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Gc 978.101 B32b 1151674
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
n 3 1833 01095 0522 E
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018
https://archive.org/details/biographicalhist00unse 4
Press of THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING CO. Great Bend, Kansas. 1912
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
DEDICATED
To the pioneers of this section of Kansas to whom too much credit cannot be given for undergoing the hardships and privations that were necessary in reclaiming that part of the Great American Desert now known as Barton County, Kansas, one of the richest and most prosperous sections of the country where the homes of the residents are surrounded by all that makes life worth living, where the best of educational and re- ligious advantages are found and where the people are happy, progressive and contented.
PER
ASTRA
ASPERA
GREAT BEND, KANSAS PUBLISHED BY GREAT BEND TRIBUNE Copyright Applied For 1912.
PREFACE
T HE publication of this volume was made possible by the peo- ple of Barton county, who responded liberally when called upon for subscriptions to cover the cost of getting the data and printing the book. We undertook this work as the result of many requests that we publish a book of this kind. We realized the enormous amount of work that would be necessary before the book could be completed, and we also knew that it would require the outlay of considerable money. However, we began the work in the summer of 1911 and maintained solicitors on the road un- til the weather became such that the work had to be abandoned in the field until the month of March of this year-1912-when the work was again taken up and in so far as possible every land owner and old timer of the county was seen personally and given an opportunity to subscribe for a copy of the book. This work was continued until the first of August at which time we had a suf- ficient number of orders for the book to insure its publication, and while it has not been a profitable venture for us as far as the fin- ancial part is concerned, we have profited by the knowledge we have gained about the county's history, and have found that the people of the county appreciate the efforts of anybody when they are applied to the interest of progress and enterprise. If the reading of this volume gives pleasure to the old timers who help- ed to make the history contained herein, and the younger genera- tion can get some inspiration and guidance from the stories of their fathers our efforts have not been in vain and we are satisfied with the work we have done.
TRIBUNE PUBLISHING CO.
We make grateful acknowledgement to the following for their aid in compiling these pages: B. B. Smyth, D. N. Heizer, "Inman's Tales of the Trail," the News- papers of Barton County, and others who in any way contributed to the success of this work.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
1151674
PREHISTORIC
Sender _ 45.00
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS
T HE first white man who ever saw the New Kansas was the Spaniard, Coronado (Francisco Velasquez de Coronado) from Mexico, who passed through in the winter of 1541-2 in search of the famous and mythical "Seven Cities of Cibola" in the mythical and u uknown province of Quivera. He was accom- panicd by quite a small army of knights, com- mon Spaniards, and Indians.
The object of the expedition, as was the main object of nearly all early expeditions, was the hope and expectation of finding gold in vast quantities.
Coronado's route lay, as well as can be learned from the most reliable accounts, in a general northeasterly direction, entering the territory near the Medicine Lodge river in Barber County, thence northeasterly across the Arkansas somewhere near Wichita, thence still northeasterly to the Missouri river near the northern line of the State, or the 40th par-
allel of latitude, between which and the 30th parallel, and between the 95th and 97th degrees of longitude the province of Quivera was sup- posed to be.
After reaching his most northeasterly point, and meeting with nothing but hardships and disappointment, he returned somewhat the same way he came, though more to the west- ward.
This expedition having taken place before the settlement of Massachusetts, New York, or any of the Eastern States, it thus appears that Kansas has an earlier history than any of the castern or northern states, if we may ex- cept the incursions made by Norsemen and Icelanders into Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia about the year 1,000, accounts of which, however, are not generally accepted.
The following little poem nicely tells the story and the change in the territory between that carly day and 1879:
QUIVERA-KANSAS 1542 1879
Eugene F. Ware, in Ft. Scott Monitor
In the half forgotten era, With the avarice of old, Seeking cities that were told To be paved with solid gold, In the kingdom of Quivera-
Came the restless Coronado To the open Kansas plain; With his knights from sunny Spain. In an effort that, though vain, Thrilled with boldness and bravado.
SURNAME FILE
8
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
League by league in aimless marching, Knowing scarcely where or why, Crossed they uplands drear and dry, That an unprotected sky Had for centuries been parching.
But their expectations, eager, Found, instead of fruitful lands, Shallow streams and shifting sands, Where the buffalo in bands Roamed o'er deserts dry and meager.
Back to scenes more trite, yet tragic, Marched the knights with armored steeds ; Not for them the quiet deeds; Not for them to sow the seeds From which empires grow like magic.
Never land so hunger stricken Could a Latin race remould ; They could conquer heat or cold- Die for glory or for gold- But not make a desert quicken.
Thus Quivera was forsaken; And the world forgot the place
Until centuries apace Came the blue-eyed Saxon race, And it bade the desert waken.
Sturdy are the Saxon faces, As they move along in line; Bright the rolling-cutters shine Charging up the State's incline,
As an army storms a glacis.
Into loam the sand is melted,
And the blue grass takes the loam Round about the prairie home. And the locomotives roam Over landscapes iron-belted.
Cities grow where stunted birches Hugged the shallow water line, And the deepening rivers twine, Past the factory and mine, Orchard slopes and schools and churches.
*
*
We have made the State of Kansas, And today she stands complete; First in freedom, first in wheat, And her future years will meet Ripened hopes and richer stanzas.
But if Coronado failed to discover the "Seven Cities," it was only because he started too soon. Those "seven cities with houses five stories high, and shops in which the workmen work in gold and silver exclusively," are yet to be found on that same identical ground. Those cities are growing. They have not yet reached the wealthy condition pictured ont by those early Spaniards, in 1530 to 1540; but it is only a question of time. It remains for some later explorer to discover those rich cities. All the difficulty with Coronado was that he start- ed out several hundred years too early. How long yet will it be before they are discovered ?
SUBSEQUENT EXPLORATIONS
T HE first Americans to visit this region was Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike's exploring party on their way west to the Rocky Mountains in 1806, the same year that Aaron Burr was making such grand attempts to "make a settlement on the Washita" in the ter- ritory of Louisiana. They followed the trail of Spanish soldiers from the Pawnee village till they lost it among the "numerous buffalo paths between the Smoky and the Arkansaw."
Near midnight, on the 13th of October, 1806, the party reached the most northerly bend of the Arkansas river (section 32, 5 or 6 miles east of the city of Great Bend). The party ar- rived in a drenching rain, and remained two weeks to rest and recruit their animals and lay in a supply of meat. At 10 a. m., October 28th, Pike, with most of his party went west along the north bank of the river, and Lieut .- Col. Wilkinson, Pike's superior officer, with a small party, went down the river by boat. However, finding the river unnavigable, they abandoned their boats after going down five or six miles, and landed on the southwest bank of the river, near where the southwestern end
of the Ellinwood iron bridge now rests .- From Pike's Expedition.
In 1812 this trail was first traveled with pack mules by McKnight's party.
In 1818 Mr. Bringier came up the Arkansas, and speaks of finding a "large body of blind coal, (anthracite), equal in quality to the Kil- kenny, and by far the best he had seen in the United States, immediately on the bank of the Arkansas in latitude 38 deg. and longitude 98 deg," (about the place where Hutchinson now is.)
-Marcy's Rep. p. 158, citing Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 3, p. 80. In 1820 Maj. Long's expedition passed through toward the west, the object, similarly to that of Lieut. Pike, being to find, if possible, the scources of the Red river of Louisiana.
On August 9th the expedition reached "the narrowest part of the valley, at the great bend of the Arkansas," (the same place that Lieut. Pike stopped, five or six miles east of the city of Great Bend), and finding good feed for their
9
OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
horses, staid over the 10th .- Long's Expedi- tion.
In 1821, a pack-mule train, sent out by Cooper & Bucknell of Boonville, Mo., went through to Santa Fe. This was the com- mencement of the commerce of the plains.
In 1825, the Santa Fe Trail, a wagon road from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, was es- tablished by Major Sibley, under an act of congress .- Annals of Kansas.
The trail from the east strikes the Arkan- sas river half a mile west of Ellinwood. Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, page 313, has the following:
DISTANCE TABLE.
Independence, Mo., to-
Round Grove 35
35
Narrows .30 65
110 Mile Creek. .30 95
Bridge Creek 8 103
Big John Spring 40 143
Council Grove 2 145
Diamond Spring. 15 160
Lost Spring 15 175
Cottonwood Creek 12 187
Turkey Creek .25 212
Little Arkansas. 17 229
Cow Creek .20 249
Arkansas River (Ellinwood) 16 265
Walnut Creek 8.273
Ash Creek 19 292
Pawnee Fork
6 298
Coon Creek 33 331
Caches
.36 367
Ford of Arkansas.
20 387
Sand Creek (leave Ark. R.)
.50 437
Cimarron River 8 445
Middle Spring (upper Cimarron) .37 481
Willow Bar
26 507
Upper Spring
18 525
Cold Spring (I've Cim. R.)
5 530
McNee's Creek
25 555
Rabbit-Ear Creek.
20 575
Round Mound
8 583
Rock Creek
8 591
Point of Rocks 19 610
Rio Colorado 20 630
Ocate 6 636
Santa Clara Spring. .21 657
Rio Mosa 22 679
Rio Gallinas (Vegas) 20 699
Ojo de Bernal (spring) 17 716
San Miguel 6 722
Pecos Village 23 745
Santa Fe
25 770
In 1832, Washington Irving visited Kansas as a tourist, came to the Arkansas Valley, and gave this glowing account of its wilderness charms:
"After resuming our march we came in sight of the Arkansas. It presented a broad and rapid stream bordered by a beach of fine
sand, overgrown with willows and cottonwood trees. Beyond the river the eye wandered over a beautiful campaign country of flowery plains and sloping uplands, diversified by groves and clumps of trees and long screens of woodland; the whole wearing the aspect of complete and even ornamental cultivation, instead of native wilderness. * "We were overshadowed by lofty trees, with straight, smooth trunks like stately columns; and as the glancing rays of the sun shone through the transparent leaves tinted with the many-colored hues of autumn, I was reminded of the effect of sunshine among the stained windows and clustering columns of a Gothic cathedral. Indeed, there is a gran- deur in our spacious forests of the West that awaken in me the same feeling I experienced in those vast and venerable piles; and the sound of the wind sweeping through, supplies occasionally, the deep breathings of the organ.
"It was a bright, sunny morning with a pure, transparent atmosphere that seemed to bathe the very heart with gladness. Our march continued parallel with the Arkansas through a rich and varied country; sometimes we had to break our way through alluvial bottoms and matted with redundant vegetation, where the gigantic trees were entangled grape vines hanging like cordage from their branches; sometimes we coasted along sluggish brooks, whose feebly trickling currents just served to link together a successsion of glassy pools im- bedded like mirrors in the quiet bosom of the forest, reflecting its autumnal foliage and patches of clear blue sky. Sometimes we scrambled up broken and rocky hills from the summit of which we had wide views, on one side over distant prairies, diversified by groves and forests, and on the other, ranging along a . line of blue and shadowy hills, beyond the wa- ters of the Arkansas."
In 1846, during the Mexican war, Gen Kear- ney and Col. Doniphan crossed to Santa Fe and stopped at the "Great Bend," August 18th. A Mormon battalion also went west with their families, and having their ox yokes tied across the bases of the oxen's horns after the primi- tive style pictured out as having been followed in the east 5,000 years ago. Francis Parkman, Jr., historian, met this "the first army to pass through the Valley" on his return from the Oregon Trail .- Parkman's Oregon Trail.
In 1849, during the California hegira, and subsequently, "the Great Bend" became a noted point on this most noted of highways. For a century, the Great Bend of the Arkansas has been known as the grand feeding ground of the buffalo, and favorite hunting and bloody battle ground of the Indian.
10
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
SCOUTING ADVENTURES IN 1853
By James M. Fugate of Barton County
INDIAN FIGHT AT THE ARKANSAS
I N April, 1853, young, vigorous, and never having seen as much of the world as gen- erally fills the ambition of fellows in their early days of manhood, I engaged as teamster to drive through with a train of ox-wagons loaded with merchandise for the Santa Fe trade. We left La Fayette County, Missouri, the 24th day of April; our company comprised 45 men, armed with the old-fashioned long-range rifles, each, a Colt's navy revolver and bowie knife. Our teams numbered 210 head of cat- tle in all.
Kansas was then one vast wild plain, over which roving bands of hostile Indians were constantly cutting off emigrant and freight trains on their way to New Mexico and the Californias.
After leaving the settlement some distance, we overtook twelve men with three wagons, who had discovered there was danger ahead and were awaiting reinforcements before ven- turing farther. This increased our fighting force to 57 robust, well-armed men.
Our first serious trouble began after reach- ing the Arkansas Valley, at a point near where Hutchinson now stands, and where we had gone into camp about noon of May 21st. While at dinner we were suddenly startled by the alarm cry "Indians!"
Before we had got our teams and wagons fairly in corral, they were charging around ns on their horses, yelling and firing like demons. Taken at such a dangerous disadvantage and surprise, we were just in that position which makes men fight with desperation, and instan- taneously our rifles were pealing forth their notes of defiance and death to the dusky mur- derous foe.
We were completely encircled by the sav- ages, who proved to be Comanches, swinging upon the opposite side of their ponies exposing but little of themselves to our aim by firing un- der their horses' necks. Their deadly missiles were soon playing havoc among our cattle. The creatures were madly surging and bellowing around, endangering us to a death beneath their feet, worse to be feared within the en- closure than the foe without. This new dan- ger soon drove us outside the enclosure of wagons in full view of the Indians.
We had now fairly got our hands in and were tumbling their ponies at a rapid rate. Few Indians after their ponies fell, escaped a rifle bullet. The Indians were narrowing their circle until twenty-five yards scarcely inter- vened between us. But the motion of their steeds unsteadied their aim until it was but
random, while the closer they pressed us the more destructive became every shot we fired.
Such fighting could not last long. After the first few rounds the savages mostly substituted the gun with the bow and arrows. Finding themselves getting most terribly worsted in the combat, they made a dash to ride down and tomahawk us all in one death struggle. I tell you, then, we had no child's play. Out- numbering four or five to one in a hand-to- hand fight to the death, is a serious thing. We were soon mingling together, but drivenagainst the wagons, we could dodge or parry their blows with the tomahawk, while the rapid flashes from the celebrated "navy" in each man's hand, was not so easily avoided by the savage warriors. We made the ground too hot for them, and with yells of baffled rage, they broke and fled, carrying off all their killed and wounded but three, which they had to leave.
Now for the first time since the fight began we had time to take in our situation. One of the bravest and best of our comrades, young Gilbert, was shot through the heart while fighting the savages back with clubbed rifle, his revolver having missed fire. He lay as he fell, with his hand clenched around the stock of his gun as though he would take the weapon with his departed spirit to the other world where he might avenge his death upon the savages who had paid such a dear penalty for their last work. Many others of our com- pany were wounded, two of them severely. The dead and dying ponies were scattered about on the prairie with the arms and ac- coutrements of their savage owners about them; while several of our cattle were also dead and dying from wounds made by missiles aimed for us.
The remainder of the day was spent in burying our poor comrade on the spot made sacred by his life's blood (which we did as well as we could under the circumstances,) caring for our wounded, and gathering up the spoils of the fight. We destroyed cverything belonging to the Indians that we could not car- ry away, and along towards night-fall moved a mile up the river, where we went into camp.
After the excitement consequent upon the fight began to subside, we had much to talk over about our chances of fighting our way with such a small force through the entire boundless plains before us to New Mexico. The future looked hopeless indeed, but J. W. Joncs who commanded the outfit, swore he would go to Santa Fe or go to We dare not show the white feather, then.
11
OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
FIGHT ON THE WALNUT
O UR progress was necessarily slow. No adventure of any consequence happened until we reached the Walnut Creek. Here we camped some 200 or 300 yards below the old trail, in a horse-shoe bend, on the west side of the creek. No event occurred during the night to show the presence of Indians; but about dawn of the next morning, as the guards were turning the cattle out of the corral to graze, the Indians-Cheyennes, some 500 of them, some mounted and more afoot,-imme- diately tried to get possession of the cattle. Those on foot engaged the guards, while those mounted tried to get between the catttle and the corral, thus cutting them off. The firing immediately roused the camp to arms; and in the face of the firing by the Indians we sur- rounded the cattle, and drove them back into the corral.
Then the fighting began in good earnest. At first we proved too much for them, and they retreated into a low sag south of the cor- ral; but quickly returned with more desperate energy than at first. Then forming solid lines, six or eight deep, made a forced charge on the wagons from the south, yelling like demons, and firing through under the wagons. It never seemed as if so few men could stand such an assault. Our men were prepared for them, however, and, firing from behind and under the wagons, gave them a warm reception as they came up.
At the east end they broke through and came into the corral; but of those who came through it is a question if any ever returned. They were immediately shot and clubbed with
the guns. I broke my own gun-stock over the head of one of the miscreants. There were nine of them left within the corral dead. The Indians, seeing the fate that had befallen their comrades who went through under the wagons, began a hasty retreat, and were quickly fol- lowed by the entire pack as fast as they could run. They took refuge in a low range of sand hill along the Arkansas river, some 60 or 80 rods to the south, from which they emerged occasionally during the morning to harass us.
We followed them up toward the sand hills, firing at them to the best possible advantage; but when we had got as far as the low sag, we were ordered to retreat to the wagons. Our wagon master, after the dead Indians, outside and in, were all counted, reported 60 Indians killed. Our own loss was five killed and sev- eral wounded, none mortally.
There was another camp of 35 men, sent out by Majors & Russell of Missouri, about half a mile west; and about 9 or 10 o'clock they formed a line and came down toward the Indians. Seeing this we formed a line and ad- vanced to join them, and move together upon the Indians. They, upon the other hand, seeing our movement, beat a hasty retreat across the river.
We buried our dead on a point between two draws a little southwest of camp; and about 2 o'clock broke camp, and in company with Majors & Russell's outfit, started westward.
About 5 or 6 miles west we had a slight brush with the Indians, but nothing serious until we arrived at Pawnee Rock, which we reached about 2 or 3 o'clock next day.
FIGHT AT THE ROCK
W E camped about 200 yards to the south of the rock. Nothing unusual trans- pired during the night. About 8 o'clock next morning, just as we had brought our cattle up to the corral, and were yoking them up, a band of Cheyennes, to the number of about 300, suddenly made a dash from the north, part of the Indians coming in on each side of the Rock, and immediately surrounded our corral of wagons, with a terrible war- whoop.
The usual manner of making such a corral was to form a circle with the wagons, running them as close behind each cther as possible, with the left-hand or driver's side innermost. When the circle was complete, an opening the size of a wagon was left for a gate, which was closed by a single wagon just inside the circle, so placed that it could be run aside or back into the gap, or "gate," during the night, and times of danger, the cattle are kept within this enclosure or "corral," as it is called; at
other times they were turned out to graze, in charge of several men. On the left-hand side of the wagon bed, above the wheels, there was a small box about five feet long, prepared with a hinged cover that pitched so as to shed rain. This box contained, in a convenient position, the arms, ammunition, lunch, trinkets, etc., of the driver.
Leaving our cattle as they were, some yoked, some partly yoked, we instantly seized our weapons and pitched in vigorously to re- pulse the assault.
The Indians opened a heavy fire from the start. They made strainers of our wagon boxes by perforating them with bullets and arrow heads. The Indians who were mounted fired high, and may possibly sometimes have hit some of their own men on the opposite side of the corral.
After firing in this way for a while, and finding they could gain nothing, they beat a
12
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
hasty retreat to the south, taking with them their dead and wounded, who were in nearly all cases tied to their ponies, as was shown by the thongs that lay by some of the dead ponies, where the riders had cut loose and got away.
In this fight we had one man wounded, and several cattle killed.
From here on we had to fight the Indians every few days. We had engagements at Paw- nee Fork, again near Dodge, again at Cim- arron, here by the Apaches and Arrapahoes, again at Mount Aubrey, Kearney County.
FIGHT AT MOUNT AUBREY
A T this place we arrived the next day after the slaughter of a party of Spaniards who were going east from Santa Fe, to purchase goods. We found ten dead Spaniards, and one wounded, still living, with his scalp off, though he died the morning after.
At the first peep of day, the next morning after we arrived there, the Indians-Apaches and Arrapahoes attacked us, first firing on the guards, and then coming up by slow, cau- tious movements, seeking every buffalo wallow, or other slight protection to cover themselves. So stealthily and steadily did they advance that almost before we were aware of it we had eight men lying dead. All this time we kept up a vigorous and pointed fire, always aiming and firing with intent to kill.
About 10 o'clock, finding they could not
capture our train, they retreated the way they came, leaving their dead on the ground. These, amounting to between 50 and 80, we piled up on the plain and left for the coyotes and buz- zards.
We remained here four days, and buried our dead and the Spaniards-19 in all-in one trench. In the meantime-and this we tell in a whisper-we amused ourselves at target shooting, using for a target the head of some luckless Indian, which would be placed in all conceivable positions to be shot at.
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