The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-05-08

Lewis. This branch was the most un-
profitable part of the line and was
later taken up.
6:3O a. M, until 10 p. M, and the
car barn was located near the slough
on Front street. Among the drivers
E.. j. Sheldon, George E. Blake, and G.
Fitzgerald. still residents of Mankato
James Wolverson now of Garden City,
was the foreman of the car barn. The
company had grader to clear the
track of snow that the city of Man
kato now possesses.
In 1891, by which time electricity
was beginning to be extensively used
for propeling street cars, the council
passed ordinance No. SO, granting the
company the right to operate its cars
by electricity. This was an eXclu-
sive right and extended for thirty years
from Jan. l, 1902. J. A. Willard signed
this ordinance as mayor Ordinance
No. 90, extended the time for two or
three years within which electricity
was to be installed, and ordinance No.
% extended it still further. Edgar
Weaver signed the latter as mayor.
The line was losing investment
from the start. Only on such days as
circus days did it ever pay expenses.
The gentlemen who had put their
money into it were confident that the
city was going to grow rapidly, and
thought that the outskirts would be
built up. As the years went by and it
engulfed their money they became dis
couraged, and first the branch line was
torn up, and then the line ceased oper-
ating entirely about September 1895.
The members of the company lost be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000 in the project,
most of the individual losses being
about $1,000 each. All of the COM
pany's obligations were met and settled
by the stockholders in full. Only a few
books and other articles of no value
remain to show for the fortune inves-
ted.
The service was slow and the peO'
pie would not ride, generally PREFER
ing to walk. Nickels were thought more
of than in these days of better incomes
and more generous expenditures.
Wilhartz as Booster.
ADouC Tile year 1913 CHc ucAC cl-
fort was made to get a street car line
for Mankato. Henry Zimmerman Jr..
A. f. Clark, w. L. Hixon, S. Wilhartz,
C. j. Macbeth, Mic Peterson, A. G.
Bierbauer, Joseph Stahl, Leo S. Lamm
and DIR. j. A. Hielscher associated them
selves together and obtained fran
chise from the council to build and
operate an electric line over most of
the streets of the city. Messrs. Hixon,
Zimmerman and Wilhartz went east
with an elaborate and expensive pros
pectus that had been prepared by an
engineer named Gray, and the fran
chise and sought to interest capital
and railroad builders. They first WISH
ted Boston and saw the capitalists who
were heavily interested in Minnea-
polls and Seattle electric lines. These
men looked over the prospectus and
plans and said that the outlook for
car line was the finest that they had
seen in the west, and said that if the
Mankato men thought that they could
win, the Boston men would take fifty
one per cent of the stock and would
float the bonds at IS cents on the dol
lar. The Mankato men thought the
proposition too hard a one to stand up
under, and Messrs Wilhartz and Him
melman went to Philadelphia and saw
the man who floated the Mason City
Spirit Lake line in Iowa, which paid
seventeen per cent on the investment
although people had secuted the idea
of its ever paying when it was built.
This man was not in shape to handle
the project and so the gentlemen had
to return to New York, where they
met Mr. Hixon again and the PROPOSE
tion was put up to Housman Bros.
who had made ten millions out of SUI
gar. The party had a letter of intro
duction from John Lind to this firms
agent, Mr.. Davis, former land COM
missioner of the Northern Pacific road.
Because of his friendship for Mr.. Lind,
Mr.. Davis agreed to take the matter
up with his firm. A meeting was held
with Mr.. Davis, President A. B. Stick
ney, Director .Ansel Oppenheim and At
torney Kellogg of the Chicago Great
Western road, at the Waldorf Astoria
New York. The proposition met with
favor, and Mr.. Davis said that as soon
as MS expert OH SUCH IldIleIS IeIuIHeu
from st. Louis he would send him to
Mankato to report upon the matter.
Mr. Oppenheim wrote out a pass for
him to and from Mankato, and Mr..
Stickney promised to do anything
that was right, for it was understood
that if the enterprise went through it
would do a great transfer business
with the Great Western road. The line
was not only to be city line, but
was to run out to Alma City via,
Eagle Lake and st. Clair, and would
tap country without railroads.
Just when everything looked so fa-
vorable, call money in New York jump
ed to thirty per cent, and ten days
later Mr.. Davis wrote that the matter
was off. The company had, in anti
cipation of building line, purchased
the old linseed oil plant, with the idea
of using the main building for the pow
er house, and the barn for the car shed.
Later, the syndicate sold the fran
chise to A. f. Johnson & Co., the well
known Minneapolis land firm, who sent
Hon. Albert Schaeffer of st. Paul east
to float the proposition, but the eff
fort was a failure and johnson & Co.,