St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-29
LOCATING T0WNSITES.
1T WAS CONSIDERED A TRADE
MANY YEARS AGO.
IMMENSE FORTUNES MADE
But the Business Is Uncertain and
the Railroads Are Up to All
Kinds of Tricks.
New York Sun.

the Pomona Valley. For more than
twenty years he has been one of the
famous characters on the great moving
frontier line OF the far West. The
old gentleman shows that times are
not prosperous with him. and he says
he has had mighty hard picking in his
line since railroad building in the Da-
kotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Colo
RADIO let up several years ago and
migration from the older states to
the plains fell off.
There's an awful slump in the town
site business he said the other even
ing. 81 don't expect to live long
enough to see any more such business
as we did ten and twelve years ago
in town sitting along the line of the
big roads that the New York and
Boston financiers pushed out of Mis-
souri, and Iowa on across the pra1rieS.
Whewi what times those were for our
business! I made $4,000 clean cash In
one year, and in 1887 1 had at one
time over $1,000 on deposit in one
bank in Omaha. But there's no use
trying to do business on a big scale
like that any more. 1 have lost over
half my fortune in the past six years
by droughts, cyclones, floods and biz
yards in South Dakota, Kansas and
Nebraska, and am thankful to have
got off without losing more. There
Is still little to be done in my line,
and when those Wall-street fellows
make up their minds to go to rail-
road building again there will be a
heap more money for some one in
town sting
For twenty-five years l have made
1t my occupat ton to guess or find out
where the good towns along the line
of a new railroad were to be located,
and I do say that I have now got the
thing down pretty near to a science.
For the past ten years l have not
FAILED TO CALL THE TURN
ON any new railroad town in the West.
1t has got to be a second nature to
me to lay down the map of a new
or projected railroad and put my
finger on the location of a town site.
1t Is not so hard when one has studied
over the scheme day and night for
years. /.
when 1 go into a new country
where a railroad is building or Is
planned to come. I Just look the
ground over for several days. and,
I soon come to the conclusion where
| the town ought to be. Ninety nine
times out of a hundred, if nothing
out of the ordinary happens to pre-
| vent, the town will grow just where
| it ought to. l have seen this tried
| and 1 know. When I have located
| the town site and made arrangements
| with few interested parties with
81 olr1 1,nl 1f
duty is done. l have always made 1T
a point to take a few lots for mere
song, generally on the corners, end
| have left the rest to the other fellows.
have been called in more than
| hundred times by men who were
about to locate a town and who want
ed the Judgment of an expert on the
place to be chosen. IN such cases
T always demand about four Of the best
| lots In town, and 1 always get them,
| too.
| "You can set 1t down that in a new
country, towns will be about SO far
| apart. The lay of the land has some
| thing to do with the matter, but not
SO much as many people suppose.
! know some Of the best towns of the
| West that are about the poorest sites
Siiol SOoiu NC SCicClSI. lou We ssOC TO
| take a great many other things into
| view. Now. If there is no railroad
| you must get map and find out
! about how the roads are running, how
| far 1t is to the nearest one and from
what direction the first road to be
| built in the natural order of things
will come. When you've got that
| settled take trip around the country
and and
population. After that see the owners
OF the land lying around and try to
NIX up scheme with them. If they
take kindly to the notion of laying
out town you will not have any
more trouble. 1t is easy enough to
get people interested in a new town
after you have found
PLACE FOR 1T ON THE MAP.
Have I ever made any blunders
In my business? OF course / have.
I've had my ups and downs the same
as other professional men who are
learning their trade. Why, once had
a good part of my pile invested in a
town site on the projected Rock Island
road through Kansas early in 1880.
The town was a sure go as city of
lU,0O0 people, and we named 1t Clare
mont, from some European place we
mad heard of. 1t was the finest lay out
Tor a speculation in town sites | had
seen In a long time. We got a popu-
iation OF 800 on the site and twenty
little houses. l was dead certain we
would make a big wad of money in
selling our prairie acreage property on
! a town-lot and corner-lot basis. when
the Rock Island came through there.
| We'll, when the railroad did come that
way the engineers laid tracks near
the town and went four miles west
| Defore they located their station.
| was simply paralyzed when I heard
the news. L went right to see the en-
gineer and construction managers, and
argued with them that the station was
| to be at our Claremont.
| told them that Claremont was the
| metropolis of that section, and that
| any attempt to ignore it would bring
| ruin to its citizens, particularly me.
but they only laughed and wanted TO
! know about how much we would nav
/ to have the station located there. T
| was rather brash then-in fact.
/ hadn't had SO much experience as T
| nave mad since-and / told them we
| wouldn't give them a blamed cent.
| we'd see their old road thrown into
bankruptcy first. 1 threatened them
Win the loss of all the business of
Ciaremont, and asked them If they
knew what risk they were running
In ignoring the best town i'm that sec.
tion. But they only laughed, and said
they were sorry they. could not make
some arrangement with me. 1T was a
rule of modern railroadfng to put the
stations about so far apart. and as
Claremont was not in the right place
for railroad town, 1t would have to
move out of the wet
Wen. sir, would you believe it, that
road had not been running two weeks
oefoFe our Claremont began TO move.
everything was on wheels. The hotel
went first, and then the saloon and
blacksmith shop skipped. Pretty soon
the schoolhouse went, and then the
private houses. The last time I was
down there was six months after had
given Claremont up as bfunder. and
y ~