USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 16
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24 Brewster Higley VII wae living at Shawnee, Oklahoma, at the age of 93 years, in 1947.
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melancholy, when he first came to Kensas is a matter of record. Otherwise, he was "quiet and retiring." It is thought he came to the frontier and a solitary life to fight this habit and apparently succeeded because he after- wards married for the fifth time and lived normally with a family. In Smith County he soon became known for his fine medical ability and he rode far and wide over the prairies practicing his profession. Several of his patients were alive to attest to his ability when his name was saved from oblivion. He was the doctor present when Mrs. Margaret Nelson, who wrote the book, Home on the Range, was born. 25
Higley was also known for his musical ability and among Reamsville items is one telling that "Brewster Higley and Daniels furnished the music for a dance at the home of Mr. Whittier. .,,26 He had also written other poetry be- fore the composition that eventually made him famous. For example, "A poem still exists in manuscript, inscribed to 'Dryden, Eng. Poet,' nine pages long and penned in old-fashioned heavily-shaded script. "He wrote at least three other songs, one of which became popular at the close of the Civil War."27 An old scrapbook now in possession of llarry Higley has "mostly in his Dr. Hig- ley's/methodical hand, twenty-five excellent poems which he wrote at various times," some penned on foolscap like the doctor used for his famous poem and perhaps written about the same time. There are several published poems
25 Several others whose doctor at birth was Dr. Higley were at the dedi- cation of the cabin in 1954; namely, Mrs. Joe Schenk, Franklin, Nebr .; J. C. Walter, Mrs. Bert Junzi, and 0. E. Hice, Kensington; Mrs. Roy Wolfe and Mrs. Amos Ormsbee, Smith Center; M. U. John, Athol; Mrs. Arthur Cowan, Topeka; Elsa Walker, Trenton, Missouri; and Harvey Brewster Stoner, Kirwin. (Smith County Pioneer, July 9, 1954.)
26 Resmaville Dispatch, November 7, 1889.
27 Kirke Mechem, "Home on the Range," Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 17, 1949, p. 20.
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clipped to the pages, and several more marked "published" in the margin. Missing are "The Katydid's Secret" and "Army Blue," which was made into e popular song just after the Civil War. 28
He married Sarah Clemens at Smith Center, March 8, 1875. To this mar- riage was born four children, Sanford who died in 1878; Achsah, born 1877; Everett, born 1880; and Theo, born 1882. He also sent for his two children by his third wife, Stella and Arthur Herman, who were fourteen and sixtsen at the time. His daughter, Estelle or "Stella" es Higley called her, taught school in a sod schoolhouse on the John Dyer homestead on West Beaver for two winters. Higley was elected the first register of deeds in Smith County, and latar served one term as clerk of court. It nae apparently at this time that he moved to a house just north of Smith Center.
Before this last marriage and while he lived alone on the Beaver in a log cabin, 29 Trube Reese took a man with a gunshot wound to the Higley resi- dence for treatment. After a dinner prepared by Higley, Heese pulled one of his books off the shelf and the foolscep papers with the words to "My Western Home" fell out. Reeee, upon reading them, suggested getting Dan Kelley to set them to music. The next tims Dr. Higley went to Gaylord, he took them along and showed them to Kelley, end the tune was composed for "Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam, "30 It wes first played by the Harlan orchestra, which
28 J. W. Williams, op. cit., p. 48.
29 It is believed in Smith County that Higley lived in the log cabin, which was built with a log-raising and celebration, July 4, 1872, when he wrote "Home on the Range" but which Kirke lechem, Kansas State Historical Society, maintains was written in a dugout.
30 Ths song was first published in the Smith County Pioneer in 1873, under the title "Western Homs" which is no longer extant. The Kirwin Chief publication of February 26, 1876, was a reprint from their lesue of March 21, 1874, a copy of which is elso missing from the files, so the 1876 version is the earliest one in print.
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consisted of Gene Harlan and Dan Kelley playing violins and Cal Harlan a guitar, at a party and dance at the residence of Judge John Harlan. It met instant acclaim and became one of their most popular numbers. This orchestra played in several counties and as far away as Hays City, one hundred miles southwest.
Daniel Kelley was born February 6, 1843, at North Kingston, R. I. He was a bugler in the army and was mustered out as a sergeant major. He came to Gaylord, Kansas in 1872, and two years later married Lulu Harlan, by whom he had four children, all boys. He gave his occupation as carpenter, but seemed more in demand as a musician. However, items in local papera record that he received contracts for building a hotel and another time for four buildings. Mention was made of his fine Solomon Valley farm, and livery stable in Gaylord. He moved to Waterloo, Iowa in 1889, and died there October 23, 1905, at the age of 62. 32
Although a favorite ballad locally and sung at schools and programs, "Home on the Range" was not officially noticed in Smith County until forty- one years later a reprint was made in the Smith County Pioneer. One writer records that nothing in the history of the song is so remarkable as the way it spread over the entire frontier. 32 An article in the Cattlemen, suggests this was because the Kansas buffalo range was becoming seriously depleted and the big hunt moved down into Texas. As "both buffalo and hunters migrated with the changing seasons, the new melody covered some 50,000,000 acres of the un- tamed West and ... became a song hit 1,500 miles west of Broadway!"33 The song
31 Kirke Mechem, op. cit., pp. 23-24. Dan Kelley was an uncle by marriage of Mrs. Lottie Harlan wagner and Kra. Grace Harlan Womer of Smith Center, both daughters of Cal Harlan, member of the Harlan orchestra that first played the song.
32 Ibid., p. 20.
33 J. w. Williams, "Home on the Range," The Cattleman, Aug. 1947, p. 21.
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continued spreading over the cattle trails from 1877 to 1890. Finally John Lomax, who was collecting western ballads fer his book Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp, published in 1910, interviewed in 1908 an old Negro cook at San Antonio who had gone on the trail drives to Kansaa and recorded his version of "Home on the Range." Strange to report, the words, outeide of a few geographical terms common to Smith County, were remarkably similar to the Higley original of thirty-five years previous. No particular attention was given te Lomax's publication, especially in Smith County. Then in 1932 reporters sang the song while waiting to see President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt and he remarked that it was his favorite. It became a hit, it was rated as tops on the radio fer eix months, it was recorded, it was used in motion picturee - all without royalties because there was no copyright and the author was unknown. Admiral Byrd reported that he sang it at the South Pole after hie phonograph froze up so he could not play it.54
Then came front page news! William and Mary Goodwin filed suit in the courts of New York for one-half million dollars damages againet thirty-five individuals and corporations, including the National Broadcasting Company, for infringement of copyright. Their home mae Tempe, Arizona, and they claimed they had written the song as "My Arizona Home" and copyrighted it February 27, 1905. Music Publishers Protective Asecciation hired Samuel Moanfeldt, a New York lawyer, to discover if possible the origin of the song. Hlis search took him all ever the western states, and convinced him the song had originated in the cow country long before the Goodwins claimed to have written it, but he needed evidence he could take into court. He finally came te Dodge City, where he get affidavits from Putt Hill and Heinie Schmidt,
34 Kirke Mechem, op. cit., pp. 11-12.
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oldtime stage drivers, that they had heard the song before 1880. Newspapers carrisd stories of Moanfeldt's search, and one was read by Miss Florence Pulver, Osborne, Kansas, who wrote a letter asking that proper credit be given Dr. Higley as author. Mr. Moanfeldt came to Osborne where he also met Mrs. George Parke, wife of a pioneer storekeeper and banker of Gaylord, who had known Dr. Higley well as he attended her when her daughter was born. Moanfeldt also had obtained an article which appeared in the Kansas City Star, March 25, 1935, written by Mrs. Myrtle Hose of Osborne, that she had an article from the Pioneer in a scrapbook with a reprint of the words as first printed in 1873. His search in this area led him to Trube Reese who had first read the poem, and to the Cal Harlans who had first sung the words to the tune written by their brother-in-law. Mr. Harlan, then 87 years old, and Mrs. Harlan made a wax recording for Moanfeldt, singing the words in the old Smith County version. Mrs. W. H. Nelson, whose husband was editor of the Pioneer for many years, told of coming to the county as a bride in 1875, of knowing Higley well, and that her husband sang the song in Pennsylvania in 1875 when he came there to marry har, telling that it had been written by a friend of his by the name of Higley. With affidavits and photostats obtained in Smith County Moanfeldt easily won his case. To further substantiate the case, ten years later a copy of the Kirwin Chief, February 26, 1876, that had a reprint of the poem under the title, "Western Home," was found in the archives of the State Historical Soci- ety, Topeka. More important for Smith County, though, Higley and a homestead in Section 17, Pleasant Township, fourteen miles northwest of Smith Center, suddenly became historically important twenty-five years after the author's death.
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Dr. Higley had moved his family to Van Buren, Arkansas in 1886 where he could hunt and fish. In 1891, the Oklahoma Strip was opened and the next year the Higleys moved twenty-five miles southeast of Oklahoma City and then moved for the last time in 1893 to the new town of Shawnee. During the last "eighteen years of his life, he saw the town grow up around him large enough to bid against Oklahoma City ae a possible capital when Oklahoma became a etate."35 He died May 10, 1911 and was buried at Shawnee, Oklahoma, a year after hie song was published by Lomax but as far as is known he never saw & ัะพัั.
In 1940 Mrs. Cora Skinner Ream, former Gaylord pioneer, wrote a featured article for the Kansas City Star about the Estey organ with which her father had surprised his family in 1876. He had hunted buffalo, taken the skins to Waterville, Kansas by wagon and eold them to pay for the organ which he had ordered from Brattleboro, Vermont. It was the first instrument of its kind in the county, and, as it was only about four feet long, it was often loaded into the wagon and taken to parties or the schoolhouse for social gatherings. One of the favorite songs was "Home on the Range," since the Dan Kelley family wae a neighbor of the Skinners. 36
Smith County celebrated "Homecoming on the Range" in connection idth their Old Settlers Meeting, September 18, 1941. They held a historical pag- sant commemorating the writing of "Home on the Range" under the direction of Mre. Renna Hunter, member of the staff of the Kansas Industrial Development Commission. They also gave prizee for the best rendition of the song. It was
35 J. W. Williams, op. cit., p. 46.
36 Mrs. Cora Skinner Ream, Kansas City Star, July 14, 1940. The Estey organ has since been donated to the Kansae Historical Society.
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considered an outstanding success. 37
Following the establishment of the fact that "Home on the Range" was written in Smith County, Dr. I. E. Nickell, State Representative from Smith Center, introduced a bill into the House of Representatives to make it the official state song. The bill was introduced in the State Senate by Hal Harlan, Manhattan, son of Gene Harlan who was a member of the Harlan Orchestra. It was officially adopted June 30, 1947 as the state song of Kansas, using the original Higley words.
The Smith Center Rotary Club, on the recommendation of Melvin Collier, decided to restore the old cabin on its original site. The ownors, Mr. and Mrs. Pete Rust, who had lived on the place since 1935, agreed. Emmet Womer offered to furnish the logs from an old building erected by his father in the 70's. Floyd Gray, Lebanon, assisted in laying them. The State Highway Commission helped with road signs and the county highway department worked on the road, so it really turned into a county project. The renovation was com- pleted in 1954 and a marble plaque was put on the east end of the cabin. A dedication program was held Sunday, July 25, 1954, with approximately 1, 500 people in attendance. The principal addrese was given by Governor Edward Arn. Among guests in attendance were two grandsons of Dr. Higley; several of the people termed "his babies"; Mra. Cordilla Bates, 101 year old lady from Frank- Jin, Nebraska who was attended at the birth of her daughter by Dr. Higley; Don Richarde, Kansas Industrial Development Commission, who was to write a atory for the forthcoming issue of To the Stars, (Sept .- Oct. 1954); and Kirke Mechem, Lindsborg, former secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society who
37 Smith County Review, September 11, 1941; September 18, 1941.
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did considerable research on the origin of the song. 38
Thua, as the history of the county developed from broad prairies un- known except to the Indians, in a similar manner the Kansas state song came from the banks of a little creek that wended ite way across these same prairies. As the county came out of obscurity to take ita place in a prosperous state, so the cabin and the author was saved from oblivion in the realm of time. Thua it seems fitting to end this ninety year history with an original word- ing of the song that Mechem describes as "a perfect blending of man's nos- talgia for home with his dreams of some far-away and fairer land. This ambivalent masterpiece has turned out to be the ideal expression of the love which Kansans feel for their unpredictable state."39
38 A number of relatives of Dr. Higley have visited Smith Center or made themselves known there since the authorship of the song has been es- tablished. His youngest daughter Theo, Mrs. Ed Brumley, now lives in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Her husband is a retired farmer and they recently cele- brated their sixtieth wedding anniversary (Smith County Pioneer, August, 1959). She said her mother died first and her father four months later. He said the "house was like a tomb." (The death certificate lists Higley's cause of death as grisf.) There are five grandsons living, namely: D. M. Higley, Tampa, Florida; Arthur Higley, Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Warren Higley, Tampa, Florida, sons of Arthur Higley, one of the children who came to Smith County; and Harry and Floyd Higley of Shawnee, Oklahoma, sons of Brewster Higley VII. He was still alive in 1947 at the age of 93 and had a great- grandson, Brewster Higley IX. D. M. Higley also has a son, Melvin. Another visitor in Smith Center was Bernard Higley, Columbus, Ohio, a cousin. James E. Sanderson, Union Mills, Indiana, came to Smith Center to get data. Hie grandmother, Zeruah Higley Sanderson, was a sister of Dr. Higley. Another Rotary Club is also taking note of Dr. Higley. The Oklahoma Orbit, Shawnee Oklahoma, reported that a roadside marker was being erected near Shawnee, Oklahoma, Dr. Higley's burial place, by the Oklahoma Historical Society. It was the result of a contribution by the Shawnee Rotarians of $100 for this purpose. Harry A. Smith, member of the Pottawatomie Historical Society, led the move (Smith County Pioneer, August 6, 1959). It was reported at the first Smith County Historical Meeting that approximately 2,600 people visited the Higley cabin in 1959.
39 Kirke Mechem, op. cit., p. 34.
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HOME ON THE RANGE as printed in the Smith County Pioneer by Editor Levi Morris in 1873
Oh, give me a home whare the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play Where never is heard a discouraging word, And the sky is not clouded all day.
Oh, give me the gala of the Solomon vala, Where lifs streams with buoyancy flow. On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever Any poisonous herbage doth grow.
Oh, give me the land where the bright diamond sand, Throws light from its glittering stream, Where glideth along the graceful white swan Like a maid in her heavenly dream.
I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours, I lova, too, the curlew's wild acream. The bluffs of white rocks and antelope flocks That graze on our hillaidas ao green.
How often at night, when the heavens are bright, By the light of the glittering stars, Hava I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed, If their beauty exceeds this of ours.
The air ia so pure, the breezes so light, Tha zephyrs ao balmy at night, I would not exchange my home here to range Forever in azure so bright.
The chorus added by the Harlan orchestra:
A home, a home where the buffalo roam, Where tha deer and the antelope play; Where nevar is heard a discouraging word, And the sky is not clouded all day.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII
Fig. 1. The Old Dutch Mill built by Charles Schwarz in 1882 with the help of his brother. The two-room sod house was built in 1881. (Courtesy of Conrad Schwarz.)
Fig. 2. The Dutch Kill in the park in Smith Center, April 1960.
Fig. 3. The Charles Schwarz family, Golden Wedding, June 1921. Wr. and Mrs. Schwarz, Tillie, Emma, Henry, Conrad, and Herman. (Courtesy of Conrad Schwarz.)
Fig. 4. Officers of the Smith County Historical Society, 1959. Mrs. Margaret Nelson, secretary and author of the book, "Home on the Range," Emmet Womer, president, Ray Myers, Lou Felton, I. A. Nichols, and Walter Hofer.
Fig. 5. Geographic center of the forty-oight states near Lebanon, Kansas. (Courtesy of the Smith County Pioneer.)
Fig. 6. Smith County Memorial Hospital, Smith Center, Kansas, built 1951. (Courtesy of Mrs. Hattie Baker.)
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PLATE VIII
Fig.
Fig. 1
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKER
GEOGRAPHIC CENTER OF THE U.S.
THE
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX
Fig. 1. Kensington Band on board the U.S.S. George Washington, December, 1918. Personnel listed in text. (Courtesy of Mrs. Edwin Hilbrink, Phillipsburg, Kansas.)
Fig. 2. President Woodrow Wilson and Mrs. Wilson on board the U.S.S. George Washington. (Courtesy of Mrs. Hilbrink.)
Fig. 3. Daniel E. Kelley, pioneer of Smith County who wrote the music for "Home on the Range."
Fig. 4. The Higley cabin on Beaver Creek, Smith County, Kansas. Taken April, 1960.
Fig. 5. Dr. Brewster Higley, pioneer Smith County doctor who wrote the words of "Home on the Range."
Fig. 6. Relatives of Dr. Higley -- his son, Brewster Higley VII, grandson, Harry Higlsy, and great-grandson, Brewster Higley, of Shawnee, Oklahoma. (Courtesy of The Cattleman, Ft. Worth, Texas.)
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PLATE IX
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
EXPLANATION OF PLATE X
Story map of the song, "Home on the Range, " locating the high points of the history of the song. (Courtesy of The Cattleman.)
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PLATE X
STORY MAP OFTHE SONG "HOME ON THE RANGE" "
8:0 N3 HERE
BREWSTER HIGLEY WROTE THE WORDS TO THE SONG HOWIt ON THE RANGE"
2 DAN KELLY WROTE THE MUSIC HERE PROBABLY 18M4
SMITH CENTER
3
THE SONG BECAME POPULAR
KANSAS
OVER WIDE AREA DURING THE TEXAS MIFALO HUNT WHICH ENDED IN #77
DODGE CITY
------
$
4
THE SONG SPREAD OVER
OKLAHOMA (. " 1
AMARILLO
SHAWNEE
THE CATTLE COUNTRY AND ON THE CATTLE TRAILS FROM 1877 6 1890
1
CLANUN
WICHITA JFALLS
0
-
-
FT WORTH
O
FI GRIFFIN
-
1
ABIL ENE
C.LY
0
0
OSAN ANGELO
S
TEXAS
6
SAN ANTONIO
IN 1310 LOMAX PUBLISHED THE SONG AS SUNG BY THE OLD NEGROS IT HAS SINCE
7
BECOME KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE
** Courtesy of The Cattleman, Ft. Worth, Texas.
7
5 A NE GRO, A FORMER Coon ON ONE OF THE CATTLE TRAILS SANG THE SONG FOR JOHN A LOMAX HERE IN 1008
1
T
LAST GREAT, BUFFALO HUNI-
OKLAHOMA
BREWSTER HIGLEY DIED HERE IN 1911 RELATIVELY UNKNOWN
THE STORY
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XI
Sketches drawn by Mrs. Nettie Smith Chubb based on the song, "Home on the Range." Mrs. Chubb is a native of Smith Center.
PLATE XI Smith County's Own Song
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Written by Dr. Brewster Higley, pioneer physician, in his little homestead cabin near Smith Center in 1873.
Picture drawn by nettie Smell
(2. give me a home,
, give me a home where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and antelope play, Jere seldom is heard a discouraging word And the sky is not clouded all day.
CHORUS
A home, a home where the deer and antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word And the sky is not clouded all day.
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Laith Conter Town sito 1971
To-day
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CONCLUSION
The history of Smith County is typical of most of the agricultural counties in the north central part of Kansas. The wave of industrialism that swept over the United States passed by thie county and left it an agri- cultural section inhabited by the white race, as there never has been a record of more than fifteen Negrose in the county and in 1959 there were none. No Mexicans became permanent residents. The foreign population has always been a small percentage and in 1950 it was less than two per cent. The greateat gain in population was in 1875, three years after the organization of the county in 1872, with an increase of 4,500 people for a single year. The peak of the population wae in 1900 with 16,384 reported. From that date the popu- lation has steadily decreased with the greatest emigration from the county in the "duet storm yeare" of the 1930's. This ie in direct contrast to the state population recorde which have shown a steady increase in population. Smith County had more residents than the average Kansas county in 1900 but 6,570 fewer than average in 1940. The total population has leveled off the last ten years at about 8,000 people with 8,016 in 1959.
The basic source of economic wealth ie from agricultural production with corn the main crop until 1938. In 1938 the greater acreage harvested became wheat and it has remained eo since. A chief concern of the farmere is the weather. The key climatic factor ie the amount and variability of precipita- tion ae Smith County receivee an average rainfall of twenty-two inches which ie barely sufficient for crops if it comee at the right season of the year to be most useful. There have been many periods in the past when moisture was in- sufficient or came at the wrong time of year and drouths resulted. The Kirdin Dam Irrigation Project along the Solomon Valley may bring new wealth and
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security for a limited number of farmers in the county. There is little opportunity for such development elsewhere in the county because there are no other major waterways. Climatic hagards directly affected the entire economic structure of the county. This was seen in the exodus of settlers following the "Easter Blizzard" of 1873 and the "Great Blizzard of 1886." The roads were crowded with settlers returning East after the grasshopper invasion of 1874; however, many returned to their homesteads the following spring. Ths greatest number of people left, however, when the dust storms hit in the 1930's. Farm salas were held so frequently during 1937, 1938, and 1939 that two or three were scheduled daily. In 1930-1940 there were five times as many deeds issued to life insurance companies, the Federal Land Bank, Federal Farm Mortgage Company, and other companies as had been recorded to that time. In 1940 the Federal Land Bank and Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation secured deeds to 10,177 acres. If this trend had continued in the same proportion, Smith County would have belonged to companies in less than forty years, but it was reversed with the return of more prosperous conditions in the 1940's and farm- ers began re-purchasing farms.
Today Smith County is a local unit of prosperous, industrious people in 900 square miles of farmland. It is crisscrossed with a good system of trans- portation, two minor hard surfaced highwaye, one major highway, and two rail- roads. The county has three weekly newspapers, thirty-two operating school districts, four high schools, many rural and town churches, and nine towns ranging in population from 77 to 2,410. There are two tourist attractions, the Higley cabin built by the author of "Home on the Range," the Kansas state song; and the "Hub" or geographic center of the contiguous forty-eight states. Many natives of Smith County have won recognition for outstanding accomplish- ments in art, literature, politics, education, and other fields.
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Certain conclusions have been reached from this study.
1. Smith County settlers were motivated by a desire for homes and farm land. There is little record of cattle ranchers and none of range wars such as are found in many other counties.
2. Settlers came to Smith County as a result of advertising literature and due to the fact that many settlers came to the end of the railroad, then spread out over the frontier, the region of which Smith County was a part in the 1870's.
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