USA > Kansas > Republic County > A history of Republic County, Kansas, embracing a full and complete account of all the leading events in its history, from its first settlement down to June 1, '01 > Part 13
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History of Republic County.
The following sketch has never before appeared in print: A history of Republic county would be incom- plete that did not refer to the trials, difficulties and dan- gers attendant on the settling of the country. A sad event which occurred at Scotch Plains in 1870, shows some of the trials to which pioneers were subjected. Jack Mc- Kenzie and wife, who were Scotch, came from New York City, with the Excelsior colony, homesteading and set- tling on the SE }, section 18, town 3, range 3, now owned and occupied by Thomas S. Doctor. After building a sod house and planting a little crop, Jack proceeded to dig a well, and being lone handed and an old sailor, he made him a rope ladder by which he went down, filled his bucket of dirt, ascended by his ladder, and wound up by his windlass the bucket of dirt. (His wife, a young nimble woman, had learned to go down and up this lad- . der by starting at the top when the excavation was quite · shallow.) Jack had worked along in this way, some- times getting a hand from a neighbor to help him and again working alone until he had gone down about thirty- six feet, and at one time, at least, being compelled to quit work, on account of bad air in the hole. On the sec- ond of August, he went down to work as usual, his wife going around the place attending her chickens: heard some commotion in the well, running to it and looking down, she saw there was something the matter with Jack. Hastily calling a young man (James Kinnard), who was boarding with them, to run across the creek for help, she descended to Jack's assistance. When the help arrived at the well breathless from running and excitement, she was seen sitting supporting Jack's head on her knee. One of the party, James Lowden, immediately attempted to descend. On reaching nearly half way down, he looked up, saying, "Boys, I can't go: it chokes me!" He was ordered up. Then commenced a struggle for life: it was all he could do to get back far enough for the others to haul him out, when he lay on the bank vom-
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iting for a couple of hours, before ho recovered. Word was sent around the neighborhood of the calamity, when a crowd gathered. After ventilating, by means of a fun- nel made of sheets, an old miner, the late Joseph Me- Gowen, descended and sent the bodies to the surface. They were buried next day in the cemetery on the Preacher West place, R. P. West preaching the funeral sermon.
The township was organized September 4th, 1871, and S. W. Skeels was appointed township clerk. No other officers were appointed. The election for township officers was held' in Belleville, April 2d, 1872, when the following were elected: J. C. Reily, trustee: T. C. Reily, clerk: S. K. Waterson, treasurer: Joseph Boothe, justice of the peace: John Engle, constable: D. C. Bowersox, constable.
The township has two lines of railroad -- the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacitic, 3.32 miles, assessed in 1901 at $24,651: the Junction City & Fort Kearney (U. P.) 4.90 miles, assessed in 1901 at $25,146. Total mileage, 8.22 miles: total assessed valuation, $49,797.
SCANDIA TOWNSHIP.
The first settlement was made by the Scandinavian colony in the fall of 1868. This township lies on both sides of the Republican river, which is spanned by a sub- stantial iron bridge at Scandia city, a place of consider- able commercial importance and the second city in size in the county.
Among the early settlers who took homesteads on the high prairie in Scandia township, I mention Thomas and William West and Fred O'Connell, William West tak- ing the NE #, section 24: Thomas, the NW # and O'Con- nell the SW #: David C. Gamble taking the SE } in the spring of 1871. Soon after taking his claim, O'Connell went to Kit Carson, Colorado, to work on the Union Pa- cific railroad and never returned, presumably scalped by
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Residence of Ex-State Senator Geo. D. Bowling. Scandia, Township.
Residence of Thure Wohlfart, Scandia Township.
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the Indians, as it was well known that several railroad workmen met that fate about that time. In the spring of 1872, John West, a brother of William and Thomas, came and took the O'Connell claim, which he held until his death, which took place about Christmas, 1891, his land now being owned by D. H. Riddlebarger. Thomas still lives on the land first taken, and William lives on the SE I, section 13, Scandia township.
The township was organized January 2d, 1871, and comprised two congressional townships, namely, town 3, range 4: and town 3, range 5: but no township officers were appointed. At the first election, April 4th, 1871, the following were elected: Jacob Gui, trustee: Wm. N. Knoll, clerk: A. Asbjournson, treasurer: George Lembke, justice of the peace: William West, justice of the peace; Joseph McGowan, constable; Lars C. Hanson, constable.
The township has two lines of railroad-the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, 6.55 miles, assessed in 1901 at $50,064: and the Missouri Pacific, 5.10 miles, assessed in 1901 at $21,650. Total mileage, 11.65; total assessed val- ue, $71,714.
COURTLAND TOWNSHIP.
The first settlement in the township was made by C. A. Holmstrom in the spring of 1869, who broke the first prairie and built the first house. The first school house was built by subscription, in district No. 42, in the summer of 1871. The township was organized Feburary 24th, 1872, mainly through the efforts of John H. Crane, an early set- tler of the township, who suggested the name "Soldier" from the fact that a large number of the first settlers had served in the army. The name was afterward, without apparent good cause, changed to Courtland. J. Peterson was appointed first trustee. The first election was ordered held at the residence of John T. Sothers, but was really held in his stable. At the first election, held on the second Tuesday of April, 1872, the following officers were elected:
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C. C. Parkinson, Trustee; John H. Crane, Clerk; John T. Sothers, Treasurer; John M. Lawrence, Justice of the Peace; W. Stafford, Justice of the Peace; Charles Wynn, Constable; John T. Henry. Constable.
The first birth in the township was a daughter of Otto Olsen and wife in the fall of 1871. The township has two lines of railroad, as shown by the map with a total mileage of 11.04 miles, assessed in 1901 at $66312.
BEAVER TOWNSHIP.
E. B. Pedersen and T. A. Nelson settled on Beaver creek in 1869, being the first settlers in the township. It was called Buffalo precinct and was attached to Norway township until October 6th, 1873, when the township was organized and named Beaver from the creek which flows through it. R. M. Williams was appointed first trustee and the first election was ordered held as near the center of the township as practicable. This was the last town- ship organized in the county. The first birth in the town- ship was Joseph Munson, December 9th, 1872. The first marriage was Andrew Sederlin and Mary Knutson, in June, 1872. The first death was Gustav Werner, who died August 10th, 1872. This township had a railroad mileage of 6.14 miles, assessed in 1901 at $29,500. The population is about equally divided between native and foreign born, the foreigners being mostly Swedes and Norwegians.
NORWAY TOWNSHIP.
The first settlement in this township was made by Thomas Green, who built a log house and dug a well on the SE corner of the SE } of section 17, in the fall of 1868. He broke a little prairie and planted a little sod corn in the spring of 1869, which the soldiers and Indians harvested. He left early in the summer of '69 on account of Indian troubles and never returned. His claim was contested by Joseph Merica, a man of heavy avoirdupois, the heaviest in the county at that time, tipping the beam at a little over 400 pounds. Merica occupied this claim for several years
Residence of August Johnson, Beaver Township.
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Residence of S. A. Haggman. Beaver Township.
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Residence of Fred Engwall, Beaver Township.
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and during his residence here, had a good team of horses stolen from him by the Indians. He moved to Jamestown, Cloud county, where he died several years ago.
Mrs. Anna Pherson is the oldest continuous resident of the township, making settlement in the latter part of July, 1869. R. Rimol, at present county commissioner, came Aug. 15th of the same year, and is still a resident of the township. The first school was taught by Mary Dut- ton in a log cabin on the SW ≥ of section 35 in the spring of 1871.
The second school was taught in the fall of the same year by Julia McCathron, daughter of J. G. McCathron, a pioneer settler in Peter Hammer's dugout, on the SE } of section 11. Both of these were three months subscrip- tion schools and were taught prior to the organization of any school district in the township. The enrollment was about ten pupils in each school and very moderate wages were paid.
The first marriage was Reuben Everhart and Jerusha McCathron, May 30th, 1871, The first child born was Nels Rimol, October 13th, 1870.
The township was organized April 3d, 1871, at which time the following officers were appointed: John Hull, trustee: G. B. Burk, clerk: Noble Rogers, treasurer: Sivert Lehm, road overseer.
The township has a railroad mileage as follows: Missouri Pacific, 6.01 miles, assessed in 1901 at $26,382: Santa Fe, 1.12 miles: assessed in 1901 at $5,040. Total mileage, 7.13 miles; total value , $31, 432.
I gladly give space to the following highly interest- ing sketch of Norway township, from the pen of Mr. E. Stanton, a pioneer settler, my only misgiving being that, perhaps, my readers may come to the conclusion that it would have been better had Mr. Stanton written the en- tire book:
"Of incidents that transpired in the territory of Nor- way before the homestead settlement, but little is known.
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It is said that there were some Mormon emigrants up the Republican river on their way to Salt Lake in 1849. In about 1852 the government laid out, and it is said, bridged the creeks on a wagon road from Fort Riley to Fort Kearney. I doubt the bridging. I remember in the spring of 1873, on returning from Scandia, on crossing Mud Creek, some three miles south of Scandia, my trusty oxen Buck and Bright, broke the chain and left the writer sitting in the wagon in the middle of the creek, just as the shades of night and a dismal rain was falling fast; if there was a bridge either up or down the creek, the writer did not observe it from where he sat.
In 1806 Captain Pike no doubt passed through Nor- way township, but we are not claiming that he made any treaties with the Pawnees nor pulled down any Spanish flags, nor will we do so without evidence that such is the case. Our friends in different localities up and down the river, do not seem to be particular: it is all right however, and I am glad there is a disposition in the county to let no good thing get away for the want of a claimant, for the story is a very pretty and true one-as far as Captain Pike's part of it goes.
As to who was the first settler, opinions differ, nor does it matter: they were "roving blades," taking choice claims with the intention to sell out at the first chance and move on and repeat the operation, making a living by hunting and trapping for the hide of the buffalo and beaver. The first permanent settler was Mr. Rasmus Rimol, now a county commissioner, he taking pos- session of the homestead on which he now resides, in February, 1869. He was soon followed by the rest of the Norwegian colony; the township took its name from the excellent people at the instance of J. G. McCathron, who was the first postmaster and first justice of the peace. The land in the valley and tributary creeks, was mostly taken during 1869-70. The prairie east of the val- ley was settled mostly in 1871, by a colony from eastern
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Indiana, an intelligent, law-abiding community and a credit to the locality from whence they came. The prairie land west of the river was mainly taken in 1872,: there was no colony about it, about every state and every coun- try of Europe being represented at one time or another. The people seemed to lack the stability of colonists named before, some claims having changed hands ten or twelve times, but five of the original homesteaders now remaining.
Of Indian trouble there was but little, the robbing of Mr. Olof Pehrson of a team of horses, being all that I ever heard of. Mr. Pehrson was breaking prairie, he took his gun out with him, but had laid it down at the end of the furrow, an Indian, who no doubt had been watching him, leaped from out of the grass and weeds and shot at Mr. Pehrson, who at once ran toward the end of the field to where his gun was, the Indian meanwhile making off with the horses. There may be those inclined to criticise the action of Mr. Pehrson in laying his gun aside; to such I say, next summer when the thermometer marks about 105 in the shade, attempt to navigate a breaking plow among the roots and sods, flies being bad, and carry a gun in such a position as to use it should an Indian appear, mean- while keeping a lookout for the plow, I think you would soon come to look upon the gun as a glittering superfluity and leave it by the coat and water jug, as Mr. Pehrson did.
The first settlers, as a rule, were poor people and some of us were very poor, our dwellings and outbuild- ings were miserable makeshifts of poverty, what little money we had was soon gone, our bread was of corn, our fruit was from the pumpkin vine, our rags fluttered in the breeze as if to signal to the Hosts of Heaven our destitu- tion, and our dugouts became the abode of myriads of flees, which drove the honest settler to distraction by day and by night.
On Sunday, April 13th, 1873, began "The Great Storm," which lasted for three days and will be remem-
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bered by the old settlers during life. Saturday. the 12th, was a very warm day, with a strong wind blowing from the south, people were busy plowing and planting, but on Sunday morning all was changed, a fierce gale was blow- ing, the snow as fine as flour, seemed to penetrate every crevice. The air was so thick that it was impossible to see more than a few rods. On Monday the storm was, if possible, worse, the cold became bitterly intense, the air was thick as deep fog, the wind seemed to come now in great, bounding billows, seeming to make the very earth tremble, then in a screaming hurricane as if bent on tearing everything from the earth, it was dangerous to go out of doors, indeed, many in Kansas and Nebraska perished, and the loss of stock was large. I remember the writer felt constrained amid the mighty uproar to re- turn thanks to the Lord for a poverty that had forbidden him to build even a shanty above the ground, but had com- pelled him like a coyote. to dig a hole in the earth for the protection of his family and himself. Tuesday morning the conditions were the same; the settlers became alarmed, it seemed as if the world had made a revolution endwise and we had come to the place formerly occupied by the north pole, but in the afternoon the clouds broke away and we were able to dig out, and give our stock water, some of which had not received that attention since the Satur- day before.
In 1872 the corn was fair. In 1873 considerable wheat was raised and hauled to the railroad, sixty miles. The corn also was good in 1873. In 1874 the wheat was pretty fair, that was the grasshopper year that you may have heard of, it was a very dry year and the corn on the prairie would not have amounted to much anyhow. It was a great blow to the farmers to lose their hogs: they had seen that it would never do to haul corn so far to mar- ket, and had made every possible sacrifice to get a start of hogs, but now there was nothing to feed them but a little wheat, so, after the hogs ate up the wheat they had
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to be killed for such meat as they would make or starve to death. The winter of 1874 was the aid winter, when the kind hearted people of the east sent almost all kinds of things to Kansas. To see a person full rigged in eastern city toggery, was an amusing sight, why, I don't know, but there seemed to be akind of unfitness about it. I re- member that Mr. McCathron, the distributor for Norway, gave the writer a gray blanket: of which his wife made him a coat, never was garment more acceptable, for with- out it he would have been coatless that winter.
In the spring of 1875 many left the country; much land that had been broken was not tended that year, how- ever there were many who had come to look upon a condi- tion of abject poverty as the proper condition of man by this time and they went to work with such seed of wheat and corn as they were able to obtain, and we had fair crops that year and also in 1876. About this time there occurred an event that, from a frivolous beginning, created quite an excitement along the river. There appeared in a Missouri paper a flaming article, afterwards copied and illustrated by the New York Police Gazette, regarding a sea serpent which appeared in the river at Scandia. The article was about as follows: "On Sunday morning, as Mr. George Lembke. the toll collector of the bridge, approached the river, he saw a huge monster in the stream and uttered a Swedish cry of astonishment which brought the whole population running to the bank. The appearance of these persons seemed to astonish and enrage the creature, and rearing itself upon its hind legs, it reached its long neck over the bank, and was almost in the act of seizing an in- habitant; just at this moment Mr. Birchfield, who had rushed promptly to the scene with his fire extinguisher strapped upon his back, aimed the nozzle of his machine at the open mouth of the animal and discharged such a stream of chemicals down the creature's throat as to cause it to fall back into the water and depart rapidly down the river. Raising its huge, cut-water fin, it parted the waves, throw-
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ing the water with great violence against either bank and soon disappeared around the bend."
Now what concerned us was its departing down the river. The Republican river had its rise in the wild and unknown regions of the west and we did not know what kind of creatures had their being there. One settler, who farmed on the east side but lived on the west, refused to cross the river to tend his corn and let it go to weeds. An- other man. a Buffalo hunter and Indian killer, patrolled the river bank for days in the hope of adding fresh laurels to an already undying fame.
The cause of the sea serpent scare was very simple. It seems that Mr. Lembke had set a hook in the river for the enticement of such wandering catfish as might be pas- sing, to which some person had fastened an enormous bull snake, they being very plenty and of great size in those days.
Mr. Birchfield, who was a very pleasant gentleman, al-
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though a little odd, had procured a fire extinguisher, which he was fond of showing to his friends at the store, which stood on the corner where Morey's bank now is. A drummer, who saw Mr. Lembke pull the snake from the river and to whom was shown the fire extinguisher, being of romantic disposition and vivid imagination, wrote the thrilling tale which had created so much uneasiness.
In 1878 the Central Branch railroad was surveyed up through the township and completed the next year.
In July, 1878, we had a railroad county bond election for the aid of the Kansas Pacific to build a branch to Belle- ville. And now that I have mentioned something politi- cal, I wish to refer to our earlier politics, as time has healed all wounds and the cry that was wont to arouse us, " Belleville Ring," is no longer heard. In those days there was not much party politics, the county being overwhelm- ingly republican; there were a few democrats and they were much in evidence like a woodpecker on a knot-mak- ing considerable noise without much visible result. It seems that from the earliest settlement there had been a bitter rivalry between Belleville and Scandia for the pos- session of the county seat. I do not think the writer had been in the township twenty-four hours before he was fully instructed by the older settlers as to the innate vil- lainy and hopeless rascality of the "Belleville Ring;" they had stolen the county seat from Scandia, a wrong which was going to be speedily rectified. We, of Norway, were all for Scandia; it was our town and place of trade, and as the years rolled on and there were reports of fresh villain- ies, we were worked up to fever heat. Every year, just be- fore election, the Scandia lawyers would come around and tell us what candidate or measure to vote for, and they were willingly obeyed. I remember all our old arguments: "no water could be had in Belleville, or if one did get any, it was almost poisonous for an honest man or beast," although the "Ring" seemed to thrive on it; no railroad could ever get there over those hills, and it was al-
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together a pestiferous place." As for Scandia, there was water there in plenty, it was easy of access to a railroad, its lawyers were the most learned of the profession, with an eloquence equalled only perhaps by Clay and Webster, her merchants the princes of trade, and her editors-with what bitter sarcasm they assailed the "Belleville Ring," especially Jim Humphrey and the Telescope." We sec- onded every move that Scandia made, and although most of her schemes miscarried and some of them had an effect opposite from what was intended, we never faltered in our allegiance, and great was the reward thereof. Selah! I remember that at the bond election of which I have written, we had visitors from Belleville, four I think, I do not now remember who, except Mr. Allen, commonly called "Dad." We were glad to see them, for in Norway our politics do not interfere with our friendships; they stayed some time and on preparing to go, Mr. Allen called the writer aside and asked a good many questions as to how far it was to the graders' camp, how many, if any, were legal voters here, how many votes we had polled up to the present moment, etc. When through, I asked him why all these questions. He replied that it had been reported in Belleville that we were going to run in a couple of hun- dred railroad graders who were working just over the line in Cloud county, to vote against the bonds. After they had gone, I was asked what we were talking about, and I re- peated the conversation. There was considerable indigna- tion. One old gentleman said that because they were a set of black rascals themselves, they thought everybody else was, and blamed me for not kicking up a racket, or else informing him of what they said before they got away. To this day, I am not clear in my mind as to whether I did right or wrong in permitting the escape of the Belle- villians.
In 1879 the village of Elgo was platted by Gus. Nelson, the proprietor. T. A. Nelson was the pioneer merchant. Elgo and Norway are identical; Norway being the com-
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mon, and Elgo the scientific name.
In 1880 the township was divided into two voting pre- cincts. Norway proper, east, and Norway west side, west of the river, this division continued until after the building of the bridge. And now I approach a subject which has been the crowning event so far in the history of the township- the building of the Norway bridge, and how we got it, which, I presume, is a secret to some to this day, when all will be made clear. As soon as the railroad was in opera tion, many in the township thought they could see a fair prospect for a thriving town at Norway; there was a good productive country all around it, and if there was a bridge across the river there was no reason why it should not make an important trading point. So in 1883 we had a township bond election for building a bridge, which was defeated. About this time Captain Wm. Walker built the elevator, and he thought we ought to have a bridge, and with him, to think is to act. He went to Topeka at his own expense, and there wrote the present Republic county bridge law, and ably assisted by our then representative, Wm. Glasgow, pressed it through the legislature. And to that action can be credited the splendid bridge system of the county. Directly after the bill became a law, Captain Walker telegraphed his son at Norway to have the neces- sary petition circulated and filed with the county clerk. In a few hours the petition was signed by nearly every voter in the township and on its way to Belleville. We then be- gan to besiege the county commissioners, singly and in delegations; we got fair words in plenty, but no bridge. As we were about to abandon all hope, one day in the spring of '86 I met an old friend who had been in the county clerk's office for years, Mr. Perry, who, I suppose from habit, kept the run of county affairs. He asked how we were prospering with our bridge project. I felt wearied by the question and made some answer, I do not recollect what. His reply, as near as I can remember, was as fol- lows: "You can get your bridge if you go about it in the
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