News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

October 4, 1909

ESTATE WORTH $3,000,000.

Much in Kansas City and Nearby

Realty -- Gifts to City More Than

$1,500,000.

It is conservatively estimated that Colonel Thomas Swope's estate amounts to more than $3,000,000. With keen foresight he acquired many years ago lands in what is now the heart of the business section of Kansas City, and it is in such properties that the greater part of his fortune was made and is now invested.

Some of the more important properties included in the estate are:

The lot and block at the southeast corner of Eleventh and Grand, occupied by the Keith Furniture Company; the northeast corner of Twelfth and Walnut, occupied by McClintock's restaurant and other business firms; the Majestic theater building; the three-story building at 915 Walnut, the two-story building at 1017-1019 Main street, occupied by the Carey Clothing Company and other firms. The business blocks at 916-918-918 1/2 Main, occupied by the Snyder Dry Goods Company and the Seigelbohm Jewelry Company; the seven-story building at the southeast corner of Eighth and May, occupied by the Burnham, Hanna, Munger Company, the three-story building at 419 Walnut, occupied by a commission firm; the two-story building at 1012 East Fourth street, occupied by a commission company; the building at the southeast corner of Union avenue and Mulberry streets, occupied by the Union Avenue bank; the five-story warehouse at the northwest corner of Mulberry and Eleventh; the two-story brick building at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Hickory, used as a warehouse.

OUT OF TOWN REALTY.

There are other and less important properties in various parts of the city, beautiful family homes at Independence, Mo.

The out-of-town property owned by Colonel Swope consists of the 240-acre tract occupied by the Evanston Golf Club, bounded on the east by Swope parkway, the north by Sixty-third street, the west by Prospect avenue and the south by Sixty-seventh street, a 320-acre tract east of and adjoining Swope park, a 50-acre tract on the north of the park, a 400-acre farm near Columbia, Tenn., improved property in Knoxville, Tenn. and Middleboro, Ky, and vacant property in Syracuse, N. Y., Lawrence, Kas. and Topeka, Kas.

Colonel Swope also owned some mining claims near Butte, Mont., the value of which cannot be estimated. He recently said that if he were a young man, he could take one of the claims and dig a fortune out of it. He evidently believed that the claims were very valuable.

Labels: Eleventh street, Evanston Golf Club, Independence, Main street, Mulberry street, real estate, Swope park, Thomas Swope, Union avenue, Walnut Street

September 5, 1909

STATE FINDS IT WAS

TRYING WRONG MAN.

LEVI CARTER, A NEGRO, HAD

BEEN IN JAIL SINCE AUG. 23.

It Was Lamp, Alias "Nick" Carter,

Wanted on Charge of larceny,

But New Cop Made a

Mistake.

Levi Carter was taking the air two weeks ago on Mulberry street, trying to keep out of the burning sun as much as possible, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Is your name Carter?" he heard a voice say.

"Yes, sah," replied the negro, as he looked up and saw one of Marks's greenest centurions trying to extract a tree limb from its surcingle.

"Come with me," said Mr. Cent., looking ferocious.

Of course, Carter went. He was as far as the prosecuting attorney's office, where they filed against him a charge of "larceny from the person in the night time," which is sort of denatured highway robbery. Carter went to jail on August 23, to remain until yesterday.

NEITHER LAMP NOR "NICK."

Right here the plot thickens. The complaint was issued against Lamp Carter, alias "Nick" Carter, and not against Levi Carter at all. But the Carter who was in jail made never a word of complaint.

Yesterday Ruby D. Garrett, assistant prosecuting attorney, went to the court of Justice M. H. Joyce, who has had his office at Union avenue and Mulberry street since they began to draw plans for a new union depot. Mr. Garrett went to prosecute the case against Carter, Lamp Carter, alias "Nick."

In pursuance of that purpose, Mr. Garrett proceeded to introduce evidence. He questioned and requestioned, and was making the prisoner's chances look slim, when he hard a commotion in the court room. A group of spectators was talking excitedly. Mr. Garret overlooked the interruption for a moment and then asked a witness:

"Are you certain it was Lamp Carter?"

Then the storm broke, for Mr. Garrett heard amused and angry protest from the rear of the court room.

"What is the matter with you people?" he asked, turning so as to face them.

TRYING THE WRONG MAN.

The leader of the group came forward and said:

"There's nothing the matter with us, only you are trying the wrong man. This isn't Lamp Carter. His name is Levi Carter."

Just about then Mr. Garret discovered it was his move.

"Isn't your name Lamp Carter?" he asked the prisoner.

"No, Sir."

"Why didn't you say so long ago? You have been in jail for two weeks and haven't made a protest."

"I don't know," said Carter meekly.

"The state will dismiss this case," said Mr. Garrett after a further investigation.

"Dismissed," said Justice Joyce with his kindly smile.

And that is why the police intend, in their quiet way, to "sic" some more centurions on the trail of Mr. Lamp Carter.

Labels: courtroom, jail, Judges, Mulberry street, police

July 31, 1909

DEATH CAME SUDDENLY

TO P. D. RIDENOUR.

HEART DISEASE CLAIMED PIO-

NEER WHOLESALE GROCER.

Had Been Ill at Home About Ten

Days, but Fatal Termination

Was Not Expected by

Physicians.

THE LATE PETER D. RIDENOUR.

Peter D. Ridenour, pioneer wholesale grocer of Kansas City, died suddenly of heart disease at 11:00 last night at his home, 1416 East Eighth street. He was 78 years old, and as the result of complications due to old age has been kept home from the store at 933 Mulberry street, in the West Bottoms, for over a week. His fatal illness is believed to have begun ten days ago when he first complained of shooting pains in the vicinity of his heart.

At his bedside when he died were his wife, Mrs. Sarah L. Ridenour and his son, Edward M. Ridenour. The family physician, Dr. Lester Hall, and Dr. R. T. Sloane, who had been called in, were in attendance, but neither believed death would result from the indisposition.

BORN ON OHIO FARM.

Besides the widow and the son, Mr. Ridenour is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Catherine Lester, Mrs. Alice Raymond and Miss Ethel Ridenour, all of this city, the last named living at home. Four brothers are living, T. M. Ridenour in Colorado, Irving W. in Richmond, Ind.; Elisha at Liberal, Mo., and Samuel Ridenour, who through the death of his brother will become president of the Ridenour Baker Grocery Company, lives at the Washington hotel.

Funeral arrangements have not been made.

Peter D. Ridenour was born May 5, 1831, on a farm of one half mile south of the village of College Corner, O. His parents were of Dutch extraction and pioneers of the state. The town received its name form its location in the northwest corner of the land donated to the Miami university. In 1837 his father bought a store in the town and in it for the next seven or eight years young Ridenour gleaned the knowledge of the grocery business so useful to him in after years.

At the age of 26, Mr. Ridenour married Miss Sarah Louise Beatty at Xenia, O., and moved to Lawrence, Kas. Part of the trip was made in boats because there was no railroad leading into Kansas City or in fact any other town in the vicinity of the Sunflower state.

BEGAN BUSINESS IN LAWRENCE.

With his brother, Samuel, who also had left the old home in Ohio to come West, Mr. Ridenour started a small grocery store at Lawrence taking as partners in the business Harlow W. Baker of that city and later his three brothers. This was in 1858.

By the death of Mr. Ridenour last night Samuel Ridenour became the sole survivor of the original Ridenour Baker Grocer Company. This firm was incorporated thirty-one years ago when having grown to dignified proportions it was moved from Lawrence to its present ho me on Mulberry street. Such has been its progress in Kansas City that it has been able to establish branch stores at several points. Both Peter and Samuel Ridenour grew wealthy. P. D. Ridenour's estate probably amounts to about $300,000.

Mr. Ridenour was known as a public spirited citizen. Three years ago he was vice president of the Commercial Club and was offered the presidency but he refused because of his advanced age. He maintained a large farm near Dallas, twelve miles from Kansas City, where he had intended to spend the remainder of his life.

Labels: bakers, Commercial Club, death, doctors, Eighth street, grocers, history, Lawrence, Mulberry street, pioneers

July 13, 1909

THINKS RIVERS ARE

AT HIGHEST STAGE.

FORECASTER CONNOR NOW

LOOKS FOR FALL.

At Topeka There Was Fall of 0.7

of Foot and at St. Joseph the

Missouri Is Stationary.

Streets Flooded.

SKETCH OF THE JUNCTION OF THE KAW AND MISSOURI RIVERS, LOOKING TOWARD KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

With a rise of over half a foot in the Missouri river yesterday, Forecaster Connor of the local weather bureau predicted a maximum stage of about 27.2 for this morning, which he believes from the information to hand will be the crest. Mr. Connor bases this prediction o n the assumption that there will be no more rains in the Kaw and Missouri river valleys.

The rise in the Missouri yesterday was rapid until 3 p. m. Since that hour it has remained stationary. This was taken by the observer to indicate that the mass of water due to recent rains had crested, and that now only the rise of the day before at Topeka and St. Joseph is to be felt here. At Topeka there was a fall of .7 of a foot during the day, while at St. Joseph the river was stationary.

The heavy rains at St. Joseph yesterday held the river up at that point, but the forecaster does not think they will influence the river there to any appreciable extent, and that by the evening it will show a good fall. The volume of water in the Missouri and Kaw rivers which must pass Kansas City, he asserts, will keep the river at a high stage for several days at least, although there is a possibility of a fall by this evening.

The West Bottoms are beginning to feel the flood now in earnest. The seepwater and sewage, together with the storm waters yesterday morning gave several sections of that district the appearance for awhile, at least, of being flooded by the river. In the "wettest block" several of the floors were under water for a couple of hours and many o f the business men and merchants in that neighborhood are ready to move if the water should go much higher.

Back water from the sewers yesterday covered sections of Mulberry, Hickory and Santa Fe street between Eighth and Ninth streets. Cellars in this district were all flooded.

The Cypress yards in the packing house district is a big lake. There are from two inches to several feet of water all over the railroad yards. Yesterday the Missouri Pacific had to run through eight inches of water at one place to get trains out from the Morris Packing Company plant. The railroad men say that they will run their trains until the water rises to such a height that the fires in the locomotives will be extinguished.

At the Exchange building at the stock yards several pumps were used to keep the basement free from water which started to come in Sunday night. Several of the cattle pens are flooded so they cannot be used and the Morris plant is almost surrounded by water. It is believed that at the present rate the water will be up to the sidewalks at the Morris plant this morning. It would take six feet more, however, to stop operations at this plant.

Labels: Eighth street, flood, Hickory street, Kaw river, Missouri river, Mulberry street, Ninth street, Santa Fe street, St.Joseph, stock yards, Topeka, weather, West bottoms

May 23, 1909

THE WILL OF GOD IF

I AM HANGED: SHARP

LEADER OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS

DODGES RESPONSIBILITY.

Conflicting Testimony as to Who

Started the City Hall Riot

Brings Protest From

the Defendant.

SHARP TRIAL'S SECOND DAY: Defense still fails to indicate any trace of an insanity plea and continues to question along self-defense lines.
Sharp interrupts and contradicts Captain Whitsett, while latter testifies.
Patrick Clark, captain of police, tells of his fight, barehanded, with Sharp, who had both revolver and knife.
Testimony as to fight on river admitted only sparingly by Judge Latshaw.
Sharp gives out statement to effect that evidence which gets at the cause of the riot is being excluded. Also ridicules introduction of his overcoat as evidence, as not proving anything.

"If they sentence me to hang it will be the will of God."

With these words James Sharp was led back to his cell in the county jail after the second day of his trial on the charge of killing Michael Mullane, a patrolman, in the city hall riot. It was the first time during yesterday that he had mentioned religious matters.

The day closed with the evidence of the state two-thirds finished and with no more traces of an insanity defense than were shown on Friday. A. E. Martin, of counsel for Sharp, stated that he had not announced any defense and that his purpose would be to break down the testimony of the state's witnesses. All of his cross-questioning, however, as told in The Journal yesterday, was directed towards showing that the band of fanatics under Sharp's leadership did not provoke the riot, but that it was started by officers. Self-defense is the logical name for such a theory of the case. The state is expected to finish its testimony by Monday evening.

Police officers gave the greater part of the testimony yesterday. Of them, Captian Walter Whitsett was on the stand the longest time. Whitsett gave his age as 41, his service in the police department as twenty years and his residence as 2631 Gillham road. On the afternoon of the riot he was at his desk in the city hall as captain commanding the headquarters precinct.

CHILDREN WERE SHOOTING.

"I heard the shooting," testified Whitsett, "took my revolver out of my desk and ran to the street. I met Captain Clark, who had been wounded, on the stairs. When I got to the middle of the street I saw Mullane standing with a club in one hand and a revolver in the other. There was a man in front of him with a revolver. The women of the band also were near at the time. There was a man with a long beard standing on the opposite corner firing in the direction of Mullane."

"Who was this man?" asked Prosecutor Conkling.

"That's him right there," said the witness, indicating Sharp.

"What happened then?"

"I fired three or four shots at him and his revolver fell out of his hand. Two or three children came up behind and began to shoot at me. When I got back on the street, after going into the station for another revolver, I saw Mullane staggering toward headquarters and helped him in. Later we searched for Sharp but could not find him. We immediately sent his description to every officer in the city and notified the surrounding towns.

"On the evening of December 10 we got word from Olathe that Sharp was under arrest there. I went there that evening with Inspector Charles Ryan."

Court adjourned at noon with Whitsett still on the stand. In the afternoon he resumed his story of the trip to Olathe. He found Sharp there in the office of Sheriff Steed. Sharp's beard and hair had been cut and he was wounded in both hands. There was a hole through his hat.

"I talked to Sharp in the presence of Mr. Steed, Inspector Ryan and Hugh Moore, a newspaper man Sharp told us--"

Mr. Martin for the defense here objected to Whitsett's telling of Sharp's statement.

"If a written statement was taken that is the best evidence," said Martin.

The statement was shown to Captain Whitsett and identified by him. Weapons used in the city hall riot then were introduced in evidence. First there was Sharp's .45 caliber Colt revolver, the handle scarred by a shot. Sharp told Whitsett the weapon was shot out of his hand. Then there was a .45 caliber colt which Louis Pratt had carried.

"I was told by Sharp that Pratt had bought his weapon in Kansas City," said Whitsett, but Sharp spoke out sharply in court to the witness:

"I didn't say that. Why do you want to tell such stuff as that?"

"I don't know. He might have bought it up the river," responded Whitsett.

EXHIBITED THE WEAPONS.

Then was shown the 38-caliber Colt, which Sharp said his wife brought in her bosom from the houseboat. Lena Pratt's 32-caliber pistol was then exhibited and identified, and the knife, with its four-inch blade.

"What was the purpose of all these weapons, as Sharp told it to you?" asked Mr. Conkling.

"He said it was to resist any officer who might interfere with his preaching. He said he also had two rifles and a shotgun and another revolver, the latter used by Lulu Pratt."

The overcoat worn by Sharp the day of the riot was then shown to the jury, as were the remnants of Sharp's beard.

"Don't see why they want to show the coat," said Sharp to W. S. Gabriel, assistant prosecutor. It doesn't prove anything."

On cross-examination, Captain Whitsett was asked about happenings at the river, following the street fight, but the state objected successfully to most of the questions. Just after an objection had been sustained, Sharp spoke up and said:

"Your honor, can I have a word? This man wants to tell what happened there, and he is cut off. Now ---"

"Make your objection through your attorneys, Mr. Sharp," answered Judge Latshaw.

BARBER TESTIFIES.

Inspector Charles Ryan followed Captain Whitsett on the stand. He recounted substantially the same details of the shooting and the trip to Olathe.

George Robinson, 2905 Wyandotte street, a barber at 952 Mulberry street, was the next witness, and told how Sharp came into his shop sat in the chair of Chester Ramsey and had his hair and whiskers cut off.

"He didn't take his hands out of his pockets. He said: 'My hands were frosted up North, where I've been fishing. I want this job done in a hurry. I want to meet a friend and have to get on a train.'

"When the job was done, Ramsey took a purse out of Sharp's pocket and took 40 cents out of it. Then Sharp went away."

The defense objected to the testimony of Robinson on the plea that the state had given no notification that he would be called as a witness. The objection was overruled. Robinson was not cross-examined, but will be recalled by the defense to give further testimony.

Then came William Thiry, a farmer who lives near Monticello, Kas. "On the evening of December 9 Sharp came to my house," said Thiry. "My son opened the door and then I went out on the porch. Sharp was standing there. He said, 'Brother, I want to tell you my circumstances. Wait till I sit down,' and he sat down on the edge of the porch. 'I'm paralyzed, brother,' he resumed. 'I lay down over there on a strawstack and tried to die, but the laws of nature were against me.'

"He kept his hands in his overcoat pockets and asked for food and a night's lodging. 'I am no ordinary bum,' said he. 'I have money to pay for my keep over night.' I consulted with my wife and we decided we could not keep him, but we took him and fed him. I telephoned Mr. Beaver, my brother-in-law, who lives a quarter of a mile from me and Mr. Beaver said he could keep him. While I was telephoning, Sharp came into the ho use and listened to the conversation.

"At supper he spoke of being a peddler and that his partner had turned him down because he was paralyzed in his hands. He said he wanted to get back to town to a good hospital. It was 8 o'clock when he left my house. I fed him myself. He didn't take his hands from his pockets."

"I am willing to acknowledge anything this man says," remarked Sharp. "He treated me alright while I was there."

The defense fought the introduction of this testimony on the same theory it had advanced in the case of Robinson. It objected further to Thiry's relating some of the conversation. Mr. Conkling insisted it was relevant as combating a defense of insanity, if such was to be the defense.

"We have never announced what our defense would be," said Martin.

"You have done so repeatedly in open court while applying for continuances in this case," said Mr. Conkling.

Court was adjourned after the defense had secured permission to bring a number of witnesses from Lebanon, Mo.

OTHER WITNESSES.

In the course of the morning session Captain Clark, who lost an eye in the riot, gave his testimony. He lives at 538 Tracy avenue, and has been on the police force for twenty-one years. He was sergeant in immediate charge of headquarters station the afternoon of the riot. Testimony was also taken from Howard B. McAfee, business manager of Park college at Parkville, Mo., who was making a purchase on the Fourth street side of the city market when he heard children singing on Main street and went toward the gathering. He saw Dalbow come from the station and shake hands with Sharp. Then someone behind Sharp fired. He saw Mullane trying to get away from the women, who seemed to be pursuing him. then he saw Sharp and Clark in their encounter. He helped Clark into the station and when he looked again Sharp was gone.

Preceding Mr. McAfee, there testified Job H. Lyon, a traveling evangelist. Just before the riot he had a talk in the Workingman's Mission with Pratt. Sharp and Creighton, the last named in charge of the place. Being warned against antagonizing the police, Lyon said Sharp waved his hand and said: "I am God. If any policeman attempts to interfere with me, I'll kill him."

The witness said Sharp made similar statements while brandishing his revolver in the direction of the city hall. Pratt and Sharp, said Lyon, pointed revolvers at Dalbow when he approached. Sharp, said the witness, fired the first shot.

After Sharp had been brought to jail here, Lyon, who often holds Sunday meetings for the prisoners, accused the fanatic of falsehood in regard to the story he told the Mulberry street barber. He asked Sharp to attend the jail services and Sharp said he himself was god, and, of course, would not come. Then Lyon told him that God did not prevaricate and Sharp refused to have anything more to do with the evangelist.

Labels: Adam God sect, barbers, Captain Whitsett, children, Gillham road, guns, jail, Judge Latshaw, Main street, ministers, Mulberry street, Olathe, Parkville, police, police headquarters, Prosecutor Conkling, Sheriff Steed, Wyandotte street

December 10, 1908

"ADAM GOD" HAS

NOT BEEN CAUGHT.

LEADER OF MANIACAL RELIG-

IONISTS STILL AT LARGE.

DETECTIVE BOYLE AFTER HIM.

BELIEVED TO BE HEADING FOR

BONNER SPRINGS.

Man Answering His Description Seen

in Armourdale -- Clark and Mul-

lane May Recover -- Selsor

Will Die.

Information was given the police about noon yesterday that a man answering the description of James Sharp, the "Adam God" of the murderous band of maniacal religionists which shot three members of the police force Tuesday, had been seen in Armourdale by a railroad man. Police were immediately dispatched to pick up the man's trail. At last midnight Sharp was still at large.

Every lodging house in the city and all the places were searched by the police Tuesday night and yesterday morning in an effort to catch the instigator of the riot of Tuesday afternoon in which Patrolman Albert O. Dublow was killed and two policeman and a citizen were seriously wounded. Many false clues were followed, as every policeman was anxious to find the man who had preached to his followers that it was right to kill.

Though the entire department was working on the case not a trace of Sharp could be found, and the information that he had passed through Armourdale was the first clue that looked good. The railroad man who telephoned to Chief Daniel Ahern that he had seen Sharp, said that the man had trimmed his whiskers and was bleeding. It was known that Sharp had been shot in the hand. When he laid a gun on the bar in John Blanchon's saloon, 400 Main street, while the shooting was going on in the street, the bartender saw that his right hand was bleeding.

NEGRO TRIMMED HIS BEARD.

According to the story told by the railroad man, Sharp stopped him and asked the direction to Bonner Springs, and then hurried on. He told the chief that he noticed blood on the man's hand and clothes. While Sharp wore a long beard, partly gray, during the fight, when he stopped in the railroad yards in Armourdale the beard was clipped, and his hair had been trimmed. Two hours later the police at No. 2 station were told by Chester Ramsey, a negro barber for George W. Robinson, 956 Mulberry street, that he had cut a man's beard and trimmed his hair and that man might have been the leader of the Adamite fanatics.

Ramsey said that the man came from the east about 5 o'clock Tuesday evening and, when he left the shop went west. The man acted strangely while in the shop, refusing to take either of his hands out of his pockets.

"He got in a chair and ordered me to take his hat off," said the barber. "He kept his hands in his coat pockets while I cut his hair and trimmed his beard I had about half finished when he seemed to get very nervous and said, 'Hurry up. I have to meet a man.' When I got through with him he got out of the chair and had me put his hat on his head. Then he made me take the money out of his left trouser pocket. He explained that his hands had been frozen and he couldn't take them out of his pockets.

"I said, 'You must have been in a colder climate than this. He said, 'Yes, I was up north of here fishin'. That was all he said."

The police believe the man was Sharp. They say he evidently was hiding his right hand, which was shot, and kept the left hand on a revolver in his pocket. The description of the man given by Ramsey coincides with that of Sharp.

CITY HALL GUARDED.

The police took precaution to guard the city hall and police headquarters all day yesterday. They were of the opinion that Sharp might return to the scene of the crime on Tuesday, and for revenge enter the station unnoticed and shoot one or more of the officers.

The police are not sure that Sharp is alone. Two patrolmen stood on the sidewalk at the main entrance to the station and two were stationed in the areaway opening on the market. Inside the station two officers guarded the hallway leading to the chief's office and our or five patrolmen and detectives were held in reserve.

Labels: Adam God sect, Armourdale, barbers, Bonner Springs, city hall, Inspector Boyle, ministers, missing, Mulberry street, No 2 police station

September 15, 1908

SHOULD A SANDWICH BE BREAD.

No, Biscuit, Said the Cook, and

Slashed Off Waiter's Fingers.

Following a dispute as to whether a sandwich should be made out of biscuit or bread, John H. Koester, 24 years old, a waiter in a restaurant at Twelfth and Mulberry streets, was struck with a butcher knife by James Dalton, a cook, and lost the third and fourth fingers of his left hand last midnight. He was taken to the emergency hospital, where Dr. Ford B. Rogers dressed the wound and Dalton was locked up at the St. Louis avenue police station. Koester lives at 810 East Tenth street, but his home is in Chicago. The cook contended that biscuit was the proper planking for the sandwich; the waiter contended for bread.

Labels: Chicago, doctors, emergency hospital, food, Mulberry street, restaurants, Tenth street, Twelfth street

June 14, 1908

WEST BOTTOMS FLOODED.

Wholesale Dealers Moving to Third

Floors -- Are Taking No Chances.

Every man in the West bottoms who had a place to take his goods was moving them yesterday, whether he transported them up town or just to the second floor. No one was taking chances. The Harbison & Modica Implement Co., near the Union depot, carried heavy plows and other farm tools up to the third floor of their building, moving their offices to the second floor.

"We're taking no chances this time," said R. A. Niccolls, a sales manager. "We'll be able to do our office business if the employes have to be carried to the building in boats."

Many implement houses were pumping the water out of their basements in the morning, but most of them gave up at noon and let the water run in. One house had a gasoline engine pumping for eight hours, and still the water didn't seem to go down. Investigation revealed the fact that as fast as the water was pumped out it ran around the corner and through a crack in the pavement back to the cellar. In front of one place was tied a large boat for the transportation of the employes to dry land at the end of the day's work.

At the Union depot all preparations have been made for high water. The baggage can be carried to the second floor in a very short time.

E. J. Sanford, president of the depot company, is not frightened. "I don't see how the water can reach us," he said yesterday. "The weather men tell us that we'll be wet tomorrow, and we're all ready to receive the water when it comes, but I really do not expect any water to reach the floor of the depot."

The water was rising rapidly in the bottoms and at the corner of Ninth and Mulberry streets late yesterday afternoon a close observer could see it creeping slowly up the sidewalks.

The Armour plant is preparing for more high water by building dikes two feet high around the buildings. The doors in the walls have been cemented and it will take a rise of from four to six feet to put the plant out of business.

Labels: flood, Mulberry street, Ninth street, Union depot, weather, West bottoms

June 12, 1908

POLICE WILL PATROL

RIVER IN LAUNCHES.

Mounted Men Guard Flooded Whole-

sale District -- Peril of the

East Bottoms.

Chief of Police Daniel Ahern and Captain Walter Whitsett yesterday afternoon drove through the flooded East and West bottoms. Complaint had been made that sightseers and others had been breaking into unprotected houses and stealing.

Last night mounted men were stationed all over the West bottoms with orders to patrol the flooded district carefully. If the water goes any higher police will be placed in launches to patrol. Now an officer on horseback can reach the most important part of the wholesale district.

It was also reported to the police that in the trees near Harlem many dead cattle, horses and hogs have become lodged. The citizens in that vicinity fear the result if the animals are left there after the flood goes down. Today police in motor boats will be sent over the river to dislodge any dead stock and see that it gets into the current.

Near the Kelly mills in the East bottoms twenty-five or thirty men are at work night and day watching to see that the water does not break through the dike formed by the embankment of the Kansas City Southern railway.

"That is really the key to the East bottoms," Captain Whitsett said. "If the water once gets through there it means lots more trouble, especially for truck gardens, Currents would be quickly formed and all of that loose rich soil would go down the river as it did in 1903."

Wednesday night and last night fifteen or twenty families, by special permission, slept on the hillsides below North Terrace park. In the day the people go down and watch their property.

William Mensing, 10 East Fourth street, called at police headquarters last night and offered five or six furnished rooms for the benefit of the flood sufferers. In 1903 Mensing had a rooming house at Fourth and Main streets. While his rooms could have been rented at good prices, Mensing gave up a dozen or more to poor families and even took two families into his home.

"These rooms I have are not for men who can hustle for themselves," he said last night. "As before, I prefer to let women and children occupy them."

Mayor Thomas T. Crittenden, Jr., chairman of the police board, informed the department yesterday that tents could be secured at the Third regiment. They are to be used for poor and needy families if the worst comes.

Today two gasoline launches will be placed in commission for use of the police. They will be expected to patrol the river below the Hannibal bridge and render aid to people on both sides of the river if the emergency calls for it.

The crowd on the Intercity viaduct last night -- most of the people were sightseers -- was so great that Captain Whitsett stationed four men under Sergeant Robert Greely at the entrance. Their business was to be on the lookout for crooks and to keep the people moving. Three patrolmen were placed at the Mulberry street pay station to keep order and see that no one used the "center rush" method to get through the crowd without paying.

Last night several police were patrolling the river bank from the foot of Grand avenue east. It had been reported that thieves had been breaking into wholesale houses through windows, loading their boats and landing further down the river

The police were asked last night to be on the lookout for Antonio Travesse, 6 years old, an Italian boy living at 410 Holmes street. His father, Carlos, greatly excited, reported the missing boy. He said that when last seen his baby was going toward the river.

Harlem could not be reached by telephone last night. In the afternoon it was said that the water there had flooded the only remaining stores. Last night's report from there was that the river was getting lower, and that most of the wise citizens over there, who had passed through the terrible 1903 flood, will save all of their household goods and stocks of merchandise. Some were moved to this city and some of the stocks are still there, very high up with the counters and shelves nailed down.

Labels: boats, Captain Whitsett, children, East bottoms, flood, Grand avenue, Hannibal bridge, Harlem, Holmes street, immigrants, intercity viaduct, Mayor Crittenden, military, Mulberry street, Police Chief Ahern, West bottoms