CITIES, AMERICAN. (KALAMAZOO, KEENE, KEOKUK.) 



133 



steel rails a week. The machinery is of the 

 latest pattern, and extensive improvements are 

 being made. Another large industry is that of 

 manufacturing check-rowers. There are inex- 

 haustible quarries of fine blue and white lime- 

 stone near the city. Joliet is well built, and is 

 lighted with electricity and gas. The court 

 house is the finest and most expensive of its kind 

 in the State. The State Penitentiary, one of the 

 best in the country, cost more than $1,000,000. 

 There are 2 national banks, and 3 daily and 5 

 weekly newspapers are published. The 10 pub- 

 lic schools all have fine stone edifices. There is 

 also a public high school and 16 churches. The 

 street railway runs by electricity. 



Kalamazoo, the county seat of Kalamazoo 

 County, Mich., on Kalamazoo river, forty miles 

 from Lake Michigan, almost exactly half-way 

 between Chicago and Detroit on the Michigan 

 Central Railroad. The population in 1890 was 

 17,850. It has the reputation of being one of 

 the prettiest inland cities in the country. The 

 Michigan Central, the Grand Rapids and Indi- 

 ana, and the Kalamazoo division of the Lake 

 Shore and Michigan Southern Railroads cross 

 here, and here also is the terminus of the South 

 Haven branch of the Michigan Central, as well 

 as of the Chicago, Kalamazoo and Saginaw Rail- 

 roads. The Michigan Asylum for the Insane is 

 here, and a Government building will soon be 

 erected. Among the chief industries of the city 

 are manufactures of wind-mills, carriages, wag- 

 ons, sleighs, carts, wheels, plows, pills, capsules, 

 harrows, fanning mills, thrashing machines, pul- 

 leys, railroad velocipedes, wash-boards, regalias, 

 carriage springs, paper, flour, photographic shut- 

 ters, saw-mill machinery, engines, gloves, whip- 

 lashes, flour-mill machinery, and burial caskets. 

 The value of manufactured product for 1889 was 

 $6,000,000. Kalamazoo has for many years been 

 noted for its celery, many thousands of acres in 

 the vicinity being especially adapted to its culti- 

 vation, and 3,000 acres having been planted for 

 that crop in 1889. A conservative estimate of 

 the value of a full crop is not less than $750,000. 

 The city has a fine public library, a law library, 

 and a small library owned by the Ladies' Library 

 Association, the latter in a fine building owned 

 by the association. Kalamazoo is lighted by 

 electricity, owns its system of water works with 

 nearly 30 miles of mains, which furnishes water 

 of remarkable purity from 2 wells, and has a 

 system of street railways, 5 banks, and a Safety 

 Deposit and Trust Company, 20 churches, a large 

 number of benevolent and social organizations, 

 and a public hospital. There are 2 daily and 2 

 weekly papers, besides several other publications. 

 Kalamazoo College and the Michigan Female 

 Seminary are here, and there are 10 public-school 

 buildings and a number of private schools. The 

 city has no debt whatever, and while a large 

 amount is annually expended for improvements, 

 the rate of taxation is about 1 per cent, on act- 

 ual valuation. The contract has been let for a 

 Government building to cost $75,000, and in 

 1891 are to be erected a library building at a cost 

 of $50,000, and a Y. M. C. A. building to cost 

 $35.000. 



Keene, a city and the county seat of Cheshire 

 County, N. H., on Ashuelot river. It had in 1880 

 a population of 6,784, of whom only 2 were col- 



ored. In 1890 the entire population (7,491) was 

 white, except 1 family of Indians and 3 Chinese 

 laundrymen. The principal industries are manu- 

 factures of furniture, sash-doors, and blinds, pails 

 and buckets, chairs and carriages, mowing ma- 

 chines, packing cans, polishing powder, skates, 

 woolens, pottery, leather, boxes, toys, shoes, ma- 

 chinery, water wheels, harness, brush handles, 

 bricks, glue, soap, butter, and cheese. Several 

 fine residences and the less imposing houses in- 

 dicate that there are both wealth and comfort 

 among the people. Three weekly papers and 1 

 daily are published. There are 7 banks, the 

 deposits in the 3 savings banks amounting to 

 nearly $7,000,000. The high school is one of the 

 best in the State. There are 7 churches. A 

 board of trade, organized recently, is doing a 

 quiet but effective work. The Manchester and 

 Keene Railroad, operated by the Boston and 

 Maine, terminates here ; so also does the Ashue- 

 lot, while the repair shops of the Cheshire Rail- 

 road are at this point. Keene is one of the most 

 beautiful of New England cities. 



Keokuk, one of the county seats of Lee Coun- 

 ty, Iowa, in the southeast corner of the State, 

 205 miles above St. Louis and 135 miles east of 

 Des Moines, at the foot of the Des Moines or 

 Lower Rapids of the Mississippi, and 2 miles 

 above the mouth of the Des Moines, in the midst 

 of a fertile and well-developed country. It is 

 connected with Illinois and Missouri by iron 

 railroad and highway bridges across Mississippi 

 and Des Moines rivers. The population in 1860 

 was 8,136 ; in 1870 it was 12,766 ; in 1875 it was 

 11,841 ; in 1880 it was 12,117; in 1885 it was 13,- 

 151 ; in 1890 it was 14,075 ; the decrease in 1875 

 and 1880 was due to a contraction of the city 

 limits. The town is built mainly on a bluff 150 

 feet high, which contains excellent limestone. 

 It has broad, regular, macadamized streets, well 

 shaded, and running at right angles to one an- 

 other, is compactly built, and has many hand- 

 some business buildings and residences. It is 

 lighted with gas and electricity, has street rail- 

 ways and water works of the Holly system with 

 a capacity of 4,000.000 gallons a day. There are 

 3 artesian wells. 700 and 1,200 feet deep, flowing 

 600.000 gallons of mineral water daily ; has sev- 

 eral fine large parks and handsome drives. In ad- 

 dition to the extensive river trade, 6 railroads cen- 

 ter here, viz., Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, 

 Des Moines branch of the Chicago, Rock Island 

 and Pacific, St. Louis, Keokuk and Northwest- 

 ern, Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, Keokuk 

 and Western, and Toledo, Peoria and Western. 

 The canal around the Des Moines Rapids, built 

 by the United States Government at a cost of 

 $4,000,000, begins here. It is 7f miles long, 300 

 feet wide, with 7 feet depth at lowest stage of 

 river ; has two levels, and is provided with locks. 

 The fall of 20 feet furnishes abundant water 

 power, as yet undeveloped. In connection with 

 the canal a dry dock 400 feet long and 100 feet 

 wide, and costing $140,000 has been completed 

 by the United States. This dock is available for 

 vessels drawing not over 7 feet of water. It is 

 entered and filled from the canal, and exhausted 

 by means of sluices into the river. The canal 

 furnishes safe winter harbor for boats, and large 

 quantities of ice are annually taken from it. The 

 23 churches have a seating capacity of 8,500. 



