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 98
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The next winter an investigating committee appointed by the legis- lature visited Harper county and found that it had not a single resident, that it had been bonded for $25,000 and had a funded indebted- ness of $15,000. A. W. Williams, then attorney-general of Kansas, recommended that the organization be invalidated on account of fraud and that the county be attached to some other one for judicial pur- poses. Naturally these events gave Harper an unsavory reputation for some time, but which it has fortunately outlived.
The earliest settlements were made in 1876, when M. Devore and
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family, H. E. Jesseph and family, John Lamar and family and William Thomas and family located near the east line of the county. The next year a colony from Iowa located on the site of Harper City. The party included J. B. and M. H. Glenn, R. Barton and A. T. Barton, who brought their families, Joseph Haney, C. H. Snider, M. K. Kittle- man, G. M. Goss, C. C. Goss, Thomas Elder, B. L. Fletcher and H. C. Moore. They came to Hutchinson on the railroad and drove from that point. The first wedding was solemnized at Harper on Sept. 22, 1878, between Dr. J. W. Madra and Miss Mary Glenn. The first child was born to Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Jesseph.
The county was organized in 1878. In August Gov. Anthony appointed the following officers: Sheriff, E. McEnany; surveyor, B. F. Lee; treasurer, J. L. Rinehart; clerk, H. E. Jesseph ; probate judge, R. B. Dawson; attorney, W. R. Kirkpatrick; register of deeds, H. C. Fisler; county superintendent of public instruction, R. H. Lockwood ; county commissioners, T. H. Stevens, F. B. Singer and J. B. Glenn. At the first meeting of the commissioners Anthony was named as the county seat, the former county seat, Bluff City, never having had any existence except on paper. The first county seat election was held at the time of the general election in Nov., 1879. Although the county did not have at that time above 800 legal voters, there were 2,960 votes cast. The county commissioners refused to count the ballots and left them in the boxes. When they finally decided to count them they had all disappeared. The citizens of Anthony and Harper, the two con- testing towns engaged in a legal battle over the matter, and although Justice Brewer of the supreme court held that 2,960 votes were too many for 800 voters to cast, the vote was finally counted and found to be in favor of Anthony, and that town became the permanent county seat. All the officers of 1878 held over till 1880.
In July, 1880, bonds to the amount of $28,000 were voted for the Southern Kansas & Western railroad, Harper township voting $16,000 and Chikaskia $12,000. The road was built that year. The next year both townships disposed of their stock at 65 cents on the dollar. At present the county is a network of railroads. A line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe enters in the north central part and crosses south through Harper and Anthony into Oklahoma. Another line of the same road enters the east, somewhat north of the center, passes through Harper and crosses Barber county into Oklahoma, and a branch diverges northwest from Attica. The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient enters in the northeast, crosses southwest to Harper, thence to Anthony, and thence southwest into Oklahoma. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific enters from Oklahoma in the southwest and terminates at Anthony. Anthony is also the western terminus of the Kansas South- western, which enters in the southeast. The Missouri Pacific, from the east, crosses southwest to Anthony and terminates at Kiowa in Barber county just over the line. There are 167 miles of main track in the county.
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There are twenty townships, viz .: Anthony, Banner, Berlin, Blaine, Chicaskia, Eagle, Empire, Garden, Grant, Green, Harper, Lake, Lawn, Liberty, Odell, Pilot Knob, Ruella, Silver Creek, Spring and Stohr- ville. The postoffices are: Anthony, Attica, Bluff City, Corwin, Cris- field, Crystal Springs, Danville, Duquoin, Ferguson, Freeport, Harper, Runnymede, Shook and Waldron.
The general surface of the county is rolling, with long gentle slopes. Bottom lands, which comprise about 15 per cent. of the total area, average a mile in width. The timber is very sparse, most of it being cottonwood. There are several artificial plantings. Red sandstone, mineral paint and salt are found in large quantities and are of superior quality. The largest stream is the Chikaskia river, which flows across the northeast corner. Bluff creek and its numerous tributaries prac- tically form the water system of the county. This stream crosses the county in a southeasterly direction.
The total area is 810 square miles or 518,400 acres, of which nearly 400,000 acres have been brought under cultivation. The value of farm products averages from $3,000,000 to $3,500,000 annually. In 1910 the yield was not as large as in 1909, but the wheat sold for nearly $1,000,000, the corn for $356,000, and the oats for $349,000, the total product, includ- ing live stock, being worth $2.980,000.
The population in 1910 was 14,748, which was a gain of about 35 per cent. over the population in 1900. The assessed valuation of prop- erty in 1910 was $29,272,300, which shows the average wealth per capita to be almost $2,000.
Harris, a little town in Reeder township, Anderson county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 13 miles northwest of Garnett, the county seat. It has a bank, all the general lines of business, schools and churches, express and telegraph offices. and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 250.
Harris, William Alexander, civil engineer and United States senator, was born in Loudoun county, Va., Oct. 29, 1841. He attended school at Luray, Va., until his eighth year, when his father, William H. Harris, was appointed minister to the Argentine Republic, and for four years the family lived at Buenos Ayres. When they returned to the United States the son began his technical education and graduated at Colum- bia College, Washington, D. C., in June, 1859. Immediately afterward he went to Central America and spent six months on a ship canal sur- vey, but returned home and entered the Virginia Military Institute in Jan., 1860. He was in the graduating class of 1861, but the outbreak of the Civil war stopped all study, and in April of that year he and his classmates entered the Confederate service. He served three years as assistant adjutant-general of Wilcox's brigade and as ordnance officer of Gens. D. H. Hill's and Rodes' divisions of the Army of North- ern Virginia. In 1865 he came to Kansas and entered the employ of the Union Pacific railroad as a civil engineer. The road was then completed to Lawrence, and his first work was to build the Leaven-
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worth branch, which he completed in 1866. Mr. Harris was resident. engineer of the road until it was completed to Carson in the fall of 1868, when he accepted the agency for the sale of the Delaware reserva- tion and other lands, in connection with farming and stock raising. In 1876 he became interested in short-horn cattle and in a short time his herds were known throughout the country for high quality. When he was nominated for Congressman-at-large by the Populists in 1892, he was in Scotland, comparing notes with breeders of Great Britain and Scotland and planning for the improvement of his stock. His nomination was indorsed by the Farmers' Alliance and the Democratic party and he was elected. In 1894 he was renominated but defeated. In the fall of 1896 he was elected to the state senate from the Third district, and the following January he was elected to the United States senate to succeed William A. Peffer. Mr. Harris took an active part in railroad legislation in his state and in Congress, but was unable to have his ideas carried out. He was deeply interested in the Nicaraguan canal project when it came before the United States senate, and was a member of the committee having the question of the proposed canal in charge. He saved millions to the government in the Pacific Railroad claims when that question came before Con- gress for settlement. Although an ex-Confederate he was loyal to his state and country, voting for what he deemed best, and measured up. to the standard of true statesmanship. After retiring from the United States senate he made one political campaign as the Democratic candi- date for governor of Kansas. From 1906 he resided in Lawrence, Kan., although connected with the National Live Stock Association with headquarters in Chicago. He was appointed regent of the State Agri- cultural College at Manhattan and took an active interest in the develop- ment of that institution and the United States experimental stations. He died at the home of his sister in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 21, 1909.
Harrison, a hamlet of Jewell county, is located in Harrison township 12 miles north of Mankato, the county seat. It had 20 inhabitants in 1910, and gets daily mail from Mankato.
Hart, Charles .- (See Quantrill, William C.)
Hartford, an incorporated town, the second largest in Lyon county, is located in Elmendaro township on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R. and the Neosho river 13 miles southeast of Emporia, the county seat. All the leading mercantile pursuits are represented; there are good schools and churches, banking facilities, and a weekly newspaper (the Neosho Valley Times). The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with five rural routes. The population, according to the 1910 census, was 589.
The neighborhood about Hartford was settled in 1857 and the town was founded in 1858. The association which promoted it was com- posed of H. D. Rice and A. K. Hawkes of Hartford, Conn., W. H. Martin, E. Quiett and others. The first building was a log structure 14 by 16 feet in size, in which C. P. Bassett kept a store. The second !
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was a dwelling and lodging house, a two-story frame building erected by a Mr. Longley. The postoffice was established in 1859, with A. K. Hawkes as postmaster. His wife taught the first school the next year in her home. The first newspaper was the Hartford Call, the first issue of which appeared in 1879. The first bank was incorporated with a capital of $50,000 in Nov., 1881. The Hartford water mills, an important institution in those days, were built in 1873.
Hartford Collegiate Institute .- About the year 1860 the Methodist Episcopal conference decided that it would be advisable to locate a branch of Baker University at Hartford in Lyon county. The citizens of the town agreed to donate aid in the shape of funds and land, and work was commenced on the building, which was a two-story structure 32 by 46 feet. After an expenditure of several thousand dollars the building was partially completed in 1862. Several terms were taught, in connection with the district school, after which the collegiate insti- tute was abandoned and the building was used by the district school.
Hartland, a village of Kearny county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 7 miles west of Lakin, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices, telephone connections, a hotel, and is the principal shipping point for the western portion of the county. The population was 80 in 1910.
Harvey County, named for James M. Harvey, who was governor of Kansas at the time it was organized, is located in the western part of the eastern half of the state, the third county from the Oklahoma line and the sixth from the State of Missouri. It is bounded on the north by McPherson and Marion counties; on the east by Marion and Butler; on the south by Sedgwick, and on the west by Reno, and is crossed a little east of the center by the 6th principal meridian.
The first bona fide settler in the county was H. Nieman, who came in 1869. He was followed in the same year by Walter M. Munch, William Lawrence, Hubbard Wilcox, William McOwen, Charles Schaefer, John N. Corgan, W. T. Wetherel, John Wright and S. Decker. About 60 new settlers came the next year, and the list of members of the Old Settler's association gives the names of 51 persons who located within the bounds of the county in 1871. In the fall of that year agitation for organization of a new county brought about a division in the Republican party in Sedgwick county. The delegates from Newton, which was at that time in Sedgwick county, were cut down in the convention from 7 to 3. This caused the whole delegation, together with those from Black Kettle and Grant townships, to with- draw. They nominated a separate ticket, which was partially elected.
In December of that year a convention was held at Newton to arrange plans for a separate organization. The plan of taking three townships from McPherson, three from Marion and ten from Sedgwick county, with Newton as the county seat, was adopted by those present and was carried into effect by act of the legislature a few weeks later. Gov. Harvey appointed the following officers to serve temporarily :
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Clerk, W. H. Baily ; treasurer, C. D. Munger ; probate judge, A. Mark- well; register of deeds, R. H. Brown; sheriff, W. B. Chamberlain ; coroner, C. C. Furley ; county attorney, C. S. Bowman; clerk of the district court, J. B. Cunningham ; county surveyor, W. Brown; super- intendent of public instruction, Ellen Webster; county commissioners, A. G. Richardson, Amos Prouty and J. R. Skinner.
The first election was held in May, 1872. Newton was made the county seat and all the officers appointed by the governor were elected with the exception of J. R. Skinner, county commissioner, whose place was filled by B. Thompson. The first act of the commissioners was to divide the county into civil townships and give them names. Each one was made the size of a Congressional township, and they were named as follows: Alta, Burrington, Darlington, Emma, Garden, Hal- stead, Lake, Lakin, Macon, Newton, Pleasant, Richland and Sedgwick. On a petition, signed by three-fourths of the citizens in the townships of Highland and Walton, they were added to Harvey county by act of the legislature in March, 1873.
From the time of organization until the fall of 1875, the county affairs are said to have been very badly, if not criminally, managed. No records were kept of the transactions of the officers, even the minutes of the meetings of the commissioners being omitted, and most of the important papers which should have been on file were missing. It was charged that large amounts of money had been wrongly used, and warrants paid without the sanction of law. Indignation meetings were held all over the county and attempts were made to investigate the matter, but it was found impossible to do so on account of the way the books had been kept.
In 1872 the immigration of the Mennonites began. The large influx of these people followed an investigation on the part of advance com- mittees, which determined upon Harvey county as a suitable locality in which to settle. This was a very important circumstance in the growth of the county, as they are a thrifty and industrious class of citizens, and they have contributed toward the general prosperity of all lines of business.
The first church building was erected in Halstead township in 1877 by the Mennonites. The first school house was built in Sedgwick in 1870, the first flour mill erected by the Sedgwick Steam Power com- pany in 1871, and the first death was that of of an unknown man who was shot in 1870. The first births occurred in the summer of 1870, one being in the French colony on Turkey creek, and the other being Rosa A., daughter of Charles Schaefer. The first marriages were in 1871, one in Lake township between H. Baumann and a Miss Wheeler, and the other in Richland township between Horace Gardner and Hettie Thero. Among the first business concerns was the grocery store of James McMurray, established in 1871, in Lake township. The first postoffice was established in 1870 in Sedgwick with T. S. Floyd as post- master.
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There were numerous destructive prairie fires in the early 'zos. One in Richland township in 1871 did a great deal of damage, and another in Emma township two years later destroyed considerable property. A terrific storm visited the whole county in June, 1871, destroying the growing crops, and another on Oct. 30 of the same year killed hun- dreds of cattle which were grazing in the open. In common with other parts of the state the settlers were made practically destitute by the grasshoppers in 1874.
As early as 1872 the Harvey County Agricultural and Mechanical society was organized. Its first fair was held at Newton in 1873. The Old Settler's association was organized in 1888, with Walter M. Munch, who came in 1869, as its first president. Lodges, fraternal organiza- tions and churches were formed early throughout the county. School buildings were erected so rapidly that in 1877, seven years from the time the first one was built, there were 66 school houses.
The first railroad built through the county was the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, completed in 1871. This road enters in the northeast from Marion county, runs in a southwesterly direction to Newton, and thence west into Reno county. At Newton a branch diverges southward into Sedgwick county. Bonds to the amount of $200,000 were issued by the county for the building of the branch to Wichita, which was constructed in 1871, by the Wichita & South- western Railroad company, made up of local capitalists. A branch of the Missouri Pacific R. R. from Eldorado enters in the southeast, crosses due northwest through Newton and into McPherson county. A line of the St. Louis & San Francisco system crosses the southwest corner, passing through Burrton.and Patterson, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific crosses the extreme southeast corner.
The postoffices in Harvey county are as follows: Newton, the county seat, where there is a fine government building, Annelly, Burrton, Hal- stead, Hesston, Patterson, Sedgwick and Walton.
The general surface of the county is prairie, with sand hills in the extreme northwest, and somewhat rolling in the southeast. It has an unusual abundance of streams, its water system consisting of the Little Arkansas river and its numerous branches. The Little Arkansas enters in the northwest corner and flows east a few miles where it is joined by Crooked creek and other streams. From this point it flows south- east, being joined at different points by Black Kettle, Emma and Sand creeks. In the eastern part of the county are Jester and West creeks. The bottom lands along the streams average from one-fourth to three- fourths of a mile in width and comprise 30 per cent. of the area, which is above the average in Kansas and makes this a fine farming district. The timber belts are from a few rods to one-fourth of a mile in width and contain a number of varieties of wood-walnut, cottonwood, elm, hackberry, ash, elm, box-elder, mulberry and sycamore.
Magnesian limestone is found in limited quantities in the northeast and clay of a good quality for brick near Newton. Gypsum abounds in
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the eastern portion, and salt in large quantities underlies the southeastern section.
As an agricultural county Harvey ranks high, although its area is much less than those surrounding it. It covers but 540 miles or 345,000 acres, three-fourths of which have been brought under cultivation. The annual output from the farms averages above $3,000,000, which would do credit to a much larger county. The oats crop in 1910 was worth $500,000 ; wheat, $200,000; corn, $500,000; tame grass, $200,000; wild grass, $150,000 ; animals sold for slaughter, $800,000. Other important agricultural items are poultry and eggs, dairy produce and potatoes. The assessed valuation of property in 1910 was $34,248,225, and the population was 19,200.
The financial matters of the county government are in a remarkably fine condition, it being one of the few counties in this or any other state to have absolutely no indebtedness. This condition of affairs has not been brought about by failure to make public improvements, as a new $60,000 court-house was built a short time ago without bonding the county.
Harvey, James Madison, the fifth governor of Kansas after her admis- sion as a state, was a native of the Old Dominion, having been born in Monroe county, Va., Sept. 21, 1833. While still in his childhood his parents, Thomas and Margaret (Walker) Harvey, removed to Rush county, Ind., thence to Iowa, and later to Adams county, Ill. The future governor of Kansas received his education in the common schools of these three states, and after completing his schooling began life as a surveyor. In 1854 he married Miss Charlotte R. Cutler of Adams county, Ill., and in 1859 came to Kansas, locating in Riley county, where he took up a claim upon which he made his permanent home. When the Civil war broke out in 1861 he organized a company at Ogden, Kan., which was mustered into the United States service at Fort Leavenworth as Company G, Tenth Kansas infantry. He was com- missioned captain of his company, and when the Fourth and Tenth regiments were consolidated he retained his rank in the new organiza- tion. In 1864 he was mustered out and returned to his farm. The following year he was elected to represent Riley county in the lower house of the state legislature, and was reelected in 1866, when there was but one vote cast against him in the county. During the years 1867-68 he was a member of the state senate from what was then the Seventh district, composed of Marshall, Riley and Shirley (now Cloud) counties. In 1868, when some of his friends urged him to run for governor, he looked over the field and concluded that he was not finan- cially able to make the race. At this juncture a friend came to him and voluntarily offered to furnish him with sufficient money to pay the expenses of his campaign. Mr. Harvey borrowed $200, which paid all his expenses, received the nomination and was elected. Some years later he said to the man who had furnished him with the money for his campaign: "That offer of yours was the turning point of my life.
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KANSAS HISTORY
I had decided not to go before the state convention as a candidate, and had given it all up. I would not ask any one to loan me money, but the tender of it unasked was the occasion of my going into the con- vention, and the result made me governor and, later, United States senator."
Mr. Harvey was reelected governor in 1870 by an increased majority, and upon retiring from the office in Jan., 1873, he resumed his old occupation of surveyor. He was thus employed in western Kansas when he was elected to the United States senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Alexander Caldwell, the term expiring on March 4, 1877. While in the senate he served on several important committees, and at the expiration of his service he again took up the life of a private citizen on his farm near Vinton, Riley county. Between the years 1881 and. 1884 he was engaged in making surveys in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Ill health in 1884 led him to return to Virginia, where he spent six years-three in Norfolk and three in Richmond-but in 1890 he came back to Kansas. In 1891 he surveyed No Man's Land, and the winter of 1893 was passed in southern Texas. Gov. Harvey died on April 15, 1894, and was survived by his widow, four sons and two daughters. While a member of the Kansas legisla- ture he received the sobriquet of "Old Honesty," which clung to him throughout his public career, and was a splendid, if somewhat homely, description of his character.
Harvey's Administration .- Gov. Harvey was inducted into office at the opening of the legislative session which met on Jan. 12, 1869. Being a farmer and surveyor, he made no pretense of great erudition in his inaugural message, but dealt in a plain, straightforward way with those subjects which he considered of great interest and highest importance to the people of the state. In discussing the financial situation, he showed the state's liabilities to be $1,398,192.37, and the resources to be $423,- 309.95. Military matters, Indian affairs, education, railroads, immigra- tion, agriculture, suffrage and the general statutes of the state-just revised by a commission-all received attention and intelligent treat- ment.
After enumerating several lines of railroad, among them the Union Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe, and reporting the pro- gress made in their construction, he said: "I would recommend a liberal and just policy towards all the railroad enterprises in the state, and that, while by judicious legislation you secure the people from wrong and extortion, and impose a fair share of the public burden of taxtation upon the property of these corporations, you should encourage in every judicious and proper manner the rapid construction of all these roads."
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