f
r '"'''~1
Gc M. lJ
978.101
At2i !
1227224 I
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
, 3 1833 01095 0548
HISTORY
ATCHISON COUNTY
KANSAS
SHEFFIELD INGALLS
ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Lawrence, Kansas
1916
LIBRARY
WASHINGTON STATE
HISTORICAL SOCi-JTY
1227224
PREFACE
In the preparation and compilation of this history, no effort has heen
made to interpret the logic or spirit of events that surmnnded the birth and
progress of Atchison Cdunty. The work was undertaken with the idea of com-
piling a narrative plainly told, of the people and the institutions here. I was
interested in putting in permanent form chronologically the events that have
transpired in the past- sixty years, that have made for the political, social,
moral and commercial develo]>ment of the county, but, had 1 realized in
advance the many hours of laijijr and patient study it required, the work of
completing the task in six months would not have been attempted. I am
very deeply conscious of the imperfections of the completed work, l:)ut had
there been more time for research and study, much nu'ght ha\'e l^een included
that does not appear.
It would be ingratitude if no acknowledgment were made at the outset,
of the obligation I am under to George J. Remsburg for the assistance he
has rendered me. Without his unfailing courtesy, kindness and help I should
never have been able to do the work at all. His aliility as a local historian
is truly marvelous. He wrote- two chapters of the history and contributed
most of the matter touching upon the founding of cities and to\\n>. It is to
be regretted that the condition of his health prevented him from undertaking
the work which I have so imperfectly done.
Acknowledgment is also due George A. Root of the State Historical
Societv. wlio li.is rendered me invaluable assistance, and to the .l.'chisoii
D'.iilv Gliihr. from \\lio-,f iiles I gathered much important data. \'or can I
fail to give proper credit to Andreas' History of Kansas, from which a wealth
of information has been secured. D. Anna Speer, county superintendent,
collected for me most of the historical matter relative to the schools of the
county and Professor Xathan T. Veatch was more than kind in preparing for
me a sketch of the Atchison city schools.
And mv dear mother, a loyal resident of Atchison since July, 1859.
intimately identified with its history and growth for fifty-seven years, has
\-isualized to me as n(T other could, the story of the early days. Remarkable
as a mother, loved and adored bv all her children, she is no less remarkable
as a woman, stalwart, rugged and iDUoyant. She li\ed her young life with
the pioneers of Atchison, and now in the fullness of her years she looks over
the past, so full of pleasures, trihulations and sorrows, with gladness and
resignation, and faces the future with a detennined spirit and a Ijrave heart.
To the ministers of the various churches of Atchison and to Professor
Erasmus Haworth and Charles H. Taylor, the county farm agent, and to
many other good people of Atchisn, I entertain sentiments of the deepest
appreciation, and if any of them ever undertakes the work of writing a his-
toi"y, I shall gladly render them any service in my power.
SHEFFIELD INGALLS.
Atchison, Kan., March 6, 1916.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Abell, P. T 295
Adams, John P 488
■Adams, Mary A 584
Adams, William 584
Adams, S. W 520
Atcliison County Court House 57
Atchison County High School, Effing-
ham 274
Ballinger and Wife, S. E 648
Ballinger, Julia H 600
Ballinger, Thomas E 600
Barber, Moses 672
Barber, Mary 672
Beard and Family, Frank 704
Blodgett, Thomas L 624
Boyington, Home of Frank W. and
Julia 584
Burbank, E. G 520
Burrows. C. H 544
Bush, William H 464
Buttron, Henry and Family 472
Carnegie Library, Atchison 289
Challis, William L 307
Cheseborough, Ellsworth 193
Christian Church, Atchison 249
Cirtwill, Jennie -712
Cochrane, Dr. W. W 307
Commercial Street, Atcliison 66
Conlon, Charles J 488
Deutsch, Julius 520
Dorssom, George 464
Du Bois and Wife, Lewis P 768
Eagles' Home, Atchison 330
Effingham Street Scene ill
Elks' Club House, Atchison 329
Falk, Charles H 464
First Church of Christ, Scientist 255
Forest Park, Atchison 80
Fox, Jared C 408
Click, George W , 3Sr
Graner's Annu.il Sale 7S5
Graner, Gottlieb - 7S4
Graner, H. C - - 7X5
Graner Homestead 784
Graner, Martha 784
Graner, W. H 785
Griffin, L 680
Gundy, Charles T 560
Ham and Wife, i\Lartin W 608
Hansen, H. C 520
Hart, C. C 792
Harvey, Albert B 440
Harwi, Alfred J 416
Hazel, Ernest C 744
Highfill, Thomas 704
Hines, Michael J 464
Hooper, Daniel E 616
Hospital, Atchison 57
Hughes, Bela i\I 193
Ingalls, John J 392
Ingalls Scliool, Atchison 279
Ingalls, Sheffield — Frontispiece
Jackson, William A 488
Jackson Park, Entrance 172
Jewell, L. M 536
Johnson, George H. T 456
Kaaz, Julius 688
Keirns, Gail Maxine 568
Keith, U. S 544
Keithline, Andrew 432
King, S. S 560
Kingman. S. C 295
Kuhn, Julius 592
Laird, • Britamore 736
Laird, Marcus J 736
Lane, Jim 1S9
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Mangelsdorf Building 312
Martin, Col. J. A 297
Masonic Temple, Atchison 327
Million, George 200
Morrow, James G 384
Mt. St. Scholastica's Academy, .Atch-
ison 286
Muscotah School Building loS
IVIuscotah Street Scene 107
Xewcomb, Don C 424
Kewcomb, D. C., Residence of 426
Old High School Building, Atchison .... 268
Orr, James W 360
Orr, J. W., Residence nf ___ __ 362
Orphans" Home, General \"ie\v 2^
Orphans' Home, Main I'juililing 19
Overland Freighting 16
Perdue, Edward 576
Plumnier and Wife, T. 696
Pomeroy, S. 189
Potter Street Scene 124
Potter School House 126
Post Office, Atchison 35
Presbyterian Cliurch, Atchison 250
Presbyterian Cluirch, Effingham 112
Remsburg, George 504
Remsburg, John E 504
Sanders, B. F s68
Scarborough, William 200
Seaton, John 376
Sharp, Harry L 512
Sharpless, U. B 560
Simmons, O. A 800
Speer, D. Anna 7/6
Stringfellow, Gen. B. F 297
St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison 263
St. Benedict's College, Atchison 291
Storch, George 448
Sutter and Wife, Fred 752
Sutter. Fred, Residence of 753
Sutter Homestead 840
Thompson and Wiie. George W 664
Tliompson, Matilda 720
Trimble, Roy C _ 488
\'oelker, C. M 560
Waggener, Balie P.
368
Walker, Claudius D
400
Wards of the State
29
Wilson, Charles ...
544
Wilson, Marv K. ...
544
Wolf, Rt. Rev. Innocent
264
Y. M. C. A. Building, Atchison ....
57
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Fossils — Evidences of Early Animal and Plant Life — Geological Ages
— Rock Formation — Glacier Period — Minerals Paees 17-20
CHAPTER II.
PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
^
Evidences of Paleolithic Alan — .\n Ancient Fortification — Aboriginal
^^illage and Camp Sites — The Ingalls and Other Mounds — Pages 21-24
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN HISTORY.
Harahey, an Indian Province of Coronado's Time — The Kansa Nation
— Bourgmont's Visit in 1724 — Council on Cow Island in 1819 —
The Kickapoo Indians Pages 25-30
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
Coronado in 1541 — The Bourgmont Expedition in 1724 — Perin Du ^.^■■
Lac — Lewis and Clark — First Fourth r)f July Celebration —
Major Stephen H. Long — Cantonment Martin — Isle au Vache
— Other E.xplorers — Paschal Pensoneau — The Old ^Military Road
— The Monnons Pages 31-36
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CHAPTER V.
TERRITORIAL TIMES.
Territory Acquired From France in 1803 — Organization of the Terri-
tory — Kansas-Nebraska Act — Immigration to Kansas — Territorial
Government — Free State and Pro-Slavery Conflict — First Elec-
tion — Secret Political Organizations — Border War xA^ctivities and
Outrages — Contests Over Adoption of Constitution — Kansas Ad-
mitted to the Union Pages 37-63
CHAPTER VI.
ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY AND CITY OF ATCHISON.
One of the Thirty-three Original Counties — City of Atchison Located —
Town Company — Sale of Lots — Incorporation of Town — Early
Business Enterprises — Organization of County — Commercial
Growth — Freighting — First Officers — Free State and Pro-Slavery
Clashes — Horace Greeley Visits Atchison — Abraham Lincoln
INIakes a Speech Here — Great Drouth of i860 — City Officials. . . .
Pages 64-83
CHAPTER VII.
TOWNS, PAST AND PRESENT.
Sumner, Its Rise and Fall — Ocena — Lancaster — Fort William — Ar-
rington — ]\Iuscotah — Effingham — Huron — Old ]\Iartinsburg —
Bunker Hill — Locust Grove — Helena — Cayuga — Kennekuk —
Kapioma — Alashenah — St. Nicholas — Concord — Parnell — Shan-
non — Elmwood — Cummingsville — Eden Postof fice — Potter —
Mt. Pleasant — Lew^is' Point — Farley's Ferry Pages 84-128
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CIVIL WAR.
7'he Issue Between Early Settlers — Influx of Free State and Pro-
Slavery Partisans — Early Volunteering — Military Organiza-
tions — Threatened Invasion from Missouri — Political Societies
— Jayhawkers — Cleveland's Gang — Lynchings — Atchison Coun-
ty Troops in the War — Price's Attempted Invasion Pages 129-150
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CHAPTER IX.
NAVIGATION.
Pioneer Transportation — Early Ferries and Rates — Famous River
Boats — Steamboat Lines to Atchison — Steamboat Registers. . .
Pages 1 51-157
CHAPTER X.
OVERLAND FREIGHTING.
Atchison as an Outfitting Point — Freigliting Companies — Principal
Routes — Stage Lines — Overland Mail Routes — Ben Holladay —
"Butterfield's Overland Dispatch" — Time to Denver — Tables of
Time and Distances on Various Routes — Statistical Pages 158-173
CHAPTER XL
RAILROADS.
Early Railroad Agitation — The First Railroad — Celebrating the Ad-
vent of the Railroad — Other Roads Constructed — The Santa Fe
— The xA.tchison & Xebraska City — The Kansas City. Leaven-
worth & Atchison— The Rock Island— The Hannibal & St.
Joseph — The First Telegraph — ^Modern Transportation. .Pages
185
CHAPTER XII.
REMINISCENCES OF EARLY PIONEERS.
D. R. Atchison — Matt Gerber — J. H. Talbott — William Osborne —
John W. Cain — W. L. Challiss — George Scarborough — Samuel
Hollister — John Taylor — John M. Cromwell — Luther Dicker-
son — Luther C. Challiss — George W. Click — A\'. K. Grimes —
Joshua Wheeler — William Hetherington — William C. Smith —
John M. Price— Samuel C. King— Clem Rohr— R. H. Weight-
man — Case of Major Weightman Pages
:86-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CHAPTER XIII.
AGRICULTURE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
An .Agricultural Community — Scientific Farming — Farmers, the
Aristocracy of the \\'est — Modern Improvement — Topography
— Soil — Statistics Pages 213-216
CHAPTER XIV.
Influence of Xewspapers — Part Played by the Early Press — Squat-
ter Soz'crcign — Freedom's Champion — Champion and Press —
Pioneer Editors — Later Xewspapers and Xewspaper Men....
Pages 2 1 7-233
CHAPTER XV.
BANKS AND BANKING.
Early Day Banking — Pioneer Financiers — The Oldest Bank — Pri-
vate, State and National Banks — Atchison County Bankers
and the Development of Banking Institutions Pages 234-244
CHAPTER XVI.
CHURCHES.
INIethodist — Christian — Presbyterian — Baptist — Salem Church —
German Evangelical Zion Church — First Church of Christ,
Scientist — St. Patrick's, Mt. Pleasant — Trinity Church, Episco-
pal — St. Mark's, English Lutheran — St. Benedict's Abby— First
German Evangelican Lutheran Church Pages 245-263
CHAPTER XVII.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
Establishment of the Public School System — Pioneer Schools and
Early Teachers — Districts — Statistics — Atchison County High
School — County Superintendents of Public Instruction — Atchi-
son City Schools — Private Schools — Mt. St. Scholastica's Acad-
emy — Parochial Schools — Midland College and Western Theo-
logical Seminary — St. Benedict's College Pages 266-292
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CHAPTER XVIII.
BENCH AND BAR.
Early Mecca oi Legal Talent — Organization of Judicial District —
Early Judges — Prominent Pioneer Lawyers — ^Members of the
Atchison County Bar Pages 293-301
CHAPTER XIX.
MEDICAL PROFESSION.
First Physicians — Early Practice — Pioneer Remedies — Modern
Medicine and Surgery — Prominent Physicians and Surgeons —
Atchison County Medical Society Pages 302-310
CHAPTER XX.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
^luch Wealth and Enterprise Aljound — [Manufacturing- — Milling —
Extensi\e \Miolesale Hardware antl Grocery Establishments —
Planing Mills — \'arious Jobbing and Retail Interests. . . .Pages 311-317
CHAPTER XXI.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
Atchison Postoffice — Court House — County Hospital — Young
Men's Christian Association — State Orphans' Home — Atchi-
son Public Library — Atchison Hospital — Masonic Temple ....
Pages 318-327
CHAPTER XXII.
SOCIETIES AND LODGES.
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks — Fraternal Order of
Eagles — Atchison County Protective Association — Secret Socie-
ties — Catholic Societies Pages 328-333
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE .AFRO-AMHRICAN RACE.
Early-day Conditions — Their Advancement — Prior Dickey — Henry
C. Buchanan — Eugene L. Bell — Charles Ingram — Charles J-
Ferguson — Henry Dickey — Dr. Erank Adrian Pearl, I\I. D. —
Dr. W. W. Caldwell, M. D Pages 334-344
CHAPTER XXIV.
OFFICIALS.
County, Township and School Officers Pages 345-350
CHAPTER XXV.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
INDEX
Abner, John W 534
Adams, John P 488
Adams, Stark W 524
Alkire, Charles L 726
Allen, Edmond W 755
Allen, Joseph W 476
Allison, Ralph A 75i
Anderson, George V 836
Arensberg, L. C 611
Armstrong, James L 733
Arthur, Joseph N 422
Atkin, Paul 859
Babcock, O. M 59i
Bailey, Willis J 882
Baldwin, Royal 830
Ballinger, Thomas E 600
Ballingcr, Samuel E 648
Barber, Herbert J 672
Barker, Charles E 682
Barker, O. 761
Barnes, Asa 715
Barry, John H ■. 481
Bean, John H 708
Beard, Frank 704
Beckman, Carl L 382
Behen, James E 796
Belz, John 884
Best, Aaron S 379
Beyer, David 822
Beyer, John 731
Bilderback, Allen T 738
Binkley, Fred 852
Bishop, Frank W 876
Bishop, Robert F 596
Blair, Albert H 454
Blair, John L 586
Blodgett, Thomas L 624
Boos. Nicholas 699
Boyington, Julia E. A 584
Bradley, Lewis 819
Brockett, Benton L 637
Brown, George L 837
Brown, Thomas 452
Brown, Walter E 519
Bullock, Edmund S47
Burbank, E. G 520
Burrows, Charles H 547
Bush, William H 464
Bushey, Calvin 871
Buttron, Henry 472
Buttron, Jacob 72S
Calvert, Alexander H, . 747
Calvert, Presley H 848
Cha«ant, W. D 727
Chandler, Charles A - 716
Cirtwill, Jennie 712
Clapp, Alva 447
Clem, William J 406
Cleveland, Richard B 834
Cline, Thomas L 656
Cloves, Marshall J 571
Coliett, W. B 612
Collins, Davis W 832
Conlon, Charles J 494
Conlon, John F 495
Cortelyou, Luther 757
Coupe, Joseph 375
Cummins, Barney 445
Curtis, Benjamin P 531
Davis, Cyrus E 470
Dawdy, Drennan L 808
Deutsch, Julius 523
Donnellan, William R 538
Dooley, James 613
Dorssom, George 468
Drimmel, John 854
Du Bois, Lewis P 768
Duncan, John E 620
Dunlap, Rienzi 1\I 767
Dysinger, Holmes 724
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Evans. Aaron B 749
Falk, Charles H 46;
Fankhanel, John 635
Ferguson, Charles W 581
Ferris, John 734
Fie.chter, Samuel E 71'
Finnegan, Thomas 647
Fleming, John 604
Flynn, J. F ■ 743
Forbriger, Robert 658
Fox, Jared C 408
Frable, Thomas - 359
Fuhrman, Charles H 460
Fuhrman, Rinhold 50^
Garside, James H 880
Gault, Thomas 495
Gibson, George W 823
Gibson, Joseph E 5^9
Giffstarl. Knu.l G. ._ _ 439
(M^Mii.i. I >ir (; _ 480
(.llni.ur. l-:;.,-I \ 415
Glatttcklcr, Henry 741
Glick, George W 35i
Goodwin, George S33
Gragg, James R 54-2
Graner, Henry C 78/
Graner, William H 784
Grecnawalt, Joseph C - 778
Griffm. John _ - 821
Gnffui, Lawrence 6S0
Grimes, Robert L 642
Gundy, Charles T 565
Guthrie, Warren W 483
Hackney, Hiram H 660
Ham, Bishop K 608
Ham, W. Perry 702
Hamon, Alferd J 820
Hansen, H. C 521
Harvey, Albert B 440
Harwi, Alfred J 416
Harwi, Frank E 419
Hart, Charles C , 792
Hartman, Fred 797
Hartman, William 828
Hastings, Z. S 436
Hawk, John D 670
Hawk, Lafayette T 539
Hawk, Rutherford B 868
Hazel, Ernest C 744
Hekelnkaemper Brothers 804
Hendee, George E 429
Henderson, William 535
Hetherington, Wirt 510
Highfill, Thomas 706
Higley, Clem P 806
Hines,. Michael J 465
Hixon, Charles L 577
Holmes, James 1 841
Hooper, Abraham 616
Hooper, George R 867
Horan, Michael J 501
Horner, Thomas E 527
Howe, Edgar W 844
Hubbard, Lewis H 815
Hubbard, William E 807
Hubbard, William S 759
Hulings, Mark H 605
Hunn, Frank J 824
Hutson, William T 73°
Ingalls, John J 392
Ingalls, Sheffield 632
Intfen, Theo 645
Jackson, Horace M 353
Jackson, William ■ A 490
Jackson, Zaremba E 356
Jewell, Lumas M 53^
Johnson, Charles H 458
Johnson, George H. T 456
Jones, Earl V 582
Kaaz, Julius 688
Kammer, Karl A 570
Kanning, Christ 644
Kaufman. Fred W 781
Keitli, Uri S 544
Keithline, Andrew 432
Keithline, Charles J 630
Kelly, Edward J 635
King, Richard E 788
King, Samuel S 564
Kistler, William D 430
Klein, :Martin 442
Kloepper, Louis 580
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Koester, Frederick W 5SI
Kramer, John A ■_ 883
Kuehnhoff, Henry 513
Kuehnhoff, Louis R 567
Kiilin, Julius 592
Laird, Marcus J 7.56
Lange, Arnold 783
Lange, Charles 725
Lilly, C. A 818
Lincoln, Frederick W 692
Linley, Charles 461
Linley, Charles H 610
Loudenback, Henry H 653
Low, Hal C 77S
Lord, Samuel L 686
Lukens, Charles AI 762
]\IcAdani, William 399
McCullough, Edward B 599
Mclnteer. John 651
McKclvy, William A 865
Mangdsdorf, Albert H 852
Mangelsdorf, August 856
Mangelsdorf, Frank A 858
Mangelsdorf, William 850
Markwalt, Aniel 556
Martin, Sidney 393
Mayhew, Albert E 3/2
Miller, John O. A 791
Moeck, John 790
Moore, June E 701
Morrow, James G 384
Myers, Charles 552
Xass, John H 722
Xewcomb, Don C 424
Niemann, Henry 780
Nitz, William M 740
North, Howard E 698
Nusbaum, Leo 629
Oliver, John R 626
Orr, Louis C .'. 381
Orr, James W 360
Parsons, Peter 861
Peery, Rufus B ". 557
Pennington, James E 411
Perdue, Edward 5/6
Pfouts, Ralph U 479
Pike, Napoleon B 516
Finder, Robert 675
Pitts. E. P 634
Plummer, Thomas 696
Potter. Thomas J 677
Power. Grace E 718
Price, John M 811
Raterman, John L 559
Redmond, George W 689
Remsburg, George J 508
Remsburg, John E 504
Reynolds, John A 838
Robinson, Charles W 650
Royer, Boyd 814
Rudolph, Harrison W 598
Ryan, William 879
Sanders, Benjamin F 568
Schaefer, George H. T 554
Schapp, William 622
Schiffbauer, Henry 862
Scholz, George 526
Scholz, John A Si7
Schrader, George 729
Schurman, Arthur S 816
Scoville, Orlando C 389
Seaton, John 376
Sharp, Harry L 512
Sharpless, Ulysses B 560
Shaw, Benjamin F 679
Shelly, Edwin T 843
Shortridge, Alfred 589
Simmons, Oscar A 800
Smith, Albert J 61S
Smith, W. H 473
Smith, Wilson R 4-'7
Snyder, Mark D 574
Speck. A. S. 640
Specr. Andrew 710
Specr. L). Anna _ 776
Speer, William F S46
Stanley, Wilfull A 497
Stever, Abram 434
Stoddard, John 748
Storch, George 448
Stutz, Christian W 499
Stutz, Gustave 695
Stutz, John 639
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Sullivan, John E 684
Sullivan, John Edward 765
Sullivan, Roger P 602
Sutter, Frank 607
Sutter, Fred 75^
Sutter, William 840
Symns, Andrew B 365
Thomas, Robert M 397
Thompson, George W 664
Thompson, William H 720
Tomlinson. B. F 668
Treat, Thomas C 458
Trimble, James M 764
Trimble, Roy C 492
Trompeter, Joseph 421
Trueblood, Alva C 40S
Tucker, Thomas W 742
Valentine, John C 693
Vansell, Martin C 873
Veatch, Xathan T 733
Voelker, Conrad ]\I 562
Waggener, Balie P 368
Wagner, Frank J 827
Walker, Claudius D 400
Walter, H, B 803
Warren, William T 849
Watowa, Frank J 818
Watowa, Joseph H 732
Weber, Peter 594
Wehking, William 828
Wertz, Frank P 655
Wheeler, D. N SU
White, George E 663
Wilson, James E 549
Wolf, August J 826
Woodworth, Edwin S 772
Woodford, Frank M 723
Young, William 794
History of Atchison County
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGY.
FOSSILS EVIDENCES OF EARLY ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE GEOLOGICAI.
AGES ROCK FORMATION GLACIER PERIOD MINERALS.
The oldest citizens of Atchison county are the animals and plants whose
fossil remains now lie buried in the solid rocks. These denizens of long ago,
by their lives, made it possible for later and better citizens to live and flour-
ish in the happy and contented homes of her best citizens of the present
day. Long before man ever saw Atchison county — long before man lived
anywhere upon this earth, the seas swarmed with animal life and the dry
lands supported a fauna and a flora substantially as great as those of the
present time.
Tn character the animals and plants of those early days were very dif-
ferent from those of the present time. Almost all of their kind long ago be-
came extinct. It is only the few who have living representatives anywhere
in the world today, and they are degraded in form and size as though they
had long outlived their usefulness. Some of the animals live in the waters
of distant oceans, such as the brachiapods and other shell fish ; the crinoids
or sea. lilies, and others of like character. On the dry land we find a few in-
sects of the cock-roach type and other creeping things which inhabit dark
and damp places, animals of gloom on whose forms the sunshine of day
rarely falls.
The plants, likewise, are degraded in size and form. The modern bull-
rushes of our swamps are descendants of ancient giants of their kind which
17
l8 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
grew to ten or twenty times the size of their modern representatives. The
little creeping vines sometimes found in the shaded forest are lineal descend-
ants of the mighty trees of the forests in the long ago while miterials were
gathering for the rock masses constituting Atchison county.
In order to converse rationally about geological time it has been found
most convenient to divide time into periods in accordance with great natural
events, and to give a name to each period that in some way expresses some-
thing desirable to be known and remembered. Usually geographic names of
areas where rock masses are exposed to the surface of the ground are chosen,
or soine favorite geographic term may be used, and in rare instances some
quality name expressive of the character or composition of the rocks.
Following the best usage of geologists the rocks exposed at the surface
all belong to the age known as the Carboniferous which lies at the tO £ of the
Paleaozoic, or ancient life rocks. The Carboniferous is divided and sulj-
divided into a number of divisions, the lowermost of which has been named
the Mississippian on account of their great abundance throughout the Missis-
sippi valley. Above the Mississippian we find a mass of alternating beds of
shale and limestone and sandstone aggregating about 2,500 feet in thick-
ness, called the Pennsylvanians, a term borrowed from the State of Pennsyl-
vania, where rocks of the same age so abound. Rocks formed during the re-
mainder of geologic time are not found in Atchison county, except the cover-
mg of soil and clay so abundant throughout the county. An old-time name
for the Pennsylvanian rocks is the coal-measures, a term now on the decline
because the newer names — well, it is newer.
It appears that from the close of the Pennsylvanian time to the present
.Atchison county has been dry land. At one time, quite recently, as geologists
reckon time, climatic conditions changed so that the snow falling during the
winter could not be melted during the summer, so that to the far north great
quantities of snow and ice accumulated and gradually spread over the sur-
face of a large part of North America. One limb of this ice mass moved
slowlv southward and covered all of Atchison county, and much adjacent
territory, and brought with it vast quantities of soil and clay and gravel that
the ice sheet, as a great scraper, picked up from the surface as it came along.
When the ice finally, melted this debris was left, like a mantle of snow, cov-
ering the entire surface of Atchison county.
The rocks of Pennsylvanian age have within them much of value econom-
ically. Here and there inter-stratified with the sandstone and shale are large
.-ind valuable beds of coal, as is abundantly shown bv the drilled wells and
ISTORV OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Uiilding State OiplKuis' Home, Atchison,
coal shafts within the county. It is probahle that ahnost the entire county is
underlaid with this- same bed of coal, and if so it is worth substantially as
much to the county as is the surface soil. It lies at so great a depth that it
may be mined without any danger whatever of disturbing the surface.
The large amount of good hard limestone in the county guarantees an
everlasting supply of stone for road making, railroad ballast, crushed rock
for concrete works and all other uses to which such limestone may be put.
With the Missouri river on the eastern boundary carrying unlimited amounts
of sand Atchison county is well supplied with every material needed for un-
limited amounts of mortar construction of all kinds. Recently, since Port-
land cement construction has so effectually replaced stone masonry, this be-
comes a very important matter.
Should market conditions ever become favorable it is also possible to
manufacture the best grades of Portland cement by properly combining the
20 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
limestones and shales of the county. Their chemical and physical properties
are admirably suited for such purposes.
There is a possibility that somewhere within the county oil and gas may
be found by proper prospecting. As no search for these materials has yet
been made it is impossible to say what the results might be. Atchison county,
however, lies within the oil zone that has been proven to be so much farther
south, and until proper search has been made no one can say that oil and gas
cannot be found here also.
CHAPTER 11.
PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
EVIDENCES OF PALEOLITHIC MAN AN ANCIENT FORTIFICATION ABORIGINAL
VILLAGE AND CAMP SITES THE INGALLS AND OTHER BURIAL MOUNDS.
How long the region embraced in Atchison county has been the home
of man is not known, but the finding of a prehistoric human skeleton, com-
puted by the highest anthropological and geological authorities to be at least
10,000 years old, in the adjoining count}' of Leavenworth, favors the pre-
sumption that what is now Atchison county was occupied by man at an equally
remote period. Evidences of a very early human existence here have been
found at various times. Near Potter, in this county, the writer found deep
in the undisturbed gravel and clay, a rude flint implement that uncjuestionably
had been fashioned by prehistoric man, evidently, of what is known as the
^Paleolithic period. In drilling the well at the power house of the Atchison
Street Railway, Light and Power Company, the late T. J. Ingels, of Atchison,
encountered at a great depth, several fragments of fossilized bone, inter-
mingled with charcoal, evidently the remains of a very ancient fireplace.
About i8So, M. M. Trimmer, an Atchison contractor, in opening a stone
quarrv at the northeast point of the Branchtown hill, near the confluence of
\Vhite Clay and Brewery creeks, in Atchison, unexpectedly encountered a pit
or excavation, eighty feet long, sixty feet wide, and eighteen feet deep, in
the solid rock formation of the hill. The surface of the hill is composed of
drift or gravel, and the pit had become filled with this gravel to the original
surface, thus obliterating all external evidences of its existence. The lower
layer of stone, about six inches thick, had been left for a floor in the pit, and
in the northwest comer this lower strata of stone for about four feet square
had been removed. Water issued from the ground at this point indicating
that a spring or well, or source of water supply, had been located here. A
21
22 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
careful examination of the place at the time showed unmistakably that this
excavation had been made by human hands at a very early period and was
probably used as a fortification or defensive work. Prehistoric excavations
of this character, made in the solid rock, are common in Europe, but almost
unknown in America, except in the cases of ancient flint and steatite quar-
ries, and the absence of either in the Atchison formation, except an occasional
flint nodule, precludes the possibility that this was just an aboriginal quarry.
The Smithsonian authorities at Washington pronounced the work worthy of
careful study, but unfortunately it was obliterated by the progress of the
quarrying. Many weapons and implements of the stone age have been found
in the vicinity of this pit.
Almost the entire surface of Atchison county, particularly where border-
ing streams, presents various traces of aboriginal occupancy, from the silent
sepulchers of the dead and the mouldy rubbish of the wigwam, to the solitary
arrowhead lost on the happy chase or the sanguinary war path. In many
places these remains blend into the prehistoric, semi-historic and historic
periods, showing evidences of a succession of occupancy. For instance we
find the Neolithic stone celts or hatchets, the Neoeric iron tomahawks ; frag-
ments of fragile earthenware, mixed and moulded by the prehistoric potter,
■ and bits of modern decorated porcelain made by some pale-faced patterner
of Palissy; ornaments of stone^ bone and shell; trinkets of brass and beads
of glass, intermingled in confusion and profusion. These numerous relics
of different peoples and periods, showing, as they do, diverse stages of cul-
ture and advancement, warrant the opinion that Atchison county, with its
many natural advantages, was a favorite resort of successive peoples from
time immemorial. Favorably situated at the great western bend of the Mis-
souri river and at the outskirts of which was one of the richest Indian hunting
grounds in the great wild West,' embracing and surrounded by every natural
advantage that would make it the prospective and wonted haunt of a wild-
race, it was a prehistoric paradise, as it is today, a modern Arcadia.
The writer has personally examined hundreds of ancient Indian village,
camp and workshop sites, and opened a number of niounds in Atchison county.
The first ancient mounds ever opened in tlie county were on a very rugged
hill known as the "Devil's Backbone," bordering Owl creek, and overlooking
the Missouri river, in 1891. There were two of them, and they contained
stone sepulchers in which the Indians had cremated their dead. Other stone
grave mounds have been opened on the farms of John Myers, on Independ-
ence creek, in the northeastern part of the county : ^laurice Fiehley, on
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
State Orphans' Home, Atchison, Kan.
Stranger creek, near Potter; George Storch. on Alcorn or Whiskey creek,
just south of Atchison, and in several other places. The most interesting
mound ever excavated in the county, however, was what is known as the In-
oalls Mound, on land belonging to the estate of the late United States Senator
John j. Ingalls, (?n a bluff of the Missouri river, at the mouth of Walnut
creek, about five miles below Atchison. This mound was discovered by Sen-
ator Ingalls at an early day, and opened by the writer in 1907. It was fifteen
feet in diameter, and was composed of alternate layers of stone and earth
one on top of the other, the remains of several Indians being imbedded in the
earth between the layers of stone. These remains were in a bad state of decay,
most of the bones crumbling while being removed. The bones of each per-
son had been placed in the mound in compact bundles, which seems to indi-
cate that they had been removed from some temporary place of interment,
perhaps from dilapidated scaffold burials, and deposited here in final sepul-
ture. In some of the layers not only the bones but the rocks and earth were
considerably burned, indicating incinerary funeral rites, while in others there
were not the least marks of fire. The undermost laver, about three feet from
24 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the top, was a veritable cinder pit, being a burned mass or conglomerate of
charcoal and charred and calcined human remains, showing no regularity or
outline of skeletons, but all in utter confusion. A solitary pearl bead was
the only object that withstood the terrible heat to which the lower tier of re-
mains had been subjected. In one of the upper tiers were the bones of two
infants. With one of them was a necklace of small shells of a species not
native here. With another bundle of bones were two small, neatly chipped
flint knives, a flint scraper, a bone whistle or "call," several deer horn imple-
ments, and a large flint implement of doubtful usage, known to archeologists
as a "turtle-back," because of its shape. With another bundle of bones, and
which they seemed to be clasping, were several mussel shells, badly decom-
posed. One small ornament of an animal or bird claw, several flint arrow-
heads, and some fragments of pottery, were also found. In one of the skulls
was embedded the fhnt blade of a war-club. Thirty-one yards northwest of
this mound was found another of less prominence. It contained a burned
mass of human reinains, covered with a layer of about six inches of clay,
baked almost to the consistency of brick. Lack of space forbids a mention
of many other interesting archaeological discoveries made in this county from
time to time. Suffice to say that there is ample evidence that within the bor-
ders of Atchison county there lived and thrived and passed away a consider-
able aboriginal population.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN HISTORY.
HARAHEY, AN INDIAN I'KOVINCE OF CORONADO S TIME THE KANSA NATION
BOURGMONT's visit in 1724 COUNCIL ON COW ISLAND IN l8iq THE
KICKAPOO INDIANS.
There is nothing definite to show that Coronado ever reached the con-
fines of what is now Atchison county in 1541, as some historical writers ha\-e
seen fit to state, but there is a probabihty that the Indian province of Harahey,
which the natives thereof told him was just beyond Ouivira. embraced our
present county and most of the region of northeastern Kansas. Alark E.
Zimmerman, an intelHgent and painstaking student of Kansas archaeology
and Indian histoi-y, has given this matter much consideration, and is confi-
dent that the Harahey chieftain, Tatarrax, immortahzed in Coronado's chron-
icles, ruled over this territory nearly four centuries ago. Until this fact is
established, however, it remains that the Indian history of what is now Atch-
ison county begins with the Kansa Indians in the earl}- part of the eighteenth
century. At the time of the Bourgmont expedition in 1724, and for some
time before, this nation owned all of what is now northeastern Kansas, and
maintained several villages along the Missouri ri\er. the principal one being
near the mouth of Independence creek, or at the present site of Doniphan.
Here they had a large town. The writer made a careful examination and
fully identified the site of this old town in 1904. The results of this explora-
tion are given in a pamphlet entitled "An Old Kansas Indian Town on the
Missouri," published by the writer in 1914. Another important village of
the Kansa- was located at the mouth of what is now Salt creek, in Leaven-
worth, county. Both of these historic villages were situated right near and at
about the same distance from the present borders of Atchison county. There
were several old Indian villages within the confines of Atchison county, as
25
26 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
already stated in the preceding pages, but whether they belonged to the
Kansa or to the Harahey (Pawnee) is yet a matter of conjecture.
One of these old Kansa towns, evidently the one at Salt creek, was the
site of an important' French post. Bougainville on French Posts in 1757,
says: "Kanses. In ascending this stream (the Missouri river) we meet the
village of the Kanses. We have there a garrison with a commandant, ap-
pointed as in the case with Pimiteoui and Fort Chartres, by New Orleans.
This post produces one hundred bundles of furs." Lewis and Clark, in 1804,
noted the ruins of this old post and Kansa village. They were just outside
of the southern borders of Atchison county, near the present site of Kick-
apoo.
The Independence creek town, or what is generally referred ti:i by the
early French as "Grand village des Canzes," seems to have been a Jesuit Mis-
sionary station as early as 1727, according to Hon. George P. ]\Iorehouse,
the historian of the Kansa Indians, who recently found in some old French-
Canadian records of the province of Ontario an interesting fact not before
recognized in Kansas history, that the name "Kansas" was a well known
geographical term to designate a place on the Missouri river, within the pres-
ent borders of our State, where the French government and its official church,
nearly 200 years ago, had an imporant missionary center. Mr. Morehouse
says : "It is significant as to the standing of this Mission station of the Jes-
uits at Kanzas, away out in the heart of the continent, that in this document
it was classed along with their other important Indian Missions, such as the
Iroquois, Abenaquis, and Tadoussac, and that the same amount per mission-
ary was expended. It was 'Kansas,' a mission charge on the rolls of the Jes-
uit Fathers, for which annual appropriations of money were made as early as
1727. Here some of the saintly, self-sacrificing missionary pioneers of the
Cross must have come from distant Quebec and Montreal, or from the far-
away cloisters of sunny France. What zeal and sacrifice for others! Is it
any wonder that the Kansa Indians always spoke reverently of the 'black
robes,' who were the first to labor for their welfare in that long period in
the wilderness."
Just when the Kansa Indians established themselves at the "Grand Vil-
lage" at Doniphan, or at "Fort Village" at Kickapoo, is not known. The
first recorded mention of a Kansa village along this section of the Missouri
ri\-er is by Bourgmont in 1724. Onate met the Kansa on a hunting expedi-
rion on the prairies of Kansas in 1601, but does not state where their villages
were located. The "Grand Village" was an old one, howe\er, at the time of
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 2"]
IJourgmont's visit. Bourgmont does not mention the "Fort Village" at Salt
creek, as he snrelv would had it heen in existence at that time, and it is be-
lieved that it was established later, as it was in existence in 1757, as stated by
Rourgainville.
As is a well known historical fact the Spanish attempted to invade and
colonize the Missouri valley early in the eighteenth century. The French
had come into possession of this region in 1682, and M. de Bourgmont was
commissioned military commander on the Missouri in 1720, the French gov-
ernment becoming alarmed at the attempted Spanish in\asion. Establish-
ing friendly relations with the Indians of this region in order to ha\-e
their assistance in repelling any further Spanish advance was the object of
the Bourgmont expedition to the Kansa and Padouca Indians in 1724. Bourg-
mont's party, consisting of himself, M. Bellerive, Sieur Renaudiere, two sol-
diers and five other Frenchmen, besides 177 Missouri and Osage Indians in
charge of their own chiefs, marched overland from Fort Orleans, on the lower
Missouri, and arrived at the "Grand village des Cansez" on July 7, 1724.
Here they held a celebration of two weeks, consisting of pow-wows, councils,
trading horses or merchandise, and making presents to the Indians, several
boat loads of the latter, in charge of Lieutenant Saint Ange, having arrived
by river route. On July 24 they "put themselves in battle array on the village
height, the drum began to beat, and they marched away" on their journey
to the Padoucas. The incidents of their march across what is now Atchison
countv, and other facts pertaining to diis expedition wdl be found in the
chapter on early explorations in this volume.
According to a tradition handed down from prehistoric times the Kansa,
Osage, Omaha, Ponca and Kwapa were originally one people and lived along
the Wabash and Ohio rivers. In their migrations they arrived at the mouth
of the Ohio where there was a separation. Those who went down the Mis-
sissippi became known as the Kwapa, or "down stream people," while those
going up were called Omaha, or "up stream people." At the mouth of the
Missouri another division took place, the Omaha and Ponka proceeding far
up that stream. The Osage located on the stream which bears their name,
and the Kansa at the mouth of what is now the Kansas river. Later they
moved on up the Missouri and established several villages, the most northern
of which was at Independence Creek. At about the close of the Revolution-
arv war they were driven away from the Missouri by the Iowa and Sauk
tribes, and they took up a permanent residence on the Kansas river, where
]\Iajor Long's expedition visited them in 1819. They continued to make
28 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
predatory visits to the Missouri, however. They committed many depreda-
tions on traders and explorers passing up the river and even fired on the
United States troops encamped at Cow Island. It was to prevent the recur-
rence of such outrages that Major O'Fallon arranged a council with the
Kansa Nation. This council was held on Cow Island August 24, 18 19, under
an arbor built for the occasion. ]Major O'Fallon made a speech in which
he set forth the cause of complaint which the Kansa had given by their re-
peated insults and depredations, giving them notice of the approach of a mili-
tary force sufficient to chastise their insolence, and advising them to seize
the present opportunity of averting the vengeance they deserved, by proper
concessions, and by their future good behavior to conciliate those whose
friendship they would have so much occasion to desire. The replies of the
chiefs were simple and short, expressive of their conviction of the justice of
the complaints* against them, and of their acquiescence in the terms of the
reconciliation proposed by the agent.
There were present at this council 161 Kansa Indians, including chiefs
and warriors, and thirteen Osages. It was afterwards learned that the dele-
gation would have been larger but for a quarrel that arose among the chiefs
after they had started, in regard to precedence in rank, in consequence of
which ten or twelve returned to the village on the Kansas river. Among
those at the council were Na-he-da-ba, or Long Neck, one of the principal
chiefs of the Kansas; Ka-he-ga-wa-to-ning-ga, or Little Chief, second in
rank; Shen-ga-ne-ga, an ex-principal chief: ^^'a-ha-che-ra, or Big Knife, a
war chief, and Wam-pa-wa-ra, or White Plume, afterwards a noted chief.
Major O'Fallon had with him the officers of the garrison of Cow Island,
or Contonment Martin, and a few of those connected with Major Long's ex-
ploring party. "The ceremonies," says one account, "were enlivened by a
military display, such as the firing of cannon, hoisting of flags, and an exhibi-
tion of rockets and shells, the latter evidently making a deeper impression on
the Indians than the eloquence of Major O'Fallon." A description of ]\Iajor
Long's steamboat, built to impress the Indians on this occasion, will be found
in the following chapter on early explorations.
From the Kansa Indians our State derived its name. For more than
300 years they dwelt upon our soil. At their very advent in this
region what is now Atchison county became a part of their heritage and for
generations it was a part of their imperial home. '
By the treaty of Castor Hill, Mo., October 24, 1832, the Kickapoo
Indians were assigned to a reservation in northeastern Kansas, which in-
HISTORY OF ATC
State Orphans' Home, Atchison, Kan.
eluded most of what is now Xtchisun c )U it} Thev settled on their new
lands shortly after the treaty was made. Their principal settlement at that
time was at the present site of Kickapoo, in Leavenworth, county, where a
Methodist mission was estahlished among them by Rev. Jerome C. Berry-
man, in 1833. There is said to have been a mission station among the Kick-
apoos where Oak Mills, in Atchison county, now stands, at an early day, but
nothing definite is known regarding its history, except that we have it from
early settlers that an Indian known as Jim Corn seemed to be the head
man of the band of Kickapoos that lived there, and that the white pioneers
frequently attended services in the old mission house which stood in the hol-
low a short distance southwest of the present site of Oak Mills,
During the time that the Kickapoos owned and occupied what is now
Atchison county, they were ruled over by two very distinguished chieftains —
Keannakuk, the Prophet, and Masheena, or the Elk Horns. Both of these
30 HISTORV OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Indians were noted in Illinois long before they migrated westward and were
prominently mentioned by Washington Irving, George Catlin, Charles Augus-
tus Murray and other distinguished travelers and authors. Catlin painted
their pictures in 183 1, and these are included in the famous Catlin gallei-y in
Washington. Keannakuk was both a noted chief and prophet of the tribe. He
was a professed preacher of an order which he claimed to have originated at
a veiy early day and his influence was vei-y great among his people. He died
at Kickapoo in 1852 and was buried there. Masheena was a really noted
Indian. He led a band of Kickapoos at the battle of Tippecanoe. He died
and was buried in Atchison county, near the old town of Kennekuk, in 1857.
He was born in Illinois about 1770.
Important seats of Kickapoo occupancy in Atchison county in the earh-
days were Kapioma, Muscotah and Kennekuk. Kapioma was named for a
chief of that name who lived there. The present township of Kapioma gets
its name from this source. Father John Baptiste Duerinck, a Jesuit, was a
missionary among the Kickapoos at Kapioma in 1855-57. Muscntali was for
a long time the seat of the Kickapoo agency, li 1- a Knki];. 1,, name meaning
"Beautiful Prairie," or "Prairie of Fire." Kennekuk was named for John
Kennekuk, a Kickapoo chief, and son of Keannakuk, the Prophet.
By treaty of 1854 the Kickapoo reservation was diminished and the tribe
was assigned to lands along the Grasshopper or Delaware river. Still later it
was again diminished and they were given their present territory within the
confines of Brown county.
The Kickapoos are a tribe of the central Algonquian group, forming a
division with the Sauk and Foxes, with whom they have close ethnic and lin-
guistic connection. The first definite appearance of this tribe in history was
about i667^gj_when they were found by Allouez near the portage between
Fox and Wisconsin rivers, in Wisconsin. About 1 765 they moved down into
the Illinois country, and later to Missouri and Kansas.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
CORONADO IN 184I THE BOURGMONT EXPEDITION IN 1 724 PERIN DU LAC
LEWIS AND CLARK FIRST FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION MAJOR
STEPHEN H. LONG CANTONMENT MARTIN ISLE AU VACHE OTHER
EXPLORERS PASCHAI. PENSOXEAU THE OLD MILITARY ROAD THE
MORMONS.
Some historians (notably General Simpson) in their studies of the
famous march of Coronado in search of the land of Ouivira, in 1541, have
brought the great Spanish explorer to the Missouri river, in northeastern
Kansas. The more recent researches of Hodge, Bandalier and Brower, how-
ever, have proven beyond question that Coronado's line of march through
Kansas was north from Clark county to the Great Bend of the Arkansas river,
and thence to the region northeastward from McPherson to the Kansas river,
between the junction of its two main forks and Deep creek, in Riley county,
where the long lost province of Ouivira was located. Hence, it is no longer
even probable that the great Spaniard on this famous march ever saw the
Missouri river region in northeastern Kansas, much less to have ever set
foot upon the soil of what is now Atchison county, as many have heretofore
believed.
The first white men, of whom we have definite record, to visit what is
now Atchison county, were those who composed the expedition of Capt.
Etienne Vengard de Bourgmont, military commander of the French colony
of Louisiana, who, in the summer of 1724, arrived at the Kansa Indian vil-
lage where Doniphan now stands, crossed what is now Atchison county, and
made several encampments on our soil. Leaving the Kansa village at Doni-
phan on the morning of July 24, en route to the province of the Padoucas,
or what is now known as the Comanche tribe of Indians, in north central
31
32 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Kansas, Bourgmont and parly marched a league and a half along what is now
Deer creek, and went into camp, where they spent the day. The next day
they passed Stranger creek, or what they designated "a small river," and
stopped on account of rain, until the 26th, when they proceeded a few miles
further, and again went into camp. A thunder-storm, lasting all the after-
noon, compelled them to remain encamped here. On the 27th they reached a
river, which was doubtless the Grasshopper or Delaware, about four or five
miles below Muscotah, Avhere they again camped, and, on the 28th marclied
out of Atchison county somewhere along the southwest border, in Kapioma
township. This strange procession, besides Bourgmont's force of white men,
consisted of 300 Indian warriors, with two grand chiefs and fourteen war
chiefs, 300 Indian squaws, 500 Indian children, and 500 dogs, carrying and
dragging provisions and equipments. The object of the expedition was to
promote a general peace among, and effect an alliance between, the different
tribes inhabitating this region. Shortly after leaving Atchison county, Bourg-
mont was taken very ill. and was obliged to return to Fort Orleans, on the
lower Missouri. He was carried back across Atchison county to the Kansa
village, on a hand-barrow, and then transported down the Missouri in a canoe.
Upon his recovery he resumed his journey to the Padoucas in the fall of 1724.
coming back by way of the Kansa village and Atchison county. No doubt
other French explorers, traders and trappers, visited this county at an earlier
date than did Bourgmont. but information concerning them is vague and un-
certain.
Perin du Lac, a French explorer, set foot upon the soil of Atchison
county while on an exploring trip up the ^Missouri in 1802-03. In his jour-
nal, published soon after his return to France, Du Lac mentions that "three
miles below the old Kances Indian village they perceived some iron ore." As
the "old Kances village" was the one already referred to as having been at
Doniphan, the iron ore discovered by Du Lac must have been in Atchison
countv, somewhere in the vicinity of Luther Dickerson's old home, where the
rocks are known to be strongly impregnated with iron. Du Lac gathered
some specimens of the Atchison county ore, which he must have lost, for he
savs in his journal: "I intended to have assayed it on my return, but an
accident unfortunately happening prevented me."
In the summer of 1804 the famous "Lopisiana Purchase exploring expe-
dition" of Lewis and Clark passed up the Missouri river, arrixing at the south-
east corner of Atchison county on July 3. They passed Isle Au Vache, or Cow
Island, opposite Oak Mills, stopped at a deserted trader's house at or near the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 33
site of Port William, where they picked up a stray horse (the first recorded
mention of a horse in what is now Atchison county) and camped that night
somewhere in the vicinity of \\'blnut creek. The next morning- they an-
nounced the "glorious Fourth" with a shot from their gun boat, and there
began the first celebration of our Nation's birthday on Kansas soil. Tliat
day they took dinner on the bank of White Clay creek, or what they called
"Fourth of July creek." Here Joe Fields, a member of the party, was bitten
by a snake, and Sergeant Floyd, in commemoration of the incident, named
the prairie on which Atchison now stands, "Joe Fields' Snake Prairie."
Above the creek, they state, "was a high mound, where three Indian paths
centered, and from which was a very extensive prospect." This, undoubtedly,
was the commanding elevation where the Soldiers' Orphans' Hnrne now
stands. On the evening of the Fourth they discovered and named Indepen-
dence creek in honor of the day, and closed the day's obser\ances with "an
evening gun and an additional gill of whiskey to the men."
A detachment of Maj. Stephen H. Long's Yellowstone exploring ex-
pedition, under coinmahd of Capt. Wyley Martin, spent the winter of 1818-
19 on Cow Island, which now belongs to Atchison county, and established
a post known as Cantonment Martin. This was the first United States mili-
tary post established above Ft. Osage, and west of Missouri Territory. Dur-
ing that winter Captain ]\Iartin's men killed between 2,000 and 3,000
deer, besides great numbers of bears, turkeys and other game. The troops
that established this frontier post were a part of the First Rifle regiment,
the "crack" organizatfon of the United States amiy at that time. In July,
1819, Major Long arrived at Cow Island. His steamboats were the first to
ascend the Missouri river above Ft. Osage. The next day Colonel Chambers
and a detachment of infantr}' arrived. Thomas Say and his party of natural-
ists, under command of Major Biddle, at about the same time crossed Atch-
ison county en route from the Kansa Indian village where ^Manhattan now
stands, and joined Major Long's party at Cow Island. Messrs. Say and
Jessup, naturalists of the expedition, were taken very ill and had to remain
at the island for some time. Col. Henry Atkinson, the founder of Ft. Atkin-
son, and commander of the western departinent for more than twenty years,
arrived at Cow Island shortly after Major Long. Maj. John O'Fallon was
sutler of the post and Indian agent for the upper Missouri. On July 4, 1819,
the Nation's birthday was celebrated on Cow Island. The flags were raised
at full mast, guns were fired, and they had "pig with divers tarts to grace
the table." On August 24 an important council with the Kansa Indians was
3
34 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
held on the island. An account of this council will be found in the chapter
on Indian history in this volume.
One of the captains who was stationed on Cow Island — Bennett Riley —
afterwards became a distinguished man in the history of this countiy. He
was the man for whom Ft. Riley was named. He served with gallantr\- in
the Indian country, the Northwest and Florida. In the Florida war he was
promoted to colonel. In the war with Mexico he became a major-general,
and was subsequently military governor of California. Col. John O'Fallon
entered the army from Kentucky and fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe un-
der Harrison, where he was severely wounded and carried the scar to his
grave. He had a brilliant military record, and afterwards became one of
the wealthiest and most public-spirited citizens of St. Louis.
Major W'illoughb}' Morgan assumed command of the Cow Island post
April 13, 1819. He was also a distinguished officer. When Contonment
IMartin was abandoned in September, 1819, it required a month to transport
the troops from there to Council Bluffs on the steamboats.
One of these boats, the "Western Engineer," the first that ever touched
the shore of Atchison county, was of unique construction, having been ex-
pressly built for the expedition and calculated to impress the Indians. On her
bow was the exhaust pipe, made in the form of a huge serpent, with wide
open mouth and tongue painted a fiery red. The steam, escaping through
the mouth, made a loud, wheezing noise that could be heard for miles. The
Indians, recognized in it the power of the great Manitou and were o\ercome
with fear.
Cow Island has been a prominent land-mark in the \\'est from a very
early period. It was discovered by the early French explorers and called by
them Isle au \"ache, meaning Isle of Cow or Cow Island. It was so named
because a strav cow was found wandering about on the island. It is sup-
posed that this cow was stolen by the Indians from one of the early French
settlements and placed on this island to prevent her escape. There is a co-
incidence in the fact that the first horse and the first cow in what is now
Atchison county, of which we have any record, were found in the same
locality. The stray horse picked up by Lewis and Clark, mention of which
is made on a preceding page of this chapter, was found almost opposite the
upper end of Cow Island, on the Kansas shore. There is a tradition that
the French h;id a trading post on Cow Island at a ven- early day.
In 18 10. John Bradl^ury. a renowned English botanist, made a trip up
the [Missouri river, and was the first scientist to make a svstematic studv of
122722i
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
35
the plants and geological formations of this region. He touched the shore
of what is now Atchison count}', and in his book, "Travels in the Interior of
America," speaks about the great fertihty of our soil. He shipped the speci-
mens collected on this trip to the botanical gardens of Liverpool, and no
doubt many Atchison county specimens were included in these shipments.
The next year H. M. Brackenridge. another explorer, came up the Missouri
and made some obser\-atii)ns along our shore.
The first permanent white settler of what is now Atchison county was a
Frenchman. Paschal Pensoneau, who, about 1839, married a Kickapoo Indian
woman and about 1844 settled on the bank of Stranger creek, near the pres--
ent site of Potter, where he established a trading-house and opened the first
farm in Atchison county on land which had been allotted him by the Govern-
ment for seiwices in the Black Hawk and Mexican wars. Pensoneau had
long lived among the Kickapoo Indians, following them in their migrations
from Illinois to Missouri and Kansas, generally pursuing the vocation of
trader and interpreter. As early as 1833 or 1834 he was established on the
Alissouri river at the old Kickapoo town, later removing to Stranger creek,
as aforestated. He became a very prominent and influential man among- the
Kickapoos. He long held the position of Government interpreter for that
36 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
tribe. After the treaty of 1854, diminishing the Kickapoo reserve, Pensoneau
moved to the new lands assigned the tribe along the Grasshopper river, where
he lived for many years. About 1875 he settled among a band of Kickapoo
Indians, near Shawnee, Indian Territor}-, where he died some years later.
He was born at Cahokia, 111., April 17, 1796, his parents having been among
the emigrants from Canada to the early French settlements of Illinois.
In 1850 the military road from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Laramie was
laid out by Colonel Ogden. It crossed Atchison county, and over it passed
many important expeditions to the Western plains and mountains, and to
Oregon and California. Before this road was laid out as a Government high-
way, the same route had long been traveled as a trail. It was a great natural
highway, being on the "dividing ridge" between the Missouri and Kansas
rivers. Charles Augustus Murray, Francis Parkman, Captain Stansbury and
other noted travelers journeyed over this trail during the thirties and forties,
and in the fascinating volumes they have left, we find much of interest per-
taining to the region of which Atchison county is now a part. During the
gold excitement in California this old trail swarmed with emigrants seeking
a fortune in the West. The Mormons, the soldiers, the overland freighters,
the stage drivers, the hundred and one other picturesc^ue types of character
in the early West have helped to make the histoiy of this famous old branch
of the "Oregon and California Trail" immortalized by Parkman.
During the days of Momion emigration a Mormon settlement sprang up
a few miles west of Atchison, and immediately east of the present site of
Shannon, whi'ch became known as "Momion Grove."' The settlement was
enclosed by trenches, which ser\-ed as fences to prevent the stock from going
astray, and traces of these old ditches may be seen to this day. Many of the
Mormons here died of cholera and were buried near the settlement, but all
traces of the old burial ground have been obliterated by cultivation of the
soil.
CHAPTER V.
TERRITORIAL TIMES.
TERRITORY ACQUIRED FROM FRANCE IN 1 803 ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORY
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT IMMIGRATION TO KANSAS TERRITORIAL GOV-
ERNMENT FREE STATE AND PRO-SLAVERY CONFLICT FIRST ELECTION
SECRET POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS BORDER WAR ACTIVITIES AND OUT-
RAGES CONTESTS OVER ADOPTION OF CONSTITUTION KANSAS ADMITTED
TO THE UNION.
Kansas is as rich in historic lore and resources as any other region of
the great West. George J. Remsburg. who has contributed two chapters
of this history, has, with great care and accuracy, put into readable form an
account of prehistoric times, Indian occupancy and the record of earlier ex-
plorers in northeastern Kansas. It is a tale of absorbing interest to those who
would go back to the dawn of civilization here and study the force and char-
acter of men who paved the way for the developments that came after. To the
intrepid Spanish conquerors of Mexico of the sixteenth century, and the hardy
French explorers, two years later, we are indebted for the opening up of the
Great American Desert, into which American pioneers, the century following,
found their way. Thousands of years before these came. Atchison county had
been the abode of hunting tribes and the feastin.g place of wild animals. Then
came the ceaseless flow of the tide of civilization, which swept these earlier
denizens from the field, to clear it for the "momentous conflict between the
two opposing systems of American civilization, then struggling for masteiy
and supremacy over the Repubhc." It was in Kansas that the war of rebel-
lion began, and it was in the northeastern corner along the shores of the
Missouri river — in Atchison county — "that the spark of conflict which had
irritated a Nation for decades burst into devastating flames."
It is a deHcate task to convey anything approaching a truthful account of
37
38 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the storm and stress of opini(.ins and emotions which accompanied the organiza-
tion of Kansas as one of the great American commonweaUhs, and the part
played hy the citizens of Atchison county in that tremendous work, but sixty
years have served to mellow the animosities and bitternesses of the past, and
it is easier now to comprehend the strife of that distant day and pass un-
biased judgment upon it.
\Mien the United States acquired from France, in 1803, the territoiy of
which Atchison county is a part, slaven* was a legalized institution, and many
of the residents held slaves. In the treaty of cession, there was incorporated
an expressed stipulation that the inhabitants of Louisiana "should be incor-
porated into the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible,
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all
the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and
in the meantime they should be maintained and protected in the free enjoy-
ment of their liberty, property and the religion which they professed." Thus
it came to pass for over fifty years aft^r the time that vast empire was acquired
from France the bitter contest between the anti-slavery and the pro-slavery ad-
vocates ebbed and flowed, and amidst a continual clash of ideas and finally
after the shedding of blood, Kansas, and Atchison county, were born.
It was in the Thirty-second Congress that petitions were presented for
the organization of the Territory of the Platte, viz : all that tract lying west
of Iowa and Missouri and extending west to the Rocky mountains, Imt no
action on the petitions was taken at that time. December 13, 1852, W'illard
P. Hall, a congressman from Missouri, submitted to the House of .Representa-
tives a bill organizing this region. This bill was referred to the committee on
territories, which reported February 22, 1853, through its chairman, W'illiarii
A. Richardson, of Illinois. A bill organizing the territory of Nebraska, wiiich
covered the same territory as the bill of Mr. Hall, was met by unex-
pected and strong opposition from the southern members of Congress, and was
rejected in the committee of the whole. The House, however, did not adopt
the action of the committee, but passed the bill and sent it to the
Senate, where it was defeated March 3, 1853, t>y six votes. On the fourteenth
day of December, 1853, Senator Dodge, of Iowa, submitted to that body a new
bill for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, embracing the same
region as the bill whicli was defeated in the first session of the Thirty-second
Congress. It was referred to the committee on territories, of which Stephen
A. Douglas was chairman, on Januarj- 4, 1854.
It was during the discussion of this bill that tiie abrogation of the Missouri
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 39
Compromise was foreshadowed. The story of the action of Senator Douglas
in connection with the slavery question has appeared in every history since the
Ci\'il war. It is neither necessary nor proper to dwell at length upun his career
in connectiDU with the history of Atchison comity. However, it was follow-
ing a bitter discussion of the slaveiy question that the bill was passed, creating
Kansas a territory. The provisions of the bill, as presented, were known to
be in accordance with the wishes and designs of all the Southern members to
have been accepted before being presented by President Pierce by a majority
of the members of his cabinet, and to have the assured support of a sufficient
number of Northern administration Democrats, to insure its passage beyond a
douljt. The contest over the measure ended May 27, 1854, by the passage
of the bill, which was approved May 30, 1854, by President Pierce.
The act organizing Nebraska and Kansas contained thirty-seven sections.
The provisions relating to Kansas were embodied in the last eighteen sec-
tions, summarized as follow :
Section 19 defines the boundaries of the territory; gives it the name of
Kansas, and prescribes that when admitted as a State, or States, the said terri-
tory, or any partion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or
without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admis-
sion. Also provides for holding the rights of all Indian tribes inviolable, until
such time as they shall be extinguished by treaty.
Section 20. The executive power and authority is vested in a governor,
appointed by the President, to hold his office for the term of four years, or
until his successor is appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the
President of the United States.
Section 21. The secretary of State is appointed and subject to removal
by the President of the United States, and to be acting governor with full
powers and functions of the governor in case of the absence of the gov-
ernor from the territoiw, or a vacancy occurring.
Section 22. Legislative power and authority of territory is vested in
the governor and a legislative body, consisting of two branches, a council and
a house of representatives.
Section 23 prescribes qualifications of voters; giving the right to every
free white male inhabitant, above the age of 21 years, who shall be an actual
resident of the territory, to vote at the first election.
Section 24 limits the scope of territorial legislation, and defines the A-eto
power of the governor.
40 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Section 25 prescribes the manner of appointing and electing officers, not
otherwise provided for.
Section 26 precludes members from holding any office created or the
emoluments of which are increased during any session of the legislature of
which they are a member, and prescribes qualifications for members of the
legislative assembly.
Section 27 vests the judicial power in the supreme court, district courts,
probate courts and in justices of the peace.
Section 28 declares the fugitive slave law of 1850 to be in full force in
the territory.
Section 29 provides for the appointment of an attorney and marshal for
the territory.
Section 30 treats with the nomination of the President, chief justice, asso-
ciate justices, attorne}- and marshal, and their confirmation by the Senate,
and prescribes the duties of these officers and fixes their salaries.
Section 31 locates the temporary seat of government of the territory at
Ft. Leavenworth, and authorizes the use of the Gi)\-ernment buildings there
for public purposes.
Section 32 provides for the election of a delegate to Congress, and abro-
gates the Missouri Compromise.
Section 33 prescribes the manner and the amount of appropriations for
the erection of public buildings, and other territorial purposes.
Section 34 reserves for the benefit of schools in the territory and states
and territories hereafter to be erected out of the same, sections number 16 and
36 in each township, as they are surveyed.
Section 35 prescribes the mode of defining the judicial districts of the
territor}-, and appointing the times and places of holding the various courts.
Section 36 requires officers to give official bonds, in such manner as
the secretary of treasury may prescribe.
Section 37 declares all treaties, laws and other engagements made by
the United States Government with the Indian tribes inhabiting the territory
to remain inviolate, notwithstanding anything contained in the provisions of
the act.
It was under the provisions of the above act that those coming to Kansas
to civilize it and to erect their homes were to be guided.
Edward Everett Hale, in his history of Kansas and Nebraska, published
in 1854. says, "Up to the summer of 1854. Kanzas and Nebraska have had
no civilized residents, except the soldiers sent tij keep the Indian tribes in
HISTORY. OF ATCHISON COUNTY , 41
order; the missionaries sent to cnn\-ert them; the traders wlio liouglit furs of
them, and those of the natives wlio may be considered to have attained some
measure of civilization from their connection with the whites." So it wih
be seen that at the time of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, Atcliison
county was very sparsely settled.
All movements in the territory, or elsewhere, made for its organization,
were provisional, as they were subject to the rights of the various Indian tribes,
whose reservations covered, by well defined boundaries, every acre of north-
eastern Kansas, except such tracts as were reserved by the Government about
Ft. Leavenworth, and other military stations, but with the move for the
organization of the territory came an effort to extinguish the Indian's title
to the lands and thus open them to white settlers. One of the most interesting
books bearing upon the history of Kansas of that time was "Greeley's Con-
flict." He makes the following statement with reference to this subject:
"When the bill organizing Kansas and Nebraska was first submitted to
Congress in 1853, all that portion of Kansas which adjoins the State of Mis-
souri, and, in fact, nearly all the accessible portion of both territories, was cov-
ered by Indian reservations, on which settlement by whites was strictly for-
bidden. The only exception was in favor of Government agents and reli-
gious missionaries ; and these, especially the former, were nearly all Democrats
and violent partisans of slavery. * * * * Within three months immediately
preceding the passage of the Kansas bill aforesaid, treaties were quietly made
at Washington with the Delawares, Otoes, Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Shawnees,
Sacs, Foxes and other tribes, whereby the greater part of the soil of Kansas,
lying within one or two hundred miles of the Missouri border, was suddenly
opened to white appropriation and settlement. These simultaneous purchases
of the Indian land by the Government, though little was known of them else-
where, were thoroughly understood and appreciated by the Missourians of the
western border, who had for some time been organizing 'Blue Lodges,' 'Social
Bands,' 'Sons of the South," and other societies, with intent to take posses-
sion of Kansas in behalf of slavery. They were well assured and they fully
believed that the object contemplated and desired, in lifting, by the terms of
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the interdict of slavery from Kansas, was to author-
ize and facilitate the legal extension of slavery into that region. Within a
few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, hundreds of leading
Missourians crossed into the adjacent territory, selected each his quarter sec-
tion, or a larger area of land, put some sort of mark on it, and then united with
his fellow-adventurers in a meeting, or meetings, intended to establish a sort
of Missouri preemption upon all this region."
42 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Immediately following the passage of the territorial act the immigration
of Missourians to Kansas began, and, indeed, before its final passage the best
of the lands had been located and marked for preemption by the ^ilissourians.
This was true, apparently, iii the case of George M. Million, whom the rec-
ords disclose was the first settler in Atchison county, after Kansas was made
a territon,-. Mr. Million was of German descent and came to the vicinity
of Rushville in the hills east of Atchison from Coal county, IMissouri, prior
to 1841, where he was married to Sarah E. Dixon before she was fifteen
years old. In 1841 Million occupied the present site of East Atchison as a
farm. At that time the bottom land just east of Atchison was covered with
tall rushes and was known as Rush bottom. The town of Rushville was
originally known as Columbus, but the name was subsequenly changed to
Rushville because of the character of the country in which it was located.
During the wititer Million eked out his livelihood by cutting wood and haul-
ing it to the river bank, selling it in the spring and summer to the steam-
boats that plied up and down the Missouri river. Sometime subsequent to
1841, Million built a flat-boat ferrj^ and operated it for seven or eight years
and did a thriving business during the great gold rush to California. He
accumulated considerable money and later operated a store, trading with the
Indians for furs and buying hemp, which he shipped down the river. In
June, 1854. he "squatted" on the present townsite of Atchison, and built a
log house at the foot of Atchison street, near his ferry landing, and just op-
posite his cabin on the Missouri side of the river. Following Million, in June,
1854. came a colony of emigrants from latan, Mo., and took up claims in
the neighborhood of Oak ]\Iills. They were F. P. Goddard, G. B. Goddard.
James Douglass, Allen Hanson and George .\. Wright, but the actual set-
tlers and founders of Atchison county did not enter the territory of Kan-
sas until July, 1854. On the twentieth day of that month Dr. J. H. String-
fellow with Ira Norris, Leonidas Oldham, James B. ]\Iartin and Neil Owens
left Platte City, Mo., to decide definitely upon a good location for a town.
^^"ith the exception of Dr. Stringfellow they all took claims about four miles
southwest of the present city of Atchison. Traveling in a southwesterly
direction from Platte City the party reached the river opposite Ft. Leaven-
worth and crossed to the Kansas side. They went north until they reached
the mouth of Walnut creek, "and John Alcorn's lonely cabin upon its banks."
They continued their course up the river tmtil they came to the "south edge
of the rim of the basin which circles around from the south line of the city,
extending west by gradual incline to the divide between White Cla\- and
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 43
Stranger creek, then north and east around to the northern hmits of the city."
It was at this point that the Missouri river made the bend from the north-
east, throwing the point where Atchison is now located, twelve miles west of
any locality, north, and twenty miles west of Leavenworth, and thirty-five
miles west of Kansas City. When they descended into the valley, of which
Commercial street is now the lowest point, Dr. Stringfellow and his com-
panions found George M. Million and Samuel Dickson. Mr. Dickson fol-
lowed Million to Kansas from Rushville, and while there is some dispute as
to who was the second resident in Atchison county after the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, the best authorities lead to the conclusion that to Sam-
uel Dickson belongs that honor. Mr. Dickson erected a small shanty near
the spring, which bore his name for so many years, on the east side of South
Sixth street, between Park and Spring streets. His house is described as
a structure twelve feet square, having one door and one window and a large
stone chimney running up the outside. As soon as Dr. Stringfellow ar-
rived he at once commenced negotiations with Mr. Million for the purchase
of his claim. Mr. Million, apparently, was a shrewd real estate speculator
and only surrrendered his claim upon the payment of $i,ooo. Dr. String-
fellow considered this a very fancy figure for the land, but he and his associ-
ates were firm in their decision of founding a city at this point on- the Mis-
souri river and they gave Mr. Million his price. The organization of a
town company which followed will be discussed in a subsequent chapter of
this territory.
The first territorial appointment for the purpose of inaugurating a local
government in Kansas was made in June. 1834. Governor Andrew H.
Reeder, of Easton, Pa., was appointed on that date. He took the oath of
office in Washington, D. C. July 7. and arrived in Kansas at Ft. Leaven-
worth October 7, becoming at once the executive head of the Kansas govern-
ment. Governor Reeder was a stranger to Kansas. With the exception of
Senator Atchison he scarcely knew anybody in Kansas. He was a lawyer by
profession, one of the ablest in the State of Pennsylvania. From early man-
hood he had been an ardent and loyal Democrat and had defended with vigor
and great power the principle of squatter sovereignty and the Kansas-
Nebraska bill. He was not a politician and was an able, honest, clear-think-
ing Democrat. L^pon his arrival in Kansas he set himself at once to the
task of inaugurating the government in the territory. According to his own
testimony before the special congressional committee appointed by Congress
to investigate the troubles in Kansas in 1856, he made it his first business to
44 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
obtain information of the geography, settlements, population and general
condition of the territory, with a view to its division into districts; the de-
fining of their boundary ; the location of suitable and central places for elec-
tions, and the full names of men in each district for election officers, per-
sons to take the census, justices of the peace, and constables. He accordingly
made a tour of the territory, and although he did not come to Atchison
county his tour included man}' important and remote settlements in the ter-
ritory. Upon his return he concluded that if the election for a delegate to
Congress should be postponed until an election could be had for the legis-
lature, which, in the one case required no previous census, and in the other
a census was required, the greater part of the session of Congress, which
would terminate on the fourth of March, would expire before a congressional
delegate from the territory could reach Washington. He, therefore, ordered
an election for a delegate to Congress, and postponed the taking of the cen-
sus until after that election. He prepared, without unnecessary delay, a
division of the territory into election districts, fixed a place of election in
each, appointed election officers and ordered that the election should take
place November 29, 1854. Atchison county was in the fifteenth election
district, which comprised the following territory : Commencing at the
mouth of Salt creek on the Missouri river; thence up said creek to the mili-
tary road and along the middle of said road to the lower crossing of Stranger
creek ; thence up said creek to the line of the Kickapoo reservation, and
thence along the southern and western line thereof to the line of the four-
teenth district; thence between same, and down Independence creek to the
mouth thereof, and thence down the Missouri river to the place of beginning.
The place of the election was at the house of Pascal Pensoneau, on the Ft.
Leavenworth and Oregon road, near what is now the town site of Potter.
The election which followed was an exciting one. Public meetings were
held in all of the towns and villages, at which resolutions were passed against
the eastern abolitionists, the Platte Comity Argus sounding the following
alarm :
"We know we speak the sentiments of some of the most distinguished
statesmen of Missouri when we advise that counter-organizations be made,
both in Kansas and Missouri, to thwart the wreckless course of the abolition-
ists. We must meet them at their very threshhold and scourge them back to
their covers of darkness. They have made the issue, and it is for us to meet
and repel them."
The secret organizations, of which Greeley spoke, known as the "Blue
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 45
Lodges," "Social Bands," and "Sons of tlie South." became very active,
and knowing the condition of affairs along tlie Missouri border, and hav-
ing learned the needs and wishes of the actual settlers in the territory, Gov-
ernor Reeder decided that their rights should not be jeopardized. Therefore,
in ordering an election of a congressional delegate only, with the idea of a
later proclamation ordering a territorial election of a legislature, he knew
that much trouble would be spared. In his proclamation for the con-
gressional election, provision was made for defining the cjualifications of
legal voters, and providing against fraud, both of which provisions were re-
ceived with alarm by the leaders of the slavery Democracy, who, up to that
time had hoped that the administration at Washington had sent them an
ally. It was not long until they discovered that they were mistaken.
The actual settlers of the territory did not evince much interest in the
election. They were all engaged in what appeared to them to be the more
important business of building their homes and otherwise providing neces-
sities before the approach of winter. There were no party organizations
in the territory. The slaveiy question was not generally understood to be
an issue. The first candidates to announce themselves were James N. Burnes,
whose name has for sixty years been promi'nently identified with the social,
political and business history of Atchison county, and J. B. Chapman. These
two candidates subsequently withdrew from the campaign, and the names
finally submitted to the voters were : Gen. J(jhn W. Whitfield, Robert P.
Flenneken, Judge John A. \\"akefield. ^^'hitfield ignored the slavery issue
during his canvass, but hi's cause was openly espoused by the Missourians.
Flenneken was a friend of Governor Reeder, with Free Soil proclivities.
A\"akefield was an out-spoken Free-Soiler. Hon. David R. Atchison, then a
United States senator, and for whom Atchison county was named, was the
head and front of the pro-slavei-y movement. He had a national reputation
and was a power in the United States Senate, and won for himself the high-
est position in the gift of the Senate, having been chosen president pro-
tempore of that bodv after the death of Vice-President King. He was loyal
to the southern views regarding slavery and this made him the unquestioned
leader of the party which believed, as Senator Atchison himself believed,
that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill would inevitably result in a
slave State west of Missouri. It was to Senator Atchison that Dr. J. H.
Stringfellow, himself one of the strong leaders of the pro-slavery forces,
looked for inspiration and direction. In a speech Senator Atchison made in
A\^eston, Mo., November 6. 1854. whicli was just prior to the congressional
election in Kansas, he said :
46 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
"My mission here today is, if possible, to awaken the people of this
country to the danger ahead and to suggest the means to avoid it. The peo-
ple of Kansas in their first elections will decide the question whether or not
the slave-holder was to be excluded, and it depends upon a majority of the
votes cast at the polls. Now, if a set of fanatics and demagogues a thousand
miles off could afford to advance their money and exert every nerve to
abolitionize the territory and exclude the slave-holder, when they have not
the least personal interest in the matter, what is your duty? AVhen you re-
side within one day's journey of the territory, and when your peace, your
quiet, and your property depend upon this action you can without any exer-
tion send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your
institutions."
On November 28, the day preceding the election, the secret society voters
in Missouri began to cross over into Kansas. They came organized to carry
the election and in such overwhelming numbers as to completely over-awe
and out-number the legal voters of the territory at many of the precincts.
They took possession of the polls, elected many of the judges, intimidated
others to resign and refusing to take the oath qualifying themselves as voters
and prescribe to the regulations of the election, cast their ballots for- General
John W. Whitfield and hastily beat their retreat to Missouri. The whole
number of votes cast in that election was 2,233, of which number \\'hitfield
received 2,258; Wakefield, 248; Flenneken, 305, with twenty-two scattering
votes. The frauds which were at first denied by both the pro-slaveiy news-
papers and General Whitfield himself, were not long in being discovered.
In the Fifteenth district, of which Atchison county was a part, the total
number of votes cast was 306, of which Wakefield got none ; Flenneken. 39,
and Whitfield, 267. The total number of votes given by the census was 308,
and in the majority report of the congressional committee of the following
year 206 illegal votes were shown to have been cast in that district. How-
ever, there was little immediate disturbance following the election. The set-
tlers continued to busy themselves in completing their homes and were more
interested in securing titles to their lands than in the future destinj' of the
territory.
In the following January and February Governor Reeder caused an
enumeration of the inhabitants to be taken preparatory to calling an election
for a legislature. H. B. Jolly was named as enumerator for the Fifteenth
district and Mr. Jolly found a total of 873 persons in the district, divided as
follows: Males, 492; females, 381; voters, 308; minors, 448: natives of the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 47
United States, 846; foreign born, sixteen; negroes, fifteen; slaves, fifteen.
The date appointed for the legislative election was March 30. 1855. The
proclamation of the governor defined the election districts; appointed the
voting precincts ; named the judges of the election, defined the duties of the
judges, and the qualifications of voters. Thirteen members of the council
and twenty-six members of the house of representatives were to constitute
the legislative assembly of the territory. Atchison was in the Ninth coun-
cil district and in the Thirteenth representative district. Following the prec-
edent established in the election for congressional delegate the November
before the blue lodges of Missouri became active and large numbers of
members of the secret societies of Missouri were sent into every council and
representative district in the territory for the purpose of controlling the elec-
tion. They were armed and came with provisions and tents. They over-
powered and intimidated the resident voters to such an extent that only
1,410 legal votes were cast in the territory out of 2,905 enumerated in the
census.
D. A. N. Grover was the pro-slavery candidate for councilman in the
Ninth Council district with no opposition and he received 411 votes which
was the total number of votes enumerated for that district. H. B. C. Harris
and J. ^Yeddell were the pro-slavery candidates for representative in the
Thirteenth district with no opposition. They each received 412 votes, being
the total number of votes enumerated in the district.
It was another victory for the pro-slavery sympathizers and the Free
State men were indignant, while on the other hand the pro-slavery residents,
with their Missouri allies, did not conceal their joy, at the same time ad-
mitting frankly the outrages which were practiced at the polls. The Lcavcn-
ivortli Herald of April 6 headed its election returns with the following:
"All Hail.
Pro-Slavery Party Victorious.
We have met the enemy, and they are ours.
Veni Vidi Vici !
Free White State Party used up.
"The triumph of the pro-slavery party is complete and overwhelming.
Come on. Southern men ; bring your slaves and fill up the territory. Kansas
is Saved! Abolitionism is rebuked. Her fortress stormed. Her flag is
dragging in the dust. The tri-colored platform has fallen with a crash. The
rotten timbers of its structure were not sufficient to sustain the small frag-
ments of the party."
^8 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
The Parkznlle Luminary, which was pubHshed in Platte county, Missouri,
very mildly protested against the manner of carrying the election and spoke
in friendly terms of the Free Soil settlers. The following week its office
and place was destroyed by a mob and forced its editors to flee the country
for their lives.
The election of November 29. 1854, so incensed the Anti-Slavery ele-
ment that the Free State movement was given a great impetus. A conven-
tion of Free State men at Lawrence June 8, 1855, and the Big Springs con-
vention September 5, 1855, were the result, and from that date many other
public meetings of Free State men followed. The Free State sentiment
fully crystalized itself in the momentous election of October- 9, 1855, follow-
ing eight days after the date set by the pro-slavery legislature for an elec-
tion of delegate to Congress to succeed J. W. \\niitfield, who had been elected
the year before. The first election in 1855 was held October i but was par-
ticipated in only by pro-slavery men. The abstract of the poll
books showed that 2,738 votes were cast in the territory and
Whitfield received 2,721, of which it is only fair to say tliat
857 were declared illegal. In the Free State election Ex-Governor An-
drew H. Reeder received 2,849 votes, of which loi were cast in Atchison
county. On the same day an election for delegates to a constitutional con-
vention to be held at Topeka took place and R. H. Crosby, a merchant of
Oceana, Atchison county, and Caleb May, a farmer, near the same place,
were elected delegates.
The returns of the pro-slavery election having been made according to
law. the governor granted the certificate of election to \Miitfield, who re-
turned to Washington as the duly elected delegate from Kansas. The terri-
torial executive committee, elected at the Big Springs convention, ga-\^e a cer-
tificate of election to Reeder. The Topeka constitutional convention subse-
quently convened October 23, 1855, and was in session until November 11.
This body of Free State men framed a constitution, and among other things
memorialized Congress to admit Kansas as a State. It was understood by
all that the validity of the work of the convention was contingent upon the
admission of Kansas as a State. Meanwhile the executive committee of Kan-
sas Territory, appointed at the Topeka primary.-. September 19, 1855, under
the leadership of James H. Lane, continued to direct and inspire the work
for a State government.
As a counter-irritant to the activities of the Free State men, and for the
purpose of allaying the insane exci'tement of the territorial legislature, the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 49
pro-slavery followers organized a Law and Order party, which was pledged
to the establishment of slavery in Kansas. From thenceforth it was open
warfare between the two great forces contending for supremacy in the terri-
tory. Atchison was the stronghold of the Law and Order party, as Lawrence
was the stronghold of the Free State party. The Free State party was looked
upon bv the Law and Order advocates as made up of revolutionists and the
Law and Order party was determined to bring them to time as soon as pos-
sible, but as the members of the Free State party held themselves apart from
the legal machinery devised for the government of the territory, bringing no
suits in its courts; attending no elections; paying no attention to its county
organizations; offering no estates to its probate judges, and paying no tax
levies made by authority of the legislature, they were careful to commit no
act which would lay themselves liable to the laws which they abhorred. They
settled all their disputes by arbitration in order to avoid litigation, but as they
could build, manufacture, buv and sell and establish schools and churches
without coming under the domination of the pro-slavery forces, they man-
aged to do tolerably well. Where the inhabitants were mostly Free State,
as in Lawrence and Topeka, conditions were reasonably satisfactory, but in
localities like Atchison and Leavenworth, where the Law and Order party
dominated affairs, the Free State inhabitants were forced to suffer many
indignities and insults.
During the month of August. 1855, a negro woman belonging to Graf-
ton Thomassen, who ran a sawmill in Atchison, was found drowned in the
IMissouri river. J. W. B. Kelley. a rabid anti-slavery lawyer, from Cincinnati,
wjio became a resident of Atchison, expressed the opinion that if Thomas-
sen's negro woman had been treated better by her master she would not have
committed suicide by jumping into the river. Thomassen was greatly angered
at this personal illusion and deluded himself into believing that if he satis-
fied his own vengeance he would at the same time be rendering the pro-
slaverv party a service. He therefore picked a quarrel with Kelley and they
came to blows, after which Thomassen's conduct was sustained liy a large
meeting of Atchison people. While it is said that Thomassen was a larger
and more powerful man than Kelle)-, the people did not consider this fact,
but rather considered the principle involved, and as a result they commended
the act in the following resolution :
"i. Resolved, That one J- W. B. Kelley, hailing frorh Cincinnati, hav-
ing upon sundry occasions denounced our institutions and declared all pro-
slavery men ruffians, we deem it an act of kindness and hereby command him
4
50 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
to leave the town of Atchison one hour after being informed of the passage
of this resolution never more to show himself in this vicinity.
2. Resolved, That in case he fails to obey this reasonable command,
we inflict upon him such punishment as the nature of the case may require.
3. Resolved, That other emissaries of this 'Aid Society' now in our
midst, tampering with our slaves, are warned to leave, else they too will meet
the reward which their nefarious designs so justly merit. — Hemp.
4. Resolved, That we approve and applaud our fellow-townsman, Graf-
ton Thomassen, for the castigation administered to said J. W. B. Kelley,
whose presence among us is a libel upon our good standing and a disgrace
to our community.
5. Resolved, That we commend the good work of purging our town
of all resident abolitionists, and after cleaning our town of such nuisances
shall do the same for the settlers on Walnut and Independence creeks whose
propensities for cattle stealing are well known to many.
6. Resolved, That the chairman appoint a committee of three to wait
upon said Kelley and acquaint him with the actions of this meeting.
7. Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published, that
the world may know our determination."
After the passage of these resolutions they were circulated throughout
Atchison and all citizens were asked to sign the same and if any person re-
fused he was deemed and treated as an abolitionist. A few days after this
incident Rev. Pardee Butler, a minister of the Christian church, who was
living at that time near the now abandoned townsite of Pardee, west of Atch-
ison, about twelve miles, came to town to do some trading. Butler was^n
uncompromising anti-slavery advocate and never overlooked an opportunity
to make his sentiments known. He had strong convictions backed by cour-
age, and while he did not seek controversies, he never showed a desire to
avoid them. He was well known in the community as a Free State man,
and so when he came into Atchison after these resolutions were passed and
the town was all excited about them it did not take him long to get into the
controversy and he condemned in strong terms the outrage upon Kelley and
also the resolutions which were passed. In the course of a conversation
which he had at the postoffice with Robert S. Kelley, the postmaster and
assistant editor of the Squatter Sovereign, he informed Mr. Kelley that he
long since would have become a subscriber to his paper had he not disliked
the violent sentiments which appeared in its columns. Mr. Kelley replied :
"I look upon all Free Soilers as rogues and they ought to be treated as
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 5 I
such." Mr. Butler responded: "I am a Free Soiler and expect to vote for
Kansas as a Free State." "I do not expect you will be allowed to vote." was
Mr. Kelley's reply. On the following- morning Mr. Kelley called at the
National hotel, corner of Second and Atchison streets, where Mr. Butler had
spent the night, accompanied by a number of friends and demanded Butler
to sigTi the resolutions, which of course Mr. Butler refused to do, and walked
down stairs into the street. A crowd gathered and seized Mr. Butler, drag-
ging him towards the river, shouting that they intended to drown him. The
mob increased in size as they proceeded with the victim. A vote was taken as
to the kind of punishment which ought to be given him and a verdict of death
by hanging was rendered. It was not discovered until forty years afterwards
that Mr. Kelley, the teller, saved Mr. Butler's life by making false returns to
the excited mob. Mr. Kelley subsequently was a resident of Montana and
gave this information while stopping in St. Joseph with Dr. J. H. String-
fellow, the foiTner editor of the Squatter Sozrrcign. Instead of returning a
verdict of death by hanging Mr. Kelley announced that it was the deci'sion
of tb.e mob to send Mr. Butler down the Missouri river on a raft, and an
account of what followed is best given by Rev. Pardee Butler himself ;
"When we arrived at the bank Mr. Kelley painted my face with black
paint, marked upon it the letter "R." The company had increased to some
thirty or forty persons. \\'"ithout any trial, witness, judge, counsel or jury,
for about two hours I was a sort of target at which were hurled impreca-
tions, curses, arguments, entreaties, accusations and interrogations. They
constructed a raft of three cottonwood sawlogs, fastened together with inch
plank nailed to the logs, upon which they put me and sent me down the Mis-
souri river. The raft was towed out to the middle of the stream with a
canoe. Robert S. Kelley held the rope that towed the raft. They gave me
neither rudder, oar nor anything else to manage my raft with. They put
up a flag on the raft with the following inscription on it :
'Eastern Emigrant Aid Express.
The Rev. Pardee Butler again for the underground road;
The wav they are served in Kansas ; Shipped for Boston : Cargo in-
sured. Unavoidable danger of the Missourians and Missouri river
excepted.
Let future emissaries from the north Beware.
Our Hemp crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels.'
"They threatened to shoot me if I pulled the flag down. I pulled it
ilown, cut the flag off the flag staff, made a paddle out of the flag staff
and ultimately got ashore about six miles below."
52 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
The mob was considerate enough to provide Mr. Butler a loaf of bread
and permitted him to take his baggage on board, afterwards escorting him
down the river for some distance.
When Mr. Butler landed he returned overland to liis home near Pardee.
On April 30, 1856, he again ventured to make his appearance in Atchison,
where he says: "I spoke to no one ih town save two merchants of the place
with whom I had business transactions since my first arrival in the territon,'.
Having remained only a few minutes I went to my buggy to resume my
journey when I was assaulted by Robert S. Kelley, junior editor of the
Squatter Sovereign; was dragged into a grocen.' and there surrounded by a
company of South Carolinians who are reported to have been sent out by a
Southern Emigrant Aid Soci'ety. After exposing me to every sort of in-
dignity they stripped me to the waist, covered my body with tar and then for
the want of feathers applied cotton wool, having appointed a committee of
three to certainly hang me the next time I should come to Atchison. They
tossed my clothes into the buggy, put me therein, accompanying me to the
suburbs of the town and sent me naked upon the prairie. I adjusted my attire
about me as best I could and hastened to rejoin my wife and two little sons
on the banks of Strang-er creek. It was rather a sorrowful meeting after so
long a parting."
The above incident gives some idea of the prevailing sentiment in .Atch-
ison county during the period beginning in 1854 and ending in 1857.
Thei-e was little chance of Free State settlers to avoid trouble except
by discreet silence. It would not be just, however, to fail to disclose the
fact that the Free State men also had their secret organizations. The
Kansas Legion was a military organization for defensive purposes only. Its
members ^\'ere organized into companies, battalions and regiments and were
officered and armed with rifles and pistols sent from the East. These or-
ganizations were the natural result of the secret pro-slavery organizations
of Missouri and were known to exist to protect the Free State settlers against
the attacks of tlie Blue Lodges, Sons of the South, and the Social Bands.
A man by the name of Pat Laughlin became a member of the Kansas
Legion and was very active in organizing companies of that organization
at di|ferent points in the territory. He subsequently became a traitor to his
associates aftd gave out information to the enemy, thereby creating great in-
dignation among his former friends whom he had betrayed. Later Laughlin
and Samuel Collins, of Doniphan county, became engaged in a fierce alterca-
tion and friends of both parties to tlie dispute were present and armed.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 53
Lauglilin sliot Collins and killed him on the spot and was slis'htlv wounded
himself. This affair occurred October 25, 1855. Xo attempt was made by
the appointed peace officers of the territory to bring the guilty parties par-
ticipating in the Pardee Butler outrage or the murder of Collins to justice.
Shortly after Laughlin recovered from his wound he secured a position in a
store in Atchison and lived there for many years.
This condition of affairs could not long exist without an open rupture
between the two opposing forces and' from this time on "there was a succes-
sion of personal encounters of wide significance, and in addition there was
the war along the border in which Atchison county played a conspicuous
but not a glorious part. The activities here at that crucial period were largely
in the interest of the pro-slavery forces. It was at this juncture that the im-
mortal Jijhn Brown appeared on the scene to begin his work of driving the
slavery advocates from Kansas and making it and the Nation free. His first
appearance among the Free State men was December 7, 1855, but he had
been in the territory several months before that with his four sons. John
Brown did not reach Atchison county during his stormy career in Kansas.
The nearest he ever came was in 1857 when he passed through Jackson
county with a party of slaves which he was taking from Missouri to Nebraska
for the purpose of setting them free. In the historical edition of the Atch-
ison Daily Globe of July 16, 1894, there appears the following short refer-
ence to this excursion :
"In 1857 John Brown made a trip from Missouri into Nebraska with a
party of sla\-e negroes which he intended to set free. His route was through
Jackson county. Kansas, and up by where the town of Centralia now stands,
A lot of the pro-sIavei"y enthusiasts in Atchison heard of the affair and
went out to intercept Brow-n. They came up with him near Centralia, but
Brown had heard of their coming and captured the entire party. One of the
men in the pro-slavery party was named George Ringo; afterwards he sol-
diered with Dwight Merlin in the Thirteenth Kansas and often talked of the
trip to Merwin around their camp fires. Ringo says that James T. Her-
ford was another member of the pro-slavery party, and a man named Cook
was another. John Brown looked at Cook critically after the capture and
asked his name. Cook said his name w'as Thomas Porter. "I believe you
are lieing. I believe your name. is Cook and if I was certain of it I would
kill you," Brown said. Cook was one of the men accused of killing Brown's
son at Osawatomie, but Brown was not certain of his identity and let him
go with the others. George Ringo says that Brown held a prayer meeting
in his camp every evening and asked a blessing at every meal.
54 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
"One night when the Atchison party was in the custody of Brown, Brown
asked Jim Herford to pray. 'I can't pray,' Herford rephed. 'Didn't your
mother teach you to pray?' Brown inquired. 'She taught me to say, "Now
I lay me down to sleep," that was all,' Herford answered. 'All right,'
Brown said, 'get down on your knees and say, "Now I lay me down to
sleep.' " Herford did as he was requested, being afraid to refuse and Brown
soon rolled himself in a blanket and went to sleep."
As the activities of Brown increased so likewise the activities of the
pro-slavery forces increased under the leadership of Senator Atchison, of
Missouri, and Dr. Stringfellow. editor of the Squatter Soz>ereign. The
Squatter Sovereign, about which more will appear in a subsequent chapter,
was published in Atchison and was largely supported by government adver-
tising patronage. It was the leading pro-slavery newspaper organ of the
territory. Senator Atchison's activities were of the most pronounced sort.
He not only urged his Missouri constituents to invade the territory in all
their might and capture the Yaiikees, but he went himself. At Platte City,
Mo.. February 4, 1856, Senator Atchison made a speech which gives
some idea of the language he employed in urging the people of western
Missouri to join in the invading of Kansas. He said :
"I was a prominent agent in repealing the Missouri Compromise and
opening the territory for settlement. Tlie abolition traitors drummed up
their forces and whistled them onto the cars, and whistled them off again at
Kansas City; some of them had 'Kansas and Liberty' on their hats. T saw
this with my own eyes. These men came with the avowed purpose of driv-
ing or expelling you from the territory. What did I advise you to do ? Why,
to beat them at their own game. When the first election came off I told you
to go over and vote. You did so and beat them. Well, what next? Why,
an election of members of the legislature to organize the territory must be
held. What did I advise you to do then? Why, meet them on their own
ground and at their own game again; and, cold and inclement as the weather
was, I went over with a company of men. The abolitionists of the North
said, and published it abroad, that Atchison was there with bowie-knives,
and by God, it was true. I never did go into that territory — I never intend
to go into that territory — without being prepared for all such kinds of cattle.
"They held an election on the fifteenth of last month and they intend
to put the machinery of the State in motion on the fourth of March. Now
you are entitled to my advice, and you sliall have it. I say, prepare your-
selves. Go over tlierc. Send your young men, and if they attempt to drive
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 55
you out. then, damn them, drive thciii out. Fifty of you wi'th your shotguns
are worth 250 of them with their Sharpe's rifles. Get ready — arm your-
selves; fc», if they abolitionize Kansas you lose one inillion dollars of your
property. I am satisfied that I can justify every act of you before God and a
jury."
All of the pro-slaver)' papers were open in their advocacy of an immedi-
.ate war of extermination. The Squatter Sovereign in its issue just after the
election of January 15, commenting on certain disturbances at Easton and a
murder at Leavenworth, did not condemn what took place at Easton and
had no word of apology or pity to offer for the murdered man. On the con-
trary it upheld those who committed the murder and gave them encourage-
ment in their campaign of killing abolitionists. Dr. Stringfellow employed
his \-iolent rhetoric to give vent to his feelings and the opening paragraph
of his leading editorial in the issue of the Squatter Sovereign, he used the
following language:
"It seems now to be certain that we will have to give the abolitionists at
least one good thrashing before political matters are settled in this territory.
To do so we must have arms ; we have the men. I propose to raise funds to
furnish Colt's revolvers for those who are without them. We say if the
alx)litionists are able to whip us and overturn the government that has been
set up here, the sooner it is known the better, and we want to see it settled."
During the whole of the follo\\ino- winter preparations for attack and
defense went quietly on. There was drilling along the border and disquiet-
ing rumors came from time to time of companies that had been org-anized
and equipped to move into Kansas as soon as spring opened to uphold the
rights of the Southerners.
Atchison county took a prominent part in the border warfare. The bold
attitude assumed by the Free State forces in and around Lawrence ; the Waka-
rusa war; the Free State elections, and the determination of the Free State
party to convene their legislature in March. 1856, kept the partisan pro-
slavery sentiment in /Vtchison in a constant tumult. In March large numbers
of South Carolina emigrants, armed and equipped with the avowed purpose
of enforcing southern rights in Kansas, arrived on all the incoming steam-
boats. Capt. F. G. Palmer, of Atchison, commanded one of the earliest if
not the earliest company of these emigrants. Robert De Treville was first
lieutenant. The home company had been formed prior to the arrival of the
South Carolinians. Dr. John H. Stringfellow was captain; Robert S. Kel-
ley, first lieutenant; A. J. G. Westbrook, second lieutenant, and John H.
56 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Blassingame. third lieutenant. Their arms were suppHed from Ft. Leaven-
worth and b}- the last of April they were ready and waiting for the assault
and tlie subsequent "sacking" of Lawrence. The whole countryside was
aflame with the passion of war. By May i quite a large army of pro-slavery
sympathizers was organized. The South Carolinian Company, from Atch-
ison, was among the first to start the assault upon Lawrence and it was not
long before "its flag was planted upon the rifle pit of the enemy." Dr. String-
fellow was there and Robert S. Kelle}', his able assistant on the Squatter
Sovereign, was also there. Li an account of the assault the following ap-
])eared in the Squatter Sovereigns
"The flag was carried by its bra\e Ijearer and stationed upon the Her-
ald of Freedom Printing office, and from thence to the large hotel and for-
tress of the Yankees, where it proudlv waived until the artillery commenced
battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly of South
Carolinians, under command of Capt. Robert De Treville, late of Charleston,
S. C and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men than are found
in its ranks never bore arms."
The Squatter Sovereign continued to be without fear the most hitter
and uncompromising pro-slavery organ in the tei-ritory. Its watch-word
was "Death to all Yankees and traitors h\ Kansas." At a large mass meet-
ing at Atchison, held in June, 1856, Robert S. Kelley, its assistant editor,
was nominated as the "commander-in-Chief of the forces in town," but for
some reason now lost to view Kelley declined the honor and it was passed
on to Capt. F. G. Palmer who accepted it without remorse and without
apologies. Senator Atchison was present at this mass meeting and made a
speech, and so was Col. Peter T. Abell, afterwards president of the Atch-
ison To\\^^ Company, and Captain De Treville, and others not so famous,
and they all made speeches.
During that summer, because of the continued activities of old John
Brown and the agitation which those acti\-ities created in the breasts of the
pro-slaveryr sympathizers in Atchison, another military company was formed,
called the Atchison Guards, of which John Robertson was the commander,
who was so prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point, and Atchison county
continued to take a prominent part in the border warfare which continued
for sometime thereafter. During all of this time the Free State settlers of
Atchison were very quiet and undemonstrative. ~ They were not strong in
number and aside from a few virile souls like Pardee Butler, they held their
tongues and kept their own counsel. They were treated with scant courtesy
(Upper) Atcli:
Hospital. (Cent.n) AUhi^on C ount^ Comt Hon e (Tower) V. M. C. A.
58 HISTORY OV ATCHISON COUXTY
and consideration iiy their pro-slavery neighliors, and it can be said to their
credit that no set of men ever displayed greater self-restraint or suffered more
for the cause of peace than the Free State settlers of this county. It doubt-
less unsettled their minds and disturbed their slumbers to read from time to
time sentiments such as these taken from the Squatter Sovereign of June
lo, 1856:
"Hundreds of Free State men who have committed no overt act, but have
only given countenance to those reckless murderers, assassins and thieves,
will, of necessity, share the same fate of their brethren. If Civil war is to
be the result of such a conflict, there cannot be and will nut be, any neutrals
recognized. 'He that is not for us is against us,' will of necessity be the
motto, and those who are not willing to take either one side or the other are
the most unfortunate men in Kansas and had better flee to other regions
as expeditiously as possible. They are not the men for Kansas."
In another issue Dr. Stringfellqw said :
"The abolitionists shoot down our men without provocation wherever
they meet them. Let us retaliate in the same manner. A free fight is all
we desire. If murder and assassination is the program of the day we are
in favor of filling the bill. Let not the knives of the pro-slavery men be
sheathed while there is one abolitionist in the territory. As they have shown
no quarters to our men they deserve none from us. Let our motto be writ-
ten in blood upon our flags, 'Death lo all ]'aiikees and Traitors in Kansas.'
We have 150 men in Atchison ready to start in an hour's notice. .MI we
lack is horses and provisions."
And then follows an exhortation from Dr. Stringfellow to his friends
in Missouri to contribute something that will enable his constituents to pro-
tect their lives and their families from the outrages of the assassins of the
North, and ends by stating that the war will nut cease until Kansas has been
purged of abolitionists.
Pro-sla^■e^\• committees from Doniphan, Atchison and Leavenworth
counties were organized to call on their friends in the South for arms, am-
munition and provisions, and a circular letter appeared in the Lcavcnxvorth
Herald, and an urgent invitation was issued to all the pro-slavery papers to
give the circular wide publicity. It read, in part, as follows :
"To our friends throughout the United States :
"The undersigned, having been appointed a committee by our fellow
citizens of the counties of Leavenworth, Doniphan and Atchisim, in Kansas
Territory, to consult together and to adopt measures for mutual protection
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 59
and the advancement of the interests of the pro-slavery party in Kansas Ter-
ritory, this day assembled at the town of Atchison, to undertake the respon-
sible duty assigned us; and in our present emergency deem it expedient to
address this circular to our friends throughout the union, but more partic-
ularly in the slave-holding states. * * * * -pjig ^ime has arrived when
prompt action is required and the interior of Kansas can easily be supplied
from various points in the above named counties. The pro-slaverv party is
the only one in Kansas which pretends to uphold the Government or abide
by the laws. Our party from the beginning has sought to make Kansas a
slave state, only by legal means. We have been slandered and vilified almost
beyond endurance, yet we have not resorted to violence, but steadily pursued
the law for the accomplishment of our objects; * * * * \Vg j^g^^^ proclaimed
to the world that we recognize the principle of the Kansas Bill as just and
right, and although we preferred Kansas being made a negro slave state, yet
we never dreamed of making it so by the aid of bowie-knives, revolvers and
Sharpe rifles, until we were threatened to be driven out of the territory by a
band of hired abolitionists, brought up and sent here to control our elections
and steal our slaves. We are still ready and intend to continue so, if our
friends abroad stand by and assist us. Our people are poor and their labor
is their capital. Deprive them of that, which we are now compelled to do,
and they must be supported from abroad, or give up the cause of the South.
The Northern Abolitionists can raise millions of dollars, and station armed
bands of fanatics throughout the territory and support them, in order to
deprive Southern men of their constitutional rights. We address this to our
friends only, for the purpose of letting them know our true condition and
our wants. We know that our call will meet a ready, willing and liberal
response. * * * * Heaven and earth is being moved in all the free states
to induce overwhelming armies to march here to drive us from the land. We
are able to take care of those already here, but let our brethren in the states
take care of the outsiders. Watch them, and if our enemies march for Kan-
sas let our friends come along to take care of them, and if nothing but a fight
can bring about peace, let us have a fight that will amount to something.
Send us the money and other articles mentioned as soon as practicable, and
if the abolitionists find it convenient to bring their supplies, let our friends
come with ours. Arrangements have been made with Messrs. Majors, Rus-
sell & Company, Leavenworth, K. T. ; J. W. Foreman & Company, Doni-
phan, K. T., and C. E. Woolfolk & Company, Atchison, K. T., to receive
any money or other articles sent for our relief, and will report to the under-
6o HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUXTY
signed, and we pledge ourselves that all will be distributed for the benefit
of the cause. Horses, we greatly need — footmen being useless in running
down midnight assassins and robbers."
The following residents of Atchison county signed the circular: P. T.
Abell, chairman; J. A. Headley, A. J. Frederick, J. F. Green, Jr., C. E.
Mason.
This circular was signed June 6, 1856, and was published in the Lotc-
rence Herald of Freedom, June 14, 1856.
From this time forward the conflagration spread with ever increasing
fury, and not only did the appeals for aid from the pro-slavery forces find
immediate response, but likewise the anti-slavery forces throughout the whole
North came to the rescue of the Free Soilers in Kansas, and during all of
this great excitement Atchison county was the focal point of pro-slavery
activities. The news of the "sacking" of Lawrence sen'ed to awaken the
Nation in the North. It was at this time that Henry Ward Beecher. with
all of the great eloquence at his command, advocated from his Brooklyn pul-
pit the sending of Sharpe rifles instead of Bibles to Kansas, and pledged his
own parish to supply a definite number. And on and on they came to Kan-
sas out of the North with determination in their hearts and Sharpe rifles in
their hands, to help the Free Soilers in their battles against the forces of Atch-
ison and Stringfellow and Abell. Then came Lane's "Army of the North,"
which sounded more terrible than it really was, following in quick succession
the second battle of Franklin ; the siege and capitulation of Ft. Titus, and the
famous battle of Osawatomie. At last the mobilization of the forces of Atch-
ison and Stringfellow not far from the outskirts at Lawrence in September,
1856, for the purpose of a final assault on that Free State stronghold, marked
the collapse of the Atchison-Stringfellow military campaign. It was a crit-
ical hour for Lane. Old John Brov.'n was there, and the citizens were ready
for whatever might befall them, but further hostilities were averted by the
action of Governor Geary on the morning of September 15, 1856, when he
appeared in person in the midst of the Missouri camp several hours after
issuing a proclamation for the Missourians to disband. He found both Sen-
ator Atchison and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow (brother of Dr. Stringfellow)
there, and in the course of his speech severely reprimanded Atchison, who
"from his high estate as Vice-President of the United States, had fallen so
low as to be the leader of an army of men with uncontrollable passions, de-
tennined upon wholesale slaughter and destruction."
When Governor Geary had concluded his remarks his proclamation and
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 6l
order to disband the army were read and the more juchcious obeyed.
The troops thus disbanded, marched homeward. Those enhsting at
Atchison returned to Missouri by way of Lecompton. This was the last
organized mihtary invasion from Missouri and ended the attempts of the
pro-slavery forces to rule Kansas by martial law.
It must not be concluded, iiowever, that the Stringfellows and other
pro-slavery leaders in Atcliison county were not law-abiding citizens. They
believed in the institution of slavery, as many good men of that day did, and
they had the same rights to peacefully enter the territory of Kansas and
endeavor to make it a slave State under the principle of Squatter sovereignty,
as Dr. Charles Robinson, and Lane, and John Brown did to make the ter-
ritory a free State. It would not only be unjust to the memory of the String-
fellows and their compatriots, but unjust to posterity also to leave the im-
pression that they had no semblance of justification, for many of their acts,
which the impartial historian will admit, were very frequently in retaliation
of wrongs and outrages suffered. The terrible stress and strain under which
good men on both sides labored in those critical days led them to extremes,
and in the midst of the discordant passions of good men, the bad men — -those
who a"re the lawless of every age and clime — flourished and their lawlessness
only served to complicate the dangerous and ever threatening situation. Calm
judgment may not have been lacking in the territory in and around Atchi-
son and Lawrence in the days btween 1854 and 1857, but if it existed at all
it was lost in the ribt.of parti,san feeling and did not evince itself until later.
Following the di.sbanding of the "Territorial" militia before Lawrence,
General Atchison seemed to have somewhat recovered his composure and
in an address to the troops after Governor Geary had retired, he said :
"As was well known to all present the gentlemen composing this meet-
ing had just been in conference with Governor Gear)-, who in the strongest
language had deprecated the inhuman outrages perpetrated by those whom
he characterized as bandits, now roving through the territory, and pledged
himself in the most solemn manner to employ actively all of the force at iiis
command in executing the laws of the territory and giving protection to his
beloved citizens, and who had also appealed to us to dissolve our present or-
ganization and stand by and co-operate with him in holding up the hands
of his power against all evil doers, and who had also retired from the meeting,
w'ith a request that he would consult and determine what course would he
taken. Now the object of the meeting was thus to consult and determine
what should be done."
62 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
General Atchison also impressed the meeting wi'th the solemnity and
importance of the occasion and said that it was time for men to exercise their
reason and not yield to their passions and also to keep on the side of the law
which alone constitutes our strength and protection. These words of Gen-
eral Atchison breathed a far different message than his strong language of
a few years before and indicated more plainly than anything else the general
trend of pro-slavery sentiment.
After the cessation of military movements in the territory, more or less
peaceful elections, sessions of the legislature and conventions, at which con-
stitutions were framed and voted upon, took place, and the work of prepar-
ing the territory to become a State went forward.
Four constitutions were framed before Kansas was admitted to the
Union.
The Topeka constitution, which was the first in order, was adopted by
the convention which framed it November ii, 1S55, and by the people of the
territory at an election December 15, 1855.
The Lecompton constitution was adopted by the convention which framed
it November 7, 1857, and was submitted to a vote of the people December
21, 1857, and the form of the vote prescribed was: "For the constitution,
with slavery," and "For the constitution, without slavery." As no oppor-
tunity was afforded at this election to vote against the constitution the free
State people did not participate in it. The Territorial legislature was sum-
moned in extra session and passed it without submitting this constitution to a
vote of the people, January 4, 1858, and at that election 138 votes were cast
for it and 10,226 against it. In spite of this ovenvhelming vote against the
constitution it was sent to Washington and was transmitted by President
Buchanan to the Senate who urged the admission of Kansas under it, thus
starting the great contest which divided the Democratic party, the election
of Abraham Lincoln as President, and the final overthrow of the slave party.
The bill to admit Kansas under this constitution failed, but a bill finally
passed Congress, under the provisions of which the constitution was again
submitted to the people August 4, 1858, with the result that there were
1,788 votes cast for it and 11,300 votes cast against it.
The convention which framed the Leavenworth constitution was pro-
vided for by an act of the Territorial legislature, passed in February,' 1858,
at which time the Lecompton constitution was pending in Congress. The
Leavenworth constitution was adopted by the convention April 3, 1858. and
by the people May 18, 1858.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 63
The Wyandotte constitution was adopted by the convention which
framed it July 29, 1859, and adopted by the people October 4, 1859. It was
under the Wyandotte constitution that the State was admitted into the Union
January 29, 1861.
In this last convention Atchison county played a very important part.
Three members were sent from this county : Caleb May, to whom reference
has been made before, a fanner, born in Kentucky, and residing near the now
abandoned townsi.te of Pardee ; John J. Ingalls, a lawyer at Sumner, who ar-
rived in Kansas from Massachusetts, October 4, 1858, exactly one year pre-
vious to the adoption of the constitution by the people of the Territory, and
Robert Graham, a merchant at Atchison, who was born in Ireland. John A.
Martin, the editor of Freedom's Champion, the successor to the Squatter
Sovereign, at Atchison, was secretary of the convention.
Caleb May remained a successful farmer and leading citizen of the
county for many years after this convention, subsec^uently drifting to the
Indian Territory, where he died.
John J. Ingalls became United States senator from Kansas, where he
remained for eighteen years, part of the time as president protempore of
that body.
John A. Martin became one of the leading military heroes of Kansas,
and served as governor of the State from 1886 to 1888. He played an im-
portant part as an officer of the convention, as also did Mr. Ingalls, who,
Samuel A. Stinson says, was the "recognized scholar of the convention, and
authority on all questions connected with the arrangement and phraseology
of the instrument." For this reason he was made chairman of the committee
on phraseology and arrangements. Robert Graham was chairman of the
committee on corporations and banking, and on the ballot to locate a tem-
porary capital of the State Atchison received six votes. Topeka received
twenty-nine and was chosen as the temporary capital and afterwards became
the permanent capital of Kansas.
CHAPTER VI.
ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY AND CITY OF ATCHISON.
ONE OF THE THIRTY-THREE ORIGINAL COUNTIES THE CITY OF ATCHISON
LOCATED TOWN COMPANY SALE OF LOTS INCORPORATION OF TOWN
EARLY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES ORGANIZAlfON OF COUNTY COMMER-
CIAL GROWTH FREIGHTING FIRST OFFICERS FREE STATE AND PRO-
SLAVERY CLASHES HORACE GREELEY VISITS ATCHISON ABRAHAM LIN-
COLN MAKES A SPEECH HERE GREAT DROUTH OF 1860 CITY OFFICIALS.
Atchison was one of the thirty-three orig-inal connties created by the first
territorial legislature, which convened at Pawnee, July 2, 1855, and subse-
quentlv adjourned to Shawnee Mission, July 6, 1855, and was named for
Senator David R. Atchison, United States senator from Missouri, concerning
whom much has been said in previous chapters. The county was surveyed
in 18 = 5 and divided into three townships. Grasshopper township comprising all
that section lying west of the old Pottawatomie road ; Mount Pleasant town-
ship, all east of the old Pottawatomie road, and south of Walnut creek, from
its confluence with the Missouri river to the source of the creek and a parallel
line west to the old Pottawatomie road, and Shannon township, all that section
of the county north of Alount Pleasant township. Subsequently, this sub-di-
vision was further divided into eight townships, now comprising the county,
to-wit : Grasshopper, Mount Pleasant. Shannon, Lancaster, Kapioma, Cen-
ter, Walnut and Benton. The county i's located in the extreme northeastern
part of Kansas, save one, Doniphan county, by which it is bounded on the
north, together with Brown county, and on the west by Jackson county, and
on the south by Jefferson and Leavenworth counties. It has an area of 409
square miles, or 271,360 acres.
The site of tlie citv of Atchison, the first town in the countv. was selected
64
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 65
because of its conspicuous geog'raphical location on the river. Senator Atch-
ison and his associates attached great importance to the fact that the river bent
boldly inland at this point. They felt that it would be of great commercial
advantage to a town to be thus located, so July 4, 1854, after a careful consid-
eration of the matter, in all of its phases. Senator Atchison and his Platte
county, Missouri, friends dedicated the new town. They felt that thev had
located the natural gateway through which all the overland traffic to Utah,
Oregon and California would pass. After they had settled with George Mil-
lion, the first known white settler of the territory, and attended to other unim-
portant preliminaries Dr. J. H. Stringfellow made a clailn just north of the
Million claim, and with Ira Norris, James T. Darnell, Leonidas Oldham,
James B. Martin, George Million and Samuel Dickson, agreed to form a town
company, and they received into their organization David R. Atchison, Elijah
Green, E. H. Norton, Peter T. Abell, B. F. Stringfellow, Lewis Burnes, Dan-
iel D. Burnes, James N. Burnes, Calvin F. Burnes and Stephen Johnson. A
week later these men gathered under a large cottonwood tree, near Atchison
street, on the river, and organized by electing Peter T. Abell, president ; Dr. J.
H. Stringfellow, secretary, and Col. James N. Burnes, treasurer. Peter T.
Abell, president of the town company, was an able lawyer, and a Southern
man, with pronounced views on the question of slavery. But he was a man of
judgment, and a natural boomer. He was a very large man, being over six
feet tall and weighed almost 300 pounds. \¥hen he became president of the
town company he was a resident of Weston, Mo., and lived there until a year
after Atchison had been surveyed. Subsequently, Senator Atchison assigned
his interests in the town company to his nephew, James Headley, who after-
wards became one of the leading lawyers of the town. Jesse Morris also be-
came a member.
The town company, having been regularly organized, the townsite was
divided into 100 shares. Each of its members retained five shares;
the balance of thirty being held for general distribution. Abell, B. F. String-
fellow and all of the Burnes brothers were received as two parties. Henry
Kuhn. a surveyor, sun^eyed 480 acres, which comprised the original townsite.
Mr. Kuhn and his son returned to Atchison forty-five years later, and for a
short time ran the Atchison Champion. On September 21, the first sale of
town lots was held, amidst great excitement and general interest. It was a
gathering which had both political and business significance. Senator Atch-
ison, from Missouri, with a large number of his constituents, was there, and
Atchison made a speech, in which one reporter quotes him as having said:
5
66
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
"People of every quarter should be welcome to the Territory, and treated
with civility as long as they showed themselves peaceable men."
Someone in the crowd called out, "What shall we do with those who run
off with our negroes?" "Hang "em," cried a voice in the crowd. To this Mr.
Atchison replied, "No, I would not hang them, but I would get them out of
the Territory — g'et rid of them." One version of the speech was to the effect
that Senator Atchison answered his questioners by saying, "By G — d. sir,
hang every abolitionist you find in the Territory." But the best account of the
meeting was printed in a Parkville, Mo., newspaper, and was reported by an
eye witness, who said :
Stieet Looking Last, ltchi-.on, Kinsi
"We arrived at Atchison in the forenoon. Among the company was
our distinguished senator, in honor of whom the new city was named. There
w'as a large assemblage on the ground, with plenty of tables set for dinner,
■where the crowd could be accommodated with bacon and bread, and a drink at
the branch, at fifty cents a head. The survey of the town had just been
completed the evening before. Stockholders held a meeting, to arrange par-
ticulars of .sale, and afterwards, as had been previously announced. General
Atchison mounted an old wagon and made a speech. He commenced by men-
tioning the bountiful country that w-as beginning to be settled ; to some of the
circumstances under which a territorial government was organized, and in the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 67
course of his remarks, mentioned how Douglass came to introduce the
Nebraska bill, with a repeal clause in it. He told of how Judge Douglass
requested twenty-four hours in which to consider the question of introducing a
bill for Nebraska, like the one he had promised to vote for, and said that if, at
the expiration of that time, he could not introduce such a bill, which would not
at the same time accord with his own sense of right and justice to the South,
he would resign as chairman of the territorial committee, and Democratic
caucus, and exert his influence to get Atchison appointed. At the expiration
of the given time. Judge Douglass signified his intention to report such a bill.
"General Atchison next spoke of those who had supported and those who
had opposed the bill in the Senate, and ended by saying that the American
people loved honesty and could appreciate the acts of a man who openly and
above-board voted according to the will of his constituents, without political
regard or favor. He expressed his profound contempt for abolitionists, and
said if he had his way he would hang everyone of them that dared to show
his face, but he knew that Northern men settling in the Territory were sensi-
ble and honest, and that the right feeling men among them would be as far
from stealing a negro as a Southern man would.
"\Mien Senator Atchison concluded his remarks, the sale of town lots
began, and thirty-four were sold that afternoon, at an average of $63.00 each.
Most of those that were sold were some distance back from the river, and
speculators were not present, so far as it could be determined, and lots that
were sold were bought mostly by owners of the town. Prices ranged from
$35.00 to $200.00."
At this meeting the projects of building a hotel and establishing a news-
paper were discussed, and as a result, each of the original 100 shares
was assessed $25.00, and in the following spring the National Hotel,
corner of Second and Atchison streets, was built. Dr. J. H. Stringfellow and
Robert S. Kelley received a donation of $400.00 from the town company, to
buy a printing office and in February, 1855, the Squatter Sovereign, which
subsequently did so much for the pro-slavery cause, was born.
The town company required each settler to build a house at least sixteen
feet square upon his lot, so that when the survey was made in 1855 many
found themselves upon school lands. Among those who put up homes in
1854 and 1855 were James T. Darnell, Archibald Elliott, Thomas J. C. Dun-
can, Andrew W. Pebler, R. S. Kelley, F. B. Wilson, Henry Kline and William
Hassett. The titles -to the lands owned by these residents remained unsettled
until 1857, when titles to all lands within the townsite and open to settlement
68 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
were . acquired from the federal government, and subsequently the title to
school lands was secured by patents from the Territory, and in this way the
town company secured a clear title to all lands which they had heretofore con-
veyed, and re-conveyed the same to the settlers and purchasers. Dr. J- H.
Stringfellow. proprietor of North Atchison, an addition to the city of Atchi-
son, employed J. J- Pratt to survey that addition in October, 1857. It con-
sisted of the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 36, township
5, range 20. Samuel Dickson, who was the proprietor of South Atchison, had
that addition platted in May, 1858, and John Roberts, who was the proprietor
of \\'est Atchison, had his addition surveyed in February, 1858, a few months
before Samuel Dickson surveyed South Atchison. C. L. Challiss' addition
was surveyed about the same time. Other additions to the corporate limits of
.Atchison have been made, and are as follows : Branchton, Bird's addition,
Brandner's addition, Bakewell Heights, Batiste addition, Florence Park, For-
est Park, Goodhue Place, Garfield Park, Highland Park, Home Place, How-
?rd Heights, LaGrande addition, Lincoln Park, Llewellyn Heights, Lutheran
Church addition, Mapleton Place, Merkles addition, Parker's addition, Park
Place, Price Villa addition. River View addition, Spring Garden, Style's ad-
dition, Bellvue Heights, and Talbott & Company's addition.
Atchison was incorporated as a town by act of the Territorial legislature,
August 30. 1855, but it was not incorporated as a city until Februar\' 12, 1858,
after which the charter was approved Ijy the people by special election, March
2, 1858. In the fall of 1856, Atchison had obtained a great many advantages
over other towns along the river, by a judicious system of advertising. The
Squatter Sovereign printed a circular November 22, 1856, which was scat-
tered broadcast. The circular was as follows:
"To the public, generally, but particularly to those persons living north
of the Kansas river, in Kansas Territory :
"It is well known to many, and should be to all interested, that the town
of Atchison is nearer to most persons living north of the Kansas river, than
any other point on the Missouri river. The country, too, south of the Kansas
river above Lecompton, is also as near Atchison as any other Missouri river
town. The roads to Atchison in every direction are very fine, and always in
good repair for wagon and other modes of travel. The country opposite
Atchison is not excelled by an section of Missouri, it being portions of Buch-
anan and Platte counties, in a high state of cultivation, and at a considerable
distance from any important town in Missouri, making grain, fruit, provisions
and all kinds of marketing easily procured at fair prices ; a matter of no small
consideration to settlers in a new countrv.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 69
"The great fresh water lake, from which the fish markets of St. Joseph
and Weston are supphed, is also within three miles of Atchison.
"Atchison is now well supplied with all kinds of goods ; groceries, flour,
corn, meal, provisions and marketing of all kinds are abundant, and at fair
prices. To show the compatibility of Atchison to supply the demands of tlie
country, we here enumerate some of the business houses, viz : Six large d\y
goods and grocery stores, wholesale and retail; six family grocery and pro-
vision stores, wholesale and retail ; one large clothing store ; one extensive fur-
niture store, with mattresses and bedding of all sorts ; one stove, sheet iron and
tinware establishment, where articles in that line are sold at St. Louis prices ;
several large warehouses sufficient to store all the goods of emigrants and trad-
ers across the plains, and to Kansas Territory ; one weekly newspaper — The
Squatter Soz'ereign — having the larg-est circulation of any newspaper in
Kansas, with press, type and materials to execute all kinds of job work ; two
commodious hotels, and several boarding houses ; one bakery and confection-
ery ; three blacksmith shops ; two wagon makers, and several carpenter shops ;
one cabinet maker; two boot and shoe maker shops, and saddle and harness
maker shops ; one extensive butcher and meat market ; a first rate fern", on
which is kept a magnificent new steam ferry boat and excellent horse boat,
propelled by horses ; a good flat boat, and several skiffs ; saw mills, two pro-
pelled by steam and one by horse-powder ; two brick yards, and two lime kilns.
"A fine supply of professional gentlemen of all branches constantly on
hand equal to the demand.
"A good grist mill is much needed, and would make money for the owner."
The first business house in Atchison was established by George T. Chal-
liss, at the corner of the Levee and Commercial streets, in August, 1854. The
National Hotel was not built at that time, so. Mr. Challiss established a tem-
porary camp, and his workmen were accommodated under an elm tree near the
river. The Challiss store building was torn down in 1872. George T. Chal-
liss and his brother, Luther C. Challiss, were clerking in a dry goods store at
Booneville, Mo., in the spring of 1854. George T. Challiss returned to his
old home in New Jersey on a visit, and upon his return, in August, he came
direct to Atchison. He came by boat to Weston, Mo., where he met P. T.
Abell, president of the town company, and Abell prevailed upon him to come
to Atchison in a buggy, crossing the river here on George Million's ferry.
Mr. Abell donated Mr. Challiss the lot upon which he built his store, and he
went to Rushville and bought enough cottonwood lumber to build it. A\'hen
he arrived in Atchison, he had $4.50 in money, but later on borrowed $150.00
•JO HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
from his brother, Luther C. Challiss, at Boonville. He enjoyed a good busi-
ness from the beginning, and carried a large stock of both dry goods and
groceries.
The town of Atchison was the one big outstanding factor in Atchison
county when the territory was organized, but at the same time that Abell and
Stringfellow and others "were shaping up the town," others were busy organ-
izing the county. As the city was named for General Atchison, so lii^ewise was
the county at the time of its creation by the first Territorial legislature that
assembled at Pawnee. The first board of county commissioners was selected
and appointed by the Territorial legislature, August 31, 1855, and was com-
posed of William J. Young, James M. Givens and James A. Headley. The
first meeting of the board was held September 17, 1855, at the home of O. B.
Dickerson, in the city of Atchison. At this meeting Ira Norris was appointed
clerk and recorder; Samuel Dickson, treasurer; Samuel Walters, assessor.
^^'illiam McVay had received an appointment as sheriff of the county prior
to the meeting of the board, direct from the governor, to fill the office tem-
porarily until his successor was subsequently appointed and qualified. On
the i8th of September, 1855, being the second day of the session of the first
board of county commissioners, Eli C. Mason was appointed as sheriff to
succeed McVay, and Dudley McVay was appointed coroner. Voting precincts
were established in three townships preparatory to an election of a delegate
to Congress, which was to take place the first Monday in October, 1855. At
the October meeting of the board of county commissioners, block 10, in what
is now known as Old Atchison, was accepted by tlie board as a location upon
which to erect a court house. This property was offered to the county by
the Atchison town company for the purpose of influencing the board to make
Atchison the county seat. The conditions of the gift were that the court house
was to be built of brick and to be at least forty feet square. In the following-
spring ihe town company donated fifty town lots, and the proceeds of these
lots were to be used in the construction of the court house. In June, 1857, the
court house was ordered built and it was to be two stories high, the first story
to be of rock and the second story of wood. It was 24x18 feet square; how-
ever, the plans were subsequently changed, and, because of the gift of an
additional fourteen lots by the town company, of a value of $6,000.00, a more
pretentious building was erected in 1859, with a county jail adjoining it.
Prior to the erection of the court house, there was a spirited contest between
Mt. Pleasant, Monrovia, Lancaster and Sumner over the question of the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 7I
county seat. In an election to determine the location, Atchison received a
majority of 252 votes over all competitors for the county seat. The estimated
total population of the count}' at the time was 2,745.
In the next few years Atchison grew rapidly and. the dreams of Senator
.A.tchison and his associates bade fair to be realized on a large scale. The popu-
lation of the town was about 500, and yet there were eight hardware stores,
twelve dry goods stores, eight wholesale grocery stores, nineteen retail grocery
stores, and twenty-six law firms. The banking business was controlled by
the contracting firms of A. Majors & Company and Smoot, Russell & Com-
pany. The Atchison branch of the Kansas Valley Bank was the first in
the State to be formed under the legislative act, authorized February 19, 1857,
with a capital stock of $300,000.00. In the act. John H. Stringfellow, Joseph
Plean and Samuel Dickson were named to open subscription books. An or-
ganization was effected in the spring of 1858, and the capital stock of the
local organization was $52,000.00. The board of directors was composed of
Samuel C. Pomeroy, president ; W. H. Russell, L. R. Smoot, W. B. Waddell,
F. G. Adams, Samuel Dickson and W. E. Gaylord. There was considerable
rivalry between Sumner and Doniphan at the time, and shortly after the organ-
ization of the bank, a rumor, which was supposed to have started in Sumner,
to the effect that the bank was about to suspend, caused the directors to pub-
lish a statement of its condition, showing that its assets were $36,638.00 and
its liabilities $20.1 18.00. S. C. Pomeroy resigned as president before the year
was out and was succeeded by William H. Russell. The bank subsequently
had its name changed by the legislature to the Bank of the State of Kansas.
Mr. Russell, thesecond president of the bank, make his home in Leavenworth
and was an active pro-slavery man, being treasurer of the executive commit-
tee in 1856 to raise funds to make Kansas a slave State. This bank continued
until 1866, when it went into voluntary liquidation and its stockholders wound
up its affairs.
One of the most important institutions in Atchison in the early days was
the Massasoit House, opened for business September i, 1858, in charge of
Tom Murphy, a genial proprietor, who conducted it for many years. At the
same time there were three other hotels in operation in the city. Reference
has heretofore been made to the National Hotel, which was elected in 1855 by
popular subscription. It was a plain log structure on the north side of Atchi-
son street, just east of Second, overlooking the river. The Tremont House
was a two-story frame structure at the southeast corner of Second and Main,
and the Planters' House was at the southwest corner of Commercial and Sixth
72 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Streets on the site now occupied by the Exchange Xational Bank, but the Mas-
sasoit House was the leading hotel of this section and it was a substantial,
somewhat imposing frame building erected at the northwest corner of Second
and Main streets on the site now occupied by the Wherrett-Mize Wholesale
Drug House. It was three stories high with a basement and was handsomely
furnished. It did a large business and was the headquarters for the overland
staging crowds. All the lines, which ran in every direction, out of Atchison at
that time departed from the Massasoit House. It was a favorite place for
political gatherings, and from its balconies many speeches were made by leaders
of the political parties of that day. It at one time was the hiding place for a
number of slaves who had been secreted in the hotel by their master. Horace
Greeley, the famous editor of the Xcw York Tribune, ate his first dinner in
Kansas at this hotel, and Abraham Lincoln was a guest on the da}- that John
Brown w-as executed at Harper's Ferry.
Some idea of the magnitude of the merchandising that was carried on in
Atchison in 1858 may be gathered from the fact that during the summer of
that year twenty-four trains comprising 775 wagons, 1,114 men, 7,963 oxen,
142 horses, 1,286 mules conveyed 3,730,905 pounds of merchandise across
the Rocky mountains and California. One single train that was sent out that
year consisted of 105 wagons, 225 men, 1,000 oxen, 200 mules, fifty horses and
465,500 pounds of merchandise. During the latter part of 1859 and the early
months of i860, forty-one regular traders and freighters did business out of
Atchison. During nine months of one of those years, the trains outfitted
from Atchison were drawn by mules and cattle and comprised 1,328
wagons, 1,549 men, 401 mules and 15,263 oxen. The Pike's Peak gold mines,
which were discovered in 1858, and the prospecting in that region were the
causes of the larger part of this enormous business. Denver at that time had a
population of about 2,500, and was the center of the mining region around
Pike's Peak. In the period just mentioned, thirty-three of the trains that left
xAtchison were destined for Denver. One of these trains was composed of
125 wagons, carrying 750,000 pounds of merchandise. It extended from the
levee on the river far beyond the western outskirts of the city. The outfit
was managed by fifty-two men, twenty-two mules and 1,542 oxen. Several
of the trains for Denver had from twenty to fifty wagons. One, sent out by
Jones & Cartwright, had fifty-eight wagons and carried over 3,000
pounds of merchandise. Among the trains that left -Atchison during the
latt'er part of 1859 were, one for Santa Fe, N. ]\I., another for Colorado City,
Colo., two for Green River, Wyo., and four for Salt Lake City. The big-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 73
gest overland outfit was owned by Irwin. Jackson & Company, who were
Government freighters. During one seasnn this firm sent out 520 wagDUs.
650 men, J^ mules and 6,240 oxen. This firm had a good contract for sup-
plying the military posts on the plains, including Forts Kearney, Laraiuie,
Bridger, Douglas, and Camp Floyd, a short distance from Salt Lake City.
In addition to these larger overland staging concerns there were a number of
lesser outfits sent out by private parties in Atchison, with one, two or three
wagons each. Most of the freight conveyed across the plains in wagons was
brought to Atchison in steamboats, which unloaded at the levee extending
along two or three blocks, beginning at about Atchison street and running
south. Very frequently loaded ox trains nearly a mile in length were seen
on Commercial street, and some of the prairie schooners would be loaded with
hardware or some other dead weight, drawn by six to eight yoke of cattle :
and more wagon trains were loaded and departed from Atchison than from any
other point on the Missouri river.
The act of the Territorial legislature of Kansas incorporating the city
of Atchison was approved February 12, 1858, and it provided for the election
of a mayor and councilmen. The charter was voted upon and accepted by
the people at a special election held March 2, 1858. and the first mayor and
council w-ere elected at a special election March 13. 1858. The charter pro-
vided for an annual city election at that time to be held on the first Monday
in September, and consequently the first mayor and councilmen of the city,
elected in March, held their offices only until the following September. Sam-
uel C. Pomeroy was the first mayor of the city, holding his office from March,
1858, until May, 1859. Pomeroy was one of the prominent Free State settlers
and was one of its most popular citizens. His election as mayor was the
result of the toss of a coin. A temporaiy truce having been effected between
the Southerners and the Free State men. it was agreed that a compromise in
local affairs would be beneficial to the community. By the toss of a coin the
Free State men won the mayor and three councilmen. and the pro-slavery men
had four councilmen. Pomeroy was named by the Free State men as ma^or.
Pomeroy subsequently became actively identified with the Massachusetts Emi-
grant Aid Association, in the distribution of aid to the stricken people of
Kansas following the great drouth of i860, and it w-as largely because of
his identification with this organization that he was enabled to place aid where
it would do the most good, and he subsequently became one oi the first United
States senators from Kansas. When he was a resident of Atchison he lived at
the corner of North Terrace and Santa Fe streets, 'but later he moved to a
74 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
tract of land near IMuscotah, and during the twelve )-ears he was senator he
claimed the latter place as his home. It was when he asked for a third term
as United States senator that he was exposed on the floor of the State senate
by Senator York, who arose in his place and, advancing to the secretary's desk,
placed $7,000.00 in cash thereon, which he alleged Pomeroy had given him to
influence his vote. Many have always believed that Senator Pomeroy was
greatly wronged by this act of York. Ex-Governor George W. Click, him-
self a Democrat and a leading citizen of Atchison in the early days, was a ver)-
warm friend of Pomeroy and always expressed indignation when he heard
Pomeroy abused, not only about his conduct in connection with the Emigrant
Aid Association, but also in connection with his downfall politically. It was
the contention of Governor Click that Pomeroy's fall was the result of a con-
spiracy and not because of general bribery. However, Pomeroy never rose to
political prominence after this incident and ended his days in \\'ashington,
D. C. where he lived for a number of years prior to his death.
Associated with Pomeroy as the first mayor of Atchison, were the follow-
ing citizens : John F. Stein, Jr. register ; E. B. Grimes, treasurer ; IMilton R.
Benton, marshal; A. E. Mayhew, city attorney; W. O. Gould, city engineer;
M. R. Benton, by virtue of his office as marshal, was also street commissioner;
H. L. Davis, assessor; Dr. J. W. Hereford, city physician. Tlie board of
appraisers was composed of Messrs. Petfish, Roswell and Caylord. The first
councilmen were William P. Childs, O. F. Short, Luther C. Challiss, Corne-
lius E. Logan, S. F. Walters, James A. Headley, Charles Holbert. John F.
Stein, who was register, resigned his office in August, and R. L. Pease was
appointed to succeed him. In the following August the city was divided into
three wards, the first ward being entitled to four councilmen, the second ward
to two, and the third ward to three. At the first meeting of the council,
which was held March 15, 1858, an ordinance was adopted providing for a
special election for the purpose of submitting a proposition to take $100,000.00
of stock in a proposed railroad from St. Joseph, Mo., to some point opposite
Atchison on the Missouri river. The election was held and the stock was
subscribed for. Mayor Pomeroy was appointed agent of the proposed road,
which was to be known as the Atchison & St. Joseph Railroad Company. A
further account of the development of railroad building from Atchison will
occur in a subsequent chapter. The council at this session also fixed the sal-
ary of the mayor, and in spite of the freedom of those days, saloons were
ordered to be closed on Sunday, and other stringent regulations were passed
in connection with the liquor traffic. The first financial statement of the
city, of date September 5, 1859, is as follows:
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 75
General city tax, 1858 $ 5,927.70
Fines imposed by mayor's court 186.50
Dray and wagon licenses 192.00
Dram shop licenses 1,787.76
Beer house licenses 101.33
Shows 130.00
Billiard tables 225.00
Registry of dogs 50.00
Assessment on C street from River to Fourth. . 3,381.00
Total $12,008.29
Amount of scrip and orders issued on general
fund to December 15, 1858 $ 6,317.17
Amount of scrip and orders issued on general
fund to September 5, 1859 3,140.53
Scrip issued toward building jail 1,675.00
Scrip issued for grading streets, curbing, etc.. . 10,105.39
Total $21,238.09
General deficit $ 9,229.79
The fact that Mayor Pomeroy had strongly urged in his inaugural address
the importance of grading and improving the streets of the city "especially
Atchison, Second and Fourth streets, and the levee," possibly accounts for
the indebtedness of the city at so early a date. There was a general inclina-
tion among the citizens of Atchison to build a modem city in accordance with
the standards of the times, and therefore they were anxious to follow the
mayor's advice to put their streets and alleys in order.
One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most diffi-
cult tasks in tracing the settlement of a community, is to correctly catalogue
the establishment of the first settler, the first house, the first business insti-
tution, and the first of evers-thing, and it could with safety be said that this
is not only an interesting and difficult task but it is well nigh an impossible
one. This is not to be wondered at when we take into account the rush and
confusion which always attend the settlement of a new community. How-
ever, it has now become an established fact that George M. Million was the
76 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
first wliite settler in the Territory, with Samuel Dickson a close second. There
was some dispute about who built the first house in the town of Atchison, but
we have resolved all doubt in favor of Dickson, just as we have decided that
George T. Challiss established the first business house. The Challiss brothers,
George, Luther and \Mlliam all played an important part in the very early
history of the county. They were in business and in the professions, and
they were all land owners, selecting the choicest tracts "close in" and holding
onto them, none too wisely or too well, for their tenacity in this respect
later resulted in their undoing. The leading lawyers in the county during
those days were M. J. Ireland, A. G. Otis, Lsaac Hascall, James A. Headley,
A. E. Mayhew, J. T. Hereford, P. H. Larey, Joseph P. Carr and B. F. String-
fellow. Horton, Foster, Ingalls, and General Bela M. Hughes came later.
Hascall carried a card in the Squatter Sovereign, advertising his legal head-
quarters as the Border Ruffian Law Office.
In addition to the names of merchants and professional men heretofore
given, "Andreas' History of Kansas" gives the following list : Grafton Thom-
assen, the slave owner, ran a sawmill. Thbmassen's name appears in the
records of Atchison county in connection with land transfers as Grafton
Thomason; Luther C. Challiss, who occupied a store on the levee, 45 by 100
feet which he filled with dr\' goods and groceries, and advertised "such an
assortment as was never before offered for sale in the upper country" ; Samuel
Dickson, a merchant and politician and also an auctioneer, on the north side of
C street; Lewis Burnes, M. P. Rively and Stephen Johnson carried stocks of
assorted merchandise; A. J. G. Westbrook, a grocer, and Patrick Laughlin,
who fled from Doniphan on account of the murder of Collins, the Free State
man, was a tinner; William C. Null and Albert G. Schmitt operated a ware-
house and carried a general stock of merchandise at the corner of Second and
C streets; Charles E. Woolfolk and Robert H. Cavell had a large store and
warehouse at the steamboat landing; George M. Million operated the Pioneer
Saloon; John Robertson conducted a saddlery and harness business; Messrs.
Jackson & Ireland were a contracting firm with a shop over Samuel Dickson's
store; Uncle Sam Clothing Store, at the corner of C and Third streets, was
conducted by Jacob Saqui & Company ; Giles B. Buck sold stoves on C street ;
O. B. Dickson was proprietor of the Atchison House ; Drs. J. H. Stringfellow
and D. M. McVay were the leading ph}sicians ; and it is interesting to note
that Washburn's Great American Colossal Circus, which was the first in
Kansas, gave two exhibitions in Atchison, July 31, 1856. This aggregation
carried three clowns, a full brass and string band and an immense pavilion, and
many other novel and attractive features.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 'J'J
Fully fifty new buildings were erected during the spring and summer
of 1856.
During this period in the history of the county. Free State people began
to come into their own. They grew bolder, following the compromise with
the pro-slavery citizens, over the question of the distribution of city officers
and because of other concessions that were made Ijy the pro-slavery citizens for
the general good of the community. It was not strange, therefore, that some
of the less tactful and politic Free State leaders should over-reach themselves
at such a time. While the "Reign of Terrorism" under the Stringfellow
regime was on, the Free State men in Atchison county considered discretion
the better part of valor. They were very quiet, with few exceptions, of whom
Pardee Butler was a conspicuous example, but the)- were nevertheless quite
numerous in the county, and particularly was this the case in and around Mon-
rovia, Eden and Ocena : in fact, there was an organization of Free State men
in the county as early as 1857, and several quiet meetings were held that year;
and at Monrovia a society was formed, of which Franklin G. Adams was the
chief officer and spokesman.
Early in May, 1857, Senator Pomeroy and the Free State men bought
the Sqnattei- Sovereign from Dr. Stringfellow, and Mr. Adams and Robert
McBratney became its editors. Mr. Adams was just as ardent a Free State
man as Dr. Stringfellow was the other way, so the policy of the paper was
completely reversed. Judge Adams was a lawyer and partner of John J.
Ingalls for a while. Hte represented Atchison county in the constitutional
convention that met in Mineola March 2t,. 1858 and which subsequently ad-
journed to Leavenworth. Caleb May, G. M. Fuller, C. A. W'loodworth and
H. E. Baker were the other delegates from Atchison county. Judge Adams
was later one of the useful men of Kansas, and at the time of his death he
was secretary of the State Historical Society, which position he filled with
credit and honor for many years. On August 22, 1858, following the local
compromise with the pro-slavery leaders. Judge Adams concluded the time
was ripe to invite James H. Lane, the great Free State leader, to Atchison, to
make a speech. He consequently served notice in his paper that Lane would
be in Atchison October ig. As soon as it was generally known that Lane had
been invited to speak in Atchison a number of the more rabid pro-slavery men
concluded that the speaking would not take place. On the other hand. Judge
Adams was just as determined that Lane would have a public meeting in
Atchison. For the purpose of insuring order on that occasion Adams in-
vited a number of strong and reliable Free State friends from Leavenworth
y8 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
to come up to Atchison and see that fair play was done. The invitation to
the Leavenworth Free Soilers was accepted with alacrity and they arrived on
the morning of the day Lane was billed to make hi's speech and brought with
them their side arms as a matter of precaution. They made the office of
Adams, Swift & Company their headquarters while here. Shortly after the
arrival of the Leavenworth contingent and while sitting in his office Judge
Adams noticed a crowd gathering on Commercial street, near Fifth. Sus-
pecting that the 'c5-owd had gathered for no good purpose, Judge Adams
and six of his friends started for the scene of what appeared to him to be
a disturbance. On their way they met Caleb A. Woodworth, Sr., hatless
and apparently in trouble. As Judge Adams stopped to make inquiries of Mr.
Woodworth regarding his trouble somebody from the rear assaulted him
with a heavy blow on the cheek. Instead of following the Biblical injunc-
tion he did not turn his other cheek, but swung quickly in his tracks and lev-
elled a pistol at his assailant, who was accompanied by a crowd of his friends,
all armed and with blood in their eyes. As Judge Adams was about to pull
the trigger of his gun a friend of Judge Adams shouted, "Don't shoot yet!"
Following which admonition all of the crowd displayed cocked revolvers and
aimed them in the direction of Judge Adams and his crowd. Observing that
the Free Soilers meant business, the pro-slavery men discreetly withdrew
without further trouble, and the Free Soil men returned to the office of Judge
Adam.s. It was then determined that the meeting should be an out-of-door
one, and as they passed out into the street, again the pro-slavery advocates
mixed freely with the Free Soilers. A. J. W. Westbrook. of tb.e "Home
Guards," mounted on a prancing horse, rode among the crowd, flourishing
a cocked gun, apparently seeking to kill Judge Adams at the first favorable
opportunity. It has been doubted that Westbrook meant business, but his
conduct had the effect of stirring up his followers who avowed that Jim
Lane should not speak in Atchison that night. His threatening attitude ap-
parently had the desired effect, for the Free Soil men decided that it was not
necessary for the existence of their cause that Jim Lane should speak and
therefore postponed the speaking. Judge Adams was not altogether pleased
but he was finally prevailed upon to return home without attempting further
trouble. Later in the day a party of Free Soil men met General Lane on the
outskirts of the city, returning from Doniphan where he had been speaking,
and prevailed upon him not to come to Atchison. This was not the first
attempt of Lane to visit Atchison county. He was entertained at dinner in
1855 at the home of Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, whose house occupied the site
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 79
where the home of Ex-Governor W. J. Bailey now stands. The fact that
Lane was a guest of Dr. Strhigfellow will appear strange to those who knew
nothing of the Stringfellow family. While they were belligerent pro-slavery
advocates, they were always high class men with decent instincts and there-
fore it would not be unusual for them to open their home to so violent an
opponent of theirs as Lane was. The eastern papers, in giving an account
of Lane's entertainment at the Stringfellow home, stated that the dinner was
a very elaborate one, including- oysters, plum pudding, terrapin and cham-
pagne. Mrs. Stringfellow told E. W. Howe in 1894 that Lane came to the
house about 11 o'clock in the morning attended by a body-guard of four
men and inquired for Dr. Stringfellow. The Doctor was away at the time,
but was expected about noon. The men said that they would wait, where-
upon Mrs. Stringfellow knew that she would probably have them for dinner.
Her girl was just getting ready to go somewhere on an errand and was
asked to remain at the house. Dr. Stringfellow came in about noon and
when the two men met in the yard Stringfellow asked Lane if he was not
afraid to call at his house. 'T am not afraid," Lane replied, "to call on a
gentleman anywhere." This gallantry captured Mrs. Stringfellow's admira-
tion and she invited Lane and his body-guard to dinner, which, contrary to
the report in the eastern papers, was a very simple one. Mrs. Stringfellow.
in her interview with Mr. Howe, said that it was as follows : Coffee, hot
biscuits and butter, cold pie, preserves and milk; no terrapin, no oysters, no
champagne, no plum pudding. Lane called at the house on a matter of busi-
iness and Mrs. Stringfellow said that Lane and his body-guard were very
Icindly genteel men. Two or three weeks later, when Mrs. Stringfellow
was alone in the house, she saw a wagon pass in the road with three or four
men lying down in it. Presently another wagon, similarly loaded, attracted
her attention. Then came four men and a woman on horseback and sev-
eral men on foot. The people came from down town, or from southwest of
town. The circumstances were peculiar, and Mrs. Stringfellow climbed on
top of a table and watched the men through the upper sash of a window. They
stopped in a little glade northeast of the house, when the woman dismounted
from the horse, took off the skirt and turned out to be Jim Lane. He stood
beside the horse and talked possibly half an hour. Mrs. Stringfellow is cer-
tain the speaker was Lane, because she had seen hirn only a few weeks be-
fore, and he rode the white horse he had ridden when he stopped at her
house, and the same four men composed the body-guard. Lane had threat-
ened to make a speech in the town but had been warned not to, as he had been
8o
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
warned two years earlier. He made his speech in spite of the warning, lint
his audience was composed of his friends only. A half hour after Lane dis-
appeared over the hill toward the farm then owned by John Taylor, some
distance south of the Orphans" Home, forty mounted southerners appeared
looking for him. Mrs. Stringfellow knew John Scott, the leader, and told him
of the incident. The men laughed and then gave three rousing cheers for Jim
Lane, who had outwitted them.
While there was a tremendous traffic across the plains from Atchison
in 1857, 1858 and 1859, and for a number of years later the "town was alive
with business," it is only fair to record that the town itself was not a thing
of beauty and a joy forever, in spite of the efforts of ]\Iayor Pomeroy and
the city fathers who put the city in debt to the extent of 89,000, September
5, 1859, for public improvements.
Frank A. Root in his admirable book, "The Overland Stage to Cali-
fornia," published in 1901, has this to say in part upon his arrival here in
November, 1858:
"It was in November, 1S58, that I first set foot on the levee in Atchison.
I stepped from the steamer, 'Omaha,' which boat was discharging its carg-o
of freight at the foot of Commercial street. At that time the place was a
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 8l
very small town. I took up my residence in Atchison the following- spring,
having this time come up the river on a steamboat from Weston where I had
been employed as a compositor in the office of the Platte Argjts. On land-
ing at Atchison I had a solitary dime in my pocket, and, after using that to
pay for my lunch, I started out in search of a job. A sign over the office
which read: 'Freedom's Champion, John A. Martin, Editor and Publisher,"
attracted my attention. It hung above the door of the only newspaper office
in the city at that time, but preparations were then being made by Gideon O.
Chase, of Waverly, N. Y., to start the Atchison Union, which was to be a
Democratic paper. I secured a place in the Champion office, beginning work
the following morning. As I walked about the town I remember of hav-
ing seen but four brick buildings on Commercial street. A part of the second
story of one of them, about half a square west of the river, was occupied by
the Champion. The Massasoit House was the leading hotel. The Planters,
a two-story frame house, was a good hotel in those early days, but it
was too far out to be convenient, located as it was, on the corner of Com-
mercial and Sixth streets. West of Sixth there were but few scattering
dwellings and perhaps a dozen business houses and shops. The road along
Commercial street, west of Sixth, was crooked, for it had not been graded
and the streets were full of stumps and remnants of a thick growth of under-
brush that had previously been cut. A narrow, rickety bridge was spanning
White Clay creek where that stream crosses Commercial street at Seventh
street. 'Between Sixth and Seventh streets, north of Commercial street there
was a frog pond occupying most of the block, where the boys pulled dog-
grass in highwater, and where both boys and girls skated in winter. The
Exchange hotel on Atchison street, between Second and the Levee, built of
logs — subsequently changed to the National — was the principal hotel of Atch-
ison, and for more than a quarter of a century stood as an old familiar land-
mark, built in early territorial days.
"Atchison w^s the first Kansas town visited by Horace Greeley. It was
Sunday morning. May 15. 1859, a few_ days before beginning his overland
journey across the continent by stage. He came through Missouri by the
Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, thence down the Missouri river from St.
Joseph on the 'Platte Valley,' a steamer then running to Kansas City in
connection with trains on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. It was in
the old Massasoit House that Greelev wrote on Kansas soil, his first letter to
the Tribune. During the latter part of the afternoon he was driven over the
82 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
city in a carriage, John A. ]\lartin lieing one of the party. The city was a
favorite place of Albert D. Richardson, the noted correspondent of five
eastern newspapers.
"It was at Atchison that Abraham Lincoln, on his first visit to Kansas,
spoke to a crowded house on 'The Issues of the Day.' December 2, 1859,
the date that old John Brown was executed in \"irginia. Lincoln spoke in
the Methodist church, which then stood on the hill at the corner of Fifth and
Parallel streets. The little church was a frame building, dedicated in May,
1859, and overlooked a considerable portion of the city. The house after-
wards became quite historic, for during the early part of the Civil war, the
patriotic Rev. Milton Mahin, a stanch Union man, from Indiana, in a
patriotic speech, soon after the Civil war broke out, had the nerve, and was
the first minister of the Gospel in Atchison, to raise the Stars and Stripes
over his house of worship." D. W. Wlilder, in his "Annals of Kansas," one
of the most wonderful books of its kind ever published, says that Abraham
Lincoln arrived in Elwood, which is just across from St. Joseph, December
I, 1859, and made his speech there that evening. He was met at St. Joseph
by M. W. Delahay and D. W. Wilder. The speech that Lincoln delivered
at Elwood and at Atchison was the same speech that he subsequently delivered
at the Cooper Institute, New York City, and was considered as one of the
ablest and clearest ever delivered b}' an American statesman.
Atchison county was making forward strides at a rapid pace and the fu-
ture held out every promise of prosperity, but in 1859 "a great famine fell upon
the land." It did more to depopulate Kansas than all the troubles of preced-
ing years. The settlers in the Territorj' w'ere able to fight border ruffians
Avith more courage than they could endure starvation, and during all of their
earlier troubles they confidently looked forward to the time when all of their
political difficulties would be settled and prosperity, peace and contentment
would be their share in life. During the years of 1855, 1856 and 1857 the cit-
izens of the Territory were unable to take advantage of the then favorable
seasons to do more than raise just sufficient for their immediate needs. Dur-
in the next year immigration to Kansas was large and the new settlers had
but little time, in addition to building their homes, to raise barely enough
for home consumption, so in 1859 Kansas had only enough grain on hand to
last until the following han-est. The drought commenced in June, and from
the nineteenth of that month until November, i860, not a shower of rain fell
of anv consequence. By fall the ground was parched and the hot winds that
blew from the south destroyed vegetation and the wells and springs went
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 83
dry. There were a few localities on bottom lands along the Missouri river
where sufficient crops were raised to supply the immediate population, but
over 60,000 people in Kansas faced star^-ation in the fall of i860. Thirty
thousand settlers left the Territory for their old homes, from which they
came, abandoning their claims and all hope of success in Kansas. An end-
less procession crossed the border from day to day. About 70,000
inhabitants remained, of whom it was estimated 40,000 were able
to go through the winter. As soon as the news of this situation reached the
East, movements were inaugurated for the relief of the sufferers in Kansas.
S. C. Pomeroy was appointed general agent of northern Kansas. He did
much to raise liberal contributions in New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois
and Ohio, and the contributions were all sent to Atchison, from which place
they were distributed to the different counties of the State. The total re-
ceipts of provisions for distribution up to Alarch 15, 1861, were 8,090,951
pounds, and the total distribution at Atchison, exclusive of branch depots,
was 6,736,424 pounds. In spite of all of this assistance over 30,000
settlers in Kansas that year suffered privation and almost starvation.
It was during this frightful travail that Kansas as a State was bom.
On January 21, 1861, Jefferson Davis and a number of other southern sen-
ators left the United States Senate and on that day the bill for the admission
of Kansas under the Wyandotte constitution, which had been laid before the
House of Representatives in February, i860, was called up by W. H. Seward,
and passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-six yeas to sixteen nays. One week
later the bill came up in the House on motion of Galusha A. Grow, of Penn-
sylvania, who introduced the first bill for the admission of Kansas into the
Union, and while the motion was out of the regular order, it was passed by
a vote of 119 yeas to forty-two nays. On January 29 the bill was signed
by President Buchanan, and free Kansas joined the Union.
The following are the names of the city officials of Atchison March i,
1916: Dr. C. C. Finney, mayor; Victor L. King, city clerk; Walter E. Brown,
city attorney; C. A. Wright, city treasurer; Frank S. Altman, city engineer;
D. S. Beatty, police judge; William H. Coleman, chief of police; John Comp-
ton, fire marshal; Jerome Van Dyke, street commissioner; Owen P. Grady,
meat inspector and license collector; Fred Stutz, sanitan,' sergeant; Frank J.
Roth, building commissioner; John Compton, purchasing agent; Dr. T. E.
Horner, city physician. Councilmen : Louis Weinman, president ; first ward,
Louis Weinman, F. F. Bracke ; second ward. Joseph Schott, C. A. Brown;
third ward, H. M. Ernst, John R. Schmitt ; fourth ward, W. C. Linville, Fred
Snyder; fifth ward, Fay Kested, Walter North. '
CHAPTER VII.
TOWNS, PAST AND PRESENT.
SUMNER, ITS RISE AND FALL OCENA LANCASTER FORT WILLIAM ARRING-
TON MUSCOTAH EFFINGHAM HURON OLD JMARTINSBURG BUNKER
HILL ^LOCUST GROVE HELENA CAYUGA KENNEKUK KAPIOMA
MASHENAH ST. NICHOLAS CONCORD PARNELL SHANNON ELM-
WOOD CUMMINGSVILLE EDEN POSTOFFICE POTTER JIOUNT PHEAS-
ANT — lewis' POINT — Farley's ferry.
One of the most interesting- subjects for the local historian is the rise and
fall of town companies and towns, within the confines of Atchison county.
Perhaps no county in the State, or for that matter, no county in the United
States, has been immune from the visitations of town boomers. It is difficult
in this enterprising age, with all the knowledge that we now have at hand, to
understand how it was possible for anybody, though he was ever so enthusias-
tic, to conceive the idea that there was any future for many of the "towns"
that were born in Atchison county in the early days. Yet. it is found that
there was in the breasts of many promoters a feeling that Atchison county
offered unlimited possibilities for the establishment and growth ol towns and
cities. One need only search the records on file in the office of tlie register of
deeds in this county to discover numerous certified plats of towns which were
born to blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air. In some in-
stances the records are quite complete and authentic, and contain much infor-
mation with reference to the origin, growth and final decay of these nascent
municipalities. In other cases nothing has come down to posterity, save the
merest fragmentary data, of which the plat, containing the name of the town
and of its organizer, its location and the number of blocks, streets and allevs,
constitute the major part.
Reference has heretofore been made to the founding and the organization
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 85
of the city of Atcliison, wliich became and no\\- remains tlie county seat of
Atchison county. The city played such an important part in the early history
of the county that its story has been woven into the general fabric of this
history, and therefore further reference to the city of Atchison will not be made
in this chapter.
SUMXER.
Perhaps the most important, altliough nut the oldest, town established in
Atchison county outside of the city of Atchison was Sumner. A peculiar
aroma of legendary glory still clings to this old town, which was located three
miles below Atchison, on the Missouri river.
Its founder was John P. Wheeler, a young man who came to the Terri-
tory when about twenty-one years of age, and who has been described as "a
red-headed, blue-eyed, consumptive, slim, freckled enthusiast from Massachu-
setts."
Atchison at this time was a strong pro-slaveiy town, and no abolitionist
was a welcome settler in her midst. For this reason Sumner sprang into
existence. It was a dream of its founder to make Sumner an important for-
w'arding point, one of its claims being the fact that it was the most westerly
of any of the Missouri river towns in Kansas.
In 1856 the site was surveyed and platted, and the name "Sumner" given
the new town, in honor of George Sumner, one of the original stockholders,
and not for his brother, the Hon. Charles Sumner, United States senator, of
Massachusetts, as many people suppose.
To bring Sumner befcn-e the public Mr. Wheeler engaged an artist named
Albert Conant to come out and make a drawing of it, and this was later taken
to Cincinnati, and a colored lithograph made from it, which was widely cir-
culated. From copies of this lithograph still extant it must be admitted that
the artist did not slight the town in any particular.
In the fall of 1857 the Sumner Town Company began the erection of a
large brick hotel. Samuel Hollister had the contract, his bid being $16,000.
The brick used in the construction were made on the ground, and the lumber
used in the construction Avork came by steamboat from Pittsburgh, Pa. The
hotel was completed in the summer of 1858, and at last accounts the town
company still owed Mr. Hollister $3,000. Some years later the brick used in
the hotel were gathered and cleaned and hauled to Atchison and used the con-
struction of a building owned by the late John J. Ingalls, located at 108-110
South Fourth street.
«6 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
In the fall of 1857 Cone Brothers (John P. and D. D.) brought a print-
ing outfit to Kansas, and were induced to locate in Sumner, where they shortly
begun the publication of The Sumner Gazette, the first issue of which appeared
on September 12. During the political canvass that fall they also issued a
daily. The Gazette was issued until 1861 when it suspended, its publishers
believing- that it was the only paper in Kansas that outlived the town in which
it started.
Among those engaged in business in Sumner on October i, 1857, the
Daily Gazette shows the following:
John P. Wheeler, attorney and counsellor at law, commissioner of deeds.
dealer in real estate, etc.
Kahn & Fassler, general store, on Front street, between \\'ashington a\-e-
nue and Chestnut street.
Mayer & Rohrmann, carpenters and builders.
Barnard & Wheeler, proprietors of the Sumner Brick Yard.
Wm. M. Reed, contractor, Atchison and Sumner.
John Armor, steam saw mill, in the city.
Butcher & Brothers, general store on Front street, between Washington
avenue and Olive street.
Allen Green, painter and glazier.
S. J. Bennett, boot and shoe store, corner of Washington avenue and
Fourth street.
Arthur M. Claflin, general land agent, forwarding and commission agent.
J. P. Wheeler and A. M. Claflin, lumber, office with the Sumner
Company.
H. S. Baker, proprietor of Baker's Hotel, corner of Front and Olive
streets, near steamboat landing.
A. Barber, general merchandise. Front street, between \\'ashington ave-
nue and Olive street.
Lietzenburger & Co., blacksmiths, wagon makers, etc.. Cedar street, be-
tween Third and Fourth streets.
D. Newcomb, M. D., office in postoffice building, corner of Third street
and Washington avenue. Mr. Newcomb also dealt in lime, and on September
24, received a large and select stock of hardware, stoves, etc.
When the Territorial legislature of 1858 met, a bill was introduced, incor-
porating the Sumner Company, Cyrus F. Currier, Samuel F. Harsh, J. W.
Morris, Isaac G. Losse and John P. Wheeler, their associates and successors,
constitutin gthe company. The act also provided that the corporation should
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 87
have the power to purchase and hold, and enter by preemption and otherwise,
any quantity of land where the town of Sumner is now located, not to exceed
one thousand acres, etc.
A fern' at Sumner was also incorporated by the legislature of 185S, J. W.
Morris. Cyrus F. Currier and Samuel Harsh being the incorporators. This
boat plied between Atchison and Sumner and the Missouri side.
In 1858 Samuel Hollister built a steam sawmill, adding a gristmill later.
By the end of 1858 Sumner had outstripped its rival, Atchison, in popula-
tion, and steps were taken looking towards the incorporation of the town.
Early in the beginning of the legislature of 1859, articles of incorporation were
passed and received the approval of Governor Samuel Medary on Febiaian? 9.
These articles of incorporation were later amended by an act passed by the
first State legislature, which was approved June 3, 1861.
The decline of Sumner began with the drought which started in the fall
of 1859 and prevailed through the year i860. In June, i860, a cyclone struck
the town and either blew down or damaged nearly every building, this calamity
being followed in September by a visitation of grasshoppers, all of which were
potent factors in wiping Sumner off the map. Some of the houses which
ciiuld l>e moved were taken to Atchison, and si_>me to farms in the immediate
\'icinit}'.
One of the most interesting accounts that appeared about Sumner was
written by H. Clay Park, an old citizen of Atchison, who for many years was
editor and part owner of the Atchison Patriot. It would not be just either
to Mr. Park or to Sumner, were this account not perpetuated in this volume,
and it, therefore, appears in full as follows :
"the rise and fall of SUMNER.
"Three miles south of Atchison, Kansas, is the site of a dead city, whose
streets once were filled with the clamor of busy traffic and echoed to the tread
of thousands of oxen and mules that in the pioneer days of the Great West
transported the products of the East across the Great American Desert to the
Rocky mountains. It was a city in which for a few years twenty-five hundred
men and women and children lived and labored and loved, in which many lofty
aspirations were bom, and in which several young men began careers that
became historical.
"This city was located on what the early French voyagers called the 'Grand
Detour' of the ^Missouri ri\"er. No more rugged and picturescjue site for a
city or one more inaccessible and with more unpropitious environ-
88 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
ments could have been selected. It was literally built in and on the everlast-
ing hills, covered with a primeval forest so dense that the shadows chased the
sunbeams away. It sprang into existence so suddenly and imperceptibly it
might almost have been considered a creation of the magician's wand. It was
named Sumner in honor of the great Massachusetts senator. Its official motto
was 'Pro lege et grege' (For the law and the people). This would, in the
light of subsequent events, have been more suggestive: 'I shall fall, like a
bright exhalation in the evening.'
"Sumner's first citizens came mostly from Massachusetts, and were im-
bued with the spirit of creed and cant, self-reliance and fanaticism that could
have been born only on Plymouth Rock. They had come to the frontier to
make Kansas a free State and to build a city, within whose walls all previous
conditions of slavery should be disregarded and where all men born should be
regarded equal. The time — 1856 — was auspicious. Kansas was both a great
political and military battlefield, upon which the question of the institution of
slavery was to be settled for all time.
"The growth of Sumner was phenomenal. A lithograph printed in 1857
shows streets of stately buildings, imposing seats of learning, church spires that
pierced the clouds, elegant hotels and theaters, the river full of floating pal-
aces, its levee lined with bales and barrels of merchandise, and the white smoke
from numerous factories hanging over the city like a banner of peace and
prosperity. To one who in that day approached Sumner from the east and
saw it across the river, which like a burnished mirror, reflected its glories, it
did indeed present an imposing aspect.
"One day the steamboat Duncan S. Carter landed at Sumner. On its
hurricane deck was John J. Ingalls, then only twenty-four years old. As his
eye swept the horizon his prophetic soul uttered these words : 'Behold the home
of the future senator from Kansas.' Here the young college graduate, who
since that day became the senator from Kansas, lived and dreamed until Sum-
ner's star had set and Atchison's sun had risen, and then he moved to Atchison,
bringing with him Sumner's official seal and the key to his hotel.
"Here lived that afterwards brilliant author and journalist, Albert D.
Richardson, whose tragic death some years ago in the counting room of the
Neiv York Tribune is well remembered. His 'Beyond the Mississippi' is to
this day the most fascinating account ever written of the boundless West.,
"Here lived the nine-A^ear-old Minnie Hank, who was one day to become
a renowned prima donna and charm two continents with her voice, and who
was to wed the Count Wartegg. Minnie was born in poverty and cradled in
adversitv. Her mother was a poor washerwoman in Sumner.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY »9
"Here lived John E. Remsburg, the now noted author, lecturer and free-
thinker. Mr. Remsburg has probably delivered more lectures in the last
thirty years than any man in America. He is now the leader of the Free-
Thought Federation of America.
"Here \\' alter A. Wood, the big manufacturer of agricultural implements,
lived and made and mended wagons. Here Lovejoy, 'the Yankee preacher,'
preached and prayed. Here lived 'Brother' and 'Sister' Newcomb, from whom
has descended a long line of zealous and eminent Methodists. Here was
born Paul Hull, the well known Chicago journalist.
"And Sumner was the city that the Rev. Pardee Butler lifted up his hands
and blessed and prophesied would grow and wax fat when the 'upper landing'
would sleep in a dishonored and forgotten grave, as he floated by it on his
raft, clad in tar and feathers. The 'upper landing' was the opprebrious title
conferred by Sumner upon Atchison. The two towns were bitter enemies.
Sumner was 'abolitionist;' Atchison was 'border ruffian.' In Atchison the
'nigger' \\-as a slave : in Sumner he was a fetich. It was in Atchison that the
'abolition preacher,' Pardee Butler, was tarred and feathered and set adrift on
a raft in the river. He survived the tortures of his coat of degradation and
the 'chuck-holes' of the ^lissouri river and lived to become a prohibition fanatic
and a Democratic Presidential elector.
"Jonathan Lang, alias 'Shang,' the hero of Senator Ingalls" 'Catfish Aris-
tocracy,' and the 'last mayor of Sumner,' lived and died in Sumner. When all
his lovely companions had faded and gone 'Shang' still pined on the stem.
The senator's description of this type of a vanished race is unique :
" 'To the most minute observer his age was a cjuestion of the gravest
doubt. He might have been thirty : he might have been a century, with no
violation of the probabilities. His hair was a sandy sorrel, something like a
Rembrandt interior, and strayed around his freckled scalp like the top layer
of a hayrick in a tornado. His eyes were two ulcers, half filled with pale
blue starch. A thin, sharp nose projected above a lipless mouth that seemed
always upon the point of breaking into the most grievous lamentations, and
never opened save to take whiskey and tobacco in and let oaths and saliva out.
A long, slender neck, yellow and wrinkled after the manner of a lizard's
belly, bore this dome of thought upon its summit, itself projecting from a mis-
cellaneous assortment of gent's furnishing goods, which covered a frame of
unearthly longitude and unspeakable emaciation. Thorns and thongs supplied
the place of buttons upon the costume of this Brummel of the bottom, coarsely
patched beyond recognition of the original fabric. The coat had been con-
90 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
structed for a giant, the pants for a pigmy. They were too long in the waist
and too short in the leg, and flapped loosely around his shrunk shanks high
above the point where his fearful feet were partially concealed by mismated
shoes that permitted his great toes to peer from their gaping integuments, like
the heads of two snakes of a novel species and uncommon fetor. This princely
phenomenon was topped with a hat which had neither band nor brim nor
crown :
" Tf that could shape be called which shape has none.
" 'His voice was high, shrill and querulous, and his manner an odd mix-
ture of fawning servility and apprehensive effrontery at the sight of a "damned
Yankee abolitionist," whom he hated and feared next to a negro who was
not a slave.'
"The only error in the senator's description of 'Shang' is that 'Shang'
was 'abolitionist' himself, and 'fit to free the nigger.'
'Shang' continued to live in Sumner until every house, save his miser-
able hut, had vanished like the baseless fabric of a vision. He claimed and
was proud of the title, 'the last mayor of Sumner.' He died a few years ago,
and a little later lightning struck his cabin and it was devoured by flames.
And thus passed away the last relic of Sumner.
"In the flood tide of Sumner's prosperity, 1856 to 1859 — for before that
it was nothing, after that nothing — it had ambition to become the count}- seat
of the newly organized county of Atchison. J. P. Wheeler, president of the
Sumner Town Company, was a member of the 'lower house of the Territorial
legislature, and he 'logrolled' a bill through that body conferring upon Sumner
the title of county seat, but the Atchison 'gang' finally succeeded in getting
the bill killed in the senate. Subsequently, October, 1858, there was an
election to settle the vexed question of a county seat. Atchison won ; Sumner
lost.
"About this time Atchison secured its first railroad. The smoke from
the locomotive engines drifted to Sumner and enveloped it like a pall. The
decadence was at hand, and Sumner's race to extinction and oblivion was rapid.
One day there was an exodus of citizens ; the houses were torn down and the
timbers thereof cartered away, and foundation stones were dug up and carried
hence. Successive summers' rains and winters' snows furrowed streets and
alleys beyond recognition and filled foundation excavations to the level, and
ere long a tangled mass of briers and brambles hid away the last vestige of the
once busy, ambitious city. The forest, again unvexed by ax or saw, asserted
his dominion once more, and today, beneath the shadow cast by mighty oaks
and sighing cottonwoods, Sumner lies dead and forgotten."
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 9I
In the above article, reference is made Ijy Mr. Park to Jonathan Lang,
and it is important in tliis connection to print herewith an excerpt from the
Atchison Daily Globe, December, 1915, relating to this interesting character,
which follows :
"The rennion of the Thirteenth Kansas infantry at Hiawatha Tuesday
recalls that the late Jonathan G. Lang, self-styled 'Mayor of Old Sumner,'
and hero of John J. Ingalls' 'Catfish Aristocracy,' was a soldier in this regi-
ment, and was the Ijutt of many jokes on the part of his comrades in camp as
he was in the days of civil life at old- Sumner. Thomas J. Payne, a sergeant
in the Thirteenth, now living in California, relates an amusing story of 'Old
Shang,' as Lang was generally called by his comrades : When the regiment was
mustered into service on September 28, 1862, and the newly assigned officers
were reviewing their troops at Camp Stanton, in Atchison, the tall, gaunt form
of Lang (for he was nearly seven feet tall and very angular) towered above the
rest of the men like the stately Cottonwood above the hazelbmsh. Riding up
and down the lines, and scanning the troops with critical eye to see that there
was no breech of ranks or decorum, the gaze of Colonel Bowen could not help
but fall upon the lofty and lanky fonn of Lang, rising several heads above
any of his comrades. The colonel paused, and pointing his finger at the
grenadier form in the ranks, shouted in thunderous tones, 'Get down off that
stump.' A ripple of suppressed laughter immediately passed along the lines,
and when Colonel Bowen saw his mistake he promptly revoked his order with
a hearty chuckle and rode on towards the end of the column. And not until
twentv years later, when all that was mortal of old Lang — his nearly seven
feet of skin and bones^was laid way to moulder with the ruins of old Sum-
ner, did he finally 'get down off of that stump.' He rests at the entrance of
the Sumner cemetery and his grave is marked with one of those small, regula-
tion slabs such as are furnished by the Government for the graves of dead
soldiers and bears this simple inscription: 'J. G. Lang, Co. K. 13th Kansas In-
fantry.' There are two other members of the Thirteenth Kansas buried at
Sumner. They are, John Scott, of Company D, and Albred Brown, of Com-
pany F."
Another article relating to Old Sumner, which is entertaining and instnic-
tive, was written by E. W. Howe, and is taken from the Historical Edition of
the Atchison Daily Globe, issued July 16, 1894:
"The founder of Sumner was John P. Wheeler, a red-headed, blue-eyed,
consumptive, slim, freckled enthusiast from Massachusetts. He was a sur-
veyor by profession, and also founded the town of Hiawatha. He was one
92 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
of the adventurers who came to Kansas as a result of the excitement of 1855-
'56, and was onl}- twenty-one years old when he came West. Most of the men
who had much to do with early Kansas history were young.
"The town was not named for Charles Sumner, as is generally supposed,
but for his brother, George Sumner, one of the original stockholders. At that
time Atchison was controlled by Southern sympathizer.s — P. T. Abell, the
Stringfellows, the McVeys, A. J. Westbrook and others — and abolitionists
were not welcome in the town. It was believed that a city would be built
within a few miles of this point, as it was favorable for overland freighting,
being farther West than any other point on the Missouri river. On the old
French maps Atchison was known as the 'Grand Detour,' meaning the great
bend in the river to the westward.
"Being a violent abolitionist, John P. Wheeler determined to establish
a town where abolitionists would be welcome, and Sumner was the result.
The town was laid out in 1856, and the next year Wheeler had a lithograph
made, which he took East for use in booming his town.
"Among others captured by means of this lithograph was John J. Ingalls.
Wheeler and Ingalls were both acquainted with a Boston man of means named
Samuel A. Walker. Wheeler wanted Walker to invest in Sumner, and as
Walker knew that Ingalls was anxious to go West, he asked him to stop
at Sumner and report vipon it as a point for the investment of Boston money.
"Mr. Ingalls arrived in Sumner on the 4th of October, 1858, on the
steamer Duncan S. Carter, which left St. Louis four days before. The town
then contained about two thousand people, five hundred more than Atchison ;
but Sumner was already declining, and Mr. Ingalls did not advise his friend,
Walker, to invest.
"A hotel building costing $16,000.00, had been built by Samuel Hollister.
A famous steamboat cook had charge of the kitchen in the old days, and the
stages running between Jefferson City and St. Joe stopped there every day for
dinner. Jefferson City v\'as then the end of the railroad — the Pacific Railroad
of Missouri, now the Missouri Pacific — which runs through the deserted site
of Sumner, and directly over the foundation of the wagon factory built by
Levi A. Woods. This Avagon factory was one of the results of Wheeler's
audacious lithograph, and few wagons were actually manufactured. The
factory was heavily insured, and burned.
"Albert R. Richardson was a citizen of Sumner, when Mr. Ingalls arrived
there; also James Hauk, the father of Minnie Hauk, who has since become
famous as a singer in grand opera. James Hauk was a carpenter, whose wife
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 93
operated a boarding house. Minnie Hauk waited on the talile, and was noted
among the boarders as a smart Httle girl with a long yellow braid down her
back, who could play the piano pretty well. The next year Hauk made a
house boat and floated down the river to New Orleans.
"When John J. Ingalls went to Sumner, a young man of twenty-four,
he took great interest in such characters as Archie Boler and Jonathan Grander
Lang. Lang was a jug fisherman in the river, melon raiser, ti^uck patch
farmer and town drunkard. Ligalls says that Lang was really a bright fellow.
He had been a dragoon in the Mexican War, and his stories of experiences
in the West were intensely interesting. Ingalls used to go out in Lang's
boat when he was jugging for catfish and spend hours listening to his talk.
Finally Ingalls wrote his 'Catfish Aristocracy,' and Lang recognized himself
as the hero. He was very indignant and threatened to sue Ingalls, having been
advised by some jackleg lawyer that the article was libelous. Lang lived on
a piece of land belonging to Ingalls at the time, and Ingalls told the writer of
this the other day that it was actually true that he settled wih Lang for a sack
of flour and a side of bacon. Lang served in the Civil war, and long after its
close, when his old friend was president of the United States Senate, he secured
him a pension and a lot of back pa}-. But this he squandered in marrying.
His pension money was a curse to him, for it only seiwed to put a lot of
wolves on his trail.
"^^'hen the war broke out the Atchison men who objected to abolitionists
settling in their town were driven out of the country, and this attracted a
good many of the citizens of Sumner. But its death blow came in June, i860,
when nearly every house in the place was either blown down or badly dam-
aged by a tornado. This was the first and onl}- tornado in the history of
this immediate section."
Reference is made in both of these articles to John J. Ingalls, who arrived
in Sumner from Boston, Mass., October 4, 1858. Mr. Ingalls was a graduate
of W^illiams College a short time before, and at the time he decided to go West
he was a student in a law office in Boston, where his attention was first called
to Sumner by an elaborate lithograph of the town displayed by Mr. Wheeler,
the promoter. The impressions of Mr. Ingalls upon his arrival in Sumner
are, therefore, pertinent and convey some idea of the shock he received when
he landed at the Sumner levee. In a letter which he subsequently wrote describ-
ing the event, he said :
"That chromatic triumph of lithographed mendacity, supplemented by the
loquacious embellishments of a lively adventurer who has been laying out town
94 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
sites and staking off corner lots for some years past in Tophet, exhibited a
scene in which the attractions of art, nature, science, commerce and religion
were artistically blended. Innumerable drays were transporting from a fleet
of gorgeous steambooats vast cargoes of foreign and domestic merchandise
over Russ pavements to colossal warehouses of brick and stone. Dense, wide
streets of elegant residences rose with gentle ascent from the stores of the
tranquil stream. Numerous parks, decorated with rare trees, shrubbery and
fountains were surrounded with the mansions of the great and the temples of
their devotion. The adjacent eminences were crowned with costly piles which
wealth, directed by intelligence and controlled by taste, had erected for the edu-
cation of the rising generation of Sumnerites. The only shadow upon the
enchanting landscape fell from the clouds of smoke that poured from the tower-
ing shafts of her acres of manufactories, while the whole circumference of
the undulating prairie was white with endless, sinuous trains of wagons, slowly
moving toward the mysterious region of the Farther \^'est."
Ocena was laid out in Atchison county in 1855. and for a time it gave
promise of becoming an important place. Ocena was located on the northeast
bank of Stranger creek, on what is known as the McBride farm, in the south
half of the northeast quarter of section 22, township 6, range 19, about a mile
north of the present site of Pardee. The first postoffice in Center township,
and one of the first in Atchison county, was established at Ocena with Wilham
Crosby as postmaster in August, 1855. In 1836, T. C. McBride was appointed
postmaster, and served until the office was removed to Pardee in 1838, when
S. G. Moore was appointed postmaster.
T. C. McBride was one of the early settlers of Center township, having
arrived there in March, 1856, and settled on tlie land on which the town of
Ocena was built. He was one of the early merchants of the place, liaving a
small store, in which he kept the postoffice. The mail was caried from Atchi-
son to Ocena by stage. McBride was a Tennesseean, born in 1826. In the
fall of 1857, in a grove on the McBride farm, the first church service in that
section was held. It was of the Methodist Episcopal denomination.
Ocena was the first important stopping place west of Atchison. The old
Squatter Sovereign, of Atchison, in its issue of December 3, 1837, contained
the following advertisement of the town: "The truth plainly told will show
that Ocena is already a city. The surface of the earth was so moulded bv
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 95
the plastic hand of the Creator that a few ])oints in the wide expanse of Xature
were tiestined to echpse all others. Ocena is one cjf those points. Located
as it is, on the northeast bank of Stranger creek, in the county of Atchison,
where roads leading from Doniphan and St. Joe to Lecompton are intersected
by roads leading from Atchison to Grasshopper Falls and Osawkee ; and also
being upon the great thoroughfare running up and down the valley of the
Stranger, it offers more inducements for a large and prosperous inland town
than any other place in Kansas Territory. All persons anxious to thrive and
desirous of obtaining a home on reasonable terms will do well to settle in
Ocena. For further particulars in reference to the town apply to Isaac S.
Hascall, president, or M. C. Finney, secretary."
Freedom's Champion, in its issue of July 3. 1858, says of the town :
"Ocena, besides having the most musical name, is one of the most beautiful
places in Kansas. A postoffice has been established there and several new
buildings are being erected. It is destined to be a thriving little place."
Ocena w'as killed by Pardee, a town which was started a short distance
to the south of it, but neither amounted to much from a municipal and busi-
ness standpoint. Pardee is now only a country village. It was first platted as
a town by James Brewer, in the string of 1857, and was named in honor of
Pardee Butler, of border warfare fame. In the winter of 1856 Mr. Butler
preached his first sermon in Pardee, the services being held in the school
house, which had been completed during the previous fall, and opened by
James Brewer in December. Caleb May, the first settler in Center township,
was the first president of the Pardee Town Company. Pardee Butler was
afterwards president ; Milo Carleton, secretary ; Wm. J. May, treasurer ; S. G.
Moore, A. Elliott and W. Wakefield, trustees. Mr. Moore opened the
first store in Pardee in 1858, and became the first postmaster as aforestated.
Mr. Carleton put a wind gristmill in operation at Pardee at an early day,
but it was destroyed by a storm.
LANCASTER.
Lancaster is one of the oldest towns in the county. In the issue of
October 16, 1858, of Freedom's Champion, the following advertisement with
reference to Lancaster appears :
"LANCASTER.
"Lancaster City is the name of a new town just springing into existence.
It is located 10 miles direct west of our city (Atchison) Atchison county, K. T.,
on the east half of Section 32, Township 5, Range 19, the great military road
96 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
to Fts. Kearney, Laramie, Bridge, and to Santa Fe, Utah, Washington Ter-
ritory, Gadson Purchase, California, New ^Mexico, etc., passes through the
town site. Also roads leading from Nebraska City, St. Joseph, Doniphan,
and to Grasshopper Falls, Topeka, Lecompton and Lawrence.
"A more beautiful situation for a large and prosperous city could not be
found in the Territory, or the Great West. Its site is rolling and dry, climate
healthy and salubrious as heart could wish for. The surrounding country
cannot be surpassed for its magnificent undulating prairies, being one of the
most fertile agricultural regions in the whole country.
"Excellent coal, building stone and timber, within two, and two and a
half miles. This town has been under way but little over two months, and
notwithstanding the hard times, quite a number of buildings are already
erected, among which will be found a large and commodious hotel, a good
store, blacksmith and carpenter shops, post office, etc., etc. Arrangements
are made for the erection of several more dwelling houses, also for the erection
during this month, of a Union church, (the first in the county) and with liberty
heretofore unequalled in Kansas, Mr. J. W. Smith, the President of the Com-
pany, authorizes us to say that he will give good lots gratis to mechanics, lab-
orers, and others, who will apply for them soon, or who will erect improve-
ments on them in six months, worth $200 or more. This, we think, a good
chance for men who want a comfortable home in the best section if our coun-
try. The company now offer to sell lots or shares at reasonable rates, and are
prepared to make warrantee deeds for the same, having purchased the site
and obtained the title for the same of the Government of the LTnited States
on the 26th day of June, 1858. Persons wishing to live in an interior town,
will do well to visit Lancaster before investing elsewhere."
^^'hile this little town did not prove to be all that its promoters expected
of it, it continued as a good trading point for many years, and in igi6 remains
one of the prosperous communities of the county. In addition to the one bank
which it supports, reference to which has already been made, Lancaster, in
19 1 5, has seven stores, a two-room public school, three churches, one eleva-
tor, one lumber yard, a good hotel and a garage. In 1915 its enterprising citi-
zens built an electric high tensioned line connecting with the Effingham line
out of Atchison, to supply the town with electric lights, and its citizens are now
enjoying all the benefits of electricity.
About 80,000 bushels of grain, and an average of seventy-five cars of
live stock are shipped out of Lancaster annually. Its merchants are enter-
prising and prosperous, and many comfortable and commodious homes have
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 97
been built in this little town. It is located in one of the finest agricultural
sections of the county, and the surrounding country is in a state of high culti-
vation, and peopled by prosperous and thrifty farmers.
PORT WILLIAM.
In the Squatter Sovereign of March ii. 1856, published at Atchison, ap-
peared the following advertisement of Port William :
"This new and beautiful town site is situated on the Missouri river, in
Kansas Territory, three or four miles above the town of latan, in the heart of
the most densely populated part of Kansas ; surrounded by the finest soil
and timber in that Territory, with a permanent landing, commanding a view
of the river for several miles above and below. The principal part of said
town is located on a bed of stone coal of the best quality. Arrangements are
being made to have said stone coal bed opened and wrought by a joint stock
company early in the spring, at which time there will be a sale of lots. There
is now in course of erection a good steam saw mill, which will be in successful
operation in a few weeks ; also, a large and commodious tavern is in process of
erection, which will be opened for the accommodation of the public in a short
time. Persons wishing to procru'e lots immediately will have opportunity of
so doing by calling on Henry Bradley or Jonathan Hartman, both of whom are
authorized agents to sell and dispose of lots, and one or both may at all
times be found on the premises ready to accommodate purchasers upon the
most liberal terms. H. B. Wallace, Amos Rees, Henry Debard, H. C. Brad-
le}', H. B. Herndon, James G. Spratt, W. C. Remington, James W. Bradle}",
P. J. Collins, trustees."
Of the above named trustees Judge James G. Spratt, W. C. Remington
and Henry Debard were prominent citizens of Platte county, Missouri, and
members of the town company that incorporated Port William in 1855. James
M. and Henry Bradley and H. B. Herndon were also members of this
compan}'. Henry Debard was a Kentuckian, born in Clark county, November
24, 1801, and came to Platte county at an early day, later removing to Kansas.
He was a prominent Mason, and took an active part in Masonic work in
Missouri for many years. He w'as a cabinet maker, but did not work much
at his trade. He died in Platte City, October 5, 1875.
Amos Rees was born at Winchester, Va., December 2, 1800, and came to
Missouri at an early age, locating in Platte county, March i, 1845. For many
years he was a prominent attorney of that county. He moved to Kansas in
7
90 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
1855. and died, December 29, 1883. Dr. H. B. Wallace, who was interested in
Port \Mlliam, was a physician at Platte City, and a member of the town
board in 1838. He invested largely in St. Jose, and the war reduced iiim
almost to poverty. He died, February 24, 1863. Judge Paxton, in his
"Annals of Platte County," simph' mentions him as having married the
"beautiful and accomplished Ann E. Owen."
J. Butler Chapman arrived in Kansas in the spring of 1854, made a trip
over the territory, and then published a small volume, entitled "History of
Kansas and Emigrant's Guide." He refers to Port William as "Williamsport,
a prospective town a short distance above Kickapoo." "The bluffs," he con-
tinues, "are high and precipitous, and the land broken until you reach the
high rolling prairie back some three miles. The whole countr}- is settled on
with a view of preemption."
A company known as the Port William Sharp's Rifles, numbering eighty-
one, rank and file, was formed at Port William, in October, 1856. The com-
missioned officers elected were James Adkins, captain ; Henry C. Bradley,
first lieutenant: James M. Bradley, second lieutenant; S. Bowman, third lieu-
tenant. The company was enrolled, or was intended to be enrolled, in the
first regiment, first brigade, northern division of the Kansas militia, and
applied for arms and commissions. The Port William Town Company was
incorporated by an act of the Territorial legislature in 1855 and the town
company was composed of William C. Remington, James G. Spratt, Henr\-
Debard, James AI. Bradley, Henry Bradley, Horace B. Herndon and ^^'illiam
B. Almond.
General William B. Almond, one of the incorporators of Pt. William, was
a noted man in the West in the early days. He was a Virginian, who came
to Platte county, Missouri, when the Platte Purchase was opened, and settled
near the Buchanan county line. At a very early period he had been connected
with the American Fur Company, and as a mountaineer had many adventures.
During the thirties he was a brigadier genera' of the State militia in Missouri.
He was one of the foremost "Forty-niners" to California, leading a company
to the land of gold, among whom was Ben Holladay, afterwards famous as
the originator of the "pony express" and other Western enterprises. While in
California General Almond distinguished himself as a Territorial judge in San
Francisco. Returning to Platte county in 185 1 he was elected circuit judge,
was a candidate for lieutenant governor, and filled other offices and places of
distinction and prominence. He was also connected with mercantile, milling
and other enterprises. He lived for some time in Topeka and Leavenworth,
and died at the latter place in i860.
LIBRARY
WASHINGTON STATE
HISTORICAL SOCJETY
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 99
Judge James G. Spratt. another of the promoters of old Port W'ilHam,
was also a man of some prominence. He came to the West from Smith
county, Virginia, where he was lx)rn, 1826, and, like General Almond, settled
in Platte county at a very early day. In 1843 he was appointed a justice of
the peace in Platte county, and was afterwards deputy county clerk, probate
judge and held other positions. For some time he was engaged in the prac-
tice of law, and was in partnership with Hon. Joseph E. Merryman, in Platte
City. In 1864 he went to Montana where he became a mine speculator. He
died November 13, 1881, and his remains were brought liack to Platte for
burial. W. H. Spratt, a brother of Judge Spratt, was at one time sheriff
of Platte county.
William C. Remington was another pioneer of Platte, like General AI-
mand and Judge Spratt, a A'irginian by birth, who came west at a ver\- earlv
day. He was one of the early assessors of Platte county, and subsequently
was elected circuit clerk. He was one of the trustees of the Platte City Town
Company when it was incorporated in 1843. He was also a member of the
company that laid off the town of St. Mary's at the mouth of Bee creek in
1857, but no lots were ever sold. Mr. Remington was one of the early mer-
chants of Platte City, one of the proprietors of the Platte City Weekly Atlas,
and was interested in various other enterprises. His handsome brick resi-
dence in Platte City was among those burned by federal orders in Julv, 1864.
He died December 20, 1864, in Omaha, where he was operating a hotel.
Of Henry Debard, another member of the Port William Town Company,
the writer has not yet found any record. The Bradleys lived in Platte county,
opposite Port William for many years, moved over to the Kansas side early in
[854, and with Squire Horace B. Herndon started the old town. The Brad-
leys opened a general store and James M. Bradley was appointed postmaster
when the postoffice was established in April, 1855. Squire Herndon was one
of the earliest justices of the peace in Kansas, and had much business in his
court in the early days, as Port \\'illiam was one of the roughest of the
I)order towns.
Port William was located eight miles below Atchison. It is one of the
most interesting localities from a historical standpoint in Atchison count}- and
northeastern Kansas. It is one of the oldest settlements in Kansas, and for
a time in the early days was one of the promising villages of the territory.
In fact, it was of enough importance, not in size, but as a prospective populace,
to be mentioned by travelers of that time, as one of the principal towns of
Kansas. Father Pierre Jean de Smet, the Jesuit missionary, in a letter written
lOO HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
p-ebruary 26, 1859, says : "A great number of towns and villages have sprung
up as if by enchantment in the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The prin-
cipal towns of Kansas are \A yandotte, Delaware, Douglas, Marysville, lola,
Atchison, Ft. Scott, Pawnee, Lecompton, Neosho, Richmond, Tecumseh,
Lawrence, Port William, Doniphan, Paola, Alexandria, Indianola, Easton,
Leavenworth and others." The history of old Doniphan, Sumner and Kick-
apoo has long been well established, but that of Port William has been neglected
and has remained obscure. Port William never was much of a town, as were
its rivals, Doniphan, Suiruier and Kickapoo, but it was proposedly in the race
for municipal supremacy in the pioneer days, and though its star may never
have attained the ascendency, its story is at least worthy of preservation in the
archives of Atchison county history.
Port William was started in 1856 by Henry and James M. Bradley. John
T. and Albred Bailey, and Jonathan Hartman. The two Bradleys and John
T. Bailey composed the town company. The Bradleys conducted a general
store, and a postoffice was established in April, 1855, with Henry Bradley as
first postmaster. This was the first postoffice in AValnut township. Jona-
than Hartman owned and operated a sawmill, the first in Atchison county,
in 1854, and made the first lumber ever sawed in the county. There were
several saloons, and later a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop and other small
industries were started. It has been surmised by someone that Port Williams,
as it is sometimes called, was named for a Missouri river steamboat captain
named Williams, as steamboats often tied up at the place in the early days.
There are others who believe it was so called for the late "Uncle Frank" Wil-
liams, one of the fathers of the colored settlement which was started in that
vicinity at a later day. The correct name of the place, however, is Port
William, instead of Port Williams, and it is known that it was so named more
than fifty years ago, or nearly twenty years before "Uncle Frank" W^illiams
settled there. The correct origin of the name is probably given by the late
W. J. Bailey, of Atchison, who was one of the veiy first settlers of that
vicinity. He said that in 1854 a man named \\^illiam Johnson came across
from the settlement about latan, Mo., and took up the claim on which Port
William was afterwards built. It was a likely claim and Johnson soon had
trouble on his hands in holding the property. Several men tried to chase him
off with guns, but Johnson managed to make such a good defense as to repel
them. He stayed in his cabin a week, not daring to come out for fear of being
shot. He won out and held the claim. The other fellows tlien referred to
his cabin as Fort William (that was his first name). Soon after Jake Yunt,
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY lOI
from Missouri, established a hand ferryboat, and by and by steamboats began
to land there. Then the name was changed to Port William, and this is the
proper name of the place, although on the Missouri Pacific station lioard now
standing there it is marked "Port Williams."
There are but few men who came to Atchison county earlier than W. J.
Bailey, of Atchison. He crossed the river from Platte county on June 12,
1854, and settled at Port William, and, with the exception of a few years' resi-
dence in Colorado, has lived in this county ever since. Luther Dickerson,
who was generally known as the "oldest inhabitant," came here the same month
that Mr. Bailey did. When Mr. Bailey first arrived at Port William he built
a one room cabin on his claim near that place, and to do so was obliged to drag-
logs with one horse a distance of a mile and a half. In 1855 he brought his
cattle over. He said the grass all over this county was ankle deep and afforded
fine pasturage. There was no town at Atchison then, but Challiss Bros, con-
ducted a store on the river bank, and George Million operated a hand ferry-
boat. Mr. Bailey worked for Million three years.
"Those were happy times," said Mr. Bailey, "we met around among
neighboring cabins and had parties. When we had a fiddle we danced." For
several years Mr. Bailey was with afreighting crow between Ft. Leaven-
worth and Ft. Kearney, most of the time as a wagon-master. They gener-
ally drove twenty-six wagons with six yoke of oxen to each wagon and hauled
Government supplies. Once they were surrounded by Indians and were in
imminent danger of being annihilated, when General Harney with a company
of troops came to their rescue and chased the red-skins to Ash Hollow, near
Ft. Kearney, where a bloody skirmish took place and the Indians were routed.
Speaking of old Port William, Mr. Bailey said : "Although laid out as an
investment, the town was a failure. The little creek flowed through the center
of the town, dividing the stores and saloons from the sawmill, blacksmith
shop and carpenter shop. No city government encased the stream with cement
tiling, and the best bridge the town ever afforded was built by felling a cotton-
wood tree across the stream." Port William had its "town bullies" and fights
were of frequent occurrence. Mr. Bailey said that the "town bullies" were
Dan McLoud, Bill Pates and Bob Gibson. "It was common," he said, "for
farmers to go to Port William every Saturday afternoon to witness the fights
and drunks." On one occasion a man was badly shot up and another jumped
into the river and swam across. Mr. Bailey said the first election there con-
tained 250 ballots, although only sixty people voted. There were two ballot
I02 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
boxes, one controlled by the pro-slavery and the other by the Free State people.
Eight or ten men stood around the balloting places with guns, and people voted
five or six times, though under different names.
The "village blacksmith" of old Port ^^'iliam, and one of the early
justices of the peace of Walnut township, was Thomas J. Payne, later living
at Canyon City, Colo. Mr. Payne settled at Port \\"illiam. March i8,
1855, and was one of the pioneer blacksmiths of Kansas. He operated black-
smith shops at three of the old towns of Atchison county, Port William, Sum-
ner and Mt. Pleasant. He was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor
Shannon, in 1856. The office of "county squire" was of more importance
in those stirring times than it is now. Mr. Payne's son, Charles Sumner
Pavne, was the first child born at old Sumner. His Ijirth occurred September
25. 1857. He was named by the town company, who made out and pre-
sented to him a deed for a lot in the once thriving city. Another son was
born at Sumner on the day that John Brown was hanged, and was named
for the great abolitionist. A third son was named for Jim Lane. Thomas J.
Payne enlisted as a private in Company F, Thirteenth Kansas iafantry, al
Atchison. August 20, 1862, and was later promoted to orderly sergeant. He
was discharged at Ft. Smith, Ark., October 29, 1864. Then he was imme-
diatelv appointed by the secretary of war first lieutenant of Company B, First
Regiment of Kansas infantry, colored. He took part in many engagements,
and was mustered out in August, 1865. He was born in Georgetown, Ohio,
the town in which General Grant was born. There are few men in Kansas
who have served as a justice of the peace longer than Mr. Payne. He held
the office in Atchison county for a number of years, at Robinson, Kan., for
eighteen years, and later at Horton, Kan., for several years.
The old Horace B. Herndon farm at Port William, now owned and occu-
pied b^- Frank Bluma, Sr., was known as the "Old Indian farm," in tlie earl}-
da-^-s. According to W. J. Bailey it was socalled Ijecause an Indian known as
"Kickapoo John" located on it previous to the settlement of Kansas by the
whites and was still living there with numerous other Indians when Mr. Bailey
first came to that locality. Mr. Bailey said that the butts of tepee poles could
be seen sticking in the ground on the site of Port William for some time after-
wards. In 1854 Horace B. Hemdon preempted the "Old Indian farm,"
built a cabin thereon at the southwest corner of the field near the creek,
and put an old negro slave in it to hold the claim fm- him. The old darkey
died and was buried in the family burying ground on the fann about 1855.
He was probably the first colored man who ever lived and died in what after-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY IO3
wards became famous as the "Port \\'illiam colored settlement." This was
about twenty years before this community liecame generally settled by colored
people. The old Herndon family residence, one of the landmarks of this
region, is still standing and is occupied by Frank Bluma and family. There
is evidence that the "old Indian farm" was occupied by Indians long before
"Kickapoo John's" time for the old field is strewn with various fragments
representing the stone age and prehistoric times. Mr. Herndon died a number
of years ago. He was another of the early justices of the peace of Walnut
township and was generally known as "Squire" Herndon. He was also a
public administrator for Atchison county, and was one of the most prominent
citizens of the southern part of the county for many years. He was the father
of Mrs. Henry King and James Herndon, residents of Round Prairie. Mrs.
King, then Miss Virginia Herndon, was the "belle" of the old town of Port
William, and was a social favorite throughout this section of the county.
Another early settler of Port William was Henry Luth, the veteran car-
penter, who moved from Atchison to Leavenworth. Mr. Luth lived in Port
^^"illiam for several years in the early fifties, removing to Atchison in 1857.
He built many of the first houses in this section of the country. A large wal-
nut cupboard and other furniture in Mr. Luth's home he made from walnut
timber cut at Port \VilIiam and sawed into lumber at the old Hartman saw-
mill at that place. Mr. Luth had a little shop at Port William in which he
made furniture. Henry Hausner. Atchison's well known commission mer-
chant, took a claim at Port William in 1855, but was cheated out of it. Andy
Brown, for many years an Atchison flagman, was an early settler of Port Wil-
liam. With Thomas Taylor, now living at Perry, Kan., he crossed the river
to Kansas on Jake Yunt's ferry just above Port William in 1854. Mr.
Brown's father had taken a claim at Port William and Taylor one adjoining it.
The latter helped Samuel Dickson build his caljin shanty on the site of Atchison
in the fall of 1854.
Ex-Sheriff Fred Hartman, of this county, now deceased, lived at Port
William in the early days. His father, Jonathan Hartman, in 1854, put into
operation at that place one of the very first sawmills in the Territory. It
furnished lumber for many of the first houses in this section. The lumber was
sawed from the fine timber which grew along Little Walnut creek. Fred
Hartman said that in 1856 Bob Gibson brought his famous "Kickapoo Rang-
ers" to Port William for the purpose of lynching his father, Jonathan Hart-
man, on account of his most avowed Free Soil principles. They stayed around
a while, and as Mr. Hartman did not seem to be the least bit intimidated, they
I04 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
finally left and never molested him again. It was during this time that Pardee
Butler was placed on a raft at Atchison and set adrift in the river. He landed
just above Port William, and went at once to Mr. Hartman's for assistance.
Not deeming it safe for Mr. Butler to remain in Port William, Mr. Hartman
took him out to the home of Jasper Oliphant, about two miles west of the vil-
lage, where he stayed at night and finally reached his home in safety. Jasper
Oliphint was another of the earliest settlers of this locality. He was assassi-
nated some years ago by Bob Scruggs, a desperate character, who at die same
time shot and killed John Groff, another prominent Walnut township citizen,
and Scruggs was captured and hanged to a tree near Oak Mills. The tragic
deaths of two such substantial citizens as Mr. Oliphint and Mr. Groff produced
a profound sensation throughout Walnut township. In the spring of 1857
Jonathan Hartman sold his sawmill and moved to a farm near the present site
of Parnell, where he died. Fred Hartman served during the war in the Thir-
teenth Kansas with Thomas J. Payne, mentioned elsewhere.
The wagon road leading from Port William westward to the "old military
road," bears the unique distinction of crossing the same creek fourteen times
in a distance of less than three miles. It is not believed that there is another
creek in Atchison county that is crossed an equal inimber of times by one
road. Little Walnut creek, which empties into the Missouri river at Port
William, has its source near the Leavenworth county line. It flows northward
through a heavily timbered country, and is one of the prettiest little streams in
Atchison county. It was formerly called Bragg's creek, after "Jimmy"
Braggs, an early-day Missouri Pacific section foreman, who lived on its banks.
Braggs afterward moved to Holton, where he died and the name of the creek
was changed to Little A\"alnut, after its neighbor. Walnut creek, wliich empties
into the river at Dalby, about two miles above.
ARRINGTON.
Arrington is located on the Union Pacific railroad in the southwest part
of the county. This town was platted August 20, 1884. and its original pro-
moters were R. A. Van Winkle, D. S. Henecke, John Ballinger, D. D. High,
D. A. Benjamin, J. M. Roberson, Michael Baker, J. S. Hopkins, Ira Tabor and
George W. Drake. Its streets are numbered one to four, and its cross streets
are called Fountain avenue, Delaware street and Forest avenue. Arrington
has three general stores, one elevator and a bank. During good crop
years, as high as 125 cars of grain and live stock are shipped from its station,
and its stores do a good business, rendering fine service to the surrounding
territorv.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY IO5
At one time prior to 1890 medicinal springs were located at Arrington
and it was quite a resort during the summer months t\)r people living in north-
eastern Kansas. The town has a good hotel, and in addition to its merchandise
establishments it supports a physician and several churches.
For many years a mill was conducted on the Delaware river upon which
Arrington is located, operated by water power. This mill was built by John
Reider in 1867, who also operated it both as a sawmill and as a grain mill. In
1874 W. H. Stockton joined Mr. Reider, and these two men built a two-story
frame mill, but they operated it only one day, as it was mysteriously burned
the following night. Shortly thereafter Mr. Reider, undismayed and undis-
couraged, associated with himself Albert Ingler, and remembering his previous
disastrous experience with fire, Mr. Reider built a stone mill. This firm con-
ducted a successful business for a number of years, drawing patronage for a
distance of sixty miles, but in 1879, Mr. Ingler met an untimely death, by
drowning as he was crossing the river, a few feet below where the Arrington
bridge stands. Mr. Reider sold his interest to D. S. Heneks, who ran the
mill until 1906, when John W. Young became its owner. He subsequently
turned it over to George W. Stone, since which time it has been in possession
of various owners, and in 1916 is owned by Burt McCulley. It has not been
operated since 1908, and stands in ruins.
A history of Arrington would be incomplete without the mention of
the name of Ransom A. Van Winkle, who was the first settler in Kapioma
township, and the founder of the town. Captai'n Van Winkle was born
November 25, 1818, in Wayne county, Kentucky. He was a Hollander by
descent, and at one time bis great-grandfather, Michael Van Winkle, owned
an interest in 13,000 acres of land within twelve miles of New York Cit)',
which was sold just prior to the Revolutionary war, for twenty-five cents an
acre. Van W'inkle received the rudiments of his education in a Kentucky log
school house, but was for two years a cadet at West Point and received a
good education. He was married twice and had a varied experience in busi-
ness, at one time owning a large interest in coal lands in Kentucky. He
removed to St. Joseph, Mo., in 1849, and in September, 1855, came to Kan-
sas and built the first claim cabin on the Grasshopper, or what is now the
Delaware river, above Valley Falls, in Kapioma township. He also built
the first steam sawmill; sawed the first lumber, and built the first frame
house, and taught the first school in Kapioma township, and was the first
postmaster at Arrington. He always took an acti\-e part in politics in the
county and was a stanch Republican. He was a prominent Free State man
I06 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
in the early struggle in Kansas and contributed liberally to the cause and
worked hard in its behalf. He was a justice of the peace in Papioma
township for fourteen years; postmaster five years; trustee of Kapioma
township eight years; a member of the legislature in 1861 and 1862 and
county commissioner of Atchison county for six years. He was patriarchal
in appearance and was a conspicuous figure for many years in Republican
conventions in Atchison county.
MUSCOTAH.
The name of "]\Iuscotah" is of Indian origin. Init when, why and by
whom it was applied to a town, seems to be a question. "Andreas' History
of Kansas," in a brief historical mention of the town of Muscotah, says: "The
name Muscotah. written in Ind'ian style, Musco-tah, signifies 'Beautiful
Prairie,' or "Prairie on Fire.' " Andreas does not give any authority for
this statement, but on page 1343 in a biographical sketch of William D.
Barnett, one of the earliest settlers of Muscotah, he says that Mr. Barnett
did not name the town, but that it was named by Paschal Pensoneau, the old
Kickapoo trader and interpreter. ]\Ir. Kessler was a blacksmith among the
Kickapoos at an early day.
Maj. C. B. Keith was one of the founders of Muscotah, and an early
agent for the Kickapoo Indians. In a letter under date of December 8, 1908,
Mrs. Keith, the widow of Major Keith, wrote that Muscotah was named by
her husband and her two brothers, William P. and John C. Badger. She
corroborates Andreas in his statement that the name signifies "Beautiful
Prairie," or "Prairie on Fire," and says that Muscotah should be accented
on the last syllable. She further says that Paschal Pensoneau may have
suggested the name, and inci'dentally adds : "He was interpreter for my
brother, W'illiam P. Badger, who was Indian agent under President Bucli-
anan, and later for my husband under Lincoln. He was a good friend for
both of my brothers and Major Keith, and accompanied mv husband to
Washington with the head chiefs when they made their treaty. The original
Muscotah was on a fine site and justified the name."
There is a town in the old Kickapoo country, in Illinois, named Mas-
coutah, and believing it to be synonymous with the Atchison county name,
though slightly different in orthography and pronunciation, Milo Custer,
of Heyworth. Ill, the well known authority on the Kickapoos, wrote : "As
to the meaning of the names ^Muscotah and Mascoutah, they are svnonymous
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
107
with the old Algonquin word, Masko-teh, meaning 'prairies.' The Kick-
apoo word for prairies was one among others that I failed to get when I
visited the tribe in Kansas in October. 1906. However, I am of the opinion
that the word \\as originally derived from Ma-shi O-shkoo-teh, meaning
'Big Fire,' and that it referred to the great prairie fires which swept over
the country. In fact I have seen the opinion advanced by some other author-
ity, but cannot now recall the name." When the Kickapoos lived in Illinois
there was a band called the Mas-cou-tins, which Maj. H. W. Beckwith, the
highest authority on the Illinois tribes, says was the Indian name for "Indians
of the Prairie." Hence it is evident that the name Muscotah is at least a
derivation of the word "prairie," v>-hether a "beautiful prairie" or "prairie
of fire."
The jilat of the Muscotah Town Company was filed by W. P. Badger,
on Main Stieet Muscotah Kansas
one of its proprietors, June 5, 1837, and the town is located in section 34,
township 5, range 17, on the Central Branch railroad, near the western edge
of the county. Its streets run from one to thirteen, and its cross streets are
named Pawpaw, Kim. Vine, Walnut, Mulben-y, Hickory and Oak. Follow-
ing the construction of the Central Branch railroad William Osborn filed
another plat of the town, and several amendments have since been made
to it. Muscotah has always been an important trading point, and one of the
prosperous towns of the county. In 1916 there were three general stores.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
0i
i3
^
-■^^f^ »»nijOii!r^,'
fe ^ I
iili!
!i
|ggl8BA|||g
"%
fiiBi^ir
In
fcqgggj^^
one hardware store, two banks, two elevators, one lumber yard, two cream
stations, two barber shops, one harness shop, two drug stores, two res-
taurants, a hotel, private boarding house, two garages and blacksmith shops.
The town also has four practicing physicians, including an osteopath, and one
dentist. The first general store was established by Nels Brown in 1868, and
a year later Watson & Guy put in a general hardware store. Hagerman &
Roach conducted a grain business in 1865, and the first elevator was built
in 1874. Several serious fires have destroyed much property in Muscotah,
the largest being known as the Watson fire, which occurred in 1883, de-
stroying much property. The first mayor of the town was Dr. William P.
Badger, who was eelcted in 1882. Albert Harrington was the first post-
master, in 1866. The first physician to locate in the present limits of Mus-
cotah was Dr. L. N. Plummer, who came there hi 1869. In 1868 a Dr.
Heath located a few miles out from Muscotah, but never lived in the town.
Dr. S. M. Riggs came in 1872 and he and Dr. Plummer are both active
physicians in the practice in 1916, together with Dr. O. O. Barter and Dr.
F. A. Bermen. Years before Muscotah was established there was a small
settlement nearby where there were a few houses and a postoffice located
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY IO9
about wliere tlie Robert Russell farm is. John Keeley, an enterprising early
settler, built a flouring mill on the Grasshopper river, now known as the
Delaware, in 1869. Mr. Keeley did considerable business with the farmers
in the surrounding territory, but business finally fell off and the mill was
washed away by high water in 1895.
Muscotah is an important shipping point, and the annual shipment of
grain amounts to $150,000 to $200,000. Much live stock is also shipped
from Muscotah, and during the year 1915 fifty-two cars of cattle, hogs and
horses were shipped to the Kansas City and St. Joseph markets.
Muscotah is also a city of churches and schools. The Congregational
church was established in 1866. The pastor of this church in 1916 is Rev.
Fred Gray, who preaches to a congregation of about 150. \\'hen this church
was organized its members worshipd in the home of Robert Russell, which
was at that time in the depot, and the church edifice which is now occupied
was built in 1914.
The Methodist Episcopal church was established about 1876; it now has
.a membership of 120, and its pastor is Rev. Rollo J. Fisher.
The Advent Christian church was organized in i88g, and its first pas-
tor was Rev. Marshall McCollough.
Mission Hall is maintained by unattached and unorganized Christians.
It holds meeting several times a week, including two services on Sunday.
The public school system of ]\[uscotah includes an accredited high school,
in which two four-year courses are offered, together with a general and col-
lege preparatory course. R. E. Devor is superintendent of schools, and the
officers of the school board are : J. F. Thompson, president ; W. D. Roach,
treasurer; R. A. Allison, secretary. The first school house within the pres-
ent limits of the town was built in 1870, but was subsequently destroyed by
fire when another school was built in 1885. A six room school was erected,
and it was also destroyed by fire in January, 1916. A movement is now
under way to build a new, handsome, modern school building, to accommo-
date twelve grades, together with manual training, domestic science and a
gymnasium.
Muscotah is supplied with electricity by high tension line from Atch-
ison, and in 1916 it has forty-two street lamps and fifty-five pri\-ate con-
sumers.
In addition to being a town of churches and schools, Muscotah also has
several active lodges. The Masonic lodge was organized December 20,
1871, by E. D. Hillyer, of Grasshopper Falls, on a dispensation issued by
J lO HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the grand edge; the charter was issued October 17, 1872. and the officers
installed November 16, 1872. The first officers were: Ben F. Freeland,
VVillikm N. Khne. Thomas H. Phillips, B. G. Merrill. D. :M. Stillman. W.
Bullock and I. C. Archer.
Purity Council No. 293, Knights and Ladies of Security, was chartered
July 6, 1895, with John Edward Lewis, president. It had ten charter mem-
bers and in 1916 there was a membership of seventy, with George \\'. Rork,
president, and Mrs. Carl Rork, secretary.
Modern Woodmen was chartered in August. 1898. The present offi-
cers are W. F. Murray, V. H. Little and G. ^^^ Harris. There are also
active lodges of the Mystic Workers, Eastern Star and Royal Neighbors.
Muscotah's new combination grade and high school, which will take
the place of the one destroyed by fire, will cost approximately .$20,000, and
will be a fire-proof structure of brick and concrete. When completed it will
be one of the best school buildings of its kind in any town the size of INIus-
cotah in the State. The present city officials of Muscotah are : ^^'illiam
Buckles, mayor; R. A. Hillyer, J. G. Burbank, W. D. Roach, R. H. Trial
and R. A. Allison, councilmen ; H. M. Turner, city clerk; E. ]\L Hicks,
police judge, and S. B. Liggatt. marshal.
EFFINGH.XM.
Effingham, the seat of Atchison county high school, is an incorporated
town, located sixteen miles west of Atchison, on the Central Branch rail-
road, and was first platted by William Osborne April 4, 1868, who built the
first hundred miles of the Central Branch railroad, and is located on a part
of the southwest quarter of section 15 and the northwest quarter of section
22, township 6, range 18. The original plat contained only eight blocks
and was subsequently cancelled. Febiaiary 6, 1871, ]\Iajor \\". F. Downs,
land commissioner of the Central Branch railroad, filed another plat in
which one block was dedicated as a public park and the streets numbered
from one to ten, with cross streets as follows : Elizabeth, Seabury, Howard,
George, William, and John. At the opening of the Central Branch railroad
Effingham enjoyed quite a boom and it has remained one of the finest towns
in northeastern Kansas ever since.
There was a settlement around Effingham for a number of years prior
10 the location of the townsite, and it was quite a trading point. Effingham
is located on a broad sweep of prairie land, but there is very little of romance
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I I I
or legend connected with the town. There is one thing, however, for which
it lias always been noted, and to this extent Effingham occupies an unique
place in the tow ns. not only of Atchison county, but of Kansas, namely : It
has never been without a good hotel. The original hotel was known far and
wide throughout the country and was conducted by Aunt Betty Benton, a
famous cook, who not only gave her guests good things to eat, but made
of her hotel a favorite stopping place for the traveling public on account of
the hospitable way in which she ran, it. L'ncle Jack ■Martin succeeded Aunt
Betty and for many years thereafter kept up the high standard set liy her.
Then came Thomas F. Cook, whose kindlv welcome made friends for him
Sti-wt, Looking West. Ef
among the hundreds of visitors that came t'< Effingham from year to year,
and who never left his hotel without a full meal. Mv. Cook was succeeded
by Mrs. Frank Pitman, and she in turn was succeeded by Mrs. Davis, who,
in 191 5, is conducting the hotel at Effingham and maintains the high stan-
dard of excellence of food and hospitality set by her predecessors.
Among the early merchants of Effingham was Hon. Milton R. Benton,
who was born in Madison county, Kentucky May 3, 1815. He immigrated
to Kansas in 1857: located in Atchison, where be resided until 1867. during
which year he moved to his farm in .Vtchison county, near Effingham. He
was the first marshal of the city of Atchison, having been elected in 1858.
In 1863 he was elected mayor of the cit)-, and in 1864 was elected a member
112 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
of the council. He served as a member of the senate in the Territorial coun-
cil of 1859; in the State legislature in 1864, and for three years as trustee of
Center township. Benton township, in which Effingham is located, was
named for him. He was educated as a Democrat, but before he cast his
fi'rst vote identified himself with the anti-slavery movement and became a
Free State man in Kansas, but in after years he supported Horace Greeley
and became identified with the Democratic party. In addition to farming
he was in the real estate business in Effingham.
A. F. Achenbach was one of the early liverymen of Effingham, and also
was George P. Allen, who was a dealer in hardware and grain ; Ball & Her-
Presbyterian Churcli, Effingham, Kansas
ron, dealers in harness: Joel M. Ketch, liardware merchant: J- E. McCor-
mick. butcher; Alonzo Spencer, gmcer: James Nesbitt. lumber dealer, and
Simeon Walters, contractor and carpenter.
P. J. O'Meara was a pioneer merchant of Effingham, and was a native
of Ireland, having been born in the county of Tipperar\- March 27, 1829.
He first settled in Miami county, where he received his education, and in
1865 he moved to Atchison and went into the grocery business on Com-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
113
mercial street, between Third and Fourth, later moving to Effingham wlien
the townsite was located, and built one of the first store buildings. He did
a large and paying business, and his popularity was shown bv the people
of Effingham in electing him their first mayor.
Effingham in 19 15 had two hardware stores, one drug store, four gen-
eral stores, two banks, two garages, two barber shops, one cream station,
one clothing store, three restaurants, one hotel, one livery, and two elevators.
Effingham is also a city of churches having one Catholic church, one Pres-
byterian church, Methodist church, Christian church and Lutheran church.
Its citizens are enterprising and progressive, and in 19 14 the city council
secured a twenty-four hour electric light service over high tension line from
Atchison. The elevators are owned by the Farmers' Mercantile Association,
and Snyder, Smith & Company. Tom Tucker and Beckman & Thomas are
big live stock shippers, and they ship from ninety-five to one hundred cars
of live stock out of Effingham every year, and the elevators ship over one
hundred cars of grain every year.
The present city officials who have been so diligent and faithful in their
services to Effingham are as follows :
J. W. Wlallach, mayor: A. J. Sells, city clerk; G. M. Snyder, council-
man ; I. Ebert, councilman ; D. Richter, councilman ; James Farrell, council-
man; E. J- Kelley, councilman; J- W. Atcheson, marshal; J- A. Harman,
city treasurer.
HURON.
Huron is located on the Omaha branch of the Missouri Pacific railway,
in Lancaster township, seventeen miles northwest of Atchison. The town-
site was originally the property of Col. D. R. Anthony, of Leavenworth.
Mr. Anthony donated the railroad company twenty acres of land and the
right of way for one mile. The surveys were made and the town named
and platted on May 18, 1882. Within six weeks after completion of the sur-
veys five dwellings were erected and the business interests of the town were
well represented. W. D. Starr was the first postmaster, and by the end of
the first year there were over fifty dwellings in the town, and among the
first buildings to be erected were the Presbyterian and Baptist churches.
Colonel Anthony donated lots upon which to build the churches. J. D. Car-
penter opened the first hotel in Huron. Mr. Carpenter came to Kansas in
1874 and located on a farm near Huron, and when the town was organized
he moved there and opened his hotel. W. G. Rucker was one of the early
114 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
lumber dealers of Huron. He came from Corning, where he was engaged
in the general merchandise business, and moved to Huron when the town
was platted. Capt. George W. Stabler, for many years a resident of Huron,
was one of the prominent politicians and characters of the county. He was
bom at Stablersville, Baltimore county, Maryland, in 1839, where his ances-
tors had lived for over 200 years. He moved to Kansas in 1858, set-
tling in Lancaster township. He enlisted as a private in Company D, Second
Kansas infantry, in 1861, for 100 days, and at the expiration of that time
he re-enlisted in the Second Kansas calvary: was made sergeant and was
mustered out in 1865 and returned to his farm, subsequently moving to
Huron. In 1866 he was elected to the legislature, and in 187 1 and 1872
served as deputy United States marshal. He had been justice of the peace,
at the time of his death, a few years ago, for over twenty years.
Old Huron was the original settlement near the present townsite of
Huron, and was an important trading point for many years prior to the
establishment of the new townsite following the laying of the railroad to
Omaha. There were many early settlers of importance in and around Huron,
among whom was Capt. Robert White. Captain White came to Kansas in
1857 and bought the squatter rights of Charles Morgan and preempted a
quarter section of land in Lancaster township, near Huron.
The birth of the first white child in Atchison county, of which there is
any record, occurreil in Lancaster township. The child was ]\Iiss Frances
Miller, who was born May 9, 1855. Her father was the late Daniel Miller,
an Ohioan by birth, and lived near DeKalb, Mo., in 1841. In 1854 he looked
over northeastern Kansas and settled on Independence creek, twelve miles
north of Atchison, early in 1855, near the northeastern corner of Lancaster
township. Mr. Miller sold his quarter section in 1838, after he had proven
up on it, to Thomas Butcher, a new arrival in Kansas from Brownville, Pa.,
for $3,000. Mr. Btitcher built a flouring mill on thi's land, which was run
by water from Independence creek. Butclier subsequently sold the plant to
A. T- Evans, who ran it as a "custom mill" until August, 1865, when it was
destroyed by high water, caused by heavy rains.
Samuel Wymore, for whom Wymore, Nebraska was named, was a res-
ident of Lancaster township, near Huron, in the fifties and early sixties,
and ran a sawmill by horse power, about three miles north of Lancaster,
in 1858. Air. Wymore sold his first bill of lumber to Captain Robert White
for $100 in gold, and at that time it was more money than Wymore had
ever seen at one time, and he was so nervous during the following night that
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY II5
he could not sleep and continually stirred the fire in the stove so that he
could count the money from the light that it made. \\'ymore was unedu-
cated. He could neither read nor write, and he was said to have been worth
over $150,000 before 1875.
Isaac E. Kelly, a young man from Pennsylvania, taught one of the first
schools hi Lancaster township, in one of the settlers' preemption cabin, near
Eden postoffice in i860. He went to war in 1861 and marched with Sher-
man to the Sea.
The first mowing machine in Atchison county was brought to I^ancas-
ter township, two miles west of where Huron now is, by Joel Hiatt, in 1859,
who sold it to Capt. Roljert White, who cut hay with it several seasons.
The machine was a Ball, and a crude affair. The first reaper to harvest
grain in the county was owned liy the late ^I. J. Cloyes. who also li\-ed in
Lancaster township, not many miles from Huron. Mr. Cloyes bought the
reaper in the early sixties. The grain was raked off by a man lashed to
a post on a platfomi four or fi\-e feet to the rear of the cycle. This reaper
was a Buckeye machine, and was sold by J. E. W'agner, the hardware mer-
chant of Atchison.
The forty acre tract of land upon which the home of Edward Perdue
stands, a few miles east of Huron, was traded for a mowing machine by the
owner in 1865.
Bethel church, located southwest of Huron, is supposed to be the oldest
church in the county, outside of Atchison. It was built by the Methodist
Episcopal church (South), about 1870, and is still in use in 191 5.
Thus it will be seen that Huron is located in the midst of a very inter-
esting part of Atchison county, and while the town did not reach the pro-
portions that its original promoters had hoped for it, it is one of the good
towns of the county. The following are the business iiouses in Huron in
1915:
J. ]M. Delany — General merchandise.
E. P. Perry — General merchandise.
\\'. E. English — Hardware, implements and furniture.
H. T. Harrison— Grocer.
Dr. Wiley Jones — Diaig store.
John L. Snavh' — Restaurant and postmaster.
"^Irs. Aha Wilson— Hotel.
C. E. ]\Iathew — Lumber.
Loren Horton — Meat market.
Il6 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
A. F. Allen — Grain, coal, live stock and automobile supplies.
Baker-Corvvell^ — Grain company.
A. Morehead — Barber.
W. Hildman— Blacksmith.
Riley & Son — Livery bam.
Over 200,000 bushels of grain are shipped from Huron annually and
the average shipment of live stock amounts to about forty cars.
OLD MARTINSBURG.
]\lartinsburg was laid out near the present site of Potter in the early
days. It is not generally known, even among the old settlers, that there
was such a place. George Remsburg said that thi's was due probably to
the fact that Martinsburg was born dead. It was conceived in the town
craze of early territorial times, but it came a still-bom infant and its pro-
moters succeeded in viewing it only long enough for it to give a feeble gasp
and fall back dead again. Though this proposed municipal enterprise of
pioneer days did not materialize, it was, nevertheless, an interesting and im-
portant fact of local history, hitherto unrecorded, that such a town was
actuallv staked off and laid out in Atchison county at a very early period.
The only old-timers who remembered it were James B. Low, of Colorado
Springs, fomierly of Mount Pleasant, "Uncle Joe" Potter, and W. J. (Jack)
Bailey. All three settled in the southern part of Atchison county in 1854.
Mr. Low settled with his parents in Walnut township in the fall of that year,
and says that Martinsburg was laid out that fall. It was situated in what
is known as the Mercer bottom, on land belonging to Felix Corpstein and
Fred Poss, in the west half of section 24, a little northeast of the present
site of Potter, or immediately adjoinihg it. What is known as the Mercer
spring, one of the finest in this section, was included in the town site. Mr.
Lo\^■ and his brother went out to look at the place in the fall of 1854 and
decided to spend the winter there. It consisted at that time of a few huts
and a small store, and never amounted to any more than a village, if it could
be called that, although Mr. Low says the town site originally comprised
about 100 acres, and a few lots were actually sold. The store was a small
frame building, erected by one Alex Hayes, who had previously taken a
claim on Plum creek, near Kickapoo. Mr. Low thinks this was the first
frame building in Atchison county. Hayes carried a small stock of goods.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY II7
This was long before the town of Mt. Pleasant, in the same vicinity, was
ever dreamed of. and even before Tom Fortune opened a store there. It
seems that the chief promoters of Martinsburg were two brothers named
Martin; hence the name. Not much is known concerning them, or what
became of them. "Uncle Joe" Potter says that one of them came to his
house on one occasion wh.en he and his brother, Marion Potter, were mak-
ing rails. Martin stood around a while and finally insinuated that they
were foolish for working so hard, and ih a confidential way, "just the same
as told them," as Mr. Potter expressed it, that they could make lots of money
and make it easy stealing horses, whereupon Marion Potter promptly or-
dered him off of the place, and told him never to return. James Low's father
bought the town site of Martinsburg in the fall of 1855 and moved onto it
in the spring of 1856, converting it into a farm. Thus perished ]\Iartinsburg.
Even the name did not sur\-ive in the memory of the settlers, and it was
only Ijy accident that it was recently recalled after a lapse of fifty-four
years. At an early day the locality became known as Mercer's Bottom, after
Joe Mercer, one of the earliest settlers, and it is known by that name today.
It is not known what became of Mercer. James Low says the last time he
saw him was in Denver, in 1859. Mercer was a queer character. It is told
of him that he lived in a little cabin and subsisted principally on mussels,
which he found in Stranger creek. Alex Hayes, the Martinsburg store-
keeper, has also been lost trace of, but Dick King says there was an old-
timer named Alexander Hayes, who died many years ago and was buried
in the Sapp graveyard at Oak Mills. The town site of Martinsburg was a
favorite camping place for soldiers and emigrants passing over the old
Military road in the early days on account of the fine spring, the large
meadows and the protection of the hills around it. To catch this tide
of emigration was, in all probability, the object of those pioneer town pro-
jectors in selecting this site.
BUNKER HILL.
There appears to be no data available which enables the historian to
determine exactly where this town was located, but a prospectus publica-
tion March 18, 1858, in Freedom's Champion, states that it was on Inde-
pendence creek, within ten miles of Atchison and twenty-five miles of St.
Joseph. Its chief promoter was Dr. Charles F. Kob, of Atchison. Dr. Kob
was a German physician and surgeon, who located in Atchison at an early
Il8 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
date. He had been a surgeon in the army, and a member of the Massachu-
setts and Connecticut medical societies. He Hved and practiced medicine in
Boston for some time. Alsout tlie only advantage for Bunker Hill, set forth
in the prospectus, was that coal was found around the place, but Bunker
Hill never seemed to have any coal in her bunkers. She failed to flourish
and no Bunker Hill monument perpetuates her memory.
LOCUST GROVE.
Locust Grove was never laid out as a town site. It was a stopping
place on the old stage route to Topeka. and the postoffice from Mount
Pleasant was moved there in 1862.
Helena was located and named in this county, and the plat thereof was
filed ?klarch t8, 1857, by James L. Byers, one of the proprietors of the town
companv, and was located on the north half of section 28, township 5, range
18. on the Little Grasshopper river, in Grasshopper township, at the cross-
ing of the old Military road, five miles north of the present site of Effing-
ham. The town appears on an old township map of eastern Kansas, pub-
lished by WhJtman & Searl, of Lawrence, in 1856. It shows it to have
been on the east branch of Grasshopper river, about fifteen miles west of
Atchison, and north of the Ft. Laramie and California roads.
Cavuga was laid out by a New York colony in 1856, and was named
for Cavuga, N. Y. It was also in Grasshopper township, on the old
]\Iilitary road, one and one-half miles from Lancaster township line on part
of the east half of section 18, township 5, range 18. It was surveyed by
Dr. A. C. Tabor, and the plat was filed October 9, 1857, by George L. Will-
son. Provision was made in the town site for a public park and a young
ladies' seminaiy. It was claimed that it had at one time 400 inhabitants.
Among the members of the town company were Messrs. Smooks, Fuller,
Higby, Atherton, Ontis, Meeker, ^^'illiam Adams, Chase and Dr. Taylor.
The land on which the town was located was "junked" as a claim by a Mrs.
Place, and thereafter the town gradually went out of existence. It i's said to
have had a good two-story hotel and a number of business houses.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY II9
KENNEKUK.
In the plat which Royal Baldwin, president of the town company, filed
April 6, 1859, the name of this town is given as Kennekuck. It was located
on the sontheast cjuarter and the southwest fractional quarter of section 3,
township 5, range 17. Its streets were sixty feet wide, except Broadway,
which was 100 feet wide, and Market street, which was eighty feet wide.
One lalock was donated for a market house, and another block for a park,
for religious and educational purposes. The streets were numbered from
I to ID and the cross streets were named as follows: Elm, Linn, Cedar,
Poplar, Broadway, Market, Walnut, Weld, Perry and Baldwin. The town
site was \acated by the board of county commissioners December 15, 1871.
Kennekuk was a station on the Overland stage route, twenty-four miles west
and north of Atchison. During the overland stage days Thomas Perry ran
an eating station there, and Mrs. Perry, who was a grand cook, always had
a smoking hot dJnner ready with the best of coffee, for the occupants of the
stage coaches. In the early days dances were held in the Perry home, and
Hon. D. W. Wilder, the author of the celebrated "Annals of Kansas," used
to trip the light fantastic toe there, and it is said that he courted the girl
who afterwards became his wife, in the Perry home.
Frank A. Root, who was an express messenger on the overland stage,
says, in his book, that Kennekuk was the first "home" station out from Atch-
ison, and the drivers were changed there. In 1863 it was a little town of
perhaps a dozen houses with one store and a blacksmith shop. The Kick-
apoo Indian Agency was one of the most prominent buildings there, and was
located near the old road in the northwestern part of the town. The town
was laid out by William H. Wheeler, a surveyor and speculator, and was
named for the Kickapoo chieftain, John Kennekuk. George Remsburg says
that the town was platted in June, 1854, but the dedication on the original
])lat in the court house would indicate that it was platted on the date first
mentioned in this sketch.
Hon. A. J. White, the son of Capt. Robert White, and at one time a
member of the legislature from this county, and one of the leading farmers
of the county, claims that Royal Baldwin was the first white settler in Ken-
nekuk, and that he was appointed Indian agent for the Kickapoos there by
President Pierce before Kansas was opened for settlement. Mr. Remsburg
also says that many noted travelers stopped at Kennekuk. including Mark
Twain.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
According to Captain Elberhant, of Golden, Colo., the Kickapoo Indians
once had a village on the Grasshopper river in Atchison county, called Ka-
pioma, after the chief of the band, and it is from this source that Kapioma
township took its name. Captain Berthoud says that Father Duerinck, a
native of Belgium, who was probably the first Jesuit priest in Atchison
county, gave the pronunciation of the name of his Atchison county station
as Kah-pi-oma, accent on the syllable "Kah."
In an affidavit of H. H. Skiles, volume 69, page 63, in the records of
the office of the register of deeds of Atchison county, Kansas, the following
appears :
"This affiant further states that there was in 1857 and 1858 a com-
])any formed, called and known as the Kapioma City Company, and the in-
dividuals composing that company were B. Gray. S. C. Russell, W. W. Wes-
ton, H. H. Skiles and W. Y. Roberts, who united themselves together for
the purpose of laying out, locating and establishing a town called Kapioma,
on what was then known as Grasshopper creek, just north of its confluence
with Straight creek, in the western borders of Atchison county, Kansas.
The entire purpose and scheme in laying out and establishing a town fell
through and was wholly and totally abandoned by all and every person con-
iiected with it without prejudice to any one, and the title to the land in-
tended by the company to become town property reverted to the original
owner. The law^ required to establish a town was never complied with."
MASHENAH.
Mashenah. apparently, was to be a rival town of Kennekuk. The cold
and quiet records now on file in the court house would convey the idea that
Royal Baldwin must have fallen out with the original promoters of Kenne-
kuk and decided to establish a town of his own, so, accordingly, he filed a
plat of this town September 21, 1857, showing it to be located in the north-
east quarter and the northwest quarter of section 2, township 5, range 17.
One block was set aside for a college and another for a park. Its streets
were numbered i to 21, and the cross streets were named as follows: Oak,
Pine, Plum, Vine, Elm. Linn and Cedar.
ST. NICHOLAS.
The only record that can be found of this town is that Thomas Poteet
filed a plat thereof April 20. 1858, showing it to be located in the southwest
corner of section 6, township 7, range 20.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CONCORD.
This is another town about whicli there is little information available.
The plat was filed June 20. 1857, by James R. \Vhitehead and shows it to
have been located in the west half of section i, township 5, range 17. The
streets were numbered from i to 18, and the cross streets were named Buch-
anan, Emily, Mary, Carolina, Jefferson, St. Joseph, Ellwood, Able, Alex-
ander, and there were two public squares, called North and South.
The plat of Parnell was filed December 24, 1883, by J. C. Hotham, and
shows the town site to be located in the southwest corner of the southeast
quarter of section 20, township 6, range 20. It is located on both the Santa
Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads. The station was named for a hero
of the Civil war, James L. Parnell, a private soldier in Company F, Thir-
teenth Kansas volunteer infantry, wlio was killed during the skiiTnish at
Haare Head, Ark., August 4, 1864. Parnell was the original settler on the
site of Parnell and was one of the first citizens of Atchison county to re-
spond under President Lincoln's call of July, 1862. He enlisted in the
Thirteenth Kansas. Ex-Sheriff Frank Hartin was a comrade of Parnell in
Company F and married into the Parnell family.
Shannon was platted by G. W. Sutliff February 22. 1883, and is located
in the northwest comer of the northeast quarter of section i, township 6,
range 19, about eight miles west of Atchison, on the Parallel road. The
town consists of one store building, in which the postoffice is located, and
a few residences, together with railroad station and a small elevator.
Elmwood was platted by Anna Hoke and J. S. Hoke April 12, 1873, ^"^
was located on the south half of the northeast quarter of section 2, township
6, range 20. This was a "paper" town, and the only record now available
of it is the plat on file in the court house at Atchison.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CUMMINGSVILLE.
Cummingsville was platted by William Cummings December i6. 1872,
and was located on the north half of the southwest quarter of section i, town-
ship 7, range 19, on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway,
southwest of Atchison, in Center township, and took its name from the
founder of the town. The original plat provided for two streets, Market and
Main, but on September 21, 1883, Samuel C. King filed a plat, creating an
addition to Cummingsville, composed of four blocks. The first settler on
the townsite was Robert Kennisli, who located there in November, 1872, and
was appointed postmaster when the postoffice was established tiie following
fall. JMr. Kennish opened the first .store in Cummingsville in December,
1872, and he for many years was station agent there, one of the oldest in the
service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway. He was a much be-
loved character. He died a few years ago at the home of his daughter, Mrs.
Nelson W. Cox, who lives in Cummingsville with her invalid husband, Nels
Cox, who for eight years served Atchison county in the capacity of clerk of
the court. In April, 1873, C. D. Harrison and family located in Cummings-
ville, and their child, Lorenzo, was the first child born on the townsite, and
his was also the first death, Lorenzo having died March 2^. 1875. I" "^h^ ^^i"'
ter of 1880-81, R. C. Ripple taught the first school, and the :\Ietliodist church
(South) was built in 1880. Cummingsville now is a town of over 100
residences, and in addition to its bank, it has several good stores, a cream
station and an elevator. IMuch grain and live stock is shipped out of Cum-
mingsville annually.
Eden was located about eight miles northwest of Atchison, and Charles
Servoss was appointed the first postmaster there in 1858. The postoffice
was located on a farm adjoining the Johnson AVymore farm on the south.
Servoss resigned as postmaster in 1863 and removed to Detroit, Mich. He
was succeeded by H. C. Lee, who kept the office on a farm adjoining the
Wymore farm on the west. Mr. Lee was a grandfather of Miss Kate Piatt
and Mrs. S. E. Harburger, formerly of Atchison, and the father of Mrs.
Flora B. Hiatt. Mr. Lee held the office until 1872, when Francis Schletz-
baum. Sr., was named as postmaster, and removed the office to his farm,
which adjoined the old \\'ymore farm on tlie north. The postoffice remained
there until it was discontinued upon the establishment of free rural delivery
service in 1900.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 2.3
Potter is pleasantly situated on a slight rise or knoll in the Ijeautiful val-
ley of Stranger creek, and near the southeast corner of Mt. Pleasant town-
ship. From the first it has been the principal station on the Santa Fe rail-
road, between Atchison and Leavenworth, being situated about midway be-
tween the two cities. It is an attractive little town, \\'*ith well graded streets
and good cement sidewalks, and a number of attractive residences. While it
is one of the younger towns of the county, it has made strides that make it
compare favorably with some of its older sisters, in volume of business at
least, if not in population.
Potter, as the home of the white man, dates back further than anv com-
munit}' in the county. Elsewhere in this history will be fouutl an account
of Paschal Pensoneau, the old French trader, who established himself on
Stranger creek, near the present tow'nsite, during the early forties.
The building of Potter is the third and the most successful attempt to
establish a town in that vicinity. The first attempt was at Mount Pleasant.
This was one of the first towns started in Kansas, and here was located the
first postoffice in Atchison county. It prospered for a time and was a can-
didate for the county seat. It gradually declined, and since the establishment
of Potter, has been little more than a memory. In the earlv days, some say
before Mt. Pleasant was started, a town was laid out near the big Mercer
spring, just northeast of the present site of Potter, and called Martinshurg.
It was extensively boomed, but outside of a small store and a few huts, it
never advanced beyond the paper stage.
Early in 1886 the Leavenworth, Northern & Southern railway, now a
branch of the Santa Fe, and known as the "Pollywog," was built and a sta-
tion located where Potter now stands. A town w-as platted and called Ben-
nett Springs, after James Gordon Bennett, the well known eastern journal-
ist. The mineral springs on the Masterson farm near the townsite were
attracting considerable attention at the time, and it was thought that a pop-
ular resort could be built up there. The medicinal properties of the water
were discovered by Dr. Rice, a local physician, and subsequently analyzed by
experts, who confirmed Dr. Rice's conclusions, and a number of people
claimed to have used the w'aters in liver, kidney and other complaints with
good results. Henr\' C. Squires, afterwards a Potter banker, conceived the
idea of establishing a health resort here, and named it in honor of James
Gordon Bennett, who, it was thought, would use his influence towards get-
124
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
ting eastern capital interested in the project. The expected financial back-
ing was not forthcoming, however, and the proposed development of the
springs was never made.
In the meantime the railroad people had christened the town Potter, in
honor of Hon. Joseph Potter, owner of the ciuarter section on which the town
was laid out, and. while the name of the town still appears on the tax rolls
as Bennett Springs, the original name having never been legally changed,
the town is now generally known as Potter. Joseph Potter was the original
settler, having preempted the land on which the town stands, in 1854, and
the first sales of lots in Potter were deeded to their purchaser thirty-two
years later direct from the Government preemption owner. Tlie taking up of
''M
'^wwmW
the land, filing, etc., cost Mr. Potter about $220 for 160 acres, and when it
was divided up into town lots it brought him $200 an acre. Mr. Potter
entered part of this land with a land warrant given him for services in the
Mexican war.
The first lots in the town were sold to the late James Stalons. for many
years a justice of the peace, preacher of the Gospel and prominent citizen of
the county. The first house on the townsite was built by Thomas J. Potter
in 1882. four years before the town was laid out. The house is still stand-
ing. The first business house in the town was erected by Charles Klein,
who operated a store there until his death. A. year or two after Potter was
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I25
Started the postoffice was removed from Mt. Pleasant to the place, and James
B. Weir was the first postmaster. The first hotel was operated by Mrs.
Elvira Pierce. Dr. Barnes had the first drug store, and was also the first
physician; Frank Blodgett, the first hardware store, and B. F. Shaw & Com-
pany, the first furniture store. The first barber was Thomas Seever; the
first blacksmith, Lou Chilson; the first butcher, John Yost; the first carpen-
ter, P. H. Fleer; the first painters, George Brown and Grant Cass; the first
stone masons, S. B. Morrow and Frank Maxwell ; the first shoemaker, Pat-
rick Murphy; the first stock buyer. Henry Show; the first school teacher.
Albert Limbaugh; the first railroad agent, C. L. Cherrie; the first lumber
dealer, David Hudson; the first harness maker, Harry Rickets; the first rural
mail carrier, Frank White. Frank Mayfield operated the first livery stable ;
the first elevator was built by James Hawley; the first church building was
that of the Methodists. The first Methodist preacher was Rev. John \V.
Faubian, and the first Christian preacher, Rev. T. W. Cottingham. The
first telephone exchange was operated by Charles and George Sprong. The
first lodge was Echo Lodge. No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The
first bank was the Potter State Bank. Potter has had three newspapers, the
first, the Potter Press, was established by E. E. Campbell, in 1898. In 1900
Mr. and Mrs. Eppie Barber started the Potter Leaf. Three years later
Charles B. Remsburg bought the Leaf's circulation and launched the Potter
Kansan, which is now owned and published liy his father, J. E. Remsburg.
Potter is one of the most flourishing- towns of its size in Kansas. Though
its population is less than 200, it boasts of two banks, the aggregate resources
of which amount to nearly a quarter million dollars. There probably is not
another town of its size in the State that has two banks. The town has
two good elevators, which during the years 1912, 1913 and 1914 handled on
an average of 140,000 bushels of grain a year. These elevators are operated
by Fred Ode & Sons and James Robinson. The railroad station at Potter
does a business that amounts to something like $40,000 annually. The ship-
ping of live stock is an important industry here. The principal buyers are
Tinsley, Potter, and Timple Bros. Much fruit is grown around Potter, and
as high as $20,000 has been paid out for apples during one shipping season.
Potter has a rural high school, the first of its kind established in the
State, and an $8,000 school building.
The town has two general stores, those of W. A. Hodge and P. P.
Knoch ; a hardware store, operated by B. F. Shaw ; a grocery store, by
Thomas J. Potter ; a furniture store, by Frank Beard ; a drug store, by G. E.
126
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Coulter : a hotel, by Airs. G. F. Pope : two blacksmith shops, by R. E. Brown
and G. F. Pope ; a li\'ei-y stable, by H. G. Hawley ; two barber shops, by
George Brown and Frank Blankenship; a cement tile factory, by Grisham &
Maxwell ; a millinery store, by Mrs. T. J. Maxwell ; a telephone exchange, by
E. C. Yoakum; a newspaper. The Potter IVeekly Kaiisan, by J- E. Remsburg;
tw^o physicians. Dr. G. W. Redmon and Dr. S. M. Myers. Dr. A. E. Ricks,
of Atchison, has a branch dental office here ; the Lambert Lumber Company,
of Leavenworth, has a commodious and well stocked yard here, with Samuel
Parker as manager. There are two churches, Methodist and Christian, two
illil""
I
iiisr
lUI
If * If ^s
1 1 n
y u K
public halls, and une ludge hall. L. AL Jewell cunuucls an insurance, real
estate and loan business. There is also a garage, and other business enter-
prises in the town.
MOUNT PLE.XSANT.
In 1854 Thomas L. Fortune, Jr., a Virginian, settled on the "old Mili-
tary road" and opened one of the very earliest stores in Atchison county,
around this store springing up the village of Mount Pleasant. A postoffice
was established here in 1855, and Mr. Fortune was appointed postmaster.
Being an inventive genius, he finally gave up his store business and devoted
his energies towards perfecting and building a road-wagon, to which refer-
ence has heretofore been made, and which he thought would revolutionize
the freighting business across the plains.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I27
The townsite of Mount Pleasant was sun-eyed in 1857 by John P.
\Mieeler, agent for the Town Company.
Michael Wilkins and James Laird were the very first settlers in the
township, being followed shortly afterwards by Levi Bowles, Jacob Grind-
staff, Andrew J. Feebler, Martin Jones, Chris Horn, P. R. King, \\'. C.
Findley. A. S. Speck and Amos Hamon.
The first hotel in the town was opened by Henry Payne, who operated it
many years.
T. J. Payne and Philo W'. Hull were the next parties to engage in busi-
ness, Mr. Payne leaving when the new town of Sumner was started, and
locating there.
The next to engage in business was P. R. King, who establislied a gen-
eral store about 1858. He remained at Mount Pleasant until after the county
seat question had been settled, when he removed to Atchison.
In the fall of 1858 a district school was opened. In i860 the Cumber-
land Presbyterians erected a church building, having held religious services
at the homes of the members prior to this time. Rev. .\. A. Moore was their
first pastor.
On May i, 1862, the Church of Christ was organized by Elder W'. S.
Jackson, with se\'enteen members, ser\-ices being held in the school house.
Mount Pleasant Lodge, No. 158, Ancient Free and .Accepted Masons, of
Mount Pleasant, was organized in the fall of 1868 by the following charter
members : William J. Young, X. Klein, M. R. Benton, John Hawley, S. K.
McCreary. Joseph Howell and Albert Hawley. Their first meeting was held
October 20, 1868, with the followling as first officers : William Young, wor-
shipful master; X. Klein, senior warden; A. Hawley, junior warden; S. K.
McCreary. secretary ; M. R. Benton, treasurer.
In August, 1862, the name of the postoffice was changed to Locust
Grove.
lewis' point.
In pre-territorial times and in the steamboat days', Kansas had many
geographical names that are not now to be found on the map. Some of them,
wihere permanent settlements have sprung up, have been perpetuated, but the
majority of them do not live even in the memory of the oldest inhabitants.
One of the latter is "Lewis' Point," near the present site of Oak Mills. Old
"Cap." Lewis is long since dead, his name almost forgotten, and the rapacious
Missouri river and "Mansell's SHde" are now about to devour the "Point,"
128 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
with which his name was coupled in our early geography. \A'hile "Lewis'
Point" wias never a place of any prominence, and not even the site of a village
or settlement, yet it was a geographical name that was known to every steam-
boat man running on this section of the river, and is worthy of preservation in
our local histoi7. "Lewis' Point" was at the projection of land lying im-
mediately above Oak Mills, on the Missouri river. It took its name from the
fact that Calvin Lewis, an old riverman, settled at this point at an early day,
and it became a frequent stopping place for steamboats to take on wood. In
those days there was a splendid wood supply in that vicinity. Lewis' house
stood near the site of the old Champton, or William Moody, house, wlhich was
destroyed by fire about a year ago.
It is not generally known that a steamboat was ever built on Atchison
county soil, much less that Oak Mills was ever the scene of the ship builder's
craft, outside of the construction of Indian canoes and the modern skiffs built
by Dick King or some other later-day river man. Yet, it is a fact that Calvin
Lewis once built and launched at "Lewis' Point" a small stern-wheel steam-
boat, and operated it on the river for several years. In 1855 the first terri-
torial legislature of Kansas passed an act authorizing Lewis to operate a
ferry at "Lewis' Point."
FARLEY'S FERRY.
The same legislature that gave permission to Lewis to operate a feriy at
"Lewis' Point," granted the same privilege to Nimrod Farley, to maintain a
ferry across the Missouri river, opposite latan. Mo. Farley was a well
known character in the Missouri bottoms in the vicinity of latan, Cow Island,
and Oak Mills, in the early days. He lived near latan, but it seems that he
owned land on the Kansas side, near Oak Mills, which offered a landing for
his ferrv. He was a brother of Josiah Farley, who laid out the town of
Farley, in Platte county, in 1850. George McAdow later became proprietor
of Farley's Ferry and operated it until it was destroyed by Jayhawkers,
shortly before the war.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CIVIL WAR.
THE ISSUE BETWEEN EARLY SETTLERS INFLUX OF FREE STATE AND PRO-
SLAVERY PARTISANS EARLY VOLUNTEERING MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS
THREATENED INVASION FROM MISSOURI POLITICAL SOCIETIES JAY-
HAWKERS — Cleveland's gang — lynchings — atchison county
TROOPS IN THE WAR PRICe's ATTEMPTED INVASION.
The six years intervening between 1854 and i860 constitute a momentous
period in the history of Atchison count}-. Xo new commnnit\- was ever
organized under more unpromising circumstances. It was not merely land
hunger and lust for personal gain that were the impelling motives 'which
brought men to Kansas in that day. Neither gold, nor gas, nor oil, nor
precious gems lured men here. Kansas was then, as it is now, an agricultural
paradise, and such an environment has ordinarily but little chann for the dar-
ing adventurer and the seeker after sudden riches, who toil not and spin
less. It is true that a large number of peaceful, plodding- home-seekers — the
tillers of the soil— the hewers of wood and the haulers of water, immigrated
to Kansas to take up land and build pennanent homes, but they were in the
minorit}- prior to i860. The tremendous issue of human slavery w'as the
all absorbing fact, and the long struggle here wrought a complete revolu-
tion in the ])olitical thought of the whole country. Men came to Kansas for
the most part for political rather than for business or agricultural reasons.
The settlement of Kansas was an inspired political movement of partisans.
There was little room for neutrals, and those who were "too proud to fight"
went elsewhere. There was little consideration on the part of the early
settlers of Kansas, of anv questions except slavery and anti-slavery. They
came in large numbers from the South and from the Xorth. and met here
upon the frontier in a final test of strength. The Free Soilers won. but only
129
9
130 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
after bitter contests in which passion, prejudice and bloody partisanship ran
riot, and Atciiison county played a most conspicuous part in th;s great
battle. The Nation and the world looked on as the battle lines surged for-
ward and backward. And while they fought here in a last desperate strug-
gle for supremacy, these courageous men and women on both sides founded
their towns, built their court houses, their primary schools and their churches
with an abiding faith in the hearts of each of them that victory would finally
crown their efforts. Atchison county made progress in spite of the fact
that her leaders were wrong. We gave promise here of being the metropo-
lis of Kansas, for we had many geographical and commercial advantages
over other struggling communities of the Territory. But before the well
laid plans of our citizens matured, before projects for the development of
steam transportation to bring us nearer the outside world could be concluded
the mighty conflict which ended in four bloody years of civil war, broke upon
the Nation, and Kansas within three months after being admitted as a State
enrolled itself on the side of the Union. Atchison county sprang
to amis almost a thousand strong, and may it ever be said to its everlasting
glory that few, if any, counties in the State had a more patriotic record.
One hundred and thirty-one Atchison county men enlisted in the First Kan-
sas regiment; twenty-five in the Seventh; eighty-five in the Eighth; eighty-
six in the Tenth; 260 in the Thirteenth; 100 in the First Kansas (colored);
twenty-five in the First Nebraska; 105 in the Thirteenth Missouri; thirty
in the Fifteenth Kansas; forty in the Ninth, and fifty in the Sixteentli, or a
total of 937 men, w'hich, together with the scattering of men in other regi-
ments in adjoining States, brought the total number of soldiers engaged
during the Civil war to 1,000. The population of Atchison county at that
time was 7.747, and the voting population 1,133, which shows that the total
number of voters was but slightly larger than the total number of volun-
teers. At that time Atchison, by reason of its location, was subject to in-
cursions from Confederate troops and Jayhawkers from Missouri, which
called for the organization at different periods of the war, of home guard
companies, which are not included in the foregoing statement. At the out-
set of the war Atchison had three militia companies. A, B and C, and a
fourth, known as the All Hazard company, the origin of whose name is thus
explained. At the city election in the spring of 1861 the issue was vtnion
or dis-union. The Republicans and Union Democrats united in supporting
G. H. Fairchild for mayor. He was a Union Democrat who on various
occasions announced his unwavering friendship of the Union and for the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I3I
maintenance of the constitution and laws "at all hazards," and "when this
company enlisted for the war Ma3'or Fairchild was its caiitam and it became
Company K of the First Kansas. It participated in the battle of Wilson's
Creek, August lo, 1861, which was the first action in which a Kansas regi-
ment was under fire.
In 1 86 1 there were constant threats of invasion from Missouri rebel
organizations m Buchanan and Platte counties, and in that year another
home guard company was organized with the following officers : Charles
Holbert, captain; J. G. Bechtold, first lieutenant; Clem Rhor, second lieuten-
ant; W. Becker, third lieutenant; John Schupp, ensign. During the follow-
ing year the danger of invasion became still more threatening and 650 men
in sixteen companies came to Atchison to protect the town from destruction.
The Atchison county companies were commanded by Captains Holbert, Hays,
Batsett, Evans .and Vanwinkle. It was due to the thoroughness with which
the people of Atchison organized themselves against invasicin that they were
spared from being completely annihilated. On the fifteenth day of Septem-
ber, 1 86 1, another company for home guard service was mustered in at Ft.
Leavenworth. J. M. Graham was captain; J. G. Bechtold, first lieutenant;
R. X. Bryant, second lieutenant. This company subsequently became Com-
pany E of the First Kansas Regiment Home Guards, numbering fifty men,
and were ordered back to Atchison for duty, where thev were stationed
until all danger of invasion had passed, after which the company became a
part of tlie Eighth Kansas. The victories of the Union forces in 1862 were
frequent, and as a result many rebel sympathizers came to Atchison for
safet}', where they became very troublesome. In order to counteract the
growing evil over the activities of these men, Mayor Fairchild issued a proc-
lamation in which he warned them tliat they must not expect to be pro-
tected in any manner by the city laws as long as they held to the
\-iews which they expounded at every favorable opportunity. "It would
be absurd to suppose," the proclamation said, "that a patriotic community
could treat otherwise than its enemies, persons who are in s}-mpathy with
base men who have brought upon our comitn,' untold misery, almost un-
limited taxation and almost inconceivable pecuniary suffering. As a repre-
sentative of a loyal people I will not encourage men to return among us
who have circulated reports that they were refugees from the loyal States
on account of their secession doctrines, nor will I give protection to men
who unmistakably at heart belong to the Confederacy." This proclamation
met with such favor that a mass meeting of Union men in Atchison county
132 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
was held 'at Pi'ice's Hall Marcli 15, 1862. The whole county was well
represented and stirring addresses were delivered hy Colonel Edge, of Doni-
phan county, Tom ]\Iurphy, the genial proprietor of the [Nlassasoit House.
Rev. W. S. W'enz, Lieutenant Price, E. Chesebrough. Mayor Fairchild. Caleb
May, and others, after which resolutions denouncing the southern sym-
pathizers and notifying them not to return were unanimously adopted. Dur-
ing the latter part of the same year a call for aid to assist the Atchison
county troops met with immediate response and within a few days, com-
mencing August 20, 1862, almost $4,000 was subscribed by the citizens of
Atchison. Seven hundred and forty-five dollars came from Mt. Pleasant
township. Among the leading contributors were Theodore Bartholow, E.
Chesebrough. G. W. Fairchild, J. W. Russell. ^^^ L. Challiss. Dr. \Mlliam
Irwin. G. \\'. Howe, Bela M. Hughes, William Hetherington. Otis &• Glick.
Henry Deisbach, J. E. Wagner, Rice McCubbin, McCausland & Brown, Tom
Murphy, W. A. Cochrane, Samuel C. Pomeroy, Stebbins & Company, E.
Butcher, and \Villiam C. Smith, each of whom subscribed the sum of S50
or over. Atchison also made a notable contribution when Ouantrell invaded
Lawrence, sending $4,000 to assist the people of that city. In 1863 depreda-
tions of the Jayhawkers became very annoying, and a vigilance committee
was organized and all good, peaceful and loyal citizens were called upon to
band themselves together for the protection of their lives, homes and prop-
erty. Those who joined the vigilance committee took an oath to support the
Government of the United States and Kansas, and to do all in their power
to put down the rebellion, and also to keep secret all proceedings of the or-
ganization. This committee did very effective work in bringing to punish-
ment violators of law and also in keeping the lawless bands of Jayhawkers
and other thieves out of Atchison county.
The following "circular" has been unearthed by the author, and while
it bears no date it apparently contained the constitution, by-laws, ritual and
oath of these societies.
"circular to officers.
"Be extreme!}' careful in the selection of your members. Admit no
one who is not of good standing in the community, and whom you have not
good reason to believe to be firm and uncompromising in his devotion to the
Union, and to be relied upon to assist in any emergency in maintaining the
laws and good- order in the community. This is of the first and highest im-
portance to the order, and if any member shows symptoms of defection, watch
him closelv.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I33
"In all cases, deal kindly with your opponents, and strive b}' gentle means
to win them o\'er to a change of sentiment. Many good men mav thus be
brought within our circle who would otherwise be lost to us.
"The first club established in your county seat will be called the County
Club, to which all clubs in the county will report, and by those officers all such
clubs will be estalilished. It is important that we be frequently advised as to
our strength in the State ; and for this purpose each subordinate club will re-
port weekly to the county club the number of members enrolled therein : and
the County Club will report monthly to the Ex. Com. at the
number of-clubs and number of members in the county. These reports should
be carefully sealed and addressed .
"The officers of County Clubs will be supplied with a printed constitution
and ritual, and they will furnish officers of subordinate clubs copies of the
same, with a strict injunction to secrecy.
"All correspondence must be secret as possible : and in order that this may
be accomplished the monthly reports may consist only of the place, date, num-
ber of clubs in the county and number of members. No signature must be
attached. These reports will be summed up and published by the Ex. Com.
"Strict secrecy as to the -zi'orkiiig of the organization is enjoined and
promptness and vigor in its extension is very important. We must work now
and work rapidly. No time is to be lost; our opponents are working vigor-
ously and secretl}-, but it is not too late to counteract their machinations and
utterly overthrow them. JVork! Work! Work!
"CONSTITUTION.
"object.
"The object shall be to preserve and maintain the Union and the constitu-
tion of the United States and of the State of Kansas, and to defend Kansas
against invasion, insurrection, civil commotion and to protect Union men
against assassination, arson, robbery, prescription and all other wrongs in-
flicted by the enemies of the Government of the United States and of this
State upon loyal persons.
"officers.
"The officers shall consist of Pr., V. P., R. S.. T., M., and S., who shall
hold their office for three months.
134 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
"duties of OFFICERS.
"The duties of officers shall be the same as in similar organizations and
all business shall be conducted in the usual parliamentary form.
"admission OF MEMBERS.
"Persons may become members who are eighteen }-ears of age and up-
wards, and are citizens of the United States.
"initiation.
"All initiations shall take place in and with the authority of the officers
of the club who may delegate suitable persons to initiate members from time
to time as occasion requires outside of any regular meeting of the club. Branch
clubs may be formed by proper application to this club when the president may
appoint suitable persons to establish the same.
"withdrawals.
"Any member may withdraw from this club by giving written notice
of the same to the R. S. at any regular meeting ; but the obligations of such
member shall remain the same as before.
"amendments.
"This constitution may be altered or amended by giving one week's notice
thereof, by a vote of two-thirds of the executive committee of the State. Each
county club may make by-laws for its own organization, not conflicting with
this constitution.
"ritual.
"Eternal God! Supreme Ruler, Governor and Architect of the Universe!
We humbly beseech Thee to protect the people of the United States in general
and especially the members of this organization. Wilt thou be pleased to direct
and prosper all our consultations to the advancement of Thy glory, the good of
Thy country, the safety, honor and welfare of Thy people, and may all things
be ordered and settled by the Legislature and Executive branches of our Gov-
ernment upon the best and surest foundation, so that peace and happiness, truth
and justice may be established among us for all generations. Wilt Thou be
pleased to guide and direct us as Thou didst our Fathers in the Revolution.
With the strength of Thine almighty arm Thou didst uphold and sustain them
through all their trials, and at last didst crown them with victor}'. May
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I35
charity, and brotherly love cement iis ; may we be united with our principles
founded upon the teachings of Thy Holy Word and may Thy Good Spirit
guide, strengthen and comfort us, now and forever. Amen.
"All candidates for membership to this club will be required to answer the
following questions to be propounded by the marshal before initiation :
"i. Are you opposed to secession or disunion ?
"2. Do you acknowledge that your first and highest allegiance is due
to the Government of the United States of America?
"3. Are you willing to take such an oath of allegiance to the United
States of America?
"4. Are you willing- to pledge yourself to resist to the extent of your
power, all attempts to subvert or overthrow the constitution of the United
States, or the constitution of the State of Kansas?
"Should the candidates answer affirmatively, the marshal, after repeating
to the president, will conduct them into the club room and present them to the
president, who shall then address the candidates as follows :
"Gentlemen : — We rejoice that you have thus voluntarily come forward
to unite yourselves with us. The cause we advocate is that of our country :
banded together for the purpose of perpetuating the liberties for which our
fathers fought, we have sworn to uphold and protect them.
"It is a strange and sad necessity which impels American citizens to band
themselves together to sustain the constitution and the Union ; but the Govern-
ment under which we live is threatened with destruction. Washington en-
joined upon us that 'the unity of the Government which constitutes us one peo-
ple is a main pillar in the edifice of our real independence ; the support oi our
tranquility at home, our peace abroad — of our safety, of our prosperity, of
that very liberty which we so highly prize.' He charges that we should 'prop-
erly estimate the immense value of our national Union to our collective and in-
dividual happiness ; that we should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable
attachment to it ; accustoming ourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium
of our political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous
anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can
in any event be abandoned.'
"He tells us again that 'to the efficiency and permanency of the Union, a
Government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict be-
tween the parts, is an adequate substitute.'
"It is to sustain this Government we are banded together, and for this pur-
pose you are now required to take a solemn obligation.
136 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
"Place your left hand on the National Flag and raise your right hand
toward Heaven ; repeating after me :
"We and each of us do solemnly swear in the presence of God and these
witnesses to support, protect and defend the constitution and Government of
the United States and of the State of Kansas against all enemies, foreign and
domestic, and to maintain and defend the Government of the United States and
the flag thereof, and aid in maintaining the laws of the United States in this
State and to defend the State of Kansas against invasion from any State or
States and from any other rebellion, invasion, insurrection to the best of our
ability without any mental reservation or evasion — So help us God.
"The members will respond.
"To this we pledge ourselves.
"We do severally solemnly swear and affirm that we will protect, aid and
defend each member of all Union clubs, and will never inake known in any
way or manner, to any person or persons, not members of Union clubs, any of
the signs, passwords, proceedings, purposes, debates or plans of this or any
other club under this organization, except when engaged in admitting new
members into this organization.
"The president will then deliver the following address to the candidates :
" 'The oath which you have now taken of your own free will and accord
cannot rest lightly upon your conscience, neither can it be violated without
leaving the stain of perjury upon your soul. Our country is now in "disorder"
and "confusion;" the fires of commotion and contest are now raging in our
midst, war has come to us but we cannot, we must not, we dare not omit to
do that which in our judgment the safety of the Union requires, not regardless
of consecjuences, we must yet meet consequences ; seeing the hazard that sur-
rounds the discharge of public duty, it must yet be discharged. Let us then,
cheerfully shun no responsibility justly devolving upon us here or elsewhere
in attempting to maintain the Union. Let us cheerfully partake its fortune
and its fate. Let us be ready to perform our appropriate part, whene\er and
wherever the occasion may call us, and to take our chances among those upon
whom the blows may fall first and fall thickest.
" 'Above all remember the words of our own immortal Cla}- : "If Kentucky
tomorrow unfurls the banner of resistance, I never will fight under that ban-
ner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union. A subordinate one
to my own State."
" 'Be faithful, then, to your country, for your interests are indissolubly
connected with hers ; be faithful to these, your brethren, for your life and theirs
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I 37
may be invol\-ed in this contest: be faitliful to posterity for the blessings you
have enjoyed in this Go\-ernment are but held in trust for thee."
"Response by all the members — We \\"ill!
"The president will then present the constitution and nath In the candi-
dates for their signature."
Charles Metz, a notorious Jayhawker, whose personal appearance and
characteristics are best described in an essay entitled, "The Last of the Ja}-
hawkers," contributed to the old Kansais Magazine, by John J. Ingalls.
"Conspicuous among the irregular heroes who thus sprang to arms in i86t,"
says Ingalls, "and ostensibly their leader, was an Ohio stage driver h\ the
name of Charles Metz, who having graduated with honor from the peniten-
tiary of Missouri, assumed for prudential reasons the more euphonious and
distinguished appellation of 'Cleveland.' He was a picturesque brigand.
Had he worn a slashed doublet and trunk hose of black velvet he would have
been the ideal of an Italian bandit. Young, erect and tall, he was sparely
built and arrayed himself like a gentleman in the costume of the day. His
appearance was that of a student. His visage was thin, his complexion
olive tinted and colorless, as if 'sicklied over with a pale cast of thought.'
Black piercing eyes, finely cut features, dark hair and beard correctlv trim-
med, completed a tout ciisciublc that was strangely at variance with the
aspect of the score of dissolute and dirty desperadoes that formed his com-
mand. These were generally degraded ruffians of the worst type, whose
highest idea of elegance in personal appearance was to have their mustaches
a villainous, metallic black, irrespective of the consideration whether its
native hue was red or brown. * * * *
"The vicinity of the fort with its troops rendered Leavenworth undesir-
able as a base of operations. St. Joseph was also heavilv garrisoned, and
they accordingly selected Atchison as the point from which to move on the
enemy's works. Atchison at that time contained about 2,500 inhabitants.
Its business was transacted upon one street and extended west alx)ut four
blocks from the river. Its position upon the extreme curve of the 'Grand
Detour' of the Missouri, affording unrivaled facilities to the interior in the
event of pursuit. Having been principally settled by Southerners it still
afforded much legitimate gain for our bird of prey, and its loyal population
having already largely enlisted, the city was incapable of organized resistance
to the depredations of the marauders.
"They established their headquarters at the saloon of a German named
Ernest Renner, where they held their councils of war and whence they started
138 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
upon their foravs. The winter was favorable to their designs, as the river
closed early, enabling them to cross upon the ice. Cleveland proclaimed
himself marshal of Kansas, and announced his determination to run the
countr)-. He invited the cordial co-operation of all good citizens to assist
him in sustaining the government and punishing its foes. Ignorant of his
resources and of his purposes, the people were at first inclined to welcome
their strange guests as a protection from the dangers to which they were
exposed, but it soon became apparent that the doctors were worse than the
disease. They took possession of the town, defied the municipal authorities,
and committed such intolerable excesses that their expulsion was a matter
of public safety. Their incursions into Missouri' were so frequent and
audacious that a company of infantry was sent from Weston and stationed
at Winthrop to effect their capture, but to no purpose. * * * * If a man had
an enemy in any part of the country whom he wished to injure, he reported
him to Cleveland as a rebel, and the next night he was robbed of all he
possessed and considered fortunate if he escaped without personal violence.
* * * * A small detachment of cavalry was sent from the fort to take them,
but iust as they had dismounted in front of the saloon and were hitching
their horses, Cleveland appeared at the door with a cocked navy in each
hand and told them that he would shoot the first man who moved a finger.
Calling two or three of his followers he disarmed the dragoons, took their
horses and equipments and sent them back on foot to reflect upon the
vicissitudes of military affairs. Early in 1862 the condition became des-
perate and the city authorities, in connection with the commander at Win-
throp, concerted a scheme which brought matters to a crisis. Cleveland and
about a dozen of his gang were absent in Missouri on a scout. The time of
their return was known, and Marshal Charles Holbert had his force sta-
tioned in the shadow of an old ware-house near the bank of the river. It
was a brilliant moonlight night in mid-winter. The freebooters emerged
from the forest and crossed upon the ice. They were freshly mounted and
each one had a spare horse. Accompanying them were two sleighs loaded
with negroes, harness and miscellaneous plunder. As they ascended the
steep shore of the levee, unconscious of danger, they were all taken pris-
oners except Cleveland, who turned suddenly, spurred his horse down the
embankment and escaped. The captives were taken to Weston, where they
soon afterward enlisted in the Fede'ral army. The next day Cleveland rode
into town, captured the city marshal on the street and declared his inten-
tion to hold him as a hostage for the safety of his men. He compelled the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 39
marshal to walk by the side of his horse a short distance, when finding a
crowd gathering- for his capture, he struck him a blow on the head wi'th his
pistol and fled."
Cleveland continued his exploits for a number of months after this, but
was finally captured in one of the southern counties where he was attempting
to let himself down the side of a ravine. He was shot by a soldier from
above, and the ball entered his arm and passed through his body. He was
buried in St. Joseph, Mo., and a marble head stone over his grave bears
the following inscription, placed there by his widow : "One hero less on
earth, one angel more in heaven."
As the direct result of the operations of Cleveland and his gang, the
spirit of lawlessness grew and the people finally "took the law into their
own hands." Perhaps the best account of the lynchings that followed was
given by Hon. Mont. Cochran March 17, 1902, at the time a Congressman
from Missouri, but formerly a leading citizen and county attorney of Atchi-
son. Mr. Cochran said :
"The thieves who fell victims to Judge Lynch, while not known as
Cleveland's gang, operated extensively throughout the period of lawlessness
in which no effort whatever was made to bring the outlaws to justice. After
the Cleveland gang had been effectively broken up, these depredatoi-y scoun-
drels continued their operations. Their last crime, and the one for which
they were jibbeted, was the attempted robbery of an old man named Kelsey.
He had received at Ft. Leavenworth $1,500 on a Government contract, and,
upon returning home by the way of Atchison, he deposited it in Hethering-
ton's bank. The thieves went to his house at night and demanded the money.
Of course, he could not produce it. They tortured the old man and his wife
alternately for hours, and when after the departure of the thieves, the neigh-
bors were called in, Kelsey and his wife were nearer dead than alive. The
next morni'ng hundreds of their neighbors, armed to the teeth, swarmed into
Atchison. In Third street, north of Commercial, was a little log building,
which had been the home of an early settler, in which was a gunsmith's shop.
Three or four of the farmers went there to have their fire arms put in order.
When they came out one of them had a revolver in his hand.
Two fellows standing by, seeing the farmers approaching, dived into an
alley and started westward at lightning speed. The farmers pursued and
at the house of a notorious character, known as Aunt Betsey, the fugitives
were run to cover. The house was surrounded and they were captured. One
of them was sterling, the fiddler and pianist of the bagnio. Other arrests
I40 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
followed until five were in durance. Then ensued probably the most extra-
ordinar}^ proceeding known to the annals of Judge Lynch. The mol) took
possession of the jail and the court house and for a week held them. The
prisoners were tried one by one. Sterling was convicted and executed. An
elm tree, standing on the banks of White Clay creek, in the southwest quar-
ter of the town, was admirably suited to the purpose. When 'the wagon,
bearing Sterling to his doom reached the ground the whole town was in
attendance. A rSnge of hills to the south swarmed with women. Asa
Barnes, a prominent farmer, a man of iron resolution and unswerving hon-
esty, was the leader of the mob. With clinched teeth and blanched face he
ordered Sterling to take hJs place on the seat of the wagon, and, while the
desperado was as game as a peacock, he promptly obeyed. Standing on the
wagon seat Sterling took off his hat, banged it down and placing his foot on
it, shook his clenched hand at the sea of upturned faces, and with a volley of
imprecations, said : T am the best d d man that ever walked the earth
and if you will drop me down and give me a gun, I will fight any ten of
you.' Sandy Corbin, a great bluffer, who bore but little better reputation than
the man with the noose on his neck, pretended that he wanted to fight Sterl-
ing single-handed. Nobody else paid any attention to Sterling's ravings, and
in a twinkling he was swung into eternity. The next day two others, a man
named Brewer, a soldier at home on a furlough, and a young fellow known
as Pony, met the same fate. There was much sympathy for Pony. He was
a drunkard and all his delinquencies were attributed to this weakness. Just
as they were ready to swing him up. two or three members of the mob told
him that if he would give information as to others implicated, but who had
not been arrested, they would save him. His reply was : T went into this
thing as a man and I will die as a man.' There was a stir among those near-
est the wagon and it was discovered that an effort was being made to save
the boy from death. The traces were cut and the horses led away. The
effort failed. Fifty men seized the wagon and dragged it away. The fourth
to suffer the vengeance of the mob was an old gray-haired man named
Moodv. At the trial he strongly protested his innocence, and promised, if
given a respite of twenty-four hours, he would prove an alibi. This was
granted, but the witnesses were not forthcoming and the next day the old
man was put to death. A priest visited him in jail, which was constantly
surrounded day and night, and when he came out after administering the
rights of the church to the doomed man, it was remarked by those who saw
hi'm that the priest was as pale as a ghost. The report gained currency that
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I4I
when asked if Moody was innocent, he refused to answer yea or nav, and,
although it had not then developed that Moody could not produce the wit-
nesses he promised, the conduct of the priest was taken as proof that Moody
was guilty. During the week in which these extraordinary proceedings took
place, the mob was in undisputed control of the court house and jail. Judge
Lynch was perched upon the wool sack and a jury of twelve men, who had
qualified under oath, in the usual form, occupied the jury box. Not the
slightest effort at concealment was made by those who led or those who
followed. In my judgment no other course was left open to the community.
"Not less than 500 men were driven out of Kansas on the
charge of disloyalty in 1861 and 1862, with the approval of men of excel-
lent character, by thugs and scoundrels, who made no concealment of the
fact that they lived by horse stealing and house breaking. From the be-
ginning of the Civil war until peace was declared, the Kansas border from
the Nebraska State line to the Indian Territory, was a scene of lawlessness
and disorder. In the earlier years of the war, thieves regularly organized
into companies, with captains whose authority was recognized by the rank
and file, with headquarters in the towns and cities of eastern Kansas, mas-
queraded as saviors of the Union, and upon the pretense that they were
serving the cause, thrived amazingly by pillaging the farm houses and barns
of neighboring counties in Missouri. Atchison was the headquarters of the
Cleveland gang — the most acti\-e and the l)oldest of the Iianditti. The g'ang
did not hesitate to cross over to Missouri and steal horses, and returning to
Atchison sell them in broad daylight. ITsuall)- these raids were made at
night, but there was no concealment of the business they were engaged in,
nor of the fact that hundreds of the horses sold by them were stolen from
farmers of Buchanan, Platte and Clinton counties. In the capacity of
saviors of the Union, they took upon themselves the task of driving all per-
sons suspected of sympathy for 'the lost cause' out of Kansas. P. T. Abell,
J. T. Hereford, Headlev & Carr, prominent lawyers, were notified to leave
or thev would be killed. They departed. Headley, Carr and Hereford
served i'n the Confederate army. Abell lived in exile until after the war was
over, and then returned to Atchison. He was one of the founders of the
town, and before the war was the partner of Gen. B. F. Stringfellow. Tom
Ray, proprietor of an extensive blacksm.ithing and wagon shop, was ban- '
ished. In a month or two he returned, but not until after he had halted at
\\"inthrop, a village opposite Atchison and opened up negotiations which
resulted in a grant of permission to remain i'n Atchison long enough to settle
142 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Up his business and collect considerable sums due from his customers. He
registered at the old Massasoit House, but did not tarry long. Maj. R. H.
Weightman, an early settler, who left Atchison in 1861, and accepted a col-
onel's commission in the Confederate army, had been killed at Wilson's
Creek. While sitting in the Massasoit House barroom, Ray was approached
by Sandy Corbin, a somewhat notorious character, who handled most of
the horses stolen by Cleveland's thieves. Corbin mentioned Weightman's
death, expressing satisfaction at his untimely end, and applying all the epi-
thets known to the abandoned, to the dead man. Ray expostulated, and
finally warned Corbin to desist or expect a thrashing. Corbin rushed to
his room and returned with two revolvers, so adjusted upon his belt that
Ray could not help seeing them. Ray, who was a giant in size, seized Cor-
bin, threw him face downward upon a billiard table, and with a blacksmith's
hand as large as a ham, spanked him until he was almost insensible. Then
he hurriedly boarded the ferry boat, crossed the river and made his way to
Montana, where he lived until his death, twenty years ago.
"Cleveland's lieutenant, a fellow named Hartman, was the worst of the
gang, and was guilty of so many and such flagrant outrages upon the prom-
inent citizens that in sheer desperation, four men, all of whom are now dead,
met and drew straws to see who would kill Hartman — (i) Jesse C. Crall,
during his life prominent in politics and business; (2) George T. Challiss,
for thirty years a deacon in the Baptist church and a prominent wholesale
merchant and identified prominently with Atchison affairs; (3) James ]\Ic-
Ewen, a cattle buyer and butcher; (4) The fourth man was a prominent
physician. Each of these had suffered intolerable outrages at the hands
of Hartman. He had visited their houses and terrified their wives by
notifying them that unless their husbands left Atchison within a specified
period they would be mobbed. Even the children of two of the victims of
persecution had been abused. They met at the physician's office, and after
a prolonged conference at which it was agreed that neither would leave un-
til Hartman had been killed, proceeded to draw straws to see which would
undertake the work. Crall held the straws, McEwen drew^ the short straw
and the job fell to his lot. Atchison is bi-sected by two or three brooks, one
of which traverses the northwest section of the town and runs into White
Clay creek. This ravine has very precipitous banks, and was crossed by
several foot bridges. At the east approach of the bridge was a tall elm tree.
McEwen took his position under this tree, and awaited the appearance of
Hartman, who necessarily passed that way in going home at night. Wlien
, HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I43
Hartman was half-way across the bridge, McEwen stepped out, dropped to
his knee, leveled a double-barreled shotgun and tinned loose. He filled
Hartman with buckshot from his head to his heels, but strange to say, the
fellow did not die for months afterward. Had either of the others drawn
the fatal straw, no doubt Hartman would have been killed in broad daylight,
on the streets, but JVIcEwen concluded to give the fellow no chance for his
life."
The First Kansas volunteer cavalry was the first regiment to be raised
under the call of President Lincoln May 8, 1861. It was mustered into the
service at Ft. Leavenworth June 3, 1861. George W. Deitzler, of Lawrence,
was colonel, and the following men from Atchison were officers : George H.
Faicheled, captain, Company C; Camille Aguiel, first lieutenant; Rinaldo A.
Barker, second lieutenant ; James W. Martin, second lieutenant of Company
B. Within ten days of the date this regiment was mustered in, they recei\-ed
orders for active service. The regiment joined the army of General Lyon
at Grand River, Mo., and on July 10 arrived at Springfield, where the force
of General Sigel was gathered. The united forces of the rebels, under Price
and McCullouch, was concentrated at Wilson's Creek, twelve miles from
Springfield, and was strongly entrenched there, where the initial engage-
ment of the First Kansas regiment took place. This regiment went into
the engagement with 644 men and officers, and lost seventy-seven killed
and 333 wounded. The rebel forces were estimated to be 5,300 infantry,
fifteen pieces of artillery, and 6,000 horsemen, with a loss of 265 killed. 721
wounded, and 292 missing. The Union forces numbered about 5.000. with
a loss of about 1,000. It was one of the fiercest and most determined bat-
tles of the Civil war, and both officers and privates in the companies from
Atchison displayed great bravery. First Lieut. Camille Agniel was among
the killed, and privates Henry W. Totten and Casper Broggs, together with
Corporal William F. Parker, of Atchison, also lost their lives in this engage-
ment.
The Seventh regiment Kansas cavaliy was ordered into active service
immediately following its organization. Colonel Daniel R. Anthony, of
Leavenworth, was a lieutenant-colonel of this regiment, and among the line
officers was William S. Morehouse, of Atchison, who was second lieuten-
ant. This regiment saw a great deal of active service in the Civil war, and
was first attacked by the rebels November 11, 1861, while encamped in
western Missouri, on the Little Blue river. Following a furious battle the
regiment lost nine of its force by death and thirty-two wounded. This reg-
144 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY ,
iment subsequently participated in an engagement at Little Santa Fe and
at Independence. In Januaiy, 1862. the Seventh regiment went into camp
at Humboldt, Kan., and remained there until it was ordered to Lawrence in
the following March, and subsequently was ordered to Corinth, IMiss., and
from thence to Rienzi, ]Miss., where it was assigned to the First Cavahy
brigade, of which Phillip H. Sheridan was commander, and subsequently saw
much service in Tennessee and other points in the South, and participated
in the various actions that occurred during General Smith's expedition to
the Tallahatchee, after which the balance of their active service took place in
Missouri. It was mustered out at Ft. Leavenworth September 4, 1S65.
The Eighth regiment Kansas infantry was perhaps closer to the hearts
of the people of Atchison county tlian any other regiment that participated in
the Civil war, for the i-eason that its lieutenant-colonel was the beloved John A.
Martin, editor of the Atchison Champion, and subsequently governor of
Kansas. It was originally recruited and intended for home and frontier
service. The fear of invasion, both by hostile Indians on the west, and the
rebels on the south and east, kept fear alive in the hearts of many residents
of Kansas, and for this purpose it was deemed desirable to have a regiment
of volunteer soldiers close at hand. As originally organized, this regiment
consisted of six infantry and two cavalry companies, but various changes
were made during the three months following its organization. It saw active
service throughout the South, and participated in many of the important bat-
tles of the Civil war, but in none did it play a more conspicuous part than
in the great battle of Mission Ridge. The following is from Colonel Mar-
tin's official report of the part taken by the Eighth Kansas in this engage-
ment :
"Shortly after noon, on the twenty-fifth (November), we were ordered
to advance on the enemy's position at the foot of Mission Ridge, and moved
out of our works, forming in the second line of the battle. We at once ad-
\anced steadily in line through the woods and across the open field in front
of the enemy's entrenchments to the foot of the hill, subjected during the
whole time to a heavy artillery fire from the enemy's batteries, and as soon
as we reached the open field, to a destructive musketry fire. Reaching the
first line of works we halted to rest our men for a few moments, and then
advanced through a terrible storm of artillery and musketn,^ to the foot
of the hill and up it as rapidly as possible. The crest of the ridge at the
point where we moved up was formed like a horseshoe. We advanced in
the interior, while the enemy's batteries and infantry on the right and left,
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I45
as well as in the center, poureil upon us a most terrific fire. But the men
never faltered or wavered, although from the nature of the ground, regi-
ments were mingled one with an.other, and company organization could not
possibly be preserved. Each man struggled to be fh-st on top, and the offi-
cers and men of the regiment, without a single exception, exhibited the high-
est courage and the most devoted gallantry in this fearful charge.
"The enemy held their ground until we w^ere less than a dozen yards
from their breastworks, when they broke in wild confusion and fled in panic
down the hill on the opposite si'de. A portion of our men pursued them for
nearly a mile, capturing and hauling back several pieces of artillery and cais-
sons, which the enemy were trying to run off.
"We occupied the summit of Mission Ridge until the night of the twentv-
sixth, when we were ordered to return to camp at Chattanooga.
"Our loss was one commissioned officer wounded and three enlisted men
killed and thirty-one wounded. The regiment went into the battle with an
aggregate force of 217 men and officers.
"Where all behaved with such conspicuous courage, it is difficult to make
distinction, but I cannot forebear mentioning my adjutant-lieutenant, Sol. R.
Washer. Wounded at Chicakamauga. and not )-et recovered from the effects
of his wound, and suffering from a severe sprain of the ankle, whicli pre-
vented his walking, he mounted his horse and rode through the whole battle,
always foremost in danger."
The Eighth infantry remained in camp at Chattanooga until it removed
to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville, which city was reached on December
7. About the same time Sherman's corps arrived. The winter of 1863 was
spent in east Tennessee, and in the following February arrived home in .Atch-
ison and Ft. Leavenworth. There was great rejoicing and celebration and
both officers and soldiers were greeted with waving banners, ringing bells,
booming cannon, and there was much feasting and speech making. The regi-
ment was home on a furlough, and early in April the men re-assembled
at Leavenworth and on the twelfth of that montli was ordered to report
back to Chattanooga, wdiere it subsequently saw service in the Cumberland
mountains, and throughout the State of Tennessee.
Colonel Martin was mustered out at Pulaski November 17, his term of
enlistment having expired, and the following day he left for the North. Ijut
the regiment was not mustered out of service until the following January.
The Tenth regiment, Kansas infantry, was made up of the Third and
Fourth and a small portion of the Fifth Kansas regiments, and among its
10
146 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
officers were Mathew Quigg, captain of Company D : Seth M. Tucker,
first lieutenant, and David Whittaker, second lieutenant, all of Atchison.
The activities of this regiment were largely confined to operations in Mis-
souri and Arkansas, and afterwards in Tennessee. In December, 1864. it
arrived at Clinton, Miss., without tents or blankets, and many of the men
without shoes or overcoats. During January it made an expedition into
Mississippi, and the latter part of that month marched to Waterloss, Ala.,
remaining there until February 8. when it embarked for Vicksburg, where
it remained until February 19, and subsequently operated around Mobile,
and the men of this regiment were employed as skirmishers in the joint ad-
vance upon the fortifications around Mobile. It was mustered out at Mont-
gomery, Ala., September 20, 1865, and finally discharged at Ft. Leaven-
worth, Kan. The regiment was mostly composed of veterans, who under-
stood the life of a soldier, and realized the hardships of military campaigns.
They did their duty, whether it was in guarding their own State from in-
vasion, or assaulting the rebels at tlie siege of Ft. Blal<ely.
The Thirteenth regiment, Kansas infantry, had more officers in it from
Atchison than any of the regiments that participated in the Civil war. It
was raised under President Lincoln's call of July, 1862, and was recruited
by Cyrus Leland, Sr., of Troy, Kan., by virtue of autliority from James H.
Lane, in the counties of Brown, 'Atchison, Doniphan, Marshall and Nemaha.
The regiment was organized September 10, 1862, at Camp Staunton, Atch-
ison, and mustered into the service ten days later. Colonel of this regi-
ment was Thomas M. Bowen, of Marysville, and the major was Caleb A.
Woodworth, of Atchison. Among the line officers from Atchison were:
Henry Havenkorst, captain of Company B; August Langehemeken, second
lieutenant; Henry R. Neal, captain; Robert Manville, second lieutenant;
Tohn E. Hayes, captain, Company F; Archimedes S. Speck, first lieutenant;
^^^illiam J. May, second lieutenant; Patrick McNamara, captain. Company
K; Daniel C. O'Keefe, first lieutenant; Hugh Dougherty, second lieutenant.
The regiment joined a division of General Blunt soon after the battle
of Old Ft. Wayne, and participated in various engagements in Arkansas.
At the battle of Prairie Grove, it was one of the first regiments to be en-
gaged, and in every attempt to capture the battery of which this regiment
formed the support at this'battle, was successfully repulsed, with heavy losses
to the rebels. This battle virtually finished the campaign for the winter.
It subsequently did garrison and out-post duty in Arkansas, and in the
Cherokee Nation. The regiment remained on duty at Ft. Smith, Ark., un-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I47
til March 3. 1865, when it was ordered to Little Rock, Ark., and on June
26 of that year was mustered out of service.
Among the privates of this regiment from Atchison, who were killed,
were : James L. Parnell, of Mount Pleasant, and John Collins and Lorenzo
Richardson, of Atchison.
Thomas Roe, a fine, stout young man. son of a widowed mother, of
Brownsville, Pa., was the only member of Company D, of the Second Kan-
sas cavalry, that lost his life in battle during its nearly four years of service
in the Civil war. This company participated in the battles of Cane Hill
and Prairie Grove, in Arkansas, and other engagements. Roe came to Kan-
sas with the late Thomas Butcher, for whom he worked until going into
the war of the rebellion.
In May, 1861, a company of home gaiards was organized by Free State
men. of Lancaster and Shannon townships, Atchison county, with a few from
Brown and Doniphan counties, which gathered every Saturday afternoon
for drill, alternating at the homes of Johnson Wymore and Robert \A'hite.
Robert White, who had received military training during the Mexican war,
having served there in 1846-48, did most of the drilling. A. J. Evans was
captain; Robert White, first lieutenant: John Bertwell, of Brown county,-
was second lieutenant.
The pro-slavery people were also organized and drilling at the same
time, consisting of South Carolinians, Virginians and Missourians, who were
for the Confederacy and slavery.
At a Sunday school meeting on the prairie, held in a ^■acant settler's
shanty near Eden postoffice, where both sides in the neighborhood wor-
shiped on Sundays, Robert White found out on a. Sunday in August, 1861,
that a southern organization was to disarm all Free State men the following
Tuesday. His nearest neighbor and a good friend, also a southerner, thought
White had found this out and came and visited him a good part of Sunday
afternoon and staying in the evening until after 10 o'clock before going
home. White showing no excitement. Willis went home, seemingly much at
ease, but he was watched by his friend White until safely resting at his home,
when White went and called another Free State man from his bed who
notified half the Free State company and White the other half, causing them
to meet early the following Monday, when by the middle of the afternoon
of that day every proslavery man in that part of the country had his fire arms
taken from him, and before Tuesday evening all of them had departed for
Missouri.
I4i5 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Most of the members of the Free State company enhsted in
the following- October as volunteers for three years' service in the Union
army and became known as Company D of Second Kansas cavalry. Robert
White, who was commissioned as first lieutenant in Company D, was dis-
charo^ed and sent home to die with a serious case of inflammatory rheu-
matism, but he recovered so far that in 1863 he raised and drilled a company
that became a part of the State militia. He was commissioned captain of
this company and led it in the Price raid at the battle of Westport in 1864
as a part of the regiment commanded by Col. L. S. Treat in helping keep
Capt. White's old brigade, commanded by Gen. Sterling Price, of the Mexi-
can war, from getting into Kansas. The late M. J. Cloyes and T. B. Piatt,
of .-\tchison, were members of Captain White's company in the Price raid.
Piatt was clerk of the company: John English was first lieutenant; W. F,
Streeter, second lieutenant, and Francis Schletzbaum was first sergeant.
The Seventeenth regiment, Kansas infantry, was a negro regiment, but
with white officers. James M. Williams was colonel, and George J. Martin,
of Atchison, was captain of Company B, and William G. White and Luther
Dickinson, of Atchison, were first and second lieutenants. This regiment
played an honorable part during all the Civil war, and its service was largely
confined to operations in Arkansas and Te.xas. It was mustered out of
service at Pine Bluff. Ark., October i, 1865.
The Second regiment, Kansas colored infantry, was organized in June,
1863, at Ft. Smith., Ark., and among its line officers was First Lieut. John
M. Cain, of Atchison. It conducted itself with conspicuous bravery with
the army of the frontier, and during the brief occupation of Camden, .Ark.,
])\ General Steele's forces, this regiment was employed on picket and forage
duty. It showed conspicuous bravery around Poison Springs and Mark's
Mills, and under the able command of Col. Samuel J. Crawford, who
subsequently became go\-ernor of Kansas, it won for itself an enviable name
among the regiments from Kansas, who participated in the Civil war. This
regiment was finally discharged from the services at Leavenworth Xovem-
ber 2j, T865, after having proved to the Nation the fidelity of the colored
soldier.
It was in September, 1S64, that General Sterling Price created great
consternation by an attempted invasion of Kansas, which ended in his defeat
on the border by the Union forces, aided by the Kansas State militia. At
the time Price started north in his march through Arkansas and Missouri,
Msi]. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis commanded the Department of Kansas, which
HISTORY Of ATCHISON COUNTY I49
included Nebraska, Colorado and Indian Territory, in addition to Kansas.
General Curtis had about 4.500 men, all of whom bad been employed in pro-
tecting the frontiers of Kansas and Colorado, and the overland mail route.
At this time General Curtis was near Ft. Kearney, operating against the
Indians. On receipt of word announcing the movements of General Price,
General Curtis was recalled and reached Kansas in Septemljer. A few days
later he received word that 3,000 rebels were marching on Ft. Scott, and
advised Governor Carney to call the militia into service. At this time George
W. Deitzler was major-general of the State militia ; John T. Norton was
assistant adjutant-general: R. A. Randlett. assistant quarter-master; Samuel
S. Atwood, assistant quarter-master; Charles Chadwick, George T. Robin-
son, Lewis T. W'elmorth, John J. Ingalls, Thomas White, Elijah G. Moore.
H. Stein, and John A. Leffkler were all majors. Constant reports of a con-
flicting nature were spread from day to day, regarding the movements of
General Price, but the first point to be attacked was Pilot Knob, the engage-
ment commencing September 27 and lasting all day. General Ewing put
up a vigorous defense, with a force of about 1,000 men, while the militia
commanders in Kansas made preparations for further resistance to the in-
vasion of Price. Meanwhile General Price continued to make headway, and
on the fourth of October an order was issued forbidding the transit of boats
below Kansas Ci'ty. When it was discovered that the rebels under Price
had not been seriously checked in their movement westward, further efforts
were made by General Curtis to prevail upon Governor Kearney to call out
the militia, which the Governor seemed disinclined to do. Finally, on Octo-
ber 9, 1864, Major General Deitzler issued an order for the State mihtia
from Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha and Marshall counties to rendezvous at
Atchison, and the militia from other counties were ordered to other points
in the State. A few days later Leavenworth was fortified, because of a tele-
gram which was received from General Rosecrans, stating that it was Price's
intention to strike that point first. The militia responded promptly, and the
following regiments reported for service at Atchison : The Twelfth regiment,
composed of 460 men, under the command of Col. L. S. Treat, and the
Eighteenth regiment, composed of 400 men, under the command of Colonel
Mathew Quigg. The total number of militia enrolled under the call of the
governor was 12,622, of which about 10,000 were south of the Kansas river
at the point most exposed to danger. From the eleventh until the sixteenth
of the month there was great excitement, as the forces rapidly gathered, to
150 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
be organized and equipped. On the staff of General Deitzler there were
two men from Atchison ; A. S. Hughes, an aide, and John J. Ingalls, judge-
advocate, with the rank of major.
As a result of this determined move on the part of Gen. Sterling Price
to invade Kansas, there followed in quick succession the battle of Lexing-
ton, the battle of Big Blue, and finally the battle of ^\^estport, at which, on
October 23, 1864, the forces of Price were finally routed and his campaign
and invasion were stopped, but not until it had caused the citizens of Kan-
sas, in addition to the labor and loss of life, not less than half a million
dollars.
CHAPTER IX.
NAVIGATION.
PIONEER TRANSPORTATION EARLY FERRIES AND RATES FAMOUS RIVER
BOATS STEAMBOAT LINES TO ATCHISON STEAMBOAT REGISTERS.
Slight reference has been made in the early narrative of this history
to pioneer transportation facilities, but the subject is one of so much import-
ance and of such immense interest, that a chapter devoted to it is the only way
in which it can be adequately treated.
At the time Atchison county was settled, railroad transportation by steam
was not a new thing, although it was in its primitive stages. Navigation of
the inland waterways had reached rather a high state of development, and
the matter of transportation then was just as essential to the purposes of civil-
ization as in this day of the railroad and the automobile, but it was many years
before the steam railroads made the steamboat traffic of the Mississippi and
Missouri rivers obsolete. The tremendous subsidies granted by the Govern-
ment in later years for railroad building, however, and the splendid oppor-
tunity for piling up wealth in the projection of new railroads and the operation
of them, without Governmental restrictions, together with the advantage of
speedier transportation facilities, completely over-shadowed the steamboat bus-
ness, and as a result, our great inland waterway system has grown into prac-
tical disuse. Shortly after Atchison county was organized, and the city of
Atchison laid out, agitation was started for railroad connections with the
East. One of the first ordinances passed by the city council in 1858 pro-
vided for an election to submit a proposition to take $100,000.00 of stock
in railroad. At that time the only means of communication to the out-
side world Atchison had was by steamboats to St. Louis. It was in
October, 1855, that George M. Million, Lewis Burnes, D. D. Burnes, James
N. Burnes and Calvin F. Burnes commenced the operation of a ferry across
151
152 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the. Missouri river. Their dock on the Kansas side was at the foot of Atchison
street. Their charter was secured from the legislature under the terms of
which a bond of $1,000.00 was required to insure the faithful performance of
their operations. Although there was no public utilities commission in Kansas
in 1855, the legislature took upon itself the task of fixing tlie rates to be
charged by the ferry owners, in order that the public would not be robbed.
They were as follows :
Two-horse wagon, or wagon and one yoke of oxen
(loaded) $1.00
Two-horse wagon, or wagon and one yoke of oxen
(unloaded ) 75 ■
One additional pair of liorses or oxen 25
Loose cattle or oxen, per liead 10
Sheep and hogs, per head 05
•Man and horse 25
Foot passengers 10
One horse and buggy or other \-ehicle 50
Two horse buggy or carriage 75
The original promoters operated the feriy but a sliort time, and
early in the following year, they disposed of their interests to Dr. W'illiam L.
Challiss, and. his brother, Luther C. Challiss, and A\'illis E. Gaylord, and tlie
ferry, under Dr. Challiss, and subsequent owners, continued in operation until
1875, when the present bridge was built.
About the time the first ferry was established in Atchison, a numlier of
Salt Lake freighters selected the town as a starting and outfitting point and
from that time until 1866, Atchison was the eastern tenninus of many of
the leading overland mail and freighting routes. It was the natural location
for communication with the West, as it was tweh'e miles further west in
Kansas than any otlier point on the Missouri river. Freight and passengers
were brought to the Atchison levee, at the foot of Commercial street, by a
regular line of Packets plying between St. Louis and St. Joseph. It required
eight days to make the round trip, and in tlie very early days, as many or four
to six boats landed here in the busy season.
During the winter months traffic on tlie ri\-er was practically suspended,
on account nf tlie ice. These boats carried as many as 400 passengers, the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I 53
fare from St. Louis to St. Joseph ranging from $10.00 to $15.00, wliicli in-
cluded meals and state rooms. The cooking was said to have been very fine,
and the passengers always enjoyed the best that money could bu\-.
In addition to passengers, these boats carried from 500 to ()00 tons of
freight, and the rates were as high as $2.50 per cut. on merchandise that
would not cost to exceed fifteen cents per cwt. in these days. The crew con-
sisted of 80 to 100 men, and the value of these boats was estimated to be
about $45,000.00 each. The river then, as now, was filled with sandbars and
it required the greatest experience to pilot a boat safely to its destination, and
as a result, experienced pilots would command monthly salaries ranging from
$250.00 to $500.00. Each boat carried two pilots. A. B. Symns, for many
years a successful wholesale grocery merchant in Atchison. E. K. Blair, the
miller, and George W. Bowman, who also subsequently engaged in the grocery
business, were employees on several of the steamboats that landed at Atchison.
Stories of gambling and revelries, by day and by night, are not uncommon, and
it is said it was not an unusual sight to see as many as ten games of poker
going on in the main cabins on every trip, in which real money and not mere
chips were used. Among the famous boats on the river in the early days were
the "Hesperian," which burned near Atchison in 1859; the "Converse." "Kate
Kinney," "Fort Aubrey," "Morning Star," "John D. Peny," "Sioux City,"
"Omaha," "Carrier," and the "James H. Lucas," which made the record run
from St. Louis to St. Joseph, encompassing the trip in fifty-nine hours and
twenty-two minutes, were among the well known boats that docked at the
Atchison levee from time to time. The leading wharfmaster of the steamboat
days was Mike Finney, who was the father of Atchison's present mayor
(1915). James H. Garside succeeded him and remained in the position until
steamboat days had passed. Had the Missouri river been the beneficiary of
of the bounty of the Government, as the railroads were in that day, it would
still be a splendid auxiliary of our transportation system. The Missouri
river, so far as Atchison is concerned, is in the same condition it was in when
Mark Twain made an early trip on it from St. Louis to St. Joseph. In
"Roughing It," he said :
"We were six days going from St. Louis to St. Joseph, a trip that was
so dull and sleepy and eventless, that it has left no more impression on my
memory than if its duration had been six minutes instead of that many days.
No record is left in my mind now concerning it, but a confused jumble of
savage looking snags, which we deliberately walked over with one wheel or
the other; and of reefs whicli we butted and butted and then retired from, and
154
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
climbed over in some softer place : and of sand bars which we roosted on occa-
sionally and rested, and then got our crutches and sparred over. In fact the
boat might as well have gone to St. Joseph by land, for she was walking most
of the time anyhow — climbing over reefs and clambering over snags, patiently
and laboriously all day long. The captain said she was a bully boat, and all
she wanted was more "shear" and a bigger wheel. I thought she wanted a
pair of stilts, but I had the sagacity not to say so."
STEAMBOAT LINES TO ATCHISON 1856.
From Squatter Sovereign.
March ii, 1856.
"A. B. Chambers," James Gormley, Master ; D. Jamison. Clerk.
"F. X. Aubrey," Ambrose Reeder, Captain; Ben V. Glime, Clerk.
"Polar Star," E. F. Dix, Master ; H. M. Glossom, Clerk.
"New Lucy," Wm. Conley, Master.
"James H. Lucas," Andrew Wineland, Commander.
March 18, 1856.
"Star of the West," E. F. Dix, Master.
March 25, 1856.
"J. M. Convers," Geo. W. Bowman, Captain; G. A. Reicheneker. Clerk.
April 29, 1856.
"Martha Jewett," D. H. Silver, Captain; W. McCreight, Clerk.
"Sultan," John H. McCloy, Master : D. C. Sheble, Clerk.
"Edinburg," Dan Able, Master.
May 27, 1856.
"Morning Star," ^^'m. Brierly, Master.
June 24, 1856.
"Emigrant," Hugli L. White, Master; H. R. ^McDonald, Clerk.
STEAMBOAT REGISTER.
Reported for tlie Champion by '\l. C. Finney, Steamboat Agent.
E. M. Ryland, Blunt IMonday, 8th.
Peerless, Bissell Wednesday, loth.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 55
John H. Dickey, Abel Saturday, 13th.
H. H. Russell, Kenny Sunday, 14th.
Hesperian, Kerchival Sunday, 14th.
F. X. Aubry, dime Wednesday, 17th.
Platte Valley, Postill Wednesday, 17th.
Wm. Campbell, Dale Thursday, i8th.
White Cloud, O'Neil Friday, 19th.
Spread Eagle, Lagrage Friday, 19th.
Emma, Friday, 19th.
BOUND DOWN.
E. M. Ryland, Blunt Tuesday, 9th.
Peerless, Bissell Friday, 12th.
John H. Dickey, Abel Sunday, 14th.
W. H. Russell, Kenney Monday, 15th.
Hesperian, Kerchival Tuesday, i6th.
F. X. Aubry, dime Wednesday, 17th.
Wm. Campbell, Dale Friday, 19th.
White Cloud. O'Neil Saturday, 20th.
(From Freedom's Champion, Atchison, March 20, 185S.)
Spread Eagle, Lagrage Friday, 19th.
Emma, Yore Friday, 19th.
Silver Heels, Nanson Saturday, 20th.
Morning Star, Burk Sunday, 21st.
Polar Star, McMullin Monday, 22d.
Twilight, Shaw Monday, 22d.
St. Mary, Devenny Tuesday, 23d.
Carrier, Postal Wednesday, 24th.
Sovereign, Hutchinson Wednesday, 24th.
Omaha, Wineland Thursday, 25th.
F. X. Aubry, dime Thursday, 25th.
Minnehaha, Baker Thursday, 25th,
John H. Dickey, Abel Friday, 26th.
White Cloud, O'Neil Saturday, 27th.
I.S6
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Florence, Throckmorton Saturday, 27th.
Polar Star, jMcMullin Sunday, 28th.
Hesperian, Lee Sunday, 28th.
Star of the West, Olhnan Monday, 2901.
South Western, Dehaven IMonday, 29th.
John Warner, Pater son Monday, 29th.
Sioux City, Baker Monday, 29th.
War Eagle, White Tuesday, 30th.
Ben Lewis, Brierly Tuesday, 30th.
Thomas E. Tutt, Dozitr Tuesday. 30th.
J. D. Perry, Davis Wednesday, 31st.
Watossa, Richoneker Wednesday, 31st.
Alonzo Child, Holland \\'ednesday, 31st.
Wm. Campbell, Dale Wednesday, 31st.
Kate Howard, Nonson W'ednesday, 31st.
Sky Lark, Johnson Thursday, April i.
E. M. Ryland, Blunt Thursday, ist.
Silver Heels, Nanson Friday, 2d.
John H. Dickey, Abel Friday. 2d.
F. A. Ogden Friday, 2d.
Every boat on the above list except eight have passed down again, mak-
ing in all. sixty landings at our wharf, in the short space of thirteen days.
(From Freedom's Champion. Atchison, April 3. 1858.)
ST. LOUIS & ATCHISON UNION LINE.
One of the following Splendid Steamers Will leave
ATCHISON FOR ST. LOUIS DAILY.
Sunday Boats
Monday Boats,
Tuesday Boats,
Wednesday Boats
Thursday Boats,
Fridav Boats,
Peerless and Silver Heels, Alternately.
Hesperian and Morning Star, Alternately.
South Webster and A. B. Chambers, Alternately.
Ben Lewus and Twilight, Alternately.
Sovereign
Kate Howard and Minnehaha Alternately
For Freight or passage apply to
G. \V. BOw'mAN, Agent. Atchison.
N. B. Tickets sold through to all the Eastern and Southern Cities.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I 57
OFFICE on the Levee.
(From Freedom's Cliaiiif'ioii. Atchison. March 27, 1858.)
Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, Dec. 5, 1857;
Omaha, Andrew W'ineland, Master ; J. J. Wilcox, clerk.
Freedom's Champion, Atchison, April 3, 1858:
Ben Lewis, T. H. Brierly, Master; W. G. Barkley, clerk.
Freedom's Champion, ^March 12, 1859:
Alonzo Child, D. DeHaven, Master; Stanley Ryland, clerk; H. P. Short,
clerk.
CHAPTER X.
OVERLAND FREIGHTING.
ATCHISON AS AN OUTFITTING POINT FREIGHTING COMPANIES PRINCIPAL
ROUTES STAGE LINES OVERLAND MAIL ROUTES BEN HOLLADAY BUT-
TERFIELD's OVERLAND DISPATCH TIME TO DENVER TABLES OF TIME
AND DISTANCES ON VARIOUS ROUTES STATISTICAL.
Atchison was chosen as an outfitting point for the SaU Lake freighters,
in addition to many other reasons, l^ecaiise we had one of the best steamboat
landings on the river, and had the best wagon road in the country leading
west. Twenty-four miles west of Atchison this road was intersected by the
old overland mail trail from St. Joseph. Leavenworth had laid out a new road
west, over which it was planned to run the Pike's Peak Express stages in the
spring of 1859, as well as the mule and ox teams, for Denver and the mountain
mining camps. A branch road was also opened to intersect this route from
Atchison in the spring of 1859, under the direction of Judge F. G. Adams.
The expedition started west from Atchison in the spring of that year, over
what is now known and was then known as the Parallel road, then through
Muscotah and America City, across into the Big Blue river, near Blue Rapids,
and westward through Jewell county. The object of this expedition was to
open a shorter route to the mountains than the one opened by the Leavenworth
company, and the route proposed did save sixty-five miles distance, and almost
twelve hours time. E. D. Boyd, an engineer, measured the entire distance
from Atchison to Denver. He also made an accurate report, showing dis-
tances and the crossing of streams, and a brief description of the entire route,
which was published in the Atchison Champion, in June, 1859. According
to that report, the distance from Atchison to Denver was 620 miles. But not-
withstanding the advantage of this new road, it was abandoned immediately
and never traveled by ox or mule trains out of Atchison, for the reason that
158
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I59
the old military road by Fort Kearney and along the Platte river enjoyed
Government protection from the Indians, and was settled at intervals almost
the entire distance.
During tlie period of overland freighting on the plains, more trains left
Atchison than any other point on the river. The leading firms engaged in
the freighting business were, Stevens & Porter ; Dennison & Brown ; Hocka-
day-Burr & Company: J. S. Galbraith; George W. Howe; Brown Brothers;
E. K. Blair: I. N. Bringman ; Roper & Nesbitt; Harrison Brothers; Henry
Reisner; J. C. Peters; P. K. Purcell ; R. E. Wilson; Will Addoms ; George I.
Stebbins; John C. Bird; William Home; Amos Howell; Owen Degan, and
a numbers of others.
The cost of shipping merchandise to Denver was veiy high, as everything
was carried by the pound, rather tlian by the hundred pounds rate. Flour,
bacon, molasses, whiskey, furniture and trunks were carried at pound rates.
The rates per pound on merchandise shipped by ox or mule wagons from Atchi-
son to Denver prior to i860, were as follows :
Flour 9 cents
Tobacco i2>4 cents
Sugar 1 3 1/2 cents
Bacon 15 cents
Dry goods 15 cents
Crackers 17 cents
^^'hiskey 18 cents
Groceries 19^ cents
Trunks 25 cents
Furniture 31 cents
It has been said by those who witnessed the tremendous overland traffic
of the late fifties and the early sixties, that those of this generation can form
no conception of the enormous amount of traffic overland there was in those
days. Trains were being constantly outfitted not only at Atchison, but at
other points along the river. Twenty-one days was about the time required
for a span of horses or mules to make the trip to Denver and keep the stock
in good condition. It required five weeks for ox trains to make the same dis-
tance, and to Salt Lake, horses and mules were about six weeks making the
trip, and ox trains were on the road from sixty-five to seventy days. It was
the ox upon which mankind depended in those days to carry on the commerce
l6o HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
of the plains. They were the surest and safest for hauling a large part of
the freight destined for the towns and camps west of the Missouri river. Next
in importance to the ox, was the mule, because they were tough and reliable,
and could endure fatigue.
The year of 1859 was a big year in the history of Atchison, for in that
year the percentage of the growth of the town was greater than any other
year in its history. The fact that it was the best point on the Missouri river
for the overland staging and' freighting outfits, brought it in greater commer-
cial prominence. At that time, Irwin & McGraw were prominent contrac-
tors, who were supplying the various military posts on the frontier. The mere
fact that these Government trains were started from Atchison, ga\-e the town
wonderful prestige.
It was nothing unusual to see two or three steamboats lying at the levee,
discharging freight, and as many more in sight either going up the river from
St. Louis, or down the river from St. Joe. It was not uncommon for a boat to
be loaded at Pittsburgh, Pa., or Cincinnati, Ohio, going down the Ohio
river and up the Mississippi and Missouri to Atchison; it was not an unusual
sight to see a whole boat load of wagons and ox yokes, mining machinery,
boilers and other material necessary for the immense trade of the West.
The greater part of the traffic out of Atchison to the West was over the
Military road, alqng the south bank of the Platte, and along this road teams
of six to eight yoke of cattle, hauling heavily loaded wagons, and strings of
four or six horse or mule teams, formed almost an endless procession.
The liveliest period of overland trade extended from 1859 to 1866, during
which time there was on the plains and in the mountains an estimated floating
population of 250,000. The greater majority of the people on the plains
produced but few of the necessities of life, and consequent!}- they had to be
supplied from the Missouri ri\-er. During the closing year of the Civil war,
the travel was immense, most of the emigration going into the gold mining
camps of the Northwest.
While there was considerable freighting out of Atchison to the ^^'est fol-
lowing the opening of the Territory, overland staging did not reach its heighth
until 1861. The era of overland staging from the Missouri river to the
Pacific coast lasted altogether about eight years. The first great o\erland
staging enterprise started in 1858, on what is known as the Southern or
Bntterfield route. This route ran from St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn.. inter-
secting at Ft. Smith, Ark. After being in operation for nearly three vears,
the route was succeeded bv a daih- line on the Central route, which ran from
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY l6l
the Missouri river five )-ears, first starting at St. Joseph, Mo., July i, 1861,
and then from Atchison in September of that year. On the Central route,
the through staging came to a close after the completion of the Union Pacific
railroad from Omaha across the continent. Originally the stage enterprise
was known as the Overland Mail Compan}- — the Southern or Butterfield line.
After it was transferred north and ran in connection with the stages to Denver^
it was known as the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express
Company. After passing into the Iiands of Ben Holladay, it became the
Overland Stage Line, and finally the name was changed to the Holladay Over-
land Mail Express Company. In 1866, the line had been consolidated with
the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, a stage company which was organized in
1865, with headquarters in Atchison.
Atchison's importance as an overland staging terminus was fixed by
reason of an order of the United States Postoffice Department. Before the
final change, making Atchison headquarters and starting point for the mail,
the road from Atchison westward intersected the road from St. Joseph at
Kennekuk. The distance from Atchison to Kennekuk was twenty-four miles,
while it was about thirty-five miles from St. Joseph, and consequently there
was a saving of about nine miles in favor of Atchison. This was an import-
ant item, in carrying the mails, and resulted in the order of the Postoffice De-
partment making Atchison the starting point. The distance by the overland
stage line from Atchison to Placerville was 1,913 miles, and following the
abandonment of the Butterfield or Southern route, it became the longest and
the most important stage line in America. There were 153 stations between
Atchison and Placerville, located about twelve and one-half miles apart. The
local fare was $225.00, or about twelve cents per mile, and as high as $2,000.00
a day was frequently taken in at the Atchison office for passenger fare alone.
The fare between Atchispn and Denver was $75.00, or a little over eight cents
per mile, and to Salt Lake City, $150.00. Local fares ran as high as fifteen
cents per mile. Each passenger was allowed twenty-five pounds of baggage.
All in excess of that was charged at the rate of $1.00 per pound. During the
war, the fare to Denver was increased from seventy-five dollars to $100.00.
and before the close of the war, it had reached $175.00. or nearly twenty-seven
cents per mile.
It required about 2,750 horses and mules to run the stage line between
Atchison and Placerville. It required, in addition to the regular supply of
horses to operate the stages, some additional animals for emergencies, and it
was estimated that the total cost of the horses on this stage line was about one-
ID2 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
half million dollars. The harness was the finest that could be made, and C(.ist
about $150.00 for a complete set of four, or about $55,000.00 for the whole
line. The feeding of the stock was one of the big items of expense, and there
were annually consumed at each station from forty to eighty tons of hay,
at a cost of $15 to $40 per ton. Each animal was apportioned an average
of twelve quarts of corn every day, which cost from two to ten cents a pound.
In the Salt Lake and California divisions, oats and barley, grown in Utah,
were substituted for corn, but which cost about the same.
There were about 100 Concord coaches which, in the early sixties
cost about $1,000.00 each. The company owned about one-half of the stations,
in addition to thousands of dollars' worth of miscellaneous property, at differ-
ent places along the route. There were superintendents, general and local
attorneys, paymasters and division agents, all of whom drew big salaries.
Among the stage company's agents in the late fifties and early sixties were
Hugo Richards and Paul Coburn, at Atchison ; Robert L. Pease, of Atchison,
was also for a time agent at Denver.
The mail was carried from Atchison west by Forts Kearney, Laramie
and Bridges, once a week. The schedule time from the river to Salt Lake City
was about eighteen days, and the distance was about 1,200 to 1,300 miles.
In 1 86 1 a daily overland mail was established out of Atchison, and with
the exception of a few weeks in 1S62, 1864 and 1865, on account of Lidian
troubles, the overland was in operation and ran stag'es daily out of Atchison
for about five years. It was the greatest stage line in the world, carrying
mail, passengers and express. It was also regarded as the safest and the
fastest way to cross the plains, and the inountain rang-es. It was equipped
with the latest modern four and six horse and mule Concord coaches, and the
meals at the eating stations along the route were first-class, and cost from fifty
cents to $2.GO each.
\\'hen Atchison was selected as the starting place for the overland mail,
it was not certain how long it would remain the eastern terminus of the
mail route. The Civil war was at its height, and the rebels were doing much
damage to the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, which had been constructed in '
1859. They tore up the track, burned the bridges, destroyed the culverts,
fired into the trains, and placed obstructions along the roadbed, frequently
delaying the mail from two to six days. As a result of this condition of
affairs, it was feared that Atchison would lose the overland mail, and the Gov-
ernment would change the starting point to some town further north, but be-
cause of the advantageous geographical position of Atchison, it was decided
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 63
that it would be disastrous to make a chauge, s(") the Government placed a
large number of troops along the entire line of the Hannibal & St. Joe, to
insure the safety of the mails, and Atchison continued to be the point of de-
parture for the overland mail, until 1866.
The stage coaches used by the overland line were built in Concord,
N. H. They carried nine passengers inside, and one or two could ride on the
box by the driver. Some of the stages were built with an extra seat above and
in the rear of the driver, so that three additional persons could ride there,
making fourteen, with the driver. Sometimes an extra man would be crowded
on the box, making as many as fifteen persons, who could ride on the Con-
cord coach without very much inconvenience.
This chapter on overland staging would be unfinished, unless
some reference was made to Ben HoUaday, who played such an im-
portant part in the overland staging days of this country. Ben Holladay
had a remarkable career. In. his early days, when he resided in Weston, Mo.,
he drove a stage himself. He was a genuine westerner, having run a saloon
and tavern in Weston as early as 1838 and 1839. He went overland to Cali-
fornia in 1849, and took a train to Salt Lake City with $70,000 worth of
goods. He spent some time in Utah, where he made considerable money.
Besides operating the Overland Stage for over five years, Holladay had
other important interests in the ^^'est. Among his enterprises was a fleet
of passenger steamers, plying between San Francisco and Portland. Ore.
At the height of his career he was a millionaire, and few men in the country
accumulated wealth more rapidly. He spent his money freely, and squandered
vast sums when he was making it. After he had accumulated a fortune, he
went to New York to live, and built a most pretentious residence a
few miles out of New York, on the Hudson river, which he called Ophir
Farm. After he was awarded some good mail contracts by the Government,
he built a mansion in Washington, which he furnished superbly, and collected
a large classical library, with handsomely bound volumes, and also was a
patron of art, collecting fine oil paintings of celebrated masters in Europe and
'\merica. He also made a collection of fine bronzes and statuary, and paid
$6,000.00 each for two bronze lions.
It was in i860 that he came into possession of the Central Overland Cali-
fornia Mail Line, but subsequent trouble with the Indians damaged his prop-
erty to the extent of a half million dollars. His stage stations were burned,
and his stock stolen, and stage coaches destroyed. Finalh-, in 1888. being
164 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
broken in health and in debt, his Washington home, with its contents, was
sold under the hammer.
He came into possession of practically all the big overland routes by pur-
chase and foreclosure of mortgages, and he made his vast fortune in mail
contracts from the Government. He remained at the head of the overland
line for about five years, taking possession of it in December, 1861, and dis-
posing of it, including the stations, rolling stock and animals, in the latter
part of 1866, to Wells Fargo & Company.
Mr. Holladay died in August, 1877, in Portland, Ore., a poor man.
BUTTERFIELD's overland DISPATCrt.
One of the interesting promoters in overland staging days was D. A.
Butterfield. He came to Atchison from Denver in 1864, and engaged in the
commission business in a large stone ware-house near the Massasoit House,
and, in addition to his commission business, he was agent for a line of packets
plying between St. Louis and Atchison. Shortly after his arrival in Atchison
he began the development of an overland stage line, which subsequently
reached very large proportions. His ambition was to be at the head of an
overland stage line, and, having selected what was known as the Smoky Hill
route along the Kansas and Smoky Hill rivers, which was fifty miles shorter
than any other route to Denver, he proceeded with che further development
of his plans. He was a smart, capable, ambitious and aggressive fellow,
with vim, and was in touch with a number of men of large means in New
York, whom he soon interested in his enterprise. Early in 1865 the following
advertisement appeared in the Atchison Daily Free Press, announcing Mr.
Butterfield's project:
"BUTTERFIELD'S OVERLAND DISPATCH.
"To all points in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and ^Montana Territory.
Principal office, Atchison, Kansas. New York Office
No. I Vesey St. Astor House.
"Through bills of lading given from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pitts-
burgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and Burlington, Iowa.
"D. A. Butterfield, Proprietor, Atchison, Kansas.
"A. W. Spalding, General Agent, New York."
Butterfield's consuming desire was to control the big end of the trans-
portation business across the plains. He maintained an expensive office in
New York City and called his line "The Butterfield Overland Dispatch."
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 65
Conspicuous signs were displayed over the doors of his office in the Astor
House, showing caravans of great covered wagons drawn by mules and oxen,
which signs attracted the attention of all. During- his promotion of this new
stage line Butterfield lived in great style and elegance in Atchison, in a house,
the remains of which still stand (1915) at the southwest corner of Fifth and
S streets. He entertained lavishly, and "champagne flowed like water" at
his home when he gave a party.
Tlie direct route out of Atchison to Denver, chosen by Butterfield, was
in a southwesterly direction to Valley Falls, thence across the plains to a point
on the old Fort Riley military road a few miles northeast of Topeka. The
Butterfield line was first operated with mules and oxen, but as the road grew
more prosperous, four horse stages were substituted. "Dave" Butterfield, as
he was known, w'as determined to make Ben Holladay a pigmy in the overland
stage business. Although it was known to many that there was more wind
behind his enterprise than real money, yet in spite of the fact that his efforts
in the staging world were more or less looked upon as a promotion scheme,
he interested considerable capital, including the United States, American and
the Adams Express companies. He was a great believer in publicity and
spent large sums in newspaper advertising, but it required much monc}- to
properly equip and operate a stage line, and Butterfield did not have enough.
In consequence of his lack of capital, his original company failed, but was sub-
sequently reorganized in June, 1865. Butterfield, undaunted, went east again
and raised more money, and before his return, he capitalized a new company
with $3,000,000.00, with one-half paid in. Branch offices were opened in
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Atchison,
Leavenworth, Denver and Salt Lake City. John A. Kinney, a pioneer busi-
ness man of Atchison, who had been connected with Butterfield from the be-
ginning, continued in charge of the Atchison office under the reorganization,
with a salary of $2,500 per year Shortly after the new company was
organized, Butterfield inserted another advertisement in the Free Press, as
follows :
"BUTTERFIELD'S OVERLAND DISPATCH.
"To all points in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Montana
and the state of Nevada.
"Contracts can be made with this Company through their Agents to
transport freight from all the eastern cities to all localities in the Territories,
the rate to include railroad and overland carriage and all commissions upon
l66 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the Missouri River. The Company owns its own tronsportation and gives a
through bill of lading which protects shipper from extreme East to the
Far M'est.
"express DEPARTMENT.
"About August, 1865 the Company will liave a line of express coaches
running daily between Atchison, Kansas and Denver, Colorado; and about
September ist, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and as soon in the Spring as possi-
ble, a tri-weekly between Denver and Salt Lake City over which merchandise
will be carried at fair express rates.
"TIME TO DENVER— EIGHT (8) DAYS.
"INSTRUCTIONS: Mark goods for cattle and mule trains: 'But'd
Ov"d Desp'h.' Mark goods for express: B. O. D. Express, Atchison."
Some changes were afterwards made in the location of the route, but
it left as before, in a southwesterly direction to Valley Falls. The business of
the new company was very large from the start and grew rapidly. Steain-
boats discharged great quantities of freight at the Atchison levee for shipment
by Butterfield's line. A large amount also came from St. Joseph by railroad.
In one day during July, 1865, nineteen car loads of freight consigned to the
Butterfield line at Atchison were received for transportation across the
plains. In the following month a train was loaded with 600,000 pounds of
merchandise for Salt Lake City. One of the early stages that left Atchison
on this line made the run to Junction City, which was 119 miles, in less than
twenty-four hours, or at the rate of five and one-half miles an hour, including
all stops, but the reorganized Butterfield line was not long in operation before
it met with many obstacles. The fact that the Smoky Hill route selected by
Butterfield was not guarded by Government troops of soldiers, as the Fort
Kearney route was, caused the Indians to make many raids upon the overland
trains. A number of severe encounters with Indians were had from time to
time, until it became necessary to operate the stages with a mounted guard in
advance. It finally became so dangerous that it was difficult to secure mes-
sengers and drivers to operate the line. This condition became so serious that
the "Overland Dispatch," which in the meanwhile was becoming more finan-
cially embarrassed from day to day, was finally obliged to retire from the
field. During the sliort time that it lasted, it was widelv known throughout
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 16/
the western country, and in the East it was known in most of the leading
cities. While this company, to some extent, cut down the receipts of the Holla-
day line, traffic across the plains had become so dull in the sixties that tliere
was not much profit in it for anybody. In March, 1866, Holladay took o\'er
the Butterfield line and the following announcement appeared in the
newspapers :
"NOTICE.
"To the Employees of tlie 0\-erlan(l Distpatch Compau)-.
"The Overland Stage Line and the Ox'erland Dispatch Company liave
become one property under the name of the Holladay Overland Mail
8: Express Company.
"The new Company guarantees payment to the employees of the
late 0\-erland Dispatch Company. An agent is now enroute from New
York to pay them.
"David Street, Gen'l Agt..
"Holladay Mail & Express Co.
"Atchison, Kansas, March 17, 1866."
Tlie business that Butterfield had worked up was continued by the new
company, but Butterfield was hopelessly down and out. While in the midst of
wliat appeared to be a prosperous freight business with many tons of ponderous
mining machineiy in transit across the plains to the mining camps of Colorado,
the mining bubble broke, and great difficulty was experienced in collecting
freight bills that were accumulating on machinery that was being transported
across the plains, so it was unloaded upon the plains and there it was left to
rust out. In less than eighteen months from the first organization of the
Overland Dispatch, Butterfield was a financial wreck, and the consolidation
of his company with the Holladay line was the only action that could be taken
to conserve the property which the Butterfield line had acquired. Butter-
field subsequently left Atchison and lucated in Mississippi, where he organized
a railroad, which also proved a failure. He left Mississippi for Arkansas and
built and operated a horse car line in Hot Springs. He finally got into a
quarrel with one of his employees, who struck him wjth a neck )'oke, from
the effects of which he died.
OTHER ROUTES.
Atchison was an important point for stage routes as early as 1859. There
was a line of hacks which ran daily from Atchison to Leavenworth, and an-
other to Lawrence, and still another by Oskaloosa and \"alley Falls across the
l68 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Kansas river to Lecompton, Big Springs, Tecumseh and Topeka. To reach
Lawrence from Atchison in those days, passengers were compelled to go by
Leavenworth, until a line was opened by Mount Pleasant and Oskaloosa, re-
ducing the distance to forty-five miles, and the fare to $4.50. There was a
line north to Doniphan, Troy, Highland and Iowa Point. A line was also
operated by Doniphan to Geary City, Troy and St. Joseph, and still another
ran by Hiawatha to Falls City, Neb. The most important route, which had
its headquarters at that time in Atchison, was a four mule line. The Central
Overland California and Pike's Peak Express, which with its speedy Concord
stages, crossed the plains twice a week. This was the Holladay line. The
Kansas Stage Company operated a line to Leavenworth, which made stops
at Sumner and Kickapoo. A daily line, operated by the Kansas Stage Com-
pany, ran to Junction City by way of Mount Pleasant, Winchester, Osawkie,
Mt. Florence, Indianola, Topeka, Silver Like, St. Marys, Louisville, Ogden
and Ft. Riley. The distance over this route was 120 miles and the fare was
$10.00. There was also a two-horse stage line carrying the mail from Atchi-
son to Louisville, Kan. Louisville was one of the most important towns in
Pottawatomie county, and in 1859 was an important station on the route of
the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express. The mail line as then operated ran
through Monrovia, Arrington, Holton and other points to its destination in
the West. J. H. Thompson, who was an old man then, was the contractor
for carrying the mail and was well knowTi along the whole route, being
familiarly known as "LTncle Johnny" Thompson. His stage left Atchison
every Saturday morning at 8 o'clock and arrived from Louisville on Friday
evening at 6. The fare from Atchison to Louisville was $8.00.
"ST. JOSEPH, ATCHISON AND LECOMPTON
"STAGE LINE.
"Passing through Geary City, Doniphan, Atchison, Winchester, Hickoi-y
Point, and Oscaloosa, connecting at Lecompton with lines to Topeka, Grass-
hopper Falls, Fort Riley, Lawrence, Kansas City, and the Railroad at St.
Joseph for the East.
"Offices — Massasoit House, Atchison, K. T., and Planter's House, St.
Joseph, Mo."
(From Freedom's Champion, Atchison, February 12, 1859.)
L.\ST DAYS OF THE STAGING BUSINESS.
The people of Atchison in the sixties little reaHzed the advantages the
town gained by being the starting point for the California mail. They became
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 69
used to it, the same as we have this da}- been accustomed to the daily arrival
and departure of trains, but it was a gloomy day for Atchison when "the
overland" finally pulled out of the town for good, after having run its stages
out of the city almost daily for five years. The advance of the Union Pacific
railroad from Omaha west along the Platte to Ft. Kearney, and the completion
of the Kansas Pacific railway was the cause of the abandonment of Atchison
by the "overland" as a point of departure for the mail. The company for many
weeks before its final departure had been taking both stock and coaches off of
the eastern division from the Missouri river to Rock creek, and other steps
in preparation for moving the point of departure further west were taken. It
was a little after ii o'clock in the morning of December 19, 1866, that the long
train of Concord stages, express coaches, hacks and other rolling stock started
from their stables and yards on Second street to leave Atchison forever. The
procession went west out of Atchison along Commercial street. Alex Benham
and David Street, both faithful employees of "The Overland," were in charge
of the procession and they rode out of town in a Concord buggy. Other em-
ployees followed in buggies and coaches, and then the canvas covered stages,
followed by over forty teams and loose horses, slowly moved out of town,
headed for Fort Riley and Junction City.
ROUTE FROM ATCHISON
via the
SMOKY HILL FORK ROUTE.
From Atchison to Miles Total Remarks
Junction of the Great Military Road.
Provisions, entertainment and grass.
On the Grasshopper, wood and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
\\'ood and grass.
Wood and grass.
Wood and grass.
Water, wood and grass.
Water, wood and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
Grass and buffalo chips.
Gross and buffalo chips.
Wood, water and grass.
Mormon Grove
3/2
Monrovia
8.1/3
12
Mouth of Bill's
Creek
13
25
Ter. Road from Nebraska
15
40
Soldier Creek
10
50
Lost Creek
15
65
Louisville
10
75
.Manhattan City
12
87
Fort Riley
15
102
Salina
52
154
Pawnee Trail-Smoky Hill
130
284
Pawnee Fork
35
319
Arkansas Crossi
ng
35
354
I/O
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
\\'ood, water and grass.
Water and grass.
W'ater and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
^\'ood, water and grass.
Water and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
From this point to the mines there is
heavy timber, and srass and water
in abundance.
From Freedom's Champion, February 12, 1859.
ROUTE FROM ATCHISON
via
The Great Mihtary Road to Salt Lake, and Col. Fremont's Route in 1841.
Bent's Fort
150
504
.Bent's Old Fort
40
544
Huerfano
40
584
Fontaine qui Bouille
15
599
Crossing of same
18
617
Jim's Camp
15
632
Brush Corral
12
644
Head of Cherr_\- Creek
26
670
Crossing of Same
35
705
]\Iines
6
711
From Atchison to Miles
Total
Marmon Grove
3/3
Lancaster
s'A
9
Huron ( Cross. Grasshop-
per)
4
T3
Kennekuk. do main do
10
23
Capioma (Walnut Creek)
17
40
Richmond (head of Nema
-
ha)
T5
55
Marysville
40
95
Small Creek on Prairie
10
105
do do
10
115
do do
7
122
Wyth Creek
7
129
Big Sandy Creek
13
142
Di-y Sandy Creek
17
159
Little Blue River
12
171
Road leaves Little Blue
44
215
Small Creek
7
222
Platte River
17
239
Ft. Kearney
10
249
Remarks
Junction of the Great ^Military Road.
Provisions and grass.
Provisions and grass.
First Salt Lake Mail Station.
Provisions, timber, and grass.
Provisions, timber, and grass.
Salt Lake Mail Station and
pro-
visions.
\\'ater and Gross.
Lu.xurient grass.
\\'ater and grass.
Wood and grass.
\\'ood and grass.
Wood and luxuriant grass.
Heavy timber.
\\'ood and grass.
Wood and grass.
\\'ood, grass and buffalo.
Salt Lake Mail Station and
pro-
HISTORY
OF ATCHISON COUNTY 17I
I J Mile point
1/
266
^^"|)od, water and grass.
Plum Creek
i8
284
\\'ood and grass.
Cottonwood Spring
40
324
Wood and grass.
Fremont's Springs
40
3^4
Luxuriant grass.
O'Fallon's Bluffs
5
369
Wood, water and grass.
Crossing South Platte
40
409
Wood, water, and grass.
Ft. St.. Vrain
200
609
Provisions, and from this to the
Cherry Creek
40
649
mines the route is well timbered and
watered.
From Freedom's Cliainpioii, February
1859.
TABLE OF DISTANCES
— From —
ATCHISON TO THE GOLD MINES,
\-ia the
First Standard Parallel Route to the Republican Fork of the Kansas River,
thence following the Trail of Colonel Fremont on his Explora-
tions in 1843, to Cherry Creek and the Mines.
Compiled from Colonel Fremont's Surveys, and the most reliable information
derived from the traders across the Great Plains.
From Atchison to
Miles '
Total
Lancaster
9
Muscotah, on Grasshopper 1 1
20
Eureka
II
31
Ontario, on Elk Creek
10
41
America, on Soldiers Creek 9
50
Vermillion City
25
75
Crossing of Big Blue
3
78
Little Blue creek
17
95
Head of Blue creek
2},
118
Republican Fork
12
130
Remarks
Settlement, provisions and grass.
Settlement, provisions and grass.
Settlement, provisions and grass.
Settlement, provisions and grass.
Settlement, provisions and grass.
Settlement, entertainment and pro-
visions.
Heavy timber and grass.
Timber and grass.
Wood, water and grass.
1/2
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Republican Fork crossing 2
Branch of Solomon's Fork 38
Leaves Solomon's Fork 75
Branch of Republican Fork 1 5
Following up Rep. to its
head 190
Beaver Creek 23
Bijou Creek 22
Kioway Creek 15
Cherry Creek and Mines 25
From Freedom's Cliampion,
Colonel Fremont describes this sec-
tion as "affording an excellent road,
it 1>eing generally over high and
level prairies, with numerous streams
which are well timbered with ash,
elm, and verj' heavy oak, and
abounding in herds of buffalo, elk
and antelope."
Heavy timber and grass on course.
\\'ood, grass and buffalo.
Wood, grass and buffalo.
The route from this point to the
535 mines runs thro' a country well tim-
bered and watered, with luxurient
grass and plenty of wild game.
February 12, 1859.
132
245
260
450
473
495
510
ilain Entrance to .Jack
, Kansas
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
173
Men
Wagons
"rt ,^ -C
J ^ c;
.t^ c o
CO S g
g 3 ^
'^ aj J3
.°oi35oo55og oco3'Sfe5>. S-d^
00 cij
•S Ofi =8
& Smith
ic Smith
ette & Las
Watson
Dyer &
Supply '
Schell
idy, Burr
.- = _ - ;;
:-g^sl^^
^ ~ ..a .0
" / . -
= K(S^^KtH<:ffi
.^ J3 ^
§.§:: r ~^:---z--iii^-.ij
t Atch
Togeth
in tran
<U r/T "O
^'' «
-^ ?3 <U
00 '^ '•^ .<^
., ■= b/)
do do- =« - ctj i '^ „■
Which hav€
Its on the Pla
wagons enga
"^-.=V^ . -d ^ ^ ^ ^ 5
iwners.
Drd, Cabot &
M. Hockady
Mason & Co
Mason & C^
3rd, Cabot &
M. Hockady ,
Granham
Perry & Co,
. Dyer & Co.
Marshall
& Young
gston, Kinkea
Guthrie & C
IS Clayton
aid & McDoii
artin
gston, Kinkea
& Smith
.ette & Lazin
rd & Moralle
. Dyer & Co.
M. Hockady
Chorpoening
ady, Burr &
•s V
K^acoK°DdKfe;S2^'oKo"jffiSm«°effi
CHAPTER XL
RAILROADS.
EARLY RAILROAD AGITATION THE FIRST RAILROAD CELEBRATING THE AD-
VENT OF THE RAILROAD OTHER ROADS CONSTRUCTED THE SANTA FE
THE ATCHISON & NEBRASKA CITY THE KANSAS CITY, LEAVENWORTH
& ATCHISON THE ROCK ISLAND THE HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH THE
FIRST TELEGRAPH MODERN TRANSPORTATION.
Eight years before the last stage pulled out of Atchison the agitation
for a railroad began. The first charter provided for the construction of a
railroad from Atchison to St. Joseph. As appeared in an earlier chapter,
the city council of Atchison at its first meeting called an election March 15,
1858, to vote on a proposition to subscribe for $100,000 in stock. The
election was held in the store of the Burnes Brothers, and S. H. Petefish,
Charles E. Woolfolk and Dr. C. A. Logan were judges of election. The
proposition carried almost unanimously, and, in addition to the stock sub-
scribed for by the city, the citizens of the town subscribed for $100,000 in
stock individually. The following May the contract for the construction
of the road was awarded to Butcher, Auld & Dean at $3,700 per mile. There
were fourteen other bidders. The members of the firm which made the
successful bid were : Ephraim Butcher, David Auld, James Auld and William
Dean. Work of construction was started May 12, 1858, but was not fin-
ished until February 22, i860. The completion of this road to Atchison
was of very far reaching importance. The town was wild with excitement,
for the new railroad gave the town its first direct rail connection with the
east. Its terminus at Winthrop (East Atchison) was the first western point
east of the Rocky mountains reached by a railroad at that time in the United
States, save one. The first railroad built between the ^lississippi and tlie
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I 75
Missouri rivers was the Hannibal & St. Joseph, which was completed to St.
Joseph February 23. 1859, and the new railroad from Atchison connected
with the Hannibal & St. Joseph at the latter point.
Richard B. Morris was the first conductor of the Atchison road, and
he subsequently became internal revenue collector of Kansas under Cleve-
land. Following the completion of the road, a great celebration was held at
Atchison June 13, i860, and the people not only celebrated the completion
of the St. Joseph line, but also the breaking of ground on the Atchison &
Pike's Peak railroad, now the Central Branch. Great preparations were
made for the celebration weeks in ad\-ance and promptly following the hour
of 12 o'clock on the morning of June 13, i860, the firing of 100
guns at intervals began, which was kept up with monotonous regular-
ity until daybreak. Flags and bunting fluttered from poles and windows
throughout the city, and a special train of invited guests from the East ar-
rived at Winthrop before noon with flags flying and bands playing\ The
passenger steamer, "Black Hawk," loaded to the guards with citizens from
Kansas City, reached Atchison early in the morning, and leading citizens also
came from Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka and other towns.
The city had been cleaned up and put in holiday attire by the city author-
ities. The town had never before presented such a gay appearance. Frank
A. Root in his interesting book, "The Overland Stage to California." who
was present at the celebration, has perhaps written the most interesting- ac-
count of this event that has ever been printed. He says :
"In the procession that formed along Second street, one of the unique
and attractive features was a mammoth government wagon trimmed with
evergreens and loaded with thirty-four girls dressed in white, representing
every State in the Union and the Territory of Kansas. There were three
other wagons filled with little girls similarly dressed, representing all the
forty-one counties of Kansas in its last year of territorial existence.
"One of the contractors for government freighting had a huge prairie
schooner, drawn by twenty-nine yoke of oxen, the head of each animal or-
namented with a small flag, while he himself was mounted upon a mule. The
contractor was quite an attraction, dressed in the peculiar western prairie
and plains frontier cow-boy costume with buckskin pants, red flannel shirt,
boots nearly knee high, with revolver and bowie kni'fe buckled around his
waist, danghng by his side. The procession in line, marched west along
Commercial street to near Tenth. It was a long one and it was estimated
that there were 7.000 people in it and at least 10,000 in the city witnessing
176 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the festivities. The ceremony of breaking ground for these two roads
took place about noon, but there was nothing particularly imposing about it.
The most important part of the ceremonies was the turning over of a few
spadefuls of dirt by Col. Peter T. Abell, president of the road, and Capt. Eph.
Butcher, the contractor, who built the Atchison & St. Joseph road. The event
was witnessed by fully 5.000 people, after which the monster procession
formed, and, headed by a brass band, and other bands at different places in
the line, marched across White Clay creek to the grove in the southwest
part of the city, where the oration was delivered by Benj. F. Stringfellow.
Following the oration several speeches were made by the most prominent
of the invited guests, one of them by Col. C. K. Holliday, of Topeka, one
of the founders of the great Santa Fe system. The barbeque was an im-
portant feature of the affair. Six beeves, twenty hogs, and over fifty sheep,
pigs and lambs were roasted. There was also prepared more than one hun-
dred boiled hams, several thousand loaves of bread, cakes by the hundred,
besides sundry other deHcacies to tickle the palate and help make the occasion
one long to be remembered by all present. The exercises were quite elab-
orate and wound up with a ball in the evening at A. S. Parker's hall on the
west side of Sixth street, between Commercial and Main and a wine supper
in Charley Holbert's building on Second street, just north of the Massasoit
House. Many visitors came from a long distance east, some as far as New
England. Most of the Northern States were represented, and a few came
from the South. Free transportation was furnished the invited guests.
Hundreds came liy rail and steamboat and many poured in from the sur-
rounding countiy for miles, in wagons and on horseback, from eastern
Kansas and western Missouri."
While a strong movement for the construction of railroads was started
in i860, it was soon discovered that much progress could not be made in
the face of the unsettled conditions brought on by the Civil war, and, as a
result a further effort in that direction, was, for the time being, abandoned.
However, Luther C. Challiss did not give up his idea of projecting a road to
the West, and to him more than to anybody else belongs the credit of start-
ing the first road west out of Atchison. He obtained a charter for the
building of the Atchison & Pike's Peak railroad and this company was organ-
ized February 11, 1859, but on account of the war was not opened to Water-
ville until January 20, 1868. Challiss obtained possession of 150,000 acres
of land from the Kickapoo Indians by a treaty, and, upon the organization
of the company he was elected president. The land he secured from the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I77
Indians was, for the most part, located in Atchison county, around Muscotah,
and adjoining counties. With Mr. Challiss were associated Charles B. Keith,
who was the agent of the Kickapoo Indians, George W. Glick and Senators
Pomeroy and Lane. In the charter for this road provision was made for
its construction lOO miles west of Atchison. Col. William Osborn, who
had constructed the west half of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, built
the first section of the Central Branch to Wbterville. He named the town
after his old home in New York, where he was 1iorn. It was proposed at
this point to make a connection with a branch running from Kansas City
to Ft. Kearney, Neb., but the Kansas City r(iad was subsequently changed
to Den\-er, and for this reason it has been said the Central Branch was not
completed to Denver, as originally planned.
The Atchison & Pike's Peak Railroad Company was incorporated by
special act of the Territorial legislature of the Territory of Kansas, chapter
48, "Private Laws of Kansas, 1859," and authorized to construct a rail-
road from Atchison to the western boundary of the Territory in the direc-
tion of Pike's Peak. Subsequently, the Atchison & Pike's Peak Railroad
Company became the assignee of all the rights, privileges and franchises of
the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, given and granted under an
Act of Congress, of July 8, 1862, Twelfth Statute, page 489, entitled: "An
Act to aid in the constiaiction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Mis-
souri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of
same for postal, military and other purposes," which provided that the Han-
nibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company might extend its road from St. Joseph
via Atchison, to connect and unite with a railroad in Kansas, provided for
in said Act, for one hundred miles in length next to the Missouri river, and
might, for that purpose, use any railroad charter, which had, or might have
been granted, by the legislature of Kansas. Accordingly, the work of con-
struction from Atchison west was inaugurated under the name of the Atch-
ison & Pike's Peak Railroad Company. On January i, 1867, by virtue of the
laws of the State of Kansas, the name of Atchison & Pike's Peak Railroad
Company was changed to the Central Branch Lbiion Pacific Railroad Com-
pany, and the latter company completed the railroad from Atchison to W^ater-
ville.
THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA & S.VXTA FE RAILWAY COMFAXY.
The first real move for the construction of a railroad from the iMissouri
river, west, resulted in a charter granted by the Territorial legislature to the
12
178 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
St. Joseph & Topeka Railroad Company February 20, 1857. Under tlie
terms of the charter the road was to start from St. Joseph, Mo. ; thence
crossing the river through Doniphan, Atchison and Jefferson counties to
Topeka. The charter was subsequently amended and the road was extended
in the direction of Santa Fe, N. M., to the southwestern line of Kansas,
which is practically the same route now traversed by the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe railroad. The desire on the part of the people for direct rail-
road connection with the Missouri river and the East gave to this move-
ment great impetus, and there was considerable rivalry between the towns
to offer aid and assistance. The people of Atchison were particularly
anxious to make this town the terminal point and the future railway center
of the great trans-continental system, and strongly opposed any project
which would make Atchison simply a way station on the great road to the
West. With a view to avert such action on the part of those behind the
movement to construct this road, it was determined to make Atchison the
eastern terminus of the same. Accordingly, Atchison loaned its credit to the
amount of $150,000, by aid of which subsid}' a direct road was built on
the Missouri side of the river from St. Joseph and thence north under an-
other charter with Atchison, Kan., instead of St. Joseph as the eastern ter-
minus, the enterprise was carried on and as a result the citizens of Kansas Ter-
ritory were much elated with the added prestige of the railroad being a Kan-
sas corporation. The Atchison & Topeka Railroad Company was incor-
porated by an Act of the legislature Februar}- 11, 1859. Those named as
the original incorporators were: S. C. Pomeroy, Atchison; C. K. Halliday,
Topeka ; Luther C. Challiss, Atchison ; Peter T. Abell, Atchison ; Aspah Allen,
Topeka; Milton C, Dickey, Topeka; Samuel Dickson, Atchison; Wilson L.
Gordon, Topeka; George S. Hillyer, Grasshopper Falls; Lorenzo D. Bird,
Atchison; Jeremiah Marshall, Topeka; George H. Fairchild, Atchison; F.
L. Crane, Topeka. The company was "authorized to survey, locate, con-
struct, complete, alter, maintain and operate a railroad with one or more
tracks from or near Atchison in Kansas Territory, to the town of Topeka,
in Kansas Territory, and to such point on the southern or western boundary
of said Territory in the direction of Santa Fe as may be convenient and
suitable for the construction of said road and also to construct a branch to
•any point on the southern line of said Territory in the direction of the Gulf
of Mexico." The authorized capital stock was $1,500,000, and the first
meeting for organization under the charter was held at the office of Luther
C. Challis in Atchison September 15. 1859, at which meeting $52,000 of the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 79
first subscription of stock was paid, and the following directors were chosen :
L. C. Challiss, George H. Fairchild, P. T. Abell, S. C. Pomeroy, L. D. Bird,
C. K. Halliday, F. L. Crane, E. G. Ross. Joel. H. Huntoon, M. C. Dickey,
Jacob Safford, R. H. Weightman, and J. H. Stringfellow. The officers
were: C. K. Holliday, president; P. T. Abell, secretary; M. C. Dickey, treas-
urer. It will be seen that the majority of the incoi-porators and of the offi-
cers were citizens of Atchison, and it is an important fact in the history of
Kansas that Atchison county played such an important part in the organiza-
tion and construction of the first railroad lines in the State. Had it not
been for the terrible drought of i860, which totally paral3^zed all classes
of business, the work of constructing this road immediately following its or-
ganization would have gone forward, but the famine which followed the
drought was so complete and so widely distributed throughout the State and
the western country as to almost destroy the farming interests. During this
period the directors of the road decided to press the claims of Kansas for a
national subsidy for the construction of railroads, and President C. K. Holli-
day, with a number of his associates, spent much time in Washington dur-
ing 1859 and i860. Their work was not in vain, for on March 3, 1863, Con-
gress made a grant of land to the State of Kansas, giving alternate sections
one mile square and ten in width, amounting to 6,400 acres per mile, on con-
dition that the Atchison-Topeka road should be finished on or before 1873.
The State accepted the grant and transferred it to this road February 9, 1864.
It was in October, 1868, almost ten years after the date that the first charter
was granted to this road that work of construction was begun in Topeka.
The road was first built in a southerly direction so as to reach the coal region
in Osage county. It was opened to Carbondale, eighteen miles from Topeka,
in July, 1869, and reached Wichita, 163 miles from Topeka, in May, 1872,
and at about the same time in 1872 the road was completed from Topeka
to Atchison, a distance of fifty-one miles.
ATCHISON & NEBRASKA CITY RAILROAD.
On May 5, 1867, the charter for the Atchison & Nebraska City Railroad
Company was filed in the office of the secretary of State of the State of Kan-
sas. The original incorporators of this road were Peter T. Abell, George
W. Click, Alfred G. Otis, John M. Price. W. W. Cochrane, Albert H. Hor-
ton, Samuel A. Kingman, J. T. Hereford and Augustus Byram, all of whom
were citizens of Atchison. The charter provided for the construction of a
l8o HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
railroad from "some point in the city of Atchison to some point on the north
hne of the State of Kansas, not farther west than twenty-five miles from
the jNlissouri river, and the length of the proposed railroad will not exceed
forty-five miles." Shortly aftef the road was incorporated the name was
changed to the Atchison & Nebraska Railroad Company, and under this
name subscriptions in bonds and capital stock were made in Atchison and
Doniphan counties. Atchison county subscribed for $150,000, and in addi-
tion to the subscription of the county tliere were individual subscriptions
amounting to $80,000 in the county. Work was commenced on the road
in 1869, and it was completed in 1871 to the northern boundary of Doni-
phan count)-, three miles north of Whitecloud. The stockholders of Atchi-
son graded the road bed to the State line, constructed bridges and furnished
the ties, after which the entire property was given to a Boston syndicate in
consideration of the completion and operation of the road. This railroad
was afterwards consolidated with the Atchison, Lincoln & Columbus Rail-
road Company of Nebraska, which road had been authorized to construct
a railroad from the northern terminal point of the Atchison & Nebraska rail-
road to Columbus, on the Union Pacific railroad, by way of Lincoln, and
the road was completed to Lincoln in the fall of 1872. This consolidated
road was purchased by the Burlington & jNIissouri River Railroad Company
in 1880.
KANSAS CITY, LEAVENWORTH & ATCHISON RAILWAY COMPANY.
This road was organized by articles of association filed in the office
of the Secretary of the State of Kansas September 21, 1867, and :\Iarch 25,
1868. and the Missouri River Railroad Company by articles of association
filed February 20, 1865, and the construction of the Leavenworth, Atchi-
son & Northwestern railroad was commenced at Leavenworth in ]\Iarch,
1869,- and completed to Atchison in September, 1869. The stock
held in the company by Leavenworth county, aggregating $500,000, was do-
nated to this road to aid in its extension to Atchison, and the first train into
Atchison arrived in the latter part of 1869. It was not until July. 1882,
however, that the first train was nm through from Atchison to Omaha over
the line of the Missouri Pacific railroad, which subsequently absorbed the
Lea\-enworth, Atchison & Northwestern Railroad Company.
THE CHIC.\GO. ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILW.\Y COMPANY.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company was one of the
last of the railroads to make connection with Atchison. This line was
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY l8l
originally projected to Leavenworth, but reached Atchison short)}- after. Tiie
construction of the Atchison branch was begun in 1872, and in July of that
year the first train was run into the city.
All of these roads having been organized and constructed and in opera-
tion, the next movement that took place in transportation circles was the
erection of the bridge across the Missouri ri\er, work upon which was com-
menced in August, 1874, and completed in July. 1873. This bridge is 1,182
feet long and the stone for the piers and abutments upon which it rests was
taken from the quarries at Cottonwood Falls, Chase county. It was originally
built by the American Bridge Company of Chicago, and was re-built
entirely new, except for the piers, in 1898. Shortly after the erection of the
bridge, connecting Missouri with Kansas at Atchison, the first railroad de-
pot was built upon the site of the present union station, which was com-
pleted and dedicated September 7, 1880. There was a great deal of dis-
cussion as to the proper location of a depot before the building was finally
erected, and it was through the efforts of the Burneses that its location
on Main street, between Second and Fourth street, was selected. The cap-
ital stock of the original Depot Company was $100,000,000, of which the
railroad companies then entering the city subscribed for $70,000. The bal-
ance of the stock was taken by individuals. The cost of the original depot
was $120,000. and the architect was William E. Taylor, who planned the
old imion station in Kansas City. James A. McGonigle. who was the con-
tractor for the old Kansas City station, also built the Atchison union depot. It
was built of the finest pressed brick from St. Louis, and trimmed with cut
stone from the Cottowood Falls quarries. Its length was 235 feet, with an
"L" ninety-six feet long. It was two stories high with a mansard roof. It
was an ornamental, and, in those days, an imposing structure. The cere-
monies accompanying its dedication were witnessed by a great crowd, and
many great men in the railroad and political life of Kansas participated in
them. Gen. Benjamin F. Stringfellow delivered the address, and a ban-
quet was ser\'ed in the evening, followed by a procession and fire-works.
Two years later, in June, 1882, this depot was partially destroyed by fire,
suffering a loss of $10,000, but it was immediately rebuilt. On Januaiy 6,
1888, another fire completely destroyed the building, and the present union
station was erected a short time later.
HAXNIB.\L & ST. JOSEPH RAILROAO.
On and after Monday, February 28, this road will be open for business
throughout its entire length. Passenger trains will leave St. Joseph for Han-
1 82 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
nibal every morning, making close connection with steam packets to St. Louis
and Quincy, and affording direct connection with all the railroads east of
the Mississippi river. Time from St. Joseph to Hannibal, eleven hours, and
to St. Louis, eighteen hours, saving more than three days over any other
route. Trains from the east will arrive in St. Joseph every evening, con-
necting with a daily Hne of packets running between St. Joseph and Kansas
City; also a line up the Missouri to the Bluffs. Passengers from all parts
of Kansas will find this the quickest and most agreeable route to St. Louis
and all points on the Mississippi, giving those going east a choice between the
routes from St. Louis, Alton and Quincy. Fare will be as low as by any
other route. Favorable arrangements will be made for taking freight, saving
most of the heavy insurance on the Missouri river. Express freight will be
taken through much quicker than by any other line.
Tickets can be had at the office in St. Joseph for nearly all parts of the
countrv-
JOSIAH HUNT, Sup't.
P. B. GROAT, Gen'l. Ticket Ag't.
Feb. I St, 1859. no. 48-lm.
(From Freedom's Champion, Atchison, February 12, 1859.)
HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD.
NEW ROUTE OPEN FOR THE EAST AND SOUTH.
Passengers for St. Louis, northern Missouri. Iowa, Chicago, Cincinnati,
Detroit, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Louis-
ville and Southern States, will find tliis the shortest, quickest and most de-
sirable route to the above points. On the ist day of February only fifteen
miles of staging intervenes between St. Joseph and Hannibal, and on the ist
day of March, 1859, the road will be completed, and open for through travel
the entire length. A daily line of stages from Atchison, passing through
Doniphan and Geary City, connects at St. Joseph with the H. & St. Jo.
railroad. From Hannibal a daily line of packets leave upon arrival of cars
for St. Louis, upon the opening of navigation, and boats connect at Quincy
with the C. B. & O. railroad for Chicago, and with the G. W. railroad for
Toleda via Naples. This is in every respect the best route for eastern and
southern passengers. Trains leave St. Joseph for the east daily.
JOSL/VH HUNT, Sup't.
P. B. GROAT, General Ticket Agent.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUXTY 183
(no. 47)
(From freedom's Champion. Atchison, February 12, 1859.)
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH.
It was a little over six months after the completion of the Atchison &
St. Joseph railroad that the first telegraph connection was established be-
tween Atchison and the world. The construction of the Missouri & Western
telegraph line was begun in Syracuse, Mo., in 1859. Charles M. Stebbins
built this telegraph line, which extended from Syracuse to Ft. Smith, Ark.
A branch of this line was extended westward to Kansas City, and reached
Leavenworth along in the spring of 1859. August 15, 1859, this branch
was extended to Atchison, and it was a proud day in the history of this city.
The first office was in a brick building on Commercial street adjoining the
office of Freedom's Champion. John T. Tracy was the first operator. Gen.
Samuel C. Pomeroy was mayor, and on this account the honor was given
him of sending the first message, which was as follows : "Atchison, August
15, 1859. His Honor, H. B. Denman, Mayor of Leavenworth. Our medium
of communication is perfect. May our fraternal relations continue — may our
prosperity and success equal our highest efforts. S. C. Pomeroy, Mayor of
Atchison." Mayor Denman replied as follows : "Hon. S. C. Pomerov, Mayor
of Atchison. May each push forward its works of enterprise and the efforts
of each be crowned with success. H. B. Denman, Mayor of Leavenworth."
Congratulations were next exchanged between Atchison and St. Louis, as
follows: "Atchison, August 15. 1859. Hon. O. D. Filley, Mayor of St.
Louis. For the first time since the world began, a telegraph message is sent
to St. Louis from this place, the farthest telegraph station in the West. Ac-
cept our congratulations and aid us in our progress westward. S. C. Pome-
roy, Mayor of Atchison." It was in October of that same year that the first
news was flashed over the wire telling of the capture of Harper's Ferrv by
old John Brown.
In connection with the question of early day transportation in x^tchison
county, it would be an oversight to fail to mention the efforts of one Thomas
L. Fortune to improve the means of locomotion. Mr. Fortune was a citizen
of Mt. Pleasant, and in the fall of 1859 ^e conceived the scheme which
he believed would revolutionize the whole transportation problem. He
planned a steam wagon with which he expected to haul freight across the
plains. The following year he built at St. Louis, a large vehicle, twenty
184 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
feet long by eight feet wide. The wheels were twenty inches wide and eight
feet in diameter. This wagon was transported up the Missouri river to
Atchison from St. Louis on the steamer, "Meteor," and was landed from the
steamer in front of the White Mice saloon, which was a noted resort on the
Atchison levee at that time, in the latter part of June, i860. The follow-
ing account is taken from Frank A. Root's "Overland Stage to California":
A day or two after its arrival ( referring to Fortune's wagon)
Mr. Root says that it was arranged that the steam wagon should make a
trial trip on the Fourth of July. The monster was accordingly fired up on
the eighty-fourth National anniversary and started by an engineer named
Callahan. The wagon was ornamented with a number of flags and loaded
with a crowd of anxious men and boys. When eveiything was in readiness
the valve was opened and the wagon moved off in a southerly direction from
the levee. It went all right until it reached the foot of Commercial street,
about a square away. The pilot failing to turn the machine, it kept on
straight up to the sidewalk and ran into A. S. Parker's warehouse, wliich
stood so many years by the old historic cottonwood tree at the southeast cor-
ner of Commercial street and the levee. The result of this awkard blunder
was an accident, in which a son of the owner of the wagon had an arm
broken, as the machine crashed into the side of the building, which was a
long, one-story frame cottonwood structure that for a number of years was
a noted landmark in Atchison. The excited engineer was at once let out
and Lewis Higby, another engineer, and a natural genius, was sent for.
Higbv mounted the wagon and took his place at the engine, backed the ma-
chine out into the middle of the road and in a few minutes went sailing
gracefully along west on Commercial street at about six miles per hour.
When in front of Jesse Crall's stable at the corner of Sixth street, before that
part of Commercial street had been graded, it went down a little hill at a
lively speed, but Higby kept it going and did not stop until it reached L. C.
Challiss' addition, just south and west from Commercial and Eighth streets,
near Morgan Willard's old foundry, built in 1859, away from the business
and residence portion of the city.
After the wagon crossed Eighth street and was beyond the business
houses, Higby turned on more steam, and the monster vehicle made about
eight miles an hour, cavorting around on the bottom, there being only a few
scattering buildings then west of Eighth street. To test the practicability
of the machine, it was run into hollows and gullies, and, where the ground
was soft it was found that the ponderous wheels would sink into the mud
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 185
when standing still in soft ground. The result of the trial, witnessed b}'
hundreds, was disappointing to most of those present. The inventor, who
had spent a large amount of money and much time in tr\'ing to perfect his
steam wagon and solve the overland transportation problem, was the worst
disappointed. He was thoroughly disgusted. He saw at once that the use
of the vehicle was impracticable and that it would never answer the purpose.
That trial trip was the first and only one the "overland steam wagon" ever
made. It was accordingly abandoned on the bottom where the tracks of the
Central Branch and Santa Fe roads are now laid, and was never afterwards
fired up. Those who had crossed the plains with mules and oxen, knew it
could never be used in overland freighting. There was no use for any such
vehicle and the anticipated reduction in prices of ox and mule teams did
not take place. The timbers used in the framework of the machine that were
not stolen finally went to decay, and the machinery was afterwards taken
out and disposed of for other purposes.
MODERN TR.\NSPORTATION.
The propitious beginning that Atchison had as a commercial and trans-
portation center should have made the town one of the largest and most
important railroad terminals in the West. That was the hope and aspiration
of its original founders, and for many years afterwards it was a cherished
idea. But Kansas City was subsequently selected as the point of vantage,
and the builders of this great western empire have since centralized their
activities at the mouth of the "Kaw," and it is there that the metropolis of
the ^^''est will be built. However, a marvelous development has taken place
here since the day of the Holladay and Butterfield stage lines and slow-
moving ox and mule trains across the plains. We no longer marvel at the
volume of trade and freight tonnage and the multitude of travelers that pass
through Atchison every year. We take these things as a matter of course,
and make no note of the daily arrival and departure of the fifty-six passen-
ger trains at our union depot every day ; we marvel not at the speed and the
ease and comfort with which we can make the trip to St. Louis or Chicago,
over night, or to Denver in less than twenty-four hours, or to New York
in two and one-half days, and to San Francisco in less than fi\e, surrounded
by every luxury money can buy. ^Ve have accustomed ourselves to these
marvels, just as we have learned to make use of the telephone and the tele-
graph, and a little later on will begin to use the air ship and the wireless.
Nature has a wav of easilv adiusting mankind to these changed conditions.
CHAPTER XII.
REMINISCENCES OF EARLY PIONEERS.
D. R. ATCHISON MATT GERBER J. H. TALBOTT WILLIAM OSBORNE JOHN
W. CAIN W. L. CHALLISS GEORGE SCARBOROUGH SAMUEL HOLLISTER
JOHN TAYLOR JOHN M. CROWELL LUTHER DICKERSON LUTHER
C. CHALLISS GEORGE W. CLICK W. K. GRIMES JOSHUA WHEELER
WILLIAM HETHERINGTON WILLIAM C. SMITH JOHN M. PRICE SAM-
UEL C. KING CLEM ROHR R. H. WEIGHTMAN CASE OF MAJOR
WEIGHTMAN.
One of the really creditable and most pretentious newspaper enterprises
ever imdertaken and accomplished in Kansas was E. W. Howe's Historical
Edition of the Atchison Daily Globe. It contains much interesting and val-
uable information written in the unique style which has made Mr. Howe
famous. With the consent of Mr. Howe, which he has very kindly granted
the author of this histor)% there will appear in this chapter, almost verbatim,
a number of biographical sketches and other interesting matter, which has
should be printed in book form so that it could be assured of a permanent place
in the archives of the State. There are but few copies left, and these are in a
bad state of disintegration. The sketch of Gen. D. R. Atchison will first be
i-eproduced herein, and then will follow others, touching upon the lives and
characters of early settlers, who contributed their part to the upbuilding of
this community. Much has already appeared in this history touching upon
the activities of General Atchison, but a sketch of his life is important, inas-
much as he is perhaps the most conspicuous early-day character in the history
of Atchison county.
GENERAL D. R. ATCHISON.
David Rice Atchison, for whom Atchison was named, was born near
Lexington, Favette countv, Kentuckv, August ii, 1807. The s<in of William
' 186
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 1 87
Atchison, a wealthy fanner of that county, he received all the advantages of
a liberal education. His mother's maiden name was Catherine Allen, a native
of the State of Georgia. William Atchison, the father, was a Pennsvlvanian
by birth.
David R. Atchison was blessed with six children, four sons and two
daughters. In 1825 he graduated with high honor from Transylvania Uni-
versity, then the leading institution of learning in the State, and since incor-
porated in the new University of Kentucky.
Upon receiving his degrees in the arts, Mr. Atchison immediately applied
himself to the study of law. In 1829 Mr. Atchison was admitted to practice
in his native State, and a few months after, in 1830, removed to the compara-
tively wild district of Clay county, Missouri. In April of that year he re-
ceived in St. Louis his license to practice in the supreme court of the State
and immediately settled in the village of Liberty, now the countv seat of Clay
county. About this period, Mr. Atchison was appointed major general of
the northern division of the Missouri State militia.
General Atchison soon commanded a lucrative practice in his new home,
where he continued to reside in the discharge of the duties of his profession
until February, 1841, when his superior legal attainments, which were known
and recognized throughout the State, won for him the appointment as judge
of the district court of Platte county on its organization in February of that
year, when he moved his residence to Platte City. It appears that in that
day judges were appointed to this position by the Government, with the advice
and consent of the Senate. The office was not made elective until several
years after. In 1834 and 1838 he was elected to the Missouri legislature from
Clay county.
Upon the death of Dr. Lyon, United States senator, in 1838, Judge Atchi-
son was appointed by Governor Reynolds to the vacancy in the Senate. It
was by many considered that this appointment was merited and he had been
recommended by Colonel Benton and other authorities of the Democratic
party ; by others it was said that the governor himself was ambitious of the
senatorship and had selected Judge Atchison as a person who could be easily
beaten at the next election. The death of Governor Reynolds, however,
occurred before the meeting of the next legislature and Judge Atchison was
elected with but slight opposition. He was reelected for two more terms, the
last of which expired March 4, 1855, during the administration of Franklin
Pierce. Two years after this he moved his residence from Platte to Clinton
county. He was elected president of the Senate to succeed Judge Mangun, a
Whig senator from North Carolina.
I»a HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
The 4th of March, 1849, occurring on Sunday, Zachary Taylor -was not
inaugurated until the following Monday. Judge Atchison thus, as presiding
officer of the Senate, became virtually President of the United States during
the term of twenty-four hours. In referring to this accidental dignity, on
being interrogated as to how he enjoyed his exalted position, the venerable
senator good humoredly replied that he could tell but little about it as, over-
come with fatigue consequent to several days and nights of official labor, he
slept through nearly his whole term of ser\-ice.
Judge Atchison became especially prominent in the legislature for the
organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and claims to have
originated the repeal of the Missouri Compromise bill. On his retirement
from the Senate, of which he was an honored member for the space of twelve
years, during the larger part of the time as presiding officer, he continued to
take a lively interest in the politics of the country, and was regarded as a
leader and chief adviser of the pro-slaver\' party in Kansas during the troubles
which preceded the admission as a State. In 1856 we find him in command
of 1,150 men at a point called Santa Fe. On the 29th of August, the same
year, a detachment from General Atchison's army attacked Osawatomie,
which was defended by about fifty men, who made a vigorous resistance but
were defeated with a loss of five wounded and seven prisoners. Five of the
assailants were killed and thirty buildings were burned. The next day a body
of Free State men marched from Lawrence to take Atchison's army. Upon
their approach the latter retired and withdrew its forces into Missouri. The
admission of Kansas as a free State soon after tliis occurred put an end to tliis
inuch ve.xed question and restored tranquility to the country.
General Atchison lived in retirement on his magnificent estate in
Clinton county until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he left for the
South and was present at the battle of Lexington. Governor Jackson secured
him a commission as brigadier general at the commencement of the war. This
General Atchison declined, as his residence was in Clinton county, outside
the limits of the division. He, however, remained with the army and assisted
in its organization. He joined temporarily for the purpose of making up the
company under Fphraim Kelley's command from St. Josepli and remained
with the army until after the laattle of Elkhorn.
At the close of the war. General Atchison returned to his home in Clinton
county, where he continued to reside in almost unbroken retirement on his
1,700-acre farm in a neat cottage erected on the site of his spacious brick man-
sion, which was accidentally destroyed by fire February 2, 1870. He never
married, and died at his home in Clinton county, January 26. 1886.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 189
MATT. GERBER.
Matt. Gerber came to this county originally in 1855. as pastry cook
on a Government steamer. There was almost no town at Atchison then, and
he went to Sioux City with the boat and afterwards returned to St. Louis.
In 1856 he was pastry cook on the "A. B. Chambers," which ran between
St. Louis and Weston and was commanded by Captain Bowman, the father
of Mrs. D. C. Newcomb and ]\Irs. G. H. T. Johnson. Mr. Gerber was born
in Baden in 1833 and came to America in 1853, landing at New Orleans, and
for a time ran on boats on the lower Mississippi. For many years he was the
hero of Atchison children, as he operated a bakery, confectionery and toy
store on the south side of Commercial street, near Fourth. Mr. Gerber first
located in Sumner in 1858, where he ran a bakery, coming to Atchison in i860,
and was in business at the same location for over thirty-four j^ears. Mr.
Gerber died in Atchison, December 14, 1907.
rr
S. O. POMEROY JIM LANE
J. H. TALEOTT.
! J. H. Talbott came west in 1855 and was a passenger on the "A. B.
Chambers," of which George WL Bowman was captain and E. K. Blair, second
clerk. The cholera was so bad that year that Mr. Talbott left the boat at
Jefferson City and came overland to Monrovia, although his passage was
paid to Leavenworth. Several passengers on the "A. B. Chambers" died of
190 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
cholera and were buried on sand bars. Mr. Talbott preempted a claim at
Monrovia, and when his family came two years later he kept a boarding house
at Monrovia for four years. Albert D. Richardson was often a guest at his
house. He was a clean, neat city man of about thirty, and was engaged in
writing up the Kansas war for the Nezv York Tribune. Jim Lane also stop-
ped at J. H. Talbott's occasionally. Mr. Talbott first heard him make a
speech in a grove at Pardee, and A. J. Westbrook was in the audience. Lane
made some abusive reference to Westbrook, who made a movement as if to
pull a pistol, but Lane shook his celebrated boney finger at Westbrook and
defied him to shoot. At that time Atchison was controlled by the pro-slavery
element, but the Free State men predominated around Monrovia and Pardee.
The noted Colonel Caleb lived at Farmington. James Ridpath was often at
J. H. Talbott's, and D. R. Anthony and Webb Wilder appeared there as young-
men and took up claims.
Another famous place in those days was the Seven Mile House, seven
miles west of Atchison on the road traveled by the freighters, kept "by John
Bradford. Talbott's boarding house was built of logs and the beds were
nailed against the wall, one above another. Sometimes the house was so
crowded that the floor was also occupied with beds. --^
Mr. Talbott was bom in Canal Dover, Ohio, where he knew W. C. OuajiT,-
triU, real well. Quantrill afterwards became the noted guerilla and sacked
Lawrence. Mrs. Talbott went to school with Quantrill, and the teacher was
Quantrill's father, a very worthy man. After Mr. Talbott married he re-
moved to Zanesville, Ind., and kept a store with S. J. H. Snyder, who was
one of the early settlers of Atchison county and a fierce Free State man.
In a little while Will Quantrill appeared at Zanesville_and taught school in
the country. He usually spent his Saturdays and Sundays at J. H. Talbott's
house, on the strength of their acquaintance at Canal Dover. Mr. Talbott
says he was well behaved and attracted great attention around the store,
particularly from the yornig xnen.
In 1854 Quantrill left Zanesville and settle^ at Lawrence, Kan., as a
Free State man and taught school, where he became acquainted with Robert
Bitter Morrow, whose life he afterwards saved during the massacre. Robert
Morrow kept the Byram in Atchison several years. When Talbott went to
Monrovia in 1855, the countrj^ was full of Kickapoo Indians. He remem-
bers seeing an Indian grave there : a rail pen covered with brush. In the
middle of the pen could be seen the dead Indian in a sitting posture, with
his gun beside him.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I9I
COL. WILLIAM OSBORNE.
Colonel Osborne built the first railroad to the Missouri river — the Han-
nibal & St. Joseph. He built and owned the transfer ferry "Wm. Osborne,"
which was famous in Atchison in the early days. He also built the first
100 miles of the Central Branch to Waterville, as has been previously
stated. He lived and died in Waterville, N. Y., but visited Atchison fre-
quently to see his daughter, Mrs. R. A. Park, who was the wife of the presi-
dent of the Atchison Savings Bank.
AMOS A. HOWELL.
Amos A. Howell was one of the plains freighters who distinguished
Atchison in the early days. He ran twenty-seven wagons with six yoke of
oxen to each wagon. An extra head of oxen was taken along, known as the
"cavvy" to spell the others and take the places of those that gave out. Alto-
gether he owned 400 head of work oxen. The oxen were expected to pick
up their living on the way, but when mules were used in the winter it was
necessaiy to carry grain for them. Thirty men were necessary in the train
of twenty-seven wagons pulled by oxen. Mr. Howell was assisted in his
wagon business by his son, Nat.
In those days there was a Government regulation that all trains should
be held at Ft. Kearney until 100 armed men had collected. Then
a captain was elected, who was commissioned by the Government and had
absolute charge of the train while it was passing through the Indian country.
Mr. Howell frequently occupied the position of captain, being well known
on the plains. On one occasion while he was captain he halted at Cottonwood
Falls on the Platte, as the Indians were very bad, and soldiers were expected
to go through with the train, but none came and finally Mr. Howell unloaded
five wagons, filled them with armed men and started out. Almost in sight
of Cottonwood a gang of gaily painted Indians attacked the train, supposing
it was a little outfit. But when the Indians came within range, the "Whis-
key Bills" and "Poker Petes" in the covered wagons began dropping the
Indians off their ponies, and there was a pretty fight, in which the Indians
were badly worsted.
Mr. Howell says that the Indians never attack wagon trains except very
early in the morning, or late in the evening.
The favorite sport of the Indians, however, was to run off the stock
192 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
after the train had gone into camp at night, and they ahvays had one way of
doing it, which Mr. Howell finally learned. The Indians are no wiser than
white men, for they say that white men always fail in business the same way
and act the same way when they have a fire. An Indian would ride up onto
a high point and look around a while. This would always be in the evening
when the train was near a camping place. Then the Indian would disappear
and come back presently with another Indian wrapped in his blanket and rid-
ing the same pony. One Indian would then drop into the grass, and the
rider would go back after another one. The Indians were collecting in am-
bush, thinking the freighters would nc\er think of it. Mr. Howell had in
his employ a driver, an Atchison man, named "\Mhskey Bill." who was
particularly clever at hating Indians, and whenever an ambush was pre-
paring "Whiskey Bill" would select four or five other men equally clever
and go after the Indians. He often killed and scalped as many as four in
one ambush, and sold their scalps in Denver to the Jews for a suit of clothes
each. The Jews bought them as relics and disposed of them in the East. The
killing of Indians in this manner was according to Government order and
strictly legitimate. Another driver in Howell's train was an Atchison man
named Rube Duggan. He was a great roper and used to take a horse, when
in sight of a buffalo herd and go out after calves, which niade tender meat.
Riding into the herd he would lasso a calf, fasten the rope to the ground with
a stake and then go on after another one before the herd got away. He
caught several calves in this way for Ben HoUaday, who took them east.
Mr. Howell remembers that once, this side of Fort Kearney, it was necessary
to stop the train to let a herd of buffalo pass. The men always had fresh
buffalo meat in addition to their bacon, beans, dried apples, rice and fried
bread.
There was a cook with the train who drove the mess wagon, but he did
not do any other work. Eveiy driver had to take his turn getting wood and
water for the cook and herding the cattle at noon, but the night herder did
nothing else and slept in the wagon during the day. Occasionally he was
awakened about noon and hunted along the road. The cattle fed at night
until 10 or 1 1 o'clock when they would lie down until 2 in the morning.
The night herder would lie down by the side of a reliable old ox and sleep
too, being awakened when the ox got up to feed. The oxen were driven
into the wagon corral about daylight and yoked. Every wagon had its speci-
fied place in the train and kept it during the entire trip.
Wagons were ahvays left in a circle at night, forming a corral. Into
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
■93
this corral the cattle were driven while being yoked. In case of an attack,
the cattle were inside the corral and the men foug'ht nnder the wagons. The
teams started at daylight and stopped at lo or ii until 2 or 3. and
then they would start up and travel until dark. Mr. Howell always rested
on Sunday, making an average of 100 miles a week with his ox
teams. When the train started out each man was given ten pounds of sugar
which was to last him to Denver. On the first Sunday the men would make
lemonade of sugar and vinegar and do without sugar the rest of the trip. Mr.
Howell saw the attack on George \\'. Howe's train on the Little Blue when
George Con was killed and the entire train 1)urned. Con was an
Aichisan man. Howell's train was corraled and he could not go to Howe's
assistance.
Howell came to Atchison county in 1856 by wagon from Fayette countv,
Pennsylvania, where he was born, December 26, 1824. At seventy he was
stout and vigorous, getting up every morning at 4 o'clock to go to work.
His plains experience did him good. He died on the ist day of Augxist, 1907,
owning a large tract of land in Grasshopper township.
I
^-5r^'
,A .M. HUGHKS
ELLSWORTH CHESEBOROUGH
JOHN W. CAIN.
John W. Cain and his two sons, John S. Cain and William S. Cain, came
to x\tchison in 1856 from the Isle of Man, and preempted a ciuarter section.
five miles west of Atchison. A. D. Cain, another son, came to this county in
1856, accompanying his brother, John M. Cain, who had gone to his old home
13
194 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
in the Isle of Man on a visit. A. D. Cain attended school longer than either
of his three brothers and was a graduate of King William's College, a cele-
brated institution of learning. After leaving school he learned the business
of a druggist. He was born in 1846. John M. Cain was seven years older.
John M. Cain enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas infantry in 1862. His
brother, William, enlisted in Col. John A. Martin's regiment the year before.
In less than a year John M. Cain was given the position as captain in the
Eighty-third U. S. infantry and raised Company C in Atchison. Phillip
Porter, the celebrated negro politician and orator, of Atchison, was orderly
sergeant of Company C, which had ten men killed in the battle of Prairie
Grove. After serving in the army nearly four years, John M. Cain returned
to his farm in Atchison county in 1866 where he remained until 1872, when
he removed to Atchison and engaged in the grain business. The Cains started
the exporting of flour from Kansas and their business was very largely
export business during their operation of the mill.
John W. Cain, father of the Cain brothers, was a fierce Free State man
in the days when it was dangerous to be a Free State man in Atchison county,
but as he was a powerful man and of undoubted courage, the pro-slavery
fans thought it wise to forgive him. His memory as well as the memory of
his sons, John M. Cain and A. D. Cain, are still highly esteemed by the older
settlers of Atchison county.
DR. W. L. CHALLISS.
Dr. W. L. ChaUiss came to Atchison June 3, 1866, on the steamboat
"Meteor" from Moorestown, N. J., where he had been a practicing physician.
At that time John Alcorn was operating a horse ferry on the river and Dr.
Challiss, in company with his brother, L. C. Challiss, purchased a three-
fourths interest in the ferry franchise after operating a little rival ferry for
a time, which was known as the "Red Rover." The price paid for the fran-
chise was $1,800.00.
In the fall of 1856 Dr. Challiss went to Evansville, Ind., and contracted
for the building of a steam ferry. This was completed in November and
started for Atchison. In December it was frozen up in the Missouri river
at Carrollton, Mo., and left in charge of a watchman. The crew was made
up of old acquaintances of Dr. Challiss in New Jersey, and these he brought
to Atchison in two stage coaches hired for the purpose.
On February 7 of the following year Dr. Challiss started down the river
on horse back after his ferry boat, accompanied by George M. Million, Gran-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I95
ville Morrow and John Cafferty. There had been a thaw and a rise in tlie
river, and when the men reached the vicinity of Carrollton they learned that
the boat had gone adrift. They followed it down the rivet, hearing of it
occasionally and finally came up with it in sight of Arrow Rock. The boat
had grounded on a bar and a man was in possession, claiming salvage. Dr.
Challiss caught the man off the boat, took possession and settled with him
for $25.00. A stoi-y was circulated that there had been small-pox on the
boat and it narrowly escaped burning at the hands of the people living in the
vicinity. Dr. Challiss went on down the river and met his family at St. Louis.
When the steamer on which they were passengers reached Arrow Rock, the
captain was induced to pull the ferry off the sand bar, and within four days
it arrived in Atchison.
This boat was named the "Ida" for Dr. Challiss' oldest daughter, who
became the wife of John A. Martin, editor of the Atchison Champion, colonel
of the Eighth Kansas regiment and governor of the State two terms. The
"Ida" was brought up the river by George Million and Granville Morrow,
pilots, and John Cafferty, engineer. George Million was the captain when
it began making regular trips as a ferry, receiving originally $50.00 per
month. During the last years of his sei-vice he received $125.00 a month.
The ferry boat business was veiy profitable and $100.00 per day was no
unusual income. In i860 Dr. Challiss built a larger ferry at Brownsville,
Penn., and called it the "]. G. Morrow." When it arrived at Atchison the
Government pressed it into service and sent it to Yankton with Indian supplies.
Bill Reed was pilot and Dr. Challiss, captain. A quick trip was made to
within seventy miles of Yankton where the pilot ran the boat into a snag and
sank it. The boat cost $25,000.00 and nothing was saved but the machinery.
This was afterwards placed in the ferry "S. C. Pomeroy," which was operated
here until the bridge was completed in 1877. After this the "S. C. Pomeroy"
was taken to Kansas City, where it sank during a storm. S. C. Pomeroy
owned a one-fourth interest in the "J. G. Morrow" and "S. C. Pomeroy" and
the wreck of the "Morrow" cost him $5,000.00.
The "Ida" was taken to Leavenworth on the completion of the bridge
and was in service there many years.
In the early days Dr, Challiss was a Free State man and for years he
had in his possession a letter warning him to leave the country, which was
written during the exciting period before the war. Dr. Challiss remained
active in the affairs of the town for many years but practiced his profession .
only spasmodically. He died in Dayton, Ohio, at the home of his daughter,
on April 23, 1909.
196 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
GEORGE SCARBOROUGH.
George Scarborough was one of the most romantic characters that ever
lived in Atchison county. Infkienced by his niece's description of Kansas,
he came to Sumner in 1859 and purchased a tract of land now owned by E. W.
Howe and known as Potato Hill. The location is probably the finest on the
Missouri river. The farm lies on top of the bluff, and Scarborough's house
was built near the river. He was well fitted to enjoy the life of elegant
leisure and seclusion, which he did. Early in life he went to Kentucky from
Connecticut and taught school. \Miile there he married the daughter of a
congressman named Triplett. The wife died a year later, and Scarborough
came into possession of considerable money. After that he adopted a literary
and scientific life and spent much of his time abroad, where he collected
many pictures and other art treasures. These were displayed in his home
below Sumner. Scarborough was a l>otanist, and made a complete collection
of the flora of this section, whicli he sent to the Smithsonian Institution, at
Washington. One of his discoveries was that Atchison county had eleven
varieties of the oak. Scarborough was one of the original founders of the
First National Bank of this city, furnishing most of the original capital.
In 1869 he went to Vineland, N. J., where he married a girl of twenty-
three, although he was nearly seventy. His wife died within a year, in child
birth, under precisely the same circumstances as his first wife. Scarborough
died in 1883, in his old home in Connecticut, in absolute poverty, at the age
of eighty-four. He is spoken of as one of the most elegant gentlemen who
distinguished the early days.
SAMUEL HOLLISTER.
Samuel Hollister was one of the original settlers of Sumner. He landed
at Leavenwijrth May i, 1857, coming by laoat from Jefferson City. Two
weeks later he met a number of the members of the Sumner Town Company
who were looking for somebody to go to Sumner to build a hotel. Having
been a contractor and builder in liis old home in Xew Jersey. Mr. Hollister
accompanied the men to Sumner, which then consisted of a claim cabin, used as
a hotel, and four frame houses in course of construction.. The material for
the frame houses had been brought from Cincinnati, ready framed, and when
completed were 16x24, containing two rooms each. Mr. Hollister took
the contract to build the Baker House, which contained three rooms on the
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I97
ground floor. The lialf story al3ove was all in one room, where the guests
slept. The frames for the Baker House were hewn out in the timber adjoin-
ing the town ; the weather boarding- and shingles were shipped up the river.
The hotel was completed in the summer of 1857, and was operated by Hood
Baker, a cousin of Capt. David Baker, for many years a prominent citizen
of Atchison.
In the fall of the same year Mr. Hollister began work on the Sumner
House, the contract price being $16,000.00. The lirick used \vere made on
the ground. The lumber came l:)y boat from Pittsburgh, I'enn. This hotel
was completed in the summer of the following year. It was built by the
town compan\', which owed Mr. Hollister $3,000.00 at the time of his death,
a few years ago.
Mr. Hollister lived in Simmer twelve years, vigorously fighting- Atchison.
In the fall of 1858 he built a mill, in company with Al Barber, later adding a
gristmill, which was the second built in the county, the first having been built
in Atchison, l>y \Villiam Bowman. Mr. Hollister went down the river in a
boat in January, 1859, and when he reached his old home in the Catskill moun-
tains, he crossed the Hu<lson river on the ice. During this trip east he was
married to Miss Harriet Carroll, a lineal descendant of Charles Carroll, one
of the signers of the Declai-ation of Independence. His wife returned with
him to Sumner, and they afterwards moved to Atchison, where they lived for
many years. Mr. Hollister died March 28, 1910.
JOHN TAYLOR.
John Taylor, who for many years lived on a farm immediately south of
the State Orphans' Home, was a resident of Missouri, a mile and a quarter
above East Atchison in 1844, ten years before Kansas was opened for settle-
ment. His father, Joseph Taylor, came to the Platte Purchase in 1838, from
Pennsylvania, settling near Weston. At that time most of the best claims
were taken. John Taylor's recollection was that the very earliest settler in
that vicinity was in 1837. Joseph Taylor did not secure a very good claim,
and afterward removed to Andrew county, finally locating a mile above East
Atchison, in 1S44. John Taylor said that George Million was living on the
present site of East Atchison when his father's family settled in the bottom.
It was Mr. Taylor's opinion that George Million settled in East Atchison in
1842, and that he did not start his ferry until 1850. In the spring of that
year John Taylor crossed the river on George Million's flatboat ferr}-, and
198 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
went to California, in company with his brother, Joe. There was no wagon
road running west from Atchison at that time. John and Joe Taylor mined
in California for eighteen months, never making over $20.00 per day, and
usually only $5.00. They returned home by the way of the Isthmus of Pan-
ama, and John Taylor got the small-pox at Glascow, Mo., which did not break
out on him until he reached East Atchison. This was supposed to he the
first case of small-pox in this section of the country. All the other members
of the family got it, and the wife of Jim Stultz, who came in to help his
mother, also got it. Their physician was a Doctor Ankrom, who lived in the
Narrows, near Rushville, and he got it, too. This was in the winter of 185 1
and 1852. In September, 1854, ten years after settling in East Atchison, Mr.
Taylor came to this side of the river. When he arrived Ladd Yocum was
running a hotel in a tent ; there was nothing else on the town site. Late in
the fall George T. Challiss completed his store, which was the first building
of any kind in Atchison, according to Mr. Taylor. He says that George Mil-
lion did not erect his claim shanty until the following year.
Mr. Taylor first settled in the bluffs, northeast of Atchison, but after-
wards moved to a tract of land owned by a man named O. B. Dickerson, who
afterwards built the first livery stable in Atchison. Dickerson sold his claim
to a man named Adams, B. T. Stringfellow's father-in-law, for $600.00, but
Adams did not comply with the law and Taylor jumped it. For a while Tay-
lor and Adams lived on the same quarter, and became acquainted ; then Taylor
discovered that Adams paid $600.00 for the claim, and gave him his money
back. Taylor said he never had any short words with Adams about the
claim, but once. They met on the hill, overlooking- the river, one day, and
were looking at the wreck of the old "Pontiac," which is now said to have con-
tained several hundred barrels of whiskey. "Well," said Adams, "when are
you going?" "Going where?" asked Taylor. "To Nova Scotia," repHed
Adams. "I am not going at all," was Taylor's rseponse, which Adams under-
stood to mean that he was not going to leave the claim, but intended to fight.
A compromise soon followed.
Taylor says the "Pontiac" was carried off by Atchison people, and put
into their houses, and that years afterwards, the writing on the wheel house
could be seen around town. There was no whiskey left in the hold; indeed,
the hold was carried away.
The Taylor place was considered a great deal more valuable in 1855 than
it is now ; people felt sure that within four or five years John Taylor would
cut it up in town lots and sell them at fabulous prices, and go abroad.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY I99
John Taylor's sympathies were always with the South CaroHnians, who
made this section so warm in 1856, but said that only one in ten were good
citizens ; the others were toughs. One of them, a man named Newhall, was
killed in the fight at Hickory Point. John Robinson, captain of a southern
party at Hickor}' Point, was an Atchison man, and was shot in the hip.
Mr. Taylor said that in 1844 and several years later the country was full
of bee trees, and that cattle turned into the rush in the river bottom in winter,
came out fat in the spring. In 1844 there was a settlement of fify Kickapoo
families on the flat just above the island on the Kansas side. They made a
great deal of maple sugar. In summer these Indians went out to the buffalo
grounds, sixty to eighty miles west of the river, returning in the fall, to be near
the Missouri settlers. There never was an Indian village on the site of Atchi-
son, although Mrs. Joe Wade, who was George Million's daughter, claims to
have remembered coming to this side of the river when she was a little girl,
and seeing a dead Indian strapped to a board and leaning against a tree on
the present site of Commercial street. The body was surrounded with totem
poles. There was no game at that time on this side of the river. Indians
themselves hunted deer on the Missouri side in winter, and were very friendly
with the vi'hites.
John Taylor died on March 7, 1897.
JOHN M. CROWELL.
John M. Crowell was mayor of Atchison three terms, coming to the city
in 1858 from Londonderry, N. H., where he was born October 22, 1823.
For ten years he was a merchant here, afterwards being appointed Government
storekeeper, and having charge of a distillery below town. From 1870 to
1885, he was United States postoffice inspector for nineteen States and Terri-
tories, and in that capacity visited every section of the country. He resigned
to become a mail contractor, although solicited by a Democratic postmaster
general to remain. His record in Washington was as good as that of any
man who ever worked for the Government. Mr. Crowell was a forty-niner,
crossing the plains during the great rush of that year, and engaging in sluice
mining. He made four trips to California, but never by railroad. From San
Francisco he visited China, South America, the Sandwich Islands, and was
a great traveler in his time. He was the father of Frank G. Crowell, who
was born in Atchison, and for many years a prominent citizen here, but later
resigning his position as county attorney of Atchison county and moving to
Kansas City to engage in the grain business, where he now lives.
200 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Jolm M. Crowell's daughter became Mrs. F. M. Baker, who accumulated
a fortune in the grain business in Atchison. Mr. Crowell died on the ele\'enth
day of October, 1902.
GEORGE MILLION
WILLIAM SCARBROUGH
LUTHER DICKERSON.
Luther Dickerson came to Atchison county in June, 1854, immediately
after Kansas was opened to settlement, from Saline county, Missouri, where he
had lived ten years. He went to Missouri from Washington count}-, Ohio,
where he was born in 1825. After looking over the countn- Mr. Dickerson
returned to Missouri, but came back to Kansas the following October, and
"squatted" on a tract of land a mile north of the State Orphans' Home. From
1854 to 1857 were the squatter sovereignty days, during which period a set-
tled could have no title to land, further than the fact of his settlement on the
land he seleced as his home. Land offices were not established until in 1857,
when the squatter filed his claims, and began fighting over them. The first
land office in this section was at Doniphan. John ^^^ Whitfield, who was
afterwards in Congress, was the register. About a \ear later the land office
was removed to Kickapoo, just below Atchison.
When Mr. Dickerson squatted on his claim in 1854, three-fourths of the
land around him was taken, ^^'elcome Nance, Peter Cummings, John Taylor
and Widow Boyle had farms at that time. Andy Colgan did not come until
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 20I
1857. The settlers of 1854 were mostly from Missouri. In 1855 came an
organized band of South Carolinians, whose object was to make Kansas a
slave State. Then followed the fierce and relentless fight with the Free State
men, which ended in 1857, as far as this section was concerned. That is. in
1857 the Free State men won control, and have practically kept it ever since.
In the fall of that year the Free State men elected their county ticket, and
Luther Dickerson was chosen as one of the four commissioners and was made
chairman.
Luther Dickerson was a Free State man and was fought by all the Alis-
souri and South Carolinians. His land was contested, and he was beaten in
the land office, but he finally won before the secretary of the interior, by
proving that the woman who was contesting him was a foreigner. Hiram
Latham, a Free State man, who lived across the road from Dickerson, was
murdered in Doniphan, and because of this murder Frank McVey left the
country and never came back. The men who killed Latham were ferried
over Independence creek by Dickerson, and, noticing that they were armed, he
asked where they were going. They said they were going wolf hunting. In
1858 Luther Dickerson was elected a member of the house of representatives,
which met at Lecompton, and then adjourned to Lawrence. In the same year,
while still a county commissioner, he built the old court house, which occupied
the site of the present court house.
Luther Dickerson raised the first company of soldiers ever organized in
the State of Kansas, in May, 1861. The first militarv order issued in the
State was directed to him, signed by John A. Martin, assistant adjutant
general.
But while his company was the first organized, it happened that Dicker-
son's commission as captain was the second issued, and was signed b}' Gov-
ernor Charles Robinson, before the State had an official seal. Afterwards. Mr.
Dickerson served in the regidar volunteer service, as first lieutenant.
He lived on his land, north of town, for many years, and died in Atchison
on the thirteenth day of December, 19 10.
LUTHER C. CHALLISS.
Luther C. Challiss came to Atcliison in 1855 from Boonville, Mo., where
he was engaged as a merchant. He remained here continuously until 1861
as merchant, banker, ferry operator and real estate owner. Luther C. Chal-
202 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
liss' addition, the east line of which is at the alley between Seventh and Eighth
streets, was preempted by Mr. Challiss in 1857, and was originally com-
posed of 198 acres.
As a member of the Territorial council, Mr. Challiss secured the first
charter for a railroad west from Atchison, known as the Atchison Pike's Peak
railroad, now the Central Branch. He was the first president of the road,
and originally owned every dollar of the stock. He also managed the Kicka-
poo treaty, which gave the road 150,000 acres of land, and made it prominent
in Washington as a specific possibility. The original Government subsidy for
this road was every other quarter section of land for ten miles on either side,
in a ddition to $16,000 to $48,000 per mile, in Government bonds.
At the same time Mr. Challiss secured a charter for the Atchison-Pike's
Peak railroad, he secured a charter for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail-
road, his original idea being a southern route to the Pacific, and that road
has fulfilled all of his early expectations.
Mr. Challiss made a great deal of money in Atchison, and in 1864 drifted
to New York and Washington, where he became an operator on the stock
exchange. Mr. Challiss' sympathies were with the South, and was generally
a bull. As long as the South showed its ability to hold out Mr. Challiss made
a great deal of money, and at one time he had on deposit in New York
$960,000, but the tide turned against him when the South began to fail,
and this fortune was reduced to nothing.
As an operator on Wall street at that time, Mr. Challiss outranked Jim
Fisk and Jay Gould, and was the peer of Anthony Morse and the Jeromes.
Jay Gould was a ver\- common man at that time, compared to Mr. Challiss,
and a very little thing might have made Mr. Challiss one of the great financial
leaders in America. An incident in his career in New York was the attempt
of Woodhull & Claflin to break him. He made a fight that is still remem-
bered, and sent Woodhull and Claflin, Colonel Blood Stephen, Pearl Andrews
and George Francis Train to jail, where they remained six months. Finally
they left the country as a result of a compromise. Mr. Challiss' lawyers were
Roger A. Pryor and Judge Fullerton. Judge Fullerton received a quarter
section of land in Atchison county as his fee. Mr. Challiss also brought the
famous Pacific Mail suit, which was equally famous.
He returned to Atchison in 1878, looking after the wreck of his former
possessions. For three years he edited the Atchison Champion, and bitterly
opposed John J. Ingalls for United States senator in 1890.
Mr. Challiss, in his latter rears, became a very much abused man, and
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 2O3
was looked upon as one of the unpopular citizens of the town, but it may be
said to his credit that he did much for Atchison, and was largely responsible
for making the town the terminus of the Hannibal & St. Joe railroad. He
brought Jay Gould, Henry N. Smith and Ben Cai-ver to Atchison, and they
agreed to extend the road from St. Joseph to Atchison, in consideration of
$75,000.00 in Atchison bonds, which was agreed to. Mr. Challiss had some
sort of a deal with Henry N. Smith while they were operating on Wall street,
and Challiss claimed that Smith owned him $107,000.00. They finally settled
the matter, by Smith agreeing to bring the Hannibal & St. Joseph road here
without the $75,000.00 in bonds the people had agreed to give him. The
Atchison Champion of May 11, 1872, contained a half column scare head, to
the effect that Luther C. Challiss telegraphed from New York that the bridge
had been finally secured, and gave the credit of securing the bridge to Chal-
hss and James N. Burnes.
Mr. Challiss died a poor man on the si.xth day of July, 1895.
GEORGE W. CLICK.
George W. Glick, the ninth g-overnor of Kansas, for a number of years
United States pension agent for the district comprising Kansas, Missouri, Col-
orado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territory, came to Atchison in
June, 1859, from Fremont, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of Ruth-
erford B. Hayes, who afterwards became President of the United States. Mr.
Glick came to Atchison on the steamer "Wm. H. Russell," named for and
largely owned by William H. Russell, senior member of the celebrated freight-
ing firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. Mr. Glick was bom in Fairfield
county, Ohio, July 4, 1829, on a farm, and when four years old removed with
his father's family to within a mile and a half of Fremont, where he remained
until he came to Atchison. He first went to school in the country, near Fre-
mont, where he afterwards taught when he was nineteen. Later he attended
a Dioclesion school at Fremont, founded by Dr. Dio Lewis, who afterwards
became famous and whose name then was Dioclesia Lewis. Later he attended
Central College, Ohio, but did not graduate. In 1849 he began the study of
law in the office of Bucklin & Hayes, in Fremont, as a result of getting his
feet in a threshing machine. It was supposed that he would never be fit
for farm work again, but he afterwards recovered. Two years later he was
admitted to the bar in Cincinnati, standing an examination with the graduat-
ing class of the Cincinnati law school. He practiced eight years in Fremont
204 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
before coming to Atchison, building up a good business, in spite of the fact
that he ahvays went out to the farm in haying time and harvested and helped
his father. In January, following his arrival in Atchison, he formed a part-
nership with A. G. Otis, which continued as long as he practiced law. The
firm of Otis & Glick was the strongest in Atchison, as long as it lasted, and
B. P. Waggener was a student in their office. In' 1872 Mr. Glick became a
town farmer, operating a farm of 640 acres four miles west of Atchison, mak-
ing a specialty of Short Horn cattle, paying as high as $1,000 for several sin-
gle animals. He served nine terms in the Kansas legislature, and was once
county commissioner, and once county auditor of Atchison county, ^^'hile
auditor of Atchison county, in 1882, he was elected go\ernor, by 9,000 plur-
ality, over Jim P. St. John, who had been elected two years before by about
55.000. In 1884 he was re-nominated as governor by the Democrats, but was
defeated by John A. Martin. He first received the nomination for governor
nine years after coming to Kansas, but was defeated by the Republicans. He
was appointed pension agent in 1885, and again in 1893. He was a Mason,
and was one of the original organizers of the Knight Templars and Royal
Arch Masons, in Atchison. He was the first president of the Atchison-Xe-
braska road, having built it to the county line, in connection with Brown and
Bier. Governor Glick sold his farm near Shannon a number of years ago,
and during the latter part of his life was inacti\'e in business and professional
affairs. He died on the thirteenth day of April, 191 1.
DR. W. K. GRIMES.
One of the oldest citizens of Atchison was Dr. \\'. H. Grimes, who came
here from Yellow Spring, Ohio, in 1858. His son, E. B. Grimes, came a year
before, and opened a drug store in the building for many years occupied as
an office by the Atchison Water Company, across from the Byram Hotel.
Dr. W. H. Grimes practiced medicine until the war broke out, when he became
a surgeon in the Thirteenth Kansas. Returning to Atchison at the close of
the war, he continued the practice of medicine until his death, in 1879.
E. B. Grimes was a cjuarter-master during the war with a rank of major.
At the close of the war he entered the regular army, and built many of the
posts in the Department of the Platte, notably Ft. Laramie, Ft. Fetterman and
Ft. Douglass. He died at Ft. Leavenworth, in 1882.
Another son. Dr. R. V. Grimes, was a lieutenant in his father's regiment.
After the war he became an armv surgeon, and was in manv of the Indian
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 2O5
campaigns in the Northwest. He was in Merritt's command when it went
to the rescue of General Custer, and was the- surgeon in Major Thornburg's
command when it was surrounded at the famous fight on Milk river. The
command was surrounded five days by the Utes, and was finally rescued
by General Merritt. While he lived in Atchison he was employed as a printer
on the Champion.
Two other sons of Dr. Grimes, John and Howard Grimes,- were mem-
bers of Colonel Jennison's Seventh Kansas Jayhawkers.
JOSHUA WHEELER.
Joshua Wheeler was one of the best known, as well as one of the most
successful, farmers Atchison county ever had. His papers on questions per-
taining to agriculture and the farm, read before the various societies, attracted
wide-spread attention. In State affairs, he served the public long and honor-
ably, and for over twenty years was a member of the State board of agricul-
ture, serving three years as its president. His long connection with the State
Agriculture College game him an extended acquaintance over the State, and
he was appointed regent for that institution by Governor Han^ey in 1S71, and
re-appointed by Governor Martin in 18S8, serving until April, 1894. During
several years of that time he was treasurer of the board, and gained an exten-
sive knowledge of the college and its history. He served in the State senate
during 1863 and 1864 and in the fall of 1885 was elected for another term.
Joshua W^heeler was born in Buckingham, England, February 12, 1827,
and came to America in 1844, locating in New Jersey, where he resided four
years before removing to Illinois. In 1857 a colony of seven or eight families
of Fulton county, Illinois, farmers, Seventh-Day Baptists, came to Kansas,
and located in the southwest portion of Atchison county, covering the entire
distance overland. S. P. Griffin and Dennis Sounders preceded the colony
in the spring of the same year to look up a location. They went as far to the
southwest as Emporia, but found no land equal to that of Atchison county.
After locating the land for the colony they went back to Illinois, but did not
accompany the colony to Kansas, but came a year or two later. Griffin
farmed for nearly twenty years, but afterwards became a Nortonville mer-
chant. He was the father of Charles T. Griffin, at one time an attorney in
Atchison.
When the colony of Seventh-Day people arri\-ed at the end of their des-
tination they found the land in possession of colonists, but they bought them
2O0 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
out, preempted claims and laid out the now famous Seventh-Day Lane. The
land was then an open prairie, occupied only by an occasional hut. It is at
this time the admiration of every visitor abounding- in well cultivated fields,
pastures, groves, orchards, comfortable homes, to which paint is no stranger,
large barns, uniformly trimmed hedges, and peopled by as thrifty a class as
can be found in the western country. Later on Seventh-Day people came
from Iowa, Wisconsin and New York, and joined the Illinois colony on Sev-
enth-Day Lane, which is two miles in length. The Seventh-Day Baptists ob-
serve their Sabbath from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday eve-
ning. Their church has a seating capacity of 400, which is always comfort-
ably filled, and was built in 1884, prior to which time the Seventh-Day Bap-
tists worshiped in their school house.
A. A. Randolph was the first pastor of the church on Seventh-Day Lane.
He came here from Pennsylvania in 1863, and died in 1868. S. R. Wheeler,
a brother of Joshua Wheeler, was pastor of the church for twelve years.
When the Seventh-Day Baptists built their homes on the Lane sm.ooth
wire cost eleven and one-half cents per pound in Atchison, and ordinary
flooring, $100.00 per thousand feet. Money was loaned at four per cent, per
month. They did all of their trading in Atchison until Nortonville was built.
Joshua Wheeler was not only a successful farmer, but a good business
man. He kept a regular set of books, and could always tell exactly what it
cost him to produce a bushel of wheat in any of the different years of his
farm experience. He could tell also what a bushel of com, fed to cattle,
would produce. In 1877 he sold his wheat for $1.75 per bushel.
He owned a farm of over 300 acres, just at the west end of the Lane,
where he died on the fourteenth day of May, 1896.
WILLI.A.M HETHERINGTON.
William Hetherington, founder of the Exchange National Bank, came
to Atchison in 1859, from Pottsville, Penn., where he operated a flouring
mill. His three oldest children, Mrs. B. P. W'aggener, W. W. Hetherington
and C. S. Hetherington, were born in Pottsville. Mrs. W. A. Otis, the young-
est daughter, was born in Atchison. William Hetherington himself was
bom in Milton, Penn., May 10, 1821. He was also married there. When
he first came west he stopped in St. Louis, then went to Kansas City, and
later to Leavenworth, where he bought a bankrupt stock of goods and liauled
them to Atchison in wagons. This was in 1859. The same year he estab-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 207
lished the Exchange Bank of WilHam Hetherington, absorbing the Kansas
Valley Bank, owned by Robert L. Pease, which had been established several
years before.
Mr. Hetherington's influence in Atchison was very marked. He was a
cultured gentleman of the old school, and was so generally respected, although
always a Democrat, he stood very high in the sixties when the sectional bitter-
ness was at its height, and did much to maintain peace between the contending
factions. He was a very able public speaker. He was never a bitter partisan,
and enjoyed the respect of the people to an unusual degree. He was one of
the early mayors of Atchison, and had a successful career. He died on the
twenty-first day of January, 1890.
WILLIAM C. SMITH.
William C. Smith, one of the early mayors of Atchison, came to Kansas
in 1858 from Illinois, settling near Valley Falls. Two years later he traded
his farm to Sam Dickson for a stock 'of goods in Atchison and removed to this
city. The firm of William C. Smith & Son continued sixteen years. The
son was Henry T. Smith, who still resides in Atchison (1915). Another son
is William R. Smith, who is at present the attorney for the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe Railway Company, at Topeka, for a number of years was a justice
of the supreme court of Kansas. His oldest daughter married P. L. Hub-
bard, who afterwards became district judge of Atchison county, and another
daughter married H. C. Solomon, for many years a leading attorney of Atchi-
son. Mr. Smith died in 1884. He was mayor two terms; member of the
legislature, council and the board of education. Although Mr. Smith came
to Kansas from Illinois, he was born at Columbus, Ohio, in 1817.
JOHN M. PRICE.
John M. Price arrived in Atchison with his wife on the first of Septem-
ber, 1858, the day the Massasoit House was formally opened for the public.
They came here from Platte City, Mo., to visit some old friends from Ken-
tucky, who had moved to Kansas, and after they arrived concluded to remain.
The Prices originally came from Irvine, Ky. Mr. Price studied law in Irvine ;
was admitted and elected county attorney before coming to Atchison. He
was a Union man, in spite of the fact that he came from Kentucky, and was
very active in a business and professional way during the early days of his
205 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
residence in this county, and for many years thereafter. He constructed more
large and substantial buildings in Atchison than any other individual who ever
lived here. He built the house for a residence, now occupied by Mt. St.
Scholastica Academy, an opera house and many blocks of business buildings
and residences. He was a member of the legislature several times ; was prom-
inently mentioned as a candidate for United States senator. Mv. Price died
on the twentieth day of October, 1898.
SAMUEL C. KING.
Samuel C. King came to Atchison ]\Iarch 2/, 1857. His brothers, Ed.
and John, together with a sister and his widowed mother, arrived here the
year before, coming here with Dr. W. L. Challiss, in the steam ferry, "Ida."
• from Brownsville, Penn., where that boat was built. The King family came
originally from England, within thirty-five miles of Liverpool, where tlie
children were born, and- where the father died. Ed. King was the first pilot
of the ferrv boat, "Ida," when it began making trips to Atchison. Tlie three
sons and the mother took up claims in Mt. Pleasant township. \\'liile living
there three old neighbors came out and Samuel C. King went out with them
to look for claims. They were told that there was plenty of vacant land near
Monrovia, but Mr. King advised them that it was too far out in the wilderness,
and they went elsewhere. (Monrovia is fourteen miles from Atchison). While
the other members of the family were getting their start Samuel C. King
clerked in George T. Challiss' store, receiving $25.00 per month, and boarded
himself. He afterwards went to work for Mike Finney, steamboat wharf
master, and was practically the first express agent in Atchison. Later he went
out to his farm and split rails to fence it, and afterwards clerked for Bowman
& Blair for $25.00 per month and board. He enlisted in the navy in June.
1861, enlisting as a landsman on the man of war, "Augusta." He served on
this ship through all the exciting scenes of the navy during the war, and was
at the battle of Point Royal. He assisted in capturing eight British sliips,
which tried to nui the blockade, and his part of the prize money auKiunted to
over $7,000.00. He was at the bombardment of Ft. Sumpter, and at the tak-
ing of Tyble Island, off Savannah, Ga. He spent eleven months at sea, work-
ing for the "Alabama," and rounded Cape Hatteras. He saw the burning of
Charleston, and finally learning that his mother was fatally ill. he came home.
He was elected covmty treasurer of Atchison county. ]\Ir. King remained a
prosperous capitalist and real estate operator, until his death on the twenty-
third day of January, 1910.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CLEM ROHR.
Clem Rohr came originally from Buffalo, N. Y., where he was born in
1835. He learned the trade of harness maker there, and afterwards worked
at his trade at Chicago, Detroit and Moline, 111. In Davenport, Iowa, he
heard Jim Lane make a speech about Kansas. This speech caused Rohr to
go to Leavenworth in 1856, and while living in that town and employed as
mail carrier he ran into the famous battle of Hickory Point. He slept in
Hickory Point the night after the fight and helped fix up the wounded. He
walked to Atchison in 1857 from Leavenworth, with Nick Greiner, for many
years a prosperous German farmer, south of Atchison, and started a harness
shop, which he conducted in the same place on the south side of Commercial
street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, for over forty years.
The first telegram that came to Atchison announcing that Kansas had
been admitted was sent to Clem Rohr, and was signed by S. C. Pomeroy.
He served as mayor of Atchison. Early in the sixties when the home guard
was organized in Atchison Clem Rohr was made captain. His father was
one of Napoleon Bonaparte's body-guard, and was with that great soldier at
Austerlitz in the Russian campaign, and at the battle of Waterloo. Mr. Rohr
always claimed that Julius Newman, who had a farm near the Soldiers' Home,
made the first filing in the Lecompton land office.
Mr. Rohr died in Atchison on the twenty-third day of May, 1910.
R. H. WEIGHTMAN.
One of the most interesting and romantic early-day characters in Atchi-
son county was Maj. R. H. Weightman, an ex-major of the United States
army, who was associated with a famous frontier tragedy. Major Weight-
man was a violent pro-slavery man and had lieen reared in the South. Before
coming to Kickapoo, where he was connected with the land office, and subse-
quently to Atchison, he was the editor of the Herald at Santa Fe, N. M., and
also a delegate to Congress from that Territoiy.
F. X. Aubrey, the other party to the quarrel, was a French Canadian, of
great pluck and energy, and had made a reputation on a wager in 1852, riding
from Santa Fe to Independence, Mo., in a few hours over eight days. The
next year he wagered $1,000 he could go the same distance in less than eight
days. His bet was accepted and Aubrey covered the distance in less than
five days. Following these rides he engaged in the freighting business o\'er
14
2IO HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the plains and he and Major Weightman became warm personal friends.
Aubrey later made a trip to California, taking a herd of sheep, which he sold
at a fine profit. It was upon his return from this trip that he and Weightman
had their famous quarrel. The fairest account of this incident appeared in the
Missouri Republican, September 28, 1834, which was in the form of a com-
munication from a correspondent of that paper, and was as follows :
"the case of m.vjor weightman.
"Mr. Editor : The deplorable event by which F. X. Aubrey lost his life
and which deprived the West of one of its most energetic and able pioneers,
will not be passed lightly over. The name of Mr. Aubrey had become too
closely identified with all that is gallant, preserving, and — in a western sense,
at least — brave and chivalrous, that his memory and his sudden death should
not awaken painful emotions among all those to whom his name had become
a household word; emotions too painful to expect that, under iiis influence,
full justice would be done to both parties concerned, ^^'hen, therefore, an
opportunity is afforded by which the facts, as nearly as we can approach them,
may be investigated, it would seem injustice to withhold these facts from
the public.
"Though, perhaps, less historical!}- known (if the expression be per-
mitted) than Mr. Aubrey, Major Weightman has peculiar claims upon the
citizens of Missouri, and especially of St. Louis, for demanding full and im-
partial justice in this behalf. Witliout wishing to anticipate the judgment of
your readers, or at all commenting upon the evidence which will be found be-
low, your correspondent, in view of the grave charge in which Major Weight-
man is involved, and the melancholy importance of the event, deems it his
duty, notwithstanding, here to state what may be known to most of your
readers, that Major Weightman, for years, formerly, was a resident of St.
Louis, beloved and respected, almost without any exception, by all with
whom he came in contact.
"Amongst the many of Missouri's citizens who participated in the late
Mexican war. Major, then Captain ^^'eightman, at the liead of his Light
Artillery Company, won' laurels which placed his name foremost among the
bravest and most gallant in that war. His fellow soldiers still in our midst
will cheerfully bear your correspondent testimony, that Captain Weightman's
gallantry as a soldier and officer was only surpassed by his urbanity and true
kindliness of feeling as a gentleman; and if the evidence adduced upon his
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
preliminary examination before the examining magistrate should sustain
Weightman's plan of self-defense in tlie premises, his former friends here
and abroad, and his fellow soldiers, will be glad to learn that the qualities of
heart, for which they used most to prize Captain Weightman, in former years,
remain untainted even now, when his name has become unfortunately coupled
with a most grave and serious charge. May the public judge, and may not
the unquestioned enviable renown of Captain Aubrey's name tend to warp
calm judgment in pronouncing upon the guilt or innocence of the accused.
"The following evidence, being a synopsis of the process verbatim at the
preliminary examination before Judge Davenport, at Santa Fe, have been
transmitted to your correspondent from New Mexico lay a third person, and,
as your correspondent has every reason to believe, may be fully relied on.
It is in the main supported by your former notices published in the Republican
concerning this same transaction.
"The circumstances are these: Major W'eiglitman, hearing of the
arrival of Aubrey, and that he was at tlie store of the ]\Iessrs. ^Mercure, mer-
chants at Santa Fe, crossed the plaza to see him, and was one of the first
to take him by the hand and greet him as a friend. \Mien Major Weightman
arried at the store of the Messrs. Mercure, several persons had already arrived
to pay their respects to Mr. Aubrey.
"Aubrey and Weightman met kindly, shook hands, and conversed pleas-
antly for a short time, when something having been said by a third person
about the route by which Aubrey had arrived from California, Aubrey asked
the major if he had yet puljHshed his paper in Albuquerque. The major said,
no; tliat it was dead — had died a natural death from want of subscribers.
/Vubrey then said it should have died, because of the Hes with which it was
filled. This was said without excitement, ^^'hen WeiglUman asked 'What
lies?' Aubrey remarked : 'When I returned from California last year you asked
me for information in respect to ray route, and afterwards you abused me.'
This Weightman denied, saying, 'No, Aubrey, I did not abuse you.' Aubrey
then said, more or less excited, T say you did, and I now repeat, it is a lie,' at
the same time bringing his hand down with force upon the counter.
"At this Weightman, who was sitting on the counter, fi\'e or six feet from
Aubrey, sprang down and approached Aubrey, who had been standing near
the counter, and taking a glass from which Aubrey had been drinking (a
toddy), threw the contents in his face. Weightman immediately stepped
back, when Aubrey drew a pistol (Colt's belt pistol), the first shot from
which took effect in the ceiling (supposed to ba\-e gone off while cocking).
212 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Weightman then drew a knife, and before another shot could be fired, closed
with Aubrey and stabbed him in the abdomen, and soon after seized Aub-
rey's pistol.
"The Messrs. Mercure nished on and seized the parties. Aubrey rapidly
sank, and as soon as he relinquished his pistol Weightman said : 'I did it in my
own defense, and I will go and surrender myself to the authorities,' which he
did, accompanied by his friend, Major Cunningham. Aubrey died in a few
minutes. He received but the one blow. Major Weightman has carried
a bowie knife for his own protection for a year past, believing it to be necessary
for him to do so. This was stated as the cause of his being armed. Aubrey
was of the number of those who were inimical to him. The relations between
Aubrey and Weightman had been heretofore of the most agreeable character."
Major Weightman was a resident of Atchison only a few years. At the
outbreak of the war he joined the southern army, and lost his life in the
battle of Wilson's Creek.
CHAPTER XIII.
AGRICULTURE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY SCIENTIFIC FARMING FARMERS, THE ARIS-
TOCRACY OF THE WEST MODERN IMPROVEMENT TOPOGRAPHY" SOIL
STATISTICS.
Atchison county is distinctively an agricultural community. There have
been some earnest efforts made in the past to develop its mineral resources,
and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that future efforts in that direc-
tion will unlock hidden resources of fabulous value. But in the future, as in
the past, agriculture will be the big important dividend producer in this
county. Up to this time it is not unfair to say that only the surface of the
soil has been scratched. Earming has been the occupation of a vei-y large
portion of our people from the days when the first settlers took up their
claims and with crude implements, broke the sod, down to this en-
lightened age, of the riding plow and the traction engine, but scientific hus-
bandly has not been followed on a large scale in this county. Crops have
been so easy to produce, on account of rich soil and a favorable climate, that
the methods employed in countries not so blessed and of a greater popula-
tion, have not been followed in the past. This is not an arraignment of the
former, for Atchison county has been peculiarly blessed in its possession
of an intelligent lot of thrifty fanners. They have toiled and labored early
and late; they have built comfortable homes, accumulated fortunes, and are
the sturdy, dependable citizens of the county, but for over sixty years they
have lacked organization and the prosperous farmers have succeeded because
of their own personal initiative, judgment and hard work. As a class they
have not made the progress to which they are justly entitled. Those that
came early and remained, have in most instances met with rare success, but
they worked out their own salvation, unaided by scientific organization.
213
214 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
One hundred and sixty of them have banded together for mutual lielp and
have secured a county agricultural agent to assist them in this direction,
as the rich country' in the States east of us have been forced to do. , The
soil also has an abundance of potash and a creditable amount of phosphorus,
so with the proper use of legumes and manure, with the addition of some
phosphorus, the fertility of the soil may be increased and maintained in-
definitely. If soil washing is stopped and the organic matter in the soil
maintained, tliis county has a soil, that agriculturally speaking, is second to
none.
The real aristocracy in the ^^'est, will, in future generations, trace its
ancestr\' back to tiie pioneers, who settled on the land and tilled it. Those
who went into trade and the professions when they came to Atchison county
prior to i860, and in subsecjuent years, have prospered, in part, by their wits,
but in the main, on the farmer. The farmers were then, as now, the real
wealth producers and so it has come to pass, after these many years, that
the farmer "has arrived," and with the increase in population and the gen-
eral trend of advancement and improvement in all human activities, farming
now stands near the top of the big human enterprises. The desire for organ-
ization and cooperation among the farmers is growing e\-erywhere. and it
has taken hold of Atchison county in recent years.
The farmer's life in this county, in the late fifties and early sixties, was a
hard and lonely one. During those years many homesteads were preempted,
fifteen to twenty-one miles southwest, west and northwest of Atchison, and
onto these the young pioneers took their wives and families. There they
built their log houses, "broke out" their land, and put it to corn and wheat.
There were few neighbors, fewer creature comforts, and no con\-eniences.
It was a solitary life.
This histoiy contains biographical sketches of many of these pioneers,
and in them will be found the intimate stories of hardships, privations and
discomforts. They came to conquer the resources of nature, and they ac-
complished what they came after. There were no highways over which to
convey their crops when harvested, and the ways to the nearest market were
long and drean- ones. It was a two days' trip over the prairies to Atchison
with a load of grain, and there were few ways to economize time, although,
fortunateh', time was not an object then, as it is in these restless da}'s.
And yet within the short span of the lives of farmers who are still here,
there has been a marvelous development. Log houses have given way to
fine commodious homes, steam heated and electric lighted ; great Ijarns shel-
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY 215
ter the stock, and house the grain ; the telephone, the rural delivery and the
automobile have revolutionized the farmer's life and the farmer's wife.
Better roads are the order of the day, and it will be along this line that great
progress will be made in the immediate future. Meanwhile, land values
are on the increase, and the quarter sections that sold from $500 to $800
each, fifty years ago, are now bringing $16,000 to $24,000 each. Within
the year 1915 there has been a general trend of sentiment among the more
enterprising farmers to put farming upon a more scientific basis. The sei"\'-
ices of a faiTn adviser have been secured, whose duty it is to assist in this
direction. Thev are learning more of food values, crop rotation and diversi-
fication, soil culture and plant life. As the value of these things become
more apparent, the farming industry will thrive more, and in another gen-
eration the problem of keeping the young men and young women on the farm
will Iiave been solved.
The richest and most valuable fanning land in Atchison count}- is very
generally distributed. There are parts of each township that are rough and
broken, but as the population increases land not now regarded as choice will
be made to produce abundant crops. The river bluffs, which have stood so
long in timber, are gradually being cleared and the bare hills which are left,
are admirably adapted to fiaiit, wheat and alfalfa. Much of this land is as
well adapted to fruit raising as is the already famous Wathena district, some
of it being exactly the same type of soil. All that is needed is that the fruit
growers give their plantations care. The orchard that is properly cared for
produces fruit of a quality far superior to that of the famous Northwest.
Incidentally, this land returns the grower a greater net profit.
Atchison, county lies within the glaciated portion of the plains region.
The underlying rocks are buried by the glacial till, but in turn is covered by
a deposit of fine silty material, known as loess. Practically all the soil
throughout this country is derived from the loess covering. The principal
soil is a brown, almost black, silty loam, well adapted to the production of
general farm crops. The rainfall is sufficient for the maturing of all crops,
the normal anual precipitation ranging from fifteen to twenty-five inches.
Atchison county has a population ranging from 28,000 to 30,000 people.
There was a slight decrease in the population between the years of 1900 and
1 9 10, yet, in spite of this apparent unfavorable showing, the value of farm
land and farm products have increased. About ninety-five per cent, of the
land in this county is in farms, of an average ^•alue of $69.26 per acre. The
proportionate land area is 263,680 acres, of which 249,339 acres are in farms,
2l6 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
with an aggregate land value of $17,270,130, which is more than double
what it was in 1900, and over two million dollars more than the whole of the
Louisiana Purchase cost us in 1803. Figures and statistics are proverbially
dr\.' and uninteresting, but there is no place in Avhich they can be more ap-
propriately used than in history, and no language that can be employed
could tell a better story of the agricultural progress of Atchison county, than
the statistics taken from the thirteenth census of the United States. From
this source we find that the total value of improvements on the farms in this
county in 1910 was $2,692,755, and that the value of the implements and
machinery used by the farmers, not including automobiles, was $499,129.
While the value of domestic animals and live stock was $2,149,863, and in
these figures poultry is not included. The chicken, duck, goose and turkey
census reached 150,127, and these were valued at $77,926. The total value
of all crops shown by the census of 1910 was as follows:
Cereals $1,928,065.00
Other grain and seeds 3.577-oct
Hay and forage 281,793.00
Vegetables 94,232.00
Fruits and nuts 32,297.00
All other crops 30,883.00
Grand Total $2,370,847.00
Making a grand total of $2,370,847.00.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRESS.
INFLUENCE OF NEWSPAPERS PART PLAYED BY THE EARLY PRESS SQUAT-
TER sovereign" "freedom's champion" "CHAMPION AND PRESS/"
PIONEER EDITORS LATER NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSPAPER MEN.
Of all the mighty powers for good and evil, none can excel the news-
paper. Take all the newspapers out of the world today and there would
be chaos. Mankind would be groping in the dark, and life itself would be
a vain and empty thing. Newspapers are the arteries through which the life-
blood of the world runs. They carry to our firesides the continued story of
civilization.
Early in the history of Atchison county, before the schools and the
churches, the newspaper appeared. It received a bounty of the original town
company when that association. September 21, 1854, by a resolution, donated
$400 to Robert Kelley and Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, to start a printing office,
and it was then that the Squatter Sovereign was conceived, and after a brief
period of gestation, was born February 3, 1855. By a strange stroke of mis-
fortune this first newspaper in the county stood for a wrong principle and
preached bad doctrine, for it advocated human slavery. Yet it was a crea-
ture of environment, and reflected the prevailing sentiment of its constituency.
It was fearless in its attitude and rabid in its utterances. It was a violent
organ of hate and bitterness toward all Free State men, and in it appeared
a constant flood of inflammatory comment directed against those who op-
posed slavery, and were determined that Kansas should be the land of the
brave and the home of the free. But as the pro-slavery cause waned, the
Squatter Sovereign waned with it, and in the fall of 1857, when saner coun-
sel and the feeling of brotherhood grew, the town company disposed of its
217
2l8 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
interest in the Squatter Sovereign to the New England Aid Society, of which
S. C. Pomeroy was agent, and the paper then passed into the hands of Rob-
ert McBratney and Franklin G. Adams. Mr. Adams and ]\Ir. :McBratney
were both Free Soilers, but they did not run the paper long. It was shortly
sold to O. F. Short, who ran it until the following Februar}% and on the twen-
tieth day of that month, 1858. John A. Martin purchased the plant and
changed the name of the paper to Freedom! s Champion. Under that name
Colonel Martin made of his paper one of the leading Free State organs of
the Territory. Always a brilliant editor, of courage and deep convictions,
Colonel Martin during his whole career never performed a greater service
than during the time he shouted the battle-cry of freedom through the col-
umns of Freedom's Champion, from 1858 to 1861. In September of the lat-
ter year, he laid aside his pen and took up his sword in defense of the prin-
ciples he so stoutly advocated, and thus translated his words into deeds. When
he went to the front he left the Champion in charge of George I. Stebbins.
who continued in charge until the fall of 1863, when it was leased to John J.
Ingalls and Robert H. Horton. These two men afterwards became political
rivals. Both were lawyers and both residents of Atchison for many years.
Horton was a tvpical lawyer, smooth and tactful, who enjoyed a suc-
cessful career in the practice of his profession and on the bench. Ingalls
was of a different temperament, being more intellectual, caring little for the
law, less tactful, but ambitious. They both met in the arena of politics, and
Horton was the vanquished. Following the senatorial election' of 1879, at
which they were both candidates, they became bitter enemies, and did not
speak until they met, by chance, in London, in 1891. While these two men
were editors of the Champion. Ingalls did most of the writing and kept things
warm until the retum of Colonel Martin from the war in January, 1865, one
of the Nation's heroes. Three months after his return, on the twenty-second
day of March, 1865. Colonel Martin became the publisher of a daily paper,
and on August 11, 1868, the Freedom's Champion was consolidated with
the Atchison Free Press, under the name of Champion and Press. The
Free Press was a Republican daily paper, and first appeared May 5, 1864,
with Franklin G. Adams as its editor and proprietor. In April, 1865, Frank
A. Root became a partner, and subsequently, L. R. Elliott, who had been an
assistant editor, became a proprietor, with Mr. Root retiring later, when the
paper was consolidated with the Champion.
The office of the Champion and Press was destroyed by fire May 20.
1869, but three weeks later the paper was in running order, with John A.
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUXTY 219
Martin as sole editor and proprietor, and from that date until the death of
?tlr. Alartin October 2. 1889, it remained one of the most influential and
prosperous papers in the State of Kansas.
Upon the death of Mr. Martin, the newspaper property was turned over
to his father-in-law, W. L. Challiss, as executor of Mr. Martin's estate, and
on the day of Mr. Martin's death the name of Phillip Krohn appears as man-
aging editor. Krohn occupied that important place until March 29, 1890,
when his name appeared for the last time as editor. Dr. Phillip Krohn was
a man of brilliant attainments, a fluent writer, and a pleasing public speaker.
He was a Methodist minister by profession, but, althouh he occupied the
pulpit upon occasions, his name was seldom taken seriously in connection
with religious work. From the date of Governor ^Martin's death the paper
gradually waned in influence. The paper remained the property of the estate
of Governor Martin, and Luther C. Challiss was editor and manager, until
October 11, 1894, when A. J. Felt, an ex-lieutenant governor of Kansas, be-
came its editor and proprietor. The paper did not prosper under the man-
agement of Mr. Felt, and four years later a company was organized by
Charles M. Sheldon, a promoter, and Mr. Sheldon became its editor May
2, 1898. Mr. Sheldon was an enthusiastic and aggressive individual, who
had very little respect for the value of money, which he spent so lavishlv that
two months later, July i, 1898, his name appeared for the last time as edi-
tor of the Chaiiipion. On the twentieth of that mon.th the paper was sold
to satisfy a mortgage and the property was re-purchased by A. J. Felt, who
immediately transferred it to the Champion Linotype Printing Company, a
partnership, composed of Edward Skinner, George T. Housen,- Charles O.
Hovatter, James McNamara and A. J. Felt. Mr. Felt again resumed the
editorial management of the paper, and remained in charge until January i,
1899.
Februan,' 3, 1899, Henry Kuhn. who surveyed the townsite of Atchi-
son, returned to the city with his son, James G. Kuhn. The}' made a heroic
effort to restore the lost prestige of the Champion, but soon became dis-
couraged, and in the latter part of May or early in the June following, they
gave up the ghost and silently disappeared. The mortgagees continued
the publication of the paper, and July 31, 1899. the name of John A. Reynolds
appears as business manager. It had no editor until August 23, 1899, when
James G. Day, Jr., a young lawyer, occupying a desk in the office of Wag-
gener, Horton & Orr, became editor and manager. Mr. Day ran a daily
until January 9, 1900, when it was discontinued. The following March he
220 HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
published a daily for one week, "as the devil would run it," a piece of cyni-
cism in reply to an effort the Topeka Capital made a short time before, when
that paper was turned over to Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, the eminent Con-
gregational preacher, who ran that paper one week, "As Jesus would run it."
Meanwhile, the Champion had its ups and downs, but did not die. A
daily again appeared April 22, 1901, with Ewing Herbert, one of the cele-
brated newspaper men of Kansas, as its editor and owner. Mr. Herbert
was at that time the owner of the Bro-wn County World, at Hiawatha. He
conceived the idea that Atchison offered an attractive field for a newspaper
venture, and he succeeded in interesting- some local capital in his enterprise.
Capt. John Seaton was a stockholder, among others, and Jay House, the
present mayor of Topeka (1915) and a brilliant newspaper paragrapher, was
city editor. Mr. Herbert spent only part of his time in Atchison, and turned
over the management of the Champion to Mr. House. It looked for a time
as if Mr. Herbert was going to make a success of his venture, but just at
the height of his prosperity he was guilty of an editorial indiscretion, which
turned some powerful influences against the paper, and on August 17, 1901,
Mr. Herbert gave up his effort as a bad job and turned the plant over to one
W. A. Robinson, formerly of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Robinson was a follower
of Henry George, the great single taxer, and conceived it to be his duty to
spread the single tax propaganda through the editorial columns of the Cham-
pion. His efforts in this direction did not prove profitable, and becoming
disheartened and discouraged he fled from the city shortly thereafter, a much
poorer but wiser man.
The Champion next fell into the hands of Gorman H. Young, for many
years a successful music merchant, of Atchison, who incidentally acquired a
small job printing plant, which he operated on North Fifth street, and which
he subsequently merged with the Champion plant, having acquired that by
paying off the mortgage which Mr. Robinson gave Ewing Herbert at the
lime he undertook to acquire the property. Mr. Young ran a weekly paper
for a number of years, imtil May, 1907, when he employed Wlalt Mason, the
famous prose poet of the United Sta 
