SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI AND SURROUNDINGS • 1889


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(previous page) the favor and confidence of the business public, has a large and growing patronage; owns one of the finest bank buildings and offices in the country; is fortunately located on the “bank corner” which has been the scene of nearly forty consecutive years of banking, is sound as bullion, and under its present management is not likely to lose the high prestige it won under the old managers.

The First National Bank, organized in 1867, by Maj. R. J. McElhany, has a paid capital of $60,000, with surplus and undivided profits amounting to $24,000, and holds a high position among the strong, commanding banking houses of the country. Maj. R. J. McElhaney is president and R. L. McElhaney, cashier. The bank has been continuously under this management from the date of its founding; has high standing in business and social circles; enjoys a large and growing patronage; owns a handsome, finely furnished bank building; and has no stock on the market at any price.

Maj. McElhaney made a fortune in local merchandising before the war, and in later years has lent the aid of his capital and influence to the founding of street railways, wagon works and the water works, which are the chief pride and glory of the city. He is an able financier, and in the active management has a worthy successor in Mr. R. L. McEhaney, the accomplished cashier.

Springfield has a FREE MAIL DELIVERY, and a very efficient fire department; and has been honored by the War Department with A SIGNAL SERVICE STATION, whose meteorological reports have done much to attract attention to the equable and enjoyable climate of Southwest Missouri. It has too the U. S. LAND OFFICE for the Southwest Missouri land district, and the location of which at this point at an early day gave the chief impulse to the earlier growth of the city. It has also semi-annual sessions of the U. S. DISTRICT COURT for the Western District of Missouri, sharing the honors of the district with Kansas City. By grace of the late legislature, it has been further honored with a COURT OF APPEALS and Criminal Court, and has many another phase of metropolitan life not recorded in these pages. It is clearly within the scope of this Hand-Book, however, to outline briefly some of THE NEWER ADDITIONS which mark the rapid advancement of the city, both within its older limits and the suburban districts, and upon most of which more or less improvements have already been made. THE SCOTT INVESTMENT CO., whose holdings cover close to $600,000 worth of city and suburban property, and whose stock is rapidly advancing in value, under the admirable management of the property by Mr. B. T. King, vice president and general manager of the company, has recently platted in three and five acre tracts the PORTLAND HEIGHTS ADDITION of 181 acres at the south end of the city. It is a beautiful tract, embracing the old Campbell Orchard and traversed by the principal north and south avenues, and is being improved with several fine homes. Among other fine properties of the company which Mr. King has now on the market are the seven acre HOLMAN PLACE ADDITION in the southwest division of the city, which is also being rapidly improved with new buildings, and the OKLAHOMA ADDITION of 121 acres of fine woodland in the same neighborhood, lately laid in four and five acre tracts, of which good blocks have been recently sold. The Dollison Place Addition, in the heart of the city, thirty acres off the south end of the Milner Abbott and Minard Addition, the unsold portions of the Magnolia Addition, and 120 acres now ready for platting in acre tracts, on the west side of the city on the line of the new Nichols Junction street railway, are among the newer properties which Mr. King’s enthusiasm and managerial gifts are rapidly popularizing by advertising, improvements and rapid sales. On the south side of the city are THE PHELPS PROPERTIES, embracing 900 acres of the old farm of the late Gov. Jno. S. Phelps lying along and contiguous to the National Boulevard; and some thirty-five acres within the city, embracing PHELP’S FIRST AND SECOND ADDITIONS (next page)


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