USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
21 U. S. Census, 1880, p. 298; U. S. Cansus, 1890, p. 259.
89
and they favored regulation of industry and political reform.
Kansas rode the crest of the Populist wave which in 1892 swept a large Populist majority into the state legislature. Five of the ten Populist candidates elected to the National Congress that fall were from Kansas, thie being one half of the Kansas delegation in Congress. Smith County waa a banner county in the Populist movement with a six to eight hundred majority in the vote in the county year after year. Col. Joe Wright, editor of the Cora Union, wua candidate for Lieutenant-Governor one year, and George Smith, a noted Populist from German Township and active business man of Kensington, served in both branches of the legislature.
A. L. Headley wrote that "'it would be difficult for anyons not living at that period to visualize the huge outdoor mass meetings attended by thousands of farmers .... These meetings approached religious revivals in fervor and ardor."" lor.»22 ¡ William Miller of Lebanon vicinity, his son and two daughters organized a quartette and parodied popular songe as "Goodby, ny lover, goodby." They sang,
"The ship of state must round the bend, Goodby, old party, goodby! It was loaded down with G. O. P. men, Goodby, old party, goodby .... "
Their services were in constant demand all over Smith and neighboring counties.23
22 A. L. Headley, unpublished manuscript, Kansas State Historical Library.
23 ztta Beardalee, Lebanon's Golden Jubilee, 1887-1937.
90
By 1899 the worst of the depression had begun to lessen.
George Evans, principal of the Cadar schools reports that city je enjoying a building boom. The bank is in a new brick building, the mill, idle for months, is again in operation and many of the property owners are putting in new sidewalks. The Missouri Pacific officials claim that more businese is done at Cedar than any place between Downs and Edmond.
Corn up in Beaver Township ie making 30-50 bushels to the acre on farms owned by John Morrison, George Stelling, and Frank · Biehn. 24
With the return of better times the Populist Party loet its support. People were tired of reform and economy. By 1904 Populiam had faded even in Kansas. That year saw a record number of Socialist votes in the state, which indicated where diegruntled party members turned. There is no evi- dence that this movement ever won such support in Smith County. There wae a leaflet printed by M. L. Lockwood at Lebanon October 15, 1908, called The Important Cuestion in which he expressed the opinion that it would be a calamity if the Socialists took over the government.
In 1900 the heading in the Pioneer over the picture of E. W. Agnew said,
Our New Sheriff. The First Republican to be Klected in Smith County in the last ten years. There ie considerable boasting in this issue of the Pioneer over the Republicans cutting into the Populist ranks in the election and over the majorities of Populist candidates being cut from around 900 a few years before to about 100.25
There was one movement that spread over Smith County in 1901 and more or less persists and that was prohibition. Many people held strict vieme on
24 Sixty Years Ago items in the Smith County Pioneer, Nov. 26, 1959.
25 Smith County Pioneer, January 11, 1900. Smith County voters have al- ways been predominantly Hopublican except the years of Populist majorities over Kansas, and during the "dust storm" years of the early thirties when economic conditions again led the shift to the Democratic Party. The county officers were so consistently Republican that Jules Jarvis, probate judge for twenty- four years and the only Democrat elected year after year, put a special "thank you" in the paper one year to the voters for ignoring the party he belonged to and voting for him personally.
91
the prohibition movement even before it became a etate issue. Smith County residenta boaet that there never was a licensed euloon within the bordere of the county. In 1901 the Kansas State Temperance Union urged a general up- rising in an anti-liquor crusade. Fifty Smith Center citizens maeeed together and gave "jointkeepers twenty-four hours to get out of town."26
In 1901 the weather was again the dominating feature in the county. There was a drouth in the summer. Prolonged and excessively high temperaturee dur- ing July averaged hotter than ever before recorded. These records held until 1934. The 1901 drouth apparently was not too damaging financially because in 1902 twenty-two of the twenty-five townships and three fourths of the school districte were free of debt. Aleo receipte at that time for the Rock Island Railroad Station were $90,000, and deposits in the banke were one third of a million dollars with #265,000 in the First National Bank at Smith Center. 27 The first decade in the 1900'a wae profitable in Smith County. Thie ie re- flected in the number of owner-operated farme. The Federal censue of 1910 showed there were 2,535 farms in Smith County, with 1,607 or 63 per cent operated by owners and 921 operated by tenante. Owner farms free from mort- gage numbered 920. Pricee received for farm producte were high. Under the date line February 17, 1910 the Pioneer wrote: "Hogs sold for $8.90 a hun- dred in Kansas City Monday, the highest price ever paid in that city. Hogs sold in Smith Center Tuesday for $8.25."
The State Weather Bureau reported that a period of decided deficiency in rainfall began in 1910 and continued until 1918, except 1915, one of the
26 Kansas State Historical Society, Annale of Kansee, p. 335.
27 Office of County Clerk, Smith Center, Kansae; financial statements of the banke of the county, ae published in the county papere, 1902.
92
wettest years on state-wide record. 28 There were also unusually heavy snow- falls in the spring of 1912. Trains had not run through Lebanon or Smith Center for some time, then another blizzard hit March 13-14 with high winds drifting the snow. Drifts fifteen to twenty feet deep were påled in the Rock Island Railway cut east of the station. When the snowplow came through March 16, a crowd was there to see it. In the crowd was twelve year old Harry Agnew, who became separated from the others, was buried under the snow and suffocated. 29
The fifteen years from 1900 to 1915 saw the introduction of a commercial fruit and cider industry and the first known irrigation in Smith County by J. B. Polka who had settled on a farm two miles north and two miles east of Smith Center in 1891. In 1894 he had planted nine acres of the farm to apple trees and in 1904 five more acres were planted. Mr. Polka's inventions helped overcome the climatic hazards and increase production. In the spring during blossom time it was necessary to have orchard heaters in the Smith County climate. Polka drew his own specifications and had 1,200 constructed. These were placed at two rod intervals through the orchard. An unusual windmill was built for additional watering. Durl Armstrong helped make the base -- a building eight feet wide, eight feet high, and sixteen feet long with a small tower on top and a wooden wheel mounted on top of the tower, all made on the farm. The water was carried over the orchard by a tile system. This is the first known irrigation in Smith County. The average apple yield was two to three thousand bushels. The largest crop, in 1915, was about five thousand bushels. Some of the apples were made into cider in a mill on the farm which
28 s. D. Flora, op. cit., p. 1.
29 Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection.
93
could press fourteen bushels at once. Nost of the orchard was killed out during the drought of the 1930'8.30
The years 1915-1919 meant prosperity to Smith County if one may judge from the newspapers. From Gaylord: A quarter homesteaded for $216 in 1872 was worth $16,000. (October 2, 1915.) From ths Topeka Journal:
To live and do business in the banner corn county of the state for 1915 is an honor. In round figures the farmers of Smith County raised about eight million bushels. There is an estimated 50,000 bushels of corn in the three elevators besides the cribs dus to shortage of grain cars. E. C. Wolfe who oper- ates one elevator has 25,000 bushels of corn and 15,000 of wheat in sight and no cars.31
The same article also listed the aggregate deposits of the two banks at $391,853. There had been 150 autos sold in 1915 and except for the shortage more would have been sold. A. E. Crosby had started a garage in August and already sold fifty Fords.
The year 1920 saw a reduction in the corn acreags harvested end prices declining but the cost of farm machinery, wages, and freight rates increas- ing steadily.
1919 wheat harvested 130,264 acres; corn 138,592 acres
1920 wheat harvested 89,867 acres; corn 100,123 acres
30 Summarized from material prepared by Mrs. Hattie Baker and obtained by her from a son, Ed Polka, Riverton, Nebraska. J. B. Polka lived on this place until his death in 1928 and Mrs. Polka until her death in 1949. They reared nine children, two of which still live in Smith County. After the parents' death the farm was sold to Harry Resse, son of Trube Reese who home- steaded one mile west of the Polka land. In 1910 Mr. Polka started a herd of registered Aberdeen Angus cattle, probably the first registered Angus in the county. He used as his farm name "Applewood Angus Farm" and a son, Ed, uses the same name at Riverton, Nebraska in 1959. In 1911, J. B. Polka purchased what was believed to be the first tractor in Smith County. It was a Rumly Oil Pull 25-45 horsepower and wae used for threshing.
31 Topeka Journal, January 29, 1916.
94
A depression in values of farm products continued in 1921 but 1924 was a banner corn crop year and twice the acres of wheat in 1923 produced over three times the crop. In 1927 the state harvested more acres in field crops than ever in history and Smith County was no exception. Some average prices for 1927 in the county were wheat $1.17, corn 644, potatoes 894.32
Beginning with the thirties are years that will rank in Smith County history with the Grasshopper Year of 1874. It was a period of constantly decreasing returns in farming. One of the best wheat crops in history in 1930 dropped to the poorest in 1932. Prices spiraled downward in spite of declining yields.
Table 6. Comparative average prices in Smith County, 1930-1932.
:
Crop
1930
1
1931
1
1932
1
1
wheat
$ .63
$ .34
$ .29
Corn
.64
.29
.15
Potatoes per cwt.
.87
.61
.32
Hogs per cwt.
8.00
3.40
2.40
Beef cattle per cwt.
7.40
4.90
2.40
The great drouth or family of drouths began the latter part of June, 1930 with a period of almost two months of excessively hot dry days. One of the driest years on record was 1933 and July set all records over the state for hotteet days. In 1934 there was intensive drouth, record breaking
32 Biennial Reports of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1920-1928.
95
heat and frequent dust storms, but 1935 topped them all.
The dust storms began in the spring of 1935 that led to the nama of "Dust Bowl" for Kansas and Smith County was affected. Many days the tele- phonad warning would come ahead, "The dirt is coming !" Schools would ba hastily dismissed; people would close up houses and businessas. Smith Countians will always remember the chickens going to roost at ton in the morning because it was dark as night, of fathers rushing to school to get the students and sometimes not making it home in the car because the dirt got too thick to see to drive, of washing tha chickens' nostrils because they were clogged with dirt, helping put adhesivs tape around all the win- dows to try to shut out the dirt, but still it would lay in ripplos across the floor after the storm, of seeing the top of fence posts or maybe the lover of a piece of machinery sticking out of the dirt drifts.33
In April, 1935 dust was carried in the upper air currents to the Atlantic seaboard. Dust storms continued intermittently in the spring of 1935 and other seasons of 1936 to 1939 inclusiva.
As if dirt storms were not enough, excessively heavy rains fell in May and June, 1935, causing floods. Then there was excessive heat in July and August, a wet fall and early winter. Early in 1936, dirt cams again! The story was about the same in 1937, only now aggravated by grasshoppers. They stripped whols cornfields when they cams in on the wind from tha south- west in June, ats the wheat as soon as it sprouted in the fall and again in the spring. Poisoned mash was scattered on the whsat fields in hopes of
33 This is a personal racollection of the author who was in school at this tims.
96
stopping them. By now the empty farmsteads over the country were making it look forlorn, and the papers hardly had room for news between the sale adver- tisements.
The year 1938 was unfavorable for crops; there were more acree of wheat but fewer bushels produced. Corn was a little better although there were fewer acres harvested. 34 Thus each of the ten summers ending idth 1940 averaged above normal in temperature with those of 1930 and 1934 especially hot -- years that no ons who lived in Smith County, Kansas will ever forget.
Charles Easterly, Fort Hays State College, made an intensive study of land ownership in Smith County for 1900-1940 and found some very interest- ing trends. The number of farme in Smith County decreased from 2,834 in 1900 to 1,963 in 1940, or a 30.7 per cent decrease. The population decrease was 35.4 per cent in the same period. The greatest decrease in both farms and population was from 1930 to 1940. Up to 1920 farms from 100 to 174 acres were the largest group; since then it was the 260-499 acres group; the num- ber of 500-999 acre farms increased from 75 to 202; and the 1,000 acre farma or ovar increased from one in 1910 to 19 in 1940. The average sise farm in- creased 40.5 per cent. The number of farms decreased but so did the number of owners from 1,445 to 608, part ownere from 506 to 421, and the number of tenants increased from 799 to 1,061 in 1930, but dropped to 932 in 1940. This increase in tenancy can best be explained when the records of deeds and mortgages are studied. The number of warranty and quit claim deeds decreased, but the number of sheriff's deeds increased enormously since 1930; in fact, 800 per cent in ten years from 1930 to 1940.
34 Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1937-1938.
97
In 1940 there were over five times as many deeds or seven timss as much acreage granted to life insurance companies, federal land banks, banks, mort- gege companies, etc. as there were in 1900:
Warranty deeds to companies,
banks, etc., 1940, 19 for 3,460 acres.
Sheriff's deeds, 1940, 60 for 10,737 acres.
There were 17,460 acres deeded in different ways to insurance companies, mortgage companies, banks, etc. in 1940, although the first record of large tracts being so deeded were in 1937. Easterly suggests if such practice continues during the next forty years, practically all the land in Smith County will belong to companies, and especially the Federal Lund Bank, to whom most of the deeds were granted. In 1940 alone the Federal Land Bank and Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation secured deeds to 10,077 acres. There were 67 foreclosures in 1938. However, a decade like the thirties may never hit the farmers egain.35
The forties and fifties dulled the bad memories and restored some faith among the people. The years 1941-1942 saw a return to more normal rainfall beginning to restore subsoil moisture. The largest wheat crop on record and the best corn crop since 1932 was raised in 1942. The value of wheat har- vested doubled from 1941 to 1942. In the year 1944 agriculture production and prices reached an all time level. During 1945 and 1946 there was an attempted adjustment from war to peace. The big wheat crop in 1946 was made on 4,000 fewer acres but had a greater money value due to high prices. Wheat production was low in 1949 -- 770,000 bushels but in 1950 a record breaking
35 Charles C. Easterly, "The Trend of Farm Population and Land Ownership in Smith County, Kansas, 1900-1940," pp. 22-69. Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Ft. Hays Kansas State College, 1941.
98
1,771,000 bushels were raised and livestock production was high in the county 36 Also attempts were mads at artificial rainmaking, and television antennaes be- came common as did home freezers with the expansion of Rural Electrification Associations. Self-propelled combines rolled into the fields and airplane spraying for weeds helped wheat production. Irrigation projects on the major waterways became topics of the day.
Due to the severe drouth in the thirties, the first interest was mani- fested in a proposed irrigation project on the Solomon River. So the prelim- inary meetings were held in 1932. By November 15, 1945 the required number of signers was secured and petition filed with the Chief Engineer of the Water Resources Board. It was granted April 20, 1948. On June 29, 1950 a charter created the Kirwin Irrigation District No. 1, the first district in the state of Kansas for irrigation. The district officers were G. W. Caldwell, Harlan; Perry L. Sweat, Smith Center; Floyd Freeborn, Gaylord. The disastrous flood of 1951 led to an appeal for the dam and the first appropriations were made in 1952. 37
The town of Kirwin near the new dam was named for Col. Kirwan, Commander of Camp Kirwin, established for protection of the settlers from the Indians. The United States Land Office was located there from 1875 to 1893.38
Tho dam is planned to provide irrigation for 11,500 acres of the river valley (see Fig. 10) most of which is in Smith County. 39 What effect it will
36 All statistics for the 1940's taken from the Biennial Reports of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1941-1950.
37 "First Efforts to Build Dam at Kirwin Dates Back to 1932," Phillipe County Review, June 9, 1955.
38 Kirwin Dam Dedication, June 10, 1955, compiled by the Phillips County Review, Phillipsburg. At the dam dedication, June 10, 1955, the direct descend- ants of Col. Kirwan, nine year old James, and Nancy, seven, were honored guests. They were the great-great grandchildren of Col. Kirwan.
39 Kansas State Board of Agriculture Biennial Report, 1956-1957, p. 6; all statistics in this chapter not otherwise specified were obtained from the Kansse State Board of Agriculture Reports and Federal Census Reports, 1872-1957.
99
have on the historically important settlements of Gaylord, Harlan, and Cedar remains to be seen. Undoubtedly it will increase total production and bring new money into the county.
During the year 1955 farm pricee averaged only 84 per cent of parity - the lowest in fifteen yeure and on a continual decline. Dry weather in 1953 continued into 1954 and while not serious, it caused crops below average and hurt many farmers. Smith County followed the national and state trend to larger and fewer farms due to advanced mechanization, increasing costs of production, and lowered farm income, but this also caused a decrease in tenant operation. There wae 30,000 acres less wheat harvested in Smith County in 1955 and a drop of 41,000 acres in corn, meaning a big drop in cash income of nearly 16,000,000 for the county. "The rains came in 1957, bringing at least temporary relief to a thirsty Kansas agriculture that had been parched by the
driest five-year period in history. 40 Farm product prices in 1957 equalled the lowest levels since 1940 and pricee paid by the farmers ware near an all- time peak.
What the future hae in store for this High Plains county with no other apparent resources except the soil and the whim of the climate will have to be consigned to the faith that the homesteaders seemed to find in their "Home on the Range."
40 #19,500,000 Kirwin Dam Dedicated in Western Kansas," To the Stars, Kansas Industrial Development Commission, July-August, 1955, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 24-25.
100
Table 7. Farm statistics for Smith County, Kansas, 1873-1956 .** All numbers are in thousands, after 1878.
Year
:
wheat acres
:
acres
Cattle
Hogs
Horses
1873
259
7,173
1,230
536
695
1874
52
15,231
2,915
2,984
1,421
1876
743
19,052
1878
5,132
24,521
4,272
14,078
3,452
1880
23
77
1882
5
74
6
20
5
1884
15
77
10
32
6
1886
16
94
16
56
8
1888
5
77
18
30
10
1890
7
2
22
52
13
1892
35
113
20
34
12
1894
58
140
13
37
12
1896
26
189
10
37
12
1898
34
196
19
75
12
1900
51
179
31
70
12
1902
119
144
24
12
1904
67
166
28
61
12
1906
64
175
30
74
14
1908
76
166
17
55
15
1910
69
172
24
43
15
1912
82
170
17
44
16
1914
94
160
21
40
17
1916
74
192
29
39
17
1918
83
168
24
27
16
1920
90
160
27
27
15
1922
76
154
26
45
13
1924
79
164
26
50
12
1926
69
191
21
30
12
1928
82
184
16
38
10
1930
85
190
25
37
11
1932
71
187
27
44
10
1934
53
158
40
32
9
1936
75
171
18
12
7
1938
172
53
13
10
6
:
Corn
.
.
101
Table 7. (Concl.)
:
Year
:
Wheat acres
:
Corn acres
t
Cattle
Hopa
Horses
1940
68
36
14
15
6
1942
100
85
23
12
5
1944
83
140
30
56
6
1946
113
97
36
23
6
1948
115
84
34
23
5
1950
123
73
32
25
3
1952
141
74
44
26
2
1954
105
66
45
14
1
1956
100
25
42
13
1)
:
Kansas State Board of Agriculture Reports, 1873-1956.
IGlade
T.irwin
Limin f-nel>
Wander
Reservis
ifuin Dem
enhiver
Gaylord
Lightly 183 to Willivimos
Highmy 281 to Smith Center
2
Carl. n
!
1
Phillips County
1
-
-
-
Tools County
Osborne County
Portis
Swith __ inc
Canal.T
Figure 10. Kirvin Dam Project and Irrigation Canals.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE III
Fig. 1. Dust cloud rolling in, 1935.
Fig. 2. Dust storm in Smith County, 1935.
Fig. 3. Rock Island snowplow which buried Henry Agnew while opening drifts at the city limits of Smith Center, March 16, 1912.
Fig. 4. Pile of wheat on the pavement in front of the high school in Smith Center, 1937. Approximately 100,000 bu. in pile.
Fig. 5. Irrigation canal from Kirwin Dam, southeast Smith County.
104
PLATE III
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
T
T
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
CHAPTER VI
COUNTY SIDE-LIGHTS
During the ninety years since the first settlers began to arrive in Smith County, many changes havs been wrought. The image has changed from Indians, buffalo, and grasslands to prairis schooners and ox-teams; then as though on a moving screen are seen dugouts and sodhouses, the breaking plows of homesteaders, puffing trains, schools, churches, businesses, lusty politics, fields of grain, trucks, streetlights, television antennaes, stream- lined trains, and mechanized farms in swift progression. Through the ganera- tions that saw thase changes are found namse of people, occasions and places that have become institutions, incidents of fun and fellowship, of sentiment and tradition. These varied names or incidente are not related to each other except through the ties to a geographical area or through the interested and interesting people of Smith County, yet they have a place in the history of the county. That it would be impossible to mention all the names -- if they could all be found - of the people who settled, evan the early pionsere, or of the noteworthy incidente happening every year, can readily be ssen. Only a few topica can ba given to show a trend of the times or record some out- standing evente or mention a few persons who contributed more than average. Such descriptions are frequently representative of other Smith County families.
Newspapers
In the same category with schoola, churches, roads and mail, newspapers are ranked as a badga of civilization. Available copias of the first Smith County newspapere show that local news consisted mainly of opinions on elections, politics and personalities concerned with politica. Men, campaigning for
105
106
township officee rated more space in the columna than state candidates do in the twentieth century and a candidate for county office was front page news for monthe. There was apparently little attention given to libel for the newspapers entered into controversies of the day and pulled no punches, whether discussing politics or personalities.
The Smith County Pioneer, the first paper in the county, was first pub- lished at Cedarville, supposedly under a cottonwood tree, by Mark Kelley on October 30, 1872. It informed the people of the action of the county com- missioners in dividing the county into townships in preparation for the first election. It was distributed by riders to locations having grist mills, sor- ghum presses, or centrally located claims to be circulated to the residents of the county. It was declared to be the "most westerly located newspaper pub- lished in Kansas" at the time. The Cedarville Town Company purchased the Pioneer in 1873 to press their campaign for county seat. In the next few months it was edited successively by Mark Kelley, Lew Plummer, and W. D. Jenkins. In the fall of the same year, it was sold to Levi Morrill, who moved the equipment to Smith Center, since it was definitely decided on as the county seat. In October, 1874, he sold it to Will D. Jenkins, Jr. who in 1878 changed the name to the Smith County Kansas Pioneer. When he took it over, the circulation was 140 copies and he increased it to a "bonafide subscription list of 1,300 cash paying subscribers. 1 He sold it to W. H. Nelson and J. N. Beacom who shortened the name to Kansas Pioneer. In 1887 Nelson and Beacon dissolved partnership. Beacom continued the Kansas Weekly
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.