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 45
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At the first election to decide the location of the county seat Towns- din's Point received the majority of legal votes, but nothing was ever done there. In the summer of 1867 the town of Sibley sprang up, and at the next election Sibley and Concordia held first and second place with Clyde third. Every vote south of the Republican river was for Concordia, and the 18 votes from Clyde were also thrown to Concordia.
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The county business, however, continued to be done at Elk creek, or Clyde, until 1870.
At a convention in Aug., 1869, at Saunders' sawmill, a half mile below the site of the proposed city, it was suggested that the delegates visit the site. This was done, the settlers from the south side of the river, who were in the majority, approved and H. C. Snyder called it Con- cordia. The incorporators of the town company were J. M. Hageman, G. W. Andrews, William McK. Burns, Amos Cutler and S. D. Houston. The charter was filed with the secretary of state, and in Sept., 1869, word was received that the United States land office had been located there and orders issued for a building to be erected for the purpose. In Jan .. 1870, the commissioners met in the building which had been erected and presented to the county. It was built at a cost of some $275 and was used until the present court-house was erected.
On May 31, 1870, Henry Buckingham issued the first number of the Republican Valley Empire, the first newspaper in Cloud county and one of the earliest in the Republican valley. It was started at Clyde, but was later removed to Concordia. In 1881, the Republican Valley Agricultural and Stock Fair Association was organized. It has since become one of the important and flourishing institutions of the county.
The northern part of the county is watered by the Republican river and its tributaries, and the southern portion is watered by the Solomon river, which flows in a southeasterly direction across the southwest cor- ner. In the northeastern part of the county there are some salt springs and marshes. Coal is found near the center of the county, south of the Republican river, and is mined to some extent for local consumption. Magnesium limestone of a good quality is found in abundance. Good building stone is quarried in the vicinity of Concordia. Potter's clay is plentiful in all portions of the county, and these deposits have been extensively worked in the northeast portion.
The county is well supplied with railroads, the Union Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy companies all have lines centering at Concordia ; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific crosses the northeast corner through Clyde ; a line of the Union Pacific crosses the southwest corner ; a branch of the same system runs east from Miltonvale, and a branch of the Mis- souri Pacific runs southwest from Jamestown into Mitchell county, mak- ing a total of over 125 miles of main track in the county.
Cloud county is divided into the following townships: Arion, Au- rora, Buffalo, Center, Colfax, Elk, Grant, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lyon. Meredith, Nelson, Oakland, Shirley, Sibley, Solomon, Star and Sum- mit. The population of the county in 1910 was 18,388, and the value of all farm products for that year, including live stock, was nearly $5,000,- 000. Corn, wheat, oats, hay and Irish potatoes were the leading crops.
Cloud, William F., soldier, was born near Columbus, Ohio, March 23, 1825. His military history began when he enlisted at Columbus in 1846, in a company which became a part of the Second Ohio infantry
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in the war with Mexico. He was promoted to first sergeant and took an active. part in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged. At the close of the war he was elected captain of the Columbus Videttes, of the Ohio volunteer militia, but resigned in 1859, when he removed to Michigan. After a short residence in that state he removed to Law- rence, Kan., but later went to Emporia. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Second Kansas infantry and participated in the hardest engagements of the Southwest, especially distinguishing him- self at Wilson's creek, Mo. At the expiration of his first enlistment he assisted in organizing the Second Kansas cavalry and was commissioned colonel of the regiment, which took part in the engagements of the Army of the Frontier in Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Later he was transferred to the Fifteenth Kansas cavalry and served in the campaigns against the Indians in western Kansas and the Indian Ter- ritory. His most conspicuous act of bravery was in 1862, when with 500 men he attacked an enemy of 5,000 at Tallequah, rescued the Indian agent and saved the money held for payment of the annuities of the In- dian tribes. The legislature of Kansas changed the name of Shirley county to Cloud in his honor. Soon after the close of the war he lo- cated in Carthage, Mo., but about 1889 removed to Kansas City, where he resided until his death on March 4, 1905. Col. Cloud was an eloquent public speaker and fluent writer, one of his best works being a "His- tory of Mexico from Cortez to Diaz."
Clover, Benjamin H., member of Congress, was born in Franklin county, Ohio, Dec. 22, 1837, and was educated in the common schools of his native state, after which he engaged in farming. He was a man deeply interested in all questions of public welfare and policy; served as a school commissioner, and held several other similar offices. When the Farmers' Alliance was organized he became an active member; was twice chosen president of the Kansas Alliance and Industrial Union, and twice vice-president of the national organization. In 1890 he was elected to Congress from the Third district as the Alliance candidate, but was defeated for a renomination in 1892. At the expiration of his term in Congress he returned to Kansas and the following year severed his connection with the Populist party. During the administration of Gov. Morrill he held the position of farmer at the state reform school. Sub- sequently he removed to Douglass, Butler county, where he committed suicide on Dec. 30, 1899.
Cloverdale, an inland village near the west line of Chautauqua county, in Caneyville township, is located on Big Caney creek, about 21 miles northwest of Sedan, the county seat, and about 12 miles south of Grenola in Elk county, whence it receives mail by rural route. The nearest railroad station is Cedar Vale, about 8 miles south.
Clyde, an incorporated city of Cloud county, is located on the Repub- lican river at the junction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri Pacific and the Union Pacific railways, 15 miles east of Con- cordia, the county seat, and not far from the eastern boundary of the
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county. It is the oldest town in the county, the original site of 40 acres having ben purchased from W. H. Page early in 1866 for $300 and soon afterward the town was laid out. Cowell & Davis had opened a store on the site before the town was platted. It was first named Shirley, which was also the original name of the county, but in a little while the name was changed to Clyde. For a time the growth was slow, but since the advent of the railroads it has been more steady and substan- tial, and in 1910 the population was 1,057.
For a city of its size, Clyde is one of the most progressive and metro- politan in character in the state. It has well kept streets, an electric light plant, waterworks, a fire department, a sewer system, 2 banks, 2 thea- ters, 2 weekly newspapers (the Republican and the Herald), a commer- cial club, good hotels, a graded school system, several fine church edi- fices, a flour mill, a creamery, grain elevators, marble and granite works, and annually ships large quantities of grain, live stock, watermelons and alfalfa. Its international money order postoffice has five rural routes which supply a large district with daily mail, and the mercantile es- tablishments of the city enjoy a large and profitable patronage. Tele- phone connection is maintained with the surrounding towns
Coal .- Indications of coal in Kansas were first observed by Mr. Jessup, one of the geologists who accompanied Maj. S. H. Long on his expedi- tion through Kansas in 1819-20. "Mr. Jessup noted the horizontal po- sition of the strata of limestone and their prolific yield of fossils, and their connection with coal strata." In his report he concluded that the formations were of secondary age. This was when the main geologic divisions were known as primary, secondary, tertiary and alluvial. A map accompanies the report and a line on it through what are now the counties of Pottawatomie and Waubaunsee is designated as the "west- ern limit of the limestone and coal strata connected with the Ozark mountains."
Geological observations were made by different interested persons up to the time Kansas was created a territory, and as early as 1857 the territorial legislature granted incorporation papers to mining companies. One of these was the Prairie City Coal Mining company which was or- ganized "for the purpose of exploring for coal within the space of 5 miles north and south, and the space of 15 miles east and west from the town of Prairie City, in the county of Shawnee, in the territory of Kan- sas, and for mining and vending the same." Another company incorpo- rated by the legislature was the Newcastle Coal and General Mining company which organized "for the purpose of exploring for coal and other minerals in Doniphan and Brown counties, and for mining and vending the same."
In 1858 Prof. Swallow and Maj. F. Hawn published an article en- titled, "The Rocks of Kansas." The desire of Kansas people to know something of the mineral resources of the state influenced the legislature of 1864 to provide for a geological and mineralogical survey of Kansas. The investigations of the state geologists determined that the coal
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measures of Kansas constitute a heavy mass of rocks, almost 3,000 feet in thickness, composed of alternating beds of limestones, sandstones and shales. (See Geology.) The coals occur in the various shale beds and are found at any position from the surface of the ground to the depth of 2,000 feet. The shales are classified as follows : Cherokee, Pleasanton, Thayer, Lawrence and Osage shales.
The coal measures of Kansas are situated in the eastern part of the state and cover about one-fourth of the entire area, or about 20,000 square miles. The western parts of this area are practically barren, leaving about 15,000 square miles of productive area, and only a small portion if this is worked. The mines that are worked the most exten- sively are located in Crawford and Cherokee counties in the southeast- ern part of the state in the vicinity of Mineral, Weir City, Fleming, Pittsburg, Frontenac and Arcadia. More than two-thirds of all the coal mined in the state comes from this field. A little to the north- west of this area are mines at Pleasanton, Fort Scott, Mound City and Thayer. Beyond these limits there is another belt of country with mines extending northeast and southwest reaching from near Burlington by way of Ransomville, Pomona and Lawrence to Leavenworth and Atchi- son. Within this area coal has been found in the following counties : Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Coffey, Crawford, Douglas, Elk, Franklin, Greenwood, Jackson, Jefferson, Labette, Leav- enworth, Linn, Lyon, Montgomery, Neosho, Osage, Shawnee, Wabaun- see and Wilson. Passing westward to the north-central part of the state it is found that here in the Dakota formations considerable Cretaceous coal exists, which is now being mined in a number of counties and serves a good purpose in the way of supplying the local trade. Six counties in this vicinity have produced coal, viz: Cloud, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Mitch- ell, Republic and Russell. The coal seems quite uniform in quantity and quality throughout the whole district.
When the war of the rebellion closed, thousands of young men and their families poured into Kansas especially into the southeastern por- tion. In 1866-7 Cherokee and Crawford counties received a large num- ber of these settlers who chose homes close to the streams. These early settlers began mining coal in the fall of 1866. Their attention was given entirely to the surface coal that could be plowed up. One vein of coal about 12 inches thick was along Brush creek in Cherokee county. The surface covering was very thin so with a plow and team it was quite easy to uncover the vein and dig out whatever was needed. This sup- plied the local demand and also furnished some for the adjoining terri- tory in Missouri, to which market it was conveyed by wagon. That the full significance of this surface coal was not at that time understood by the people is shown by the fact that the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Mem- phis Railroad company, which owned all the good coal lands in Chero- kee and Crawford counties, sold nearly all of the same for agricultural purposes, without reserving the mineral rights, never suspecting the vast areas of coal beneath the surface of the land.
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The heaviest beds in Cherokee county are operated in the environs of Weir City. Twenty-eight mines were located in this county in 1895. Pittsburg is the coal center of Crawford, the largest producing county of the state. The statistics of 1895 showed 53 mines in operation. Another county which ranked high in coal production is Osage. Coal. was first discovered in Osage county in 1869 by John F. Dodds, who began mining about 2 miles east of Carbondale. It was found on the top of a promi- nent hill where a well was being dug. "The coal outcrops along the crests of the hills forming a long line from Carbon Hill southwest beyond Osage City." Mining commenced at Osage City in 1869, at Scranton in 1874, and at Burlingame in 1878. In 1880 the Santa Fe Railway com- pany bought some property, and a year or two later it made additional purchases until it owned 20,000 acres. The Santa Fe mines in Osage county supplied the whole Santa Fe system with coal for all points east of Colorado from their date of their purchase in 1880 until the mines were opened in Crawford county.
The mines in Leavenworth county were among the first developed. In 1859 after much persistent effort and close examination of the ter- ritory Maj. F. Hawn organized the Leavenworth Coal Mining company. In 1860 the company leased 20 acres of land from the government and commenced prospecting. The Civil war, the shortage of funds and lack of confidence led the company to abandon the enterprise and to transfer all its rights to Maj. Hawn: Mr. Hawn continued his prospecting as means would permit and in 1865 found a two-foot vein of coal. The city of Leavenworth granted him the privilege of mining under streets and al- leys. A new company was organized, permission to mine under the military reservation was obtained from the government, and in 1868 Con- gress sold to the coal company the 20 acres that had been leased. In 1869 Maj. Hawn transferred back to the Leavenworth Coal Mining company all his rights in the mines and lands. In 1870 the shaft reached a bed of coal at 713 feet. For two years the mine was operated at a loss. It had cost $200,000, the stock represented $300,000 face value, but was worth only 15 cents on the dollar in the market. In 1872 Lucien Scott pur- chased a large block of the mining stock and the company employed as superintendent J. E. Carr, a practical mining engineer of wide experience. The mine was enlarged, retimbered, the ventilation improved, its capac- ity increased and a new shaft was sunk. In 1885 cable roads supplanted the mules commonly used in coal mines.
In 1879 the legislature authorized the officers of the state penitentiary. to sink a shaft at Lansing and appropriated $25,000 for that purpose. On Nov. 20, 1879, under the direction of Oscar F. Lamm, the shaft was begun, and on Jan. 15, 1881, coal was reached at 713 feet. Coal has been mined at Lansing almost continously since that time. In 1885 the Riverside Coal company was organized in Leavenworth. The city voted $10,000 in bonds to aid the company. The shaft was begun on Jan. 17, 1886, and coal reached on Sept. 17 of the same year.
In the other counties mining has been done upon a less extensive scale,
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but has become an important industry. Three varieties of coal are found in the state, to wit: bituminous, semi-anthracite, and the lignite of the Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits of central and western Kansas. The bituminous coal deposits of the lower coal measures yield the great bulk of coal placed upon the market.
There are three systems of mining usually employed in the coal fields of the state-the long wall system, the room and pillar system, and the strip pit system. The room and pillar system is employed for all under- ground mining in Cherokee and Crawford counties. The long wall sys- tem is used elsewhere. The system is chosen with reference to the lo- cality and the adaptability to existing conditions. The long wall system is employed extensively in Leavenworth and Osage counties. It is so named because the face of the coal, i. e. that part that is exposed to view in the mines by the mining operations, is in the form of a long wall, pro- ducing an approximately circular or elliptical figure around the shaft as a center. The advantage of the long wall system is the ease with which the waste material obtained in mining the coal is disposed of, it being employed in sustaining the roof of the mine. The room and pillar system of mining is employed in those localities where the coal. strata are com- paratively thick, ranging from 3 feet upward. There are two methods generally employed in this system, the double entry and the single en- try . The double entry is considered the best and is used the most exten- sively. The strip pit method is used only where the coal is quite close to the surface. In the southeastern portion of the state near the outcrop of the main coal strata where the coal is just covered by shale or sandstone, it can be "stripped" at very little expense. The average paying depth of stripping is about 10 feet, though in extreme cases as much as 20 feet or 22 feet have been removed.
The improvement of coal mining machinery has kept pace with ma- chinery for different kinds of manufacturing plants, and for other lines of work. From the crude exhuming with spade and pick in the early times the most improved and economic implements have been developed. and are now used. There are two classes of mining machinery, namely. pit machinery and top machinery. Under pit machinery may be consid- ered : (I) mining machinery proper; (2) drilling machinery ; (3) ma- chinery for transferring coal from the face of the coal to the foot of the shaft ; (4) the system of signaling employed between the "top" and the "pit." Top machinery consists of (1) hoisting apparatus, including self- dump, scales and other mechanisms for weighing; (2) coal sorting ma- chinery ; (3) pumping machinery ; (4) ventilating machinery.
The development of underground resources has necessitated a compil- ing of laws to meet the problems arising from new conditions. By the statutes of 1903 the term mining was held to mean "the prospecting for and obtaining of all metallic and mineral substances, and in addition thereto coal, clay, stone, petroleum and natural gas, and any and all other valuable products formed or existing beneath the earth's surface". The laws covering the subject of mining are quite extensive and complete. having
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been formed to meet the ever increasing demands for government juris- dition in mining industries. The laws covering the management of coal mines regulate the surveying of mines, the protection of persons owning coal lands, which includes the power and proceeding of injunc- tion; airways, stagnant water, obstructions, ventilation, etc., making it unlawful for the owner or operator of any coal mine "to employ any per- son at work within said coal mine, or to permit any person to be in said coal mine for the purpose of working therein, unless they are in commu- nication with at least two openings, separated by natural strata of not less than 80 feet in breadth if the mine be worked by shaft or slope, and if worked by drift not less than 50 feet, provided, however, that such coal mine shall not exceed 100 feet in depth from the surface to the coal." In case the coal mine does exceed 100 feet provision is made for its ventila- tion. Further the law outlines the duties of the mine boss, employees, and operators ; commands the use of explosives, the regulation of scales, organization of miners into societies, and the protection of life and miners.
For the purpose of having the laws obeyed a state coal-mine inspector is appointed by the governor. The legislature of 1905 passed an act to provide for the health and safety of persons employed in and about coal mines, by compelling owners, agents and operators of coal mines to con- struct said mines upon more sanitary principles than they had pre- viously been constructed. By the statutes of 1883, "no person under the age of twelve years shall be allowed to work in any coal mine nor any minor between the ages of twelve and sixteen years unless he can read and write and furnish a certificate from a school teacher, which shall be kept on file, showing that he has attended school at least three months during the year ; and in all cases of minors applying for work, the agent of such coal mine shall see that the provisions of this section are not vio- lated ; and upon conviction of a willful violation of this section of this act, the agent of such coal mine shall be fined in any sum not to exceed fifty dollars." The laws of 1898, amended in 1901, provide for a state associa- tion of miners, with power to elect a secretary of mining industries, who shall succeed to the powers and duties of the state mine inspector.
The annual output of coal from Kansas mines has increased from 550,- 000 tons in 1880 to 5,985,000 in 1900. The output previous to 1880 was 300,000 tons annually. As a by-product of the coal industry has come the making of coke. In Cherokee and Crawford counties, where blasting is done in coal mining, a large amount of slack coal is produced. This is used for making coke to supply the zinc smelters.
Coalville, a small hamlet of Crawford county, is a station on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. near the northeast corner of the county, and about 12 miles from Girard, the county seat. Mail is received by rural free delivery from Arcadia.
Coats, one of the principal towns of Pratt county, is located in Grant township about 12 miles southwest of Pratt, the county seat, and is a station on the Wichita & Englewood division of the Atchison, Topeka
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& Santa Fe R. R. It was incorporated in 1909, and in 1910 reported a population of 269. It has a bank, a money order postoffice with one rural 1oute, express and telegraph offices, telephone connections, a grain ele- vator, a hotel, and a weekly newspaper (the Courant).
Cobb, Nelson, lawyer and second chief justice of the State of Kansas, was born at Windham, N. Y., March 19, 1811. He received a liberal education, studied law and was admitted to the bar. He came to Kansas in 1859 and on Nov. 28, 1862, was appointed chief justice by Gov. Robin- son to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Gen. Thomas Ewing. He served on the supreme bench until Jan. 5, 1864, and while there wrote the opinions of the court in sixteen cases. In 1864 he was one of the presidential electors on the Democratic ticket, and in 1866 was nominated by the National Union State convention for chief justice, but was de- feated. Mr. Cobb died at Kansas City, Mo., June 10, 1894.
Cobb, Stephen Alonzo, lawyer and member of Congress, was born at Madison, Me., June 17, 1833. His early education was acquired in the common schools of his native state. When seventeen years of age his father removed to Minnesota, where Stephen worked at the lumber business for four years, carrying on his studies in the languages and other branches, in preparation for a college course. He entered Be- loit College in 1854 but was a student there only two years, when he went to Providence, R. I., and completed his course at Brown University, graduating in 1858. The following year he went west and located at Wyandotte (now Kansas City), Kan., and commenced to practice law. Mr. Cobb took an active interest in politics both in town and state. In 1862 he was mayor of Wyandotte and a member of the Kansas state sen- ate, but gave both up to offer his services to the Union army during the Civil war. In the three years he served, Mr. Cobb was rapidly advanced, and held a commission as lieutenant-colonel when mustered out of the service in 1865. In 1868 he was again elected mayor of Wyandotte. From 1869-70 he held a seat in the state senate and was speaker of the house of representatives of Kansas in 1872. Mr. Cobb was elected repre- sentative from Kansas in 1872, but was defeated for reelection to Con- gress in 1874.
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