Wichita

“ Almost twenty-five years ago the people of Wichita showed their confidence in the certain growth of their city by the building of a City Hall that would be a credit to any city of 200,000 population. Architecturally it is one of the most impressive structures in the city, and its size insures ample space for years to come. ”

“ The name Jumano, it will also be seen, was applied to both the Wichita and their immediate relatives the Tawehash, or Taguayazes, as they were called by the Spaniards, a southern or Texas branch of the tribe, long before the Wichita drifted southward from Kansas to the vicinity of the mountains in Oklahoma that still bear their name. ”

“ Surrounding Wichita is one of the great wheat districts of the world and this fact, with the city’s superior transportation facilities, is largely responsible for the milling industry. The city’s flouring mills have a capacity of 7,000 barrels a day and their product is shipped to California and to New York, to Oregon and to European ports. This branch of Wichita’s manufacturing and commercial industry is growing steadily. Eight hundred men are employed in sash and door factories. In foundries 250 men are employed. ”

“ Opposite the main waiting room of the Union Terminal Station, Wichita is the concourse which leads to the train platforms. Here are the news and fruit stand and the soda fountain, all constructed of marble or white terra cotta tile, as is the main portion of the Concourse. A side sky-light gives the Concourse sunshine most of the day. ”

“ The faith of Wichita’s builders is shown in its wide streets. In the residence district a large portion of the street has been converted into parking and at many points branches of the trees meet in the middle, forming arches. ”

“ The annual receipts at the Union Stock Yards reach one million a year. Wichita is looked upon as a logical point for a packing house and stockyards center, first, because it is located at the very entrance of the great Southwestern cattle district, and, secondly, because it has the transportation lines reaching into the great stock-growing country. ”

“ A year later, in August, 1835, as a result of the friendly relations thus established, the chiefs of the Comanche and Wichita met the United States commissioners at Camp Holmes, about 5 miles northeast of the present site of Purcell, Indian Territory, and made their first treaty with the government. The principal stipulation was that there should be peace and friendship between the Comanche and Wichita on the one hand, and the United States, Creek, Cherokee, and other immigrant tribes, and the Osage on the other (Treaties) . ”

“ Today Wichita is served by six trunk lines, reaching into Western Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico.
The development of Wichita in the last ten years has been many-sided. Perhaps its most important growth has been in the live stock and grain markets. In 1912, 14,465 cars of grain came to the Wichita market and 10,759 cars of live stock were received at the Wichita Union Stockyards. Wichita is the largest broom corn market 3 in the United States, parts of Oklahoma and Western Kansas being peculiarly adapted for the growth of broom corn. ”

“ Credits from the Wichita High School are accepted by the leading colleges and universities, both for men and women, throughout the country.
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37 A Public School Building, Wichita
The public school system of Wichita is the largest business enterprise in the city, and is growing so steadily that new buildings are almost constantly under way. In design and construction the buildings are on the latest lines of school architecture, with every provision for the health and comfort of the pupils. The city has more than two million dollars invested in school property. ”

“ The fourth and fifth floors are given over to sleeping apartments. The Wichita Club had its origin in the old Coronado Club in 1897. It is one of the great factors in the development of the community, both commercially and socially. ”

“ The city is supplied with natural gas. Wichita is a transportation centre for the rich agricultural region surrounding it, and is an important market for broom-corn. In 1905 it ranked third among the cities of the state in value of its factory product ($7,389,844) . The principal industry is slaughtering and meatpacking. The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient railway has carshops here. Wichita, named from an Indian tribe, was settled in 1870, and was chartered as a city in 1871. ”

“ Twelve hundred men are employed in the packing houses and about 500 in the stockyards. It is estimated that 4,000 persons are dependent upon this branch of Wichita’s commercial activity.
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27 Wichita as a Milling Center
Kansas has soil and climate peculiarly adapted to the growing of Red Turkey Hard Wheat. An area of more than 8 million acres is devoted to the raising of Red Turkey Wheat in Kansas and there are perhaps four million acres more suitable for the purpose and now given over to grazing. From Wichita railway lines spread like spokes from a hub into these wheat fields. ”

“ He headed toward Wichita County, which was almost an unknown land in that day, driving his cattle before him, his young wife at his side, both eager to begin a new life in a new land.
To drive cattle across the wild Texas prairies, twenty-five years ago, was an experience worth while. There were no fences, no boundaries and few roads. Settlers were far between. The climate in any season was likely to be mild; the air was pure and stimulating; society, such as it was, had not many conventions. ”

“ It has been said of Wichita that its homes make it a city of genuine contentment. Its people are, as a rule, homeowners. The illustration is one of the newer residence streets and shows the simple graceful lines now most in vogue in the domestic architecture of the city. In some of the older residence sections, where the trees have had time for growth, the streets are arched by foliage—a cause of general comment from visitors who think of Kansas as a treeless prairie land. ”

“ The floors and walls are finished in terra cotta, glazed tile or marble.
About a hundred persons may be served at a sitting. The management is under the direction of Fred Harvey.
Wichita is one of the most important commercial centers of the Southwest. Its wholesale interests and packing and live stock industries are growing steadily. The new Union Station with terminals cost approximately two and one-half million dollars and was completed in 1913. ”

“ Waco is situated in a fertile farming region. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $2,979,800. The city was named after the Waco (or Hueco) Indians (Caddoan stock) , who had a large village here until 1830, when they were nearly exterminated by the Cherokees; in 1855 they removed to a reservation, and after 1859 became incorporated with the Wichita. The first white settlement was made in 1849. Waco was incorporated as a town in 1856 ”

“ Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Leavenworth and Atchison were the only cities which had manufactures whose gross product was valued in 1905 at more than $3,000,000 each; their joint product was valued at $126,515,804, and that of Kansas City alone was $96,473,050, almost half the output of the state. The most important manufacturing industry, both in 1900 and in 1905, was slaughtering and meat-packing—for which Kansas City is the second centre of the country—with a product for the state valued at $77,411,883 in 1900, and $96,375,639 in 1905 ”

“ Hindman, in the plentitude of his self-conceit and folly, assumed absolute control of the Military and other affairs of the Department of Indian Territory, and commenced plundering it of troops, artillery and ammunition, dictating Military operations, and making the Indian country an appanage of Northwestern Arkansas, there was profound peace throughout its whole extent. Even with the wild Camanches and Kiowas, I had secured friendly relations. An unarmed man could travel in safety and alone, from Kansas to Red River, and from the Arkansas line to the Wichita Mountains. ”

“ The plain is covered with the best quality of grass, affording pasturage for immense herds of buffalo, antelope, and horses. The mountains and river take their name from a very considerable branch of the Pawnee Indians, called the Wichitas. Although long possessing separate political organizations—if the [114] aborigines can be said to have politics at all—the two branches speak nearly identically the same language, being able to converse with each other fluently—an uncommon thing among savages, after a few years of separation. ”

“ Beginning at the intersection of U.S. 77 and SR 57 northwest of Junction City, then South over SR 57 to Washington St., then south over Washington St. to the intersection of U.S. 40 and I-70 then west over U.S. 40 and I-70 to the intersection of U.S. 77 Southwest of Junction City. U.S. Route 81 Relocation APPROVED Beginning at the intersection of U.S. 81 and I-135 east to Minneapolis, then south over I-135 to the intersection to present U.S. 81 south of Wichita. ”

“ In this work of the Missionaries Jason Lee, the chief of the Methodist Missions, was, up to the date of the incident we are to narrate, the most successful of all. He was a man of great strength of character. Like Whitman, he was also a man of great physical strength, fearless, and, with it all, wise and brainy. No other man among the pioneers, for his untiring energy in courting immigration, can be so nearly classed with Whitman.
They were all men, who, though in Oregon to convert Indian savages to Christianity, yet were intensely American. ”

“ Wiccónsat was the son of an aged chief of the Youcómacoes. He was tall and elegantly formed, and straight as an arrow from his quiver. Mild and contemplative, he became a favorite among the settlers, from whom he learned not only to read and write, but many of their useful arts. But he had listened to the breathings of Rosalie’s harp, as he lingered near her dwelling, and had gazed after her fair form, as she wandered in the forest, until the Indian’s life had lost all charms for him. The smile of happy youth had fled, and when he sought his father’s wigwam, his eye was sad and restless. ”

“ The American Board had resolved to establish a mission in Oregon, and they notified him that they preferred to send married men into the missionary field. This was unexpected but welcome news to Whitman, and was in accordance with the last advice from Dr. Parker: "Bring with you a good wife." He had already in his own mind made his selection in the person of Miss Narcissa Prentice, a daughter of Judge Prentice, of Angelica, New York, but owing to the privations and perils of the journey, and the isolated life among savages, he had hesitated to ask her to make such sacrifice. ”

“ They were in an Indian country from the first day's start, and met great numbers of savages, out on their hunts, many moving to new camps, and some on the war-path. At no time were the missionaries molested, but on the contrary, were treated with great courtesy, and as Mrs. Whitman wrote, "They seemed greatly surprised to see white women in the party." The Indian boys were soon in their element, and of inestimable value; they could swim the rivers like ducks, and took all the care of the loose stock, and were wise in the ways of plains' life. ”

“ I have run away from the army. I can't explain it. I will be in a foreign country by the time you get this. I don't know when I can come back to America, if I ever can. I suppose you'll be ashamed of me. Try to think that I am still the same.
Your loving son.
And as the four-master staggered with infinite patience toward Europe, a sharp sadness took possession of him. Wisconsin with its crops of every color, its hickory-nut trees, its white sunrises and red sunsets—he would never see them again; no one would love him so faithfully, so intimately, as even his hard father had done. ”

“ Marcus Whitman. But to attempt to picture this life and omit the missionary, would be like reciting the play of Hamlet and omitting Hamlet.
The mission work to the Oregon Indians began in a romance and ended in a great tragedy. The city of St. Louis in that day was so near the border of civilization that it was accustomed to see much of the rugged and wild life of the plains; yet in 1832 the people beheld even to them the odd sight of four Flathead Indians in Indian dress and equipment parading their principal streets. ”

“ Her fine olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation. She had read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes. Cecilia was no bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies! And as for Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its metal. ”

“ There we find the little group of five missionaries, and the two Nez Perces boys that Whitman took with him to New York selecting a spot where the bunch grass grows high and thick. Their hearts go out to God in joyful adoration for His protecting care over them thus far, especially so, because they felt the greatest difficulties had been overcome and they now entered the country for the people of which they had devoted their lives. The sky is bright above them, the sun shines serenely and the atmosphere is light and invigorating. ”