USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. I > Part 27
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hostile tribe, but next day the chiefs of the hostile tribes came back unarmed, and agreed to listen to the message brought by Mathewson from the Great Father; they all consented to come in, provided the chiefs of the other tribes would also come, so they sent runners out to bring in the chiefs of the other tribes to the Kiowa camp so they could all consult together, and they went with him to meet the Superintendent of Indian Affairs and other officials to make arrangements for a future council. The council was held between the Big and Little Arkansas rivers. The Commissioners appointed by the President to treat with the Indians were four Generals of the United States army, one sena- tor and two congressmen, Kit Carson and Col. A. G. Boone, nephew of Daniel Boone. After the council treaty was agreed to, and made to satisfy all, the documents being signed by all parties.
The Indians told the Commissioners there was another treaty they wanted to make the next day, so on the following morning at nine o'clock, they again met in council; the Commissioners asked them their wishes, and they replied they wanted to make a treaty with "Sinpah Zilbah," and they didn't want him to join with the soldiers any more, against them. They told the commissioners if they would take him away from the soldiers, they could kill all the soldiers with clubs that they could bring into the country; they both feared and respected him and wanted him to stay in the country and trade with them and they would see that he or his men were not molested in any way by the Indians. That treaty was also confirmed by all.
In 1867 the Indians were again on the war path, the result of being fired upon by a regiment of soldiers. Mr. Mathewson at that time was to the South trading with the Indians, and did not get back for three weeks; when he came back he went to Junction City and telegraphed to Washington, asking the recall of General Hancock and that he (Mr. Mathewson), would take care of the Indians. They telegraphed General Hancock, in care of Mr. Mathewson, to return, and Mr. Mathewson overtook him just as he was about to cross the river where Dodge City now is, and deliv- ered the message, and then Mr. Mathewson got the Indians to- gether for another treaty, known as Medicine Lodge treaty, after which they ceded all their rights and title to lands in Kansas and Colorado to the Government, and the Indians went back to their reservations, and William Mathewson went with
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them; lived and traded with them for seven years, preventing outbreaks of the 1865 and 1867 type, settling internal quarrels, and doing all in his power to make the red skins satisfied with their lots.
During the years between 1865 and 1873, William Mathew- son saved 54 women and children from deaths at the hands of the savage tribes, or from a life of unspeakable slavery and drudgery.
One of these was a young woman who had been captured in Texas by the Kiowas and brought North into Kansas where she escaped. It was by his knowledge of the sign language that he was able to rescue her. Approaching by stealth, he learned of her escape from the recital by Kiowas to Apaches, to which latter tribe the Kiowas offered a reward of horses if they would assist in her recapture. Mr. Mathewson immediately determined to save the girl from being taken by the Indians.
He saddled and mounted his favorite mare, Bess, which could outrun anything else in the country, and had figured prom- inently in other rescues, and with a horse which he led, set out in the face of a driving storm, figuring that as the wind was from the Northwest, she would be driven somewhat to the East, and adopting this line of search, spent two days of endless trials and hardships. On his way he met a party of Indians to whom he said he was going in search of meat; they offered him a supply from theirs, but he told them it was insufficient and proceeded in his search. Finally he struck the trial of the girl's Indian pony, and on the evening of the second day he found her more dead than alive, aback the gaunt, starved horse that staggered about in the storm, but thinking it was an Indian she tried to escape. He took her to a ranch, where they got her dinner and allowed her to sleep, to bathe and refresh herself. From there they went on to Council Grove, where his friend Mr. Simcox had a store. Mrs. Simcox took charge of her. He had left word at the ranch for the Indians that he had the girl and they could not have her, as he would shoot the first one who attempted. They did not follow. She remained with Mrs. Simcox and a few years later married, and still lives there.
Mr. Mathewson also arranged with the Chief of the Kiowas for the release of two little girls held captive by them, whose names were Helen and Louise Fitzpatrick, aged six and four years. Their parents were killed by the Indians. The eldest child re- membered the massacre. Mr. Mathewson intended to raise these
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children, and the Government appropriated money for their edu- cation and promised to return them to Mr. Mathewson, but did not do so. Their names were changed from Fitzpatrick to Helen and Louise Lincoln. The Government took them to Washington and kept them there.
In the spring of 1866, about the 1st of May, Mr. Mathewson went to Leavenworth to dispose of a train load of furs that he had collected during the winter. At that time there was a large wholesale firm that handled exclusively Indian goods to supply Indian traders. This firm was known as Peck, Durfee & Company. This firm bought furs, and would assist Indians traders in ship- ping their furs to Eastern markets.
The next day after Mathewson's arrival in Leavenworth, Mr. Durfee told him that the leading citizens were going to have a banquet at his house the next night, and make a special request that he should attend. Mr. Mathewson thanked him for the invi- tation, but told him it would be impossible for him to attend. The next day Mrs. Durfee and Mrs. Peck came down to Mr. Dur- fee's store and insisted on Mr. Mathewson's coming, and told him they would not take no for answer, and he was finally induced to go. After refreshments, Mr. Durfee called the house to order, and a motion to elect Mr. Mathewson speaker of the house was unanimously carried, and he was informed that as speaker he was expected to relate some of his experiences, and more especially his experiences in releasing women and children from captivity among the Indians, after which excusing himself he put on his overcoat preparatory to departing when Mr. Durfee ask him to take the key which he gave him and unlock a rose-wood case which he had brought from another room and display its con- tents to the ladies. As the case was opened, there was displayed to view a most beautiful pair of six shooters which had carved ivory handles and were silver mounted and inlaid with gold. Mr. Mathewson jokingly said he knew of no one better qualified to use those than he, upon which Mr. Durfee begun the presentation speech, the sentiment of which was that they were presented to him by The Overland Transportation Company in recognition of his saving 155 men and 147 wagons of government supplies. Gen- eral Curtis in speaking said: "Nothing in the annals of history compares with the feats of bravery done by you." In speaking of the affair afterwards, Mr. Mathewson said: "You could have knocked me down with a feather when they gave me those guns,
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with my name carved on them. I have been in tight places in my time, passed through many a danger, but nothing ever took my nerve away so completely as the presentation of those guns. I was speechless, but finally stammered some sort of appreciation and rode away over the starlit prairie that night, the proudest man on the frontier."
During the fall and winter of 1854-55, and in March of the latter year, Mr. Mathewson, with a small party of hunters, were in the mountains of Colorado. While on the Colorado river, in the southern part of the then territory, they undertook to cross over the Santa Christa range to the St. Louis valley. Thirteen men besides himself, formed the party, comprising what is known in frontier parlance as two outfits. They were in that region for the purpose of hunting, trapping and prospecting for gold. The party had gone thither in the fall, and for mutual protection kept to- gether. The game at that time of the year on the high mountains was very scarce, and heavy snowstorms having prevailed for a long time, they were caught in the wild fastnesses of the moun- tains and soon ran short of food. They were on very short rations about two weeks, and after that prolonged fast there were four days that they had nothing to east, and no water but snow. Eleven of the men became nearly wild from hunger and thirst, and were in danger of killing one another for food. Two of Mr. Mathewson's associates he could rely upon, and with these he disarmed the eleven, and kept them under guard. It was at this. time that probably the highest test of his courage, bravery and fortitude was exhibited. He was also in a weak and famished condition, yet determined that he would force the party to abide by his decision, and not do each other injury, declaring to them that even at that critical moment, if they would be guided by his counsel, he would yet bring them out in safety. After getting them in camp on the evening of the fourth day, though himself hardly able to walk, he informed them that he would go out and search for game. Having proceeded a short distance from the camp, and nearly exhausted from the effort, he sat down on the brow of a canyon, and after watching for some time he saw no game, and rose to return to camp. Seating himself again, how- ever, and soon after looking across to an adjacent canyon, a little over 100 yards away, his heart was gladdened by seeing a large black-tailed deer walk out from behind the jutting crags. With promptness he shot it, and the sharp crack of his rifle was heard
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by his distressed companions in camp. So wild with delight was Mathewson, that mounting an adjacent eminence and swinging his "sombrero" around his head, his clarion voice sounded the glad tidings to the despairing men. In a few minutes he was joined by them, and from that time the question of their being saved was solved.
In 1868 Mr. Mathewson pre-empted a homestead at a spot near the Arkansas river which is now in the heart of the city of Wich- ita. Here he built the first house in Wichita of logs, which was torn down in the fortieth year after its erection. From some shingles and other wood from it has been made a fine violin.
Mr. Mathewson has been a permanent resident of Wichita since 1876, and has carried on agriculture on a large scale on his farms of several hundred acres. He has been a live stock and real estate dealer and in 1887 organized a bank in Wichita, of which he was president. He had an interest in three street rail- way lines in that city and stock in two national banks. In 1878, he established a brick plant, south of the city, for the manufacture of dry-pressed brick. For many years past, until he sold his farms, he devoted himself mostly to agriculture, and obtained a gold medal for the best exhibit of corn at the Omaha Exposition.
Mr. Mathewson spent thirty years among the Indians, trap- ping, hunting buffalo, and trading. The territory covered by him is now occupied by the Dakotas, Nebraska, Montana, Kansas, and Indian Territory.
While living at Walnut Creek ranch, many noted men were their guests, of whom Gens. Sherman, Hancock and Canby may be mentioned, and Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, and on his second trip to Africa, tried to induce Mr. Mathewson to go with him. Col. J. H. Leavenworth, the noted Indian agent, made his home at their house, and by the influence and assistance of Mr. Mathewson was enabled to reach and negotiate treaties with the hostile tribes.
Mr. Mathewson has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married, August 28, 1864, was Miss Elizabeth Inman, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1842, and immigrated with her parents to this country in 1850. She became an expert in the use of the rifle and revolver, and was her husband's com- panion among the Indians, passing through many scenes of border life. She was possessed of undaunted courage, and was the first white woman who ever crossed the Arkansas river and
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went through the Indian Territory, and on more than one occa- sion she stood by her husband's side and help beat back the savage foe who attacked their home and camp. It was from her that Henry M. Stanley obtained much of the information he furnished Eastern papers concerning savage life on the plains. At Walnut ranch she became a successful and favorite trader with the Indians, who called her "Marrwissa" (Golden Hair). She died October 1, 1885, leaving two children, Lucy E. and William A. Mathewson, who are now of full age.
Mr. Mathewson's second marriage which occurred May 13, 1886, was to Mrs. Tarlton, a most estimable lady of Louisville, Ky., whose maiden name was Henshaw. Socially he is a Mason, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias, and Improved Order of Red Men. He was for three years Grand Instructor of Odd Fel- lows of the State.
Mr. Mathewson is of tall and commanding figure, six feet and a half inch in height; noted for his great strength and wonderful power of endurance; forehead broad and of medium height; fea- tures distinctly marked without angularity; blue eyes and for- merly dark hair and complexion; modest in his demeanor, he ab- stains from all boasting; retiring in his disposition, he avoids publicity, preferring the quiet and seclusion of private life. Posi- tive in his character, calm and self possessed in the moment of danger, energetic and persevering, he is a bright example of that class of men who opened the country to the demands of civili- zation.
CHAPTER XXVII. SOME WELL-KNOWN PEOPLE.
WICHITA'S MAYOR.
Upon the mayor of the city, as head of the municipal govern- ment, devolves the duty of looking after the department of public safety, which includes the police and fire departments. Members of both these departments are subject to civil-service rules, with the exception of the department heads. The reason for this is that the work of the police and firemen is of a character that requires trained men, and when such men are once obtained, they ' should not be subject to dismissal at the whim of any one. There are thirty-nine men in the Wichita fire department, with A. G. Walden at the head and A. L. Brownewell as assistant. Wichita has five fire stations, known as Central and Numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6. There are nineteen men in the Central station, eight in No. 3, and four each in the others. In the police department there are thirty- six persons, including J. H. McPherson, chief; W. H. Boston, assistant, and Helena S. Mason, police matron. The executive department, of which the mayor is head, includes the city clerk, the city attorney and assistant, the police judge and the election commissioner, though the latter is an appointee of the governor.
Charles L. Davidson, mayor of Wichita, was born near the lit- tle town of Cuba, N. Y., November 22, 1857. He came to Wichita in 1872, when a mere boy, and when the town was in its infancy, and it has been his home since. The first song he ever heard in . Wichita was the night he arrived here, and on his way up town he passed near where a band of cowboys were singing their herd to sleep. He has lived to see the place where that herd lay at rest that night covered with great brick and stone business houses, and the broad prairies from which this herd came transformed into wheat and cotton and alfalfa fields. The song of the cowboy is forever hushed in Wichita, but the hum of a hundred factories and the stir of business make a music just as sweet if not as weird.
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Mayor Davidson obtained a common-school education here in Wichita, after which he spent four years in the Kansas State University at Lawrence. He has been engaged in the real estate loan and insurance business for several years. Mr. Davidson was nearly six years a member of the city council, ten years he was city park commissioner, and he served one term in the Kansas legislature. He was the first president of the Wichita Chamber of Commerce and has done more than any other man to procure for Wichita equitable freight rates.
Mayor Davidson is the original insurgent in Kansas, for he is the man who started the "square deal" movement a few years ago that resulted in a declaration of independence from the domination of all combines in Kansas. His life as mayor has been a very busy one and he has advocated some of the biggest things for Wichita that have yet been undertaken. Among these has been the purchase of the water works system, elevated tracks, and a union depot for the railroad district.
WICHITA HAY MAN HAS BECOME "HAY KING OF KANSAS."
Speaking of noted Kansans, it will be in order to remark that Wichita has a modest young man, now thirty-three years of age, who is undoubtedly the hay king of the Sunflower State, and this is about the second time his name has ever been printed except in advertisements.
J. H. Turner. For the year ending the first of last January he bought and sold over 2,500 cars of hay, about 5 per cent of which was alfalfa. Mr. Turner came to this country from Eng- land sixteen years ago when he was seventeen years old. He went to the English colony at Runnymeade and came from there to Wichita four years later. He thought America was a pretty good place and that Kansas must be the best place for a poor man. He managed to get a couple of teams and a hay press, and started in business on his own hook. He would buy hay of the farmers in the country and press it, haul it to the city with his teams and sell to the retailers. Turner was between two fires, as it were. The dealers in the city would tell the young hay dealer that they could buy hay cheaper from the farmers than he was asking, and the farmers would tell him that they could get more money for their hay in Wichita. He was compelled to do business
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on a small margin. He worked hard and his labor counted for something when he came in competition with other dealers. Ten years ago the low lands on West Douglas avenue just west of the big bridge were not very valuable. The young hay dealer rented a room there and commenced to retail his hay to the peo- ple of the city. Nobody ever got a "plugged" bale of hay from J. H. Turner. He soon built up a large retail business. He bought the house and lot he had rented.
Mr. Turner prospered in his retail business. He would buy the grass on seven or eight thousand acres of land in the country. He would take his teams, harvest the hay, press and haul it to the city to supply his retail establishment. Finally he closed the retail house and went into the wholesaling of hay. He added coal and building material to his hay business, and now he owns six lots on the fine paved street where he first started in business, besides a long stretch of track property along the Missouri Pa- cific road. The hay king said yesterday that his business this year, of course, would depend on the size of the hay crop, but that indications are good for a big crop of hay and he expects his business this year to largely increase over last year, as it has grown every year since he started. Come on with your hay kings, not the commission men who handle hay for other people, but the men who own and sell the valuable stuff.
YANK OWEN.
By .
THE EDITOR.
In the early days of Wichita, "Yank" Owen was a char- acter. His real name was A. T. Owen; by courtesy the lawyers called him Major. He was always attached to some law office, and usually slept in this office and was a notary and all-around man in the office where he made his headquarters. In the early frontier days of Kansas, Yank had been clerk of the district court at Junction City. His acquaintance with old-time lawyers in Kansas was most extensive. Leaving Junction City when the town became too quiet for him, Yank came to Wichita and for many years was a most familiar figure upon the princi- pal streets of the town. He was wont to discourse and orate on
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Napoleonic history, and declaimed in stentorian tones from the speeches of Napoleon the First. He was well read on French his- tory, and something of a reader on general topics. He acted often in the capacity of conveyancer, and his angular, long hand- writing will be long remembered by the older members of the Sedgwick county bar. He usually wore a loose-fitting frock coat and a flaring blue cap. A grizzly mustache gave him a somewhat fierce and warlike appearance. He took a lively interest in all court matters, and upon the slightest provocation would swear like the army in Flanders. His excessive loyalty to Sedgwick county was a matter of general remark. On a bright spring day Yank was missed from his accustomed haunts. He had taken the train for the Pacific coast. He never returned. Later on, it was reported that he had died in San Francisco, Calif.
WILLIAM GREIFFENSTEIN, "THE FATHER OF WICHITA."
By THE EDITOR.
William Greiffenstein, who was a mayor of the city and who was honored by election to the state legislature, had an interest- ing career. To the early fur traders he was known as "Dutch Bill." He was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in Germany, July 28, 1829. For three years he attended college at Darmstadt and was later employed in a commission house at Mentz, first coming to America in 1848. First he located at Hermann, Mo., later going to St. Louis and then to Westport. In 1850 he began trading with the Indians on the Shawnee reservation, then located six miles below what is now the city of Lawrence. He took a claim at Topeka in 1855, and in 1859 opened another trading post in west- ern Kansas, bartering with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches. This post was on Walnut creek. Later he opened one on the Cowskin, about ten miles west of Wichita.
In 1867 he removed his trading post to the Kiowa and Co- manche agency near Washita, below Fort Cobb. He married, in 1869, at Topeka, Miss Catherine Burnett, who was the daughter of Abram Burnett and Mary Knoffloch, a native of Germany. Abram Burnett was chief of the Pottawatomie Indians and a highly interesting man. The Indian chief weighed 465 pounds
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and gloried in his great strength. Near him, at Topeka, also lived another heavyweight, named Young, who weighed about 400 pounds. The two big fellows called one another "Bud" and "Bub." Mrs. Greiffenstein's father was Bub. One Sunday, it is told, the two giants got into a dispute as to which was the stronger. Burnett challenged Young to lift the largest rock he could, and it is said that when he had lifted the biggest flagstone he could find the chief of the Pottawatomies then asked him to sit upon it and the 465-pounder lifted both rock and the 400- pounder together.
Abram Burnett was educated at the Carlisle Indian school at Carlisle, Pa., and was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. There are many persons living in and near Wichita who have knowl- edge of the early history of Wichita which should be preserved for future reference. Mrs. Greiffenstein is now living at Burnett, Okla .; her brother, Christopher T. Pearce, is at Noble, Okla .; her son, Charles, is in business at Greenwich, Kan., and her son Will- iam is in business at Enid, Okla. Otto Weiss, who contributed much to the information for this story, is a well known manu- facturer of Wichita. J. T. Holmes, who worked at the Greiffen- stein ranch on the Washita, is in Wichita, and Phil Clark, who worked for "The Father of Wichita," on the Cowskin, is now in Oklahoma.
William Greiffenstein was a warm-hearted, generous man, and in Sedgwick county his freinds are legion. Time will do his memory justice, and posterity will perpetuate his many virtues.
DOC WORRALL. By
THE EDITOR.
In the early eighties, when W. G. Hobbs was a justice of the peace and held court in Old Eagle Hall, where the Boston store now is, Doc Worrall was his constable. Doc regarded himself as an amateur detective. He posed as a "bad man from Bitter creek." He was especially handy as a boxer, quick as a cat, supple as a circus tumbler, and filled with frontier energy. Doc was a character, and his appearance was a circus. He weighed about 115 pounds, wore his hair long and flowing upon his collar, usually wore a red or blue flannel shirt with a wide collar open
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at the neck, and seldom wore suspenders, as he regarded them as a badge of an effete eastern civilization. His shirt was laced up in front, and he wore his pants in his boots. And such boots; they were of the red top, lace top, narrow heel variety, usually affected by the cowboys. He usually wore a broad belt with a .44 and cartridges. Surmounting this all, was a jaunty, bell- crowned, broad-brimmed hiat, and a rakish mustache, and you have an ink portrait of Doc Worrall, in the frontier days of Wichita. Doc was a good officer, and posed as a lightweight pugilist until Denver Ed Smith came along and dislocated his false front teeth, over at the old rink on West First street. Doc is now an honest farmer on a farm just west of Mulvane, Kansas.
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