USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Vol I > Part 3
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Fowler was the first American to make the continuous trip from Ft. Smith to the present site of Pueblo. He measured the whole course of the Arkansas river between two places named. Lewis Dawson, one of his men, was probably the first white man buried in Colorado. Dawson was killed by a grizzly bear, near the mouth of the Purgatory river. Fowler's was doubtless the first white man's house built in Colorado, it being erected on the ground where Pueblo now stands.
Fowler's biographer adopted the unique idea of preserving the author's oddities and eccentricities. He describes his manuscript as being almost undecipherable until he found out the peculiarities of the author's handwrit- ing. In publishing his "Journal of Travels," the author's spelling, punctua- tion and capitalization are reproduced. The abbreviations are just as Fowler put them down. The part of his journal that related to his trip through Reno county is here reproduced. The principal part of his records cover the land lying in the eastern part of the county. "The bold stream of water." he speaks of that he found on "15th October 1821," was Cow creek. Evi- dently it followed a different course than it now follows. The Indians say that it originally flowed at the foot of the Sand hills, through Brandy lake, thence south to the river. Fowler's journal is exceedingly interesting and is as follows :
12 October 1821. Cloudy and Rains a little We set out Early North 60 West fifteen miles over a Rich low Ridge there is Scarcely a tree or a Stone to be Seen and Hole land Covered with tall grass there is all allong Whight River and on this Ridge is much sign of Buffelow but the Indeans have drove them off. We camped on a small Branch near the Arkensas River." This description is of the country near Mulvane.
The next day-"13 Octover 1821"-they reached the Little river where Wichita is now located. On "14th Oct. 1821." he says, "we Set out Early Crossing the little Arkansaw and steering West at 12 miles Came to the Banks of the Arkansaw there up the River north 70 west We camped on the Bank Without trees"-this was about on the line between Sedgwick and Reno counties. "The Cuntry Continu fine the land level and Rich .
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the timber is plenty on the little Arkansaw, and some for a few miles up the main River but Heare there is no Timber or Willows on the River. Buffalo Bulls still appeer But no Cows and we are now satisfied of the Caus of the Hunters not killing any of that Speces. No Sign of deer tho we seen some turkeys last evening." The next day the party was in Reno county, and the journal continues :
"15th October 1821 We set out at our ushal time up the River No. 8 West and stoped at the mouth of a bold stream of Watter, came from the north, about 70 feet Wide but we Ware Soon alarmed by the Hunters coming and Haveing some Indians on Hors Back and sopossed to be in pursuit of them-we gradually move up the River Crossing the Crick to some Sand Knobs on the River bank about 400 yds. above the mouth of the crick-there being no timber We made a breast works of our Baggage and Remained the balance of the day Waiting the arival of the Indians-but none appeared-some Buffelow Bulls were killed today. We kept the horses tyed up all night-yesterday the Sand Knobs appeer at about ten mile distance on our Right Hand and Perellel With the River. Some Scatering trees appear on the Knobs."
The next day he reached about where the city of Hutchinson now stands. His journal reads :
"16th October 1821. We set out Early and maid ten miles up the River the Sand Knobs still on the Right We sent out Some Hunters to kill a Cow but they Remained out all night. We Ware much alarmed for their safety no meet for Supper or Breckfast-our corse No. 70 west and Camped on the River." The next day the party continued up the river. Ilis journal reads :
"17th Octr 1821 We continued up the River North 65 west 15 miles and camped on the Bank. Scarcely a tree to be seen We this day passed the Head Spring of the Creek at the mouth of Which we camped on the 15th. This is a large butiful spring about three miles from the River on the north side and is a leavel Rich Piranie. the Sand Hills all along on the South Side and near the crick thay are not more than 60 or 70 feet High and the Country leavel beyond them to a great distance those on the north about the Same Hight and Several miles from the River." Fowler did not pass the spring that is the "head spring" of Cow creek, but the spring that forms Bull creek, which empties into Cow creek, as the springs from which Cow creek are formed are up farther north in Russell county.
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Another explorer, the earliest, was Lieutenant Wilkinson, who left Pike's at Great Bend, where they reached the river in their overland trip of exploration in 1806. Wilkinson was sick and, making a boat out of cottonwood logs, made his way down the river. With him, however, it was simply an attempt to get back to St. Louis and very little of value is recorded of his trip down the river. These three parties are the earliest visits of Americans on the soil of what now constitutes Reno county.
CHAPTER II.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND EARLY CONDITIONS.
The pioneers of Reno county found conditions very similar to what other pioneers had met in other states. The early settlers of Reno county were hardy, industrious people. There were many Union soldiers among them, young men then who had returned from the army and were ready for any new adventure. The West was opening up, and with cheap lands held out as an inducement, they came west to make their fortunes. They were mostly from states of a similar latitude.
There were but few trees in sight to greet the pioneer. The prairie was an unbroken sod of buffalo green. There were some trees in the sand hills and big cottonwoods in the bend of Cow creek, on the land afterwards owned by Peter Shafer. in Grant township. and one big cottonwood on Cow creek on Main street.
There were no roads and no bridges. From north to south across this county were the trail marks of the thousands of cattle that had been driven across the country to Abilene to be shipped east. These tracks bent in and out as the cattle would sway toward each other in their drive; would separate a few inches, jolt another beast on the other side, forming tracks that countless thousands of other cattle followed. They broke the sod : this loosened ground was blown out by the wind and the "trail" was established. Especially marked were there trails where streams were reached. There cattle would crowd together and the trails became deeper and more marked than in the open prairie.
The country was overrun with wild geese. Today they are rarely seen. except on some pond of water. Then they were a real pest and the pioneers had occasion to put up "scarecrows" to frighten off the geese. Soon they grew accustomed to these and other means had to be used to frighten away the geese, for a flock of these strong-beaked birds would soon ruin a whole wheat field, pulling the wheat up by the roots and devouring seed and blade alike. Many a farmi boy has spent dreary days, in the fall and spring. chasing the wild geese off of a wheat field. only to see them circle around a while and settle again on some other part of the same field. Killing will' geese was not
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only a sport, but an occupation. Many and many a load of wild geese were hauled to Hutchinson to be shipped East, partly for the flesh, but mostly for their feathers. Down in Lincoln township was one noted hunter, J. Q. Rob- inson. He killed the geese systematically. He had hiding places over the field. From these he would shoot, often till the flock was almost wiped out. These he would haul to Hutchinson by the wagon-load.
There was an abundance of smaller game in the county. After the buf- falo disappeared hunting was limited to ducks, geese, rabbits, quail, and prairie chickens. There were a few antelopes hid away in the hills, but they soon were driven out. Coyote hunts were frequent, and afforded sport for a large number of hunters with their dogs, as no one dog had much of a show with a coyote. The prairie dog was a pest that spoiled considerable land. Near the Yaggy plantation was a "dog town" of nearly a hundred acres. These little creatures lived in their burrows. The body of a prairie dog was about the size of a mink; eyes and head rather large, resembling that of a rabbit ; body the size of a small dog, hair short, shining and smooth. They lived in immense numbers on the prairies in dry locations, but not far from water. Their holes were deep and not in regular order.
BUFFALO GRASS, WONDERFUL FORAGE FEED.
The buffalo grass that covered all the land from the limestone hills of the central part of the state to the western border, was the most wonderful forage feed, except alfalfa, that has ever been found. The immense herds of buffalo that lived off of it, fattened on it, multiplied on it, was evidence of its nutritious quality. In the summer time the soft curling grass was dotted with flowers, the more conspicuous because of the sombre background of grass. There were a few varieties of flowers that were exceedingly common. Among these was the "sensitive" rose. While it was called a rose, it did not belong to the rose family, but to the briar family. It had narrow, very fine leaves on a vine that was covered with small, sharp thorns. The leaves were sensitive, whence the plant derived its name, and would immediately close up when touched. The blossom was a beautiful one, oval-shaped and bright red in color, and the stamens visible, otherwise bare on the top a yellow stigma. It was a very fragrant flower, and its odor permeated the air. The "false mallow" grew also on a long vine. Some of them would cover a yard-square space and have hundreds of bright red blossoms. The plant grew from a root that resembled the carrot in shape and size. This plant added a brilliance to the brownish-green buffalo grass that was very striking. The tall "spider
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wort," with a sky-blue blossom, was common. It bloomed in June, when most of the flowers of the prairie were most abundant.
Outside of the wildl grass there were in the early days an abundance of other kinds of game. Deer and elk were in abundance. Feeding on the buffalo grass, they would seek protection in the scraggy cottonwood trees that grew in the sand hills. There was also an abundance of prairie chickens, and these ยท latter were not wholly driven out by the settlers for many years. All old settlers recall the early morning "booming" of these chickens, also their even- ing call to each other. They were a hard bird to shoot because they flew so fast and were exceedingly wild. Quail were plentiful and a few antelope hid themselves in the hills. The buffalo, of course, were the chief game, but they disappeared with the elk, the antelope and the deer.
. Another animal found in abundance on the prairie was the coyote. These were the skulking scavangers of the plains; cowardly and cunning, they hung around a wounded buffalo or deer, waiting for a chance to get a meal. Their howI was one of the most distressing noises of the prairies.
While there were some things pleasant about the prairies in the days before the settlers came, yet there were things that overshadowed all else. The thing that made the prairies so lonesome that it was almost terrifying, was the monotony of the scene. Day after day the hunter passed across new land, but the same at morning, noon and at night. The same. day after day and week after week,-one seemingly unending stretch of buffalo grass; one eter- nally blue sky above-nothing the hunter could see that would look like a place of comfort; no boundary, no end to it. It took more than courage to conquer the prairies; courage alone would not have accomplished the won- drous change of a half a century. It took Faith, that saw the orchards grow up and set a boundary in the sod and furnished a resting place for the eyes. It took Faith to see the sod yield up the varied grains of today. It took Faith to see the buffalo grass supplanted by the alfalfa, and it took Faith and Cour- age to sustain the pioneer in the lonesomeness of early day life in Reno county : and that Faith and Courage have seen their reward, and the land of the buffalo has yielded its richness to the pioneer and his sons and his son's sons. The old settler never will forget the appearance of the land in the carly seventies, and to rejoice at the change in the appearance of Reno county in less than a half century of time.
CHAPTER ILL.
THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND OTHER STREAMS.
The first white man, so far as any record shows, to see the Arkansas river was Coronado. He was the first explorer of the West. His journeys are among the most remarkable recorded in the annals of American history. Seventy-four years before the English made their settlement on the Atlantic coast, an army of Spaniards started four prosperous colonies in Mexico and explored a region as extensive as the eastern coast line of the United States from Maine to Florida. Their journey from Mexico was fraught with dangers and difficulties, which they only mention, apparently hoping to be remembered by the things they accomplished.
They started on their expedition on February 23, 1540. They sought the "Seven Cities of Cibola," of which they had heard from a Franciscan friar, Marcos of Nice, who accompanied the party as a guide and chaplain. Coronado marched for more than two years before he reached the Arkansas river. He crossed this stream near where Dodge City is located, on June 28. 1542. He called the river St. Peter and St. Paul. This day is St. Peter and St. Paul's day of the Catholic church and Coronado named the stream for the day he reached it. There have been several reasons assigned for the name of the stream ; one was that he crossed the river where Wichita is located and that he gave to the Big Arkansas river the name of St. Peter and that of the Little Arkansas river the name of St. Paul. This is entirely fanciful. Coronado's description of the country through which he passed shows that he went northward after he crossed the Arkansas, until he reached almost the northern boundary of Kansas, when he turned back toward Mexico.
So the first name the river bore was given it by the Spanish. The name by which it is now known was given it by the French. They named it from a tribe of Indians, the "Akansa", they found near the mouth of the stream when they first reached the river. Through many changes in spell- ing, largely as a matter of pronunciation, the spelling has been changed to its present form.
The river rises in the mountains of central Colorado. near Leadville.
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and empties into the Mississippi river at Napoleon, Arkansas. It is more than two thousand miles long and drains a basin of one hundred and eighty- five thousand square miles. It is the greatest western affluent of the Missis- sippi river. It starts in a pocket of lofty mountain peaks at an altitude of over ten thousand feet. It drops four thousand six hundred and twenty- five feet in the first one hundred and twenty miles of its course, over one hundred and twenty feet to the mile. At Canyon City it passes out of the Rocky mountains through the Grand canyon of the Arkansas. It soon is transformed into a turbid, shallow stream, depositing its mountain debris in the valley. It meanders across eastern Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. At Dodge City it shifts its direction to the northeast and at Great Bend it turns its course toward the southeast. It has a fall of seven and five-tenths feet per mile from Canyon City to Wichita, a distance of five hundred and one miles, and one and five-tenths feet per mile from Wichita to Little Rock, this being reduced to sixty-five hundredths of a foot per mile from Little Rock to its month. It is constantly changing its bed, due to heavy rainfall and the melting snows of the mountains, as well as to the character of the soil through which it flows. Its water is lowest in the channel from August to December. The depth of the water varies from twenty-seven feet to one foot.
The Indians called the Arkansas the "Ne Shuta", meaning "Red Water". Why it was given this name is not known. They likewise called the Little Arkansas. "Ne Shuta Shinka". meaning "The Young or the Little Red Water". This river was a highway of commerce for the French, as they made their way to the mountains in search of hides and furs. Their expe- ditions usually followed the river, generally on the north side, keeping a half mile or more from the river in order to avoid the sand along the banks. but keeping close enough to reach it for camping purposes, where there was water and driftwood. They generally could get enough driftwood for their campfires. The exploration of the Arkansas by the Americans in the carly days was largely for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the country and to find the number and character of the Indians that were to be found in this country.
Among these explorers was Zebulon Pike. In July. 1806, Pike left St. Louis on his second expedition. He ascended the Missouri to the Osage. and the latter to the villages of the Indians of that name. Thence he con- tinued westward overland, entered Kansas, and proceeded to the Pawnee village on the Republican river near the present Kansas-Nebraska line.
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Turning southward, he reached the Arkansas river at the present site of Great Bend. There he dispatched his junior officer, Lieutenant Wilkinson. with a few men, to descend the Arkansas, while with the rest of his com- pany he ascended the same river into Colorado, as far as Pueblo. From this point he made an unsuccessful side-trip which had for its object the ascent of the since famous peak which bears his name, and returned to his camp at Pueblo.
Another early explorer was Jacob Fowler. Contrasting the work of the early explorers, the biographer of Fowler, says :
"There are no records of where others went or what they did. Ezekiel Williams, James Workman, Samuel Spencer, sole and shadowy survivors of Coyner's 'Lost Trappers,' are only uneasy spirits, flitting from the Missouri to Mexico and California in an apocryphal book, never materializing out of fable-land into historical environment. Wherever other American trappers or traders may have gone on the Arkansas or even the Rio Grande in those days, and whatever they may have done, Fowler was first to forge another sound link in the chain which already reached from Pike to Long. The latter's justly celebrated expedition came down the Arkansas and the Canadian in 1820. Pike ascended the main river from its great bend to its source in 1806, the same year that his lieutenant, Wilkinson, descended this stream from the point where he parted from his captain. For the lower reaches of the river we have Thomas Nuttall's 'Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory,' during the year 1819, and various other accounts. But I know of no record earlier in date than Fowler's of continuous ascent of the river from Ft. Smith to the present position of Pueblo in Colorado. He meandered the whole course of the Arkansas between the points named. except his cut-off of a small portion of the Verdigris trail. One of his men, Lewis Dawson, who was killed by a grizzly bear at the mouth of the Purgatory-and who, let us hope, left that place for happier hunting-grounds -may not have been the first white American buried in Colorado soil, but the record of a prior funeral would be far to seek. Whose was the first habit- able and inhabited house on the spot where Pueblo now stands? Fowler's. probably; for Pike's stockade was hardly a house, and Jim Beckwourth came twenty years after Fowler. The Taos trail from Santa Fe through the Sangre de Cristo pass to the Arkansas at Pueblo was well known to the Spaniards when Fowler's party traversed it in the opposite direction: but we have no American itinerary of that passage at an earlier date than his. When Fowler ascended the Rio Grande to Hot Spring creek in the San Juan range, he followed a Spanish road; but never before had an American expedition
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been so near the source of that great river Del Norte, and not till many years afterward did any such prolong Fowler's traces upward. The greater part of Fowler's homeward journey from Taos to Ft. Osage will doubtless prove as novel to his readers as it was unexpected by his editor. South of the Arkansas, his trail was neither by the way he had gone before, nor by either of those roads which were soon to be established and become well known, for he came neither by the Cimarron nor the Raton route, but took a straighter course than either, between the two, over Chico Rico Mesa and thence along Two Butte creek to the Arkansas on the Kansas-Colorado border. Again, when Fowler left the Arkansas to strike across Kansas, he did not take up the direct route which caravans were about to blaze as the Santa Fe trail from Missouri through Council Grove to Great Bend. buit went a roundabout way, looping far south to heads of the Whitewater and Verdigris rivers before he crossed the Neosho to make for the Missouri below the mouth of the Kansas."
.A reproduction of Fowler's journey, as far as it refers to this county, is given in chapter Ill.
Being the first white man to describe the carliest days of Reno county, the first to describe the streams and soil, something more of Fowler will be of interest. something of his life as told by his biographer. The follow- ing is from the introduction of "The Journal of Jacob Fowler" :
"Major Fowler was born in New York, in 1765, and came to Kentucky in early life, a fine specimen of physical manhood, fully equipped for the office and duties of a surveyor. His surveying instruments were the best of their day, and elicited no little envy from those who used the common Jacob's staff and compass and chain of the times. He had the reputation of being an accomplished surveyor, and did much in this line for the United States government. His surveying extended to the great plains and moun- tains of the far West, before civilization had reached these distant wilds. lle was there when wild animals and wilder savages were the only tenants of the wilderness.
"Major Fowler married the widow Esther Sanders, ncc de Vie, of New- port, Kentucky. She was of French descent and a lady of great beauty and accomplishments. She made his home one of happiness and hospitality. She sometimes accompanied him on his surveying expeditions and bore domestic charms to the tent in which they lived, as she did to the palatial man- sjon at home. She was a woman of fine business capacity, who, when her husband was not at home, attended to his affairs ,and especially to his farm in the suburbs of Covington. Here fine stock and abundant crops owed
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much to hier constant care and supervision. The grapes that grew on the place were made into wine and the apples into cider, in accordance with the knowledge she had inherited from her French ancestors. Her great-grand- children of today tell of the life of the camp, when she was with her hus- band in his surveying expeditions. The tent floor was nicely carpeted; a comfortable bed invited repose after the toil of the day; dainty china, bright cut glass, and shining silverware, handsome enough to be preserved as family heirlooms by their descendants, were used on the camp table. It was some- thing of Parisian life in the dreary wilderness.
."Major Fowler died in Covington in the year 1850. His life as a surveyor and explorer in the West subjected him to many hardships, but a constitution naturally vigorous was preserved with care until he reached his eighty-sixth year. He has numerous descendants in Kentucky, Ohio and other states, some of whom occupy high social positions."
Speaking of his life, his biographer says of him: "If we turn from the substance of Fowler's journal and ask to see the bill of lading, curious to know what useful or valuable information is contained in so singular a conveyance, it may be composedly said that this "Prairie Schooner" is well foresighted for a "Voige" on the highway of Americana; for the cargo is a novel and a notable contribution to our knowledge of early con- mercial and pioneer adventure in the Great West. It is simple, the story of the trader and trapper, unsupported by the soldier, unimpeded by the priest and in no danger of the politician. The scene is set in the wilderness; the time is when the pack animals were driven across the stage, before the fast wheels rolled over the plains from the states to Santa Fe, and the actors have real parts to perform."
With his interesting story, is a glimpse of what the country was in 1821.
The Arkansas river has decreased in widthi very much since the first settlers came to Reno county. An explanation of this narrowing of the river bed is given in another chapter. While not the stream of former years, yet it at times becomes a turbulent one and carries a large volume of water. It has nothing of the importance it had in early years, as changed methods of transportation have decreased its value.
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