USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 1
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Gc 978.1 J41n 1524730
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01095 0332
THE
NORTHERN TIER:
OR,
LIFE AMONG THE HOMESTEAD SETTLERS.
BY J EFF.
JENKINS.
TOPEKA, KANSAS: GEO. W. MARTIN, KANSAS PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1880.
a
COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY E. J. JENKINS, CONCORDIA, KANSAS.
0
sa-hr-1
1524730
TO
SOL. MILLER,
THE PIONEER EDITOR OF THE KANSAS CHIEF,
"MY GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER, AND FRIEND,"
WHOSE KEEN OBSERVATION OF MEN AND MEASURES, AND WHOSE GIFTS TO FREEDOM, FRIENDSHIP AND FUN, THROUGH THE COLUMNS OF THE CHIEF, ENLIVENED SO MANY HOUSEHOLDS DURING THE MANY YEARS SUCCEEDING THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN KANSAS,
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED, BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
A prudent writer doubtless hesitates before publishing his first book. The apprehension of criticism, the doubt of ability to meet the demands of the reading public, and the harrowing thought that the manuscript may be con- sidered as trash, are some of the reflections of the author as he arranges the chapters for publication.
A desire to preserve in permanent form some of the memorable scenes and incidents that transpired during my observation of the first settlement of Northern Kansas and the homestead region, was the motive of the author in writing the following pages.
These sheets were written during the interval between office hours, while I was engaged in the arduous duties of Receiver in the U. S. Land Office; and aware of defects, I trust this apology will be received kindly by friends among the early settlers, who I hope may be able to find something to interest and amuse them in these pages.
Many of the incidents related came under my own observation; but I am indebted to others for much information, to whom I have endeavored to give credit in the proper place. THE AUTHOR.
CONCORDIA, KANSAS, January, 1880.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
1
NORTHERN KANSAS.
CHAPTER
2
THE NORTHERN TIER.
CHAPTER 3 TOWN SITES AND NEWSPAPERS.
CHAPTER 4
FISHING AND HUNTING ABOUT THE TARKIO.
CHAPTER 5 SAMP NODKINS.
NORTHERN KANSAS BIRDS.
CHAPTER
6
CHAPTER 7
THE REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
CHAPTER 8
THE SERMON.
CHAPTER 9
HOLDING COURT.
CHAPTER 10
SCENERY OF NORTHWESTERN KANSAS.
CHAPTER 11
IN THE LAND OFFICE.
CHAPTER 12.
THE "DUG-OUT" AND WEDDING.
CHAPTER 13
THE HOMESTEAD REGION.
CHAPTER 14
LEW CASSIL, THE TRAPPER.
CHAPTER 15
CUNO VAN TANSY.
CHAPTER 16
STAGING.
THE NORTHERN TIER.
THE NORTHERN TIER.
CHAPTER 1.
NORTHERN KANSAS.
KANSAS !- the land of cottonwoods, grouse and good things; the land of ambrosial springs and Indian summer autumns; the land that secured the coronet of stars through difficulty -has a history, all of which has not been written. The graphic pen-pictures by Richardson, the statistical "An- nals" by Wilder, the characteristic details of border life by a number of authors, and the various contributions to the magazines and newspapers, constitute a history of value for future generations seeking facts in relation to the vicissitudes, hardships and persistence of the early settlers, while strug- gling to preserve the Territory and State from the doom of slavery.
Journalists have speculated as to the route and terminus of Coronado's march; and have vividly described the exploits
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THE NORTHERN TIER.
of Lane, Old John Brown of Osawatomie, and others along the southeastern border of the State, from the time of the erection of the first cabin on the town site of Lawrence down to the adoption of the Wyandotte constitution. They have portrayed the valor and fidelity of the men and women who, individually and collectively, were determined to have insti- tutions and laws unsullied by human slavery. To such de- scriptions have been added striking accounts of their physical and moral courage, exhibited under the most difficult circum- stances, which constitute a history of interest and value for the posterity of the pioneers in those stirring times.
But the scenes and incidents in and about the camps, camp- fires and cabins of the early settlers of the "Northern Tier," and the frontier life of the "homestead settlers" of North- western Kansas, as yet form a part of the unwritten history of the State. The gold excitement in California in 1849 left its imprint in Northern Kansas, in the form of a well-beaten wagon-trail from the Missouri river along the "divides" to the Big Blue river, at a point where Marshall afterwards founded the village of Palmetto, the name of which was sub- sequently changed to Marysville. The long trains of covered wagons wended their devious way over the plains, starting the deer and antelope from their covert, watched by the vigi- lant eye of the cowardly coyote from adjacent ridges. The
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NORTHERN KANSAS.
lowing of oxen and the camp-songs of the drivers disturbed the monotony of that wild waste of undulating territory. The wayside graves still mark the last resting-places of the less-fortunate adventurers, who had left home and kindred in the East to seek a shadowy fortune in the El Dorado of the West. The country through which this trail led from the Missouri river to the Big Blue, subsequently defined and named as the counties. of Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha and Marshall, with a landscape of surpassing beauty stretching away as far as the vision extended, limited by the horizon or the timber skirting the small streams, fed by springs of pure water, induced the immigrants and first settlers to designate that region as the "garden spot of the world."
The average California immigrant of 1849, after crossing the Missouri river at St. Joseph, seemed to exist in a world of his own, and all his former fancyings of fun and fast life on the plains gradually assumed the aspect of stern reality the farther he advanced from the settlements. That part of the route from the Missouri river to the Big Blue, being less exposed to the danger of lurking savages than the trail fur- ther westward, the immigrants realized their anticipated pleasure to the fullest extent in the chase after game during the day, and with jokes, anecdotes and hilarity around the camp-fires at night, while the blue smoke ascended in spiral
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THE NORTHERN TIER.
wreaths from their new brier-root pipes. If any had regrets at leaving their sweethearts or their boyhood haunts about the old homestead, with transient depression of spirits or homesickness, they were soon dispelled by the jests of their companions, or the sudden crack of the sentry's rifle, aimed at the thieving coyote whose voracious appetite tempted him to reconnoiter the camp.
Many are the romantic stories of adventure that transpired along that grass-grown trail. It was crossed at right angles in the western part of Brown county by what was known as Jim Lane's Road, traveled by Lane, Old John Brown of Osawatomie and others for a nobler purpose-guiding the hunted and harassed fugitive slaves to freedom, and return- ing with Free-State men, who dare not cross the State of Missouri, and who sought free homes on the wide prairies of Kansas, which had been consecrated to freedom by the battles of Osawatomie and Hickory Point. When the fugitive slave had crossed the old "California trail," the dim outlines of the timber skirting the Nemaha, near the Nebraska line, met his vision at dawn of day, after a night of weary travel and con- stant alarm, beyond which he saw freedom, and
"The thought, when admitted to that equal sky,
His unsold children would bear him company."
That old road is a part of the history of Kansas, and has
13
NORTHERN KANSAS.
been truly described by Maj. Morrill in his admirable pam- phlet on the history of Brown county.
That old California trail is a trail of the past, having long since been defaced by the plowshare, and the onward march of civilization has driven the buffalo, deer and coyote from the adjacent country. Instead of the howl of the wolf and the camp-songs of the California immigrants, are heard the church and school bells, and the songs of husbandry and the hum of machinery accompany the labors of a free and happy people.
When old Wathena had lived out his allotted time, his paraphernalia, trophies and traps had been checked for the "happy hunting-ground," and the remnant of his tribe had taken up their abode on the Kickapoo Reserve; when the Otoes and other blanketed tribes of the plains had been cor- raled on reservations, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill had be- come a law, immigrants from nearly every State in the Union rapidly settled in Northeastern Kansas. Log cabins in the timber and "dug-outs" on the prairie sprang up, with occa- sionally a more substantial structure, the proprietor of which possessed a little more of the necessary means to make him- self and family comfortable in a new country. In addition to the farmers, merchants and mechanics, the other indispens- able auxiliaries of a new settlement came-circuit riders,
14 THE NORTHERN TIER. school teachers, doctors, lawyers, and those degenerate satires upon truth and honesty, excrescences hanging to the verge of the legal profession, commonly called pettifoggers.
A celebrated English writer says: "The land is the mother of us all; nourishes, shelters, gladdens, lovingly enriches us all." I might add, when we have no further use for its ger- minating power, and have done paying high taxes for the use of and privilege of owning it, the land kindly receives us beneath its surface, to be undisturbed by contending forces in the ranks of war, the pursuits of enterprise, the allure- ments of avarice, or the peaceful avocation of agriculture.
The inherent desire to own and occupy a quarter-section of land, whether hereditary or transmitted from the customs of ancient aristocracy, induced the young and middle-aged who were landless to immigrate to Kansas with a view to secure land and a home, under the preemption law of 4th September, 1841. Their vision of a new country was mag- nified by imaginary guide-posts to fortune, with less labor, fewer hardships and more pleasure than accompany a home in the older States. The boundless prairie constituted, to the sanguine mind, nature's extensive pasture as the ruminat- ing ground for "cattle on a thousand hills;" and the prairie sod was supposed to be as easily overturned as the green- sward of red-top and clover in a field in the older States
.
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NORTHERN KANSAS.
that had been cleared and cultivated for half a century. The fact that it required to break prairie three or four yoke of oxen, with a plow the beam of which would make a half- cord of stove-wood, with iron fixtures sufficient to make a respectable cow-catcher for a locomotive, did not occur to the mind until instilled into it by experience.
The family usually arrived in a covered wagon containing the family furniture and bedding, among which the small children alternately played and slept during the journey, while the large boys and girls drove the cows and calves, the house-dog bringing up the rear. A hastily-improvised chicken-coop was attached to the rear end of the wagon-box, from which the heads of the poultry protruded, manifesting a desire for freedom by their restless movements and incessant cooing and cackling. Each immigrant wagon contained its youthful Nimrod, generally the first-born, who had listened to the fireside hunting stories of his grandfather, or perchance had read the wild life and adventures of Boone, Wetzel, Ken- ton and others, until he imagined himself a hero, capable of defending the future Western home against the incursions of Indians, besides supplying the family with game. His hunt- ing exploits had been confined to squirrel-shooting in the beech-woods of Indiana, or oak groves of Ohio, with the periodical coon hunt, or to extracting the sullen woodchuck
16
THE NORTHERN TIER.
from his ancestral home in the rocks, the moss-grown log- heap or stone-pile in the meadow or woods pasture. He had spent hours brightening the old rifle, and had arranged his hunting paraphernalia as carefully as a trapper and hunter would preparatory to spending a winter in the wild passes of the Rocky Mountains.
The initiatory steps to secure a tract of land were, to lay a foundation, with four logs, for a cabin, and hie away to the land office, then at Doniphan, and file a declaratory statement of intention to preëmpt the tract, which secured to the settler an inceptive right, the consummation of which required that he should reside upon, cultivate and improve the same for a period of twelve months; then pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and receive a patent from the Government. During the interval between laying the foundation and fin- ishing the cabin, the family prepared their meals at the camp- fire, and slept in the covered wagon or a temporary tent prepared for that purpose.
If this scene had its wild appearance, attended with hard- ships, it also had its attractions and picturesque beauties. The fertile soil awaiting development, covered with nutri- tious grass and beautiful wild flowers; the whirring of the prairie-chickens or grouse as they arose out of the tall grass and sailed away with their free flight to an adjacent ridge;
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NORTHERN KANSAS.
the shrill whistle of the curlew and plover; the gobble of the wild-turkeys in the timber skirting the streams; the familiar notes of the lark, robin, jay, and other of nature's songsters, possessed attractions for every member of the family. The prospect of a home unburdened with rent and unincumbered with debt and mortgage; the future prospect of schools and churches, and the noble impulse to establish the nucleus of a civilization unsullied by human slavery, in which the health- ful breeze would fan the brows of a free people, served to dispel the otherwise gloomy outlook.
The conveniences and comforts of life being necessarily limited, induced the sanction of those social and neighborly customs adopted by the first settlers of the Middle and Western States during the first quarter of the present cen- tury. Their limited means would not permit social enter- tainments on the scale of the Knickerbockers, in former times, on the shores of the Hudson; but the traditional friendship and unrestrained hilarity that prevailed in the log cabins of fifty years ago, in the then frontier settlements, were fostered and encouraged by the first settlers of Northern Kansas. The cold rules and artificial lines of polite society were ignored. Visiting among the women and spontaneous gatherings of the men were pleasant occasions, at which their wild surroundings and future prospects were discussed, serv-
2
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THE NORTHERN TIER.
ing the two-fold purpose of affording mutual aid and confi- dence, and of banishing any lingering regrets at leaving their homes in the East. Camp and basket meetings among the pious, and dancing-parties for the young people, served to dispel the gloomy forebodings of the future, or the lingering pangs of sorrow and disappointment having their root in the past. Corn-huskings, "quilting-bees," and the snow-bound Christmas party, were heralded as events of hilarity and pleasure by the inmates of every household. At early dawn on Christmas morning the salute of firearms at the bed-room window of the lazy, late-sleeping farmer, by his more ener- getic, vigilant neighbor, was the signal for bringing forth the "little brown jug," with the repetition of the adage, "It is the early bird that catches the worm," or the more patriotic expression, " Eternal vigilance is the price of"-a Christmas dram !
Economy and frugality were more a matter of necessity than choice, and the rustic culinary genius who presided over the kitchen department often was compelled to divide the component parts of a meal with exact calculation, to make it last as long as possible. At one time, in a certain community, for several weeks, there was but a single piece of pork in the neighborhood, which was used alternately by each neighbor with which to cook beans and other vegetables, passing from
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NORTHERN KANSAS.
one to the other, until it became "rich with the spoils of time," a sad relic of what originally would have constituted a square meal. The wearing apparel of the pioneer's family indicated strict frugality, and "home-made" clothing, hastily improvised from grain sacks by an expert housewife, often decorated the person of the boys. In fact, it was an excellent . opportunity to wear out old clothes that would have been discarded in older society.
As the settlers were practically equal and mutually de- pendent, there was little cause for that envy, jealousy and selfishness which cause a large portion of the unhappiness in older communities. The log cabins and board shanties, though rude in architecture, sheltered as noble hearts as ever beat beneath costly vestments in palatial mansions, and, to use a common Western expression, "The latch-strings of the cabin-doors hung upon the outside," emblematic of the gen- uine charity and hospitality found within by the traveler and stranger.
Those who are accustomed to refinement and plenty in the older States, doubtless would conclude that there was little happiness or pleasure in such a state of society. But aside from the political feuds growing out of the attempt to estab- lish slavery in the Territory, and the persecution of the Free- State settlers by daring and desperate men from the border
20
THE NORTHERN TIER.
slave States, the occupants of those log-cabins were among the happiest of mankind. The story, the joke, the song and the laugh were never better enjoyed than in the cabins and around the camp-fires of the first settlers of Northern Kansas. Roast turkey, venison, and the delicious prairie-chicken, never tasted better than when prepared beneath the sod roofs of the primi- tive cabins that dotted the "Northern Tier."
The horseback ride over the prairie through the grass, hunting the cattle in the evening, guided by the distant tinkling of the cow-bell; the chase after the cowardly coyote; halting for a moment to look at the beautiful sea-like mirage growing less distinct as the sun disappeared behind the west- ern plains; while flocks of wild-geese and brant rose scream- ing from the fields, and sailed away with geometric regularity to the sand-bars and eddies of the Missouri - were experiences of daily life at certain seasons of the year, that for pleasure were scarcely surpassed by the halcyon days of my boyhood labor in the sugar camp, and the rambles through the dear old woods of the Buckeye State.
While danger and hardships surrounded the settlers, still happy scenes of pleasure, like the bright beams of the morn- ing sun dispelling the gloom of night, pervaded every house- hold; and that hope for a bright future, that "springs eternal in the human breast," kindled a noble impulse to consecrate
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NORTHERN KANSAS.
this beautiful land to freedom and christianity, and establish a higher civilization. The sun-burned settler, clad in his home-made raiment, sat upon the inverted water - bucket, block of wood, or rude puncheon bench on the green-sward, beneath the shade of nature's canopy, and worshipped the Divine Being as devoutly, piously and acceptably, while lis- tening to the expounding of the scripture by an itinerant minister from a wagon-box for a pulpit, as the gaudily- dressed millionaire in Tremont Temple. That the settlers laid enduringly the foundations of a high civilization, with liberty and equality before the law, is manifest from the prosperity with which our progressive young commonwealth has been blessed.
There is one spot in the Northern Tier that deserves more than a passing notice, and should be sacred in the memory of the members of the "mystic tie." In the northeast part of Doniphan county is a high hill or ridge, from which a fine view extends far up and down the Missouri river. On the summit of this hill, in 1854, was a beautiful oak grove, where, in the summer of that year, Smithton Lodge, No. 1, of Free Masons, was organized. It was the first lodge organized in the Territory. An Indian trail led through or near this grove to Smith's trading-post in the valley below. In the autumn of 1854 I passed over that trail, and well remember
22
THE NORTHERN TIER.
my admiration of that grove of trees at the time, but was not aware until some years afterward that the ceremony establish- ing Masonry in Kansas was performed there. The only sur- vivor of those who were present at that organization, residing in Kansas, to my knowledge, is the venerable Daniel Van- derslice, now living near Highland. He being the only one who can designate the exact spot where the ceremony was per- formed, it occurs to me that it would be proper, ere he passes from earth to a higher life, for the grand and subordinate lodges of the State to erect a small monument there, inscribed with the name and number of the lodge, and date of organi- zation. If the beautiful trees are still standing, doubtless a small portion of the ground could be purchased. It would be emblematic of a scene coincident with the first settlement of the Territory, of which every member of the order in the State might well feel proud.
CHAPTER 2.
THE NORTHERN TIER.
That portion of Northern Kansas familiarly known as the "Northern Tier" presented, during its first settlement, rare scenes of rural loveliness, from the Missouri river to the Big Blue. I have passed over that country in the spring and in autumn, during those early days. In the spring the grass was pushing its green blades from the warm soil; the elms and other trees along the streams were flushed with fragrant buds just bursting into leaflets; the wild plum bushes were whitened with beautiful blossoms, and countless lovely wild flowers decorated the banks of the streams and ravines. The robins, thrushes and jays flitted among the branches, and the rabbits skipped along the cow-paths. Musquito creek, in Doniphan county, where the old California trail crossed it, Wolf creek and Walnut creek, in Brown county, the Nemaha, in Nemaha county, and the Vermillion, in Marshall county, were beautiful timber-bordered streams in those early days in spring-time. Other smaller streams were equally attractive to the lonely traveler.
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THE NORTHERN TIER.
The bluffs and bottoms along the Missouri were heavily timbered before the woodchopper's ax and saw-mills made sad inroads in nature's groves. Thickets of plum bushes and hazel grew along the narrow bottoms and at the foot of the bluffs, in which the wild-turkeys built their nests, screened from view by the rank growth of wild flowers and foliage. The fox-squirrels leaped from branch to branch, or spent their summer mornings building their fragile houses of leaves among the branches of the stately elms. How I admired a ramble along those bluffs and table-lands in that early time, in search of the truant milch cows, the only guide to their shady retreat the tinkling of the cow-bell! In autumn, the wild grapes hung in clusters from the straggling vines; the frosted leaves, loosened from the stems, fell from the branches, or floated away at random, borne by the breeze; the walnuts. dropping to the ground; coveys of quails rustled among the leaves as they hastened in single file to the nearest thicket of bushes; and the distant drumming of the ruffed grouse, re- minded one of "Gay's rural sports."
The oldest permanent white settler in the "Northern Tier" was the Rev. S. M. Irvin, who came to Doniphan county in the spring of 1837, and took charge of the Indian Mission two miles east of the town of Highland. He crossed the Missouri river where St. Joseph now stands, then an Indian
25
THE NORTHERN TIER.
trading-post, owned and kept by Joseph Robideaux. At that time the Kickapoo Indians owned about half of the land now embraced in Doniphan county, and the Iowas and Sacs and Foxes the other half. The villages of the Kickapoos, at that time, were near where Fort Leavenworth now stands; and the villages of the Iowas and the Sacs were near the mouth of Wolf river, in Doniphan county. The Atchison & Ne- braska Railroad passes very near where they stood. The Mission building was completed the same year (1837) that Mr. Irvin came, and the Mission continued under his manage- ment and control until after the Indians relinquished their claim to the land, in 1853.
When Mr. Irvin came to the Mission the Indians were barbarians, and the impression made upon them by instruc- tion and kind treatment at the Mission at first seemed to be but slight; but they in time became half-civilized, and have quit the chase and war altogether, and now live by farming and raising stock. Thus it will be seen that much good was done by the Mission, and to Mr. Irvin belongs that credit as the representative of the society that undertook the work. He composed and had printed in the Indian language a small grammar for the use of the Indians whom he was instructing, a copy of which I believe is now among the treasures of the State Historical Society.
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THE NORTHERN TIER.
He must have led a lonely life, far from white settlements, during the long years of his labor at the Mission, surrounded by a blanketed tribe of aborigines, whose only pursuits were the chase and war with other tribes; whose signal of pleasure was the war-whoop, their recreation the war-dance, and their wigwam trophies the scalps of their enemies. Mr. Irvin exerted an influence over the Indians that still exists among the present remnant of the tribe on their reservation, and he is doubtless more familiar with the traits of Indian character than any man in the State. I trust he will yet give to the world that knowledge he acquired by his long service among the Indians, as a part of the unwritten history of the State.
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