere in this region. ”

“ A number of thriving cities are located on the Missouri, including Kansas City, Leavenworth, Atchison, Omaha, Sioux City, Pierre, Bismarck, and Great Falls, the last being the centre of a great copper-smelting industry which utilizes the power of the Falls. ”

“ Many men, now prominent and useful citizens of Missouri, were, like the Youngers, unable to return to their homes until some fortunate accident threw them with men they had known before the war, who had influence enough to make easy their return to peace and usefulness. If this had occurred to the Youngers, they would have had good homes in Missouri.”
It is to Major Foster's surprise of the command at Lone Jack that Kansas City owes its escape from being the scene of a hard battle August 17, 1862. ”

“ I believe it, because any city that boasts of being four times larger than it really is must be 100 per cent. American! But I must give Kansas City its due. It represents the essence of keenness and enterprise in business and farming circles. It has that "breezy" air that is so healthy in city life, compared with the dull, gloomy inertness so characteristic of most manufacturing towns, especially here in England. Kansas City has some excellent streets and some magnificent buildings, and has undoubtedly grown at a remarkable rate during the last ten years. ”

“ The larger and more easterly one (164) is the second city of Missouri; an important railway centre, and distributes the agricultural products of a large region; has pork-packing industries and iron manufactures. The smaller, westerly city (51) , is in Kansas, the largest town of that State; has a remarkable elevated railway.
Kant, Immanuel, a celebrated German philosopher, born in Königsberg, the son of a saddler, of Scotch descent, and fortunate in both his parents; entered the university in 1740 as a student of theology; gave himself to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and physics ”

“ You see, Kansas City is a very young and very great center of business. It is still engrossed in making money, but, being so exceptionally sturdy, it has found [ 297] time, outside of business hours, as it were, to create its parks and boulevards—much as some young business man comes home after a hard day's work and cuts the grass in his front yard, and waters it, and even plants a little garden for his wife and children and himself. ”

“ And I believe it is felt. There is every evidence that Kansas City's "slogan" is a promissory note—a note which, it may be added, she is paying off in a handsome manner, by improving herself rapidly in countless ways. ”

“ Increased property values take care of that; the worst of the work and the expense is over, and Kansas City has lifted itself by its own bootstraps from ugliness to beauty. How much better it is to have done the whole thing quickly—to have made the gigantic effort and attained the parks and boulevards at what amounts to one great municipal bound—than to have dawdled and dreamed along as St. Louis and so many other cities have done. ”

“ Owing to its aridity, the western third of the State is very sparsely inhabited. For the whole of the State there is an average of 18 inhabitants to the square mile. There are no large centres of population, and the percentage of urban population is consequently small. In 1900 the 25 places which exceeded 4000 in population contained 19.2 of the total population. However, the increase made in the last decade of the century was wholly urban. Cities.—The following was the population of the largest cities for the year 1900: Kansas City, Kan., 51,418 ”

“ In reaching the necessary limit of a paper too short for its subject, I can only express my admiration of the indomitable energy and spirit of that portion of the West which Kansas City represents, and congratulate it upon so many indications of attention to the higher civilization, without which its material prosperity will be wonderful but not attractive. ”

“ The West of Bret Harte and Jesse James is gone. All that is left of it is legend. When I speak of a western city I think of a city young, not altogether formed, but full of dauntless energy. And when I speak of western people I think of people [ 296] who possess, in larger measure than any other people I have met, the solid traits of character which make human beings admirable.
Kansas City is said to be more American than any other city of its size in the United States. Eighty per cent. of its people are American born, of either native or foreign parents. ”

“ Vicious newspapers have never been permitted to flourish in Kansas City.
A BIT OF GLADSTONE BOULEVARD, KANSAS CITY.
What may be called the real-estate history of Kansas City is peculiarly interesting. In the year 1830 James H. McGee built a log cabin for a residence near what is now the corner of Twentieth and Central Streets. He made the first kiln of brick west of Independence, built the first brick residence in Kansas City, and furnished the bricks for Father Donnelly's chapel chimney. Mr. ”