Wichita: streets – rail – bonds – industry

In 1870, Darius Munger and William “Dutch Bill” Greiffenstein filed plats to lay out the first streets in what would go on to become Wichita, Kansas. Wichita incorporated as a city on July 21, 1870.  

One year later – on June 22, 1871 -underpinnings for the establishment of ‘Cowtown’ were laid in steel in Wichita.

The Wichita and Southwestern Railroad Company was incorporated on June 22, 1871. A few months later, relative to railroad expansion in Wichita, a Sedgwick County, Kansas bond issuance took place. That bond issuance was approved by Sedgwick County voters on August 11, 1871: $200,000 in bonds

This bond issuance enabled Wichita to finance the construction of a rail line which connected Wichita to Newton, Kansas.

Rail service in Wichita – connecting Wichita to Newton -was a boon for Texas cattlemen. The new rail line -to the north of Texas – enabled shipment of cattle from Texas, on to Wichita. Then further along to Newton. And off to eastern markets in the United States.