USA > Kansas > Butler County > History of Butler County Kansas > Part 39
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solicitious for the comfort and cleanliness of her family that she in- sisted on loading in a keg of soft soap and after getting several miles from home discovered that she had forgotten her shoes and stockings and was wearing a child's hood upon her head with the summer sunshine pouring down upon her.
My husband and Mr. Carns returned to the homesteads to see if there were any signs of trouble, but the humble homes were unmolested and the few cattle and horses were grazing peacefully on the hills. However, we tarried one more night at El Dorado and then returned to our homes. Later on it was learned that the Cheyenne Indians had passed north of us near Marion, Marion county, going to Council Grove to fight the Kaws who were stationed near there. Although they helped themselves to everything they wanted in the line of eatables, etc., no lives were taken, but many women and children had an experience that will long be remembered.
Many people left the country for good while those few who had the courage and perserverance necessary to battle with the hardships and privations incident to opening up a new country are now among our most substantial citizens. Although they have since fought grasshop- pers, drouths and other pestilences they are still standing up for Kan- sas.
EARLY SCHOOLS IN EL DORADO.
By the Late Dr. E. Cowles.
I made my first visit to Butler county in 1868. El Dorado at that time had only rough buildings of native lumber, nailed up and down as a barn and nothing inside over the studding. I filed on eighty acres of land, the Mendenhall property west of the city, bought a lot in town and proceeded to build a house. On July 30, 1868, I taught my first school and the first schcool taught in El Dorado, a three-month term. The school room was situated on the east side of South Main street and near its intersection of Second avenue. It was illy fitted for the purpose compared with what I had been used to in New Eng- land. During the following years of 1868 and 1870, I taught a number of successive terms ; my second being in a room on the west side of Main street, nearly opposite the site of the first. The next school term was begun by T. R. Wilson. but being one of the school board, he engaged me to finish the last half of the term, soon after, and upon the completition of the first school building erected on the town site- built of stone on the southwest corner of First avenue and Washing- ton street. This building with (then) modern desks and improve- ments was a very acceptable place for a good school. Here public meetings were held, as houses for such were few. Here, too, a union Sabbath school was organized under my supervision.
During this period of service in the school room the practice of
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medicine had been laid aside. During the succeeding three years the demands in practice occupied most of my time. The public schools of the county were demanding new and increased interests, such as the formation of new districts, the erection of school houses and the other needful work incident to a rapidly increasing population.
A TORNADO.
By Mrs. B. F. Adams, in 1895.
The people of the Eastern States have an idea that Kansas is the home of the cyclone and the hurricane. We once combatted their errors, but have long since quit it as unprofitable. This is no longer a pioneer land. The fact is that Kansas is no more subject to such disturbances of the atmosphere than other States and not so much as many. When they do come they are usually "twisters." i. e., cyclones. Here is one that was quite general in the county, resulting in the loss of several lives and the wrecking of much property, especially the lightly built "claim" houses of those days. This was in the nature of a tornado. A striaght blow from the northwest. The late Mrs. B. F. Adams told the story of its work of devastation: How vividly the picture is photographied on the tablets of memory of all who were resi- dents of El Dorado at the close of that eventful day, June 16, 1871. At this time we see little but a sad picture to present, which shows us fully "there is a time to laugh and a time to weep." The day had been intensely hot and as the sun had nearly completed his round, a cloud commenced forming in the northwest. As I lay in my bed with my new-born son, Spencer, south of town (now the F. M. Myers estate) my position was such that I had full view of the cloud from its incep- tion that forboded ill to the town. Its appearance really seemed in- describable ; apparently a great wall of inky blackness, from which came the vivid electrical flashes, grand in one sense, yet behind it were the missiles of destruction and death. Soon there was a rumbling sound "as the rushing of a mighty wind," and so it was. A moment later, about 7:30, that bank of blackness had burst upon us in all its fury. and continued with but little cessation for an hour and a half. The appalling sensation at such times cannot be described ; it is only re- alized when felt, and at these times do we fully feel how frail we are and our utter helplessness. Our house, although rocked like a cradle, was left standing. He who stills the winds saw fit to save and shelter 11s and for which our hearts turned with gratitude. Buff Wood, living immediately north of ns, had his house broken and twisted so it was not safe, picked up his sick wife (Bessie Carey) and sought shelter with us, Mrs. Fetterman, Mrs. Wood's sister, with her baby following them through the beating storm, crawling and feeling their way along as best they could. Just north of them lived a widow and her two
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daughters by the name of Leard, whose house and the contents were entirely swept away and the mother badly hurt. They, too, crawled to our place for shelter and all that came to us for shelter were bruised and beaten by the hailstones. They were indeed a pitable sight ond we tendered them all the hospitality in our power. Mrs. McCabe was tenderly binding up wounds and pouring "oil in wine." We could not make a fire for our shivering guests and dry clothing was a scarce article with us. Nothing could be found dry but a couple of pairs of my husband's pantaloons and the same of shirts. But there was no query about shape or fit. The old lady and Mrs. Fetterman donned them with a will and were comfortable in that garb until the next day.
Twenty-one houses were moved from their foundations. Some were damaged considerably, others but slightly. I do not now recollect the number of buildings entirely destroyed. Silas Welch, on South Main street. had just finished a kitchen and porch. All, with the contents of the kitchen, were carried no one could tell where. The main part of the house was moved on an adjoining lot and the furniture badly damaged. William Price and his bride, who were enjoying their honeymoon in their cozy home on South Main street, had their kitchen torn oway, the house badly demoralized and themselves set out in the beating storm. Judge W. P. Campbell suffered severely. His house stood on the ground now occupied for the city park: it was entirely demolished, himself, wife and Miss Susie Lawrence all being roughly handled by the ele- ments and their child seriously injured.
Those who received the most severe blows were the families of Sam Langdon and Dr. J. A. Mckenzie. Mr. Langdon, living two miles south of town, had his log house torn down and a little daughter buried beneath its ruins. Dr. Mckenzie, who had not long occupied his new home on Settler street, directly west of the John Caldwell home, had it laid in ruins, the Doctor was seriously hurt and Mrs. McKenzie slightly. Their daughter, Gertrude, escaped unhurt, but Lonell, their little three and one-half years old son, perished that terrible night. Taken from his mother's arms as she was preparing him for bed she saw him no more until shrouded in his coffin. His lifeless form was found near where the El Dorado Carriage Works now are. Our hearts were all touched, for we had learned to love the bright little fellow. He is safe over : no storm can reach him now, "and he is waiting and beckoning for thee." H. H. Gardner and John Gilmore had their house and goods considerably damaged. Mrs. William H. Thomas had her house badly wrecked and the most of her millinery goods ruined.
Jacob Carey's house, just south of it, was lifted and moved so that the family deserted it and swam accross to the livery barn. That barn. the old stone hotel and Dr. White' s house seemed to be tornado proof and were places of general gathering for the homeless and benighted suferers. Mrs. Thomas managed through difficulties to reach the barn. but found that some of the back of her dress was gone and she was
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minus a portion of her hair that so beautifully ornamented her head. The next day her hair was found fast to the tin roof of the court house down in Silas Welch's yard. This is one of the hairbreadths. A. Mus- sulman's house was laid in ruins. His family of seven were scattered and lost, groping their way in different parts of town. Mrs. Mussul- man found her way to Carey's barn, having lost the most of her cloth- ing. Col. H. T. Sumner was found on his knees imploring Divine aid, as his house was about to be carried away. Col. W. H. Redden's house, which was not yet completed, was blown to pieces, himself injured and household goods badly damaged. George and Eugene Younkman, who were keeping house for I. M. Bobb, had their shanty carried off from them and for a time they sought refuge under a buffalo skin. After the storm had somewhat subsided they undertook to go home and came very near being drowned.
The next morning was just as lovely as a Kansas June morning can be. But there was devastation all around. Crops that the night before had seemingly looked more promising than ever had been broken and beaten into the ground so that there was scarcely a blade visible. Yet for all these we had great reason to be thankful. Thankful that we were spared to look at the beautiful sunlight, and while it was thought that no good thing would come out of what seemed to be lifeless, the wind started up from the southeast and in forty-eight hours the mangled and bruised stalks of corn and vegetation took on new life so that we were blessed with a fair crop after all. During that entire summer whenever there was a cloud commenced to rise in the northwest we might see those who had their homes wrecked starting for places of safety and the bruises and cuts from the great hail stones were a constant reminder of what they had passed through and what they wanted to steer clear of if possible.
WING IN THE SEVENTIES.
By Hattie B. Kelly.
It was two o'clock, September 21, 1872, a typical Kansas autumn day, when the denizens of Hickory Creek began gathering at the P. B. Whittlesy farm, now the M. C. Kelly place, for the purpose of making arrangements for raising money to build a school house in what is now Wing school district No. 43. Little being accomplished at this meeting. it was not until March 27, 1873, that the sum of $300 was unanimously voted for the purchase of material and building. John Duff, John Wing, Nathan Blunt, M. J. Hampton, Minos West. A. J. Lightfoot, Wesley Cornell, John Shannon., Mrs. Steel, P. B. Whittlesy, Riley Rather and others having paid Uncle Sam the required sum of two hundred dollars for their respective quarter sections, accepted the burden of taxation thus imposed upon them, and while it was thus easily decided to build.
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considerable controversy existed as to the location. Whether the broad view. the great distance from water, the exposure to the Kansas zephyrs or the advantage of athletics in hill climbing were the arguments that won for the present location, I am not able to say, but John Wing, in consideration of the house bearing his name, gave to the district the present site of two acres of ground and that being composed of earth and gravel outweighed argument, and at the meeting held on July 21, 1873, the vote stood fourteen for the present site and seven against it. The patrons of the school were to haul the lumber for the building, the framing from the Timber creek saw mill and the siding, roofing and flooring and other material from Emporia, the nearest railroad station at that time. E. M. Kelly hauled and unloaded the first load of fram- ing timber and in a spirit of public benefaction, attempted to lay out a road by descending the bluff just north of the present school building. but as it was some time in the night not discernable by the north star, neither he nor the public were ever afterward able to find the road.
It was after the rest of the lumber had arrived from Emporia that Mr. Penn, the contractor and builder, discovered that some one had blundered and the sheeting for the roof was no longer than the re- quired dimensions of the building, but Emporia was too far away to rectify the mistake and Wing was built, an eye-sore to lovers of good architecture.
It was in the fall and winter of 1873 that the first school was taught by Miss Phoebe Baily, the house having previously been furnished with home-made desks far too high for the average pupil. A blackboard of three rough boxing boards fastened together, painted black and sus- pended from the wall by pieces of leather and a huge box stove in which vain attempts were made to burn green elm wood. The stove had iin- fortunately been placed in the northwest corner of the house and that as built offered but little resistence to the wintry blasts, and the pupils were often obliged to gather around the stove after the manner of a large family circle.
It was during this first term that the teacher, having occasion to chastise a scholar. almost a young man, for some misconduct, deferred the matter until the next day, either to let her anger subside or to pro- cure the necessary hickory. The young man, too, came prepared by placing a young sheep skin beneath his clothes, and whether the imper- viousness of this, scholar to hickory oil gave Wing the name of a hard school, I am not able to say, but such was its reputation which led sub- seqnent teachers into disagreeable follies. Our second teacher, a Mr. Allen, was second to none in inefficiency. He walked to his boarding place. some two and a half miles away. in order to have that lady help him with arithmetical problems that he was unable to solve. His smaller pupils, having learned the order of their classes, would take their places out on the floor without being called to recite their lessons and return to their seats without any of the teacher's concern. His
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arbitrary methods of expulsion having gained him the ill will of a great many, the young men of the neighborhood bombarded the school house with rocks, barricaded the door with cord wood and the teacher and scholars found it necessary to make their exit through the window. Thus peremptorily ended our second term of school.
Wing was not without romance, and our third term ended in the elopement and marriage of the teacher, Miss Carrie Smith, to Louis F. Hayes, a young man of the neighborhood. Our fourth term passed off quietly with Miss Jennie .Hayes as teacher, making a total of twelve months in four years. Our fifth term of four months was taught by R. R. Davis, of Douglass. The school board adopted uniformity of text books and we were provided with a better blackboard and later on a coal stove was placed in the center of the house with coal for fuel added greatly to the comfort of teachers and scholars. H. C. Walers, R. R. Davis, a second term, and Mr. Crisp completes the record for the decade.
Forty years have wrought a great many changes. M. C. Kelly is the only one now living that attended the first meeting in the district. Mrs. Belle Sumwalt, of Latham: Mrs. Hattie Kelly, of Latham, and Mrs. Etta Asmussen, of Leon, are the only residents of the county that attended school at Wing in the seventies. Even Wing, of which I write, has been replaced by a more commodious building.
Only those who enjoyed the meager school facilities of those early days could fully appreciate the advantages of Wing as it is today, and while we have just cause to lament those early disadvantages, we re- joice that the scholars of 1916 can be better provided for.
Still sits the school house on the hill, A most conspicuous thing, A landmark seen from far and near, And by its name called Wing.
The prairie grass still grows upon The school house playing ground. And wild flowers bloom there like those I long ago had found.
The same old rocks are on the hill, The hollows on each side, The landscape, too, is much the same- It still is far and wide.
And to the north Old Hickory runs On t'ward the setting sun ; 'Tis ever in a hurry, Yet its work is never done.
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And from the resin weed, the lark Sends forth the self-same trill; I thought it said when I was young That laziness you will kill.
But the faces, loving faces, That we met there day by day, There are now none left to greet us As we pass along life's way.
Forty years have brought great changes, But the memory lingers still ; Oh, the days when I in childhood Went to school on that same hill.
meth
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
J. D. Joseph, cashier of the Bank of Whitewater, is not only a conspic- 11011s figure in the financial and political affairs of Butler county, but is widely known throughout Kansas as a financier and a prominent legislator. Mr. Joseph was born at Joseph's Mills, Taylor county, West Virginia, De- cember 15, 1864, and is a son of James and Nancy (Conaway) Joseph. James D. Joseph comes from Colonial ancestry, among whom we find Thomas Conaway, a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland, who served as a soldier under General Braddock in the French and Indian war, and later was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. One of the descendants of Thom- as Conaway, Rev. Charles Conaway, now resides at Fairmount, W. Va. Waitman F. Joseph, the grandfather of James D., was a Kansas pioneer. He married Sarah Cox, a member of the famous Cox family, to which At- torney General Cox, of West Virginia, and the late Dudley Evans, of Brooklyn. N. Y., president of the Wells-Fargo Express Company, be- longed.
James D. Joseph was reared on his father's farm until seventeen years of age and attended the public schools. Later he attended the Fairmount State Normal School at Fairmount, W. Va., where he was graduated in the class of 1884, with the highest honors of his class. He also took a post- graduate course in that institution. After completing his educational work, which was devoted mainly to the sciences, he taught school for a time, and also raised tobacco and worked at other pursuits, and assisted his father in paying off his debts. In 1885 he came to Kansas and located in Butler county. He taught school and followed farming until 1893, when he en- gaged in the banking business, in which he has since continued. He started his banking institution with a capital of about $6,000, and the Bank of Whitewater has had a rapid and substantial growth until, exclusive of real estate, it is the third largest bank in Butler county. Its policy has always been conservative enough for safety, and at the same time sufficiently pro- gressive to meet the demands of development, and it can be truly said of the Bank of Whitewater that it is large enough to accommodate its customers and not too large to appreciate them.
In 1903 Mr. Joseph organized the Whitewater Telephone Company, with a paid up capital stock of about $60.000. This was one of the pio-
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neer telephone companies of Butler county, and Mr. Joseph stood by the new company and gave his time and money to make it a success.
The intricate problems of banking and finance have received a great deal of attention from Mr. Joseph, and he has made a profound study of the subject. As vice-president of the Eighth District Kansas State Banking Association, he wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, "Monetary Reform," in opposition to the central bank plan, as proposed by Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, about that time. Mr. Joseph was the first banker in the United States to issue the denominational cashier's checks in the panic of 1907. and and after using these checks for a time at his counter he ordered from his correspondent in Kansas City. Mo., the First National Bank, this form of credit, and re- ceived the following letter, under date of October 29, 1907: "Dear Mr. Joseph : We wish to thank you for your letter of the 28th inst. You are entitled to be called 'a captain of finance' and your head is working all right. We are sending you tonight cashier's checks issued to bearer. as many as we can prepare. equal in amounts to $5,000, and will send you the balance tomorrow. Again thanking you for the suggestion, we remain, yours truly, C. G. Hutchinson." This letter alone shows the estimation placed by other bankers on Mr. Joseph's judgment and his ability to grasp situations when emergencies arise.
Mr. Joseph was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 1912, and during the first session was chairman of the committee on banking, and one of the most active and influential members of the senate. During that session he introduced twenty-two bills, seven of which became laws. During the session of 1915 he introduced thirty bills, of all of which he was the author. Ten of these bills became laws. He was also the author of a number of bills introduced by other senators. He was one of the in- fluential Democrats of the senate, and was instrumental in the passage of much progressive legislation. He favored laws for old age employes' pensions, created out of a fund produced on a profit sharing basis, and is largely responsible for the progress that was made in recall legislation, and altogether won a reputation of being one of the hardest working members of the senate.
Mr. Joseph has always been a friend of progressive banking laws, and drafted the first bank guarantee bill ever introduced in the Kansas legislature, and this bill is practically now the law of the State of Kan- sas. He favors a system of taxation whereby all debts will be deducted from the personal property and taxes levied on the remainder only, and the deficiency made up by more stringent tax dodger laws and taxes upon incomes, franchises and privileges. Mr. Joseph is not especially fond of the so-called game of politics, but is a man of deep conviction. and when he believes that a principle is right he will fight for it to the limit. He is an orator of no ordinary ability and is a forceful cam- paigner.
Mr. Joseph was married March 3. 1892, to Miss Mary Neiman, and
.
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two children have been born to this union : Donald and Marion. Donald graduated from the Whitewater High School in the class of 1911, and from the University of Kansas in the class of 1915. He was president of his class at the university, and has shown marked ability as a public speaker. Marion is also a graduate of the Whitewater High School, and is now a member of the junior class at Kansas University. Since she was a child, she has shown marked literary ability and has written a number of sketches and poems, some of which have been pubished by leading magazines.
Dr. R. S. Miller .- In the death of Dr. R. S. Miller, January 15, 1916. El Dorado and Butler county lost not only an eminent physician, but one of its most honored and useful citizens. Dr. Miller came to Butler county at a very early date in the history of this section of Kansas, and while at the time of his death he was comparatively a young man, his span of life lacking considerable of the proverbial three score and ten allotted to man. he was one of Butler county's very early pioneer set- tlers. (He came here when he was a very young man.)
Dr. Miller was born in Green county, Wisconsin, December 9, 1851, and was a son of Jacob and Ann (Breaks) Miller, natives of Indiana. His father died when a young man, and shortly after the father's death, the mother returned to Indiana, making Crawfordsville her home, where she died in 1865, when Dr. Miller was about fourteen years of age. He was one of a family of three children: Elizabeth, who married James Taylor and now resides near Crawfordsville. Ind .: John, who died in young manhood, and the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Miller received a good common school education in Indiana and later attended Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. In the summer of 1868, he came West and settled at Topeka, Kans., where he remained about a year and a half. He attended the Kansas State Normal School, at Emporia, about a year. then came to Butler county. He located at Towanda and established the first drug store in that town. He came here with Dr. Angel, with whom he had read medicine at Emporia, and continued his studies under Dr. Angel's preceptorship. Later. in addition to his drug business, he opened a hardware store at Townada in partnership with Harvey Dickey. In 1875 he disposed of his mercan- tile interests at Towanda and returned to Crawfordsville, Ind., where he engaged in the drug business for four years, and in the meantime he took a medical course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at In- dianapolis, Ind., and was graduated in 1878, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After practicing one year at Crawfordsville, he went to Linden, Ind., where he was engaged in the practice of his profession until 1882, when his health failed, and he decided that the climate of Kansas would be beneficial to him. He accordingly returned to Butler county and again settled at Towanda. He spent his time on the farm, and in a few years his health was fully restored. In 1892 he took up the practice of his profession again at Towanda, Kans. Two years later he
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