USA > Kansas > Crawford County > A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas > Part 5
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church has now a membership of 101 and has preaching twice a month. The Christian denomination had an organization at Cato for several years, but has no organization now. Rev. Wilson was the first pastor. The Church of God had an organization at one time, but have no organi- zation at Cato now. The first school house, located on Chad Brown's farm, was a small log house without a glass window, a door in the south and a log sawed out in the north for a window. Mr. Emery Conditt taught the first school. Mr. C. H. Strong organized the first Sunday school in Crawford county in the school house, with Miss Wilcox, the teacher of the school at that time, to assist him.
The present Cato school house was built in 1869. This is a stone structure still in a fairly good state of preservation. This served as school house and meeting house until 1881, when the Baptist church was built.
The Cato mill was built by Robbins and Steele in 1868. This was the first mill in Kansas south of Ft. Scott. It was both a grist and saw mill. People came from far and near to this mill and a hundred teams have been seen here at a time waiting for their grists. The stores were owned by George W. Fowler and Peter Smith. Mr. Fowler moved to Arcadia and the Smith store is still run by Mr. Smith's niece, Miss Evelyn Smith, to whom he gave the store at his death.
Andy Linthicum had the first shoe shop. Afterwards Mr. Allen and then Isaac Barker had shoe shops. William Telcamp had the first harness shop.
William Shamblin had the first blacksmith shop. He sold out to B. C. Redlon.
BONE CREEK rises about two miles southwest of Garfield school house.
DRYWOOD rises three miles northwest of Farlington. Bone Creek 1
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empties into Drywood about two miles east of Cato. First county bridge in township was across Bone Creek, a mile and one-half east of Hatch school house.
ENGLEVALE was so named because located on Dan Engle's farm in 1891. The Missouri Pacific Railroad was built in the summer of 1891, no bonds were voted for it, and it ran in in 1892.
Lincoln township is rich in coal deposits. Many strips are worked and there is a three or four-foot vein of coal found at a depth of 150 to 250 feet.
J. F. Joy visited Cato during the Leaguer troubles. My grand- father, Colonel Jewell, was killed during the war, and the commission to intercede for the Cherokee strip was appointed after the war.
Woolery Coonrod, Sr., was about the earliest settler, coming in 1856, Elisha Black, Sr., coming about the same time. E. B. Black, his son, was the first white child born in Lincoln township. E. B. Black still lives at Cato. H. B. Brown moved on a farm north of Cato in 1862. Ezekiel Brown and his two sons, I. K. and Chad, moved to Cato in 1865. I. K., Chad and Ezekiel Brown owned patents Nos. I. 2 and 3. I. K. and Chad Brown still reside on this land.
Other early settlers were: John Hale. Sr .. Jacob Workman, still living, Benjamin Workman. Levi and Sam James, James Odom, Crede Burton, Elihu Talcott, Mr. Pearson and his sons Riley and William, Levi Hatch. E. J. Boring, N. Sawyer, Jones Elliott. Mr. Franklin and sons William and Jerry. Spencer Reynolds.
Among the Cato boys who have gained some distinction may be named J. S. West, who was Judge of the Sixth judicial district, after- wards assistant attorney general. Arthur Fuller of Girard, one of the best lawyers in the county. J. M. Humphrey of Ft. Scott, a leading attorney of Bourbon county Albert Ross, one of the leading politicians
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of Jewell county and a member of the board of regents of the State Normal School; O. C. Brown, now attending Theological Seminary at Newton Center, Massachusetts ; L. L. Smith, a successful Baptist preacher of Oklahoma. George E. Cole was the youngest county clerk in the state when elected in 1883. He afterwards served as state auditor six years ; is now secretary of Illinois Life Insurance Company at Topeka. Hiram Barker. a physician in Oklahoma, and Hugh Scott, who is also a physician in Oklahoma.
CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS: William Simpson, Neal Humphreys, James Humphreys, William Franklin, Chad Brown. I. K. Brown, J. H. Coon- rod, Sam James, J. H. Odom, Jonas Elliott, William Pearson, James Jones, Aaron Jones, Robert Mack, Mr. Shakely, Pascal Moss, H. B. Brown, Captain Rogers, Thomas Emmitt.
In the Spanish War was Frank Hagerman.
ROBERT ADAMS. Settled first on what is known as the Mason place. His two sons, J. Q. Adams and C. Adams, are still living. J. Q. Adams was at one time county surveyor.
MR. HOWARD was an early settler who died several years ago. His widow is still living at Arcadia and is the oldest person in Lincoln. Their son Bluford Howard lives on this farm also.
MR. FRANKLIN was one of the earliest settlers. At his house the Lincoln township election was held for several years. His sons, William and Jerry, were early settlers also. Jerry is dead and William moved to Bartlesville, Indian Territory, where he died.
The Wortleys were not early settlers. They came here in 1880.
WILLIAM STITLER settled in the township about 1867. He was a prosperous farmer, but lost most of his property when he went into the mercantile business in 1884. His oldest son, Harry, is a locomotive engineer in Texas. His daughter Sadie is now Mrs. Pete Fowler, and
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the other daughter, Mollie, is Mrs. John Hale of this township. Mr. Stitler is now in Oklahoma proving up a claim, commencing at the bot- tom of the ladder trying to climb up.
LEVI HATCH was a soldier in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. Settled in what is now Lincoln township before the war. His sons, Wesley and Lewis, are dead, and his son John lives on the old homestead. One of his daughters is Mrs. Henry Burden and another Mrs. Lou McGonigle. Mr. Levi Hatch was probate judge of Crawford county. Chad Brown went to his office for his marriage license. Not finding him there, he came on to Judge Hatch's home, where he found the judge, but he said he could not write out a license, and told Chad to have I. K. Brown write one and bring to him to sign. This Chad did, but when he re- turned to Judge Hatch's house he was gone, and Chad gave up chasing Judge Hatch and went to Ft. Scott for his license.
Old MR. PEARSON was an early settler and was one of five men in Lincoln township who was not a leaguer. He had two sons, William and Riley, who still live in Lincoln township, and two daughters, one of whom is now Mrs. John Smart, the other Mrs. Riley Dalton, both living in this township.
RILEY DALTON was an early settler. In 1866 a man jumped his claim. There was in those days an organization to protect the settlers. I. K. Brown was chairman of this committee. A meeting of this com- mittee was called and a trial held, which decided that Mr. Dalton was the actual settler and the other man was ordered to vacate the claim, which he did. Of Mr. Dalton's children, his sons, Harvey, Sabe, Ben, Philip and Abe, live in Lincoln township and are all prosperous men. His two daughters are married, but do not live in the township.
GIDEON P. COLE settled in the township in 1868. His first wife was a sister of I. K. and Chad Brown. She died in 1870, leaving six
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children. Of these, Cynthia, with her husband, Leroy Hemenway. moved to Kansas with them and is now living in Liberal, Missouri. Mary, the second daughter, is now Mrs. E. B. Black, and lives at Cato. George E., the oldest son, early became injured so that he has always been crippled. He has held several places of trust, among them county clerk of Crawford county four years and state auditor six years. He now lives in Topeka. Sophronia, the third daughter, taught school several years. She was married to R. T. Grant in 1883. She died in 1899, leaving two daughters who live with their father near Girard. Nettie R., the fourth daughter, also taught school, and when George was elected county clerk, Nettie was his deputy, and a better one Craw- ford county never had. Irving H., the second son, became crippled also when a small boy. For years he worked in the Girard postoffice. and has been for five years bond clerk in the state auditor's office. In 1871 Mr. Cole married Miss Sarah Brooks of Sherman township, and they have four children. The oldest daughter. E. Grace, teaches school in Kansas City. The other daughter. Gertrude. is now Mrs. H. W. Hudgen of Ft. Scott. The older son, Willis, lives in California, and the youngest son, Ralph, lives at home with his father, near Girard. Mr. Cole brought with him the first piano that was in Crawford county. He kept in 1869 what was known as the Buck-horn tavern, where the stage between Ft. Scott and Girard changed horses. Among the guests at this tavern one night was C. Dana Sayers, an attorney whom many old settlers will remember and who is now a great temperance worker in Nebraska. but in those days he was never known to be without his bottle of fire water. While talking in an eloquent way to the other guests, he became excited and rising to make his arguments stronger by gesture threw the bottle of whiskey from his pocket to the stone hearth.
B. C. REDLON was at one time the blacksmith in Cato. In the fall
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after buying the blacksmith shop he had enough money to pay for half a car load of cattle. He borrowed enough more to pay for the other half of car, and from this start he became a very successful stock-man. buying and selling cattle. At one time he owned in Lincoln and Sher- man townships two thousand acres of land. He had two sons, Charley and Lloyd, and one daughter, Anne. Mr. Redlon now lives on a farm near Girard. I. K. Brown says he still has a wrought-iron stove-lid lifter that B. C. Redlon made himself while he was blacksmith at Cato.
WOOLERY COONROD, Sr., was one of the very first settlers in what is now Lincoln township. He settled on Drywood about a mile south of where Cato now stands, about 1856. He had quite a family and he and his wife, who were familiarly known as Old Daddy and Old Mammy, lived together sixty-three years, when he died. His wife followed him about a year later. His children were: Add, John, Franc, Jeff, William B., George, the sons, and Martha, Mary and Emily, the daughters- some of whom live in the township, others have moved away. Add Coonrod died several years ago, leaving a family who now live in the Indian Territory.
JOHN COONROD, Sr., lives on the treaty claim which he bought of the government. He was a member of the Sixth Kansas Home Guards during the Civil war. He is a member of the Christian church and is a strong temperance Democrat. In early days of Kansas Mr. Coonrod enjoyed a hunt with hounds, and he still keeps hounds, and it is a pleasure to him yet to go with his horse and hounds for a chase, bringing home anyway a jackrabbit. His three sons, Woolery, John and Dick, are in partnership in a general store at Drywood and farming, Woolery at- tending the store and being postmaster of Drywood, and John and Dick running the farm and attending to the stock. Mr. Coonrod's son Hil- man is the Cato blacksmith. Callie Coonrod, his oldest daughter, was
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married in 1884 to Nathan Hutchins, who died in 1894 leaving her five small children, which she has worked nobly to raise and educate. Zona, the second daughter, taught school until her health failed. She and Mrs. Hutchins live together. The youngest daughter, Minnie, mar- ried Ora Williams, and lives in Cherryvale. Franc and Jeff Coonrod both live in Texas.
WILLIAM B. COONROD owns the old Coonrod homestead, and mar- ried Mrs. Elizabeth Fowler Reynolds. They have four sons and four daughters. Franc, the oldest son, is a prosperous farmer. He was married in 1899 to Miss Jessie Mack. They have two little daughters. Fowler, the second son, is on his own farm, across the line in Bourbon county. His wife was Miss Lizzie Hulbert of Arcadia. They have one little daughter. The oldest daughter, Nora, was married to Olin Kelley in 1900. They live on a farm in Crawford county and have two children, a daughter and a son. The other children, Susie, Tom, George, Florence and Mattie, still live at home. George Coonrod was married to Miss Lucas. They live in the Indian Territory. Martha Coonrod was the wife of Elisha Black, Sr., one of the earliest settlers. Her daughter, Mrs. Conditt, lives in Lamar and, although left a widow years ago, she has given her children all good educations. Her other daughter, Mrs. Hightower, also a widow, lives in Texas. Her only son, E. B. Black, lives in Cato. He is a farmer. He has two children, Lee and Viva. Mary Coonrod was the wife of James Odom, an early settler. They had only one child, John W. Odom, who lives near McCune. Emily Coonrod was married to Henry Gaither and lives in the Indian Territory.
JONAS ELLIOTT was one of the early settlers and a soldier in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. He lives about one-half mile east of the Hatch school house.
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RUFUS BORING was an early settler and a soldier in the. Sixth Kan- sas Cavalry. Mr. Boring settled on a farm east of where the Garfield school house now stands, later he moved to a farm a mile and a quarter east of the Hatch school house. About two years ago he sold this farm and moved to Englevale. He has now moved to Oklahoma. He has two sons and two daughters. The two sons, Ezekiel and George, are both married and live in Oklahoma. The oldest daughter married Mr. Phillips and lives in Englevale. The youngest daughter, Emma, was married to John Deering in 1904 and lives in Bourbon county.
I. K. BROWN was born in Stephenson county, Illinois, in 1840. He moved to Rockford, Bourbon county, Kansas, in the spring of 1858. Enlisted from there in the Second Kansas Battery in 1862. Was in the war until 1865. Moved to Cato with his parents, Ezekiel and Cor- nelia Brown, in the fall of 1865. He owns patent No. I of the Cherokee Neutral Land. He was married in 1867 to Miss E. Eva Johnson. He was township trustee of Lincoln township two years. He was nomi- nated clerk of district court of Crawford county by the Republican party in 1892. He had six children. Dollie E., the eldest daughter, taught school successfully for several years. She was married to T. L. Mc- Williams in 1891 and lives in Crawford township on a farm. They have two sons. Owen C., the oldest son, taught school for several years. Won first prize in the Crawford County Oratorical Contest in I893. He graduated from Ft. Scott Normal School in 1898, and then attended school at Ottawa University. He was married to Miss Lois Gates in 1898 and was ordained into the Baptist ministry at Cato that same year. He graduated from Ottawa in 1902, when he went to Boston to attend the Baptist Seminary at Newton Center. He has preached at a fashionable church every Sunday since he arrived there. He will graduate from the seminary in 1905, after which (in June) he
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goes to Kansas to accept a call in one of the leading churches of the state. He has one son, Carl Newton. Minnie C., the second daughter, was for several years organist for the church and Sunday school. She was married to Dick Nance in 1896. They have four children and live at Niotaze, Kansas. Nannie G., the third daughter, taught school two years and was married to Albert Farmer, who is a prosperous farmer of this township. They have one little son, Ralph. Chad, the second son, died when he was eight years old. Mary, the youngest daughter, is a promising young lady. She is the present organist for the Sunday school and church at Cato.
CHAD BROWN, son of Ezekiel and Cornelia Brown, was born in Stephenson county, Illinois, in 1843. He, with his parents and brother, moved to Rockford, Kansas, in 1858. He enlisted in the Third Kansas Infantry in 1861. He was also in the Tenth Kansas Infantry. He served over three years in war. He was married in 1867. He owns patent No. 2, Cherokee Neutral Lands. He bought, dur- ing the war, from Spencer Reynolds the two claims which he and I. K. Brown now own, and Mr. Reynolds said he might have his daugh- ter Hattie to boot, and later Chad held him to this agreement, as Hattie did not object. They had six children, two of whom, Mollie and Chad, died in infancy. Ezekiel S., the oldest son, was born in 1868. He was married to Lorette Jolliff in 1889. He was a prosperous farmer near Cato for several years, but moved to the Indian Territory six years ago. They have eight children, the oldest of which, Ernest, lives with his grandfather, Chad Brown.
William H., the second son, attended school in Ottawa University, but was married when quite young to Miss Eva Snow, and settled down to farming. They have four children, and live near Hiattville, Kansas.
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Nellie, the oldest daughter, was married in 1894 to Jonah Bixler, Jr. When a girl she was organist for the church and Sunday school. They are carrying on a dairy at Bartellsville, Indian Territory. They have four children and are prosperous.
Bertha M., the youngest daughter, taught school successfully a number of years, was church organist some time. She was married to Curt Deering in December, 1899. She never was a strong woman and after a lingering illness she died in the fall of 1903, leaving one daugh- ter, Hattie, two years old.
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CHAPTER III. POLITICAL HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
(By A. G. Lucas.)
There is, perhaps, not another word in the English language which is more abused than the word "politics" and its cognates. It is made to do duty in almost every conceivable line of thought; but the most vicious use made of it is to confound it with partisanship. Some men are so ignorant or so blinded by prejudice that they can not conceive of any politics aside from party. Hence, if you ask such a person what his politics is he will answer that he is a Republican, or he is a Democrat, or Prohibitionist, giving the name of the party with which he affiliates instead of any principles or policy of government which he accepts or advocates. A man may be a Republican or a Democrat in a partisan sense and at the same time advocate a high tariff or low tariff or no tariff. He may belong to any of the parties of the present day and advo- cate a direct tax on all property alike, or a graduated tax, or a tax on real estate alone. He may favor national banks, state banks, private banks, or postal banks, and still be an orthodox Republican or Demo- crat. And so with all other political questions that have come before the American people for the last century. Men of all parties have been on all sides of all questions without losing their standing in their re- spective parties.
Have political parties, then, no well established or well defined principles? We do not so assert. But the principles or doctrines of a party at one time may become the doctrines of the opposing party at
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another, or they may change without passing over to the other side, or even while a protective tariff is the slogan of the Republican party there are men in that party who look upon it with indifference, not to use a stronger word, while at the same time there are Democrats, so called, who regard a protective tariff as one of the essential elements of a safe and healthy administration.
Politics in its broadest sense is the science of government, and in a more restricted sense it means the principles and policy that should control the administration of government. whether national, state or municipal. With this definition of the word in mind, I propose to write a political history of our county, with only so much reference to the several parties that have figured in the politics of the county as is neces- sary to a full and fair understanding of the subject in hand. Where praise and honor are due to a party they shall be awarded, not because the writer belonged to or affiliated with that party, but because its prin- ciples and policy served the best interests of the people at the time and under the conditions then prevailing. Where censure and blame rightly belong to a party they shall not be withheld or covered up, whether the writer acted with that party or not. In a word, it is my intention to give a fair and candid history of the political status of the county from its beginning to the present time, regardless of party success or party failure.
THE BEGINNING.
"In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children," was a curse pro- nounced upon our great-grandmother when she was about to be ex- pelled from the garden of delights. It has been verified, not only with individuals, but with nations as well. Kansas was born in the throes of a revolution, which for extent and ferocity has not been equalled since the days of Robespiere, and then only in the latter element. From
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the lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean, the whole nauen was stirred in its utmost depths, and notwithstanding the interest was of national extent and importance, all eyes were turned toward Kansas, where the war actually began long before the walls of Fort Sumter were battered down by rebel cannon. And Crawford county was not exempt from the general strife and turmoil, but in addition to the com- mon eause in which all were interested, she had trials of her own to which but few other counties were subjected. The greater part of Crawford county was included in "The Cherokee Neutral Lands," which gave rise to numerous heated, and in some cases fatal, disputes, and which formed an important factor in shaping the early politics of the county. Even before the breaking out of the rebellion proper, while James Buchanan was yet president of the United States, he sent troops to drive the settlers from their homes, and these troops, true to the be- hests of their master, marked their course by applying the torch to the hay stacks and buildings of the settlers as they passed, leaving no trace of civilization behind them except the charred ruins of what had been quiet and peaceful homes.
CRAWFORD COUNTY
was organized in the winter of 1866-7 from a part of what had been MIcGhee county, which embraced all that part of the state lying be- tween Bourbon county and the southern line of the state. Temporary officers were appointed, and the first permanent officers were elected in November, 1867. But little attention was paid to parties, as the all- absorbing question was, "Shall the people be allowed to purchase their homes from the government, or must they buy them of Shylock, at whatever price he may stipulate?" The Land League was formed for the purpose of protecting the settlers in their rights against what they believed to be a swindle of gigantie proportions, and although the courts
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decided against them there were hundreds of men, some of whom are still living, who believed firmly that they were right and the courts were wrong.
Many conflicts occurred in which blood frequently marked the outcome, and no doubt excesses were committed on both sides; but, as both the state and national governments were backing the anti-leaguers, they could well afford to be the law-abiding element. But the case was finally settled in favor of Shylock, who got not one, but many pounds of flesh, and without the penalty for shedding Christian blood.
PARTIES FORMED.
After the Neutral Land question was settled, and peace and quiet was restored, the people began to divide into parties for political pur- poses; but the questions that divided them then were quite different from those that have since agitated the public mind. The first thing to be settled was the location of a county seat. Crawfordville had been declared by the governor to be the seat of justice, but the people of the county were not willing to submit to the one man power in things purely local. The Girard Town Company had been organized and a site secured on the surveyed line of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, which now seemed to be a fixed fact, and this gave it a decided advantage over its antagonist. After much disputing and several removals of the records, an election was held on the 15th of December, 1868, which decided by a vote of 375 to 312 in favor of Girard, and so the struggle ended.
While the railroad was under construction, and till the cars were running beyond Girard, there was a very bad element of society, which seemed, indeed, to hold the preponderance, and the third building erected in Girard was occupied as a saloon, and at one time there were seventeen saloons in full blast, and all this in a population of less than
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500. And as the saloon has always been an important and baneful fac- tor in politics wherever it was allowed to exist, it is easy to surmise the political status of the town and county at that time.
ANOTHER FACTOR
in shaping the politics of the county as in all communities, was the local newspaper. The Press was moved from Fort Scott to Girard in the fall of 1869, and was run in the interest of the railroad without regard to party politics, as one of the proprietors and editors was a Democrat and the other a Republican. Both strongly favored the building of the road, and perhaps neither of them foresaw the effect which the road would have on the politics of the county and state. But a strange anomaly occurred in 1872, as all are aware, namely : That a Democratic national convention nominated a life-long Republican and abolitionist for the presidency. The senior editor of the Press, Dr. Warner, was a Democrat of the first water, and espoused the cause of Greeley, while Mr. Wasser was equally zealous in advocating the claims of Grant for re-election. This necessarily gave rise to a discord in the family, and as the railroad was no longer a bone of contention, the proprietors agreed to disagree, the senior going out and leaving the junior in peaceable possession of the plant and all its appurtenances, and the Press, with whatever ability the editor possessed, has been the Republican paper of the county till the present day, and has been run under the same man- agement as when Dr. Warner left it.
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