Introductory Note

HOW CITIES ARE INCORPORATED IN MISSOURI.

The Constitution of 1820 contains no provision in regard to orporating cities, towns and villages. The statute of 1825 provides that the county court may declare a town or village incorporated upon the petition of at least two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants and defines the powers of such corporations. provision is also made for filing town plats.

The Constitution of 1865 (Article VIII) authorizes the inorporation of cities by special act of the legislature but provides that no city shall be thus incorporated with less than 5,000 Dermanent inhabitants nor unless the people thereof by a direct vote upon the question shall have decided in favor of such incorporation.

The Constitution of 1875 (Article IX, Section 7) authorizes the General Assembly to provide by general laws for the organization and classification of cities and towns, limits the number of classes to four and provides that the powers of each class shall be defined by general laws so that all municipal corporations of the same class shall possess the same powers and be subject to the same restrictions. In addition to the four classes of cities to be established by the General Assembly, that constitution provides for other classes. Section 16 of Article IX provides that any city having a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants may frame a charter for its own government consistent with and subject to the Constitution and laws of this state. Section 15 of Article IX provides for consolidating the government of such city with that of the county in which it is situated. Kansas City is governed by a special charter, but the city and county governments have not been consolidated.

Sections 20 to 25 of Article IX provide for the adoption of a special charter to become the organic law of the city of St. Louis and for the separation of the city from the residue of St. Louis county. In 1876 the city of St. Louis availed itself of the privileges offered to it by the Constitution.

Legislation. In 1877 the legislature defined the four classes of cities as follows: First class, those containing 100,000 or

more inhabitants; second class, thosè containing 20,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants; third class, those containing 5,000 and less than 20,000 inhabitants; fourth class, those containing 500 and less than 5,000 inhabitants, and all towns existing under any special law and having less than 5,000 inhabitants which shall elect to be cities of the fourth class. An act of 1875 provides that all towns not incorporated and containing less than 500 inhabitants are declared to be villages. The law was amended in 1909 (Laws 1909, p. 142), so that all cities containing more than 75,000 and less than 150,000 inhabitants may become cities of the first class, and was amended in 1885 (Laws of 1885, p. 50), so that the second class comprises cities having 30,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants and the third class comprises cities having 3,000 and less. than 30,000 inhabitants. In 1889 the maximum limit of cities. of the fourth class was changed to 3,000 instead of 5,000.

In 1877 the legislature provided that any city or town existing by virtue of the general law, or by any local or special law, may elect to become a city of the class to which its population would entitle it by passing an ordinance and submitting the proposition to its legal voters at an election held for that purpose and if it be ratified by a majority of the voters voting at such election and the mayor issue his proclamation declaring the result of the election such city or town shall, by virtue of such vote, be incorporated in the class to which it belongs. The class shall be determined by the last census taken, whether state or national. Any city or town not incorporated may become incorporated under the class to which its population would entitle it by a declaration of the county court upon petition of a majority of the inhabitants. These provisions have continued with no substantial change to the present time.

The county court may disincorporate towns and may di- . minish their limits. (Rev. Stat. 1899, Sec. 6055, Amended Laws 1907, p. 109, R. S. Mo. 1909, Sec. 9481.)

In 1887 the General Assembly passed an act designating the manner in which a city having more than 100,000 inhabitants may frame a charter for its own government under Section 16 of Article IX of the Constitution. This act was approved March. 10, 1887. (Laws of 1887, pp. 42 to 51, Rev. Stat. of 1899, Secs. 359 to 6410, R. S. Mo. 1909, Secs. 9703 to 9754, inclusive, pp. 76 to 83, this volume.)

The organization of a city, town or village within two miles of the limits of any city of the first, second or third class is prohibited by statute. (R. S. Mo. 1899, Sec. 5261, Amended Laws 1907, p 93, R. S. Mo. 1909, Sec. 8533.)

INCORPORATION OF KANSAS CITY.

Plats and Incorporation by the County Court. The first plat of the Town of Kansas was filed in 1839 and embraced the land from the river to Second Street and from what is now Delaware Street to what is now Grand Avenue. A second plat was filed in 1846 and extended from the river south to what is now Independence Avenue and from what is now Central Street on the west to what is now Oak Street on the east. The plat filed in 1846 shows the filing and acknowledgment by William Gilliss, Fry P. McGee, John C. McCoy, Jacob Regan, Henry Jobe and William B Evans and was acknowledged April 1, 1846, before Walter Bales, justice of the peace. A third plat filed June 7, 1849, embraces the territory from the river to Independence Avenue and from what is now Central Street on the west to Cherry Street on the east. The filing of these plats conferred no municipal organization upon the town. The few merchants. and traders who did business on the site platted as the "Town of Kansas," but locally called "Westport Landing." were without municipal government until the 4th day of February, 1850, when the territory embraced within the plats filed as above mentioned was incorporated by the county court at Independence under the name and style of the Town of Kansas. (County Court Record 8, p. 101.) The first trustees appointed by the county court in that order of incorporation were Madison Walrond, John C. McCoy, Robert Kirkham, Pierre M. Choteau and Hiram M. Northup. They failed to qualify and by another order entered by the county court at Independence on the 3rd day of June, 1850, (County Court Record 8, p. 257) the Town of Kansas was again incorporated with William Gilliss, Madison Walrond, Lewis Ford, Bennoist Troost and Henry H. Brice as trustees.

INCORPORATION BY SPECIAL STATUTE.

Charter of 1853. The City of Kansas was incorporated by a special act of the legislature on the 22nd day of February, 1853. (Laws of 1853, p. 244.) The boundary lines at that time extended from the middle of the Missouri River south to

about what is now Ninth Street and from Bluff Street on the west to a point between Holmes and Charlotte Streets on the east. This act was amended in 1857 (Laws of 1857, p. 368) and again in 1859 (Laws of 1859, pp. 204, 355 and 306), when the limits were extended by the legislature so that the boundary lines ran as follows: From the middle of the Missouri River south along the state line to Twentieth Street; east on Twentieth Street to Troost Avenue; north on Troost Avenue to Twelfth Street; east on Twelfth Street to Lydia Avenue; thence north to the center of the Missouri River; thence along the channel of the river to the beginning. The act was again amended in 1861 (Laws of 1861, pp. 203 and 411), in 1867 (Laws of 1867, p. 18), in 1868 (Laws of 1868, p. 208), in 1870 (Laws of 1870, p. 327), in 1872 (Laws of 1872, pp. 397 and 414), and in 1873, when the limits were again extended by the legislature to embrace the territory from the channel of the Missouri River south to Twenty-third Street and from the state line to Woodland Avenue. The original act of incorporation (Laws of 1874, p. 320.)

was again amended in 1874. Charter of 1875. In the year 1875 the city passed through one of the most critical phases of its charter history. A crisis had arisen in which the city was on the verge of bankruptcy. Over $400,000 of taxes were delinquent and unpaid. So doubtful was the city's financial outlook that it was practically impossible to collect taxes from any source whatever. City warrants were reluctantly accepted at forty cents on the dollar. and the municipality was expending each year over twice its income. Charter amendments of a character tending to increase the city's financial embarrassment were pending before the state legislature. At this juncture a mass meeting was called at which a board of thirteen citizens was appointed to determine on legislation suitable to the emergency. As a result of their efforts a new charter was granted to the city by a special act of the General Assembly. (Laws of 1875, p. 196.) This committee, inspired with a desire to restore the city's credit at all hazards, devised the simple but effective limitations now found in Articles IV and V of the present charter, which were enacted in the Charter of 1875 and have ever since been preserved in succeeding charters. The adoption of this instrument marked a turning point in the city's history. Immediately upon its passage the city's credit was restored, taxes were