USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 11
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"In a few minutes a man rode up to within a rod or two of me and motioned for me to come out. I went ont, shook hands with him, and he said : 'I've been doing something the last half hour I very seldom do.' I said : 'Captain, what conclusion did you come to?' 'I have come to the conclusion not to kill you. I left the border with the intention of killing ten men,' he said, 'and I've filled my bill.' "It seemed to me," said Mr. Pellett, "that it was a long time when he said "not" before he continued, and broke the suspense. 'Now in a short time my men are going to leave here,' Quantrill continued. 'Before we leave, or about the time we leave, you get these men out of here.' I told him I would get them out. and I did, and we all got back alive." Mr. Pellett afterwards continued his work as recruiting officer at Olathe and was appointed lieutenant in the Twelfth Kansas regiment.
Owing to the poor protection given Olathe from the beginning of the war, its growth was hindered and from the time of the Quantrill raid
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to the close of the war, its business languished and many people moved away to more favorable localities. Some citizens preferred the army for safety. The majority of the business houses stood empty, no one caring to put in new stock to be hauled away by raiders or destroyed. House owners were only too glad to have tenants, offering their houses free if they would only occupy them. Property was almost valueless, and household goods could be bought at one-tenth their cost, and good cows sold as low as $6 to $7 per head. After the raid, two companies of the Twelfth Kansas, under command of Captain Chestnut, were stationed in the town during the fall, and Captain Parmenter's company remained a short time after the organization was effected.
CHURCHES.
The Baptist church of Olathe was organized, June 1, 1872, in the Odd Fellows hall. Its first pastor was R. P. Evans. The present pas- tor is W. F. Jordan. Their membership is 200. The church and par- sonage cost nearly $12,000, and were erected in 1906.
The Christian church was organized in 1860, by G. W. Hutchinson and Pardu Butter. W. A. Nance is the present pastor. Their mem- bership is 316. A Young Men's Timothy Club of forty and a Bible class of ninety-seven are features of this church. Buildings and real estate are valued at $5,500.
The Christian Science Society was organized in 1909, by Mrs. Eunice French and Mrs. T. W. Morse and others. They meet in Room 8, Ott building. First Reader, Mrs. Morse, Second Reader, W. F. Dennis.
The present pastor of the Dunkard church is H. T. Brubaker, assisted by H. F. Christ.
The Reformed Presbyterian church was organized in 1864. Rev. W. McMillan was the first pastor. The first building was erected at Pleas- ant Ridge, five miles east of Olathe, in 1865, and the Olathe branch built a church in 1870. Its property is valued at $6,500.
The United Presbyterian church was organized November 10, 1866, by Rev. D. F. McAuley, Elder Davis Martin, Isaac Brown and S. M. McCaw. Its church and parsonage are valued at $9,500.
The Congregational church of Olathe was organized at the home of C. W. Ekengreen, in 1866, by Rev. Bodwell. Its charter members were Mr. and Mrs. Hyatt, Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, Mr. and Mrs. Snellings, Mr. and Mrs. Ekengreen, Mr. Beckwith and his sister, Miss Beckwith. Their membership is 100. This church and parsonage cost $10,000.
The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1858, by Rev. Will- iam Hubert. The first pastor was Rev. John Robinson, who came in 1859. The first church was built about 1866. Up to this time this church had been connected with Gardner, but at that date was separated. Rev. Bascam Robins is the present pastor, and the church has a mem- bership of 550. The church and parsonage cost $12,000.
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St. Paul's parish of Olathe was organized in 1868, and erected a frame church 30x40, soon after. A priest from Eudora or Shawnee had charge for seven years. Father M. J. Casey was the first priest, Father Ording is the present pastor. In 1907, a church was built at a cost of $12,000 and a parochial residence at $4,500. A parochial school was opened under the supervision of the Benedictines from Atchinson in September, 1914.
The First Presbyterian church was organized, October 1, 1865, by Rev. William Wilson, under the supervision of the Presbytery of Leaven- worth with eighteen members. Rev. S. F. Riepma is the present pastor. They have 255 members. This church will observe its semi-centennial in October of this year, 1915. The present church building was erected in 1908, and the real estate of the church is valued at $16.350.
The Gospel Hall is valued at $1,800. It is situated on lots 18 and 21.
The Episcopalians have an organization and church property valued at $1,600. Rev. H. E. Toothaker is pastor.
The German Baptists own church property to the value of $2,000. They have regular meetings and their members are faithful.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a church organization, and own real estate valued at $900.
The colored Baptists and Methodists have organizations and churches. The former owns real estate valued at $1,300, the latter $1.500.
STATE INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF.
The Olathe "Mirror," of June 15, 1864, has the following in regard to locating the State school for the deaf and dumb at Olathe, Kans .:
"A meeting was held at the Christian church, Tuesday night, with W. A. Ocheltree, president, and J. E. Sutton, secretary, the object being to elect a committee to confer with the commissioners on the part of the State with reference to locating the deaf and dumb asylum. The fol- lowing committee was selected : Evan Shriver, W. H. M. Fishback and J. T. Weaver. Mr. Shriver was chosen to receive donations for pur- chase of ground to be given to the State for the site of the asylum."
This was the beginning of the work that brought to Olathe the State school for the deaf, or the institute as it is called locally. Perhaps few there, that night, realized how large this institution would grow in fifty years of Kansas Statehood or how many unfortunates would be blessed by the careful training given here. Olathe's efforts won and the school was brought here in 1866, from Baldwin, Kans., where for four or five years previous it had been struggling along illy supported, with an atten- dance of about a dozen pupils. It was definitely located here through the efforts of John T. Burris, one of the grand men that Olathe still prides herself in possessing, though he lives in California now.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
A stone building, 40x60 feet, was erected at a cost of $15,000, and was first occupied November 17, 1866, under the superintendency of Joseph Mount. There were eighteen pupils when the school began. Today 250 attended and twenty teachers are employed. The little stone building has been torn down to make room for the main building. In 1873 the extreme east wing was built, by that time the number of pu- pils had increased to seventy-five. The lateral wing, which connects the main building with the east, came in 1879, the west wing in 1883 and the lateral wing connecting that with the main in 1886 or 1887, and last came the main building, having an appraised value now of $342,225. Mrs. Kate S. Herman has held the superintendency of the school since 1913, and her excellent management of it has attracted favorable comment from all parts of the State. George W. Folmer, who has charge of the commissary department, is a busy man and gives excellent attention to all the details of buying for the insti- tution which spends about $5,000 per month.
Since its founding at Baldwin, in 1861, the following superintendents have had charge: Philip A. Emery, at Baldwin, 1861-64; Benajah R. Nordyke, at Topeka, 1864-65; Joseph Mount, at Baldwin, 1865-67; Thomas Burnsides, at Olathe, 1867; Louis H. Jenkins, at Olathe, 1867- 76; Theodore C. Bowles, at Olathe, 1876-79; Jonathan W. Parker, at Olathe, 1879-80; William H. DeMotte, at Olathe, 1880-82; George L. Wyckoff, at Olathe, 1882-83; Henry A. Turton, at Olathe, 1883-85; S. Tefft Walker, at Olathe, 1885-93 ; J. D. Carter, at Olathe, 1893-94; Albert A. Stewart, at Olathe, 1894-95; Henry C. Hammond, at Olathe, 1895-97 ; Albert A. Stewart, at Olathe, 1897-99; Henry C. Hammond, at Olathe, 1899-1909; Cyrus E. White, at Olathe, 1909-13; Mrs. Kate S. Herman, 1913.
BANKS.
The Patrons Cooperative Bank was organized June 1, 1883. Its offi- cers are : S. B. Haskins, president; W. J. Rhoades, cashier; F. P. Hatfield, vice-president; George Black, secretary. The directors, J. W. Robinson, E. E. Vaighs, A. E. Wedd, George Kelleher, A. L. Hunt. Capital stock, $50,000.00 ; surplus, $50,000.00; deposits, $440,000.00.
The First National Bank was organized in 1887, and the following are its officers: J. L. Pettyjohn, president ; F. R. Ogg, vice-president ; Di- . ectors, C. F. Pettyjohn, Dr. C. W. Ewing, J. H. Hershey, George Huff, H. J. Voighs, P. E. Goode, L. W. Snepp, James Irvin, A.J. Hunt, S. T. McCoy, W. C. Keefer, George H. Hodges, H. M. Beckett, cashier, and D. A. Glenn, assistant cashier. Capital stock, $50,000.00; surplus, $12,- 000.00 ; and deposits, $270,000.
The Olathe State Bank was established 1883 and incorporated in 1908, and has the following officers : president, Frank C. Peck ; vice-president, H. C. Livermore; cashier, H. E. Hayes; assistant cashier, J. S. Pellett.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
Directors : Albert Ott, E. E. Vantries, J. W. Parker, F. R. Lanter, F. C. Peck, H. E. Hayes, Charles Delahunt, J. T. Little, F. V. Ostrander, J. B. Bruner, Casher Busch, J. H. Marvin, H. C. Livermore. Capital stock, $25,000.00; surplus, $16,500.00, and deposits $250,000.00.
FIFTY YEARS OF OLATHE.
(S. T. Seaton 1906.)
I saw not long ago a picture of the ancient Egyptians laboriously dragging huge stones from distant quarries to build the pyramids, those enduring monuments of man's vanity and tryanny. That picture typifies the early settlers of Kansas, as they came from distant states and toiled and endured danger, suffered privation and want, until they triumphantly transformed this portion of the great American desert into a garden of fruit, flowers and grain, and builded on this soil a
I.B. Eng. Co., KC
THE GRANGE STORE, OLATHE, KAN.
monument which will endure when the Pharoahs and their pyramids are forgotten-a monument consecrated to broader ideas of liberty and humanity and "lest we forget," have inscribed upon it in letters of resplendent gold as their motto, "Ad Astra Per Aspera."
We are met together today beside the half century mile post to take a look back, recall the associations and renew the friendships of those fifty years, and make record of the doings of the men and women who in those days made history. My part is to tell "The Story of a Border Town."
Just fifty years ago, in the early spring of 1857, a young man mounted his horse and rode out of the little village of Chillicothe,
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
situated: some three miles west of the present town of Shawnee, in Johnson county, Kansas, in quest of a sight for a new town. The young man was Dr. John T. Barton, a native of Albemarle county, Virginia, and a graduate of a Philadelphia medical college, who had drifted out west in 1850 and soon after secured an appointment as physician to the Shawnee Indians and located at Chillicothe, where the Shawnees maintained Governmental headquarters.
In 1856 and 1857 the Shawnees were taking their lands in severalty, were making their selections, which as made, were marked by crossing poles thereon. With certain inside information obtained from. Lot Coffman, the man in charge of the allotting of lands to the Shawnees, Barton rode directly to the geographical center of Johnson county and "crossed poles" on two quarter sections which struck him as an admirable site for his new town. Carpeted with a profusion of wild verbenas and other prairie flowers, the location impressed Doctor Bar- ton as beautiful. Why not give the new town a name which would perpetuate the first impression of its founder? "Beautiful" did not commend itself to him as an appropriate name for a new town in the wild West, where the struggle for existence made strongly against any appreciation of the aesthetic, but the Doctor could not get "Beau- tiful" out of his head, and no other English equivalent suggested itself as any better. So the Doctor returned to Chillicothe still under the spell of that word "Beautiful." On his return there it occurred to him that perhaps the Shawnee language would furnish the desired equivalent for "Beautiful." And meeting Capt. Joseph Parks, head chief of the Shawnees, he said : 'Captain, what in the Shawnee language would you call two quarters of land, all covered with wild flowers? In English we would say it was beautiful." Parks replied : "We would say it was 'Olathe,' "giving it the Indian pronunciation Olaythe, with an explosive accent on the last syllable. Barton made the same in- quiry of the official interpreter, an educated Indian, who made the same reply, adding that for English use it would be best to pronounce it "Olathe," with the accent on the second syllable. So it came to pass that the new town was named "Olathe," the city beautiful. This is Barton's own story as related by him in 1888.
Shortly after locating the site Barton had it surveyed, platted and the plat lithographed. While the survey was in progress Barton went to the Lecompton land office for the purpose of entering the town site, but found that he could not do so as an individual. Accordingly he organized a town company, consisting of himself, A. G. Boone, Charles A. Osgood, R. B. Finley, William Fisher, Jr., and Henry W. Jones and had it incorporated, with himself as president, by an act of the Territorial legislature, and as president of the town company he entered the town site May 17, 1858. Meantime another act of the Territorial legislature incorporated the new town February II, 1858, and the first
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election was in April the same year. In the list of early settlers in 57 were Jonathan Millikan, J. B. Whittier, Miss Emily L. Whittier, and the first woman in the new town, and both cousins of the Poet Whit- tier ; John Polk Campbell, a cousin of Ex-President James K. Polk : S. F. Hill, J. B. Mahaffie, C. A. Osgood, Charles Mavo, who had at one time been mayor of Boston, Mass .; Henderson Boggs, Martin Ott, Edwin Nash, J. Henry Blake. Jonathan Millikan brought the first team of horses to the town, built the first dwelling house, married the first woman that came to the place, Miss Whittier, and now lives on a fine farm at the edge of town, taking his ease surrounded by, plenty.
During the following years, 1858 and 1859, Dr. Barton worked energetically in the interests of the new town, and succeeded in mate- rially increasing the population. Barton was a man of fine personal appearance and an accomplished physician, personally very popular, and a man who would attain more than ordinary local importance in any community. During the exciting political events of 1858 and 1859 he was really the leader of the Proslavery or Democratic party in John- son county. In 1858 he was elected county treasurer, and in 1859 he was elected a delegate to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, in which he was a member of the committee on banking and finance. Judge John T. Burris was the other delegate from Johnson county. Burris had settled in Olathe in 1858, and owed his election to his per- sonal popularity as the county was proslavery and Burris was a Free State man. Barton was one of the twenty delegates who refused to sign the constitution because it did not meet his proslavery views.
In the course of his practice as a physician Doctor Barton was a frequent visitor to the home of Judge S. E. Wilkerson, where he met the Judge's charming daughter, Josephine Wilkerson, and in the course of time they became engaged to be married. The day for the wedding was set and the bride had her wedding gowns made. Two days before the wedding Doctor Barton left Olathe for Wesport, ostensibly to get his wedding suit. Before going, however, he executed deeds conveying to Josephine Wilkerson all his Johnson county real property, which was considerable. Barton never returned to Olathe, and Miss Wilker- son's first intimation that Barton was gone and would not return was received from the man who delivered to her the deeds left by Barton. This was in 1860. No explanation was ever given for the Doctor's action until thirty years later when Barton disclosed to a friend the reason for his leaving, a reason which involved no reflection on the woman in the case.
During the war Barton was a surgeon in the Confederate army, and after the war settled in Kansas City, Mo., where he engaged in the real estate business and became, as was reported, quite wealthy. He died a few years ago, according to report, in one of the Missouri insti- tutions for the insane.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
Among the '58 settlers were John F. Giffen, who had been a clerk in Governor Denver's office, and who in 1859 established the Olathe "Herald," the first newspaper; J. E. Hayes, afterwards colonel of the Twelfth Kansas, and State treasurer; John T. Burris, soldier, lawyer and jurist ; A. J. Clemmans, afterwards sheriff ; Williams Roy, J. E. Sut. ton, B. P. Noteman and Capt. J. W. Parmeter. In 1859 Burris, now and since the Greeley campaign, an ardent Democrat, organized the Republican ticket in the field on which J. E. Hayes was a candidate for representative and J. M. Hadley, father of Herbert Hadley, was a candidate for county clerk. During the campaign the Republicans held a big mass meeting in Olathe and at night pulled off a big torch light procession. What Republicans there were in town gathered on the corner of the square and put Burris up on a dry goods box to make a speech as the procession passed, and he made one, which a year or two previous would have cost him his life. As the procession passed its members tried to drown his voice with groans and yells. Then they threatened to pull him down, and for a period of time a lively fight was in sight. However, the matter was compromised by an assault on a big Republican by the name of A. J. Hill, who made a run for a convenient stairway and caused the crowd to scatter and forget to pull Burris down from his drygoods box. This was the first open "defy" on the part of the Free State men in Johnson county. The Democratic ticket, needless to say, was elected. Although Colonel Hayes was not elected county treasurer this year, the Democratic county board gave him the contract for building the new county jail, at a cost of $6,000, and he built and delivered it to the county the same year, and it remained a ser- viceable building until destroyed by fire in 1905. Because the popu- lation in Olathe and Johnson county was predominantly proslavery, the town and county were spared any large part in the border war of '56-'58. By 1861 the political complexion of the population had changed completely and the city and county became overwhelmingly Republi- can, and this led the people of the city and county to expect their full share of trouble from the armed bands known to be across the line only ten miles distant.
In September, 1861, Olathe received a visit from the notorious Jay- hawker, C. R. Jennison, and his band, who arrested L. S. Cornwall, his partner, Drake, Judge Campbell and the Turpin family, all well known Southern sympathizers. Cornwall protested and Jennison struck him in the face with his pistol. After holding his prisoners for several hours, confiscating their weapons and swearing them not to take up arms against the United States, Jennison released them; and proceeding down in Aubry township, robbed an old German doctor of a large sum of money and valuables.
The next trouble from across the line occurred the first day of August, 1862, when Bill Anderson, an enterprising member of the bushwhacker
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fraternity, and two companions, visited Olathe. Before reaching Olathe they robbed and murdered a Mexican trader. In Olathe they stopped at Charles Tillotson's hardware store and inquired the road to De Soto, enforcing a truthful answer by holding a revolver at his head. Just at the edge of town on their way to De Soto they met Deputy Sheriff Weaver, returning from a cow hunt, and "held him up," but finding no valuables on his person, let him go. Weaver went at once to Sheriff John Janes, who started in pursuit. Janes caught up with Anderson and his companions a mile or two out of town and was promptly taken prisoner and disarmed. A few minutes later they made prisoners of James Wells and another citizen. Releasing the latter they took Janes into a ravine and told him that he was to be shot, but finally released him. On his way back to town Janes met John and Ben Roberts, who. thinking that harm had overtaken the sheriff, had followed. Janes and the Roberts boys had each a Sharp's carbine. Finally, John Roberts succeeded in mortally wounding one of the trio and he fell from his horse. Janes stopped to secure the wounded man. Another citizen joined the Roberts boys in the pursuit and shot one of the fugitives' horses. The dismounted bushwhacker mounted behind his companion and attempted to escape, but was soon wounded and surrendered. The third escaped to the brush but was captured that evening. The two men with Anderson gave their names as Lee and Coover. Coover was mortally wounded and died in a few days. He claimed to be a lawyer by profession, and gave evidence of being a man of education and intelligence.
The next day a jury of twelve decided that the two remaining pris- oners should suffer death, but the crowd manifested no alacrity in furnishing volunteers to execute the sentence, and Sheriff Janes settled the matter by taking the prisoners from the mob and locking them in jail. This offended John Roberts and he took a shot at the sheriff as he stood in the upper front window of the jail. The shot missed him, but only by a few inches. Janes grabbed a musket and sent a ball and three buckshot after Roberts, who was making excellent time for the nearest corner. One buckshot hit Roberts in the thigh and another hit him in the neck, but the wounds were not serious, and in a few days the sheriff and Roberts talked the matter over and became friends again. The prisoners were sent to Leavenworth a few days later to be dealt with by the military authorities.
Before leaving Olathe Anderson remarked to the citizens assembled to see him off: "Gentlemen, I will visit your town again," and he did, for he participated in every border raid and as a cold-blooded mur- derer had no equal. He was killed about the close of the war.
Next came Quantrill's raid, September 6, 1862. Quantrill had in 1857 or 1858 taken a claim several miles southeast of Olathe in what was then called the Ohio settlement. He never lived on the claim,
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
but frequently came up from Miami county to see that no one "jumped" it. He was often in Olathe and Jonathan Millikan relates that Quantrill was frequently at his house with the young men from the so-called Ohio settlement.
Eventually someone did jump Quantrill's claim, and being under age, he made no effort to hold it. On the evening of September 6, 1862, Quantrill crossed the State line into Kansas with a force variously estimated at from 125 to 150, finely mounted and thoroughly armed. Proceeding up Coffee creek they came to the home of David Williams, six miles east of Olathe, where they found Frank Cook, who had just enlisted in the company then being formed at Olathe for the Twelfth Kansas. They took him prisoner and rode away. The next day Cook's body was found in a ravine some distance from the Williams home, with two bullet holes in his breast and his head horribly mangled by a musket ball.
A mile and a half east of Olathe the invaders found John J. Judy and his brother, James B. Judy, who had enlisted in the same company with Cook. They made them prisoners, took all the valuables they could find and left. The next day the two brothers were found, their bodies riddled with bullets, in a ravine on the farm owned by Jonathan Millikan, about half way between the Judy home and Olathe. It was almost midnight when Quantrill and his men reached Olathe and moon- light was almost bright enough to read by. Entering Olathe Quantrill halted his men and gave them instructions as to their procedure. ' A party of Olatheans had just returned from De Soto and had gone into a saloon which stood on the east side of the public square, where Ostrander Nicholas and Hershey's meat market now stands. Jiles Mil- hoan, at present police judge of Olathe, had left a $400-team of horses and wagon in front, and looking out a rear window saw the cavalcade coming up the hill from what is now the Santa Fe Street crossing of Mill creek. The citizens were expecting a company of Union cavalry and going outside, one of the crowd, William Roy, the post adjutant, hailed them with the inquiry, "Is that Captain Harvey's command?" Someone answered: "Yes." and the men turned back towards the saloon. At that time the Santa Fe Trail crossed block 46 on the east side of the public square, when he gave the command, "File right, file left. Take immediate possession of the town and don't let a man escape !"
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