History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 3

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 3

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).

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

it is recalled, was returning from California. He was followed by an en- emy who overtook him at this point, killing him. It was afterward learned that McCloud was not the man for whom the murderer was look- ing after at all.

Mrs. Willis was in a village store near the trail when a man and woman from St. Joseph entered the store and inquired for the McCloud grave. No one learned who they were nor why they went out to the grave. On the Chris Aeschlimann farm is another grave with the unus- ual tribute of a stone over it, the inscription on which said, "David But- ley, August, 1844."

Majors & Russell were the government contractors whose immense wagon trains passed through Nemaha county. They delivered supplies to western forts. A regular train consisted of from forty to sixty wa- gons, each wagon drawn by six or seven yoke of oxen. The driver of each team outfit walked beside the wagon. The wagon boss rode on a pony and took great privileges with the king's English. Each driver carried a whip over his shoulder when not in use. The lashes on the whips were fifteen feet long. On either side of the trail for many, many years after the wagon travel ceased in Nemaha county, could be discerned plainly the footpaths made by the drivers. The regular government trains passed through Nemaha county every two weeks. In addition there was a multitude of individual freighters. The great trails were six- ty feet wide and perfectly smooth. There were from 500 to 1,000 cattle in a train of fifty or sixty wagons. When the wagon boss had secured a camping place the lead team made a circle, then the next team stopped the front wheel against the first one's hind wheel, and so on until the for- ty or sixty wagons were in a circle with an opening of only a rod or two to leave the highway clear. At night the oxen were unyoked and turned loose to graze, and regularly employed herders herded them until morn- ing. The hind wheels of the wagons were as high as a man's head, while the front ones were no larger than those in use at the present time. The tires were four inches wide.

Edwin Avery, at this time a young man, who had entered Kansas over the California trail, was fascinated by the precision, the regularity . and yet the wildness of the conduct of these immense wagon trains. He told the story of the travel and traffic to a reporter for the Sabetha "Her- ald" about nine years ago. In his story Mr. Avery said: "While oxen were mostly used in pulling trains I recall that once a train of 500 horses camped on Walnut creek, twelve miles east of Sabetha en route to Cali- fornia. The horses drew about forty covered wagons. There were about thirty-five regular stage coaches on the trail, each drawn by four horses. I remember a train of 400 horses that passed through Fairview. seven miles east of Sabetha. This was the summer of 1859, when the great rush was to Pike's Peak. There was one continuous stream of people. some of whom appeared in very grotesque equipment. We saw men with packs on their backs, and one party of eight men had a push cart,

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

some pushing and some pulling it. At another time we saw twelve men with a little Sante Fe mule attached to a cart. On still another occasion we saw twenty men passing with two or three yoke of oxen hitched to one wagon. Every one of these twenty men was carrying a pick and shovel, and a pan about the size and shape of a dish pan. The pan was to wash the gold in. One day a man passed pushing a wheelbarrow. During the greatest rush to Pike's Peak, when wagons reached Jewels- burg, ninety miles this side of Denver, they met three Irishmen who had gone out the year before. The Irishmen declared that there was no gold there, it was all a humbug. That story caused .a stampede eastward again. A man who was out there told me he did not think there was a spot of ground along the trail for fifty miles that did not show where a wagon had turned around and headed hack eastward. So from Jewels- burg to Marysville, 300 miles, we all bought picks for twenty cents each and our wives all had ten-cent gold pans to wash dishes in."

This trail is now marked Rock Island Highway with poles painted with a ring of white, except where a corner should be turned to follow the trail to the west. Where wagons, with six-inch tires, drawn by four- teen long-eared oxen, dragged over the road at two miles an hour, now the high-powered automobile at forty miles an hour spins over the same path to Pike's Peak in two days. The wild, unsettled, unmarked prairie of half a century ago, is today a continuous row of handsome farm homes, modern cities and thriving towns. When the ox-teams traversed the same path only unbroken prairie with a few cottonwood trees, buf- falo and deer disturbed the quiet.

J. L. Newton, son of Rev. Newton, the first minister in Nemaha county was an early day freighter. He drove to Kansas in 1859. The drought of 1860 ruining his crops, he took a team for overland freighting and made some money hauling supplies from Atchison for the crop sufferers. He teamed for Kearney from Atchison. One trip occupied eleven days. He unloaded over 3,000 pounds of freight each day on this trip. After the trains stopped the overland freight traffic, Mr. Newton again farmed and succeeded so well that he was able to present his sons and his foster sons with farms with which to commence their career.

There are many pioneers who recall the gathering of the immense trains of fifty or sixty wagons, ten to sixteen horses to the wagon, draw- ing up in a circle on the Coleman ground mentioned by Avery. The big circle may still be found occasionally. The fires were built, the horses tied to wagon wheels or staked on the prairie, songs and stories were told, and the few straggling settlers of the day huddled on the outskirts, thrilled and awed by the adventurous traveler who would brave desert, plain and Indian to discover riches in the far, far West.

In 1861 a daily overland mail was established out of Atchison by way of Sabetha and Seneca and Nemaha county, and with the exception of a few weeks in 1862, 1864 and 1865 on account of Indian troubles, the overland was in operation and ran stages daily out of Atchison for ahout five years.

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

It was the greatest stage line in the world, carrying mail, passengers and express. It was also regarded as the safest and the fastest way to cross the plains, and the mountain ranges. The line was equipped with the latest modern four and six-horse and mule Concord coaches and the meals at the eating stations along the route were first class and cost from fifty cents to $2.00 each.

Nemaha county figured in the great overland traffic. Capioma and Richmond townships had stations for the accommodation of wagon trains on the Salt Lake route. America City, now defunct, and Vermil- lion were way stations on the big freight road to the gold mines of Colo- rado and the Rocky Mountains. The early day route of these wagons as taken from Freedom's Champion in 1859 show the historic places where the trains stopped.

The cost of shipping merchandise to Denver was very high, as ev- erything was carried by the pound rather than by the hundred pound rate. Flour, bacon, molasses, whiskey, furniture and trunks were carried at pound rates. The rates per pound on merchandise, shipped by ox and mule wagons from Atchison through Nemaha county to Denver prior to 1860, were as follows :

Flour, nine cents ; tobacco, twelve and one-half cents ; sugar, thirteen and one-half cents ; bacon, fifteen cents ; drygoods, fifteen cents ; crackers, seventeen cents ; whiskey, eighteen cents ; groceries, nineteen and one-half cents; trunks, twenty-five cents; furniture, thirty-one cents.

Twenty-one days was about the time required for a span of horses or mules to make the trip from Atchison to Denver and keep the stock in good condition. It required five weeks for ox trains to make the same distance, and to Salt Lake horses and mules were about six weeks making the trip and oxtrains were on the road from sixty-five to seven- ty days. It was the ox upon which mankind depended in those days to carry on the commerce of the plains.

The fare from northeastern Kansas to Denver was $75, or a little over eight cents per mile. To Salt Lake City the fare was $150. Local fares ran as high as fifteen cents per mile. Each passenger was allowed twenty-five pounds of baggage.

All in excess of that was charged at a rate of $1 per pound. Dur- ing the war the fare to Denver was increased from $75 to $100, and be- fore the close of the war it had reached $175 or nearly twenty-seven cents per mile. These were the prices from Sabetha.

ROUTE FROM ATCHISON.

Via the Great Military Road to Salt Lake and Colonel Fremont's route

in 1841.

From Atchison to

Miles

Total

Marmon Grove

31/

Lancaster

51/2 9

Huron (Cross Grasshopper)

4 I3

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Kennekuk

Capioma (Walnut Creek)

Richmond (head of Nemaha)

Marysville

Small Creek on Prairie

105

Small Creek on Prairie

115

Small Creek on Prairie

122

Wyth Creek

120

Big Sandy Creek

142

Dry Sandy Creek

159

Little Blue River

171

Road Leaves Little Blue River

215

Small Creek

222

Platte River

239

Ft. Kearney

2.49

17 Mile Point

266

Plum Creek

28.4

Cottonwood Spring

324

Fremont's Springs

364

O'Fallon's Bluffs

369

Crossing South Platte

409

Ft. St. Vrain

200

609

Cherry Creek

649

CHAPTER III.

FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

AT BAKER'S FORD EARLY SETTLERS-SETTLERS HOLD MEETING-FIRST BRIDGE-OTHER FAMILIES COME-ELECTION HELD-BOUNDARIES DE- FINED-FIRST TOWNSHIPS SETTLED - SAMUEL MAGILL - DAVID LOCKNANE-FIRST NEGRO SETTLER-SETTLEMENT IN ROCK CREEK- OTHER TOWNSHIPS FORMED-NEUCHATEL-HOME TOWNSHIP- SENECA, THE COUNTY SEAT-FERRY-ELECTION DISTRICT -- FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN SENECA-EARLY DAY POSTMASTERS.

The first settlement in Nemaha county was on the river of the Ne- maha at the famous Baker's Ford, which has since become known as Taylor's Rapids. In January, 1854, from St. Joseph came a man named W. W. Moore, who located nine miles fron. Seneca, and gave the name of Moorestown to the locality. It became the center of the small settlement that ensued, and the name was changed to Urbana. It was never worthy of a name at all and long since the names of Moores- town and Urbana have faded from both map and memory. The follow- ing month came Walter Beeles, Granberry Key and in the spring followed Thomas Newton. John O'Laughlin came out from Iowa and took up a claim on Turkey creek, and the Fourth of July the small band met for the purpose of arranging protection for one another in their claims.

This was the first settlement effected in Nemaha county. Two men from over the territorial line attended the meeting, by the names of George Bobst and Robert Turner. This was in fact the first settlement west of the Wolf river. These men were the originals in other ways than settling the first village in Nemaha county. Thomas Newton was a Baptist preacher and gathered the few settlers under his wing for church services. He performed the first marriage ceremony and preached the first funeral sermon, the latter being at the death of his son. Jacob, the first death in the county recorded, which occurred in Septem- ber in the year of their arrival, 1854. Of these original settlers only Rev. Newton is accounted for to the end of his life, which occurred in 1881 after a residence of twenty-seven years in Kansas.

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Of the other half dozen original settlers, W. W. Moore and Walter Beeles built the first bridge in the county. This spanned the Nemaha about half a mile below Baker's Ford. The old story goes that the builders obliged the settlers to use the bridge and pay toll for it, by fell- ing an immense elm tree which fell across the ford, thus rendering the ford useless. But a spring freshet the next season swept away the elm, which in turn carried off the bridge, and Baker's Ford again came in- to its own.

The following year came a few more families: H. H. Lanhan and his family, and William Harris who gave his name to Harris Creek, which has its source near Oneida and empties into the Nemaha ten or fifteen miles north. In the summer of fifty-five came James Thompson, Cyrus Dolman, John Doyle, Elias Church and John Rodgers, all settling in Richmond township, as it became known later. With these few citi- zens in this township an election was held in March of that year. Ne-

A PIONEER HOME.

maha precinct and Wolf River constituted the Seventh Council District of the ten of which Kansas Territory was composed. Nemaha cast sixty-one votes at the election, while only the men named above were entitled to vote by right of actual residence in the county with the addi- tion of Samuel Cramer. Jesse Adamson, Samuel Crozier, Samuel Miller, William Bunker and Uriah Blue.

The State legislature convened in July. Its laws were called the "Bogus Laws of Kansas" and they took effect immediately upon being passed. At least one law has remained in effect to this day, the one designating the boundaries of Nemaha county. The county is twenty-

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

four miles east and west and thirty miles north and south. It is bound- ed on the north by Nebraska, on the east by Brown county, on the west by Marshall and on the south by Jackson and Pottawatomie counties.

Meantime other corners of Nemaha county were being populated, in the year 1855. The inhabitants mentioned were all residents of Rich- mond township. Capioma township came into being and was filled gradually by settlers, who became the builders of the county and devel- opers of the State. James McAllister, Robert Rea, Samuel Magill and William E. Barnes settled in Capioma township. William M. Berry and L. J. McGowan were the first settlers of Valley township and David M. Locknane was the first settler of Granada.

Samuel Magill, of Capioma, lived on the farm which he preempted for over fifty years. His deed to the farm was signed by Abraham Lin- coln, and it never passed from possession of the Magill family until after Samuel Magill's death in 1909. The farm was then sold to settle the estate. Walnut trees that sprouted on the farm at the time of Mr. Magill's early ownership grew to logs so big that they were market- ed in the woods to English factory firms for making into black walnut furniture. Mr. Magill realized a big sum after his retirement from active life on his farm from the forest of walnut trees. Many of these trees produced two logs. These settlers invariably took up claims along the creekside. When Mr. Magill first took up his claim, with the exception of his own trees along the Turkey creek, the whole country was a tree- less desert as far as the eye could see. For several years it was three miles from his farm to that of his nearest neighbor. Deer, wolves and buffalo were plentiful. Mr. Magill helped in the first election, helped in the laying out of Capioma, built the first store building, the church and the school. Mr. Magill was always a Democrat, but he voted for Abra- ham Lincoln at his first vote, in a burst of sentimental appreciation of his signing his deed to the farm.

David Locknane, the first settler of Granada township, tried Cali- fornia before he settled in Kansas. He settled on a creek in Granada township, where the village of Granada was later, a mushroom settle- ment, and there he built a log house. This is the oldest building in Ne- maha county. Mr. Locknane kept the Granada Hotel during the years of the war. The Granada Hotel is no more and Granada is but a name. The hotel was prepared for any event. It was an ordinary occurrence with pro- or anti-slavery bands, in the days of stress preceding the War of the Rebellion, to dash into the hotel yard and demand Mrs. Lock- nane to serve a dinner within fifteen minutes. At one time a band of Carolinians camped in the yard. One of them accidentally shot himself and died. General Jim Lane and his followers were frequent guests at the Locknane Granada Hotel.

It was this section of the county that had the first negro settler. Moses Fately bought his freedom from a man named Speer in Boonville. Mo. He came to Nemaha county with George Frederick and George

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Goppelt, and took up a claim. He was accompanied by his wife and sis- ter and two children, whose freedom he had also bought. He sold his claim for $200.

Rock Creek township was a popular section. The early settlers came to that northeast corner of the county in big numbers. Archibald Moorhead, Z. Archer, Levi Joy, William and Robert Carpenter, Joseph Haigh, Thomas Priest, William Graham, A. W. Williams, James Old- field, Edwin Miller, Elihu Whittenhall, W. B. Slosson, and half a dozen others, many of them related by blood or marriage were among the first to come. They built up their township and the towns of Albany and Sabetha, and they or their children are today living and thriving in the community of their first adoption.

Thomas Carlin, Peter McQuaid. Andrew Brewer and Alexander Gil- lispie were the early settlers of Nemaha and Clear Creek townships in the northwestern corner. Little by little every section of the county was being occupied, townships formed and farms cultivated. The nam- ing of some of the townships is singular. There is Red Vermillion. To the student of whys and wherefores there has always been an underly- ing query as to why call anything Red Vermillion. If "Vermillion," is it not naturally red? This has never been explained by anyone so far. Garrett Randel and D. Arnold were the first settlers in Red Vermillion township.

Neuchatel township, as its name might indicate, was settled by French and Swiss. In 1857 there arrived in Neuchatel Amiel E. Bonjour, Charles Adolophe and D. S. Veale. One of the griefs of the artistic his- torian, who has an eye to the fitness of things, is that Neuchatel town- ship seems to have been almost the only township in Nemaha county that did not have its cheese factory in the early days. On maps of the county are little crosses scattered around marked "Cheese Factory," but there is none marked in Neuchatel township, the place where the cheese really ought to grow.

An early day settler of Neuchatel township, who lived a life of mar- velous helpfulness, was Dr. Peter Dockler. Dr. Dockler came to Nema- ha county in the late fifties, settling in Neuchatel where he practiced medicine and cared for the sick pioneers, traveling miles and miles across the wild prairie to carry cheer and aid to the scattered settlers. He gathered the native herbs and brewed them, keeping up this prac- tice during all his medical life. For years he was the family doctor of the entire countryside, who believed in Dr. Dockler and his herbs before any modern patent medicine. Later, Dr. Dockler moved to Onaga. just over the county line in Pottawatomie, but from there he continued dis- pensing these cures. He lived in a three room house alone, doing his own cooking and house work, nursing and nourishing the ill, and brew- ing his concoctions. At the age of 101 Dr. Dockler was still hearty and practising his profession. He was born in Athens. Greece, October 5, 1805.

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

A name that has been identified with Neuchatel since its founda- tion is that of Bonjour. The death there in the spring of 1916, when this book was compiled, of Alfred A. Bonjour made one realize that Nemaha county was no longer a young community. Alfred A. Bonjour died in Neuchatel, where he was born fifty-eight years before. He lived all his life on the same section of land on which he was born. A faithful- ness was thereby manifested almost unknown in this restless United States and which would not have been possible scarcely without the French forebears of Mr. Bonjour. Mr. Bonjour's funeral was attended by almost the entire township and many from the neighboring county. A brother, Ephraim, still lives on land preempted in the days of almost gift land of Nemaha county.

Home township settlers came in large numbers so that they did not get so lonesome. Among the eighteen early settlers of the township were several doctors, J. J. Sheldon and D. B. and N. B. Mckay and J. S. Hidden. Others were R. Mozier, the Mclaughlin brothers, the Arm- strong brothers, Hezekiah Grimes, George Squire and Stephen Barnard. Dr. N. B. McKay was one of a party of four sent from Galesburg, Illi- nois, to locate a site in Kansas for a colony. Home township was se- lected and the Home Association was formed in June, 1858. After four years Dr. Mckay located at America City in Red Vermillion township, where he became postmaster. Later he founded the town of Corning, which has become one of the thriving towns of the county. He named it Corning in honor of his partner in medicine, Erastus Corning, of New York. Mrs. McKay was a New Englander from Worcester, Mass., Chloe Goldthwaite.

It is recalled in the days of Seneca's rivalry with Richmond, that Senecans sowed oats in the road leading to Richmond, so that rioneers and travelers would think it an unusued road and the highway to Seneca would be chosen. Richmond is long since dead, and the oats may have helped.

Marysville, county seat of Marshall county, adjoining Nemaha on the west, was founded by the same men who were incorporators of the Richmond town company, once competitor for the county seat of Nema- ha county, and dying long since, as a result of her loss. The men were Woodward, the Gillaspies, Doniphans and Bishop, with M. G. Shrews- bery.

Marshall and Woodward were given the right to the ferry at Marys- ville across the Big Blue river on the Ft. Leavenworth, Ft. Kearney military road. "They, their heirs and assigns forever" were so reward- ed, together with another crossing on the California road at Oketo. Woodward kept a store or trading post six miles north of Marysville on the famous government road. Thompson sold out the store and hotel at Richmond to Woodward. He died there in the fifties and Mrs. Wood- ward, his widow, became administratrix of his estate. Marshall had es- tablished himself at Marysville as an Indian trader as early as 1850, be-

(4)

HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

fore Nemaha county had a white resident. He became a candidate for governor under the Lecompton constitution but lost. He ran on the pro- slavery ticket.

The eighteenth election district was known as Moorestown. The census was taken by B. H. Twombly and the number of voters was twen- ty-eight. The Kansas Territory having been divided into districts on the 8th of November, an election was speedily held by November 29, and John W. Whitfield was sent to Congress. But Moorestown, the Eigh- teenth district, returned no votes at this election. Moorestown was nine miles from Seneca. W. W. Moore came out from St. Joseph and settled the place, which was known later as Urbana.

Esther Hensel, the first child born in Seneca, was given a town lot by the city.

Among the early day postmasters were David Magill, of Capioma ; David Locknane, at Granada; Isaac H. Steer, at Richmond; John H. Smith, at Seneca; A. W. Williams, at Sabetha; George Graham, at Al- bany ; George L. Squire, at Centralia ; and H. H. Lanham, at Central City -the first postmaster in Nemaha county to hold his commission from Franklin Pierce. A mail route had been established, during these incum- bents' service, from St. Joseph to Marysville, Sabetha and Albany, being the first points in the east of the county to get direct service, Seneca receiving its mail from Central City. When Centralia was estab- lished it received mail from Seneca. Granada at this time was known as Pleasant Springs.

CHAPTER IV.

FOUNDING OF TOWNS.

ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS- PRESENT TOWNSHIPS-ORIGINAL TOWNS-FREE STATE TOWNS-PRESENT TOWNS AND VILLAGES-CENTRAL CITY, THE FIRST TOWN-FIRST MILL- FIRST SCHOOL-RICHMOND INCORPOR- ATED-TEMPORARY COUNTY SEAT-ASH POINT-URBANA-PACIFIC CITY-GRANADA-A. B. ELLIT-CAPIOMA-COUNTY SEAT ELECTION -SENECA WON-COURT HOUSE BURNED.

There were originally nine townships in the division of the county. Valley has completely disappeared from view, and the county has been sub-divided into twenty townships. Besides those given, there are Berwick, Wetmore, Washington, Gilman, Adams, Harrison, Reilly, Mitchell, Illinois, Marion and Center. The original Valley township was equally divided between Capioma and Adams.

Of the twelve original Nemaha county towns but four remain. The others seem to have been completely effaced, absorbed into farms, and even postoffices long since abolished, a result of rural free mail delivery. Central City, Richmond, America City, Granada. Ash Point, Pacific City, Urbana, Wheatland, Centralia, Lincoln, Seneca and Sa- betha were original towns. Albany was the forebear of Sabetha, and was moved bodily to the Sabetha site two miles down the hill when the first railroad was run through the county. Seneca has remained on her original site. Centralia, however, was moved a mile from her original location. The Central Branch railroad refused to take the mile extra to reach the settlement of Centralia, so the village, like Mohamet, went to the railroad. America City has always lived on the 380 acres where it had its birth, and has not since extended such acreage very much.

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 3

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