Re: [CBQ] Help In ID'ing Photograph

["William Hirt" <whirt@fastmail.com>]

Actually in 1900 St. Joseph reached it's maximum size - almost 103,000 residents which was a big number then (though the number has been questioned as that was a doubling of the 1890 population). It's never been that size again. By 1910, it was a little over 77,000.  It pretty much has settled into the mid 70,000s since then.

Before the turn of the 20th Century, St. Joseph was a very wealthy town with a boulevard system, had one of the first electric streetcar systems, and a planned park system. St. Joe was still referred to in popular nationwide media into the 1940s, so I would think it was well known in the Midwest at the time of the image.

Now how it got to Davenport is another story.

Bill Hirt

On 11/9/2020 6:56 PM, Mike Martin via groups.io wrote:

I'm guessing an incorrect caption on the back of the photograph.  Was St. Joseph (Missouri?) a big enough town or passenger destination to have even been mentioned?  If there was a Rock Island train that went from St. Joseph, MO to Davenport it would make sense.  Milwaukee Road ran thru Davenport as well... they could have had a train to St. Joseph, MO but Kansas City would make better sense.  I think St. Joseph started out as an important western gateway on the Missouri River and then Omaha and Kansas City overtook it greatly.  Maybe in 1900 St. Joseph was still an important destination?  I've never been there and the only reason I can even think to go there today would be to see #5614 on display!!!

I have no idea about the locomotives... you get back that far and they are just too generic looking to my eyes... all teakettles look the same in other words!  I'm going to say that if one can identify the station on the left that is going to be the key.  There is a water crane  there so it must be an important stop that would take some time to fill the tender and maybe a lunchroom for the passengers so it's a bigger town or division point.  If you can imagine the Milwaukee Road station on the riverfront today in Davenport the station should be on the right side of the train if we are looking south which would be the direction an arriving train from St. Joseph, MO would arrive.

Just some random thoughts to confuse you Louis!!

Mike Martin / Mahomet, IL
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