History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 6

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1276

USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 6

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INDIANS BECOME IMPATIENT.

The prairie Indians became impatient by reason of the non-appearance of the agent, and in the absence of railway and telegraphic communication the authorities could get no information as to the cause, except by means of

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

the slow mails. A portion of the educated Indians and traders came to me and asked what would be the better course to pursue in order to keep the prairie Indians quiet until the agent should arrive. It occurred to me that it would be interesting, instructive and amusing to call a pow-wow or con- vention of the traders and Indians. There were at that time a thousand or more curiosity seekers, etc., in the vicinity. I requested Bill Lorton, a half- breed educated Indian, always a reliable friend on my travels through the Indian country, to notify everyone. He mounted his wild bucking broncho, with a cowbell in hand, and spread the news with a great hurrah. Several thousand Indians and nearly as many whites came pouring in from all direc- tions. I had requested one of the agents from the Indian department to explain the object of the convention. He wanted to know what he should say. I told him to discuss the question of organizing a territorial govern- ment for Nebraska, the prosperous condition of the Indians or anything else he could imagine that would give him something to talk about, intending to amuse the crowd.

The fact is that up to that time I did not know what was going to be said or done, except that, as before stated, I thought we would get a good deal of amusement out of it and allay the restless spirit of the Indians. The agent announced that I knew all about the matters to be discussed and called upon me to explain the object of the convention. I responded, beginning more in fun than in earnest, referring to the then condition of affairs, but soon I became serious, and the importance of accomplishing a territorial government dawned upon my mind and the more feasible appeared the object, and soon the convention became enthusiastic and in earnest.

The proceedings of that convention resulted in the adoption of a memorial to Congress to organize a territorial government for Nebraska or the Great American desert. The news of the memorial to Congress was communicated to the St. Louis Republican by General Mitchell and the other papers of the United States took up the subject, and its discussion resulted in the development of great interest, and the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of the state of Illinois, who was then a member of the United States Senate. took up the subject and introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill. It was soon apparent from the discussions which took place in Congress that the Southern states would not vote for his bill because it prohibited Southerners from mov- ing into the territories with their property, unless the Missouri compromise was first repealed, because that law denied the right to carry slaves into the territories. This law was repealed as a part of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the southern members of Congress voted for the measure. It then

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

became popular, and was carried by an overwhelming majority, and was regarded as a most just law under the doctrine of what was known as "squat- ter sovereignty."

SOUTHERN STATES FAVOR DOUGLAS.

This put the Southern states in favor of Mr. Douglas for the Presidency. but it aroused the opposition of the northern Democracy, and Mr. Douglas found it convenient to drop the southern Democracy and swing off with the northern wing, making war on the Democratic administration which endorsed the Democratic doctrine of equality between the states. This led to a divi- sion of the national Democracy and gave birth to the Republican party, and finally resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.

Mr. Douglas had argued that Kansas would come in as a free state. which it would have done under the Lecompton constitution, but for the policy of Horace Greeley and his confreres, who prevented it coming in as a free state and thus downed Mr. Douglas and the Democratic party. The policy of the free state party managers was to withhold a large per cent. of the Free State voters and allow the pro-slavery ticket to be elected and the slavery clause to be retained; for if they had voted their full strength they would have elected a Free State member of Congress, and excluded slavery from Kansas, and it would have come into the union under that constitution as a free state, with free state officers; the agitation would have ceased ; there would have been no Republican party, no additional slave states. 10 war, and no such great blessing as our national debt of millions.

So you will see that the conduct of myself, with the co-operation of Bill Lorton, the half-breed educated Indian from St. Mary's Mission. back in those early days really resulted in the development of a territorial govern- ment organizing Kansas and Nebraska, which has been followed by a con- tinual formation of states west of the Missouri river, containing today mil- lions of people. This vast region of country being rapidly settled and cap- able of supporting many millions of people more than now inhabit it; rich in agricultural resources and mineral wealth it will eventually have the power to control the affairs of the nation. It already holds the balance of power. and only needs the co-operation of the middle and southern states to wrest from the hands of England and other foreign countries the power to control the financial policy of this country, as they do at the present time. This can be done, in my opinion, by the remonetization of silver and a change of the policy of our financial system.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

SOME FACTS NOT RECORDED IN HISTORY.

I do not desire to bring political questions into discussion on this occa- sion, but I beg leave to say that the history of the country now under con- sideration necessarily calls for some facts not recorded in history, which Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as the country at large, are inter- ested in.

The present generation is not aware how the Republicans came to be a political party, uor do the Democrats all know the causes which led to their surrendering the government to a new party, which has since been known as the Republican party. Only a day or two ago I met a man forty-five years of age who said that his great-grandfather was a Republican and he was going to stick to that party-silver or no silver. I then informed him that I was personally present at the birth of the Republican party, and that my great-grandfather was a Democrat, but that I would not vote for that party or any other unless it declared for the remonetization of silver at the ratio of 16 to I.

The gold standard advocates nominated both Harrison and Cleveland, and it did not matter to them which was elected. The same game may be looked for in the next national conventions of the two old parties.

It is often asked by men of great intelligence, "What is the cause of the present deplorable condition of the country?" when a schoolboy can answer the question. It is simply this: That the Bank of England forced Wall street and Wall street forced every national bank in this country to shut down on the people, and lock up the money of the nation, and they have it locked up yet. And they can perform this operation again and again so long as the gold standard men control our finances.

Very respectfully yours,

F. J. MARSHALL.

Denver, Colorado, July 22, 1895.

MRS. MARY MARSHALL.

Mrs. J. M. Watson of Frankfort received a telegram on April 25, 1917, notifying her of the death of her sister, Mrs. Mary Marshall, at Largemont, New York, Tuesday, April 24. Interment was made at New Rochelle, New York, the following evening.

Mary R. Williams was born at Richmond, Missouri, December 4, 1831, and at the time of her death was aged eighty-five years, four months and

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

twenty days. Reaching womanhood, she was married to the late Gen. Frank J. Marshall, of Weston, Missouri. They came to Marshall county among the first white settlers of this county. Mr. Marshall established a ferry at Inde- pendence Crossing, about eight miles south of Marysville, on the Blue river, in 1849. Two years later he moved his ferry to Marysville. He was elected to the first territorial Legislature and in the organization of the county had the county named Marshall and the town named Mary, in honor of his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall lived in Marysville until the breaking out of the war, when they moved to Colorado. The Marshalls were ardent pro-slavery people. but when the southern states seceded from the Union, Mr. Marshall did not feel that he could conscientiously fight either against slavery or against the Union, and he and his family left Kansas and located in the mountains of Colorado.

Mrs. Marshall, for whom Marysville was named, was an excellent woman. of high intelligence and courage and took an active part in the early incidents of Marshall county. She was highly respected by all the early settlers and by many newer settlers who have met her on her frequent visits to Marys- ville. After the death of her husband she has been living with her children in Colorado and New York. For the past few years her home has been with her daughter. Mrs. Mary McCall, at Largemont. New York, where she was when death called her.

EMMA WILLIAMS.

Emma Williams, a younger sister of Mrs. Marshall, came to Marysville to make her home with her sister in 1854. She was married to J. H. McDougal. During the war. MeDougal served as first lieutenant of Com- pany E. Thirteenth Kansas Infantry, under Perry Hutchinson, captain. On July 17, 1863. Captain Hutchinson resigned and on December 4, 1863, MeDougal was promoted captain. MeDougal died in Marysville and after the close of the war. Mrs. McDougal became the wife of John M. Watson. Mrs. Watson is one of the oldest pioneer settlers now living.

J. M. Watson was a native Pennsylvanian, born in 1840. He served in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to Petersburg. Virginia, in 1865. He came West in 1865, walking from the Missouri river to Marshall county. Then there was not a mile of railroad in Kansas. He took a homestead. farmed and freighted on the plains. Later, he served as register of deeds of the county. He engaged in the retail lumber business in Frankfort for eighteen years and served as postmaster of Frankfort for thirteen years. Mr. Watson regards the days spent at the battle of Gettysburg as the incident in

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

his life most worthy to be recorded in history. Mr. and Mrs. Watson reside in Frankfort.

LETTER FROM MRS. GEORGE W. THORNE.

Beattie, Kansas, February 14, 1917.

Dear Mrs. Forter :

Replying to your request to tell you something of old times: I came here from Maryville, Missouri, where I had three months schooling, before coming to Kansas with my father, Joseph Totten. There were six children in our family. There were no schools to go to here and there were more Indians than white people.

Mrs. Emma Jones, formerly Totten, taught the first school in our dis- trict. We had to have three months school taught before we could draw any state money. My brother, John Totten, and Frank Lannan went to Blue Rapids and paid tuition for three months school.

Soon after the neighbors got together and organized a district named Guittard, and then they had three months more school. But three months school was all I ever had.

Yes, I plowed five acres of ground with an ox team. The boys helped plant the corn. We then had to harvest with an ox team.

In 1860 I was married to George W. Thorne and we went on a farm where we lived five years. There was only one house between here and Marysville and that was a ranch kept for the traveler.

THE PRICE OF CATS.

I remember one night I started after my father who had gone on foot to Marysville after the doctor and I met him about halfway. My father used to go to St. Jo for provisions and once he brought out two cats, for which he paid a dollar apiece in St. Jo.

If we had a calico dress, it was good enough for church or dances. And if I wanted a new dress I would go and drop corn for fifteen cents a day and earn the money for the dress.

To obtain the first feather bed I had, I husked corn for fifty cents a day for my father and paid him one dollar apiece for the geese to get feathers to make the bed.

When I was married I had a home-made table, three stools and a cot- tonwood bedstead that Mr. Thorne made and I cooked over a fire-place. I

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

dropped ten acres of corn in one day and had three cows to milk. I have husked more corn than half of the farmers raised last year.

After we got to raising corn to sell, my husband used to haul it to Ft. Kearney, where he soll it for one dollar a bushel and we could only get ten or eleven cents a bushel in Marysville.

We knew nothing of corn shellers and once shelled forty bushels by hand. My husband used to go to St. Jo with an ox team for groceries and meat. That was our nearest meat market.

The first wheat we raised was three acres and there came a prairie fire and burned it up. When we raised wheat my husband cut it with a cradle and I bound it with straw and we threshed it with a flail. We had to take it to Table Rock, Nebraska, to mill, which took four or five days and I had to stay at home and do the chores.

There were plenty of Indians around, too, with whiskey to drink. If I wanted to go and visit a neighbor I would walk four or five miles and stay all night and come home the next day.

When we wanted to write to a friend. we had to go to the hen house, get a quill to make a pen and make ink out of maple bark.

My family consisted of ten girls and one son, George W. Thorne, of Beattie. Ten of our children graduated from the Beattie schools. I am now seventy-one years old.

With best wishes,

ELIZABETHI THORNE.

EARLY SETTLER'S DEATII.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thorne died on Tuesday, April 17, 1917, and was buried Thursday afternoon, April 19. She was seventy-one years, six months and nine days old. She had been a resident of Marshall county since 1858. She was a daughter of Joseph Totten, one of the pioneers of Marshall county. Her husband. George W. Thorne, deceased, was another of the pioneers of Marshall county. Mrs. Thorne was a splendid woman, kind, generous, faith- ful and true. Her influence in the community was always for the good and for the advancement of the things which went for community betterment.

Mrs. Thorne was present at the pioneers' reunion at Marysville last fall and registered on the roll of old settlers. Only a very few enrolled who antedated her in residence in Marshall county. The last writing Mrs. Thorne did was the foregoing sketch for this History of Marshall County.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

PIONEERS ON THE VERMILLION.

By J. M. Watson.

Daniel M. Leavitt and Henry, his brother, came here "from the jumping- off place," Portland, Maine. Mrs. Leavitt was a school teacher in Iowa. Mr. Leavitt met her there, they were married and coming overland by ox team located on the Vermillion in the fifties. Their first log cabin is standing and at the present time is used for a hen house. Yes: she was a mother to all us boys. I remember the winter of 1865-66 when she was cooking our dinner ; likewise her face, over the old fashioned fire-place, when W. H. Smith, James Smith, myself and others, appreciating her kindness, "chipped in," and sent to Leavenworth and bought her a cook stove. Say; she smiled all over when that stove was set up. The neighbors came miles to see the new stove.

Before we had railroads in Marshall county the farmers hauled their corn and oats by ox team to Ft. Riley, where they sold their products to the government for use of the troops stationed there. The wheat was hauled to Wamego, forty miles distant and the wagons came back loaded with groceries and lumber.

NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS.

Money matters in early days .- Well, we had none. I was indebted to W. H. Smith, one hundred dollars balance on land purchase : Frank Love was owing me one hundred dollars for corn he bought to feed to his sheep; A. G. Barrett was owing Love one hundred dollars balance on saw-mill : John D. Wells owed Barrett one hundred dollars for sawing lumber, and W. H. Smith was indebted to John D. Wells in the same sum, balance on land deal. Thus we paid five hundred dollars of debts and never saw a dollar of the money.

Prairie Fires .- Yes, I had some experience. Lost one horse, cow, hay and fencing and was caught myself. I lay down and the fire passed over me, burning the clothes off my back. They rolled me in a sack of flour to take out the burns, while they sent twenty miles for a doctor and he was not at home. I was laid up for three months.

The early settlers between 1850 and 1860 were truly the "Pioneers of the Prairies," and the first home-makers. Household utensils were very few: split bottom chairs, corded bedsteads (if any), homemade table, iron

MARSIIALL, COUNTY, KANSAS.

pot, bake pan and skillet. The skillet or frying pan was called by the Yankee a "spider."

Vicissitudes .- Changes, lots of them : winds changed ends forty times a day. Some years it rained and some years it did not rain. One settler from Illinois came and said he was going to "raise broom corn here or raise h-1"; he died.

The young folks thought nothing of going forty miles to Manhattan, in a lumber wagon drawn by four mules and Jim Vaugn as driver ; dance all night, "go home by broad daylight in the morning." Marysville. Sheehies, on Spring creek in Pottawatomie county, Barretts mills were also dancing points. The Greens, "Fes" and "Nick", on the Vermillion, played the fiddle for the (lances. The Linn boys, Frank and Dave made the music for Marysville. The Manhattan orchestra (two violins and a clarionet), piped and sawed for the Blue Valley. Happy days. Our wives, the mothers of our children, were the "Pioneer girls of the Prairies." Note the change. "We are grow- ing old."

In the fall of 1868 the Central Branch railroad, then known as the Atch- ison & Pike's Peak railroad, was completed to Frankfort. Capt. Perry Hutchinson freighted from Marysville and shipped the first car of flour. J. D. Wells shipped the first car of cattle. John Watson shipped the first car of wheat. Our market then was Chicago, Illinois, and train loads of fat cattle were soon shipped East by William Kennedy, Clem Hessel, J. D. Wells, Charles Butler, Perry Hutchinson and others, from Frankfort.

Prairie sod was broken up by oxen, two, three and four yokes of oxen hitched to a twenty-four-inch breaking plow, and it cost four dollars an acre to break the sod, which was about twice as much as the original cost of the land.

High rates of interest .-. No limit in early days. I remember in 1875. "grasshopper year." Hon. James Smith was then our county treasurer. He said there was not money enough in the county to pay the taxes. Robert Osborn, Abby and Jacob Mohrbacher paid all county bills in county scrip or warrants. "No tax penalty for one year." was the slogan.

The Shanty .- Yes, the log cabin on the edge of the creek; well do I remember it. Dirt floor, door so short that you made a bow to the occupants before entering. Genuine hospitality within. "Come in and have a chair"; share our cabin and our meals. You could track the first one up in the morn- ing from his bed or cot to the fire place: if in winter his footmark was in the snow : if in summer it was in the dust.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

. COMBINING BUSINESS WITH PLEASURE.

Religious duties .- At Barrett's school house Reverend Burr (do not know what creed or denomination, the question was not asked in early days) gave out one Sunday evening that "on next Saturday afternoon a business meet- ing will be held, and on Sunday, church at the usual hour." Someone whispered to him that a horse race was booked for Saturday, on which he announced : "Business meeting on Friday evening, horse race on Saturday afternoon and church as usual on Sunday."

Care of the sick .- We all used quinine in pioneer days. The only sick- ness was fever and ague. Some "shook", every day ; others every other day, and some every third day. The disease lasted from three months to one year. That is what makes so many "standpatters" now.

When there was a death in the settlement everyone turned out to help. A detail was made to dig the grave, a carpenter made the coffin, which was taken in a wagon covered with a sheet or blanket and followed to the grave by the neighbors, all on horseback. Note the change which fifty years has made. Now it is a casket. an automobile hearse, and mourners going and coming in automobiles.

ELI PUNTENEY'S RECOLLECTIONS.

The first school house in Marshall county was built in 1858, by four bachelors. It was not very large, fourteen by twenty-four. It was then and remains today district No. I.

The Indians worked great hardships to the settlers in the early years. In 1862 the Indians had an understanding with each other and they "struck" what was called "The Pike's Peak Trail," for one hundred and fifty miles and murdered every man, woman and child that they could find. This was a pre-concerted movement and they started about eleven o'clock in the morn- ing. The east end of this savage attack was about twenty miles west of Marysville, on the Little Blue river. Every house was burned and the occu- pants murdered with savage brutality.

The Overland stage had a house every fifteen miles. The Indians burned these houses together with the hay and provisions, and, in fact everything that would burn. Troops were raised and went in pursuit and after that we had not so much trouble with the red rascals.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

Our first preaching was in 1857 at Barretts mills. The services were held in the saw-mill. The seats and pulpit were made of sawn logs. The preacher's name was Miles and he usually had about twenty in attendance.

Once when the offering was being taken one of our best men wanted to give something, but his smallest change was a five dollar gold piece. Pres- ently a man went up to lay his offering on the board and the man with the five dollar gold piece whispered to him as he came back : "Lend me a dime, I have nothing smaller than five dollars." "Oh," said the man, "you can change it at the board, I saw some gold and silver there." So the good man walked up and laid down his five dollars'in gokl, but he could only get two dollars and fifty cents out of what was on the board. Well, the preacher was well satisfied with the collection.

Permit me to take a stroll down the vanished lane of yesterday and imagine I am with comrades of 1855 to 1860. The faces I would see would be those of the Barretts, the Leavitts, Dan and Henry: the Aulds, John D. Wells and his family : G. H. Hollenberg and his handsome young bride ; the Brockmeyers, Roland. W. S. Blackburn, who afterwards became county superintendent of schools, as also did Wells; the Greggs, the McElroys and James Malone, a fine scholar, who became a missionary, and many others of the splendid men and women who came to make Kansas a free state. To mention all wonkl prolong this sketch too much, but if it be true, "To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die," then the Kansas pioneer still lives. It has been a long time since Kansas was settled. Yet we look back over those years and thank God we had the courage to endure the privations of those early days.

The people of today, rich as the result of those years of toil, danger and isolation from the comforts of civilization, look back with admiration and wonder at the will power and endurance of the pioneer men and women. The stress of the times brought out all the better qualities of heart and mind and developed the true spirit of sympathy and kindness.

In the northern portion of the county some men tried to make an entrance for the slave party. But they were not successful. Many returned to Missouri and Carolina. Some remained and while we differed politically. we never sought redress in violence. But the spirit of freedom was in the pure Kansas air and has ever remained. "Ad astra per Aspera" was true of those brave pioneers of Marshall county. Many have gone to their eternal home, where we shall join them. What a reunion that will be.

MARSIIALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

THE WALKER FAMILY.

In 1856 Isaac Walker and family, members of the Ohio colony, settled on the land near where Winifred now stands and the old Walker homestead called "West Fork," is still maintained by the family.

The town Winifred was named for Mrs. Isaac Walker and this noble pioneer woman deserves a permanent place in Marshall county history, because of the great courage and fortitude with which she endured the hardships of pioneer life.

When Winifred Barrett married Isaac Walker her father gave her as a wedding gift a walnut bureau which he himself made for her, and which she prized very dearly. When Isaac Walker and his wife decided to come to Kansas with the Ohio colony, they first came as far as Iowa where Mrs. Walker had an uncle, and as they found it impractical to bring all their household goods with them, they stored them with their uncle in Iowa. Among other things the bureau was left. But this little woman was not to be separated from her household god so easily. In 1858 Mrs. Walker made the trip from the west fork of the Vermillion to Birmingham, Iowa, with an ox team and wagon to get her treasured bureau, and bring it to her new home in Marshall county. It took her three months to make the trip. She started for Iowa about June Ist and returned early in September. The oxen and their driver were weary-eyed and worn, but her father's precious gift was once more in her home. Her son, David B. Walker, still numbers the old walnut bureau among his valued possessions.

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History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 6

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1276

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1276