USA > Kansas > Barton County > Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas > Part 7
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spring as he was going back east. I moved what few things I had and myself and family took up our residence there. The weather had been fine up to that time, similar to other mild winters since. November 17, 1871, dawn- ed bright and clear. Rube Frey went by the house that morning without his coat and asked me to go with him to Dry creek for a load of wood, but Mrs. Tyler was afraid of the Indians so I stayed at home. About nine o'clock the wind began to blow and I have never been in such a hazy atmosphere as that which sur- rounded us that morning. It grew colder and the wind grew worse, increasing every minute, and very soon I saw Rube Frey and team com- ing down the trail at a two-forty clip. He stopped at the house and came in to get warm. We began to crack jokes. He and I had served three years in the same regiment in the war and things had to look mighty blue if we could not joke a little. He soon departed for his house. Shortly after noon the sleet, snow, mist and hail struck us with great force. By three o'clock it became so dark that it was im- possible to distinguish objects ten feet away. Myself and family huddled inside the house and looked at each other, being in no mood for conversation. We could not keep warm and
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every minute expected the shanty to blow over, but the house had been securely fastened to posts sunk deep into the ground and had it not been for this fact I guess we would have been victims of the storm. Luckily my wife had brought along two feather beds and I had included in my pack a couple of tarpaulins such as are used in the army. With these we made a bed on the floor of the building and with all our clothes on prepared to retirc. We were comfortable but frightened as the wind howled around the house and the storm
grew in volume and violence. We ate very little that day and the next, spending most of the time in bed where we could keep warm. Jt grew mighty cold by the afternoon of the 18th, when the storm began to abate somewhat. On the morning of the 19th the sun rose bright and clear and the storm was over, but it was exceedingly cold. That storm is remem- bered by all who were here at that time as one of the worst in the history of this part of the state.
BUFFALO HUNTING BY TENDERFEET
E DWIN TYLER tells about his experience in hunting the Monarchs of the Plains, during the early days of Barton County; "When I came to this part of the country buf- falos and autelope roamed the prairies of Wes- tern Kansas in countless numbers. While coming through the central part of the state, nearly everybody we met this side of Emporia told us that tomorrow we would find buffaloes in plentiful numbers. At Atlanto in Rice County we were told that we would find them the next day on the Arkansas river. We were quite anxious to find them as we were hungry for some fresh mcat. Our arms consisted of two double barrelled shot-guns, one of which had two hammers and the other but one. We had traded a dog for the one with a single hammer. We traveled late that night and camped in the sand hills. The next morning we got an early start. We soon encountered large numbers of antelope but we paid no at- tention to the mas it was buffaloes we were after. Soon after we had reached the Arkan- sas Valley we saw three old bulls crossing the trail a short distance ahead of us. Bill Harts- horn and I soon had our fastest horses unhar- nessed. We mounted them and with the reins in one hand and our guns in the other we charged on the game. As soon as we got within shooting distance we dismounted and prepared to fire. By this time the game was too far away for our arms. We made thrcc charges on the animals and finally gave up in disgust and decided to postpone our feast of buffalo meat. A few days after our arrival at a point where Great Bend now stands, D. N. Heizer invited me to go with him and a party up Dry Creek where he was going to locate the party on a homestead. When we arrived where Tom Brandt lived, Hcizer told me I could take my gun and go up the creek where I would find plnty of game. He told me to keep near the brush on the creck, and I could get near enough to the game to make my shots effective. He told me to shoot a buffalo just behind the fore leg to get the best results. I obeyed all his orders but saw no game until I arrived at a point that is now a part of Chas. Button's home place. Here I saw three buf- falo bulls standing not twenty feet away, their heads partly hidden by the brush. I could
make no attempt to raise my gun, nothing go- ing up except my hair and heart. I ducked down low and sneaked back to where I could climb a tree on an instant's notice. My nerve finally rturned and I crept up close to the ani- mals, aimed at the point designated by Mr. Heizer and pulled the trigger. Then, I ran for the tree I had selected to climb. When I was up about ten feet from the earth I looked back expetting to find a dead buffalo. However I finally located all three of them some mile and a half away. They were in behind some plum bushes. Made another stealthy advance but they were on the lookout and long before 1 got within shooting distance they ran to- wards the river as fast as they could go and I never saw them again.
"My next experience was with a genuine old buffalo hunter, John W. Tilton. One day he proposed to me that we go to the Five Mile Timber to get a load of wood. He took a 22 calibre revolver and I took an ax. We had no thought of finding any buffalo, but as my repu- tation had suffered in the hunting line I was rather in hopes that something would happen so that I could distinguish myself. As we were driving around a sand hill where Clayt and Ed Moses have their cattle sheds we spied a buffalo cow. John stopped the team and sneaked up behind the hill until he was within twenty feet of the animals. He then began firing the pistol. The cow dropped and we found on examination that she had been shot through the lungs and shoulders. The animal had no more than touched the ground when John was on top of her and was holding her down by the horns, while he called to me to bring the ax. I had lost the ax in the ex- citement and was looking for a tree. I found one but after John had coaxed and pleaded with me for some time, I took the ax to him, and then returned to my trce. It took Joli but a short time to kill and skin the buffalo. I then remarked to him that we had done very well. And you should have seen the look on his face when I said 'We.' I often wanted to go with the hunters after that but, none of them seemed to want my company. .
"A short time after 'we' had killed that buf- falo cow, Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn and my wife and I started out to visit the neighbors in our
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OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
vicinity. I took my gun and two Shepherd dogs with us. I had forgotten that my wife had trained those dogs so that they would drive cattle, sheep, etc., in any direction that might be indicated by a wave of the hand. We had driven but a short way when we saw a buffalo lying in the grass. I crawled up to within about a hundred yards of it when all of a sudden my wife motioned to the dogs, and they ran by me like shot out of a gun. They
ran around the buffalo and it started for me with the dogs in pursuit. I beat it back to the wagon slightly in the lead. After running around the wagon twice I got together enough courage to turn and shoot at the animal. I sent about a dozen buck shot into it and at last I could say I had killed a buffalo. It has always been a wonder to me that I did not shoot the dogs instead of the buffalo.
AN INDIAN BATTLE
By A. J. Hoisington
O NE of the best known old timers tells of an Indian battle that was fought by the Pawnees and Arapahoes on ground that is now included within the borders of Barton County, long before it was organized. The story as told by Mr. Hoisington is as fol- lows:
"One of the numerous battles between bands of Plains tribes, within the memory of and known to white men occurring within the limits of Barton County was one tought in July, 1849, on sections eleven, one and two, in northeast Buffalo township and on sections thirty-four, thirty-five and thirty-six in south- east Eureka township, between a band of Arapahoes and Pawnees.
"As related by a writer of the old Santa Fe Trail the story of the battle as told to him by the Arapahoes was substantially as tol- lows:
"The Arapahoes had traveled down the Wal- nut from the far west on a hunting expedition and were in camp on the south or west side of the creek, opposite Shaw's house on sec- tion eleven over night. The next morning a part of the bucks were left to guard the squaws and pappooses, and the remainder started in a northeasterly direction for the Cheyenne Bottoms. Gaining the highlands, a band of Pawnees suddenly came into view. The Arapahoes dispatched a messenger to their camp for re-enforcements and to have the camp prepared for attack. In the mean- time the Pawnees dashed forward while the Arapahoes made for the high point on section twelve. The former evidently supposed the latter's force was all in sight and hastened onward. In the meantime the Arapahoes re- enforced were rapidly coming into view front the creek timber. The Pawnees apparently hoped to attack their enemy and route those who had retreated behind the hill before the others could arrive. The Pawnees divided their band and deployed around the hill to attack the enemy from both east and west. The first onset was terrific. Several warriors on both sides were killed or disabled. The re-enfore- ing party soon arrived and the Pawnees re- treated to the north side of the hill where
they hoped to make a stand and allow the Arapahces to attack them in turn as they had done the former a few minutes before. But the Pawnees were so closely pursued that with great difficulty they placed themselves in a position for the attack. Each band man- euvered for position, but the Pawnees were outclassed and sorely pushed. Thinking they had the fleetest ponies they attempted-know- ing where their enemies' camp was located --- to turn their western flank and make a cash for the camp. In this way they were partly successful but were crowded so far north and west they were not able to make a bee line for the camp. Besides the Arapahoes knowing their design crowded towards their own cani attacking all the while. The Pawnees were getting very much the worst of the deal and were forced to scatter and make for the tim- ber in the upper bend of the creek. So hard pushed were they that no two of them reached the timber at the same time. The ones nearest the camp were a mile or more west. At a safe distance from the timber the pursuing Arapo- hoes made for their camp which of course by this time was in motion down the creek on the south side. Fearing a renewal of the attack, and probably with re-enforcements besides the Arapahoes moved southward to the Ar- kansas river where they camped unmolested for several days. Evidently the Pawnees had no other force of warriors in reach or the desire for revenge would have caused another attack. The Arapahoes claimed afterwards that they took the scalps of the Pawnees and that the Pawnees got 'heap little scalp.' The Arapahoes claimed their own band had alto- gether about 100 warriors besides squaws and pappooses and the Pawnees had about sixty. Many other engagements of this kind some of them having hundreds engaged occurred iu what is now Barton County. Scarcely an acre of ground in the county but that has at some time been the scene of battle between warring tribes of Indians.
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WHEN WATER WAS HARD TO GET
W W. SOWARDS tells of early days in Union township when water was a most valuable possession. Mr. Sow- ards in telling the story said:
"I located a soldier claim in what is now Union township in September, 1877. There were but four settlers there at that time. There were tree claims taken in most of the sections and in July, 1878 the township was or- ganized out of territory taken from Home- stead township. There were fifty-eight voters at that time, a large majority of whom were ex-soldiers. This fact was the cause of name 'Union' being selected. All the settlers except three or four were natives of America and came from Iowa and Illinois, The township is located on what is known as the Smoky River Divide. The laek of water in this was its greatest drawback. Shallow wells could not be gotten only in the creek beds, at other places one would have to go several hundred
feet into the ground and as a result of this it was necessary to haul water in wagons.
'On one occasion Fred Prindle had four barrels of water slide out of his wagon when going up a small hill and the thermometer was twenty below zero thus making the conditions anything but favorable for prayer. Another time when the value of water was brought forcibly to the notice of another settler, a man by the name of Williams, when he spilled three barrels of water when his wagon upset, after bringing the liquid five miles with oxen. Another time Jay Verbeck fell into a well while bailing water for cattle. The mercury stood at zero when this occurred. Very few of the old settlers who suffered these hardships are now living in the township, most of them having gone to places where there is more water. Those were great days in the history of Barton County."
HENRY FRUIT'S EXPERIENCE
H ENRY FRUIT, an old timer of this sec- tion of the state recalls his arrival here and tells of a trip to Dodge City in the early days. Mr. Fruit says :
"I landed in Great Bend on the 12th day of Mareh, 1872, and found here some old friends from my native state, Illinois. I was well pleased with the appearance of the country, and on the 13th, my brother-in-law, W. W. Hartshorn and I started out to locate a elaim. We had no trouble in finding a good location, and after I had made the necessary improve- ments to hold it, 1 began to look for a job and let it be known that if anybody wanted a carpenter I was their huckleberry. I did not wait long for there was one Harry Lovett, then living in Zarah, about four miles east of Great Bend, who wanted a frame work put inside his big wall tent, so he was sent to me. To tell the truth I did not fancy the job a great deal. I had heard of Mr. Lovett and did not fancy his style, for a short time before he had pumped a cowboy full of lead and then finished him by beating his brains out with a revolver. Knowing all of this I began to make excuses, but he would not hear them: "D-n it," he said, "I want the work done," he said it as though he meant it too. Remembering the fate of the cowboy I coneluded to go. I got through with the desperado in two days and got seven fifty for my work, and got back to Great Bend O. K. By the middle of May the cattle trade began to blossom, buildings began to loom up, houses, stores, barns, saloons, an 1 dance halls werc to be seen at frequent inter- vals and carpenters were in good demand, so i had plenty of work at my trade until about the middle of August. The word soon went out that Great Bend was a haven for carpenters
and by the first of August there were more carpenters here than there are fiddlers in Helena or anywhere else. There being more carpenters than jobs I concluded to try my hand at buffalo hunting. Mr. Frost, W. H. Quiney, or "Tough" as he is better known and myself, started for the buffalo range about twenty miles south of Dodge City, where we heard there were thousands of buffaloes. We had no adventure to speak of until the second day, out, when we stopped to feed and get our dinners. Just after dinner there was a big flock of buffalo birds lit in some weeds along the trail, and Frost said to Quincy, "if you will let me have your shotgun I'll bet you a quar- ter I can kill fifty of them birds at one shot." The bet was made. Frost fired into the bunch and such a slaughter I never saw. He picked up and counted 136 and was not through when we happened to look southward and there we saw something that caused us to pause and our hair to stand up. It was about 150 men on horseback coming straight for our eamp. We at onee jumped to the eonelusion that it was a bunch of hostile Indians for we heard they were on the warpath. The party was too far off for ns to tell exactly what they were but we imagined we could sce the paint on their faces and the feathers on their heads, so what were we to do? We were too far from Fort Dodge to think of making there, they would overtake us before we had covered halť the distance, so we concluded to drive about a half mile north of a hill covered with lcose stone and build a fort, and then sell our lives as dearly as possidle. We had two ncedle guns. By this time the front of the linc had reached the river and the horses were drink- ing leisurely. By this time we were ready to
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OF BARTON COUNTY, KANSAS
start and the horsemen were at the river. Wc looked again, and oh; joy, our hearts gave a great bound and our hair began to set- tle down for we saw coming out from the sand hills a covered wagon drawn by four mules, and just behind it two men on horses, one cf them carrying an American flag. We knew at once no band of Indians would be carrying Old Glory nor would they have a covered wagon. I never was so glad in my life to sce the American flag, for I knew no harm could come to us from that source. Now to explain why Uncle Sam's cavlary was out. It was not for the purpose of scaring the life out of three hunters."
"Two or three nights before a gang of horse thieves mostly white men, stampeded about fifty horses and mules, belonging to a railroad contractor, then working about five miles west of Dodge City. The commander at Fort Dodge had sent out two companies of cav- alry after the thieves. They caught them in the brakes of Medicine Lodge river, re-cap- tured the stock and killed some of the bandits. When we saw them they were on their way back with the stolen stock. We started on our journey mighty glad that we had escaped alive, having forgotten about the bet Frost won. We got to the old government crossing about one mile west of Dodge City, and found cld Bob Robinson, a buffalo hunter of great fame. We found a great deal of water in the river at this point. Robinson and a man from Ellsworth doubled their teams and got across
the river. We tried it alone and got across O. K. We found the buffalo by the thousands at the heads of Mulberry and Indian creeks. We succeeded in killing about 200 in ten days, after which we started on the return trip. When we got to the river it was much lower but we had to make several trips in order to get our loads across. At Dodge we traded our green hides for dry oncs and camped for the night about a mile east of the city. About three o'clock in the morning we were awaken- ed by somebody galloping across the prairie, the moon was about two hours high and wc could see quite plainly. Frost raised to see what it was. I asked him "what do you see?" He replied, "two men on horseback." They stopped near our horses and one of them dis- mounted, and I heard Frost say, "Halt, hold on there, what do you want?" and in the same breath he whispered, "Bob, they have your horses." Bob said, "shoot the son-of-a-gun," and the crack of Frost's rifle broke the still- ness of the midnight air. This was followed by several shots in quick succession. By this time the would-be horse thieves began to think it was getting mighty hot, for they mounted their ponies, and ran for their lives. They had cut the rope tied to Bob's horses, and were making off with them when we called a halt. They made a water haul that time. Wc got to Great Bend without any more adven- tures and sold our hides for $1.15 each and that was the end of my first buffalo hunt, but it was not the last one."
THE GARDEN SPOT OF THE WORLD
By John F. Lewis
B ARTON COUNTY, KANSAS, is a moder- ate undulating landscape affording morc high class tillable land in proportion to its acreage than any county in the state, ex- cept possibly two or three counties.
The slight swells and valleys afford excel- lent natural drainage, and a view over the country that is delightful. Commencing in the north part of the county the entire distance east and west, and north and south is typical wheat land, out of the vast plains of buffalo grass once traversed by buffalo, but now dotted with beautiful groves of trees, elegant farm houses and barns, with good natural roads for vehicles and the honk honk of the farmers' au- tomobile may be heard any hour of the day. The soil is a dark chocolate loam, enriched by the silts deposited by thousands of years of water overflow in the glacial period and from the Rocky Mountains. As we go south we encounter the breaks leading into the valleys of Blood and Deception creeks, where appears the croppings of lime and sand-stone in suffi- cient quantities to afford the people with build-
ing material, which arc in cvidence in the many stone houses, barns and corrals.
The earth has not been penctrated to suf- ficient depth or of such frequency to venture upon much of a geological showing of its for- mation, however one well sunk within four miles of Great Bend discovered a bed of mor- chantable rock salt 163 feet in thickness.
The lime stone disappears south of Blood creek, some five miles north of the center of the county, and now comes the various hues of sand-stone that exists in sufficient quan- tity to supply the demand, which continues until the Walnut creek is reached running from east to west, a little south of the center of the county, where is found a
rich deep black soil equal to the richest prai- rie soil of Illinois or Iowa, where alfalfa is successfully grown without irrigation, and where sheet water abounds at a depth from the surface of the ground that no drouth or heat diminishes the supply for man or beast, nor has the time ever been in this county that
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
wells went dry or water had to be hauled for stock.
The Walnut creek valley extends its width and mingles its matchless soil with the Ar- kansas Valley, where in rich profusion may be seen the alfalfa, corn and wheat fields. The endless fields of grain are so blended that the road ways can only be marked by the fringes of trees that embellish the country with flam- boyant denial that this could ever have been the great American desert.
Here in this vast scope of country between the Walnut creek and the Arkansas river is a soil that has also received the rich deposit of the silts that came from the west in the migli- ty currents that swept down the Arkansas river, when everything south of the Walnut creek was a vast body of water which grudg- ingly yielded to man its rich producing qual- ities, and Barton county encompasses the richest spot in the state.
The occasional discovery of limbs and logs of wood at depths from 15 to 60 feet are in- controvertible evidences that this land was ac- cumulated drifts and fills at great depth from the floods from the west, which gives assur- rance of a long lived soil in the producing qualities, continuing to rise to the surface, re- plenishing the top formation much more rapid- ly than it can be consumed in cropping the land.
We now pass to the south side of the Ar- kansas river where we find the once much doubted sandy land, once almost destitute of vegetation, but now rivals the fields of all of the states of the Union. In the mighty floods once covering this country for thousands of years, the slacked lime-stone of the Rocky Mountains with its rich conglomerate of de- composed vegetable and animal matter in a formation variously estimated trom 25 to 60 feet deep. This rich sub-stratum is rapidly coming to the surface with a tenacity that will soon resist the blowing of soils by the winds, that was once much feared.
The occasional bare patches of sand that once glared the eye with a suggestion of desert lands, have now changed into a dark rich pro- ductive soil, and with the tardy efforts being made by the farmers to grow fruits come ro- sults that give promise in the near future of a great fruit country. The popular acknowl- edgement that the south side of the river is the great corn belt of Kansas brooks no con- tradiction, and the largest yield of wheat per acre ever recorded in the state came from these lands. The banner vegetable production of this country is on the south side, all admit, and had this marvelous country been exploit- ed with anything like the energy California has, it would have been as notable for its wheat, corn, alfalfa, melons, vegetables and fruits as any country in the world.
There has been no little discussion over the amount of moisture we receive in this country and while it must be admitted that previous to 1897 we quite often suffered for want of rain, and the cause is now known to
have been the unobstructed heated winds by the parched uncultivated plains of Texas and Oklahoma which are now being plowed up and planted to crops and whether successful to the owners of said fields or not, they are tile depository of rains which once ran away like water from the roof of a house, whereas now they throw off vapor that create clouds that are blown to us by the never varying south winds, that give us an assurance of rainfall in normal years that no other state can boast, and when in our feeble efforts to justly, truth- tully and explicitly exploit the beauties, cxcel- Iencies and advantages of Barton County, Kall- sas, our mind runs to those matchless words of Senator Ingalls, who must have had in his mind Barton County, when he said, "Kansas is the nucleus of our political system," etc.
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