TOTAL GRAIN RECEIPTS AT KANSAS CITY PER ANNUM FROM THE FIRST OF THE MARKET.

The Kansas City Elevator having become inoperative and having ceased to do business on the 29th of May, 1880, it is dropped from the above table of storage capacity.

THE PRODUCE AND FLOUR MARKETS.

Produce from the country began to be handled in Kansas City in a small way prior to the war, but first took the form of a commission business soon after that struggle. A. L. Charles, A. S. Haines and R. C. Crowell & Co., were among the first merchants to engage in it. And Kansas City is now a large market for this class of articles.

The handling of flour grew up about the same time, in the same way and was conducted by about the same men. An effort was made in July, 1880, to organize this trade and put it on 'change. To that end the Board of Trade adopted rules for its government; appointed G. W. Elliot, inspector, and provided sample tables. It has not yet succeeded however in effecting its object.

THE COAL MARKET.

With the competition of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad to the city in 1867, of the North Missouri (now Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific), and of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf to Fort Scott in 1869, they began to bring coal to Kansas City from the mines adjacent to their respective lines. The trade in coal had however begun before this, probably about 1868. Geo. W. McLean, since grain inspector, and A. S. Ingersoll, now a grain merchant, were the first to engage in it. They got their coal at Lexington, Mo., shipped it to Kansas City in sacks, by steamboat, and sold it at forty-five cents per bushel. These gentlemen were soon followed by Pat Casey, T. McKinley, J. A. Bovard and others.

The first record preserved of receipts was for the year 1870, during which the Fort Scott road is recorded as having brought to Kansas City 18,000 bushels, but the Hannibal & St. Joseph and North Missouri brought coal to the city at the same time, the amount of which cannot now be ascertained. The market grew rapidly from the first, and by 1872 Kansas City was receiving and distributing over two million bushels. At this early date all the upper river towns and cities as far north as Omaha were largely supplied from here, as well as accessible parts of Kansas and Nebraska. The railroads in these States and western Iowa were also supplied from here, and have continued to be since.

The following table shows the receipts of coal into this market each year from 1870 to 1880 inclusive, as near as can now be ascertained. It must be remembered, however, that these figures for years prior to 1877 are not exact, there having been no report of the coal brought here by the Hannibal & St. Joseph

Railroad prior to that time and no report of that received here from the North Missouri for 1876. For 1877 and subsequent years the figures are taken from the Board of Trade reports, which are nearly exact.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PROGRESS OF THREE YEARS.

The Events of 1877-The Alton Road-The Union Depot-The Test of Barges on the Missouri -The Great Railway Strike—Bank Suspensions-Railway Extensions Affecting Kansas City-The United States Court House and Post-Office, and United States Courts-Rapid Growth of the City.

It was mentioned at the close of the last chapter that Kansas City began to revive from the effects of the panic of 1873, about the middle of the year 1876, and that population began again to come in and fill up the vacant houses, and revive the general tone of business. This revival was not local only, but general, and the whole country shared in it. In the west, especially, there was marked improvement, and not Kansas City only, but the whole west, entered upon a new era of prosperity and development, which, happily, has not yet received any serious check..

THE EVENTS OF 1877.

One of the first institutions to take advantage of the revival of times, to advance its interests, was the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, which, as previously noted, had extended its line to Mexico, Missouri, on the old Louisiana charter, and for some years had been making its connections to Kansas City from that place over the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern. On the 27th of February, 1877, T. B. Blackstone, President, J. J. Mitchell, Vice-President, and J. D. McMullin, General Superintendent, of that road, came to Kansas City, to confer with the people here, relative to extending that road along the route origi nally proposed for the Louisiana road to Kansas City. After such conference, they returned by the way of Glasgow, accompanied from this city by General John W. Reid, who had always taken an active interest in this line of road. During the spring and summer the sense of the people along the route was taken at a series of public meetings, and in the fall a new company was organized, called the Chicago, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad Company, for the purpose of building the road. Mr. Mitchell was president of this company, and most of its members and stockholders were Chicago & Alton men. In October Mr. Mitchell submitted to Jackson county and other counties along the line, proposi tions for aid to the road. Of Jackson county, he required fifty thousand dollars in subscriptions to the stock of the company, and procurement of the right of way through the county. This was submitted to a meeting of the people, and referred to a committee, of which General Reid was a leading member, to raise the subscriptions, and it was soon accomplished. A like result having attended the effort in other counties, the construction of the road was an assured fact before the close of the year.

The establishment of barge transportation on the Missouri River was again taken up, March 10th, at a meeting of grain merchants, and referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. M. Diveley, H. J. Latshaw, E. R. Threlkeld, T. J. Lynde, Major W. A. M. Vaughan, Colonel C. E. Kearney, and A. J. Gillespie. This meeting was brought about by some correspondence with the Great Central Dispatch Company, which proposed to put barges on the river. Nothing came of this proposition, however, and subsequently a committee was sent to St. Louis for the purpose of securing, if possible, some relaxation of the railroad pool rates from the Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railroads. But this mission was unsuccessful, and on the return of the committee, an inef

fectual effort was made to start a company to build barges, after which the interest was allowed to slumber for another year.

The Memphis Railroad project, in which Kansas City and Jackson county had been so largely and so unsuccessfully interested since 1870, re-appeared this year, and claimed a share of attention. On the 12th of April it was sold in bankruptcy, and was bought in by a company of Kansas City men for fifteen thousand and twenty-five dollars. Mr. J. D. Bancroft, formerly cashier of the First National Bank, and at this time a grain merchant, became manager for the purchasers, and made an effort to raise the money to build it, but without success; and it slumbered in the hands of this company for several years without anything further being done to build it.

Other railroad enterprises, however, were more fortunate, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad began the construction of branches from Emporia south, since finished to Howard, Kansas, and from Florence to Eldorado, since finished through to a connection with the main line again at Ellinwood.

During the early part of the year there was considerable discussion of a proposition to put a dam across the Kaw River a few miles above the city for the purpose of creating a water power for manufacturing purposes, and Mr. Pierson, engineer for the water company, made a favorable report concerning it, but nothing was ever done about it.

The long-continued effort to induce the railroads centering here to build an eligible Union Passenger Depot was this year successful. Early in the year a company was organized for that purpose, composed of the representatives of the different lines, and the work begun. On the 10th of July the old wooden shed which had been used for that purpose was abandoned, and the point of interchange moved to the State Line Depot. Immediately afterward the old shed was taken down and the construction of the present elegant building begun. It was finished in January following and opened to the public with C. H. Dunham, Esq., as superintendent, A. W. Millspaugh, ticket agent, and John Hale, baggage master. Its cost was about two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. One of the most exciting events since the close of the war occurred this year. It was the great railroad strike which, beginning with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in July, swept over the country like a cyclone, causing much loss of property in Pittsburg and other cities, and demoralizing railway business seriously for some time. It reached Kansas City on the afternoon of the 23d of July, in the refusal of freight-train men to work further without an advance of wages. That night meetings of the strikers were held, and the next day a mob of lawless individuals, made up chiefly of idlers, paraded the streets and forbade working men generally to proceed with their work. This looked ominous, and aroused the people. Meetings were quietly held that night and measures taken to protect property. Capt. H. H. Craig promptly raised a company of men and had them sworn in as special police, to protect the city. This prompt preparation for the mob crushed the lawless spirit of that class of idle adventurers, who were evidently seeking to take advantage of the railroad strike, create disorder and destruction, such as had prevailed in Pittsburg. The matter was thus confined to the railroad men and their employers, who succeeded in adjusting their difficulties so that freight business was resumed on the 30th of July. The passenger trains were not stopped at any time, as they carried the mails, and the strikers did not apparently seek a collision with the government authorities by stopping the mails. From this affair arose the Craig Rifles, which have since been quite an interesting military and social organization.

The Board of Trade Building, which had been begun in the fall of 1876, was so far completed that the daily meeting of the Board was removed to it July 28th. On the 2nd day of August the office rooms in the building were let at public auction, only members of the Board engaged in grain, produce, provision or