Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I, Part 31

Author: Blackmar, Frank Wilson, 1854-1931, ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Standard publishing company
Number of Pages: 954

USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I > Part 31

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).

Burns, one of the important towns of Marion county, is located in Milton township, and is a station on the Florence & Arkansas division of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway system, 21 miles south- east of Marion, the county seat. It has two banks, a money order post- office with two rural delivery routes, express and telegraph offices, tele- phone connections, a weekly newspaper (the Citizen), several good gen- eral stores, hotel, schools, churches, etc. Burns was incorporated in 1905 and in 1910 reported a population of 489.

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KANSAS HISTORY

Burr Oak, one of the principal towns of Jewell county, is located in Burr Oak township II miles northwest of Mankato, the county seat. It is on White Rock creek and the Missouri Pacific R. R., and is con- nected with Otego by daily stage. It has banking facilities, an opera house, a hospital, fire department, a weekly newspaper, churches and schools, express and telegraph offices, and a postoffice with four rural mail routes. The population in 1910 was 1,132. Grain and live-stock are the principal products shipped.

Burr Oak was settled in 1870 by A. W. Mann, Zack Norman, Lee M. Tingley, Thomas Richard Comstock, James McCormick, Frank Gilbert, A. J. Godfrey, D. H. Godfrey, Allen Ives, John E. Faidley and E. E. Blake. The town was laid out in 1871 by A. J. Godfrey, and the post- office established. John E. Faidley kept the first store. It was incor- porated as a city of the third class in April, 1880, the first officers were : J. K. McLain, mayor; W. M. Spurlock, city clerk; A. W. Mann, treas- urer; T. W. Carpenter, O. F. Roberts, A. J. Godfrey, George Quigley and Dr. J. E. Hawley, councilmen.

Burrton, an incorporated town of Harvey county, is located 18 miles west of Newton, at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the St. Louis & San Francisco railroads, which makes it an impor- tant shipping point for a rich agricultural district, the chief articles of export being grain, hay and live stock. Burrton has two banks, two weekly newspapers (the Graphic and the Grit), an international money order postoffice with four rural routes, several churches, a graded pub- lic school, an opera house, a number of first class mercantile houses, telegraph, telephone and express service, and in 1910 reported a popula- tion of 689.

Burt, a little inland village in Woodson county, is on Turkey creek, in the northern part of the county, 8 miles northwest of Yates Center, the county seat, whence it receives mail by rural route. Moody, about 7 miles northeast, is the nearest railroad station and shipping point. The population in 1910 was 53.

Burton, Joseph Ralph, United States senator, was born on the old Burton homestead, near Mitchell, Ind., Nov. 16, 1851, the son of Allen C. and Elizabeth (Holmes) Burton. He is descended from English ances- tors, who came to America to escape the reign of Cromwell, and settled near Richmond, Va. His great-grandfather, John P. Burton, removed from Virginia to North Carolina during the Revolutionary war, and in 1820 went to Indiana, where he founded the Indiana line of Burtons. Elizabeth Holmes was of Scotch-German descent. Joseph R. Burton was reared on his father's farm, attended the district school and the academy at Mitchell, and at the age of sixteen received an appointment as cadet at the United States naval academy at Annapolis, but failed to pass the physical examination. He taught school for a time, spent three years in Franklin College, Franklin, Ind., and one year at DePauw Uni- versity at Greencastle. In 1874 he began to read law in the office of Gordon, Brown & Lamb, at Indianapolis, and in 1875 was admitted to

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the bar. In the spring of that year he married Mrs. Carrie (Mitchell) Webster of Princeton, Ind. In 1876 Mr. Burton was nominated by the Republicans for presidential elector and made many speeches during the campaign. In 1878 he removed to Kansas and located at Abilene, where he formed a partnership with Judge John H. Mahan for the prac- tice of law. He was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1882; was reelected in 1884 and again in 1888; was commissioner to the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago in 1893; and in 1895 lacked but one vote of being the Republican nominee for United States senator. In Jan., 1901, he was elected United States senator, but two years later was indicted by a Federal grand jury at St. Louis on the charge of accepting money from a corporation of questionable integrity of that city to use his influence with the postoffice department to prevent the company being denied the use of the mails. Burton claimed that the money was paid him as attorney's fees, and that he had done nothing more than other senators were doing every day, but the pressure became so strong that on June 4, 1906, he resigned his seat in the senate. (See Bailey's Administration.) Since retiring from the senate, Mr. Burton has given his entire attention to his law practice, extensive operations in real estate, etc.

Busby, an inland hamlet in the eastern part of Elk county, is 12 miles east of Howard, the county seat, whence it receives mail daily. The population in 1910 was 47. The nearest railroad station is Buxton on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, in Wilson county.

Bushong, a town of Lyon county, is located in the northwestern part of the county, about 20 miles from Emporia, and is a station on the Mis- souri Pacific R. R. 24 miles west of Osage City. It has a bank, a money order postoffice with one rural route, a number of general stores, hotel, public school, telegraph, telephone and express service, and does con- siderable shipping. The population in 1910 was 250. ,

Bushton, a town in Farmer township, Rice county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 15 miles northwest of Lyons, the county seat. It has a bank, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, a weekly newspaper-the News-a flour mill, a grain elevator, telegraph and ex- press offices, telephone connections, a good public school, and is the cen- ter of a large retail trade. Bushton was incorporated in 1907 and in 1910 reported a population of 222.

Bushwhackers .- Webster defines the word bushwhacker as meaning "One accustomed to beat about or travel through bushes, one who lives in or frequents the woods; applied specifically by the Federal troops in the Civil war to irregular troops of the Confederate states engaged in guerrilla warfare. Hence a guerrilla or bushfighter.'

Although this definition makes the words "bushwhacker" and "guer- rilla" synonymous, there is really a distinction between them. The true bushwhacker generally fights under cover, while the guerilla frequently has sufficient courage to come out into the open. (See Guerillas.)

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Butler County, the largest in area in Kansas, is located in the south- eastern part of the state, in the second tier of counties north of Okla- homa, and fifth west from Missouri. It is one of the original thirty-three counties created by the first territorial legislature, and was named in honor of Senator Butler of South Carolina. The boundaries as described in the creative act were as follows: "Beginning at the southeast corner of Wise county ; thence south 30 miles; thence west 30 miles; thence north 30 miles; thence east 30 miles to the place of beginning."

This gave the county an area of 900 square miles, but changes have been made in the boundaries at different times, so that today the county is bounded on the north by Marion and Chase counties ; on the east by Greenwood and Elk; on the south by Cowley ; and on the west by Sedg- wick and Harvey, and has an area of 1,428 square miles, being larger than the state of Rhode Island.

It is a prairie county but has considerable land of a slightly rolling character. The surface in the western part is principally "bottom" land and rolling prairie. The eastern part is in many places broken and rough. The river and creek bottoms comprise about one-fifth of the area and are from a mile to two miles in width. The timber belts along the streams range from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width, the prin- cipal varieties being oak, walnut, hickory, mulberry, sycamore, elm and hackberry. The principal streams are the Whitewater, in the north- west part of the county, which joins the Walnut at Augusta. These two streams have a number of tributaries, the most important of the Whitewater being Henry, Wentworth, Bakers, Rock and Meadow creeks; those of the Walnut the Cole, Durechon, Satchels, Bemis, Bird, Turkey, Four Mile, Little Walnut, Eight Mile and Muddy creeks.

Limestone is abundant and extensive quarries have been developed, from which large quantities of stone are shipped to nearby cities. Gyp- sum has been found in small quantities in the western part of the county. Coal is found in thin layers in some places but has never been mined extensively.

There is a little waste land, as the soil is rich and deep, adapted to the growth of almost every variety of grain and fruit. Kafir-corn, oats, corn and winter wheat are the leading crops, and Butler ranks first in acreage and value of sorghum, forage, grain, Kafir-corn, alfalfa, and prairie hay. Live stock raising has been an important industry from the early days and the county leads in the number and value of animals slaughtered or sold for that purpose. There are in the county, over 250,000 fruit trees of bearing age.

It is probable that the first settlements in Butler county were made about 1854, by men who located along the streams and established cattle ranches and trading posts. But the first authentic records of settle- ment do not date back of May, 1857, when William Hildebrand located in what is now Eldorado township. In June of the same year, Samuel Stewart of Lawrence organized a colony to settle in the county. They followed the old California trail to the point where it crossed the Wal-

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nut river, where they arrived on June 15, 1857. The Osage trail also crossed at this point. Within a short time a town site was surveyed, and here, on the banks of the Walnut, the "land of gold" was found and named Eldorado. Among the members of this pioneer colony were Wil- liam Bemis, Henry Marten, Jacob Carey, H. Bemis, William Crimble, and some ten other families. A man named Schaffer took a claim on the west bank of the Walnut and built a cabin just north of the site of the present town of Eldorado. His claim extended across the west branch but was not entered until 1868. In 1858 and 1859, it was estimated that there were about fifty actual settlers in Butler county, prominent among them being Judge Lambdin, Archibald Ellis, Judge Harrison, P. P. John- son, George Donaldson, J. D. Connor and James Gordy. Cutler in his History of Kansas says, "At the election under the Lecompton constitu- tion, Dec. 21, 1857, there is no record of any returns from Butler county, but in Oct., 1857, Madison and Butler counties polled 69 free-state and 7 Democratic votes. On Aug. 2, 1858, an election was held at the old Eldorado town site, on the Lecompton constitution, and the entire vote (21) polled, was cast against that infamous platform."

During the war few new settlers came. In 1861, a company for home defense was raised among the settlers northeast of Eldorado, and placed under command of P. G. D. Morton, but its only service consisted of capturing a wagon train of supplies on the way to the Indian Territory in violation of a military order. In the winter of 1861, the company built and occupied a fort about two miles northeast of Eldorado, but in the spring it was disbanded and most of the members joined the army at Fort Leavenworth.

In 1867 two brothers named Moorehead moved into a cabin which had been built by a man named Schaffer, and opened the first store on a small scale, though Schaffer had kept supplies when he lived there. This is believed to be the first store on the site of the present city of Eldorado, which is located over two miles above the old town. The same year E. L. Lower built a house and opened a regular store. In March, 1868, B. F. Gordy entered 160 acres of land upon which all that part of Eldorado south of Central avenue now stands and the town site was laid out early in the spring. A. G. Davis, William Vann and two men named Chandler and Atwood settled in Towanda township in July, 1868; D. L. McCabe, in Rock Creek township, about the same time ; Philip Carns in July, 1869, took up land in Rosalia township, and Hol- land Ferguson in Fairmount township.

The first religious services in the county were held at the Lambdin home. A Presbyterian society was organized at Eldorado and a build- ing commenced in 1872, but was not completed until 1877. The first rec- ord of a district school is found in Chelsea township. It was taught by Sarah Satchel. The second was in Eldorado township in 1861, the funds for it being raised by subscription among the settlers. The first marriage was that of Jacob E. Chase and Augusta Stewart in Eldorado township in Jan., 1859. The first birth of a white child was I. Johnson

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in Towanda township. The first newspaper in the county was the Wal- nut Valley Times, the first issue of which bears the date of March 4, 1870, with Murdock and Danforth as editors and publishers. On June I, of that year the partnership was dissolved and T. B. Murdock became the sole owner, and continued to issue the paper until 1881 when he sold it to Alvah Sheldon. One of the early banking houses was con- ducted by Neal Wilkie and S. L. Shotwell, and the Bank of Eldorado was opened for business on April 5, 1880, by Edward C. Ellett and N. F. Frazier. A year later the Butler county bank was opened under a charter from the state. The Eldorado mills, one of the earliest manufac- turing concerns, was built in 1870, by Wheeler and Burdett, on the east bank of the Walnut, and the Walnut Valley mills were erected in 1882.

Lawrence was the nearest established postoffice when the first settlers located in Butler county. All mail addressed to box 400 at Lawrence was taken by a hack to Emporia, whence it was sent down by anybody who was passing. But a regular distributing station was established at Chelsea in 1858, with C. S. Lambdin as postmaster, at Eldorado in 1860, with D. L. McCabe as postmaster, and in 1863, mail was also brought from Cottonwood Falls.

In every new country during the period of settlement there is a time when lawless characters will drift into the community. In the late '6os and early 'zos, Butler county was no exception to this rule. It was believed a band was operating around Douglas and a vigilance committee was formed. In Nov., 1870, four men were shot as mur- derers and horse thieves, the first lynching in the county.

Early in its history, the people of Butler county took a deep interest in agriculture. The Butler County Horticultural and Agricultural So- ciety was organized in March, 1872, and has become one of the flourish- ing institutions of the county. It assisted materially in introducing new and hardy species of fruit trees that would stand the Kansas climate, and it is due largely to this society that Butler county has such fine orchards.

The first railroad proposed across Butler county was the Kansas Ne- braska railroad, which asked for a subscription of $150,000. This propo- sition was carried when put to the yote of the people, but the panic of 1873 came on, and the building of the road was abandoned. In May, 1872, the proposition to subscribe for $150,000 worth of the bonds of the Fort Scott, Humboldt & Western railroad, was voted down, as was the next proposition of the same sort, on July 13 of the same year. In April, 1876, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe company proposed build- ing a branch line from Cedar Point down the valley of the Walnut to Eldorado, and asked the county for a cash bonus of $3,000 a mile. The question was discussed, and in Feb., 1877, bonds aggregating $99,500 were voted to the Eldorado & Walnut Valley railroad. Work was im- mediately started and the road was finished as far as Eldorado on July 31, 1877. Several other roads were proposed but never built, and no further railroad building occurred until 1879, when the St. Louis, Fort Scott & Wichita company began building a line east and west across

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the county, though bonds were not voted by the county in its behalf until 1880.

At the present time four railroad companies operate lines in Butler county. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe enters on the northern boundary and runs south through Eldorado to Augusta, where a branch runs southwest to Caldwell, the main line continuing into Oklahoma; a line of the Missouri Pacific crosses the county from east to west through Eldorado, with a branch from that city to McPherson; the St. Louis & San Francisco crosses the county south of Eldorado, with a branch from Beaumont to Winfield; and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific crosses the northwest corner of the county.

Butler county was organized by an act of Feb. II, 1859, and on April 30, of that year, the board of county supervisors met at the home of George T. Donaldson. The board consisted of P. G. Barrett. chair- man, G. T. Donaldson and I. S. White. They decided that the annual meeting should be held in Chelsea Hall, but other meetings were to be held at their residences, except the probate clerk, who was to hold office at J. C. Lambdin's until further notice. On June 13, 1859, the second meeting of the board was held and P. G. D. Morton was appointed county auditor. The first county treasurer was C. S. Lambdin, ap- pointed Sept. 19, 1859; J. C. Lambdin was the first probate judge; a man named Emmil the first clerk of the district court, and John R. Lambdin was the first register of deeds. There is no record that there was a sheriff until 1863, when J. T. Goodall was elected, but Dr. Lew- ellen was acting in that capacity in 1859. In 1864, M. Vaught was ap- pointed superintendent of schools. G. T. Donaldson was elected to the state legislature in 1863, when the county consisted of but one district.

The first election for the location of the county seat was held on May 21, 1864, and the old town of Eldorado was chosen, but there were no buildings suitable for county offices and the board decided not to move there until such provision was made. The question again came up in Aug., 1867, and a third election was held on May 10, 1870, when Chelsea received 256 and Eldorado 2,524. In April, 1871, a contest between Eldo- rado and Augusta occurred with the following result: Augusta 712 votes, Eldorado 743, and the question of a county seat location was at last settled. For some time most of the officers held their offices at their homes and Dunlevy's building was used for some public purposes. In July, 1870, an effort was made to issue $25,000 worth of bonds for the erection of county buildings but the proposition was voted down. On July 19, 1870, the land now occupied by the court-house was deeded to the county by C. C. and Henry Martin for the consideration of $1.00, and a contract for a court-house was let to I. W. Branson for $3,750. The building was completed in April, 1871, and used until 1875, when extensive additions were made at a cost of $8,000, which with the erec- tion of a jail, brought the total up to $15,000. These improvements were completed in March, 1876.

In 1908, Butler county was divided into the following townships:

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Augusta, Benton, Bloomington, Bruno, Chelsea, Clay, Clifford, Doug- las, Eldorado, Fairmount, Fairview, Glencoe, Hickory, Lincoln, Little Walnut, Logan, Milton, Murdock, Pleasant, Plum Grove, Prospect, Richland, Rock Creek, Rosalia, Spring, Sycamore, Towanda, Union and Walnut.

In 1910 the population, according to the U. S. census report, was 23,059. The value of field crops in that year was 3,103,888, and of all farm products $6,843,341. Corn led the list with a value of $923,498; hay, including alfalfa, stood second with a value of $815,246; other lead- ing crops were Kafir corn, $764,256; oats, $322,583 ; Irish potatoes, $89,- 694. The value of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter was $3,289,- 163; of poultry and eggs, $247,369, and of dairy products, $199,635.

· Butler, Pardee, one of the pioneer clergymen of Kansas, was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1816, a son of Phineas Butler, an old Henry Clay Whig. In 1819 the family removed to the Western Reserve in Ohio, where Pardee united with the Christian church, and in time was ordained to the ministry. In 1855 he removed to Kansas and entered a claim about 12 miles from Atchison. It is said he also owned property in Missouri opposite Atchison. On Aug. 16, 1855, while waiting at Atchi- son for a boat to go east on business, Mr. Butler met Robert S. Kelley, assistant editor of the Squatter Sovereign, and in the course of the con- versation remarked that he would have become a regular subscriber to the paper some time before but for the fact that he disliked its policy. Kelley replied: "I look upon all free soilers as rogues, and they ought to be treated as such." To this Mr. Butler replied that he was a free soiler and expected to vote for Kansas to be a free state, whereupon Kelley angrily retorted : "I do not expect you will be allowed to vote."

Nothing further was said at the time, but early the next morning Kel- ley and a few other pro-slavery men called at the hotel and demanded that Butler subscribe to some resolutions which had been adopted at a recent meeting, one of which was as follows: "That we recommend the good work of purging our town of all resident abolitionists, and after cleansing our town of such nuisances shall do the same for the settlers on Walnut and Independence creeks, whose propensities for cattle stealing are well known."

Butler was a man of positive views and undaunted courage, and naturally refused to sign a resolution so contrary to his opinions. The mob then seized him, blackened his face, placed him upon a raft and set him adrift upon the Missouri river. Phillips, in his Conquest of Kan- sas, says that a flag was raised on the raft bearing the inscription : "Eastern Emigrant Aid Express. The Rev. Mr. Butler, Agent for the Underground Railroad. The way they are served in Kansas. For Bos- ton. Cargo insured-unvoidable danger of the Missourians and the Mis- souri river excepted. Let future Emissaries from the North beware. Our hemp crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels."

Holloway gives a different account of the inscription on the flag. He says: "A horse was represented on the flag at full speed with Mr. But-

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ler upon him ; a negro was clinging behind him, while Mr. Butler was represented as exclaiming: 'To the rescue, Greeley, I've got a negro!' Over the painting was printed in large letters 'Eastern Abolition Ex- press.' The other side of the flag bore the following inscription : 'From Atchison, Kansas Territory. The way they are served in Kansas.'"

Whichever account regarding this flag may be the correct one, it is certain that Mr. Butler was thus ignominiously banished from the territory where he had chosen to make his home. But if his assailants thought for a moment that he would remain away permanently they reckoned without their host. He soon returned, perfected the title to his claim, and continued to live in Kansas until his death, which occurred at Farmington, Atchison county, Oct. 20, 1888. He was again mal- treated by a mob led by his old enemy, Kelley, on March 30, 1856, when he was given a mock trial and sentenced to hang, but this decree was changed and he was given a coat of tar and cotton wool. At the same time he was informed that if he ever appeared in Atchison again he would be put to death. Even this did not dampen his ardor for the free-state cause. He never shirked what he conceived to be his duty, and he contributed in no small degree to making Kansas a free state.

Butterfield's Overland Despatch .- In the spring of 1865, David A. Butterfield, a pioneer of Colorado, but then a resident of Atchison, began preliminaries for inaugurating a gigantic freighting business between the Missouri river and the Rocky mountains and the territories beyond. Having succeeded in interesting some eastern capitalists in the pro- posed scheme, by early summer the stock and equipment for the con- cern were ready, considerable money having been spent in advertising the enterprise in the metropolitan papers of the east. The new com- pany was capitalized at $3,000,000, of which amount one-half was paid in. E. P. Bray, a noted eastern express man, was elected president; W. K. Kitchen, treasurer; and D. A. Butterfield, the originator, was made superintendent and manager. The main office was at Atchison, with branch offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Leavenworth, Denver and Salt Lake City. Up to this time no direct route had been mapped out, except that it had been decided to fol- low up the Kansas and Smoky Hill rivers, if, after a thorough investiga- tion, it proved the shorter and more feasible. To determine this ques- tion, Col. Isaac E. Eaton, a civil engineer of Leavenworth, was sent out to make a survey of the entire route, and this he did, reporting the same entirely practicable. The new road as surveyed was between 60 and 70 miles shorter than the northern road via the Little Blue and the Platte. It also had the advantages of grass, wood and water every 5 miles of the distance, except from the head of the Smoky Hill to Sand creek, a distance of 21 miles. The new route being so much shorter it was plain that two days' travel could be saved, an item of some moment to a busy man.

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Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I, Part 31

Author: Blackmar, Frank Wilson, 1854-1931, ed Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, Standard publishing company Number of Pages: 954

Author: Blackmar, Frank Wilson, 1854-1931, ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Standard publishing company
Number of Pages: 954