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 78
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Fish Hatchery .- In 1877 the legislature created the office of com- missioner of fisheries, and D. B. Long was chosen by Gov. George T. Anthony to fill the position. In his report to the governor in 1878, the commisisoner, among other things, recommended an appropriation of not less than $2,000 for the building of a fish hatchery. The next ยท legislature may have considered the recommendation an extravagant one, as they made no appropriation. From that time until 1902 the various commissioners made recommendations for and against hatch- eries, and not until 1903 was anything done along this line. At that session of the legislature a law was passed authorizing the governor and fish warden to locate and establish a fish hatchery at some place which was well adapted to the propagation of fish, with reference to natural water supply, ponds, accessibility to railroads, etc. The law
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provided that the hatchery should be under the supervision of the fish warden, and also that no money should be expended on any such hatchery until there should be deeded to the State of Kansas, without cost to the state, at least 5 acres of land, which should have located thereon a stream or springs suitable for the propagation of fish, etc. The sum of $1,000 was appropriated by the legislature to carry out the provisions of the act. Pratt county made an offer of 12 acres of land, and individuals gave 3 acres more. This land, situated 3 miles from the city of Pratt, is well adapted to the purpose and fills all the require- ments of the law. It was accepted and the hatchery located thereon in June, 1903.
For the purpose of enlarging the capacity of the hatchery the legis- lature of 1907 appropriated out of the license fund $3,200, with which 65 acres additional were purchased. This land is partially covered with propagation ponds. The equipment of the hatchery in 1910 included a building, which cost about $15,000, a distributing car, which cost over $7,000, and some other improvements. On Oct. 14, 1911, Prof. L. L. Dyche approved plans made by the engineering department of the University of Kansas for the new fish hatchery, which will cost about $60,000, and which, when completed, will be the largest hatchery in the world. These plans provide for 83 ponds, from one-third to one-half acre in size, all connected so that by different screens the fish can be separated according to size. The new plant will not be built on the river, as is generally supposed, but the water will be carried by conduit a mile and a half east to the upper end of the hatchery grounds. The slope of this conduit being less than the fall of the river, the water will be delivered at the hatchery grounds at a level somewhat higher than that of the river, thus placing the plant out of reach of floods. A concrete dam 500 feet long across the river forms the source of water supply. A system of driveways is provided for, and islands in the ponds will add beauty to the plant.
No accurate figures are obtainable of the number of young fish placed in Kansas streams, the reports showing the annual distribution to range from a few thousands to nearly three-fourths of a million.
Fisher, a post-hamlet of Stanton county, is located near the north- west corner, 15 miles from Johnson, the county seat, and 24 miles south- west of Syracuse, which is the nearest railroad station.
Flag Day .- To George Morris of Hartford, Conn., is popularly given the credit of suggesting "Flag Day," the occasion being in honor of the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. The city of Hartford observed the day in 1861, carrying out a program of a patriotic order, praying for the success of the Federal arms and the preservation of the Union. Kansas has never given any official recognition to the day, and, although it is being observed more generally over the state as the years go by, the demonstrations are purely local.
Flavius, a discontinued postoffice of Belle Prairie township, Rush county, is situated about 14 miles southwest of La Crosse, the county seat, and 7 miles from Nekoma, whence mail is received by rural route.
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Fleming, a village of Baker township, Crawford county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 12 miles south of Girard, the county seat. The population in 1910 was 150. It is a mining town, has telegraph and express service and telephone connections, but no postoffice. Mail is delivered by rural carrier from the office at Pittsburg. There is also a hamlet called Fleming in Cherokee county, the inhabitants of which receive mail by rural route from Skidmore.
Fletcher, a postoffice of Stanton county, is located in Mitchell town- ship, 12 miles northeast of Johnson, the county seat, and 20 miles from Syracuse, which is the most convenient railroad station.
Flint Hills .- The flint hills of Kansas extend through the counties of Chase, Butler, Cowley, the northeast part of Greenwood, and south through the Kaw reservation where they merge into sandstone. Their summits are in Range 8 east. North of the Cottonwood river they appear to merge into the general line of the uplands. The same strata of rock probably extends through Morris and Wabaunsee counties. The name is misleading. These hills contain no strata or ledges of flint. The thin deposit of "chert," styled flint, is derived from nodules of that material occurring in the limestone rock of that locality, the superimposed layers having weathered away, leaving the indestructible flint nodules on the surface. In the Walnut river above Arkansas City are large beds of this broken flint, washed down from the hills in time of flood. In the Kaw reservation, on the summit of the hills, are ancient quarries where some primitive people obtained flint nodules from which to make arrow heads, spears and knives. To the west there is no stone in Kansas suitable for the purpose.
Flintridge, a country postoffice in Greenwood county, is located in Salem township 20 miles northwest of Eureka, the county seat and nearest railroad station and shipping point. It receives mail tri-weekly. The population according to the 1910 census was 14.
Floats, Wyandot .- By a treaty made with the Wyandot Indians on March 17, 1842, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, 35 members of that tribe were each granted a section of land "to be located anywhere west of the Mississippi river on Indian land not already occupied." At the time the treaty was concluded, some of the recipients of these grants were little more than children, and several years elapsed before all the selec- tions were made. The 35 sections were not held by the usual title of occupancy, and could be acquired by white men without the customary formality and expense of entering land under the preemption laws. Probably for this reason they became known as the "Wyandotte floats." A majority of the 35 sections were located in Kansas and a number of them were purchased by speculators and town companies. Some of the floats in Douglas county were bought by Andrew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor. The cities of Topeka, Emporia, Manhattan and Lawrence are partly built upon some of these floats .. Others were located in Pottawatomie county, but a complete list would be difficult to obtain.
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Floods .- A petition to the King of France in 1725 mentioned a dis- astrous flood in the Mississippi and some of its tributaries the preceding year-the first reference to floods in America recorded in history. When the first white men visited the Indians in the Missouri valley, they heard traditions of floods in the years 1740 and 1750, and in 1772 a great flood did so much damage at old Fort Chartres that the troops there were sent up the river to Kaskaskia. Brackenridge's journal tells of a great flood in 1785, and there are accounts of another flood in 1823, but the first authentic account of a destructive flood in what is now the State of Kansas was that of 1844. The spring of that year was warm and dry until May, when the rain began to fall and continued every day for six weeks. Jotham Meeker, in charge of the Baptist Shawnee mis- sion, kept a diary, from which the following extracts are taken :
"May 30. Never saw such a time of rain. It has fallen almost every day for the last three weeks. The river has overflown its banks, and the bottoms in many places have been inundated more or less for three weeks, and continues all of today within our dooryard. Many of the Indians fear that they will have no crops at all this year.
"June 17. All my outbuildings and all that was within them are swept away. Nothing left but the dwelling house and office.
"June 21. Shut up our house and crossed the big creek, which is nearly full, in a piece of bark of a tree six or seven feet long with Brother Pratt and my family. We traveled 35 miles and encamp in the prairies."
In this flood the Missouri river rose 7 feet in 24 hours at St. Joseph, Mo., June 13, and the entire river valley was under water. A flood is recorded for the year 1851, but it was not nearly so disastrous as the big flood of 1844. The Neosho valley was completely inundated in 1858, and there was another flood in 1881. In 1873 the government established, through the weather bureau, at St. Louis and Kansas City the present system of water measurement, and in 1888 "standard high and low water marks" were established in the Missouri river from Sioux City to the mouth. These marks are based on the highest and lowest stages of water prior to the year 1888, and the system has been of great benefit to the people along the lower river by giving them warning of the conditions prevailing farther up the stream. A similar system of measurement has been introduced at various points along the Kansas river.
The most destructive flood in the history of Kansas was that of 1903. Most of the water on this occasion came from the Kansas river, which drains an area of over 50,000 square miles. Heavy rains fell in western Kansas early in May, followed by a steady rainfall of several days' duration, and on May 26 the river overflowed its banks at Lawrence. On June 7 the water was 14 feet above the danger line at Kansas City. At Topeka all the lower portion of the city was inundated. It was in this flood that Edward Grafstrom (q. v.) lost his life while trying to rescue the inhabitants of the flooded district. The damage done by this
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flood in the Kansas valley has been estimated all the way from $10,000,000 to $25,000,000. So great was the destruction that Gov. Bailey (See Bailey's Administration) called a special session of the legis- lature to provide relief.
A year later another flood swept down the Kansas, starting with the Blue river. On June 6 the government gauge at Topeka showed 19.7 feet of water, less than 2 feet below the danger line. In the Union Pacific passenger station there were 18 inches of water, and again North Topeka, North Lawrence and Armourdale, a suburb of Kansas City, Kan., were inundated.
The flood of 1908 broke all records for duration. In 1903 the Missouri river was out of its banks at Kansas City from May 28 to June 10. In 1908 the water stood above the danger line (21 feet) from June 8 to July 3. Then came a slight fall, but on July Io the water again rose above the danger line, and as late as the 16th there was still 18 feet above the normal low water mark. North Topeka, North Lawrence and Armourdale were under water for the third time in five years, and again great damage was done in the Kansas valley by the high waters. As an example of the damage done by the flood of 1903, the Union Pacific company spent over $2,000,000 in raising the grade and repairing the road between Kansas City and Topeka. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe company also rebuilt several miles of track, placing it on a grade above high flood marks. To avert similar calamities, the author- ities of Kansas City, Topeka, and other places along the Kansas river, have expended large sums in building dikes to protect the low lands along the river, and at Topeka the channel of the river has been widened by adding two spans to the Kansas avenue bridge, thus giving the waters a better opportunity to escape instead of flooding the lower portions of the city.
Floral, a money order post-village of Richland township, Cowley county, is a station on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. 9 miles northeast of Winfield, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices, telephone connections, some general stores, does some shipping, and in 1910 reported a population of 72.
Florence, the third largest town in Marion county, is located in the southeast part of the county in Doyle township, where Doyle creek joins the Cottonwood river, and at the division point of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. It is II miles southeast of Marion, the county seat, and is a thriving little city, with a live Business Men's association to help out the general growth and prosperity. Building stone in commercial quantities is quarried in the vicinity, and most of the buildings in the town are of this material. There are city water- works, 3 banks, a newspaper (the Florence Bulletin), and all lines of mercantile enterprises. The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices and an international money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 1, 168.
The territory about Florence was the earliest settled in the county,
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but it was not until the railroad came through in 1870 that the town was platted. It was the first town in the county to have a railroad. It was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1872. The first newspaper was the Florence Pioneer, established in 1871 by W. M. Mitchell.
Flush, a hamlet of Pottawatomie county, is located in Pottawatomie township 9 miles southwest of Westmoreland, the county seat, and 8 miles from St. George. It has a local telephone exchange and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 23.
Folsom, a rural postoffice in the eastern part of Haskell county, is about 8 miles from Santa Fe, the county seat, and 20 miles from West Plains on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, which is the nearest rail- road station.
Fontana, one of the oldest towns in Miami county, is situated on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. about 10 miles south of Paola, the county seat. It was laid out in Sept., 1869, and took its name from "Old Fontana," which had been laid out about a half mile west of the present town in 1858, at what was called the cross-roads. The old town had a postoffice and one store, but when the railroad was built the new town was surveyed and the old town abandoned. At the pres- ent time Fontana contains several general stores, a drug store, grocery, implement house, lumber yard, grain dealer and a small mill. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices and in 1910 had a population of 300.
Fool Chief .- Among the Kansas or Kaw Indians there were two chiefs- father and son-who bore this appellation. The elder, whose Indian name was Ca-ega-wa-tan-nin-ga, was prominent in the tribe at the time Maj. S. H. Long held a council with the Kaws on the bank of the Missouri river and part of his expedition visited the Kaw village near the mouth of Blue river. Frederick Chouteau says that when he became acquainted with the Fool Chief in the fall of 1828 his village was located on the Kansas river some distance above Papan's ferry, where the city of Topeka now stands. Chouteau also says that when the old chief drank too much liquor he became crazy and hence got the name of "Fool Chief." He was finally killed while under the influence of liquor in Johnson county by a Kaw Indian named Wa-ho-ba-ke, whom he attacked.
The younger Fool Chief, Kah-he-ga-wa-ti-an-gah, inherited his rank from his father. In his youth he was a brave warrior and later in life a wise counselor, but, like his father, he was fond of "fire-water." Upon one occasion, when intoxicated, he killed a young Kaw brave who was popular in the tribe, and saved his life only by the payment of heavy fine in ponies, buffalo robes, etc., and for a time was deprived of his chieftainship. Subsequently he was reinstated, went to the Indian Ter- ritory with the tribe in 1873, and died there at an advanced age.
Foote County .- On March 18, 1879, the legislature created this county, which is supposed to have been named in honor of Andrew Hull Foote,
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a United States naval officer during the Civil war. The boundaries were thus described in the creative act: "Commencing at the intersection of the east line of range 27 west, with the north line of township 24 south ; thence south along the range line to its intersection with the north line of township 29 south ; thence west along township line to where it inter- sects the east line of range 31 west ; thence north along range line to its intersection with the north line of township 24 south ; thence east to the place of beginning." The boundaries as thus defined embraced all of the present county of Gray except the southern tier of Congressional town- ships. In 1881, by an act of the legislature the county was attached to Ford for judicial purposes, and another act of the same session changed the name to Gray.
Ford, an incorporated city of Ford county, is a station on the Bucklin & Dodge City division of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R. 18 miles from Dodge City, the county seat. It has a bank, a money order postoffice, express and telegraph offices, some good general stores, and in 1910 reported a population of 205.
Ford County, located in the southwestern part of the state, is in the second tier of counties north of the line dividing Kansas from Oklahoma, and the fifth county east from the Colorado state line. It is bounded on the north by Hodgeman county, east by Edwards and Kiowa, south by Clark and Meade and west by Gray, and has an area of 1,085 square miles. Ford county was created by the act of 1867, which provided for the division into counties of all the unorganized part of the state east of range 26 west, and was named in honor of Col. James H. Ford of the Second Colorado cavalry. It was not organized until 1873.
One of the first parties to travel westward through this portion of Kansas with a pack train was the McKnight expedition in 1812, which followed the Arkansas river. A few years later Maj. Stephen H. Long's expedition passed up the Arkansas valley and by 1825 this route be- came known as the "Santa Fe Trail" (q. v.). One of the earliest military posts in Kansas was located in what is now Ford county. (See Fort Atkinson.) Fort Dodge, established in 1864, was on the north bank of the Arkansas, about 2 miles east of Dodge City. The old military reser- vation is now the site of the State Soldiers' Home.
During the rush to California in 1849 thousands of gold seekers passed along the Santa Fe trail, through what is now Ford county, but few located there. Among the first permanent settlers were A. J. Anthony, who located on a ranch 20 miles west of Dodge City, in 1867. He kept a few cattle and a general store for a year, then moved to Fort Dodge and engaged in the sutler business until 1874. Herman J. Fringer came to Fort Dodge in 1867 as quartermaster's clerk. Later he opened one of the pioneer drug stores and served as justice of the peace before the county was organized. H. L. Sitler came to the county in 1868, and was one of the pioneer freighters, before the railroad was built. Dodge City grew up not far from the fort.
In a few years the frontier moved further west and Ford county be-
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came populated with industrious husbandmen, who established perma- nent homes and prosperous farms. On April 5, 1873, Gov. Osborn issued a proclamation providing for the organization of Ford county. He ap- pointed Charles Rath, J. G. McDonald and Daniel Wolf as special com- missioners, and Herman J. Fringer as special clerk. The commissioners met at Dodge City and elected Charles Rath chairman. James Hanrahan was appointed special commissioner in place of Daniel Wolf, who was not in the county. An election for county officers was ordered for June 5, 1873, when the following persons were elected: Charles Rath, A. C. Meyers and F. C. Zimmerman, commissioners; Herman J. Fringer, county clerk, and also clerk of the district court; A. J. Anthony, treas- urer ; H. Armitage, register of deeds ; George B. Cox, probate judge ; M. V. Cutler, county attorney ; Charles E. Bassett, sheriff, and T. L. Mc- Carty, coroner. P. T. Bowen and Thomas C. Nixon were elected jus- tices of the peace in the two civil townships, Dodge and Ford. At the election on Nov. 4. 1873, A. J. Anthony, A. J. Peacock and Charles Rath were elected commissioners; William F. Sweney, clerk; M. T. Bruin, register of deeds; George B. Cox, probate judge; L. D. Henderson, county attorney ; M. Collar, superintendent of public instruction ; John McDonald, clerk of the district court; A. B. Webster, treasurer ; Charles E. Bassett, sheriff ; T. L. McCarty, coroner ; John Kirby, surveyor, and James Hanrahan, representative to the state legislature.
In 1874, the old toll house was taken for a county poor-house. Up to 1875 rented buildings were used for court-house purposes and the county offices, but during the summer of 1876, a fine brick court-house was completed at a cost of $8,000, and all the county offices and records were removed to it.
One of the earliest newspapers in the county was the Dodge City Messenger, established in Feb., 1874, by A. W. Moore, but the paper was suspended in 1875. On May 20, 1876, thie Dodge City Times made its appearance. It was founded by Lloyd and Walter C. Shinn, and the Ford County Globe was started at Dodge City in Dec., 1877, by William N. Morphy and D. M. Frost. The Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Catholics all have churches in the county, most of them substantial edifices.
The surface of the county is generally level. Practically all the bot- tom land in the county is the valley of the Arkansas river, which varies from one to two miles in width and comprises about one-tenth of the area of the county. There is very little native timber, and what there is consists of narrow belts along the streams. The cottonwood is the most numerous, but hackberry, walnut and cedar are found. The Arkansas river enters the county about 8 miles south of the northwest corner, flows southeast nearly to the eastern boundary and thence northeast into Edwards county. Its most important tributary is Mulberry creek. Saw Log creek, a branch of the Pawnee, flows through the northern sec- tion. Magnesian limestone of good quality exists near Dodge City, and sandstone is found in the bluffs along the Arkansas river. Gypsum is
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common in the northern portion, along Saw Log creek. Winter wheat, . barley, oats and corn are the leading grains, Kafir corn, alfalfa and sor- ghum are extensively raised, and the county ranks high in live stock.
Excellent transportation facilities are afforded by the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, which enters in the northeast corner, passes southwest to Dodge City, and thence west along the Ar- kansas river. The main line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific rail- road crosses the southeast corner, and there are nearly 90 miles of main track railroad within the bounds of the county, which is divided into the following townships: Bloom, Bucklin, Concord, Dodge, Enterprise, Fairview, Ford, Grandview, Pleasant Valley, Richland, Royal, Sodville, Spearville, Wheatland and Wilburn. The population in 1910 was 11,393, a gain of 5,896, or more than 100 per cent. during the preceding decade. The assessed valuation of property for that year was $19,040,450, and the value of all farm products, including live stock, was nearly $3,500,000.
Forestry .- Under ancient English law, a forest was a tract of woody country where the king had the exclusive right to hunt. Whether inclosed or uninclosed, it was under the protection of a special system of laws and special courts, neither of which are now in existence. In those days forestry meant the enforcement of those laws in order to pro- tect the royal rights. In the United States forestry has to do with the supply of timber, its waste, the preservation of the natural forests through conservation, and the encouragement of tree planting.
When the first Europeans came to America they found the surface of the country along the Atlantic coast and far into the interior heavily timbered, and for 300 years after the first settlements were made little or no thought was given to the preservation of the timber supply. Valu- able trees-trees that would be valuable at the present time at any rate-were frequently cut down and burned to make room for crops, and in this way the pioneers literally hewed their way to the great prairies of the West. Then came the golden days of the lumberman, when acres and acres of land were denuded to cut lumber for export as well as for domestic use. In 1890-the year of the greatest cut-over 8,500,000,000 feet of white pine were taken from the forests of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The next year the cut dropped to 5,500,- 000,000 feet. In 1910 the cut of yellow or southern pine was over 8,500,000,000 feet, and the same year the cut of cypress was about 500,- 000,000 feet.
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