The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-05
WICHITA
! Az :, was, AS it Is, And What it is Destined
Be.

look back at the present site OF NlCnitd as
it stood fifty years ago, when the Indians
were camping on the banks of the little
and big Arkansas river or riding across the
Arkansas valley. Little did they dream
that a city of busy people would one day
occupy their chosen meeting place, or that
the buffalo would be driven from the
country by the white man, to give place to
other food animals.
Nor did C. C. Arnold, the first white set
tier in Sedgwick county in 1857,
expect to see city grow
up beside these two rivers that would be
the commercial metropolis of a mighty
empire.
And later on in 1863 when the Hon. j.
R. Mead established a trading post on
what is now the site of Wichita, did he ex-
pect ten railway lines to diverge in every
direction from this point?
These were the days when the Indians
were the lords of the country, and the
buffaloes roamed the prairies in countless
numbers
When William Mathewson built his
cabin in 1863 near Chisholm creek, no
thought of jobbing, manufacturing or
commercial city ever entered his mind; or
that his farm would be cut up into town
lots to satisfy the demands of growing
CITY. When William GreiffenSteln and
others laid out the town in 1870 and see ID.
s. Munger, who was postmaster, deliver
ing the mail in person, expect that the
time would come when it would take
fifteen men to deliver a portion of
the mail four times day. 1t was not I'M
Al L., n, hull
into the city, and the great droves of Texas
cattle headed towards Wichita. that the
idea ever entered any citizens mind that
Wichita might some day become more
than an ordinary town.
There were $780, 900 head of cattle driven
into Sedgwick county that year, and 3, 800
carloads shipped out over the Santa Fe.
In those days when the cowboy and Mex
lean ranchman crowded the streets and
made night hideous by their revelry, no
thought of paved streets, telephones, cleo
trio cars, sewers, or ministerial associa-
tions troubled the minds of the average
citizen.
Two million dollars was paid out that
year in the cattle business, and money
flowed as freely as water in the Arkansas
river No idea of city being built here
ever entered the mind of j. B. Dickey,
when he left Wichita and went to New
ton to open drug store, and as he said,
80 as to be on the main line Of the Santa
Fe" Nor to those who left here and went
south to Winfield, Wellington, Caldwell
and Arkansas City in 1880, when the Santa
Fe extended its lines to those towns.
In 1876 the cattle trade was transferred
to Dodge City and with it the cowboy
element. In 1873 the grain of southern
Kansas poured into Wichita for distance
of 100 miles and Wichita then acquired
the reputation of being the greatest grain
shipping market in the world taken from
wagons. A new impetus was given to the
growth of Wichita. Then again in 1884
Wichita comes to the front with a train of
thirty-one cars of corn as a gift from Sedg-
wick county to the flood sufferers of the
Ohio Valley. No citizen then contem-
plated that that gift of corn was to pre-
cipitate growth which was to eclipse all
previous growths of other places and place
over s., 100000 into buildings and other
improvements, as the foundation for one
of the greatest cities of modern times and
in keeping with the magnificent country
of which she is the central city.
Thus has Wichita's history been marked
by periods of unusual interest, all of
which contributed to make her the center
of attraction. Leaving the past, let US
compare the
WICHITA OF TO-DAY,
the commercial metropolis of an empire
as great if not greater than that which
{ol hull
cities; city with all modern conveniences,
built within the short space of twenty
years under the most difficult cirCum-
stances; city whose business is only
limited by its capital and history with
out a parallel.
In 1870 homestead, today a city. In
1870 cigar box was sufficient for the
handling of the United States mail, today
the government handles the mail in a
building costing S200,0 0l.
Where the magnificent Y. NJ. G. A.
building now stands the buffalo used to
wallow. Where the iron bridge now cross
es the Arkansas, there the cattle forded
the stream. Modern packing houses have
taken the place of the butcher shops.
Electric railways have driven out the
lA-oASS' A4ANSSAiAS PAlfotO AtoAO1AOSo AHh' y
replaced the dugout and log cabin.
Our citizens speak to neighboring towns
through the telephone. Electric lights
have put out the candle The waterworks
supply the purest of water to ev-
cry home and the pump handle is no
more. The fire bucket is supplant-
ed by the steam fire apparatus.
Where the buffaloes grazed and the Indians
trod, blocks of magnificent buildings are
now to be seen. Stone, brick, asphalt and
concrete cover the streets that were once
the cattle trail.
These are a few of the transformation
scenes which have taken place in the his
tory of Wichita in the period of few
years.
EAcross this broad expanse Of country,
where nothing but the prairie grass could
be seen for miles and miles, a garden now
blossoms with such fruit, vegetables, grain
and food animals as can be seen no where
else and in such quantities as to tax the
people to their utmost capacity to take
care of them.
When one contemplates to what extent
this country has been developed in the past
and that which will be done in the future
to pay tribute to this city, it is not un
reasonable TO suppose that Wichita will
profit in proportion TO the advantages and
prestige already possessed, and her future
growth and prosperity will far exceed the
ideas of our present citizens as the present
city outgrew the ideas of the Oldest inhab-
liant.