USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 11
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Speaking of Jesse James recalls the story that not long before his death he made Nemaha county a call, which was thought to be a pro-
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fessional one. A short time before Jesse James was killed by Bob Ford both men were in Sabetha looking around with a view of possibly transacting some business. At the time, the Sabetha marshall was one Smith, who was bound to make a good record and possessed a very keen eye. He contracted the habit of looking very carefully at any stranger within the gates. James and Ford were crossing the street near. the National Bank building when they met Smith face to face. Smith looked James straight in the eyes, and Ford and James took the first train cut. When Bob Ford was in jail two months later for the murder of James, H. C. Haines went to take a look at him. Upon hearing where Haines was from, Ford told of the Sabetha incident and said that he exerted every influence he had over Jesse James to keep him from returning to Sabetha and killing Marshal Smith. James was convinced that Smith knew who he was. Many Sabetha people remembered having seen the men when their pictures were printd in the St. Joseph newspapers.
Wetmore seems to have retained her early day citizens, or their de- scendants, more than most towns. The merchants of today are the merchants of the early days, or their children or grandchildren. The same names are seen in the Wetmore paper every week, Vilott, De Forest, Rising, Haigh, names not of general use, are still identified with Wetmore.
During the current winter Mrs. George C. Cox died, leaving several farms near Wetmore and considerable cash to be divided among her several children. When Mr. and Mrs. Cox came to Wetmore from London, England, in 1868, Mr. Cox was so poor that he was obliged to pay for the first breaking on the farm he had homesteaded by giving his coat for it. The farms left by Mrs. Cox included the homestead. Mr. Cox remained on this homestead until his death in 1901. The winter after his arrival he built a "Kansas" or blockhouse on the farm and with a cord of wood as family supplies he commenced farming. Three years later he was the victim of the grasshopper scourge. But out of it Mr. and Mrs. Cox came unscathed. Four of their twelve chil- dren were born on the farm, the others in London, where Mr. and Mrs. Cox were married in St. Barnabas' Church. Her six Nemaha county sons were Mrs. Cox's pallbearers.
John Radford, who is mentioned in reminiscences of John Fuller as one of the promoters of the Kansas emigration of English workingmen, was a Wetmore resident. John Radford was a dreamer and a zealot. A dream of better conditions for the poor. A zealot in living his theories. He was an early day jeweler of Wetmore. His barren childhood, in which his fight for existence was an ever-living battle, made him only more determined to be educated and help others. He attended night schools, mechanics' institutes and lyceums. For a dreary seven years in his Devonshire, England, home he was apprenticed wageless to a jeweler and engraver. He became a Liberal in social matters. Of the immi- gration party to Kansas, written by Mr. Fuller, John Radford and James
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Murray were the pushers. One pound (about $5) shares of an emi- gration company were issued. Each member was allowed a maximum of fifteen shares. The company was supposed to huy American lands and lease them to others for developing. Six original families came over, twenty following shortly afterward. The company was a failure, for the reason that anyone could have Kansas land almost for the taking at that time. But fifty English families settled in Nemaha county, sturdy, thrifty, industrious, who have done much toward making the county one of solid foundation. So while the scheme failed the outcome was more than successful.
N. H. Rising, who was a pioneer citizen of Wetmore, had pioneered already in Granada and Sabetha. His was one of the first houses built in Sabetha, when, in 1858 and 1869, he ran a store there with George Lyons. Then he ran a hotel at Granada and in 1861 he built the ranch house at the famous Log Chain ranch. The Log Chain is now one of the Dr. Sam Murdock farms, one of 2,000 acres owned in the county by the founder of the Sabetha hospital. Log Chain's history is interesting. The ranch is situated at the crossing of the old military road of Log Chain creek, which still wends its way through the picturesque, historic farmland. When Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was sent with United States troops to quiet the Mormon rising in 1844, he had a great deal of trouble in crossing this creek. Heavy chain after heavy chain was broken. Scores of heavy chains were broken by teams of twenty-four to thirty- eight ox teams in trying to drag the heavily laden military wagons and artillery through the stream. This gave the stream the name of Log Chain and the ranch took the name from its troublesome little river. Log Chain ranch was a pretentious house, for those days. It was 24x40 feet, and the barn was seventy feet long. Mr. Rising had a thriving business here during stage days.
The first settler in Wetmore township was Augustus Wolfley, a Pennsylvanian, who died on the farm he preempted thirty-five years ago or more. Mr. Wolfley built on a creek, a fine rushing stream, as did most of the pioneers. The stream now bears his name. His son followed him in 1856. Frequently the two men would go to Atchison for provisions and supplies. Duing a visit there they were arrested by a pro-slavery mob, tried and convicted and sentenced to be shot. They were given respite from the sentence, but were taken across the Mis- souri river in a boat and told to stay there and vote the pro-slavery ticket. They managed to get to St. Joe. In a ferry boat at that point they crossed to Wathena and walked back carefully, and by stages, to their Wetmore farm, a distance of seventy miles. The difficulty of this tramp may be imagined when it is recalled that the seventy miles was raw, unbroken prairie, with no landmarks and no knowledge of the country. Mr. Wolfley was one of the few pioneers well supplied with worldly goods when he came to Kansas. Upon his death he deeded a farm to each of his sons.
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
Wetmore being a younger child has also been a child more ven- turesome. The prosaic certainty of farm life did not appeal to Wet- more as persistently as to the rest of Nemaha county. To be sure, Wet- more was not founded for farming purposes, but for a railroad center. So perhaps it is not surprising to note that upon occasion, and frequently Wetmore has delved into the bowels of the earth in the fond hope of finding a shorter if less sure way to riches. The last venture was about 1907. when Wetmore went digging for coal. Indications were that Wetmore had coal. If she had coal, Wetmore wanted it where it was doing more good than in the ground. So she dug, and dug, and dug. If coal were not found, at least oil or gas might be dis- covered. The citizens stuck valiantly to their drill, but by the time they had gotten to a depth of 2,200 feet and there was nothing doing in either coal, gas or oil, Wetmore decided to let Pittsburg furnish their coal and they returned to farming. After the stated depth was attained the drilling apparatus was taken away, when hope revived in the de- spondent breast of the village and $3,000 was raised to dig deeper. But the amount was not sufficient to warrant bringing the drilling apparatus back to town. It was figured that fully $5,000 was needed and the hope was not sufficient to raise the sum. The drill was not put down deep enough to satisfy people, however; in fact many thought the money gave out just as something was about to be turned up. With this hope springing eternal in the Wetmore breast, it may be tried again
In' Wetmore township, adjoining Reilly in the southeastern section of the county, lies Bancroft, a small settlement of interesting folk. Bancroft has added several additions to the original old town, in which are located the bank, the hotel, the postoffice and stores and several homes. The additions are called Camp's, Woodburn's and Poynter's. The town of Bancroft has an excellent graded school, a blacksmith shop and a union church. Its streets are named First, Second, Elk and Sycamore, which is farther than most villages get in the street matter. There are, besides, a creamery station, stock yards and all conveniences for shipping the immense amount of stock and grain raised in the vi- cinity.
IV. F. Turrentine, mayor of Wetmore and editor of the Wetmore "Spectator," has recently been dubbed "W. R. Hearst," as he has started several papers in Netawaka and a "string of papers is again inaugurated in Wetmore. The first "string" was started by Daniel C. Needham in 1878, which lived but a short time.
The town of Wetmore was laid out by the railroad, for the railroad and with the railroad. The Central Branch, always the most contrary road in the State, runs "cattycornered" through Wetmore. It is not on a true bias, but about three sheets in the wind, as it were. So Wetmore, taking the line of least resistance, went along with the raiload. There- fore, every street in Wetmore is diagonal and there is not a house ap- parently that is standing right with the world. A sailor of life training would lose his bearings in Wetmore.
CHAPTER XIV.
CENTRALIA.
THIRD TOWN IN COUNTY-TOWNSITE SELECTED-MOVED TO THE RAIL- ROAD-LOCATED BY A MAINE COLONY-A WOULD-BE SEMINARY -- PROGRESS-INCORPORATED-LIBRARY-BECOMES CITY PROPER IN 1906-DR. J. S. HIDDEN-PROMINENT NEWSPAPER MEN- SCHOOLS -VITAL STATISTICS-HOME ASSOCIATION-EARLY SETTLERS.
Centralia, the third town in Nemaha county, has her own person- ality and it is one that impresses. In the memory of man no scandal has emanated from Centralia, no brawls, no family disturbances. If Cen- tralia has them she conceals them in the closet as a family skeleton and does not even let her sister cities know of her troubles. Therefore, the conclusion might be drawn that Centralia, Nemaha county, is not a gossip. Than which no higher praise can be given. Clean-spirited. clean-minded, clean-mouthed, Nehama county is proud of her third-born living child.
Centralia, as has been said, was one of the villages built on a hill. who could not induce the railroad to take their point of view, and had, therefore, to tumble down the hill to the railroad. In 1859, J. S. Hidden. J. W. Tullor and A. A. Goodman picked out a sightly spot on which to build a village to overlook the fertile valley of the Black Vermillion stream. Within three years this seemly village included a general store, a drug store, a school house, a hotel and even a lawyer with a law office. The lawyer was F. P. Baker, who afterward became the editor of the Topeka "Commonwealth," a newspaper famous in Kansas early days, but now passed on. In 1867 a blacksmith shop and several dwellings had been erected. And here the pioneers hoped to live, and thrive, and grow, and die. But many a happy plan has the ruthless railroad spoiled. Along
came the Missouri Pacific with its slow moving; but depredatious Cen- tral Branch and, ever a lazy organization, it refused to climb the hill to Centralia. So down rolled Centralia, bag and baggage, to the foot of the hill, where the Central Branch still lazies by its doorstep, whistling promises of improvement that it never keeps. Of the original town com- pany only Mr. Hidden took part in the purchase of the new site. Two hundred and forty acres were secured for the new Centralia directly on the bank of the Black Vermillion. Peter Clippinger, two Smith brothers
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and A. W. Slater gave half of this purchase land to the railroad and the station was erected with the name painted thereon. I. Stitchel put up the first building, A. Williams the second and John Smith, of the town com- pany, the third. Meantime, down the hill rolled the buildings of old Centralia, with one notable execption, which is standing on the original site today.
A band of pioneers from Maine had come to Kansas and formed this settlement on the high and sightly hill. The people were intellectual and progressive. The Maine colony seemed to be of literary bent and bound to introduce the higher life into its settlement. Therefore it erected a big stone school building. This was intended to be the wing to a seminary eventually, for Centralia was meant to be a college town. The Maine colony was a well-to-do as well as an intellectual class of men and women. For ten years the settlement prospered, then came the rail- road, and the houses and homes and business buildings formed the line of march and rolled down the hill to the valley and the railroad, where new Centralia has prospered as faithfully as her mother colony on the hilltop. The one building that was not moved today marks the ambition of the pioneers of the old town, The would-be seminary was left in its stately stone grandeur to mark an ambitious past. The old school building stands alone, its literary hopes dashed to the ground, a monument to the everlasting success of greedy commercialism over artistic ambition. The building has been remodeled into a modern farm- house, the property of Z. B. Hartmann, who is raising wonderful crops on the townsite of Old Centralia.
Centralia moved and progressed physically and mentally until in 1882 the requisite number of citizens in the town warranted Judge David Martin, of Atchison, in granting an order incorporating the town into a city of the third class. In 1916, the month of January, Centralia is the only town in Kansas of 1,000 inhabitants to own its own electric light plant, furnishing twenty-four-liour service. Centralia also furnishes "juice" to Corning and Goff, her nearest neighbors to east and west.
Centralia is literary, too. Little sister that she is, she has main- tained a notable library for twenty-five years through the devotion of her women to books, and of her men to the efforts of the women. In fact, Centralia is the only town in Nemaha county, and one of the few in Kansas of its size, to have supported a free public library for many years.
In the early eighties three women members of the literary union concluded that knowledge only is power. They were Mrs. A. S. Best, Mrs. F. P. Bowen and Mrs. L. R. Jackson. With the interest of their fellowmen uppermost in their hearts, they established a free public library. From their own pockets and by means of literary entertain- ments they gave the necessary wherewithal to buy the first books, sup- plementing the purchase with what books they could spare from their personal libraries. Many of their friends assisted in the work, and after
MODULO
Sord
BUSINESS SECTION, CENTRALIA, KANSAS.
-Courtesy C. C. Wadleigh.
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various struggles and many discouragements the little library was opened to the book-hungry community. There was no charge for the books and the country people were included and given free access to the library shelves. The library ladies believed that knowledge, like religion, should be free. The women were young mothers then, but from household cares and growing families they spared enough time to uplift the com- munity. They gave entertainments from time to time for more books and magazines. They took afternoons from their own time to take turns as free librarians. From this little library in 1880 the Literary Union developed into the Library Association, which was a chartered organi- zation of considerably larger membership. After a number of years this association lost their enthusiasm, and the ladies of the Centralia Reading Circle and a few remaining members of the old Literary Union opened a free reading room.
In May, 1906, by vote of the citizens of Centralia, the library became the property of the city. One mill was taxed, and there was not the least objection in the community. The entertainments continued, and the best magazines and newest books of all kinds were continually added. A few years later the tax was increased, which enabled the em- ployment of a regular librarian. The library being opened but three evenings in the week, the distribution of magazines became difficult, which was solved by renting them at five cents for a short period. There are now about 1,500 books in the library for a town of 1,000 inhabitants. These are supplemented with books from the State traveling libraries. Another library in Centralia was presented to the public schools by A. Oberndorf, owner of the Eleanora Fruit and Poultry farm, in memory of his little daughter, Adele. There are 1,800 children's books in this collection. A similar gift has not been recorded in any State so far as Centralia knows.
The public library rooms are fitted with comfortable chairs, fine pictures, reading tables and all modern library conveniences. A framed charter of a branch of the Lyceum League of America, signed by Presi- dent Roosevelt, is one of the library possessions of which the citizens are proud. The Centralia branch of the Lyceum League was organized in 1886, at which time Theodore Roosevelt was simply an American citizen, but was also president of the chief organization of the Lyceum League. The local league later became inactive and lost its charter The signed charter hung, neglected and unadmired, in Mr. Bush's kitchen. But when Mr. Roosevelt became the leading citizen of Amer- ica and the world, the old charter was resurrected from its ignominions surroundings, handsomely framed and properly housed with Thackeray, Dickens, Balzac, Hume, Gibbon, Izaac Walton, etc., in Centralia's library. The names of the charter members of Centralia league which are signed with Mr. Roosevelt's are F. A. Hybskmann. Wayland Shoe- maker, C. W. McBratney, Sumner McNeil, W. B. Griffith and H. L. Wait, editor of the Centralia "Journal."
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Dr. J. S. Hidden, one of the builders of Centralia, was the first sur- geon in New England to use chloroform as an anesthetic. Surgery was little resorted to in those pioneer days. When it was, a patient was just supposed to grin and bear it. Dr. Hidden was the first regular practitioner in Nemaha county, and served in the Kansas legislature in 1863 and 1864. Prior to his removal to Kansas he had served in the New Hampshire legislature.
F. P. Baker, who was the old Centralia lawyer, and later became proprietor of the Centralia "Commonwealth" is also one of Centralia's or- iginal men of brains. The Topeka "Commonwealth" nourished many brilliant newspaper men of Kansas, men who have been and are the real fathers of Kansas. Associated with Mr. Baker on the "Commonwealth" was the late Noble L. Prentiss as local editor. Later Mr. Prentiss was editor of the Atchison "Champion," and when he died he was writing the Starbeams on the Kansas City "Star." It was Mr. Prentiss who gave the name "Herd Book" to Andreas' old History of Kansas, which has clung to the volume up to date, and always will. Mr. Prentiss was in Chicago when the proofs of the old history were brought into the office where he was a visitor. He looked over the proofs. "Well" said the Kansas wit, "you seem to have the whole herd here." The story was printed and when the book came out it was heralded as the "Herd Book," and so it remains to day. Few know that the book was compiled by one Andreas. Henry King preceded the Centralia Mr. Baker as editor of the "Com- monwealth." Mr. King died within the past year, having been editor of the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat" for many years before his death. At a meeting of the National Editorial Association in Lawrence in 1914, Mr. King was one of the speakers, when he protested his love for Kansas above all other lands. His will left a portion of his wonderful library to Kansas. It is now in the Memorial Building in Topeka. Thomas Ben- ton Murdock, late editor of the El Dorado "Republican," and called the "Beau 'Brummel" of the Kansas press, and an uncle of Victor Murdock, Congressman for many years from Kansas, was manager of the "Com- monwealth" when it was owned by the Centralia lawyer. There hasn't been a lawyer located on the Centralia townsite for eight years, and the Centralia jail has no prisoners, in spite of the fact that it is steam heated.
Centralia would naturally erect a school building in which to prop- erly house her school children, and in 1872 a building was erected at a cost of $2,500. J. S. Stamm as the first teacher. The cyclone which swept the county in 1882 destroyed the building, and a building costing $6,000 was put up in its place, which opened with 175 pupils, with O. M. Bowman as principal.
In 1906 the school building was burned and nothing was saved. The city of Centralia, progressive, literary, then erected a real school building. Grades and high school were included in one handsome struc- ture, which cost $18,000. This building included furnaces, dry closets, modern ventilation system, and the school board visited Kansas City.
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St. Joseph and Topeka, calling at and examining all the modern schools in these cities before they commenced work on their own building. The building includes eight big rooms, an assembly room, a laboratory, two recitation rooms, a cemented modern basement for lunch rooms and manual training, big windows in all closets, doors opening outward.
The people of Centralia did not realize what a remarkable record the town had on infant mortality until baby week began to be discussed, and then it was found that the records show not a baby or child has died in Centralia for three years and only one in the past four and a half years, with the exception of two premature births. The four and a half years cover the period since the State law requiring the registration of deaths went into effect in 1911. Before that time no record was kept. The baby is studied in Centralia. For a number of years the Reading Circle had child study as a part of their weekly program. In the library are a number of books on the baby and the child. Bulletins on this sub- ject, issued by the State and other good authorities, are never laid aside as unimportant, but are read with interest. Magazines with the best baby departments are most popular in the homes. Doctors are up-to- date and willing and ready to use the system of preventative medicine and give mothers advice about the feeding and care of babies rather than apply all their knowledge and skill in trying to save the baby when it is seriously ill. Most bottle babies are scientifically fed, and there are no bottle babies unless nature makes it necessary.
Babies in Centralia live out of doors as much as possible, and it is no novelty here to see the front porch fenced in with wire netting or any way to give the baby a safe out of doors play room, which is often used in winter as well as summer. There is no trouble in this town about pure milk; those who sell milk deliver it in sterlized, stoppered bottles. "Swat the fly" is a town slogan and it is considered a disgrace to have a fly in the house. If there is a case of whooping cough in town the babies are kept away from it. There hasn't been a case of measles or scarlet fever in Centralia for years, and diphtheria is unknown. Among the children just out of the baby class adenoids are watched and removed when found, and the majority of the parents have their children's teeth carefully looked after. Taking all these things into con- sideration, Centralia believes that these pictured babies have a good chance to live through the critical stage of childhood.
HOME ASSOCIATION.
(Written by Abijah Wells in the Seneca "Tribune" 35 Years Ago.)
The West has been the object of the wildest expectations and the scene of the grandest successes and bitterest disappointments that man- kind have achieved or suffered, and of all the bright anticipations and Utopian dreams that have impelled humanity onward in their ever
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moving march toward the setting sun, there have been few brighter, fairer or more ephemeral than that which inspired the formation of the Home Association, the legitimate progenitor of our now thriving village of Centralia. This organization was originated in Knox county, Illinois, in the summer of 1858. A constitution and code of laws were adopted and a committee appointed and sent to Kansas to locate the site of the new "Garden of Eden" to which should be attracted the ability, culture and refinement necessary to make it "The land of all on earth supremely blest." The committee, after a careful examination, selected six miles square, in the exact center of which was located the town of Centralia. The next winter a charter was granted them by the Territorial Legisla- ture, and within a year hundreds of people had flocked to the new settle- ment, and a town had been built as if by magic, while on every hand new farms greeted the beholder. A building was erected, designed for the south wing of the Centralia College, to serve as the germ of the future grand educational institution that was to be developed there. The out- side world was invited by a well prepared circular, gotten up, we be- lieve, by C. H. Chitty, then secretary of the association, and now prac- ticing law in Metamora, Ill., to "come and see a portion of bleeding Kan- sas transformed into a blooming garden."
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