In 1827 there were hardly a dozen German families in St. Louis, where now there are as many thousands of them. In 1830 the population was 6,654. In 1835 the first railroad convention was held. [See page 106.] In 1837 the population was 16,187, and 184 steamboats were engaged in the commerce of the city. The decade between 1840 and 1850 saw increased advancement in all kinds of industry, and in architectural growth. We find that in 1840 there were manufactured 19,075 barrels of flour, 18,656 barrels of whisky, and 1,075 barrels of beef inspected, and other branches of business had correspondingly increased. In 1846, the now extensive Mercantile Library was founded. The close of the decade, 1849, brought upon the city the double misfortune of fire and pestilence. On May 19th, the principal business section was swept away by a conflagration originating in a steamboat at the levee; and, during the summer of the same year, the population was scourged by cholera. In 1851, the first railroad enterprise—the building of the Missouri Pacific --was inaugurated, and quickly followed by others. [See page 105.] The decennial increase of population has been as follows: During 1880 St. Louis received 1,703,874 barrels of flour; manufactured 2,077,625 barrels; and shipped 3,292,803 barrels. Of this amount 975,970 barrels were shipped in sacks to England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Holland, France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. During the same year St. Louis shipped 11,313,879 bushels of wheat; and of this amount 5,913,272 bushels went to foreign countries via New Orleans, while the rest went eastward by rail. The receipts of corn were 22,298,077 bushels; shipments, 17,571,322 bushels, of which 9,804,392 went by barges to New Orleans for foreign ports, 3,157,684 to the south for consumption, and 4 591,944 eastward by rail or Ohio river. The receipts of cotton were 496,570 bales, and shipments 478,219 bales. During the packing season of 1879-80, there were 927,793 hogs packed. The shipments of coffee reached $5,000,000, and that of sugar $8,500,000. The above principal items are gleaned from the commercial pantheon of statistics published in January, 1881, by the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis. Kansas City. In 1724 the Kansas tribe of Indians had their chief town a few miles below the mouth of the Kansas river, and M. DeBourgmont, the French commandant of this region, held a grand peace council with different tribes gathered at this place for the purpose, on July 3d of that year. This is the earliest historic record of white men in the vicinity of where Kansas City now stands. In 1808 the U. S. government established a fort and Indian agency here, calling it Fort Osage, which was not abandoned until 1825, when the Indian title to a certain strip of country here was extinguished. In 1821 Francis G. Chouteau established a trading post on the Missouri river about three miles below the site of Kansas City, but a flood in the spring of 1826 swept away everything he had, and he then settled six miles up the Kansas river. The original town plat of Kansas City consisted of 40 laid out in 1839. In 1846 some additional ground was public sale of lots netted $7,000, averaging $200 per lot. acres, and was laid off, and a The first charter was procured in the winter of 1852-3, and in the spring of 1853 was organized the first municipal government. The first established newspaper made its appearance in 1854, with the title of the "Kansas City Enterprise," now known as the "Kansas City Journal." During the years 1855-6-7, the border troubles very visibly affected the prosperity of the city, so that business in those years did not exceed, all told, the sum of $2,000,000; but at the close of the struggle, in 1857, business began to revive, and it was then stated, in the St. Louis "Intelligencer," that she had the largest trade of any city of her size in the world. This may be distinguished as the great steamboat era. It was estimated that, in the year 1857, one hundred and twenty-five boats discharged at the Kansas City levee over twenty-five million pounds of merchandise. In May of this year, also, the steamboats were employed to carry the United States mail, and in 1858 the first telegraph pole in Jackson county was erected. The first bank established in Kansas City was a branch of the Mechanics' Bank, of St. Louis, organized May 1, 1859, and the second was a branch of the Union Bank, organized in July of the same year. The first jobbing dry goods house opened in July, 1857. The first city loan for local improvement was made in 1855, amounting to $10,000, all taken at home, and expended in improving and widening the levee; and, in 1858, another loan of $100,000 for street improvements. Only in the matter of railroads was Kansas City seriously affected by the panic of 1857; government moneys, immigration over the border, and the New Mexican trade tiding her safely over the sea of financial excitement and prostration. She had also become, even as early as the year 1854, a noted mart for the purchase and sale of live stock, the immense freighting across the plains inviting trade in this direction, and in the annual reviews of the papers it is said that, in 1857, the receipts for that year, in mules and cattle, were estimated at $200,000, and also that, in 1858, about 20,000 head of stock cattle were driven here from Texas and the Indian territory. In 1857 over six hundred freighting wagons left Kansas City with loads for Santa Fe, New Mexico. The principal railroads centering at Kansas City are, the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, the Kansas Pacific railroad, the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern railroad, the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad, the Chicago & Alton railroad, the Atchison & Nebraska railroad, the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad, the Missouri Pacific railway, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway, the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific railway, the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe railroad, the Kansas City & Eastern railroad, (narrow gauge). The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad has extended its road to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and to Guyamas, on the Pacific coast; to San Francisco, California, and is building to the City of Mexico. The elevator storage capacity in the city January 1, 1881, was 1,500,000 bushels. In 1879 about 1,600 new buildings were erected, costing $1,500,000. The U. S. postoffice and custom house building cost $200,000. The union depot building cost $300,000. The Kansas City stock yards rank as second only to those of Chicago in the extent and completeness of their facilities for the cattle trade. The population of Kansas City, by U. S. census in June, 1880, was 62,977 Taxable wealth, $13,378,950. Cost of new buildings erected during the year 1880, $2,200,000* St. Joseph. In 1803 Joseph Robidon, a French fur trader, located here, and continued to occupy his place and trade with the Indians for 33 years. Up to 1843 the place contained only two log cabins, and a small flouring mill on Black Snake creek. In June, 1843, Mr. Robidoux received his title from the government to 160 acres of land, and laid out the city, which was called St. Joseph in his honor, and not, as is commonly supposed, in honor of the Saint Joseph of the church calendar. January 1, 1846, the town had 600 inhabitants, having been incorporated as a village February 26, 1845, with Joseph Robidoux as president of the board of trustees. The first city charter was obtained February 22, 1851, but it has been many times amended. The population was: In 1850, 3,460; in 1860, 8,932; in 1870, 19,625; in 1880, 32,461. St. Joseph is situated on the east bank of the Missouri, 545 miles from its mouth, 2,000 miles from the great falls, nearly 1,300 miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone, 310 miles from St. Louis by railroad, with which it is connected by three different lines, and 565 miles from St. Louis by river; but it is only 180 miles on an air line from the Mississippi river. The latitude of St. Joseph is 39 degrees 47 minutes north, and the same parallel passes through Indianapolis, and within less than four miles of Denver, Colorado, Springfield, Illinois, and the famous Mason and Dixon's line, separating Maryland and Pennsylvania, reaching the Atlantic coast half way from Cape May to New York City, and the Pacific, two degrees *These statistics are gathered mostly from the able annual reports of W. H. Miller, Esq., who has been secretary of the Kansas City Board of Trade continuously since 1873. north of San Francisco, near Cape Mendicino. A straight line drawn on the map from Augusta, the capital of Maine, to San Diego in California, passes through Detroit, Chicago, and St. Joseph, and this last city is just half way from end to end of this line St. Joseph has an altitude of about 1,030 feet above the sea, which is 200 feet higher than St. Paul, 400 feet higher than Chicago, and nearly 600 feet higher than St. Louis. The city is romantically and beautifully situated, the business portion lying in a huge basin on a great bend in the Missouri river, while the residence part of the city clambers up the mound-shaped hills, which rise on all sides like a vast amphitheater. The wholesale and retail trade is figured above $40,000,000 annually, while it is said that there are no fewer than eight commercial houses which have a cash capital of $1,000,000 each. It is stated on reliable authority, that there is handled at this point 15,000,000 bushels of corn, 5,000,000 of wheat, 250,000 rye, and 500,000 barley, per annum. The stock yards cover seven acres, and belong to a stock company. There are received at the yards 120,000 to 150,000 hogs per annum, and 10,000 to 12,000 cattle. The figures do not include direct shipments to several large packing houses, which will increase the number of hogs to 300,000. There are four packing houses in the city-one having a capacity of 15,000 hogs per day. The railroad lines which connect St. Joseph with the rest of the business world are the Hannibal & St. Joseph, the pioneer road of the state, extending east across the entire state to Hannibal and Quincy on the Mississippi river; the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, forming a direct line to St. Louis; the St. Joseph & Western, extending across the great iron bridge, through Kansas and Nebraska, to a junction at Grand Island with the Union Pacific, of which it is really a part; the Missouri Pacific, another connecting line with St. Louis; the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, extending south to Kansas City and north to Omaha, with its Nodaway Valley branch, extending through the Nodaway valley, and its Chicago branch, making connection with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; the St. Joseph & Des Moines, now owned and operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Atchison & Nebraska. |