USA > Kansas > Wabaunsee County > Business directory and history of Wabaunsee County > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
டலில்
ساد الشيب فيميا
- جبن سايح فرمنهـ
ـص أجي الهم فيـ
السيد مجدي
ـشهيالميه عبد الراحيث
حسرة
كين جيعيد عبابسة
ص. ب - الحيجاجة جيني
سمبوس
سم بليجريه
سامي
-
لل عيد
بسمجه سعرى
جهة
நாவில்
الصـ
978.100 Ge
With
Gc 978.101 wllb 1144499
M. L
GENE" !! - COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01103 1918
E
Wabaunsee County Folks 1907
PRICE, $1.00.
Seven Years Ago
We opened the smallest Clothing store in Topeka with less than four thousand dollars' worth of mer- chandise on six tables-with one clerk at $3.50 per week, in our employ-with seventeen competitors in the same line of business all claiming to carry stocks ranging from $10,000 to $75,000-all claiming to sell goods at cost, and usually less than cost. In the face of all this we passed them all in volume of business before we were four years old.
Our Remarkable Growth
Has become the subject of comment in Commercial . circles from New York to the Pacific Coast and we are given credit for having built, in a short period of time, the most prenomenal clothing business in America, and this, too, by operating along strictly legitimate lines, with never a "sale," never a cut price, no slaughters, no sacrifices, no fakes, no grafts, no bunco methods,-simply standing pledged to give "a dollar's worth for a dollar," and we enjoy a patronage that has flocked to us faster than we have been able to take care of it.
WATCH US GROW
WATCH OUR BUSINESS METHODS WIN
AMERICAN
OREKA KANSAS
CLOTHIERS
701-703 Kansas Avenue
COLLEGE OF THE SISTERS OF BETHANY, Topeka, Kansas.
Forty-eighth Year. Under auspices of Episcopal Church. Home school for young girls. Sep- arate school for girls from 7 to 12 years of age. Two-year collegiate course. Four year col- lege preparatory. Complete elementary school. Special advantages in Music and Art. Col- lege educated faculty. Stone buildings and twenty-acre campus in the heart of the city. At- tractive home life of refinement and culture. For catalog apply to principal.
D+ Dev E R Millenaugh. D. D .. President.
Miss Hambleton, Principal.
2
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
Wabaunsee County Independent Telephone Co.
This is the new telephone company which has lately bought out the Wabaunsee Telephone Company. The telephone system in Wabaunsee County began operations June 25th, 1898, with twelve subscribers under the management of the McMahan Tele- phone Exchange. The lines soon extended to the neighboring towns and by 1900 Topeka was reached. In 1902 there were 110 'phones in Alma, 70 in Eskridge, and 41 on the rural lines. In 1903 the McMahan Telephone Company was succeeded by the Wabaunsee County Telephone Company. Since that time the system has been greatly extended. At present there are five central offices-Alma, Altavista, Eskridge, McFarland, and Maple Hill, employing ten operators. Toll lines from Topeka to Dwight; also St. Marys, Rossville, Harveyville, and Allen have connections with the Paxico, Keene, and Harveyville Mu- tual and all Mutual exchanges in Morris County, Manhattan and Burlingame; also with all Independent Companies' lines running into three adjoining counties, Shawnee, Pottawatomie and Morris.
There are about eighty-four miles of pole lines, seventy miles of city wire, and two hundred and fifty-five miles of rural toll lines. The total number of telephones in use exceed 525, of which 275 are in and about Alma. Four men are regularly employed keeping the lines in order.
The improvements being made at present are the installment of new switch-boards at Alma and McFarland and the building of new rural lines.
The stockholders of the present company are: C. B. Hender- son, Alma; J. R. Henderson, Alma; J. Y. Waugh, Eskridge; M. F. Trivett, Eskridge; B. R. Henderson, Eskridge; J. N. Dolley, Maple Hill.
The officers are: C. B. Henderson, President; J. N. Dolley, Vice-President; J. R. Henderson, Secretary and Treasurer.
The company is capitalized on $50,000.
Business Directory
AND
History
OF
Wabaunsee County
PUBLISHED BY
The Kansas Directory Company
OF
Topeka, Kansas
1907
4
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
Publisher's Announcement
In presenting the Business Directory and Official History of Wabaunsee County, we believe we have the most valuable ref- ·erence book ever gotten up for any county in Kansas, and desire "to make due acknowledgement to the enterprising and public- spirited business men of the county for their assistance and cooperation. Otherwise it would not have been possible to have gotten out so valuable a publication and make a success with this our first county directory.
The Kansas Directory Company has published several di- rectories, notably the Kansas Produce Directory and the Kansas Real Estate Directory, and this book is the first attempt at a County Directory, and the publishers are encouraged to make a special feature of this line of work in Kansas.
The publishers take great pleasure in acknowledging the effi- cient and enthusiastic services of our special literary writers, Mrs. Mary Emma Montgomery and Miss Elizabeth N. Barr of Topeka. Of Mrs. Montgomery, Hon. Geo. W. Martin, Secretary of the State Historical Society, says:
"Mrs. Mary Emma Montgomery is a native of Ohio and came to Hays City, Kansas in 1877 with her father J. B. Milner. In 1879 she married Frank C. Montgomery, editor of the Hays City Sentinel. She has made her home in Kansas ever since, excepting for four years in the early eighties, when she was in Tacoma and Seattle, Washington Territory, where her husband edited newspapers. She was educated in the Alliance, Ohio, high school. She is the mother of three sons, Franklin Terence of San Francisco, Paul Milner of Topeka and William Penn, of Topeka. The youngest son recently graduated from the law department of the Kansas State University. Frank C. Mont- gomery, recently deceased, as all people know, was a brilliant "editorial writer for many years connected with the Kansas City
5
1144499
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
Journal. Mrs. Montgomery has excellent literary ability with: a taste for historical work."
Miss Elizabeth N. Barr, Secretary of the Kansas Authors: Club, and author of Washburn Ballads, has written a number- of notable articles and has been quite a contributor of verse. and prose for the Kansas press.
Governor Hoch gave Miss Barr the following letter of intro- duction to Wabuansee County people :
"June 14, 1907. To the People of Wabaunsee County: I understand that Miss Elizabeth N. Barr contemplates: writing a history of Wabaunsee County. One of the beautiful' booklets in my Kansas collection is a little book of poems by Miss Barr. She is a gifted young lady and I am quite sure will write the story of Wabaunsee County in a charming man- ner. She is a Washburn girl and I commend her as worthy of the confidence of those who meet her.
Very respectfully,
(Signed)
E. W. HOCH."
The editions of the Wabaunsee County Business Directory is limited to three thousand copies, and owing to a large advance sale the supply will soon be exhausted, but until then we will fill orders for a single book at one dollar or make a special rate for quantity. It is a magnificent book to send to friends and customers by patriotic residents of Wabaunsee County.
THE KANSAS DIRECTORY COMPANY. Topeka, Kansas, August 15, 1907.
Standard Directories for Sale at Special Prices
Kansas Real Estate Directory-in cloth, $1.00. Regular price, $2.00.
Kansas Produce Directory-Paper $1.00; in cloth, $1.50. Regular price, $3.00 and $5.00.
Shippers' Record Book-Book for shippers of all kinds of produce. In boards, $1.00.
Stock Breeders Annual and Kansas Breeders Directory ---- Price, $1.00, sell for 50 cents.
Address all orders to Kansas Directory Co., 625 Jackson St., Topeka, Kans.
6
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
H. W. Steinmeyer, Volland, Kans.
Mr. H. W. Steinmeyer, who lives five miles southeast of Vol- land, is making a specialty of fine blooded Duroc-Jerseys. He has a fine herd and is enjoying a good business. He started his herd ten years ago, and besides his immediate home trade, which is large, he is shipping to Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Mis- souri. We can venture a guess that Mr. Steinmeyer knows his business in the hog line.
Egypt Lad 34032 is at head of the herd. Following are a few of the sows kept in the herd at the present time: Miss Topnotcher 108816, Can Be Choice 112380, Volland Ferry 83624, Royal Gold Dust 122970, Bessie Wonder 112382. You can make no mistake in buying from this herd.
Mr. Steinmeyer also handles the Red Polled cattle, which herd he started five years ago with Mike Sunflower 12567 at head of herd, which is a son of the champion bull of Iowa. Last fall a young bull was added to the herd which is out of Lawn Fall 13221.
On further conversation with Mr. Steinmeyer we find he is keeping a flock of the Single Comb Rhode Island Red chickens, which is perhaps of great interest to many who wish the very best stock.
His farm contains 320 acres and lays in the very heart of the alfalfa land.
In answer to our questions, Mr. Steinmeyer said: "Yes, the fine stock business has my undivided attention and I have been able so far to fill my orders. The hogs and cattle which I put out are great advertisers for me."
7
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
Wabaunsee County
INDIANS.
Wabaunsee County is one of unusual interest to the student of Kansas history, by reason of its location, Indian reservations, early settlement, and war record.
Its locality according to the belief of many of its people, would seem to fit the description of Quivera,
"In that half forgotten era,"
given by Coronado in the old Spanish documents concerning his explorations in 1542. Mr. J. V. Brower, an archaeologist of note, has spent years in research over this and adjoining coun- ties, and many valuable archaeological collections have been made which would seem to substantiate the belief of many peo- ple that the Quivera Indians once lived on the soil of Wabaun- see County. Great interest is shown in historical matters. A Quivera Historical Society was formed at Alma in 1901 to continue the research and preserve records. The Legislature of 1907 passed a bill authorizing the Board of Commissioners of Wabaunsee County to provide for the use of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society, a room in one of its county buildings for its museum and library, and were authorized to appropriate $1,200 out of the county funds for the purpose of providing and erecting a room for the use of that society. The Quivera so- ciety joined in the dedication of the monument erected and com- pleted August 12th, 1902, by Capt. Robert Henderson, at Logan Grove, Geary County, in commemoration of the exploration of Coronado in the country of the Quivera and Harahey Indians.
It is interesting to note that there is a difference of opinion as to Coronado's line of march. Mr. W. E. Richey, the archaeol- ogist of Harveyvile, who has his own ideas on this subject, has an interesting collection of Indian specimens and an old Spanish sword which he deposited with the Historical Society in the State House at Topeka.
Whatever tribes composed the aborigines, Quivera's or Hara-
8
Wabaunsce County Directory and History
hey's, it is known that prior to 1846 the land embraced in Wa- baunsee County was claimed by the Kansas or Kaw Indians. In 1833, Rev. Isaac McCoy, a missionary who had charge of the location of the Indian tribes, was sold to this locality to survey a portion of land for the Shawnee Indians. In 1846, by treaty with the Kaws, the Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Illinois, and Indiana, were given a portion of land thirty miles square beginning two miles west of Topeka, into Wa- baunsee, Pottawatomie, and Jackson Counties. This reservation extended over one-fourth the area of Wabaunsee County and was occupied by over two thousand Indians. The Kaws had been given a reservation in the southern part of the county. All these lands had been allotted in severalty or thrown open for settlement by 1872. The Pottawatomies of the Woods and the Kaws went to the Indian Territory. The Prairie Band of Pot- tawatomie Indians still lives on the reservation given them in Jackson County.
ORIGINAL FORMATION AND NAME.
In 1855, the Territorial Legislature defined a certain portion of land west of Shawnee County, and attached to that county for business and judicial purposes, which they named Richardson County. As such it had no county officers or records. It was named after Wm. Richardson, of Illinois, who introduced the first Kansas and Nebraska Bill in the House of Representatives. On account of his political sentiments the name of the county was changed in 1859 to Wabaunsee, after Chief Wabaunsee of the Pottawatomies. The name signifies "Dawn of Day." An old map of "Richardson County, Kansas Territory," published in 1855, before the survey, shows the Pottawatomie reservation in the northeast, Kaw reservation in the southwest, a proposed railroad from Kansas City to Ft. Riley, the Mormon Trail from Uniontown in Shawnee, southwest through the county, and the Santa Fe Trail crossing the corner at Wilmington.
ORGANIZATION.
The county was organized in March of 1859. There were two voting precincts, one at Alma and one at Wabaunsee vil- lage. There were 111 votes cast in the election of county officers
9
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
which resulted as follows: County Commissioners, Henry Har- vey, J. M. Hubbard, G. Zwanziger; Probate Judge, J. M. Hub- bard; Clerk of the Court, J. M. Harvey; Sheriff, John Hodgson; Register of Deeds, Moses C. Welch; County Attorney, R. G. Terry; Coroner, August Brasche; Treasurer, Henry Harvey; Surveyor, G. Zwanziger; Auditor, S. F. Ross; Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. E. Platt. The county was divided into four townships only. Wabaunsee was the first county seat, but in 1866 the large German population succeeded in changing it to Alma, as being more central. It is said that they named it for the river and battle of Alma in the Crimea, September 20, 1854.
The Territorial Legislature of 1855 defined the boundary lines of Richardson County as follows: Beginning at the south- west corner of Shawnee County, nine miles south of the present southwest corner of that county, and seventy-two miles west of the Missouri line, then west twenty-four miles, then north to the middle of the channel of the Kansas River, then following the course of that river, eastward to the west line of Shawnee County, then south to the starting point. In 1860 Hon. C. B. Lines, member of the Territorial Legislature, succeeded in hav- ing a strip of land six miles wide and as long as the west line of the county, added to its confines. In 1864, the establishment of Morris County took from the southwest corner of Wabaunsee County seventy-two square miles of land. In the Legislature of 1868, Hon. Wm. Mitchell succeeded in reclaiming that land for the county. In 1869 it was again given to Morris County, but in the Legislature of 1870, a compromise was brought by which one-half was given to Morris and one-half to Wabaunsee. In 1871, when John Pinkerton was representative, the Legislature enacted a law detaching most of Zeandale Township from the county, giving it to Riley. After the bill had passed the House, and before it reached the Governor, it was illegally changed to take in a larger territory than named in the true bill. In 1872 and 1873 efforts were made to recover the illegally detached portion, finally resulting successfully when A. Sellers was Rep- resentative, but uniformity in the west boundary was never regained.
10
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION.
Its location is in the fourth tier of counties from the east line of the State, about seventy-five miles from the Missouri River and about midway between the north and south boundaries of the State. It is bounded on the north by the Kansas River, Riley, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee Counties, on the east by Shawnee and Osage, on the south by Morris and Lyon, and its neighbors on the west are Riley, Geary and Morris. The sur- face of the county is very much broken, especially in the central portion, where there is a chain of bluffs. It is crossed by many streams and creeks along whose banks are fine growths of tim- ber, including walnut, oak, cottonwood, hickory, and locust. The largest of these streams is Mill Creek, which, with its many tributaries, empties into the Kansas River near the northeast corner of the county. The bottom lands along the river are very fertile though not wide, varying from one-half mile to one and one-half miles in width. These bottom lands make up about fifteen per cent of the area of the county. The soil is very rich varying from two to ten feet in depth: The greater part of the county is upland prairie, whose soil where not faced with lime- stone, can not be excelled for grazing purposes. This abundance of pasturage and the bountiful water supply make Wabaunsee County of great importance in the matter of stock-raising. The highest point of land in the county is Buffalo Mound in Maple Hill Township, south of Mill Creek. From this point can be seen a view extending over forty miles in radius. There is a story that General J. C. Fremont camped near by and raised the flag on its summit, while on his way to the Pacific in 1843. This mound and other picturesque features of Maple Hill Town- ship make the village of Maple Hill on the Rock Island railroad, a favorite summer resort with the people of adjacent counties.
SETTLEMENT.
The story of the early settlement of the county is full of in- terest. The first white men outside the reservations were evi- dently pirates of the prairie. They built a log house in 1842 near where Harveyville is now. Their purpose was to rob trav- elers on the several roads. From a high mound near by they could observe the Santa Fe Trail which was used before the
11
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
year 1800 and was well established by 1822. It was used by Mexican traders, paymasters, and gold-seekers. This nest of robbers was broken up after the killing of twenty-seven Mex- ican traders and the robbery of five hundred mules and treasure- box said to contain seventy-five thousand dollars in gold. Gov- ernment authorities were notified, chase was given, nineteen of the robbers were shot in the fight, and five were sent to prison for life. The money was never recovered for the owner, but there is a story that a mysterious Englishman dug up the treas- ure-box from under the ruins of the log-house in 1895, and im- mediately left the place.
One of the first settlers in the county was Jacob Terras, a German, who located on Hendricks' Creek, one mile east of Alma, in 1853. Before 1854, John P. Gleich, Joseph and Peter Thoes, Frank Schmidt, R. Schrauder, and C. Schwanke had set- tled in different parts of the county. The first collective set- tlement was made in 1854 on the Kansas River in Wabaunsee Township, by a colony of about thirty-four people of mixed na- tionality. They made their settlement on Government land just outside the reservation. Among them were D. B. Hiatt, Peter and Bartholomew Sharer, Clark Lapham, J. Smith, Rev. Leon- ard, Robert Banks, J. Nesbit, and Horace W. Tabor. J. H. Nesbit was a secretary in the Free State Convention at Topeka in 1855. Horace W. Tabor, afterward Senator from Colorado, was a representative from Richardson County in 1856. He was a member of the Free State Party, and left the State for Colo- rado in 1859. Rev. Harvey Jones and wife were sent to this ·settlement as missionaries. He took up one hundred and sixty acres of Government land just outside the reservation on Em- mons Creek, where he built a rude cabin. For several years this house was used for church, school, and postoffice. Harvey Jones was both preacher and postmaster. The mail arrived once a week from Tecumseh. In 1855 a German colony, com- posed mostly of single men, came to a place near the present site of Alma. Their plans for a town failed, and before a year passed most of them abandoned their claims and their chosen townsite was pre-empted by Gottlieb Zwanziger.
.
1
Among the Quakers who settled in Wilmington Township in 1854, was Henry Harvey, the historic character deserving of more than passing mention. He had come from Ohio to Kansas
12
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
in 1840 with the Shawnee Indians as their teacher in the Shaw- nee Mission School in Johnson County. He returned to Ohio in 1842 and began his "History of the Shawnee Indian from 1681 to 1854, inclusive." This volume is now very rare and contains one of the few written accounts of the flood in the Kaw valley in 1844. He was a great friend of the Indian and was appointed Government agent to the Osage tribe in 1850 by President Tay- lor. In 1854 he settled with his two sons on Dragoon Creek, near the present site of Harveyville, which was named in his honor. His book was published in Ohio in 1855.
BEECHER BIBLE AND RIFLE SOCIETY.
The largest colony that came to the county was "The Beecher Bible and Rifle Society." This was organized in 1856 in New Haven, Conn., inspired by the intense interest in the Kansas- Nebraska Bill. The colonists were assisted in their plans by cit- izens of their native State and by Henry Ward Beecher and his church, which furnished twenty-five rifles at $25 each. Fifty- two rifles were bought for members not supplied, and when the colony left New Haven for Kansas March 29th, 1856, every one of its seventy men were armed with a Sharples rifle, a Bible, and hymn-book. Their avowed purpose was to aid in the estab- lishment of liberty, good government, church, school, town, and a farm for each person. The company consisted of all classes- ministers, merchants, doctors, mechanics, laborers, and two had benn in the Legislature of their native State. Five men brought. their families and all came well provided with provisions. Farm. implements were purchased at St. Louis and Kansas City, where also, cattle were bought. Sixty-five of the members arrived about May 1st, 1856, and established a camp at Wabaunsee, where they joined the 1854 colony. The Government had made only a partial survey, so their first work was to survey town- ships and divide them off into sections, after which each man chose his claim. Then the town site of Wabaunsee was chosen , and named after the Indian Chief. The town company included nine of the settlers prior to the coming of the colony. Here was built the first school house with funds partly furnished by the editor of the New York Sun, and the historic stone church for which Connecticut furnished most of the building fund. Harvey
13
Wabaunsee County Directory and History
Jones was the first pastor. The committee of seven who organ- ized the church society were S. H. Fairfield, Harvey Jones, Hi- ram Mabie, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Lines, and Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Pond. S. H. Fairfield was one of the volunteers to the colony in September, 1856, from Mendon, Illinois. Among these were S. R. Weed, Enoch Platt, J. E. Platt, and L. H. Platt. Many were the privations and struggles of this colony resulting from Indian depredations, drouth, flood, sickness, prairie-fires, and frequent Indian alarms. Many became discouraged and left the colony.
Among those from Connecticut who remained more than three months, we find the names of C. B. Lines, Wm. Hartley, J. D. Farren, George H. Coe, F. H. Hart, Silas M. Thomas, L. H. Root, J. M. Hubbard, Wm. Mitchell, O. Bardwell, Roland Moses, A. A. Cotteral, H. S. Hall, Benj. Street, J. J. Walter, T. C. P. Hyde, E. C. D. Lines, E. D. Street, Timothy Reed, H. M. Selden, George Wells, S. A. Baldwin, W. S. Griswold, Isaac Fenn, J. P. Root, J. F. Willard, H. D. Rice, H. Isbell, D. F. Scranton, E. J. Lines, F. W. Ingham, L. A. Parker, E. N. Pen- eld, R. W. Griswold, G. H. Thomas, M. C. Welch, B. C. Porter, F. Johnson, C. E. Pond, L. W. Clark, and W. G. McNary. The story of the colony will always occupy an honored place in the records of Kansas. Its men, wherever they scattered, had much to do with the history of the State. J. P. Root was the first Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Kansas-1861. Hon. C. B. Lines was most active in affairs of the State, representing his county several terms. J. M. Hubbard, Lieutenant Co. K., 11th Kansas, returned in after years to his native State, Connecticut, and served several terms in the Legislature of that State. The colony established farms, town, school, church, and a militia company. Thus was their original purpose accomplished. It is said this colony alone furnished twenty-seven men for the Civil War. During the settlement of this colony Richardson County was represented by H. W. Tabor. Hon. C. B. Lines was the first territorial representative of Wabaunsee County. E. J. Lines, A. Allen, and E. Hobeneke were in the first State Leg- islature in 1861, and J. M. Hubbard was its first State Senator. In 1855, Wabaunsee had one vote for State Capital.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.