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 53
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Sec. 14. The said judges of election, before entering upon the duties of their office, shall take and subscribe an oath faithfully to discharge their duties as such. They shall appoint two clerks of election, who shall be sworn by one of said judges faithfully to dicharge their duties as such. In the event of a vacancy in the board of judges the same shall be filled by the electors present.
Sec. 15. At each of the elections provided for in this schedule the polls shall open between the hours of nine and ten o'clock a. m., and close at sunset.
Sec. 16. The tribunals transacting county business of the several counties shall cause to be furnished to the boards of judges in their respective counties two poll-books for each election hereinbefore pro- vided for, upon which the clerks shall inscribe the name of every person who may vote at the said elections.
Sec. 17. After closing the polls at each of the elections provided for in this schedule, the judges shall proceed to count the votes cast, and designate the persons or objects for which they were cast, and shall make two correct tally-lists of the same.
Sec. 18. Each of the boards of judges shall safely keep one poll-book and tally-list, and the ballots cast at each election; and shall, within ten days after such election, cause the other poll-book and tally-list to be transmitted, by the hands of a sworn officer, to the clerk of the board transacting county business in their respective counties, or to which the county may be attached for municipal purposes.
Sec. 19. The tribunals transacting county business shall assemble at
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the county-seats of their respective counties on the second Tuesday after each of the elections provided for in this schedule, and shall canvass the votes cast at the elections held in the several precincts in their respec- tive counties, and of the counties attached for municipal purposes. They shall hold in safe-keeping the poll-books and tally-lists of said elections, and shall, within ten days thereafter, transmit, by the hands of a sworn officer, to the president of this convention, at the city of Topeka, a certi- fied transcript of the same, showing the number of votes cast for each person or object voted for at each of the several precincts in their respec- tive counties, and in the counties attached for municipal purposes, sep- arately.
Sec. 20. The governor of the territory and the president and secretary of the convention shall constitute a board of state canvassers, any two of whom shall be a quorum; and who shall, on the fourth Monday after each of the elections provided for in this schedule, assemble at said city of Topeka, and proceed to open and canvass the votes cast at the several precincts in the different counties of the territory and declare the result ; and shall immediately issue certificates of election to all persons (if any) thus elected.
Sec. 21. Said board of state canvassers shall issue their proclamation not less than twenty days next preceding each of the elections provided for in this schedule. Said proclamation shall contain an announcement of the several elections, the qualifications of electors, the manner of con- ducting said elections and of making the returns thereof, as in this constitution provided, and shall publish said proclamation in one news- paper in each of the counties of the territory in which a newspaper may be then published. .
Sec. 22. The board of state canvassers shall provide for the trans- mission of authenticated copies of the constitution to the president of the United States, the president of the senate and speaker of the house of representatives.
Sec. 23. Upon official information having been by him received of the admission of Kansas into the Union as a state, it shall be the duty of the governor elect under the constitution to proclaim the same, and to convene the legislature, and do all things else necessary to the com- plete and active organization of the state government.
Sec. 24. The first legislature shall have no power to make any changes in county lines.
Sec. 25. At the election to be held for the ratification or rejection of this constitution, each elector shall be permitted to vote on the home- stead provision contained in the article on "Miscellaneous," by depositing a ballot inscribed "For the homestead," or "Against the homestead ;" and if a majority of all the votes cast at said election shall be against said provision, then it shall be stricken from the constitution.
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RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved, That the Congress of the United States is hereby requested, upon the application of Kansas for admission into the Union, to pass an act granting to the state forty-five hundred thousand acres of land to aid in the construction of railroads and other internal improvements.
Resolved, That Congress be further requested to pass an act appro- priating fifty thousand acres of land for the improvement of the Kansas river from its mouth to Fort Riley.
Resolved, That Congress be further requested to pass an act granting all swamp lands within the state for the benefit of common schools.
Resolved, That Congress be further requested to pass an act appro- priating five hundred thousand dollars, or in lieu thereof five hundred thousand acres of land, for the payment of the claims awarded to citizens of Kansas by the claim commissioners appointed by the governor and legislature of Kansas under an act of the territorial legislature passed Feb. 7, 1859.
Resolved, That the legislature shall make provision for the sale or disposal of the lands granted to the state in aid of internal improve- ments and for other purposes, subject to the same right of preëmption to the settlers thereon as are now allowed by law to settlers on the public lands.
Resolved, That it is the desire of the people of Kansas to be admitted into the Union with this constitution.
Resolved, That Congress be further requested to assume the debt of this territory.
Conveyances .- (See Deeds.)
Conway, a village of McPherson county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 6 miles west of McPherson, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 125.
Conway, Martin F., the first representative in Congress from the State of Kansas, was born at Charleston, S. C., in 1830. He received a fair edu- cation and when fourteen years of age went to Baltimore, Md., where he learned the printer's trade. He was one of the founders of the national typographical union. While working as a printer he studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar, and began practice in Baltimore. In 1854 he moved to Leavenworth, Kan., where he was chosen a member of the first legis- lative council, but on July 3, 1855, he resigned his seat. Under the To- peka constitution he was justice of the supreme court of the territory. He wrote the resolutions that were adopted by the free-state convention of June 9, 1857, at Topeka, and in 1858 was a delegate to tlie Leaven- worth constitutional convention of which he was elected president. In 1859 Mr. Conway was nominated for representative in Congress by the Republican convention, and elected, being the first Congressman from the new state. In 1862 A. C. Wilder was elected to succeed him, and Mr. Conway retired to private life. He still took an active interest in public
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affairs, and when the controversy arose between President Johnson and Congress over the question of reconstruction, he became an earnest sup- porter of the President's policy. In 1866 he was appointed by President Johnson United States consul to Marseilles, France. When he returned to the United States he settled in Washington, D. C., where in 1873 he fired three shots at Senator Pomeroy, who was slightly wounded. When arrested, Conway said: "He ruined myself and family." He finally lost his mind and in 1880 became an inmate of St. Elizabeth, the government hospital for the insane, in the District of Columbia. Disappointed ambi- tions, it is supposed made him insane. He died at St. Elizabeth, Feb. 15, 1882.
Conway Springs .- These springs are situated in the town of the same name in Sumner county, and came into prominence during the latter 'gos. Of the original springs, the use of all but two has been discontinued. These waters have been used to some extent for medicinal purposes, and much used for table purposes. The springs are encased with 24-inch tiling, and are situated in a small park. The water from these springs forms Spring Branch, a small creek.
Conway Springs, a town in Conway and Springdale townships, Sum- ner county, is located at the junction of two lines of the Missouri Pa- cific railroad 15 miles northwest of Wellington, the county seat. The town is named for the mineral springs there. It has 2 banks, a theater, a flour mill, a weekly newspaper (the Star), good hotel accommodations, graded public schools, and several of the leading denominations of churches. It also has telephone and telegraph communications and an international money order postoffice with four rural routes. All lines of mercantile enterprise are represented and the business blocks are mod- ern and substantially built. There are a number of well stocked and up to date retail stores. The population according to the census of 1910 was 1,292. The town was founded in 1875.
Cookville, an inland village of Woodson county, is on Owl creek 10 miles east of Yates Center, the county seat, and 6 miles from Rose, its nearest railroad station, from which it receives daily mail.
Coolidge, an incorporated city of the third class in Hamilton county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. about 3 miles east of the state line and 15 miles west of Syracuse, the county seat. It has a number of general stores, a weekly newspaper (the Leader), a hotel, express and telegraph offices, telephone communications, a graded pub- lic school, the leading church organizations, and a money order post- office. The population according to the government census of 1910 was 145. It is the second largest town in Hamilton county, and is situated on the north bank of the Arkansas river.
Coon Creek .- There are four streams in Kansas that bear this name. The first rises in Washington county and flows east, emptying into the Little Blue river in Marshall county ; the third rises in Osborne county and flows south until it discharges its waters into Wolf creek near the town of Luray, Russell county ; and the fourth rises in Ford county and
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flows northeast, almost parallel to the Arkansas river, into which it emp- ties near the town of Garfield, Pawnee county.
The last is the only one with which any important historical event is connected. Fowler's Journal of Glenn's expedition for Oct. 21, 1821, says : "We passed a point of Rocks on Which stands two trees about 600 yeards from the River-and seven and a half miles came to a deep and mudey Crick 100 feet Wide. Heare Some of our Horses Run to drink and Ware Swomped With their loads and Ware forsed to be pulled out." Cones thinks this creek is Coon creek, and that the camp of the 20th was somewhere between the towns of Garfield and Kinsley.
In May, 1848, a company of 76 recruits left Fort Leavenworth to join the Santa Fe battalion in Chihuahua. On June 17 they camped on Coon creek, not far from the present town of Kinsley, and the next morning were attacked by some 800 Comanches and Apaches. The white men were armed with breech-loading carbines, but the bullets rattled harm- lessly from the raw-hide shields of the savages who came on in a charge that looked as though the whites were to be exterminated. When they were almost upon the camp the soldiers turned their attention to firing upon the horses, and with their breech-loading guns soon turned the tide of battle. Nearly all the horses in the front rank were killed at the first volley and the remaining Indians sought safety in flight. The affair is known as the battle of Coon creek.
Cooper College, located at Sterling, Rice county, was founded in 1887. The Sterling Land and Investment company was organized in 1886, and platted the "College Addition" to Sterling. One of the aims of the com- pany was to erect a college building and a tract of 10 acres of land in the addition was donated for the purpose by Pliny F. Axtell, one of the early settlers. A building was erected by the land company, which in Oct., 1886, offered the site and building to the United Presbyterian synod of Kansas, with the condition that the synod endow, operate and maintain the school. The offer was accepted, provided five years should be al- lowed in which to raise the endowment fund of $25,000, and a contract to this effect was signed by the synod committee on Oct. 22. A charter was prepared and the name "Cooper Memorial" was adopted in honor of Rev. Joseph Cooper of Allegheny, Pa.
The school was opened on Nov. 1, 1887, with A. N. Porter as acting president and professor of mathematics and English literature; S. A. Wilson, professor of languages, and Miss Flora Harriman, instructor in music. The school began work without a dollar and was soon confronted by financial difficulties. At times it was feared the enterprise would have to be abandoned. Efforts were made to secure a president, but no one was chosen until 1889, when Dr. F. M. Spencer, former president of Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, was secured. He was inaugu- rated on Sept. 4, and the college immediately entered upon a more pros- perous era. The number of students increased; more instructors were employed; new departments were added; by 1891 the required endow- ment was raised; and the site and buildings were transferred to the
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synod. Chapel, recitation rooms, laboratories and other rooms were all provided in the three-story stone building. A dormitory for girls has since been built, and an art studio is located on Seventh street. The li- brary contains some 4,000 catalogued books. The school has prepara- tory, normal, commercial and college courses, and special courses are given in the conservatory and art school. In 1908, the last available re- port, there were 183 students enrolled.
Cooperation .- (See Farmers' Cooperative Association.)
Cora, a hamlet of Smith county, is located on the headwaters of White Rock creek about 15 miles northeast of Smith Center, the county seat, and I0 miles from Lebanon, which is the most convenient railroad sta- tion, and from which mail is received by rural delivery.
Corbin, a town of Falls township, Sumner county, is 13 miles south west of Wellington, the county seat, and is a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railways. It has a money order postoffice with one rural route, express and tele- graph offices, telephone connections, a hotel, a good local trade, Protest- ant churches, and in 1910 reported a population of 174.
Cordley, Richard, author and Congregational minister, was born at Nottingham, England, Sept. 6, 1829. When he was about four years of age he came with his parents to America. The family settled on a tract of government land in Livingston county, Mich., where Richard attended the pioneer public schools. In 1850 he entered the University of Michi- gan and graduated with the class of 1854, working his way through the institution. He then worked his way through the Andover Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in 1857. On Dec. 2, 1857, he preached his first sermon in the Plymouth Congregational church at Lawrence, Kan., where he remained as pastor until 1875, when he went to Flint, Mich., for awhile, after which he was pastor of a church at Emporia, Kan., for six years. In 1884 he returned to Lawrence and continued as pastor of the Plymouth church until his death, which occurred on July II, 1904. In May, 1859, Mr. Cordley married Miss Mary M. Cox of Liv- ingston county, Mich. At the time of the Quantrill raid, Aug. 21, 1863, his house and all its contents were burned, and he was one of the persons marked for death, but he managed to elude the guerrillas. Mr. Cordley was several times a member of the National council of Congregational churches. In 1871 he was elected president of Washington College, but declined the office. Three years after this the University of Kansas con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He served for some time as a regent of the Kansas Agricultural College, and was for several years president of the Lawrence board of education. He was the author of "Pioneer Days in Kansas" and a "History of Lawrence," and was a contributor to magazines and church periodicals.
Corn .- Indian corn, or maize, was cultivated by the North American Indians in a crude way before the discovery of America by Columbus. who introduced the plant into Europe. From the earliest settlement of Kansas corn has been one of the principal field crops. Five years after
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the organization of the territory the farmers along the Kansas river raised large quantities of corn, but found later that it was a difficult mat- ter to get it to market. In the fall of 1859 James R. Mead tried the ex- periment of transporting corn down the Kansas river in keel boats-500 sacks to each boat-but found the water too low and the sand bars too numerous to make the venture a profitable one. At that time there were a few light draft steamboats on the Kansas. The Kansas City Journal of June 17, 1859, contained an item to the effect that the steamer "Col. Gus Linn" left Manhattan early in the month with 2,200 bushels of corn on board and took on 500 sacks more at Topeka, but that owing to the low stage of water was compelled to leave some of the corn on the river bank to lighten the cargo.
On Sept. 21, 1859, the same paper announced that the Col. Gus Linn had arrived from another trip up the river with 1,300 bushels of corn, and also said: "We learned from the officers of the boat that at Man- hattan, Topeka, Tecumseh, Lecompton and Lawrence there is not less than 40,000 bushels of corn awaiting shipment. We shall look for this corn down on the first rise in this new stream of western commerce."
The production of corn outran the transportation facilities, with the result that, for almost a quarter of a century after the first settlements were made in Kansas, the farmers realized but little profits from their corn crops. In the early 'zos, owing to the scarcity of fuel and the exces- sive freight charges of the railroad companies, many farmers found it more profitable to burn their corn than to sell it at the low prevailing prices and buy coal. But the grasshopper scourge of 1874 taught them that it was well to have a stock of old corn on hand in case of another such visitation, and after that year not much corn was consumed in the stoves of Kansas farmers. When means of transportation could not be found for getting the corn into market, or when the price has been un- saticfactory, the product of the field has been fed to live stock and mar- keted "on the hoof."
About 1895 J. M. McFarland, formerly assistant secretary of the Kan- sas State Board of Agricuture and statistician in the United States de- partment of agriculture, published a pamphlet showing the production of corn in the eastern part of Kansas-that is east of line drawn from the northern boundary of the state between Smith and Jewell counties to the southern boundary between Harper and Barber counties-as com- pared with the great corn growing states east of the Mississippi river, for the ten years 1884 to 1893, inclusive. Illinois was the only state east of the Mississippi that exceeded eastern Kansas in every one of the ten years. In 1886 Kansas was exceeded by Illinois and Indiana; in 1887. owing to a marked decrease in the acreage in eastern Kansas, it was ex- ceeded by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky; in 1890, when the acreage fell off to about one-half that of the preceding year, it was ex- ceeded by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The greatest corn crop in the history of Kansas was in 1889, when the state produced 273,988,231 bushels, having over 5,000,000 acres in
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"waving corn fields." This great crop led Gov. Martin to say in an in- terview: "Corn is the sign and seal of a good American agricultural 'country ; corn is an American institution ; one of the discoveries of the continent. It was known to the Indians, and to cultivate it was one of the few agricultural temptations which overcame their proud and haughty contempt for labor. Kansas has corn and so has luck."
The corn of the twentieth century is a different product from that taken to Europe by Columbus. Although it retains its original form- only nature could change that-the ear of corn raised by the modern husbandman would make the ear raised by the Indian in the fifteenth century look like a "nubbin." 'Scientific agriculturists have spent much time in experimenting to improve both the quality and the yield of corn. Agricultural colleges in the various states and government experiment stations have added to this work by a careful study of the chemistry of soils, the value of commercial fertilizers, etc. In June, 1900, the Illinois Corn Breeders' Association was organized for the purpose of improving the standard of seed corn. It proved to be a success, and similar or- ganizations have since been formed in Indiana, Maryland, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Members of these associations work in conjunction with the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and in most of the states money has been appropriated from the public funds to further the enterprise. Verily, "Corn is King."
The corn crops of Kansas for 1910, when over 8,500,000 acres were planted, amounted to 152,810,884 bushels, valued at $76,402,328.
Corning, an incorporated town of Nemaha county, is located on the Missouri Pacific R. R. about half way between Centralia and Wetmore, in Illinois township, 14 miles south of Seneca. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the Gazette), telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 441. Old Corning was settled in 1867, about a mile and a half west of the present site. A postoffice was established in that year, with N. B. Mckay as postmaster, and the place was named for Erastus Corning of New York. Two stores and two dwellings were all there was to the town when it was moved to the railroad by Mckay, who bid in some school land and gave the railroad company half a section in considera- tion of its locating a station at this point. The first school was taught by Minnie Bracken in a small frame building in 1872.
Coronado, a village of Wichita county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 3 miles east of Leoti, the county seat, from which place mail is received by rural free delivery.
Coronado's Expedition .- Shortly after the discovery of America the Spanish people became imbued with the idea that somewhere in the in- terior of the New World there were rich mines of gold and silver, and various expeditions were sent out to search for these treasures. As every important event in history is the sequence of something which went before, in order to gain an intelligent understanding of the expedi- tion of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, in search of the seven cities of
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Cibola and the country of Quivira (1540-42), it will be necessary to no- tice briefly the occurrences of the preceding decade. Pedro de Castaneda, the historian of the expedition, begins his narrative as follows :
"In the year 1530 Nuno de Guzman, who was president of New Spain, had in his possession an Indian, one of the natives of the valley or valleys of Otixipar, who was called Tejo by the Spaniards. This Indian said he was the son of a trader who was dead, but that when he was a little boy his father had gone into the back country with fine feathers to trade for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large amount of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that country. He went with him once or twice, and saw some very large villages, which he com- pared to Mexico and its environs. He had seen seven very large towns which had their streets of silver workers."
The effect of a story of this nature upon the Spanish mind can be read- ily imagined. It aroused the ambition and cupidity of Guzman, and ex- ercised an influence on all the enterprises he directed along the Pacific coast to the north. Gathering together a force of some 400 Spaniards and several thousand friendly Indians, he started in search of the "Seven Cities," but before he had covered half the distance he met with serious obstacles, his men became dissatisfied and insisted on turning back, and about the same time Guzman received information that his rival, Her- nando Cortez, had come from Spain with new titles and powers, so he abandoned the enterprise. Before turning his face homeward, however, he founded the town of Culiacan, from which post incursions were made into southern Sonora for the purpose of capturing and enslaving the natives.
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