Do you have a Lincoln County story? Perhaps you know of a pioneer tale or a story of courage, humor, tragedy or triumph involving the people who lived here? Maybe you have examples of daily life in Lincoln County that will open the minds, hearts and eyes of others. If you do and you'd like to share it with others send it us, Bill and Diana Sowers (sixsunflowers@yahoo.com)
A FEW GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING STORIES
1--Limit your story to less than 1,000 words. 2--You may write a story in your own words or quote it from another source such as a letter, a family story or an old newspaper article. But remember that some articles are copyrighted and you may have to get permission from the author or publisher if you include a lot of quoted text. 3--List your sources! Whether it comes from an old newspaper article or your Great Aunt May told it to you include this information. You can include as many sources as you know of. 4--Be kind. You can be factual without being too negative towards others, and never include possible slandarous statements about people still living!
(A newspaper article from the July 5, 1876, edition of the Saline Valley Register and covering the festivities of the U.S. Centennial Celebration in Lincoln. Transcribed from a microfilm copy of the paper by Bill Sowers]
[Story by Waldo Hancock of Beverly. Taken from a 1933 newspaper article. Submitted by Joan Stevenson who got it from Kirk Painter - painterk@worldnet.att.net]
(Taken from The Lincoln Republican, October 31, 1901 issue. Submitted by Richard Wiesner, Richard Biddle Clark's great grandson --- email: rwiesner@sprintmail.com)
(Taken from The Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, date of issue unknown. Written by Helen Flaherty. Submitted by by Tracee Hamilton. If any of you are related to any of the families mentioned in this article Tracee would like to hear from you. Her email address is tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net)
[An article submitted by Arthur Waite, editor of the "Lincoln Beacon" for many years, to the Kansas City Star. This article is located on Woody Gap, family website for the Woody Family.
(The following article, which comes from the November 11, 1911, edition of the Morning Oregonian, is a sad look at jealousy, gossip, misguided vigilanteeism and brutality. It was transcribed from a clipped copy of the Oregon newspaper by Scott Holl]
(The following front page editorial, which comes from the AprIl 7, 1881, edition of the Lincoln County Beacon shows us that accusations of political shennanigans are not limited to larger governmental arenas nor to more recent times. An agressive editorial style is evident here as well, not seen much in today's newspapers. It was transcribed from a microfilm copy of the paper by Bill Sowers]
[A series of articles written by C.C. Hendrickson concerning the early days of Lincoln County, submitted by Clarence Suelter - email: suelter2@attbi.com]
(An account of the elaborate wedding of William Feldkamp and Louisa Heiser reprinted in the Feb. 6, 1958 Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(An account of the wedding of Louis Timmerman and Anna C. Errebo, which was nearly interrupted by storm. From the June 11, 1908, Lincoln Sentinel. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(Mrs. L.E. Shaffstall recalls the stories she heard as a child in the Sept. 21, 1939, Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(A story about a project undertaken by one of Lincoln County's most famous citizens, Frank Cooper, from the July 11, 1940, Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(A recounting of the fascinating career of early settler and Indian scout J.J. Peate. His life story and obituary are from the June 30, 1932, Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(Flora Baker Woody, an early country school teacher, recalls her days in the classroom. From the April 1940 Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(John A. Watts, one of a handful of blacks who were a part of the settlement of Lincoln County, reminisces in a letter to the Lincoln County Historical Society. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(A book about Sharlot Hall claims she was the first white child born in Lincoln County, which contradicts known local history. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(A story about Hazel Avery, whose niece recalls her aunt designing and making the Kansas flag still in use today. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(The ruts from an old government trail that came through the present site of Lincoln were still visible 70 years later. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net])
(A call by the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican in 1932 to identify the oldest living settler in the county draws a good response. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton [email: tracee.hamilton2@verizon.net)
(Memories of the Barnard area by William Charles Parsons. Printed in the Minneapolis Messenger in the mid 1950's. submitted by Glenda Garrelts Mattes.)
(A short article appearing in the Sylvan Grove correspondent's column in the Lincoln Republican, Dec. 30, 1897, about Henry Mueller and Christ Meyer, who found themselves living just miles from each other after being out of touch for many years. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton.)
(An article from the Lincoln Republican, May 9, 1907, in which James R. Meade describes his trip through the area that became Lincoln County in 1859 and how several waterways got their names. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton.)
(An article from the Lincoln Beacon, March 24, 1924, telling of a buffalo hunt he took with Thomas A. Walls in 1870. Both men were early settlers in Lincoln County. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton.)
(An article reprinted in the Lincoln Sentinel on the history of the Askey family. Some of the Askeys were among Lincoln County's earliest settlers. Transcribed by Tracee Hamilton.)
(An article from the Lincoln Republican, March 19, 1902, about the continuing discussion over who was the first white child born in the county. This is a topic still being debated in the 21st century.)
(An article from the Lincoln Sentinel, Oct. 26, 1911, telling of a visit to Lincoln County by a Mrs. Woodward, who as a girl was kidnapped by Indians near the present site of Beloit. She and her sister were released in Lincoln County, where settlers eventually found them and took them to a nearby fort before they were returned to their parents.)
(In 1876, Washington Smith gave a speech about the early days of Lincoln County. It was reprinted by the Saline Valley Register. See below for some corrections to that speech.)
(An article from 1906 by several original Lincoln County settlers corrects some errors in Washington Smith's speech given in 1876. See above for the full speech.)
(Tom Boyle was one of the first white men to set foot in Lincoln County and was among its first sheriffs. He also was a storyteller whose tales luckily found their way into the newspapers occasionally. This one tells of a lucky shot, or rather a lucky miss, while hunting buffalo.)
(An article from 1905 telling of the prize won by Lincoln's Bessie Stanley on "What Constitutes Success." This poem is still widely quoted and sometimes mistakenly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.)
(When Ferdinand Erhardt died in 1910, Adolph Roenigk was asked to write some of his remembrances of his old friend. Transcribed by Clarence Suelter, a descendant of Ferdinand Erhardt's.)
(In 1914 Christian Bernhardt organized a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the massacre of the Moffitt brothers and two other men, the first settlers of Lincoln County who were killed by Indians in August 1864.)
(In 1933 C.C. Hendrickson writes of erecting a marker to commemorate the site where James H. Strange was killed, one of the victims of the 1869 Indian raid.)
(In 1935 a local editor investigated the mysterious pile of stones near the St. John Lutheran Cemetery and found out that is just a pile of stones, built by the sons of longtime Lutheran minister Rev. Hoyer to while away the summer hours. The pile is diminished somewhat but still visible today.)
(A. Boyer, former district court clerk in Lincoln, wrote a remembrance of his meetings in Yorktown with Boston Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth. Corbett was an early-day settler in Cloud County, Kansas.)
(In 1932, the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican ran several experts from the scrapbook of early settler and scout J.J. Peate, who died that year. This exerpt is a letter from Eli Zeigler, a survivor of the 1869 Indian Raid. Eli's sister was Susannah Daily Alderdice, who was captured during the raid and later killed by her captors.)
(In 1932, the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican ran several experts from the scrapbook of early settler and scout J.J. Peate, who died that year. This exerpt is the obituary of Thomas Alderdice, whose family perished in the 1869 Indian Raid.)
(In 1932, the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican ran several experts from the scrapbook of early settler and scout J.J. Peate, who died that year. The demolition of the Pioneer Hotel stirred memories in Peate of how that building began as a simple log cabin built in 1867 by John Hendrickson, and all the Lincoln County history that passed within and around its walls since then.)
Clara Ann Hobbs Spear was an early Lincoln county settler. After her marriage, she and her husband went by covered wagon to Oklahoma. This is a transcription of her diary on that trip.
Calvin Skinner, an early settler and a son of Thomas Skinner, one of the "Colorado Boys," reminisced about the old days during a visit to the County in 1949.
An account from the Plattsburgh (N.Y.) Sentinel about what has come to be known as the Beecher's Island fight between the military and the Indians in 1868. Some of the men involved were early Lincoln County settlers. [Donated by Lincoln County researcher Mike Day.]
Former Denmark resident Viggo Nielson was one of the top ornamental penmen in the country (reprinted in the Lincoln newspaper from the San Diego Union).
Cline was part of the group sent to find the remains of the hunting party that included the Moffitt brothers. He tells of that experience 50 years later.
In 1923, the Lincoln Republican reprinted two affidavits taken by Lincoln attorney John J. McCurdy. One is from John Cline in 1912, detailing the hunt for and discovery of the bodies of the four men killed in the raid of 1864. The second, from Tom Alderdice in 1911, gives more information about what happened when the Lincoln County man returned to find most of his children killed and his wife captured.
In this article, Dr. Jefferson Broome, author of "Dog Soldier Justice," discussed how the Indian conflicts of the late 1860s -- including those in Lincoln County -- helped mold Custer's 7th Cavalry before its final battle.
Dr. Jefferson Broome writes of Alderdice's visit to Leavenworth, Kan., to seek help in rescuing his wife from her captives, and then explores the lives of Tom and Susannah Alderdice.
Posted off-site, this letter was brought to my attention by Dan Pierce, a descendant of early Lincoln settlers James H. Pierce and Hulda Roberts Pierce. A photo of the Pierce family can be found here.
John Black of Barnard receives a report than a sundial he constructed in Scotland before he came to America was still in working after more than 50 years.
This is a lovely example of an old-fashioned autograph album. Some of the pages are difficult to read because of fading ink. The book belongs to Kirk Painter.
