USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 4
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January 4, 1875, Higley was changed to Beaver, Holland to Lincoln, and the new townships of Cedar, Center, and Oak were added (sse Fig. 8). Smith County was divided into nine townships for at least six years during most of the early settlement. 30 In the early 1880's changes took place rapidly until many people were uncertain what township they did live in. Perhaps at this tims the custom grew to identify oneself with a particular community, usually centered around a littlo country store, school, church or post office regard- loss of the township. It is not surprising, in talking to the older inhabit- ante to have then refer to happenings in Twelve Milo, Oak Creek, Crystal Plains, Germantown, Cora, Spring Creek, or similar communities.
May 3, 1881, Harlan Township was created from part of Houston. On April 7, 1884, Cora Township was organized. Later townships created were Blaine, White Rock, and Logan, October 7, 1884; Martin, Crystal Plains and Valley on January 8, 1885; Webster, Washington, Banner, Garfield, Pleasant, Lane and Dor, July and August 1885. No subsequent change in the external
29 Old Settlers' Souvenir Booklet; Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection; inter- views with Trube hesss, one of Smith Center's firet settlers; A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 909.
30 Mrs. Margaret Nelson, op. cit., p. 108; Trube Resse, article published in Smith County Pioneer, Nov. 28, 1935.
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SMITH COUNTY, KANSAS
FEBRASKA
R XII
R XI
R XY
1. 1
GE.JAN
MARTIN
BEAVER
PAWNEE
LOGAN
F.
=
I
T.3
SHAN
PLEASANT
WASHINGTON
CORA
WHITE ROCK
L
L
I P S
F-
CEDAR
LANE
CONTER * Smith
BLAINE Dell'ire
DAK M Lebanon
Kensington
Center
Att.01
N
C 0
T.4
VALLEY
HARVEY
BANNEH
CRYSTAL PLA INS
U
Codor
N
&
r
Chlor
T.5
Harlan HARLAN
GARFIELD
LINCOIN
IN US TON
DOR
1
OSBORNE COUNTY
Figure 8. Townships as organized by 1885.
WEBSTER
Y
R XIII
BUTY
44
boundaries of the twenty-five townships, each containing 36 square miles or 36 sections of land has been made (see Fig. 8).31
At the special election, June 25, 1872, the poll books of all but Higley and Cedar were declared illegal. By the votes counted W. R. Allen, was elected county clerk, W. M. George, county treasurer, E. C. Benton, pro- bate judge, Breweter Higley, register of deeds, Mont Phillips, sheriff, and Levert Hibbard, W. Angel, W. D. Covington, commissioners. The bond of Charles Newman previously had been approved as Justice of Peace. Cedarville remained the temporary county seat with a vote of 77 to Smith Center 55, and Gaylord 22.32
In the meantime the Smith Center Town Company had been busy. It was & profitable enterprise to lay out the plat of a successful town. Land could be bought from the government for $1.25 an acre. A townsite one mile square -- 640 acree -- cost the promoters $800; laid out in town lots, eight to an acre and sold at $100 per lot, a profit of $798.75 per acre over the original $1.25 investment. A county seat town would have added assurance of success.
William George and A. J. Watson began the first building on the townsite May 10, 1872. Their helpers were L. T. Reese, John Goodale, and Hank Batch- older. It was a small building, 16 by 24 with a lean-to in the back, and was used by Wate George and his wife for a boarding house. It was built of green, heavy cottonwood lumber sawed by Hi Browning at his sammill on White Rock Creek, and hauled overland by ox teams. 33
31. Records in County Clerk'e office, Smith County Courthouse, Smith Center, Kansas.
32 Ibid .; Smith County Pioneer, Apr. 4, 1878.
33 This building was later sided with pine and continued in use for the "Hotel Kansas Central" until 1885 when it was converted into the Smith County National Bank. While & hotel it was used as a political headquarters for the county. March 13, 1898 it was moved to the Frank Blaylock farm one mile north of town to be used for a dwelling, and a block of new brick buildings was built across the place where it stood. Smith County Pioneer, March 17, 1898.
45
Smith Centre was a good name for the new town. It was located exactly in the center of Centre Township and exactly in the center of Smith County and in the center of continental United States. It was the only town in the township and the only post office town in the United States by that name. Aa far ae it known, Smith Centre is the legal epelling but ie never used now (1959-60).34
During that fall of 1872 people began to move in. Albert J. Allen be- gan a store with a stock of goods valued at $150; R. K. Smith had the second one with $300 capital stock. Both of these stores were located on the west side of the square, the Smith store on the corner, later occupied by the Firet National Bank, and the Allen store farther north. The third store was owned and operated by G. L. Gaylord, but later managed by Capt. J. S. McDowell. Several other business houses were coon built on the west and north sidee of the square. Among the early homesteaders who proved up on their claims around Smith Centre were S. S. Peeee, William Stevenson, Newton and David Hadden, R. A. Chandler, Frank Morgan, T. M. Hardacre, John Goodale, L. C. Uhl; Eli Stewart, C. S. Uhl, Martha Clark, G. B. Cordry, H. Ii. Springer, J. C. Harlan, Watie George, Albert Watson, L. T. Reese, E. M. Burr, Henry Batcholder, E. H. Ratliff, Thomae and W. B. Hardacre. 35
At the first general election in November, 1872, the most interest was in the vote for county seat. There were 425 votes cast and Cedarville claimed the victory. However, J. W. George, president of the Smith Centre Town Com- pany, persuaded the sheriff to go to Cedarville to get the county booke and
34 Ure. Hattie Baker, "History of Smith Center and Center Township." Un- published 100 page notebook of typed material and pictures gathered by Mrs. Baker in her newspaper work and loaned to the author for thie work.
35 From a map made in the Smith County Register of Deeds Office, Smith Center, Kansas, for Mre. Hattie Baker.
46
take them to Smith Centre. Sheriff Mont Phillips, and A. J. Watson went but ware met by about forty determined Cedarville men. At the show of force it was decided to hold a legal mesting. Phillips contended the election was il- legal and Cedarville was not the county seat. The answer was, "If the elsc- tion was illagal, than you are not the sheriff and havs no right to the county rscords." It was agreed that if the promised election in the fall of 1873 showed a majority for Smith Centre, the books would be sent up the day after the election.
Now the competition began in earnest. Tho Smith Centre Town Company used part of their money in the contest. George, who was president of the company, was running a hotel in Jewell. He kept a lookout for imigranta and told them the claims in the valley were all taken; he then directed them north to Tom Comstock who was superintendent of schools in Jewell County. He in turn would direct them to Smith Centrs where they would be located on claims free of charge. Will Jenkins, with a claim adjoining Smith Centre, worked in the printing office in Cawkar City. He was to meet all incoming immigrants there and direct them northeast to Crystal Plains, southeast of Smith Centre.
Tha Cedarville side had "a regular chain of land boomers" at various points along the Solomon River from Waterville, 130 miles east, engaged in steering immigrants to the valley to locate in the southern portion of the county and advising them not to go to the northern or central portion because the country was so rough they could not get through with wagons and the water supply was inadequate. The result of the elaction was a daoisiva 275 votaa for Smith Centre, Gaylord 92, and Cedarvills 81. The recorda were sent to Smith Centrs the next day as agreed and arrived in a shoe box.36
36 Mrs. Margaret Nelson, op. cit., p. 109; Mrs. Hattis Baker Collection.
47
Officers elected in the 1873 election ware: John T. Morrison, firet Representativa to the legislature; William M. Skinner, county clerk and register of deeda; J. C. Harlan, probate judge; Nick Clemens, sheriff; W. M. George, county treasurer; E. Hall, superintendent of schools, N. H. Withing- ton, surveyor; J. T. Burrow, clerk of the district court; J. M. Stephen, coroner; Vess Payne, Matt Wells, and Jeese Stranathan, commissioners. Levi Morrell was placed on the ticket for county attorney although a printer in- stead of a lawyer.37
In 1873, it was discovered that the town company as such, could not perfect titles to land and the company diesolved. Tha 640 acres of govern- ment land that had been set aside as a town cite was given up except one quarter section, including the east part of section 21 and the west part of section 22. Block 22 of the town plat wae reserved as a public square. . This was kept vacant for several years in hopes that a courthouse might be con- structed there. But when it seemed no funds would be available for a long time, the block was divided into lots and cold. All income from the sales was placed in a Court House Fund. 38
The courthouse story in Smith County is long and complicated due to delay and lack of construction funds. There was no courthouse from 1873 until early in 1875. If a trial was necessary, it was held in the Uhl building and otherwise the officers took care of their own books and records
37 Records in County Clerk's office, Smith Center, Kansas; Mrs. Hattis Baker Collection; He afterwards went to the Ozarks in Missouri and served as postmaster at Notch and ie the "Unkle Ike" in Harold Bell Wright's The Shepherd of the Hilla; Smith County ie in the Sixth Congressional District, Fifteenth Judicial District, Fortiath Senatorial, and Eighty-sixth Repro- sentative District of Kansas.
38 A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 909; Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection, op. cit.
48
in their homes or places of business. At an early election there was a proposal submitted to bond the county for $2,000 to pay current expensas, but it was defeated. Homesteadere, many of them recently diecharged from the Civil War, had very little with which to pay taxes. The first courthouse was the rented building of Col. C. F. Campbell. It had two stories and a cellar beneath, and was located at the northeast corner of the intereection of Main Street and East Kansas Avenue. Campbell had built it for a store early in 1873; shortly thereafter he was appointed register at the Kirwin Land Office which opened January 4, 1875. The store changed hands several times and the stock finally was moved out. It was then that it was rented to the county. County offices were on the first floor, a courtroom above, and the jail in the cellar. It was one of the best built buildings in the town. At the time the only lumber available locally wae green cottonwood sawed at the mill in Salem, so Campbell sent to Manhattan to get the kind of lumber he wanted. Hs employed six men, J. H. (Dick) Hill, A. J. Watson, Jim Logan, Glen Campbell, Jim Oatis, and L. T. Reese, to haul the lumber with teams and wagons. Jim Kindred, the blacksmith, made a novel device to hold prisoners in the jail which was really only a pit dug under the floor. Trube Reese described it as a "horse-powered tumbling rod ... dropped through the floor into the callar and imbedded into the earth, together with an iron clamp with hinge to go around the ankle and also there were leather puttees or leggings and a heavy chain and padlock." There was only one prisoner be- fore a complaint was filed that the device was a barbarity. He was a member of the notorious Jack Allen and Loss Miller horse etealing gang and was being held for state officers. In 1874-75 after the grasshopper invasion the jail was used by the army as a distributing room for the relief provisions of beans,
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bacon, flour, rice, potatoes, and coffee. 39
The first district court convened in Smith Centre on May 5, 1874, with Judge A. J. Banta presiding. Nick Clemens was sheriff and O. F. Sheldon, Clerk of the Court. The court admitted as eligible to practice as attorneye, L. C. Uhl, E. M. Burr, and Levi Morri11.40 A divorce was the first case on the docket -- Phebe Cisco asking divorce from John Cisco.
Agitation began in the early eighties to build a new courthouse. Block number 25 was purchased and plans begun for the new building. The contract for a brick structure was let in 1887 to James Boddy and John Crandall in the sum of $5,000 and construction began. Disaster hit when, after the eide walla were up and part of the roof on, the walls fell in. The material was damaged, the money gone, and the contractors ready to quit. The citizens of the town rallied to raise $1,000; in return they entered into a contract with the com- missionere to use the courtroom for entertainments. The building was finished and the county officere moved in the first of March, 1888. It was later de- cided to take the money to repay the amount subscribed from the general fund so the county would be sole ownere of the building. It was felt if the doors were opened to the public no other arrangements would be made for local amuse- ments. If the courthouse we used just for county affairs, Smith Centre would soon have an opera house. The county commissioners who faced this problem were A. D. Barnes, Ora Jones, and John Brown. The money pledged was returned and four men, E. S. Barger, Dr. D. W. Relihan, Falter Darlington, and H. H. Springer, who had planned to build adjoining business housee that year added
39 Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection, op. cit.
40 Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection, op. cit .; another source listed S. M. Com, G. W. White, and E. D. Morse but they may have come after this court term.
50
an upper story over all; this was called the "Opera House Block" for many years. The wide etairway that led to the auditorium is under the figure "1888" which may be seen es one drives through Main Street.
A new two-story jail, built of native stone at a cost of $3,995, was erected during the summer of 1893. It was located just east of the court- house, and remains in use (1959).
The old brick courthouse eerved ite purpose for thirty years. In 1917 the county residents and commissioners, Joe Wolfe, Ed Shields, and Emer Diggins felt the need of a larger structure and gave a contract for a new building to M. C. Brady of Beloit. The corner stone was laid June 23rd, with a parade, bands, and the Masonic Fraternities of the county in charge of the program.41 During construction, Smith County leseed the Odd Fellows Building on the west side of Main Street as temporary offices for the county officiale while the new courthouse was being built. 42
The new building, one of the finest in the state, was finished January 1, 1920. It was 97 feet long, 81 feet wide, and 47 feet high, and we con- structed of gray ozark granite up to the water table, from there up wae cream-colored Bedford stone. The flooring wae of tile, all the etairways were of marble, and the wainscoatings of tile. The total cost furnished completely was approximately $98,000 and was all paid for when ready to be occupied. 43
41 In the cornerstone were placed the Masonic Grand Lodge proceedings for 1918, list of the officers of all the Maconio Ordere of the county, roster of Smith County companies of Kansas State Guarde, copies of the Smith County Pioneer and Smith County Journal, names of the county officers, copy of the contracte, one penny and a five-cent piece dated 1867.
42 The Topeka Journal, January 25, 1917.
43 The above material on courthouses wes collected by Mrs. Ilattie Baker, and summarized by the author.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE I
Fig. 1. Joseph Cox, White Rock Township, first permanent Smith County settler. This picture represents four genera- tions: his daughter, Mrs. Nancy Upp; granddaughter, Mrs. Della Rice; and her daughter, Bernice Rice.
Fig. 2. First Smith County Courthouse, built in 1888. (Courtesy of Mrs. Hattie Baker.)
Fig. 3. Present Smith County Courthouse, dedicated in 1920. (Courtesy of Mrs. Hattie Baker.)
-
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PLATE I
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
CHAPTER IV
HOMESTEADERS AND HOMES
They crossed the prairies as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea To make the West, as they had the East Ths homestead of the free. John Greenleaf Whittier
During the summer and fall of 1872 and the beginning of 1873, more people came into Smith County for settlement. They came singly, in families, and in groups. This mass immigration was not a crusade of fanatics, or a raid of filibusters, or a promoted exodus, but the measured march of earnest men and women seeking homes and a future on the new frontier. The years of 1871- 1875 are a record of firsts in each part of the county, the first birth, the first marriage, the establishment of the first schools, first churches, first industries, the first post offices, the first doctors, all the things that go to changs the monotony of the prairies into flourishing farms and busy towns. That these people came with the earnest desire to build a homs is shown by the fact that, in nearly every community, there is a record of a school being organized a few months after settlement. Hand in hand with the school, one finds records of church services held in dugouts, stores, and even under tress on the creek bank until a church could be established, il- lustrating that these people were endowed with a genuine Christian belief and faith in God and the community and were not just transient speculators.
To record "first" events that happened in any particular community would not reflect the life of the county as a whols; however, there were some gen- eral characteristics that did apply to the development of Smith County.
53
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Where did Smith County settlers come from, what were their reasone for coming, and what were the population trends in the county, townships and towns? The heaviest increase in population in a short apan was from 1870- 1876 (see Table 4). The sources of the county's first settlers are disclosed in the state census returns of 1875. Smith County sottlere oume from twenty- eight states and territories, but apparently more came from Iowe and Illinois than from any other statos. This total would have been larger for these etates had the census considered birthplace instead of previous residence. The census in 1875 showed that of the 3,514 American-born in the population of 3,876, settlers came from the following states:
Arkansas
15 1
Massachusetts
6 6
Pennsylvania 10
California
Michigan
Rhode Island
8
Colorado
1
Minnesota
140
Tannesses
5
Connecticut
16
If soour1
365
Vermont 6
Illinois
495
Nebraska
279
Virginia
24
Indiana
123
Nevada
2
West Virginia
4
Iowa
1,407
New Hampshire
7
Bisconain
125
Kentucky
32
New Jersey
14
D.C. and Terr.
13
Maine
6
New York
60
Kansas
212
Maryland
1
Ohio
132
Nell Waldron, in a study of colonization in Kaneas from 1861-1890, found that "of all the states in the Union, Kansas ie perhaps the most misunder- etood. It is generally believed that Kansas is the offspring of New England."" The census figures in 1875 for Smith County followed the trend in the state and further supportod the Waldron thesis that Kansas was not settled from New England. In a similar vein Henry Staack found that more people went to Kansas from the etate of Ohio than from all the New England states combined.
1 Fourth Annual Report of the Kansas State Poard of Agriculture, 1875.
2 Nell B. Waldron, "Colonization in Kansas from 1861-1890," p. 151. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesie, Northwestern University, 1932.
3 Henry Staack, "Frontier of Settlement in Kansas, 1860-1870," p. 26. Unpublished M. S. Thesie, University of Iowa, 1925.
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In 1870 census showed that almost as many Kansans were born in Illinois. (Second in settlement in Smith County. See information on 1870 consus in Appendix.)
In the proportion of immigrants from foreign countries, Smith County and the surrounding north central countias differ from other areas in the stats in having a amallar percantaga. The Tenth United States Census (1880) showed the density of foreign population in Kansas that Smith County was in the area of 4%-10%. This area was in the northwestarn tier and the south- central part of the then settled countiss. There were approximately 28 countiss in tha 10%-20% area and approximately 7 in a 20%-34% area of immi- grant settlement. In studying the census reports, one finds that Smith County has had a decreasing percentage of foreign-born population since the original sixty-six settlers in 1870 (sse Tabla 3).
Most of the foreign-born settlers in Smith County cams from Germany, England, and Canada (see Tabla 2). Although the percentage of immigrants was amall, the contributions of these nationalities helped to form the characteristics for which the county is known today. The German element has always been the most numerous and has contributed much to the develop- ment of the western and northwestern areas of tha county. The first Germans settled on West Beaver Creek in 1871, namely, H. H. Granholz, H. Menshoff, L. Bierman, J. Rider, and A. Eldredge." By December, 1871, anough settlers had arrived to justify the establishment of tha Germantown Post Office with F. W. Wagner as first postmaster. Most Germans came to Smith County as in- dividuals but upon arrival sattled near other Germans. Whare ons Oerman
4 A. T. Andreas, op. cit., p. 909; Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1877-78, pp. 424-426.
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Table 2. Showing origin of foreign-born population in Smith County, 1875-1950 .*
:
Country
1875
1890
1900
1910
: 1950
:
Australia
--
4
--
--
Austria
--
-
2
31
1
Bohemia
-
9
26
--
--
Canada
64
125
80
58
16
Czechoslovakia
-
-
-
-
30
34
25
4
Denmark
England & Wales
70
172
246
91
7
France
-
1
--
--
-
Germany
120
406
467
389
94
Holland
-
53
58
38
2
Ireland
20
91
71
29
3
Norway
-
10
7
7
1
Poland
--
2
Scotland
10
33
28
15
-
Sweden
--
70
26
25
5
Switzerland
--
42
--
26
--
-
--
--
64
Mexico
North of Europe
36
--
--
--
--
South of Europe
19
-
-
--
-
Sweden, Denmark, & Norway
21
-
-
--
-
Other European
--
-
--
--
9
Others
2
-
--
8
11
* Federal and State Report# 1875-1950.
:
:
:
9
1
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settled, others seemed to soon follow.
Table 3. Showing population of Smith County by origin of birth."
Year
:
Native White
:
Foreign Born
:
Negro
:
% of Foreign Born
1870
57
9
0
15
1875
3,514
362
-
10
1880
13,002
881
25
6
1890
15,611
1,049
2
6
1900
15,384
999
1
1910
14,554
806
5
5à
1920
14,430
545
10
3.6
1930
13,161
374
7
2.8
1940
10,339
243
0
2.8
1950
8,682
162
2
1.9
" Federal and Stats Reports 1875-1950.
Thousands of potential emigrants were prevented from leaving their homes by the Civil War. After the Civil War "exaggerated stories of drouth, famine, and Indian outrages deterred many from seeking a home in the stats which was best known in Europe as ths 'home of the fres' until the early seventiss."> As Smith County was one of the counties just ahead of the frontier lins, as shown by ths progression of the United States Land Offices (Concordia 1871, Cawker City 1872, Kirwin 1875), it was one of the counties to receive a sub- stantial shars of this immigration, as well as the many Civil War veterans
5 Nell B. Waldron, op. cit., p. 14.
58
who had by this time returned home and found that the opportunities for land and advancement were gone in the more settled arese. The Kanese Pacific reached Junction City in 1868, and the Chicago Company secured free trans- portation for purchasers of Kansas Pacific land. Thie brought a stream of coloniets from Illinois and the Scandinavian peninsula into the valleye of the Republican, Smoky Iill, and White Rock Creek.
There was only one other foreign settlement in the county. That we the Hollanders who settled in colonies in parte of Deborne, Mitchell, Smith and Jewell counties and farther west in Gove and Sheridan counties. Waldron says that "Kansse traditione and institutions no doubt appealed to the Hollandere, but the Kansas climte did not. The Dutch farmer who controlled the water supply for his crope wae not eager to become a pioneer in the 'Great American
Deeert' .. However, a colony of emigrante settled in the northeast corner of Deborne County in 1871 and founded the little town of Rotterdam, later called Dispatch. ... Additional colonists made their homes on the other side of the boundary line in Jewell and Smith Counties. Oak Creek which makes fruitful this corner of the four counties became a Dutch stream. Some of them took land as far north ae Reamsville
Charles Schwarz wae the Hollander who built the now famous Dutch Windmill in the Reamsville area. B. F. Koope homesteaded on Oak Creek. He was almost penniless; however, he won a bride. As they were too poor to own a horse to . ride, they walked the twenty miles to Mankato, the county seat of Jewell County, to be married and their honeymoon trip was the twenty mile walk back to the homestead. "But they did not remain poor. Their wealth and family
6 Ibid., p. 97.
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Increased proportionally and finally, as their seven children came of age, the parente presented each of them with a Kansas farmin'
Next may be considered the question, "Why did settlers come to Smith County?" Due to no direct evidence, thie can be considered only in the light of what was true for the state as a whole in the early seventies. llow interesting it would be to have interviewed a representative number of the first five thousand settlers with the question, "Why did you choose Smith County, Kansas?" As has been mentioned, Smith County was settled dur- ing the period of abundance of land. If a farm failed to produce profitably, or there was not opportunity to expand, the occupante would often move to the frontier and take up new land. This is what so many returning soldiers did after the Civil War. The location of Smith County, as a part of the frontier at this time, wae inviting to immigrante hunting new homes.
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