USA > Kansas > Cloud County > Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas: biographies of representative citizens. Illustrated with portraits of prominent people, cuts of homes, stock, etc > Part 18
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
thirty-two feet, where it was expected the business houses would be erected. His reason was that with a forty-four foot lot one-half of it only would be built upon and the vacant land would hurt the business and the town.
This being plausible, the company's plat was made to conform with his view of the matter. Fourth street was desired for railroads and is occupied by the Central Branch Railway. It was also intended to run a railroad through Broadway street, to be known as the North and South Central Kan- sas Railroad. Houston and Hagaman each subscribed one hundred thou- sand dollars to the capital stock of this company and an editor of a Salina paper took another one hundred thousand dollars worth of stock. Mr. Hag- aman says "the nub of the joke lies in the fact that all three could not have raised five thousand dollars if their necks had depended upon it," but that is the way railroads were built in that day. The stock of the Central Branch was nothing but "wind" at first and made valuable by land grants and gov- ernment bonds.
NAMING THE STREETS.
Mr. Hagaman named the streets of Concordia, not one having been suggested. The following is the origin of some of them: Willow, so named because it extended into a bunch of willows at its northern terminus; Repub- lican river, for the river that bears that name: Cedar street, the next street east, because it sounded well, and he also argued there should be a State and Kansas avenue. Washington was named in honor of the Father of Our Country; Broadway because it sounded big and metropolitan like; Lincoln was named for the martyred president ; Olive street was named for a sister of Mrs. Hagaman; Spruce street was so named because that tree had been a great favorite of his boyhood days. Seized with a sentimental inspiration. Archer was suggested from Cupid with his little bow and arrow. Greeley street was named for Horace Greeley, the "patron saint" of its author.
The base line for numbering the streets is the river, First street being the street next to the Republican, and thence south, the last one being Nine- teenthi.
DARK DAYS FOR CONCORDIA.
In 1871 Sidney Clark was defeated in the renomination to congress. Friends of his in the eastern part of the state, who had arranged to erect a first-class hotel, abandoned the enterprise. The story floated "The land office would be moved and Concordia would die." It was impossible to approximate the loss to the town from that misfortune, but it is safe to say it was very great.
If some of the citizens knew the office would not be moved they could not convince the people of it; the evil effect was the same. Confidence often builds bigger and better cities than natural advantages and genius, and the jealous enemies of the town made the most of these conditions; but the town lived and eventually boomed. nevertheless.
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
Congress met in December and Amos Cutler. of Buffalo, New York, was confirmed as registrar and Honorable E. J. Jenkins as receiver of the land office, which opened for business June 16. 1871. In April. 1874. Hon- orable B. H. McEckron was appointed registrar. No more honorable men were ever in the employ of the government than these gentlemen nor more accommodating officers.
SOME OF CONCORDIA'S FIRST CITIZENS.
As before mentioned, E. Linney was the first postmaster and opened the first store. S. D. Silvers opened the second in December. erecting a building on the corner of Sixth and Broadway streets, where Sweet's hard- ware store now stands. Mckinnon and Guilbert ( the latter still a resident of Concordia ) located in November with hardware and lumber. Early in the same month the citizens were astonished to see a house moving towards the town from the west. Mrs. Truesdell was moving her residence to town to be used as a hotel. In the Empire of December 24. 1870. apppears the following local: "Mr. Truesdell moved his house to this place, from one and a half miles west of town. Eleven yoke of oxen and four men brought the building here in about two hours. It was rolled in to the tune of 'Yan- kee Doodle' played on the melodeon by Mrs. Truesdell's little daughter ten years old. The family remained in the building while it was being moved. Not being able to get lumber as fast as needed to build up the town, people are hauling in their houses." The same winter Crill & Zimmerman erected a hotel where the Barons House now stands. F. J. Jenkins took his claim in 1877 and begun building a residence. William McK. Burns was the first to erect a building for a law office and C. W. McDonald was second.
James Strain located forty acres on the north side of the town in November, having previously purchased the right of G. W. Andrews. Oli- ver Currier commenced the building of a stone dwelling house on Seventh street, where the Baptist church now stands. Henry Buckingham came over from Clyde and selected a building site on the northeast corner of Sixth and Broadway streets, erected a building, and moved his printing office from Clyde, where he edited and published the first newspaper, both in Clyde and Concordia-The Republican Valley Empire.
In November, 1870, Mr. Lanone landed in Concordia with his saw mill, a very welcome acquisition, as the mill of Captain B. C. Sanders could not supply the demand for lumber. Mr. Hagaman donated from his land enough for the mill site and furnished forty thousand feet of logs to saw "on the shares" and turned his ferry over to him. The town company also gave him a block of land.
THE PRIMITIVE COURT HOUSE.
Charles O. Huntress surveyed the land into lots, assisted by William
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HISTORY OF CLOUD. COUNTY, KANSAS.
McK. Burns and G. W. Andrews. There were over three thousand lots. Stephen Brownell did the platting. The survey and plat of the year before was followed as far as it went, which was forty acres in what is now the heart of the city.
That year the court house was erected; a temporary affair at a cost of something like two hundred and seventy-five dollars, the labor and material being donated by the citizens of Concordia and vicinity. It was hardly so imposing a structure as the one of the present writing, but was doubtless more of a burden for the people of the frontier to construct than the one they now justly feel so proud of was for the people of the county to build.
The winter of 1870-I was a delightful one, and fortunate it was for the new town and the army of emigrants that rushed into the country. Very little snow fell, storms were moderate and far between. The ground bare most of the time, building went right on and when March arrived there were hundreds of people where only five months before there were scarcely dozens. Nearly two scores of buildings were erected and under way where a short time before was only an unbroken prairie.
The chill the town received from the political disaster that overtook one of its best friends, Sidney Clark, severe and damaging as it was, did not "kill the town" as had been predicted and as many of its friends feared it would. Before March the town company had assurance from competent authority there would be no change in the location of the land office. and when this fact became known, settlement and building took on a new start.
TOWN COMPANY ELECTION OF OFFICERS.
December 8, 1870. the incorporators of the Concordia Town Associa- tion elected the following officers . President, J. M. Hagaman; vice-presi- dent. Amos Cutler; secretary. William MicK. Burns: treasurer, G. W. Andrews; directors, J. M. Hagaman. G. W. Andrews, William McK. Burns. S. D. Houston, Sr., and Amos Cutler.
The election of officers occurring eighteen days before the application of the charter was filed with the secretary of state is only one of the evi- dences of the rapid ways business was done in those times. The policy of the company was to give away alternate business lots to all who would build on them, and also the lots designed for residences, in order to help the town. Hundreds of lots under this system were given away.
OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.
Among other early settlers following were: William Conner. employed as clerk by Mr. Silver; J. S. Hoy, Monroe Wagoner, John Kisler, C. B. Clark, S. G. Jenkins. Thomas Lamay, C. Konock. James Rowe. B. Bordon, W. S. Wilson, - Sutherland, James How, - Pease. WV. Hollenburg, James Hill,
Lambling. H. Bramwell, A. W. Lit- tle and Charles Willard.
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
FIRST SCHOOL BUILDING.
Prompted by that American spirit of enterprise. the people in January, 1871. began agitating the building of a school house. It was decided to build one of stone and large enough for the children then in the town and those who would probably settle within the following year. It was decided to raise four thousand dollars by issuing school district bonds, and the vote was nearly unanimons.
The building was located where the high school building now stands. It is a matter worthy of record, the obstacles and problems met with in that early day in erecting large buildings. That the building was faulty is truc, but the fault was not in plan or work so much as in the material. First, they had to use rock whose strength and working qualities not a man here or else- where understood and which compelled them to work at a disadvantage.
We must "patronize home industries," so all the cottonwood that could be worked in lumber was used; the frame work and roof were made of this material. They knew its strength and weight, but they did not know that if a board of it were laid in the barnyard at night it would warp and walk out into the street before morning. The building of this large and substan- tial edifice gave an air of solidity and permanence to their little town and when people seeking for a location came, they would remark, "Well, that looks as if you meant to stay" (referring to the school building). Another would say, "Education of the youth seems to be a first consideration with the people here and as I have a family of children I will locate with you."
In connection with this it may be said the spirit that prompted the peo- ple at that time to build so expensive a house has been ever foremost with them. and they have spent more money in an educational way than any other city of equal population in the state of Kansas.
MORE COUNTY SEAT TROUBLE.
When the spring of 1871 was ushered in, the commissioners still refused to recognize Concordia as the county seat, and the town company pressed its mandamus suit begun the autumn before. We deem this of suffi- cient historical importance to justify the publication of a copy of the writ. "Before the Honorable William H. Canfield, judge of the Eighth judicial district of Kansas.
"The State of Kansas, Cloud County, ss :
"James Hagaman and William McK. Burns, plaintiffs. vs. W. M. Page. John Murphy and Chester Dutton, county commissioners of Cloud county : Ebenezer Fox, county clerk : David Heller, county treasurer, and B. H. McEckron, county superintendent of common schools of said county, defendants .- Notice :
"The above named defendants will take notice that on the 24th day of October, 1870, the plaintiffs will apply to the Honorable William H. Can-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
field, judge of the Eighth judicial district, at Clay Center, in the county of Clay and state of Kansas, for an alternative writ of mandamus, command- ing the said defendants to remove their offices, books and papers belonging thereto, to Concordia, the county seat of said Cloud county, or show cause by a day to be named in the writ why they have not done so.
"Dated October 13, 1870. MCCLURE & HUMPHREY, "Attorneys for Plaintiffs."
This proceeding was not pressed at the time, the petitioners deeming it best to hold off until the land office was open for business, in the meantime hoping the recalcitrants would come to their senses by coming to the county seat. Registrar of deeds, J. S. Bowen, sent word by horseback that he would "be there just as quickly as he could find a place to shelter his fam- ily." and probate judge, D. J. Fowler, sent word that he was "coming a running."
Bowen bought the court house for thirty cents on the dollar, where he moved his family, and Mr. Linney, having purchased the Carnahan building (which stood on the corner now occupied by the Chicago Lumber Company office ) and moved his family and goods there, Mr. Bowen took possession. Judge Fowler, having found a place "whereon to lay his head," opened his marriage shop and went to work issuing licenses.
The others failing to put in an appearance, the suit was revived, but before the writ was served all signalized their willingness to come if they were let off without paying costs, which was granted them.
This ended the great source of trouble which began more than a year before and which had done thousands of dollars' damage to the town and a great financial loss to the town company. The company paid the costs in this case, amounting, with attorney's fees, to the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars.
BUSINESS BLOCKS ERECTED.
Gibbs & Snowden began the erection of their building for a drug store. It occupied the southeast corner of Sixth and Washington streets and was the first drug store in Concordia. About the same time Marshall & Andrews built their livery stable which stood in block one hundred and forty-nine on Sixth street. Henry Buckingham began an addition to his "whale back" printing office in March. R. P. Davis and Byron E. Sheffield erected build- ings the same spring.
M. Mckinnon built an addition to his store and also commenced work on a dwelling. All during the spring building was brisk in the little city. Everywhere the thump of the hammer and the music of the saw and plane were heard. Many business blocks were completed and under way. It was a marvel to all, and looked as if they might have a great city at once.
The most important enterprise started and completed this year was the
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
building of a flouring mill by Mr. Lanone. He erected a large stone build- ing on the site of his saw mill, put in the machinery and made the first flour ever made in Concordia. The mill was operated by steam.
Second only in importance to the coming of the railroad was the con- struction of the dam across the Republican river; the most remarkable, inas- much as it was undertaken by one man, and he of little means. Had a rich corporation been at the head of the undertaking it would have employed engineers of great reputation to plan and make estimates and thousands of dollars would have been the probable cost.
Mr. Lanoue worked long and earnestly to establish a water power, and there was no limit to his courage or he would have renounced his efforts. The river where the dam is built was four hundred feet wide, and in high water times was thirteen feet deep ( which occurred in 1869), running eight miles an hour. The sand and gravel down to bedrock was twenty-four feet and one stratum of it was quicksand. an uncertain foundation on which to buildl.
To be safe the dam must rest on a rock bottom and there is where Mr. Lanoue put it in the end-after four attempts. Work began on the dam in the summer of 1872, and when completed was pleasing to look upon, but like the "apples of Sodom," fair without but false within. Lincoln township voted Mr. Lanoue twelve hundred dollars on condition that he make a road- way for wagons over his dam. March 11. 1875, Mr. Lanoue completed the work of elevating and aproning the dam, which greatly strengthened it, increased the power, and completed one of the best free roadways anywhere over the Republican river.
With a twelve-inch head of water the great wheel was started for busi- ness, and the machinery was kept humming through the night, grinding fifty bushels more wheat than the steam power had ever done in the same time. The public congratulated Mr. Lanone upon the consummation of his long cherished hope. The dam cost Mr. Lanone in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars.
Mr. Lanoue possessed unbounded faith, which is the success of every- thing. The strength of the feeble, the salvation of the miserable, "The greatness of individuals or nations may be measured precisely by the great- ness of their faith." Three times within four years his efforts were severely damaged by floods and ice, but each time he immediately repaired damages with the same undaunted courage that marked all his undertakings, and the roar of his mammoth wheel could be heard night and day.
The repeated breaks in the dam finally crippled Mr. Lanone financially until he was forced to take in partners. In the spring of 1878 George R. Letourneau, A. Berard and A. Gauselin, of Kankakee, Illinois. bought an interest in the mill. The bargain was closed at night, the papers signed up. the money paid and the gentlemen from Kankakee slept soundly in the happy thought that they had purchased a fortune, but they woke in the morning to find their dreams an illusion. During the night the water had
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
bursted through its confines in an entirely new place on the right bank of the river, and through this gap the entire volume of water was running, which would require much labor and expense to rebuild; but Mr. Lanone was cool and treated the loss as a small matter, saying, "It is only a trifling break." However, it took a month of hard work by a small army of men and twenty-five hundred dollars in money to rebuild it.
Unlooked for trouble and expense after this forced Mr. Lanone to sell. In 1884 this property passed into the hands of a stock company of which H. M. Spalding was president and afterward sole proprietor. After operating it for a number of years he had reason to be dissatisfied with the treatment received from the merchants of Concordia, and sold at a sacrifice of thousands of dollars to Lingle & Cline. On account of his health Mr. Lingle was compelled to retire from business, and Mr. Cline became and is at present sole owner of one of the best properties in the state of Kansas. The dam is jointly owned by Mr. Cline and the Concordia Electric Light Company in which Mr. Spalding is president and a large stockholder. The interest of the owners is one-third to the Concordia Electric Light Company and two-thirds to Mr. Cline, the former using the power from the time the lamps are lighted in the afternoon until twelve M.
GROCERIES
CONCORDIA, KANSAS . 1872.
THE EVENTS OF 1872.
The year 1872 was prolific in events for Concordia. The voting of bonds for the railroad : the organization of the city as third-class: the retire- ment of the Buckinghams from the Empire and its purchase by H. E. Smith : the commencement of the Presbyterian church: building of the malt house and the brewery; the great conflagration that laid waste the best portion of the city; the confiscating of the greater portion of the town company's lands.
The brewery stood just above the mill where some of the ruins may yet be seen. The builders were D. W. Williams and Orin Bennett (brothers- in-law) and for several years they did a thriving business. On the eve of December 24, the night before Christmas. 1872, occurred the big fire. It
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
originated in the Collins & Dennis building, then owned by W. O. Wagoner. Fight buildings were burned and one torn down and thrown into the middle of the street, which checked the fire and saved the other nine buildings. The most important building destroyed was the Glidden House, a good hotel for that early day. The fire cast a gloom over the struggling little city, and many predicted that years would pass ere it would be rebuilt as good as before.
This was Concordia's first disaster and entailed a loss of about thirty thousand dollars. The city was in its infancy and this was a very serious set back to the new western town, but not many months elapsed ere new and better buildings were erected and larger stocks of goods were brought in. T. I .. , F. W. and Heber Sturges had put their money in a hall which was totally destroyed, with no insurance. The destruction of this property was a severe blow to the town as well as to the owners of the property.
In February, 3873. A. J. Shelhammer, N. H. Eaves and J. M. Haga- man began to excavate preparatory to the erection of a stone building in block one hundred and thirty-five, south side of Sixth street. This was in the burnt district and revived the flagging hopes of the people. It showed these men still had confidence in the future of their town and other citizens took courage from the public-spirited act. The buiklings were two stories and ready for occupancy in about eight months. The only stone buildings at this time were those of C. Case and Oliver Currier.
J. E. Burress began a stone building on the southeast corner of Broad- way and Sixth streets the following summer. At this time the trouble over the town site was being contested and greatly retarded the growth of the town. The inhabitants desired to have thrown open to actual settlers the most of the land contained within the town of Concordia, and after quite a struggle before the United States land office succeeded in securing to all these citizens, and those who might afterward become such, the unpatented lands within Concordia.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.
Governor Osborne was installed in the office of governor in January, 1874, and the citizens prevailed upon him to appoint a normal school at Concordia and it went into operation March 5 of that year, with B. F. Rob- inson as principal and J. S. Shearer, assistant. Concordia, being a central point, was selected as a site for the location of the State Normal School, and but for the theory of some of the legislators, that to curtail educational insti- tutions was economy combined with the jealousy of other towns in eastern Kansas, this school would have been successfully maintained.
The citizens of Concordia were much interested in the institution, but were destined to have it taken from them by the legislature of 1876 and a system of normal institutes established instead. abolishing the several State Normal Schools. Senator N. B. Brown made an effort to re-establish the normal school and prepared a bill to that effeet. which he pushed vigorously
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
but could not bring the measure to a successful end. The school was sup- plied by the state with the implied promise that it should be sustained. Sen- ator Brown championed this cause manfully.
The citizens of Concordia invested twenty thousand dollars in this insti- tution. Representative C. K. Wells secured the first and only appropriation for the State Normal School at Concordia. The normal from the first was a success, showing need of the school and Concordia's fitness for the loca- tion. It was proposed to re-establish the school and eighteen sections of state lands were asked for that purpose. In 1877 a bill was before both houses asking for an appropriation of six thousand dollars for the re-estab- lishment of the institution, which was defeated by a strong effort of the opposition. In 1874 the school building erected in Concordia in 1871 was enlarged and given to the state for the holding forth of the State Normal. After the school was abolished, the building was transferred back to the city schools. This institution went down, not because it was not useful and greatly needed, but because Emporia stepped to the front and "gobbled it up."
A CITY OF THE THIRD CLASS.
The city of Concordia was organized as a city of the third class in August, 1871, and R. E. Allen was chosen mayor. He was succeeded in 1873 by E. Guilbert, who held the office one year. He was followed by Mil- ton Reasoner, who held the office four terms. The mayors since then have been elected in the following order: J. M. Hagaman, E. E. Swearenger, G. W. Marshall, Thomas Wrong, W. F. Groesbeck and C. Twitchel.
In April, 1887 Concordia was organized into a city of the second class. with J. Green mayor, and the term extended to two years. The next mayors were as follows: D. L. Brown. W. W. Caldwell, G. W. Marshall, Walter Darlington, John Stewart, E. W. Messall and S. C. Wheeler, the present mayor. The history of Concordia has been somewhat similar to most town settlements in Kansas. Clashing interests had the effect only of calling attention to their town and the building up of the thriving and prosper- ous city.
Much trouble arose over the acquisition of enough citizens to enable them to count two hundred inhabitants to organize as a city of the third class. They had some politicians then who perhaps did not hesitate to count amongst the two hundred several who might have come to town to trade off a few pounds of butter or a few dozen eggs, or perhaps to get a drink, for they had then "a senate" and some other establishments where liquor was dispensed.
The population increased quite rapidly and their business extended from the neighborhood of Waterville westward to Smith county. They became the center of trade and have maintained their pre-eminence, and as their citizens were generally public spirited and liberal, they have now a well built city provided with churches, schools, a magnificent court house, hand-
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