Part 67 (2/2)
Bever, George W. Bever, and John B. Bever, as a memorial to their father, Sampson C. Bever, who was one of the pioneers of the city.
Bever Park is flanked one side by picturesque Vernon Heights and on the other by beautiful Ridgewood, forming an almost continuous park of great extent and beauty. Daniels Park is the newest of the city parks.
It is located on the Old Marion Road and has been transformed into a beautiful floral park, with well-arranged walks and driveways.
Riverside Park is the close-in park, being located on the bank of the river south of Eleventh avenue, and this has been made a play park, with plenty of out-door gymnasium apparatus for the children and young people. Ellis Park, located on the river bank above the city, is one of the most beautiful and attractive of all the parks, and when adequate means of reaching it are installed, it will without question be one of the most popular parks in the city. The river with its excellent boating facilities, gives a charm to Ellis Park that is denied the other breathing places of the city. The city of Cedar Rapids is spending more than twenty thousand dollars each year on its park system, and it is money well spent. There are about two hundred acres in the park system, and a conservative value of the park grounds and improvements is well over $300,000.
The Free Public Library is a most valuable a.s.set to the city and aside from the unmeasurable good done in the dissemination of knowledge, represents a money investment of well toward $150,000. The building proper was the gift of Mr. Carnegie and cost $75,000, the grounds and other items and the contents of the library will add another $75,000 to the valuation. It is supported by a city tax and costs about $12,000 per year to operate. Its affairs are in charge of a board of trustees, appointed by the council.
The city owns and maintains five bridges across the Cedar river. Of these bridges four are of steel construction and one--the Second avenue bridge--is a magnificent reinforced concrete bridge of Melan arch design. This bridge is one of the best and most attractive in the middle west. Its cost was more than $100,000.
[The city contracted in 1909-10 a new concrete bridge to replace the old steel bridge on Sixteenth avenue at a cost of $80,000. It is 40 feet wide and 2,600 feet long, and was opened for traffic January, 1910. A new concrete bridge will be contracted in 1911 at Third avenue to replace one of the oldest in the city.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SIXTEENTH AVENUE BRIDGE, CEDAR RAPIDS]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST STREET, CORNER SECOND AVENUE, IN 1869]
The city water works are owned by the city of Cedar Rapids, and are managed by three trustees appointed by the council. The plant was purchased from the water company July 1, 1903, at an agreed price of $473,000. Of this amount, $23,000 was paid in cash and the remainder was put in the form of bonds. In the past six years $158,000 of these bonds have been retired, leaving a net indebtedness against the water plant of $315,000. The net earnings of the plant from July 1, 1903, to July 1, 1908, were $79,952.30, and for the year ending July 1, 1909, were almost $25,000. In addition the city gets free hydrant rental and fire protection. A conservative inventory of the water plant will show a valuation of well over $600,000 at the present time. The water is taken from large wells on an island in the Cedar river belonging to the city and located some distance above the C. & N. W. bridge. It is filtered by the Jewell system and is forced through the mains by large pumps. There are three of these pumps in use, one of two million gallons daily capacity, one of three million gallons capacity and one of five million gallons capacity. The necessary power is supplied by two water tube boilers of 350 horsepower each, and three tubular boilers of 70 horsepower each. The filter system has a capacity of three million gallons per day, and an additional reservoir for the filter is now under construction. There are at the present time 390 fire hydrants and an excellent and satisfactory fire pressure is maintained for all fire alarms. A loop of twelve-inch mains encircles the business district and this loop is supplied by a twenty-inch main direct from the pumps, giving the business section a fire protection unexcelled by that of any city in the west.
THE RAILWAYS
Up to 1849 the village of Cedar Rapids had no formal organization. It was simply a towns.h.i.+p. But the legislature of 1849 granted a town charter and for the next decade the community throve apace. It was during this period of years that Cedar Rapids strove for, and secured, its first line of railway. In the fifties the railway lines to the west left the bank of the Mississippi and pushed their way out into the fertile prairies of Iowa. Among these lines was one known as the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, and its purpose was to construct a line of railway from Clinton, across Iowa, to some point on the Missouri river.
Among Cedar Rapids men who were prominently identified with the enterprise and were on the board of directors were John Weare, Jr., William Greene, H. G. Angle and S. C. Bever. The company was organized in 1856, but it was not until June, 1859, that the line was completed from Clinton to Cedar Rapids, a distance of a little over eighty miles, and train service established between the two towns.
Previous to the coming of the railroad, communication with the outside world was maintained by means of stage lines; Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, Muscatine, Iowa City, and Waterloo being reached by that method. Freight and supplies were brought in by wagon, though in the early days there was some steamboat traffic on the Cedar river as far as Cedar Rapids.
It required hard work, and plenty of it, to get that first new line of railway into Cedar Rapids. Marion, the old, substantial town and the county seat, wanted the road--and came pretty near getting it, too. The next move in railway construction work for the community was the extension of the new line west, on its way to the Missouri river, a line which is today the main artery of the Chicago & Northwestern system, forming an important part of the great highway of steel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.
The original promoters of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railway, living in Cedar Rapids, were anxious that that company should build a branch line up the Cedar valley from this point, and thus tap the rich and rapidly growing territory lying to the northwest of Cedar Rapids.
But the company had no time or money with which to build side lines or branches. Its objective point was the Missouri river and the great beyond. So Judge George Greene, S. L. Dows, and other prominent public spirited men took up the task of constructing a road from Cedar Rapids to Vinton and Waterloo. Burlington capitalists and promoters joined in the work of extending the line from Cedar Rapids southeast to Burlington, and in a few years the embryo of what later became the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern, the ”Cedar Rapids route,” with its lines radiating from Cedar Rapids to Clinton, Muscatine, Burlington, What Cheer, Iowa City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Worthington, Forest City, Albert Lea, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Decorah, was in existence.
The shops, roundhouses and general offices of the road were located in Cedar Rapids, and everybody took pride and a personal interest in speaking of the inst.i.tution as the ”Home Road.” The absorption of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern by the great Rock Island system, thus giving Cedar Rapids direct connections with all stations on that road, is a matter so recent as to be hardly history as yet. This change has been more in name than in reality. The shops are maintained, as in years past. An even larger army of trainmen and operative employes make Cedar Rapids their home, and the general offices for the northern district make use of the general office building constructed by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Co.
Cedar Rapids' third railway enterprise was the securing of the Dubuque & Southwestern, locally known as the ”Slough Sh.o.r.e,” from the manner of its entrance into the town. This railway was built and operated by the Farleys, father and sons, of Dubuque, and for many years, with its connection with the Illinois Central at Farley, maintained the only line of direct communication between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids. In the early days some very peculiar railroading was done on the Farley line, and the incidents and happenings, if gathered together, would make an extended volume.
The Dubuque and Southwestern is now a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system, and over its tracks trains now run to Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, as well as to the original sleepy little terminus of Farley.
The last steam road to enter Cedar Rapids was the Illinois Central, a line being constructed from Manchester by the late S. L. Dows. This line opens up to the s.h.i.+ppers and business men of Cedar Rapids direct connections with the Illinois Central, and is of peculiar value in the traffic in southern and tropical fruits and commodities which come by water to New Orleans.
More recently the interurban between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City has been constructed, and with its hourly service it has won a business which makes certain the building of other and equally as promising lines in the near future.
Cedar Rapids of 1909, from a railroad point of view, is the traffic pivot of the middle west. Centering here are four of the largest railway systems of the country--the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Rock Island, and the Illinois Central. From Cedar Rapids direct lines radiate to Chicago, Peoria, St.
Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Milwaukee, the total mileage of the lines entering Cedar Rapids being about 35,000 miles.
Direct service is maintained between Cedar Rapids and nearly 1,750 stations in Iowa, to say nothing of the thousands of stations in other and surrounding states reached by direct train service from this city.
More than 225 railway and interurban trains arrive in or depart from Cedar Rapids daily. Approximately 80,000 carloads of freight are handled annually. The freight earnings are about $3,500,000 and the pa.s.senger receipts are about $1,200,000 each year. Three express companies, the American, the United States, and the Wells-Fargo, maintain offices in Cedar Rapids.
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