Lincoln
County
Firsts
Lincoln Republican, 13 March 1913
The first settlers were J.L. Moffitt, Thomas Moffitt, J.W. Houston and James Tyler. They settled on Beaver Creek 2½ miles southeast of the present town of Lincoln March 16, 1864, and murdered by Indians Aug. 6, 1864.
The first court house was the frame building which now stands on Main street in Lincoln directly adjoining the new telephone office building on the west. This little building serves the purpose of a court house during the brief period in 1871 when the county seat was at the long-vanished town of Abram. When Abram lost the county seat and the little town began to a “fade away,” the old building was moved to Lincoln. Subsequently, it was used for various purposes at one time being used by a creamery company. It is now vacant.
The first church building was the Presbyterian church of Lincoln, which was started in 1873. In 1874 came the plague that never will be forgotten by those who lived through it, in the middle west – the plague of “grasshopper year,” when the crops and hopes of pioneers went glimmering, and there was neither money nor credit in Kansas. Naturally the construction of the church building was stopped, and the period of its construction covered several [missing several words] at a time when the church was the only one in the frontier town. It served as a place of worship for all denominations, and for various other purposes as well. It was town hall, opera house and general meeting place for Lincoln. Rev. H.C. Bradbury was its pastor.
The first white child born in the county was a girl – Lizzie Green, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Green. George Green, who is remembered as the man who laid out the town of Lincoln, settled on a claim on the east county line, Feb. 1, 1866. Here Lizzie, his eldest daughter, was born Oct. 18, 1866. She is now Mrs. David Parker of Sedro-Woolley, Wash. Her father resides in the same city.
The first school taught in the county was taught in Colorado township, in December 1866, by Mrs. Mary Skinner. The school consisted of her three sons, Bing, Everett and Fred, and Ely and Frank Ziegler.
The first marriage was that of David M. Reed and Nancy E. Hendrickson, on Aug. 25, 1867. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. John Hendrickson.
The first store was located on Elkhorn by F.A. Schermerhorn, Dec. 23, 1867.
The first blacksmith shop was started in 1866 by John Hendrickson.
The first death was that of Robert Wright. The exact date is not available, but it was in the late sixties.
The first sermon preached in the county was by Rev. John Peate, in the dugout of E.E. Johnson, in Colorado township, on Sunday, May 18, 1866.
The first school in the town of Lincoln was held in the little frame building now occupied by the shoe shop of E.P. Loso. Mrs. Anna C. Wait was the teacher, and a number of men who are now prominent citizens of Lincoln got their early education in that building.
The first building erected in the county is said to have been the house erected by the Moffitt brothers, when they settled southeast of Lincoln in 1864.
The first house built in the town of Lincoln was put up by Captain Henderson – a house in which he kept a [several words missing] merchandise.
The first newspaper was the Lincoln County News, now the Lincoln Republican, established in 1871. The paper has been published continuously since that time, though under various names. In 1874 it was changed from the News to the Register, in 1884 the name was made the Banner. Then in 1886 the present name, the Republican, was adopted.
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Bill and Diana Sowers
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