USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 4
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E. P. Harris, who has charge of the composing rooms in the George W. Crane printing establishment in Topeka, was one of the originators of one of the early day and early buried Nemaha county towns. Mr. Harris was one of a party of men who came to Kansas by way of Ne- braska to Nemaha county in 1856 to assist in making Kansas a free State. Mr. Harris' party had a scheme to establish a string of free State towns from the Nebraska line southward through Kansas. They started in by staking off the town of Lexington in Nemaha county. About the time they got started to doing business, and the town stakes
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were well driven, at Lexington, Quantrill made his raid at Lawrence, and the party rushed off to that place to be of what service they could. That was about all that was ever heard of Lexington. Mr. Harris and his men never went back to Lexington. No one seems to know exactly where the would-be free State town of Lexington was laid out. Mr. Harris and his men came to Nemaha county by way of Nebraska be- cause the pro-slavery men were thick on the river, and were in suffi- cient force to make it hot for free State men coming into Kansas.
While the towns of the county are conveniently scattered, so that there is a good shipping point for all produce, several townships have no towns: Clear Creek, Nemaha, Center, Mitchell, Adams, Capioma, Granada, Neuchatel and Reilly. Woodlawn, in Capioma township, a comparatively late child of the county, still thrives with store, church, school and cream station. This may put this township in the village class. And Kelly, which is mainly in Harrison township, laps over into Adams township with a few houses, which may give Adams entrance into the city class.
Of the remaining towns and villages there are Wetmore, Goff, Corning, Oneida, Baileyville, Bancroft, Berwick, St. Benedict, Bern, and the elevator and store of Price station.
Central City, the first town, was never incorporated by legislative act. It was laid out, in 1855, by William Dodge, and the first postoffice of the county established here. It lay in the neighborhood of what is now St. Benedict. H. H. Lanham was the first postmaster. A wagon and blacksmith shop, a saw and grist mill, and a store were erected upon the site. Most of these businesses were run by the Lanham and Newton families, who had come up the Missouri river from St. Louis on the old steamboat, "Banner State," that year. The store, however, was run by Benjamin Shaffer for a while, later passing into the hands of Lanham & Newton.
Overland, by ox team, was hauled the mill, and, for some time, it was run by ox-power, horses being substituted later, a dam across the river failing to develop enough power to run the mill. An attempt to use steam power was foiled by the big flood of the Nemaha in 1858, when the river reached a mile in width, and the rushing current carried the dam, windmill, grist mill, and all away on its turbid breast. The few remains were not trusted to the river vicinity again and the mill was reconstructed far from danger on the prairies. But incendiaries de- stroved it by fire. Nothing daunted, its owners rebuilt it. In 1863 Lan- ham & Newton, still the owners, practically, of Nemaha county's first born town, bought a mill at Pawnee City in Nebraska. They removed it to Central City, thence later to Seneca, where most of Central City moved eventually.
The first school was taught by Mahlon Pugh, succeeded shortly by Mrs. Horace Newton. This was in 1859 and 1860. The Central City Church, Baptist, was organized in 1857, later affiliating with the Seneca
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Baptist Church in September, 1875. When Seneca, little by little, ab- sorbed Central City, the village resolved into farmlands, and the town was absorbed by the Bloss farm, and Central City passed on.
Richmond was incorporated by the Bogus Legislature as a twin sister of Central City, but of beliefs dissimilar. Richmond was estab- lished on the claim of Cyrus Dolman. Dolman was the first probate judge and pro-slavery man. The town corporation was given the power to purchase and hold 1,000 acres for building a town. The town was to be laid out in lots, squares, parks and avenues, and the town fathers included Daniel Vanderslice, David Gillaspie, John Doniphan, James E. Thompson, and half a dozen other men. Lanham & Newton had con- siderable to do in the erection of Richmond, for they built the first buildings, a dwelling, a store, and a hotel. Richmond moved to Sen- eca later, the dwelling being taken to the home of W. B. Stone, while the hotel eventually became a building on the Festus M. Newton farm.
Richmond was the really important first town, as all the official county business was performed there. The legislature made it the tem- porary county seat, which distinction it might have held, old anti-slave believers say, had it not been for its pro-slavery sentiments. The free State men were in the majority, and Richmond was not in the running.
Ash Point was largely the result of the efforts of John O'Laughlin, who established a postoffice, himself as postmaster, a general store, hotel and two or three houses. Ash Point was a stage station on the overland road, being situated at the junction of the Overland and Cali- fornia roads. Richmond was on the Fort Leavenworth and Fort Kear- ney road route. Ash Point died in the early seventies, the establish- ment of railroads and abolishment of the stage roads causing its demise.
Urbana actually got no farther than paper, as a town. W. W. Moore laid out a thriving town at Baker's Ford on good drawing paper. But the town of Farmington, southwest of the mythical Urbana, event- uated into a store building, hotel and blacksmith shop through the ef- forts of Rosalvin Perham and J. E. Perley. The townsite made a good pasture, not many years after its inception.
Orrin Gage dug a fine well on a high hill, which was so well pat- ronized by travelers that he became inspired to erect a hotel, which was designated Pacific City. But the farmers got it. Lincoln's town plat was filed for record in the fall of 1860, and was really a prosperous village, rejoicing in two stores where in other towns but one had grown. J. E. Hocker conceived Lincoln. But its sawmill and black- smith shop were removed to Capioma, and William Robinson long operated them on his farm.
At the beginning of the war, Granada was a thriving village. In 1856, Manaoh Terrill had erected a store at this point which was on the direct route of the old overland freight road to Denver. Granada fell a victim to the advance of civilzation and railroads a few years later with the other Nemaha county towns mentioned. In the vicinity still
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live many of the descendants, if not the founders themselves, of the community. The names of Swerdfeger, Vilott, Chappel, Haigh are those in daily use in the vicinity. Granada retained its postoffice until the later step into modernity came with rural free delivery, and the postoffice was abandoned. Granada, in addition to the usual buildings, boasted a drug store and a hardware store. None of the other villages that lived and died were so distinguished as that. An old map of Granada shows a good schoolhouse, a Woodman hall and about ten dwellings. The families of F. P. and John Achten, S. E. Larabee, S. R. Guffy, Sarah Skinner, Anna Stolzenberger, D. E. Crandall, C. E. Chase and A. C. Callahan are mentioned among the owners of Granada prop- erty. Many of the Granada settlers removed to Wetmore when their own village came to an untimely end. James Barnes, another early day family connected with Granada, took his family and eleven children to Granada in 1858, where he helped found the village. James Barnes' ancestors were English, and helped found the city of Baltimore. James Barnes, senior, his son and his grandson were all born on the tenth of March, twenty-five years apart. Seven brothers of the Barnes family were at one time residents of Granada.
A. B. Ellit was another settler of the prosperous Granada village. In the fifties a band of 600 Southerners raided the Ellit farm, tearing down fences, feeding all his corn and generally demoralizing his home- stead. Finally there was but one yoke of oxen left. They were about to appropriate this ox team when a generous Missouri captain dashed out with a gun in his hand, crying he would kill the first man who tried to yoke them. A rumor was started that Jim Lane was coming. and the raiders departed in haste, leaving some of their own belongings. saddles and weapons behind them. Mr. Ellit, in the war that followed. fought with General Price. He was in the Quantrill raid, and a freighter to Denver. Of the pioneer days of hardship and romance, few know more than Mr. Ellit.
A town plat of Capioma town was recorded in 1859. although it had been laid out two years previously when the schoolhouse was built and a good hotel put up by Walter Gage. After nearly sixty years, the hotel building stands, although, for many years, it has been used as a residence. Capioma was named for an early-day Indiana chief.
Richmond remained the county seat under the territorial act for the first few years. All business of a legal nature was transacted from Richmond. But in the year 1858, an election was ordered to be held, on the permanent county seat. The first election was not to be final. but the three holding the highest number of votes were to be voted upon again, other contestants to step out. Central City, Richmond. Seneca, Centralia. Wheatland and Ash Point were contestants. The towns had each promised to give town lots to the county. Seneca, however, of- fered to build a courthouse and donate its use to the county for five years. This made excellent political thunder, and the contestants were
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boiled down to Seneca, Central City, Wheatland and Richmond. Cen- tral City then retired in favor of Seneca. The fathers of Central City figured that if Seneca won, Richmond would die, and Central City live and prosper, without rival. The two towns were too close for their twin success. But, alas, for the hopes of builders of cities, such sacri- fice was unrewarded. Today, one city is buried as deep in oblivion as the other.
Seneca won in the contest, although there were some legal pro- ceedings instituted over the Graham township vote, which was given to Seneca. The county commissioners being divided, the deciding vote was given to Seneca by the chairman, George Graham. Seneca has al- ways since been the county seat, with but rare rumors of attempts to un- seat her.
The courthouse was burned in 1876, when there was a slight stir against Seneca. This amounted to nothing, and the new building, very similar to the first one, was built. Either children and matches, or mice and matches seem to have caused the fire. The Lappin brothers, Charley Scrafford, R. U. Torrey and J. B. Ingersoll were the town com- pany. They gave the county commissioners alternate lots throughout the town, which were sold to raise money for public buildings.
CHAPTER V.
FIRST EVENTS AND INSTITUTIONS.
FIRST WHITE CHILD-FIRST MARRIAGE-FIRST BRIDGE-FIRST TEACHER- FIRST PIANO-INDIANS PERPLEXED-THE WHITTENHALL FAMILY- FIRST COUNTY COMMISSIONERS-FIRST CENSUS-DR. STRINGFELLOW AND JIM LANE-JUDICIAL. DISTRICT-JUDGE HORTON, FIRST JUDGE -ELECTION-POLITICAL MEETING-AN EMIGRANT BAND-MOR- MONS-FIRST STORE AT FIDELITY-THE WEMPE FAMILY.
There has been little discussion in Nemaha county as to who was "first" in various matters. Contrary to the acceptation of most folks, Nemaha county people have quietly acquiesced in the claims of the few to be first, and been willing to give honor where honor is due. There- fore, so far as has been learned in sixty years, no one has claimed the honor of having been the first born child other than Molly Key, daugh- ter of Greenbury and Polly Key, who was born in March, 1855.
Edwin Avery, who came to Nemaha county in 1858, recalls the Greenbury Keys, and he is about the only remaining citizen who re- members them. The Greenbury Keys lived in a cabin on Turkey creek, just above the James Gregg farm. One of the Key girls was married to Sanford Hess, Mr. Avery recollects, and they moved to Oregon. Frank Johnson, he thinks, was related to the Keys. Mr. Johnson has not lived in Nemaha county for some time, and Mr. Avery's recollection is that he and Mr. Johnson are the only ones living, who were here who might recall the first child's birth. Mr. Avery also recalls that Mrs. Lou Robertson's brother married one of Frank Johnson's daugh- ters. Raveling out a family tree is something of a task, but it is more fascinating than raveling out a skein of yarn for crochet lace, so popular today. Mr. Avery's recollections are always remarkably cor- rect, and it is dollars to doughnuts, that no corrections will be made to this historical anecdote.
The first marriage brought nothing to the furtherance of Nemaha county, as the "contracting parties" shortly returned to the State from whence they had immigrated shortly before. The romance is further a disappointment in that the bride and groom were both widow and widower. Charles Leachman and Mrs. Caroline Davenport were mar- ried by Rev. Thomas Newton, November 12, 1854, the marriage occur-
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ring in Nemaha township. Rev. Newton also officiated at the first fu- neral, presumed to be that of his son, Jacob. The death was duiy re- corded for September, 1854. However, Mr. Davenport had also died in Nemaha county, and was buried on the farm that later belonged to Henry Korber. As Mrs. Davenport was married in November, there remains some doubt as to whose death was the first, Jacob Newton's or Mr. Davenport's.
The first bridge in the county and the vicissitudes attending it, have been recorded, as well as the first sermon.
The first Seneca school teacher was Miss Addie Smith, whose school occupied a room in the hotel building of her brother in Seneca, the first building erected there. This was a private school.
It is doubtful if any county in Kansas can lay claim to having a piano in its midst before Nemaha county. The first piano was brought to Albany in Nemaha county in 1857 by Elihu Whittenhall for the use and musical education of his four daughters, and the pleasure of his wife. The piano was a Noble and was made in Ithaca, N. Y. It was taken from Addison, Steuben county, New York, to St. Louis, by rail, thence up the Missouri river by the steamboat, "Florinda," as far as Iowa Point. From there the piano was carried overland, by the over- land freight, drawn by little mule teams the remaining 100 miles. Reaching Albany, only a log house was ready to receive the piano, and it nearly filled the single room when it was put in place.
It was a delight to the settlers and a delicious perplexity to the Indians. They would creep up to the window of the cabin, stare in incredulous wonder at the piano on which someone would be playing, then they would laugh and dance, and placing their hands over their mouths, give vent to the blood-curdling Indian yell, which nearly par- alyzed the musical little Whittenhall girls with terror.
But Mrs. Oscar Marbourg, of Sabetha, to whom the piano de- scended, said that the Indians never molested them in any way other than entering the cabin if they could get in, and taking anything to which they "took a shine." This "first" piano, at Mrs. Marbourg's marriage. went to her sister, and later it passed into the hands of a Sabetha colored family.
Four little girls came out to Kansas with Elihu Whittenhall and his wife, but two of their boys refused to come. They came out to look over the ground at one time, and nothing could induce them to stay in the "God-forsaken land of Kansas," as they called it. Mrs. Marbourg recalls that farms of forty acres sold for $2.50 for the entire ground. which today cannot be bought for $200 an acre. "But we had to eat and sleep on the ground," she said. Her mother would tuck the children into an improvised bed on the ground, which Mr. Whittenball had staked out. "Go to sleep, girls," they were admonished, "for we have to go home and do the chores." Having slept a night and eaten three meals on the claimed ground, it belonged to them with the payment of
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the government's $2.50. But the boys would not stay for twenty such easily gained farms. The log house used by the Whittenhall family, while their dwelling was being erected on the hills of Albany, was low. In the day a buffalo or deer was shot, and the carcass hung in the house for meat. The wolves afar off would smell the meat, and whine around the house all night. They would jump up on the roof from the ground, and try the latch of the door with their paws. But the wolves were as timid as the Indians. Mrs. Marbourg recalls going out to the yard for wood and a wolf following her. But her mother took a stick of wood and threw at the animal, and he slunk away like a dog.
The first county commissioners of Nemaha county were Jesse Adamson, David P. Magill and Peter Hamilton. The first election for county officers was held November 8, 1859. Previous to that time of- ficials had been appointed to office. The election resulted in R. U. Tor- rey, county clerk ; Charles F. Warren, county treasurer; Samuel Lap- pin, registrar of deeds; John S. Rogers, sheriff; J. W. Fuller, county superintendent, and Haven Starr, probate judge.
The first census taken in the county showed ninety-nine residents in the county. This was in 1855. Two years later there were 512, and in 1860, nearly 2,500. The first officials of the county to serve by ap- pointment, prior to county elections, were John W. Forman. 1855, coun- cilman ; James E. Thompson, 1855, sheriff; R. U. Torrey, 1855, county clerk ; Samuel Lappin, 1855, registrar of deeds ; Edwin Van Endert, 1855, county treasurer ; Cyrus Dolman, 1855, probate judge ; J. C. Hebberd. 1857, superintendent of public instruction. Nemaha county was one of the thirty-three original counties created by the first territorial legisla- ture of Kansas. Nemaha county was given its present boundaries within a year after Kansas was formed into a territory by the act of congress. At that time the territory of Kansas embraced land from the Missouri river westward to the Rocky Mountains, and included over 126,000 square miles. The Nemaha river, at the time of the county's establishment, was referred to as the Nebraska. A peculiar thing about the Nemaha river, which, by the way, is not dignified by being men- tioned with other rivers in Kansas histories, is that it rises in Illinois township in the southwestern part of the county and flows north through the center of the county into Nebraska: Of the other creeks and streams in the county, most of them flow east and west, generally seeking the Nemaha as an outlet. The center of the county would seem to be a watershed, for streams in the eastern part generally flow south- east.
J. H. Stringfellow received the first vote of Nemaha county in the election of March 30, 1855. Dr. Stringfellow was a pro-slavery advo- cate and a charming man, to the amazement of one Nemaha county pio- neer who had heard of him as the miserable leader of the pro-slavery faction, and the head of the border ruffian forces. She says, "When I moved to Atchison several years later and met Dr. Stringfellow, I
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dreaded to see him, thinking his face would be as black as his reputa- tion had been painted to me. I was amazed at his charm, grace, and intellectuality."
"A story, recently revived, is told of Dr. Stringfellow. He was nat- urally the bitter enemy of the famous Jim Lane, whose reputation had been painted as dark as Dr. Stringfellow's by the 'opposition.' At one time, General Lane, with a bodyguard of soldiers, drove into the yard of Dr. Stringfellow. When Dr. Stringfellow went out to meet General Lane, he inquired, 'Are you not afraid to call at my house?' 'No,' re- plied the notorious Jim Lane, 'I am not afraid to call on a gentleman anywhere.'
"This gallant, graceful reply so captured Mrs. Stringfellow that she invited General Lane and his men to lunch."
R. L. Kirk was the other candidate to carry Nemaha county's first vote, for territorial representative, both pro-slavery men against the anti-slavery candidates, Joel Ryan and G. A. Cutler.
Brown and Nemaha counties were in one judicial district, and, prior to 1861, court was held in Hiawatha, Brown county. In November. 1861, the first district court was held in Nemaha county with Judge Albert H. Horton on the bench. Byron Sherry was the county clerk. Court was held in the original courthouse built by the city of Seneca but a short time. A religious meeting, held in the courthouse one Sun- day night, was followed by a fire. A one-story building was erected for the holding of court and the county officers were scattered in other buildings around the town.
In ten years the money from town lots had so accumulated that a brick courthouse was erected at a cost of nearly $30,000. Maior Sar- gent broke the ground, and J. A. Storm of St. Joseph erected the house of laws. It was this building that the combination of mice, matches and children destroyed. When the new building was erected, a fireproof building apart from it was put up for the office of the registrar of deeds, where all official records are kept in the fireproof vault.
Judge Albert H. Horton, who was the first judge to sit in a Ne- maha county circuit court, was an Atchison man, Nemaha, even today, has not a separate judicial district apart from Brown county. Judge Horton is said to have been the bluest-blooded aristocrat with the straightest line of descent that the district can call her own. And this, in view of the acknowledged fact that Nemaha county has many fam- ilies of remarkably straight genealogy. Judge Norton could trace his ancestry in a direct line to Robert de Horton of Great Horton, England, in the thirteenth century. . And the line comes down without a waver until Albert H. Horton, with his brother, arrive in Atchison in the fif- ties. In 1861, he was appointed district judge by Governor Charles Robinson. Later he was elected twice to the same office in the second judicial district. and attained the dignity of chief justice of the State. The town of Horton, thirty miles southeast of Sabetha, is named for Judge Horton.
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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY
A remarkable circumstance concerning this original Nemaha county election was that the returns showed that John W. Forman, a pro-slavery man and a Kentuckian, was elected to the council without a dissenting vote. Forman was a Doniphan county man, a founder of Iowa Point, one of the innumerable towns of this border county to have reached its zenith during the early days, then die. At this time Iowa Point was the second city in size in Kansas, Leavenworth alone having a few more residents. It was at Iowa Point where the "Iowa Trust
CROSS COUNTRY TRAVEL IN THE OLD DAYS.
This is George W. Williams of Deer Creek, dressed to represent his father, Eli Williams, who was sent to Lecompton as a delegate to the first convention for Statehood in Kansas. He would have carried flour, bacon, coffee, bedding, lariat, picket pin, revolver, frying pan and coffee pot on his horse.
Eli Willlams was equipped ready to go when a messenger arrived from the headquarters of Jim Lane telling him and his bodyguard, Dick Clency, not to make a start, as others had been slain on their way to Lecompton and that Jim Lane and his men were on their way to the present site of Sabetha, Kans. General Lane came in a few days, but no delegate went from Nemaha at that time.
lands" were released to the government. S. M. Irwin, a pioneer mis- sionary, was given the selection of all the land released. He chose the spot where Iowa Point was later located. J. W. Forman and his brother, H. W. Forman, bought this land. Forman's town even attained the dignity of a brick yard, and reached much prosperity. When Iowa Point died, J. W. Forman, who should go down in history as a candidate unanimously elected to a State office, removed to Mis- souri.
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Mrs. P. W. Cox, of Gilman township near Oneida, recalls the first political meeting at Richmond. Although but a little girl of nine years. it is one of her childhood recollections because of the fact that her father was elected a representative of Nemaha county. Mrs. Cox's girlhood name was Williams, and she was the daughter of Eli Williams.
"My father rode on horseback to Lecompton and back to consider the historical Lecompton constitution," said Mrs, Cox. "Eli Williams, my father, and Eliza Williams, my mother, with five children, and Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Williams and Amon English made up our emigrant band. We settled on Deer creek. After we left the government road, there was nothing for us to follow but Indian trails-no friendly guide- posts to direct our way. We were told to take the divide at McCloud's grave, which had become a signpost, that would take us to Deer creek. We traveled in a large covered wagon drawn by oxen. We brought horses, cattle, hogs, chickens an old cat and three kittens. We had only journeyed from Atchison county, Missouri, so the transportation of so much live stock was not so difficult as for those who had crossed half a continent. There was not one family living between where we set- tled and Brown county, and only two shanties stood where people held claims.
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