USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 72
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 72
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And so the life of the place went on. The men came back some times on leave-some new arrivals came in, divine services were held by Mr. Mowry, Mr. Lynn, a Presbyterian minister and Mr. Northrup, an earnest Congregationalist, and the school was kept up as teachers could be obtained The year of '64 was marked by the opening of a private school by Miss Harriet N. Clark, a niece of the Goss brothers who had been most carefully educated in her Wisconsin home, and who had been very desirous of enter- ing the missionary field. She had given up this hope on account of insuffi- cient strength and her mother's objections, and undertook the arduous war' time journey to the new country feeling that in spending a little time with her uncles and engaging in teaching she could still enter upon a very useful career.
Mrs. Crane. in her husband's absence, had moved with her four children into the half finished Falls House, and kept a home-like hostelry. Lieu
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tenant Crane, from his station in Missouri, sent material to finish the large room to Central City, and Mrs. ('rane, eager for the good work to go on' sent the two younger children, George and Ada across country in the big wagon to get it. It was a large undertaking for people of twelve and fourteen, but they made the trip in safety, though they were overtaken by ¿ storm, and in a short time Miss Clark began her work, using an organ which the music-loving father sent his daughter from Fort Leavenworth and which was the admiration and delight of the whole community.
The influence of this refined and lovely young woman was a very fortu- nate thing for the rising generation, and though one period of her history has been spent in another state, she has always been identified with all our nobler interests. Her father and mother decided to settle here soon after she arrived, and she married later on Captain W. W. P. MeConnel, whose family has been equally prominent in our development. The Clarks, like the Cranes, were devoted Congregationalists, and the firm of Clark and Me- ('onnel for a long period represented our leading mercantile interests and entered into every worthy enterprise.
When the war was over we had the common season of rehabilitation, and as our citizens took up the work of making homes again, the town niade steady advancement. Through the instrumentality of Mr. Goss, who had served as colonel in the state militia, the M. K. & T. Railroad passed through the town, and with its round house and land office brought a great accession of life and energy. It was an easy matter to vote bonds, and the township built the old bridge above the dam. It was a single, graceful iron span 225 feet long and endured an incalculable amount of stress and strain until the summer of '98 when it was wrecked by an undue weight and had to be replaced. In '69 the first school house was erected, and in '70 and '71 the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, after being freshly organized, were provided with the rectangular structures of the period. The county seat advantages belonged to us by natural right, and in 1870 we reached the dignity of corporation with a population of thirteen hundred souls, O. P. Houghawout being the first mayor.
We also had a newspaper and the Washington press upon which it was printed had a history that was characteristic of the times. It had been brought to Leavenworth for free state service, taken to Lawrence for a similar purpose and thence to Burlington for the founding of the Patriot by Mr. Prouty. It was next purchased by Wm. Higgins, afterwards Seere- tary of State and some other citizens of Le Roy, and in '69 it passed into our possession through I. W. Dow and Captain W. W. P. McConnel. Some irregularities in this transfer resulted in a suit before the Supreme Court. and the records show the judgment in favor of the last purchasers. Like any other pioneer the old press was built on heroic lines, and it was used bere continuously until Mr. Stout's office was burned in '98 when it was destroyed with all the other property.
The paper, as founded by I. B. Boyle, was called The Frontier Demo-
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crat, and was considered a very bright and breezy sheet. It was the first. newspaper in the county, and it has passed through many changes. With W. H. Slavens it became a year later The Neosho Falls Advertiser, and in January of '73 it was purchased by W. W. Sain who changed the name io The Woodson County Post, and gave it a stronger Republican character. Mr. Sain had been in the county since '66 and had made a distinctive record as County Clerk and Register of Deeds, and it was during his exertions that the paper reached its highest tone and largest usefulness. It reflected the vigorous independence and decisive judgment that have always marked his place among us and only the very best that he could do was worthy of his readers. But with the removal of the county seat other business seemed to be more profitable, and Nathan Powell and H. D. Dickson bought out the enterprise and gave it a different sphere as The Neosho Falls Post.
Mr. Powell had had a varied experience in other fields, and Mr. Dickson was a young man of rare promise. He had begun his life here as a typo on the Advertiser and assisted Mr. Sain in the many ways paper in '78 but resumed control in '81, and after two or three other changes it was sold to J. N. Stout who still serves the community in the editorial capacity.
During the early seventies a comparatively large number of superior that are known to the clever foreman. He studied law as he worked. and became a leading figure in our political, as well as legal circles until lis removal to Emporia where he still resides. He retired from the people controlled the life of the town. The land office had brought the Hon. E. T. Goodnow and a staff of enterprising assistants, and Mr. Goodnow's scholary training and refinement, his high religious tone and steadfast character were all intensified by similar gifts on the part of his wife and their accomplished niece, Miss Hattie Parkerson. Major Snow having concluded the business of his agency brought his family trom Baldwin and made a permanent home in our midst. The Good- richs and Hamms brought various good gifts and. influences, Joseph Bishop began the career among us which has been one of our strongest elements. The Woodwards and the Ennesses gave us various fine factors. D. W. Finney has been a continuous and persistent force in business, political and social circles. Colonel W. L. Parsons bought the mill of Covert and Cozine, put in new machinery and increased its capacity. married one of our noblest daughters and entered upon a continued period of usefulness. C. B. Graves, now Judge Graves, of Emporia. W. A. Atchison and T. J. Petit kept our legal lights aflame, though they left H. D. Dickson alone in the field. later on, and Dr. J. L. Jones had for a long time the largest and most successful practice in the county. Our schools had necessitated a larger building; the churches were in ¿. flourishing condition : everybody had rosy visions, and altogether it was an era of happy work. pleasant intercourse and buoyant vitality After a long conflict the county seat was finally fixed at Yates Center
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but we quickly recovered from the loss and assured ourselves that we could get along very well without the county business. Pillings Brothers established a woolen mill in '73 on the town side of the river which for a time was very successful. and in its failure paved the way for the flouring business of Finney & Son which now occupies the buildings.
In '71, I. W. Dow instituted a prosperous banking business which however, had a short life on account of the panie of '73. Mr. Dow then engaged in the Inmber trade in which he continued until he left for Marceline, Mo .. in '86. But after fourteen years le has returned to us. and his presence is greatly appreciated.
This period was also marked by the erection of a cheese factory by the Rev. John Creath who was also pastor of the Presbyterian church, and who became, when the business failed. the principal of the city schools. But the largest enterprise of the time was the Neosho Valley District Fair which held its first meeting in the fall of '75. The district was composed of the four sympathetic counties. Allen and Anderson. Greenwood and Woodson, the association was ably officered, and the stock made good returns in the development of the territory and rich fellow-feeling, though it absorbed some hard-earned cash. The convenient grounds were leased at first from Colonel Goss, and afterwards purchased. Even with the little work that could be done at best, they soon gained the reputation of being the most beautiful tract of woodland in the whole state, and they have always possessed a certain indefinable charm that draws people to them upon every possible occasion.
The fair reached its zenith in 1879 when the officers possessed suffi- cient influence to entertain for a day President and Mrs. Hayes, General Sherman and various state dignitaries. The decorations and nmusic and speeches ; the wonderful dinner that was spread for the guests: the bean- tiful buek-horn chair that was presented to the President; the surpassing display of produce and live stock, to say nothing of the chariot race that might have delighted an old Roman emperor, and above all the crowds and crowds of enthusiastic people. All these elements made up a very memorable event. "The time when Hayes was here" has never again been equalled.
The decadence of the fair through changing sentiment and circum- stances, resulted in the purchase of the grounds by the city which takes much pleasure, but not enough pride, in the Riverside Park it has acquired. The Old Settlers' meetings, however, instituted six years ago by the people of the same territory, bring old friends and neighbors together, keep alive the spirit of good-fellowship, and give the blessed old trees fresh appreciation and opportunity.
It was not only in the work of the fair, but in various other channels that Colonel Goss remained our most distinguished citizen. As president rf the M. K. & T. Railroad Company and as attorney for the Santa Fe, he had a large sphere of activity outside of the town, yet he always had time
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and thought for every worthy home ambition. Through all the busy years he had spent his seant leisure upon the ornithological work which he loved more devotedly with the passage of time, and with financial success and partial retirement from business, the passion for bird study gained the ascendency. He spent much time in travel for the growth of his collec- tion, and finally in '82 he accepted the invitation to occupy quarters in the State House where his exquisitely mounted specimens still remain as a most remarkable illustration of individual attainment. In '86 Colonel Goss published through Crane & Company a large and beautiful work upon the Birds of Kansas, and he has an appropriate place among leading American ornithologists. The most effective clauses in our Kansas bird laws are due to his exertions. and the feathered tribes still retain their sympathetic friend though the mortal man has passed away. . He died suddenly in the spring of '91 as he must have wished, here in the town for which he was so largely responsible, and in full tide of his special aspirations, and the expression of his spirit still abides in all our at- inosphere.
The removal of the round house and change in the M. K. & T. division, followed by the loss of the land office in '76 deprived the growth of the town of a very potent factor, but the office building was purchased for school purposes, and in 1878 Professor J. J. MeBride organized the first high school grades, and in his teaching transmitted the finest intellectual inspiration our educational system has ever known. He was a graduate of Ann Arbor, and had had many other fine opportunities, which united with a sanguine temperament and tireless energy gave him a remarkable power of wakening the best possibilities in every individual pupil. And so strong was his personal charm that even when he was overeome by the lamentable elements in his eharaeter many of his pupils chung most loyalty to the better nature they had revered. To them his "faults are ali shut up like dead flowerets," and because of the endless impetus he gave them they look back and call him blessed.
With all his imperfections he stood for the world of beneficent cul- ture, and we owe to him. perhaps, more than to any other person, the reputation we have gained of being the "Athens of the county." The teachers who came after him fostered the tone that has made our schools the very best possible to the size of the place, and the spirit of our people has been unusually refined for so small a town.
And this has been a continued chararteristic through changing per- sonality. In the last twenty years many of our best families have moved away to more enterprising places, though we possess a subtle attraction that often draws them back again. And while we have had during the greater part of this period many very slumberous seasons, we still en- joyed enough life to pass a very comfortable and pleasant existence.
Through fatal fires and the help of our building and loan com- panies many of our old business houses have been replaced by more com-
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modious and substantial structures. In '82 the private bank of Hougha- wout and Goodrich was established in a convenient office built especially for it, and the enterprise has given us continued service, though the firm has been changed to Goodrich and Inge, and again to Inge and Stillwell. The Congregational church was erected in the same year, the permanent organization having been effected in '71 by Rev. T. W. Jones, of Arvonia. and the permanent home thus secured has given us one attractively modern place of worship. In '86 a large city hall was completed and furnished, having been made possible by an initial movement on the part of the ladies of the place, and a growing pride in our homes has made all our environ- mient more and more inviting.
In '85 a branch of the Santa Fe railroad was built from Colony to Yates Center and with direct connection with Kansas City and larger ship- ping facilities, the farming districts have contributed more largely to our business. With the return of general prosperity we have felt the common impetus toward greater things, and in the last year we have made more improvements than during ten years before. In '98 bonds were voted for a new school house, and we have built a modern brick structure that will supply our needs for many years to come, and be a constant pride and pleasure. Former attempts having failed, a fresh effort is being made to discover the gas which has so abundantly blessed our neighbors, new people of the right stamp are coming in, and enterprise and hopefulness per- meate the air.
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The Medical profession BY E. V. WHARTON, M. D.
The men who came to Kansas in the early fifties were home builders and commonwealth architects-early eaglets fluttering out of the parent nest, whose leaving of the home crag indicated strong wings, determina- tion and what is known in western parlance as grit. No weaklings, no "doubting Thomas's," none of faint heart led the van of civilization then, nor ever will. Possibly they were somewhat rough in character, or a bit indifferent to the striet observation of social rules, as provided by the dilletante of the East; yet, withal possessing a sense of honor which would have cheered the heart of the early cavalier. Warm-hearted and charitable as an Oglethorpe or an Austen, prompt and exacting as a John Winthrop, came they to build and fashion after their own notions a new commonwealth in the great American desert.
They were not all farmers seeking tillable land upon which to build homes, to plant orchards and to lay off fields; nor tradesmen seeking soft snaps and corner lots in newly erected cities : nor lawyers short on briefs and long on lore; nor preachers seeking locations for mission schools and invalid souls to be saved : nor incompetent and unemployed mechanics ; nor promoters selling hot air and cerulian blue ; but an army of men and women, and with them a few brave, big-hearted and zealous doctors, they came bearing the plans for a state to be, yet, the grandest and most pro- gressive in the sisterhood of states.
The doctor of pioneer days was an unique character. Educated he was, and learned-as learning in the colleges of the days of short terms. meager curriculum and rapid process of making doctors meant learned. He knew little of bacteria, less of plas moedinm materia and asepsis in traumatism, but possibly as much of the "ager." the necessity of cleanli- ness and the effect of quinine and corn whiskey on the human system as do our bright young men turned loose at the beginning of the twentieth century, schooled in Pasteurism and modern bacteriology. and licensed to maim and kill. His library was in his head, his stock of drugs in his capacious saddle-bags, bis wardrobe on his back and his office wherever he was found. He cared little for churches or church ceremonials, dabbled somewhat in politics. talked sketchily of scientific matters, eschewed the aestheticism of the Bostonian school : but would wager bis spurs stiletto. or six-shooter on his ability to cure the "shakes." extract
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a toothi, or relieve intestinal spasm. He had heard that a Boston chemist a decade ago had discovered the wonderful ether agent-chloroform, but he knew little of general anesthesia and nothing at all of local anesthesia, cocaine and the ether spray ; and the effects of the lighter ethers as local an- esthetics were unknown to him. The anticeptic qualities of phenol he had not yet been introduced to. Yet he did his work patiently and well in the light which he possessed and contributed much of value to the generation which followed him. The doctor of 1858, dressed in homespun, broad-brimmed hat, and with trousers encased to his knees in jack-boots. and spurred like a knight of old, mounted on a bucking bronco, and with saddle-bags like paniers to a pack mule. would make a strange com- parison with the well-dressed and well-barbered M. D. of the present era, seated in an easy carriage and accompanied by his driver. The appearances, though seemingly widely different. reveal the march of civilization and the development of a race of people who move rapidly and possess, to a wonderful degree, constructive ability.
The medies, in common with other professions have furnished men who could be trusted to place a hand upon the helm of state. Kansas' first governor was a pioneer doctor. Her first body of law-makers was made up of a respectable number of doctors, and in the passing of the succeeding history-making years, the roster of her diplomats, statesmen, and law-givers shows the presence of a fair representation called from the field of her medical workers.
The oldest settler is somewhat in doubt as to when and where and as to who was the first doctor to locate in Woodson county. The weight of testimony leans toward Drs. John and L. Dunn, brothers, who established themselves at Belmont in 1857 or 1858. Hon. William Stockebrand. who was wounded by an Indian in December, 1857. was treated by the Dunn brothers a few weeks later. The Dunns did not remain long at Belmont. One of them met summary vengeance at the hands of the "vigilantees" in southeast Kansas while the other removed to Texas, but resides now at some point in Oklahoma. In 1859 Dr. D. J. Williams located at Neosho Falls, remaining until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he returned to Illinois, enlisted in one of the regiments of that state, served as hospital steward during the entire struggle and returned to Nosho Falls in 1866. His daughter, now Mrs. Lucy Gorbett, was the first white child born at the Falls of the Neosho. The doctor was rather an opinionated character and believed in settling matters according to his own notion of things. He was kind-hearted, attentive to the suffering and delighted in relieving "the sting of the venomed fang" by extraction. He died of cancer late in the seventies.
About 1862 Dr. Logwood located in Belmont as the successor of the Dunn brothers. To him was charged the mistake of inoculating the entire
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vicinity with smallpox virus instead of the milder form of vaccine. As a re- gult a large portion of the pioneers of that portion of the county died of smallpox.
Dr. Allen McCartney came to Neosho Falls in 1858, about the time Dr. Williams located there. He remained there during the war, was Lincoln's first postmaster at "the Falls," left there in 1868 and estab- lished a trading post at the foot of the mound where "Little Bear" was buried, at the junction of the Neosho and Fall rivers. Later, he was in- terested in the founding of the town of Neodesha and still later represented his county (Wilson) in the state legislature. And now, in the glorious sunset of life. he looks back over the past with the consciousness that there was in his career a something which bettered those who followed him, as well as those who came into personal touch with him.
Dr. D. W. Maxson came to Woodson county in 1858 also, and located at Coy's store, now Coyville. For a more extended mention of his career see his biography elsewhere in this volume. He has seen much service in professional life, is a sound counsellor, a good clinician and a worthy member of the profession.
In 1869 and in 1870, Dr. R. B. Camfield and Dr. S. J. Carpenter, . came to the county. Dr. Camfield located upon a claim on South Owl Creek and, for some years, looked after the health of that community. Later he removed to Buffalo, Kansas, where he died in 1889, from wounds received from a vicious horse. Dr. Carpenter located near Neosho Falls, did something of a general practice, but was inclined toward special work. He established sanitariums at Humboldt and at Eureka, where he sought to treat chronic diseases of the respiratory organs. Not meeting with the success he expected in such a field of labor he settled down, late in life, to general work in one of our live Kansas towns.
Dr. D. L. Rogers came to Toronto from Canada in 1871. He was a bright and earnest worker, became tired of Kansas life and returned to the Queen's Dominion where he died in 1891. The same year (1871) Dr. A. H. Mann came to Toronto. He was just from the regular army and only remained out of the service, and in the practice at Toronto, a few years. He returned to Toronto again in 1875 and remained many years. He performed the first amputation that was done in Woodson and was regarded as one of the able physicians and surgeons of his day and county. He resided in Illinois when the Spanish-American war broke out and was commissioned a surgeon in one of the regiments raised in that state and did duty at Tampa, Florida. Doctor R. B. Marr, a bright young man from one of the St. Louis colleges, located in Toronto in 1875 where he was an active and energetic man, wedded to his profession. He became inoculated with a loathsome disease while attending a patient and, as a price for his martyrdom, was incapacitated, for many years, for pro-
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fessional work. He is now in south Missouri a physical wreck but a pro- fessional hero
Dr. J. L. Jones came to Kalida, a town which now lives only in history, vi 1872. The doctor was a Kentuckian-in that Kentuckian means hospi- table, jolly, and with an eye to business. He practiced there three years and the fifteen years following in Neosho Falls. In 1890 he removed to Leroy and in 1892 became a resident of Yates Center. In all his perigrina- tions he never lost sight "o' the silver." He amassed quite a competency and now resides on the Atlantic coast.
Dr. T. J. Means, another old-fashioned, "old school" Kentucky doctor, opened his practice in Neosho Falls in 1872. His office was afterward the dining room of Judge H. D. Dickson's residence. He believed in heroic doses of calomel and jalap, bled his patients profusely, and was a typical representative of the medical rennais: ance. He could not endure Kan- sas Republicanism and, in 1874, removed to Texas.
Among the seventies probably Dr. J. W. Driscoll was a character the most unique. He dropped into Neosho Falls as though he had fallen from the planet Mars, and to strengthen the supposition. some of the charac- teristics of the fighting god are herewith attributed to him: He was stub- born, unyielding, imperious, yet withal tender, compassionate and char- itable, doing his duty as he saw it. Possibly the most learned of his com- peers, yet not "stuck up." he looked upon matters with only the eye of a scientist. "If you are worthy and can do the work"-for he was a worker -"yon are one of us; otherwise you must learn," said he to the neophyte as to "the elect." until he knew them. For some years he had filled the chair of mathematics in an eastern academy, taught the young man his first lessons in quadratics. discussed geometry from a straight line all the way through to conic sections-not even forgetting the pons asin- ormm, taught trigonometry and talked of the value of angles, spoke of sines, tangents, chords, secants, et omnia gens, in fact was an "all-round man" in mathematical science. When he located among us the good people recognized his worth and made him a member of our board of examiners te pass upon the qualifications of the teachers of the county, and also made him county surveyor. Be it said to his memory, his records are the only ones in the county which show surveys made by "latitude and departure." His notes, like his work, to a class of students are as exact as the science he loved. More of a surveyor and engineer than a doctor, he left Kansas after a few years sojourn, returned to Indiana and, in 1882, died in the harness as a teacher. Excentric he might have been, but bright, brainy and brilliant, he was one of the needed men of his time.
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