Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/334

 274 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI town was built by D. Cohen. The population grew slowly at first and did not exceed 200 by 1861, but at the close of the war it began to increase rapidly and the town was incorpo- rated in 1869. The ear works and machine shops of the Iron Mountain Railway Company were located in DeSoto in 1872 on condition that necessary grounds .should be donated by the citizens and that the property of the com- pany should be forever exempt from taxation. Owing to certain irregularities the city was incorporated two or three times before 1883. Soon after the establishment of the town an educational institution known as DeSoto Academy was organized by Professor Trum- ble for which a large building was erected. He gave up the work in 1868 and the school was closed for a time and the building used for private school purposes until 1886 when it was burned. In 1882 a stone and brick public school building was erected on the hill above the town at a cost of $15,000, and in 1905 a high school building adjoining the older build- ing was erected ; the public school at present employs about twenty-five teachers and is well and thoroughly organized; there are also two other ward school buildings and a school for negroes. There are many churches in the town — the Baptist, Methodist, Southern Meth- odist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Episco- pal, Roman Catholic, German Methodist and Evangelical — each having church buildings and organizations. There is also a fine build- ing for the Toung Men's Christian Associa- tion, the funds for which were provided in large part by Miss Helen Gould. The lead- ing industry of the town is the car works of the railroad ; other industries are flouring mills, ice plant, planing mill, machine factory, wagon factory and marble and bottling works. The Jefferson Coimty bank and the Peoples' Bank ox Desoto were organized in 1885 and the German-American bank was organized in 1898; they are all prosperous and enterprising institutions with ample capital. The news- liapers of the town are The Press and The licpuMicait. The town has a good system of electric lights and water works, being sup- l)lied from artesian wells. There are many beautiful residences and the population of the town is 4,721. Cry.st.l City Crystal Citj' is situated in Jefferson comity on Plattin creek, thirty miles south of St. Louis. The land on which the town now stands was entered in 1834 by an eastern com- jiany with the expectation of fuiding mineral on it ; the site, however, was not occupied nor were minerals found at that time. In 1868 the place was visited by three English expert glass makers, who shipped two barrels of sand to England, which when tested proved to be of a very superior quality. The first success- ful attempt to make use of this sand was made in 1871. At that time the American Plate Glass Company of Detroit, Michigan, with a capital of $150,000 was organized by Captain E. D. Ward. Theodore Luce was appointed as superintendent and a plant for the manu- facture of glass was constructed and put in operation in 1872. Because of the fact that the owners were JMichigan people the village which grew up around the plant was called New Detroit, but the workmen persisted in giving it the name of Crystal City, which was afterwards adopted. The financial panic of 1873 and the death of Captain Ward caused the plant to be sold ; it was purchased by a St. Louis corporation — the Crystal Plate Glass Company, of which Ethan Allen Hitchcock was president — for $25,000. This company increased the capital stock to $1,500,000 and appointed George F. Neal superintendent, and purchased additional land. It is said that the company owns about 250 acres of almost pure sand besides other property. This company built the