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THE
Kansas Historical
Quarterly
NYLE H. MILLER, Managing Editor
JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor
FORREST R. BLACKBURN, Assistant Editor
Volume XXVIII
1962
(Kansas Historical Collections)
VOL. XLV
Published by
The Kansas State Historical Society
Topeka, Kansas
72293
Fort Lewis College Librarv
Contents of Volume XXVIII
Number 1 Spring, 1962
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL, BRANCH COUNTRY,
1865-1874 George L. Anderson, 1
With map of the Central Branch country, facing p. 16, and photographs of
Atchison and Waterville of the 1870's, facing p. 17.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Five,
1826-1829 Compiled by Louise Barry, 25
With map of some historic sites in the Kansas region of pre-1826 origin,
sketches of the Kansa Agency (1827-1834?), and Fool Chiefs Kansa
village (1829?), and portraits of Cyprian and Frederick Chouteau,
between pp. 48, 49; map showing early Kansa Indian villages in present
Shawnee county, p. 59.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Continued Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snett, 60
With portraits of W. H. Harris, Luke Short, C. M. Beeson, Michael W. Sutton,
D. M. Frost, Nicholas B. Klaine, Gov. George W. Click, Adj. Gen. Thomas
Moonlight, and group pictures of the so-called Dodge City Peace Com-
mission, between pp. 80, 81.
THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing Reports of the Secretary, Treasurer,
Executive and Nominating Committees; Election of Officers; Memorial
to Thomas M. Lillard; List of Directors of the Society 114
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 136
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 137
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . 140
Number 2 Summer, 1962
PAGE
GOVERNOR CRAWFORD s APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross
TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE Mark A. Plummer, 145
With portraits of James Henry Lane, frontispiece, and Samuel Johnson Craw-
ford and Edmund Gibson Ross, facing p. 145.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON:
A Case Study, 1880 James C. Malin, 154
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Six,
1830-1832 Compiled by Louise Barry, 167
With a reproduction of William H. Jackson's water color of the Smith-
Jackson-Sublette expedition of 1830, facing p. 176; portraits of the Rev.
and Mrs. Thomas Johnson, the Rev. Isaac McCoy and Dr. Johnston
Lykins, sketches of the Shawnee Methodist and Baptist Missions, and
reproduction of a Charles Bodmer painting of the Steamboat Yellowstone
in 1833, between pp. 176, 177; portion of an 1834 map of present eastern
Kansas, facing p. 177.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Continued Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snett, 205
With portrait of Thomas James Smith, facing p. 208, and photographs of
Ashland street scenes, 1886 and 1887, facing p. 209.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY, Compiled by Alberta Pantle, Librarian, 233
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 259
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 263
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 269
(fit)
Number 3 Autumn, 1962
PACK
THE IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 Roy W. Meyer, 273
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY Allison Chandler, 301
With Pottawatomie county railroad map, p. 304, and photographs of Inter-
urban scenes and equipment, between pp. 304, 305.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE
RAILWAY /. Neale Carman, Translator and Annotator, 310
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Seven,
1833-1834 Compiled by Louise Barry, 317
With portraits of the prophets Tensquatawa (Shawnee), and Kennekuk
(Kickapoo), facing p. 336; Jotham Meeker, and reproductions of title
pages of a book, The History of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
which he printed in present Kansas in 1837, facing p. 337.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Concluded Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snett, 370
With portraits of William Mathew Tilghman, Jr., Chauncey B. Whitney,
Billy and Ben Thompson; a photograph of Ellsworth in 1872; a repro-
duction of the governor's reward poster for the arrest and conviction
of Billy Thompson, and a picture of the Marshal Henry Brown gang,
which attempted to rob the Medicine Lodge bank, and their captors,
between pp. 384, 385.
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 400
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 401
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . 407
Number 4 Winter, 1962
PACK
THE FIRST CENTURY OF KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY . . . Charles M. CorreU, 409
With sketch of old Bluemont Central College, and photograph of Kansas
State Agricultural College in 1885, facing p. 424, and airplane view of
Kansas State University today, facing p. 425.
JULIA CODY GOODMAN'S MEMOIRS OF
BUFFALO BILL Edited by Don Russell, 442
With sketch of the Proslavery assault on his father, Isaac Cody, and photo-
graphs of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and his sister, Julia Cody
Goodman, between pp. 472, 473.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Eight,
1835 Compiled by Louise Barry, 497
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 515
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 516
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 523
ERRATA AND ADDENDA, VOLUME XXVIII 526
INDEX TO VOLUME XXVIII . . 527
(iv)
SPRING 1962
THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
BY THE KANSAS
HISTORICAL.
NYLE H. MILLER KIRKE MECHEM JAMES C. MALIN
Managing Editor Editor Associate Editor
CONTENTS
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY,
1865-1874 George L. Anderson, 1
With map of the Central Branch country, facing p. 16, and photographs of
Atchison and Waterville of the 1870's, facing p. 17.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Five,
1826-1829 Compiled by Louise Barry, 25
With map of some historic sites in the Kansas region of pre-1826 origin,
sketches of the Kansa Agency (1827-1834?), and Fool Chief's Kansa
village (1829?), and portraits of Cyprian and Frederick Chouteau,
between pp. 48, 49; map showing early Kansa Indian villages in present
Shawnee county, p. 59.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Continued Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snell, 60
With portraits of W. H. Harris, Luke Short, C. M. Beeson, Michael W. Sutton,
D. M. Frost, Nicholas B. Klaine, Gov. George W. Click, Adj. Gen. Thomas
H. Moonlight, and group pictures of the so-called Dodge City Peace Com-
mission, between pp. 80, 81.
THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing Reports of the Secretary, Treasurer,
Executive and Nominating Committees; Election of Officers; Memorial
to Thomas M. Lillard; List of Directors of the Society 114
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY . . 136
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 140
The Kansas Historical Quarterly is published four times a year by the Kansas
State Historical Society, 120 W. Tenth St., Topeka, Kan. It is distributed
without charge to members of the Society; nonmembers may purchase single
issues, when available, for 75 cents each. Membership dues are: annual, $3;
annual sustaining, $10; life, $20. Membership applications and dues should be
sent to Mrs. Lela Barnes, treasurer.
Correspondence concerning articles for the Quarterly should be addressed to
the managing editor. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made
by contributors.
Second-class postage has been paid at Topeka, Kan.
THE COVER
White Plume ( Mon-chonsia; or Nom-pa-wa-rah ) ,
who was for some years considered head chief of the
Kansa Indians. Portrait (1821?) by artist Charles Bird
King, as reproduced from the McKenney and Hall
History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
THE KANSAS !Z?.
HISTORICAL aUARTERLY
Volume XXVIII Spring, 1962 Number 1
Atchison and the Central Branch Country,
1865-1874
GEORGE L. ANDERSON
WITH proper acknowledgment to Charles Dickens this paper
might have been entitled A Tale of Two Cities of Atchison
seeking to become a great commercial center, and of Waterville
representing the 15 towns and villages that were located on the
Central Branch railroad through Atchison, Jackson, Nemaha, and
Marshall counties. Or, with a bow toward Ed Howe, long-time
editor of the Atchison Globe, The Story of a Country Town might
have been selected for the title. Actually, the emphasis in this
paper is not upon a single city or a particular town, but upon the
relationships that developed between the city and the towns of the
tributary area. A brief analysis of Atchison's dreams and ac-
complishments and an even briefer account of the emergence of
the Central Branch country will be followed by a somewhat more
detailed discussion of the ties that came into existence between
the would-be metropolis on the Missouri river and its hinterland
to the westward. 1
Although Atchison was founded in 1854, its development as a
commercial center did not begin until 1858. For a few years the
young city experienced a rapid rate of growth. Its expanding
trade rested upon the Missouri river and the freighting trails to the
mining camps, the army posts, and the Indian reservations. Steam-
boats on the river and freighting wagons on the Plains were the
symbols as well as the agencies of Atchison's success as an entrepot
of trade. In an age when steam-powered water transport brought
Prof. George LaVerne Anderson, president of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1960-
1961, is chairman of the history department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. A native
of Kansas, he has a Ph. D. degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and is the author
of General William J. Palmer A Decade of Colorado Railroad Building, 1870-1880 (1936),
and a number of historical papers.
This article is an expansion, plus footnotes, of his presidential address before the annual
meeting of the State Historical Society in Topeka on October 17, 1961.
1. The Atchison Daily Champion and the Waterville Telegraph were the principal sources
of data for this paper. Although there were a number of changes in names, the Atchison
Champion will be used uniformly in the footnotes. Because of the nature of this study
almost every issue of the Champion and Telegraph contained relevant information. Thus,
appearances to the contrary, the citations are selective rather than inclusive.
2 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
goods from the East, and the muscles of oxen and mules pulled the
loaded wagons to the West, Atchison's location at the western apex
of the bend in the Missouri river was considered a strategic one. 2
The early period of growth was followed by four years of war.
The body politic of Atchison was divided. Trade was demoralized.
Leavenworth with its military post prospered, but Atchison declined
and its citizens became disheartened. 3 Almost simultaneously, an
even more disruptive influence was making itself felt in the region
beyond the Mississippi. Steam-powered transportation on land was
replacing the older forms of carrying goods to the waiting markets. 4
The significance of the railroad for Atchison was foreshadowed
when the Hannibal and St. Joseph, which had reached its western
terminus in 1859, completed a branch to Winthrop, just across
the Missouri river from Atchison, in I860. 5 For several years after
this development the residents of Atchison asserted that their city
was the only one in Kansas that could be reached by rail. 6
But the leaders of Atchison realized that a railroad to the west
was required if their city was to reap the full benefit of its eastern
connection. For this reason they were very much interested in the
Pacific railway legislation of 1862 and 1864. 7 It seemed quite rea-
sonable to them that Atchison should be the eastern terminus of one
2. The issues of the Atchison Champion for January 1, 1869, January 1, 1871, and
January 1, April 27, 1873, and of the Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, for November
27, December 5, 1872, contain a good deal of historical information. In more recent years
the Atchison Dotty Globe has published a number of anniversary and centennial editions.
Among the most important are those published on July 16, 1894; December 8, 1927; July
11, 1929; September 17, 1938; September 17, 1940; October 19, 1952; and June 20, 1954.
The fullest printed history is Sheffield Ingalls, A History of Atchison County, Kansas (Law-
rence, 1916). Scholarly studies of the early history of Atchison include Peter Beckman,
"The Overland Trade and Atchison's Beginnings," in Territorial Kansas: Studies Com-
memorating the Centennial, University of Kansas Social Science Studies (Lawrence, 1954),
pp. 148-164, and Walker D. Wyman, "Atchison, a Great Frontier Depot," Kansas Historical
Quarterly, Topeka, v. 11 (August, 1942), pp. 297-308. Emphasis on the interior position
of Atchison was almost a constant theme in the Atchison Champion. For example see the
issues for August 17, December 6, 1865; February 13, 1866; August 28, 1868; January 1,
11, and December 11, 1869; and April 9, 1870.
3. Atchison Champion, January 1, 1869. Eugene T. Wells, St. Louis and Cities West,
1820-1880, 2 vols. (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas, 1951). Chap-
ter 29, pp. 536-561, is entitled "Leavenworth and Atchison." See especially pp. 546 and
558 for the effects of the Civil War on these towns. Ingalls, op. cit., pp. 129-150. Many
prominent business men, including Peter T. Abell and William Hetherington, moved away
from Atchison for a number of years.
4. The most scholarly and penetrating analysis of the impact of steam-powered land
transportation has been made by James C. Malin. Under the title "The Communications
Revolution," Professor Malin has discussed various facets of the question in several of his
published works, including the following: The Grassland of North America: Prolegomena to
its History (Lawrence, 1947), pp. 169-172; The Nebraska Question, 1852-1854 (Lawrence,
1953), pp. 56-69; The Contriving Brain and the Skillful Hand in the United States (Law-
rence, 1955), pp. 27, 28, and 34-198, but especially 153-191.
5. Peter Beckman, "Atchison's First Railroad," Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. 21
(Autumn, 1954), pp. 153-165; Ingalls, op. cit., pp. 174-185. For the broader significance
of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad see Robert R. Russel, Improvement of Communica-
tion With the Pacific Coast as an Issue in American Politics, 1783-1864 (Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, 1948), p. 265, and Wyatt W. Belcher, The Economic Rivalry Between St. Louis and
Chicago, 1850-1880 (New York, 1947), pp. 89-91, 163-164.
6. This claim was made by John A. Martin in his inaugural address as mayor of Atchi-
son. Atchison Champion, May 9, 1865.
7. For a summary of the legislative history of these laws see Russel, op. cit., pp. 294-322.
ATCHISON AND TOE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 3
of the branches of the Pacific railroad. 8 Moreover, the essential in-
gredients for the attempt to implement their dreams were at hand.
The Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad Company had been char-
tered. 9 The Hannibal and St. Joseph Company, subject to the ap-
proval of the Kansas legislature, had been authorized to build 100
miles westward toward a connection with the main line of the Pacific
railroad, and had been promised the usual subsidies of lands and
bonds. 10 Finally, the Kickapoo Indians had in their possession a
broad expanse of fertile land which might, with proper management,
be used to breathe new life into the plans for a railroad to the west. 11
In Washington, in Topeka, and in New York, Samuel C. Pomeroy,
Luther C. Challiss, and Peter T. Abell, among others, labored to
mold these diverse ingredients into a practicable project. 12 The
Kansas legislature was persuaded to delay its approval of a route
running west from St. Joseph. 13 The Kickapoo Indians were in-
8. This view is implicit in most of the discussions of Atchison as the "Great Railroad
Centre" of the Missouri valley. Wells, op. cit., pp. 558, 559; Russel, op. cit., pp. 305, 317.
9. Private Laws of the Territory of Kansas, 1859 (Lawrence, 1859), p. 62. The act of
Incorporation was passed on February 11, 1859. The new company succeeded to the rights
of the Atchison and Ft. Riley Railroad Company which had been incorporated on February
17, 1857, and it was required to begin construction within five years.
10. Sections 10 and 13 of the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862. United States
Statutes at Large, v. 12, pp. 494-496. The portion of the act which was favorable to
Atchison reads, "That the Hannibal and Saint Joseph . . . may extend its road from
Saint Joseph via Atchison, ... for one hundred miles . . . said company may
construct their road, with the consent of the Kansas legislature, on the most direct and
practicable route west from Saint Joseph, Missouri. . . .'* Sen. John B. Henderson, of
Missouri, was responsible for the insertion into the law of the phrases which permitted the
company to build directly west from St. Joseph. He did not succeed in accomplishing a
similar objective in 1864. Space does not permit extended comment on the controversy over
the Henderson amendment. Suffice it to say that it played an important role in the political
and economic life of Kansas for a number of years. Some contemporary material may be
found in the Atchison Champion, November 25, 1866, and June 15 and 24, 1873; the
Marshall County News, Marysville, June 24, 1873, and the Nemaha Courier, Seneca, April
16, June 11, October 13, 1864.
11. In one of the many treaties negotiated by George W. Manypenny, the Kickapoo tribe
had on May 18, 1854, at Washington, D. C., agreed to exchange their lands in Missouri for
a comparable area in Kansas. United States Statutes at Large, v. 10, pp. 1078-1081.
12. Benjamin F. Stringfellow, Samuel Dickson, John M. Price, and Thomas Murphy also
played prominent parts. Most writers emphasize the role of Samuel C. Pomeroy, but there
is a good deal of evidence that Luther C. Challiss was of greater importance in the initial
stages of the Atchison and Pikes Peak Railroad Company. Under the title "An Old Citizen
Returned," the Atchison Champion, on May 8, 1869, paid the following tribute to Challiss:
"He was prominently and actively identified with many of the railroad enterprises of Atchi-
son, and contributed very largely to the success of those that reached completion. He was
the first President of the Atchison and Pike's Peak (now the Central Branch, U. P.) Railroad
Co.; negotiated the treaty with the Kickepoo Indians by which their splendid Reserve was
purchased for the Company, and was influential in obtaining that favorable legislation from
Congress which secured for our city this important Railroad. In one of the reorganizations
of the company, Challiss was left out and later sued for a substantial sum of money.
Atchison Champion, October 3, November 6, 28, and 30, 1869. In assessing the role of
Pomeroy it should be remembered that although he was the president and later a director
of the Central Branch company, the president of the bridge company and the president of
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, the Central Branch was not extended
to Ft. Kearny or to Denver, the Missouri river was not bridged at Atchison until it had been
bridged at Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Leavenworth, and the Atchison-Topeka segment of
the Santa Fe line was not completed until Kansas City had engrossed the trade of the
Southwest. For complimentary references to Senator Pomeroy see the Atchison Champion,
August 11, 1865; January 28, 1868; and September 17, 1869. In a speech reported in the
Champion on August 21, 1866, John J. Ingalls stated: "But without your [Pomeroy's]
special efforts, it is safe to say that the great Central Branch of the P[acific]. R. R. would
have remained forever the visionary and baffled project of a speculators dream."
13. The 1863 session of the Kansas legislature refused to give its consent to a line
directly west from St. Joseph. Senate Journal for 1863 (Lawrence, 1863), pp. 266, 267,
286, and 299. The 1864 legislature did give its consent, but before the St. Joseph leaders
4 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
duced to sell a portion of their reservation to the railroad company. 14
New sources of capital were discovered in New York. 15 The Hanni-
bal and St. Joseph was prevailed upon to assign its Pacific railway
privileges and prospective subsidies to the Atchison and Pikes
Peak. 16 To harmonize name and objective the official title of the
company was changed in late 1866 to the Central Branch of the
Union Pacific Railroad Company. 17 Thus the foundation of the
Central Branch country was laid. A railroad beginning on the
banks of an unbridged Missouri river would wind its way westward
for exactly one hundred miles. Without a route fixed in advance
it would find the fertile valleys and miss the county seats. 18 Be-
ginning as a mere gleam in the eyes of its founders and aiming for
the Pacific by way of Ft. Kearny it would terminate in a corn field
in the valley of the Little Blue. 19
One phase of the Pacific railway question, the rivalry of St. Louis
and Chicago, seemed to the Atchison leaders to offer a particularly
fine opportunity to advance the interests of their city. 20 They
could take advantage of their opportunity the permissive section was dropped out of the
federal legislation. House Journal for 1864 (Lawrence, 1864), pp. 83, 173, and 174;
Senate Journal for 1864 (Lawrence, 1S64), pp. 99 and 109; Congressional Globe, 38th
Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 2419-2423. For a copy of the 1864 resolution and extended comments
on the legislatures of 1863 and 1864 see the Kansas Chief, Troy, February 11, 1864. The
best brief; summary of the question with appropriate references to the debates in the federal
congress is to be found in Russel, op. cit., p. 417.
14. The treaty was concluded at the Kickapoo agency on June 28, 1862. The text
together with a number of amendments may be found in United States Statutes at Large,
v. 13, pp. 623-630. Under the terms of the treaty the Central Branch company was per-
mitted to buy 124,832 acres. The negotiation of the treaty is discussed in Paul W. Gates,
Fifty Million Acres: Conflicts Over Kansas Land Policy, 1854-1890 (Ithaca, 1954), pp.
136-140
15. Atchison Champion, May 10, 1865.
16. The assignment was made by the board of directors of the Hannibal and St. Joseph
Company on June 9, 1863, and was ratified by the stockholders on September 21, 1863.
Freedom's Champion, Atchison, January 28, 1864, reprinting from the Topeka Tribune, a
letter from B. F. Stringfellow. Benjamin Loan, member of congress from Missouri, asserted
that the assignment was made without consideration. Congressional Globe, 38th Cong.,
1st Sess., p. 3180. Russel, op. cit., p. 312: Gates, op. cit., p. 138: Atchison Champion,
July 7, 1866.
17. Atchison Champion, December 27, 1868.
18. After a trip through the Central Branch country, Captain Green, traveling cor-
respondent of the Lawrence Journal, wrote, "It [the Central Branch] runs as if it started
out from Atchison to hunt good land and avoid county seats." Reprinted in Atchison Cham-
pion, October 26, 1869.
19. Franklin G. Adams in the Marshall County News, Marysville, February 15, 1873.
The one hundredth milepost was found to be in Sec. 22, T. 4 S., R. 6 E. The particular
tract had been entered by David C. King. It passed through the hands of G. H. Hollenberg,
William Osborn, and Ralph M. Pomeroy before becoming the property of the Central Branch
company.
20. Perhaps the most important of Frank H. Hodder's many significant scholarly con-
tributions to American history in general and Kansas history in particular was the delinea-
tion of the relevance to the organization of Kansas territory of the Chicago-St. Louis rivalry.
See especially his "The Genesis of the Kansas-Nebraska Act," Proceedings of the State His-
torical Society of Wisconsin for 1912 (Madison, 1913), pp. 69-86, and "The Railroad Back-
ground of the Kansas-Nebraska Act," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, v. 12 (June, 1925). pp. 3-22.
For appreciative analyses of Hodder's work as well as for substantive additions to the
study of the problem, the following articles by James C. Malin should be consulted: "Frank
Heywood Hodder," Kansas Historical Quarterly, v, 5 (May, 1936), pp. 115-121; "F. H.
Hodder's 'Stephen A. Douglas'," ibid., v. 8 (August, 1939), pp. 227-237; and "The Motives
of Stephen A. Douglas in the Organization of Nebraska Territory: A Letter Dated December
17, 1853," ibid., v. 19 (November, 1951). pp. 321-353. See, also, Wells, op. cit., and
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 5
thought that their location was a strategic one. 21 They pointed
out that very close to Atchison a straight line from Chicago to
Santa Fe would intersect a straight line from St. Louis to Ft.
Kearny. 22 They convinced themselves that Atchison, and not St.
Joseph or Kansas City, would be the junction point of railroads
running from Chicago to the southwest and those running from
St. Louis to the northwest. For them the Central Branch would
be the main line to the Pacific and it would place the people of the
Central Branch country in close touch with the markets of both
St. Louis and Chicago. 23 In their more fanciful moments, the
leaders of Atchison could conjure up visions of the exotic products
of China and Japan and the minerals, lumber, and livestock of the
Far West competing for space in the Atchison freight yards with
the grain and produce of the Central Branch country. But these
dreams faded before the hard realities of life. It was Kansas City
that got the bridge over the Missouri river in 1869. And it was
Kansas City that became the principal junction point of the railroads
from St. Louis and Chicago thus setting the stage for Ed Howe's
wry remark that Atchison, Leavenworth, and Lawrence had one
thing in common they had all been robbed by Kansas City. 24
It was quite natural that in its attempt to become the railroad
center of the Missouri valley, Atchison should become involved in
a struggle with Kansas City, Leavenworth, and St. Joseph. 25 Atchi-
son was the smallest of the competitors. Although the promoters
of the rival cities minimized the chances as well as the advantages
Belcher, op. cit. Comparisons of the two cities and references to the contest between them
appear frequently in the Atchison Champion. See especially the issues for August 25, Sep-
tember 5, 1867; February 10, April 9, October 20, December 11, 1869; January 4, 1870;
January 10, April 7, September 2, October 13 and 23, 1871; and October 21, 1873.
21. A. W. Spaulding in a letter to the St. Louis Democrat from Atchison, reprinted in the
Champion, March 19, 1872, labeled Atchison "the strategic field" where Chicago and St.
Louis would do battle.
22. Atchison Champion, February 13, 1866. On this occasion it was asserted that a
line from Chicago to Santa Fe would intersect a line from St. Louis to Denver at Atchison.
On June 16, 1865, the Champion emphasized the importance of the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe to Chicago, and on July 12, 1866, it pointed out the significance of the Central
Branch to St. Louis.
23. Atchison Champion, February 13, 1866; July 22, 1870; and May 1, 1872. In
commenting on an article in the Cincinnati Times, the Champion remarked on April 21,
1870, "This Road [the Central Branch] will be the great central highway across the con-
tinent." The newspypers in the Central Branch towns shared this view. Thus the Irving
Weekly Recorder asserted on December 17, 1869, "A connection with Ft. Kearney makes
this the grand central route from the East to the Pacific. . . ." On April 1, 1870, the
Waterville Telegraph was even more expansive, "We at Waterville, hardly realize that we
are situated on a branch, soon to be united with the main trunk of the great thoroughfare
which is revolutionizing trade between the Atlantic states and Eastern Asia."
24. Atchison Champion, May 18, 1869. Wells, op. cit., p. 560, cites the failure of
Atchison "to secure the early constiuctipn of a bridge" as one reason why Atchison did not
become the commercial center of the Missouri valley.
25. For a summary of this competition written from the Atchison point of view see
"The Great Railroad Centre" in the Champion, December 8, 1870. For significant evalua-
tions of the four Missouri river towns in 1863 and 1873, see "An Editor Looks at Early-Day
Kansas: The Letters of Charles Monroe Chase," Lela Barnes, editor, Kansas Historical Quar-
terly, v. 26 (Summer and Autumn, 1960), pp. 113-151, and 267-301, especially pp. 115,
116-118, 148, 150, 270-276, and 297-301.
6 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the little city, the advocates of Atchison's cause competed with
a zeal that had its source in the certainty of ultimate victory. One
of these advocates was John A. Martin, the perceptive and articulate
editor of the Champion, and the principal theoretician of Atchison's
future. 20 Martin disposed of Kansas City and St. Joseph by labeling
them Missouri cities which should be denied the benefits of the
commerce and resources of Kansas. 27 As for Leavenworth, its early
growth and prosperity had been in response to artificial and tem-
porary factors which had ceased to be influential. 28 But Martin
was not content to resolve the contest in favor of Atchison by
simple analysis of provincial and ephemeral considerations. Draw-
ing upon his knowledge of science, geography, and history he cast
his thought about cities into two general theories. One of these
might be designated geographic predestination. In explaining his
conviction that Atchison would outdistance Leavenworth and St.
Joseph, Martin asserted, "The fact is that lines of commerce and
travel are controlled by natural laws. . . . Nature, in fashion-
ing this beautiful and fertile land, in establishing the course of its
streams, the altitude of its hills, and the windings of its valleys,
destined Atchison to be the metropolis of the Missouri Valley and
the 'Great Railroad Centre of Kansas/" 29 In expounding his
other theory which might be called automatic accretion, Martin
declared,
Man aggregates. So do the beasts of the field and forest; the birds and in-
sects of the air, and the fishes of the sea. Community is the law of existence.
. . . [It is as] inevitable as gravitation. Bees swarm, buffalo move in
multitude, men dwell in cities. . . . The city must have a focus; some
26. There is a biography of Martin by James C. Malm in the Dictionary of American
Biography, v. 12 (New York, 1933), pp. 341-342. In the second installment of his historical
sketch of Atchison published in the Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, December 5, 1872,
W. H. Rossington remarked, "Col. John A. Martin, one of the pioneer publishers in Kansas,
with his Champion, has probably done more to blow wide the fame and name of Atchison,
than any other man or influence in it."
27. The fullest statement of this point was made by Martin in commenting on an article
In the Seneca Courier which was reprinted in the Champion on January 3, 1872. Martin
was not entirely satisfied with the reasons given by the Courier for working in the interest of
Atchison rather than St. Joseph. He thought the writer should have said, "Atchison is a
Kansas town. It is identified with Kansas interests. It helps pay the taxes of Kansas. It it
animated by Kansas ideas and devoted to the upbuilding of Kansas institutions. St. Joseph,
on the contrary, is a Missouri town. It is identified with Missouri interests. It helps pay
Missouri taxes. It has Missouri ideas, and is devoted to the upbuilding of Missouri." See,
also, the Champion for June 23, 1867, and June 15, 24, 1873.
28. Atchison Champion, September 20, 1865, and May 1, 1869. Watervillc Telegraph.
February 10, 1871.
29. Atchison Champion, December 8, 1870. An earlier editorial entitled "A Public
Park" in the Champion for September 10, 1870, contained an eloquent expression of the
"inevitable destiny" theme. Similar ideas permeate the article "The Great Railroad Centre"
which appeared on November 2, 1870. When David Martin was in charge of the Champion,
an article in the Holton News which favored Atchison over Leavenworth stimulated him to
write a long article on "Atchison and Her Position" in which he said that the railroad system
of northern Kansas "naturally radiates from Atchison, because it is the most interior point
on the Great River, in the State. The same natural causes which concentrated here the
private freighting interests of the West, bring to us the Railroads of Kansas." Champion,
December 11, 1869. See, alto, the issues for January 7 and April 11, 1871.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 7
ocean harbor, oasis, river bend, mountain slope, or fertile area, affording
peculiar advantages for access, egress, and accumulation. Nothing is fortuitous.
. . . We have [the] opportunity. The gods are favorable. A vast pro-
ductive area, penetrated by railroads and inhabited by an energetic and in-
telligent population, surrounds us in every direction. If Atchison is not without
a rival on the Kansas frontier within the next ten years, it will be from a wanton
and stupid disregard of the conditions which are requisite to the growth of
cities. 30
Whatever may be the merits of Martin's theorizing, he did not let
the people of Atchison forget that it was railroads that were needed
if Atchison was to become the commercial metropolis of the Mis-
souri valley. By 1872, as a result of the prodding of Martin, the
lobbying and leading of such men as Peter T. Abell, George W.
Click, and John M. Price, and the stimulating impact of James F.
Joy's dollars, Atchison had become the center of a modest network
of railroads. 31 On the east side of the Missouri river there were
lines leading northward to St. Joseph and Chicago, and southward
to Kansas City and St. Louis. On the west side there were lines
leading through Leavenworth to Kansas City and St. Louis, and
northward through Troy Junction to Falls City, Lincoln, and be-
so. Ibid., May 16, 1867. The quoted portions do not do justice to the lengthy editorial
entitled "The Growth of Cities." On December 10, 1867, Martin brought his thinking about
the growth of cities into sharper focus in an article entitled "Atchison Her Needs and
Necessities."
31. The Champion claimed that the network was composed of eight distinct lines. Need-
less to say the hopes, the fears, the railroads conventions, the bond elections, the details of
construction and the opening day excursions over the completed lines were reported in great
detail. Because this is not primarily a study of Atchison as a railroad center the references
will be limited to those that describe the network. There is a brief summary of Atchison's
railroad connections in D. E. Hawley, Atchison City Directory for 1878-1879 (Atchison,
1878), pp. 9, 11, 17, 19, 21, 23, 41-46. In The Gazetteer and Directory of the Hannibal
and St. Joseph Rail Road and of the Missouri River From Kansas City, Missouri, to Omaha,
Nebraska (Burch and Polk, Detroit, 1873), pp. 206, 207, reference is made to "eight distinct
lines of Railroad." In view of the fact that the book contains sketches of Kansas City,
Leavenworth, and St. Joseph, the following statement is interesting. "By common consent,
Atchison is now spoken of by all intelligent people, and the press, as the great railroad
center west and north of St. Louis. 80 to 100 freight and passenger trains arrive and depart
daily."
For an exuberant exposition of Atchison's challenge to her rivals as well as an optimistic
preview of her railroad network, see the article "A Bilked City" in the May 1, 1869, issue
of the Champion. The following paragraph is a fair sample. "We [Atchison] shall have
a railroad from Atchison to Topeka, and another from Atchison to Lawrence. We shall have
a railroad to Nebraska City and another to Manhattan. We shall have a road, via Leaven-
worth way-station, to St. Louis, on the west side of the river. We have a direct line to Chi-
cago and all Eastern cities. We shall have a connection . . . with the Kansas Pacific
Road at Topeka, thence pushing Southwest, to the Neosho Valley. In fact, Atchison, Topeka
and Lawrence are the great Railroad Centres of Kansas, and always will be. They will build
through lines, and air-lines, and country cut-offs, and branch roads, all around Leavenworth,
threading all parts of the State and connecting with lines running to all parts of the Con-
tinent."
Other contemporary summaries may be found in the Atchison Champion^ August 28,
November 18, 1868; March 30, 1870; January 1, 1871; February 3, March 19, April 9,
July 7, 1872; and August 1 and September 23, 1873; Holton Express, July 5, 1872; Water-
ville Telegraph, April 7, 1871; and in Franklin G. Adams, The Homestead Guide: Describing
the Great Homestead Region in Kansas and Nebraska (Waterville, Kan., 1873), pp. 112-133.
"Business and Railroads," November 18, 1868; "Aid to Railroads," December 31, 1869;
"The Railroads and Our Trade," September 4, 1869; and "Atchison: What Her Citizens
Must Do," February 16, 1872, are examples of Martin's promotional efforts. The best his-
torical account of the construction of Kansas railroads in print is A. Bower Sageser, "The
Rails Go Westward," in John D. Bright, editor, Kansas: The First Century (New York,
1956), v. 1, pp. 221-254. On May 3, 1871, the Champion printed an account of the
testimonial dinner that was given for Peter T. Abell.
8 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
yond. 32 The Atchison-Topeka segment of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe had been completed. And there was the Central
Branch, a one hundred mile "stump" road to Waterville. 33 Al-
though there were railroads radiating in every direction, Atchison
was still a thousand feet away from having an effective railroad
network. The Missouri river remained unbridged at Atchison. And
because there was no bridge, freight and passengers had to be
crossed over the ice in winter, and by ferryboat during the other
seasons of the year, while Atchison's rivals smugly reaped the
benefits of their bridges. 34
While fashioning her bifurcated railroad network, Atchison had
been challenged on many occasions by these rivals. 35 St. Joseph
intervened in Kansas politics to obtain aid for the St. Joseph and
Denver City railroad in the fond expectation that it would divert
much of the trade of the Central Branch country to St. Joseph, frus-
trate the extension of the Central Branch railroad, and tap north-
western Kansas far to the west of Waterville. 36 Atchison responded
by obtaining the completion of the Atchison and Nebraska line with
the dual purpose of diverting trade from St. Joseph to Atchison at
Troy, and of securing a connection with the main line of the Union
32. Joy was instrumental in securing the completion of the Atchison and Nebraska line.
Atchison Champion, August 20, 23, 25, 26, September 2, 14, 30, October 21, November
24, 1870; and February 7, November 26, 1871. His financial participation was handled
by the Exchange Bank of William Hetherington. Cash journal, pp. 400, 414, 415, 440,
456, 457, 462, 465, 467, 473, 475, 476, 478-480, 491, 492, 496, 497, 505, 507, 514,
534, 544, 546, 547, 550, 568, and 569.
33. This is the term used by Franklin G. Adams in his "History of Marshall County,"
Marshall County News, Marysville, February 8, 1871, and in the Waterville Telegraph,
March 8, 1872.
34. The Missouri river was bridged at Kansas City in 1869, at Leavenworth in 1872,
and at St. Joseph in 1873. It was not bridged at Atchison until 1875. The Champion on
September 8, 1868, published a full account of P. T. Abell's speech in which he discussed
the obstacles to securing a bridge at Atchison. Other lengthy discussions may be found in
the issues for June 11, 1872; June 20, August 7, 27, and November 13, 1873. After the
rival cities had their bridges the Champion tried to make the best of a bad situation by
emphasizing the speed and efficiency of the transfer (ferry) system. See issues for Novem-
ber 29, December 28, and December 29, 1870; January 4, 1871; December 1 and 28, 1872;
and June 15, August 18, 1873. On December 3, 1872, the Kansas Daily Commonwealth,
Topeka, commented, "The Atchison ferry boats are still rushing backward and forward
through the ice, and Atchison like, will keep it up to the very last moment."
35. See, "The Great Railroad Centre," Atchison Champion, December 8, 1870, and the
article in the Atchison Patriot entitled "Atchison" reprinted in the Waterville Telegraph,
June 6, 1873, for good discussions of this competition.
36. In January, 1866, the St. Joseph and Denver City railroad was made one of the
four beneficiaries of the 500,000-acre federal grant to Kansas for internal improvements.
There is some information on the legislative history of the act in Edwin C. Manning, "The
Kansas State Senate of 1865 and 1866," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, pp. 359-375,
but especially 373-375. For the disposition of the grant see Thomas LeDuc. "State Admin-
istration of the Land Grant to Kansas for Internal Improvements," Kansas Historical Quar-
terly, v. 20 (November, 1953), pp. 545-552. For the reaction to this grant in Atchison see
the Champion, January 25, 27, 30, February 7, 8, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 27, March 2, 4,
6, 8, and June 19, 1866. The grant of federal lands to the state of Kansas for the par-
ticular benefit of the St. Joseph and Denver City railroad was made on June 23, 1866.
United States Statutes at Large, v. 14, pp. 210-212. The road was completed to Marysville
in January, 1871, and to Hanover in late August, 1871. Waterville Telegraph, January 6,
and September 1, 1871. For othrr discussions of the Atchison-St. Joseph rivalry see the
Champion, May 30, June 16 and 23, 1867; October 24, November 27, December 2, 1869;
January 6, 1872; and June 23. 1873.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 9
Pacific beyond Lincoln. 37 Leavenworth projected several railroad
lines into the Central Branch country, broke the connection of
Atchison with Kansas City by tearing up several hundred feet of
track, and attempted to divert the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
from Atchison to Leavenworth. 38 Atchison retaliated by projecting
a railroad through Oskaloosa to Lawrence with the intention of
reaching St. Louis by way of Pleasant Hill, Mo., thus cutting off both
Leavenworth and Kansas City. 39
The principal weapon of Kansas City in the contest was the Union
Pacific, Eastern Division, or Kansas Pacific, as it was later called.
The westward construction of this railroad disturbed the leaders of
Atchison a great deal. 40 Their response was to press for the im-
mediate construction of the Atchison-Topeka segment of the railroad
to Santa Fe. Their spokesman, John A. Martin, asserted in un-
qualified terms that this link was the most important of Atchison's
railroad projects, and that it was the absolute prerequisite for Atchi-
son's development as a railroad center. 41 To the Atchison men it
was this line that would perpetuate the earlier association with the
commerce of the southwest; would circumvent Lawrence and Leav-
enworth as well as Kansas City; and would make Atchison a signifi-
cant point on the route from Chicago to the Southwest. 42 In
addition to the long range menace, the Kansas Pacific threatened
Atchison's control of the Central Branch country by providing points
of departure for feeder lines northward from Topeka through Holton
to Netawaka, from Manhattan up the valley of the Big Blue to
Irving and Blue Rapids, and from Junction City northward to
37. On October 24, 1869, the Atchison Champion asserted that as a result of the
junction at Troy, the Atchison and Nebraska would drain St. Joseph "like a leech." The
connection with the Union Pacific was suggested by the Champion as early as May 4, 1866.
See, also, the issues for July 20, 1867, and March 11, 1871.
38. Ibid., October 22, November 12 and 17, 1869; March 23, June 12 and 14, Septem-
ber 25, December 15, 20, 21, 22, 25, and 30, 1870; January 1, 5, 7, 8, and 14, February
18, June 30, July 12. 1871; and April 21, 1872. Waterville Telegraph, December 23,
1870; January 6, 13, 20, and August 25, 1871.
39. Atchison Champion, November 23, December 1, 1867; January 3, November 20,
1868; May 1 and 21, August 1, November 27, 1869; September 21, 1870; February 9,
August 10 and 24, 1871; February 14, April 19, 1872. On June 7, 1867, the Champion
mentioned a line to Lawrence by way of Oskaloosa and Valley Falls, and on March 8 and
13, 1868, it discussed the possibility of an Atchison, Tonganoxie and Southern railroad.
40. The Atchison Champion reported regularly on the progress of construction, com-
mented on the vulnerability of the line to floods, and analyzed the impact upon Atchison of
the shift from the Republican to the Smoky Hill route. See issues for August 4 and 17,
November 16, December 15, 1865; April 29, May 3, June 29, July 12, August 28, September
23, 1866; January 3, 1867; and April 28, 1870.
41. Ibid., May 2, 12, 17, July 20, 1867; May 11, October 10, 1869. On March 25,
1869, the line to Topeka was placed second in importance to the Central Branch.
42. Ibid., June 16, August 2, and 11, 1865; July 20, September 17, 1867; October 29,
November 6, 1869; and December 3, 1870. See, also, the reprint of an article in the
Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, in the issue for March 30, 1872. On June 21, 1872,
similar views were published in the Holton Express.
10 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Waterville and northwestward into the valley of the Republican. 43
Atchison met these flanking movements with proposals for branch
lines from Effingham, Muscotah, or Netawaka, through Holton to
St. Marys, Wamego, or Manhattan. 44 But a more direct threat could
not be countered effectively. An unbridged Missouri river made it
likely that Atchison would become just another way station on the
railroad from the Central Branch country to Kansas City.
Although their principal interest was focused on railroads, the
leaders of Atchison realized that many more institutions and enter-
prises were needed if their city was to fulfill the destiny that they
had selected for it. 45 At first it was honor and profit enough to have
warehouses to serve the caravans of freighters, but soon there came
demands for a market house, a union depot, grain elevators, stock-
yards, and more wholesale firms. At first civic pride could be ful-
filled by references to the levee, but later it was sidewalks, paved
streets, luxurious hotels, and improved roads into the countryside
that were wanted. At first reality matched vision when a few small
shops and mills supplemented the exchange of goods and produce,
but as time passed it was great flour mills, extensive packing plants,
and factories to produce agricultural implements, milling machinery,
and furniture that were wanted so badly that the city council at-
tempted to match St. Joseph and Leavenworth by offering substan-
tial subsidies to new industries. 46 In the early years a private bank
or two seemed adequate, but as business became more complex,
pressure was generated for national banks, building and loan asso-
ciations, savings banks, and insurance companies. In the field of
43. Atchison Champion, September 14, 1871; Marshall County News, Marysville,
November 16, 1872; February 8, May 24, August 2 and 23, 1873; Waterville Telegraph,
January 28, July 22, September 2, 9, and 23, December 2, 1870; May 26, June 23, August
18, 1871, and February 23, August 23, 1872.
44. On March 6, 1868, the Atchison Champion reprinted from the Hays City Advance
an argument in favor of an Atchison, Hays City, and Santa Fe railroad. For other proposals
see the Champion, April 23 and June 29, 1869; February 16, May 10, 14 and 17 (reprint
from Holton Leader), June 2, 17, and 21, August 30, September 9, December 18 (reprint
from the Louisville, Kan., Reporter), 1870; January 12. February 28, March 3, 15, 18, and
21, June 15, July 8, 1871, and May 2, 1872; Holton Express, April 26, 1872; and Water-
ville Telegraph, June 24, 1870, and March 17. 1871.
45. This paragraph is a condensation of ideas, suggestions, and promotional "puffs" that
appeared in Champion advertisements, articles, and editorials. Inasmuch as several dozen
issues are involved separate citations would be of little value.
46. Atchison Champion, October 27 and November 5, 1871. In the latter issue the
Champion summarized the purposes of the bond issue: $5,000 each for a foundry, an
agricultural implements factory, a hotel, a woolen factory, and a coal mine, and an addi-
tional $10,000 to be used as the mayor and council should decide. The bonds carried
746-72. Ibid., November 10, 1871. One long-range result of the bond issue was the
establishment of an iron foundry by John A. Seaton. Ibid., March 24 and April 18, 1872.
This plant was the forerunner of the Locomotive Finished Materials Company. The shift
in emphasis from transportation to industry, from railroads to factories, was foreshadowed
in a letter published in the May 2, 1872, issue of the Champion from R. K. Crum of
Whiting. Crum stated that the great need of Atchison was not more railroads, but "diversi-
fied employment" and that Atchison should seek to become a great manufacturing center.
Some attention had been paid earlier to the possibility of coal, oil, and gas development
in the vicinity of Atchison. See the Champion for May 14, 17, 24, and 31, June 7, August
15, September 30, November 11, 1865; and January 9, 1866.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 11
journalism the Champion sought to become the voice of northern
and northwestern Kansas and was challenged by the Free-Press, the
Patriot, and the Globe. 47 In matters cultural and educational, the
growth of St. Benedict's College, the construction of the new high
school building, and the Corinthian Hall lectures and dramatic pro-
ductions were hailed as harbingers of a richer fare. To complete
the atmosphere of the emerging metropolis, John A. Martin, en-
visioning a city of 50,000, gave some thought to long-range urban
planning. A section of modest homes and one of palatial estates,
an industrial area, and parks because New York, London, and Dub-
lin had parks, all of these were included in Martin's blueprint for
Atchison, the "Queen City" of the Missouri valley. 48
While Atchison dreamed and sought to obtain the essential ele-
ments of a great city, the Central Branch country came into
existence. Small segment though it was of the grand scheme, this
hinterland of fertile prairies and valleys was not to be despised.
William F. Downs, general superintendent and land commissioner
of the Central Branch Railroad Company, advertised it as an area
100 miles long and 40 miles wide. 49 Ordinarily the "Great Home-
stead Region" extending for another 100 miles westward from
Marshall county was included in the tributary area. 50 The early
descriptions of this domain were liberally sprinkled with superla-
tives. Thus an Eastern traveler through the Central Branch country
was moved to use the following phrases in his descriptive account,
"And such a country! A climate full of health and strength; an air
bright, balmy, and pure; a soil whose richness centuries of cultiva-
tion could not exhaust; a landscape fair and lovely to look upon;
47. On September 19, 1867, the Champion published the following statement, "The
CHAMPION has a large and constantly increasing circulation throughout Western and North-
western Kansas. In the cabin of the settlers in the lovely meadows of the Blue and the
Grasshopper [Delaware]; in the rude rendezvous of the lonely hunter along the grassy ridges
of the distant Republican; in the homes that dot the hillsides, the valleys and the prairies
of Atchison, Brown, Nemaha, Marshall, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Pottawatomie and
Doniphan counties, it is an eagerly welcomed visitor." B. P. Waggener and H. Clay Park
took over the Patriot on September 8, 1868, and later Nelson Abbott became its proprietor.
Atchison Champion, September 8, 1868, and August 7, 1871. On May 2, 1873, the Water-
ville Telegraph welcomed the appearance of the Atchison Globe. On the following day the
Marshall County News commented that it would be interesting to watch the struggle between
the Globe and the Champion and predicted that all northern Kansas would stick with the
Champion.
48. Atchison Champion, September 10, 1870, and April 14, 1871. In an article pub-
lished in the March 5, 1871, issue of the Champion, Martin was extremely critical of the
rectangular block system. If on the one hand Martin paid some attention to aspects of
urban development, he did not neglect to comment on the frontier in American history. On
April 11, 1869, he wrote, "The Western boundary of Western settlement is moving on,
with startling rapidity, to meet the great wave of immigration coming from the Pacific.
. . . Soon there will be no 'West,' as it is now known. . . ."
49. The advertisement was carried on the front page of the Atchison Champion for a
good many months.
50. The most complete description of the area is contained in Adams, The Homestead
Guide, pp. 3-112. See, also, the article by M. W. Reynolds in the Lawrence Journal re-
printed in the Atchison Champion, March 3, 1870.
12 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gently undulating prairies; streams of pure water, their banks
fringed with trees." 51 Into this Eden-like paradise "the steel ser-
pent" of railroad rails was thrust beginning in 1865. 52
An abortive effort by the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad Com-
pany in 1860 had been followed by several years of inactivity, by
conflicting federal legislation, and by the reorganization of the
company/"' 3 In the midst of these events construction of the road
was begun. William Osborn, formerly of Waterville, N. Y., was
the chief contractor; O. B. Gunn, the chief engineer; and J. P.
"Paddy'' Brown, Frank Bier, Richard Cavanaugh, and James S.
Fisk, were some of the principal subcontractors. 54 Patented ex-
cavators and mobile dormitories shared the construction scene with
wheelbarrows and oxen teams. 55 Slowly the road was built west-
ward. Along the line from Monrovia, to Muscotah, to Frog's Para-
dise, just east of present day Centralia, periods of great activity
were followed by months of indecision, while back in Atchison,
moments of high elation alternated with seasons of deep despair. 50
The ambiguity of the project was described by a writer in the
Lawrence Journal after a ride over a portion of the road. "Nobody
knows where it is going. Its present terminus is Centralia. Its
ultimate terminus is one of the problems of the future which the
man in the moon could solve as readily as the managers of the
road. . . . [It] is now hunting around on the prairies for a
place to stop/' 57 Finally, it was decided that the Central Branch
51. Article from the Chicago Railway Review, reprinted in the Waterville Telegraph,
June 16, 1871. On August 11, 1871, the Telegraph reprinted a descriptive article from
the August, 1871, issue of the Chicago Landowner. In an account reprinted in the Atchison
Champion for November 22, 1866, a correspondent of the St. Joseph Herald declared that
"The road [Central Branch] traverses the most magnificient sections of land which were ever
shone upon, or encircled by a surveyor's chain." Another early account was written by a cor-
respondent for the Chicago Tribune after an excursion to Muscotah and was reprinted in
the Atchison Champion, November 29, 1866.
52. Ibid., February 19, 1868. In commenting upon the proposed Atchison, Hays City,
and Santa Fe railroad the writer remarked, "Col. Webb is determined that another 'steel
serpent shall glisten in the sun' along the prairies of the West. All the 'steel serpents'
terminate at the Great Railroad Centre."
53. The officers of the Atchison and Pike's Peak company on June 3, 1865, were Samuel
C. Pomeroy, president: Willis Gaylord, vice-president; James Wadsworth, secretary and
acting treasurer; and Chauncey Vibbard, chairman of the executive committee. Sometime
between June, 1865, and November, 1866, Ralph M. Pomeroy became president and
Effingham A. Nichols became treasurer of the company. The directors of the company in
October, 1870, were Samuel C. Pomeroy, Benjamin F. Stringfellow, William F. Downs,
William C. Wetmore, James A. Stewart, Henry Day, Clement M. Parsons, Effingham A.
Nichols, Alfred S. Barnes, O. H. Palmer, E. B. Phillips, Ralph M. Pomeroy, and George S.
Hale. Atchison Champion, June 3, 1865, November 20, 1866, and October 13, 1870.
54. Ibid., March 25 and 26, June 6, July 29, 1865, and April 24, 1866.
55. Ibid., March 25 and 26, August 20, September 17, December 29, 1865; March 7
and 27, April 17, 1866; and July 21, December 11, 1867.
56. On January 26, 1865, the Atchison Champion predicted that the railroad would
reach the Big Blue by July 1, 1865. Two months later on March 22, 1865, the editor
suggested that the road west from Atchison would win the race to the Pacific Ocean. Except
for the months from November, 1865, to April, 1866, and those from November, 1866, to
May, 1867, the Champion reported quite regularly on the progress of construction.
57. Reprinted in (bid., May 17, 1867.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 13
should cross the Big Blue at Irving and then proceed in a north-
westerly direction until the 100th milepost was reached. 58 This
goal was accomplished in late 1867, and a new town was laid out. 59
It was named Waterville after William Osborn's home town in
New York, but referred to as West Atchison because of the pre-
ponderance of Atchison men among its builders. 60
Monrovia, Effingham, and Muscotah; Netawaka, Centralia, and
Frankfort; Irving, Blue Rapids, and Waterville; these were the
principal towns along the Central Branch. Interspersed at favor-
able points were the villages of Whiting, Wetmore, Corning, Ver-
million, Barrett's Mill, and Elizabeth. 61 Depending upon the time
of year an accommodation train, or separate trains for freight and
passengers, would go chuffing up the line. 62 Until 1870 the engines
burned wood, and "wood up'* stations were located at frequent
intervals along the track. 63 As one reads the accounts of travelers
one catches glimpses of women helping with the harvest and of
small boys winding their way through the tall grass to the "wood-up*'
stations to sell watermelons to the passengers and train crews. 64
One also catches fuller views of prairie fires and valley floods; of
eating places; and of primitive wooden shacks for depots. 65
These views of the Central Branch country are possible because
the Atchison newspapers reported the visits to Atchison of country
residents, printed columns of special correspondence from the Cen-
tral Branch towns and reprinted other columns from the newspapers
58. Marysville Enterprise quoted in the Atchison Champion, July 14, 1867. See, also,
the issues of the Champion for July 20 and 21, 1867.
59. The grading was completed in early December. Atchison Champion, December 11,
1867. "E. Pluribus" wrote to the Champion from Waterville on January 18, 1868, saying
that Major Gunn was surveying the townsite and that several residents of Atchison were in
Waterville preparing to establish business houses. Ibid., January 22, 1868.
60. The most complete account of the establishment and early history of Waterville is
to be found in the sketch by Franklin G. Adams in the Marshall County News, February 8
and 15, 1873. There is an earlier account in the Waterville Telegraph, March 31, 1871.
For the origin of the name see the Telegraph for April 7, 1871.
61. Descriptive accounts of the Central Branch towns may be found in the Waterville
Telegraph, March 4, 1870; in the Atchison Champion, August 25, 1869, May 5, August 3,
1870, and August 2, 1871; in the Chicago Land Owner for August, 1871, and in Adams,
The Homestead Guide, pp. 137-191. The Land Owner sketch is accompanied by a map
of the Central Branch country and plats of all of the towns.
62. The changes in schedules and equipment occurred too frequently to permit citation.
A particularly complete time table was published in the Irving Weekly Recorder, March 10,
1869. An early train consisted of five carloads of merchandise, four of lumber, and one
of agricultural implements plus the passenger and baggage cars. Atchison Champion, July
4, 1867.
63. Waterville Telegraph, January 1, 7, and 28, 1870. The shift from wood to coal
was made in the autumn of 1870. Ibid., September 16, October 14 and 28, 1870.
64. Atchison Champion, September 11, 18, 1869. Waterville Telegraph, February 25,
September 2, 1870.
65. Atchison Champion, April 25, and October 27, 1869; April 10, 22, 1870; and
November 19, 20, and 22, 1873. Holton Express, April 12, 1872. Seneca Courier, Feb-
ruary 10, March 24, 1871. Waterville Telegraph, January 1, March 18, April 29, September
2, 1870; and February 2, 1872.
14 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
established in them. 66 The Waterville Telegraph, the Blue Rapids
Times, the Irving Recorder, the Seneca Courier, and the Holton
Express were regularly levied upon for news concerning local
events, the visits of Atchison men, the business transactions with
Atchison firms, and optimistic predictions of future growth. 67 The
country editors reciprocated by reprinting news stories and edi-
torials from the Atchison papers and by supporting Atchison's
claims and causes. 68 Two of these country editors, Frank A. Root
and Franklin G. Adams, were of particular importance. 69 Both men
had played significant roles in the early history of Atchison. Both
remained faithful to Atchison when they exchanged their desks in
Atchison for cruder quarters in a newly established town. In 1869
Root left Atchison to establish the Waterville Telegraph. Like a
sounding board located 100 miles to the west, Root echoed the hopes
and the arguments of his erstwhile partner, John A. Martin. Just
as Martin supplemented his editorial duties and his income by serv-
ing as postmaster of Atchison, so Root enlarged his sources of news
and augmented his income by working as postal agent on the Central
Branch trains. From the vantage point of the mail car, Root col-
lected news stories from all of the towns and published them in the
Telegraph under the heading, "Items from the Central Branch
Country." 71 Later as the editor of the Seneca Courier he defended
Atchison's interests even though Seneca was tied more closely to
St. Joseph. 72 Still later as editor of the Holton Express, Root con-
tinued the same policy, but his position was complicated by the
66. Because of the regularity of these practices some examples must suffice. On Sep-
tember 30, 1869, the Champion said that it wanted correspondents in every northern Kansas
town. Martin's excursions over the Central Branch line were usually followed by long
descriptive articles: Champion, April 16, August 16, 1867, and October 13, 19, and 22.
1871. "O K." whose real name was L. Hensel was a regular contributor from Seneca and
other points in the Central Branch country. Although he later became a correspondent of
the St. Joseph Gazette, the Champion on July 15, 1873, reprinted his Central Branch
article. A. B. McNab, using the pen name of "Kickapoo," was a frequent contributor.
Occasional correspondents included A. J. Patrick of Irving whose letter on "The Present and
Future of Marshall County" was published in the Champion on March 29, 1867; T. Shaffer
who contributed an article on "Cloud County" in the August 25, 1868, issue, and W. H.
Dodge whose description of Jackson county was published on December 29, 1868.
67. On June 7, 1870, the Atchison Champion reprinted items from four country news-
papers.
68. Holton Express, April 12 and 19, May 17, 1872; Seneca Courier, February 17, 1871;
and Waterville Telegraph, February 18, April 15, December 2, 1870, May 26, June 2,
October 13, November 3, December 15, 1871, and January 26, 1872.
69. There is a short sketch of Root's career by Tames C. Malin in the Dictionary of
American Biography, v. 16, p. 146. There is a brief biography of Adams in Kansas His-
torical Collections, v. 6, pp. 171-175. Root and Adams were brothers-in-law.
70. "O. K." reported in the November 30, 1869, issue of the Champion that Root was
"Eyes and Ears" and that he was to be the editor of the Telegraph. When Root moved to
Seneca he became the postmaster as well as the editor of the Courier.
71. As indicated in the previous note Root also supplied a column under the heading
"Eyes and Ears" for the Atchison Champion.
72. In a letter to the Seneca Courier from Atchison, March 15, 1871, I. N. Coz dis-
cussed the relations between Seneca and Atchison. Courier, March 17, 1871. On January
3, 1872, the Champion reprinted the Courier's reasons for supporting Atchison rather than
St. Joseph.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 15
completion of the narrow gauge Kansas Central from Leavenworth
to Holton. 73
Franklin G. Adams, Root's successor in Waterville, undertook to
appeal to an even broader audience. While serving as editor of the
Telegraph, Adams traveled extensively through the country west of
Marshall county. In 1873 he published the material that he had
gathered in an emigration guide book entitled The Homestead
Guide. 74 In glowing words and well-turned phrases he described
the attractiveness of the Central Branch country and the area to the
west and north of it. Moreover, as Root's successor in the position
of postal agent, Adams provided a steady flow of news items and
descriptive comments for the Atchison papers as well as his own. 75
By journalistic ties in general, and by the special efforts of Root and
Adams, the Central Branch country was closely bound to Atchison.
But there were other bonds that united the metropolis on the
Missouri with the towns of the hinterland. If a Central Branch town
staged a fourth of July celebration, held a farmers' meeting, or spon-
sored a railroad bond election it was regular practice for the major
address to be delivered by John J. Ingalls, Bailie P. Waggener, John
A. Martin, or any one of a dozen Atchison men who were noted for
their forensic talent. 76 If the Corinthian Hall schedule of events
included a lecture by Bret Harte or a particularly outstanding play
by Lord's Theatrical Company, special trains originating in Water-
ville were used to bring the people in. 77 If the district court was in
session at Seneca, Marys ville, or Washington, Atchison attorneys
were there to plead the causes of their clients. 78 On some occasions,
excursions would bring many residents of Atchison out to a Central
73. As editor of the Holton Express, Root printed a column "Items Along the Kansas
Central" after that railroad was completed to Holton. See the issue for September 20, 1873.
74. The copy of this book in the library of the Kansas State Historical Society was
published in Waterville in 1873. The railroad and township map which accompanies it
shows the proposed railroads as well as the completed ones. The first part of the book
is devoted to the physical features of the region, pp. 112-133 to the railroads, and pp.
137 to 191 to the history and growth of Atchison and the towns in the area as far west as
Norton county. The Atchison Champion gave a good deal of publicity to the book. See
especially the issues for June 14 and 17, 1873. Adams and W. P. Campbell took over
the Waterville Telegraph in January, 1871. In August, 1873, Adams became the editor
of the Atchison Globe, and on January 1, 1876, he became the secretary of the Kansas
State Historical Society. Waterville Telegraph, January 13, 1871; Marshall County News,
August 23, 1873; D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1886), p. 698.
75. Adams had served as postal route agent on an earlier occasion. Atchison Cham-
pion, August 24, 1869.
76. Peter T. Abell, George W. Click, William F. Downs, and John A. Martin par-
ticipated in the Cloud county railroad bond election in 1871. Ibid., October 13, 1871.
For other appearances of Atchison men see the Champion, August 5, 1873; Marshall County
News, July 26, 1873; and the Netawaka Chief, July 9, 1873.
77. Atchison Champion, October 21, 1873; Waterville Telegraph, December 9, 16,
and 23, 1870, August 23, 1872.
78. Atchison Champion, October 22, 1869, and October 26, 1873; Waterville Telegraph,
January 1, April 29, 1870; September 15, 1871; and November 22, 1872. The firm of
A. H. Horton and Bailie B. Waggener was particularly prominent in the Central Branch
country. It was formed in April, 1870.
16 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Branch town for a picnic and music by a silver cornet band, and on
other occasions excursions would bring the people of the towns into
Atchison for a round of visiting and shopping. 79
During the hot weather season, especially if cholera were preva-
lent in the Missouri river towns, some Atchison men would take their
families to summer cottages in Netawaka or Blue Rapids. When
drought and prairie fires brought destitution to many settlers in the
Central Branch country in 1871, it was John Logan of Atchison who
was placed in charge of the distribution of relief supplies provided
by the state. 80 Moreover, it was the women of Atchison under the
leadership of Mrs. D. P. Blish and Mrs. William Hetherington,
among others, who organized the Kansas Relief Association, who
utilized their Ladies' Aid Society to collect clothing and provisions,
and who staged a concert at Corinthian Hall to raise relief funds. 81
On pleasanter occasions groups of Atchison young people journeyed
to Central Branch towns to assist with revival meetings, the Rev.
H. D. Fisher of the Atchison Methodist church traveled to Water-
ville to preach the dedicatory sermon when the new schoolhouse
was ready for use, and James Diggett, an Atchison music teacher,
toured the Central Branch country giving concerts for the enjoyment
of the people. 82 Additionally, the Northern Kansas District Fair at
Atchison, the meetings of Masons and Odd Fellows, and the political
campaign tours served to strengthen the relations between the city
and the towns. 83
Close though these social and cultural ties were, the interlocking
economic relationships seemed to be even more pervasive. Like
the newspaper editors Root and Adams, many of the merchants
and professional men of the towns had been residents of Atchison.
When Sam Dickson, one of the earliest settlers in Atchison, moved
to Waterville in 1869, he found himself in the midst of a colony of
Atchison expatriates. 84 J. D. Armstrong, dry goods merchant; J. C.
Peters, dealer in groceries and liquors; George W. Hutt, retailer of
groceries, agricultural implements, and hardware; John Landgraf,
79. Atchison Champion, July 6, 15, 20, 28, and 29, 1870, March 25, 1871, and July
17 and 20, 1874; Waterville Telegraph, May 13 and 20, June 24, July 15, 22, and 29,
December 9, 1870.
80. Atchison Champion, March 9, 1871; Waterville Telegraph, March 17, 1871.
81. Atchison Champion, October 20 and 28, November 1 and 5, December 15, 1871;
Waterville Telegraph, December 1, 8, and 22, 1871.
82. Holton Express, May 17, 1872; Waterville Telegraph, June 17, 1870. February
4 and 25, June 17 and 24, July 4, 1871, and May 24, 1872.
83. John A. Martin regularly sent complimentary tickets to the Atchison fair to the
editors of newspapers in the Central Branch towns and the railroad offered half-fare rates.
The citations are too numerous to be included.
84. Frank Root estimated that three-fourths of the Waterville business men were
from Atchison. Letter to the Atchison Champion, August 25, 1869.
-
o . _o>
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0) _ 00
Sl -5
lit
8 II
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8 8u
.
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Atchison, in the 1870% looking toward town from St. Benedict's College.
Waterville, 1872, showing the usual land-office and livery stable "rush."
iss
.
it it
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 17
proprietor of a saddle and harness shop; Henry Volz, blacksmith;
and A. Simis, druggist, were among those who had moved out from
Atchison. 85 What was true of Waterville was true of the other towns
in the Central Branch country. George W. Shriner and Charles
Williamson, of Washington; J. D. Brumbaugh, Charles F. Koester,
and Frank Schmidt, of Marysville; Ben F. Drury, Frank Kaufman,
and Jacob Weisbach, of Frankfort; G. B. White, of Whiting; J. M.
Meacham and George Gould, of Seneca; H. W. Forman, A. Wil-
liams, and W. P. McCubbin of Centralia; and William Stratton,
of Wetmore, had been residents of Atchison before going west to
seek their fortunes in the hinterland. 86
In some instances close economic ties were created when Atchison
firms established branches in the Central Branch towns. This prac-
tice seemed to be particularly characteristic of the lumber business.
Thus the G. C. Hixon Lumber Company, a large interstate firm with
a major outlet in Atchison, opened a branch yard in Waterville,
and Cummings and Adams, an Atchison firm, established a branch
at Centralia. 87 A somewhat longer extension of Atchison influence
occurred when Johnson and Haskell, a Waterville firm with Atchi-
son connections, founded branches in Clyde and Clifton. 88
A different kind of personal relationship resulted from the fact
that Atchison people became landowners, both large and small in
the Central Branch country. Next to the railroad companies, the
banking firm of Stebbins and Porter with some 50,000 acres of land
in Marshall and Nemaha counties was the largest landowner in the
area. 89 The smaller landowners, or would-be landowners, were
more numerous. From Centralia to Dead Man's Hollow, south-
east of Waterville, to Mill creek valley near Washington, the coun-
tryside was full of settlers from Atchison city or county. 90 These
expatriates from Atchison, together with their fellow settlers from
elsewhere, built schoolhouses that were furnished by the H. E.
Nickerson Furniture Company, took their grain to be ground by
mills equipped with machinery from N. Plamondon and Company,
crossed a good many bridges built by Stebbins and Morse, and
85. Ibid., September 21, December 19, 1869, and April 8, 22, 1870.
86. Ibid., July 11, 1867, August 15, September 2, October 31, 1869, and Tune 21.
August 12, 1873; Marshall County News, August 9, 1873: Waterville Telegraph, February
25, July 11, 1870, February 10, April 28, 1871.
87. Atchison Champion, May 30, 1867; Waterville Telegraph, April 8, 1870.
88. Waterville Telegraph, March 3, April 28, 1871.
89. Atchison Champion, June 21, 1866, and March 24, 1867; Waterville Telegraph,
March 11, 1870.
90. Atchison Champion, November 20, 1868, and September 10, 21, and 22, 1869;
l7 \&!\ aph ' January 7 ' Februarv 4. April 8, May 6, 1870; Seneca Courier,
a 1586
18 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
elected men to township and county offices who had served ap-
prenticeships in Atchison county. 91
These varied ties between the settlers in the Central Branch
country and the people of Atchison were re-enforced by the omni-
present drummers for Atchison business firms. In winter's snows
and summer's heat these men made their tireless rounds over the
rails from Atchison to Waterville, and over the trails from Water-
ville to Clay Center, Concordia, and Belleville. Wherever they
went they brought news of what was going on in Atchison; when
they returned they supplemented their orders for goods with re-
ports on business conditions and crops in the tributary area. In
some instances the proprietors of Atchison wholesale houses or
manufacturing firms took to the road to become personally ac-
quainted with their customers in the Central Branch country. In
this group were included such men as D. P. Blish and John Silli-
man, of the Blish-Silliman Hardware Company; Matthew Quigg,
of Quigg, Dolan and Company, wholesale dealers in groceries and
liquors; W. C. McPike, of the McPike and Allen Drug Company;
J. H. Garside, of J. Garside and Sons, grain dealers; J. S. Hoke, of
the Hoke Lumber Company, and W. M. Marbourg, of Marbourg
and Lea Hardware Company. 92 Then there was the corps of reg-
ular traveling salesmen. Max Alwens, for Julius Kuhn and Com-
pany; George T. Challiss for D. C. Robbins and Company; J. T.
Jones, for Marbourg and Lea; D. P. Rogers, for Challiss Brothers;
Harry Smith, for the R. A. Heim Stationery Company; W. H. Riggs,
for the agricultural implement house of Robbins, Haygood and
Company; N. H. Maher of the Plamondon Company, and E. W.
Plankenton, for Jacob Leu, wholesale dealer in stoves, were some
of the men who were on the road almost constantly drumming up
business for their firms. 93 In a special class were the traveling
agents and correspondents of the Atchison newspapers. Always
careful to refrain from soliciting job printing in towns that boasted
91. Atchison Champion, October 31, November 5, 1869, December 1 and 22, 1870,
February 9 and 24, 1871; Seneca Courier, February 24, 1871; Waterville Telegraph,
January 14, August 19, 1870, and February 10, 24, 1871.
92. The notices are too numerous to permit complete citation. For examples see the
Atchison Champion, May 7, September 4, October 5, 1869, and November 21, 1873;
Seneca Courier, February 24, 1871; and Waterville Telegraph, February 4, August 5, No-
vember 11, 1870, February 17, April 14 and 21, May 5, June 23 and 30, 1871, May 31,
1872, and Tune 21, November 22, 1873. John A. Martin advocated intensive cultivation
of Atchison s trade area. On September 4, 1869, he urged Atchison merchants to "oppose
effort with effort, enterprise with enterprise, advertising with advertising, drumming with
drumming, low prices with low prices, good articles with good articles, and big promises
with big performances."
93. For examples of the notices see the Atchison Champion, August 1 and 21, Septem-
ber 4, October 5, 1869, August 29, 1870, June 2, 1871, October 7, 1873; Holton Express
May 3, June 7, 1872; Seneca Courier, March 31, 1871; and the Waterville Telegraph,
April 22, July 29, 1870, and May 19, June 23, August 18, 1871.
ATCmSON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 19
of a local newspaper, these peripatetic journalists became recipro-
cating channels of information as they carried news of Atchison
to the towns and sent back long descriptive articles to their papers. 94
That the efforts of the drummers and agents were attended with
some degree of success is indicated by the increasing number of
carloads of lumber, of agricultural implements, of hardware, dry-
goods, and groceries that were shipped westward from Atchison. 95
But the taking of orders and the shipment of goods in response to
them did not complete the interaction of the merchants of the Cen-
tral Branch towns with the business community of Atchison. There
remained all of the intricate details associated with the payment of
the bills. In some fashion, without resorting to the earlier practice
of shipping coin or currency, or anticipating later procedures of
payment by check, a way had to be found to pay wholesale houses
in St. Louis, Chicago, and Eastern cities, as well as Atchison firms.
And some way had to be devised to receive payment for the carloads
of produce, grain, and cattle that were shipped eastward. 96 Like
the transportation of goods and persons, the transmission of funds
is a segment of the broad problem of effective lines of communica-
tion. Just as Atchison needed to be the center of a network of
railroads, so she needed to be the center of a network of banks with
lines of correspondent relationships reaching out to the towns in
the hinterlands as well as to the principal financial centers of the
nation, if she was to fulfill her role as a metropolis.
To the creation of such a network of banks to serve the Central
Branch country, the Exchange Bank of William Hetherington made
a substantial contribution. 97 During its early years the Exchange
had developed correspondent relationships with A. Beattie and Com-
94. Examples of James A. Loper's letters may be found in the Atchison Champion,
June 3, 4, 7, 8, 10-12, 1870. For some of Richard A. Hoffman's reports from the
Central Branch towns see the Champion, April 12, 15, 16, 18, and 23, 1872, March
7, June 21 and 26, 1873.
95. The citations are too numerous to include here. Good examples of descriptions of
westbound trains may be found in the Champion, March 2 and 25, 1869, March 3, 1870,
March 3, April 20, 1871.
96. Even in the early years of settlements some grain and livestock was shipped out
of the Central Branch country. Atchison Champion, September 8, 1869, May 18, 1870,
and December 23, 1871; Holton Express, April 26, May 24, July 17, 1872; Marshall County
News, August 30, 1873: Seneca Courier, February 17, 1871; and Waterville Telegraph,
March 7. 1873.
97. The present writer's unpublished article, "A Century of Continuity: the Exchange
Bank, 1857-1859," is the fullest historical account of this institution. During the period
1866-1872, Augustus Byram was Hetherington's partner and a heavy borrower from the
bank. In addition to his freighting and railroad construction activities, Byram was a partner
with his brother Peter and G. W. Gillespie in the G. W. Gillespie Lumber Company.
Atchison Champion, October 17, 1866; Walerville Telegraph, March 4, 1870; Cash journal.
Exchange Bank of William Hetherington, pp. 545, 551. The Exchange bank was "puffed
regularly in the Central Branch newspapers. For examples see the Waterville Telegraph,
June 3 and 24, August 8, 1870, and the Holton News quoted in the Atchison Champion,
November 21, 1871. The tickler and collection register of the Exchange bank (no pagina-
tion ) shows that the Exchange had customers in America, Centralia, Holton, Marysville,
Monrovia, and Muscotah in addition to the more frequent borrowers in Seneca, Waterville,
and Wetmore.
20 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pany of St. Joseph, with the First National Banks of Leaven worth
and Kansas City, with the Second National of St. Louis, the Third
National of Chicago, and the Importers and Traders National Bank
of New York. These were not merely paper connections to em-
bellish an advertisement. They were active channels for the inter-
change of drafts, acceptances, specie, and currency. As the agency
through which William Osborn transacted the financial business
attendant to the construction of the railroad, the Exchange bank
had played an important role in bringing the Central Branch coun-
try into existence. 98 This intimate association was continued when
William F. Downs, as general superintendent and land commis-
sioner, received and paid out his funds through the Exchange."
Close financial relationships developed because some merchants
like J. C. Meacham of Seneca and Samuel Dickson, J. C. Peters, and
John Landgraf of Waterville, who had been regular customers of
Hetherington's Exchange Bank before they moved to their new
homes, 100 and others like Rising and Son and W. C. McVay of Wet-
more, Jason Yurann, of Blue Rapids, Rochefeller and Collins of
Washington, and W. W. Jerome of Irving, went to the Exchange
for funds to finance their business operations. 101 Less direct in its
impact, but just as important in its effect, was the extension of credit
by the Exchange to the Atchison firms that did business in the
Central Branch country. J. Garside and Sons, reputedly the most
extensive buyer of grain in the area; 102 Hippie and Larkin and Brady
98. Some information on Osborn's transactions with the Exchange may be found in
"Cash Book A" of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 99, 160; in the cash journal of the Kansas
Valley Bank, pp. 300-303, 319-390, 602-619; and in the record of the suit brought by
the Exchange against William Osborn, R. A. Park, and the Central Branch of the Union
Pacific Railroad Company in the "Atchison County Court, 1868 Cases," No. 76. In March,
1866, William H ether in gton purchased the stock of the Bank of the State of Kansas which
was the successor to the Kansas Valley Bank of Atchison. Because he used the blank pages
in the record books of the Kansas Valley Bank precise citation is difficult. These books
were used through the courtesy of John Adair, currently the president of the Exchange
National Bank of Atchison. Some of them are on deposit in the Manuscripts division of
the Kansas State Historical Society.
99. "Cash Book A" of the Kansas Valley Bank (Exchange cash journal, 1868-1869),
pp. 30, 162. 244, 306, 308, 341, 398, 399, 403, 405, 451, 456; Cash journal of the Ex-
change Bank of Wm. Hetherington and Co., 1869-1870, pp. 24, 350, 378, 504. Cash
journal of the Kansas Valley Bank (Exchange cash journal, 1870-1871), pp. 407 et passim.
100. "Cash Book A" of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 48, 76, 106, 116, 124, 214, 274,
280, 334, 390, 394, 458, 468; cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 106 et
passim; cash journal of Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 388, 436, 450, 481, 528, 534, 590.
101. Cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1866-1867, p. 388; "Cash Book A" of the
Kansas Valley Bank, p. 426; cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 216, 316,
430, 494, 572, 586, 654. Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 406 et passim.
102. This firm had a grain warehouse at Effingham in addition to its facilities at
Atchison. Atchison Champion, January 23, 1870, and February 16, 1871; Waterville
Telegraph, June 16, 1871. The senior J. Garside was in charge of the Exchange bank in
the summer of 1872 during Hetherington's absence. Atchison Champion, June 22, 1872.
Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank (pp. 308 to 395 constitute the cash journal of the
Exchange bank, March-June, 1866), pp. 310-395; cash journal of the Exchange Bank,
1866-1867, pp. 62, 284, 318, 370; "Cash Book A" of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 84, 224,
252, 258, 300, and 378; cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 8, 40, 86,
252, 254, 262, 324, 356, 374, 466, 530, 680; cash journal Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 412
et passim.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 21
and Collins, two of the most active cattle buying firms; 103 J. S. Hoke
and Company, G. C. Hixon and Company, and G. W. Gillespie and
Company, the principal lumber firms; 104 H. E. Nickerson and Com-
pany, manufacturer and wholesaler of furniture; A. B. Symnes, the
pork packer; and the wholesale houses of W. F. Dolan, Marbourg
and Lea; and Robbins, Haygood and Company, were all regular
customers of the Exchange bank. 105
Until 1870 there were no banks in the Central Branch country to
serve as the initial point for the payment of bills and notes and for
the extension of credit. In that year the Marshall County Bank of
Burtis, Smith and Burtis, later reorganized as the Marshall County
Savings Bank of Burtis, Powell and Burtis, was established in Water-
ville. 106 Between 1870 and 1874 the Lappin and Scrafford Bank in
Seneca, the Olmstead-Freeland Bank of Blue Rapids, 107 the Ex-
change Bank of Frank Schmidt in Marysville, 108 the Morrill and
Janes Bank of Hiawatha, 109 Sabetha Exchange Bank, 110 and the
Exchange Bank of Holton were founded. 111 The relations of the
Exchange Bank of Atchison with these country banks varied a great
deal. For some it merely provided one step in the draft-clearing
process. 112 For the Lappin and Scrafford Bank of Seneca, the Ex-
change served as a city correspondent and on some occasions lent
considerable sums of money to the members of the firm. 113 But it
was with the Marshall County Savings Bank of Waterville that the
103. Samuel Hippie was a brother-in-law of William Hetherington and owned a large
livestock farm near Effingham. Both firms shipped cattle to New York as well as to Chicago.
Atchison Champion, September 21, 1869, April 28, 1870, June 22, 23, 1871, and July 4,
1873. Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 313, 317, 319, 402 et passim. "Cash
Book A" of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 132, 288, 294, 324, 340, 442. Cash journal of the
Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 12 et passim.
104. Cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1866-1867, pp. 340, 608, 644. "Cash Book
A" of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 32, 118, 238, 372. Cash journal of the Exchange Bank,
J 869-1870, pp. 12 et passim. Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 399 et passim.
105. Cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1866-1867, pp. 148, 252, 254, 286, 314,
350, 396, 408, 438, 482, 500, 526, 604, 628, 632, 638. "Cash Book A" of the Kansas Val-
ley Bank, pp. 36 et passim. Cash journal of the Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 108 et
passim. Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 402 et passim.
106. WatervUle Telegraph, June 17, 24, July 29, August 19, 22, 1870, January 27,
1871, July 19, 1872, and January 31, March 14, June 13, 1873; Atchison Champion,
June 20, 1873, and Marshall County News, Marysville, December 7, 1872, and February
8, 15, September 27, 1873.
107. Blue Rapids Times, June 13, 1872; Marshall County News, February 8, 1873;
Seneca Courier, February 10, 1871; and Waterville Telegraph, July 1, 1870, and January
20, 1871.
108. Marshall County News, September 23, 1873, and Waterville Telegraph, May 12,
1871.
109. Atchison Champion, June 18, 1873.
110. Ibid., June 19, 1873, M. E. Mather was the proprietor.
111. Holton Express, April 12 and 26, August 16, 1872. Marshall County Newt,
May 17, 1873. J. L. Williams was president and T. P. Moore, cashier. There was a
Farmers Bank in Holton too, with Martin Anderson as president and H. J. Ransom as
cashier.
112. This was the relationship with the Morrill and Janes Bank of Hiawatha. See
cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 410 et passim.
113. "Cash Book A." of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 74, 92, 244, 246; cash journal
of the Exchange Bank, 1869-1870, pp. 266, 436, 454, 466, 532, 618; cash journal of
the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 417, 439, 487, 490, 562.
22 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Exchange Bank of Atchison had the closest connections. William
Hetherington, principal proprietor of the Exchange bank, was a
director of the Waterville bank. 114 When it came time for the newly
opened country bank to establish correspondent relationships with
banks in St. Louis, Chicago and New York, the Exchange played a
part in the opening of the accounts. And when the men who
operated the Waterville bank needed funds it was the Exchange
Bank that provided them. 115 In return it is altogether likely that
the Waterville bank served as a connecting link between the Ex-
change and the tradespeople in the country west of Marshall county.
At least this was the case if credence may be placed in the assertion
of the Waterville Telegraph that the Marshall County bank was
doing the banking business of all northwestern Kansas. In elaborat-
ing this statement the editor said,
In fact the Marshall County Bank has become the medium of commercial
intercourse between the wholesale trade East and the business men of the
northwestern counties. The Bank keeps accounts with merchants at all points
within a radius extending from Clay Center to the South, all around to Fairbury
in Nebraska on the North including in the range Waconda, a hundred miles
to the West.H6
Irrespective of the validity of the claim made by the Waterville
editor, there is considerable evidence that it was in the realm of
banking services that Atchison enjoyed the greatest success in its
effort to play the role of metropolis to the Central Branch hinter-
land. As in other areas of activity the banks of Atchison, the Ex-
change among them, were in constant competition with institutions
in St. Joseph, Leavenworth, and Kansas City for the business of
the Central Branch country. Whatever may have been the outcome
during the reasonably normal periods in this competition, the banks
of Atchison and the city of Atchison emerged triumphant during
the panic of 1873. As failure followed failure and the dark clouds
of depression settled over the business of the nation, the banks of
New York and those in other Eastern cities suspended currency
payments. The banks of Chicago and St. Louis followed suit. As
panic conditions moved westward the banks of Kansas City, Leaven-
worth, and St. Joseph, refused to cash checks and drafts and de-
clined to pay out currency on certificates of deposit. 117 It was
114. Waterville Telegraph, September 25, October 16, December 18, 1874; Marshall
County News, September 27, 1873. The Waterville bank advertised that it paid eight per
cent interest on savings accounts.
115. Cash journal of the Kansas Valley Bank, pp. 416, 453, 454, 472, 562.
116. Waterville Telegraph, March 31, 1871.
117. The course of the panic and the suspension of specie payments by the banks of
New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Leavenworth, and St. Joseph in almost every
issue of the Champion from September 26 to October 10, 1873.
ATCHISON AND THE CENTRAL BRANCH COUNTRY 23
asserted contemporaneously, and it seems to be true, that only the
banks of Atchison in this area remained open and continued to do
business. 118 However it may be with the other banks, the cash
journal and the ledger of the Exchange bank demonstrate that it
carried on its usual functions during the days of panic. Checks were
cashed, bills receivable declined in amount, and deposits were
withdrawn. Out in the Central Branch country the merchants had
unhappy relations with the banks of Leavenworth, St. Joseph, and
Kansas City. Drafts were returned unpaid, grain accumulated at
trackside, and livestock could not be sold. In addition to meeting
their regular obligations the Atchison banks bought some of the un-
paid grain drafts and thus put some funds in circulation. 119 An
almost unanimous chorus of praise for the Atchison banks had its
counterpart in the denunciation of the banks in the other cities. 120
Atchison had its moment of high exultation and her spokesmen
made the most of their opportunity. Their city, they said, was
unquestionably the Queen City of the Missouri valley.
Unfortunately, the success in the field of banking was not matched
by success in bridging the Missouri and in extending the Central
Branch railroad to the westward. No through line to the Colorado
mountains; no connection with the main line of the Union Pacific
in Nebraska; no branch lines to Holton, Seneca, Hanover, or Wash-
ington, none of these appeared on the scene to alter the relations
of Atchison with the Central Branch country. As year after year
passed and the extensions were not built, the Central Branch be-
came known as the Rip Van Winkle of American railroads. While
company representatives argued with federal officials, John A. Mar-
tin fumed, cajoled, and prodded. 121 Finally his patience was ex-
118. On September 27, 1873, the Champion paid the following tribute to the banks
of Atchison: "There are no sounder or safer banks in the United States than those in
Atchison. . . . There is not one of them that has ever departed from the legitimate
business of banking. . . . And there is not one of them whose assets are not equal to
a dollar and a half for every dollar of liabilities." There are equally complimentary state-
ments in the issues for September 28, 30, October 1, 4, 1873. On October 12, 1873, the
Champion published a brief history of the Exchange bank in connection with its com-
mendatory article.
119. Atchison Champion, September 30, October 1, 1873.
120. On October 4, 1873, the Champion noted the return of Matthew Quigg from a
trip through northern Kansas and quoted him as saying that "the course of the Atchison
banks in refusing to suspend currency payments and the strength and soundness evinced by
them has greatly increased the favor in which Atchison is held throughout the region he
visited and will have the most favorable effect upon the business interests of our city.
Many country merchants and business men had suffered serious inconvenience by the locking
up of their funds in suspended banks, while those who kept deposits in Atchison have had
no trouble and suffered no inconvenience." The Clyde Reporter, Troy Chief, and Wamego
Blade were quoted in the Champion, respectively on October 8, 11, and 18, 1873.
121. William M. Evarts, E. R. Hoar, Reverdy Johnson, and G. T. Curtis were among
the distinguished lawyers who participated in the presentation of the Central Branch com-
pany s case. Atchison Champion, February 20, 1872. The discussion of the extension
of the Central Branch began before the one hundredth milepost was reached and continued
throughout the period under discussion. Atchison Champion, January 31 February 4
1868; January 30, February 3, 6, and 9, March 2, May 2, 4, and 7, September 24, De-
cember 12, 1869; February 12 and 27, March 8, 9, and 11, June 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18,
24 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
hausted and he declared, "Our experience fully justifies the
conclusion that . . . the Central Branch Railroad Company
is the most inefficient, unreliable, torpid, and senseless organiza-
tion on this continent." 122 But denunciation could not accomplish
what exhortation had failed to bring to fruition. The extent of
the Central Branch country, Atchison's special hinterland, remained
in 1874 what it had been in 1867.
September 9, 1870; January 6 and 29, February 10, July 19, 20, and 24, August 19 and
23, September 8, November 1 and 18, December 14 and 27, 1871; February 20, March 21,
and April 20, 1872; April 7, June 28, August 13, November 21, 1873; Holton Express,
July 26, 1872; Marshall County News, Marysville, OctoVcr 26, 1872; Waterville Telegraph,
March 11, July 1 and 22, 1870; January 13 and 20, February 15, March 10 and 31, May
17, June 2 and 30, August 18, September 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, October 13, November
3 and 17, December 29, 1871; February 16, March 1 and 8, April 19, June 28, July 12,
1872.
122. Atchison Champion, March 16, 1872. A letter from A. B. Whitney of Haddam
provoked Martin's outburst. Two years earlier the Champion had denounced the Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe Company in equally bitter language. See issues of May 19-22, and
26, July 30, 1870.
Kansas Before 1854: A Revised Annals
Compiled by LOUISE BARRY
PART FIVE, 18264829
7826
C Mountain man Ewing Young, partners-in-trade Thomas H. Boggs
and James Dempsey, Paul Baillio, six men of the Santa Fe road
survey crew (sent East by Comm'r G. C. Sibley for economy's sake),
and several other persons around 20 in all were in the company
with laden pack horses and mules which left Taos, N. M., for Mis-
souri in mid-February. They crossed present Kansas in March,
and probably reached Fort Osage around April 1. Somewhere on
the Santa Fe road a band of perhaps 200 Pawnees robbed members
of this party.
Ref: Kate L. Gregg, ed., The Road to Santa Fe . . . (Albuquerque, c!952),
pp. 41, 42, 84, 140-150, 227, 231, 260, 263, 275. Ceran St. Vrain may have been with
this party. See comment in David Lavender's Bent's Fort (Garden City, N. Y., 1954),
pp. 65, 375.
C Francis G. Chouteau's "Randolph Bluffs" (Mo.) depot (see 1821-
1822) was "washed away entirely" in early May (or late April) by
a flood on the Missouri. Chouteau, it is said, removed his family
to the "Four Houses" post (see 1819) some 20 miles up the Kansas
river (in present Johnson? county). Then he relocated on higher
ground, and higher up the Missouri a mile or so above the "Ran-
dolph Bluffs."
The new site was on the river's south bank (within what is now
"Guinotte's Addition" to Kansas City, Mo.), and about two miles
below the mouth of the Kansas. Frederick Chouteau was quoted
(in 1880) as saying: "My brother Francis . . . built his house
at [what is now] Kansas City in 1828 a frame house where he
lived with his family."
(Within the next 12 years before his death in 1838? Francis Chouteau's
establishment came to include "one of the largest and best farms in the
county, with a steamboat landing [built in 1832, perhaps near what is now
Olive street, Kansas City, Mo.], warehouses, and costly dwellings, and out-
houses. . . ." All of this was swept away by the great flood of 1844.)
Ref: Kansas Historical Quarterly (KHQ), v. 16, p. 7; W. H. Miller's History of Kansas
City . . . (Kansas City, 1881), p. 10; Kansas Historical Collections (KHC), v. 8,
p. 425; The Kansas Monthly, Lawrence, v. 2 (June, 1879), p. 83 (John C. McCoy's state-
ment on Chouteau's farm, etc., and the flood of 1844); Kansas City (Mo.) Times, February
10, 1951 (or "Kansas City, Mo., History Clippings," v. 5, p. 146, in Kansas State Historical
Society (KHi) library).
LOUISE BARRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.
(25)
26 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C Late in May a caravan (80 to 100 persons) left Missouri for
New Mexico. ( In mid-April the Franklin, Mo., paper had reported
the company would include "all those lately returned" and it is
known that Ewing Young, Paul Baillio, and Thomas H. Boggs made
this journey. ) There were "waggons and carriages of almost every
description," and the "amount of merchandise taken . . . [was]
very considerable." The Franklin editor commented:
It has the air of romance to see splendid pleasure carriages, with elegant
horses journeying to the Republic of Mexico, yet it is sober reality. In fact
the obstacles exist rather in the imagination than in reality. Nature has made a
fine road the whole distance.
Spanish trader Escudero, who left Missouri in the fore part of
June with "six or seven new and substantial [goods-laden] wagons,"
may have caught up with the large caravan, but probably traveled
the route separately.
Ref: Missouri Intelligencer, Franklin, Mo., April 14, June 9, 1826; Independent
Patriot, Jackson, Mo., July 8, 1826; Lavender, op. cit., pp. 65, 375 (for notes on Ceran
St. Vrain's presence? with this company); R. E. TwitchelTs Old Santa Fe . . . (Santa
Fe, c!925), p. 217.
C Baronet Vasquez the first subagent for the Kansa was ap-
pointed in September (?), 1825, and served till his death in August,
1828. The only persons employed for the Kansa up to September,
1826 (according to the St. Louis Indian superintendency report),
were Subagent Vasquez and Gabriel Philibert, blacksmith. (The
latter probably was hired in mid-1826 a record of tools purchased
for Philibert bears the date July 11, 1826.)
During his tenure Baronet Vasquez maintained a home, and the agency
headquarters, within present Kansas City, Mo. He brought his wife, Emilie
Forastin (Parent) Vasquez, and children upriver from St. Louis, perhaps as
early as 1825. (Frederick Chouteau was quoted, in 1880, as stating: "His
[Vasquez's] family was [in 1828] at my brothers' agency at Randolph, where he
had lived since 1825." This could be interpreted to mean that the Vasquez
family had quarters supplied by Francis Chouteau first at "Randolph Bluffs";
and after the 1826 flood, at Chouteau's new location within present Kansas
City, Mo. ) According to the Rev. G. J. Garraghan ( whose source of informa-
tion was Vasquez family letters): "The Vasquez house [of 1828], a good-sized
comfortable sort of building, was apparently rented at Government expense
for the use of the Kansa Indian agent. It stood on the south bank of the
Missouri just below the mouth of the Kaw, probably [i. e., possibly] at what is
now the foot of Gillis Street in Kansas City [Mo.]."
Ref: 19th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 112 (Serial 156), Sig. 40; G. J. Garraghan's
Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City . . . (Chicago, 1920), pp. 28-30; KHC, v. 8,
pp. 423, 425 (for Frederick Chouteau); Superintendency of Indian Affairs, St. Louis,
"Records," (hereafter cited as SIA), v. 29, p. 29 in KHi ms. division.
C On August 16 fur trader Joseph Robidoux ( aged 43 ), up to then
associated with the Chouteau (and company) interests in the
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 27
Council Bluffs vicinity, obtained a trading license in his own
name. In 1826, and a year later (when he and a partner, Baptiste
Roy, were issued a license on August 14, 1827), the listed places
of operation were: Bellevue; mouth of the Papillion; the Omaha
villages; the Pawnee villages; "a little above Roy's grave"; and
mouth of L'eau qui court [Niobrara river].
It is said that Robidoux landed at "Roy's Branch" above the
Blacksnake Hills (Mo.) in the fall of 1826; and that he soon after-
wards removed to the mouth of Blacksnake creek where St. Jo-
seph, Mo., was later founded.
Robidoux and Roy obtained a license in 1828 (August 6) to operate in the
same locations as before. Eight days later they were issued a license permitting
them to trade at the Blacksnake Hills, near the Iowa subagency. However,
in October, the Chouteau interests ( American Fur Co., Western Dept. ) bought
out rival Robidoux, agreeing to pay him "$1,000 a year for two years to stay
out of the Indian country." It appears that he went to the mountains with
Fontenelle and Drips in 1830 (see February, 1830, entry). When he returned
to the Blacksnake Hills post (late 1830? or 1831?) he was an employee of the
American Fur Company. But in 1834 he purchased the post from the company,
and became sole proprietor. A license issued to Robidoux on July 30, 1834, in-
dicated that he traded with the lowas, Sacs, and Foxes, and employed eight
men. Nine years later (1843) Robidoux founded the town of St. Joseph, Mo.,
at that location.
Ref: 19th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 58 (Serial 146); 20th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen.
Doc. 96 (Serial 165); The History of Buchanan County, Missouri (St. Joseph, Mo., 1881),
pp. 391-396; History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. (St. Joseph, [1899], pp.
335-337; 20th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 47 (Serial 181); Dale L. Morgan's Jedediah
Smith . . . (Indianapolis and New York, c!953), p. 319; R. G. Thwaites, ed., Early
Western Travels . . . (Cleveland, 1904-1906), v. 24, p. 121; 23d Cong., 2d Sess.,
H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273).
C Francis G. and Cyprian Chouteau obtained a license on August
17 to trade (for a year) at "Mouth of Kanzas River, and [at] the
Dirt Village of the Kanzas" (over 100 direct land miles upstream,
near the Big Blue junction). Apparently the "Four Houses" post
(of 1819? origin) 20 miles up the Kansas continued to serve as
their base of operations on that river till late in 1828 when they
built at a new location about 12 miles from the Kaw's mouth.
(See, under 1828.)
Ref: 19th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 58 (Serial 146); 20th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc.
57 (Serial 181) for September 3, 1827, license issued to Pierre Chouteau, Jr. (American
Fur Company agent), to trade near the mouth of the Kansas, with the Kansa nation a
license covering the trading operations of his brothers, Francis and Cyprian, for the 1827-
1828 year.
C Between August 21 and October 10, Surveyor Angus L. Lang-
ham's party meandered the Kansas river from its mouth to the Kansa
village (near the Big Blue-Kansas junction). Langham's assistants
28 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
were Thomas Swearingen, William S. "Old Bill" Williams (also
serving as interpreter), and eight hired hands. The outfit included
horses. (Subsistence of men and horses from August 1 to Decem-
ber 31 was a $382 item in the surveyor's accounts. ) It is said the
party had a small military escort see below.
This company reached the "mouth of Warhusa" (Wakarusa)
on September 2; passed the "Necushcutebe, Soutrielle or Grass-
hopper" (Delaware river of today) on September 13; and reached
Langham's first objective a point "20 leagues up," or "60 miles
on a straight line from the mouth of Kansas river" on October 2.
(By the Kansa treaty see June, 1825 this survey point was to
mark the east line of the Kansa reserve. It was about three and a
half miles west of the center of present Topeka, in what is now
Sec. 27, T. 11, R. 15 E., in Silver Lake township, Shawnee county.)
Continuing upriver, Langham noted they were near the "old
Heart village" of the Kansa on October 5; that they passed the
"blfack] Vermillion" on the 8th; and arrived at "the Kansa Village,
125 dirt lodges" on October 10.
Of the surveyors' subsequent movements no contemporaneous account has
been located. It appears that Langham and his men retraced their path to
the east line of the Kansa reserve; surveyed the approximately 22-mile section
of the east line from the river northward; and then spent the rest of the year
marking off, down along the Kansas, the 23 one-mile-square Kansa half-breed
reserves (which extended eastward from the east Kansa boundary to about
four miles below the mouth of the "Grasshopper/') Writing in 1885, John
C. McCoy (surveyor in the 1830's, who likely heard the story direct from
Langham ) stated that Langham "passed the winter of 1826-7 on Soldier Creek
[known as Heart river at that time] about 4 miles north of [present] Topeka,
and about 3 miles east of the Kaw village of the Tool Chief [a location dating
from 1829? see map p. 59 not in existence when Langham was in the
vicinity]. He had with him a small guard of infantry detailed from Fort
Osage. . . . [But Fort Osage no longer existed in 1826, so the troops came
from elsewhere.] The name 'Soldier Creek* was adopted afterwards in honor
of the flag that proudly waved over the Major's [i. e., Langham's] shanty and
the warlike aspect of the camp where the trophies secured during the winter
were chiefly possums strung up by their tails curled over ropes and tugs
stretched from tree to tree." (Isaac McCoy, in 1830, called the stream Soldier
creek. )
At some time in 1827 Langham surveyed the approximately eight-mile
portion of the Kansa east boundary south of the Kansas river, and then pro-
ceeded west for 200 miles marking a length of the south line of the reserve.
Ref: Photostats of A. L. Langham's 1826 Aeld notes; his 1826 accounts; and two
William Clark letters (July 9 and October 9, 1826), all in KHi ms. division; John C.
McCoy letter, February 9, 1885, in KHi ms. division; Isaac McCoy statement, 1832, in
23 Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3 (Serial 246), p. 486; John C. McCoy statement,
1885, in KHQ, v. 5, p. 352; John C. McCoy statement, 1889, in KHC, v. 4, p. 302. The
time of occupancy of the Kansa "Heart village" has never been satisfactorily determined.
For McCoy's 1830 references to Soldier creek see KHQ, v. 5, pp. 352-354, 364.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 29
C The company of traders (size unknown) which left Fort Osage
in August and reached Santa Fe in November, included James
Collins (at a later date Indian affairs superintendent in New Mex-
ico), Elisha Stanley, Solomon Houck, Edwin M. Ryland, James
Fielding, Thomas Talbot, and William Wolfskill. All these men
remained in Mexico for nearly a year. (See, also, October, 1827.)
Apparently with this party was Andrew Broadus, who, at the Walnut
creek camp (near present Great Bend), underwent, and survived,
emergency amputation of an arm (injured earlier in a gun acci-
dent). And if Broadus was in this company, so was the runaway
17-year-old Christopher "Kit" Carson (who, by his own account,
witnessed the surgery while on his first journey to the Southwest
in 1826).
Ref: KHQ, v. 21, pp. 561-563; Josiah Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies (1844), v.
1, pp. 59, 60; Blanche C. Grant, ed., Kit Carson's Own Story of His Life (Taos, N. M.,
1926), p. 10; Missouri Historical Review, Columbia, v. 38, p. 497; Lavender, op. cit.,
p. 380.
C After a 70-day march William H. Ashley and party (over 50
men; more than 100 pack animals ) reached St. Louis the last week
in September (returning from a spring and summer overland ex-
pedition beyond the Rocky mountains see last 1825 entry). It
was reported that each horse and mule carried nearly 200 pounds
of beaver fur, and that the 123(?) packs of beaver were valued
at $60,000. According to St. Louis editor Charles Keemle:
. . . The whole route lay through a level and open country, better for
carriages than any turnpike road in the United States. [East of the Rockies,
Ashley's route, generally, was along the Sweetwater, Platte, and apparently
on the north side of the Missouri a pathway he had first used in the fall and
winter of 1824-1825; and had traversed again, west-bound, in the spring of
1826.] Wagons and carriages could go with ease as far as General Ashley went,
crossing the Rocky Mountains at the sources of the north fork of the Platte,
and descending the valley of the Buenaventura [Bear River] towards the Pacific
Ocean. . . .
Ref: Dale L. Morgan, op. cit., pp. 156-161, 187, 190-192; Missouri Republican, St.
Louis, September 21, 1826; D. M. Frost's Notes on General Ashley . . . (Worcester,
1945), pp. 146, 147; J. E. Sunder's Bill Sublette . . . (Norman, Okla, c!959),
p. 62.
C Describing the Indian peace council held at St. Louis in late
September and early October, William Clark (superintendent of
Indian affairs, St. Louis) wrote:
. . . a deputation from the Great and Little Osage Nation met one from
the Delawares, Shawanoes, Piankeshaws, Peorias, Weas, Senecas, and Kicka-
poos, at this place, on the 25th day of September, and, after [my] recommend-
ing that they should make an attempt to effect a permanent peace, without the
interference of the Government, they met in Council, and, after six days warm
30 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
debate and recriminations, I was forced to take my seat among them, and with
much difficulty obtained their entire approbation to the Treaty . . . [on
October 7 and 8].
The tribes with whom the Osages made the reluctantly-arrived-at
peace treaty were nations ( or, rather, portions of nations ) then re-
siding in Missouri and Arkansas territory which the government
hoped could be induced to emigrate to reserves west of Missouri
and Arkansas, where some Shawnees had already moved (see No-
vember, 1825).
Ref: 19th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 9 (Serial 149), pp. 9-12; American State
Papers: Indian Affairs, v. 2, pp. 673, 674; also a William Clark letter of October 9, 1826
(photostat in Langham survey papers, ms. division, KHi).
C A harvest of 260 bushels of corn from the farm at the little
station Mission Neosho (in present Erie township, Neosho county)
on the Neosho river see 1824 was reported for the year 1826.
As a result, "the expense of supporting the mission families [the
Pixleys and the Brights] was very moderate/'
Ref: Report, of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for 1827,
p. 136.
7827
C East-bound on a perilous, heart-of-winter, 1,500-mile journey
overland to St. Louis (from a January 1 starting point in the Great
Salt Lake valley), snowshoe-equipped William L. Sublette and
Moses "Black" Harris, with their Indian-trained pack dog all three
exhausted and starving left the Platte near Grand Island and
headed southeast towards the Kansas. In their extremity, the men
finally killed and ate the dog. Later they shot a rabbit; and after
that, in a timbered area, brought down some wild turkeys. Mean-
time, they had found an old Kansa trail which eased their travel
through the deep, uncrusted snow. After traveling down the Big
Vermillion (in present Marshall county) they made their way to
the Kansa village (near the Big Blue's mouth) in the latter part of
February. There they got food and other aid. Sublette traded his
pistol for a horse (to give Harris who had sprained an ankle
transportation), and the two men hastened on down the Kansas
valley to Missouri. They arrived in St. Louis on March 4 three
days late for the all-important business date with William H. Ashley
which had occasioned the epic winter journey. ( Ashley fulfilled the
contract anyway.)
Earlier (in mid- July, 1826), in the Rocky mountains, Jedediah S. Smith,
David E. Jackson, and William L. Sublette had formed a partnership and
bought out fur trader William H. Ashley. Ashley had then returned to St.
Louis see 1826 entry where he was, by contract, to supply Smith, Jackson &
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 31
Sublette supplies and goods at certain prices, provided the partners gave him
their order by March 1. See March, 1827, entry for a west-bound journey
over this new route "Subletted Trace."
Ref: Weekly Picayune, New Orleans, January 1 and March 18, 1844. After journalist
Matthew C. Field heard, from Sublette, in 1843, the story of the 1827 winter trip, he
wrote two articles ("Death of a Dog," and "A Perilous Winter Journey") which were
published in the Picayune (as noted above), and in the daily issues of December 27, 1843,
and March 14, 1944. Also, see Matthew C. Field's Prairie and Mountain Sketches . . .
(Norman, Okla., c!957), pp. 165, 166 (for Field's diary notes, August 21, 1843). For
Smith, Jackson & Sublette partnership see Dale L. Morgan, op. cit., pp. 189-193, 225.
C At, or near, the Osage towns on the Neosho (in present Neosho
county), several log buildings were erected during the year. On
January 12 a contract was let for construction of a house for each of
the three principal Osage chiefs living on that river. (This was in
accordance with Article 4 of the Osage treaty of June 2, 1825. The
total cost $5,700 suggests they were substantial homes. )
On February 1 David Bailey (native of New Hampshire; hired
as "agriculturist" to the Great Osages in late 1826) was given $450
to build quarters for his use. Bailey, and his wife who was "in-
structress to Osage Women" continued to work among the Osages,
and to reside in present Kansas, till sometime in 1831. (Nothing
has been learned of the Baileys' family, if any. )
Between March 16 and August 20, Richard Brannin (native of
Virginia; hired as "agriculturist" to the Little Osages in November,
1826) was given $445.40 to build quarters for his use. Brannin,
and his wife an "instructress to Osage Women" continued among
the Little Osages till the spring(?) of 1831. (Nothing is known of
their family, if any).
Other log houses and buildings already in the vicinity of the Osage towns
were those at the Osage Agency; at the "Trading House"; and at Mission
Neosho. The headquarters of Agent John F. Hamtramck (of Indiana; a May,
1826, appointee; and the first resident agent) was on the right bank of the river,
"on a Rock Ridge one half of a mile from the Neosho," "surrounded by Indian
villages, some within half a mile," on the former site of White Hair's town
(White Hair and a band of his people had moved six miles downstream).
Other persons at the Osage Agency included Robert Dunlap (a Virginian,
blacksmith to the Osages since late 1824), and Baptiste Mongrain (hired
as interpreter in April, 1827). At the "Trading House" were Paul Ligueste
Chouteau (Osage subagent), Pierre Melicour Papin (trader), and others.
( See, August, 1827, entry. )
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 100, 101, v. 25, pp. 26, 44, v. 29, pp. 2, 3, 5, 23, 25,
37; 19th Cong., 1st Sess., House Doc. No. 112 (Serial 137), Sig. 69; 19th Cong., 2d
Sess., House Ex. Doc. 112 (Serial 156), Sig. 40; 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90
(Serial 213), p. 64; KHQ, v. 13, pp. 448, 449.
C A site for the Kansa Agency was selected by the Kansa chiefs
and Subagent Baronet Vasquez early in 1827 (or possibly late in
1826). The place chosen was just east of the last half-breed re-
32 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
serve (No. 23), over four miles below the Grasshopper's (Dela-
ware's) mouth, on the north bank of the Kansas river 65 miles
below the Kansa village (as then located near the Big Blue's
mouth).
It was something like 50 miles from Subagent Vasquez's residence (within
present Kansas City, Mo. see first 1826 annals entry). Described in relation
to other present-day place names, the Kansa Agency was in the southern part
of Jefferson county, seven miles upriver from Lawrence.
Perhaps the agency's first white resident was Daniel Morgan
Boone ( a son of the famous Daniel ) who had been hired as "agri-
culturist" for the Kansa Indians at least as early as March, 1827.
An account dated March 19-21 shows transfer to him of $450 for
construction of buildings; also that he had spent $114 for a cart and
yoke of oxen, and had purchased two other yokes (at $35 and $40),
as well as tools and sundries. Besides Boone and his family, other
"first residents" were Gabriel Philibert (the blacksmith), the half-
breed Clement Lessert ( interpreter ) , Louis Gonville with his Kansa
family, and half-breed Joseph James (holder of reserve No. 23).
Two miles to the northwest, a good-sized stone house was built ( in
1827?) for Chief White Plume (in accordance with a promise made
to him by William Clark), and a number of Kansa families lived
near him.
Isaac McCoy (an 1830 visitor) noted the "comfortable hewed
log buildings" of the subagent, blacksmith, interpreter, and agri-
culturist, and White Plume's "large stone building" two miles dis-
tant. John T. Irving, Jr., after a brief stay at the Kansa Agency
in 1832, wrote this description (for a work of fiction):
It was a half savage white settlement. . . . Three cabins built of
unbarked logs, and thrown together in the rudest style of architecture, com-
posed the dwelling of the workmen belonging to the agency. A little apart
from the rest stood a house of larger dimensions, but scarcely more finished
in its construction. This was the dwelling of the agent. Attached to it was a
large field of Indian corn, almost the only grain raised by a backwoodsman;
and in front was a small yard, surrounded by a slender white railing. Not only
the cornfield, but a large space around the hamlet was filled with burnt and
scathed trunks, giving intimation that a luxuriant growth of giant forest trees
had once covered the spot, but had yielded to the unsparing inroads of man.
Ref: SIA, v. 4, pp. 196, 197, v. 29, pp. 4, 31; KHC, v. 9, pp. 194, 195; J. F. Mc-
Dermott, ed., J. T. Irving, Jr.'s Indian Sketches (c!955), p. 238; Kansas City (Mo.)
Journal, September 14, 1879 (or see KHi "Scrapbook," v. 2, pp. 223, 224); 23d Cong.,
1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 437 (Isaac McCoy's 1831 comments on
the Kansa Agency settlement).
C Outfitted by William H. Ashley, and the American Fur Company,
a party of about 60 men, commanded by Hiram Scott, left St. Louis
late in March for the trappers' summer rendezvous at Bear Lake
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 33
(where they arrived about the end of June). They took with them
"a piece of artillery (a four-pounder) on a carriage which was
drawn by two mules" the first wheeled vehicle to be taken across
the Rocky mountains. ( It was also the first wheeled vehicle known
to have crossed what is now northern Kansas. )
William L. Sublette accompanied this expedition, which ( it seems
established) traveled "Subletted Trace" (pioneered in February by
the eastbound Sublette and his companion "Black" Harris see
first 1827 entry) the pathway which led up the Kansas valley,
turned northward beyond the Little Vermillion's crossing (in pres-
ent Pottawatomie county) toward the Little Blue, and near the
head of that river, crossed to the Platte the route of the future
Oregon trail.
The returning expedition, piloted by James Clyman (over the same line
of march as on the outward journey, apparently), brought down over 7,000
pounds of beaver from the mountains, leaving Bear Lake July 13 and reaching
Lexington, Mo., about October 1. (Clyman, westbound on the section of the
Oregon trail between the Little Vermillion and the Big Blue, on June 24, 1844,
noted in his diary: "to day struck our old trail made on our return from the
mountains in the summer of 1827. . . .") Reoutfitted by Ashley, William
L. Sublette and David E. Jackson promptly started back to the mountains
and reach the Rockies by the end of November, but had to winter east of the
Divide because of severe weather. (There was no caravan to the mountains
in 1828, this second outfit of 1827 having taken its place. )
Ref: H. C. Dale's The Ashley-Smith Explorations . . . (Cleveland, 1918), p. 172;
Dale L. Morgan's letters of October 25, and November 11, 1961, to L. Barry; Sunder, op.
cit., pp. 74, 75; C. L. Camp, ed., James Clyman . . . (San Francisco, 1928),
p. 70; or ibid., definitive edition (Portland, 1960), p. 77.
C Between April 27 and May 24, Surveyor Angus L. Langham
and his assistant, R. P. Beauchamp, ran a line to determine "the
beginning of the Osage reservation"; and then surveyed the 50-
mile stretch of eastern boundary.
(The Osage treaty of June 2, 1825, had specified that the reserve would
have a beginning point "due east of White Hair's village" [in present Neosho
county], and 25 miles west of the Missouri boundary; and that the east line
would run 10 miles north of the village from the beginning point, and 40
miles south of it. )
The surveyors began work on the Neosho's east bank where they
"had a view" of White Hair's town but could not reach it because of
high water. They proceeded due east to the Missouri boundary,
intersecting it 102 miles south of the Kansas river's mouth. Turning
back, they then established the northeast corner of the Osage re-
serve on May 11; and set out southward to mark off the 50-mile
east line. On May 14 they crossed the road leading from "the
31586
34 KANSAS HISTORICAL, QUARTERLY
[Chouteau] Trading House" to Harmony Mission. Ten days later
they completed the east line survey at a point on the Neosho river.
Langham discharged his work crew on May 30 at Harmony Mis-
sion ( Mo. ) , reporting that they had, with one exception, refused to
"go westward on the south or north boundary" through fear of
Indians.
By John C. McCoy's account (in 1889) Langham's camp had been in-
vaded one day by a large party of "naked, painted, yelling Osages" chasing
one of the workmen. They had dashed through "in a solid phalanx," "tram-
pling down tents and camp fixtures," and bowling over Surveyor Langham,
who was seated, writing. The Indians "wound up the demonstration with
an impromptu war dance, and an emphatic demand for the surveyor and his
party to vamose, with which command they complied with alacrity." ( McCoy,
who ran the Osage north line in 1836, probably heard the story from Langham. )
In the early winter of 1827-1828, apparently, Langham surveyed the south
boundary of the Osage lands. His letter of January 4, 1828, from "Neosho
Saline" advised of expenditures for Osage surveys; and on February 2 he
wrote (from Franklin, Mo.) that he had arrived from the Osage country on
January 31, and had completed all the Osage and Kansa surveys except the
north boundaries of their reserves.
Ref: Langham's field notes and letters (photostats from National Archives) in KHi ms.
division; Office of Indian Affairs (OJA), "Registers of Letters Received," v. 2, p. 294
(microfilm from National Archives); KHC, v. 4, pp. 308, 309.
C Cantonment Leavenworth was founded in the spring by Col.
Henry Leavenworth, commander of the Third U. S. infantry. He
wrote, on May 8, that he had chosen a location for a permanent
military post atop a 150-foot bluff on the Missouri's right bank ( the
March 7 orders had specified the left bank, but he found no suitable
place there), 20-odd miles above the Little Platte's mouth; and re-
ported that Bvt. Maj. Daniel Ketchum and a battalion of Sixth
infantry (having evacuated Fort Atkinson [Neb.] as required by
the March 7 orders) had stopped on their way down the Missouri
to deposit army property and stores from the upriver post.
Four companies of the Third infantry, under Capt. William G.
Belknap, which had started up the Missouri in keelboats from
Jefferson Barracks (Mo.) on April 17, arrived shortly afterwards
and were put to work on temporary quarters. (These were huts
of logs and slabs of bark, it is said.) Some time later Colonel
Leavenworth departed for Jefferson Barracks, and Maj. Daniel
Baker (a late arrival) became commanding officer. "Cantonment
Leavenworth" was named after the war department officially
approved ( September 19 ) the site selected.
The post's first garrison (B, D, E, and H companies, Third infantry, cap-
tained by William G. Belknap, John Garland, John Bliss, and John B. Clark)
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 35
had, for the quarter ending October 31, a strength of 14 officers and 174 enlisted
men. There were, also, women and children at Cantonment Leavenworth in
1827. Families of some officers and enlisted men had arrived with the troops.
Two ladies present whose names are known: Anne (Clark) Belknap, wife of
the senior captain, who had come with her husband in the spring; and Mary
(Hertzog) Dougherty, wife of the new "Upper Missouri" Indian agent (see
a following entry), who was a late September arrival. During an outbreak
of malarial fever in the autumn, one of the victims was the six-year-old son of
Lt. Samuel W. Hunt. Asst. Surgeon Clement A. Finley was the post's first
medical officer.
Ref: Elvid Hunt and W. E. Lorence's History rf Fort Leavenworth 1827-1937 (Fort
Leavenworth, 1937), pp. 13-20; F. B. Heitman's Historical Register and Dictionary of
the United States Army . . . (Waihington, 1903), v. 1 (for army officers' names);
Annals of Iowa, 3d series, v. 7 (October, 1906), pp. 533-537 (for data on the Belknap
family).
C The large Santa Fe caravan (about 105 men; 53 wagons; and
pleasure carriages) which left Missouri in May had Ezekiel Williams
(see 1813, 1814) as its elected captain. Among other officers of
this highly organized company were David Workman (one of nine
"commanders of the guard"), Richard Gentry (marshal), and the
Rev. John Pearson (chaplain). Another traveler was Augustus
Storrs (newly appointed U. S. consul at Santa Fe) whose letter
dated "Santa Fe Trace, 120 miles west of Franklin, May 18, 1827"
is the principal source of information on the expedition.
Of this caravan ("the largest which has traversed this route")
it was reported that the "line of march" was "at least one mile in
length" a sight "extremely beautiful to the eye of the spectator."
Ref: Missouri Intelligencer, Fayette, Mo., May 24, 1827; Ntlcs' Weekly Register,
Baltimore, v. 32 (June 30, 1827), p. 292.
C George C. Sibley and a work party of 14 (including Andrew
Carson, Jacob Gregg, and Benjamin Majors) spent from May 25 to
July 1 in present Kansas, making corrections in the 1825 Santa Fe
road survey and putting up sod-mound markers on a section of the
route west of Missouri. They reached Council Grove (westbound)
on June 7. (Sibley estimated he had cut the distance from Fort
Osage 162 miles by the 1825 survey to 149 miles. In J. C.
Brown's final field notes it was entered as 142 miles.) Continuing
16 miles southwest of Council Grove on June 10, this party camped
at "the Springs." Wrote Sibley in his journal:
. . . This Spring [called "Jones' Spring" by Sibley in 1825] is very
large, Runs off boldly among Rocks, is perfectly accessible and furnishes the
greatest abundance of most excellent, clear, cold Sweet water. It may be
appropriately called "The Diamond of the Plains" and So I had it Marked
[by "Big John" Walker] on an Elm which grows near & overhangs it.
36 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In this fashion Diamomd Spring(s) received its name; and the
near by creek, which to Sibley was "Otter Creek" subsequently
became "Diamond creek." Turning homeward from this place the
party reached Council Grove again on June 12. Next day, by Sib-
ley's account, they
. . . Coursed and chained the Cut off from Cfouncil] Grove to Gravel
Creek. . . . Here halted for the day. . . . Found an excellent Spring
near Camp which I had Marked [on a Big Oak near by] "Big John's Spring'
as it was first discov[ere]d by John Walker. . . .
Thus another landmark on the Santa Fe road received its name;
and the stream Sibley's "Gravel Creek" became "Big John creek."
On July 1 the tour of correction was completed to the Missouri
boundary. Sibley reached home (near old Fort Osage, Mo.) a week
later.
Ref: K. Gregg, op. eft., pp. 45-47, 175-195 (Sibley's journal), also pp. 60, 272; The
Western Journal, St. Louis, v. 5 (December, 1850), pp. 178-181.
C Successor to Benjamin O'Fallon ( resigned ) as head of the "Upper
Missouri" Indian agency (headquarters at the Council Bluffs
"Bellevue" [Neb.]), was John Dougherty, who had been interpreter
and subagent there since 1819. Before Dougherty wrote (on May
30) to accept the position, Cantonment Leavenworth had been
founded, and Colonel Leavenworth had requested that the Upper
Missouri agent locate there. The move as a temporary expedient
till the end of 1828 was approved by William Clark at St. Louis.
On September 25 Dougherty and his family arrived at Canton-
ment Leavenworth. At that post, despite controversy, he main-
tained his "headquarters" till sometime in 1832.
Ref: Missouri Republican, St. Louis, February 15, 1827; "Records of the Office of
Indian Affairs, Registers of Letters Received" (microfilm, from National Archives), v. 2,
pp. 140, 157, 160, 292; "Dougherty Collection" (typed copy of Dougherty's March 9,
1832, report) in KHi ms. division; KHQ, v. 22, p. 102; Hunt and Lorance, op. cit. t
pp. 18, 19.
C Six Osage Indians (four men, two young women) and Paul
Loise (half-breed interpreter) were conducted to Europe in the
summer by David Delaunay and Francis Tesson of St. Louis (who
calculated to make money exhibiting them abroad). Three years
later, two of the men, both women, and an infant, returned to their
Neosho river [Kansas] homes and kinsmen.
( For a time, after arriving in France on July 27, the Indians attracted great
crowds, and were entertained by royalty. But the financial schemes of Delaunay
failed; he was imprisoned for debt; and the Osages wandered through Europe
in 1828 and 1829, suffering many hardships. Two Osage children were born
one was adopted by a Belgian woman. In the latter part of 1829 funds were
raised to return the Indians to America. On board ship two of the men died.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 37
It was the spring of 1830 before the others reached the Indian country.
William Clark wrote on May 15 that he had sent the Osages who returned
from France to their nation, except Paul Loise.)
During 1827, when the visitors from America were still a novelty,
two slim (and now rare) volumes relating to the Osage Indians
were published at Paris. One, credited to Paul Vissier, was titled:
Histoire de la Tribu des Osages (Paris, C. Bechet, 1827) in which
about a dozen of the 92 pages dealt with the six Osages, and their
travels up to August 21 when they were presented to the French
king. The shorter work Six Indiens Rouges de la Tribu des
Grands Osages was devoted wholly to the subject of its title.
The imprint of the Society's third edition copy of this latter book
reads: "Paris. Delaunay, Libraire de son altesse royale Madame
la duchesse d'Orleans, Palais-Royal, No. 243. 1827."
Ref: KHQ, v. 16, p. 24; Niles' Weekly Register, v. 37 (September 5, 1829), p. 19;
Missouri Historical Society Collections, St. Louis, v. 5, pp. 109-128 (for Grant Foreman's
article on the Osages, which has reproductions of contemporaneous portraits of the Indians);
SIA, v. 4, pp. 119, 120 (for William Clark).
C Public sale of lots in the new town of Independence seat of
recently organized Jackson county, Mo. was held on July 9. (The
Missouri general assembly, by an act approved December 15, 1826,
had established Jackson county.)
(By 1832 Independence was to become the dominant outfitting
point for, and eastern terminus of, the Santa Fe and southwestern
trade.)
Ref: The Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, v. 16, pp. 33-46; Laics
of ... the State of Missouri, Passed Between . . . 1824 & 1836 . . .
(Jefferson City, 1842), v. 2, pp. 83, 84.
C A party of some 20 traders returning from Santa Fe, reached
Franklin in mid-July with "about $30,000 in specie, and several
hundred mules" concluding a "very profitable trip."
Ref: Missouri Intelligencer, Fayette, July 19, 1827.
C The Rev. Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, S. J., arrived August
24 at the house of Osage Subagent Paul Ligueste Chouteau, on the
Neosho river (present Neosho county), after a 16-day overland
journey from near St. Charles, Mo., with a lay companion. He
spent two weeks among the Osages of that vicinity. The day fol-
lowing his arrival he said "the first verifiable mass in Kansas."
Of the 17 Osage half-breed children baptized by Father Van
Quickenborne (on August 27 and September 2), the first was two-
year-old Henry Mongrain (son of Noel Morigrain and Tonpapai).
Surnames of the others baptized were: Vasseur, Chouteau, Quen-
ville, and Williams. ("Clemence Williams" was doubtless a child
38 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of William S. "Old Bill" Williams, whose half-breed daughters, Sarah
and Mary, had been given land under the June, 1825, Osage treaty.)
Sponsors of the baptisms were Subagent Chouteau, Pierre Melicour
Papin (trader), Agent John F. Hamtramck, Louis Peltier, Alexander
Peter, P. L. Mongrain, and Christophe Sanguinet.
Ref: C. J. Garraghan's The Jesuits of the Middle United States (New York, 1938),
v. 1, pp. 179, 191; KI/C, v. 8, p. 209.
C BORN: at Mission Neosho, either in 1827, or the latter part of
1826, Lucia Francis Pixley, daughter of the Rev. Benton and Lucia
F. (Howell) Pixley. Insofar as records are available, it would ap-
pear she may have been the first white child born in what is now
Kansas. ( For Mission Neosho, see under 1824. )
Ref: U. S. census, 1850, Jackson County, Mo., No. 1187 (household of Mrs. Lucia
Pixley, aged 61, of Blue township), as recorded on September 19, 1850. Listed in the
household, also, were: Harriet N. Pixley (aged 33, born in Virginia); Lucia F. Pixley
(aged 23, born in "Ind. Ter."); Flora A. Pixley (aged 21, born in Missouri); also Mrs.
Lucia Pixley 's daughter-in-law(?) and her infant; and Madison Meador (aged 22, farmer).
Though no substantiation from any other source has been located, there is every reason
to suppose that Lucia Francis Pixley was, in fact, born in present Neosho county, Kansas,
where her parents lived as missionaries to the Osages from September, 1824, to March,
1829. According to W. W. Graves, in his First Protestant Osage Missions . . .
(Oswego, cl949), p. 244, the Pixley s had six children, some(?) of whom were bom at
Mission Neosho: Harriet N., Levi P., Mary Jane (who married Madison Meador), Lucia
F., Flora A., and A. B. Graves also stated (p. 243) that the Rev. Benton Pixley is said
to have died at Independence, Mo., April 11, 1835.
C In September, after a four months' absence, about 60 members of
the large spring caravan of Santa Fe traders returned to Missouri,
bringing "a considerable amount of money," and around "800 head
of jacks, jennets, mules, etc.," valued (it was reported) at nearly
$28,000.
Ref: Missouri Intelligence^ Fayette, Mo., September 20, 1827.
C While the Kansa were gathered near the mouth of the Kansas
river in September to collect their annual annuities, the greater
part of the nation fell ill, and some 70 Indians died of the epidemic
malady. Agent John Dougherty, learning of the disaster upon his
arrival at Cantonment Leavenworth in late September, hired a
Liberty, Mo., doctor to go to the aid of the Kansa. On the advice
of the post medical officer, Asst. Surg. Clement A. Finley, Dougherty
also "procured several barrels of flour and some salt provisions and
took them to the Indians."
Ref: SIA, v. 4, pp. 72, 73; "Dougherty Collection/* KHi ms. division.
C En route to Missouri from New Mexico, with "horses, mules,
asses, and specie," the small party of 12 to 15 traders which in-
cluded Messrs. Collins, Stanley, Houck, Ryland, Fielding, Talbot,
and Wolf skill (see August, 1826), camped on October 12 about 25
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 39
miles west of Pawnee Fork crossing [probably at Little Coon creek,
present Edwards county]. A band of perhaps 30 Pawnees made
a midnight raid on their stock and ran off 166 animals all but three
the party had. Next day, by good fortune, the traders found about
66(?) head (either abandoned by, or escaped from, the Indians).
The arrival of this party in the Missouri settlements was noted in
early November (by the Fayette newspaper).
Ref: KHQ, v. 21, pp. 561-563; Missouri Intelligencer, November 9, 1827, as re-
printed in the Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, December 4, 1827. According to Alphonso
Wetmore's 1831 statement, the 1827 robberies totaled 130 head of stock. See 22d Cong.,
1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90 (Serial 213), p. 176.
1828
C On April 14 the steamboat Liberator set out from St. Louis for
Cantonment Leavenworth presumably carrying freight. On April
23 the steamboat Illinois (advertised in March as a "new and sub-
stantial" craft) left Jefferson Barracks, Mo., for the same place,
with Companies A, F, I, and K, Third U. S. infantry aboard. Col.
Henry Leavenworth, head of the regiment, accompanied them.
The troops' arrival ( early in May ) placed eight out of 10 companies
of the Third infantry at Cantonment Leavenworth.
It appears that these steamboats may have been the first on the "upper"
Missouri (i.e., above the mouth of the Kansas) since 1821. The Liberator
returned to St. Charles, Mo., on April 27; the Illinois was back at St. Louis
"from the Platt" on May 6.
Ref: KHQ, v. 16, pp. 140n, 144-146, 148.
C The Western Cherokees ( those living west of the Mississippi ) in
a treaty with the United States signed on May 6, were guaranteed
a reserve of "seven millions of acres" of land and a "perpetual out-
let" to the west, in what is now Oklahoma. This tract (40 by 300
miles) was to be for all of the Cherokees:
. . . a permanent home . . . which shall, under the most solemn
guarantee of the United States, be and remain theirs forever a home that
shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it
the line, or placed over it the jurisdiction of a territory or state, nor be pressed
upon by the extension, in any way, of any of the limits of any existing terri-
tory or State. . . .
Ref: C. J. Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1904), v. 2, pp.
288-292; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. No. 474 (Serial 263), p. 15.
C The large Santa Fe caravan (about 150? men) which left Mis-
souri in the fore part of May is said to have taken merchandise
valued at $150,000 to New Mexico; and, by report, the smaller
caravan (about 50 persons) which left the last of May, carried goods
worth $41,000. Alphonso Wetmore captained the latter expedi-
40 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tion which rendezvoused at the Blue Springs (Mo.) on May 28th.
[His brief diary (May 28-August 2), with its graphic, colorful com-
ments, enlivened an otherwise staid senate document published in
1831.]
Wetmore's company reached Council Grove on June 11; met a
return caravan on the 12th; crossed Cow creek (in present Rice
county) on the 24th; and on July 4 arrived at the Caches (Wetmore
called them "Anderson's caches") of 1823 origin. There the caravan
crossed the Arkansas and proceeded by way of the Cimarron desert
route to New Mexico.
Ref: H. M. Chittenden's The American Fur Trade of the Far West (New York, 1902),
v. 2, p. 509; 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90 (Serial 213), pp. 34-40 (for Wetmore's
diary), or, see Missouri Historical Review, v. 8, pp. 184-195.
C At Cantonment Leavenworth, on May 29, a post office was estab-
lished the first in what is now Kansas. Philip G. Randolph, first
appointee, was succeeded as postmaster by Thomas S. Bryant on
October 16.
Ref: Robert W. Baughman's Kansas Post Offices (Topeka, c!961), pp. 21, 156, 197;
KHC, v. 1-2, p. 255, or, v. 7, p. 441.
C DIED: In May, Clermont, I, long-time chief of the large band of
Osages residing on the Verdigris river (in present Oklahoma)
first mentioned in this chronology under 1802-1803. It is said that
he had four wives and 37 children. (His son, Clermont, II, also a
distinguished man, died in 1838.) The town of Claremore, Okla.,
near the one-time Osage village site, was named for the chiefs
"Clermont." Of Clermont, I, the missionary W. F. Vaill wrote:
. . . a man of noble countenance and stately figure, of robust consti-
tution, and vigorous intellectual powers. ... He was a jealous, subtle
man a wily, intriguing politician, and a most eloquent speaker. . . .
Ref: Report of American Board of Comm'rs for Foreign Missions for 1828, pp. 90, 91;
Grant Foreman's Indians and Pioneers . . . (New Haven, 1930), pp. 22, 157, 158.
C In the spring Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne made a
second journey (see August, 1827) to the Osages of the Neosho
river, stopping en route at Harmony Mission, on the Marais des
Cygnes, in Missouri. It is known that he performed 17 baptisms, but
there is no record of the names. A little Osage "prince" accom-
panied him on the return trip to be educated at the Jesuits' Indian
school at Florissant, Mo.
Ref: Garraghan's Jesuits . . ., v. 1, p. 193.
C On June 4 Indian Agent John Dougherty paid Calice "Montargu"
(Montardeau) $7.25 for "his services and use of his ferryboat in
crossing the Kansas Nation across the Missouri." This transaction
listed in a Superintendency of Indian affairs, St. Louis, record
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 41
book is the earliest item located concerning a ferry operation at, or
near, the mouth of the Kansas.
(Other ferry operators had been licensed in Clay county, Mo., as early
as 1825 Joseph Boggs, John Thornton, and Richard Linville all of whom had
ferries within a few miles of the Kaw's mouth. Linville's location on the Mis-
souri, in 1825, was in Sec. 18, T. 50, R. 32 W., Clay co., Mo., "where
Louis Barthelette . . . lives." Presumably this was at the Randolph
Bluffs location where Louis ("Grand Louis") Bertholet lived in 1823, and
earlier see annals entries for 1821-1822, and June, 1823. It is said that
Linville sold his ferry to "an old[?] Frenchman named Calisse Montarges"
in 1826. After the spring, 1826, flood, if not before, "Calisse" doubtless moved
the ferry nearer the mouth of the Kansas, and across the river(?). A land
entry of October 31, 1832, shows Calice Montardeau on the W.Ja of Lot 2, in
Sec. 5, T. 49, R. 33 W., in present Kansas City, Mo. He is said to have
operated his ferry till 1830. Catholic records of Kansas City, Mo., state that
"Calice Montredie" died June 18, 1847, aged 49 years.)
Ref: SIA, v. 21, p. 26 (for the June 4, 1828, item); History of Clay and Platte
Counties, Missouri . . . (St. Louis, 1885), p. 113; KHQ, v. 2, p. 5; D. A. R., Kansas
City (Mo.) chapter, Vital Historical Records of Jackson County, Missouri, 1826-1876
(Kansas City, Mo., c!934), p. 266.
C Delegations from the Pawnee Republic band, the Omaha, Otoe,
Iowa, Sac, Kansa, and the immigrant Shawnee Indians, called to-
gether by Agent John Dougherty, met in council at Cantonment
Leavenworth on June 23, and made a peace treaty. Also present
were Subagent Jonathan L. Bean (from the Iowa subagency), Lt.
Samuel W. Hunt (of the Third infantry), and Levi Benjamin.
Ref: SIA, v. 21, p. 30; "Dougherty Collection," in KHi ms. division.
C During the summer, it is said, a "military" road was opened
from a point opposite Cantonment Leavenworth to the town of
Barry, near Liberty, Mo. Troops from the post worked on the sec-
tion from the Missouri river eastward, while Clay county, Mo., resi-
dents built westward from the settlements.
Ferries were required at the crossings of the Missouri and the
Little Platte river. By Joseph Thorp's recollections (in the 1880's)
Robert Todd was authorized to keep the first ferry at the can-
tonment (and held the job for several years); while John Thorp
(brother of Joseph) operated the first Little Platte ferry, but sold
out in less than a year to a partner Zadoc Martin.
Ref: Joseph Thorp's Early Days in the West . . . (Liberty, Mo., 1924), p. 62;
Hunt and Lorence, op. cit., p. 22; W. M. Paxton's AnnaZ* of Platte County, Missouri
(Kansas City, Mo., 1897), pp. 9-12.
C DIED: On August 5, Kansa Subagent Baronet Vasquez, of cholera,
while returning from St. Louis to his post. Two companions on
the journey Dunning D. McNair (20-year-old Indian superintend-
42 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ency clerk), and the Rev. Joseph Anthony Lutz reached the Vas-
quez residence (within present Kansas City, Mo.) on August 12.
Ref : G. J. Garraghan's Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City . . ., p. 28.
C Intent on establishing a Catholic mission among the Kansa In-
dians, the Rev. Joseph Anthony Lutz (aged 26) arrived at the
mouth of the Kansas river on August 12 (see preceding entry).
After a week's stay there, at the Vasquez residence, he accompanied
acting subagent Dunning D. McNair 65 miles up the Kansas valley,
where, for the next six weeks, he made his headquarters at the
Kansa Agency (with McNair), as the first missionary visitor to that
nation. On August 20, the day after his arrival, he met Chief White
Plume who was cordial; on the 24th, and subsequently, he visited
the 16 Indian families (including White Plume) who lived two
miles northwest of the agency. But he did not meet the main body
of the Kansa till September 17, and they were then preparing to
go on their fall hunt not to return till mid-December.
On September 18 Father Lutz started for Cantonment Leaven-
worth (37 miles to the northeast) where his visit was the first by
a Catholic priest at that post. Returning to the Kansa Agency,
he remained till September 29. With McNair, he then went down-
river to the mouth of the Kansas, and stayed with Mrs. Vasquez
and her children ministering to the "little community of nine
families at the mouth of the Kaw" [present Kansas City, Mo.]
till December 2. On that date he left for St. Louis.
Though it appears that Father Lutz returned to the Kansa Agency, briefly,
in 1829 (to pick up some personal possessions left there), the plan to establish
a Catholic mission among the Kansa was abandoned. There is no record that
he baptized any Indians in 1828 or 1829.
Ref: Garraghan's Catholic Beginnings . . ., pp. 27-33.
C In mid- August a company of perhaps 70 traders with about 1,200
head of stock left Santa Fe to return to Missouri. While heading
for the Cimarron, two men, traveling ahead of the main party, were
shot by unknown Indians. Young McNees died at the scene
near a little stream (a tributary of Beaver creek, in Union co.,
N. M.), then named "McNees' creek" for him. Daniel Munroe,
fatally wounded, was carried 40 miles to the Upper Cimarron
Springs, where both men were buried. Soon afterward, some of the
traders fired on (and killed most of) a small party of (Pawnee?)
Indians that rode up to them thereby precipitating an Indian war
which was to be costly to Santa Fe traders. (It was the Pawnees
who were reported, in November, to have gone "en masse in a war
excursion against the whites.")
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 43
It is said that Meredith M. Marmaduke and Milton G. Sublette were in
the party firing on the Indians. These men, a William Taylor, and four others,
had a narrow escape from death a few days later when they met a large band
of hostile Indians while hunting according to the recollections of William
Waldo.
In September, probably in the Great Bend area, Pawnee Indians
raided this company of around 700 horses and mules.
Ref: Missouri Intelligencer . . ., Fayette, September 12, 1828; Missouri Republi-
can, St. Louis, September 23, 1828; William Waldo's "Recollections . . ." in Glimpses
of the Past, St. Louis, v. 5, pp. 68-71; 20th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 67 (Serial 181).
pp. 17, 18; 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90 (Serial 213), pp. 31, 40; KHQ, v. 13,
p. 411 for McCoy's statement concerning his own 1828 expedition: "We afterwards
ascertained that we had been within 75 miles of the place where the last attack of the
Pawnees was made on the first party defeated on the Santa Fe road, which happened in
September while we were in that country." McCoy's party got as far west as present
Marion county, to the Cottonwood, apparently. Also, in ibid., p. 433, is his comment,
"While I was in that country two caravans, at different times were robbed by those
western Indians [i. e., Pawnees?]. The first company had two men killed, and lost about
700 mules and horses." Ibid., v. 16, p. 170 (for Pawnee war excursion).
C BORN: On August 22, at the Kansa Agency (present Jefferson
county) Napoleon Boone, 12th (and last) child of Daniel Morgan
and Sarah Griffin (Lewis) Boone. This grandson of famed fron-
tiersman Daniel Boone was the second white child, and the first
white boy born in present Kansas of whom there is record. (Na-
poleon Boone died, aged 21 and single, in California, May 20, 1850.)
Ref: KHC, v. 1-2, p. 289, v. 8, pp. 260n, 433, 434; Missouri Historical Review,
v. 41, pp. 365, 369.
C A party of 21(?) homeward-bound traders, with 150 mules and
horses, four wagons, and a quantity of silver money, left Santa Fe
on September 1. Near the Upper Cimarron Springs they came
on a large Comanche camp. The caravan's captain, John Means,
was killed and scalped when the Indians attacked the rear guard.
Thomas Ellison and Milton E. Bryan, riding with him, escaped.
The traders moved on, followed and harassed by the Indians, who,
some days later, succeeded in stampeding all the horses and mules.
(William Y. Hitt, wounded several times, narrowly escaped death
when ambushed by the raiders. )
Forced to abandon their wagons and baggage, the merchants
set out on foot, at night, on a northward course, each carrying as
much silver as he could manage. On reaching the Arkansas (at
Chouteau's Island?) they buried most of the money, and headed
for Missouri, some 350 miles distant. It was a journey of hardship
and suffering. They reached Cow creek in a group, but some, from
exhaustion, hunger, and exposure, could go no farther. Five of the
stronger men continued to the settlements. A rescue party went
44 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
out from Independence and picked up the stragglers, who were
scattered along the Santa Fe road for 150 miles. In the latter part
of October these traders reached home.
According to Milton E. Bryan, and others, the buried money was recovered
in 1829 when the Santa Fe caravan and military escort reached the vicinity
of Chouteau's Island in July.
Ref: Milton E. Bryan's "The Flight of Time . . .," in The Kansas Chief, Troy,
June 9, 1887 (clipping in KHi library); Missouri Republican, St. Louis, October 24, 1828;
Otis E. Young's The First Military Escort on the Santa Fe Trail . . . (Glendale,
Cal., 1952), pp. 17-29, 86, 87; William Waldo's "Recollections," loc. cit., p. 70; Isaac
McCoy (see KHQ, v. 13, p. 433) stated, in 1828, that the traders carried with them
"about $6,000 in specie on their backs," when they abandoned the wagons.
C Between September 4 and 24, U. S. Comm'r Isaac McCoy ( a Bap-
tist missionary at Carey [Mich.]) conducted a small Indian
delegation (three Ottawas, two Pottawatomies, and a half-breed
Pottawatomie interpreter) on an exploratory tour into present
Kansas.
Though McCoy's party had reached St. Louis (on horseback, from
Carey) in mid-July, it was after the middle of August before McCoy,
the Indians, and two hired hands nine persons in all left that town
for Harmony Mission (Mo.). There, Noel Mongrain (an elderly
Osage half-breed) joined them as "guide." On September 4 they
crossed into "Kansas" and camped on the Marais des Cygnes [in
present Linn county]. As McCoy outlined the journey in his report
(of October?):
". . . I proceeded westwardly up the Osage [Marais des Cygnes] river,
generally on the north side. Passing the sources of Osage we bore South west
across the upper branches of Neosho until we intersected the main river at a
point eighty miles south, and 127 west of the mouth of Kanzas river, and
[a]bout 25 miles southeast of the Santa Fe road. We then bore north west until
we reached the Santa Fe road [in present Marion county] . . . 140 [miles]
due west of ... [Missouri]. . . . We turned eastward along and
near to the Santa Fe road, to a point due South of the upper Kanzas village, then
travelled north to said village on the Kanzas river, 125 miles west of . *'.-
[Missouri]."
It was on September 18 that they came to the "upper" Kansa town of about
15 huts in the vicinity of Junction City of today. Heading eastward they
passed between two other small Kansa camps; and early on the afternoon of
the 19th sighted "the principal Kanzau village . . . say 7 miles off" two
miles east of present Manhattan. Bearing southeast from that area they crossed
Mill creek [in what is now Wabaunsee county]; reached the Wakarusa head-
waters; continued eastward on the divide between the Kansas and Marais des
Cygnes rivers; and on September 24 reached the Shawnee settlements near the
mouth of the Kansas.
Isaac McCoy, summing up his impressions of the country trav-
ersed, noted its high rolling character; the abundant limestone; the
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 45
"exceedingly fertile" soil; the sufficiency (though not abundance) of
water; the scarcity of wood ( though it "is not so great as has some-
times been reported"); and the abundance of game ("Elk, Deer &
Bear plenty," also they had seen "a few Antelopes"). The Potta-
watomies and Ottawas, he wrote, "while they lament the scarcity of
wood, and especially the almost total absence of the sugar tree, pro-
nounce it a fine country."
Ref: KHQ, v. 5, pp. 227-268 (for McCoy's journal; and brief report, on pp. 264,
265), v. 13, pp. 408-415 (for a longer report by McCoy), v. 26, pp. 152-157 (for a
discussion of McCoy's route, the Kansa village locations, and a map showing the general
route of the exploring party).
C The situation of the Shawnee Indians in present Kansas was
described by the Rev. Isaac McCoy in late September:
The Shawanoes arrived in this country last Spring late. [The first immigrant
Shawnees had come late in 1825 see annals entry.] They [now] consist
chiefly of about one half of those who resided at Waupaugkonetta in Ohio, some
from Merimack [river, Mo.] . . ., some from Lewistown, O[hio] & else-
where. With some aid from government, chiefly in food & clothing, & farming
utensils, they are in three or four settlements of villages putting up with their
own hands very neat log cabbins [in present Shawnee township, Wyandotte
county south of the Kansas river, and in Johnson county also south of the
Kansas].
McCoy also noted the presence of the "old prophet" Ten-squa-
ta-wa (brother of Tecumseh). Among other Shawnee chiefs of
prominence already in "Kansas" by the fall of this year were William
Perry and Cornstalk.
Ref: KHQ, v. 5, pp. 260, 261, v. 13, p. 442.
C On the Kansas river's south bank, about six miles (by land) west
of the Missouri boundary, within the Shawnee reserve, in the au-
tumn, the Chouteau brothers built a new American Fur Company
trading house a post of some permanence known as Cyprian
Chouteau's establishment by the 1840's. At the scene in 1828 was
Father Joseph A. Lutz, who wrote, on November 12: "Messrs.
Francis, Cyprian and Frederick Chouteau have begun to erect at
the Kanzas River a large building which will soon be looked upon
as a sort of emporium for the sale and exchange of goods among the
Shawnee and Kanzas Indians." ( The site seems to have been a mile
or so north of present Turner, Wyandotte county, in Sec. 13, T. 11,
R. 24 E.)
An 1830 trading license issued for its operation referred to the post's location
as "On the Kanzas river about 12 miles from the mouth . . ."; in 1831
(and later) it was described as "opposite the old half breed establishment [?] on
the Kanzas, about 12 miles from the mouth/' Frederick Chouteau (in 1880)
was quoted as saying: "In 1828 and 1829 we built some trading-houses [the
46 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1829 post was Frederick's farther upstream] four or five miles [by land] above
[what was later] Wyandotte, on the north [i. e., south he must have been
misquoted!] side of the Kansas river. . . . The houses built in 1828, in
the fall, were for trading with the Shawnees and Delawares." An early con-
firmation that the post was on the south bank can be found in the January,
1830, annals entry of Prince Paul's visit there. Also, Isaac McCoy's surveying
party stopped there in August, 1830, and, as Prince Paul had done, crossed
the Kansas at that point, to proceed to Cantonment Leavenworth.
As for the occupants of the trading house, the following statement
from the Rev. Benedict Roux's letter of November 24, 1833, strongly
implies that both Francis G. Chouteau (together with his family),
and Cyprian were then living there. Father Roux wrote:
"I am at present at the trading house of the Messrs. Chouteau. ... I
cannot . . . speak too highly in praise of Mr. [Francis] Guesseau and of
his wife and brother. . . . But I do not expect to remain long with them,
as they are right in the Indian country and too far away from the Catholics
[referring to the French settlement which had developed on the site of present
Kansas City, Mo.] for me to carry on my ministry with convenience.
Ref: G. J. Garraghan's Catholic Beginnings . . ., pp. 32, 47, 48; 21st Cong.,
2d Sess., House Ex. Doc. 41 (Serial 207); 22d Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. No. 104
(Serial 234); KHC, v. 8, p. 425, v. 9, pp. 573-575; Ibid., v. 4, p. 302, and KHQ, v. 5,
p. 346 (for McCoy the latter reference gives the date but does not specifically mention
the trading post).
C Between November 8 and early December a party of Chicka-
saws, Choctaws, and Creeks was conducted on an exploring tour
of present "Kansas and Oklahoma," from the Kansas river south-
ward to the Canadian, along a line of march at no place more than
48 miles west of the Missouri and Arkansas boundaries. By Isaac
McCoy's report, the company which set out on November 8 from
a camp (in present northeast Johnson county) about five miles
south of the Kansas river's mouth, consisted of:
. . . Cap. G. H. Kennerly, leader, Lieut. [Washington] Hood Topog-
raphist, Mr. John Bell assistant topographist, and G. P. Todson surgeon. To
me [McCoy] had been intrusted the monied matters. The Chickasaws Delega-
tion consisted of 12 Indians, and an interpreter, accompanied by three white
men chosen by themselves, in all 16, with Mr. John B. Duncan Sub. Agent,
as their leader. The Choctaw delegation was composed of six Indians, and
lead by Mr. D. W. Haley. The Creek delegation consisted of three, and was
lead by Mr. Luther Blake. We had one interpreter to Osages and Kanzas
[Noel Mongrain], seven hired men, and a black servant belonging [to] a
Chickasaw Chief. In all 42. We had with us upwards of sixty horses.
The expedition moved "a little west of south" to the Marais des
Cygnes (crossed it about 20 miles west of Missouri), continued
southwest to the Neosho, and followed downriver to the Osage
Agency (present Neosho county) on November 17. After four days
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 47
of Indian councils and peace talks Kennerly's party proceeded about
six miles down the Neosho to camp on the night of the 20th near
White Hair's village. They were entertained in the houses of White
Hair and Belle Oiseau. (The latter accompanied McCoy's party
southward on the 22d. )
From the Osage towns they "took the road to the Creek agency
on the Verdigris river, within four miles of its junction with the
Arkansaw." There, and near Fort Gibson (Okla.), they remained
five days before continuing to the mouth of the Canadian river's
south fork 260 miles south of the Kansas river's mouth. By De-
cember 10 all the Indian delegations had set out for their homes.
Kennerly, Hood, Bell, Todson, McCoy, together with the hired
hands and pack horses retraced their way to the Osage Agency
(arriving on December 15), crossed the Neosho there, and "took
the direct route to Harmony Mission" 70 miles to the northeast.
From that place they returned to St. Louis on December 24th.
Ref: KHQ, v. 13, pp. 400-462 (for Isaac McCoy's journal and report; and the reports
of Kennerly, Hood, and Bell); Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions . . .
(Washington, 1840), pp. 350-369.
C BORN: On December 7, at Cantonment Leavenworth, Lewis
Bissell Dougherty, son of Indian Agent John and Mary (Hertzog)
Dougherty. He was, so far as known, the third white child and
second white boy born in present Kansas. (Lewis B. Dougherty
died at Liberty, Mo., in 1925.)
Ref: KHC, v. 8, p. 260n; "Dougherty Collection," in KHi ms. division; Missouri
Historical Review, v. 24, pp. 359-363.
C Four years before the treaties of October 27 and October 29, 1832,
legalized and defined their tribal reserves in what is now Kansas,
the bands of Piankeshaw and Wea Indians, and the Peorias, resid-
ing in southwestern Missouri, took William Clark's advice and
moved to lands already set aside for them, south of the Shawnee
reserves. (In 1828 Angus Langham partially surveyed the two
tracts one for the Weas and Piankeshaws, the other for the Peorias
and Kaskaskias in present Miami and Franklin counties.)
It was during 1828 that these Indians first established villages in
present Kansas. The exact time is unknown a January 3, 1829,
report on Indian tribes noted that 350 Shawnees "with all the Weas
and Piankeshaws" had removed from Missouri to lands assigned
them. (See, also, July, 1830, and March, 1831, entries.)
Ref: 20th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 27 (Serial 181), p. 2 (for 1829 report); 23d
Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 115 (for Clark's "advice" reference);
Langham map showing 1828 survey of Wea and Piankeshaw, etc., lines (photostat), in
KHi ms. division.
[Continued on page 49]
48
KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
SOME HISTORIC SITES OF PRE-1826 ORIGIN
(See corresponding numbers on map)
Site
Dafe
Location
See Annals
1.
Pueblo ruins ("El Cuartelejo") Early 1700's
Ladder creek valley, Scott county.
"About 1700"
2.
Osage villages
17th?-early 18th
centuries
Vernon county, Mo.
3.
Kansa "Village of 24"
Early 18th century
Doniphan, Doniphan county.
1723
4.
Kansa "Village of 12"
Mid-1 8th century
Salt Creek valley, Leavenworth
county.
1744
5.
Fort Cavagnolle
17437-1758?
Salt Creek valley, Leavenworth
county.
1744
6.
Kansa village
1790'$?-! 829
In Pottawatomie county, two miles
east of Manhattan, Riley county.
1790-1791
7.
8.
Pawnee Republic village
Pawnee Republic village
One was occupied
; 1790's?-1809 ; the
other from 1 822?-
1833?
Southwest of Republic, in Republic
county, Kan.
Southeast of Red Cloud, in Web-
ster county, Neb.
1806; 1825
1806; 1825
9.
Clermont's Osage village
1802 or 1803
Near Claremore, Rogers county,
Okla.
1802-1803
10.
Fort Osage
1808-1822
Near Sibley, Jackson county, Mo.
1808
11.
Little Osage village
1812?
In Neosho county, on west bank
of Neosho river.
1813
12.
Chouteau's Island
1816
Southwest of Lakin, Kearny
county.
1816
13.
Isle au Vache (Cow Island) 1818-1819
Cantonment Martin site
Island in Missouri river, between
Atchison and Leavenworth.
1818
"Four Houses" trading post
(of Chouteau brothers)
18197-1828?
At mouth of Cedar creek? in
Johnson county?
1819
15.
Union Mission
1820-1836
In Mayes county, Okla., on the
Grand river.
1820
16.
Osage villages; including
White Hair's town
18_?
In Neosho county.
1820; 1822
17.
Andrew Woods' (Missouri Fur
Co.) trading post
18207-1824?
On the Missouri, above the mouth
of the Kansas river.
1821-1822
18.
Francis G. Chouteau's (French
Fur Co.) depot
18217-1826
On the Missouri, about three
miles below the mouth of the
Kansas, at Randolph Bluffs.
1821-1822
19.
Harmony Mission
1821-1836
Near Papinsville, Bates county,
Mo.
1821
20.
Fort Osage sub-factory
1821-1822
Near Papinsville, Bates county,
Mo.
1821
21.
Cyrus Curtis-Michael Eley
trading post
18227-1826?
On the Missouri, above the
mouth of the Kansas river.
1821-1822
22.
"The Caches"
1823
About five miles west of Dodge
City, Ford county.
1822-1823
23.
Hopefield Mission (No. 1)
1823
In Mayes county, Okla., on the
Grand river.
24.
Mission Neosho
1824-1829
Near Shaw, Neosho county.
1824
25.
Council Grove
1825
On the Neosho river, in Morris
county.
1825
26.
Shawnee settlement (first im-
migrant Indians)
1825
In Shawnee township, Wyandotte
county.
1825
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KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 49
C Subagent John Campbell came from Missouri in (the latter part?
of) 1828 to occupy (perhaps build?) the Shawnee Agency (present
Johnson county, near the Missouri line), where his particular charges
(as subagent) were the Piankeshaws, Weas, and Peorias (whose
tracts of land were south of the Shawnee reserve). In a February
9, 1829, report by the secretary of war, Subagent Campbell was
listed as residing at "mouth of Kanzas river." He was subordinate
to Agent Richard Graham in 1828-1829, ( then to Graham's successor
George Vashon, in 1829-1830, and to his successor, R. W. Cummins,
in 1830-1833).
The beginnings of Shawnee Agency are obscure, and whether a
building was erected prior to 1828 has not been ascertained. Agent
Graham ( in charge of the Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Pianke-
shaws, Weas, and Peorias residing in Missouri, Arkansas, and west
of Missouri) had his headquarters near St. Louis, and visited the
various Indians under his supervision when business demanded.
Shawnee Agency was well established by 1829. (The location, by present-
day description, was on the E.K of the S.E.&, Sec. 10, and W.K of the S.W.^4,
Sec. 11, T. 12, R. 25 E. See KHQ, v. 5, p. 342.) As 2d Lt. Philip St. George
Cooke saw it in June, 1829: ". . . [on the edge of a] light and airy grove
. . . was delightfully situated . . . the house ... of the sub-
agent of the Delawares the hospitable old Major Cfampbell] . . . with
ready joke and julep, did his best to make our long farewell to the settlements,
a lively one." Surveyor Isaac McCoy, westbound from Independence (Mo.),
wrote, on August 21, 1830: "In the evening reached the Shawanoe & Delaware
agency, at the house of Maj. J. Campbell the Sub. Agt. by whom we were kindly
received. Our tents were pitched for the company, while I accepted an invita-
tion to take quarters with Maj. Campbell." (For an earlier Shawnee Agency
event of that year, see January 12, 1830, annals entry. )
Rcf: 20th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 72 (Serial 181), pp. 6, 7; Philip St. George
Cooke's Scenes and Adventures . . . (Philadelphia, 1857), pp. 4, 42; KHQ, v. 5,
p. 342 (for McCoy).
C Author-editor-missionary Timothy Flint's two-volume popular
and "romantic" work, A Condensed Geography and History of the
Western States, published at Cincinnati during the year, contained a
chapter on "Missouri Territory'* ( defined as the area bounded by the
British possessions on the north; the Northwest Territory, Illinois,
and Missouri on the east; the Mexican republic on the south and
southwest; and the Rocky Mountains on the west ) . By his descrip-
tion (but not from his own observation), beyond the partially
wooded belt of country extending from 200 to 400 miles west of the
Mississippi:
There commences that ocean of prairies, that constitutes so striking and
impressive a feature in the vast country beyond the Mississippi and Missouri.
41586
50 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
This vast country is for the most part, a plain, more or less covered with grass,
in great extents fertile; in other extents almost a moving sand. It is pastured,
and trodden by countless numbers of buffaloes, elk and other wild animals, that
graze upon it. . .
Ref: Flint's work, as noted above, v. 2, p. 435.
1829
C William L. Subletted party ("52 men and two Indians") left
St. Louis around mid-March to take the Smith, Jackson & Sublette
pack-mule train to the fur traders' rendezvous in the Rockies,
ending up at Pierre's Hole. (Sublette had brought the partners'
furs down to Missouri in September, 1828, and had remained over
the winter at St. Louis. )
In this company were George W. Ebberts, Joseph L. Meek,
Samuel Parkman, and Robert Newell new recruits among the
more experienced mountain men like Milton Sublette. After a
brief stop at Independence, Mo., this expedition followed out the
Santa Fe trail for some miles, then, apparently, turned northwest,
forded the Kansas, moved up its valley, then headed north to the
Little Blue and on to the Platte traversing "Subletted Trace" (see
March, 1827 entry) the future Oregon trail route.
Ref: Dale L. Morgan, op. tit., pp. 302, 303, 429; Sunder, op. cit., pp. 76-80; D. O.
Johansen, ed., Robert Newell's Memoranda . . . (Portland, 1959), p. 31; Frances
F. Victor's The River of the West (Hartford and Toledo, 1870), pp. 45-58.
C Visiting Cantonment Leavenworth in March, on an inspection
trip, Col. George Croghan made a report (dated March 31) which
included these remarks:
. . . A great deal has been done [since 1827], much more in truth
than could have been expected of a garrison so reduced by sickness; still the
work is not half accomplished. ... A good hospital has been erected,
and four houses originally intended to quarter one company each (though
now occupied by officers) have been put up and very nearly completed, but
there yet remains to be provided for: Officers quarters, store houses, guard
house, magazine, etc., etc. . . . I am . . . at a loss . . . as to
the operating causes of [the cantonment's] . . . sickness. There is cer-
tainly nothing apparently in its location to render it unhealthy, on the con-
trary, the site might be considered an admirable one.
Cantonment Leavenworth was then garrisoned by Companies A,
B, D, E, F, H, I, and K of the Third U. S. infantry, with Bvt. Maj.
John Bliss as commanding officer. Maj. Surg. John Gale was the
overworked medical officer.
Ref: KHQ, v. 15, pp. 353-355; Heitman, op. cit. (for officers' names).
C In the spring, probably in March, Mission Neosho (which had
been operated since 1824 by the Rev. Benton Pixley and his wife
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 51
for the Osages of Neosho river) ceased operation. The hostility
of Agent John F. Hamtramck towards Pixley brought about the
abrupt closing of the mission, and the removal of the mission family
from present Neosho county to Missouri.
(See under 1830 for a "revival" of the mission, in another location, with
different personnel, and under a new name Boudinot. )
Ref : Graves, op. ctt. t p. 194.
C On April 13 the small, side-wheel steamboat Wm. D. Duncan
(Captain Crooks), from Pittsburgh, Pa., left St. Louis for Franklin,
Mo. (and returned on the 23d) the first of several trips she made
during the 1829 season, between the two towns. Her series of
voyages may be said to have ushered in the era of regular steamboat
travel on the Missouri. ( See March 15, 1830, entry. )
Ref: KHQ, v. 16, pp. 284, 285; St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, April 13 and July 4, 1829.
(Though H. M. Chittenden in his Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River
(1903) see KHC, v. 9, p. 278 stated that the Duncan ran to "Fort" Leavenworth in
1829, as a regular packet, this dees not seem to have been the case.)
C The April 18 issue of the Fayette Missouri Intelligencer carried
Bvt. Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson's notice (of the same date) that
about June 1 a detachment of 200 Sixth infantrymen, under Bvt. Maj.
Bennet Riley, would leave Cantonment Leavenworth for the Santa
Fe road and proceed to the Arkansas river for the protection of
trading caravans bound for New Mexico. The notice concluded:
"The detachment will halt at some position on the Arkansas, for the
return of the caravans, till some time in October, when it will fall
back upon the frontier." ( The Sixth infantry was then stationed at
Jefferson Barracks, Mo. )
Ref: Young, op. eft., pp. 39, 40, 49, 50.
C At Cantonment Leavenworth, on May 15, a 15-gun salute greetecj
the steamboat Diana, arriving with Bvt. Maj. Bennet Riley and four
companies of Sixth infantry; and also bringing some of the soldiers'
families ("the boat swarmed with their wives and children; the deck
was barricaded with beds and bedding . . .").
The Diana had made the voyage in record time 10 days from
Jefferson Barracks, Mo.
Ref: Ibid., pp. 50-54; KHQ, v. 16, p. 287; [Philip St. G. Cooke's] "Journal" in
New Mexico Historical Review, Santa Fe, v. 3, pp. 268-270; also Cooke's Scenes and
Adventures . . ., pp. 40, 41.
C Five companies of the Third infantry left Cantonment Leaven*
worth in keel and mackinaw boats on May 16 for Jefferson Barracks.
Next day, the rest of the Third (three companies) left that post on
the Diana, for the lower river. (The Diana reached the Barracks on
May 20; the "3 keels and;4 small boats'' arrived on May 23.)
Ref: Ibid., p. 270; KHQ, v. 16, pp. 288, 289; Young, op. cit., p. 54.
52 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C The latter part of May, Marston G. Clark ("General Clark" in
various records of the time), new subagent for the Kansa Indians,
arrived at the Kansa Agency ( which was to be his headquarters for
the next five years ) . A native of Virginia, but resident of Indiana,
Clark had been appointed in March, to fill the vacancy created by
the death of Baronet Vasquez in August, 1828, and filled interim by
Dunning D. McNair. John T. Irving, Jr., who met him in the fall
of 1833, described Clark as a "tall, thin, soldier-like man, arrayed
in an Indian hunting-shirt and an old fox-skin cap."
Ref: KHQ, v. 16, p. 288.
C Agent George Vashon (newly appointed to succeed Richard
Graham, discharged) left St. Louis on June 4 for the mouth of the
Kansas, to make an annuity payment to the Shawnee Indians. Prob-
ably he did not remain long at the Shawnee Agency (where Sub-
agent Campbell resided), but in October he was back at "Indn
Ag[enc]y, mouth of Kanzas River," issuing (on the 21st) a trading
license to Francis G. Chouteau; reporting ( October 27 ) on the con-
dition of the agency Indians, and forwarding ( to William Clark ) a
treaty he had made with the Delawares on September 24, "at Coun-
cil camp, on James's fork of White river, in the State of Missouri."
(Vashon served only briefly as agent to the Shawnees, Delawares, &c. of
Missouri, Arkansas, and present Kansas. He left in mid-July, 1830, to become
agent for the Western Cherokees. )
Ref: OIA, "Registers of Letters Received," v. 2, pp. 496, 497, 499; 21st Cong., 2d
Sess., House Ex. Doc. 41 (Serial 207); SI A, v. 29, p. 34.
C On June 11 the first military escort for Santa Fe traders Bvt.
Maj. Bennet Riley and 200 Sixth infantry troops reached the
traders' rendezvous at Round Grove (on the headwaters of Cedar
creek, in present Johnson county ) . These soldiers were Companies
A, B, F, and H, captained by William N. Wickliffe and Joseph
Pentland. Among the junior officers was 2d Lt. Philip St. George
Cooke, who, as a captain, in 1843, would lead a military escort on
the same road.
Riley's expedition (with 20 heavily-laden wagons and four carts,
drawn by oxen an innovation on the Santa Fe trail; and a six-
pounder, mule-drawn on a carriage) had left a camp across the
Missouri from Cantonment Leavenworth on June 4; traveled down
the river's left bank; and recrossed (on the 8th and 9th) near the
Kaw's mouth, to head out on the prairie past the Shawnee Agency.
From June 12 to July 9, Riley's command marched ahead of the
traders over the Santa Fe road, to the vicinity of Chouteau's
Island (present Kearny county see 1816).
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 53
Ref: [Cooke's] "Journal," loc. eft., v. 3, pp. 271-273; Cooke's Scenes and Adtxm-
tures . . ., pp. 41, 42; Young, op. eft., pp. 65-85; New Mexico Historical Review,
v. 2, p. 288.
C Charles Bent (on his first journey to the southwest) was elected
captain of the moderate-size Santa Fe caravan ( about 70? men, and
37? wagons) which left Round Grove (see preceding entry) on
June 12, following in the rear of the military escort. Among this
company were William Bent, David and William Waldo, James L.
Collins, and Milton E. Bryan. (The names of a good many others
on this trip are known, also. ) The caravan reached Council Grove
on June 18; left there on the 20th; and proceeded without special
incident to the Upper Crossing of the Arkansas (near Chouteau's
Island), on July 9.
Ref: Young, op. eft., pp. 74-85; Cooke's Scenes and Adventures . . ., pp. 42-48;
William Waldo's "Recollections," loc. eft., pp. 72, 73; The Western Monitor, Fayette, Mo. f
March 24, 1830 (for a list of more than 30 traders); and see Young's book, p. 184.
C MARRIED: Clement Lessert (interpreter at the Kansa Agency),
and Julia Roy, on June 13, in Jackson county, Mo., by Andrew P.
Patterson, J. P.
Ref: Marriage records, Jackson County, Mo. Lessert (Kansa interpreter from 1827
to 1834) died July 20, 1854, aged 58 see D. A. R., Kansas City, Mo., Vital Historical
Records of Jackson County, Missottri, 1826-1878 (Kansas City, Mo., c!934), p. 267.
C On July 10 the Santa Fe traders forded the Arkansas river (be-
low Chouteau's Island, in present Kearny county) and camped on
Mexican soil. Next day they took leave of the military escort and
started across the sand hills for Santa Fe. They had traveled only
six to nine miles when a party of about 50? Indians ambushed three
men riding in advance killing merchant Samuel Craig Lamme.
(This incident presumably occurred in what is now Kearny county.)
The traders, under Charles Bent's direction, corraled the wagons,
dug rifle-pits, and got their small cannon into use. Nine volunteers
rode back to the Arkansas for aid. Major Riley led his entire com-
mand into Mexican territory, rescued the traders from their predica-
ment, and escorted them on through the sand hills. On July 15
Riley and the Sixth infantry battalion turned back to the Arkansas.
(The traders had a difficult journey to Santa Fe. Indians harassed them
constantly, and the caravan, though augmented by a party of 120 Mexicans
met on the road, might not have reached its destination except for aid from
the west. Ewing Young and some 95 trappers from Santa Fe and Taos fought
through the Indian lines and came to their rescue.)
Ref: Young, op. cit., pp. 85-102, 140, 141; Waldo's "Recollections," loc. cit., pp. 64,
72-77; [Cooke's] "Journal," loc. cit., pp. 280-282. In the Sand Hills battle the traders
thought the Indians numbered several hundred (Waldo "recollected" their number at from
500 to 2,000!). Cooke's journal suggests there were probably not more than 50 in the
party which killed Lamme.
54 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C Carrying dispatches and mail, Corporal Arter and Pvt. William
Nation of the Sixth infantry, on July 12, left Cantonment Leaven-
worth on horseback for Major Riley's camp on the Arkansas. On
July 23, when only "some 25 miles below" their destination, a small
party of Indians (armed with bows and lances) wounded both
men, took their horses and the mail. Though Nation was in poor
condition, the two managed to travel perhaps 15 miles upriver.
On August 10 Arter, alone, stumbled into Riley's camp. Forty
soldiers with a cart went out and rescued Nation. He died on
August 28, in present Kearny county; but the skirmish with the
Indians apparently occurred in what is now Finney county.
Ref: [Cooke's] "Journal," loc. cit., pp. 287, 288; Bennet Riley's report in American
State Paper*; Military Affairs v. 4, p. 279; Young, op. cit., p. 124.
C A clash between Big Neck's band of lowas, and some settlers
in the Grand Chariton region of northern Missouri, in mid-July,
created an Indian war scare. At Cantonment Leavenworth where
Capt. Zalmon C. Palmer, and about 20 men of the Sixth infantry
(all but six of them ill) composed the entire force to defend the
inhabitants which included "eight or nine ladies and about twenty
camp women." The ladies (and children?) "assembled every night
in a large hospital which was surrounded by about 16 cannon/'
A request was sent to Liberty, Mo., for aid, and 40 men came to
bolster the garrison.
Missouri's Gov. John Miller asked for troops from Jefferson Bar-
racks (Mo.) to quell the "war." Bvt. Brig. Gen. Henry Leaven-
worth hastily organized an expedition of Sixth and Third infantry-
men which proceeded to Cantonment Leavenworth on the steamboat
Crusader. At that place, some Iowa, Sac, and Fox leaders met
Leavenworth in council, in the fore part of August. They ex-
pressed regret for the actions of Big Neck's band and offered 19
chiefs and warriors as hostages (to insure surrender of the lowas
involved in the July affray). By August 19 Leavenworth, his com-
mand, and the 19 lowas, aboard the Crusader, had reached St. Louis.
(Big Neck and nine others of his band were captured in September and
taken to Jefferson Barracks in October. The hostages were sent home early in
December. )
Ref: O. W. Pollock's A Sketch of the Life of Mrt. Jane Foster Wheeler (Wallace)
i"V . (San Francisco, 1910), pp. 24, 25; Young, op. cit., p. 62; Western Monitor, Fa-
yette, Mo., August 29, 1829; St. Louis Beacon, December 20, 1830; KHQ, v. 16, pp. 294,
300, 302, 303.
C Returning from Mexican territory after aiding the Santa Fe-
bound traders (see July 10 entry), Major Riley, on July 26, selected
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 55
a summer camp site for his command on the left bank of the Arkan-
sas (in U. S. territory), opposite Chouteau's Island.
The days were uneventful till July 31, when four discharged
soldiers, Simmons, Fry, Colvin, and Gordon, set out on foot for
Missouri. About 10 ( ?) miles downriver they met some 30 mounted,
"friendly" Indians. George Gordon was killed while shaking hands
with one of them. His more prudent companions had moved on,
but they retaliated by shooting an Indian. Fortunately for the three
besieged men, a hunting party from Riley's camp came along late in
the day and rescued them. ( Gordon's body was found, and buried,
several days later. His death perhaps occurred in what is now
eastern Kearny county. Cooke's journal says the men were "per-
haps 18 miles" from Chouteau's Island; Riley's report says "not
more than eight or ten miles.")
On the afternoon of August 3, several large parties of Indians
made a raid on the stock. One of the guards, Pvt. Samuel Arrison,
was severely wounded and died an hour or so later. The troops
engaged the 300 to 400 Indians in a skirmish that lasted about 45
minutes. The raiders lost eight warriors, but succeeded in driving
off 50 oxen and some 20 horses and mules, and they wounded other
animals. ( It was later reported by Mexican traders that these were
Kiowas and Comanches.)
The morning of August 11 Capt. Joseph Pentland and 18 men,
with six oxen and a wagon, left camp to bring in meat from three
buffaloes which had been shot earlier in the day. A party of per-
haps 150 mounted Indians swooped down on them. Bugler Matthew
King, and the team and wagon, were abandoned by Pentland, who
fled, followed by his nien, to a sand bar refuge. King was killed
and scalped. Riley sent additional troops and the Indians with-
drew, leaving the wagon and team unharmed. ( Pentland was later
court-martialed for his action in this affair.)
There were no further Indian depredations; in fact, the Indians
disappeared. On August 16 Riley moved camp four miles down-
river. All of September was a quiet month, with good buffalo hunt-
ing for the soldiers. The week of September 21st the move back
upstream to Chouteau's Island was begun in anticipation of the
arrival of the returning trading caravan, scheduled for not later
than October 10.
Ref: [Cooke's] "Journal," loc. cit., pp. 283-291; Riley's report, loc. cit., p. 278;
Young, op. cit., pp. 104-136.
C In the Missouri-bound caravan which left Santa Fe about Sep-
tember 1, there were 96 traders, some well-to-do Spanish refugees
56 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
(10 men and six women), fewer than 30 wagons, and about 2,000
head of horses, mules, and jacks. Col. Jose Antonio Viscarra and a
force of 200 men (some 75 Mexicans, 91 "hired whites," and 34
"hired Indians") provided escort all the way to the Arkansas. Also
in the party was Santiago Abreu, a New Mexican official.
On October 6, at the Cimarron (in the Oklahoma Panhandle of today),
three(?) of the escort party were killed when the Mexicans had a skirmish with
a large band of Indians following a "friendly" parley. In saving Viscarra's life,
one of the Pueblo Indians lost his own. With the traders' assistance, the
Indians were driven off, and several were killed.
On October 11, still more than 20 miles from the Arkansas river,
and already a day late for the Chouteau's Island rendezvous, the
traders sent messengers to find Major Riley and inform him of their
approach.
Ref : Young, op. cit., pp. 136-144; Cooke's Scenes and Adventures . . ., pp. 83-85;
Josiah Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies . . . (1844), v. 1, pp. 47, 48, has comment
on early female travelers on the Santa Fe trail, but does not state what year the first
woman went over that route.
C On September 23 the Rev. Isaac McCoy, his son Dr. Josephus
McCoy, Gosa ( an Ottawa Indian ) , and a hired hand arrived at the
Kansa Agency. (This small party had left Fayette, Mo., on horse-
back, September 17 to make a "tour of exploration" at McCoy's own
expense, in order "to acquire a more definite knowledge of a portion
of the Indian territory . . ." in present Kansas.)
"We left the agency on the 29th," wrote McCoy, "having added
to our company [the agent] General [Marston G.] Clark, White
Plume [principal Kansa chief] . . . and Plume's son-in-law
[Louis] Gunville [Gonville], a Frenchman, who, though he could
speak very little English, was our only interpreter."
Two weeks later on October 13th they returned to the Kansa
Agency. Where did these seven people travel during the two weeks
of early October? Isaac McCoy was careful not to say! Beyond
mention of the prairies he gave no geographical clue; and he did
not state the direction of their journey.
Ref: Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions . . . (Washington, 1840),
pp. 393, 394.
C At sunrise on October 11, after firing one shot from the cannon,
Bvt. Maj. Bennet Riley and his Sixth infantry battalion left the camp
near Chouteau's Island and headed homeward. But three miles
downstream they halted upon learning that the caravan from Santa
Fe was within a day's journey of them. ( See September 1 entry. )
On the afternoon of the 12th the traders' caravan, and its large es-
corting party under Colonel Viscarra, reached, and forded the Ar-
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 57
kansas near Riley's camp. By evening over 500 persons (Mexi-
cans, Spaniards, Indians of several tribes, Creoles, Frenchmen, and
Americans ) , and an immense number of animals ( Riley's oxen, and
more than "2,000 horses, mules, [and] jacks, which kept up an in-
cessant braying") were gathered together on the river's left bank
a few miles below Chouteau's Island (and within present Kearny
county ) . Lieutenant Cooke wrote that it was "the strangest collec-
tion of men and animals that had perhaps ever met on a frontier of
the United States/'
The two days this congregation spent together were highlighted by exchanges
of military and social courtesies, buffalo hunting, feats of horsemanship, Indian
songs and rituals. Riley's Sixth infantry troops were displayed in review and
drill for Colonel Viscarra; he, in turn, showed his troops in formation. Whereas
the American officers could offer as festive menu only buffalo meat, salt pork,
bread, raw onions, and "a tin cup of whiskey," served on a green blanket "table-
cloth," Colonel Viscarra (on the evening of the 13th) provided an elaborate din-
ner including fried ham, "various kinds of cakes, and delightful chocolate; and
. . . several kinds of Mexican wines" all served on a low table set with
silver.
Taking leave of each other on the morning of October 14, the Mis-
souri-bound company ( more than 300 persons; some 1,800? animals )
started downriver; while Colonel Viscarra and his 200 men prepared
to return to Santa Fe. Riley's battalion, the traders, and the Spanish
refugees reached the Caches on October 17; took the dry "cut-off"
towards the Great Bend; by October 23 were past that point and
encamped on Cow creek. On the 25th the traders' caravan split up
in several parties, each proceeding at its own pace. Riley and his
battalion continued to follow the Santa Fe trail till November 5;
then (somewhere in present Douglas county) they crossed the
Wakarusa, and pursued a northward course 12 miles to the Kansas
river; forded it (on the 5th and 6th) opposite the Kansa Agency
(seven miles above present Lawrence). Lieutenant Cooke wrote:
". . . the log-houses there, were the first habitations of men we
had seen for five months."
An hour was spent at the Agency, where they got a guide, and
sent out an advance party to make a trail for the oxen (only 24 yoke
were left) and wagons, across Jefferson and Leavenworth counties
of today, to Cantonment Leavenworth. On the evening of Novem-
ber 8 the battalion "marched into garrison in Column of Companies,
by field music"; and was received with a 15-gun salute. The Sixth
infantrymen's post quarters were "the miserable huts and sheds left
by the Third infantry the preceding May."
Ref: [Cooke's] "Journal," loc. cit., pp. 293-300; Cooke's Scenes and Adventure*
. . ., pp. 84-92; Young, op. cit., pp. 139-163.
58 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C In the autumn Frederick Chouteau ( aged 20, youngest of Pierre
Chouteau, Jr's., sons ) opened a trading house for the Kansa Indians
at Horseshoe Lake, on the south side of the Kansas ( in what is now
Douglas county), across the river and about a mile from the Kansa
Agency (seven miles above present Lawrence). He remained at
that location for over two years, moving in 1832 [not 1830 as printed
in KHC, v. 8, p. 425] to a location higher up the Kansas, near the
mouth of American Chief [Mission] creek. (See, also, under 1832.)
In 1829, it appears, the Kansa Indians abandoned their large town near the
Big Blue-Kansas junction to form three separate villages some distance down-
stream. (See next entry.) It was Frederick Chouteau's intention, in 1831, to
move from Horseshoe Lake upriver to the vicinity of the new Kansa towns.
The annual license issued on October 10, 1831 (to the American Fur Com-
pany), specified that his trade would be at "A point between the two upper
villages of the Kanzas, on the Kanzas river." However, in December young
Chouteau was still at the site opposite the Agency. On December 20 his
brother Francis G. Chouteau (in person) applied to Kansa Subagent M. G.
Clark for permission for Frederick to continue at that place. Clark wrote
Chouteau a letter that same day, referred to the license of October 10, and
stated: . . . you have been vending goods at your old stand for some
days [disregarding the license] both to Indians and to whites thereby bringing
down on this agency, large bodies of Indians to the great annoyance of the
few whites at this place by killing their stock, crowding their houses and beg-
ging for provisions. . . . You had, I conceive, full time to have reached
the point designated in the license and to have made your cabins, but the
Kansas trade is unprofitable this year and you may think proper to abandon it
this year. . . .
Ref: KHC, v. 8, p. 425; 22d Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. No. 104 (Serial 234);
S7A, v. 6, p. 413 (M. G. Clark's letter of December 20, 1831). A biographical sketch
of Frederick Chouteau on p. 45 of E. F. Heisler and D. M. Smith's Atlas Map of Johnson
County, Kansas (Wyandott, 1874) states that his first wife was Nancy Logan, a [Shawnee]
Indian whom he married in 1830, and that they had four children before her death in
1846.
C "It was apparently in 1829 that the Kansa abandoned their long-
occupied 125-lodge village near the Big Blue-Kansas junction (see
1790-1791 annals entry) to move some 40 miles downstream and
form three "permanent" towns all west of present Topeka, within
what is now Shawnee county. Discussing the Kansa, Agent John
Dougherty commented, on January 30, 1830: "not until the last year,
were they located in such manner as to enjoy any advantage from
opening fields and cultivating the earth." His statement seems to
imply a move in 1829. Unquestionably, the Kansa were well estab-
lished in their new abodes by the end of 1830, in locations they were
to occupy till 1847.
Fool Chiefs village (700 to 800 people) was north of the Kansas
river, and six miles west of the mouth of Heart river [Soldier creek].
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS
59
10
R.XIII
R.XIV
RX
V ( R. XVI
Vo
ROSSVILLE
M&s
SOLDIER
^7>k H
SILVER\
-LAKE
r
^
T.
13
A t I Q It O K\ | lwll ^4 IV! O I
AUBURN , pORT ,
I I
i i
From a Shawnee county map of 1874 which shows seven of the Kansa
half-breed reserves.
On September 6, 1830, Isaac McCoy's surveying party was at work
about four miles west of present Topeka, and McCoy noted in his
journal: "About a mile and a half north of us between the [Soldier]
creek and [the Kansas] river is the village of Chachhaa hogeree,
Prarie-village. It contains about 50 houses, with say three families
to the house." (Fool Chiefs town was on the S. E. % of Sec. 16,
T. 11, R. 15 E., in present Mencken township.)
About seven miles to the west, and on the south side of the Kansas
was Hard Chiefs village (500 to 600 people), on high ground, but
near the river. (His town was on the N. E. % of the N. W. of Sec.
28, T. 11, R. 14 E., in Dover township. )
American Chiefs village (about 100 people), described as 20 dirt
lodges of good size, was in the bottoms on the west side of American
Chief [Mission] creek, about a mile and a half from the Kansas
river, and about a mile below Hard Chiefs town. ( American Chiefs
town was, apparently, in Sec. 27 of T. 11, R. 14 E., in Dover town-
ship. )
Ref: 21st Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 110 (Serial 193), p. 10 (for Dougherty's state-
ment); KHQ, v. 5, p. 353 (for McCoy); KHC, v. 9, p. 573 (for locations of the Kansa
villages), v. 8, p. 425, and v. 9, p. 196 (for other data on the Kansa towns, according
to Frederick Chouteau's recollections [1880]).
(Part Six Will Appear in the Summer, 1962, Issue. )
Some Notes on Kansas Cowtown Police Officers
and Gun Fighters Continued
NYLE H. MILLER and JOSEPH W. SNELL
SHORT, LUKE L.
(1854-1893)
THE story of Luke Short in Kansas is also the story of the "Dodge
City war." Though by his own statement Luke had been in
Dodge City some two years before the difficulties began his name
appeared in the city papers only intermittently, the earliest known
mention being nine months before the trouble broke out. That first
news item appeared in the Dodge City Times, August 3, 1882, and
has been reprinted in the section on Bat Masterson.
Luke next made the newspapers when he purchased Chalkley
Beeson's interest in the Long Branch saloon. The Ford County
Globe, February 6, 1883, carried the first of a series of notifications:
DISSOLUTION NOTICE.
This is to certify that C. M. Beeson, and W. H. Harris doing a saloon busi-
ness in Dodge City, Kansas, under the firm name of Beeson & Harris, has this
day been dissolved by mutual consent. Mr. Beeson selling his interest in the
business to Luke Short who will continue the business with Mr. Harris and
who assume all the Liabilities of the late firm and collect all outstanding accounts
due the same.
C. M. BEESON
February 6th 1883. W. H. HARRIS.*
Shortly after the transfer, Luke's new associate was nominated to
run for mayor of Dodge City. At a voters' mass meeting in the
court house on March 17, Harris was suggested for mayor and Pat
Sughrue, T. J. Tate, Nelson Gary, Henry Koch, and Charles Dicker-
son for councilmen. Among Harris* supporters were former mayor
James H. Kelley, Clerk of the District Court W. F. Petillon, and the
Ford County Globe. 2
A few days later, on March 19, a second and similar meeting
named an opposition ticket backed by Nicholas B. Klaine's Dodge
City Times, Mike Sutton, Former Rep. R. M. Wright, and Mayor
A. B. Webster. This ticket included L. E. Deger for mayor and H. B.
Bell, H. T. Drake, H. M. Beverley, George S. Emerson, and Henry
Sturm for councilmen. 3
NYLE H. MILLER and JOSEPH W. SNELL are members of the staff of the Kansas State
Historical Society.
NOTE: It is hoped eventually that these articles on Kansas cow town officers and gun
fighters, with additional information and an index, can be reprinted and offered for sale
under one cover.
Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snell, 1962.
(60)
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 61
The election was accompanied by much vilification, especially
on the part of the Times which assured Dodgeites that should Harris
be elected the town would become a snug harbor for all the robbers,
drunks, con men, and general n'er do wells in the area. The Globe
seemed content to let the election take whatever course it chose
and instead spent most of its time condemning Editor Klaine for his
vitriolic attacks. Perhaps Klaine's tactics paid off. When the votes
were counted on April 3 Larry Deger had defeated Harris 214
to 143. 4
Three weeks later the new city administration passed two ordi-
nances which were to have a profound effect on both Luke Short
and Dodge City. The first dealt with prostitution:
(Published April 26, 1883.)
ORDINANCE NO. 70.
AN ORDINANCE FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VICE AND
IMMORALITY WITHIN THE CITY OF DODGE CITY.
Be it ordained by the Mayor and Council of the City of Dodge City:
Section 1. Any person or persons who shall keep or maintain in this city a
brothel, bawdy house, house of ill fame, or of assignation, shall upon conviction
thereof be fined in a sum not less than Ten nor more than One Hundred Dollars.
Sec. 2. Any person whether male or female, being an inmate or resident
cf any brothel, bawdy house, or house of ill-fame in this city, shall upon con-
viction thereof be fined in a sum not less than Five nor more than Fifty Dollars.
Sec. 3. Any person or persons as defined in sections one and two of this
ordinance found upon the streets or in any public place within the corporate
b'mits of the city of Dodge City, for the purpose of plying or advertising her or
their calling or business as defined in section one and two of this ordinance,
shall upon conviction thereof be fined in a sum not less than Five nor more
than Fifty Dollars.
Sec. 4. The general reputation of any such houses mentioned in the fore-
going sections, or of its inmates and residents, shall be prima facie evidence of
the character of such houses or persons.
Sec. 5. All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are
hereby repealed.
Section 6. This ordinance shall take effect [and] be in force from and after
its publication in the Dodge City Times.
Passed by the council April 23d, 1883,
Attest, L. C. HARTMAN, City Clerk.
Approved April 23d, 1883. L. E. DEGER, Mayor.
The other ordinance dealt with vagrancy:
(Published April 26, 1883.)
ORDINANCE NO. 71.
AN ORDINANCE TO DEFINE AND PUNISH VAGRANCY.
Be it ordained by the Mayor and Councilmen of the City of Dodge City.
Section 1. Any person who may be found loitering, loafing or wandering
within the corporate limits of the city of Dodge City without any lawful voca-
tion or visible means of support, shall be deemed guilty of vagrancy under this
62 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ordinance, and may be fined in any sum not less than Ten nor more than One
Hundred Dollars.
Sec. 2. Any person who may be found loitering around houses of ill-fame,
gambling houses or places where liquors are sold or drank, without any visible
means of support or lawful vocation, or shall be the keeper or inmate of any
house of ill-fame or gambling house, or engaged in any unlawful calling what-
ever, shall be deemed guilty of vagrancy under this ordinance, and may be fined
in any sum not less than Ten nor more than One Hundred Dollars.
Sec. 3. All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are
hereby repealed.
Section 4. This ordinance shall be in force and effect on and after its
publication once in the Dodge City Times.
Passed the council April 23d, 1883.
Attest: L. C. HARTMAN, City Clerk.
Approved April 23d, 1883. L. E. DEGER, Mayor. 5
On Saturday night, April 28, two days after the ordinances became
effective, arrests were made under their provisions. These arrests
were of women ostensibly employed as singers in the Long Branch.
No one seemed to question that their real occupation was prostitu-
tion; what caused the subsequent trouble was the apparent partiality
in which the laws were enforced. The Ford County Globe, May 1,
1883, reported:
The annual revolutionary spirit was again exhibited on our streets yesterday.
Wars and rumors of war, was the out-cry all along the line. The smouldering
volcano broke forth on this day and wiped out the wicked and the ungodly,
they having to flee from the wrath that was to come. It was a hot day for the
vagrant, the gambler and the inmate of the house of ill fame, but they must
yield to the majesty of the law or take the consequences. All day, armed
groupes of officials, both city and county, might have been seen by the least
inquisitive, and the very determined look of their countenances indicated to the
most confiding that they meant business, and business it was. In order to show
why this determined stand was being made by the authorities, we must go back
to the passage of sundry ordinances by the new city council, to which some
exception was taken by those whom it seemed to press down upon most heavily
the same being "an Ordinance for the Suppression of vice and Immorality
within the city of Dodge" and another "to Define and Punish Vagrancy" passed
April 23d 1883. It was not the ordinance itself that was objectionable to those
it was calculated to reach but the partial manner of its enforcement as they
think, which caused the trouble.
Saturday night the first arrest was made under the new ordinances, the same
being that of three women in the long branch saloon. This was peaceably
accomplished and without any resistance so far as we are enabled to learn.
Yet, later in the night, Luke Short and L. C. Hartman met upon the street and
paid their respective compliments to each other by exchanging shots, fortunately
no one was hurt. Hartman, it seems, was a special who helped to make the
arrests. Short was one of the partners of the saloon from which these women
were taken. It was claimed by the proprietors that partiality was shown in
arresting women in their house when two were allowed to remain in A. B.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 63
Webster's saloon, one at Heinz & Kramer's, two at Nelson Gary's, and a whole
herd of them at Bond & Nixon's dance hall, and if this is true, it would be most
natural for them to think so and give expression to their feelings. No doubt
they spoke unpleasant words toward our city government, that may have caused
them to rise in their majesty and cause the arrest on yesterday of Luke Short,
Thomas Lane, saloon keepers, and half dozen others known by the professional
name of gamblers. All were hustled into the city bastile without any resistance
on their part, and were allowed to languish there until the arrival of their
choice of trains, both east and west come along, when they were invited to
take passage without any further ceremony or explanation. The women who
had been jugged Saturday, were all brought up before his honor Bobby Burns
and he imposed a heavy fine on each one of them for their disregard of the law.
Thus the smouldering volcano has burst forth in all its fury, and has stricken
terror to the hearts of the inhabitants that so closely surround it and causes
one to reflect as to whether or not it will be followed up by a St. John cyclone
and sweep away in its train the dispenser of ardent spirits, and thus give us
another evidence of the moral and temperance element of our citizens and
show that the righteous must and shall prevail in the city of Dodge.
On May 3, 1883, the Times told its version of the difficulty:
ENFORCING THE LAW.
The city has been under an intense commotion for several days, growing
out of the ordinance in relation to the "Suppression of gambling and prostitu-
tion." On Saturday night an additional police force was put on, and the
work of enforcement was commenced. Three prostitutes pretendedly em-
ployed in Harris & Short's saloon, as "singers," but employed evidently to
evade the ordinance in relation to prostitution, were arrested and put in the
lock-up. This action engendered bitter feeling, and City Clerk Hartman who
was on the police force, was afterward met by Luke Short, and his assassination
attempted. Short fired two shots at Hartman, the latter replying with one
shot, none of the shots taking effect. Short was arrested and placed under
$2,000 bonds. Mayor Deger, learning that a conspiracy had been formed,
which had for its object the armed resistance to the enforcement of the law
and consequent murder of some of our best citizens, organized a police force
on Sunday, and on Monday the plan was carried out. Luke Short was the
first one arrested and placed in the calaboose. Subsequently, five others were
arrested, as follows: W. H. Bennett, a former New Mexico desperado, Dr. Niel,
a Mobeetie gambler, Johnson Gallagher, a gambler, and L. A. Hyatt, a gambler.
These men, Hyatt, being retained a couple of days, were given the "choice of
trains," and on Tuesday, under orders of Mayor Deger, were sent out of town.
Short, Lane and Gallagher went east, Bennett went west, and Niel went south.
As a precaution, about one hundred and fifty citizens were on watch Monday
night, and a large police force is still held on duty night and day. Mayor
Deger, the police force and the citizens of Dodge City are determined that
the lawless element shall not thrive in this city. No half-way measures will
be used in the suppression of either lawlessness or riot. Mayor Deger is a
resolute, fearless and obstinate officer. All good and law abiding citizens are
standing by him in this trying emergency.
It must be understood that no foolishness will be allowed in the conduct
64 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of city affairs. Let the people employ their pursuits peacefully. And evildoers
must stand the consequences of their lawless conduct. 6
Of the three gamblers who boarded east bound trains, Tom Lane,
at least, stopped in Topeka and sought legal counsel. The Topeka
Daily Commonwealth, May 4, 1883, reported his failure:
WILL SUE DODGE CITY.
MR. LANE, ONE OF THE MEN RUN OUT OF TOWN,
ON THE WAR PATH AGAINST THE CITY.
Mr. Lane, one of the men who were ordered out of Dodge City recently,
was in town yesterday and applied to one of the prominent attorneys of the
city to commence an action for damages against Dodge City. He claims that
he has lived in Dodge since 1876, never had a law suit or any trouble
except once when he paid a fine for fighting, and that there is no reason why
he should not be allowed to remain there and conduct his business, saloon
keeping, as before. He admits that two of the men were bad characters, and
says that the others were forced to leave on account of the unfriendly feeling
of the mayor toward them, resulting from the recent election. The attorney
did not take the case, and Mr. Lane took the train for Dodge City in the after-
noon. He says that he intends to stay there, if he can; that he will not fight a
mob, but that if he has to go, he will sue the city.
On May 3, 1883, the Commonwealth had said:
A gentleman who knows the crowd that was driven out of Dodge City, as
announced in our special dispatches yesterday, says that some of the men are
now in this city. The number includes all classes of roughs, and it is possible
that some of them were implicated in the burglaries here. It is also a fact that
there are several Kansas City thieves in town.
Luke had established himself in Kansas City and was kept in-
formed of the local situation by letters from friends in Dodge. Otto
Mueller, a saloon owner, wrote on letterhead stationery bearing the
name of W. H. Harris* Bank of Dodge City:
DODGE CITY, KAN., May 5th 1883
FRIEND LUKE:
I intended to write you before this, but did not know your address until
informed by Myton this morning that a letter directed in care of "Marble Hall"
[522 Main street, Kansas City, Mo.] would reach you.
The situation here in town is unchanged except so far as relates to public
opinion, which is gradually but steadily changing in your favor. All your
friends are at work with a determination which is bound to win in the end.
Of course every movement must be made with the greatest care and caution,
and as many are too timid to express themselves, it will naturally require time,
before the organization that style themselves "the Vigilanters" will be convinced
that they must give way to public opinion. And a beautiful lot of reformers
they are, these vigilanters, under the leadership of their captain, Tom Nixon
of Dance Hall fame. But no matter how slow, you may rest assured that this
time will surely come. As the heat of passion subsides and men begin to look
over the past more calmly, they can not help to see that a great wrong has
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 65
been committed and many are frank enough to admit that fact. Men of good
standing in this community, against whom nothing can be said, but who take
little interest in the management of public affairs, feel that they are not safe in
the enjoyment of their life and property in a place where such outrages may
be committed without the interference of the authorities, and feel more alarmed
when they begin to realize the fact that the outrages here were committed not
only without interference, but under the guidance of the municipal government,
whose duty it should be to protect even those charged with the commission
of a crime against violence.
Harris feels very downhearted, but is untiringly at work to set matters right.
You can form no idea how your enemies watch him at every step and move.
No train passes this station without being searched and watched by the
Vigilanters for Contraband. Harris and his friends feel confidant that Bob
Wright on his return to town will take the lead against the suppression of
further outrages, and I think also that he is the best man for it. Our best
men in town will back him, and I think that before long the "Reformers" will
be compelled to surrender and lay down their arms. Do not feel discouraged,
but feel confident that Harris will spare no effort to have everything fixed right
and that your friends will assist him all they can. I will write again and keep
you advised as times goes on.
Yours very sincerely
OTTO MuLLER. 7
Luke wrote to Dodge City the same day. George Hoover, a
wholesale liquor dealer and representative in the Kansas legislature,
answered:
Dodge City, Kansas, May 7th 1883
MR. LUKE SHORT, Kans. City.
FRIEND LUKE.
In reply to your letter of 5th inst. I am sorry to say that the excitement is
more intense now than ever and growing more so every day as the powers that
be now in Dodge, are determined that what they have already done and
what they propose to do, should any one else displease them shall stick. The
Governor and all his power to the contrary notwithstanding and it would not
be safe for Harris to appear in your petition in any shape for he was very nearly
one of the selected ones. Nor for any of your friends to do so, for it would not
only compel Harris to leave but also any who would appear in the matter
should a petition be signed by the few who would have courage enough so to
do, it would avail nothing for it would be immediately followed by one to
the contrary signed by numerous people which would make the one in your
favor appear as nothing for though you have many friends here and deserve
them yet they would fear to sign a petition in your favor knowing that it would
jeopardize themselves.
You know how a Governor acts. With the church element, the Railroad
officials and part of the so called immoral element against you he would not
interfere in the rulings of a city or mob ruling. My advice to you would be
to either sell your interest in Dodge or else employ some one to look after your
interests here and make up your mind to abandon Dodge at least during the
51588
66 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
present administration. Much as I would like to see you at your own place
I think this the only safe plan for both yourself and friends.
Very truly Yours
G. M. HoovER. 8
Short apparently sought legal assistance from Larned attorney Net
Adams who wrote:
LARNED, KAS. May 8 1883
DEAR LUKE
Yours Just received on my return from Stafford. Pete Harding was here
yesterday he says the Shot Gun brigade are still boarding the trains. They
wont let any body stop Lon Hyat stoped here two days & went back but he
could not get off Lane is at Cimeron & Corn Hfole]. Johnny [Johnson Gal-
lagher] is also out they are still running things with a high hand. I shall go
up there in few days Pete Harding says public opinion is growing against
them fast there. I don't know exactly what I will do yet with them. Think
strong of suing the whole out fit to gether with the W. U. Telegraph Co. & sue
here, but dont know yet. I will be ready at any time to go and do anything
I can for you. But if I were you I believe I would wait for a week or 10
days yet & let matters die down a little. They swear vengence against you as I
understand it, and are watching everything to work Harris so I am informed.
Let me hear from you again soon & will write more.
Respct
NELSON ADAMS
Hyat made a rucket over Harris when he was fined, but I think he is making
terms. Dont Let the Devils Know that I furnish information
NET 9
The Dodge City Times, May 10, 1883, expanded on the attempted
return of Hyatt:
Two of the men who were ordered out of town last week returned here
on Thursday night. Hyatt stepped off the train on the south side of the track,
but was confronted with about a dozen pistols presented to him. He gladly
returned to the car and too gladly pursued his journey west. Lane did not
get off the train here but at Cimarron, twenty miles west, where he continues
to hold forth. Lane would like to make terms and return to Dodge and behave
like a good citizen, but we believe there is no disposition to accept his profered
repentance and promises.
By this time things had progressed sufficiently for newspapers
over the state and in the East to print recaps of the events. Depend-
ing on the source of information the papers were decidedly either
pro Deger or pro Short. As an example, it is not difficult to deter-
mine the side on which the Kansas City (Mo.) Evening Star, May
9, 1883, had cast itself:
RUFFIANS REGIME.
A STARTLING STATE OF THINGS AT DODGE CITY.
The fact, that for the past ten days a very remarkable and startling state
of affairs has existed at as well known a point as Dodge City, Kas., and that
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 67
all mention of them has been kept out of the press, the matter, in short, entirely
suppressed from the outside world, is an excellent illustration of what western
lawlessness can do and the state of society in some of the border towns. That
trouble of a serious nature has existed there can be surmised from the fact
that prominent Kansas City attorneys left to-day for Topeka to petition Gov.
Click in the interest of Dodge City property owners that the town be placed
under martial law.
The difficulty, which began only a little over a week ago, is but the culmina-
tion of a long standing feud between two elements of the place. Dodge City
has long enjoyed the reputation of being a hard place. It was one of the few
points in Kansas where saloons run openly and gambling is legitimized. The
headquarters of the cowboys and cattle men of that vicinity, the majority of
the institutions are designed for their especial selectation.
Just before the last city election the mayor was a man named Webster, the
proprietor of a dive, half saloon and the other half gambling house and variety
hall. He was a representative of the tougher element of the sporting fraternity.
The head of the other faction was W. H. Harris, of Harris & Short, proprietors
of the Long Branch saloon. Harris represented the quieter and more reputable
element and there was bitter feeling between the two.
At the last election Harris was beaten in the race for mayor by one Deger,
Webster's candidate, and since then it has been conceeded that it was only a
matter of time when all of Harris's sympathizers would be driven out of the
town. Thus Dodge has been hovering on the brink of trouble for a long time.
About ten days ago it came. Mr. Short, who is Harris's partner, and a police
officer, had a shooting affray. Neither were hurt, and the evidence showed that
Short was fired on first. He was nevertheless placed under bonds, and
next day thrown into jail. The marshal of Dodge, who made the arrest, is
Jack Bridges, a well known character, who formerly lived here and traveled
principally upon having "killed his man."
A short time later five gamblers were arrested, and also jailed. That night
a vigilance committee was formed with Tom Nixon, the proprietor of one of
the hardest dance halls that ever existed in the west, at the head. This crowd
repaired to the jail and notified the prisoners that they must leave town next
morning and that they would be given their choice of trains going east or west.
Meantime the vigilantes took possession of the town.
The correspondent of the Chicago Times [Dodge City Attorney Harry E.
Gryden] and other leading papers were notified that they must not be per-
mitted to send any telegrams in reference to the situation and a body of armed
men watched the arrival of each train to see that there was no interference.
A lawyer from Larned, sent for by one of the prisoners was met by a vigilante
who leveled a shot-gun at his head and told him not to stop. He passed on.
Next morning the five gamblers were put on a westward bound train and
Short left for Kansas City where he is at present.
The trouble has by no means yet abated. The place is practically in the
hands of the "vigilantes" and the situation is more serious from the fact that
the mayor is acting with them and it was he who notified the prisoners that
they must go. The trains are still watched and armed men guard the town,
while a list of others who will be ordered out has been prepared. Every
source of reliable information indicates that Dodge is now in the hands of
desperadoes, and that incident to the ejection of Short and the others, the lives
68 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and property of citizens are by no means safe. For this reason martial law is
being asked. That there will be trouble of a very serious character there, is
anticipated. 10
From Kansas City Luke went to Topeka to see the governor.
The Topeka Daily Capital, May 11, 1883, reported:
A MAN FROM DODGE.
KANSAS CITY, May 10. Luke Short, the most prominent of the six men
who were expelled from Dodge, came to this city and left to-night for Topeka,
where he intends to lay his case before Gov. Click. He claims that the authori-
ties had no right to expel him from town, but if he has violated any laws he
should be permitted to remain there and answer the charges.
A PROMINENT CATTLE MAN ALSO.
A prominent cattle dealer who resides in Dodge City, said in an interview
here to-night that he believed the whole trouble was simply a war upon the
gamblers; that the citizens had determined to have a more orderly state of
society, and had, therefore, compelled certain parties to leave. He said that
they had a similar experience about three years ago, and that there is nothing
especially remarkable in the present movement. The law cannot reach these
cases, and consequently the people are obliged to take the law to a certain
extent in their own hands.
As Luke visited Topeka, another Dodgeite was summoned there
by Gov. George W. Click. This man was W. F. Petillon, a prom-
inent Democrat and clerk of the district court. The Dodge City
Times, May 10, 1883, said:
W. F. Petilion has gone to Topeka in response to a telegram from the
Governor. Some affairs of state need the diplomacy of statesmen. We suppose
the Governor's intercession is desired on behalf of affairs in Dodge. The
Governor will not interfere with our local laws and the manner of disposing
of them. He might execute the State laws which would then render local
laws of no use and no consequence.
In the capital city Luke presented Governor Click with a petition
which he had drawn up in Missouri. It was corroborated by
Petillon:
To HIS EXCELLENCY. HON. GEO. W. CLICK, GOVERNOR OF KANSAS:
The Petition of Luke L. Short, respectfully represents to your Excellency
that he has resided at Dodge City Kansas for nearly two years; that he is a
member of the firm of Harris and Short of said city, that his said partner is
vice President of the Bank of Dodge City and has large business interests at
said place.
Your Petitioner further states that during his said residence in Dodge City
lie has ever been in the peace of the state, and have not been charged with
any crime until the 30th day of April 1883 when he was arrested charged
with an assault upon one L. C. Hartman of said city; that he was entirely
innocent of said charge, and gave bond in the sum of $2000 to answer the
same on Wednesday the [second] day of May, 1883. That he caused the
said Hartman to be arrested on a charge of assaulting your petitioner and the
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 69
trial of said Hartman on said charge was set for hearing for Wednesday the
3rd day of May 1883.1
On Monday u the 2nd day of May 1883 your petitioner was again ar-
rested but on what charge your petitioner was at the time and is now ignorant.
That no warrant was read or shown to him on the occasion of this arrest, and
your petitioner was denied bail. Doctor S. Galland of said city offering to
Execute a bond for any amount for your petitioner's release, but said offer
was refused; that about five oclock of the evening of said 2nd day of May
and while your Petitioner was in custody in the calaboose a band of armed
men led by Larry Deger, Mayor of said city came to said Calaboose and
ordered your Petitioner to leave said city and never to return, and then and
there threatened your petitioner with great personal danger, upon a refusal
so to do, and also informed him that if he returned he would do so at his peril.
Your Petitioner then & there remonstrated with the said Deger and his fol-
lowers, and averred that he was guilty of no crime against the law; that he
was ready & willing to meet any and all charges in the courts, where he would
satisfy all of his innocence, that he was under bond to appear to answer the
charge, in this petition before mentioned, that he had a prosperous business
in said city and that no reason existed for any such extraordinary proceeding,
but the said Deger and followers would not listen to your petitioners remon-
strances, and repeated their demands, that he must leave.
Your petitioner avers that by reason of the aforesaid threats, he was put
in fear of his life, and he verily believes that had he remained in said city,
he would have been murdered; that upon advice of friends he left said city
the next morning; that while your petitioner was confined in the calaboose
he was not allowed to see counsel, and when his regular counsel, Mr. Dryden
attempted to see him, he was refused admittance, and his life was threatened if
he further attempted to see your petitioner that after said Dryden was re-
fused admittance to your Petitioner, Mr. Harris your Petitioners partner tele-
graphed to Nelson Adams Esq of Larned Kansas to come to said city
to act as your Petitioners counsel, that when said Adams arrived at 11 oclock
of day, he was met, as your Petitioner is informed and believes by said
Deger and his band of armed men and ordered not to stop, on pain of his life
and said Adams returned to his home.
Your Petitioner further states that the leading parties of the band that
came to said Calaboose and intimidated your petitioner were Larry Deger,
Fred Singer, Thomas Nixon, A. B. Webster, Brick Bond, Bob Vanderburg,
Jack Bridges, Clark Chipman, L. C. Hartman and these were followed by
about twenty five others all being heavily armed.
that said Deger is Mayor. Fred Singer, under sheriff, Thomas Nixon, a
proprietor of a Dance Hall in said city. A. B. Webster, proprietor of a saloon
& gambling house, Brick Bond, a proprietor of a dance hall. Bob Vanderburg
a special policeman. Jack Bridges, a Marshal. Clark Chipman, Assistant
Marshal. L. C. Hartman special policeman.
Your petitioner further avers that the cause of said act of violence was not
anything that your petitioner had done against the law, but arose from political
differences and Business rivalry; that many of the best and most prominent
business men of said city stand ready & willing to become personally responsible
70 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to the state for your petitioners good behavior, that he has no desire to return
to Said city for the purpose of violating the law, but simply for the purpose
of protecting his business interests. But that the parties above mentioned
threaten your petitioners life if he returns and still maintain the same attitude
of defiance to the law, and unless your Excellency as conservator of the Public
peace acts in the premise your Petitioner is wholly without remedy. Where-
fore your petitioner humbly prays your Excellency to take such action as to
your Excellency may seem appropriate, to protect your petitioner from the
unlawful violence of the above mentioned parties to the end that he may
return and remain in safety and prosecute his business holding himself amen-
able to all lawful action of the authorities
STATE OF MISSOURI ) T T c
COUNTY OF JACKSON ) LuKE L ' SHORT
Subscribed & sworn to before me, the undersigned Notary Public this 10th
day of May 1883. My commission expires June 30th 1884
CHRISTOPHER HOPE
Notary Public
W. F. PETILLON Clerk of the District Court of Ford County Kansas, says
that he has read the foregoing petition of Luke L. Short; that he is personally
cognisant of the facts stated therein and that they are true, according to his
best Knowledge information and belief.
W. F. PETILLON
STATE OF MISSOURI )
COUNTY OF JACKSON )
Subscribed and sworn to before me the undersigned Notary Public within
and for said County and state this 10th day of May 1883. My Commission
expires June 30th 1884.
CHRISTOPHER HOPE
Notary Public. 12
Luke's visit with Governor Click apparently had some results.
Though no copy has been found, Click must have telegraphed the
sheriff of Ford county asking the situation in Dodge. Sheriff Hinkle's
telegraphic answer was:
Deceived at Topeka, Kan. 6:30 pm. May 11, 1883.
DATED DODGE CITY, Ks.
To HON. C. W. CLICK:
Mr. L. E. Deger our mayor has compelled several persons to leave the city
for refusing to comply with the ordinances. No mob exists nor is there any
reason to fear any violence as I am amply able to preserve the peace. I showed
your message to Mr. Deger who requests me to say that the act of compelling
the parties to leave the city was simply to avoid difficulty and disorders. Every-
thing is as quiet here as in the capital of the state and should I find myself
unable to preserve the present quiet will unhesitatingly ask your assistance.
Resp'y
GEO. T. HINKEL,
Sheriff 13
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 71
A few minutes later Click received a similar telegram from Robert
M. Wright and Richard J. Hardesty:
Received at Topeka, Kan. 6:35 pm May 11, 1883.
DATED DODGE CITY, Ks.
To Gov. G. W. CLICK:
Our town and county never was more peaceable and quiet than it is at
present notwithstanding all reports to the contrary.
R. M. WRIGHT
R. J. HARDESTY 14
Before the three Dodgeites had been heard from Governor Click
had alerted two companies of the Kansas National Guard, company
H at Sterling and company K at Newton. The commanders of each
company wired back that they were ready for immediate service. 15
The receipt of Sheriff Hinkle's telegram, instead of placating Gov-
ernor Click, obviously incensed him. He replied:
CEO. T. HINKLE, May 12th, 1883.
Sheriff Ford County,
Dodge City, Kansas.
MY DEAR SIR:
Your telegram to me of the llth is at hand. I am glad to be assured by
you that you are able to preserve the peace of Dodge City, and of your county.
The accounts of the way things have been going on there are simply monstrous,
and it requires that the disgrace that is being brought upon Dodge City, and
the State of Kansas, by the conduct that is represented to have occurred there,
should be wiped out. Your dispatch to me presents an extraordinary state of
affairs, one that is outrageous upon its face. You tell me that the mayor has
compelled several parties to leave the town for refusing to comply with the
ordinances. Such a statement as that if true, simply shows that the mayor is
unfit for his place, that he does not do his duty, and instead of occupying the
position of peace maker, the man whose duty it is to see that the ordinances are
enforced by legal process in the courts, starts out to head a mob to drive people
away from their homes and their business.
It was the mayor's duty, if he did anything, to have appointed and sworn in
special policemen to protect citizens, and if he could not do it, to have called
upon you, or have called upon me, for assistance to aid him in executing his
duties as mayor, and in preserving the peace of his town. It is represented to
rue by affidavits, and by statements, that the best men in Dodge City have
been threatened with assassination, and with being driven away from their
homes, if they raised their voices against the conduct of this mob. Now if
this is true, it is your duty to call to your assistance a respectable number of
people, sufficient to enforce the law, and protect every man in Dodge City,
without any reference to who he is, or what his business is, and if he is charged
with crime, or the violation of law, to see that he has a fair trial before a proper
tribunal, and that the sentence of the law is executed by you or by the authori-
ties, according to the command of the court.
It is also represented to me that this mob is in the habit of going to the
trains armed, searching for people that may be coming to their homes, and
72 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the alleged purpose of driving any persons away, or threatening their lives,
who may seek to return to their homes, and to their business. The further state-
ment is also made to me that instead of its being disreputable characters that
were driven away for the purpose of peace, it is simply a difficulty between
saloon men and dance houses, and that the mayor of the town with his marshal
has taken sides with one party against the other, to drive them out of business,
and instead of the mayor enforcing the ordinances against lewd women visiting
saloons, it is reported to me that he has called to his assistance those who were
running dance houses with women in them, and entered saloons to drive out
men who were keeping other saloons, and that he has set himself up as the
judge as to who may violate the ordinances and who shall not, and that he
proposes to permit certain parties to violate the ordinances of the city, while
others are driven from their homes for violating ordinances, and not prosecuting
others according to law for the violation of the ordinances.
I hope this is all untrue, and that the mayor has not been guilty of any such
offenses. I cannot believe these statements of the mayor of Dodge City, as
I believe him to be a clear-headed, honorable gentleman, and would not become
a party to such transactions, or permit any such things to be done. I hope to
learn from you that he has been wrongfully represented to me. His own good
name, and the good name of the state, that is placed in his hands for protection,
certainly would be sufficient inducement to him to see that such charges could
not be truthfully made.
It is represented to me also that at this very time, and ever since this pretence
of the mayor that he was trying to enforce two ordinances against women vis-
iting saloons, that he has prohibited it only as to one saloon, made arrests in
one case, and permitted that ordinance to be violated every day and every
night, to his own personal knowledge, and that of the marshal and police
officers of the city, by other men who were running saloons where women are
pennitted to visit, and sing and dance.
Now Mr. Sheriff, I desire to remind you that your duty as a public con-
servator of the peace, and also having authority over and above the mayor of
Dodge City, if he fails to discharge his duties, that it is your duty to see that
these things are not permitted and are not tolerated, and that no citizens shall
be interfered with, that no citizen shall be driven away from his home, that
the mayor of Dodge City shall not pick out men and say that the ordinances
shall be enforced against them, and shall not be enforced against others.
It is also represented to me that citizens who have been driven away from
home attempted to return to their homes, and were again driven off. Now if
this state of affairs is to continue, you can see what disgrace it will bring upon
your city, upon your county, and upon the state of Kansas. The demand is
made upon me, and is coming to me from all parts of the state, that it is a
disgrace that must be wiped out. It is also demanded and charged by parties
who are now demanding the enforcement of the liquor law, that every saloon
ai.-d dance house in Dodge City must be suppressed, and there is coming up
almost a universal demand over the state, that it shall be done, if I have to
station a company of troops in the city of Dodge, and close up every saloon,
and every drinking place, and every dance house in that city.
I am also informed that one of your deputies was aiding in this mob. If
this is so, Mr. Sheriff, your duty to yourself, your duty to the public, and your
duty under the law, and even decency requires, that you shall dismiss that man
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 73
at once. If these things cannot be suppressed now, it is your duty also to
notify the judge of your district of the state of affairs, that he may come there
and invoke the judicial power of the state for the protection of those people.
I desire also to inform you that I expect you to see now that the peace of
Dodge City is preserved, that the life and property of every individual there
is fully protected, and that any person who desires to return to his home and
to his business, must be protected by you, and must not be permitted to be
molested while he is in the lawful discharge of his business, and conducting
himself in a peaceable quiet manner. If anybody attempts to interfere, if they
refuse to prefer legal charges in a proper court, and permit them to be tried
in a proper manner, it is your duty to at once notify me, and I will see that
those parties are taken charge of in a manner that will satisfy them that they
must preserve the peace of the state, and behave themselves as good citizens.
I ask you in addition to this, that you call together the good citizens of
Dodge City, lay this matter before them, ask them to come to your assistance,
to aid you in preserving peace, and preserving order and the quietude of the
town, and the consequent preservation of the good name and reputation of the
state. This outrage has been heralded all over the United States, not only to
the disgrace of your town, but to the whole state of Kansas. If they offer
to furnish you assistance, and will respond to your call I will order a sufficient
amount of arms and ammunition into your custody, so that you can have any
assistance that you require.
If this is not sufficient, a company of troops will be at once ordered to Dodge
City, and placed under your command and control, so that you shall have full
authority and full power to preserve the peace and protect every individual
that may be in the city. If this is not sufficient, proceedings will be com-
menced, for the purpose of at once installing officers in power who will dis-
charge their duties honestly and faithfully to the public. Please give me a
full careful and correct statement of the condition of affairs now, and say to
me whether people who have been driven away will be permitted to return
to their homes. Use the telegraph freely at my expense, as I have a train
ready, and a company of troops ready to go to your city on a moment's notice.
I desire you also to read this letter to the mayor of Dodge City, and say
to him that I invoke his assistance to aid you in preserving the peace of the
town, and that I hope that the representations that have been made to me about
his conduct are untrue. I should regret to hear or to know that the mayor of a
city of the state of Kansas should so far forget the duties of the high office that
he fills as to permit himself to become a party to a mob, and head anybody, or
any crowd of individuals, in trampling upon the rights and privileges of other
citizens. The good name of the city demands that it shall not be true, and
the reputation of the state requires that no man occupying that position should
be guilty of such conduct, or should permit such things to be tolerated in his
city. Say to him in addition to this, if he cannot preserve the peace with the
police force that he has, it is his duty to discharge every one of them, and
appoint a new set of men who will act in preserving the peace, and if he cannot
do this, to notify me, and I will furnish him with men who will act. I hope that
all the difficulty has blown over, that there will be no more excitement or
trouble over this matter.
I have assured parties who have written to me, and who have appealed to
74 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
me for protection and aid, that they might be permitted to return to their
homes, that the sheriff of the county would see that they were protected.
You have a right to call out all the men that you want to aid you in this, and
in doing it, you will be simply doing your duty to the state, and maintaining
the good name and reputation of your city, your county and the state of
Kansas. The peace of the city is with you, Mr. Sheriff, and I expect it to be
safe in your hands.
I am, my dear sir,
Your obedient servant,
G. W. CLICK
Governor of Kansas
GEO. T. HINKLE,
Sheriff Ford County,
Dodge City, Kansas. 18
Even after this letter Sheriff Hinkle seemed not to understand
that driving persons out of town rather than trying them for their
crimes, whether real or imaginary, in the courts, was an unlawful
act. His next telegram to Governor Click still upheld the actions
of the mayor:
Received at Topeka, Kan. 11:15 am 5/12 1883
DATED DODGE CITY, Ks.
To HON. G. W. CLICK:
Your message reed this am. I will continue to do all in my power to pre-
serve order in the community yet I cannot become responsible for the actions
of any individual. Mr. Short's expulsion from the city is the direct result
of his own action and the feeling of the people generally is very strong against
him. The city is as quiet now as it has ever been but I fear that if Mr.
Short returns trouble will ensue. It is evident that but one side of the matter
that caused these men to leave [the] city has been presented to you and would
respy suggest that you ask a statement of facts from prominent men of our
city among whom I will name Hons. R. M. Wright; G. M. Hoover; J. T. Whit-
law, County Atty.; R. J. Hardesty; Geo. B. Cox; F. C. Zimmerman; N. B. Klaine
and numerous others.
Respectfully
GEO. T. HINKLE
Sheriff 17
The Topeka Commonwealth, May 12, 1883, carried its regular
daily resume of the troubles but also included an interview with an
unnamed "gentleman from Dodge City":
"What about these women?" asked the reporter.
"They are a necessary evil. The cattle men who come to the town expect
to meet them. They are not the wives of gamblers, as has been stated.
They have never insulted a lady yet and only show themselves at night."
"D. M. Frost, who publishes a paper there [the Ford County Globe], was
denouncing the mob, when he was threatened with death if he didn't keep still.
"Dr. Chateau [A. S. Chouteau], who is a friend of Short, went with him
to the calaboose when he was arrested and while returning, was denouncing
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 75
Short's arrest without a complaint. Mayor Deager said afterwards that the
bullet which was aimed at him was only stopped because he (Deager) put
his thumb under the hammer of the pistol and prevented its discharge. When
asked why he didn't arrest the man who was going to shoot, he replied: 'He
was one of our party/ "
Luke and W. F. Petillon were interviewed in the Topeka Daily
Capital, May 12, 1883:
THE MEN FROM DODGE.
THEIR MISSION TO TOPEKA, AND THEIR
STORY OF THE TROUBLE IT PUTS A VERY DIFFERENT
FACE ON THE MATTER.
The editorial rooms of the CAPITAL were visited last evening by Mr. Luke
Short, of Dodge City, and Mr. Petillon, district court clerk of Ford county,
whose residence is the same. Mr. Short's name has appeared in the dispatches
several times lately, as that of one of the persons expelled from Dodge City,
in the interests of morality and good order. Learning that he was in Topeka
yesterday, a reporter called at the Copeland, but finding him absent, left his
card. In response he called during the evening, with Mr. Petillon, and jointly
they gave a full statement of the controversy from their point of view, bringing
forward a number of facts which have not been presented heretofore.
The narrative below is given substantially as drawn from these gentlemen
in conversation, and solely on their authority, subject to all allowances which
may be necessary, because of Mr. Short's personal interest in the matter.
THE SHORT AND PETILLON OF IT.
Mr. Short is a Texan, who came to Dodge some two years ago, and having
been interested in the cattle business himself as, indeed, he is still he had
an extensive acquaintance with other cattlemen and their employees. At Dodge
he engaged in the saloon business with a man named Harris, and his friendly
relations with the numerous Texans coming to Dodge has made Harris & Short's
saloon the most popular and profitable one in the city. Mr. Webster, late
mayor of Dodge City, is also a saloon keeper, and during his term of office
removed from a more remote location to one next door to Harris & Short's
"Long Branch," on Front street.
While Short's popularity has increased, that gentleman modestly stated,
Webster's has declined, and finding it impracticable to secure his re-election
to the mayoralty, Webster some weeks before election brought out Mr. Deger
as a candidate, against whom Harris, Short's partner, was nominated. Deger
had been a foreman for Lee & Reynolds, who are engaged in freighting, and
had their place of business outside the city limits. About March 1st, however,
it is said, Deger began boarding at the hotel in town, in order to gain a legal
residence.
The night before election the construction trains of the Santa Fe railroad,
manned by men residing at different places scattered along the line, were run
into Dodge, and the next morning the men were all on hand, obtained control
of the election board by filling vacancies under the forms of law, and voted.
Thus Deger was elected by a majority of seventy-one in a poll of between
300 and 400 votes. Deger, Messrs. Short and Petillon declare, is a mere
cieature of Webster.
76 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The saloons of Dodge City, these gentlemen say, are all of similar character
including bars for drinking, gambling tables, and games of various kinds,
arrangements for variety performances, or at least singing, and all employ
women who are admittedly of loose character, and are provided with facilities
for plying their business. In addition to the saloons there is a dance house,
carried on by a man named Nixon, who was formerly an adherent of Harris, but
shortly before election transferred his allegiance to the Deger-Webster party.
His place is said to be of the lowest and vilest character.
Gambling is recognized and licensed by ordinances of the city, a "fine" of
$5 a month being collected on account of each table, and the same amount
being levied on every dealer of any game. An attempt was made in the common
council to raise the tax to $12.50 a month, but it was not carried. An ordinance
was passed, however, shortly after the accession of the new administration,
prohibiting loose women from pursuing their solicitations in any public place.
As a collateral incident it is asserted the Webster-Deger party promised
Nixon, in consideration of his support in the election, not only that he should
be unmolested in his dance house business, but that he should have no com-
petitor in the city.
The remainder of the article was merely a rehash of Luke's peti-
tion before Governor Click, except that in the article Short claimed
that "the sheriff of Ford county has taken no part in the matter. Mr.
Short says that officer sent word to him that he (the sheriff) was a
sufferer from heart disease and dared do nothing for fear excitement
might prove fatal/' 18
On the afternoon of May 12 Luke had returned to Kansas City
and Petition was bound for Dodge bearing the governor's message
to Sheriff Hinkle. The next day, Sunday, the governor received this
telegram:
5/13 1883
Received at Topeka, Kan.
DATED DODGE CITY, Ks.
To HON. G. W. CLICK:
Your letter to Sheriff has been laid before committee of citizens. We judge
you have been badly misinformed. Send adjutant genl. or some proper person
to investigate before you act. Answer.
CEO. T. HINKLE, Sheriff; G. M. HOOVER; R. M. WRIGHT; R. W. EVANS;
M. R. DRAPER; J. COLLAR; HENRY STURM; GEO. B. Cox; J. T. WHITELAW, Co.
Atty.; P. G. REYNOLDS; FRED T. M. WENIE, City Atty.; M. S. CULVER, Chair-
man Dem. C. Com. 19
Also on Sunday, May 13, 1883, a well-known ex-Kansan arrived
in Kansas City to aid Luke Short. His name was Bat Masterson.
The Kansas City (Mo.) Journal, May 15, 1883, reported:
The troubles at Dodge City are assuming serious proportions, and the gov-
ernor must interfere very soon or a terrible tragedy will undoubtedly result.
The men driven out may be men who are classed with the sporting fraternity,
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 77
but as far as known they are no worse than the men who have been chiefly
instrumental in driving them out. But setting all question of comparative
respectability aside, the whole affair resolves itself into a matter of victory for
superior force, and not law. Luke Short, the chief of the band of men lately
exiled, has his interests in the town, and claims he has been wronged. The
vigilantes who drove him and his friends away assert that they are evil char-
acters. Law has been set aside and force is the sole resort. Governor Click
has been attempting to preserve the peace, but so far has made no great
progress. The sheriff acknowledges that he cannot protect the exiled men
should they return, and so the matter stands at present.
Yesterday a new man arrived on the scene who is destined to play a part
in a great tragedy. This man is Bat Masterson, ex-sheriff of Ford county, and
one of the most dangerous men the West has ever produced. A few years ago
he incurred the enmity of the same men who drove Short away, and he was
exiled upon pain of death if he returned. His presence in Kansas City means
just one thing, and that is he is going to visit Dodge City. Masterson precedes
by twenty-four hours a few other pleasant gentlemen who are on their way
to the tea party at Dodge. One of them is Wyatt Earp, the famous marshal
of Dodge, another is Joe Lowe, otherwise known as "Rowdy Joe;" and still
another is "Shotgun" Collins; but worse than all is another ex-citizen and
officer of Dodge, the famous Doc Halliday.
A brief history of the careers of these gentlemen who will meet here tomor-
row will explain the gravity of the situation. At the head is Bat Masterson. He
is a young man who is credited with having killed one man for every year of
his life. This may be exaggerated, but he is certainly entitled to a record of
a dozen or more. He is a cool, brave man, pleasant in his manners, but terrible
in a fight, and particularly dangerous to the ruling clique, which he hates
bitterly. Doc. Halliday is another famous "killer." Among the desperate men
of the West, he is looked upon with the respect born of awe, for he has killed
in single combat no less than eight desperadoes. He was the chief character
in the Earp war at Tombstone, where the celebrated brothers, aided by Halliday,
broke up the terrible rustlers.
Wyatt Earp is equally famous in the cheerful business of depopulating the
country. He has killed within our personal knowledge six men, and he is
popularly accredited with relegating to the dust no less than ten of his fellow
men. "Shot-Gun" Collins was a Wells, Fargo & Co. messenger, and obtained
his name from the peculiar weapon he used, a sawed off shot gun. He has
killed two men in Montana and two in Arizona, but beyond this his exploits
are not known. Luke Short, the man for whom these men have rallied, is a
noted man himself. He has killed several men and is utterly devoid of fear.
There are others who will make up the party, but as yet they have not yet
arrived.
This gathering means something, and it means exactly that these men are
going to Dodge City. They have all good reason to go back. Masterson says
he wants to see his old friends. Short wants to look after his business. Earp
and Holliday, who are old deputy sheriffs of Dodge, also intend visiting
friends, so they say, and Collins is going along to keep the others company.
"Rowdy Joe," who has killed about ten men, and is the terror of Colorado, goes
about for pleasure. Altogether, it is a very pleasant party. Their entrance
into Dodge will mean that a desperate fight will take place. Governor Click
78 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
has, up to the present time, failed to preserve order, and unless he takes some
determined action within the next twenty-four hours, the men swear they will
go to Dodge and protect themselves. For the good of the state of Kansas, it
is hoped the governor will prevent violence. 20
When news of Bat's arrival at Kansas City, and the rumor of the
proposed visit from these celebrated "dead-eye" gunslingers reached
the ears of Sheriff Hinkle he frantically wired Governor Click:
8 pm May 15, 1883
To HON. G. W. CLICK, Emp.foria]:
Are parties coming with Short for the purpose of making trouble? Answer
quick.
CEO. T. HlNKLE. 21
Whatever the governor's reply Hinkle must have misinterpreted
it for he assumed he was directed to enlist a large posse with which
to greet Short on his arrival. Click, however, denied that this was
his intention. The Topeka Daily Capital, May 16, 1883, did little
to clear matters up:
DODGE CITY AGAIN.
A RUMOR OF INTERVENTION WHICH Cov. CLICK DENIES.
THE EVICTED IN CONSULTATION THOUGHT THEY
PROPOSE TO RETURN DISPOSITION OF THE
PEOPLE OF DODGE TROUBLE AHEAD.
UNDER WHAT LAW?
DODGE CITY, May 15. Much excitement exists here to-night. The sheriff
has been ordered by Gov. Click to arm forty men and have them at the train,
to see that order is preserved on the arrival of Luke Short, who is supposed
to be on his way here. Short is a prominent whisky and sporting man, and
was, by the authorities, forced to leave the city. He comes, it is said, on the
Governor's permission, and things this evening look threatening.
(Governor Click returned from Emporia at 2 o'clock this morning. He
says he sent no such orders as stated above, but positively declined to say
what directions he had given asserting it was a private matter between himself
and the sheriff.)
CONFERENCE IN KANSAS CrrY.
KANSAS CITY, May 15. An informal committee of three citizens of Dodge
City arrived this evening to confer with Luke Short, who is here with Bat
Masterson, one of his friends. The members are G. M. Hoover, banker and
Representative in the Legislature; R. M. Wright, merchant; C. M. Beeson, a
prominent cattle man. They were in consultation with Short and Masterson
all the evening. Being interviewed afterward they were very reticent, saying
they would remain over to-morrow and would then reach some conclusion.
Their mission is to effect a settlement of the present difficulty if possible and
they brought letters to Short from Sheriff Hinkle who it is understood, says
if Short returns to Dodge he (the sheriff) and the mayor will endeavor to
afford protection, but that the feeling is very strong and he would advise
Short not to come. One of the committeemen said that if Short were to go
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 79
back he would probably be allowed to remain unmolested long enough to
settle his business affairs, but if he should insist upon staying there there would
most likely be trouble, and his life would be in danger. It is not known to-
night whether Short intends to start to-morrow as intended, with his friends,
who were to meet him at Topeka. The committeemen here are apparently
urging him to give up the idea, or at least to wait a day or two in hopes of a
peaceful settlement of the difficulties.
AN INTERVIEW WITH His EXCELLENCY.
EMPORIA, Ks., May 15. A reporter of the Emporia daily Republican inter-
viewed Gov. Click, who was in this city this evening, in relation to the condi-
tion of affairs at Dodge City. The Governor said that the trouble there has
grown out of a misapprehension in the management of local affairs, and the
feeling between the parties has become so intensified that many of the citizens
expect, not without cause, that serious trouble may follow. Governor Click
says the sheriff of that county, with whom he is in constant communication
by telegraph, has ample means at his command with the aid of good citizens
to preserve the peace. The Governor expressed the hope that he would not be
called upon to interfere in the settlement of their local difficulties and thinks
that by a judicious course on the part of the local authorities peace will be
maintained.
Meanwhile Sheriff Hinkle organized a posse and met the train
which he thought carried Luke Short and Bat Masterson. The
Dodge City Times, May 17, 1883, said:
THE SHERIFF'S POSSE.
Under orders from Gov. Click, Sheriff Hinkel organized a posse of 45
men Tuesday evening, and upon the arrival of the "Cannon Ball" train pro-
ceeded to the depot, under the assumption that Short and Masterson were
on the train destined for Dodge City. Yesterday the Governor telegraphed
the sheriff to keep his men in readiness, in case of necessity. We trust the
Governor's nerves have become quieted by this time and that he is tired of
the Dodge City business. The Governor will be a very sick man before many
days.
Obviously the Times was Republican in sentiment.
On the day that Luke and Bat were expected to arrive in Dodge
a group of citizens of that place prepared a statement which they
sent to the Topeka Daily Capital. The statement exhibited the
sentiments of the pro-Deger group and was published in the
Capital, May 18, 1883:
A PLAIN STATEMENT
OF THE RECENT TROUBLES AT DODGE CITY, Ks.,
As MADE BY THE OFFICIALS OF THAT CITY SIMPLY
A DESIRE TO RID THEIR COMMUNITY OF
BLACKLEGS AND GAMBLERS.
DODGE CITY, Ks., May 15, 1883 There has been quite a commotion among
the papers of Kansas City and Topeka, and while they would have the readers
of their respective papers believe that Dodge is in the hands of a mob, and
that the persons and property of peaceable citizens are in constant jeopardy
80 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from destruction, the city itself and its inhabitants have been pursuing the
even tenor of their way, the city assuming an aspect peaceable if anything,
more so than it has for years. The doings of violence to person and property
by the mob in Dodge City is all being done in Kansas City and Topeka through
the press, while in fact Dodge City itself, the scene of all the lawlessness as
stated, is quiet, orderly and peaceable.
The occasion for what the press have called trouble is only a repetition of
what is found to be necessary about every two years in Dodge City; that is,
a clearing out of an element composed of bold, daring men of illegal profession
who, from toleration by the respectable portion of the community, are allowed
to gain a prestige found difficult to unseat. This element has to be banished,
or else the respectable people have to be bulldozed and browbeat by a class
of men without any vested interest or visible means of support, who should
be allowed to remain in a decent community only by toleration, but who,
instead, after gaining prestige, they undertake to dictate the government of
the better class. This is the element which Dodge City has recently ordered
out of town, an act which is done in every town of good government. The
facts have been misunderstood, both to and by the press, and to the Governor.
The true state of facts is about as follows:
At the last April election Deger and Harris ran for Mayor of the city.
Harris is a gambler by profession and living in open adultery with a public
prostitute, and the interest which he has in the town is merely of a local
character. He could close up and settle his affairs in one day. The only
real estate that he owns, and on which he pays taxes, is a small house in
which he lives, and he would not own that only it is cheaper than for him to
rent. It is worth about $400. He is a man whose character no respectable
man in the community in which he lives would vouch for. He is a man that
is recognized by the decent people as a sympathizer, friend and shielder
of the gambler, thug, confidence man and murderer, who may be arrested
by the authorities for offenses against the law. He is always to be found
on their bond for recognizance, no matter how glaring the deed or heinous
the offense for which they stand charged.
This man was the candidate for mayor representing the gambling element.
Deger, who is a man of irreproachable character and honesty, is an old resident
of the town and represented the better class of people and as a matter of
course, as was conceded, he was elected by a large majority, but it was very
apparent that Harris felt very sore over his defeat. It was also very apparent
that he and some of his followers who were mostly composed of gamblers were
going to buck against everything the new administration done.
At the first meeting of the new administration it was found necessary to
pass and revise certain ordinances and among them was one to prohibit women
of lewd character from loitering around saloons and upon the streets. This
ordinance was passed upon the application of a majority of the business men
including the saloon men, of the town. They also passed another ordinance
in regard to gamblers, which they considered stringent, and loudly denounced
it, and upon the application of a committee representing the gamblers, the
councilmen made concessions, and in fact, made all the concessions asked, in
order to preserve peace and harmony. The ordinance in regard to women,
went into effect two days before the concession was made by the councilmen.
The first day and night the women obeyed the ordinance without a single
PRINCIPALS OF THE DODGE CITY "WAR"
W. H. HARRIS, co-owner with Luke Short
of the Long Branch saloon, was also vice-
president of the Bank of Dodge City.
LUKE SHORT, epitome of frontier sartorial
perfection and a gambler, was chief pro-
tagonist in the celebrated "war."
C. M. BEESON, one of three prominent
Dodge Citians who attempted to effect a
peaceful settlement by visiting Short in
Kansas City.
MICHAEL W. SUTTON, an attorney and
former friend of W. B. "Bat" Masterson,
was in the camp of the opposition during
the troubles.
THE DODGE CITY PEACE COMMISSION
Opposed by the governor, and the touted superior fire power of
ousted Luke Short's recruited "army" of assorted gunslingers, Dodge
City administration forces knuckled under, and Short was allowed to
return. Before disbanding, several of the victorious "army" posed for
a picture (June, 1883) which long has been labelled "The Dodge City
Peace Commission."
The most widely used print (upper left) is that showing only seven
members, though the photograph is obviously, and crudely, retouched.
Another version (left) contains the correct number but William M.
Tilghman, who was not the marshal in 1883 and who had little part in
the trouble, has been substituted for W. F. Petillon.
The third and correct version (above, and see p. 100) shows Petillon at
the right. The men have been identified as (back row, from left): W. H.
Harris, Luke Short, W. B. Masterson, W. F. Petillon; (front row, from left):
C. E. Bassett, Wyatt Earp, M. F. McLain (or McLane), Neil Brown.
The Tilghman print, courfesy Oklahoma Historical Society. The Petillon
photograph, courfesy Mrs. Merritt L. Beeson, Dodge City.
D. M. FROST, editor of the Ford County NICHOLAS B. KLAINE, antagonist of
Globe which favored Short. Short, and editor of the Times.
GEORGE WASHINGTON CLICK, ninth
governor of the state of Kansas (1883-
1885), and the first Democrat to hold that
office. Governor Click supported Gambler
Luke Short's return to Dodge City, contend-
ing that due process of law not "mob"
rule should prevail.
ADJ. GEN. THOMAS H. MOONLIGHT,
Governor Click's emissary to Dodge City.
Traveling incognito, he sent word: "Meet
me on train this evening, important. Will
be on platform holding up newspaper." In
that era whiskers obviously were insufficient
identification.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 81
exception, but the second night, which was the night of the concession made
by the mayor and councilmen, Short, Harris, and another gambler, who were
loud in their abuse of the ordinance, there being no women down town, went
to a house of ill fame, and, according to their spoken words, forced two
of the inmates down to their saloon to violate the ordinance, saying that they
would pay the fines and costs assessed against the women. The women, after
being tried and fined for the offense, had to pay their own fines and costs
themselves, and when ordered to leave town, and after Short and Harris re-
fused to pay their fines, as above stated, they made a statement, as above set
forth, before the police judge, and since.
The officers, as was their duty, arrested the women and locked them up
in the calaboose, for a violation of the city ordinance. After this arrest, Short,
the partner of Harris, who is a gambler and an acknowledged hard character,
attempted to assassinate L. C. Hartman, a special policeman who assisted in
the arrest, by shooting at him from an obscure spot after night, which happened
about as follows.
After making the arrest, Hartman walked down the principal street, and,
when in front of a general store, which was closed, the front being dark, Hart-
man met Short and another gambler coming up the street. While passing by,
Short and his companion, Short turned and drew a pistol and said, "There is
one of the son's of ; lets throw it into him," immediately firing two
shots at Hartman from his six-shooter. Hartman, in his endeavor to turn upon
Short, in some way fell to the ground. Short, supposing he had killed him,
started to the saloon of one Tom Land, near by, but Hartman, immediately
recovering himself, fired one shot at Short. Strange to say, neither of the shots
fired took effect.
Short gave bonds in the sum of $2,000 and afterwards filed a complaint
against Hartman, stating that Hartman had fired the first shot, half a dozen of
Short's confederates being ready to testify that he (Hartman) had done so,
although there are several reliable business men who witnessed the affair, who
will testify that Short fired the two first shots as above stated.
The women were locked up. Short and Harris were bound they should
not remain locked up all night, as is customary with prisoners when locked
up by city authorities. By intimidating some of the city officers by threats, etc.,
they affected their purpose. In all these proceedings, Short was the leader
and spokesman. He is the man who but a few weeks ago pulled out his pistol
and beat one of our most respectful citizens over the head until he was carried
home on a stretcher, and his life was despaired of for several days. He is a man
who, on several occasions, has picked up chairs and broke them over the heads
of men who, as it happened, had done something in his place of business that
displeased him. He is a man that killed his man, an old gray headed man 57
years old, in Tombstone, Arizona, and has been run out of that and other places
by the respectable people. He is a man who was an intimate friend of such
men as Jack McCarty, the notorious and well known three card monte and
confidence man, known all through the west as being a hard character, and
who recently died near this place after being convicted of highway robbery
and about to receive his sentence of ten years.
Harris and Short keep a saloon that is a refuge and resort for all confidence
men, thieves and gamblers that visit the town, and the statements that have
been made in regard to the place kept by Webster are false. He is regarded as
6 1586
82 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a man of personal honor and integrity, and as mayor of the city, an office he
held for two terms, he so conducted the affairs of the city, and made such
vigorous war on bunko steerers, thugs and confidence men as to gain the
gratitude and respect of every law abiding citizen of the place.
It was very apparent to the mayor and councilmen of the city that this
element, with Harris and Short at their head, were going to violate, encourage,
shield and protect all violators of the laws of the city, and that the probability
was that there would be trouble in the city during the whole of their ad-
ministration if they and their followers remained. Short had attempted to
assassinate an officer in the discharge of his duty, had bulldozed the city officers,
had violated, aided and abetted in the violation of the laws, and at a meeting of
the mayor and a large number of citizens, including the council, it was, after due
deliberation and consideration, determined to arrest Luke Short and his fol-
lowers and let them leave town, and accordingly, he, with six other associates,
were arrested on complaint and warrant and locked in the calaboose and pre-
cautions taken that they did not escape, and were allowed to leave town the
next day. There was no mob violence used whatever. None but regular
officers of the city made the arrest, but in case they were resisted there was
sufficient force composed of armed citizens held in reserve to aid in the arrest.
It was afterwards ascertained by one of the parties arrested, who peached on
the balance, that it was known by Short and party they were to be arrested,
and as soon as the officers came to arrest them it was understood they were
organized and that Short was to start the shooting and the balance of the party
were to follow it up, but as stated by him "somebody weakened." The citizens
understood the characters of the men they were dealing with and were prepared
for them, and this was the occasion for the circulation that it was a mob. It
was bona fide citizens armed to aid the officers if necessary in the enforcement
of the laws.
Much of the confusion and misunderstanding regarding the situation in our
city is due to the misrepresentations made to the Governor by one W. F.
Petillon. Petillon is clerk of the district court and lives about six miles north
of Dodge City on a claim of 160 acres. He had been recognized and identified
as a Harris man some time before the election, which came about as follows:
Jack McCarty had been arrested at this point for highway robbery, and had
given bond for $2,000. Harris, as one of the bondsmen, and Short, having
no property against which execution could issue, got a citizen worth some real
estate to sign the bond and he (Short) deposited the amount to secure the
party so signing. The bond was given for McCarty's appearance to be tried.
McCarty appeared and in the course of the trial it was evident that from the
evidence McCarty would be convicted. After conviction and before sentence,
McCarty escaped.
When his escape became known, the clerk, Petillon, was applied to for the
bond, he being the proper custodian of the papers in the case. Upon applica-
tion, he could not give it, as he did not know where it was. He had it at the
last day of court and was the one seen to have it last. The bond was never
found, although he acknowledged it was properly filed, and it is impossible to
obliterate from the minds of a great many respectable people here that Petillon
knew why and where that bond disappeared. It has been a noticeable feature
that since that time Petillon has been a firm believer and supporter of the
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 83
Harris and Short combination. This is the kind of a man Governor Click
sends for, instead of sending for a proper representative as any reasonable,
intelligent, discreet man should to investigate.
The condition of Dodge City at present is orderly and law-abiding, and the
prospects are it will so continue if these men remain away. If they are al-
lowed to remain it will be against the will and without the consent of a
majority of the law-abiding citizens of this community, and if the Governor,
through his interference and encouragement, forces these men back on us
he does so at his peril, and if there is bloodshed as a result the responsibility
will not rest entirely with the Governor, who, had he not given the matter
encouragement, it would have passed unnoticed, as an occurrence frequent in
all cities desirous of being law-abiding, and of good government.
Dated at Dodge City, Kansas, this 15th day of May, 1883.
L. E. DEGER, Mayor, R. E. BURNS, Police Judge,
H. B. BELL, N. B. KLAINE, City Treasurer.
H. T. DRAKE, L. C. HARTMAN, City Clerk.
HENRY STURM, C. E. CHIPMAN, Assistant Marshal.
GEORGE S. EMERSON, FRED T. M. WENIE, City Attorney.
H. M. BEVERLEY, J. L. BRIDGES, City Marshal.
Councilmen of Dodge City. T. L. MCCARTY, City Physician.
On May 16, 1883, Luke and Bat returned to Topeka for another
visit with the governor. The Topeka Daily Capital, May 17, re-
ported their coming:
THE MEN FROM DODGE.
Luke Short, Bat Masterson and Mr. Petillon, of Dodge City, returned from
their conference with friends at Kansas City yesterday, and are at the Copeland.
Mr. Short is fully aware that his return to Dodge will be strongly objected to
and that forcible means will be used to prevent his remaining any time. It
is understood, however, that he intends soon to make an attempt.
That day, too, Sheriff Hinkle had learned that Short and Master-
son would not make the attempt to re-enter Dodge via the Cannon
Ball. At 1:20 A. M., May 16, 1883, this message arrived in Topeka:
To HON. GEO. W. CLICK:
Agreeable to your message I was at train with fifty armed men. No one
came. Shall I hold these men in readiness for use?
GEO. T. HlNKLE. 22
Governor Click's reply has not been preserved, but in answer to
his own question Hinkle telegraphed this message to Topeka at
2:02 P. M. that same day:
To HON. G. W. CLICK:
Will have men ready to act if occasion demands. If Short returns peaceably
and alone I can protect him and will continue to do all in my power to preserve
order in the community.
GEO. T. HINKLE
Sheriff. 2 *
84 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
By this time, after having heard from numerous parties on both
sides, Governor Click must have desired some first hand information
from an objective reporter. Possibly that was the reason Kansas
Adj. Gen. Thomas Moonlight turned up in Dodge City on May 16. 24
Whatever his motives, Click did not escape further visits from "com-
mittees" from southwest Kansas. One such group, composed of 12
Dodgeites, boarded the eastbound Santa Fe on May 16 with the in-
tention of setting the chief executive straight in the matter of the
Dodge City troubles. The Dodge City Times, May 17, 1883, re-
ported:
GONE TO SEE CLICK.
Twelve citizens left on the cannon ball train this morning for Topeka, where
they will appear before His Excellency George Washington Click, Governor
of Kansas, and present him with the facts on the situation in Dodge City. The
Governor's counsel has been such men as Petillon and Galland, and he has
been wofully misinformed. His proffered protection to murderers has aroused
indignation. The following are the names of the citizens who left for Topeka:
R. J. Hardesty, G. S. Emerson, Elder Collins, R. E. Rice, S. A. Bullard, P. G.
Reynolds, S. Mullendore, T. L. McCarty, Henry Sturm, A. Dienst, F. J. Durand,
L. W. Jones. They will return tomorrow afternoon. 25
On May 18, 1883, the Topeka Daily Capital made an attempt to
draw reason from confusion but only added to the complexity by
including an interview with Luke:
MOOiNBEAMS ON DODGE.
THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL ON THE GROUND
A COMMITTEE IN TOPEKA
EXPRESSIONS FROM ALL SIDES.
It was learned yesterday that Governor Click had commissioned Col. Tom
Moonlight Minister Plenipotentiary to Ford county, to negotiate a treaty by
which peace might be restored to that distracted community, and that Col.
Moonlight was on the ground.
THE SHERIFF'S INSTRUCTIONS.
A reporter of the CAPITAL yesterday called Gov. Click's attention to the
statement in the dispatches of yesterday morning, that:
"The sheriff, Geo. T. Hinkle, by order of the Governor, met the 11 o'clock
train with fifty armed men to protect Luke Short and his companion, who was
understood to be the famous Bat Masterson, formerly sheriff of this county,
but now outlawed by the city officials/'
The Governor again said he had given the sheriff no such orders. He had
simply reminded that officer that it was his (the sheriff's) duty to preserve
the peace of the community; had advised the sheriff to call to his aid a suf-
ficient number of good citizens and had assured the sheriff that he would be
supported by the authority of the State if necessary.
In response to explicit inquiries Governor Click said he had directed the
sheriff in no respect whatever as to the details of his action or the means to
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 85
be taken to preserve the peace had not advised him to organize and arm a
posse of any specific number of men, and had only suggested particular watch-
fulness about the railroad station on the arrival of trains.
The Governor added a statement that as a result of his counsel, Mr. Short,
and his immediate friends, had relinquished the idea of returning to Dodge
City at present, and had pledged himself to use his influence to preserve peace
and good order in that place.
MR. SHORT ADMITS IT.
At a later hour in the day Mr. Short was found at the Copeland, and on
inquiry he admitted that he had given the pledge referred to by the Governor
and would make no effort to return to Dodge City, at least at present.
The sheriff, Mr. Short said, had given assurance that ample protection would
be afforded him in doing so. But Mr. Short continued, "If the sheriff is sincere
in saying so, why has he not put some of my friends on his posse? Instead of
doing that he has called to his assistance men known to be my bitterest enemies.
I would as soon trust myself in the hands of the mob as to the protection of
the sheriff's posse." Mr. Short said he was convinced that the plot for his
assassination was perfected, and that his life would be the forfeit if he revisited
Dodge City.
He said he expected to remain in Topeka some days yet, but was not ques-
tioned and made no statement in relation to his intentions for the future.
Mr. Short, who has been observed by many on the streets of Topeka during
the last week, would hardly meet, in his personal appearance, the expectations
of many who have heard and seen him described as a "red-handed desperado/'
He is a man rather under medium hight, but well built and firmly knit, with
nothing in his features or complexion to indicate irregular or dissipated habits.
He is cleanly-shaved, excepting only a natty little moustasche, and is dressed
with great care and in good style. He sports a magnificent diamond pin, and
yesterday twirled between his fingers an elegant black walking stick with a gold
head. The CAPITAL knows little of his past history, and can say nothing as to
his claim to the reputation which has been given him, but there is no doubt he is
able to take care of himself in almost any kind of a crowd.
A COMMITTEE FROM DODGE.
Mr. S. A. Bullard, J. F. Durand, R. E. Rice and other gentlemen, making a
committee of twelve representative citizens of Dodge and Ford county, arrived
in Topeka yesterday afternoon and called upon Gov. Click. They had an
extended conversation with him, as a result of which they became satisfied that
peace would be maintained, and the interests of all good citizens protected.
Mr. Short will be assured that he will be permitted to return to Dodge and
remain there ten days for the purpose of closing his business. During that time
he will be perfectly safe against molestation of any kind.
The gentlemen of the committee called at the CAPITAL office for the purpose
of extending their thanks for the course it had taken in this matter, expressing
their gratification at the fairness with which it had been discussed, and at the
assistance it had given in reaching a satisfactory solution of the difficulty.
The Atchison Globe says: "F. C. Zimmerman, of Dodge City, one of the
largest general merchants in the State, in a private letter to Howell, Jewett &
Co., says; 1 suppose you have heard of the Dodge City trouble. The facts are
that we are having no trouble at all, except that the decent people are driving
out the bunko men, and disreputable citizens generally. These men complained
86 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to Gov. Click, who now wants to send them back under the protection of the
militia. Every decent citizen of Dodge City is indignant at the Governor's
action, who did not consult the respectable people about the matter, receiving
his information entirely from the other side. Everything is peaceable and
orderly here, and you may say as much to the newspapers/ "
The Topeka Daily Kansas State Journal, May 18, 1883, introduced
a new angle when it reported that the Dodge City ladies might
petition the governor for Luke's return:
A NICE YOUNG MAN.
Luke Short over whom all this Dodge City excitement and sensation has
been created, don't look like a man that would be dangerous to let live in any
community. In fact he is a regular dandy, quite handsome, and Dr. Galland
says, a perfect ladies man. He dresses fashionably, is particular as to his
appearance, and always takes pains to look as neat as possible. At Dodge City
he associates with the very best element, and leads in almost every social event
that is gotten up. Dr. Galland thinks the ladies will yet be heard from in
Mr. Shorts behalf. They have been very anxious to get up a petition among
themselves to send the governor and it will probably come yet.
On the same day the Topeka Daily Commonwealth published a
short interview with several of the 12 apostles out of Dodge City:
Col. Hardesty said that Dodge City was no more excited than Topeka; that
the trouble exists chiefly in the newspapers outside. That he had friends on
both sides; was an outsider so far as the row is concerned and didn't know
much about it.
Meeting another member of the committee, a reporter said he had been
informed that Sheriff Hinkle was disposed to preserve the peace and asked
whether he would protect Short.
"No," said the committeeman, "Short has been ordered out of town by the
citizens and will not be permitted to return."
"What are the charges against him?" asked the reporter.
"Disobeying the ordinances."
"Why don't you try him in the courts there and punish him?"
"Well, he is a bad man generally. He was ordered out of town a year ago,
and allowed to return on promise of good behavior. But he is a bad man to
have around, and we don't want him there, and won't have him. Our pro-
ceedings may not be just exactly according to law, but it's a custom, and he
can't return."
"What will be done if he attempts to return?"
"He will be ordered to go on. If he does all will be well. If he resists the
order and tries to come back there may be trouble. But I guess all will be
peaceably settled."
Short said last night that he should go back; just when he don't know, nor
how. If he don't have an escort he will have to go under cover, and can't tell
how long it will take him to get there. If he persists in this intention, and
carries it out there may be trouble yet, but Gov. Click says he thinks all will
be settled in a few days.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 87
After hearing the committee of 12 from Dodge City, Governor
Click sent this letter to Sheriff George Hinkle:
May 17th 1883
GEO. T. HINKLE
Sheriff of Ford Co
Dr Sir
I understand from the Corn-tee of gentlemen, who called on me today
that you seem to have understood me as requiring you to protect Luke Short.
My advice and directions to you should be understood as requiring you to keep
the peace between all parties. I have not regarded Short in this trouble at
all, but only the peace and quiet of Dodge City and I have wanted to aid you
and support you in doing your duty as the chief peace officer in the county, and
in the discharge of that duty I offered you assistance to be under your control
and under your orders alone till you advised me that you could not preserve the
peace and in that case I would give you more assistance. I am well pleased
with your course and the vigilance as to which you have acted & I can assure
you shall have my support in the good work that the Gentlemen say you have
done and the faithful manner in which you have acted in the discharge of
your duty.
Your obt svt
G. W. CLICK
Governor 26
At this point the Santa Fe railroad, perhaps at the governor's sug-
gestion, instructed its Dodge City representative that he owed it
to his company to assume a position of strict neutrality:
ATCHISON, TOPEKA, & SANTA FE RAILROAD CO.
LAW DEPARTMENT.
GEORGE R. PECK,
General Solicitor
TOPEKA, KANSAS, May 17, 1883
HON GEO. W. CLICK
Governor
DEAR SIR
I have sent telegram copy enclosed to Mr. Sutton at Dodge City. Shall
be glad to do anything in my power to aid in restoring quiet.
Yours
G R PECK
The telegram Peck had sent to Mike Sutton read:
ATCHISON, TOPEKA, & SANTA FE RAILROAD CO.
LAW DEPARTMENT.
Telegram via R. R. Line GEO. R. PECK,
General Solicitor.
TOPEKA, KANS., May 17, 1883
M. W. SUTTON
Dodge City,
Parties will not return to Dodge. Considering your relation to the Company
and our large interests at Dodge City I think you should hold yourself aloof
88 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from both parties to the existing troubles. Do everything you can to allay
the excitement, and to prevent any hostility to the company.
GEO. R. PECK. 27
In the afternoon of May 17 Governor Click began to receive
telegraphic reports from Adjutant General Moonlight. Unfortu-
nately the governor's answers have not been preserved. Moon-
light's first wire arrived in Topeka at 2:25 P. M.:
To Gov. G. W. CLICK:
Luke Short to return alone to settle up private business within ten days
or until official release of his bond for McCarty and his own bond in city case.
All parties agree hereto.
THOMAS MOONLIGHT, Adjt. Genl.
L. E. DEGER, Mayor
GEO. T. HINKLE, Sheriff
Five minutes later a second wire arrived:
To Gov. CLICK:
Short can be protected from public attack but not from private assault.
The agreement gives safety. Is best for all concerned and only safe course.
THOS. H. MOONLIGHT.
The adjutant general sent his final wire which arrived in Topeka
at 9:06 P. M, May 17:
To Gov. GEO. W. CLICK:
Short has a right to come to his home. There will be no open riot or assault.
The sheriff will do his duty but cannot protect against private attack. This
is Short's danger. The agreement secures Short publicly and privately. It
will be the beginning for reconciliation & harmony will follow. I implore
you to accept this beginning and time will do the rest. The Sheriff is earnest
but should excitement continue he cannot secure men to do his bidding. I
again implore you to advise Short to return on the agreement. All his friends
say so and they ought to know. I leave for home in the morning unless you
order otherwise. Let me know.
THOS. MOONLIGHT. 28
The Ford County Globe, May 22, 1883, had this to say about
Moonlight's visit:
COL. THOMAS MOONLIGHT, the Adjutant General of the state, was in the
city all day Thursday, to ferret out, if possible, the late trouble in our midst,
and we believe on his return, will show to the governor that the people of our
fair hamlet are not half so bad as they were represented to be through the
press of the east. In fact, he made diligent search and inquiry, irrespective of
persons, cliques and combinations, and impartially listened to all who had any-
thing to relate concerning the trouble that is supposed to exist. We know not
what his report may be, but we feel confident that he will do justice to our
people and that he will in a great measure refute many of the very exagerated
reports that have been spread broadcast over the land, concerning the insur-
rection of our inhabitants. Justice is all we want and all our people can
reasonably ask for.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 89
On May 20, 1883, the Topeka Commonwealth published a letter
from an anonymous Dodgeite refuting the statement published in
the Capital on May 18 and signed by Mayor Deger and officials
of Dodge City. Though much of the letter was merely a rehash
of the pro-Short position, some new material was introduced:
THE FACTS IN THE DODGE CITY MATTER.
REPLY TO CAPITAL ARTICLE OF MAY 18th.
DODGE CITY, KAN., May 18, 1883.
To THE EDITOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH:
It is an old saying and a true one that "Might makes right/' and judging
by the affairs in Dodge City we almost believe the "old saw." The article
in the Topeka Daily Capital of Friday, May 18th, signed by the mayor and
city officers, but publicly fathered by A. B. Webster, misrepresents entirely
the affairs in our city. All who live in Dodge City and know the ins and outs of
its business know that this feud originated in the jealousy of Webster against
the Long Branch saloon, kept by Harris & Short. Webster, as mayor, having
shown himself tyrannical and overbearing, found it was impossible for himself
to be re-elected. He therefore imported a man who lived outside of the city, an
old friend of his from Hays City, named L. E. Deager. Deager is an old
"compadre" of Webster's, and well understood for years to have been his tool.
The election resulted in favor of Deager, owing to the importation of illegal
railroad votes by M. W. Sutton, the railroad attorney, who is a nephew of
Webster, assisted by Drake, a self-constituted guardian of railroad voters.
. . . [The paper here repeated the alleged agreement between Deger and
Bond & Nixon concerning the operation of dance halls and the difficulty be-
tween Short and Hartman.]
A delegation picked and chosen by the Webster faction, headed by Captain
Deinse, their chosen judge at the late city election, and composed of twelve
men are now visiting Governor Click on free passes furnished by the A. T. & S. F.
railroad, through M. W. Sutton, local attorney of said railroad company. Some
of this committee don't live in or own a cents worth of property in the city.
The cowardly attack on Mr. Harris in the said article has caused much comment.
His large interests here in cattle and other business, his living here for seven
years, his never having been charged with violating the law, make prominent
citizens feel and say that the Capital article is venomous, scurrilous and unfair.
It is stated in the Capital article that all his interests in Dodge City is a $400
house. It is well known and of record in the state that he is vice-president of
Dodge City Bank and owns one-fourth interest in the same. He is also the
owner of one-half of the well-known C. O. D. brand of cattle [Chalkley Beeson
owning the other portion] and holds a large stock of bonded whisky in Ken-
tucky, and could not wind up his affairs in six months without sacrificing thou-
sands of dollars. He represents more wealth than all the signers of the Capital
article combined.
Mr. W. F. Petillon, who is stigmatized and abused as a shyster from Chicago,
is a man who came here with his family on account of their health and this
climate. He has been here about six years, and has spent more money here
than he has made. He is an active, energetic and aggressive politician and
believes what he believes very strong. A democrat-dyed in the wool and
always takes a strong stand for his friends. This, of course, makes him enemies,
90 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and bitter ones, and the cowardly charge of his malfeasance in office of destroy-
ing certain bonds in the McCarty case. The facts in the bond business are as
follows: McCarty was found guilty by the jury on Friday evening, and on the
same day a motion for a new trial was made by one of his attorneys, and a
bond was also given by McCarty and approved by the judge, J. C. Strang, and
the bond was kept by the judge and not filed with the clerk. On Monday the
motion for a new trial was argued and overruled at 5:30 p.m. The court
then adjourned until 7:30 p. m., at which time on the call of the case Mr.
Gryden one of McCarty 's attorneys, announced that he was unable to find
McCarty. The court immediately took a recess, and deputy sheriffs were started
to hunt McCarty.
Mr. Petillion during the recess of the court and while the hunt for McCarty
was going on, happened in the office of M. W. Sutton, where he met Judge
Strang and M. W. Sutton. Judge Strang asked him for the McCarty bond.
Petillion told him he did not have the bond, and never had seen it. Then Judge
Strang said, "I handed the bond to Sutton to-day, and he (Sutton) said, 'I
threw it on your table while you were making out jurors' certificates and it
fell at your elbow.' " Petillion then told them it was a careless trick, as he had
not seen it. Judge Strang, Sutton and Petillion then went to the court house
and searched for the bond and failed to find it. This is the statement of
Petillion, which will be sworn to if necessary. . . .
A LOVER OF JUSTICE AND LAW.
In the Daily Kansas State Journal, Topeka, May 23, 1883, Luke
himself replied to the same Topeka Capital article of May 18, and
applied the tar brush with vigor:
SHOTS FROM SHORT.
TOPEKA, KAN., May 21, 1883.
Editor State Journal:
I hope you will be obliging enough to give me sufficient space in your
valuable paper to refute the malicious statement contained in the Topeka Capital
of the 18th inst., under the caption of "Plain Statement" coming from Dodge
City. It must be apparent to all those who have any direct knowledge of the
circumstances that brought about the recent state of affairs at Dodge, that the
article referred to was written for the purpose of justifying the parties who
participated in running me away from the town; as not one word of truth
appeared in the statement, which was unquestionably written by an adviser
and principal director of the mob, and who is too cowardly to openly identify
himself with them.
I simply refer to Mike Sutton, he who has been playing the part of "Judas"
in this matter all through. He endeavors in his carefully prepared statement,
which he had signed by all the city officials, to show that it was a fight between
the city authorities on one side and the gamblers thugs, thieves and prostitutes
on the other, which I denounce as a base, malicious falsehood, at least so far
as my side of the question is concerned. Myself and Harris have never cham-
pioned the cause of thieves, thugs and prostitutes since we had a business in
Dodge City, which is more than can be said of those who have opposed us.
They have published the lying article for the purpose of blackening the reputa-
tion of Mr. Harris and myself, in order to vindicate their own cowardly and
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 91
dastardly acts. They speak of Harris not having any interest in the city, and
that he only owns one little house, worth $400. To this I will say that he bought
this insignificant little house and paid for it and did not obtain it as the writer
of the "Plain Statement" obtained his, by jobbing and swearing a poor un-
fortunate creature into the penitentiary, as he did, in order to get possession
of his little homestead.
They speak of Mr. Harris being a man without character and that he is
living in an open state of adultery with a prostitute, which is an infamous lie,
and I will venture to say that there is not a man in Kansas who knows Mr.
Harris but will say that he is an honest and an honorable man, and a good
citizen, and can buy and sell every man whose name appears on that official
list. As to his living with a prostitute, I consider that a rather broad assertion
to make and consider such things his own private affairs and no body's business.
I can say however that if the accusation is true it is nothing more than what
Sutton, Webster, Diger, Chipman, Hartman, and others of that outfit have done
in the past, and are doing at present. Webster abandoned his family for a
prostitute, Nixon did the same, and there are only those who cannot get a
prostitute to live with, who have not got them, and it is a conceded fact by all
who have any knowledge of Dodge, that all the thieves, thugs and prostitutes
who have been in the town in the past two years have been directly and
indirectly connected with the city government. These assertions I am prepared
to prove in any court of justice in the world.
They go further on and state that I am a desperate character, and that not
long since I murdered an old grey haired man in Arizona and that I have
been run out of nearly every country I have lived in. Which is as infamous
as it is false, as there is not a civilized country under the face of the sun that
I can not go to with perfect safety, excepting Dodge City, and there is no law
to prevent me from living there, nothing but a band of cut throats and midnight
assassins, who have banded together for the purpose of keeping all those out
of the place who are liable to oppose them at the polls, or offer them opposition
in their business.
As to my murdering an old grey haired man in Arizona I was tried in a
court of justice for any offence I committed there, and the records will show that
it was a fair and impartial trial, and that I was honorably acquitted. The
delegation who came here to see the governor, and who claim to represent
the moral element of the town, was principally composed of tramps, who do
not own a single foot of ground in the country, and never have, and I want to
specially refer to the two leading spirits and spokesmen of said delegation,
the Rev. Mr. Collins, and Capt. Dinst, one an itinerant preacher, who by his
peregrinations, through charitably disposed committees manages to eke out a
miserable existence, and who, on the eve of the last municipal election at
Dodge, sold the influence of his congregation and his own, for fifteen dollars;
the other, Cap. Dinst, it is positively asserted by the most reputable citizens
of Dodge City, was engaged in robbing a safe at the flouring mills owned and
operated by one H. F. May. He is a man wholly without character, and cannot
get employment of any description with any responsible parties.
They further maliciously and unjustly assail Mr. Pettilon because he had the
temerity to visit the governor in my behalf, and in behalf of justice. They
accuse him of stealing a bond, which he did not do, and which he is prepared
to prove he did not do, as he never had the bond in his possession. It is a
92 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
fine accusation for such a man as Mike Sutton to make against such a man
as Pettilon.
There is not a responsible man in Ford county that believes Pettilon stole
the bond, but there is not an honest man in the county but believes Sutton
would steal a bond or anything else that he could get his hands on, and they
base their opinions on his past record as an official of the county. Every
inhabitant of the county knows that not over eight months ago he resigned
his position as county attorney in order to accept a two thousand dollar fee
to defend one of the most cold blooded murderers that ever appeared in any
court of justice. He knew that by resigning he could defeat the ends of
justice, as the man whom he had appointed in his stead was wholly incompetent
to conduct a successful prosecution and the result was an acquittal and a red-
handed murderer turned loose upon the world to repeat his crime. This man
was not run out of town or molested by the city officials, who are so loud in
their vaunted pretentions of justice.
They state in their article that I attempted to assassinate one of their police-
men, and that I fired at him from a place of concealment, which shows it to
be a lie on its face, for had I done as they say I did, it would be an easy
matter for them to convict me, and they would only be too glad to do so had
they the evidence to warrant a conviction, but on the contrary they knew
their policeman attempted to assassinate me and I had him arrested for it
and had plenty of evidence to have convicted him, but before it came to trial
they had organized a vigilance committee and made me leave, so that I could
not appear against him. And this is what they call justice and the law abiding
element clearing out the lawless characters. If it be true, it is a sad commentary
on Kansas justice and those who are supposed to execute the law.
I am invited to return on a pledge given me that I can remain for a period
of ten days, and that during that time I will not be in imminent danger of
being murdered, but that should I persist in remaining after the allotted time,
they then would not be responsible for any personal safety. A very liberal
concession on their part I must admit, but I will say for their benefit that I
have no desire to accept their terms. I would be afraid of meeting with the fate
General Canby met with when he accepted the invitation extended to him by
the Modocs. I would sooner trust myself in the hands of a band of wild
Apache Indians than trust to the protection of such men as Webster, Nixon
and Diger, with Mike Sutton, in the background to perfect the plans of my
assassination. When I return, it will be when they least expect me, and it will
not be in answer to any invitation which they may extend to me.
In conclusion I will say that they may be able to keep me out of Dodge
City by brute force without the sanction of law, but there are many towns
in America that I will keep them out of, or make them show a valid cause for
remaining.
Respectfully,
LUKE SHORT.
After both sides had relieved themselves verbally, the maneuver-
ing began. On May 21 Bat headed west but went beyond Dodge.
Luke traveled to Caldwell. The Dodge City Times, May 24, 1883,
told of Bat's passing:
Bat Masterson went west Monday night, passing this city on the cannon
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 93
ball train. Some of the citizens of this place went on the train but they could
not gain access to the sleeping car which contained the redoubtable Bat. No
one in Dodge wants to offer Bat any harm so long as Bat offers no harm him-
self. The country has been anticipating some fearful things judging from
the promulgation of the proposed movement of a notorious gang. But the
denoument is just as the people of Dodge City anticipated. We suppose how-
ever, few people believed the statements in the Kansas City papers about the
proposed action of the gang. And the chief shall flee unto the mountains of
Colorado, where the lion roareth and the whangdoodle mourneth for its first
born.
Of Luke the Caldwell Journal, May 24, 1883, said:
Luke Short, about whom the fuss at Dodge City was kicked up, arrived here
on Monday. Mr. Short is a quiet, unassuming man, with nothing about him
to lead one to believe him the desperado the Dodge mob picture him to be.
He says the whole trouble arose from business jealousy on the part of Webster,
Nixon and others. As to his plans he has nothing to say, but he is determined
to take all legal measures possible to secure his rights.
For the next few days, until May 31, 1883, the Dodge City troubles
simmered down. Then, at 3:00 P. M., this telegram heralded the
re-eruption :
To GEO. W. CLICK, Govr.
Can you send Col. Moonlight here tomorrow with power to organize com-
pany of militia? I have ample reasons for asking this which I will give to Col.
Moonlight so that he can communicate them to you.
GEO. T. HINKLE,
Sheriff.29
The "ample reasons" were probably embodied in the person of
the celebrated individual mentioned in this Ford County Globe item
of June 5, 1883:
Wyatt Earp, a former city marshal of Dodge City arrived in the city from
the west, last Thursday. Wyatt is looking well and glad to get back to his old
haunts, where he is well and favorably known.
The Topeka Daily Commonwealth of June 5, 1883, reported the
impending battle:
MORE TROUBLE AT DODGE CITY.
SHORT AND His FRIENDS ORGANIZING FOR A
RAID ON THE TOWN THE LIVELY TIMES
COMING IF THE PLANS ARE SUCCESSFUL.
It appears that there is to be more trouble at Dodge City and less talk than
has been indulged in, if the news from there and the indications mean anything.
The military organization under the name of the Click Guards, which was
effected a few days ago, is largely composed of men who are friends of Luke
Short or enemies of the city administration of Dodge, and so great has been the
objection since it was organized that Adjutant General Moonlight has issued
an order suspending the organization for the present.
94 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
From a gentleman who came in from the west yesterday, we learn that an
arrangement has been made for Short's return to Dodge, but that he cannot
return peaceably, no matter how willing some of his old enemies may be. He
does not trust them himself and will not come back without his friends, and so
surely as the two forces meet there will be blood shed. Such is the opinion
of men in Dodge and out of that town who should know whereof they speak.
All the parties are tired of the life they are forced to lead on account of this
trouble and want to end it. When they leave their places of business it is with
six-shooters strapped upon them and eyes on the lookout for a hidden enemy.
One man prominent in the late trouble said, "I can stand it no longer. It
worries the life out of me, and I'm going to sell out and leave."
The rumor that Short intends to return with friends is confirmed by the
following, which comes direct to THE COMMONWEALTH, and is reliable.
SHORT'S SCHEME.
June 2
To THE EDITOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH:
Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and all the sports in the country, held a meeting
at Silverton and decided to take Dodge City by storm. Short is at Caldwell
but will meet the party at Cimarron, 18 miles west of Dodge, perhaps Sunday
night or soon after. Horses will be taken at Cimarron and the whole party
will rendezvous at Mr. Oliver's, two miles west of Dodge. Doc Holliday and
Wyatt Earp are now secretly in Dodge City, watching matters. When the
time for action comes a telegram will reach them worded as follows: "Your
tools will be there at ," giving the time agreed upon. The plan is to
drive all of Short's enemies out of Dodge at the mouth of the revolvers.
This information is correct. I have it from undoubted authority, and h 1
will be to pay at Dodge City soon. I think Gov. Click has an intimation of it,
but am not certain. ... I write this so you will know all about it when
the time comes, and can write intelligently."
As if to still further confirm the report, we learn that Earp and other friends
of Short were registered at Kinsley on Sunday at the eating house. They
probably left Dodge for further consultation with friends and are preparing
to carry out the plan outlined above.
LATER.
About 9 o'clock last night it was rumored on the street that a fight had
already begun at Dodge City and that Gov. Click had information of it. A
reporter called upon the Governor at once and found him in bed, unable to
see visitors. Adjutant-General Moonlight was in the adjoining room and said
no information had been received. He stated that the city and county authori-
ties were amply able to take care of themselves and had not asked for assistance.
The state could not interfere until they made application for help or said they
were unable to preserve the peace. The sheriff has the custody of the arms
belonging to the state and under ordinary circumstances ought to be able to
take care of the city.
General Moonlight said he had no doubt there would be a fight between the
factions, but that he had no information concerning any at that time.
The difficulty in obtaining news from Dodge is well known to our readers,
but we hope to keep them posted and shall endeavor to do so.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 95
The adjutant general, too, by this time was becoming a bit dis-
gusted. In a letter to the sheriff he said:
June 4th, 1883.
MR. GEO. T. HINKLE,
Sheriff Dodge City,
Kans,
MY DEAR SIR;
Upon a petition (which was embraced in Special Orders No. 7) signed by
42 of your citizens, and a dispatch from yourself of May 31st, a company of
militia was ordered organized, and a copy of the order furnished you. The
Governor believed that it was your desire, and the desire of the good people
of Dodge City, to possess themselves of a military organization for frontier
protection, and as the arms and accoutrements were in Dodge City, the com-
pany was ordered mustered into service by Major [Harry E.] Gryden. Today
a dispatch was received from Mayor Diger, Geo. M. Hoover, R. M. Wright
and Fred Singer acting Sheriff, to stop organization of company on account of
excitement.
The Governor desires the peace and quiet of Dodge City and the protection
of all her citizens, and cannot understand the various changes of opinion and
action among the citizens, as some who signed the petition sign the dispatch.
However believing that it might be better to defer the organization for the
present, the Governor so telegraphed you, as also Major Gryden, and Mayor
Diger and others who signed the dispatch. I have always believed that you
could convince the citizens of your county that they were injuring themselves
by the bickerings and dissensions that have lately taken place, and have also
believed that you could keep and maintain the peace; and the Governor desires
me to convey to you this faith and trust in you, and that the arms and ac-
coutrements of the State will be safe in your hands
The cattle men will soon begin to throng your streets, and all your citizens
are interested in the coming It is your harvest of business and affects every
citizen, and I fear unless the spirit of fair play prevails it will work to your
business injury. Every man has his friends be he great or small, and I cannot
but believe that there will be trouble unless the spirit of prosscription ceases
to prevail in the council of the city government I write to you frankly
knowing your people and knowing the elements engaged on both sides and be-
ing particularly desirous for the wellfare and success of Mayor Diger, knowing
his people as I have for a long time, I ask you to convey my feelings to Mayor
Diger in this respect and wish upon you all a conciliatory policy for a house
divided cannot well stand.
I am with much respect
THOMAS MOONLIGHT
Adjutant General. 30
The Commonwealth was correct in stating that Earp and Luke
Short had met in Kinsley on Sunday, June 3. The Kinsley Graphic,
June 7, 1883, reported they had been in town:
Luke Short, Earp and Petillon were in Kinsley last Sunday and took the
afternoon train for Dodge City, where they expect to be joined by Shotgun
Collins and Bat Masterson. Unless the authorities of Dodge back down we
may expect some lively news from that city this week.
96 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The big news broke and the Ford County Globe, June 5, 1883,
prophetically sized it up with this simple statement: "Luke Short
returned to the city Sunday afternoon, and we believe he has come
to stay."
By the evening of the day following Luke's return, Sheriff Hinkle
despaired of peace settling over the town. In a telegram to Gov-
ernor Click he said:
I think it impossible to prevent a fight but we will try to arrest and lock up
every one engaged in it. We stopped all gambling today. An agreement was
made allowing Luke Short to return to Dodge City on condition he would send
his fighters out of town which he has failed to do. I think a fight imminent. 31
A special dispatch to the Leavenworth Times, June 5, 1883, ex-
plained Hinkle's reference to the prohibition on gambling:
GOING FOR GAMBLERS.
A POSITIVE PROCLAMATION.
THE DODGE CITY GAMBLING HOUSES CLOSED BY ORDER OF MAYOR DEGER
THE ALLEGED CAUSE OF THE ISSUANCE OF THE ORDER.
DODGE CITY, Kan., June 4. [Special] Mayor Deger to-day issued a procla-
mation in which he ordered the closing of all the gambling places. This action
on the part of the mayor was brought about by the failure of Short's friends
in fulfilling the compromise agreed upon, which was to the effect that Short
should return peaceably and that several hard characters here, in his interest,
should leave town. Their failure to leave to-day caused the issuance of the
proclamation. As soon as the proclamation was issued every gambling place
in the city was promptly closed, and have remained closed until this hour.
Whether the trouble will end here, it is hard to determine.
On the night of June 5, 1883, Maj. Harry Gryden wired the ad-
jutant general: "Everything here settled. Parties have shook hands
across the bloody chasm. A number of men with a record are here
but all is lovely/'
Gryden's telegram was received in Topeka at 8:23 A. M., June 6,
1883, just two minutes before this telegram of an entirely different
nature, addressed to Governor Click:
Our city is overrun with desperate characters from Colorado, New Mexico,
Arizona and California. We cannot preserve the peace or enforce the laws.
Will you send in two companies of militia at once to assist us in preserving
the peace between all parties and enforcing the laws.
GEO. T. HINKLE, Sheriff L. E. DEGER, Mayor
N. B. KLAINE, Post Master GEO. S. EMERSON, Councilman
F. C. ZIMMERMAN Hon. R. M. WRIGHT, Co. Commissioner.
The governor wired back: "Moonlight will go there on first train.
Keep me fully advised of the situation." Moonlight wired militia
major Harry Gryden: "Keep peace at all hazards will be at Dodge
tonight meet me."
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 97
Twenty minutes after the adjutant general boarded the noon train
for Dodge City this telegram was received by Governor Click:
The difficulty is all settled. Shorts fighters have left town. I am satisfied
we will not have any more trouble.
GEO. T. HINKLE,
Sheriff^-'
Events were happening so quickly that the Daily Kansas State
Journal, June 7, 1883, had difficulty keeping up with them in a
single article:
A HOWL FOR HELP.
THE CITY OF DODGE SURGING TO THE FRONT AGAIN WITH ITS SENSATION.
Trouble at Dodge City is not over with yet. A call came to Governor Click
this morning, for assistance. It was signed by the sheriff, Mayor [omission]
Bob Wright and others. They fear an outbreak from Luke Short and want
militia to protect them. Adjutant General Moonlight went down on the noon
train and will arrive there at 12 o'clock to-night. No action is to be taken
by the governor, until he is heard from, further than that Sheriff Hinkle has
been ordered to keep the peace. He has fifty Winfield rifles in his possession
and one thousand rounds of ammunition. The general took a supply of
ammunition with him, and if it becomes absolutely necessary, troops will be
ordered at once to Dodge City. When Moonlight gets there and learns the
true situation he will probably make the fur fly, one way or the other. Yesterday
evening, an agreement was made between both factions at Dodge, that they
would drop their differences and declare peace.
Short and his friends are there, and were parties to the compact. Short
went back home Monday evening, by invitation of the citizens on condition
that he give $1,000 bonds to keep the peace, which was done, and a man who
is in this city now, that has stood steadily by him through the whole difficulty
went his security. In an interview with him, the JOURNAL reporter learns that
Short has proposed to act white this time, but the other side broke its pledges
and is to blame in fact has been from the start. A few hot headed officials,
backed by half the gambling and sporting fraternity undertook to run the other
half out, and the break is now having its reaction. They have found the game
one that two can play at. The renewed hostilities this morning seem to be of
a more serious nature than at any previous time, and the antagonizing element
is sufficiently alarmed to want the aid of military interference and protection.
There seems to be a general opinion, now very frequently expressed here, that
a few of the ring leaders ought to be allowed to fight and kill each other off
if they want to.
THE VERY LATEST.
Governor Click received the following dispatch this afternoon: [the Hinkle
wire announcing the settling of difficulties was reprinted here].
Those who have watched the row all along, are inclined to believe that this
is no indication as yet that trouble is over. Another call for the "milish" is
expected by tomorrow morning.
Bat Masterson told of his triumphant entry into the town now
71586
98 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
bursting with brotherly love in a letter which was partially reprinted
in the Daily Kansas State Journal, June 9, 1883:
MASTERSON'S MUSINGS.
AMONG OTHER THINGS FROM DODGE "BAT" MASTERSON TELLS THE SITUATION.
All information from Adjutant-General Moonlight indicate that the war at
Dodge City is actually over and peace has been declared sure enough. Luke
Short, however, comes out on top as usual, and is again sporting in the playful
sunlight beneath his own vine and fig tree.
Of the situation, as it is now, Hon. W. B. Masterson, ex-sheriff of Ford
county, writes in a letter to his friends here as follows, under date of June 6th:
"I arrived here yesterday and was met at the train by a delegation of friends
who escorted me without molestation to the business house of Harris & Short.
I think the inflammatory reports published about Dodge City and its inhabitants
have been greatly exaggerated and if at any time they did 'don the war paint,'
it was completely washed off before I reached here. I never met a more
gracious lot of people in my life. They all seemed favorably disposed, and
hailed the return of Short and his friends with exultant joy. I have been unable
as yet to find a single individual who participated with the crowd that forced
him to leave here at first. I have conversed with a great many and they are
unanimous in their expression of love for Short, both as a man and a good
citizen. They say that he is gentlemanly, courteous and unostentatious 'in fact
a perfect ladies' man/ Wyatt Earp, Charley Bassett, McClain and others too
numerous to mention are among the late arrivals, and are making the 'Long
Branch* saloon their headquarters. All the gambling is closed in obedience
to a proclamation issued by the mayor, but how long it will remain so I am
unable to say at present. Not long I hope. The closing of this 'legitimate*
calling has caused a general depression in business of every description, and
I am under the impression that the more liberal and thinking class will prevail
upon the mayor to rescind the proclamation in a day or two."
Although the dove of peace had settled on Dodge City gently,
as is wont with doves the news, nevertheless, took several days to
reach all portions of the state. The Kansas City (Mo.) Evening
Star did not have it on June 7:
KILLERS AT DODGE.
THE FAMOUS BAND ARRIVE THERE AT LAST.
The much talked of band of noted killers who were to congregate here and
accompany Luke Short, the exile, back to Dodge City, Kas., are in part at least,
at that place now. Advices from there state that Luke Short, Bat Masterson,
Charley Bassett and Doc Holliday at present hold the fort and that trouble
is liable to ensue at any moment. Mr. Bassett was here for quite a time and with
Col. Ricketts at the Marble Hall. He is a man of undoubted nerve and has
been tried and not found wanting when it comes to a personal encounter. But
Masterson and Doc. Holliday are too well known to need comment or biography.
A notice has been posted up at Dodge ordering them out and, as they are fully
armed and determined to stay, there may be hot work there to-night.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 99
By June 8 the Topeka Daily Commonwealth was reporting every-
thing serene, in Dodge:
ALL QUIET AT DODGE.
DODGE CITY, June 7. Adjutant General Thos. Moonlight has been here
for the past twenty-four hours and has succeeded in effecting an amicable
settlement between the warring factions. He will leave for Topeka to-night.
The Short faction are in the ascendancy, so to speak, but are peaceably dis-
posed. There is no danger of trouble. The organization of the militia
company, which some days ago was stopped by the governor, will be perfected
and the commissions of the various officers will soon arrive; so says Col. Moon-
light.
On June 10 Bat and Wyatt Earp left Dodge headed west. Upon
their going Mike Sutton probably felt he could now return to his
place of business, so said the Lamed Optic, quoted in the Ford
County Globe, June 12, 1883:
MIKE SUTTON, my lord is an exoduster from Dodge. On the return of Luke
Short and his friends, it didn't take Mike long to arrive at the conclusion that
Kinsley was a much healthier locality, and that town is now his abiding place.
Net [Nelson Adams] sends greetings to Mike, and a notification that Larned
is quarantined against him. When Dodge becomes too hot for Mike Sutton
h 1 itself would be considered a cool place a desirable summer resort.
In another column the Globe right unneighborly went on:
As soon as Bat Masterson alighted from the train on his late arrival into this
city Mike Sutton started for his cyclone building on Gospel Ridge, where he
remained until a truce was made.
In the same issue, June 12, 1883, the Globe thus summarized this
so-called "Dodge City war," an event that was apparently destined
to go down in history as a war to preserve the rights of "singing
ladies," i. e., until the above related facts could be assembled:
Our city trouble is about over and things in general will be conducted as of
old. All parties that were run out have returned and no further effort will be
made to drive them away. Gambling houses, we understand, are again to be
opened, but with screen doors [probably ornate oriental type door shields de-
signed to obscure the view from one room to another rather than fly screens]
in front of their place of business. A new dance house was opened Saturday
night where all the warriors met and settled their past differences and every-
thing was made lovely and serene. All opposing factions, both saloon men and
gamblers met and agreed to stand by each other for the good of their trade.
Not an unlocked for result.
The mayor stood firm on his gambling proclamation, but as his most ardent
supporters have gone over to his enemies, it will stand without that moral
support he had calculated upon to help him in enforcing it. We have all
along held that our mayor was over advised in the action he has taken and had
he followed his own better judgment, and not the advice of schemers and
tricksters who had selfish interests at stake, and not the best interests of this
community, he would have fared much better. No one knows this now any
100 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
better than himself. He has freed himself from that cropped-winged moral
element and stands on the side of the business interests of Dodge. . . .
The Globe, June 12, 1883, also said, with what seems a bit of
pardonable pride:
Within the past week the city had more distinguished visitors and more
ex-city and county officers in it than we ever saw together at any one time.
It was a regular reunion of old-timers. They all appeared to have some say
about our late trouble and felt a deep interest in the future prosperity of our
city.
The Dodge City Times struck a discordant note by listing the
visitors as Shot Gun Collins, Black Jack Bill, Cold Chuck Johnny,
Dynamite Sam, Dark Alley Jim, Dirty Sock Jack, Six-toed Pete, and
Three Fingered Dave. 33
Before Bat and Wyatt left town the group gathered for a now
historic photograph (See between pp. 80, 81). The Times, June
14, 1883, recorded the event:
The photographs of the eight visiting "statesmen" were taken in a group
by Mr. Conkling, photographer. The distinguished bond extractor and cham-
pion pie eater, W. F. Petillon, appears in the group.
Just as Adjutant General Moonlight had promised, the local militia
unit was commissioned and given the name "Click Guards." Within
its ranks were both former pro-Short and pro-Deger men. Truly,
the Dodge City war was over. The captain of the unit was Pat
Sughrue and the second lieutenant was James H. Kelley, both Short
adherents. The surgeon, Dr. S. Galland was a former Deger man.
In the ranks could be found Neil Brown, C. E. Chipman, W. H.
Harris, W. F. Petillon, Luke Short, I. P. Olive, and William M.
Tilghman. 34
In August Luke had the police judge of Dodge City arrested.
Possibly some remaining hard feelings of the troubles of May and
June were the reason. The Times, August 23, 1883, reported:
ARRESTED.
Police Judge Burns was arrested and brought yesterday, before Justice Cook,
on complaint sworn out by Luke Short, in which he is charged with misconduct
in office and the collection of illegal fees. Judge Burns has incurred the
enmity of those who unfortunately come under his official jurisdiction. He has
spared no one, having inflicted heavy fines upon every one brought before him
for violation of law.
There is a certain clique in this city that feel the legal halter drawing tighter
and tighter, with an ultimate tightening of grasp never to be loosened. The
law is coming down upon indecent conduct and illegitimate traffic, and the
handwriting is so plain that some means must be used to thwart the swift
and impending justice. The arrest of Judge Burns will not accomplish the
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 101
purpose desired. On the contrary, law-breakers will feel the full power of
justice. Threats of assassination will not deter the administration of the law.
Luke and his friend Bat Master/son journey to Fort Worth, Tex.,
in November, 1883. The Dodge City Times article reporting this
has been reprinted in the section on Bat. Luke had sold his interest
in the Long Branch as had his partner, Harris. The Ford County
Globe, November 20, 1883, carried their notice of dissolution:
A CARD. We take this opportunity in informing our numerous patrons and
friends that we have this day sold out our interest in the Long Branch saloon
and billiard hall to Mr. [Royl Drake and [Frank] Warren, who will continue the
business and are authorized to collect and receipt for all accounts due us. Any
accounts against the late firm will be settled by us. Thanking past patrons for
their many favors shown us, and trust the new firm may receive a like generous
treatment at their hands.
W. H. HARRIS.
November 19, 1883. LUKE SHORT.
Perhaps Luke had seen opportunities in Texas and decided to
transfer his operations to that locale. In another column the Globe
had said:
Luke Short came up from Texas during the past week, spending several
days here, during which time he sold his interest in the Long Branch and
returns to Fort Worth, Texas, accompanied by W. B. Masterson.
On December 28, 1883, Luke returned to Dodge for a visit. The
Globe, January 1, 1884, reported:
Luke Short and Chas. E. Bassett returned to the city last Friday looking
well, and show that they have been kindly treated by their friends in the east.
They will remain here until after the holidays.
Luke's friend, W. F. Petillon, now editor of the Dodge City
Democrat, merely said in his issue of December 29, 1883: "Ex-
Sheriff Bassett and Luke Short are in town, both looking as if the
Missouri Sunday law agreed with their corporosities." The Demo-
crat, May 10, 1884, again mentioned that Luke was in town: "Luke
Short is here from Fort Worth. He will remain until after the
arrival of St. John and Campbell [ex-Governor John P. St. John and
A. B. Campbell, ardent prohibitionists], as he is anxious to meet
these learned gentlemen." Perhaps the last was written with tongue
in cheek!
Along in the summer of 1884 Luke decided to sue the city of
Dodge for throwing him out in 1883. Petillon announced the
action in the Democrat of August 9, 1884: "Luke Short has now sued
this city for $15,000 damages for the trouble he was put to some-
time ago. Summons was served on our Mayor [no longer Larry
102 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Deger but now George M. Hoover], while at Larned last Monday ."
The city employed the county attorney to represent it in the case:
The city council have employed county attorney Whitelaw to appear for
them, in the case of Luke Short against Dodge City, pending in the Pawnee
county district court, and have agreed to pay him $250 retainer, and $740 ad-
ditional if he wins the case, or reduces the judgment asked for to $500. Mr.
Whitelaw agrees to furnish any counsel he may need to assist him in the de-
fense. 35
The case was eventually settled out of court.
The next time Kansas newspapers carried the name of Luke Short
they were announcing his final days on earth. Luke, with his wife
and his brother, Young Short from Kiowa, Barber county, checked
in at the Gilbert hotel in Geuda Springs, Sumner county, about
August 25, 1893. Geuda Springs was at that time a renowned
health resort, its springs reportedly containing health-restoring min-
erals. Luke was suffering from dropsy.
The springs did not help Luke, however, and in less than a month
he was dead. The Geuda Springs Herald, September 8, 1893, re-
corded his passing:
Luke Short died at the Gilbert this morning of dropsy. The remains were
embalmed by W. A. Repp today and will be shipped this evening to Ft. Worth,
Tex. The remains will be accompanied by the wife and two brothers of the
deceased.
The Dodge City Democrat, in its parting salute, September 16,
1893, went overboard when it said: "Thus ends the life of one of
the most noted and daring men in the west." 36
1. lu 1877 the Long Branch saloon, on Front street, was owned by D. D. Colley and
J. M. Manion. Chalkley Beeson and W. H. Harris owned the Saratoga five or six doors
east of the Long Branch. About March 1, 1878, Chalk Beeson purchased from Robert M.
Wright the building in which the Long Branch was located, possession to be "in a few
weeks." Colley and Manion moved one door west into the Alamo saloon which had been
operated by George M. Hoover, and H. V. Cook.
The Alamo was actually a sample room and billiard hall run in conjunction with Wright,
Beverley & Co.'s mercantile store next door west. The Alamo should not be confused
with George M. Hoover's wholesale liquor house at No. 39 Front street, just east of the
Long Branch.
Strangely, as these changes were made the saloon names stayed with the building,
instead of following the prior owners. See Dodge City Times, December 22, 1877; March
2, 1878.
2. Ford County Globe, Dodge City, March 20, 1883. 3. Ibid. 4. Dodge City
Times, April 5, 1883. 5. Both ordinances were published in the official city paper, the
Dodge City Times. 6. See, also, the Topeka Daily Commonwealth, May 2, 1883. 7.
"Governors' Correspondence," archives division, Kansas State Historical Society. 8. Ibid.
9. Ibid. 10. See, alw, Kansas City (Mo.) Evening Star, May, 1883; Kansas City Journal,
May. 1883; Topeka Daily Capital, May, 1883; Topeka Daily Kansas State Journal, May,
1883. 11. Luke was confused; May, 1883, began on Tuesday. 12. "Governors' Cor-
respondence," toe. cit. 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. See,
also, Topeka Daily Kansas State Journal, May 12, 13, 1883. 19. "Governors' Corres-
pondence," loc. cit. 20. See, also, Kansas City (Mo.) Evening Star, May 15, 1883. 21.
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 103
"Governors' Correspondence," loc. cit. 22. Ibid. 23. Ibid. 24. Dodge City Times, May
17, 1883. 25. See, also, letter of Felix P. Swembergh to Gov. G. W. Click, May 17, 1883,
in "Governors' Correspondence," loc. cit. 26. "Governors' Correspondence," loc. cit.
27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Ibid. 30. "Correspondence of the Adjutants General," archives
division, Kansas State Historical Society. 31. "Governors' Correspondence," loc. cit. 32.
Ibid. 33. Dodge City Times, June 7, 1883. 34. Ibid., August 30, 1883. 35. Globe
Live Stock Journal, Dodge City, November 25, 1884. 36. For a fuller report on the life
of Luke Short, see William R. Cox's Luke Short and His Era (Doubleday, Garden City,
N. Y., 1961).
SINGER, FREDERICK
(1852?- )
Fred Singer was another Dodgeite, in a long list, who held posi-
tions at nearly every level of governmental police responsibility.
He had been a township constable before he was appointed under
sheriff of Ford county by newly elected Sheriff George T. Hinkle
on January 12, 1880. Singer was apparently well thought of in
Dodge for the Ford County Globe, January 20, 1880, called him
"a straightforward, honest man'* and added "we trust he may never
give anyone cause to speak otherwise of him." 1
Hardly had Singer entered upon the duties of his new office, how-
ever, when he came down with a severe case of diptheria and was
temporarily replaced by Ed Cooley. By February 10 the under
sheriff was again on his feet and tending his duties. 2
Fred Singer was probably 27 years old when he was sworn as
under sheriff. The 1880 United States census, enumerated in Dodge
township on June 6, listed him as being 28 years old, his wife Lula
was 18. He was born in Wales, she in Missouri.
The first year of the Hinkle-Singer reign was a quiet one, most
of their duties consisting of delivering prisoners to the state peni-
tentiary at Leavenworth. The newspaper notices telling of these
trips have been reprinted in the section on Hinkle.
On April 6, 1881, Fred Singer was appointed city marshal of
Dodge. He and his assistant, Tom Nixon, were to replace Marshal
Jim Masterson and Assistant Neil Brown whom the new city council
did not see fit to retain. 3 One of the marshal's first performances
which were reported in the local papers was printed in the Ford
County Globe, May 3, 1881, and was somewhat less than the glam-
orous image in the minds of most latter day Western fans: "Mar-
shal Singer was seen headed for the City Pound on the 1st inst.,
having a hog by the ear and a dog by the extreme appendage."
The new marshal also held a position on the county police force,
and about the first of May traveled to Pueblo, Colo., to receive a
prisoner, a railroad man, with the legendary name of John Henry.
The Dodge City Times, May 5, 1881, reported:
John Henry, a railroad employee, was arrested last summer on a charge of
104 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
grand larceny, but was discharged on a want of insufficient testimony. He
was lately rearrested in Wyoming territory, by Deputy U. S. Marshal C. B.
Jones, and the prisoner was brought to this city last week from Pueblo by
Deputy Sheriff Fred Singer. John Henry made his escape from the train
while in the temporary charge of a guard, but was soon recaptured. A prelim-
inary examination was had and the prisoner was bound over. It is said
sufficient evidence has been collected to warrant conviction. 4
Another railroad man was arrested by Singer on May 16. The
Globe, May 17, 1881, told of it:
Marshall Singer, on last night took in Charley McCollum, fireman on the
switch engine of this city for relieving a brother railroad man of seventy-five
dollars in cash and a gold watch and chain, which robbing occurred some time
during the night. The watch and chain as well as a portion of the money
was in possession of aforesaid individual, who is now awaiting his preliminary
in the county fail.
Dodge City, now almost nine years old, was emerging from its
days as a frontier village into the status of a full fledged city. At
least it had reached the place where it was thought that the police
should wear conforming uniforms. The Ford County Globe, May
31, 1881, said: "City Marshal Singer and Assistant Nixon came
out in the standard uniform of navy blue last week, and their ap-
pearance is like that of metropolitan officers." And the Times,
May 5, 1881, remarked: "Who says Dodge City isn't 'tony?"'
Still another railroader was the accidental victim of the marshal's
marksmanship on July 22, 1881. The Dodge City Times, July 28,
recounted the story:
Joseph McDonald was shot by Marshal Singer Friday night last and died
three hours afterward. The circumstances which led to the shooting are as
follows: The woman to whom Nate Hudson willed $3,000 sent word to the
marshal that three men were prowling around her house, and from their sus-
picious actions she believed they were trying to rob her. Marshal Singer
obeyed the woman's request, and when near the premises, in a thick growth
of sunflowers, was commanded to halt by McDonald, the latter raising his
arm horizontally, as though in the act of firing. The marshal apprehended
some danger from this movement, and not knowing whether the man had a
pistol or not, raised his weapon and fired, the shot striking McDonald in the
hand and passing into his right side, causing death in three hours. The
wounded man remarked that his brother shot him. He gave no account of
his wandering in the vicinity of the woman's premises.
McDonald was in the employ of the railroad company, and in company
with another man came down from Syracuse on Thursday, the day previous
to the shooting. He was in questionable company on that day, though this
circumstance had no bearing on the shooting, but there is an impression that
robbery was the design. Marshal Singer's quick forethought and knowledge
of frontier pistol practice, prompted him to make defense when halted in the
darkness and almost hid from view of the person who commanded him to halt
The ball entering the hand and striking the right side at a direct angle would in-
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 105
dicate that McDonald held his hand in the position ascribed by the marshal.
A coroner's jury was summoned and an inquest held over the body. The
verdict was justifiable homicide.
The deceased was 23 years of age. The body was sent to Topeka, where
the parents of the unfortunate young man live.
At the inquest held over McDonald's body, Marshal Singer had
testified:
I am city marshal of Dodge City; was sitting in front of Peacock's in a chair
between 11 and 12 o'clock. A little Mexican came and asked me to take a
walk. I said certainly I will go. Started with him and got about half way
over to Johnson's blacksmith shop; while we were walking together he said
that May Ingram had been looking for Tom Bugg [a deputy sheriff] but did
not think she had found him; that some parties had been prowling around Sarah
Ratzell's house, and that she thought they were going to rob her. The Mexican
said I had better go and get a gun. I told him no, that it was not necessary.
We then went over to Mrs. Woodard's house, near Johnson's shop, where Sadie
Ratzell was; Sadie and Tom Bugg were sitting on the porch when the Mexican
and myself got there. I said to Sadie to come into the room that I wished to
speak with her. Asked her if she had any money there; said no, that she had
deposited it in town. Mrs. Peacock had before told me that the said Sadie
had $875 in her trunk, and she was mighty foolish for keeping it there. I
said to Sadie as she had a good deal of money and intended leaving very soon
that she had better take only enough to defray expenses and take a check for
balance, and then draw the same through some bank wherever she might be.
Afterwards we walked out on the porch; I sat down on the porch; I believe
she sat in a chair; I sat there about five minutes; I saw a man walking back
of Johnson's shop, going northeast; I walked out to see who it was; I got within
about thirty feet of him; he started out in the weeds and turned and threw
his hand out, just as if he was going to shoot, and said, "Stand!" He said it
very emphatically. When he threw up his hand and commenced to say the
word I drew out my gun, and fired. I know Geo. Early [McDonald's com-
panion] as one of the two fellows that I ordered out of town. The other fellow
wore eye-glasses, and was fined in the Police Court.
Tom Bugg testified:
I am deputy sheriff; I was notified by Dutch Jake that May Ingram was
looking for me. Jake said that May Ingram wanted me to go to the house
where Sadie Ratzell was stopping; that two or three men had been around
there since early after dark. Went up to the brick store with Brick Bond, thence
to the dance hall, and from there to Johnson's house, on the corner; left Brick
Bond at the last named place, when I went to the house and dwelling of Mrs.
Woodard. We staid there about twenty minutes, when Bond left. I remained
sometime afterwards. Mr. Singer and the little Mexican came after Mr. Bond
had left. After Mr. Singer came I went with Mrs. Woodard over to Andy
Johnson's house, while Mr. Singer remained at the house of Mrs. Woodard.
I was gone with her four or five minutes before I returned to the place where
I had left Singer. On my return I thought I heard some one going between
Johnson's blacksmith shop. I popped between the two buildings, thence to
106 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mrs. Woodard's porch. When I stepped on the porch referred to I heard some
one say, "Halt!" or, "Stop!" A shot was fired immediately thereafter; the flash
made everything dark. I then went in the direction of the firing; met Fred
Singer, and asked him if some one had shot him, answered no; "I think I have
shot some body." Asked him who, said he did not know. I then went to Mrs.
Woodard's and got a match, returned to the man that was shot, lit some
matches, turned him over and asked him his name and where he was shot, and
he said through the breast and that his name was McDonald. Myself and
others took him to the restaurant and from there to the southeast room of
Hudson's dance hall. The man upon whom this inquisition is being held I
identify as the man that was shot; saw one man moving near Mrs. Woodard's
house in a suspicious manner about three-quarters of an hour before the shoot-
ing took place. 5
After the shooting of McDonald, Marshal Singer apparently
created no news, for the town's newspapers gave him little notice
until his announced resignation was published in the November 1,
1881, issue of the Ford County Globe. The Dodge City Times,
November 3, 1881, said:
Fred Singer has resigned the office of City Marshal, and Mayor [A. B.I
Webster has appointed B. C. Vandenberg to the position. Mr. Singer made
an energetic and attentive officer. He was always on duty, and faithfully dis-
charged his trust. Fred gave up the office in order to engage in more profitable
business.
The work Singer chose was saloonkeeping. The Times, November
3, 1881, ran this ad:
OLD HOUSE Fred Singer has taken charge of the "Old House," lately
occupied by Mr. Webster. Fred is an excellent caterer to the taste of thirsty
people. His place will be a popular resort in Dodge City. The Brower Bros,
have opened a restaurant in the "Old House" and a "square meal" on the
European plan may be had by the hungry and fastidious visitors.
Singer still held his county commission and a few months later
he was called upon to arrest a soldier at Fort Dodge. The man was
not to be found, according to the Dodge City Times, June 1, 1882:
A soldier broke open the city prison and liberated a fellow soldier confined
there. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the soldier, and under-sheriff
Singer and Marshal Vandenberg went down to the Fort to arrest the man, but
he was either concealed or had flown. It was said he had deserted.
After a group of festive Kearny county cowboys had gaily shot
up the Santa Fe's eastbound No. 6, at Lakin on October 18, 1882,
Undersheriff Fred Singer rounded them up with the aid of a Ford
county posse. Kearny county came under the undersherifFs au-
thority since, being unorganized, it was attached to Ford for judicial
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 107
purposes. The Ford County Globe, October 24, 1882, described
the crime and the capture:
DESPERATE DOINGS
OF A PARTY OF COW-BOYS AT LAKIN.
THEIR CAPTURE BY A DODGE CITY POSSE.
When train No. 6, due in Dodge City at 12:45 p. m. pulled up to the depot
last Wednesday, the coaches presented the appearance of having undergone
a heavy seige, the north windows of the entire train being completely demol-
ished, while the side of the cars underneath was perforated with numerous
bullet holes, the result of an attack on the train by a party of cow-boys at
Lakin, the particulars of which are as follows:
Frank Meade, who had been in the employ of the railroad company for
some time past as night operator at Lakin, was discharged on Monday of last
week, for drunkenness and general cussedness, and in company with a trio of
friendly cow boys proceeded to drown his troubles in an overdose of conver-
sational fluid. On the same day the party attended the funeral of a deceased
cow-boy at Deerfield and while there attempted to board the engine of a
freight train, culminating in a fight with engineer Norton, in which the cow-
boys and operator were badly worsted. The following morning the four re-
turned to Lakin, vowing to shoot Norton on his next trip west, and for that
purpose, armed with Winchesters and six-shooters kept a close surveillance
over all trains arriving from the east, but failed to discover their man, as he had
been notified of their intentions, and in consequence changed off at Garden
City and returned to Dodge.
Wednesday morning, train No. 6 due at Lakin about 10 o'clock, was detained
some twenty minutes in consequence of a broken draw-head. While the
train men were repairing the damage, the friends of Meade mounted their
horses and charged up and down the depot platform in veritable cow-boy
style, whooping and yelling in demoniac glee, discharging their arms at the
coaches, all of which were well filled with passengers, and clubbing in the
windows with their revolvers. Four bullets entered the coaches, while dozens
were imbedded in the wood work underneath the windows. A lady whose
name we failed to learn was severely cut about the face by the smashing of a
window at which she was sitting. The citizens of Lakin were completely
terrorized and powerless against them, as they were known to be heavily armed
and desperate men.
The facts of the attack were at once forwarded to Superintendent Nickerson
who telegraphed Sheriff Hinkle to have a posse in readiness to proceed to
Lakin by a special train immediately after the arrival of No. 6 at Dodge City.
Upon receipt of the telegram, with the promptness characteristic of Ford county
officials, Under Sheriff Fred. Singer and posse, consisting of Brick Bond, Al.
Updegraff, Tom Bugg, R. G. Cook, Joe Morgan, Jack Marshall, Henry Smith,
Ed. Bower, Charles Dowd and O. D. Wilson, all heavily armed; M. W. Sutton,
representing the railroad company; Station Agent Graves, and Frank Wandress,
representing the GLOBE, boarded the special, and immediately after the arrival
of No. 6, took their departure for Lakin. The train was in charge of Conductor
G. W. Stover; engine 25, Harry Forges at the lever. The run from Dodge
City to Lakin, seventy-two miles was made in one hour and fifty five minutes,
including a stop at Pierceville for water.
108 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Upon arriving at Lakin, several horses were discovered tied in front of a
store immediately in the rear of the depot, and as the posse left the car and
made a run for the horses, two cow-boys made their exit from the building
and with drawn revolvers attempted to mount the animals. But they were
too late, for a dozen Winchesters in the hands of men who never failed in bring-
ing a desperado to terms, were frowning upon them from every side, and
considering discretion the better part of valor, they gracefully acquiesced to
the command of "hands up" and were taken in charge of by the officers.
Their names are John Rivers and Peter Corder, their occupation herders, and
this, we are told, is the first affair of the kind in which they have been inter-
ested. When captured each had in his possession a six-shooter. They were
taken into the waiting room of the depot, shackled together and guarded by
a detachment of the posse.
At this juncture Tom Bugg, who had been in search of Meade, the operator
and supposed instigator of the difficulty, emerged from the pump house with
his trophy by the ear. Meade had been in a state of semi-oblivion throughout
the day by quaffing too freely of what the law forbids, and gave himself up
without any resistance.
Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that the ringleader of the party, John Cass
by name, was quartered in a house of ill-fame about a mile west of the depot,
and Messrs. Singer, Bond, Updegraff and Morgan mounted the only available
horses in the place and started in quest of their man, who they had been in-
formed would not be likely to surrender without a fight, as he is considered
the most reckless man and best shot in that section. They were discovered
by the desperado when about a hundred yards from the house, and he at
once mounted his horse and galloped toward the north, giving them a parting
shot or two as he scampered over the prairie. The quartette of officers gave hot
pursuit and returned the fire of the fugitive with a will. The chase was kept
up for a mile or more with a rapid exchange of shots, when a well-directed
shot from one of the officers crippled the horse of Cass in such a manner as to
make him worthless for a long chase. Cass thereupon abandoned his horse
and sought shelter in a dug-out about a mile north of the depot, and as he had
shown himself as a man of superior fighting calibre, and was well armed, a con-
sultation was held to consider the best means of dislodging him without endan-
gering the lives of any of the officers. The dug-out was then surrounded and a
brisk fire opened upon it, during which the horse of Cass, which was grazing in
front of the dug-out door, was shot by the officers and rolled over dead.
As "a man from Texas" is no man without his horse, Cass gave up all hopes
of escape at the death of the animal, and displayed a flag of truce through the
door of the dug-out, following it himself a moment later. With hands up and
under cover of the rifles, he advanced toward the officers, was safely corraled
and searched. Besides the regulation Winchester and six-shooter taken from
his person, there was fished from the depths of his saddle-bags a quart of
Lakin fire-water, which in itself is quite a formidable arsenal, as we can
vouch for its accuracy at forty yards or even less. During the running fight,
Mr. Singer twice cut the fringe from Cass' buckskin leggins, while he in return
came within an inch of taking off one of Mr. Singer's ears, and with another
shot attempted to decrease the proportions of Al. UpdegrafFs nasal appendage,
which he missed by only a hair's breadth. Cass is the "bad man" of the parry,
and it is rumored, with a strong ground of probability, that he is one of the
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 109
parties implicated in the murder of Marshal Meagher at Caldwell early last
spring.
The prisoners were given a preliminary examination before Justice Dillon,
who bound them over in $1,500 each to the February term of the district
court to answer to the charge of assault with intent to kill. Immediately after
the hearing the prisoners were taken to the train, brought to Dodge City, and
quartered in the county jail where ample time will be afforded them of dwelling
on the vicissitudes of western life, and repenting the act which will in all prob-
ability place them for several years to come where the dogs won't bite or the
pesky fleas annoy them.
Notwithstanding tne fact that the merchants of our city keep constantly
on hand a well assorted stock of arms, ammunition and ready made coffins,
Dodge has proved to be, under the present municipal administration, not only
a law-abiding but a law preserving community. Her officers are ever ready
to protect the lives and property of citizens or corporations, which fact is fully
appreciated by the railroad officials in their selection at all times and under all
circumstances of Dodge City men for work requiring the administration of law
and the capture of fugitives from justice. 6
On February 17, 1883, Singer and Deputy Sheriff H. P. (or
Charles) Myton delivered eight prisoners to the penitentiary. 7 A
couple of weeks later they journeyed south to capture one Jack
McCarty who was soon to die from small pox. The Dodge City
Times, March 1, 1883, stated:
Under Sheriff Singer, Deputy Sheriff Myton and Jos. Morgan were the
parties who went after McCarty, but they abandoned him, and the remains
were taken charge of by Tom Mclntire, who brought the body to 5-mile
Hollow, south of Dodge, where he buried the remains. The city authorities
forbade the bringing of the body through the city. A simple board indicates
the burial spot.
As a police officer Singer had a part in the famous "Dodge City
war" of 1883. The small role he played has been covered in the
section on Luke Short.
Fred Singer was being mentioned as a candidate for sheriff as
early as August, 1883. At that date, long before any nominating
conventions had assembled, it was generally known that Singer and
Patrick F. Sughrue would battle for the important office. 8 As elec-
tion time neared the fight became heated, possibly because of the
troubles, of the preceding spring for Singer was of the Deger faction
and Sughrue was of the Short crowd.
On November 6, 1883, the day of the election, the regular edition
of the Ford County Globe came out with two stories designed to
injure Singer at the polls. The first had to do with his attempt to
arrest Jack McCarty last winter:
110 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY
OF THE OPPOSITION'S CANDIDATE FOR SHERIFF.
When McCarty was lying sick at a ranch south of Dodge City, Sheriff Singer,
Mr. Chas. Myton and Jas Morgan were sent out to capture McCarty, under a
promise of a three hundred dollar reward, made by the Kaiser of the Board of
County Commissioners. A promise they had no more right to make them than
the writer of this article, but the reward was paid and Ford county tax payers
will have to pay their part of it. It may be a matter of news to some of our
tax payers to know that the said Board of County Commissioners are personally
liable for the said reward.
To return to our story, when Mr. Singer and his two assistants arrived at
the ranch, thinking that discretion would be the better part of valor, halted,
and the lady living at the ranch was hailed, and asked whether the said McCarty
was there, she answered yes; they then asked her whether there were any guns
in the house; she answered, plenty of them. They also asked her whether she
thought that McCarty would make a fight, she said he would to a certainty.
They, the posse, then told the lady of the house that if she would go in the
house and would succeed in getting all the guns outside of the house, so that
they could capture McCarty without taking any chances at all, they then would
give her one hundred and fifty dollars, which would be half of the whole
reward which they were to receive. She agreed to the said proposition and
went to the house and put all the guns on the outside of the house, and the
posse then had an easy capture, as McCarty was then lying on his death bed.
After they received the reward they must have forgotten their promise to
the lady in question, as they still owe her the half of the said reward. If any
one doubts the truth of the above, the lady is in town and will gladly make an
affidavit to the above statements. A man or a party of men who would break
their word to a woman under such circumstances will deserve defeat as an
aspirant for any office.
The other was of a similar nature:
ONE OF FRED SINGERS OFFICIAL ACTS
AS A DEPUTY, UNDER SHERIFF HINKEL.
About three years ago, Singer and an assistant went down to Mrs. Brown's
ranch, on Bear creek, (the place generally known as the soldier's grave,) for
the purpose of arresting the notorious thief and bandit of the plains, named
Jim O'Neill, (they succeeded in making the arrest,) but through the influence
of Mrs. Brown, his mother, and the magical influence of about one hundred
dollars, paid to Singer and his assistant, the redoubtable Jimmy was allowed to
pack his grip and depart in peace. This is another bit of evidence as to how
the sheriff and his deputies in the past few years have done their duty.
Apparently the items had the desired effect for Sughrue defeated
Singer 488 to 343. 9
Though he had been defeated at the ballot box evidently Singer
was continued as under sheriff while Hinkle remained in office. On
December 19, 1883, he, with John Meagher (Mike Meagher's
brother) and the marshal of Trinidad, Colo., captured a suspected
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 111
murderer. The Caldwell Journal, December 27, 1883, reported the
story:
ED. HIBBARD CAPTURED.
John Meagher, sheriff Singer, of Dodge, and City Marshal Kreager, of
Trinidad, returned from Chautauqua county last Saturday with Ed. Hibbard,
alias Ed. Lee, charged with the murder of a man near Trinidad, as stated
last week.
The officers left this city Wednesday, went to Grenola, where they procured
a team and started for the home of Hibbard's parents, near Wauneta, a small
town about eight miles from Cedarvale. Arriving at Wauneta about 3 p. m.,
they went into the village store, which they found full of people, and Ed.
standing by the counter, behind the stove, surrounded by a throng, to whom
he was relating his western adventures. The officers knew him at a glance,
and sheriff Singer at once stepped up to Ed. and taking him by the hand, said:
"How do you do, Ed? I want you." Ed. reached for his revolver with his
left hand, but by this time Meagher had him covered with a six-shooter, and
he quietly submitted to being hand-cuffed, led out, and put into the wagon.
In less than three minutes from the time the officers entered the store, they
had their man and were on their return trip. Ed. claimed he did not know
what he was arrested for, but at the same time requested the officers not to
tell the people anything about it.
Shortly after passing Cedarvale, the party were overtaken by Hibbard's
mother, who wanted to know by what right they were taking her son off in
that manner. Ed. told her it was all right, the strangers were his friends, and
that he would be back in a couple of weeks. This was satisfactory to his poor
mother, and the party proceeded on their way, arriving here at the time above
stated.
While at Cedarvale, on their return, a constable of that place stepped up
to Meagher and told him that Hibbard was a hard case, that he, the constable,
had carried a warrant against him for four years on the charge of horse stealing.
It seems that about four years ago Hibbard left suddenly and went to Texas,
where, it is stated, he killed a man. Thence he drifted to Colorado, where he
ran across his uncle, stopping at his uncle's ranch until he killed the old man.
On being searched after his arrest, $105 in money was found upon his
person, all that was left of the $1,100 taken off his victim, an old account book,
with several leaves torn out, and the name "Reynolds" written on the inside
of the cover. The writing was so worn that the initials could not be made
out, but the name is supposed to be the name of the man killed.
Saturday afternoon Messrs. Singer and Kreager started for Trinidad with
their prisoner, and he is ere this safely locked up in the jail at that place. There
can be no doubt as to his guilt, and according to the laws of Colorado, he will
suffer the penalty of his crime.
The Dodge City Times, December 27, 1883, reported that Singer
had taken the prisoner on west:
Under Sheriff Singer left Monday [December 24] for Colorado with the
prisoner Hibbard, who was arrested in the southeastern part of the state. Fred
is an excellent officer, and does his duty faithfully.
112 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
With the end of the Hinkle sheriffship Fred Singer returned to
private life judging from the 1885 Kansas state census which listed
him, March 1, as a 32-year-old merchant.
On July 31 he and Mysterious Dave Mather were in Topeka,
staying at the Windsor hotel. 10 By September 1 he was again men-
tioned as a deputy sheriff. The Dodge City Democrat, September
5, 1885, told how he prevented a kidnapping:
A HALF-BLOWN ABDUCTION.
A bold attempt to abduct a child was made last Tuesday morning. The
particulars, as we learned them, are as follows:
About three weeks ago Harry Logue, a well known gambler and general
"rustler" of this place, parted from his wife. They had one child and he
wanted it, and had threatened to kill her if she did not give it up. Last Tuesday
morning he procured a rig and drove to the house where his wife was living.
He went in and snatched the child from its mother's arms while she was in
bed and ran out to the buggy, jumped in and started off south at a pace that
astonished the natives. Mrs. Logue followed, screaming at every breath, calling
on the people to get her baby. Deputy sheriff Fred Singer happened to be
passing on a horse and immediately gave chase. He overhauled the gentleman
just as he was driving on the bridge, and made him turn around and wend
his way back amid the jeers of the populace.
It was an affecting sight when the babe was given into its mother's arms.
She was wild with joy and hugged and kissed the innocent cause of all this
excitement to her heart's content.
Half the population was out to see the chase, and all expressed their sym-
pathy for the unfortunate mother, and all were glad when she got her child.
A month later Fred Singer was appointed deputy U. S. marshal
for the district. "This was quite a compliment," said the Globe Live
Stock Journal, October 6, 1885, "and the result of one of the finest
endorsements ever sent out of this county. Everybody who is
acquainted with Mr. Singer knows he will make a good officer."
Singer's appointment was effective October I. 11
In another month, however, Singer was apparently replaced by
H. B. Bell who was appointed about November 5, 1885. 12 No reason
has been found for Singer's short term of office.
Singer was once again named marshal of Dodge City on Septem-
ber 23, 1886, by A. B. Webster. The Globe Live Stock Journal, Sep-
tember 28, 1886, noted the change in officers: "Mayor Webster on
last Thursday morning made a change in the police force, removing
Marshal [T. J.] Tate and Policeman [J. A.] Marshall, and appoint-
ing Fred Singer marshal and Nelson Gary assistant." Singer served
until shortly after Mayor Webster's death, resigning May 10, 1887. 13
Singer was, in January, 1889, one of several former Dodge City
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 113
police officers involved in the county seat fight in Gray county. The
complete story of the street battle in which they were engaged will
be told in the section on William M. Tilghman.
1. See, also, Dodge City Times, January 17, 1880. 2. Ford County Globe, February
10. 1880. 3. Dodge City Times, April 7, 1881. 4. See, also, Ford County Globe, May
3, 1881. 5. Ibid., July 26, 1881. 6. See, also, Dodge City Times, October 19, 1882.
7. Ford County Globe, February 20, 1883. 8. Dodge City Times, August 16, 1883. 9.
Ford County Globe, November 20, 1883. 10. Globe Live Stock Journal, August 4, 1885.
11. See, also, Dodge City Democrat, October 3, 1885; Dodge City Times, October 8, 1885.
12. See the section on H. B. Bell. 13. Globe Live Stock Journal, May 17, 1887.
( To Be Continued in the Summer, 1962, Issue. )
81586
The Annual Meeting
THE 86th annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society
and board of directors was held in Topeka on October 16 and
17, 1961.
As a feature of the state centennial year, a special meeting was
scheduled for Monday evening, October 16. Dr. Clement M. Sil-
vestro, of Madison, Wis., director of the American Association for
State and Local History, spoke on "Activities and Aims of Local
Historical Societies." Following Dr. Silvestro's address, John W.
Ripley of Topeka presented "A Night at the Nickelodeon/* including
episodes from a Pearl White silent movie and several song slides.
Refreshments and an open house followed the program.
On Tuesday morning, for the fourth consecutive year, a public
meeting was held for persons interested in local historical societies.
Papers were presented by three representatives of such organiza-
tions: Elmer E. Newacheck of the Fort Lamed Historical Society,
Mrs. Jesse C. Harper of the Clark County Historical Society, and
William E. Koch of the Riley County Historical Society. Dr. Sil-
vestro offered comments and suggestions. Edgar Langsdorf, assist-
ant secretary, presided.
The session for the Society's board of directors was held con-
currently with Pres. George L. Anderson presiding. First business
was the report of the secretary:
SECRETARY'S REPORT, YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 17, 1961
At the conclusion of last year's meeting the newly elected president, George
L. Anderson, reappointed Will T. Beck, Wilford Riegle, and T. M. Lillard to the
executive committee. Members holding over were Charles M. Correll and
Frank Haucke.
The death of Mr. Lillard on July 6, 1961, was a serious loss to the Society.
Although his health had not been good for some months, he was up and around
and his unexpected death came as a shock to hundreds of friends and associates.
To this Society, which he served as president in 1939-1940, as a director since
1928, and as a member of the executive committee since 1930, he was a quiet
and unassuming friend, a man who could always be called on to help when
assistance was needed.
Mr. Lillard's place on the executive committee was filled by the appointment
of Alan W. Farley of Kansas City.
The Society suffered the additional loss of four other members of the board
of directors since the last annual meeting. Miss Mary Maud Smelser, a mem-
ber of the staff of the University of Kansas library for 50 years, died at Law-
(114)
THE ANNUAL MEETING 115
rence, October 26, 1960. She played a major part in building the library's
Kansas room into the state's second largest depository of Kansas source material.
Thomas H. Bowlus, lola banker and philanthropist, died December 17, 1960.
In 1927 he established the Thomas H. Bowlus fund with the Society, the income
from which has been used to further our program.
Dr. Joseph C. Shaw, Topeka physician, died February 25, 1961. During the
many years that he held a membership in the Society, Doctor Shaw took an
active interest in the work of the organization.
W. Marvin Richards, one of Kansas' foremost educators, died July 10, 1961,
at Emporia. He was perhaps most widely known for his text books, Four
Centuries in Kansas and The Kansas Story, both written in collaboration with
Bliss Isely. ;
APPROPRIATIONS AND BUDGET REQUESTS
The state's centennial year began with a flourish, as far as the Society was
concerned, with the formal opening of the new museum galleries on Sunday,
January 29, Kansas day. More than 1,200 visitors toured ihe display areas,
which had just been finished as part of the large-scale remodeling of the second
and third floors of the Memorial building. A few weeks later the new audito-
rium also was turned over by the contractors, and the most far-reaching modern-
ization the old building has ever undergone was finally completed.
Another long-awaited improvement will be the installation of a new elevator
in the empty shaft at the east end of ihe lobby. Contracts have been awarded,
and long before the next annual meeting the work should be finished, including
the enclosure of both elevator shafts.
The memorial to Kansans who participated in the campaigns before Vicks-
burg was formally dedicated at Vicksburg June 17, 1961, with Alan VV. Farley,
special representative of Governor Anderson, giving the dedicatory address.
Budget requests for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1963, were filed with the
state budget director in September. The two new staff positions asked for in
last year's budget, a maintenance engineer and a director of field services, were
not approved, and the request has therefore been repeated. The maintenance
engineer position is considered essential td the proper operation and care of the
expensive heating and air-conditioning machinery which was installed as part
of the remodeling. The field representative, if the Society is allowed to employ
him, will open new avenues of service and new opportunities for acquiring
historical materials for the state.
Requests for capital improvements include repetitions of proposals from
previous budgets, chiefly replacement of the old glass stack floors with steel;
and installation of a suspended ceiling in the main gallery of the museum.
Otherwise, operating costs are expected to remain at about the same level as
in recent years.
PUBLICATIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS
The Kansas Historical Quarterly, now in its 30th year, has been dressed up
for the centennial in four-color covers, each issue specially designed. So many
favorable comments have been received that the plan will be continued for
another year. Inside, there have been more pages, and several articles have
dealt with themes relating to the state's hundredth anniversary. More than
2,600 copies of each number are distributed regularly to members of the
Society, and to schools and libraries.
116 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In order that part-time staff member Louise Barry might have something
of a break from her arduous and monotonous chore of indexing the many Society
publications now being issued, she was encouraged to proceed with a long-
planned series of articles now appearing in the Quarterly under the title, "Kansas
Before 1854." Obviously more non-Indians were crossing these plains before
Kansas came into being than any of us imagined. Not as many as use today's
turnpike, of course, but so numerous that Miss Barry now has the proverbial
bear by the tail and can't let go. Although her work on the Comprehensive
Index to the Quarterly series is currently suffering, she is uncovering some
amazing new material. For example, in all the years your secretary has been
around this place it has been commonly accepted that the first white child
born in Kansas was Napoleon Boone, son of Daniel Morgan Boone, and that this
event took place at the Kaw agency in present Jefferson county on August 22,
1828. Miss Barry is now proving beyond doubt that the honor belongs to
one of the Benton Pixley children born at Mission Neosho during its years of
operation in present Neosho county in 1824-1829.
It is hoped that the Quarterly series of articles on "Cowtown Police Officers
and Gun Fighters" can be completed by late 1962. Already magazines such
as American Heritage and The Saturday Evening Post have taken note of the
findings therein.
The Historical Society Mirror, published every two months, continues to
serve as a close link between the staff and members of the Society. It is now
approaching completion of its seventh year of publication.
Kansas publishers apparently still find hundred-year-ago items interesting,
judging from the number of Kansas newspapers which print them. These ar-
ticles are compiled and sent out each month to the newspapers of the state,
and the project will be continued as long as it seems to serve a useful purpose.
Last month members received a special publication, a bibliography of Civil
War materials held by the Society, which was compiled by Eugene D. Decker,
assistant archivist, as part of the work toward the master's degree in history
which he received from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, in June. It
was published as part of the series, Emporia State Research Studies, and
through the courtesy of Dr. Wilh'am H. Seiler, under whose direction Mr.
Decker worked, copies were made available to the Society for distribution to
its members.
The text for a historical marker on the Battle of the Spurs, to be erected by
the State Highway Commission on US-75 north of Holton, was written this
year, and two others, on the discovery of helium at Dexter, Cowley county,
and on Osawatomie the John Brown country, are now being prepared.
Two books issued by the Society as part of the centennial observance have
been well received. Kansas: A Pictorial History, a book of 319 pages, with
some 800 pictures, was published jointly with the Kansas Centennial Commis-
sion in February. Almost simultaneously Robert W. Baughman's Kansas in
Maps appeared, a beautiful volume of 104 pages which was published by the
Society through the Baughman Foundation. Both books were handsomely
designed and printed by the McCormick-Armstrong Company of Wichita.
Another book originating from the Baughman Foundation, Kansas Post
Offices, containing 256 pages, is just off the press. Advance copies are today
available for your inspection, and orders may be placed by those interested.
THE ANNUAL MEETING 117
ARCHAEOLOGY
The Society's archaeological program, over the past year, has continued to
be involved with salvage operations in several of the new reservoirs being
constructed within the state. Under the cosponsorship of the National Park
Service, excavations were carried out in the Milford and Council Grove reser-
voirs and preliminary surveys were begun in the Elk City and Cheney reservoirs.
The purpose of the program is to locate and sample at least a small part of
the prehistoric remains which will be lost or destroyed when the reservoirs are
filled. The Society appraised the John Redmond reservoir early this year and
sites were selected for future investigations.
The Milford reservoir received the major attention in June and July when
the Society's archaeologist, Tom Witty, and a crew of seven worked for eight
weeks on two sites. At the first, the floor of a small earth lodge was uncovered
and the village refuse area sampled. A date of A. D. 1175 150 has been ob-
tained by radio carbon techniques for this site. The second site investigated
had been the location of a series of small hunting camps. These camps, due
to repeated flooding and silting, were buried one atop the other to a depth of
seven feet. The lower camps may date back several thousand years.
On completion of the Milford excavations the crew moved to the proposed
Council Grove reservoir for another two weeks of work during the first half
of August. Some six sites were tested to determine which would be of sufficient
interest to warrant full scale excavation in the future. These sites were camps,
villages, and a burial mound. They represent a time period probably from
500 to several thousand years ago.
With completion of the Memorial building remodeling, the archaeologi-
cal section for the first time has its own quarters. These are a combination
office-laboratory and a large storage room for archaeological and ethnological
materials. A recent addition to these collections was the donation of four re-
constructed pottery vessels and several bone tools by George Jelinek of Ells-
worth. Mr. Jelinek collected these materials from sites in central Kansas.
ARCHIVES DIVISION
Public records from the following state departments have been transferred
during the year to the archives division:
Source Title Dates Quantity
Agriculture, Board of Statistical Rolls of Counties 1954 607 vols.
Attorney General Correspondence and briefs
concerning water use
rights 1927-1944 1 box
Insurance Department ... * Annual statements 1953-1957 2,209 vols.
( * To be microfilmed, and originals destroyed. )
A report from the Board of Nurse Registration and Nursing Education for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1960, was received, as was a report on the
Old Age and Survivors Insurance program of the state for 1960, prepared by
the Accounts and Reports division of the Department of Administration.
Mrs. Aden W. Lowry, Sedan, has given a collection of papers from the
United States land offices at Fort Scott and Humboldt. Included is correspond-
ence, 1857-1864, and miscellaneous papers concerning fiscal matters for the
same period. The latter includes monthly and quarterly statements of ac-
counts, fee statements, and abstracts of register receipts. In addition, there are
118 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
two volumes of disbursing agents' accounts, 1857-1873. This has been interfiled
with similar material from these two land offices already on file in the archives.
.. The 1961 legislature passed a law which states that counties wishing to
destroy records more than 20 years old must obtain the approval of the His-
torical Society before doing so. As a result of this legislation, which the
Society believes is foresighted and wise, several inquiries have been received
from county offices. As yet no records have been transferred to the Society
but those of possible permanent historical value can now be reviewed by the
state archivist and the Society's collection of county archives may be substan-
tially augmented in the future.
LIBRARY
, The work of the library has again shown a sharp increase, part of it due to
centennial activities. There were 2,998 queries on Kansas subjects, 1,619 gene-
alogical inquires, and 1,059 on general subjects, a total of 5,676. This is
an increase of nearly 20 per cent over the preceding year.
Ten years ago it was necessary to add a third cataloger-reference librarian
to the staff in order to keep the work up and continue to provide the quality
of service that has done so much to make the Society one of the foremost insti-
tutions of its kind. This year's figures represent a work load more than 75 per
cent greater than that of 10 years ago. Unless there is a decided slacking
off next year it will be necessary to request a fourth professional position on
the library staff, since the librarians now spend so much of their time in
helping patrons and answering correspondence that the basic work of accession-
ing, cataloging, and performing other essential technical functions has fallen
hopelessly behind.
Correspondence, for example, has almost doubled in the past five years.
Inquiries covering a wide range of subject matter were received this year from
480 Kansans and 623 residents of other states and foreign countries, a total of
1,103 letters many of which require lengthy research to provide adequate
answers. Loan file material totalling 347 packets was also sent out.
The output of the clipping department has been little short of astounding.
This year, in addition to the seven daily newspapers which are regularly read
and clipped, 14 other dailies were read and clipped for one year, another was
checked for two-and-a-half years, and the year's issues of 14 weeklies, plus
460 miscellaneous single issues and 20 centennial editions, were read and
clipped. In addition to this prodigious feat, 5,399 clippings were prepared and
mounted, while ten old clipping volumes and 160 single pages were remounted.
Such a quantity of work has been possible only because of the skill and ex-
perience of Mrs. Grace Menninger, who is in charge of this work. A part-time
assistant helped her during part of the year.
Library collections have been enriched this year by the addition of many
books, pamphlets and compilations in the local history field. Worthy of note
are those from Franklin, Lane, Meade, Sheridan, and Smith counties, and from
the cities of Abilene, Arkansas City, Cawker City, Cherryvale, Douglass, Creat
Bend, Harper, Hillsdale, Hutch in son, Leaven worth, Milford, Munden, North
Lawrence, Oswego, Russell, and South Haven. Other worthwhile accessions
included a number of church histories, centennial cookbooks, librettos and scores
of centennial songs, pageants and programs, among them The Kansas Story,"
and histories of various civic organizations.
THE ANNUAL MEETING 119
In addition there have been several generous gifts of books and family
records. The Woman's Kansas Day Club, which annually donates historical
research papers, turned in school histories that when bound amounted to five
volumes. Judge Walter G. Thiele gave a collection of Chautauqua programs
and handbills from the town of Washington. Mrs. Leland H. Schenck donated
a collection of books dating from 1809 to 1844 that belonged to the Rev. Robert
Simerwell and constituted the first library of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission.
The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Kansas presented
a microfilm copy of the ancestral papers of all members, past and present.
Money to purchase books as a memorial to the late Mrs. Harold Cone, Topeka,
was given by the Shawnee County Historical Society, the Margaret Dunning
chapter, Daughters of American Colonists, and the Topeka Town committee of
New England Women. Monetary gifts from the Kansas Society of the Sons of
the American Revolution and the Polly Ogden and Margaret Dunning chapters
of the Daughters of American Colonists made possible the purchase of micro-
film to complete the 1850 federal census of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Frank
Helm contributed funds for the purchase of other census records on microfilm.
Several authors and compilers donated family genealogies, among them Mrs.
Robert Steele, Mrs. W. H. Keller, and Mrs. Henry A. Humphrey. Copies of
theses were received from their authors, Harold M. Heth, Jr., Robert E. Star-
bury, and Joseph F. Murphy. Mr. Heth's was written under a grant from
the Mueller Scholarship Foundation established by Col. and Mrs. Harrie S.
Mueller of Wichita. Through the courtesy of the University of Kansas 19 other
theses were borrowed for microfilming. More detailed reports on these acces-
sions, and on the books and other printed items produced during the centennial
year, will be made in the annual listing of library accessions to appear in the
Summer issue of the Quarterly.
Library accessions, October 1, 1960-September 30, 1961, were:
Bound volumes
Books
Kansas 262
General 577
Genealogy and local history 189
Indians and the West 79
Kansas state publications 25
Total 1,132
Clippings 17
Periodicals 313
Total, bound volumes 1,462
Microcards (titles) 75
Microfilm (reels) 59
Pamphlets
Kansas 760
General 480
Genealogy and local history 52
Indians and the West 12
Kansas state publications 818
Total, pamphlets 2,122
120 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MANUSCRIPT DIVISION
Sixty-four cubic feet of personal papers were added to the manuscript col-
lections during the year.
Mrs. Merritt L. Beeson, Dodge City, gave a manuscript volume containing
progress reports by W. W. Follett and Stuart Henry, with exhibits, on the Eureka
canal in western Kansas. The documents are dated July, 1896.
A collection of the late Robert Billard's papers, received from his estate,
includes letters from his brother, L. Phil Billard, one of Topeka's pioneer
aviators who was killed in France in 1918. The Billard family settled in the
Topeka area in 1854 and figured prominently in the city's history.
Vema Cooley of Toulon, 111., has given approximately 500 letters addressed
to her mother, Mrs. Anna M. Cooley, 1891-1950, by managers of her farm
lands in Lincoln county. The letters contain detailed reports on weather, soil,
crops, and marketing.
Alan W. Farley, Kansas City, gave papers relating to the re-enactment on
February 22, 1961, of the raising of the 34-star flag at Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, on February 22, 1861, by Abraham Lincoln. Rolla Clymer of
El Dorado portrayed Lincoln.
Newell A. George, Kansas City, representative from the second district,
1959-1961, has given some of his papers from Washington; and Wint Smith,
Mankato, representative from the sixth district from 1947 until his retirement
this year, deposited 20 file cases of records. These are valuable additions to
the Society's growing collections of personal papers.
Materials to be added to his papers already filed at the Society have been
given by former congressman Clifford R. Hope, Garden City. The newly
acquired papers filled 11 transfer cases and six letter files. Researchers have
made extensive use of this large and valuable collection.
Medical records of J. E. Love, M. D., who practiced in Whiting, Jackson
county, 1882-1937, have been given by Mrs. Murry Meador, Holton. The col-
lection consists of 35 small volumes containing notes on calls, prescriptions,
births, accounts, vaccinations, and miscellaneous matters pertaining to his
practice.
Francis W. Moses of Con way, Ark., has given letters and diaries of his father,
Webster W. Moses, who served as a member of Co. D, Seventh Kansas Volun-
teer cavalry, during the Civil War. The material covers his years in service.
Also in the collection are letters of Mrs. Webster Moses, written to her husband
during the war years, and letters of her brothers, Robert, George, and Welcome
Mowry, all Civil War soldiers.
John W. Snyder, Pasadena, Calif., sent negative photostats of 10 pages of
the records of the Union Squatter Association of Monrovia, Atchison county,
for 1857.
Waldo E. Koop, Wichita, lent for microfilming the Sedgwick county jail
calendar, 1886-1907.
Through the generosity of Mrs. Raymond Millbrook of Detroit, the Society
has been able to place an order for microfilm copies of the extensive Fort Hays
records in the National Archives. These records consist of letters, telegrams,
orders, and circulars for the period 1866-1889.
Other donors included: Russell E. Bidlack, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Mrs. Clara
E. Boyce, Long Beach, Calif.; Mrs. Lynn R. Brodrick, Marysville; Welton D.
THE ANNUAL MEETING 121
Brown, M. D., Nichols, N. Y.; George W. Browne, St. Petersburg, Fla.; Mar-
guerite Bullene, Topeka; California State Library, Sacramento; Mrs. George
Caragonne, Houston, Tex.; John W. Carrothers, San Francisco, Calif.; Mrs. T. C.
Carter, Tonkawa, Okla.; C. J. Chandler, Wichita; W. G. Clugston, Topeka;
Charles Darnell, Wamego; Hubert Dawson, Wichita; Mrs. John S. Dean, Jr.,
Topeka; Mrs. Mary H. Dean, Albuquerque, N. M.; Mrs. Frank G. Drenning,
Topeka; Mrs. John E. DuMars, Topeka; Mrs. Wade Ferguson, Parsons; William
B. Fletcher, Downs; Fortnightly club, Topeka; Mrs. Morrill Fowler, Topeka;
Mrs. Rachel Fudge, Wichita; Henry W. Gaffney, Newark, N. J.; Mrs. J. V.
Griffin, Topeka; Mrs. H. W. Harbaugh, Phillipsburg; Victor E. Hawkinson,
Leonardville; William C. Hoad, Ann Arbor, Mich.; T. F. Hobble, Needles,
Calif.; Alva E. Home, Topeka; Mrs. C. C. Isely, Topeka; the Kansas City Star;
Mrs. Erwin Keller, Topeka; Robert H. Kingman, Topeka; D. D. Leahy, Pratt;
Mrs. M. E. Lee, Walker, Minn.; W. H. Lieurance, Topeka; Mrs. Aden W.
Lowry, Sedan; Mrs. G. W. McClung, Westminster, Md.; Clyde O. McCrum,
Kansas City, Mo.; Roy J. McMullen estate; Mrs. George Middleton, Washington,
D. C.; Ottawa County Historical Society; Mrs. Lon H. Powell, Wichita; Lester
E. Scales, Topeka; James W. Scoville, Osage City; Dolph Simons, Lawrence;
U. Scott Smith, Stillwell, 111.; Mrs. Fred M. Thompson, Oskaloosa; Marcia E.
Tillman, Little Rock, Ark.; Mrs. R. J. Toth, Chula Vista, Calif.; the Rev. Charles
Trent, Topeka; Elmer Wagner, Topeka; Mrs. Chester Woodward, Topeka.
MICROFILM DIVISION
In the past 12 months the microfilm division has produced more than 206,000
photographs, nearly 184,000 of newspapers, 17,000 for the library, and the
balance for the archives and manuscript divisions. Negatives sold totaled
3,900.
Newspaper microfilming projects included the Columbus Advocate, April 1,
1897-March 5, 1936, and March 2, 1942-November 29, 1945; Galena Republi-
can, January 19, 1883-December 26, 1930; St. Paul Journal, April 27, 1872-
December 31, 1953; Osage County Chronicle, Lyndon and Burlingame, January
18, 1872-May 29, 1919; Burlingame Enterprise, October 10, 1895-December
30, 1920; Barber County Index, Medicine Lodge, December 16, 1880-December
31, 1931; Columbus Courier, July 8, 1875-October 2, 1902; Industrial Advocate,
Augusta and El Dorado, August 7, 1890-October 17, 1913; and the Kansas
Farmer, Topeka, Leavenworth, Lawrence, May 1, 1863-December 28, 1892.
Shorter runs of newspapers microfilmed included the El Dorado Democrat,
Belle Plaine News, Sedan Times-Star, Elk City Enterprise, Greeley News,
Lamed Titter and Toiler, La Harpe News, Bird City News, Hiawatha Herald,
Hiawatha Journal, Hiawatha Dispatch, Mapleton Press, Galena Miner, Univer-
sity Daily Kansan, Lawrence, Elk City Globe, Elk City Star, Bloom Booster,
Lakin Herald, and a San Francisco paper, the Alaska Appeal. Work is now in
progress on a run of the Council Grove Republican.
MUSEUM
The museum's previous attendance records were left far behind this year,
as 90,911 visitors were recorded. This is an increase of nearly 26,000 over the
former record. As usual, many school and scout groups took advantage of the
program of guided tours, and teachers made special efforts, as part of their
centennial observances, to bring their classes in.
On Kansas day, January 29, the Society opened three new galleries on the
122 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
second and third floors, made possible through the remodeling already men-
tioned. In the Military Hall on the second floor 16 cases display uniforms and
other articles showing the participation of Kansans in the nation's wars. Indi-
vidual cases feature the careers of such famous Kansas military leaders as Gens.
James G. Blunt, Frederick Funston, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Adm. John E.
Gingrich. Other exhibits include a document case, military uniform case, Civil
War paintings, and displays of cannon and other weapons.
The adjoining room, once a part of the old auditorium, is devoted to the
agricultural history of the state. The story is told through the use of six display
cases, a tool display panel, and a reproduction of a farm yard, made realistic
by the incorporation of part of an old barn, in which machinery and tools of
the late 1800's occupy most of the space.
Another new room on the third floor is now the Indian Gallery. Here 17
cases depict the cultures of Indian tribes in Kansas from prehistoric times. Most
of these cases were moved from the old gallery on the fourth floor, but two new
ones have been added, one on the Wichita Indians and the other presenting an
archaeological view of various cultures represented in the Kansas area.
Removal of the Indian Gallery from the fourth floor made possible the
addition of a woman's section in that area. Nine cases now display hats, shoes,
fans, china, and silverware, and other items of interest to feminine visitors. A
large built-in case, with mannequins dressed in elegant costumes of the late
19th century, has attracted much attention.
Centennial activities have kept the museum staff busy on several outside
projects. Stan Sohl, director, and several of his assistants worked with Mrs.
Frank Haucke and the Centennial Commission in designing and building
displays for the history trailer which toured the state during much of the year.
As of September 30 nearly 84,000 persons had visited this trailer. Another
centennial project sponsored by the Society was the building of a general store
for the World Food Fair held in Topeka June 13-25. Items in the store, of
course, were not for sale, but penny candy was available and many youngsters
and oldsters, too bought horehound drops, licorice sticks, red hots, and other
old-fashioned goodies. More than 55,000 visitors were attracted to the store,
and it was so well-received that it was used again in September at the Mid
America Fair, when another 33,000 came to see it.
This year, for the first time, the Society sent a display to the State Fair at
Hutchinson. The theme, naturally, was the centennial, and 17 panels were
used to point out major events in Kansas history. Attendance at our Hutchinson
display totaled over 42,000.
The museum also prepared a special display, including nine panels, a large
table setting, and other objects, for the Centennial Antique Show held in
Topeka late in September.
Special appreciation must be expressed to the Shawnee County Historical
Society and John W. Ripley for their contribution to the new look on the fourth
floor by arranging for the complete renovation of the Topeka-built Great Smith
automobile. It has been restored to its original appearance, as shown in the
manufacturer's catalog, by putting down the top, giving it a coat of bright red
paint, and redoing the brass radiator and trim until they sparkle like new.
The Woman's Kansas Day Club, which has done so much for the museum
in past years, again made a major contribution by contributing funds for the
purchase of a special and beautiful carpet for the Victorian parlor. Another
THE ANNUAL MEETING 123
exceptional gift was a donation by the Kansas Council of Women for the
purchase of two specially made and amazingly lifelike mannequins for the
costume case in the woman's section.
There were 185 museum accessions during the year, totaling 1,637 items.
Important donations were general store items by Mrs. Frank Haucke, Coun-
cil Grove, Kratzer Brothers, Volland, and Mrs. Earl G. Radenz, Topeka; military
uniforms of Adm. John E. Gingrich, decorations and a dress sword, by Mrs.
John E. Gingrich of New York City; school books and globes used in the
Pottawatomie Baptist Mission school (near Topeka), 1848-1859, by Mrs.
Leland Schenck, Topeka; a goblet collection, Reginaphone and other items,
by Dr. Omer L. Sharp, San Fernando, Calif.; household items, by Charles
Darnell, Wamego; and an eight-place table setting of antique amber wild
flower glassware, by C. W. McCampbell, Manhattan.
One of the prize items of the year, donated by Philip O. Lautz, Topeka, was
an Edison "presentation" phonograph bearing a plaque which reads: "Presented
to Limon L. Ott by Thomas A. Edison." Other valuable gifts were a Cherokee
Indian rifle presented by Mrs. Ira E. Harshbarger, Loveland, Colo.; a Sharps
buffalo rifle from George Jelinek, Ellsworth; and a collection of firearms from
Milt Tabor, Topeka.
The list of donors this year is long, and the Society is deeply appreciative
of their thoughtfulness and generosity. In addition to those already mentioned,
the following have also contributed to the growth of a great museum: Gov.
John Anderson, Jr., Topeka; Etta Bailey, Topeka; B. B. Baker, Seattle, Wash.;
Annie Barnes, Topeka; Leslie H. Barnes, Valley Falls; Bill Bishop, Topeka;
Forrest R. Blackburn, Topeka; W. A. Blackburn, Herington; Eugene Brownlock,
Osawatomie; Marguerite Bullene, Topeka; Maj. and Mrs. A. C. Bux, Topeka;
Mr. and Mrs. B. J. Bux, Meriden; R. M. Campbell, Council Grove; Capper
estate, Topeka; Don Catron, Topeka; C. J. Chandler, Wichita; Eileen Charbo,
Topeka; Mrs. Lillie Narron Chilson, Payson, Ariz.; W. H. Christenson, Carbon-
dale; Mrs. E. C. Copping; Timon Covert estate, Madison; Dr. Irvin Lloyd
Cowger, Topeka; Emma B. Crabb, Topeka; Dr. J. A. Crabb, Topeka; Roy J.
Crabb, Independence, Mo.; Mrs. George Crawford, Topeka; Crosby Bros.,
Topeka; Clarence Cutshaw, Denver, Ark.; Mrs. Ralph DeHaven, Topeka; L. G.
DeLay, Oakley; Mrs. Mildred H. Drenning, Topeka; Mrs. A. J. Dince, Portland,
Ore.; Mrs. Augusta Dixon, Topeka; Gov. and Mrs. George Docking, Topeka;
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Dyche, Kansas City, Mo.; Mrs. Martha Engert, Man-
hattan; Dr. Newell O. Feeley, Topeka; Mrs. Wade Ferguson, Parsons; Earl
Fickertt, Peabody; Mrs. Fred Fitch, Pittsburg; Mrs. Lucille E. Fogerty, Topeka;
Mrs. Stella D. Foster, Topeka; Mrs. Fred Garwood, Olathe; Edward Geer,
Topeka; Mrs. Lawrence Graf, Wheaton; Mrs. Charles Green, Hutchinson; Mrs.
Mildred McMullen Green, Agra; Willard S. Hall; Colby Hamilton, Topeka;
Alfred Hartig, Delphos; Bill Hautz, Alta Vista; Mrs. Scott Henninger, Topeka;
Mrs. Chester Herrin, Abilene; John L. Hixon, Atchison; Margaret McCoy Huff-
man, Topeka; Mrs. Hugh A. Hope, Hunter; H. W. Hushler, Topeka; Louis and
Emma Jacoby, Agra; Ellen M. Jones, Larned; Herman Jonzen, Topeka; Kansas
Centenniul Commission; Stan Kaufman, Topeka; Mrs. Erwin Keller, Topeka;
Mr. and Mrs. F. O. Kelley, Topeka; E. V. King, Topeka; Mr. and Mrs. Robert
Kingman, Topeka; L. W. Kington, Topeka; Ed Langsdorf, Topeka; Albert
Legnon, Pittsburg; David D. Lehay, Jr., Oakley; Gertrude Lewis, Topeka;
Mirel Loomis, Parsons; Mrs. Aden W. Lowry, Sedan; Bruce Luetje, Topeka;
124 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mrs. Edna Wood Lysaght, Mission; C. A. McAdams, Albuquerque, N. M.; Mrs.
Vernon McArthur, Hutchinson; Mrs. Jack McClesky, Topeka; Kenneth McCoy,
Topeka; Clyde O. McCrum, Kansas City, Mo.; Mrs. George T. McDermott,
Topeka; Helen McFarland, Topeka; Frank McGrath, Topeka; Nelle Drake
McGrath, Holton; Terry McKensie, Topeka; Charlotte McLellan, Topeka; Mrs.
D. H. McQueen, Wakarusa; Ralph Mangold, Chicago, 111.; Mrs. Murry Meador,
Holton; Mrs. Grace Menninger, Topeka; E. A. Metcalf, McAllen, Tex.; Janis
Miller, Topeka; Mona Milliken, Topeka; Mike Mills, Topeka; Mrs. Joseph W.
Murray, Lawrence; Mrs. W. C. Nelson; Oregon Historical Society; Frank Parker,
Topeka; A. W. Ray estate, El Dorado; Stewart Rayfield, Topeka; Mrs. Harry
Rhodes, Topeka; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Richmond, Topeka; S. F. Roberts,
Tecumseh; Rock Island railroad; Perry R. Rockey, Topeka; Capt. Joseph F.
Rogers, U. S. N. R., New York, N. Y.; Daniel Rowlinson, Topeka; Tony J.
Schartz, Great Bend; Paul R. Shanahan, Topeka; Albert Sharp, Topeka; Shaw-
nee Mission Museum; Waddell Smith, San Rafael, Calif.; Mrs. F. A. Smutz,
Manhattan; Joseph W. Snell, Topeka; Mabel L. Snell, Topeka; Arthur Soden-
strum estate, El Dorado; Stanley Sohl, Topeka; Auswell Stauffer, Holton; Dick
Sticklein, Topeka; Mrs. Jacob Grant Stuhler, Topeka; Judge Walter Thiele,
Topeka; Marcia E. Tillman, Little Rock, Ark.; U. S. Post Office, Topeka; H. C.
Vangampolard, Topeka; Frank E. Walsh, Topeka; Jim Walsh, Wheaton; G. C.
Wegele, Holton; Viola Wendel; Mrs. Ben F. White, Bonner Springs; Don White,
Hickman Mills, Mo.; Mrs. H. E. Wickman, Topeka; Julius L. Wikus, Topeka;
Mrs. Herb Wilson, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Mrs. Albert Winter, Topeka; Mrs.
L. E. Womer, Agra; Mrs. Chester Woodward, Topeka; Otto Wullschleger,
Frankfort; Veda Wyatt, Garnett; Mrs. Mildred Yocum, Topeka; Max Yoho,
Topeka; Harlan W. Zachman, Topeka.
NEWSPAPER AND CENSUS DIVISION
Over 12,400 searches in census and newspaper volumes were made by the
staff of the newspaper and census division in serving 6,080 patrons who visited
the department, and in answering 4,388 requests received by mail. This is an
increase of almost 2,000 searches and 800 patrons over the previous year. A
total of 3,601 certified copies of census and newspaper records was furnished.
The division arranged for the photostating of numerous articles from news-
papers and for the microfilming of several longer runs of newspapers at the
request of patrons. Several lengthy searches were undertaken, including one
for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which involved the use
of over 1,000 newspaper volumes.
Materials used by patrons and staff during the year included 16,434 census
volumes, 7,887 bound volumes of newspapers, 6,296 single issues of newspapers,
and 3,360 microfilm reels.
Most Kansas newspaper publishers continue to send their current issues to
the Society. Fourteen publishers are also sending microfilm copies. News-
papers currently received include 55 dailies, seven triweeklies, 15 semi weeklies,
308 weeklies, and 109 published less frequently. Of these, 159 are school,
religious, fraternal, labor, industrial, trade, and miscellaneous periodicals; the
remaining 335 are regular newspapers. Eleven out-of-state newspapers are
received.
The Society's file of bound volumes of Kansas newspapers increased by 516
during the year to a total of 59,199. The total of out-of-state bound volumes
THE ANNUAL MEETING 125
is now 12,037. With the addition of 487 reels this year, the collection of
newspapers on microfilm is now 8,403 reels.
All newspapers on microfilm have been moved to the new microfilm reading
room on the second floor.
Older newspapers acquired by purchase this year are: Kansas Messenger,
Baldwin, January 1, 8, 1859, Vol. 1, Nos. 1, 2; the Fort Scott Bulletin, five
scattered issues in 1862 and 1863; and microfilm copies of the following:
Leavenworth Daily Times, May 3, 1858; Kansas Daily Ledger, Leavenworth,
February 24, 1858; Kansas National Democrat, Lecompton, July 30, 1857;
Kansas Leader, Minneola, February 24, 1858; L'Etoile Du Kansas, Neuchatel,
nine issues in 1873; Palmetto Kansan, February 24, 1858; Sumner Gazette, May
15, 1858; and Kansas Settler, Tecumseh, March 3, 1858.
Donations of older newspapers included: National Aegis, Worcester, Mass.,
November 2, 1803, by Mrs. C. C. Durkee, Knoxville, Tenn.; Prairie Owl, Fargo
Springs, August 27, 1885, by Chas. Colvert, Auburn, Calif.; American Soldier,
Manila, P. I., October 8, 15, 29, November 5, 12, 1898, by D. K. Dick, McLouth;
and Kawsmouth Pilot, Wyandotte, March 9, 1881, by Alan W. Farley, Kansas
City. Other donors of newspapers included: John W. Carrothers, San Fran-
cisco, Calif.; Charles Crosby, Topeka; Mildred Drenning, Topeka; Clara Haze-
ting, Topeka; T. F. Hobble, Needles, Calif.; Mrs. Burton Keller, Topeka; Mrs.
Erwin Keller, Topeka; Jennie Owen, Topeka; Earl Vaughn, Esbon; Walter C.
Walker, Kansas City; and Fenn Ward, Highland.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND MAPS
During the year 1,974 photographs have been added to the collection while
97 duplicate, damaged, or otherwise valueless prints have been removed, making
a net increase of 1,877. Of these, 980 were gifts, 575 were lent for copying,
347 were made by the Society staff and 72 were transferred from other depart-
ments. There are now 570 items in the color slide collection.
In addition to the still photographs accessioned, 46 reels of 16mm. motion
picture film were given to the Society. Donors were the Kansas office of the
United States Treasury Savings Bond Division, WIBW-TV, the Blue Valley
Film Committee, and the Topeka Capital- Journal.
Several large groups of pictures were received this year. Among the more
important gifts were 158 photographs of Topeka scenes and citizens from the
Piobert Billard estate, Topeka; 28 views of Kansas towns during the era of the
first World War from Donald Hale, Independence, Mo.; 24 pictures of early
Sedan and southeastern Kansas historic sites from Mrs. Aden W. Lowry of
Sedan; and over 300 views of Kansas people and scenes from the Walter
Bonstengel estate, Topeka.
Excellent collections of Kansas photographs were lent for copying by Mrs.
Ray Garrett, Neodesha; Paul Gibler, Claflin; the Hutchinson News; KAKE-TV,
Wichita; the Kansas AH Sports Hall of Fame, Topeka; Floyd Souders, Cheney;
Mrs. Ben White and the public library, Bonner Springs; and Ford Rockwell
and the Wichita Public Library. Three lenders combined to make a substantial
contribution to the Society's collection of railroad and interurban pictures
Dave Holberg of Topeka, Allison Chandler of Salina, and Shelby Cambell of
Westmoreland.
Demands for copies of pictures in the Society's collection have continued
to increase at a phenomenal rate and as in the previous year much of the need
can be credited to the centennial of statehood activities. However, requests
126 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from outside the state have increased also, with the National Broadcasting
Company, Life, American Heritage, and True West among the most frequent
patrons of the collection. Approximately 400 pictures were furnished the
National Broadcasting Company's Project 20 series for the preparation of the
"The Real West/' many of which appeared in the television production.
KAKE-TV, Wichita, also made use of a great many of the Society's photographs
on its "Expedition Kansas" programs.
The Kansas Centennial Commission borrowed color slides of historic sites
from the Society and produced film strips titled "Kansas Midway U. S. A."
This turned out to be a popular feature which various clubs and organizations
over the state used in centennial programs. The Society sent copies of the film
strip to 190 such groups during the year, and its own slides were shown
63 times.
One hundred and seven new maps have been accessioned this year, 36 being
recent issues of the United States Geological Survey. The United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey has deposited 19 aeronautical charts for Kansas and the
Kansas Highway Commission has given 20 new county highway maps.
Photostatic copies of eight Indian land survey maps made by Isaac and John
McCoy have been obtained from the National Archives, and three maps of the
territorial period have been received. A map and accompanying descriptive
material of Scott City and vicinity, dated in the 1880's, was given by Ruth
Jackson, Sharon Springs. Other donors to the map collection include Robert
Baughman, Liberal; Gene Stotts and Joseph W. Snell, Topeka; Charles H.
Rehkopf, St. Louis, Mo.; Mrs. Leon Flint, Lawrence; and E. W. Gilman, Con-
cord, N. H.
SUBJECTS FOR RESEARCH
Subjects for extended research included: railroad development and town
promotion; transportation to the Pacific; Dodge City, Montezuma and Trinidad
railroad; taxation of railroad land grants; British settlements in Kansas; agricul-
tural development of the Great Plains, 1870-1955; Kansas agriculture; history
of X-ray in Kansas; women physicians; the dairy industry; Manuel Lisa and the
Western fur trade; the Price raid; vocational education; Shawnee and Cheyenne
Indians; the arts in Kansas, 1860-1865; early Kansas clergymen; the Unitarian
church in the territorial period; Baptist missionaries to the Indians; Wanamaker
school; Kearny, Rice, Smith, and Wichita counties; history of Lansing; Joseph
L. Bristow, Arthur Capper, Boston Corbett, Isaac Goodnow, Klondike Kate,
Alf M. Landon, Isaac McCoy, and William A. Phillips.
SOCIETY HOLDINGS, SEPTEMBER 30, 1961
Bound volumes
Books
Kansas . .- 10,799
General 59,475
Genealogy and local history 10,586
Indians and the West 1,716
Kansas state publications 3,327
Total 85,903
Clippings 1,323
Periodicals 17,970
Total, bound volumes 105,196
THE ANNUAL MEETING
127
Manuscripts (archives and private papers,
cubic feet) 5,781
Maps, atlases, and lithographs 5,604
Microcards (titles) 181
Microfilms (reels)
Books and other library materials 430
Public archives and private papers 2,302
Newspapers 8,403
Total 11,135
Newspapers (bound volumes)
Kansas 59,199
Out-of -state 12,037
Total 71,236
Paintings and drawings 1,094
Pamphlets
Kansas 97,843
General 40,080
Genealogy and local history 3,874
Indians and the West 1,118
Kansas state publications 7,175
Total, pamphlets 150,090
Photographs
Black and white . . 38,395
Color transparencies and slides 570
Total 38,965
THE FIRST CAPITOL
Attendance at the First Territorial Capitol on the Fort Riley military reserva-
tion increased from 6,994, as reported last year, to 9,492. Visitors came from
49 states, the District of Columbia, and 17 foreign countries.
The year began auspiciously when the Kansas legislature formally convened
in the old building February 22 and conducted a short session. Eight bus loads
of legislators and their wives, plus other state officials and friends, made the
trip, and all seemed to enjoy themselves.
THE FUNSTON HOME
V. E. Berglund, caretaker of the Funston Home since its acquisition by the
state, was forced to retire January 1 because of ill health. He was succeeded
by L. A. Foster of lola. Mr. Berglund was conscientious and devoted, and
performed yeoman service in improving the property.
Registration was 1,215, with visitors from 22 states and one foreign country,
Japan. A flag pole has been erected on the front lawn, and exterminators have
directed their lethal sprays at the termites, with what success is not yet known.
THE KAW MISSION
Another successful year can be reported for the Kaw Mission at Council
Grove. Number of visitors was 8,161, as compared with 6,038 last year. Nine-
teen foreign countries, 48 states and the District of Columbia were represented.
Indian visitors included representatives of the Kaw, Kiowa, Arapahoe, Black-
foot, Cheyenne, Choctaw, and Comanche tribes.
The Society is happy once again to express appreciation to the Council
128 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Grove Republican, the Nautilus club, the Chamber of Commerce, and the
Council Grove street and police departments for their interest and co-operation.
Articles were donated to the Mission museum by Patricia Allen, Harry
Behring, Frank Brieling, Margaret Leitch, Fern Sharp, Theodora M. Smith,
Mrs. Albert Ullrich, Harry White, and June Wilkerson.
OLD SHAWNEE MISSION
The Old Shawnee Mission also enjoyed one of its most successful years, with
11,497 visitors registered. They came from 43 states and 12 foreign countries.
As in past years the Society is pleased to express its thanks for their con-
tinued interest and assistance to the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of American
Colonists, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of 1812,
and the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society.
THE STAFF OF THE SOCIETY
There have been times, during this centennial year, when it has seemed that
staff members would be overwhelmed by the amount of work piled on them.
As usual, however, they managed to take care of most requests for service
promptly, though in some cases at the cost of accumulating a backlog of house-
keeping chores.
A few weeks ago a letter was received from a faculty member and librarian
of a neighboring state university. He wrote: "I am constantly amazed at the
splendid co-operation I have always received from your organization, and I only
wish that more historical societies could match you in this regard. Thanks so
much for your help. . . ." The secretary wishes to pass this compliment
one of a number received on to the members of the staff, who have earned it.
Everyone has had a part in making and maintaining the Society's reputation
for excellence. Respectfully submitted,
NYLE H. MILLER, Secretary.
After the reading of the secretary's report, A. Bower Sageser
moved that it be accepted. The motion was seconded by Frank
Haucke and the report was adopted with an expression of apprecia-
tion to the staff of the Society.
Mr. Anderson then called for the report of the treasurer, Mrs.
Lela Barnes:
TREASURER'S REPORT
Based on the post-audit by the State Division of Auditing and Accounting
for the period August 21, 1960, to August 14, 1961.
MEMBERSHIP FEE FUND
Balance, August 21, 1960:
Cash $6,024.66
U. S. bonds, Series K 5,000.00
$11,024.66
Receipts:
Membership fees $1,896.01
Interest on bonds 165.60
Interest on savings accounts 103.06
Gifts 3,095.15
5,259.82
$16.284.48
THE ANNUAL MEETING 129
Disbursements $4,507.85
Balance, August 14, 1961:
Cash $6,776.63
U. S. bonds, Series K 5,000.00
11,776.63
$16,284.48
JONATHAN PECKER BEQUEST
Balance, August 21, 1960:
Cash $144.72
U. S. bond, Series K 1,000.00
$1,144.72
Receipts:
Interest on bond $27.60
Interest on savings account 4.27
31.87
$1,176.59
Disbursements $12.59
Balance, August 14, 1961:
Cash $164.00
U, S. bond, Series K 1,000.00
1,164.00
$1,176.59
JOHN BOOTH BEQUEST
Balance, August 21, 1960:
Cash $182.37
U. S. bond, Series K 500.00
$682.37
Receipts:
Interest on bond $13.80
Interest on savings account 2.75
16.55
$698.92
Disbursements $136.00
Balance, August 14, 1961:
Cash $62.92
U. S. bond, Series K 500.00
562.92
$698.92
91586
130 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
THOMAS H. BOWLUS DONATION
This donation is substantiated by a U. S. bond, Series K, in the amount of
$1,000. The interest is credited to the membership fee fund.
ELIZABETH READER BEQUEST
Balance, August 21, 1960:
Cash (deposited in membership fee fund) $335.95
U. S. bonds, Series K 5,500.00
$5,835.95
Receipts:
Interest on bonds ( deposited in membership
fee fund) 151.80
$5,987.75
Disbursements: pictures, maps, newspapers $86.28
Balance, August 14, 1961:
Cash (deposited in membership fee fund) $401.47
U. S. bonds, Series K 5,500.00
5,901.47
$5,987.75
STATE APPROPRIATIONS
This report covers only the membership fee fund and other custodial funds.
Appropriations made to the Historical Society by the legislature are disbursed
through the State Department of Administration. For the year ending June 30,
1961, these appropriations were: Kansas State Historical Society, including the
Memorial building, $326,394; First Capitol of Kansas, $4,611; Kaw Mission,
$4,401; Funston Home, $4,502; Pike Pawnee Village, $150; Old Shawnee Mis-
sion, $10,675.
Respectfully submitted,
MRS. LELA BARNES, Treasurer.
Fred W. Brinkerhoff moved that the report be adopted. Standish
Hall seconded the motion and the report was accepted.
Will T. Beck presented the report of the executive committee on
the audit of the Society's funds by the state department of post-
audit:
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
October 13, 1961.
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society:
The executive committee being directed under the bylaws to check the
accounts of the treasurer, states that the State Department of Post-Audit has
audited the funds of the State Historical Society, the Old Shawnee Mission,
the First Capitol of Kansas, the Old Kaw Mission, the Funston Home, and
Pike's Pawnee Village, for the period August 21, 1960, to August 14, 1961,
and that they are hereby approved.
WILL T. BECK, Chairman,
ALAN W. FARLEY,
FRANK HAUCKE,
WlLFORD RlEGLE.
THE ANNUAL MEETING 131
On a motion by Father Angelus Lingenfelser, seconded by Mrs.
Ida M. Walker, the report was accepted.
The report of the nominating committee for officers of the Society
was read by Will T. Beck:
NOMINATING COMMITTEE'S REPORT
October 13, 1961.
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society:
Your committee on nominations submits the following report for officers of
the Kansas State Historical Society:
For a one-year term: Emory K. Lindquist, Wichita, president; James E.
Taylor, Sharon Springs, first vice-president; and John W. Ripley, Topeka, second
vice-president.
For a two-year term: Nyle H. Miller, Topeka, secretary.
Respectfully submitted,
WILL T. BECK, Chairman,
ALAN W. FARLEY,
FRANK HAUCKE,
WlLFORD RlEGLE.
Fred W. Brinkerhoff moved that the report be accepted. Kirke
Mechem seconded the motion and the officers were unanimously
elected.
Mr. Beck addressed the directors briefly, encouraging them to
help stimulate local interest in Kansas history and emphasizing the
need for greater emphasis on history in school curricula. He also
urged more trips to Topeka by school groups so that they might
visit the Historical Society.
Kirke Mechem recalled the granting of federal funds to the state
in payment for the outfitting and equipping of troops during the
Civil War, and the subsequent decision of the legislature to erect
the Memorial building as a tribute to veterans of the Civil and
Spanish-American wars. He stated his belief that the success of
the Society was due in part to the fact that it had a building in which
to operate, and expressed satisfaction that the Memorial building
was at last being fully utilized.
Mrs. Ida M. Walker reminded the board of the importance of
western Kansas history and mentioned Station No. 15 of the Leav-
enworth and Pike's Peak express route at her home town of Norton.
Standish Hall recommended that the display of artifacts recovered
from Kansas sites by the state archaeologist be exhibited more
prominently and in greater quantity.
George Jelinek of Ellsworth, a state representative, thanked the
Society for its part in providing legislators with copies of Kansas:
A Pictorial History.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
132 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Annual Meeting of the Society
The annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society opened
with a luncheon at noon in the roof garden of the Hotel Jayhawk.
About 140 members and guests attended.
The invocation was given by the Rev. Ernest Tonsing, minister
of the First Lutheran church, Topeka.
Following the luncheon a group of songs was presented by the
Washburn Singers under the direction of Floyd Hedberg.
President Anderson then introduced guests at the speakers' table
and at a special table where past presidents of the Society and their
wives were seated.
The address of the president then followed. It was titled "Atchi-
son and the Central Branch Country: 1865-1874," and is published
on pp. 1-24, of this magazine.
At the conclusion of his paper, President Anderson was presented
with a small plaque in recognition of his service to the Society by
Emory Lindquist, president-elect.
Dr. Clement Silvestro, on behalf of the American Association for
State and Local History, presented awards of merit to the Fort
Lamed Historical Society and the Kansas State Historical Society
which had been voted by the association at its annual meeting in
San Francisco on September 1. E. E. Newacheck received the
award for the Fort Larned society and President Anderson and
Nyle H. Miller received that given to the state Society.
THE ANNUAL MEETING
133
The report of the committee on nominations for directors was
called for and was read by Will T. Beck, chairman:
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS FOR DIRECTORS
October 13, 1961.
To the Kansas State Historical Society:
Your committee on nominations submits the following report and recom-
mendations for directors of the Society for the term of three years ending in
October, 1964:
Barr, Frank, Wichita.
Charlson, Sam C., Manhattan.
Correll, Charles M., Manhattan.
Denious, Jess C., Jr., Dodge City.
Hall, Standish, Wichita.
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita.
Humphrey, Arthur S., Junction City.
Jameson, Henry, Abilene.
Jones, Horace, Lyons.
Kampschroeder, Mrs. Jean Norris,
Garden City.
Kaul, Robert H., Wamego.
Lauterbach, August W., Colby.
Montgomery, John D., Junction City.
Owen, Mrs. E. M., Lawrence.
Payne, Mrs. L. F., Manhattan.
Riegle, Wilford, Emporia.
Robbins, Richard W., Pratt.
Roberts, Larry W., Wichita.
Rose, Franklin T., Topeka.
Scott, Angelo, lola.
Shrewder, Mrs. Roy V., Ashland.
Sloan, E. R., Topeka.
Socolofsky, Homer E., Manhattan.
Stanley, Arthur J., Jr., Bethel.
Stewart, Mrs. James G., Topeka.
Taylor, James E., Sharon Springs.
Van De Mark, M. V. B., Concordia.
Wark, George H., Caney.
Williams, Charles A., Bentley.
Respectfully submitted,
WILL T. BECK, Chairman,
ALAN W. FARLEY,
FRANK HAUCKE,
WILFORD RIECLE.
Motion for acceptance of the report was made by Fred W. Brink-
erhoff, seconded by Kirke Mechem. The report was adopted and
directors for the term ending in October, 1964, were elected.
Lewis, Philip H., Topeka.
Lindquist, Emory K., Wichita.
Maranville, Lea, Ness City.
Means, Hugh, Lawrence.
134 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The following memorial to Thomas M. Lillard was read by Frank
Haucke:
THOMAS M. LILLARD
Thomas M. Lillard, long-time member, officer, and friend of the Kansas
State Historical Society, died in Topeka on July 6, 1961. He had served as
a member of the board of directors since 1928 and on the executive committee
since 1930. He was president of the Society in 1939-1940.
Tom Lillard was born in Bloomington, 111., July 29, 1881. Following his
graduation from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1902 he studied at the Denver
University school of law for a year. For another year he worked with an
engineering party on the Moffat route through the Colorado Rockies. He then
returned to Illinois Wesleyan, where he took a law degree in 1905.
That same year Kansas beckoned the young attorney and he established
practice in Burlingame. In 1909 he moved to Topeka, his home for the
remainder of his life. Mr. Lillard was appointed assistant attorney for Shawnee
county in January, 1913, but icsigned in August to become assistant general
attorney for the Union Pacific railroad in Kansas and Missouri. He was named
general attorney in 1923 and held that position until his death.
Called "one of the most brilliant of the younger generation of attorneys in
Kansas," Mr. Lillard was appointed to the state board of examiners in 1928,
serving until his resignation 20 years later. He also served as president of the
Kansas Bar Association and of the Topeka Bar Association. In 1954 he was a
member of the Kansas Territorial Centennial Committee.
Thomas M. Lillard was active in the work of the Kansas State Historical
Society for many years and made lasting contributions to the history of our
state both as an officer of the Society and as a private citizen. His interest
and abilities will be missed by all who knew and worked with him.
Mr. Haucke moved that a copy of the memorial be sent to Mr.
Lillard's family and that it be printed in the Kansas Historical Quar-
terly. The motion was seconded by Kirke Mechem, and it was so
ordered.
Reports of local historical societies were called for. Mrs. V. W.
Maupin reported for the Reno County Historical Society and Mrs.
Tom Davis for the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society.
Wilford Riegle presented a report by Orville W. Mosher, curator
for the Lyon County Historical Society.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
THE ANNUAL MEETING
135
Directors of the Kansas State Historical Society as of
October, 1961 .
DIRECTORS FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1962
Aitchison, R. T., Wichita.
Anderson, George L., Lawrence.
Anthony, D. R., Leavenworth.
Baugher, Charles A., Ellis.
Beck, Will T., Holton.
Bray, Mrs. Easton C., Syracuse.
Chandler, C. J., Wichita.
Clymer, Rolla, El Dorado.
Cochran, Elizabeth, Pittsburg.
Cotton, Corlett J., Lawrence.
Eckdall, Frank F., Emporia.
Euwer, Elmer E., Goodland.
Farley, Aian W., Kansas City.
Card, Spencer A., lola.
Harvey, Perce, Topeka.
Jelinek, George J., Ellsworth.
Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville.
Landon, Alf M., Topeka.
Lilleston, W. F., Wichita.
Lose, Harry F., Topeka.
Malin, James C., Lawrence.
Mayhew, Mrs. Patricia Solander,
Wichita.
Menninger, Karl, Topeka.
Moore, Russell, Wichita.
Rankin, Charles C., Lawrence.
Raynesford, H. C., Ellis.
Reed, Clyde M., Jr., Parsons.
Sageser, A. Bower, Manhattan.
Stewart, Donald, Independence.
Thomas, E. A., Topeka.
von der Heiden, Mrs. W. H., Newton.
Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton.
Wilson, Paul E., Lawrence.
DIRECTORS FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1963
Bailey, Roy F., Salina.
Baughman, Robert W., Liberal.
Beezley, George F., Girard.
Beougner, Edward M., Grinnell.
Brinkerhoff, F. W., Pittsburg.
Cron, F. H., El Dorado.
Docking, George, Arkansas City.
Ebright, Homer K., Baldwin.
Farrell, F. D., Manhattan.
Hamilton, R. L., Beloit.
Harper, Mrs. Jesse C., Ashland.
Harvey, Mrs. A. M., Topeka.
Haucke, Frank, Council Grove.
Hodges, Frank, Olathe.
Hope, Clifford R., Sr., Garden City.
Lingenfelser, Angelus, Atchison.
Long, Richard M., Wichita.
McArthur, Mrs. Vernon E.,
Hutchinson.
McCain, James A., Manhattan.
McFarland, Helen M., Topeka.
McGrew, Mrs. Wm. E., Kansas City.
Malone, James, Gem.
Mechem, Kirke, Lindsborg.
Mueller, Harrie S., Wichita.
Ripley, John W., Topeka.
Rogler, Wayne, Matfield Green.
Ruppenthal, J. C., Russell.
Simons, Dolph, Lawrence.
Slagg, Mrs. C. M., Manhattan.
Templar, George, Arkansas City.
Thomas, Sister M. Evangeline, Salina.
Townsley, Will, Great Bend.
Woodring, Harry H., Topeka.
DIRECTORS FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1964
Barr, Frank, Wichita.
Charlson, Sam C., Manhattan.
Correll, Charles M., Manhattan.
Denious, Jess C., Jr., Dodge City.
Hall, Standish, Wichita.
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita.
Humphrey, Arthur S., Junction City.
Jameson, Henry, Abilene.
Jones, Horace, Lyons.
Kampschroeder, Mrs. Jean Norris,
Garden City.
Kaul, Robert H., Wamego.
Lauterbach, August W., Colby.
Lewis, Philip H., Topeka.
Lindquist, Emory K., Wichita.
Maranville, Lea, Ness City.
Means, Hugh, Lawrence.
Montgomery, John D., Junction City.
Owen, Mrs. E. M., Lawrence.
Payne, Mrs. L. F., Manhattan.
Riegle, Wilford, Emporia.
Robbins, Richard W., Pratt.
Roberts, Larry W., Wichita.
Rose, Franklin T., Topeka.
Scott, Angelo, lola.
Shrewder, Mrs. Roy V., Ashland.
Sloan, E. R., Topeka.
Socolofsky, Homer E., Manhattan.
Stanley, Arthur J., Jr., Bethel.
Stewart, Mrs. James G., Topeka.
Taylor, James E., Sharon Springs.
Van De Mark, M. V. B., Concordia.
Wark, George H., Caney.
Williams, Charles A., Bentley.
Bypaths of Kansas History
TRAVELING THROUGH KANSAS IN 1860
From the Lawrence Republican, August 9, 1860.
Some of the fashionable young ladies of the cities would no doubt be
somewhat shocked on witnessing the sights that sometimes greet the eye on
these Western thoroughfares. For instance, one day this week an ox team
passed through this place, and seated on the pole of the wagon, with an
"ox gad" in her hands, was a rather pretty and intelligent looking young
lady. What do the "phair" ones think of that? Auburn Docket.
OUR CIVIL WAR CORNER
From The Conservative, Leavenworth, September 4, 1861.
A big six-footed Secesher, from Missouri, who had heard that Jim Lane
was defeated at Fort Scott, came over here yesterday to "lick any d d Union
man in Leavenworth/' as he modestly expressed himself. He was uncere-
moniously kicked out of a public place where he had made his threat, and
found his match soon after in the person of one of our shoulder-strikers, of
light weight, but a "hard hitter," who administered a sound threshing to him
in a shorter space of time than it takes to read this. Mr. Secesh came to the
wrong place to "lick" Union men.
A Cmcus IN JUNCTION CITY IN 1871
From the Junction City Union, August 12, 1871.
Tuesday was circus day. Thunder, lightning and rain made things look
rather gloomy. The rain, however, did not last long, and though the morn-
ing was cloudy the afternoon was quite clear and pleasant. The band pa-
raded the streets. Their instruments needed cleaning; otherwise they would
pass very well. The balloon ascension was a leading feature, and was pro-
nounced a success. The circus performance was good, and the entire affair
would have been splendid had the opening scene, founded on Byron's famous
poem, been omitted. The rendition of Mazeppa was horrible. The equestrian
feats of Mr. Cook were truly wonderful. His backward somersaulting through
balloons, from the back of his horse, is an excellence attained by few in the
profession. The riding of Miss Emma Lake was good. Levi J. North's
trained horse is a model. The contortionist performed his marvelous acts
in a manner that elicited universal applause. The clown's jokes were new,
and appeared to take. The trained dog afforded great amusement. We
understand the Hippo-Olymphiad afforded general satisfaction.
(136)
Kansas History as Published in the Press
Biographical sketches of pioneers in the Lebanon area were
featured in a series entitled "Glimpse in the Past/' by Peg Luke,
beginning in the Lebanon Times, January 5, 1961.
Joseph F. Carpenter was the author of several articles on the
history of Kansas, Osage county, and the Overbrook community,
published in the Overbrook Citizen, beginning January 26, 1961.
Articles on the notorious Bender family, published in the Cherry-
vale Republican recently, included: an account, as told by Floyd
Elliott, of the fate of the Bender family, in the issue of February 1,
1961; and "The Notorious Benders/' a three-part article compiled
by Mrs. Lewis Rorick, July 5, 12, 19. Another story on the family
was printed in the Topeka State Journal, July 20.
Histories of Kansas churches which appeared in the newspapers
during the past year included: Beloit Presbyterian, Beloit Gazette,
February 2, 1961; Hoyt Methodist, Holton Recorder, February 23;
Prairie Home Methodist, Haysville, Haysville Daily News, Febru-
ary 24; Soldier Christian, Holton Recorder, March 9; Dutch Re-
formed and Rotterdam Christian Reformed of Downs, Downs
News, March 16; Meade Methodist, Meade Globe-Press, March 23;
Evangelical United Brethren, Concordia, Concordia Kansan and
Blade-Empire, May 4; First Methodist, Goodland, Sherman County
Herald, Goodland, May 4 and 11; Mayfield Methodist, Clay county,
Clay Center Dispatch, May 12; St. Mary's, Clifton, Clifton News,
June 1; Hope Christian, Hope Dispatch, June 5; Luray Methodist,
Natoma-Luray Independent, June 8; Overbrook churches, Over-
brook Citizen, June 8; Ada Lutheran, near Kackley, Jamestown
Optimist, June 15; First Methodist, Emporia, Emporia Times, June
15; Spring Valley Mennonite, near Canton, Canton Pilot, July 13;
St. John's Lutheran, Aliceville, Burlington Daily Republican, July
21; Courtland Methodist, Courtland Journal, August 3; St. John's
Lutheran of Lyons Creek, Dickinson county (?), Herington Adver-
tiser-Times, August 24, and Hope Dispatch, September 7; Zion's
Evangelical Lutheran, Beloit, Beloit Gazette and Call, September
7; First Baptist, Leavenworth, Leavenworth Times, September 8;
Stevens Chapel, Rawlins county, Citizen-Patriot, Atwood, Septem-
ber 14 and 21; St. John's Lutheran, Oberlin, Oberlin Herald, Sep-
tember 28; Enterprise Methodist, Enterprise Journal, October 5;
Cottonwood Falls Presbyterian, Chase County Leader-News, Cot-
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138 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tonwood Falls, October 11; Fees Memorial Evangelical United
Brethren, Greenleaf, Greenleaf Sentinel, November 16; Morgan-
ville Methodist, Morganville Tribune, November 30; Saltville Pres-
byterian, Mitchell county, Beloit Gazette, November 30, and Lin-
coln Sentinel-Republican, December 7; St. Rose Catholic, Mount
Vernon, Kingman Leader-Courier, December 1; Hutchinson Uni-
versalist, Hutchinson News, December 2; St. Matthew's Lutheran,
Nortonville, Atchison Daily Globe, December 3; Hall Wesleyan
Methodist, Ottawa county, Minneapolis Messenger, December 7;
and Belle Plaine Methodist, Belle Plaine News, December 7.
"It's Worth Repeating," Heinie Schmidt's column in the High
Plains Journal, Dodge City, included the following articles in re-
cent months: "Fort Griffin, Dodge City Trail, Last Cattle Trail/'
February 4, 1961; "Lone Woman [Alice Chambers] Buried at
Dodge's Boot Hill," February 11; "Home Sweet Home in Early
Days Old Sod House," February 18; "Colorful Early Trail Ran
From Tascosa to Dodge City," February 25; "Early Settlers Pay
Price of Kansas Prairie," March 11; Dodge City Gives Senator [John
J. Ingalls] Western Welcome," March 25; "Social, School Events Are
Pioneer Entertainment," by Dr. Sam Sackett, April 1; "Special Fea-
tures in Masterson's Early Day Pistol," April 8; "Early Day Remedy,
Dodge City's 'Keeley Cure,' " April 15; "Early Kansas Settler Was a
Sturdy Pioneer," April 22; "Pioneer Baby [Wilburn Brown] Gives
Name to Ghost Town of Wilburn," May 6; "Early Refrigeration
From Harvest of Ice," May 13; "Early Pioneer [James H. Crawford]
Has Dreams of South Dodge," May 20; "Transport Buffalo Hides on
the Rath Trail," May 27; "Block and Bridle Club Honors Pioneer
Stockman [James Reid]," June 3; "Colorful Story in Life of Cowboy
Marshal [William B. Rhodes]," June 10; "Early Dodge City Char-
acter Old Tinkersmith," June 17; "Early Day Mystery in Case of
Empty Coffin," June 24; "Sod Synagogue Unique Mark of Old Jew-
ish Colony [Beersheba]," July 1; "Ghost Town in Stevens County
. . . Dermot," July 8; "Dodge City's Fighting Mayor 'Old
Webb,'" July 15; and "West Kansas Rugged Pioneers Daddy,
Mammy Hull," by Lola Adams Carter, July 22, 29.
Articles of historical interest continue to appear regularly in the
Hays Daily News. Among recent ones were: "Hays Only 94 This
Centennial Year But Its History Has Been Turbulent," February 5,
1961; "Hays Had Its Beginning in 1867 With Founding of Town of
Rome," February 19; "U. S. Troops Did Little to Allay Fear of Early
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 139
Settlers in Hays City Area," February 26; "Wife of Gen. George Cus-
ter Wrote Vividly of Flood at Old Fort Hays," March 5; "Slaying of
Sheriff Alexander Ramsey Dramatic Episode in County History,"
March 12; "History of Famed 'Ellis House' Told by Historian [How-
ard Raynesford] at That City," April 2; "The Hamlet of Humbogen,"
by Kittie Dale, April 9; "Tall Tales of Short Grass Country Told
[by Ida Egger and Kittie Dale]," April 23; "Gold Seekers Travel
Through Ellis County," July 6; and "Letters From Old Fort Hays
Written in 1867 Discovered by Hays Resident [Gale Teller]," Au-
gust 6.
Histories of Rooks county townships were published in the Rooks
County Record, Stockton, starting with the issue of February 9, 1961.
Two articles on the history of coal mining in Kansas were printed
in the Pittsburg Headlight, February 13, 1961: "Memories of Old
Coal Camps Linger on," by Harold O. Taylor, and "Earliest Mining
in Kansas in 1827."
Brief sketches of pioneer families in the Chapman area appeared
in the Chapman Advertiser in recent months. Included were the
families of George W. Freeman, February 15, 1961; John Nash,
March 16; Simeone Levi Graham, April 20; Thomas Howe, June 29;
Michael Howe, July 13; Scott E. Poor, July 20, 27; and George
Snyder, August 3.
A history of the Point of Rocks ranch, Morton county, by the Rev.
R. L. Wells, was printed in the Elkhart Tri-State News, February
16, 1961.
On February 26, 1961, the Great Bend Daily Tribune printed a
history of Fort Hays Kansas State College under the title "FHS His-
tory Shows Struggle for Recognition in Kansas." The college mu-
seums are described in an article by Dave Webster in the Tribune,
April 9. A history of the museums, by Myrl Walker, was published
in the Hays Daily News, April 23.
Among newspaper articles appearing during the past year on the
history of the Santa Fe trail were: "135 Years Ago Santa Fe Trail
Was Surveyed Through [McPherson] County," in McPherson Sen-
tinel, February 27, 1961; "Youth's [Ed Miller] Death Adds Tale to
Santa Fe Trail Legends," McPherson Sentinel, March 11; "Santa Fe
Trail Was First Pioneer Road," Scott City News Chronicle, May 11;
"Santa Fe Trail Was Road From 'Civilization to Sundown,' " Tiller
and Toiler, Larned, May 12; "The Santa Fe Trail," by Carrie Breese
Chandler, Chase County Leader-News, Cottonwood Falls, May 31.
Kansas Historical Notes
Fort Larned was designated a National Historic Landmark by
the U. S. Department of the Interior, in February, 1961. Formal
dedication ceremonies were held June 18 with Howard W. Baker,
regional director, Region Two, National Park Service, and Gov.
John Anderson, Jr., among the participants. Other Kansas sites
which have been designated National Historic Landmarks include:
Hollenberg Pony Express Station, Washington county; Fort Leav-
enworth; Haskell Institute, Lawrence; and Wagon Bed Springs,
Grant county.
Celebrations, including historical pageants, picnics, rodeos, old
settlers' gatherings, parades, etc., in observance of the Kansas cen-
tennial, were held in many towns and counties of the state, often
times combined with observances of local anniversaries. Among
these celebrations were: Pleasanton, May 6, 1961; El Dorado, May
29-June 4; Meade, June 5-10; Junction City, June 10-14; Park, Gove
county, July 22; Dighton, July 26-28; Haven, August 2-4; Halstead,
August 4; Goodland, August 15; Hugoton, August 20-26; and Mound
City, August 23.
Frederick L. Thompson, Jr., was chosen president of the Border
Queen Museum, Inc., Caldwell, at a meeting of the board of direc-
tors, July 11, 1961. Other officers elected were: Louis V. Rains,
first vice-president; Walker Young, second vice-president; Jarry
Jenista, third vice-president; Doyle Stiles, secretary; Don Stallings,
treasurer; and Dr. J. E. Turner, resident agent.
Dedication ceremonies for the oil well Norman No. 1, near Neo-
desha, as a state monument, were held July 30, 1961. A replica of
the original derrick has been erected over the well, the first com-
mercially successful oil well in Kansas.
Current officers of the Harper City Historical Society include:
C. C. Zollars, president; Agnes Nye, vice-president; Audrey Murray,
secretary; and Lenor Murray, treasurer. The organization recently
purchased an old church building in Harper for a museum.
William Selves, Sr., Cottonwood Falls, was named president of
the Chase County Historical Society at the September 9, 1961, meet-
ing of the society in Cottonwood Falls. Other officers include: Paul
Wood, vice-president; Mildred Speer, secretary; Clint Baldwin, as-
(140)
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 141
sistant secretary; and George T. Dawson, treasurer. Charles O.
Gaines was the retiring president, having served three years.
Mrs. Izil Poison Long was chosen president of the newly organ-
ized Wilson County Historical Society at a meeting September 12,
1961, in Fredonia. Other officers include: Mrs. Giles Creager, vice-
president; Mrs. Ben Isenburg, secretary; Mrs. Howard Cantrall,
membership secretary; Mrs. Alice Knickerbocker, treasurer; and
Mrs. Carl Kuntz, Paul Stephens, Don Walters, and Glenn Beal, di-
rectors.
New officers elected by the Hodgeman County Historical Society
at a meeting September 16, 1961, in Jetmore, included: Bert Brum-
field, president; Earl Pitts, vice-president; Nina Lupfer, secretary;
and Frances Pitts, treasurer. J. W. Lang, C. L. Hubbell, and Joe
Watson were elected directors.
Mrs. Albert N. Ligon, Pittsburg, was chosen president of the
Crawford County Historical Society at a meeting of the society in
Pittsburg, September 26, 1961. Also elected were: Robert O. Karr,
Girard, vice-president; Mrs. R. P. Emmitt, Pittsburg, secretary; Lora
Allen, Pittsburg, corresponding secretary; Flora Holyrod, Pittsburg,
treasurer; and F. W. Brinkerhoff, Dr. Ernest Anderson, and Harold
O. Taylor, directors. Brinkerhoff, the principal speaker at the meet-
ing, discussed the Kansas centennial. Taylor was the retiring presi-
dent.
The Franklin County Historical Society elected Ben F. Park presi-
dent; Franklin P. Baker, vice-president; Mrs. J. E. Harclerode, secre-
tary; and Alma Schweitzer, treasurer, at a meeting in Ottawa, Sep-
tember 28, 1961. F. H. Parks was the retiring president. Edgar
Langsdorf, of the Kansas State Historical Society, was the principal
speaker at the meeting.
Officers of the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society for
1962 include: Mrs. George W. Cox, Overland Park, president; Mrs.
O. N. Eggleson, Merriam, first vice-president; Mrs. Granville Bush,
Prairie Village, second vice-president; Mrs. John Cochran, Shawnee,
recording secretary; Mrs. Pearl Christ Miller, Merriam, correspond-
ing secretary; Mrs. Roy E. Boxmeyer, Overland Park, treasurer; Mrs.
Fred Dear, Overland Park, curator; Mrs. Sarah Lewis, Mission,
chaplain; Mrs. Stella A. Smith, Merriam, parliamentarian; Mrs.
James Glenn Bell, Merriam, historian; and Mrs. C. D. Cheatum,
Merriam, member-in-waiting. Mrs. Tom Davis was the retiring
president.
142 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Loren Hahn was elected president of the Lane County Historical
Society at a meeting in Dighton, October 2, 1961. Other officers
chosen were: Mrs. Raymond Tillotson, vice-president; Mrs. Joe
Hanna, secretary; Mrs. Dale Jewett, treasurer; and Robert Jennison,
Mrs. H. S. Edmundson, and Raymond Tillotson, directors. A. R.
Bentley was the retiring president.
Homer Cardwell was re-elected president of the Republic County
Historical Society at the annual meeting of the society October 2,
1961, in Belleville. Other officers chosen include: Gertrude Wa-
lenta, first vice-president; Arch Thompson, second vice-president;
Madge Dickerhoof, secretary; Anna Baxa, treasurer; Merle Miller,
press and publicity; and Anona Blackburn, historian.
The Norton County Historical Society elected officers at a busi-
ness meeting October 4, 1961, in Norton. Howard Kuhl is the
new president; Helen OToole, secretary; and Mrs. Gertrude Hea-
ton, treasurer. Raymond D. Bower was the retiring president.
Current officers of the Kiowa County Historical Society are: W.
L. Fleener, president; Chester Fankhouser, first vice-president; A.
S. Barnes, second vice-president; Mrs. Benjamin O. Weaver, secre-
tary; and Mrs. L. V. Keller, treasurer. The annual Pioneer Party
held by the society in Greensburg, October 12, 1961, was attended
by over 200 persons.
A. R. Miller is the new president of the Ottawa County Historical
Society, elected at the October 14, 1961, meeting in Minneapolis.
Other officers chosen were: Mrs. Thomas Swart, vice-president;
Mrs. Ray Halberstadt, secretary; Mrs. Ethel Jagger, treasurer; and
Mrs. Zella Heald, reporter.
Re-elected for two-year terms at the annual meeting of the Dickin-
son County Historical Society October 23, 1961, at Talmage, were:
B. H. Oesterreich, Woodbine, president; Mrs. Viola Ehrsam, Enter-
prise, first vice-president; and Elmer Sellins, Chapman, secretary.
Among those speaking at the meeting was Edgar Langsdorf of the
Kansas State Historical Society.
The Riley County Historical Society elected Homer E. Socolofsky
president at its annual meeting October 28, 1961, in Manhattan.
Otto Haller was elected vice-president; Ralph L. Parker, secretary;
Mrs. C. M. Correll, membership secretary; Sam C. Charlson, treas-
urer; and Ward C. Griffing, Mrs. Paul G. Brown, and S. M. Ran-
sopher, directors.
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 143
At a meeting October 30, 1961, in Ellsworth, the Ellsworth County
Historical Society voted to undertake a campaign to raise $15,000
for the purchase and furnishing of the Perry Hodgsen home in
Ellsworth for a museum. Francis Wilson is president of the society.
Officers of the Osawatomie Historical Society are: Alden O.
Weber, president; Chester J. Ward, vice-president; and Alma Mul-
lins, secretary-treasurer. A bequest of $3,000 for the society was
included in the will of the late Jessie Remington Willis.
Ward H. Butcher, Cold water, was elected president of the Co-
manche County Historical Society at the annual meeting, Novem-
ber 4, 1961, in Coldwater. Melvin O. Parcel, Protection, was elected
vice-president; Mrs. Grover Sanders, Protection, secretary; and F.
H. Moberley, Wilmore, treasurer. D. Jay Overocker was the re-
tiring president.
Sumner county's observance of the Kansas centennial was cli-
maxed with an 18-scene historical pageant entitled "The Sumner
County Story," presented at Wellington, November 7 and 8, 1961.
The Sumner County Historical Society elected officers November 20
in Wellington. Harry Jenista, Caldwell, is the new president.
Other officers are: Mrs. Paul Sanders, Belle Plaine, vice-president;
Mrs. Charles Medley, Caldwell, secretary; Mrs. Elmer Holt, Wel-
lington, treasurer; Mrs. David Heeney, South Haven, historian;
Raymond Cline, Conway Springs, public relations; and Carl Earles,
Argonia, Don McAllister, Wellington, Roy Frantz, Conway Springs,
Charles Medley, Caldwell, David Heeney, South Haven, Millard
Ross, Mulvane, and Paul Sanders, Belle Plaine, directors.
Phillip Cooper was elected president of Safari Museum, Inc., at
a meeting of members November 8, 1961, in Chanute. M. L. Mor-
ton was named vice-president, and E. E. Rosen thai, secretary-treas-
urer. In addition to these officers, Dr. James A. Butin, Dale Fair-
child, Robert Blunk, and Floyd Neff were elected directors. The
organization operates the Osa and Martin Johnson Safari Museum
in Chanute.
Committee appointments were made at a meeting of the board of
directors of the Clark County Historical Society, November 10, 1961,
in Ashland. The committee chairmen include: Roy Shupe, mem-
bership; Mrs. Robert Seacat, museum; Chester Zimmerman, his-
toric spots and markers; Mrs. Dan Shattuck, programs; Mrs. Fred
Kumberg, photography; Mrs. J. C. Harper, book sales and publicity;
144 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Sidney Dorsey, finance; and Mrs. R. V. Shrewder, historical. Rhea
Gross is president of the society.
Robert Hanson, Jamestown, was re-elected president of the Cloud
County Historical Society at the society's annual meeting, Novem-
ber 30, 1961, in Concordia. Other officers elected were as follows:
George Button, vice-president; Mrs. Roy Fahlstrom, membership
secretary; Mrs. R. H. Hanson, recording secretary; Ernest Swanson,
treasurer; and George Colwell and the Rev. Wilfred Hotaling, board
members.
The fifth annual meeting of the Missouri Valley Conference of
Collegiate Teachers of History will be held March 23, 24, 1962, at
Omaha, Neb., under the auspices of the Department of History of
the University of Omaha. Among the featured speakers will be
Dr. John B. Wolf of the University of Minnesota, and Dr. George
G. Windell of the University of Delaware.
The Shields Methodist church, Lane county, published a nine-
page historical pamphlet in observance of its 75th anniversary in
May, 1961.
Kansas Post Offices is a recently published 256-page book by Rob-
ert W. Baughman. Prepared in conjunction with the Kansas Postal
History Society and the Kansas State Historical Society, and litho-
graphed by McCormick-Armstrong Co., Wichita, the work includes
an alphabetical listing of all Kansas post offices with dates of es-
tablishment and subsequent changes, a territorial list, a preterri-
torial list, a county list with the names of first postmasters, and
maps of the region showing the growth, consolidation, and devel-
opment of counties through the years.
Robert Easton and Mackenzie Brown are the authors of Lord of
Beasts the Saga of Buffalo Jones, a 287-page volume published in
1961 by the University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
n
The Kansas
Historical
Quarterly
Summer 1962: Published by the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka
NYLE H. MILLER KIRKE MECHEM JAMES C. MALIN
Managing Editor Editor Associate Editor
CONTENTS
GOVERNOR CRAWFORD'S APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross
TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE Mark A. Plummer, 145
With portraits of James Henry Lane, frontispiece, and Samuel Johnson Craw-
ford and Edmund Gibson Ross, facing p. 145.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON:
A Case Study, 1880 James C. Malin, 154
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Six,
1830-1832 Compiled by Louise Barry, 167
With a reproduction of William H. Jackson's water color of the Smith-
Jackson-Sublette expedition of 1830, facing p. 176; portraits of the Rev.
and Mrs. Thomas Johnson, the Rev. Isaac McCoy and Dr. Johnston
Lykins, sketches of the Shawnee Methodist and Baptist Missions, and
reproduction of a Charles Bodmer painting of the Steamboat 'Yellowstone
in 1833, between pp. 176, 177; portion of an 1834 map of present eastern
Kansas, facing p. 177.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Continued Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snell, 205
With portraits of Thomas James Smith and Patrick F. Sughrue, facing p. 208,
and photographs of Ashland street scenes, 1886 and 1887, facing p. 209.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY, Compiled by Alberta Pantle, Librarian, 233
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 259
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 263
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 269
The Kansas Historical Quarterly is published four times a year by the Kansas
State Historical Society, 120 W. Tenth St., Topeka, Kan. It is distributed
without charge to members of the Society; nonmembers may purchase single
issues, when available, for 75 cents each. Membership dues are: annual, $3;
annual sustaining, $10; life, $20. Membership applications and dues should be
sent to Mrs. Lela Barnes, treasurer.
Correspondence concerning articles for the Quarterly should be addressed to
the managing editor. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made
by contributors.
Second-class postage has been paid at Topeka, Kan.
THE COVER
"Prairie Meadows Burning," a painting by George
Catlin. While a Fort Leavenworth visitor in the fall
of 1832 Catlin wrote about the prairie fires he wit-
nessed.
JAMES HENRY LANE
(1814-1866)
An early Kansas Free-State leader, Lane was later a brigadier general
and U. S. senator before his suicide in July, 1866. He has been described
as "the most powerful figure in Kansas political history/ 7
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THE KANSAS
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Volume XXVIII Summer, 1962 Number 2
Governor Crawford's Appointment of
Edmund G. Ross to the United States Senate
MARK A. PLUMMER
EVERY student of American history knows the story of how
Edmund G. Ross of Kansas cast one of the critical votes which
prevented the removal of Andrew Johnson from the Presidency.
Not so well known are the unusual circumstances which led to
Gov. Samuel J. Crawford's surprise appointment of Ross to the
United States senate on July 19, 1866. The appointment was made
available to Crawford because of the suicide of Sen. James Henry
Lane who had been the dominant figure in Kansas politics since
territorial days. Crawford had been elected governor in 1864 with
Lane's approval and Crawford was therefore usually considered a
member of the Lane faction. Lane seems to have allowed Crawford
to run the state administration as he pleased until the spring of
1866 when the cleavage between President Johnson and the radicals
of congress widened into an open split.
Lane had been dependent upon federal patronage to support
his position, and he was reluctant to break with the President.
Accordingly, he persuaded his followers, including Crawford, to
support Johnson, or at least to remain neutral. By May, however,
it became obvious that Crawford could not be re-elected in the
1866 election without radical support. Lane called a grand con-
ference of his important followers in Washington for May 26, and
it was decided that it would be necessary to adopt a radical plat-
form in the coming election. Crawford immediately returned to
Kansas and on June 7 made a public statement which put him
squarely in the radical camp. The Lane newspapers began to
approve of the congressional plan of reconstruction as opposed to
the President's plan. 1
DR. MARK A. PLUMMEH, native of Missouri, is a graduate of Kansas State College of
Pittsburg, and received his doctor's degree from the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He
is presently assistant professor of history at Illinois State Normal University, Normal, 111.
1. This summary of events is based on the following sources: Ward Burlingame,
Leavenworth, to J. H. Lane, Washington, D. C., May 18, 1866, "James Henry Lane Col-
lection," University of Kansas Library; Thomas Carney and J. H. Lane, Washington, to
W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1875), p. 439.
(145)
146 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Many of the Kansas radicals distrusted Lane and charged that
Crawford's fast turnabout had been engineered by Lane only for
the purpose of winning the election. Lane made a trip home from
Washington in June in an attempt to strengthen his political posi-
tion. He met with little success and he started back to Washington
on June 22. On June 25 it was reported that he was seriously ill in
St. Louis and his doctors advised that he return to Kansas. He was
taken to the government farm located on the Fort Leavenworth
reservation where his brother-in-law, J. W. McCall, and some friends
kept constant watch on him, fearing that he was insane. On
Sunday, July 1, he slipped away from his friends. Placing a pistol
in his mouth, he fired a shot which passed through the roof of his
mouth and came out the top of his head. Miraculously, he lived
for 10 days before dying on July 11. Thus ended the life of one
of the most powerful figures in Kansas political history. 2
The death of Lane left a political vacuum in Kansas only a few
months before election time. The situation was succinctly de-
scribed by a heading over a story filed on July 13 by the Leaven-
worth correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. It read, "KANSAS
POLITICS MUDDLED PREDICAMENT OF THE GOVERNOR/' 3 Kansas
politics was indeed muddled and Governor Crawford was certainly
in a predicament. Lane died less than two months before the
scheduled date of the Kansas Republican nominating convention,
leaving the party he had dominated since its inception without a
leader. If Crawford were to be renominated, he would have to
gather some of the shattered pieces of the Lane faction and combine
them with other factions to form a new organization. The first
available implement was an interim appointment of a United States
senator; it could be a cohesive or a destructive tool, depending on
its use. Crawford's delicate position was well defined in the
Tribune article:
. . . Politicians are in a muddle, and are anxiously awaiting the an-
nouncement of the appointment of Lane's successor. There are an innumerable
amount of candidates in the field. Every man who has ever been a justice of
peace or private in a militia company, is a candidate for the United States
Senate. The appointment of any man for the time that intervenes between
the present and the meeting of the Legislature would have such an effect as
to kill him [the governor] politically. It would make a political enemy of
2. The Leavenworth Evening Bulletin, June 9, 15, 29, 1866, and the White Cloud
Kansas Chief, June 14, July 5, 1866, were among the newspapers which believed that
Crawford's change of heart had been engineered by Lane. Reports of Lane's illness and
suicide may be found in the Topeka Leader, June 28, 1866; Wilder, op. cit., pp. 439. 440;
Oskaloosa Independent, July 7, 1866, and the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 12,
1866.
3. Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1866.
CRAWFORD'S APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross 147
every one who is an aspirant for that position, and those who expect to be or
would accept it if tendered to them. The position in which the Governor is
placed by the death of Lane, is one that is unenviable in every respect. Being
a candidate for re-election, he must either draw the enmity of every man who
desires the place by making an appointment, or he will be charged with sus-
taining "my [Johnson's] policy" by refusing to appoint in case the Freedman's
Bureau Bill is defeated by one vote. 4
After the Lane funeral, Crawford made a short tour into southern
Kansas; perhaps he wanted to escape his Leavenworth, Topeka,
and Lawrence "advisors" and collect his thoughts. He returned to
Topeka in a few days and began screening candidates for the
senate seat. The names mentioned most frequently were those of
Gen. James G. Blunt, Crawford's old army commander; John Speer,
Lane's faithful friend and a partner with Ross in the Lawrence
Tribune; the Rev. H. D. Fisher, a pioneer Kansas preacher-politi-
cian; and Former Gov. Thomas Carney. Blunt had an initial
advantage because of his friendship with Crawford; he had, in fact,
accompanied the governor on his retreat to southern Kansas. Speer
had the backing of some remnants of the Lane organization. Fisher
had powerful church backing and Carney enjoyed the support of a
group of influential businessmen in Leavenworth. 5
On Tuesday afternoon, July 17, Crawford apparently met with
John Speer and C. W. Adams, the latter Lane's son-in-law and
political associate. Crawford may have promised Speer the nomi-
nation, as his enemies later alleged, but news came from Washing-
ton the same day which may have relieved the pressure for an
immediate appointment. Leonard Smith, a Leavenworth specu-
lator, wired Crawford from Washington: "Congress will adjourn
next week make no appointment." Crawford also must have
known by then that the second Freedman's Bureau bill had been
passed over the President's veto on the day before, thus relieving
much of the anxiety of the Kansas radicals.
On Wednesday, the 18th, Missouri Sen. John Henderson wired
from Washington: "We hope to adjourn by the 23rd inst, but may
be delayed until the 25th; we shall certainly leave in a few days."
On Thursday another telegram came from Len Smith and M. N.
Insley, the owner of the Leavenworth Conservative, which read:
"All Kansas men and our friends in both houses of Congress recom-
mend you not to appoint a Senator now." 6
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.; Topeka Tribune, August 24, 1866; Burlington Kansas Patriot, July 28, 1866.
6. C. W. Adams, Lawrence, to Crawford and John Speer, July 17, 1866; Smith, Wash-
ington, to Crawford, Topeka, July 19, 1866, "Crawford Telegrams," loc. cit.; telegram from
J. B. Henderson, Washington, July 18, printed in the Leavenworth Daily Conservative,
July 20, 1866; the Topeka Tribune, July 20, 1866, alleged that Speer had been promised
the appointment.
148 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Henderson telegram brought only a brief respite in the
feverish activity in Topeka, because Crawford arrived at a decision
the following day. He appointed Edmund G. Ross to the United
States senate. The appointment in the secretary of state's commis-
sion book is dated July 19, but the announcement was not made
until the following day. The appointment caught Crawford's
friends and enemies alike by surprise. On July 20, a day after the
actual appointment, but before the announcement, the Leavenworth
Conservative and the Topeka Record predicted that no appointment
would be made because of the pending adjournment of congress.
Speer's backers in Lawrence learned of Crawford's intended ap-
pointment sometime on the afternoon of the 19th; their telegrams
reflect their dismay: "By all means don't appoint E. G. Ross
Speer's appointment would be much more acceptable to the peo-
ple"; "Give us John Speer or nobody"; ". . . If you appoint
Major Ross you will go to Hell in this county"; and from C. W.
Adams, "For God's sake don't appoint Major Ross." 7
Edmund G. Ross was outside the circle of Lane supporters, al-
though he had been John Speer's partner in the Lawrence Kansas
Tribune. He was a 40-year-old newspaperman with almost no
political following or experience. The question then arises: Why
did Crawford choose such a man who was not even a candidate
for the position? One possible answer is that each of the announced
candidates was unacceptable to some faction of the party and
Crawford wanted to reunite the party. Speer had been too closely
identified with Lane and Johnson; the nomination of Thomas
Carney would alienate the Pomeroy faction, because Senator Pome-
roy's backers believed that Lane and Carney had been plotting to
remove Pomeroy from the senate at the next election; and Fisher
was purported to have no strength with the veterans.
Ross on the other hand was acceptable to the radicals because
he had denounced Johnson's course of action, he was acceptable
to the Pomeroy group because he posed no threat to them, he was
a popular veteran of the late war, and the fact that he had been
John Speer's partner in the Tribune, might win him the support of
some of the Lane element. If this was Crawford's line of reasoning,
it proved to be correct in all but one particular, Speer was so bitter
over his unsuccessful bid for the senate seat that he became one of
Crawford's most caustic enemies. Most of the old Lane faction,
7. Secretary of state, "Commission Book," Commission No. 397, archives, K. S. H. S.;
Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 20, 1866; Topeka Record, July 20, 1866; R. W.
Ludington, John Hutchings, C. S. Eldridge, Lawrence, to Crawford; "Many Names" in
Lawrence to Crawford; C. W. Adams, Lawrence, to Crawford; all telegrams dated July 19,
1866, "Crawford Telegrams," loc. cit.
CRAWFORD'S APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross 149
however, fell in line behind Crawford, largely because they had no-
where else to go.
There are other feasible reasons why Crawford may have chosen
Ross. Even before Lane's death, applicants and "advisors" began
to importune the governor concerning the senatorial appointment.
Crawford later wrote that: "some of the applicants pressed their
claims with a tenacity of purpose disgusting in the extreme/' 8
Crawford had known Ross since they had served together in the
Second Kansas regiment during the Civil War, and he had great
respect for him. According to one story, Crawford sent Ross a note
asking him to come to Topeka for a conference. Ross approached
the governor and began to commend another candidate when
Crawford informed him that he had not called him for consultation
but rather to tender him the appointment to the United States
senate. "We need a man with backbone in the Senate. I saw what
you did at [the battle of] Prairie Grove, and I want you for Sena-
tor." 9 Crawford later explained the appointment by saying:
I knew him to be an honest, straightforward soldier of sterling worth and
unflinching courage; and on that account he was appointed. I had seen him
on the field of battle amid shot and shell that tried men's souls, and I knew
he could be trusted. 10
Perhaps Crawford became disgusted by the constant harassment
of the applicants and decided to choose a man he knew and trusted;
a man who had not solicited the position; a man much like himself
in many respects. It is doubtful, however, that Crawford lost sight
of the fact that the appointment of Ross might be a device through
which the party could be reunited and his own renomination
secured.
Ross left for Washington on the night of July 19. He was well
on his way when the announcement of the appointment was made
public the next day. 11 The appointment had the desired effect;
some of the newspapers representing each of the various factions
praised the move. Crawford was criticized for his vacillation, but
most of the Kansas newspapers approved of Ross. He was, after all,
a fellow newspaperman. The Leavenworth Conservative com-
mented: "His appointment was as unexpected by him as it will
be gratifying to thousands of faithful Kansas soldiers." This state-
ment came from a paper whose editor had been urging the appoint-
8. Samuel J. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties (Chicago, 1911), p. 236.
9. This story is taken from Edward Bumgardner, The Life of Edmund G. Ross: The
Man Whose Vote Saved a President (Kansas City, Mo., 1949), pp. 56, 57.
10. Crawford, op. cit., p. 236.
11. Ross was sworn in as United States senator on July 25; congress adjourned three
days later. See Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 4113.
150 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ment of John Speer. 12 The Leavenworth Times, the Carney organ,
simply reported the appointment and offered no editorial comment.
Even the White Cloud Chief, perhaps the most radical paper in the
state wrote:
We confess, the Governor has shown remarkable sharpness in this appoint-
ment. He has gone outside the scrambling politicians, and committed himself
to no factions; he has chosen a man whose record is clean, all through, and he
has made an appointment to which it is impossible for any reasonable man to
take exception. 13
The Burlington Kansas Patriot, another radical paper, conceded
that Ross was outside "the Crawford present supporting ring and
that's good." 14
If Crawford's enemies were temporarily caught off guard they
soon regained their composure. When the attack on Crawford was
renewed, it was largely on the basis that Crawford's vacillation in
choosing a senator had shown his weakness. Sol Miller, the most
humorous writer among the early Kansas newspapermen, wrote
that a number of stories had been heard in Topeka concerning the
governor's indecision. One story was that Crawford gave the ap-
pointment to the Rev. H. D. Fisher and then took it back, where-
upon he gave it to John Speer, who rented the best rooms in town
for a celebration, but Ross came by and Crawford gave him the
appointment. Ross left town immediately.
Another of Miller's stories was to the effect that Crawford lined
up W. F. Cloud, Blunt, Speer, and Fisher and played a boy's game
called "Spit, Spit, Spot! Tell me who shall be Senator, or 111 smash
you on the spot!" but the finger pointed out the window where Ross
happened to be passing by and he was made senator. 15 George T.
Anthony was even more critical of Crawford's reputed wavering.
He wrote that John Speer had been given the appointment but it
had been recalled and given to Ross. Then it was decided the
wrong man had been appointed and the governor sent an officer
with a writ to retrieve the commission. The officer rode so fast he
killed several horses and arrived two minutes after Ross had de-
parted by train for Washington. Anthony thought that Ross had
a good chance to get to Washington before the officer and become
a senator. He was advised not to be careless with his commission.
Anthony, who never took half measures, wrote that ". . . the
12. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 21, 1866; J. W. Wright and Ward Burlin-
game, Leavenworth, to Crawford, Topeka, July 19, 1866, "Crawford Telegrams," loc. cit.
13. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 26, 1866.
14. Burlington Kansas Patriot, July 28, 1866.
15. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 26, August 2, 1866.
CRAWFORD'S APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross 151
ball that went through Senator Lane's head, took from the Governor
all his brains." 16 John Speer related that the common expression
in Topeka before the appointment was: "Well, who is Senator
now?" The answer: "If you tell me the last man who saw the
Governor, I'll name the promised man." 17
J. P. Greer of the Topeka Tribune, himself a candidate for the
gubernatorial nomination, wrote a play in honor of the Ross ap-
pointment. He called it a "Tragic Comedy." In one of the scenes,
Crawford is alone wrestling with the problem of a senatorial ap-
pointment; he says to himself: "Hark! I hear in the distance, the
rattle of buggy wheels, and the sound of the office hunters bugle.
The pressure is getting too great, I must appoint or the importunities
of friends may produce an aberration of my mind. . . ." In
scene two, the candidates, including Blunt, Cloud, Fisher, Speer,
and Ross, are given an audience with the governor, and each utters
some platitude indicative of his character. In the third and final
scene, the governor has at last made up his mind, he says to his
private secretary: ". . . write quickly my appointment of Mopus
[Ross], he will do my bidding send him forth by the light of the
moon, tell him to keep sacred our plans, for the future canvas, and
when he gets to Washington, I command that he appear to Andy
'Moses' [Johnson]. . . ," 18
The day after the announcement of the appointment John Speer
wrote an article under the heading "Gov. Crawford's Imbecility and
Treachery." Speer had expected to receive the nomination himself
and when he learned that his partner in the Tribune had been
chosen, he was furious. He fired verbal volleys off in all directions,
accusing Crawford of being a weak man who owed his political
existence solely to Lane. Speer said he could stand the "imbecility"
of Crawford, but he could not forgive the greater crime, ingrati-
tude. He contended that a friend of Lane's should have been
chosen in memory of that great man. Speer served notice that he
would fight the renomination of Crawford: "We have done with
him. Let him rest in the obscurity which mingled imbecility and
treachery merit. The name ought not to be breathed in conversa-
tion. A few days will develop a [new] standard bearer." 19
The criticism of J. P. Greer, Sol Miller, George Anthony, and John
Speer was countered by several newspapers. The Leavenworth
Conservative continued to support Crawford as did the Junction
16. Leavenworth Evening Bulletin, July 21, 1866.
17. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, July 21, 1866.
18. Topeka Tribune, July 27, 1866.
19. Kansas Daily Tribune, July 21, 1866.
152 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
City Union. George W. Martin of the Union, noting that Crawford
had been charged with indecision and vacillation, answered: "He
has exhibited none of these traits toward us, while those with whom
we daily associate, and who knew the man during all his military
career, assure us that he possesses no such characteristics." 20 The
position of most of the newspapers was to express mild approval
of the Ross appointment without commenting on Crawford's al-
leged "indecisiveness." The editors may have realized that it would
not be entirely consistent to criticise the appointment while praising
the appointee. They may also have noted that, the jokes about
Crawford's indecisiveness notwithstanding, the appointment was
made less than a week after Lane's funeral, surely not a long time
to consider such an important matter.
Ross arrived in Washington only three days before congress
adjourned. During those three days he made no speeches and cast
no critical votes. Nonetheless, he was given the political advantage
of being the incumbent senator at the next senatorial election. For
Crawford, the maneuver proved successful. As the Republican
nominating convention neared, the opposition was unwilling or
unable to unite and Crawford was renominated for governor on the
first ballot by polling 64 of the 82 delegate votes. Crawford had
succeeded in temporarily uniting the various factions within the
party under his leadership. His appointment of Ross was one of
the factors which convinced the radicals that Crawford was "safe,"
while the former Lane faction, suddenly deprived of their leader,
could do little else but follow Crawford. 21
The Democrats offered no slate for the 1866 election but a John-
son party called the "National Union Party" was organized. James
L. McDowell, the Leavenworth postmaster, was named to oppose
Crawford in the general election. A pro- Johnson party had no real
chance of winning the election in radical Kansas. Crawford was
elected by a vote of 19,370 to 8,152 for McDowell. 22
It is interesting to note that the tradition of party regularity was
already a strong force in Kansas politics in the 1866 election. A
few weeks after John Speer had denounced Governor Crawford's
"imbecility" he was bowing to the "superior wisdom" of the "repre-
sentative men of our state," and announcing his "earnest support
to the man of their choice." J. P. Greer admitted in print that the
Republican ticket was a "strong one." Sol Miller who had gleefully
20. Junction City Union, July 28, 1866.
21. Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 4113; Leavenworth Dotty Conserva-
tive, September 6, 1866; Topeka Tribune, September 7, 1866; Wilder, op. cit., p. 442.
22. Ibid., pp. 434, 444, 446.
CRAWFORD'S APPOINTMENT OF EDMUND G. Ross 153
printed a series of jokes about Crawford's indecisiveness now ex-
plained that Crawford had always been a radical at heart but he
had been misled by Lane. Miller put it tersely: "Lane dead and
Crawford all right." Even Anthony, who had written that the ball
which went through Lane's head had removed Crawford's brains,
agreed to support the Republican ticket. 23
As a result of Crawford's overwhelming victory, he was able to
exert some influence over the 1867 legislature which chose two
United States senators on January 22. S. C. Pomeroy was elected
to the six-year term while Ross was selected to continue to occupy
Lane's former seat for a four-year period. During Ross* four and
a half years as a United States senator he generally voted with the
radicals in opposition to the President. His vote of "not guilty" on
the llth article of the impeachment charge in May, 1868, therefore,
came as a surprise to most Kansans, including Crawford. The
chain of events which led to Ross' vote, which if reversed would
probably have removed Johnson from the Presidency, was humor-
ously summarized by Sol Miller who wrote: "and it came to pass
that Kansas made Jim Lane, and Jim Lane made Crawford, and
Crawford made Ross, and Ross made an ass of himself." 24
23. John Speer in Kansas Daily Tribune, September 7, 1866; J. P. Greer in Topeka
Tribune, September 14, 1866; Sol Miller in White Cloud Kansas Chief, September 27,
1866, the report of Anthony's reversal is in the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, September
8, 1866.
24. The voting for the senate seat is described in the Olathe Mirror, January 17, 1867.
Evidence that Crawford was taken by surprise by Ross' vote on the impeachment charges
is found in a telegram from Crawford to Ross, dated May 16, 1868: "My God Ross what
does it mean. The Telegraph reports you as having voted against impeachment on the
eleventh article. If true, for God's sake and for the sake of your friends and country
don't betray the party in casting your votes on the other articles." From "Crawford Tele-
grams," loc. cit.; Sol Miller's comment was reprinted in the Olathe Mirror, May 28, 1868.
The Democratic Party and Atchison:
A Case Study, 1880
JAMES C. MALIN
I. THE LOCAL ISSUES
A SUBSCRIBER asked the editor of the Atchison Daily Patriot,
Democratic, about the position of the Republican party in 1860
on state rights, and about the current position ( 1880) of both parties
on that subject. In reply, the Republican plank of 1860 was quoted,
pledging "the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and
especially of each state to order and control its own domestic insti-
tutions according to its own judgment exclusively. . . ." The
Patriot agreed that this was good Democratic doctrine and as proof
quoted from the Democratic national platform of 1880 on "Home
rule" and "opposition to centralization . . .," along with the
10th amendment on powers granted to the federal government and
reserved to the states. In contrast, the editor attributed to the
Republican party of 1880 an assumption that the federal govern-
ment had power to do "anything and everything, without any ref-
erence to any special grant of power/'
The Atchison county Republican platform, adopted October 6,
1880, denounced the "Solid South" as a menace to be confronted
as in 1861-1864 by a "Solid North." A one sentence paragraph
asserted: "This is a Nation, and not a mere confederation of dis-
cordant States." The Republican party then resolved on railroads;
on "the duty of the Nation to defend its citizens in the enjoyment
of their Constitutional rights"; on protection against ruinous foreign
competition of American industries "by wholesome legislation";
on the danger to prosperity of a "change" which would "restore to
power the forces that have, during the past twenty years, sought
in turn to dissolve the Union, to destroy the public credit, to debase
the currency, to cripple the manufacturing interest, and to control
elections by force and fraud." Much of this platform was the usual
campaign buncombe, but certain parts of it fit remarkably closely
into the constitutional revolution charged by the Patriot's editorial.
The American Civil War had in fact decided on the battlefield that
"This is a Nation. . . ." and that decision had been accompanied
by a psychological revolution that extended to a large part of the
DR. JAMES C. MALIN, associate editor of The Kansas Historical Quarterly and author of
several books relating to Kansas and the West, is professor of history at the University of
Kansas, Lawrence.
(154)
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 155
Democratic as well as the Republican parties as they were reorgan-
ized and reoriented following the war. Gen. Benjamin F. String-
fellow of Atchison and Judge Samuel D. Lecompte of Leavenworth
had underscored that fact by joining the Republican party in 1868
and justifying their choice on the ground of a candid acceptance
of the national decision, that the power of the federal government
was determined by expediency, not by the prewar conception of
constitutional powers. 1 Subsequently, the 14th amendment had
confirmed the battlefield decision by making citizenship national
and in line with that fact was derived the Republican resolution:
"It is the duty of the Nation to defend its citizens. . . ."
In Atchison county the Democratic party organization included
an unusual number of the most prominent citizens of the city and
county. Chief among these were William Hetherington, banker,
the Everest and the Waggener families, lawyers, and George W.
Click, lawyer and Shorthorn cattle breeder.
The Atchison county Democratic platform, adopted the day fol-
lowing the Republican convention, contained four resolutions; to
endorse the national and state platforms, and to restore national
honor and dignity that existed under the founders who knew no
North, South, East, or West. The second resolution was aimed at
what the Republicans had done the previous day:
Resolved, That we look with distrust and dread on that sentiment publicly
proclaimed in the platform of the Republican party of this county which has
for its object the entire destruction of state lines and which can in the end
lead to no other result than the destruction of our Republican form of govern-
ment and the substitution in its stead of monarchy.
In order to forestall misunderstanding, it is important to warn
the 20th century reader that the use of the word monarchy did not
mean necessarily the creation of a King. The words "monarchy"
and "empire" had meant, in political controversy in the United
States, a centralized and despotic form of government in contrast
with popular and decentralized government which was called "re-
publican," but which had no reference to the political party of the
same name. In using the language of these resolutions, the Demo-
crats were thinking in terminology common to prewar political
theory in the United States, especially as it was emphasized by the
Douglas concept of popular sovereignty as defending the right of
people in local space to govern themselves in all respects, especially
at the state level. Furthermore, it did not exclude self-government
within subdivisions of the state counties and towns or regional
1. James C. Malin, "The Nature of the American Civil War: The Verdict of Three
Kansas Democrats," in On the Nature of History (Lawrence, Author, 1954).
156 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
management of the interests of groups of states under state com-
pacts. 2
II. IDENTICAL RESOLUTION ON RAILROADS BY PARTY AGREEMENT
To PROMOTE LOCAL INTERESTS
But all this is preliminary to another and related matter which
has escaped the attention of historians of the United States. For
reasons that were not the subject of explanation or comment both
political parties in Atchison county adopted the same railroad plank.
Resolved, That while the railroads of the country should be required, by
wholesome laws, to subserve, for fair compensation, the purposes of the people
by whose bounty they were in part constructed, yet we should regard as
unwise any attempt to select them alone, among the industries of our state,
as the subjects for discriminating or adverse legislation. The interests of the
people and the railroads ought to be mutual. The railroad corporations of
Kansas, on the one hand, ought to be so managed and operated as to protect
and build up the interests of Kansas communities and Kansas people and while
demanding this of them, the state should treat them fairly and generously,
and promote, as far as possible, their development and welfare.
Quite explicit in this common plank, both political parties were
pledged to use railroads as an instrument for the promotion of the
interest of the state of Kansas as a geographical area and political
entity. Furthermore, in order to make the instrument as effective
as possible, the state should promote the development of railroads.
This mutual or reciprocal obligation was, by inference, to be pur-
sued even at the expense of states and railroads of states adjoining,
or of other sections of the United States. Neither political party
appeared to equate this policy as "protection" in a sense comparable
with the tariff on imports as "protection" of economic interests. The
Democrats did not indicate any consciousness of contradiction be-
tween their endorsement of the railroad policy as protection and
their denunciation of tariff as protection. On the other hand, the
Republicans appeared equally blind to the contradiction between
their declaration about the United States being one Nation rather
than a confederation of discordant states, and their endorsement
of the use of the railroads as an instrument for protection and for
the promotion of the local interest of Kansas as a state. 3
Before turning to the question of Atchison county candidates in
2. James C. Malin, The Nebraska Question, 1852-1854 (Lawrence: Author, 1953):
"Notes on the Writing of General Histories of Kansas, Part One The Setting of the Stage,'*
Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. 21 (Autumn, 1954), pp. 184-223; "The Topeka Statehood
Movement Reconsidered: Origins," in Territorial Kansas: Studies Commemorating the Cen-
tennial (Lawrence: The University of Kansas Publications, Social Science Studies, 1954),
pp. 33-69.
3. The problem has been discussed in other contexts in James C. Malin, The Contriving
Brain and the Skillful Hand (Lawrence: Author, 1955), Ch. 10, "The Nature of National
Policy, With Special Reference To the Nature of 'Protection' Communication, Tariff,
Science."
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 157
1880, attention is directed to Edgar W. Howe (Ed. Howe, to the
people of Atchison), his Daily Globe, newspaper, and his remark-
able novel The Story of a Country Town published privately in
1883. In the columns of the Globe were found paragraphs in com-
mentary on local events and people that were grist for the novel
of this singular individualist. His own protests against social in-
justice were as ruthless as the life he was recording. Howe pos-
sessed that fatal gift of being an intimate part of the society in which
he lived, yet as one detached or outside it, viewing it in all its
inconsistencies, contradictions, and sordidness which seemed to
violate needlessly the ideals which he thought it should be capable
of achieving. During the campaign of 1880, Howe carried at the
masthead of the Globe under the caption "The Globe Ticket for
Governor" the slogan: "Anybody to Beat John P. St. John. . . ."
His paper could not be classified as Republican, Democratic, or
Greenback, and neither could it be called conservative or liberal.
On one point Howe agreed with his neighbors, the Champion
and the Patriot, that the candidates nominated for the legislature
should be chosen with a view to what they could do for Atchison:
"We have come to regard Legislatures as a body of men trying to
induce the State to help particular localities. . . ." Unlike his
contemporaries, however, Howe declared that he intended to sup-
port "men who are most capable of doing this city good without
any reference to Republicanism or Democracy." His contempt for
Greenbackers was so complete he scarcely recognized their exist-
ence. 4 After the Greenback convention had done its worst, Howe
was doubtful whether that ticket contained any ray of hope:
This is a bad beginning, but we hope it may end well. The Republicans of
Atchison county have controlled its politics so long that they have become
insolent, and a change is needed to a party that will not repeat Republican
mistakes. Occasionally, the Democrats have elected an officer, but it has
apparently been his ambition in each instance to be fully as bad as the worst
Republican, but no worse. This is not political reform. 5
An optimistic frame of mind was not easy to maintain for long, how-
ever, as the Globe, October 4, revealed how mixed local politics had
become. Jesse Crall was a delegate to the Atchison county Demo-
cratic convention and an alternate to the Republican convention;
while N. S. Mitchell, colored, was a candidate for representative in
the legislature on the Greenback ticket and a delegate to the Re-
publican county convention.
4. The Globe, Atchison, October 2, 1880.
5. Ibid., September 23, 1880.
158 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
III. CANDIDATES FOR REPRESENTATIVE: H. C. BRUCE
VERSUS GEORGE W. CLICK
The Republican party was referred to on occasion in the Globe
by some variation of the formula: "The Majors, Colonels, Captains,
Generals, and other military notables of the city, met . . . and
organized a Republican club with which to save the country.
." . ." 6 In connection with county representation in the legis-
lature, political party attention was focused upon the city senator-
ship and the North Atchison representative. Peculiar circumstances
produced this result. The Republican party nominated a Negro,
H. C. Bruce, for representative from the North Atchison district.
The Globe, October 4, had predicted this: "Of course he has no
show of either a nomination or election; but the darkies all think
so, and they are better Republicans than ever in consequence." The
Patriot, October 7, put the matter in the form of a question; in a
district with a Republican majority of 200: "Will the Republicans
elect Mr. Bruce?" But the Patriot was concerned about Bruce's
ability to promote the interests of the city of Atchison in charter
legislation in competition with Leavenworth and Topeka. Bruce
was not a lawyer. The same day the Globe insisted that:
Bruce is not a representative citizen in any particular. . . . Bruce has
proved a failure in whatever he has attempted. . . . He was a failure as
a saloon keeper; ... as a keeper of a grocery store, he was a failure
in the position his brother secured for him at Washington. Since his return
. . . he has been loafing. The Republican party disgraced itself in nom-
inating him. . . . It is no kindness to them [Negroes] to flatter their
ignorance by nominations of this character."
The Champion, October 8, insisted that it was only right that the
400 Negro votes should be represented; Bruce was an intelligent
man and his brother was United States senator from Mississippi.
In the North Atchison, or fourth representative district, the Demo-
crats had other ideas about who should watch over the interests
of Atchison at Topeka. They fixed upon George W. Click, who
had earlier had legislative experience. Besides being an outstanding
lawyer, Click was also a breeder of Shorthorn cattle of the Bates
and Booth strains, the dominant or fashionable type, while his
fellow Democrat, William A. Harris of Linwood, was among the
leading exponents in the United States of the Scotch or Cruick-
shank strain. 7 Click was a man who commanded respect through-
out the state irrespective of political considerations. Dismayed
6. Ibid., September 21, 23, 1880.
7. G. A. Lande, Kansas Shorthorns (lola, The Lande Printing Company, 1920), pp. 34,
37, 52, 62, 69.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 159
possibly at what the Republican convention had done in nominating
Bruce, the Democratic convention persisted the next day in honoring
Click with the nomination as the Globe put it: "a man of unusual
intelligence; a lawyer of recognized ability, and an enterprising and
respected citizen. His opponent is a chuckle-headed darkey, with-
out education or intelligence. We wonder if John A. Martin will
vote against Click. . . . If he does, he will prove recreant to
his trust as a voter." The following day the Globe reviewed Click's
political record; in 1876 he had been elected speaker of the house
by acclamation in an overwhelming Republican legislature
. . . solely because he was an able, impartial and educated man. . . .
Many of the best laws on our statute books were framed by him, yet the
Republicans ask the people ... to defeat him in favor of a chuckle-
headed darkey, who never had an idea above a full stomach, and a shady
place in summer, and a warm corner in winter, in his life. To ask the people
to vote for Bruce in preference to Mr. Click is an insult to their intelligence.
It is not a question of Democracy or Republicanism, but of common sense.
In another paragraph, further contrast was made: "Were H. C.
Bruce's son a candidate . . ., he would catch the vote of every
man who has ever boarded at the Otis or Lindell hotels, for he is
a first-class waiter. . . ."
John A. Martin did persist in advocating the election of Bruce,
and insisted that no matter what course the Republican party took
on the Negro question, the Democrats would use it to beat the
Republican party. Howe could see in Martin's course, however,
only "base and bigoted partisanship." The Globe suggested that
if it appeared impossible to elect Click, and Click withdrew "to
save himself the humiliation of being defeated by such a colored
man as Bruce, that Uncle Abram Green [colored laundryman] be
substituted. . . . Uncle Abram's reputation is above reproach." 8
IV. AARON S. EVEREST, ATTORNEY FOR JAY GOULD
INTERESTS, CANDIDATE FOR STATE SENATE
One controversial candidacy appeared not to be enough for one
election, so the day after the Republicans had nominated Bruce,
the Democratic county convention nominated Aaron S. Everest,
Jay Gould's attorney, for state senator from the Atchison county
district. Immediately Howe came to the defense of Everest. Hav-
ing known the nominee and his law partner, Balie P. Waggener,
since arrival in Atchison some three years earlier, Howe appreciated
the encouragement they had given him. The most serious thing
8. Atchison Daily Champion, October 8, 9, 1880; Globe, October 8, 9, 1880- Atchison
Daily Patriot, October 8, 1880.
160 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Howe had heard said against Everest was that his firm was at the
head of the profession:
^ . . no man can distinguish himself in any calling without crowding others
out of his way, and making enemies. It is largely for this reason that we
intend to support Colonel Everest for the State Senator. . . . The principal
thing that can be said against Everest by the opposition is that his firm has
been employed by Jay Gould. . . . Under ordinary circumstances this
fact would be regarded as creditable, and is so accepted by a great many as
it is, but the Republicans cannot make much of a club out of it since their
convention adopted a resolution declaring that the railroads should not be
selected from the substantial interests of the State for unwise and mistaken
legislation. We have been assured that Colonel Everest's candidacy has no
reference to railroad interests, but in any event he can do nothing more than
protect the Gould roads from legislation favorable only to the Santa Fe, a
fight in which the people have no interest.
Furthermore, Howe agreed that everything Everest had in the
world was invested in Atchison, and it was not sensible to assume
that he would destroy that. The nomination was well received
by the public, according to Howe, who insisted that men of both
parties had participated in the serenade tendered the candidate.
The Democratic Patriot, October 8, pronounced the nomination
of Everest as "one of the best and most judicious nominations made
yesterday. . . ." In reporting the convention, the Patriot em-
phasized the need of an unusually clear-headed senator because,
among other things, the question of a new city charter was coming
up, Atchison having outgrown its second class status. The Cham-
pion, October 24, was not disposed to let the matter rest at that,
but opposed Everest, not only because he was a Democrat, but
because:
Col. Everest is the attorney of the Gould railways, and the people of this
county have some matters to settle with that interest. In the settlement of these
affairs we ought to be represented by a citizen who has no personal interests
that can possibly conflict with those of the community.
We do not wish to make war on the railroads, nor do the people of this
county. . . . The people of this county have no complaints to make
against the A. T. & S. F. road. They will cheerfully do everything in their
power to protect and promote the interests of that corporation. . . .
Also, the Champion was explicit that: "We do not propose to
wage a personal war against Col. Everest." Col. John A. Martin,
the Champion owner and editor, insisted he was approaching this
situation as a matter of public policy. The following day the
Patriot replied: "And yet you will indulge in mean and cowardly
insinuations." This was pursued the next day: "The mere fact that
some railroad occasionally employs him to attend to its legal busi-
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 161
ness is no argument against him, and such silly twaddle is the dire
extremity of all fruitless electioneering schemes they have used."
A certain blindness induced by political partisanship is notorious.
The case against Everest was so clear that even party loyalty should
not have been sufficient to deprive the Patriot of its critical faculties.
But on the other hand, for all of Martin's professed devotion to
good public policy on this occasion, two years hence to be exact,
November 17, 1882 the Champion was excusing Republican judges
who violated the "purity of the judiciary" provisions of the state
constitution.
During the remainder of the campaign of 1880, the Champion
continued its agitation of the grievances of Kansas against the
Gould railroads. According to one interpretation, the charter of
the Central Branch, U. P., expired in 1880, and the legislature had
passed in 1879 the act defining the duration and existence of certain
railroad corporations. Upon condition that such railroad corpora-
tions, built largely with Kansas aid, accepted the conditions of the
general charter law, the doubtful charters would be extended for
99 years from their original date of issue. As soon as Gould gained
control of the Central Branch, the general offices were transferred
to St. Louis, and those of the Kansas Pacific to Kansas City, Mo.
In fact, except for the Santa Fe and one or two small roads, all
Kansas railroad companies had "defiantly refused" to obey the law
in this matter. The Champion was convinced that a move was on
foot to amend or repeal both the general offices act of 1874 and
the charter act of 1879:
Do these facts explain the reason why Mr. Gould's attorney is put forward
as a candidate for the Senate in this county? The Senate, it should be remem-
bered holds office for four years. ... If the people of this city and
county want to retain the power to compel the Gould railways to do justice
to them, is it not well to send to the Senate men who can be depended upon
to look after their rights and interests alone? Can the attorney of the Gould
railway interest in Kansas be depended upon to do this?
The Champion desired to treat "the railway interest of Kansas"
fairly, "but it does demand that Kansas railways shall be so oper-
ated as to promote Kansas interests and build up Kansas towns."
If the attempt in the legislature to induce the state to surrender
this right of control succeeded, "the people of the State will be at
the mercy of its corporations. The corporations will be bigger than
the State. . . " 9
9. Daily Champion, October 28, 1880.
112840
162 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
On October 29 the Garfield and Arthur club held a meeting where
the principal speaker was W. W. Guthrie. He was antiprohibition,
but pointed out that the liquor interests were arrayed behind
Everest. He reviewed the railroad situation much as the Champion
had done, but used different examples. He alleged that the Gould
interest had captured the Missouri legislature and was undertaking
to do likewise in Kansas, and in congress, the United States senator-
ship being at stake. Guthrie then turned to personalities and to
an expose of alleged misconduct on the part of Everest prior to his
arrival in Atchison. This reacted unfavorably. Also as a matter of
policy about charges strictly personal, the Champion declined to
publish what had been said. 10
On November 1, the day before election, the Patriot ran editorial
paragraphs to stress its contention that Everest would care scrupu-
lously for Atchison's interest. Also, the point was made that since
Everest had been attorney for the Central Branch "not one suit
has been brought against it. Every claim for stock killed, for
damage by fire, accident or other cause, has been promptly settled
without the intervention of courts/' Another paragraph denounced
the Champions allegation about legislation needed by the railroad
relative to its charter: "Such untruthful stuff is silly, but when
printed to injure a candidate for an office is dastardly." A half-
column editorial was devoted to what the Patriot insisted was
Guthrie's attack upon Everest's family.
In endeavoring to meet these attacks near the end of the canvass,
the Globe admitted its sympathies had been with Everest from the
first,
. . . but the Jay Gould ghost haunted us so continually that we investigated
the matter, and became convinced, from evidence not furnished by Everest &
Waggener, that Mr. Gould had nothing to do with Colonel Everest's candidacy.
Gould is not fool enough to ask any man to help burn his own town, and if he
has a desire to control the Kansas legislature, he cannot do it by electing a
single member of the Senate. We have heard of no Gould candidates in any
other section, so that this charge . . . [fails].
Howe's main reliance in his defense of Everest, however, was in
pressing the comparative or relative types of argument. Guthrie,
Everest's rival, had been a railroad attorney, and at the time was
legal advisor to the Atchison and Nebraska railroad which was pic-
tured as hostile to Atchison's interests. In this context, the real issue
lay in evaluating what each man had done, and could or would do
in the future in influencing the conduct of his railroad client. Howe
10. Ibid., October 30, 1880; Daily Patriot, October 30, 1880.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 163
charged Guthrie with failure and credited Everest with success, so
far as influence was concerned, in keeping their respective clients
favorable to Atchison's interest. He insisted that Everest had kept
Gould policy from doing greater damage: "We believe that as
Everest's influence with Jay Gould increases, Atchison will be in
a proportion benefited, and to elect him to the Legislature only puts
him in a position to dictate terms to Jay Gould so far as this city
and section is concerned." So far as strictly current Gould manage-
ment was concerned, he insisted that Atchison had little reason
for complaint: "Colonel Everest should receive credit for this rather
than curses/'
Furthermore, Howe pointed out, but without specific details, that
John A. Martin, editor of the Republican Champion had also re-
ceived income from Gould at the time of the Central Branch con-
solidation and had been powerless to prevent it. In this, and in
another editorial in more detail, Howe raised the question of how
relatively unimportant income from Gould was for Everest. He
attributed to the law firm of Everest and Waggener a total income
for the past year of $24,000, but only $2,000 of this had been
received from Gould. Of course, the point to these figures was to
convince the voters that under such circumstances Gould could not
own Everest, and the loss of Gould fees could not be in any case
a controlling factor in Everest's conduct. 11
In dealing with Guthrie's campaign to discredit Everest on private
grounds, Howe was most aggressive. Apparently a whispering
campaign was active some days prior to Guthrie's speech at which
he made the charges about Everest's earlier private life. Howe pre-
dicted that the expose would prove harmless to Everest, but chal-
lenged Guthrie for withholding his specifications: "Why don't
Guthrie shoot his wad?" Only then, Howe pointed out, could
Everest defend himself. Afterwards, Howe's prediction appeared
to have been confirmed, and Howe emphasized that the Champion
had refused to print "the slanderous stuff. . . ." 12
The fourth newspaper in Atchison, at the time of the campaign of
1880, was the Greenback-Labor Public Ledger, a weekly, launched
August 19 and suspended October 30, after publishing nine num-
bers. On the major issues pertinent to this study it was really
worthless, and Ed Howe was its most scathing critic. The party's
local platform only endorsed the national and state platforms and
candidates and appealed to voters of all parties for support. The
11. Globe, October 22, 1880.
12. Ibid., October 25, 27, 30, 1880.
164 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Greenback-Labor candidate for the fourth representative district
was N. S. Mitchell, a Negro barber, and for the city senatorship,
Jesse Piggott, a farmer. Apparently both declined or withdrew.
The party then proposed to place Everest's name on its ballot for
senator, a move that precipitated an internal revolt. 13 The candi-
date for county attorney, L. P. Barnes, withdrew his name as candi-
date and stated publicly his reasons "Because the Greenback-Labor
party of this county, contrary to all its professions and principles,
has agreed to put the name of A. S. Everest in its ticket for State
Senator, when it is well known that he is the attorney of Jay Gould."
Barnes held that resistance to such a system of oppression was the
reason the party had been organized. A party official, Howard E.
Banes, replied, branding Barnes' public statement as a stab in the
back, and defending Everest as the man best equipped to represent
minorities in the redistricting of the state at the hands of the legis-
lature.
The election returns favored Everest by a majority of 166 in a
vote of nearly 5,000, and Click by a majority of 29 in a vote of
nearly 1,300. On the prohibition amendment, the vote was over-
whelmingly in the negative. The Champion argued that sentiment
in the North against electing a colored man to office was as strong
if not stronger than in the South and that Atchison was the first
Kansas district to undertake it. The showing Bruce had made, the
Champion interpreted as evidence that the Republicans generally
had stood by their professions. Bruce was quoted in this connection
as charging his defeat to the defection of his fellow Negroes who
betrayed, not him, but the party. Ed Howe congratulated himself
upon having opposed Bruce because of his incompetence rather
than his color, because Martin had insisted that God had made
Bruce black, and to object to him on that account would have been
to find fault with God. In the three years that he had lived in
Atchison, Howe insisted he had not known of Bruce having done
a day's work. Howe was pleased also with Atchison for the election
of Everest and for thus demonstrating its preference for building
rather than tearing down. 14
Not only had the Patriot, the Democratic organ, been virtually
silent about railroads, except in its defense of Everest prior to the
election, but it reported only occasionally anything of railroad news
during the interval between November 2 and January, 1881, when
13. Daily Champion, October 3, 28, 1880; Daily Patriot, and the Globe, October 26,
1880. The Kansas State Historical Society has five of the nine published issues of the
Public Ledger.
14. Daily Champion, November 2-4, 7, 1880; Globe, November 3, 1880.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ATCHISON 165
the legislature convened. The Champion, however, pursued the
theme of railroad consolidation and especially the influence of the
current evil genius of Kansas railroads, Jay Gould. An Atchison
railroad man was quoted as saying that within four or five years
there would be not over four or five railroad companies in the
United States. In Kansas, the editor reminded his readers, within
a very few years the Kansas companies had been reduced in num-
ber from about twenty to three the Santa Fe, the Missouri Pacific,
and the Burlington and Missouri River companies. The practical
effect had been to destroy all competition among them. Thus,
north of the Kansas river, except along the Missouri border, Gould
roads were in control; the Kansas Pacific, the Central Branch, the
Kansas Central, and the St. Joe and Western. South of the Kansas
river, the Santa Fe occupied the monopoly position through its
control over the St. Louis and San Francisco and the Lawrence and
Galveston roads, except for the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf,
in the eastern tier of counties, the M. K. & T., and the St. Louis,
Kansas and Arizona roads, the last two of which were Gould roads.
The third railroad power in Kansas was the Burlington and Missouri
River interest which controlled the Gulf and the Atchison and Ne-
braska roads.
The editorial continued by pointing out that in Missouri, Gould
controlled three-fourths of the rail mileage; in Nebraska two com-
panies dominated, the Burlington and Missouri River, and the
Union Pacific; and in Iowa three companies were represented, the
Rock Island, the Burlington and Missouri River, and the Chicago
and Northwestern. From the Atlantic seaboard, four companies
controlled, the first three monopolizing all Atlantic traffic with
Chicago and St. Louis. As for the future the very near future
three Atlantic and Pacific systems were predicted; the Gould, the
Vanderbilt (New York Central, Santa Fe, and C. B. &Q.), and the
Pennsylvania-Southern Pacific combinations. Added to these three,
the Baltimore and Ohio company would probably undertake to
form a fourth system. Meanwhile:
The country looks on in amazed wonder. Currents of trade are changed, cities
are built up or destroyed, individuals are enriched or impoverished, as these
vast corporations please. . . . They are the pioneers in the Wilderness
and the arbiters of fortune everywhere. . . . Each one of them is a perfect
machine, moving with the precision of clock-work, and controlled absolutely
in all its parts by one central and dominating will. 15
In contrast with the Champions concern about railroad power,
the Patriot was silent on the issues until January 12, 1881, on the
15. Daily Champion, December 5, 1880.
166 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
eve of the opening of the legislature. In comment upon the Farm-
ers' convention meeting in Topeka, the editor insisted he was not
advised as to its object, but reports represented that it proposed
to "pitch into" the railroads "If that is true, the convention had
better not be held." He did not doubt but there were some aspects
of railroad management that needed looking into, but "by calm and
thoughtful discussion." The relations of state and railroads was
summarized thus:
This State owes much to the railroads. They have peopled our prairies, built
up our towns and added wonderfully to the growth of all our enterprises and
to the value of all our commodities, and not withstanding they were in a
great measure constructed by the bounty of our people, the Patriot does not
believe they ought to be singled out for discriminating legislation.
It was then that the editor called attention explicitly to what had
occurred in the Atchison county conventions in October, 1880, when
both the major parties had taken the "correct position" on railroad
policy, and without a dissenting voice, adopted the same plank.
Kansas Before 1854: A Revised Annals
Compiled by LOUISE BARRY
PART Six, 1830-1832
7830
C Bound for the Rocky mountains on a scientific expedition, Prince
Paul of Wuerttemberg, together with two servants, a clerk (H.
Crossler), and two American Fur Company hands, left St. Louis
December 23, 1829. (See 1823 for the prince's earlier Western
expedition.) Journeying across Missouri on horseback, this small
party reached Francis G. Chouteau's establishment on the Missouri
(within present Kansas City, Mo.) on January 5, 1830; and from
that place continued westwardly a few miles, along the Kansas
river's south bank, to the Chouteaus' American Fur Company post
on the Shawnees' land (in Wyandotte county of today). Com-
menting on the Missouri "Kansas" border scene, Prince Paul wrote:
. . . the country presented to me a few wooded hills and small prairies
. . . clusters of lofty trees intermingled with a few sumach and dwarf oak
bushes. The land includes that section of the country lately ceded to the
Delawares, Peorias, and Shawnee Indians. . . . Traces of cultivated
ground, and the possession of cattle, and even of a few black slaves, already
indicate the change which may be wrought in the course of time, and under
a free, mild, and pacific government. . . .
Heading for Cantonment Leavenworth, Prince Paul forded the
Kansas near the Chouteaus' trading house. ("The ice presented
some difficulties to swimming my horse . . .," he noted.) At
the military post he found his "old friend" Maj. Bennet Riley, in
command.
By February, Prince Paul was at the Council Bluffs. When spring arrived
he continued up the Missouri to the American Fur Company post Fort
Tecumseh (Fort Pierre). That he reached his intended goal the Columbia's
mouth seems doubtful, for in the early autumn he was on his way back
down the Missouri, in a pirogue, and had passed Cantonment Leavenworth
by September 24. On reaching St. Louis he embarked for New Orleans.
Ref: Kansas Historical Quarterly (KHQ), v. 16, p. 304; St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, Octo-
ber 7, 1830; Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, February 23, 1831; South Dakota Historical
Collections, Pierre, v. 19, pp. 463-473. The 1830 federal census shows that Francis G.
Chouteau had three slaves (an adult male, an adult female, and a child under 10);
and that several other Jackson county, Mo., residents also owned slaves.
C Starting from the Rocky mountains late in December, 1829, Wil-
liam L. Sublette and "Black" Harris, with a pack dog train, made
a winter journey to St. Louis, reaching that town, apparently, on
LOUISE BARRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.
(167)
168 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
February 11, 1830. Little is known of their trip presumably they
traveled "Subletted Trace" which would have brought them from
the Platte to the Little Blue and down across Marshall and Potta-
watomie counties of today to the Kansas river valley. (Compare
with January-March, 1827, Sublette-Harris journey.)
Ref: Dale L. Morgan's Jedediah Smith . . . (Indianapolis and New York, c!953),
p. 315; J. E. Sunder's Bitt Sublette . . . (Norman, Okla., c!959), p. 84.
C BORN: on January 12 Susannah (Susan) A. Yoacham, daughter
of Daniel and Rosannah (Campbell) Yoacham, at the Shawnee
Agency, in present Johnson county. She was, perhaps, the fourth
white child, and second white girl born in what is now Kansas.
The Yoachams then lived with Subagent John Campbell (cousin of Mrs.
Yoacham). Later they ran a tavern in Westport, Mo. Susan married William
J. Dillon; had seven(?) children; and died in December, 1912, at Kansas City,
Mo., aged 82.
Ref: May H. (Dillon) Tinker's April 25, 1916, letter, in a "Remsburg scrapbook,"
Kansas State Historical Society (KHi) library; letter by John C. McCoy, August, 1879, in
KHi ms. division (McCoy says Yoacham was employed as a farmer for the Shawnees);
Kansas City (Mo.) Star, July 16, 1950 (for an account of Yoacham's tavern).
C Reporting, January 30, on the civilization of the Missouri river
Indians, Agent John Dougherty stated:
. . . they have made no advance ... of agriculture [they know]
nothing more than they have perhaps always known ... to raise in a
very rude manner, a little corn, a few beans and pumpkins; and even this
confined to a very few, out of the numerous tribes on the Missouri; and as to
"education," there is not a single Indian man, woman, or child, to my knowl-
edge, from the head of the Missouri to the mouth of the Kanzas river, that
knows one letter from another.
[As to] ... the "condition" of the Indians in Missouri [agency] gen-
erally, I can only say, that the Kanzas, loways, Omahas, Ottoes, and the
Yankton band of Sioux, from the diminution and scarcity of game in this
country, starve at least half the year, and are very badly clad. The other
tribes, who reside higher up the river, and near the mountains, in the buffalo
country, live plentifully, and are well clothed.
Ref: 21st Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 110 (Serial 193), pp. 9, 10.
C Expanding from its Missouri river posts to compete for the Rocky
mountain fur trade, the American Fur Company (Western Depart-
ment), organized an overland expedition at St. Louis in February.
From a rendezvous at Liberty, Mo., a mounted party of 45, with
a good-sized pack train ( more than 100 animals ) , traveled through
present northwest Missouri, and southwestern Iowa between March
20 and the end of the month; crossing the Missouri ( in a keel boat )
to the Fontenelle & Drips trading post at Bellevue (Neb.), eight
or nine miles above the Platte's mouth, on March 31st. A month
later, at the end of April, the expedition, headed by Lucien Fon-
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 169
tenelle (with Andrew Drips, and Joseph Robidoux) began the
journey to the mountains, up the Platte and to South Pass.
Warren Angus Ferris (aged 19) accompanied this party and kept a diary
of his experiences (1830-1835) which was the basis of a work he prepared
entitled Life in the Rocky Mountains (first published in issues of the Western
Literary Messenger, Buffalo, N. Y., between January, 1843, and May, 1844).
His narrative, aside from its merit as an account of fur trade life and of the
Indians of the Far West, is notable in that it presents the American Fur
Company side of the fur trade "war" of the early 1830's a "war" which that
company won by 1834.
Ref: W. A. Ferris' Life in the Rocky Mountains . . ., edited by Paul C. Phillips
(Denver, 1940).
C The steamboat Wm. D. Duncan (see April, 1829) was scheduled
to begin regular trips between St. Louis and Franklin, Mo., on
March 15; and her operators stated she would go as far as Canton-
ment Leavenworth whenever quantity of cargo justified the journey.
(At one Fayette, Mo., social event in March a toast was offered "to the
captain of the steamboat W. D. Duncan. May his exertions in proving the
practicability of navigating the Missouri river be long remembered.")
Another steamboat the Globe (John Clark, master) advertised
a departure for Franklin and Cantonment Leavenworth on March
28, and again, in May, another trip to the same places.
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, March 25, May 20, and October 28, 1830; Western
Monitor, Fayette, Mo., March 31, 1830.
C In March, Boudinot Mission successor to Mission Neosho (see
1824, 1829 ) and about 10 miles downriver from its site was estab-
lished for the Osage Indians by the Rev. Nathaniel B. Dodge and
his wife, on the Neosho's east (left) bank near the mouth of Four
Mile creek. White Hair's main town was across the Neosho and
about two miles westward. (The location of Boudinot is now
described as on the S.W.M of Sec. 10, T. 29, R. 20 E., some two and
a half miles west and north of present St. Paul, Neosho county.)
Nathaniel B. and Sally (Gale) Dodge (formerly of Harmony Mission and
more recently of Independence, Mo.) were the principal missionary workers at
Boudinot. When Isaac McCoy stopped there in June, 1831, he commented
that Dodge "had erected . . . pretty comfortable buildings." During the
winter of 1831-1832 the Dodges were on leave in the East. Mary B. Choate,
of Vermont, came in the autumn(?) of 1832 to teach the Dodge children. A
few Osage pupils also attended her school. But she left in March, 1834, to
marry outside the missionary family. In 1835 Boudinot was abandoned by
the Dodges who found it unsafe to stay longer, due to Indian troubles not
explained. However, William C. Requa (from New Hopefield see next
entry) moved there, probably early in 1836, and occupied the place as "farmer
and catechist" till May, when he went East on leave. He may have returned
170 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in the fall, but he abandoned Boudinot either in 1836 or very early in 1837.
(See, under 1837, for Hopefield [No. 3], the successor to Boudinot.)
Ref: Reports of the American Board of Comm'rs for Foreign Missions: 1830 (pp. 90,
91), 1831 (p. 87), 1834 (p. 118), 1836 (pp. 94, 96), 1837 (p. Ill); History of Ameri-
can Missions (Worcester, Spooner and Rowland, 1840), pp. 278, 340, 341; W. W. Graves'
First Protestant Osage Missions . . . (Oswego, c!949), pp. 211-217; Isaac McCoy's
History of Baptist Indian Missions (Washington, 1840), p. 416; Missionary Herald, Boston,
v. 27, pp. 46, 287, 288, v. 30, p. 258, v. 31, p. 26. The Dodges (married in 1803) had
eight children: (Dr.) Leonard, Philena, Sally, Nathaniel B., Jr., Jonathan E., Samuel N.,
Thomas S., and Harriet. Some were adults by 1830. How many of them were in "Kansas"
during the 1830-1835 period is not known. See J. F. McDermott, ed., The Western
Journals of Washington Irving (Norman, 1934), pp. 89, 90.
C Early in the spring the missionaries and about 15 Osage families
comprising Hopefield Mission (see 1823) moved some 20 miles up
Grand (Neosho) river, to a site just below Big Cabin creek's mouth
(in present Mayes co., Okla.). By summer, 20 Indian families had
settled there.
New Hopefield prospered till 1834 when about a fourth of the Osages there
died of cholera, and other illnesses, in the summer and fall. Two adults and
four children among the missionary families also were victims. On October
30, 1835, the wife of the remaining missionary, William C. Requa, died. New
Hopefield closed late in 1835, or very early in 1836. (See preceding entry
for Requa's stay at Boudinot Mission; and see under 1837, for the third Hope-
field which was in present Kansas. )
Ref: Spooner and Rowland's History of American Missions, pp. 206, 253, 278; 23d
Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. No. 474 (Serial 263), pp. 113-115; Graves, op. cit., p. 202; Reports
of the American Board of Comm'rs for Foreign Missions: 1831 (pp. 88, 90), 1832 (p.
114), 1835 (pp. 96, 97); Grant Foreman's Advancing the Frontier (Norman, 1933), pp.
120, 143.
C On April 10 William Subletted company of 81 mule-mounted
men and a "caravan of ten wagons, drawn by five mules each, and
two dearborns, drawn by one mule each" (also a dozen cattle for
food, and a milk cow) set out from St. Louis for the fur trappers'
summer rendezvous in the Wind river valley ( of present Wyoming ) .
The route was "nearly due west to the western limits of the State;
and thence along the Santa Fe trail about forty miles; from which
the course was some degrees north of west, across the waters of
the Kanzas, and up the Great Platte river. . . ." ( See illustration
facing p. 176.)
Subletted notable expedition the first to take wagons as far as
the Rocky mountains proceeded at the rate of 15 to 25 miles per
day, and with no particular difficulty reached the rendezvous on
July 16. Partners David E. Jackson and Jedediah S. Smith were
there awaiting him, with a sizable collection of furs. (See August
entry for the homeward journey. )
A year earlier (see March, 1829) Sublette had, it appears, first made use
of a section of the Santa Fe trail (that is, traveled south of the Kansas for a
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 171
distance ) en route to the Rocky mountains, and at the same time had pioneered
the path branching away from the Santa Fe trail northwestward to the Kansas
river. Where Sublette forded the Kansas in 1829 (with a pack train) and
in 1830 (with wagons) is not on record. But it seems probable his party
crossed near the Kansa Agency, for it is known that two years later (see May,
1832, annals entries) Sublette's pack train crossed the Kansas in that vicinity,
and about a week prior, Captain Bonneville's expedition (with its 20 wagons)
had also forded the river near the Agency. (See Spring, 1827, annals entry
for location of the Kansa Agency. )
From the Kansas crossing, up to the Platte, the expedition traversed "Sub-
lette's Trace" see March, 1827, and March, 1829, entries, and map facing p.
521, in Winter, 1961, Quarterly the future Oregon trail pathway.
Ref: Morgan, op. cit., pp. 315-317; Dale L. Morgan and C. I. Wheat's Jedediah Smith
and His Maps of the American West (San Francisco, 1954), p. 80, and folded Fremont-
Gibbs-Smith map; 22d Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 39 (Serial 203), pp. 21-23 (for Smith-
Jackson-Sublette letter containing above-quoted statements); Sunder, op. cit., pp. 84-86.
C A party of 48 men, nominally led by Robert Bean, left the
vicinity of Fort Smith, Arkansas territory, May 7, on a trapping
expedition to the Rocky mountains.
This trip had been organized and financed by John Rogers, of Fort Smith,
and three associates. Each of the adventurers had his own rifle, and two or
three pack animals in charge. Among these "trappers" were George and
Mark Nidever, Alexander and Pruett Sinclair, Frederick Christ, Jacob P. Leese,
Job Dye, and Dr. James S. Craig. (The names of most of the others are
known, also. )
Beyond the Cross Timbers ( as these men were proceeding across
present Oklahoma by way of the Canadian river country the North
Fork, apparently), they had a fight with Comanches. Ten of the
party then turned back, while the others changed direction and
moved northward. On reaching the Arkansas river (possibly near
the Little Arkansas junction, as Craig stated; or higher up, as
implied in George Nidever's account), they followed its course.
Some days later, in a skirmish with a band of Pawnees, they lost
seven horses, and had several others wounded. From this point
Alexander Sinclair became the party's leader, by tacit agreement.
Subsequently, in the mountains, three of this party were killed by Indians
(Mark Nidever and Frederick Christ in 1830; Alexander Sinclair in 1832, at
the battle of Pierre's Hole). A fourth man died in the mountains; some of
the party returned to Arkansas territory. A good many eventually settled
in California.
Ref: L. R. Hafen's "The Bean-Sinclair Party . . .," in The Colorado Magazine,
Denver, v. 31, pp. 161-171; W. H. Ellison, ed., The Life and Adventures of George
Nidever . . . (Berkeley, 1937).
C From a rendezvous at Blue Springs ( Mo. ) a large trading cara-
van departed for Santa Fe around the middle of May. This expedi-
tion (unaccompanied by a military escort as in 1829) undoubtedly
172 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
was well-armed and efficiently organized. Some of the wagons
probably were pulled by ox teams. (Josiah Gregg later stated that
oxen were first used by traders in 1830. ) If so, this journey marked
another "first" in Santa Fe trade annals ( though the military escort
in 1829 had pioneered in the experiment with ox teams on the
trail). Ceran St. Vrain was one of the merchants, and perhaps the
captain(?) of this caravan. It appears that Charles Bent also made
this trip. By one report there were 120 men, with 60 wagons.
(Josiah Gregg's later-day tabulation for 1830 was 140 men and 70
wagons.) The expedition reached Santa Fe on August 4.
Before the end of October a company of traders had returned
from New Mexico to Missouri reportedly "with less profit than
usual."
Ref: Western Monitor, Fayette, Mo., March 31, April 7, 1830; Missouri Intelligencer,
Columbia, May 22, October 30, 1830; Josiah Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies (New York,
1844), v. 2, p. 160; Colorado Magazine, v. 31, p. 110 (for L. R. Hafen's statement on St.
Vrain as captain); David Lavender's Bent's Fort (New York, 1954), pp. 123, 124, 383,
385. Conceivably Gregg's 1830 totals covered another expedition in addition to the large
caravan. But in view of the 1828-1829 Indian troubles, a small party on the trail in
1830 seems unlikely.
C The "Indian Removal Bill," which had evoked bitter congres-
sional debate before its passage, was signed by President Jackson
on May 28. This act provided "for the exchange of lands with the
Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their
removal west of the Mississippi river." It was, in the words of
Isaac McCoy, "the first efficient step taken by the Government to-
wards settling the policy of colonizing the Indians."
Ref: Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions, p. 400; The Public Statutes at
Large of the United States of America From . . . 1789, to ... 1845 (Boston,
1854), v. 4, p. 411; Grant Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians (Chicago, c!946), p. 59.
C In May, Paul Ligueste Chouteau, long-time subagent to the
Osages of Neosho river, was promoted to head the Osage Agency
(in present Neosho county), succeeding John F. Hamtramck.
In the same month, or in June, Richard W. Cummins was ap-
pointed to head the Shawnee Agency in present Johnson county.
He succeeded George Vashon who went to the Western Cherokee
Agency. (Vashon turned over his accounts to Cummins on July
17.)
(Ref: Superintendency of Indian Affairs, "Records" (SIA), v. 4, pp. 118, 119, 142,
v. 29, p. 34; Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), "Registers of Letters Received," v. 2, p. 385.
C The Rev. Charles Felix Van Quickenborne visited the Osage In-
dians (for a third time see, 1827, 1828) in the early summer.
Presumably he went to the Neosho river towns, but the tangible
evidence of his 1830 journey relates to locations on the Marais des
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 173
Cygnes and the Marmaton sites which probably were in present
Kansas. A Catholic Osage Register contains the record of his three
baptisms "Done [on June 8] at the house of Francis D'Aybeau near
the banks of the Marmiton river, opposite the place where formerly
was the village of the grand Soldat [Big Soldier]"; and of three
marriages he performed, also on June 8, at D'Aybeau's house; also
of six baptisms "Done [on June 9] at the house of Joseph Entaya
near the Marais des Cygnes/'
Most of the persons involved in the three marriages listed below were,
according to Van Quickenborne, from good half-breed, or metif (three-quarter)
Osage families which had left the Indian towns to commence civilized life.
The two witnesses to the marriages Christophe Sanguinet and Louis Peltier
had been sponsors of baptisms which the Catholic father had performed on his
1827 visit to the Neosho river villages. The ceremonies of June 8, at the
Marmaton, were for:
Francis D'Aybeau, alias Brugiere (a Frenchman), and Mary (an Osage
woman).
Joseph Brown, alias Equesne (a Frenchman, son of Stephen Brown and
Acile Giguiere), and Josette D'Aybeau (a metif Osage girl, daughter of
Francis D'Aybeau).
Basile Vasseur (son of Basil Vasseur, Osage half-breed), and Mary (an
Osage woman, daughter of Kanza Shinga).
Assuming that Francis D'Aybeau's house was in present Bourbon
county, then his is the first recorded marriage in what is now Kansas.
Ref: G. J. Garraghan's The Jesuits of the Middle United States (New York, 1938),
v. 1, pp. 193, 194; Osage Mission records, v. 1 (microfilm in KHi).
C Leaders of the small bands of Piankeshaw, Wea, and Peoria In-
dians living in present Miami and Franklin counties wrote William
Clark on July 28 about their troubles:
. . . [we] moved on the lands you gave us [in 1828], and are satisfied
with them, and have remained quiet and peaceable with all our neighbors; but
now ... we are in trouble . . .; our neighbors, the Kansas, infest
us constantly; they beg every thing from us, and what we do not give them,
they steal from us; they are now commencing on our corn fields; we can not
lay a hoe or an axe down, but what they steal it, and strip our horses of all
our bells.
. . . our friend Campbell [Subagent John Campbell] came this spring,
and broke ground enough for us to make plenty to live upon, and our crops
are good. . . . the Osages they do not trouble us much now; they
would not let our women gather pecans last fall, they drove them away, and
told them that the land was theirs. . . .
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 522, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 115.
C Partners Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, and William Sublette,
with a company of 50 to 70 men, left the Wind river valley ( Wyo. )
on August 4 for St. Louis. Their outfit included the 10 pioneer
174 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
wagons (now loaded with furs), the same mule teams which Sub-
lette had taken to the Rockies in the spring and summer, also a
large number of horses and mules, four of the cattle, and the milk
cow which had made the journey from Missouri. ( See April annals
entry. )
The homeward route was "over the same ground nearly as in
going out." A large number of the mountain men, with the wagons,
reached St. Louis on October 11. But the arrival of "Messrs. Smith
and Jackson" on October 7 had been reported and it appears the
party may have separated into detachments on the latter stage of
the march, with "Smith and Jackson" perhaps moving down the
north side of the Kansas (possibly beginning a divergent route at
the Kansa Agency ) .
On the way to Missouri, Jedediah Smith wrote a letter (to a brother in
Ohio) dated September 10, at "Blue River, fork of Kanzas, 30 miles from the
Ponnee [Republic?] Villages," and later added a postscript after he overtook
the letter on September 22 "at the Kanzas Fairry, 30 miles from Cantonment
Leavenworth." (The operator, and location, of this Kansas river ferry have
not been identified. See January, 1831, entry. )
Smith, Jackson and Sublette (in a letter of October 29 to the
secretary of war) commented that the round trip with wagons,
made with "ease and safety," proved "the facility of communicating
overland with the Pacific ocean"; and stated that from the South
Pass (where their wagons had stopped) to the Columbia river was
an "easier and better" pathway than east of the mountains. (See,
under 1832, Bonneville's expedition the first to take loaded wagons
over the Continental divide. )
Ref: Morgan, op. cit., pp. 315-317, 320, 322, 343, 431; Jedediah Smith's letter of
September 10, 1830, in KHi ms. division; 22d Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 39 (Serial 203),
pp. 21-32; Sunder, op. cit., pp. 88, 89; and see, KHQ, v. 5, p. 366, for Isaac McCoy's
journal entry of October 22, 1830, mentioning his party's crossing the wagon train's trail.
C In the fore part of August (after August 7 and before the 16th),
at Cantonment Leavenworth, head men of the Otoes, Omahas,
lowas, Sacs, Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos (of western
Missouri ) assembled for a peace council at Agent John Dougherty's
request. Co-operatively, the Indians pledged amity and friendship.
Ref: "Dougherty Collection," in KHi ms. division (in a typed copy of Dougherty's
March, 1832, report).
C Maj. William Davenport, Sixth U. S. infantry, became command-
ing officer at Cantonment Leavenworth in the latter part of August.
(He replaced Maj. Bennet Riley.)
An August, 1830, visitor at the post, recalled many years later in August,
1879 that half a dozen or more white families were then at Cantonment
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 175
Leavenworth including those of Major Davenport, Indian Agent John Dough-
erty, Subagent R. P. Beauchamp, Dr. Benjamin F. Fellowes, U. S. A., and
Alexander G. Morgan ( post sutler ) .
Ref: KHQ, v. 5, p. 347; SIA, v. 6, p. 91; John C. McCoy letter, August, 1879, in
KHi ms. division. That Fellowes was at the post in 1830 is doubtful. He was an army
officer from March 2, 1833, to May 30, 1839; and Maximilian says Fellowes was on the
upbound Yellowstone in 1833 (Thwaites, v. 24, p. 114).
C In mid-September Maj. Stephen W. Kearny, of the Third U. S. in-
fantry (who had married Mary Preston Radford, stepdaughter of
William Clark, on September 5, near St. Louis), and his bride ar-
rived at Cantonment Leavenworth. ( They were at the post over the
winter leaving in March, 1831, when Kearny's orders called him
elsewhere. )
Ref: KHQ, v. 16, p. 401; D. L. Clarke's Stephen Watts Kearny . . . (Norman,
c!961), p. 47.
C Throughout September a surveying party headed by Isaac Mc-
Coy a party which included his sons Rice and John C., two
chainmen (Congreve Jackson and Albert Dickens), three hired
hands, an interpreter, and a nine-man military escort was at work
in present eastern Kansas north of the Kansas river. By October 2
these surveyors had run the lines of the Delaware Indians' general
reserve, and marked out the bounds of Cantonment Leavenworth.
(See map facing p. 177.)
In the course of accomplishing these tasks, McCoy entered "Kansas" on Au-
gust 21, at the Shawnee Agency; moved northward to the cantonment on the
28th (accompanied by Delaware chief John Quick); departed on September 1
for the Kansa Agency (some 37 miles southwest); visited Chief White Plume
(two miles to the northwest) on the 3d; and on September 6 (not far west of
present Topeka) "arrived at the Kansas land, and commenced . . . sur-
veying where their eastern line crossed Kansas river." (See, under 1826,
Langham's Kansa survey.) From that point the line was run northward to
ten miles beyond the northeast corner of the Kansa reserve (or, to the north-
west corner of the Delaware reserve); and from there McCoy proceeded to
Cantonment Leavenworth's vicinity to survey the post's boundaries. They
were completed on October 1. (See, under October, for McCoy's Delaware
"outlet" survey. )
Ref: KHQ, v. 5, pp. 339-361 (for Isaac McCoy's 1830 journal covering the above
period of survey); 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), pp. 430-440
(for Isaac McCoy's 1831 report on his 1830 Delaware lands survey); Kansas Historical
Collections (KHC), v. 4, pp. 302-305 (for John C. McCoy's account of the survey).
C About 100 Pawnee Republic Indians arrived at Cantonment
Leavenworth on September 22, "from their village on the Repub-
lican Fork of the Kansas river."
Agent John Dougherty had sent for a few of their head men to visit him
to talk about the Kansa, whose recent horse-stealing raid had violated the
peace between the two tribes; and to win the Pawnees' consent for a survey of
the Delaware "outlet" (the north line of which would pass near their country).
176 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
By way of entertainment, the Indians performed the "Discovery
Dance" on the evening of the 23d. The council was held next day.
Among those attending were Surveyor (and Baptist missionary)
Isaac McCoy, and "venerable old" John Quick (second chief of the
Delawares). Principal speaker for the Pawnee Republic band was
the head chief Capote Bleu (Blue Coat) described by an unidenti-
fied onlooker [probably 2d Lt. Philip St. George Cooke] as the
"best looking Indian" he had ever seen, "his manners are actually
fine, a man of natural grace and dignity. . . ." The Pawnees
gave consent for the survey; and Dougherty advised them concern-
ing their relationship with the Kansa.
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, October 7, 1830; KHQ, v. 5, pp. 357, 358.
C Early in October, at Cantonment Leavenworth, Isaac McCoy
( and his sons Rice and John C. ) prepared to survey the north line
of the Delaware "outlet" (a 10-mile-wide strip of land north of the
Kansa reserve see map facing p. 177 which, by terms of the 1829
treaty, was to provide the Delawares access to western hunting
grounds ). "At the garrison we refitted," wrote McCoy, "the number
of soldiers being increased to 15, who, together with a Kansas
interpreter, who joined us 26 miles west, and an interpreter for
Pawnees, Ottoes, and others who joined us 92 miles west, made our
whole company 23."
The "outlet" survey began at a point about 46 miles northwest of Canton-
ment Leavenworth ( in what is now northern Jackson county ) . McCoy's party,
on horseback, reached that spot on October 13, and then set a course due west.
It was a "remarkably dry" season "an uncommon drought had prevailed
throughout that whole region" McCoy later reported. After October 14, when
a prairie fire "swept away the grass on both prairies and woodlands
the journey was made with some difficulty. Grass for the horses could rarely
be found and the animals failed rapidly. Winds carrying dust and sand, as
well as smoke and ashes from the burned prairies, added to the travelers' dis-
comfort.
On October 22 the expedition crossed the Mon-e-ca-to, or Blue Earth
(Big Blue) river; reached the Pa-ne-ne-tah, or Pawnee (Republican) river on
the 29th; crossed it next day (near present Clifton). On November 5, the
north line of the "outlet" having been run 150 miles west, the survey was
terminated at a point in southeast Smith county of today "on the top of a
ridge west of Oak creek, not many miles from the present town of Cawker
City." "We stopped," McCoy reported, "about forty miles within the region
abounding with buffaloes, elks, antelopes, &c." "The country is habitable
thus far," he wrote in his journal.
Heading homeward (on November 6) down the Solomon (called "Nee-pa-
holla" water on the top of a hill by the Kansa), McCoy and some of his
party took time to visit the great natural curiosity now known as Waconda
(or Great Spirit) Spring (about two and a half miles southwest of present
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Section of a map published with House Report No. 474 (dated May 20,
1834), 23d Cong., 1st Sess. The three small reserves below the Shawnees
are (left to right) those of the Ottawas, the Peorias and Kaskaskias, and
the Weas and Piankeshaws.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS
177
Cawker City). To the Kansa it was "Nee-woh-kon-da-ga" Spirit Water.
Moving southeastwardly, the expedition left the waters of the Solomon and
crossed to "Nishcoba" (now Chapman) creek, followed it for a time, then
turned east to the Republican, and on November 13 camped on the point
of land where that river and the Smoky Hill join (near present Junction City,
on the Fort Riley reserve). After crossing the Republican, McCoy's weary
party, with nearly worn out horses, moved on down the north side of the
Kansas river, and on November 19 arrived at the Kansa Agency (in south
Jefferson county of today). Isaac McCoy reached the Shawnee Agency
(present Johnson county) on November 21.
Ref: KHQ, v. 5, pp. 339-377 (especially pp. 361-377) for Isaac McCoy's journal of
the 1830 Delaware surveys; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), pp.
430-440 for Isaac McCoy's comprehensive report covering the 1830 Delaware surveys, the
character of the country traversed, the state of the Kansa Indians, with recommendations
for improving their lot, and lengthy descriptions of such landmarks as the Indian mounds
(near Cantonment Leavenworth) and the Great Spirit Spring (present Mitchell county);
KHC, v. 4, pp. 304-306 for John C. McCoy's account; Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist
Indian Missions, pp. 404-412.
C MARRIED: 2d Lt. Philip St. George Cooke (aged 21) of the
Sixth U. S. infantry, and Rachel Wilt Hertzog, of Philadelphia, on
October 28, at the Cantonment Leavenworth quarters of Agent John
Dougherty and his wife Mary (Hertzog) Dougherty (sister of the
bride), by the Rev. Mr. Edwards.
This was the first wedding of record in present Kansas in which both bride
and groom were white persons. ( See Van Quickenborne's June 8, 1830, cere-
monies for earliest recorded "Kansas" marriages.)
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, November 11, 1830; KHQ, v. 22, pp. 97-103.
C In October about 100 of the Delaware Indians living on James*
Fork of White river in southwestern Missouri, led by their aged
principal chief William Anderson, began the journey to a reserve
set aside for them west of the Missouri, north of the Kansas river
( and north of the Shawnees ) . (In late August and early Septem-
ber Chief John Quick had inspected and approved the reserve lands,
after making a brief tour with Surveyor Isaac McCoy.) By mid-
November Anderson's party had established a settlement in present
Wyandotte county several miles west of the Kaw's mouth. Many
more Delawares had arrived by December 3d. Agent R. W. Cum-
mins wrote on that date:
"Since the arrival of Chief Anderson, the balance of the Nation except those
that are on a hunting Expedition, and a few that are still left on Jame's Fork
of White River fifteen or twenty they say, past my Agency a jew days agoe
to the Lands alloted to them on Kansas River. I have not as yet been able to
ascertain the precise number, they say about four hundred in all. . . .
The principal part of them that are here, are old Men, Women and Children."
Treaties of August 3, 1829 (with the Delawares of Sandusky river, Ohio),
122840
178 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and of September 24, 1829 (with the Missouri Delawares), had implemented
the land cessions and removal of these Indians. The latter treaty had de-
scribed the Delawares' reserve and had specified, additionally, an "outlet" to
western hunting grounds. Also by its terms the government agreed to provide
assistance in moving; farming utensils and tools to build houses; a year's pro-
visions after removal; a grist and saw mill (within two years); an annuity
increase from $4,000 to $5,000; and 36 sections of the relinquished Missouri
lands were to be set aside to provide funds to educate Delaware children.
On September 22, 1831, Chief Anderson wrote the secretary of
war: "I inform you that nearly all our nation are on the land that
Government has laid off for us; and I hope . . . that before
many years the balance of my nation, who are now scattered, some
on Red River and some in the Spanish country, will all come here
on this land. We are well pleased with our present situation. The
land is good, and also the wood and water, but the game is very
scarce."
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 65, 66, 81; KHQ, v. 5, pp. 343, 344, 350, 356, 376; C. J. Kap-
pler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1904), v. 2, pp. 303-305; 23d Cong.,
1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 438 (for an Isaac McCoy statement), p. 599
(for Chief Anderson's letter).
C In November the Rev. Thomas Johnson and the Rev. Alexander
McAlister (Methodists from Missouri) visited the Shawnee Indians
and obtained the permission of Fish's (William Jackson's) band to
begin a mission among them. It is said that by December 1 the
Rev. Thomas Johnson (aged 28) and his bride Sarah T. (Davis)
Johnson ( aged 20 ) were established at the chosen site on a wooded
bluff, not far from the Chouteau brothers' Kansas river American
Fur Company post. ( By present-day description, this first Shawnee
Methodist Mission's location was three-fourths of a mile southeast
of Turner, Wyandotte county, on the N. E. % of the S. W. %, Sec. 24,
T. 11, R. 24 E.)
On January 13, 1831, Richard W. Cummins (Shawnee agent) wrote that
"Mr. Johnson is at this time making arrangements, and I think shortly after the
winter breaks will have the school in operation." He also noted that "the
managers of the institution intend instructing the Indian children the arts of
Mechanism as well as that of literature." The extent of the Johnsons' missionary
efforts during the winter of 1830-1831 is not known. It is thought that the
large building ( a two-story double log-house, with rooms about 20 feet square )
which was to be the Shawnee Methodist Mission headquarters for eight years,
was completed by the spring of 1831. (See illustration between pp. 176, 177.)
Except for a suspension in the latter half of 1831 (when a smallpox epidemic
temporarily scattered the Indians), the Methodists' school and mission flourished
and prospered. In 1839 the site in present Wyandotte county was abandoned
for another near the Missouri line, in what is now Johnson county, where an
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 179
enlarged Indian manual labor school was built a school which was in opera-
tion till 1862.
Ref: KHC, v. 9, pp. 161-174, v. 12, p. xffi (for the mission's location), v. 16, pp.
187-197 (for Turner monument dedication, 1917); SIA, v. 6, p. 96 (Cummins' letter,
1831); Martha B. Caldwell, comp., Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission . . . (To-
peka, 1939), especially pp. 8-32, 111.
C A short-lived Kansa Methodist Mission was established on De-
cember 19 when the Rev. William Johnson (aged 25, brother of
Thomas) opened a school at the Kansa Agency. (He had reached
that place earlier in the month, to make his home with Daniel M.
Boone's family.)
As early as April, 1830, the Rev. Alexander McAlister (presiding elder of
the Cape Girardeau, Mo., district) had corresponded with Agent M. G. Clark,
and Boone, on the subject of a Methodist school among the Kansa. And in
November (from the 19th to the 21st?) McAlister and Johnson had visited
the agency to select a site. Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy, in his capacity
as U. S. surveyor, had met them there and noted the fact in his journal on
November 20.
Missionary William Johnson, on June 26, 1831, reported:
I opened a school in a room which the agent invited me to occupy; but
for three months the weather was so extremely cold that I did but little, there
being but few children in a situation to attend school. [The nearest Kansa
village was more than 20 miles upriver.] At the close of the winter, we pre-
pared a school house, which I now occupy with a small school ["of about ten In-
dian and six or seven white children"]. We have preaching every Sabbath, but
there are few who understand the English language well enough to be profited
by hearing. ... [I have] no suitable interpreter ... [I] apply all
my convenient time to study of their language. I have formed a vocabulary
of about 600 words. . . .
This is a large and needy field of labour. There are about 1,500 souls in
the Kanzas tribe. ... I view them on the threshold of destruction. . . .
In July, or August, 1831, William Johnson left the Kansa Methodist
Mission to attend meetings in Missouri. (Before his departure he
had converted some of the Boone family, but no Indians.) He
returned to the mission, apparently, for part of the winter of 1831-
1832, but then abandoned the field till the fall of 1835.
Ref: William Johnson's letters of June 26 and August 30, 1831, reprinted in KHC,
v. 16, pp. 227-229; also, ibid., v. 1-2, p. 276, v. 9, pp. 160, 161, 193, 194 (for Mc-
Alister), and v. 16, pp. 237, 239, 240; KHQ, v. 5, p. 375 (for McCoy); SIA, v. 6, pp. 78,
79 (for M. G. Clark letter of November 21, 1830); Spooner & Rowland's History of Ameri-
can Missions, p. 543.
C Near the Kaw's mouth where Kansas City, Mo., subsequently
developed these were the residents as listed in the 1830 federal
census (so far as can be determined from the Jackson county, Mo.,
entries): Francis G. Chouteau, Calice Montardeau, Francis Trem-
ble, Pierre Revalette, Louis Roy, and James H. McGee.
180 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Chouteau had settled there in 1826, and with him had come French
trappers and voyageurs employed in the Chouteaus' fur trade activities. When
Father Joseph A. Lutz (see August, 1828, annals) was briefly a resident at
the Kaw's mouth in the latter part of 1828, he noted the "little community of
nine families" there. Other Frenchmen besides Chouteau, Montardeau, Trem-
ble, Revalette, and Roy, above known to have been in the vicinity prior to
1830 (and already mentioned in these annals) were: Gabriel Philibert, Clement
Lessert, and "Grand Louis" Bertholet. The McGee family arrived in 1828,
apparently.
James H. McGee (in November, 1828) was the first to enter a land claim
in the bounds of present Kansas City, Mo. (when a land office opened at
Franklin, Mo., that year). Others who made land entries in "Kansas City" in
1831 and 1832 were: Joseph and Gabriel Philibert, Louis ("Grand Louis")
Bertholet, Gabriel Prudhomme, Francis G. Chouteau, Clement Lessert, Oliver
Caldwell & H. Chiles, W. B. Evans, Calisse Montardeau, Pierre La Libertie,
Louis Roy, and William Gilliss.
Ref: U. S. census, 1830, Jackson co., Mo. (as abstracted by Mrs. H. E. Poppino, 1956);
W. H. Miller's History of Kansas City (1881), pp. 12, 13 (for land entry list); G. J. Gar-
raghan's Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City . . . (Chicago, 1920), p. 32 (for Lutz).
7837
C In January, it is said, Moses R. Grinter ( a Kentuckian, aged 21 )
began operating a Kansas river ferry, from a site on the north bank
within the Delaware reserve. (This was three to four miles above,
and across the river from, the Chouteaus' trading post and the
newly-founded Shawnee Methodist Mission, in what is now Wyan-
dotte township, Wyandotte county, on the N. W. K of Sec. 28, T. 11,
R.24E.)
For lack of tangible evidence, the date and circumstances of the founding
of Grinter's ferry cannot be stated with certainty. According to one account
young Grinter arrived in present Kansas in 1828, as a soldier at Cantonment
Leavenworth; another says he came from Bardstown, Ky., in 1831. Both
versions indicate he was "appointed" by the government in January, 1831,
to run a ferry. This suggests an arrangement between Cantonment Leaven-
worth officials and the Delawares for travel through the Indians' lands, and
transportation across the Kansas river. The first records located for this
ferry consist of two items in James Kennerly's May, 1833, list of expenditures
in conducting Kickapoo immigrants to their reserve above Fort Leavenworth:
"Moses R. Grinter, for ferriage of Indians, four wagons and baggage, across the
Kansas river [the amount of] $38.75," and "Moses Grinter, for ferriage of 5
wagons and teams across the Kansas river [the amount of] $9.25." In a July
22, 1833, letter, the Rev. Isaac McCoy wrote of a cholera threat which "so
alarmed the Delawares, that they removed their ferry boat to prevent travellers
from crossing to them." In a July 29, 1833, letter, the Rev. W. D. Smith
mentioned that there was, on the Kansas, about 12 miles from the Missouri
and two miles from a Shawnee village, "a tolerably good ferry, at which the
mail crosses once every week going and returning between the Shawanoe
Agency and Cantonment Leavenworth."
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 181
Subsequent development of the military road from Fort Leavenworth to
Fort Scott in the early 1840's brought increased use of Grinter's ferry (some-
times referred to as Delaware crossing; later as the military crossing; still later,
as Secondine crossing). Also, a good many emigrants to Oregon and Cali-
fornia crossed the Kansas by way of this ferry in the 1840's and early 1850's.
Accounts say that James C. Grinter (a younger brother of Moses) assisted as
ferryman from late 1849 to about 1855.
See, also, January, 1836, entry for item on Moses Grinter's marriage.
Ref: KHC, v. 9, p. 203n; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 5 (Serial 248), pp.
74, 79 (for Kennerly items); KHQ, v. 2, pp. 264-266 (McCoy item on p. 264), v. 23,
p. 178; J. T. Irving, Jr's. Indian Sketches, ed. by J. F. McDermott (Norman, c!955), p. 17
(for Smith item); Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie
Counties, Kansas (Chicago, 1890), pp. 662, 663 (for James C. Grinter); the 1855 census
of Kansas, which listed in the 16th district, p. 2, Moses and James Grinter (but not their
families); the federal census of 1870 for Wyandotte tp., Wyandotte co., listed Moses R.
Grinter as aged 61, a native of Kentucky.
C About 50 young Kansa warriors, in late March, made a "bloody
and unprovoked" raid on the village of the Republican Pawnees
(on the Republican river) and returned home with scalps of nine
women and children. Kansa leader Hard Chief and his brother
Gray Eyes, who went to Cantonment Leavenworth to inform Agent
Dougherty, also admitted that within the 'last twelve months"
Kansa warriors had taken 14 scalps, and stolen between 20 and
30 horses from the Pawnees.
In a report (April 23), Kansa agent, Marston G. Clark, gave a
broader picture of his wards' situation:
The Kanzas Indians are at this time as Retched as human beings can well
be the sevearity of the winter prevented them from hunting and distroyed
nearly all their Horses which rendered them incapable to resume their hunting
or packing provisions from the white settlements if they had any thing to pur-
chase with; but that is not the case. They ar[e] roving about on foot beging
and stealing both food and horses. . . . There natural disposition drivin
on allso by distress they have renued the war with the Pawoneys [and! has
lately taken scalps and horses. . . .
Ref: SIA, v. 6, p. 164 (for Dougherty's letter of April 7), and pp. 179, 180 (for
M. G. Clark's letter).
C Late in March some Wea Indians who had removed from Indiana
in the autumn of 1830 and spent the winter "in the Mississippi
[river] swamps" joined their relatives (see 1828 and July, 1830,
entries) on the Wea and Piankeshaw reserve in present Miami
county. About the same time 19 Kaskaskia Indians the entire
remnant (it was stated) of a once-populous nation reached the
village of their relatives, the Peorias, on the Marais des Cygnes in
what is now Franklin county. (The Peoria and Kaskaskia reserve
adjoined the Wea and Piankeshaw reserve on the west, and both
182 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
were immediately south of the Shawnee lands. see map facing
p. 177.)
Agent R. W. Cummins reported that the Wea newcomers were
in a starving condition and that he had furnished them with two
wagon loads of corn, and some pork. They were, he wrote, too
poor to purchase farming tools, but appeared very humble and
willing to work.
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 166-168 (for Cummins' letters of April 2 and 3, 1831); 23d Cong.,
1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 117; and ibid., v. 5 (Serial 248), pp. 4,
7, 502. In July, 1826, when the Kaskaskias had arrived at St. Louis (en route to a
Missouri "home," where they remained till 1831) it was reported that the "whole remnant
of that great Nation consists at this time of 31 Soles[I] 15 men mixed, 10 women, 6
children." see KHQ, v. 16, p. 14.
C Between the 1st and 22d of April, Missionaries Nathaniel B.
Dodge (of Boudinot), William F. Vaill (of Union), and Cephas
Washburn (of Dwight), made a tour, on horseback, of Western
Creek, and Osage settlements.
They went first to the Western Creek (or Muscogee) Indians departing
from Union Mission (in present Mayes co., Okla.) on April 1, and traveling
about 25 miles southward. (Some 2,500 to 3,000 Creeks had emigrated from
Georgia and Alabama between 1827 and 1831 and settled near the junction
of the Arkansas and Verdigris rivers.) The Protestant ministers spent two
days among them, and returned to Union on April 4.
On April 6 the three missionaries set out for Clermont's village of Osages
about 25 miles west and a little north of Union. (Young Clermont gave them
indifferent treatment. ) They returned to Union on April 8, but started next day
for New Hopefield (see Spring, 1830, entry) about 20(?) miles northward.
(There, they had a better reception. ) On April 11 they rode to "La Bett" creek
crossing (in present Labette county) 40 miles distant; and next day reached
Boudinot (see March, 1830, entry) 30 miles above "La Bett" and on the north
side of the Neosho (in present Neosho county).
At White Hair's town (two miles from Boudinot, and across the river) on
April 13, the missionaries preached before a good-sized audience assembled
at White Hair's house (the chief was absent, however). Two days later they
held services at Wasooche's town 16 miles upriver (where they met Agent
P. L. Chouteau), and visited other small towns of White Hair's people. On
April 16 they rode to the Little Osages' (or Walk-in-Rain's ) town the farthest
north Osage village (also in present Neosho county). It was, Vaill reported,
". . . probably larger than either of White Hair's, but not so large as
Clermont's."
The missionaries returned to Agent Chouteau's residence (15 miles south,
between the two White Hair villages) on April 18, where, after dinner, they
spoke before an assemblage of persons Americans, Frenchmen, Negroes, and
Osages to the number of 50 or 60. They proceeded to Boudinot; and from
there, on April 19, Vaill and Washbum set out for Union Mission, reaching it
on the 22d.
Ref: Missionary Herald, v. 27, pp. 286-289 (for Vaffl's journal); J. O. Choules and
T. Smith's The Origin <b- History of Missions, 4th ed. (Boston, 1837), v. 2, p. 385.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 183
C The American Fur Company's new and handsome Yellowstone
(the first steamboat to be employed in the mountain trade) left
St. Louis April 16 on her initial upper Missouri voyage. She ar-
rived at Cantonment Leavenworth on May 1. Aboard, as a passen-
ger, was Pierre Chouteau, Jr., the Company's Western Department
head, on whose orders the boat had been constructed during the
winter of 1830-1831. (See reproduction of a Charles Bodmer 1833
painting of this steamboat between pp. 176 and 177.)
By June 19 the Yellowstone had reached the company's post Fort
Tecumseh (in present South Dakota) the high point of her trip.
( No previous steamboat had gone beyond the Council Bluffs. ) On
July 15, with a cargo of furs, she was back at St. Louis, having in-
augurated a new era in steamboat travel on the Missouri. American
Fur Company boats thereafter made annual voyages to the river's
upper waters, carrying men, supplies, and a few passengers.
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, April 14, 1831; H. M. Chittenden's History of Early
Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River . . . (New York, 1903), v. 1, pp. 112,
134-137; KHC, v. 9, p. 280; John Dougherty's March, 1832, report (typed copy), p. 22,
in Dougherty Collection (KHi ms. division) for May 1 date.
C Other steamboats scheduling trips on the Missouri in April were
the Globe (to Cantonment Leavenworth), the Liberty (to Franklin,
Mo.), and the Missouri (to Liberty, Mo.). (Beginning in July,
the Chieftain also entered the Missouri river trade, advertising runs
to Liberty and intermediate ports. )
Ref: Missouri Republican, St. Louis, March 29, April 12, July 5, 26, and November 1,
1831 (as examples) as noted in Nebraska Historical Society Publications, Lincoln, v. 20,
p. 52.
C John Gantt and Jefferson Blackwell headed an overland trapping-
and-trading expedition of 70 mounted men which left St. Louis on
April 24 for the Rocky mountains. At Fort Osage ( Mo. ) they ob-
tained food supplies. At the mouth of the Kansas they spent two
or three days trading with Indians, then proceeded up that river,
along its north bank, as far as the Republican fork. These ad-
venturers then followed the Republican's course for many miles,
turning northward only when provisions ran low and little game
could be found. They reached the Platte several days' travel below
its forks. (The Gantt-Blackwell party subsequently wintered on
Laramie river, undergoing severe hardships. )
In 1839 a small volume entitled Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas
Leonard . . . was published at Clearfield, Pa. Author Leonard opened
the Narrative with an account of his journey west with the Gantt-Blackwell
expedition in 1831 (when he was 22), and described subsequent adventures
during five years of trapping and trading in the Rockies. Zenas Leonard,
184 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
retiring from mountain life at the age of 26, settled at Sibley, Mo. (adjoining
old Fort Osage), in 1836; died there in 1857 at the age of 48.
Ref: John C. Ewers, editor, Adventures of Zenas Leonard . . . (Norman, Okla.,
c!959), especially pp. xvii-xxiv, 3-7; 22d Cong., 1st Sess., House Doc. 121 (Serial 219)
for item on a three-year trading license issued to Gantt & Blackwell on April 5, 1831.
Jedediah Smith's party, in the winter of 1825-1826 (see 1825 annals entry), had pioneered
the route up the Republican. However, the Gantt-Blackwell expedition traveled farther
up that stream than did Smith and his men.
C From a camp 10 miles southwest of Independence, Mo., a good-
sized caravan set out on May 4 for New Mexico. This was the
initial venture in the Santa Fe trade of Jedediah Smith and his
former partners David Jackson and William Sublette. The outfit
totaled 74 men and 22 mule-drawn wagons (one carrying a six-
pounder). Smith owned 11 wagons; Jackson and Sublette had 10;
and the gun carrier was joint property. Among this company were
Peter and Austin Smith (Jedediah's brothers), Samuel Parkman,
Jonathan T. Warner; and mountain man Thomas Fitzpatrick joined
the party late. A few more men and two wagons (one belonging
to Samuel Flournoy of Independence, Mo.) had joined near the
frontier. There were, apparently, 85 persons in all, in the expedi-
tion.
On the "pawnee fork" on May 19 a young man named Minter
(clerk to Jackson and Sublette) was killed by Indians ("we su-
pose by the pawnees/' wrote Sublette), while some distance from
his comrades in pursuit of antelope. A few days later the caravan
forded the Arkansas and began the 60-mile journey across the
Cimarron desert (during a particularly dry season). On May 27
when lack of water had created a situation critical for the teams,
parties set out in search of the Cimarron. Jedediah Smith and
Fitzpatrick headed south. The two separated and Smith was never
seen again by his comrades. Later, some time after the expedition
(which did locate water) reached Santa Fe (on July 4), Smith's
fate was learned. Austin Smith purchased his brother's gun and
pistols from Mexicans who had obtained them, and an account of
Jedediah's death, while bartering with the Comanches who had
slain him. He wrote home to his father, in September:
Your Son Jedediah was killed on the Semerone the 27th of May on his way
to Santa F4 by the Curmanch Indians, his party was in distress for water, and
he had gone alone in search of the above river which he found, when he was
attacked by fifteen or twenty of them they succeeded in alarming his animal
not daring to fire on him so long as they kept face to face, so soon as his
horse turned they fired, and wounded him in the shoulder he then fired his
gun, and killed their head chief it is supposed they then rushed upon him,
and despatched him. . . .
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 185
It has been said that Jedediah Smith was killed at or near Wagon
Bed Spring in present Grant county. Ezra D. Smith (in a letter in
1915 ) stated that his great-uncle was killed
at a water hole known in my time as Fargo Spring, to the later Santa Fe traders
as Wagon Body Spring. Do not confuse this with Wagon Bed Spring just
above the confluence of the dry Cimarron with the Cimarron. This water hole
was ... on the north side of the Cimarron at the mouth of a canyon
which comes down from the north, and is near the west line of Seward county,
Kansas.
Whether in Grant, or, in Seward county, there seems little doubt
that Jedediah Smith met his death in present southwest Kansas.
Ref: Morgan, op. cit., pp. 325-330, 433-436; Austin Smith's letter of September 24,
1831, in KHi ms. division; an article on Jedediah Smith by Ezra D. Smith is in KHC,
v. 12, pp. 252-260, but his letter quoted above is printed in Morgan, op. cit., p. 436;
William L. Subletted letter of September 24, 1831, is quoted in ibid., pp. 435, 436.
C Repenting their past winter's depredations against the Western
Creeks (Muscogees), and the Cherokees of Arkansas river, Cler-
mont's band of Osages (residing on the Verdigris, near present
Claremore, Okla. ) asked Agent Paul Ligueste Chouteau to arrange
peace talks. At Cantonment Gibson [Okla.] on May 5 a delegation
representing all the Osage bands met with the Western Creeks and
a peace-and-friendship treaty was signed on May 10. A similar
treaty was made with the Western Cherokees on May 18. In both
instances the Osages agreed to return stock stolen, and to pay for
property destroyed. Most of the 1831 annuity funds of Clermont's
band were required to make restitution.
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 209-212, 215, 216; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2
(Serial 245), pp. 457-549, 497-506 (the treaties are on pp. 500-506), v. 3 (Serial 246),
pp. 238, 449.
C Daniel M. Boone, agriculturist for the Kansa Indians (with
headquarters at the Kansa Agency ) since early 1827, was dismissed
in May, but approved of the "alteration in the farming business"
which cost him his job. ( He asked, however, to be reimbursed for
hogs and cattle stolen by the Kansa; and to remain at the agency till
fall to harvest his crops. )
Agent Marston G. Clark was enthusiastic about the new plan of
maintaining farms at the Kansa towns. He wrote William Clark
on July 5:
. . . I have men fencing a 16 acre field, build [ing] a large cabbin at the
Upper Village [Hard Chief's, apparently], I can now do something for the
Kansas with the Money formerly thrown away on the Agriculturists.
By October an agriculturist was again on the Kansa Agency pay
186 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
roll ( see September, 1832, entry ) . In succeeding years a number of
other men served for brief periods as farmers for the Kansa.
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 187-189 (for Boone's letter), and pp. 225, 226 (for Clark's letter).
C On May 27 the annual spring caravan for Santa Fe, captained
by Elisha Stanley, left the rendezvous at Council Grove. There
were more than 200 persons (including a few Spanish women re-
turning home see autumn, 1829, east-bound trip), nearly 100
wagons ( about half were drawn by oxen, the rest pulled by mules ) .
12 dearborns, and other light vehicles, also two small cannon. ( For
first? use of oxen by Santa Fe traders see May, 1830, entry. ) The
merchandise carried was estimated at $200,000.
In this company, on his first journey to the southwest, was 24-
year-old Josiah Gregg, whose later-written Commerce of the
Prairies (published in 1844) was to become the classic account
of the first 20-odd years of the Santa Fe trade.
The caravan crossed the Arkansas on June 11; pitched camp that evening
"opposite the celebrated 'Caches' . . ."; proceeded on the 14th by way of
the desert route. In the Cimarron valley on the 19th, a horde of Indian war-
riors (Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, by Gregg's account) and their families
(perhaps 3,000 persons in all) descended to the same vicinity and camped.
Either in late July or early August the expedition reached Santa Fe. (By
October 11 some of these traders, traveling with the regular fall east-bound
company, were back in Missouri, their trip a successful one.)
Ref: Gregg, op. cit., v. 1, pp. 50-111, 305; Missouri Intelligencer, Columbia, October
15, 1831; 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90 (Serial 213), pp. 31, 76; also Josiah Gregg's
Commerce of the Prairies, ed. by Max L. Moorhead (Norman, Okla., c!954), pp. xviii,
xix, 26-77.
C DIED: Dunning D. McNair, recent appointee as Osage subagent
(at Neosho river agency), on June 2. McNair was killed by a bolt
of lightning while crossing a prairie. He was buried at Union
Mission (Okla.).
DIED: Nathaniel Pryor, subagent to the Osages of the Verdigris
(Clermont's band), on June 9. He had made his headquarters
at Cantonment Gibson (Okla.). (See 1807 annals for earliest ref-
erence to Pryor.)
Ref: SIA, v. 6, pp. 208, 209, 215; St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, July 21, 1831. For the
subagents who replaced McNair and Pryor, see September, 1832, annals entry.
C Baptist missionary and physician Johnston Lykins, his wife
Delilah (McCoy) Lykins, and family, arrived at the Shawnee
Agency on July 7 to found a mission for William Perry's and
Cornstalk's bands of Shawnee Indians. ( Isaac McCoy had obtained
the chiefs' permission for the mission in November, 1830. )
In the late summer (when the Baptist board failed to provide
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 187
building funds in 1831), Lykins bought "a small tract of U. S. land,
immediately on the line of the State of Missouri'* [just east of the
Shawnee reserve in Jackson county, Mo.] and built "at his own
cost" a home for his family. Little missionary work was accom-
plished in 1831 due largely to the smallpox outbreak among the
Indians.
In June, 1832, money was available for erection of the Shawnee Baptist
Mission buildings. The site chosen was something over two miles northwest
of the Shawnee Agency, and about three miles south (and a little east) of the
Shawnee Methodist Mission (as then situated see November, 1830, entry).
By present-day description, the Baptist mission was in the N. E. /4 of Sec. 5,
T. 12, R. 25 E., in Shawnee township, Johnson county. (See sketch between
pp. 176, 177.)
The Rev. Alexander Evans, who (with his wife and family) had arrived
before mid-June, was conducting a small school for Indian children at least as
early as September. After visiting Shawnee Baptist Mission on October 3,
Isaac McCoy wrote:
"Their houses are not completed, but are so that they can be occupied,
except the school house. . . . They will be substantial and comfortable
buildings and are pretty well situated. A few Indian children attend though not
regularly and study lessons in school. They [the Evans] have opened their
house for public religious worship few Indians as yet attend Bro. Evans
[is] a little discouraged/'
By November, 1832, another missionary, Daniel French, had come from
Ohio as assistant to Dr. Johnston Lykins.
Shawnee Baptist Mission continued in operation till the mid-1850's.
Ref: Johnston Lykins' "Journal," and Isaac McCoy's "Journal," in KHi ms. division;
Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions, pp. 347, 404, 422; Spooner & Rowland's
History of American Missions . . ., p. 540; KHQ, v. 5, pp. 343, 376, 377 (for McCoy's
activities, 1830).
C At Cantonment Leavenworth, on July 8, Alexander G. Morgan,
post sutler, was appointed postmaster an office he continued to
hold for more than six years. Alexander G. Morgan and his wife
America (Higgins) Morgan had been "Kansas" residents for at
least a year, and probably somewhat longer.
Ref: KHC, v. 1-2, p. 255, or v. 7, p. 441; Fayette county, Ky., Marriage Book 1,
p. 63, has record of marriage of Alexander G. Morgan to America Higgins on September
25, 1823 (this information courtesy Kentucky Historical Society). Lacking any information
to the contrary, this compiler has assumed it was America Morgan who came to live in
"Kansas."
C Surveyors Isaac McCoy, John Donelson, and Dr. Rice McCoy
(with some hired hands), left Union Mission (Okla.) July 9, on
horseback, to travel northeastwardly to the southwest corner of
Missouri. At that place, on July 18, their paths diverged, each to
undertake a separate project.
Donelson moved southward. He ran a traverse line to Fort Smith the
77-mile boundary between the Cherokee lands and the Territory of Arkansas.
188 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dr. Rice McCoy moved northward. After marking the line between the
Cherokees' reserve and the state of Missouri, he then determined where the
northeast corner of the Cherokees' lands should be. (Later, in mid- August,
Isaac McCoy and two Cherokee delegates visited that area for final agreement
on the northeast corner location. )
Isaac McCoy (with a servant, and an interpreter, Stephen Van Rensselaer
Osage half-breed), headed northwest towards the Osage Agency. He reached
Boudinot Mission July 23, and arrived on July 25 at the agency where a military
escort Capt. Edgar S. Hawkins, Asst. Surg. John W. Baylor, and 25 Seventh
U. S. infantrymen from Fort Gibson (Okla. ) awaited him. McCoy and party
set out July 28 on a tour of exploration ("to explore the Osage lands . . .
with a view of ascertaining whether the Chickasaws might not be located there,
and the Osages [moved northward] to be placed along side of the Kansas").
McCoy later reported: "We proceeded along the northern boundary of the
Osage lands west about 120 miles from the State of Missouri [into present
Butler county]; thence, south across the Osage reserve [through Butler and
Cowley counties], which brought us to the Arkansas river [probably a little
south of the Kansas-Oklahoma line of today]. We then turned east along the
southern boundary of the Osage lands." On August 6 the party turned south-
east; reached Clermont's town on August 12; and arrived at Union Mission
(McCoy's headquarters) late that night. The soldiers continued on to Fort
Gibson.
In his report (dated August 18) covering all these activities, Isaac McCoy
recommended that the Chickasaws be located "on the south bank of Canadian
and Arkansas river" if "an arrangement to that effect can be made with the
Choctaws"; and suggested "that the removal of the several bands of . . .
[non-reservation] Osages one ... in Arkansas Territory, one on the
Creek lands, and one on the lands of Cherokees to a tract adjoining their
kindred, the Kansas, is exceedingly desirable."
Ref: 23d Cong, 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), pp. 561-564 (for McCoy's
report); McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions, pp. 418-421.
BORN: at Shawnee Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte
county), on July 18, Alexander McAlister Johnson, first child of the
Rev. Thomas and Sarah T. (Davis) Johnson. (He died less than
a month later on August 15. )
Ref: KHC, v. 12, p. xii.
C Smallpox broke out among the Shawnees in mid-summer; and
about October 1 it spread to the Delawares (north of the Kansas
river).
When Dr. Johnston Lykins, in company with Subagent Campbell, visited
the Shawnee settlements on July 18 to vaccinate "a considerable number" of
persons, more than 20 Indians had been stricken, with one death reported.
(At Cantonment Leavenworth, during the summer, Dr. Thomas S. Bryant also
vaccinated some Indians.) When the disease struck the Delawares, Agent
R. W. Cummins advised them to scatter to avoid an epidemic. The Rev.
Thomas Johnson, returning to Shawnee Methodist Mission on October 21
(after a journey to Missouri) found everything "in a state of confusion; the
small pox was raging among different tribes, and the Indians flying in different
directions."
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 189
It was reported in November that about a dozen Shawnees had
died but that "among them the disease appears to be discontinued";
among the Delawares "it still exists . . . and many of them
have died/' By late December the outbreak had subsided and the
Indians were returning home. Isaac McCoy (in March, 1832)
stated that the toll was nine Shawnees and 15 Delawares. (See,
also, October entry. )
Ref: Johnston Lykins' "Journal," loc. cit.; Isaac McCoy's "Journal," loc. cit.; SIA,
v. 6, p. 375 (Cummins' November 9, 1831, letter); KHC, v. 16, pp. 236, 237 (Johnson's
December 29, 1831, letter); 22d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 137 (Serial 235), p. 3 (for
Cantonment Leavenworth item); 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3 (Serial 246),
p. 239.
C Bound for Taos, N. M., Charles Bent, with 30 to 40 mounted
men and 10 wagons drawn by oxen, left Independence, Mo., on
September 10. In this party was a young Easterner, Albert Pike
(afterwards prominent in Arkansas as journalist, lawyer, and Con-
federate officer), who had joined at St. Louis. According to his
later-written account, this small expedition reached Taos by No-
vember 10, after being delayed in the mountains for a week by a
blizzard.
The advantages of oxen were noted by Thomas Forsyth (writing from St.
Louis, to the secretary of war, October 24, 1831): ". . . if he [Charles
Bent] succeeds with his ox wagons, the oxen will answer the tripple purpose of,
1st, drawing the wagons; 2d, the Indians will not steal them as they would
horses and mules; 3d, in cases of necessity, part of the oxen will answer for
provisions." (Forsyth seemingly was unaware that traders of the Santa Fe-
bound spring caravan of 1831, and probably of the 1830 expedition, too, had
made use of ox teams. )
Ref: 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 90 (Serial 213), pp. 31, 77 (for Forsyth letter);
Maurice Fulton and Paul Horgan, editors, New Mexico's Own Chronicle . . . (Dallas,
c!937), pp. 103, 104; William Waldo's "Recollections ..." in Glimpses of the Past,
St. Louis, v. 5, p. 91; Lavender, op. cit., pp. 128, 129, 385.
C DIED: William Anderson, aged head chief of the Delaware na-
tion, in the latter part of September, at his home on the Delaware
reserve, present Wyandotte county. He had been a "Kansas" resi-
dent less than one year. Though Anderson had some white blood,
according to Missionary Johnston Lykins, he had "shewed but little
disposition to embrace . . . [white man's] manners and cus-
toms. . . ."
The chief's death (possibly from the then-prevalent smallpox) occurred
after September 22, on which date Anderson wrote a letter in which he made
mention of his four sons: Captains Shounack (Shawanock), Pushkies, Second-
yan (Secondine), and Sacacoxy (Sarcoxie).
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), pp. 599, 718; Johnston
Lykins' "Journal," loc. cit., in an 1831 entry (for item on Anderson's death). At a later
time "Secondine" was the name of a Wyandotte county post office (from 1856-1859),
and "Sarcoxie" was the name of a Jefferson county post office (from 1889-1901).
190 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C Smallpox was epidemic among the Pawnee Indians in October.
Agent John Dougherty reported (from Cantonment Leaven worth )
on October 29:
"I have returned from a visit to the four Pawnee villages, all of whom I
found in a most deplorable condition. Indeed their misery defies all descrip-
tion. Judging from what I saw during the four days I spent with them, and
the information I received from the chiefs and two Frenchmen who reside
with them ... I am fully persuaded that one half the whole number of
souls of each village have and will be carried off by this cruel and frightful
distemper. They told me that not one under 33 years of age escaped the
monstrous disease, it having been that length of time [i. e., 1798?] since it
visited them before.
"They were dying so fast, and taken down at once in such large numbers,
that they had ceased to bury their dead. . . . Their misery was so great
and so general, that they seemed to be unconscious of it, and to look upon
the dead and dying as they would on so many dead horses. . . ."
Dr. Johnston Lykins reported (in February, 1832) that John
Dougherty believed that more than 4,000(?) Pawnees, Otoes, Oma-
has, and Poncas had died of the smallpox. About 160(?) Indians
of the three latter tribes had succumbed before vaccination checked
the disease among them.
Ref: 22d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 190 (Serial 220), pp. 1-3; 23d Cong., 1st
Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), p. 718, v. 3 (Serial 246), p. 239; Isaac McCoy's
History of Baptist Indian Missions, pp. 442, 443.
C MARRIED: Capt. William N. Wickliffe, of the Sixth U. S. infantry,
and Ann Hertzog, on November 14, at the Cantonment Leaven-
worth residence of Agent John Dougherty and Mary (Hertzog)
Dougherty. (The bride was a sister of the agent's wife.)
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, December 15, 1831.
C In late November, five men of a Wyandot exploring delegation
from Ohio a delegation headed by William Walker ( a white man
married to a Wyandot) spent six days in the lower Little Platte
country (across the Missouri from present Leavenworth county);
and then returned home after making an adverse report on the lands
they had "examined." James B. Gardiner (agent), who had ar-
ranged the $1,000 trip, subsequently wrote the secretary of war
about the Wyandots' junket:
". . . The delegation never saw the country which I had proffered to
them in behalf of the Government. They spent but one night in the woods.
They were but six days in all on the western line of the State of Missouri, and
. . . they occupied most of that time in the sports of bear-hunting on
horseback, and with dogs. [The Wyandots were supposed to cross west of
the Missouri on their tour if they were displeased with the Little Platte
country.] Their 'report,' . . . is, I am thoroughly convinced, an in-
genious tissue of preconcerted misrepresentation. . . ."
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 191
(The Wyandots the last Indians to leave Ohio retained their homes in
that state for 12 more years moving in 1843 to present Wyandotte county
on lands purchased from the Delawares. )
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512 (Serial 246), pp. 7, 8, 10, 11, 153-168; KHQ,
v. 15, pp. 248-262.
C On December 19 a party of 17 left Union Mission (Okla.) to
travel northward. Isaac McCoy, his wife, son John C., and younger
McCoys totaled seven persons. The others were McCoy's assistant
surveyors (one of them John Donelson, of Tennessee), and hired
hands, returning to homes in Missouri. ( Winter weather had forced
the discontinuance of surveying. )
They made camp on "La Bete" creek (in present Labette county) on
December 21st; passed White Hair's Osage towns (in present Neosho county)
next day; reached Harmony Mission (Mo.) on Christmas Day and remained
over night; arrived at Independence, Mo., on December 28. From that place
the McCoys proceeded (the same day) to Dr. Johnston Lykins' residence.
Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," loc. cit.
1832
C MARRIED: Lindsay Boone, and Sarah Groom (or Grooms?), on
January 14, by the Rev. Thomas Johnson.
MARRIED: Daniel Boone, and Mary [Constantine?] Philibert, on
January 19, by the Rev. Thomas Johnson.
Lindsay and Daniel were sons of Daniel Morgan Boone (agriculturist to
the Kansa, 1827-1831), and grandsons of the famous Daniel Boone. Sarah
Groom(s) was, perhaps, the daughter of Joseph Groom(s) "striker" to the
Kansa blacksmith in 1831 and later. Mary Philibert was probably a sister of
Gabriel Philibert Kansa blacksmith, 1827-1831. These marriages, subse-
quently recorded in Jackson county, Mo., may have taken place at the Shawnee
Methodist Mission ( present Wyandotte county).
Ref: Jackson county, Mo., marriage records, Independence, Mo.; Garraghan's Catholic
Beginnings . . ., p. 121 (though Garraghan confused the Boone family generations,
and erred in suggesting that Gabriel Philibert born about 1805 was Mary's father);
Hazel A. Spraker in her The Boone Family (Rutland, Vt., 1922), p. 124, noted the
"Lindsey" Boone marriage.
C By a War Department order of February 8, all cantonments were
directed to be called forts. The redesignated Western frontier posts
were Fort Leavenworth (founded 1827); and Forts Gibson and
Towson (founded 1824) in present Oklahoma.
C Early in the year, apparently, a Delaware Methodist Mission was
established. On February 19, Johnston Lykins (Baptist missionary)
wrote that "Mr Wm. Johnson (Meth Misry) has located a school
near Andersons town on Kanzas River for the Del [aware] s which
they expect to put into operation, soon. . . ." In September, at
the Missouri conference, Missionaries William Johnson and Thomas
B. Markham were assigned to the Delaware mission and school.
192 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In 1833 the church membership was given as five whites and 27 Indians.
That fall the Rev. Edward T. Peery was assigned to the mission, but may not
have arrived till late in the year. (An October 27 visitor Mrs. Moses Merrill
wrote of the Merrills' party spending the day "at the Methodist Episcopal mis-
sion of the Delaware's, with Rev. Mr. Dunlap." And a July, 1834, visitor
John Dunbar wrote that "the Methodist missionary [Peery] at this station
. . . commenced his labors with the Delawares five or six months previous
to our visit.") In 1834 it was reported the mission had 40 church members,
the school 24 Indian children, and the Sabbath school 14 male and 10 female
scholars, conducted by three teachers and a superintendent. In 1835 Thomas
Johnson wrote: "The Delaware mission is still gaining ground, and the mem-
bers of the society appear to enjoy much of the influence of religion, though
they are greatly persecuted by the pagan part of the nation." In the fall of
1837 the Rev. L. B. Stateler was assigned to the mission, and he relocated it.
(See autumn, 1837, annals.)
The "Rev. Mr. Dunlap" (above) was, in fact, Robert Dunlap, government
blacksmith for the Delawares, who may have been care-taking the mission for
a time in 1833. The site of the 1832-1837 mission is not known, but indi-
cations are it was not far from Grinter's (the Delaware) crossing of Kansas
river. John Dunbar (in 1834) described the mission as "23 miles below
[Fort Leavenworth] on the Konzas," and stated that the Shawnee Methodist
Mission (the 1830-1839 "Turner" site) was across the river and five miles
distant. Isaac McCoy (in May, 1837) wrote that the Delaware Methodist
school was "near Cap [tain] Ketchum's." L. B. Stateler stated that it was
"at a place where there was a fountain of water and the soil was good.
. . . But it was not central[ly located among the Delawares]" which was
his reason for relocating it.
Missionaries Edward T. and Mary S. (Peery) Peery they were cousins
had two children born at the above mission site: Martha Jane (b. March 15,
1834; d. March 17, 1835), and Mary [Margaret?] Jane (b. February 25, 1836).
Ref: Isaac McCoy Collection, loc. cit. (for Lykins); D. R. McAnally's History of
Methodism in Missouri . . . (St. Louis, 1881), pp. 630-635; KHC, v. 9, pp. 203-
207, v. 14, pp. 576, 587 (for Dunbar), v. 16, p. 238 (for 1835 Johnson statement);
Nebraska State Historical Society Transactions . . ., Lincoln, v. 5 (1893), p. 222
(for Mrs. Merrill's statement); E. J. Stanley's Life of Rev. L. B. Stateler . . . (Nash-
ville, 1907), pp. 80, 86; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. 474 (Serial 263), p. 70 (for an 1834
statement not quoted above); Isaac McCoy's "Journal," May 20, 1837, entry; Si and
Shirley Corn's Our Family Tree (1959), Section 4 (for Peery family data). The state-
ment in KHC, v. 9, p. 574, that mission buildings are shown on Sec. 3, T. 11, R. 23 E.,
of the original land survey plats (in the state auditor's office) and that they "are supposed
to have been" those of the Delaware Methodist Mission established in 1832, is an error
which has been perpetuated in other publications. The plat in question does not show any
buildings on Section 3; and the mission buildings shown on Section 10 (immediately south
of Section 3) represent those of the second Delaware Baptist (or "Pratt") Mission.
C In March(?) a party of Delawares (and some Shawnees) which
included the young chiefs ( and brothers ) Shawanock and Pushkies
was attacked by Pawnee Indians while hunting on lands claimed
by the Pawnees. Pushkies and two other Delawares ( one a woman )
were killed; another was wounded. (See July, 1833, entry for the
Delawares' retaliatory action.)
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 193
(It appears the Delawares had left their reserve in October, 1831, on an
extended hunt; and that they did not return till late March or early April, 1832.
Writing about the incident on April 24, 1832, William Clark stated that Agent
R. W. Cummins had warned the Delawares "against hunting in the Panis coun-
try, notwithstanding which, they went in October last.")
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 1 (Serial 244), p. 523 (in which William
Gordon, in a report dated August 12, 1833, refers to the attack as occurring "some 15 or
18 months ago"); ibid., v. 3 (Serial 246), pp. 238, 306; SIA, v. 4, pp. 358, 359.
C The American Fur Company's S. Yellowstone (Andrew S. Ben-
nett, master) left St. Louis March 26 on her second upper Missouri
journey. (See April, 1831, annals entry.) Among her passengers
were Pierre Chouteau, Jr., the artist George Catlin (who, before the
boat's departure, painted the "Steamboat Tellow Stone* Leaving
St. Louis"), John F. A. Sanford (Mandan agent), and some Indians
returning from a trip East. After a successful 2,000-mile voyage,
the Yellowstone reached the company's post Fort Union, at the
mouth of the Yellowstone river, in mid- June. (She was back at
St. Louis in the fore part of July.)
Ref: Chittenden, op. cit., v. 1, p. 137; Harold McCracken's George Catlin and the Old
Frontier (New York, 1959), pp. 39, 40, has a reproduction of Catlin's 1832 "Yellow
Stone" painting; Missouri Historical Review, Columbia, v. 29, p. 338.
C Steamboats (other than the Yellowstone) scheduled to depart
from St. Louis in March and April for Missouri river ports included:
the Globe (John Clark, master), for Fort Leavenworth, on March
11; the new Otto (James B. Hill, master), for "mouth of Kanzas
river" on April 19; and the Freedom (A. Harkins, master), for Fort
Leavenworth, on April 26.
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, March 8, April 19, 26, 1832.
C Within this year, probably in the early spring, Frederick Chou-
teau moved his trading post from Horseshoe Lake (see autumn,
1829, annals entry) to a location near the mouth of American Chief
(now Mission) creek. The site was not far from Valencia of today,
in Sec. 27, T. 11, R. 14 E., Dover township, Shawnee county. An
Indian trading license issued on October 18 described the site as
"On the Kanzas river, between the two present [upper] villages
of the Kanzas [i. e., Hard Chiefs and American Chief's towns], on
their lands. . . ."
Ref: SIA, v. 6, p. 303; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. No. 45 (Serial 254); Frederick
Chouteau's letters of May 6 and 10, 1880 (in KHi ms. division). The May 6 letter con-
tains the phrase: "When I built my trading post above Topeka in 1832 . . ."; and
the May 10 letter refers to "when I went and built near the American chief creek in 32.
." These items (supplementary to other facts noted in the autumn, 1829, annals
entry) make it clear that Chouteau's statement "In 1830 I made my house on the American
Chief creek . . ."in KHC, v. 8, p. 425, was a misquote, or a misprint.
132840
194 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville's well-equipped expedition
(110 men, 20 wagons, horses, mules, oxen, a cow, and a calf), head-
ing for the Rocky mountains and Far West, left Fort Osage, Mo.,
on May 1. Joseph R. Walker and Michel S. Cerre were the "lieu-
tenants" of this company which included experienced trappers, ad-
venturers, and a few Delaware Indians hired as hunters.
(Captain Bonneville, having been granted a two-year furlough from the
U. S. army, had outfitted his combined exploration-fur trade venture with the
financial backing of New York capitalists. )
His party followed out the Santa Fe trail for some distance
(across Johnson and Douglas counties of today) then turned to the
northwest, camping on the bank of the Kansas on May 12. Next
day the river was forded ( after a raft had been constructed to ferry
the wagons). The crossing was near the Kansa Agency (or, seven
miles above present Lawrence). By evening the entire party had
reached the agency. Bonneville visited White Plume at his stone
house (some two miles northwest) and made a friend of the chief
( who traveled for a day with him ) .
The expedition moved up the left bank of the Kansas, then turned
northward, following, in general, the pathway of "Subletted Trace,"
and the future Oregon trail ( across present Pottawatomie and Mar-
shall counties). On May 21 (see next entry) the Sublette-Wyeth
pack train overtook, and passed this wagon caravan. Bonneville
reached the Platte on June 2, near Grand Island apparently.
On July 24, at South Pass, this company crossed the Continental divide,
and headed for Green river. Bonneville's wagons were the first to make that
crossing. ( See April and August, 1830, entries for the first wagons to go as far
as South Pass.) It appears, too, that some of Bonneville's wagons were pulled
by oxen, ,and if so he was the first to use ox teams on this mountain route and
across the divide. Washington Irving (see below) described Bonneville's
". . . train of twenty wagons, drawn by oxen, or by four mules or horses
each . . .," and the Crow Indians' astonishment "at the long train of
wagons and oxen. . . ."
Captain Bonneville returned to Missouri in the summer of 1835, after three
years in the mountains and Far West. Subsequently, in the East, he met
Washington Irving who (after purchasing and rewriting Bonneville's manu-
script account of his experiences an account based on a now-lost journal),
published, in 1837, a two-volume work entitled The Rocky Mountains. . . .
This book, renamed The Adventures of Captain Bonneville . . ., in later
editions, has been appraised by historian H. M. Chittenden as "a true and
living picture of those early [fur trade] scenes. . . ."
Ref: Washington Irving's The Adventures of Captain Bonneville . . ., edited by
E. W. Todd (Norman, Okla., c!961), especially pp. xvii-liv, and 13-32, 379-400; Bernard
De Vote's Across the Wide Missouri (Boston, 1947), pp. 50-59.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 195
C William Sublette headed a pack train (transporting supplies to
the Rock Mountain Fur Company) which left Independence, Mo.,
on May 13(?). His party of about 60 included Andrew Sublette,
Robert Campbell, and Thomas Fitzpatrick. Their destination was
the trappers' summer rendezvous at Pierre's Hole ( Idaho ) . Travel-
ing in company was Nathaniel B. Wyeth's party of about 25 men
mostly New Englanders bound for the Oregon country. Wyeth's
group included his brother Dr. Jacob Wyeth (who turned back at
the Platte), an 18-year-old cousin John B. Wyeth, and John Ball, of
Baltimore, Md.
The combined force of 80 to 85 men (with some 300 horses and
mules, 15 sheep and two yoke of oxen) headed out the Santa Fe
trail for three days' travel, but turned northwest on May 15 towards
the Kansas river crossing it above present Lawrence, near the
Kansa Agency (about May 16?). The Sublette-Wyeth companies
proceeded up the left bank of the Kansas, passing Fool Chief's
village (west of present Topeka) perhaps about May 18. By May
21 they had left the Kansas valley and were well to the northward
on "Subletted Trace" camping that night on the Big Blue. They
crossed it next day and soon overtook Captain Bonneville's slower-
moving wagon caravan (see preceding entry). John Ball, in his
journal, noted: "We stopped a few moments to salute and passed
on." Continuing up the waters of the Little Blue to its source,
they crossed, on May 28, in a day's march of 25 miles, to the Platte
apparently reaching it at Grand Island. (The Sublette-Wyeth
expedition subsequently reached Pierre's Hole about July 6.)
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, October 11, 1832 (for William Subletted letter of Sep-
tember 21, 1832); N. J. Wyeth's journals (the "Kansas" section for the 1832 trip is
lacking having been torn out), and related correspondence (1831-1836), in Sources of
the History of Oregon, Eugene, v. 1 (1899), parts 3-6; John B. Wyeth's Oregon . . .
(Cambridge, Mass., 1833), as reprinted in R. G. Thwaites' Early Western Travels (Cleve-
land, 1904-1906), v. 21 (young Wyeth's comments on the Kansa Indians are of some
interest, though unscientific); John Ball's journal, in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly,
Salem, v. 3 (1902), pp. 82-106 (offers the best information on the "Kansas" section of the
trip see pp. 84-88); Sunder, op. cit., pp. 101-108; De Voto, op. cit., p. 65 (for comment
on John B. Wyeth and his book Oregon); The Rocky Mountain Letters of Robert Campbell
(printed for F. W. Beinecke, 1955), p. 8.
C An act of congress, signed May 5, provided "the means of ex-
tending the benefits of vaccination, as a preventive of the small-pox,
to the Indian tribes. . . ." (See Summer, and October, 1831,
entries for smallpox among the Indians.) Before the end of May,
doctors had been appointed for this emergency service at the Upper
Missouri Agency of John Dougherty ( Dr. Davis ) ; the Osage
Agency of P. L. Chouteau (Dr. J. R. Conway); and the Shawnee-
196 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Delaware (etc.) Agency of R. W. Cummins (Drs. Crow,
Ware S. May, and Benjamin S. Long).
It was reported on February 1, 1833, by the commissioner of Indian affairs,
that 3,000 Sioux and other Indians (in Dougherty's agency), 2,177 Osages
(in P. L. Chouteau's agency), and 1,695 Shawnees, Kickapoos, and others (in
Cummins' agency) had been vaccinated. Among the Kansa there had been
some opposition (said to have been caused by a trader). Whether the Kansa
were vaccinated is not made clear in the report. There had been no trouble
with any other Indians, but some tribes and some individuals remained un-
treated.
Ref: SIA, v. 4, p. 329; 22d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 82 (Serial 234); 23d Cong.,
1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 490 (Serial 259), pp. 3, 136; F. S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal
Indian Law . . . (Washington, 1942), pp. 491, 492.
C In May, or early June, apparently, Chief White Hair died. Mis-
sionary W. B. Montgomery reported, on June 16, from Clermont's
town ( on the Verdigris ) where he was visiting:
"An invitation has just come from Whitehair's for a united expedition against
the Pawnees, in honor of their chief, who has deceased since our [missionary]
tour in April."
When Washington Irving passed through White Hair's town (in Neosho
county), early in October, he noted the "monument of chief who died lately
mound on a hill surrounded by railing three poles with flags trophies a
scalp, scalping knife &c. He had killed 4 Pawnees."
It appears the deceased chief had no children and that the White Hair
who succeeded him was a sister's son.
Ref: Missionary Herald, v. 29, p. 134 (for Montgomery); J. F. McDermott, ed., The
Western Journals of Washington Irving .... p. 100; J. F. McDermott, ed., Tixier's
Travels on the Osage Prairies (Norman, 1940), pp. 127, 128, 143, 144 (for discussion of
the various chiefs named White Hair, and their relationship to each other).
C In May(?) the annual trading expedition departed for New
Mexico. By Josiah Gregg's tabulation, the year's traffic from Mis-
souri to the southwest totaled 150 men (40 of them proprietors),
70 wagons, and goods estimated at $140,000. But the size of the
spring caravan is not known, and the figures above may have repre-
sented more than one Santa Fe-bound party.
Ref: Gregg, op. cit., v. 2, p. 160; Lavender, op. cit. f p. 131, asserts Charles Bent
headed the spring caravan; but L. R. Hafen (in The Colorado Magazine, v. 31, pp. 112,
113) presents a different view.
C An act of June 15 authorized the President to raise a battalion
of Mounted Rangers for one year's service.
Maj. Henry Dodge headed the Mounted Rangers a force of 660 (plus
officers) six companies of 110 men each. Four of the companies served
(for varying lengths of time) on the Western frontier. Those headed by Capts.
Jesse Bean, Nathan Boone, and Lemuel Ford were assigned to the Fort Gibson
(Okla.) area. The last company formed that of Capt. Matthew Duncan
was ordered to Fort Leavenworth in 1833 see February, 1833, entry.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 197
This battalion of mounted troops was the predecessor of the
First U. S. cavalry see March 2, 1833, entry.
Ref: 22d Cong., 2d Sess., H. R. No. 17 (Serial 236); O. E. Young's article on the
Mounted Rangers in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, v. 41,
pp. 453-470; Louis Pelzer's Henry Dodge (Iowa City, 1911), pp. 67-69; Foreman's Ad-
vancing the Frontier, p. 40.
C In the early summer, Baptist missionary (and surveyor) Isaac
McCoy bought a tract of land just east of the "Kansas"-Missouri
line (in present Kansas City, Mo.). During June and July he had
six or eight workmen building log dwellings there "in the woods"
for his family. By the end of July one "hewed log" cabin was
finished, and the main house (35 x 22 feet) was covered in, doors
cut out, etc., but lacked chimneys and "shutters to doors and win-
dows."
Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," op. cit. J. F. McDermott, in his The Western Journals
of Washington Irving, p. 9 In, locates McCoy's land as "55th Street to 64th Street, Belle-
view Avenue to the State line," in Kansas City, Mo., of today.
C On July 4 a party of Seneca Indians from Sandusky river, Ohio,
reached their new reserve (of about 67,000 acres) west of the
southwestern corner of Missouri adjoining the Cherokees* lands.
Conducted by Henry C. Brish, these Indians had left their Ohio homes the
previous autumn, after ceding their Eastern lands in a treaty made February
28, 1831. Their six months on the road had been a chaotic journey of hardship
and suffering. By one report they totaled 352 persons on arrival. In Decem-
ber, by official count, they numbered 275 souls.
Ref: Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians, pp. 66-71, 83; Kappler, op. cit., v. 2,
pp. 325-327; SIA, v. 27, pp. 1-24.
C An act of July 9 authorized the President to appoint a commis-
sioner of Indian affairs, who was to serve under the secretary of
war's direction. The first commissioner (1832-1836) was Elbert
Herring.
Another provision of the act was a general prohibition against
taking liquor into the Indian country.
Since the beginning of United States government it had been illegal to give,
sell, or trade liquor to the Indians, but the traffic in "ardent spirits" had become
such a scandal that as one writer has put it "in 1832 the government forbade
the importation into the Indian Country of the liquor whose use there was
already forbidden." )
Ref: Cohen, op. cit., pp. 10, 11, 73; DeVoto, op. cit., pp. 120, 121 (for quote).
C BORN: at the Shawnee Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte
county), on July 11, Alexander Soule Johnson, son of the Rev.
Thomas and Sarah T. ( Davis ) Johnson.
(Twenty-three years later, in the first Kansas territorial legislature, Thomas
198 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Johnson was council president and Alexander Soule Johnson was the youngest
member of the house.)
Ref: KHC, v. 8, p. 260n, v. 9, pp. 162n, 168, 190n, v. 12, p. xii; KHi's Fifteenth
Biennial Report, p. 35.
C An act of July 14 provided for the appointment (by the Presi-
dent) of three commissioners to treat with the Indians in the Western
country and handle various matters relating to the immigrant and
native tribes there. The final appointees were Montfort Stokes, of
North Carolina, Henry L. Ellsworth, of Hartford, Conn., and the
Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, of Utica, N. Y.
Ref: Cohen, op. cit., p. 492; Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians, p. 60.
C On July 26 John Calvin McCoy and two assistants set out ( from
present Kansas City, Mo. ) to survey a 34,000-acre reserve, in what
is now Franklin county, for the Ottawa Indians ( then living east of
the Mississippi, some of them in Ohio). Surveyor Isaac McCoy
joined his son at the end of July. By August 6 the task was com-
pleted, and the party had reached home again.
(The site for the reserve south of the Shawnees, and west of the Peorias
and Kaskasias had been chosen earlier by Isaac McCoy. See map, facing, p.
177, for location; and see November 30 entry for arrival of the first of the
Ottawas in "Kansas.")
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3 (Serial 246), p. 420; Isaac McCoy's
"Journal," loc. cit.
C In the fore part of September, William Sublette, Robert Camp-
bell, 60 (or more) mounted trappers, and a mule train carrying
169 beaver packs, came down from the Platte to the Kansas river
valley over "Subletted Trace." They reached Independence, Mo.,
about September 18.
(A few days later, east of Lexington, traveler Charles J. Latrobe met "the
long train of Trappers . . . their mules laden with . . . skins. . . .
They were about seventy in number . . .; men worn with toil and travel.
. . .")
Ref: St. Louis (Mo.) Beacon, October 11, 1832 (for Subletted letter of September 21,
1832); C. J. Latrobe's The Rambler in North America . . . (London, 1835), v. 1,
p. 126; Sunder, op. cit., pp. 112, 113.
C A Baptist missionary the Rev. Charles E. Wilson who had
arrived at "Shawanoe" mission on August 10, located among the
Delawares in September(P). But after spending a few weeks at
their settlements he left (in mid-December) to go to the Choctaws.
Ref: Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions, pp. 450, 451, 453, 455.
C It was probably in September that Artist George Catlin, and his
two traveling companions "Ba'tiste [and] Bogard," beached their
canoe at Fort Leavenworth's landing.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 199
"My voyage from the mouth of the Teton River to this place has been the
most rugged, yet the most delightful, of my whole Tour," wrote Catlin. (He
had gone up the Missouri abroad the S. Yellowstone in the early spring. ) "I
descended ... in my little canoe, with my two men at the oars,
and myself at the helm. ... In addition to the opportunity which this
descending Tour has afforded me, of visiting all the tribes of Indians on the
river, and leisurely filling my portfolio with the beautiful scenery which its
shores present the sportsman's fever was roused and satisfied; the swan, ducks,
geese, and pelicans the deer, antelope, elk, and buffaloes, were 'stretched' by
our rifles.
At Bellevue, "about nine miles" above the Platte's mouth, they
had been guests of Upper Missouri agent John Dougherty. On their
arrival at Fort Leavenworth, Lt. Col. William Davenport gave
them comfortable quarters in the barracks, and Catlin entered into
the post's social activities.
"I have joined several times in the deer-hunts, and more frequently in grouse
[prairie chicken] shooting," he wrote. "They [the grouse] make their appear-
ance in these parts in the months of August and September . . . and the
whole garrison, in fact, are almost subsisted on them at this time. . . ."
Catlin witnessed, wrote about, and may have painted a prairie
fire, while at the military post. (See cover of this Quarterly for a
reproduction of one of his prairie fire paintings. ) He also proceeded
to paint Indians, and make notes about the tribes he met. In his
next letter from Fort Leavenworth he indicated "some considerable
time" had elapsed. "I have been moving about and using my
brush amongst different tribes in this vicinity/' he wrote.
It was in this letter that he described the young Iowa chief White Cloud
(son of a recently-deceased White Cloud), and two other lowas he had
painted; wrote of the "Konzas" Indians, and Chief White Plume whom he did
not paint; noted four "Konzas" Indians he had portrayed; dwelt at some length
on the custom of "shaving the head, and ornamenting it with the crest of deer's
hair" which was common to the Kansa, Osages, Pawnees, Sacs, Foxes, and
lowas, and to no other tribe that he knew of; discussed the Pawnees, Omahas,
Otoes, and Missouris; and described the men of these nations whom he had
painted.
Some time in October, Catlin, with his hired hands Baptiste
and Bogard, left Fort Leavenworth, and paddled on downriver
in their canoe to St. Louis. On October 26, at Castor Hill, outside
St. Louis, he was a witness to a treaty William Clark negotiated
with certain Shawnees, and Delawares.
Bernard De Voto (in his Across the Wide Missouri, c!947) discussed artist
George Catlin at some length, describing him as the "first painter of the West
who had any effect," and as "an extraordinary man, a man with a certain
greatness in him. . . ." Repeatedly he stated that Catlin's first trip to the
200 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
West was in 1832. So far as this writer knows, no evidence has come to light
which refutes that statement.
However, Loyd Haberly, in his highly romantic and completely undocu-
mented biography of Catlin (Pursuit of the Horizon, 1948), has described a
trip the artist made in 1830! to Cantonment Leavenworth, and from there, in
William Clark's company, to the Kansa towns; also, another journey, in 1831!,
in company with Agent John Dougherty, to the Platte river and the tribes re-
siding there. These statements have been echoed by John C. Ewers ( "George
Catlin, Painter of Indians and the West," in the Smithsonian Report for 1955,
pp. 483-528), and by Harold McCracken (George Catlin and the Old Frontier,
1959).
As for the alleged journey by Catlin and William Clark to the Kansa towns
in 1830, it needs to be pointed out that Haberly's description of "General
Clark" ( "the gaunt, erect old General in his stained buckskins and mangy coon-
skin cap" p. 43) seems to have been borrowed from John T. Irving, Jr/s
Indian Sketches, wherein Irving described Marston G. Clark, the Kansa agent
("met the Kanza agent, General Clark, a tall, thin, soldier-like man, arrayed
in an Indian hunting-shirt and an old fox-skin cap"). Had General William
Clark gone up the Missouri that fall his departure, or return, or both, would
almost certainly have been recorded in the Clark "diary" (see KHQ, v. 16, pp.
396-405, for latter part of 1830).
As for the alleged 1831 spring journey up the Missouri in Dougherty's com-
pany, a Dougherty report (of March, 1832 typed copy in KHi ms. division)
outlines that agent's movements in 1831, and indicates his only trip to the
Platte river Indians that year was in September.
For a Catlin sketch of some Kansa Indians see KHQ, v. 27, facing p. 208.
(There is an error in the caption to that sketch Sho-me-kos-see was a chief,
but by no means "head chief." Whether these Kansa were sketched as early
as 1831 is debatable.) This same group of Kansa, in a Catlin painting, has
been reproduced in color in Harold McCracken's George Catlin and the Old
Frontier.
Ref: George Catlin's North American Indians (Philadelphia, 1913), v. 2, pp. 1-33.
C U. S. Commr Henry L. Ellsworth and the English traveler
Charles Joseph Latrobe left Independence, Mo., on September 27,
in company with Kansa agent Marston G. Clark, to visit Isaac Mc-
Coy "at his house" (a mile east of the Missouri line). They also
crossed into "Kansas" where they remained overnight with Agent
R. W. Cummins at the Shawnee Agency (present Johnson county).
On September 28 Ellsworth and Latrobe "struck across wide prairies" in a
southeasterly direction to overtake a small party (including Auguste P. Chou-
teau, Washington Irving, and a young Swiss count) which had left Independ-
ence on the 27th bound for Fort Gibson (Okla.). Before nightfall they found
Chouteau's camp somewhere east of the Missouri line. (See, also, next entry.)
Ref: Latrobe, op. cit., v. 1, pp. 126-143; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3
(Serial 246), p. 481 (Ellsworth's October 9, 1832, letter); J. F. McDermott, ed., The
Western Journals of Washington Irving, pp. 4-21, 90-92; Isaac McCoy's "Journal," loc. cit.
C Led by Auguste P. Chouteau, Comm'r Henry Ellsworth and party
(en route to Fort Gibson see, also, preceding entry) arrived at
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 201
Harmony Mission (Mo.) on September 30, after a journey south-
ward from Independence begun on September 27.
In this little cavalcade were Chouteau (and his two servants), Ellsworth,
Charles Joseph Latrobe, Washington Irving, a 19-year-old Swiss count Albert-
Alexandre de Pourtales, Dr. Thomas O'Dwyer, and two half-breed factotums.
The outfit included wagons (dearborns) and some riding horses. And there
were eight dogs belonging to Chouteau.
These travelers left Harmony on October 1; journeyed southwest;
and entered present Bourbon county some time the following day.
On the 3d (in present Neosho county) they reached "Rev. N.
Dodge's house near Osage Village" (Boudinot Mission see
March, 1830, entry), and remained overnight. On October 4 they
left Boudinot early and crossed the Neosho. Wrote Washington
Irving in his journal:
We have a journey of 30 miles to make over open Prarie before we can
find a camping place, there being water in the interim but no wood pass
thro the village of the White Hair (Osages). . . . Passed over vast prarie
here not a tree or shrub was to be seen a view like that of the ocean.
. . . About 3 oclock arrived at a grove on the banks of stream & encamp
place called La Bete wood entangled with rich underwood grape vines
pea vines, &c. Fine trees flights of Perroquets called la Bete, or the Beast,
because the Indians saw a great & terrible animal there, the like of which they
never saw before or since. [The camp was, apparently, in southeastern Labette
county of today.]
The journey to Fort Gibson ( which most of the party reached on
October 9) was made by way of New Hopefield mission, Auguste
P. Chouteau's Grand Saline trading post (where Salina, Okla., is
today), and Union Mission.
Subsequently, between October 13 and November 10, Ellsworth, Irving,
Latrobe, and Pourtales accompanied Capt. Jesse Bean's company of U. S.
mounted rangers on a 400-mile expedition in present Oklahoma which Irving
described as "a wide exploring tour, from the Arkansas to the Red [Cimarronl
river, including a part of the Pawnee [Pawnee Pict, or Wichita] hunting
grounds, where no party of white men had as yet penetrated."
Ref: J. F. McDermott, ed., The Western Journals of Washington Irving, especially pp.
97-101 (for "Kansas" journey); Henry L. Ellsworth's Washington Irving on the Prairie
. . ., ed. by S. T. Williams and B. D. Simison (New York, 1937), pp. 2-146; Latrobe,
op. cit., v. 1, pp. 144-242; Washington Irving's A Tour on the Prairies . . . (Chicago
and New York), pp. 27-274; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3 (Serial 246), p. 481.
C As reported for the year October 1, 1831-September 30, 1832,
the following persons had been employed at the Indian agencies
in "Kansas":
At the Kansa Agency Marston G. Clark (agent); Clement Lessert (inter-
preter); John Magill [McGill?] (gun and blacksmith); Joseph Groom (striker
to blacksmith); Matthew Jefferies (agriculturist, October-December, 1831);
202 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
William Elledge (agriculturist, January- June, 1832); George Lumpkin (agri-
culturist, July-September, 1832).
At the Osage Agency Paul Ligueste Chouteau (agent); Thomas Anthony
(subagent); Alexander W. McNair (subagent); Baptiste Mongrain (inter-
preter); Gabriel Philibert (gunsmith); Joseph Trumblee (blacksmith); Lewis
Peletrie [Peltier] (striker); A. Woodruff (blacksmith); Solomon Hoyle (la-
borer ) .
At the Delaware-Shawnee Agency Richard W. Cummins (agent); John
Campbell (subagent); Anthony Shane, James Connor, and Baptiste Peoria
(interpreters); Harmon Davis and James Pool (gun and blacksmiths from
July, 1831-March, 1832); Robert Dunlap and Lewis Jones (gun and black-
smiths from April, 1832). Also, Davis Hardin [i.e., Harmon Davis?] and
James Pool had been paid for labor in completing agents' and blacksmiths'
buildings.
[Cummins' agency included the Shawnees, Delawares, Weas, Peorias, Pian-
keshaws, and Kickapoos (of western Missouri).]
Ref: 22d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 137 (Serial 235), pp. 67-69, 73, 114, 115.
C An Indian trading license issued October 18 to the American Fur
Company ( i. e., to the Chouteaus ) renewed the permit for the
Chouteaus' Shawnee reserve post on the Kansas river's south bank
(in present Johnson county); and sanctioned the establishment of
another post to be located on a branch of the Marais des Cygnes
"at a point about one mile east of the present village of the Weas."
This trading place, for the "Piankeshaws, Kickapoos [of western
Missouri], Weas, and Peorias," was within a few miles of present
Paola, Miami county.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. No. 45 (Serial 254); SIA, v. 1, p. 56 (McCoy
map); also, see 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273), for 1834 for a renewal
of the license for the Wea ( etc. ) trade.
C Charles Bent's east-bound caravan traveled the Santa Fe trail
across present Kansas in October; and reached western Missouri,
apparently, early in November. As reported later that month, from
eastern Missouri:
Captain Bent and Company have just returned from Santa Fe. The amount
of property in coin, gold and silver bullion, mules, furs, etc., is very consider-
able, although few have returned rich. What this company has may be
considered as the avails of nearly two years. . . . Supposed amount
$190,000.
Ref: Missouri Intelligencer, Columbia, November 10, 1832; Colorado Magazine, v. 31,
p. 113 (for quotation from the Upper Missouri Advertiser, as reprinted in the Little Rock
[Ark.] Advocate of December 5, 1832).
C In a treaty made October 26 (at Castor Hill, near St. Louis), the
last claims of the Delawares and the Shawnees to lands in Missouri
(in the Cape Girardeau area) were extinguished.
That portion of the Delawares having such claim had already left Missouri
and were either on the reserve in "Kansas," or had gone to present Oklahoma
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 203
and Texas. For benefits given the Delawares who had removed to the reserve,
see March 30, 1833, entry.
The only Shawnees involved were some small bands living on the White
river in Arkansas territory. (They had refused to join their kinsmen on the
reserve in "Kansas.") The treaty (which granted them $1,200 $800 in cash
and $400 in clothing and horses) anticipated their removal to the reserve, but
these Indians did not come to "Kansas." One of the "White river" Shawnees
who signed this treaty was La-lah-ow-che-ka. Artist George Catlin, a treaty
witness, painted his portrait.
Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 370-372; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3
(Serial 246), pp. 408, 409, 635; McCracken, op. cit., p. 31 (for portrait of the Shawnee
"chief"), and p. 32 (wherein McCracken asserts that "Lay-law-she-kaw's" portrait was
painted at Fort Leavenworth ) .
C Treaties of October 27 ( with the Kaskaskia and Peoria Indians )
and October 29 (with the Piankeshaw and Wea Indians), made at
Castor Hill, Mo. (William Clark for the U. S.), extinguished these
Indians' land claims in Illinois and Missouri, and ceded to them re-
serves totaling 400 sections of land in present Kansas, south of the
Shawnee lands.
Except for a band of Weas in Indiana, and some bands of Illinois Indians
united with the Kaskaskias, the people of these four small nations had already
moved west of the Mississippi. Most of them had lived for several years on
the reserves (in Miami and Franklin counties of today), referred to in the
treaty. (See March, 1831, annals entry.)
The Kaskaskias' and Peorias* treaty included provisions that the government
would build them four log houses; and that they would be paid an annuity
of $3,000 for 10 years. In the Piankeshaws' and Weas' treaty it was stated
that the government would support a blacksmith's shop for five years at a
location on their reserve which would be convenient for all four tribes. Both
treaties specified certain agricultural aid.
Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 376, 377, 382, 383; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc.
512, v. 3 (Serial 246), pp. 637-640.
C At Fort Leavenworth, on November 26, a deputation of four
Kickapoo Indians (having concluded an examination of the reserve
offered their nation on the Missouri river, north of the Delawares'
lands see map facing p. 177), signed a treaty article which de-
fined the reserve's bounds. Comm'rs Frank J. Allen and Nathan
Kouns, who had accompanied the delegation, represented the
government. James Kennerly was also present, as the commis-
sioners' secretary.
A month earlier (October 24, at Castor Hill, Mo.) Kickapoo chiefs and
head men had signed the treaty to which the above article was supplemental.
( Pa-sha-cha-hah, or Jumping Fish, and Kennekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet, headed
the list of signers.) For removing from Illinois, and the Osage river in Mis-
souri, the Kickapoos were to receive: a one-year annuity of $18,000 ($12,000
to pay debts); an annual annuity of $5,000 for 19 years; $1,000 per year for
five years to support a blacksmith and strikers; $3,700 for the erection of a
204 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mill, and a church; $500 per year for 10 years to support a school, buy books,
etc.; $3,000 for farm implements; $4,000 for labor and improvements on the
land; $4,000 in cattle, hogs, and other stock.
See May, 1833, annals for removal of the Kickapoos to their "Kansas" re-
serve.
Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 365-367; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 5
(Serial 248), pp. 48, 49, 54-56; Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians, pp. 61-63.
C In charge of Lt. Col. James J. Abert, and conducted by G. W.
Pool, 334 Shawnees and 73 Ottawas arrived at the Shawnee Agency
on November 30, after an overland journey from Ohio begun in
September. Most of the adults had traveled on horseback, and the
children in the baggage wagons. These Indians were:
(1) Wapaghkonetta and Hog creek Shawnees from Allen county, Ohio,
who, by treaty of August 8, 1831, had ceded their Eastern lands for 100,000
acres stipulated to be within, or contiguous to, the existing Shawnee reserve
in present Kansas. Among these immigrants to "Kansas" were Chief John
Perry, Henry and James Bluejacket, Peter Cornstock, John Woolf, and the
families of each.
(2) Blanchard's Fork and Oquanoxa's village Ottawas from northwestern
Ohio, who, by treaty of August 30, 1831, had ceded their lands for a 34,000-
acre tract which was to adjoin the Shawnee reserve on the south or west.
Intermarriages connected these Ottawas with the Shawnees; on their reserve
the Ottawas remained till the summer of 1834.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 1 (Serial 244), pp. 396-400, v. 3 (Serial
246), pp. 566, 567, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 4-10 (for Abert's January 3, 1833, report);
SIA, v. 5, pp. 23-27 (for Shawnee and Ottawa muster rolls); Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp.
331-334 (Shawnee treaty), pp. 335-339 (Ottawa treaty); Foreman's The Last Trek of the
Indians, pp. 72, 76-88.
C In charge of Lt. John F. Lane, and conducted by Daniel M.
Workman, a mixed band of Seneca and Shawnee Indians (258
persons in all) from the vicinity of Lewistown, Ohio, arrived De-
cember 13 on the Cowskin (now Elk) river in present northeastern
Oklahoma, where they camped, temporarily, on the reserve of the
Senecas from Sandusky, Ohio. (See July 4 annals entry.)
These Seneca and Shawnee Indians had ceded their Ohio lands in a treaty
made July 20, 1831. Their overland journey to a new reserve in present north-
eastern Oklahoma had begun in late September. Shortly after their arrival,
they joined with the Sandusky Senecas to form a confederacy, calling them-
selves the "United Nation of Senecas and Shawnees." This became a formal
agreement on December 29 when the "United Nation" made a treaty with the
United States a treaty which also granted the mixed band of Senecas and
Shawnees a 60,000-acre reserve adjoining the Sandusky Senecas on the north
(in lieu of the tract west of Grand river originally intended for them).
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 10-12, 77-84; Fore-
man's The Last Trek of the Indians, pp. 71-83; Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 383-385.
(Part Seven Will Appear in the Autumn, 1962, Issue.)
Some Notes on Kansas Cowtown Police Officers
and Gun Fighters Continued
NYLE H. MILLER and JOSEPH W. SNELL
SMITH, THOMAS JAMES
(1830P-1870)
EAR RIVER" Tom Smith was hired as Abilene's chief of police
on June 4, 1870; the salary to be $150 per month plus $2 for
each conviction of persons he arrested. Smith was originally hired
for one month only but he stayed on the force until his death later
that fall. One policeman assistant was authorized, but the name
of the person initially filling the position is unknown. 1
The 1870 United States census for Grant township, Dickinson
county, in which Abilene is located, listed Smith. On the date of
the enumeration, July 30, 1870, he was 40 years old. He was born
in New York.
On August 9, 1870, the city council increased Smith's salary to
$225 a month retroactive to July 4. 2
Few items describing Smith's activities as chief of police or
deputy sheriff have been preserved. One of these rarities appeared
in the Abilene Chronicle, September 8, 1870:
CLEANED Our. For some time past a set of prostitutes have occupied sev-
eral shanties, about a mile north-west of town. On last Monday or Tuesday
Deputy Sheriff Smith served a notice on the vile characters, ordering them to
close their dens or suffer the consequences. They were convinced beyond
all question that an outraged community would no longer tolerate their vile
business, and on yesterday, Wednesday, morning the crew took the cars for
Baxter Springs and Wichita. We are told that there is not a house of ill fame
in Abilene or vicinity a fact, we are informed, which can hardly be said in
favor of any other town on the Kansas Pacific Railway. The respectable citizens
of Abilene may well feel proud of the order and quietness now prevailing in the
town. Let the dens of infamy be kept out, the laws enforced and violators
punished, and no good citizen will ask more. Chief of Police, T. J. Smith and
his assistants, and C. C. Kuney, Esq. [police magistrate], deserve the thanks of
the people for the faithful and prompt manner in which they have discharged
their official duties. A grateful community will not forget the services of such
efficient officers.
NYLE H. MILLER and JOSEPH W. SNELL are members of the staff of the Kansas State
Historical Society.
NOTE: It is hoped eventually that these articles on Kansas cowtown officers and gun
fighters, with additional information and an index, can be reprinted and offered for sale
under one cover.
Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snell, 1962.
(205)
206 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
On October 23 an event occurred which eventually led to the
death of the chief of police. The Chronicle, October 27, 1870,
recorded:
FATAL AFFRAY. We regret to learn that a fatal affray took place on last
Sunday afternoon, near Chapman Creek, between two neighbors named John
Shea and Andrew McConnell. The facts as related to us are substantially as
follows: It seems that McConnell had been out with his gun hunting deer,
on his return he found Shea driving a lot of cattle across his (McConnell's)
land. Some words passed between them, when Shea drew a revolver and
snapped it twice at McConnell who stood leaning on his gun, and being on his
own land. As Shea was cocking his pistol for the third time, McConnell drew
up his gun and shot Shea through the heart, killing him instantly. McConnell
went for a Doctor, and afterwards gave himself up, and had an examination
before Esquire Davidson on last Tuesday, when a neighbor of both men, Mr.
Miles, testified substantially to the above facts, and McConnell was discharged
the act having been done in self-defence. Shea leaves a widow and three
children.
Later it developed that Miles and McConnell had taken liberties
with the truth and a warrant was issued once more for McConnell.
The Abilene Chronicle, November 3, 1870, continued the story:
HORRIBLE AFFRAY. Last week we chronicled a terrible affair, which oc-
curred on Chapman Creek, resulting in the death of John Shea at the hands of
Andrew McConnell. McConnell gave himself up, and upon the testimony of
a man named Miles was released, Miles swearing that the act was done in
self-defence. But it afterward appeared to some of the neighbors, from un-
mistakable circumstances, that Shea was not the aggressor, and a warrant was
issued for the re-arrest of McConnell. On Wednesday [November 2] of this
week officers T. J. Smith, and [J. H.] McDonald, went out to McConnell's
dugout to arrest him. Upon reaching the dugout they found McConnell and
Miles. Officer Smith informed McConnell of his official character and that he
had a warrant for his arrest, whereupon McConnell shot Smith through the
right lung; Smith also fired, wounding McConnell; the two being close together
grappled; Smith, although mortally wounded, was getting the better of Mc-
Connell, when Miles struck him on the head with a gun, felling him senseless
to the ground, and seizing an ax chopped Smith's head nearly from his body.
At this stage of the tragedy officer McDonald returned to this place for assist-
ance. A posse was raised, and repaired to the scene of the murder, but
McConnell and Miles had fled, and up to this morning had not been arrested.
They were both wounded, and it is reported were in Junction City last evening.
It is hoped that they will be speedily arrested. We give the above named
particulars as we gather them from reports current in town.
The body of Mr. Smith was brought to this place last evening, and will be
buried at 10 o'clock to-morrow. The sad event has cast a gloom over our
town. Our citizens had learned to respect Mr. Smith as an officer who never
shrank from the performance of his duty. He was a stranger to fear, and yet
in the private walks of life a most diffident man. He came to this place last
spring, when lawlessness was controlling the town. He was at once employed
as chief of police, and soon order and quiet took the place of the wild shouts
and pistol shots of ruffians who for two years had kept orderly citizens in dread
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 207
for their lives. Abilene owes a debt of gratitude to the memory of Thomas
James Smith, which can never be paid. Although our people will never again
permit the lawlessness which existed prior to his coming to the town, yet it will
be a long time before his equal will be found in all the essentials required to
make a model police officer.
Sacred be the memory of our departed friend and green be the turf that
grows upon his grave. In years to come there will be those who will look back
to the days when it required brave hearts and strong hands to put down
barbarism in this new country and among the names of the bravest and the
truest none will be more gratefully remembered than that of THOMAS JAMES
SMITH, the faithful officer and true friend of Abilene.
Three days after their crime, Miles and McConnell were captured.
The Chronicle article, November 10, 1870, reporting their unsuc-
cessful flight has been reprinted in the section on James Gainsford.
Knowing the local people could not render an objective verdict,
after three special lists of prospective jurors had been exhausted,
the court granted a change of venue to Riley county. The Chronicle,
November 17, 1870, reported:
State of Kansas vs. Andrew McConnell and Moses Miles, charged with
murder in first degree. One day and a half was consumed in trying to im-
pannel a jury. Three special venues were exhausted without securing the
requisite number of jurors. A change of venue to Riley county was finally
granted by the court, and the prisoners conveyed to the Manhattan jail to
await trial at the March term of District court for that county.
Tom Smith was buried in a two-dollar grave, gunsmith Patrick
Hand was appointed his successor, 3 and the incident faded from
the news until March, 1871, when Miles and McConnell were
brought up for trial. The Chronicle, March 23, 1871, reported the
result:
CONVICTED. We learn the following particulars, relating to the trial at
Manhattan of Miles and McConnell, for the murder of Marshal T. J. Smith.
We are told by one of the attorneys that the evidence went to show that the
officers in attempting to arrest the accused produced no warrant or authority;
that the prisoners were in dread of a mob; that after they had Smith in their
power the officer whom he went to assist having fled they brutally chopped
him up with an axe. This fact alone caused the conviction of the prisoners.
McConnell was sentenced to twelve and Miles to sixteen years confinement in
the penitentiary. Thus ends one of the most horrible tragedies that has ever
occurred in the State. When first arrested the prisoners were willing to plead
guilty of murder in the second degree, which would have sent them to the
penitentiary for fife but the prosecuting attorney would not permit such a
plea, because public sentiment, at the time demanded the hanging of the
prisoners. Twelve and sixteen years in the penitentiary seem long periods,
but the condemned ought to be thankful that they get off with even such
sentences. Never during their natural lives can they atone for their great crime.
Thirty-four years after Smith died, Abilene paid belated tribute
208 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to its former chief of police. His body was disinterred from its
obscure grave in the Abilene cemetery and reburied near one of
the main avenues of the grounds. On Memorial day, May 30, 1904,
a huge natural boulder marking the new site was dedicated. Abi-
lene's first mayor, T. C. Henry, returned from his Denver residence
and delivered a stirring speech on Smith's Abilene tenure. But
perhaps the finest and certainly the most enduring tribute was
the sentiment expressed on the bronze plaque fastened to the
boulder. It read:
THOMAS J. SMITH,
Marshal of Abilene, 1870.
Died, a Martyr to Duty, Nov. 2, 1870.
A Fearless Hero of Frontier Days Who
in Cowboy Chaos
Established the Supremacy of Law. 4
1. "City Council Minute Book," Records of the City of Abilene, p. 29. 2. Ibid., p. 37.
3. Ibid., p. 43. 4. Abilene Daily Chronicle, May 31, 1904; Topeka Daily Capital, May 31,
1904.
SMITH, WILLIAM
William "Billy" Smith was an early lawman of Wichita. He was
defeated for sheriff in Sedgwick county's first election, November,
1870, but was appointed a deputy United States marshal before the
end of the year. 1 On February 19, 1871, the new deputy marshal
extended the strong arm of the law around the slender waist of Miss
Mary Peck, marrying her in the Wichita Presbyterian church that
Sunday. "The ceremony was witnessed by nearly every woman in
Wichita," said the Vidette, February 25, 1871.
Smith, whose main occupation was operating the Star Livery
Stable, was possibly the fourth city marshal of Wichita. But he,
like his predecessors, did not retain the position long, in fact Smith
resigned only three days after he had been appointed. He was
selected on April 10, 1871, by the governing body of Wichita; 2 his
oath of office was dated April 11 and his letter of resignation was
prepared on April 13. It read :
WICHITA KANSAS
April 13th 1871
To His HONOR
E. B. ALLEN
MAYOR OF THE CITY OF WICHITA
Sra.
In view of existing emergencies, hav-
ing necessarily to leave the City for the space of at least fifteen days and having
no competent person with whom I could entrust with the duties of City
Ig8
-
J * j 8
iS-6*
82!l s
t O * X
y c. = "s
t*
1!*
<f ge
J4-8B
Views of Ashland in 1886 (above), and in 1887.
f
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 209
Marshal I hereby tender my resignation as Marshal of the City of Wichita and
trust that yourself together with the City Council will accept the same.
I am Sir
Very respectfully
Your obdt servt.
WILLIAM SMITH
Marshals
The next spring Smith again ran for public office and was elected
a councilman for the fourth ward. The election had been held
April 2, 1872. 4
Some time following Smith had obtained a commission as a Sedg-
wick county deputy sheriff under John Meagher, brother of City
Marshal Mike Meagher. About June 6, 1873, the sheriff, Smith and
Constable J. W. McCartney nabbed two mule thieves. The Wichita
Eagle, June 12, 1873, reported:
Sheriff Meagher, Smith and McCarty, who went after the thieves who
stole Mr. Wilkin's mules, returned on last Friday. They overtook the property
and the "larkies" at Eureka, Greenwood county. The names of these patrons
of mule flesh are Francis M. Carson and John Jefferson. They were found
asleep in a barn, and the mules were staked out in the public square. They
were terribly afraid of being brought back to Wichita, asserting that they
preferred to die right there. At a preliminary examination Carson plead guilty
and they were bound over for an appearance at the district court of the above
mentioned county. As Judge Campbell's court sits there next week, these
wayward boys will be pounding stone inside the penitentiary walls within
two weeks.
A week later McCartney and Smith again teamed up to arrest
two suspected murderers. The Eagle, June 26, 1873, said:
Mr. King and his son, from Texas, who were arrested here last week by
Constable McCartney and Deputy Sheriff Smith for the killing of a man in
Clay county, Texas, were discharged by 'Squire D. A. Mitchell upon the
ground of self-defense.
When John Meagher resigned as sheriff Gov. Thomas A. Osbora
appointed Billy Smith to fill the vacancy September 15, 1873. 5 The
Eagle, September 18, 1873, announced the change:
Following the resignation of Sheriff John Meagher, Deputy Sheriff William
Smith was commissioned by the governor to fill the unexpired term. Wm.
Smith has made an efficient and prompt officer, and we have no doubt but that
he will prove faithful in his higher trust.
However, when Smith ran for the following full term in Novem-
ber he was defeated by Pleasant H. Massey 665 to 599. 6
When district court opened on December 8, 1873, Sheriff-elect
Massey attempted to assume the mantle of his office. Smith refused
to yield, contending that his appointive term was still in effect; that
14_2840
210 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Massey would not become sheriff until the regular time for swearing
in county officers arrived in January. The Wichita Eagle item cov-
ering this limited controversy was reprinted in the section on
Massey.
Sheriff Smith was also active that December, attempting to locate
Rowdy Joe Lowe who had skipped town slightly ahead of a warrant
requiring his arrest. This interesting episode has been reprinted in
the section on Lowe.
Between four and five o'clock on Christmas morning, 1873, hungry
flames began licking at the Main street millinery shop of Misses
Annie Fardy and Kitty Hanley. The Wichita fire company and
many private citizens battled desperately to keep the fire from
spreading to other buildings and possibly consuming the entire
frontier town.
During the flurry of activity surrounding 73 Main street that
morning Arthur Winner was discovered lying bloody and dazed,
in his nightshirt, at the foot of the stairs leading to his quarters over
the millinery shop. "In a few moments more the falling of the
upper floor revealed amid the curling flames the white and ghastly
face and the head of a corpse which soon fell with a dead thud to
the joists below/' the Eagle, January 1, 1874, almost shuddered as
it reported. The body was thought to be that of Winner's partner,
Joseph W. McNutt, with whom he had been sharing a bed shortly
before.
As the winter progressed the fire was forgotten but the body was
not. Subsequent developments indicated that McNutt had not died
but rather one W. W. Sevier and that he had been killed in an
attempt to defraud an insurance company which held a policy on
the life of McNutt. Consequently a grand search was instituted
for the person of Joseph W. McNutt. The man who found him,
and returned him to Sedgwick county custody, was William Smith.
A township constable, he had pursued McNutt on his own initiative.
The Wichita Eagle, February 19, 1874, described Smith's success:
THE CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY.
On Tuesday, the 10th inst, intelligence was received at this place that
McNutt was in Missouri, or, at least, it was supposed that it might be him.
There was not much credit given to the statement, but Will. Smith, ex-sheriff
of this county, had been "working up" the case for some time, and he con-
cluded, from what he had gleaned, that he might possibly be there. Conse-
quently he started in pursuit, leaving on the train that night, stopping off at
Topeka to get a requisition from the governor of this state, proceeded to
Leavenworth city, took the Chicago and Rock Island road to Plattsburgh, Mo.,
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 211
arriving at that place Thursday night. He immediately procured a horse and
guide, riding all that night in the supposed direction of the criminal, visiting
a number of small country postoffices, inquiring at each office whether a party
by the name of Leahead procured mail there or not (for this was the name
McNutt was going by). He finally came to the New Garden postoffice, in
Ray county, and was told that a party by that name was getting mail at that
office, and that he was working on a farm about one mile from there. Smith
left his horse, borrowed a shot-gun of his informant for the purpose of killing
chickens, he said, and proceeded to the farm.
On arriving at or near the farm house, which stood in a clearing, he espied
McNutt in the back yard chopping wood. He passed around the farm to the
east side, where stood a large barn. He went to the barn, keeping it between
himself and his game; farther on, towards the house, about a hundred yards,
and within twenty feet of where McNutt was chopping, stood a corn crib. He
worked his way cautiously up to the corner of the crib, stepped out and leveled
his gun on the chap, and told him to throw down his ax and hold up his
hands, for he was his prisoner, which order he promptly obeyed, remarking
while being handcuffed, "Well, you have got me at last." Smith said yes,
he had been hunting him for some time. He was placed upon a horse and
brought to Plattsburgh, arriving there on Sunday, and at this place Monday
night. He denies the statements made by Winner in the main. Tuesday
morning he was taken before Justice [E. B.] Jewett. His examination was put
off until yesterday. We shall endeavor to lay before our readers in our next
issue the evidence elicited at the examination.
Much praise is due to Will. Smith for the untiring energy and great sagacity
displayed in capturing this man. What he did was in a quiet and unobtrusive
manner. But very few in the town knew that he was trying to find McNutt,
and it was a matter of great surprise to our citizens when it was announced
Tuesday morning that Smith had got back with McNutt. But few men would
have succeeded in ferreting out the whereabouts of this man, having no more
to work upon than the mere name Leahead.
LATER. He was again brought before Justice Jewett last evening. His
attorneys, [W. E.] Stanley [later governor of Kansas, 1899-1903] and [J. M.]
Balderston, appeared, asked that the case be postponed until next Thursday,
which was granted.
The editor of the Eagle, March 5, 1874, was intrigued by the
romantic aspect of the crime and capture:
No better evidence of the spirit of the people is necessary than to point to
the manner in which the McNutt affair was unraveled and brought to the
light of the world. There was almost nothing to work on at first, but as days
rolled on, thread upon thread was woven into the net that was to entrap the
guilty parties. We do not remember of reading of a more cool and deliberate
murder than the one planned by McNutt and Winner. It reads like some
romance we have read of the bandits of Bomerwald. Ned Buntline could
weave from it a romance that would read as wonderful as any he ever spun.
But the perpetrators of it are safe in the hands of the law, and if full justice
is vouchsafed to them they will stretch hemp before long.
Winner is safe in the Cottonwood Falls jail, and McNutt is at present
guarded by his captor, Mr. William Smith, and he could easier escape from a
212 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dungeon's wall than from such a man. McNutt is at "No. 11," Empire House.
Mrs. McNutt is also guarded in the same Hotel. She seems to be fearfully
agitated since the arrest of her husband and has attempted to kill herself by
using poison, but was detected and frustrated. This we learn from a pretty
reliable source, presume it is true.
In subsequent days both Winner and McNutt were convicted of
their crime and sentenced to be hanged. These sentences were later
commuted. William Smith, probably because of his excellent work
in tracing McNutt, was re-elected constable on April 7 and ap-
pointed city marshal on April 15, 1874. Smith's city force included
Daniel Parks, assistant marshal; William Dibbs and James Cairns,
policemen. 7
A few days after his appointment Marshal Smith apprehended an
escaped convict. The Eagle, April 30, 1874, said:
City Marshal, Billy Smith, apprehended and arrested a convict one Thomas
Hind on a telegram from Salina last week and confined him in jail. Hind
was convicted for manslaughter in the third degree, at the above place, and
sentenced by Judge Prescott to two years in the State Penitentiary. He was
put into the custody of Sheriff Ramsey, of Saline county. While Ramsey was
manacling two other prisoners Hind jumped through the door, shut in the
hasp of the staple, and escaped, leaving the sheriff and his deputies prisoners.
The night was very dark, and before the sheriff could make the situation
known, his bird had flown and all efforts to capture him failed until he was
picked up here by our boys. Wichita is a poor place for outlaws to flee to.
Nearly every rough upon the border is known to our police force. Hind was
taken away Tuesday morning.
Smith, it seems, did not rely entirely on his regular police to
enforce the law, but reinforced them with a large reserve. The
Eagle, July 16, 1874, praised him for its effectiveness:
In speaking of the special police force of this city last week and its organiza-
tion [see the section on Sam Botts], we failed to give the proper credit, which
failure was due to our ignorance. Our city marshal, Wm. Smith, organized the
force, and it is of lawful effect. There is but little show or blow about our
Billy, and he fails often in getting credit where it is really his due. He made
an excellent and popular sheriff, and as city marshal we have no doubt of
his success.
"A couple of soldiers came down from Dodge last Monday
[August 3], after a deserter and horse thief named Percy whom our
city marshal, Billy Smith had under arrest/' reported the Eagle,
August 6, 1874.
Because of a change in classifications Wichita could not appoint
a city marshal in 1875 but instead had to elect one at the annual
spring election of city officials. Naturally William Smith was one
of the candidates. His opponents were Mike Meagher, another
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 213
ex-city marshal (see the section on Meagher), and Dan Parks, his
own assistant. When the election was over, April 6, 1875, Smith
learned that he had run a poor third with Meagher garnering 340
votes, Parks 311, and himself 65. 8
As a privately hired agent or perhaps in the duties of a deputy
United States marshal, Smith pursued and captured a horse thief
named Lee. The Wichita Weekly Beacon, September 29, 1875,
told of the chase:
The horse thief who was glimpsed by a party of freighters coming up from
Arkansas City last week, of which mention was made in our last issue, was
caught by his pursuers on the state line, twelve miles below Arkansas City,
on the following Tuesday. The name of the thief is William Lee, he had been
at work for H. C. Ramlow, in Park township up to Saturday. The horse he
stole belonged to a colored man, a neighbor of Ramlow, by the name of
Saunders. The horse had undoubtedly been spotted as he was a fine animal,
a large iron grey, worth at least $125, a good traveler, sound in wind and limb.
The colored man secured the services of ex-City Marshal Wm. Smith who
started at 3 o'clock Monday morning in a light buggy accompanied by Mr.
Ferguson, the partner of Pittenger in the livery business. The two struck the
trail below El Paso, three relays of horses headed off their man in the timber
near the Indian territory, night coming on, they called on farmers in the
neighborhood, who turned out en mass, with shot guns and surrounded the
victim, while Smith rode below that night yet, to the Kaw Agency and got
out a squad of Kaw Indians to watch below. So he came to have Lee
surrounded against morning. About day light Lee came out and went to a
house for breakfast when he was arrested and brought in here Wednesday night
and lodged in jail. He will slide by easy stages into the penitentiary.
Smith's service as a deputy U. S. marshal was mentioned at least
once in the Wichita papers. The Eagle, October 28, 1875, recounted
this humorous adventure:
Deputy United States Marshal, Wm. Smith, in pursuance of instructions
from headquarters proceeded to Kingman county last week to execute some
papers upon the Commissioners of that county looking to the payment of
certain interest money due on bonds issued by that county, and now held by
certain inflated eastern capitalists. For two mortal days Bill wandered over
the dreary and uninhabited wastes of the once populous and flourishing munic-
ipality of Kingman, in the vain endeavor to find an inhabitant upon which to
serve his process. Late one evening he struck the primitive domicile of an
adventurous rooster who said he had been in the county long enough to vote,
but as yet had found none of his neighbors. He was just the man, and the
meat that our United States Marshal was in pursuit of and he forthwith pulled
his papers and proceeded to read. One can better imagine than describe the
feelings of that poor, lone settler, out there upon the confines of that eternal
solitude when informed that he was held for the entire indebtedness of the
said Kingman county, which amounted to about $60,000 in bonds besides
interest. The affrighted prospector acknowledged that he had a good claim
and some $300 in team and property and that he would gladly give up half
214 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of that for twenty-four hours' time in which to flee the impending doom. Bill
says the next time [United States Marshal William S.] Tough wants any papers
served in Kingman county he must send some fellow out a day ahead.
Next year Smith once again ran for the office of city marshal.
While the campaign was in progress he and Policeman Wyatt Earp
had a difficulty which resulted in a fight and Earp's leaving the
service. (See the section on Wyatt Earp.) Whether or not the
affair had any effect on the race for the marshalship is difficult to
say; in any case, Mike Meagher once again defeated Smith, this
time 477 to 249. 9
1. Wichita Vidette, November 24, December 29, 1870. 2. "Proceedings of the Gov-
erning Body," Records of the City of Wichita, Journal A, p. 35. 3. "Miscellaneous Records,"
Records of the City of Wichita, 1871. 4. "Proceedings of the Governing Body," Records
of the City of Wichita, Journal A, p. 159. 5. Records of the Secretary of State, "Com-
missions, April 5-November 11, 1873," archives division, Kansas State Historical Society.
6. Wichita City Eagle, November 6, 1873. 7. "Proceedings of the Governing Body,"
Records of the City of Wichita, Journal A, pp. 369, 371; Wichita City Eagle, April 23,
1874. 8. Ibid., April 1, 8, 1875; "Proceedings of the Governing Body," Records of the
City of Wichita, Journal B, p. 42. 9. Ibid., p. 103.
SUGHRUE, MICHAEL
(1844?- )
Pat and Mike Sughrue were twins who for many years led strik-
ingly similar lives as southwestern Kansas peace officers. For a
while they served as sheriffs of neighboring counties, Pat being
sheriff of Ford and Mike sheriff of Clark. Mike's career had begun
in Dodge but a chain of circumstances led him to Ashland where
he served first as city marshal and later sheriff.
Available records first show Mike Sughrue in August, 1861, when,
already a veteran, he enlisted in Co. E, Seventh Kansas Volunteer
cavalry. He gave his home town as Quincy, 111. Re-enlisting in
lanuary, 1864, he was discharged June 28, 1865. Coincidently,
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was also a member of this regiment
in its last year but served in Co. H. 1
In the fall of 1881, Mike, who had been listed in the 1880 census
as a teamster, ran for sheriff of Ford county. Nominated by the
Independent ticket Mike had four opponents: George T. Hinkle,
Peoples' ticket; Samuel Gallagher, Female Suffrage ticket; E. P. Ott,
East End ticket; and D. M. Frost, Greenback. At the election
November 8, 1881, Hinkle won by 35 votes over his nearest com-
petitor. 2
At the next county election Mike's brother Pat was elected sheriff
and Mike was then appointed deputy and jailer. 3 He arrested a
mule thief on June 5 according to the Ford County Globe, June 10,
1884:
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 215
HORSE THIEVES CAPTURED.
Last Thursday evening, Deputy Sheriff Sughrue arrested Frank, Tom and
John Denson, on complaint of O. S. Aubery. A few days ago Mr. Aubery
lost one of his mules and on Wednesday found the same with Mr. Mulligan,
one of our citizens, who stated that he had purchased the mule from Frank
Denson, giving a horse, silver watch, and revolver for the same. When arrested
the Densons had six horses in all, among which was the horse that Mr. Mulligan
had traded with them. As nothing could be found against Tom and John
Denson they were released, and Frank Denson was held over for trial. 4
Mike had some uneasy moments as jailor. The Globe, June 24,
1884, described a rather trying incident:
On last Saturday evening [June 21] Deputies Sheriff Sughrue and E. G.
Barlow, went to lock the prisoners up in separate cells which is the usual
custom at night, Barlow going inside and Sughrue locking the door after him.
After Barlow had got inside, one of the prisoners named Chambers, warned
him that the others had put up a job to escape from jail, and to look out, and
when Barlow had locked one of them up, the rest, eight in all, started for him,
Denson, the horse thief throwing a blanket over his head. After searching
his pockets for a revolver which they expected to find, they let him go, claiming
it was a joke, and others thought so but it was not. Mr. Barlow, however,
states that he had received several threats from the prisoners, and no doubt
that if he had carried his revolver in with him that he would have been killed.
Denson, the horse thief said that he would kill some one before he went to
the penitentiary and was the leader in this break for liberty. Our deputies
must be careful.
"Deputy Sheriff Sughrue arrested a man Tuesday morning [July
15] who had been firing his pistol in the court house building. The
fellow was placed in jail. Such offenses ought to be punished
severely. This man fired off several shots in the street near the
court house," said the Dodge City Times, July 17, 1884.
The Dodge City Democrat, October 11, 1884, reported that
"Deputy Sheriff M. Sughrue took a trip to Crooked Creek on last
Thursday [October 9]. He traveled 60 miles, got his man, and
done it all in ten hours."
On November 21 a series of events began to occur which eventu-
ally led to Mike's removal to present Clark county. The Dodge
City Times, December 4, 1884, copied from the Clark County
Clipper, November 27:
TWO MEN AND A GIRL SHOT IN COLD BLOOD.
ONE OF THE MURDERERS HUNG.
Ashland has, since Friday last [November 21], been the scene of much
excitement, which culminated Wednesday evening in the murder of Commodore
Boggs and Daniel Adams, and the wounding of Miss Fannie Hankins. The
circumstances connected with the affair, as nearly as can be ascertained at
this time, are as follows:
216 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The men who did the shooting were Joe Mitchell and Nels Mathews. Joe
Mitchell came to this country about two weeks ago, it being reported that he
had gotten into difficulty near Hazelton and was compelled to leave there.
Nels Mathews had been about here for some three or four months and had no
occupation during that time. They, together with two or three others, rode
into town Friday afternoon and shot a fine grey hound, belonging to Ad
Powers, they also shot out several window lights and broke the door of Roby
& Lyon's Grocery.
The weather was quite severe Saturday and Sunday and they did not put
in an appearance. Monday afternoon they came down from the saloon at
Clark and commenced shooting at dogs. They then rode into many of the
business houses with drawn revolvers. Did considerable shooting. Some shots
were fired at our citizens. They roped and threw a pony several times and
also roped a man from his mule he was riding. They constantly became more
bold in their depredations. The next object of their cruelty was a man and
a boy who were riding out of town in a wagon. They roped them several
times but were unable to drag them from their wagon. Some words passed
between them and Mathews beat both man and boy with his six shooter.
Shortly after this they attempted to take a shot-gun from a young man named
Frank Gage who objected, jumped back and drew down on Mathews, who then
run into Roby's store, loaded his six shooter and followed Gage, but did not
get an opportunity to shoot him. That evening they confined themselves to
tearing down out houses.
Tuesday only three men were in the gang, there having been five the night
before. Mathews, followed by Mitchell rode into Lee's restaurant and then
shot through the door and front of the building while several persons were at
dinner. Fortunately no one was injured. By this time the citizens had made
up their minds to take the matter into their own hands, there being no officer
nearer than Dodge City. Many shot guns and arms were in readiness that
evening but the desperadoes had been warned and did not come into town,
but rode over east and contented themselves with firing a few shots. Watch
was kept in town until a late hour. One man who, it is said had been trying to
keep Mathews and Mitchell from continuing their spree, left them in the
afternoon.
Nothing occurred in town Wednesday to arouse suspicion until about half
past five o'clock p. m., when a certain individual rode into town from the
north and back again so quickly as to arouse the distrust of the poor fellows
who, so shortly after, met their untimely end. These very boys gave the alarm
and in a few minutes their suspicion was verified.
Mathews and Mitchell rode up to the post office and Mathews mailed a
letter. They then rode through town and over the bluff where the trail oomes
in from the East. They tied their horses in the clump of trees between Mr.
Lowery's and Bear creek and went upon the hill between the dug-out and
town. When Adams and Boggs passed and went down into Lowery's dug-out,
where they were boarding, Mitchell and Mathews followed them. The dug-out
had only two rooms; a main room and an ante room. Supper was spread and
the table full of boarders. The victims were standing in the ante room
together with Mr. Woods, Fannie Hankins and a little girl. Mitchell and
Mathews stepped to the entrance and Mitchell, addressing Boggs, said: "here
pard, we want to speak to you." He answered that he would not step out
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 217
with them. Mitchell then grabbed him by the coat collar with one hand
and raising his six shooter with the other, shot him in the stomach. At the
same time Mathews shot Adams in the breast. Both boys probably made
efforts to draw their revolvers, as one was found drawn and cocked, and the
other partially drawn. Three or four shots were fired, one of which struck
Fannie Hankins in the arm, inflicting only a flesh wound. It is thought that
the shot was intended for her.
Immediately after the shooting the murderers took to their horses and rode
rapidly toward Clark. Deputy Sughrue, who had been informed of the trouble,
left Dodge at 11 a. m., and as good fortune would have it rode into Clark
shortly after the shooting was done, and made for the saloon, thinking there
was where he would find the men he was after. No one was there however,
but as he passed out Mitchell rode up and Mr. Sughrue arrested him on sus-
picion. This was hardly done when Mathews rode up, having left a poor
horse of his own and taken one belonging to Mr. Griffin. Mathews called to
Mitchell to come on and Mitchell answered: "I can't, I'm arrested." Mr.
Sughrue then commanded Mathews to halt, but he fired at him in reply upon
which they exchanged three shots, and Mathews galloped away in the night.
The deputies, Sughrue and [William] Thompson, then brought their prisoner
to Ashland, where they were met by an excited throng. The extraordinary
bravery and determination of the deputies is all that prevented Mitchell being
taken from them and dealt with summarily. After the prisoner was secured,
deputy Sughrue with a large force started in search of Mathews.
Everything had quieted down by midnight and the streets were deserted.
A strong force guarded the prisoner and it was little thought that the people
would take justice into their own hands. About three o'clock however, the
room quickly filled with men and before there was any chance to resist, deputy
Thompson and his assistants were overpowered. The prisoner was snatched out
during the disturbance and daylight Thursday morning disclosed his lifeless
body suspended from a beam of Bullen & AveriU's lumber shed. He was cut
down at 10:25 o'clock a. m. and an inquest held as follows:
An inquisition holden at Ashland, in Ford county, 5 State of Kansas, on the
27th day of November, A. D. 1884, before me, Geo. A. Exline, a Notary Public
in and for said county, (such inquisition being held by me at the request of
William Thompson, Deputy Sheriff of said county, on account of the great
distance to the Coroner, or a Justice of the Peace) acting as Coroner on the
body of Joe Mitchell there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereunto
subscribed.
The said jurors upon their oaths do say: That the person now here lying
dead, was known by the name of Joe Mitchell; that he came to his death on
the night of November 26th, A. D. 1884, at Ashland, Ford county, State of
Kansas, by being hanged by the neck, by persons unknown to the jury.
H. B. WAKEFIELD, C. M. BRUSH,
J. R. GLEN, F. D. WEBSTER,
C. E. RHODES, J. L. BLACKFORD.
ATTEST: Geo. A. Exline, Notary Public and acting Coroner, of Ford county,
Kansas.
The victims of this cold blooded murder were both men of families and
were here to make homes for themselves. They were very quiet, peaceable
and law abiding citizens. Daniel Adams was twenty-three years old, he leaves
218 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a wife and one child. C. P. Boggs was twenty-four years old and also leaves
a wife and one child.
B. W. Burchett, accompanied the remains to Mt. Savage, Center county, Ky.,
where their families are, for interment.
For want of space the finding of the Coroner's inquest is omitted. The
verdict, however, was that they came to their death by pistols in the hands
of Joe Mitchell and Nels Mathews.
Other facts connected with this foul tragedy may be expected next week.
Deputy Sheriff Michael Sughrue will remain with us. With him here we
will have no further occasion for coroner's inquests.
Sheriff Pat Sughrue, whose brother has rendered us such efficient service,
arrived Thursday night.
Mathews is still at large. 6
The ultimate fate of Nels Mathews has not been learned.
Mike Sughrue had so impressed the people of Ashland with his
efficiency that he was hired as the town's city marshal. The Dodge
City Democrat, December 13, 1884, mentioned his large salary:
"Deputy Sheriff M. Sughrue, has been engaged by the Ashland
town company, at a salary of $175 per month, to keep order in that
town/'
Except for a visit now and then to his former home in Dodge,
Mike Sughrue had permanently transferred his loyalties to Ashland. 7
On March 2, 1885, he was injured while pursuing a murderer. The
Globe Live Stock Journal, March 10, 1885, reported the unsuccessful
chase:
A week ago last night, at a ranch [the 76 ranch near Bluff creek] ten miles
from Ashland, this county, Fred Spencer shot and killed George Warwick.
They had had a few words but no further trouble was expected, when, without
a word of warning, Spencer shot Warwick twice, took what money his victim
had and left. Both are young men, Spencer not being over nineteen years old.
Deputy Sheriff Mike Sughrue was notified that night, and was soon in pursuit
of the murderer, in company with Dr. Parks in a buggy; on the road to the
scene of the tragedy, they were thrown out of the buggy and Mr. Sughrue had
his shoulder put out of place, and one of his arms so badly bruised that he
was unable to proceed farther. Sheriff Pat Sughrue was notified and went
down to Ashland Wednesday returning Thursday, after putting two deputies
on Spencer's trail, and seeing that his brother was getting along as well as
could be expected after his injuries. 8
On May 30, 1885, the Dodge City Democrat paid Mike a nice
tribute:
M. Sughrue, the Marshal of Ashland, was in the city on last Thursday. He
came after a man who had went wrong, and he took him back yesterday.
When you want to catch a sharp send Mike after him, is all we have got to say.
When Clark county was organized in May, 1885, Mike Sughrue
was elected its first sheriff. A few months later, in November, 1885,
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 219
he was re-elected to a full term. 9 From here on he will be aban-
doned as his subsequent career is not in the scope of this cowtown
series.
1. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861 -'65 (Topeka, 1896),
pp. 233, 234, 247. 2. Dodge City Times, September 8, 15, November 10, 1881. 3. Ford
County Globe, Dodge City, February 12, 1884. 4. See, also, Dodge City Democrat, June 7,
1884; Dodge City Times, June 12, 1884. 5. In 1883 and 1884 present Clark county was
part of Ford, the county was re-established and organized in 1885. 6. See, also, Dodge
City Democrat, November 29, 1884; Globe Live Stock Journal, Dodge City, December 2,
1884. 7. Dodge City Democrat, January 10, February 21, March 21, April 25, 1885.
8. See, also, ibid., March 7, 1885. 9. Ibid., June 20, November 14, 1885.
SUGHRUE, PATRICK F.
(1844P-1906)
Pat Sughrue, a blacksmith by trade, was serving as a lesser police
officer in Dodge City as early as March, 1877. The Dodge City
Times, March 24, 1877, gave him incidental notice in this article
concerning an episode in the love life of that notorious cowtown
character Robert Gilmore:
POLICE COURT.
The case of Dodge City vs. James Manion, carrying deadly weapons, in the
city limits, was the great attraction last Monday afternoon [March 19]. The
high position Mr. Manion occupies in social and business circles of this com-
munity undoubtedly went far towards exciting unusual interest in the case,
and when court opened there was not room enough inside for half of the
would-be spectators.
After close investigation, both at the trial and on the outside, we ascer-
tained the following facts, which gave rise to the case:
Miss Susy Haden, a beautiful Creole maiden of this city, has for some time
past been casting fond and loving glances upon our modest but susceptable
young friend, Bobby Gill. The rich, creamy complection, dreamy black eyes
and glossy, raven ringlets of the fair enchantress were too much for Bobby,
and last Sunday night he cast his fortune and affections at her feet. A little
after midnight the report was circulated among the boys that Robert was
basking in the enervating luxury of Susy's presence, and a party of convivial
spirits, including the defendant, repaired to Susie's home, with mischievous
design to ruthlessly drag the gentle Bobby from the genial glow of the balmy
smiles of his lady love just for funl It was cruel sport to thus tear apart two
loving hearts which were no doubt entwined at that time in a loving embrace,
but when Dodge City boys start in for fun and mischief, they don't stop to
think about the sentimental features of the case.
The rumor proved true, and when the boys entered the Castle de Coon,
Bobby was there in person "with both hands," and himself and Susy were
occupying positions relative to each other of such a delicate nature as to
entirely prohibit us from describing in these chaste and virtuous columns.
Suffice it to say that Mr. Gilmore was dragged from the downy couch, and
when he made a hostile protest the defendant in the above entitled case had
a very formidable gun four inches long, which he "banged and bluffed around"
in a manner which Bobby despised.
220 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mr. P. Sughrue, the night watchman, happened around about this stage
of the game and took charge of the gun, when the party broke up and each
retired to his virtuous couch.
The Court said he thought fifteen dollars and costs would be about right.
A couple of months later Pat's humanity was not repaid in kind
when a tramp whom he had befriended not only attempted to steal
from him but also tried to kill D. D. Colley. The Dodge City Times,
May 12, 1877, carried the story on its front page:
MURDEROUS ASSAULT.
A DESPERATE TRAMP ATTEMPTS TO KILL COL. D. D. COLLEY.
Dodge City is just now especially favored by the tramp fraternity. It seems
to be the jumping off place for the Westward bound tramp (they invariably
travel toward the setting sun). Some weeks ago one walked into town rejoic-
ing in the name of John W. Charlton. He was six feet high in his soleless
boots, and robust, muscular and healthy, as the professional tramp always is.
He soon discovered that there was another "J ac k Charlton" in the city, and
rushed into the TIMES office with the request that if the other Jack Charlton
ever had to be mentioned we should leave out the name for fear it might be
mistaken for himself by his friends. After taking this precautionary measure
to preserve his fair name from polluting stains, he began to cultivate the
acquaintance of Mr. P. Shugrue, who was moved with compassion by his
destitute condition, and furnished him bed and board until such time as he
could obtain employment. Pat also gave him a new pair of shoes and supplied
him with a shot gun that he might amuse himself killing ducks until he found
work.
Week after week passed by and still Mr. Shugrue's guest reveled in idleness.
Finally Mr. Shugrue took the matter in hand himself, and soon secured a good
situation for his protege under Mr. Frolic. An expression of melancholy sadness
came over Mr. Charl ton's face when he learned of the toil in store for him;
but Mr. Shugrue persuaded him to try it, and for one day he submitted to being
reduced to the position of a servile hireling. His proud spirit, however, rebelled
against an occupation so inferior to his exalted ideas, and in the evening he
demanded his time and abandoned the job. The receipts of the day enabled
him to drown his sorrows in the flowing bowl. Visions of duck shooting with
Shugrue's gun flitted through his mind, and again he felt that happy days
were yet in store for him; that life was not all a dreary desert. Vain antici-
pation; delusive expectationl For no sooner had Mr. Shugrue learned that
our tramp had boldly shaken from him the shackles of toil than he cruelly drove
him from the genial fireside and smoking viands which were so necessary to
his comfort.
Such insolence could not fail to provoke Mr. Charlton's indignation; his
chivalrous nature cried out for vengeance, and the next morning during Mr.
Shugrue's temporary absence from the blacksmith shop he sneaked in and
took what tools he could secrete in his pockets, under his coat and in his
bosom. As he was leaving the shop Mr. Shugrue met him and noticed the
end of a long file sticking from one pocket, the handle of a hammer protruding
from another, while a pair of tongs and a few bars of pig iron were partly
exposed below his coat tails. His late benefactor at once commenced applying
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 221
a cowhide boot to our hero's person, and every kick made an implement drop.
Supposing all the plunder had been disgorged Mr. Shugrue gathered up the
tools and started for the shop. Charlton then drew a heavy sodering iron from
his pocket and, sneaking up behind Shugrue, aimed a murderous blow at his
head. The action was observed by a bystander, and Mr. S. was warned just
in time to escape. C. then publicly registered a vow to burn the city to ashe,
but Marshal Deger escorted him to the dog house, where he remained until
evening, when he was released on condition that he would leave town. Be-
tween 9 and 10 o'clock the same night Harry Boyer saw him skulking and
hiding between Webster's store and Beatty & Kelley's restaurant.
About half -past 11 the same night Col. Colley passed through the alley
where our bloodthirsty tramp was lying in wait for plunder to subsist upon
during his pilgrimage away from our city to some more congenial clime. As
the Col. was crossing the culvert a switch engine commenced blowing off
steam. This was the time for the assassin to get in his work. The escaping
steam prevented his footsteps from being heard, and the first intimation Col.
Colley had that danger was near, was the terrible blow on the back of his
head, which caused him to stagger forward a few steps and fall on his hands
and knees. Although too much stunned to rise up immediately, the Col. man-
aged to turn around and face his would-be murderer, who was coming for him
again. The miscreant hesitated in surprise on seeing that his attempt was a
failure, and the Col. soon recovered sufficiently to rise up and start for the
assailant, calling "police," which caused him to flee. A streak of light from
a window falling upon the retreating figure satisfied Col. Colley that it was
John Charlton, who had been ejected from the Long Branch a day or two
before as a nuisance [Colley then owned one-half of the Long Branch saloon].
Dr. McCarty examined the wound and found that the scull was bare and
exposed but not fractured. The weapon used was a stone weighing between
eight and ten pounds.
Mr. Charlton was arrested next day on a charge of assault with intent to
kill, and last Wednesday was brought before Judge Frost for preliminary
examination. He acted as his own lawyer, and managed his case in a cool and
sagacious manner which showed he had been there before. But the Judge
decided to let the District Court have a whack at him, and bound him over
in the sum of $3,000. The prisoner will languish in jail until court sets.
On November 6, 1877, Pat Sughrue was elected constable of the
township in the same election that placed Bat Masterson in the
sheriff's office. 1 Like Bat, and many other prominent Dodgeites,
Sughrue was a member of the volunteer Dodge City Fire Company.
On January 7, 1878, he narrowly missed being elected second assist-
ant marshal of the fire fighting unit. Instead Charles S. Hungerford
won the position. 2
One of the Sughrues, possibly Pat, was arrested on March 29,
1878, for fighting at the Long Branch. The Ford County Globe,
April 2, stated:
A lively rough and tumble fight occurred Friday night at the Long Branch.
One Brannon catching it on the head from a six-shooter, and Mr. Sughrue
222 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
having his eyes somewhat damaged. Squire Cfook]. made it $11.50 foi S.,
and acquitted B.
"Pat Sughrue has discovered a chalk mine of countless value.
Some of the chalk is on exhibition at this office/' reported the Times,
April 27, 1878, and "Pat Sughrue and Tom Goodman, blacksmiths,
are manufacturing a large number of cattle brands. Some of the
brands are ingeniously wrought/' it said on September 7, 1878.
As constable, Pat arrested Charles Trask for mule stealing on
December 29. The Times, January 4, 1879, related:
Sunday last, Constable Pat Sughrue found two of the Government mules
which were stolen a few weeks ago on Bluff creek. The mules were in pos-
session of Charles Trask, and were found south of the river. Trask was arrested
but the trial was postponed until Monday next. Constable Sughrue received
the fifty dollars reward which had been offered for the recovery of the mules. 3
A few days later Pat testified to one of the more unsavory aspects
of frontier Me. The Ford County Globe, February 17, 1879, re-
printed the story from the Leavenworth Press:
THE HAYDEN CASE.
A BRIEF RESUME THEREOF, WITH RECENT AFFIDAVITS,
RECENTLY FILED FOR DEFENDANT.
On the 6th of December, 1878, the Press published a statement of a rape
committed upon a married lady who had arrived in the city [Leavenworth]
the night before, from the western part of the State, in search of an erring
daughter. The rape alleged had been committed by Isaac Hayden, a colored
man who had met her at the depot, found out her mission, and succeeded in
decoying her to his house by pretending to assist her in searching for her
daughter, where he raped her. Her husband and family, in the western part
of the State, were also described as being in very destitute circumstances. The
trial of Hayden was had and he was pronounced guilty; but various motions
have interposed to prevent his sentence. Among other proceedings had in this
interesting case, affidavits were recently filed, the substance of which are as
follows:
H. B. BELL
of Dodge City, Ford county, Kansas deposed: That early in the year 1878,
he became acquainted with Mrs. Mary Malosh, sometimes known as Mary
Castill, whose family consisted of herself, her husband, J. D. Malosh, a fourteen-
year old daughter called Bell Castill and two small children. Mrs. Malosh
at said time was employed as cook in a dance hall on Locust street, in Dodge
City, kept by Henry Heck, and she, with her entire family, lived in the
building. The dance house was a long frame building, with a hall and bar
ui front and sleeping rooms in the rear. The hall was nightly used for dancing,
and was frequented by prostitutes, who belonged to the house and for the bene-
fit of it solicited the male visitors to dance. The rooms in the rear were
occupied, both during the dancing hours and after, and both day and night
by the women for the purpose of prostitution.
Bell Castill, while her mother cooked in the house, to the best of Mr. Bell's
belief, carried on prostitution like the other women, and with her mother's
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 223
knowledge she danced and drank as the rest, and to her friends and acquaint-
ances made no secret of her doings. Furthermore he believed that Bell helped
to keep the family with the money she earned by prostitution; and that her
mother instructed and encouraged her to do so. And that, after the family
left this house Bell was an inmate of other houses; and that he (affiant)
believes Mrs. encouraged and consented to the conduct of her daughter.
PATRICK SUGHRUE,
after stating that he had read the affidavit of Mr. Bell, deposed that he believes
it to be true to his own knowledge; that he was present at the first dance given
after the Malosh family moved into the house, when Mrs. Malosh forced Bell,
who was apparently young and inexperienced to dance; that Bell told him it
was her first experience in a dance house; that thereafter daily, as he believes,
Bell led the same life of shame and that it was with the advice and encourage-
ment of her mother, and the family used her money so earned for support; that
Mrs. Malosh insisted on such a life from her daughter.
Short items in the Times, like the flickering and temporary images
on a motion picture screen, depicted Pat's life for the next year.
August 16, 1879: "Pat Sughrue and J. S. Marcus left for Hays City
on Tuesday. Mr. Marcus has a faint hope of finding his lost horses.
He has some trace of them." August 30, 1879: "Pat Sughrue and
J. S. Marcus returned Tuesday evening, having failed to find the
horses lost by Mr. Marcus." September 6, 1879: "Patrick Sughrue
has taken the position of farrier at Fort Dodge. He is an excellent
workman, and we wish him success." November 8, 1879: "Pat
Sughrue, long a resident of these parts, has gone to Colorado, and
will take charge of the horse-shoeing of the horses of a mail line
into Leadville. Pat's friends wish him success." April 17, 1880:
"Patrick Sughrue has taken charge of the blacksmith shop formerly
managed by him. Mr. Sughrue was married in Colorado, and with
his wife will make a permanent residence in Dodge City."
Pat became a public servant once again with his election to the
city council on April 4, 1881. Other councilmen elected were A. H.
Boyd, C. M. Beeson, George S. Emerson, and H. T. Drake; A. B.
Webster was mayor. This new council and mayor appointed Fred
Singer, marshal, and Tom Nixon, assistant marshal. 4
A year later this same administration was re-elected with the
exception that Ham Bell replaced H. T. Drake on the council. 5
Still another year and the old "gang" had suffered a split. Pat
Sughrue now supported W. H. Harris for mayor though Webster,
Bell, Drake, Emerson, and others chose L. E. Deger. 6 The rift
yawned into the almost unspannable chasm of the "Dodge City
war." Sughrue and his friends, including T. J. Tate, Nelson Gary,
James H. Kelley, W. F. Petillon, etc., were proponents of the Luke
Short faction and of course the other side included Webster and
224 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Deger. See the section on Luke Short for the story of these troubles.
One of the adhesives which patched up the battered political
arena of Dodge City was a newly formed militia unit, the "Click
Guards." Persons who had been on the opposing sides in the recent
troubles enlisted side by side. The commander was Capt. Patrick
F. Sughrue. 7
In the fall of 1883 Pat was nominated for sheriff. Apparently a
rumor to the effect that, if elected, he would appoint Bat Masterson
under sheriff was designed to injure Pat's chances at the polls. In
the Ford County Globe, October 16, 1883, he discounted the notion:
NOTICE.
Some of the opposition or Singer faction are circulating a report among
stockmen that in the event I am elected Sheriff, W. B. Masterson will be my
under sheriff, which I positively assert is false; not that Mr. Masterson wouldn't
be fully competent and acceptable to a great many people in this county, but
he is not a resident of this state and has no intention of becoming such. I am
sure, however, that he would reflect as much credit to the office as Mysterious
Dave, who will be Mr. Singer's right-hand man.
Respectfully,
P. F. SUGHRUE.
In spite of, or because of, the tactics used on both sides Sughrue
won the office with 488 votes to Singer's 343. The election had been
held November 6, 1883. 8
Pat was sworn in January 14, 1884. The Globe, January 15, re-
ported:
The new county officers elect took charge of their respective offices yester-
day. The county board organized by electing the oldest member of the board,
J. D. Shaffer, chairman, a very deserving compliment to that gentleman.
Sheriff Sughrue moved into the court house yesterday and has assumed charge
of not only presiding officer as sheriff of the county, but as jailor. He will hold
the key to the jail. T. J. Tate is his under-sheriff; a good selection, and who
will make an excellent officer. . . . 9
Sughrue's first recorded official act took place three days later.
The Globe, January 22, 1884, carried this short item:
Sheriff P. F. Sughrue and special deputy sheriff Clark Chipman, took Al.
Thurman to Lamed on a writ of habeas corpus before Judge Strang, last
Thursday, on complaint of an excessive bond. Judge Cook, of this city, bound
the defendant over in the sum of $5,000 for his appearance at the next term
of our district court on the charge of attempting to take the life of Geo. Miller.
Judge Strang reduced the bond to $1,500, and the prisoner was remanded
to the jail of the county.
The same day the sheriff "disarmed" some of his incarcerated
prisoners. The Globe, January 22, 1884, told of it:
Sheriff Sughrue in making the rounds of the jail last Thursday found sundry
articles that he did not care to leave in the possession of his prisoners, to-wit:
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 225
A two-bladed pocket knife, and a case knife which was transformed into a saw.
The first article named was supplied by Mrs. Wiggins, who was residing in the
jailors rooms, and admitted to have been so supplied by Charles Ellsworth, who
is one of the inmates of the jail. Sheriff Sughrue, since he has taken charge
of the court house, has laid down some very rigid rules for the government
of the temple over which he presides.
"P. F. Sughrue on last Thursday night [January 24] caged a horse
thief. We did not learn where he was captured/' said the Globe,
January 29, 1884.
"Sheriff Sughrue and under sheriff Tate started for the state peni-
tentiary Sunday noon [February 10] with Charles Ellsworth and
Harry Kennedy, to which place they were sentenced for one year
each, on a charge of stealing horses," according to the Globe, Feb-
ruary 12, 1884. 10
Leavenworth had been the Sughrues' home. The Globe, February
19, 1884, copied from the Leavenworth Times:
Pat. Sughrue, formerly of Leavenworth, and now the sheriff of Ford county,
Kansas, visited the Times office yesterday, in company with T. J. Tate, Esq.,
of Dodge City. We are pleased to hear of his prosperity, and also to hear
of the good health of his father whom our citizens well remember, and also
his brother Michael, who is now the jailor of that county. Mike was a faithful,
brave soldier of the old Seventh Kansas, and deserves kindly remembrance for
his services in the war for the union.
The sheriff and Deputy Bill Tilghman captured a horse thief on
March 16. The Dodge City Democrat, March 22, 1884, reported:
Sheriff Sughrue and Deputy Tilghman on last Sunday caught an Edwards
county horse thief. Sheriff Billings, of Edwards county, came up on Sunday
and found his man safely in jail. Sughrue made Billings a present of him
and thereby saved the County of Ford a hundred or two dollars. That's right,
Pat, we don't kick; the Colonel told us the fellow was broke, anyhow.
The Ford County Globe, April 29, 1884, reported that Sughrue
had arrested an accidental murderer:
Sheriff Sughrue returned Saturday from his tiip to Hutchinson where he
arrested Phil. Leslie, who shot the tramp at Pierceville the day previous.
Leslie was placed under a bond for his appearance at next term of court,
which he had no trouble giving, and was at once released. This is an un-
fortunate affair for Leslie, as if we are correctly informed he had no inten-
tion whatever of killing any of the party that attempted to board the train,
but simply fired as he supposed over their heads to scare them off. Unfor-
tunately he hit one, who fell dead in his tracks. 11
Sughrue was one of the sports who organized a Dodge City
baseball club in the spring of 1884. Others interested included
Bob Wright, Bat Masterson, A. B. Webster, and W. H. Harris. 12
15_2840
226 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The enforcement of law kept Sughrue pretty busy, however.
When it was reported that former Gov. John P. St. John and A. B.
Campbell would come to Dodge to attend a series of temperance
meetings it was rumored that liquor loving Dodge Citians would
offend them with alcoholic violence. The city and county police
co-operated to protect the visitors. The Dodge City Times, May 22,
1884, reported their success :
The suggestion that trouble or insult would likely take place should Mr.
Campbell and Gov. St. John come to Dodge City, was entirely gratuitous.
Whether any insult was apprehended or not we do not know or believe, but
we must compliment City Marshal Tilghman and Sheriff Sughrue for their
judgement and prudence on the late visit of Mr. Campbell and others. Both
of these officers were at the trains during the arrival and departure of Mr.
Campbell and both officers were in attendance at the meetings. They would
have arrested the first man who would have offered any violence or insult. We
highly commend them for this display of official duty, and their conduct will
receive the praise from every one who desires peace, good order and good
government.
On May 31, 1884, the Dodge City Democrat reported that
A brute named Harvey Cox, living with his family in a dugout near the
round-house was arrested by Sheriff Sughrue on Monday [May 26] charged
with the heinous crime of incest, having defiled the person of his twelve-year-
old daughter. He was jailed, and this after-noon Judge Cook held him for
trial. The whole family are said to be hard characters.
The Democrat of May 31 also asked:
"What has become of 'crazy' Burns?" is what the officers would like to know.
When last seen he was crazy as a loon about four miles south of the river,
but when Sheriff Sughrue and Marshal Tilghman went out after him he had
departed for fields new and pastures green.
A burglar was next, according to the Globe, June 3, 1884:
Sheriff Sughrue rounded up another man on Sunday morning [June 1],
and placed him behind the bars of our county jail to keep him out of future
mischief. This time it was a professional burglar, who broke into the store
of Geo. Hall, at Spearville, Saturday night, and carried away a small amount
of change, goods etc. Our sheriff was immediately notified of the burglary,
and captured him on Sunday morning. On the person of the prisoner were
found a full set of keys blanks and others, a dozen or more of fine saws,
picks, cold chisel, a cake of wax, and other implements necessary to the pro-
fession of a burglar. He also had in his possession a slip of paper containing
the names of Wright, Beverley & Co., and York, Parker Draper, Mercantile
company, of this city.
On June 3 Pat took a breather and attended the Republican
national convention in Chicago. The Globe, June 3, 1884, told of
his departure:
Sheriff Sughrue goes to Chicago to-day and will attend the convention.
Pat will meet many of his old comrades in the army. He has a free pass and
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 227
a ticket for a seat, and he only needs to remind Logan [Gen. John A. Logan
who was nominated vice-president] of the forty-seven days fight before Vicks-
burg to have some one to introduce him.
Perhaps the sheriff returned only to leave Dodge again, or maybe
he swung south to Fort Worth before coming home. In any case he
appeared in Dodge on June 8 with a prisoner whom he had picked
up in Texas. The Times, June 12, 1884, said:
Sheriff Sughrue returned Sunday night with Wm. Bird, who is charged
with cattle stealing. Bird was arrested in Texas, and will have a trial at the
present term of the District Court.
Regarding the arrest the Globe, June 10, 1884, said:
Too much credit cannot be given Sheriff Sughrue, who, whenever he has
been sent after a criminal, has always brought him back, and has been the
means of capturing some very hard citizens. When you want a man send Pat
after him.
"Sheriff Sughrue, City Marshal Tilghman and Under Sheriffs Tate
and Dave Mather are home again from taking the prisoners to the
State penitentiary ," reported the Dodge City Democrat, June 28,
1884. 13 On his return "Sheriff Sughrue arrested Walter Payne, in
this city on Last Thursday [July 3], on a charge of horse stealing
made by outside parties," according to the Globe, July 8, 1884.
Sheriff Sughrue was the arresting officer who apprehended Mys-
terious Dave Mather after he had killed Tom Nixon on July 21,
1884. For Pat's testimony see the section on Mather.
On August 6, 1884, Pat attended a meeting of militia officers in
Topeka. The Democrat, August 9, reported:
Our sheriff, P. F. Shugrue [sic], who is captain of the Click Guards, at-
tended a meeting of the regimental and company officers of the militia of
Kansas, held at Topeka on last Wednesday. While there, Pat. stopped a big
row that occurred in one of the hotels, by simply producing his old "45's."
The scattering that took place was simply immense. 14
Upon the sheriff's return he again performed a series of arrests.
"Sheriff Shugrue [sic], on last Tuesday [August 19], arrested two
colored men for stealing saddles out of Wright & Go's store. Both
are held for grand larceny," said the Democrat, August 23, 1884. 15
On September 6, 1884, the Democrat reported:
About six weeks ago, H. Longnen had one of his horses stolen, and yesterday
Sheriff Sughrue received word that the horse had been found at Newton, and
the thief, who gave his name as Alfred D. Partridge, was in custody. The
sheriff started after the prisoner to-day.
"Horse thieves are getting numerous around here again, two were
brought in last week. Our sheriff don't let them linger around long,"
the Democrat remarked on September 13, 1884. On September 15
228 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Sughrue left for Galveston by way of Topeka where he obtained a
requisition for a forger. 16 The Globe Live Stock Journal, September
23, 1884, reported Pat's success:
"I told you so," and we did, in our last issue when we said Sheriff P. F.
Sughrue had gone to Texas and would return with his man. A telegram from
Patrick dated Galveston, Texas, Monday September 22d, says, "I've got my
man and start for home this morning." We hope to tell our readers whom he
brings next week.
The Dodge City Kansas Cowboy, September 27, 1884, said the
prisoner was one C. A. Grouthouse:
Sheriff Sughrue returned to Dodge City last Thursday morning, having in
charge the man who had a forged draft on the Franklyn Cattle company cashed
by R. M. Wright, last July. The forger was arrested at Galveston by John
Williamson and Jerry Lordan, special detectives of that place, who held the
forger until the arrival there of Mr. Sughrue last week, to whom the criminal
was transferred by his captors. Williamson and Lordan accompanied Mr.
Sughrue to Dodge City. The amount cashed by Mr. Wright was $3,000, but
subsequently $1,000 of it was recovered. The forger claims the cognomen
of C. A. Grouthouse. He is now in jail at this place. 17
A Coolidge man who had killed his wife was next on Sheriff
Sughrue's list. The Dodge City Democrat, October 4, 1884, re-
ported the facts:
SHOT AND KILLED HIS WIFE.
On Thursday night at Coolidge, Kans., at about 12 o'clock, James Dempsey,
shot and killed his wife, while in bed. Mrs. Dempsey had been sick for a few
weeks back, and a child was born to them two weeks ago. Dempsey
had been on a drunk for a few days, and was drunk on the day previous to the
murder, and had repeatedly stated that his wife was a source of expense to
him, and that he would kill her. She was shot through the head by a pistol
ball, and killed instantly. The pistol was found in the bed.
His version of the story is, that while asleep he was awakened by a pistol
shot, and discovered his wife had been shot. He believing that she had shot
herself.
He was sent to this city immediately on being arrested, to save him from
being lynched. He arrived here on the one o'clock train and was taken
back on the 2:40 train accompanied by Sheriff Sughrue, and Deputies Tate and
Gary, to be tried. It is generally believed that he is guilty. 18
A different type of crime resulted in Pat arresting a young Dodge
resident. The Times, October 23, 1884, reported:
TOTAL DEPRAVITY.
An obscene circular was discovered in this city Monday last. A bundle
of these circulars was picked up on the street, having fallen out of the pocket
of a young man who lives here. The printing of these circulars was done in
the Democrat office in this city, under the direction of the editor of that
infamous sheet. The arrest of Edwards was made Monday evening, by Sheriff
Sughrue, who swore out the warrant. The arrest of Charley, the young man
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 229
who ordered the printing, was also made, and these dispensers of villainous
trash were admitted to bail, and will have to answer to the charge of printing
and circulating obscene literature.
We were shown a copy of the printed slip containing the filthy matter,
and we must say that we are utterly surprised to learn that there is a man
in Dodge City so low in moral instincts as to give such stuff circulation. The
vilest slum on the continent wouldn't tolerate the filthy circular discovered
Monday last. A Democratic editor is left to disgrace his office and calling by
the printing of such detestible matter.
We are glad to chronicle the fact that the better sentiment of the community
is growing sufficiently strong to ferret out the perpetrators of outrages and to
give them the benefit of the law. Every one who heard of the obscene matter
condemned the authors in unmeasured terms. Sheriff Sughrue and some of our
citizens hastily and successfully brought the perpetrators of the outrage to
punishment, and deserve the thanks of an injured community. Some of this
vile matter had found its way to the school children, and the capture of the
vile print and the arrest of the perpetrators was timely.
As sheriff of Ford county Pat Sughrue was interested in the
double killing at Ashland November 26, 1884. Pat dispatched his
twin brother, Mike, to the scene; the results have been reprinted
in the section on Mike Sughrue.
"Last week Sheriff Sughrue arrested three men, charged with
burglary and put them in jail. The county officers are on the alert
for offenders," said the Times, December 18, 1884.
The 1885 Kansas state census for Ford county listed P. F. Sughrue
as a 41-year-old sheriff. Also listed was Pat's cousin, Daniel
Sughrue, under sheriff, 43 years old.
Sheriff Sughrue arrested Mysterious Dave Mather for murder a
second time on May 10, 1885. This crime, the killing of David
Barnes, has also been covered in the section on Mather.
Pat foiled an attempted jail break on the night of May 23, 1885.
The Globe, May 26, carried the story:
A BOLD ATTEMPT TO BREAK JAIL
SHERIFF SUGHRUE AS A RECEPTION COMMITTEE.
In one of the large steel cells in our county jail up to Saturday evening
were confined ten prisoners. These prisoners are let out from eight in the
morning until nine or ten o'clock at night into the room in which their cell is.
Last Friday evening Sheriff Sughrue remarked that the boys were in a happy
mood as they were singing, and told the jailor to examine the jail carefully;
that was all he said, but himself set about to discover why such long and con-
tinued hilarity with the prisoners. Saturday he knew all about their little
scheme, and appointed himself a committee of one on reception when they
should step from the jail.
By some means the prisoners had got hold of a large pocket knife and a
razor with which they cut a hole through the ceiling large enough for all but
one of the prisoners to get through. The work of enlarging the hole began
230 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Saturday evening, and the exact time could be told by the music that arose
from that room. The reception committee was also on hand in his stocking
feet with a six-shooter in his hand, ready to knock the top of the head off the
first man that raised above the floor. From some reason they got suspicious
that some one was up stairs and put off further operations for the night, and
were soon after locked up in their cells, where they have been kept ever since.
It would have required but a few minutes more work to have enlarged
the hole and cut through the floor which was partly cut through when, if the
sheriff had not been present, they would have landed in the center of the main
hall on the first floor of the court house, about twelve feet from the door.
Their plan was to escape a few minutes before nine o'clock when no one was
liable to be in the court house, and having the whole night before them and
fifteen or twenty minutes time before the jailor would come to lock them in
their cells, their chances for escape were pretty good. 19
In July Sheriff Sughrue was one of those who were asked their
opinion of the difficulty in enforcing prohibition. The interrogator
was Att. Gen. S. B. Bradford and the interview was mentioned in
the Dodge City Democrat, July 11, 1885:
The Attorney-General arrived here last Tuesday [July 7] and were met by
our mayor, R. M. Wright, sheriff P. Sughrue, A. Gluck and the editor of the
DEMOCRAT. In the interview at the hotel with the Attorney-General on the
most important subject, (the disturbance caused by the arrival of Griffin and
Jetmore in our city,) [see the section on Bat Masterson] the facts were pre-
sented to him by the mayor and sheriff, giving him complete outline of the
affair. The prohibition faction were invited to present their side of the case
but did not appear at that time. During the conversation the Attorney-
General asked the sheriff the number of saloons that had been running previous
to the passing of the prohibitory law last winter, and was told that there were
seventeen. He then asked how many were now running open and was told
that there were about ten, and the sheriff also told him that the people here
did not feel as though they ought to close, when saloons were running open in
such cities as Leavenworth, Atchison, etc. After a little more conversation
on the subject, the Attorney-General said it was not his duty to seek this infor-
mation himself. He stopped in our city two days and visited nearly all the
principal business houses. He seemed well pleased with the looks of our city,
with its hundreds of new buildings in course of construction.
On August 17 "Sheriff Sughrue arrived in Ashland . . . with
McKinney, who committed the murder at Englewood, on July 4th,
and will probably arrive here to-day with his prisoner. McKinney
will be lodged in our jail until next term of court unless bonds are
furnished," reported the Democrat, August 22, 1885.
In September Sughrue went to New York where he obtained a
prisoner who later escaped on the return trip to Dodge. The Demo-
crat, September 12, 1885, said:
Sheriff Sughrue returned last Wednesday morning from his trip to New
York. He secured Wiseman at that place after a good deal of trouble, and
COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS 231
was bringing him home, but when they reached Godfrey, 111., Wiseman made
his escape through the water closet of the car. The sheriff, however, brought
the goods back with him that Wiseman had stolen.
The incident was to give Pat some trouble when he ran for re-
election in the fall. The Globe Live Stock Journal, October 20,
1885, stated the problem:
Sheriff Sughrue's opponents in the race for sheriff of Ford county, are
bringing up the unfortunate escape of Israel Wiseman from said Sughrue,
while enroute from New York City to Dodge City, charging him with all kinds
of misconduct in this matter. We desire to say to these fellows who still
persist in charging sheriff Sughrue with any neglect to duty in this matter,
that if they will take as much pains in finding out the truth in this matter as
they have in giving credence to the unjust report that he did not do his duty,
and will call at this office, we will convince them by official documents that
Sughrue is entirely blameless and acted in good faith, and cannot be held
responsible for the escape of Mr. Wiseman.
In the same issue the Globe reprinted a commendatory letter from
Gov. G. W. Click:
Read what ex-governor G. W. Click thought of P. F. Sughrue as an officer
of the law, and then determine whether he hadn't ought to be re-elected to the
office he so honorably filled:
TOPEKA, Sept. 22, 1884.
To P. F. SUGHRUE, SHERIFF, DODGE CITY, KANSAS.
MY DEAR SIR: I was very much gratified to be reliably informed that under
my proclamation and the law your efficiency as an officer in protecting the
large stock interests of your county is worthy of the highest commendation.
It has been stated to me that you have gone out among incoming herds
where Texas fever was feared, and by your promptness and energy, and
prudent management (in one instance at least) have turned back herds that
would have spread destruction amongst the cattle of Kansas, and would have
produced great damage and loss to the stock owners of our state. I understand
that the owners, after you stating your authority, and producing the proclama-
tion and notifying them that nothing would save them from the severest prose-
cution under the law, finally decided to leave the state at once.
I certainly commend your discretion and firmness in this matter. I hope
that others will feel the necessity of acting as promptly and discreetly in this
matter. I desire, therefore, to thank you in the name of the good people of
our state, whom you have protected against that fearful disease the Texas
fever.
I am, sir most respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
G. W. GLICK.20
Pat's campaign was successfully managed and when the election
was over he had garnered victory with a count of 1,052 votes to
R. W. Tarbox's 926, and T. J. Tate's 189. 21
Though Patrick F. Sughrue was only beginning another term as a
major peace officer, research was discontinued at this point because
232 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dodge City was no longer a trail-end city and the duties of its law
officers assumed the character of similar officers in other settled
progressive communities. After 1885 and 1886 Dodge City no
longer was to gear itself for the summer cattle drives from Texas
which brought dusty drovers flocking to its refreshment and enter-
tainment palaces.
1. Dodge City Times, November 10, 1877. 2. Ibid., January 12, 1878. 3. See, also,
Ford County Globe, Dodge City, January 1, 1879. 4. Dodge City Times, April 7, 1881.
5. Ibid., April 6, 1882. 6. Ford County Globe, March 20, 1883. 7. Ibid., June 5, 1883;
Dodge City Times, August 30, 1883. 8. Ibid., November 22, 1883; Ford County Globe,
November 20, 1883. 9. See, also, Dodge City Times, January 17, 1884. 10. See, also,
Dodge City Democrat, February 16, 1884. 11. See, also, Dodge City Democrat, May 3,
1884. 12. Ibid. 13. See, also, Ford County Globe, July 1, 1884. 14. See, also, Dodge
City Times, August 14, 1884; Dodge City Kansas Cowboy, August 9, 16, 1884. 15. See,
also, Dodge City Kansas Cowboy, August 23, 1884. 16. Globe Live Stock Journal, Dodge
City, September 16, 1884; Dodge City Democrat, September 20, 1884; Dodge City Kansas
Cowboy, September 20, 1884. 17. Dodge City Democrat, September 27, 1884. 18. See,
also, Globe Live Stock Journal, October 7, 1884. 19. See, also, Dodge City Times, May 28,
1885; Dodge City Democrat, May 30, 1885. 20. See, also, "Governors' Correspondence,"
archives division, Kansas State Historical Society. 21. Globe Live Stock Journal, November
10, 1885.
(To Be Concluded in the Autumn, 1962, Issue.)
Recent Additions to the Library
Compiled by ALBERTA PANTLE, Librarian
IN ORDER that members of the Kansas State Historical Society
and others interested in historical study may know the class of
books the Society's library is receiving, a list is printed annually of
those accessioned in its specialized fields.
These books come from three sources, purchase, gift, and ex-
change, and fall into the following classes: Books by Kansans and
about Kansas; books on American Indians and the West, including
explorations, overland journeys, and personal narratives; genealogy
and local history; and books on United States history, biography,
and allied subjects which are classified as general. The out-of -state
city directories received by the Historical Society are not included
in this compilation.
The library also receives regularly the publications of many his-
torical societies by exchange, and subscribes to other historical and
genealogical publications which are needed in reference work.
The following is a partial list of books which were received from
October 1, 1960, through September 30, 1961. Federal and state
official publications and some books of a general nature are not in-
cluded. The total number of books accessioned appears in the re-
port of the Society's secretary printed in the Spring, 1962, issue of
The Kansas Historical Quarterly.
KANSAS
ADAMS, SHERMAN, Firsthand Report; the Story of the Eisenhower Administra-
tion. New York, Harper & Brothers [c!961]. 481p.
AMARAL, ANTHONY A., Comanche, the Horse That Survived the Custer Mas-
sacre. Los Angeles, Westernlore Press, 1961. 86p.
[AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, LEAVENWORTH BRANCH],
Other Days, Other Ways; One Hundred Hears of Freedom and Progress in
Leavenworth, Kansas, 1861-1961. [Leavenworth, 1961.] 96p.
, MANHATTAN BRANCH, Kansas Official Centennial Cook Book; 100
Years (1861-1961) . . . Manhattan, c!961. lOlp.
AMERICAN LEGION, KANSAS DEPARTMENT, KEITH REEVES POST, No. 3, History,
Volume 1, 1919-1960. [Columbus, Mission Publishing Company, 1961?]
181p.
ANDERSON, GEORGE L., General William Jackson Palmer; Man of Vision. Colo-
rado Springs, Colorado College [c!960]. 23p.
ANDERSON, ROBERT G., Morning Devotions in the Kansas House of Representa-
tives During Seven Sessions. N. p. [c!961]. 218p.
[ARKANSAS CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY], From Trails to Turnpikes. N. p. [1961].
[56]p.
(233)
234 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ATCHISON & PIKE'S PEAK RAILROAD, Statement Showing the First Mortgage
Gold Bearing Six Per Cent Bonds . . . To Be First Class Investment.
New York, B. J. Beck & Company, 1866. 12p.
BABER, RAY E., Marriage and the Family. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Com-
pany, 1953. 719p.
BAIN, WILLIAM E., Frisco Folks; Stories and Pictures of the Great Steam Days
of the Frisco Road . . . Denver, Sage Books [c!961]. 272p.
BAKER, HATTIE A., Center Township, Smith County, Kansas ... No
impr. Typed. 2 Vols.
BALL, ZACHARY, North to Abilene. N. p., Holiday House [c!960]. 190p.
BARKER, MARY LIBAL, Milenka's Happy Summer. New York, Dodd, Mead &
Company [c!961]. 187p.
BAUGHMAN, ROBERT W., Kansas in Maps. Topeka, Kansas State Historical So-
ciety, 1961. 104p.
BEALS, CARLETON, Brass-Knuckle Crusade; the Great Know-Nothing Con-
spiracy, 1820-1860. New York, Hastings House Publishers [c!960]. 312p.
BEASON, ADA LOOMIS, Early Kansas Days and Other Short Stones. No impr.
Unpaged.
BELL, BETTYE J., She Made the Devil Smile. New York, Pageant Press [c!960].
39p.
BENNETT, THOMAS J., History of First Christian Church, 1876-1961. [Hutch-
inson, First Christian Church, 1961?] 147p.
BERNADETTE, MARY, SISTER, Life of a Student Nurse. Do You Belong in
Nursing? Topeka, Myers, c!961. 120p.
BETHEL, BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, Dedication, November 25, 1956. N. p.,
1956? Unpaged.
BLACKWOOD, ANDREW W., The Growing Minister, His Opportunities and Ob-
stacles. New York, Abingdon Press [c!960]. 192p.
BLAIR, WILLIAM NEWTON, Chansung's Confession. Topeka, H. M. Ives and
Sons, 1959. 107p.
BOWMAN, PETER W., Coal-Oil Canyon (14L01) Report on Preliminary Investi-
gations. N. p., Kansas Anthropological Association, 1960. 79p.
BRISTOW, JOSEPH QUAYLE, Tales of Old Fort Gibson . . . New York, Ex-
position Press [c!961]. 246p.
BROWNING, ELVA WARD, The Lighted Trail, a Children's Life of Jesus. New
York, Exposition Press [c!955]. 151p.
BYERS, METHODIST CHURCH, 50th Anniversary, Byers Methodist Church . . .
No impr. Unpaged.
[CAMPBELL, IRVING K.], The Wesley Chapel Story. N. p. [1961]. 72p.
CAMPBELL, ROBERT W., Soviet Economic Power, Its Organization, Growth, and
Challenge. N. p., Houghton Mifflin Company [c!960]. 209p.
[CARR, ROY E.], Condensed History of the City of Harper, Kansas, and Sur-
rounding Territory, 1877-1961. [Harper, De Luxe Printing Company, 1961.]
Unpaged.
CENTENNIAL PRESS, Kansas Centennial: Published During the Centennial Year
by Centennial Press, Containing a Brief History of Our State and Back-
grounds of More Than 200 Cities 6- Towns. Salina, 1961. Unpaged.
CHRISMAN, HARRY E., Lost Trails of the Cimarron. Denver, Sage Books
[c!961]. 304p.
CIMARRON, COMMUNITY METHODIST CHURCH, 75th Anniversary . . . N. p.,
1961. 12p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 235
CLYMER, ROLLA A., Glory of the Hills. [El Dorado, Author, I960.] Unpaged.
Cox, WILLIAM R., Luke Short and His Era. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday &
Company, 1961. 214p.
CRAMER, C. H., Newton D. Baker, a Biography. Cleveland, World Publishing
Company [c!961]. 310p.
DANNETT, SYLVIA G. L., She Rode With the Generals; the True and Incredible
Story of Sarah Emma Seelye, Alias Franklin Thompson. New York, Thomas
Nelson and Sons [c!960]. 326p.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, DANA CHAPTER, COLUMBUS,
Genealogical Records From Dana Chapter. Columbus, 1960-1961. Typed.
[39]p.
DAVIS, MABLE EIGHMY, Little Miss Blunderbuss . . . Norton, Wilson
Carter Printers, c!961. [34]p.
DAVIS, MAUDE HAVER, Early History of Douglass, Kansas. N. p., 1961? Un-
paged.
[DECKER, MRS. MARY], comp., Rossville Christian Church History, 1872-1961,
Rossville, Kansas. N. p., Shawnee County Reporter Print, 1961. 12p.
DERBY, GEORGE C., Cow Chips to Cadillacs; a Story of Early Days in South-
west Kansas. [Garden City, Elliott Printers, c!96L] 147p.
DIGHTON Herald, An Historical Record of Lane County Founded June S, 1866
." . . in Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Lane
County. Dighton, 1961. [66]p.
DILLON, ASA, Coral Strands, an Hawaiian Anthem. Words and Music by Asa
Dillon, Arranged by Rebecca Welty Dunn. Wichita, c!961. 14p.
DOWD, TENA MAY, Famous Green Parrot Recipes. No impr. 304p.
DRAGO, HARRY SINCLAIR, Wild, Woolly & Wicked, the History of the Kansas
Cow Towns and the Texas Cattle Trade. New York, Clarkson N. Potter
[c!960]. 354p.
ENGLISH, E. Lois, Heritage of Faith; a Collection of Poems. New York, Ex-
position Press [c!961]. 320p.
FAILING, ANN JACOBS, and MAURICE ROBINSON, Shoo Fly City; Episodes During
the First 30 Years in the History of South Haven, Kansas. [Oxford, Oxford
Register, c!960.] 109p.
FEIGHNY, MRS. JOHN PATRICK, comp., Jacob Brown Chase, a Colonist of 1854.
No impr. Typed. 4p.
[FELLING, ALOYSIUS J.], Diamond Jubilee, 1885-1960, Sacred Heart Cathedral
Parish . . . Dodge City, Kansas. Dodge City [Rollie Jack, I960]. 66p.
[FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY], Reflections of Franklin County and
Chautauqua Days. N. p. [c!961]. Unpaged.
Frederic Remington Studio Collection, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Buffalo
Bill Historical Center. [New York, Gallery Press] n. d. Unpaged.
FREEMASONS, A. F. &. A., NORTH TOPEKA, GOLDEN RULE LODGE, No. 90,
Ninety Years With Golden Rule Lodge, No. 90 ... [Topeka, Swank
Printing, I960?] 91p.
GARNETT, FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, Beginning Our Second Century . . .
Founded 1859. No impr. Unpaged.
GARTNER, CHLOE, The Infidels. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday & Company,
1960. 428p.
GATES, CLARA, ed., Miami Rhymes, Vols. 3-4, 1959-1960. Osawatomie, Car-
negie Library, 1959-1960. 2 Vols.
236 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
GILFORD, C. B., Quest for Innocence. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons [c!961].
350p.
GLEDHILL, F. H., comp., History of Garfield Township [Smith County]. No
impr. Typed. Unpaged.
GORDON, MILDRED, and GORDON GORDON, Operation Terror. Garden City,
N. Y., Doubleday & Company, 1961. 191p.
GRAY, PATRICK LEOPOLD, Roses Red and White; a Collection of Poems. Sever-
ance, Kan., Author, 1908. 72p.
[GREAT BEND, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE], A Pictorial History of Great Bend;
Special Issue for Kansas Centennial. [Great Bend, 1961.] [26]p.
[GREATER HUTCHINSON CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE], Hutchinson Historical Offi-
cial Centennial Booklet; "From Teepees to TV's!" [Hutchinson] 1961. Un-
paged.
HALSTEAD, METHODIST CHURCH, History of the Methodist Church, Halstead y
Kansas, 1st Date 1960. N. p. [I960]. Unpaged.
HARPER COUNTY RELIGIOUS HERITAGE COMMITTEE, A Historical Collection of
Harper County Churches. Anthony, Committee, n. d. 55p.
HASHINGER, EDWARD H., Arthur E. Hertzler: the Kansas Horse-and-Buggy
Doctor. Lawrence, University of Kansas Press, 1961. 37p.
HAYES, MELVIN L., Mr. Lincoln Runs for President. New York, Citadel Press
[c!960]. 352p.
HEADLEY, A. L., Articles. N. p. [1959]. Typed. Unpaged.
HIGGINSON, FRED H., ed., Anna Livia Plurabelle, the Making of a Chapter.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press [c!960], lllp.
HODGES & KNOX, Topeka, Its Progress and Importance . . . N. p., 1887.
31p.
HOEFLIN, RUTH M., Essentials of Family Living. New York, John Wiley &
Sons [I960]. 282p.
HOLCOMBE and ADAMS, An Account of the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Cen-
tennial Edition. Springfield, Mo., Springfield Public Library and the Greene
County Historical Society, 1961. lllp.
HUBBARD, JEREMIAH, Forty Years Among the Indians. Miami, Okla., Phelps
Printers, 1913. 200p.
HUBER, FLORENCE M., Danny's Luck. Manchester, Me. [c!951]. 13p.
HUMBOLDT, METHODIST CHURCH, First Century of the Methodist Church of
Humboldt, Kansas, 1860-1960. [Humboldt, Humboldt Union] n. d. 39p.
ISE, JOHN, Our National Park Policy; a Critical History. Baltimore, Published
for Resources for the Future, Inc., by the Johns Hopkins Press [c!961].
701p.
ISELY, BLISS, and W. MARVIN RICHARDS, The Kansas Story. Oklahoma City,
Harlow Publishing Corporation [c!961]. 436p.
JACKMAN, MARGUERITE, The Story of the Kansas Kitty. [Hutchinson, Armour-
Brown, c!961.] Unpaged.
JACKSON, MRS. BESSIE, The Sod Home. No impr. lOp.
JACKSON, DORIS, The Kansas Kitty, an Operetta for Young Children, Adapted
From the Book The Kansas Kitty by Marguerite Jackman. [Garnett, Doria
Jackson, c!960.] 13p.
JACOBS, CLYDE E., Justice Frankfurter and Civil Liberties. Berkeley, Univer-
sity of California Press, 1961. 265p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 237
JACOBSON, A. H., Adventures of a Prairie Preacher. Chicago, Covenant Press
[cl960]. 115p.
JAMESON, HENRY B., Heroes by the Dozen. First (Kansas Centennial) Edition.
Abilene, Shadinger-Wilson Printers [c!961]. 203p.
[JANES, DONALD W.], Benjamin Franklin Goss; Pioneer, Soldier, Naturalist.
(Reprinted from The Landmark, Vol. 4, No. 2, April, 1961.) [7]p.
JANTZEN, PAUL G., The Ecology of a Boggy Marsh in Stafford County, Kansas.
Emporia, Kansas State Teachers College, 1960. 47p. (The Emporia State
Research Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, December, 1960. )
JONES, HORACE, and MARY JONES, One Hundred Fifty Familiar Wild Flowers
of Central Kansas. Centennial Edition. [Lyons, Lyons Publishing Com-
pany] 1961? Unpaged.
JUNCTION CITY, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, A Brief Historical Sketch of the
First Presbyterian Church . . . [by John B. Jeffries]. N. p., 1961.
Unpaged.
KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB, 1961 Yearbook. Newton, Herald Book and Printing
Company, 1961. 104p.
KANSAS FOLKLORE SOCIETY, Teaching Folklore in the Classroom, a Symposium
. . . Edited by William E. Koch. Manhattan, Castle-Patrick Publishing
Company [1961]. 77p.
Kansas Magazine, 1961. [Manhattan, Kansas Magazine Publishing Association,
c!960.] 104p.
KAUFFMAN, CAROLYN, How To Teach Children To Swim. New York, G. P.
Putnam's Sons [c!960]. 192p.
KAUFMAN, GORDON D., The Context of Decision; a Theological Analysis. New
York, Abingdon Press [c!961]. 126p.
KLIEWER, WARREN, and STANLEY J. SOLOMON, eds., Kansas Renaissance; With
an Introduction by Allen Crafton. [Lindsborg] Coronado Publications
[c!961]. 173p.
LANGFORD, LOUISE M., Guidance of the Young Child. New York, John Wiley
& Sons [I960]. 349p.
LATHROP, AMY, Pioneer Remedies From Western Kansas. (Reprinted from
Western Folklore, Vol. 20, No. 1, January, 1961.) 22p.
LEPAGE, SAMUEL M., A Short History of Ottawa University. N. p. [c!929].
39p.
LOVING, MABEL, The Pony Express Rides On! A History of the Central Over-
land Pony Express, 1860-1861 ... St. Joseph, Mo., Robidoux Printing
Company, c!961. 163p.
MCFARLAND, KENNETH, Eloquence in Public Speaking; How to Set Your Words
on Fire. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall [c!961]. 264p.
McGuiNN, NELLIS, Story of Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City, Kan., Public
Schools, 1961. Mimeographed. 106p.
MCKINNEY, FLORENCE, Know Your Wild Flowers. [Topeka] Capper Publica-
tions, c!960. [51]p.
[MEADE COUNTY CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE], Meade County, Kansas, Diamond
Jubilee and Centennial Celebration . . . Historical Souvenir Program.
[Meade, Meade Globe-Press, 1961.] [40]p.
MILES, MISKA, Kickapoo. Boston, Little, Brown and Company [c!961]. 55p.
MILFORD, CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, WOMEN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY, Cen-
tennial Cook Book. [Junction City, Republic Printing Company, 1961?]
[215]p.
238 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MILLER, NYLE H., and others, Kansas: a Pictorial History. Topeka, Kansas Cen-
tennial Commission and State Historical Society, 1961. 320p.
Munden Centennial. No impr. Mimeographed. 30p.
MURPHY, JOSEPH FRANCIS, Potawatomi Indians of the West: Origins of the
Citizen Band. A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Oklahoma University Graduate College. Norman, Okla., 1961. Typed.
522p.
MYERS, RAY, History of Lebanon and Oak Township, Vol. 2. N. p., 1961.
Typed. Various paging.
, Salem and the Myers Family, Life and Letters ... No impr.
Typed. Unpaged.
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA IN THE STATE OF
KANSAS, Recollections of Families in Kansas in Eighteen Hundred Siocty-One.
N. p., 1961. 52p.
NEODESHA, METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Growth of Methodism in Neodesha,
1905 . . . Edited by Rev. Benson M. Powell. Neodesha, Neodesha
Bank Note Company, 1905. 53p.
O'CONNELL, WAYNE A., A Centennial History of "Little Town," Oswego, Kan-
sas. Oswego, Oswego Independent [1961]. 18p.
[OSWEGO, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE], Oswego, Kansas; "a City Rich With the
Past . . ." [Oswego, Oswego Chamber of Commerce] n. d. [15]p.
OYLER, SAMUEL OWEN, Joyful Thoughts at Evening Time. Topeka, c!961.
109p.
PADDLEFORD, CLEMENTINE, How America Eats. New York, Charles Scribner's
Sons [c!960]. 495p.
[PALMER, MRS. FANNIE], comp., Miltonvale; Record, Biography, Reminiscence,
1959. N. p., 1959? Unpaged.
PARADISE, METHODIST CHURCH, Paradise Methodist Church, 1907-1957. N. p.
[Official Board], n. d. Mimeographed. 36p.
PARRISH, WILLIAM E., David Rice Atchison of Missouri, Border Politician.
Columbia, University of Missouri Press [c!961], 271p. (The University of
Missouri Studies, Vol. 34.)
PERRINGS, MYRA, Frontier. Dallas, Triangle Publishing Company, n. d. 39p.
PERRY, MIRIAM WIGHT, An Adventure in Living . . . August H. Schutte
and Mamie Edwards Schutte. N. p. [I960]. Unpaged.
PLACE, MARIAN (TEMPLETON), Bat Masterson. New York, Julian Messner
[c!960]. 191p.
Prairiesta '61 ... Russett's 90th Anniversary, 1871-1961 . . . Offi-
cial Souvenir Program. N. p. [1961?]. 44p.
PUGH, RACHEL, About Independence; Items Personal and Impersonal, 1869-
1950. No impr. 328p.
RATH, IDA ELLEN, The Rath Trail . . . Wichita, McCormick-Armstrong
Company [c!961]. 204p.
REMINGTON, FREDERIC, Frederic Remington's Own West; Edited and With an
Introduction by Harold McCracken. New York, Dial Press, 1960. 254p.
, Pony Tracks; With an Introduction by J. Frank Dobie. Norman, Uni-
versity of Oklahoma Press [1961]. 176p.
RILEY, METHODIST CHURCH, Eightieth Anniversary . . . 1879-1959. No
impr. [8]p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 239
RINGLER, LAUREL O., Dark Grows the Night. New York, Pageant Press
[c!961]. 387p.
ROBERTS, ADA Lou, Favorite Breads From Rose Lane Farm. New York,
Hearthside Press [c!960]. 128p.
ROSING, VLADIMIR, and RUTH ROSING, The Kansas Story, Conceived and
Planned by Wayne Dailard. N. p., 1961. Typed. 92p.
RUNNELS, JOHN B., and GEORGE F. SHELDON, A Pictorial History of Kansas
Medicine. No impr. Unpaged.
RUSSELL, DON, Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill. Norman, University of
Oklahoma Press [c!960]. 514p.
RYMAN, FRANCES, comp., History of Taloga, the Town and the School . . .
No impr. [13]p.
SEDGWICK, FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, Eighty-Fifth Anniversary, October
Twenty-Third, 1875-1960. N. p., 1960? 15p.
SHOEMAKER, RALPH J., The Presidents Words, an Index. Vol. 7, Eisenhower,
1960 Thru Jan. 20, 1961; With Addenda, Kennedy Campaign, 1960. Louis-
ville, Elsie DeGraff Shoemaker and Ralph J. Shoemaker [c!961]. [176]p.
SHOEMAKER, ROBERT W., The Origin and Meaning of the Name Protestant
Episcopal. [New York, American Church Publications, c!959.] 338p.
SILER, ZOE MYERS, This Is Our Town, Cherryvale, Kansas. N. p., 1961. 68p.
SMITH, WADDELL F., ed., Story of the Pony Express. San Francisco, Hesperian
House, [c!960]. 195p.
[SNYDER, JOHN W.], Scrap-Book of Monrovia, Kansas, No. 2, February, 1960.
No impr. Various paging.
[ ], Scrap-Book of Monrovia, Kansas, No. S. [Pasadena, Cal.] 1961.
Various paging.
Souvenir of Baldwin, Kansas, a City of Fine Homes, Lawns, Unsurpassed Edu-
cational Facilities, and Is Forging Ahead Commercially. Baldwin, Repub-
lican, 1908. Unpaged.
SPALDING, SAMUEL CHARLES, I've Had Me a Time! . . . Great Barrington,
Mass., Friends of Gould Farm, 1961. 72p.
STARBURG, ROBERT E., Baptists on the Kansas Frontier. A Thesis Presented to
the Faculty of the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Partial Ful-
fillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Divinity. N. p.,
1960. Typed. 195p.
STEVENS, WILLIAM CHASE, Kansas Wild Flowers. Second Edition. Lawrence,
University of Kansas Press, 1961. 461p.
STOUT, EVELYN E., Introduction to Textiles. New York, John Wiley & Sons
[I960]. 363p.
STREET, ARTHUR, ed., Directory of the City and Township of Neodesha, 1896-
97. Neodesha, Editor, 1896. 44p.
STUTLER, BOYD B., Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! The Story of "John Browns Body"
and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." [Cincinnati, C. J. Krehbiel Company,
I960.] 47p.
SUTTON, CLIFFORD E., Black Panther Banner; an Authentic Account of the
Founding of a Lone Scout Troop. New York, William-Frederick, 1961.
171p.
TONNE, ARTHUR J., Dear Eighth Grader, a Series of Talks To Prepare Boys
and Girls for High School. [Emporia, Didde Printing Company, 1961.]
81p.
240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
TOOTHAKER, MRS. PEARL, History of Sheridan County. N. p., 1961. [12] p.
TOPEKA, HIGHLAND PARK METHODIST CHURCH, 50th Anniversary, November
20,1960. Noimpr. [8]p.
, Public Schools, Elementary Education Workshop in Music, Let's Make
Music, a Guide for Classroom Teachers ... No impr. 130p.
TURNER, EDITH, Penn School. N. p., 1961. Typed, lip.
TYGART, ABNER C., The Vacant House and Other Poems. New York, Vantage
Press [c!961]. 52p.
VAUGHN, BONNIE (BAILEY), Taming the Kansas Prairie. No impr. Typed.
302p.
VERCKLER, STEWART P., Cowtown Abilene; the Story of Abilene, Kansas,
1867-1875. New York, Carlton Press, 1961. 76p.
WALTON, CHARLES E., To Maske in Myrthe: Spenser's Theatrical Practices in
The Faerie Queene. Emporia, Kansas State Teachers College, 1960. 47p.
( The Emporia State Research Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1. )
WARE, EUGENE FITCH, The Indian War of 1864. With Introduction and Notes
by Clyde C. Walton. New York, St. Martin's Press [I960]. 483p.
WAYLAND, JOHN W., John Kagi and John Brown. Strasburg, Va., Shenandoah
Publishing House, 1961. 137p.
WEDEL, WALDO R., Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains. Norman, University
of Oklahoma Press [c!961]. 355p.
WELLMAN, PAUL ISELIN, A Dynasty of Western Outlaws. Garden City, N. Y.,
Doubleday & Company, 1961. 384p.
WEYAND, ALEXANDER M., The Cavalcade of Basketball. With a Foreword by
Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen. New York, Macmillan Company, 1960. 27 Ip.
WINFIELD, FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, 90th Anniversary . . . 1960. N. p.,
1960? Unpaged.
[WOODLAWN PARENT TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, comp.], Early History of North
Lawrence. N. p., Compiler, 1961. 30p.
YOUSE, GLAD ROBINSON, The Thirty-Fourth Star. Libretto by Isabel Doerr
Campbell; Music by Glad Robinson Youse. N. p., 1961. Mimeographed. 7p.
AMERICAN INDIANS AND THE WEST
ADAMS, RAMON F., The Old-Time Cowhand. New York, Macmillan Company,
1961. 354p.
ADAMSON, HANS CHRISTIAN, Rebellion in Missouri, 1861: Nathaniel Lyon and
His Army of the West . . . Philadelphia, Chilton Company [c!961].
305p.
BARNEY, LIBEUS, Letters of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush . . . Early-Day
Letters Reprinted From the Bennington Banner, Vermont, 1859-1860 . . .
San Jose, Talisman Press, 1959. 97p.
BARTHOLOMEW, ED, Western Hard-Cases; or, Gunfighters Named Smith. Rui-
doso, N. M., Frontier Book Company, 1960. 191p.
BERRY, DON, A Majority of Scoundrels; an Informal History of the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company. New York, Harper & Brothers [c!961]. 432p.
BIDLACK, RUSSELL E., Letters Home; the Story of Ann Arbors Forty-Niners.
Ann Arbor, Mich., Ann Arbor Publishers, 1960. 56p.
BLACKER, IRWIN R., ed., The Old West in Fiction. New York, Ivan Obolensky
[c!961]. 471p.
BOURKE, JOHN G., Apache Campaign in the Sierra Madre . . . New York,
Charles Scribner's Sons [c!958]. 128p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 241
BRADLEY, JAMES H., The March of the Montana Column, a Prelude to the
Custer Disaster, Edited by Edgar I. Stewart. Norman, University of Okla-
homa Press [c!961]. 182p.
BRANDES, RAY, Frontier Military Posts of Arizona. Globe, Ariz., Dale Stuart
King [c!960]. 94p.
BREIHAN, CARL W., Younger Brothers. San Antonio, Naylor Company [c!961].
260p.
BROWN, MARK H., Plainsmen of the Yellowstone; a History of the Yellowstone
Basin. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons [c!961]. 480p.
BURROUGHS, RAYMOND DARWIN, ed., The Natural History of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition. [East Lansing] Michigan State University Press [c!961].
340p.
CAESAR, GENE, King of the Mountain Men; the Life of Jim Bridger. New
York, E. P. Dutton Company, 1961. 317p.
CHAPEL, CHARLES EDWARD, Guns of the Old West. New York, Coward-
McCann [c!961]. 306p.
COBLENTZ, STANTON A., The Swallowing Wilderness; the Life of a Frontiers-
man, James Ohio Pattie. New York, Thomas Yoseloff [c!961]. 188p.
CROCCHIOLA, STANLEY FRANCIS Louis, The Abiquiu (New Mexico) Story. No
impr. 35p.
, The Antonchico (New Mexico) Story. No impr. 18p.
i The Clayton (New Mexico) Story. No impr. 42p.
, Dave Rudabaugh, Border Ruffian. N. p. [c!961]. 200p.
, The Elizabethtown, New Mexico, Story. Dumas, Tex., F. Stanley,
1961. 19p.
, Fort Bascom, Comanche-Kiowa Barrier. N. p. [c!961]. 224p.
, The Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, Story. Pantex, Tex., F. Stanley, 1961.
20p.
, The Kingston, New Mexico, Story. Pantex, Tex., F. Stanley, 1961.
20p.
, The White Oaks (New Mexico) Story. No impr. 23p.
Dakota, Odowan. Dakota Hymns. N. p., Dakota Mission of the American
Missionary Association, 1911. 135p.
DALE, HARRISON CLIFFORD, ed., The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Dis-
covery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822-1829. Glendale, Cal., Arthur
H. Clark Company, 1941. 360p.
DAVIS, GEORGE ARTHUR, Some Royal, Noble, and Colonial Ancestors. Augusta,
Me., Kennebec Journal, c!959. 149p.
DECKER, PETER, A Descriptive Check List . . . of Western Americana
V . . Formed by George W. Soliday. New York, Antiquarian Press,
1960. Various paging.
DENIG, EDWIN THOMPSON, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri; Sioux,
Arickaras, Assiniboines, Crees, Crows. Edited and With an Introduction by
John C. Ewers. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [c!961]. 217p.
DIAZ, ALBERT JAMES, A Guide to the Microfilm of Papers Relating to the New
Mexico Land Grants. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1960.
102p.
DOBIE, J. FRANK, I'll Tell You A Tale. Boston, Little, Brown and Company
[c!960]. 362p.
162840
242 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
DOCKSTADER, FREDERICK J., Indian Art in America. Greenwich, Conn., New
York Graphic Society, n. d. 224p.
EMMITT, ROBERT, The Last War Trail; the Utes and the Settlement of Colo-
rado. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [c!954]. 333p.
FENERTY, JOHN F., War-Path and Bivouac; or, The Conquest of the Sioux
. . . Norman, University of Oklahoma [c!961]. 358p.
FLETCHER, ROBERT H., Free Grass to Fences; the Montana Cattle Range Story.
Illustrations by Charles M. Russell. New York, University Publishers for
the Historical Society of Montana [c!960]. 233p.
FLORIN, LAMBERT, Western Ghost Towns. Seattle, Superior Publishing Com-
pany [c!961]. 174p.
FOGEL, ROBERT WILLIAM, The Union Pacific Railroad; a Case in Premature
Enterprise. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1960. 129p.
FORBES, JACK D., Apache, Navaho and Spaniard. Norman, University of Okla-
homa Press [cl960]. 304p.
FORREST, EARLE R., The Snake Dance of the Hopi Indians. Los Angeles,
Westernlore Press, 1961. 172p.
FORT OSAGE PAGEANT ASSOCIATION, INC., "Fort Osage, Mother of the West,"
Sibley, Missouri . . . N. p., Association [1953?]. 40p.
GRINNELL, GEORGE BIRD, Pawnee, Blackfoot and Cheyenne . . . Intro-
duction by Dee Brown. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons [c!961]. 301p.
, Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales . . . Lincoln, University of
Nebraska Press, 1961. 417p.
HAFEN, LEROY R., and ANN W. HAFEN, eds., Powder River Campaigns and
Sawyers Expedition of 1865 . . . Glendale, Cal., Arthur H. Clark Com-
pany, 1961. 386p. ( The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series, 1820-
1875, Vol. 12.)
, Reports From Colorado; the Wild-man Letters, 1859-1865 . . .
Glendale, Cal., Arthur H. Clark Company, 1961. 333p. (The Far West
and the Rockies Historical Series, 1820-1875, Vol. 13.)
HAMILTON, T. M., comp., Indian Trade Guns. [Columbia, Mo., Missouri
Archaeological Society, I960.] 225p. (Missouri Archaeologist, Vol. 22.)
HARDIN, JOHN WESLEY, The Life of John Wesley Hardin, as Written by Him-
self. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [1961]. 152p.
HAVIGHURST, WALTER, ed., Land of the Long Horizons. New York, Coward-
McCann [c!960]. 437p.
HOIG, STAN, The Sand Creek Massacre. Norman, University of Oklahoma
Press [1961]. 217p.
HORAN, JAMES D., The Great American West; a Pictorial History From Coro-
nado to the Last Frontier. New York, Crown Publishers [c!959]. 288p.
HOWARD, ROBERT WEST, and others, Hoofbeats of Destiny. [New York] New
American Library [c!960]. 191p.
HUBACH, ROBERT ROGERS, Early Midwestern Travel Narratives; an Annotated
Bibliography, 1634-1850. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1961.
149p.
HUNT, AURORA, Kirby Benedict, Frontier Federal Judge . . . Glendale,
Cal., Arthur H. Clark Company, 1961. 268p.
HYDE, GEORGE E., Spotted Tail's Folk; a History of the Brule Sioux. Norman,
University of Oklahoma Press [c!961]. 329p.
JOSEPHY, ALVIN M., JR., The Patriot Chiefs; a Chronicle of American Indian
Leadership. New York, Viking Press, 1961. 364p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 243
KELLER, TEDDY, and STANLEY W. ZAMONSKI, The Fifty-miners; a Denver Diary.
Denver, Sage Books [c!961]. 281p.
KLEMENT, FRANK L., Copperheads in the Middle West. Chicago, University
of Chicago Press [c!960J. 341p.
LEONARD, ZENAS, Adventures of Zenas Leonard, Fur Trader, Edited by John
C. Ewers. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [c!959]. 172p.
LEWIS, OSCAR, The War in the Far West: 1861-1865. Garden City, N. Y.,
Doubleday & Company, 1961. 263p.
LIBERTY, M ARGOT, Fights With the Shoshone, 1855-1870; a Northern Cheyenne
Indian Narrative. Missoula, Montana State University Press, 1961. 23p.
( Occasional Papers, No. 2. )
LIENHARD, HEINRICH, From St. Louis to Suiter's Fort, 1846. Translated and
Edited by Erwin G. and Elisabeth K. Gudde. Norman, University of Okla-
homa Press [c!961]. 204p.
McAvoY, THOMAS TIMOTHY, The Midwest; Myth or Reality? A Symposium
.' ' . . [Notre Dame, Ind.] University of Notre Dame Press [1961]. 96p.
McKEE, JAMES COOPER, Narrative of the Surrender of a Command of U. S.
Forces at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, in July, A. D., 1861. Houston, Stage-
coach Press, 1960. 64p.
MATHEWS, ALFRED E., Interesting Nari'ative; Being the Journal of the Flight of
Alfred E. Mathews . . . From the State of Texas . . . N. p.,
1961. 34p. (Mumey Reprint, 1961.)
MATHEWS, JOHN JOSEPH, The Osages, Children of the Middle Waters. Norman,
University of Oklahoma Press [c!961]. 826p.
MATTES, MERRILL J., Indians, Infants and Infantry; Andrew and Elizabeth
Burt on the Frontier. Denver, Old West Publishing Company, 1960. 304p.
MILLER, DAVID HUMPHREYS, Ghost Dance. New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce
[1959]. 318p.
MILLER, HELEN MARKLEY, Westering Women. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday
& Company, 1961. 240p.
MOUNTAIN WOLF WOMAN, Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder;
the Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian, Edited by Nancy Oestreich
Lurie. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press [c!961], 142p.
NEIHARDT, JOHN G., Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy Man
of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1961. 280p.
NEWCOMB, W. W., JR., Indians of Texas From Prehistoric to Modern Times.
Austin, University of Texas Press [c!961]. 404p.
NUNIS, DOYCE BLACKMAN, JR., Andrew Sublette, Rocky Mountain Prince,
1808-1853. Los Angeles, Dawson's Book Shop, 1960. 123p.
O'KANE, WALTER COLLINS, The Hopis: Portrait of a Desert People. Norman,
University of Oklahoma Press [c!953]. 267p.
PAINE, LAURAN, The General Custer Story; the True Story of the Battle of the
Little Big Horn. London, W. Foulsham & Company [c!960]. 144p.
PHILLIPS, PAUL CHRISLER, The Fur Trade. Norman, University of Oklahoma
[c!961]. 2Vols.
PREECE, HAROLD, Lone Star Man; Ira Aten, Last of the Old Texas Rangers.
New York, Hastings House [c!960]. 256p.
RHODES, EUGENE MANLOVE, A Bar Cross Man; the Life and Personal Writings
of Eugene Manlove Rhodes. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press
[c!956]. 432p.
244 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
STEWART, ELINORE PRUITT, Letters of a Woman Homesteader. Introduction
by Jessamyn West. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1961. [282]p.
UNDERBILL, RUTH, Pueblo Crafts. N. p., United States Indian Service, Edu-
cation Division [1944], 147p.
WARD, DON, Bits of Silver, Vignettes of the Old West. New York, Hastings
House [c!961]. 306p.
WESTERNERS, DENVER, 1959 Brand Book. N. p. [c!960]. 392p.
, Potomac Corral, Great Western Indian Fights. Garden City, N. Y.,
Doubleday and Company, 1960. 336p.
WHEAT, CARL I., 1540-1861, Mapping the Transmississippi West. Volume 4,
From the Pacific Railroad Surveys to the Onset of the Civil War, 1855-1860.
San Francisco, Institute of Historical Cartography, 1960. 260p.
WILBER, C. D., Great Valleys and Prairies of Nebraska and the Northwest.
Omaha, Daily Republican Print, 1881. 382p.
WILDSCHUT, WILLIAM, Crow Indian Medicine Bundles. New York, Museum
of the American Indian Heye Foundation, 1960. 178p. (Contributions,
Vol. 17.)
GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY
ADAMS, ARTHUR, comp., Living Descendants of Blood Royal. Volume 1. Lon-
don, World Nobility and Peerage [1959]. 812p.
ALABAMA, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY, Collection of Early Amer-
ican History; Mayflower Society Collection. N. p., 1961. 109p.
ALDRTDGE, FRANKLIN RUDOLPH, comp., The Descendants of Jesse Alldridge and
Rachel Cobb . . . N. p. [I960]. 95p.
ALLISON, ELIZABETH KELLY, Early Southwest Virginia Families . . . Au-
burn, Ala., 1960. 135p.
AMERICAN CLAN GREGOR SOCIETY, Year Book Containing the Proceedings of
the 1959 Annual Gathering. Washington, D. C., The American Clan Gregor
Society [c!960]. 105p.
American Genealogical-Biographical Index . . . Vols. 35-37. Middletown,
Conn., Published Under the Auspices of an Advisory Committee Represent-
ing the Cooperating Subscribing Libraries . . . 1960-1961. 5 Vols.
Atlas of Montgomery County, Indiana . . . Chicago, J. H. Beers & Com-
pany, 1878. 55p.
ATWATER, ISAAC, ed., History of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota. New
York, Munsell & Company, 1893. lOlOp.
BAILEY, RAE, Old Keys; an Historical Sketch of Clear Creek Township, Ashland
County, Ohio, and of Savannah, the Township's Only Village. Washington,
D. C., 1941. 454p.
BAREKMAN, JUNE B., comp., Barrackman Barkman Barekman Family of
Knox County, Indiana. N. p., 1961? Mimeographed. Unpaged.
BEAVER, I. M., History and Genealogy of the Bieber, Beaver, Biever, Beeber
Family . . . Reading, Pa., I. M. Beaver, 1939. 984p.
BIEDEL, HELEN C., Davis Records; Washington County, Ohio Early Gateway
to the West . . . No impr. Mimeographed. 43p.
, Johnson Records With Records of Associated Families, the Warnes
and Suttons. N. p., Author, c!955. Mimeographed. 97p.
BIERCE, Lucius V., Historical Reminiscences of Summit County [Ohio]. Akron,
T. & H. G. Canfield, 1854. 157p. ( Reprint, 1961. )
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 245
BOLLES, SIMEON, Early History of the Town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
Woodsville, N. H., Enterprise Printing House, 1883. 108p.
BOYD, HAZEL MASON, Some Marriages in Montgomery County, Kentucky, Be-
fore 1864, Compiled and Edited by Emma Jane Walker and Virginia Wilson
. . . N. p., Daughters of the American Revolution, Kentucky Society,
1961. 120p.
BROWN, HENRIETTA BRADY, Some Venables of England and America . . .
Cincinnati, Kinderton Press, 1961. 463p.
BULLARD, HELEN, and JOSEPH MARSHALL KRECHNIAK, Cumberland County's
First Hundred Years. Crossville, Tenn., Centennial Committee, 1956.
377p.
[CAMDEN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CAMDEN, N. C.], 1848-1867, Camden
County, North Carolina, the Oldest Marriage Book on File ... No
impr. Mimeographed. 16p.
, Wills, Camden County, North Carolina, the Oldest Will Book on File,
1755-1854 . . . N. p. [Society, I960]. Mimeographed. 30p.
, Wills, Pasquotank 6- Camden County, the Oldest Will Book on File,
1752-1798 . . . N. p. [Society, I960]. Mimeographed. 37p.
CARSELOWEY, JAMES MANFORD, Cherokee Pioneers. Adair, Okla., 1961. Mim-
eographed. 75p.
Celebration by the Town of Nelson, New Hampshire . . . of the One
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Its First Settlement, 1867-1917 . . .
No impr. 192p.
CHAPMAN, BERLIN B., Oklahoma City, From Public Land to Private Property.
N. p., 1960. (Reprinted from Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 37, 1959.)
96p.
COCKE, CHARLES FRANCIS, Parish Lines Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.
Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1960. 196p. (Virginia State Library
Publications, No. 14.)
COE, JOHN EDWIN, and JESSIE M. COE, Severt Severtson Families, 1817-1960;
With Associated Knudson and Hanson Families. Chicago, 1960. 37p.
COLLINS, CARR P., JR., The History of the Woodall, Dollahite, Miles, Kuyken-
dall Families in East Texas. Dallas, Tex., 1961. Unpaged.
Commemorative Biographical Records of the Fox River Valley Counties of
Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago [Wisconsin] . . . Chicago, J. H.
Beers & Company, 1895. 1239p.
COOK, GERALD WILSON, Descendants of Claiborn Howard, Soldier of the Amer-
ican Revolution . . . N. p., Privately Printed, 1960. 186p.
COPELAND, DAVID STURGES, History of Clarendon [New YorfcJ From 1810-1888.
Buffalo, Courier Company, 1889. 382p.
Cox, MRS. EVELYN M., and MRS. LALLA F. McCuLLEY, [Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, Records.] Madisonville, Ky., Authors, 1960-1961. 2 vols.
CRTDER, MRS. GUSSIE WAYMIRE, and EDWARD C. CRIDER, ed., Four Genera-
tions of the Family of Strangeman Hutchins and His Wife Elizabeth Cox
*'. . No impr. 20p.
D'ARMAND, ROSCOE CARLISLE, DeArmond Families of America . . . and
Related Families. Knoxville, Tenn., Family Record Society, 1954. 699p.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, GEORGIA, THRONATEESKA CHAP-
TER, History and Reminiscences of Dougherty County, Georgia. Albany,
Ga., 1924. 411p.
246 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
, New York, New Rochelle Chapter, Old Wills of New Rochelle . . .
1784-1830. New Rochelle, N. Y., 1951. Mimeographed. Unpaged.
DAYTON, RUTH WOODS, Pioneers and Their Homes on Upper Kanawha.
Charleston, W. Va., West Virginia Publishing Company, 1947. 320p.
DICKINSON, JOSIAH LOOK, The Fairfax Proprietary; the Northern Neck, the
Fairfax Manors and Beginnings of Warren County in Virginia, With Maps.
Front Royal, Va., Warren Press, c!959. [220]p.
DICKORE, MARIE, Census for Cincinnati, Ohio, 1817, and Hamilton County,
Ohio, Voters Lists, 1798 and 1799. Cincinnati, 1960. 98p.
DICKSON, L. M., Descendants of Joseph Francis of Maryland and Virginia.
Montezuma, Iowa, 1949. [212]p.
DIXON, BEN F., and ALICE L. (DWELLE) DIXON, American Ancestry of Pryor
Williams, 1817 Pioneer of Lawrence County, Indiana . . . [San Diego,
Privately Printed] n. d. Mimeographed. 19p.
, Five Generations of American Dwelles, a Family History for De-
scendants of Lemuel Dtoelle and Lavina Francisco . . . [San Diego,
Privately Printed, I960.] Mimeographed. [39]p.
DOANE FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, Doane Family, Supplement I, to
Alfred Alder Doane 's Genealogy of Deacon John Doane and His Descend-
ants, Published in 1902. N. p., Association, 1960. 51p.
DORMAN, JOHN FREDERICK, comp., Essex County, Virginia, Wills, Bonds, In-
ventories, etc., 1722-1730. Washington, D. C., 1961. 113p.
, comp., Prince William County, Virginia, Will Book C, 1784-1744.
Washington, D. C., 1956. Mimeographed. 135p.
, comp., Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, Vols. 1-4. Wash-
ington, D. C., 1958-1960. 4 Vols.
DOUTHIT, RUTH LONG, Ohio References for Genealogists. Detroit, Detroit So-
ciety for Genealogical Research, 1961. 12p.
, Some References for Genealogical Searching in Ohio. Detroit, Detroit
Society for Genealogical Research, 1960. 51p.
DUNKELBERGER, GEORGE FRANKLIN, Story of Snyder County [Pennsylvania].
Selinsgrove, Pa., Snyder County Historical Society [c!948]. 982p.
DUSTIN & WASSELL, comps., History of Dwight [Illinois] From 1853 to 1894.
N. p., Compilers, n. d. 153p.
DUTCHESS COUNTY [NEW YORK] HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Year Book, Vol. 45,
1960. N. p. [c!961]. 80p.
EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Publications, No. 32, 1960. Knoxville,
Society, 1960. 173p.
EASTER, LOUISE E., Descendants of Michael Easter of North Carolina. Blad-
ensburg, Md., c!961. Mimeographed. [180]p.
EATON, WILL EVERETT, comp., Proceedings of the 250th Anniversary of the
Ancient Town of Redding . . . Comprising the Towns of Reading,
Wakefield, and North Reading . . . Reading, Mass., Loring & Twom-
bly, 1896. 398p.
EDERINGTON, WILLIAM, History of Fairfield County, South Carolina. [Mrs.
B. H. Rosson, Jr., Compiler.] No impr. Mimeographed. 95p.
ELLIOTT, CARL, comp., Annals of Northwest Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Ala., Pri-
vately Printed, 1958-1959. 2 Vols.
ELLSBERRY, ELIZABETH PRATHER, comp., Early Marriage Records (1819-1850)
and Will Records (1820-1870) of Cooper County, Missouri . . . Chilli-
cothe, Mo., Compiler, 1959. Mimeographed. 146p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 247
, comp., Marriage Records, 1842-1857, of Linn County, Missouri . . .
No impr. Mimeographed. 37p.
, comp., Marriage Records of Caldwell County, Missouri, 1845-1871.
Chillicothe, Mo., n. d. Mimeographed. 51p.
, comp., Marriage Records of Chariton County, Missouri
1821-1852. Chillicothe, Mo., c!959. Mimeographed. 72p.
, comp., Marriage Records of Daviess County, Missouri, 1836-1855.
Chillicothe, Mo., c!959. Mimeographed. 53p.
comp., Marriage Records of Grundy County, Missouri, 1841-1864.
Chillicothe, Mo., n. d. Mimeographed. 59p.
., comp., Marriage Records of Livingston County, Missouri, 1837-1863.
Chillicothe, Mo., Compiler, n. d. Mimeographed. 57p.
comp., Marriage Records of Saline County, Missouri, 1820-1850.
Chillicothe, Mo., c!959. Mimeographed. 46p.
, comp., Marriage Records of Sullivan County, Missouri, 1845-1859.
Chillicothe, Mo., Compiler, n. d. Mimeographed. 80p.
ELLSWORTH, MRS. ANZOLETTE D., and MARY E. RICHMOND, comps., New
Woodstock [New York] and Vicinity, Past and Present. Cazenovia, N. Y.,
J. A. Loyster, 1901. 141p.
EMMET, THOMAS ADDIS, Memoir of Thomas Addis and Robert Emmet With
Their Ancestors and Immediate Family. New York, Emmet Press, 1915.
2 Vols.
EVANS, MABLE E. ADAMS, Addendum to The History of the Bowles Family,
Compiled and Published, 1907, by Thomas M. Farquhar. No impr. Typed.
12p.
FLANIGAN, JAMES C., History of Gwinnett County, Georgia, 1818-1960, Volume
2. N. p. [c!959]. 629p.
GAINES, B. O., History of Scott County [Kentucky], Volume 2. First Printed
in 1904. Georgetown, Ky., Frye Printing Company, 1961. 186p.
GARRETT, HESTER ELIZABETH, comp., Pucketts and Their Kin of Virginia, Ken-
tucky, and Other Southern States . . . Lansing, Mich., Privately Printed,
c!960. 285p.
GENERAL SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS, Mayflower Index. N. p.,
Society, 1960. 3 Vols. in 2.
GEORGE, FLOY WAITERS, History of Webster County [Missouri], 1855-1955.
No impr. 264p.
GIULVEZAN, ISABEL STEBBINS, comp., Notes on Hiram H. Halcomb (1789-1869)
of Caswell County, North Carolina ... St. Louis, 1961. Mimeo-
graphed. 55p.
[GOOD, MARIE GALBREATH], Puterbaugh, Butterbaugh, Puderbaugh. No impr.
Unpaged.
Goss, ELBRIDGE HENRY, History of Melrose, County of Middlesex, Massachu-
setts. Melrose, City of Melrose, 1902. 508p.
GWIN, JESSE ELAINE, History of the Gwin Family . . . Fairfax, Va.,
Author, 1961. 197p.
HADLER, MABEL JACQUES, Towner County, North Dakota, Families. Vol. 4-5.
Long Beach, Cal., 1959. Mimeographed. 2 Vols.
HAGER, LUCIE CAROLINE, Boxborough, a New England Town and Its People
. . . Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Company, 1891. 218p.
248 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
HALL, HELEN ( LINENBERGER ) , The Hall Genealogy. N. p., 1960. 294p.
HAYLEY, JOHN W., Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, an Historical Sketch. [Con-
cord, N. H., Rumford Press] 1923. lllp.
[HEISS, WILLARD], List of All the Friends Meetings That Exist or Ever Have
Existed in Indiana, 1807-1955. Indianapolis, John Woolman Press, 1961.
85p.
HENDRICK, BURTON J., The Lees of Virginia, Biography of a Family. Boston,
Little, Brown, and Company, 1935. 455p.
History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan . . . Philadelphia, D. W.
Ensign & Company, 1880. 521p.
History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa . . . Springfield, 111.,
Union Publishing Company, 1884. 886p.
History of That Part of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys Embraced in the
Counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder . . . Pennsyl-
vania. Philadelphia, Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886. 2 Vols.
HOLLENBACK, FRANK R., Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado; Then and
Now. Denver, Sage Books [c!961]. 127p.
HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Transactions, No. 65. Charleston,
Society, 1960. 34p.
HUMPHREYS, ALLAN S., Cordell Records; a Virginia Family. Ann Arbor, Mich.,
Edwards Brothers, 1940. 103p.
HUNTER, STEPHEN BEN, and MARY AMANDA MEDLEY HUNTER, The Joseph
Hunter and Related Families . . . of Southeast Missouri . . . Ed-
ited by Felix Eugene Snider. Cape Girardeau, Mo., Ramfre Press, 1959.
348p.
Illustrated History of North Idaho, Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Koo-
tenai and Shoshone Counties . . . N. p., Western Historical Publishing
Company, 1903. 1238p.
Illustrated History of Union and Wallowa Counties [Oregon] . . . N. p.,
Western Historical Publishing Company, 1902. 677p.
JAMES, COLIN, comp., John Hamill Poston (1786-1848), His Ancestors and
Descendants. Denver, Compiler, 1959. Mimeographed. 73p.
JOHNSON, TALMAGE C., and CHARLES R. HOLLOMAN, Story of Kinston and
Lenoir County [North Carolina]. Raleigh, Edwards & Broughton Company,
1954. 413p.
KELLAM, IDA BROOKS, and LESLIE H. BROWN, JR., Duplin County, North Caro-
lina, Gravestone Records . . . Collected in November, 1960. Wil-
mington, N. C., Ida Brooks Kellam, 1960. Mimeographed. 147p.
KENT, JOSIAH COLEMAN, Northborough History. Newton, Mass., Garden City
Press, 1921. 529p.
KING, GEORGE HARRISON SANFORD, Register of Saint Paul's Parish, 1715-1798;
Stafford County, Virginia, 1715-1776, King George County, Virginia, 1777-
1798 ... Fredericksburg, Va., 1960. 157p.
KINSEY, FRANK STEWART, comp., Our Paddleford Descendants . . . N. p.,
1960. Typed. 33p.
KLEIN, FREDERIC SHRIVER, Lancaster County Since 1841. Revised Edition.
Lancaster, Pa., Lancaster County National Bank, 1955. 239p.
[KNIGHT, RAY R.], comp., Knight Family. No impr. Unpaged.
[ ], comp., Montfort Family. No impr. Unpaged.
[ ], comp., Morris Family ... No impr. 7p.
[ ], comp., Roberts Family. No impr. Unpaged.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 249
KNORR, CATHERINE LINDSAY, comp., Marriage Bonds and Ministers' Returns
of Sumj County, Virginia, 1768-1825. N. p., Compiler, 1960. 112p.
KOZEE, WILLIAM C., Early Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky and
Their Descendants. Strasburg, Va., Shenandoah Publishing House, 1961.
LACEY, HUBERT WESLEY, The Goodner Family, a Genealogical History, With a
Brief History of the Family Jacob Daniel Scherrer . . . Dayton, Ohio,
1960. Slip.
LINDSAY, JOYCE H., comp., Marriages of Henrico County, Virginia, 1680-1808.
N. p., Compiler [c!960]. 123p.
LIVENGOOD, GEORGE H., Cemetery Inscriptions, Davidson (Old Rowan) County,
North Carolina. N. p., 1960. 83p.
LUCAS, SILAS EMMETT, ed., The Powell Family of Norfolk and Elizabeth City
Counties, Virginia, and Their Descendants . . . N. p. [c!961]. 305p.
MCDONALD, GERALD DOAN, Doane Family. Supplement I to Alfred Alder
Doane's Genealogy of Deacon John Doane and His Descendants Published
in 1902. N. p., The Doane Family Association of America, 1960. 51p.
MACMILLAN, SOMERLED, Families of Knapdale; Their History and Their Place-
Names . . . Ipswich, Mass., Privately Printed, c!960. 68p.
McNAm, JAMES BIRTLEY, comp., McNair McNear and McNeir Genealogies,
Supplement 1960. Los Angeles, Compiler [c!960]. 314p.
MARSHALL, MRS. S. M., comp., Greene County, Alabama, Records, Edited by
Elizabeth Wood Thomas. Tuscaloosa, Ala., Willo Publishing Company
[c!960]. 139p.
MARSTERS, JOSEPH DIMOCK, A Genealogy of the Dimock Family From the fear
1637. Windsor, Nova Scotia, J. J. Anslow, 1899. 44p.
MARVIN, ABIJAH P., History of the Town of Lancaster, Massachusetts . . .
Lancaster, Published by the Town, 1879. 798p.
[MASON, LUCILE EMMONS], Emmons Genealogy. N. p. [1961]. Mimeo-
graphed. 135p.
MATTESON, MARY HURLBURT, Memories . . . With Lineages of Mary
Hurlburt and Horace Matteson. [Shanghai, Privately Printed, 1938.] 175p.
MILLER, MARTHA PORTER, comp., Index to the Genealogical Department of the
Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Volumes 91-94. Washing-
ton, D. C., 1958-1961. 4 Vols.
MILLS, LAURENS TENNY, A South Carolina Family: Mills-Smith and Related
Lines . . . With Addenda by Lilla Mills Hawes and Sarah Mills
Norton. N. p. [I960]. 158p.
MISSISSIPPI GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, Cemetery and Bible Records. Jackson,
Miss., Society, 1960-1961. 2 Vols. ( Publications, Vols. 7-8. )
MOORE, CAROLINE T., and AGATHA AIMAR SIMMONS, comps., Abstracts of the
Wills of the State of South Carolina, 1670-1740. N. p. [c!960]. 346p.
MORSE, MRS. THEODA MEARS, and MR. & MRS. CHARLES WHITE, A Genealogical
History of the Families of Morrill, Maine. Morrill, Morrill Historical So-
ciety [1957]. 461p.
MOTE, LUKE SMITH, Early Settlement of Friends in the Miami Valley, Edited
by Willard Heiss. Indianapolis, John Woolman Press, 1961. 53p.
MOTTAZ, MABEL MANES, Lest We Forget; a History of Pulaski County, Mis-
souri, and Fort Leonard Wood . . . N. p., 1960. 81p.
250 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MUDGETT, MILDRED D., and BRUCE D. MUDGETT, eds., Thomas Mudgett of
Salisbury, Massachusetts and His Descendants. Bennington, Vt., 1961.
169p.
NASH, GILBERT, Historical Sketch of the Town of Weymouth, Massachusetts,
From 1622 to 1884. Weymouth, Published by the Town, 1885. 346p.
NATIONAL SOCIETY WOMEN DESCENDANTS OF THE ANCIENT & HONORABLE
ARTILLERY COMPANY, Lineage Books, 1-3. No impr. 3 Vols.
NEILL, EDWARD D., History of Ramsey County and the City of St. Paul . i
Minneapolis, North Star Publishing Company, 1881. 650p.
NELSON, WALTER R., History of Goshen, New Hampshire; Settled 1769, In-
corporated 1791. N. p., 1957. 471p.
ORDER OF THE FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS OF AMERICA, Second Supplement to
the Register of 1926. New York, Published by Authority of the General
Court of the Order, 1960. Unpaged.
PARKE, NATHAN GRIER, II, comp., Ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley & His Wife
Emma Arabella Bosworth, Edited by Donald Lines Jacobus. Woodstock,
Vt., Compiler, 1960. 325p.
, comp., Ancestry of Rev. Nathan Grier Parke & His Wife Ann Elizabeth
Gildersleeve, Edited by Donald Lines Jacobus. Woodstock, Vt., Compiler,
1959. 146p.
PHTLHOWER, CHARLES A., History of Town of Westfield, Union County, New
Jersey. New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1923. 96p.
POLLARD, MAURICE J., comp., History of the Pollard Family of America. Dover,
N. H., Compiler, 1960. 303p.
POLLOCK, ALVIE LEE ( SETSER ) , Aster at Dusk; the Smelser Family in America.
Dayton, Ohio, c!961. 278p.
POMPEY, SHERMAN LEE, comp., The Genealogies of John Peter Bergmans
. . . and His Wife PrisdUa Twogood . . . Warrensburg, Mo.,
c!961. Unpaged.
[REID, ROBERT E.], Reid Family; Jeremiah Reid of Timber Ridge, Hampshire
County, Virginia, and Some Descendants and Affiliations. No impr. 278p.
ROCKWELL, SAMUEL FORBES, Davis Families of Early Roxbury and Boston.
North Andover, Mass., 1932. 314p.
RUDD, A. BOHMER, comp., Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, Register
of Interments, April 10, 1822 December SI, 1950. Washington, D. C.,
Compiler [c!960]. 98p.
SCHELL, HERBERT S., History of South Dakota. Lincoln, University of Ne-
braska Press, 1961. 424p.
SEEBOLD, HERMAN DE BACHELLE, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family
Trees. N. p., Published Privately [c!941]. 2 Vols.
[SELLECK, BESSIE JANET (WOODS)], Early Settlers of Douglas County, Mis-
souri. N. p. [c!952]. 307p.
SHAMEL, H. HAROLD, History of the Gabriel Family of Southern Pennsylvania
and Their Descendants. Parsons, Commercial Publishers [c!960]. 296p.
SHARP, E. M., Pickens Notes. Memphis, 1961. Mimeographed. 8p.
SHEFFELD, CHARLES A., ed., History of Florence, Massachusetts . . . Flor-
ence, Editor, 1895. 250p.
SHERMAN, NELL (WATSON), comp., Taliaferro-Toliver Family Records. N. p.,
c!961. [242]p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 251
SIMS, CARLTON C., ed., History of Rutherford County [Tennessee]. N. p.
[c!947]. 236p.
SMITH, HUBBARD MADISON, Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes Founded in
1732 ... Vincennes, 1902. 288p.
SNIDER, FELIX EUGENE, and EARL AUGUSTUS COLLINS, Cape Girardeau y Biog-
raphy of a City. Cape Girardeau, Mo., Ramfre Press [1956]. 365p.
SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Register, 1934. Wash-
ington City, Society, 1934. 303p.
SOCIETY OF INDIANA PIONEERS, Year Rook, 1960. N. p., Published by Order
of the Board of Governors, 1960. 165p.
SOUTH CAROLINA (COLONY), ASSEMBLY, Journal of the Commons House of
Assembly, 1736-1748, Edited by J. H. Easterby. Columbia, South Carolina
Archives Department, 1951-1961. 8 Vok.
SPIESS, MATHIAS, and PERCY W. BIDWELL, History of Manchester, Connecticut.
Manchester, Centennial Committee, 1924. 306p.
STEIN, CHARLES FRANCIS, A History of Calvert County, Maryland. [Baltimore]
Author, 1960. 404p.
SWANSON, ARTHUR MALCOLM, History of Schuyler County, Missouri, by Swan-
son and Ford. [Trenton, Mo., W. B. Rogers Printing Company] n. d. 39 Ip.
SWASEY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, History of the Baptist Church, Exeter, N. H.,
1800-1900. Exeter, News-Letter Press, 1901. 118p.
TARBLE, LEE CALVIN, comp., Nicholas Bean and Some of His Descendants
. . . Marshall, 111. [c!961]. Mimeographed. 36p.
THOMPSON, WALDO, Swampscott; Historical Sketches of the Town. Lynn,
Mass., Thomas P. Nichols, 1885. 241p.
2200 Gravestone Inscriptions From Winchester and Frederick County, Virginia
. . . N. p., Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society [I960].
98p.
VAN BROCKLIN, WALTER L., comp., Index to Names in The Reunion 6- History
of Pompey, New York, 1875. Burlington, Vt, Chedwato Service, 1960.
66p.
VAN DEVENTER, CHRISTOBELLE, comp., Van Deventer Family . . . Co-
lumbia, Mo., E. W. Stephens Company, 1943. 257p.
WALKER, EMMA JANE, and VIRGINIA WILSON, comps., Some Marriages in Mont-
gomery County, Kentucky, Before 1864, Collected by Hazel Mason Boyd.
N. p., Daughters of the American Revolution, Kentucky Society, 1961.
Mimeographed. 120p.
WALTER, RAY A., A History of Limestone County [Texas]. Austin, Von Boeck-
mann-Jones [c!959]. 159p.
WEISER, FREDERICK S., ed., The Weiser Family; a Genealogy of the Family of
John Conrad Weiser the Elder (d. 1746) . . . [Manheim, Pa.] John
Conrad Weiser Family Association, 1960. 882p.
WHITE, MAURICE S., Genealogy: How to Trace Ancestry and Construct a Fam-
ily Chart and American and Foreign Sources of Genealogical Data. Wash-
ington, D. C., Educational Research Bureau [c!944]. [31]p.
WHITLEY, EDNA TALBOTT, Kentucky Ante-Bellum Portraiture. N. p., National
Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Kentucky
[c!956]. 848p.
252 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
WILDER, DAVID, History of Leominster [Massachusetts], or the Northern Half
of the Lancaster New or Additional Grant . . . Fitchburg, Mass.,
Reveille, 1853. 263p.
WILLIAMS, BYRON, History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio . . .
Milford, Ohio, Hobart Publishing Company, 1913. 2 Vols.
WILLIAMS, KATHLEEN BOOTH, comp., Marriages of Amelia County, Virginia,
1735-1815. N. p., Compiler [c!961]. 165p.
, comp., Marriages of Goochland County, Virginia, 1733-1815. N. p.,
Compiler [c!960]. Mimeographed. 148p.
WDLLSON, RICHARD EUGENE, comp., The Willson Family Supplement, 1960.
Kent, Ohio, 1961. Mimeographed. 22p.
WINFREY, DORMAN H., A History of Rusk County, Texas. Waco, Tex., Texian
Press, 1961. 179p.
WINGO, ELIZABETH B., comp., Collection of Unrecorded Wills, Norfolk County,
Virginia, 1711-1800. N. p., Compiler [c!961]. Mimeographed. 129p.
, comp., Marriages of Norfolk County, Virginia, 1706-1792. N. p.,
Compiler [1961]. Mimeographed. 102p.
WINTERS, J. LYTLE, and LEONARD LYTLE, The Descendants of Edward Lytle
of Pennsylvania, Butler County, Ohio and Indiana. N. p., 1959. Tip.
WISEMAN, C. M. L., Centennial History of Lancaster, Ohio . . . Lan-
caster, Author, 1898. 407p.
WOODS, HARRIET F., Historical Sketches of Brookline, Massachusetts. Boston,
Robert S. Davis and Company, 1874. 430p.
WORTHAM, Louis J., A History of Texas From Wilderness to Commonwealth.
Fort Worth, Tex., Wortham-Molyneaux Company, 1924. 5 Vols.
WRIGHT, MARCUS S., JR., comp., Our Family Ties; Some Ancestral Lines of
Marcus S. Wright, Jr., and Alice Olden Wright. South River, N. J., Pri-
vately Printed, 1960. 107p.
YALE, RODNEY HORACE, Yde Genealogy and the History of Wales . . *
Beatrice, Neb., 1908. [622]p.
GENERAL
Album of American History, Volume 5, 1917-1953. New York, Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons, 1960. 402p.
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings at the Semi-Annual Meeting
Held in Boston, April 20, 1960. Worcester, Mass., Society, 1960. 348p.
American Folk Art From the Abby Aldrich Rockfeller Folk Art Collection.
Williamsburg, Va., Colonial Williamsburg [c!959]. 46p.
AMERICAN HERITAGE, Picture History of the Civil War. New York, American
Heritage Publishing Company [c!960]. 630p.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Guide to Historical Literature. New York,
Macmillan Company, 1961. 962p.
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, and VIRGINIA STATE LIBRARY, Permanent/
Durable Book Paper; Summary of a Conference Held in Washington, D. C.,
September 16, 1960. Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1960. 53p. (Vir-
ginia State Library Publications, No. 16. )
Americana Annual, an Encyclopedia of the Events of 1960. New York, Ameri-
cana Corporation [c!961]. 906p.
ANDERSON, YEATMAN, III, Checklist of Books Relating to the Discovery, Ex-
ploration and Description of America, From Columbus to Mackenzie, 1492-
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 253
1801. Cincinnati, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 1961.
Unpaged.
ANDROIT, JOHN L., Guide to U. S. Government Statistics. [Arlington, Va.]
Documents Index, 1961. 402p.
ANGEVINE, ERMA, In League With the Future. Chicago, Cooperative League
of USA, 1959. 90p.
ASHER, EUGENE L., The Resistance to the Maritime Classes; the Survival of
Feudalism in the France of Colbert. Berkeley, University of California
Press, 1960. 142p. ( University of California Publications in History, Vol.
66.)
ASHLEY, MAURICE, Great Britain to 1688; a Modern History. Ann Arbor, Uni-
versity of Michigan Press [c!961]. [466]p.
AYER, N. W., and SON'S, Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals, 1961.
Philadelphia, N. W. Ayer & Son [c!961]. 1581p.
Battles of the Civil War, 1861-1865; a Pictorial Presentation. [Little Rock?
Ark., I960.] Unpaged.
BEITZELL, EDWIN WARFIELD, The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary's County, Mary-
land. N. p., 1959. 320p.
BENNETT, MILDRED R., The World of Willa Gather. Lincoln, University of
Nebraska Press, 1961. 285p.
BLACKFORD, JOHN, Ferry Hill Plantation Journal, January 4, 1838 January 15,
1839, Edited by Fletcher M. Green, Chapel Hill, University of North Caro-
lina Press, 1961. 139p. (The James Sprunt Studies in History and Political
Science, Vol. 43. )
BLOCK, WILLIAM J., Separation of the Farm Bureau and the Extension Service,
Political Issue in a Federal System. Urbana, University of Illinois Press,
1960. 304p. (Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. 47.)
CARSON, GERALD, One for a Man, Two for a Horse; a Pictorial History . . .
of Patent Medicines. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday & Company [c!961].
128p.
CARUSO, JOHN ANTHONY, The Great Lakes Frontier; an Epic of the Old North-
west. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Company [c!961]. 432p.
CHAFETZ, HENRY, Play the Devil; a History of Gambling in the United States
From 1492 to 1955. New York, Clarkson N. Potter [c!960]. 475p.
CHAPMAN, JOHN L., Atlas; the Story of a Missile. New York, Harper & Broth-
ers [c!960]. 190p.
Chosen Songs of the Civil War, the Sweet Sixteen, Edited by Students in Okla-
homa History 162, Oklahoma State University . . . N. p. [c!960]. 56p.
CHRISTENSEN, ERWIN O., Museums Directory of the United States and Canada.
Washington, D. C., American Association of Museums [c!961]. 567p.
COLTON, HAROLD S., Hopi Kachina Dolls, With a Key to Their Identification.
Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press [c!959]. 150p.
CONNOISSEUR, THE, Concise Encyclopedia of Antiques, Vol. 5. New York,
Hawthorn Books [c!961]. 272p.
DILL, MARSHALL, JR., Germany, a Modern History. Ann Arbor, University of
Michigan Press [c!961]. [490]p.
DOBIE, J. FRANK, The Voice of the Coyote. N. p., University of Nebraska
Press, 1961. 386p.
DOHERTY, WILLIAM T., Louis Houck, Missouri Historian and Entrepreneur.
Columbia, University of Missouri Press [c!960]. 153p. (The University
of Missouri Studies, Vol. 33. )
254 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ESPINOSA, JOSE EDMUNDO, Saints in the Valley; Christian Images in the History,
Life, and Folk Art of Spanish New Mexico. [Albuquerque] University of
New Mexico Press, 1960. 122p.
FAUSOLD, MARTIN L., Gifford Pinchot, Bull Moose Progressive. [Syracuse,
N. Y.] Syracuse University Press, 1961. 270p.
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, KENTUCKY, Kentucky, a Guide to the Bluegrass
State . . . New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company [c!939]. 489p.
FITZPATRICK, LILIAN L., Nebraska Place-Names; Including Selections From
The Origin of the Place-Names of Nebraska, by J. T. Link . . . N. p.,
University of Nebraska Press, 1960. 227p.
FRITZ, EMANUEL, comp., California Coast Redwood; an Annotated Bibliography
to and Including 1955. San Francisco, Foundation for American Resource
Management, 1957. 267p.
GAMBRELL, HERBERT, and VIRGINIA GAMBRELL, A Pictorial History of Texas.
New York, E. P. Dutton & Company [c!960]. 217p.
GARA, LARRY, The Liberty Line; the Legend of the Underground Railroad.
Lexington, University of Kentucky Press [c!961]. 201p.
GARLAND, HAMLIN, Boy Life on the Prairie, Lincoln, University of Nebraska
Press, 1961. 435p.
GATES, PAUL W., The Farmer's Age: Agriculture, 1815-1860. New York, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston [c!960]. 460p.
GIBSON, A. M., A Guide to Regional Manuscript Collections in the Division of
Manuscripts, University of Oklahoma Library. Norman, University of Okla-
homa Press, 1960. 222p.
HAMER, PHILIP M., ed., A Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United
States; Compiled for the National Historical Publications Commission. New
Haven, Yale University Press, 1961. 775p.
HAMMOCK, JOHN C., With Honor Untarnished, the Story of the First Arkansas
Infantry Regiment, Confederate States Army. N. p. [c!961]. 164p.
HILLS, MARGARET THORNDIKE, ed., The English Bible in America; a Bibliog-
raphy . . . New York, American Bible Society, 1961. 477p.
HOEHLING, A. A., The Great Epidemic. Boston, Little, Brown and Company
[c!981]. 217p.
HORGAN, PAUL, Great River, the Rio Grand in North American History. New
York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston [c!954], 1020p.
HUMPHREYS, J. R., Lost Towns and Roads of America. Garden City, N. Y.,
Doubleday & Company, 1961. 194p.
INDIANA, ADJUTANT GENERAL, Indiana in the War of the Rebellion . . .
a Reprint of Volume 1 of the Eight-Volume Report . . . Published in
1869. [Indianapolis] Indiana Historical Bureau, 1960. 603p. (Indiana
Historical Collections, Vol. 41.)
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Papers. Vol. 16, 30 November to 4 July 1790. Princeton,
Princeton University Press, 1961. 675p.
JOHNSON, ALVIN, Pioneers Progress, an Autobiography. N. p., University of
Nebraska Press, 1960. 413p.
JOHNSON, DONALD BRUCE, The Republican Party and Wendell Willkie. Ur-
bana, University of Illinois Press, 1960. 354p.
JONES, ROBERT HUHN, The Civil War in the Northwest; Nebraska, Wisconsin,
Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press
[c!960]. 216p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 255
KELLAR, JAMES H., The C. L. Lewis Stone Mound; and, The Stone Mound
Problem. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1960. [127]p. (Pre-
history Research Series, Vol. 3, No. 4. )
KILGOUR, RUTH EDWARDS, A Pageant of Hats, Ancient and Modern. New York,
Robert M. McBride Company [c!958]. 389p.
KRATVILLE, WILLIAM W., and HAROLD E. RANKS, Union Pacific Locomotives,
Volume 2. [Omaha, Barnhart Press, I960.] 166p.
KUCERA, GLAIR L., The Grasses of Missouri. Columbia, University of Missouri
Press [c!961]. 241p. (The University of Missouri Studies, Vol. 35.)
LAJEUNESSE, ERNEST J., ed., The Windsor Border Region, Canada's Southern-
most Frontier . . . Toronto, Champlain Society, 1960. 374p. (Publi-
cations of the Champlain Society, Ontario Series, Vol. 4.)
LANHAM, NEB., ST. JOHN'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, 75th Anniversary
. . . Sunday, September 25, 1960. N. p., 1960? Unpaged.
LEONARD, CHARLENE MARIE, Lyon Transformed; Public Works of the Second
Empire, 1853-1864. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1961. 160p.
(University of California Publications in History, Vol. 67.)
LEWIS, BERKELEY R., Notes on Cavalry Weapons of the American Civil War,
1861-1865. Washington, D. C., American Ordnance Association, 1961. 31p.
LOMASK, MILTON, Andrew Johnson, President on Trial. New York, Farrar,
Straus and Cudahy [c!960]. 376p.
LOMAX, ALAN, The Folk Songs of North America in the English Language.
London, Cassell [c!960]. 623p.
LUNT, JAMES D., Charge to Glory! New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company
[c!960]. 248p.
LUTHIN, REINHARD H., The Real Abraham Lincoln; a Complete One Volume
History of His Life and Times. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall
[c!960]. 778p.
Me ARTHUR, LEWIS A., Oregon Place Names. Portland, Binfords & Mort for
the Oregon Journal, 1944. 109p.
MCGEARY, M. NELSON, Gifford Pinchot, Forester, Politician. Princeton, N. J.,
Princeton University Press, 1960. 481p.
McKENNA, MARIAN C., Borah. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press
[c!961]. 450p.
MCKEOWN, MARTHA FERGUSON, Them Was the Days, an American Saga of the
TOY Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1961. 282p.
MADISON, VIRGINIA, and HALLIE STTLLWELL, How Come It's Called That?
Place Names in the Big Bend Country. [Albuquerque] University of New
Mexico Press [1958]. 129p.
MANAKEE, HAROLD R., Maryland in the Civil War. Baltimore, Maryland His-
torical Society [c!961]. 173p.
MASON, DAVID T., Forests for the Future . . . Diaries and Papers, 1907-
1950. St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society, Forest Products History
Foundation, 1952. 283p.
MAXWELL, MOREAU S., and LEWIS H. BINFORD, Excavation at Fort Michili-
mackinac, Mackinac City, Michigan, 1959 Season. East Lansing [Michigan
State University Museum] 1961. 130p.
MULES, EDWIN ARTHUR, Jacksonian Democracy in Mississippi. Chapel Hill,
University of North Carolina Press, 1960. 192p. (The James Sprunt
Studies in History and Political Science, Vol. 42.)
256 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MINER, HORACE M., and GEORGE DEVos, Oasis and Casbah: Algerian Culture
and Personality in Change. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 1960.
236p.
MORGAN, DALE L., The Great Salt Lake. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Com-
pany [c!947]. 432p.
MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION, Annual Report, 1960.
Mount Vernon [Association, c!961]. 56p.
NANKIVELL, JOHN H., History of the Military Organizations of the State of
Colorado, 1860-1935. Denver, W. H. Kistler Stationery Company, c!935.
533p.
National Cyclopaedia of American Biography . . . Current Volume I.
New York, James T. White & Company, 1960. [509]p.
NEVTNS, ALLAN, War for the Union. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons
[c!959]. 2Vols.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, Joshua Bloch Memorial Volume; Studies in Book-
lore and History. New York, 1960. 219p.
NIETZ, JOHN A., Old Textbooks . . . From Colonial Days to 1900. Pitts-
burgh, University of Pittsburgh Press [c!961]. 364p.
ORMSBEE, THOMAS H., Know four Heirlooms. New York, McBride Company
[c!957]. 128p.
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, Vol. 33. Canyon, Tex., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, 1960. 144p.
Papers of Bernard DeVoto, a Description and a Checklist . . . N. p.
[c!960]. 62p.
PARISH, WILLIAM JACKSON, The Charles Ilfeld Company; a Study of the Rise
and Decline of Mercantile Capitalism in New Mexico. Cambridge, Harvard
University Press, 1961. 431p.
Patterson's American Education, Vol. 57. North Chicago, 111., Educational Di-
rectories, c!960. 756p.
PEARSON, JIM BERRY, The Maxwell Land Grant. Norman, University of Okla-
homa Press [1961]. 305p.
PELZER, Louis, Henry Dodge. Iowa City, State Historical Society of Iowa,
1911. 266p.
PENDER, SEAMUS, ed., A Census of Ireland, Circa 1659 . . . Dublin, Sta-
tionery Office, 1939. 946p.
PETERSON, P. D., Through the Black Hills and Bad Lands of South Dakota.
Pierre, S. D., J. Fred Olander Company [c!929]. 189p.
PRENTISS, A., ed., History of the Utah Volunteers in the Spanish-American War
and in the Philippine Islands . . . N. p., W. F. Ford [1900]. 430p.
PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING, Literary Memoranda. Edited and With an
Introduction by C. Harvey Gardiner. Norman, University of Oklahoma
Press [1961]. 2 Vols.
QUAIFE, MILO MILTON, History of the United States Flag, From the Revolution
to the Present . . . New York, Harper & Brothers [1961]. 182p.
RTKER, DOROTHY, and GAYLE THORNBROUGH, comps., Indiana Election Returns,
1816-1851. N. p., Indiana Historical Bureau, 1960. 493p. (Indiana His-
torical Collections, Vol. 40. )
ROMAINE, LAWRENCE B., A Guide to American Trade Catalogs, 1744-1900.
New York, R. R. Bowker Company, 1960. 422p.
ROSE, MATTIE (!NGOLD), The Family Ingold. Lincoln, Neb., Johnsen Publish-
ing Company [c!958]. 89p.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 257
ROTHENBERG, GuNTHER ERICH, Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1522-1747.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1960. 156p. (Illinois Studies in the
Social Sciences, Vol. 48. )
SCHACKNE, STEWART, and N. D'ARCY DRAKE. Oil for the World. Second Re-
vised Edition. New York, Harper & Brothers [I960]. 140p.
SCHLESINGER, ARTHUR M., JR., The Age of Roosevelt. Boston, Houghton Mif-
flin Company [c!957-1960]. 3 Vols.
SCHMECKBIER, LAURENCE F., and ROY B. EASTIN, Government Publications and
Their Use. Revised Edition. Washington, D. C., Brookings Institution
[cl981]. 476p.
SCHOECK, HELMUT, and JAMES W. WIGGINS, eds., Relativism and the Study of
Man. Princeton, N. J., D. Van Nostrand Company [c!961]. 259p.
SHAWN, EDWIN MYERS, One Thousand and One Night Stands, by Ted Shawn
With Grace Poole. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday & Company, 1960.
288p.
SIEVERS, HARRY JOSEPH, Benjamin Harrison, Hoosier Statesman . . . New
York, University Publishers [c!959]. 502p.
SILBER, IRWIN, comp., Songs of the Civil War . . . New York, Columbia
University Press, 1960. 385p.
SOUTH DAKOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Collections and Report, Vol. 30, 1960.
Pierre, South Dakota Historical Society, c!960. 592p.
SPEAR, DOROTHEA N., Bibliography of American Directories Through 1860.
Worcester, Mass., American Antiquarian Society, 1961. 389p.
STEINMETZ, LEE, Poetry of the American Civil War. N. p., Michigan State
University Press [c!960]. 264p.
STEWART, REID W., A History of the Covenanter Church in Northern Westmore-
land County, Pennsylvania . . . Pittsburgh, Patterson Press, 1960. 29p.
STORRS, AUGUSTUS, and ALPHONSO WETMORE, Santa Fe Trail; First Reports,
1825. Houston, Tex., Stagecoach Press, 1960. 69p.
SWEET, LOUISE E., Tell Toqaan: a Syrian Village. Ann Arbor, University of
Michigan, 1960. 280p.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, LIBRARY, Selected
References on Aging, an Annotated Bibliography . . . [Washington,
D. C., Government Printing Office, 1959.] HOp.
, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Uniform Regulations for the Army of the
United States, 1861; Illustrated With Contemporary Official War Depart-
ment Photographs. Washington, D. C., 1961. 61p.
UPTON, JOHN, The Art of Wood Carving. Princeton, N. J., D. Van Nostrand
Company [c!958]. 130p.
VANCE, MAURICE M., Charles Richard Van Hise, Scientist Progressive. Madi-
son, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1960. 246p.
WALLACE, IRVING, The Twenty-Seventh Wife. New York, Simon and Schuster,
1961. 443p.
WENDORF, FRED, comp., Paleoecology of the Llano Estacado. [Santa Fe] Mu-
seum of New Mexico Press, 1961. 144p.
WILEY, BELL IRVIN, They Who Fought Here. New York, Macmillan Company,
1959. 273p.
WILLSON, LILLIAN M., Forest Conservation in Colonial Times. St. Paul, Forest
Products History Foundation, 1948. 32p.
172840
258 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
WILSON, EVERETT B., Vanishing Americana. New York, A. S. Barnes and
Company [c!961]. 187p.
WOLFF, LEON, Little Brown Brother; How the United States Purchased and
Pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century's Turn. Garden City, N. Y.,
Doubleday & Company, 1961. 383p.
Work of Robert Kaufman (1913-1959). New York, Walter A. Weiss, c!961.
104p.
[WRIGHT, MURIEL H., and GEORGE H. SHIRK, comps.], Oklahoma Historical
Marker, Mark of Heritage. [Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Historical Society,
1958.] Unpaged.
WRITERS' PROGRAM, ARIZONA, Arizona, a State Guide. New York, Hastings
House, 1941. 530p.
, COLORADO, Colorado, a Guide to the Highest State. New York, Hast-
ings House [c!941]. Slip.
, OKLAHOMA, Oklahoma, a Guide to the Sooner State. Norman, Uni-
versity of Okkhoma Press, 1947. 445p.
, TEXAS, Texas, a Guide to the Lone Star State. New York, Hastings
House [c!940]. 718p.
YOST, STANLEY K., The Great Old Cars, Where Are They Now? [Mendota,
111., Wayside Press, c!960.] 228p.
Bypaths of Kansas History
PRAIRIE FIRES
From The Big Blue Union, Marysville, November 7, 1863.
The prairie fires, during the high winds of Saturday last, did more dam-
age in Kansas by burning fences, crops and hay, than all the taxes in the
State during the last year will amount to.
The fences on the road between Big Springs and Lawrence, are mostly
destroyed. A large amount of corn in the fields, hay in the stacks, sheds,
barns, &c., were burned up. Most farmers lost from $300 to $600. Mr.
Browne, of Big Springs, lost his stable and a horse that was tied in it. The
fire is thought to have originated near the Mound in Topeka, from a camp
fire built by teamsters. Champion, October 29th.
A HOT TIME IN BAXTER SPRINGS IN 1871
From The Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, December 14,
1871.
On Wednesday, seven or eight "wolves" of the Texas variety, held the
town of Baxter Springs from noon till five in the afternoon. At that hour
twelve armed citizens appeared and the Texans rode off. During the siege,
those roughs amused themselves by riding into saloons, cutting down signs
and shooting their revolvers in all directions. They "cleaned out" the Hall
House, throwing the doors and stoves into the street.
No MAIL
From the Newton Kansan, April 1, 1875.
FOLKS WE PITY. Young ladies who come for letters from their lovers and
don't get any. Young men who haven't heard from their "gal" for a whole
week. Men who take no papers, get no letters, but anxiously inquire day
after day the year round, and never get anything: "Any letters for me?" "Not
any!" "That is all, I don't take any papers." We pity these anxious inquirers
most. Think of it families with no reading. Children growing up without
acquiring taste for reading, without being informed of what is daily taking
place at home and abroad. The postmaster must be a heartless man who
does not wish he had a paper to give to the waiting wife and children at home.
A WOMAN CAUGHT IN A THRESHING MACHINE
From the Inland Tribune, Great Bend, July 13, 1878.
Jos. Weatherby, who is running a thresher, was at work in the Mennonite
settlement last Monday, about 20 miles northwest of Great Bend. A Men-
nonite lady, engaged in sacking the grain as it came from the machine, had
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260 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
her skirts caught in some cog-wheels, and in a twinkle she was wound up
until there was immediate danger of her life. Mr. Weatherby was not aware
of the fact, but judging from the peculiar vibrations that something was
wrong, put on the brakes, and just in time to save the lady's life. He found
her closely drawn up to the machine, and with difficulty extricated her by
cutting her garments loose. As soon as she was free, she lit out, and repaired
her toilet, and was promptly on hand for business; but the machine had not
fared so well. It was so badly damaged that it required two days to put it
in running order. The lady was much annoyed to think a threshing machine
was so frail that it couldn't embrace a woman without being shattered.
STRADDLING THE LINE
From The Kawsmouth, Wyandott (now part of Kansas City),
March 9, 1881.
Special to the Globe-Democrat, from Joplin says: On account of the
stringent law passed in Kansas relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and
in Missouri pertaining to gambling, a project is now on foot in this section of
the country to lay off a town site on the state line, affording those who desire
to drink of a stimulating nature accommodation on the Missouri side, and those
of sporting proclivities can be served by crossing the street into Kansas. The
town site will be laid off on land belonging to Messrs. P. Murphy and George
A. Case, and as the demand increases more will be added.
DIVORCES IN 1881
From The Western Home Journal, Lawrence, October 6, 1881.
The Troy Chief very pertinently says that the divorce business in Kansas
is becoming a shame and a scandal to the State. It occupies a large portion
of the time at every term of District Court in the State, and it would seem
as if the bulk of the population of Kansas were in pursuit of a divorce. In
Decatur county, which has scarcely any population, at the September term
of the District Court there were twenty cases on the docket. Nine of these
were divorce cases. Of the remainder, five were criminal cases, leaving but
six of what might properly be called civil cases. Every county has its heavy
quota of divorce cases.
MOTORING THROUGH KANSAS IN 1909
From the Topeka Daily Capital, June 10, 1909.
SPEEDING THROUGH MUD AT TERRIFIC RATE,
AUTOS WHIZ ON IN COAST TO COAST RACE
SALINA, KAN., June 9. In the ocean to ocean motor car race, the Ford
car driven by Frank Kulick passed Salina at 7:30 tonight, followed in ten
minutes by the Shawmut car, the latter not stopping. The Ford stopped long
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 261
enough only to take on a guide. Owing to the rains of the past three days,
the roads are in very bad condition. Kulick, with the first car, was nearly
exhausted when here.
Special to the Capital.
JUNCTION CITY, KAN., June 9. The Ford car No. 1 passed through here
at 4:35 this afternoon, in the lead in the New York to Seattle motor run. It
was followed fifteen minutes later by the big Shawmut car. Both cars went
through Junction City without stopping.
The Ford No. 2, which was reported to have left Manhattan at 3:10, had
not reached this city at 6:30, and probably had a break down or other bad
luck.
Declaring that they would catch and pass the Ford No. 1 and Shawmut
cars, which were then leading them by several hours, B. W. Scott and B. J.
Smith yesterday afternoon whizzed out of Topeka at the rate of 40 miles an
hour on their way in the Ocean to Ocean race. They were followed two
hours later by the Acme car, which was delayed by bad roads. The Ford
No. 1 and Shawmut cars left Topeka at about 10 o'clock yesterday morning.
The four cars which pulled up at the Stafford garage at the corner of East
Seventh and Quincy streets, were the muddiest automobiles ever seen in To-
peka. The roads they have encountered have been enough to break the heart
of the average autoist. But the racers declare they will run out of the mud
unless it keeps on raining ahead of them.
The Ford No. 2, which was leading easily yesterday afternoon, met with
an accident which threw it back to third place. Near Williamstown, the car
went down a 14-foot embankment just as the storm came up. Realizing it
was impossible to work in the darkness, the two drivers crawled under a small
bridge and slept until this morning when, by means of a block and tackle,
the car was raised, placed in the roadway and the race again begun.
The drivers of these racers do not stop at night. Two of them accompany
each machine and they alternate at driving and sleeping in the car as it
speeds along. The Acme, which was the last car into Topeka, expected to
reach Manhattan, which is one of the Kansas checking stations, early last
night, and the drivers were confident they would overtake the other three
cars before they got out of Kansas. There are two other checking stations in
Kansas. They are Ellis and Oakley.
The Italia, which was lost, reported into St. Louis yesterday and an-
nounced that it would not quit the race, but instead would strive to overtake
the other cars.
The Shawmut car reached Topeka at 9:30 o'clock, the Ford No. 1 arrived
here fifteen minutes later, the Ford No. 2 at 12:05 and the Acme at 2:30
o'clock. The stop of each of the cars here was short.
The Ford cars were led out of town by Charles W. Guild, local agent for
the Fords.
262 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
BUCKING CORN STALKS
From the Leavenworth Times, April 13, 1911.
BELLEVILLE, KAN., April 12. A Rock Island engineer running through here
had a new experience when he had to "buck" a drift of corn stalks. West of
Belleville, there is a deep cut near some large corn fields. During the week
stalk cutters were put in the fields and the high wind blew the stalks into
the cut until they nearly filled it. The engineer drove his engine into the drift
at full speed, but it was stalled before it could get half way through. He had
to "buck" the drift three times before he could get through.
Kansas History as Published in the Press
The Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
Garrison, N. Y., and Richmond, Va., in its June, 1960, issue, pub-
lished the "Memoirs of Frank J. Klingberg." Klingberg is a former
Kansan and many of his Kansas experiences are included in the
memoirs.
Historical articles of interest to Kansans appearing in the Kansas
City (Mo.) Star during the past several months included: "Up
Golden Trails of Kansas to Visit Leavenworth, Atchison and Hia-
watha," by Margaret Olwine, November 6, 1960; "Atchison Land-
mark [Corinthian Hall] Now History," January 29, 1961; "For
[Gov.] John Geary, Rugged Role in Early Kansas," by Robert K.
Sanford, February 25; "Kansas, When the West Was Young," an
editorial, May 28; "Trail Era Relived in Cow Town [Wichita]," by
Robert Pearman, June 4; "Fast Action Stirring on Old Western
Trails," a story of the Pony Express, by John Alexander, July 17;
"It's Lovely, It's Singable, It Belongs to Kansas," an article on
"Home on the Range," by Clyde Neibarger, July 20; and "Tough
and Agile, the Jackrabbit Lopes on Despite Predators and Organ-
ized Drives," by Percy L. DePuy, July 22. The Star printed a series
of seven articles on the Civil War, the first appearing February 19,
1961. Among articles published in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times
were: "Kansas a Look Through 420 Years," a review of Everett
Rich's The Heritage of Kansas, by Dwight Pennington, July 6, 1960;
"He [Waddell Smith] Keeps the Pony Express Riding," an article
on Smith's promotion of a Pony Express rerun and his development
of a Pony Express museum in San Rafael, Calif., by Dwight Pen-
nington, July 27; "Across Lonely 'Kansas' a Century Ago," by
Everett Rich, October 15; "Cultural History in Kansas Two
Vignettes," by Jennie Small Owen and Harry Sloan, October 29;
"Those Maple Hill Folks Were Individualists," by Roderick Turn-
bull, December 1; "When the Kansas Star Was Added to Old
Glory," by Joe Lastelic, February 21, 1961; "Kansas Past in an Ex-
patriate's [Streeter Blair] Paintings," by Ray Daley, March 18;
"Little Time Then for 'Bedside Manner,' " a review of Dr. John B.
Runnels and Dr. George F. Sheldon's Pictorial History of Kansas
Medicine, by Conwell Carlson, June 9; "Man [Samuel Newell Simp-
son] Who Named Lawrence Went on to Interesting Career in
Area," by Dorothea Simpson Meriwether, and "She [Mrs. Gros-
venor] Stood Up to Quantrill and Saved Husband," by Marcel
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264 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Wallenstein, July 5; "Real Calamity Jane Was Famous in Her Own
Day," by Robert Pearman, July 22; "When Chautauqua Crowned
the Summer," by Lois M. Smith, September 1; "Frederick W.
Brinkerhoff, a Lifetime Kansan," by Kenneth L. Simons, September
14; "Frederic Remington Groped Here Toward Career," by John
Edward Hicks, September 30; "[Medicine Lodge] Indian Treaty
in Kansas on Civil War Backdrop," by Philip S. Edwards, October
6; "When Quantrill Sacked Lawrence a Primitive Artist's Ver-
sion," a reproduction of Streeter Blair's painting of QuantruTs
Lawrence raid and a discussion of the picture by Ray Daley, and
"Two Fakes, No Real Charley Hart," by John Edward Hicks, De-
cember 19; and "Kansas Literature a Centennial Look," by Everett
Rich, December 22.
Kittie Dale is the author of several historical articles appearing in
the Ellis Review during 1961, including: "Early Ellis Homesteaders
Lived in Sod Houses," March 2; "Historic Old Front Street (Ed-
wards Street) of Ellis," March 16; "Boothill Part of Early Ellis
Times," May 18; and "Early Ellis Pioneer Women Took Law in
Hand; Cleaned Up Town," August 3. On May 11 the Review
printed a "History of Ellis Post Office," by H. C. Raynesford.
A history of Beloit and Mitchell county by Frank A. Lutz was
published in the Beloit Gazette, March 2, 9, 1961.
"Incidents in Local History," is a centennial-year series in the
Lyons Daily News. The first installment appeared in the March 6,
1961, issue.
An article on the history of Fort Row entitled "Log Fort Con-
structed Near Coyville," by Annette Allen (Mrs. Lela J. Brockway),
was published in the Fredonia Daily Herald, March 8, 1961.
A series of biographical sketches of pioneer families of the Logan
area began appearing in the Logan Republican, March 9, 1961.
Carneiro, an Ellsworth county village, was the subject of historical
articles in the Ellsworth Messenger, March 15, 1961; Ellsworth Re-
porter, March 16; and the Hutchinson News, April 9.
Among the special editions, other than centennial issues, printed
recently by Kansas newspapers were: Diamond Jubilee and Futu-
rama edition, Southwest Daily Times, Liberal, March 18, 1961;
Growth edition, Parsons News, April 27; 75th anniversary, Minneola
Record, May 18; 90th anniversary, Peabody Gazette-Herald, June
29; 75th anniversary, Dighton Herald, July 26; Diamond Jubilee is-
sue, Horton Headlight, September 18; Indian Peace Treaty edition,
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 265
Barber County Index, Medicine Lodge, October 5; Arkalalah edi-
tion, Arkansas City Daily Traveler, October 24; special edition, In-
dependence Daily Reporter, October 25; and 75th anniversary, Oak-
ley Graphic, December 28.
Henry Stunkel and his family settled in Sumner county in 1873.
A story of the family by Mrs. Macy Watson, a daughter, was pub-
lished in the High Plains Journal, Dodge City, March 25, 1961, and
the Belle Plaine News, April 13.
The story of the journey by the H. S. Simonton family from Can-
ada to Kansas in 1896 by covered wagon, as related by Mrs. Simon-
ton, was printed in the Horton Headlight, March 30, April 3, 6, 10,
1961.
William C. Quantrill's Baxter Springs raid of October 6, 1863, was
reviewed by John K. Hay in an article in the Pittsburg Headlight
and the Atchison Daily Globe, March 31, 1961.
Two Kansas articles appeared in the April-May, 1961, number
of The American-German Review, Philadelphia: "Germans in Kan-
sas," by J. Neale Carman, and "German Instruction in Kansas," by
George W. Kreye.
Dr. O. W. Mosher's column "Museum Notes," in the Emporia
Gazette continues to include a large amount of historical material
in addition to information about the Lyon County Historical Mu-
seum. April 4, 1961, the Gazette published the recollections of 100-
year-old Abner Curtis who attended school in Americus in the late
1860's. An article by E. W. Smith on the Battle of Wilson's creek
and the death of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon appeared in the Gazette,
August 10.
"Our Pioneers" is the title of a series of biographical sketches of
early settlers in the Toronto vicinity which first appeared in the To-
ronto Republican, April 6, 1961.
Early settlements in Cloud county and the town of Clyde were
reviewed in a historical series printed in the Clyde Republican dur-
ing April, 1961.
On April 13 and 27, 1961, the Jennings Journal printed a two-part
history of the Jennings public schools by Janice Bainter.
Sam Peppard's windwagon which was said to have traveled from
Oskaloosa almost to Denver in 1860 was the subject of an article in
the Denver Post Empire, April 23, 1961, by Jessy Mae Coker.
266 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Beginning with the issue of April 25, 1961, the Augusta Daily Ga-
zette printed a series of articles on the history of Butler county as a
centennial-year feature.
In observance of Kansas' centennial year the Lawrence Journal-
World published historical articles from time to time during 1961.
Included among these were: "Early Lawrence Was Not Exactly
Typical 'City Beautiful/" by Mrs. Frank Banks, April 25; and
"Early Settlers [Mr. & Mrs. Collins Holloway] Write of Trek to
Lawrence From Ohio in 1855," August 2.
Biographical sketches of Mrs. Miriam Gruger Van Wormer, last
survivor of the original settlers of Osborne, appeared in the Osborne
County Farmer, Osborne, April 27, 1961, and the Salina Journal,
August 17.
Dr. James Malin is the author of articles printed recently in
Scandinavian Studies, Menasha, Wis.: "Emanuel Swedenborg and
His Clothes Philosophy/' in the issue of May, 1961; and "Carlyle's
Philosophy of Clothes and Swedenborg's," in the August, 1961,
number.
Clarence H. Kessler's talk at the dedication of the new Altamont
post office in early 1961, on the history of the post office and other
local history, was published in the Altamont Journal beginning
May 4, 1961.
Early Kansas flour mills were the subject of the following news-
paper articles: "Newton's First Flour Mill Was Established in 1875,"
by Carol Angood, Newton Kansan, May 27, 1961; "A Century Late,
the Soden Name Lives on/' a history of Soden's Mill and Grove,
Lyon county, Emporia Times, June 15; "Early Day Mills," by the
late John B. Luder, Natoma-Luray Independent, June 22; "Early
Day Resident [of Haven, Charles McCutcheon] Recalls History of
Old Forsha Ranch and Flour Mill," Haven Journal, June 29; "Only
Memories Remain of Tong Mill That Flourished Here [Leon], 1871
to 1913," Leon News, June 29; "Hays City Flour Mill Founded
Around 1870," Ellis County Farmer, Hays, July 6; and "Big Flour
Mills Here [Marysville] Rebuilt in 1906 Following a Disastrous
Fire," by Gordon S. Holm, Marysville Advocate, July 13.
Thomas Alexander Alderdice, Sumner county pioneer and sur-
vivor of the Battle of Arickaree, was the subject of a biographical
sketch in the Conway Springs Star, June 8, 1961, and the Argonia
Argosy, June 29.
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 267
An eight-page section of the June 9, 1961, issue of the Fort Scott
Tribune was devoted to Civil War history, histories of Fort Scott
churches, the story of the struggles of the settlers in the southeast
Kansas area during the territorial and Civil War periods, and a re-
view of Sylvia Dannett's She Rode With the Generals, the story of
Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye, a Civil War spy who later lived in
Fort Scott.
The first in a series of articles on the history of the Belle Plaine
area was published in the Belle Plaine News, June 22, 1961.
The Derby-Haysville Star-Herald printed a three-part history of
Derby, by Becky Taylor, June 29, July 6, 11, 1961.
The visit of Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, to the United States in
1871 and 1872, was reviewed by William F. Zornow in "When
the Czar and Grant Were Friends," Mid-America An Historical
Review, Chicago, July, 1961. Buffalo hunts on the Plains, accom-
panied by Indians and some of America's best-known hunters, were
included in the Duke's itinerary in this country.
Kansas wheat and the Kansas centennial were featured in the
July- August, 1961, issue of The Rocket, Chicago, 111., publication
of the Rock Island railroad.
On July 5, 1961, the Sabetha Herald printed an article on the early
history of Sabetha by Nannie Bingham. With the issue of July 12
the Herald began publication of a series on the history of the Sa-
betha community by Mrs. Lillian Hughes Neiswanger.
"Hodgeman County's Wagon Train," the story of a group of set-
tlers from Falls City, Neb., traveling to Hodgeman county to find
new homes, by Earl Pitts, was published serially in the Jetmore
Republican, starting July 6, 1961.
On August 3, 1961, the Sherman County Herald, Goodland, and
the Goodland Daily News, issued 16-page sections devoted to the
history of the Sherman Community High School at Goodland.
A 66-page historical edition was published by the Hugoton
Hermes, August 17, 1961, in observance of the 75th anniversary of
Stevens county. Historical articles and pictures on Stevens county
subjects were featured.
Additions to the list of centennial editions published by Kansas
newspapers include: the Plainsman, Dodge City, mid-1961 issue;
Rush County News, La Crosse, September 28; and Clay Center Dis-
patch, October 2.
268 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"Play-Party Games From Kansas," by S. J. Sackett, was the
feature of the September, 1961, issue of Heritage of Kansas,
Emporia.
In recognition of the Kansas centennial, the Ford Times, Dear-
born, Mich., published the following articles in the issue of October,
1961: "History Rides Again at Medicine Lodge," the story of the
Medicine Lodge Indian Peace Treaty pageant, by Mary Einsel, with
photographs by Philip S. Edwards; "Early College [Baker Univer-
sity, Baldwin] of the Pioneers," story and paintings by Grace Bilger;
"Svensk Hyllnings Fest: Sweden in Kansas," a description of the
celebration in tribute to Swedish pioneers held every two years at
Lindsborg, by Elvira Larson, with paintings by Signe Larson; and
"A Kansas Miscellany Some Notes on the Sunflower State," a page
of interesting facts about Kansas.
Recent articles of interest to Kansans appearing in the The
Westerners Brand Book, Chicago, 111., included: "The Story of the
Harvey Girls," by Bryon Harvey, grandson of the founder of the
Fred Harvey System, October, 1961; and "Will Comstock the
Natty Bumppo of Kansas," by John S. Gray, February, 1962.
The Fall, 1961, number of the Journal of the Mississippi Valley
American Studies Association, Lawrence, was a Kansas centennial
issue. Articles included: "Kansas: Some Reflections on Culture
Inheritance and Originality," by James C. Malin; "Wild Bill Hickok
in Abilene," by Robert Dykstra; "Regionalist Painting and Ameri-
can Studies," by Kenneth J. LaBudde; "The Foreign Mark on
Kansas," by J. Neal Carman; and "Fact and Fiction in the Quest
for Quivira," by Michael R. C. Coulson.
"Pistoleer Extraordinary," a discussion of the marksmanship of
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, by Joseph Rosa, was published
in Guns Review, Leeds, England, November-December, 1961.
Topeka's newspaper history was featured in the December, 1961,
number of the Shawnee County Historical Society Bulletin, To-
peka. On July 4, 1855, the first issue of The Kansas Freeman, the
young town's first newspaper, was published.
Gillilands, of Arkansas City, published another Kansas Pictorial
Calendar, edited by Bob Honeyman. This 1962 booklet contains
space for making notes for each date of the year, and each double
page of the calendar is followed by a double page of pictures of
historical markers and historic sites or buildings.
Kansas Historical Notes
Cecil Hornbaker was named president of the Harvey County
Historical Society at a meeting in Newton, January 9, 1962. Other
officers include: Ralph Hauck, vice-president; W. J. Sage, secre-
tary; and Mrs. Paul Kliewer, recording secretary. Elden Smurr
was the retiring president.
Officers chosen by the Wyandotte County Historical Society at a
meeting January 11, 1962, included: Henry W. Gauert, president;
Alan W. Farley, vice-president; Mrs. Georgia L. Moots, secretary;
Mrs. Georgie Trowbridge, treasurer; and Harry Trowbridge,
curator. Nellie McGuinn is historian for the society. Joseph A.
Lastelic was the retiring president.
All officers of the Argonia and Western Sumner County Historical
Society were re-elected at the annual meeting January 16, 1962, in
Argonia. They include: Mrs. Esther Wulf, president; Orie Cleous,
first vice-president; Mrs. Carl Earles, second vice-president; Mrs.
Grace Handy, secretary; Mrs. James Hart, treasurer; and Mrs.
Margaret Rust, corresponding secretary.
Emery E. Fager, Topeka, and Mrs. Glenn Henry, Oskaloosa,
were named presidents of the Native Sons and Daughters of Kan-
sas at the group's annual meeting January 28, 1962, in Topeka.
Other officers chosen by the Native Sons included: Marshall G.
Gardiner, Leavenworth, vice-president; Glenn D. Cogswell, To-
peka, secretary; and Glee Smith, Larned, treasurer. The Native
Daughters elected Mrs. Everett Steerman, Emporia, vice-president;
Mrs. J. E. Beyer, Sabetha, secretary; and Mrs. B. J. Lempenau, To-
peka, treasurer. Harry Darby, Kansas City, was named Kansan
of the Year. The Olive Ann Beech award for the best pioneer
factual story went to Mrs. Edwin Pitt, Topeka.
"Grandmother's Trunk and Pantry" was the theme of the 55th
annual meeting of the Woman's Kansas Day Club, January 29, 1962,
in Topeka. New officers elected at the business session included:
Mrs. Frank A. Huffman, Topeka, president; Mrs. Roy S. Gibson,
Chanute, first vice-president; Mrs. Paul Wedin, Wichita, second
vice-president; Mrs. F. Sharon Foster, Ellsworth, recording secre-
tary; Mrs. Roscoe Mendenhall, Emporia, registrar; Mrs. Russell
Dary, Manhattan, historian; Mrs. Joseph Henkle, Great Bend,
treasurer; and Mrs. Thomas H. Finigan, Kansas City, auditor. Dis-
trict directors are: Pauline Cowger, Salina, first; Mrs. Loren H.
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270 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hohman, Topeka, second; Mrs. Mary Ebener, Kansas City, third;
Mrs. Frank Buck, Abilene, fourth; and Mrs. L. S. Holroyd, Sedan,
fifth. Mrs. Claude R. Stutzman, Kansas City, the retiring presi-
dent, presided at the meeting. Display items, used in carrying out
the theme at the meeting, were presented to the Kansas State
Historical Society.
Frank Peppiatt was chosen president of Rice County Historical
Society at a meeting January 29, 1962. Paul Jones was re-elected
vice-president; Mrs. W. W. Chandler, Jr., secretary; and Mrs.
Frank Peppiatt, treasurer.
Fred Young was elected president of Boot Hill Museum, Inc.,
Dodge City, at a meeting of the board of directors, February 12,
1962. Jim Myers is first vice-president; Ed Griffith, second vice-
president; Jack Swartz, secretary; and Dick Harris, treasurer. Dr.
Herbert White was the retiring president.
Ida Ellen Rath was chosen president of the Ford County His-
torical Society at its annual meeting February 13, 1962, in Dodge
City. Also elected were: Robert E. Eagan, vice-president; Mrs.
C. R. Harner, secretary; Fred Swart, treasurer; and Joe Hulpieu,
historian.
Francis Wilson was re-elected president of the Ellsworth County
Historical Society at the annual meeting of the society, February
15, 1962, in Ellsworth. Other officers are: Mrs. George Andrews,
vice-president; Mrs. Paul Aylward, secretary; and Dwight Yody,
treasurer. The society is engaged in a campaign to raise funds
for a museum.
In observance of the Kansas centennial, the Oswego Independent
published an 18-page pamphlet on the history of Oswego entitled
The Story of "Little Town 9 and Its Founder, John Mathews, by
Wayne O'Connell.
History of First Christian Church, . . . Baxter Springs . . .,
is the title of a recently published 40-page booklet by Claude H.
Nichols. The church was established in 1883.
Our History in Review is the title of a 66-page booklet published
in 1961 in commemoration of Hoisington's diamond anniversary and
the state's centennial.
In observance of the Kansas centennial, Clearwater published
a 120-page booklet entitled History of the Clearwater Community.
Histories of early families, growth of the town, and pioneer incidents
are among the features of the booklet.
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 271
Courtland's Kansas centennial committee has compiled and pub-
lished a 70-page booklet featuring the history of that area. The
town was established in the late 1880's.
A 20-page 75th anniversary pamphlet was recently published by
the Farmers and Merchants Bank, Hill City. The bank was founded
in 1886 at Millbrook.
Years of Hope and Fulfillment a History of the First Southern
Baptist Church [of Junction City], 1954-1961, a 28-page booklet
by J. R. Huddlestun, was published in 1961.
Minneola published a 224-page historical book in 1961 in obser-
vance of the Kansas centennial and the town's diamond anniversary,
entitled Pioneers of the Prairies.
James C. Malm is the author of a new 254-page lithoprinted
volume entitled Confounded Rot About Napoleon Reflections
Upon Science and Technology, Nationalism, World Depression of
the Eight een-Nineties, and Afterwards.
A Centennial Literary Map of Kansas, 1861-1961, prepared by
Dr. Ben W. Fuson under the sponsorship of the Kansas Association
of Teachers of English, was published in 1961. One hundred
names of authors, each accompanied by a book title, appear on the
map. A 100-page supplement entitled Centennial Bibliography
of Kansas Literature, 1854-1961, containing a greatly expanded list
of Kansas writers and their literature, was also published.
Hunters of buried treasure will find interesting reading in West-
ern Treasures, Lost 6- Found, a 123-page booklet by Jesse Ed
Rascoe, published by the Frontier Book Co., Toyahvale, Tex., in
1961. Several stories are included concerning treasures said to
have been buried in Kansas.
Fred Hinkle tells of many of his experiences as a Kansas rancher
and lawyer in a 132-page book entitled The Saddle and the Statute,
published in 1961 by McCormick-Armstrong Co., Wichita.
Maple Hill Stories, a series of articles on the years 1904-1922
in Maple Hill, by Roderick Turnbull, a native of that Wabaunsee
county village, was published in a 168-page book in 1961. Most
of the stories had previously appeared in the Kansas City (Mo.)
Star.
An interesting 251-page volume entitled Kansas Folklore, edited
by S. J. Sackett of Hays and William E. Koch of Manhattan, was
published in 1961 by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
272 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Cattlemen of the West are featured in Lewis Atherton's new
308-page book, The Cattle Kings, published by the Indiana Uni-
versity Press, Bloomington.
James W. Drury is the author of a new 393-page volume entitled
The Government of Kansas, published by the University of Kansas
Press, Lawrence. Besides extensive information on the organization
of the state government, the book gives attention to the historical
development of Kansas institutions.
President James Buchanan a Biography is a new 506-page vol-
ume by Philip Shriver Klein, published by the Pennsylvania State
University Press, University Park. Two chapters of the book deal
with the Kansas troubles during the territorial period.
First published in 1814, the book Views of Louisiana, Together
With a Journal of a Voyage Up the Missouri River in 1811, by
Henry Marie Brackenridge, has been republished in 1962 by Quad-
rangle Books, Inc., Chicago, in a 302-page volume.
n
ieea
STT THE
NYLE H. MILLER JAMES C. MALIN FORREST R. BLACKBURN
Managing Editor Associate Editor Assistant Editor
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 Roy W. Meyer, 273
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY Allison Chandler, 301
With Pottawatomie county railroad map, p. 304, and photographs of Inter-
urban scenes and equipment, between pp. 304, 305.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE
RAILWAY /. Neale Carman, Translator and Annotator, 310
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A Revised Annals, Part Seven,
1833-1834 Compiled by Louise Barry, 317
With portraits of the prophets Tensquatawa (Shawnee), and Kennekuk
(Kickapoo), facing p. 336; Jotham Meeker, and reproductions of title
pages of a book, The History of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
which he printed in present Kansas in 1837, facing p. 337.
SOME NOTES ON KANSAS COWTOWN POLICE OFFICERS AND GUN FIGHTERS
Concluded Nyle H. Miller and Joseph W. Snell, 370
With portraits of William Mathew Tilghman, Jr., Chauncey B. Whitney,
Billy and Ben Thompson; a photograph of Ellsworth in 1872; a repro-
duction of the governor's reward poster for the arrest and conviction
of Billy Thompson, and a picture of the Marshal Henry Brown gang,
which attempted to rob the Medicine Lodge bank, and their captors,
between pp. 384, 385.
BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY , 400
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 401
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . , 407
The Kansas Historical Quarterly is published four times a year by the Kansas
State Historical Society, 120 W. Tenth St., Topeka, Kan. It is distributed
without charge to members of the Society; nonmembers may purchase single
issues, when available, for 75 cents each. Membership dues are: annual, $3;
annual sustaining, $10; life, $20. Membership applications and dues should be
sent to Mrs. Lela Barnes, treasurer.
Correspondence concerning articles for the Quarterly should be addressed to
the managing editor. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made
by contributors.
Second-class postage has been paid at Topeka, Kan.
THE COVER
A threshing scene probably in north central Kansas
in the early 1900's. The original hand-colored picture,
17 x 25 inches, clearly shows "Clay Center" stamped on
the grain wagon.
THE KANSAS
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Volume XXVIII Autumn, 1962 Number 3
The Iowa Indians, 1836-1885
ROY W. MEYER
A CCORDING to a study made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
*~V. in 1930, the Indians of Kansas were more thoroughly accul-
turated (i.e., retained less of their native culture) than those of
any other state. Only 16.22% of the Indian culture survived among
the Kansas Indians, in contrast to the 69.3% which persisted among
those of New Mexico. 1 Of the four Indian groups in Kansas the
Iowa, the Sac and Fox, the Pottawatomie, and the Kickapoo the
lowas are generally considered to be the most completely assimi-
lated to white culture. For this reason, a historical survey of the
half century during which most of this acculturation took place
would seem to have a certain value. Between 1836, when the
Iowa Indians ceded their lands east of the Missouri river and were
assigned a reservation in present-day Kansas, and 1885, when con-
gress passed a law authorizing the appraisal and sale of the rem-
nant of this reservation, the Iowa tribe was transformed from a
seminomadic group, still largely in the hunting-fishing stage, into
a civilized community, living in frame houses and farming in much
the same fashion as their white neighbors.
Linguistically, the Iowa, together with the Oto and Missouri,
were members of the Chiwere branch of the great Siouan family.
According to their own traditions, these three tribes, as well as the
Omaha and Ponca, had split off at some remote time from the
Winnebago and had moved westward. During the historic period
the lowas were great wanderers, if the locations assigned them by
various explorers can be credited. They appear to have lived suc-
cessively on the Rock river in western Illinois, on the Des Moines
river in southeastern Iowa, near the Pipestone quarry in south-
western Minnesota, near the mouth of the Blue Earth river in the
same state, at the mouth of the Platte river in Nebraska, near the
headwaters of the Little Platte river in Missouri, on the Mississippi
DR. ROY W. MEYER, a native of Minnesota, is a member of the English department at
Mankato State College, Mankato, Minn.
1. 82d Cong., 2d Sess., House Report 2503 (Serial 11582), p. 158.
(273)
274 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in southeastern Iowa, on the Salt river in Missouri, and at various
points in southwestern Iowa and northwestern Missouri. 2 Their
last homeland before their removal to Kansas was on the Little
Platte river in present-day Missouri. Here they lived a semiseden-
tary life, cultivating small patches of corn, beans, and pumpkins,
but living chiefly by the chase. Their only tools were the squaw-ax
and a primitive hoe, both brought in by traders. During the grow-
ing season they lived in houses made of bark stretched over poles;
these lasted only a few years, and when they wore out, the occu-
pants moved. During the winter they lived in lodges of elk and
buffalo skin, like the purely nomadic tribes of the Great Plains. 3
As with other Indian groups, estimates of the numbers of the
Iowa vary greatly at different times and cannot be regarded as
highly accurate. In 1760 they were said to number 1,100; by 1804,
a year after a smallpox epidemic, Lewis and Clark counted only
800. In 1829 the secretary of war estimated their number as 1,000.
Catlin thought there were 1,400 in 1832, but by 1836 the number
was down to 992. There is general agreement that they were a
small tribe, in no way comparable to the Sioux or the Pawnees or
even the Sac and Fox, with whom they were long associated, both
before and after their acceptance of reservation life. They seem
several times to have lived in a single village, as was the case when
Lewis and Clark visited them. 4
The first important treaty which the lowas entered into with
the United States government was that of August 4, 1824, by which
they ceded all claim to lands in Missouri and were to receive in
return $500 that year in cash or merchandise and a like amount in
each of the 10 following years. The government promised to fur-
nish them with a blacksmith, farm implements and cattle, and some-
one to teach them agriculture. 5 It should perhaps be mentioned
here that Missouri's western boundary at that time was a straight
north-south line, an extension northward of the present western
boundary of the state south of the Missouri river. Hence the valley
of the Little Platte river was not included within the state, and the
lowas' claim to this area was not affected by the 1824 treaty. On
August 19, 1825, at Prairie du Chien, they participated in another
treaty, by which their joint claim with the Sacs and Foxes to land
in Iowa was recognized, together with their common right to oc-
2. Frederick W. Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians (Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletins, No. 30 Washington, 1910), v. 1, pp. 612, 613.
3. Pryor Plank, "The Iowa, Sac and Fox Indian Mission and Its Missionaries, Rev.
Samuel M. Irvin and Wife," Kansas Historical Collections v. 10 (1907-1908), pp. 312, 313.
4. Hodge, op. cit., p. 613.
5. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1904), v. 2,
pp. 208, 209.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 275
cupy it peaceably until a division of claims could be made. 6 By
the second treaty of Prairie du Chien (July 15, 1830) the lowas
ceded their joint claims, but Article 1 stipulated that the area be-
tween the state of Missouri and the Missouri river should be as-
signed to the tribes living on it or to others that the President might
locate thereon "for hunting, and other purposes." 7
It was not long before agitation began for the acquisition of the
Platte purchase, as this area was called, and its annexation to Mis-
souri. Such action was suggested by a committee of the house of
representatives in its report of May 20, 1834, and in the next session
of congress a representation was made of some tribes* willingness
to relinquish their rights. The Missouri state legislature submitted
a resolution to congress on February 24, 1835, requesting the pur-
chase of these lands so that they might be annexed. Although it
passed the senate 22-0 and the house 69-2, it seems to have run
into opposition from President Jackson, who pointed out that it
would be in disregard of guarantees made in the 1830 treaty. He
consented, however, to have the question submitted to the Indians,
provided that no pressure was put on them. Congress on June 14,
1836, appropriated $2,000 for the purpose of extinguishing the In-
dian title to this area. Gen. William Clark, superintendent of In-
dian affairs at St. Louis, then entered into negotiations with the
lowas and the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, and as might have
been predicted they agreed to the proposal. 8 The outcome was
the treaty of September 17, 1836, by which these tribes ceded their
claims east of the Missouri and were given a tract of four hundred
square miles on the west bank, between the Kickapoo reservation
and the Great Nemaha river. 9 In subsequent treaties (Novem-
ber 23, 1837, and October 19, 1838) the lowas ceded all right and
interest in the lands described in the two treaties of Prairie du
Chien. 10
The lowas seem to have moved to their reservation with some
celerity. Andrew S. Hughes, subagent at the Great Nemaha sub-
agency, reported late in 1837 that they had been moving since
September 17, 1836. 11 This seems unlikely, however, since the
treaty was not ratified until the following February, and the Rev.
Samuel M. Irvin, sent as a missionary to these tribes, reports visit-
6. Ibid., p. 251.
i. Ibid., p. 306.
8. 24th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 297), pp. 395, 396: 23d Cong., 2d Sess
Sen. Doc. 137 (Serial 268), p. 1.
9. Kappler, op. cit., pp. 468, 469.
10. Ibid., pp. 500, 501, 518, 519.
11. 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 314), p. 552.
276 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ing them in their old homes east of the Missouri in April of 1837. 12
In any case, they appear to have been established in their new
home by the summer of 1837. Those who arrived in time were
able to plant small fields of corn, pumpkins, and beans, but the
agent feared that the produce from these fields would be consumed
by the time it was ripe. Since no farming implements had been
received, it is not surprising that the quantity of food produced
was small. Game had largely disappeared from this area by the
time the Indians arrived. The first settlement of the lowas in Kan-
sas was on the west bank of the Missouri river, just above the mouth
of the Wolf river, in present Doniphan county. The agent believed
that a square of four miles would include both tribes, and within
this square sites for buildings were immediately designated. Forty-
one bark houses were erected that summer. 13
The treaty of October 19, 1838 (ratified March 2, 1839), was
more advantageous to the lowas than the one by which they ceded
the Platte purchase. Besides giving somewhat more generous pro-
visions for livestock, farm implements, goods, etc., than the earlier
treaties, it provided that $157,500 should be invested at an interest
rate of five percent "during the existence of their tribe." A por-
tion of this was to be used for agricultural and educational purposes
(which the chiefs were said to oppose), a life annuity of $50 for
the interpreter, Jeffrey Derroin, was to be deducted, and the rest
was to be paid in money or merchandise each October. The in-
vestment was not made, but in lieu of the interest, $7,875 was ap-
propriated and remitted, with $2,000 earmarked for the erection
of 10 houses, the dimensions and materials carefully specified. 14
The houses (which ultimately cost $3,000) were completed by
1842, when the Indians were moving in. They were five double
log houses with a passage of 10 feet between, the whole equal to
10 houses 16 by 18 feet. Each had a good shingle roof, glass win-
dows, floors and doors, and good stone chimneys. The Indians,
who up to now had been living in a village a mile from the agency
and in scattered houses up to three miles away, were reported to
be much pleased with the houses built for them. Yet within a few
years they were abandoned, the doors, floors, and windows all sold
for whiskey and trinkets, the rest burned. 15
Although the successive subagents try to present a rosy picture
in their annual reports to the commissioner of Indian affairs, there
12. Plank, loc. cit. t p. 312.
13. 25th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 314), p. 553; Plank, loc. cit., p. 314.
14. Kappler, op. cit., pp. 518, 519; 26th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 354),
p. 328.
15. 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 413), p. 442; Plank, loc. cit., pp. 313, 314.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 277
are sufficient indications that the lowas were not responding as
expected to the well-intentioned civilizing efforts of the missionaries
and government officials. According to the Reverend Mr. Irvin,
other improvements made for their benefit suffered a fate similar to
that of the houses. The government broke and fenced 200 acres of
ground, divided into 10-acre lots; soon the fence rails had been
used for campfires. One hundred cows and 100 hogs were de-
livered, along with a number of farm tools; the animals were soon
eaten, the tools traded off. Not only did the lowas sell or destroy
the buildings, fences, tools, and livestock purchased for them, but
they continued their periodic raids on other tribes. In 1847 their
annuity was held up until they should make reparation for a wanton
attack on the Omahas the previous winter, and the next spring
planting was delayed by the celebration that followed the killing
of 12 Pawnees. 16 In addition, whisky shops gathered on the bor-
ders of the reservation, and drunkenness and violence prevailed.
It was said that the first English learned by the lowas was pro-
fanity, which they used with no clear notion of its meaning. 17
Subagent William F. Richardson reported in 1842 that two men
had been killed in the previous year as a result of drunkenness.
It was all too easy to cross the river and trade guns, horses, or
anything else for liquor. Richardson caught three men bringing
whisky in, tied them up, and kept them a few days, and then took
them across the river to be committed to jail, only to be obliged to
leave hastily to avoid a suit for the whisky he had destroyed. 18
The missionaries were especially displeased by the lack of prog-
ress of the lowas toward civilization and by the Indians' attitude
toward education and religion. The Reverend Mr. Irvin, appointed
by the Presbyterian board of missions as missionary to the lowas
and Sacs and Foxes, and William Hamilton, who shortly joined
him, were the moving spirits in this effort to civilize the two groups,
and to them belongs much of the credit for the transformation that
ultimately came about. They appear to have had no success what-
ever at first in converting the Indians to Christianity and concen-
trated their efforts chiefly on educating the children. In this they
were up against formidable obstacles. Irvin complained in 1842
that the lowas were absent nearly half the year, and when they
were present they were careless in regard to learning. Since they
refused to come regularly to school, the teaching had to be done at
16. Ibid., p. 314; 30th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Exec. Doc. 1 (Serial 503), p. 833; 30th
Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), p. 483.
17. Plank, loc. cit., p. 314.
18. 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 413), pp. 442, 443.
278 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the village when and as the children could be found. At first the
instruction was in English (the missionaries then knew no Iowa),
but beginning with April, 1842, the Iowa language was used, and
progress was said to be faster. By offering clothing as a reward
to those who came to school, Irvin was able to induce 45 youngsters
to come. 19 Apparently this was the total number who had at any
time appeared, for the very next year he reported that four children
living with the government farmer and two connected with the
mission were all who had been reached. He characterized the
school as "lame and defective." Hamilton, who had been working
with the Sacs and Foxes for two years, wrote a letter of resignation
(which he later reconsidered) on September 30, 1843, saying that
in all the time he had been there he had had only one scholar dur-
ing the winter and early spring. 20
During these early years of the mission and reservation, there was
frequent mention of the desirability of a manual-training boarding
school which would hold the children in school and teach them
some useful skills. Subagent Richardson, Irvin, and Hamilton all
agreed on the need for such a school if the lowas were ever to be
trained in the knowledge and skills needed to become members of
civilized society. Even the Indians seem to have had some notion
of this need, for in 1844 they gave their school and smith fund
(over $1,400) for the establishment of a boarding school, despite
the loss of some crops due to flooding and the withholding of $1,500
of that year's annuity to pay for some cattle killed seven or eight
years earlier. 21 One suspects certain pressures from the agent and
others behind this voluntary donation, but the fact remains that it
was made.
By 1844 the school was an assured reality, and a contract was
let that summer for the manufacture of 200,000 bricks, half of which
were ready by the end of September. Seventy acres had been
fenced in and partly broken in preparation for the promised
school. 22 The building itself, erected the next year, was a three-
story structure, 106 feet in length by 38 feet in width, and con-
tained 32 rooms. The first story was of limestone, the others of
brick. The roof, which was pine, was on by September 21, 1845,
and only a lack of funds kept the building from being ready for use
by the end of the year. 23 The intention was to support 25 lowas,
25 Sacs and Foxes, and 40 Omahas and Otoes, but things did not
19. Ibid., p. 494.
20. 28th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 431), p. 317.
21. 28th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 449), pp. 363, 364, 369, 370, 446.
22. Ibid., p. 363.
23. 29th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 470), pp. 558, 605; Plank, loc. cit., p. 315.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 279
work out that way. There were more lowas desirous of attending
the school than space for them, while on the other hand the Sacs
and Foxes refused to attend, supposedly because of animosity
toward the lowas. 24 When the school opened in the fall of 1846,
only eight children attended: six lowas and two half-breed Potta-
watomies. In January, however, others began to appear, until there
were between 30 and 40. The average attendance in 1847 and
1848 was 24, in 1849 34, and in 1850 32. Late in 1850 Hamilton
reported that there were 30 lowas, one Sac half-breed, one Fox
half-breed, one Oto, and three other half-breeds, a Snake, a Black-
foot, and a Sioux. By this time English had again become the
medium of instruction, after a period when half the instruction was
in English and half in Iowa. 25
The summer in which the new school was under construction
was in most respects a difficult time for all concerned. A change
of administration in Washington normally meant a change of agent
on every Indian reservation in the country, and the accession to the
presidency of James K. Polk in 1845 meant the replacement of Rich-
ardson by a political appointee of the victorious party. That fall
Richardson reported that insubordination had prevailed among the
Indians since they learned that there was to be a new agent; they
had been busy killing the cattle and hogs belonging to the mission-
aries. Richardson's personal involvements may have lessened the ob-
jectivity of his diagnosis, but some credence is lent to it by a caustic
comment by Irvin on the sacrifice of an agent to "party spirit/'
Hamilton was absent during part of that summer, too. His family
had left early in the spring because of ill health, and he followed
on August 1. As for the Indians, they were said to be getting
worse except for drunkenness, and their slight improvement in
that respect was due only to the fact that they lacked the money
to buy whisky. 26 The complaint had been made earlier and was
to be made again that the chiefs, to whom the annuities for the
tribe were paid, would squander the money intended for their
people. One agent thought that payments in the form of goods
should be furnished to him and doled out two or three times a year
to heads of families. 27
During the time the school building was going up, nearly all
24. 29th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 493), pp. 371, 372; 30th Cong., 1st Sess.,
Sen. Exec. Doc. 1 (Serial 503), p. 876.
25. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1850, pp. 32, 33; 30th Cong., 2d Sess.,
House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), p. 484.
26. 29th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 470), pp. 558, 605, 606.
27. 28th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 431), p. 397; 29th Cong., 2d Sess.,
Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 493), p. 372.
280 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
other activities were suspended, including teaching. Two years
earlier, in 1843, a small press, costing less than $250, had been set
up and about five thousand pages of elementary and hymn books
were printed. This work was suspended during the construction of
the school, but operations were resumed in 1846 or 1847 with a 32-
page extract from the book of Matthew in the Iowa language. In
1848 over 30,000 pages were printed, all or nearly all of which con-
sisted of a 156-page Iowa grammar. Probably fewer than 200
copies were printed, and in 1930 two investigators could find only
seven complete copies, one of which is now in the Kansas State
Historical Society library. A small "loway Primmer" [sic] was is-
sued in 1849 and reprinted in a larger edition the following year,
but nothing is definitely known to have been printed on this press
after 1850. 28
White Cloud and several other leading members of the tribe were
absent during part of this period, on a European tour that included
England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, and keeping them abroad
from 1844 to 1846. They are said to have created quite a sensation
in the foreign capitals that they visited; the effect on the Indians is
not recorded, but it must have been considerable. When the Swiss
artist, Rudolph Friederich Kurz, traveled up the Missouri in 1848,
he encountered an Iowa named Kirutsche who told him of having
had an audience with Louis Philippe and showed Kurz a miniature
of the Citizen King to prove it. 29
One bright spot during these years was the increasing agricul-
tural production of the lowas. As early as 1843 it was said that
they had raised more than they needed. Unfortunately, they traded
it to less provident neighbors, such as the Kansas and Otoes. 30
Most of the work was done by the squaws, but some 12 or 13 men
were working in the fields with their women in 1842, when 15,000
bushels of corn, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, and other vegetables
were raised. 31 In 1845 200 acres were broken by the government
farmer and nearly 100 by the Indians themselves. 32 By 1847, when
28. 28th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 431), p. 317; 29th Cong., 1st Sess.,
Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 470), p. 605; 30th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), pp.
484, 485; Douglas C. McMurtrie and Albert H. Allen, A Forgotten Pioneer Press of Kansas
(Chicago, 1930), pp. 14-23.
29. Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America, edited
by Frederick W. Hodge (Edinburgh, 1933), v. 1, pp. 308, 309; J. N. B. Hewitt, ed.,
Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletins, No. 115
Washington, 1937), p. 40. Of the 14 Indians who made up the party, none had a name
remotely similar to "Kirutsche," but this is not positive proof that he was not one of them;
the name of their long-time interpreter, Jeffrey Derroin, appears as "Doraway" in the hand-
book distributed by George Catlin, who seems to have served as their impresario. (See
McKenney and Hall, p. 309.)
30. 28th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 431), p. 397.
31. 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 413), pp. 442, 444.
32. 29th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 470), p. 559.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 281
the government farmer was trying to persuade the lowas to culti-
vate larger fields, they were said to be raising much more than
they needed for 12 months. 33 In 1848 they had no regular farmer,
and this fact may account, as much as the raid on the Pawnees, for
the late planting that year. That fall about 30 lodges camped
across the river from St. Joseph in order to get the wastage from
the slaughter houses. 34 The passage of emigrants through their
lands in 1850 provided them with an opportunity to sell their sur-
plus, but instead of taking advantage of it, they bought liquor from
the transients and neglected their crops. 35 The next year they did
better, however, and traded much of a larger-than-usual crop to
the emigrants and to the wild tribes to the west. 36 But in 1853
the agent observed that the lowas spent much time loitering around
the emigrants' camps when they should have been working in their
fields. 37 The next year a drought reduced the crop in most fields
to one third the usual amount. 38 In short, there was progress, but
it was slow and halting.
Meanwhile the parade of agents went on. After Richardson's re-
moval, W. E. Rucker assumed the duties of subagent on Septem-
ber 11, 1846, only to be followed in May, 1848, by Alfred J.
Vaughan. Then, when the Whigs regained the presidency in 1849,
Richardson was restored to his former post. The election of Frank-
lin Pierce and the Democratic ticket in 1852 brought about his in-
evitable replacement, this time by Daniel Vanderslice, who held
on through both the Pierce and Buchanan administrations. 39 How
much the progress of the Indians was retarded by all these changes
of agent cannot be determined, but the lack of continuity of policy
must surely have had its effects on their welfare. Although the
rather formal reports submitted by these men reveal little about
the sincerity of their interest in their duties, from what is known
of abuses in the Indian bureau at this time, it may be supposed
that some of these agents were political hacks with no special in-
terest in Indians.
In 1862 the anthropologist, Lewis Henry Morgan, stopped at
Iowa Point on his way up the Missouri and went to see the Rev-
erend Mr. Irvin at Highland. Irvin and his assistant, James Wil-
33. 30th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Exec. Doc. 1 (Serial 503), p. 937.
34. 30th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), p. 483; Hewitt, op. cit., p. 40.
35. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports. 1850, pp. 30, 31.
36. Ibid., 1851, p. 99.
37. Ibid., 1853, p. 88.
38. Ibid., 1854, p. 98.
39. 29th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 493), p. 371; 30th Cong., 2d Sess.,
House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), p. 482; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1850, p. 32;
1853, p. 87.
282 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
liams, gave him a dismal picture of the agency system. Accord-
ing to them, the census rolls were greatly inflated by the use of
fictitious names and the names of deceased members of the tribe.
Tickets were given out to the heads of families when the annuities
were distributed, and the Indians were encouraged by their agent
and the traders to take tickets for nonexistent people. Morgan
comments, "They were in debt and the agent and traders took this
method to aid them. Thus they were made dishonest and also
placed under obligations to the agent and traders." 40 The trader
at that time was a brother of the agent and always knew in advance
when the annuities were to be paid. He allowed credits up to the
amount of the annuity, and thus when the payment came, all of
it went directly to the trader. When the agency farm was ordered
sold, Agent Vanderslice held on until the end of his term and then,
when prices had fallen, he "advertised" it in such a secretive man-
ner that almost no one knew of the sale. A friend of his bought it
for $1,500, then consigned it to Vanderslice for $2,000. Several
men, it was said, would have paid two or three times this sum
had they known of the sale. Yet, Morgan says, "Vanderslice is ad-
mitted to be one of the best agents the lowas ever had. Think of
that! This is so moderate a piece of iniquity that even now he
passes as an honest man." 41 Vanderslice remained in Doniphan
county and was regarded, at the time of his death in 1889, as one
of its pioneers and founding fathers. 42 Vaughan, whose son was
partner to the trader, later served as agent to the Blackfeet and
was characterized by fur trader Charles Larpenteur as a drunkard
in league with the American Fur Company. 43 Despite their well
substantiated moral obliquity, the agents constitute our chief source
of information on the lowas, and where their statements coincide
with those of the missionaries there is no good reason to doubt their
general accuracy. Whether one agrees with their interpretations
is another matter.
All the subagents and agents (the Great Nemaha subagency be-
came a full agency in 1851) inveigh against the liquor traffic and
represent themselves as inveterate foes of the illegal whisky deal-
ers. Vaughan caught three whisky sellers and sent them to St.
40. Lewis Henry Morgan, The Indian Journals, 1859-62, edited by Leslie A. White
(Ann Arbor, 1959), pp. 137, 138.
41. Ibid., p. 139.
42. Patrick Leopold Gray, Gray's Doniphan County History (Bendena, 1905), Pt. 2,
p. 43.
43. Charles Larpenteur, Forty Years a Fur Trader, v. 2, pp. 417, 418, cited in John C.
Ewers, The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains (Norman, 1958), pp. 228, 229.
Ewers challenges Larpenteur's estimate of Vaughan: "Actually, Major Vaughan was an
experienced and able agent who conscientiously tried to implement the government's policies
for the civilization of his Indian charges."
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 283
Joseph in 1848. The effects of this daring foray were not altogether
beneficial, however. Not only did the Indians take advantage of their
agent's absence as a witness to have several drunken sprees, but
the whisky sellers "were in a few days turned loose from prison
. . . though apparently according to law, yet against all justice;
yet I suppose in consideration of a stipulated sum" as Hamilton
expressed it. Nonetheless, Vaughan insisted and Hamilton con-
ceded that the lowas were well behaved for a couple of months
after the arrest of the malefactors. 44 But the passage of the emi-
grants through the reservation undid much of the good accom-
plished by Vaughan's act, and in 1850 Richardson reported that
the lowas were more lewd and dissipated than ever. 45
Certainly there is no indication that any progress was being made
in the attempt to Christianize these people. Irvin complained in
1847 that "Long as we have been among the lowas, we have no
evidence to believe that any one of the adult Indians of the nation
or village has yet experienced a change of heart." 46 Three years
later the missionaries were visiting the adults in their homes three
times a week for religious instruction, but they admitted that no
special improvement was manifest. 47 In 1852 it was reported that,
although much time and attention was given by the missionaries
to sickness among the Indians, no marked moral or religious in-
fluence could be seen. 48 And the next year Irvin bewailed the fact
that there were still no adults professing Christianity. In fact, as
he saw the situation, the Indians' general condition was no better
than it had been 16 years earlier. The houses had gone to decay,
and the Indians were living in bark wigwams and skin tents again
and wearing blankets. The fences, where there were any, were of
poles and bark strings. 49
Furthermore, there was a constant decline in numbers among
both the lowas and the Sacs and Foxes. The figures given by the
several agents are not always reliable, partly because of the deliber-
ate inflation Morgan mentions and partly because of the high mo-
bility of the Indians and their reluctance to hold still long enough
to be counted. Richardson found only 470 lowas in 1842, with
30 others known to be absent. Irvin also counted only 500 four
years later, but when Vaughan took over in 1848 he was able to
44. 30th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 1 (Serial 537), p. 482; Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Reports, 1849, pp. 143-146.
45. Ibid., 1850, pp. 30, 31.
46. 30th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Exec. Doc. 1 (Serial 503), p. 935.
47. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1850, p. 33.
48. Ibid., 1852, p. 74.
49. Ibid., 1853, pp. 92, 93.
284 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
scare up 669 lowas and 149 Sacs and Foxes. The next year he
had even better results and listed the Iowa population as 802. But
Hamilton counted only 473 in the same year, and when Vander-
slice conducted a careful census in 1853, he found only 437. 50
In all probability there was a continuous decline during this pe-
riod, though perhaps not so sharp as Richardson's first figure would
indicate. Certainly the number of deaths reported from year to
year suggests a definite decline. In 1845, for example, it was stated
that 40 lowas had died in the previous year; in 1849 37 deaths were
reported, 25 of them from cholera. 51 One fifth of the Sacs and
Foxes were said to have been carried off by smallpox in 1851, but
vaccination checked the disease and prevented its spread to the
lowas. 52
Despite the apparent lack of progress toward acceptance of the
white man's civilization, the lowas were already in the initial stages
of a transformation that was to become more evident in succeed-
ing decades. One of the principal instruments in effecting this
transformation was the school, which reached a peak of activity
in the early 1850's and thereafter declined, to be discontinued en-
tirely soon after the end of the Civil War. A glimpse into the daily
round of activities in this school during its heyday may be useful.
The severe regimen must have been quite a shock to the Indian
children, accustomed to a casual and carefree life at home, and
it is not surprising that they should have rebelled now and then.
Teachers and pupils alike rose at five, breakfasted at six, and started
school at nine. 53 The curriculum was probably not unlike that
of many rural schools of the time in all-white communities. In
1852, when 20 boys and 19 girls were attending, eight were studying
geography and eight were studying arithmetic on the slate and
blackboard; 26 could read the New Testament in English, six were
in McGuffey's fourth reader, 10 in the third reader, and 12 in Mc-
Guffey's and Cobb's first reader; 22 could write, and two were study-
ing the alphabet. Besides daily recitations, the children would
memorize portions of Scripture and hymns in English, which they
would recite at Sabbath school. Friday afternoons were given
over to moral and religious instruction. 54
50. 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 413), p. 443; 29th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen.
Doc. 1 (Serial 493), p. 372; 30th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 1 (Serial 437), p. 482;
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1849, pp. 143, 146; 1853, p. 88.
51. 29th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 470), p. 558; Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Reports, 1849, p. 146.
52. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1851, p. 99.
53. Ibid., 1854, p. 102.
54. Ibid., 1852, p. 72.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 285
The school day was not limited to the six hours of actual recita-
tion, for much of the children's training was included under the
heading of "manual labor." For the girls this meant washing, scrub-
bing, milking, churning, and making most of the clothing. The
boys worked on the farm. In 1852 50 acres were in cultivation
and a like amount of land in pasture. The school property included
two yoke of oxen, one wagon, two "poor horses," and nine cows.
Provisions not raised on the spot were brought from St. Joseph or
from Holt county, Missouri. A cook and an assistant matron were
the only hired help at this time, although at other times other em-
ployees were mentioned. 55 The number of "scholars" varied from
year to year, but there were usually at least 40. In 1854 there were
42, of whom about 20 were half-breeds; the next year there were
51, probably the largest number ever in attendance at this school.
Most of them were orphans. 56 There was always a certain amount
of trouble with children running away or being taken away by their
parents. Irvin itemized his losses in 1856: three had died, one
had gone to the Kickapoos, five had been taken by parents or
friends, and one had run away. 57
By this time the school had been in operation for a decade, and
some results might have been expected. Unfortunately, the young-
sters ordinarily left school just about the time they might have be-
gun to benefit from their training; Irvin urged that they be kept
in school longer. 58 About this time the school began to decline
sharply. In 1857 the agent remarked that there were only 34 pupils
in a school with room for 80. 59 For reasons not evident, the In-
dians of both tribes now refused to send any more children to the
school. The report for 1858 lists only 12 lowas and four Sacs and
Foxes enrolled then. The Indians were said to favor a manual
labor school but under the direction of the Indian office rather than
the mission. 60 One factor which assuredly contributed to the lessen-
ing enthusiasm for the school was the removal of the agency to a
new location as a result of a treaty in 1854 which opened to settle-
ment much of the land on which the lowas had been living. 61
The year 1854 is in at least two respects a division point in the
history of the Iowa Indians. Besides being the date when much
of their reservation was ceded, it marks the beginning of a more
55. Ibid., pp. 72, 73.
56. Ibid., 1854, p. 101; 1855, p. 88; 1853, p. 94.
57. Ibid., 1856, p. 108.
58. Ibid., p. 109.
59. 35th Cong., 1st Sess., House Exec. Doc. 2 (Serial 942), p. 447.
60. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1858, pp. 108, 109.
61. Plank, op. cit., p. 318.
286 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
rapid acculturation than had been visible in the first 17 years of
their life in Kansas. Ever since the invasion of the reservation by
emigrants headed for California in 1850, there had been an atmos-
phere of uncertainty among the lowas. White settlers began to
move into the surrounding area and to look covetously upon the
largely unoccupied Indian lands. Subagent Richardson suggested
in that year that the lowas be moved and a fund set aside for agri-
cultural and mechanical purposes, beyond their control. 62 The
next year he said that the Indians were afraid that they would lose
their lands to the whites, and he asked that they be given a perma-
nent home. 63 In his last report, in 1852, he continued to advocate
the purchase of some of the reservation lands and their opening to
settlement, the remainder to be guaranteed to the Indians. As he
saw it, the Indians must be brought under our laws as citizens or
perish; he stressed, however, that they must be the makers as well
as the subjects of those laws. 64 Vanderslice reported the next year
that he had warned the lowas that becoming settled as farmers
was a matter of life and death, so great was the pressure from white
settlers becoming. 65
As a result of this continuing pressure and of the agents' recom-
mendations, treaties were negotiated on May 17, 1854, with the
lowas, and the next day with the Sacs and Foxes, by the terms of
which the two tribes ceded the greater part of their reservation,
including the area around the mission, near which the agency was
also located. 66 The exact division of the residual reservation be-
tween the two tribes was left somewhat indefinite by this treaty,
but on March 6, 1861, the lowas ceded their lands west of Noharts
creek to the Sacs and Foxes. This division, which left each tribe
with about 25 square miles of land, was permanent; more than 100
years later the tracts of land owned by the lowas were all east of
Noharts creek and those belonging to the Sacs and Foxes were west
of the stream. 67 By the terms of the 1854 treaty, the lowas also gave
the Presbyterian board 320 acres of land around the mission site
as well as 160 acres of timber. But inasmuch as the agency was
moved to a more central location and a school house was erected
62. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1850, p. 31.
63. Ibid., 1851, p. 100.
64. Ibid., 1852, p. 71.
65. Ibid., 1853, p. 88.
66. Kappler, op. cit., p. 628.
67. Ibid., pp. 811, 812.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 287
near by in 1860, the old mission school had largely outlived its use-
fulness and was discontinued a few years afterward. 68
Whether as a result of their changed circumstances or for other
reasons, the lowas* way of life began to alter perceptibly about
1854. The agent reported that year that he had given six heads
of families each a plow and a set of harness, on the promise that
they would go to work and farm. And at a council held Septem-
ber 21 the lowas agreed to break up their old villages and settle
on small tracts. 69 The next year their efforts at farming were de-
scribed as "quite successful"; some were cultivating seeds sent by
the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington. 70 In 1856 it
was said that several young married and engaged men had selected
farms, started making rails, and applied for wagons, oxen, and
plows. Hay, corn, beans, and pumpkins were raised in large quan-
tities that season. 71 Two years later 250 acres were planted to corn,
wheat, oats, beans, pumpkins, and potatoes; many fields were en-
closed in good rail fences, and the oxen were in good condition. 72
The following year 600 acres were said to be under cultivation, in
68 scattered fields and patches. 73 When a new agent took over
in 1861, he reported that, although the Indians here were indifferent
to schools, they did want houses, farms, tools, and money, and they
wished to be assured that their reservation was permanent. 74
From this point on there was frequent evidence of a decided
change in the lowas' pattern of living, even if we discount the usual
practice of Indian agents to contrast the progress under their ad-
ministrations with the lamentable state in which they found the
Indians. John A. Burbank, the appointee of the Lincoln administra-
tion, reported in 1862 that when he took over there were only five
houses on the Iowa reservation; a year later there were 13 com-
pleted and three more under way. Six of these were built by the
government, the other 10 by Indians with little aid. These were
only 16- by 18-foot log cabins, but they were none the less im-
provements over the wigwams and tents in which 27 of the 43
68. Ibid., p. 629; Plank, op. cit., pp. 318, 320. Plank stated only that the mission
ceased to exist "about 1863. ' This phrase also appears on the highway marker near the
site of the old agency. David H. McCleave, citing Historical Sketches of Presbyterian
Missions, specifically dates the closing of the mission in 1866. For the last six years of
its existence it was operated as a boarding school for orphans. (See David H. McCleave,
"A History of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas," The Aerend: A
Kansas Quarterly, Hays, vols. 15 and 16 [1944 and 1945], p. 55.) Irvin told Lewis Henry
Morgan in 1862 that he had disconnected himself from the mission two or three years
earlier and was then conducting a school in the basement of his church in Highland, where
he had about 65 pupils, 20 of whom were boarded. See Morgan, op. cit., p. 137.
69. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1854, p. 99.
70. Ibid. 1855, pp. 87, 88.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid.
1856, p. 107.
1858, p. 105.
1859, p. 142.
1861, pp. 53, 54.
288 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
families were said to be living. The custom of living in villages
had been abandoned by that time. 75 Burbank said a year later
that the lowas were coming to realize that they must live like whites
if they were to be permitted to remain where they were; a "small
patch of ground in the timber" was not enough to qualify them as
farmers. He promised government help to those who wanted to
work. 76 In 1864 he reported six frame and 18 log houses, with
only "a few" Indians still living in wigwams. Although only 289
acres were under cultivation, this was enough to give the Indians a
surplus of vegetables to sell in near-by towns. At this time they
owned 276 cattle, 326 hogs, 98 horses, 22 wagons, and 19 yoke of
oxen. 77 Besides their crops, the lowas also hauled wood to market
and returned with flour, meat, coffee, sugar, etc. 78 In 1866 they
raised 100 bushels of wheat, 8,000 bushels of corn, 500 bushels of
beans, 150 bushels of potatoes, 50 bushels of turnips, plus many
small vegetables for their own consumption. 79 The government
farmer by this time was no longer raising crops; the lowas culti-
vated their own farms, and his work was limited to the duties of
carpenter and joiner. 80
There was improvement in another respect, too: more effective
measures were being taken to reduce drunkenness. The lowas
themselves took the initiative in 1855 by destroying two barrels of
whisky on the border of the Sac and Fox territory. Unfortunately,
as the agent reports, they had second thoughts after breaking open
the barrels and tried to salvage all they could. 81 The next year a
stringent law was passed for the suppression of drunkenness which
was for a time effective. 82 In 1863 a police force of 10 of the most
responsible braves was set up to prevent the bringing of whisky
on to the reservation. It was said that they were obeyed. 83 Three
years later a temperance organization was doing well. 84 Temper-
ance was said to have improved by 1868, and the next year the
agent claimed that the lowas were less demoralized and "entirely
temperate." 85 But a new agent in 1870 found intemperance "rare"
75. Ibid., 1862, pp. 133, 134.
76. Ibid., 1863, p. 263.
77. Ibid., 1864, p. 374.
78. Ibid., 1865, p. 415.
79. Ibid., 1866, p. 219.
80. Ibid., 1865, p. 418.
81. Ibid., 1855, p. 87.
82. Ibid., 1856, p. 107.
83. Ibid., 1863, p. 264.
84. Ibid., 1866, p. 220.
85. Ibid., 1868, p. 232; 1869, p. 338.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 289
rather than nonexistent. 86 About this time a police force of five
men was appointed (the earlier one apparently having been dis-
banded), their salaries to be deducted from the tribe's annuity.
This force was disbanded in 1877, at the request of the tribe and
on their promise to behave in a manner so as not to require its
services. Since the promise was not kept, the force was immediately
reorganized. 87 From this time on intemperance is seldom men-
tioned in the annual reports, and it may be surmised that it was
less of a problem than earlier. That it persisted in some degree,
however, is shown by the killing of an Indian in 1880 by the chief
of police, who was trying to quell a disturbance caused by the
introduction of liquor. 88
Despite the improvements in farming practices, living habits, and
temperance, neither the lowas nor their successive agents were
satisfied with conditions on the reservation during the 1850's, 1860's,
and 1870's. For one thing, there was the problem of school attend-
ance, already mentioned in connection with the Presybterian mis-
sion. The new school, 33 by 21 feet in size, erected in 1860, by no
means solved the problem. 89 Although the attendance was larger
than that of the old mission school 42 in 1861, 62 in 1862, 48 in
1863 it was already being described in 1864 as a failure because
it was too far from the children's homes and because the parents
exercised no control over the children. 90 In its sixth year it was
down to 38 scholars, and the next year (1866) it had only 15 regular
pupils. 91 John N. Gere, who assumed the duties of teacher in
October, 1867, admitted that the school was not a success. Most
of the children understood no English, he said, and so an inter-
preter was needed. He recommended the employment of a teacher
who knew the Iowa tongue. 92 Yet Irvin and Hamilton had met
with no greater success despite their labors to learn the Iowa lan-
guage and to reduce it to writing.
In part, the decline in attendance at the Iowa school was due to
the continuing decrease in the tribe's numbers. By 1857 there
were said to be only 430. There were about the same number two
years later, but by 1861 Burbank found only 305 lowas and 70 Sacs
and Foxes. In 1864 only 293 could be mustered, but two years later
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
89. Ibid.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
1870, p. 246.
1877, p. 141.
1880, p. 117.
1860, p. 100.
1861, p. 52; 1862, p. 135; 1863, p. 265; 1864, p. 374.
1865, p. 416; 1866, p. 220.
T O?o _ ft no
1868, p. 233.
193255
290 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
they were up to 303, probably as a result of soldiers returning
from the Civil War. C. H. Norris, the agent in 1867, reported a de-
cline of 49 in the previous year, leaving only 254. From this figure
they declined to 245 in 1868, 228 in 1869, 214 in 1870, 225 in 1872,
213 in 1878, 171 in 1880, 130 in 1881, and 132 in 1883. 93 By the
1880's substantial numbers had migrated to the Indian territory,
but the greater part of the decline prior to 1880 may be attributed
simply to an excess of deaths over births.
Among the other problems facing the lowas and their agents was
that of a group of Winnebagoes who had settled among them. The
first appearance of these strangers, about 1850, seems to have come
as a result of the removal in 1848 of the Winnebago tribe from its
reservation in northeastern Iowa to the Long Prairie reservation
in central Minnesota. Many were lost during this removal, and,
although most of these drifted back to their former Wisconsin
homes, about 300 made their way to the mouth of the Great Nemaha
and camped on the lowas' lands. According to Agent Richardson,
they were raising crops and wished to remain; many had inter-
married with the lowas. 94 He at first recommended that these
vagrants be paid their share of their tribe's annuities, but when
the Indian office refused to accede to this suggestion, he asked that
they be removed, in fairness to the lowas, on whom they were de-
pendent. 95 Although Agent Vanderslice reported in 1860 that
they had been induced to leave, there is no evidence that they all
did so, for in 1863 there were 57 still squatting on the reservation.
With the removal that year of the main body of the Winnebagoes
from their Blue Earth reservation in Minnesota ( incident to the gen-
eral hostility toward Indians after the Sioux uprising), there was
another influx to the Iowa lands, so that by 1864 there were 117 of
them, largely destitute. Although the agent again asked for their re-
moval, nothing seems to have been done by the government. 96 In
1868, however, some difficulty arose between the lowas and the
Winnebagoes, as a result of which the latter, including some 30 or 40
who had married into the Iowa tribe, were stricken from the rolls and
all headed down the Missouri in canoes, intending to return to
Wisconsin or Minnesota. 97 No further mention of the Winnebagoes
93. 35th Cong., 1st Sess., House Exec. Doc. 2 (Serial 942). p. 446; Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, Reports, 1859, p. 142; 1861, p. 53; 1864, p. 374; 1866, p. 219; 1867,
p. 275; 1868, p. 231; 1869, p. 338; 1870, p. 246; 1872, p. 224; 1878, p. 93; 1880,
p. 116; 1881, p. 123; 1883, p. 92.
94. Ibid., 1851, p. 100.
95. Ibid., 1881, p. 100; 1852, p. 72.
96. Ibid., 1860, p. 99; 1864, p. 375.
97. Ibid., 1868, p. 231.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 291
appears in the annual reports. For nearly 20 years they had been
something of a drain on the economy of the lowas and, it may be
supposed, a source of dissension in the tribe as well.
The continuing hostility of the white settlers and their lack of
respect for the Indians' rights constituted another problem during
these years. The treaty of 1854 did not solve the problem. In some
respects it only complicated it, as may be gathered from the agent's
remark in 1857 that progress that year had been slight owing to
the settling of whites on the recently ceded lands. 98 Two years
later the whites were asking, "When will the loways sell out?" and
this made the Indians restless. The agent recommended that
the lands be allotted in severalty and guaranteed to the owners
until they should be considered competent and citizens." This
suggestion was to be repeated again and again in succeeding years,
as in 1865, when Agent Burbank asked that the government make
a treaty with the lowas permitting those who wished to obtain
certificates of competency and become citizens. 100 How much of
this supposed desire to become citizens represents the actual
wishes of the Indians and how much reflects their agents' notions
of what would be best for them is impossible to determine. Cer-
tainly it was a widespread view in this period that the only way to
civilize the Indian was to make a citizen and landowner out of
him a view which culminated in the Dawes act of 1887.
An illuminating example of the white attitude toward the Indian
is afforded by the case of one Michael Ferry, who on July 12, 1858,
shot and killed, without provocation, an Iowa named Wah-gre-rah-
qua. Agent Vanderslice had Ferry arrested and sent up to be
identified. A mob tried to rescue him on the 16th but failed. De-
layed by high water, Vanderslice found that the sheriff had taken
Ferry on the 20th to Troy, the county seat. Since the sheriff had
an improperly executed writ of habeas corpus, the judge refused
to admit any of the evidence submitted by the agent and released
the prisoner. Vanderslice then had another affidavit and writ pre-
pared, and Ferry was taken into custody once more. Again efforts
were made to rescue him and to get possession of the writ. A mob
tried to get Ferry to run and pushed him toward the door of the
courthouse. At dusk he fled but was captured and returned to the
agency the next day. After three days' examination at Iowa Point,
he was committed for trial before the First district court. In default
98. 35th Cong., 1st Sess., House Exec. Doc. 2 (Serial 942), p. 446.
99. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1859, p. 143.
100. Ibid., 1865, p. 416.
292 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of bail, he was confined in the jail of Leavenworth county, from
which he escaped in a few weeks. The technicality which prevented
his immediate trial when first arrested was that there were no white
witnesses to the shooting. From this incident the agent concluded
that "a white man may kill as many Indians as he pleases, provided
it is only done in the presence of Indians, and go unpunished/' 101
More revealing for the modern reader is the obvious public senti-
ment in favor of Ferry and presumably in favor of any white man
who killed an Indian.
The Civil War had its effects, some disruptive, on the Iowa reser-
vation. By late 1862 12 Iowa men had enlisted out of 78 in the
tribe. 102 Ultimately 43 saw service. Although one died of illness
in a hospital and two at home on leave and two were wounded,
not one was killed in action. Among the good effects was the learn-
ing of English by those who served. 103 The effects of the war on
the school were both good and bad. J. Washburne, the teacher in
1862, reported that attendance had improved after he had furnished
the children with military caps. 104 But some of the money invested
by the government in the lowas' behalf was in state bonds, and
the Southern states were not paying interest, which amounted
to a loss of some $15,000 by 1864. 105 The treaty of 1861 had pro-
vided an annual school fund of $300; this was omitted during at least
part of the war, and as a result the children were without the cloth-
ing they needed to attend school. 106 When the war was over, there
was an attempt by the chiefs and braves to obtain $10,000 from
the trust lands owned by the Sac and Fox tribe to buy oxen and
farming tools for the returning soldiers. 107 These Indians were
thus quite in the American tradition in their attitude toward re-
warding veterans after a war.
Whether the progress of the Iowa tribe toward acculturation
was delayed or accelerated during the Civil War, there is no ques-
tion that the process was more rapid in the years following the
war, and especially after 1869, when Thomas Lightfoot, a Quaker,
was appointed agent, and the Society of Friends began taking an
active interest in the welfare of this Indian group. Corruption and
inefficiency in the Indian bureau had been a matter of common
knowledge before the war, and Lincoln had promised to do some-
101. Ibid., 1858, pp. 106-108.
102. Ibid., 1862, p. 134; 1864, p. 374.
103. Ibid., 1865, p. 416.
104. Ibid., 1862, p. 135.
105. Ibid., 1864, p. 374.
106. Ibid., 1863, p. 265.
107. Ibid., 1865, p. 416.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 293
thing to remedy the situation if he lived long enough. Even if
the agents were honest, they were almost invariably uninformed on
the specific tribe placed under their jurisdiction. C. H. Norris,
agent at the Iowa and Sac and Fox reservation from 1866 to 1869,
admitted that he entered upon his duties there "knowing nothing
of the history of the Indians belonging to it, or the condition of their
business prior to that time." 108 Under the Grant administration
certain Indian reservations were placed under the supervision of the
Society of Friends, and later other religious groups were given re-
sponsibility for particular reservations.
Lightfoot took charge of the agency on June 7, 1869, and im-
mediately began agitating for the establishment of an "industrial
home" and the employment of a farmer. 109 (Apparently there
had been no government farmer since 1865, when the last report
was submitted.) His daughter, Mary B. Lightfoot, assumed the
duties of teacher at the Iowa school and soon had the children flock-
ing in, attracted by the news that they would receive a noon lunch
of crackers or fruit and a supply of summer clothing, all provided
by the Philadelphia Indian Aid Society. 110 In 1870, when she re-
ported 63 students, so well provided with clothing were the chil-
dren that no blanket entered the schoolroom. The Philadelphia
Friends also furnished English word cards which were attached
to miniature objects on charts as an aid to the teaching of English.
Soon another innovation was attempted: an agency store, selling
only necessary articles at little more than cost, in charge of a factor
with a fixed salary. 111 For years various agents had objected to the
iniquitous system which made the Indian dependent on the trader,
but nothing much had been done to improve the situation. How
successful this store was is not clear, for there is little mention of
it in the annual reports after 1871, when it was said to be flourish-
ing. 112 About this time a coal mine was opened on the reservation,
leased for 25 years to a mining company, the royalty to be paid to
the Indians. 113 Nothing further appears in the reports concerning
this mine, and it is doubtful that it had much effect on the income
of the average Iowa Indian.
Lightfoot's principal project, the industrial home or school, was
realized in 1871, when such an institution was established under
108. Ibid., 1866, p. 219.
109. Ibid., 1869, p. 355.
110. Ibid., 1869, p. 356.
111. Ibid., 1870, pp. 232, 247.
112. Ibid., 1871, p. 458.
113. Ibid., 1870, p. 232.
294 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the auspices of the Society of Friends. It was very small at first,
accommodating only 14 pupils, mostly orphans, the first year of
operation and only 16 the second year. 114 In 1873 an addition,
18 by 30 feet, was built and the enrollment increased to 41 the next
year, after which it fluctuated between 30 and 40 for several
years. 115 In April, 1875, it was taken over by the federal govern-
ment. 116 One of its first effects was to improve attendance at the
day school, for the children of the two schools competed in punctu-
ality, according to Miss Lightfoot. 117 Although the industrial home
was destroyed by fire in January, 1879, it was rebuilt two years later
in time for the last two months of the term to be spent in the new
building. But the average attendance at this time was only 20, in-
creased in 1882 to 24. It appears to have been conducted by this
time in connection with the day school, and in that year the Sac and
Fox school was consolidated with it. 118
Meanwhile the lowas continued to progress as farmers. Much
of their advance was due to the assistance of the Society of Friends,
who began as early as 1869 to provide them with tools which they
had hitherto lacked. 119 In 1877 this group donated 325 apple and
75 peach trees and 75 grape vines, and the following year more trees
were purchased with the profits from the trading post conducted
under the supervision of the Friends. 120 Although the lowas used
flour for bread, they ordinarily raised little or no wheat. Agent
Norris had suggested in 1868 that they be given an annual supply
of 100 bushels of seed wheat. 121 With the Friends providing the
seed, wheat raising was attempted on a large scale in 1871, but the
crop failed because of chinch bugs. At this time the lowas owned
only 60 cattle, half of which were work oxen. Now the Friends
provided milk cows, to be paid for in two years. Apparently the
Indians had continued their old practice of occupying their houses
only during the growing season, for Lightfoot reported in 1871 that,
now that stoves were being furnished, people would live in their
houses the year around, instead of repairing to their tents during
the winter. 122
The number of houses increased from year to year, until by 1875
114.
i. Ibid., 1871, pp. 457, 458; 1872, p. 224.
115. Ibid., 1873, p. 195; 1875, p. 316; 1877, p. 142.
116. Ibid., 1875, p. 316.
117. Ibid., 1871, p. 458.
118. Ibid., 1879, p. 101; 1881, p. 124; 1882, p. 95.
119. Ibid., 1869, p. 338.
120. Ibid., 1877, p. 141; 1878, p. 93.
121. Ibid., 1868, p. 232.
122. Ibid., 1871, p. 457.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 295
nearly all the lowas were said to be living in houses. The agent
admitted, however, that some of these houses did not afford much
protection, and in a few cases more than one family occupied a
single dwelling. All but one or two families, he said, cultivated
their lands as the white farmers surrounding them did. Some
women still wore the blanket at this time, and, in the words of the
agent, M. B. Kent, "all would be improved by more attention to
habits of [personal] cleanliness." 123 Two years later he reported
that some of the Indians* houses were better furnished than those
of some whites near by; four sewing machines were in use, a num-
ber which had increased to seven by 1880. 124 Indicative also of
a substantial improvement in their material well-being was the
statement, made in 1878, that no rations had been issued to the
lowas (except school children) for several years. 125 Two years
later the agent found it appropriate to point out to the commis-
sioner that the lowas were receiving no help from the government
but were supported entirely by their own efforts and from the in-
terest on funds held in trust under the provisions of earlier
treaties. 126
Satisfying as the progress of the Iowa tribe had been, the picture
was not without some flaws. Besides difficulties caused by inter-
mittent drought, at least one grasshopper invasion, and other natural
misfortunes, the lowas had to contend with the hostility and envy
of their white neighbors and with a certain amount of unrest and
dissatisfaction within their own group. Agent Kent described his
agency thus in 1880:
The agency is composed of two small tribes . . . occupying contiguous
reservations in Northeastern Kansas and Southeastern Nebraska, containing
about 22,000 acres, mostly fine farming and grazing land, closely surrounded
by enterprising white settlers, many of whom appear to act out the idea that
an "Indian has no rights which a white man is bound to respect/' They have
long looked with covetous eyes upon this small tract of land, and spare no
effort to dispossess the Indians of it . . . 127
Realizing, as they probably did, that when white men want Indian
land, they sooner or later find ways of getting it, the lowas began
seeking a way out of their predicament. One solution would be to
have their land allotted in severally, after which the responsibility
for its retention would rest on the individual. Another would be
to migrate to Indian territory, where, many supposed, they would
123. Ibid., 1875, pp. 315, 316.
124. Ibid., 1877, p. 141; 1880, p. 116.
125. Ibid., 1878, p. 93.
126. Ibid., 1880, p. 117.
127. Ibid., 1880, p. 116.
296 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
be secure in the possession of such lands as they might obtain.
When the Sac and Fox tribe in 1867 made a treaty (never ratified)
to cede 1,600 acres and move to Indian territory, the lowas became
anxious, and some expressed a wish to leave. 128
Nothing came of this idea then, but in 1876 the agent reported
that half the tribe wanted allotment of lands. The rest opposed the
use of their money for a survey, however, thinking that it would
probably cut across boundaries long established by custom. 129 In-
dividuals were moving to Indian territory on their own during this
period; in 1880 the agent said that over 30 had gone in the past
two years, and the following year the number (mostly "discon-
tented drifters") was set at 47. 130 In 1882 there was said to be still
talk of the whole group's moving to the territory, but a good crop
that year had somewhat allayed the dissatisfaction. 131 In the spring
of 1883 the two tribes asked to have part of their annuity money
used to pay delegates to go to the territory and select homes. The
Indian bureau granted the funds with the proviso that all Indians
at the agency should remove. Nearly all decided to stay until the
two delegates returned and explained the benefits of removal. 132
There were by this time enough lowas in Indian territory (said
to be half the tribe in 1885) so that an executive order was issued
August 15, 1883, setting up a reservation there of 225,000 acres ad-
jacent to the Sac and Fox reservation. 133 It was apparently the
intention of the government now to induce the Indians remaining
in Kansas and Nebraska to move to this tract and thus permit the
opening to white settlement of the land at the Great Nemaha
agency. 134 In pursuance of this objective congress on March 3,
1885, passed an act authorizing the appraisal and sale of the Iowa
and Sac and Fox reservations, with the consent of a majority of the
men expressed in open council. The results of the preference poll
were interestingly interpreted by the government. Among the
lowas there were 58 adult males eligible to vote; of the 29 already
in Indian territory 26 voted in favor of the act; of the 29 still on
the old reservation 11 favored it, 12 opposed it, and six were absent.
Since a total of 37 out of 58 approved the act, they were declared
128. Ibid. 1867, pp. 273, 276.
129. Ibid. 1876, p. 95.
130. Ibid. 1880, p. 116; 1881, p. 123.
131. Ibid. 1882, p. 94.
132. Ibid. 1883, p. 93.
133. Kappler, op. eft., v. 1, pp. 843, 844: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports,
1885, p. bciv; 1887, p. 95.
134. This agency and the Pottawatomie agency were consolidated October 1, 1882
(see Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reportt, 1883, p. 92).
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 297
to have given their consent, despite the fact that the plan had not
received a majority of the votes in the group that would be most
seriously affected by it. As I. W. Patrick, agent for the Kansas In-
dian groups, remarked, only a fraction of the lowas under his
jurisdiction voted to remove, and these were the "blanket" or un-
progressive portion of the tribe. The rest, who were considered
civilized, wanted to stay where they were. 135 Objections from the
lowas delayed action, and in 1887 the act was amended to provide
for allotments to those who wished to remain, 160 acres each to
heads of families, 80 acres to single persons over 18 or orphans
under that age, and 40 acres to minor children. Patents were to
be issued, but the land was to be held in trust for 25 years. 136
Actual allotment began in 1892 and continued at intervals until 1908,
by which time all the land on the former Iowa and Sac and Fox
reservations had been allotted and much of it had found its way
into the hands of white men. 137
The history of the Iowa Indians does not end with the act of
March 3, 1885, but this act, coming as it does almost a half century
after the treaty by which the reservation was established, provides
a convenient terminal point for a study of the acculturation of this
tribe. Acculturation was not complete by that date, but it was
so far advanced that its completion within a relatively short time
was inevitable. Living and dressing like white men (even to the
extent of using sewing machines) and making their living in the
same fashion as their white neighbors, the lowas were justly called
"civilized" by their agents.
Although seldom mentioned in these official reports, the bio-
logical assimilation of the lowas had also progressed a long way by
1885. As early as 1844 the agent reported that some whites who
had been living among the lowas were now being ordered out,
even though one of them had lived with them for 30 years. 138
Even earlier than that, French traders had intermarried with the
lowas and, in many cases, taken up residence among them. Article
10 of the second treaty of Prairie du Chien had provided for a half-
breed reserve for the lowas, Otoes, and certain other groups, be-
tween the Great and Little Nemaha rivers. According to Morgan,
this provision brought in a number of French traders who had
married Indian women. 139 French names are conspicuous among
135. Kappler, op. cit., v. 1, pp. 228, 229; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports,
1885, pp. Ixiv, Ixv, 112.
136. Ibid., 1886, p. xlvii; 1888, p. 141; Kappler, op. cit., v. 1, p. 245.
137. H. E. Bruce, "Kansas Indians of Today" (mimeographed, 1943), p. 4.
138. 28th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 449), p. 447.
139. Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 307, 308; Morgan, op. cit., p. 68.
298 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the present-day lowas, whose tribal roll includes such names as
DeRoin, Dupuis, LeClere, Partelow, and Roubidoux. 140 By 1883
Agent H. C. Linn was able to say that white blood predominated
more or less among the lowas, in contrast to the Sacs and Foxes,
who were mostly fullbloods. 141 And in 1952 an Indian bureau
study revealed that of 580 lowas in Kansas and Nebraska, only 20
were fullbloods. 142 One member of the community, who claims
one fourth Indian blood, is actually only one 64th Indian, accord-
ing to an investigation made by a recent agent for the Kansas
groups. 143 The Oklahoma group has a higher proportion of full-
bloods, and in 1952 was said to have 10 older people (out of a
population of 112) who could neither speak, read, nor write
English. 144
Despite the great infusion of white blood and their almost total
assimilation into the larger community, the lowas have managed
to retain their Indian identity and are doing their best to hold on
to what they have left. In 1937 they organized as the "Iowa Tribe
of Indians of the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas" and
adopted a corporate charter. 145 By far the greater number of the
lowas now live off the old reservation lands. Of the 580 counted
in 1952, only 180 lived on restricted lands; by 1960 there were only
111, 70 in Kansas and 41 in Nebraska, and the lands they occupied
were down to 969 acres in Kansas and 496 in Nebraska a total
of 1,465 acres, plus 191 acres owned by the Sac and Fox tribe, re-
maining of the 400 square miles the two tribes were granted in
1836. 146 Because they continue to receive certain benefits so long
as they retain an interest in these lands, the lowas have opposed
termination of federal supervision whenever it has been proposed.
At meetings held in Falls City, Neb., in February, 1958, they re-
fused even to discuss termination until certain pending claims were
settled. The Sacs and Foxes, none of whom lived on the reserva-
tion lands by this time, were said to favor termination then, but
they later rejected it. 147 The lands remaining in Indian hands are
highly fractionated, and every land transfer involves considerable
140. Interview with Buford Morrison, area field representative, Pottawatomie Area Field
Office, Horton, June 5, 1961.
141. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1883, p. 93.
142. 83d Cong., 2d Sess., House Reports 2680 (Serial 11747), p. 80.
143. Morrison interview.
144. 83d Cong., 2d Sess., House Report 2680 (Serial 11747), p. 80.
145. 82d Cong., 2d Sess., House Report 2503 (Serial 11582), p. 397. The lowas of
Oklahoma did the same in 1937 and 1938.
146. 83d Cong., 2d Sess., House Report 2680 (Serial 11747), p. 80: Bureau of Indian
Affairs, United States Indian Population and Land, 1960 (Washington, 1960), pp. 12, 16.
147. Kansas City (Mo.) Times, February 5, 1958; Topeka State Journal, March 25,
1958.
IOWA INDIANS, 1836-1885 299
red tape. In fact, it is said that the principal service now rendered
by the Indian bureau to the lowas is in connection with such land
transfers and in matters relating to the use of the tribal land, which
makes up about half the remaining holdings. 148
If everyone with a trace of Iowa blood be regarded as an Iowa
Indian, it is evident that the tribe's numbers have greatly increased
since 1885, when only 58 adult males could be mustered for the
vote on allotment. The figure of 580 was given in 1952 for the
Kansas-Nebraska group, but an even higher figure is probably
justified. In June, 1961, when a referendum was being held con-
cerning amendments to the tribal constitution, a list of 463 eligible
voters was prepared by tribal officials and the Pottawatomie Area
Field Office. Of these, 174 had addresses indicating that they
lived in or near the old reservation area, 107 were living elsewhere
within a radius of 100 miles, and 182 were scattered throughout
the country in Oklahoma, California, Missouri, Colorado, Mary-
land, Oregon, Iowa, Texas, New York, and 14 other states from
coast to coast. 149 Most of them retain family and other ties with
those living on the old reservation, and many undoubtedly come
"home" occasionally and attend meetings and other functions in
the little stone community hall built in 1941 as a W. P. A. project. 150
The Iowa Indians broke into the news briefly in 1951 and 1952,
when dissension arose over the succession to the chieftainship (a
purely honorary and unofficial distinction ) left vacant by the death
of Louis White Cloud. He had in 1940 succeeded James White
Cloud, son of Mo-hos-ka, or White Cloud, described by Agent
Richardson at the time of his death in 1852 as the "somewhat no-
torious Iowa ex-chief." m This Mo-hos-ka was at least the second
to bear that name, having succeeded his father, the most famous
chief of the lowas, a few years before their settlement on the Great
Nemaha reservation. 152 James White Cloud was born about 1840
and had served in the Civil War. Pictures showing him sporting
a bristling mustache suggest that the infusion of white blood in
the old chiefs family must have occurred at an early date. His
last few birthdays, as he approached the age of 100, were men-
tioned prominently in Kansas newspapers. After his death in July,
148. Morrison interview.
149. "List of Eligible Voters, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, for Referendum of
June 24, 1961" (hectographed), prepared by the Pottawatomie Area Field Office, Horton.
150. Kansas City (Mo.) Star, April 5, 1941.
151. Kansas City Times, March 19, 1947; Kansas City Star, October 6, 1940; Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1852, p. 71.
152. McKenney and Hall, op. cit., pp. 291, 301.
300 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1940, he was succeeded by Louis, who died in March, 1947. 153
After a search for the descendant of Mo-hos-ka boasting the highest
proportion of Indian blood, the choice fell on 15-year-old Jimmie
Rhodd, a high school sophomore in St. Joseph, Mo. Although he
was supposedly being elevated to the chieftainship on October 28,
1951, his selection for this honor seems to have precipitated a power
struggle which dragged on for another year. His uncle, Dan White
Cloud, claimed to be more directly in the line of descent, and tried
to secure the position for himself. The council decided in the
spring of 1952 that 10-years' residence in Oklahoma disqualified
him for the chieftainship of the Kansas-Nebraska branch of the
tribe, and young Rhodd was finally invested with the purple in
November, 1952. 154 In February, 1958, he married a non-Indian
named Shirley Jean Shorts, who was given the tribal name of Ma-
Has-Kah, now apparently reserved for females. A newspaper story
about the wedding provided the added information that the couple
would live in Omaha, where the groom was employed as an instruc-
tor in a ballroom dancing studio. 155
With the honorary chief of the Iowa tribe, a lineal descendant
of the first White Cloud, earning his living as a teacher of ballroom
dancing, one might agree with the Indian bureau's statement in
1952 that "acculturation appears to be complete/' 156
153. Kansas City Times, September 24, 1937; Topeka Daily Capital, June 12, 1938;
Kansas City Star, October 6, 1940; Kansas City Times, March 19, 1947.
154. Kansas City Times, October 12, 1951; Topeka Daily Capital, October 28, 1951;
Wichita Morning Eagle, November 9, 1952. A slightly different version appeared in an
article titled "Jimmie Almost Gets To Be Indian Chief," Life, Chicago, v. 31 (November 12,
1951), pp. 113, 114, 116.
155. Topeka DaUy Capital, February 10, 1958.
156. 83d Cong., 2d Sess., House Report 2680 (Serial 11747), p. 80.
The Westmoreland Interurban Railway
ALLISON CHANDLER
YEAR 1912 marked a unique occurrence in northeast Kansas
- transportation annals when a short-line steam railroad was con-
verted into a gasoline auto interurban. The original rail line was
the eight-mile Kansas, Southern & Gulf railroad operating north and
south between Westmoreland and Elaine in the heart of Potta-
watomie county. The prime mover of the change was Charles E.
Morris and the finished product was called the Westmoreland inter-
urban railway.
Bullet-shaped Pottawatomie county, with straight lines bounding
its northern and eastern sides, the Kansas river on the south and the
arching Big Blue river as its western boundary, had long known
steam railway lines. The Union Pacific had pushed west along its
southern border in 1866 to serve the towns of St. Marys, Wamego,
and St. George. The Kansas Central had extended a parallel route
through the northern part of the county between 1877 and 1880 to
serve the towns of Havensville, Savannah, Onaga, Wheaton, Blaine,
Fostoria, Olsburg, and Garrison. Still later, the Topeka & Northern
had cut across the northeastern part of the county to include the
towns of Emmett, Aiken, and Onaga.
Westmoreland, founded in 1871 and established as the county
seat after an 11-year term by its southern neighbor, Louisville, had
been without a railroad long after a dozen or more of Pottawatomie
county communities were enjoying rail service. As early as 1892,
the county had attained a certain prominence for agricultural
products.
Steam railroad promoters in 1899 succeeded in organizing, financ-
ing, and building the eight-mile line from Blaine to Westmoreland,
to give the county seat its only rail connection with the outside
world. A news dispatch, October 26, 1899, in the Westmoreland
Recorder, said the line was chartered as the Kansas and Southern
Railway Company and that it contemplated extending southwest
from Westmoreland through Manhattan to strike the Missouri, Kan-
sas & Texas line at White City or Council Grove. Irving H. Wheat-
croft was president of the company, with Norton Thayer as secre-
tary and treasurer. The Thayer-Moore Brokerage Co. of Kansas
City, Mo., was the original owner.
ALLISON CHANDLER, of Salina, who is employed in the advertising department of the
Salina Journal, has made a hobby of collecting information on Kansas interurban railroads.
This article is a chapter from his book-length manuscript entitled, "Trolley Through the
Countryside," which is scheduled for publication by Sage Books (Alan Swallow, pub.) of
Denver, late in 1962.
(301)
302 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The company acquired a steam locomotive, several freight cars,
and a combination baggage-and-passenger coach. Schedules were
announced and the road began operation before the turn of the
century.
However, troubles in management and financing appeared to dog
the steps of the little line and the forces of nature were none too
friendly. In 1902 much of the roadbed was washed out in a flood,
upon which, it was said, the road's management threw up its hands
and quit. The little steam engine was run off to Kansas City and
sold. Receivers were appointed, and the city of Westmoreland
made a compromise agreement whereby the city itself operated the
line for something like 18 months.
In March, 1904, the Thayer-Moore Brokerage firm bought back
the line and changed its name to the Kansas, Southern & Gulf rail-
road, the reported sale price being $13,500. With a newly acquired
secondhand ex-Rock Island No. 218 engine, a passenger-baggage
coach, two box cars, two flat cars, and one coal car, the road moved
substantial quantities of freight over the 56-pound, four-feet, eight-
and-one-half-inch steel rails. Standard size freight cars of other
lines were regularly switched off the east-west railroad at Elaine.
This road, by the 1900's called the Leavenworth, Kansas & Western,
was some 165 miles in length. The K. S. & G. baggage-passenger
coach, too, provided a steady means of revenue between Blaine and
Westmoreland, and the several rural stations en route.
Crewmen recalled by Westmoreland residents on the old K. S. & G.
included John H. Smith, engineer; C. W. Armentrout and Warren
Kelley, firemen; and Charlie Cree, conductor.
Despite its brave efforts to give the heart of Pottawatomie county
adequate rail service, the Kansas, Southern & Gulf eventually ran
into financial straits. Early in 1909 the line, reputed to have lost
something like $20,000 for its owners and operators, was declared
bankrupt.
It was at this point that Charlie Morris stepped into the picture
to brighten the transportation situation for years to come. Morris,
aged 60 in 1909, had come to northeast Pottawatomie county in
1870 where he had homesteaded a farm near Wheaton. Between
1888 and 1892 he had served the county as sheriff and had moved
his residence to the county seat. He had become interested in the
Farmers State Bank of Westmoreland and had also returned to
active politics, being elected to the Kansas state legislature for the
1909 and 1911 sessions as the county's representative.
Early in 1909 Morris became receiver for the defunct K. S. & G.
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY 303
and for something like three years tussled with the problem of
making the little eight-mile-long steam line pay. Then in 1912 his
plan to revolutionize and improve the midget railroad was revealed.
The January 25, 1912, issue of the Westmoreland Recorder an-
nounced that the Wamego and Rock Creek Railroad Co. had been
chartered to connect the K. S. and G. with the Union Pacific main
line at Wamego over a roadbed running southeast from Westmore-
land to Louisville and on south into Wamego, a distance of some
15 miles. Morris was elected president of the new company. The
plan was to give the K. S. and G. a southern outlet to a main-line rail-
road at Wamego, thus greatly increasing its value via the projected
15-mile southern extension. During 1912 the route was surveyed,
right-of-way was secured and grading was partly completed from
Westmoreland to Louisville. Unfortunately, further operations were
halted and the line never reached Wamego, let alone the Gulf-of-
Mexico part of its brave little title.
Of parallel importance, however, was another move by Morris in
1912. He was convinced that there was still profitable business to
be had on the steam line, if the costs of operation and maintenance
could be drastically trimmed. The line's lone steam engine was
costly to maintain, and in 1909 had stymied operations for weeks
by a major breakdown. This locomotive required the services of a
skilled railway engineer. The steam engine, the coach, and the
numerous freight cars were heavy vehicles and the old ties, pre-
dominantly of soft wood, were deteriorating rapidly under such
weight.
Morris was impressed by the growing popularity of the gasoline
automobile now making its appearance throughout the country, and
resolved to give this "new fangled" mode of transportation a trial
on his railroad. In early 1912 he bought a White steamer of 1907
vintage, a touring car, and had it put on railroad trucks in front and
railroad wheels in the rear to fit the rail line. The success of this
vehicle in supplementing passenger service from Westmoreland to
Elaine led him to retire the heavy passenger-baggage coach from
the steam train.
In the same year Morris purchased a new 1912 Mitchell touring
car and had it fitted similarly, for freight service. Ole Olson of
Westmoreland was hired to custom-build four little wooden freight
cars of "hayrack" proportions, mounted on railroad wheels.
The White steamer proved adequate as a passenger carrier and
the Mitchell touring car soon demonstrated it could successfully
304
KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pull two or three of the 8 x 12-foot freight cars each trip. The heavy
steam locomotive and some of the freight equipment were retained
for several months to handle carload freight, but it was eventually
found cheaper to make three or four trips with the Mitchell and the
hayrack freight cars than to use the locomotive and one standard
freight vehicle. Some time in 1913 the steam engine and freight
cars were sold, the passenger-baggage coach was retired and central
Pottawatomie county could point to a unique form of rail trans-
portation.
WESTMORELAND
INTERURBAN
RAILWAY
T T^A WAT 0*/M I E
The Railroads of Pottawatomie County in the Early 1900's.
Guy Morris, one of Charlie's sons, became bookkeeper for the firm
and a regular driver of the interurban autos; while Chet Walden of
Westmoreland assisted in the auto piloting duties. Charlie Morris
himself was known to take a turn occasionally at driving the autos
along the rails.
The line began in the northeast part of Westmoreland. The orig-
inal K. S. & G. roundhouse was remodeled and enlarged into a car
barn and ticket-selling depot, with John Smith, ex-K. S. & G. engi-
neer, in charge. A small depot, independent of the L. K. & W. sta-
tion, also sold interurban tickets in Elaine.
ROLLING STOCK OF THE KANSAS, SOUTHERN & GULF RAILROAD
Views of "Old Betsy," formerly Rock Island's No. 218, the steam locomotive which provided most
of the power for this Pottawatomie county railroad from 1904 to 1913. Although its early operators
were ambitious to make it a Gulf road, the line succeeded only in serving the Westmoreland-Blaine
territory, a distance of eight miles! All photos courtesy Shelby F. Cambell, Westmoreland.
At the Union Pacific water tank at Blaine.
Lacking locomotive turntables or wyes, the steam train could not turn around.
Thus it is said that no matter which way the engine traveled it was always "headed"
for Blaine! At the height of steam service, the line had, besides the locomotive, a
passenger-baggage coach, one coal, two box and two flat cars.
Upper: At the Westmoreland depot.
Lower: Close-up of "Old Betsy." L. W. Growl, one-time owner, is at left.
I
i -rr
fiar^^l'^v- 1 *
-iT-$$
a-
/
The locomotive proved too expensive to operate, and as early as 1912 converted
motor cars were being used as motive power.
Upper: The company's first rail auto was reportedly a converted 1907 White
steamer, which pulled a canopied trailer. At the left is Charlie Morris, operator of
the line from 1909 till his death in 1915.
Cenfer: The 1912 Mitchell rail auto and custom-made trailers, at the Westmore-
land auto turntable.
Lower.- The wreck of the Mitchell rail auto on Rock creek bridge, November 27,
1914.
Upper: Another view of the Westmoreland interurban auto service, loaded with
a reported 15 tons of freight.
Center: Part of the Westmoreland depot with drayman Frank Bowers behind the
wagon. The other individual is not identified.
Lower: The engine ditched northeast of Westmoreland, in rhe early 1900's.
Competition from privately-owned automobiles and trucks, together with the
gradual improvement of county roads, forced the abandonment of this 18-year-old
interurban railroad by late 1918.
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY 305
The route swept northeast from Westmoreland in a new-moon
arch across Rock Creek twice, to Siddens station and stockyards,
and on to Moodyville, four and one-half miles northeast of the
county seat. Here the company maintained a ticket-selling depot,
a passing track, and a stockyard, with a Mr. Moody acting as agent.
From this point the line arched slightly northwest through the sta-
tions of Richards, Whitleys, Roach, and finally to the south end of
Blaine.
The road's passenger schedule included a 7:30 A. M. morning trip
from Westmoreland to Blaine and back in the White steamer, a
similar four o'clock run in the afternoon and, in later years, a final
trip in the late evening to meet a passenger train on the L. K. & W.
at Blaine. The autos were fitted with headlights, making after-dark
operation possible. The Mitchell touring car and its four hayrack
freight vehicles operated on no set schedule, but were known to
have made as many as five trips a day when the occasion demanded.
It was the custom to load two of the little freight cars in Westmore-
land, or intermediate points, and pull them into Blaine, leaving the
cars to be unloaded at the L. K. & W. junction, to be returned for on
a subsequent trip.
There was no loop, no "Y", no "V" on the line; the autos used
turntables at both Westmoreland and at Blaine. The old K. S. & G.
steam locomotive, which could not turn around, was said to have
made its runs always headed toward Blaine!
Mail, baggage, and express shipments were made between stations
by the passenger auto. However, when passenger traffic warranted
it, the Mitchell freight auto would also carry human fares, thus
assuming the proportions of a "mixed train daily."
The company maintained no trade-getting amusement park in
either Westmoreland or Blaine, as did many Kansas interurban rail-
ways. However, a recreational area at Moodyville, near the halfway
point, boasted a small lake and facilities for picnicking, swimming,
fishing, and boating. The little park attracted many interurban fares
in its heyday, during the pre-World War I years.
Construction features of the line, originally installed by the steam
railroad, included two wood-pile bridges over Rock creek northeast
of Westmoreland, a deep cut into the hillside near Siddens and
another called the Valburg cut just south of Blaine. The cuts were
a source of worry to the management during the winter months,
for heavy snows would block these areas until the deep drifts could
be removed. Harry Chilcott of Westmoreland, for three years in
203255
306 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
charge of track maintenance during the interurban years, remembers
the anxious days of heavy snows when rail service was temporarily
stymied by the elements. "I also remember leaning out in front of
the moving interurban auto," said Chilcott, "and sweeping the snow
off the tracks as we slowly proceeded/*
The two wood-pile bridges gave interurban crews no particular
trouble, except on one occasion. The afternoon of November 27,
1914, a group of boys were accused of playing on one bridge and
of inadvertently leaving a bar of angle iron lying half -hidden on the
trestle. The Mitchell auto and one freight car, returning to West-
moreland, approached the bridge from the north and the auto struck
the angle arm, separating the car from the front railroad trucks,
throwing the wheels into the creek bed and leaving the car dizzily
suspended on the bridge. Damage was assessed at $200. For-
tunately, the little freight car was securely attached to the auto,
holding the motor vehicle on the bridge and preventing bodily
injury to the driver.
The agricultural pursuits of Pottawatomie county sustained the
life of the little railway for years. The Mitchell auto and its freight
cars were said to have hauled anything the people desired, including
lumber, coal, sand, cattle, wheat, corn, poultry, produce, and general
merchandise. At its best, the company of the mid-1910's employed
seven people. Relations between management and labor were said
by ex-employees to have been smooth. Charlie Morris was said to
have regularly met his paydays and there were no instances recalled
of disputes or strikes.
In May, 1914, the line emerged from five years of receivership in
a sheriffs sale. Charlie Morris purchased the road for a reported
$6,800, reorganized it, set up a board of directors, and on July 1,
changed the name to the Westmoreland Interurban railway. Morris
retained most of the new company's stock in his own name. During
his term as receiver Morris was said to have bought and had in-
stalled over a thousand oak ties along the roadbed to replace soft-
wood ties.
The year 1915 loomed as the brightest yet for the reorganized
concern. Unable to succeed in the projected 1912 southward ex-
tension, Morris that year expanded by utilizing another, already
existing, line in the county. Passenger schedules on the L. K. & W.
apparently had deteriorated and were unsatisfactory both east and
west out of Elaine. Morris proposed to the Union Pacific railroad,
then in control of the L. K. & W., that he be allowed to run a pas-
senger auto over L. K. & W. tracks the 12 miles from Elaine east to
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY 307
Onaga. This would give the Westmoreland railway a direct con-
nection with the morning and evening motor rail cars of the Topeka
& Northern railroad at Onaga, also a Union Pacific affiliate. Morris
was reported to have gotten a favorable reception from U. P. officials
and had made plans by early summer for the purchase of a new
passenger auto to be fitted with railway trucks for service on the
expanded schedule.
But on the afternoon of Thursday, June 17, 1915, the elements
dealt the Morris line a crippling blow. Northeast Kansas had been
experiencing a period of frequent storms. That afternoon new
outbursts of rain sent Rock creek nearly bankfull. Mr. Morris,
his son Guy, and six other men, drove the 1907 White steamer north-
east of Westmoreland to check the possibilities of flood. There, on
supposed high ground between the two bridges, the eight men were
trapped by a wall of water and were swept into the flooded stream.
Charlie Morris, Guy Morris, and John C. Gunter, proprietor of
Westmoreland's Star Drug Store, were drowned. The other five
men Chester Walden, Harry Chilcott, Warren Kelley, and Wayne
Grutzmacher, all of Westmoreland, and F. P. Smithmeyer, a Poehler
Mercantile Co. salesman from Lawrence managed to grasp tree
limbs, then climb up into the trees, from which they were rescued
hours later.
After the county recovered from one of its most tragic days, during
which there were also two deaths by lightning near Wamego and six
deaths from a tornado near Onaga, the fate of the road hung in the
balance. However, in July a group of men headed by George F.
Richardson of Westmoreland bought the property from Mrs. Charles
Morris and her six surviving children. Richardson rebuilt the Rock
creek washout and daily service was restored by the middle of
August.
Richardson further improved the line by purchasing an Inter-
national truck, fitted with railway wheels, to be used on freight runs.
However, the proposed extension of passenger service to Onaga was
never consummated and the interurban remained an eight-mile
railroad.
The rapid increase of privately owned automobiles and trucks
and the gradual improvement of Pottawatomie county roads cut
deeply into revenues by World War I years. Business was uncertain
enough so that in 1918 Richardson negotiated with a railroad salvage
firm to junk the line, to take advantage of high war-time prices for
steel. But fate again dealt the management a cruel economic blow
when the war suddenly ended and the price of steel scrap tumbled.
308 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The salvage firm backed away, and Richardson was forced to junk
and sell the equipment as best he could.
The Westmoreland Recorder of October 3, 1918, reported: "A
meeting will be held at the City Hall, Westmoreland, Wednesday,
October 9, at 8 P. M. to consider what steps, if any, shall be taken to
keep the Westmoreland Interurban railroad in operation. This is an
important matter to the people of this community. Attend the
meeting." The notice was signed by Mayor C. D. Powell of the city.
The same paper on October 17 declared that the interurban line
would probably be junked, saying that it would cost about $4,000
to repair the road and equipment and that highway truck competi-
tion was steadily gaining on the road. It was understood that if the
line were junked the city of Westmoreland, once the owner of the
company, would share in the receipts of sale.
Finally on November 14 the Recorder declared: "The junking of
the Westmoreland Interurban railroad will commence this week.
The iron has been sold to be delivered F. O. B. at Elaine. .
Westmoreland is already arranging to bring in its goods and ship
out produce, etc., by trucks."
By early 1919 the railway was history and the eight-mile roadbed
had been denuded of its steel rails.
The once-vital Leavenworth, Kansas & Western railroad through
Blaine held onto life as a Union Pacific branch for another decade
and a half, although its service left much to be desired. On this
point, the March 27, 1919, issue of the Recorder said that by using
both the L. K. & W. and a star mail route via truck from Blaine to
Westmoreland, "it takes as long for a letter to go from Wheaton to
Westmoreland [about 20 miles] as it does from Chicago." In the
later years of its life, the east-west L. K. & W. was affectionately
dubbed the "Look, Kuss & Wait." By the summer of 1935, this strip
of railroad steel, too, was gone, with only the roadbed to show for
the one-time 165 mile line.
Passenger and mail service northward from Westmoreland was
taken up by a star mail route from Wamego to Blaine upon the
demise of the interurban. The mail truck would also take passengers
each way. Finally, private autos became the sole means of covering
the eight miles between the two towns.
By 1962 Westmoreland and Blaine had long since returned to
their original status as inland towns. Westmoreland remains the
county seat and has a population of 460, the census count showing
a fluctuation of less than 100 over a period of 60 years. Blaine re-
THE WESTMORELAND INTERURBAN RAILWAY 309
mains a town of under 200. Wamego is the "big town" of the county,
still on the Union Pacific's Kansas City-to-Denver main line, with a
population of 2,363. St. Marys, also on the U. P. main line, is the
only other town in the county to best the thousand mark, with a
count of 1,509. Onaga, on the U. P/s converted heavy freight line,
the old T. & N., from Topeka to the company's main line junction at
Grand Island, Neb., boasts a population of 850.
Westmoreland is today a town of modern autos, trucks, service
stations, and garages. Little remains along the eight-mile country-
side north to Elaine to remind the citizenry of the interurban years,
save clefts in the hills or raised mounds of earth in the meadows and
fields. But in the north part of Westmoreland, the wooden body of
the old K. S. & G. baggage-passenger coach, rotting and rusting in
a back yard, keeps its date with destiny, and gently reminds of the
days when the town was the proud terminal of a bona fide railroad.
German Settlements Along the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway
A Translation From the German
J. NEALE CARMAN, Translator and Annotator
I. INTRODUCTORY NOTE
'IpHE PROBABLE author of the following paper is C. B. Schmidt,
JL general European immigration agent for the Santa Fe railroad
at the time of its composition ( for biographical sketch of Schmidt see
Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9 (1905-1906), pp. 485, 486). In
1881 the Santa Fe issued in German a pamphlet to promote immigra-
tion to Kansas. Most of it is a translation of the English pamphlet
current at the same time, however a number of pages were added
describing the German communities in Kansas. It would have been
C. B. Schmidt's function to write these pages, and the internal evi-
dence in them points to his authorship. The following is a translation
of these pages (39-46) of Neuestes von Kansas und seinen Hulfsquel-
len mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der Ldndereien der Atchison
Topeka und Santa T?6 Eisenbahn.
No date of publication is given, but the contemporary allusions
fix the time about 1881. The name Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Railway Company which Schmidt keeps repeating has been ab-
breviated in the translation. Schmidt's account is fairly accurate.
It is also fairly complete, though he omits settlements in Reno, Rice,
Stafford, and Edwards counties which had already been founded.
II. THE TRANSLATION
According to the census of 1880 the population of the state of
Kansas amounted in round numbers to 1,000,000 persons, of whom
about 200,000 use the German language. Of these latter half were
born in Germany and immigrated here, while the other half is merely
of German origin. By far the greatest part of the Germans in
Kansas are from the older states of the Union, to which they came
some years ago from the mother country, and then moved on to
Kansas. The reason for this migration has in most cases been the
sharp rise in the cost of farms in the older states, which has made it
difficult for the farmers to provide for their sons as they grow up.
Whole families have therefore gone to Kansas, after they had
DR. J. NEALE CARMAN is professor, and a former department chairman, of romance
languages at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. For years he has engaged in research cm
foreign settlements in Kansas and is the author of several articles on that subject as well as
the recent 330-page book, Foreign-Language Units of Kansas, published by the University of
Kansas Press, 1962.
(310)
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE SANTA FE 311
advantageously sold their expensive farms and when they were in
a position with the money received to secure in many cases 20 times
as much land in Kansas as they had owned before, and land, besides,
that surpassed the old farms in productivity. The most significant
contingent of this class of German population in Kansas has come
from the states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and
Pennsylvania. It should be significant to European emigrants that
the well-to-do German farmers of those rich Middle Western states
of the Union have preferred to settle in Kansas.
As in all American states, the German element in Kansas is scat-
tered. In the cities we find our fellow countrymen in the stores
and workshops; we find Germans as doctors, teachers, preachers,
lawyers, newspaper editors, and politicians. In short no career is
barred to them. In the majority of cases, however, the German is
established in the country as a wheat and corn farmer, as a fruit,
wine, and vegetable gardener, and as a cattle raiser. Wherever the
German farmer has once set foot, there is no place left for the
American farmer to stay. The former, because of his industry and
great endurance, surpasses and finally absorbs the farm of his Ameri-
can neighbor. Thus along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railway, populous, blooming German colonies have sprung up, the
most important of which we mention below.
Not far from Cottonwood railway station in Chase county in the
Diamond creek valley ( creeks are small tributary streams ) we find
a settlement of North Germans, Lutherans in faith. They occupy
themselves with great success with cattle raising and dairying, to
which that region is particularly well adapted on account of its
wealth of running water. The post office for this settlement is called
Woodhull. 1 Land in great quantity is still available in the near
neighborhood with 11 years credit, priced at from $2 to $17 an acre.
Mr. G. W. McWilliams, the local land agent of the railroad at Cot-
tonwood Falls is ready at any time to show the lands in this neigh-
borhood. About 23 miles southwest from Cottonwood we reach the
station of Florence, situated like Cottonwood station on the Cotton-
wood river. Here two branch lines of the Santa Fe originate. One,
the Marion and McPherson railroad, runs in a northwesterly di-
rection through Marion Center, McPherson Center, and Lyons to
Ellinwood, and the other directly south to El Dorado under the name
of the Florence, El Dorado, and Walnut Valley railroad.
Let us first follow this last to Burns station, 18 miles south of
1. Woodhull was on Diamond creek, Sec. 29, T. 18, R. 7 E. The settlement never
became important.
312 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Florence. Here we find the German colony of St. Francis. A society
with 100 members, all Roman Catholic in religion, which was or-
ganized in the city of Cincinnati and sponsored by the Franciscan
fathers of that city, in 1879 bought 3,200 acres of land from the
railroad company in the immediate neighborhood of the station; an
additional 3,200 acres are held in reserve for the society. Only 25
families have settled there so far; the rest will follow as soon as they
have settled up their business. 2 The Franciscan order here is super-
intending the erection of church, school, and monastic buildings,
for which purpose an allotment of land has been set aside next to
the colony. Mr. Jacob Miller in Florence, Marion county, Kan., the
true founder of this colony, is at any time ready to give information
by letter concerning it. The region between the two streams Martin
creek and Middle creek in Marion county, 10 to 20 miles north of
Florence, 3 is now ardently sought by German farmers from northern
Illinois around Chicago. Mr. Henry Stassen of Monee, 111., gave the
first impetus to this movement, when he bought several sections of
land in this neighborhood as representative of a Protestant (Baptist)
congregation. Almost every week this settlement receives an addi-
tional group from Illinois regularly consisting of well-to-do and
distinguished agriculturists.
The next railroad station is Marion Center, charmingly located
on the Cotton wood river at the mouths of Mud and Martin creeks.
Marion Center 4 is the county seat of Marion county and counts
some 1,100 inhabitants, among whom there are many German and
Bohemian-German merchants. About six miles eastward is located
Youngtown 5 post office, in the midst of a settlement of German
Lutherans from the neighborhood of Halberstadt. Prominent among
them is Mr. Carl Doty (Address: Youngtown, Marion county, Kan. ).
He has been living here for several years in the company of two
brothers and other relatives, who all have farmed with good success.
North of Youngtown in the neighborhood of Lincolnville, 6 still in
Marion county, is the Saxon colony of Carola founded in the spring
2. The present Catholic establishment in Burns is on the original site, an important,
though not completely possessive, element in the town's life.
3. Straight north from Florence would conflict with other settlements described later.
Apparently the Elk community somewhat farther east is meant (post office in 1885 on Sec.
7, T. 19, R. 6 E.). It did not become strongly Baptist, but has Methodist and Missouri
Lutheran (formerly German Lutheran) churches. In 1948 the Immanuel Lutheran church
had 149 baptized.
4. Marion Center has become Marion. There were more Volga Germans than Bohemian
Germans there at the time. Schmidt should have said "Mud and Clear creek."
5. Youngtown ( on Sec. 20, T. 19, R. 5 E. ) was from the beginning primarily an
Evangelical (now E. U. B. ) settlement. A church of that denomination (83 members in
1948) was organized in 1874. It is all that marks the location of the place.
6. Lincolnville is a strong Missouri Lutheran community. St. John's church in 1948 had
358 baptized; it was organized in 1877. German settlement began in 1869.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE SANTA FE 313
of 1880, now consisting of 10 families, who will be followed in the
course of this year by many families from Saxony. From this group
west to Mud creek is situated a Bohemian colony of about 25 families
founded eight years ago. 7 The railroad company still has for sale
hundreds of thousands of acres of its best lands in an area of 150
square miles within which all these last four colonies are situated.
The most closely situated stations are Florence on the main line and
Marion Center on the branch line. The railroad land agents Thomas
Morrison in Florence and Case and Billings in Marion Center are
always ready to show lands in this area to immigrants.
Westward from Marion Center stretch for 50 miles from the Cot-
tonwood river to the little Arkansas over a width of 10 to 15 miles
north to south the frequently reported settlements of Mennonite
immigrants from South Russia, specifically from the Crimea. 8 The
immigration of these model farmers in its time caused a great deal
of comment. 9 It began in the year 1873 and has continued up till
now. The number of their colonies in Kansas comes to about 20
with a population of 12,000, principally in Marion, McPherson, Har-
vey, and Reno counties, all within the area served by the Santa Fe.
Precisely as a consequence of the unexampled blooming of these
model German colonies the construction of the branch line from
Florence to McPherson became necessary.
The various separate settlements all bear German names, as for
example Gnadenau, under the congregational elders Jacob Wiebe
and Peter Eckert, Bruderthal with William Ewert as elder, Jo-
hannesthal with Benjamin Unruh; Alexanderfeld, Rosenort, Hoff-
nungsau, Hoffnungsthal, Weidefeld, Hochfeld, Griinfeld, Spring-
feld, Gnadenthal, Gnadenfeld, Emmathal, and, the largest of all,
New-Alexanderwohl under the congregational elders Jacob Buller
and Heinrich Richert. 10 The whole neighborhood now has the char-
acter of a 25-year-old culture, although eight years ago it was noth-
ing but an immense, undulating prairie. Now it is a huge, beautiful
garden. The cities of Marion Center, Peabody, Hillsboro, Halstead,
Btirrton, Hutchinson, and most especially Newton particularly thank
these great German colonies for their prosperity and their brisk
business life. Newton in Harvey county is the favored market for
the whole Mennonite territory. In the neighborhood of Lehigh
7. These are the Pilsen Czechs.
8. Only a few were from the Crimea. Most of the Mennonites were from Molotschna
river settlements just above the Crimea.
9. The comment still goes on. See particularly C. Henry Smith, Harold S. Bender,
Cornelius Krahn, and Melvin Gingerich, eds., The Mennonite Encyclopedia (1955-1959,
Newton, Hillsboro, and Scottdale, Pa.).
10. Many of these names have persisted as the names of Mennonite churches but some
of them have disappeared. See the reference in Footnote 8.
314 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
station, 25 miles north of Newton (pronounced Liehei) in the spring
of 1880 a company of Wurtembergers from the neighborhood of
Stuttgart and Cannstadt settled. During the course of this year
(1881) they expect a further numerous contingent from their old
home. 11
One of the most prosperous German settlements in the whole west
of the United States is that of the West Prussians in Butler county,
easily accessible from the cities of Peabody in Marion county and
Newton in Harvey county. 12 It consists of about 30 families, the
first of whom emigrated in the year 1876 from the Vistula delta near
Marienburg. These immigrants, on account of their solid prosperity,
awakened the attention of the whole country. They have provided
their new home with every comfort and their buildings are ex-
tensive and imposing. Most of them own a full square mile (640
acres ) of land and much livestock.
On the way from Newton to these Prussian settlements we pass
through the German colony of Goldschar, 13 which is also rich. It
was founded by Mr. Herman Sudermann (address, Newton, Kan.)
who with a number of friends immigrated from South Russia and
West Prussia, also in 1876. We also pass through the Polish German
colony of Gnadenberg, 14 consisting of more than 50 families.
Newton may be regarded as the center of the great German
colonies in Kansas. 15 As the main office of the Santa Fe's bureau
for European immigration is located here, all German emigrants are
advised to come here first where the German general agent, C. B.
Schmidt, or his representatives will extend to them all needed help
in the choice of a new home. From here a branch line runs through
Wichita, Wellington, and Winfield to Caldwell and Arkansas City
on the south border of Kansas. Wichita, 27 miles south of Newton,
is a city of 5,000 inhabitants of whom 2,000 are German. 16 It lies in
11. The Wurtembergers became nearly lost among the Mennonites to the south and the
Volga Germans to the north. Schmidt's failure to mention the Volgans in Marion, at Strass-
burg, just northwest of Marion, north of Lehigh, and near Durham a little farther north is
curious. These groups were already well established by this time, and some were more
prosperous than other groups which he mentions. The Scully purchases doubtless had some-
thing to do with the omission.
12. These people were (and are) also Mennonites. The towns they are in and near
are Whitewater and Elbing. Elbing is a name they imported.
13. Another Mennonite group from various European settlements. The Goldschar set-
tlement was rather east than south of Newton, two and one-half miles out. The church
organized there in 1878 moved into town in 1884.
14. Gnadenberg (church name changed to Grace Hill in 1954, 197 members in 1955)
is still another Mennonite settlement. These people were from near Berdichev Volhynians
but separate from the group discussed in Barton county further on, Footnote 24.
15. Schmidt exaggerates for his advertising purposes, but Newton was (and is) an
important German center, mainly but by no means exclusively for Mennonites. Zion
Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, had 372 baptized in 1948. The Mennonite churches
have about 1,400 members.
16. There were in Wichita 570 foreign-born Germans in a population of 16,000 in
1885. In 1895 Wichita contained 740 foreign-born Germans with whom lived 715 children.
The cit/i population was then 20,841.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE SANTA FE 315
a rich agricultural district and is surrounded by German colonies
from all sections of Germany. The most important of these is St.
Mark's colony, 17 12 miles west of Wichita consisting of about 100
Catholic families from the neighborhood of Trier. They lived first
in Minnesota for several years and moved to Kansas in 1873 because
of the long winters prevailing there.
Ten miles west of Newton on the main line of the Santa Fe lies
the little German city of Halstead with 1,880 inhabitants. It is the
shopping center and supply point for a rich settlement from the
Palatinate, which was founded here in 1873. 18 These colonists had
been settled for many years in southern Illinois and southern Iowa
and had arrived at significant prosperity there. So as to increase
their land holdings, in January, 1873, 30 of their families bought from
the Santa Fe 43,000 acres and shared with the railroad company in
the founding and advancement of the town of Halstead. A German
newspaper: Zur Heimath, edited by David Goerz, appears here, and
enjoys a wide circulation. The colony from the Palatinate stretches
as much as 25 miles 19 north from Halstead and has acquired since
its beginning at least 100 families.
The little city of Ellinwood on the Arkansas river in Barton county,
75 miles west of Newton is the center of the "Germania" colony,
founded in the year 1873 by the German general agent of the Santa
Fe, Mr. C. B. Schmidt. It consists of about 500 families of every
religious denomination from all parts of Germany, Austria, 20 and
Switzerland.
Mr. F. A. Steckel, whose residence in Ellinwood is pictured in this
pamphlet from a photograph, is in an excellent position to give in-
formation concerning the Germania colony, and will gladly do so.
Ellinwood has 800 inhabitants and here is the junction of Marion
and McPherson branch and the Santa Fe main line. Barton county
besides Germania colony has other important German, Austrian, and
Russian German 21 colonies. This county, because of its remarkable
wheat land, has been the preferred goal of German farmers ever
since the construction of the railroad, so that now half of its popula-
17. The Germans in this Colwich-Andale-St. Mark's region numbered about 1,300 in
1895.
18. Many of these people were Mennonites. About 1955 the Mennonite churches had
only
town. A German Methodist church flourished till World War I.
ople
,300
500 members, the town 1,300 inhabitants, but only about 1QO of the Mennonites lived in
19. As this statement indicates, the Palatinate group cuts through the Russian Menno-
nites. Except for a flourishing Missouri Lutheran church, Imrnanuel (271 members in 1948),
these Germans are Mennonites too.
20. The Germania colony made Ellinwood and its neighborhood. Apparently with
the word "Austria" Schmidt meant to include the Moravian Germans at Odin, 15 miles
north and three west. There were 600 Germans there in 1895.
21. Schmidt says no more of the Russian Germans in the north part of the county
because they were a Kansas Pacific settlement. They were from the Volga area.
316 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tion is German by language. The most fertile part of the county
is the valley of the Walnut river. At its junction with the Arkansas
is situated the county seat, Great Bend. In the Walnut valley 12
miles above Great Bend lies the Russian German colony, Gnaden-
thal, 22 consisting of about 50 Protestant families who in the year
1874 and 1875 immigrated here from the Saratov government in
Russia. This colony borders on a flourishing Austrian settlement to
the northeast. It is called Tribenz M after the old home town of the
first colonists in Moravia.
In the immediate vicinity of the railroad between the stations of
Great Bend and Pawnee Rock stretches a row of buildings 24 three
miles long inhabited by Germans from Volhynia. These people were
weavers in the old country, and most of them held plowhandles here
for the first time. Nonetheless this colony too is making encouraging
progress. The most western outposts of German colonization are
to be found in Ford county, near Offerle and Spearville stations, 150
miles west of Newton. There are three of them, St. Joseph's colony
(Catholic) made up of Alsatians, 25 the Catholic Aurora colony, or-
ganized in Cincinnati in the year 1877, consisting of 100 families
that own about 10,000 acres, in the middle of which the little city of
Windhorst 26 is situated, and finally a Lutheran Saxon colony, 27
whose founder, Mr. Friederich Israel, came from Illinois to Kansas
in the year 1876. The nearest post office and railroad station to the
three colonies is Offerle in Edwards county, although the settlements
themselves are situated in bordering Ford county.
Besides these closed colonies, mostly based on religious kinship,
we find a far larger number of German and Austrian farmers scat-
tered among American settlers in all parts of the state. Above
everything it is to be emphasized that the immigrant, even if he is
ignorant of the English language, need not feel himself isolated here,
that on the contrary he will find many neighborhoods just as German
as the one he left in the old country.
22. These were Volgans; Saratov is on the Volga. Twelve miles above Great Bend on
the Walnut is two miles east of Albert and is at the edge of the present Volga German
territory in Rush county, which extends many miles to the west beyond Santa Fe grants, since
the railroad, following the great bend of the Arkansas, turns southwest.
23. This is Olmitz, also a Moravian name. The inhabitants of the area are part Czech,
part German, all Catholics, about 600 in 1895.
24. Schmidt says Wirtschaftsgebduden, which usually means farm buildings, including
outhouses. As a matter of fact, these were boxcars. These people were Mennonites who
arrived at the end of 1874, desperately poor. Their religious brethren helped, but the Santa
Fe provided the boxcars on the siding. They did make "encouraging progress. ' Their church
had 223 members in 1953.
25. The St. Joseph colony was in the extreme northeastern corner of Ford county in
fact extended into Hodgeman county. The church was rather long ago moved into the town
of Offerle.
26. Windhorst some 25 miles east of Dodge City appears on 20th century maps. It
consists almost entirely of a thriving Catholic establishment.
27. This Lutheran group is just east of the Windhorst Catholics. Their churches are not
two miles apart.
Kansas Before 1854: A Revised Annals
Compiled by LOUISE BARRY
PART SEVEN, 1833-1834
7833
About the first of January, Kiowa (and Comanche?) warriors
attacked 12 Missouri-bound traders on the Canadian river route, in
the present Texas Panhandle. (With "Judge" [J. H.?] Carr as cap-
tain, these men, with a mule pack-train carrying $10,000, or more,
in gold and silver, had left Santa Fe in December. )
"Pratt and Mitchell" were killed, several other men were wounded, and all
the party's animals were lost during a 36-hour siege. Under cover of night,
leaving their baggage and most of the money behind, the 10 survivors headed
eastward on foot. Five of them soon left the river, took a direct route ( crossing
"Kansas"), and reached Missouri safely. Three of those who continued down
the Canadian, near starvation, arrived at the Western Creek settlements after
42 days; while the last two (one of them William R. Schenck) were never
heard from again.
Ref: James Mooney's "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians," in Seventeenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology . . ., 1895-96, Pt. I, pp. 254-257; Josiah
Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies . . . (New York, London, 1844), v. 2, pp. 49-53;
Albert Pike's Prose Sketches and Poems . . . (Boston, 1834), pp. 80, 132; Missionary
Herald, Boston, v. 29 (1833), p. 369; Missouri Republican, St. Louis, March 5, 1833; NUes*
Weekly Register, Baltimore, v. 44 (March 23, 1833), p. 51; Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock,
March 20, 1833; William Waldo's "Recollections," in Glimpses of the Past, St. Louis, v. 5,
pp. 66-68 (Waldo identified four of the party as: Thomas Eustace, Judge Carr, Washington
Chapman, and John Harris). The Kiowas recorded the event in their "calendar," but some
accounts say the Indians were Comanches.
C On February 5 Agent R. W. Cummins wrote Sup't William Clark
about property lost by Delaware chief Captain Pipe, William Mon-
ture, Isaac Hill, and Solomon Jonnicake (later "Journey cake"),
while their party (about 30 persons) was en route from the Little
Sandusky river, Ohio, to present Kansas. These men all influen-
tial in their nation were among the last of the Delawares to emi-
grate to the West.
Captain Pipe and his group left Ohio in the autumn of 1831, and spent the
winter of 1831-1832 in Indiana. Presumably, despite the date of Cummins'
letter, they had arrived in "Kansas" in the spring or summer of 1832. (Sup't
William Clark's St. Louis records of emigrating Indians show a payment of
$25 on April 29, 1832, for a "horse furnished Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief";
another of $10 on May 15 to "Moonshine" to "defray expenses" of some Dela-
wares "on their way to Kansas river"; one of $15 to George Ketchum [a Dela-
ware], on June 4, for the same purpose; and other payments as late as Septem-
LOUISE BAHRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.
(317)
318 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ber 30, 1832, to various persons supplying provisions to small parties of
"emigrating Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, and Kaskasldas." )
Ref: Superintendency of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, "Records" (SIA), v. 5, pp. 321, 330;
23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2 (Serial 245), pp. 691, 705, 722, 725, v. 4 (Serial
247), pp. 125, 126, v. 5 (Serial 248), pp. 12, 13, 57-61, 100-103; Grant Foreman's The
Last Trek of the Indians (Chicago, c!946), p. 69. For note on the "Journeycake" family
see Kansas Historical Collections (KHC), v. 12, p. 186.
C Following a three-day visit (February 23-25) by Baptists John-
ston Lykins and Daniel French among the Delawares, the mission-
aries of "Shawanoe" Baptist Mission began regular preaching trips
to Chief Nah-ko-min's village the most remote of the Delaware
settlements over 10 miles from "Shawanoe" (and across the Kan-
sas river near present Edwardsville, Wyandotte co.). In this
way Delaware Baptist Mission got its start.
On April 3 Isaac McCoy wrote: "We have made an arrangement
with Mr. Blanchard ... to remain with them [the Delawares].
... He will put up a little cabin for himself, and make a small
garden all by consent of the Indians." ( Ira D. Blanchard, of Ohio
a young, self-appointed missionary had been living among the
Delawares for more than a year, learning their language. On April
21 he was baptized at "Shawanoe" Baptist Mission. )
Early in 1834 Nah-ko-min finally gave permission for Blanchard to build a
house near the settlement. It was erected in the spring and early summer (on
a site now within the S. W. K of the N. E. K of Sec. 26, T. 11 S., R. 23 E., Dela-
ware tp., Wyandotte co.); and on July 28, 1834, Jotham Meeker wrote: "Br.
Blanchard commences housekeeping alone." McCoy's report, at the end of
1834, referred to the "small comfortable [18' x 20', story-and-a-half log] dwell-
ing"; and stated that Blanchard was giving lessons at his house and at three
other places among the Delawares; that arrangements had recently been made
for erection of a schoolhouse; and that the Delawares who were Baptists met
for church at "Shawanoe" Baptist Mission.
In February, 1835, Blanchard went East. He returned in June with his
bride Mary (Walton) Blanchard, and Sylvia Case (teacher). Meantime,
work had been started on the 20-foot-square school, a kitchen, and other build-
ings.
The Blanchards and Miss Case were missionaries at Delaware Baptist Mis-
sion for some 12 years thereafter, and conducted a boarding (manual labor)
school almost as long as the mission was at the "Edwardsville" site. In the
1840's they had a native assistant Charles Johnnycake (Journeycake). An-
other dwelling ( 18' x 20'; one-and-a-half stories ) was added in 1843. Though
the 1844 flood caused the near-by Delawares to move several miles away, the
mission was unharmed, and work was disrupted for a few months only. In
December, 1846, a frame meeting house (36' x 26') was completed on a new
site; and the mission was prospering in 1847. Late in 1847(?) Delaware Bap-
tist Mission was turned over to the Rev. John G. Pratt, who moved it to a new
location (about four miles northwest) before the year was over. The dismissal
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 319
of the previous missionaries was stated to be: "on account of immoralities
of two of ... [the mission's] members. . . ."
Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," in Kansas State Historical Society (KHi) ms. division
(especially entries in the February, 1833-December, 1835, period); Meeker's "Diary," in
KHi ms. division, July 28, 1834, February 9, June 15, 27, 1835, entries (and various others,
scattered); Isaac McCoy's Annual Register, January, 1835, pp. 25-27; a ms. report of the
Shawnee and Delaware missions (dated September 10, 1835), in McCoy "Manuscripts,"
v. 22 (in KHi ms. division) for description of buildings; The Baptist Missionary Magazine,
Boston, vols. 16-28 (1836-1848) particularly the annual reports of North American mis-
sions; Comm'r of Indian Affairs (CIA) "Reports" (for 1842 and 1843); W. A. Seward
Sharp's History of Kansas Baptists (Kansas City, 1940), pp. 33, 34; KHC, v. 12, p. 183n;
Kansas Historical Quarterly (KHQ), v. 2, pp. 227-250; Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist
Indian Missions (in lieu of his "Journal"), pp. 455, 456, 463; Johnston Lykins' letter of
March 26, 1836, in Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 23; A. J. Paddock papers (in KHi ms.
division) for some biographical data on the Blanchards. Five daughters (Lydia, Olive Ann,
Myra, Abigail, and Rebecca) were born to the Blanchards at Delaware Baptist Mission.
C At Fort Leavenworth, in February, Maj. Bennet Riley's com-
mand (four Sixth U. S. infantry companies about 120 men) was
enlarged when Capt. Matthew Duncan's Company F (over 100
men ) of the Mounted Rangers reported for duty.
(This sixth, and last-formed ranger company had been enlisted from the
Vandalia, 111., area, and mustered into service there, on November 5, 1832.)
For the Mounted Rangers' service in "Kansas," see, also, entries of May 15,
and October.
Ref: The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, v. 41, pp. 462-464;
R. G. Thwaites, Early Western Travels (Cleveland, 1904-1906), v. 22, pp. 253, 254 (for
Maximilian's comment on the post garrison in April, 1833); J. T. Irving, Jr., Indian Sketches
. . ., edited by John F. McDermott (Norman, c!955), pp. 24, 28, 44. This work
is hereinafter cited as: J. T. Irving (McDermott edition). John F. McDermott's extensive
research, and editorial notes, for this volume, and other works he has edited, have been of
much help to the compiler of these annals. Special acknowledgement is due him, and here-
with given.
C An act of March 2 provided for the raising of a United States
dragoon regiment, to be headed by a colonel, with a command of
10 companies (60 privates to a company), and a complement of
officers and noncoms; also, the President was authorized to discharge
the Mounted Rangers.
[The U. S. dragoon regiment of 1833 became the First U. S. dra-
goons when, by act of May 23, 1836, another dragoon regiment was
authorized. In 1861, by act of August 23, the First U. S. dragoons
became the First U. S. cavalry.]
Henry Dodge (ranger commander) was made colonel of the (First) U. S.
dragoons. Stephen W, Kearny (Third infantry) was selected as lieutenant
colonel; and Richard B. Mason (First infantry) became the regiment's major.
Appointed as captains were ex-infantry officers Clifton Wharton, Edwin V.
Sumner, Reuben Holmes, Eustace Trenor, David Hunter; and ex-ranger officers
Lemuel Ford, Nathan Boone, Jesse B. Browne, Jesse Bean, Matthew Duncan.
( Holmes died November 4, 1833; and, as of that date, David Perkins was pro-
moted captain.) The senior first lieutenant was Philip St. George Cooke.
320 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Companies A-E were organized at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., during the sum-
mer and autumn. Under Col. Henry Dodge they set out November 20 for
Fort Gibson (Okla.), and arrived at that post December 17 (after a journey,
of some hardship, across Missouri and Arkansas territory ) .
Ref: 17. S. Statutes at Large, v. 4, p. 652; [James Hildreth's] Dragoon Campaigns to
the Rocky Mountains . . . (New York, 1836), pp. 35-37, 59; NUes' Weekly Register,
v. 44 (March 16, 1833), p. 36, v. 45 (November 16, 1833), p. 192; American State Papers:
Military Affairs, v. 5, p. 280; Louis Pelzer's Henry Dodge (Iowa City, 1911), pp. 80-87;
Grant Foreman's Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest (Cleveland, 1926), pp. 108, 109, 115.
C About 800 Osages from the Neosho towns ( on the reservation in
"Kansas"), and from the Verdigris towns (in "Oklahoma"), were
present at Fort Gibson (Okla.) between March 13 and 28 when
U. S. Comm'rs Stokes, Ellsworth, and Schermerhorn held treaty
councils with them in an unsuccessful attempt to promote an ex-
change of the existing Osage reserve ( granted under the 1825 treaty
see map, facing p. 177), for another farther north (between the
Neosho and Kansas rivers ) . The commissioners also met continued
resistance from Clermont's band to removing from the Verdigris to
the Osage reservation in present Kansas. (The Verdigris Osages
more than a third of the whole nation were some 50 miles south
of the reserve.) Auguste P. Chouteau (trader) and his brother
Paul Ligueste Chouteau (Osage agent) had influential roles at these
councils.
In a letter of April 2, the commissioners stated:
The Osages are a poor, almost naked and half starved people. The unex-
ampled freshets in the fall [of 1832] swept away most of the corn and vege-
tables they had stored up for winter's use. The number of Osages is estimated
by the agent at 6,000, and all but Requoius's [Missionary William C. Requa's,
or the Hopefield] band were suffering from the want of food when the council
was called.
The Osage tribe have been divided by many jealousies and private feuds
. . . Great rivalry as to rank has existed in the nation, and ... at
the council, it was a matter of contest who should be head chief. . .- .
[Clermont was considered the "principal or first chief" of the Osage nation.
Of the reservation Osages, White Hair was the leader; Walking Rain (the
Little Osages' chief) was subservient to him.]
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 207-230.
C By letter of March 30, Sup't William Clark, St. Louis, was noti-
fied (by the comm'r of Indian affairs) that his office would receive
the following funds for the Delawares formerly of Missouri (per
October 26, 1832, treaty terms ) :
To purchase stock and open farms $3,000; to pay "a person to attend their
mill [then under construction? see July entry], and for repairs for same for
1833" $500 ( and Clark was instructed to take measures to establish the school
and select a teacher ) ; for merchandise $5,000; for payment of some Delaware
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 321
debts (money owed to traders William Gilliss [or, Gillis] and William Mar-
shall) $12,000; annuities of $100 each for Delaware chiefs Patterson, Tah-
whee-la-len (or, Ketchum), and "Nea-coming" (Nah-ko-min; Nat-coming,
etc.) $300.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 3 (Serial 246), pp. 634, 635; C. J. Kappler*g
Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1904), v. 2, pp. 370-372.
C The Assiniboine ( Bernard Pratte, Jr., master ) , new steamboat of
the American Fur Company (and larger, but lighter-draught than
the Yellowstone), was sent up the Missouri early in the spring in
advance of the older craft.
Ultimately the Assiniboine went as far as Fort Union (at the mouth of the
Yellowstone); left that place on June 26 with a full cargo of peltries, and
reached St. Louis again on July 11.
Ref: Thwaites, op. cit., v. 22, p. 240, v. 23, p. 12; H. M. Chittenden's The American
Fur Trade . . . (New York, 1902), v. 1, pp. 357, 358; Missouri Republican, July 16,
1833.
C April 21. The Yellowstone, on her third voyage to the upper
Missouri, passed the mouth of the Kansas. Maximilian, prince of
Wied-Neuwied (on a scientific journey), his servant, and a young
Swiss artist, Charles Bodmer, were passengers; as were, on some
stages of the journey, Indian agents John Dougherty and John F. A.
Sanford; also Asst. Surg. Benjamin F. Fellowes; and the American
Fur Company's Kenneth McKenzie and Lucien Fontenelle. In all,
about 100 persons, mostly company employees, were aboard.
Maximilian noted the Kansas river's "clear green water," as contrasted with
the muddy Missouri. "The steam-boat," he wrote, "has navigated the Konzas
about seven miles upward, to a trading-post of the American Fur Company
[the Chouteaus' post, of late 1828 origin see p. 45]. . . ." Which steam-
boat?; and when (between 1828 and 1832) was the trip made? From the
time of the Western Engineers 1819 excursion of about a mile up the Kansas
(see KHQ, v. 27, p. 501), to the voyage (or voyages?) referred to by Maxi-
milian, no other steamboat had ventured up that river, so far as known. See
further comment below.
Early on April 22 the Yellowstone reached the Fort Leavenworth landing
where she was thoroughly searched for contraband liquor. About seven barrels
of "shrub," one of rum, one of wine, and two of whisky, were confiscated.
Late in the afternoon, the trip upriver was continued.
On the 23d the steamboat passed Cow Island (Isle au Vache see KHQ,
v. 27, pp. 354, 382) "six miles in length, and covered with poplars [cotton-
woods] and shave grass." Above the mouth of Independence creek, Maxi-
milian noted the "naked grassy eminences, where a village of the Konzas
formerly stood . . . [and the] Spaniards [i. e., the French see KHQ, v.
27, p. 88] had a post of a few soldiers. . . ."
The Yellowstone reached Fort Pierre (S. D.) the last of May; and shortly
set out on the return trip. She arrived at St. Louis on June 21 with "a rich
213255
322 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cargo of skins." Maximilian and Bodmer continued upriver to other American
Fur Company posts, then spent the winter of 1833-1834 at Fort Clark (N. D.).
For their return to St. Louis see May, 1834, annals.
Ref: Thwaites, op. eft., v. 22, pp. 237-328 (for Maximilian); Missouri Republican,
June 25, 1833 (for the Yellowstone's return); Chittenden's The American Fur Trade, v. 1,
p. 357. In the 1839 Coblenz edition of Maximilian's Reise in das Inner c Nord-America
. . ., v. 1, p. 271, the item on a steamboat voyaging up the Kansas reads: "Mit dem
Dampfschiffe hat man den Konzas etwa 7 Meilen weit aufwarts beschifft, bis zu einem Han-
delsposten (Trading-Post) der American-Fur-Company, welchem gegenwartig ein Bruder
des Herrn Pierre Chouteau vorstand." The April 19, 1832, issue of the St. Louis (Mo.)
Beacon noted that the steamboat Otto "will leave today" for the "mouth of Kanzas river."
Was it, perhaps, the Otto which went up the Kansas to the Chouteaus' post? Or, could it
have been the Yellowstone, which, in 1832, took an unusually long time (from April 16 to
May 1 ) to travel from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth?
C In late April or early May White Hair and some 200 Osages (on
foot) clashed with a mounted Kiowa war party (also around 200?
in number), somewhere in northern Oklahoma of today. A heavy
rainstorm terminated the battle. Probably this was the engagement
reported by Missionary W. F. Vaill see May 7 entry in which 22
"Pawnees" [Kiowas?], and two Osages were reported killed.
Meantime, in late April, Clermont and some 300 Osage braves, having
found and back-tracked the trail of the Kiowa war party, attacked the de-
fenseless village (in present southwestern Oklahoma); massacred the women,
children, and old men therein; cut off their victims' heads; burned the lodges;
and departed for home with ( it is said ) over 100 new, and old ( Kiowa-taken )
scalps, and two Kiowa prisoners (a brother and sister, about 10 and 12).
At Clermont's town, in early May, the Osages spent several days celebrating
the great "victory" over the Kiowas; while to the northward, at White Hair's
and other Neosho river towns, at nearly the same time, Osages were celebrating
a victory over the "Pawnee" (Kiowa) war party.
Ref: Grant Foreman's Advancing the Frontier . . . (Norman, 1933), pp. 118-119;
Missionary Herald, v. 29 (1833), pp. 368-370 (W. F. Vaill's journal); Foreman's Pioneer
Days . . ., pp. 117-119; Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology . . ., 1895-96, Pt. n, pp. 257-260. Vaill called Clermont's Kiowa victims
"Pawnees"; and it appears that White Hair's braves battled Kiowas rather than "Pawnees."
As noted in Foreman's Pioneer Days . . ., p. 116: "Pawnee was the elastic term by
which they roughly classified prairie Indians in the southwest and denoted particularly Paw-
nee Picts or Pique, Tawehash or Wichita Indians."
C MARRIED: William Thomas Ward, of Fayette, Mo., and Chris-
tiana McCoy, on May 2, at the home of the bride near "Westport,"
Mo., by her father, the Rev. Isaac McCoy. (This was one of the
first marriages in the vicinity of soon-founded "Westport.") See,
also, September 10 entry.
( In June, 1832 see p. 197 Isaac McCoy had started building a house east
of state line. As later recollected by pioneer William Mulkey: "Isaac McCoy
came with his family and settled out just south of where Westport is now. He
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 323
built the first house in that section, a big double log cabin . . . which
stood on a big hill. . . ." )
Ref: McCoy's "Journal," May 2, 1833; Kansas City (Mo.) Star, March 12, 1933 (for
Mulkey quote in article by W. H. Harris on Westport, Mo.), also in "Wyandotte County
Clippings," v. 6, p. 8, in KHi library. McCoy, in his "Journal," gave the groom's name as
"Mr. T. I. Ward," but in the Jackson county, Mo., "Marriage Records," it is correctly en-
tered as "William Thomas Ward." See, McCoy's "Journal," September 5, 1838, entry for
item on Ward's death, September 2, 1838.)
C On May 7 four missionaries William B. Montgomery and Wil-
liam F. Vaill ( of Union ) , John Fleming ( of the Creek mission ) , and
Hugh Wilson (of the Chickasaw mission) left Union Mission
( Okla. ) on a 17-day preaching tour to the Osage villages.
They rode 25 miles to Clermont's town; found the Indians celebrating the
great "victory" over the Kiowas (see a preceding entry); remained three days
despite the commotion, excitement, and "unusual signs of depravity"; left for
Hopefield on May 11; preached there next day; then moved northward to the
towns on the Neosho (in present Neosho county), but found those Indians also
in a state of excitement, having just come in from a buffalo hunt cut short
by a fight with some Pawnees (Kiowas?); 22 enemy warriors killed and two
Osages lost, as Vaill was told. The missionaries (joined by the Rev. Amasa
Jones of Harmony [Mo.] were at White Hair's village on May 15; at another
town farther north on the 16th (returning to Boudinot Mission to spend the
night); at Wasoshi's village on May 17, where they found the occupants pre-
paring for a female dance. Wrote Vaill: ". . . great preparations were
going on. Some were opening the roof of a lodge that spectators may look in;
females dressing in their best attire, with scarlet calico, ribbons, and feathers;
and the men were shaving and painting, caparisoning the horses for the mounted
grooms who dash about the streets to keep order. . . ."
After spending the night at the Osage Agency, the missionaries returned
to Wasoshi's town on May 18 and "obtained an audience for an hour or two."
But the Indians were impatient to go to a dance at White Hair's village. ( On
this tour, the Little Osages, whose town was still higher up the Neosho, were
not visited. According to Vaill, they were then "dispersed as follows 300 had
gone to war, a party on a buffalo hunt, and the women planting their corn.")
The missionaries returned to Boudinot for the night; recrossed the Neosho again
next day (fordable despite a heavy rain during the night); gathered a small
audience at White Hair's (the day was Sunday); then returned to Boudinot
once more, where services were held. On May 20th the four men started home,
reaching Union Mission on May 22d.
Ref: Missionary Herald, v. 29 (1833), pp. 366-371 (for VailTs journal of the tour he
mistakenly referred to the Indians killed by Clermont's warriors as Pawnees, rather than
Kiowas).
C From the Lexington-Liberty, Mo., area, in May, newly associated
partners William Sublette and Robert Campbell launched their fur
trade activities for the year. ( Sublette was to direct operations on
the Missouri, and open trading posts in competition with the Amer-
ican Fur Company. Campbell was to make the journey overland
to the trappers' rendezvous with supplies it was hoped the Rocky
324 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mountain Fur Company would buy; then with acquired furs, he
was to join Sublette at the mouth of the Yellowstone which place
the latter would reach by keelboat. There they would build a fort
in opposition to Fort Union.
Robert Campbell's expedition a mule pack-train, and company of 50
45(?) employees, three guests, and an Arapaho boy (whom Fitzpatrick had
found on the Plains in 1831 the day Jedediah Smith was killed), left Lexing-
ton about May 7, and shortly thereafter headed west, bound for the upper
Green river valley, beyond the continental divide. Campbell's chief assistants
were "old mountain man" Louis Vasquez, and "Mr. Johnesse" [Antoine
Jaunisse?], a clerk. Making the journey as a pleasure trip were Capt. William
Drummond Stewart (a later-wealthy Scotchman, and half -pay British army
captain), Dr. Benjamin Harrison ("wild and adventurous" son of the former
President), and Edmund Christy of St. Louis (who subsequently entered into
a copartnership with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company). In the outfit were
some 120(?) mules, a number of horses, two bulls, and three cows. Pro-
visions included "twenty sheeps two loads of Bacon 500 weight of corn
meal. . . ."
From the statements of Charles Larpenteur, then aged 25 (whose later-
written journal and narrative provide details of this trip his first to the moun-
tains), it appears that the expedition left Independence about May 12; traveled
the Santa Fe trail for two or three days; then turned northwestward to the
Kansas following the established pathway (see pp. 50, 170, 194, 195). Lar-
penteur wrote: "the first river of any consiquence that we crossed was the
Caw river where there is an agensey for the Caw Indians which is kept by
General [Marston G.] Clark relation of old General [William] Clark. . . ."
The party forded the river on May 15, and after camping for one or two days
near the agency, resumed the journey to the mountains by way of "Subletted
Trace" across Jefferson, Shawnee, Pottawatomie, and Marshall counties of
today. On May 23 Campbell's expedition reached the Platte; and on July 5
arrived at the rendezvous on Horse creek, well ahead of the "opposition" party
led by Lucien Fontenelle which set out from Fort Pierre on June 8.
Ref: Charles Larpenteur's Forty Years a Fur Trader . . ., ed. by Elliott Coues
(New York, 1898), v. 1; Dale L. Morgan's letter of May 10, 1962, to L. Barry, containing
pertinent data, including a quotation from a Robert Campbell letter of September 12, 1833
(Campbell estate papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis) that his party numbered
"fifty men in all including two or three who went on a trip of pleasure"; Bernard De Voto's
Across the Wide Missouri (Boston, 1947), pp. 27-34; John Sunder's BM Sublette . . .
(Norman, Okla., c!959), pp. 117, 123-130; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. No. 45 (Serial
254) for "Soublette and Campbell" trading license of April 15.
C In a treaty signed May 13, the Quapaws (remnant of the Arkansa
Indians, numbering fewer than 500? persons ) were granted 150 sec-
tions of land "between the lands of the Senecas and Shawnees"
( i. e., west of Missouri's southwest corner ) ; and gave up the tract
of land on Red river, Louisiana (in the Caddo country), occupied
by most of the nation following the November 15, 1824, treaty, when
they had been persuaded to cede their Arkansas territory lands.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 325
("They were the first Western Indians to feel the ill effects of the
removal scheme/' KHC, v. 8, p. 81.)
The 1833 treaty stipulated the Quapaws would be moved at government
expense; be furnished stock and agricultural implements; a government farmer,
and a blacksmith would live among them; educational aid of $1,000 a year
would be provided; cabins would be built for them; also, there was an annuity
provision.
Distrusting Wharton Rector (appointed to remove them), only about
160(?) of the 460(?) Quapaws journeyed to their new home in 1834. More
arrived before 1838 the year in which the reserve was surveyed and discovery
was made that these Indians had been settled on the Seneca-Shawnee lands.
It is said this knowledge that they would be required to move again so
disheartened the Quapaws that many wandered off, and about 250 established
a village on the Canadian river. Eventually most of the nation gathered on
their own reserve.
The Quapaws' reserve was laid out above, rather than between, the lands of
the confederate Senecas & Shawnees. It was principally in the northeast
corner of present Oklahoma; but 12 of the 150 sections of land were north of
the 37th parallel, in what is now southern Cherokee county, Kansas.
Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 395-397; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4
(Serial 247), pp. 724-726; CIA "Report," 1839, p. 474; KHC, v. 8, p. 81; Foreman's The
Last Trek of the Indians, pp. 308-311. See KHQ, v. 1, p. 105, for this statement in its
proper context: ". . . the thirty-seventh parallel did not become the effective southern
boundary of Kansas until the treaty of February 23, 1867, when the Quapaws, last of the
tribes to conform, ceded all their right, title and claim to land in Kansas."
C "Round Prairie, near Missouri line/' on May 15, was the set
rendezvous for the spring caravan to Santa Fe. When Capt. William
N. Wickliffe (Sixth U.S. infantry) and the government-provided
military escort ( 144? men ) reached that place ( from Fort Leaven-
worth ) on May 23d, most of the traders were still at Independence,
Mo. Heavy rain and muddy roads had caused delays. )
The rendezvous was shifted to Council Grove about 115 miles westward.
Wickliffe's command (Capt. Matthew Duncan's company of more than 100
Mounted Rangers; and 25 Sixth infantry troops, under a lieutenant; also a
fieldpiece and six wagons), hampered (as were the traders) by bad weather,
arrived at Council Grove three weeks later on June 13. The trading caravan
which assembled there, and set out for Santa Fe on June 19(?), totaled 184(?)
men, 103 (?) wagons and carriages, goods variously listed as worth $100,000
and $180,000. (It was reported that Charles Bent took merchandise estimated
at $40,000.)
At Diamond Spring(s) 15 miles beyond Council Grove on June 20, the
traders elected Charles Bent as their captain; and Messrs. Legrave, Barnes,
Smith, and Branch, as lieutenants. On July 2, at the Great Bend of the
Arkansas, the shorter, direct "dry route" to the Arkansas crossing was selected.
Wickliffe's command lost the trail, and before reaching the river again on July 6,
the troops' horses suffered for lack of water and forage.
The caravan forded the Arkansas, at the lower crossing, on July 10. Next
day the traders and the military escort parted company. The former, including
326 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Capt. Richard B. Lee (on leave from the army) who had been with the
escort, began the march through Mexican territory reaching Santa Fe safely
sometime in August; the latter headed back to Fort Leavenworth arriving
there August 3d. ( See September entry for return of the caravan. )
Ref: Missouri Republican, April 23, July 12, 1833; Missouri Intelligencer, Columbia,
July 20, 1833; Niles' Weekly Register, v. 44 (issue of August 3, 1833), p. 374; Arkansas
Gazette, August 7, 1833; The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, v. 41, pp. 462-464 (for
military escort data); J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. 16, 18, 19, 28 (for other infor-
mation on the rangers); Josiah Gregg (op. cit., v. 2, p. 160) gave the 1833 statistics as:
105 wagons, 185 men (60 proprietors), goods worth $180,000; Colorado Magazine, Denver,
v. 31 (1954), p. 114 (for quote of a statement by James Aull, May 15, 1833, on Charles
Bent's goods).
C About May 21, 375 Kickapoos, and 119 Pottawatomies (attached
to the Prophet's band), reached the new Kickapoo reserve (north of
the Delawares' land see map facing p. 177 ) , after an overland trip
from southwest Missouri. Their conductor was James Kennerly.
At the settlement site, about five miles above Fort Leavenworth,
Special Agent William Alley first issued rations to the 494 immi-
grants on May 21.
Sup't William Clark had estimated the Kickapoos (and Pottawatomies at-
tached) in Illinois and Missouri, at about 650 persons the Prophet's band of
352 (including 110 Pottawatomies), on the Vermilion river, Illinois; and Kish-
ko's band of about 300 on the Kickapoo reserve in southwest Missouri. Kenne-
kuk (the Prophet) and his followers departed from Illinois in the fall of 1832;
attended the Castor Hill (Mo.) treaty councils (of late October) en masse; and
after the treaty were conducted ( by John McCausland ) to the Kickapoo reserve
in Missouri, to spend the winter of 1832-1833.
Though Pa-sha-cha-hah (Jumping Fish) was head chief (the first signer of
the 1832 treaty), Kennekuk (the Prophet) was the dominant figure who
"exercised unlimited sway over the larger portion of the Kickapoos, but the
rest despised him" ( according to Missionary J. C. Berryman ) . Kishko ( a "war
chief 13th on the list of 1832 treaty signers), and some of his band (about
70?), after migrating to "Kansas" in May, 1833, refused to live on the reserve
(see September 2 entry). It was Kishko's influtence which, for several months,
kept the Kickapoos in turmoil. The Rev. W. D. Smith (Presbyterian), then
visiting "Kansas," stated in a July 29 letter:
"They [the Kickapoos} are not yet settled. . . . They live at present in
the only unhealthy place I have seen in the [Indian] country. Their village
is ... on the northern edge of a low wet Prairie which runs up along
a creek from the low bottoms of the Missouri. Their huts are built so closely
as to prevent a free circulation of air, and to accelerate the accumulations of
filth."
Between May 21 and June 30 store houses and an "issuing house" were
built in the settlement. (Workmen on the project were John Bridges, Louis
Chamezous, Solomon Groom, James Kennerly 's "negro boy Ananias," and
Smith Story's Negro man.) It was, presumably, the latter building which
J. T. Irving, Jr., saw in August: "In the centre of the town is a small log house,
the residence of the agent appointed to reside with the tribe. . . ." (He
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 327
referred to disbursing agent William Alley hired by Sup't William Clark at
$50 a month to distribute rations to the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies. )
Ref: SIA, v. 5, pp. 55, 56; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 1 (Serial 244), pp.
644, 647, v. 3 (Serial 246), pp. 511, 512, 518, 640, 706, 707, v. 5 (Serial 248), pp. 68-81;
Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence, microfilm, KHi
ms. division (for W. D. Smith quotation); J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), p. 42 (for
Irving's statement); Hiram W. Beckwith's The Illinois and Indiana Indians (Chicago, 1884),
p. 137.
C In May there was a flood of unprecedented proportions on the
Arkansas river at least on the lower Arkansas in the Fort Gibson
(Okla.) and Fort Smith, Ark. ter., areas. The waters of two of its
tributaries the Verdigris and the Grand (Neosho) rivers were
also reported "higher than ever known before/'
On the lower Verdigris, the flood swept away the trading houses
of Auguste P. Chouteau (his loss was said to be over $10,000), and
Hugh Love; and the government lost two of its Creek Agency build-
ings, together with contents.
How high upstream these rivers flooded does not seem to be re-
corded. As noted (see May 15 for the rain-delayed Santa Fe trad-
ers; and next entry for comment on the "great and continued fall
of heavy rains" ) , the spring of 1833 was an extraordinarily wet one.
Ref: Foreman's Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, pp. 107, 108, 201.
C William Gordon ( special agent for Sup't William Clark, St.
Louis), arrived in "Kansas" in May or June, to distribute annuity
merchandise and agricultural equipment to several Indian nations
(in accordance with the October, 1832, treaty terms see, also,
March 30, 1833, entry).
Gordon delivered the items for the Kaskaskias & Peorias and the Weas &
Piankeshaws to Agent R. W. Cummins "near his agency" (present Johnson
county). He later reported: "The great and continued fall of heavy rains
. . . kept the roads in an impassable state for a considerable length of
time after my arrival in the vicinity of the Indians." The Delawares received
their goods on June 25. After more delay, Gordon reached Fort Leavenworth
with supplies for the Kickapoos. The tribe accepted the agricultural tools,
but refused the goods; and Gordon was forced to arrange to pay their annuities
in cash which he did on July 20th. By report, the merchandise was worth
less than half the represented value; and was also rejected by post sutler Alexan-
der G. Morgan, who had considered buying it. Subsequently, the John Nelson
freighted the goods back to St. Louis! ( Compare with October 13, 1834, entry. )
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 522-525 (Gordon's
letter of August 12, 1833), v. 5 (Serial 248), pp. 62, 66, 71; SIA, v. 10 (an unpaged
"Clark" daybook); Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence
(the Rev. W. D. Smith letter of July 22, 1833, for item on Morgan, and other comment on
quality of the goods).
C In June a school was opened at the Peoria Methodist Mission by
the Rev. James H. Slavens and his wife. The mission (founded in
328 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1832? see below) was on the Marais des Cygnes' north bank, near
the Peoria & Kaskaskia village (and near present Peoria, Franklin
co. ) . It was a one-story, hewed-log structure ( dwelling and school
house combined), 42 by 18 feet, with a 10-foot passageway in the
middle, and a chimney at either end. There was a separate "cook-
ing house" 16 feet square.
(Probably the Peoria Methodist Mission had its origin in late 1832. Slavens
was appointed missionary to the Peorias at the Methodists' Missouri conference
in the fall of 1832. Isaac McCoy [in his January, 1835, Annual Register]
stated that the Peoria Methodist Mission was "commenced in 1832.")
On August 5, 1833, the Rev. W. D. Smith (a visitor) commented: "Among
the Peorias . . . the Methodists have a station with a school . . .
which is doing well." The Rev. Thomas Johnson reported (on August 16,
1833) that the Peoria school had 24 young students (23 males and one female).
In the autumn of 1833 the Rev. Nathaniel Talbott was appointed to the Peoria
mission (and Slavens was assigned to Chariton, Mo.). The church member-
ship, in 1835, was given as two whites and 26 Indians.
Talbott and his wife continued as the principal missionaries to the Peorias
till late 1841, when they were succeeded by the Rev. Nathan T. Shaler and
wife. Mrs. Shaler died in March, 1843. Though a July, 1843, report de-
scribed the mission as "doing well," and having a church membership of over
40, it appears the Peoria Methodist Mission closed before the end of that year.
Ref: Thomas Johnson's letters of August 16, 1833 (typed copy in KHi ms. division),
and July 21, 1834 (in Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 22); D. R. McAnally's History of
Methodism in Missouri (St. Louis, 1881), pp. 629-631; KHC, v. 9, pp. 168, 199, 200, 211,
226, 227 (though some of Lutz's statements are inaccurate), v. 16, pp. 238, 249-251, 253,
254; Isaac McCoy's Annual Registers for 1835, 1836; Presbyterian Historical Society, Ameri-
can Indian Missions correspondence, for W. D. Smith item; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. 474
(Serial 263), p. 70 (for May, 1834, report); CIA "Reports" for 1834, 1837, 1838. The
Talbotts had three children according to a July, 1834, report Thomas Johnson wrote Isaac
McCoy McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 22.
C From June 18 to late August, Presbyterian missionary William D.
Smith was a visitor in eastern "Kansas" on a tour to determine
mission locations.
Smith made his headquarters at the home of Joseph Barnett ( a well-educated,
part-Shawnee) and family, on the Shawnee reserve. Accompanied by Barnett,
he began a journey about June 20, which took him first to the Delaware settle-
ments; then to Fort Leavenworth (where he met Chief letan of the Otoes, and
Chief Big Elk of the Omahas and visited the near-by Kickapoos); then south-
west to the Kansa Agency (about July 12) and to the Kansa villages; then back
to the Shawnee reserve. Subsequently, he paid visits to the Ottawas (in late
July); to the Weas & Piankeshaws, and Peorias & Kaskaskias (in early August);
went again to Fort Leavenworth; and from there to the lowas ( in mid- August ) ;
then returned to Barnett's house. In late August he visited the Weas & Pianke-
shaws again; and made preliminary arrangements for a Presbyterian mission
among them. (Among the lowas, also, he had found a promising field for a
mission. )
Ref: Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence, for
William D. Smith's six letters all written at Shawnee Village, Kansas river dated June
19, July 22, 29, August 5, 20, 27, 1833; Joseph Barnett's letter of June 23, 1833, in ibid.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 329
C "On the 24th June," wrote Isaac McCoy, "Shawanuk [a young
chief] ... & 22 others started from Delaware Town on a War
excursion against the Pawnees, to avenge the death of some Dela-
wares killed by the Pawnee last summer or fall [see March, 1832,
entry]. The party passed thru the Kanza villages, the latter were to
join them in the expedition."
Shawanock ( Sou-wah-nock ) and his warriors reached the Platte early in
July(?); found the Grand Pawnees' village deserted (the 2,500 inhabitants
were absent on a hunt ) ; burned the town, and also destroyed the nearby fields
of corn and vegetables.
(When Comm'r Henry Ellsworth and his party visited the Grand Pawnees
in October they found that the Indians had completed the rebuilding of their
village.)
Ref: McCoy "Journal," entry of July 7, 1833; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4
(Serial 247), pp. 523, 654; J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. 6, 130, 242, 247.
C In the summer (June?, or July?), the Friends (of Indiana yearly
meeting) sent a committee of three (Henry Harvey, Simon Hadley,
and Solomon Haddon) to visit the Shawnees particularly the
Shawnees who had removed from Wapaghkonetta, Ohio, to "Kan-
sas" late the year before (see November 30, 1832, entry), among
whom the Friends had maintained a mission, in Ohio, for about 11
years. The report they submitted included this statement:
"The Indians are settled on an excellent tract of land, nearly one-half of
which is rich, dry prairie; the remainder well timbered, with good mill streams,
and apparently healthy, and they appear to be satisfied." (The Shawnee re-
serve included Johnson, Douglas, and parts of Shawnee, Osage, Wabaunsee,
Morris, and Geary counties of today. How much of it the committee personally
inspected is not known. )
Three more years elapsed before a Shawnee Friends Mission was constructed
(in 1836) in "Kansas"; and the mission school was not opened till 1837.
Ref: KHC, v. 8, pp. 261, 262, 267, 268; KHQ, v. 13, p. 36; Henry Harvey's History
of the Shawnee Indians . . ., 1681 to 1854 . . . (Cincinnati, 1855), p. 234.
C About July 8 the date can only be approximated cholera broke
out aboard the steamboat Yellowstone. She was then ascending the
Missouri (on her second voyage upstream in 1833) and approach-
ing present Kansas City, Mo. In a short space of time eight(?)
men died leaving only the captain (Andrew S. Bennett) and
Joseph La Barge (aged 17, a company clerk).
La Barge is quoted as stating (at a later time) : "There is a spot just below
Kansas City . . . where I buried eight cholera victims in one grave."
Captain Bennett started for St. Louis to hire another crew. Frightened Jackson
county, Mo., residents threatened to bum the Yellowstone (which was lying
below the Kaw's mouth). La Barge fired up the boilers and piloted the boat
out of Missouri jurisdiction anchoring her on the Missouri's right bank, but
above the Kaw's mouth (present Wyandotte county). Then he set out, afoot,
330 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the Chouteaus' Shawnee reserve post about eight miles distant for in-
structions on handling the Chouteaus' supplies aboard. A guard posted (be-
cause of the cholera threat) about a mile from the trading house, relayed his
message. When a reply came, it was late in the day, and La Barge prepared to
camp out overnight. Later, young Edward Ligueste Chouteau ( a former school
chum, visitor at the Chouteaus' post) brought him food, and a buffalo robe to
sleep on. Next day he returned to the Yellowstone.
Isaac McCoy's journal entry of July 13 adds this note to the episode:
"... A boat had, a few days ago, been compelled by Cholera to stop on
her way up. Some eight or ten had died. She stopped, and is still lying about
5 miles from our [Westport, Mo.] house. Our neighbourhood is considerably
uneasy."
Some time elapsed before Captain Bennett and a new crew arrived aboard
the Otto to resume the voyage. The Yellowstone reached "Cabanne's" (Pil-
cher's) post at the Council Bluffs in August.
Ref: KHC, v. 9, pp. 281, 282; H. M. Chittenden's History of Early Steamboat Navigation
on the Missouri River; Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge (New York, 1903), v. 1, pp.
ri, rii, 13, 19, 31-37; McCoy's "Journal"; Missouri Republican, July 16, 1833. The As-
siniboine, which reached St. Louis on July 11, had met the Yellowstone then at the Kaw's
mouth, three hands and her pilot dead but did not stop because of the cholera.
C July 13. Baptist missionaries Moses and Eliza (Wilcox) Merrill
(from Michigan territory) arrived at Isaac McCoy's home near
"Westport," Mo. ( They had reached Independence Landing about
July 11, after a journey up the Missouri on a steamboat which had
"three cases and one death of cholera" aboard. )
Before July 21 the Merrills moved into quarters at Shawnee Baptist Mission,
in "Kansas." According to Eliza Merrill's journal, they had arrived to find the
empty house "filled with fleas, and . . . very dirty. . . . Mr. Merrill
killed a rattlesnake in the house. . . ." By the end of the month, however,
they were settled. On Sunday, August 4, Moses Merrill journeyed to the Dela-
wares to hold service, while Eliza Merrill walked a mile and a half to collect
some Shawnee children for her first Sunday school. On August 10 she noted:
"The past week we opened our day school with seven scholars. The second
day we had eight. They are very wild. Some of them had nothing on but a
shirt." On a later Sunday she wrote: "This morning Mr. Merrill and myself
walked to the Indian village. . . . We succeeded in gathering 14 children
to teach. . . . The men, most of them, were out racing horses, or gambling
or hunting, and the women were at their work." One Friday she recorded:
". . . [today] we had 18 scholars. I gave those who had been a week some
clothing. They appeared very happy as they exchanged their ragged, filthy
garments for new ones. . . ."
After residing for 15 weeks in "Kansas," the Merrills left to found a Baptist
mission at Bellevue (Neb.), for the Otoes. See October 27 entry for their
departure; but, see, also, September 5 entry.
Ref: Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, Lincoln, v. 5 (1893), pp. 205-240
(wherein are excerpts from Eliza Merrill's journal); Isaac McCoy's "Journal," July 13 and
21, 1833, entries.
C By July, if not earlier, the Delawares' saw and grist mill ( provided
by the government under terms of the October 26, 1832, treaty) was
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 331
in operation. It was the first such mill in "Kansas." Construction
probably had been started early in the spring. The first-known
reference to its being in use is in a July 29 letter by a "Kansas"
visitor, the Rev. W. D. Smith, who wrote: "They [the Delawares]
have also a good grist mill and saw mill in operation."
Up to September 30 Agent R. W. Cummins had paid out: $2,975.50 to
Michael Rice "for building Delaware mills and bolt, and repairing the same";
$10 to James and Robert Aull "for saw for Delaware mill"; $32 to Edward
Brafford and $6 to William Barnes "for attending Delaware mill." On October
1 William Barnes was appointed miller at a salary of $500 per year. ( He was
still in charge in 1836. )
Comm'r Henry Ellsworth (in a November 8 letter) noted that the Kickapoos
"are anxious to have a mill erected soon, and Mr. Cummings [Cummins], their
agent, has some experience in this business, having just finished a mill for the
Delawares, and also one for himself." (Cummins' mill was east of the state
line, probably just north of "Westport" in Jackson county, Mo. ) The following
items from the diary of Jotham Meeker then residing at Shawnee Baptist
Mission (present Johnson county) indicate at least three grist mills were
operating within a half-day's journey of the mission in 1834-1835: February 8,
1834, "Go with wagon to [James H.] M'Gee's mill [within present Kansas City,
Mo.]. Bring home chopped corn & meal"; November 6, 1834, "Take load of
corn to Delaware Mill"; November 24, 1834, "Return home [from the Delaware
reserve] and bring meal from the Delaware Mill"; September 9, 1835, "Purchase
and bring from Cummins' Mill, Flour & Bran"; December 15, 1835, "Rode to
Cummins' mill, bro't home a bag of flour"; December 16, 1835, "Went again
to mill, and engaged 500 Ibs. flour."
Ref: Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence, for
Smith's letter; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 490 (Serial 259), p. 160; 23d Cong..
1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v, 4 (Serial 247), p. 659 (for Ellsworth; 23d Cong., 2d Sess.,
H. Doc. No. 150 (Serial 274), p. 26 (for Barnes' salary, 1833-1834); 24th Cong., 1st Sess.,
Sen. Doc. 109 (Serial 280), p. 7 (for an 1836 reference to Barnes); Jotham Meeker's
"Diary," in KHi ms. division. On the original land plat (of the mid-1850's), of Sec. 21,
T. 11, R. 24 E., on Mill creek, about a mile and a half west and south of Muncie, Wyandotte
co., is shown a Delaware mill site (not necessarily, but perhaps, the same location as the mill
of the 1830's).
C Between July 29 and August 14, Isaac McCoy, his son John C.
McCoy, and nine assistants, were occupied in surveying the lines of
the small Peoria & Kaskaskia reservation (bounded on the east by the
Wea & Piankeshaw lands; and on the west by the Ottawa reserve ) .
See map facing p. 177; see, also, p. 47.
The McCoys' assistants were: Stephen Cantrell and Peter Duncan, chainmen;
hired hands C. Bowers, B. C. Cooper, Thomas Linville, Ira Hunter, W. H. H.
Cantrell, Charles Morris, and George Brace. Also along was John C. McCoy's
servant to serve as cook and hostler. They had a dearborn drawn by two
horses; and three pack horses.
Ref: SIA, v. 1, pp. 60-65 (for survey field notes dated "Shawanoe Jackson Co. Mo.
Aug. 31, 1833"), and p. 56 (for plat); 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 5 (Serial
248), pp. 248-250 (for itemized expenses of the survey); Isaac McCoy's "Journal," July 29-
August 16, 1833, entries.
332 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C About August 1 eight(?) of the 10 residents at the Upper Mis-
souri Indian Agency Bellevue (Neb.) were stricken with cholera.
Seven died; Agent John Dougherty barely survived an attack.
( Bellevue was about 170 miles above Fort Leavenworth. )
Joshua Pilcher (American Fur Company agent) wrote, on August 21: "The
cholera was very fatal at Belle Vue: the Sub Agent [R. P. Beauchamp], both
Blacksmiths [George Casner (or Cassner?), and Vincent Guitar(?)], Mrs.
Cossner [Cassner?], the Interpreter [Francis Sanssouci] & wife all went off in
a few hours, and Major Daugherty escaped narrowly and is still in verry bad
health. . . ." ( Some persons died of cholera at Pilcher's near-by post, also. )
Ref: J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. xxix, 45n; SIA, v. 21, p. 80 (for names of
Bellevue Agency employees, as of June 30, 1833); Thwaites, op. cit., v. 24, p. 14 (for Maxi-
milian's comment on the deaths at Bellevue, and at Pilcher's post). On a visit to Fort Leav-
enworth (in August), the Rev. W. D. Smith heard that the cholera had been taken up to
Bellevue by the Yellowstone (which had not been allowed to land at the military post be-
cause of reported cholera aboard). Smith's letter of August 27, 1833, in Presbyterian His-
torical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence.
T August 3. U. S. Comm'r Henry L. Ellsworth, Edward A. Ells-
worth (his son), John Treat Irving, Jr. (nephew of Washington
Irving), and John Dunlop ("a Scotch gentleman"), arrived at Fort
Leavenworth, on horseback. With them was Lt. John Nicholls,
Sixth U. S. infantry, who had joined the group at Independence, Mo.
From St. Louis, the party's journey (begun at Washington early in July)
had been overland, with hired hands driving two supply-laden dearborns.
Ellsworth and his companions, it appears, spent the night of August 2 at black-
smith Lewis Jones' log cabin ( exact location unknown ) , on the Shawnee reserve.
They crossed the Kansas, on the morning of August 3, by way of Grinter's
ferry, and stopped, briefly, at the house of the Delawares' blacksmith, Robert
Dunlap, before proceeding to Fort Leavenworth, 23 miles northward.
John Treat Irving, Jr. (aged 20), who spent about three and a half months
(August to mid-November) in "Kansas" and "Nebraska" in company with the
Ellsworths and Dunlop, subsequently wrote of his 1833 adventures in a work
entitled Indian Sketches . . . (first published at Philadelphia in 1835).
This book is a principal source of information on Comm'r Henry Ellsworth's
activities during the summer and autumn of 1833 activities which are noted
in some following annals entries.
Ref: Used for the above (and later) entries J. F. McDermott's edition of John T.
Irving, Jr.'s Indian Sketches . . ., which includes valuable introductory material, ex-
tensive and useful footnotes, and incorporates pertinent information from the 1888 revised
edition of the Indian Sketches.
C At Fort Leavenworth, in August, there were (by later report)
" a great number" of cholera cases, but very few fatalities. It would
appear, from available information, that the presence of this often-
swiftly-fatal malady created no great alarm at the post. The army
doctor Asst. Surg. Benjamin F. Fellowes was commended by
Comm'r Henry Ellsworth (whose son, Edward, got the cholera, but
survived) as "a skillful man and well qualified for the situation."
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 333
In May, 1834, Fellowes told Maximilian "He had been very successful with
his cholera patients [in 1833], for, out of a great number, one only had died,
because he always attacked the disorder at its very commencement." Three
Mounted Rangers died at the post in August ( Samuel Carey on the 20th; John
K. Green and Benjamin F. Phelps on the 28th), but perhaps only one was a
cholera victim.
Ref: Ibid., pp. xxix, 44n; Thwaites, op. cit., v. 24, p. 114 (for Maximilian).
C August 26. In charge of Lt. William R. Montgomery, a party
of 68 Prairie Pottawatomies, headed by Chief Qui-qui-to ( Que-ah-
que-ah-ta), and Michi-che-cho-ca-ba (who was "next in authority
among the religious Indians to the celebrated Kickapoo prophet"),
arrived at Fort Leavenworth aboard the steamboat Otto. Their
destination was the Kickapoo reserve a few miles northward
where they had been invited to live.
In December, 1832, "two Pottawatomie chiefs from the prairies in Illinois,
with their bands, amounting to 200," had gone to the Logansport, Ind., vicinity
"in a very distressed situation," and asked permission ( of Indian Agent William
Marshall ) to remain till spring, when they would remove west. In the summer
of 1833, after much manoeuvering, 68 of these Prairie Pottawatomies, were
induced to begin their migration westward. They left Logansport, Ind., on
July 27th; traveled overland to Alton, 111.; reached that place August 14; and
departed August 16, aboard the Otto, for the mouth of the Missouri, and the
journey upstream.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 1 (Serial 244), pp. 278, 277, 775-780,
800, 897, v. 3 (Serial 246), p. 734, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 135-137, 187, 416-418.
C September 2. Comm'r Henry Ellsworth journeyed from Fort
Leavenworth to the Kickapoo settlement (five miles northward) and
held a council with some of the chiefs. Kishko leader of the dis-
sident faction which was holding out for a reserve on the Marais des
Cygnes river presented his objections to the assigned lands.
Ellsworth reported there were 30 camps of Indians on the reserve; and that
the Kickapoos who had refused to move there (Kishko's 70? followers) were
"on the other side of the Kanzas river, on the Shawnee lands, occupied I think
in drinking and rioting." Nothing in particular was accomplished at this meet-
ing. But, see November 13 entry.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 639-642.
C The first week of September Comm'r Henry Ellsworth, his son
Edward, John T. Irving, Jr., John Dunlop, Dr. Ware S. May, and
Agent John Dougherty, left Fort Leavenworth to travel to the Otoe
and Missouri village. Seven Sixth infantrymen served as escort;
also there were drivers for two dearborns, and two ox-drawn, heavy
wagons; and a Negro cook. Traveling northward keeping from
20 to 30 miles west of the Missouri river this mounted company
arrived at the Indians' town (near the Platte) on September 17,
after a journey of about 180 miles.
334 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Ellsworth negotiated a treaty with the Otoes and Missourias on September
20 and 21. The Indians ceded claim to lands south of the Little Nemahaw
river. ( For general bounds of the lands to which they retained claim, see map
facing p. 177.) Also, they declared their willingness to "abandon the chase"
for an agricultural life. In return, the government was to continue their
annuities (to 1850); provide agricultural aid of various kinds, money for edu-
cational purposes, etc. Witnesses to the treaty included Edward Ellsworth,
Dougherty, May, Dunlop, Irving, and Ira D. Blanchard (Baptist missionary
to the Delawares).
For two weeks following the treaty-signing, Ellsworth and his party remained
among the Otoes and Missourias; then, on October 4, accompanied by Chief
letan and some 20 of his warriors, and three of the infantrymen, they set out
for the Grand Pawnees' town some 80 miles higher up the Platte. ( See, also,
October 7 entry. )
Ref: J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. xxxiii, 44-113; Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 400,
401.
C September 5. A mounted party of three the Rev. Moses Mer-
rill, of Shawnee Baptist Mission, Ira D. Blanchard ( Baptist affiliate,
residing among the Delawares), and a guide set out from the
Kansas river, northward, for the Otoe-Missouri village on the Platte
river, 200 miles distant. They were making a preliminary investi-
gation of the route, and of conditions at Bellevue (Neb.) where
the Baptists proposed to establish a mission.
On September 16 they reached the Otoe-Missouri village (a mile? from the
Platte, and some 20? miles above its mouth); next day they crossed the Platte
and rode 35(?) miles to the Bellevue Agency, on the Missouri river. (Appar-
ently they left the Indians' village the same day Comm'r Henry Ellsworth's
party arrived.) Merrill and Blanchard were, again, at the Otoe-Missouri town
on September 20 when Ellsworth held a treaty council there. On September 21,
the day the treaty was signed (Blanchard was a witness), they started the
200-mile homeward journey. The missionaries were back at the Kansas river
by October 2d. ( See October 26 entry for their second journey to Bellevue. )
Ref: Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, v. 4 (1892), p. 160, v. 5 (1893), p. 221;
J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. 47, 73, 89, 103. In June, 1831, Lt. Philip St. George
Cooke, on a leave of absence from Cantonment Leavenworth, had journeyed from that post
to the villages of the Otoe and Omaha Indians, and to "Bellevue/' in company with "Mr.
B.," an "officer of the Indian Department" (presumably Subagent R. P. Beauchamp). See
his Scenes and Adventures . . . (Philadelphia, 1857), pp. 95-107. Their route must
have been much the same as that of Merrill and Blanchard.
C MARRIED: Thomas Jefferson Givens, of Potosi, Mo., and Sarah
McCoy, on September 10, at the home of the bride near "Westport,"
Mo., by her father, the Rev. Isaac McCoy. ( See, also, May 2, entry. )
Ref: Jackson county, Mo., "Marriage Records"; letters in Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts,"
v. 22, for general information.
C September 15. Conducted by their interpreter, Joseph Parks
(an educated, and much-respected half-breed), 67 Shawnee Indians
from Wapaghkonetta, Ohio, arrived at the Shawnee reserve in "Kan-
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 335
sas." (See November 30, 1832, entry for earlier migrants from
Wapaghkonetta. )
These Indians had left Ohio early in June, and traveled overland, by way
of St. Louis. Originally the emigrating party numbered more than 80, but
Parks reported that two had died on the way, one family ("Barnett's bro.")
turned back, three "went over to the Delawares," and one family did not leave
Ohio. Leading men in this band of Shawnees were: Little Fox, George Wil-
liams, Quilina, and Peculse-coe(?). They were among the last of their nation
to remove to "Kansas."
Ref: Joseph Parks' mss. (in KHi ms. division); 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 2
(Serial 245), pp. 594, 595, v. 3 (Serial 246), pp. 649, 650, 698, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 174,
200, 201; KHC, v. 8, pp. 252-255, and v. 10, pp. 399-401 (for notes on Joseph Parks).
Parks later became head chief of the Shawnees. He died in the early part of April, 1859,
and was buried "at the Shawnee burial ground" with Masonic honors. Leavenworth Daily
Times, April 13, 1859, p. 2, col. 4.
C Between September 18 and October 12, Isaac McCoy, his son
John C. McCoy, and nine assistants (all well armed), were occu-
pied in surveying the Shawnees' southern boundary (which ex-
tended 120 miles west from the Missouri line), and the 19-mile-long
western boundary. (For visual reference, see map facing p. 177.
The Shawnees' west line ran through present Morris and Geary
counties. The stream labeled "Boundary Cr[eek]" on the map is,
evidently, Lyons creek of today.)
The McCoys' assistants were: Stephen Cantrell and Peter Duncan, chain-
men; hired hands Thomas Linville, Jacob and Daniel Crandell, William Love-
lady, Hiram Abbot, W. H. H. Cantrell, and Charles Morris; and a servant who
was cook and hostler.
On September 18, at a point 20 miles west of Missouri, on the Shawnees'
south line, the McCoys and party started westward; on the 26th they camped
at the 60th mile point. From that place they digressed 19 miles straight north-
ward ( crossing the Santa Fe trail ) to the southeast corner of the Kansa reserve,
in order to "ascertain the situation of the Shawanoe lands at this place." Their
camp on the 27th was on a creek four miles from the Kansas river. ( This would
seem to place them on present Shunganunga creek, southwest of Topeka, in
Mission township. ) On September 30 and October 1 they returned southward
to the 60th mile point on the Shawnees' southern line; and then started west-
ward again. On October 10 they reached the 120-mile point (the southwest
corner of the Shawnee reserve) and turned north; on the 12th they established
the northwest corner of the Shawnee lands ( a few miles south of present Junc-
tion City, near the Smoky Hill river). This was the end of the survey.
Ref: SIA, v. 1, pp. 106-119 (for field notes of the survey), and p. 120 (for plat); 23d
Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 5 (Serial 248), pp. 249, 250 (for Isaac McCoy's itemized
expenditures in making the survey); Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions, p. 464.
C September 27. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, traveling down the Missouri
in a "bull boat/' with a few voyageurs, arrived at Fort Leavenworth.
(For Wyeth's overland expedition of 1832 to the Far West, see
May, 1832, annals. ) In his journal, Wyeth wrote:
"I ... was received with . . . politeness . . . [and] was
336 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
offered all the stores which I might require by Leiut. [Asa] Richardson the
officer of the day. ... I took . . . ["my boy Baptiste and the
Indian"] to Doct [Benjamin F.] Fellow[e]s quarters to be vaccinated the Docts
wife and another lady ["really beautiful women"] happened to be present.
. . . Baptiste . . . told the other Boys . . . that he had seen a
white squaw white as snow and so pretty."
Wyeth ( whose journey down the Bighorn, the Yellowstone, and the Missouri
had begun in mid- August) continued downriver on September 28, to Liberty,
Mo. At Liberty Landing, on the 30th, he boarded the steamboat John Nelson
which was going up as far as Fort Leavenworth. About October 3d he was
again at the military post, where, he wrote, "I ... was treated with great
politeness by the officers . . . especially a Capt. Nichols [i. e., Lt. John
Nicholls] who invited me to dinner." The John Nelson, with Wyeth as a
passenger, reached St. Louis on October 9th.
Ref: Sources of the History of Oregon, Eugene, v. 1 (1899), pp. 71, 209, 218, 219;
SI A, v. 10 (an entry in this daybook of the St. Louis Indian superintendency shows payment,
on October 12, to the John Nelson for freight of Kickapoo goods); Jotham Meeker in his
"Diary," on October 2, noted the Meekers' arrival at Independence Landing on the upbound
John Nelson; J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), footnotes on pp. xxiii and 15 for items on
Lt. John Nicholls. Wyeth took the two Indian boys East with him. See Daniel Lee and
J. H. Frost's Ten fears in Oregon (New York, 1844), p. 112.
C As reported for the year ending September 30 ( i. e., October 1,
1832-September 30, 1833 ) , the following persons had been employed
at the Indian agencies in "Kansas":
At the Kansa Agency: Marston G. Clark (subagent); Clement Lessert (in-
terpreter); John McGill (gun and blacksmith); Joseph Groom (striker to
blacksmith); Joseph Jim [Joseph James] (sundry work); Andrew Gordah
[Gordon?] (blower and striker, April 1-September 30, 1833). Among other
agency payments were these: to Daniel M. Boone $120 for transporting 12,000
pounds of flour, bacon, corn meal, salt, tobacco, lard, powder, lead, and $3,600
in specie to the agency; to James P. Hickman $220 for his labor in putting up
a double log house (this was, apparently, for Fool Chief), and for instructing
the Kansa in agriculture; to William Ward $21 for making fence, gathering
com, and aid in agriculture; also for aid in agriculture, $142 to Moses Grantham,
$131 to Joshua Hitchcock, and $14 to George Sawyer.
At the Osage Agency: Paul Ligueste Chouteau (agent); Alexander W.
McNair (subagent); Thomas Anthony (subagent for nine months); Baptiste
Mongrain (interpreter); Gabriel Philibert (gunsmith); Joseph Trumblee
[Tremble] ( blacksmith ) ; Joseph Bertrand ( blacksmith from June 30-September
30, 1833); Lewis Peltier (striker, for six months).
At the Shawnee-Delaware Agency: Richard W. Cummins (agent); John
Campbell (subagent); Anthony Shane, James Connor, and Baptiste Peoria
(interpreter); Robert Dunlap (gun and blacksmith for Delawares); Lewis
Jones (gun and blacksmith for Shawnees). Among the Jackson and Clay
county, Mo., merchants who had supplied provisions for the agency Indians
were: James E. E. Sloan, James and Robert Aull, S. G. Flournoy, Samuel C.
Owens, Richard Fristoe, Francis G. Chouteau, and Cyrus Curtis. Another pay-
ment ($101.55) went to the Steamboat Heroine, for transporting annuities.
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st. Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 490 (Serial 259), pp. 74, 75, 136, 158-160.
Noted in a preceding entry are the Shawnee-Delaware Agency disbursements for the Dela-
wares' mill.
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KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 337
C October 1. Dr. F. W. Miller officially succeeded John Campbell
as subagent at the Shawnee Agency (headed by R. W. Cummins).
Campbell (subagent since April, 1825) had been notified in August
of his "removal from office," but was paid through September; and
Miller did not arrive to assume his duties till October 29.
(In a letter of April 9, Agent Cummins had referred to his subagent as
being old and inefficient. The Rev. Thomas Johnson, of Shawnee Methodist
Mission, subsequently made charges against Campbell charges which Camp-
bell answered, without avail, in a May 20th letter to Sup't William Clark,
St. Louis.)
Miller was subagent for only nine months. His job ended in July, 1834.
Ref: Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), "Registers of Letters Received," v. 4, pp. 53, 58,
267; 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 150 (Serial 274), pp. 26, 52; Christopher Collection,
in KHi ms. division, for photostat of Campbell's May 20, 1833, answer to charges, and for
other data on Campbell collected by Mrs. Orville H. Christopher, of Kansas City, Mo. Miller
was addressed as "Doctr. F. W. Miller" in an OIA circular sent to all subagents on July 2,
1834 see OIA, "Letters Sent," v. 13, p. 94. In SIA, v. 5, p. 76, is one letter ("Shawnee
Agency Apl 1 st 1834") by Miller to Sup't William Clark. See p. 49 of Spring, 1962,
Quarterly for annals entry on Campbell's arrival in "Kansas." John Campbell eventually was
cleared of the charges made against him.
C October 4. Baptist missionaries Jotham and Eleanor D. (Rich-
ardson) Meeker (from a mission among the Ottawas in Michigan
territory), and Cynthia Brown (also a missionary), arrived at Isaac
McCoy's home near "Westport," Mo. ( They had reached Independ-
ence Landing on October 2, after a trip up the Missouri on the John
'Nelson. )
Jotham Meeker brought with him a printing press (purchased in Cincinnati,
Ohio) which subsequently was set up at Shawnee Baptist Mission. It was the
first printing press in "Kansas" (See March 8, 1834, annals entry for the first
items printed on the "Meeker" press. )
Meeker, on October 13 and 14, paid a visit to the small Ottawa settlement;
set out on the 19th for the Kickapoo reserve; arrived on the 20th, interviewed
Kennekuk (the Prophet), and returned on the 22d; then visited the Delawares
on the 24th and 25th (in company with Agent R. W. Cummins, Dr. Johnston
Lykins, and Ira D. Blanchard). On October 29 Jotham and Eleanor Meeker
moved to Shawnee Baptist Mission (from McCoys' home) and became "Kansas"
residents. ( They occupied the quarters vacated two days earlier by the Merrills
see October 27 entry. )
The Meekers remained at Shawnee Baptist Mission till 1837; then opened
a mission among the Ottawas in Franklin county of today.
Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary"; KHC, v. 8, p. 80; Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist
Indian Missions, p. 464.
C About October 7 Comm'r Henry Ellsworth and party about
30 in all (see p. 334) arrived at the Grand Pawnees' village, on the
Platte's south bank distant about 80 miles from the Otoe and Mis-
souri town (which they had left about October 4).
On October 9 the commissioner began councils with delegations
223255
338 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from all the Pawnee bands assembled there; and on October 10
the Pawnees signed a treaty. By its terms, they ceded all claim to
lands south of the Platte river, in return for annuities, and agricul-
tural and educational aid.
Heading the treaty signers were: Shah-re-tah-riche (for the Grand Paw-
nees), Blue Coat (for the Pawnee Republicans), Little Chief (for the Tappage
Pawnees), and Big Axe (for the Pawnee Loups). Members of Ellsworth's
party were witnesses (Edward Ellsworth, Dougherty, May, Dunlop, Irving);
as were, also, trader Alexander La Force Papin and interpreter Lewis La
Chapelle.
Ellsworth and party (including the Otoes), a few days later, crossed the
Platte and journeyed up the Loup Fork to the villages of the three other bands
( Tappage-Republican, Little Republican, and Pawnee Loup); afterwards they
returned to the Grand Pawnees' town; and set out from there (the company
now enlarged by some 80? Pawnees including four Indian-peace-council dele-
gates from each band) about October 18(?) for Fort Leavenworth. At least
part of this company reached the fort before the end of October.
(See p. 340 for John T. Irving's experiences on the return trip; and see p.
342 for the Indian peace council.)
Ref: J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. xxxiii, 113-219, 240; 23d Cong., 1st Sess.,
Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 601-604 (for the Pawnee council proceedings);
Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 416-418.
C October 9. To John O. Agnew, and to J. H. Flournoy & Co.,
licenses were issued (by Agent R. W. Cummins) which permitted
them to trade with the Kickapoos, the Delawares, and the Kansa
at a specified location within each of the three Indian reserves.
These were apparently the first permits issued for trading places on the
Kickapoo and the Delaware lands. As described in the Agnew and Flournoy
licenses, and in those given to other traders subsequently, the specified loca-
tions were:
On the Kickapoo reserve: "at the first point of bluffs above the mouth of
Salt creek, about 3& miles above Fort Leavenworth" ( present northeast Leaven-
worth county).
On the Delaware reserve: "a bluff on the north side of the Kanzas river,
near the mouth of the second creek [present Mill? creek] which empties into
that river, where the Delaware blacksmith now lives" (present Wyandotte
county and the place is further identified by J. T. Irving's account [August,
1833] of crossing the Kansas at Grinter's ferry: "We disembarked and galloped
up the bank. On the top was a large log house, inhabited by the blacksmith
of the Delaware Indians. . . .").
Agent Cummins, on October 10, licensed Francis G. Chouteau ( agent for the
American Fur Company) to trade with the Kickapoos at the location on their
reserve described above. But, see, also, October 25 entry.
( The Kansa reserve trading point had been specified earlier when Frederick
Chouteau was granted a license in 1832 see p. 193. )
Ref: 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273); J. T. Irving (McDermott edi-
tion), p. 18. Agnew and Flournoy, were Independence, Mo., merchants.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 339
C October. During this month the fall caravan of returning Santa
Fe traders crossed "Kansas." Apparently this company was accom-
panied by a military(?) escort (see below). At Columbia, Mo., a
November 9 newspaper issue noted the traders' return with "from
80 to 100 thousand dollars in specie, furs, mules, etc."; and it was
reported the party included about 100 of those who had gone out
in the spring. Josiah Gregg (who had traveled to Santa Fe in the
spring of 1831) was in this company.
Earlier ( on September 21 ) the Columbia paper had stated that the return-
ing caravan had a Mounted Ranger escort. Possibly it was the same force
which had accompanied the traders in the spring (see May 15 entry), and
then had returned to Fort Leavenworth on August 3d. But no official record
has been found which shows that the Fort Leavenworth-based rangers made
an autumn trip westward to rendezvous with the fall caravan. The Columbia
newspaper report might be written off as hearsay, except for this additional
item supplied by Maximilian, prince of Wied-Neuwied (a surprising source,
since he was then about December 19 on the upper Missouri, at Fort Clark ) .
He wrote:
"Some of Mr. Soublette's people arrived [at Fort Clark] from St. Louis,
which they had left on the 14th of October. . . . They told us ...
that the party escorting the caravan from Santa Fe had been so closely hemmed
in by the Indians ( probably Arikkaras [Pawnees?] ) , that they had been com-
pelled, by want of provisions, to slaughter fourteen of their horses."
Ref : Missouri Intelligencer, September 21, November 9, 1832; Thwaites, op. cit., v. 24,
p. 46 (for Maximilian); Gregg, op. cit., v. 1, p. 305; R. E. Twitchell's Old Santa Fe . . .
(Santa Fe, c!925), p. 218. Gregg, in his table of Santa Fe trade statistics 1822-1843
published in v. 2, p. 160, of his Commerce of the Prairies, recorded under 1834: "2nd U. S.
escort." He certainly knew of the 1829 escort; and had returned in 1833 (above) with a
caravan perhaps under military escort. (In any case the west-bound 1833 caravan had been
escorted by the Mounted Rangers.) So, for 1834, he should have recorded: 3d U. S. escort.
C October 25. Issued to the American Fur Company (by Sup't
William Clark, at St. Louis) were trading licenses which renewed
permits for three fur posts in "Kansas," and granted permission,
additionally, for trade with the Kickapoos, and with the Delawares.
The old sites were : ( 1 ) Francis & Cyprian Chouteau's Kansas river ( south
bank) post, on the Shawnee reserve (present Wyandotte county); (2) Fred-
erick Chouteau's mouth-of -American Chief (Mission) creek post on the Kansa
reserve (present Shawnee county); (3) the Chouteau brothers' branch-of-the-
Marais des Cygnes post on the Wea & Piankeshaw reserve, about one mile east
of the Wea villages (present Miami county).
The new sites were: ( 1) a Chouteau-operated post on the Delaware reserve;
and (2) a trading house operated by Laurence Pensineau on the Kickapoo re-
serve. ( For locations, see October 9 entry. )
Though these October licenses listed only five American Fur Company trad-
ing houses in "Kansas," there was still one more the post on the Osage reserve
340 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
(present Neosho county) for which a renewal permit had been granted on
January 1, 1833.
Ref: 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273); 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc.
No. 45 (Serial 254) for Osage reserve license. For references to Laurence Pensineau as
trader among the Kickapoos, see G. J. Garraghan's Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City
. . . (Chicago, 1920), pp. 53, 54, and his The Jesuits of the Middle United States (New
York, 1938), v. 1, p. 387.
C Late in October, in the Big Nemaha country, John Treat Irving,
Jr., of Comm'r Henry Ellsworth's party, became separated from his
companions on the journey from the Platte to Fort Leavenworth
(see p. 338). Though he reached the military post not long after
the others around the first of November(?) the experiences dur-
ing several days of solitary travel provided material for three chap-
ters in his subsequently-written Indian Sketches ( 1835 ) .
living's wanderings brought him southward, so that he arrived on the bank
of the Kansas probably in the general area of present Topeka. There he met
a mounted Kansa, who, reluctantly (as Irving tells the story in light-hearted
vein), gave him assistance, and eventually guided him (by a circuitous route)
towards the Kansa Agency some miles downriver. In the middle of the night,
after a rest-stop, they forded the Sauterelle now Delaware river; then passed
White Plume's abandoned stone house ( see p. 32 ); and, near daylight, reached
the Kansa Agency. Irving was fed and housed by the government blacksmith
(John McGill, apparently). A few hours later, he met Agent Marston G.
Clark; and in his company (Irving riding a mule), set out that evening for
Fort Leavenworth, about 40 miles distant. They arrived at the post early next
morning.
Ref: J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. xxxiii, 218-240.
C October 27. Missionaries Moses and Eliza Merrill, and Cynthia
Brown (who had come with the Meekers see October 4 entry) left
Shawnee Baptist Mission to travel some 230(?) miles northward
beyond the Platte to Bellevue (Neb.), where they were to open
a Baptist mission for the Otoe and Missouri Indians. Ira D.
Blanchard accompanied them to the vicinity of the Platte, then
returned to his place among the Delawares (on November 29).
Also in the party were a guide, and a teamster to handle the oxen
and wagon. (See July 31 entry for the earlier Merrill-Blanchard
round-trip over much this same route. )
Mrs. Eliza Merrill's journal (excerpts only are available) discloses their
three-weeks' journey was one of privations and hardships. They were nearly
surrounded by prairie fires (in present Leavenworth? county) on the 29th;
then became lost; ran short of food; became both exhausted and disheartened
before finally reaching the Platte on November 13. There they made a raft,
but could not cross till the 17th, because of high winds. Late on November
17 the three missionaries reached Bellevue, and occupied a log house there.
Seven days later they opened a Baptist mission school.
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 341
(On April 1, 1835, Moses Merrill was appointed government teacher for the
Otoes and Missourias. On September 18, 1835, the Merrills and Miss Brown
moved from Bellevue to a new mission site near the place selected for the
relocation of the Otoes on the north side of the Platte, about six miles above
its mouth. )
Ref: Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, v. 5 (1893), pp. 222-226; Jotham Meek-
er 's "Diary," October 26 and 27, 1833, entries; The Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 16
(June, 1836), pp. 129, 130; 24th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 109 (Serial 280), p. 8 (for
Merrill's 1835 appointment).
C October 28. Alexander G. Morgan (sutler, and postmaster, at
Fort Leaven worth) was issued three Indian trading licenses (by
Sup't William Clark, St. Louis). They permitted him (and one
associate) to trade with (1) the Kickapoos, (2) the Kansa, and
(3) the Delawares. (See October 9 entry, for trading location on
each reserve. )
On November 1 Morgan was also licensed to trade on the Des Moines river,
at the Sac & Fox village again with one other person. It appears that Alexan-
der G. Morgan's associate was "free hunter" Johnston Gardiner (by report, also
"one of the best pilots on the whole course of the Missouri"). Maximilian's
party (coming down the Missouri in 1834) included Gardiner, and the prince
made this comment: "Near this post [Fort Leavenworthl is the village of the
Kickapoos. . . . Major Morgan [i. e., Alexander G. Morgan] who kept
a large store of provisions and other necessaries, had a share in Gardner's
[Gardiner's] fur trade; the latter accordingly quitted me at this place."
Ref: 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273); Thwaites, op. ctt., v. 24, p. 114
(for Maximilian). In Chittenden's The American Fur Trade, v. 2, pp. 941-945, are items
relating to "Johnson Gardner," including a copy of a free hunter's contract of July 5, 1832,
with Gardiner's X-mark "signature." In 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. No. 45 (Serial 254),
is an item on the trading license issued to Johnston Gardiner (by William Clark) on July 3,
1833, for 13 persons to trade "On the Cowskin [now Elk] river," etc., with the Senecas of
Sandusky (in present northeastern Oklahoma).
C About November 1 the difficulties which had been accumulating
between the Mormons and anti-Mormons of Jackson county, Mo.,
began to involve the settlers in serious clashes.
Jotham Meeker (at Shawnee Baptist Mission) noted on November 2: "A
very great excitement about the Mormons. Fear disastrous consequences."
Isaac McCoy (a Jackson county resident) wrote on November 4: "A war
among our neighbours is about commencing"; he also described the clash which
occurred late that day. Meeker (on the 5th) noted the "battle . . . fought
yesterday evening in real warlike style between the Mormons and Anti-Mor-
mons, in which several[?] were killed and wounded on both sides." McCoy
envisioned having his property destroyed, and considered taking his family
elsewhere.
By November 10 the "warfare" had subsided (for the time being). Meeker,
on November 11, wrote: ". . . Learn that the Mormons have all fled."
(In January and February, 1834, there were further "Mormon troubles.")
Ref: McCoy's "Journal," and Meeker's "Diary."
342 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C November 4. Hiram W. Morgan began work as blacksmith to
the Kickapoos (under terms of the October 24, 1832, treaty).
Whether his employment ended on March 31, or early in July, 1834, is un-
certain. Agent R. W. Cummins spent $250 in erecting buildings for a black-
smith on the Kickapoo reserve, apparently in the spring of 1834.
Ref: 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 150 (Serial 274), pp. 29, 56; SIA, v. 10 (for
item on "Hiram" W. Morgan). Morgan probably was related to the Fort Leavenworth
sutler Alexander G. Morgan.
C The Indian peace council (called by Commr Henry Ellsworth)
opened at Fort Leavenworth about November 8. Some 100 Paw-
nees, Otoes, and Omahas met delegates from the immigrant nations
the Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Pottawatomies, Ottawas,
Weas, Peorias & Kaskaskias. (The Kansa arrived late on the 14th;
the lowas and Sacs on the 15th.)
Ellsworth wrote, on the 8th: "Peace will be concluded at this council be-
tween the hostile Indians upon terms highly satisfactory; the wampum has been
exchanged, but the speeches not finished." (Baptist missionaries Johnston
Lykins and Jotham Meeker attended the November 8 and 9 meetings; Meth-
odists Thomas Johnson and Jerome Berryman were present for some council
sessions. )
The treaty, signed on November 12 by the nations then present, contained
agreements: to cease all hostile acts; to take no private or personal revenge;
and to allow other tribes to become parties to it. Signers included:
Delawares: Patterson, Nah-ko-min, Ketchum, Nonon-do-quo-mon, Sha-wah-
nock, and Long House; Shawnees: John Perry, William Perry, Wy-lah-lah-piah,
Cornstalk (and four others); Kickapoos: Pa-sha-cha-hah and Kennekuk; Pot-
tawatomies: Qui-qui-to and Noh-sha-com; Ottawas: Oquanoxa and Chi-cah
(She-kauk); Peorias 6- Kaskaskias: White Shield, Big Harry, Jim Peorias, and
Le Coigne; Weas: Quih-wah (Negro legs), Wah-pon-quah (Swan) (and three
others). letan headed the Otoe signers; Wah-con-ray signed first for the
Omahas; Shah-re-tah-rich for the Grand Pawnees; Ska-lah-lay-shah-ro for the
Tappage Pawnees; Ah-shah-lay-roh-she for the Republican Pawnees; and Pah-
kah-le-koo for the Pawnee Loups. On November 16 the Kansa delegates 11
of them, headed by Nom-pa-wa-rah (White Plume), Ky-he-ga-wa-ta-ninga (Fool
Chief), and Ky-he-ga-war-che-ha (Hard Chief) signed; as did, also, the Iowa
and Sac Indians. But most of the delegates had left for home by this date.
Witnesses, on the 12th, included all of Comm'r Henry Ellsworth's party,
several army officers (Maj. Bennet Riley, Capt. William N. Wickliffe, Lieuten-
ants Asa Richardson, John Nicholls, Robert Sevier, and John Conrad), Indian
agents John Dougherty and Richard W. Cummins; Subagents A. S. Hughes,
J. S. Bean, and F. W. Miller; post sutler A. G. Morgan; interpreters Anthony
Shane, James Conner, Baptiste Peoria, Peter Cadue, and Lewis La Chapelle.
Agent Marston G. Clark, and interpreter Clement Lessert were among the
witnesses to the Kansa signers. ( See, also, November 20 annals entry. )
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 654, 659, 702, 703,
726-732; 23d Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. No. 474 (Serial 263), pp. 80, 105-112 (for treaty,
with Osage signers); J. T. Irving (McDermott edition), pp. 241-254.
C November 12-13. A great meteor "shower" which (as reported)
KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 343
began around midnight of the 12th and lasted for several hours, was
a phenomenon memorable to all who saw it. (The "falling of the
stars" was visible in every part of the country. )
Missionary Jotham Meeker (at Shawnee Baptist Mission), arising at five
A. M. on November 13, witnessed "a constant flying of innumerable meteors."
He also noted (in his diary) : "The Ind[ian]s are much alarmed about it."
On his way to "Kansas" (and camped out in western Missouri), another
Baptist missionary, Robert Simerwell, "awoke [on the night of the 12th] and
beheld an innumerable quant [it]y of vapors or shooting stars passing toward
the earth which was magnificent beyond description."
At Fort Leavenworth, on the 13th (as Methodist missionary Jerome C.
Berryman later recalled), Comm'r Henry Ellsworth told the Indians assembled
in council that the Great Spirit had caused the shower of stars to show Divine
approval of their councils, and of the peace treaty which had been negotiated
on the 12th. This amused the more enlightened of the Indians present, but
doubtless impressed many of the delegates.
Ref : Meeker "Diary," and Simerwell "Diary," in KHi ms. division; McAnally, op. cit.,
p. 438 (for Berryman's story).
C November 13. At Fort Leavenworth, Comm'r Henry Ellsworth
held a second council (see September 2) with the Kickapoos. This
talk was with all the chiefs. Of its results Ellsworth wrote:
"There is an entire satisfaction [of the assigned reserve], if Kishkoo and a
few followers are excepted. . . . When Kishkoo's followers find he is
not able to give them land on the Osage [Marais des Cygnes] river, most of
them, I think, will leave him, and join their friends [here] on the Missouri
river."
( In a June 25, 1834, letter, the Rev. Joseph Kerr of Wea Presbyterian Mis-
sion in present Miami county, mentioned the presence of a "roving band" of
Kickapoos near the Piankeshaw settlements. These Indians, he wrote, had
planted corn and would probably remain for the summer. Presumably this
was Kishkoo's band. )
Ref: 23d Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 512, v. 4 (Serial 247), pp. 639-644; Presbyterian
Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence.
C November 14. Baptist missionaries Robert and Fanny (Good-
ridge) Simerwell, and their three children, recently of Michigan
territory, arrived at Isaac McCoy's home near "Westport," Mo.
From Decatur, 111., on October 10, they had set out overland (in two cov-
ered wagons one horse-drawn, and driven by an Indian youth; the other
pulled by oxen), on the last stage of the journey westward. The Simerwells
spent the winter of 1833-1834 in a rented house about two miles east of the
state line. On May 16, 1834, they moved five miles westward to Shawnee
Baptist Mission, and became "Kansas" residents. They took over the quarters
vacated by the Rev. Alexander Evans ( recently dismissed by the Baptists ) ; and
shared the mission premises with the Jotham Meekers.
Ref: Robert Simerwell's "Diary"; Bessie E. Moore's "Life and Work of Robert Simer-
well" (thesis, 1939); Jotham Meeker's "Diary," entries of November 14, 1833, and May 16,
1834, and his letter of November 29, 1833. The Simerwells' children (as of November,
1833) were: William (7), Sarah (4), and Ann (1).
344 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
C November 14. The Rev. Benedict Roux ( Jesuit missionary, from
the St. Louis diocese) arrived at "mouth of the Kansas," overland,
from Independence, Mo. On the 18th he journeyed to the Kickapoo
settlement (above Fort Leavenworth ) , and spent a few days at
Laurence Pensineau's American Fur Company trading house.
Kennekuk (the Prophet) was absent 60 miles away. But a messenger
brought back an address he dictated; and on November 22, in the presence
of several Indians, the trader, and his son Paschal Pensineau, the Prophet's
speech was given in Pottawatomie, translated into Kickapoo by "Mechouet," and
into French by Laurence Pensineau.
Father Roux, after a "short week" among the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies,
returned to the Kansas river and spent the winter of 1833-1834, also the fol-
lowing spring, as guest at Francis and Cyprian Chouteau's Shawnee reserve
trading house. (He was "about ten miles from the majority of the French
families . . ." the "Kaw's mouth" residents of "Kansas City," Mo.)
Ref: Garraghan's Catholic Beginnings . . ., pp. 35, 42-54; and his The Jesuits of
the Middle United States, v. 1, p. 387.
C Kickapoo Methodist Mission had its beginning in November,
when the Rev. Jerome C. Berryman (with the Rev. Thomas John-
son's aid ) , selected a site, and got work started on temporary build-
ings a dwelling and a schoolhouse (both of round logs ) on a high
bluff overlooking the Missouri, three (or more?) miles above Fort
Leavenworth.
(Berry 
