USA > Kansas > Cherokee County > History of Cherokee County, Kansas and representative citizens > Part 17
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BUSINESS BLOCKS.
In the building up of business properties some of the citizens have done much for the city in the last half a score of years. T. P. La- Rute and W. M. Benham have led in this re- spect, while H. A. Scovell, W. B. Lowry, J. Wilbur Logan, WV. S. Norton, A. H. Skidmore and M. A. Housholder have done much toward helping the city into better conditions. All of these have put up good, substantial brick build- ings which add to the good appearance of the
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city, while increasing its taxable wealth. In addition to what has been done toward build- ing up business properties Mr. LaRue has bought and improved many residence proper- ties which had been formerly neglected by the owners and allowed to go to sale for debt.
THE CHEROKEE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL,
The establishment of the Cherokee County High School at Columbus, gave a better im- petus to the growth and permanent improve- ment of the city than anything else that has taken place in the last 15 years. Immediately upon the determination of the fact that the peo- ple had voted affirmatively on the question, res- idence property began to advance in value, while a lighter stimulus was given business in- terests.
COLUMBUS AS A PLACE FOR RESIDENCE.
With its central location, where it is acces- sible from every direction ; with its wide, shady streets, its good water for every purpose, its churches and schools and its well laid out homes, Columbus is a much desired place for residence. The people who live in it do not pro- fess to be righteous above those of other places ; there is a good deal of liberality and fairmind- edness ; views on all matters are liberally enter- tained and freely expressed ; the truly pious are respected and they have their influence, which is always an uplift to others; those of wide re- ligious views are not held in scorn, but there is 110 place for the trimmer, the artful dodger, the man of policy who joins a lodge or a church or keeps himself in touch with certain classes for the sole purpose of turning his affiliation in as merchantable asset that he may profit thereby.
There are no saloons in Columbus. The
subject of the traffic in intoxicating liquors. whether it is materially profitable for the city to allow it or not, has been settled thoroughly and, it ought to be hoped, for all time to come. As a rule, the mayors of the city, as well as the other officers, have been against the traffic, and the sentiment of the people is that it shall never be tolerated within the municipal limits. The people of the county, in settling the County High School at Columbus, did so with the tacit understanding that the government of the city would not allow the saloon, with all its concom- itant influences, to stand as a menace to the work of education, which it would do if per- mitted to ply its traffic where the students of the High School might be reached.
EARLY CITIZENS WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY.
Many of the early citizens of Columbus have passed away. Few of the first settlers re- main. Of those who lived here 20 years ago and were active in the interests of the city, many now gone will be well and kindly remem- bered. Capt. S. S. Smith, F. Fry, Dr. E. L. Enlow, Horace Brown, Capt. J. H. Smith, George S. Richardson, Samuel Megenity, R. H. Stott, Slemons Lisle, Edward McPherson, James Whitcraft, W. H. Timberlake, Judge John N. Ritter, J. W. Tompkins, A. A. Bloom- field, C. E. Middaugh, H. A. Hicks and A. Hood. And yet, out of a population of 3,000, there are 52 persons in the city who are over 70 years of age.
THE CITY'S BUSINESS INTERESTS EXPANDING.
Heretofore, the city of Columbus has de- pended, for its business, upon the agricultural districts of the county, and it is yet almost so
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at this time; but within recent years the devel- opment of the rich coal fields just north of the city has added much to business interests. With the completion of the electric railroad now con- templated, which will connect the city with the lead and zinc mines on the southeast and with the coal districts on the north, the place will become more desirable, both for residence pur- poses and for the enlarged opportunities which will be offered for trade and commerce.
In 1889 the Lafflin & Rand Powder Com- pany, of New York, established a system of powder mills about three miles north of Colum- bus, for the inanufacture of blasting powder. The immense quantity of powder used in the mines of Southeastern Kansas and Southwest- ern Missouri first called the attention of the company to the importance of the undertaking. which has been in constant operation since the work's were finished and the company ready to supply the demand. These mills have cost the company about $500,000, and they have added much to the taxable property of the county, besides giving employment to a large number of men.
Within the last two years a company has been organized and incorporated by a number of the citizens, for the extensive manufacture of brick and tile. The works are in operation now, and the successful manufacture of vitri- fied brick and the other products of the plant has shown the good business judgment which led to the undertaking. The city itself has been much profited by this enterprise, as it affords an immediate supply of material for buildings of all kinds, and for paving the streets and sidewalks, which until recently had been so much neglected.
POPULATION FIGURES.
:
In 1870 the population of Columbus was 402 ; in 1880 it was 1, 164; in 1890 it was 2,135 ; in 1900 it was 2,414 and in 1904, as taken by the city assessor, in the month of March, it was 2,952. The population is almost wholly made up of American-born people, there being very few of foreign birth living in the place.
THE POSTOFFICE.
The business of the postoffice of Columbus has never brought it up to the grade of a sec- ond-class office; but the rate of the increase as it now is will before long bring it to that class. Nearly all the territory within easy reach is sup- plied, in its mail matter, from this office; and four rural routes have been established. The postmasters of Columbus are here named, in the order in which they served : J. F. McDow- ell, S. O. McDowell, A. T. Lea, M. W. Coulter, H. V. Gavigan, W. P. Eddy, S. Y. Timberlake. N. T. Allison, Clarence R. Aitchison and Jesse Forkner. The amount of mail matter handled through the office has vastly increased within the last few years, while the transfer of mail pouches coming through the office and those handled at the railroad stations makes a showing of enormous volume. At Girard, Crawford County, 30 miles north of Column- bus, a weekly newspaper has a circulation of 260,000 copies ; and much of the mail matter which it sends out is transferred at this place. Twenty-two mail and passenger trains pass through Columbus every 24 hours, and from this fact it may be presumed that the mail mat- ter handled here is of itself an important item.
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CHAPTER XIII.
THE HISTORY OF BAXTER SPRINGS
THE PHASES OF THE CITY'S PAST-THE FIRST SETTLERS-INCORPORATED AS A CITY-THE BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE-DISCOVERY OF LEAD AND ZINC-DEVELOPMENT OF THE WATER POWER ON SPRING RIVER-RESIDENCES.
THE PHASES OF THE CITY'S PAST.
The site of Baxter Springs could scarcely be excelled in any country. It is neither level nor very hilly. Situate on the west side of Spring River, in the southeast corner of Cher- okee County, and about two miles north of the Indian Territory line, half in woodland, half in what was originally a prairie, the city never fails favorably to impress those who sojourn within its quiet, restful precincts. It was not always thus ; for in the early days, when it was a mere outpost on the frontier, it was known, far and wide, as "a tough place," made up of a number of classes of people who would scarcely be taken into the aggregate of polite society. Hither came people from the North and East, seeking easement from the harder conditions under which they had lived in the States of denser population, some of them hop- ing through upright methods to gain a footing where they might establish homes, while others, more of roving, adventurous dispositions, came along to light upon any edge of fortune that might turn in the constant drifting of a reck- less life. From the South and Southwest there
came the not less reckless but the bolder classes of the extreme frontier, honorable in a way, true to a friend, but deliberately cold to the ap- proach of those who might be suspected of a questionable design. The classes who fur- nished the money were those who came from the older sections of the country, as merchants and tradespeople, and those who came from the frontier, as the owners of the vast herds of cattle which, in those days, were driven north- ward, to come within easier reach of the mar- kets or to meet the cattle buyers, who were plentiful at that time. Being the principal trade mart of the Southwest, the place was the nerve center of a constantly widening area from which it drew all things unto itself. Money was so plentiful that men became wild in their speculative ideas; and those who had the direction of public affairs reckoned not at all for the future; or, if they did, they could see nothing but a continuation of the feverish conditions of the material prosperity which had set the town so well along. By the year 1875 the town had a population of about 5,000; but long before that it had voted bonds to the Kan- sas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, to the
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amount of $150,000. In 1871, after the rail- road bonds had been voted, $25.000 was voted for building school houses, and $10,000 for a Court House; and in 1873 $4,000 was voted for street improvements, making the bonded indebtedness of the city $189,000, an amount greater than the real value of the taxable prop- erty of the people. Subsequently, the building of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway into the Indian Territory, the one south and the other west of Baxter Springs, so cut off the Texas cattle trade as practically to ruin the trade interests of the town. When the trade of the city was taken away ; when civilization, in its Westward march, pushed the frontier farther on, and the place settled down to the basis of its own merit, the ardor and enthusi- asm which had led the people into wild ideas as to the future of the town cooled down; but their bonded obligations remained no less ex- acting. Creditors rarely slacken their hand on account of the weakened condition of the deb- tor. If a "pound of flesh" is "nominated in the bond," the payment is demanded at the limit of its run. The tax burden of the people of Baxter Springs grew so heavy that there was a distressing diminution of the population, by reason of the fact that a large number, weak- ened in their purposes by the general misfor- tunes of the city, and seeing no early prospect of a better turn, abandoned what they could illy afford to hold and left for other parts. About that time the discovery of the rich ore fields in the Joplin district and at Galena drew away many people, who surrendered their property to the iron-handed tax gatherer. The desola- lation was so complete, and values went so low, that property which in the better days had been highly prized was sold under the hanımer
at a merely nominal price, to satisfy the de- mands of public debt. The conditions were such that even the bond holders found it nec- essary to accept a compromise ranging from 20 cents to 50 cents on the dollar ; but even this left to the few people who remained a mere modicum of hope. But to those who did re- main, and who have withstood hardships which would crush out the life of a less courageous people, there is now the dawn of a better day. They have endured a long night of weeping, and through it they have earned the joy of the morning, whose cheering light is now begin- ning to break through the rifted clouds. With the conditions now setting in, under which there is a permanent growth fostered and guided through the experience of those who have tin- dergone every manner of hardship, it is safe to say that Baxter Springs bids fair, not far hence, to become one of the most delightful dwelling places in the entire West. The city has come through great tribulation, such as has been the lot of many a Western town whose hopes and fears have alternated through the shifting phases of fortune ; but it has now come to an estate of better things, where the joy of the achievement of laudable aims enables the peo- ple in a measure to forget the gloom through which they have come. The city has freed it- self from the burden of public debt, and it is safe to say that its affairs will hereafter be guided clear of such entanglements as those through which it has passed so much of its time.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Baxter Springs took its name from A. Bax- ter, the first person to take a claim on the land on which the northeast part of the town was
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afterward built. According to the statement of Mrs. A. Willard, who is now 64 years old, and who has lived all her life in the neighborhood. "Old Man Baxter" lighted upon his claim about the year 1850, and could, therefore, be nothing more than a "squatter." In the chapter of this volume treating of the early settling of the county I have somewhat described the char- acter of the man and have given an account of his tragic death. In addition to what is there said, it has been later learned that he was a kind of self-appointed Universalist missionary, and that he finally drifted into spiritualism and later into infidelity. Baxter first built a squat- ter's shack on the claim which he took, a short distance in a northeasterly direction from the spring, and broke out a few acres of ground, the meager returns of which were sufficient to meet the simple wants of himself and family. With these rude pretensions, suited to the char- acter of frontier life, they lived along in com- parative comfort until there came to be some travel through the country, occasional adven- turers from the States, who were pushing west- wardly in search of broader and freer fields. He then built a small inn or tavern for the ac- commodation of sojourners, many of whom mysteriously came and as mysteriously went away.
Some time after A. Baxter had built his tav- ern there came a man by the name of Powell, who opened the first store ever in the place and did a kind of small business, after the man- ner of merchants at the outposts of civilization, where came the few settlers to lay out their meager savings in the purchase of such things as answered the wants of their unpretentious lives, and to hear the news which the country store-keeper was supposed to be able to give out. Some time after Powell came, Jefferson
Davis and a man by the name of Armstrong lighted upon claims and built rude shanties, their claims being on lands upon which a part of the town was afterward built. Years after- ward, when the county had been organized, and courts had been established, Davis was the defendant in a criminal action, the first case, of any kind, that was tried in the District Court of Cherokee County. The trial came on at the first day of the only term of court held at Pleas- ant View, then the county seat; and it was the only case tried at that term, which began on Monday, May 6, 1867, and lasted three days. It is said that Davis was charged with commit- ting a felony, and that he was convicted.
INCORPORATED AS A CITY.
Baxter Springs was incorporated in 1869, as a city of the second class; and at that time it was, by far, the most important place in the county, for it had long possessed advantages which easily gave it that distinction. L. G. Den- ton was the city's first mayor. Since then the following persons have been elected to the office : H. R. Crowell, Mr. Boyd, Philip Pfen- ning, J. M. Cooper, J. C. Naylor, J. B. Opper- man, W. H. Hornor, J. J. Fribley, W. S. Nor- ton, C. W. Daniels and L. D. Brewster, the last named gentleman being the present mayor. The people have always chosen their best busi- ness men to hold the office of mayor ; and they have been equally careful in selecting the mem- bers of the City Council. Despite the fact that in the early days, when speculative ideas were large, and the future was believed to have noth- ing in store but the continuation of the good conditions which then prevailed, the city govern- ment laid out courses which often ran into dis- aster and brought on the sorest of hardships;
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but through it all the people have done what they could, and their work has not been in vain.
THE BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE.
On October 6, 1863, when the spirit of civil war was abroad in the land; when the fires of sectional strife had been fanned into a devour- ing flame, an event took place at Baxter Springs without the chronicling of which the history of the city would most certainly be incomplete. Reference is had to what has since been known as the "Baxter Springs Massacre." Had a great conflagration swept the city at a time when it was at the height of its early glory, or had a dire pestilence stealthily crept into the habitations of the people and carried them away, such an event could not be compared in its im- pression with the ineffaceable mark of this event.
Perhaps a better account of the massacre cannot now be given than that written by Dr. W. H. Warner, of Girard, Kansas, who was among the garrison in the little fort at Baxter Springs at the time. I here quote, substanti- ally, what he says of the dark, bloody affair :
"Our garrison, up to two days previous to the attack, consisted of one company of the Second Kansas Colored Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Cook, and Company D, of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, commanded by Lieut. Jolin Crites, who had command of the post, but who had been summoned to Fort Scott, leaving Lieut. Cook in command. On this day, the 4th day of October, we were rein- forced by Company C, Third Wisconsin Cav- alry, under Lieutenant Pond, who, on his arri- val, assumed command of the post. Three sides of the camp were protected with logs and earth, thrown up about four feet high. The west
side had been removed the day before, for the purpose of enlarging the camp. On the morn- ing before the fight sixty picked men, with all the teams and wagons, were sent out to forage through the country, leaving a fighting force of twenty-five cavalry and sixty-five or seventy colored infantry, more than half of the white soldiers in the camp having been excused from foraging duty, at the sick call in the morning. "At twelve o'clock noon, the enemy having quietly, and. without being observed, crept near the camp, suddenly advanced at double- quick and opened fire. The cavalry and col- ored infantry were standing around the fire, while dinner was being taken up, when the en- emy was discovered advancing and firing rap- idly, from the east, south and west. Riding at full gallop, they passed, on the south, between the camp and the men at the cooking sheds, which were outside and about two hundred feet south of the camp. The colored soldiers and the cavalry at dinner made their way the best they could to the camp, the infantry seiz- ing their muskets and the cavalry their car- bines and revolvers, and all commenced a re- turn fire with undaunted bravery. While this attack was being made, the main body of the enemy galloped from the woods skirting Spring River, on the east, and formed in line sixty or eighty rods north of the camp, on the ridge. apparently with the purpose of making a charge upon us, in full force, simultaneously with an attack by the advance, which had passed around the camp, to the west.
"At the first attack Lieutenant Pond had unlimbered the howitzer, manned it the best he could and had loaded it himself with twelve- pound shell. No one of the command knew anything of artillery drill, and, on this account the fuse was not cut. The shot fell short of
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the enemy and did no harm; but the firing of the cannon gave them notice that we had such an instrument of death in our hands. Men never fought more willingly and courageously. For twenty minutes there was a ceaseless rattle of musketry and revolvers and the booming of the cannon. After the first dash the enemy, on the west, retreated, scattered and fought from shelter behind trees and from the north bank of the creek, and at the expiration of half an hour, unaccountably to us, they withdrew from the fight, one by one. The main body, on the north, countermarched back to the woods, and then advanced toward us again, though as if undecided whether to attack us or not. They then returned to the woods again.
"All was now quiet, like the calm after a furious storm, and we had time to make a list of the casualities. Of the forces at the Springs, eight white soldiers and one colored soldier were killed, and about fifteen were wounded, including one woman, shot through the heel. and a little child shot through the lungs. Lieu- tenant Cook and a man who was with him were killed, they being out in the woods practicing with their revolvers at the time. The husband of the wounded woman and the father of the wounded woman and the father of the wound- ed child, were shot, in cold blood, the latter by a cousin and former schoolmate. About six other married men were killed. A teamster, seeing an old acquaintance among the advanc- ing enemy, tossed liis revolver toward him, in token of his surrender, was immediately shot through the abdomen, by his former neighbor and friend, and the poor man died in thirty minutes. The colored man who was killed had seen his former master and was running to meet him, with joyous acclaim, as the master stood on the hill across the creek. His master
shot him through the heart, and his body rolled down the hill into the clear water of the brook.
"For an hour or two all was quiet, with the exception of our preparations for another at- tack, which we momentarily expected. We did not know who our enemy was, nor why he had so suddenly left us; but we fully ex- pected him to return. We afterward learned that the enemy was the notorious Quantrell and his guerrillas.
"About two or three o'clock in the after- noon Maj. B. S. Henning, of General Blunt's staff, rode into camp and told us of the mas- sacre on the prairie ; and he called on Lieuten- ant Pond for a volunteer guard of two or three men, to return with him to search for General Blunt, who he believed, was alive and was hid- ing somewhere in the vicinity of the massacre. The guard was furnished; and soon after the Major left us a messenger, bearing a flag of truce, approached our camp. He brought from Quantrell a request for an exchange of prison- ers. As we had taken no prisoners, Lieuten- ant Pond, as an answer to the request, sent a proposition, that each party should uncondi- tionally release all the prisoners he held. Soon after this, out on the prairie west of us, we heard quick, successive reports of firearms ; and it is probable that the prisoners taken by Quantrell were then being shot.
"Soon after this, Quantrell, at the head of his entire force of about three hundred men, approached our camp, as we had anticipated, formed in line of battle and halted on the south bank of the creek, where Baxter Springs 110w stands, about eighty rods southwest of our camp. Our men all quietly awaited his charge, prepared and determined to give him a warm reception. The gap on the west side of our camp had been closed, by placing sutler wag-
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ons, poles, rails, ropes and everything else that could be used, and it would have been difficult for cavalry to make a successful charge upon us from that direction, especially as our howit- zer was mounted conspicuously in the front and was happily manned by skilled men who knew artillery practice. Knowing our enemy, all of us, white men and black men, were deter- mined to sell our lives as dearly as possible, and to die rather than to surrender, for to surrender would have been certain death, any way. We remained thus for thirty minutes ; it might have been longer, when he suddenly wheeled and left us, marching southwardly, and, to our great relief, we saw him no more.
"About sundown Major Henning returned to our camp, accompanied by General Blunt. After dark the few wounded men from the prairie came into our camp, one by one. Most of them were so disfigured that they could scarce- ly be identified. All of them had been left on the praire as dead. Jack Arnold came in with five or six wounds in the face, which could not be recognized as belonging to a human being. Others had received from five to eight wounds in different parts of their bodies; but most of the wounds were in the face and head. Those who had escaped being killed did so by feigning to be dead. Even with their wounds, which put them in great pain and suffering, they were rejoiced to find us still alive and in possession of the little fort. It had been generally be- lieved, after the battle with General Blunt's command, that our garrison had been captured in the morning, as Quantrell, when first seen by them, was coming from the direction of the camp. Quantrell's men were dressed in the Federal uniform, and on this account, when seen by General Blunt's command, they were taken to be friends, coming to escort the Gen-
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