USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 6
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It was almost twenty-two years later before petroleum began to be shipped in any considerable quantities from the county, but the forecast was correct. Six years later, in the early spring of 1887, we began to hear about the curious phenomena to be observed in an abandoned shaft over at Liberty. It was on the farm of Benjamin Grubb, adjoining that place on the north. Finding indications of coal he had sunk a shaft six or eight feet square. After getting down some distance a vein of gas was struck which came ont of a crevice in the rock in such quantity that the men at work in the shaft lighted it to furnish illumination for their work. On quitting they unwisely fanned it out with their jackets. One day they went down and struck a match with the most surprising results. The gas exploded, throwing off the covering at the surface and blazing up as high as the tallest frees in the neighborhood-fifty to one hundred feet. The diggers, who were below the crevice, escaped with their lives, though terribly burned. The vein of coal was found to be only 8 inches thick. but in connection with it was 32 inches of slate so thoroughly saturated with oil that it would blaze up on being thrown into the stove. So here were found together coal, gas and oil.
Prior to that time, Thomas G. Ayres, in digging a well at Coffeyville, had found a pocket of oil containing several gallons. (. M. Ralstin, at his farm three miles southwest of Independence, reported that in a well in his cellar 65 feet deep the gas kept bubbling up in such volume that it
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
could be heard all through the house at night. And in drilling for coal, where the mineral bath is now, here in Independence, it was reported that there had been an explosion of some kind which threw mnd over the top of the derrick, and that the drill passed through 150 feet of gas-bearing strata. By this time everyone was satisfied that there was some natural gas here, but whether in paying quantities was a problem that remained to be solved.
Gas was first found. in quantity to be worth utilizing, at Cherryvale, November 20th, 1890, in a well drilled by J. MeSweeney, at a depth of 600 feet. It threw the water about fifty feet high, and was pronounced at once "the strongest flow in the state." Within a week this well was piped and tested and gave a blaze 25 feet high. By the next year the people of Cherryvale, or a portion of them, were enjoying natural gas fires, though the quantity available was small at first.
Coffeyville came next, and her resources began to be developed in 1891 and 1892. Her first wells were sunk, like those of Cherryvale, right in town. By the winter of 1892-3 she not only had gas to burn but in such quantity that with the full pressure of the wells, there was talk of their being danger that the stoves would melt down. Abont the same time William Mills, who had been the first to bring in an oil well at Neodesha, found both gas and oil in the neighborhood of Elk City, but neither of them were utilized.
At Independence, the first well drilled for gas was put down in the summer of 1892 by J. D. Nickerson, with the assistence of the people of the city. It was located down near Rock Creek, at Barnes' Garden, south- west of the city. A little gas was found-about enough to supply one stove. In the fall of the same year Mr. Nickerson drilled another well on the farm of Capt. L. C. Mason, just east of Independence. Although no gas was found here, there was such a body of gas sand that this inde- fatigable prospector was convinced that he was on the right track. The next drilling he did was on the J. H. Brewster place five miles southeast of the city, in the early spring of 1893. April 6th, at the depth of a thous- and feet a very strong flow was struck, and from this and other wells in this vicinity gas was piped into Independence late that year. By the time cold weather came in earnest, a year later. in the winter 1894, how- ever. the supply from this field was found entirely inadequate, and it was not until wells were developed on the Barr and Greer places, a couple of miles west of the city. that confidence in gas as a fuel was restored in the mind of the Independence citizen.
Before gas was piped into the city. Mr. Nickerson had associated with himself A. P. McBride and C. L. Bloom, exprienced prospecfors and drill- ers from Miami connty. and from this partnership was evolved the Inde- pendence Gas Company, which has ever since supplied the city with gas
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
and which holds leases on most of the lands tributary to the city. As drawn at first, these leases provided that if drilling was not begun within a limited period, the farmer shonkl be paid a royalty of 25 cents per acre until development work was begun. Then he was to have a tenth of the oil. and a rental of $50 a year for a gas well, with gas for household pur- poses in addition. Since then the company has deemed it more econom- ical to furnish gas to all its lessors, in lien of paying a cash royalty, in order to hold the lands on which it was not prepared to drill. To do this, it has laid pipe to some two hundred farm houses, at an expense of tens of thousands of dollars. The same plan has been adopted by the Coffey- ville Gas Company, and it is probable that nearly five mumdred farm honses in the county are now supplied with this ideal fuel.
Although petroleum was found in considerable quantity in the first wells drilled on the Brewster place in 1893, there was no market for oil and no attempt was made to develop that branch of the mining industry in the county until nearly ten years later. It was in 1893, however, that Wm. H. Mills drilled a couple of wells at Neodesha, just over the line in Wilson county. and found oil in such quanty as to convince him that southern Kansas was going to become an oil field. The rumors that cir- «ulated in regard to his wells, and the stories about oil from them shoot- ing out over the top of the derrick and saturating the soil so that it was necessary to cover it with fresh earth to conceal the strike, were listened to as fairy tales, and no credence given them. And yet Mr. Mills suc- reede l in making such a showing as to induce James H. Guffey and John 11. Galey, two wealthy and experienced oil operators in the Peutsylvania and Ohio fields, to come out here and begin leasing land in this county, as well as Wilson and others adjoining. During the summer of 1893 these gentlemen drilled 15 wells in the immediate vicinity of Neodesha, all of which were oil producers with the exception of two gas wells. In 1894 they were pumping large quantities of oil and drilling new wells. In July of that year they had forty wells and not less than 3,000 barrels of oil were stored in the tanks in the field, and a 35.000 barrel storage tank had just been completed by them. A year later it became evident that the Standard Oil Company would be able to freeze out any other operators in this field, and Guffey & Galey made the best possible terms with that monopoly, receiving, according to reports, all they had expended in the field and a bonus of $100,000 in addition. At this time there were sixty- eight wells in the field controlled by them, and the "Standard" continued to drill more when it took charge, in the name of its western branch, the Forest Oil Company. A number of these new wells were in Montgomery county, in Sycamore township: some being as far sonth as the neighbor- hood of Table Mound. These proved to be gas wells rather than oil wells and J. D. Nickerson porcased the gas rights in the Ringle and Brown-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
field wells for the Independence Gas Company, in 1898, for $6,000. A week or two later the "Standard" began to realize the value of such gas wells, and regretted their bargain. Since then that company has gone in- to the gas business, and is now furnishing gas piped from Wilson county to the city of Parsons.
In June. 1898, the "Standard" people erected am extensive refinery for oil at Neodesha, with a capacity of 500 barrels per day, but still they bought no oil and there was no inducement for any independent oper- ator to drill for off while there was no market.
Meantime the Independence Gas Company continued to drill more or less wells each year for the city's supply : the Coffeyville company did the same, and there was a second or Peoples' company organized there. At Cherryvale, the Edgar Smelter was located, with its own gas field and gas wells. Vitritied brick plants were located at Coffeyville, Independence Cherryvale and Sycamore, and finally at Caney. At the latter place a company organized by E. B. Skinner, then county treasurer, had found gas in such quantity in the spring of 1901 that, in July of that year, the towm was piped and the new fuel came into use. It was not until the fall of 1902 that Elk City was supplied, but now Jefferson, Bolton and Syca- more are also supplied. and of all the cities and villages in the county, Liberty, Havana and Tyro, only. remain without gas.
During the summer of 1902, the Indpendence Gas Company drilled six wells within a mile and a half of the village of Bolton. all but one of them to the south and east of that place. Of these six, five were gas wells. with daily capacities ranging from ten to fifteen million cubic feet per day. The fifth was an oil well. The aggregate output of this field is estimated at 70 million cubic feet of gas per day, alnd during the fall of that year this supply was made available for the needs of Independence by a pipe line. With such a supply to draw from. the inducement to fac- tories in search of cheap fuel became so manifest that representatives of various industries in the Indiana field, where the gas was nearly ex- hausted, began to visit this section in considerable mnumbers, seeking locations.
In August 1902, the Standard Oil Company, for some reason, changed its policy and annonneed an open market for oil in this territory. More than that, it proceeded to secure the right-of-way for a pipe line through the county from Bartlesville in the Indian Territory. by way of Caney and Bolton, to its refinery at Neodesha. This has not vet been constructed, but the indications are that it soon will be. The development of a considerable oil field in Neosho county, to the northeast of us. and the market now made for oil led to new activity in this county. A large number of wells have been drilled in the vicinity of Cherryvale. and a little to the north and west of that city, from which oil is being shipped in quantity at this time. Two of these wells are pumping twenty
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
barrels a day each. Meantime new operators by the score have come into the field. the leasing industry has been prosecuted with great vigor, thirty rigs are now engaged in drilling in the county. the National Supply Company has established a branch house at Independence, the formation of new oil companies goes on apace, and it only needs the dis- covery of some pool of oil to set fire to the train that is already laid. As yet, however, no well has been drilled in the county that gives more than a moderate yield of oil, and it is probable that from forty to fifty barrels a day is the maximum. This is about the amount claimed for wells at Sycamore and Caney that have not yet been regularly pumped. With thirty or more companies doing business in the county, and all of them holding leases that require immediate development. the number of wells going down is greater than ever before and it is expected that the record of wells drilled in the county during the year 1903 will not fall much short of two hundred. and that the amount of money spent in development work will aggregate nearly a million dollars. Prior to 1903 about two hundred wells had been drilled in the county of which two-thirds were dry holes and the remaining sixty or seventy, gas and oil producers.
With the advent of new off and gas companies, the inevitable liti- gation over leases and oil rights has begun, and the Independence Gas Company is in court defending its claim to the Brewster place, on which its first well was drilled. The place has been re-leased to the New York Oil and Gas Company. which has been granted a second franchise by the city of Independence. When the New York people tried to go upon the place with a rig in March, the Independence Company met them with a show of force, and would have kept them out but for the employment of a little strategy, a feint and a thank movement. Both companies are in po- session now, and under orders of the court each can go ahead and do all the drilling it pleases and sell all the oil produced, provided a strict account is kept.
The new wells drilled this year to the north and west of Bolton have tot made such phenomenal showings as those opened there last year, and just now the question whether Montgomery county is first-rate oil terri- tory is as unsettled as it was when the first well on the Brewster place made such a good showing of heavy black oil. The gas resources of the county, however, have been developed to such an extent as to render it certain that the supply is sufficient for a generation to come, and that manufacturing enterprises will continue to be attracted to our towns by the feel that nature has provided so lavishly in the bowels of the earth.
The oldest prospectors will tell you that in this field there are no certain indications of the existence of either oil or gas beneath the sur- fare, and that every well must be drilled at a venture. The depth of the wells varies from 600 to 1.500 feet, but in most cases the gas or oil sand
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
is struck between 800 and 1,200 feet below the surface. No considerable quantity of gas has been found outside the Cherokee shales which overlies- the bed rock of Mississippi limestone. No attempt has been made in this county to go very much deeper with a view to find whether anything worth while underlies that limestone; but at Neodesha the Standard Oil Company went down twenty-two hundred feet without finding anything that it deemed worth developing, or that encouraged it to make a second attempt to explore the nether regions.
At present there is but little of the county that is not under lease for oil, gas and other mineral substances that may be found; but the more recent leases only run for a short time and require development work to be begun in a few months to keep them alive. And the validity of the old leases, which were drawn to run indefinitely so long as an annual rental was paid or gas was furnished the lessor for household purposes, is be- ginning to be gravely questioned. In most cases the leases provide that the party to whom the lease is made may drop it at any time. while the land owner is held indefinitely if the rental is paid. Lawyers are coming more and more to hold that the decisions in other and older gas and oil states that such leases are void or voidable for lack of mutuality, will be held to be good law here and that the attempt made to monopolize large areas by leases under which no development work is begon, will fail.
So far no gas has been piped ont of the county, and people generally are solicitous that it shall not be. Indeed. three-fourths of the farmers who gave the Standard Oil Company rights of way for its pipe line in- sisted that a clanse be inserted forbidding the piping of gas and restrict- ing the use of the pipes to the transportation of oil. And many of the leases for gas all over the county contain a provision forbidding it to be piped outside the boundaries of the county. There seems to be a general disposition, in fact, to keep the gas at home and economize it. The idea that it will not be permanent, but can be very readily exhausted, is very generally held, and the fate of the Indiana fields is constantly referred to as a warning against recklessness in handling this wonderful fuel.
The growth of Montgomery county in population during the last ten years, and her rise from the twelfth to the seventh in relative rank in the state are unquestionably attributable to the gas and oil resources that have been developed here, and the prediction that the same inthences which have increased our population ten thousand within the last ten years will continue to operate until we shall have fifty or sixty thousand people in place of the 33.443 our last censue showed. does not seem un- warranted.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
CHAPTER V. The Political History of Montgomery County
BY II. W. YOUNG.
All human actions are subject to the limitations of time and space. Subject only to those limitations, Kansas stands unrivaled in her politi- cal development. For her area and the time she has been doing business as a commonwealth, she doesn't take a back seat for any state or any people. That her citizens have taken more interest in public affairs and studied matters of government more than those of other states and sect- tions is not to their discredit. It testifies to their intelligence, their public spirit, and their mental activity. If "eternal vigilence is the price of lib- erty," our people will be the last on earth to be reduced to slavery. In a market where that sort of coin is current, they will be able to outbid all competitors.
Although Kansas was eight years old when the bars were let down and the Osage Diminished Reserve, of which Montgomery county forms a part, was opened to white settlement, her citizens have been hustling ever since to make up for that lost time; and no one would now accuse the Montgomery county politicians of lagging in the rear of the procession, or failing to furnish their share of representatives at the pie counter. Of men who have been for a longer or shorter time residents of this county, two have been United States Senators, one has been governor of the state, two have held the office of lieutenant governor, one has been assistant secretary of the interior, and two have been judges of the district court. While no citizen of the county is on record as having been a represen- tative in Congress, or head of a department at the state capital, there are certainly few counties which have struck more of the high places in the political world than our own. And when it comes to the honorable po- sition of representative in Congress, it will be entirely safe to assert that no other county which has never seen one of her sons answering the roll call at the south end of the national capital, has ever had more who indi- cated that they wanted to.
In passing, it may be noted that of the Congressmen elected from within the boundaries of the present Third Congressional District, Cowley county bas had two, Wilson two. Crawford two, Labette one; and none of the other five has been favored -- so that Montgomery does not stand alone in being "whitewashed."
The first political question that confronted the voters of Montgomery county was the same that has always proved such a bone of contention in every new state and section-the location of a county seat. National political issues were for the time allowed to fall into the background, while cities were being located on paper, and every settler was interested either to have the county's capital as near his claim as possible, or at least
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
to keep it on the same side of the Verdigris river, which bisects the county from north to south and which was, of course, much more of a barrier before any bridges had been built than it is now.
Montgomery county was organized by proclamation of Governor Ilarvey on the 3d day of June, 1869. It was named for General Richard Montgomery, the hero of the battle of Quebec, who shed his heart's blood for his country on the Heights of Abraham. There has been some question whether the person intended to be honored when the county was chris- tened was not Colonel James Montgomery, of Linn county. rather than the "French and Indian"warrior. In the Independence Kansan of July 7th. 1876, is published a very strong argument to show that it was the civil war soldier for whom the county was named, but an examination of the proceedings of the legislature at the time leaves no room for doubt on the question : the concurrent resolution stating distinctly and unequivocally that General Richard Montgomery gave name to Montgomery county.
In his proclamation Governor Harvey appointed H. C. Crawford. H. A. Bethuran and R. L. Walker special commissioners, and E. C. Kimball special clerk, and designated Verdigris City as the temporary county seat. Verdigris City was located east of the Verdigris river, about one mile southeast of what is now known as "Brown's Ford," and on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 22, township 33 south, range 16 east. The land on which the town was laid out is now a part of the farm of Senator H. W. Conrad. Walker has since been prominent in state poli- ties, and died early in 1903.
On the 11th of June 1869, the board met at the county seat and qualified before Capt. W. S. MeFeeters, notary public. The Captain was perhaps the first notary commissioned in the county. He was a lawyer by profession, and was the first to locate at the county seat, having his office in the log court house. Not relying alone on the slow and precarious rewards of the legal profession in a new country, he was the following winter convicted of horse stealing at Girard, Kansas, and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary.
The board organized by the election of II. C. Crawford as chairman. It divided the county into three townships, each about nine miles in width, extending across the county east and west. Beginning at the north they were named Drum Creek, Verdigris and Westralia, with vot- ing places at Fitch's Store. Verdigris City and Westralia. At a meeting on August 27th, Captain Daniel McTaggart was appointed county treas- urer, E. K. Konntz, probate judge; and S. B. Moorehouse, justice of the peace.
From this time until the date of the election, on November 5th, little was talked of except the county seat question. Verdigris City. the pro- visional capital. had a rival on the east side in Montgomery City. near
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
the month of Drum creek, but as a division of the east side forces would be ruinous, they met midway on the hill above McTaggart's mill, and lo- cated the city of Liberty, across the street to the east of the McTaggart homestead. The west siders were a unit for Independence, though some- one tried to butt into the game with a city in the air called Samaria, which was supposed to be located somewhere in the neighborhood of Walker's mound.
The story of how the Independence people started ont to steal a mareks on the Liberty partisans and get control of the election board at Verdigris City, has been often told. Notwithstanding their daylight start. they were discovered just after crossing the river and only suc- ceeded in getting Adam Camp on as a matter of courtesy. He did his whole duty, though, challenging all voters from the east side of the county.
When the commissioners came to count the votes they did the only possible thing that would give Liberty a majority, by throwing out the en- tire vote of Drum Creek, on the pretext that the returns were not the originals but a certified copy. This gave Liberty 162 votes to 103 for Independence. At the same time the whole east side ticket for county officers was elected as follows: Representative, John E. Adams; County Clerk. T. M. Noble ; Sheriff, Daniel Bruner: Probate Judge, E. K. Konntz; Coroner, Sidney Allen ; Register of Deeds, Gusso Chouteau, a half-breed Indian ; Connty Surveyor, Edwin Foster; District Clerk, Z. R. Overman ; County Attorney, Goodell Foster; Superintendent of Schools, J. A. Helph- ingstine ; Treasurer, J. A. Jones; Assessor, W. N. Cotton : Commissioners, T. J. MaWhinney, J. S. Garrett and W. Allen.
Thirteen of the defeated candidates on the west side ticket at once instituted a contest in the probate court of Wilson county, C. M. Ralstin, of Independence, the defeated candidate for county attorney, and F. 1. Bettis, of Oswego, representing the constestors. Goodell Foster and John A. Helphingstine, of Liberty, appeared for the contestees. The prize of the seat of goverment of the new county hung in the balance, and so strenuous was the contest that L. T. Stephenson, of Independence, carried the Oswego attorney, Bettis, on horseback sixty-five miles to Fre- donia. arriving in a driving snow storm at 3 A. M., on the day set for the trial, December 23d.
The decision was that there had been no legal election-and so every- body was defeated. The old board of commissioners appointed by the gov- ernor held over and moved the log court house and the county clerk's office from Verdigris City to Liberty. They also called a special election for the 38 of May to select county officers. Full tickets were placed in the field, and the historians of the carly times tell us that the canvass was the most exciting over held in the county. The candidates who were suc-
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