From the well the water was pumped to the settling basins south of the station. The capacity of the basins was such that the water remained five days before it reached the outlet where it was pumped into the mains by the high-pressure machinery. The water used in the lower part of town was pumped to a reservoir on a hill near Twenty-first and Holly streets. The elevation of the water in the reservoir was 232 feet above the low water mark in the Kaw river.

The original plant consisted of a Holly quadruplex pumping engine, compound condensing, with a capacity of about four million gallons a day, and a single engine that operated an auxiliary quadruplex pump. The machinery was designed by G. W. Pearsons, chief engineer of the water works company, and B. Holly, superintendent of the Holly Manufacturing company. Soon afterwards a large quadruplex condensing engine, an additional low service pump and a Gaskill compound condensing engine were added to the plant.

Benjamin F. Jones was superintendent of the National Water Works Company. The president of the company was Giles E. Taintor, of New York city, a member of a well known family of Taintors who were closely identified with the commercial and financial history of New York city. The Taintors came to America from Wales in 1630, and settled in Colchester, Connecticut, ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims.

The city developed so rapidly that it taxed the capacity of the water company to furnish the supply. The Kaw river as a source of supply was found to be inadequate and the company began looking for a site for a pumping station on the Missouri river. A location was selected at Quindaro on the west bank of the river, five miles up-stream from Kansas City, where a reservoir was built with a capacity of 60,000,000 gallons. At Kaw point, another pumping station with a capacity of nine million gallons daily was built from which water was supplied to the low grounds of Kansas City and all of Kansas City, Kansas.

The city water works system was enlarged and improved at various times to keep pace with the growth of the city. About one million dollars was expended for improvements in 1887.

The first street railway was built in 1870, from the corner of Fourth and Main streets, by way of Fourth, Walnut and Twelfth streets and Grand avenue to Sixteenth street. The line was constructed by the Kansas City and Westport Horse Railroad Company, promoted in 1869 by Nehemiah Holmes. The incorporators, besides Mr. Holmes, were: W. R. Bernard, Edward Price, George W. Briant, E. M. McGee, J. Q. Watkins and William Dunlap. The venture was not a financial success. Nehemiah Holmes died in 1874 and the company was sold under a deed of trust to a reorganized

company, known as the Westport and Kansas City Railroad Company, chartered February 5, 1874. Walton H. Holmes, son of the original promoter, became manager of the street railway in 1880 and an era of prosperity began. The line was sold to the Grand Avenue Cable Company in 1886, and converted into a cable railway.

The Jackson County Horse Railroad Company was organized in 1870 by J. Q. Watkins, F. R. Long, A. C. Dyas, D. O. Smart and C. E. Walrond. The company built a street car line in 1873, from the corner of Fourth and Main streets west to the State line. The Union Depot Street Railway Company built a street car line, 1874, from the corner of Fifth and Delaware streets to the stock yards. The Union Depot line and the Jackson County line were consolidated under one management. These roads and several others became known as the Corrigan system, under the management of Thomas Corrigan. The lines were sold to the Metropolitan Street Railway Company in 1886 for $1,250,000.

The Inter-State Rapid Transit Company was organized in December, 1883, to build a street railway between Kansas City and Wyandotte, Kansas. The original capital was $600,000. The promoter of the line was D. M. Edgerton. Work was begun in May, 1886, and cars were placed in operation in October of the same year. The Inter-State Rapid Transit Company was merged into other lines and a new organization was known as the Inter-State Consolidated Rapid Transit Railway Company. The elevated railway through the West bottoms and the Eighth street tunnel were parts of the system. Work on the tunnel division of the line, from the Union depot to Eighth and Delaware streets, was begun in May, 1887, and the first cars were operated on the tracks in April, 1888. The digging of the tunnel through the bluff was a gigantic undertaking. It extended 800 feet through slate and solid limestone rock.

Robert Gillham, a successful civil engineer, was the originator of the idea of a cable system in Kansas City. He came to Kansas City poor in everything, except mental resources, and won distinction in his profession. Cable railways had their origin in San Francisco in 1873. The Clay Street Hill road in that city, one mile in length, was the first in the world. Kansas City was the third city in the world to operate cable railways, Chicago being the second.

Previous to 1885, all of the street cars in Kansas City were operated with horses or mules. The Kansas City Cable Railway Company was organized in 1885. The promters were: Robert Gillham, William J. Smith and George J. Keating. The original cable road extended from the Union depot east on Ninth street to Grand avenue, thence north to Eighth street and then east to Woodland avenue where a power house was situated. It was

the beginning of a new era of development in Kansas City when the cable company operated the first car over its road, June 24, 1885. The residents. had a celebration when the line was completed and the promoters were congratulated.

The Ninth street incline, a part of the cable railway system, was one of the landmarks of the city. This approach to the Union depot was very steep and was greatly dreaded by timid persons. The incline, however, was singularly free from fatal accidents. No one was injured until August 23, 1902, when a down-going car got beyond the control of the gripman and crashed into another cable car that had just stopped at the waiting room. W. D. Taylor, the gripman on the runaway car, was instantly killed in the wreck and fifteen passengers were injured. After the accident two grip cars were used on each train that passed over the viaduct. The Ninth street incline was abandoned in March, 1904.

Mr. Smith sold his interest in the Kansas City Cable Railway Company for $852,000 in 1894, and it was consolidated with the Grand Avenue Cable Railway, that had superseded the old mule cars. This was the beginning of several combinations that ultimately resulted in one corporation, the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, controlling all the street car lines in Kansas City.

The old Metropolitan Street Railway Company was incorporated July 24, 1886. The officers were: C. F. Morse, president; W. J. Ferry, secretary; A. W. Armour, treasurer. The company was capitalized at $1,250,000, for which amount it purchased the Thomas Corrigan system of horse railways. The Fifth street, Twelfth street and Eighteenth street horse car lines were changed into cable lines at once. The Holmes street line was rebuilt as a

cable in 1887-88.

Remarkable progress was made in the construction of cable roads. At the beginning of 1887 there were thirteen miles of cable road in service, but at the close of 1887 there were twenty-seven miles practically finished, with twenty-two miles in operation. The total additions to the street car system in 1887 amounted to thirty-four miles, making in all fifty-three miles of street railroad in Kansas City and its suburbs.

An official statement issued in July, 1890, reported 62.84 miles of street railway, of which thirty-six were cable lines, twelve and one-half steam dummy lines, eight horse car lines, and six and one-half electric lines.

The Kansas City, Independence and Park Railway completed a line between Kansas City and Independence, September 15, 1887, over which it operated cars with steam "dummies." The railway originally extended from Fifteenth street and Askew avenue to Independence. The incorporators of the company were: W. E. Winner, president; H. E. Marshall, sec

retary; J. S. Chick, treasurer; John W. Byers, James M. Love, A. M. Winner and J. P. Harper. The original capital stock was $120,000.

The Fifth street cable line was the first to be transferred into an electric line. The change was made in November, 1898. The Brooklyn avenue, or Tenth street line, was the second to be changed to electricity, in December, 1899; the Westport cable line, changed to electricity in May, 1900, was the third. The change from cable to electric lines was rapid after 1900. While the Metropolitan Street Railway Company was converting the cable lines into electric lines it, at the same time, was forced to provide for the increase of business due to the rapid development of the city. In addition to reconstructing the roadbed, it was necessary to buy new rolling stock and make an enormous increase in the electrical machinery needed for generating the necessary power. The changes in the system and the increase in business required an expenditure of approximately ten million dollars in four years.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS.

Kansas City's reputation as a commercial center is due, to a very great extent, to several aggressive civic associations that have made it their chief business to tell the world of the city's unsurpassed advantages and to uphold its business integrity. Several commercial associations having worthy purposes, were organized in the early years of the city's existence, but they expired during the Civil war or afterward.

As the city grew and as greater possibilities for trade developed, the necessity for a comprehensive organization that would unite the business interests of the city and strive for the general advancement of public prosperity, became apparent. To meet this need the Commercial club was organized, July 18, 1887, with fifty-seven members, and incorporated in December of the same year under the laws of Missouri. In its articles of incorporation the club gave these as its purposes:

"The objects of the association shall be to promote the progress, extension, and increase of the trade and industries of Kansas City, acquire and disseminate valuable commercial and economical information, promote just and equitable principles of trade, and foster the highest commercial integrity among those engaged in the various lines of business represented; to increase acquaintanceship among its members, and facilitate the speedy adjustment,

by arbitration, of business disputes; to interchange views, and secure concerted action upon matters of public interest, freely discuss and correct abuses, using such means as may be best calculated to promote the interests and rights of its members as business men and citizens, looking chiefly toward the commercial development of the city."

These avowed purposes have been accomplished to a great extent. The organization became known as the "Club that Does." This complimentary notice is from the New York Times:

"The greatest thing in Kansas City-chief maker of Kansas City, its prophet apostle and crowner is the Club That Does. The Commercial Club' is the incorporate title of it. It is not among the new, hustling elements of Kansas City. It has lived long enough to have inspired, started, strengthened, developed and rounded out good things multitudinous for the town. From the very start it accomplished things, and age inflicts neither languor nor lameness. Fifteen years ago it started upon its campaign of Kansas City upbuilding. It had public approval from its beginning; now it commands public enthusiasm. More than 800 Kansas City business men are on its rolls, and not one laggard on its list."

The first board of directors of the Commercial club was composed of the following: W. B. Grimes, L. E. Irwin, E. L. Martin, W. J. Anderson, Ryerson Ritchie, T. B. Bullene, E. M. Brannick, K. L. Barton, Joseph Cahn, G. W. Fuller, S. W. Gregory, A. R. Meyer, J. M. Nave, J. G. Stowe, A. G. Trumbull and T. F. Willis. From those were named the following officers: W. B. Grimes, president; L. E. Irwin, first vice-president; E. L. Martin, second vice-president; W. J. Anderson, treasurer; Ryerson Ritchie, secretary. The Commercial club always has been willing to foster any enterprise that would benefit Kansas City. Its chief endeavor has been to promote the commercial interests of the city. The Commercial club began to urge a reduction in freight rates in 1889. After a contest lasting more than one year, the club won a notable victory. The question of transportation rates became so important that the Commercial club founded the Transportation bureau, presided over by a freight expert, whose business it is to guard the interests of Kansas City shippers and especially to correct discrimination in freight rates. The Transportation bureau was organized in 1889, in the administration of Frank A. Faxon. The first commissioner of transportation was A. J. Vanlandingham, appointed November 21, 1889.

The Commercial club was interested in the movement to re-establish steamboat navigation on the Missouri river The organization used its influence to induce Congress to make an appropriation for improving the Missouri river, and to have a United States engineer located in Kansas City to have charge of river improvements.