CITIES, AMERICAN. (PINE BLUFF, PLATTSMOUTH.) 



171 



1827, and since that year 17 large, well-equipped 

 brick buildings have been built, as well as a nigh 

 school, and more than 200 teachers are now . m- 

 jilnyrd. The school population is about 20,000. 

 There is also a business college. The 64 

 churches, including missions, are divided as 

 follow: 7 Baptist, 5 Episcopal, 2 Lutheran, 2 

 Methodist Protestant, 2 Congregational, 12 

 Mrtliodist Episcopal, 10 Presbyterian, 10 Re- 

 formed, 10 Catholic, 3 Hebrew, and 1 Sweden- 

 borgian. There are 13 cemeteries. The charita- 

 ble institutions include 2 large hospitals, 2 or- 

 phan asylums, and an old ladies' home. One of 

 tlic '> national banks has a capital of $400,- 

 000, and another of $150,000 ; there are also 3 

 savings institutions. For a new City Hall $400,- 

 000 have been appropriated, and in addition to 

 the old one there is a county building and coun- 

 ty jail. Five daily newspapers are published, 2 

 in German, and 6 weeklies, 1 in German and 1 

 in Dutch. The value of manufactured goods 

 produced in Paterson is estimated at $48,000,000 

 yearly. It is known as the Silk City, or the 

 Lyons of A merica, on account of its leading in- 

 dustry, which dates from 1840. In 1880 the city 

 had 52 industries reporting to the United States 

 census, in 340 establishments: $11,613,442 capi- 

 tal was employed; and 18,755 persons, with a 

 pay roll of $6,679,437. The value of the prod- 

 uct was $25,339,300, and materials were used to 

 the amount of $13,992,233. In 1890 73 indus- 

 tries reported, in 597 establishments, with $27,- 

 387,421 in capital; 24,135 persons were em- 

 ployed, with a pay roll of $11,523,558 ; the prod- 

 uct was valued at $41,898,231, and $22,300,133 

 were spent for materials. The increase in silk 

 manufacture from 1880 to 1890 was 112 per 

 cent. There are now 90 establishments manu- 

 facturing silk and silk goods, with capital of 

 $14,353,491 ; 11,596 persons are employed, in- 

 cluding 530 children, and $5,021,768 are paid 

 yearly in wages. The total amount of capital 

 invested in the manufacture of silk in the 

 United States in 1890 was $51,007,537. Twenty- 

 nine foundries and machine shops in Paterson 

 represent a capital of $2,769,321, and employ on 

 an average 3,051 persons, at wages of $1,716,801. 

 The annual product is valued at $4,048,592. 

 There are also 22 dyeing and finishing establish- 

 ments for textiles, employing 1,266 persons; 5 

 iron and steel works, with capital of $1,535,335, 

 which employ 1,149 persons, and realize $1,813,- 

 313 ; 5 factories of jute and jute goods, with 836 

 persons employed, and capital invested to the 

 amount of $1,309,148 ; 6 establishments for 

 manufacture of malt liquors, capitalized at 

 $1,865,889 ; a plant manufacturing linen thread, 

 which occupies several large buildings, and 

 which dates its eminently successful attempt to 

 Americanize the Irish plant from 1864 ; 14 

 printing and publishing nouses, and 123 build- 

 ing trades. The assessed valuation of property 

 in the city in 1880 was $19,898,485, and in 1890 

 $28,824,280. The net municipal debt in the last 

 year was $1,605,993. 



Pine 151 n IV, the third city in population of 

 Arkansas, county seat of Jefferson County, on 

 Arkansas river. 160 miles from its mouth, at the 

 head of low-water navigation and in the center 

 of the most productive cotton region in the 

 State. It is 42 miles from Little Rock. By the 



census of 1890 it had 9,952 inhabitants, having 

 increased from 3,203 in 1880. At present it 

 claims 15,000, of which two thirds are white. 

 The town was first settled in 1819 by Joe Bonne, 

 a French-Quapaw half-breed Indian, and was 

 entered in the Government land office in 1832 

 by John W. Pullen, a North Carolinian. In 

 1836, the year of the nativity of the State, it was 

 laid ofjf in blocks and lots. Forty-three additions 

 have been made and incorporated with the old 

 town, the whole- covering 3,000 acres. Since 

 1850 it has had a large trade, but its growth has 

 been rapid from the completion of the St. Louis, 

 Arkansas and Texas Railroad, which with the 

 Missouri Pacific passes through the city, with 

 the White River and Munroe Railroad as a 

 feeder. The incoming and outgoing tonnage of 

 the city largely exceeds that of any other in the 

 State ; 100,000 bales of cotton are handled here 

 annually. There are 9 miles of a superior 

 system of sewerage, water works, 10 miles of 

 street railway, and gas and electric lighting. 

 The shops of the St. Louis and Southwestern 

 Railroad are here ; and extensive shops exclu- 

 sively for the building of cars are in course of 

 erection, which will give employment to 1,000 

 men. There is a 90-inch Morse cotton press, 

 with a capacity of 800 bales daily, and storage 

 for 15,000 bales. An elevator and mill turns 

 out 600 barrels of meal every day ; a cotton- 

 seed-oil mill has a capacity of 70 tons daily, and 

 there is an ice factory making 20 tons a day. 

 Pine Bluff is an extensive lumber market, being 

 surrounded by a forest of soft and hard woods 

 extending from 50 to 100 miles in any direction, 

 and there are 2 planing mills and sash and 

 door factories, as well as minor establishments. 

 One daily and 3 weekly newspapers are pub- 

 lished. Educational and church facilities are 

 excellent, and there are 3 banks. The city has 

 an altitude of 228 feet above sea level. 



Plattsmouth, a city of Nebraska, the county 

 seat of Cass County, handsomely situated on the 

 eastern slope of the bluffs at the confluence of 

 the Platte and Missouri rivers, a mile and a half 

 below the mouth of the former. It is 22 miles 

 south of Omaha, and two hours by rail from 

 Lincoln. It is the gateway to the great South 

 Platte country, and in addition to the river 

 transportation 14 passenger trains leave the city 

 daily over the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, 

 the Burlington and Missouri River, the Kansas 

 City and St. Joseph, and the Missouri Pacific 

 Railroads. A fine steel railroad bridge crosses 

 the Missouri at this point. The land upon 

 which the city is built was obtained by the 

 United States Government through a treaty 

 with the Indians in June, 1854, and in October 

 of the same year a town company was organ- 

 ized, which secured an act of incorporation from 

 the first legislature of the Territory in 1855. 

 The town site was entered in 1856, and Platts- 

 mouth soon became an important trading point 

 as well as an outfitting station for the immense 

 immigration to Pike's Peak and the gold mines. 

 A regular line of packets plied to and from St. 

 Louis. In 1869 the Burlington and Missouri 

 River Railroad was built. The population in- 

 creased from 4,175 in 1880 to 8.392 in 1890. 

 Main Street, the principal business thoroughfare, 

 has 50 or 60 business blocks, and has been paved 



