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History of Chase County, Kansas
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Professor D. A. Ellsworth was hired by Mr. W. Austin to abstract the history of Chase County from the Chase County Leader News. It was published at the turn of the century but never bound or sold. At the death of Mr. Austin, it was stored in the family garage for years. Several years ago, his son finding it, donated the old boxes to the Chase County Historical Society. Each manuscript was circled with a band of paper. It contained no index.
It was indexed in 1999 and transcribed in 2002
by Lorna Marvin, Chase County Coordinator
HISTORY OF
Compiled
for the
By Prof. D. A. Ellsworth
FOREWORD
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Those of us who were so fortunate as to know many of the first settlers of Chase will recall that they were given to facts rather than fancy. The log Cabin in the edge of the timber, with neighbors few and far between, and no less the homestead on the high prairie of a later day, made for individuality. The open spaces held the community spirit in check. The lonely trails of the Indians and the paths made by the wild herds were slowly beaten into double-rutted roads, and these, largely, from riffle to riffle. Bridges there were none and in flood time only the high prairie road was open. This isolation made for self reliance and little concert of action.
The record of these early settlers is therefore more or less fragmentary. The story of community cooperation naturally showed very sharply the control of the physiography. The Cottonwood valley was the major axis but numerous laterals made detached social groupings. Bloody creek and Cedar were farther removed in that day than Emporia or Wichita is from Wonsevu with us. And to add to the detachment the one was near-Quaker and the other was given to Methodism. It was a far cry then from the Friends meeting house to Brother Murdock's camp meeting up Cedar. As for Elk and Thurman creek, they were a world apart.
In the light of the independent character of these pioneers and detached geographic units that were later united in Wise and then Chase county, it has seemed best to tell the story of the county as a political unit somewhat after the manner of Webb Wilder's Annals of Kansas and let the movement be one of time and the sequence of development follow the order in which unity came. In this way, the names will come in the order of appearance from that first settlement at the mouth of Diamond creek by Seth M. Hays to us in turn. In this way the history of the community, we trust, take form somewhat in the order in which it was made.
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There may appear something too much by way of emphasis upon chronology and apparently casual affairs may take up time that possibly should be given to more compelling incidents. And yet that is the order in which the story came to be--as a growth and not a creation.
The inter-relation of the development of Chase county with that of contemporary life is pointed by incident after incident. The struggle with slavery in the national councils brought about the Kansas-Nebraska act and among those who figured in a large way was the man for whom the county was named, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and also Colonel S. N. Wood, a leader in the Free State movement in Kansas, and the one who had the honor of naming the county. The political history of Chase is nothing if not typically American.
From the time when there were but two voting precinct for residents, of this district--one of which was in Council Grove and the other in Fort Scott, the county has been notable for a remarkable succession of political leaders such as Wood, Brandley, Morgan, Drinkwater and Doolittle who were anything but provincial in their influence. Chase county made a splendid contribution in the struggle that overthrew slavery. From a sparse settlement boy after boy volunteered and the Valhalla of many a little resting place bears mute witness of a glorious sacrifice. When the call came in a later day, in the name of democracy, courage of a kind with that of the frontier days answered. As an integral part of the state and nation, Chase county has always qualified, and that most creditably.
The greatest contribution of the pioneers of Chase county was by way of traditions that have come down in family circles. These are so intensely personal that they lend themselves largely to biography, well worthwhile. It is our hope that these traditions shall be saved as a part of the memorabilia of the county and made available as a part of the record, no less an inspiration to those who come after us. But for the current year the story will be in the form of annals, the content of which has been assembled from every record available to that purpose here and in the state historical society files. If it should appear broken at times and possibly lacking in details, it is hoped that the reader will connote the annal with the time. It was a time of action.
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There was not a railroad in Kansas when the story began, and it was more than a decade after the first homestead was filed upon in Chase county, at that historic spot near the mouth of South Fork, by James Fisher, that there was anything but a dirt road in the county. Henry M. Brandley is said to have walked from Matfield Green to Emporia, even in 1861, to enlist in the Ninth Cavalry. In some such way as this it is our hope that the form of the story will lend itself to the larger of the theme.
Chase county is today, every part of it, under the care of men and women who think in terms of flocks and herds and soils. Wherein on May 30, 1854, when Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, there was not one white man resident within its borders, today families, even the fourth generation of those who broke the road across an unused prairie, cling to old homesteads in spite of varying fortunes in reverent memory of pioneer names. Among the more reasured documents of these pioneer families are deeds that bear the name of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States.
In all, seven thousand people live in Chase county. The value of its land and property is more than $30,000,000. Its field crops total a million dollars annually. On the very site of a pioneer's log cabin stand fine homes today, modern as the time. Where the ox team slowly plodded its way along paralleling ruts with blue stem growing yoke high between, a thousand automobiles flash by along well-graded highways. Alfalfa fields, unknown in the old day, purple in the place of the bluestem of the unbroken prairie. The sometime patches of sod-corn and sod-wheat are now included with the arear of cultivation, nearly a hundred thousand acres in all. A national trail has succeeded the hunting trail of the Osages and Kaws. The war path of still earlier tithes still may, be seen on the hillsides of Fox creek. The trans-continental railways across the county are marvels of transportation. What witnesses of initiative are the nearby quarries—how eloquent of such names in Chase county as Emslie, Lantry, Parker, and Jones.
Of those who were among the first to come to these clear-running streams and fruitful valleys so few remain. Their years are close to the century count.
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Their days are few and yet what a consummation they have seen of the labors of that first generation to come to this county. Few as they are who have lived to see what has come to pass in the 75 years that have passed since Daniel Holsinger, good Dunkard that he was, came to the eastern part of the county, and "Old C. C. to the woods by Cedar Point, and Jane Miller to South Fork, the Shafts, to Silver creek, the Brandleys to Matfield Green and Brenot, the Indian trader, to French creek and Ephriam Pinkston who chose his homestead across from Brenot's and would have no other home in life or death. What a splendid group they were, those pioneers, and all that company of pathfinders.
There are no more lands upon the earth for their kind to go over and possess. Nor is there adventure like to theirs remaining. A signal achievement, theirs. That it may not be forgotten, at least in the community that has been endowed by their sacrifices and blessed by their high example, this story of their coming, their toil and fidelity has been put together from the more or less fragmentary record but none the less worthy of honorable emulaton, which they have left us. Surely they merit remembrance.
D. A. Ellsworth,
1854
MAY 8.--Franklin Pierce, President of the Uhited states, signs the Kansas-Nebraska bill by which Kansas is organized as a territory.
Seth Millington Hays, of Council Grove, buys the land at the mouth of Diamond creek for a ranch. By a treaty with the Osage Indians the purchase of land by settlers had been provided for. William Harris is put in charge of this ranch.
NOV. 28.-- The first election in Kansas, called by Governor Reeder, is held. The voting place for any chance residents living north of the Cottonwood river is Ingraham Baker’s house near Council Grove, while for the territory south of the river the polling place is Fort Scott.
1855
MAY 22.—The election of November 28, having proved unsatisfactory, owing to frauds a second election held with a promise of no better results.
Aug. 30—The KansasTerritorial Legislature adjourns after having adopted a code of laws under which Breckenridge
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and Wise counties are established.
James H. Fisher comes to Wise county and locates a claim at the junction of the Cottonwood and South Fork streams. This claim is the southwest quarter of section 26, township 19, range 8 east. James H. Fisher was born in Columbia county, Ohio, May 13, 1823. He lived with his parents on a farm and attended a district school. At the age of 20 years he went to Indiana, where he taught a term of school. He returned to Ohio, but the next year started west again, and taught for several years in Illinois and Missouri. In 1855 he reached Kansas and continued his journey seeking a farm, until he came to South Fork. Here he built a log cabin. His sweetheart in Ohio refusing to come west, neither of them ever married.
DEC. 25.-The mercury registered 30 degrees below zero. The winter has been severe. James H. Fisher is living in his log cabin alone. The Indians often come to his cabin. They like to borrow his frying pan and as they use it to cook dog meat, Mr. Fisher keeps it well scoured. His nearest neighbors are Oliver Phillips, on 142-mile creek and C. H. Withington, on the Santa Fe trail in Breckinridge county. (Aside from the Hays ranch at the mouth of Diamond creek there was then no other settlement in the territory of what is now Chase county.)
1856
APRIL 6.-Three Dunkard families locate near the mouth of Jacobs creek, on the south bank of the Cottonwood. They are Daniel Holsinger, Nathan Cory, and Gabriel Jacobs. The latter is a minister and on the first Sabbath the ceremony of washing the feet of the denomination members is observed. The three families built log cabins at once. The family of Gabriel Jacobs consisted of five members: Gabriel, aged 71 years, and Elizabeth, his wife, 55 years old: Moses, 20; Daniel 17, and Charlotte 14. Daniel Holsinger's family consisted of his wife, Julia, aged 23 years; one son, William H., three years, and a daughter, Nancy, a babe of one year. The father was 28 years old. Nathan Corey and his wife formed the third family of this Dunkard colony.
AUG. 6.-William Harris, who had for some years been a freighter on the plains, locates near the mouth of Diamond creek.
Patrick Miller takes up a claim on South Fork two miles south of
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James H. Fisher.
The mail for settlers in the Cottonwood valley is thrown from the stages passing over the Santa Fe trail, at the home of C. H. Withington. Joseph Hadley gets it there and brings it down the Neosho valley and up the Cottonwood.
1857
FEB. 28.-Emporia is located by the Emporia Town Co. Milton Ford, George D., A. P. and J. H. Wentworth, H. L. Story, William Harpole, Peter Harpole, Jacob Ulrich, Jacob Noggle, Lewis Warner, Abraham Studebaker, Nelson Shellenbarger, Zenas Stotts, Ebenezar Stotts, Archibald and William Osborne, Philip and Lewis Peyton and Abram Studebaker settled in the Cottonwood valley from Jacobs creek to Fox creek.
Selden Hesket, Trangott Hegwer, William and John Osmer, William Dixon, I. D. Rider, Augustus Howell, Patrick Deanes, George Long, Martin Shafer, Walter Watson, Charles Osmer, John Deanes, Carl B. Hegwer, Patrick Lawless, Thomas Lawless, R. B. Harris, George S. Thompson, George R Miller, and Samuel Bay preempt claims along Diamond creek.
Cyrus G. Allen, Christopher Strieby, Thomas O'Donnell, Abraham Park, Christian Strieby, Joseph Hartley, George McNee, and Enoch Williams settle on Middle creek and its branches.
Elias Bedinger, W. H. Shaft, Charles and Joseph Portrey, Riley Simmons, Christian Snavely, John W. Hawkins, John McGuire, Francis Bernard, E. W. Pinkston, C. C. Smith, Orlow H. Drinkwater, Walter S. Conant, James Renfro, John T. Sharp preempted claims along the upper Cottonwood and on Cedar creek.
Charles S. Hills and Edward Hills, M. E. Morris, Joshua Davis, Isaac Alexander, Christopher Borders, Benjamin S. Fairchild, Manasses M. Flory, C. F. Cahoone, J. P. McElfresh, William Ervin, O. T. Lewis, Jacob Long, George N. Wells, Lipman Levy--these were among the first to preempt claims in the vicinity of the mouth of Fox creek and on Buck creek and Spring creek.
John Miller settles on South Fork in this year. Charles Holden, the three Van Horn brothers, Henry Parker, Benedict Hazle, John Ryan, Michael Gleason, Dennis Gleason, Dr. I. R. Leonard, Bernard McCabe, J. Lane, Lot Leonard, Joseph E. Allison and N. H. Coyn preempt claims along South Fork.
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JUNE 6.--The first number of the Kansas News appears. It is printed in Emporia and P. B. Plumb is the editor.
AUG. 9.--Election is held in the 7th Council and the 10th Representative districts. Wise county is included in these. The territory lying west of Wise county is sparsely settled by Indian traders and isolated squatters. Wise and Breckinridge counties cast 266 votes for the Free State and seven for the Democratic members.
AUG. 21.--The first meeting is held at Emporia to discuss railroads. Charles K. Holliday speaks for the Topeka and St. Joseph
Hack lines have been established between Emporia and Lawrence by Dow and Walker.
SEPT. 7.--The Lecompton convention is held.
DEC. 5.--George Holsinger is born--the first white child born in the new community.
DEC. 21.--The first election on the Lecompton constitution is held. The returns are overwhelmingly against it in the territory.
DEC. 25.--Lafayette Hawkins is born-the first white child born in the upper Cottonwood valley.
1858
JAN. 1.--The cabins of the Hills brothers just east of the mouth of Fox creek are pillaged by the Indians and then burned. Charles and Edward Hills had built their cabins ad joining each other in the summer of '57. They had gathered their crop of corn and piled it against their cabins. `During their absence in Emporia the Indians raided their homes. Charles Hills is postmaster.
Michael Frachet is conducting a store just east of the mouth of French creek.
Moses Shane locates on the site of Florence.
JAN. 8.--Fourth territorial legislature meets at Lawrence.
First assessment of property in Breckinridge county.
MARCH.--The Kansas News of this date says: "Toledo, a new town is laid out 12 miles west of Emporia." In the same issue it is stated "twenty families in all, being a French colony from Missouri, having bought a large tract of land twenty miles west of Emporia will settle there this spring." (This colony was the colony that settled along the river between Silver and Brenot creeks. A town was plotted
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and staked off about where Mrs. Howard Stevenson now lives. Stock in this enterprise wa sold in France and in the east. A store was established near the present home of Henry Williams. Michael Frachet conducted this business. Francis Bernard had brought with him a stock of goods when he came, intending to open a store, but he did not do so. Peter Robidoux, of St. Joseph, Mo., is said to have arranged for this colony. A mill was planned to be built just below the Brenot crossing of the Cottonwood west of Frachet's store.)
MARCH 24.--"A new town 20 miles west of Emporia near the junction of the Cottonwood and Diamond creek, has been laid out," the Kansas News states. (This was the town of Poland, just north of the present town of Elmdale, on the farm of E. P. Allen. Cyrus Graves Allen was one of the founders of this town and it was strongly considered in locating the county seat.)
MARCH 25.--The Leavenworth Constitutional convention is held. H. J. Espey represents Wise county.
"A man from 60 miles west of Emporia, on the upper Cot-tonwood, brings a load of corn to the Emporia mill. Corn is plentiful along the Cottonwood at 75 cents a bushel.
APRIL 24.--"Seven wagons, with a family in each, went through Emporia this week to the upper Cottonwood, and more than 100 head of cattle. They were from Missouri."
William C. Shaft was drowned in the Cottonwood river while returning from a trip to Council Grove. His body was found some days later. The horse was found the day after the accident, near the Shaft home. William Harris told the writer that he was the one who found the body of Mr. Shaft.
MAY 8.--James Dempsey is found murdered a half mile west of Toledo. Altamont Forward, a boy, is arrested for the crime.
MAY 15.--A postoffice is established at Plymouth and a petition forwarded to Washington to establish a mail route from Emporia to Cottonwood Falls. A private mail route is to to be provided for the citizens of the community July 1.
John Buchanan is appointed postmaster of the new town, Toledo.
MAY 17.--A heavy frost is reported around Emporia.
MAY 22.--There is great excitement over the discovery of gold near Pike’s Peak. The region is known as the “Kansas gold fields."
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A number of men from Wise county start for the mines.
In the election there are 28 votes cast in Falls township. This represents the county vote.
JUNE 12.--Crops are looking well, harvest within two weeks.
JUNE 23.--Francis Brichet and family locate on Cedar creek.
JUNE 28.--Heavy rains bring the streams out of their banks. The wheat is washed away on the bottom lands.
JULY.--First Congregational Church is organized in Emporia.
AUG. 2.--The second election on the Lecompton constitution is held, 30 votes are cast against it in Cottonwood Falls precinct, and none for it. The constitution would have established slavery in Kansas. The total vote in Wise county is 65 against and six for the constitution.
AUG.--Leigh McClung, Cornelius Campbell, and Charles Lynch are appointed by the commission of Breckinridge county to locate a road from Emporia to Plymouth and thence west to Cottonwood Falls.
SEPT. 25.--The Kansas News prints these items relative to Wise county: "Forty families of the denomination of the Friends will come from North Carolina in the spring….Four wagons loaded with supplies for Diamond Springs passed up the Cottonwood en route from Kansas City. This promises to be the new Santa Fe way. Daniel Holsinger, living 10 miles west of Emporia has a three-roller cane mill and is selling syrup at 75 cents a gallon.
OCT. 10.--Governor Denver resigns.
OCT. 16.-The Land Sales are ordered postponed. (This was most welcome news to the settlers who had used their ready money to make improvements. Under the preemption act $1.25 per acre was to be paid for the land. The sale of the land would have meant great losses to the settlers. There were money-lenders at the land offices who charged as high as 20 per cent or more. More than all this there was a feeling that the land sales were for the purpose of dispossessing free state settlers.)
OCT. 16.-The Emporia News says; “Six families pass up the Cottonwood to locate near Cottonwood Falls.”
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OCT. 19.--Samuel Medary is appointed governor of Kansas territory.
OCT. 23.--"Parties of buffalo hunters pass through Emporia on their way to the Osage hunting grounds southwest of Cottonwood Falls."--Kansas News.
"Bad news is being received from the settlers on the Walnut and Whitewater. There is much sickness and the Osages are acting ugly. A number of the settlers will return and spend the winter in the Cottonwood valley."--Kansas News.
"Jeremiah Hadley is appointed minister for the Friends and calls a meeting for October 31st."--Kansas News.
OCT. 30--Cottonwood Falls is reported as the most flourishing town in the Cottonwood valley. It has a semi-weekly mail with Emporia."--Kansas News.
Corn is selling at Emporia for 20 cents a bushel.
OCT 31.--The Friends organize their church at Toledo.
NOV. 19.--Samuel Medary is appointed governor of Kansas territory.
1858
Among the settlers locating along the Cottonwood valley or the streams flowing into the Cottonwood this year are: Sidney A. Breese, J. G. Winnie, E. B. Popejoy, Mark Newton, K. J. Fink, Abraham Park, William Stone, John McGorkle, E. R. Hardesty, Isaac D. Cox, Richard W. Leppo, William, Gould, Solomon Ally, Matthias Kopf, James Cuenin, Elsie Legere, William Russell, John L. Rambo, George A. Williams, Allen R. Smith, Barzilla Gibson, John Buchanan, William Reese, Christopher Borders, Elizabeth Norton, John Sharp, David Sauble, C. F. Bichet, J. S. Mitchell, Carl H. Boenitz, William Keller, John W. S. Loy, J. M. Pherson and Jane.Miller.
The births in the year of 1858 were: To Mr and Mrs. Cyrus G. Allen, of Middle creek, a son, George B.; to Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Boenitz, a daughter, Medora; to Mr. and Mrs. Abram Studebaker a daughter, Hannah; to Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Dean, a daughter.
1859
JAN. 4.--The territorial legislature convenes.
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JAN. 12.--The first Methodist church is organized at Cottonwood Falls. There are six members, four of whom are Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Finley, Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Gandy. The pastor is the Rev. J. C. Fraker.
FEB. 11.--The legislature organizes Chase county. It is to include all that part of Wise county lying south of Township line 17 and north of Township line 22. The survey of Chase county is completed this year.
FEB. 11.--Governor Samuel Medary appoints J. M. Pherson, S. A. Breese and Frank Leonard as the Board of Supervisors.
MARCH 9.--L. D. Hinckley locates in Cottonwood Falls and opens a store.
MARCH 10.--William Copeland and family of eight came to Chase County from Iowa.
MARCH 11 --The first meeting of the County Board of Supervisors is held at Cottonwood Falls. Sidney A. Breese is the chairman. The other members of the board present is Frank Leonard of Bazaar. The board provides for the three townships of Falls, Bazaar and Cottonwood and elections are called for March 26, as follows: Falls township at the home of Milton Ford, the inspectors to be J. M. Pherson, S. A. Breese, and Joshua C. Davis; Bazaar Township, at the home of Jonah Leonard, the inspectors to be Frank Leonard, Jeremiah Lane, and Stanley Bailey; Cottonwood township, at the home of Levin Daines, the inspectors to be John Gould, Levin Daines, and David Lewis. The following township clerks are appointed: Falls, Andrew W. Smith; Bazaar, George Leonardo; Cottonwood, C G Allen. The Clerk of the board of supervisors is Charles S. Hills.
APRIL 1.--The Board of Supervisors for Chase county meets to canvass the election returns of March 26. The members present are S. A. Breese and J. M. Pherson. Seventy-two votes were cast in the election, and the following are declared elected as the first county officers of Chase county: (County officers serve without pay) M. R. Leonard, probate judge; Andrew W. Smith, sheriff; Charles S. Hills, clerk of the probate court; Cyrus Graves Allen, county treasurer; Sidney A. Breese, register of deeds; John Wesley Hawkins, coroner; R. C. Farnsworth, superintendent of schools; Jonah F. R. Leonard,
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county surveyor; Charles S. Hills, clerk of the board of supervisors. (M. R. Leonard, Andrew W. Smith, and R. C. Farnsworth each received 72 votes, the whole number cast.)
Horace Greeley visits Kansas. He predicts a value of $100.00 an acre for valley lands.
MAY 11.--A Democratic convention at Tecumseh urges the president to postpone the land sales for a year.
MAY 21.--James L. Houston comes to Chase county.
Samuel N. Wood and family locate one mile east of the Falls.
MAY 30.--The Kansas Press, Volume I, Number 1, is printed at Cottonwood Falls. Samuel N. Wood is the editor. The subscription price is $1.50. The advertising matter is from Lawrence, Leavenworth and Emporia. (The first issue was printed under a cottonwood tree near where the Santa Fe station stands. At that time Cottonwood Falls had two log cabins only. There were three other towns in the county. Mail was carried by private parties. Falls township was then divided into three road districts with the following overseers: No. 1, William Harpole; No. 2, S. N. Wood; and No. 3, C. F. Cahoone. The overseers had ordered that all roads should be 80 feet wide and a poll tax of $20 on each "free male, white citizen" was assessed. This poll tax could be paid by work at the rate of 50 cents an hour. Thirteen roads were located during the year.
MAY 30.--In the first issue of the Kansas Press, the editor says: "We know of no language sufficiently strong to express our contempt for an administration that for a petty spite persists in forcing the Kansas lands into market this season to the utter ruin of thousands of honest settlers."
(The lands were to be sold for $1.25 an acre and cash was required. The settlers who had preempted lands did not have the cash, most of them having spent all the money they had for improvements upon the land. The order of sale was attributed to the malevolent spirit of the national administration brought about by the opposition of the Free State men to the measures of the administration. The sales were finally suspended.
Twenty-five scholars subscribe for a school at the Falls.
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Up to May 4, 2,938 men have passed through Diamond Springs bound for the Pike's Peak goldfields, or as they are called "the Kansas goldfields," the western boundary of Kansas extending to the Rocky mountain watershed.
JUNE 2,.--John J. Osmer, of Diamond Springs, and Nancy Ann Fox, of Fox creek, are married by the Rev. Nathan Fairchild.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Fairchild, a daughter, Nancy.
JUNE 2.--One hundred Kaw Indians in war paint ride into Council Grove under Hard Chief and after a angry demonstration shoot two white men. They retire before a company of white men hastily gathered to a short distance from the town. Word is sent to the settlers by messengers and soon many white men gather from Marion, Chase and Lyon counties. H. J. Espey is captain of the settlers. The Indians, seeing the number of the whites, consent to a parley and surrender the two men who committed the crimes. One of these is a popular young Kaw chief. The two Indians are hanged in Council Grove and their bodies returned to the Indians.
The government buys 150,000 acres of Kaw lands and these are opened for settlement. The settlers already on these lands are given priority of purchase. The price is fixed at $1.75 an acre.
JUNE 7.--The election is held for delegates to the Wyandotte constitutional convention. Falls township casts 53 votes. H. J. Espey and S. N. Wood received 84 and 87 votes respectively. The Kansas Press states that "Bazaar township should have cast 40 votes." The two men who represent this district are Winchell and McCulloch. The 17th district includes Morris, Osage, Breckinridge and Chase counties. William McCulloch lived at Cahola in "Old Breckinridge."
"The Kaw lands, 20 miles square, in Morris county, are to be cleared of settlers. There are less than 300 Indians on the lands not an acre plowed by them, nor a house built. The settlers should resist."--Kansas Press.
JUNE 7.--William C. Pracht, of Poland, and Mary J. Stott, of the Falls, are married. (W. C Pracht's home was on Diamond creek. He was a native of Germany.)
JUNE 7.--James Tull and Mrs. Louisa Rains, both of the Falls, are married.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. James Fairchild, a daughter, Louisa.
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JUNE 12.--A sabbath school is organized at the Falls. Enos Prather is superintendent and A. W. Smith is librarian.
JUNE 13.--W. H. Eikenberry is postmaster at the Falls.
Dr. Allen White's professional card appears in the Kansas Press; his home is in Americus but he practices throughout Chase county. (Dr. White was later treasurer of Chase county. He was the father of William Allen White, the novelist and editor of the Emporia Gazette.)
Born to Mr. and Mrs. David Brazington, of Bazaar, a son, William; to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Frachet, a son; to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Winner, a son, William; to Mr. and Mrs. P. G. Cook, a daughter, Kate.
JUNE 20.--The Kansas Press doubts the advisability of organizing the Republican party in Kansas, at this time, to take the place of the Free State party.
The Press speaks of Beache's ranch on Cow creek, 12 miles norh of the Arkansas river, where buffalo meat is being sugar-cured and smoked for the trade. Beache's ranch was the place where the Chase county men went twice a year to hunt buffalo.
JUNE 26.--The Rev. J. C. Fraker preaches at the Falls. Uncle Sam is not sending a single mail into Chase county. There is a weekly private mail from Cottonwood City via Poland. Crops are reported very backward on account of the heavy rains. (The famous drought of '60 began in June of '59). William Harpole has 75 acres in corn and the Peytons, the Hills, and the Reeves have very fine fields of wheat.
M. L. Morris, of Holton, arrives with his family. One hundred families settle in Chase county within 30 days. Chase Center has just been plotted. It is about two miles southwest of the Osage crossing, in 33-19-7. Plans are made to celebrate the Fourth of July there. A hack line is organized at Americus for a route from Lawrence to Cottonwood Falls via Americus. Riley Simmons has his left hand shattered by the explosion of a gun.
<
JULY 2.--The
A. P. Gandy family located in Cottonwood Falls. The Aaron B. Watson family
comes to Chase county.
JULY 11.--John Carter, of Guilford, N. C., visits the Falls to determine the location of a mill. S. N. Wood has a lightning rod put up on his log cabin. William Eickenberry, of Plymouth, advertises as a blacksmith. S. A. Breese leaves for Ohio.
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C M. Vore will act as register of deeds during Mr. Breese's absence. Wheat and corn promise a large harvest for Chase county. Mrs. Jane Shaft has 50 acres of fine corn and wheat.
JULY 27.--Jane Pine sues William Pine for divorce. Their marriage in '57 was the first in this county. Their divorce also will be the first in this county. Enos Prather's house west of the Falls, is struck by lightning. Dr. J. M. Cole locates in the Falls. Messrs. Leonard are building a saw mill near Bazaar. There are 7,000 Indians camped on the Little Arkansas and grave fears are held for their intentions.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. J. Lane, a daughter, Esther.
AUG. 1.--Toledo now has four families on the townsite. The town has been partly surveyed but there is no well there. Water is being hauled one-half a mile! The proprietors are all about gone and no interest is shown in the town . There is a postoffice there, also a good set of blacksmith tools.
Cyrus G. Allen writes from Chase Center: "There are good claims, bottom land, on Middle, Diamond and Cedar creeks. Chase Center is the geographical center of Chase county. It has a spring of water large enough to supply a steammill. No one will be admitted to the town association who is not a citizen of Chase county.
Aug. 1.--S. E. Yeoman comes to Chase county.
S. N. Wood states that when he came to Chase county in March he hired a couple of slaves from an acquaintance to work during the summer. He denounces the lies about this incident. The Kansas Press urges its readers to vote for the Wyandotte Constitution. The Kansas Press is moved to Council Grove on August 29. W. Harpole has first mowing machine in Chase county.
SEPT 17.--J. H. Murdock arrives in Chase county.
The district convention is held at the Falls and S. N. Wood is nominated for representative to the territorial legislature. The district includes Morris, Chase and Madison counties.
John Rogler and family locate near Matfield Green. William Hugh is shot and hung by settlers east of Cottonwood Falls. He was a German and had had considerable trouble with his neighbors over cattle. William Harpole, Joseph Burrell and Milton Ford were bound over to the district court for the offense.
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Justice Pherson presided at the preliminary and the state was represented by J. M. Rankin. The defense was conducted by L. D. Bailey, R. M. Ruggles, S. N. Wood and J. H. Watson.
OCT 1.--George W. and Ann Yeager come to Bazaar, also the E. A. Alford family.
The drouth of '59 and '60 continues.
OCT. 10.--Arth Miller locates on South Fork. He walked from Lawrence.
OCT. 15.--H. J. Espey is nominated at Cottonwood Falls by the Democratic convention for state senator.
Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Finley and son, Gideon, locate at the Falls.
John Brown raids Harper's Ferry.
The Republicans nominate a ticket in Chase county, the first.
OCT. 20.--Fifty tons of hay belonging to S. N. Wood are burned by an incendiary.
OCT. 31.--The home of S. N. Wood is robbed and set on fire.
NOV. 2.--The board of supervisors orders the following roads: From Cottonwood Falls up Diamond creek to the north line of the county, the viewers to be George Long, Henry Reeve, and William Dixon; from Cottonwood Falls to Bazaar and on the south line of the county, the viewers to be J. F. R. Leonard, A. W. Smith, and Wilson Davis; from Cottonwood Falls, via Osage Trail crossing, to Avoca (one mile south of Cedar Point), the viewers to be Ephriam W. Pinkston, John W. Hawkins, and Isaac Alexander.
NOV. 3.--The windiest day of the season. The rivers are very low.
NOV. 8.--Chase county casts 126 votes for M. J. Parrott, for congress. The board of supervisors votes to submit the location of the county seat to the voters at the election in December, 1859.
<
Patrick Doyle locates on Doyle creek, in Marion county. A trading post is located at Cottonwood Crossing in Marion county (Moore ranch.)
Born during the year '59: to Mr. and Mrs. Romigh, a son, Lewis; to Mr. and Mrs. E. Stotts, a daughter; to Mr. and Mrs. Rakestraw, a son; to Mr. and Mrs. William Stone, a son, James R.;
Page 13
to Mr. and Mrs. Laningham, a son, Albert; to Mr. and Mrs. Augustus Howell a daughter, Virginia.
NOV. 11.-- Fierce cold wind with snow.
The first tax is levied. It is 7 mills for county purposes and 3 mills for schools.
Among those who located here in the year '59 are Edward C Holmes, George Houston, Boone Harris, Henry Haun, P. G. Cook, R. C Farnsworth, William Holsinger, John Maxwell, Holace Balch, A. W. Williams, Valetine Shaw, Enoch Wiliams, Jeremiah Nowlan, John Mack, William L. Lyon, Daniel Romigh, Enos Prather, A. W. Smith, Albert Stewart, Henry Hilbrant, Henry Brandley, John McDill, J. B. Hodgin, Orin Wisel, R. M. Newton, Charles W. Rogler, Albin Brandley, Benjamin Fairchild, L. D. Hinckley, A. J. Shipman and A. F. Fossett.
C. G. Allen is an independent candidate against S. N. Wood for state senator.
Chase county votes again almost unanimously Republican, showing how closely Chase county settlers are in harmony with the Free State principles. Charles Robinson received 109 votes and Samuel Medary 10, for governor. S. N. Wood receives 106 votes for state senator and H. J. Espey 9; P. G. D. Morton and A. J. Shipman are elected representatives; O. E. Leonard was elected judge of fifth judicial district; M. E. Leonard, probate judge; S. A. Breese, clerk of the district court; J. Aljoe, superintendent of schools.
NOV. 12.--Chase county votes 150 to 1 for M. J. Parrott for delegate to congress. Falls cast every vote for him.
Gold seekers are returning from Pike's Peake. They pronounce the Cottonwood route better than the Santa Fe trail through Council Grove. The two trails meet at Muddy creek.
NOV. 19.--The Emporia News says: "Emigrants seeking a place to locate will do well to look at the rich vacant lands of Chase county."
NOV. 20.--James Pringle and family come to Chase county.
NOV. 26.--"L. D. Hinckley, a miller, is building a dam across the Cottonwood river at Cottonwood Falls. It will be done within two weeks."--The Emporia News.
DEC. 21.--Professor Campbell speaks in the Falls in the interests of the American Bible society.
Page 14
1860
JAN. 1.--Alfred Harpole and Jane Miller, daughter of Mrs. Jane Miller, of South Fork, are married.
J. T. Pratt and
family locate on Middle Creek.
Gideon Elias makes the first survey of the
Falls.
JAN. 7.---Sophia Ann Osmer of Diamond creek, marries Adolphus Smith, of Lawrence.
Ann Yeager teaches the first school at Bazaar.
John Carter, who has been in Chase county arranging for a colony of Friends from North Carolina, is arrested upon his return to the south as a possible ally of John Brown.
Born: To Mr. and Mrs. Orin Wisel, a son, George.
S. N. Wood petitions the legislature to extend the east line of Chase county.
JAN. 17.-Marion county is organized with a population of 74.
JAN. 21.--Cyrus G. Allen of Middle creek, visits Emporia. A. G. Proctor, merchant, returns with him bringing groceries dry goods, to trade with the Indians encamped on Cottonwood, Diamond and Middle creeks. About 50 Kaws under the chief Ebesungee are encamped on Mr. Allen's place. They are tanning and dressing buffalo robes brought in from their fall hunt on the plains. Mr. Proctor secures 500 wolf skins and a quantity of furs.
JAN. 26.--C. C. Hassler and Mary A. Morehead are married.
FEB. 4.--Lot Leonard and Juletta Lane are married.
FEB. 18.--A party of Kaw Indians steal a keg of whiskey from Loy's store at the Falls. They get drunk and in a quarrel two bucks and a squaw are killed. The citizens take steps to have the Indians removed.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Pherson, a daughter, Ida.
FEB. 25.--Cromwell, representative from Johnson county, accuses S. N. Wood of suppressing part of a report of the committee on claims. Wood denies the charge in such a way as to anger Cromwell and the latter rushes upon Wood with bowie knife. Wood catches his uplifted hand and punishes him severely. Members interfere and Cromwell apologizes.
MARCH 3.--A party of five men start for the gold fields from Chase county.
MARCH 24.--C. G. Allen writes to the Emporia News that two mills are in
Page 15
process of building in Chase county and another will be started during the summer.
A school is to be opened in the Middle creek settlement this summer and a Christian church was organized last winter, and is in a prosperous condition.
MARCH 24.--L. D. Hinckley expects to have the mill at the Falls in operation by May 15.
L. D. Hinckley and Isaac Alexander, proprietors of North Cottonwood Falls townsite, will give one-fourth of the lots to the county to aid in the erection of a courthouse.
There is great need of rain.
MARCH 24.--Toledo and Diamond creek townships are formed by the board of supervisors. The board consists of A. Howell, B. McCabe, and C. F. Cahoone.
MARCH 30.--The board of supervisors meets to canvass the returns. James Pringle, J. B. Smith, and R. M. Newton are sworn in as members of the board. Sidney A. Breese is appointed assessor.
APRIL.--The census of Chase county in 1860 is commenced. Sidney A. Breese is in charge of the work. It will require three months.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Wagoner, a son.
APRIL 16.--W. S. Smith is appointed county treasurer. The Chase county Republican convention is held with Judge Leonard as chairman and Cyrus G. Allen, secretary. M. R. Leonard is elected delegate to the convention at Lawrence.
John Mack is appointed agent for S. N. Wood in Chase county.
The home of S. N. Wood in Council Grove is burned by incendiaries.
APRIL 17.--Administration granted estate of Carl B. Hegwer.
The first schoolhouse in Chase county is built at Bazaar. It is a log house.
John Sharp dies on Sharps creek.
MAY 5.--C Fearns and family locate near Bazaar.
MAY.--President Buchanan orders all public lands sold to the highest bidder on September 10. This order creates a panic in Chase county as hundreds of the settlers have not yet paid for their lands. A majority of settlers coming only last year had expected a reasonable time would be given for making improvements and paying for the land.
Page 16
Some have broken a few acres and planted wheat or corn. Now the drouth is on, crops are a failure. Some will have to sell teams, stock, and household goods to save their claims. Others will abandon their places and go further west where they may be free from land sharks. Others must hire land warrants at enormous rates of interest and pre-empt their lands. A land warrant is quoted at $128 in the New York markets but here the loan sharks are asking as much as $240 upon a year's time-over 5 per cent a month is asked. Speculators are already overrunning the country spying out the best selections. An appeal to the president is to be made the Emporia News says.
MAY 15.--J. S. Doolittle and family locate at Clements.
J. H.
Scribner and family locate on Fox creek.
JUNE 2.--A. Buchanan is postmaster at Toledo; L. D. Hinckley, at the Falls; G. M. L. Leonard, at Bazaar.
>
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Boenitz, a daughter.
JULY 2.--Mrs. John Mack presents the Kansas Press with two cheeses made from a Chase county dairy.
JULY 2.--The road up Diamond creek is annulled owing to dissatisfaction among the people of that district. The road from Hayworth's mill to Toledo is ordered. J. M. McDill is appointed trustee for Cottonwood township.
JULY 3.--A petition for a road from Osage crossing up Middle creek is filed and J. B. Shipman, George Collett, and C. G. Allen are appointed viewers. The Cottonwood Falls Avoca road is ordered surveyed. A road from the north end of Broadway, in the Falls, to the east line of the county is ordered surveyed by August 10. The road down South Fork from Bazaar to Vernon is ordered laid out. T. H. Dunlap, J. B. Hodgson and Arch Miller are the viewers of this road.
C G. Allen kills a buffalo wolf measuring six feet from tip to tip--the largest shot in the county.
JULY 4.--The Fourth is celebrated by the settlers of the county at Mrs. Jane Shaft's, on Silver creek. Sidney A. Breese is the presiding officer and Cyrus G. Allen opens the meeting with prayer. J. B. Smith reads the Declaration of Independence and three cheers are given for the "Signers." There is an essay by C G. Allen, and addresses by J. M. McDill and Col. N. B. Moulton, Mrs. Shaft and daughters served a fine dinner and the settlers dance until late in the night.
Page 17
The Cottonwood Falls folk reach home in the early morning. (G. W. Brown, judge of the district court, reports the affair for the Emporia News.)
John Mack has 18 head of sheep. He makes 100 per cent profit on his investment.
JULY 11.--J. M. McDill is chairman and W. S. Conant is secretary of a mass meeting held at Cottonwood Falls. A committee is appointed to direct the campaign against the sale of land on September 10, as ordered by President Buchanan. A petition is signed by 125 settlers to postpone the sales for one year and forwarded it to the president. Another mass meeting is called for August 1. The members of the committee are A. S. Williams, W. S. Conant, William Maxwell, Walter Watson, Theodore H. Dunlap, A. W. Smith, J. M. McDill, A. Studebaker and M. R. Leonard.
The "Wind Wagon" arrives in Council Grove having made 125 miles in 48 hours. It is propelled by the wind and is making a trial trip across the plains.
Kit Carson comes to Diamond creek. He is organizing a party for the gold digging across the mountains.
Wagon trains are passing constantly up the Cottonwood valley en route to Pike's Peak. One wagon has this sign "Bond for Pks. Pk. thru or bust I. B. Glaspy & famale."
"The new road from Emporia to El Dorado crosses the Cottonwood three miles west of Emporia and follows the south bank to Jacobs creek eight miles west and from there south west to Indian creek, one mile above Bazaar (South Fork.) It follows up Indian creek for ten miles to the old road at Lannum's crossing and from there to Chelsea."-- The Emporia News.
No trace can be found of David Ramsey who left Cottonwood Falls in May for Council Grove.
JULY 7.--President Buchanan vetoes the Homestead bill. It protects preemptors. The order of the president of May will compel hundreds of settlers to lose their claims. Not one-tenth of the settlers have preempted their claims yet although they have improved the places they have located upon, and they are still unable to do so. All of Marion county is included with Chase county in the order. This is a blow at Free Kansas.
A plot of Cottonwood Falls is filed.
Page 18
JULY 12.--Letters of administration granted estate of Frederick K. Pracht.
JULY 14.--A little son of Mrs. Nancy Ann White is missing. Her son, young Lannum, had ordered some Indians away from the place and it is feared that they may have stolen the child by way of revenge.
JULY 21.--Most of the provisions for the troops stationed at Pawnee Rock and other posts on the plains are provisioned from the Cottonwood Valley. Corn is bringing 40c.
Land warrants are selling in New York for $140.80 for 160 acres.
AUGUST 1.--The mass meeting to protest against the land sales is held at Cottonwood Falls. It is large and enthusiastic. R. M. Newton presides and M. R. Leonard is secretary. A committee is appointed to wait on the Register of Lands at Junction City. This committee is to consist of J. F. R. Leonard, Henry Reeve, James Pringle and William Shaft. Another committee is appointed to attend the sale and prevent the sales of lands now occupied by settlers, but not yet preempted. This committee consists of M. R. Leonard, J. M. McDill., and J. R. Shipman. All citizens are to attend en masse to forbid any person from bidding on occupied lands "on pealty of death." A vigilance committee is appointed to hold office for one year to investigate violations. It is resolved that any citizens who enter any lands of citizens of Chase county after the sale forfeit their lives. This committee is to consist of William L. Houston and John W. Hawkins, for Cottonwood township; Cyrus Brown, Riley Simmons, John Brandt, Smith Williams, A. W. Smith, Aaron Watson and William Smith, for Falls township; E. A. Alford, R. M. Newton, B. McCabe and Jerry Lane, for Bazaar township; E. F. Williams, A. F. Fossett, John Maxwell, S. Hegwer and William Dixon, for Diamond creek. It is agreed that force shall be the last argument.
AUGUST 11.--A wagon train passes down the Cottonwood valley with 24 wagons of wool from Fort Union.
AUGUST 29.--Administration granted estate of Frederick Holestine.
Grasshoppers appear in great swarms.
SEPT. 15.--J. W. McDill, of the upper Cottonwood, reports to the 'Kansas News that crops are very short in Chase count, owing to the drouth, but most of the people will stay there this winter.
Page 19
SEPT. 20.--William Dixon and Harriet Shear are married.
OCT. 15.--The Marion precinct in Marion county is authorized by the supervisors of Chase county. James Renfro, Phillip Hoffman and P. P. Houck are made inspectors of the election. A county tax of 7 mills is fixed. The county treasurer, W. S. Smith, is authorized to draw 6 per cent from all fees for collecting the same, which amounts to $6.65.
OCT. 17--A mass meeting is called at Emporia to consider the needs of the sufferers from the drouth. Chase county is included in the call, for October 27.
The Middle Creek road is declared a legal highway.
OCT. 27--Sheriff Morris of Chase county states that aside from two or three wealthier families the entire population has less than a month's supply of provisions. They have no cornmeal, no flour can be bought for love or money-- and there really is no money. A central Kansas Relief association is organized. J. M. Pherson and John T. Watkins are appointed members from Cbase county. An appeal for aid is authorized.
OCT. 27--A heavy rain falls, breaking the drouth which has continued since June of last year. During the drouth 30,000 people left Kansas. Aid is necessary and Theodore Hyatt visits the state to organize aid socities.
L. D. Hinckley is paid $8.00 for house rent for the county.
NOV. 9-The Board of County Commissioners meet to canvass the vote of Chase county. The following are declared elected: N. B. Moulton, representative; George Williams, county clerk; W S. Smith, treasurer; John Buchanan, county assessor; S. A. Breese, county attorney; J. B. Hodgin, county superintendent Williams and Alford are tied for county commissioner--Williams wins the "lot."
NOV. 10--A meeting is held in Cottonwood Falls to oppose the election of S. N. Wood to the legislature. Those present are Thomas White, Thomas Huffaker, E. W. Pinkston, J. B. Smith, L. D. Hinckley, M. A. Morris, Dr. Lacy, M. R. Leonard and T. H. Dunlap. Smith speaks for the Falls; Leonard for South Fork, and Pinkston for the Cottonwood valley.
OCT. 21--Letters of administration granted in estate of William Hugh.
Page 20
A large number of
buffaloes came into Chase county from the plains. The settlers are required to
keep their haystacks well fenced.
DEC. 14--Letters of
administration granted estates of Cornelius Fearns and John Handsprich.
Among those who
settled in Chase county in 1860 were the following: Abram Beals near Toledo;
Andrew Swanson near Elmdale; Henry Collett on Middle creek; George Collett on
Middle creek; J. T. Pratt on Middle creek; J. S. Shipman near Elmdale ; William
Maxwell on Middle creek.
Born: to Mr. and
Mrs. Brenot, a daughter, Lucy; to Mr. and Mrs. Trangett Hegwer, a daughter,
Louisa; Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Holsinger, a son, Walter; Mr. and Mrs. G. W.
Williams, a son, Delbert; Mr. and Mrs. Lot Leonard, a daughter, Elizabeth.
1861
JAN. 7--Lot Leonard is allowed
$1.50 by the commissioners for "driving steaks" on a road survey.
JAN. 9--The
South Fork road from Bazaar to Vernon is ordered.
J. F. R. Leonard
resigns as county surveyor and E. F. Williams is appointed. The county
commissioners allow $5 for stationery for the county clerk's office.
JAN. 29--Kansas is admitted as a state--the
strenuous "territorial days" are over.
The plat of
"North Cottonwood Falls" is filed by L. D. Hinckley, J. B. Pherson
and J. B. Smith. The plat of
"Cottonwood Falls" had been filed by S. N. Wood and others some time
before, including that part lying south of Union street.
FEB.--Daniel Nogle and Ellen Shananhan
are married.
MARCH--A Sunday school is organized at
Mrs. Shaft's, on Silver creek.
MARCH
24--William Van Cleve and Mrs. Jane Hicks are married.
APRIL 1--A
petition is filed for a road from North Cottonwood Falls up the valley to the
west county line.
Christian Schnavely and Mary Ellen Copeland are married. Page 21
APRIL 2--John W. S. Loy asks for a license to sell
intoxicating liquors, and "a bond being executed a license is granted for
a liquor saloon and grocery."
APRIL 12--Fort Sumpter is
fired upon.
APRIL 15--President
Lincoln calls for troops.
APRIL 22--All male
citizens between 21 and 45 years of age declared to be a part of the state
militia. Kansas provider for 11 regiments.
MAY--President Lincoln
calls for 400,000 men. The First and Second Kansas regiments are recruited.
JUNE 20--The Second Kansas
is formed at Lawrence. Charles S. Hills is First Lieutenant of Co. H.
S. N. Wood is captain of Company I.
JUNE 26--The Second Kansas
leaves for Clinton, Mo.
AUG. 10--The battle of Wilson's creek is fought. In leading the
Second Kansas, Colonel Mitchell is wounded and General N. Lyon is killed. Out
of 644 men, the First Kansas has 77 men killed and 333 wounded. The Second Kansas also lost
heavily.
JUNE--A road is asked from
Bazaar to Cedar Point. G. W. Yeager, George Leonard and E. W. Pinkston
are appointed viewers.
JUNE 30--John Van Buskirk
and Sarah Ann Olesberry are married.
JULY 15--A. P. Gandy is
appointed county treasurer, and W. S. Romigh, county attorney.
A. F. Baker is paid $60
for printing delinquent tax list for Chase county.
Six mills levied as
county tax for '61. The two county
roads are declared public highways. The plat for the state road from Emporia
through Chase county to El Dorado is filed.
JUNE 20--S. N. Wood is
mustered in as Captain of Co. I, Second Kansas infantry.
SEPT.
6--Henry Brandley leaves Matfield Green for Emporia to enlist in Co. B, Ninth
cavalry, Kansas volunteers.
SEPT 21.--Henry Reeve enlists in Co. B, Ninth
Kansas.
OCT.
10--Sidney A. Breese enlists in Independent Company Kansas Rangers. (He was later transferred to the Sixth
Missouri cavalry.
Page 22
OCT. 26--Adrew J. Burdick enlists
in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry.
NOV. 15--Isaac Alexander enlists in
Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry.
NOV. 8--The vote of Chase county
indicates the loyalty of citizens to Union cause, every vote cast being for
Samuel J. Crawford for governor, 83 in all. C. Columbia is elected representative;
R. M. Ruggles, district judge. E. A. Alford, probate judge; Asa Taylor, county
commissioner; John S. Doolittle, clerk of the district court; J. B. Hodgin,
county clerk; A. S. Williams, sheriff; Samuel Buchanan county treasurer; A. P.
Gandy, register of deeds; J. F. R. Leonard, county superintendent; L. D.
Hinckley, county coroner; E. F. Williams, county surveyor. For the state
capital, Topeka, 42; Leavenworth, 39.
NOV. 18--John W. Reeve enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry. He is 58
years old and has a wife and five children.
Plat of state road from Minneola to Santa Fe is filed. The cost to Chase county is $21.
Dennis Gleason is paid $5.00 for
bringing a package of laws from Topeka.
M. R. Leonard resigns as probate
judge of Chase county.
NOV. 27–M. R. Leonard warns the
people of Chase county that the Cherokees are planning a raid into the county.
He received the information from
Captain John R. Reim through Captain P. G. D. Morton who comes from the Walnut
country. Governor Robinson is urged to send five companies of troops.
DEC. 5--Patrick B. McCabe enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry. S.
Plummer also enlists.
DEC. 6--A.
B. Watson enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry. Robert Madden enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry. Vincent W.
Williams enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas cavalry.
The State road is established from
Emporia through Cottonwood Falls to Beach's ranch on the Arkansas. C. G. Allen is one of the commissioners.
DEC.
14--The sheriff, John Mack, sells the Henry Parker farm on South Fork; $300 is bid
for the 160 acres. (This was later a part of the Frank Lee ranch, selling for
$150 an acre in 1917.)
Page 23
William Shaft and Rhoda Prather are married.
DEC. 15--Nelson
Shellenbarger and Amanda Spencer are married.
DEC. 31--School districts
numbered from 1 to 8 have been organized in Chase county during the past month,
as follows: No. 1 was organized on December 1. The meeting to organize the
district was held at the home of E. F. Williams. J. S. Shipman, George B. Houston, and Henry L. Hilbrant
were elected members of first school board of district No. 1. No. 2 was organized December
2 at the home of H. L. Hunt. The
school board elected consisted of Riley Simmons, H. L. Hunt, and W. H.
Shaft. No. 3 was organized on December
4. The meeting was at the home of Orlow
Drinkwater, January 4, 1862, and Ephriam W. Pinkston, Orlow H. Drinkwater and C
R. Roberts were made members of the school board. No. 4 was organized on
December 5. The school meeting was held
at the home of George Long, on December 28. George Long, Seldon Hesket
and Augustus Howell comprised the board. No.
5 was organized on December 5 at the home of Horace Balch. The meeting of
January 4, 1862, elected Lucy R. Allen, George Collett and Horace Balch to the
school board. Lucy R. Allen was the first woman elected to serve on a school
board in Chase county. No. 6 was
formed December 9. The school meeting was held December 25, in Cottonwood
Falls. No. 7 was organized December 14 and the first meeting was held at the
home of E. A. Alford. No. 8 was
organized on December 9. The first meeting was held at the home of James
Mitchell on January 4, 1862. Charles W. Rogler, William Bailey and John Maxwell
were elected members of the school board.
All the
above school districts were large, some of them very large. District No. 3, for example, included 72
sections of land and extended to the south line of the county. The first school taught under this
organization was in the year 1862.
DEC.
31--Born during the year 1861: To Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Hawkins, a son, Henry; Mr.
and Mrs. John O'Byrne, a son, James; Mr. and Mrs. William Dixon, a son,
William; Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus G. Allen, a daughter, Clara L.; Mr. and Mrs. Seldon
Heskett, a son, James; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Crawford, a daughter, Amanda.
Page 24
1862
JAN. 2-School
district No. 9 is organized.
JAN. 10-School
district No. 10 is organized.
JAN. 18--The voters
of district No. 9 meet at the home of Samuel Buchanan and elect Abram Beals,
Asa Taylor and John Crawford as members of the school board.
JAN. 20-The voters
of district No. 10 meet at the home of Charles Osmer and organize the board,
consisting of Barzilla Gibson, Samuel Murdock and John Miller.
JAN. 25-One
thousand Indians, mostly Creeks, pass through Bazaar on their way from Chelsea
to Emporia, where they are to be cared for by the
government. They have been driven out
of the Indian territory by the proslavery Indians. The refugees are anxious to
join Lane's troops and fight on the Union side. A number of the farmers about
Bazaar assist in transporting these Indians through Chase county.
FEB. 5-Breckenridge county is renamed Lyon
county.
FEB.
20--David W. Mercer and Mary Lake are married at Council Grove.
(D. W. Mercer is the man who named Matfield
Green for his former home in England.)
MARCH
1--Roland P. Murdock, of Bazaar, enlists in Co. B, Ninth Kansas.
Orlow H. Drinkwater
enlists.
MARCH 15--The election for locating the
permanent county seat of Chase county is called for August.
George Balch
and Cyrus G. Allen, of Middle creek, enlist together in the Fifth Kansas
cavalry.
APRIL 3--John
McGrath and Mrs. Nancy Ann White are married at Bazaar.
APRIL
8--William Lyon enlists in Co B, Ninth Kansas cavalry.
APRIL
20--William Lyon, Co. B, Ninth cavalry, died at Atchison, of pneumonia. (He was
a brother of Mrs. S. N. Wood and Mrs. E. W. Pinkston. )
MAY 3-Four
wagons, drawn by 50 head of oxen, form a wagon train leaving Bazaar for Iowa.
MAY 20--The
Homestead law is passed this year. It requires five years residence (excepting
time of service in the army) and the payment of a very small fee. One hundred and sixty acres is allowed to the
head of a family. The homestead
is exempt from debt.
Page 25
JUNE 26--Terrific wind and hail storm
sweeps down the Cottonwood valley.
JULY 4--Robert Bailey is shot and
killed by Wise, near Marion. Wise is brought to the Falls and has his trial
before Squire Gandy.
JULY 5--The
Cottonwood Falls mail leaves Emporia on Thursday and Saturday mornings, at 4
o'clock.
JULY
12--Thomas Norton enlists in Co. I, Ninth Kansas. Jake Mann enlists in Co. H.,
Seventh Kansas cavalry.
L. O. Mann enlists
in Co. M., 11th Kansas cavalry.
S. M. Wood enlists
in the Sixth Missouri cavalry.
Jesse F. Mann
enlists in Co. I., Tenth Kansas Volunteer infantry.
AUG. 2--A
postoffice is to be established at the home of Mr. Billings, in Marion county.
The mail goes from Cottonwood Falls weekly for Beach's ranch by Marion. Marion
county is attached to Chase county for judicial purposes.
AUG.
16--Colonel P. B. Plumb calls for 100 men for the 11th Kansas from Chase county
and five other counties.
AUG.
18--Albin Brandley enlists in Co. C., 11th Kansas volunteer cavalry.
AUG. 19--The vote is canvassed for the
location of a permanent county seat: for, 80; against, 48.
The tax for 1862 is
fixed at 14 mills and three mills for schools.
SEPT. 2--Co. C.,
11th Kansas, leaves Emporia for Fort Leavenworth under command of Col. P. B.
Plumb.
SEPT. 7--John H. Ford and Sarah D. Justice are
married.
SEPT. 9--Theodore H. Dunlap enlists in Co. F., Second
Kansas.
Cyrus M. Brown
enlists in Co. F., Second Kansas.
James W. Brown,
farrier, enlists in Co. F., Second Kansas.
George M. L. Leonard enlists in Co.
D., Second Kansas. (He was taken prisoner while on escort duty in the Cherokee
Nation, September 19, 1864. After the war Leonard did not return to Chase
county.)
William Osmer
enlists in Co. D., Second Kansas.
SEPT. 13--School
district No. 12 is formed. The first meeting is held at the home of Abraham
Studebaker.
SEPT.
21--Thomas Peyton and Louisa Oldberry are married.
Page 26
OCT.
1--John L. Drinkwater dies at Cedar Point, aged 22 years.
OCT.
11--Dr. Lacy is seriously injured at the Falls, while drying gun powder in the
stove.
NOV. 7--The
vote of Chase county is as follows: For governor: Thomas Carney, 107; W. R.
Wagstaff, 11; state senator: M. R. Leonard, 105; W. B. Howell, 15; county superintendent:
A. S. Howard; clerk of the court: J. S. Shipman ; probate judge: James S.
Mitchell; representative: E. A. Alford. The vote on the location of the county
seat results in favor of Cottonwood Falls by a vote of 74 to 26 for Poland (a
mile northeast of Elmdale) and two for Bazaar. So Cottonwood Falls becomes the
county seat of Chase county.
D. F. Drinkwater is paid $75 for
assessing Chase county.
DEC. 31--Born in Chase county during the
year: to Mr. and Mrs. Morris Moore, a son, Theodore B.; to Mr. and Mrs. John
Brenot, a son, John; to Mr. and Mrs. K. J. Fink, a son , Ernest; to Mr. and
Mrs. William Keller, a son, Edward; to Mr. and Mrs. Trangott Hegwer, a son,
Frank; to Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Gandy, a son, Chester; to Mr. and Mrs. George
Collett, a daughter, Alice; to Mr. and Mrs. John McCorkle, a son, John; to Mr.
and Mrs. Nathan Bales, a son, Thomas; to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Spurgeon, a son,
John; to Mr. and Mrs. Asa Taylor, a daughter, Orissa ; to Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Watson,
a son, Charles; to the Rev. and Mrs. William Holsinger, a daughter, Sarah; to
Mr. and Mrs. Christian Snavely, a daughter, Malinda; to Mr. and Mrs. Lot
Leonard, a son, John B.; to Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Dunlap, a daughter; to Mr. and
Mrs. Alford, a daughter, Lucy.
1863
JAN. 3--John H. Doolittle is elected
trustee of Falls township.
JAN. 30--John H. Costello
and Abbie Wise, of Marion county, are married at Cottonwood Falls.
FEB.--Legislature detaches a strip of
land two miles wide from Lyon county and attaches this to Chase county.
FEB. 7--Daniel
Holsinger dies, aged 35 years.
MARCH
16--Administration is granted on estate of Daniel Holsinger.
Page 27
S. N. Wood organizes the Morris county
Rangers.
APRIL 16--Samuel O. Mann enlists in Co.
Q., Tenth Kansas infantry.
MAY
2--Administration letters are granted on estate of Daniel Shipley.
MAY 11--C. F.
Laloge and Marie Eugenie Hallotte are married.
Dick Yeager, outlaw, kills Augustus Howell at Diamond
Springs and wounds Mrs. Howell.
JUNE 6
--Edwin C. Hinckley enlists in Co. D., Ninth Kansas. M. E. Yeomans enlists in
the 15th Kansas.
JULY 1--Henry
L. Hilbrant of Elmdale, enlists in C'o. M., Ninth Kansas. Kasimir J. Fink
enlists in Co. M., Ninth Kansas. John Wesley Hawkins enlists in Co. M., Ninth Kansas. Richmond Fritz enlists
in Co. M., Ninth Kansas. Sue Martin,
John Ball and David M. Bailiff enlist in Co. H., 15th Kansas.
JULY 23--John
Norton and Anderson S. Sharp enlist in Co. I., Ninth Kansas.
AUG. 1--John E.
Dietrich enlists in Co. H., 15th Kansas. William A. Faucett enlists in Co. H.,
15th Kansas. Joseph Hartley enlists in Co. H., 15th Kansas. William H. Hodson
enlists in Co. H., 15th Kansas. Francis E. Smith enlists in Co. H., 15th
Kansas. (Promoted to second lieutenant October 2, 1863.) Isaac Winner enlists
in Co. H., 15th Kansas. Eli Wade enlists in Co. H., 15th Kansas. (Deserted June
29, 1865.)
AUG. 3--G. W.
Williams is paid $175 for his log house and lot by the county commissioners.
The building is to serve as a courthouse.
AUG. 18-Thirteen
mills are levied in Chase and Marion counties for county purposes. A road tax
of three mills is also levied.
J. W. S. Loy and
Christopher Borders are appointed constables for Falls township.
AUG.
30--Daniel M. Allen and Nancy E. Painter are married.
SEPT.
18--Richard T. Stevens enlists in Co. H., 15th Kansas.
SEPT.
29---Samuel Ball and Anna Bailie are married.
Page 28
OCT. 5--An election precinct is
established at the home of Peter P. Houck, in Marion county and another at the
postoffice in Marion Center. (The
home of Pete P. Houck was located in school district No. 3, (Marion county) on
the right hand bank of Houck branch near where it flows into the Cottonwood.)
OCT.
11--Charles Osmer and Eliza Pringle are married.
OCT. 21--Norman Chapman, of Bazaar
enlists in Co. I., Ninth Kansas.
Mary Shaft opens the first school taught at
Clements. She is to receive $16 a month for three months. The school is held in
the John S. Doolittle house. Carrie
Shaft teaches the school in district No. 5.
NOV.
6--Election returns from Chase county are: A. S. Howard, district attorney; E.
A. Alford, representative; A. P. Gandy, county clerk; William Morton, register
of deeds; Samuel Buchanan, treasurer; A. S. Williams, sheriff; E. R. Marden,
coroner; William P. Shreves, assessor; J. B. Hodgin, surveyor; E. W. Pinkston,
J. M. Pherson and William Flickinger, commissioners.
DEC.
19--Malcolm Campbell is made captain of the Pike military company in Lyon
county.
S. N. Wood's paper, the Council Grove
Press, stops.
DEC. 17--The most severe snow storm experienced in Chase
county since its settlement takes place. There are eight inches of snow on the
level.
DEC. 24--J. Wilkes
Booth is playing at Leavenworth. He recently paid $100 to go 60 miles in a
sleigh.
William Barnes locates at Wonsevu.
Born to Mr.
and Mrs. E. Stotts, a son and daughter, Riley and Ella; to Mr. and Mrs.
Christian Snavely, a son, Henry; to Mr. and Mrs. Kirkendall, a son, James; to
Mr. and Mrs. John Hammer, a son, Eli; to Mr. and Mrs. William Stone; a
daughter, Susan; to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Moffett, a daughter.
Esther; to Mr. and Mrs. Alva Townsend, a son, Ulysses G.; to Mr. and Mrs.
Philip Frank, a daughter, Josephine; to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Boenitz, a son,
Adolph; to Mr. and Mrs. John Curtis, a daughter, Sarah.
Page 29
1864
JAN. 1--Jacob G. Winne enlists in Co.
L., 16th New York Artificers.
JAN. 9--The mercury
registers 23 degrees below zero. For ten days the cold has been intense.
JAN. 14--Delos F.
Drinkwater is elected engrossing clerk by the house of representatives of
Kansas.
JAN. 16--Neil
Campbell returns from a visit to Scotland.
JAN. 24--George W.
Yeager and Annie C Rogler are married at Emporia. The Emporia News thanks the
bridegroom for a "new greenback."
JAN. 30--S. N. Wood
moves, in the state legislature, to strike out the word "male" from
the constitutional amendment.
FEB. 20--James
Streeter sues A. Lathrop for $100 with interest at 20 per cent and due in 1861,
and forecloses on 320 acres on South Fork.
FEB. 19--The draft
is passed. Three hundred
dollars exempts a man until the quota called for is filled.
FEB. 27--S. N. Wood
and C. V. Eskridge have a tilt in the legislature. Wood moved that the
penitentiary be located at "Emporey" where they had a hole 80 feet
deep which was dug to find water. Eskridge
moved that Sam's town was better "where they had plenty of water and
wood. There was cottonwood, basswood, and samwood, the latter of which could be
bought very cheap for any purpose."
Butler, Irving and
Otoe counties are attached to Chase county for judicial purposes.
The term "grapevine telegraph" appears in
John Fitzgerald's report of the legislature--was this the first use of the
phrase?
Louis E. Ruffieux
and wife are sued for $110 with interest at 20 per cent for four years, by
John J. Garnans, and foreclosure is made on 160 acres at mouth of Coon and
Cedar creeks.
Charles Britton
sues Phoebe Britton, of Battleboro, Vt., for divorce, for absence of more than
one year.
Nathan Cory and J.
W. Levesy have their homes destroyed by fire near Plymouth.
MARCH 12--W.
H. H. Lawrence, secretary of state, speaks at the Falls on political topics. He
denounces the election of Carney to replace Lane.
Page 30
S. N.
Wood is appointed brigadier general of the Kansas militia.
Plymouth Union League No. 96 endorses Abraham Lincoln
for president.
MARCH
15--President Lincoln calls for 300,000 more men in addition to the 500;000 men called
for February 1. After April 15 the
draft will be invoked. After April 1,
only $100 bounty will be paid.
FEB. 6-Marion
county has about 75 families. Two years ago a few families made an experiment
in farming. "Marion county has been regarded as a desert waste unfit for
agricultural purposes."-Junction City Union.
Asa Gillett opens a
writing school at Emporia.
FEB. 10--W. J. Goss, of Wisconsin,
delivers a temperance lecture at Cottonwood Falls.
D. W.
Mercer is agent for "Starke's History of the Rebellion." He has
rights for Chase, Lyon and Greenwood counties.
The state legislature
approves the bill for the Osage and Cottonwood Valley railroad. H. L. Hunt and
M. R. Leonard, of Chase county, are directors.
MARCH
8--James L. Houston enlists in Go. M., Ninth Kansas.
MARCH
21-Augustus Hegwer and Henry Hegwer re-enlist in Co. B., Ninth Kansas.
APRIL
4--Administration granted estate of William Martin.
APRIL 5--John Buchanan is appointed county commissioner
in the place of William Flickinger, resigned.
APRIL 17--William
Flickinger and Eliza Ann Buchanan are married by the Rev. William Holsinger.
APRIL 30--State
Superintendent Isaac Goodnow will visit Cottonwood Falls on May 13th. He will
speak at the Falls at 8 o'clock. He travels on horseback.
MAY 1--Kansas, having been
divided into five brigade districts, 18 regiments of militia are provided for. Lt. Col. W. S. Smith is appointed for the
eighth district with headquarters at Council Grove.
MAY 7--P. B. Plumb is made lieutenant colonel of the 11th
Kansas.
MAY
21--E. R. Marden drives 100 cattle from Chase county to market in "the east."market in
Page 31
JUNE 4--John Wesley Hawkins dies at Fort Smith, Ark.
William Holsinger makes final settlement of the estate of Gabriel Jacobs, one of the first settlers in Chase county.
JUNE 2--Michael Gleason kills his brother, Dennis Gleason
on their farm near Bazaar. The
lamentable tragedy was the result of a quarrel over a line fence. Michael armed
himself with a knife and pistol and went toward Dennis' house. In the quarrel,
Michael drew a knife and stabbed his brother. The latter died that night.
Michael was bound over by Justice Doolittle. He was convicted and sent to the
penitentiary but was released some years later.
JULY 16-- Empson L. Loy, L. D.
Hodgins, Joshua H. Murdock, William Norton, James Pruitt, Thomas Roberts,
Charles W. Rogler, Samuel Rutherfuff and William Stotts enlist in Co. C., 17th
Kansas volunteers. Asa
Bancroft, of Emporia, is captain of this company.
JULY 30--President Lincoln appoints
the first Thursday in August as a day of prayer. This will be on August 4.
AUG. 10--John Brenot arrives from
Cow creek to his cabin on the Cottonwood near the mouth of French creek. The
Indians had attacked his corn train while encamped on Cow creek. His driver
William Crammer was wounded in the shoulder by an arrow. Twenty-four of his oxen were killed by the
Indians. He afterwards found five head which had strayed, but lost the good
pony, a present to his wife from her father, Peter Martin.
AUG. 25--A Lincoln and Johnson meeting
is held at the Falls.
SEPT. 10--The settlers about Cedar
Point are leaving their homes having been warned that the Indians are coming.
They assemble at "Fort Drinkwater" just east of the post office and
from there go to Cottonwood Falls.
SEPT. 13--Simon Walters and Martha
Peyton are married. Corn is quoted at $1.25 a bushel.
SEPT.
20--Vincent W. Williams dies at Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a member of Co.
B., Ninth Kansas cavalry.
SEPT.
24-Jacob Stotler sells the Emporia News to John H. Hunt. (The News was the
paper in general circulation throughout Chase county during the war.) Richard
Leppo
Page 32
and Sarah Jane
Ball, of Middle creek, are married.
OCT. 15--Francis Bichet levies on the claim of Alexander Louis at the mouth of Cedar creek, appraised at $192.50.
OCT. 19--A Lincoln
and Johnson meeting is held at the Falls at 7 p. m. W. H. Van Cleve's farm on Bloody creek is appraised
at $250--to be sold by the sheriff.
OCT.22--The
Republican Union Chase county convention meets at the Falls. L. D. Hinckley is chairman and Delos
Drinkwater, secretary. The following
ticket is nominated: representative, M. R. Leonard; probate judge, Benjamin
Roe; county commissioners: E. Morgan and L. D. Hinckley; district clerk, Delos
F. Drinkwater; county surveyor, E. F. Williams; county attorney, H. L.
Scribner; register of deeds, F. E. Smith; superintendent of schools, J. S.
Shipman. The convention declared that the defeat of Lincoln and Johnson would
be "an irreparable calamity."
NOV 11--The total vote of Chase county
in the state election is as follows: Samuel J. Crawford 60, S. O. Thatcher 67;
district judge, R. M. Ruggles 64 and J. H. Watson 64; state senate, H. L. Hunt
69 and M. R. Leonard 61; J. B. Smith defeated B. Roe for probate judge; D. F.
Drinkwater is elected district clerk ; W. P. Shrere, surveyor; W. S. Smith, register
of deeds;. W. S. Romigh, county attorney; J. S. Shipman, county superintendent.
The vote on selling the school lands stood 117 for to nine against selling
them.
Louis Lafauner enlists in Co.
H., 15th Kansas.
NOV. 11--B. F. Talkington locates near Elmdale.
G. W. Estes
locates east of the Falls.
The Lutherans organize a church at the Falls with eight members.
DEC. 31-The following persons were born in Chase county during the year
'64: Marcellus Moore, Edward Fink, Augustus Hegwer, Ettie Buchanan, Nat B.
Scribner, Mary O'Donnell, C. C. Rider, Mary A. Johnson, Herbert Barrett; Mary
Spurgeon, Joseph Laloge, Alveretta Hassler, Oro Taylor, Orlando Romigh, George
Dixon, Emma Sharp, Taney Alford; Charles Brandley; Martha Mercer; S. A.
Buchanan; C. F. Benot, Josie Frank, H. Dunlap, W. S. Alford; James Holmes and
Cordelia Adams.
1865
JAN. 2-Orville Thompson and Samuel
Buchanan ask that the township of Toledo be vacated. The commissioners grant the request.
Page 33
The
commissioners grant the request.
JAN. 29--Henry L.
Hilbrant Co. M., Ninth Kansas, at Fort Leavenworth.
FEB. 13--Order No. 44 is issued by
General Dodge. All cattle belonging
to Indians are to be taken
charge by the government. (Large herds had been brought into Chase county by white men.)
FEB. 14---Samuel
Ball of Chase county and Mary Moon are married.
FEB.15--The State
Normal School at Emporia begins.
MARCH
3--Administration granted on estate of Henry L. Hilbrant, who died at Fort
Leavenworth January 29.
J. W. S. Loy is made administrator of the estate of
George Oldburg.
MARCH
4--Captain G. D. Humphrey, United States secret service, raids Jacobs
creek and takes charge of 200 head of cattle under Order. 44. The men in charge
of the cattle claimed no knowledge of the true owners of the cattle. Chase county during the war, was
infested by a number of men who made a practice of raiding the herds of the
Indians in the territory south of Kansas. During one of these raids, one of them was killed by the Indians. Dick Pratt, of South Fork, about whom many stories of
adventure were told by the early settlers was a leader among the men who
preyed upon the Indian herds. He
could speak the Indian language, having lived among them during his youth. He
went about in
the typical garb of the frontiersman and was
the hero of youths of Chase county. He
was in many ways the Robin Hood of the Flint Hills.
His home was just south of Bazaar, on South Fork. The action of
the government under Captain Humphrey, of Lyon county brought the unhappy
business to a sharp close. It must be
said in extenuation of the men who raided the Indians that the spirit of
retaliation went far to justify those engaged in it in their immediate
neighborhoods; there were few early settlers who had not suffered in kind from
the Indians.
MARCH
5--Thomas Roberts and Mary Ball are married in Emporia; also Phillip Peyton and
Liddy Ann Sharp.
MARCH 18--The
list of drafted men for Chase county is published. It includes Francis Bernard,
John Sharp; M. Lacy, Frederick Locke, James Heskett, John McCoosike, M. R.
Leonard;
Page 34
George W. Williams, Frank Crissup and O. W. Fawcett. The
100 per cent men are John Miller, William Stone, Samuel Walters, Michael
Norton, Asa Taylor, Pat Ryan; E. A. Alford; S. N. Wood; Thomas Roberts and
Michael Frachee.
Richard
Sayre locates on Cedar creek buying the claim and log cabin of John Sharp.
A Cottonwood
Falls storekeeper is imposed upon by his friends and hires a substitute for
$100. He gives two ponies as equivalent to that amount. The substitute, with the
two ponies, marched away to the war, apparently, and the merchant discovered
the hoax when it was too late.
MARCH
19--George W. Williams and Mary A. Smith are married.
APRIL 1--The
Rev. C. Meadows is assigned to the Falls Methodist church by J. Shaw presiding
elder.
APRIL 3--J.
W. S. Loy is granted a license for $100 to sell liquor at the Falls.
APRIL 9--Lee
surrenders to Grant and the rebellion is at a close.
APRIL 13--A.
M. Taylor is at the Falls to deliver fruit trees ordered.
APRIL 14--Abraham
Lincoln is shot and dies at 7:00 o'clock the following morning. The word is
received in Emporia and brought to Chase county by messenger. All business is suspended and memorial
services arranged.
MAY 2--Ellis Smith and Sarah Winner are
married.
Edson Baxter and Rebecca Shreve are married.
MAY
14-Charles Britton and Matilda Balch are married.
JUNE
11--Orville Thompson and Emma Justice are married.
JUNE 12--David Edmonds and Lois Dunlap
are married.
Marion county is detached
from Chase county.
JUNE 18--John
Miller is drowned near Cottonwood Falls. He is a son of Jane Miller of South
Fork and a brother of Patrick and Arch Miller. John Miller was the first of the Miller family to locate in Chase
county, coming in 1856.
JULY 1--O. J. Hunt
and E. L. Hunt buy the Emporia News.
Charles A. Britton is running a grist and saw mill on the
Neosho above Emporia.
Page 35
JULY 3--The county commissioners
order the following abandoned claims to be taken from the tax lists: Michael
Gleason, Asa Hall, J. J. Gifford, Horace Hall, L. D. Hinckley, Charles Stone,
Jesse Kelm and Harmon Hayworth.
A petition for a road from the
Osage crossing of the Cottonwood river at Cahoone's ford up Diamond creek is
ordered by the commissioners.
JULY 28--Orlow H. Drinkwater and
Sarah Ann Baubletts are married by William Barnes, justice of the peace.
JULY 30--Walter Watson and Mrs.
Mary Judson are married.
Final settlement with the
commissioners of Marion county is made. Sixty dollars is ordered paid for the
three dram shop licenses issued.
AUG. 7--First election in Marion
county--23 votes cast.
AUG. 9--The county commissioners call an election to
vote bonds for the Leavenworth Lawrence and Fort Gibson Railway for September
12, 1865. The total amount is fixed at $150,000 in stock of the corporation,
the bonds to run 30 years at 7 per cent interest. This was in response to a
mass meeting held at the Falls and presided over by S. N. Wood, temporary
chairman, and H. R. Mardin, permanent chairman, W. S. Smith and W. S. Romigh,
secretaries. The committee on resolutions at this mass convention consisted of
S. N. Wood, H. L. Scribner, James Houston, J. S. Doolittle and John Buchanan.
This was the first movement in Chase county in the way of voting bonds for
railroads and one which led to the bitterest of local contests in the political
history of Chase county.
The
county commissioners levy a tax of 12 mills for county purposes and three mills for road tax.
Doctor Lacey has the first "top buggy" in Chase
county. It cost $200.
AUG. 23--Henry Reeve and Julia Ann Holsinger are married
by the Rev. William Holsinger.
AUG. 26--Henry Brandley now a captain,
returns home after three years of service in the army. He was wounded at Fort Halleck. He was captain of Co. B, Ninth Kansas.
SEPT. 3-- Louise Ann
Lannum, of Indian creek, and James P. Goodall, sheriff of Butler county, are
married by Charles Rogler justice of the peace.
Page 36
Dr. G. W. Williams leaves Emporia and returns to Cottonwood
Falls, to practice medicine. He left
the Falls about a year ago.
John Buchanan of Toledo, moves to Pleasant Hill, Missouri. The
Missouri Pacific railroad has reached that point from St. Louis, and Chase
county is asked to vote bonds to bring this railroad from Pleasant Hill through
Cottonwood Falls.
SEPT. 12--The election to vote bonds for the L. L. and F. G.
Railway in the amount of $150,000 results in a vote of 59 votes for to three
against, a total of 62 votes.
SEPT.
13---Milton Lindley and Sophronia Hackney are married at Plymouth.
SEPT.
14--Emporia holds a community picnic for 'the old' soldiers of Companies C and E of the Ninth
Kansas. A number of Chase county
soldiers attend.
Dr. Allen
White, formerly of Americus, but lately of Cottonwood Falls, informs the News that Cottonwood Falls is rapidly improving.
SEPT. 23---E. R. Mardin drives 130 head of beef
cattle to eastern markets. State Superintendent Goodnow visits the
schools at Plymouth and the Falls. He
travels on horseback.
Abram Bales has 800 peach trees four years old. He planted them in 1861, from seed brought
from East Tennessee.
Colonel Charles S. Hill returns from the war.
SEPT. 29--A
new treaty is made with the Osage Indians.
SEPT 30--D. F. Drinkwater visits Cedar
Point, his former home. He is a clerk in the agricultural
department, and is secretary of the United Press association of Washington.
The flag of
the second regiment is returned to Topeka.
Horse thieves steal a lot of horses
on Middle and Mud creeks and are traced to the Sac and reservations where 26 of the horses are "recovered." It is said that the Indian agent will have
the thieves arrested.
OCT. 2--The Diamond creek road is declared a public highway.
A petition is filed asking for a road from A. P. Gandy's home
east to S. N. Wood's home, then across the ford and east to the county line
near the Jackson home. The petition is granted.
OCT. 22--William Osborn and Hannah
Moffett are married.
Page 37
NOV. 10-The vote of Chase county is as follows:
state senator, Mahlon Stubbs 65 and R. R. Riggs 78, representative S. N.
Wood 105 and O. H. Drinkwater 46,
probate judge, Lot Leonard 26 and Samuel Beverlin 116, county clerk, W. S. Romigh
87 sheriff, J. H. Scribner 75, William Osmer 40 and James Fisher 25; coroner,
J. S. Mitchell 65, E. R. Mardin 37 and Arch Miller 41 county treasurer, Dr.
Allen White 53, A. P. Gandy 49 and M. R. Leonard 41, county surveyor, William
Osmer 97 and G. W. Brickell 38, recorder, George Collett 53, F. M. Buchanan 43
and H. Brandley 49, assessor, John McCorkle 145, county attorney, S. N. Wood
71, county commissioner, E. H. Morgan 134, C. G. Allen 74 and J. S. Doolittle
74.
S.
P. Watson locates on Fox creek, W. H. Cox, near Matfield Green, M. E. Hunt,
near Clements; G. W. Brickell, near Saffordville.
DEC. 27--Fred Pracht and Marinda Pratt are married.
DEC. 31--Cottonwood Falls now consists of 11 houses, all but
four of them being small log cabins. Only one house is finished inside. There
are two dry goods and grocery stores, one hotel, one steam saw mill, one
blacksmith shop, two doctors, Allen White and G. W. Williams; one lawyer.
There are about one hundred people on the townsite.
1866
JAN. 1--The
surveyors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway reach Chase county. They
are seeking the best route from Topeka to the Arkansas river.
The
county commissioners meet and allow bills. The members are E. W. Pinkston, E.
H. Morgan and L. D. Hinckley. The amount of warrants outstanding is $1,259.58.
There is a large increase in the population of Chase
county.
George
Balch and Martha C. J. Houston are married at the Houston home 9 miles above
the Falls.
FEB. 11--Henry
Collett and Shaloma E. C. Houston are married.
FEB. 22--Administration is granted the estate of G. M. L. Leonard. The deceased enlisted in September, 1862.
Page 38
He was taken prisoner in the Cherokee nation in 1864 and in 1865 was assigned to Company D., Second Kansas.
FEB.--Charles S. Hills, now Colonel Hills, once postmaster at the Falls, goes to St. Louis, Mo., to be a member of the wholesale firm of Perley, Hills and Co. He left the Falls to enlist at the outbreak of the war in the "Old Second" and rose to the colonelcy of the 10th regiment. While postmaster at the Falls he carried the mail in his hat, on foot to Emporia, and "toted" a sack of flour back.
FEB. 28--Administration granted estate of Patrick Miller. He was the second son of Jane Miller to die within a year. Patrick was one of the first settlers on South Fork, coming in '56.
MARCH 4--Albin Brandley is married to Mary Caroline Sharp. She is the only woman I ever knew who had killed a wildcat," he often said.
Dr. A. Harrington and Sarah Lannum are married.
MARCH 17--After great losses by Texas fever in 1860, the legislature passed a law forbidding any cattle being brought from Texas, Arkansas or Indian territory between April 1 and November 1, of each year. This law was approved May 1, 1861.
S. N. Wood has the first corn planter in Chase county.
APRIL 2--Samuel Buchanan offers final settlement of the county treasurer's office. The statement is refused. The county commissioners claiming a balance due of $4,779.33.
APRIL 4--Carrie Roe and John Bay are married. A. P. Gandy is appointed county treasurer, Dr. Allen White having resigned. Dr. White moves to Emporia.
APRIL 16--Thomas Winn is granted a license to sell liquor at the Falls.
Miss Mary Holton of Council Grove, is teaching the school at the Falls. (Miss Holton and Dr. Allen White were married the next year. They are the parents of the American novelist and newspaperman, William Allen White, of Emporia.
APRIL 21--Many families are coming into Chase county.
Charles Rogler follows cattle thieves from Matfield Green to Burlingame and recovers six head of cattle after a brush with the thieves.
The Missouri Pacific railway is being urged to build from Pleasant Hill, Mo., to Cottonwood Falls. Chase county has $125,000 in stock for the first railroad which reaches its borders.
Page 39
The Missouri Pacific is known as the St. Louis and Santa Fe.
The townsite of Toledo is being vacated and a town laid out on the 80 acres of the original townsite by members of the Society of Friends.
MAY 12--Charles Britton sells his interest in the Falls mill to Lambdin Brothers.
MAY 26--S. N. Wood is elected superintendent of the St. Louis and Santa Fe railroad.
Chase county now has 1,000 people and 200 voters.
JUNE 10--The Cottonwood river is ten feet higher than ever before and everybody turns out to save the mill.
JUNE 17--Wakefield Hill and Julia Ann Pitzer are married.
JUNE 30--Henry Penrod has the contract to carry the mail from Emporia to Cottonwood Falls twice a week. James Jackson will carry the mail from Falls to Towanda semi-weekly.
James R. Mead passes through Bazaar with 1,500 buffalo robes. Two weeks ago a train of several wagons loaded with skins passed through from Towanda.
At the election to vote bonds to finish the new schoolhouse at the Falls 64 votes were cast, and only one voted against the bonds. Three women, Mrs. Hinckley, Mrs. Romigh and Mrs. Gandy were the judges of the election.
JULY 4--Chase county celebrates the 90th anniversary of Independence. Cottonwood Falls is chosen as the place. A liberty pole is raised and the ex-soldiers unfurl a flag and sing "Rally 'Round the Flag Boys." Thirty-five young ladies on horseback represent the states and little girls on ponies the territories of the United States. S. M. Wood reads the Declaration of Independence and J. B. Smith, Washington's Farewell to His Army. The Rev. Cyrus G. Allen gives an address to the Sunday schools of Chase county and after a basket dinner, Col. S. N. Wood addresses the Soldiers. William Campbell, a veteran of the War of 1812, made a short patriotic address and was given an ovation by the soldiers. Mr. Campbell is 70 years old and lives on a homestead on Middle creek.
JULY 29--Andrew Swanson of Middle creek is married to Rosa Ann Winner.
AUG. 25--There are now 30 houses in Cottonwood Falls.
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The new school is to cost $4,000. The Rev. A G Smith is the Methodist minister and the Rev. C. G. Allen, the Baptist. The total outstanding orders against the county, $881.80.
AUG. 28--Daniel Bundy and Amanda Allen are married.
SEPT. 1--The Republican county convention nominates the following ticket: representative, S. N. Wood; treasurer, A. P. Gandy; assessor, Joel Willis; probate judge, J. B. Smith; clerk, M. R. Leonard; superintendent of schools M. E. Hunt; and Henry Brandley was endorsed for state senator. The convention proved to be a stormy one and four members withdrew. They are D. P. Shaft, B. H. Vanderin, C. G. Allen and Robert Brash. Only ten members of the convention remain. The grasshoppers arrive in great swarms.
Chase county's levy is cut from 11 mills for last year to five mills for this year.
SEPT. 22--A. R. Ice states that he raised 824 bushels of wheat from 16 acres.
The discharged soldiers of Chase county meet in convention at the Falls. George Balch is elected president and C. M. Wood, secretary. They proceed to nominate a county ticket. Captain Henry Brandley receives 18 votes for representative and H. L. Scribner one. William Osmer is nominated for surveyor; and the constitutional amendments and the Republican party are endorsed. The committee on resolutions includes W. S. Smith, A. J. Crocker, George Balch, William Osmer, William Houston and C. W. Rogler.
OCT. 6--H. L. Scribner and S. N. Wood are elected delegates to the Burlington convention, to secure a senator to southwest Kansas.
OCT. 15--A mass meeting is held at Cottonwood Falls, C. M. Wood, Isaac Alexander, E. R. Mardin W. J. Daugherty and T. A. Hunt form the committee in charge. Half the voters of the county attended and many women.
OCT. 20--James Fisher and Jont Wood kill a big black bear on the Cottonwood just east of the Falls. How the bear got here is unknown. He was first seen near Mr. Fisher's house.
NOV. 7--The Republican ticket is elected in Chase county, excepting for state senator, Reuben Riggs defeating S. N. Wood.
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The Chase county commissioners throw out the vote of Cottonwood township which gave Riggs 20 votes to three for Wood. This change elects Wood.
Harriet Alford is administratrix for the estate of E. A. Alford.
DEC. 8--Chase county raises $100,000 worth of cattle this year, $50,000 worth of wheat and wool also are sold.
School district No. 18 holds a two-months term. Five farmers paid $10 each and Ola Drinkwater was employed.
Charles Aldrich comes from Arkansas and located in the Falls. He is the first negro to make Chase county his home.
DEC. 19--Malcolm Campbell and Sarah Barker of Plymouth are married.
David Messer and T. J. Pyles settle in Chase county.
Amos Noyes locates on Fox creek.
Thomas Sayre locates on Cedar creek.
DEC 31--Born in the year in Chase county: Sarah Robertson, Rosetta Moore, Amy Moffett, Lawrence Parker, William C Pratt, Albert P. Brickell, Addison Bales, William Peyton, Hannah Spurgeon, Bell Frank, Samantha Piles, Francis Laloge, Nora Hassler, David Stevenson, Mary E. Wood; Nancy Romigh, Mary B. Waters, Elinore Newkirk, Ernest Benoetz, Cyrus Curtis, Effie Fritze, Benjamin F. Heskett, Henry Fink, Edward Hegwer, Charles Holmes, Joseph Shavely, Charles Shaft, William F. Messer, Thomas N. Sharp, Mary A. Jeffrey and Arthur Wood.
1866
JAN. 1--Henry C. Snyder one of the first settlers of Chase county, is married to Alice J. Allen.
William Pringle and Mary Ball are married.
JAN. 7--Administration is granted the estate of A. M. Landsbery.
JAN. 13--Bernard McCabe and Jane Wisel are married.
FEB. 3--S. R. Sayre and Luvinia Higgins are married.
FEB. 7--Charles Fish and Angeline Pringle are married.
MAR. 5--E. M. Hayworth and Miss N. S. Mardin are married.
Thomas Winn and Augusta Caldwell are married.
MARCH 11--Ira Nichols and Mary J. Studebaker are married.
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MAR. 16--School district No. 14 is formed.
APR. 8--Administration is granted the estates of Lillian Moffitt, G. R. Miller and William C. Shaft.
C. R. Britton becomes the sole owner of the Falls mill.
U. B. Warren of Emporia, opens a hardware store in Cottonwood Falls.
A mail route is established between Junction City and the Falls.
Lucy Stone of New York speaks at the Falls on "Woman Suffrage."
APR. 12--School district No. 13 is formed.
APRIL 15-Mrs. F. E. Smith dies at the Falls, aged 26 years.
MAY 12--Ephriam W. Pinkston, one of the first settlers on the upper Cottonwood is married to Clara Jane Young.
MAY 24--A severe earthquake is felt in Chase county. People in stone houses were greatly alarmed. The shock lasted 15 seconds.
Wheat is worth $3.00 a bushel at Emporia.
George W. Estes drives a number of fine Durham bulls and heifers from Illinois to the Mardin ranch east of the Falls.
A little daughter of Pleasant Jones, of Toledo township, is burnt to death in a prairie fire.
Cattle are dying from Texas fever.
Southern Chase county is filling up with settlers.
Col. Charles S. Hills is married in Indiana to Miss Eva Babbitt.
Dr. M. R. Leonard offers 760 acres of land at Bazaar for sale at $5.00 an acre. It includes the townsite of Bazaar, 80 acres under cultivation and 120 acres fenced. It has a log cabin on it which Dr. Leonard built in '57.
JULY 1--Sarah Ann Buskirk and Cyrus M. Brown are married.
The July session of the Chase County Commissioners is held. J. S. Doolittle, C. G. Allen and E. H. Morgan are the members.
AUG. 3--The first issue of the Chase County Banner by Theodore Alford and Co. Among the items are the following: Rev. Olympia Brown is announced to preach at the schoolhouse in the Falls, August 25, on the subject “The Women in the Bible.” In the evening she will speak on “Suffrage.”
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She is a graduate of Antoch college and reads the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew, the Banner states. Miss Bessie Bisbee of Vermont, and Miss R. H. Henry of Topeka, will speak at Mitchell's and Bazaar on the 7th, and at Toledo on the 8th. H. L. Hunt is building a new house in town. Isaac Alexander starts a new shingle mill in the Falls. The first story of the new mill at the Falls is up. L. D. Hinckley is building a fine house in the Falls for a hotel. A. P. Gandy's building is almost done. Dr George Williams and F. A. Hunt will use the first floor for a drug store and the Banner will be printed upstairs. (This building stood where the old Chase County National Bank building now stands.) Two men from Wisconsin have taken a claim at the Osage crossing and are building a dam. They will build a mill. The Cedar Creek election precinct is organized on the petition of William Barnes and others. Isaac Alexander sells home shingles at $4.50 per thousand.
JULY 5--Governor Crawford calls for eight companies of volunteers for a cavalry regiment to be mustered into the United States service for four months campaign against the Indians who are murdering people in western Kansas.
A. P. Wentworth, one of the first settlers east of the Falls, is cultivating a crop of 75 acres of corn and other grains.
C. V. Eskridge and S. N. Wood have had another tilt, this time in the matter of woman suffrage. It would be difficult to find a stronger presentment of the reasons for granting to women the right of suffrage than that made by Colonel Wood: "Women have the same intellects as men; they have the same accountability to God; they are punished for the violation of laws the same as men. She is taxed to support government. The question is shall she have a voice, a vote in that government?"
JULY 29--The camp meeting is announced by Rev. C. R Rice and Rev. Thomas Murdock for August 30, 1867, on Cedar Creek 25 miles southwest of Cottonwood Falls. "We invite all southwestern Kansas to come with their wagons, provisions and tents and meet with us to worship God and pray that the hearts and lives of all the people in these new settlements may be made to conform with the character of Jesus, that their influence may live and grow forever." (Was there ever a finer dedication of new land than this call to the first camp meeting on Cedar Creek?).
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JULY 28--Virginia Barks who taught the Cottonwood Falls school last year is drowned in the Neosho river near Hartford. She was a graduate of Cornell college, in Iowa, and was only 26 years old. The buggy in which she was riding was overturned in the high waters and in spite of the best efforts of William Harden, she was swept away to her death.
AUG. 29--Elizabeth Cady Stanton is announced for a speech on suffrage, at Cottonwood Falls, October 8.
George W. Yeager reports that the crops around Bazaar are very fine this year.
AUG. 24--A troop of the 18th Kansas has a two days fight with the Indians on the Republican river and are compelled to retire before 1,000 Indians. There is great uneasiness felt by the settlers.
SEPT. 13—Col. W. A. Phillips comes down the Cottonwood valley on his way to the Cherokee Neutral lands. He thinks the Cottonwood valley is "hard to beat."
SEPT. 17--The Indians are reported in Marion county and the settlers prepare to defend themselves. Twenty horses are stolen in Marion county. The citizens pursue them but are unable to recover their property.
SEPT. 28--A "Grand Anti-Female Suffrage Rally" is held at Cottonwood Falls.
OCT. 2--Captain H. Brandley and Kitty Patterson of Topeka, are married.
OCT. 8--Elizabeth Cady Stanton speaks at the Falls.
OCT. 11--The campaign is fast becoming one of the most heated in the history of the county. There are three amendments to the constitution to be voted upon at the election this fall. They are: (1) To strike out the word "white" and so enfranchise the negroes; (2) to strike out the word "male" and give women the right to vote; (3) to restrict franchises to loyal persons. The Democratic platform is opposed to all of the three amendments, while the Republicans favor them. S. N. Wood is recognized as one of the leaders in the suffrage cause and his home at the Falls is the meeting place of many distinguished speakers--among them Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
OCT. 22--A non-partisan convention is held at the Falls. The nominations are: district judge, W. R. Brown; representative, O. H. Drinkswater; treasurer, M. R. Leonard; sheriff,
Page 45
E. R. Mardin; register of deeds, R. Hunt; clerk, A. S. Howard; assessor, W. N. Bond; commissioners, H. L. Hunt, E. B. Crocker and O. H. Drinkwater; county attorney, B. Jeffrey; coroner, G. W. Williams. The chairman was J. B. Smith.
William Wagoner and Mary Landsberry are married.
OCT. 25--James R. Mead passes through Bazaar with 1,200 buffalo robes for the New York market. He lives at Towanda and owns the Wichita Agency premises. He buys furs from the Kiowas, Commanches, and other tribes. His agents understand the Indian languages and live among the Indians. His sales of furs and robes amounts to very large sums yearly.
NOV. 1--Elizabeth Cady Stanton agrees to buy the S. N. Wood farm just east of the Falls, if suffrage carries at the election, and make Kansas her home. She is to pay $12 an acre for the land. There are 1,200 acres in the farm.
Administration is granted the estates of H. L. Scribner and Joseph Pitzer.
NOV. 8--The Independent ticket is elected in Chase county with the exception of M. R. Leonard--A. P. Gandy being elected treasurer. Chase county goes against woman suffrage by seven votes.Negro suffrage fails to carry by three votes. In the state both amendments were beaten by 10,000 votes.
NOV. 19--Dr. Trowbridge comes to the Falls to do dental work. He will stay for two weeks.
NOV. 22--John V. Sanders comes from Indiana to practice law. John and F. M. Buchanan, of the Falls, offer their three farms for sale: 1,000 acres on the Cottonwood below the mouth of Middle creek for $10,000; 150 acres three miles east of the Falls, all bottom land and improved, for $2,000; and 80 acres on Buckeye for $250. (A showing of land values in Chase county in '67.)
NOV. 29--J. B. Smith has bought a portable saw mill. John and Lucien Manley are building a saw mill at Bazaar. The lack of lumber is the drawback to this country.
DEC. 14--Joab Murphy and Sarah Moffett are married; also Nathan Coggshall and Mary Ann Ellis.
DEC. 13--W. G. Walker, of Case county, Iowa, who owns thousands of acres here, comes to look over his lands. A number of families from Indiana locate near Bazaar. W. R. Brown locates in the Falls;
Page 46
John O'Byrne locates on Diamond creek; F. B. Hunt at the Falls; Mart Umberger on Diamond creek; Joshua Kemp near Toledo; Mahlon H. Lewis near Toledo.
Born during the year: To Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Talkington a son, William A.; to Mr. and Mrs. John Buchanan a son, Orlo; to Mr. and Mrs. John Hammer a daughter, Mary C.; to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Collett, a son, Franklin; to Mr. and Mrs. Jabez Dart a son, Omer; to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bond, a son, Clarence; to Mr. and Mrs. Simon Walters a daughter, Mary; to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Shellenbarger a son, Weston; to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hancock a son, William; to Mr. and Mrs. John Stone a daughter, Martha; to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barber a daughter, Emma J.; to Mr. and Mrs. Ogden Barrett a son, Fred; to Mr. and Mrs. William Wedding a son, John; to Mr. and Mrs. William Crissup a daughter, Juliette; to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Vanderin a daughter, Susan; to Mr. and Mrs. Beverlin a son, William C.; to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sayre a daughter, Ella J.; to Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Laloge a son, Claudius; to Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Newby a daughter, Annie; to Mr. and Mrs. William M. Stevenson a son, Andrew; to Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Howard a son, Benjamin Franklin; to Mr. and Mrs. Cahoone a son, Francis; to Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Gandy a daughter, Flora; to Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Rockwood a son, Herbert; to Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Hinckley a son, Roy; to Mr. and Mrs. James Faris a daughter, Rebecca; to Mr. and Mrs. William Dixon a son, James; to Mr. and Mrs. William Keller a daughter, Ollie M.; to Mr. and Mrs. George W. Yeager a son, George; to Mr. and Mrs. Mercer a son, David; to Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Holmes a son, Louis; to Mr. and Mrs. Peter Swingel a son, Oscar J.; to Mr. and Mrs. Nowlan a daughter, Marian; to Mr. and Mrs. Sharp a daughter. Marietta.
1868
JAN. 1--Robert French is killed while hauling corn from Dr. Leonard's to Bazaar. The team ran away and in passing through a gate, a rail struck French over the heart. He leaves a widow and three children.
JAN. 10--The Emporia News has an article on Co. B., of the Ninth Kansas, in the course of which it is said "Henry Brandley became captain of the company. He was wounded at Fort Halleck, Idaho, in a fight with the Indians.
Page 47
Robert L. Madden, lieutenant, resigned in '63 and enlisted in the Fourth United States artillery. They both live at Matfield Green now. Sergeant Aaron B. Watson, Isaac Alexander and Henry Reeve live in Cottonwood Falls. August and Henry Hegwer live on Diamond creek. P. B. McCabe lives at Bazaar. William Lyon of this company died at Atchison and was buried with military honors."
M. E. Hunt is married in Minnesota.
P. F. W. Peck of Chicago, receives patents for 14 sections of land in range 6 east. These lands were donated to the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Fort Gibson railway.
JAN. 31--Marion county asks legislation for a special act for a herd law. The prairies are being homesteaded and the material for fencing is lacking. Chase county does not favor a herd law.
Arnold Brandley opens a jewelry store in Cottonwood Falls.
FEB. 4--Administration granted estate of C. B. Yale.
Cottonwood Falls has 200 people now.
FEB. 22--A. J. Crocker builds a large home on his farm on Peyton creek.
MARCH 1--Peter Martin and Rosalie Martinot are married at Cedar Point.
MARCH 6--Dennis Lansberry and Mary F. E. Avery are married at Matfield Green.
E. R. Mardin sells his farm and moves to the Falls. He is sheriff.
H. L. Hunt's and Jane Shaft's farms are swept by fire. Several thousand posts and rails are burned.
The west mail from Emporia for Cottonwood Falls, Moore's ranch and Towanda now requires two sacks instead of one. The people need tri-weekly service. It takes letters a week to reach Towanda or Moore's ranch.
Col W. H. H. Lawrence announces the new town of Wichita which has just been laid out at the mouth of the Little Arkansas. "The new town now has a store, a blacksmith shop and other buildings. The lands about there were Osage lands, purchased by treaty September 25, 1865. They reach east and west 50 miles and are 20 miles wide, including in all 2,000,000 acres. A meeting of the Wichita Town and Land Company will be held in Emporia April 21, 1868."
Page 48
MARCH 20--Col. S. N. Wood unites with the church, says the Emporia News.
MARCH 24--Mrs. C. A. Britton dies at the Falls, aged 25 years.
APRIL 3--The Rev. N. Wolpert is assigned to the Methodist church at the
Falls.
APRIL 17--A lodge of Free Masons
is being organized at the Falls.
APRIL 24--General Phil Sheridan has ordered two companies of cavalry to
the south of the Little Arkansas. The Indians are acting ugly.
JUNE 3--Twenty-five families from western Chase and Marion counties come
to Cottonwood Falls for protection from the Indians. Many of them are encamped on the courthouse grounds--others are in
the homes of the townspeople. Many men have brought their families to safety
and are returning to guard their homes and stock. The people from Cedar creek drove across the high prairies to the
Falls in the night. Others gathered at
"Fort Drinkwater" a mile east of Cedar Point and others at
Shaft's place on Silver creek. Indian
scouts had been seen along the border of Marion county. One hundred sixty
Cheyennes in war paint crossed Marion county to Council Grove in the evening
and had a fight with the Kaws six miles below town. They fought for an hour or
so, and then the Cheyennes retired to camp just west of Council Grove. In the
morning they were gone. The Kaws numberd only 100. They pursued the Cheyennes to within three miles of the town. Two
Indians were wounded in the fight. By this time about 250 settlers had been
gotten together and cooperating with the militia from Cottonwood Falls they
followed the Cheyennes to see that no depredations were committed. (One of the women who was in
Cottonwood Falls at the time says that as soon as the word was brought that the
men had come back from the pursuit of the Indians nothing could keep them
longer in the place of safety. " They just dropped whatever they were doing
when they heard that their men folks were home and in no time they had the team
or oxen hitched to the wagon, got the children in, and off they started.")
A man who represented himself as the
son of an English nobleman gets away with $300 in the form of a loan from Mrs.
Wemys Smith of Fox creek.
Page 49
A writer in the
Courant years later tells of the Cheyenne raid on June 8, 1888. "On Sunday evening, June 7, the news was
brought to Council Grove that the Cheyennes were coming by thousands. On Monday
morning Mr. Beals, from Clear creek, Marion county, came to Council Grove and
said he had seen the Indians at Lank Moore's ranch, then called Cottonwood
Holes, and later Crane's ranch. Sam
Stribby, Matt McDonald and John Polk were sent west seven miles to warn the
settlers. They went as far as the Lockwood farm, and when they returned as far
as Polk's farm the Indians were only a mile behind them, coming at full speed. They were overtaken a mile from town. The chief assured them that they would
not hurt them, and came into town with them. Charley Whittaker, an old trader, acted as interpreter, and
learned that the Cheyennes wanted to fight the Kaws three miles below Council
Grove. The Kaws had killed 12
Cheyennes at Fort Zarah the fall before.
They crossed the old bridge on the run, a lot of the whites going with them to
see the fight. The Kaws had been
warned and came out of the woods at Big John creek on foot and in the fight
three Cheyennes were wounded. The Cheyennes came back to town and started for
their reservation below Fort Dodge. Word soon came back that they were killing cattle and running off
horses as they went. The writer was sent to Cottonwood Falls to tell W. S.
Smith, colonel of the militia, to march up Diamond creek and flank the Indians.
When he got to the Falls he found great excitement. People were coming from all directions and the women and
children were being put in places of refuge. H. L. Hunt was
busy looking after the comfort of the people. Fisher was sent down the Cottonwood to warn the people towards
Emporia, which he did thoroughly. The
writer left Cottonwood Falls at 9 o' clock at night and got to
Council Grove by 11:00. Fifteen scouts
under John P. Caldwell went west as far as Diamond Springs. Then they went down that stream until they
came to Sol Heskett's place. Henry
Coryell, Pat O'Byrne and Sol Heskett were the ones in charge of this group. Col. W. S. Smith reached them about dark. Captain Murray was sent on with ten men, and
they mistook Heskett's herd for Indians and shot three of them. About a week later Governor Crawford
sent four wagon loads of muskets to the settlers."--Matt McDonald in the Courant.
Page 50
JUNE 19--A militia
company is organized at Cottonwood Falls. Dr.
G. W. Williams is elected captain.
JULY
6--Administration is granted the estate of J. B. Smith.
JULY 23--Archibald
Miller and Mary McNee are married; also John Prather and Sophia Sheldon. W. G.
Williams and Martha Ellen Jackson.
AUG. 1--The Rev. C.
R. Rice writes to the News: "There are no settlements from Council Grove
to Cottonwood Falls, except a few along Fox creek. I saw one or two new houses in the Falls. I went to Cedar Point from the Falls. This is
going to be a town I suppose. I went up Cedar to near its head. This is the
dryest country I have found. There will be no corn raised. There is perhaps
wheat enough for bread. There will not be 200 bushels from the Falls to the
head of Cedar. The country is comparatively new and there is little land in
cultivation."
AUG. 16--Thomas
Murphy and Ellen Randall are married by Father Ponziglione.
AUG. 26--Asa Gillett
and Mrs. Barbara Wilson are married at Plymouth.
AUG. 27--William
Flickinger's wife and two daughters have died since August 12, at Toledo.
SEPT. 3--Henry
Greenleaf and Mrs. Phoebe Purcell are married.
SEPT.
14--Administration is granted estate of E. H. Morgan.
AUG. 18--Five militia companies are called by
Governor Crawford on account of the Indian atrocities in the western half of
Kansas. (Later the
government called for one regiment, and the 19th Kansas was organized, Governor
Crawford resigning the governorship to take command of the regiment.)
OCT. 5--Administration
letters granted estate of Levi Mann.
OCT. 9--Frank
Giliett opens a store in the Falls.
OCT.
19--Administration letters are granted estate of John Norton.
OCT.
24--Edwin E. Hinckley and Nancy M. Hill are married.
OCT.
25--Benjamin Lansberry and Betsy Wagoner are married.
Page 51
NOV. 5--The entire Republican ticket is
elected in Chase county.
A Baptist church is being organized at the
Falls.
NOV. 9--The 19th Kansas goes west
under command of Colonel Crawford.
Theodore Alford sells his interest in the
Chase County Banner. He may start another
paper.
NOV. 12--Henry Wagoner and Nancy M. Lannum
are married.
NOV.
18--Jacob Pyne and Emma Crawford are married.
Frank Wisel
and Elva J. Davis are married.
DEC. 6—Dr.
U. B. Murwin and Permelia French are married.
William
Keller kills an elk on Middle creek that weighs 700 pounds.
John Brenot,
of Cedar Point, sells a buffalo which he had raised from a calf.
DEC.
31--Born in Chase county in the year '68: Guy Johnson, Ida Estes, Adolph Seiker, Cora Spurgeon, Lizzie Reeve,
Susan Kelly, Ethel Johnson, Sarah Fish, Albert C. Balch, James Crissup, William
R. Sayre, Harriett Hassler, John Peyton, Carrie Wood, Margaret Breese, Porter
Martin, Willard Swanson, Ida Faris, Susie Holsinger, Emma Britton; Minnie B.
Pinkston, Lucy Drinkwater, William Snaverly, Edward L. Brenot, Emma Piles, CharIes Crocker, Levina Hancock, Bart
Shipman, Clara Robertson, Sarah J. Moore, Luck Moffett, Frank Perry, Ellen Lawrence,
Charles Murray, Jerusha Newkirk, Clara B. Lane, Nettie Leonard, Wilson Sharp,
Marietta McCabe.
1869
JAN. 2--H. L. Hunt is administrator of
estate of J. B. Smith.
Dr. G. W.
Williams buys interest of F. A. Hunt in the Corner Drug store.
The new term
of school begins in the Falls with W. S. Romigh as teacher.
H. N.
Simmons runs a blacksmith shop at the Falls.
JAN. 10--Cedar Creek is in need of mail
service. People have to travel 10 to 12
miles to get their mail.
S. N. Wood's
ferry boat is in order at the crossing east of the Falls. The ferryboat is 36 feet by 14 feet.
Page 52
The charges are $1.00 for a loaded wagon and 25 cents for a single horse.
Footmen 25c each. Will Wood operates
the ferry.
A writer from
Butler county says that "El Dorado has a hotel, three stores and a
sawmill. Dr. Allen White is here from Emporia. John Pratt, of South
Fork, is here also. Douglass is the
crossing of the Walnut river, of the great Texas cattle trail. The Renfros,
Rosses, Williamses, Hunts and Yales are here from Chase county and are going
down the Walnut for claims."
JAN. 16--F. B Hunt and H.
N. Simmons are occupying their new residences in
the south part of
the Falls.
Mrs. Mary J Wolpert is the agent of the Wilson Shuttle
sewing machine for Chase county.
An M. E. class has been organized on
Silver creek.
S. N.
Wood advertises his 1,400 acre farm east of the Falls for sale at $28,000
JAN. 23--The Rev. C. R. Rice is
preaching at the Falls. (The Rev. Mr. Rice was the pioneer circuit rider
of the Neosho and Cottonwood valleys.)
A committee of five "leading citizens" is named
at the Falls to purchase or build a suitable building for Congregational
services.
Reverend Harlow is preaching for the Congregationalists
at the Falls.
FEB. 10--W. G. Patton is elected superintendent of the
Sunday school at the Falls.
The county road granted by the commissioners runs from
the Hinckley place on Fox creek (Lantry ranch) west to intersect with the road
crossing the Cahoone ford near H. N. Simmons' place.
Shipman's new saw mill at the Osage crossing is doing a big business.
The Osage reservation south and west of Chase county is
filling up rapidly. F. A. Hunt now lives
at the mouth of Dutch creek.
Petitions are on file for bridges across the Cottonwood
at the Falls, and over Middle, Diamond and Fox creeks. This marks a new period in the development of
Chase county lines of travel which a short while ago "cut across the
prairie" are now fixed enough to call for bridges.)
Bazaar has completed a
church building.
Page 53
FEB.
14--Lucius Manley and Ann Yeager are married at Bazaar.
Harmon
Brown, one of the first settlers of Chase county, dies, aged 40 years. He was a native of New York. state.
A.
S. Howard, as administrator, sells the estates of H. L. Scribner and of William
Campbell. The latter was a soldier of the War of 1812.
J.
P. Kuhl advertises for 5,000 skins of raccoons. wild cats, badgers, grey foxes,
prairie wolves, grey wolves, minks, otters and beaver; also for buffalo robes
and deer skins.
MARCH
20--John O'Byrne buys the Walter Watson place on Diamond creek for $2,000. This
is one of the first claims taken in Chase county.
The Rev. J. Winn is sent
to the Falls by the Methodists, and the Rev. M. Wolpert to the upper
Cottonwood.
The
Rev. J. R. Deering is the new Congregational minister at the Falls.
APRIL 17--One of the
Catholic fathers of this diocese holds services in Doolittle's Hall, at the
Falls.
APRIL 22--T. J. Jones and
Jennie Presnell are married.
MAY 17--J. S. Shipman rescues Mrs. Roberts and
child from drowning in the Osage crossing.
MAY
9--F. E. Smith and Isabel Copeland are married.
MAY 22-School district No. 20 is
organized.
MAY 28--J. T. Prather
advertises his farm east of the Falls for sale. 160 acres for $800.
A number of citizens
arrange to print a paper in the Falls for the next year. H. L. Hunt and W. R.
Brown will be the editors; F. E. Smith will have charge of the mechanical part.
MAY 29-Crops are looking unusually "well."
There
has been a strong movement in the Falls for temperance. The Sons and Daughters
of Temperance have a lodge of 50 members. There is no place there now where
liquors are sold.
George
Estes started east with 200 head of fine steers, bought in this county. He will take them to Illinois.
Bazaar, Cedar Point and
Brandley's have new school buildings under contract.
The
Methodists ask $1,000 of Cottonwood Falls for a new church building.
C. A. Britton is putting
in another run of burrs at his mill.
Page 54
JULY--Hugh
Britton dies, aged 75 years
NOV. 20--James M.
Jones dies, aged 20 years.
DEC. 31--Born in Chase county this year:
Frederick Collett, Charles Balch, Matilda Frey, Fred J. Pratt, Ephermella
Hartley, James Watson, Eudora Swanson, Roanna and Rosellia Talkington, Effie
Keller, Wesley Keller, Mary Osmer, Maggie L. Jeffrey, Mary Dixon, Rheinhart
Hegwer, Lucinda Harper, Susan Fritz, Franklin Britton, Caroline Hegwer, Frank
Holmes, Olive E. Shaft, Martha Piles, Lewis Messer, Thomas Smith, Amelia
Rodebaugh, Phoebe Frank, Albert Crissup, Sylvester Ferguson, John W. Sayre,
Gabriella Snow, Edward Barrett, Lydia Bales, Ulysses G. Farley, Jesse Moffett,
Mary Riley; Luther Jones, Minnie Johnson; Lizzie Osborne, Alta Jones, Alpha
Foreman, Orilla Brown, Gertrude Crocker, Clara Stone, William C Townsend,
Charles Hancock, Jenny Brown, Sherry C. Smith, Zerelda Pracht, Mabel Howard,
Ethel Findley, Mary Gandy, Henry L. Hunt., jr., William Simmons, Omega Taylor,
Mabel Guild, Mary Robertson, Ada Moffett, Charles Yeager, Solomon Mercer,
Nancy Sharp, Thomas Hays, Albert Baker and Peter Brandley.
1870
JAN.--Born to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Robinson, a
daughter, Emma; to Mr. and .Mrs. John Buchanan, a daughter, Dalla; to Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Fish, a daughter, Josephine; to Mr. and Mrs. Archie Miller, a son,
John; to Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Brown, a daughter; to Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Holmes, a
son, William.
Died: Emma
McWilliams aged 22 years.
Charles Leonard
shoots himself at Bazaar accidentally
FEB. 12--School
district No. 21 is formed.
Mrs. Clara Boentz
of Diamond creek dies, aged 70 years.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. James Faris, a
daughter, Alice.
Died, Henry Reeve
aged 44 years.
MARCH--Born to Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Smith, a
son, Oscar; to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Stainbrook, a daughter, Edith; to Mr. and
Mrs. W. M. Stevenson, a daughter, Susan.
APRIL--Died: Morris Moore of Toledo, aged 36
years. Born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Newby, a son, Edward.
Died: Harriet Crocker, aged 30- years.
APRIL 20--The
first issue of the Central Kansas Index appears.
Page 55
It is printed at Cottonwood Falls. Beck, Follett and McClure are the editors.
A
lodge of Odd Fellows is being organized at the Falls.
Died:
Sabina Manley, aged 58 years.
APRIL 24--Henry Brandley and Lizzie Romigh are married.
APRIL
30--Eliza Romigh is dead, aged 63 years.
MAY 4--John
O'Byrne pays $5.00 for the privilege of casting the first spade of earth for
the new Catholic church at the Falls. (This building was afterwards sold to Jabin Johnson and was for many
years the Johnson home. It is now owned
by R. K. Maybell.) Father John Murphy
has charge of the church.
MAY 9--May 30 is set aside by Congress as Memorial day.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Shipman, a
daughter; to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Collett, a daughter, Caroline; to Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Linebaugh, a son; to Mr. and Mrs. Roach Kelly, a daughter, Dora; to Mr.
and Mrs. Traugott Hegwer, a daughter, Rosine; to Mr. and Mrs. William Pringle,
a daughter, Emily; to Mr. and Mrs. Morris Moore, a daughter, Laura.
MAY
30--The first Memorial Day is observed in Chase county. During the rebellion
Chase county lost the following soldiers: William Lyon, John Wesley Hawkins,
Henry L. Hilbrant, George M. L. Leonard, Vincent W. Williams. The losses were
not large as the companies engaged were for the most part engaged in guarding
the frontier from Indians and the southern line from
Indians and outlaws. Still several companies saw hard service as at Prairie
Grove and Wilson's creek.
MAY 30--H. L. Hunt, H. E.
Snyder and G. W. Brickell, as county commissioners, call an election for July
1, 1870, to vote on subscribing stock to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
rail way to the amount of $125,000 and issuing bonds at par value therefor. Of
this bond issue $50,000 will be issued if the railroad reaches Cottonwood
Falls by January 1 1871, payable in 30 years at 7% interest; $50,000 if the
railroad completes the railroad ten miles west of Cottonwood Falls by July 1,
1871; and $25,000 if the road is completed to the western boundary of Chase
county by January 1, 1872. All this is
to depend upon a station being established in Toledo township; another within a half mile of Cottonwood
Falls; one between Diamond and Middle Creek,
Page 56
within one and one-half miles of the mouth of Middle creek; and one in Cottonwood township if the road goes up the Cottonwood valley. (The phrases in bold type in the above paragraph were the subjects of intense differences later on.)
JUNE 1--A. G.
Miner, of Indiana, locates in the Falls.
JUNE
5--Augustus Young and Annie Pinkston are married.
Hinckley's hack line leaves the
Falls for El Dorado on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, each week, at 6 a. m.
JUNE 8--W. S. Romigh is administrator for the estate of J. M.
Pherson, one of the first settlers of Chase county.
JUNE 18--Falls township votes
$10,000 for a bridge at Cottonwood Falls.
JUNE 22--Dr. J. V. Davis is practicing
medicine at Cedar Point.
JULY 1--The Santa Fe bonds are defeated
by five votes in Chase county.
JULY 4--Cedar Point observes the day. O.
H. Drinkwater is marshal and W. Perkins of Marion,
is orator of the occasion.
JULY 7--A new election is called on the
matter of issuing bonds to the A. T. and. S. F. Ry.
JULY 20--The census returns show that
Chase county has 2,015 people. Of these only 170 are foreign born and 9 are not
naturalized, showing how typically American the community is.
JULY 27--Wm. Tittle and Lucinda Copeland are
married. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe Ry. is completed to Emporia.
L. P. Jenson
locates in the Falls.
JULY 27-- A
flock of about 200 prairie chickens flew through the Falls today.
AUG. 3 --The Franco-Prussian War is
imminent. Chase county has about twenty French families and all are deeply
concerned with the impending struggle.
AUG. 4--W. J. Daugherty and Miss R.
V. Cunningham are married.
AUG. 10--Beck and McClure withdraw
from the Index and Follet and Yale take charge.
AUG.
28--Wm. Sanders and Mary Jane Crissup are married.
Page 57
AUG. 13--The second election on the bonds for the Santa Fe
is held and the bonds carry by 35 votes.
AUG. 31--100 families from Ohio came to Chase county last
year. S. N. Wood was the one who induced them to locate here.
W. S. Smith is selected as delegate from Chase county to
the Republican State convention.
SEPT. 14--The firm of Drinkwater, Smith & Schriver, at
Cedar Point, changes to Drinkwater & Schriver.
Albert E. Hayse
and Mabel Morris are married.
David Cormack and Ann Lane are married.
Cottonwood Falls has nearly 400 people now. There are 3
dry goods and grocery stores, 1 hardware, 1 drug store; 2 groceries, 1
photographer, 2 hotels, 3 boarding houses; 2 real estate offices, 2 wagon and
carriage shops, 1 carpenter shop, 1 printing office, and several lawyers,
doctors, and preachers.
OCT. 5—F. H. Pracht and Nancy Jane Laymen are married.
R. Olds and family
locate at the Falls.
OCT. 27-- Paris
Mills opens a store at Toledo.
S. N. Wood
asks an injunction against the A. T. and S. F. Railway building through section
21, township 1, Range 8. (This section lies between the Falls and the bluffs on
the north where Strong City now stands.) The
ground on which the injunction is asked is that the Company has not filed a profile of the route with the register of
deeds of Chase county, and "the railroad has treated the community
shabbily by its attempt to place the road as far from the Falls as
possible." (When the bonds were voted to the Santa Fe, the road was to
build a station within one-half mile of Cottonwood
Falls, the fact that North Cottonwood Falls was the location considered by the company lead to the
error, as Cottonwood Falls was regularly laid out south of the present
courthouse. As a result of the squabble
the company ordered the line placed as far from Cottonwood Falls as the bluffs
on the north would admit--so the story goes--and the bonds were virtually
surrendered as the route prescribed by them would have occasioned a long delay
and the building of several additional bridges--and the company found it
necessary to use all the speed possible in extending its tracks. This contest
Page 58
was made the
leading issue for many years in Chase county and lead to the location of a new
town first called Podunk, then Cottonwood Station, and finally Strong City.)
NOV. 9--Albert W.
Yale retires from the Index.
Harrison Hayse and
Alice Oles are married.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. B. McCabe, a
daughter, Marta.
NOV. 30--Rev. C L. Guild resigns the pastorate of the
Congregational church at the Falls and returns to Maine.
Died: Lewis Randall, aged 50 years.
DEC. 2--Patrick
B. McCabe and Abbie E. Sharp are married.
DEC 4--Andrew J. Beverlin and Martha J. Parks are married.
Samuel O. Mann and Margaret Rutledge
are married.
The Mason and Hamlin organ is
advertised in Chase county.
DEC. 8--FRESH and NOT COVE oysters are
advertised for the supper at the School House tonight.
DEC. 13--Administration granted estate
of F. L. Randall.
DEC.14--Administration granted estate of
Nancy Ann White.
Shipman and Doolittle receive the wheel
for their new mill at the Osage crossing.
DEC. 24--M. C. Newton and Gertie Noyes
are married on Fox creek.
Albert Balch and
Almira Dart are married.
DEC. 28--D. R.
Shellenberger and Ruth Moffitt are married.
Angola Lodge I.
O. O. F. is organized.
1871
JANUARY--The Robert
Burns Club meets in H. L. Hunt's new stone building. The bill-of-fare was
canned fruit, cove oysters; peanuts, sea-biscuits, pickles; molasses; etc. The counter
served as a table. The company consisted exclusively of men. The program included the following
numbers:
Toast: "The Day of a' who honor it!" Response by H. L. Hunt.
Song,
"Rantin' Rovin' Robbie," by the President.
Page 59
Toast "Robert
Burns,--The Peoples' poet,--his fame and birthplace." J. W. McWilliams.
Song,
"Within a Mile of Edinboro Town," by the Secretary.
Toast, "Burns,
His Friendship and Loves," by Hewitt Craik.
Song "Highland
Mary" by the Treasurer.
Toast,
"Scotland and America" by W. S. Smith.
Songs, "Scots
Who Ha' Wi' Wallace Bled," and "E Pluribus Unum" by the
Vice-President.
Toast "The
Poets of Freedom in the Old and New World" by F. B. Hunt.
Songs, "Red, White and
Blue," and "Marseillaise" by Club.
Toast, "Modern Prose Writers"
G. Will Craik.
Song, "Volunteer."
Toast,
"Shakespeare", Ed S. Safford.
Toast, "The Bonnie
Lassies," by Jo. T. Craik.
Songs,
"Jennie wi' the Light Brown Hair," "Comin' Thru The Rye.," and
"Auld Lang Syne," by the entire Club.
MARCH 4--William A. Morgan of
Cincinnati, Ohio, founds the Chase County Leader. The paper is a 7 column folio, published weekly. The
advertising rates given are:$20 a
column per month--for a year, $100.
Under the associations
listed are: Zeredatha Lodge, No. 80, A. F. and A. M.; Angola Lodge No. 58, I.
O. O. F.; the Robert Burns Club, with Robert Brash as President, J. W. Mc
Williams, Vice-President; Hewitt Craik, Treasurer; W. S. Smith, Secretary. The
Club meets quarterly at the Falls. Musical Association: W. S. Romigh, President;
W. G. Patten, Instructor. The Falls
Literary Society: Charles E. Gillett, President. The Union Sunday School: U. B. Warren, Superintendent; W.
S. Romigh, Librarian; W. E. Prather, Secretary. The Methodist Episcopal Church:
W. M. Robertson, Pastor.
There are nine
postoffices listed: Cottonwood Falls, Toledo, Elinor, Bazaar, Matfield Green;
Middle Creek; Union; Silver Creek; and Cedar Point.
W. S. Romigh and J.
W. McWilliams are listed as real estate agents and lawyers.
In the news
summary, the terms of peace between Germany and France are given.
Page 60
The first freight received at the Cottonwood Falls Depot was for the Brockett and Gillett Hardware Store, recently
purchased from U. B. Warren.
Mrs. Stephen M. Wood was the first lady that passed over
The A. T. and S. F. railway between Emporia and Cottonwood Falls.
Cattle in Chase county have been very healthy this season and thousands of
steers will go to eastern markets soon.
New stone school houses have been completed recently near
Captain Brandley's, at Benoni Jeffrey's; on the A. T. Newkirk farm near the
mouth of South Fork, at Bazaar, near Mr. Blackshere's, and at Toledo.
L. D. Hinckley has refitted his hotel on Broadway near the
bridge.
J. H. Doolittle has enlarged the Falls House.
The railroad bridge across Middle Creek is being built.
The new $10,000 iron bridge will be put on its abutments in a few days.
Three quarter-sections of land, five miles southeast of
town and four homesteads on Fox creek have been filed on this week.
N. J.
Swayze and Jacob Rupert will open a large lumber yard here next week.
Chase, Marion and Morris counties are to constitute the
new senatorial district--the 26th.
The cars of the A. T. & S. F. Ry. are now running to
the new depot at this place. Chase county now has 35 miles of railroad track.
Cedar Point is an important business place and is growing
fast. Drinkwater and Co.'s Mill is known throughout southern Kansas. Pinkston,
Young and Co., and Philo Ogden are the general stores there.
Eighty tracts of school land are offered for sale by the
county treasurer for $3 an acre, one-tenth must be paid, the balance in yearly
installments with interest at 10 per cent.
County Supt. J. G. Winne announces an examination for
teachers on April 1st.
D.
H. McGinley and Son are the blacksmiths of the Falls. Rockwood and Estes
conduct a meat market at the Falls. Henry Evans the barber, advertises his shop
"on the hill." Richard Oles, boots and shoes; E. and C C. Hassler,
Page 61
bakers and tailors; J. T.
Norman, livery; C. F. Cahoone, Blackberry plants-are among the advertisers in
the Leader.
MARCH 11--The delinquent tax list of Chase county requires almost
three columns in the Leader.
F. M. Jennings is the first agent of the Santa Fe in Chase
county.
MARCH 18--The streets are crowded with freighters, and the
hotels filled every night. Freight is being received here for southwestern
Kansas and Indian Territory.
The
Mite society of the Falls, will meet on Wednesday. The contract is let for
roads on the way to ElDorado. The Craik Brothers have the plans for a stone house on
their Fox creek farm. It
will be the finest residence in Chase county.
Cedar Point will vote on bonds for a bridge at that place.
The District Court will meet on April 3rd. W. R. Brown is the judge.
The
Falls graded schools will close on the 23rd. MissSarah
Hawkins (now Mrs. C. B. Graves of San Diego) is the principal and Miss
Holsinger, assistant.
Samuel
Fogwell and Viola Drinkwater are married.
N.
J. Swayze is given the credit for the "architectural excellence" of
the new buildings for Hunt and Co., Williams and Cormack, D. H. McGinley,
Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall, and the Methodist Church, at the Falls.
Rev.
S. E. Pendleton, of Illinois, is assigned to Falls Methodist church.
The Santa Fe station is
now called Cottonwood. It has 12 houses although it is only two months old.
A. S. Howard,
attorney-at-law, and W. S. Smith; auctioneer, have cards in the Leader.
The Leader will be printed
on Thursday instead of Saturday hereafter.
The
postoffice at Doyle, in Marion county, is to be known as Florence hereafter.
(Florence was named by Col. James M. Steele for his partner's little daughter, (now Mrs. Arthur
Capper.)
A meeting
is called at the Falls to organize a cemetery association in accordance with
the new law.
Father Ponziglione of the
Osage Mission, services at the new Catholic church in the Falls. A large congreation attends.
Page 62
Dr. Wm. Morris, Lieutenant J. C. Stoughton, Emory D.
Rawdon and three others settle on Rock Creek. All of them are ex-soldiers.
F. B. Hunt is appointed by the Governor on the board to
assess the railroads.
D. M. Swope, who came to Ellinor a year ago, has 60 acres
fenced and 30 acres broke, and is building a four-room house.
A. J. Cracker,
L. W. Coleman, Sam Bennet, Leroy Martin are making improvements in the
Peyton creek neighborhood.
APRIL
6--W. A. Morgan assures the readers that the Leader has come to stay.
The Paola Advertiser is removed to Florence.
The contracts for grading the Santa Fe railway from
Florence to Newton, 30 miles, were let last Friray. The work is to be done by
May 15th.
The
Fox creek district votes to build a new school house 14 by 18 feet.
A
millinery store is opened in the Falls by the Misses Thomas and Dougherty.
Chase
county now has 724 persons of school age and will receive $687.89 from the
state school fund.
Dr.
A. M. Conaway of Toledo, has a card in the Leader.
J. R. Critton, blacksmith and Ira Walker wagonmaker, have
cards in the Leader.
APRIL
13--The firm of Romigh and McWilliams is dissolved.
The Santa Fe rails are laid ten miles west of the Falls. The telegraph poles are up
beyond Osage City.
Wm.
Holsinger is building the Methodist parsonage. C. C Hassler is appointed
postmaster at the Falls. Seventeen business and dwelling houses are under erection
at the Falls.
A. A. Robinson becomes the chief engineer of the Santa Fe
Railway.
The bonds for a bridge at Cedar Point carry.
The Leader comments on the progress of the French commune.
T.
B. Murdock of the Walnut Valley Times is in the Falls.
Page 63
He
says the Augusta lobby is trying to have a daily mail from Florence. This would
leave Bazaar, Matfield Green, Sycamore Springs and Chelsea out in the cold.
APRIL 20--Bishop John B. Miege, of Leavenworth, will
consecrate the Catholic church at the Falls on the 4th of May. Dr. Kopf, who
has been away from his timber claim on French creek for 12 years, finds most of
the timber missing. He
was one of the original French colony there.
S. N. Wood and wife return from Texas. They expect to sell their
property here and move to Texas. They advertise 40 acre farms and 300 town lots
for sale.
An election is called for a $10,000 bond issue by Toledo
township to secure a Santa Fe station convenient to Toledo. Mr. and Mrs. J. C.
Dwelle and family arrive from Michigan and locate near Cedar Point.
Cottonwood Falls now has 600 population.
Robert Brash is appointed administrator of the estate of
Wm. Dixon, an early settler of Chase county.
APRIL 27--The Florence Pioneer appears. McReynolds and Mitchell,
editors.
El Dorado wins the Butler county seat election over Augusta
by 31 votes.
A teachers Institute is called for the 9th judicial
district for May 16, 17 and 18th. Chase county teachers are required to
attend.
Dr. T. A. McKinney and C. T. Dixon of Bazaar dissolve
partnership.
MAY 4--David Wood leaves for Texas for a big drove of
cattle.
The Santa Fe is offered 40 acres of land at the Falls to
locate their shops there.
Mite Society organizes at the Falls to furnish the M. E.
Church. Mrs. W. A. Morgan, president; Mrs. M. O. Prather, secretary; and Mrs.
F. E. Gillett; treasurer.
MAY 11--The telegraph lines will reach the Falls in a few
days.
Robinson's Circus will reach Emporia on the 26th.
Seventy-three five-yoke ox-teams loaded with merchandise start from the Falls
for Fort Sill, Indian territory.
S.
A. Perrigo of Minnesota buys a half-interest in the Gillett Hardware store at
the Falls.
Page 64
Col. S. N. Wood arranged for a special train to Emporia to hear Anna Dickinson. Sixty people from Chase county attend.
The Friends are building a meeting house at Toledo. It is 30 X 60 feet.
MAY 18 -- The telegrtaph office is now open at Cottonwood.
Lyda Pringle of Middle Creek dies aged 17 years.
The first train of cattle from Chase county was shipped from Cottonwood by John Gatewood on the 8th of May. There were 12 car loads.
The Santa Fe has established a station in the Osage bottoms opposite Shipman's mill. It is to be called "Elmdale." A store house is under contract.
Kuhl and Hillert have bought the J. J. Lehnhard shoe store.
MAY 26 --A half-fare train is run by the Santa Fe for Robinson's Show at Emporia. It is the first time that Chase county has had such an excursion and it was neglected by very few.
The Toledo township bonds were defeated by 49 to 71.
The vote to locate the courthouse in the Falls had 235 majority.
The Leader is now published on Fridays.
JUNE 2 --The fare to ElDorado from the Falls is $4.00.
The Congregationalists meet at the Falls to organize a society.
Dr. Davis is married at Cedar Point to Miss Dean.
The Santa Fe is carrying all goods for Augusta to Florence.
JUNE 9--S. L. Ward, a graduate of Ann Arbor, forms a law partnership with S. N. Wood.
The first piano in Cottonwood Falls purchased by W. G. Walker. There are severl organs and melodeons here.
Work on the new Congregational church begins.
The receipts of the Santa Fe at this point were $24,700 for the last three months. The company lands between Newton and Florence, were opened for sale on the lst.
Elmdale has already a saw and grist mill, a blacksmith shop, and postoffice. Supt. T. J. Peter has promised to put in a depot and a side-track.
Page 65
The
Santa Fe has established Hunt's Station, on the land of H. L. Hunt, and the
place is building fast. D. P. Shaft is postmaster. The D. P. Shaft home is a
handsome cut-stone building. J.
S. Crawford has a brick-kiln near the station. W. H. Shaft, John Patton, A. R.
Ice, Hudson, and Payne have large farms near the station. Hunt's Station, says the Leader, is a
fixture and is destined to be a live trading place.
A
Good Templars' lodge is organized at the Falls.
Mrs. L. A. Presby opens a new millinery store.
The
government train, which left the Falls, is thought to be the one which was
attacked by Indians near Fort Sill on
the 19th. Seven
teamsters are reported killed, one burned at the stake. General Sherman arrived
on the 23rd and organized the pursuit. Five
Kiowa chiefs were captured, three Indians were killed and two soldiers wounded.
Complaints
are being made of the unjust railroad rates charged by the railroads. From Emporia to the Falls the
rate is 28 cents per hundred. More
railroads are being uged as remedy. Only in this way
will the land of the valleys
be worth the price of $100 the acre, which Horace Greeley foretold.
JUNE
16--N. H. Core of Cincinnati visits the Falls to open a bank, but fails to do
so.
The A. T. & S. F. Ry. is running to Coneburg (Peabody) now.
The
Falls had a cutting affair between a white man and a negro on Sunday evening.
The
Good Templars Lodge, organized at the Falls, elects Wm. H. McGinley as Worthy
Chief Templar. It is called "Faith Lodge," No. 204.
A
directors meeting is held in the Falls for the Neosho, Cottonwood Falls and
Arkansas Valley Railroad. The officers elected are:---S. N. Wood, President;
R. W. Randall, Vice-President; W. R. Brown, Secretary; H. L. Hunt, Superintendent;
J. W. Loy, Americus, Treasurer; and A. S. Howard, Attorney. The books were
opened for stock subscriptions and a preliminary survey ordered.
Hasket and Powell have just brought 350
cattle from Texas.
P. T. Lawless, the largest
land owner in Diamond creek
Page 66
township,
has just built 1,000 rods of stone fence in three months. His sons are in business with
him.
The Supreme Court decides
that the "herd law" is unconstitutional.
JUNE 17--A tornado at
ElDorado destroys $100,000 worth of property.
JUNE 30--The new M.
E. Church at the Falls will be done by August 8th.
Florence
Wood, Sarah Romigh, Mary Hunt and Anna Noland are attending the Episcopal
Female Seminary (Bethany) at Topeka.
Safford
and Craik begin the survey of the C. K. and T. railroad from Council
Grove to the Falls.
Wm. Barnes of Cedar Creek,
advertises "new patent ivory ball cups" to restore the sight without
glasses.
JULY 7--J. S. Doolittle
runs a hack south to Chelsea three times a week.
S. N. Wood is fencing 500
acres of fine land near the Falls.
JULY 14--F. P. Cochran, has
arrived in the Falls and organizes a large class in Penmanship.
A
grist mill is being built at Matfield Green.
Craik
Brothers import a fine thorough-bred Durham bull from Kentucky.
The
Leader now speaks of Cottonwood, the railway station, as Podunk and alludes to
N. J. Swayze as the Mayor of the town.
Wm.
F. Baker, son of Governor Baker of Indiana, purchases seven quarter-sections
of land near the head Dia mond creek. Two brothers will arrive
shortly to help him in haying.
Geo. W. Featherkile is
injured in a row at Hunt's Station by a man named Logan.
Mira L. Patton, teacher,
reports the 12 best students in District No. 7.
The Cedar Point bridge is
being delayed by the sickness of the contractor, Mr. Lewis, of Emporia.
The time for settlers to
prove up on Osage lands has been extended to September 15th.
The County Commissioners
call an election for August 16 to vote upon the following bond propositions: (1) Chicago
Page 67
Kansas
and Texas Railway, and the Neosho, Cottonwood and Arkansas Valley, $150,000;
(2) Cedar Point, ElDorado and Texas Railway, and the Elmdale and Marion Center
Railway branches of the A. T. & S. F. Ry.
An election is also called for issuing $40,000 bonds to
build a court house, for the same date, August 16, 1871.
JULY 17--The Santa Fe
begins running trains to Newton.
JULY 21--Chase county is divided into three commissioner districts; first Toledo and Bazaar townships; second Falls;
third, Diamond Creek and Cottonwood.
The Leader prints an article favoring the railroad thru
Cottonwood Falls but opposing the two branches from Elmdale and Cedar Point.
JULY 28--A Congregational society is organized at Cedar
Point by Rev. H. A. Brundage. Work
on the building has already begun.
Eight trains a day are being run over the Santa, Fe.
JULY
29--Camp meeting begins at Cedar Point.
AUGUST 4--The Toledo school closes on
account of scarlet fever.
Cattle near Bazaar are dying of Texas fever.
William and Cormack open a
new drug store at the Falls.
AUGUST 8-Emporia District Ministerial Institute
meets at the Falls.
The report of the Falls schools says that "less than
100% in deportment is considered disgraceful". Eddie Ellis and Johnnie
McGinley are graded 60 and 45 per cent respectively. (It may be well to state
here that both of these young men made
high grades as newspaper men in Kansas later on.)
J. L. C'rawford is advertising brick for sale at his kiln
near Hunt's station.
AUGUST 11--Twelve new settlers locate near the Falls this
week.
Seth
M. Hays, of Council Grove, states that he came to
Council Grove in 1844, and shortly after, the Neosho was dry for 18 months.
When the land sales were made in 1854, he bought his farm on Osage bottoms, at
the mouth of Diamond creek, because more grass grew there than in any other
part of Wise county.
Page 68
1871
The
A. T. & S. F. Railway is building a depot half a mile west of the mouth of
middle creek.
Kuhl and Hillert dissolve
partnership. The firm will be Hillert and Biebert.
AUG. 18--The bond election
resulted as follows:--The Chicago, Kansas and Texas, and the Neosho, Cottonwood
and Arkansas Valley bonds for $150,000
carried by 150 majority. The bonds for branches of the Santa Fe from
Elmdale and
Cedar Point were defeated overwhelmingly. (Both
of these branches were built later from Florence.) Bonds for the court house carried.
F. Preston Cochran's card
as an attorney-at-law appears in the Leader.
Philo
Ogden is putting up a two-story building at Cedar Point just across the street
from the school house. It is 20
by 50 The second story will be a town
hall.
Shipman
and Critton's thresher is at work on lower Diamond creek. Wheat averages from 28 to 36 bushels to the acre.
The Leader is threatened
with prosecution for advertising an unlicensed saloon.
At
the recent Institute of Emporia District Ministerial association held in the
Falls for three days, the following ministers were present: Revs. Rhoades, P.
E. B. Kelly, J. Mc Anulty, A. Avery; S. E. Pendleton ; W. Bufington, W. M. Roberton,
S. A. Green, and H. A. Bruddage, of the Congregational church and Father
Powell of the Catholic church. The last two named are honorary members. The
program included the subjects: Atonement, Sanctifiication, Heavenly Recognition,
Sabbath, Holy Spirit, Spiritualism, Roman Catholicism, the Abrahamic Covenant,
Probation, Popular Amusements, and other subjects of similar character.
AUG. 25--A Sabbath school has been
organized in Fox creek. Hewitt
Craik is the superintendent.
30,000
cattle are in the Falls neighborhood awaiting shipment. Six cars were shipped on Tuesday.
The tragedy at Newton is
described in the Leader. Six men are killed and two wounded in
a dance hall fight on Sunday last.
Page 69
SEPT. 1--Corn will average 75 bushels to the acre in Chase
county.
SEPT. 2--The annual Dunkard
Love Feast is held on the south side of the Cottonwood river, 16 miles east of
the Falls at the Baker school house. (Since
'56 these Love Feasts have been observed in Chase county. The first three families to
settle here--the Daniel Holsingers, the Nathan Corys and the Gabriel Jacobs were
members of this church. Gabriel
Jacobs was a minister of this denomination and upon the arrival of the colony
the first Love Feast was called to give thanks to God for the
good fortunes of the journey from Indiana hither. The Ulrichs, who later moved to Douglass county,
were prominent members also. Gabriel Jacobs was an old man at the time of his
coming and was the first of the colony to die. His
grave is in the cemetery near where he settled. Jacobs creek and Jacobs Mound
were named for this splendid man. A
number of his
descendents still live in this and Lyon county.
The Sunday school
conference of the Cottonwood quarterly meeting of the Friends is held at the
Cottonwood school house west of Emporia on the 1st, 2nd and 4th. (Toledo township was largely
settled by members of the denomination of Friends--most of them coming from
North Carolina and Tennessee. The raid of John Brown so inflamed the people of
the south against all those who were opposed to slavery that even the
peace-loving Friends were made the subjects of their animus.) The settlements of Toledo,
Plymouth and Saffordville were made up largely of Friends, and their high
standards of living influenced greatly the development of community living in
Chase county.
Dr. J. Trueworthy is appointed to examine invalid pensioners
in Chase county.
A baseball team is organized in the Falls. It is called the "Blue Stars"
and Wm. H. McGinley is captain.
SEPT. 22--Minnie Ellis, editor of the "Sunflower"
a school paper, offers an original poem suggested by a ramble on Buck Creek. It is printed in the Leader.
Work on the Toledo depot begins.
Candidates
are announcing. "His Many Friends" nominates S. N. Wood for the
legislature; "Vox Populi" wants
Page 70
Jabin Johnson to run the sheriff's office;
"Citizens" asks M. C. Newton to come out for
County Clerk; W. S. Smith announces himself as a
candidate.
The Grand jury returns seven indictments for selling
liquor without licenses.
S. N. Wood sells his cattle and ranch in Texas and decides
to stay here and run for the legislature.
SEPT. 29--A cornet band is being organized at the Falls. A.
Strehle opens a general store at Bazaar.
A wedding is celebrated at
"Kanawha Ranch" on Fox creek the home of the Craik Brothers. The bride has been cooking
there and the groom herding. They
depart for their honeymoon with $250 worth of table linen and men's apparel.
Hibbs and McKinney open another drug store in the Falls.
F. P. Cochran, who was rescued from drowning three months
ago has his nose grazed by a bullet accidently discharged.
It is announced that the "Uplands" are really
better for farming than the "low lands."
An obituary poem is printed in the Leader for Annie Samira
Byran aged two years.
The county commissioners advertise for bids for a court
house and jail according to plans drawn by J. G. Haskell, of Lawrence.
OCT--6 T. S. Jones, a graduate of the Lexington, Virginia,
Law School, opens a law office in the Falls.
The Masons and Odd
Fellows, of Chase county, will give a ball, a social, and a supper in the Falls
on the 24th. Three large
halls have been engaged. The
tickets for the three affairs will be $5. For
the social and supper, only $3. One
ticket will admit one gentleman and his accompanying ladies. South Fork
precinct now has over fifty votes.
OCT. 13--The A. T. & S. F. Ry.
is surveying their lands in Chase county.
A section hand is burned to death at Hunt's Station while
trying to rescue his horse from the burning stable.
Heavy losses from prairie fires on Fox creek.
A
board of trade is organized at the Falls. The
members elected are: H. L. Hunt, S. N. Wood, J. S. Doolittle,
Page 71
C, A. Britton, W. S. Smith, A. S. Howard, Asa Gillett; W. R.
Brown; Dr. G. W. Williams, Isaac Alexander, and W A. Morgan.
The Leader reviews the
legislative membership for Chase county.In
'61, Col. S. N. Wood was elected senator from this district. In '62, C. S. Lambdin; in '63, E. A. Alford in
the house and S. N. Wood from Morris county. In
'65 we had no senator and M. R. Leonard served in the house. In '66, S. N. Wood
was elected to the legislature but was kept in New Mexico, due to a broken leg. In '67 Col. Wood was in the senate and
Captain Brandley was in the house. In
'68, O. H. Drinkwater was in the house and in '69, E. B.Crocker was a member of
the house. In '70, F. B. Hunt
was elected to the house and in '71, Stephen M. Wood.
The Chicago fire is reported by the Leader, 50,000 people
are homeless.
Corn is selling for 30 cents a bushel.
OCT. 20--The Topeka
Cotillon band is engaged for the dance on the 24th and the floor is waxed and
sanded.
OCT. 26--The Republican county convention nominates the
following ticket: S. N. Wood, representative; A. S. Howard, treasurer; Jabin
Johnson, sheriff; S. A. Breese, county clerk; A. P. Gandy, register of deeds;
Sid Breese, clerk of the court; W. W. Sanders, surveyor; Dr. G. W. Rogers,
coroner; County Commissioners, Henry Brandley and E. W. Pinkston.
OCT. 27--Joseph Hackett is married to Lydia Lynvil at
Bellefontaine, Ohio.
The new iron bridge is finished at Cedar Point.It is 110 feet long.
James Fisher, who settled
in Chase county in '55 was attacked on last Saturday morning by a farm-hand
named Martin Gross. Mr.
Fisher was ill at the time in his home, near
the mouth of South Fort. Gross
struck him several blows with an iron bolt and left him for dead. He recovered sufficiently to
call for help and make a statement of the attack. He died on Monday, at the
home of Arch Miller. (The
murderer was arrested and sent to the penitentiary for years and died here some years
afterwards.) Gross had laid his
plans so as to make it appear that a well-known Mexican who worked in the
community would be apprehended for the crime.
Page 72
NOV.
3--Wm. Clapp, a merchant from Emporia, opens a shoe store in the Falls.
Robert B. McDowell, aged
20 years, died on October 27th.
A meeting is called by
Hewitt Craik to organize a Farmers Club.
H. L. Hammer and Helen M.
Halden are married; also R. M. Smith and Celia Oles.
The
contract for the new courthouse is let to James Bannon, of Leavenworth, and
work will commence next week.
NOV. 10--J. W.
M~eWilliams is elected to the legislature, F. E. Smith, sheriff; and H. L.
Hunt, Samuel Baker and E. W. Pinkston, commissioners.The Republican ticket was elected with three
exceptions.
The courthouse bonds are
sold for 88 cents on the dollar. Stephen M. Wood is elected railroad
commissioner for the ninth district.
Dr. Canaday, colored,
candidate for coroner carried one precinct, Diamond creek.
S.
N. Wood went west on Saturday. He
offers all his property for sale.
The
Farmers Club is organized with W. G. Patton as president and Hewitt Craik,
secretary.
Henry
Brandley is a candidate for journal clerk of the state. He has lived in Chase county 12 years.
NOV.
24--Steps are taken to incorporate Cottonwood Falls as a city of the third
class.
The
Santa Fe will be ballasted with broken stone. 100,000
cords are now being delivered here.
Judge
W. R. Brown, of the 9th judicial district, is now holding court in Wichita.
Chas.
Myers will convert his saloon into a bakery.
W.
W. Sanders, principal of the Falls schools, reports 37 pupils enrolled in the
lower room which Miss Hannah Pickett teaches, 42 are enrolled in the upper
room.
DEC. 1--The Rettiger
brothers move to Cottonwood Falls from Leavenworth to work on the court house. Jno.
Emslie, who has the contract for getting out the stone, comes here to live.
Page 73
The hunting party--Cochran, Ward and Gillett--has returned
from the buffalo range.
DEC. 8 --Protracted meeting at the Methodist church in the
Falls.
J. S. Doolittle has rented his hotel at the Falls to
Dunlap and Dietrick.
Mrs. Wayne Lee dies at Toledo.
DEC. 21--There is a
shooting match for turkeys on the Jno. O'Byrne farm on Diamond creek, dance in
the evening. B. F. Strong opens a book store in the Falls.
A party of local hunters
returned from a hunt on the Big Canadian. They
killed 15 buffaloes and many wild turkeys. S. N. Wood offers his lands at $15
per acre-1100 acres at the Falls and his farms near Elmdale. The land is worth $25 an acre,
the Leader states.
Cottonwood Falls has doubled its population in 9 months.o:p>
The new bell donated by Senator Pomeroy has been placed in the cupola of the
Congregational church at the Falls.
The Marion County Bank of Florence announces that the
cashier, Peter Aller, will be in the Falls every Thursday to sell exchange and
to receive deposits.
A horse race, which
attracts a large crowd, is run near the railroad station between Dick Pratt's
"Bob", and Chas.
Loomis' "Burt." bThe
latter wins the championship of
the county.
A school district has been organized at the home of Wm.
Holsinger. It is No. 22.
DEC.
29--The bell is placed in the Falls Methodist church.
Rev. McAuley, of the United Presbyterian church, will
preach on Sunday at the Falls school house.
The public well at the
Falls has been completed. It
is 51 feet deep and has 23 feet of water in it.
A
Union Sabbath School Christmas tree is enjoyed at the Falls.
Eight
students from Chase county are attending the State Normal.
Page 74
1872
JAN. 1--The Old Settlers give a social and dance at Mrs. Jane
Shafts--seeing the Old Year out and the New Year in. A deer hunt is held on New
Year's day and "panting hounds, weary ponies, saddles of venison and the
exultant hunters told the rest."
H. L. Hunt received
notice on New Year's eve to go home and take up the carpets. He did. J. S.
Doolittle made the music for a large and joyous crowd.
JAN. 5--Mary R. Durey sues District No. 10 for breach of contract. She gets judgment for $60.
The Cottonwood Falls Debating society debates: "Resolved:---That the
sine qua non of the times demand the organization of a new political
party." The next
subject for debate will be, " Resolved:---That the Scriptures teach the
ultimate holiness and happiness of the whole human family subsequent to the
resurrection." W. S. Romigh will affirm and F. B. Hunt deny.
JAN. 5--The Kansas
Magazine appears and is reviewed in the Leader.
The Leader prints a
poem (?) beginning
"Father, I live near the Falls,
A very noted place,
It's where Dick Pratt and Snyder
Run the pony race."
JAN. 12--Amos Noyes
is the postmaster at Fox Creek. The Neosho Valley Bank at Emporia becomes the
First National.
The Odd Fellows
install officers: A. G. Minor, N. G.; Hewitt Craik, V. G.; W. J. Dougherty,
Treasurer; M. C Newton, Secretary.
The family of John
Stout is thought to be poisoned but it proves to be due to tartar emetic
instead of baking powder.
"Chase" writes from Topeka: "The Kansas
Pacific will be the Chairman of the Committee on Railroads. All the other
railroads will be on the committee. It
will be emphatically a Railroad Committee."
JAN. 19--H. Brandley is journal clerk in the Senate.
"Providence permitting, the new M. E. Church in Cottonwood Falls will be
dedicated to the service of Almighty God, Feb.
11, 1872.
Page 75
Rev. D. P.
Mitchell, of Topeka, is expected to conduct the services."
(Signed) S. E. Pendleton,
P. C.
A boy was found hanging on Middle Creek on last Friday.
The jury decides it was accidental.
Enoch
Randall, of Buck Creek, draws out the shot from his gun, puts in a red-hot
poker to explode the powder, and then blows in the gun to
hasten the explosion. It
hastens, but his face is badly lacerated.
The
Congregational Union donates $400 to the church at the Falls. $200 more will put the church
out of debt.
S.
N. Wood arranged with the Santa Fe for a town site at the Big Bend of the
Arkansas at Dick Custiss' old ranch. It is to be called Big Bend.
The
Third Sabbath School conference of the Society of Friends met at Toledo Twelfth
month, 30th day, 1871. S. P. Dillon, Anna J. Thompson, Dr. Wm. Hunt, Wm. Bales,
S. A. Bailey, Rachel Jeffreys, Mahlon Stubbs, Jas. Hurst, Mary Moon, Catherine
Hammer, J. B. Morgan, Jacob V. Carter, Rachel P. Stanley, and J. G. Winne took
part in the meeting.
Misses
Mary and Estelle Hunt, and Florence Wood are among the first to be introduced
to the Grand Duke Alexis at the reception in Topeka. They next meet General
Sheridan who entertains them a few minutes with his brilliant wit.
First
list of unclaimed letters is printed in the Leader.
FEB. 2--P. Aller visits
Cedar Point every Monday as cashier of the Marion county bank.
Hewitt
Craik and Mary C Holden are married. "The
News says, we have not seen such general interest ina wedding here."
The
Germans give a real German dance at the Falls--everything in genuine
"vaterland" style.
Fine
valentines, perfumed sachets, etc., are offered at the Falls Book Store.
Another
home-made rhyme appears in the Leader. One
verse is as follows:
"The
Lawyers to this country is a curs
They profess for justis to stand;
And it's plain to be seen
they justis rvurce
And the roags run over the land."
Page 76
H. L. Hunt makes statement as to what has been done in the sale of the
court house bonds.
Ice on the Cottonwood fifteen inches thick.
Rev. Sol Brown baptises six people in Diamond creek.
School district No.
22, Diamond creek, votes $1,200 to build a school house.
Wm. Holsinger, who came
to Chase county in '58, trades his farm for one near Kansas City. He will leave
soon for his new home.
The re-election of Pres. Grant threatens to split the Republican voters
in Chase county, but the Leader advocates his renomination.
The herd law passes the house of representatives.
FEB. 13--U. B. Warren dies at the Falls. He
is county treasurer. The funeral is
one of the largest in the history of the county. He was born in Erie, Penn., June 1, 1842. He came to Kansas in '62.
FEB. 16--The M. E.
church at the Falls is dedicated.
Rev. D. P. Mitchell preaches on "Immortality." The debt of the
church, $2,200 is raised. The
total cost was $8,900.
The Congregationalists at
the Falls raise $120 to pay the debt of their church.
FEB. 18--Wm. Harris and Emily Faris are married.
FEB. 23--Chas.
Meyers of the Falls is building the first bake-oven in Chase county.
Rev. Lee Upton, of the
Methodist church South, dies at his home on Buck creek.
Wm. Graik, of Fox.creek,
leaves for Kentucky where he will remain.
The Republican county
convention declares for U. S. Grant for a second term and elects A. S. Howard
and S. N. Wood as delegates to the State Convention.
"Justice" nominated Col. S. N. Wood for Congress.
FEB. 23--The Leader completes its first year and reminds the people that every
promise the editor made has been fulfilled.
MARCH 1--A. S. Howard
resigns as probate judge and Governor Harvey appoints T. S. Jones to fill the
vacancy.
A meeting is called
to organize a building society.
MARCH 8--Plate of Cottonwood (Santa Fe station)
is put on record and lots are offered for sale from $12.50 to $30 each.
Page 77
D. A.
Williams is the station agent at Cottonwood.
Corn is selling for
69 cents.
A. S. Howard is appointed county treasurer to succeed U. B. Warren..
School District
No.- 23 is organized in Diamond creek township. The first meeting is held at
David Ramsey's.
The fall wheat in Toledo township is almost entirely winter killed.
S. N. Wood
withdraws all his land from sale.
By the new law it is unlawful to kill prairie chickens between March 1st
and August 1st, or quail between March 1st and October 1st.
MARCH 8--Mrs. Wm.
Holsinger died aged 43 years.
MARCH 10--Henry Proeger and Emma Beasley are married.
MARCH 15--Rev. B. Presby is assigned to the churches at Cedar Point and
Florence.
MARCH 15--The Normal
Institute for Teachers will be held in Augusta, April 2nd.
The new road from
Toledo to the Falls is opened, and the old Minneola and Santa Fe State road is
vacated:
Rev. N. F. Tipton succeeds Rev. S. E. Pendleton at the Falls M. E. church.
MARCH 22--Large
emigrant trains are passing thru for western Kansas.
Building stone is
now shipped from Chase county to Leavenworth.
The annual school
meetings are to be held the last Thursday in March.
Born:--On March 15,
to Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Jones, of Saffordville, a son; to Mr. and Mrs. John
Scribner, on March 16, a daughter.
Stephen Breese and
Mary Riley were married on the 19th.
MARCH 29--W. C. Edwards buys N. J. Swayze's
interest in the lumber yard.
The Falls school meeting instructs the school to hire no teachers without first
grade certificates. A. S. Howard, J. S. Doolitle and W. J. Daugherty are the
board members.
Page 78
The District Court convenes. There
are two murder cases and 25 other cases pending.
H. Brandley is made
secretary of the committee to audit Indian claims.
APRIL 5--A brewery
is promised to Matfield Green.
Mrs. Judd, on Rock creek, is one of the best weavers in Chase county, the
Leader states.
David Pyle of
Toledo, sells his property and takes his family to Ohio to remain while he
devotes his time as a missionary to the freedmen in Tennessee.
APRIL 12--Sol
Varner goes to Winfield to open a harness shop.,
The masons are
laying the foundation of the court house: The lightning rod agent is in our
midst.
The Liberal Covention is held at the Falls. A. B. Watson is the chairman and Hewitt Craik,
secretary. The delegates to the Topeka convention are: S. N. Wood, Hewitt
Craik, W. S. Smith, F. P. Cochran, and J. S. Doolittle.
Wm. Polk, Jr., of Council Grove,
is acquitted here of the charge of murder.
APRIL 19--The Ninth
Judicial District now consists of Chase, Marion, Harvey, Reno and Rice
Counties.
Dr. Ellis, who was
here a short time ago to visit his two children, Minnie and Edward, dies at
Central City, Colo.
Henry Wagoner and Louisa Fleming are
married on South Fork.
Born:
to Mr. and Mrs. N. J. Swayze a son.
The Union Sunday
School at the Falls elects F. B. Hunt as superintendent, Mrs. W. A. Morgan,
assistant, W. S. Romigh,secretary; and Fred Perrigo and May Gandy,
librarians.
Teachers certifiicates
are granted to Maria Barns, Alice J. Lee, L. A. Kellogg, J. C. and J. D. Bales,
and J. F: Campbell.
APRIL 26--Alice J. Lee is teaching the Fox creek school.
Lydia A. Davis, wife of Dr. I. V. Davis, dies in
Butler county, aged 17 years.
MAY 3--A United Presbyterian
society is organized at the Falls by Rev.
McAuly. W. W. Sanders and Chas. McDowell are elected elders.
A Methodist Sabbath School is organized by Rev. N. F. Tipton, superintendent and H.
P. Brockett, secretary.
Page 79
Thomas Barber and wife start on a tramp thru Missouri and Texas for the
double purpose of finding a home and health. He
lost his health in the army.
MAY 10--Martin
Gross is convicted of the murder of Jas. Fisher
and is sentenced to 21 years in the penitentiary. The jury stood 11 to 1 for murder in the first degree.
MAY 17--The
Teachers Institute for this judicial district will meet in Marion Center, June
4, 5 and 6.
P. C. Jeffrey, of
Diamond Creek, starts a store at Elmdale.
B: F. Talkington, architect and builder, locates at Elmdale. Mr. Sedoris, from Michigan, is building a
hotel at Elmdale. Miss R. A. Seamans
is teaching the Elmdale school.
One of the hardest fought law suits in the local courts was that of J. R. Blackshere against the A.
T. & S. F. Ry. for damages
to his ranch, Clover Cliff. The
jury awards him $2,400 for the right-of-way thru his farm. The caseis appealed.
The stone for the new Normal school at Emporia will be taken from the quarries at
Cottonwood.
A force pump is
put in the town well.
The county commissioners order the administrators of U.
B. Warren to turn over to A. S. Howard, county treasurer, $8,000 of county funds. There is still $2,000 claimed by
the county.
The David family give two entertainments at the Falls M. E. Church. (This was the most popular company of
entertainers in the State at the time. Their
home was on the Whitewater and the Old Settlers still speak of their fine programs.)
Died: Levi
Harrison Hardy, on May 5th, at home
on Cedar Creek. His death was caused
from a broken leg. He was 32 years old, and a native of Boston, Mass.
MAY 24--Cottonwood Falls and North
Cottonwood Falls
are
incorporated as a city of the third class.
W. C. Edwards, who
has yards at Cottonwood Station, is shipping lumber to Marion and Butler
counties.
"Many Voters" urges public spirited men for our
public office in order, as he puts it, "to give eclat to our embryo
city."
Page 80
J. M. Tuttle sells
his property on Fox creek and moves to the Falls.
Sheriff Smith advertises a sale of Dennis Ryan's land to satisfy a
judgment in favor of his brother, Patrick Ryan.
MAY 28--The first city election
in Cottonwood Falls results as follows: There are 82 votes cast. W. S. Smith, is elected
mayor, and C. A. Britton, G. W. Williams, A. S. Howard, W. J. Daugherty, and
Geo. W. Estes are elected council men. J.
S. Doolittle is police judge. Under the new homestead law 160 acres valued at $1.25 an
acre will cost $14 for the first entry and $4 to prove up. The first meeting of
the city council of the Falls---and the first in the county--is held. M. C. Newton is appointed
clerk; C. C. Whitson, marshal; A. P. Gandy, treasurer; and Jabin Johnson,
street commissioner. C. Schnavely had
two horses stolen near Elmdale and Dr. Conaway's horse is stolen at Toledo. Ida E. Hinckley,
daughter of L. D. Hinckley, celebrates her 16th birthday with a party at the
Hinckley Hotel. School district No. 24 is organized on Fox Creek. JUNE 6--Married: Zeno W. Morgan and Mrs. Rebecca Moore, of
Toledo. JUNE 14--The first ordinance passed by the Falls city council provides for a license of $200 per
year for a saloon. E. B. Jewett, a
young lawyer of the Falls, is
struck by lightning while standing in front of the Hinckley hotel. He will recover. (Mr. Jewett
not only recovered but became prominent in the public life of Kansas. He located at Wichita and was
warden of the penitentiary, 1899 to 1903.) JUNE 21--Florence holds the first election there for city
officers. Fall wheat on Cedar
creek will average 10 to 16 bushels to the acre. The Hinckley Hotel
at the Falls is so covered with lightning rods that it
is compared to an enraged porcupine. The first license to sell liquor in the
Falls is issued to John N. Nye. Married: Fredrick Starkey and Permelia Somerscales; Wilson
Stout and Alice Ann Foreman; Geo. Collett, Sr. to
Mrs. Catherine Page. Page 81
E. B. Jewett, a
young lawyer of the Falls, is
struck by lightning while standing in front of the Hinckley hotel. He will recover. (Mr. Jewett not only
recovered but became prominent in the public life of Kansas. He located at Wichita and was warden of the
penitentiary, 1899 to 1903.)
JUNE 21--Florence holds the first election there for city
officers.
Fall wheat on Cedar creek will average 10 to 16 bushels to
the acre.
The Hinckley Hotel
at the Falls so covered with
lightning rods that it is compared to an enraged porcupine. The first license
to sell liquor in the Falls is issued to John N. Nye.
Married: Fredrick Starkey and Permelia Somerscales ;
Wilson Stout and Alice Ann Foreman; Geo. Collett, Sr.
to Mrs. Catherine Page.
JULY 4--Bazaar and Cedar Point observe the day with
Community picnics.
JULY 12--Rev. J. G. Freeborn is assigned to the Congregational
churches at Diamond Creek and Cedar Point. Principal G. W. Hoss, of the State Normal School, lectures in the Falls on
"Education."
John Emslie is getting out large stones for the Capitol at Topeka. Each stone weighs more than 13,000 lbs.
The Leader
acknowledges the first issue of the Hutchinson News and wishes it success.
Gilbert M. Venable;
of Memphis, Tenn., owns 1,640 acres and is negotiating for more.
JULY 19--The county
commissioners refuse to approve state road from Toledo to the Falls.
A pound is
established and Omer Hinckley is the pound keeper.
The personal and
real property of Chase county totals two million dollars.
AUG. 3--A Harvest
Home festival is held in Dr. Leonard's grove at Bazaar.
Fifty Pottawatomies
pass thru on a hunting trip.
Three horses were stolen this week.
Seven homesteads were taken in the Homestead country this
week.
Page 82
The iron for the county jail is ordered.
Cottonwood township will vote on issuing $48,000 in bonds for the Walnut
Valley road from Cedar Point to ElDorado.
AUG. 9--500 sheep are brought to Cedar Point.
Wm. Barker dies at the home of his father, James Barker, aged 16 years.
Democratic mass meeting is called for the 31st, H. L. Hunt, chairman.
Thomas O'Donnell, of Middle creek, protests against the use of the local
school house for religious services. Rev. C G. Allen is conducting them.
AUG. 13--Harvest Home ball at Britton's hall in the Falls.
A hay baling company is organized at the Falls. Twenty-five families
settled in southern Chase county this week. Homesteads
were secured for five of them. Sidewalks are being put down in Cottonwood
Falls.
AUG. 23--Wm. Shaft's sorrel mare beats Loomis' "Burt'", the
"Champion of the Southwest." A
purse of $400 was up and a large crowd sees the event. Cattle, horses and cash
changed hands on the result.
AUG. 26--Mrs. P. P. Shriver, of Cedar Point, is dead.
AUG. 30--Wm. Turner
is postmaster at Bazaar.
J. W. McWilliams locates 19 families on farms in Chase county.
The bonds in Cottonwood township for the Walnut Valley railway are voted
by 30 majority.
The Democrats nominate a county ticket.
SEPT. 6--John Martin, of Topeka, speaks at the Falls on political issues.
SEPT. 13--P. B. Plumb
retires from the practice of law.
SEPT. 15--Bishop Jas. Craik, of Louisville,
Kentucky, preaches at the Falls. He is
the father of Hewitt Craik, of Kanawha Ranch, on Fox
creek.
Corn on the D. P. Shaft place will average 90 bushels to the acre. Mr. Shaft
has completed the best barn in southern Kansas. It is 50 by 54 feet.
The Liberal
Republican convention meets at the Falls.
Page 83
Hewitt Craik and O. J. Hunt are elected delegates to the state convention.
Court convenes at the Falls. There
are 30 cases on the docket--only two are criminal.
The commissioners order school levies in the 26 districts of the county.
The tax ranges from 27 mills in Dist. 23 to 21/2 mills in District 13.
The state board of equalization has fixed the value of Chase county lands at $5.048 per acre. The highest valuation set is in
Leavenworth county--$12. The lowest is McPherson county--$2.73 an acre.
Willis Barnes dies after a long illness, following sunstroke.
O. F. Brashear's card at attorney-at-law appears.
School district No. 26, Toledo, sells $1,200 bonds to build a school
house. The bonds bring $.875. They bear 10%. (Discounting a ten per cent bond
12 1/2% shows something of the price the first settlers of Chase county paid for
schools.)
SEPT. 27-- Born to Judge and Mrs. W. R. Brown, a son. The
Toledo depot is located a mile west of Buckeye creek.
Mrs. C. B. Hardy, after the death of her son, sells her farm on Cedar
creek, and returns to Boston.
John Emslie decides to become a permanent resident of Chase county and
develop the quarries.
S. A. Cobb, Republican candidate for Congress, and Geo.
T. Anthony address the people of Chase County on the issues of the day.
OCT. 4--The first advertisement for the sale of unclaimed freight in Chase
county appears in the Leader.
F. P. Cochran is appointed city attorney of the Falls.
The firm of Smith and Nichols, cattle
dealers on Bill's creek in the southwestern corner of Chase county,
dissolve partnership.
E. A. Hildebrand, of the Edwards lumber yard, at Cottonwood, is
accidentally shot in the ankle.
OCT. 11-- Leroy
Martin, W. P. Martin, and D. M. Swope return from a buffalo hunt near Larned.
They saw thousands of buffaloes and killed eleven.
Page 84
OCT. 18-Nicholas Rettiger and Lizzie Nye are married.
Mrs. Thomas Winn,
of Fox creek, dies.
J. L. Crawford's brick house is completed at Hunt's Station. The bricks were made on the premises.
Fall wheat is worth 1.80 per bushel.
Safford is the name of the new station just west of Buckeye creek. It is
named in honor of Judge Safford, of Topeka. Bingham Scott, of Cadiz, Ohio, is
the "proprietor" of Safford. His agent is J. P. Scott. The townsite
is being platted.
The first trial in the Falls under the new city ordinance is held and a
riotous young man from Middle creek is fined $2.50 for "disturbing the
peace."
The Republican county convention nominates this ticket: W. S. Smith,
representative; C. C. Whitson, probate judge; F. P. Cochran, county attorney;
H. A. Brundage, county superintendent; S. A. Breese, clerk of the court.
OCT. 25--The surveyors begin work on the Cedar Point and ElDorado branch
of the Santa Fe.
F. P. Cochran and
J. W. McWilliams form a law partnership
Frank Doster drives from Marion Center to the Falls via Florence, and his
horse dies the next morning.
Liberal Republicans nominate Wm. Jeffrey for representative; J. T.
Craik, for probate judge; W. S. Romigh, county attorney; W. S. Hargrove, clerk
of the court; and O. P.
Noble for county superintendent of schools. Hewitt
Craik is endorsed for state senator.
J. G. Winne is asked to become a candidate for superintendent of schools
by leading Republicans as they learn that H. A. Brundage, their nominee, was a
candidate before the Democratic convention for the nomination for the same office. Mr. Winne accepts.
A. R. Ice has the
correspondence between him and W. W. Fagan, assistant superintendent of the
Santa Fe, to show the insulting character of letters sent in reply to his claims
for damages for cattle killed. (The
killing of cattle by the trains, before the railroad was fenced was one of the
chief sources of disputes between the railroad and the farmers. Next to this the burning of hay and
stables by fires starting from the engines. Numerous
lawsuits resulted from these losses.)
Page 85
T. J. Jones
announces as an independent candidate for county attorney.
The issues of the
fall campaign are: The defeat of S. C. Pomeroy, for United States senator; the
defeat of U. S. Grant for mal-administration ; and the fencing of railroads by
the companies. And the campaign is an arduous one.
NOV. 1--Captain H.
Brandley is the nominee of the Republicans for state senator.
Died: Mrs. John
Prather of Falls township.
Nine lots are sold in Cottonwood Station and two houses are building.
Williams and
Cormack sell their drug store in the Falls to Wilbur, Powell and Jas. Craik.
A meeting is called
to organize a Farmer's Club in school district No. 18. (This proved to be one
of the most effective organizations for bettering the conditions of rural
living in this part of the state.)
NOV. 8--Chase county
cast 483 votes for U. S. Grant for president, and 186 for Horace Greeley. Wm.
Jeffrey is elected representative by 6 votes; J. G. Winne, county superintendent by 127;
the Republicans elected all officers excepting Wm. Jeffrey.
(The Liberal Republicans and Democrats united forces but failed in the
election. A number of Republicans, however, were estranged permanently from
their party during this campaign. Grant carried Kansas by 35,000.)
Chase county, for
the first time in its history, sends a
Democrat to the legislature.
NOV. 15--sidewalks
of flagging not less than three inches thick and ten feet wide are ordered for
the west side of Broadway street in the Falls.
NOV. 18--The
"Cedar Creek Farmers' Club" is organized in Dist. No. 18.
NOV. 22--0. J. Hunt is shipping 1,200 cords of wood to
Dodge City and Fort Larned. He
ships from Safford. (This sale of wood
denuded the Cottonwood as far as Florence. In many places the
entire growth of timber was cut from the streams. Walnut,
which later on was of large value, was sold for cord-wood at this time.)
NOV. 24--J. S. Doolittle sells his "Stone Store"
and will retire from business "for the present."
Page 86
J. M. Tuttle
advertises "The New Grocery,"in the Falls.
The Leader speaks of
"The Sunflower" edited by Minnie Ellis, Spinster, in complimentary
terms--;and quotes from it largely.
The officers of the Cedar Creek Farmers' Club are: S. S. Vanderin,
president; A. Varner, vice-president; F. L. Drinkwater, secretary; J. B.
Ferguson, treasurer. The
objects of the organization are stated to be, "self improvement and the
better development of agriculture in our midst."
The tax levy for
'72 is 18 mills.
Leroy Martin states in the Leader that T. S. Jones is purchasing county
orders for him exclusively.
NOV. 30--John
Lansberry, a soldier in the War of 1812, dies at Matfield Green, aged 79 years.
Turkey Shooting at
Frank Copeland's on Dec. 21st.
DEC. 2--Born, to Mr.
and Mrs. Hewitt Craik, a daughter.
Prigo's store is robbed of $60.
Mrs. Houston is
having a fine stone residence built 8 miles west of the Falls.
DEC 6--Leroy Martin
sells one thousand bushels of barley to the Topeka brewery.
Philo Ogden is appointed postmaster at Cedar Point.
The Leader, in
speaking of Horace Greeley, whose death occurred on Nov. 29, says: "His lifetime of benevolence and
virtue dwells in the memory of the people."
DEC. 13-H. L. Hunt and W. S. Smith, general merchants, make an
assignment, with liabilities amounting to $23,000 and assets, $40,000. J. S. Doolittle is assignee.
The county
commissioners meet. A. R. Ice is the new member.
DEC. 20--Wanted: At
French's restaurant 1,000 prairie chickens and 1,500 rabbits.
"Epizootic"
is general throughout Chase county.
Will Hackett, who
was accidentally shot while hunting buffalo near Raymond, is brought to the
Falls.
The notable case of Marcou vs Ferlet is continued. The case originated at Cedar Point between
Marcou, a French lawyer, and A. Ferlet, over the sale of a heifer calf valued
at $12.00. The costs are already $150. The famous Wooden Dagger Gang, consisting
of twenty highly respected farmers
Page 87
of Cedar Point, is organized while waiting for the train
at the Cedar Point station and war to the wooden dagger is threatened all the
way to the Falls unless the case of Marcou vs. Ferlet is stopped and the
farmers of Cottonwood township be allowed to resume their usual occupations. The court refused however to be coerced
and the case is continued to the complete discomfiture of the Wooden Dagger
Gang.
The Cedar Creek Farmers
Club discusses the best time to plant sod-corn.
A Christmas tree and dance
is announced for Cedar Point.
Lewis Mack, dressed as a German prince, having just received a keg of
beer, rides about the Falls on Christmas day, inviting all "to free beer
at Ny's saloon between 10 and 12 o'clock. (The Falls for many years was the rendevous of a crowd of
roisterers--and sometimes worse than that--whose actions were flagrant, and whose
influence upon many lives was disastrous.)
Miss L. E. Abbott,
oculist, advertises in the Leader.
Married, S. R. Moon to Hannah Presnell.
DEC. 31-Grand ball at Hunt's Hall in the Falls.
1873
JAN. 3--The
establishment of dairies is urged by a correspondent to the Leader.
The winter is
unusually severe. Many buffalo hunters in western Kansas are frozen.
JAN. 24--Marcou vs
Ferlet trial results in a verdict for the defendant, but a new trial is
imminent. (The order of the Wooden Dagger is willing to donate a herd to the
contestants if they will let them off as witnesses.)
A. S. Howard retires from the practice of law.
H. L. Hunt & Co.'s stock of goods is sold to Shamleffer & Co. of
Council Grove. They
will continue the business.
<
JAN. 28--The A. T. & S.
F. Ry. reaches the State line. 470 miles of track have been built since 1869.
Lot Lonard's wheat averages 39 bushels to the acre.
The M. K. & T.
Ry, pays $4,000 taxes on their lands in Chase county. The Santa Fe pays $4,700.<
Page 88
A temporance society is organized at the Falls with H. L. Hunt as president.
A postoffice is established at Safford and David Griffis is postmaster.
Middle Creek postoffice is changed to Elmdale and Jonathan Wood is postmaster.
JAN. 31--Following the York
disclosures, J. J. Ingalls is elected United States senator. Captain Henry Brandley
had worked against Pomeroy thruout the campaign.
There are no trains on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; the mercury
registers 16 degrees below zero.
S. N. Wood and F. P. Cochran are partners in law.
FEB. 7--School
district No. 27 is organized near the head of Cedar creek. Two years ago there
was not a voter in the district--now there are 22 and they have voted $1,400 in
bonds to build a school house.
Seth M. Hays, of Council Grove, is dead. He
was the first man to buy a claim in Chase county, in 1854, when the Osage lands were offered for sale. This land is the Houghton farm near Neva.
FEB. 1--Winn Thomas and
Hannah Pickett are married.
FEB.
13--F. P. Cochran and Belle Lindsey are married. The wedding is made a
society event and an elegant dinner is served at the Hinckley House.
Rev. H. A. Brundage accepts a call to Great Bend.
The editor of "The
Sunflower" enters Bethany college.
J. P. Kuhl sells his harness shop to Ed
Jeffrey.
FEB. 21--George Pardonet
who went to France to secure settlers in Alsace and Lorraine, is stopped by the
Government after engaging transportation for 1,000 emigrants. He is prohibited
by the French government from lecturing on Kansas in France. Pardonet went in
the interests of the Santa Fe Ry.
A library
association is organized at the Falls. Judge W. R. Brown, Dr. W. A. Cormack, W.
E. Romigh, Mrs. H. L. Hunt, and Mrs. W. A. Morgan are selected directors, and
$1,000 capital stock is subscribed.
FEB. 23--Final entry is
made on the Santa Fe Railway lands in Chase County.
FEB. 28--Isaac
Alexander builds a distillery on Spring creek.
Page 89
Lizzie Holmes, daughter of John Holmes, dies suddenly.
MARCH 7--Farmers' meeting is called for March 15, at the Congregational church
at the Falls, to form an organization for mutual protection. The call is signed by E. B. Crocker, Dr.
Morris, G. W. Hays, Hewitt Craik, S. M. Wood, S. N. Wood, F. E. Smith, Leroy
Martin, and others.
The delinquent tax list of Chase county fills three columns in the
Leader.
Born, to Mr. and
Mrs. W. S. Romigh, a son.
The Elmdale school
district buys $94 worth of books for the school library.
Drinkwater and Shriver will cut 300,000 feet of lumber on South Fork this
spring; W. H. Shaft will have 100,000 feet of walnut and oak sawed, and 50,000
feet of cottonwood.
MARCH 14--The legislature exempted mortgages from taxation at the last
session.
There are fify
cases on the docket for the next term of court. There is only one criminal case.
C. N. Sterry,
nephew of S. A. Perrigo, is visiting in the
Falls. He will locate there in the
practice of the law. (Col. Sterry became
General Counsel for the Santa Fe with headquarters in Los Angeles in the
'90's.)
The Ninth Judicial District now includes 13 counties.
1,200 acres of railroad land have been sold
in Chase county this week.
MARCH 25--School district 28 is formed on Rock Creek, and No. 31 on South
Fork.
A. Ferlet, of Cedar Point, rents his farm, and will teach French in the
University of Virginia the coming year. (But the case of Marcou vs. Ferlet is
continued.)
Col. S. N. Wood conducted
the services at the congregational Church in the Falls last Sunday.
Married: Robert S.
Houston and Sarah E. Morris; also S. T. Bennet and Mollie McGinnis.
The farmers hold
their meeting at the Falls and perfect their organization. S. M. Wood is elected
president and Hewitt Craik, secretary. A committee is appointed to form a
constitution for a Chase County Agricultural Society.
MARCH 28--E. B. Crocker publishes a report of the returns from his farm showing that it paid $408 net profit last year.
Page 90
Mrs. Sarah Mack is appointed postmistress at the Falls. Leroy Martin
receives 185,000 hedge plants. He
set out 40,000 last year. (Much of the
hedge fence planted then is still in use on the Martin farm.)
Married: Z. T.
Hicks to Josephine Banks, of South Fork. Cerebro-meningitis is prevalent in
Toledo township. Elizabeth Conaway dies from the disease.
APRIL 4--A permanent state organization to be known as the "Farmers
Co-operative Association" was formed at Topeka, March 26th. (The rise of
the Grange is identified with this movement.)
E. B. Crocker is elected president of the Chase County Agricultural
Society and J. R. Blackshere vice-president. Hewitt Craik is recording
secretary and W. S. Romigh, corresponding secretary. Arch Miller is treasurer and the trustees are W. G
Patton, Wm. Prather, W. H. Shaft, W. S. Hargrove, and Leroy
Martin. Such was the beginning of the Agricultural Society of :Chase ,county.)
Rev. Freeborn is
pastor of the Congregational church at the Falls.
Rev. H. F. Tipton
is assigned to the M. E. Church at the Falls and Rev. H. W. Chaffe to Cedar
Point.
Rev. Tipton
receives 28 applications for orphans to be adopted and forwards them to the New
York society.
The Good Templars
organize at Elmdale. Jack Critton is W. C. T.
T. S. Jones is elected mayor of the Falls.
The Toledo township farmers organize a club.
APRIL 18-The Emporia National Bank advertises in the
Leader. Col. Plumb is president.
A train of fifty wagons, with 140 people, passes
up the Cottonwood valley bound for southern Colorado.
Peter Aller, the cashier of the Marion County Bank, at Florence, who made regular trips to
Chase county to sell ex-change and receive deposits, is said to have "gone
East." There is a shortage in the bank's cash of $1,700.The bondsmen make it good.
The Sixth Annual
meeting of the Chase County Bible Society is held at the Falls.
Page 91
The president is Asa Gillett; secretary, Mrs.
W. A. Morgan; treasurer, A. G. Miner; and depositor, Mrs. S. L. Mack.
The Falls school district provides for a primary department at
Cottonwood Station.
Dr. Peter McVicar,
president of Washburn college, lectures in the Falls on "Darwinism."
APRIL 25--Saloon
licenses are fixed at $100 the year at the Falls. C. N. Sterry is city attorney.
The assessors fix the
following prices on Chase county land: 1st quality bottom land, $8; 2nd quality
bottom land, $5; 1st quality upland, $3.50; 2nd quality upland, $3; 1st quality
timber, $25; 2nd quality timber, $15. Third quality timber is assessed at $6
the acre and "breaking" per acre, $2. The county commissioners sue
the bondsmen of U. B. Warren. They are A. J. Crocker, J. H. Doolittle, and C.
A. Britton. The amount is $36,000. R. M.. Ruggles is attorney for the county
and S. N. Wood for the defendants.
The Chase County
Agricultural Society meets and appoints committees of two farmers from each
school district in the county, to organize local auxiliary societies.
The Marcou-Ferlet law suit is concluded. The calf at the time Ferlet got
it was worth $1, or $2. It sold a short
while ago for $16. The total costs
and attorney's fees of the case are $453.54. Father Ferrier, and S. N. Wood
effected the settlement. Marcou pays $166.77 and Ferlet keeps the heifer, pays
$20 to the Catholic church at Cedar Point, and pays half the costs, $166.77-and
an attorney's fee, of $100. And the Order of the Wooden Dagger at length won exemption
from continuous attendance upon courts.
MAY 8--The Congregational association of Southern Kansas meets at the Falls. Thirty ministers and delegates are present.
A meeting of the
soldiers and sailors of Chase county is called for May 15th.
The first writ of habeas
corpus issued in Chase county is ordered by Judge Whitson in the case against
Bibert and Steffen.
The Teachers'
Institute for the 9th judicial district will meet at Hutchinson
May 27th.
Page 92
Chase county teachers are
required to attend.
The A. T. & S.
F. Ry. claim that they should not pay the taxes assessed against their lands in
Chase county as they did not receive title to the lands until February 1873.
The Leader announces that the Toledo township farmers
organized the co-operative association, April 19th, and elected D. R.
Shellenbarger president; E. R. Green, secretary; C. C. Myers, treasurer. A
constitution was adopted.
MAY 15--The meeting
of the soldiers of Chase county is held at the Congregational !church. Dr. G.
W. Williams is the presiding officer. W. A. Morgan is the secretary of the
meeting. The following are present: F. P. Cochran, J. W. McWilliams, Wm.
Norton, W. R. Bradley, W. S. Smith, J. N. Nye, H. L. Hunt, Isaac Alexander, Wm.
Cazaly, Henry Hegwer, Dave Mann, L. S. Jones, C. C. Whitson, W. G. Patton and
Asa Taylor. The exploits of the 8th Kansas militia are rehearsed by H. L.
Hunt, W. S. Smith and Asa Taylor. Steps are taken to organize a post of the
Grand Army of the Republic.
The directors of
the Walnut Valley Railway Co. meet at ElDorado. O. H. Drinkwater and Henry
Weaver are members
MAY 16--Four
licenses are granted to sell liquor at the Falls.
The Falls receives
the first installment of books for the library, 100 volumes in all.
The Peabody Gazette
is established.
M. Evans dies at Bazaar.
<
The Bender
tragedies are discovered.
A. Ferlet and
family leave for Staunton,. Virginia.
Hon. Jacob Safford, for whom the townsite of Safford is named, is acting
as judge pro-tern in this district.
MAY 30--C. A. Britton and N. J. Swayze offer to build a
mill at Florence if the township will vote them $5,000 bonds, and secure the
right-of-way. The election is called for June 14th.
Heavy rains cause
the bottom lands to be flooded. Several
small railroad bridges were washed out.
Rev. N. T. Tipton's daughter, Mrs. Earnest, disappears and foul play is feared. Later she is located at Cameron, Mo.
Page 93
Henry Strong, of
Chicago, is elected president of the A. T. & S. F. Ry.
Bishop Vaile
lectures in the Falls. The Falls council levies a tax on dogs.
MAY 31--Final entry
of the M. K. & T. Railway lands in Chase county.
JUNE 6--Williams and Cormack dissolve partnership at the
Falls.
Wm. Norton is
postmaster at the Falls.
Wm. Campbell, from
Illinois, opens a store at Safford.
J. C Martin locates on Fox Creek.
H. P. Coe, of Iowa,
buys the homestead of Mr. Cooley.
Three homesteaders from near Boston locate on
Spring creek this week.
Judge W. R. Brown moves to Hutchinson in order to be nearer the center of
the 9th judicial district.
S. A. Perrigo buys
the stock of the Clapp and Britton
store.
The case of S. N. Wood against the A. T. & S. F. Co. is being tried. The
amount sued for totals $666,500.
The case of Henry
Hegwer against Jas. Heskett for $20,000 results in a hung jury. Heskett shot
Hegwer in '69 and Hegwer will be a
cripple for life.
The Kaws are being
removed to the Indian Territory. There are 500 Indians being transported. They
are passing thru Chase county daily.
JUNE 13--Judge
Dillon decides that more than a million dollars in bonds issued by towns and
counties in Kansas were unconstitutionally issued. The case decided was the
King Bridge Co. vs Iola.
A township Fair is
to be held this fall in Cottonwood township. The Cedar Creek Farmers club
appoints Dr. Mead, F. L. Drinkwater and T. Sayre to arrange for the fair.
JUNE 20--The Chase County Agricultural Society appoints a
committee to arrange for a county fair next fall.
Murray Tuttle is rescued from
drowning by Joe George and Fred Perrigo.
Page 94
Paris Mills opens
his new store at Toledo. It is twostories high, and is 18 by 36 feet.
Arrangements are
made for an all county celebration at the county seat on the Fourth of July. S.
M. Wood, president of the day; A. B. Watson, marshal; J. G. Freeborn and N. T.
Tipton, chaplains; W. R. Bradley, chief of police. These will by the officers of the day. The speakers of the day will be J. C Dwelle, J. G. Freeborn,
F. B. Hunt, A. H. Britton, and J. G. Winne. Miss
Ollie Prather will read the Declaration of Independence.
Two Bazaar girls
decide to see the world for themselves and take a pony of Geo. Yeager and ride
part way to Emporia. The explanations were satisfactory to all, but an excited
horse-thief rumor was spoiled.
JUNE 27--More raw prairie is being broken inToledo township than in any previous year.
The Toledo Farmers
club urges encouraging home establishments.
Wheat prospects are excellent in Chase county.
Three-year-old steers are
selling for $40 per head.
Home-made harness is ordered by A. J. Crocker and E.
W. Pinkston, from Ed Jeffrey.
Cedar Point decides
to celebrate at home in spite of the all-county plans of the Falls. Col. T. S. Jones will be the orator
and Ella Doughty will read the Declaration of Independence.
JULY 1--Andrew
Drummond, of Woodhull, advertises Leicester buck lambs for sale.
JULY 4--Mrs. T. E.
Newby is bitten by a large copperhead snake while getting out of bed.
Dr. Mead is
president of the day at the celebration at Cedar Point.
The Toledo farmers
club votes unanimously to admit women.
J. G. Watson, who
took a homestead at the head of Cedar Creek two years ago, has the best field
of wheat in the county.
W. W. Sanders has completed his residence at the Falls.
S.
A. Perrigo does the unusual thing by erecting a business house on the east
side of Broadway, in the Falls.
Page 95
JULY 11--Calvin Sharp is appointed postmaster at Bazaar.
A Good Templars
lodge is organized at Cedar Point.
The Prairie Hill Nursery is established by D. A. Freeborn, F. M. Price
and H. P. Coe, at the head of Spring Creek.
Luther Newton is drowned in Crocker's
creek near Bazaar. He is a brother of
M. C. Newton.
Deputy Sheriff
Yeoman captures two horse-thieves near Bazaar. They
are wanted at Abilene.
The census shows that Chase county has 2,839 people. There
is one blind person, one insane person, and 745 voters.
Three homesteaders
locate in township 21, range 7, this week.
Freight on a threshing machine from Topeka to the Falls is
$56.50.
JULY 25--Fred Pracht took a
homestead on Middle creek two years ago and now has 290 acres under fence and 100
acres broken.
Mrs. Francis Bernard of Cedar Point will leave this week
for a three-months' visit in Paris, France.
Jas. Hays, of Bazaar,
captures a full-grown catamount in a steel trap.
JULY 30--The State
Grange is organized at Lawrence, 400 local grangers over the state are
represented. The meetings are secret.
Rev. T. H. Dinsmore visits Chase county in the interests of Highland
University.
AUG. 1--W. P. Martin returns to Peyton to live.
N. J. Swaynze is building a home in the Falls. He will open a bank in the Falls as soon as he secures a building
the first bank here.
Chase county will produce
100,000 bushels of wheat this year and 175,000 bushels of corn.
AUG. 15--Chase county falls
into the district of W. A. Phillips by the mutual agreement between three
Kansas congressmen.
John Robinson's Circus is advertised for Florence on September 2nd.
The commissioners
order the road east of the county line opened and suit brought against S. N.
Wood for obstructing it.
Page 96
AUG.
27--Married, J. P. Kuhl and Dora F. Baldwin.
SEPT. 3--The five
"Grandfathers" of the Mennonites, under the leadership of D. Unruh,
are investigating conditions inview to
bringing a colony here.
Mary Hunt leaves for Council Grove to spend a year there.
Col. S. N. Wood has
resigned as attorney for the Santa Fe.
Ferry and Watson, from Missouri, start a stock ranch on Rock creek. They
have brought with them 15 head of thoroughbred cattle--Durhams.
Toledo township resists the payment of taxes on account of the station
bonds for $5,000 which were voted, but the conditions have not been kept by
the railroad.
SEPT. 8--Mrs. Maggie
Breese, the wife of Sidney A. Breese, dies. She is survived by her husband and
two daughters.
Dr. G. W. Williams
and Ed Pratt buy the Charles Wilbur drug store.
SEPT. 12--John
Emslie is opening large quarries at Cottonwood.
F. E. Gillett has
leased the Falls Hotel.
Married, Richard Church and Emily Keller.
A. S. Howard, as
treasurer, advertises three full columns of Santa Fe lands for sale for taxes,
the company refusing to pay the same.
Thomas Barber and
wife return from their long walk through Missouri and Texas, restored in
health, and will make their home in Toledo.
Married, A. Hammer
and Martha A. Perry, of Toledo.
SEPT. 26-Married, J. M. Tuttle and Nettie
Winters. A party of thirty
emigrants arrived here last Saturday from Illinois. Since starting on their
journey, one family has lost five children from measles. Two died in Missouri,
and one died here the day they camped by the crossing. S. P. Watson
receives notice that his homestead entry has been cancelled as the land belongs
to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. He has improved the land for seven
years. Messrs. Noyes,
Gates and E. Stotts have received similar notices. Page 97
Smuggler, the famous race horse, sold recently for $50,000, was formerly
owned by the Rev. N. F. Tipton the Methodist pastor at Cottonwood Falls.
A well-known woman of Bazaar has left her husband and two children. She went away with another man.
The Farmers meeting held
last Saturday in the Falls appointed a committee to confer with the other
farmers organizations with a view of bringing out a farmers' ticket this fall.
OCT. 3--Wm. Hillert
opens a shoe shop in the Falls.
A temporary injunction is obtained by the Santa Fe against Chase county
selling the railroad lands for taxes.
John Emslie takes the first premium for Chase county building stone at the
State Fair at Topeka.
The Chase county courthouse is completed. The total cost was $41,000. It
is of Chase county limestone, from the quarries on the townsite. J. G. Haskell
was the architect and James Bannan, the contractor.
W. S. Hanna, chaplain of the State Grange, is organizing granges in this
county.
P. C. Jeffrey is postmaster at Elmdale.
OCT. 10--N. J. Swayze continues to cash checks at the Chase County Bank,
for all of Black Friday and the Jay Cook failure.
Dr. I. C. Winsor locates one mile north of the depot. He has had 14 years of experience, in the
East.
A Farmers
convention to nominate a farmers ticket is called for Oct. 25, at the county
seat. Each school district is entitled to elect three delegates.
OCT. 17--The public opening of the Chase county courthouse is held at 9
a. m. There is a dance in the evening and a supper, the proceeds of which will
go to the public library. The county officers took up their offices in the courthouse
on the 13th. It has been insured for $25,000.
At the housewarming,
the supper is served in the jail. $100 is cleared. The dance is attended by a
large company from all parts of the county.
J. N. Nye's license
to sell liquors is revoked.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Brockett, a daughter.
J.
S. Doolittle moves to Elmdale. Page 98
Dave Wood purchases the Henderson livery stable at the Falls.
Burt Foreman shot a fine buck four miles east of the Falls.
John Moore, the blind broom maker, has a factory at the head of Spring
Creek.
Mrs. Hardy returns from Boston to make her home in Chase county.
Col. S. N. Wood has the county commissioners arrested. Justice Hewitt
Craik decides that he has no jurisdiction and the case is appealed.
The county attorney's yearly salary is increased from $200 to $400.
The county commissioners
order the county attorney to begin proceedings against the chairman of the
board for the collection of all money and interest realized by the sale of the
courthouse bonds and not accounted for.
OCT. 24--The postoffice is
re-established at Cottonwood Station and E. A. Hildebrand is named as
postmaster.
The Santa Fe is now selling steamship tickets to and from all ports in
Europe.
A large pottawatomie hunting party with their squaws and baggage passes
thru the Falls on their way south.
OCT. 25--The Republican
county convention meets and nominates the following ticket: L. S. Jones,
representative; S. A. Breese, county clerk; A. S. Howard, county treasurer; Wm.
Rockwood, sheriff; W. W. Sanders, surveyor; A. P. Gandy, register of deeds; J.
W. McWilliams, coroner; Jas. Austin, commissioner; Dr. A. M. Conaway is
chairman and W. A. Morgan, secretary.
The Farmers convention meets at the Falls. Every school district except four is represented. The following nominations are made: J.
G. Winnie, representative; Wm. Norton, sheriff; John O'Byne, coroner;
Commissioners, 1st district, G. W. Brickell; 2nd district, Arch Miller; 3rd
district, J. R. Blackshere. The other nominees are the same as those of the Republican ticket. The chairman of the convention is Henry
Brandley and the secretary is W. S. Romigh. The
resolutions denounce corporate conpricies, monopolies, and corrupt legislation.
Page 99
There
are eighteen undecided cases in the district court in which S. N. Wood is
plaintiff.
J. J. Buck, Grand
W. C. T. of Kansas, lectures on temperance at the Falls and a petition asking
for a law prohibiting the sale of liquor in the state is extensively signed.
Mrs. Maria Hegwer
dies at her home on Diamond creek aged 72 years. The Hegwers were among the
first settlers on Diamond creek, settling there in '57.
The Leader runs
both local political tickets.
NOV. 7--The returns show 636 votes
were cast in Chase county. The Republican ticket is elected with the exception
of Wm. Norton, sheriff, instead of Wm. Rockwood, and Alva Townshend, H. N.
Simmons and J. R. Blackshere are elected Commissioners. (The Farmers movement
for electing all farmers resulted in six residents of the Falls being elected.)
Cottonwood Falls polled 247 votes, more than one-third of the total.
J. M. Tuttle's new store building is completed.
Born to
Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Estes, a son. Jos. G. Waters,
Topeka, prints his card in the Leader as a lawyer. NOV. 14--Ferry and
Watson buy the Carter Gillett store. Reverends Tipton and Sangent conclude a revival
on South Fork and as a result two societies are formed, a Methodist and a
Lutheran. A brass band is to be organized. The Florence Pioneer
suspends. Wm. Barton sells out on Fox creek. The case of Hegwer
vs Heskett ends with verdict for Heskett. NOV. 21--The
killing of the crew and passengers of the Virginia causes intense local
excitement. Cottonwood Falls
is saved from a prairie fire which swept into the town from Buck creek. C. B. Schmidt
visits Chase county to find seventy-five sections of land for a Swiss colony. The Society of Friends hold their seventh Bible school
conference at the Vernon school. A. A. Bailey is elected president; Ruth
Hordly, vice-president; Mary Stubbs, secretary. Page 100
NOV. 28--The Ladies Mite society serves buffalo hams in abundance at the
Thanksgiving supper. $60 is cleared.
A prairie fire starts on Diamond creek
and a high wind carries the flames at a terrific rate. Jno. Curtis, Charles
Hegwer, K. J. Fink, Lawlesses, Gannons and Hewitt Craik are heavy losers.
David Wood vs S. N. Wood as overseer of district No. 3 heard. Injunction
is not granted and appeal is filed. (The defendant shows more pride in the
plaintiff's argument than the defense.) The
case deals with putting a road thru the plaintiff's land.
T. S. Jones and F. P. Cochran form a law partnership.
A herd of 700
Texas long horns pass thru the Falls.
The Congregational church is completed.
Rev. H. P. German preaches in the German language to the Lutheran
congregations at Harris school and in the Falls.
Mrs. C. B. Hardy
presents a communion service to the Congregational church at the Falls.
J. W. McWilliams will devote himself to law. He is a graduate of
Jefferson college, Penn., and of Columbia Law School, Class of '68.
Cuban meeting is held and resolutions passed demanding the independence
of Cuba, and offering 1,000 men for war, which would have taken every man in
the county. J.
D. Minnick is chairman. (The New
York Sun and other papers published extended accounts of the meeting.)
DEC. 5--The Patrons
of Husbandry organize three granges in Chase county.
Mrs. Z. Prather offers to sign a deed for Prairie Grove cemetery as soon
as the ground is fenced.
Bazaar organizes a grange of the Patrons of Husbandry.
The Leader
contains an account of the Thanksgiving Community dinner given by the Cedar
creek Farmers club at the school house in District 13. There was a musical program by a choir consisting of Ellen
Pinkston, Mr. and Mrs.
Thomas Sayre, Festus and Frank Giddings, and Oliver Pinkston. DEC. 12 --Isaac Hudson
opens a general store at Cedar Point.
Chase County Host
Lorna Marvin
Return to Chase County Index
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