CITIES, AMERICAN. (OWENSBOKO, PADUCAII.) 



117 



HulTalo and other places by compressed air and 



electricity. The hydraulic canal, which has 

 been doing a similar but smaller service for 

 many year>. ha> been enlarged recently to double 

 its former ca|>ai-ity. These iiiiial)le irnprove- 

 meiits have given a great impetus to the new 

 city nf Niagara Fulls, and it bids fair to become 

 one of tin- most important manufacturing centers 

 in the country. One of the first ventures to take 

 advantage of the newly developed water power 

 is that of the Niagara Falls Paper Company, 

 covering 11 acres. The old water power is used 

 by about 20 factories, all of them large. This 

 number includes the Oneida Community Plating 

 Works. ;> pulp and paper mills, and 3 flouring 

 mills, one of which has a capacity of 1,GOO bar- 

 rels daily. The broad streets of the city are 

 well lighted with electricity and well served by 

 elect rie. cars. The most complete system of sew- 

 erage in the country is now in process of con- 

 st ruction, and when this is completed the streets 

 will he paved with stone or asphalt. There are 

 3 banks, 10 churches, and 4 schoolhouses, not 

 including De Veaux College, which has been 

 richly endowed by the Episcopalians. There are 

 nearly 50 hotels, 2 of them being very large, 

 and "20 of a medium size. 



Owensboro, a city of Kentucky, county seat 

 of Daviess County, in the northwestern part of 

 the State, on Ohio river, 40 miles above Evans- 

 ville. I ml., and 150 below Louisville. The popu- 

 lation in 1890 was 9,837, an increase of 3,606 

 over (i.x!:.! in 1880. The Owensboro and Nash- 

 ville Railroad extends to the Tennessee border, 

 conned ing with the Louisville and Nashville 

 and the Newport News and Mississippi Valley 

 systems, and the Louisville, St. Louis and Texas 

 gives outlets to the East, South, and West. A 

 line of packets gives daily connection with 

 Louisville, Henderson, and Evansville. Owens- 

 boro has an elevation above sea level of from 

 386 to 497 feet. It was made the county seat in 

 l s l-"i. It has now a courthouse, a customhouse, 

 a city hall, a fire department with telegraph 

 alarm, a county jail, a new theatre, water works, 

 gas works, electric lighting, a street railway, 

 l'J5 miles of telephone wire connecting with 

 Henderson. Evansville, and other neighboring 

 cities and towns, 2 daily and 5 weekly news- 

 papers, transfer companies, 9 banks (7 national 

 and "2 State), a trust company, and 18 churches, 

 <:' Catholic. 2 white, and 2 colored Baptist, 1 

 Christian. 2 German Evangelical, 1 Hebrew, 2 

 Methodist Kpiscopal wh.te and 1 African, 3 

 Presbyterian, and 1 Episcopal). The assessed 

 valuation of property in 1888-'89 was $2,752.- 

 rrj. The school property is valued at $71,000, 

 and there are 4 large ward schools, 3 for white 

 and 1 for colored pupils, also a high school. 

 The public-school enrollment is 1.284 white 

 and 404 colored. Further educational advan- 

 tage- are afforded by a female college, 2 acade- 

 mies (one a Catholic institution), and private 

 schools. The principal hotel was built at a 

 cost of 160,000, and during 1891 $400,000 wen- 

 expended in improvements. The principal busi- 

 ness interests are tobacco and whisky. Twenty- 

 three factories mid stemmeries have ft capacity 

 for handling 18,000,000 pounds of tobacco 

 yearly, and employ 2,000 persons. In the city 

 and county are 14 distilleries, manufacturing 



sour-mash whisky to the amount of $5,500,000 

 yearly, with capital invested to the amount of 

 $1,5<M),000, and employing 200 persons. Other 

 establishments include a wagon factory, in opera- 

 tion since 1883, turning out more than 6,000 

 wagons yearly, a carriage factory with output of 

 from 4,000 to 5.000 veil ides a year, a wheel com- 

 pany, 2 woolen mills (one with capital of $50,000, 

 employing 175 persons, and the other with au- 

 thori/ed capital of $250.000. organized in 1892, 

 which will employ from 225 to 250 persons), a 

 cotton mill with capital of $100,000, employing 

 l."io persons, a canning establishment, factories 

 of vitrified brick and sewer pipe, chairs, cigars. 

 and ice. 2 brickyards, cooper shops, 2 foundries 

 and machine shops, 4 planing, 1 steam shingle, 

 and 3 flouring mills. As the city lies in the 

 center of the great Kentucky and Indiana coal 

 fields, coal is had for the cost of hauling. 

 Abundant timber, building stone, and material 

 for brick are found in the county, which pro- 

 duces large crops of tobacco and cereals. The 

 county fair grounds and race course are here. 



Pndncah, a city of Kentucky, county seat 

 of McCracken County, on the south bank of 

 Ohio river at the mouth of the Tennessee, 12 

 miles below the mouth of the Cumberland, and 

 50 miles from Cairo where the Ohio flows into 

 the Mississippi. By rail it is 225 miles from 

 Louisville, 167 from Memphis, and 165 from St. 

 Louis. The population increased from 8,036 in 

 1880 to 12,797 in 1890, or 59 percent. It has an 

 altitude of 486 feet above sea level, with its 

 frontage on two rivers, and has a chute a short 

 distance above the city connecting both and giv- 

 ing ample steamboat channel at any season. 

 The Ohio is navigable to Pktsburg, Pa. !.;">( id 

 miles most of the year, and the Tennessee to 

 Florence, Ala., all the year round. In addition, 

 there are three railroad systems, the Newport 

 News and Mississippi Valley, the St. Louis and 

 Paducah, and the Paducah, Tennessee and Ala- 

 bama, the first having shops here in which 

 more than 80 per cent, of all the work done for 

 and by the road is performed. The expendi- 

 ture of the company in the city is upward of 

 $700,000 yearly. Paducah was laid out in 1827, 

 and incorporated as a city in 1856. In 1851, 

 1862, and 1890 it was visited by tornadoes, and 

 during the civil war it suffered severely. In 

 1891 the value of taxable property, real and per- 

 sonal, was $5,009,910, and the tax levied was 

 $1.50 on the $100, including 35 cents for schools. 

 Water is supplied from the Ohio river by a com- 

 pany organized in 1888. The standpipe is 22 

 feet in diameter and 175 feet high. Two pump- 

 ing engines have a daily capacity of 4,000,000 gal- 

 lons, and there are fifteen miles of mains. Elec- 

 tric indicators are connected with the fire-alarm 

 system, enabling an instantaneous increase of 

 pressure. In addition to the regular waterworks 

 there are 13 500-barrel cisterns distributed about 

 the city. The fire department is well equipped, 

 with 2 "engines. 1 hook-and-ladder truck, 2 car- 

 riages, and 'J.500 feet of hose. But this is only a re- 

 serve force, the pressure from the water works 

 su fficing to throw 8 st reams at once to a distance of 

 Hi,") feet. In connection with the gas works there 

 is an electric-light plant. An electric street rail- 

 way, with U miles of track, has supplemented the 

 horse cars since 1890. There are 36 miles of 



