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 84

Author: Blackmar, Frank Wilson, 1854-1931, ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Standard publishing company
Number of Pages: 954


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 84


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Fremont's second exploration was made in 1843, his party consisting principally of Creole and Canadian French, and Americans, amounting in all to 39 men. To make the exploration as useful as possible, Col. Fremont determined to vary the route to the Rocky mountains from that followed in 1842, the route decided upon being up the valley of the Kansas river, to the head of the Arkansas river, and to some pass in the mountains, if any could be found, at the sources of that river. By mak- ing this deviation, it was thought the problem of a new road to Oregon and California in a climate more congenial might be solved, and a better knowledge obtained of an important river and the country it drained, while the great object of the expedition would find its point of com- mencement at the termination of the former.


The departure was made from what is now Kansas City, Kan., on the morning of May 29, and at the close of that day the party encamped about 4 miles beyond the frontier, on the verge of the great prairies. Resuming their journey on the 31st, they encamped in the evening at Elm Grove, and from then until June 3 followed the same route as the expedition of 1842. Reaching the ford of the Kansas, near the present site of Lawrence, they left the usual emigrant road to the mountains and continued their route along the south side of the river, where their progress was much delayed by the numerous small streams, which obliged them to make frequent bridges. On the morning of June 4 they crossed Otter creek, and on the 8th arrived at the mouth of Smoky Hill fork, forming here, by its junction with the Republican, the Kansas river. On the IIth they resumed their journey along the Republican fork, and for several days continued to travel through a country beau- tifully watered with numerous streams, handsomely timbered, "and rarely an incident occured to vary the monotonous resemblance which one day on the prairies here bears to another, and which scarcely requires a particular description."


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They had been gradually and regularly ascending in their progress westward, and on the evening of the 14th were 265 miles by their travel- ing road from the mouth of the Kansas. At this point the party was divided, and on the 16th, Fremont, with 15 men, proceeded in advance, bearing a little out from the river. That night he encamped on Sol- omon's fork of the Smoky Hill river, along whose tributaries he con- tinued to travel for several days. On the 19th he crossed the Pawnee road to the Arkansas, and on the afternoon of June 30 he found himself overlooking a valley, where, about 10 miles distant, "the south fork of the Platte was rolling magnificently along, swollen with the waters of the melting snows." Upon reaching St. Vrain's fort, he concluded to remain a considerable length of time in order to explore the surrounding country. Boiling Spring river was traversed, and the pueblo at or near its mouth was visited. From Fort St. Vrain, the main party marched straight to Fort Laramie, while the party under Fremont passed farther to the west, skirting the mountain, and carefully examining the country. The two detachments met on the Sweetwater river, and after marching through South Pass continued on to Fort Bridger, whence they moved west down the Bear river valley. The expedition then marched to Cal- ifornia and passed a considerable distance down the coast, when it re- turned, reaching Colorado at Brown's Hole. While in Colorado, Fre- mont explored the wonderful natural parks there. On his return he passed down the Arkansas, visiting the "pueblo" and Bent's Fort, at which place he arrived on July 1, 1844. On the 5th he resumed his jour- ney down the Arkansas river, traveling along a broad wagon road. De- siring to complete the examination of the Kansas, he soon left the Arkansas and took a northeasterly direction across the elevated dividing grounds which separate that river from the waters of the Platte. On the 8th he arrived at the head of a stream which proved to be the Smoky Hill fork of the Kansas river. After having traveled directly along its banks for 290 miles, the expedition left the river, where it bore suddenly off in a northwesternly direction, toward its junction with the Repub- lican fork of the Kansas, and continued its easterly course for about 20 miles when it entered the wagon road from Sante Fe to Independence. On the last day of July Fremont again encamped at the site of Kansas City, Kan., after an absence of fourteen months.


The third expedition under Fremont in 1845 comprised nearly 100 men. Many of his old companions joined him, among whom were Car- son, Godey, Owens, and several experienced Delaware Indians. With him also was his favorite, Basil Lajeunesse, and Lieuts. Abert and Peck. With this larger force he felt equal to any emergency likely to arise. The plains were crossed without noteworthy incident, except a scare from the Cheyennes, and on Aug. 2 Bent's Fort was reached. On the 16th, the expedition proper, consisting of about 60 men, mostly picked for their known qualities of courage, hardihood and faithfulness, left Bent's Fort and started on its journey. On the 20th it encamped at the mouth of Boiling Springs river, and on the 26th at the mouth of the


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great canon of the Arkansas. On the night of Sept. 2, it reached the remote headwaters of the Arkansas. Two days later Fremont passed across the divide into the valley of the Grand river, and camped on Piney river, where a goodly supply of fish was caught. The marvelous beauty of the surroundings were specially noted by the scientists accompanying the party. Continuing westward without noteworthy incident, the party reached Great Salt Lake early in October, and after great hardships Sutter's Fort in California was reached in December. The following year Fremont assisted the Californias in gaining their independence.


A fourth expedition, commenced in 1848, was prosecuted at his own expense, and ended in finding a passage to California from the east along the headwaters of the Rio Grande. This was later followed by the Southern Pacific railroad. He also fitted out upon his account a fifth expedition (1853), designed to perfect the results of the fourth, by fixing upon the best route for a national highway from the valley of the Mis- sissippi to the Pacific ocean. These expeditions involved great hardships, but every suffering was rewarded by marvelous disclosures of the geo- graphical variety and wealth of the country through which they passed. Kansas and the regions to the west were almost unknown up to this time. His report of the resources found attracted the attention of the people of the East, and from the time of these explorations may be dated the rapid influx of immigrants into Kansas and the speedy settlement of the territory. Traversing the state as he did, from its eastern to its west- ern boundary, his complete reports turned the tide of home-seekers in that direction.


Friend, a post-hamlet of Finney county, is near the northern bound- ary on the line of the proposed Garden City, Gulf and Northern R. R., about 22 miles from Garden City, the county seat.


Friends .- The religious order known as Friends, more commonly called Quakers, originated in England about 1647. The founder of the society was George Fox, a dissenter from the teachings and practices of the church of that period. His views and practical application of Chris- tian doctrines spread rapidly, and within a short time he had many adherents. These people had no intention of establishing a new church, but as their preaching was incompatible with the practices of the church, it was inevitable that separation should follow. Fox preached in central England first, and from that region some sixty Quaker missionaries went forth to carry on the new movement. The members were variously known as Children of Truth, Friends of Truth and finally the name Re- ligious Society of Friends was adopted.


The friends have no formal creed or doctrine and it is in spirit more than faith that they differ from other denominations. The first discip- linary meetings, established as early as 1856, were held each month and were in a sense congregational. By the term discipline, the Friends understand all regulations and arrangements for the civil and religious benefit of the church. Gradually certain meetings or assemblies were established and are now four in number: preparatory, monthly, quar-


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terly and yearly meetings. The preparatory meetings are subordinate to the monthly meetings and have little power, being occupied with local affairs, and in America have been discontinued. Each of the other meet- ings is subordinate to the one above, up to the yearly meeting which has exclusive legislative power.


The Quaker movement spread to Scotland and Ireland and in the middle of the seventeenth century to America. The first Friends to locate in Massachusetts colony were persecuted and deported, but in spite of this converts were made and meetings established in the Eng- lish colonies. The Friends who came to New Jersey settled along the Raritan river, and Burlington was founded by them. William Penn joined the society in 1667. He secured East Jersey and Pennsylvania, and it was through his efforts that his colony had a Quaker population of 7,000 within three years. As early as 1688, the Friends protested against slavery and no slaves were in their possession after the year 1787. Since the establishment of the Friends in America the organiza- tion has divided into the following bodies: Society of Friends (Ortho- dox), Religious Society of Friends (Hicksite), Orthodox Conservative Friends (Wilburite), and Friends Primitive.


With the great migratory movement west after the Revolutionary war, Quakers passed into the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and today their faith has been carried to the shores of the Pacific. In 1834 they founded a mission among the Shawnee Indians of Kansas, near the Methodist mission on the Neosho river, where in 1854, David Thayer and his wife and Richard Mendenhall had charge of the mission and school for the Indian children. Some of the first Quaker settlers of Kansas were William H. Coffin, B. H. Hiatt and Eli Wilson, who came to the territory in the fall of 1854, and located the first Friends settle- ment on Fall creek about 14 miles west of Leavenworth. Mr. Coffin in his article, Settlement of the Friends in Kansas, says: "We held our first Friends' meeting (in Feb. 1856) which was probably the first Friends' meeting in Kansas Territory, outside of the Friends mission." This was at Benjah Hiatt's cabin on Fall creek about a mile above its confluence with Stranger creek. After this meetings were held regularly.


In Dec. 1857, there being about fifty Quakers in the settlement, they sent a request to the Milford monthly meeting of Indiana to have a pre- paratory meeting, and a committee was sent from Milford in May, 1858 to attend the opening. Many more Friends came to Kansas in the spring and in the summer of 1859, the first Friends meeting-house in Kansas was built. A second and quite large settlement of Friends had been formed on the Cottonwood, near Emporia, and a third south of Osawat- omie, where meetings were held soon after the battle of Osawatomie in 1856. Other settlements of Friends were formed by immigrants from the east. Some of the earliest were near Lawrence, where a church was organized in 1865. This was the nucleus of the yearly meeting after- ward held there. The first census that gives a report of the Friends' organizations in Kansas was that of 1882, when there were 43 organiza-


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tions, 26 church edifices, and a membership of 4,774, with church prop- erty valued at $43,700. This was followed by a rapid increase, for in 1886 there were 53 organizations, 46 churches and a membership of 6,300. During the following eight years the organizations increased to 95, there were 85 church edifices, a membership of 9,133, and the church had grown so that there were thirteen quarterly meetings represented at the yearly meeting. At the present time there are fourteen quarterly meetings in the annual meeting but two of these include some congre- gations in Oklahoma and Missouri. The membership has remained about the same in Kansas as the increase has been about equaled by the emi- gration to other states.


Friends of the Temple .- This religious sect was founded in 1853 at Würtemberg, Germany, by Rev. Christopher Hoffman. The members were also called Friends of Jerusalem because of the interest they took in that city, believing that it will be the "mother and queen of the nations in the approaching Messianic kingdom on earth." One of the chief aims of the society is the establishment of Christian colonies in the Holy Land, six having been planted there that have achieved a fair measure of success. Soon after the organization of the society in the old country some of its members came to America and within ten years an organization was perfected in this country, where it is known as the "Temple Society of the United States."


In 1910 there were three local congregations-two in the State of New York and one in Kansas. The society in Jerusalem is regarded as the chief organization, and its president exercises general supervision over the branches in Germany and America. Each church has a minister and elders. In doctrine the church accepts the essential features of the Christian system, though it holds to no creed but the Bible, which it believes has been neglected or in some cases misinterpreted. It does not countenance membership in secret societies, and the great aim is to build up a "spiritual temple" according to apostolic precept.


This sect was established in Saline county, Kan., sometime in the '8os, and in the census report of 1890 was reported as having a membership of 55. In the next fifteen years the number of organizations in the United States decreased by one, but the membership of the one church in Kan- sas increased to 150.


Friendship, a hamlet of Cherokee county, is located on Lightning creek, 12 miles northwest of Columbus, the county seat, and 3 miles from Sherman, which is the nearest railroad station. Mail is received through the office at McCune by rural delivery.


Friends University .- As early as 1875, the Kansas yearly meeting of Friends expressed a desire to establish a school of collegiate rank, and several Friends academies were organized, but no college. In 1891 the College Association of Friends was organized and a charter secured from the state legislature granting authority to establish and maintain a col- lege. Several thousand dollars' worth of stock had been subscribed, when James M. and Anna T. Davis, of St. Louis, became interested in the


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movement and gave to the Kansas yearly meeting of Friends, the prop- erty at Wichita, formerly owned and occupied by Garfield Memorial University. The gift was accepted, a board of directors was at once appointed, the college opened in Sept., 1898, and the same fall the yearly meeting took upon itself the obligation of maintaining the institution.


The campus consists of 15 acres. The main building is of brick, five stories high, 234 feet long and 200 feet deep. It covers three-fourths of an acre of ground and contains 66 recitation rooms and halls. The main chapel seats 3,000 people. A dormitory known as South Hall provides accommodations for about 50 women, and North Hall is a similar dor- mitory for men. Besides the regular college course there is the Bible school, school of education, school of music, commercial school and pre- paratory department. Since the Friends took charge the school has pros- pered. Edmund Stanley was elected president and he is ably assisted by 16 instructors in the various branches.


Frizell, a money order post-village of Pawnee county, is a station on the Larned & Jetmore division of the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe R. R. 7 miles west of Larned. It has a general store and does some ship- ping.


Frontenac, an incorporated city of the second class in Crawford county, is located 9 miles southeast of Girard, the county seat, at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe and the Kansas City Southern railroads. It is also on the line of the Joplin & Pittsburg elec- tric railway. Frontenac has a bank, an international money order post- office, express and telegraph service, telephone connections, several good mercantile establishments, hotels, etc. It is situated in the coal fields, and the principal industry is coal mining. A Catholic academy is at Frontenac, and the city has a good public school system. The population in 1910 was 3,396, a gain of 1,591 during the preceding decade.


Frontier Guard .- Just before Abraham Lincoln started for Washing- ton to assume the duties of the presidency in 1861, Gen. James H. Lane, then a United States senator from Kansas, offered him a body-guard of Kansas men. Lane's plan was to have the men get on the train at various stations along the line as ordinary passengers. None was to carry arms, but arms were to be within easy reach if any emergency arose where they would be necessary. Mr. Lincoln declined Lane's offer, saying he had not yet lost faith in the honor of the American people. Nevertheless, Lane's men went on to Washington, where the organiza- tion of the company was completed, or at least made public. The com- pany was known as the "Frontier Guard," with headquarters at the Willard hotel. Speer, in his "Life of Lane," says that on April 16, 1861, four days after Fort Sumter was fired upon by the Confederate batter- ies at Charleston, Maj. Hunter (afterward major-general) was sent to the Willard with a request from the secretary of war that Lane report with his company at the White House, and that within half an hour the company was quartered in the great room, with pickets thrown out in all directions.


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Adjt .- Gen. R. C. Drum, when asked for information regarding the company, made the following statement: "After April 19, 1861, when the Sixth Massachusetts regiment was attacked by a mob in Baltimore, there being but few troops in the city of Washington, the government accepted the services of a number of organizations in the District of Columbia. All of these companies were mustered in except the 'Clay Guards' commanded by Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky and the 'Frontier Guard' commanded by Gen. James H. Lane of Kansas, United States senator."


Clay's company was assigned to the duty of guarding the long bridge, and Lane's was stationed at the Executive Mansion, where it remained on duty for several weeks, the men never receiving or asking for com- pensation, though Lane, according to Speer, saw that they were honor- ably discharged. Speer also says that Charles H. Holmes, a member of the company, told him that he was sent by Gen. Lane with a squad of men to capture Gen. Robert E. Lee at Arlington, but Lee, whether warned or not, made his escape to Richmond before the detachment arrived.


Eugene F. Ware, while pension commissioner, sent to the Kansas Historical Society on Aug. 4, 1902, a partial list of the members of the Frontier guard. This list shows the following officers: Captain, James H. Lane; first lieutenant, Mark Delahay ; second lieutenant, J. B. Stock- ton ; first sergeant, D. S. Gordon ; second sergeant, John T. Burris ; third sergeant, L. Holtslander ; first corporal, John P. Hatterscheidt; second corporal, J. W. Jenkins. In the list of 51 privates furnished by Mr. Ware are the names of a number of men who were intimately connected with Kansas affairs in an early day. Among them may be mentioned Thomas Ewing Jr., D. R. Anthony, Sidney Clarke, Marcus J. Parrott, A. C. Wild- er, Henry J. Adams, Robert McBratney, Samuel F. Tappan, Charles F. De Vivaldi, Samuel C. Pomeroy, W. W. Ross, P. C. Schuyler, William Hutchinson, Charles Howells, M. H. Insley and Clarke J. Hanks, the last named a nephew of President Lincoln. The Kansas Historical Society has the original discharge of Sidney Clarke, and copies of the discharges of Cunningham Hazlett and L. Holtslander.


A complete list of those who served in the Frontier Guard will prob- ably never be obtained. Speer says that the original company numbered 200 men, other authorities equally as reliable place the number at 120. But whatever the number, all were men who did not swerve from duty in the hour of the nation's peril, and it is to be regretted that their names cannot be obtained, in order that a deserving tribute might be paid to their promptness and efficiency in defense of the nation's capital in the opening days of the great Civil war.


Frontier Patrol .- (See Patrol Guard.)


Fruit .- (See Horticulture.)


Fuller, a town of Crawford county, with a population of 351 in 1910, is a station on the Kansas City Southern R. R. ro miles east of Girard. the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express


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offices, telephone connections, a good local trade, etc. Coal mining is the principal industry, and large quantities of coal are shipped from Fuller annually.


Fullerton, a post-hamlet of Hodgeman county, is situated about 15 miles southeast of Jetmore, the county seat, and 8 miles south of Gray, which is the nearest railroad station.


Fulton, one of the largest towns in Bourbon county, is situated in the northeastern part of the county on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. 13 miles north of Fort Scott, the county seat. It was founded in 1869 and the following year several stores were opened. Grain elevators and a mill were built, and as the population grew two good hotels and fine public school buildings were erected. The name of the town at first was Osaga, but the similarity to Osage was confusing, and it was changed to Fulton. The first postoffice was established in 1869 under the name of Osaga, but was changed with the name of the town. In 1874 Fulton was incorporated as a city of the third class, since which time it has con- tinued to prosper. The Methodist church was established in 1870 and a fine church edifice was soon after built. The Catholic church also per- fected an organization. A lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows was established in 1875 and in the early 'Sos the Masonic Lodge was established. The town is located in the midst of a rich farming dis- trict for which it is the supply and shipping point. In 1910 it had a population of 416.


Funston, a small hamlet a little southeast of the center of Allen county, is about 10 miles from Iola, the county seat, and some 8 miles from Hum- boldt, from which place it receives mail by rural delivery. Elsmore is the most convenient railroad station.


Funston, Edward Hogue, member of Congress, was born in Clark county, Ohio, Sept. 16, 1836, a son of Frederick and Julia (Stafford) Funston. His parents were of Irish descent and well educated for the day in which they lived. With the other members of his family, Edward shared the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life in the middle west. He was given a reasonably fair country school education, attend- ing school until he was thirteen years old, when he hired out to a farmer for the summer but attended school in the winter. For three years he worked and studied in this way, until he qualified himself to enter New Carlisle Academy. At the age of twenty he became a country school teacher and thus obtained means to attend Marietta College for two years. He did not graduate, but later had the degree of Master of Arts conferred upon him by the college. In 1861 he entered the Sixteenth Ohio battery and took part in the principal actions along the Mississippi river, until mustered out of the service in 1865. In 1867 he came to Kansas and located on a prairie farm in Carlyle township, Allen county. He was elected to the state legislature in 1873, was reëlected at each of the two succeeding annual elections, and was speaker of the house the last year. In 1880, he was elected to the state senate and served as president pro-tempore of that body. After four years in


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the state senate, he was elected to Congress on March I, 1884, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dudley C. Haskell, and was reëlected at each succeeding election until 1892, when he was defeated by a fusion of the Democratic and Populist parties. He was given the certificate of election, but his seat was contested by Horace L. Moore, and he was unseated on Aug. 2, 1894. Mr. Funston died at his home in Iola, Kan., Sept. 10, 1911.


Funston, Frederick, soldier, was born at New Carlisle, Ohio, Nov. 9, 1865, a son of Edward H. and Ann E. (Mitchell) Funston. When two years old, his parents removed to Kansas, and in 1885 he became a stu- dent in the state university. He also attended the university in 1889-90, after which he was employed as a newspaper reporter in Kansas City, and the next year was botanist with the Death Valley expedition. He was commissioned by the United States agricultural department in 1893 to explore Alaska and report on the flora. When this work was finished he went to Cuba, where he served for 18 months in the insurgent army in 1896-97, receiving promotions to captain, major and lieutenant- colonel. Having received a wound, he returned to the United States, and when war was declared against Spain he was commissioned colonel of the Twentieth Kansas infantry on May 20, 1898. His regiment was ordered to the Philippines and on May 2, 1899, Col. Funston was pro- moted to brigadier-general of volunteers for his bravery in crossing the Rio Grande river at Calumpit on a small raft and establishing a rope ferry in the face of a severe fire. He organized and led the expedition that captured Emilio Aguinaldo, the insurgent leader, and on April I. 190I, was commissioned brigadier-general in the regular army. For a time he was in command of the Department of California, and was then made commandant of the army service school at Fort Leavenworth.




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