USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 15
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An odd circumstance of warlike connections was the finding of grape shot in a sand bank in the eastern section of the county. There was never a battle of any sort fought near Sabetha, within memory of the oldest inhabitant. Several years ago while digging in a sand bank, John Bridgeman found a grape shot of the kind used in the Civil war. The grape shot was found four feet under the sand and above the sand there had been ten feet of soil, so that the shot was some fourteen feet under ground. Its burial there is still an unsolved mystery.
Nemaha county treasures many odd bits of war relics today, half a century after the close of the Civil war. A. G. Rees, a farmer living one mile west of the Sabetha hospital, is an old soldier who makes a trip almost daily on foot from his home to the town of Sabetha. He has kept in fighting trim as a result, or tramping trim, anyway. He carries with him an odd cane fashioned from bits of horn taken from the tips of his favorite cattle, dehorned during his farming life since the close of the war. The cane looks like a stick of polished onyx. Mr. Rees has among his relics a piece of hardtack which he carried through the Civil war. Mr. Rees was with the Ninety-second Illinois mounted infantry. He marched with Sherman to the sea and carried his hardtack on that his- toric march. Hardtack, to the uninitiated of the present generation and to those of the farmlands who have never been to sea, is merely a name. It is supposedly a biscuit. In reality it is a cracker, big and hard. Mr. Rees's hardtack bears the stamp "Rilley," as a certain popular cracker
161
HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
today bears the stamp "Uneeda." The Rees treasures number more than the cane and hardtack. Saved from the depredations of soldiers, Mrs. Rees has treasured a set of cups and saucers that were among the bridal gifts of her grandparents. She has also a set of silver spoons that were made from shoe buckles of her great-uncl, who presented them to her grandmother. The shoe buckles had also seen war service, and were on a pair of shoes worn by Mrs. Rees's uncle when he came over to America from Ireland over a hundred years ago.
Uncle John Sherrard, of Oneida, wore a relic of ante-bellum days, his beard. Uncle John has not shaved since 1859. Freemont was the Republican, and James Buchanan the Democratic candidate for presi- dent. Mr. Sherrard was intensely for Republican principles, and vowed he would not shave until Fremont was president of the United States. Fremont being defeated, he never had another chance for election. Ac- cordingly Mr. Sherrard did not shave.
John Burdge Hoverson, the seventh of the name of John Burdge, by direct descent, has a gun which has been handed down to the eldest son in his family from generation to generation. Burdge's great-great- great-grandfather used the gun in the Revolution. Farther back another Burdge had used it in the Indian wars in the beginning of this nation. It has been in many conflicts, and may yet serve its present owner. The Burdge gun is believed to be the only one in this part of the country which has taken active part in the French and Indian wars.
(II)
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
NEMAHA RESPONDS PROMPTLY-COMPANY K, TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT -EQUIPMENT OF COMPANY-TO CAMP ALGER, VA .- DRILLING- EFFICIENCE-FORAGING-CAMP MEAD, PA .- MUSTERED OUT AT FT. LEAVENWORTH-CAPTAIN MILLER-NEMAHA ALWAYS
TO THE FRONT-A SHAM BATTLE.
By Captain Lewis Miller.
Nemaha county responded with customary promptness for the call for volunteers by the President during the Spanish-American war. The company was composed chiefly of Nemaha county men, with a few from the neighboring counties of Brown and Marshall. The company was mustered by Capt. William D. Sherman, and called Company K, of the Twenty-second regiment, Kansas infantry, and was commanded by Col. Hugh H. C. Lindsay. The company was approved by the President April 22, 1898, to serve from the sixteenth day of May, 1898 for two years unless sooner discharged. Captain Robert Hardy was commander of the battalion.
Our company was composed of young men from eighteen to forty- five years of age. The great majority were farmer boys, but we had men from the mines, the shops, the mercantile business and a few pro- fessional men. We organized at Seneca, Kans., and our first camp was on the old fair ground in Topeka. Here we drilled without arms or uni- forms for about thirty days. Our shelter consisted of the old buildings used for various purposes on the fair grounds, as we had no tents. At the end of a month's occupancy of these quarters we took the train for Camp Alger, Virginia, where we found about 40,000 other troops in camp. Most of them were National Guardsmen, well equipped with uni- forms and with Springfield rifles. We, in our regular Kansas garb, were a sight for them. They lined up for miles to see and welcome us. We were heralded in advance as the Kansas cowboy regiment, and as we had some real cowboys in the regiment, we gave them some real exhibitions of the right way of throwing the rope called the lasso and of fast and efficient revolver shooting.
Some of our boys had captured several Kansas coyotes, and we had
162
163
HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
them with us. So our regiment was the regiment that attracted atten- tion not only of the camp, but for miles around, including Washington, D. C.
In ten days' time we were uniformed and equipped, and as we had learned to a great extent the company battalion and regiment maneu- vers, we were ready to take up the manual of arms. In ninety days' time, we were a well equipped, fairly well drilled regiment, and were anx- ious to go to the front at any time. In fact we had received word to be ready at any moment to embark for Cuba, when on the morning of the fourth of July the word went through the camp like an electric wave of the sinking of Cervera's fleet by Admiral Schley and we knew it would soon be over. The camp was in a turmoil. Forty thousand voices were cheering or cursing their luck of not having had a chance to get into the thick of the fray. Some of the men actually shed tears of disappointment of not having had their fling.
We were in the brigade with the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth In- diana, and the Third New York, both old National Guard regiments. It was interesting to see with what interest and ardor our boys bent ev- ery effort to become as efficient as they. We believe that when we were mustered out there was no better regiment among the 200,000 vol- unteers than the Twenty-second Kansas.
Our division of 10,000 men under General Graham, broke camp and marched to Camp Thoroughfare Gap, Va., near Manassas. This was a march of sixty miles. It rained all day and night while we were on this march. It was while on this tramp that we heard the sad news of the death of our Captain Sherman at Fort Myers Hospital. It cast a gloom over the entire command. Provisions were short on this march. The streams were swollen; the roads wretched. Our provision train could not keep up. In many cases we stripped ourselves of clothing, hung our clothes on the points of our bayonets and forded the streams. There was always that courage and cheer, characteristic of young Amer- icans. We arrived at Broad Run Camp the third day out. Some of our command had not had any food for thirty-six hours.
A certain amount of foraging is expected and done. But our regi- mental band was a little timid and took their troubles up with the col- onel, who was a Civil war veteran .. He informed them that "anyone who permitted themselves to starve in a land of plenty should either be classed as cripples or dam fools." They presented the colonel the fol- lowing morning with a fresh pork roast with their compliments, and in- formed him that there were no cripples in the band anyway. We re- mained at Camp Thoroughfare Gap for thirty days. We were then or- dered by train to Camp Mead, Pa. After six weeks' encampment there we were ordered to Fort Leavenworth to be mustered out. A number of Company K men enlisted in the regular army and saw service in Manila and China.
164
HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
Before Captain Miller, author of the foregoing story of Nemaha county's service in our last war, entered the army he had been wounded severely by Captain Daniel Cupid. When he went to Topeka with his company as Lieutenant Miller the wound was found so severe that he was given a day's absence to get home for the only cure. But it took great hustling to carry out the orders of Captain Cupid when he reached Sabetha. Mr. Miller had planned to go from Sabetha to the county seat, Seneca, to secure a marriage license to marry Miss Lou Miller. But fate has a way of interfering with Captain Cupid's plans, even as Cupid himself has a way of stepping into the well-ordered lives of folks and making war generally. The Grand Island train, which was to take Mr. Miller to Seneca, was delayed for five hours by a wreck. It was be- fore the day of automobiles, and only the telegraph could be requisition- ed that Captain Cupid might not longer delay the movements of the Army of the United States. The license was telegraphed for, and the permission telegraphed back for the wedding to take place. The knot was tied by Rev. Ford and the young soldier and his bride driven to the station to join the army in Topeka. But while waiting for the train, up dashed a messenger boy with the license, which had come on the return train from Seneca, and on the depot platform, while the train was pulling in, the marriage service was said for a second time, with the license in hand. Lieutenant Miller and his bride, with Captain Cupid in charge, gloat- ing over the double knot he had tied, left for Topeka. Lientenant Miller was made captain upon the death of Captain Sherman. The two Miller boys are named for the colonel of his regiment and the captain of the battalion.
Nemaha county has always gone to the front in war, literally. if it was the war of her own land, and financially if the war was in other countries. Nemaha county was one of the first to respond to the cry for help in the European war now raging. Ever since the cry came over the waters, "Help the Belgians," people everywhere have planned the best way to help aside from sending money. Mrs. Dr. Shelton of Oneida originated a scheme whereby each one could contribute something. She sent out thirty-six notes to as many ladies of the town and vicinity ask- ing each to contribute two or more quilt blocks to be made into com- forts for the Belgians. The ladies were each to ask some one else to help. All were to be sent to Mrs. Shelton on a certain date. All re- sponded willingly and on a day appointed a number of ladies came in and sewed the blocks together, ready for tacking and finishing. On the eleventh they obtained the hall and completed eight large comforts and three for the babies. The cotton was paid for by a collection taken up among the ladies. Henry Wikoff was asked to box them up and ship them to Topeka in time to be sent on the Kansas Relief Train that left on the thirteenth, but when he went to procure the boxes, one was too small, the other was too large and as they were the only ones in town at all suitable, he decided to put them in the larger box and then he found
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
that it lacked a third of being full. Not to be outdone they went to some of the Odd Fellows who had contributed $20 from their lodge and they all decided to buy enough blankets from Roy Smothers to fill the box. Fourteen blankets and two comforts were added to the list the ladies had made and the box was filled. All felt satisfied with their work. Din- ner was served in the hall and the ladies' husbands came to eat with them. It was a jolly crowd and all were happy in the knowledge of hav- ing done something for others if it were only a little.
Nemaha county was and it thoroughly imbued with patriotism and is always first to respond to a call to arms. Nemaha county sent all her able-bodied men to the Civil war. She had a complete company in the Spanish-American war. She responded immediately to the call for help from the Belgians, and she is preparing a company if needed, in the pos- sible event of war with Europe. Therefore it may be recalled with in- terest the naturalness with which Nemaha county in the eighties fought a sham battle.
Orlando Fountain was commander of a Sabetha army which fought a sham battle against a Seneca army. Seneca represented the Union army and Sabetha represented the Confederates. Colonel Troughton, M. D., and Captain R. M. Emery, of Seneca, commanded the Union army, and Orlando Fountain, who had been a major in the regular army, commanded the rebels. Ham Wasmund carried the flag for Sabetha. Frank Herzog had a short gun and two revolvers. John Dawson, now a Grand Island conductor, carried Squire Hook's cannon which was a chunk of steel sixteen inches long and consisted of little more than a hole in the center. Dr. Lyons played the fife and Ernest Holtzschue the drum. George Cassidy spent most of his time leading Major Fountain's horse. The Sabetha army stopped in George Donoldson's orchard long enough to clean it out and then swung around to Dan Stonebarger's melon patch. The Seneca Federals agreed to capture the Sabetha rebels. There were 5,000 people at the race track where the battle scene was to take place. The Sabetha rebels, having found good eating in making the detour, were very slow. The Union forces went out a short distance to reconnoiter and see what had become of the enemy. Whereupon the rebels suddenly appeared in the rear and took posses- sion of the forts and batteries, thereby reversing the results of the war between the North and the South. One of the Union soldiers was so angry that he kicked the head out of Holtzschue's drum.
CHAPTER XX.
AGRICULTURE.
MARVELOUS RESOURCES-IMPROVED METHODS-EVOLUTION IN CROP RAIS- ING-LIVE STOCK-COMPARATIVE STATISTICS, 1875 TO 1915-IN- CREASE OF LAND VALUES-SCIENTIFIC FARMING-IMPROVED STOCK- PROMINENT BREEDERS-BEEF CATTLE-MODEL FARMS-IRRIGATION -STATES AND COUNTRIES REPRESENTED SURVEY OF COUNTY- CHEESE AND BUTTER-OTHER STATISTICS-THE TRACTOR AS A LABOR SAVER -- A BIG GRAIN BUSINESS.
The romancers who conceived the Arabian Nights told stories that are immortal because of their marvel and magic. The Bible scribe thought he was going some when he advised two blades of grass where one grew before. The great corporations startle the financial world when their volume of business doubles or shares advance ten or fifteen per cent. But what of an institution, practically without a manufacturing smoke- stack, that makes eight dollars grow where one grew before? That's Nemaha county history. What of a mystic conjurer who mixed sun- shine, air, water and dust and lifted four million dollars out of his hat in any year in real money that you could count and make eighteen thus- and people happy ever after! What of a factory that laid off ten per cent of its hands and increased its production twenty-five per cent ! This is the story of Nemaha county's population and crop returns from 1910 to 1915.
What is the answer of it all? Well, improved farm machinery is one explanation. Better farming methods is another. Higher prices may as well be included as a reason also. The records for forty years, from 1875 to 1915, show the elimination of some crops, the introduction of others. That span of forty years records the steady increase in culti- vated acres. It is a fascinating study.
Let us go back to 1875. Here we find field crops producing an ag- gregate of $696,006.73 in one year. Jump forty years to 1915 and the field crops were worth $3,961,731.61. And there were not so many more people here in 1915 than toiled in 1875. The 1875 population was 7,104. The 1915 population was 18,309. The increase in population hasn't compared with the increase in production.
Back in 1875 Nemaha county produced only a little more than a
I66
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
million and a half bushels of corn and got twenty-five cents a bushel for it. The corn crop in 1875 was worth $387,513, a mere pittance com- pared with the 1915 crop, which paid $2,096,121.04. The corn production in 1875 was 1,550,052 bushels grown on 36,906 acres. In 1915 the acres had grown to 108,946, and the production totaled 4,031,002 bushels. In 1915 Nemaha county was the fourth county in Kansas in the production of King Corn, the reigning monarch in agriculture.
The records back in 1875 show a decided difference in crops grown from those of 1915. They raised sorghum for syrup in those days, and that year produced nearly 34,000 gallons. Tobacco appears in the list of products also. Broom corn was a regular crop, too. No doubt the county manufactured its own brooms. There was produced in the county nearly 800,000 pounds of cheese in 1875. The industry has since died, which should be a matter of regret. We made 270,275 pounds of butter in 1875. Our butter production in 1915 was valued at $69,000. But we sold butter fat in the form of cream to creameries amounting to $133.833.
The poultry and eggs of the early days were not kept account of, as they are these days, so we don't know the value of the crop in 1875. In 1915, however, our poultry and eggs sold for $204,491. Nemaha county ranks twelfth in county production of poultry and eggs in Kan- sas. We are tenth in animals slaughtered and sold for slaugter and seventeenth in alfalfa production. Alfalfa is an important crop that has come in the evolution of the county. It does not appear in the crops of 1875. The year 1884 agricultural report does not mention alfalfa.
But in 1915 we have 24,265 acres in alfalfa, which crop was valued at $454,968.75, practically one-half million dollars. This new member of the crop family is many times the most valuable forage crop recorded in the agricultural reports. Alfalfa is third in valuable crops in the county, being outranked only by corn and wheat. Truly, alfalfa has been a Nemaha county mortgage lifter.
It is interesting to note the steady increase in the acreage on which crops are produced. There are 460,800 acres in the county. In 1875 crops were produced on 72,370 of these acres. Ten years later the acreage for crops had grown to 269.755. Thirty years later than that, 1915, the soil was producing money crops on 388.798 acres. That is climbing toward capacity acreage, but it does not touch capacity in crop production, because better farming methods will increase the bushels of grain and tons of forage per acre.
The early day reports do not give the value of the live stock mar- keted, so we have to come along to 1884 for a comparison. In 1884 the animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter were valued at $735,467. In 1915 our animals slaughtered and sold for slaughter reached the enor- mous value of $1,224,318. The poultry and eggs, butter, cream, honey, wool clip, etc., produced in addition to the above, brings the total value up to the sum of $1,642,695. Pretty big business we are doing, isn't it?
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
This sum can not, of course, rightfully be added to the crops produced, as much of the crops produced was marketed by means of live stock. The horses, mules, milch cows, other cattle, sheep and hogs remaining in the county numbr about 90,000 head and reach a value of $4,00,000.
It is a colossal business we are doing, a business that will grow, a business that will in time occupy the hands of many times our popula- tion with a proportionate increase in production.
A few tables are reproduced herewith for comparison. Endless, in- teresting conclusions can be drown from them. And perhaps in forty years from now the record of 1915 will seem as provincial and anti- quated as does that of 1875 in the present day.
ACREAGE, AVERAGE YIELDS, PRODUCT AND VALUE OF PRINCIPAL CROPS IN 1875.
Average
Value of
Crops
Acreage
Yield
Product
Price
Product
Winter wheat, bushels .. 1,753.25
20.00
35,065
$ .98
$ 34,363.70
Rye, bushels.
1,023.00
18.00
18,414
.60
II,048.40
Spring wheat, bushels .. 5.575-75
10.00
55.757
.78
43.,490.46
Corn, bushels
36,906.00
42.00
1,550,052
.25
387,513.00
Barley, bushels
503.00
28.00
14,084
1.25
17,605.00
Oats, bushel
5.325.45
32.00
186,39I
.25
46.597.75
Buckwheat, bushels.
1,146.25
20.00
22,925
.95
21,778.75
Potatoes, Irish, bushels.
539.50
I17.00
62,770
.28
17,575.60
Sweet potatoes, bushels ..
37
I45.00
54
.90
48.60
Sorghum, gallons.
218.00
110.00
33,980
.40
9,592.00
Castor beans, bushels ..
23.00
13.00
299
1.IO
328.90
Flax, bushels.
1,512.27
8.00
12:098
1.05
12,702.90
Tobacco, pounds.
3.50
680.00
2,380
.071/2
178.50
Broom corn, pounds.
52.75
775.00
40,881
.07
2,861.67
Millet, tons.
1,804.75
2.75
4,963
5.00
24,815.00
Timothy, tons.
121.25
1.00
I2I
6.00
726.00
Clover, tons.
27.25
2.75
75
6.00
450.00
Prairie, tons
15,835.00
1.25
19.794
3.25
64,330.50
Totals
72,370.34 2,028.75
2,060,103 $29.181/2$696,006.73
ACRES, PRODUCT AND VALUE OF FIELD CROPS, NEMAHA COUNTY, IN 1884.
Acres
Product
Valute $ 65,245.44
Winter wheat, bushels.
5,228
135,928
Spring wheat, bushels
1,697
16,070
6,148.60
Rye, bushels.
1,482
36,840
12,894.00
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
Corn, bushels
95,690
4.784,500
956,900.00
Barley, bushels.
III
2,775
1,054.50
Oats, bushels.
15,729
471,870
94,374.00
Buckwheat, bushels.
51
561
364.65
Irish potatoes, bushels
1,354
169,250
59,237.50
Sweet potatoes, bushels
23
2,300
1,840.00
Castor beans, bushels
I
8
10.40
Flax, bushels.
463
4,167
4,167.00
Rice corn, bushels
12
264
100.32
Sorghum, gallons
439
30,730
13,828.50
Cotton, pounds
25
7,000
560.00
Tobacco, pounds.
3
2,550
255.00
Broom corn, pounds
I3I
91,700
3,209.50
Millet, tons.
2,994
7,485
33,682.50
Timothy, tons
7,288
12,75
70,147.00
Clover, tons.
2,954
8,123
42,645.75
Other tame grasses, tons.
899
1,708
8,540.00
Prairie under fence, tons.
I32,821
166,026
498,078.00
Total
. 269,755
$1,873.582.66
ACREAGE, PRODUCT AND VALUE OF FIELD CROPS IN NEMAHA COUNTY IN 1915.
Acres
Product
Value
Winter wheat, bushels
67,779
813,345
$723,877.05
Rye, bushels
1,537
27,666
21,302.82
Corn, bushels
108,946
4,031,002
2,096,121.04
Barley, bushels.
80
2,080
936.00
Oats, bushels
33,696
673.920
242,611.20
Buckwheat, bushels
1
I2
12.03
Irish potatoes, bushels
1,220
103,70G
65,331.00
Sorghum
1,385
17.296.50
Speltz, bushels
20
520
234.00
Milo maize, bushels.
129
1,473.00
Kafir corn, bushels.
2,561
48,889.50
Feterita
481
7,965.50
Jerusalem corn.
2
32.00
Millet, tons. .
2,663
5,992
23.968.00
Tame hay, tons
29,860
19,968
179.712.00
Prairie hay, tons
114150
9.600
76,800.00
Alfalfa, tons.
24,265
72,795
454,968.75
Cow peas, tons
23
35
201.25
Total
388.798
$3.961.731.61
. . .
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
NEMAHA POPULATION IN 1875, 1884 AND 1915.
1875
1884
1915
Capioma
533
813
722
Harrison
367
707
746
Goff
408
бог
471
Richmond
808
828
78:
Seneca
. ..
1,905
1,96I
Washington
302
643
619
Bern
Clear Creek
475
628
507
Home
655
670
504
Centralia
401
629
Neuchatel
317
584
473
Rock Creek
1,135
1,348
665
Sabetha
1,216
1,891
Wetmore
422
590
562
Wetmore City
405
512
Granada
408
706
659
Illinois
363
718
630
Corning
. . .
422
Red Vermillion
5II
521
510
Valley
370
816
603
Mitchell
..
696
660
Marion
. .
717
736
Adams
.
509
624
Reilly
467
578
Bermick
. .
...
684
Center
...
. . .
581
Totals
7,104
16,579
18,699
. .
Oneida
243
Tilman
. .
In 1884 the finest farming land in Nemaha county could be bought for $20 an acre. Uncle John Mowder, probably the shrewdest financier and best judge of farmland in the county at that time, as he is to- day, sold a quarter section southwest of Sabetha to Richard Bottger, of Cowan, Union county, Pennsylvania, for $3,600. This is $22.50 an acre. Mr. Bottiger profited exceedingly on the investment and about twelve years ago he retired and moved to Sabetha. The farm today is worth $150 an acre, if, indeed, it could be bought at that price. Just to show how prosperity has swung to the benefit of the agricultural com- munity, money in 1884 was nine per cent. on farm loans. Today it is six per cent. Lyman B. Lilly, in this same year of 1884 sold his eighty
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Nemaha
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
acre farm north of Albany to J. H. Kimmel for $1,800 and thought he was doing mighty well. Previously he had homesteaded the place. About the same time he sold forty acres at Albany to Ira B. Dye for $800, or $20 an acre. You couldn't touch any of this land now for more than five times the price.
Thirty years ago the farmers hadn't learned to make profits in farm- ing. Say what you please about the agricultural colleges, but their edu- cational matter has done much to revolutionize farming methods and make the farm pay. Early in the eighties wild grasses were the rule. Jacob Miller attracted a good deal of attention because he had fifty acres of tame grass. Afterward he increased his acreage until there were 130 acres in tame grass. All of which was the wonder of the community. It was a long time afterward that alfalfa crept into the agricultural esteem and what a fight the agricultural colleges had to make alfalfa a convinc- ing crop! It had to pay off a vast amount of mortgages and save a vast amount of farmers from ruin in order to make a demonstration that de- monstrated. In the year this book is being written the issue is good roads. The agricultural colleges show that the cost of hauling farm loads over bad roads is among the heaviest penalties the farmer has to pay. But the farmers are beginning to see the point and every year finds the roads better and the profits of the farmer increasing. The paved road is only a question of time.
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