Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-07-03

The work OF taking and compllng the
scmi-decade or state census for Wichita was
completed by W. F. Green, city assessor.
and his assistants Saturday night and we
Law the result as above before our readers.
While the figures will probably surprise no
one. they will nevertheless prove very salts
factory. This is year of official census
taking for the state and when il is under
stood that the age, where from, where born,
occupation and colcr of each inhabitant
must be carefully taken and afterward
transferred to a permanent record the mag
nitude of the work will be better appreciat-
cd. SO far ms We have seen Wichita is the
first among the larger cities 10 make the
census returns for 1856. The grand total is
little upwards of sixteen thousand. No
doubt many were missed, but the assessor
did conscientious work and tried TO find
every man, woman and child who claims
Wichita as his or her home. There are
quite large number Ct citizens who have
property here tina. were taken with the land
craze and are now in the western counties,
who will return sooner or later. These
could not be enumerated. The large num-
Der of working men who board at restaur-
ants and sleep in out of the way rooms, and
others who "bach" it, together with some
who were out Of the city temporarily, of
course could not be reached. Many estim-
ates ran above this, but the growth of the
IL ,e
healthy, even wonderful one when al
things are considered, especially the new
ness Of the country, the youthfulness of the
town, and the growth came of no undue ex-
citemen;, such as suddenly discovered min
eral, or oil, or other hidden resources of
wealth. Wichita's growth is the result of
simple Development, natural resources and
location. As we have said often, long years
before a white man found home here. men
were wont to put their finger down on the
map st the conjunction Of the Little and
Great Arkansas Rivers and remark, that's
the place for big town or city some day."
If there had been bluff thousand feet
high at this point, or the ciiy's
site bad been Il swamp or moIass similar to
that on which Chicago was planted, there
would have been city here all the same.
Shrewd frontiersmen and Indian traders
were first on the ground Capital and brain
conspired soon afterwards TO reverse the
feeming inevitable but to no purpose. The
Santa Fe railway systematic first to enter tins
great valley, and which originally filed in
tentions or declarations for route through
By The mouth of the Little Arkansas river,
had the secretary of the interior change the
filings and the road was run thirty miles
away from this point, but the move only
helped Wichita in the end. That her past
viii only provesn earnest of her future there
is not the least doubt The time was when
many, forgetting her location and advani-
ages, feared that combinations or new deyel-
opments might bring to the front some
formidable rival which would divide up her
trade and curtail or retard her rapid growth.
But all such danger is passed, Wichita is
without rival or the fesr of one. She has
reached that point where the more the sur
rounding country is developed the more
rapidly the surrounding towns and cities
grow the more will her trade and business
be enhanced. In truth she now depends
upon such growth and developments.
Wichita, in other words, has grown beyond
her mere local environments, greater than
any local support and her present magni-
tude comes directly from interests which she
once feared but which she now fosters, from
the counties and towns and cities of the
greatest, fsirest and richest agricultural do
main west of the Mississippi river.