USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 20
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"Aubrey and Weightman met kindly, shook hands, and conversed pleas- antly for a short time, when something having been said by a third person about the route by which Aubrey had arrived from California, Aubrey asked the major if he had yet published his paper in Albuquerque. The major said. no; that it was dead-had died a natural death from want of subscribers. Aubrey then said it should have died, because of the lies with which it was filled. This was said without excitement. When Weightman asked 'What lies ?' Aubrey remarked : 'When I returned from California last year you asked me for information in respect to my route, and afterwards you abused me.' This Weightman denied, saying, 'No, Aubrey, I did not abuse you.' Aubrey then said, more or less excited, 'I say you did, and I now repeat, it is a lie,' at the same time bringing his hand down with force upon the counter.
"At this Weightman, who was sitting on the counter, five or six feet from Aubrey, sprang down and approached Aubrey, who had been standing near the counter, and taking a glass from which Aubrey had been drinking (a toddy), threw the contents in his face. Weightman immediately stepped back, when Aubrey drew a pistol (Colt's belt pistol), the first shot from which took effect in the ceiling (supposed to have gone off while cocking).
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Weightman then drew a knife, and before another shot could be fired, closed with Aubrey and stabbed him in the abdomen, and soon after seized Aub- rey's pistol.
"The Messrs. Mercure rushed on and seized the parties. Aubrey rapidly sank, and as soon as he relinquished his pistol Weightman said : 'I did it in my own defense, and I will go and surrender myself to the authorities,' which he · did, accompanied by his friend, Major Cunningham. Aubrey died in a few minutes. He received but the one blow. Major Weightman has carried a bowie knife for his own protection for a year past, believing it to be necessary for him to do so. This was stated as the cause of his being armed. Aubrey was of the number of those who were inimical to him. The relations between Aubrey and Weightman had been heretofore of the most agreeable character."
Major Weightman was a resident of Atchison only a few years. At the outbreak of the war he joined the southern army, and lost his life in the battle of Wilson's Creek.
CHAPTER XIII.
AGRICULTURE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY-SCIENTIFIC FARMING-FARMERS, TIIE ARIS- TOCRACY OF THE WEST-MODERN IMPROVEMENT-TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL .- STATISTICS.
Atchison county is distinctively an agricultural community. There have been some earnest efforts made in the past to develop its mineral resources, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that future efforts in that direc- tion will unlock hidden resources of fabulous value. But in the future, as in the past, agriculture will be the big important dividend producer in this county. Up to this time it is not unfair to say that only the surface of the soil has been scratched. Farming has been the occupation of a very large portion of our people from the days when the first settlers took up their claims and with crude implements, broke the sod, down to this en- lightened age, of the riding plow and the traction engine, but scientific hus- bandry has not been followed on a large scale in this county. Crops have been so easy to produce, on account of rich soil and a favorable climate, that the methods employed in countries not so blessed and of a greater popula- tion, have not been followed in the past. This is not an arraignment of the former, for Atchison county has been peculiarly blessed in its possession of an intelligent lot of thrifty farmers. They have toiled and labored early and late ; they have built comfortable homes, accumulated fortunes, and are the sturdy, dependable citizens of the county, but for over sixty years they have lacked organization and the prosperous farmers have succeeded because of their own personal initiative, judgment and hard work. As a class they have not made the progress to which they are justly entitled. Those that came early and remained, have in most instances met with rare success, but they worked out their own salvation, unaided by scientific organization.
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One hundred and sixty of them have banded together for mutual help and have secured a county agricultural agent to assist them in this direction, as the rich country in the States east of us have been forced to do. The soil also has an abundance of potash and a creditable amount of phosphorus, so with the proper use of legumes and manure, with the addition of some phosphorus, the fertility of the soil may be increased and maintained in- definitely. If soil washing is stopped and the organic matter in the soil maintained, this county has a soil, that agriculturally speaking, is second to none.
The real aristocracy in the West, will, in future generations, trace its ancestry back to the pioneers, who settled on the land and tilled it. Those who went into trade and the professions when they came to Atchison county prior to 1860, and in subsequent years, have prospered, in part, by their wits, but in the main, on the farmer. The farmers were then, as now, the real wealth producers and so it has come to pass, after these many years, that the farmer "has arrived," and with the increase in population and the gen- eral trend of advancement and improvement in all human activities, farming now stands near the top of the big human enterprises. The desire for organ- ization and cooperation among the farmers is growing everywhere, and it has taken hold of Atchison county in recent years.
The farmer's life in this county, in the late fifties and early sixties, was a hard and lonely one. During those years many homesteads were preempted, fifteen to twenty-one miles southwest, west and northwest of Atchison, and onto these the young pioneers took their wives and families. There they built their log houses, "broke out" their land, and put it to corn and wheat. There were few neighbors, fewer creature comforts, and no conveniences. It was a solitary life.
This history contains biographical sketches of many of these pioneers, and in them will be found the intimate stories of hardships, privations and discomforts. They came to conquer the resources of nature, and they ac- complished what they came after. There were no highways over which to convey their crops when harvested, and the ways to the nearest market were long and dreary ones. It was a two days' trip over the prairies to Atchison with a load of grain, and there were few ways to economize time, although, fortunately, time was not an object then, as it is in these restless days.
And yet within the short span of the lives of farmers who are still here, there has been a marvelous development. Log houses have given way to fine commodious homes, steam heated and electric lighted; great barns shel-
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ter the stock, and house the grain; the telephone, the rural delivery and the automobile have revolutionized the farmer's life and the farmer's wife. Better roads are the order of the day, and it will be along this line that great progress will be made in the immediate future. Meanwhile, land values are on the increase, and the quarter sections that sold from $500 to $800 each, fifty years ago, are now bringing $16,000 to $24,000 each. Within the year 1915 there has been a general trend of sentiment among the more enterprising farmers to put farming upon a more scientific basis. The serv- ices of a farm adviser have been secured, whose duty it is to assist in this direction. They are learning more of food values, crop rotation and diversi- fication, soil culture and plant life. As the value of these things become · more apparent, the farming industry will thrive more, and in another gen- eration the problem of keeping the young men and young women on the farm will have been solved.
The richest and most valuable farming land in Atchison county is very generally distributed. There are parts of each township that are rough and broken, but as the population increases land not now regarded as choice will be made to produce abundant crops. The river bluffs, which have stood so long in timber, are gradually being cleared and the bare hills which are left, are admirably adapted to fruit, wheat and alfalfa. Much of this land is as well adapted to fruit raising as is the already famous Wathena district, some of it being exactly the same type of soil. All that is needed is that the fruit growers give their plantations care. The orchard that is properly cared for produces fruit of a quality far superior to that of the famous Northwest. Incidentally, this land returns the grower a greater net profit.
Atchison county lies within the glaciated portion of the plains region. The underlying rocks are buried by the glacial till, but in turn is covered by a deposit of fine silty material, known as loess. Practically all the soil throughout this country is derived from the loess covering. The principal soil is a brown, almost black, silty loam, well adapted to the production of general farm crops. The rainfall is sufficient for the maturing of all crops, the normal anual precipitation ranging from fifteen to twenty-five inches. Atchison county has a population ranging from 28,000 to 30,000 people. There was a slight decrease in the population between the years of 1900 and 1910, yet, in spite of this apparent unfavorable showing, the value of farm land and farm products have increased. About ninety-five per cent. of the land in this county is in farms, of an average value of $69.26 per acre. The proportionate land area is 263,680 acres, of which 249,339 acres are in farms,
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
with an aggregate land value of $17,270,130, which is more than double what it was in 1900, and over two million dollars more than the whole of the Louisiana Purchase cost us in 1803. Figures and statistics are proverbially dry and uninteresting, but there is no place in which they can be more ap- propriately used than in history, and no language that can be employed could tell a better story of the agricultural progress of Atchison county, than the statistics taken from the thirteenth census of the United States. From this source we find that the total value of improvements on the farms in this county in 1910 was $2,692,755, and that the value of the implements and machinery used by the farmers, not including automobiles, was $499,129. While the value of domestic animals and live stock was $2, 149,863, and in these figures poultry is not included. The chicken, duck, goose and turkey census reached 150,127, and these were valued at $77,926. The total value of all crops shown by the census of 1910 was as follows :
Cereals $1,928,065.00
Other grain and seeds
3,577.00
Hay and forage
281,793.00
Vegetables
94,232.00
Fruits and nuts
32,297.00
All other crops
30,883.00
Grand Total $2,370,847.00 Making a grand total of $2,370,847.00.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRESS.
INFLUENCE OF NEWSPAPERS-PART PLAYED BY THE EARLY PRESS-"SQUAT- TER SOVEREIGN"-"FREEDOM'S CHAMPION"-"CHAMPION AND PRESS," -PIONEER EDITORS-LATER NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSPAPER MEN.
Of all the mighty powers for good and evil, none can excel the news- paper. Take all the newspapers out of the world today and there would be chaos. Mankind would be groping in the dark, and life itself would be a vain and empty thing. Newspapers are the arteries through which the life- blood of the world runs. They carry to our firesides the continued story of civilization.
Early in the history of Atchison county, before the schools and the churches, the newspaper appeared. It received a bounty of the original town company when that association, September 21, 1854, by a resolution, donated $400 to Robert Kelley and Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, to start a printing office, and it was then that the Squatter Sovereign was conceived, and after a brief period of gestation, was born February 3, 1855. By a strange stroke of mis- fortune this first newspaper in the county stood for a wrong principle and preached bad doctrine, for it advocated human slavery. Yet it was a crea- ture of environment, and reflected the prevailing sentiment of its constituency. It was fearless in its attitude and rabid in its utterances. It was a violent organ of hate and bitterness toward all Free State men, and in it appeared a constant flood of inflammatory comment directed against those who op- posed slavery, and were determined that Kansas should be the land of the brave and the home of the free. But as the pro-slavery cause waned, the Squatter Sovereign waned with it, and in the fall of 1857, when saner coun- sel and the feeling of brotherhood grew, the town company disposed of its
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
interest in the Squatter Sovereign to the New England Aid Society, of which S. C. Pomeroy was agent, and the paper then passed into the hands of Rob- ert McBratney and Franklin G. Adams. Mr. Adams and Mr. McBratney were both Free Soilers, but they did not run the paper long. It was shortly sold to O. F. Short, who ran it until the following February, and on the twen- tieth day of that month, 1858, John A. Martin purchased the plant and changed the name of the paper to Freedom's Champion. Under that name Colonel Martin made of his paper one of the leading Free State organs of the Territory. Always a brilliant editor, of courage and deep convictions, Colonel Martin during his whole career never performed a greater service than during the time he shouted the battle-cry of freedom through the col- umns of Freedom's Champion, from 1858 to 1861. In September of the lat- ter year, he laid aside his pen and took up his sword in defense of the prin- ciples he so stoutly advocated, and thus translated his words into deeds. When he went to the front he left the Champion in charge of George I. Stebbins. who continued in charge until the fall of 1863, when it was leased to John J. Ingalls and Robert H. Horton. These two men afterwards became political rivals. Both were lawyers and both residents of Atchison for many years. Horton was a typical lawyer, smooth and tactful, who enjoyed a suc- cessful career in the practice of his profession and on the bench. Ingalls was of a different temperament, being more intellectual, caring little for the law, less tactful, but ambitious. They both met in the arena of politics, and Horton was the vanquished. Following the senatorial election of 1879, at which they were both candidates, they became bitter enemies, and did not speak until they met, by chance, in London, in 1891. While these two men were editors of the Champion, Ingalls did most of the writing and kept things warm until the return of Colonel Martin from the war in January, 1865, one of the Nation's heroes. Three months after his return, on the twenty-second day of March, 1865, Colonel Martin became the publisher of a daily paper, and on August 11, 1868, the Freedom's Champion was consolidated with the Atchison Free Press, under the name of Champion and Press. The Free Press was a Republican daily paper, and first appeared May 5, 1864, with Franklin G. Adams as its editor and proprietor. In April, 1865, Frank A. Root became a partner, and subsequently, L. R. Elliott, who had been an assistant editor, became a proprietor, with Mr. Root retiring later, when the paper was consolidated with the Champion.
The office of the Champion and Press was destroyed by fire May 20, 1869, but three weeks later the paper was in running order, with John A.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Martin as sole editor and proprietor, and from that date until the death of Mr. Martin October 2, 1889, it remained one of the most influential and prosperous papers in the State of Kansas.
Upon the death of Mr. Martin, the newspaper property was turned over to his father-in-law, WV. L. Challiss, as executor of Mr. Martin's estate, and on the day of Mr. Martin's death the name of Phillip Krohn appears as man- aging editor. Krohn occupied that important place until March 29. 1890, when his name appeared for the last time as editor. Dr. Phillip Krohn was a man of brilliant attainments, a fluent writer, and a pleasing public speaker. He was a Methodist minister by profession, but, althouh he occupied the pulpit upon occasions, his name was seldom taken seriously in connection with religious work. From the date of Governor Martin's death the paper gradually waned in influence. The paper remained the property of the estate of Governor Martin, and Luther C. Challiss was editor and manager, until October II, 1894, when A. J. Felt, an ex-lieutenant governor of Kansas, be- came its editor and proprietor. The paper did not prosper under the man- agement of Mr. Felt, and four years later a company was organized by Charles M. Sheldon, a promoter, and Mr. Sheldon became its editor May 2, 1898. Mr. Sheldon was an enthusiastic and aggressive individual, who had very little respect for the value of money, which he spent so lavishly that two months later, July 1, 1898, his name appeared for the last time as edi- tor of the Champion. On the twentieth of that month the paper was sold to satisfy a mortgage and the property was re-purchased by A. J. Felt, who immediately transferred it to the Champion Linotype Printing Company, a partnership, composed of Edward Skinner, George T. Housen, Charles O. Hovatter, James McNamara and A. J. Felt. Mr. Felt again resumed the editorial management of the paper, and remained in charge until January 1, 1899.
February 3, 1899. Henry Kuhn, who surveyed the townsite of Atchi- son, returned to the city with his son, James G. Kuhn. They made a heroic effort to restore the lost prestige of the Champion, but soon became dis- couraged, and in the latter part of May or early in the June following, they gave up the ghost and silently disappeared. The mortgagees continued the publication of the paper, and July 31, 1899. the name of John A. Reynolds appears as business manager. It had no editor until August 23, 1899, when James G. Day, Jr., a young lawyer, occupying a desk in the office of Wag- gener, Horton & Orr, became editor and manager. Mr. Day ran a daily until January 9, 1900, when it was discontinued. The following March he
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
published a daily for one week, "as the devil would run it," a piece of cyni- cism in reply to an effort the Topeka Capital made a short time before, when that paper was turned over to Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, the eminent Con- gregational preacher, who ran that paper one week, "As Jesus would run it."
Meanwhile, the Champian had its ups and downs, but did not die. A daily again appeared April 22, 1901, with Ewing Herbert, one of the cele- brated newspaper men of Kansas, as its editor and owner. Mr. Herbert was at that time the owner of the Brown County Warld, at Hiawatha. He conceived the idea that Atchison offered an attractive field for a newspaper venture, and he succeeded in interesting some local capital in his enterprise. Capt. John Seaton was a stockholder, among others, and Jay House, the present mayor of Topeka (1915) and a brilliant newspaper paragrapher, was city editor. Mr. Herbert spent only part of his time in Atchison, and turned over the management of the Champion to Mr. House. It looked for a time as if Mr. Herbert was going to make a success of his venture, but just at the height of his prosperity he was guilty of an editorial indiscretion, which turned some powerful influences against the paper, and on August 17, 1901, Mr. Herbert gave up his effort as a bad job and turned the plant over to one W. A. Robinson, formerly of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Robinson was a follower of Henry George, the great single taxer, and conceived it to be his duty to spread the single tax propaganda through the editorial columns of the Cham- pion. His efforts in this direction did not prove profitable, and becoming disheartened and discouraged he fled from the city shortly thereafter, a much poorer but wiser man.
The Champion next fell into the hands of Corman H. Young, for many years a successful music merchant, of Atchison, who incidentally acquired a small job printing plant, which he operated on North Fifth street, and which he subsequently merged with the Champion plant, having acquired that by paying off the mortgage which Mr. Robinson gave Ewing Herbert at the time he undertook to acquire the property. Mr. Young ran a weekly paper for a number of years, until May, 1907, when he employed Walt Mason, the famous prose poet of the United States, to assume the editorial management of a daily. Mr. Mason many years before had been a resident of Atchison, and ran the Globe during the absence of Mr. Howe in Europe. He was not so famous in 1907 as he is in 1915, but he was just as brilliant. He pub- lished the daily Champion on pink paper and filled it with columns of edi- torial matter and humorous running comment on current affairs. Mr. Mason had a wonderful capacity for work and could prepare more "copy" in one
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
day than all the other writers on the paper could prepare in a week. Dur- ing the summer of 1907, Sheffield Ingalls, having returned from the legisla- ture, where he was a member of the house of representatives, became an edi- torial writer on the Champion. November 20, 1907, Mr. Young prevailed upon Mr. Ingalls to give up his other work and become editor of the paper. As Mr. Ingalls walked into the office, Mr. Mason walked out, never to re- turn. Mr. Ingalls remained editor and manager of the Champion until Oc- tober 6, 1909, having been frustrated in plans he had made to acquire the property as his own. Mr. Young continued to run the paper until July 1, 19II, when Mr. Ingalls, with the assistance of J. C. Killarney, succeeded in organizing a company, which purchased the paper and turned it over to Eu- gene C. Pulliam, as editor. Mr. Pulliam was a young man, who had served his apprenticeship on the Kansas City Star as a reporter. He was a good writer, but lacked experience and business judgment, and while he made a vigorous effort to run the paper, and had the benefit of strong financial con- nections, he did not succeed, and September 1, 1914, he turned the paper over to Sheffield Ingalls as trustee, and it was subsequently sold to A. S. Andereck and his brother, A. P. Andereck, of Kankakee, Ill. A few months later a company was organized, composed of the Andereck brothers, O. A. Simmons, vice-president of the First National Bank. Wilbur C. Hawk and Sheffield Ingalls, who in 1915 are conducting the paper, and it is enjoying its most prosperous days since the death of its brilliant editor, John A. Martin.
In 1877 there came to Atchison a young man who subsequently became one of the famous editors of the United States, Edgar Watson Howe. Mr. Howe was born in Wabash county, Indiana, May 3, 1854, a son of Henry and Elizabeth Howe. When he was about three years of age his family re- moved to Bethany, Harrison county, Missouri, where the father, a Meth- odist preacher, published a newspaper of strong abolition sentiments. The younger Mr. Howe served an apprenticeship at the printer's trade in his father's office, and in 1868 started out for himself. He visited various cities, working at the case to earn money to pay his way from one place to another, and at the age of eighteen became the publisher of the weekly Globe, at Golden, Colo. From there he went to Falls City, Neb., where he published a newspaper, subsequently coming to Atchison, and established the Daily Globe. When Mr. Howe reached Atchison, the Champion, under the man- agement of John A. Martin, was the most powerful newspaper organ in the northern half of Kansas, and the field here was none too promising on this account. However, Mr. Howe proceeded to publish a paper of an entirely
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
different type than that published by Mr. Martin. It was a small sheet, and was devoted to "gab, gossip and paid locals," and for over thirty years this policy was successfully maintained by Mr. Howe. It was unique in the journalistic world, and under the management of Mr. Howe it acquired a National reputation, chiefly because of the quaint, homely philosophy it con- tained and the unusual treatment he gave the ordinary incidents of human life. As a reporter of this class of news, Mr. Howe was perhaps without a peer in the country. For over thirty years he tramped the streets of Atchi- son with note-book and pencil, and to practically every item he turned in he gave a peculiar twist, which reflected a remarkable insight of human nature. With Mr. Howe were associated Miss Frances L. Garside, Ralph ("Doc") Tennal, Miss Nellie Webb and J. E. Rank. To each of them Mr. Howe was indebted for much of the success the Globe attained. The death of Col. John A. Martin and the collapse of the Champion, that followed, gave Mr. Howe his opportunity, and for the greater part of his active newspaper career in Atchison lie had the field to himself. The Globe was a great financial success, and in one year it has been said that Mr. Howe .cleared close to $24,000 on his property. "Doc" Tennal was the first one of Mr. Howe's faithful associates to break up the Globe family. Mr. Tennal was a remarkable reporter of local news, but being ambitious and realizing the lim- itations by which he was surrounded, he concluded to acquire a newspaper property of his own, and in pursuance of that plan, he bought the Sabetha Herald in 1905, subsequently relinquishing it to become editor of the Kansas City Weekly Star. He returned some years later to Sabetha, and re-pur- chased the Herald plant. and is now the editor of that prosperous and pro- gressive paper (1915).
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