Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1918-05-31
| I|LDS BOTH DROOMs>
AND THRIVING TOWNS
OOm Factory Starts Town,
Naming Avenues and Streets
After Its Brands Of
BrOOms

=.
marks the beginning Of town full
Of real possibilities for the business
man, an ideal place to live, but 1t
marks an epoch in the career Of a
broom manufacturer.
Monarch is named after the Mon
arch Broom Works, which was estab-
lished November seventh, 1898, and
has stood the test Of one score years
and still stands on the original spot
of ground and under the same man
agement it was the day 1t started OPP
erations, with q cash capital of ten
dollars and a credit of fifty and a
hand outfit of borrowed machinery.
Then it was six miles west and one
and one half miles south Of Baxter
Springs, on a farm, with nothing
south of it but open grazing lands
for hundreds of miles being on the
Kansas and Oklahoma line, in fact the
building stands on both sides Of the
line to this day and while the Kan
sas side was occupied by farmers
with 100 acres up, the Oklahoma side
was as nature made it, with only the
wild grass and inhabited by COYOTES
and prairie chickens and long horned
cattle brought from Texas to Craze
and loaded at q quarantine switch
about five miles east of the present
townsite which at that time marked
the southern extremity of the Fort
Scott and Gulf line which is now the
principal line of the st. Louis and Sar
Francisco into Oklahoma and Texas.
The scene shifts. The factory is
equipped with modern machinery, the
landscape to the south changes, grass
land is fenced and then allotted t.
the Indians, then farmed by white
men, then Miami the county seat Of
Ottawa County, at first an inlant
town, then the extension Of the rail
road from Baxter Springs, making
what is known as the Alton cut on
where il Joins with the main line Of
the Frisco.
The scene changes, in drilling
well half way between Miami and tn
Monarch Broom Works, valuable de
post of lead and zinc was discovered
town sprang up, Commerce, Okla
which is now a city with modern con
veniences, water, electricity, sewers
schools, churches, and many Other
things. The development was pushed
north and northeast, and the drill wa
followed by the shaft, which was fol
lowed by mills for the concentration
of the ore, hundreds Of them. since
it takes men in large numbers to carr
for the ever increasing demand foi
the metals towns and cities sranf
up as if by magic, and today it is al
most a solid mining camp from Bax
ter Springs, Kansas, southwest to Mi
ami, Okla, a distance of fourteen
miles by railroad. Mining is being
carried on on a scale undreamed Of
five years ago, and the greater leat
and zinc deposits yet discovered has
been unearthed here, where less thar
a decade back everything was as ma
ture had left it.
A broom man sees possibilities
+. C. Wilbur, proprietor Of the Mon
arch Broom Works, last summer saw
the trend of buildings. He secured
q business lease on tract OF Lane
Just across from his factory on thu
Oklahoma side, named the site afte'
his factory, the avenues after his hes
grades of brooms, donated the lane
for park, school and church, and ha'
original idea for starting school fund
Sales manager F. C. Wilbur, has
had the school grounds plOwed and
will plant brOomcorn which will be
worked free of charge into brOoms
by his factory and sold singly to in
dividuals, the proceeds Of the sale will
70 into. the school, for Monarch
Children must be educated.
Monarch map was received at the
factory March fifteenth, and about
half the lots have been sold at private
sale, the other half will be offered at
public auction early in june. Monarch
is served by the Mineral Belt Railway
Co, which has built across the town.
site since the plating in March. Mon
arch will have q bank building and it
viii be of fire proof construction and
actual work on the building will be-
gin about June first. The Monarch
townsite office is nearing completion
It is of brick, thirty-fve feet deep
with a fifty foot front. The history
Of the Kansas Oklahoma mining field
IN = Ii, k,lo h,,k will unOrp