The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23

barroom, and in that barroom many a |tenderfoot parted with the money which
 he had brought with the hope of plant
 ing it as seed for fortune
 City property was in great demand dur ing the first four years of the towns history. The location of the land office
 sent the price of lots soaring. The corr
 ner lots on which the St. Charles hotel
 was erected sold for 5000 In 1857. Today
 they could be bought for S20. A city cleo
 tion was held and mayor and council
 were duly installed The council imme-
 6iately passed an ordinance to grade sev-
 eral streets. Bids were advertised for
 and the work was paid for in 'city script
 and, according to an old settler, "Doni-
 plan script as good as gold in those
 days"
 As a grain market Doniphan became
 famous among Missouri river ports An
 early writer says 1t was the greatest
 shipping point along the entire river
 above St. Louis. Grain was hauled from
 40 miles distance to load on boats at the
 Doniphan wharf. Adam Brenner, later
 the founder of the Doniphan vineyards,
 built at the cost of sls.00O an elevator with a capacity of 50,000 bushels. In the fall of 1872, when the elevator was filled with grain. fire broke out in the engine room and destroyed the buildings and its contents. Also two grist mills and flour mill were operated in the town for sev- eral years in the late sos and early '6os. Many traditions of the old town still finger in the memories of the early set tiers Probably the most unique of these is the story of the steamship Pontiac.
 One night the boat, one of the largest on the river. was rounding Smiths bend,
 about two miles above Doniphan, when 1t struck a snag and large hole was torn in ba h1I1 Rafnra pOlld a stream of water rushed through and in a few hours the Pontiac was sunk in mid stream. There were 300 barrels of whisky
 on board. Repeated attempts have been made to recover that valuable cargo, but Tiff the liquor was eyer raised it was done
 under cover of daHness and the rescuers have succeeded ih keeping it a secret.
 Doniphan folks believe the whisky still
 is safe in the bottom of the river and In recent years several searching parties
 have probed for the treasure
 The once thriving town had all the
 requisites of a progressive community. Seven newspapers were launched dur ing the first quarter century of Doni- phan's existence. The first of these was the Constitutionist, established in 1856 by Thomas J. Key. It lived two years and was followed by the Crusader with James Redpath as editor. Redpath oained much notoriety on account of hls
 bitter denunciations of Senator "Jib Lane. Up until 1858 Lane and Redpath had been political colleagues, but d quarrel over the division of spells" en- sued and they became implacable ene-
 mies The other papers. each of which had but a brief existence, were the Post, 860-61 the Democrat, 1871. the Herald, 1872. and the News, 1882. In 1881 William Kirby. reformed Nor
 mon, launched the Bible Investigator l 1{.n ion ne+
 of the papers were started for the fur therance of either the personal or po- litical ambitions of the editors. None was a success financially.
 Although favored by Nature as the best landing along the upper Missouri
 Doniphan's struggle for supremacy did not avail much permanent progress The beginning of the end was visible when the government land office, on account of political rivalry, was re- moved to Kickapoo. With it's depar- ture Doniphan's star began to wane Lawyers offices were emptied. The boarding house keepers sighed and
 closed their dining rooms. The profess sional gamblers packed their fixtures and followed the governments off
 cials to Kickapoo. In less than a. year
 the town which had been the fhvor-
 ite of all northern Kansas was begin ming to betray the first signs of de- cay. In 1870, however, Doniphan's hopes again were revived by the construction of the Atchson and Nebraska railroad.
 depot was built and the first train pulled into Doniphan July 6. 1870. That winter there were BPS families in the town. The population was 1245. Fiftyr three girls and 2s boys were born in the 12 months that followed the opening of
 the railroad. Doniphan believed that the first ray of its real sun of prosperity had come at last and it again assumed it's
 place as a lively competitof of Atchison and St. Joseph.
 But it was not to be. And this time
 the river, which had made possible the towns rise, was to cause it's fall. A