USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 24
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The two boys whose experience in the early days is so graphically described above, are George Thorne, of Gardner, and Rufus Thorne, who settled at Spring Hill and later at La Cygne, both of whom are well known to the people of this county.
The above article is from the pen of J. R. Thorne, of Olathe.
FIFTY YEARS AFTER.
(By J. B. Mahaffie.)
In May, 1857, I sold my farm of 300 acres, in Jasper county, Indiana, for $4,400. Much had been said about the border war in Kansas, in 1856, and in the early summer of 1857, in company with three other men, I started in a wagon from Indiana for Kansas Territory. We went to Lawrence, to see what had been done there. We found everything torn up, but the Free State men had come off victorious. From Lawrence we went to Hickory Point, north of Lawrence, where there had been a
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fight between the Missourians, under Capt. John Evans, and the Free State men. There was a cannon ball in the rotten end of a hickory log in the old log fort. Jake Wright, one of our party, offered a dollar for the cannon ball, but the offer was refused. We offered $20 for it, but could not get it.
We tried to take claims in Leavenworth, Douglas and Johnson coun- ties, but failed as the Missourians had the land all taken. We then started back to Indiana. At Westport, we sold our team and took a train and went back home to northwest Indiana. This was in June.
From what I had seen of the territory, I knew it was a fine country and we prepared to return. I wrote to William Dixon, my brother's brother-in-law, at Independence, Mo. I took my family along on this trip and we started with four teams. I had three teams of horses, two wagons and a carriage, and James Welsh had one team. We made Independence our objective point. After we reached Independence I was offered a farm of 160 acres, with orchard, dwelling house, and other improvements for $2,000. This was the battlefield of the Little Blue. I bought between twenty and thirty acres of corn for $100. We rigged up four teams. We could get no claims in Johnson county.
Jim Welsh, Ben Davis and myself, took two loads of corn and started for the Neosho, where Dixon's people had settled. Our map only went to the State line, one-half mile west of Westport, and from there we followed the Santa Fe Trail. We peddled the corn out at two and three cents an ear before we reached Burlington. When we got to Dixon's neighborhood, they met us and we got claims. We then started back to Missouri for my family, who were still at Independence, with the other two wagons. We gathered the corn I had bought and I had 1,100 bushels of the finest corn I ever saw.
We started for the Neosho with four teams. We had three loads of corn, and Billy drove the three cows. We reached Olathe, and met a man named Wood. He said to stop here and not go to the Neosho. He had just hauled some water here (there was no water in Olathe), and he told us that he would give us a load of wood and water if we would stop. We drove over towards the west side of the square to camp. There was a little shoe shop near where Moll's blacksmith shop now is. We had just passed the shop when my wife said: "That is John McKaig standing in the door, go back." I lifted the curtain of the car- riage and cried : "Oh, John." He jumped and ran to us. He got in with us and we went to Wood's house, where he was staying. We had a sick child and Jonathan Millikan kindly gave us the use of their house till we bought a house. We had provisions enough with us to do us a year. This was in November.
We reached Olathe on Tuesday, and on Sunday, Whisky Jones came up from Independence, and seeing the four teams and the cows, wanted to know how many families there were of us. I told him there was only one family, and that we had two girls and three boys.
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He had a house, not far from the Avenue Hotel, which he wanted to sell to me for $1,200. I told him I would not buy. He insisted on making an offer. Dr. Barton came up and said to make him an offer. I then said that I would make him an offer if he would not get mad. Isom Davis came to me and told me that Jones owed a note at the bank in Westport, for $200, which would be due the next morning. That he must have the money, and that I could buy the house at my own price. I took out some gold pieces and showed Jones and told him that was the only kind of money I had and that I had but little of that. I took a piece of board and wrote down $200 in gold and a land warrant for 160 acres, which was $200 more, making $400 for the house and three lots. And I was to have $100 worth of lots to be selected later, to put other buildings on, and to be paid for in one year, without inter- est. The offer was accepted, and Jones and Barton went to draw up the papers. I demanded that the papers should be signed by S. F. Hill, the president of the town company. It was the custom to treat every- body, when a lot was sold, and Barton wanted me to raise the price $50. When I refused, he asked me for $5 to treat with, but I would not pay it. We went to S. F. Hill's, on the west side of the square, to have the papers signed. Hill refused to allow them to treat there, and the crowd adjourned to Turpin's Hotel. This was all on Sunday. Before this, I had been to Collins' mill and bought the lumber for a stable. About II o'clock that night, we started with our teams for the lumber. Another man went for the poles for the stable, and by Monday night we had it up, ready for use.
McKaig and Wood had promised us claims. They said if we could not get claims they would give us theirs, and jump some of the claims of the Missourians, as that would give them an excuse to shoot at a Missourian.
When I came to Olathe, the county business was done here, but the county seat was afterwards established at Shawnee.
I went to Westport to get a load of corn, and in one of the business houses there I saw some maps of Johnson county. They were about two feet square and had been drawn by young Gunn, the son of the map publisher. They were quite accurate, showing Olathe near the center of the county, with Shawnee, Monticello, Gardner and Spring Hill around near the borders of the county, and the location of the timber streams, etc. I bought one for fifty cents and when I got back to Olathe, took it into Turpin's Hotel and showed it to the crowd. Everybody wanted to buy it. I refused to sell, telling them that I only paid fifty cents for it, but wanted to keep it. I afterwards sold it for $2.50 to a man who insisted on having it. I tried to get another at Westport, but was unable to do só.
I was thirty-eight years old when I came to. Johnson county.
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REMINISCENCES.
(By J. H. Blake.)
I shall not try to tell you much about the early history of Johnson county. I come before you to tell you that I am still alive, a physical confutation of the theory of the survival of the fittest; for whilst many strong, hale, hearty comrades of early days have long since gone to their eternal home, I, much to my own and the surprise of others, am still with you, and have no notion to leave you till my time comes to pass on. The early history of Johnson county has been often told and will be told again when these young men and boys grow old (and young ladies, too, if they ever grow old) much better than I can tell you.
Fifty years ago, late one cold afternoon, of March 7, 1857, I landed in Johnson county, Kansas, and slept that night at Cyprian Choteau's, who lived just northeast of Gum Springs, the county seat of said county. The mext night I spent at the home of a man by the name of Dyche, who lived just across the border in Missouri, and the third night, with Sam Cornatzer, living about a mile west of Gum Springs, and with whom I boarded until the county seat was moved the first time to Olathe, moved illegally, as it afterwards appeared. During my stay at Cornatzer's, I made the acquaintance of the two Choteatis, Charles Bluejacket, Rev. Charles Boles, who preached for the Shawnee Indi- ans, Donaldson, who lived at the Indian Council House, Isaac Parish, who was the first sheriff of Johnson county, Alex Johnson, William Fisher, Jr., and many others, all of whom have since passed to the happy hunting grounds.
Soon after my advent into this county, I received the appointment of county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds, the two offices then being one.
The first meeting of the county commissioners was at Gum Springs, in a log house, used by the Shawnee Indians, as a meeting house, on September 7, 1857, and organized as a county board. The board con- sisted of J. T. Ector and William Fisher, Jr., as members and J. P. Camp- bell, probate judge, as president of the board; Isaac Parish was the first sheriff and Cosgrove next. At this meeting, if my memory serves me right, the several townships were organized and metes and bounds established, much as they now stand. I don't remember what other, if any, business they transacted, except to vote themselves, sheriff and clerk, pay for their arduous duty. I thereupon issued the first piece of county scrip, written out on foolscap, that ever circulated in Johnson county. I wish I had a piece of that scrip now. It would be a souvenir of early days, worth keeping. I traded my piece of it to Pat Cosgrove for State scrip.
Some time that summer, by act of bogus legislature, the county seat
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was moved to Olathe, and afterwards, I believe, in May, 1858, moved back to Gum Springs. In the meantime an election was held and the following county officers elected, viz: John T. Barton, treasurer; Pat Cosgrove, sheriff; James Ritch, of Monticello, county clerk; Jonathan Gore, prosecuting attorney ; J. P. Campbell, probate judge, and J. H. Blake, register of deeds. Ritch appointed S. B. Myrick deputy county clerk. Myrick was elected to that office at the next election for county offices.
Olathe, having won the prize at an election, for county seat, the county offices were all moved back to Olathe, late in the fall of 1858.
A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW.
(By Wm. Johnson.)
The general aspect of the country was prairie, with skirts of timber on the streams, with nothing fenced or in cultivation, outside of the prop- erties of the three missions, excepting now and then a small field of a few acres, occupied either by a squaw man or an Indian, most likely the former.
In the part of the county of which I want to speak, the northeast part, was Brush creek, which crosses the State line south of Fifty-second Street, with two prongs, one of which heads west of the Methodist mission and the other drains the country around Overland Park. Tur- key creek, along which the Frisco railroad runs, crosses from Johnson into Wyandotte county, at Rosedale, and Indian creek, showing its tim- ber on the south.
Except for skirts of timber, along the streams varying in width, all of the balance was prairie, of which none was fenced, and on which there was not a house.
Traversing the county were two main roads, leading out of Westport. The Fort Leavenworth, or military road, led west from the old Harris House in Westport, crossing the State line near Forty-fifth Street, thence in a southwesterly direction, leaving the Capt. Joe Parks place half a mile to the south, the Methodist mission three-quarters of a mile in the same direction, the Baptist mission a quarter of a mile to the north, and the Quaker mission a quarter of a mile to the south, crossing Turkey creek, and on to the old Shawnee church, where the town of Shawnee now is, then diverging to the northwest, and crossing the Kaw river, or what was then known as Tibelo's Ferry, near Bonner Springs. Said Tibelo was a bow-legged Delaware Indian.
The other road, known as the Santa Fe road, led south from the Har- ris House, crossing Brush creek, and up a long rocky hill, following what is now known as Wornall road, as far as the Armon piace, then taking a westerly direction to the State line which was crossed at Mar-
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mian's blacksmith shop, now the Hahn place, keeping along what was then called the Santa Fe ridge, in a southwesterly direction, passing about three-quarters of a mile south of Overland Park and in the same general direction, passing about two miles south and east of Olathe.
Of the places of historical interest of that time was the Capt. Joe Parks place, a quarter of a mile from the State line. Captain Parks was a chief of the Shawnees, who conducted a part of the tribe to this county from Ohio, in 1832, and remained chief until his death.
The Methodist mission, which consisted of three brick buildings, still standing, about twelve of the minor buildings have been torn down, built from 1839 to 1845, is half a mile south and three-quarters of a mile west of the Parks place. These houses were put up by my father. who was the superintendent of the mission at that time. The money was furnished by the United States Government, and the work done under the superintendence of the Methodist church. The brick was burnt on the ground and the lumber sawed from wood on Brush creek. The mission was conducted and supported by the Government and church, jointly. It was at this mission where the first legisature of Kansas territory was held, in 1855, having adjourned from Pawnee to this place, it being the only place in the territory that could furnish accommodations sufficient for State officers and halls to meet. They met here during the vacation of the school. The State officers remained here about a year, I think. Most of the members boarded in Westport, Mo. There was a continual string of hacks, running between West- port and the mission. Two miles west and half a mile north was the Baptist mission. At the time of which I am now speaking, it was superintended by a man named Barker, supported by the Baptist church.
From the Baptist to the Quaker mission was about a mile and a half southwest. The Quaker mission, about this time, was superintended by Mr. Hadley, the father of Captain Hadley, with whom the majority of the older settlers of this county are well acquainted. This mission was also supported exclusively by its church.
On the same road in the present limits of Merriam, was a tract of land, from which the timber had been burned, some of the stumps being twenty feet high, which was always called "the Mormon battle ground," for what reason I am unable to say.
The next point of interest was the old Shawnee church, where sery- ices were held for the Indians. This church was beside the Shawnee graveyard, and was constructed of logs. two logs in length, and pre- sided over by a white preacher, who preached in the English language, being interpreted by an Indian, who stood by him in the pulpit. The place of interpreter was filled most of the time by Charles Bluejacket.
The church was also used as a place to pay the Shawnee Indians their annual annuity, from the Government, and as I recollect it, quite an interesting scene. The agent and his assistants were seated at a
(16)
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table, just inside the door. The head of the Indian family would step up to the table to be identified. The agent would turn to the roll, ascer- tain how many there were and make the payment outside the building. In a half-circle, facing the door, were a lot of tables, behind which were seated the Missouri merchants, who had sold the Indians goods on credit, for the past year, and as he came out with his money, they would call him to their table, present his account and try to get him to pay it, and it was astonishing how little English some of those Indians could understand, although other times they could understand anything said to them.
The next, and last place, of which I will speak, is the Shawnee coun- cil house which was located near the home of Bill Donaldson, the blacksmith of the Shawnees. The place is now in the grounds of the Elm Ridge Golf Club, and was formerly the Reme Canen place. In the council house was conducted all the legal business of the Shawnee tribe.
The tribe was divided into a number of bands, at the head of each was a chief, who constituted the council, presided over by the head chief of the tribe.
These places were the only houses along the road. Scattered through the timber along the creeks were the cabins of the Indians.
YEAGER RAID INCIDENTS.
(By D. Hubbard.)
Among the many important and exciting events of the early years of the war, which have held the attention of the loyal people of Kansas, by their tales of suffering and endurance, of fire and blood, there may be some interest accorded to one of the minor events, which filled those trying times. The following account of the return of Dick Yeager's band to Missouri is gathered from authentic sources for the purpose of adding to the history making of Kansas.
The writer was then living in Marion, Douglass county, Kansas, seven- teen miles southwest of Lawrence, and on the old Santa Fe Trail, being engaged in farming and running a small store, postoffice and stage stand. His family consisted of his wife and an infant daughter, less than one year old, and there was living, with him, Henry Waters and wife and a daughter about six years of age. Mr. Waters now resides at Iola, Kan.
The summer of 1862 had been filled with raids, by Quantrill and his men, upon the towns along the border, including Gardner, Olathe and Shawnee, burning and destroying property and killing many Union men. This had aroused the public feeling to a high pitch, and was the cause of Governor Robinson organizing a home guard of militia. In
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Douglass county the three townships, through which the Santa Fe Trail ran, Palmyra, Willow Springs and Marion, each organized a company. The writer was the captain of the one in Marion, Fortunatus Gleason was its first lieutenant and William Baldwin was its second lieutenant, the latter of whom is still living near Overbrook, in Osage county. It was composed of about thirty men, furnished with arms and ammunition by the State, and was called out several times during the year 1862, but each time upon a false alarm.
In the month of May, 1863, as soon as the grass was sufficient for grazing their horses, a considerable number of Quantrill's men, under the command of Dick Yeager, came west on the trail in squads of twos or threes, so as not to be observed. This was the same man who was Quantill's lieutenant at the Lawrence raid the following August, where he won, with his comrades, a name of undying infamy. These men congregated near Council Grove, Morris county, and there went into camp. It has never been known to history just what was the real object in making this movement. Some have suggested that it was their intention to organize a raid in New Mexico. Others believed that they were bent upon plunder and destruction among the interior towns of the State. Whatever their purpose, they were evidently foiled by the United States soldiers stationed in the vicinity.
The following is furnished by John Maloy, county attorney of Morris county, and written seventeen years ago, as a part of what he is preparing for a history of that county :
"With all of their military preparations, our people were unable to prevent guerillas from making incursions into our neighborhood. On May 4, 1863, Dick Yeager's band of Missouri guerillas encamped on the General Custer farm, now owned by M. K. Sample, near Council Grove and after insulting and threatening the lives of some of our best citizens, a portion of them, some ten or twelve in number, proceeded on the following day, to Diamond Springs, and about 12 o'clock at night, three of them rode up to the store of Augustus Howell, and without any ceremony, shot him to death. His wife was also shot, but recovered, and afterwards married a Mr. Strokes, of Chase county. During this excitement Captain Rowell, of Colorado, was stationed at Council Grove, to protect the people of the county and to guard the mails and merchants, as well as the Santa Fe trains."
Yeager rode to Dr. J. H. Bradford's office and had a tooth pulled. He was visited in his camp soon after he came by M. Conn, now a resident of Kansas City, then of Council Grove, where he remained for some time. Many criticised the visit as an act of disloyalty. with- out inquiring into the object of his visit. He went to prevail on Yeager not to burn the town, and succeeded in his mission, which was quite up to any reasonable standard of loyalty. He had known Yeager well in the years before the war, as a freighter on the Santa Fe route. They had been friends, which was a most lucky thing for Council Grove.
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Thirteen of their number started back on the eighth day of May, over the trail, and under the lead of Yeager. Nothing is known of their movements or doings until reaching Rock Springs, late in the after- noon, near the line between Osage and Douglas counties. At that time there was a stage stand, formerly kept by a man by the name of Walters, but the name of the proprietor at that time I do not remember. A soldier by the name of George N. Sabin, of Company K, Eleventh regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was spending the night there. He had been visiting home on a furlough, and was then on his way to his regiment at Fort Scott. Over a dozen bullets were his fate. The next morning he was buried by the neighbors, on the open prairie.
The family of this soldier lived near Auburn, Shawnee county. The widow could learn nothing of his fate, and continued in ignorance of the circumstances of his death until two years ago, when, by a most remark- able chain of circumstances, the writer's daughter became acquainted with the soldier's daughter, at Salt Lake City, Utah. The soldier's widow then, for the first time, learned the facts surrounding her hus- band's death.
The same evening the bushwhackers shot Sabin they arrived at my home, seven miles farther east. Mr. Waters came in about dusk and said that it was reported that the bushwhackers were at some point west of us, committing depredations. The report was treated lightly, by us all, and we sat down to supper. The daughter of Mrs. Waters soon came running and called out that a lot of horsemen were coming down the road. They came to the door, where I met them and was seized. searched and questioned, as to my politics, and the State I came from. The answers not being satisfactory to them, Yeager gave the order to shoot. Three of them obeyed the order. One bullet went through my lungs, the other two missed, they being less than ten feet away. After going through the house and taking what they wanted, and taking a horse from the stable, they left, following the trail east. Among other things, they took Mr. Water's pocketbook. Mrs. Waters asked the priv- ilege of taking out some valuable papers, and they allowed her to select some of the most valuable papers.
They passed through Baldwin without molesting anybody. At Black Jack, four miles further east, they met the Santa Fe stage, in which, among others, was ex-Sheriff Jones (appointed the first sheriff of Doug- las county by the bogus legislature of Shawnee mission, Johnson county), who was on his way to his home, then in New Mexico. The passengers were all relieved of their money and watches, even the notorious Sheriff Jones; they did not spare nor stop to inquire as to his politics.
From information furnished by George W. Cramer, now of Paola, Kan., who was living with his father, A. Cramer, who kept the Stone Hotel, at Gardner, Johnson county, I learned that at some time past
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midnight, Yeager's band reached Gardner. They first quietly took Garret Rhue, afterwards representative in the legislature from that county, who was express agent, and made him prisoner. They took from him an express package containing $200, then made him go withi them to the hotel and get the hotel keeper, A. Cramer, to open the door, saying that there were some men who wanted to stay all night. The door opened, they rushed in and made Mr. Cramer prisoner at the point of their revolvers, and ordered him to show them where the other men were. They were taken up stairs into the room where G. W. Cramer and Ben Francis were sound asleep. They jerked them both out of bed and demanded their money and clothes. Francis answered that the clothes they saw there were all he had. They answered that they knew better, and that he must have better clothes, and ordered him to show them his trunk, which he did. They smashed it in with their feet, and not finding what they expected, said they would shoot him anyway. Francis replied the clothes were good enough for bushwhackers. They acted on his suggestion and gathered up all the clothes, but did not shoot him.
The men were all taken out into the street under guard, while a part of the gang took Mr. Cramer to the stables and made him get out his best horses, which they appropriated. Then they marched him to the front of the house and ordered the command to fall in line. It was thought by all that he was then to be shot. But the command was given orders to march and they filed out of town.
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