History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 27

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964

USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 27

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

CHAPTER XXX.

MISCELLANEOUS.

CALAMITIES-GREAT DROUTH OF 1860-GRASSHOPPER VISITATION-THE CYCLONE OF 1896-JOHN P. CONE'S EXPERIENCE-INDIAN MASSACRE OF ARGONAUTS-AN EXCITING BUFFALO HUNT-REMINISCENCES OF ALFRED STOKES-THE ORPHAN POPULATION-THE COUNTY HOS- PITAL.

Of the big calamaties of lesser renowned happenings of Nemeha county the drought of the sixties, the grasshoppers of the seventies and the tornado of 1896, are the most important. The exact dates of the drouth and grasshopper era is frequently disputed as is most matter of historical worth handed down by verbal recitation. The big drouth is generally conceded to have occurred in 1860. There are scores of stories in connection with it. J. T. Brady who recently died in Pomona, Cal., tells a good one. Mr. Brady helped in the foundation of two towns, Sa- betha and Albany, and to his life's end divided his affection equally be- tween them. He was one of the builders of Sabetha, and thirty years ago went to Pomona, Cal., which he helped to build as he had Sabetha. Many Nemaha county folk followed him there.

Fred and Charlie Graham, Colonel White, Mrs. F. E. Bouton, her daughter, Miss May, Mrs. Edwin Slosson, Mr. and Mrs. William Law- rence, who have been prominent in Nemaha county for years, were seized with the California fever, gathered at Pomona, built and settled there. Mr. Brady was a connection of Ira Collins matrimonially and the two were in business together in Sabetha's early days. Mr. Collins wandered from the fold for a few years, but is again in Nemaha county.

THE GREAT DROUTH OF 1860. .

Mr. Brady recalls the drouth as follows: The pumpkin is a sort of "incidental" now on the food scale, and a feature of Hallowe'en parties, but back in 1860, when the hot winds turned Kansas into a scorched plain, the now forgotten and unsung "punkin" was the whole show. John T. Brady told a story of that famous drouth in 1860. He and Wil- liam Collins had come from Illinois the year before. They had started for Pike's Peak, which at that time was the Mecca of all wanderers. They met a bunch of returning emigrants near Sabetha, and the hard luck stories determined them to cast their fortunes in Kansas. They took a

276

277

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

claim near the present townsite of Sabetha. After putting in a crop in the spring of 1860 they decided to go on to Pike's Peak anyway. They remained until fall and then came back to their claim. The country was burned to a crisp. The corn was twisted like burned bacon. The grass was bleached and dead. The whole country, which only a few months before had promised abundant harvest, had been turned into a profitless waste. The bare ground looked as if it had been seared by a furnace. Nothing was raised. Brady and Collins began to look around. They knew a man named Bierly Job, close by, and called on him. They found he had a tremendous crop of pumpkins. The pumpkins had been planted in the corn, as the old fashioned farmers used to do. The corn had been killed but the pumpkins refused to suffer a like fate. The hotter the weather got, the faster grew the pumpkins. Pumpkins filled the furrows and the vines covered the hills and continued to bring forth more and more. The crop was something wonderful to behold. When anybody got hungry he came and carried off a load of Job's pumpkins. Nothing else had been raised and pumpkins were served for soup, for meat, and in pie for des- sert. People ate pumpkins till they turned yellow. That crop made his- tory and saved many a belt from being drawn into unaccustomed notches.

GRASSHOPPER VISITATION.

The grasshopper year was in 1873. It hit Nemaha county as thor- oughly as any other section, and tales are rampant of sufferers who had their clothes fairly eaten off their backs. The grasshopper year is al- ways referred to as if it were a calamity that visited Kansas alone, as if Kansas bore and bred the omnivorous insects, and then refused to let any other State have a sight of them. The truth of the matter is that the famous grasshoppers came from Colorado. Kansas. had nothing to do with their origin whatever, and merely fed them her crops as they blew over the State into Missouri and Iowa. But Kansas is a good advertis- er, and always has been since her forefathers left New York, New Eng- land and Pennsylvania and started for the West with the motto "Kansas or Bust" on the covers of their mover wagons. Therefore when Kansas drew the grasshoppers, Kansas advertised the fact, knowing that it was better for her business to be discussed any old way rather than not to be discussed at all. And it is the same today. Iowa was having primaries, and insurging and things last week, too, but no one paid any attention to Iowa. The eyes of the entire country were on Kansas. And "as Kansas went, so goes the country" is Kansas' new slogan.

In the historic year of the grasshoppers, Roy Hesseltine was a boy, and later president of the Citizens State Bank of Sabetha. The thing that impressed him most was the excitement among the turkeys when the grasshoppers darkened the sky in their countless numbers. The tur- keys were for a moment staggered by the spectacle of so much food in sight. Then they "lit" into the grasshoppers and ate, and ate, and ate.

278

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Mr. Hesseltine says he saw turkeys eat grasshoppers until they couldn't get any more down, then stand with their mouths open. Occasionally the grasshopper would take advantage of the gobbler's "open season" and would kick itself out and escape. The turkeys would start early in the morning with a rush, bent on transacting business all day, but about one o'clock they would be full to the throat, and would squat down and remain there the balance of the day, picking only grasshoppers which they could reach from a reclining position. The turkeys were the only beneficiaries of the grasshopper year.

THE CYCLONE OF 1896.

But the cyclone was more of a personal matter with Nemaha county. To be sure a portion of the northeastern section of the State shared in it to an extent, yet it was not a State-wide event, if disastrous enough for one. The cyclone occurred on the evening of May 17, 1896. The storm originated in Miltonvale, Cloud county, Kansas, and swept through Washington, Marshall, Nemaha and Brown counties, Kansas, and Rich- ardson county, Nebraska, to Preston on the Missouri river. At times the tornado would break up into several tornadoes and in Nemaha county, several communities were simultaneously damaged by twisters. The first place where extensive damage was done was at Barnes out in Washington county. Then the tornado hit Frankfort in Marshall coun- ty, then Baileyville in Nemaha county, then at Seneca. Five were killed at Seneca, five were killed at Reserve, four at Sabetha, five at Oneida, three at Morrill and four in Richardson county. The funnel cloud which wrecked Sabetha formed over Price station. The storm then seemed to have hesitated and gathered its forces for the descent on Pony Creek and east Pennsylvania avenue. From there it passed on to Reserve and into Nebraska. It was the worst storm the county has ever known since its organization. There was not a business building and very few houses left undamaged in Sabetha. The damage of the storm financially was estimated at one million dollars, of which over $700,000 was Nemaha county's loss.

"Cyclone stories" in a stricken community are of unfailing interest and when the bitterness and sorrow have been a little obliterated by the passage of time, they become sometimes amusing. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Magill's home in Seneca was completely demolished in the tornado of .1896. Mr. Hartner, of the same locality, lived half a mile from the Ma- gill home. A family picture of the Hartner family and family group of the Magill family were carried with the wreckage of their two homes above the clouds to a distance of sixty miles and were found in the same cornfield by a farmer who was cultivating and did not know there had been a storm. The farmer carried the two pictures into the home of a neighbor, a Mrs. Plummer. She recognized the picture of the Magil! family and said the pictures must have come from Seneca. Later they

279

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

heard of the terrific storm, and the destruction in its wake, and they re- turned the pictures to the Magill family. There had been no storm at all at Falls City, Neb., or near there, only a distance of twelve or fifteen miles from Reserve, one of the towns destroyed. The pictures must have been carried entirely above the rainclouds as they were not even damp. Only one corner of the picture was torn. Mrs. Magill framed it and it still decorates their home and is in as good condition as if it had never taken so mad an air ride. In the picture are the following Seneca people : Mr. and Mrs. Abijah Wells, Mr. and Mrs. David Magill, Mrs. Captain Williams and daughter.

Another story of the tornado that is amusing is the saving of the Magill piano. The piano was found upon a pinnacle of wreckage, unin- jured except for the fact that a board had blown completely through the piano, entering one side through the hard wood and going out the oppo- site side, without injuring the works of the instrument. The clock was the only thing absolutely uninjured. The clock was left standing on a pile of wood. It was ticking and had not lost a second's time through the frightful storm. When Mr. Magill and his family issued from the cellar of a neighbor's house, his clock greeted him by chiming out the correct hour.

JOHN P. CONE, FIRST EDITOR, WRITES OF EARLY EXPERIENCES

Issued First Copy the Seneca "Courier" Fifty Years Ago-Some Early Seneca History-The Changes of Time.

As preliminary to what the writer may here state, he wishes to re- fer to first impressions. His first introduction to Seneca and the valley of the Nemaha, leading north into Nebraska, was in the late summer of 1862. There were two of us, residents at that time of Marshall county, and having a couple of Indian ponies we wished to break to the saddle and a day or two of idle time on our hands, we left Marysville one Sunday forenoon, took in a camp meeting on the Vermillion creek and from there went across the prairies to Seneca and north to near the Nebraska line, where we stopped with Dr. Edwards, a very genial old gentleman, over night. There were small and very scattering improvements along the valley and we met very few settlers but the road, or path rather, was an easy grade, the foliage and landscape fine, indicating productive soil and compared with anything we had seen on that or previous trips. We pronounced the valley a gem in the rough, an Eden spot of Kansas, and were, therefore, as we returned to Marshall, in a mood to sing in the lan- guage of the old hymn : "Every prospect pleases and only man is vile."

Something over a year after the date mentioned above, or in Octo- ber, 1863, the writer came to Seneca with the view of starting a newspa- per. Inducements were offered and aspirations stimulated that Seneca

280

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

and Nemaha county could support and should have a newspaper. Ac- cordingly teams were sent to Atchison county and a press and complete outfit brought to Seneca and on the fourteenth day of November, 1863, the first paper in the county made its appearance-a six column four page paper, the Nemaha "Courier." Many predictions were made as to the success or failure (more of the latter) of the enterprise. The town was an infant, there was one brick business house on Main street occu- pied by Lappin & Scrafford as a general store, (now the Mason & Wolt- kamp furniture store.) The block east had a few wooden buildings and J. H. Peckham was doing a tin and hardware business in one of them, and a blacksmith shop on the east side of that block. On the next block east was the stone building now standing, considerably remodeled and then occupied by Bolivar Schofield's general store. On the south side. and corner where August Kramer now is, was John E. Smith's hotel and station for the overland stage travel. West were several small buildings occupied by furniture, general trade, saloon, restaurant or any transient line that might come along. Dr. Mckay ran a drug store on the north side about where the Steam Bakery now is. The old double log house celebrated in song and story and which has a history in itself as first house, hotel, store, residence, etc., was still standing about where the Scoville buildings now are and was occupied by Albert Clarke and family. The block across the street south of where the post office now is, had one building near its center, the residence of Samuel Lappin. There were probably about two dozen business men and firms in town, all told. And while there was a pretty generous subscription list started by some subscribers paying for from three to five annual subscriptions for the paper to be sent to friends in the East, the local advertising and job work was light. The county printing was increasing and instead of its being sent away to the river papers, was now kept at home. Then, too, by per- sistent hammering and soliciting the paper soon filled up with advertise- ments from St. Joseph, Atchison and Leavenworth merchants. A new field was opened to the business men of the river towns and they took occasion to cultivate it.

The home office of the "Courier" was in the rear room of the Mason & Woltkamp building before referred to. Byron Sherry's law office was in front. The press was a fine old Foster make and is now installed in the State Historical rooms in Topeka for preservation and for the good it has done.

The first roller boy or original "devil" of the office was George W. Williams, of Seneca. Typesetting machines were unheard of in that day and one of the first printers who was employed to assist in placing in col- umns the "mute metallic messengers of thought," was Theodore Alvord, who responded to a call on a $5.50 stage ticket from Atchison. A great many lively reminiscences could be given of the printers and workmen who rolled into and out of town in the next few succeeding years. They" were a restless and venturesome lot that traveled the road in those days 1.

281

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

and Nemaha had one lone office where they might apply for a "sit." Al- most every article fit to eat or wear by man or beast was taken on sub- scription in those days. A pair of longlegged leather boots were early handed in by a local shoemaker for the editor and he put them on and "waded in." They proved a most serviceable pair. In December, 1865, the "Courier" was designated by the Secretary of State, W. F. Seward, as one of the two papers in Kansas to publish the United States laws passed by the United States that session of Congress. A new Gordon job press and many substantial improvements were added to the offce, followed by a frame one story office built on the corner where the First National Bank now stands. Most of the material was sawed in Atchison from native lumber and shipped by the Central Branch railway to Cen- tralia and hauled to Seneca by H. D. Hornbeck, the Seneca freighter of those days. Centralia then and for some years after was our nearest railroad point. The paper remained in its new home until the early sev- enties.

A word now as to the early organization of the town. One Inger- soll and another man from Doniphan county are said to have located the town of Rock Castle, where Seneca now stands, in the winter of 1856 to 1857, and the double log house, so often referred to, was put up the succeeding spring. Pocket knife engravure had indelibly placed the name Rock Castle on one of the logs. Not long after Royal U. Torrey, Samuel Lappin and his father, Finley Lappin, and Charles G. Scrafford, the last two arriving later, bought or took the townsite and became ac- tive in building a town and upon the suggestion of the elder Lappin, the name was changed to Seneca. This name was familiar to Lappin senior, it has been said, from a town of the same name in his native State of Ohio.

In these chronicles relating principally to the town, should not be forgotten the men and families who came to Nemaha and were "squat- ting" along the creeks and branches near by and who founded some of the fine farms we see today. The idea largely prevailed then, that land worth taking up should be on a creek or low ground, that the prairies would never produce or sustain anything more than a few Indians and jack rabbits. As early as 1855, 1856 and 1857, there were the following settlers contiguous to Seneca, viz: "Elias Church, John S. Doyle, L. J. McGowen, Joseph W. Dennis, on the east side of the Nemaha and his father, Batson Dennis, on the west side, William Berry, on the east, and Jesse Dennis, on the west, W. W. Lilley on the east and E. N. Hanks on · the west, Thomas Morgan on the east, and Elias Huff on the west, Thos. Carter, William R. Wells, John F. Long, William Houston on the east, and on Illinois Creek, Alonza Whitmore, Jeremiah Barnes, John Roots and George F. Roots." On the north and east of town were Lanhams. Newtons, the Johnsons, Williams, Bonine, Carlins, Steinmeirs, and many others of the tillers and toilers who could be depended upon, upon what- ever occasion called them out.

282

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Indian scares and rumpuses were somewhat common then. Small bands of the Otoes in visiting their brothers south took the Nemaha route, and while peaceable except when filled with fire water, they were not particularly agreeable as permanent residents. The savage raid by those farther west in 1864, when the Nemaha Home Guards were called out, would form a chapter of reminiscences of itself.

And this is a glimpse of Seneca and Nemaha fifty years ago when it was struggling for the "Stars Through Difficulties." Kansas was the battlefield of ideas, the struggle was sharply on and defiance and death were dealing fearful blows. The heart beats and throes of the time were awakening every dormant energy. The immortal Lincoln's guiding hand was at the helm of State, and Kansas and Nemaha were loyal to the faith.

"What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat, We shaped the anchors of thy hope."

"The Bison Kansas Bee" of Rush county, deep in the solitude of the "Great American Desert," sums up the progress of fifty years as follows : "Only fifty years from ox-team to automobile, from forded streams to concrete bridges. Only fifty years from buffalo grass to alfalfa, from unplowed fields, pounded by hoofs for a thousand years, to the mellow soil of varied crops. Only fifty years from bisons to shorthorns, from the wandering tribes to the contented families. The plodding pace of Buck and Berry" and the gliding 1913 model, affords no greater con- trast than that which obtains in all lines in Kansas. It's only fifty years from inebriety to sobriety, from Kansas drunk to Kansas sober ; only fif- ty years from the wagon trail to the iron rail. Only fifty years from "buffalo chips" to natural gas. Only fifty years old, yet one State alone has more money on deposit than Kansas. Fifty years ago only an occa- sional letter; today the rural carrier visits nearly every farm house. Telephones, rural carriers and good roads make neighbors closer than formerly when a block apart. Kansas, the commonwealth, has had her infancy and her ripened age, in less than the lifetime of one generation. 'Better fifty years of Kansas than a cyclone of Cathay.'"

INDIAN MASSACRE OF ARGONAUTS.

T. H. Edgar told a thrilling story of pioneer days in this vicinity. Mr. Edgar had four brothers and a cousin who took the old Sante Fe trail for California in search of gold. They were fortunate in their quest and started to. their home in the East with saddle bags filled with the precious gold dust. It was estimated that in all the return party had $100,000 in gold dust. Each of the Edgar boys and the cousin, whose name was Burner, had $20,000 and a pony. Near Fort Leavenworth the overland party was surprised by Indians, and most of the band was mas-

283

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

sacred. One brother of the Edgar boys and Burner survived. The two managed to keep hold of their saddle bags in the fray, and escaped. Sup- plies were abandoned, and in hiding out from place to place they became so exhausted they could carry the gold dust no farther, so they decided to cache it. A large gray rock along the trail was selected as a likely spot. An abandoned wolf hole was found under the stone and the gold was buried there. They reached the fort, and after four days' rest re- turned to the spot where the gold had been buried, accompanied by a company. They found the place where the raid had been, found the burned wagons, but no trace of men or horses was left. They searched for the gray stone, but it was not found. Nor could any familiar spot be discovered. Late in the fall, after continued search, they returned again to Fort Leavenworth. They reached their Illinois home penniless. An Illinois company was formed to search for the gold, with no better result. Twenty years later another quest was made, but the gold dust is still buried somewhere beneath the old California trail in Nemaha or Brown county.

AN EXCITING BUFFALO HUNT.

William B. Slosson used to tell of an exciting buffalo hunt which resulted from an Indian scare in the early sixties. All the men of the county practically had gone to war. Mr. Slosson had been wounded in the knee and was at home recuperating. Shortly before his return to the front word was received that Indians were attacking the residents of Marshall county adjoining Nemaha on the west. A rally was made at Seneca. Rev. G. C. Rice and Elihu Whittenhall, elderly men, made a house-to-house visit among the scattered settlers to inform them where the rendezvous was to be. The women sat up all night cooking. In the morning, Byron Sherry, a Seneca attorney, was made commander of the impromptu brigade, numbering about 400 boys and old men, and the brigade started after the Indians. As they approached the scene of the raid, cabins were found in smoking ashes and the Indians had fled. ·

As the party came over the hill, overlooking the Blue river valley, . their hearts fairly stopped beating to behold in the valley beneath them a solid mass of tens of thousands of buffalo, peacefully feeding. There were acres and acres, solid miles, in fact, of buffalo. The buffalo sniffed the foreign invaders and started to move. The Indian hunters dashed after them. Mr. Slosson shot one buffalo and he veered out from the herd. Mr. Slosson was riding a blooded horse, which became excited with the chase and dashed after the buffalo. They caught up with the wounded animal, when he turned to lunge at them, but the skillful horse stepped aside and the animal lunged forward. Several shots and similar maneuvers finally conquered the king of the plains. He was skinned, and the fresh meat served the amateur soldiers many good meals.

In the beginning of the buffalo raid, Byron Sherry cried, "Boys,

28.4

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

let's surround them." This became a byword, and many years afterward, when Mr. Sherry was making a political speech as candidate for congress, someone in the audience cried out, "Boys, let's surround them." It raised such a roar of laughter that the speech was useless, and Mr. Sherry lost the nomination. Mr. Sherry became a lawyer in Kansas City later.

REMINISCENCES BY ALFRED STOKES.

Alfred Stokes, of Sabetha, was one of twenty-two persons who ar- rived in Sabetha in 1872, from Binghamton, N. Y., to seek their fortunes. There was Mr. Stokes and family, John Stevens and family and Garret Dietrich and family. Their intention was to take up homesteads. The nearest good land was found to be in Smith county. The men left their families and went to Smith county and took up land. Mr. Stokes came back to Sabetha after staking off land near the present site of Smith Center. He gave up the homestead, let it go back to the government. The farm is now worth $100 an acre. Should he have kept it? Here is the answer. A few months after Mr. Stokes took up the claim he started from Sabetha to Smith county. The Grand Island road, when it touched Davenport, Neb., was the nearest road to the claim, seventy miles. Mr. Stokes started to walk from Davenport to the claim. He walked all day without seeing a sign of life except buffalo and wolves. At night he staggered into a building. He was back at Davenport on the Grand Island, which consisted of an old box car. He had been walking in a circle all day.

The next day he started out and made better progress. He came to a dugout. A settler had just lost his wife. Mr. Stokes asked for water. The settler showed him a stinking hole. Stokes knew why the wife had died. The next night, Mr. Stokes feared to lie down for fear wolves would devour him. He walked on in the night and saw a light. A woman was nursing a sick baby. Her husband was somewhere picking up buffalo bones to exchange at Wetmore, sixty miles away, for a pitiful little jag of groceries. After he had implored her to let him in, she did so, and he slept on the dirt floor, thankful for his life.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 27

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company Number of Pages: 964

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964