118 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (ABERDEEN, ANDERSON, ASHLAND, ATCHISON.) 



CITIES, AMERICAN, RECENT GROWTH 



OF. This article is practically a continuation 

 of that which was begun in the " Annual Cyclo- 

 paedia " for 1886 and has been continued in each 

 volume since. The volume for 1886 treated of 

 88 cities, that for 1887 of 45, that for 1888 of 35, 

 that for 1889 of 44, while the number presented 

 herewith is 84, making a total of 296. 



Aberdeen, a city and the county seat of 

 Blown County, South Dakota, on James (famil- 

 iarly called Jim) river, in the northeastern part 

 of t'l' State, the metropolis of what is known as 

 Cent nil Dakota. The Chicago and Northwest- 

 ern, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and 

 the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway 

 systems operate lines radiating in seven direc- 

 tions from the city, fci 1887 the grade of the 

 Aberdeen. Bismarck and Northwestern Railroad 

 was purchased by the Minneapolis and Pacific, 

 and there is a partial grade and survey to Pierre. 

 Connections are had with the West, in ad- 

 dition to direct communication with Chicago, 

 Duluth, St. Paul, and Minneapolis, and car loads 

 of fruits and sugars are landed direct from Cali- 

 fornia. The first settlement was made in the vi- 

 cinity of Aberdeen in 1880. In 1890 the popu- 

 lation, by the Federal census, was 3,182. The 

 building 'improvements from 1884 to 1888 cost 

 $1,257,372, and in 1888 the amount expended 

 for city improvements, building residences, etc., 

 was $436,947. Water is supplied from two arte- 

 sian wells, which deliver 2,500,000 gallons dally. 

 The city lies in the artesian-well district of 

 James river valley, possessing great volume and 

 heavy pressure, the water-bearing sand at Aber- 

 deen being reached at 960 feet. In 1889 there 

 were 5 school and church buildings, 724 pupils 

 in the public schools, and 12 teachers. There 

 are 3 national banks. The deposits in 1888 were 

 $450,000. The assessed valuation of the city is 

 $2,068,557, and the bonded indebtedness $80,050. 

 The assessment returns of Brown County for 

 1889 show a total of $7,899,356. In 1888. 334,- 

 703 acres of the county were under cultivation, 

 and, in spite of the partial failure of crops, pro- 

 duced 2,872,730 f bushels of wheat, 1,264,484 

 bushels of oats, in addition to rye and barley, 

 lfl),573 bushels of flax, 181,730 bushels of pota- 

 toes, and 53,818 tons of hay, while 2,901 acres of 

 the county are planted in trees one year old and 

 over. Two daily and 5 weekly papers are pub- 

 lished in Aberdeen, and the city has electric 

 lights, a fine opera house, large hotels, a city 

 hospital, and a public library. There are a 

 flouring mill, a planing mill, a wood-working 

 establishment, and a foundry. A United States 

 land office is at Aberdeen. 



Anderson, a city of Indiana, the county seat 

 of Madison County, on the west fork of White 

 river. Four railroad lines have their termini in 

 or pass through the city. The population in 

 1SJH) was 12,897. Since the discovery of natural 

 gas the? town has been growing rapidly as a 

 manufacturing center. The chief industries are 

 strawboard, wire rod, wire and wire nails, 

 knives for wood workers, sheet and bar iron, nuts 

 and bolts, glass, encaustic tiles, soluble glass, 

 staves and heading, grain cradles and snaths, 

 wooden ware, brick, machines, and D handles. 

 The city is lighted with electricity and supplied 

 with water from works owned by the corpora- 



tion. It has. a well-organized fire department. 

 Four natural-gas companies supply gas for do- 

 mestic use, the cost to consumers being less than 

 at any other place in the country. There are 

 about five miles of street railroad. The court 

 house, completed in 1884, cost $200.000: and 

 the Doxey Theatre, erected in 1886, cost $80,- 

 000. The" city is very economically governed, 

 and has a low rate of taxation. 



Ashland, the county seat of Ashland County, 

 Wis., on the south shore of Chequamegon Bay. 

 Its population in 1890 was 10,000, representing 

 nearly every civilized nation on the earth. It is 

 the center of an extensive lumbering district 

 and is the shipping port for the iron ore pro- 

 duced on the Gogebic range. The railroads ter- 

 minating in this city are the Wisconsin Cen- 

 tral, the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western, 

 the Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Omaha, 

 and the Northern Pacific. Ashland has 8 saw 

 mills, which cut 138,000,000 feet of lumber, 42,- 

 176,000 shingles, and 20,134,650 lath during 

 the summer of 1890. It has the largest char- 

 coal blast furnace and the most extensive ore 

 wharves in the world. The blast furnace turns 

 out 100 tons of pig iron daily. The ore wharf 

 owned by the Wisconsin Central Railroad is 

 3,100 feet long, 43 feet wide, and has a double 

 row of pockets on each side, capable of holding 

 28,000 tons of ore. The season's shipment from 

 this wharf reached 957,397 tons, while the double 

 wharf owned by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and 

 Western Railroad shipped 1,125,971 tons, mak- 

 ing a total of 2,174.556 tons. Ashland has 8 

 lumber wharves, 2 coal wharves, and 2 commer- 

 cial wharves. The total number of vessels that 

 arrived during the year was 2,245, and the value 

 of the commerce in 1889 was: Ore, $9,000,- 

 000 ; coal, $1,110,000 ; pig iron, $270,000 ; lumber, 

 $2,500,000 : railroad iron, $100.000; salt, cement, 

 and brick, $18,000; oil, $75,000; brown stone, 

 $130,000; merchandise, $5,000,000; miscellane- 

 ous freight, $1,500,000 ; machinery, $1.525,000 ; 

 railroad supplies, $29,678 ; total, .$21,257,678. 

 The city has a street railway three miles long, 

 and is well lighted with gas and electricity. It 

 has also a good system of water works. Ash- 

 land has three national banks, with an aggre- 

 gate capital of $275,000. It has 11 churches 

 and 2 Young Men's Christian Association or- 

 ganizations, all flourishing, and its public 

 schools, including a free high school where pu- 

 pils are prepared for college, are well equipped. 

 The Vaughn Public Library, a gift to the city 

 by Mrs. E. Vaughn-Mackinnon, was opened Nov. 

 16, 1888, in a building erected for that purpose 

 at a cost of $50,000. The library has 1,600 vol- 

 umes in the circulating department, and 1,000 

 volumes in the reference department, costing 

 about $3,000. to which frequent additions are 

 being made by the donor. A reading-room in 

 connection with the library takes 100 periodicals. 



Atchison, a city and the county seat of 

 Atchison County, Kan., on the left bank of Mis- 

 souri river, at the great bend of the stream, 25 

 miles from Leavenworth. In early days it en- 

 joyed the advantage of being the nearest point 

 on the river to the Rocky mountains, and was 

 the depot of Government supplies for shipment 

 across the plains. The town was settled in July, 

 1854, and the post-office was opened in April, 



