History of Linn County Iowa Part 68

Recognizing the future of Cedar Rapids as a railroad, manufacturing and distributing center, the railroads have all been expending vast sums of money in the past few years in the acquisition of property for terminal purposes. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Illinois Central, and the Rock Island now control absolutely the entire section of the city lying between Fifth and Ninth avenues, the river and Third street, and it is only fair to presume that the four blocks between Third and Fourth streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues will also be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. South of the city, along the river bank, the Chicago & Northwestern is expending thousands of dollars in the filling in of a large section of low land and old river bed, and on this made ground new and enlarged terminals and switch yards will be built.

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific is now engaged in the construction of its new terminals and freight depot on the blocks lying between Second and Third streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues, and when completed these terminals and depot will be ample for the accommodation of a freight business of a city of hundreds of thousands of population.

In the matter of pa.s.senger travel the city is well accommodated in the two depots, both on Fourth street, one occupied by the Chicago & Northwestern and the Rock Island, and known as the Union station, and the other occupied jointly by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Illinois Central lines.

Mention must also be made of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City interurban line, which maintains an excellent hourly service between the two cities. This line of road is the pioneer in the interurban field for the city, if the line to Marion be excepted, but is proving daily more and more popular and its business is increasing in such a measure that the building of additional lines of like character is only a question of the near future.

MANUFACTURING

From the days of its very earliest beginnings the people of Cedar Rapids have paid especial attention to the manufacturing industry. A large part of those who settled in Cedar Rapids came from the east where manufacturing leads all other industries and it is but natural that they should embark in their new home in those lines with which they were familiar. The papers and records of the early days tell of a long line of enterprises that have come and gone. There were flour mills, woolen mills, implement works, engine factories, wagon factories, oil mills--the list is a long and interesting one to the delver into local history.

With the coming of the railways, opening up markets for the manufactured products and affording means of collecting and bringing in the raw material, the manufacturing side of Cedar Rapids' activities has grown apace, until today Cedar Rapids, although not the largest of Iowa cities, leads them all in the amount of manufactured goods produced. In 1908 the total ran to nearly if not quite $22,000,000, and the output for 1909 will far exceed that great figure. There are now nearly 100 manufacturing inst.i.tutions in Cedar Rapids, employing nearly 4,500 hands and paying more than $3,000,000 annually in wages.

Many of our manufacturing inst.i.tutions are of many years' standing. The great mill of the Quaker Oats Company, the largest milling plant in the world, was originally established years ago as an oat meal mill by George Douglas and Robert Stuart, two thrifty and persevering Scotchmen to whose industry and far-sightedness is due the fact that at least the first course of the world's breakfast (after fruit) comes from Cedar Rapids. The great packing plant of T. M. Sinclair & Co., Ltd., giving employment to 1,200 employees and sending its products to all parts of the world, has done more to advertise Cedar Rapids than any other one agency. It was established by T. M. Sinclair, a young man from Belfast, and from its modest beginning many years ago it has become a plant representing an investment of millions and an ability to supply at least a large portion of the second course of the world's breakfast.

Then there is the big starch works of Douglas & Co., the largest independent starch plant in the country--a plant where corn by the train load is daily transformed into starch and gluten feed. In smaller inst.i.tutions note must be made of the Anchor Mill Co. and the T. G.

White Cereal Co., with their specialties in flour and wheat flakes.

While on the subject of cereals, note should be taken of the big elevators and cleaning houses of the Cedar Rapids Grain Co., the Clinton Grain Co., Jackson Grain Co., and the Wells-Hord Grain Co.

Without doubt, the name "Cereal City" which has been applied to Cedar Rapids is not a misnomer.

In other lines Cedar Rapids leads as well as in those involving the conversion of the native products of agricultural Iowa. This city with its three great pump companies, the Cedar Rapids Pump Co., the Chandler Pump Co., and the Iowa Windmill and Pump Co., control the pump, windmill, iron pipe and plumbing supply business of the middle west.

While the collateral lines covered by the Dearborn Bra.s.s Co., the Iowa Radiator Co., the Tokheim Manufacturing Co., the Vernier Manufacturing Co., the Smith-Talbott Co., and others add materially to the leaders.h.i.+p of Cedar Rapids in these departments.

The Denning Fence works places Cedar Rapids in a leading position in the fence manufacturing business. The Perfection Manufacturing Co., the Hawkeye Skirt and Garment Co., the Welch-Cook Co., and the Clark-MacDanel Co., give Cedar Rapids a high position in the business of manufacturing clothing for both men and women that is not suspected, even by some of the best posted people in the city. Then there are other lines of manufacture. The J. G. Cherry Co., with their line of dairy and creamery supplies; the Cedar Rapids Sash and Door Co., the Williams & Hunting Co., and the Disbrow Sash and Door Co., with their big wood working plants; the various furniture factories, the cement and sand-lime brick plants; the big printing plants, for printing is a most important industry in Cedar Rapids; in short, the list is endless and as this is not a directory of the manufacturing industries of Cedar Rapids, further individual mention will have to be abandoned.

What is manufactured in Cedar Rapids? The list is a long and mixed one.

It comprehends all kinds of breakfast foods, flour, starch, gluten feed, all kinds of packing house products, woven wire fence, candy, ice cream, pumps, iron pipe, windmills, plumbers' supplies, steam heating plants, machinery of all kinds, stone and ore crushers, hot air furnaces, cornices, bank, store and office fixtures, camp and lawn furniture, corsets, parlor furniture, mattresses, woven wire springs, undertakers' supplies, egg cases, dairy supplies, b.u.t.ter, concrete fence posts, sand-lime brick, prepared plaster, ice, gasoline engines, store step-ladders, hard wood specialties, electrical supplies, gasoline storage tanks and measuring pumps, manure spreaders, overalls, women's skirts, suits and jackets, s.h.i.+rts, photo paper, bra.s.s goods, coffee, spices, extracts, baking powder, sash, doors and blinds, steel baskets, tanks, stoves, school books, umbrellas, vinegar, pickles, wagons, carriages, omnibuses, automobiles, patent medicines, physicians' and hospital supplies, crushed stone, cigars, etc., etc.

It is noteworthy that of the many industries started in Cedar Rapids within the past twenty years, a very large per cent have been financial successes, some of them notably so. Nearly all of them have been launched in modest fas.h.i.+on and while nowhere is it possible for all enterprises to succeed, the few failures in Cedar Rapids have all been brought about by causes purely individual in the management or because of circ.u.mstances which seemingly no one could control.

Cedar Rapids has pa.s.sed beyond the experimental stage as a manufacturing city. It has been demonstrated that industries can be established and operated successfully here and that goods made in Cedar Rapids will find a ready and stable sale in all parts of the world. In fact, Cedar Rapids is but just beginning her epoch of industrial prosperity and growth and she extends to all the invitation to come, see how those here are prospering, and join in the march of events which will in the years to come make Cedar Rapids one of the best known manufacturing communities in the whole United States.

In this connection it is not amiss to speak of the excellent conditions which have always surrounded the labor situation in this city. The manufacturing industry must, of necessity, depend very largely on the element of labor and in many localities strikes and strife and misunderstanding and trouble generally have added to the difficulty of the local situation. There has been but little of this sort of thing in Cedar Rapids. Labor has always been well paid, well treated and well satisfied in this city, and the little differences which have come up between employer and employee have all been settled promptly and satisfactorily. There has been an absence of the grafting labor agitator and all have worked harmoniously together to build up the city and its best interests.

THE STREET RAILWAYS

BY E. A. SHERMAN, EDITOR SAt.u.r.dAY RECORD

The Marion and Cedar Rapids Improvement Company was incorporated March 8, 1879, to construct street railways on the streets of Cedar Rapids and Marion, and the highway between, known as the "Boulevard."

The incorporators were Addison Daniels, J. L. Crawford, C. C. Cook, and John Meredith Davis.

The officers were John Meredith Davis, president; James L. Crawford, secretary; C. C. Cook, treasurer.

On March 13, 1879, the city council of Marion pa.s.sed an ordinance authorizing construction of the line in the city of Marion. On May 16th, the city council of Cedar Rapids pa.s.sed an ordinance granting the Marion and Cedar Rapids Improvement Company the right to construct and operate street railways on Iowa avenue, and also on alternate streets.

October 13, 1879, the name of the company was changed to the Cedar Rapids and Marion Street Railway Company. John Meredith Davis resigned as president and was succeeded by W. M. Hewitt.

November 8, 1879, the city of Cedar Rapids pa.s.sed another ordinance granting a franchise to the Cedar Rapids and Marion Street Railway Company for lines on Iowa avenue and on alternate streets. Up to this last date the enterprise had been fathered by Milwaukee and Davenport parties, who then dropped out. Construction had already been begun and the work was continued by Marion parties, prominent among whom were Mr.

E. Latham, J. L. Crawford, and J. C. Davis. Mr. Latham advanced the money necessary for construction.

On January 8, 1880, Mr. Latham was made president of the company. In March of that year Judge George Greene (always foremost in any enterprise which would help Cedar Rapids) took a controlling interest in the company, and from that time forward, with the financial a.s.sistance rendered by Judge Greene, the work went rapidly on so that the line began carrying pa.s.sengers between Cedar Rapids and Marion on the 3d of May, 1880, by steam motor between Twelfth street in Cedar Rapids and the terminal station in Marion, and from Twelfth street to Fourth street in Cedar Rapids in horse cars.

Both Judge Greene and Mr. Latham died early in the summer of 1880, and although Mr. S. C. Bever, Mr. A. J. McKean and other prominent citizens of Cedar Rapids and Marion afterwards became interested in the enterprise, the Greene family always held a controlling interest and were foremost in management of the company up to the sale in 1890.

Mr. Latham was succeeded as president by William Greene on July 15, 1880.

The board of supervisors forbade the company laying its track on the boulevard, and brought suit to enjoin such construction. The Eighteenth General a.s.sembly (1880) pa.s.sed an act authorizing street railway tracks on roads 100 feet wide. So the supreme court sustained Judge Shane in refusing the injunction. Early in the spring of 1881, the line was extended across the steam railway tracks at Fourth street to the foot of Iowa avenue. Soon after that date the company were not allowed to bring the steam motors below Fifteenth street, the horse cars carrying the Marion pa.s.sengers up to that point.

The track between Marion and the city limits of Cedar Rapids were laid with "T" rails weighing sixteen pounds to the yard; afterwards changed to thirty-five pounds per yard. The horse car tracks were laid with flat rails weighing twenty-two to twenty-four pounds per yard, spiked on the top of wooden stringers. The first equipment consisted of two small second hand steam motors and four cars.

The extensions and additions made were: In 1882, track to fair ground from First to B avenue, only operated during fairs and amus.e.m.e.nts. Line on Adams (now Third) street, First avenue to Fourteenth avenue. Opened September 7, 1882. Line from First avenue and Commercial (now First) street to Third avenue, across Third avenue bridge on Third avenue to Sixth street west; also line on Third street north from Third avenue to A avenue, and south to Seventh avenue west. These west side lines began doing business in the fall of 1882, and early in 1883 car and horse barns were built at Third avenue and Third street west.

In 1884, line extended from Third street and Seventh avenue west to J.

C. Young's addition at Sixth street and Fifteenth avenue west and afterwards taken up for want of business.

In 1886, line from First avenue east along Fifth street to Fifth avenue, up First avenue to Tenth street, thence on Tenth street and Mount Vernon road to Oak Hill cemetery; opened for business July 4, 1886.

Fair ground line taken up. New line on Sixteenth street from First to E avenue, built and put in operation November 15, 1886.

As the branch lines of horse railroad within the city of Cedar Rapids paid no profit, the Marion stockholders stoutly objected to the earnings of the Marion line being used for the sole benefit of the people of Cedar Rapids. So the Cedar Rapids and Marion Railway Co., on the 13th of July, 1889, conveyed to John W. Henderson--for the sum of one dollar--all of these branch lines excepting the Sixteenth street line. Mr. Henderson on November 14, 1889, deeded the same to the Cedar Rapids Street Railway, a company organized for the purpose of operating these city lines, and for the further construction of other city lines in Cedar Rapids, of which company C. G. Greene was president, U. C.

Blake, vice-president, W. J. Greene, secretary, and George Greene, treasurer.

These city lines failed to earn enough to pay operating expenses and were all conveyed back to the Cedar Rapids and Marion Railway Co. on February 9, 1891. For the year ending June 30, 1884, the number of employes of the company was twenty, the annual wages $11,667.44. In 1889 the number of employes averaged twenty-eight and the annual wages $15,878.00.

During the years 1886 to 1890, the west side lines had been gradually abandoned, so that on December 1, 1890, there was only remaining the one on First street and across the Third avenue bridge to Third street, and thence on Third street southwesterly to Seventh avenue.

The entire equipment at that date consisted of two steam motors, two 28-foot coaches, one open trail car, 20 feet long, one baggage car, one 18-foot, six 12-foot, and eleven 10-foot horse cars, two snow plows, two flat cars and nineteen horses and mules, with the necessary harness and fixtures.

In the autumn of 1890 it came to the knowledge of Mr. J. S. Ely that non-resident parties were investigating the situation with a view of acquiring the property of the Cedar Rapids and Marion Railway, together with the city lines then owned by the Cedar Rapids Street Railway. Mr.

Ely believing that it would be best for the interests of the city of Cedar Rapids that control of the transportation facilities be in the hands of resident property owners, who would have a greater interest in a more extensive system and better service, than those seeking merely financial profit, obtained options on a controlling interest in the capital stock of both of the companies. After which Mr. Ely and Mr.

Henry V. Ferguson organized a syndicate consisting of Messrs. A. T.

Averill, James L. Bever, Chas. H. Clark, Geo. B. Douglas, Walter D.

Douglas, C. J. Ives, C. Magnus, P. E. Hall, J. S. Ely, and Henry V.

Ferguson, who on December 15, 1890, purchased two-thirds of the entire capital stock of the two companies (the C. R. & M. Ry. and the C. R.

Street Ry.) buying out all of the old stockholders except Frances R.

Greene, C. G. Greene, S. C. Bever, Geo. W. Bever, and U. C. Blake.

Immediately after this change of control, the stockholders paid in money enough to clear up all the floating debt of the companies, and put them on a good financial basis. The stockholders addressed the following communication to the mayor and city council of Cedar Rapids:

"To the Honorable Mayor and City Council of the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

"The undersigned stockholders in the Cedar Rapids and Marion Railway, and in the Cedar Rapids Street Railway Company, respectfully represent to your honorable body that they are the absolute owners of all the stock of the corporations, and all are resident tax payers in said city, largely interested in its general progress and prosperity; that it is their purpose and intention to reconstruct, improve and extend the properties now operated by the said companies and to run the cars on said lines by electric power as soon as the necessary authority and the additional rights and franchises required are granted, and on the granting of the same, we pledge ourselves to take immediate steps toward putting on electric service, and to rebuild, maintain and operate, and from time to time extend the lines in said city to the full extent that ordinary business prudence will warrant.

"We, therefore, pet.i.tion your honorable body to grant said corporations the necessary authority, rights and franchises to enable them to enter upon and make the changes and improvements above mentioned.

"P. E. Hall, A. T. Averill, Henry V. Ferguson, C. G. Greene, Walter D. Douglas, Jno. S. Ely, Chas. H. Clark, C. J. Ives, Jas. L. Bever, G. B. Douglas, C. Magnus, F. R. Greene, Geo.

W. Bever, S. C. Bever, U. C. Blake.