A Century of Greenwood County, KS History - Eureka Herald, 1968

1887

January temperatures dropped to 24 below zero. Eureka had a great many colored people, all honorable and industrious citizens. The county commissioners divided Fall River township into two election precincts. Twin Falls and Climax were the voting places. Martin & Diebert purchased the Collins Block for $25,000 cash. The city was to have waterworks. The estimated cost ($38,000) included an iron reservoir, two steam pumps and boilers, a suitable building for the pumps, filtering wells, 5.2 miles of mains and 40 hydrants.

Spring Creek Union schoolhouse (District 48) was dedicated in July. The Commercial Hotel on South Main was opened in November for the reception of guests. The old Congregation Church building was moved in December from Third and Elm, north on elm about half a block. Services continued in the old building until the new one was finished.

A $15,000 fire, the first of any consequence Eureka ever had, occurred in March. The large frame building, at the corner of Main and Second, erected by Stoddard & Denison in 1868, included a number of businesses. On the south there was nothing left of the building but blackened stone walls. The little frame building occupied by Dan Maley as a cigar factory was torn down and the material hauled away. Large plate glass windows in the opera block suffered severely but the intense heat. The buildings destroyed were to be replaced by handsome brick and stone structures. The loss of the fire would have gone far toward procuring an efficient means to protect property from destruction by fires.

There are at present 80 women employed in the treasury department in Washington, D.C. and it is proposed in view of the pressure for those places to increase the number to 100. Each woman will be employed for nine months of the year and furloughed, without pay, for the three remaining months. This will furnish employment to a large number of women while effecting a decrease of expenditures in the service.

What to Tell Them (April 15, 1887)

When writing to friends in the East about Kansas, tell them something of Greenwood County. Tell them that Greenwood County has an area of 1,155 square miles and an area of 739,200 square acres; that 53 per cent of her lands are in improved farms; that she has a wealth of nearly 16 million dollars; that she has 1000 head of horses and mules; that she has 51,806 head of neat cattle; that she has 18,175 head of sheep and swine; that she slaughtered and sold for slaughter nearly $1 million worth of stock; that her farm products last year were worth well over $2 million; that she has 153,871 bearing fruit trees and over 200,000 not yet bearing; that she has 107 organized school districts and more than 6000 school children; that she has 26 organized churches; there is not a saloon in the county, and never will be; and that her people are upright, moral and progressive.

1888

Dilbert and Martin addition was annexed to Eureka. A fire, January 5, destroyed several business houses in Eureka. An attempt was being made to raise $1200 to secure a location for a canning factory in Eureka. The new Masonic Hall, on the third floor of the White Building (Second and Main) was the finest and best appointed in the state of Kansas. The Eureka Electric Light & Power Co. was chartered in February and an electric light ordinance passed by the city. The ordinance provided for 13 lights, five on Main, four on Walnut and four on Mulberry, for which the city was to pay $7.50 each per month.

In April, the people of Eureka voted to expend $40,000 for the waterworks. The Fourth Avenue Hotel was new and elegantly furnished. High School was conducted in the city hall building. The new Congregational Church was dedicated on October 14. The building was 55 x 63 feet. Coast of the structure and furniture was $10,000. The Eureka Library Association was chartered in December.

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1889 - 1890


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