KANSAS COLLECTION BOOKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Old Settlers' Tales] by F.F. Crevecoeur, Part 13 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OLD SETTLERS' TALES, BY F.F. CREVECOEUR, 1902: Transcribed and edited by Fred Bonjour and Teresa Lindquist for KanColl (The Kansas Collection), in the Early Kansas Imprint Scanners (EKIS) workshop. A fully indexed, HTML version is available at the KanColl website (http://history.cc.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/crevecoeur/); this text version is provided with KanColl's permission. For more information about KanColl, please visit: http://history.cc.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/. For more information about EKIS, please visit: http://history.cc.ukans.edu/carrie/ekis/. For any other questions, please contact Teresa Lindquist (merope@access.digex.net). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following is concerning Lone Tree township: F.J. Crawford and wife lived in the southern part of Lone Tree township in the early 60's. He had an adopted daughter, a child of the Mr. Cook who was living on the Leopold Zable place. Mr. Crawford was justice of the peace while living here. He moved to Louisville about 1864. George Ladner and his wife, Barbara, came to Missouri from Switzerland. He then moved to Illinois, and from there came to this locality in 1856. The children who came with him are: Anna (Mrs. Herman Brunkow, who died in 1896), Lizzie (Mrs. John Harper, of Texas), Martin, who died 1880, and Amanda (Mrs. Ernest Grutzmacher, who died in 1896). Those born here are: Kate (Mrs. James Limpenaw, of Westmoreland), Christ, George, John, of Axtel, Kan., Rosa (Mrs. Dave Ekright, of Holton), Andrew, Mary (Mrs. Peter Wuthrick). Mr. Ladner settled on the place now occupied by one of his sons in Lone Tree township. He died four years ago. John Brunner came here from Switzerland in 1870, accompanied by his wife, Barbara, and children, John, jr., Rudolph, and Jacob. He settled on the farm occupied by his son, Rudolph, in Lone Tree township. A daughter, Minnie, was born after he came here. He died in 1892. Rudolph Brunner, a brother to the above, came here from Switzerland with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Adolph W., in 1871, having lived in Atchison county a year before coming to this locality. He homesteaded the farm on which he is living, and built a frame house on it. His other children, born here, are Gustave and Albert. His wife died in 1882, during the same week that her brother-in-law, John Brunner, died. Mr. Brunner was president of Canton Zurich, in Switzerland, a position he held for thirty years. Washington Morris, his wife, Kate, and children, John Ella (Mrs. Frank Dewit, of Oregon), and Samuel, of Laclede, came here in 1869, and homesteaded the farm now owned by Thomas Flinn. Here Edgar was born. In 1871 he moved to a farm which he had bought of Michael Tessendorf, in Mill Creek township. This he sold to William Kolterman about 1875, and moved to the Herman Hartwick farm, northwest of August Kolterman's. John, his son, died in Florida a number of years ago. Mr. Morris and his son, Ed, are now in Oregon. His wife died on the Bieler farm about four years ago. Mr. Morris built him a box house on his homestead, made of lumber sawed at the Shannon mill. William Beiler, his wife, Flora, a daughter of Washington Morris, and oldest son, William, jr., came to this locality from Leavenworth, in 1870, and homesteaded the farm now owned by L.A. Alexander. He too, built a box house, on his homestead, from lumber sawed at the Shannon mill. His sons, John Henry and Edward, were born here. Mr. Beiler is a native of Pennsylvania. He did much freighting for Uncle Sam across this and other states in his youth, from 1857 to 1868. He was well acquainted with Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill and hunted buffalo with the latter. Bela Ingalsbe was a native of New York. His wife, Selinda, was from Massachusetts. From Illinois he came to Kansas in 1871, with the following children: Judson W., Date F., Maud, who married George Grover and died about 1888, Frances (Mrs. Dr. Chilcote), Claude B., and Dora (Mrs. Sherm Fulton). He settled on a homestead in Sherman township, now owned by Herman Honig. He also had land across the line in Lone Tree township. His daughter, Finie (Mrs. Thomas Doyle), was born on the homestead. He drove through with horses, and built a stone house on his farm. He first had come out in February, and located his homestead, and then moved his family out the May following. He also bought a quarter section of land west of his homestead when he first came here. The main road from Holton to Manhattan passed his place. While his house was being built he and his family lived in a tent that he had brought with him. The summer proved remarkable for its storms that arose in the northwest at intervals at night. The tent had been put up but a week or two when a storm arose, blowing it down and drenching the whole family. From June until August these storms were experienced with the same result, so that when a dark cloud was seen in the northwest at night the women folks would go to Henneberg's to stay over night. When the walls of the house were high enough to afford some protection, the tent was covered with pitch inside, so the wind did not have so much effect on it, and the occupants fared better then. The writer remembers how, when some of the neighbors would go to Centralia that summer, on the day following these storms, accounts would be brought home of how people living along the road would have their bedding out to dry. Mr. Ingalsbe died in 1880 and his wife died in November 1886. His son, Date, died in Chicago last fall. John H. Force was a native of Canada, and his wife, Elizabeth, was born in New York. He came to this place from Illinois in 1872. His children who were brought here are: Delilah (Mrs. Henry Doll, of Leavenworth), Rosa (Mrs. Robert Lockhead, of Oklahoma), Cora (Mrs. George True, of Leavenworth), and Jacob. Others, born here, are: Libbie (Mrs. George Ladner), and Lillie (Mrs. Ward Tunison, of Wheaton). Mr. Force homesteaded the farm now owned by his son, Jacob. Mr. Force died in 1884 and his wife in 1896. Cassimir Davin, his wife, Appolonie, and children, Julius, a son by a former wife, and Louis and George, came from France to Lone Tree in 1873. He homesteaded the place now occupied by his widow and his son, Louis. The 6th of May, 1876, Mr. Davin died from having taken cold in crossing a stream that was up, in which he got wet. For ten years after coming here his family lived in a stone house that had been thatched with slough grass. Houses and barns covered with thatch were quite common in southeast France, from where they came. ------------------------------------------------------------------------