Prospeotus « * Cornell University Library F 547K27 K16 Prospectus of the Kankakee Company (char 3 1924 028 805 451 olin Overs ■ill, / . ~ Y £./... (f The Kankakee Company, 1871. 8i» ^' &'\ The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924028805451 PROSPECTUS OF THE KANKAKEE COMPANY: (Chartered by the State of Illinois,) SHOWING ITS PROPERTIES IN gM*, %mm gtote, WvUx §mm, AND THE Portion op the Works Already Completed. TOGETHER WITH A Map, SHOWING THE LINE OP THE PROPOSED ADDITIONAL WORKS TO CREATE SLACK WATEE NAVIGATION 170 MILES In the States of Illinois and Indiana, ON THE KANKAKEE AND IROQUOIS RIVERS. BOSTON: W. F. BROWN & CO., PRINTERS, 50 Bromfield Street. 1871. IJi!J|/;IO f I K*7 Kli+ THE KAKKAKEE COMPANY. 1871. -ooJOSc President : WILLIAM CLAFLIN. Dieectoes : ■ WILLIAM CLAFLIN. E. P. CARPENTER. H. 0. ALDEN. JOEL H. HILLS. RICHARD P. MORGAN, Je. Managing Dieectoe: E. P. CARPENTER. Teeasueee: JOEL H. HILLS. Seceetaey and Counsel: W. B. ALDEN. Engineee: E. S. WATERS. Conteactoes: WILLIS PHELPS & CO. Teustees foe the Bondholders : EDW. APPLETON. WILLIAM S. HILLS. D. U. COBB. o»{o ^^„ T „_ ( 17 U. S. Hotel Block, Boston, Mass. OFFICES: \ ' t 106 Water St., Wilmington, 111. YVli' 513VIMU Y" Jl A )\ H I . I THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. Location. — The contemplated improvement of this Com- pany commences at the Illinois and Michigan Canal, forty- seven miles sOuth-west from Chicago, and extends up the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers, to the Indiana State line, some one hundred miles in the State of Illinois, as shown by the map annexed. Charters. — The original charter, granted by the state of Illinois, authorized the improvement of Navigation on the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers, in said State, by the con- struction of dams and locks, the creation of water-power, and the erection of manufactories of all kinds thereon. It em- powered the company to condemn materials and lands for the above purposes, and for flowage ; and to purchase and hold other lands, not exceeding three sections, or nineteen hundred and twenty acres. It also conferred the usual rights, powers, and privileges of corporations, and allowed the Company to fix and regulate its own tolls, within the charter limits. But this grant was limited to fifty years, and the State also reserved the right, after twenty years, to take the Company's franchises, properties, and improvements, by paying their cost, and six per cent, per annum interest. The limitation and reservation, however, rendered the charter practically valueless. But the recently amended charter removes these obstruc- tions, and confers other powers and privileges of the most valuable and liberal character. It not only confers upon the Company perpetual succession, abrogating said State reser- vation, but it also authorizes the issue of corporate bonds, secured by mortgage deed of trust, upon all its properties, and 4 THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. the determining at discretion the amount of its capital stock, limited, in either case, only by the aggregate cost of all said properties. It authorizes the important extension and con- nection of the Kankakee navigation with the " Illinois and Michigan Canal," thereby opening full water communication with both Chicago and St. Louis. It moreover grants the right, at discretion, to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any part or all its properties, on such terms, or times, as it may see fit. It declares shares of stock personal property, ex- empting stockholders from personal liability for corporate indebtedness, and securing the corporation from future legis- lative interference. This brief analysis of the provisions of the existing char- ter sufficiently indicates its liberal character, warranting the belief that the contemplated enterprise may now be carried out successfully, without interruption, and its benefits en- joyed without molestation. This Company also owns the charter of the Kankakee Coal Company, which provides all facilities for Mining, building Railroads, Docks, and Coal Depots, and, also, the privilege of connecting with all other Railroads, Slack-water Navigation, or Canals, in the counties of Will, Grundy, and Livingston, in the State of Illinois. And this Company also owns six hundred acres of the most desirable and carefully selected coal lands in the cele- brated Wilmington coal field, adjoining the property of the Chicago and Wilmington Coal Company (composed of Bos- ton capitalists), the annual net earnings of which — not- withstanding a portion of its product pays fifteen cents per ton royalty to the owner — amount to mGve than twenty per cent, on its capital. No doubt will be entertained by any intelligent business man, familiar with this valuable property, that a net profit of from one to two dollars per ton can be made upon all the coal underlying the land, as fast as marketed with due economy. Each acre will yield between 4000 and 5000 tons, or the aggregate, say, of 2,700,000 tons. THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. O In addition to this, the value of the surface for farming purposes and sites of residences for miners, is from $50 to $100 per acre. The Navigation, connecting as it does with the Illinois and Michigan Canal, midway between its termini, Chicago and La Salle, on the Illinois River, extends thence up both the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers, to the Indiana State line, a distance of about one hundred miles in Illinois, at the same time extending more than seventy miles into Indiana, and reaching the extensive hard-wood lumber forests and inex- haustible iron ore regions. The cost of the whole enterprise, including navigation work and water power, is estimated not to exceed $1,000,000, based on the cost of works already under contract, and partly completed, to a point ten miles above Wilmington. At no point is the navigation, at lowest stages, to be less than five feet of water, — the same as the canal, — thus floating boats of one hundred and eighty tons burden, drawing four and a half feet of water, and car- rying six thousand bushels of corn in bulk, or its equivalent. The dams are of the most approved and reliable construc- tion, with aprons, built of twelve inch timber, firmly fastened together with drift and screw bolts, and securely fastened to the bed-rock of the river with heavy iron. Such dams, always covered with water, will defy decay for generations. The locks are one hundred and ten by eighteen feet in the chamber, — the same dimensions as on the canal, and similar in construction, — both being built of heavy stone masonry, laid in water lime, with the walls eight feet thick, hammer- dressed inside, and stone copings covering the entire width of said walls. The abutments of the dams, and protection or wing-walls of the locks, are of similar masonry. With the navigation works thus thoroughly constructed, and with no extraordinary damage thereto, it is believed the annual expenditure for repairs will be trifling. The propulsion of boats on slack water being by steam, — much cheaper than horse power, — coupled with the exemption 6 THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. from keeping up bridges, aqueducts, viaducts, waste-weirs, embankments, and tow-paths, as on a canal, it may be fairly- estimated that the saving in ordinary repairs will equal a four per cent, annual dividend upon the whole cost of this Company's works, as compared with cost of repairs on the canal. The Water Power. The same dams required for the navi- gation, also create the water power ; and with no additional cost, except at certain points where canal or race cuttings are made to multiply and extend hydraulic facilities. The power is abundant and reliable for moving the heaviest machinery. Its volume is variously estimated by different engineers, but all agree that no water, power in Illinois can compare with that of the Kankakee, nor any river in New England, as yet utilized for manufacturing purposes, surpass it, — not even the Merrimack, the Saco, the Androscoggin, the Kennebec, or the Penobscot. The Manufacturing Facilities and Inducements, East and West, compared, and their Advantages illustrated. Mr. Francis estimates the cost of water power at Lowell, " for canals, dams, wheels, &c, for using the power," at about $2,000,000. An equal amount of power at Wilmington, 111., including canals, dams, exclusive of wheels, &c, will have cost, when completed under the existing contracts, less than $250,000. This starting point of disparity in cost of equal facilities, in the above localities, offers a strong inducement, in the outset, to the Western manufacturer. But this be- ginning is not a tithe of the advantages in store for him. The cost of living for his operatives at one third less, — and better living too, — low rents, a milder, and yet as healthful a climate, good schools, and all denominations of churches. For himself cheap power, cheap lands, cheap and abundant building materials of all kinds ; in short, every- thing that enters into the erection and maintenance of a firsts class manufacturing establishment, on a large or small scale, may be obtained there at a greatly diminished cost. THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 7 Nor is this all. The Western manufacturer of almost every article of domestic use, will not only find the raw material at hand, but he will find a larger home market and better prices for his manufactured goods; thus having a double advantage over his Eastern competitor, by saving, hath ways, the transportation, the interest, the insurance, and the commissions incident to all these operations against " the laws of trade." How long will the cotton, the wool, the flax-seed, the corn for farina and starch, the paper mate- rial, the hides, the black walnut for furniture, and the timber for all kinds of agricultural implements, be carried from the West to the East to be manufactured, and then brought back again ? Only until capital and enterprise shall see their profit in reversing this unnatural as well as unprofita- ble state of things, and recognize cheap production as the fundamental law of success and protection. But the advantages to a manufacturer on the Kankakee do not stop here. Cheap • transportation, both here and everywhere, is arresting the attention of all engaged in manufactures and trade. At Wilmington, soon at Carpen- ter City, at Kankakee City, at Momence, and at Middleport he will have, besides railroad facilities for travel, cheap in- land water transportation \o Chicago and St. Louis, to New Orleans and New York. Not so with the manufacturer at Waterville, Lewiston, Lawrence, Manchester, or Lowell. He will still be at the mercy of the railroads, for at neither of the latter points is there cheap water transit for heavy freights, by which to reduce the high charges everywhere prevailing, without competition either by water or rail. Along the Kankakee and Iroquois, or immediately par- allel therewith, there is no railroad ; and, doubtless, there never will be, unless built by this Company, to accommodate the immediate manufacturing towns now without one. No outside corporation can afford to build such a road, as it would not be remunerative ; and for the following reasons, viz. : First, its general course would be in the wrong direc- tion to command through East and West travel, and there 8 THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. would be little else, except local. Second, it could not suc- cessfully compete with the river navigation for freights of any kind, as the water transit would always be cheaper, and, ordinarily, to Chicago, the quicker. Third, Wilmington, Kankakee City, — the county seat of Kankakee County, — and Momence, on the Kankakee Kiver, already have rail- roads crossing said river at right angles ; and Middleport, the county seat of Iroquois County, on the Iroquois River, has also a railroad touching at that point. Thus the manu- facturer here will always have the facilities for railroad travel, at the same time the competition between water and rail will secure to him the lowest rates of transportation. What a manufacturer may save, by using water, where lands and living are cheap, instead of locating in cities, where they are dear, and using steam, would be a good enough profit on any manufacture whatever. Add to this another saving in transportation, &c, both ways, with the cheaper transportation of water over rail, and he has another -profit over his Eastern rival, using even water for motive power j besides having a nearer and wider market for his goods, and having the raw material at his own door. To the manufacturer occupying this extensive and relia- ble water power, located in a country where there is so little to be had of any kind, there are other important con- siderations in his favor. He need not fear the establishment of manufactories moved by steam power, either at Chicago, St. Louis, or elsewhere. The difference of cost between water and steam power, in any locality, in running manufacturing machinery, is too great to admit of successful competition between them. Mr. Walter Wells, Superintendent of the Survey of " The Water Powers of Maine," says, in his able report thereon, calling coal $6 per ton, and the cost of buildings, &c, equal, — " The cost of steam power exceeds that of water power six or seven times," and that, " if steam were substituted for water for moving the machinery now used at Lewiston, Eumford, Brunswick, and Waterville, in Maine, the additional aggre- THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 9 gate cost to the manufacturers would be $2,198,830 annu- ally," —enough saving, in a few years to buy up all the de- sirable water powers in the whole country. But besides the difference in cost, there are other impor- tant considerations in favor of water over steam. Water is free. " The rain falleth alike on the just and on the un- just" As yet no protective or prohibitory tariffs restrict its flow or control its use ; while steam is beset by many draw- backs, being at the mercy of divers antagonisms, in the whims of law-makers, the extortion of operators, and the greed and rapacity of coal monopolists ; not only in all cases raising prices, but every now and then entirely unset- tling the markets ; so that while in one month coal is but $5 per ton, in another it may be $15. What manufacturer can live and successfully carry on his business, with such fluctuations in an article of the first necessity ? But remove this evil, and the great disparity in cost between water and steam must always remain. Becent statistics show, and admitted facts demonstrate, that this country, with higher cost of labor and living, can manufacture even cotton goods with our water power cheaper than England can with her steam power, with cheap coal and cheaper labor. A fact so significant as this settles the ques- tion of the vastly greater economy of water power; if, indeed, there could, in practical minds, be any doubt about it. Elements of Business, Revenue, &c, will be abundantly found in the vast resources of a country rich in agricultural and mineral wealth, as well as in the varied industries and wants of a large and thriving population, already upon the line of these works. The rapid growth of these fertile valleys is, indeed, wonderful ; but the progress of production has been still more surprising ; so much so, as to be regarded by sober Eastern citizens as almost fabulous; nevertheless, the esti- mates hardly reach the truth. In 1866 a competent engineer, with no official data to aid 10 THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. him, estimated the corn crop alone of that year to be, in round numbers, 5,000,000 bushels in the three counties of Will, Kankakee, and Iroquois, traversed by this navigation. The smaller grains, as wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, and oats, altogether, were computed then at a somewhat Jess number of bushels. This showing, however, seemed so ex- travagant to people unacquainted with the fertility of that section, and unable to comprehend how so limited a tract of country as only three counties could produce such prodigious quantities of the cereals, that it absolutely created doubts, in such minds, of the correctness of the engineer's figures, thereby throwing distrust upon the whole enterprise. But how has this engineer been more than vindicated, and his estimates more than triumphantly sustained by official sta- tistics gathered by State authority ? The reader shall see. The official returns of each county assessor to the State Auditor, recently published, now show that the corn alone, produced in 1870, in the whole State, aggregates, within a fraction, 252,000,000 bushels, calling the average yield only 37 bushels per acre ; whereas, in the above three counties the average is much larger. Of all other grains said returns show not quite so many bushels. Taking, however, the corn alone in said counties, and rating the yield as before, and the produce is just 14,338,800 bushels. Add a like quantity of other grains, and the aggregate is 28,667,600 bushels : more, probably, than like products in any other equal sec- tion of Illinois, or possibly in the whole of New England — thus showing, by reliable data, the rapid progress in produc- tion in said counties has been such that, in only four years, its grain crop alone has increased threefold or more ; and that, too, when entirely deprived of the benefit of cheap transportation. So that a large part of these millions of bushels of corn has necessarily been fed to cattle, swine, &c, in order to concentrate it in a form more easily taken to market. And corn at a distance from the coal fields is often burned for fuel, because of the high cost of transportation of coal and corn long distances. When, therefore, these THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 11 prairie and up-river inhabitants could save from ten to fifteen cents per bushel on their grains, and from two to three dollars per ton on their coal, with a like saving on all other heavy freights, it is no marvel that they are impatient and clam- orous for the immediate prosecution of an enterprise so necessary to their every-day wants, and so important to .their pecuniary interests. Similar details of increased and increasing production in the whole range of exports from a section of country teeming with the richest fruits of the soil, as well as of the imports to supply the needs of a thrifty and rapidly increasing popula- tion, might be profitably pursued j but let us turn from them to two new, but rich, and recently discovered elements of revenue to this enterprise — elements, too, of significant im- portance to the industries, as well as the manufacturing wealth of the great North-west, viz., the Wilmington Coal, and the Indiana Iron. The Coal. It is only since 1866 — the year after the new charter — that coal of the finest quality, and in quantities practically inexhaustible, has been known to exist near the western bank of Kankakee River, and opposite to the City of Wilmington. In that year a single operator mined some 10,000 tons — not enough to supply the local wants; hence there was then no export demand. Since then five strong companies have been organized, with an aggregate capital of some $ 1,200,000, besides several private operators; alto- gether having some dozen or more shafts completed, and more in the process of sinking, capable, with full work, of now mining not less than some 2500 tons per day, or, say, 750,000 tons per year. Thus, in the same time that corn increased its product from 5,000,000 bushels to 14,000,000, the capacity of producing the Wilmington coal increased from 10,000 tons per year to 750,000 tons. During this year the Chicago and Alton Eailroad has transported from these shafts to Chicago as many as 2000 tons per day. It is but reasonable to conclude from the 12 TUB KANKAKEE COMPANY. past rapid development of this coal field, that in less than four years the product of the mines will exceed 6000 tons_ per day, and that a large proportion of its transportation will naturally pass over the river improvement, and nd good reason can be given why the increase of that traffic will not continue in a rapid ratio. Independently of the Chicago market and intervening towns and cities, the trans-, portation of coal to the cities and towns on the line of the improvement must be very great, and to some extent a monopoly, as being without rail or other competing lines of transit. As extravagant, or even fabulous, as these figures may ap- pear to sober Eastern citizens, still they are vouched for as reT liable — and doubtless are so — in a recent report of an exten? sive coal owner and operator. He says, too, the mining popu- lation is now (1870) 4000. With the facilities, therefore, of cheap water transit for this immense product, and a market therefor practically unlimited, here is, in this single item, an enlarged revenue for this navigation, and that so long as supply and demand exist. But suppose, instead of computing future tolls on the un- paralleled increase of the past four years, that the present capacity is simply doubled, so as to give the water transit 5000 tons instead of 2500 per day, or 1,000,000 tons to be carried away by water in the two hundred days of canal navigation in the year. The charter tolls for coal, on the river, is one dollar per ton for the shortest distance ; reduce it four fifths, or to twenty cents per ton, as an average for all distances of its one hundred miles — being about the same as the through tolls on the "Illinois and Michigan Canal," reduced thus low in consequence of the active com- petition of two railroads — the product will be $200,000 gross tolls on said increased production of one half. The charter tolls for corn ,is two cents per bushel for shortest distance ; but call it that for the average of all dis- tances of the river navigation, and the result is, for half the corn crop, alone, for 1870, $140,000 j aggregating, for these THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 13 two items only, $340,000 as gross tolls on the greatly in- creased production of these two articles, estimating one half what it is now for the next four years, and only doubling the other for that time, against its yearly increase, the past four years, of eighteen, and at the same time reducing the char- tered tolls to about the standard of canal tolls, without, how- ever, being forced thereto by railroad competition on the line of said navigation. The above figures are given, not for the purpose of any exact computation of revenue, but to call attention, provoke inquiry, and elicit scrutiny as to the elements of profit com- manded by this rare enterprise. It will be noticed that every other article of transportation, save the two above, although sharing in a degree the same increased produc- tion, have been omitted from the schedule of profits, not- withstanding the exports of beef, pork, lard, butter, cheese, wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, oats, wool, hides, hay, hops, flax-seed, lime, bricks, building-stone, and last, but not least, the black walnut, white oak, maple, ash, &c, of the Indiana forests, and the imports of pine lumber, agricultural imple- ments, furniture, castings, hard and hollow ware, iron, steel, salt, groceries, with merchandise of every kind requisite for the needs of a prosperous people, will go to swell the reve- nues of this navigation. The Indiana Iron Ore, like the water power until used, and the Company's valuable lands until occupied, cannot be fully estimated, or appreciated, as an element of revenue, until more fully developed by the completion of the navigation. Nevertheless, some approximation to their important value may even now be reached, if experience in like cases is a safe guide. Unquestionably, the transportation of the Indi- ana ore to Wilmington, although never yet estimated, be- cause unknown until now, is to become an item of profit of no small importance ; and, like the coal, its progress, when developed, will exceed all sober calculation. Mr. James Wat- son, who has recently explored this mine of wealth to the 14 THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. country as well as to this Corporation, says, in his report (published a few weeks since in the Western Miner), in substance, The Kankakee Marsh, or Bog-iron ore (as it is called),, is a rich fifty per cent, ore — two tons of ore making one of pig iron ; that it is of a rare quality, and, when mixed with the Lake Superior ore, makes an iron of the best quality, or A No. 1. The ore is easy of access, with a stratum averaging two feet in depth, and underlying the surface, except in the river beds, not more than twelve inches, and covering an area of some millions of acres upon and contiguous to the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers. The ore is practically inexhaustible. He says, too, that the natural and inevitable point for the conversion of this ore into iron, at vastly less expense than elsewhere, when the Kankakee navigation shall be opened, is the City of Wil- mington, then to be reached by only forty miles of water transportation, where coal and coke can be obtained at a less cost than at any other point in the whole North-west, acces- sible by water. The Superior ore can be brought to Wil- mington all the way by water, without re-shipment. We doubt whether all these advantages can be enjoyed by any other place upon this continent. Why should not Wimington, then, become at once the point of an immense iron manufacture ? With the best and cheapest ores, because the easiest of access ; with the best and cheapest coal and coke at hand for a nominal cost of transportation ; with iron, when manufactured, unsurpassed in quality ; and with the cheapest facilities for its distribu- tion to all markets by water and railroad connections there- with, why should not smelting works, blasting furnaces,' and rolling mills spring up there, as if by magic, command-, ing capital and skilled labor to establish the manufacture of iron not surpassed in the United States? Development,! which can be made in a brief time, and at small cost, is all that is now required to secure the facilities for these mighty results — results that must follow, as inevitably as effect fol- lows cause. THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 15 The Water Power,, too, is another undeveloped value in the revenue estimates, and must remain so until the navigation shall have been completed ; but when completed, and the power sought for by the manufacturer, as it must be, because the best and cheapest in all respects, its value becomes verj* great — greater, as estimated by most engineers, than even the navigation itself. It is, however, impracticable now tr make even an approximate estimate of its value. The Valuable Lands, too, at Wilmington, already owned by the Company, and those yet to be secured elsewhere, for the sites of their manufacturing towns, villages, and cities, are another productive item of ultimate profit to this enterprise. As they become occupied, with those connected with the water power, they will rapidly advance in value with the progress of improvements. It is, therefore, premature to attempt, now, even an approximate of value in a property subject to future contingencies entirely controlling that value. It is enough here to say, that some of these lands are already in the heart of the City of Wilmington, and even now command city prices for building lots, over two hun- dred and fifty of them being now platted within the city limits. The Company Engineer's map, as also Hurry's new map of the city, are referred to for the illustration of this matter more understandingly. The cost of slack water navigation, as compared with that of canal, in this case, is about as one to twelve ; one requir- ing only dams and locks, and the other, constructed entirely by artificial means, composed of cuttings, fillings, embank- ments, tow-paths, bridges, locks, aqueducts, dams, waste- weirs, feeders, &c. The Kankakee slack water, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal, are about equal in distance ; but the difference in the cost of ordinary repairs and main- tenance will be about the same as the difference in original cost, or as one to twelve. The productiveness of the sec- tions of country through which these two works are located, and upon which they mainly depend for business, is decided- 16 THK KANKAKEE COMPANY. ly in favor of the former. And with the items of hard-wood lumber, coal, and, soon, iron ore, the advantages of which the latter never enjoyed, it is not too much, in reason, to claim that the former, on its opening, will realize more gross tolls than the latter, crippled as it is in its rates by the active competition of two railroads, practically traversing its banks, brhe gross tolls of the canal, some years, has reached over $300,000. With that amount the slack water might, at first, be satisfied, although it is apparent, unless all calculations are fallacious, and all figures deceptive, that this sum will soon fall far below actual results. But that sum ($300,000), while it would be highly remunerative to our enterprise, on its navigation alone, because of its low cost, might not make the other a par stock, because of its high cost. The practi- cal test, however, is in the actual working of the enterprise ; and in regard to this there seem to be abundant elements of the most reliable character, insuring to it a gratifying success. Finally. The value of an enterprise to the stockholders is its ability to earn money to pay liberal dividends, besides meeting all its liabilities. Does the foregoing exhibit satis- factorily show such ability ? The security to the bondholders is not only the ability thus to earn money, but the value of its properties outside of the earnings of its franchise. Does not the sale of its existing lands and water powers at Wilmington, which, by the mortgage deed of trust, constitute a sinking fund to pay its bonds at maturity, make them, with the interest paid from earnings, amply secure ? The issue of bonds is now limited to $600,000. They are payable in ten years, with, eight per cent, interest, payable semi-annually, in gold. In- dependent of the navigation franchise and properties covered by the mortgage, as well as the lands, it is believed the sale of lands and water powers at Wilmington City will pay off the bonds before maturity, leaving the earnings applicable to interest and dividends only. If not, the earnings are THE KANKAKEE COMPANY. 17 equally subject to pay principal as well as the interest of said bonds. Can any securities be safer or more remuner- ative ? Present capital stock, $1,000,000, with authority to in- crease. Issue of corporate bonds limited to $600,000. THE COMPANY'S PRESENT ASSETS, RESOURCES, &c. First Its lands and building lots in the City of Wilming- ton, equalling nearly 250 lots in the heart of said city, and eligibly located for business purposes and dwelling-houses. Second. The water lots and water power at Dam No. 2, already completed, comprising several water lots of large water power, owned in fee. Third. The water power at Dam No. 1, with twelve acres of land condemned for navigation and manufacturing uses at that point. Fourth. Full navigation from the Illinois and Michigan Canal to the City of Wilmington (nine miles), already com- pleted, and ready for use on the opening of the canal this spring, embracing two dams and two locks, besides the en- largement of the State Dam and the Kankakee Feeder. Fifth. About 150. acres of land at Dam No. 4, and Dams Nos. 3 and 4, under contract with their locks, now in the process of construction, carrying the navigation some twelve miles above the City of Wilmington. Sixth. The charter powers, and privilege of extending their works to the Indiana State line on both the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers. Seventh. A purchase of 600 acres of the Wilmington coal lands is also secured to the Company, together with a valua- ble charter. APPENDIX. TO MANUFACTURERS, MECHANICS, AND CAPITALISTS. Development of a Great Western, Enterprise, combining extensive Nav- igation, Water Power, and Lands, with beautiful Sites for Towns and Villages, by the Kankakee Company, Capital $1,000,000. President, Hon. William Claflin, Governor of Massachusetts. This Company holds one of the most liberal charters ever granted by the §tate of Illinois, conferring perpetual and exclusive right to create Navigation and Water Power by the construction of Dams and Locks on the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers, with authority to issue stock and bonds, fix and regulate its own tolls within the charter limits, to condemn materials, lands for dams, flowage, locks, mills, and water power, to pur- chase and hold lands for town and city sites, and for all purposes of manufacturing ; also power to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any part or all of its properties, franchises, or possessions, at discretion. When completed, this will give navigation from the Illinois and Mich- igan Canal, with which it connects, to the Indiana State line, a distance of nearly one hundred miles in Illinois, and extending more than seventy miles in the State of Indiana. The fertility of this section of the country is shown from the fact that one-twentieth of the two hundred and fifty-two million bushels of corn alone raised in the State (one hundred and two counties), in 1870, was produced in the three counties through which these rivers flow, and from ihe peculiar richness of the soil, it has been^aptly termed " The Garden of Illinois." The extent and reliability of the Water Power is not surpassed by any river in the State or New England, the Kankakee River being adapted by nature for this purpose, having a solid lime-rock bed, high, sloping banks, and a never-failing supply of water. The works are now under contract, and in part completed ten miles above and below the City of Wilmington, and the Company will be pre- pared the coming season to sell or lease Water Power for manufacturing purposes. The facilities for the transportation, both by water and rail, to and from the two great distributing markets of the West, Chicago and St. Louis, the low cost of living, the large and extensive fields of coal (the best in the State) within three miles of the river, at two dollars and fifty cents per ton, a fertile soil, cheap building materials, salubrious climate, and other inducements that will be offered by the Company, affords a most inviting opportunity for a remunerative investment of capital, and the employment of skilled labor in manufacturing interests, which must of necessity develop western Lowells, Lawrences, and Lewistons. 20 APPENDIX. About two hundred and fifty acres of land are already secured by the Company contiguous to its largest Water Power, nearly all of which is within the limits of the flourishing City of Wilmington (only fifty-three miles from the city of Chicago),'whose citizens have indorsed this enter- prise by a liberal subscription to its bonds of over fifty thousand dollars. The Company solicits investigation by manufacturers and mechanics of the merits of this enterprise, and offers to capitalists and others who desire to make a safe and paying investment one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars of its eight per cent, gold-bearing bonds, payable in ten years, interest semi-annually, secured by a first mortgage on all of the Company's property and improvements; the proceeds of the bonds to be ex])ended entirely in improvements. %g~ Pamphlets will soon be issued giving full particulars. These bonds can be obtained of Messrs. BREWSTER, SWEET & CO., Bankers, No. 40 State Street, Boston, Mass. Messrs. R. L. DAY & COBB, Bankers, No. 31 Kilby and 16 Lindall Streets, Boston, Mass. Messrs. GEO. W. LONG & CO., Bankers, No. 24 Congress Square, Boston, Mass. Messrs. J. H. DANIELS & SON, Bankers, Wilmington, Illinois, and at the Offices of the Company. REFERENCES. EL O. Alden, Belfast, Me. Edw. Appleton, Railroad Commissioner, 7 Pemberton Square, Bos- ton, Mass. Hills & Beothee, No 117 South Street, Boston, Mass. Willis Phelps & Co., Springfield, Mass. T. W. Stanley, New Britain, Conn. William H. Odell, Mayor City of Wilmington, 111. D. U. Cobb, Wilmington, 111. E. S. Watees, Company's Engineer, Wilmington, 111. William Gooding, Secretary Trustees Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lock- port, 111. W. A. Gooding, Superintendent Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lockport, 111. J. Y. Scammon, President Marine Bank, Chicago, 111. Richard P. Morgan, Jr., Bloomington, 111. Further information in regard to this enterprise may be obtained at the offices of the Company, No. 17 United States Motel Block, Beach Street, Boston, and No. 106 Water Street, Wilmington, Illinois. E. P. CARPENTER, Managing Director.