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 36
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Cawker city was founded in 1870 by E. H. Cawker, J. P. Rice and R. G. F. Kshinka of Milwaukee, and John J. Huckle of Towanda, Pa. The first building was erected by E. H. Cawker. Mr. Huckle built a dwelling and then returned to Pennsylvania and brought out a colony of his neighbors. By June, 1870, a steam sawmill was in operation. The plat of the town was not recorded until 1871. The government located a land office here in 1872. In 1874 it was taken to Kirwin, which was more centrally located. The town was incorporated that year as a city of the third class and an election held, at which the following officers were chosen: Mayor, F. J. Knight ; councilmen, A. Parker, D. A. Hauling, W. Woodmansee, P. Wolf and J. A. Pope; police judge, L. S. Tucker.
Cecil, an inland hamlet of Labette county, is located in the southern part of the county, about 13 miles from Oswego, the county seat, and 4 miles south of Bartlett, the nearest railroad station, whence it receives mail by rural route.
Cedar, one of the principal towns of Smith county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Harvey township, about 15 miles south- west of Smith Center, the county seat. It has a money order post- office with one rural route, express and telegraph offices, a bank, a grain elevator, a hotel, telephone connections, a graded school, Chris- tian and Methodist churches, and in 1910 reported a population of 400 .. Being located in the Solomon river valley, in a fertile agricultural dis- trict, it is an important trading center and shipping point. The name was formerly Cedarville.
Cedar Bluffs, a village of Beaver township, Decatur county, is situated on Beaver creek and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. about 12 miles north of Oberlin, the county seat. It has a bank, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, express and telegraph offices, telephone connections, good schools and churches, a large retail trade, and does some shipping. The population in 1910 was 200.
Cedar Junction (R. R. name Corliss), a village in the northwestern part of Johnson county, is located on the south bank of the Kansas river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. about 19 miles south- west of Kansas City. It has a money order postoffice, several general stores, express and telegraph facilities, is the supply and shipping point for a rich district and in 1910 had a population of 161.
Cedar Point, a village of Chase county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. about 20 miles southwest of Cottonwood Falls, the county seat. It has a bank, a money order postoffice with
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one rural route, express and telegraph offices, telephone connections, some good mercantile concerns, and being located on the Cottonwood river in a rich agricultural district is an important shipping point for grain, live stock, etc. The population in 1910 was 200.
Cedar Vale, the second largest town in Chautauqua county, is located near the west line, at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads, in Jefferson township, 20 miles west of Sedan, the county seat. It has the best of public schools, churches of all the leading denominations, 2 banks, a weekly newspaper (the Commercial), natural gas for lighting and heating purposes, tele- graph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with 3 rural routes. The population in 1910 was reported as 948.
Cedar Vale was located in 1870 by a town company on land filed upon by E. W. Davis, who later refused to deed the land to the com- pany and was only persuaded to do so under threat of hanging. The first building was a store room erected by J. R. Marsh, Charles Snyder and O. C. Hill, in which they opened a small stock of goods, and in which the postoffice was located. The next' was a hotel built by a company formed for the purpose, and the third was a store put up by Riley Bros. Several new general stores, two blacksmith shops, another hotel, a drug store, a millinery store and a number of shops for various wares completed the improvements for the year 1870. The postoffice was established with J. R. Marsh as postmaster. The town grew rapidly and soon outstripped Osrow, her rival, located 4 miles down the Big Cheney river. A grist mill was built in 1871 by D. F. Taber, and was run by water power, Cedar Vale being on the Big Cheney.
The first Fourth of July celebration took place in 1870, with an attend- ance of 1,000 people or more. The first school district was organized in 1871, and the first school in the village was taught by Miss Lizzie Conklin in 1872, with an attendance of 33 pupils. The first religious services were held in the same year by "Old Father Record," in the school building.
Cedron, a money order post-hamlet of Lincoln county, is located in the township of the same name on the headwaters of Spillman creek, and about 20 miles northwest of Lincoln, the county seat. Lucas, on the Union Pacific, is the nearest railroad station.
Cellar Kitchen Convention .- On Dec. 23, 1857, a large number of free-state delegates met in convention at Lawrence, to decide on the question of voting on the Lecompton constitution and electing state officers under it. In an address before the Kansas Historical Society on Jan. 17, 1882, Richard Cordley said: "The discussion proceeded for two days. The radicals were the most eloquent and high-toned ; the conservatives were the most experienced and shrewd. The radicals comprised the younger men, who followed impulse and conviction; the conservatives comprised the more cautious men and the political man- agers. As the discussion progressed the breach widened rather than
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otherwise. There was no sign of agreement, and no ground of com- promise was found. A vote was reached at last, and the radical policy was adopted by a decided majority. The conservatives thereupon withdrew to the basement of the Herald of Freedom office and organized another convention, which was known as the "Cellar Kitchen Conven- tion."
This convention nominated candidates for state offices (see Denver's Administration), but at the election the candidates received only about half the votes of the free-state party. The failure of Congress to admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution settled the whole matter, and the "Cellar Kitchen Convention" has been almost forgotten.
Cement .- The cement of commerce may be divided into four classes : I. Hydraulic lime, which is made from limestone containing a small proportion of clay (8 or Io per cent.) by burning at a low temperature and slaking the product with water. 2. Hydraulic or natural rock cement, made from an impure limestone, containing a larger percentage of clay than that used for hydraulic lime, by being burned at a low temperature and then ground to powder. 3. Portland cement, which is made from an artificial mixture of carbonate of lime-chalk, ground limestone or marl-with certain proportions of clay, burned at a white heat, and the clinker ground to powder. 4. Slag cement, which is made by mixing finely ground volcanic ash or slag from a blast furnace with a small proportion of slaked lime.
Of these four classes, Portland cement is by far the most impor- tant, and the manufacture of slag cement is still in its infancy in the United States. The manufacture of cement in Kansas began at Fort Scott in 1868, and the next year the capacity of the plant was increased to Io barrels a day, and the amount of capital invested was $4,000. At that time the nearest source of supply was Louisville, and the price of ordinary hydraulic cement was $10 a barrel. The Fort Scott com- pany cut the price one-half, and soon had all the orders it could fill. When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad was built to Fort Scott, the demand increased, railroad companies began to use cement in con- struction of their lines, and in 1871 the plant was enlarged to 50 bar- rels a day. Still the market widened with improved transportation facilities, and in 1879 the company was turning out 700 barrels daily. A second mill was erected in 1887, and in a short time it also was turning out 700 barrels a day, though the price had dropped to less than $1 a barrel. Improved methods were introduced, to cheapen the cost of production, and in 1900 Kansas mills had a capacity over 125,- 000 barrels for the year, which had been increased to nearly 240,000 in 1906.
The manufacture of Portland cement began in 1899. The first mill was erected at Iola and started with a capacity of 2,500 barrels a day, which was soon doubled. A second mill was established there in 1904. In 1905 mills were built at Independence and Neodesha. Mills are also in operation at Fredonia, Humboldt, Chanute, Yocemento and
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Bonner Springs. In 1908 three of the largest mills were consolidated under one management-the United States Portland Cement company, with a capital of over $12,500,000. The industry was greatly stimulated by the discovery of natural gas, and in 1910 the fifteen mills in the Kansas and Oklahoma gas belt turned out over 1,000,000 barrels a month. There is also a large quantity of cement plaster manufactured in Kansas. (See also articles on Geology and Gypsum.)
Cemeteries, National .- There are three national cemeteries in Kansas -one at Fort Leavenworth, one at Fort Scott, and one at Baxter Springs. The one at Fort Leavenworth was established in 1861, and contains an area of 15 acres, inclosed by a stone wall. It is a portion of the government reservation, which is a magnificent natural park. It is beautifully located half a mile west of the garrison, which is approached by way of a broad macadamized roadway that connects the city of Leavenworth with the fort. The view of the government reserva- tion from the cemetery is imposing and picturesque. Water for the cemetery is supplied by cisterns and the post waterworks, and there is fine surface and underground drainage. The lodge is a six-room stone building, with a brick out-building, and there is a rectangular rostrum. The interments in the Fort Leavenworth cemetery number 3.174. of which 1,729 are known and 1,445 are unknown.
The cemetery at Fort Scott is located about one and a half miles from the heart of the city. The grounds were established as a cemetery by the government on Nov. 15, 1862, with an area of 10.26 acres, inclosed by a stone wall. The cemetery is rectangular in shape, 924 feet long, extending east and west, and 478 wide, north and south. A part of the ground was donated by the city, a part by the Presbyterian church, and the rest was purcahsed by the government, for $75. Through the stone wall mentioned are entrances at either end of the cemetery made by means of iron folding gates swinging from stone pillars. The sur- face of the ground is a graceful slope. The crest of the slope is at the east end and for a short distance the descent is extremely light, but soon becomes of greater fall, extending about half the length of the grounds, and again becomes more mild reaching to the other extremity of the place. The main entrance is in the center of the west wall at the foot of the grade. A wide driveway passes up the gentle slope to the center of the cemetery, and at about half the length of the grounds divides, branching to either side around the more abrupt slope to the summit, enclosing a heart-shaped plat, tastefully ornamented with shade trees. At regular intervals upon the margins of this plat four mounted cannon are stationed to guard, as it were, these holy and sacred precincts. Immediately upon the brow of the crest, at about equal angular distances from the superintendent's resi- dence building and rostrum, rising out of a large, grass covered mound, is the tall flag staff, upon the summit of which the national emblem mournfully keeps untiring watch over the resting place of its defenders. At the other end of the cemetery and about half its length, separated
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by the central driveway and surrounded by a driveway on the remain- ing three sides, are the two rectangular plats or panels occupied by the interments. These plats of equal size are of even and. moderate grade. Here, side by side, in rank and file, like as in solid phalanx they marched, the veterans lie buried. The surface of these plats is smooth and even, with no perceptible marks of the graves except the little block of marble standing at the head of each. The entire grounds, excepting the drives, is covered with a blue grass sod, and the whole is under- drained with tiling, by which the surface is always kept dry. The enclosure is also adorned with a profusion of artistically arranged shade trees, and the burying plats are embellished with numerous evergreens, through whose dark green foliage may be seen the ghostlike white- ness of the marble blocks, giving the whole a weird and mournful appearance. There are 666 interments in the cemetery, 177 of whom are unknown. At different places among the graves are stanzas of poetry appropriate to the place, printed in enduring letters on tablets. The cemetery is reached from the city by a fine macadamized drive, alongside of which is a walk, and on either side of both a row of shade trees. This improvement was made during the year 1882 at a cost of about $18,000. Upon the summit of the grade, at the east end of the grounds and near one corner, is the tasty, two-story brick resi- dence of the superintendent, and back of this building in the corner are the stable and out-houses. (See Baxter Springs.)
Census .- The first census taken in Kansas was in accordance with the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which stipulated that "Previous to the first election, the governor shall cause a census or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several coun- ties and districts of the territory, to be taken by such persons, and in such mode as the governor shall designate and appoint."
The enumeration taken under this provision was completed on the last day of Feb., 1855, and showed the total resident population of the territory to be 8,501, of whom 2,905 were qualified voters; 151 were free negroes; 192 were slaves, and 408 were persons of foreign birth. It was under this census that Gov. Reeder divided the territory into districts for the election of members of the first territorial legislature. On Jan. 21, 1858, Gov. Denver approved an act of the legislature pro- viding for a census to be taken in certain districts, viz: Oxford and Shawnee townships in Johnson county; Walnut township, Atchison county ; and Tate and Potosi townships in Linn county. The act also appointed commisioners to take the census. Each commissioner was to receive $5 for his work, and was required "to visit every dwelling, cabin, tent or building in which he can find inhabitants, and take the name of each inhabitant, as provided in the first section, specifying the date of his settlement." The act was passed by the free-state legisla- ture to aid in the investigation of frauds committed at the election of Jan. 4.
Section 26, Article 2, of the Wyandotte constitution provided that (I-20)
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"The legislature shall provide for taking an enumeration of the inhab- -itants of the state, at least once in ten years. The first enumeration shall be taken in A. D. 1865."
Several enumerations were made in the year 1860. On Feb. 7 a com- mittee of the legislature reported the population as being 97,570. The census made to and reported by Gov. Robinson showed a population of 71,770. In June the marshal caused a census to be taken, which showed a population of 143,643, and the official United States census -- the first ever taken in Kansas-gave the number of inhabitants as 107,206. The first state census, taken under the provisions of the Wyan- dotte constitution mentioned above, was made in May, 1865, and showed the population to be 140,179, of whom 127,270 were whites, 12,527 were negroes, and 382 were Indians.
During the first twenty years of statehood the growth of population was rapid. In 1870 it was 364,399, an increase of nearly 250 per cent. during the preceding decade, and in 1880 it was 996,096, an increase of nearly 175 per cent. over 1870. Since then the increase has not been so marked, yet Kansas has kept pace with her sister states. In 1890 the population was 1,427,096. This had increased to 1,470,495 in 1900, and in 1910, the last United States census year, the population was 1,690,949.
Centennal Exposition .- (See Expositions.)
Center, a little inland hamlet in Chautauqua county, is located on North Cheney Creek about 10 miles north of Sedan, the county seat, whence it receives mail daily by rural route. The nearest railroad station is Rodgers on the Missouri Pacific, about 7 miles south. The population, according to the report of 1910, was 38.
Centerville, a village of Linn county, is situated in the western por- tion of the county on Sugar creek and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R. about 12 miles northwest of Mound City, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, express and telegraph offices, and is the shipping and supply town for a considerable agricultural district. In 1910 the population was 175.
Central City, a village of Anderson county, is located on a branch of Scipio creek, about 8 miles west of Garnett, the county seat, and 4 miles from Harris, on the Missouri Pacific, which is the nearest rail- road station. The population was 57 in 1910. Mail is received from Garnett by rural delivery.
Central College, located at Enterprise, Dickinson county, was founded by six citizens of that city, who purchased the site and erected a three-story stone building 65 by 75 feet, in which was opened "Har- rison Normal College." On July 10, 1891, the founders met with the Central College Association, to which the property was transferred, and the charter of Central College was filed on the 16th. The institu- tion was conducted under the name of Central College until in 1896, when it was turned over to the western conference of the German Methodist church, and the name was changed to Enterprise Normal Academy.
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Central Normal College, located at Great Bend, was first opened in 1888, with D. E. Sanders as president and William Stryker as principal. Hazelrigg's History of Kansas, published in 1895, says the school then enrolled 400 students. In 1898 the Central Normal College company was organized and purchased the property, which originally cost some- thing like $40,000, engaged a competent faculty, reorganized the institu- tion with Porter Young as president, and broadened the scope of the college. Under the new management eight courses of study were intro- duced, viz .: Preparatory, common school teachers', special science, scientific, classical, pedagogical, oratorical and commercial. There is also a special course in shorthand and typewriting.
Centralia, one of the important towns of Nemaha county, is located Io miles southwest of Seneca, the county seat, on the Missouri Pacific R. R. which runs through the southern part of the county east and west. It is also on the Vermillion river. It has banking facilities, a public library, a weekly newspaper (the Journal), telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with four rural routes. All the main lines of business activity are represented. The population in 1910 was 665.
A settlement known as Centralia was made in 1859 a mile north of the present town. J. W. Tuller erected a store in 1860 and shortly afterward a school house, a drug store and a hotel were constructed. These, with a law office and a blacksmith shop, comprised the town up to 1867. When the railroad came through the site was moved. The town company purchased 240 acres of land, half of which was given to the railroad for building a depot. The first building erected was a store by I. Stickel in 1867. Four other business buildings followed before 1871. In 1873 a $7,000 mill was built by John Ingram. The first school was taught in a frame building erected at a cost of $2,500, J. S. Stamm being the teacher. The first marriage occurred in 1860 between Albert Clark and Sara Mitchell. The town was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1882 and the first election held the same year.
Centropolis, one of the oldest settlements of Franklin county, is situated on Eight Mile creek about 10 miles northwest of Ottawa, the county seat, and 8 miles west of Norwood, the nearest railroad station. The first white settler on the town site was Perry Fuller, who estab- lished a store in 1855, for trade with the Indians. The business pros- pered and Mr. Fuller was the prime mover in the formation of the Centropolis Town company in 1856. The men who formed the organ- ization intended that it should not only be the seat of justice of the county, but also aspired to have it the capital of Kansas Territory. It was therefore named Centropolis at the suggestion of Joel K. Goodin, a member of the association. A number of business houses and dwell- ings were erected during 1856. The following year the town company built a large sawmill, and during that year Centropolis reached the height of its importance. The first school in the town was taught dur-
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ing the winter of 1855 by William Cator. The first school house was used until 1877, when it was replaced by a good frame building with a capacity of 80 scholars. The first newspaper in Franklin county, excepting that issued by Jotham Meeker at the Indian mission, was the Kansas Leader of Centropolis, which appeared in the spring of 1857. Centropolis prospered up to 1860, but as no railroad reached the town it never lived up to the great expectations of its founders. Today it has several general stores, a money order postoffice, is the supply town for a considerable district, and in 1910 had a population of 117.
Cess, a rural postoffice in the extreme southeast corner of Morton county, is in Cimarron township about 25 miles from Richfield, the county seat. Hooker, Okla., is the most convenient railroad station.
Chaffee, a small hamlet of Rush county, is located about 8 miles northeast of Lacrosse, the county seat and most convenient railroad station. Mail is received by rural delivery from the postoffice at Bison. ยท Chalk, a small hamlet in the extreme southwest corner of Wabaun- see county, is about 17 miles south of Alma, the county seat, and 8 miles north of Comiskey on the Missouri Pacific, which is the nearest railroad station. Mail is delivered to the people of Chalk from the postoffice at Eskridge.
Chalk Beds .- Not until the early '7os was the existence of chalk known in the U. S. About that time, however, it became known in scientific circles in Kansas that practically limitless beds of chalk occur in the Cretaceous formations of this state, the discovery having been made by the late Dr. Bunn, while a student at the University of Kansas. These beds have been found in a number of Kansas counties, the chalk once forming the bed of the Cretaceous ocean. Should a demand ever arise for the article the supply would be practically unlimited. As a rule this chalk is soft and fine grained. A large portion of it is slightly tinged with yellow, from oxide of iron, while much is snowy white. It also differs from the old world article, in that the Rhizopod shells, which sometimes comprises nearly the entire makeup of the latter, are entirely wanting in that found in the Kansas beds. The amount of impurities in the Kansas chalk rarely amounts to more than 15 or 16 per cent.
In 1909, Charles H. Sternberg of Lawrence, an authority on the Kansas chalk beds, issued a volume entitled "Life of a Fossil Hunter," in which the following description of conditions in one of the Kansas chalk beds might be typical of others: "Both sides of my ravine are bordered with cream-colored, or yellow, chalk, with blue below. Some- times for hundreds of feet the rock is entirely denuded and cut into lateral ravines, ridges, and mounds, or beautifully scultptured into tower and obelisk. Sometimes it takes on the semblance of a ruined city, with walls of tottering masonry, and only a near approach can convince the eye that this is only another example of that mimicry in which nature so frequently indulges. The chalk beds are entirely bare of vege- tation, with the exception of a desert shrub that 'finds a foothold in the rifted rock' and sends its roots down every crevice. . . Sometimes I
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come upon gorges only two feet wide and fifty feet deep; sometimes for five miles or more the sides of the ravine will be only a few feet high."
These chalk beds are rich in specimens of extinct animal and plant life and have yielded many of the world's finest specimens of the fauna and flora of the Cretaceous period. The first thorough exploitation of the beds was in 1876, when expeditions under Prof. Benjamin F. Mudge and Mr. Sternberg went out, each procuring many rare specimens, During subsequent years Mr. Sternberg has been an assiduous collector, finding fossil remains of the mososaur, ram nosed tylosaur, giant Cre- taceous fish, Cretaceous shark, giant sea tortoise, crinoids and fossil leaves. The most of his specimens were obtained in the counties of Logan and Gove, and many now enrich some of the world's most noted museums, including the British Museum of Natural History, London ; the Royal Museum of Munich; the Smithsonian Institution, Washing- ton; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa .; University of Kansas, Lawrence, and other institutions. (See also Geology and Paleontology.)
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