RAILROADS
[EDITORIAL COLUMN: COWLEY COUNTY, KANSAS.]
TRAVELER, FEBRUARY 12, 1879.
[FROM THE REAL ESTATE BULLETIN.]
COWLEY COUNTY KANSAS!
THE EDEN OF THE SOUTHWEST.
THE BANNER COUNTY IN THE BANNER STATE
OF THE UNIION.
Its Description, Resources, Development, and Advantages.
NOTE: THIS HAS THE USUAL STUFF WITH HERE AND THERE A FEW CHANGES.
Cowley County is one of the best wooded and watered in the State, the Arkansas and Walnut rivers and Grouse creek running the entire length of the county.
Good wells of fine water are found at from fifteen to forty five feet, and plenty of fine springs are found all over the county.
Coal has been discovered in the eastern part of the county, and there are indications that the whole western part of the county is underlaid with coal at a depth of 250 feet.
In all parts of the county the supply of the best magnesia limestone is inexhaustible. It is found at various depths below the surface, from ten to forty feet.
The county was named in honor of Matthew Cowley, a brave Kansas soldier, who died in the service at Little Rock, Arkansas, in August, 1864. It is a part of what is known as the Osage Diminished Reserve. In 1870 a treaty was made with the Osage Indians, by which this reserve was opened up for settlement under the act of Congress of July 15th, 1870. The county was organized in the summer of 1870, and Winfield, then only one cheap house, was made the County seat. The county then contained a population of about 700. The first assessment and taxation of property in the county was in 1872.
Arkansas City: Our population of nearly 1,000 inhabitants is composed of intellectual and cultivated people from the East, who have located here with the intention of staying, a fact that will speak for itself.
We have a splendid school now giving advantages to 200 pupils that cannot be excelled in any school of its grade in the county, and under the superintendence of a Wisconsin graduate. Our church organizations leave nothing to be desired in that quarter, as we have First and United Presbyterian and Methodist churches, each denomination possessing its own place of worship. A Union Sunday school is also conducted by the different
churches. The Masonic Fraternity have a lodge and Chapter, also the Knights of Honor have a lodge, and an Odd Fellows lodge is being talked up and will shortly be organized.
Our location is undeniably healthy, and the soil being of a sandy nature, mud is an "unknown quantity" with us. All kinds of business are well represented, there being some 25 business houses in town, and many of them possess stores that would be a credit to any city in the Union.
Good water is abundant in town, the city owning 4 fine wells, and most of the improved residence lots have well upon them.
At present we are without a railroad, but the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad company, the strongest corporation in the West, will build a branch of their road into this county during the summer of 1879. As the terminus of the railroad mentioned above, Arkansas City will grow with a rapidity known only to those who have witnessed the springing up of other Western towns. It will be the great distributing point for the supplies for the different agencies and military posts in the Territory south of us, and one of the greatest cattle markets in the West. When the Santa Fe Company obtain the right of way through the Nation to Fort Smith, connecting their road with the Little Rock and Fort Smith road, which will doubtless be done during the present session of Congress; and when the Territory itself is opened for settlement, which may be looked for in two or three years--the importance of Arkansas City as a commercial point can hardly be estimated.
Nor do we depend along upon these advantages.
The Arkansas river is navigable from this place to Little Rock three months in a year, and during the last two years the attention of steamboat men and speculators has been directed to the great benefits to be derived from the opening up of water transportation between the Western and Southern States.
During this time several trips have been made to Little Rock by flat boats loaded with flour and grain, and on the morning of the 30th of June, 1878, a regular river packet of 65 tons burden arrived at this place from Little Rock, having made the trip with no difficulty in eleven days--a distance of over 800 miles. Encouraged by this, and having full faith in the ultimate success of the scheme, two parties have built a steamboat at this place, the dimensions of which are 90 x 20 feet, with a capacity of fifty or sixty tons, and started with 1,000 bushels of wheat for Little Rock, February 5th, 1879.
The advantages which we claim for our town, are also to be found in the country in our immediate vicinity, such as school houses and good schools, churches, under the care of competent ministers, lyceums, grange, and other meetings are constantly on the tapis so that a live, energetic man instead of being cut off from advantages will in reality only be moving to a wider field of action in which there is room for all.
To all who may read the above facts, we would say that before buying or locating elsewhere they should give us a call and see for themselves.
In another part of this paper will be found a partial list of city and other property in our hands for sale, among which are some of the best and cheapest investments to be found anywhere.
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[PUSHING RAILROAD THROUGH THE INDIAN TERRITORY.]
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1880 - FRONT PAGE.
Mr. Ryan has introduced a bill which is designed to take the place of one concerning which I have written you, and the purpose of which is to permit the several railroad companies that have constructed their roads up to the line of the Indian Territory to build through the Territory, to condemn the right of way to the extent of a hundred feet on each side of the track, and also take material from the adjacent lands, sites for depot purposes, etc. This is a sensible and practical measure, and one that ought to become a law. Should the bill become a law, the Santa Fe road would doubtless push its line from Arkansas City through the Territory at an early day. It will receive strong support whatever its ultimate fate may be.
Champion.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, FEBRUARY 26, 1879.]
If the Legislature is very anxious to make a record on the R. R. question, let it legislate to reduce the rates of the Pulman Palace Car Company. When it costs a traveler more to lodge overnight in a sleeper than to occupy a bed at the best hotel in New York City, it is time a change was made.
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[EDITORIAL COLUMN: THE SANTA FE WILL BE BUILT.]
TRAVELER, MARCH 5, 1879.
THE SANTA FE WILL BE BUILT.
The Riggs' Railroad Bill before the House has failed on its final passage, and this will probably be the end of it. Wichita merchants are now driven to acknowledge that the road will soon leave them, and are making every effort to secure an air line from Oswego.
The Cowley & Sumner road will push for the south line of the State, and the people of Cowley county will soon have a home market. Some of our citizens in anticipation of this event think they foresee a glorious future in exhorbitant prices for town lots and real estate generally. Now, in our opinion, no method more sure to defeat the growth and prosperity of this little town can be adopted than to push the price of town lots three fold their value. The days of extravagant speculation in town lots on the frontier have fortunately passed away, though they brought to many the lessons of the fool and his money.
MORE SAID...I SKIPPED.
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[REPORT FROM "I. H. B." - TOPEKA, KANSAS.]
TRAVELER, MARCH 5, 1879.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TOPEKA, KAS., Feb. 24, 1879.
The vote on the Railroad bill introduced by Mr. Riggs of Lawrence was lost on Saturday, Feb. 22nd, by vote of 58 yeas and 51 nays, there being 129 members. It will take 65 to carry. A large number of members had left to spend Sunday at home. An effort was made to reconsider, but on a motion to that effect a motion was made to lay the motion to reconsider on the table. Motion overruled by Mr. Clark, speaker of the House.
This morning Clark of Montgomery offered a motion to suspend the rules and go into committee of the whole to transact regular business. The object was to prevent any action on the R. R. bill until after the trains had arrived with absent members.
Mr. Biddle of Lynn county opposed to the bill, agreed to take no action until 4 o'clock, this afternoon, general consent of the House given to this agreement and the House has now got down to business and is acting on bills very rapidly. But things will be at fever heat again this afternoon when the R. R. question comes up.
Mr. Grifenstien of Wichita has voted with us against the bill although he says his private interest would prompt him to favor the bill, being interested in real estate in Wichita; and if the bill carried, it would prevent the extension of the
A. T. & S. F. R. R. and thus benefit him, but believing the general prosperity of the State would be checked by such legislation, he voted against his private interests. All honor to such men. That is the right kind of stuff to make our public men of that will vote for the true interest of the State regardless of the effect on themselves. I am in hopes I can send you by tomorrow's mail that the bill is lost.
Yours, etc.
I. H. B.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MARCH 12, 1879.]
The Southern Kansas and Western R. R., an off-shoot of the
L., L. & G., have a petition around to call an election to vote bonds to construct a line of road from Independence to Winfield by the 1st of March, 1880, and to the west line of the county by the 1st of May in the same year.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MARCH 12, 1879.]
We had the pleasure of meeting Gen. Blair, of Ft. Scott, and Hon. W. P. Hackney, of Winfield, on Sunday last. The gentlemen represent the interest of the L. L. and G. R. R. extension through Cowley county.
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[KANSAS NEWS.]
TRAVELER, MARCH 19, 1879.
The L., L & G. corps of engineers are surveying the new route from Independence westward.
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[COMMUNICATION FROM "A. J. W." - NEW MEXICO.]
TRAVELER, MARCH 19, 1879
FROM NEW MEXICO.
SANTA FE, MARCH 5th, 1879.
I am away from home and friends (in a strange land and among strange people). The following will give you some idea of the country and people.
Santa Fe is entirely surrounded by mountains and is indeed a beautiful place. Almost all the inhabitants are Mexicans. There is not to exceed one half dozen Americans within our City. A great many are half breeds (half Indian and half Mexican). They are pleasant and agreeable people, and as a rule well educated.
We have enough churches to civilize a country. There are seven Catholic and three protestant churches. One church [Catholic], stands as a real curiosity, being two hundred and some years old. The Cathedral church is built very beautiful, and has a capacity of seating over one thousand, and they are building it much larger. Another church near a convent is also very beautiful. The windows were brought from Rome. They are a different color, with images of Mary, Jesus, and all the saints. The house is of stone, and there is some very fine work on it. A seminary is almost completed. It is about four times as large as the Central Hotel.
The most of our businessmen are Jews. Things are very cheap here considering the distance we are obliged to freight them, being two hundred miles from any railroad. They will finish the tunnel through the Rattoon [? Raton ?] Mountains in the spring, and if so, in April we will have a railroad within seventy-five miles of Santa Fe, at Las Vegas. I spoke of things being cheap; good prints twelve yards for one dollar; groceries very cheap, canned fruit (pound cans), 25 cents, butter 50 cents per lb., and eggs 50 cents per dozen.
It is rather dull at the present. The place is stocked with carpenters. There is only one blacksmith shop in the city. Blacksmiths command from fifty to one hundred dollars per month and board working for the stage companies. There are but two drug stores.
We obtain our wood by the burro load, it being ready for the fireplace. Twenty-five cents a load in pleasant weather and seventy-five cents to a dollar in wet weather.
There is nothing amusing just now, as it is lent, and we have to sober down for forty days. No weddings, no dances, in fact, nothing. Yes, I had forgotten one exciting thing that occurs next Saturday, in which all the ladies of the city are supposed to be interested in, and turn out to, "a horse race." Horse races, dances, rooster-fight, and mass is "the thing" here.
Closing, I wish the Traveler success.
Your Subscriber,
A. J. W.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MARCH 26, 1879.]
The Boston Journal says the iron has been purchased for the extension of the Atchison Road from Wichita to this place. Good enough. Get ready to send your fall crop off on the rail.
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[SANTA FE RAILROAD.]
TRAVELER, MARCH 26, 1879.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.
We understand that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company have contracted for 80,000 tons of rails, with other material, for the purpose of building a branch, starting at Emporia and running through Greenwood, Elk, and Chautauqua counties to the South line of the State of Kansas, at or near Arkansas City, with a branch from Winfield to Wellington in Sumner county, for which bonds have been voted in Cowley and Sumner counties. This makes about 165 miles of new construction. Subscriptions for the money to build these branches will be offered to the stockholders of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company during this month. Boston Journal.
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[PERSONALS.]
TRAVELER, APRIL 2, 1879.
Good news! Good news!! The Santa Fe railroad officials gave us a call yesterday afternoon, and assure us that work will commence at Wichita on the Cowley and Sumner R. R. extension immediately.
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[EDITORIAL COLUMN.]
TRAVELER, APRIL 9, 1879.
The Extension of the Arkansas Road Down the Valley.
The people of a county whose producers have raised 2,000,000 bushels of wheat may well rejoice that work has actually commenced upon the branch, which is to give them railroad communication with the eastern and western world. The Atchison road having failed in no promise heretofore given, true to the promise of its official, has commenced the permanent location of its road bed and will follow immediately with the shovels and we can predict with a certainty that the agreement will be filled to more than the letter. And by the time this road shall have reached us, the western end of the A. T. & S. F. will have penetrated the Rocky Mountains sufficiently to open up a grand market for our supplies, and to supply us with coal, cheaper than we can buy wood today. Nothing is truer than that "Money makes the mare go" and the Atchison road has the money and the brains to grasp the trade of Southwestern Kansas and outstrip all rivals for our favor.
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A band of Poncas have held a conference with Gen. Crook, and protest against being sent south to the Indian Territory. The General said they must go, that no power this side of Washington could keep them there.
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A Fair Valuation of State Property.
We want it. Let us look at statistics of 1878, merchandise show but 53,757,465. Atchison with large wholesale houses had but 168,870 of merchandise as average amount on hand for tax, ecah city follows in the same proportion. In the whole State only 61,330 in judgments and about one million taxable notes. There is only shown to be an average of one dollar a head on the population of the State in money on hand 1st of March. Sum it up now and see if there is not a fault somewhere: 15,000,000 railroad property over 7,000,000 in horses, eight million in cattle, one million in wagons, and two million in farming implements, and only four and one-half millions in money and merchandise. There is a screw loose somewhere. The farming community of the State ought not to pay so large a majority of the taxes.
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[ANOTHER EDITORIAL: TRAVELER, APRIL 9, 1879.]
THE ATCHISON ROAD.
That William B. Strong is preeminently the right man in the right place he has himself demonstrated, but not more positively than have the Boston capitalists, who, in placing their millions at his command, have enabled him as their trusted representative to do that for the development of Kansas City's future which must make his name and his fame dearer to us than that of many who by words and not deeds would win their way to a place in history to which posterity will point with pride. Under Mr. Strong's management the Santa Fe has become the leading road in miles, earnings, and future in the West. It plays the second fiddle no longer.
We clip the above from the Kansas City Times, only a paragraph from a column article in regard to Mr. Strong and his management of the A. T. & S. F. for the purpose of showing our people the kind of man who now proposes to build a branch of the road to our city, and to build it soon. No better guarantee could be had that we shall have the road for our next crop than that Mr. Strong says so. Mr. Strong has not yet failed to keep every promise he has made and to accomplish everything that he has undertaken since he has been principal manager of the Atchison road. There will be no failure, no let up. The road will come to us as sure as the sun shines.
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[EDITORIAL COLUMN.]
TRAVELER, APRIL 16, 1879.
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.
The spring of 1879 has opened upon the citizens of Cowley county with very encouraging prospects. With a population greater in numbers than Shawnee county, and a people who compare favorably in general intelligence with those in older States, we are fifty miles from a railroad. The present season gives assurance of an early change. The A. T. S. F. R. R. are now engaged in running the permanent survey from Wichita to Arkansas City, and this month the Company will commnce throwing dirt. We have been careful in our issues of the TRAVELER, to avoid raising the expectations of the reader above reasonable probabilities, but we run no risk in now saying to the public that the Cowley, Sumner & Fort Smith R. R. will reach Arkansas City before the first of January next. This is the road we need above all others, as it is capable of returning us greater blessings. While an east line may be an advantage to special localitites, it will greatly increase our public debt, and prove of little, or no advantage, to the county. While a home market is an absolute necessity to our people, the Cowley, Sumner & Ft. Smith road will supply that demand, and we can derive no benefit from an east line from the fact that two roads or more can, and generally do, fix their rates as absolute as a single line. Besides, Cowley county is yet in her infancy and cannot afford to wade headlong into debt. Our taxes will be large enough with the single road. If we place upon this county a mammoth debt, we will send her headlong into oblivion, and where we hope to see prosperity and cities thriving, we will inaugurate a condition that will drive out capital and leave us hopelessly poor. There are counties in Kansas, in that precise situation, and can we afford to follow their example? Even now, there is pending in the U. S. Court of Kansas a suit brought by the bondholders to compel the commissioners of Leavenworth and Douglas counties to levy tax to pay the indebtedness of those counties which the people in mass convention have declared their inability to do. What is the result as shown in Leavenworth and Lawrence today? Simply this. Where there should be live and busy streets, there is almost the stillness of death. Men who were once in trade at those points have gone to other towns to escape the confiscation of the tax collector. Remember there is such a thing as over doing this business and fixing the yoke upon our own necks that we hew out for others to wear. Yet farther than all this, if we keep our county from heavy indebtedness, a population of enterprise and wealth will crowd upon us, and the immense products of Cowley will be tempting to east lines, and soon they will be in our midst, not for bonds, but asking for a share of our transportation. We stand in the open door of a prosperous future if we but exercise judgment and caution.
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[FROM WINFIELD CORRESPONDENT.]
TRAVELER, April 23, 1879.
It seems so singular that any intelligent clod-hopper should even question the advisability of voting more bonds. We have now only $144,000 of railroad bonds, $50,000 County bonds, eighty school districts with bonded indebtedness, ranging from $500 to $10,000, and bridge bonds enough to impoverish Jay Gould. The puppit took up the howl two years since and screached itself hoarse preaching to ignorant farmers the God given truth, that bonded indebtedness was the true way to eternal glory. Every town lot man, banker, lawyer, and doctor took the mania, and carried the "North and South" road. Then all went lovely until one fine morning they found the Emporia road in jail; electioneering money gone, and the under lip of howling, blatant Priest and Levite hung six inches below their chin.
Something must be done, town lots down, and many will have to go to work unless some other bait can be thrown out to catch gudgeons. "Lord help me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more," was offered up before toast at many a table. Their prayer was answered by the Santa Fe. A shout went up, "Why had we not thought of it before! I always knew that would be the first road into Cowley."
The Atchison sent its agents into every corner of Cowley, for the old screachers were about played out. The fresh actors succeeded in proving beyond a doubt that to give $144,000, and pay seven percent, was a genuine speculation, as the taxes would pay principal and interest in twenty years. Figures won't lie. And the Mayor of Topeka came to Cowley as an opponent of bonds; but would be just a little pleased if we would only vote these, as it would make Topeka, and in the course of his three hours harangue, convinced everyone that if the road was built, the trade of Cowley would go down the river, and the poor innocent souls--good sturdy farmers--rushed to the polls and by a rousing majority gave the Atchison road $144,000. Now we have her sure, "Hurrah for the engine." But stop a moment, friend: "A rose by any other name smells just as sweet."
The Legislature meets, and one member from this county had the manliness and independence (All honor to E. C. Manning) to offer a bill, the effect of which was that a farmer could retain his sacks after giving the road his wheat. "That bill must be killed or we will not build the road," says the General Manager and President of the Atchison road. Delegation after delegation left Winfield and Arkansas City to kill the bill, and to the eternal disgrace of every member who voted against it, be it said they succeeded.
Nothing more was said of the road, or thought of it, until up comes another proposition to give some other road anywhere from $65,000 to $150,000. Now the engineers begin to work, or at least one man with a wheel barrow, is running a line into Sumner, then he will shoot back to Winfield, thence, if he lives long enough, south to the State line--crossing the Arkansas river three times in going fifty-five miles.
In all seriousness, fellow farmers, can you afford to be thus taken in many times more! Can you afford to give of your hard-earned taxes to corporations that can "bulldoze" your Legislature for or against any legislation that may be for your interest?
Are you willing that a few men shall be enriched at the expense of your families?
Are you willing longer to be made the butt of ridicule, and branded as a set of apes that can be cajoled into voting anything that some codfish-smelling Yankee may suggest?
MORE ANON,
*****
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, APRIL 23, 1879.]
The Daily Telegram says we oppose that L. L. & G. road because it is coming to Winfield, and that we would tear our shirt if it was coming to Arkansas City. Quite a mistake, my boy. We would not give a cent for a garment in that condition. We are not at all envious of Winfield, and are proud that she is in Cowley county, though we can see no reason why the people who reside outside the corporation should not enjoy a breath of air. Our motto is "Live and let live," and we think there is plenty of room in Cowley for both towns, even were they much larger. We have no desire to do injustice to others, and our imagination is not morbid while we see in the future both towns growing into one, with a Grand Central Depot in Posy Valley, and ships from all nations rolling the waters of the noble Arkansas!!!!
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[KANSAS NEWS - FRONT PAGE.]
TRAVELER, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1879.
A new locomotive for the A. T. & S. F. road has just been completed at the Baldwin locomotive works. It is called "Uncle Dick," and weighs 65 tons and is said to be the largest locomotive in the world.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, APRIL 30, 1879.]
The Surveying Corps of the Cowley Sumner & Fort Smith R. R. came into town last Friday and ran a line from the east side of the town on to the State line.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, APRIL 30, 1879.]
A three mile grade north of Winfield, on the Cowley, Sumner & Ft. Smith R. R., has been let to contractors.
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[EDITORIAL PAGE: R. R. WITHIN THE NEXT NINETY DAYS.]
TRAVELER, MAY 7, 1879.
HO! FOR ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS!
THE R. R. TO BE BUILT TO THIS PLACE WITHIN THE NEXT
NINETY DAYS!
Croakers and Soreheads get off the Track or you Will Fall
Under the Wheels of the Old Santa Fe!
Hurrah for the Busy Mart of the South West!
Sixty-nine car loads of R. R. iron have arrived at Wichita, to be used on the extension of the Cowley & Sumner R. R. to Arkansas City. With the improvement of the Arkansas river, and the railroad finished to this place, Arkansas City will soon become the most important point in the Southern tier of counties. Having no east or cross road to cut through our city, with way stations every few miles to divide our trade, business will concentrate here, and soon this will become the great Emporium of the South West. Mind that!
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[EDITORIAL PAGE: THE STEAM BOAT.]
TRAVELER, MAY 7, 1879.
THE STEAM BOAT.
The Steamer "None Such," the first boat of the season from the Lower Arkansas, reached this port of entry last Wednesday evening. She is a light draft boat, drawing but eight inches, with side wheels, and designed exclusively for the upriver trade. Capt. Cotton tells us that he met the rise in the river about sixty miles below here, though he feels confident that he could easily have made this port with his trim little steamer, at low water mark.
He passed the Steamer "Cherokee" on her way down, near the Pawnee Landing. The steamer will remain here for two or three days when she will load with one thousand sacks of wheat and return to the lower country.
The "Fletcher," the "Big Rock," and the "Water Witch," are all billed for this port on the mountain rise, and will bring up shingles, lumber, etc., and return with wheat to supply the Dardanelle and Little Rock market.
This is an enterprise that will develop our country, and the beautiful part of the scheme is that Congress is disposed to give us the requisite aid to improve the navigation of the Arkansas without bonds or pledges. As No. 2 wheat is always worth one dollar at Little Rock, farmers can sow a broad acreage this fall, feeling reasonably certain that our home market will, in the future, reward their industry.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MAY 14, 1879.]
James L. Huey, W. D. Roberts, and W. B. Norman have been appointed by the District Court of Cowley county the committee to condemn the right of way for the Cowley, Sumner & Fort Smith R. R. through this county.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MAY 14, 1879.]
Keep it before the people that the Cowley, Sumner & Fort Smith R. R. will reach here the coming fall. The appropriation for the Arkansas river will be used in improving navigation this season, and hence, two highways to market will be secured. Now is the time to make investments of capital in this city, and those who take advantage of these circumstances will become the fortunate ones.
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[EDITORIAL PAGE: COWLEY & SUMNER R. R., ETC.]
TRAVELER, WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1879.
Keep it before the people that ground will be broken for the grade on the Cowley & Sumner R. R. between Arkansas City and Winfield by the first of July next. The boom is heard all along the line that Arkansas City, with her superior advantages for trade and her close proximity to the Indian Territory, is to become the boss town in Southwest Kansas. Bear it in mind, ye who are in search of the best locations, that no town in the Southwest has as bright prospects in the early future as this city. With the Santa Fe road at this place, controlling the shipment of vast herds of Texas cattle and a home market for everything the farmer produces, the growth of the town will be hasty and healthy. There will be no towns east, west, or south to spring up along the line of the road to divert and divide our trade at stations on an East line, as ours is but one road, and trade will naturally center at the termini.
These are facts that the thoughtful man will consider before he invests in hopes of profit. It has been the history of most towns, that cannot count their population by thousands, that the cross road has been their doom. The town that builds a lasting trade must have few rivals, and tributary to it, must be a productive country.
This is the situation at Arkansas City. On every side is spread out a garden as beautiful as Moses saw in the Promised Land. Come and enter it.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, MAY 28, 1879.]
The contractors on the Cowley, Sumner and Ft. Smith R. R. are advertising for men to work, offering to pay $1.50 per day. No need of tramps.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 4, 1879.]
The contract to grade the Sumner & Cowley R. R. has been let from El Paso to Arkansas City, and General Manager W. B. Strong said to us last Saturday evening that the road would be completed to this place by the first of next November. Hurray for the Iron Horse.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 11, 1879.]
A contractor was in town on Friday, looking over the R. R. survey, with a view of bidding on the work.
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The L. L. & G. R. R. propose to build directly west from Wellington, into Harper county. This will leave New Caldwell to lay in the shade till the morning of the Great Resurrection. Good bye, sweet child, thou hast given up the spirit ere the morning of life tasted the sweets of this beautiful world.
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[EDITORIAL PAGE.]
TRAVELER, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1879.
The railroad war between the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande
R. R. has been brought into Federal Court and the Santa Fe Company is getting away with the baggage. This is just as we expected.
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The war between the railroads on passenger rates, running East, has reduced the fare from Kansas City to Chicago to fifty cents, and from Kansas City to St. Louis to one dollar and fifty cents, with a chromo thrown in.
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[PERSONALS.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 18, 1879.
The R. R. surveyors are locating the permanent survey between this City and Winfield.
[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 18, 1879.]
The committee appointed by the District Court to condemn the right of way through Cowley county, for the Cowley, Sumner and Fort Smith R. R., will commence work this week between Arkansas City and Winfield.
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[EDITORIAL PAGE.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 25, 1879.
The junction of the Wichita, Arkansas City, and Wellington railroad has been located on the east side of the river in Gore township, Sumner County, about nineteen miles south of Wichita and about twenty-five miles from Arkansas City. Geo. Litzenberg (Farmer Doolittle), has christened the place "Mulvane City." We understand a town is to be laid out, the shadows of whose steeples and the racket of whose business marts will make all contiguous points sick.
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[PERSONALS.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 25, 1879.
Mulvane is the name of the new town at the junction of the Cowley and Sumner R. R.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 25, 1879.]
The surveying corps of the Atchison road have been quartered at the Central Avenue for several days. They now have the line permanently located to the city. The road will pass through the city on the east side.
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[ARKANSAS CITY REPORTS VISIT BY A. T. & S. F. OFFICERS.]
MARCH 4, 1880.
On Thursday Vice-President Strong, accompanied by some of the chief officers of the A., T. & S. F., paid us a visit. Mr. Strong expressed himself as well pleased with the progress the city is making, and thinks that we will be one of the principal points on the road. Mr. Strong's views in regard to government policy as to the extension of his road is sufficiently liberal to satisfy anybody. He thinks that Congress should grant the right of way to all the roads through the Territory to make a Southern connection. He says that the A., T. & S. F. will move just as soon as the government will open the way south. We say haste the day. Ark. City Democrat.
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[LOCOMOTIVE: WINFIELD.]
MARCH 4, 1880.
We saw on the Mountain Division of the A., T. & S. F. railroad, running between Trinidad and Santa Fe, a magnificent new locomotive, bright as a dollar, with six large drive-wheels, bearing the charmed name of WINFIELD. How proudly grand that engine looked to us! We felt that our bright young city was honored among the far off mountains, and it seemed to us that we owned a share in that machine.
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NOTE: THIS HAD TO BE WRITTEN BY MILLINGTON!
[EDITOR MILLINGTON JOURNEYS ON THE K. C., L. & S. RAILROAD.]
MARCH 18, 1880.
Last week we passed over the K. C., L. & S. railroad between Grenola and Oxford, in the daytime, and had a good opportunity to inspect it. Its rails are all steel, and it is thoroughly well constructed and unusually smooth for a new road.
The rise from Grenola and the Cana valley westward to the top of the Flint ridge is one of the triumphs of engineering skill, and Maj. Gunn and his engineers may well be proud of his success. The rise of between 300 and 400 feet is effected in so strategic a manner that one scarcely realizes that he is riding uphill. In our anxiety about the possibility of building a road from the east to Winfield in past years, we spent considerable time in hunting a pass through the Flint ridge, and finally concluded the one now occupied was the best, but we never dreamed that the difficulties would ever be so completely overcome. The rise from the Grouse to Burden seems to have proved at least as difficult, but here, also, the difficulties have been as completely overcome.
Probably no road in Kansas presents so many romantic and interesting features as does the road between Grenola and Oxford.
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[EDITOR MILLINGTON VISITS OXFORD.]
MARCH 18, 1880.
Col. L. S. Hamilton invited us one day last week to go to Oxford with him. We mounted a car-load of iron, the forward car in a heavy construction train, and the engine in the rear soon pushed us over the Walnut river, the divide, and the Arkansas river, and we found ourselves at the foot of Main Street, Oxford. We had about an hour and a quarter to interview Oxford in; gravitated naturally to the Reflex office and postoffice, but did not see Gridley, Jr., P. M. and editor. He had gone to supper, and being terribly hungry, it took him the whole time to satisfy his inner man.
Oxford is growing and with its newly acquired railroad facilities, surrounded as it is by an enterprising population, and the best agricultural land in the world, will become an important town. A fine depot is in process of construction.
We came back on the engine in about twenty minutes, and are convinced that even a construction train beats the old plan of going to Oxford out of sight.
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[EDITORIAL ITEMS.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 2, 1880.
The A. T. & S. F. R. R. ran their first train into Caldwell on Saturday, of last week.
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[NEWS FROM OUR EXCHANGES.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 2, 1880.
Sumner County Press.
South Haven has unanimously agreed to vote eighteen thousand dollars in township bonds to secure the extension of the S. K. & W. R. R. from this city.
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[PROPOSED RAILROAD: CHEROKEE AND ARKANSAS RAILROAD COMPANY.]
BACK PAGE - TRAVELER, JUNE 9, 1880.
THE PROPOSED RAILROAD.
The House Railway Committee agreed, on the 6th, to report favorably a bill to incorporate the Cherokee and Arkansas railroad company with authority to construct and operate a line of railroad and telegraph from Arkansas City, in the State of Kansas, through the Indian Territory, following the general line of the Arkansas river to a point at or near Fort Smith. The capital stock is not to exceed $4,000,000 and shall be divided into shares of $100 each.
Section five of the bill has been amended in the Committee so that no lands shall be granted to the road in aid of this construction through the Indian Territory, except in conformity with existing treaties governing the relations of the United States Government with the Indian tribes living there. The section allows a hundred feet on each side of the track and twenty acres for each way station. It further provides that private property may be condemned in accordance with the law of 1864, relative to the construction of a railroad from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean. Ex.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 16, 1880.]
Mr. F. D. Russell, the general western freight and passenger agent of the St. Louis & San Francisco railway, favored us with a call last week. He was canvassing this section of the country in the interest of his road, with a view to securing a portion of the freight traffic, the main inducement offered by this road being a saving of time. Freight from St. Louis is delivered in this county three days sooner than by way of Kansas City, while the rates are just as cheap, if not cheaper. Mr. Russell is a wide-awake, thorough-going businessman. If all the agents and employees are of his stamp, the road is bound to work up a large business.
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[PERSONALS.]
TRAVELER, JUNE 23, 1880.
Ten carloads constituted the first shipment of cattle made from Caldwell over the A. T. & S. F. railroad on Tuesday, June 16, 1880.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JUNE 23, 1880.]
And now South Haven is considerably worked up at the prospect of having a rival town in close proximity. Hunnewell is the new burg's cognomen, and its location was fixed by the railroad company four miles south of South Haven, on the State line.
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[RAILROAD TO ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS.]
TRAVELER, JULY 7, 1880.
RAILROAD TO ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS.
The best way to build it is from Ft. Smith, on south side Arkansas river to where the M. K. & T. crosses the Arkansas, and then on the same bridge and up Hominy creek or the Arkansas river. The Choctaw people always desired to unite with the first road to Ft. Smith, and aid in its extension, and we believe will do the same yet. Ft. Smith (Arkansas) Elevator.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JULY 14, 1880.]
A new town west of Wellington is soon to be laid out on the line of the K. C., L. & S. railway. It will be located in the Wild Horse valley, sixteen miles west of Harper City and the same distance east of Medicine Lodge. Winfield men are the projectors.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, AUGUST 25, 1880.]
The Wellington & Western railroad now building to Anthony, Harper county, is advertising for work hands and offers $1.50 per day. John H. Thompson, of Wellington, is chief engineer.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, AUGUST 25, 1880.]
As the accommodation train was speeding along toward Winfield last Thursday morning, with some eight or nine freight cars in front of the passenger car, a coupling pin broke between the fourth and fifth freight car, when about four miles from Winfield. The engineer did not notice the accident until he had nearly reached Winfield, when he returned for the rest of the train.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 8, 1880.]
A wash-out between Lawrence and Kansas City, on the Santa Fe road, delayed the trains last Friday. Two empty freight cars were ditched near Cottonwood station. The wind blew them down on the switch of the main track and the engine collided with them.
[HACKNEY SQUARES OFF AGAINST PYBURN.]
SEPTEMBER 9, 1880.
WINFIELD, Ks., Sept. 7, 1880.
EDS. COURIER: In the Daily Telegram of Monday is an article entitled "Two Edged Swords," in which among other falsehoods, is the following:
"Hackney during the last legislature spent the full term there. Knowing Pyburn, Hackney suggested to the Santa Fe people his employment."
This in the personal organ of Senator Pyburn, is peculiarly significant.
I did not go to Topeka as the paid attorney of any railroad company, as this article charges. The people of Cowley had no railroads. Our bonds had been voted to the Santa Fe company on condition that this company should build the road in a limited time. Before the company had effected the loans necessary to raise the money with which to build this road, the legislature met and immediately was commenced a war on the Kansas roads, seeking by legislation to take the control of them from the men who furnished the money with which to build them, and to place it in the hands of men to be appointed by the Governor.
These movements on the part of the legislature had the effect to so intimidate Boston capitalists who were to furnish the money to build our railroads, that they would not invest. The committee which had been appointed by our citizens were notified that this road could not be built if the proposed legislation should be effected.
Thereupon the committee and citizens of Winfield and Cowley county were alarmed, and applied to me to go to Topeka and try to prevent the passage of what was known as the Rigg's bill. Busy as I was at the time, and much as it cost me in the loss of valuable law business, I was prevailed upon to go for ten days. At the expiration of that time I should have returned, but for the personal solicitation of General Manager Strong, who assured me that the pending legislation was having a disastrous effect upon the attempts of the company to raise the money to build our road. At his request, I remained until some time in February, when I met the men who organized the Southwestern Kansas and Western railroad company. I was chosen one of the directors, went to Kansas City, examined into the matter, and became convinced that they meant business and could build the road.
I came home with Gen. Blair, their attorney, and the proposition to vote bonds to the east and west railroad was submitted. The proposed legislation was defeated; both roads have been built, and the people have the benefit. I have never received one nickle for the time and money I expended in securing these roads. I am still a director in the latter, having been re-elected since because, as I suppose, of their faith in my honor.
Before I went to Topeka, our people hauled their wheat and hogs 50 to 75 miles to Wichita, and there paid $45 a car to Kansas City. In consequence of the building of these two roads through the county, for the last two months our farmers have been shipping their wheat, hogs, and corn from home to Kansas City for ten dollars a car, and no hauling to Wichita, and have saved enough already to pay the bonded debt.
Then why this railroad howl against me in the Telegram? It is only to try to beat me by any means, fair or foul.
No railroad corporation or agent of one has ever approached me on the subject of what will be my course with regard to railroads if elected to the senate. No person, corporation, or firm has ever contributed one cent toward my election or the expenses connected therewith either directly or indirectly, and I never said anything to indicate otherwise. When the impersonal columns of the Telegram or its personal owner says aught to the contrary, it or he simply lies, and I mean this statement to be broad and long enough to cover every charge made in that article and that the shoe shall fit him who asserts and him who circulates these lies, let them be whom they may.
The Telegran says because I knew my man, I could get the Santa Fe people to employ him. Now I assert that Pyburn and I were not divided in opinion but stood on the same platform and acted in concert that winter. I had supposed that the company employed Pyburn because of his ability as an attorney, but the ass-tute manager of the Telegram tells us that such is not the case, but that he was appointed at my request because I knew my man. The Telegram intimates that his employment was not on account of his legal ability but for the purpose of controlling his vote on the pending legislation. This is the only inference that can be drawn from the Telegram article. Verily does Pyburn suffer from this insane zeal to vilify me. It is bad to have a fool-friend. If the Telegram keeps going, it will convince its readers that Senator Pyburn is either a fool or a knave, possibly both. I suppose that Mr. Pyburn attends to such legal business as is entrusted to him by the Santa Fe company. The firm of which I am a member does the same for the K. C. L. & S. company. We do this work for pay just as we work for other clients.
And now I pronounce the fusillade of billingsgate with which the columns of the Telegram have been filled, regarding myself, for weeks and months past, as false, malicious, cowardly, and libelous, and the authors of them characterless hypocrites and malicious scoundrels. I invite the small pack of coyotes who contribute to its columns to do their dirtiest, I expect no favors from them in this campaign and will grant none. My public services are well known to the people of the county; and if again wanted, they will elect me to the Senate in spite of such opposition. If not, I shall be content and henceforth give my individual attention to my business.
Respectfully,
W. P. HACKNEY.
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[JUDGE COLDWELL/W. P. HACKNEY.]
SEPTEMBER 9, 1880.
Judge Coldwell thinks it terribly mean for Hackney or anyone else to write to Texas inquiring about the standing of the Judge in his old "stamping ground," but Hackney does not seem to feel any alarm when anyone writes to Illinois for his record. All his old Illinois acquaintances seem to feel just as John Adams does. Hear him.
MAPLE TOWNSHIP, Cowley Co., )
Kansas, Sept. 6th, 1880. )
EDS. COURIER: On last Friday two men called at my home in my absence, and inquired for me, saying that they had learned that I was from Logan county, Illinois, and knew W. P. Hackney, and that they wanted to get an affidavit from me as to the bad character of Mr. Hackney in Illinois. They left leaving word for me to go down to Seeley, and they would leave an affidavit for me to sign, there. Now I will inform those gentry that I knew Mr. Hackney well at his old home in Illinois, and that if these gentlemen stood half as well in Kansas as he does in Illinois, they would be in better business than they are. I will support Mr. Hackney for the State Senate, as will all his old acquaintances from Illinois, the slime of the mud-slingers to the contrary notwithstanding.
JOHN ADAMS.
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[PERSONALS.]
SEPTEMBER 9, 1880.
The K. C. L. & S. railroad is completed to Harper.
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[ARKANSAS CITY DEMOCRAT ITEMS.]
SEPTEMBER 9, 1880.
The A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co. are building a new round house at Mulvane. It is to be the same size of the one here.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 15, 1880.]
Wichita's annual fair opened yesterday, and will continue four days. The Santa Fe railroad issues tickets from Arkansas City to Wichita and return for $1.60.
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W. C. Garvey, station agent at the Santa Fe depot in Winfield, and wife, with Mr. Wilbur Dever and Miss Jennie Hane, paid the terminus a visit last Sunday.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 15, 1880.]
The news in regard to the railroad from Arkansas City to Fort Smith is of the most important and encouraging description. As is well known to our readers, all that the Santa Fe asks from Congress is the right of way through the Territory. This came very near being granted at the last session, and the assurances were then made that with the opening of the forty-sixth Congress, one of the earliest acts of the session will be to grant this right. In conversation with agents and traders of the Cherokee Nation, we discover that the Indians are largely reconciled to the building of the road, and that the most important members of the tribe favor it. Another matter is that the Santa Fe is already doing the preliminary work, and that John E. Thomes, division engineer, will be ordered to make the preliminary survey from Arkansas City, commencing sometime this month. In less than three years Cowley county will have a great trunk-line road, uniting the Kansas system of roads with those of the South, bringing to southern Kansas greater prosperity than her citizens ever dreamed of. Winfield Monitor.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 15, 1880.]
Parties wishing to attend the fair at Wichita, from the 14th to the 17th of September, inclusive, can purchase tickets over the A. T. & S. F. road at $1.60 for the round trip. Tickets on sale from the 13th to 17th, to be used on or before the 18th.
Those wishing to attend the Stare Fair held at Lawrence, in Bismarck Grove, September 13th to 18th, inclusive, can purchase tickets over the A. T. & S. F. raod for one-half fare for round trip. Tickets for sale from the 13th to 17th, to be used on or before the 19th.
O. INGERSOLL, Agent.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 22, 1880.]
There will be weeping and wailing among the men who travel into this county during next month, because of the absence of the popular Santa Fe conductor, J. E. Miller. Mr. Miller has worked like a beaver this summer, making four runs per day during our hottest weather, and now that the strain is beginning to tell on him, we are glad to learn that he has been granted a vacation of a month, to take effect the 1st of October. He will go to Massachusetts, and after a few weeks of rest, will return to this country, bringing with him his wife, who is now in the old Bay State.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, SEPTEMBER 22, 1880.]
An accident that came near having a fatal termination occurred on Dr. Leonard's place last Monday morning. Two men were engaged in digging a well, and one was being drawn to the surface for some purpose. As he neared the top the windlass got out of fix, one end getting loose, and the unfortunate man was hurled to the bottom, a distance of thirty feet, badly bruising his head and hip. It is little short of a miracle that he escaped with his life.
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While the express train was speeding along between Arkansas City and Winfield last Friday, a man was seen standing on the track, eyeing the oncoming train with all the indifference imaginable. Supposing he was an escaped lunatic, the engineer "slowed up," when the man stepped off the track, grinning as if he thought he had done something smart. A well-directed chunk of coal from the fireman would have served him right.
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[PERSONALS.]
SEPTEMBER 23, 1880.
The two railroads building west into Harper county have come to an agreement and have quit work in building the roads. The K. C., L. & S. had nearly reached Harper City, and the Santa Fe was within eight miles of Anthony.
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[PERSONALS.]
OCTOBER 7, 1880.
The Santa Fe lion is gobbling up all the little railroad lambs in this vicinity. They can't bleat without suffering for it.
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[RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION: SANTA FE TO TAKE OVER K. C. L. & S.]
OCTOBER 7, 1880.
From the reports now current, it seems pretty certain that the Santa Fe company is now, or soon will be, the owner of the K. C. L. & S. road. If this is the case, the Santa Fe road now has complete control of the transportation of Southern Kansas. With its main line running through the central part of the state from East to West, its many feeders reaching out from the main line on every hand, and now possessed of another and the only line from which opposition could come, they certainly are masters of the situation.
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[PERSONALS.]
OCTOBER 14, 1880.
The reported purchase of the K. C. L. & S. road has been denied. We are glad of this. With competing lines we are sure to have reasonable rates. With both roads in the hands of one corporation, we might fare worse.
[ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY.]
TRAVELER, OCTOBER 20, 1880.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe company has bought the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern, formerly the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston. The Kansas, Lawrence & Southern is one of the old Nettleton roads, and runs from Kansas City and Lawrence in a southwesterly direction to Wellington, Kansas, near the line of the Indian Territory, which branches to Coffeyville and to Hunnewell. The distance from Lawrence to Hunnewell is 225 miles, to Wellington 237 miles. The Kansas City branch to Lawrence is 53 miles long, and the Coffeyville branch 16 miles.
The object of the Santa Fe company in securing this property, was, no doubt, for the purpose of securing a line that will be able to compete with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, which is controlled by Jay Gould. It is the intention of the Santa Fe people to extend the line as soon as possible through the Indian Territory to a connection with the Texas roads.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, DECEMBER 1, 1880.]
Last Wednesday morning J. E. Miller, the genial Santa Fe conductor, met with a rather severe accident while coupling cars at Seeley, crushing two fingers on his right hand. They were running an early stock train, and thinking to facilitate matters, he stepped between the cars for the above purpose, with the result stated. It was at first feared that he would lose the injured members, but fortunately such a course will not be necessary.
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[OUR RAILROAD STOCK.]
DECEMBER 2, 1880.
The directors of the following named roads have made an arrangement to consolidate their stocks into one corporation and management called The Kansas City, Topeka and Western Railroad company. The terms of the consolidation are, that the stock of the Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern is to be taken up at 95 cents on the dollar, the stock of the Southern Kansas and Western at 75 cents on the dollar, and the stock of the Sumner county at 75 cents, and the stock of the Kansas City, Topeka and Western substituted therefor at par. This latter stock is to be taken at par and paid for by secured 5 percent 40 year bonds of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad company. The present Lawrence, Topeka and Western railroad is the line from Kansas City to Topeka which has been operated by the A., T. & S. F. under a lease. The K. C., L. & S. is the road from Lawrence (and we think from Olathe) to Independence and Coffeyville.
The S. K. & W. is the road from Independence via Winfield to Harper; and the Sumner county is the branch from Wellington to Hunnewell. It is the S. K. & W. in which Cowley county owns $68,000 of stock. The proposition so far as it affects this county substantially involves the sale of our $68,000 of stock for $51,000 A. T. & S. F. five percent 40 year bonds.
We are inclined to think that this would be a good operation for this county. The bonds would doubtless sell at any time at par in cash while the railroad stock may never be worth more than 75 cents on the dollar and in case of a financial revulsion, it might go down to next to nothing.
There never was a time when railroad stocks were so much in demand as they are at present. The scramble of Jay Gould and several great corporations to get control of so many railroad lines by buying in a majority of their stocks has so inflated railroad stocks that they sell much above their real value. How long this state of things is going to continue cannot now be seen but it is probable that some of these operators will before long get so heavily loaded that there will be a magnificent failure like that of Jay Cook in 1873 when the bubble will burst and railroad stock such as ours will not sell for ten cents on the dollar. At the same time first mortgage and other well secured railroad bonds will be but little affected by the money stringency that would ensue for they must first be paid. The sale of a road to pay such bonds has usually frozen out the stock entirely and rendered it worthless.
We suppose the consolidation will be affected by the directors, whether our county as a stockholder in one of the roads consents or not; but we suppose the exchange of our stock for the bonds cannot be made without a vote of the people. A proposition in relation to the matter has been sent to J. S. Hunt, county clerk, to be laid before the commissioners for their action. We do not know what will be done about it, but presume the commissioners would wish to have the matter laid before the people, and would desire to have an expression from as many as possible in relation to the matter.
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[PERSONALS.]
DECEMBER 2, 1880.
The K. C., L. & S. are about putting up a wind machine to pump water for their tank at this place.
[KANSAS AND NEW ORLEANS: RAILROAD CONNECTIONS.]
TRAVELER, DECEMBER 8, 1880 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
KANSAS AND NEW ORLEANS.
RAILROAD CONNECTIONS AND TRADE RELATIONS WITH THE
GREAT WEST.
Yesterday morning a States reporter, in his perambulations, called upon Mr. J. L. Gubernator, a well-known citizen of New Orleans, and who has returned to the city after a sojourn of several months in Kansas.
Mr. Gubernator passed most of his time in Kansas with his brother at McPherson, in the southern portion of the State, on a branch of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad.
The southern or New Orleans branch [these designates are used in order to make the situation clearer] of the Atchison and Topeka leaves the main line at Newton, and has been completed as far south at Arkansas City near the northern boundary of the Indian Territory. This branch is designed to be a great road. At Mulvane, we believe, it sends one branch to run Southwesterly through the cattle regions of Texas, the other is to traverse the Indian Territory to make a junction at Texarkana with the Texas Pacific and over that with the New Orleans Pacific.
This branch has been, as has been said, completed to Arkansas City, and the only reason that it is not pushed immediately through the Indian Territory to Texarkana, via Fort Smith, is that, so far, owing to a treaty with the Indians, it has been impossible to obtain the right of way. Hence, in the interest of a few half vagabonds, a great enterprise of vast interest to the civilization and trade of Louisiana and Tennessee are also sufferers from the same treaty, as the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad, completed between these two points, is at the latter point, on the eastern boundary of the Indian Territory, at a stand still.
From Mr. Gubernator it was learned that, though the great majority of the people of the portions of Kansas in which he sojourned are hostile--even bitter--toward the democratic party, they are anxious to open up commercial relations with New Orleans. They understand fully that New Orleans is the nearest seaport in America to them, and little more distant than St. Louis or Chicago, and when they get their produce to the latter places they are still many hundreds of miles from the sea.
The farmers of Kansas and other Northwestern regions are now paying fifty-two cents per bushel to transport their wheat to New York; and as soon as the canals and rivers are frozen over, they expect freights to a still higher figure and thus absorb very nearly the results of the labor and investments of the farmers.
On the other hand the farmers of Kansas assume that so soon as they have rail connection with New Orleans, their grain will be transported to the sea for twenty-five cents per bushel.
They also desire access to the great lumber regions of Louisiana and Texas, from which they will be able to obtain an abundance of cheaper and better lumber than they now buy in Wisconsin, and that they can get on cheaper rates of freight.
These are the facts gleaned from a man of close observation and intelligence, and they are only a very few of the multitude of facts which indicate that New Orleans is to become the great metropolis of the magnificent empire lying west of the
Mississippi, and richer in resources than the now rich regions to the east of that mighty stream. New Orleans State.
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[RAILROAD STOCK.]
COURIER, DECEMBER 9, 1880.
The county Commissioners met last Tuesday to consider the proposition to change the stock in the Southern Kansas and Western railroad belonging to this county at seventy-five cents on the dollar for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe five percent forty year bonds at par. After a full discussion of the matter, they decided that they were not authorized to make any disposition of the stock without first submitting the question to a vote of the people, giving thirty days notice, and that it was impossible to do this in the limited time given. They however determined to investigate the matter to ascertain what our stock can be sold for, and to ascertain the value and security of the bonds offered, and then determine what is best to be done. The general feeling was that we should accept a cash offer or an offer of the bonds of our county at seventy-five cents on the dollar for the stock or even a considerable less. The commissioners desire an expression of the people as to whether they shall call an election in the matter and under what circumstances.
We would ask some friend in every township and neighborhood to ascertain the sentiment about him and inform us by letter or postal card.
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[PERSONALS.]
COURIER, DECEMBER 9, 1880.
Speculation is rife among our people as to what the Santa Fe will do with its two roads at this point. The seeming object of the company in getting possession of the L., L. & G. was to relieve their main line, which is already overburdened with Colorado and New Mexico business. By running some of their trains from Newton down over the L., L. & G. into Kansas City, they would relieve two hundred and fifty miles of the main line. If this prediction proves true, through trains from Kansas City to California may yet go west via Winfield. It is also rumored that the Santa Fe will extend its line from Harper City and connect with the main line at Dodge City, thereby making a more direct route via Winfield to Kansas City for such trains as they desire to run that way. If this is the intention of the company, it will make the old L., L. & G. stock much more valuable than it is at present, which perhaps accounts for their desire to exchange 5 percent bonds for such stock. The dividends on the stock would be more than interest on their bonds.
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[RAILROAD STOCK: PROPOSED CHANGE.]
TRAVELER, DECEMBER 15, 1880 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
RAILROAD STOCK.
The county Commissioners met last Tuesday to consider the proposition to change the stock in the Southern Kansas and Western railroad belonging to this county at seventy-cents on the dollar for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe five percent, forty year bonds at par. After a full discussion of the matter, they decided that they were not authorized to make any disposition of the stock without first submitting the question to a vote of the people giving thirty days notice, and that it was impossible to do this in the limited time given. They, however, determined to investigate the matter to ascertain what our stock can be sold for, and to ascertain the value and security of the bonds offered, and then determine what is best to be done. The general feeling was that we should accept a cash offer or an offer of the bonds of our county at seventy-cents on the dollar for the stock or even considerable less. The commissioners desire an expression of the people as to whether they shall call an election in the matter and under what circumstances.
We should ask some friend in every township and neighborhood to ascertain the sentiment about him and inform us by letter or postal card. Courier.
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[PERSONALS.]
TRAVELER, DECEMBER 15, 1880.
It now transpires that Miller is not going to run on that new road.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, DECEMBER 15, 1880.]
J. E. Miller (he of the Santa Fe), wife, and child, will remain in Topeka during the time he is laid off from the effects of the accident he met with a short time since. This being the case, we hope he will soon get around so we can bask in the sunshine of his smiles some more.
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[GEN. STRONG AND THE A., T. & S. F. R. R.]
DECEMBER 16, 1880.
The Atchiston, Topeka and Santa Fe, whether it ever makes the C., B. & Q. and Vanderbilt combinations or not, is about the biggest institution in the country. In ten years from the C. K., Holiday engine No. 1, and an old second hand passenger coach off the I. L. C. R. R., running over 27 miles of road, she now runs hundreds of engines and passenger coaches over a line of road more than a thousand miles in length, besides a half dozen branches which are themselves important lines. The road is operated independent of stock jobs or politics, being run purely as a matter of business and on business principles. The earnings of the road for the last half of November amounted to $510,000, and the company has ordered fifty new engines, forty new passenger coaches, and two thousand five hundred new freight cars. Gould and Vanderbilt have a match in General Strong, the manager of the A., T. & S. F. railroad. In the absence of all consolidations or combinations, the road under the lead of Gen. Strong's genius, will in five years be one of the most gigantic enter-prises known to civilization. Upon the other hand, a consolidation of the Santa Fe and Burlington will establish a system of roads that will serve a community of interests embracing the entire western half of the United States. It would have lines from Chicago to all principal eastern points, including all the Missouri river cities. Such a consolidation would give a line from Chicago to Denver and the Pacific via the Plattmouth bridge; another from St. Louis via the St. L. & S. F. and
Wichita, and from Atchison and Kansas City to the Pacific coast by their own road, which will soon be completed.
This will give them two lines to Gould's one; but the last line possesses immense advantages, in that it reaches Guayamas, on the Gulf of California, shortening up the line to Japan, Australia, and South America, by one thousand miles. And still this is not all. Arrangements have been made with the authorities of our sister Republic for the extension of this line to the capital of old Mexico. The magnificent and wonderful results that will follow the completion of the last named line cannot be computed. Eagle.
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[EXTENSION OF THE MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAY.]
COURIER, DECEMBER 16, 1880.
It is the evident intention of the Missouri Pacific railway company under the direction of Jay Gould to extend the branch now built to Leroy, Coffee County, by way of Winfield, to the west line of the state at an early day, and probably to conttinue it through New Mexico to the Pacific.
That company has executed a mortgage on their road to John F. Dillon, of New York, to secure its bonds to the amount of thirty millions of dollars, covering the main line of its road from St. Louis to the Kansas line, 284 miles; the branch to Carondelet, 12 miles; the Booneville branch, 80 miles; the Lexington branch, 55 miles; a branch to be built called the Lexington & Southern, 200 miles; the branch to Atchison, 47 miles; a branch from the state line via Ottawa to Topeka, 200 miles, partly built; and last, but not least, a branch from the east line of Kansas through the counties of Miami, Franklin, Anderson, Coffee, Woodson, Wilson, Elk, Cowley, Sumner, Harper, Barbour, Comanche, Clarke, Meade, Seward, Stevens and Kansas, the entire length of the state, 430 miles. This mortgage is being placed on record in the various counties. A copy of it is on record in the office of Register of Deeds of Cowley county, and covers over thirty pages in the book of records. It covers in the aggregate 1,108 miles of road, built or to be built.
This road will be of great interest to the people of this county as giving us competing lines, a more direct route to the east and to the west, and placing us on the most direct through route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
It is intimated that Jay Gould does not intend to ask for county or other municipal bonds, on the ground that the stock of the company will be worth as much as any county bonds and he does not wish to exchange stock for bonds.
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[PERSONALS.]
COIURIER, DECEMBER 16, 1880.
We have been informed that a move is under consideration in the Gould circles to extend the Leroy branch of the Missouri Pacific to Winfield.
[OUR RAILROAD STOCK.]
Winfield Courier, December 23, 1880.
We have conversed with a great many citizens in relation to the railroad stock owned by this county and the expression so far is almost unanimous that an election should be called to vote on a proposition to authorize the county commissioners to sell our stock in the Southern Kansas and Western and in the Cowley, Sumner and Fort Smith, either or both, at not less than sixty-five cents on the dollar in cash or in the bonds of this county. Of course, they desire to sell at the highest possible rate, but think it better to take even 65 cents than to hold on long for a higher price. If on a close examination of the law, it shall be held that it means that the precise price to be sold at shall be named in the proposition and that it could not legally be sold, at a higher price, it would be necessary to find the highest price that could be obtained; but if, as seems most reasonable, the intent of the law is merely to prohibit the sale of the stock at a lower price than that named in the proposition, but allowing the commissioners to sell at as much higher price as they can after the vote authorizing the sale is carried, then there is no need of any delay in calling the election.
In reply to a letter of inquiry sent to capialists in Boston by Capt. J. S. Hunt for the commissioners, he received a letter offering sixty-five cents on the dollar for the S. K. & W. stock.
Col. M. L. Robinson has a letter from Robert H. Weems, the bond man of the great financial firm of Donnell, Lawson & Co., which we copy below. From this it will be seen that the writer quotes the K. C., L. & S. stock at 91 to 92. In the consolidation the same stock is rated at 95. The S. K. & W. stock which we hold is put into the consolidation at 75. We presume if put on the N. Y. market, it would be quoted at about 72. The letter quotes the A. T. & S. F. bonds offered for our stock at 99.
If we should trade our $68,000 stock at 75 for these bonds and then sell the bonds at 99, it would realize us $50,490 in cash or 74-1/4 cents on the dollar in cash for our stock.
Another idea is that the calling of the election if done during this month need not cost the county but little extra, for the regular township elections are to be held on the first Tuesday in February and the stock elections could be held at the same time and with the same officers of elections.
The following is the letter above mentioned.
Mr. M. L. Robinson, Cashier, Winfield, Kansas.
Dear Sir: Yours of the 9th was duly received, and in reply we beg leave to state that the stock of the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern R. R. is worth from 91 to 92. The 40 year 5 percent bonds of the A., T. & S. F. R. R. are worth 99 and interest. The consolidation you mention has appeared here in the various papers and as stated by you. This would result in the county securing $54,000 in 5 percent bonds, which are worth par, and we do not think that they will be worth less in the future. The county can undoubtedly trade them off to the Cowley, Sumner and Ft. Smith road. The 7 percent bonds issued by your county will be hard to get, as they are more scattered.
I will be pleased to hear from you further regarding this matter, and anything which I can do for you or for the county will be done most cheerfully and faithfully.
Yours truly,
ROBT. H. WEEMS.
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[MORE ON SANTA FE RAILROAD PROPOSITION.]
DECEMBER 23, 1880.
It is claimed by some that the Santa Fe proposition to extend the El Dorado Branch is made at this time for the purpose of heading off the Fort Scott road, and to prevent the county voting bonds to aid its construction through this county, with a branch down the valley to Winfield. No man knows, outside the Fort Scott Company itself, whether they have the money to build or not.
This company, not having the money itself, may have secured the control of this line with the hope of being able to induce capitalists to take hold and build the road; they may be working it up with a view of selling out to some other corporation, or they may have the money to build. It is impossible to tell what they will or will not do until the line is completed to Humboldt, where it will connect with the Misouri, Kansas & Texas road, and until a reasonable amount of work is actually done on the line west of the last named place.
While it is claimed that this company intends building a branch line from El Dorado to Newton, in addition to the direct line to Wichita, it has never been claimed that they intended to build down the valley. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and it is fair to presume that the people of the southern portion of the county will take up with the Santa Fe proposition, regardless of any other that may be made. There is nothing in the future as sure as that the El Dorado branch will be extended, if the franchises are voted as specified in the proposition.
Having had some experience with "paper" railroads, we are not willing to believe the Fort Scott road is coming until we can actually see the smoke of the construction engine "on the top of the Flint Hills," or somewhere else in that immediate vicinity.
Eldorado Times.
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[CAPITAL NOTES.]
DECEMBER 23, 1880.
Items of Interest Gathered at the State Departments.
The Judges of the Supreme Court will meet next Monday for the purpose of consultation and to file opinions.
RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION.
Articles of consolidation were filed in the office of the Secretary of State, yesterday, by the officers of the Kanss City, Lawrence & Southern Railroad, the Southern, Kansas & Western Railroad, and the Sumner County Railroad. The name of the Company will be the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southwestern Railroad. The articles are signed by H. H. Hunnewell, President, and Chas. Merriam, Secretary, for the S. K. & W., and Geo. H. Nettleton, President and Jas. S. Ford, Secretary, for the Sumner County road.
Commonwealth, 16th.
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[EDITORIAL RE STOCK ELECTION.]
DECEMBER 30, 1880.
The commissioners of this county have called a special election to be held on Tuesday, the first day of February, A. D. 1881, to vote upon two propositions: the one authorizing the sale of the Cowley, Sumner and Fort Smith railroad stock, at not less than 65 cents on the dollar, and the other authorizing the sale of the Southern Kansas and Western railroad stock at or above same limits. This call is made in response to a general expression of the people as far as heard from favoring the submission of the proposition on the terms named.
This expression is not quite unanimous, for at least one of our citizens, whose financial opinions are entitled to as much weight as those of any man in this community, objects decidedly to holding the election, and considers it very imprudent to vote such authority to sell. He holds that the S. K. & W. stock is going to advance and is likely to go up to par, and that the principal object which any parties can have in making propositions to buy this stock is to make a large speculation on it. He thinks it wrong to expose the commissioners to the offers of personal advantage which will be sure to be made to them by parties anxious to buy, and that it will be time enough to vote authority to sell when we have an offer nearly equivalent to par in cash. He does not think that the C. S. & F. S. stock can be sold as high as 65 cents for a long time to come and that it is useless to vote authority to sell at present.
The idea of others with whom we have conversed and of the commissioners is, that with a limited authority to sell they are not required to sell at once, but can hold until it is evident that the best offer is made and the right time to sell has come, and that when such offer comes, it may require so prompt action to avail ourselves of it that there will not be time to submit it to a vote to acquire the authority to sell.
During the time up to the election, on February first, the market will be canvassed as thoroughly as possible, and all the facts in relation to the value and prospects of the stock that can be obtained will be. At the same time offers will be made. If it is thought best, we can then delay for months for more information and more offers.
If the offer of the K. C., T. & W. and the A. T. & S. F. already made should finally be found to be the best, if it shall be found that the bonds offered can be sold at par for cash, the intermediate trades of S. K. & W. stock at 75 for consolidated stock at par for Santa Fe bonds at par, could be made, provided that they were contingent on the sale of the bonds at par for cash or county bonds are delivered. This would yield the county $51,000 cash for its $68,000 stock on the S. K. & W.
The A., T. & S. F. offer stands until February 15th. By that time we can know more of the value and prospects of the stock, and can then decide whether it is best to accept that offer.
The highest offer yet received in cash direct is 65 cents. We have no fears of the result. We favored the calling of the election. It being called on the day for township elections will not be attended with much extra expense. There is no danger of it being carried against the will of the people, for the law requires a two-thirds vote for either proposition to carry it. If it is best that it be defeated, there are five weeks before the election in which to convince one-third of the voters of such fact.
Our columns will be open to those opposed to present their views in reasonable length. For ourselves we believe it best to vote the authority to sell and shall so advocate until otherwise convinced. We want the taxes reduced in any judicious way that can be devised, and do not wish to miss any chance to reduce our county debt as much as possible.
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[PERSONALS.]
DECEMBER 30, 1880.
The total tax levied on our railroads for 1881 is as follows: A., T. & S. F., $6,488.89; S. K. & W., $5,853.55; total, $13,324.45. [THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE! I GET $12,342.44! THIS IS A DIFFERENCE OF $982.01!] The amount of interest due and payable on railroad bonds is $12,440. It will be seen that the county received more money by $884.45, from the railroad companies, than it pays out for interest on bonds. The Santa Fe company have paid their taxes in full, the S. K. & W. have paid one-half.
Telegram.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JANUARY 5, 1881.]
An election has been called by the county commissioners for the purpose of voting on the proposition to sell the county's stock in the Cowley, Sumner & Fort Smith and Southern Kansas & Western railroads--the proceeds to be applied to the payment or purchase of the outstanding bonds of this county. Tuesday, February 1, is the day designated for the election. We understand the county is offered seventy-five cents on the dollar for this stock, which is everywhere considered an exceptionally good offer.
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[ANOTHER RAILROAD: GOULD EXTENSION OF M., K. & T.]
TRAVELER, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1881 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
ANOTHER RAILROAD.
Yesterday afternoon our citizens assembled to hear the agents of Jay Gould make a proposition to this township for another railroad--the extension of the M., K. & T. from Independence to this point. It is their plan to build this road by township aid alone, and to complete it to Arkansas City by January 1, 1882. The amount of aid asked for is very small. We shall speak at length on this subject next week.
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[THE NEW RAILROAD.]
TRAVELER, JANUARY 19, 1881 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
THE NEW RAILROAD.
Respecting the new railroad project, of which we made brief mention last week, there have been no further developments. Messrs. Brown and Matthewson, two prominent men in railroad circles, have been through the southern tier of counties in this State on a tour of observation--their object being to feel the public pulse and report to their chief, Mr. J. Gould. They were not authorized to make any contracts with the townships along the line, but could give the people an idea of what their company would expect or ask in the way of aid.
The projected road is to leave the M., K. & T. at Parsons, and proceed westward as near the State line as possible, township aid being asked the entire distance. For the miles of road built in this county, they will want about $75,000 in township bonds, the road to be completed by the 1st of January, 1882.
Some thirteen miles of railroad will be built in this township, for which they only ask $30,000. In obedience to the request of Winfield parties, Messrs. Brown and Matthewson visited our county seat and listened to a proposition from them, but said their instructions were to go to Arkansas City; and consequently they could not entertain a proposition from Winfield.
It is not the purpose of the company to build to Winfield if they can secure the aid asked for from the southern townships. Our farmers will do well to think and talk of this matter among themselves, that they may be prepared to act intelligently upon the question whenever it is presented for their action. We will gladly publish views on this question from the farmers.
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[THE NEW RAILROAD: ARTICLE BY WINFIELD MONITOR.]
TRAVELER, JANUARY 19, 1881 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
THE NEW RAILROAD.
The proposed operations of corporations are always involved in more or less of doubt and mystery. Managers of great lines are very reticent and very slow to give information. When the development of a new project has reached a certain stage, then an intelligent editor with that beginning, and scattered information that he can pick up, may be able to outline projects which appear mysterious.
During the past week Gould, through his officers, has obtained charters for two new roads. One running from Le Roy, the present terminus of the Missouri Pacific, through the counties of Coffey, Woodson, Greenwood, Butler, Sedgwick, Kingman, then southwest through Harper, and then west. The other road starts at Parsons, in Labette county, which is the junction of the old M., K. & T., running southwest through the counties of Labette, Montgomery, Chautauqua, Cowley, Sumner, Harper, where it will probably join the first mentioned line.
Last Monday, Ed. B. Brown, who is now president of the Lexington and Southern railroad, and Angell Matthewson, president of Matthewson & Co.'s bank at Parsons, were in this county in the interest of the latter road. Their instructions were to avoid Winfield and proceed directly to Arkansas City. This was done. A meeting ws held in that town, and seventy-five thousand dollars of township bonds promised the road from the south tier of townships.
Here you have certain facts, what are the conclusions? It is evident that Gould intends pushing his system of roads west, so as to share with the Santa Fe the rich traffic of the mineral regions. Next, he wants to be as close to the Territory line as posible, so that when it is opened he can go south from any point. It will also give him a larger scope of unoccupied territory.
Our last conclusion is that both these roads are going to be built, and Winfield will not get either, no matter what amount of bonds we may promise. We can go ahead with our meetings and do "our level best," but "the eyes of the animal is sot."
Monitor.
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[EDITORIAL RE STOCK ELECTION.]
COURIER, JANUARY 20, 1881.
On Tuesday the first day of February is the election for township officers and also the election on the proposition to authorize the county commissioners to sell our railroad stock at not less than 65 cents on the dollar cash.
It is our opinion that the electors of this county should vote in favor of that proposition. The best offer that has been made in cash direct so far is 65 cents for the $68,000 stock in the S. K. & W. road; but the offer to exchange our stock at 75 for consolidated stock of the K. C. T. & W., and the consolidated stock at par for A. T. & S. F. bonds, is thought to be equivalent to 75 cents cash for our stock because the A. T. & S. F. bonds are said to be worth their face. The commissioners could not make this trade unless in the same transaction a purchaser should take the Santa Fe bonds at cash so that in effect the cash would be received when the stock was delivered.
It is possible that still better offers will be made before the stock would be sold. At worst the act of voting the authority would not compel the commissioners to sell at once, or to sell at all for that matter. They could hold until the best offer they could expect was made and then close. Of course, we should expect them to act judiciously and do the best for the county, but we would not advise them to hold so long as to lose the opportunity to avail themselves of the best offer. It is our opinion that if it is found on a thorough investigation that 65 cents cash is the best we can do, we had better sell even at that. There are too many chances that railroad stocks, such as these, may go down in the market to warrant us in holding too long for a better offer than 65.
We urge our readers to consider this matter carefully and vote understandingly, but to vote by all means and let their opinions be felt at the polls.
If the authority is voted, it will probably realize the county about $50,000 in cash for the S. K. & W. stock. There is no offer for the Cowley, Sumner & Fort Smith stock, $128,000. We have out $33,000 ten percent refunding bonds, which will come due in two years, and the proceeds of the sale can soon be used to stop this big interest. The railroad bonds of the county are said to be worth about 97 cents on the dollar in the market, and we can doubtless get all we can pay for at par or less. The
S. K. & W. bonds only draw 6 percent, and they are the bonds we should leave for the last.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JANUARY 26, 1881.]
Don't forget that the election for township officers, and to vote for or against the sale of our railroad stock, will be held the same day--Tuesday, February 1, 1881.
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[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, JANUARY 26, 1881.]
THE NEW RAILROAD.
Editors Traveler: The proposed route for this new railroad is certainly a good one, and may be of great benefit to us. Besides giving us a direct line to St. Louis, it will give us another western market. But there is something more. They want $75,000 in township bonds from the southern tier of townships in this county--$15,000 from Bolton, $30,000 from Creswell, and $30,000 from the townships further east. Everybody in this section of country, but more especially in Creswell and Bolton townships, is interested in having a good bridge across the Arkansas river. Should we have high waters this spring, we may wake up some fine morning to a knowledge of the fact that we are minus a bridge. Now, we are already heavily in debt, and if we add to this the bonds this railroad asks, and our bridge should happen to leave us, what will we do? What can we do? Either do without a bridge, or go down into our pockets hunting for the money to build another one.
Now for a suggestion. Let the Boards of the two townships come together and make a proposition to Jay Gould's agents to this effect. If we vote the bonds to this company, they must bind themselves to build us, in connection with the railroad bridge across the Arkansas, a good wagon bridge, which shall be free. It will cost them perhaps $3,000 extra, but that is very little out of the $45,000 wanted from us. If it would cost $5,000, it would still be but one-ninth of the bonds wanted. This, in addition to the benefits we may derive from the railroad, will give us a good substantial crossing for our own accommodation.
BOLTON.
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[EDITORIAL: VOTE FOR THE PROPOSITIONS TO SELL RAILROAD STOCK.]
JANUARY 27, 1881.
This is the last issue of the COURIER before the election of Tuesday, February first, at which the two propositions to authorize the sale of the railroad stock owned by this county will be carried or defeated. We have conversed with a great number of voters from all parts of the county and the expression has been almost unanimous in favor of the propositions. Yet though there should not be a single vote polled against either proposition, there is great danger that both will be defeated. The affirmative vote of two thirds of the electors of the county is required to carry the propositions and there is great danger that less than two thirds of the voters will appear at the polls and vote.
HE GOES ON AND ON! SKIPPED MOST OF THIS!
There is not reasonable doubt that it is the best thing that can be done; that now, while railroad stocks are inflated more than ever before, is the time to sell, and not wait for a panic which will make our stocks of even less value than we expected when we voted the bonds.
There is little doubt but we shall be able to realize at least $50,000 for our $68,000 of S. K. & W. stock, and we can take up the 7 percent bonds at par or less, to the extent we desire after providing for cancelling our $33,000 of 10 percent bonds.
This will reduce our county debt $50,000, and our yearly interest $4,490, which is a big item in the line of reducing our taxes. Under the same election the time will probably come when we can sell our $128,000 of C. S. & F. S. stock for $83,000 or more, and this will take up the remaining $51,000 of 7 percent bonds and $32,000 of our 6 percent bonds, making a further reduction of our annual interest opf $5,490 and leaving us in debt only $$96,000 at 6 percent, an annual interest of only $5,760 in plece of the $15,740 which we are now paying.
Let every taxpayer turn out and work for both propositions.
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[STATE/OTHER ITEMS.]
COURIER, JANUARY 27, 1881.
Wellington township voted to exchange their $20,000 in railroad stock for $15,000 in their own bonds. But when the bondholders came to fulfill their part of the contract, they proposed to pocket $2,000 as commissions, which put an end to all negotiations with them. To all others we say: beware!
Wellington Press.
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[FINALLY: AD [?] ABOUT WELLS FARGO EXPRESS COMPANY.]
FEBRUARY 3, 1881.
TO THE CITIZENS OF WINFIELD AND VICINITY: Having resigned the agency of the Adams Express Company at this place, I will, on February 4th, open an office for the Wells Fargo Express Company in Winfield, at the old room in Manning's building, rear of post office. The Wells Fargo Express Co. will on that date put service on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe R. R., and all its branches, and connect by this line with the Southern Pacific
R. R. in New Mexico, making a direct route to San Francisco, California. At Kansas City it will have a joint office with the American Express Co., which company now has a line extending to Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. The Wells Fargo Co. will make arrangements with the American Express and with the
D. & G. Express Co. in Colorado to waybill direct to all points in their territory, so that the old and popular Wells Fargo Express will control a through line from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean, and can offer unequalled shipping facilities.
Ship by the Wells Fargo, and order your goods sent by this company from the west, or the American Express if from the east, and you will insure quick and cheap transportation and save trouble and expense. As agent of this company, I shall endeavor to so accommodate the public as to make it a pleasure to deal with the company.
G. H. ALLEN,
Agent Wells Fargo Ex. Co.
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[BACK TO PERSONALS.]
FEBRUARY 3, 1881.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad company has purchased the Burlington and Santa Fe railroad for $212,000. This road runs from Ottawa to Burlington and is the one known as the "Schofield road."
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[RAILROAD SCHEME: BILL TO INCORPORATE CHEROKEE & ARKANSAS RR.]
TRAVELER, FEBRUARY 2, 1881 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
RAILROAD SCHEME.
Washington, Jan. 27. The bill reported favorably by the Senate committee on railroads to incorporate the Cherokee and Arkansas railroad company, is in the nature of a substitute for the entire bill as originally introduced. It gives the company the right of way through the public lands and Indian reservations, subject to existing treaties, 100 feet wide, with twenty acres at each station, not nearer than ten miles of each other, from Arkansas City to Ft. Smith. The capital and stock is not to exceed $4,300,000, in shares of $100. The company must file its acceptance of the terms of the charter in sixty days from the passage of the act, and begin its line within six months and finish it within two years.
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[AD IN COURIER...APPEARING FOR SOME TIME, I BELIEVE.]
FEBRUARY 17, 1881.
THE THROUGH ROUTE.
The Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern Railroad now completed to Winfield, is 30 miles the shortest, 2 hours the quickest, and the only line running through trains between Winfield and Kansas City. It is the best route to all points east. Close connections are made with all trains at Union Depot, Kansas City. Trains on this line are always on time, thus making connections sure. Through tickets to all points are on sale at the Company's office in Winfield, at lowest rates. If any of your Eastern friends are coming West, write them to purchase tickets via the Through Route, the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern R. R.
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[PERSONALS.]
FEBRUARY 17, 1881.
The Winfield Mills are running with a full head of water.
J. H. Service lost about forty head of sheep during the late storm.
Dave Dix had 3-1/2 feet of water in the Main street well Tuesday morning.
The dam at the Oxford flouring mill and the pontoon bridge have gone down stream.
The L. L. & G. has put up a water tank near the stock yards, and now have it in running order.
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[PERSONALS.]
FEBRUARY 17, 1881.
We narrowly escaped a fire Monday. The house in which Mr. Scovill resides, on east 11th avenue, caught fire on the roof, but prompt work and plenty of water near at hand saved the building. After the fire was out, the hook and ladder truck appeared upon the scene. The fire engine at station No. 1 was frozen up so that it was not taken out of the fire department building. Probably the engineer had been out Sunday night and had not kept her steamed up. The damage to the building is slight.
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"BUCKING SNOW" is what the railroad boys call it, and it certainly was "bucking" on a big scale. Through the courtesy of Superintendent Barnes, we were permitted to ride out to the scene and witness the engines and men at work. The cuts were level full of snow, so solidly packed that it would hold a person up. The largest engine was placed in front to do the "butting." It would get back a half mile, take a run, and dive into the snow at the rate of forty miles an hour. It would generally dig through the snow about two hundred yards, when men were sent in with shovels to loosen it up. The other four engines would come up behind and after much puffing and blowing, the huge engine would be drawn back, ready for another dive.
The sight was one never to be forgotten. The engineer on the front engine was an old Kansas Pacific man, was used to blockades, and was as fearless at Satan. He knew the engine which he controlled, and felt his power to govern it. The cut just on the backbone of the divide where the road crosses from the Walnut slope to the Arkansas is about twenty feet deep. The snow here was more solid than usual, and so deep that it reached the headlight of the engine. They reached this last cut about eight o'clock at night, and after examining it, a consultation was held with the engineer as to whether he was willing to attempt to force it as he had the others. He debated the matter for some time and at last told them to "clear the track" and ordered the firemen to "fill her up with coal."
The start was to be made from the crossing, about a mile back. We took our stand opposite the cut on top of a mound about fifty feet above the track. The moon was almost full, and the track shone bright and glistening way down nearly to the crossing where the giant locomotive stood, with the grim engineer watching the finger of the dial plate on the steam gauge crawl slowly around as the two firemen shoveled in the coal. They were all ready, the finger on the dial showed one hundred and twenty pounds of steam, and the engineer, with one hand on the throttle, gave the signal that he was coming--and he did come! We saw a puff of smoke, and in an instant the locomotive shot down the track toward us. The next thing we knew we were covered with snow from head to foot, with the engine just opposite buried in the drift up to its smoke stack.
It took nearly an hour shoveling and pulling by the other engines before she was released from her snowy prison. We were tendered an invitation from Supt. Barnes to ride in with the engineer on his next dive, but owing to a "very bad cold," we were compelled to forego the pleasure of such an excursion.
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THE SNOW STORM. Last week Cowley county and Southern Kansas was visited by the severest snow storm ever before known. It commenced snowing Thursday evening; the wind was very high, and the snow soon drifted so that travel was completely blocked. The storm continued all day Friday and Friday night. The passenger train on the L., L. & G. came in all right Thursday night, but failed to get through to Wellington, getting stuck in a snow bank about two miles this side. Friday afternoon two large engines passed the depot going west to the rescue of the passengers. They found the train scattered along all the way from Oxford to Wellington, first digging out a coach, then a baggage car, and finally the engine stuck fast in a ten foot snow bank. Altogether, there were five engines and two trains snow bound between Winfield and Wellington, a distance of twenty-five miles. The Friday morning freight on the Santa Fe left Winfield all right, but failed to get through, as did the passenger coming down. No train came in on the Santa Fe until Tuesday. The passenger train came through from Wellington Monday morning, and also the train from Kansas City on the Monday night. This was the first mail from the east since the 10th.
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[STATE NEWS.]
Winfield Courier, March 3, 1881.
Treasurer Harden telegraphs Capt. Hunt that he and Robinson have bought $35,000 of Cowley 7 percents on good terms.
Fred Hunt telegraphs that the House committee of the whole has recommended for passage the Senate legislative apportionment bill. This insures its passage, and it will become a law. It gives Cowley one Senator and three representatives.
Senator Hackney presented a joint resolution in the Senate last Saturday instructing Senators Plumb and Ingalls to use all honorable means to pass the Cherokee and Arkansas River Railroad bill through the U. S. Senate which lately passed the House. The Senate tabled the resolution then, but on Monday evening Hackney got the resolution lifted from the table and passed it through the Senate. So says his dispatch received Tuesday morning.
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[ITEM TAKEN FROM COWLEY COUNTY MONITOR.]
Winfield Courier, March 3, 1881.
We are very much surprised at an editorial in this week's COURIER in relation to the subject, "Our Stock and Bonds."
The following is the official action of the commissioners, and we want to say for Messrs. Gale and Bullington that neither of them were to blame for the necessity that caused the board to take the action detailed below.
On Feb. 21, 1881, the Board of county commissioners met in official session. Present: G. L. Gale, chairman, L. B. Bullington, member, and J. S. Hunt, county clerk.
The board directed the county clerk to correct the journal entry of February 4th and February 7th, 1881. Said entries were accordingly corrected. These errors were informalities in regard to the transfer of the stock of the Southern, Kansas and Western railroad.
On motion of the chairman it was resolved that James Harden, county treasurer of Cowley county, and M. L. Robinson be appointed and empowered as a special committee to take the corrected papers relating to the special election, held February 1st, 1881, and AT THE EXPENSE OF COWLEY COUNTY, proceed to Kansas City, Missouri, and have the same approved by Wallace Pratt, attorney, to whom the original papers had been referred by Charles Merriam, trustee; then proceed to New York and Boston and purchase for and in behalf of Cowley County, Kansas, forty-six thousand two hundred and forty dollars worth of the outstanding bonds of the said Cowley County, Kansas, provided the seven percent bonds of the said Cowley County can be purchased at a commission or premium of not more than two and one-half percent; the six percent bonds of said Cowley County at not more than par and accrued interest, and the ten percent bonds of the said Cowley County at a rate correspondingly beneficial to the interests of said county, or any of said specified bonds to the amount of forty-six thousand two hundred and forty dollars worth at as much better rates for the interest of said county as possible. And if the present purchase can be made at such rates or at most one percent of such rates, this committee shall ascertain as much as possible in relation to whom the holders are of such bonds at what rate and the lowest rate any of said bonds can be purchased, etc., and make a full report of all of said items on their return.
Board adjourned.
J. S. HUNT, County Clerk.
We clip the above from the last Monitor and will remark that when we wrote the editorial in the COURIER alluded to and when we went to press we had not been furnished a copy of the commissioners' proceedings, and as they are usually furnished the county paper by the clerk, we had not been to the records to examine them. We had heard rumors on the street concerning the proceedings, which struck us as improbable for the reasons then given. Now that we have a copy of the official proceedings, we make the correction by publishing them as above.
We do not wish to do injustice to any parties connected with this matter and are disposed to give to all the credit of desiring in their action to accomplish the best interests of the county. We know that the commissioners would act in no other way but for the interests of the county according to their best judgment; but we must be permitted to dissent from the course taken and to hold that there was no use in sending delegates east to buy bonds, and that there is no law to authorize the payment of the expenses of such delegates out of the county treasury. We think a mistake has been made in trying to rush this matter and still believe that a considerable sum of money might be saved for the county by waiting awhile for the holders of our bonds to discover that we are not going to take the first offers at any price, and that they must come down in their prices to value or they cannot sell to us. We believe that we can do better than to pay par and expenses for our 7 percent bonds.
[MAY BE IN LUCK.]
Winfield Courier, March 3, 1881.
On last Tuesday, Feb. 25, there was a panic in Wall street, resulting from the opposition of the national banks to the funding bill and their attempts to coerce the government, and stocks declined largely, ranging from two to seventeen percent decline. Messrs. Robinson and Harden must have arrived in New York at a good time, for we suppose there must have been a pressure to sell our Cowley 7 percent bonds as well as other bonds. If they have chanced upon a time when they could buy at 95, it may not be so bad a scheme after all.
[RAILROAD THROUGH THE NATION.]
MARCH 3, 1881.
Bill Passed the House. Tom Ryan Ahead.
The Cherokee and Arkansas River railroad bill passed the House on the night of the 21st, under a suspension of the rules by the necessary two-thirds vote, but it was a tight squeeze. It went through, however, in good shape. It has yet to pass the Senate, but this will give it such an impetus that we think it will pass the Senate and become a law.
It grants the right of way to the Cherokee and Arkansas river railroad company through the Indian Territory from Arkansas City down the Arkansas river to Fort Smith. It provides for a right of way 200 feet wide with necessary land for depots, shops, switches, etc., to be obtained by methods in harmony with the existing treaties and regulations with the Indian tribes.
Work must commence within six months and must be completed within two years. The enterprise is for the purpose of extending the C. S. & F. S., or in fact, the Santa Fe road to intersect with the Arkansas system of roads and furnish this section of country with a southern and southeastern outlet. The importance of this road to Cowley county cannot be overestimated.
In fact, it will be of the greatest consequence to all the southern and southwestern counties and of great value to the whole State. It will open up an easy and near market for our wheat, corn, pork, and other products for higher prices in the south and will give us easy access to southern seaports and to Europe. At the same time it will reduce the cost of transportation on our sugar, molasses, rice, coffee, and various other southern products which we have to buy. It will give us a new market nearer and better than the east and the west.
The credit of this is due to Hon. Thos. Ryan. It was his bill and he has put in more than two years of hard energetic work to secure its passage. He has met all kinds of opposition and hostility from the Gould and other railroad interests, and from various other sources; and it has needed all his tact, his personal popularity, energy, and perseverance, but in his bright lexicon, "there is no such word as fail." The fight was a long and hard one and he has won the battle in the House and added another to his many laurels.
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[HACKNEY: SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 17.]
MARCH 3, 1881.
The following is Senate Concurrent Resolution, No. 17, by Mr. Hackney, as it passed the Senate.
WHEREAS, a bill incorporating the Cherokee and Arkansas Railroad Company, and giving that company the right to construct and operate a railroad from Arkansas City in Kansas through the Indian Territory to Fort Smith in Arkansas, has passed the lower House of Congress, and,
WHEREAS, the commercial and industrial interests of this State demand that such line of railroad be constructed at once, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate of Kansas, the House of Representatives concurring therein, That our Senators in Congress are requested to support said bill and use all honorable means to secure the passage.
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[ANOTHER ARTICLE ABOUT COWLEY COUNTY 7 PERCENT BONDS.]
MARCH 3, 1881.
It will not do to buy the Cowley County 7 percent bonds for more than par for the people will never believe the thing well managed if a higher rate is paid at present. If Coler & Co. have a temporary control of these bonds, as they claim, they may easily prevent the sale at less than 2-1/2 percent premium; but if the County refuses to pay it, the bonds will soon be out of their control and the holders will then sell for what they are worth. Even if they then should refuse to take par or less, there are the ten percents and the six percents to the amount of about $160,000 from which enough can be found to employ our funds and not stand a grab game. There is no need of a rush about it; give a little time for the holders of the different bonds to get anxious and we shall save money by it.
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[ARTICLE ABOUT RAILROAD: A. T. & S. F.]
MARCH 3, 1881.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company expected to make a connection with the Southern Pacific by the 1st of March, but, owing to the unusual inclemency of the weather and other obstacles encountered, the connection cannot be completed until about the 15th. The connection will be made at Rio Mimbres, a few miles west of Florida Pass. The point is sixty miles southwest from Fort Thorn, where the Santa Fe road leaves the Rio Grande, and some sixty-five miles northeast of El Paso.
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THE WINFIELD COURIER MARCH 24, 1881.
W. C. Garvey, station agent at the Santa Fe depot, has now on sale tickets to all principal points in California and Oregon, via the A., T. & S. F. and Southern Pacific. This new route to the "Golden Gate" was opened to the traveling public on Thursday inst., the 17th. Passengers with first and second class tickets are taken through to San Francisco in four and three-quarters days. There is also an emigrant train which makes the time in about eight days. The express train leaving Winfield at 3:55 p.m., makes connections at Newton, with only two changes for the whole distance, at the latter point and at Deming, where the Santa Fe makes connection with the Southern Pacific. This new route is destined to become immensely popular, and will prove a great convenience to parties in this vicinity who may wish to go to California or Oregon.
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[CAMBRIDGE COMMERCIAL ITEMS.]
THE WINFIELD COURIER MARCH 24, 1881.
Mr. Bullington is preparing to build a new residence on his farm.
Joseph Furman is just finishing one of the finest residences in the country; it is a stone two stories high.
Mr. John Smith, of Silver creek, has rented L. B. Bullington's farm, and will engage in the cattle business.
Bullington & Elliott's new mill will be running in a few days as there is water enough to grind now, for the first since the mill has been built.
The station here does more business than any other town on the K. C., L. & S., outside of Winfield. Mr. C. S. Jenkins has furnished us the following, showing the amount of business done since the first day of March, 1881, up to Thursday, the 17th. It is now in order for our neighboring towns to produce figures that will beat these or forever hold their peace.
Number pounds freight received . . 121,275.
Number pounds freight forwarded . 13,275.
Amount of cash received . . . . . $380.50.
The citizens of Torrance shipped last Saturday a carload of rock to Kansas City, to be inspected by stone masons at that place; and if found saleable rock, we understand the railroad company has promised Torrance a side track, provided they will make to the railroad company a