Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-10-16
The Rapid.R and Fall of
QuindarO.
From the Kansas city star.

From the Kansas City Star.
Why need we ransack the valleys
of the ella and the Colorado to walk
amid the ruined evidences of man?
Within an hours ride of Kansas City
sleep the remains of city, lost and
dead. Midway between Parkville
and Kansas City the Missouri makes
a broad, smooth sweep from South to
Southeast. At the elbow a rough
valley indents at right angles with
the river. Here, IN this stony, rug
ged yale, within the memory of living
men, city was born and lived and
died.
Back through the haze of years
and smoke of war, one sees the found
ing of Quindaro. At the beginning
of the Border war when the question
was kansas; Free State or Slave?"
the abolition and slavery elements
strove with each other for the privil-
eye of answering. The matter was
to be left to a vote of the people of
the territory and both sides began the
work of throwing in adherents. The
obvious and natural route to the dis
puted land was from st Louis by the
Missouri river This became fraught
with difficulty to the abolitionists.
Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Atchison,
Westport and Liberty landings were
in the hands of the pro slavery people
and steamboats, carrying a passenger
list which represented an opposing
sentiment were prevented from land
ing. The abolition party had Law
renee and other inland towns, but no
river point. It was necessary to have
one or loose Kansas to the enemy.
A company of those interested call
ing themselves the Quindaro Town
site company with Charles Robinson,
now one of the candidates for the Of
fee of governor of the state, at its
head, bought $40 acres-a square
mile-from the Wyandotte Indians.
It had river frontage which offered
crock landing" to steamboats, and
on this a city was laid out and its
streets surveyed. Afterwad 200 acres
more was added on the south. The
news of the founding of this new me-
tropolis was spread in all the North
ern and New England states and emf
grants of free soil tendencies were
directed to debark at Quindaro. Its
star shone in luster and grew. This
was in 1857.
Two years saw Quindaro expand
in busy community of $500 people.
Steamers crowded its levee and boxes
and bales and barrels were piled up
as high as houses. There was not a
l1velier point on the river up stream
from st Louis, and Quindaro was the
great distributing point for Kansas.
Colonel Park, who founded Park
vile and the university which bears
its name. put up a 4-story stone store
block at Quindaro fronting the levee
and inland some twenty rods. The
walls of the old store, ruined and par
TALLY fallen, still stand to mark the
place. They are crumbled now and
grown and clambered over with ivy
who's red and turning leaves tell Of
the autumn's frost.
With this store came a bank build
ing, churches, school houses, other
store buildings, tannery, big hotel
a soap factory and-prohibition as
a sentiment being not yet developed
a brewery was built and besides al
these, dwelling houses sprang up IL
due and just proportion to the busin
ess of the place, while small fry enter
prises, such as blacksmith shops
lime kilns and quarries were abun-
dant. Quindaro was one never end
ing market Long trains of wagons
with teams of mules or oxen as mo
tiers came in empty and departed
creaking and groaning their com
plants of heavy loads. Streets wer,
cut and graded in the hills, and tn,
stream which seemed the center o
the city was put out of sight in
sewer.
Of all these structures few remain
The big hotel is gone to a stone
The churches, the school houses, tn
factories, the shops, the stores, tn
dwelling houses, all are departed ant
save from seven or eight stone ruins
roofess and windowless, with naugh