CITIES, AMERICAN. (SUPERIOR.) 



147 



zens' street railway system has about 20 miles of 

 track. In 1880 the population was 20,730, an in- 

 crease of 70 per cent, over that of 1870 ; in 1890 

 it was 32,159. Springfield ranks first among the 

 cities of the United States as to manufacturing 

 agricultural implements, doing three times as 

 much in that line as Chicago, which ranks sec- 

 ond. The implement factories cover acres of 

 ground and miles of floor-space, and furnish em- 

 ployment to thousands of men. Among about 

 50 large and thriving concerns the products 

 include 115 articles, of which the following 

 are the chief: Reapers, mowers, self-binders, 

 grain drills, seeders, cultivators, plows, barrows, 

 corn planters, thrashing machines, traction en- 

 gines, gas engines, boilers, feed-water purifiers, 

 all kinds of metal-working machinery and ma- 

 chinist's tools, feed-grinding mills, lawn mow- 

 ers, steam pumps, wind engines, iron fence, bug- 

 gies, carriages, wagons, bicycles, tricycles, baby 

 carriages, malleable iron in all forms, steel, fur- 

 naces, cigars, and flour. The value of manu- 

 factured implements in 1889 exceeded $10,000,- 

 000. The city has a new public library, which 

 cost $100,000, presented by B. H. Warder. There 

 is a practically inexhaustible supply of pure 

 spring water, which courses through many miles 

 of water-works mains, a fine electric-light sys- 

 tem, and a competent fire department. Five 

 national banks and 1 savings bank represent a 

 capital stock of $1,100,000, with an aggregate 

 surplus of $613,000, and a combined deposit of 

 $2,184,617.88. There are 2 gas companies, fuel 

 and illuminating. The city contains more than 

 40 churches, and other places of worship, 14 

 public schools, several private institutions, and 

 a business college, and many benevolent organi- 

 zations, besides a board of trade. A new city 

 building has been completed at a cost of $225,- 

 000, and also a new Government building which 

 cost $115,000. Several miles of pavement have 

 been laid in the past year. Thirteen papers and 

 periodicals are published here. 



Superior, a city, the county seat of Douglas 

 County, Wis. The site was pre-empted in June, 

 1853, by D. A. J. Baker, R. R. Nelson, and D. A. 

 Robertson, because they had received at St. Paul 

 semi-official information that a large grant of 

 land would be made to aid in constructing the 

 Northern Pacific Railway, one of its termini to 

 be on Lake Superior and the other on the Pacific 

 Ocean. The Government had also granted 750,- 

 000 acres of land to aid the State of Michigan in 

 constructing the St. Marie locks and canal, the 

 contract for which was let and ground broken 

 on June 4, 1853. Several thousand acres of level 

 plateau along Superior and Allouez Bays, from 

 30 to 50 feet above the water, and intersected by 

 a navigable stream called Nemadji river, were 

 platted, with liberal reservations for churches, 

 avenues, parks, public buildings, railways, school 

 houses, and docks. The entire town site, in the 

 midst of unsurveyed timber lands and surrounded 

 by Chippewa Indians, was then deeded to a cor- 

 poration or company in exchange for stock. 

 Each share holder owned, therefore, not any par- 

 ticular piece of land, but an undivided interest 

 in the entire city of Superior. The principal 

 proprietors were Stephen A. Douglas, W. W. 

 Corcoran, George W. Cass, John C. Breckinridge, 

 Rensselaer R. Nelson, Robert J. Walker, Ed- 



mund Rice, W. A. Richardson, Jesse D. Bright, 

 John W. Forney, R. M. T. Hunter, D. 0. J. Ba- 

 ker, James Stinson, and Horace S. Walbridge. 

 The canal was opened in 1855, affording vessel 

 communication with Lake Superior ; mines of 

 copper and iron were discovered near by ; rail- 

 ways began to head for Superior ; large sums of 

 money were expended in docks, hotels, streets, 

 dwellings, and general improvements ; and the 

 city grew as if by magic. When the crisis of 

 1857 paralyzed the country, Superior contained 

 not fewer than 5,000 inhabitants the growth of 

 two years. The civil war followed, and the city 

 dwindled to a few scores of people, who subsisted 

 in a very primitive manner, without telegraphic, 

 steamboat, railway, or stage communication with 

 the outside world. The great corporation that 

 owned the city was abandoned, and its stock 

 was lost, hypothecated, given away, subdivided, 

 or sold for taxes. In 1881 the Northern Pacific 

 Railway Company built a branch to Superior 

 Bay. During that year Gen. John H. Hammond 

 went to Superior and began quietly to acquire 

 property, " for the purpose," as he said, " of build- 

 ing a city to rival Chicago in commercial im- 

 portance." In 1884 he had secured good title 

 to several thousand acres of land, and in Feb- 

 ruary, 1885, he filed the plat of West Superior, 

 adjoining the original plat on the west. In 1887 

 the village, and in 1889 the city of Superior was 

 chartered, including both plats and covering 

 about 42 square miles, water frontage to the 

 outer dock lines inclusive. Up to the spring of 

 1888 the growth consisted mostly of the shanties 

 of workmen engaged in building docks, clearing 

 streets, erecting elevators, laying railway tracks, 

 etc. ; but during 1889-'90 the increase in com- 

 merce, trade, manufactures, population, public 

 improvements, fine dwellings, and wealth was 

 enormous. The city has 3 large, land-locked 

 harbors navigable water on three sides besides 

 Nemadji river through the center of the plat; 

 7 great railroad systems, including the Cana- 

 dian Pacific, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, 

 and Chicago and North Western ; terminal and 

 belt-line railways ; electric street railway sys- 

 tem ; 5 daily and 5 weekly papers ; 2 national 

 and 7 State banks ; 2 loan-and-trust companies ; 

 2 ferry lines; ;an immense steel mill and pipe 

 foundry ; a woolen mill ; a printing-press manu- 

 factory ; American Steel Barge Works, which 

 manufacture the McDougall " whaleback " barges 

 and steamers for lake and ocean traffic ; wagon 

 works ; chair and furniture factories ; Hooper 

 Steel Refining Works, for producing edged tools; 

 5 elevators, with a storage capacity of 9,000,000 

 bushels ; blast furnace and coking ovens ; 4 saw 

 mills ; Standard Oil Company's tanks, ware- 

 houses and yards ; an open-hearth furnace and 

 rolling mill ; 6 enormous coal wharves ; several 

 large merchandise wharves and flour houses ; be- 

 sides brick yards ; planing mills ; breweries ; 

 water, gas, and electric-light and power works ; 

 tile, Portland stone, and sewer-pipe works; a 

 dozen hotels ; 5 railway stations ; a splendid 

 stone chamber of commerce, six stories high ; 

 brick and stone churches and school-houses ; 2 

 boat clubs and 2 commercial clubs ; and the finest 

 railway terminals and water privileges on the 

 Great Lakes. By the State census of 1885, the 

 entire county of Douglas (no Superior then) con- 



