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April 4, 1870-J. C. Merine's Sub division.

April 7,'70-Wm. Toms' Sub-division. April 8, '70-Munford & Fancher's Addition.

July 9, '70-Balis' Addition.

July 23, '70-Balis' Sub-division. August 18, '70-Matthew & Hill's Addition.

September 10, '70-M. M. Evans' Addition.

September 14, '70-Pratt's Addition. October 21, '70-Payne's Addition. November 2, '70-Jarboe's Addition. November, 8, '70-German Building Association Sub-division.

July 10, '71-M. M. Evans Resurvey March 21, '71-East Cottage Place Addition.

May 2, '71-Quest's Addition. May 20, '71-John Meyers' Sub-division.

June 2, '71-Mulkey's Second Addition.

October 4, '71-Tracy's Sub-division. October 24, '71-Jaudon's Addition. December 16, '71-M. J. Payne's Sub-division.

January 4, '72-Prospect Place. February 3, 72-John Johnson's Subdivision.

May 6, '72-Continuation of Smart's Third Addition.

June 24, '72-Sub-division of Blocks

in West Kansas Addition No. 1. July 13, '72-Union Place Addition. July 19, '72-Victorie's Addition. October 24, '72-Bouton Park Addition.

November 9, '72-German Building Association Sub-division.

November 25, '72-Campbell Block Sub division.

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CHAPTER XIII.

THE PROGRESS OF 1873 TO 1876.

Street Railroads-Barge Line Agitation—The Panic of 1873—Efforts to get the Indian Territory Opened to Settlement-Efforts for Transportation Improvements-The Mail Delivery-The Securing of the Atchion, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads -How the Latter was Done- The Grasshopper Plague-The Revision of the City CharterEfforts to Secure a Mint-The Re-organization of the Board of Trade and Erection of the Exchange Building.

But little real progress was made by Kansas City during the year 1873. The depression preceding the panic of that year had already begun to affect public enterprise throughout the country, and Kansas City suffered in common with all other places. The population by this time had increased, by the estimates of the Directory to 40,740, being but a few hundred more than in 1872. There was little improvement or building of any kind, and every movement looking to the advancement of existing enterprises or the addition of new ones felt the weight of the national depression. However, the spirit of the people was such that they still struggled to secure the improvements of a public nature that they felt the city most needed. There was much discussion of the water works matter, and in the early part of the year an attempt was made to form a company to build works. There was also an effort to secure the union of interest between the Kansas City, Wyandott & Northwestern Narrow Gauge Railroad, which had now been turned to the eastward toward Lexington, and the Keokuk & Kansas City Company, which was proposing to build a road to this city from Keokuk, but it failed. There was also an effort to inaugurate a railroad from Kansas City northward toward Chariton, Iowa. The importance of an extensive white lead manufactory was also much discussed and investigated by a committee of the Board of Trade.

STREET RAILROADS AGAIN.

Early in this year the Jackson County Horse Railroad Company was organized, and proposed to build a street railroad from the corner of Fourth and Main streets by Fourth street to Wyandotte street, thence to Fifth street, thence by Fifth and Bluff streets and Union Avenue and Mulberry, thence north to Ninth street, and thence by Ninth street to the State Line, to connect with a company that had been organized in Wyandotte. It proposed another line from the corner of Fourth and Main street by the way of Fourth and Walnut to Fifth, thence by Fifth to Grand avenue, thence to Independence avenue, thence to Forest avenue, and thence southward to Twelfth street.

About the same time there was organized the Union Depot Company. Its line was to run from the Exposition grounds on Twelfth street to Grand avenue, thence to Eleventh street, thence to Main street, thence to the junction of Main and Delaware, thence down Delaware to Fifth, and thence to Walnut. Another part of the line was to start from Sixth and Delaware, and run along Sixth to Broadway, thence to Fifth, thence down Bluff and Union avenues to the Kansas stock yards. Part of this line was built in 1873 and at the same time the western part of the Jackson county line, and in connection with it the Broadway line from Fifth to Twelfth street. The next year the depot line had some trouble of a financial character, and was sold, when it was bought in by the proprietors of the Jackson county line, and both roads were put under one management, and not long thereafter the Westport road passed into the same management. Since

the consolidation of the Jackson county and Depot lines, the latter name has been dropped and that part of the line on Sixth street abandoned and taken up. It is now operated as a double track road from Broadway to Hickory street, and the Delaware and Twelfth street, and Independence and Forest avenue part of the line is operated as a circuit.

THE BARGE LINE AGITATION OF 1873.

With the beginning of the year 1873 there was a more determined effort made to secure the establishment of barge navigation of the Missouri River. It was proposed now to make an effort to have this matter tested practically, and to that end the Board of Trade appointed a committee to ascertain if barges could be had, and, if so, what guaranty would be required. This committee corresponded with the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, of St. Louis, then the only party on the western rivers using barges, but got little satisfaction from them. However it was determined to raise a guarantee fund of five thousand dollars, and the money was subscribed.

While these events were transpiring the people of St. Louis were arranging for a convention of western Congressmen in that city, the object of which was to awaken a more general interest among them in the improvement of western rivers, and especially the Mississippi. This convention was held May 13th, and the Kansas City Board of Trade was invited to send delegates to attend it. The Board accordingly appointed as such delegates, Col. R. T. Van Horn, Col. James E. Marsh and Hon. H. J. Latshaw. Col. Van Horn could not attend and so appointed as his substitute the commercial editor of the Journal, of which he was editor. This gentleman had a personal acquaintance with Charles Davis, then editor of the St. Louis Globe, a new and very enterprising paper which as yet had no record on the question of Barge Navigation of the Missouri River. During the three days he remained in St. Louis, in attendance at the convention, he furnished Mr. Davis with three editorial articles on Barge Transportation on the Missouri from a St. Louis point of view, strongly favoring it as a St Louis enterprise. The other St. Louis papers which the year before had ridiculed the idea, now indorsed it. The "Old River Captains" were quoted in its favor, and singular as it may seem the Kansas City papers which the year before had opposed it as chimerical republished all these articles from the Globe approvingly, and urged the movement already on foot to secure a practical test. Soon afterward the Board of Trade committee was able to make a contract with the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, to make the trial trip on a guaranty of $2,700. It was now a very unfavorable season of the year. There was little grain, which it was proposed to load the barges with, remaining in the country, and the water was getting low. By the time all these difficulties could be overcome, and a load of grain secured, it was found that proper insurance to protect the grain, could not be had and its owners would have to take the risk themselves. This led to an abandonment of the effort.

THE PANIC OF 1873.

Mention has been made in several places in this chapter of the financial panic of 1873. It is not necessary here to discuss the causes that led to that event further than to remark that it was the result of the inflated condition of prices which had prevailed since the war, and a most unwise contraction of the national currency by the action of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was precipitated in September by the failure of the banking house of Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, and immediately spread to all parts of the country, causing a sudden suspension of nearly every bank in the land, and the collapse of prices to an equality with the contracted volume of the currency. The banks in Kansas City suspended payment on the 25th of September, and for a time nearly stopped all

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TOOTLE, HANNA & CO.'S WHOLESALE BUILDING, KANSAS CITY, MO.

This action of the

business by the locking up of the funds of their customers. banks, however, was rendered necessary by the suspension of their correspondents east. At that season of the year the movement of currency was to the west, and for them to have continued would have resulted only in paying out what currency they had on hand, which would have been done in a day or two, when they would inevitably have gone into bankruptcy. The merchants held a meeting at the Board of Trade that day and adopted resolutions approving of the course taken by the banks, and pledging them their cordial support in whatever efforts they might adopt to remedy the difficulty. In a few days new accounts were opened by the banks with their customers, and new checks were paid from the new deposits, the banks promising to pay old deposits as speedily as possible. This arrangement was acquiesced in by the people, and soon business was resumed, though on a much restricted scale.

The First National Bank was at this time the one of chiefest interest to the people. At an annual election in the winter of 1872, Howard M. Holden, Esq., had been elected president, having previously been its efficient cashier. By his enterprise and liberal management he had advanced the bank to a leading position, and at this time it was the chief dependence of the live stock, packing, and grain interests, which were now considerable, as will be shown in succeeding chapters, for money with which to move the products of the country. It was accordingly determined by the stock-holders, who were all business men of Kansas City, to strengthen it, and to that end its capital was increased from $250,000 to $500,000.

The effect of this panic was to cause great depression in local improvements and town development, attended with a decrease of population, and the city did not recover from these effects until 1876; otherwise it was an advantage, for in the depression caused in the surrounding country it led merchants to trade here much more largely than they had done before. In their depressed situation they felt the importance of buying nearer home than they had been accustomed to do, so that they might not have to carry such large stocks, and so that they could turn their capital oftener. For the same reasons a closer market became desirable to country shippers of all kinds, which caused Kansas City markets to be more liberally patronized. The same causes affected banks, and after the panic a much larger number of the banks in the adjacent parts of the country, and some in Colorado and Texas, began to keep their deposits here. Hence the effect of the panic was to cause a development of trade and the markets, and make Kansas City much more of a financial center than she had ever been before.

OPENING OF THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

The depression which, it was evident from the first, would follow the panic, led the people to look about them for means of relief. One thing suggested was the opening of the Indian Territory to settlement, which would cause a large immigration, and create population for Kansas City to trade with. This was not a new idea at that time, having been embodied in a bill for that purpose, introduced into Congress in 1868, by Colonel Van Horn, while representing this district in that body; but it was revised at this time, hoping that the effort might now be attended with better success. To this end, the Board of Trade joined the National Board of Trade, and caused to be entered upon the official programme of that body, for discussion at a meeting to be held in Chicago, in October, the following resolution, which, it was hoped, might receive the sanction of the National Board, whose indorsement was relied upon, to give the proposition strength in Congress:

Whereas, It is the duty of the Government and people of the United States, to inaugurate and execute such a policy toward the Indian tribes, occupy

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