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 8
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When Gov. Reeder, on Nov. 8, 1854, issued a proclamation ordering an election for the 29th, the region now embraced in Anderson county was made a part of the Fifth district. The election was ordered to be held at the house of Henry Sherman near the place called Dutch Henry's crossing on the Pottawatomie. At the election for members of the first territorial legislature, A. M. Coffey and David Lykins were elected -to the council and Allen Wilkerson and H. W. Yonger representatives. Of the resident voters, about 50 in number and practically all free-state men, only a few voted, but the Missourians came over and cast about 200 pro-slavery votes. At the election for a delegate to Congress in Oct., 1855, George Wilson was the only person voting in the district. Samuel Mack, one of the judges, refused to vote regarding the election as a farce, most of the voters being residents of Missouri who came over on horseback and in wagons, well supplied with whiskey and guns. (See Reeder's Administration.) Because of the outrages committed upon the free-state settlers, a military organization, made up of Frank- fin and Anderson county men and called the Pottawatomie Rifles, was formed in the fall of 1855. Among the members were Dr. Rufus Gil- patrick, M. Kilbourn, W. Ayers, H. H. Williams, August Bondi, Samuel Mack, James Townsley and Jacob Benjamin from Anderson county.
The legislature having defined the bounds of the county, then pro-
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vided for its organization and the election of county officers. In joint session the legislature elected George Wilson probate judge and com- missioned him on Aug. 27, 1855, for a term of two years. He was the first commissioned officer and immediately after qualifying set out for the county. On Sept. 10, he arrived at Henry Sherman's house, where he remained until the 15th, when he went to the house of Francis Meyer near the present site of the town of Greeley. Judge Wilson had desig- nated Meyer's house as the temporary seat of justice and notified Wil- liam R. True and John C. Clark, who had been appointed county com- missioners and A. V. Cummings, who had been appointed sheriff, to meet him there on the 15th to complete the county organization. But all three refused to accept the appointment, although Judge Wilson at- tempted several times to make them qualify. Cummings was a resident of Bourbon county. Wilson at last appealed to the governor for assist- ance to organize the county and Acting Gov. Shannon commissioned Francis Meyer and F. P. Brown commissioners and Henderson Rice sheriff, but Brown and Rice would not accept the commissions. The probate judge and Francis Meyer organized the county on Jan. 7, 1856. Five days later the second session of the probate judge and commis- sioners' court was held at Meyer's house and David McCammon was appointed sheriff. He gave bond and qualified on Jan. 18, on which date the court held its third session and J. S. Waitman was appointed com- missioner. This was the first time that a full board of commissioners had existed. At this time C. H. Price was appointed justice of the peace for the county and commissioned by Judge Wilson. Price quali- fied on March 5, 1856, and the same day was appointed treasurer of the county. On Feb. 4, 1856, Thomas Totton was appointed clerk of the county, and on March 9 a petition for the location of a road from Henry Sherman's house to Cofachique, the county seat of Allen county, was considered. David McCammon, James Townsley and Samuel Mack were appointed commissioners to open the road, which was to be 70 feet wide. This was the first road in the county.
On Feb. 18, 1856, a petition was presented to the commissioners, signed by A. McConnell and fifteen others, requesting a permanent loca- tion of the county seat, and David McCammon, James Townsley and Thomas Totton were appointed to select the site, provided it should be located within three miles of the geographical center of the county. The commissioners selected a place and called it Shannon, where the county business was transacted until April 5, 1859. The first term of the district court was held on the fourth Monday in April, 1856: Sterling Cato, one of the territorial judges presiding. It convened at the house of Francis Meyer and was in session an entire week but the records of the proceedings have disappeared.
At the election of delegates to the Topeka constitutional convention, 49 votes were polled at the Pottawatomie precinct, by free-state voters and at the election for the adoption or rejection 14 persons from Ander- son county voted.
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During the summer and fall of 1856 Anderson, county was overrun by bands of lawless pro-slavery men, known as "Border Ruffians." The officers of Anderson county had been chosen because of their loyalty to the slave power, and when the difficulties culminated in 1856 they took an active part with the pro-slavery men. The free-state men re- fused to countenance such conduct on the part of the officers and late in the spring Francis Meyer, John S. Waitman, David McCammon and George Wilson having been concerned in several pro-slavery atrocities, were forced to flee from the county. There was continued trouble along Pottawatomie creek until the government ordered United States troops to the neighborhood. They camped for several weeks a short distance from the present site of Greeley, but were commanded by pro-slavery officers and really afforded little protection to the free-state settlers. The Pottawatomie Rifles drilled at the farm of W. L. Frankenburger and participated in many of the expeditions of 1856-7. During the fall of 1856 pro-slavery invasions became so frequent that it was unsafe for the settlers to remain at home over night with their families, and for several months they would collect at Frankenburger's claim on the Pottawatomie, the women and children taking shelter in the cabin, while the men remained on guard. Anderson county men, commanded by Dr. Rufus Gilpatrick, took part in the battle of Osawatomie under John Brown. When Gov. Woodson declared the territory in a state of insur- rection and rebellion and called out the militia, several settlers left An- derson county never to return.
About this time a party of some 200 hundred Missourians camped on Middle creek, at Battle Mound, waiting for reinforcements preparatory to a general movement against the free-state settlements along the Pot- tawatomie, and many outrages were committed in Anderson, Linn and Franklin counties. Among these was the capture of George Partridge, Aug. 27, 1856, and on the same day the burning of the houses of Kil- bourne and Cochrane near Greeley. Dr. Gilpatrick, while making calls, discovered the pro-slavery camp and at once gave warning. The Pot- tawatomie Rifles, under command of Dr. Gilpatrick, made an attack early in the morning of Aug. 28, which was a complete surprise, the pro- slavery men retreating in great confusion to Missouri. Another de- tachment of pro-slavery men robbed Zach Schutte and attempted other atrocities, but upon hearing of the capture of the camp also hastily fled into Missouri.
The survey of the public lands in Anderson county began in the fall of 1855 and closed in the spring of 1856. Some of the first settlers who came to the county were of the class who made a living speculating in government land claims. They selected the finest timber and valley lands along the streams, and after actually settling, would stake out other claims under ficticious names, and then offer to sell the ficticious claims to new arrivals. The buyer of such claims would often go back East after his family and upon his return find his cabin occupied, the claim having been sold a second time by the speculator. These claims
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caused much trouble in the United States land office, and in Nov., 1858, a free-state squatters' court was organized in Anderson, Linn and Bourbon counties for the adjustment of land claims. Dr. Rufus Gil- patrick was elected judge. The decisions of the court were generally satisfactory to the settlers, and enforced by Maj. Abbott and a minister named Stewart, known as the fighting preacher. Several town sites were laid out, but with two exceptions the towns failed to become im- portant. Garnett and Greeley were both surveyed in 1856 and became flourishing communities. In Dec., 1856, a party of 80 men was formed in Lawrence for the purpose of settling in Anderson county. A town site was selected in the northern part of what is now Washington township, and the town named Hyatt. The founders proposed making it the county seat. A sawmill was built in the spring of 1857. In the fall a grist mill was added, and B. F. Allen opened a store. A postoffice and school were established but the county seat dream was not realized. Soon after the county seat was permanently located at Garnett Hyatt was abandoned.
The first mail route in Anderson county was established on Jan. II, 1858, to run from Leavenworth to Humboldt in Allen county via Hyatt. The route was marked and service began in March. There was a road from Carlyle and one from Fairview to Hyatt. Zach Squires was the first mail carrier and expressman. At first the post was weekly but soon changed to a tri-weekly service. In the spring of 1859, the route was changed to run through Garnett, where a postoffice was established. In the fall of 1859 the county board received petitions for the opening of five roads, and the old maps show that they all centered at Hyatt and none at Garnett or Shannon.
On Nov. 30, 1857, the county commissioners entered into a contract for the construction of a court-house and jail at Shannon. Dr. Preston Bowen was to build it for $1,000, but at the election held Jan. 26, 1858, it was shown that a majority of the people were opposed to the erec- tion of the buildings. The commissioners therefore resigned. On Feb. 12, 1858, the county organization was changed by an act of the legisla- ture from a board of commissioners'to a board of supervisors, and on June 14, the new board contracted with Dr. Bowen for a court-house and jail at Shannon at his own expense, to be completed within a year. The jail was completed and work begun on the court-house, when, in the spring of 1859, the seat of justice for the county was located at Garnett by an act of the legislature and the first meeting of the board of super- visors at Garnett was held on April 5, of that year.
In March, 1859, an election was held on the proposition of a state con- stitutional convention and of the 185 votes cast in Anderson county only 7 were against holding the convention. On the first Tuesday in June, 1859, an election was held for a delegate to the convention. Dr. James G. Blount and W. F. M. Arny were the candidates from the An- derson county district. Blount was elected and sat in the Wyandotte convention.
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Education was one of the first considerations of the early settlers. The first school district laid out was near Scipio in Putnam township, and the first superintendent of public instruction was John R. Slentz, who was appointed by the governor near the close of 1858.
The outbreak of the Civil war caused great excitement in Anderson county. At the call for volunteers an entire company enlisted in one day, and Anderson county was represented in nearly every Kansas regi- ment, about three-fourths of the able-bodied men entering the Union army. In 1861 the population of the county was little over 1,000.
A considerable number of the early settlers of Anderson county were Catholics, and the St. Boniface Catholic church in Putnam township was the first church building erected. It was built in 1858, and in 1871, while under the charge of Father Albert Heinemann, the parish erected a college building about 6 miles north of Garnett and called it Mount Carmel. The first Protestant church was built by the United Brethren in Garnett in 1859. The first county building erected in Garnett was the jail, which was built in 1864. Four years later the court-house was erected on Oak street. In 1891 the legislature passed an act providing for the erection of a court-house on the county square, the cost not to exceed $40,000.
A county fair was held in Anderson county as early as 1863, but the county fair association was not organized until Nov. 15, 1873. It was capitalized for $5,000. The first newspaper in the county was the Gar- nett Pathfinder, established by I. E. Olney in Jan., 1865. It was the only publication until 1868, when W. H. Johnson started the Garnett Courant.
The general surface of Anderson county is undulating, divided into bottom land, timber and rolling upland. The creek bottoms average about 2 miles in width, and belts of timber along the streams average three-fourths of. a mile. The main water course of the county is the Pottawatomie river, which rises in the central part of the county and flows northeastward, its north and south branches uniting near the north- east corner of the county. The Little Osage river, Indian and Deer creeks flow through the southern portion. Lime and sandstone are plentiful, while red ocher is found in Reeder township. Coal has been found in several places and there are natural gas wells near Greeley. The trees native to this section are walnut, cottonwood, oak, hickory, hackberry, elm, sycamore, and hard and soft maples. Corn, wheat, oats and Kafir corn are the leading agricultural products. Live stock raising is a productive industry, and there are more than 100,000 bearing fruit trees in the county. There are 130.25 miles of main track railroad within the limits of the county. The Missouri Pacific has three lines-one crossing the county diagonally from the northwest to southeast pass- ing through Garnett; a second enters the county in the northeast and crosses the west border near the center, and the third line crosses the southern part almost directly east and west. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe runs north and south near the center, and a branch diverging
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from Colony in the southwest, crosses the southwest corner. The Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas crosses the southeast corner.
The county is divided into the following townships: Indian creek, Jackson, Lincoln, Lone Elm, Monroe, Ozark, Putnam, Reeder, Rich, Union, Walker, Washington, Welda and Westphalia. Garnett, the county seat, is the largest town and railroad center. Other important towns and villages are Colony, Greeley, Harris, Kincaid, Lone Elm, Selma and Welda.
The U. S. census of 1910 reported the population of Anderson county at 13,829. The total value of farm products for that year was, according to the report of the state board of agriculture, $1,437,654.37. Corn led with 1,355,223 bushels, valued at $691,163.73. Next to this was the hay crop, valued at $394,779, and oats stood third in the list with 362,907 bushels, valued at $134,275.59. The wheat crop amounted to 38,187 bushels, valued at $35,339.05. Flax and Kafir corn were also important crops.
Anderson, John Alexander, clergyman and member of Congress, was born in Washington county, Pa., June 26, 1834. He was educated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, graduating in 1853. Benjamin Har- rison, afterwards president of the United States was his roommate while in college. He began work as pastor of a church at Stockton, Cal., in 1857, and preached the first Union sermon on the Pacific coast. He soon began to take an interest in all matters of general welfare, and as a result the state legislature of California elected him trustee of the state insane asylum in 1860. Two years later he was appointed chap- lain of the Third California infantry. In this capacity he accompanied Gen. Connor's expedition to Salt Lake City. Mr. Anderson's desire to be always investigating something led to his appointment to the United States Sanitary Commission as California correspondent and agent. His first duty was to act as relief agent of the Twelfth army corps. He was next transferred to the central office at New York. In 1864, when Gen. Grant began moving toward Richmond, Mr. Anderson was made superintendent of transportation and had charge of six steamboats. At the close of the campaign he served as assistant superintendent of the canvas and supply department at Philadelphia and edited a paper called the Sanitary Commission Bulletin. When the war closed he was trans- ferred to the history bureau of the commission at Washington, remain- ing there one year collecting data and writing a portion of the history of the commission. In 1866 he was appointed statistician of the Citizens' Association of Pennsylvania, an organization for the purpose of mitigat- ing the suffering resulting from pauperism, vagrancy and crime in the large cities. In Feb., 1868, Mr. Anderson accepted a call from the Presbyterian church of Junction City, Kan., and during the years spent in this town he developed power as an orator and took an active part in politics. He was on the school board most of the time he was in Junc- tion City. In 1870, the morning after his mother was buried out on the open prairie, where all the dead had been laid, he remarked to some of
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his friends, "This town must have a cemetery," and as a result of his efforts beautiful Highland stands as a monument to his memory. In 1870-71, there was much interest throughout the country in narrow gauge railroads, it being argued that there was economy in them. An- derson concluded that the idea was not practicable and determined to oppose the issue of the bonds asked for in Clay county. His ideas pre- vailed, and the track was relaid standard gauge. In the summer of 1872 Benjamin Harrison secured him a call from a church in Indianapolis, but his wife and family persuaded him to remain in Kansas. In the fall of 1873, Mr. Anderson was elected president of the Kansas State Agricul- tural College, at Manhattan. A radical change of policy resulted in the institution and it is to Mr. Anderson and the men associated with him, that the state is indebted for the policy which has placed the col- lege near the head of the list of such institutions in the United States. Mr. Anderson remained president of the college until 1878, when he was elected to Congress and served as representative from the First and Fifth districts until 1891. In March of that year he was appointed con- sul general to Cairo, Egypt, and sailed for his new post on April 6, but his constitution was already impaired and he was unable to stand the change of climate. The following spring he determined to return, but died on his way home at Liverpool, England, May 18, 1892. His last message was from Malta, "It is all in God's hands and He will direct." He was laid at rest on the hill top he had chosen years before, near the town where he said the happiest days of his life had been passed, and where seven of his family are also interred. The funeral ceremonies were conducted by the faculty and students of the Agricultural College, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Masonic Fraternity.
Anderson, William, usually referred to as "Bill" Anderson, was one of the most daring, brutal and bloodthirsty of those guerrilla captains who harassed Kansas during the early years of the Civil war. He was born in Missouri, but during his boyhood, and in fact up to the breaking out of the war in 1861, he lived with his father on the old Santa Fe trail at the crossing of Bluff creek. Shortly after the war began, Bill Anderson and his brother James, Lee Griffin and the Rice boys, all living in the same neighborhood, announced their intention of taking sides with the South. Early in June, 1862, Lee Griffin stole a horse and started for Missouri, but he was overtaken and brought before a justice of the peace named Baker at Agnes City, at the crossing of Rock creek in the north- western part of Lyon county, where he was bound over for trial in a higher court. This so incensed Bill Anderson's father that he loaded his shot gun and started for Baker's residence to avenge the insult. But Baker, who had been warned, was on the look-out and fired first, killing Anderson. The tragic death of his father may have made Bill Anderson worse than he would otherwise have been, for he immediately com- menced leading raids into Kansas, along the old Santa Fe trail, going as far into the state as Council Grove. His three sisters-Josephine, Mary and Jennie-returned to Missouri, where they were afterward
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arrested by order of Gen. Ewing, and by the fall of the building in which they were imprisoned one was killed. This added gall and wormwood to Anderson's already embittered disposition, and from that time until his death he was more brutal than before. It is said that his gang did more killing at Lawrence than any other portion of Quan- trill's command, and after the massacre at Baxter Springs he wanted to attack the fort, but Quantrill would not consent. Anderson was killed while on one of his raids, Oct. 27, 1864, and after his death the scalps of two women were found on the headstall of his bridle.
Andover, a village of Butler county (formerly known as Minne- haha), is a station on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R., in Bruno township, about 17 miles southwest of Eldorado, the county seat, and not far from the Sedgwick county line. It had a population of 130 in 1910, its money order postoffice has one rural free delivery route which supplies mail to the surrounding country, and it is a trading and ship- ping point for the people in that portion of the county.
Angelus, a village of Solomon township, Sheridan county, is situated on the Saline river, about 20 miles southwest of Hoxie, the county seat. It is a rural postoffice, with a population of 30, and is a trading center for that part of the county. Campus and Grinnell, on the Union Pacific, are the nearest railroad stations.
Angola, a village of Labette county, is located in Canada township, on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 23 miles southwest of Oswego, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices and a money order post- office. The town was laid out in 1886, C. H. Kimball and Lee Clark being the promoters. The population in 1910 was 100.
Annelly, a money order postoffice of Richland township, Harvey county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 9 miles southeast of Newton, the county seat. It has a grain elevator, a hotel, a general store, and does some shipping. The population was reported as 25 in 1910.
Anness, a money order postoffice of Sedgwick county, is in Erie township, some 30 miles southwest of Wichita and not far from the Sumner county line. It is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., that runs from Wichita to Englewood, has a grain elevator, an express office, and through its retail stores supplies the people of that section with staple articles. The population was reported as 70 in 1910.
Annual Register .- A volume, known as the Kansas Annual Register, was issued late in Dec., 1864, by the State Agricultural Society, with Andrew Stark as editor. The publication was issued from the Leaven- . worth Bulletin office and is a volume of 265 pages of good historical matter, most of which is devoted to Kansas. The idea of the Register is said to have originated with Judge L. D. Bailey, and it was his in- tention to issue a volume annually. Besides a history of religious so- cieties in the state, and of counties, the volume contains lithographic pictures of Thomas Carney, Thomas Ewing, jr., James H. Lane, A. C
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Wilder, George W. Deitzler and James G. Blunt. But one number was issued.
Anson, one of the active, thriving little towns of Sumner county, is in Sumner township, about 10 miles northwest of Wellington, the coun- ty seat. It is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 6 miles east of Conway Springs, has a bank, important mercantile and shipping in- terests, a money order postoffice, express and telegraph accommoda- tions, good schools, etc., and in 1910 reported a population of 125.
Antelope, a small village of Marion county, is located in Clear Creek township, and is a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., 7 miles northeast of Marion, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, express and telegraph offices, and although the population was only 53 in 1910 it has a good retail trade and does some shipping.
Anthony, the capital and largest city of Harper county, is situated a little southeast of the geographical center of the county in the Bluff creek valley, which is a fine agricultural district. When Harper county was legally organized in 1878 George T. Anthony, then governor of Kansas, was given power to locate the county seat, and the town was named in honor of the governor. The early settlers of Anthony were intelligent, industrious people, and for a time the growth of the place went forward with unabated vigor. Bonds were voted for railroad companies and for municipal improvements and Anthony joined in the rivalry with other towns during the boom days. The rush to Oklahoma on April 22, 1889, it is said, took away about one-half the population, and another hegira occurred some years later. Notwithstanding this the growth of the city was only temporarily impeded, and in 1910 reported a population of 2,669, an increase of 490 during the preceding decade, in spite of the emigration of 1903.
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