USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 3
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Figure 5: Map of counties created by legislature in 1867, including Smith.
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Niter
GERMAN
Judaom
örkole
0
Hock
Boyddaville
Pawnee Ch
German tank
Sceda
Covington
CENTRE
CEDAR
applW
Conter
and
5
Corvallis
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west
Clifford
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Crystal Plaina
MoustON
LINCOLN
Cedarville
Gaylord
ry
Harlan
HARVEY
Cr.
(9)
da
Mater noaring Mill
Figure 6. Map of Sith County, Kansas, 187G.
Report of the Kangas SEate Board of Agriculture, 1878.
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1
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Union
chuter
East celar
ite
White Rock Cr.
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follow branches of the Republican into northern Smith County. These avail- eble routes caused the settlers to be widely scattered and often unknown to each other until much later.
The second reason is conflicting reports. As Mr. Headley said in a speech before the Smith County Historical Society,
In compiling the history of a state or county there will always be many minor and seemingly conflicting accounts. Amide from the meagre facte to be found in official recorde, many of the most interesting incidenta of the early settlement daye have been handed down by word of mouth from one generation to another. This is especially true of Smith County. In the rugged environ- menta of the early daye there was little incentive or opportunity to make a permanent record of the daily incidents which at the time seemed commonplace but which, from a historical standpoint, provided the foundation upon which the intimate history of those days could be assembled.
The first reference to any settlement in Smith County is found in the story written by Harry Salmons when he was about 75 years old. He said that he and his parents left England when he was ten years old. They came to Ft. Riley where his father hired out as coachman to Chaplain Reynolds. In 1867, they took a claim on the north fork of the Solomon near present day Gaylord. The father returned to Ft. Riley to work. Harry and his mother stayed on the claim, where they hunted wild game for food. His father claimed thie must be the grazing land of the main buffalo herd, but added that few people realized the immense number on the plains in the 60'e. He said he stood on a bluff above the Solomon and looked down the valley ten milee and all that met his gaze were buffaloes. 5
5 Harry Salmons, "Some Incidents of Pioneer Days," Spokane, Washington Chronicle, date unknown; cited in the Smith County Pioneer, Sept. 8, 1932.
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Horace Greeley in his Overland Journey described a similar sight between Station 10 which was located in Cloud County and Station 13 located at Kirwin. His observation covered an area across Jewell and Smith Counties.
Thence nearly all day, the buffalo in greater or less numbers were visible among the bottoms of the Solomon on our right - usually two or three miles distant. At length, about five in the evening we reached the crest of a "divide", whence we looked down on the valley of a creek running to the Solomon some thres miles distant, and saw the whole region from half a mile to three miles south of our road and for an extent of at least four east and west fairly alive with buffalo. There certainly were not less than 10,000 of them; I be- lieve there were many more.º
The first record of continuous settlement was of Joseph Cox, his wife end five children, who homesteadad on section 35, White Rock Creek, in what is now Logan Township, April 1869. His occupancy held the land and he never filed until a year later. He built a windowlees dugout in which the family lived for two years. In 1871 Cox built a log cabin which Mrs. Cox in later years described as "leaking like a sieve." Six more children were born to the Cox family in Smith County. Mr. Cox, an English coal miner from Penn- sylvania, was thirty when he came to Kansas and lived to the age of seventy- eight on his original homestead, giving him a "longer continuous residence in Smith County than any other man in 1912.#7
His son, Joseph Cox, Jr., was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and was six when he came to Smith County. He died July 1948, at the age of eighty-five years. He was able to tell many interesting stories of early life in Smith County such as a buffalo stampede by their dugout in 1869. Another time an Indian came to the door, entered, and aftar looking around,
6 Horace Greeley, op. cit., pp. 81-83.
7 Souvenir Booklet of Old Settlers' Association, 1912. Mrs. Jossph Cox died in 1902 and was buried in Oriole Cemetery, the oldest female eettler in Smith County at the time of her death.
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signified by motions that he wanted the coffee pot. Mrs. Cox gave it to him in spite of the men'e proteste that she would never see it again. The next day the Indians broke camp on White Rock Creek near the Cox home and started to leave in single file procession. As they went by the Cox dugout, one Indian left the line, galloped into the yard, and returned the coffee pot. Five years later the same Indian came into the Duckerville store (located four miles west of the Cox homestead) where Wr. Cox and eleven year old Joseph were standing. Recognizing them, he gave them a friendly greeting and putting his hand on Joseph's head, he said, "Papoose growed heap. " Some other members of the family were Mrs. Jess Green, one year old in 1869, Mrs. Nancy Upp, Mrs. Letitia Baylor, and Tom Cox.
The next settler in Smith County was probably Lotrip Darling, who ar- rived the latter part of September, 1869, and established a home on a claim about three miles southeast of the present townsite of Gaylord. Darling had made a journey across the plains from California where he had gone to hunt gold. He had gone to Califomia by ocean voyage around Cape Horn, then came to Smith County across the plains. lie filed on hie claim (now NW2, S19, Harlan Township) at Concordia, December 20, 1870, end being a blacksmith by trade, he quarried etone and built a blacksmith shop. He kept in repair the tools used in the first breaking of the sod along the Solomon Valley. He sold out in 1883 and went to Osborne, but returned to Gaylord in 1899 and
8 Told by Joseph Cox, Jr. and reprinted in the Smith County Pioneer, February 6, 1950.
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ran a hotel for awhile. 9
After these earliest settlers, there was a steady increase of arrivale in Smith County." 10 An examination of the records in the National Archives, Weshington, D. C., showed that the first twelve homestead entries for land located in Smith County were made by Josiah Crick, Henry M. Blue, Daniel Hopkins, Chancy Williams, James Thompson, G. W. Jeffrey, Clarence ELinn, Rufue Brown, Herman Potter, Bella Merrill, and Jamee Richard. However, an examination of the recorde at the office of the Register of Deeds, Smith Center, Smith County Kansas, showed that epparently only four ever received patents to the original homestead claims, namely: C. W. Jeffrey, Clarence BLinn, Victor Blinn, and Rufus Brown. Patents to the remaining claims were received by A. P. Heeter, Nancy Custer, John Wateon, Johan Mccullough, Hans
9 Smith County Review, September 3, 1936. In A. T. Andreas, op. cit., pp. 908-910, Lotrip Darling wąe listed among earliest settlers at Gaylord, reference was made to first white child born in county as Maggie Fowler, born June 16, 1871, on homestead of Lotrip Darling. Henry Abercrombie, one of the first Houston township officers elected, settled at Gaylord in early 1871. James Clydesdale homesteaded later in the spring of 1871. Clydesdale'e daugh- ter, Hrs. Dick Gedney, wrote a manuscript, based on material told her by Aber- crombie and her father that told Derling's story. This wee later published in the Smith County Review, Sept. 3, 1936. References are made in local nowe items in Gaylord newspapere (Geylord Herald) 1879-1883 and to his blacksmith shop which he ran until 1883. A letter from the County Clerk, Smith Center, Kansas, dated April 28, 1960, showed he received a patent to NW}, Sec. 19, T5, R. 13. The story of his arrival in Smith County and filing on the claime as described above wae given in the Souvenir Book, 1912, published for the Old Settlers' Association.
10 An attempt has been made to list these earliest settlers in groupe eccording to the eerliest possible records found with the supposition that people were living at the time who gave the information or personally knew the party mentioned. Birth recorde also supplied valuable information. Another problem encountered in accurately locating places of settlement was thet until 1885 Smith County wae divided into nine townships. Reports after 1885 generally located people in one of the twenty-five townships of the present county (see Fige. 6 and 7).
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Clemann, W. Sheppard, Alvin Culley, Charles Mccullough, George Kyger, James Clark, Julius Harris, Nm. Coop, and James McColm. 11
These first entries, considered alone, gave little idea of actual con- ditions, however, because many early arrivals had not yet made the long trip to Concordia to file on a claim. They were "squatters" for the time. Even written accounts disagree when a record of early settlers is examined and the above records do not correspond with homesteadere' records.
Rev. William M. Wellman, who wrote his speech while living in Smith County in 1876 and at a time that most of these people were still there, says L. B. Graves took out the first homestead papers January 8, 1870, but the claim wae later abandoned. Apparently this was one of the early homesteade, not the first. Since White Rock Creek, or Old Salem as it wae called, had one of the first permanent settlers, othere there may be mentioned first.
(1) This community12 was really on the Smith-Jewell County Line and,. without surveyed descriptions, it is practically impossible to separate the early settlers as to county. The west edge of the tom plat itself was only three-fourths of a mile inside Jewell County. Old Salem was the early trade center, post office, and community center for northeast Smith County and ae such is interwoven into its history. Settlere listed for 1870 are Bill and Henry Stone. B. F. Myers settled up the creek northwest in 1870. Some that
11 National Archives and Records Service, Washington 25, D.C. Section numbere and dates shown in a letter in the Appendix. Theee first twelve en- tries were made between October 29, 1870 and November 18, 1870. Final dis- position of land shown in letter in Appendix from Office of Register of Deeds, Smith County, Kansas. These entries, located after township organization, would be as follows: No. 1 to 5, Webster Township on Oak Creek; No. 6, Houston west of Gaylord; No. 7 to 9, Harvey Township north of Gaylord on Beaver Creek; No. 10, Valley Township on Solomon Fiver; No. 11, Harvey Township adjoining Cedar; No. 12, Garfield on Twelve Mile Creek.
12 These settlements are approximately located on Figure 7 by the deaig- nated numbers.
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errived in 1871 were the Hartman family, the Beardslee family, Charlie Prevost, Miles George, "Pickle" Smith, John Argyle, Fred Nueebaumer, Pete Heinline, Jos Jolly, Georgs Morrison, James Bailey, Henry Basford, Jaeper Bailey. Isaac N. Kimsey and Joel Bartlett homesteaded in the fall of 1870, then returned east for their families. Kimsey came back to settle two miles southwest of Salem with four sons, Michael, Jarrett, William, and Charles in September, 1871.13
(2) Another county line settlement was in the extreme southeast corner on Oak Creek, the first large tributary of the Solomon in Smith County, and was near the Jewell County settlement of Diepatch. Early settlers from Holland eettlsd on the east side of the road in Jewell County, but later ones esttled on the west eide in Smith County. Records indicate that John Deters, George Walbert, end John Renken arrived in 1869. Georgs DeBey and family came from Holland in 1869 and started West. They bought e covered wagon at Solomon City and "headed for Dispatch where other Hollandere had settled. #14
They arrived in 1871 and homesteaded in Smith County. Some arrivals for
October 14, 1870 were A. Stsgink, C. Klinkenberg, J. Wolberd, and J. Walters. In 1871, a funeral of a Mrs. DeYoung wae held in her dugout and burial wae made on the farm. A subscription school was started and held in a log house and the Dutch Reformed Church wae organized that year, with Minieter Deinger- man (or Dangermond), Elder Pster Klinkenberg, charter members John Deters, George Wiolbert, and Renken. Also arriving in 1871 were the familiee of Koop, Vander Giseen, Rychel, Kuiken, Snellers, D. Van Donge, Folger, B. Rosendale,
13 W. E. Kimsey, manuscript published Smith County Pioneer, March 8, 1956. He was a son of Isaao N. Kimsey.
14 Peter DeBey, son of Georgs Debey, in interview. Printed Downe News, August 3, 1939. A. Stegink lived to be 103 years old.
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Huiting, Van de Riet, Verhage, and Builstra. Sens Deters was born July 4, 1871.15 Higgins' Bluff, where the buffalo hunters were attacked by Indians and Higgins was killed is located about one and one-half miles from this early settlement. .
(3) In Webster Township, which is farther north on Oak Creek, Frank Barnes homesteaded February, 1870, but he did not prove up and it was taken by Martin Rychel. G. J. Van De Reit, Henry Bode and J. V. Lemen homesteaded March, 1870, as did two brothers-in-law, Samuel Mathei and Martin Sonnenberg. 16
(4) In the northwest part of Webster on Oak Creek there was another group of settlers around what was to become known as Porter's Ranch. Among them were Thomas and James Decker, May 13, 1871, and William R. Allen from Warren County, Iowa, who had a son, Elmer O. Allen, born September 15, 1871. William H. Porter was appointed postmaster at Porter's Ranch, December 28, 1871.17
(5) Another group of settlers in this area were J. K. Belk and Ambrose Oldaker, nho settled on Oak Creek north of the Dispatch group and south of Webster in Lincoln Township, May 1, 1870, and G. J. Peebles, October 20, 1870. Mrs. Martha (or Mary) Peebles is often named as the first white woman settlar in the county but dates apparently do not confirm this. The first birth in Lincoln Township was Joseph Stone, September 4, 1871.18
(6) LaGrand Stone was president of the New Haven Colony and led two hundred families from Connecticut to settle in the Solomon Valley and creeks draining into it. Stone first came to Kansas in 1869 with buffalo hunters and
15 Ibid.
16 Smith County Old Sattlars' Homecoming Souvenir Booklet, 1912.
17 First Biennial Report of State Board of Agriculture, Vol. VI, 1877-78, pp. 424-426.
18 D. W. Kilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 523; A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 908.
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camped at the mouth of what was later named Twelve Mile Creek. In 1870 he returned to Kansas and located his claim on Twelve Mile (section 30, Lincoln Township), then returned to Connecticut. In the spring of 1871 he started for Kansas with his family. Leaving them at Solomon City, he and other men started for their claims. Hs built a log cabin and mads other improvements, then brought his family to the claim in the fall. Stone saw a possibility for the stock business and bought Texas range cattle. In a few years his herds were ranging the Oak Creek hills. After living in the log cabin for five years, he built a frame house of lumber hauled from Hastings, Nobraska. "As it was one of the first frame houses in Smith County, people came for miles to see it." He paid nine cents a pound for the wire to build what was believed to be the first barbed-wire fence in Smith County. He also planted a large orchard. The first religious service conducted in this area was held by Rev. Balcom of the Baptist Church in an old granary that still stands on the home place. In later years he was justice of peace of Lincoln Township and married many couples in his home. He was responsible for getting a school district started, later known as Stone School. Kr. Stone died March 1922 at the age of nearly eighty-eight. His granddaughter and family, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wiersma, are living in the 83 year old house on the original home- stend. 19
(7) An area of settlement farther west along the Solomon River itself developed into the towns of Harlan, Gaylord, and Cedarville. Some 1870 ar- rivals in the fall at Gaylord were Peter J. Ott, John Rhodes, J. A. Scarbrough, William D. Street, C. E. Gaylord, S. D. Houston, William Burns, Amos Cutter,
19 Mrs. Martin Wiersma, manuscript written for Smith County Historical Society, published in part in The Downs News, March 31, 1960.
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Alex and Ceorge Parker, and William H. Kelley. The first grocery store was started in the spring of 1871 by C. P. Newell. George G. Hartwell, Sr. from Livingston County, Missouri, homesteaded on Drycreek. Baker and Keeler started the first grist mill. H. D. Pratt arrived and he and W. H. Kelley eventually built the Pratt and Kelley Gaylord Roller Water Flouring Mille at a cost of $13,000 in 1882-1883. William D. Street began the first store on the west side of Beaver Creek in a loghouse and had the first post office there June 2, 1871. William M. Skinner, Harry Abercombie, and James Clydes- dale arrived. Peter Ott, L. Darling, C. P. Hewell, B. Ballard, N. H. Worth- ington, Webb McNall, and C. E. Gaylord organized a Gaylord Town Company, January, 1871: The town was laid out and named "Gaylord" after C. E. Gaylord who had come from Irving. 20
Jeremiah Gilman came to the area in 1870, built the first frame house in Gaylord in 1871 and kept it as a hotel for five years. He hauled the lumber for his building from Waterville in Marshall County. The first child born at Gaylord and, as far as dates can be ascertained, the first one in Smith County, was Maggie Fowler, born on the J. Darling homestead either May 21, 1871 or June 16, 1871. 21
(8) Cedarville, the westernmost settlement on the Solomon in the 1870's, was first associated with a man named Billings, but little is known of him except he came in the fall of 1870. Another group of enterprising young men, James and John Johnston, Major John T. Morrison, A. H. Back, Andrew and Joseph Marshall, V. J. and B. S. Bottomly, are recorded as arriving October 12,
20 A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 908; Smith County Review, Sept. 3, 1936; W. X. Wellman, op. cit. C. E. Gaylord was the brother-in-law of Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy, Atchison.
21 Smith County Review, Sept. 3, 1936.
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1870, and locating the townsite of Cedarville at the mouth of Cedar Creek where it flowed into the Solomon River, October 25, 1870. On January 28, 1871 the papers were filed in the United States Land Office at Concordia in behalf of the Town Company of Cedarville. 22
John Johnston opened the post office in his store July 3, or a month after Gaylord's post office was established. It is related that when the mail arrived from the east it wae dumped into a big packing box and the settlers sorted through the box whenever they came in for any mail that be- longed to them or the neighbors. A government inspector happened along end notified the postmaster that the practice was illegal and must be discon- tinued. Johnston asked if it were legal for him to appoint deputies. He was informed that it was. When the inspector left, he called in the set- tlers who were accustomed to getting their mail there and deputized them as deputy postmasters; each continued to sort out his own mail.23 John- ston's salary was $12.00 a year, an amount based on the business of his post office.
(9) Apparently there was another settlement called Dresden near or on the Solomon where it left the county in Houston Township (now Garfield). It is known that a post office was established in the house of Sylvanus Hammond December 1, 1871, with him as postmaster.
(10) Settlers who came in the spring and fall of 1871 who did not come with any group include Elder M. E. (Elisha) Grover, A. R. Henderson, and Asma Walters, A. R. Barnes, Chesley Barnes, Levert and John Hibbard, George Roe,
22 Win. Wellman, op. cit .; Mrs. Margaret Nelson, op. cit .; A. L. Headley, op. cit .; Old Settlers' Souvenir Booklet, 1912.
23 A. L. Headley, op. cit .; John Johnston was later county treasurer.
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Sam Yarrick, Luny Walters, Davs Nelson, Sam Sweeney, Eleanor Robertson and her two daughters. These pioneers took claims in the Reamsville area or in the original Beaver Township. Lider Grover was a Missionary Baptist pastor and held church services in the Baptist Church in Cora, Shiloh Church, and at Porter's Ranch on Oak Creek. 24
(11) Cora, on a branch of White Rock Creek, had no record of settlers but the first echool was taught in the winter of 1871-1872. School organi- sers were 5. M. Cupp, Julius Nelson, George Buckley, and Matt Duckworth, so they must have settled near there. Julius Nelson became postmaster there, December 11, 1871.
(12) There was an early German settlement, with Germantown as the cen- ter, on the branches of Cedar Creek in the extreme west part of the county in what was then north Cedar and south German Townships. Recorded as arriving January, 1871, were Hi. Menshoff, L. Dinman (or Bierman), Jake Rider, Abe Eldridge, and H. H. Craurholtz and wife. 25 Frederick Wagner, his wife, and her parents, Mir. and Mrs. Michael Emme came June, 1871. Their daughter, Anne Wagner, was born December 15, 1871. William and George Wagner also came in 1871. Frederick Wagner opened a general merchandise store in April and was made postmaster December 18, 1871.26
(13) The organization began for Smith Centre in 1871, but there was no settlement until 1872. The legal spelling of the name was "Smith Centre" on
24 Mrs. Margaret Nelson, op. cit .; A. R. Barnes, unpublished manuscript dictated by A. R. Barnse for the Smith County Historical Society. The author has a copy.
25 H. H. Graurholtz was also listed as H. H. Grauerholg and H. H. Granholz. It is assumed they are one and the same since no two are listed together.
26 A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 908; Mrs. Margaret Nelson, op. cit.
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the town charter, but the spelling "Smith Center" was used interchangeably from 1873 and more frequently as time passed. In September, 1871, the Smith Centre Townsite Company was incorporated with a capital etock of $12,000; 120 sharse at $100 each. The charter members were R. W. Reynolds of Belleville, Dr. Roe, R. A. Wileon, W. E. Stone, John W. George, and his eon Wate George, all of Jewell County. Tom Comstock of New York was ths principal promoter. The first building was not begun until May, 1872, so ite growth will be treated in a later section. 27
(14) Southeast of Smith Center, probably close to Spring Creek, the Thomas Lane family and Anthony Roberteon family filed on claims about July 22, 1871. A son was born to Wr. and Mrs. Christopher Noggels on August 25, 1871. They had arrived in this area June, 1871.
Other early residents in Smith County by 1871, but no definite location given, were J. T. Burrow, J. F. Albright, Charles Stewart, T. J. Tompkine, Charles S. Myers, H. A. Barb, C. B. Harlan and parente, L. Kirkendall, N. J. White, Sr., George Windscheffel. Undoubtedly there are many more who had settled on the creeks and river in isolated areas of which there are no written recorde.
By January 1872 it was believed that enough settlers were in residence to meet the legal requirements of six hundred inhabitants necessary to for- mally organize the county. An informal censue was taken which ehoved more than six hundred, although oldtimere contend ths animale had namee oo were counted. A committee was appointed to appear before Judge Carnahan at Con- cordia, armed with a petition, asking for the organization of the county. By
27 Mre. Hattie Baker Collection, op. cit .; A. T. Andreae, op. cit., p. 909.
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the following proclamation from the governor, James M. Harvey, February 1, 1872, Smith County was duly organized:
Whereas: It appears from the records in the office of the secretary of the state, that a census of Smith County has been taken, according to law, properly sworn to by three resident free- holders of said county, showing a population of over six hundred (600) inhabitants, citizens of the United States, and
Whereas: More than twenty inhabitants, freeholders in Smith County, have petitioned for the appointment of three special county commissioners and one special county clerk, and having selected Cedarville as the place for the temporary county seat, of Smith County, now,
Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me, as Governor of the State of Kansas, I, James M. Harvey, have appointed and commissioned the special county commissioners and clerk asked for, in that petition, and do hereby declare Cedarville, the ta- porary county seat of Smith County .... Done at Topeka, this First day of February, A.D. 1872.28
German
Higley
Pawnee
Cedar (Harvey)
Houston
Holland
Figure 7. The original township division.
28 Hangs in the County Clerk's office, Smith Center, Kansas.
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Temporary county officers appointed wers James Il. Johnston, clerk; James Anderson, Frederick Wagner and George Marshall as the Commissioners. John Johnston had opened a small store in Cedarville April 17, 1871, and 88 such it was the town meeting place. Here the first commissioners' meet- ing was held March 9. James Anderson never qualified. They met again April first and formed townehips for voting precincts by dividing these into half. These townshipe were named Pamse, German, Holland, Houston, Higloy, and Cedar (changed to Harvey May 22, 1872).29
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