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70th Anniversary
Edition
SUPPLEMENT TO
The Washington
County Register
Friday, Sept. 16, 1938
Part 1 of 3
[Go to Part 2]
[Go to Part 3]
Foreword
-- A Brief History of the Washington
County Register -- Washington County from 1850 to
1938 -- Early State History of the Discovery of
Kansas -- Washington County -1938
-- Famous Route of the Pony Express -- Cottonwood Station -- Fort Leavenworth Military Road -- Biographies of Pioneers -- Congratulatory Letters -- Jane Timmis Overbury - 104 -- Mr. and Mrs. James Creighton
FOREWORD
This Seventieth Anniversary edition of the
Washington County Register, published to do honor to those noble men and women, the
pioneers, who made possible the growth of Washington County and Washington City, also
commemorates the seventy years of service to the community and county by the Washington
County Register.
Preparing this seventieth anniversary edition has proven to us the possibility and the
need of collecting individual data while it may be had, and getting it on paper for future
posterity. We have garnered a wealth of interesting material both pictures and
stories that we would liked to have included in this issue but we lack space, money and
time. We look forward to the time when, with your assistance, we can produce a
500-page history of Washington county.
Nor is it too much to hope that a museum of some nature may in the near future develop
wherein many relics dear to individuals and to the county may be preserved in glass cases,
where at the same time their educational value may be extended to the growing children and
particular county pride and interest be created among the citizens of the county.
In preserving some account of that sturdy race of men and women who paved the way for
the developm.ent of Washington County, we have herein tried to include the names of all
who were within the confines of the county in the early days.
We have recorded their names with other matters of interest too valuable to be lost.
Most of the pioneers have passed away and with many of them have vanished the
scenes in which they individually participated.
Too, with the destruction of the court house in 1869, all official records were burned
prior to that date. This unfortunate loss makes it difficult and in some cases
impossible to procure earliest official data. However, individual forces have kept
many records and the files of the Washington County Register from 1869 become a weekly
memoir.
In preparing this edition, we have also included a Who's Who among the business men of
our county. As far as possible every business and professional man in the county has
been included except for some few who preferred not to be included.
To mention the names of the many men and women who assisted us in preparation of this
issue, both with pictures and information, would be an endless task, but we can only say
that their assistance is appreciated and it is only by their help that this issue was made
possible.
It is our hope that this copy will be retained throughout the years for its historical
and pictorial value.
MARGARET C. BARLEY, Editor.
A Brief History of The Washington County Register
Volume I, Number 1, of the Western Observer, the first newspaper in
Washington county, was published on March 25, 1869 in the stockade building that served as
the first print shop, the first school building, the first court house, the first church,
and general all purpose building. Mark J. Kelley was the editor.
The Old Stockade
A reproduction of the first page of the first issue is shown on the opposite
page. One of our choicest possessions is the complete copy of the first years
publication, that was carefully preserved by a subscriber, Mrs. E. Wertman.
The first Western Observer was a four column sheet, 9 by 14 inches in
size, all hand set, with four pages. The present Register is a seven column page, 17-1/2
by 22-1/2 inches in size, actually about four times as much news material to the
page, and the number of pages is usually ten or twelve, often sixteen and sometimes
twenty. Observe the old fashioned type on the page although it was probably the last word
in typographical effect at that time.
The editor, M. J. Kelley, an alert ambitious Easterner, accepting his
western home, and being enthusiastic about the new town, put his thoughts on the pages of
the Western Observer which were sent in great numbers throughout the East. It is said that
this publication was in a great measure responsible for securing the high class of men and
women who sought homes in Washington County.
The Washington County Register now in its seventieth year has been
published under many different titles and edited by even a greater number of men. This
grown-up child is the direct descendent of that first publication known as The Western
Observer, and over the years has been a reliable exponent of the standing and progress of
the city and county of Washington.
The coming of a newspaper is an important event to any town but the
advent of that little 9x14 sheet in the frontier town of Washington has been generally
considered as the turning point in the history of Washington county, for, since that
publication on March 11, 1869 the county has never been without a paper to foster its
growth and prosperity. And, further, throughout all these 70 years the paper has held that
enviable distinction that never an issue has been missed nor has one ever been printed on
a half-sheet.
This first newspaper in Washington County, whose first issue was March
11, 1869 was published by Mart J. Kelley, an impartial and very fair man, who came to this
county under the influence of David E. Ballard. Though using a hand press with his shop in
the old stockade courthouse, and issuing a sheet measuring 9 inches by 14 inches, this
first editor, generously devoting the columns of his paper to the advertisements of the
county, made his pages so influential that they attracted many substantial persons, and
since the Western Observer found its way to all parts of the East, it was the means of
settling a large portion of this county and directly responsible for many of the best
settlers.
On May 21, 1870 the paper was sold to George W. Shriner and James F.
Tallman, who changed its name to The Magnet.
On the 25th of August of the same year, Mark J. Kelley and
J. O. Young founded the Washington Republican, and for about a month published a paper a
daythe first daily in the county.
On January 9, 1871 Mr. Tallman, having retired, J. O. Young purchased
The Magnet from George W. Shriner and the interest of M. J. Kelley in the Republican and
consolidated the two papers, retaining the name, Washington Republican.
Early in the winter of 1871 John I. Tallman bought a half-interest in
the paper, which on November 2, 1871, he sold to W. P. Day, who, on February 17, 1872,
sold it to J. O. Young. On July 25, of the same year J. C. Martin and Perrine Stultz
bought a half-interest in the Republican. Later Mr. Martin bought the interest of Mr.
Stultz and on January 30, 1874 sold out to John Guinn.
E. N. Emmons who had been associated with Mr. Martin from April 8, 1873
to September 12, of the same year, bought the Republican on June 19, 1874, from Mr. Guinn,
and on July 14 enlarged the paper to seven-column paper.
October 6, 1876, J. B. Besack bought the Emmons interest, and enlarged
it to an eight column paper. He in turn sold to Ed Knowles. In 1882 Mr. Knowles sold out
to H. C. Robinson, who subsequently took L. J. Sprengle as a partner and to whom he later
sold his entire interest.
The Republican then passed to L. A. Palmer, who moved the plant to its
present home, 101 West 3rd street, and later sold to C. E. Ingalls, who in 1905
also bought the Washington County Register, which had been established by Messrs.
Williamson and Clark in 1880. Mr. Ingalls consolidated the two as the Republican-Register.
In February of the year 1915 Paul K. Cowgill took over the management
and a year later J. H. Barley became the editor. In 1926 the Palladium was purchased from
O. L. Clark and Mary A. Clark and the name of the combined papers became The Washington
County Register. In October, 1927, a corporation was formed, known as The Washington
County Publishing Company, which company has since published the paper, with Mrs. Margaret
C. Barley, the present editor, purchasing the plant and taking over the management on July
1, 1933.
Thus it is with no little pride that we look back over the years of the
Registers publication and find chronicled births, marriages and deaths as well as
the deeds of unsung men and women whose daily lives were their benediction. The breath
comes a little faster and the pulse beats a little stronger for having known, walked with
and followed in the wake of those noble men and women who now are and those who have gone
before.
The Registerwhich has been the speaking voice of the county these
seventy years, has kept a watchful eye on former residents and has continued to have an
interest in the boys and girls of the county who have moved to other localities. It
rejoices that so many have made good. It is gratifying to know that so great a number of
these people within the county or wherever they have made their home have received
especial honors in their different kinds of work. Whether that person had his start here
when he was born or just some assistance during his sojourn in Washington county we like
to attribute a bit of the credit of his success to the inspiration received and the
encouragement extended by some one or ones within this county.
Andthe county paper entering the various homes each week has been
a definite medium in bringing together and cementing the friendships, progress and well
being of the community and countythe unstinted service of which paper has at no time
been reckoned. In the words of historian J. G. Ellenbecker of Marysville the whole truth
is told, "A newspaper is the greatest common friend of a community. No other person
or institution does so much good, gratis."
The
Register Is Many Newspapers
Many newspapers in Washington County have been consolidated into the
Washington County Register of the present day. The name has been changed several times.
Following is a concise history of the newspapers of Washington, other than the Register.
The Washington County Register, founded in 1880 by Williamson &
Clarke. The Daily Register, founded 1882 by Clarke & Clarke, discontinued the same
year. Washington Post founded by Chas. F. Barrett in 1883. Washington Daily Post founded
1886 by Mr. Barrett, issued during County Fair.
Washington Daily Post founded 1887 by Mr. Barrett; discontinued same
year; the Post consolidated with the Register in 1895 and ran as the Post-Register, with
J. T. Hole and James Pontuis, editors and publishers. The Watchman, founded 1896 by the
Watchman Publishing Company, consolidated in 1898 with the Post-Register; in 1902 the name
of the Post-Register changed to the Washington Register, J. A. Totten, editor and
publisher, and ran under that name until its consolidation with the Repudlican. The
Mahaska Leader was purchased from A. Q. Miller in 1917.
The First Issue Contained Many Interesting Items
Volume I, Number 1, of the Western Observer, contained many interesting
items. On page four was printed the delinquent tax list for 1868. The list contained the
names of Isam Brown, Horace Beamus, Jesse W. Bolt, John Barstow, Louise Ballard, Thomas
Clevenger and a great many others. Fully half of the property listed was put in as owner
unknown. J. B. Snider was treasurer.
A notice of the Washington township Republican convention listed the
following nominations. For Justices of the peace, S. S. Penwell and August Saedeker. For
Township Trustee, Frank Lane. Township treasurer, Mat Oswald. Township Clerk, G. T.
Thompson. For constables, Lyle Pasko and Andrew Oswald.
Advertisement were included from Dr. Chas. Williamson, Attorney James
F. Tallman, Shriner & Tallman real estate, Hoskins of Waterville, Rockefellers
furniture, Shriner & Tallman Dry Goods, S. A. Williamson drug store, H. Robbins stone
mason, Rockefeller & Collins groceries, F. Peters, Chas. Fleiner and R. W. Sholes of
Waterville and attorney John W. Williams of Junction City.
A short item thanking the citizens of Washington county for their
support is found on page four. The Western Observer started out with a bona-fide paid up
circulation of seven hundred.
SUNSET
A ball of flame that lights
throughout the skies
And sets on fire all nature; then it dies
And leaves such wonderous colorings of gold
And rose and violet. These gently fold
Each one into the other; then they fade
And over all night draws a deep blue shade.
-- R. CAROLE RICKERT
(This description by a local girl is the more
beautiful since this poetess has never seen the light of day.)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Washington County From 1850 to 1938
EDITORS NOTE: The following history was written by Dr. Charles Williamson and was
published in the Washington Weekly Republican on Friday, July 14, 1876. It is
reprinted here and should be an authentic history of the county as it was written by a
pioneer of the county shortly after the events occurred.
Written in 1876
The history of Kansas, in the last twenty years, of which Washington county
is a part, you are all familiar with, and the privations and struggles of its early
settlers, in 1856. Whilst the men were under arms to protect their lives and property, our
families were often exposed to the inclemency of the elements, hid in the timber or the
grass to protect them from insult and from the ruffians that surrounded them. But this
theme belongs to the past. And it is enough for us today that the glorious commonwealth
was saved to freedom and a glorious future. At Philadelphia, today, in the Kansas
building, the agricultural products of our State are unexcelled; the pride of the State
and nation.
Washington county, in the northern tier of counties in the State, was
organized in 1860, and named in honor of the first President of the United States. It
contains 900 square miles, two per cent of which is timber; eight per cent bottom land,
the rest upland prairie. For fertility of soil and yield of crops, healthfulness of
climate, and good water, it is unsurpassed in the State. It has eight principal streams,
whose banks are lined with timber, such as oak, walnut, hickory, elm, cottonwood, ash,
locust and box-elder. Also plenty of wild fruits such as plums, strawberries, grapes,
raspberries, mulberries and gooseberries. There are five different kinds of native
grasses. The tame, such as timothy, clover, blue grass, and alfalfa, are successfully
grown. The names of the streams are the Republican, Little Blue, Mill creek, alias south
fork of Little Blue, alias Snake creek, Peach creek, alias Petes creek, first named
after W. Petes, an early settler. Parson creek was named after W. Parson, who settled at
Clifton, on section 36, in 1859; Riddle creek, after Mr. Riddle, its oldest settler;
Spring, alias Devil named by W. Thomas, who was detained by rain and freshets on its banks
during the first settlement is now changed to Spring by the common consent of its
inhabitants; Coon creek and Joy creek were named after the first settlers. The streams
abound in fish. There is undeveloped water power in the streams of this county, sufficient
to run half of the manufacturing interests of the state. One of the first settlements made
in this county was by James McNulty and Ostrander, in 1857. James McNulty was hunting
stray mules that had wandered from a train. When he came in sight of Mill creek, he
selected the same as his future home. Mr. Rufus Darby came to Hardens, now called
Ballards Falls, in 1858; the Fosters and Mr. Blocker settled on Mill creek, the same
year, G. H. Hollenberg came into Hanover township in 1857, on the Fort Kearney road. In
Little Blue Mr. Mercer settled, in 1858 Mr. Wm. Hemphill, John Bastow, the same year. In
Washington township, E. B. Cook, in 1859; Jesse R. Hallowell, Samuel Lynd, in 1860. S. F.
Snyder and sons settled on Mill creek the same year. On Coon creek in Lincoln township,
Mr. Brown and Walker were the first, following them were Mr. Smith, Thos. Marshal,
McCandless and Wm. Allison; in Strawberry, John Myers, and Mr. Melfelt moved in first; on
Peach creek in Clifton township in 1859 there were Geo. Funnell and Mr. Fox; on Parson
creek in 1859 came Mr. Bowmaker, Mr. Eslinger, Mr. Kinsley and GeBarr; in Hollenberg, the
first was Joel Snyder in 1859; in Union township, Joe Enoch and later W. G. Welch, a
native of Yorkshire, England, an energetic farmer who celebrated a few days since his 43rd
wedding day. There were present children and grandchildren, all told, fifty persons. There
are many privations to undergo in an early day. Caves or cabins were few and far between,
and in one instance in 1858, a young man was lost between the head waters of Mill creek
and the Republican. He was lost for several days and when found was half demented and
wasted to a skeleton.
The majority of the early settlers came here with but little means;
their covered wagons contained their household goods and effects. Lumber was not to be
obtained so they dug a cave in the ground, covering the same with grass and sod. In a few
hours he moved in and became a squatter. He then had from fifty to seventy-five miles to
travel, and that often in the dead of the winter, to the land office to secure his
homestead or pre-emption papers. Many of the women that occupied these caves were ladies
of education and refinement who had left their homes in the East, sundering all the ties
that bound them to the old homestead with all its childhood memories and pleasant
associations, to secure in the far West a home for themselves in their declining years,
and a brighter future for their children. Having burned some native gypsum on a brush
pile, they whitewashed the sides of their caves. With straw and flowers from the prairies
and timber they made rustic frames and wreaths to adorn their homes. The buffalo robe
occupied an important place in the household as bed and blanket. The table was furnished
with buffalo meat, venison, antelope and wild turkey. Trapping the otter and beaver during
the winter months, for beaver dams were plenty on all the creeks, the settler managed to
obtain means sufficient to satisfy his humble wants. His latch string was always out; his
hospitality was unlimited; a vacant seat by his fire and table were ever ready for his
friends, and the word stranger was synonymous with friend. Having portrayed one phase of
squatters life, there is yet another; occasionally the first crop being on fresh
ground, it would be cut short. Often without vegetables in the winter, and no money to buy
any, they suffered from scurvy and a scarcity of bread stuff. In one instance I was
traveling with Mr. Raub, of Ash creek, in February, 1868. At sundown it commenced
storming; we came to a solitary cabin and asked permission to stay in the house that
night. I saw that he hesitated. I still urged him to let us stay. Finally with tears in
his eyes, he said, "You are welcome, but we have nothing to eat. For three days I
have traveled to get a little meal. I have been to the Republican and back today -- 25
milesand you see my sack is still empty." We went with him into the house,
dividing our provisions with him. When his hunger was appeased, and his cheerful fire had
warmed him, and made him communicative, he told us his story. He had emigrated from
Wisconsin, with a family of six children. He was an intelligent, educated and industrious
man. He had expended all his means and could get no employment and was destitute of food
and sufficient clothing for the winter. His daughter, a girl 15 years of age, as I could
see, had nothing to wear but an old dress body with a piece of an old tattered government
blanket attached to it for a skirt. He said, "I have been, I hope, a Christian for
many years, but this evening it was almost in my heart to say that God had forsaken me,
but I will never doubt his Providence again." When I left him in the morning I told
him we would return in two days, and to be of good cheer. At Junction City I went to Mr.
Houston, receiver of the land office, and told him of this familys destitution.
Through his solicitation amongst the business men of the city, and the kindness of the
ladies, our wagon was loaded with provisions and clothing for all the family, and a
promise to obtain the necessary grain for his spring planting. To Mr. Raub, late of Ash
creek, a poor man himself, must be given the credit of collecting the aid about the city.
It was still very cold, and our team was thin, and to haul these goods back we had to walk
twenty miles ourselves. The news had gone in advance of us, and we found him waiting to
put up our horses, and a cheering fire in the house, ready for our reception. As I watched
the happy and grateful faces of that family, I forgot I was tired. You know our old
friend, Mr. Raub with his Grecian outline of face, was never a beauty, but as I watched
him administering to the wants of this family that night, with his words of cheer, his
generous soul and warm sympathies shining in his face, I must admit that his plain face,
in the future, will ever look handsome to me. We spent a pleasant night with our host.
Today he is a well-to-do farmer and his hand is ever open to the poor. . . .strate that in
the development of our county, although all the names are too numerous to mention, each
individual and year acts it integral part of the drama of history. The old settler is
neither old fogy nor fossil, for what is true of the honeybee is true of society, that
drones never swarm. The wide awake, energetic and industrious live American pushed to the
West, subduing nature, rearing empires to liberty and free thought and giving new life and
impulse to American civilization. And this was not the only trial; the settlers were
entirely at the mercy of the Indians who were close to them on the West. The young men had
all left and gone into the army, and they might be attacked at any time. In 1863, a band
of Sioux, Cheyennes and Arapahoes, armed with bows, arrows, spears and rawhide shields
were on their way to the Otoe village on a war expedition. The first place they struck was
Mr. Furgesons afterwards Mr. Canfields, one of the oldest settlers on the creek,
plundering the house and insulting the women. Traveling down Mill creek in the vicinity of
Mr. Wertmans, the Indians took prisoner Rufus Darby. With one on each side of him,
armed with spears, they took him down to Washington to the log house of Jesse R.
Hallowell, where another band of Indians were plundering his house of bedding (they called
it swapping). Leaving there they followed down Mill creek, plundering on their way G. M.
Driskell of bedding and blankets. Rich Bond they corralled on the mound above John
Bonds barn. Andy Oswalt was also taken prisoner. After taking them a few miles down
the creek they let them go. Many of the citizens took the alarm and started for Marysville
in Marshall county. The citizens that were left then held a meeting in Washington at what
is now called the Collins stable, the result of which was that Wm. Cummings and D. E.
Ballard were appointed to reconnoitre the whereabouts of the Indians, and ascertain their
number. Saddling their ponies, armed and equipped with rifles, revolvers and blankets,
they started south. Night found them at Parson creek, hungry, tired and cold, but no
Indians. By this time the boys found they had no matches. I suppose they rubbed two sticks
together, but it wouldnt work, so they hung up a blanket, shot into it and made it
smoke, then raised the wind, took puff about, till they got a fire and got some supper.
The next morning bright and early our scouts started south again, but still no Indians.
But resting at noon they found what proved to be bituminous coal. Filling a blanket with
the same, they returned home showing their treasures, which is now known by the name of
the Clyde coal banks.
Still later in the fall of the same year, there were Indian troubles,
and J. R. Hallowell, Mort Hallowell, and the women and settlers around, forted up in the
Humes log house, in Washington, keeping guard over night. Just at sunrise a dark object
was seen crawling up the ravine by the parsonage, some of them wanted to shoot but about
that time Elijah Woolbert, sr., raised up, waved his broad brim hat, and shouted at the
top of his voice, "Holloa, you wouldnt shoot a native, would you?"
The following fall scouts brought word from the west, that the Indians
were attacking the settlements. The citizens of Mill creek with their cattle, oxen and
wagons, pushed to Washington, camping on the high land, on what is known as the George
Shriner farm, south of Washington. That night might be heard the lowing of cattle, the
lamentation of the women and children, the bleating of the sheep, for they were leaving
with their chickens and all their household goods. Some pushed on the next day to
Hardens Ford, returning home in a few weeks, as the excitement subsided.
The first wheat raised in this county was in the year 1861 by Samuel
Lynd, M. C. Driskell and E. Woolbert. At that time there were two cradles in the county to
harvest the same, and they took turn about until they finished. The entire crop of small
grain could have been bought for $200. Now compare that with your crop last year, as
furnished by the Kansas report which estimated the value of all small grain raised in
Washington county in 1875 at $576,089.
The first officers in Washington county were D. E. Ballard, clerk and
recorder, W. Langsdale, sheriff, M. G. Driskell, treasurer, M. Mercer, assessor, Rufus
Darby, probate judge, and as such he officiated at the first wedding in the county, the
marriage of a Mr. Foster. The first territorial legislator was George G. Pierce. The first
after its organization, D. E. Ballard. The first commissioners meeting was held on
the prairie, and without any remuneration. The first school in Washington county was
taught in Washington in 1861, by Agnes Hallowell, now Mrs. P. Darby. The first stove was
bought with 15 cent corn, the neighbors subscribing the corn, the same was delivered by E.
B. Cook, at Hollenberg ranch. Now there are 108 organized school districts, and 86 school
houses. The value of school buildings, furniture and apparatus in 1875, was $75,970. The
first preachers that visited this county were Elder Hartford and Elder Robertson of the
Episcopal Methodist church. On their first advent to Washington, they called at a house
about sundown, to stay all night. The men in the house thought it was some of the boys
playing a practical joke on them, so they halloed back some western adjectives. That
alarmed our preachers, and they left, starting down Mill creek. By this time, the
proprietor came home and told the boys their mistake. They started out forthwith across
the fields to call them back or head them off, but this had the effect of scaring the
preachers worse, thinking robbers were after them. They rode a few miles out on the
prairie, unsaddled their horses and laid down to sleep supperless. In the morning they
started again, and soon came in sight of M. G. Driskells. After breakfast they went
back to Washington, holding a meeting that evening in the log house on the John Penwell
farm. This was Brother Hartfords first sermon as a preacher, and the first religious
services in Washington county. The next morning Elder Hartford, with a few biscuits in his
pocket, started to his work on the Republican, but sundown found him lost and beyond
settlements. Taking the prairie and his saddle bags for a bed that night, he took a fresh
start again at early sunrise. After traveling some fifteen miles, he came to a solitary
house, the site of which is now the city of Clay Center. From there he went to Little Mill
creek, his home. This was in the year 1860.
Going to mill, market and postoffice was no small job in our early
history. They traveled often from twenty to forty miles to Marysville or Table Rock,
Nebr., and often in the dead of winter, facing the fiercest northwest snow storms, and
homeward bound to feed their wife and little ones, they struggled on, cold, benumbed and
bewildered. They have often sunk exhausted, and perished in sight of home to be found by
their neighbors and buried, as was Wm. Phillips, of Hollenberg township, on Feb. 14, 1870.
In 1862, 63, and 64 the farmers all lived on the creek, raising mostly corn
and cattle, taking the corn in the fall to Fort Kearney, to market, a distance of 150
miles, selling their corn at from $1.50 to $3 a bushel. Recollect that was when freighting
was in fashion, and any man could get rich that could start a toll bridge or ferry, or lay
in a stock of whiskey, sardines or herrings, trade in foot sore stock, and start a ranch.
Lawyers and doctors were scarce and not in fashion in those times, for the reason that
they were too far off, and if they got mad or sick they usually got in good humor, got
well or died before they could ride 30 miles for either. It is said of Northwestern
Kansas, jestingly, that the climate is so healthy that somebody had to be killed to start
a grave-yard. In Washington county, it was literally true. Three miles southeast of
Washington, on the Mormon trail, a man by the name of Sigmun, was found by E. B. Cook and
W. Way, murdered. Mr. Cook was on his way to the river. They had been with Wm. Hemphill,
on the Republican river, near the bend, assisting Judge Adams, at Atchison, to build a
ferry boat so as to make a more direct route of travel between the city of Atchison and
Denver, feasting, while there, on buffalo soup and wild onions. Mr. Sigmun was stabbed in
several places, and was apparently shot with his own gun. There had been a desperate
struggle, the grass was beaten and trodden down for some distance around and covered with
blood. Mr. Sigmun was a native of Ohio, and was looking up a claim, expecting to buy one.
Mr. Way refused to take the body in the wagon. Some California emigrants then came along
and buried him. The same day two bands of Indians passed through on the trail, hotly
pressed by the settlers, from Wild Cat creek, where they had stolen horses. They stopped
at the house of E. B. Cook, compelling his wife to give them food, and stealing her coffee
pot and some blankets. At Camp creek, south of Washington, the settlers were so close to
them that they left their horses and plunder, and scattered, one portion of them crossing
the creek at Mr. Hemphills and the other at James McNultys. A citizen of this
county was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Mr. Sigmun but was acquitted, and to
this day his death remains a mystery.
Where the Mormon trail from Fort Laramie crosses Ash creek, three miles
south of the city of Washington, is the favorite Mormon spring and camping ground of the
Mormons on their way to Salt Lake. Close to the spring is a high rock of red sandstone.
One the face of the rock was carved the names of many of the deluded victims of polygamy,
and the date of their visit. Very recently, in breaking the prairie, some of their long
bowie knives have been plowed up. Mr. Jackson, of Washington, has one in his possession
now. But railroads have turned the tide of immigration and wanton boys and the elements
have effaced the names, and all that is left is the heraldic sign of the plainsman and ox
driver, a carved wagon wheel.
Mr. Fuller, of Hollenberg, lost a son killed by the Indians during one
of their annual trips to Fort Kearney. It was a fashion in those early days to make an
excursion west every fall to kill buffalo, and smoke and jerk meat sufficient for their
families use during the winter. Such expeditions were often attended with great
danger to life and property, being often corralled by the Indians. They would then, if in
sufficient force, fight it out, but if scattered, it was every one for himself. Often
leaving their wagons and contents, they would cut loose a horse from the wagon, jump
astride and push for the settlements, returning in a short time with a larger force to
gather up their plunder. But occasionally, as in the case of Mr. Tallman and Mr. Roberts,
a young man from Greenbush, Fon do-Lac county, Wisconsin, they were killed and scalped by
the Indians. Some of the citizens of Clifton township hearing the news, went out west,
found their mutilated bodies, and brought them in and buried them on the land of Job
Short, in Clifton township. Mr. Reuben Winklepleck, an old soldier of the 13th
Kansas, and well known to the citizens of Monrovia, Atchison county, Kansas, and his
eldest son were killed on a buffalo hunt. His son was shot standing up in the wagon. Mr.
Winklepleck fought bravely killing several Indians before he sank in death, leaving a
widow with a large family to mourn his loss.
Our historical incidents bring us up to about 1867, at which time the
Central Branch railroad had pushed west as far as Centralia, and many of the citizens of
Atchison, Leavenworth and Jefferson counties, in the eastern part of the State were
encouraged in prospect of the future advance of the railroad and the favorable accounts
given of the Northwest, to visit Washington, view its natural resources, turn pioneer
again and grow up with the country. Geo. W. Shriner and Dr. Chas. Williamson visited the
county seat in 1867, were pleased with the location, and opened a store there the same
year. Their influence and that of the Champion, which was advertising Washington county
through its correspondents, caused some sixty families to come to the county. Some of them
well known today are Mr. Kelch, W. H. Shriner, Hon. Boaz Williams, Wm. Elliott, Orlando
Sawyer, Capt. Heckart, Mr. Allison, Mr. Suber, George Thompson, Mr. Pontium, and many
others settling in different portions of the county. The idea then prevailed that the
upland prairie would never be settled, but in an article that I wrote for the Champion
under the heading of "Where Shall I Build ?" I exposed the fallacy by a
description of its soil, its grasses, its healthy location, and adaptation to raising the
cereals. An old settler then told me very emphatically, "you will never be.forgiven
for the falsehoods told in that article." I told him time would prove my assertion
correct. Now look at the result. The prairie is filled with well-to-do farmers. In south
Sherman township, in the fall of 1868, came Dr. Randall, W. Cook, E. A. Thomas, Mr. Wilson
and F. Currier. In upper Sherman there were M. Williams, M. Whetstine and others. In 1869
came G. M. Parks, J. D. Wilson, J. W. Bell and 100 other families. The other townships
were settling in proportionthe Albrights and Ben Clark in Washington township, Mr.
Prentiss, McMurray and McConnell in Strawberry township. Settlements were coming in and
occupying the high land prairie. Dr. Ballard, McRae, Bruce and C. Hallowell in Little
Blue; G. H. Hollenberg, the Oswalds and other influential Germans were locating their
friends around them in Hanover township; Mr. Brooks, W. Woody and a number of Swedes were
pushing into Clifton township; the Scotch were settling on upper Mill creek; the French in
Little Blue and Sherman, and the English and Irish in many portions of the county.
All nationalities and states are represented in this county, including
thirteen foreign nations and thirty-two states, the larger portion being from Iowa and
Illinois. The population in 1860 was 383, now it is 8,238. There are under cultivation,
80,856.21 acres; 1,020 of the same is devoted to orchards, the oldest of which are laden
with fruit this year. The total value of all crops for 1875 was $794,402.19. There is an
abundance of limestone on the eastern, northern and western tier of townships, also
abundance of potters clay and plenty of gypsum. Vacant lands range from two to seven
dollars per acre; improved from five to twenty dollars.
There are six different religious denominations in the county. The
value of church edifices is $6,090.
NOTE: Dr. Williamsons history was written in 1876. Following is a
description of Washington city as it was about 1900.
Adam Flurys blacksmith shop was located on north Main Street as
was Rodericks Livery Barn. The elder Sheckler was located near the old opera house
and repaired bicycles and guns. There was a grocery store on this side of Shecklers
which was probably owned by one J. B. Sofield or Jones about that time. Fred Powell had a
law office in that vicinity, about where Bill Smiths garage is situated and next to
it was a laundry. The old Central hotel, a fine three story building, E. H. Borners
Implement house, Jim Dennisons Wagon Shop and M. R. Hays lumber yard were on
the north side of the square as nearly as residents of that day can tell us.
On the east side of the square was Tom Mangels blacksmith shop, a
general store, Landon & Robinsons Implement Store, Jennie Clarks millinery
store, with Elsie Throop as her chief clerk, a dressmaking establishment run by the
Hallowells and Fred Stackpoles hardware store.
Frank Brick ran the old American house, about where the Davis hotel is
now and the Calveret store was also in that part of the block. Charley Williamsons
real estate office and a shoe shop and perhaps another real estate office were in this
block and Picard Candy Kitchen was about where the Falls City Creamery now stands. The
next building housed the post office with Charley Smith as post master and Obers
book store occupied part of the same building. Z. R. LaFlesche operated a very good
restaurant where McConchies implement is now and Mr. Parks had a grocery store in
the next building. In a frame building this side of the grocery was the Harry Clark Dry
Goods and Ready-to-wear store with an alley running between it and the white stone
building west of it which housed the W. E. Wilson drug store. Above the store the elder
Dr. N. M. Smith had an office and there was a hardware store where the building now known
as the LeRoy building stands. On the corner was the Mary E. Little dry goods store in
which the former Miss Teen Whittet, now Mrs. Ray Landon, was a popular clerk. South
of the hotel was a dressmaking shop and about where the garage now stands was Wright
Wertenbergers livery barn. Next to it was Sid Bradways saloon, with a pool
hall next to it. Then came J. R. Prudens harness shop with whom was associated one
Barney McDonald. Leeman Lee had at that time or very soon after a livery barn in the next
location and on the corner was the Pierce Produce house. The old Methodist church stood on
the same corner that is now occupied by the new church and at that time the Rev. J. G.
Henderson was pastor there. Mr. Whittet had a blacksmith shop in the next block.
Tom Sharp had a shop about where he is now and the Esther Collins
building, one of the first frame buildings in town was the boast of the entire community.
There was a restaurant about where the present pool hall is, operated by one Shilling, or
some such name. Mrs. Obendoffers Millinery Store was in about the location of the
Sheckler Shoe shop, and the Obendoffer and Kleeman dry goods store was about where the
bakery now stands. S. H. Varney had a hardware store in the middle of the block, and
Fredendalls Racket store was in the same vicinity. Barleys and Algies
grocery stores were in this block as was Ruben Giles butcher shop. Several of these
businesses were destroyed by fire some time in June 1900. Jim Owens had a barber shop
about where Potters Jewelry Store now stands, and J. A. Brown, sr., had taken up a
business position in the present location of the Brown Drug Store. C. C. Meader had a
grocery store on the corner where the Washington National Bank now stands.
West of the Meader building were three little frame buildings housing
in turn the H. C. Hill Insurance Agency, Dolliver Wallpaper and Paint Store, and the C. M.
Veatch music store. The Hill Agency was continued in later years by his son, C. W. Hill.
Mr. Dolliver married the former Miss Lillie Cox, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cox
who for so many years lived in the block just west of where the shop used to be. Dr.
Runkle had an office in the little building now occupied by the E-Z Laundry and was one of
the best loved characters in Washington for many years. No ill was too small to Dr. Runkle
and his kindly philosophy of life administered along with the medicines he prescribed,
were often valuable and effective as the medicines themselves. The Fred Bullis Bottling
Works were about where the Dye Cabins now stand and the elder Bullis had a pool hall where
the hatchery now stands.
The marble yard belonged to the Root family.
The First National Bank occupied the position now occupied by the same
institution, with Oscar Long holding the controlling interest at that time, and the Simon
and Spier Clothing Company was in about the location which houses the present Diedrich
Clothing Co. Anna Nesbitt had a book store where the Knedlick Barber Shop stands and some
time that year Shillings moved their restaurant into that block. E. G. Grindle had a shoe
store about the middle of the block and the site now occupied by the Smith Drug Store was
then a vacant lot. M. J. Holloways Hardware store was in the old Salvany building
and Ed Bennett had a law office either just above it or in the second story of a building
in that neighborhood. Hoopers Photograph Gallery was directly above the Holloway store and
is where the fire that later destroyed the building is said to have originated. The Fox
Drug Store was about where Throops grocery now stands and the Darby Department Store stood
next to it. Some time that year Reuben Gile probably moved his butcher shop to a location
in that part of town.
A man named William Allen owned the building that stood where the
Northup Barber Shop is and one A. Stout had a grocery store there, "Bill" Hilton
being one of his clerks. About what is now the south part of E. A. Wards Furniture
Store was then occupied by the Carlysle Restaurant. Alf Ward had a jewelry shop in
connection with the Ward Furniture and Undertaking establishment.
J. S. Alsbaugh and Tom Eves held forth in the Washington National and
Dr. Gilstrap had an office overhead. The Arthur Barber Shop was in this part of the block.
Lew Sprengle and August Soller had a real estate office in the back part of what is now
the First National Bank and Dr. O. D. Wells, dentist, had an office about where Dr.
LeMaster is.
Where the United Telephone building now stands, stood the Toby and
Stackpole Bank and back of that J. W, Rectors law office. North of the bank was the
Boyd Photograph Gallery and where the present Washington Hotel stands was its forerunner,
the Nims Hotel which was the last word in hotel splendor at that time. It was owned and
operated by W. E. Nims, a brother of Mrs. Eliza Rust and John and Al Nims (recently
deceased). Mr & Wi1liam Allen had a rooming house where the Cottage Hotel now stands,
the present hotel having been made when the J. G. Shanleps remodeled the old residence
after Mr. Shanlep went out of the harness business here.
Rafe Evans built the first telephone system about 1899 and later H. O.
Janicke bought and operated the system. The first electric light plant was situated about
where the Washington Monument Works are, but finally went out of existence.
Early State History Of The Discovery of Kansas
Kansas sod was first trodden on by Europeans 200 years before the settling of
Jamestown in Virginia or the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth on the New England coast,
for in 1541 and 42 Coronado and his Spanish expedition from Mexico marched through
the state from south to north in search of the seven fabled cities of Cibola. Strictly
speaking the earliest history of Washington County commenced in 1542 for historians
contend that these Spaniards crossed the Little Blue river near the northern boundary of
Washington County. Can you not see them, the plumed knights mounted on steeds searching
for the cities of Gold?
In 1719 Kansas was visited by a Frenchman, M. Dustine who took
possession of the country in the name of France.
In 1803 Louisiana, including all of Kansas, was purchased from France
by the United States.
The overland commerce between Missouri and Santa Fe was established in
1823 and two years later the Santa Fe Trail was surveyed by the United States government.
Fort Leavenworth was established in 1827 and in 1850 the government surveyed the military
road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Kearney. Three years later Fort Riley was established.
In 1845 the Mormons assembled near the present site of Atchison to
commence their journey across the plains, and from that time the soil of Kansas has been
crossed in all directions by the trails of emigrants bound for the Rockies and beyond.
Traders, missionaries and Indian agents were the only white persons to whom the country
was open until 1854 at which time the Kansas Nebraska bill was signed by President Pierce.
Washington County --
1938
Washington county, located in the northern tier of counties in Kansas, ha a
population of 16, 824 compared with 17, 504 for 1937. The total population in cities is
reported as 5,711 and in the townships as 11,113.
The population by township and city follows:
Township |
1938 |
1937 |
Barnes |
502 |
549 |
Brantford |
440 |
467 |
Charleston |
434 |
466 |
Clifton |
485 |
489 |
Farmington |
482 |
503 |
Coleman |
418 |
451 |
Franklin |
458 |
577 |
Grant |
426 |
469 |
Greenleaf |
451 |
439 |
Haddam |
475 |
514 |
Hanover |
459 |
491 |
Highland |
263 |
272 |
Independence |
554 |
518 |
Kimeo |
436 |
472 |
Lincoln |
422 |
426 |
Linn |
468 |
474 |
Little Blue |
376 |
427 |
Logan |
378 |
388 |
Lowe |
473 |
492 |
Mill Creek |
503 |
510 |
Sheridan |
435 |
461 |
Sherman |
446 |
475 |
Strawberry |
474 |
498 |
Union |
335 |
371 |
Washington |
520 |
542 |
Barnes City |
401 |
439 |
Clifton City |
433 |
416 |
Greenleaf City |
745 |
733 |
Haddam City |
390 |
427 |
Hanover City |
922 |
921 |
Linn City |
385 |
416 |
Mahaska City |
220 |
218 |
Morrowville City |
245 |
249 |
Palmer |
168 |
190 |
Vining |
90 |
110 |
Washington |
1,575 |
1,644 |
Hollenberg |
137 |
--- |
Totals |
16,824 |
17,504 |
|
Farm Acreage In 1938 Report
For the year 1938 assessors reports show 521,108 acres of farm land in
Washington county. This includes 158,727 acres that were seeded to wheat; 65,155 acres of
corn, 33,846 of oats, 6,750 of barley and 17 ,420 acres of alfalfa.
4,010,369 gallons of milk were produced last year in Washington county,
1,704,033 dozen eggs were laid, 380,727 chickens were raised, 18,298 turkeys, 14,420
calves were born, 22,735 pigs, 2,454 lambs, 537 horse colts and 171 mule colts.
County Ticket For 1938 Election
Since 1938 is election year, a list of the county candidates for offices is
included:
Register of DeedsRepublican, Herman Worschow.
Democrat, Daisy Peeples.
SheriffRepublican, F. A. Diedrichs. Democrat, John Burnett.
County SuperintendentRepublican, Chester Morris.
Clerk of District CourtRepublican, Alta Hennon. Democrat, Ray Unfred.
State RepresentativeRepublican, Wilbur Kohlmeier. Democrat, Ed Geistfeld.
County ClerkRepublican, R. M. Landon. Democrat, J. A. Patterson.
County TreasurerRepublican, Sherman Lull. Democrat, Ed Danielson.
Probate JudgeRepublican, J. P. Snare. Democrat, Oliver Skipton.
County CommissionerRepublican, J. D. Werner. Democrat, Ed Lohmeyer.
County AttorneyRepublican, Loren Rosenkranz.
County Officers In Court House
The new Washington county court house is one of the most attractive court
houses in this section of the state. It is surrounded by a large lawn of grass with
several small trees.
On the main floor of the Court House the offices of the County
Engineer, the Register of Deeds, the County Treasurer, the County Clerk, the
Commissioners Office and the Probate Judge.
Q. H. Miller is the County Engineer and Mrs. Gladys McLeod is his
assistant.
The Register of Deeds is Herman C. Worschow. His deputy is Mrs. Roxy
Longwell.
Sherman F. Lull is the County Treasurer. This is his first term as
County Treasurer although he served two terms as Deputy. His Deputy is John Schwab. Ruth
Griffin also assists in the Treasurers office.
The County Clerk is R. M. Landon. Mrs. Veva Bonar is Deputy County
Clerk.
R. L. Rust is Probate Judge and County Judge. His deputy is Mrs. Harold
T. Barnes.
The County Commissioners are George Wilkins of Linn, Orville Graham of
Washington, and Murray Moore of Barnes. Mr. Graham is chairman of the board.
On the second floor of the Court House the offices of the Sheriff,
Clerk of District Court, County Attorney and County Superintendent of Schools are located.
Also on this floor is found the Court Room and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
office. Judge Tom Kennett of Concordia is Judge of the District Court.
Mrs. Robert Meyer, Miss Hilda Vell, Miss Genevieve Novotny, Miss Zoa
Diedrich, Miss Zola Barckley, Miss Helen Evans and Miss Ruth Elaine Wieters work in the
AAA office. The Seed Loan office is also located on this floor.
Fred A. Diedrichs is Sheriff of Washington County. Nate Bond is his
deputy.
Chester Morris is serving his first term as County Superintendent. Mrs.
Nate Bond is deputy.
Mrs. Alta Hennon is Clerk of the District Court. Miss Della Hoerman is
deputy.
The County Attorney is Loren Rosenkranz. Miss Nadine Lobaugh works part
time in the office.
Several offices are located in the basement of the Court House.
The Farm Bureau office includes two rooms. Leonard F. Neff is County
Farm Agent. Miss Eleanor Ehlers is his assistant. Miss Vira Brown is Home Demonstration
Agent and O. Willard Kershaw is in charge of 4-H work. Miss Margaret Horner is also in the
office.
Mrs. Nettie Shuss is the Poor Commissioner. Miss Mary Henderson and
Mrs. Ira Lillibridge, Miss Esther Gressman, Miss Edith Meyer, Miss Maxine Doebele and Mrs.
Lula Johnson help in the office which is located just east of the Farm Bureau office.
The Farm Administration office is also in the basement of the Court
House with Buford Miller in charge.
James Pifer is the janitor of the Court House.
FAMOUS ROUTE OF PONY EXPRESS
IS DEPICTED IN MAP BY W. R. HONNELL
Months of Research Brings to Light Entertaining and Thrilling
Tales of Stirring Days When Riders Dared Indians and Elements to Carry the Mails Over
Mountains and Plains
(Reprinted by permission of the Kansas City Kansan)
W. R. Honnell, veteran member of the
board of education and a student of early day history of the American frontier has
completed a map of the route of the Pony Express which was operated for a period of
eighteen months and provided 10-day mail service between St. J oseph, Mo., then the
western terminus of the Burlington Railroad, and Sacramento, Calif.
Research over a period of more than six months was necessary for
Honnell to finish the undertaking. The map shows the location of every station on the more
than 2,000-mile route.
Honnell was familiar with the early day Pony Express, being born at
Kennekuk, Kan., one of the stations along the route. Since he was born the same year the
express was established, most of his recollections are of hearsay remarks by those
acquainted with the band of men who, so valiently carried the mail through to the western
coast.
Stories of Old Trail
Honnells early day remembrances of the stories of the old trail
were further enhanced by the yarns related by two of his uncles who braved the dangers of
the unknown trails to the mining fields of California in the gold rush of 1849. The
uncles, in company with three other men, made the long trek across the western plains and
desert in an old covered wagon. Enroute their two yoke of oxen died of starvation and
thirst and the weary band of travelers finally reached their destination some six months
later with themselves pulling a crude cart made from the two rear wheels of the wagon.
A year later one of Honnells uncles returned after making the
homeward trip around the cape in a sailing vessel and with some $9,000 worth of gold dust
in his pocket.
Dangerous Route
The old Oregon Trail over which the adventurous souls made their way in
search of fame and fortune was frought with the greatest of dangers. Marauding bands of
Indians and renegade whites, took an awful toll among the spirited individuals who left
the security of the east to gamble with death in a search for a new home and happiness in
the west.
During his lifetime Honnell has owned three farms bordering the old
trail and on each of these farms he reports he has discovered unmarked graves where rest
the mortal remains of those who flaunted fate and came out loser. According to Honnell an
estimated 5,000 persons perished before they reached the foothills of the Rockies,
succumbing on the sun-baked plains of Kansas and Nebraska.
Unable to find any authentic data about the early day transportation
experiment, Honnell decided to map the route followed by the venturesome riders. This he
had done after nearly eight months of study and research, which included correspondence
with several score old timers who have vivid recollections of the early express route and
its riders.
Start of Pony Express
The idea for the Pony Express was conceived by the members of the
transportation firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell. At that time the three men operated
the most extensive transportation company in the west. Huge caravans of covered wagons
operated by the company made regular trips over the Oregon trail with their cargoes of
freight and supplies for those in the western camps and outposts. No firm had a higher or
more deserved reputation for integrity. Employees, on entering the service, were required
to subscribe to an oath that they would not drink, use profane language, or fight or
quarrel with other employees of the firm. Overland freight trains operated by the company
always rested on Sundays.
Something of the vastness of the firm can be comprehended by a
statement made by Horace Greeley in 1859 when he reported that some 6,000 teamsters,
50,000 oxen and more than 5,000 wagons were in the employ of the company. In 1865,
according to Honnell, the firm dispatched from Atchison, Kan., more than 21 million tons
of freight, which had been shipped there by boat, bound for points in the west.
Need for Mail Route
The westward migrations of the Mormons in 1847 and the discovery of gold in
1848 brought about the demand and the necessity for the Pony Express which, in
Honnells opinion saved California to the union. It also proved that permanent lines
of communication could be maintained over the dangerous route through all seasons of the
year.
When the line was first established it cut the mail time more than two
thirds. Prior to the establishment of the express route, the fastest trips took thirty
days. The pony riders maintained a regular schedule of ten days. One trip, bearing the
news of Lincolns inaugural address, was completed in seven days and seventeen hours,
according to Honnell.
In establishing the route 190 stations were set up over the hazardous,
2,000-mile unmarked trail. Four hundred station keepers and helpers were employed to care
for the horses and riders and an average of 450 of the best horses available were kept by
the company. There were forty main division points along the trail.
Riders in Relays
At each division point fresh riders sped the mail on its dangerous trip. Each
rider would ride 100 to 110 miles but horses were changed at stations spotted along the
trail at twelve to fifteen mile intervals. The stations were little more than tiny shacks
with a stable for the fleet horses. Often a rider would come over a small rise, expecting
to change to a fresh horse, only to find that Indians had descended on the place,
massacred those in the station, driven away the horses and set fire to the buildings. The
rider and his mount would then have to go on to the next station before they were allowed
a well earned rest, Honnell explained.
The Pony Express riders were chosen with great care from young men who
had been reared on the frontier and who were alert horsemen, according to Honnell. No
others would have been equal to this arduous task of skill and endurance. They were noted
for their bravery and coolness in moments of great danger. They had to be able to think
and act quickly, for they were continually surrounded by danger from Indians, from
renegade outlaws and horse thieves not to mention severe winter storms and snow filled
mountain passes.
Mail Had to Go Through
The mail must go through was the motto of the hardy band of horsemen,
according to Honnell. Through sunshine and storm, without even the friendly stars to guide
the riders along their lonely journey. They rode on day and night, singing their love
songs to the rhythm of their galloping ponies, as they passed through herds of stampeding
buffalo, prowling coyotes and lobo wolves.
Many of the dim trails were scarcely more than a bridle path,
zigzagging along the streams and the brinks of dark precipes, and the narrow caverns were
infested with blood-thirsty savages lying in wait to lift the scalps of the daring riders
who had entered their lonely fastness.
Often their ponies stepped into badger holes and prairie dog dens,
throwing horse and rider and frequently injuring both, according to Honnell. Often such a
fall would break the horses leg. Then the rider would remove his precious mail sack
and with a sad heart dispatch his pony as an act of mercy rather than leave it to be
devoured by the wolves. He would then wend his way on foot to the next station where a new
mount would be provided and the mail would be carried even faster in an attempt to make up
the lost time.
Death Rate Low
Contrary to popular belief, the death rate among the riders was surprisingly
low, according to Honnell. In his investigation he discovered but one rider who had been
killed by the Indians while he was carrying the mail. In this instance the horse escaped
and made its way to the next station and the precious cargo of mail was saved.
Many were the narrow escapes that the courageous riders had. Numerous
tales relate how a dust covered rider on his sweat streaked horse, would gallop to the
protection of the station house with blood streaming from one or more arrow wounds.
The riders, with the fleetest mounts the company could buy, had the
advantage over the humble redskins with their inferior grade horses. Riders were
instructed to out run the Indians and give battle only when there was no other
alternative.
Each horseman was armed with two revolvers, a knife and an extra
cylinder of cartridges. The entire equipment, including the saddle and bridle, did not
exceed thirteen pounds and the weight of the mail sack was never over twenty pounds,
according to Honnell. The charge for carrying the letters was $5 for each one-half ounce.
To economize letters were written on the finest grade tissue paper.
Riders Well Paid
The regular riders were extremely well paid for those times, with salaries
ranging from $100 to $125 a month. Station keepers were paid $50 to $100 per month and
were given their board. As a financial success the great transportation venture
didnt fare so well. It was established at a cost of more than $700,000, and the
receipts during the eighteen months of operation totaled but $500,000 according to
Honnell.
Undoubtedly the venture would have proved successful were it not for
the fact that telegraph lines were strung to the coast and the railroad lines completed.
When it was seen that the schedule of the Pony Express could be maintained, the telegraph
and train service was installed. The hardy riders were unable to cope with the speed of
lightning or the charge of the "iron horse" across the prairies and what was
probably the most courageous transportation experiment in the history of the world was
disbanded.
Riders Were Famous
Many famous figures in frontier history were at one time or another employees
for the Pony Express. "Wild Bill" Hickock, "Buffalo Bill" Cody as well
as others whose lives were devoted to opening a new country over which American
civilization was ultimately to spread, have their names firmly entrenched in the annals of
Pony Express history.
Among the famous riders was Jack Keetely, whose regular run was from
the eastern terminus of the route, westward to Seneca, Kan. This was later extended to
Rock Creek, Neb., and the leathery rider performed one of the most remarkable rides in the
history of the service. He rode from Rock Creek to St. Joseph, returned to Rock Creek and
then doubled back over the route to Seneca without so much as taking time enough for a
good meal. In all he covered a total of 340 miles by spending thirty-one continuous hours
in the saddle. When he entered Seneca at the completion of the record breaking run he was
taken from his saddle fast asleep, according to Honnell.
"Wild Bill" Hickok
Another of the famous pioneers of the west who was an employee of the company
was "Wild Bill" Hickok, who was placed in charge of the station at Rock Creek,
Neb., on the ranch of David C. McCanles, a virile character of questionable standing.
McCanles was quarrelsome and domineering, according to Honnell. One day he came over to
the station to take charge of the place with his henchmen. In the fight that resulted
Hickok was alleged to have killed the band of four men. "Wild Bill" and his
associate at the station house were arrested and tried on a murder charge, but were
acquitted.
Hickok was reputed to be the most successful peace officer that the
frontier ever had and the most deadly and unerring shot. When he was appointed marshal of
Abilene, he had already killed forty-three men in the line of duty, not including the men
or the Indians while scouting, according to Honnell.
One interesting tale demonstrating his prowess as a marksman is told
about Hickok. When marshal of Abilene, two men committed murder and fled, pursued by
Hickok. They went into a saloon at Solomon and "Wild Bill" followed them. They
escaped by a rear door, each taking a different direction. When Hickok emerged from the
saloon with a revolver in each hand, he killed both men, but the bystanders said they
heard but one shot. He could place objects fifty feet away and widely apart and shoot both
at the same time, Honnell said.
"Buffalo Bill" Cody
William F. Cody, who later gained the title of "Buffalo Bill was
the most widely known of all the Pony Express riders. His route was the most perilous of
any along the long trail, lying between Red Butte and Three Crossings in Wyoming. It was
in the center of the hunting grounds of the Sioux nation and a rendezvous of outlaws and
horse thieves, Honnell relates.
Escapes from Indians
His numerous escapes from skirmishes with the Indians fill many of the pages
in his Biography. One day when he arrived at Three Crossings, his home station, he
discovered that the rider scheduled to relieve him, had been killed the day before in a
drunken brawl. Without the slightest hesitation, he obtained a fresh mount and pushed on
to the next station, Rock Ridge, eighty-five miles away over extremely hazardous trails.
Arriving there he obtained the eastbound mail, turned around and made the trip back to Red
Butte. In all he covered a total of 322 miles over the roughest trails of the Pony Express
route. This and the ride of Keetely stand out as the longest rides made by any of the
hardy riders, Honnell explained.
The mail was carried in a "mochila" which fitted over the
saddle and contained four 12 by 9 inch pouches in which the mail was secreted. Another
interesting tale told by Honnell concerning "Buffalo Bill" has to do with an
instance when he carried a large amount of money on his run. Knowing that numerous bad men
were in the region, the courageous rider used two "mochilas," placing the one
containing the valuables under his saddle and another, containing worthless papers over
the saddle. Sure enough, after he was a few miles on his journey, two men jumped from
behind a clump of trees and covered him with their rifles. "Buffalo Bill" gave
them the worthless sack, but they relaxed their vigil for a moment and he shot and killed
one of the men and the other fled. Thus he was able to recover the second
"mochila" although its contents were of no value.
A Saga of the Old West
Without doubt the short history of the early day Pony Express
is firmly imprinted in the saga of the romantic old west. The venturesome riders with
their fleet steeds certainly composed the "air mail" of the nineteenth century.
The 10-day communication facilities with the Pacific coast probably did more to open the
country for civilization than any other enterprise until the completion of the first rail
track which was rushed after the express riders started their regular runs. The Pony
Express is firmly entrenched in the annals of the history of the American frontier and the
riders did much to pave the way for the rapid spread of civilization over the wide expense
of fertile plains, through lofty crags and mountains to the western slopes of the Rockies
that gently dip into the waters of the Pacific.
COTTONWOOD
STATION
by John G. Ellenbecker of Marysville
One mile northeast of the present
Hanover, on the west bank of Cottonwood creek, still stands the old station house of
Cottonwood or Hollenberg station. This building built out of native sawed lumber, was
erected by G. H. Hollenberg in late 1857 and '58, where the Oregon and California Trail
crossed Cottonwood creek, a tributary of the Little Blue river from the northeast.
The main structure was about 20x70 feet, a story and a half high. It
was the first frame house, if not the first house, built in Washington county. It was and
still is situated on a sightly knoll overlooking a rich wooded bottom of the creek after
which it was named.
Built for Commerce
The old Trail, used ever since 1827, came from Westport, Mo., up along the
Kaw, crossing this stream at various points above, on and below the present site of
Topeka, bearing northwestward, crossed the Black Vermillion and the Big Blue in Marshall
county; then ran on northwest past Hollenbergs ranch, on along the Little Blue to
Fort Kearney and to the Pacific ocean.
On that site G. H. Hollenberg saw an opportunity to make money by
supplying the needs of the immigrants moving in wagon trains along that Trail into the
great West.
So hauling the lumber from the Barrett saw mill, he constructed this
ranch building so large that it would house himself and family and furnish quarters for a
general store and post office and hostlery.
When G. H. Hollenberg came west in 1854 he first settled on the Black
Vermillion near where now is Bigelow, on this old Trail. There he also operated a store
and a farm. Here on May 15, 1858, he was married to Miss Sophia Brockmeier and took his
bride at once to his recently built Cottonwood Station.
Saw Heavy Travel
In those years there was heavy travel over the Oregon Trail. The gold rush of
the early 50s had barely subsided. Each year during 1858 and 59 and the
60s perhaps 15,000 immigrants went westward over this trail.
A station like this did a great deal of business. There were always
people there for meals or for lodging or in camp. The store was called on for clothing and
food stuffs by these people, as flour, bacon, coffee, sugar, butter, milk and eggs. Many
other things had to be freighted from St. Joseph or Atchison by wagon.
Then the large number of animals driven to the emigrants wagons
and stage coaches required oats, corn, and hay, especially in winter. Then at a ranch like
this there was always a demand for horses and cattle; and herds of each of these were
raised on the fine bluestem pastures and kept for sale at the station.
Pony Express Starts
So in those spacious bottoms of Cottonwood creek a large amount of corn was
raised by Mr. Hollenberg and considerable hay also for the trade was put up each autumn.
In the spring of 1860, just before the Pony Express was started, A, E,
Lewis of Atchison, the superintendent of the Eastern division, came along and made
arrangements for Mr. Hollenberg to house and feed three or four fleet ponies to run the
beats eastward and westward on and after April 3.
Below the hill from the station house was a long stable that could
house and shelter perhaps 100 head of horses and oxen; and this was always in demand,
especially during cold weather. There was a large corral to hold loose stock and ricks and
ricks of hay stood on the windward side shouldering each other. Nearby were also corn
cribs and grain bins.
At the beginning from April 3, the Pony Express mail passed here both
ways once a week. After June 1, 1860, twice a week until July 1, 1861. From then it passed
daily eastward and westward until the enterprise was discontinued on October 24, that
year.
One of the faithful stocktenders of the Pony Express horses at
Cottonwood Station was the late Henry Brochmeyer of Hanover. His grave as well as the
monument erected to the memory of G. H. Hollenberg in the Hanover public cemetery was
decorated by the Hanover Boy Scouts on May 30th of this year (1938). This was part of the
program carried out by the Oregon Trail Memorial Association through the United States --
to decorate the graves of all persons connected with the Pony Express.
The Stage Coaches
On July 1, 1861, when the daily Holladay Stage Line was started, Mr.
Hollenberg saw new and added activity come to his place. This line ran from Atchison on
the Missouri to Sacramento in California. Every day two stages passed -- one going east
and one going west. Horses were kept here to make changes. These stages carried always a
driver and an express messenger and could accommodate nine passengers.
These people all were apt to take meals at Cottonwood Station, if they
did not stay there over night. So that old station house saw many people daily of that
moving throng; and sometimes as many as two dozen men were sleeping in the upstairs loft.
And this stage business continued until Mr. Holladay rerouted his stages over the Oketo
Cutoff.
A Famous Hostlery
Early the U. S. government gave the Cottonwood station a post office.
Hollenbergs principal clerk, George Perkins, was duly sworn in as post master and
there was the first post office in Washington county.
So in this old building, still in a fair condition of preservation, are
all the rooms wherein were discharged the various duties of post office, store, dining
hall, kitchen, and sleeping quarters.
In the heyday of its opulence and activity thousands of people annually
shared its hospitality. The king of the staging business, Ben Holladay, and secretary
quaffed at its bar and board many a time; also David Street, the general paymaster, who
passed over the route quarterly; Bela M. Hughes, the general counsel of the stage company,
and scores of other important personages graced and enjoyed its dining hall.
The Camp Grounds
It is said that in those boon days of overland travel it was a common thing
to see the people of 100 or more wagons camp over night or over Sunday around Cottonwood
station; and that to stand near the station house on the knoll and see almost numberless
campfires gleaming east and south through the bottoms of Cottonwood creek, was a sight
never to be forgotten. And so was the noise and bustle in the morning at "catching-up
time." Likewise were those camps as well as the old station house in the evening
scenes of merriment and laughter.
It should be borne in mind that four miles east of Cottonwood station
the St. Joseph feeder joined the Oregon Trail and this combined traffic passed Mr.
Hollenbergs door; and during the 50s and 60s both roads saw heavy
travel.
Frank J. Marsha1l, the founder of Marysville, in 1895, from Denver,
wrote to J. S. Magil at Marysville telling of the heavy travel when he operated the ferry
on the Big Blue. He wrote that "on some days from 5,000 to 10,000 people passed
here." Let us also keep in mind that in some emigrant trains were over 1,000 people.
In 1857 and '58, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston went over this road with
5,000 troops from Fort Leavenworth to Utah. Russell, Majors and Waddell hauled the army
supplies for these troops. They had over a dozen wagon trains hauling frieght during these
years, and for years had part of their equipment, which consisted of 6,000 wagons and
75,000 oxen, on this Oregon Trail.
A Witness To Progress
The old station house that witnessed all these old-time activities still
stands, unaltered, inchanged save for the wear and tear of the years that have flown. But
how eloquent it becomes under the sway of the reminiscent tongue and the retrospective
pen! O, that its walls could speak! It is a rare relic of the pioneer days.
This old structure, though plain and humble now amid modern
surroundings, witnessed the drama that changed a wilderness and solitude into a garden and
a park. It saw the Indian and the buffalo vanish from the plains. It saw the prairie
breaker change the bluestem vistas into our golden wheat fields. It saw the sumac and wild
cherry thickets on the rich creek bottoms give way to our fields of emerald corn.
It looked upon a drama of progress such as would take a Dickens to
describe; and a conviviality and a hospitality as only a Mark Twain could picture; and
this last named genius of the quill even tread its door steps.
I am certain that ten times as many people passed its doors during
those epochal years as now dwell in populus Washington county. Hence is it such a historic
shrine on that storied old Trail.
It has seen the regeneration of many vernal springs; it has seen four
score of snowy winters, and basked in as many sun-kissed summers. But may it survive
onward still through countless future years.
'Cottonwood' Station, A National Shrine
Deeply entrenched in the hearts of the appreciative people of the nation is
the realization of what the Pony Express really did and its corresponding effect on the
people as a binding link to what was to follow immediately and later.
Time has placed into discard all of the 190 stations in the 2000 mile
route between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacremento, Calif., save one, and that is
"Cottonwood Station" in Washington County. After a lapse of 78 years we awaken
and find the treasure is ours and that the nations eyes are focused on it.
Anew the men, women and children from near and far seek this historic
knoll with its modest frame building and its nearby small barn made of native stone.
Already they view the adjoining lowlands on the east and south, beyond which was a hollow
in the bluffs, a natural opening in the hills, through which the numberless ox-team,
horse-team, and mule-team caravans came. Almost do they see that robust young man on his
dashing steed bugle his approach to the station that the change of horses should take the
fewest seconds so that he might be "on with the mail" -- the care-taker being
left to rub down and treat the faithful horse that, wet with sweat or even white with
foam, had covered its period of miles.
Constantly increasing interest in the old Oregon Trail and the Pony
Express has been centering more and more in this old ranch house. The recent visit to
Hollenberg Ranch by Dr. Howard Driggs of New York, president of the Oregon Trail Memorial
Association; Major Arthur Proctor, secretary-treasurer; Perry Driggs, office manager; and
John Ellenbecker, Marysville, historian and a director of the organization was
instrumental in creating. a more vivid picture of the importance and historic value of the
Ranch. Speaking at the dedication of a marker that was being placed on a road near the
Ranch, Dr. Driggs said in part:
"You
people of Washington and Marshall counties are the possessors of one of the most precious
historic spot in the United States today. We of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association in
the past several years in our national study of the Trail and historic spots in connection
with it have found nothing equal to it in historic importance. Having gone over the trail
several times we have found foundations of old stations, here and there a fallen down
barn, and ruins of old stations and barns. It is the outstanding pleasure of the entire
trip for me to stand here today before this building -- the only original, unaltered Pony
Express station standing in the United States today -- and take part in the dedication of
this marker. Surely this is one spot that should be preserved for the inspiration of
future generations."
From a historical standpoint that old
building and the ground on which it stands is sacred ground. The younger generation and
the generations yet unborn should be given the opportunity to visit this station. It
should be their privilege "to thrill to the thundering of hoofbeats of the
riders" as they dashed across an unsettled country amid thousands of dangers unheard
of today.
In this streamlined age of speed in transportation we are prone to
forget the accomplishments of the Pony Express in 1860 and 1861 and its glorious
achievements of the opocal expansion and widening civilization of our great nation. A
glimpse at this old relic of the past and a walk over the grounds where every inch has
been gladly of sadly trodden upon in the early day would call us from our reverie and
ignite that spark of appreciation due these active, valiant men. As we stand on this
hallowed ground, we might even absorb some of their genius, their courage, their
perservance, their devotion to duty and utter disregard for hardship.
Cottonwood Station should be kept intact. It should by all means be
preserved. An immediate reconditioning of this national historic spot is urged that all
may be in readiness when the great groups of people visit it. The time is ripe for the
development of a national park to include these memorable grounds. The time is here for a
few acres of ground to be set aside for beautification that a return as nearly as possible
to its original appearance might be made.
The Old Pioneers Story
There child, put back the little faded sheet
Of yester-years. Come here and quietly sit down.
Those memories are so very dear to me,
The prairie and the little scattered town --
Just one lone store within its house of frame
And six or eight log cabins weathered brown;
As soon its I arrived, I stood and watched
The stockades smoldering ruins -- just burned down.
They told how it had housed a tiny print-shop --
A county paper in that early day.
Yes, young Mark Kelley did a lot to bring
Such men as me from states so far away.
Ten thousand families -- so that paper said
Was what we needed in this country then;
And how they came, yes, by the score,
Good, kind, brave-hearted, valiant men.
It was in eighteen seventy the rush began
From the Eastern states. The town was plotted by them.
Many new buildings swiftly went up round the square
And numberless homesteads were filed by dozens of men.
In winter, our larder was well supplied with game
And prairie chickens made the best of pie,
Turkeys, buffalo and deer still roamed at will
But not for long for their demand was high.
Many a man of the trail remembers the house
Of logs with its inviting well in the midst of the road
Where so often they paused to quench the thirst
Of man and beast, and rest from the dust and the load.
Though it followed the ridge, the road was long;
For supplies, be they meager or much, must be brought to the claim.
Be man rich or poor it mattered not,
The gait of horses and oxen was much the same.
Small school houses went up, first one then another,
And they housed entertainment as well as the "rule."
Home talent plays were given and granges were held
As well as spelling bees and singing school.
Anon, the little county paper came
A welcome guest within each household there
And "stranger" was synonymous with "friend"
And given place within the fireside chair.
Happy the youngster who happened to spend the night
Within the crude home of the old pioneer; for oft
They would play in the bluestem till dark, or help with the chores.
Then after the wee tots were all put to bed in the loft
They would pop corn over a crackling hot fire,
Or make candy of home-grown sorghum molasses
But usually managed to save out a bit for next day
Just to lazily munch on at recess from classes.
One calm fall night when the moon was riding high,
A group of young people made straight for the old south mill;
A party they called it, with post-office and love-in-the-dark,
And other such games. Yes, I remember it still,
There were dancing clubs with a small orchestra:
A violin, organ and old bass viol. But say --
They do the same things now that they used to do,
Except that theyre done in a slightly different way.
There child, my story is about complete
For seventy years have almost come and gone;
And, though we old men linger by the road,
The younger generation hurries on.
But still, the greatest game in life, you'll find
Is building a home, that harbors a love so pure,
So clean, that nothing e'er can shake your trust --
That's the kind that always will endure.
--Anita Welch Fletcher
Fort
Leavenworth Military Road
The old Military Road was the first and
most important transportation line across Northeast Kansas, and from there to the Far
West. White men followed the Indians over its original trace. Pioneer settlers of Kansas,
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington
plodded over its weary length to open up half a continent.
We are indebted to George A. Root of the Kansas Historical Society for
the following story. He searched through 150 volumes of Western books and many manuscripts
for his material. We consider it so vital to an understanding of how the original settlers
arrived in this and other Western territory, that it is printed in the forepart of this
edition.Editor.
Written by George A. Root
of the Kansas State Historical Society
Threading its way over the hills to the northwest from Cantonment Leavenworth
in early days ran a trail no doubt used by the plains Indians from time immemorial. This
trail was laid out by no surveyor. It was a natural highway to the mountains, the Pacific,
and Oregon, and ultimately developed into the most important highway of the
trans-Mississippi region.
Several military roads were laid out from Fort Leavenworth. One ran to
Fort Gibson; one connected with the Santa Fe Trail; another ran to Fort Riley; another led
to the Platte river and on west. This last one was variously known as the "Military
Road" and "Salt Lake Trail." It was primarily a military road, and was laid
out to facilitate the transportation of supplies to the two newly established posts on the
Platte riverFort Kearney and Fort Laramie.
From the New York Tribune, on June 28, 1854, we condense the following
regarding this highway: The old military road, into which the road from St. Joseph
entered, was abandoned on account of the large streams, swamps, barrens and hills, and its
general crookedness. By the new road the table of distances to the Big Blue was as
follows: To Salt Creek, or Kickapoo creek, 3 miles; Rock creek, 33; Willow Brook, 5;
Millbrook, 4; Grasshopper, 7; Muddy Brook, 15; Turkey creek, 14; Vermillion, 18; Big Blue,
29, this being a distance of 131 miles from Fort Leavenworth.
(Edit. NoteAs Grasshopper was the crossing west of Kennekuk, the distance from
Leavenworth to that point was 52 miles.)
Fort Leavenworth Most Popular
On account of its central position Fort Leavenworth early became the most
favorable point of departure for expeditions to the far west. Among those via the Platte
route was that of Gen. Joseph Lane for Oregon in 1848, and Capt. Howard Stansbury for Utah
in 1849, and Fremont on an exploring tour the same year.
For a number of years prior to the establishment of Cantonment
Leavenworth in the fall of 1827 a trail led to the southwest from near the mouth of the
Kaw river, and on to Santa Fe. This highway had been used for years before being surveyed
by the U. S, government in 1825-27, and was a recognized highway before there was
any sort of government military establishment within the confines of present Kansas.
During the period to the 1840s, few white men, other than
hunters, trappers and occasional exploring parties had ever passed over the northern
trail. Following the start of emigration to Oregon, the route up the Platte river became a
popular one, and the erstwhile trail used by the Indians became a well-defined, busy
highway.
By this time a road had been laid out from Fort Leavenworth running
northward paralleling the Missouri river for some miles, no doubt to connect with an
emigrant road running westward from St. Joseph, as considerable Oregon travel was
departing from that city for the far west. For many years a great portion of the Oregon
travel was by way of the Oregon Trail from Independence, Mo., which followed the divides
on the south side of the Kansas river and crossed that stream at one of the various
ferries operating within present Shawnee County. The Trail then headed up the Kaw and Big
Blue valleys into what is now Marshall County. About five or six miles below present
Marysville, the Mormons crossed the Big Blue river at a point close to the mouth of the
Little Blue. This point took the name of Independence Crossing, the name attaching on
account of Latter Day Saints driven out of Independence, Mo., crossing the Blue at this
point. A noted camping place was situated close to this crossing, known as Alcove Spring,
where there was an unfailing supply of good water. This spring is said to have been
visited by Fremont in 1842, and used by the ill-fated Donner party in 1846, while on their
way to California. From here the road bore up the valley of the Little Blue and into
Nebraska.
Traffic Increased Rapidly on Route
Following the Oregon and Mormon travel of the late 1840s, traffic on
this route had increased by leaps and bounds. One trapper making his way down the Platte
from Fort Laramie, counted no less than 4,000 wagons all headed westward. Another
authority recorded over 6,000 wagons loaded with freight passing Fort Kearney going west,
within a short space of time, over 900 going by during the last three days of the count.
Paxson, in his "History of the American Frontier -- 1763-1893" states that
"upwards of 70,000 men, women and children, with wagons, and flocks and herds
innumerable passed over this road in 1849-50."
On account of this increasing travel westward from Fort Leavenworth,
Capt. Howard Stansbury in 1849-50, surveyed a route to Salt Lake. This survey located the
crossing of the Big Blue at present Marysville, a few miles up stream from old
Independence Crossing, which proved to be a more advantageous point for freighters to
cross the river.
Traveling as it did the buffalo range, the road also ran through the
heart of the plains Indians country. The Indians naturally resented the long trains
of white-topped wagons, creaking along this trail through their favorite hunting grounds,
and now and then committed some overt acts intended to show their resentment. For the
protection of these travelers the government built a post on the south side of the Platte
river in 1849, which was first known as Fort Child, and shortly afterwards changed to Fort
Kearney, in honor of the general of that name. This was the first military post
established by the United States on this route between the Missouri river and the Pacific
coast. Fort Kearneys early buildings were constructed of sod and adobe, but
officers quarters were said to have been built of lumber, and were up-to-date for
those early times.
Noted Travelers Traveled This Route
The Platte river ran along to the north of the fort stretching for many miles
to the east and west. In many respects this stream is much like the Arkansas river to the
southmaking up in width what it lacks in depth. Washington Irving wrote of the
Platte in 1832: "It is the most magnificent and most useless of streams."
Artemus Ward, the humorist, crossed the plains in 1864 by the Platte route and wrote that
"the Platte would be a good river if set up on edge." Having a shallow channel,
the waters are more or less roily at times, which fact prompted some wag of earlier days
to remark that catfish navigating the stream were obliged to come out of the water ever so
often to sneeze, in order to rid their lungs of sediment accumulated.
It was some undertaking to get ready for an overland journey in those
early times, and required not only much time in preparation but the expenditure of large
sums of money as well. All staple supplies were to be found at the large outfitting houses
at Missouri river points, and were to be had at reasonable prices. When bought at any of
the trading posts farther west such articles cost double or triple what they did at
Missouri river points.
Indians were a hazard at all times and had to be reckoned with.
Frequently they held up a wagon train. If they refrained from making warlike attacks to
get what they wished, they got what they wanted by more subtle methodsby
beggingmaking such outrageous demands for eats and tobacco that the travelers were
practically "cleaned out." The most serious of these disturbances were those
which occurred along the Platte route during the summer of 1864, participated in by
Cheyennes, Sioux, Kiowas and Arapahoes.
Lost Half a Million in Six Weeks
All traffic for a distance of 300 miles suddenly stopped, and no freighting
or stage service was carried on for six weeks. The Overland Stage line lost heavily by
these depredations, its losses amounting to more than half a million dollars. From a few
friendly Indians who straggled into the forts it was learned that they had met and
conversed with marauding bands of these hostiles, from whom the information was gleaned
that the Indians were fearful of the paleface emigration westward and feared that they
(the Indians) would soon lose all their land. The land, they declared, belonged to them
exclusively and it was their intention to again get possession of it and hold it, even if
they had to kill every man, woman and child to accomplish their purpose.
Cholera was scarcely less to be feared on the plains than Indians in
the "Forties" and "Fifties." This scourge is said to have been
introduced on the plains by travelers who came up the Mississippi and Missouri by
steamboats. At practically every camping place along the trail from Missouri river points
to out along the Blue and Platte rivers freshly dug graves marked the spot where some
unfortunate pilgrim had been laid away.
Immensity of the Freighting Business
Following the discovery of gold in California in the late 1840s,
immigration received a great impetus. Wagon trains along the trail increased by the
thousands. Many of these started from St. Joseph and Westport, but the greater portion
left Fort Leavenworth. Some idea of the freighting business by oxen which grew out of this
overland traffic may be gleaned from the following taken from an address by Alexander
Caldwell, an early day freighter of Leavenworth:
"Before the Civil War Kansas City, Independence and St. Joseph were the great
outfitting points for freighting across the plains, but during the war and afterwards,
Leavenworth, Atchison, Nebraska City and Omaha were the principal points of departure.
Leavenworth, however, being far in the lead in account of the vast quantity of military
stores concentrated at that point for distribution to points in the West. One company
having headquarters at Leavenworth, estimated that supplies required annually for the
military alone, amounted to from 35 to 50 millions of pounds. A train of 25 wagons started
from the Missouri river on the first day of May, required about five months to reach Salt
Lake City. A wagon train usually consisted of 26 wagons, with 300 head of cattle; 25
drivers; a captain (or wagon master); an assistant; and 3 extra men; in all 30
men. To transport 50,000,000 pounds of freight by wagon train, required 10,000 wagons;
12,000 men and 120,000 head of stock.
"These prairie schooners, if placed end to end in one continuous
line in the ordinary way of freighting, would have formed a column more than 1,000 miles
long. This was an expensive method of transportation, for the equipment necessary to
carry on ran into big money. A single train of 26 wagons represented an
investment of about $35,000, and equipment and stock necessary to transport 50,000,000
pounds of freight would cost more than $5,000,000. The cost of subsisting and moving these
caravans was enormous, and therefore large rates of transportation were paid. As late as
1865 the Government paid $2.25 per 100 pounds per 100 miles. The distance from Leavenworth
to Salt Lake City being 1,200 miles, made the cost per 100 pounds $27, or $540 per ton. At
this rate a wagon train of 25 wagons would earn $45,000. Today the same amount of freight
is taken by rail at a cost of $1,500."
The Bull Whacker Knew His Business
The early day professional "bull whacker" was a hard citizen.
Profanity was a part of his nature, and it is said that the cattle did their best pulling
in proportion to the energy and fluency with which the driver delivered himself of his
most vigorous efforts in that line. In wet weather wagons would become mired in the mud up
to the axle and the cattle in the mire almost to their backs. The late Thomas A. Scott,
railroad magnate, having a moneyed interest in a freighting outfit, passed by one wagon
mired down to the axle, addressing the driver said: "Well, my man, you are in a bad
fix." "Oh, no," he replied, "I am all right, but there are two wagons
below mine, and those fellows down there are having a hell of a time."
While passing through territory where Indian attacks were likely, most
thorough precautions were taken. Corraling live stock at night was one of the time-honored
chores for the safe guarding of live stock. Capt. Howard Stansburg, setting out from Fort
Leavenworth for Salt Lake City, in June 1852, describes corraling which he had seen for
the first time. "The wagons were drawn up in the form of a circle and chained
together, leaving a small opening at one place, through which the cattle were driven into
the inclosed space at night, and guarded. The arrangement is an excellent one, and
rendered impossible what is called a stampedea mode of assault practiced
by Indians for the purpose of carrying off cattle or horses, in which, if possible, they
let loose some of the animals and so frightened the rest as to produce a general confused
flight of the whole. To a few determined men, wagons thus arranged for a breastwork, made
them exceedingly difficult to be carried by any force of undisciplined savages."
Ox-drawn wagons made slow progress across the plains making a speed of
about two miles an hour. On days when everything went right, they made 20 miles. Contrast
this with modern trucks on paved highways, hauling loads of two tons or so, and making
from 35 to 40 miles an hour.
With the opening of Kansas and Nebraska and the increased traffic
westward, a brief mention of the new towns and settlements which sprang up along the route
in Kansas might be interesting.
Military Road Through Kennekuk
The highway from Fort Leavenworth bore to the westward over a portion of what
was later known as the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Riley road, to a point known as the
"Eight Mile House," a popular early day inn and tavern, which stood a short
distance southeast of the present village of Lowemont, Leavenworth County. Here the road
branched off sharply to the northwest, while the Fort Riley road veered to the southwest,
towards present Easton. The north branch entered Atchison County a few miles farther on.
Among noted stopping places along the road in the Salt Creek valley, Leavenworth
County, were taverns and hotels kept by Merrill Smith; Isaac Cody, father of Buffalo Bill;
and H. P. Rively; besides the Eight Mile House operated by Dave Kelsey.
Entering Atchison County the military road continued on to a point a few
miles west of Atchison known as "Mormon Grove," which had been a popular camping
place for Mormons who were journeying west; thence on in the same direction through
present Huron and on to Kennekuk, where the road from St. Joseph intersected it. The road
from St. Joseph was known as the St. Joseph emigrant road. The Pony Express also traveled
this road.
The Famous Pony Express
This enterprise was established in 1860 by the freighting firm of Russell,
Majors and Waddell, Wm. H. Russell being president. Its mission ws to carry letters and
dispatches from the Missouri river to California within the shortest practicable time,
estimating the distance between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City could be covered in
ten days, and from there to the Pacific coast in another five days.
The first trip westward from St. Joseph to Sacramento was made in nine
days and 23 hours, while it took 11 days and 12 hours to complete the initial trip
eastward. By the "pony" route the time previously required for letters between
New York and San Francisco was reduced to 13 days, formerly requiring nearly a month.
Nearly 500 saddle horses were purchased and used in the enterprise; 190 stations had to be
maintained, and a force of about 200 men employed as station keepers and attendants, in
addition to about 80 riders.
Among the more noted of these were Alex Carlylee and Johnny Frey, each
credited with being the first rider out of St. Joseph, and Harry Roff, the first rider
starting east from the Pacific Coast. Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was also one of the
riders, on one occasion covering one of the longest "runs" ever made on the
line, 320 miles in all, at one time, while another rider Robert Haslam ("Pony
Bob") in 1860 covered 380 miles. These rides were necessitated on account of the
death of riders who should have relieved them. Riders rode night and day, covering about
200 miles a day.
The Pony Express charges originally were $5 an ounce for letters, and
the riders were limited to 20 pounds. The Pony Express lasted less than 18 months, being
abandoned on the completion of the Pacific Telegraph.
The Overland Stage Line
The Holladay Overland Stage line, running out of Atchison, also intersected
the military road at Kennekuk. This line was the successor of the C. O. C. & P. P.
Express organized by Russell, Majors and Waddell, which had started the Leavenworth &
Pikes Peak Express and the Pony Express lines. Holladay had advanced large sums to
the projectors of these enterprises and had taken over the properties on a mortgage. He
reorganized the line and added much in way of new equipment. The line originally ran out
of St. Joseph, but the point of departure was changed to Atchison in January 1860, and
operated from there to Sacramento, Calif.
There were 125 stations including Atchison to Placerville, Calif., and
the fare was $225; and $150 to Salt Lake. Passengers were allowed 25 pounds of baggage,
all excess being charged at rate of $1 a pound. Meals along the line were extra. This line
did an enormous business during the Sixties, which was offset to a considerable extent by
losses from Indian depredations at various times and points along the route, the most
serious of which occurred during 1864 along the Platte river route. Holladay had a
competitor in the Butterfield Overland Despatch line which operated along the Smoky Hill
to Denver. Butterfield becoming heavily involved financially, Holladay took over his line.
Holladay finally disposed of his Overland Stage interests to Wells,
Fargo & Co. The Overland Stage route is said to have been the longest mail and
passenger route in the world. The Overland went out of business on the completion of the
Pacific railroad. Kennekuk was about 35 miles from St. Joseph, about the same from Fort
Leavenworth and approximately 21 or 22 from Atchison. The Kickapoo Agency was also located
there.
One Station in Brown County
Kickapoo, on the Overland Stage line, was the next station on the road, 12
miles distant. This was an eating station on the line, kept by H. N. Rising, a Kansas
pioneer and surveyor. (Edit. NoteThe Kickapoo station was about six miles west of
the present site of Mercier.)
Log Chain, 13 miles farther, was the next station. This was the home of
Robert Sewell, an Overland driver, better known as "Old Bob" Ridley, who lived
close by. Bob was noted for his propensity for panhandling chewing tobacco, and was said
to have kept all the stock tenders and others on his run supplied with the "filthy
weed." The road at this point crossed a stream which had a quick sand bottom, and
1oaded wagons frequently mired so deep that help was needed in getting out. This was
usually accomplished by hooking a log chain to the axle of the mired wagon, and then
hitching extra yokes of oxen to the chain. Extra chains were kept at the station for such
emergencies, this giving an excuse for the name applied to the station. A wonderful spring
was situated at this point also. The old station site is now a part of the farm of Dr. Samuel
Murdock of Sabetha.
Seneca, 11 miles distant, located on the headwaters of the Nemaha
river, was the next stop. The station was kept by John E. Smith, a New Hampshire man. His
hotel was built of lumber hauled in from the Missouri river, and was the first building
erected on the townsite. Mr. Smith, in his time, is said to have entertained more public
men who were crossing the plains than any other living person of his day.
Laramie Creek, 12 miles beyond Seneca, was the next station, and among
the employees of the Overland line had been dubbed "Frogtown."
Guittards, 12 miles beyond, was the next station, kept by a
Frenchman named George Guittard who had settled there with his sons in September, 1857. A
son, Xavier, was the business man of the family, speaking both French and English
fluently. He was appointed postmaster by President Lincoln, and held the office till after
the year 1900.
A Famous Crossing at Marysville
Marysville, 10 miles beyond, was the next stopping point. Marshalls
trading post and ferry, originally established at Independence Crossing, were moved to
this point about 1850, after the new military road had been surveyed and the crossing
located there. This was the last point within present Kansas where a letter could be
mailed for eastern points, and this privilege cost the writer a dollar in addition to the
postage, as the missive had to be sent by freighters to some Missouri river point for
mailing. Later a company of South Carolinians laid out a townsite called Palmetto City,
adjoining Marshalls claim. Marysville, started later by Marshall, soon outstripped
and absorbed its rival. The Big Blue river at this point was fordable only during low
water, and Marshalls ferry did a thriving business, especially during spring and
early summer when hundreds of wagons and thousands of people awaited their chance to
cross. By 1852 traffic was so great that Marshall was charging $5 for crossing a wagon,
and he would only ferry people and wagons, compelling owners of livestock to swim their
animals across.
Holladay, owner of the Overland Stage line, had a grudge against
Marysville for some reason, and to get even made a change in the Overland route which left
Marysville off the route for a time. The new route ran to Oketo, some ten miles north of
Marysville, then across the Otoe reserve and into Nebraska. This change was made in the
fall of 1862, and stages were run over the new cut-off beginning with the middle of
October until early in March, 1863. The cut-off was a few miles shorter than the road via
Marysville, but freighters could not be prevailed to travel by the new route, and even the
stage employees considered the old road the better one. After a few months the differences
between Holladay and Marysville were amicably adjusted, after which the stages again
stopped in Marysville.
Hollenberg, on the Little Blue, was the last station in Kansas. It was
about 20 miles from Marysville and kept by George H. Hollenberg.
Between this point and the Platte river there were a number of small
stations, one of which was Rock Creek, where Wild Bill Hickok had his encounter with the
McCanless outfit.
Fort Kearney and Beyond
Fort Kearney on the Platte was the first station on that river going west,
the military road following up the valley on the south, which was the most universally
traveled route, although there was a road on the north side of the river.
There were several noted stations beyond Fort Kearney, one of which was
Old Julesburg, at the junction of the North and South Plattes. Here the South Platte was
forded by those who were headed for Laramie and Salt Lake. The crossing at this point was
quite wide and had a shifting sandy bed which made fording extremely hazardous, especially
with heavy loaded wagons. A grandfather of the writer in the spring of 1852 crossed here
while on his way to California, and his description of the difficulties encountered in
crossing was a most vivid one, the air resounding with the bellows of cattle hauling heavy
wagons, the creaking of the white topped vehicles, and the dusty swearing of the various
teamsters and wagon bosses, all urging their cattle and mules to "do their
durndest."
Court House Rock and Chimney Rock, further on in Western Nebraska, were
two noted landmarks seen from the road, each towering high above the plains and visible
for a number of miles.
Historic Old Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie, Wyoming, was the next important point on the road. The fort was
built on Laramie River about one-half mile above its junction with the Platte river. This
early day post had been built by trappers in 1834, and it passed into the hands of the
American Fur Company in 1835. In 1849 the United States added this post to its list of
frontier defenses, troops occupying the fort on June 16, the government taking formal
possession on June 29.
Independence Rock, to the west of Fort Laramie, was another well known
land mark that could be seen from the road, a few miles distant. The front face of the
"Rock" was covered with the names and dates of many visitors, which included
traders, trappers, freighters, emigrants, and others. The Oregon Company arrived at this
point on July 26, 1843, and chiselled the date of their arrival on the big rock. According
to Inman, the Rock derived its name from the visit of the first party of Americans who
crossed the continent by way of the Platte valley, under the leadership of a man named
Thorpe, and who celebrated their Fourth of July at the base of this historic granite
landmark.
The trail through Wyoming previous to 1847 followed the Platte to near
its source and then followed up the Sweetwater, crossing South Pass. According to
Bancroft, emigration previous to 1847 was "through South Pass to Big Sandy river.
Then to avoid a desert stretch, down the Big Sandy to its junction with Green river and
across, then up Blacks fork to Fort Bridger. The Mormons here took the road made by
Hastings and the Donner party in 1846, bearing almost due west. . . .In 1847 when the
Mormons entered the valley, there were three wagon roads into it." During the Mormon
trek thousands of the Latter Day Saints who left Independence, Mo., followed the Santa Fe
Trail as far as 110 Creek, turned to the northwest and crossed the Kansas river at a point
between Fort Riley and Junction City known as "Whiskey Point." From there the
trail ran towards the north between the Blue and Republican rivers, an on to the Platte
river in vicinity of Fort Kearney. Other Mormons crossed the Kansas river in the vicinity
of Topeka, followed up the Kaw valley and turned northward in Pottawatomie County,
crossing the Blue river below present Marysville as before mentioned.
South Pass Discovered in 1823
South Pass was the point where the military road crossed the Rocky Mountains.
This opening through the mountains was discovered by a party under Gen. William Ashley, in
1823. A grandfather of the writer, John H. Clark, crossed South Pass with a company
of California-bound gold seekers on June 20, 1852, and wrote in his journal at the time:
"About two in the afternoon we passed through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains.
There was snow on every hand. The wind blew a winters gale, drifting the loose sand
in clouds through the cold air. The Pass is quite level, so much so that it is hard to say
where the highest point lies, but after traveling a few miles we began to descend
gradually until we came to the Pacific Springs, and from there the water flowed
westward."
Fort Bridger was the next important point on the trail going west.
James Bridger, trapper and frontiersman, had discovered Great Salt Lake during the winter
of 1824-25, while with a party of trappers. Some years later he took a claim on
Blacks Fork and established a trading post, and built a large stockade. This was
located on a route used later by Oregon travelers and Mormons. Bridger carried a large
stock of dry goods, groceries, liquors, tobacco, ammunition and other supplies needed in
overland travel. Mormons camped at his place a short time to rest while on their way west.
Gen. Johnson and the "Mormon War"
In 1857, when trouble developed between the Latter Day Saints and the United
States government, the Mormons took possession of the post and erected a stone fort for
the protection of the property. That year Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was sent to Utah to
look after the situation, and his army encamped on Blacks Fork, about three miles
south. In the fort about 2,700 Mormons were snugly housed and intrenched, while
Johnstons army were housed in tents and subjected to all the rigors of a hard winter
as they encamped in the open.
Supply trains sent out from Fort Leavenworth with provisions and forage
for his army and stock, were captured by the Mormons, who ran off their stock, looted
their trains and destroyed what they could not use. Such animals as the army had been able
to hang onto, slowly starved to death, as there was no forage to be had. The cold was
intense, the thermometer at times registering 30 degrees below zero. Early in June, 1858,
the Mormons evacuated Bridgers post and retreated towards Salt Lake City, burning
the fort before leaving. Johnston and his army followed the retreating Mormons and entered
Salt Lake City on June 10, 1858. On this date Fort Bridger was taken possession of by the
army and became an important military center, though of little importance now. This was
the third military post established on the Overland route.
Salt Lake City was the next point on the trail leading to Oregon and
California. The town was laid out by the Mormons in 1847, who entered the valley under the
leadership of Brigham Young. At the time of their arrival these pioneers were desperately
poor. Everything in the way of crops planted needed to be irrigated in order to grow. The
first crop was practically a failure, and the next one was almost entirely devoured by a
plague of locusts. Succeeding years brought good crops, and the surplus was disposed of to
good advantage to emigrants journeying to Oregon and California, as the city was located
on the road leading to the Pacific coast. The city is the headquarters of the Mormon
church, and the Mormon temple and tabernacle are outstanding buildings of the church and
the city.
Oregon or California at Last!
Beyond Salt Lake City was Oregon and California. The road leading to these
territories ran around the east and north side of Great Salt Lake to the west for some
distance. The road to Oregon then branched off to the northwest while the road to
California continued over the mountains to the headwaters of the Humboldt, and followed
down that stream to the sink of the Humboldt, then over the Sierras to California. The
Oregon country, under a treaty with England in 1837, was held in joint occupation by the
United States and England for a few years, but the influx of settlers during the next few
years resulted in its being added to the domain of the United States.
The route to Oregon by 1842 was indelibly marked by those early
pilgrims, the trail being strewn by broken down wagons, discarded household goods of every
description, bones of oxen and livestock, and graves of those unable to stand the
hardships of the long journey. This year and for several years following, larger parties
left Missouri river points for that promised land, and Fort Leavenworth became the
strategic point for setting out on the journey. No definited figures of the Oregon
emigration have ever been compiled. The rush to California, beginning in the late
1840s and continuing for the next six or eight years, kept the old trail into the
Golden State one of the busiest highways of all time.
This sketch does not pretend to give anything like a complete history
of the Military Road. Its limitations forestalled that. However, it does attempt to make
brief mention of some of the more important events that occurred along its course, and to
give short sketches of some of the more important commercial enterprises that played so
important a part in the redemption of the wilderness.
Biographies of Pioneers
David E. Ballard
David E. Ballard was born in Franklin, Vt., March 20, 1836, the third child
of Appleton and Epiphena Ballard. He was reared in Sparea, Ohio, acquiring his education
in the common schools. There also he took his first lesson in the mercantile business and
was also thus engaged with his uncle at Mt. Gilead, and later again with his father at
Lansing, Mich. He remained a resident of Michigan state until 1855 and then determined to
seek the farther West. We next find him in Tama County, Iowa, where he was occupied as a
clerk in Toledo until 1857. Then crossing the Missouri River into the Territory of Kansas
he was located for a time in Lawrence and in the meanwhile had a hand in the troubles of
that period, operating under James Lane.
In 1858 he came to Washington, Kan., and was made Secretary of the
first company organized to layout the town. Subsequently he assisted in the organization
of Washington County and at the first election of county officers was chosen Register of
Deeds and County Clerk. Later further honors were bestowed upon him as he was chosen by
the Free State party as their first Representative in the Legislature. He served his full
term with great credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents.
During the first year of the Civil War he entered the army as a
private, but soon afterwards, by the urgency of friends and officials, left the ranks and
raising a company joined the 2nd Kansas Infantry as First Lieutenant of Company
H. This regiment was soon afterward transferred into the 2nd Kansas Cavalry, in
which Lieutenant Ballard served until 1865 when he was obliged to send his resignation on
account of disability. In the meantime his services received their just recognition by the
presentation to him of a Captains commission.
In May, 1865, he was appointed Quartermaster General of the Kansas
State Militia. In 1866 he was commissioned Deputy United States Surveyor of public lands
in Kansas. In 1867 he was commissioned Deputy United States Marshal in his district and in
1868 was commissioned Assistant Assessor for Division No. 4.
In 1865 he married Miss Louise Bowen of Leavenworth, Kansas. The ten
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ballard were named Ernest F., Louise, Frank C., Mabel,
Miriam, David C., Winifred, Mark A., Anna A., and Stella L. Louise died when six days old.
The two years following the war found the Ballards in Manhattan where
Col. Ballard was a land agent for the Kansas Pacific Railway. Then Mr. and Mrs. Ballard
returned to Washington county and they lived on their farm on the Little Blue about 10
miles southeast of Washington until 1901 when they moved to Washington city.
Mr. Ballard died in Florida in January, 1927, and was laid to rest in
the Washington city cemetery.
G. Henry Hollenberg
Honorable G. Henry Hollenberg was one of the most noted of the German
settlers of Kansas, and contributed very largely to the upbuilding of Hanover and the
country round about in Washington County. He was the first settler in the township and
came to the county in the fall of 1858, settling on the Old Fort Kearney Road at a point
which he called "Cottonwood Ranch." Here he kept a small stock of groceries and
general store, and also obtained an appointment for his clerk, George Perkins, and
established a postoffice at this point. He continued this ranch during the time of the
immense travel and transportation to California and the mountains by overland stage and
freighting trains.
It was near this point that the road crossed the Little Blue on the
trail to Marysville, thence to the Big Blue, from there following the valley to near Fort
Kearney. Mr. Hollenberg had his ranch here during the raid made by the Indians upon
tavelers and ranchmen further up the valley. During these troubles he was Colonel of a
regiment of state militia and an expedition was soon in pursuit of the Indians, but did
not accomplish anything more than to drive them towards the headwaters of the Republican..
Travel was soon resumed and the settlers came back to their homes. There were other raids,
but this was the most disastrous.
Mr. Hollenberg was born in the Province of Hanover, Germany, on the 19th
of December, 1823. His father, Rudolph Hollenberg, was a farmer, and his means being
small, his son received but a common-school education, and spent his early years assisting
his father on the farm. In 1849, at the time of the gold excitement in California, he left
his native land, and sailed for this country. He was then twenty-six years of age. He
tarried for three years in California, working as a common laborer in the mines, and
accumulated about $3,000, when he joined a mining expedition and sailed for Australia. In
Australia he mined quite successfully, and then a mining excitement in Peru, South
America, caused himself and sixty-five others to go to Peru. During their stay there they
suffered untold hardships; they crossed the Andes Mountains, and also crossed at great
peril a branch of the Amazon, and on account of the hostility of the Indians, having
almost every day to fight with them, their ammunition was soon exhausted, as well as their
provisions. They occupied seven months on the trip, each man being provided with two
mules, or burros, one to ride, and one to use as a pack animal. On Mr. Hollenbergs
return from that trip to Lima, he took passage for New York via the Isthmus of Panama. At
New York he was sick for a time. Becoming convalescent, his physician advised that he make
a trip for the benefit of his health. Desiring to see the States, he started westward, at
St. Louis took passage on a steamboat, and made his way up the Missouri to Weston, above
Leavenworth, and in the early spring of 1854, he came to Marshall County, Kan., and
settled on the Black Vermillion, at what is now Bigelow, a station on the Chicago,
Burlington & Union Pacific Railroad, now known as the Missouri Pacific. There he kept
a general store and also farmed, his store being at the ford on the old Independence and
California trail. In the fall of 1858, he removed to, and established the "Cottonwood
Ranch" near Hanover as above stated. While residing on the Black Vermillion, he was
married on the 15th of May, 1858, to Miss Sophia Brockmeyer, in Marshall
County.
In politics, Mr. Hollenberg was a staunch Republican, and a member of
the Lutheran Church. He was three times elected to the State Legislature of Kansas, and
was for several terms County Commissioner and always Chairman of the Board. He was a man
of the strictest honesty and integrity combined, and stood like a stone wall in favor of
right and justice. Chicanery and fraud had no chance to commit any wrong against the
county while he was in office. As the founder of Hanover and Hollenberg he will always be
remembered by the citizens of Washington County. His whole soul was in the effort to build
up the county he had selected as his future home. He was ever ready to assist his poorer
neighbors, on many occasions giving them corn and provisions, and in not a few cases
furnishing them seed for spring or fall planting. As elsewhere mentioned, he established
the city of Hanover in 1869, and his time and means are devoted to the development of that
city.
In June, 1874, Mr. Hollenberg being in poor health decided to visit his
native land with the double purpose of regaining his health and inducing emigration. He
reached New York in the latter part of June and sailed from that harbor on the steamer
"Bolivia" on the morning of July 1, 1874. The steamer was but four hours at sea
when Mr, Hollenberg was taken violently sick with hemorrhage of the lungs. Every effort
was made by those around him to relieve his sufferings, but without success. He breathed
his last about midnight, July 1, 1874, in his fifty-first year. He was buried in the
Atlantic ocean the next day, the funeral service being read by the Captain. He was
identified by the papers on his person, and after the steamer had made the trip to Glasgow
and return, the papers and an official notice of his death were mailed to his friends.
In Hanover cemetery a monument contains a brief biographical sketch of
his life, and names him the founder of Hanover and the father of Washington County. May
his many virtues be ever cherished in the memory of the citizens of the county as a bright
oasis in their history. At his death he left a large estate.
Second Planting
"These
are good years."
He set his brave words up like bowling pins,
Exactly balanced, knowing I would challellge him.
Good years,
because the elements had not defeated him,
Because his crops would feed his family and his flocks,
And leave a little over for the mortgage.
Last spring it was
so windy and so cold
He slept out in the brooder house
To watch the fire.
And earlier, the night old Baldy had twin calves,
He faced a blizzard all the way from town,
Finished the chores with hands that ached and stung,
And then spent half the night
Saving old Baldy and the calves.
There was a late frost, killing the peach crop;
A sudden hail shattered the wheat on the east forty.
Floods took the corn, and now
The second planting,
With the drouth already lurking in a cloudless sky
Like a great burnished copper kettle
Concentrating light.
His gaze was clear.
He looked down clean-plowed furrows,
And thought his horses better friends than men.
"These are good years."
I think that he was
thinking of the time
His mother walked four miles to bring him
Fresh-baked bread and the first butter they had had since fall.
Or of the day she set a breakfast
Of cornbread and molasses and strong tea,
And kept from crying. He rode alone that day
And all that night to meet the stage that brought
Provisions from the East.
Gray, gnarled and
twisted like a prairie tree,
He lifted up a thankful heart.
"These are good years."
-- Lois Thompson Paulsen.
THE ROMANCE OF DAVID AND LOUISE
It has been said that "love laughs
at locksmiths," and finds a way to overcome all barriers. The desert and the
wilderness cannot prevent, nor can war terrify "loves young dream."
Verily, thus it seems.
The Civil War, in which hundreds of thousands of the flower of American
manhood had been slain, cast its pall over the nation, when one summer night a steamboat,
wending its way up the Missouri river, stopped at Fort Leavenworth, and a slip of a girl,
after a long journey from New England, alighted. Pausing but for a moment, the whistle
blew, and the boat moved on and presently disappeared in the darkness.
There stood the young woman, all forlorn, surrounded by bag and
baggage.
Now a kindly Providence had ordained that a young Lieutenant, for
reasons perhaps he could not have explained even to himself, was there at the landing hard
by the Fort; and, noting the helpless figure, apparently quite out of place, and evidently
not knowing what to do about it, the Lieutenant, being a gentleman as well as a soldier,
inquired if he could be of assistance. Whereupon the young woman told him that she had
expected her sister and husband to meet her, as they had been informed of her intended
arrival. Some further information developed the fact that the agent "down east"
who issued her ticket, evidently because he thought that Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth
were one and the same, had issued transportation to the latter point, whereas the desired
destination was the former.
The Lieutenant, who was none other than David Ellenwood Ballard, a
citizen at the time and one of the founders of Washington county and of the State of
Kansas, procured a "rig" and took the girl, who was Louise Bowen of Vermont, to
the home of her relatives in Leavenworth, through which town she had sat tight and was
whisked on to the Fort, as the train bearing her had passed along.
Well, like the first man, who glimpsed a beautiful being amid the trees
of a garden and chose her for his mate, our hero, the Lieutenant, having found a daughter
of Eve who was no less winsome than her historic mother, in a setting however drab, was
captivated by her gentle charms, and won her for his bride. And, true to the best
traditions of romance, to the certain knowledge of this writer, David and Louise lived
happily ever after.
--J.A.M.
MEMORYS SACRED PLAQUE
On the right wall at the entrance
of the new Washington County court house is a heavy bronze tablet on which are heavily
embossed the names of the men from Washington County who made the supreme sacrifice in the
World War: Ira Austin, Lawrence K. Young, Lawrence Ernest Young, Walter W. Shaw, Clark R.
Frost, William Happ, George Wesley Hood, Harry Richmond James, Elmer S. Jennings, Henry H.
Kasha, William Willis Cummings, John Doer, Paul S. Dee, Ben Schultz, Leo F. Featherkyle,
Lyle A. Derrick, Carl Marion Cole, George Kohlmeyer, Fred Keene, Harley Gano, Perry Dodd,
William Frederick Reinecke, Neil Hillabrant, Elbert Harrison Taylor, Clement T. Farrell,
John W. Brei, Clyde Virgil Martin, Charles McHugh, William Short, Charles Graves, Herman
Prellwitz and Wade Priest.
MEMORIAL
Two things all soldiers sought was a
cold drink of water and to know the time of day.
It is altogether fitting and proper that a lasting memorial be erected
to all soldiers, living or dead.
In the 15 ft. clock tower memorial to be placed on the southwest corner
of the Washington County court house lawn, the lower part will be a drinking fountain.
Time and thirst will both be satisfied.
The memorial is being erected by contributions. The cost is $2,000.
Already better than $300 have been sent in for this construction. The name of each donor
in his own handwriting has been preserved and will be placed in the wall of the tower as
will be the names of all who contribute toward this useful memorial.
It is hoped that every man, woman and child in the county or out of the
county who has not already contributed will do so in the near future. Let Washington
County do homage to the American soldiers of all wars be they living or dead.
Any coin, bill or check is accepted. Bring, send or address your
contributions to John J. Barley, who is treasurer of the Memorial Association or to the
Register office.
Hallowell Came in 1866
Thomas Chalkley Hallowell made a trip to Kansas in 1866 to see if he
liked the country. He then returned to Champagne county, Ohio, for his family. That same
year all the direct kin moved to LeRoy, Ill., where they lived until May of 1867 when they
started for Kansas. In four covered wagons called prairie schooners they came. Each wagon
was drawn by a team of horses. With Mr. Hallowell was his wife and their five children who
were in the home -- Tom, Ann (later the second Mrs. John Barley), Eva, later Mrs. Stewart
Beckwith, W. C. (Billy who was nine years old) and Lincoln. With them were two married
daughters, Sarah Eugene, her husband Henry Cox, and their tiny daughter, Lillie -- now
Mrs. Wm. Dolliver; and Etta and her husband Frank Cox. (One daughter Elizabeth and her
husband John W. Barley with their four small children, Virginia (later Mrs. John Dixon),
Charles P., Callie (later Mrs. Jud Stevens) and Alta May, later Mrs. Thomas Eves --
remained in LeRoy until the spring of 1869 when they joined their family in Kansas.)
At this time it was very unsafe for wagons to go overland across
Missouri on account of the horse thieves and bushwhackers so the Hallowell party and their
belongings went by the steam boat "The Great Westerner" from St. Louis to
Western, Mo. The families were six days on the river, two of which the crew.(negroes)
unloaded iron for the Union Pacific Railroad for which roads, the rails were being laid
between Topeka and Manhattan.
The families stopped two weeks at Wathena which is a short distance out
of St. Joseph, then treking westward they picked up the trail known as the Military Road
that went from Fort Leavenworth to Ft. Kearney in reality a part of the old Oregon Trail.
The Hallowells did not pass a house as they journeyed from Wathena to Marysville.
Upon reaching Marysville the Big Blue river was out of its banks and
the Hallowells were obliged to remain there ten days before they could get across the
swollen river. Continuing on the trail they reached Cottonwood Station 1 mile northeast of
the present Hanover. Getting across the Little Blue at what was known as Limestone
crossing they reached Washington on the 14th day of June 1867, and driving across the town
they halted at the home of Chalkleys brother, Jesse Hallowell. As they crept out of
the wagons, each breathing deep of the invigorating fresh Kansas air they received a taste
of their new home -- for Washington County was to be their future home -- and it proved to
be -- for now, seventy-one years later, after they had spent long useful lives in helping
develop this new home most of the ones in the party are asleep on the silent hill
overlooking the city to which they came.
Congratulatory
Letters
Dear Mrs. Barley:
I am happy to join with other Kansas friends in congratulating the
Washington. County Register on the occasion of the celebration of its 70th anniversary. In
the life span of a city and state this is but a short time but those 70 years in Kansas
history have seen some dynamic eras. The constructive part played by the Register in the
development of this period is real cause for sincere felicitation. It has promoted the
best traditions of journalism and as a consequence has served well and faithfully the
community of which it is a part. I regard the Register as one of the best county weeklies
in Kansas.
It is an honor and pleasure to join with your readers as well as with
other citizens of Kansas in wishing the Register many more years of continued success.
ARTHUR CAPPER.
Dear Mrs. Barley:
My hearty congratulations go to you for carrying on the good work so
well performed by the Washington County Register. I well recall how we looked forward to
its coming when I was a small boy fifty years ago. It kept us in touch with our friends
and activities in parts of the community which were then far more distant than they are
now. The phrase "I see by the Register" was always the start of a good
conversation.
My best wishes go to you and to the Register on its 70th anniversary
that it may bring joy and happiness and useful information to the people of Washington
County for many years to come.
K. P. ALDRICH, Washington D. C.
To the Editor -- a Former Pupil,
And to Old-Time Kansas Friends:
A request for a brief letter for the Special Edition gives me a
long-sought opportunity to extend greetings and express my best wishes to all of you.
"There are no friends like old friends" is a truism that becomes more impressive
as years add their force and experience develops our philosophy of life.
Washington and Washington County! What a flood of memories crowd upon
each other for recognition! It was there I first saw the light of day; it was there I
attended my first school, chewed my first paper wad, had my first fight. I learned to swim
in waters of Myers Branch that were so infiltrated with good Kansas soil that I could not
sink. It was there I had my first puppy love, I might add my lasting romance as well. My
boyhood friends and pals were Washington County products. It was in Washington high school
that I first met Caesar, Euclid and Demosthenes and football. Nannie Nesbit, E. L. Enochs,
Cortez Brown, H. M. Charles were outstanding teachers. The old school building and its
adjacent grounds are precious memories. The first separate high school building was a
product of hard labor and long planning on my part as superintendent of schools. Oh,
whats the use! All of these and hundreds of other scenes, events, people and ideals
are the items that go to make up what we as humans have named HOME. And Washington was and
is Home. My father, a pioneer, spent his active life in Washington County, is consecrated
in a Washington County grave. My mother who is with my brother and me here in Idaho at
present spent sixty-five years in Washington County and is a loyal Kansan today. Why go
on; once a Kansan always a Kansan! The trials, the tribulations, the promises, the
failures and defeats, the victories -- all go to make Kansas -- Kansas. And even as we
Kansans wander the world over, we know each other and love each other because of Kansas.
A personal note: We are happy and prosperous in Idaho. At present I am
Superintendent of the public schools of Boise, the capital city -- the best educational
job in the state. Idaho has been kind to me. We came to Blackfoot, Idaho in 1909 as
Superintendent of Schools, was there ten years with an increase in salary each year, then
went to the State Industrial School as Superintendent for eight years, was then made
Commissioner of education for the state of Idaho and moved to Boise and four years ago
became Superintendent of the Boise schools. This all sounds like hard work, and it was and
still is, but I hunt pheasant, grouse, deer each fall, fish the sparkling mountain streams
in summer and play with friends during the winter for diversion. Work and play --
thats life and I am happy to say that I am living and enjoying every day of it. Mrs.
Vincent is likewise happy and healthy.
Our very best regards are hereby extended to old-time friends and
acquaintances. May the Lord bless and prosper all of you.
W. D. VINCENT, Boise, Idaho
Former Editors Speak
Of the numerous men who through the past 70 years have been editors of the
Register, but four remain. Each of these has been asked to speak again in the columns of
his erstwhile sheet and each in turn has responded.
H. C. Robinson of this city was editor from 1885 to 1890. L. A. Palmer
of Atchison, Kansas, from 1895 to 1905, C. E. Ingalls of Corvallis, Ore., from 1905 to
1916, and J. H. Barley of Rifle, Colo., from 1916 to 1933.
Hardy C. Robinson, long recognized as "the grand old man" has
watched Washington county grow and develop from early primitive conditions to its present
resourcefulness and has, himself, been a potent factor in its material growth and
progressive achievement. Now in his 91st year, in a clear, round, legible hand, he writes
a descriptive message for the Registers special issue telling of his advent into
this frontier city which since that day has been his home.
Washington, Kans., August 25, 1938
Dear Mrs. Barley:
April 6th, 1869, Washington, Kansas,
was not much of a city, just one small house and a few log houses built 8 or 10 years
before. With a friend we rode up from Waterville, a new town at the west end of the
railroad, with John Rockefeller in a two-horse lumber wagon, a mail sack, and a few
packages for the small store run by his father, Phillip. He, with us two as passengers,
made the 20-mile trip across the bare prairie, not a dwelling of any kind in sight -- the
prairie had been burnt over the fall before. This county was the frontier. The rush to
homestead this vast tract began in 69 and continued through the 70s, the
population going from about 300 to nearly 20,000 in a few years.
George W. Shriner was county clerk, James Tallman was county attorney
and J. B. Snider was county treasurer.
The courthouse was an old stockade to protect from Indians, who never
came. The courthouse burnt in the spring of 1870 and was replaced by a frame building
which also was burned two years later and another frame building was built which stood
until replaced by the brick building which, in 1932 was destroyed by the tornado. This, in
turn, was replaced by the fine $100,000 building that does credit to the town and county.
H. C. ROBINSON.
P. S. I admire your courage in getting out a special in the great depression.
Editor, Register:
It is very thoughtful of you to ask me to contribute a word for your
70th anniversary of your splendid newspaper. You will pardon me in preluding these few
remarks with an apology and correction of statement. I never was an editor for the
Register.
During our stay in Washington, 1895 to 1905, I had the privilege of
editing the Republican and was somewhat jealous for that name as a title for a partisan
newspaper. The Register was under several managements during that time, and had I stayed
on the job and accomplished what was later accomplished, consolidation of the Republican
and Post-Register, there would have been noncontinuity of the latter name, but just
"Republican." But Shakespeare has said: "What is in a name?" not much
so far as the appalation for a newspaper. The most vital thing after all is, what message
does the newspaper have for its readers?
If you are giving the readers of Washington county and its tributary
surroundings the unadulterated truth, as best that can be assembled by an editor and a
competent corps of correspondents your mission is well filled and the future of the early
child that has survived seventy summers will reach its century mark and still keep on
growing in usefulness. Three score and ten years is the common span of man, and I happened
to have been born three years before the Register began its existence, crying out on the
western plains for liberty, justice and equality of human rights. Possibly but few people
are now among the living who were the first subscribers to that early pioneer newspaper.
Another generation is on the stage of action, one not so determined with the early pioneer
spirit. That generation, "in the horse and buggy days," was on foot or on
horseback, carried on by sheer physical endurance and with a tremendous courage. This
generation is on wheels and relief and exists on gasoline and governmental appropriations
and will endure as long as the credit of the government is good and the equity keeps up on
exchange of a second-hand car for a new one.
Mrs. Palmer and I look back forty-three years when we first established
a home soon after our marriage, and Washington was where we established that home. Many
pleasant days we enjoyed with the good people in Washington. Sorrows came, of course, and
we found a sypathetic people who knew our heart aches and we shall never forget them as
long as memory lasts. Many of those kind and generous people "have gone the way of
all earth," leaving good deeds to be emulated by the following generations.
I have not had the daring to take a prophetic peep three score and ten
years in the future, if there be that much time left in this dispensation, but suffice it
to say, if the changing tide is in keeping with the past seventy years, there may not be a
need for newspapers. News will be transmitted electrically as it happens or before. People
will not wait for such a slow process as printing. But be that as it will, we will not be
in the picture but a few years longer. May your good newspaper continue to be a
benediction to an appreciative people for many years to come. It is my sincere wish.
L. A. PALMER, Atchison, Kan.
The editor of the Washington County
Register has asked me for a contribution to the papers 70th anniversary edition. The
request comes because for a short time, it was under my tender care and I was both father,
mother and midwife at the accouchement wherein was born the Republican-Register. It might
be more appropriate to say I was the editorial cleric who united the two papers in
journalistic wedlock. Without access to the files, it will be difficult for me to give any
accurate historical data, but no doubt that will be covered by other writers. I believe
however that I am the only living soul who knows how I accidently got into the newspaper
business or why the two papers were soon consolidated.
The thought of it all awakens a flood of recollections concerning the
newspaper game in Washington at that time. In order to give the story the proper
background, it will be necessary to be somewhat personal for which I ask pardon in
advance. My own connection with the newspaper history of Washington began when I was a
youth in high school. The Friends Academy was in operation then and the Republican, under
L. A. Palmer, was carrying weekly items of news from that place. To my mind, the items
were extremely silly and so, one day I wrote a quarter column of high school items in
imitation. They were a satirical take-off and I took them to Sam Clark, who was running
the Palladium. Sam chuckled when he finished reading them and wanted to know if I wanted
to do a similar stunt every week. I was elated and told him I did. He gave me some copy
paper and that was my induction into the job of reporter. I guess the items must have been
pretty hot, at least the Academy people were sore about them and demanded of Mr. Clark to
know who was the author of "those ridiculing remarks." Sam was a good sport and
told them rather plainly that it was none of their business. They then appealed to
Superintendent Charles who passed the buck to principal Enochs who did his full duty in
quizzing the students. Nobody knew but me and I lied like a gentleman. I had good reason
to aside from not wanting to satisfy the curiosity of the head of the academy, who, it
seems to me, was a man named Fellows. The other reason I had for being modest about it was
that I occasionally took shots at the high school teachers. But through it all, Mr. Clark
stood pat and so far as I know nobody ever found out the truth.
Began Newspaper Work
After that I was a frequent contributor to the Washington press. After
finishing high school I taught there, and one day word came to me to call on Mr. Clark at
his home. He was ill and wanted me to get out the paper for him. Oscar was even at that
early date a mechanical and typographical expert. I knew nothing about the mechanical end
but was glad of the chance to help with the editorial.
The Sunday mail was a big affair in those days. Crowds filled the post
office where Charlie Smith and Sadie Clark got out the mail. It was necessarily a long
wait. Hardie Robinson had the book store in the lobby and some of the crowd passed away
the time reading the Kansas City and Topeka papers. Not so W. J. Tobeys bulldog nor
another owned by Lou Fredendall. They got into a big row and cleaned out the house. It
amused me and I wrote it up in what thought was a humorous vein, describing the Sunday
crowd, the village post office and the dog fight. I gave it to Sam. To my surprise it ran
double column on the front page in ten point. My name was not attached to it. A week or so
later he showed me a letter he had received from Barney Sherridan, famous Democratic
politician, and, I believe, an editor, in which Mr. Sherridan congratulated Mr. Clark very
warmly on the article. Sam chuckled and said, "you damn fool, next time sign your
stuff."
You may wonder what all this personal mention has to do with it. I went
into Fred Powells office, studied law and was admitted to the bar. Roosevelt I was
president. The progressives were beginning to raise political chaos in Kansas. Jim Totten
was running the Register and flirting with the the New Dealers. Lew Palmer had the
Republican. Mr. Palmer had to leave town on account of his wifes health and the
"Old Guard" was worried about who would get hold of the paper. This faction was
headed by Cal Morrow. The New Dealers of that date were headed by Walter Wilson. I had
already lined up with the Morrow element, so Mr. Morrow came to me and asked me to buy the
Republican. I had just hung out my shingle and didnt want to be diverted. Besides, I
had no money and, more than that, knew nothing about the newspaper business. We went down
and talked it over with Mr. Palmer. He agreed to lease it. I feared that might result in
disputes when the lease expired, and declined the offer. Finally, Lew agreed to take a
small balance down, and a mortgage for the remainder. I had saved about $500 and Cal
Morrow loaned me the rest that I needed to make the down payment and took my note for it
without security. And I became an editor and business man! My experience with Mr. Clark
had given me confidence as to the writing end of it or I never would have undertaken the
proposition. Thats why I have had to tell that part of it.
The Republican-Register Begins
Well, I worked long hours and finally paid off the Morrow note. As soon as I
came into possession, Mr. Clark wrote the political obituary of the Register saying that
thereafter the political patronage would come to me. Jim got discouraged and made a
proposition to sell out. I plunged again after consulting with Sam as to the value of
Jims plant, borrowed more money and consolidated the two papers giving them the name
"Republican-Register" because it sounded more euphonious than
"Register-Republican," though that would have been good advice to voters and
still is.
At the completion of my term as postmaster in your city (in the
meantime having sold the Republican-Register to Mr. Cowgill) I went to the Pacific coast,
where, after looking around for a month I bought out a daily paper in Corvallis, Oregon,
home of the state college with an enrollment of 4500.
Last Sunday I was the speaker at a Kansas day picnic in a neighboring
city. Several formerly of Washington county were there, but the only one I remember now
was one of the Boston girls from near Spring Valley. I ate dinner with her family though I
had no idea they were in this section of the country. And I learn by a Republican-Register
that has just reached me that Ed Howard lives near by in Portland. So do Prof. and Mrs.
Charles and Mr. and Mrs. Will Tobey. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Totten (she was Grace Meader and
both went to school to me) called on me last week. They were on vacation from their home
in Long Beach. John Algie and wife called this spring. Avis Ingalls and her husband were
also callers. They live in New Mexico. As I look over the pages of the
Republican-Register, I find few names there that I know. Hyland, Maxwell, Soller, Kiger,
Mueller, Barley, McKelvy, Diedrich, Landon, Rust and a few others are found in the
business and professional directory. I have watched the ones who made history in my time,
die away one by one. In the summer of 1936 I had intended to spend a week in Washington.
Coming from the Cleveland convention I got as far as Topeka where it was so hot it made me
sick. I stopped off to see Gov. Landon and got back into an air conditioned train as
quickly as I could and returned to air conditioned Oregon. I still have pleasant and
tender memories of the place where I spent my youth and close by sending my kindest
regards to them all, and my best wishes for another 70 years of prosperity for the
Republican-Register and congratulations to its fair editor for the success she has made of
it.
C. E. INGALLS, Corvallis, Oregon.
The opportunity as a former editor, to
congratulate the Washington County Register on the seventieth anniversary of its founding
is greatly appreciated. Seventy years seems a long time, longer than the writer has lived
on this earth -- yet. During the 70 years many things have happened and many changes have
taken place. In the newspaper library at Topeka I once looked over a copy of the Western
Observer as it was called when first started. The Register of today does not look much
like its ancestor that was started seventy years ago. During that time there have been
many consolidations and even arbitrary changes in name.
While the writer was publisher from February 1916 to June 1933 he
consumated two of the consolidations. When A. Q. Miller sr. of Belleville decided to
dispose of the Mahaska Leader, the writer bought it and for some time afterwards, carried
the name Mahaska Leader as a sub-head to the Republican-Register as the newspaper you are
now reading was known at that time. On the first of March 1926, the writer purchased the
subscription list, good will and part of the equipment of the Washington Palladium, edited
so ably for so many years by the late Sam Clarke. This consolidation seemed to call for a
change in name and that of the Washington County Register was chosen, which name this
publication still bears.
The writer was born only about a hundred yards from where the Register
is now published and lived the first 45 years of his life in Washington. Having been away
only five years he reads the Register every week, even the locals and ads. I mention this
because locals are something a publisher seldom reads in his own newspaper. I enjoy
keeping up on the news about old friends and acquaintances. The present publishers have
been good enough to send me the Register as a former editor and I wish to express my
thanks for the courtesy.
I hope a personal remark may be accepted for I wish to say that I am
very proud that my two sons are engaged in newspaper work with prospects of becoming real
newspaper men. While the life of the publisher of a country newspaper is a life of service
to his community, yet it has its rewards for no work is more useful than that of serving
others. It is my wish that my sons may become better newspaper men than their father, for
only by one generation excelling the former can the world progress.
In closing permit me, as one of the former editors, to again
congratulate the Washington County Register on its seventieth birthday and to wish it many
more long years of service to the people of Washington County, Kansas.
J. H. (HARRY) BARLEY, Rifle, Col.
JANE TIMMIS
OVERBURY -- 104
Came the call of prairies primeval, on winds, and on waves of the sea:
And those who responded were heroes, who came, our ancestors to be.
Sam Walter Foss has well and truly
written of the house by the side of the road; but this is a story concerning a house by
the side of a hill. The hill, a landmark of creation, stands six miles south and one mile
east of Greenleaf, Kansas. Near the foot on its southern slope overlooking a valley,
stands a sturdy redstone house.
For the present we hark back to a time when the hill stood, as it had
stood since the world was formed, houseless, and in imagination cross the sea to Merry
England.
The story has to do with a boy and a girl. All stories worth
considering do. Thus the story of our race began. The boy was Frederick Overbury. Fred
worked in what we call a drug store, but then and there they called it an
apothecarys shop. The boy was short of stature, but he had a Roman nose -- and the
writer of this story was sorely tempted to head it "Romance and a Roman Nose."
Romance, and the daring which is reputed a characteristic of those who possess the type of
nose known as Roman, are not wanting in the adventures we shall review.
Fred was in love with a sweet and gentle girl, and, having known the
girl, who is now over 100 years old, for more than half of her years, the writer thinks
Fred showed mighty good taste; for Jennie Timmis had character, and was cultured and
refined, having been educated at a girls finishing school, where she was taught good
manners and good English, as well as some Latin and French. So, the story commences, in
the city of Birmingham, England.
When Fred and Jennie were married, they could possibly have managed to
exist on the meager stipend of an apothecarys clerk, and to have fitted into the
humdrum life of a city of the Old World, and thus melted into oblivion; but these two
possessed the resilient exuberance of youth and in their hearts hope of spring dwelt
eternal. Moreover word had come from across the Atlantic that in the midst of the North
American continent there were lands for homesteads, and that shortly before, to-wit, on
May 20, 1862, an Act of Congress had been approved, the purpose of which read: "To
secure homesteads to actual settlers on the Public Domain."
Thus, it came to pass that our hero with his heroine by his side,
severed home ties and crossed an ocean for a home upon the plains of Kansas. None but the
strong of heart thus came. The others remained, to die in their shells.
The Overburys were somewhat better off than many who settled in
Washington County. They had a team of horses, something few had, and this possession
exposed them to the cupidity of a desperate gang of horse thieves which had rendezvous in
a well nigh impenetrable region in Clay County, known as Five Forks.
One evening, shortly after their settlement by the side of the hill,
Fred and Jennie were seated at their evening meal, when the barking of a dog and the
trampling of horses were heard, and looking out they beheld a rider making off with one of
their horses. Without a moments hesitation, Fred seized his rifle, sprang on the
remaining horse, and gave chase! It may be said here that it was common knowledge that to
follow a horse thief to his hideout was tantamount to suicide. Few would have dared what
Fred did.
Over the rise the thief disappeared in the gathering darkness, and
swift as a falcon, Fred pursued! Apprehension must have tortured the heart of Jennie as
she kept vigil through the long watches of that night and of the day following, but as
evening fell, with its tranquil benediction, over hill and vale, Jennies prayers for
her mate were answered, for Fred, in the flesh, unscathed, came back with the horse he had
ridden away, LEADING THE STOLEN HORSE!
The countryside was thoroughly aroused. A mans team was his life.
Thus its theft was akin to murder; and it was so deemed. Law and order were in their
infancy at the time, and the constabulary but partially functioned. There was, therefore,
a feeling reminiscent of a saying in the old Russian regime to the effect that
"Heaven is high, and the Czar far away." So the citizenry took matters in their
own hands, and the ultimate outcome was the Anti-Horsethief Association, which numbered in
its membership some of the most distinguished citizens of Kansas.
In the instant case, a survey was made, and it was found that certain
strange men had been seen at the home of one of the settlers, and that they had
disappeared simultaneously with the theft of Overburys horse. It was believed,
therefore, that the settler who had harbored these scouts from Five Forks, was a fence.
Promptly this man was waited upon by a delegation from a vigilance committee, and escorted
to a spot where trees with gibbet limbs in conjunction with a coil of new rope, left no
doubt as to the purpose of the meeting.
The Committee gave the man an opportunity to testify in his own behalf,
and he did so with such evident sincerity that he convinced those highly tense settlers
that he was innocent; that while the thieves had lodged at his home, he was unaware of
their character or purpose in the community. The man, who lived many years in the
neighborhood, highly respected, might have lost his life because of his hospitality on
that occasion, for while "some have entertained angels unaware" he had,
unwittingly, entertained devils instead.
The sun shone thereafter on the pathway of Fred and Jennie. Although
unacquainted with farming, their intelligence and versatility enabled them to adapt
themselves to their tasks, and the larks which sang their cheerful lay in the meadows at
peep of day, were not more happy than were they. Plenty rewarded their labors, and to the
homestead was added an adjoining farm. They were ever a kindly pair, friendly both to man
and beast, Christian folk of the highest type.
Fred, after a long and useful life, bid good-bye to his faithful wife,
with whom he had traversed the ways of life on two continents, and was laid to rest in the
Chepstow cemetery on another hill, from which the crest of the hill above his earthly
American home may be seen. His beloved Jennie lives still, in her second century.
Reminiscent of her earliest recollections, is the historic event of the
coming of the first steam railway train into Birmingham, over 100 years ago, when, as a
small child, she waved her little hand at the exciting spectacle of an iron horse drawing
a string of carriages.
In thinking of Jane Timmis Overbury, the words of a king, written in
honor of his mother, come to mind as being quite as true of the subject of this sketch as
they were of the mother of Lemuel:
"She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law
of kindness!"
-- J. A. Maxwell.
Addendum
Since the foregoing article was written, Jane Timmis Overbury closed her eyes
upon the scenes of Time, and her gentle spirit returned to the God who gave her being. Her
passing was peaceful on March 5,1938, at the home of her daughter near Greenleaf, Kansas,
and loving hands laid her body to rest beside the remains of her beloved Fred at Chepstow.
Requiescat in pace
Mr. and Mrs.
James Creighton
James Creighton, who was born in the Highlands of Scotland in 1832, left the
little town of Aberfeldy when but a lad of 19 and sailed for America going to Fon du lac,
Wisconsin, where his sister, Mrs. Susan McLaren and family had located. After working for
a time in the lumber woods the call of the California gold fields lured him westward.
However, he did not get across the mountains but spent several years freighting on the
plains, principally between Westport, Mo. (now Kansas City) and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thru
those years Mr. Creighton was associated with and personally knew William Cody (Buffalo
Bill) and William Hickok (Wild Bill), many times riding, eating and "bunking"
with them.
At no time did Mr. Creighton wear the uniform of a soldier but during
the war he carried provisions for the soldiers in the great ox-team trains and thereby
suffered the privations and underwent the hardships of the soldiers, in being captured by
the enemy as well as by the Indians, and held prisoner at different times.
He, in company with a Scotch friend, William Cummings settled in
Washington County in 1859 taking their claims side by side on the Mill creek bottoms.
Their primitive abode was a mile southeast across lots from the Rufus Darby cabin and
about three miles northwest of the James McNulty cabin. Years later the town of
Morrowville sprang up within half a mile of where the log cabin stood in which the
Scotties batched. This farm with the accumulated acres was henceforth the Creighton farm.
In the middle sixties Mr. Creighton married Miss Beatrice Canfil of
Haddam. To this union was born five children, Minnie, Lucy, Laura, Carrie and James.
Carrie and James died in infancy. Lucy was drowned in the flood waters of the Cimarron
river at Folsom, New Mexico in 1908. Minnie lives in Colorado and Laura in New Mexico.
Mr. Creighton married Miss Margaret McCallum of Grant, Mich. in 1884.
They came directly to the farm. Here their three children, Cyrus J., Margaret C. and Alex
E. were born and reared. From this home Mr. Creighton was borne to his final resting place
in the Morrowville cemetery in January of 1916. Mrs. Creighton retains the home but
resides with her daughter, Mrs. Barley.
Among the priceless heritages that descended to the Creighton children
from their pioneer parents are: a sincerity of purpose, an inherent fortitude and a love
of humanity.
(End of Part 1)
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