USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 7
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The act of the Territorial legislature of Kansas incorporating the city of Atchison was approved February 12, 1858, and it provided for the election of a mayor and councilmen. The charter was voted upon and accepted by the people at a special election held March 2, 1858, and the first mayor and council were elected at a special election March 13, 1858. The charter pro- vided for an annual city election at that time to be held on the first Monday in September, and consequently the first mayor and councilmen of the city, elected in March, held their offices only until the following September. Sam- uel C. Pomeroy was the first mayor of the city, holding his office from March, 1858, until May, 1859. Pomeroy was one of the prominent Free State settlers and was one of its most popular citizens. His election as mayor was the result of the toss of a coin. A temporary truce having been effected between the Southerners and the Free State men, it was agreed that a compromise in local affairs would be beneficial to the community. By the toss of a coin the Free State men won the mayor and three councilmen, and the pro-slavery men had four councilmen. Pomeroy was named by the Free State men as mayor. Pomeroy subsequently became actively identified with the Massachusetts Emi- grant Aid Association, in the distribution of aid to the stricken people of Kansas following the great drouth of 1860, and it was largely because of his identification with this organization that he was enabled to place aid where it would do the most good, and he subsequently became one of the first United States senators from Kansas. When he was a resident of Atchison he lived at the corner of North Terrace and Santa Fe streets, but later he moved to a
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tract of land near Muscotah, and during the twelve years he was senator he claimed the latter place as his home. It was when he asked for a third term as United States senator that he was exposed on the floor of the State senate by Senator York, who arose in his place and, advancing to the secretary's desk, placed $7,000.00 in cash thereon, which he alleged Pomeroy had given him to influence his vote. Many have always believed that Senator Pomeroy was greatly wronged by this act of York. Ex-Governor George W. Glick, him- self a Democrat and a leading citizen of Atchison in the early days, was a very warm friend of Pomeroy and always expressed indignation when he heard Pomeroy abused, not only about his conduct in connection with the Emigrant Aid Association, but also in connection with his downfall politically. It was the contention of Governor Glick that Pomeroy's fall was the result of a con- spiracy and not because of general bribery. However, Pomeroy never rose to political prominence after this incident and ended his days in Washington, D. C., where he lived for a number of years prior to his death.
Associated with Pomeroy as the first mayor of Atchison, were the follow- ing citizens : John F. Stein, Jr. register ; E. B. Grimes, treasurer ; Milton R. Benton, marshal; A. E. Mayhew, city attorney; W. O. Gould, city engineer ; M. R. Benton, by virtue of his office as marshal, was also street commissioner ; H. L. Davis, assessor: Dr. J. W. Hereford, city physician. The board of appraisers was composed of Messrs. Petfish, Roswell and Gaylord. The first councilmen were William P. Childs, O. F. Short, Luther C. Challiss, Corne- lius E. Logan, S. F. Walters, James A. Headley, Charles Holbert. John F. Stein, who was register, resigned his office in August, and R. L. Pease was appointed to succeed him. In the following August the city was divided into three wards, the first ward being entitled to four councilmen, the second ward to two, and the third ward to three. At the first meeting of the council, which was held March 15. 1858, an ordinance was adopted providing for a special election for the purpose of submitting a proposition to take $100,000.00 of stock in a proposed railroad from St. Joseph, Mo., to some point opposite Atchison on the Missouri river. The election was held and the stock was subscribed for. Mayor Pomeroy was appointed agent of the proposed road, which was to be known as the Atchison & St. Joseph Railroad Company. A further account of the development of railroad building from Atchison will occur in a subsequent chapter. The council at this session also fixed the sal- ary of the mayor, and in spite of the freedom of those days, saloons were ordered to be closed on Sunday, and other stringent regulations were passed in connection with the liquor traffic. The first financial statement of the city, of date September 5. 1859, is as follows :
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
General city tax, 1858 $ 5,927.70
Fines imposed by mayor's court
186.50
Dray and wagon licenses 192.00
Dram shop licenses
1.787.76
Beer house licenses
IOI.33
Shows
I30.00
Billiard tables
225.00
Registry of dogs
50.00
Assessment on C street from River to Fourth. .
3.381.00
Total
$12,008.29
Amount of scrip and orders issued on general fund to December 15, 1858 . . $ 6.317.17
Amount of scrip and orders issued on general fund to September 5, 1859 3,140.53
Scrip issued toward building jail 1,675.00
Scrip issued for grading streets, curbing, etc ... 10,105.39
Total
$21,238.09
General deficit
$ 9,229.79
The fact that Mayor Pomeroy had strongly urged in his inaugural address the importance of grading and improving the streets of the city "especially Atchison, Second and Fourth streets, and the levee," possibly accounts for the indebtedness of the city at so early a date. There was a general inclina- tion among the citizens of Atchison to build a modern city in accordance with the standards of the times, and therefore they were anxious to follow the mayor's advice to put their streets and alleys in order.
One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most diffi- cult tasks in tracing the settlement of a community, is to correctly catalogue the establishment of the first settler, the first house, the first business insti- tution, and the first of everything, and it could with safety be said that this is not only an interesting and difficult task but it is well nigh an impossible one. This is not to be wondered at when we take into account the rush and confusion which always attend the settlement of a new community. How- ever, it has now become an established fact that George M. Million was the
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
first white settler in the Territory, with Samuel Dickson a close second. There was some dispute about who built the first house in the town of Atchison, but we have resolved all doubt in favor of Dickson, just as we have decided that George T. Challiss established the first business house. The Challiss brothers, George, Luther and William all played an important part in the very early history of the county. They were in business and in the professions, and they were all land owners, selecting the choicest tracts "close in" and holding onto them, none too wisely or too well, for their tenacity in this respect later resulted in their undoing. The leading lawyers in the county during those days were M. J. Ireland, A. G. Otis, Isaac Hascall, James A. Headley, A. E. Mayhew, J. T. Hereford, P. H. Larey, Joseph P. Carr and B. F. String- fellow. Horton, Foster, Ingalls, and General Bela M. Hughes came later. Hascall carried a card in the Squatter Sovereign, advertising his legal head- quarters as the Border Ruffian Law Office.
In addition to the names of merchants and professional men heretofore given, "Andreas' History of Kansas" gives the following list: Grafton Thom- assen, the slave owner, ran a sawmill. Thomassen's name appears in the records of Atchison county in connection with land transfers as Grafton Thomason; Luther C. Challiss, who occupied a store on the levee. 45 by 100 feet which he filled with dry goods and groceries, and advertised "such an assortment as was never before offered for sale in the upper country"; Samuel Dickson, a merchant and politician and also an auctioneer, on the north side of C street ; Lewis Burnes, M. P. Rively and Stephen Johnson carried stocks of assorted merchandise ; A. J. G. Westbrook, a grocer, and Patrick Laughlin, who fled from Doniphan on account of the murder of Collins, the Free State man, was a tinner; William C. Null and Albert G. Schmitt operated a ware- house and carried a general stock of merchandise at the corner of Second and C streets; Charles E. Woolfolk and Robert H. Cavell had a large store and warehouse at the steamboat landing ; George M. Million operated the Pioneer Saloon ; John Robertson conducted a saddlery and harness business; Messrs. Jackson & Ireland were a contracting firm with a shop over Samuel Dickson's store; Uncle Sam Clothing Store, at the corner of C and Third streets, was conducted by Jacob Saqui & Company ; Giles B. Buck sold stoves on C street ; O. B. Dickson was proprietor of the Atchison House; Drs. J. H. Stringfellow and D. M. McVay were the leading physicians; and it is interesting to note that Washburn's Great American Colossal Circus, which was the first in Kansas, gave two exhibitions in Atchison, July 31, 1856. This aggregation carried three clowns, a full brass and string band and an immense pavilion, and many other novel and attractive features.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Fully fifty new buildings were erected during the spring and summer of 1856.
During this period in the history of the county, Free State people began to come into their own. They grew bolder, following the compromise with the pro-slavery citizens, over the question of the distribution of city officers and because of other concessions that were made by the pro-slavery citizens for the general good of the community. It was not strange, therefore, that some of the less tactful and politic Free State leaders should over-reach themselves at such a time. While the "Reign of Terrorism" under the Stringfellow regime was on, the Free State men in Atchison county considered discretion the better part of valor. They were very quiet, with few exceptions, of whom Pardee Butler was a conspicuous example, but they were nevertheless quite numerous in the county, and particularly was this the case in and around Mon- rovia, Eden and Ocena ; in fact, there was an organization of Free State men in the county as early as 1857, and several quiet meetings were held that year ; and at Monrovia a society was formed, of which Franklin G. Adams was the chief officer and spokesman.
Early in May, 1857, Senator Pomeroy and the Free State men bought the Squatter Sovereign from Dr. Stringfellow, and Mr. Adams and Robert McBratney became its editors. Mr. Adams was just as ardent a Free State man as Dr. Stringfellow was the other way, so the policy of the paper was completely reversed. Judge Adams was a lawyer and partner of John J. Ingalls for a while. He represented Atchison county in the constitutional convention that met in Mineola March 23. 1858 and which subsequently ad- journed to Leavenworth. Caleb May, G. M. Fuller, C. A. Woodworth and H. E. Baker were the other delegates from Atchison county. Judge Adams was later one of the useful men of Kansas, and at the time of his death he was secretary of the State Historical Society, which position he filled with credit and honor for many years. On August 22, 1858, following the local compromise with the pro-slavery leaders, Judge Adams concluded the time was ripe to invite James H. Lane, the great Free State leader, to Atchison, to make a speech. He consequently served notice in his paper that Lane would be in Atchison October 19. As soon as it was generally known that Lane had been invited to speak in Atchison a number of the more rabid pro-slavery men concluded that the speaking would not take place. On the other hand, Judge Adams was just as determined that Lane would have a public meeting in Atchison. For the purpose of insuring order on that occasion Adams in- vited a number of strong and reliable Free State friends from Leavenworth
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
to come up to Atchison and see that fair play was done. The invitation to the Leavenworth Free Soilers was accepted with alacrity and they arrived on the morning of the day Lane was billed to make hi's speech and brought with them their side arms as a matter of precaution. They made the office of Adams, Swift & Company their headquarters while here. Shortly after the arrival of the Leavenworth contingent and while sitting in his office Judge Adams noticed a crowd gathering on Commercial street, near Fifth. Sus- pecting that the crowd had gathered for no good purpose, Judge Adams and six of his friends started for the scene of what appeared to him to be a disturbance. On their way they met Caleb A. Woodworth, Sr., hatless and apparently in trouble. As Judge Adams stopped to make inquiries of Mr. Woodworth regarding his trouble somebody from the rear assaulted him with a heavy blow on the cheek. Instead of following the Biblical injunc- tion he did not turn his other cheek, but swung quickly in his tracks and lev- elled a pistol at his assailant, who was accompanied by a crowd of his friends, all armed and with blood in their eyes. As Judge Adams was about to pull the trigger of his gun a friend of Judge Adams shouted, "Don't shoot yet!" following which admonition all of the crowd displayed cocked revolvers and aimed them in the direction of Judge Adams and his crowd. Observing that the Free Soilers meant business, the pro-slavery men discreetly withdrew without further trouble, and the Free Soil men returned to the office of Judge Adams. It was then determined that the meeting should be an out-of-door one, and as they passed out into the street, again the pro-slavery advocates mixed freely with the Free Soilers. A. J. W. Westbrook, of the "Home Guards," mounted on a prancing horse, rode among the crowd, flourishing a cocked gun, apparently seeking to kill Judge Adams at the first favorable opportunity. It has been doubted that Westbrook meant business, but his conduct had the effect of stirring up his followers who avowed that Jim Lane should not speak in Atchison that night. His threatening attitude ap- parently had the desired effect, for the Free Soil men decided that it was not necessary for the existence of their cause that Jim Lane should speak and therefore postponed the speaking. Judge Adams was not altogether pleased but he was finally prevailed upon to return home without attempting further trouble. Later in the day a party of Free Soil men met General Lane on the outskirts of the city, returning from Doniphan where he had been speaking, and prevailed upon him not to come to Atchison. This was not the first attempt of Lane to visit Atchison county. He was entertained at dinner in 1855 at the home of Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, whose house occupied the site
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
where the home of Ex-Governor W. J. Bailey now stands. The fact that Lane was a guest of Dr. Stringfellow will appear strange to those who knew nothing of the Stringfellow family. While they were belligerent pro-slavery advocates, they were always high class men with decent instincts and there- fore it would not be unusual for them to open their home to so violent an opponent of theirs as Lane was. The eastern papers, in giving an account of Lane's entertainment at the Stringfellow home, stated that the dinner was
pagne. Mrs. Stringfellow told E. W. Howe in 1894 that Lane came to the a very elaborate one, including oysters, plum pudding, terrapin and cham-
house about II o'clock in the morning attended by a body-guard of four men and inquired for Dr. Stringfellow. The Doctor was away at the time, but was expected about noon. The men said that they would wait, where- upon Mrs. Stringfellow knew that she would probably have them for dinner.
asked to remain at the house. Dr. Stringfellow came in about noon and Her girl was just getting ready to go somewhere on an errand and was
when the two men met in the yard Stringfellow asked Lane if he was not afraid to call at his house. "I am not afraid," Lane replied. "to call on a gentleman anywhere." This gallantry captured Mrs. Stringfellow's admira- tion and she invited Lane and his body-guard to dinner, which, contrary to
the report in the eastern papers, was a very simple one. Mrs. Stringfellow. in her interview with Mr. Howe, said that it was as follows: Coffee, hot biscuits and butter, cold pie, preserves and milk; no terrapin, no oysters, no champagne, no plum pudding. Lane called at the house on a matter of busi- iness and Mrs. Stringfellow said that Lane and his body-guard were very
kindly genteel men. Two or three weeks later, when Mrs. Stringfellow was alone in the house, she saw a wagon pass in the road with three or four men lying down in it. Presently another wagon, similarly loaded, attracted her attention. Then came four men and a woman on horseback and sev- eral men on foot. The people came from down town, or from southwest of town. The circumstances were peculiar, and Mrs. Stringfellow climbed on top of a table and watched the men through the upper sash of a window. They stopped in a little glade northeast of the house, when the woman dismounted from the horse, took off the skirt and turned out to be Jim Lane. He stood beside the horse and talked possibly half an hour. Mrs. Stringfellow is cer- tain the speaker was Lane, because she had seen him only a few weeks be- tore, and he rode the white horse he had ridden when he stopped at her house, and the same four men composed the body-guard. Lane had threat- ened to make a speech in the town but had been warned not to, as he had been
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
warned two years earlier. He made his speech in spite of the warning, but his audience was composed of his friends only. A half hour after Lane dis- appeared over the hill toward the farm then owned by John Taylor, some distance south of the Orphans' Home, forty mounted southerners appeared looking for him. Mrs. Stringfellow knew John Scott, the leader, and told him of the incident. The men laughed and then gave three rousing cheers for Jim Lane, who had outwitted them.
A
Forest Park. Atchison, Kansas
While there was a tremendous traffic across the plains from Atchison in 1857, 1858 and 1859. and for a number of years later the "town was alive with business," it is only fair to record that the town itself was not a thing of beauty and a joy forever, in spite of the efforts of Mayor Pomeroy and the city fathers who put the city in debt to the extent of $9,000, September 5, 1859, for public improvements.
Frank A. Root in his admirable book, "The Overland Stage to Cali- fornia," published in 1901, has this to say in part upon his arrival here in November, 1858:
"It was in November, 1858, that I first set foot on the levee in Atchison. I stepped from the steamer, 'Omaha,' which boat was discharging its cargo of freight at the foot of Commercial street. At that time the place was a
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
very small town. I took up my residence in Atchison the following spring, having this time come up the river on a steamboat from Weston where I had been employed as a compositor in the office of the Platte Argus. On land- ing at Atchison I had a solitary dime in my pocket, and, after using that to pay for my lunch, I started out in search of a job. A sign over the office which read : 'Freedom's Champion, John A. Martin, Editor and Publisher,' attracted my attention. It hung above the door of the only newspaper office in the city at that time, but preparations were then being made by Gideon O. Chase, of Waverly, N. Y., to start the Atchison Union, which was to be a Democratic paper. I secured a place in the Champion office, beginning work the following morning. As I walked about the town I remember of hav- ing seen but four brick buildings on Commercial street. A part of the second story of one of them, about half a square west of the river, was occupied by the Champion. The Massasoit House was the leading hotel. The Planters, a two-story frame house, was a good hotel in those early days, but it was too far out to be convenient, located as it was, on the corner of Com- mercial and Sixth streets. West of Sixth there were but few scattering dwellings and perhaps a dozen business houses and shops. The road along Commercial street, west of Sixth, was crooked, for it had not been graded and the streets were full of stumps and remnants of a thick growth of under- brush that had previously been cut. A narrow, rickety bridge was spanning White Clay creek where that stream crosses Commercial street at Seventh street. Between Sixth and Seventh streets, north of Commercial street there was a frog pond occupying most of the block, where the boys pulled dog- grass in highwater, and where both boys and girls skated in winter. The Exchange hotel on Atchison street. between Second and the Levee, built of logs-subsequently changed to the National-was the principal hotel of Atch- ison, and for more than a quarter of a century stood as an old familiar land- mark, built in early territorial days.
"Atchison was the first Kansas town visited by Horace Greeley. It was Sunday morning, May 15. 1859, a few days before beginning his overland journey across the continent by stage. He came through Missouri by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, thence down the Missouri river from St. Joseph on the 'Platte Valley,' a steamer then running to Kansas City in connection with trains on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. It was in the old Massasoit House that Greeley wrote on Kansas soil, his first letter to the Tribune. During the latter part of the afternoon he was driven over the
6
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
city in a carriage, John A. Martin being one of the party. The city was a favorite place of Albert D. Richardson, the noted correspondent of five eastern newspapers.
"It was at Atchison that Abraham Lincoln, on his first visit to Kansas, spoke to a crowded house on 'The Issues of the Day,' December 2, 1859, the date that old John Brown was executed in Virginia. Lincoln spoke in the Methodist church, which then stood on the hill at the corner of Fifth and Parallel streets. The little church was a frame building, dedicated in May, 1859, and overlooked a considerable portion of the city. The house after- wards became quite historic, for during the early part of the Civil war, the patriotic Rev. Milton Mahin, a stanch Union man, from Indiana, in a patriotic speech, soon after the Civil war broke out, had the nerve, and was the first minister of the Gospel in Atchison, to raise the Stars and Stripes over his house of worship." D. W. Wilder, in his "Annals of Kansas," one of the most wonderful books of its kind ever published, says that Abraham Lincoln arrived in Elwood, which is just across from St. Joseph, December I, 1859, and made his speech there that evening. He was met at St. Joseph by M. W. Delahay and D. W. Wilder. The speech that Lincoln delivered at Elwood and at Atchison was the same speech that he subsequently delivered at the Cooper Institute, New York City, and was considered as one of the ablest and clearest ever delivered by an American statesman.
Atchison county was making forward strides at a rapid pace and the fu- ture held out every promise of prosperity, but in 1859 "a great famine fell upon the land." It did more to depopulate Kansas than all the troubles of preced- ing years. The settlers in the Territory were able to fight border ruffians with more courage than they could endure starvation, and during all of their earlier troubles they confidently looked forward to the time when all of their political difficulties would be settled and prosperity, peace and contentment would be their share in life. During the years of 1855. 1856 and 1857 the cit- izens of the Territory were unable to take advantage of the then favorable seasons to do more than raise just sufficient for their immediate needs. Dur- in the next year immigration to Kansas was large and the new settlers had but little time, in addition to building their homes, to raise barely enough for home consumption, so in 1859 Kansas had only enough grain on hand to last until the following harvest. The drought commenced in June, and from the nineteenth of that month until November, 1860, not a shower of rain fell of any consequence. By fall the ground was parched and the hot winds that blew from the south destroyed vegetation and the wells and springs went
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
dry. There were a few localities on bottom lands along the Missouri river where sufficient crops were raised to supply the immediate population, but over 60,000 people in Kansas faced starvation in the fall of 1860. Thirty thousand settlers left the Territory for their old homes, from which they came, abandoning their claims and all hope of success in Kansas. An end- less procession crossed the border from day to day. About 70,000 inhabitants remained, of whom it was estimated 40,000 were able to go through the winter. As soon as the news of this situation reached the East, movements were inaugurated for the relief of the sufferers in Kansas. S. C. Pomeroy was appointed general agent of northern Kansas. He did much to raise liberal contributions in New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and the contributions were all sent to Atchison, from which place they were distributed to the different counties of the State. The total re- ceipts of provisions for distribution up to March 15, 1861, were 8,090,951 pounds, and the total distribution at Atchison, exclusive of branch depots, was 6.736,424 pounds. In spite of all of this assistance over 30,000 settlers in Kansas that year suffered privation and almost starvation.
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