Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 8: A Review of the Progress of St. Joseph from the Overland Period to the Present Time. -, 1900

Chapter 8: A Review of the Progress of St. Joseph from the Overland Period to the Present Time. -

A REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF ST. JOSEPH FROM THE OVERLAND PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. - THE EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF "PATEETOWN". - EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR AND SEVERAL FINANCIAL DISTURBANCES. - THE BOOM OF 1886 AND THE RESULTS. - THE NEW ERA AND WHAT IT PROMISES.

The impetus given St. Joseph by the overland emigration and freighting caused the town to make rapid strides up to 1861, at which time a population of 11,000 was claimed and many substantial public improvements were shown. The streets were paved with macadam, bridges had been built across the different creeks that coursed through the city and considerable grading had been done in the hills. Besides being a supply point for overland freighters, St. Joseph was a hemp and grain market of prominence, and pork packing had become an inportant industry.

When the Hannibal & St. Joseph road became a fact business, which had heretofore closely hugged the river and market square, began to look to the southeast. John Patee was one of the foremost citizens of the place. He had platted his land in an early day, and when the Hannibal & St. Joseph road was projected had donated a strip of forty acres for terminal and depot purposes. This land stretches from Olive street south to Mitchell avenue, west of Eighth street. In the firm belief that the future St. Joseph would build up around the railroad terminals, and with the assurance that the depot would be located at Penn street, Mr. Patee built a magnificent hotel, which cost him about $180,000, and which was then the second largest and best appointed hostelry in the United States. However, he was somewhat disappointed, for the depot was located at Eighth and Olive streets.

"Pateetown," as that section of the city was nick-named, grew rapidly after the completion of the railroad in 1859. A market house was built at Tenth and Lafayette streets, which still stands; business houses and hotels sprang up on Eighth and Tenth streets, south of

Olive, and there was lively traffic. But the people up town were not idle either, for prosperity was ruling there too. Many brick business houses were built; among them the Pacific House, the Odd bellow building at Fifth and Felix streets, Turner Hall, and several blocks on Felix, Edmond, Francis and Fourth streets. The town was spreading out. Graders were busy leveling the hills and filling up the valleys, and the residence portion was being beautified with good homes.

Public improvements were confined mostly to grading the streets and to building bridges over the crooked creeks that coursed through the city. Smith's branch, which headed near the upper end of Frederick avenue, came down that street, crossed lots to and followed the course of Buchanan avenue, touched Faraon and Jule streets and flowed southwest to Eighth near Edmond street, thence across lots between the Kuechle brewery and Turner Hall to Sixth and Messanie streets, thence south to where the gas plant is located, below Olive street, and thence west to the river. Though there was not much water ordinarily, there was a deep ravine which was often filled with a wild torrent when the rains were heavy. This creek was bridged wherever the travel demanded, and so likewise were Blacksnake and Liniment creeks.

St. Joseph had progressive men at the head of affairs in those days. The people responded to every call, both from their private resources and with the public funds, and bonds were voted with a recklesness that is astonishing in these conservative daye. Any project that knocked for admittance was welcomed heartily, and led at once to the open purse. Some of this liberality is still being atoned for by the innocent taxpayer.

h rom 1 86 1 to 1865 - the rebellion period - St. Joseph, like other cities and the country in general, went backwards. Business was paralyzed, labor was unemployed and all conditions were disturbed.

The First City Hall

continued until the panic of 1873. During that period the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad was extended north, the St. Joseph & St. Louis (now Santa Fe) road was built from Richmond, the St. Joseph & Denver City (Grand Island) was extended west, and the St. Joseph & Topeka was built from Wathena to Doniphan. This road was operated by the Burlington company for a time and was afterwards abandoned. The first street car line was also built in 1866, from Mitchell avenue and Eleventh street to the Pacific Hotel.

In the latter sixties there was much street improvement and many miles of macadam were laid. During the same period the first attempt at sewering was made. The creek known as Bush branch, which meandered from the neighborhood of Hall and Bush streets by a devious course to Fifth and Francis, was partially covered. Among the prominent manufacturing industries was the starch factory, which has long since disappeared.

Recovering from the stagnation caused by the panic of 1873 an<^ the grasshopper years, St. Joseph began a steady march of progress, which has continued up to the present. However, notwithstanding the fact that business the country over was paralyzed by the panic of 1873, there are local monuments to activity in building during the period of depression. The Missouri river bridge was completed in May of 1873. The court house, city hall, Tootle's opera house and asylum No. 2 were built in 1873-74.

In 1874 the first telephones were put in. In the same and during subsequent years the Charles street and Smith branch sewers were built and the Bush branch sewer extended down Fifth to Charles street.

In 1876 the LTnion street railway was built to New Ldm park, from Market square, and in 1878 the narrow gauge street cars were put upon Frederick; avenue. Matters generally were looking up again by this time. In 1877-78 the St. Joseph & Des Moines narrow gauge road was built. In 1878 the Board of Trade was organized. At the close of the decade the Krugs, Hax Bros., A. O. Smith, David Pinger and Connett Bros, were packing pork on a large scale, and at the LMion stock yards, on South Tenth street, there was a market in lively competition with Kansas City.

In 1880 the Missouri Pacific began to run trains into St. Joseph, and the next four years marked a period of steady progress. In 1880 the site of the old Odd Fellows' hall and Hax's furniture store at Fifth and Felix streets, which had been destroyed by fire, were cov- ered with the splendid buildings of the present. The Odd Fellows' building and Hax's faced Fifth street before the fire, the former being occupied by BaiTev, Townsend & Co. The Faulhaber, Bergman and Stone buildings soon completed this block. R. L. McDonald built on Fourth and Francis streets at about the same time, and the imposing block of wholesale houses on Fourth street, north of him, followed at short intervals. The Turner-Frazer building, at Third and Charles streets, went up in 1 88 1 , and Nave & McCord built in 1882. The Tootle building on Fourth, between Felix and Francis streets, the large building at the northwest corner of Fifth and Edmond streets, and the Union depot, were built during the first eighties. The Chamber of Commerce, the Saxton building at Fourth and Francis streets, the Tootle building at Sixth and Francis streets, and the general offices of the Burlington railroad were built during 1883-84.

Real estate values were remarkably low in St. Joseph up to 1886. A wave of speculation swept the country at) about that time, and, though St. Joseph did not escape the craze, she suffered less than her neighbors from the reaction. On the contrary, the city was, generally speaking, benefited. From a complaisant lethargy there sprang energy, progressiveness and confidence. Values went up, outside capital was attracted, and to the conservatives there was unfolded a future of which there had been many early prophecies.

The first five months of 1886 saw real estate speculation at its height. Addition upon addition was platted and people scrambled to obtain lots at the first sale - to ''get in on the ground floor," as the saying was. Real estate agents were without number, and on Francis street there was a Real Estate Exchange, where property was listed on the blackened walls of a store room. Among the first new additions upon the market early in the boom was St. Joseph Eastern Extension, then came Saxton Heights, Wyatt Park, McCool's, Walker's and others.

Suburban property had the call of the speculators. As an evidence of the permanent benefits of the real estate flurry one need but to compare the city of 1886 with the city of the present. At that time there were not more than fifty houses east of Twenty-second street, and few between that and Eighteenth street. All was in grass and of no value except to the dairymen, who pastured their cows thereon. McCool's and Walker's additions, on the north, were in small farms or vacant. Now Wyatt Park is a populous suburb of modern dwellings ; there is a street railway, there are paved streets, city water, churches, schools, fire protection, etc. The other additions likewise show up well. As a result of the boom the Wyatt Park, the Jule street and the Messanie street lines of electric cars are running today. As a result of the boom Krug Park and the city parks were opened and beautified. As a result of the boom St. Joseph has now many miles of streets paved with asphaltum, brick and macadam. And there is much more that might be added.

From 1885 to 1893 was ^ie most momentous period in the city's history. To what has been mentioned above may be added the Rock Island railway, east and west; the Chicago Great Western, north and south; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the St. Joseph Terminal Company. The Y. M. C. A. building, the Commercial block, Center block, Carbry block Zimmerman buildings, Irish-American building, Ballinger building, C. D. Smith building, Van Natta-Lynds building, Wyeth building, Crawford theatre, the Podvant and Donovan buildings, Coulter Manufacturing Co.'s building, France building, Central police station, Turner Hall, the Moss building, Samuels block, the Saxton & Hendricks building ; also those massive piles of architecture occupied by the Richardson, Roberts & Byrne Dry Goods Co.; Tootle, Wheeler & Motter; the Wood Manufacturing Co. ; the Michau block, the Hughes building, and the block on the north side of Felix, west of Sixth street - all are to the credit of that prosperous era.

Blacksnake and Mitchell avenue sewers were built and the drainage system of the city perfected, the city electric lighting plant erected and the entire street railway system placed upon an electrical basis. Numerous manufacturing ventures were launched, some of whim did not survive, however ; notably the steel car works, the stove works and the nail mills.

A bureau of statistics and information did much during 1888-90 to attract the attention of eastern capital, and the Board of Trade was then, as now, a prominent factor for the commercial advancement of the city. The foundation of the present pretentious live stock market and meat packing industry was laid in 1887, and during the following ii\e years three packing plants were established.

The financial depression of 1893 checked the progress of St. Joseph somewhat, and but little of magnitude was done until 1897, when a fresh impetus was given the city by the revival on a gigantic scale of the meat-packing industry. The stock yards passed into the control of Swift & Co. of Chicago, and two of the largest plants in the world - one by Swift & Co. and one by Nelson Morris & Co.

Other meat-packing concerns are negotiating for quarters, and it is predicted that in a few years St. Joseph will be one of the most famous live stock markets and most prominent meat-packing points in the country.

Real estate values, which fell during the period of depression, are looking up ; many tenements are building, and the season of 1 897-98 is marked as one of the most active in the history of the city for mechanics and laborers. There is, indeed, much in the prospect which the future historian may tell.