History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 8

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

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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

dentally shot by the discharge of a gun while he was attending school in Doniphan county. Edna died while at school at Highland, at the age of fourteen. Julia married and moved to Nebraska. Monlawaka (Medicine Eagle) did not long survive and is buried in the old Marysville cemetery.

McClosky was well known to the older citizens of Marysville and served as captain of a company to defend the community from Indian depredations. He was devoted to his wife and family and never ceased to mourn the loss of the gentle Monlawaka.

W. F. BOYAKIN.

The name of Doctor Boyakin was for so many years a household word in Marshall county, that a few lines must be written in his memory. He was born in North Carolina, May 30, 1807, graduated from Mary College. Tennessee, in 1826, and studied law with James K. Polk, the thirteenth President of the United States.

Boyakin came to Marshall county in 1868 and resided here until his death. On the anniversary of his one hundredth birthday he delivered the Decoration Day address in the Turner Hall at Marysville.

He helped to build the first Methodist church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was a graduate in law and medicine and a licensed minister. When he was born, Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States and Aaron Burr was being tried for treason. Boyakin lived through the administrations of seventeen Presidents and saw many stars added to our flag. He was twenty years old when Queen Victoria ascended the throne of England. Hle was a widely-read and greatly-traveled man and possessed a remarkable memory. He served the county in many positions, but chiefly as an edu- cator. He died on June 5, 1908, at his modest home on Elm creek, where he had always lived and where his family still resides. W. A. Calderhead, then a member of Congress, delivered the final eulogy.

BRIEF MENTION OF EARLY SETTLERS.

Samuel Smith settled in Noble township in 1855.

Ambrose, East. Martin and James Shipp, four brothers, settled south of the Big Blue river, a short distance from Irving, in 1857.

Smith Martin built the first log cabin and settled in Center township in March, 1857.

Among the families who have helped largely to make Marshall county

DR. W. F. BOYAKIN.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

a desirable place in which to live, the McKee family deserves especial men- tion. The parents of John, Robert, William G., Frank and Harry McKee came to Marshall county from Canada. They were people of culture and were members of the Baptist church. They took a deep interest in promot- ing education and religious influence and were prominent in all movements for good in the life of the county. Their sons and daughters are still resi- dents of the county and fulfill the highest hopes of their parents in character and upright living. E. J. McKee, a leading hardware merchant of Marys- ville, his brother, Robert, and Frank, sons of Robert McKee, are men of the highest type of Christian influence.

Another family of the same name, known as the Frankfort McKees, were L. V. McKee, a banker of that town ; A. J. McKee, a philanthropist and business man, and Samuel McKee, a lawyer, were men of prominence in the political and business history of Marshall county. While there was nothing of the spectacular in the character of the McKee family, their silent but firm stand for all that meant progress along educational and moral lines, was always a powerful influence. Robert McKee, of Center, L. V., A. J. and S. J. McKee, of Frankfort, are deceased.

A pioneer of Marshall county, who saw many sides of frontier life, is C. W. Blodgett. of Frankfort. The Blodgetts came to Kansas in 1859 and settled on the Blue. Their log cabin was built near the Otoe Indian trail. Blodgett "teamed" four years on the plains in the employ of the government and served as quartermaster at Ft. Laramie and at Ft. Kearney. He helped build the Oketo dam. He went to Frankfort when the town started and opened a harness-making shop and later went in to the hotel business which he still manages. He has been for the past twelve years a rural mail carrier and is the oldest man in the county in the service.

Jolin Brockmeyer, of near Bigelow, broke the first five acres of ground in the county. He turned the ground over with a spade.

When the first survey of Marshall county was made, there were just five pieces of land in cultivation. John Lane, of Blue Rapids, George Guittard, of Guittard, John D. Wells and D. C. Auld, of Vermillion, and John Brock- meyer, of Elizabeth, were in occupation.

Among the many men who were identified with Kansas history in pioneer days and achieved national reputation was Powell Clayton, who was one of the incorporators of the town of Woodson in Marshall county. Clayton afterwards was sent as minister to Mexico and also was governor of Arkansas.

Albert D. Richardson, the author of "Beyond the Mississippi," pre- empted a claim in Marshall county and was an early settler. Richardson

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

was shot in New York City and when W. A. Calderhead was county attorney he settled the Richardson estate in the probate court.

Junius Brutus Brown, a noted newspaper correspondent, also entered a claim in Marshall county.

OLD-TIME DANCES.

The modern reformer, who devotes time and energy to rehabilitating the people of today in moral garments of his own'style and make, would have been very lonesome in the pioneer days of Marysville.

The mild excitement following a soft drink at the marble soda water fountain, or an evening at the movies, is in marked contrast to early-day drinks and amusements.

The building of the bridge across the Blue river brought the town and country settlers more closely together and Marysville enjoyed good business activity. With better business conditions social life became more prominent.

Those were the days of the old-fashioned dances. Everybody danced but the preachers and they did not remain long enough to become inoculated with the gerin.

When the dance was given in a private house the cook stove and any other furniture were set out of doors. In the country there were several pioneers who were disciples of Nero. At Independence Crossing Theo. Hammett and his brothers. Frank and Neil, and George and John Arm- strong were the musicians. Undoubtedly Billy and Dave Linn were the first fiddlers in the county and lived in Marysville. Dan Clements at Oketo and Phil Simmons on Horseshoe and Mose Bennett on Coon creek furnished the music.

MUSIC HATH CHARMS.

The early colonists on Coon creek were very congenial and in a little "star chamber" proceeding decided that they would select their own neigh- bors and when a prospective settler came along unless he suited them, he was to be told the land was all taken up.

One day at a barn raising a man drove up and inquired if there was any vacant land. He did not look good to the crowd and was answered in the negative. As he turned his team to drive away the cover on the rear end of the wagon being up. a violin case was seen swinging from the wagon bows. Interest was aroused and the mover was called back. "Do you play the fiddle", was asked. Mose acknowledged that he was master of the art.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

whereupon he was requested to stop and take a claim. Mose furnished music for all the neighborhood dances and in later years the name of Hon. Moses T. Bennett appears on the list of county superintendents of public instruction.

The first real orchestra consisted of Theo. Hammett and his brothers, Frank and Neil, Sebastian Joerg and A. H. Mclaughlin. The Hammett brothers played violin and 'cello, Joerg played cornet and Mclaughlin had an accordion with three registers, which was considered a fine instrument in those days. Sebastian Joerg was a brother of John Joerg. This orchestra was widely known and was in demand far and wide. Later, it was engaged for balls in Hanover and Fairbury.

The Pecenka orchestra played music of a better sort and was composed of two violins, cornet, accordion and 'cello. These musicians were really the aristocrats of music. Later, blind Henry Lofinck came and organized an orch- estra. Lofinck played the violin, Ernest Lange, second, and Martin Piel, 'cello. Later, Sam Forter took the 'cello.

TANGO THEN UNKNOWN.

Early balls were given in Waterson's Hall, and in the late seventies Lofinck's orchestra and the. Pecenka orchestra furnished the music. The popular dances were the firemen's dance, Virginia reel, waltz, polka and schottische. The quadrille was the favorite form and our pioneers became most proficient in the graceful bow, following the prompter's "salute your partner." Then, "circle left, promenade back." Then the dance went on with vigor: "First four, right and left ; side four, right and left ; right and left, all." Then, the grand climax, "right and left and swing partners to place," and "all promenade."

A few moments were given for breathing and then the second change was called; for, by some social law, three separate quadrilles were prompted or "called," before the dancers "had their money's worth." After the build- ing of the Turner Hall, dances became more formal.

Barks' orchestra, composed of C. F. Barks and his two sons, Herman and William, and later by his grandson, William, Sam Forter, Nic Grauer, Auldice Hale and Roll Allen, and others whose names are not recalled, furnished music of the best class to be obtained. The "Devil's Dream" and kindred waltz music was replaced by the "Blue Danube Waltz" and under the spell of better music and surroundings the dances became more formal. Never, even in the very early days, did Marysville have any semblance of the

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

so-called dance hall with its attendant vice. However informal the dances of the pioneer days, they were not unwholesome.

Many staid grandmothers of today, who look with some misgiving on the free comradeship of the modern boy and girl, in those good old days went through the graceful-figures of the Virginia reel or whirled around the hall with a handsome dare-devil, who may have worn a revolver strapped to his side and did not hesitate to leave the ball-room for the bar. But with it all there was a certain unwritten law that the game must be square or punish- ment would be sure.

OLD TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

Who shall arise at this day and offer criticism? Who shall say that the men and women of frontier days, who faced the scorching heat of summer and the fierce blasts of winter, blazing the way to the fulfillment of hopes, to the wealth and comfort and culture of the Marysville of today, were lacking in those qualities of mind and soul that are so essential to a strong, virile manhood and to a sweet and tender womanhood ?

Many times at the dance the coat was threadbare, or missing altogether and the dress was of calico. The lantern and the moon furnished illumina- tion, but hearts beat true to the measures of the music and, as in Brussels on that historic night before Waterloo,

"Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell."

The dance over, they faced the every-day toil and privations with good courage, and they shared the common joys and sorrows of those around them. The feet that tripped so lightly to "Money Musk," went quickly and willingly to the help of a sick babe. The strong arm that swung her to the "Aurora Waltz," was still stronger at helping some newcomer put up his cabin.

Times have changed. The girl, whose grandmother walked miles to a "(lance," has her flowers and fan and dancing frock and is carefully carried to a well-lighted and comfortable hall in an automobile. The two-step, Castle walk and one-step have superseded the quadrille. Her program is filled for a dozen numbers and then the ball is over. The old days and the old fiddler are no more.

The footsteps of today walk in smoother paths and along more con-

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

ventional lines, but the hearts are the same, and youth and love and happiness are unchanging as the generations come and go. "All things serve their time."

PIONEERS OF THE VERMILLION VALLEY.

James McClosky, a Scotchman, who was agent for a St. Louis firm of fur traders, having passed back and forth through this county since 1839, on his trading expeditions, finally came here to settle in 1854, bringing with him some other settlers among whom were three Frenchmen-Laroche, Changreau and Louis Tremble. These four men had Sioux Indian wives.

Tremble, Laroche, and Changreau settled on the Vermillion, where Tremble built a puncheon toll bridge. At that time the travel west was over the Fremont and Mormon trail and Tremble earned a living by charging toll. G. H. Hollenberg came soon after and built a small store near the bridge, and sold supplies to travelers.

In 1846-48 the Mormons, under the command of Brigham Young, had crossed the Vermillion at this point and it came to be called the "Mormon crossing" and the "Hollenberg crossing," and as such has ever since been known. During the year 1854 John D. Wells came with his family from Kentucky and located on the Vermillion near this crossing. Changreau, Laroche and Tremble were driven away by Indians, and Hollenberg after a few years removed to Washington county, so that it is generally conceded that John D. Wells was the first permanent settler on the Vermillion. His neighbors were Eli Puntney, D. M. Leavitt and Joseph Langdon came in 1855 or 1856 and settled near him.

In 1855 Horace Greeley, S. M. Wood and others, who were ardent unionists, made many public speeches in Eastern cities on the subject of Kansas and conditions in the territory following the enactment of the infam- ous Kansas-Nebraska bill.

The Herald of Freedom, published at Lawrence by G. W. Brown, and the Kansas Free State, published by Josiah Miller and R. G. Elliott, were telling the country of the beauties of Kansas scenery, the fertile soil and the marvelous future in store for her, if the territory were kept free from the' blight of slavery.

OPPOSED TO SLAVERY.

Josiah Miller, a Carolinian by birth, writing editorials in a room of which he said, "It has neither floor, ceiling or window," uncompromisingly opposed the introduction of slavery into Kansas, as tending to impoverish

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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

the soil, to stitle all energy, to paralyze the hand of industry and to weaken intellectual effort.

Horace Greeley imbued with the same spirit speaking in Apollion Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, repeated the story of the men who came as pioneers to make Kansas a place where civil and religious liberty should reign, and urged men to "go West." S. B. Todd was at the meeting and he with fifteen others enlisted that very night in the movement to Kansas. Under the auspices of the Massachusetts Free State Emigrant Society, they arrived at Kansas City on April 19, 1856, came West and located in the Valley of the Vermillion.

Some of those who came were, James Wilson and his son, W. H. Wil- son : John Harris and family ; Lawrence Kelley and family ; James P. Malone and family: James Goldsberry and family: Mr. Musgrave and family, and others. Mrs. Henry Brockmeyer with her three sons, Frederick, Henry and Ernest, her son-in-law, Ernest W. Thiele, and her daughters, Mrs. Ernest Thiele and Sophia Brockmeyer, who the following year became the wife of G. H. Hollenberg, came to Kansas from New England.

George H. Thiele, a son of Ernest W. Thiele, writes as follows:

"My grandfather died in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1854. In the early part of 1855 Grandmother Brockmeyer with her sons and daughters and her son-in-law, Ernest W. Thiele (my father ), came West, and as Kansas was much talked about at that time in the East, concluded to come to that terri- tory, and arrived at Weston, Missouri, by steamboat from St. Louis, early in 1855. They found a great deal of excitement on account of the slavery agitation, near the Missouri river, so concluded to go farther west and finally located on the Black Vermillion, near where Bigelow is now located. They pre-empted a piece of land which all helped to improve and raised what crops they could.

"My father was the only married man, so they concluded that he should have the claim, and turned it over to him.

"I understand that the town of Elizabeth is located on this claim. I was born on this claim on September 14, 1855, and have always understood that I was the first white child born in Marshall county.

"Like all early settlers they built their log cabins near the banks of the creek, and all suffered a great deal from chills and ague. This, with the hardships incident to their isolated location and distance from the river towns, caused them frequently to become discouraged and willing to give up the contest of trying to make a home in the wilderness.

"In 1856 or 1857 my father sold his claim for one hundred dollars cash

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

and a ham. He had to go some ten or fifteen miles to get the ham, and came near being killed by coyotes on the way back.

"My father moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he made his home and raised his family, consisting of three boys and four girls, of whom my sister. Sophia, Mrs. Hugo Rohde, of Herkimer, my brother, Ernest W. Thiele, of Hanover, and myself are now living.

"In 1856 my mother's sister. Sophia Brockmeyer, married G. H. Hollen- berg, who was then conducting a small store at what was known as 'Hollen- berg's crossing' on the Vermillion, and the next year they moved to Wash- ington county. Some eight or ten years later they were followed by my uncles, Henry, Ernest and Fred. H. Brockmeyer, all of whom settled near Hanover.

"I returned to Kansas in 1877 and have resided at Washington ever since. The remainder of our family came to Hanover in 1879."

A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.

John C. Fremont crossed the Big Vermillion, June 20. 1842, on his way to the mountains, at some point near where Barrett now stands and made the following comment in his note-book: "We crossed at ten a. m., the Big Vermillion, which has a rich bottom of about one mile in breadth, one-third of which is occupied by timber."

In the spring of 1855 a colony of sixty members was organized at Cadiz, Ohio, with the intention of settling on the Vermillion in a body. They selected a tract of land five miles square and as the government surveyors had not extended their surveys that far at the time they laid out the tract them- selves.

A. G. Barrett, D. C. Auld, John Roland, J. G. Radcliffe, W. S. Black- burn and some others settled on the tract in the spring of 1855. They also platted Ohio City, on the northwest quarter of section 31, township 4, range 9, now owned by A. A. Jones.

In 1856 the colony was strengthened by the arrival of W. H. Auld, W. P. Gregg. Benjamin McElroy and J. B. Auld, and in 1857 came Leonard Cutler, W. T. Drinnell, C. W. Laudenberger, William Morrison, R. S. Newell and others. In April, 1858, the Burrell family came out and in 1859 Peter Trosper and family arrived.

In 1857 a postoffice was established at Barrett and H. W. Swift was the first postmaster. Prior to this settlers got mail at St. Mary's mission and at Ft. Riley and at Marysville.

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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

SOME FIRST EVENTS.

Enoch Pugh was the first blacksmith. He died in 1857.

D. C. Auld was the first justice of the peace and in 1856 he united in marriage Timothy Clark and Judith North at the home of James Smith. In 1857 Squire Auld united in marriage M. V. Hall and Ann J. Trosper, also, Solen Jason and a Miss Wright.

Each member of the colony paid into a general fund twenty-five dollars for every quarter section he wished to secure and agreed that the money might be used to purchase a steam saw-mill. A. G. Barrett acted as the pur- chasing agent and brought the mill out in the fall of 1857. Later. the mill became the property of A. G. Barrett. Several houses were built on the Vermillion by Barrett. John Roland and Joseph Langdon. Later, Mr. Bar- rett lived in one of those houses. S. B. Todd also built and lived in a log house on the west fork of the Vermillion, and is usually considered to have been the first settler there. His son, William II. Todd, born on August 13. 1857, is one of the carly native Kansans. Walter Cockerill now lives on the Todd place. The farm with the log house owned by John Roland was bought by A. J. McKee. The locating of the mill and postoffice brought the little settlement into prominence and Barrett's mill became widely known by pioneers and emigrants all through the West.

In 1857 Joseph Langdon constructed a dam across the Vermillion, just below the mouth of Corndodger creek, and built a saw- and corn-mill, which he operated for some years. In 1861 high water cut around the dam and left the mill on an island without power to run. But not discouraged. Lang- don built a seawall across the new channel and reharnessed the Vermillion. This mill was used by the settlers on the lower Vermillion for religious services and all kinds of meetings, political and otherwise.

Langdon also sold groceries, "hickory" shirts and calico. He kept a kind of postoffice for the accommodation of the neighbors, letters were brought there for distribution and for dispatch, the carrying service being conducted by volunteers who went to the nearest postoffices. He sold the mill to Tom Short, an Indiana man, who worked it for some years, but in 1867 when the railroad came it went down and is now only a memory.

The mill was located on section 16. Bigelow township, and the land on which it stood is now owned by Dave Barrett. This is about six miles down stream from Barrett's mill.

LOG CABIN IN WHICH FIRST MASS WAS CELEBRATED IN CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP.

A MARSHALL COUNTY HOME FIFTY YEARS AGO.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

PIONEER PRIVATIONS.

Those pioneers of the Valley of the Vermillion experienced very hard times in 1857-58-59. Some became discouraged and left, but the majority remained.

There was great scarcity of food: it was a long distance to St. Joe and Atchison, and traveling was slow by ox team and there was but little money with which to make purchases. The atmosphere was charged with uncer- tainty. The rebellion was imminent and the lines between North and South were being drawn. The north half of the county was a hotbed of pro-slavery, Marshall being the spokesman for that element. There was great discour- agement among the loyal men who had come to help make Kansas a free state.

In 1859 the first school house in the county was built at Barrett's mill and it soon became a community center and the settlers often gathered there and in the warm, social, friendly meetings, strength was gathered to bear the burdens and privations of the frontier life.

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CHAPTER V.

COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION.

It will be noted in Mr. Marshall's letter to Judge Magill, he states that the pow-wow was called for the purpose of keeping the Indians orderly until the paymaster arrived.

It seems incredible that a man of Mr. Marshall's ability should have believed that a pow-wow of traders and Indians, a motley crowd on the banks of the Big Blue river, addressed by himself "more in fun than in earnest", was the first step which resulted in the organization into territories of what was then known as the great American desert.

In the light of recorded history prior to 1854 his claim is not borne out. Abraham Lincoln sounded the keynote for this territorial organization in a great speech in 1834.

For more than twenty years the question of the extension of the "peculiar domestic institution of slavery" into newly-organized territories of the United States, had aroused the people of the North to the danger attend- ing this result and had concentrated the efforts of the leaders of the South to greater activity in furtherance of the doctrine.

NORTHERN DISCONTENT INCREASED.

The annexation of Texas brought the embers of Northern discontent to a white heat. The bill was approved March 2. 1845, and contained the provision that the "said territory shall be admitted to the Union with or without slavery as the people of each state asking admission may desire." So, for the first time, was embodied into law the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty." The Wilmot proviso followed and the question of territorial organization became the paramount question of the day.

The compromise of 1850 only served to widen the chasm between the North and South. The greatest talent of the country-Webster. Clay, Cal-

MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.

houn, Benton, Cass, Chase. Hamlin, Hale, Davis, Mason and Stephen A. Douglas had debated with great forensic ability the merits and demerits of the measure. Finally the measure was enacted into law September 9. 1850.

It is impossible to express or describe the feeling of alarm this created in the North, for it opened a clear way to that idea of popular sovereignty, which first, avowed in the Texas bill and made an issue in the compromise measure in 1854, became the vital question of the Kansas-Nebraska bill.

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History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 8

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