A history of Kansas, Part 12

Author: Prentis, Noble L. (Noble Lovely), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : C. Prentis
Number of Pages: 394


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


332. State Officials Elected, 1890 .- The State officers elected in 1890 were L. U. Humphrey, Governor; A. J. Felt, Lieutenant-Governor; William Higgins, Secretary of State; C. M. Hovey, Auditor; S. G. Stover, Treasurer; George W. Winans, Superintendent of Public Instruction; John N. Ives, Attorney-General; A. H. Horton, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 1


333. Congressmen Elected .- Of the seven members of Congress elected from Kansas in 1890, two were classified as Republicans, four Fusion, and one Populist. The mem- bers chosen were: First District, Case Broderick; Second, E. H. Funston; Third, B. II. Clover; Fourth, John G. Otis; Fifth, John Davis; Sixth, William Baker; Seventh, Jerry Simpson.


SUMMARY.


1. Kansas was visited in 1890 by its first epidemic of grippe.


2. Honorable D. J. Brewer made Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.


3. The A., T. & S. F. Railway Company retired from real estate business, after twenty-five years' persistent work.


4. Ex-Governor N. Green died at Manhattan.


5. The Farmers' Alliance became an active political force.


6. The Anti-Prohibitionists attempt to nullify the prohibition law by the introduction of the Original Package.


7 The Eleventh Census was taken.


8. F. H. Snow chosen for Chancellor of the University.


9. Governor Humphrey was re-elected.


- te


CHAPTER XXXI.


THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


334. Installation and Organization .- The State Gov- ernment for the biennial period, beginning January 12, 1891, was installed without any special ceremonies, and even the inaugural ball was dispensed with. In these matters, Kan- sas hardly ever deviates into pomp, and there is a constantly recurring tendency to simplicity.


The House was organized by the choice of P. P. Elder, of Franklin county, as Speaker, and Benjamin Rich, of Trego county, as Chief Clerk. The House differed in political sen- timent from the Senate and from the State administration.


335. Retirement of John J. Ingalls .- On the 28th of January, 1891, Wm. A. Peffer received 101 votes for United States Senator, and was declared elected. Senator Ingalls retired from a service of eighteen years in the United States Senate, over which he was for four years the presiding officer, and had been a prominent figure in the eye of the nation.


336. William Alfred Peffer .- William Alfred Peffer, who succeeded Mr. Ingalls, was, at the time of his election, sixty years of age. He was born of a family of German descent, in Cumberland county, Pa. He enjoyed limited common school advantages and then extended them to others, as a teacher, when still a boy. Lived in California two years. Enlisted as a Union soldier, serving over two


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


years in the Eighty-Third Illinois Volunteers, and attaining the rank of second lieutenant. He was admitted to the bar, came to Kansas, combined law and journalism, with a prefer- ence for the latter; became an advocate of the principles of the Farmers' Alliance, and was chosen to the Senate as their representative and exponent. The Legislature elected E. H. Snow, State Printer.


337. The Legislature .- The Legislature began its regular biennial session on January 13th, and adjourned on March 13th. As the adherents of the new People's, or Farmers' Alliance, Party were in control of the lower House, and of both Houses on joint ballot, the proceedings of the session were watched by the public with great interest.


338. Irrigation .- An important act of the session pro- vided a system of law for the promotion of irrigation. It declared that all natural waters whether standing or running, and whether surface or subterranean, in that portion of the State west of the ninety-ninth meridian, shall be devoted, first, to purposes of irrigation in aid of agriculture subject to ordinary domestic uses, and second, to other industrial purposes, and may be diverted from its natural beds, basins, or channels for such purposes and uses, provided that exist- ing vested rights in such waters shall not be affected without due legal condemnation and compensation. Provision is made for the creation of irrigation districts, which are authorized to construct ditches and works, to borrow money and issue bonds, and to levy taxes to pay for such works. The charges for water supplied by any person or corpora- tion to another for irrigation, shall be fixed in each county by the county commissioners, and the rights and duties of such persons and corporations, as well as of public irrigation


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THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


districts, are defined at length. The sinking of artesian wells and the rights of owners thereof are also regulated.


339. Grain Laws .- By another act the business of public warehousemen is carefully defined and restricted. The maximum rates for storage and handling of grain, including cost of receiving and delivering, are fixed at one cent a bushel for the first fifteen days, or parts thereof, one- half cent a bushel for each fifteen days, or part thereof, after the first fifteen, but not over four cents a bushel in the aggregate for continuous storage from November 15th to May 15th following.


Any board of trade issuing licenses hereunder shall appoint a State weighmaster and such assistants as shall be needed for the transaction of business in its locality.


There shall also be a State inspector of grain appointed by the Govornor, who shall appoint deputy inspectors upon the nomination of local boards of trade. The inspectors shall determine the grade of grain offered to public ware- houses, but an appeal may be taken from their decision.


340. Appropriation .- The sum of $60,000 was appro- priated to purchase seed grain for those farmers who lost their crop by reason of the drought of 1890. The railroad commissioners were authorized to purchase such grain, and county commissioners of each county to distribute it, taking the note of each beneficiary for the cost of the grain sup- plied to him.


341. Eight-Hour Day .- Eight hours were declared to constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, mechanics, or other persons employed by or in behalf of the State, or by or in behalf of any county, city, township, or other municipality of the State. Declaring the first Monday in


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


September of each year a legal holiday to be known as "Labor Day." To protect associations and unions of work- ingmen in their labels, trade marks, and form of advertising.


342. Provision for a Convention .- Provision was made for submitting to the people, at the November election in 1892, the question whether a convention should be called to revise, amend, or change the State Constitution.


343. Office of State Bank Commissioner .- Created the office of State Bank Commissioner, with salary of $2,500, and empowered him to close any bank that did not comply with the law.


344. Alien Ownership of Land .- An aet to prevent ownership of land by non-resident aliens, provides that every non-resident alien, firm of aliens, or corporations, incorporated under the laws of any foreign country, shall be incapable of acquiring title to or taking or holding any land or real estate in this State, by descent, devise, pur- chase, or otherwise, except that the heirs of aliens who have heretofore acquired lands in this State under the laws thereof, and the heirs of aliens who may acquire lands under the provisions of the aet, may take such lands by devise or descent, and hold them for the space of three years and no longer, if such alien at the time of so acquir- ing such lands is of the age of twenty-one years, and if not twenty-one years of age, then for the term of five years from the time of so acquiring such lands.


345. Alien Residents .- Corporations or associations in which more than twenty per cent. of the stock is owned by others than citizens of the United States, are prohibited from holding real estate in the State. But alien residents


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THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


of the United States who have declared their intention to become citizens may acquire and hold real estate for six years, when it shall escheat to the State if they have not become full citizens. Minor alien residents of the United States may acquire and hold real estate for six years after they might have declared their intention of becoming citi- zens under the Naturalization laws, subject to escheat if they have not become full citizens in that time.


346. Improvement of State Buildings .- Sixty thous- and dollars was appropriated to continue the construction of the main and central wings of the State House; the further sum of $60,000 for building and equipping a cottage and for other improvements at the Osawatomie Insane Asylum, and the sum of $9,000 for an industrial building at the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Olathe.


347. Other Acts of the Session .- Changing the bounty on sugar manufactured in the State from beets, cane, or other plant grown in the State, to three-fourths of one cent a pound. Appropriating $3,500 to establish an experi- ment station at the State University to propagate the con- tagion or infection supposed to be destructive to chinch bugs, and to furnish it to farmers free of charge. Prohibit- ing combinations to prevent competition among persons engaged in buying and selling live stock. Accepting the provisions of an Act of Congress granting aid to State or Territorial homes for disabled soldiers and sailors. Accepting the Act of Congress granting aid for the endowment and support of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts.


348. Discovery of Alfalfa .- One of the discoveries of agricultural Kansas for the year 1891, was that of alfalfa. In the spring of that year the Secretary of the State Board


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


of Agriculture received such reports of its value, that he arranged a place for it in his statistical rolls, and the assess- ors were requested to give the acreage of alfalfa separate from other tame grasses. Since, it has occupied an enlarg- ing space in the agriculture especially of western Kansas.


Samuel C. Pomeroy.


349. Samuel C. Pomeroy .- Samuel C. Pomeroy died at Whitinsville, Mass., August 27, 1891. He came to Lawrence with Dr. Robinson, and the "second" company, in 1854; was active in pro- moting Free State immigration to the Territory, and in the counsels of the Free State party.


His first residence in Kansas was at Lawrence, but when the town site company of Atchison was reorganized on the basis of political toleration, he fixed his habitation there, was active in the affairs of the young city, and in 1859 was its Mayor. In 1860, made memorable by the great drought, when the Legislature of New York appropriated $50,000 for Kansas, and every Free State contributed generously in money and goods, Mr. Pomeroy was the principal distribut- ing agent of the aid. In 1861 he was elected, by the first Legislature of the State, United States Senator. In 1867, he was re-elected Senator on the first and only joint ballot. He was prominent and powerful in Kansas affairs. In 1873 his political star set in darkness, and he was defeated for re-election to the Senate. He was a native of South- ampton, Mass., and was born January 3, 1816, and was seventy-five years old at the time of his death.


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THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


350. John A. Anderson, United States Consul. - In February, 1891, John A. Anderson, of Kansas, was con- firmed as United States Consul-General to Egypt. He was destined to never behold his native land again. He died at Liverpool, Eng., while returning to the United States on leave. He was a man of striking character and force of purpose, who made his mark as President of the State Agricultural College, and afterwards represented Kansas in Congress for five terms.


351: Colonel N. S. Goss .- Colonel N. S. Goss fell dead of heart disease, at Neosho Falls, where he was visit- ing friends, on the 10th of March, 1891. He was an old resident of Kansas, a man of business and fortune, and an ornithologist of rare attainments, the passion of whose life was the study and collection of birds. In his pursuit he ranged from Labrador to Guatemala, and on his death left to the State the fine collection of birds, all mounted and arranged by himself, which is preserved in the State Capitol at Topeka, and is known as the "Goss Colonel N. S. Goss. Ornithological Collection." The last work of Colonel Goss' life was the publication of the Birds of Kansas, a work of great value, embodying the labors and personal observations of years, and standing alone in the Kansas literature of its class.


352. Relief for Russia .- The settlers from Russia, located in Ellis county, in view of the great famine pre- vailing in the districts of Russia from whence they came, sent $10,000 to the suffering, and an agent to bring a party of over 300 families of their countrypeople to Kansas.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


353. Demand for the Cherokee Strip .- The open- ing of the Cherokee Strip was demanded, and large meet- ings were held at Arkansas City, and at other points on the border. The excitement, however, did not approach the Oklahoma boom in its proportions.


354. Rain Making .- The autumn of 1891 witnessed the appearance in Kansas of the "rain makers." A party known as Melbourne, the rain maker, made arrangements with the authorities of the Sherman county fair to produce rain from the clouds, but unfortunately for the test, a heavy rain had commenced prior to the arrival of the rain maker, and continued to fall to the depth of an inch. Later, a fine shower was produced, or claimed, through Mr. Mel- bourne's efforts, and the Interstate Artificial Rain Com- pany, of Goodland, was organized. The rain maker appeared at other points, and in one case is said to have nearly precipitated a snow storm. Kansas, in the experi- mental season of 1891, was much interested in the art and mystery of rain making.


355. General Joseph E. Johnston in Kansas .- Gen- eral Joseph E. Johnston, an eminent commander in the Confederate army, who died on the 26th of March, 1891, had much to do when, as an officer of the "old army," he was stationed in Kansas Territory in the days of the "border troubles." In common with the larger number of the regular army officers on duty in Kansas at that time, he won a reputation for humanity and fairness, obeying his oftentimes disagreeable orders with as much impartiality as possible. Nearly all of these officers who survived to the Civil War rose to high command in the Union and Con- federate armies.


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THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


356. General Phillip St. George Cooke .- General Phillip St. George Cooke was for many years of his later life an honorary member of the Kansas State Historical Society.


357. Death of Samuel N. Wood .- A profound senti- ment was created throughout the State by the death at Hugoton, on the 24th of June, 1891, by the hands of an assassin, of Samuel N. Wood, known from the beginning of the settlement of Kansas Territory as "Sam" Wood. Letters written by him to a Cincinnati paper were among the first, if not the very first, newspaper correspondence published from the disturbed Territory. He was engaged in the rescue of Branson, which was made the excuse for the "Wakarusa War." So in all the contests of Kansas was he interested till the end. He was an Ohioan of a Quaker family, and he suggested the names of the counties of Marion, Chase and Morris, the first for his old "home county," and the two others for dis- tinguished Ohioans. He was buried in Chase county, of which he was a pioneer settler and long resident.


358. Preston B. Plumb .- Preston B. Plumb, United States Senator from Kansas, died after a brief sickness at Washington, D. C., December 20, 1891. He was born in Ohio, and in youth learned the printer's trade, and read law Senator Preston B. Plumb. in that State, and was publishing a newspaper at Xenia, when, in 1856, he was attracted to Kansas. He made a prelimi- nary visit to the Territory, then returned to Ohio, and came back to Kansas with a party of twenty-eight young


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


men, of which, though but eighteen years old, he was chosen Captain. He sought work at his first trade, and rose to be foreman of the Herald of Freedom office at Lawrence, but in a short time determined to go farther west in the Territory, and establish a town. After some trials the town started was Emporia, ever afterwards to be his home. Early in his town building labors, he was called away by the war, joined the Eleventh Kansas regi- ment, and rose to be its Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war was over he went back to the Neosho valley, and his multi- farious and endless labors, as lawyer, man of affairs, pro- moter, occasional legislator, and builder of the new country. He was widely known in Kansas, though not as an office holder, when in 1877 he was elected to the United States Senate, to which he was re-elected in 1883 and 1889. In the Senate he was, as everywhere else, a man of action; working constantly and powerfully to perform every task committed to his hands.


He was blessed by Nature with a strong and vigorous frame, and conscious of his strength, he knew no rest. In Washington and at home, he was constantly at work. At last the end came from overwork. He died in the fifty- fourth year of his age, and in full maturity of his powers. His death was regarded as a great loss to Kansas. There were many people he had helped, and who depended upon him. His death was received with every outward demon- stration of respect. The Capitol at Topeka was draped in mourning, while the remains of the dead Senator lay in state in the Senate chamber, and the burial at Emporia was attended by many thousands.


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THE LEGISLATURE AND CHRONICLES OF 1891.


The vacancy in the United States Senate occasioned by the death of Senator Plumb was filled on the 1st of January, 1892, by the appointment by Governor Humphrey of Hon. Bishop W. Perkins, making the third time in the history of the State when this office had been filled by appointment of the Governor. Mr. Perkins had served three years in Army of the Union, in line and staff positions; and in Kansas on the judicial bench and in the lower House of Congress.


In November, 1896, the bronze bust of Senator Preston B. Plumb was installed in the Governor's room in the Capitol at Topeka, the gift of his widow.


SUMMARY.


1. William A. Peffer succeeds John J. Ingalls as United States Senator.


2. Among the important Acts of the Legislature were those pro viding for the encouragement of irrigation; for an eight- hour working day; creating the office of bank commissioner; in regard to land ownership by aliens.


3. Alfalfa recognized as an important Kansas product.


4. Colonel N. S. Goss died at Neosho Falls, March 10, 1891.


5. Former citizens of Russia in Kansas send relief to the famine sufferers in that empire.


6. Rain makers experiment with the heavens above Kansas.


7. Deaths of Samuel C. Pomeroy, Colonel N. S. Goss, John A. Anderson, Senator Plumb and S. N. Wood recorded.


CHAPTER XXXII.


ANNALS OF 1892.


359. Political Revolution Complete .- The year 1892 was the year of a Presidential election, a political year, and business was affected in Kansas, as in all the rest of the country. In Kansas the political revo- lution was made complete. The entire People's Party State ticket was elected as follows: Governor, Lorenzo D. Lewelling; Lientenant-Governor, Percy Daniels; Secretary of State, R. S. Osborn; Anditor, Van Buren Prather; Treasurer, W. H. Biddle; Attorney- General, J. T. Little; Superintendent Governor Lewelling. of Public Instruction, Henry N. Gaines; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, S. H. Allen; Congressman-at-Large, William A. Harris.


Kansas cast her ten electoral votes for James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and James G. Fields, of Virginia, for Vice-President. The other States casting electoral votes with Kansas were Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and North Dakota, twenty-two votes in all


The eight Congressmen to which Kansas became entitled under the census of 1890, and first elected in 1892, were William A. Harris, Congressman-at-Large; Case Broderick, First District; E. H. Funston, Second District; T. J.


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ANNALS OF 1892.


Hudson, Third District; Charles Curtis, Fourth District; John Davis, Fifth District; William Baker, Sixth District; Jerry Simpson, Seventh District. The Congressional delegation stood five People's Party members and three Republicans.


360. Cyclone at Harper and Wellington .- On the 27th of May, 1892, the towns of Harper and Welling- ton were visited by a tornado, and ten persons killed, a large number wounded, and a vast amount of property destroyed. The storm was among the most destructive of the many which have visited the State, and excited special horror from the fact that the fatal bolt was sped after nightfall; at Wellington, within a few minutes of nine o'clock.


361. Science and the Cyclone .- What has been called the "Kansas cyclone" is not peculiar to Kansas, but has been known in all parts of the United States; more especially in the great area between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains.


The science of meteorology, long as man has watched the skies, is among the younger sciences. In the brief period that meteorogical observations have been made in Kansas, the phenomena of the "whirling storm," as it has been called, has been very carefully noted. It has been observed that these calamitous visitations accompany the transition from the temperature of winter to spring, beginning in the southern States and advancing northward with the spring, several of the most notable in Kansas having arrived in May. The period of cyclones, or tornadoes (as they have been called both), is from noon to sunset; and while they are not unknown after darkness has fallen, they may be


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


called uncommon. The course of the storm is, in a vast majority of cases, from southwest to northeast, and the appearances accompanying it always the same. The hours of murky lowering in the distant sky; the heavy air; the sudden falling of the barometer; the cellar-like chill; and then the apparition of the enormous funnel-shaped cloud, moving in its zigzag course, thrusting down its wavering trunk like that of an elephant to the earth, its huge, black bulk mounting to the clouds, and boiling and whirling within itself; drawing to its blackness the lightest and heaviest of objects; not only overthrowing human habita- tions, but grinding and breaking them to fragments. All these visible terrors attend the storm. Its track is narrow, its passage swift. It is here, and, with a frightful roar, it has gone, followed after by a deluge of rain. Often in its track, as if deflected by some heavy objeet, it bounds into the air, striking the earth again after a considerable inter- val, until at last it rises in the viewless and trackless atmosphere, and is lost in the "abyss of heaven."


It is believed and hoped that, while these dread visitants will continue to come unbidden, they will not always come unheralded, and that the advance of science will enable men to foretell and, even at long distance, hear and see the approach of this "power of the air."


362. Death of Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong .- Kansas, on the 1st of January, lost one of its oldest inhabitants. Mrs. Luey B. Armstrong died in Kansas City, Kan. She was the widow of John M. Armstrong, Government inter- preter to the Wyandottes. She came to Kansas, then the Indian Territory, in 1843. Her father was the Rev. Russell Bigelow, first presiding elder of the Methodist church in


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ANNALS OF 1892.


Kansas. She saw, till for her the curtain fell, the whole splendid drama of civilization in Kansas.


363. Conflict in Seward County .- The troubles in Seward county, in the early part of 1892, were connected with the former disturbances in Stevens County. The Seward county distresses included the savage murder of the Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff; the dispatching of a body of State troops to protect the Judge of the district and enforce law and order. This was among the last of these needed armed interferences by the State. It is hoped the spread of civilization will make it the last.


364. Coal Production of 1892 .- It was noted that the production of coal in Kansas, in 1892, was the largest in the history of the State, 68,843,114 bushels, of which Crawford county mined 23,000,000 bushels. This increas- ing production, however, had marked every year prior to 1892, beginning in 1880, and has every year since, with the exception of two years. In 1897 the Kansas coal mines yielded, according to the estimates of the United States Geological Survey, 3,672,195 tons.


SUMMARY.


1. The entire People's Party ticket was elected.


2. Lorenzo D. Lewelling was elected Governor. Kansas cast her electoral vote for James B. Weaver.


3. A very destructive cyclone visited Harper and Wellington May 27, 1892.


4. A severe county seat conflict occurred in Seward county. The militia were called out.




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