The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-05

was done by railroads, the men en-
ployed found 1t a problem to live.
They depended on farm houses and
place of their work
! These men should be provided for,
he told Mr.. Spar one day. IF the men
were we'll fed and had a better place
TO sleep they would be in better con-
| dition to work. There would be less
dissension and more accomplished"
Sparr agreed with his superintendent
| but he couldn't see any immediate
remedy for the evil Young Stubs did
and in his clear vision afterward he
saw clearly his path to fortune.
The next year the Mulvane branch
of the Santa Fe was built. During the
/ odd times that he looked after the con
structfon work on the Southwestern,
| he figured on taking out a commissary
| train on the new branch.
Great "knack'' on Commissary.
When it was begun his train was
| ready. AT first he had planned to take
! care of only extra gangs. The board
| offered in the Stubs commissary train
was so good and so reasonable thai
the regular gangs soon became it's
! steady patrons. From the first day
when the box car door was thrown
open and the workmen had vision o;
clean oilcloth and smelled the aroma
OF hot coffee. the commissary train
was a success.
Mrs. Stubbs "a Kansas Woman.
When the construction party and
the commissary train arrived at Null
vane. the evenings were spent in the
booming town. Instead of camp fires.
card games and yarns there was talk
of what the new railroad would do.
Talk about the new people coming
from the st-tenderfeet-and talk
among the young fellows about max
ing homes
Not long after his arrival at Null
vane. he met Miss Stella Hostettler
the postmaster's daughter. After u
short courtship they were married at
her home. That was in 1885. He had
made money with the commissary
trains-more than he had ever seen
before in all his life at Hesper.
Young Stubs started housekeeping
at Kansas City, Mo-, after the CALI
fornia honeymoon. grto Eousyf=
More Railroad Work.
He went there for 1.-The purpose of
the great middle west It was in '95
that he made the contract to reeo con-
struction gangs from Chicago to
Joliet, ILL.,, at work on the Chicago
drainage canal that was then build
ing. There were others who held SIM
liar contracts and competition was
keen. He was obliged to sell on a
small margin. But he perfected a
system that made him more money
than any other thing he had done
pleted Walter Roscoe Stubs was a
well-to-do man.
In 1897 he was given the contract
by the Santa Fe to handle all the
commissary business on the coast
lines. Stubs had become a man of
means. Since the time that he had
taken the contract to do grading on
the Leavenworth, Topeka & South
western. he had harbored an ambition
to become a contractor There was
nothing to hinder him now. He had
the money, the ability and the faculty
of risk
He was awarded the contract to
build the Republic Steel and Iron mills
he was given preference as we'll as
the contract to add two additional
stories to the Marshall Field & Com
pany wholesale block here
From that time commissary trains
were a side issue just as the hedge
become after he started on the road
to Lawrence.
In 1908 he built 120 miles of road for
the Rock Island from Dalhart, Texas. to
the Canadian river. Then followed
number of public buildings and the or
ganization of a railroad construction
business that employed 5000 men and
$500 teams. The work amounted to
from four to five million dollars a year.
A Gigantic Contract Is Taken.
The most gigantic contract that was
awarded him was 129 miles of con-
struction work from Kansas City east
to st. Louis. This, he considers, best
of all work he did a contractor.
During the years of his success he
had drifted back to the scene of his
early triumphs to live. Back to Law
renee where he had felt the first i'm
mil of on6 her h.
ed all difficulties and had mastered. So
after living in Kansas City, in Chicago
and at Excelsior Springs. Mo-. for a
short time, he moved his little family
back home.
He climbed the hills that guard the
Kaw with his children and pointed to
clump of trees far in the east
Through the morning haze he showed
them Hesper nestled quietly with it's
Quaker folk in the far away. Then
he showed them the University of Kan
sas 1t had expanded since he had
struggled to be its student. He point
ed to the west and showed them a chain
of rambling hills. The most beautiful
spot, after Hesper. in the world. He
did not know at the time that the lit
tie family about him would grow into
manhood and womanhood- in the most
beautiful home in Kansas built on the
highest hill. 5Eoss7 4 cLe
Stubs Entry Into Politics.
There was something unusual about
Mr.. Stubs going into politics. As a
boy he had taken little interest in the
political issues. AS a man he had
taken a dislike to the way they were
carried on in the state. Before No
vember, '02 when he was elected to
represent the Fourteenth legislative
district, he had never attended a pub
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