Part 46 (1/2)
CHAPTER XXV
_The Old Blair Building_
The Kimball building in Cedar Rapids stands on the site of an old landmark--the Blair building. This building, with the land and railroad companies it housed from time to time, was the center of much history in the development of Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. It is difficult for us to realize now what an immense influence these companies in the early days had in the settling up of the central west. A debt of grat.i.tude is due the men who risked their fortunes in this developing work that many of us now are too apt to forget. Had it not been for the railroads these early patriots projected into the unsettled portions of these states the development of the west would have been greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded. Immigration would have been slow, for people are never eager to settle in farming communities where there is lack of transportation facilities to get the produce of the farms to market.
It is felt that a brief account of the influences that went out from this center is entirely appropriate here. In fact it is needed as a part of this history of Linn county. Greatly to our regret the gentleman responsible for the historical data given below wishes his name withheld, but through modesty only. What is here printed was furnished by one who knows whereof he speaks, for as Virgil once wrote, ”of it he was a great part.”
THE BLAIR BUILDING
John I. Blair, of Blairstown, New Jersey, being then the president of several railroad companies having their general offices and official headquarters at Cedar Rapids, erected a building to furnish adequate room for the business of these companies and for the First National Bank of Cedar Rapids, in which he was heavily interested. This building was known as the ”Blair Building.” In its time it was much the most pretentious structure in the city. It was located at the corner of Eagle and Adams streets--now Third street and Second avenue--was two stories in heighth with a high mansard roof, and set above and back from the street. The plans for this building were made by W. W.
Boyington, then the most prominent architect in Chicago. It was what might be termed of the ”court house” style, having more the appearance of a public building than one erected for commercial purposes.
On May 23, 1868, Mrs. Mary A. Ely purchased of A. C. Churchill, for Mr.
Blair, lots 6, 7, and 8 in block 15, including the brick dwelling house thereon, for the sum of $10,000. Mrs. Ely afterwards conveyed this land to Mr. Blair, who deeded it to himself and Oakes Ames as trustees for the several companies who contributed to the cost of the land and the buildings.
The work of construction began in the autumn of 1868. The building was completed and occupied in the spring or early summer of 1869. The total cost of the land, the new building, and the overhauling of the dwelling house was $54,418, which was paid by the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company, The Iowa Rail Road Land Company, the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Company, the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company, and the First National Bank of Cedar Rapids.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES E. HARLAN, LL. D. President Cornell College]
In 1870 the dwelling house and the land lying southwesterly of the wall of the Blair building was sold to John F. Ely for $11,000. In 1884 the First National Bank conveyed its interest to the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Company, and thereafter, until the liquidation of the bank in 1886, occupied the banking room as a tenant. When the bank had gone out of business, the railroads had been sold and the offices moved away, and the real estate holdings of the companies very largely reduced, the owners having no use for the s.p.a.ce for their own purposes, and the building being so constructed as not to be useful for commercial purposes, it was decided to sell the property. It was advertised for sale. A customer not being found at private sale, it was sold at public auction on May 2, 1888, to David P. Kimball, of Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, for $25,000.
Mr. Kimball, together with his brother L. C. Kimball, of Boston, J. Van Deventer, then of Clinton but later of Knoxville, Tennessee, J. E.
Ainsworth, then of Council Bluffs but later of Williamstown, Vermont, and P. E. Hall and Henry V. Ferguson of Cedar Rapids, organized the Kimball Building Company, to whom the property was conveyed.
During the year 1888 the Kimball Building Company rebuilt the Blair Building, extending its exterior walls out to the street line and added a new portion so as to cover the entire lot, making the building when so completed 76 feet on Second avenue and 140 feet on Third street, four stories high, and thereafter known as the ”Kimball Building.”
In addition to being the president of all of these railroad companies, Mr. Blair after 1862 gave personal attention to their construction and was in absolute control of their affairs in the west. These railroads came to be called the ”Blair Roads,” and were so generally spoken of in the public prints. From this people generally came to think that he was nearly the sole owner of all, or at least personally owned a controlling interest in the whole group. This, however, was not the fact. Mr. Blair's individual owners.h.i.+p averaged about one-sixth, about another sixth being owned by his a.s.sociates in the Lackawana Iron & Coal Company of Pennsylvania, among which were Joseph H. Scranton, of Scranton, Pa.; Moses Taylor, of New York, and William E. Dodge, D.
Willis James, and James Stokes, who then comprised the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Company.
The controlling interest was always owned by a group of New England capitalists and their a.s.sociates, who were at the same time the controlling stockholders in the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railroad Company--the line already constructed from Clinton to Cedar Rapids.
Among these latter were Oakes and Oliver Ames, of North Easton, Ma.s.s.; John Bertram, of Salem, Ma.s.s.; Charles A. Lambard, of Maine and later of New York; William T. Glidden, David P. Kimball, Joseph and Frederic Nickerson, of Boston, and Horace Williams, of Clinton, Iowa.
THE CEDAR RAPIDS AND MISSOURI RIVER RAILROAD
In May, 1856, congress pa.s.sed what was then called ”The Iowa Land Bill,” making grants of land to the state of Iowa to aid in the construction of four lines of railway across the state, one of which was to be from Lyons City, thence ”northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Railroad near Maquoketa, thence on said main line running as near as practicable to the 42nd parallel across the state of Iowa to the Missouri River.” The general a.s.sembly of the state by an act approved July 14, 1856, granted the land inuring to the state for the construction of this line to the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company upon certain conditions contained in said act. That company began the construction of the road in the year 1856, considerable grading was done at different points along the line as far west us Anamosa, but the panic of 1857 coming on the work was stopped and never again resumed by the Iowa Central Air Line Company.
It being quite probable that at the next legislative session the state would resume this land grant and forfeit the rights of the Iowa Central Company, and pa.s.s the grant over to some other company who would undertake the construction of the road; for the purpose of obtaining this grant, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company was organized on June 14, 1859, by the prominent eastern stockholders in the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad, together with John Weare and John P. Ely, of Cedar Rapids, and G. M. Woodbury, of Marshalltown, Iowa.
In March, 1860, the state resumed the land grant from the Iowa Central Company and made it over to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad. Work was begun on the line west from Cedar Rapids in 1860.
The bridge over the Cedar river was built in the winter of 1860-61, and forty miles of track completed to Otter Creek Station (now Chelsea) during the year 1861, and to Marshalltown in December, 1862. Milo Smith, of Clinton, Iowa, was the chief engineer and had charge of the construction of the road until it reached Marshalltown.
In 1861 John I. Blair became largely interested in this enterprise, and thereafter took control of the construction beyond Marshalltown. After 1862 W. W. Walker was chief engineer until the road was finished. Track was laid to State Center in 1863, and on July 4, 1864, to Nevada, and to Boone in December, 1864, but the road was not surfaced up, finished and put in operation from Nevada to Boone until the succeeding year.
In July, 1864, congress made an additional grant of land to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, and authorized it to change its line of road so as to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad at Council Bluffs. Work beyond Boone began in December, 1865, the track was laid into Council Bluffs in January, 1867, but regular service between Woodbine and Council Bluffs was not inst.i.tuted until April of that year.