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 66
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In Kansas, as elsewhere, the first effect of the opinion was to cause elation among the friends of slavery. When, on Aug. 15, 1857, Prof.
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Benjamin Silliman and forty-two citizens of Connecticut sent a memorial to President Buchanan, calling his attention to the fact that Gov. Walker was employing the army in Kansas to force the people to obey laws they did not make, the president sought shelter behind the Dred Scott decision, declaring that "Slavery existed at that period (when the Black Laws were passed by the territorial legislature) and still exists in Kansas under the constitution of the United States. This point has at last been finally settled by the highest tribunal known to our laws. How it could ever have been doubted is a mystery." Again, in his message of Feb. 2, 1858 (see Slavery), he reiterated and em- phasized the fact-as he viewed it-that Kansas was slave territory under the constitution. With the reaction came a tide of free-state emigration, and there is no question that the Dred Scott case played a part in making Kansas a free state, as it also did in precipitating the Civil war.
Dresden, a prosperous little town of Decatur county, is situated in the township of the same name, about 16 miles south of Oberlin, the county seat. It is a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., has 2 banks, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, tel- graph, express and telephone service, grain elevators, a creamery, some well stocked general stores, hardware and implement houses, a hotel, churches of the leading denominations, and good public schools. The population in 1910 was 325.
Droughts .- As early as 1837, in a report from the Shawnee Mission, Mr. Johnson stated that the crops were short from drought, but he hoped they would have a sufficiency. Samuel J. Stewart, in writing of the early days of Kansas in 1856, says: "There was an overflow of the Neosho in May; then the rains ceased to fall and by the 4th of July all the little branches we had believed 'flowed on forever' were entirely dry. By August all the springs were no more, and we suf- fered from lack of water. Sickness came and a few died; others turned their faces to the east."
So severe was the suffering of the pioneers that the eastern states raised funds for relief. The Massachusetts legislature appropriated $20,000 for the relief of Massachusetts men in Kansas and large sums were raised in other eastern states by relief societies. The year 1857 was also very dry, the driest in some sections of the territory ever known up to that date. The rivers were unusually low and it was possible to ford the Kansas at almost any point, while several of the main tributaries became mere rivulets. On Aug. 26, 1857, Mons. Bor- deau arrived at Kansas City with the first news of gold in the Pike's Peak region, and advised the gold seekers to take the Arkansas river route, as the "Kansas is destitute of timber and water."
It was the summer of 1860, however, which gave Kansas its reputa- tion for droughts. During the fall and winter of 1859-60 but little rain fell. The spring of 1860 continued dry though there were a few showers that put the ground in condition for cultivation. The account of Hart-
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man Lichtenhan, one of the early settlers, as given in the Kansas His- torical Collections, says : "During the year 1860 not a drop of rain fell from the 15th of May until the following January. Nothing was raised, and in consequence provisions were very high. I freighted all sum- mer from Leavenworth and Kansas City to the towns in the western part of the territory."
Horace Greeley, in the New York Independent of Feb. 7, 1861, said: "Drought is not unknown to us; but a drought so persistent and so severe as that which devastated Kansas in 1860 is a stranger to the . states this side of the Mississippi. No rain, or none of any consequence, over an area of 40,000 square miles from seed time to harvest. Such has been the woeful experience of seven-eighths of Kansas during 1860."
The settlers were poor, without money to buy provisions at the pre- vailing prices, consequently they grew disheartened and nearly one- fourth of the population left the territory for new lands or returned to their old homes in the east. On Oct. 29, 1860, Thaddeus Hyatt wrote to the war and interior departments: "Thousands of once thrifty and prosperous American citizens are now perishing for want. Winter is upon them; of clothing they are nearly bereft; food they have not to last them through the cold season that is approaching. Some have already died ; others are daily dying."
Meetings were held in the principal towns of nearly every county to learn the extent of crop failure and devise means for assistance. Dr. Samuel Ayers, who traveled through portions of Linn and 'Lykins counties, said: "There will be almost universal destitution, and unless aided the people can not live." Aid societies were formed in the east and the abolition societies of New England sent Samuel C. Pomeroy to Kansas as distributing agent. Money and clothing were collected in all the eastern states and sent to Atchison, the distributing point. In addition to the actual necessaries of life, the committee also fur- nished seed wheat for the farmers, most of it being contributed by the farmers of New York, Wisconsin and Missouri. Forty-one counties received aid through the relief society and in a few cases special trains were used to transport supplies to the counties which suffered most.
Mrs. Emily Harrison, of Ellsworth, in her reminiscences of early days in Ottawa county, published in Vol. IX, Kansas Historical Collec- tions, says that in 1867 there was a flood in June; "The drought fol- lowed, and after the drought came the grasshoppers of 1867. They covered the earth and stripped the prairies. Food was costly."
The summer of 1870 was dry with a partial failure of crops. Forty- two days passed without rain. The legislatures of 1869, 1871 and 1872 each made appropriations for the relief of drought sufferers. (See Harvey's Administration.) In 1874 came the long dry spell which gave the state the name of "Droughty Kansas." Only eighteen inches of rain fell in eighteen months. Rev. W. Bristow, pastor of a church at Eureka, Kan., that year, says: "The 14th day of June a heavy rain
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fell; all through the months of July and August occasionally heavy black clouds would loom up in the west, but no rain would come; the wheat crop was cut short; the chinch bugs went from the wheat fields into the corn fields; then came the hot winds like a blast furnace until it seemed that nothing green could survive. And to add to our troubles, late in the summer the grasshoppers came and completed the destruc- tion of everything green."
Similar conditions prevailed in central and western Missouri, Ne- braska and Colorado. Famine stared people in the face, and the situa- tion became so alarming that the governors of the four suffering states met at Omaha to consult with regard to means of alleviating the distress.
Some parts of the state suffered so from crop failure in 1881 that the legislature appropriated $25,000 for general relief. The state then had a respite from droughts until 1891, when the legislature found it necessary to appropriate $60,000 for general relief and to provide seed, the state railroad commission being made the disbursing agent. To benefit by this appropriation the counties issued warrants payable to the state on or before Feb. 1, 1892, and the county took each applicant's obligation for the cost of grain furnished him, payable before Jan. I, 1892, with interest at six per cent. Only four years elapsed before the state again suffered from a lack of rainfall, and the legislature of 1895 appropriated $100,000 "or so much thereof as may be necessary," for the purchase and distribution of seed grain by the board of railroad commissioners in certain counties of the Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Congressional districts. No one was to receive grain unless a resident of the state for a year or more.
In i891 occurred the last drought of which there is a record. Old settlers claimed that the summer was the driest since 1860. The mean temperature for the summer was 103°, that of 1874, 94.7°, while for 1860 it was 103.9°. On July 15, 1901, it was estimated that $2,000,000 a day would hardly cover the losses of the farmers in grain and stock. George M. Walden, president of the Kansas City stock-yards company, said: "Ten more days without rain in this section will mean ruin to the corn and hay crops and absolutely no feed for next winter." In nearly every case of drought the succeeding year has brought bountiful crops, and the farmers of the state have been able to recoup themselves for their losses.
Drury, a village of Falls township, Sumner county, is a station on the Kansas Southwestern R. R. about 20 miles south of Wellington, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, a flour mill, a good local trade, and is a shipping point of some importance .. The population in 1910 was 28.
Drywood, a little village of Crawford county, is located in Lincoln township, about 12 miles northeast of Girard, the county seat. It is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R., has a money order postoffice, express and telegraph offices, telephone connections, a good local trade, and in 1910 reported a population of 40.
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Dubuque, a little village of Center township, Russell county, is located* near the head of Beaver creek, about 20 miles southeast of Russell, the county seat. It was formerly a postoffice, but after the introduction of the rural delivery system the office was discontinued, the people now receiving mail through the office at Dorrance, which is the most convenient railroad station. The population in 1910 was 26.
Dull Knife Raid .- (See Cheyenne Raid, 1878.)
Dun, a small hamlet of Wilson county, is a station on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. 8 miles southeast of Fredonia, the county seat, and 4 miles from Neodesha, from which place it receives daily mail. The railroad name is Lazarus station.
Dunavant, a hamlet of Jefferson county, is located on a branch of the Missouri Pacific R. R. 7 miles southeast of Valley Falls and 5 miles north of Oskaloosa, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices, and some local trade. The population in 1910 was 85.
Dunbar, John, clergyman, missionary to the Pawnee Indians, and first treasurer of Brown county, Kan., was born at Palmer, Mass., March 3, 1804. In 1832 he was graduated at Williams College, and later he was graduated at the Auburn Theological Seminary. While a student at the latter institution he received an appointment as mis- sionary to the western Indians; was ordained at Ithaca, N. Y., May I, 1834, and on the 5th left there for the scene of his labors, with instruc- tions to cross the Rocky mountains to the Nez Perces. Upon arriving at St. Louis on the 23d, he learned that the party of traders with whom he was to travel had already left for the West, and this changed his entire plan. At St. Louis he was informed that the Pawnee tribe needed missionaries, and he decided to go there. As soon as possible he reported at the mission and agency at Bellevue, 9 miles above the mouth of the Platte river, on the west bank of the Missouri, and began his work as missionary. In Sept., 1836, he returned to Massachusetts, and while there superintended the printing of a book of 74 pages in the Pawnee language. On Jan. 12, 1837, he married Miss Esther Smith, and the following spring returned to Bellevue, where he and his wife began housekeeping in an old trading house. Later he went to Holt county, Mo., but preferring a residence in a free state, and confident that Kansas was to be admitted as such, he removed to Brown county, Kan., in 1856, and located on the Wolf river, about 2 miles west of the town of Robinson. On March 16, 1857, he was appointed treasurer to the board of county commissioners, being the first man ever to hold that office in the county. Neither Mr. Dunbar nor his wife lived long after their removal to Kansas. She died on Nov. 4, 1856, and his death occurred on Nov. 3, 1857.
Dunbar, John B., son of the above, was born at Bellevue, in what is now the State of Nebraska, April 3, 1841. He received his early instruc- tion from his father, after which he spent one year at the Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Mass., and graduated at Amherst College in 1864,
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after he had served as private, sergeant and lieutenant in a light artillery company for three and a half years. From 1869 to 1878 he was pro- fessor of Latin and Greek languages in Washburn College at Topeka, and in 1872-73 he assisted Father Gaillard of St. Mary's mission in the preparation of a Pottawatomie grammar and dictionary. Later he com- piled a brief grammar and partial vocabulary of the Pawnee language, but it was never published. On Aug. 22, 1876, he married Miss Alida S. Cook, whose parents were at that time connected with Washburn College. After leaving Topeka Prof. Dunbar was connected with the public schools at Deposit and Brooklyn, N. Y., and Bloomfield, N. J., where he still resides. In early life he became interested in the French and Spanish explorations in the southwest, and his library is rich in books and manuscripts relating to this subject. In Jan., 1885, he was elected a corresponding member of the Kansas Historical Society, and among his contributions to that society may be mentioned a transla- tion of a French manuscript bearing on the Bourgmont expedition ; an account of the Villazur expedition of 1720; and a bibliography of early French and Spanish authorities on the Southwest. He has con- tributed to the Magazine of American History and other publications, and has aided such writers as Shea and Brinton, but the greater part of his work is still in manuscript form.
Duncan, a small hamlet of Miami county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 12 miles southwest of Paola, the county seat. The inhab- itants receive mail by rural delivery through the postoffice at Lane.
Duncan, Norman, author and educator, was born at Brantford, Ontario, Canada, July 2, 1871, a son of Augustus and Susan (Hawley) Duncan. He was educated in the University of Toronto, where he was graduated in 1895. From 1897 to 1901 he was on the staff of the New York Evening Post, and in 1902 was appointed professor of rhetoric in Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa., which position he held until 1906, when he became adjunct professor of English litera- ture in the University of Kansas. In 1907-08 he was correspondent of Harper's Magazine in Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt, and prior to that time had made several trips to Labrador and Newfoundland. Prof. Duncan is a contributor to several of the leading magazines. His best known published works are "The Soul of the Street," "The Way of the Sea," "Every Man for Himself," "Going Down from Jerusalem," "Dr. Greenfell's Parish," and "The Adventures of Billy Topsail."
Duncan, Robert K., professor of industrial chemistry in the University of Kansas and brother of the above, was born at Brantford, Ontario, Nov. 1, 1868. He was graduated at the University of Toronto as a mem- ber of the class of 1892, taking first honors in physics and chemistry. During the years 1892-93 he was a fellow in chemistry in Clark Uni- versity, and was then instructor in physics and chemistry in the Au- burn (N. Y.) academy and high school until 1895. He then became an instructor in Sach's Collegiate Institute at New York, and in 1897-98 was a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University. From
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1898 to 1901 he was professor of chemistry in Washington and Jeffer- son College, and in 1906 came to his present position in the University of Kansas. On Dec. 27, 1899, he married Miss Charlotte M. Foster. Prof. Duncan is the discoverer of a new process of manufacturing phosphorus, of melting glass at a low temperature, and of decorating glass. In 1901 he was sent abroad by the publishers of McClure's Magazine to study radio activity; in 1903 he again visited Europe in the interests of the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Co., and in 1905 he again crossed the Atlantic as a representative of Harper's Magazine. In 1910 he was appointed professor of industrial research in the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh, and holds this position in connection with a similar one in the University of Kansas. He is a member of the Ameri- can Chemical Society, the Kansas Academy of Science, and other similar organizations; is a contributor to scientific journals and magazines ; editor of the New Science series, and author of "The New Knowledge and the Chemistry of Commerce."
Dundee, a village of Barton county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 8 miles southwest of Great Bend, the county seat, from which place mail is received by rural delivery. It has a local trade, does some shipping, and in 1910 reported a population of 68.
Dunkers .- This religious sect, also known as German Baptists, arose early in the eighteenth century in Germany, as a result of the great religious awakening. The original aim was not to protest against Catholicism, but rather against the barrenness of Protestantism itself. They had no intention of organizing a new sect and caused no great religious upheaval, but their work resulted in a healthy wave of spiritual action in the churches already established. The believers in the new movement organized under Alexander Mack in Westphalia in 1708, but he was not recognized as the founder of the church. Eight of the Pietists, as they were called, were baptised by Mack and were among the first to receive the trine immersion in the history of the Protestant church. This pioneer congregation became the basis of the Taufer, Tunkers or Dunkers, or German Brethren as a separate church.
The church in Westphalia grew, other congregations were organ- ized in the Palatinate, but persecutions drove them across the ocean to America, and from 1719 to 1729 a number of Dunkers settled in the eastern part of the United States. One colony located near German- town, Pa., where the first church in this country was established in 1723. From there they extended westward over the old Braddock road, and after the Revolution to western Pennsylvania, and from the Caro- linas to Kentucky. They were among the first to enter the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, since which time they have become estab- lished in nearly every state in the Union, being most numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Mis- souri, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota.
The Dunkers of colonial time were for the most part German or Dutch. They derived the common name from the mode of baptism
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by immersion, rejecting infant baptism and laying great stress upon simple clothes and language. As early as 1872 they prohibited slavery and preached against the system. They refuse to take oaths and carry arms, anoint the sick, and reject the use of medicine. Every male member is allowed to speak in the congregation and the best speaker is usually appointed to the position of minister, being ordained by the laying on of hands.
In polity the church corresponds more nearly to the Presbyterian than to any other special ecclesiastical form. The local congregation is governed by a council of all the members, which is presided over by the ruling elder or bishop and attends to all local affairs. The individual congregations elect delegates, lay and clerical, to a state district meet- ing and above this state or district meeting is an annual meeting of all the brotherhood. In the general sessions of the annual meeting there is free discussion and the delegates vote upon the final disposal of a matter. The decisions are binding upon the local congregations. Baptism is by forward trine immersion. Reception into the church is by the holy kiss or right hand of fellowship, according to the sex of the person received. The ceremony of foot-washing is observed and is followed by a love feast. Immediately after this the communion is cele- brated. In 1881 the church became divided and now consists of the following bodies: The German Baptist Brethren church (Conservative), Old Order German Baptist Brethren, the Brethren Church (Progressive Dunkers), and according to the census the Seven Day Baptists are included, although they organized as a separate church in Pennsylvania in 1728.
The Dunkers came to Kansas with the tide of immigration that flowed into the state during the pioneer days of settlement. In 1890 there were 91 organizations in Kansas with a membership of 4,067. During the next fifteen years the number of organizations fell to 81, but the total membership increased to 4,821.
Dunlap, an incorporated city of the third class in Valley township, Morris county, is a station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R. 9 miles southeast of Council Grove, the county seat. The town was founded by and named for Joseph Dunlap, the first white settler in Valley township, who located there in 1870. At the time of the "Negro Exodus" (q. v.) a number of colored people settled in and around Dunlap. The population in 1910 was 333. Dunlap has a bank, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, telegraph, express and telephone service, several general stores, drug and hardware houses, Baptist, Congregational and Methodist churches, a hotel, etc. Its location on the Neosho river, in the midst of a rich agricultural section, makes it an important shipping point for portions of Morris, Chase and Lyon counties.
Duquoin, a village of Harper county, is located in Grant township 18 miles northwest of Anthony, the county seat. It is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., has telegraph and express offices,
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a money order postoffice with one rural route, general stores, two grain elevators and a flour mill. The population in 1910 was 75.
Durachen, an inland village of Chelsea township, Butler county, is situated . about 15 miles northeast of Eldorado, the county seat, from which place mail is received by rural delivery. De Graff, on the Atch- ison, Topeka & Santa Fe, is the nearest railroad station. The popula- tion in 1910 was 58.
Durham, an incorporated city of Marion county, is located in Durham Park township, on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R. and the Cottonwood river, 15 miles northwest of Marion, the county seat. It is in the midst of some of the richest cattle lands in the state. The farmers in the vicinity are mostly German and make a specialty of thoroughbred stock. All the main lines of business are represented, including a bank, lumber yard, hotel and elevator. Grain and live stock are shipped in considerable quantities. The town is supplied with express and telegraph offices and has a money order postoffice with one rural route. It was incorporated in 1906. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 268.
Dutisne's Expedition .- On Sept. 14, 1712, Antoine Crozat was granted a monopoly of the Louisiana trade for a period of 15 years. About two years later there arrived at Mobile, then the headquarters of the colony, a young Canadian named Claude Charles Dutisne (the name is sometimes written Du Tissenet) to enter Crozat's employ. From the mines at Kaskaskia he brought specimens of lead ore, which he pre- sented to Gov. Cadillac, and then took charge of a grant of land until Crozat was succeeded by the Western Company in 1717. Under the new regime Bienville superseded Cadillac as governor, M. de Bois- briant was appointed governor of Illinois and left for his post in Oct., 1818, and Dutisne was ordered to join him at Kaskaskia before the close of the year.
In 1719, by order of Bienville, Dutisne led an expedition to the In- dians west of the Mississippi. Hale, in his "Kanzas and Nebraska," published in 1854, says: "He found the Osages at the spot which they still occupy. If his measurements were exact, his first Pawnee or Panioukee village was near the mouth of the Republican Fork. Fifteen days westward travel must have been up the valley of one of the forks of the Kansas river; but the name of the Padoucah Indians is now lost. From the time he reached the Osage villages, Dutisne was explor- ing the territory of Kansas. . Dutisne, therefore, may be regarded as the discoverer of Kansas to the civilized world."
Cutler's History of Kansas says that Dutisne probably crossed Kan- sas "from about the locality of Linn county, northwest to the forks of the Kansas and thence west to the headwaters of the Smoky Hill."
Maloy, a writer in the Agora Magazine (vol. II, p. 16) says that Dutisne in 1719 "passed through Morris and Geary counties, and dis- covered indubitable evidence of Coronado's trail and camp near Fort Riley."
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Other writers have made similar statements, with the result that the opinion has naturally become prevalent that Dutisne was in Kansas. But the report of his expedition will hardly justify that belief. On Nov. 22, 1719, Dutisne wrote a letter to Bienville, in which he gave the following account of his expedition: "When I went among the Osages I was well received by them. Having explained my intentions to them, they answered me well in everything that regarded themselves, but when I spoke of going among the Panis (Pawnees), they all opposed it, and would not assent to the reasons which I gave for going. Hav- ing learned that they did not intend for me to carry away the goods which I had brought, I proposed to them to let me take three guns. for myself and my interpreter, telling them decidedly that if they did not consent I would be very angry and you would be indignant ; upon which they consented. Knowing the character of these savages, I did not delay, but set out on the road. In four days I was among the Panis, where I was very badly received, owing to the fact that the Osages had made them believe that our intentions were to entrap them and make them slaves. . . but when they learned the false- hood of the Osages they consented to make an alliance and treated me very well."
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