USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 39
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MAIL SERVICE DISCONTINUED.
Finally, a man was engaged to carry a tri-weekly mail, from Guittard. Later, that was cut to a semi-weekly and again to once a month. A vigor- ous remonstrance was sent in, and then the mail was discontinued. This was unbearable and in time the mail service was restored and a carrier delivered mail regularly.
There was bad feeling between Oketo and Marysville. One stormy night the ferry was cut loose from its moorings which was a serious damage to the stage company. But it was not the end of the trouble. Crossings were torn up, ditches dug and some shooting affrays took place. Holladay had placed J. H. Whitehead in charge of the Oketo station, and although some historians state that the Oketo cut-off ( which had become quite famous ). was discontinued by Holladay after four months, Mrs. Lee Holloway, who was formerly Mrs. J. II. Whitehead, declares positively that Holladay did not discontinue the use of this cut-off until the Overland stage was finally abandoned by reason of the building of the railroad to Grand Island, Nebraska.
Certain it is that the matter culminated, because one dark and stormy night the stage with a United States general as a passenger, was plunged into a ditch and the officer given a shaking up.
When he was told of the bad feeling and depredations, he at once wrote to the commanding officer at Ft. Leavenworth and had troops sent out to protect the Overland mail line. In a few days a detachment of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry arrived at Marysville and peace was restored and in time the stages again drove through Marysville. .
Many old frontiersmen and freighters declared that the route through Marysville was the better. It was an old-established military highway across the plains to Salt Lake City and California, and was one of the most important stage and wagon roads in the country.
THE PRICE OF OBSTINACY.
The establishment of the cut-off had cost Holladay at least fifty thou- sand dollars and the people of Marysville were caused some losses. Both parties at last learned the value of forbearance.
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There was much rejoicing among the stage employees and the citizens of the town, when the old Concord coach again dashed into town and pulled up in front of the Barrett hotel.
A pioneer stage driver of the Overland stage was Con Smith, who resided for many years near Irving. Smith once drove from Boonville to Tipton, Missouri. Later. he drove-on the Butterfield stage. line from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Sherman, Texas.
In 1861 he came to St. Joseph and drove for Holladay. His drive was from Guittard's Station to Hollenberg, the first station west of Marysville. In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, Seventh Kansas and served until 1865, when he again entered the employ of Holladay and drove until he finally "threw down the lines" and began farming. A man of sterling integrity and great physical courage, he was a well-respected citizen of this county.
THE PONY EXPRESS.
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This was a frontier enterprise of great public importance. The power behind the throne was the well-known western overland freighter, William H. Russell, of Leavenworth. The route from St. Joseph, Missouri, struck the old military road at Kennekuk, forty-four miles out, thence it ran in a northwesterly direction and touched Marshall county at Guittard Station and Marysville. The first courier of the pony express left the Missouri river, April 3, at three p. m., and reached Salt Lake City on the evening of April 9.
Johnnie Frey, mounted on a swift little black pony, was the carrier. At the same moment he left St. Joe, Harry Roff left Sacramento on a snow- white steed and the courier arrived in Salt Lake City on April 7. These two boys, neither of whom weighed over one hundred and thirty-five pounds. were heralds of the great development and civilization which followed.
Russell had two hundred ponies and hundreds of small, fleet horses. They were distributed along the line from nine to fifteen miles apart. Each rider was required to ride three animals in succession, covering three stages. The riders were selected on account of light weight, few weighing over one hundred and thirty-five pounds. The saddle, bridle and leather pouch used for the mail were strong and durable, weighing altogether only thirteen pounds. The most important news transmitted by the pony express from St. Joe early in 1861 was that the air was filled with rumors of war. In
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the early sixties some letters were sent at a cost of twenty-seven dollars and sixty cents postage.
Of the eighty daring riders employed on the line at times, forty were in the saddle going east. and forty going west. An average of two hundred miles was covered every twenty-four hours. The couriers were splendid types of young men of great courage and power of endurance. They endeared themselves greatly to the settlers along the routes, who welcomed the sight of their coming, and watched them depart with a silent prayer for their safety.
EARLY-DAY ADVERTISING.
The following advertisement copied from the Big. Blue Union of Octo- ber 15, 1864. indicates one way the pioneer might have passed away an other- wise dull honr.
"The Lone Star Billiard Saloon .- Keep cool, gentlemen. Take some- thing like a julep, punch, cobbler, sangaree, cocktail, smash, or lager, in ice, through a straw, or any other way while you enjoy yourselves at the famous military game of billiards."
The proprietor evidently did not care to engage in the "famous military game" then being played, with the life of the nation at stake.
An advertisement in the same issue of the paper is, to say the least, unique.
"American Hotel. Marysville. Kansas .- I have lately purchased the property known as Barrett's Hotel, in this place, and shall endeavor to keep a first-class hotel. Hay, corn and oats plenty. J. H. Cottrell. Proprietor."
In the same paper. J. Wiesbach advertises: Dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, liquors and tinware and says: "Cash paid for hides, wool and furs."
T. W. Waterson advertises an immense stock of dry goods, groceries. drugs, medicines, foreign and domestic liquors.
A. E. Lovell notifies his customers that he has a "full supply of choice family groceries, including tobacco and candles." In the dry-goods depart- ment he advertises : "Monkey jackets, hoop skirts, balmorals, muibias, wamunses, etc." Fashions have changed somewhat in the half century that has passed.
It is worthy of chronicle that two parties advertising in the paper do not ofier intoxicating liquors for sale.
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THE OLD WHITE STUMP SWIMMING POOL.
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Mrs. Sarah Foster advertises "millinery done in the latest style and on the shortest order."
Gustav Stauss announces to the citizens of the community that he has opened a blacksmith shop on Broadway and that "he is prepared to do all kinds of work in his line on reasonable terms and at the shortest notice; and hopes by strict attention to business to merit the confidence and patronage of the public."
The Big Bluc Union also carries the advertisement of a man who spent the remainder of his days in Marysville and was the friend of all who came to know him.
"Thomas McCoy, boot and shoemaker .- Come along and bring your feet, I can fit them; don't care if they are as uneven as a tomato, or so ugly as to make their owner blush. N. B .- I will also repair harness."
In time McCoy became the largest harness dealer in the city. His unique advertisement appeared in the Marysville papers for a period of twenty-five years, as follows:
A good broth of a boy is Thomas McCoy, He lives in Marysville, Kan., And those who want tools for horses and mules, Should call on him quick as they can.
He has saddles and bridles, and collars and whips. All made with new-fangled invention,
His goods are all made with an eye to the trade. And to please is his honest intention.
So come in and buy, of this clever McCoy, And ne'er doubt but your visit will pay. You'll remember the place, 'tis so easy to trace, At the west end and south side of Broadway.
WHITE STUMP SWIMMING IIOLE.
The accompanying view will recall pleasant memories to the mind of every man under forty years of age, who lived in Marysville for any length of time in boyhood days.
To this shady retreat on Spring creek may be charged countless cases
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of truancy, hours of maternal anxiety and "oceans of fun" for the boys, who during all of those years have promptly and cheerfully responded to the sign of "two fingers."
The amphibians in the water are William .\. Calderhead, Jr., now man- ager of a big cattle ranch in Mexico: Arthur Johnson, well known in Rock Island railroad circles, and Butler Shepard, who was recently on the Mexican border with the late General Funston. The boy on the bank must remain incognito. Suffice it to say he has boys of his own large enough to recognize the sign of the "two fingers."
STORY OF GRANDMA KEYES.
On April 14, 1846, the Donner party left Springfield, Illinois, on their journey to California. James F. Reed was the originator of the party, and the Donner brothers, George and Jacob, joined him.
Mrs. Reed's mother. Sarah Keyes, was an invalid, seventy-five years old, but as Mrs. Reed was her only daughter she refused to be parted from her and although her sons, Gersham and James W. Keyes, tried to persuade her to remain with them, she accompanied the party.
Everything possible was planned to make her comfortable for the long journey and she improved in health every day until the party reached the Big Blue river. at the Old Independence crossing, where they found the river so swollen that they could not cross and were obliged to lie by and make some rafts. As soon as they stopped traveling, Grandma Keyes began to fail in health and on the 19th day of May she died.
Her granddaughter, Virginia (Keyes ) Murphy, writing in the Century Magasine, July, 1891, gives this account :
"It seemed hard to bury grandma in the wilderness and travel on and we were afraid the Indians would destroy her grave, but death here, before our troubles began was providential, and nowhere on the whole road could we have found so beautiful a resting place. By this time many emigrants had joined our company and all turned out to assist at the funeral.
"A coffin was hewn out of a cottonwood tree and John Denton, a young man from Springfield, found a large, gray stone on which he carved in deep letters the name. 'Sarah Keyes, born in Virginia,' giving her age and date of her birth.
"She was buried under the shade of an oak, the slab being placed at the foot of the grave, on which were planted wild flowers of the prairie. A
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minister in our party. Rev. A. J. Cornwall, tried to speak words of comfort as we stood about this lonely grave."
This grave and the slab are on the hill side near Alcove Springs and have been visited by many people who have not forgotten the story of the death of Grandma Keyes nor of the ill-fated Donner party. That party, which left Springfield on that beautiful April morning, suffered to the extreme of human endurance, only a small number surviving and reaching California. Among the survivors were James F. Reed and wife, and their four children, Virginia, Patty, James and Thomas. Their last hours of real happiness on the trip were buried in that lonely grave near the Blue river.
A few years ago the granddaughters, Virginia and Patty, wrote to Peter Schroyer making inquiry concerning the grave and were assured that it had never been molested. It is hoped that steps will be taken to give this grave proper marking, so that the dead left with us shall not be forgotten.
TIIE OLD MUSICIAN.
"Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Long, long ago; long, long ago; Sing me the songs I delighted to hear, Long, long ago; long. long ago."
From 1869 to 1880 the music best known and most in demand was the Pecenka .Orchestra. When this orchestra first became known to the dancing folks in and around Marysville, the orchestra contained but two instruments. John Pecenka, Sr., played a violin and his son John played an accordion. This old-time instrument has passed beyond the memory of many people, while the younger generation knows nothing of it; but in those good old days it was the musical instrument of the settler's cabin, and the accordion player was classed as a musician and had his place in the orchestral ranks.
Later, as the children of the family advanced in years they took their places beside the father and the orchestra instrumentation was: Leader and first violin, John Pecenka, Sr. : cornet, Jolin Pecenka, Jr. ; clarionet, Milos A. Pecenka ; viola, Anton C. Pecenka : second violin, Joseph Sedlacek ; accordion, Joseph A. Sedlacek.
This was the group of Bohemian musicians known as the Pecenka Orchestra and, while the members were all musicians of rank, the central figure was the leader with his rich-toned violin.
To the many gay dancers who listened to its strains, it meant only the
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waltz, schottische or quadrille, to which restless feet beat broken time and plunged waveringly from one tune to another, giving no thought to composer or interpreter. But to the old musician it meant the day when he was okl enough to draw the bow or finger the strings. It meant his first trembling attempts at the melodies of Dvorak, Smetena and, in later years, the stately modes and chants of St. Gregory. It meant the home of his youth and early manhood, with its lares and penates. It meant his native land, with its legend of hill and vale, from which he had parted, never more to breathe its flower-laden air or press with gentle footstep the sacred soil, where slept his ancestors.
DISASTER FOLLOWS NIGHT OF PLEASURE.
One mghit the orchestra had been playing for a dance in Waterson's hall in Marysville, and the night had worn almost till morn, when the strains of "Home, Sweet Home," gave notice of the final waltz and Pecenka with his violin left the hall. The night was dark and stormy and rain was falling. Pecenka placed the violin carefully wrapped in a grain sack in the back part of the wagon and covered it with loose hay. Pecenka with his son, John. were about to start on their homeward drive. when John discovered he had left his music rack in the hall and returned for it. During his absence the father tied the team and stepped into the stairway out of the rain. The team, restless from the cold and the late hour, broke loose and ran down the street. Someone, who recognized the "gray and bay" team, jumped into the back of the wagon and stopped the runaways and tied them at the foot of Broadway. Pecenka's first thought was of his violin and he soon came to the team and hastily reached for the sack under the hay. Alas, it rattled like bones and the hallowed wood was stilled.
The friend who had intercepted the runaway team, had stepped on his instrument and crushed the plate and sides into splinters. The heart of Pecenka was pierced with anguish and tears fell from his eyes. His precious violin, dear to him as a child, was ruined. Across the sea in his childhood home. in sunny, music-loving Bohemia, he had taken his first lesson from a master musician on that beloved instrument. On the voyage he had charmed the passengers on the steamer with its sweet strains and had solaced his family and friends during the lonely, dangerous hours of the eight weeks voyage. In Chicago he made it speak to men and women of his own nativity in the music of the homes they had left beyond the sea. In Iowa it had helped to earn maintenance for the growing family. On the prairies of Kansas, the first night in the state. he had played for a future governor while the
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LONE GRAVE CEMETERY.
GRAVE OF GRANDMA SARAH KEYES.
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children danced with happiness on the grass. And now maimed and crushed. it lay at his feet.
With broken heart Pecenka gathered together the fragments of his idol. One ray of hope illumined his despair and as day broke over the eastern hills he rapped at the door of his friend, Fred Baeuerle, the cabinet-maker. Baeuerle had fingers that worked magic in wood. Perhaps he could repair the violin.
PECENKA HIMSELF AGAIN.
A few weeks later a group of men were gathered in Matthias Bendel's saloon when Pecenka entered with his violin in the sack, under his arm. He dropped into a chair and with trembling fingers untied the strings and took out the instrument. Slowly he raised it. lovingly rested it against his face and, with a gentle stroke, he brought the bow across the strings. The tone came back sweet and true as of old.
Strong men were in the group, but none felt ashamed of the tears that moistened their eyes as the old musician wept. Some one handed him a foaming glass and soon, his composure returned. he rendered with skilful touch the sweet strains of the "Divci Rozmar" (The Maiden's Waltz.) Then came other favorites-"The Dnesni" (Of This Day) waltz and the vivacious polonaise. Occasionally, while Pecenka resined his bow, the group partook of refreshments and the musician was not forgotten.
It was Saturday afternoon and as was usual everybody had come to town. Bendel's saloon was the favorite haunt of a number of congenial souls and among those gathered there that afternoon were: Fritz Baeuerle. the Schwabian cabinet-maker, who had restored the instrument : John Kempf, the village blacksmith; a soldier from Schwabia: Tom McCoy, the jolly harness-maker from old Erin: Joe Kelley, of the same nativity : Louis Wyl, a French soldier : Henry Schell, a farmer, musician and a Union soldier : Anton Huber, a Badenese revolutionist of 1848; George Wohlwend, a soldier of the Swiss Sonderbund War: James McClosky, a Scotchman and pioneer ; Robert Boehme. a homesteader, highly educated, of the aristocracy of Silesia ; George Bachoritch, a Hungarian soldier, also a Union soldier; Romeo B. Werner. an Austrian nobleman, artist and inventor, and Christ Ruffner, a Swiss, six feet. four, basso. dugout homesteader, renowned for strength.
Some were seated on rude chairs. some leaned against the wall, others stood at the bar with foot on rail and glass in hand. Here comrades and citizens, men from different lands and of various speech. paid tribute to music, the universal language of mankind.
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AN IMPROVISED CONCERT.
With a gladness of heart, born of the restoration of his loved violin after weeks of anxiety, filled with thankfulness that he was in a land chosen for its rich opportunities, its beneficent laws, and for the highest develop- ment of individual life, here surrounded by congenial friends, his bow involuntarily brought forth the strains of "America".
There was a stir in the room, a coming closer together, a clinking of glasses and then, "God Save the Queen," sang the Irishman. "Heil dir im Siegerkranz," was the song of the German. "Rufst du mein Vaterland," rang out the voice of the Swiss, while all joined, brokenly and stumblingly. but none the less fervently, in the words :
Our father's God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, To Thee we sing. Long may our land be bright. With Freedom's holy light, Protect us by Thy might. Great God. our King.
Who can tell what magic played upon the heartstrings of these men, as the music enraptured their very souls and bathed them in its harmonies, as the moonlight bathes the rough mountain crag and makes it radiant. The room became a picture. By that law which sets men in the same frame of mind as the artist. the poet and the musician, the dingy, narrow room with its low ceiling became to McCoy and Kelley, the hawthorn-scented lanes of the Emerald Isle, and they heard afar a sweet voice singing. "Come back to Erin, Mavourneen, mavourneen." Wyl and Schell were in France, and again marching in quick time to the inspiring strains of the "Marsellaise." Ruffner and Wohlwend heard the cry of the yodeler from the mountain top and, from the valley below, the unconquerable spirit of Liberty resounded in the Kureihen.
The mood of the musician changed, the bow swept the strings with mar- tial fervor and the strains of "Die Wacht am Rhein," resounded through the room. There were men in that gathering who had served in the Prus- sian army and they were again on the battlefield. The din of musketry, the roar of cannon. the moans of the dying were in their ears. They sang the old war-song as they had often voiced it in deadly warfare. . As the words
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died away they scarce dared look at one another, so full of emotion were all. The day had worn to eve and when the glasses clinked for the last time, memory, libation and music had worked its spell. The dim, ancestral knowl- edge in men dominated the minds and hearts of all. The old mysticism of the Rhine with its legends and lore was over thein, as the fascinating tones of "The Lorelei" pervaded the air. Softly and tenderly they sang,
"Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten, Dass ich so traurig bin : Ein Maerchen aus alten Zeiten, Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn."
Slowly the group dispersed, going silently from that cheap room, which for the time being had in imagination, been transformed into scenes of other lands and other climes. The sun was setting in a blaze of glory as the old musician turned his footsteps toward his homestead in the golden west.
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
A local paper, published in 1890, carried the following story :
"A Kansas City drummer received a shock at Blue Rapids recently. When he jumped into the bus at the Union Pacific depot he trilled a merry little song as he looked on the other passengers. 'It seems to me I've met you before,' he said to the man opposite. 'Isn't your name Eaton?' 'No, sir, my name is Life.' 'Ha, ha! where's Death?' 'Here, sir, answered the man at his right. My name is Death.' 'Gad, Life and Death!' was his astonished exclamation. 'And here is the Coffin,' quietly remarked his left- hand neighbor. 'My name is Coffin.' 'My goodness, let me off, I'd rather walk than ride in such company.' The bus passengers waited in front of the hotel until the express wagon came ; sure enough there he was humming his little song. He was informed he had finished his ride with the express man named Sexton, and in the wagon generally used as a hearse. He was so overcome he went to bed."
The truth of the tale is vouched for. All the persons whose names are mentioned. lived in Blue Rapids at one time.
O. W. FRENCH.
Obe French, who was born in Canada in 1844, began blacksmithing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the age of sixteen. He came to Marysville in
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February, 1871, where for forty-six consecutive years he has conducted a Blacksmith shop. Many others have come and gone but "Olie" stayed "on the job". There was no mule too vicious for him to shoe: no day too long for him to refuse to sharpen the farmer's plow or repair machinery. . All of his work bore evidence of the hand and skill of the master and most of this was done before the gas engine or electric motor made the trip hammer pos- sible.
O. W. French has stood at the anvil more years than any other man in the county, if not in the state. His familiar face going to and from his work daily for nearly half a century has been an object lesson in industry to the generations of boys who knew him. He served the city as councilman for many years with the same absolute honesty and efficiency which characterized his own business. A written history of Marysville for the last forty-six years, without making mention of "Obe" French. the blacksmith, would be incomplete.
"Toiling. rejoicing, sorrowing, Onward through life he goes. Each morning sces some task begun, Each evening sees it close. Something accomplished, something done, Has earned a night's repose."
GEORGE GUITTARD.
For many years in the history of Marshall county, there were three well- known points: Frank Marshall's at Marysville, Barrett's, of Barrett Mills, and Guittard Station.
Guittard Station was the first stopping place in the county for the Over- land stage. and it was a favorite stopping place on the route. The host was genial and hospitable and an air of gentility pervaded the home life.
George Guittard was born in Bellemagna, Upper AAlsace, France, in 1800. The Guittards were an old French family and heads of the family had served as magistrates for years, one of the name being a member of the Chamber of Deputies in Napoleon's time. Another came to America with LaFayette and served during the Revolutionary War. George Guittard came to the United States in 1833 and with him came his mother. his wife. Magdelena. nee Thomann, and their four sons, George, Jr., Francis, Joseph and Xavier: also Mrs. Guittard's brother, Thomann and family and their
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aged parents. They were one hundred and three days on the ocean, suffered much hardship and food went scarce. They landed in Baltimore, where Mr. Guittard's mother died from the effects of the voyage, as did also Francis, a young son. Mr. Guittard found employment in factories in Philadelphia, New York and Newark, and finally started a factory of his own.
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