USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 18
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Looking back. the wonder is not that so many were sick but that so many recovered. Drinking slough water, eating pork and corn bread flavored with sorghum, and living in tents, wagons and shanties were not first-class sanitary conditions. Everybody grew familiar with qui- nine. calomel, Dover's powders and the dozens of nostrums that promised to cure the "ager" or as the afflicted Dutchman said "Der damned cold fever."
The doctor of 1870, in Montgomery county, with his primitive out- tit of horse, drugs, apparel and instruments would not compare favorably with his successor, with "rubber tire" and thoroughbreds, with fashion- able dress and with the modern instruments and appliances of the city ".M. D." Many of these modern "M. D.'s" are the same old fellows of 1870, grown out of the chrysalis of the early time and become leaders in the profession of their choice.
Few men have been more devoted to their chosen work, or less mer- cenary. and. as a result, very few have accumulated the wealth that their arduous labors deserved. Very few of the pioneers have acquired wealth and not many. oven. are well-to-do.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Always alive to everything to help the profession and thereby become a greater blessing to a contiding publie the establishment of a medical college was enconraged by the physicians of Montgomery county in an early day and it was actually organized and incorporated at Inde- pendence in the year 1873-4. Two courses of lectures were provided for in this school and the faculty of the institution were:
Dr. B. F. Masterman, Professor of Surgery.
Dr. W. A. MeCulley, Professor of Theory and Practice.
Dr. John Grass, Professor of Materia Medica.
Dr. Fugate. Professor of Physiology and etc.
Dr. Campbell. Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology.
Dr. Moon. Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Some of the faculty of this defunct institution have passed away, some have left the county and the state and a few remain with us, active and in the front rank of the "pill-dispensers" of this county. Some of the dead have left behind a precions heritage in the memory of their devotion to duty and self-sacrificing labor.
The Osages have been removed and the Indian Medicine Man is gone, except in the fakir who claims to have learned his medicine from the Indians. . My observation is that no people on earth know so little of medicine as the Red Man. One old Negro plantation "Aunty" knows more about healing and nursing the sick than all the Indians we have ever come in contact with. The doctor of 1870 who could get an Indian pony, partly broke, and a few ounces of quinine and other drugs-with a pocket case of instruments-was as well equipped for the practice of medicine as any one he was likely to meet.
In those early times we had no capsules, no elixirs, no tablets, no concentrated drugs; and our resources were, indeed, primitive. And it may be here recorded that the very necessity of relying on his own re- sources had the effect, as it always will, of developing the native talent and stimulating ingenuity, and making an alert and wide-awake practi- tioner. He may have forgotten some of his Latin and Greek, yet at the bedside, and in cases of emergency, he could discount the professor with his technicalities and extensive library attainments. Ont of the ranks of such men has come very much of the progress that has marked the practice of medicine for the last forty years. And that there has been very marked advance along the lines indicated, all agree.
At Independence, in 1870. we met Dr. Masterman, who is still there and is the only one of the physicians of that date left in the county seat. He is still in the active practice, popular and respected. A kindly, genial man, companionable and sympathetic. He is the Health Officer of the county and one of the Santa Fe local surgeons. He is a public-spirited citizen, an old soldier and a local benefactor of his race.
Of later arrivals, Drs. Chaney. Davis, Evans, Surber, Tanquarry,
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IIISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Barker and Kelly, of Independence, fill the field there. Several of these have an equipment that makes the county seat a medical center. At Lib- erty, in 1870, we found Dr. Campbell, now of Cherryvale.a superannuated rheumatic. He is an old soldier with some experience in hospital work in the army. While not extensively trained in medicine or widely read in books or scientific learning, yet he had and still has the faculty of cor- reetly naming a physical trouble and of prescribing the dose that will relieve. Our practice, in an early day, covered a district larger than half a county and the doctor feels, severely, the effects of the long rides, fac- ing the storm and swimming the swollen and unbridged streams of that time. He was here from 1869 and gave his time, his health and his all toward the alleviation of humanity on the frontier. He found plenty of work, some gratitude and a little cash, an experience paralleled only by the first doctors of the county.
At Parker, in the early days, was Dr. Dunwell, a well-equipped man, now dead. His partner for a time, Dr. T. C. Frazier, still survives and is in the front rank of the profession at Coffeyville. His sketch appears in this volume.
CHAPTER VIII. Agriculture
BY W. T. YOE.
When the pioneer settlers of Southern Kansas began edging their way. as trespassers, in among the Osage Indians. on what was then known as the Osage Diminished Reserve, the White man found he had in- deed reached a veritable paradise ; especially was that true of what be- came known, a few years later as Montgomery County. The valleys of the Verdigris and Elk rivers, and of the score of ereeks, were broad and rich, and covered with a heavy growth of timber, including walnut, hick- ory, ash, pecan, hackberry, sycamore, cottonwood and other varieties of hard and soft wood. The second bottoms and the wide expanse of broad prairies, and the hill and slopelands were covered with a lux- uriant growth of grass-generally blue stem-frequently so rank that it reached above the horse's back and gave one visions of becoming cattle barons and pasturing his herds upon the government land wtihon; cost.
The agriculture of the Osage Indians was of a most primitive charac- ter as the "noble red men" regarded labor as degrading, but here and there, in their village settlements the "squaws" would cultivate small patches of corn of a varitey of blue and white, eight-rowed corn-mostly- rob, and when this matured it was rubbed between stones, into a coarse meal.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Those early pioneers were greatly delighted with the luxuriant veg- etation, the extent of timber belts, the numerous streams, and other evi- dences of a fertile soil. As soon as possible, logs were ent and prepared and a cabin built, and then began the breaking-ont of a piece of prairie sod or a clearing in the timber where. the following autumn, a few acres of wheat would be sown, or, in the spring, corn planted and vegetables grown. The results of these early experiments were successful in a re- markable degree and demonstrated that no mistake had been made in their settlemnt in "Sunny Kansas." But there came many disappoint- ments and destruction of crops by herds, and. during the first few sea- sons, many families were dependent on coarse ground corn-meal, turnips, and wild game, which was abundant.
After the signing of the Indian Treaty in Angust 1870, for extin- guishing the title of the Osages to these lands, there was an immense tide of immigrants via the "prairie schooner" route, all anxious to get a home in this new country ; and "claim takers" were not slow in break- ing ont a few acres and making ready for growing crops in the following season. and, in the aggregate. a few thousand acres of wheat were sown. The following spring a few thousand acres in small patches were planted to sod-corn and vegetables. The season was favorable, and all began to feel that the days of plenty had come to their homes.
There were comparatively few good teams driven into the county and it was fortunate, as there were severe losses of horses while becom- ing acclimated and getting used to the short rations of grain. Then it was, the settlers learned to appreciate the long-horned Texas cattle, which were being driven here to fatten on the grass, and, later, to be driven to market. From these herds the pioneers bought their ox teams- two, four and, sometimes, six oxen being hitched to a breaking plow proved the motive power which turned over most of the virgin prairie for future cultivation. The Texas and Indian ponies, also, became popu- lar as they were numerous and cheap, and they became the staple teams for plowing corn and for road teams.
The new-comers were gnerally young, energetic and enthusiastic and embraced all classes and professions; and all came anticipating the securing of a quarter section of land and the making of a home for them- selves and families. But all was not sunshine, as there were privations to be endured and lessons to be learned in pioneer life.
All men were not born farmers, and many found by bitter experience that Eastern methods were not successful, and that they had to adapt themselves to ways new to them; hence, when the dronght and grass- hoppers came, in 1874. many found it convenient to go back east to their wife's people rather than face the serious problems of a new country.
The following season, 1875, was one of great abundance and made glad the hearts of those who had remained-in many cases, not from
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
choice li further demonstrated a point disputed, up to that time, that this was pre-ceinently an agricultural, as well as one of the finest of live stock-growing counties. It was in that year The South Kansas Tribune made a collection of grain and grasses for the Centennial Exposition of 1876, and one can now only imagine the pride of the people when a telegram was received from Hon. Alfred Gray, Secretary of the State Board of Agriciulture, announcing that the "Highest prize. $50.00 cash," had been awarded to Montgomery county samples of grains and grasses, as the finest grown in Kansas. It was indeed a fine exhibit of grains and grasses including wheat, rye. oats, flax, corn, timothy, blue grass, and blue stem.
From that time on agriculture became more prominent and for sev- eral years this county made exhibits at the Kansas State fairs and at the Kansas City fairs, of the various grains, grass and fruit products, and at every one, with a large measure of success and there are in exist- ence a dozen premium tags and ribbons and one silver medal awarded on corn, wheat. flax. cotton and fruits exhibited from this county, at these great fairs,
In those earlier years it became necessary to settle for all time the conflicting interests between the "cowman" and the farmer whether the lands were to be held for a free range for grazing of herds, or to become the homes and farms of the poorer settlers. The wealth was on the side of the Texas steer and every season vast herds of southern cattle were driven into this county to graze and fatten on the prairie grass. The rattle would bereak from the corrals at night and devastate the farmers' growing crops and thus engender bitter strife. The campaign for the herd law was intense, but although wealth and immense profits were ar- rayed on the side of the free range, the farmers won out in the contest for a herd law. and gradually the long-horned cattle disappeared and gave place to higher grades of cattle that would be confined in feneed pastures.
it took years of time and a great many experiments to demonstrate for just what crops the different classes of soil were best adapted, and what varieties of cereals were the most profitable. But as the years passed and experience was gained and more economical methods substi- tuted, yearly accumulations increased and Montgomery County farmers have been enjoying a prosperity rarely equalled; and for seven years past the cry of "hard times" has not been heard. With diversified agri- culture and better methods and the growing of high-grade cattle, horses and hogs, together with products of the orchard, garden and poultry, our farmers entered upon the twentieth century with abounding prosper- ity
Montgomery is one of the smaller counties with an area of 648 square miles or 414,720 acres. One-fourth of this is fertile valley land
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
and specially adapted for either of the great staples, wheat or corn; in favorable seasons producing from 25 to 40 bushels of wheat per acre and some years even larger yields. During the five-year period ending with 1895 the wheat product was 2,993,590 bushels, and for the next five-year period 3,764,398 bushels, and an average for the ten-year period of 675,798 bushels of wheat each year. And for the opening year of the new century, 1901. the average yield was 2612 bushels of wheat per acre, a higher average per acre than was grown in any other county in Kansas, and aggregated 1,642.280 bushels, which was a greater amount of wheat than was grown in twelve other eastern counties in the state. That year the wheat yield was 117 bushels per capita for the population of the county outside of the larger towns. The cost of growing wheat per acre in Montgomery County, for plowing, discing, harrowing. seed, cutting, threshing, and rent of land is placed at $9.74 per acre.
Of the other great staple erop there were produced in the five-year period 1891-1895, of corn 5,720,513 bushels, and for the next five-year period 8,851.569 bushels showing the effect of better farming and a year- ly average of nearly 1 and 1% million bushels of corn. These statistics are from the State Board of Agriculture and are proof positive that agri- culture is a success in Montgomery County and that it is in the corn and wheat belt.
The general crops, so far found adapted to this county, and most profitable, are winter wheat, corn, oats, rye, Irish and sweet potatoes, castor beans, cotton, flax, broom corn, millet, sorghum, for syrup and also for forage, Kaffir corn, timothy, blue grass, orchard grass, clover, alfalfa. and prairie grass for hay and pasinre. These staple farm crops average a value of one and three-fourths millions of dollars annually, to which should be added for cattle, hogs, poultry, wool, butter, cheese and horticultural prodnets to make a total of farm products, the first year of this century. of $2,838,295, or $225 per capita for every man, woman and child living on the farms.
As the years pass, greater attention is given to small fruits, poultry and the improved class of horses, cattle and hogs.
Bine grass, red clover and alfalfa, during the recent years, have proven sure crops and very profitable-in fact observation and statistics prove Montgomery County to be one of, if not the best, agricultural and stock-growing county in the State.
Montgomery County enjoys the most favorable climatic advantages and is free from the great extremes of heat and cold that affect more northern and southern localities, and has had an average rainfall of thirty-six inches during the past twenty years, with a growing period extending 180 days without frost. In addition to climatic advantages the county is in the great Kansas natural gas and oil field. Natural gas is used for light and fuel in all the towns of the county, for residences,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
business buildings, offices and all kinds of factory industries, and prob- ably a thousand farm houses use natural gas for fuel and light and have the benefit of free rural mail delivery-two luxuries enjoyed by no other farming community in any other state-and which contribute very large- ly to the pleasures, prosperity and home-making of the farming e. m- munity.
CHAPTER IN. Manufacturing
BY W. T. YOE.
By the discovery of natural gas in all parts of the county, the cheap fuel problem was solved. and Montgomery County is destined to become one of. if not the greatest manufacturing county in the state.
Natural gas is the ideal fuel and light for the home and adapted for all manufacturing purposes, and the known supply is greater now than at any former period. It is in such abundance that it is furnished as low as three cents per 1,000 enbic feet, which for heat or steam purposes is equivalent to a rate of sixty cents per ton for coal. The industrial enter- prises consist chiefly of the manufacture of the native shales into the finest dry press, face, ornamental, vitrified paving and building brick of the finest quality known to the trade and superior in quality, in color and finish. There are eight of these brick plants now in operation and the extent of the industry may be judged from the fact that one com- pany operating three of these plants employs 500 people, manufactures 80 million brick per annum and pays $188,000 in wages for labor.
Among the other industries are two paper mills employing 200 peo- ple in the manufacture of wrapping paper, pulp boards, and egg-case fillers from wheat straw. Six large flouring mills converting our high grade winter wheat into the finest quality of flour. One of these milling firms employs 75 people and has a capacity of 2,000 barrels of flour daily.
Grain elevators are in each of the larger towns, one of which has a ea- pacity of storing 200,000 bushels and of handling 60 car loads of grain daily.
A zine smelter employing 125 people; three window glass factories employing 250 people; several foundries, machine shops, and planing mills; a cracker and sweet goods factory employing 50 people-and the only one in the State of Kansas; a cotton twine factory ; several sorghum syrup works-one of which was built at a cost of $125,000-two artificial ice plants and several other industrial enterprises, are all using natural gas for fuel.
Among the other industries projected for the near future are two plants for the manufacture of Portland cement, with a capacity of 4,000.
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ITISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
barrels daily; a plaster mill to manufacture 2,000 barrels daily from gypsum and two additional window glass factories.
CHAPTER X. History of the Bench and Bar BY WILLIAM DUNKIN. SECTION I. General Observations
A true history the bench and bar of Montgomery County cannot fail to awaken a just pride among its members, and to be entertaining to those who shall populate the county in years to come.
The existence of this bar covers a period slightly less than the av- erage generation of the human race and, in less than twenty years from its beginning, it furnished a United States District Attorney for Kan- sas, whose record in that office, for six years, and in the high places he subsequently filled in the profession, long ago made his name a familiar household word in Kansas, and well known over a large portion of the Union.
It also. in that brief limit of time, supplied the State with an honored Governor, who served with distinction for two successive terms and the public with two judges of the District Court, in men of distinguished ability, whose wide reputations as profound lawyers, acquired in the practice, became, while on the bench. extended far beyond the limits of the State. Within the same time, one of its members became an efficient First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, at Washington, during Presi- dent Harrison's administration, and another represented the state in the United States Senate for six years, ending in 1897.
Besides these, there have always been in its ranks, numbers of well known attorneys, who have ever been recognized in the circles of the pro- fession, as talented lawyers. It may well be doubted, if a more promis- ing bar existed within the confines of the State than that formed by the young attorneys, who came in the flood of immigration that poured into the county, during the years of its first settlement.
While many-aye most-of the old members have either yielded to that inevitable law, which fixes the destiny of every man. or sought new fields for the practice of their chosen profession, or the pursuit of other more alluring callings-other young lawyers now in the prime of their physical and mental vigor have taken the places of those no longer here.
These young gentlemen, among whom are some very brilliant and well-cultivated minds, are maintaining an enviable reputation for the bar, and making history that, it is to be hoped, will hereafter be written by one or more of them.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Ample reasons existed for the formation of a strong bar in the early settlement and development of the county. The conditions were inviting and the prospects tempting to the talented young lawyers. In its native state. the face of the country was charming and picturesque, and the soil of exceeding fertility ; and an unusually fine climate added its induce- ments to other fascinating features.
The early population was, for the most part. composed of young persons seeking homes, with their life and hopes before them; and these young people were generally equipped with good health and gifted with constitutions that enabled them to endure the toils and privations of a new country.
These circumstances were attractive to the brainy, and generally briefless, young barristers who came seeking fame and fortune in the pursuit of their calling. Most of them, like a great majority of the first pioneers, were men of limited means; and some had left comfortable homes and turned from the proffered aid of influential kindred and. friends to brave the dangers of frontier life to win fortune and fame.
While early business became brisk in their line, the litigous ele- ment could not always respond in the "Coin of the Realm" for needed professional services ; and necessity frequently compelled compensation. to be rendered in time notes that were rarely bankable, unless secured by mortgages on substantial property. Sometimes owing to the impe- cunious circumstances of the client, his attorney willingly yielded his services for an agreed upon share or interest in the property in contro- versy.
From these earnings, and from such fees as were paid in legal tender "greerbanks,"the young lawyer was enabled to fortify his doors against the far-famed wolf. and to live comfortably, if not luxuriously ; and from such resources some of the more thrifty built pleasant homes and stocked their offices with good libraries.
In the ealy days, many, wbo afterward commanded a lucrative practice, advertised themselves as "attorneys at law and real estate agents" and some of these devoted more time to the ageney features than to their profession. and often with profitable results.
The sources of income to the first members of the bar were numerous and fruitful, and as the county grew in population and developed, com- pensations for legal services were usually awarded in money or its equiv- alent.
When the various fountains of revenue to the legal fraternity are understood, it will readily be perceived why so many brilliant young law- yers came here so early and stayed so late.
There were eight or ten thousand people in the county when the freaty with the Osage Indians was concluded on September 10, 1870. and most of these were claiming an interest in the lands in defiance of
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
the Indian's right to the exclusive occupancy thereof. Long before the treaty was signed or an official survey of the county had been made, these aggressive settlers had staked out, claimed and possessed themselves of tracts of lands and lots on townsites that had been laid out and platted without warrant of law. Each claimant asserted a prime right to the tract of land by him selected and occupied and to the town lot he had chosen. against all, except the United States Government, in whose favor a concession of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. was recognized.
The rapid settlement of the county by persons who had generally been strangers to each other and the exciting scramble to acquire the best land claims and choicest lots in projected towns, often provoked bitter disputes and controversies. In the settlement of these, profes- sional services were rendered that yielded handsome fees to the young lawyers.
The official survey of the lands made a new alignment of the boundaries of most of the claims that had been staked out. This often had the effect of enhancing the value of one claim and depreciating that of an adjoining one. Sometimes such survey placed the houses and im- provements of two neighbors and friendly claimants on a single tract, and out of these causes, arose sharp contentions that created a pressing demand for legal work for their solution.
Incident to the entry of the townsites, much litigation ensued, some- times between the claimants of the lots they respectively professed to occupy and own, at other times between such lot owners and the trus- tee who held the legal title. Expensive suits were also instituted to de- termine who were the several occupants of a townsite and entitled to deeds from the trustee. At Independence, the Independence Town Com- pany was created and chartered under the laws of the State. It claimed the mayor, who had entered the townsite, held the title in trust for the town company. Under the law, as it has since been interpreted, a town- site is entered from the United States, for the benefit of the actual oecu- pants of the lots (see Winfield Town Company vs. Enoch Morris et al. 11 Kansas 128 and Independence Town Company vs. James DeLong, 11 Kansas 152). As the matter then stood, all parties agreed the mayor or corporate authorities had the legal right to make the entry in trust. The controversy was over the question as to who were the cestuis que trust- or beneficiaries. It would be foreign to the purposes of this article to discuss this question and it is only alluded to to show that such condi- tions developed doubts that could only be settled by the skillful lawyer, and that the compensation for the solution of them was one of the sources of the lawyer's income.
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