1916 A History of Meade County, Kansas

A History of

Meade County, Kansas

By

FRANK S. SULLIVAN

CONTENTS.

A History of

Meade County, Kansas

FOREWORD.

IN presenting this History of Meade County to the public I am timidly conscious that it will meet the full approval of none. In the preparation of this work I have talked with five hundred people, and received five hundred suggestions as to what the book should contain. Being anxious to please, but realizing my inability to carry out the ideas of the many well-meaning people and confine the work to one volume, I have discarded much that is interesting, but it has been my intention to include all that is important or valuable.

The personal experience of every old settler would be interesting reading; the achievements of those who settled upon the frontier in the days "that tried men's souls," who battled with the elements, subdued the wilderness and made the desert fruitful, is a story worthy of the mightiest pen; the exploits of "Hoodoo" Brown, the activities of George DeCow, the eccentricities of Pat Mulligan, the unconscious humor of Pete Hotz, the martial dignity of Captain Osgood, and the characteristics, freaks and foibles of many others who might be mentioned, would, if properly preserved, afford a source of never-ending amusement and entertainment; but it would not be history.

The inside history of county politics as the game was played in former days, the plans and schemes, the plots and counter plots, the maneuvers by which tricks were

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taken and lost, would read like a story by George Randolph Chester, but I could not go into these matters without violating the confidence of such eminently good fellows as Bob Painter, Doug Adams, Fred Fick, Tom Johnston, Frank Fuhr, Mose Black, Fred Judd, et al., and the public would certainly not expect me to do that.

The history of Meade County reads almost like a fairy tale. Organized in 1885, the country was widely advertised and hailed as an El Dorado by people all over the East, who flocked here in great numbers, eager to secure homes in this modern Eden. Cities and towns sprang up as if by magic; railroads were surveyed, manufacturing establishments planned for, and in a few months the country had the appearance of an old-established community. But, alas for the good of the country! so many who settled here were not the kind to develop a new country. They came mostly from the old-settled States of the East, and knew nothing of the hardships incident to pioneer life. They became dissatisfied as soon as the novelty of the situation wore away, and longed for their Eastern homes. To get away was no difficult matter; the entire country was enjoying an era of prosperity, money was easy to obtain, and many, perhaps a majority of the homesteaders preëmpted their claims, mortgaged them the next day for from $500 to $1000, and left the country, better off financially than when they came. So many farms being deserted, business suffered and laxed for a time, depression ensued, and then came the fall, the awful, calamitous, tumultuous financial crash that buried under its ruins the wrecked hopes and shattered

ambitions of so many. Meade County was not alone in this crisis; the entire West was affected, and great was the havoc throughout all. But business adapted itself to changed conditions; business assurance was just being restored when occurred the memorable opening of Oklahoma. All eyes were now turned toward "The Land of the Fair God," and western Kansas was practically forgotten by the outside world. Meade County, being in such proximity to the Territory, suffered her proportionate loss of citizens. Nor was the lost population soon regained, as for years practically all emigration was toward the "Red Land!"

Being deserted by the farmer, the country was naturally given over to the cattle-men, who for years held full sway, and gathered immense wealth from their herds. The thousands of acres of rich, succulent buffalo-grass fed thousands of cattle. The usual mild winters and light snows made it practicable for cattle to graze the entire winter and come out in good condition in the spring, having consumed little or no feed save that which Nature had so bountifully provided.

But in time the glitter and glare of Oklahoma vanished to a great extent. Land there, and elsewhere eastward, had advanced in value so that a poor man could not own his home; landlords became so exacting that tenants could not pay rent and live; the poor man commenced to look for a home, the man with money to look for investments. Western Kansas presented her smiling prairies to the world and attracted the attention of homeseekers and of investors. A few of the more venturesome came west, and those who visited Meade County viewed with wonder the rich soil, were

delighted with the climatic conditions, enjoyed the pure water, breathed the exhilarating, health-giving ozone, gazed with rapture on the transcendental beauty of the plains, and located here. They were eminently successful in tilling the soil, and accounts of their success written home caused friends to come, who in turn induced others to follow. This encroachment on the range was "viewed with alarm" by the cattle-men, who did all in their power to discourage immigration by circulating stories of the poverty of the soil, the uncertainty of crops by reason of insufficient rainfall, the terrors of tornadoes, and other named and nameless evils. But in spite of drouths, tornadoes, and evil reports, the settlers came on. The large ranches shrank away before the increasing tide of immigration, until finally "free range" was no more and the ranchman was forced to buy his range or go out of business; and finally, recognizing the futility of resistance, or realizing that they had been mistaken, the stock-men joined with the farmer in boosting the country, and they now work harmoniously together.

It is a singular fact that, in nearly every instance, the man who came to Meade County in the early days with money, lost it, while the man who came with nothing and was either too poor or too obstinate to leave, but remained through all the trials and vicissitudes, has amassed a competence. And it is to such men as these, such men as Farmer Bisbee, A. V. Angel, Lou Parsons, Ed Dahmer, Joe Brannon, R. T. Worman, Linn Frazier, Frank Sourbeer, and others of their ilk, that Meade County owes its present condition of development and prosperity.