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 69
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Certificates of nominations and nomination papers of state candidates must be filed with the secretary of state not less than forty days be- fore the day of election, and all other candidates with the county clerks of the respective counties not less than thirty days. No person can accept more than one nomination for the same office, and if he receive two or more he must elect which one he will accept, otherwise he will be deemed to have accepted the nomination first made. The names of all candidates for the different general offices are printed on one ballot. Election boards are composed of three judges and two clerks, and the voting places contain booths in which voters prepare their ballots, screened from all observation as to the manner in which they do so. Any voter who cannot read or mark his ballot is assisted by two elec- tion officers.
Electoral Vote .- The first presidential election in which Kansas was entitled to representation in the electoral college was that of 1864. At that time the state had two senators and one representative in Congress,
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and was therefore entitled to three presidential electors, the votes of which were cast for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. As the population increased, the number of electors increased in proportion, and since 1864 the electoral vote has been as follows: 1868, 3 for Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax; 1872, 3 for Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson; 1876, 5 for Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler ; 1880, 5 for James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur ; 1884, 9 for James G. Blaine and John A. Logan; 1888, 9 for Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton ; 1892, 10 for James B. Weaver and James G. Field; 1896, 10 for William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall ; 1900, 10 for William Mckinley and Theodore Roosevelt; 1904, 10 for Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks ; 1908, 10 for William H. Taft and James S. Sherman.
Elgin, the oldest town in Chautauqua county, is a station on the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. in Hendricks township, 10 miles south- west of Sedan, the county seat. It has banking facilities, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. The town is supplied with good schools and churches. The first preaching in the county was held here by Rev. S. Peacock. The first school house in the county, as well as the first store, the first mill, and the first Masonic lodge. was at Elgin. The town was founded in 1869 by L. P. Getman. The popula- tion according to the 1910 report was 350.
Elk, a country postoffice with one general store in Chase county, is located on Middle creek near the west line of the county, 19 miles northwest of Cottonwood Falls, the county seat, and 9 miles east of Antelope, in Marion county, the nearest railroad station and shipping point and the postoffice from which its inail is distributed. The popula- tion according to the census of 1910 was 45.
Elk City, an incorporated town of Montgomery county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific and on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, 13 miles northwest of Independence. It has natural gas for heating, lighting and commercial purposes. There is a brick and tile manufac- turing works, a flour mill, a weekly newspaper, one state and one national bank. The town is supplied with express and telegraph offices and has an international money order postoffice with 6 rural routes. The population according to the 1910 census was 659.
Elk City is the oldest town in Montgomery county, being an out- growth of the trading post established at that point by John Kappel in 1868. A town company was formed the same year and the site located. A. E. Baird put in a stock of general merchandise and in 1870 M. D. Wright, who had brought a stock of notions with him in his prairie schooner opened the third store. A. R. Quigg started a hardware store. The first saw mill was built in 1869 by S. B. Davis, T. J. Brown and Samuel Maples. The first blacksmith shop was built by J. P. Morgan. The first death as well as the first birth was in the Hammond family. In April, 1869, a son was born to Thomas and Bertha Hammond. The child was killed by accident the same month. Thomas Hammond was shot and killed by a man by the name of Morrison in a quarrel over a plow.
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In 1870 the Elk City postoffice was established with William H. H. Southard as postmaster. The next year the town was incorporated as a city of the third class. The first election resulted in the choice of the following officers: Mayor, Herbert Prentis ; police judge, James Smith ; councilmen, Uri Coy, J. Baldwin, William H. H. Southard, W. W. Woodring and A. R. Quigg.
The first school was taught in a log school house by William Osborne in 1869. The first bank was established by E. E. Turner in 1881. Prior to 1882 three attempts had been made to establish newspapers. A brick yard and a flour mill had been put in operation.
In 1902 a company was organized to prospect for gas, which was found after several failures. Several companies are now operating in the vicinity and a number of fine oil wells, as well as gas wells are producing.
Elk County, in the southeastern part of the state, is the fourth county west of the Missouri line and in the second tier north from Oklahoma. It is bounded on the north by Greenwood county, on the east by Wil- son and Montgomery, on the south by Chautauqua, and on the west by Cowley and Butler. The county was established in 1875 by an act which divided Howard county into Elk and Chautauqua counties. Its history prior to that date will be as that part of Howard county which later became Elk.
In common with the surrounding territory, the lands of Elk county were settled before they were legally open to white occupation. The first white man to locate within the limits of the county was Richard Graves in 1856. He was twice driven out by the Indians and finally abandoned his claim. A strip of land 6 miles wide along the eastern border which was legally open to settlement formed the attraction which drew the earliest immigrants, but once here many of the more adventur- ous risked their lives to take up the rich lands in the river bottoms be- longing to the Indians. By 1870 these squatters had reached a consid- erable number, among them being J. C. Pinney, James Shipley, R. M. Humphrey, Elison Neat, H. G. Miller, J. B. Roberts and others. Among those who settled within the legal limits were Isaac Howe and Eliza Lewis, who were among the first five that located in Liberty township. The claims were all staked out by private survey, which gave rise to a great deal of trouble among claimants when the government survey was made. Those who had been possessors of fine tracts of land by private survey often found themselves without anything or only with a small strip, when the true lines were run. The land which was cut off by the government survey having no legal owner, there were par- ties ready to file on it without delay. This brought about claim wars, which sometimes resulted in the death of one of the parties involved. and sometimes were settled peaceably. All pioneer districts experience trouble of some sort and this happened to be the difficulty which was most keenly felt in Elk county.
The first church organization was made by the Missionary Baptists
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in Liberty township in 1866. The first church building to be erected was at the town of Longton in 1871. The first newspaper was the How- ard County Ledger, published in 1871 by Adrian Reynolds. The first marriage was between D. M. Spurgeon and Sarah Knox, and the first birth was that of Sarah F. Shipley in Dec., 1866.
The dissension among the towns of Elk Falls, Howard, Boston, Peru and Longdon, which had reached a serious and lawless stage, and in which three companies of militia took part, led to the organization of Elk county. In 1871 steps were taken to have two new counties formed, but it was not accomplished until 1875, when Edward Jaquins introduced a bill in the legislature to that end, which was passed, and the counties of Elk and Chautauqua formed out of Howard county, by running a line east and west through the middle. The organization of Elk was perfected by calling an election at which the following officers were chosen: Commissioners, Thomas Wright, John Hughes and G. W. McKey; county clerk, Thomas Hawkins; county treasurer, W. W. Jones ; sheriff, J. W. Riley; register of deeds, Frank Osborne; probate judge, A. P. Searcy ; county attorney, S. B. Oberlander; county super- intendent, J. N. Young. The county has suffered twice from defaulting treasurers, and once from a defaulting sheriff. In 1879, the citizens of Howard erected a court-house in return for the county seat being lo- cated at that place. The agricultural society of Elk county was organ- ized in that year and held yearly fairs.
The first railroad to be built was what is now the east and west line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in 1879. Another line of the same system enters the county, on the north, runs directly south and connects with the first line at Moline. A third line runs southeast from Longton into Montgomery county.
The county is divided into ten townships, as follows: Elk Falls, Greenfield, Howard, Liberty, Longton, Oak Valley, Painterhood, Paw Paw, Union Center and Wild Cat. The towns and villages are, Blanche, Bushy, Cave Springs, Chaplin, Elk Falls, Grenola. Howard, the judicial seat, Longton, Moline, Oak Valley, Upola and Western Park.
The surface is rolling and in some places hilly and bluffy. Bottom lands, which average about one mile in width, comprise 20 per cent. of the area. The timber belts along the streams average a quarter of mile in width and consist of oak, cottonwood, elm, hackberry, box elder, maple, hickory, butternut, red-bud and sycamore. The principal stream is Elk river, which enters the county in the northwest corner and flows southeast. Its main tributaries are Wild Cat, Paw Paw and Painter- hood creeks. There are numerous other streams. Well water is found at a depth of 20 feet. Sandstone and limestone are found in abundance ; marble of a fair quality and coal are found in limited amounts, and oil and gas are present in commercial quantities.
The farm products of the county amount to about $2,250,000 a year. The total area is over 400,000 acres, nearly two-thirds of which have been brought under cultivation. In 1876 there were 46,000 cultivated
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and in 1882, 68,000. The number of apple trees in 1882 was 58,000, as against 100,000 in 1910. The most valuable crop is Indian corn which brings $250,000 a year. Kafir corn comes next, and is worth about $150,000 annually. Other leading products are millet, oats, wheat, hay, live stock, poultry, butter and eggs. The total assessed valuation of property is over $14,000,000 as against $1,000,000 in 1880. The popula- tion in 1910, according to the government census report, was 10,128, about ten times what it was in 1880.
Elk Falls, an incorporated city of Elk county, is located in Elk Falls township on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 10 miles south- east of Howard, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the Journal), good churches and schools, a money order postoffice with one rural route, telegraph and express offices, and a large local trade. It derives its name from the waterfall in the Elk river near by. The population according to the 1910 census report was 271.
The first house at Elk Falls was a 10 by 12 box house on the claim of R. H. Nichols, and was built in 1870. A postoffice was established in the same year. Mr. Nichols put up an office in which he conducted a loan and real estate business, and a store building was erected by A. F. Gitchell and his son, Charles Gitchell, in which they conducted a gen- eral merchandise business. The first school was taught by Miss Dora Simmons, in her father's residence in 1870. The attendance was about 25. The next year the first school building was erected.
Elk River, one of the picturesque streams of southeastern Kansas, rises in the northwest corner of Elk county, flows in a southeasterly direc- tion past the towns of Western Park, Howard, Elk Falls, Longton, Oak Valley and Elk City, and empties into the Verdigris river not far from Independence, Montgomery county.
Elkader, a money order postoffice of Logan county, is located in the Smoky Hill valley, 20 miles due south of Oakley, which is the nearest railroad station, and about the same distance southeast of Russell Springs, the county seat. It is a trading center for the neighborhood in. which it is situated, and in 1910 reported a population of 25.
Elkhorn, a rural post-hamlet of Ellsworth county, is situated on Elk- horn creek, about 12 miles northeast of Ellsworth, the county seat, and 9 miles from Carneiro, which is the nearest railroad station. The popu- lation in 1910 was 25.
Elks, Benevolent and Protective Order of .- About the close of the Civil war a number of "good fellows" in the city of New York fell into the habit of spending their evenings at a public house, where they could "sing songs, swap yarns, and in other ways make the hours pass pleas- antly." In 1867 a permanent club of fifteen members called, "The Jolly Corks," was organized. Charles S. Vivian, the son of an Englishman, is given credit for inventing the plan of organization. A few of the orig- inal fifteen "charter" members are still living. By 1868 a number of new members had been added, and it was decided to make "The Jolly Corks" a secret society, with certain social and benevolent features ..
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The old name was considered inappropriate, and a committee was appointed to select a new one. A historical sketch of the order says: "This committee visited Barnum's museum, where they saw an elk and learned something of its instincts and habits worthy of emulation, which led to the adoption of the name."
From the manner in which the order originated, many people have been led to believe that the Elks are a lot of congenial spirits banded together simply for the purpose of "having a good time." However, in recent years the convivial feature has practically disappeared, giving way to "charity, justice, brotherly love and fidelity." The motto of the Elks is: "The faults of our brothers we write upon the sands; their virtues upon the tablets of love and memory."
In the plan of organization there are no state grand lodges, and only one lodge is permitted in a city. As all these lodges are in direct com- munication with the supreme grand lodge, it is a difficult matter to secure any definite or authentic account of the Elks in any particular state, owing to lack of a state grand lodge or headquarters where records of work in the state can be consulted. Topeka Lodge was insti- tuted in April, 1891, by some Elks from Missouri, and at the time it was chartered it had 26 members. It now has about 500 and owns a fine club house at the northeast corner of Seventh and Jackson streets. Since April, 1891, lodges have been organized in most of the principal cities of the state, those at Kansas City, Leavenworth, Hutchinson, Pittsburg and Wichita being particularly strong and active.
About the beginning of the present century an effort was made to form a state association "to bring the brothers of our state into closer relations with one another, to make us one large family with a common purpose, and to concentrate our state representation in the sessions of the grand lodge so that we may carry some weight in its deliberations and compel recognition of the fact that Kansas is 'on the map.' " The state association was only a partial success, and was never made a ยท permanent institution.
The purposes of the order, as expressed in the constitution and by- laws, are "to aid those in sickness and distress; to comfort the widow and the orphan, and to lay away its dead with such heartfelt ceremony as may teach the lesson of the brotherhood of man." At the close of 1910 the order consisted of the grand lodge, 1,208 subordinate lodges, and 331,288 members. Since the beginning in 1868 the Elks have dis- bursed in benefits nearly $3,500,000, the amount in 1910 alone having been $401,091. The initials B. P. O. E. have been interpreted as stand- ing for the "Best People On Earth," and in a social way the members come very near to living up to the interpretation. They are good enter- tainers and the man who may be so fortunate as to receive an invitation to an "Elks club house" is sure of a cordial welcome.
Ellen is a little inland hamlet in Osage county, about 3 miles south of Lyndon, the county seat, whence it receives mail by rural route, and which is the nearest shipping point and railroad station.
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Ellinor, a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., in Chase county, is located 6 miles northeast of Cottonwood Falls, the county seat, and 3 miles west of Saffordville, from which place its mail is dis- tributed by rural route.
Ellinwood, an incorporated city of the third class in Barton county and the third largest city of the county, is situated on the left bank of the Arkansas river I0 miles east of Great Bend, the county seat. It is on the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. and is the western terminus of the Florence & Ellinwood division of the same system. The town site was located and platted in 1871, and the first house-a small frame structure-was erected by William Misner. This building was occupied late in the year by A. Burlisson, who put in a stock of goods and became the pioneer merchant of the town. A few miles west was the old village of Zarah, and when Ellinwood was started most of the inhabitants of Zarah removed to the new town. One of the buildings thus removed in 1872 became Ellinwood's first hotel, conducted by Rugar & Greever. The railroad was completed to the town in the summer of 1872 and the settlement of the place was more rapid. A number of new inhabitants arrived in the spring of 1873, and that year the first school house was built, the first school being taught by Miss Carrie Bacon. For the next five years the growth was slow. Many of the pioneers were Germans, who brought with them the customs of the Fatherland, and in 1875 a brewery was established, one of the first in western Kansas. The big crops of 1878 gave the town a new impetus. Early in that year the Ellinwood Express was started and the new paper aided materially in building up the town. The branch railroad was completed in 1881, a roundhouse was erected, and before the close of the year Ellinwood was incorporated as a city of the third class with F. A. Steckel as the first mayor.
Since its incorporation the growth of Ellinwood has been of a sub- stantial character. In 1890 the population was 684; in 1900 it was 760. and in 1910 it was 976. It has 2 banks, 2 large flour mills, 2 creameries, a weekly newspaper (the Leader), 3 grain elevators, an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, a telephone exchange, hotels, churches, and annually ships large quantities of grain, flour and live stock.
Elliott, a small hamlet of Sheridan county, is located in the valley of the north fork of the Solomon river, about 12 miles northeast of Hoxie, the county seat. Dresden, on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, is the nearest railroad station, from which mail is delivered by rural carrier.
Ellis, an incorporated city of the third class, the second largest in Ellis county, is located on the Union Pacific R. R. at the crossing of Big creek, 14 miles west of Hays, the county seat. The town was laid out in 1873 by the Kansas Pacific (now the Union Pacific) Railroad company, which established a roundhouse and machine shops there and erected a two-story stone building for a depot and hotel combined. Thomas Daily was the first merchant. Other early merchants were (I-37)
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Nichols Bros., Eli Sheldon, Reading & Bowen and G. F. Lee. For a time in 1877-78 Ellis was the center of a large cattle trade, and during that period, like all towns where the cattle trade centered; it had the reputation of being a "tough place." Law-abiding people were glad when the trade moved elsewhere. In 1882 a two-story stone school house was built, the old frame building being sold to the Congrega- tionalists who converted it into a church, the first in the town. In 1910 there were four church edifices in the city.
The Ellis of the present day has 2 banks, 4 grain elevators, the rail- road repair shops, a weekly newspaper (the Review-Headlight), good hotels, a modern public school building, several well appointed mercan- tile establishments, an international money order postoffice, etc., and in 1910 reported a population of 1,404, a gain of 472 during the pre- ceding decade.
Ellis County, located in the third tier of counties south of the State of Nebraska and the sixth east of Colorado, was created by the act of Feb. 26, 1867, with the following boundaries: "Commencing where the east line of range 16 west intersects the second standard parallel, thence south to the third standard parallel, thence west to the east line of range 21 west, thence north to the second standard parallel, thence east to the place of beginning."
The boundaries as thus established are the same as at the present time, giving the county an area of 900 square miles. Popularly speak- ing, it is bounded on the north by Rooks county ; on the east by Russell ; on the south by Rush, and on the west by Trego. It was named for Lieut. George Ellis of Company I, Twelfth Kansas infantry, who was killed at the battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Ark., April 30, 1864. The surface of the county is practically the same as that of all western Kansas-one broad stretch of prairie, with but little natural timber growth, though some artificial groves have been planted, and there are about 25,000 bearing fruit trees in the county. Across the northern portion the Saline river flows in an easterly direction, and the southern part is watered by the Smoky Hill river and its tributaries, the largest of which is Big creek. Along some of the streams there is a natural growth of maple, cottonwood, black walnut, ash, box-elder and hackberry, but these belts do not average more than 200 feet in width. Magnesian limestone is plentiful; limestone of a finer quality is found along the Smoky Hill river ; clay suitable for brick making is abundant near Hays; gypsum is known to exist in some localities, and there are a few salt marshes in the county.
Fort Fletcher (later Fort Hays, q. v.) was established in the fall of 1865, but the first settlement was made in the latter part of May, 1867, by the Lull brothers of Salina. They located on the west side of Big creek, a little north of the railroad, and by the middle of June several houses had been erected. The town was called Rome and its founders expected it to become the metropolis of the county. Early in June. Bloomfield, Moses & Co. established a general supply store there, and
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later Joseph Perry built a two-story frame hotel. A little later, how- ever, the "Big Creek Land company" platted the town of Hays, or as it was at first called, "Hays City," on the east side of the creek. A rivalry at once sprang up between the two places, but the railroad company threw its support to Hays and the town of Rome passed out of exist- ence. Some of the buildings, including Perry's hotel, were removed to Hays.
In Oct., 1867, a memorial praying for the organization of the county was presented to the governor. The petitioners recommended Pliny Moore, William Rose and Judson E. Walker for commissioners, James G. Duncan for county clerk, and Hays City as the temporary county seat. W. E. Webb, H. P. Field and U. S. Thurmond were appointed to take a census of the county. The census showed a population of 633-a few more than the minimum number required by law for the organization of the county-and Gov. Crawford issued his proclamation declaring the county organized, with the officers and temporary county seat recommended by the petitioners. At a special election in April, 1870, for the location of the permanent county seat, 59 votes were cast, all in favor of Hays. On the question of erecting county buildings, there were 58 votes in favor of the proposition and I opposed. Con- sequently, on April 22, the commissioners issued an order for the erec- tion of suitable buildings, but it was some time before the financial con- dition of the county would justify the execution of the order. At the present time (1911) Ellis county has a fine stone court-house, two stories high with basement, containing sufficient room for the transaction of all the county business.
The settlement was slow for a time. In 1872 a small colony from Ohio located near Walker, in the eastern part of the county, and was soon followed by two others-one from Pennsylvania and one from New York. The same year an Englishman named George Grant purchased 50,000 acres of land from the railroad company, intending to colonize it with English farmers, and during the next two years some 300 Eng- lishmen, several of them with their families, located on the purchase. The grasshopper scourge of 1874 caused a large number of the settlers to leave the county, but in the three years beginning with 1875 a large number of Russian emigrants came to take the places of those who had left.
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