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. II > Part 9
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Arrived at San Luis each company was assigned to quarters. These quarters were nothing more than the stone sidewalks surrounding the old Spanish barracks, covered by a wooden awning which by the way was so narrow when lying down my feet were left out in the rain which came down almost the entire night through. The next morning we marched out to the new camp grounds, pitched our tents, took up our garrison duty in Cuba.
During our first three weeks on Cuban soil, we were at times sorely pressed for food, on account of the limited number of vessels then at the disposal of the commissary department. Many were the times our meals consisted solely of very rancid bacon, rice badly damaged by contact with coal oil. After a while, however, we began getting fair rations. In the month of De- cember we began getting our first fresh meat, beef that had been put in cold storage aboard the refrigerator ships as early as the latter part of the previous June. We lived through this however as well as through the disagreeable rainy season when it actually rained every day.
For six months to a day we were in service in Cuba, when at last the welcome news came for us to break camp and set out for home. February 28, 1899, the regiment took the train to Santiago; arrived there, went aboard the transport Minnewaska, bound for Newport News, Virginia, at which place it arrived March 5. Here the regiment took the train which brought it to Fort Leavenworth, arriving there on the morning of March 9.
January 1, 1899, Maj. George W. Ford commanding the sec- one battalion was granted leave of absence to come to the United States; at the same time Lieutenant Bettis was granted sick leave, accompanying the major to the states. This placed me
THE FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN WICHITA. W. B. HUTCHINSON, VESTRYMAN IN THE DOOR. THE SMALL GIRL IS MATTIE FABRIQUE. THIS CHURCH WAS AT THE CORNER OF CENTRAL AVENUE AND MARKET STREET.
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THE COLORED SOLDIER
in command of my battalion with the rank and pay of major. A short time afterward I was stricken ill, and on January 21, was granted sick leave, in fact much against my wishes was ordered to the government hospital at Hot Springs, Ark., to undergo treatment for gravel and diabetes. I left Santiago on the morning of January 27, 1899. At 3 o'clock the evening be- fore the thermometer on General Wood's palace registered 82 in the shade. I arrived at New York January 31, where the thermometer registered 3 below zero. This sudden change in climate came near costing me my life. I was not able to con- tine the journey to Hot Springs, remained here at home where I was confined to my bed for weeks. Finally rejoined my com- pany at Fort Leavenworth on the morning of March 9, 1899. During the absence of myself and Lieutenant Bettis from the company, the command fell upon my Second Lieutenant, William Green, who saw them through and turned the company over to me again with the loss of but one man, private George Gaar, who died in Cuba.
We remained at Fort Leavenworth from March 9 until April 1, expecting daily orders to again take the train and steamship for the Phillipine Islands. At last, however, orders came for us to be mustered out and this was done April 10, 1899.
As stated above, with the exception of one man, Company E, 23rd Kansas volunteer infantry, the Wichita company, made the long journey to Cuba and return. Since that time the members of the company have become scattered to the four winds of the earth so to speak. The grim reaper, death, has gathered unto the fold many of the members, while some of us are yet to be found on the old camp ground, Wichita, where first our hearts were thrilled with the news of war and our patriotism prompted us to serve faithfully and well our flag, our country.
Capt. Samuel W. Jones.
Commanding Co. E. Late 23rd Kans. Vol. Inf.
CHAPTER XLIV. CLAIMED THAT KANSAS MAN IS ORIGINAL "BUFFALO BILL."
By
J. R. MEAD.
Friends of Reticent Resident of Wichita Say He Was Known by Appellation Years Before William F. Cody Succeeded to Title-Fed Starving Plainsmen with Spoils of the Chase- Was Indian Fighter of Renown, Saving a Train of Immi- grants Who Were Attacked on the Santa Fe Trail.
Wichita, Kan., June 23 .- Marking of the old Santa Fe trail through Kansas by the Daughters of the American Revolution has revived public interest in the history of the state. It has also caused the people to wonder where the hardy pioneers of the early days have drifted. There are but few of them alive.
Probably the least known, yet greatest of them all, is living a quiet and retired life in his old homestead within the city of Wichita. This man is William Mathewson, the original "Buffalo Bill." Closely associated with him is his one-time associate, James R. Mead, scout, pioneer, Indian trader, historian and hunter.
It matters not to Mr. Mathewson that another bears the name he rightfully achieved, or that few know that the deeds of such men as "Wild Bill," "Pawnee Bill" and William F. Cody would sink into obscurity beside his achievements in a time when Kan- sas was a wilderness of all that was dangerous. He tends his garden and orchard with the same tenacity that led him to suc- cessfully pass through the strenuous times of border warfare.
With Mr. Mead it is different. He first became known in Kansas as a commercial man. He is now living a quiet life and as vice-president of the Kansas Historical Society is of great assistance in collecting historical data for that society.
Of the life of the original "Buffalo Bill" little is known. At times he will talk of the past, but only to his intimate friends.
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KANSAS MAN ORIGINAL "BUFFALO BILL
He was born in Broome county, New York, on New Year's day, 1830. Thirteen years later he was in the then unknown West, and wound up one of the greatest trips over North America with Kit Carson near the present site of Denver, Colo.
TRADING POST ON THE ARKANSAS.
It was near the site of old Fort Zaro that "Buffalo Bill" first struck the Santa Fe trail. There he built a trading post on the bank of the Arkansas river, near where the city of Great Bend is now located. It was from the timbers of the building he con- structed that the government post was built. Here he met and entertained such men as Kit Carson, General Custer and General Sheridan.
At Cow Creek ranch he encountered Satanta, the blood- thirsty Kiowa chief, and gave him a severe beating. After the encounter he became known among the Indians as Sinpah Zill- pah, the "Long-Bearded Dangerous Man." It was here in the big bend of the Kansas Nile that he made the famous ride which Sheridan declared to be the bravest act in the history of the West. To an intimate friend, the old warrior, whose eyes have lost none of their luster, Mr. Mathewson described the ride:
"During July of '64," he said, "a band of about 700 Indians made a raid on my ranch. We drove them away and killed a lot of them. There was a big government supply train of 135 wagons and 155 men camped out in the bottom east of the ranch on the Santa Fe trail. The Indians went after that train and came near massacreing the whole outfit. In that train were about twenty wagons loaded with Sharpe rifles and a lot of ammuni- tion. I knew it, but the men with the train didn't. You see, being the owner of one of the regular posts along the trail, I was kept posted as to what was being taken over the road to the West.
ARMED HELPLESS FIGHTERS.
"Those Indians had just about scared the teamsters out of their wits. With their old guns they hadn't killed enough In- dians to attract the buzzards. I got on my horse, and I had a fine one, and rode to the help of the wagon train. Keeping in a slough, I got within a half mile of the train before an Indian saw me. Then the shooting started. I gave the Indians close to me as good as they sent, but I thought that my hair would be
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
lifted at any minute. I got through and armed the men with the Sharpe rifles, and we scattered those Indians like sheep. Talk about Sheridan's ride," and he left his chair and walked to a favorite bench near the old pine tree in his yard to hide the fire of battle that had leaped to his eyes.
His title of "Buffalo Bill" was gained by supplying the starv- ing settlers of the plains with buffalo meat during the bitter cold winter of 1860 and 1861. William F. Cody, the present "Buffalo Bill," gained the title a few years later almost in the same way. Mathewson does not care. He lives contented on his old home- stead and excludes reporters and camera men from his premises.
One of the most interesting incidents in the last few years of his life was when he was called upon to kill a cross buffalo bull that had been kept at the Union Stock Yards for several years. The once famous hunter fired one shot at the huge beast and then walked away, leaving the animal standing in the same posi- tion as before he fired. The spectators jeered him, but he gave no heed. Thousands who had gathered to see the original "Buf- falo Bill" show his skill denounced him as an imposter.
CONFIDENT OF THE SHOT'S EFFECT.
In answer, he simply said, "Wait and see." Five minutes after the buffalo pitched to the ground dead, and the eyes of the old frontiersman were flashing with the glint of victory.
In a spacious residence near the homestead of William Math- ewson lives another man, who gave years of the best part of his life helping to develop the plains. This man is James R. Mead. He, too, is growing old, but does not live altogether in the mem- ories of the past. Coming to Kansas from Iowa in 1859, he early saw the great profit that would result from hunting, trapping and trading trinkets to the Indians for robes and furs. At this time Mead was but 23 years old, but wise beyond his years in the ways of the West. He was born in Vermont and made the trip to Iowa in a wagon with his parents when a child. The names of 25 per cent of the small creeks of Kansas were given following his explorations. Along the course of the Smoky Hill river, in northern Kansas, Mead killed his first buffalo. In his life on the plains he probably shot more buffalo than any other man of his time.
"The warm blood of youth warms for adventure," he said.
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KANSAS MAN ORIGINAL "BUFFALO BILL
"Here was an opportunity to satisfy my longing to make my way. My impatient rifles longed to show their mettle. Later they had their fill, for to my shame be it recorded that they laid low 2,000 buffalo and other of God's creatures in proportion during many years of service."
KILLED BUFFALO FOR GAME.
It was Mead who first planned to kill buffalo for their hides and tallow in the southwestern part of Kansas. It was Mead's wagon train that took the first large consignment of buffalo hides to Fort Leavenworth from the valley of the Little Arkansas river, where the city of Wichita is located. He camped on the Santa Fe trail with Kit Carson.
Like William Mathewson, he was a friend of the wild Indian, and had as many friends among the red men as among the whites. Unlike Mathewson, he never played an important part in the struggles between the soldiers and the Indians. He has said that the years of bloodshed and strife between the government and the Indians were the result of ignorant diplomats and worse statesmen.
His old homestead in what is now the heart of Wichita was taken by Mr. Mead when Wichita was the headquarters of the Wichita Indians. On the exact spot where he built his cabin there is now being erected a Catholic cathedral that is to cost not less than $100,000.
The lives of these two men and the many thrilling scenes through which they passed will never be known. It is seldom that they will talk of the past. Mead is yet actively engaged in managing his properties. Mathewson was a frontiersman, and as such is a typical specimen of J. Fenimore Cooper's "Leather Stocking."
Note: Since the above article was written, James R. Mead has passed to the Great Beyond.
CHAPTER XLV. PAYNE'S DREAM CAME TRUE.
By FARMER DOOLITTLE.
Every time I look at the picture of the brave, generous Cap- tain Payne I am reminded of a speech made at a banquet given by the Wichita Union Livestock Exchange at the Commercial Club rooms about a year ago. It was said that many of the great achievements accomplished by men were at first but dreams in the mind of somebody, and adding that the Wichita of today is the realization of the dream of Marsh Murdock. I remember when my friend, Captain Payne, gave me the picture and in- scribed his name thereon. What was said about Col. M. M. Mur- dock and Wichita would apply with equal truthfulness to Capt. David L. Payne and Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma City of today is a realization of the dream of Captain Payne.
Payne was not a salesman or a builder of a state. He was a bold pioneer who suffered hardships and risked his life to secure homes for the people and I feel sad when thinking of the rough treatment this generous pioneer received at the hands of the cattle men and the federal army-but this is not telling about the dream of Captain Payne. I think it must have been in the fall of 1877, two years before the opening of old Oklahoma to settlement, that Payne told me of his dream of a city. We were walking around one pleasant moonlight night and it was well along towards midnight when we sat down on the edge of the old Santa Fe depot and continued our conversation. I said: "Cap, is this Oklahoma business all a fake, and why are you collecting money from these prospective settlers with the promise that they will secure some rights in the founding of a city ?" Then Payne explained that this part of the Indian Territory called Oklahoma was really a good land and some day it would be the home of
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PAYNE'S DREAM CAME TRUE
thousands of happy, prosperous people. He said these people who were paying small amounts of money for memberships in the colony would not receive any rights. He said the money would be used to finance raids into Oklahoma and keep up the agitation until the country was opened up to settlement. By standing together he thought the colony of "Oklahoma Boomers" would be able to control "Oklahoma City." It was only a name then. Just a dream in the mind of Captain Payne. My old friend became enthusiastic, or, rather, more sanguine as he talked. He said the spot which they had selected on which to found the city was just the right distance from Wichita. The streams and valleys were like the location in Wichita. Oklahoma City, he said, would be a second Wichita and the line of great cities would be Chicago, Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth and Galveston. That was the dream of Captain Payne and no man ever believed more firmly in a prohecy than did Payne believe that his dream would be fulfilled to the letter. I wish he could have lived until now to see how correctly he reasoned and dreamed.
The above, from the pen of the well known writer, "Farmer Doolittle," is gladly given a place in these columns; Farmer Doolittle, whose real name is George Litzenberg, is a prolific and accomplished writer of many years' experience on the local press. Captain Payne was his intimate friend. He writes from a close personal friendship and experience .- Editor.
THE NEW COUNTRY SOUTH OF US.
It was a fondly cherished dream of Capt. D. L. Payne, Colonel Cole, and his associates, that the opening of the new country south of Kansas would greatly enhance the agricultural pros- pects of Sedgwick county and all of southern Kansas as well. Payne organized his Oklahoma boomers in Wichita. This was the seat of the Oklahoma Colony; here was the seat of the rallies that culminated in the various raids made upon the promised lands and headed by the redoubtable Captain Payne himself. Just east of Wichita was the home of Captain Couch, who was Payne's chief of staff. Here lived Nugent and Oklahoma Harry Hill and many others whose names are associated with Payne in the opening of Oklahoma.
It was contended that the plowing of the prarie south of us
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
and the tilling of the soil, and the planting of trees, and the consequent evaporation would temper the hot winds and cool the air blowing from the south; all this has been accomplished; Payne is dead, many of his followers and companions have passed to the great beyond, but their efforts live after them in the memory of countless men and women who have found happy homes in Oklahoma, that fair land to the south of us whose crops seldom fail and whose acres now teem with a most abundant harvest. Oklahoma has one great advantage over Kansas-it raises all that Kansas can raise, and in addition that queen of the South, "cotton"; but the whole country owes a lasting debt to the man of Sedgwick county and the press of Sedgwick county, who, early and late, in season and out of season, worked for the opening of Oklahoma .- Editor.
THE CHEROKEE STRIP.
The opening of the Cherokee strip in Oklahoma on September 16, 1896, was an epoch in Wichita. The Cherokee strip is a strip of land two counties wide along the south line of Kansas in the new state of Oklahoma; many people in Wichita and southern Kansas had gazed at the strip with longing eyes; some of the great cattle pastures owned by Kansas people were in the Chero- kee strip. One Wichita man had a pasture in the strip south of Caldwell, Kan., twenty miles square. The efforts of Capt. David L. Payne and his associates had forced the opening of Oklahoma, the Cherokee strip only remained as a barrier between Kansas and what afterwards became the great state of Oklahoma. The pressure on Congress to open this magnificent stretch of virgin soil was intense; this pressure was resisted by the wealthy cattle barons, whose herds had cropped the rich grasses and thrived upon the strip for many years. At last the strip was opened and on the day of its opening there was a rush for homes and claims ; new towns sprung up like magic, and new farms opened out. Wichita had been the head center of this agitation; for many years all of this surrounding country had been lined up by the lectures of Captain Payne, General Weaver and the powerful press of Wichita and southern Kansas. A few short years has produced a wonderful change in the Cherokee strip; busy marts of trade, flourishing towns and fertile fields take the place of the
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PAYNE'S DREAM CAME TRUE
big steer and his sister; and what is the result? The hot winds tempered by the cultivated soil on the south of us, a new field and a growing population, immense productions of corn, wheat, oats, Kaffir corn, cane and alfalfa, hogs and cattle, and all trib- utary to Wichita. Captain Payne, General Weaver, Billy Couch and all of the Oklahoma boomers builded better than they know .- Editor.
CHAPTER XLVI. RAILROADS OF SEDGWICK COUNTY. BOOSTERS BROUGHT IN THE RAILROADS.
By O. H. BENTLEY.
Wichita has always made a strenuous struggle for railways. It should have been on the main line of the Santa Fe, but fate decreed otherwise. When the Santa Fe was built to Emporia, Wichita, a mere hamlet in those days, tried to get it, but failed. Newton, then a lively frontier town, got the road, and from that point it gradually extended to the westward.
Later on, however, as Wichita grew, the Santa Fe, ever jeal- ous of its territory, projected the Wichita & Southwestern to this point. This line was hastily constructed from Newton to Wich- ita. The people here would have given half the town to the rail- road company to get them in. The building of the pioneer rail- road into Wichita made it almost in a day the greatest primary wheat market in the world, drawing the wheat wagons for a hundred miles to the south and southwest, and later the renowned cattle shipping point, the end of the Texas cattle trail.
The early fathers of Sedgwick county saw the blue stem grass sweeping their saddle horns as they rode the trail from Newton and Emporia into Wichita, and they realized then, as the present generation now realizes, that there is only one crop of land. Later on the Santa Fe extended its line to Mulvane, and then diverged, building one line to Wellington and the other to Winfield. This extension of the Santa Fe was supposed by the early fathers to be the ruination of Wichita, but a few patient men pulled themselves together and reached out for the St. Louis, Wichita & Western, now the Frisco, which was built into this city in the early part of 1880. Wichita had great hopes of this line from competition in freights and so on, but when the line
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staggered into town and laid its rails to the Santa Fe depot on Oak street, the bubble bursted, and all Wichita pronounced the road a fake.
Later on the building of the Kansas Midland from this city to Ellsworth divorced the Santa Fe and Frisco lines, the Frisco acquiring the Midland under a lease of ninety-nine years, since which time the Frisco has maintained its own terminals and depot in this city. In 1884 and 1885 Francis Tiernan, of Fort Scott, projected the Missouri Pacific into this town from the eastern border of Kansas, and later on came the building of the Wichita, Anthony & Salt Plains Railway and the line to the Northwest, known as the Wichita & Colorado, projected by Wich- ita men. These lines were all consolidated into the Missouri Pacific Railway, as now operated into and out of this city. About this time A. A. Robinson, then at the head of the Santa Fe, came to Wichita and said that his company was about to build direct from Sedgwick to Kingman. Then there was some very lively hustling among Wichita people. It was finally proposed that if this line should be built out of Wichita that Wichita would pro- cure the right of way to the west line of Sedgwick county. This was done and the Wichita & Western Railway, so long owned jointly by the Santa Fe and Frisco, became a fixed fact.
In 1886 a few Wichita men, Senator Bentley, Governor Stan- ley, J. O. Davidson, C. R. Miller, Robert E. Lawrence and others, projected and promoted the Kansas Midland Railway from Wich- ita to Ellsworth. This line was built largely by Hartford and Boston capital, aided by the municipalities along the line. It is now a part of the Frisco system. In the meantime the Santa Fe had not been idle. It built from Eldorado to Augusta and from there to Mulvane, thence westward to Englewood in Clark county, Kansas, under the charter name of the Leroy & Western Railway Company. Where they got the name is a mystery to the oldest inhabitant. At this time they operate this line by a division superintendent located at Wellington, and they handle the Wichita & Western in the same manner. The early plan of the Santa Fe was to occupy this portion of Kansas with a net- work of railways which should tap every county seat. They aimed to build a large number of towns, and no large ones, for the reason that as soon as a town attained any size it became ambitious, and at once reached out for other railroads.
Wichita and Sedgwick counties were ambitious for railroads
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HISTORY OF SEDGWICK COUNTY
from the very start. No railroad ever knocked at the doors of Wichita or Sedgwick county in vain. We voted liberal aid to the Rock Island, and without a murmur saw our stock given in exchange for Sedgwick county bonds worth par, in the Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Railway, the name under which that line was constructed in Kansas, wiped out, and the property absorbed by the present parent company. In fact, in the natural order of railway building in the West, we rather expected this, regarding the getting of the road as a fine investment. And so from its earliest history Wichita and Sedgwick counties have been in the very forefront of the struggle for railroads. It has been one long history of voting bonds and railway aid and getting right of way and promoting these great enterprises, which in the aggregate go to the making of great marts of trade and great and populous cities.
When a new railway or great enterprise was exploited in Wichita, the patient property owners were told that the building of the great artery of commerce, or the completion of the pro- posed great enterprise, would double the value of their prop- erty. So with the greatest patience these property owners dug up the coin and subsidized themselves and their neighbors for the betterment of a great cause. Now, as they think back and recall all of these things, they scratch their heads in perplexity and wonder how much worse off than nothing they were when they started and before the coming and completion of the great enterprise. But with all of these great lines completed and in operation, the Orient in full swing and rapidly opening up to this city a new great territory, with the Rock Island, Santa Fe, Frisco and Missouri Pacific systems here, with Orient shops and the Union Pacific in the very near future, it seems to the conserv- ative and loyal citizen of Wichita that in the railway situation Wichita has reached the fruition of her hopes. Ten great trans- portation lines radiate out of Wichita, like the spokes of a great wheel, and the next year will probably see three more added to the list. It has been a struggle, but it has paid. The game was worth the candle. The energetic citizen has made good. The city is building fast and its basis is a permanent one.
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