The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1903-09-11
SOME PEN PICTURES OF THE PAST
Bona Eide Cuts of the Present a General Write
Up of the Oil and Gas Industry -BioEraphi-
cal Sketches of the Leaders in Business
Read and Know Us.

Between 1870 and 1872 there was a
little village located in the northwest
corner of Neosho county 1t was
known as New Chicago. The burg"
of the Jos with all of its strife has
disappeared and instead one will find
a busting, busy business city with :
population of 5000 Five modern
school buildings with an enrolment
of $500 pupils and rs capable teach
ers to guide the youth in their men
tai Stunts" A City of Churches,
telephone system, electric lights,
owns and operates its own water
works. A modern sewerage system.
Natural gas wells and its own sys-
tenn of lighting and heating for all
purposes. In the center of one of the
greatest oil fields in America. An
abundance of water, stone, brick
shale, pottery clay timber, sand, rich
soil and honest, Industrious people
who extend the right hand of fell
lowship to the worthy stranger. Such
is Chanute but that is not all. Cha
mute has become an antbed of in
dustry 1t can boast of some of the
finest brick business blocks in south
ern or eastern Kansas, and ten more
are under construction. Two brick
plants with a daily capacity of 100000
an ice plant manufacturing 80 tons
daily, a factory for manufacturing in
candescent mantles, which is the only
one of its kind in the state of Kan
sas Two large -four mills, a planning
mill, two creameries, two elevators,
two large machine shops, marble
works and a number of minor institu
tions, all making money and plenty
of it.
The streets are paved with double
course Of brick over a 6-inch founda~
ton of crushed stone. At a cost of
100000, 5000 feet of stone curbing,
sidewalks IS feet wide and a new
100000 opera house under construc
ton. The Santa Fe has completed a
$4,000 depot, thus showing their
confidence in the future of the place.
Chanute is a division point of the
Southern Kansas branch of the Santa
Fe. The repair shops together with |
offices for division officials are also
located here. The Santa Fe pay roll
at this point reaches $4,000 pei
month The NJ X. & T. crosses the
Santa Fe and the roads lead out of
the city in six different directions,
making shipping advantages ample.
A large smelter is now under con
struction and within the next hv"
wears Chanute will become an indus
trial center and the town will grow
and thrive like the young sunf1ower.
Chanute must necessarily become
great manufacturing city. There IS
gas enough in this vicinity to run one
thousand big factories night and day
for wears to come. 1t is claimed by
many that the gas will fail in the
course of time. Conceding this point,
Chanute has oil which can be used
and none can deny that oil beats coal
for fuel, on railroads and in factories.
Thus it may be readily seen that
Chanute is destined to become man
metropolis.
Oil was not always on the Kansas
market. There was a time, even
though gas in small pockets had been
found and utilized, and its existence {
in vast volume believed in by the
more sanguine, when the idea of oil,
had it been thought of seriously,
would have been secuted by almost 1
any Kansan. Kansas seemed primar- 1
ily and essentially an agricultural 5
state. barren of minerals, and barren {
of oil and gas and asphaltum. But \
recent years and steady development '
have proven the fallacy of early theo- a
ries. for the state is proving itself {
so rich in the materials that founded q
and perpetuate the wealth of Pennsyl- ?
vania, as to dazzle the eyes of the in b
vestor and put to shame the widest 5
dreams of the prospector. Kansas has n
added a field as rich and fertile in 5