USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
PLANT OF THE CAREY SALT COMPANY, HUTCHINSON
a total capacity of fifteen hundred barrels. The Union Ice and Salt Company began the manufacture of salt in connection with ice in 1892. In 1900 it changed hands and since that time has produced very little salt. The Hutchinson Pure Salt Company is not mentioned in any of the accounts. However it is still in operation.
The plants at Anthony and Sterling are producing very little salt at present, and aside from these, there are no evaporation plants out- side of Ilutehinson. The new Morton plant, built in 1907. is the larg- est west of the Mississippi, and manufactures half of the output of Kan- sas. It has triple effect vaenum pans, grainer pans and a dairy mill. The total capacity of the Hutchinson plants is seven thousand barrels per day. There are three rock salt plants at Kanopolis, and one at Lyons. The demand for this grade of salt is so limited that they do not run to their full capacity.
The Hutchinson strata of salt is probably the largest pure rock
1001
KANSAS AND KANSANS
salt strata in the world. It is embraced within the territory of Ells- worth, Rice, Reno, Kingman and Harper counties, with light stratas in Barton, MePherson, Stafford, Pratt, Sedgwick and Sumner counties. It averages over 99 per cent pure chloride of sodium.
In connection with the salt industry, a soda ash plant was erected in 1909 at the cost of half a million. It changed hands and was enlarged so that the total cost has been $2,000,000. It is the largest factory of its kind in the United States and the only one west of Detroit. Its processes are seeret. The product is sold to manufacturers who use a fine grade of alkali.
For a number of years Kansas has ranked fourth in the production of salt in the United States. The output has been increasing on the average of two hundred thousand barrels per year until it reached almost three million barrels in 1914. It is worth about thirty-five eents per barrel on the market.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
OIL AND GAS INDUSTRIES OF KANSAS
The oil and gas producing territory of Kansas is at present largely confined to the southeastern portion of the State, particularly to Chau- tauqua, Allen, Wilson, Neosho and Montgomery counties. These prod- uets are also found to some extent farther north, in Franklin and Miami counties, the original prospecting having taken place in the vicinity of Paola in Miami County. A new field has been developed in Butler and adjoining counties, and it is by far the best field in Kansas at this time.
The so-called "tar springs" and "oil springs" which led to the idea that oil existed in paying quantities, were known to the Indians from time immemorial, and to the white men as early as 1855. One of the most noted of these was the Wea Tar Spring. Mention is made of these springs in The Herald of Freedom of March 31, 1855, and July 25, 1857. The first prospecting was done in 1860 by G. W. Brown. A company was formed at Lawrence of which Erastus Ileath, Maltravis Solomon, Dr. Barker, Seth Clover, W. R. Wagstaff, G. W. Miller and Dr. Lykins were members, and G. W. Brown was president and manager. Thirty-year leases were obtained on thirty thousand aeres of land, and the drilling was begun in June. The wells were sunk in the vicinity of springs where the oil had been eseaping for centuries and no longer existed in paying quantities. After sinking three or four wells near Paola the work was laid by for the winter, and before it was resumed the Civil War came on, and nothing more was attempted for twenty years. In the meantime the oil from the springs which was of a very heavy variety, was sold for wagon grease and sometimes used for medicinal purposes.
The development of the gas industry was ineidental to the oil indus- try, but before 1889, a number of wells drilled for water produced gas, mueh to the disgust of the owners, as there was no way to utilize the produet. Oil was often found in the same way.
1002
KANSAS AND KANSANS
In 1882, the Kansas Oil and Mining Company was formed and made borings on the farm of A. Westfall, seven miles east of Paola. Gas was found in sufficient quantities to light a eity of one million people. Later the Paola Gas Company was formed and drilled a number of wells around Paola, Osawatomie, and Louisburg. In 1884, the gas was piped to Paola and used for lighting and heating. Gas was found in small quantities about Iola by the Iola Gas and Coal Company in 1886, and the next year the discovery spread to Chautauqua County, where, in 1889, the Vulcan Coal and Mining Company drilled wells. By 1894 most of the towns of the distriet had been supplied with gas, but as the efforts of the pros-
SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND GALLONS PETROLEUM BURNING, CAUSED BY LIGHTNING
Compliments John B. Gillum, National Refining Co., Coffeyville]
pectors were centered in the finding of oil, little attention was paid to the matter of creating a market for it in the manufacturing field, until 1902.
After considerable effort on the part of various companies and indi- viduals, a paying oil well was sunk on the Russell farm, six miles east of Paola in 1886. It was a ten-barrel producer. In 1887-88 the firm of McBride and Bloom drilled a number of oil wells on the Houston Farm, southeast of Paola. In 1890, a small twenty-five barrel refinery was erected at that place, but was in operation only a short time. By that time prospecting was in progress all over the district, and the firm of McBride and Bloom drilled a great many of the wells. Other prominent contractors were Peter Fertig and John Werner, of Louisburg; William
1003
KANSAS AND KANSANS
Mills, and W. G. Bryson, of Osawatomie; and J. D. Nickerson, of Paola. These contractors took leases and drilled wells for themselves as well as others. Mr. Mills was at Paola from 1890 to 1892. He did not meet with success and went into Neodesha, where he sunk a twelve-barrel producer in 1892. Securing another small holding, he sunk another well, but hav- ing found the oil, the next difficulty was that of marketing the product. This was the difficulty that confronted all the producers, even the Stan- dard Oil Company itself, until after the laying of the pipe line.
Mr. Mills enlisted the interest of Guffey and Galey, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1893, and they took over his holdings and began opera- tions, centering their activities around Neodesha, where, in the next two years, they sank one hundred and three wells, of which eight were gassers, thirty-four were oil wells, and sixty-one were dry holes, and where they built four storage tanks of twenty-five thousand barrels each. The com- pany extended their leases to other localities and drilled the first oil well at Peru, in Chautauqua County, in 1894. Wells were also drilled in Montgomery and Wilson counties.
Guffey and Galey sold out in 1895 to the Forest Oil Company, a sub- sidiary of the Standard. This company put in a refinery at Neodesha with a capacity of five hundred barrels daily. This seemed more than ample for that time, as the production of the entire field in 1895 was only forty-four thousand, four hundred and sixty-seven barrels. But the dis- triet was full of prospectors and they were all beginning to get oil in large quantities, with the result that the production far exceeded the facilities for handling and marketing it. Other companies interested in Kansas about this time were : The Troy Oil Company, the Pennsylvania Oil Com- pany, and C. E. Farran of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and numerous smaller companies and private individuals.
By the year 1897, the Forest Oil Company had eighty-three producing oil wells, most of them in Wilson County, and sixteen gas wells, and had constructed a pipe line from the pool to the refinery at Neodesha. In 1900 there were one hundred and nine producing wells in the entire dis- triet, and the combined yield was five hundred and sixteen thousand five hundred and ninety-three barrels, an increase of over a thousand fold in eleven years. In 1899, the Prairie Oil and Gas Company was formed, and in 1901 it took over the holdings of the Forest Oil Company. The rich ('hanute field, which had been almost untouched, was opened in 1899 by Mr. I. N. Knapp. He drilled gas wells for the city with the privilege of retaining the oil, and in this way he sank more than two hundred wells; and in 1900 began shipping crude oil to the gas factories at Omaha and Kansas City. This he continued until the Standard completed its pipe line in 1904, and could furnish the produet cheaper. IIe sold his wells to the Standard eventually.
The years of 1902 and 1903 was a boom period in both oil and gas. There was an abundant supply and it needed only the prospect of a mar- ket to create a furore among investors. The promise of the Standard Oil Company to build a pipe line to Kansas City and connect with their trunk line at Whiting, Indiana, after which it would buy all the oil that the
1004
KANSAS AND KANSANS
distriet was able to produce, precipitated the boom in oil, as investors expected to sell the crude oil at $1.40 per barrel, it being understood that the Standard would pay that price. There was a flood of capital in the direction of the oil fields. Hundreds of companies were formed, some legitimate and some otherwise. Chanute was the center of this activity, as the Standard Oil Company had already taken the field in other localities.
The gas boom was brought about by the cities of the gas district mak- ing inducements to factories in the way of cheap fuel. A few brick plants and Portland Cement mills had located at Iola since 1895 and utilized the gas, but for the most part there was an immense quantity of the fuel lying useless. In order to attract manufacturing plants liberal offers were made, often the business men of the town would offer free fuel for a year or two and gas at three cents per thousand afterwards as an inducement to investors to establish plants. In this way nine glass fac- tories, four cement mills, twelve lead and zine smelters, and fifty brick plants were soon built. Since 1906, nine additional glass factories, eleven cement mills and a number of smelters and brick plants have been estab- lished. These have been of great value to the towns of the district, stimu- lating all lines of business activity and developing especially the iron and machinery business.
In 1904 and 1905 was a period of reaction and trouble for the people in both oil and gas matters. The Kansas Natural Gas Company was organ- ized by T. N. Barnsdall of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; in 1904 this com- pany took over the wells and equipment of the Consolidated Gas, Oil and Manufacturing Company, organized by MeBride and Bloom, the pioneer developers. They began gathering up the holdings of individuals and companies, and in 1905 bought the Caney Gas Company, which had a million dollars in gas lands. The object of the Kansas Natural was to pipe the gas from the district to Kansas City. Topeka and other towns, depleting the supply and in time ruining the manufacturing interests. The people made a vigorous but useless fight, and only succeeded in delay- ing the pipe lines a few months. The pipes reached Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas, in 1905, and Kansas City, Missouri, in 1906. Other towns all over the eastern portion of the State have been supplied. The service rendered has never been very satisfactory. The company went into the hands of a receiver and the history of natural gas in Kansas for the past few years had been one of shortage to the consumers, litigations to the company, and annoyance to public officials. New wells have been sunk, but the gas-producing territory has not been extended.
As a result of the development of the oil lands in 1902 and 1903, pro- duction reached its high tide in 1904, being four million, two hundred and fifty thousand, seven hundred and seventy-nine barrels. The Stan- dard Oil Company had finished its eight inch pipe line to the Sugar Creek refinery near Kansas City, Missouri, and had doubled the capacity of the refinery at Neodesha. Outside of a limited market for crude oil at municipal gas plants, and one independent refinery of two hundred and fifty barrels' capacity at Humboldt, the Standard furnished the only
1005
KANSAS AND KANSANS
outlet. This plant at Humboldt was the first independent refinery in Kansas. It was built by C. D. Webster, a promoter of great ability who had been driven out of business no less than nine times in different east- ern cities, by the Standard. It was put in operation early in 1904, but was too small to affeet the market, which declined in the summer to forty- eight cents per barrel.
This condition of affairs prompted the independent producers at Chanute and Independence to attempt organization, but nothing was accomplished on account of the influence of the Standard Oil Company in these towns. In January, 1905, Governor Hoch took the matter up in his message to the legislature, strongly urging some action for the protec- tion of the producers who were at the mercy of the trust. This prompted a local meeting in the office of HI. E. West of Peru, at which it was decided to issue a eall to the oil producers of the state to form an organi- zation. The call was prepared by William E. Connelley, then in the oil business at Chanute, and issued by the Chautauqua County Oil Pro- ducers Association, of which H. E. West had been made President.
The State meeting was held in Topeka, January 19th, just one week after the one at Peru. It was attended by producers from every part of the oil fields, who came on a special train crowded to the limits. Mr. West presided over the meeting and called upon Mr. Connelley to present certain resolutions which he had prepared that morning. These resolutions were nine in number and covered every object of the meeting. They provided for the forming of the Kansas Oil Producers Association, the election of officers and government of the body, five bills which the legislature should be asked to pass, and a legislative committee to work for their enactment. The five laws asked for were: (1) A State oil refinery; (2) a law making pipe lines common carriers; (3) an anti- discrimination law, forbidding anyone to undersell a competitor to ruin him, and make back the money lost by charging excessive prices in other localities; (4) a law fixing maximum freight rates; (5) a board for the supervision of the oil fields, and protection against neglected and aban- doned wells, and for the supervision, inspection and grading of crude oil.
All these resolutions were passed at the meeting without much dis- eussion, as they met the needs of the occasion precisely. H. E. West was elected president, and he selected L. HI. Perkins, of Lawrence; S. J. Stewart, of Humboldt ; J. M. Parker, of Independence ; and J. O. Fife for the Chanute district, as the executive committee to work with him for the proposed laws. Mr. West assumed the important work of leadership and proved himself a most efficient general in directing the campaign. Against all the wealth, power and influence of the largest combine in the country, four of the five bills were passed. The fifth, which called for the supervision of the oil fields, was not taken up for lack of time. A law on this order had been passed in 1891, but remained a dead letter on account of no means being provided to enforce it. In 1913 an inspector for this purpose was provided by the legislature.
The legislation to secure a square deal for the Kansas oil producers was easily the biggest thing before the country in the winter of 1905.
1006
KANSAS AND KANSANS
Kansas had tackled the oetopus. Other states that had thought there was no remedy took courage and fell in line. Prominent clergy took it up, and the newspapers and magazines were full of the topie. Of the four laws passed, three are now in operation, the state refinery having been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. But the very fact that it passed with such an overwhelming public sentiment back of it, caused a deeline in the price of refined oil to the consumers. The maxi- mnm freight law, the law making pipe lines common carriers, and the anti-discrimination law, have been important to the independent pro- ducers as a protection against unfair competition.
In 1905 the Standard Oil Company finished its pipe-line connections
OIL REFINERY OF THE NATIONAL REFINING COMPANY, COFFEYVILLE
with Whiting, Indiana, but did not extend its operations in Kansas, as the unprotected Oklahoma field offered richer opportunities for monopoly. In the Kansas district independent refineries began to spring up. Seven were in the process of construction in 1905. one by the Paola Refining Company, was opened in August with a capacity of two hundred and fifty barrels. The Uncle Sam Refining Company, built at Cherryvale, The Superior Refining Company, at Longton, and the Sunflower Refining Company at Niotaze, in Chautanqua County. Six more were erected in 1906, and by 1909 there was one in every town in the district. Practi- cally nothing is done in the way of extracting the by-products of petro- lemm, the one exception being the Standard Asphalt and Rubber Com- pany of Independence, an independent plant which manufactures the "Sarco" products by patented processes. These processes, which are
1007
KANSAS AND KANSANS
milike any other and known only to the employees, are the results of experiments by G. F. Culmer, manager of the works.
The first legislation on oil was in 1885, when a law was passed fixing the weights per gallon of different oils. In 1889 the oil inspection law which has been repeatedly amended, was put on the statute books for the first time. Its object is to insure a safe product for illuminating and heating purposes. It is at present enforced by a State Oil Inspector who appoints local inspectors to do the work.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
LEAD AND ZINC
The lead and zine fields of Kansas are confined to a small area in the southeast part of Cherokee County, in what was known in early times as the "Cherokee Strip." Small quantities of both ores have been found in other localities, particularly in Linn County, where it was discovered in 1858, and mining attempted in 1873, and as late as 1899, without paying results. The ores have also been found in Franklin, Bourbon, Anderson, Allen, Neosho counties, and as far west as Kingman County, as well as in the Oread limestone near Lawrence. But it is only in a small section of Cherokee Connty that paying shafts have been sunk.
The first discovery of lead in Kansas was made by David Harland and his daughter, who were part-blood Indians and located on the Indian lands in 1835. As a bounty had to be paid to the government on all ore taken out, they said nothing about it. When the land was thrown open to white settlement, those who located on these barren lands probably did so with the idea that the ore fields which were being developed in Missouri extended across the line, as the rock formations were similar. However, nobody cared to create any excitement until they had proved up on their claims, and the Civil War broke out before any shafts were sunk on the Kansas side.
In 1870, William Cook discovered zine ore of the quality known as "black jack," on his farm. Quite a quantity was taken to Joplin where it brought a good price, but the discovery created no excitement, because everybody was looking for lead, which not only brought a better price, but was not so bulky to transport. In 1871, a company of Baxter Springs men, composed of A. W. Rucker, Dr. G. G. Gregg, Dr. William Street, and A. Willard, took leases around Lowell and Baxter Springs, and north on both sides of Spring river, but did not locate ore in paying quantities. In 1872, lead was found on the farm of Jesse Harper of Shoal Creek, northeast of the site of Galena. A Baxter Springs company composed of H. R. Connell, William Street, Captain William Blood, Edward Zellekin, Major F. C. Larabee, P. J. Pfennig, J. M. Cooper, and L. D. Phillips, bought an option on the place for $4,000, sunk a shaft and erected a smelter, but on meeting with great difficulties in the operation of both mine and smelter, gave up the project.
1008
KANSAS AND KANSANS
The development of the lead and zine mines of Kansas began with the operations of John Shew and John McAllen, who sank a shaft on the Nicolls farm in the same vicinity, and on March 21, 1877, struck a rich vein of lead sulphite or galena, at a depth of fifty feet. This discovery caused great excitement, and within thirty days, ten thousand people had rushed to the neighborhood. The Galena Mining and Smelting Company, of which William Street, and John M. Cooper of Baxter Springs, Colonel Fairbanks of Joplin, and two prospeetors, Cornwall and Johnson, were members, founded the town of Galena on the Moll farm just south of the Nicholls tract. The Craig Mining and Smelting Company, later the Southside Mining and Smelting Company, organized by W. B. Stone, William March, W. J. Lea, and William Craig, secured leases to the east.
L
ZINC SMELTERS, PITTSBURG
Ex-Governor Crawford, Patrick Murphy, and S. L. Cheney took up two hundred aeres of land to the north. They formed the Empire Mining and Smelting Company, and founded the town of Empire. By July, 1877. there were four paying shafts on the Nicholls traet produeing ore worth $3,000 per week.
The first modern smelter for the reduction of lead ore to pig lead was built at Galena by the Galena head and Zine Company, in 1879. In 1881, the Empire Mining Company built the first steam mill on their property. The erection of mills and smelters resulted in a great increase in lead during the '80s. Zine was not sold to any extent until 1881, when the Southside Mining Company sold 2,283.480 pounds for which $18,267.84 was received. Zine furnaces were built in Pittsburg in 1878, and in 1891, a zine smelter was built in Galena, but burned down. For the most part the zine is taken to the lead smelters and assayed.
1009
KANSAS AND KANSANS
The production of lead in 1877 was fifty-six full tons, and the output increased steadily until it reached fifteen thousand, one hundred and eighty-four tons in 1897. It then began to decrease and continued on the decline to the present. The government report of 1914 gives the Kansas production of lead as one thousand and forty-three short tons of refined ore. The average price covering the whole period of mining is $44.79.
The output of zine was very small until 1881, when the production was one thousand one hundred and fifty tons. It increased until 1898 when the output reached seventy-four thousand, eight hundred and fifty- two tons. A gradual decline in production then began and in 1902 the tonnage was thirty-one thousand. The government reports give the pro- duction of 1914 as ten thousand, six hundred and thirty-four. The aver- age price of zine has been $24.50. As the production of both ores has decreased, the price has raised, especially since the opening of the European war.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
CHURCHES
METHODIST CHURCH
The first activities of the Methodist Church in Kansas were the Shaw- nee and Kansas missions, established about 1830 by the two Johnson brothers, Thomas and William. Prior to 1844, missions were estab- lished among the Delawares, Peorias, Iowas, Sacs, Foxes, and Wyan- dots. Churches began to be founded in 1854, and among those which were established that year were the organizations at Leavenworth, Tecumseh, and Lawrence. Those at Ft. Scott and Lecompton followed in 1855. Among the early ministers were Rev. W. H. Goode, Rev. A. Still, Rev. James S. Griffing, and Rev. J. B. Stateler, in 1854; Rev. C. I. Rice, Rev. L. B. Dennis, Rev. J. B. Barnabey, in 1855.
The organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church Conference of Kansas took place at Lawrence in 1856. It included a part of Nebraska Territory. In 1860 the rapid growth of the church made a division necessary, and the Nebraska Conference was separated from that of Kansas. At this time there were forty-three churches, with a combined membership of four thousand.
The Kansas Educational Association was formed at the first meeting of the Conference in 1856, and the next year they secured a tract of land from the "Palmyra Association" on which they located Baker Uni- versity. The college was organized in 1858. The Southwestern, a small college, at Winfield, was founded in 1885, and the Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina in 1886.
The Methodist Church is the largest in the State, having a member- ship of one hundred and twenty-five thousand.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
BAPTIST CHURCH
The Baptist missionaries were as early as those of any church in Kansas. Among the notable names are those of Dr. Johnston Lykins, Vol. II-27
1010
KANSAS AND KANSANS
who came to the Shawnees in 1831, Robert Simerwell, who went to the Pottawatomies in 1837 and established the famous Baptist Mission in Mission township, Shawnee County, in 1848. Rev. Jotham Meeker, who located among the Ottawas in 1837, established a mission five miles from the present site of Ottawa, translated the books of the new testa- ment into the language of the Ottawas and organized a church of which nine-tenths of the entire tribe became members. Rev. Isaac McCoy was also one of the first Baptist missionaries in Kansas.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.