USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 11
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Old Huron was the original settlement near the present townsite of Huron, and was an important trading point for many years prior to the establishment of the new townsite following the laying of the railroad to Omalıa. There were many early settlers of importance in and around Huron, among whom was Capt. Robert White. Captain White came to Kansas in 1857 and bought the squatter rights of Charles Morgan and preempted a quarter section of land in Lancaster township, near Huron.
The birth of the first white child in Atchison county, of which there is any record, occurred in Lancaster township. The child was Miss Frances Miller, who was born May 9, 1855. Her father was the late Daniel Miller, an Ohioan by birth, and lived near DeKalb, Mo., in 1841. In 1854 he looked over northeastern Kansas and settled on Independence creek, twelve miles north of Atchison, early in 1855, near the northeastern corner of Lancaster township. Mr. Miller sold his quarter section in 1858, after he had proven up on it, to Thomas Butcher, a new arrival in Kansas from Brownville, Pa., for $3,000. Mr. Butcher built a flouring mill on thi's land, which was run by water from Independence creek. Butcher subsequently sold the plant to A. J. Evans, who ran it as a "custom mill" until August, 1865, when it was destroyed by high water, caused by heavy rains.
Samuel Wymore, for whom Wymore, Nebraska was named, was a res- ident of Lancaster township, near Huron, in the fifties and early sixties, and ran a sawmill by horse power, about three miles north of Lancaster, in 1858. Mr. Wymore sold his first bill of lumber to Captain Robert White for $100 in gold, and at that time it was more money than Wymore had ever seen at one time, and he was so nervous during the following night that
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he could not sleep and continually stirred the fire in the stove so that he could count the money from the light that it made. Wymore was unedu- cated. He could neither read nor write, and he was said to have been worth over $150,000 before 1875.
Isaac E. Kelly, a young man from Pennsylvania, taught one of the first schools in Lancaster township, in one of the settlers' preemption cabin, near Eden postoffice in 1860. He went to war in 1861 and marched with Sher- man to the Sea.
The first mowing machine in Atchison county was brought to Lancas- ter township, two miles west of where Huron now is, by Joel Hiatt, in 1859. who sold it to Capt. Robert White, who cut hay with it several seasons. The machine was a Ball, and a crude affair. The first reaper to harvest grain in the county was owned by the late M. J. Cloyes, who also lived in Lancaster township, not many miles from Huron. Mr. Cloyes bought the reaper in the early sixties. The grain was raked off by a man lashed to a post on a platform four or five feet to the rear of the cycle. This reaper was a Buckeye machine, and was sold by J. E. Wagner, the hardware mer- chant of Atchison.
The forty acre tract of land upon which the home of Edward Perdue stands, a few miles east of Huron, was traded for a mowing machine by the owner in 1865.
Bethel church, located southwest of Huron, is supposed to be the oldest church in the county, outside of Atchison. It was built by the Methodist Episcopal church (South), about 1870, and is still in use in 1915.
Thus it will be seen that Huron is located in the midst of a very inter- esting part of Atchison county, and while the town did not reach the pro- portions that its original promoters had hoped for it, it is one of the good towns of the county. The following are the business houses in Huron in 1915:
J. M. Delany-General merchandise.
E. P. Perry-General merchandise.
W. E. English-Hardware, implements and furniture.
H. T. Harrison-Grocer.
Dr. Wiley Jones-Drug store.
John L. Snavly-Restaurant and postmaster. Mrs. Alta Wilson-Hotel.
C. E. Mathew-Lumber.
Loren Horton-Meat market.
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A. F. Allen-Grain, coal, live stock and automobile supplies.
Baker-Corwell-Grain company.
A. Morehead-Barber.
WV. Hildman-Blacksmith.
Riley & Son-Livery barn.
Over 200,000 bushels of grain are shipped from Huron annually and the average shipment of live stock amounts to about forty cars.
OLD MARTINSBURG.
Martinsburg was laid out near the present site of Potter in the early days. It is not generally known, even among the old settlers, that there was such a place. George Remsburg said that this was due probably to the fact that Martinsburg was born dead. It was conceived in the town craze of early territorial times, but it came a still-born infant and its pro- moters succeeded in viewing it only long enough for it to give a feeble gasp and fall back dead again. Though this proposed municipal enterprise of pioneer days did not materialize, it was, nevertheless, an interesting and im- portant fact of local history, hitherto unrecorded, that such a town was actually staked off and laid out in Atchison county at a very early period. The only old-timers who remembered it were James B. Low, of Colorado Springs, formerly of Mount Pleasant, "Uncle Joe" Potter, and W. J. (Jack) Bailey. All three settled in the southern part of Atchison county in 1854. Mr. Low settled with his parents in Walnut township in the fall of that year, and says that Martinsburg was laid out that fall. It was situated in what is known as the Mercer bottom, on land belonging to Felix Corpstein and Fred Poss, in the west half of section 24, a little northeast of the present site of Potter, or immediately adjoining it. What is known as the Mercer spring, one of the finest in this section, was included in the town site. Mr. Low and his brother went out to look at the place in the fall of 1854 and decided to spend the winter there. It consisted at that time of a few huts and a small store, and never amounted to any more than a village, if it could be called that, although Mr. Low says the town site originally comprised about 100 acres, and a few lots were actually sold. The store was a small frame building, erected by one Alex Hayes, who had previously taken a claim on Plum creek, near Kickapoo. Mr. Low thinks this was the first frame building in Atchison county. Hayes carried a small stock of goods.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
This was long before the town of Mt. Pleasant, in the same vicinity, was ever dreamed of, and even before Tom Fortune opened a store there. It seems that the chief promoters of Martinsburg were two brothers named Martin; hence the name. Not much is known concerning them, or what became of them. "Uncle Joe" Potter says that one of theni came to his house on one occasion when lie and his brother, Marion Potter, were mak- ing rails. Martin stood around a while and finally insinuated that they were foolish for working so hard, and in a confidential way, "just the same as told them." as Mr. Potter expressed it, that they could make lots of money and make it easy stealing horses, whereupon Marion Potter promptly or- dered him off of the place, and told him never to return. James Low's father bought the town site of Martinsburg in the fall of 1855 and moved onto it in the spring of 1856, converting it into a farm. Thus perished Martinsburg. Even the name did not survive in the memory of the settlers, and it was only by accident that it was recently recalled after a lapse of fifty-four years. At an early day the locality became known as Mercer's Bottom, after Joe Mercer, one of the earliest settlers, and it is known by that name today. It is not known what became of Mercer. James Low says the last time he saw him was in Denver, in 1859. Mercer was a queer character. It is told of him that he lived in a little cabin and subsisted principally on mussels, which he found in Stranger creek. Alex Hayes, the Martinsburg store- keeper, has also been lost trace of, but Dick King says there was an old- timer named Alexander Hayes, who died many years ago and was buried in the Sapp graveyard at Oak Mills. The town site of Martinsburg was a favorite camping place for soldiers and emigrants passing over the old Military road in the early days on account of the fine spring, the large meadows and the protection of the hills around it. To catch this tide of emigration was, in all probability, the object of those pioneer town pro- jectors in selecting this site.
BUNKER HILL.
There appears to be no data available which enables the historian to determine exactly where this town was located, but a prospectus publica- tion March 18, 1858, in Freedom's Champion, states that it was on Inde- pendence creek, within ten miles of Atchison and twenty-five miles of St. Joseph. Its chief promoter was Dr. Charles F. Kob, of Atchison. Dr. Kob was a German physician and surgeon, who located in Atchison at an early
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
date. He had been a surgeon in the army, and a member of the Massachu- setts and Connecticut medical societies. He lived and practiced medicine in Boston for some time. About the only advantage for Bunker Hill, set forth in the prospectus, was that coal was found around the place, but Bunker Hill never seemed to have any coal in her bunkers. She failed to flourish and no Bunker Hill monument perpetuates her memory.
LOCUST GROVE.
Locust Grove was never laid out as a town site. It was a stopping place on the old stage route to Topeka, and the postoffice from Mount Pleasant was moved there in 1862.
HELENA.
Helena was located and named in this county, and the plat thereof was filed March 18, 1857, by James L. Byers, one of the proprietors of the town company, and was located on the north half of section 28, township 5, range 18. on the Little Grasshopper river, in Grasshopper township, at the cross- ing of the old Military road, five miles north of the present site of Effing- ham. The town appears on an old township map of eastern Kansas, pub- lished by Whitman & Searl, of Lawrence, in 1856. It shows it to have been on the east branch of Grasshopper river, about fifteen miles west of Atchison, and north of the Ft. Laramie and California roads.
CAYUGA.
Cayuga was laid out by a New York colony in 1856, and was named for Cayuga, N. Y. It was also in Grasshopper township, on the old Military road, one and one-half miles from Lancaster township line on part of the east half of section 18, township 5, range 18. It was surveyed by Dr. A. C. Tabor, and the plat was filed October 9, 1857, by George L. Will- son. Provision was made in the town site for a public park and a young ladies' seminary. It was claimed that it had at one time 400 inhabitants. Among the members of the town company were Messrs. Smooks, Fuller, Higby, Atherton, Ontis, Meeker, William Adams, Chase and Dr. Taylor. The land on which the town was located was "junked" as a claim by a Mrs. Place, and thereafter the town gradually went out of existence. It i's said to have had a good two-story hotel and a number of business houses.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
KENNEKUK.
In the plat which Royal Baldwin, president of the town company, filed April 6, 1859, the name of this town is given as Kennekuck. It was located on the southeast quarter and the southwest fractional quarter of section 3, township 5, range 17. Its streets were sixty feet wide, except Broadway, which was 100 feet wide, and Market street, which was eighty feet wide. One block was donated for a market house, and another block for a park, for religious and educational purposes. The streets were numbered from I to Io and the cross streets were named as follows: Elm, Linn, Cedar, Poplar, Broadway, Market, Walnut, Weld, Perry and Baldwin. The town site was vacated by the board of county commissioners December 15. 1871. Kennekuk was a station on the Overland stage route, twenty-four miles west and north of Atchison. During the overland stage days Thomas Perry ran an eating station there, and Mrs. Perry, who was a grand cook, always had a smoking hot dinner ready with the best of coffee, for the occupants of the stage coaches. In the early days dances were held in the Perry home, and Hon. D. W. Wilder, the author of the celebrated "Annals of Kansas," used to trip the light fantastic toe there, and it is said that he courted the girl who afterwards became his wife, in the Perry home.
Frank A. Root, who was an express messenger on the overland stage. says, in his book, that Kennekuk was the first "home" station out from Atch- ison, and the drivers were changed there. In 1863 it was a little town of perhaps a dozen houses with one store and a blacksmith shop. The Kick- apoo Indian Agency was one of the most prominent buildings there, and was located near the old road in the northwestern part of the town. The town was laid out by William H. Wheeler, a surveyor and speculator, and was named for the Kickapoo chieftain, John Kennekuk. George Remsburg says that the town was platted in June, 1854, but the dedication on the original plat in the court house would indicate that it was platted on the date first mentioned in this sketch.
Hon. A. J. White, the son of Capt. Robert White, and at one time a member of the legislature from this county, and one of the leading farmers of the county, claims that Royal Baldwin was the first white settler in Ken- nekuk, and that he was appointed Indian agent for the Kickapoos there by President Pierce before Kansas was opened for settlement. Mr. Remsburg also says that many noted travelers stopped at Kennekuk, including Mark Twain.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
KAPIOMA.
According to Captain Elberhant, of Golden, Colo., the Kickapoo Indians once had a village on the Grasshopper river in Atchison county, called Ka- pioma, after the chief of the band, and it is from this source that Kapioma township took its name. Captain Berthoud says that Father Duerinck, a native of Belgium, who was probably the first Jesuit priest in Atchison county, gave the pronunciation of the name of his Atchison county station as Kah-pi-oma, accent on the syllable "Kah."
In an affidavit of H. H. Skiles, volume 69, page 63, in the records of the office of the register of deeds of Atchison county, Kansas, the following appears :
"This affiant further states that there was in 1857 and 1858 a com- pany formed, called and known as the Kapioma City Company, and the in- dividuals composing that company were B. Gray, S. C. Russell, W. W. Wes- ton, H. H. Skiles and W. Y. Roberts, who united themselves together for the purpose of laying out, locating and establishing a town called Kapioma, on what was then known as Grasshopper creek, just north of its confluence with Straight creek, in the western borders of Atchison county, Kansas. The entire purpose and scheme in laying out and establishing a town fell through and was wholly and totally abandoned by all and every person con- nected with it without prejudice to any one, and the title to the land in- tended by the company to become town property reverted to the original owner. The law required to establish a town was never complied with."
MASHENAH.
Mashenah, apparently, was to be a rival town of Kennekuk. The cold and quiet records now on file in the court house would convey the idea that Royal Baldwin must have fallen out with the original promoters of Kenne- kuk and decided to establish a town of his own, so, accordingly, he filed a plat of this town September 21, 1857, showing it to be located in the north- east quarter and the northwest quarter of section 2, township 5, range 17. One block was set aside for a college and another for a park. Its streets were numbered I to 21, and the cross streets were named as follows: Oak, Pine, Plum, Vine, Elm, Linn and Cedar.
ST. NICHOLAS.
The only record that can be found of this town is that Thomas Poteet filed a plat thereof April 20, 1858, showing it to be located in the southwest corner of section 6, township 7, range 20.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CONCORD.
This is another town about which there is little information available. The plat was filed June 20, 1857, by James R. Whitehead and shows it to have been located in the west half of section 1, township 5, range 17. The streets were numbered from 1 to 18, and the cross streets were named Buch- anan, Emily, Mary, Carolina, Jefferson, St. Joseph, Ellwood, Able, Alex- ander, and there were two public squares, called North and South.
PARNELL.
The plat of Parnell was filed December 24, 1883, by J. C. Hotham, and shows the town site to be located in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 20, township 6, range 20. It is located on both the Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads. The station was named for a hero of the Civil war, James L. Parnell, a private soldier in Company F, Thir- teenth Kansas volunteer infantry, who was killed during the skirmish at Haare Head, Ark., August 4, 1864. Parnell was the original settler on the site of Parnell and was one of the first citizens of Atchison county to re- spond under President Lincoln's call of July, 1862. He enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas. Ex-Sheriff Frank Hartin was a comrade of Parnell in Company F and married into the Parnell family.
SHANNON.
Shannon was platted by G. W. Sutliff February 22. 1883, and is located in the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section I, township 6, range 19, about eight miles west of Atchison, on the Parallel road. The town consists of one store building, in which the postoffice is located, and a few residences, together with railroad station and a small elevator.
ELMWOOD.
Elmwood was platted by Anna Hoke and J. S. Hoke April 12, 1873, and was located on the south half of the northeast quarter of section 2, township 6, range 20. This was a "paper" town, and the only record now available of it is the plat on file in the court house at Atchison.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
CUMMINGSVILLE.
Cummingsville was platted by William Cummings December 16, 1872, and was located on the north half of the southwest quarter of section I, town- ship 7, range 19, on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, southwest of Atchison, in Center township, and took its name from the founder of the town. The original plat provided for two streets, Market and Main, but on September 21, 1883, Samuel C. King filed a plat, creating an addition to Cummingsville, composed of four blocks. The first settler on the townsite was Robert Kennish, who located there in November, 1872, and was appointed postmaster when the postoffice was established the following fall. Mr. Kennish opened the first store in Cummingsville in December, 1872, and he for many years was station agent there, one of the oldest in the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway. He was a much be- loved character. He died a few years ago at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Nelson W. Cox, who lives in Cummingsville with her invalid husband, Nels Cox, who for eight years served Atchison county in the capacity of clerk of the court. In April. 1873, C. D. Harrison and family located in Cummings- ville, and their child, Lorenzo, was the first child born on the townsite, and his was also the first death, Lorenzo having died March 25, 1875. In the win- ter of 1880-81, R. C. Ripple taught the first school, and the Methodist church (South) was built in 1880. Cummingsville now is a town of over 100 residences, and in addition to its bank, it has several good stores, a cream station and an elevator. Much grain and live stock is shipped out of Cum- mingsville annually.
EDEN P. O.
Eden was located about eight miles northwest of Atchison, and Charles Servoss was appointed the first postmaster there in 1858. The postoffice was located on a farm adjoining the Johnson Wymore farm on the south. Servoss resigned as postmaster in 1863 and removed to Detroit, Mich. He was succeeded by H. C. Lee, who kept the office on a farm adjoining the Wymore farm on the west. Mr. Lee was a grandfather of Miss Kate Platt and Mrs. S. E. Harburger, formerly of Atchison, and the father of Mrs. Flora B. Hiatt. Mr. Lee held the office until 1872, when Francis Schletz- baum, Sr., was named as postmaster, and removed the office to his farm, which adjoined the old Wymore farm on the north. The postoffice remained there until it was discontinued upon the establishment of free rural delivery service in 1900.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
POTTER.
Potter is pleasantly situated on a slight rise or knoll in the beautiful val- ley of Stranger creek, and near the southeast corner of Mt. Pleasant town- ship. From the first it has been the principal station on the Santa Fe rail- road, between Atchison and Leavenworth, being situated about midway be- tween the two cities. It is an attractive little town, with well graded streets and good cement sidewalks, and a number of attractive residences. While it is one of the younger towns of the county, it has made strides that make it compare favorably with some of its older sisters, in volume of business at least, if not in population.
Potter, as the home of the white man, dates back further than any com- munity in the county. Elsewhere in this history will be found an account of Paschal Pensoneau, the old French trader, who established himself on Stranger creek, near the present townsite, during the early forties.
The building of Potter is the third and the most successful attempt to establish a town in that vicinity. The first attempt was at Mount Pleasant. This was one of the first towns started in Kansas, and here was located the first postoffice in Atchison county. It prospered for a time and was a can- didate for the county seat. It gradually declined, and since the establishment of Potter, has been little more than a memory. In the early days, some say before Mt. Pleasant was started, a town was laid out near the big Mercer spring, just northeast of the present site of Potter, and called Martinsburg. It was extensively boomed, but outside of a small store and a few huts, it never advanced beyond the paper stage.
Early in 1886 the Leavenworth, Northern & Southern railway, now a branch of the Santa Fe, and known as the "Pollywog," was built and a sta- tion located where Potter now stands. A town was platted and called Ben- nett Springs, after James Gordon Bennett, the well known eastern journal- ist. The mineral springs on the Masterson farm near the townsite were attracting considerable attention at the time, and it was thought that a pop- ular resort could be built up there. The medicinal properties of the water were discovered by Dr. Rice, a local physician, and subsequently analyzed by experts, who confirmed Dr. Rice's conclusions, and a number of people claimed to have used the waters in liver, kidney and other complaints with good results. Henry C. Squires, afterwards a Potter banker, conceived the idea of establishing a health resort here, and named it in honor of James Gordon Bennett, who, it was thought, would use his influence towards get-
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
ting eastern capital interested in the project. The expected financial back- ing was not forthcoming, however, and the proposed development of the springs was never made.
In the meantime the railroad people had christened the town Potter, in honor of Hon. Joseph Potter, owner of the quarter section on which the town was laid out, and, while the name of the town still appears on the tax rolls as Bennett Springs, the original name having never been legally changed, the town is now generally known as Potter. Joseph Potter was the original settler, having preempted the land on which the town stands, in 1854, and the first sales of lots in Potter were deeded to their purchaser thirty-two years later direct from the Government preemption owner. The taking up of
Street Scene, Potter, Kansas
the land, filing, etc., cost Mr. Potter about $220 for 160 acres, and when it was divided up into town lots it brought him $200 an acre. Mr. Potter entered part of this land with a land warrant given him for services in the Mexican war.
The first lots in the town were sold to the late James Stalons, for many years a justice of the peace, preacher of the Gospel and prominent citizen of the county. The first house on the townsite was built by Thomas J. Potter in 1882, four years before the town was laid out. The house is still stand- ing. The first business house in the town was erected by Charles Klein, who operated a store there until his death. A year or two after Potter was
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
started the postoffice was removed from Mt. Pleasant to the place, and James B. Weir was the first postmaster. The first hotel was operated by Mrs. Elvira Pierce. Dr. Barnes had the first drug store, and was also the first physician ; Frank Blodgett, the first hardware store, and B. F. Shaw & Com- pany, the first furniture store. The first barber was Thomas Seever; the first blacksmith, Lou Chilson: the first butcher, John Yost; the first carpen- ter, P. H. Fleer; the first painters, George Brown and Grant Cass; the first stone masons, S. B. Morrow and Frank Maxwell; the first shoemaker, Pat- rick Murphy ; the first stock buyer, Henry Show; the first school teacher. Albert Limbaugh; the first railroad agent, C. L. Cherrie; the first lumber dealer, David Hudson ; the first harness maker, Harry Rickets ; the first rural mail carrier, Frank White. Frank Mayfield operated the first livery stable : the first elevator was built by James Hawley; the first church building was that of the Methodists. The first Methodist preacher was Rev. John W. Faubian, and the first Christian preacher, Rev. T. W. Cottingham. The first telephone exchange was operated by Charles and George Sprong. The first lodge was Echo Lodge, No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The first bank was the Potter State Bank. Potter has had three newspapers, the first, the Potter Press, was established by E. E. Campbell, in 1898. In 1900 Mr. and Mrs. Eppie Barber started the Potter Leaf. Three years later Charles B. Remsburg bought the Leaf's circulation and launched the Potter Kansan, which is now owned and published by his father, J. E. Remsburg.
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