THE KEYSTONE RANCH A City in the Country A Palace in the Hills As transcribed by Charmaine Keith (charmain@southwind.net) 28 January 1999 --------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Peabody News 1901 Come with me and let us drive out in the country and view the Kansas farm scenes. I want to surprise you. Away over the plains to the east where one the buffalo and antelope used to roam, but not teeming with life and thrift, past vast fields of corn, square miles of wheat and oats, cozy homes nestling among groves of shade and fruit trees, over rolling prairies and through gentle valleys we go. As we reach the crest of an unusually high ridge about fourteen miles east of town, there bursts upon our view a most magnificent scene. Before us lies Turkey creek valley, a lovely vale hedged on the east with rocky ledges and through whose fertile soil placidly? ___________Turkey creek, fringed on either side with sycamore, box elder, and cottonwood trees. To the left, half a mile distant, with its white walls and tower stands the magnificent residence of F. A. Wells, proprietor of the Keystone ranch. Clustered near this beautiful and imposing structure are the various building of the farm, the huge barn built of white stone; the sheep shed, also of white stone, 400 feet long, office, shop, shepherd house, ice house, meat house, boarding house for the hands, the foreman's house, the mill, etc, twelve building in all forming a village in themselves. We are met at the gate by Mr. Wells, a model country gentleman, the frame of whose hospitality has spread as far as his name is known. His face and manner show a kindliness of spirit and a broadness of experience. There is also an air of brisk business and energy about him that shows he has not spent all his time setting down entertaining visitors. When we state that we have come to see his "ranch" an involuntary look of pardonable pride steals over his face and he is all graciousness. Calling a band to put away our team he conducts us to the house to rest a few moments and partake of the cool, refreshing water, as he explains the he puts up his own ice and really could not live without ice water. Hi house is furnished throughout with luxurious furniture and every modern appointment, hot and cold water, bathroom, and the house is heated with hot water system. He also has a sewer system connected with his house and barn. We meet Mrs. Wells, a highly cultured woman of most pleasing countenance and gracious manners, and feel that we have met a lady, indeed, one who has every advantage of culture and refinement known to the city. Let us now stroll around over the ranch. There are 1,640 acres of it, 1,200 in pastureland, the largest fenced pasture owned by any one man in Marion County. Below the home Turkey creek has been dammed up, forming a small lake, forming a small lake, from the edge of which extends the how pasture, sown to alfalfa, where roam 350 head of Poland China hogs. From the dam to the mill is built a race, giving a twenty foot fall to furnish power to urn the mill by the means of a turbine wheel. There are many pretentious mills in the east that are no better equipped for their purpose than this private mill, used solely for grinding feed for one man's cattle. The ear corn is thrown into the hopper on one side the mill from which it is fed into a cornsheller in the basement that shells it at the rate of 1,000 bushels per day. From there the corn is carried by an elevator up to the third floor and poured into a No. 8 Bowsher grinder with a capacity of 100 bushels per hour. The ground corn is then carried to bins, which have loading spouts to convey the grain to wagons. Everything is done automatically, the turbine wheel furnishing the power and a shovel is not a necessary tool after the ear corn is shoveled from the wagon into the hopper. Across the creek to the east is Mr. Wells; stone quarry, containing an inexhaustible supply of firm, smooth grained limestone, said by masons to be of superior quality for building purposes, especially when required for foundations or other places where exposed to moisture and frost. From it he has quarried the rock to build his barn, sheep shed fences and other buildings. There is a strong probability that the orient railroad now in construction from Kansas City to the Gulf, will pass through the ranch directly by the quarry. If so, Mr. Wells has a fortune in this stone. Surveys have been made which point to an acceptance of the proposition he made to give them right of way through his ranch and a good big check on top of it if the would do so. One noticeable feature about his place is that the windmills are conspicuous by their absence. Ordinarily the most prominent things about a Kansas farm are the windmills. Mr. Wells hasn't one on the place. His waterworks system which supplies all the pipes for the house, barn, hay lots, and cattle yards with 300 or 400 cattle, is run by a hydraulic ram which forces the water from the creek to any point he wishes. This ram cost him but a few dollars to begin with and in the fourteen years he has run it, but five dollars for repairs. And they were of a precautionary nature rather than imperative. This ram is run by waterpower and is dependent upon neither wind nor friend. His pastures are well watered by two creeks fed by large springs, which were never known to be dry. The water in these springs is the purest in the world, and for health the climate cannot be excelled. His hog pens are an innovation in that line also. There are seventy-five pens, each with a sleeping room and dining room, while behind the line is a flagstone? __________ Alley where the waiter passes up and down the line with a barrel on wheels full of cooked corn and cornmeal much. The drainage is perfect well as the shelter afforded. Mr. Wells raises each year 350 to 400 head of hogs and confines his attention solely to Poland China stock. He also feed and fattens annually 300 to 400 head of steers. He buys them as early in the spring as he can, and puts them in his vast pastures to fatten, corn feeding them in the fall. For the purpose of feeding his stock he farms about 300 acres in corn, 65 acres in sorghum and 70 acres of alfalfa and millet. Talk about the poor suffering Kansas Farmer! If some of these in the east who imagine Kansas farmer live in dugouts and plow sod corn with a blind mule for a living (consisting of corn bread and sorghum molasses) will come out here and take this ride with us we promise to open their eyes. In the Keystone ranch they will find a city residence out in the country whose appointments are equal to the pest, whose culinary department is fit fir a prince, whose library and educational facilities are above the average of the city, and whose operations are on a scale that dwarfs by comparison many large establishments of the east. Mr. Wells has surrounded himself with all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life and is making the most of it in a moderate. Temperate way. He and his estimable wife are cultivating the higher qualities that fit them for any position in life. They enjoy the pleasure and benefits of travel in the east and the west, of contact with the highest minds of our times, both in person and in literature and by their example and precept? _________the toilers around them. Mr. Wells now contemplates selling his ranch and retiring from business on account of his age. Don't waste any more pity or words of condolence on the Kansas farmer. He is better off than a king on his throne. -------------------------------------------------------------------