|
 St.
Joseph, Missouri, is beautifully
situated on the east bank of the Missouri river, in the northwestern part
of the state, and is the county seat of Buchanan county. It is the third
city in population, in commerce, and in wealth. St. Joseph was
incorporated as a town in 1845. A special charter was-granted in 1851, and
it was for a long time the outfitting post for all overland trains for the
Pacific coast. It was from here that the once famous Pony Express line
started on its long journey to California. St. Joseph is the healthiest
city in the United States—the death rate being lower here than in any
other city —(see government statistics.)
Photo: Free Public
Library Building, St. Joseph, MO.
St. Joseph has grown from a town of
936 in 1846 until, in 1890, it had a population of 52,324, when, according
to the United States census report for 1900, it had made the wonderful
increase of 100 per cent., having a population of 102,979. The population
is now estimated at over 110,000.
The natural advantages of St. Joseph
as a commercial and manufacturing center are unsurpassed. It is in the
heart of the most fertile section on earth— a section of great grain and
live-stock producers, full of splendid towns and small cities, and her
trade extends to every state and territory west of the Mississippi river.
St. Joseph's prominence and
prosperity are founded upon a fortunate location, established
institutions, accumulated wealth, merited prestige and successful
achievements. The stability and prosperity of no city in the West is
better assured than that of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph's business organization—
the Commercial Club—composed of men in all walks of business life, is a
very wide awake institution, ever on the lookout for the city's business
interests, and occupies large and commodious quarters in the city, where
all meetings of business men for the welfare of the city are held.
St. Joseph is happily blessed in the
fact that the majority of her citizens are prosperous and own their own
homes. In spite of the fact that hundreds of residence buildings are built
every year, there are few vacant residences in the city. Real estate
values are very reasonable, and especially is this true in the residence
district, while in the business portion rents and values are also very
reasonable, thus making that item of business expense very low.
St. Joseph has a very large jobbing
and manufacturing business extending into all parts of the country, and
amounting to the following figures:
-
Jobbing business. . . . .
$65,000,000 per year
-
Manufacturing . . . . . .
$25,000,000 per year
-
Packing house. . . . . . .
$60,000,000 per year
-
Stockyards. . . . . . . . .
$65,000,000 per year
Our clearing house shows as follows:
-
1898 . . . . . $
67,341,333.39
-
1899 . . . . .
$160,788,054.07
-
1900 . . . . .
$210,234,703.36
-
1901 . . . . .
$240,724,011.14
-
1902 . . . . .
$235,749,117.10
-
1903 . . . . .
$245,901,989.48
-
1904 . . . . .
$238,063,436.23
Showing the enormous increase in
seven years of nearly $200,000,000 or about 300 per cent. The small
decrease shown in 1904 as against 1903 was caused by the packing house
strike in 1904, when for over two months there were no clearings from the
packing houses. It is also true that the loss of clearings in St. Joseph
were much less on this account than elsewhere, thus showing that, had
there been no strike, St. Joseph's clearings would have shown a good
increase for the year 1904.
St. Joseph has one of the greatest
markets for shirts, overalls, pants and shirt-waists of any city in the
world, and sets the pace and price for all other markets to go by.
St. Joseph also has the largest and
best equipped saddlery and harness factory in the world. Also the largest
woollen mill in the West. There are also a great many factories in all
lines of business and all successful to a high degree.
St. Joseph has 152 miles of street,
seventy of which are paved with asphaltum, brick, macadam or granite; has
six miles of main sewers, which will be largely increased during the
present year, and sixty miles of district sewers.
St. Joseph's bonded indebtedness is
$1,200,000. It has no floating debt. Assessed valuation, $34,000,000, on
which a tax levy of one dollar and forty-five cents is made. State, school
and county taxes amount to one dollar and forty cents, making a total of
all taxes two dollars and eighty-five cents on a valuation of fifty per
cent.
St. Joseph has two fine public
libraries and five parks. The school district comprises fifteen square
miles of territory, owns thirty-three buildings, operates thirty-five
schools and employs 300 teachers. Two well equipped business colleges are
located here, besides a number of private educational institutions, as
well as several parochial schools and two medical colleges.
St. Joseph houses sent out 1,500
traveling salesmen covering all the vast territory west of the Mississippi
river and even penetrating into Old Mexico, Hawaiian islands, the British
possessions and Alaska.
Every line of merchandise known is
represented by these travelers, and all selling for St. Joseph's business
houses; their prosperity goes without saying.
St. Joseph's transportation
facilities could not be better, for as a matter of fact from this
standpoint St. Joseph is greatly blessed, in that we are better located
geographically than any city in the great Missouri valley for receiving
and distributing freight and merchandise. St. Joseph is also fast becoming
a large grain market, much of which is exported through the Atlantic and
Gulf ports. St. Joseph has one of the largest flour mills in the Missouri
valley.
 St. Joseph has the most complete and
up-to-date stockyards in the world, which, together with the three large
packing houses, makes her the fourth in size and business in the
live-stock and packing house products and the second largest in the
slaughter of sheep. The packing houses cover an area of sixty-five acres
and have a daily capacity of 8,000 cattle, 20,000 hogs, 5,500 sheep and
10,000 poultry. St. Joseph's horse and mule market has steadily increased,
until now it is recognized as one of the best inthe country.
Photo: The Stock Yards
Exchange building, St. Joseph, MO
St. Joseph's growth has been steady,
honest and solid—nothing of a boom nature has ever entered into its
advance. St. Joseph has never had a failure of a business that was
conducted on true business principles— as a matter of fact, all our wealth
has come from starting in a small way and increasing through wide awake
business methods to its now present gigantic proportions.
St. Joseph's retail district has more
than doubled during the last few years, until we now have a retail
business that far exceeds what even the most sanguine had hoped for.
St. Joseph has twelve banks, three
national and eight state, with a capital of $1,384,000 and deposits of
over $20,000,000 with plenty of money to encourage all business that may
wish to go to them.
The surrounding country for hundreds
of miles is almost a Garden of Eden— rich in farms, large towns and small
cities—and all look upon St. Joseph as their natural trading point in
live-stock, grain and merchandise. Over 1,500,000 people passed through
our Union Station in 1904, and over 10,000,000,000 pounds of freight came
into and out of St. Joseph on our transportation lines.
St. Joseph has a fine system of water
works, using Missouri river water, which the chemists pronounce the purest
river water in the world.
St. Joseph's electrical street
railway is very complete and service of the best, with convenient
transfers to and from all parts of the city. Just outside of the city
limits is one of the most beautiful Summer resorts in the valley — Lake
Contrary—being connected with the city by an electric car line.
Photo: The St. Joseph
Auditorium
St. Joseph has let the contract and
is now building an auditorium with a seating capacity of 6,000 that will
outrival, in beauty and architectural design, any building of its kind in
the West, and the parquet of which will afford ample room for horse shows
and kindred exhibits.
The state hospital for insane is
located just one mile east of the city.
Anyone desiring further information
will confer a favor on the citizens of St. Joseph by writing to the
secretary of the Commercial Club, who will be only too glad to give them
the
information asked for. |
