SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI AND SURROUNDINGS • 1889


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(previous page) estate men of probity and excellent judgment, think the city will have 70,000 people within a few years, and is not unlikely to exceed that number.

Mr. A. M. Caswell, of the enterprising real estate firm of A. M. Caswell & Co., has faith in a bright future for the city, and expects to see a population of at least 70,000 within its corporate limits in the next ten years.

Roulet & Lambelet, well known and successful dealers in real estate, whose conservative views of the situation are well worthy of consideration, think the city will surely advance to 50,000 people daring the coming decade.

Foster & Rightmire, another prominent and reliable real estate firm, believe the city will compass a population of 75,000 within eight or ten years.

Dr. J. C. B. Ish, a well known grocer and retired physician, whose fine business gifts have made him a nice fortune here in the last fifteen years, says: I have seen Springfield grow from a modest country town to a city of 35,000 people in a dozen years, and believe we shall have 75,000 to 100,000 within the next ten years. Our central location, big territory, great railways shops, large and growing mills and factories and fast growing jobbing trade will make us a grand city, nor have we long to wait for such a result.

Judge J. C. Cravens, a gentleman widely and honorably known in legal and political circles and a long time resident of the city, says: Our climate is hardly surpassed; our manufacturing interests are fast increasing; our railway facilities are good and will soon be better. We have great possibilities in fruit growing, and ten years hence we shall have 50,000 people.

Mr. H. W. Cockerill, editor of the Herald, and a gentleman eminently qualified for judgment on the relative merits of Springfield, believes the city is quite beyond the reach of successful rivalry from neighboring towns; that it has a radius of 200 miles of country practically its own; that new industries will come with the growth of the city, which is the natural distributing point for this large area of country, and that 100,000 people, within the next ten years, is not too high an estimate of future growth.

Mr. J. L. Stoughton, Vice President of the Bank of Springfield, and one of the best business men of the city, says: We have the location, health, mineral and agricultural wealth and climatic influence to develop a city of 100,000 people in the next ten years, and with continued prosperity for the Southwest, there is no doubt of such a consummation.

Maj. Ed. S. Finch, the owner of the Metropolitan Hotel property, and a gentleman of fine business sense, thinks 60,000 people for Springfield, within the next decade, is none to high an estimate, in consideration of the extent and undeveloped wealth of the tributary country, and the long distance of the city from any large distributing point.

Ex-Mayor J. S. Atkinson, Secretary of the Springfield White Lime Co., and clearly one of the representative men of the city, sees nothing but continued prosperity for his favorite town, and expects to see 100,000 people within its corporate limits.

Mr. J. G. Willeke, one of the foremost jewelry merchants in Missouri, and a rarely gifted business man, who began trade here in 1871, under the impression that Springfield would become a commercial city of large proportions, says his early expectations have been more than realized, and with a large tributary region abounding in great mineral and agricultural wealth, and the remarkable growth of the city within the present decade, he has good reason to believe that it will double its population and trade within the next ten years.

Gen. John E. Phelps, a son of the late Gov. John S. Phelps, a native of Springfield, and an honored soldier in the war for the Union, whose distinguished services in the regular and volunteer army were recently recognized by his triumphant election to the department commandership of the Grand Army, for the State of Missouri, and withal, a progressive, public spirited gentlemen, says: Within ten years we shall have two more trunk railways and 75,000 people. There is lead and zinc enough within twenty-five miles to build a good sized city of itself. We claim 100 miles radius of territory, because we have it and can easily hold it. Our channels of trade are already made, and it is not in the power of rival cities to change them. We shall ultimately have 180,000 people.

Mr. W. J. Boling, a sagacious and successful real estate broker, says the city will go to 75,000 without any special effort on the part of the people, and may be easily carried up to a population of a hundred thousand by the unity and enterprise of its citizens. It has the finest location of any city in the Southwest. (next page)


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