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, Volume II > Part 111
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Before the war was over the county was organized. There seems to have been nothing to call forth such a step in the midst of the tur- moil except the ambition of Daniel C. Finn, who came there from New York in 1864. There was no taxable property and very few inhabitants. Yet an election was called, in which Finn was chosen delegate to the Republican state convention-not the Lane convention, but what was known as the Union state convention. His efforts resulted in a peti- tion of 30 names being presented to Gov. Carney for the organization of the county. The petition was granted and a full roster of county officials appointed, but most of them failed to qualify. The county commissioners were George M. Cottingham, W. M. Asher and William Brown. A mythical point called Syracuse, supposedly in the center of the county, was designated as the county seat. Finn and a town com- pany, numbering 17 men, among whose names appeared that of the governor, made an attempt to found the town of Syracuse. A log cabin was built at the base of West Mound and a street laid off. In April,
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1865, Finn was notified by the agent of the Osages, on whose land the site was located, to discontinue operations. The first election was held in Nov., 1864, and, it being a presidential year, a full vote might have been expected. Of the 600 alleged inhabitants of the county only 26 voted.
The first election for county officers was a special one held in Dec., 1864. Syracuse received 15 votes for county seat. The first meeting of the county commissioners of which there is any record was held early in 1867. On March 2 of that year a petition was presented to the board, signed by 113 voters, asking that an election be called to select a county seat. Accordingly the election was held in April, in which Kalida, a mere name, received the majority of the votes. Irregularities were discovered in the canvass of the vote and another election was held on April 30, in which Twin Mounds was chosen county seat. A third county seat election was held in May, 1869, in which there was no majority. In consequence another was held in June. The contest lay between Fredonia and Coyville, the former being successful. The ques- tion then lay dormant for two years. The growth of several new towns, Neodesha and Altoona in particular, called the matter forth again. A ballot was taken on May 6, 1871, which resulted in no choice, and another on May 25, in which Fredonia received the majority of the votes. Fraud was detected, which gave the county seat to Neodesha. Fredonia would not give up and carried the matter into the courts, where she lost. While the case was pending another election was called in Jan., 1873, which resulted in no choice, Neodesha this time voting for Center. The choice in the second ballot lay between that town and Fredonia, which place was finally triumphant.
The first school in the county was taught by P. B. Sweet in Verdi- gris township in 1859. The first marriage was between Abijah Hamp- ton and Miss Cooper in the spring of 1859. The first white child born in the county was Ella Reeves, daughter of Gaston Reeves, in 1857. The first postoffice was at Coyville, established in 1866 with Oscar Coy as postmaster.
The suggestion that oil and gas were to be found in Wilson county was first made by George W. Chase, a semi-mute who in 1888 endeav- ored to interest the citizens of Neodesha in prospecting. In 1892 W. M. Mills, who had developed the gas fields about Osawatomie, secured a franchise and drilled two good paying wells. He formed a company, from which he later withdrew. But the drilling went on and now there are numerous wells in the county. They average over 800 feet deep. Both oil and gas are found in abundance.
The earliest efforts to supply the county with railroads were made in 1871, when the bonds were voted in Center and Cedar townships to the amount of $50,000 and $35,000 respectively, to aid the Fort Scott, New Chicago & Fredonia R. R. to build through these townships. The road was never built. Bonds were voted the next year for the Hum- boldt & Fredonia and the Missouri & Kansas Southern, neither of which
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were built. The first road to attempt a fulfillment of a contract was the Memphis & Southern, which constructed a roadbed from the east line of the county as far as Fredonia. In 1877 bonds were voted for the St. Louis & Kansas Central, but the road was not built. The first road to be built in the county was the St. Louis & San Francisco in 1879. It enters the county near the southeastern corner and runs in a north- westerly direction through Neodesha, Fredonia and New Albany. The Missouri Pacific line enters on the north and crosses to Roper, where it branches, one line going into Montgomery county by way of Fre- donia and the other by way of Neodesha. It was built in 1886. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. enters near the northeast corner and crosses west and southwest through Fredonia into Elk county. This line was built in 1885. A branch of this road from Benedict Junction into Greenwood county was built in 1886.
Wilson county is divided into 15 townships: Cedar. Center, Chetopa, Clifton, Colfax, Duck Creek, Fall River, Guilford, Neodesha, Newark, Pleasant Valley, Prairie, Talleyrand, Verdigris and Webster. The towns and villages are Fredonia, Altoona, Benedict, Brooks, Buffalo, Buxton, Coyville, Dildine, Dun, Guilford, LaFontaine, Neodesha, New Albany, Rest. Roper. Vilas and Ward.
The general surface is undulating prairie in the eastern portion. broken with mounds and bluffs in the west, and with timbered hills and canyons in the northwest. Bottom lands, which constitute 20 per cent. of the total area, average one mile in width. Springs are abundant and well water is found at a depth of 25 feet. The principal river is the Verdigris, which enters near the northeast corner and flows southwest and south into Montgomery county. Fall river crosses the western bor- der in the central part and flows southeast, emptying into the Verdigris near the southeast corner. Two of the principal creeks are Buffalo and Sandy. Occasional disastrous overflows have occurred on the Verdigris, the latest of these in 1908, when a cloud burst caused a rise of 38 feet in the depth of its waters, resulting in considerable destruction of prop- erty. Limestone, sandstone, Portland cement, graystone, beds of clay and salt springs are plentiful in different parts of the county.
The area of the county is 576 square miles, or 368.640 acres, of which more than 300,000 acres have been brought under cultivation. The value of the farm products for 1910 exceeded $2,000,000, of which sum corn contributed $500.000. Other leading crops are winter wheat, oats. Irish potatoes, flax, and Kafir-corn. Swine and cattle are extensively raised. and there are more than 120,000 bearing fruit trees, three-fourths of which are apples. The total assessed valuation of property in 1910 was thirty-one and a half millions. The population was 19,810.
Wilsonton, a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Labette county. is about midway between Mound Valley and Parsons and about 15 miles northwest of Oswego, the county seat. It has a postoffice and some local trade. The population in 1910 was 20.
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Winchester, one of the thriving little towns of Jefferson county, is located on a branch of the Union Pacific R. R., about 10 miles north- cast of Oskaloosa, the county seat. It is an incorporated city of the third class, with banking facilities, a weekly newspaper, express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with three rural routes. The population in 1910 was 472. The history of Winchester dates back to June, 1854. when William M. Gardiner located a claim in the vicinity. The next year he brought his family and built a cabin. He sold a part of his claim to Joseph Best, who built a cabin. Not long afterward another was built and the two were used as a hotel. As this was on the route of the old military road the hotel did a thriving business. The town was laid off in 1857, quite a settlement having grown up by that time. William Reboe located soon after this and opened a store. That summer he built the "stone store," which was the most important build- ing for many years to follow. In that same year Joseph Head opened a store and whiskey shop. The first physician was Dr. A. R. Cantwell.
Windhorst, a hamlet in Ford county, is located about 15 miles east of Dodge City, and 12 miles south of Belfont, the nearest railroad sta- tion and the postoffice from which it receives mail. The population in I910 Was 10.
Windom, one of the smaller incorporated cities of the third class in McPherson county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 13 miles west of McPherson, the county seat. It has a bank and a number of mercantile establishments. The town is supplied with tele- graphic communications and has a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population according to the government census of 1910 was 176.
Winfield, the county seat of Cowley county and one of the important cities of southern Kansas, is located on the Walnut river, the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe. the St. Louis & San Francisco, and the Missouri Pacific railroads, about 40 miles southeast of Wichita. It is an incor. porated city with electric street railway, sewer system, fire department. waterworks, broad, well-paved and shaded streets, electric lights, 3 parks. 2 daily newspapers (the Courier and the Free Press, the former also a weekly), flour mills, grain elevators, machine shops, carriage and wagon works, marble works, ice and cold storage plant, department stores, and all other lines of retail establishments, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with ten rural routes. This is the seat of one of the best Chautauquas in the country, which is held in Island Park each season. The Southwestern College and St. John's Lutheran College are located here, as is the state institution for feeble minded youth. The armory of the Second regiment of Kansas National Guard is also located here. Aside from the excellent public schools there are St. Martin's School (Lutheran) and a Congregational school. Among the privately owned institutions are the Winfield College of Music and the Central Sanitarium. A live business men's association looks after the general interests of the town. The population in 1910 was 6.700.
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Winfield was founded in 1870 and named for Rev. Winfield Scott, a Baptist minister of Leavenworth, who promised to build a church in return for the honor. Before the town company was organized Col. Edwin C. Manning had taken a claim on the site. He was made presi- dent of the company and figured prominently in the early growth of the town. He was the first postmaster, the postoffice being established in 1870 and kept in a log cabin where Manning had also put in a stock of goods. It was through his efforts that the organization of the county by the legislature with Arkansas City as county seat was thwarted. and that Winfield became the county seat later in the year. It took until July, 1870, to get the proper titles to the town site so that lots could be deeded. After that the town grew very rapidly for a few months, and hotels, all lines of business, including a bank, were established before the year was out. The first school was taught by Miss Annie Marks. It was paid for by subscription. The first newspaper was the Censor, established in Aug., 1870, by A. J. Patrick. It is said to have been printed on the old Franklin style of press called the Meeker, which was first brought to the state by the missionaries and used at the Shawnee Mission in Johnson county. This press was moved to Lawrence, where it figured in ante-bellum troubles, later it was used at Emporia and at Cottonwood Falls by Col. Samuel Wood, who sold it to the Winfield parties. In 1872 a $10,000 school building was erected. In 1873 the town was incorporated as a city of the third class and the following officers were elected: Mayor, W. H. H. Maris ; clerk, J. W. Curns ; police judge, A. A. Jackson; treasurer, M. L. Robinson; marshal, C. W. Richmond ; attorney, J. M. Alexander. Winfield became a city of the second class in 1879, and was divided into wards. The population was then in excess of 2,000. In 1890 the population was 5,184, and in 1900 it was 5,554. The town is in the midst of a fine farming district and ships great quanti- ties of live stock, grain, produce and dairy products. There is magne- sian limestone of good quality quarried in the vicinity and shipped from this point. A great many retired farmers live in the town as well as a large number of traveling salesmen.
Winkler, an inland hamlet of Riley county, is located in Fancy Creek township 35 miles from Manhattan, the county seat, and 8 miles from Randolph, the nearest shipping point. It has a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 18. The place was named for August Wink- ler of St. Louis, who settled in the vicinity in 1857 and built the first permanent grist mill of the county. At that time it was known as Winkler Mills.
Winona, a little town in Logan county, is located in Winona town- ship on the Union Pacific R. R., 12 miles northwest of Russell Springs, the county seat. It has a bank, a grain elevator, 3 or 4 general stores, telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 100.
Wise, a little hamlet in the northern part of Allen county, is some 7 or 8 miles northeast of Iola, from which city it receives mail by rural delivery.
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Wittrup, a country postoffice in Hodgeman county, is located in Ben- ton township, near the headwaters of Buckner creek, 16 miles southwest of Jetmore, the county seat. There is a tri-weekly stage to Dodge City. The population in 1910 was 15.
Wolcott, a post-village in the northern part of Wyandotte county, is situated on the west bank of the Missouri river and the Missouri Pacific R. R., II miles northwest of Kansas City. It has several general stores, a school, a money order postoffice, telegraph and express facilities and is the supply and shipping town for a considerable district. In 1910 it had a population of 200.
Woman Suffrage, as a distinct movement, began in Kansas in 1859, when Mrs. C. H. I. Nichols, Mother Armstrong and Mary Tenney Gray sat in the Wyandotte convention, unelected and tininvited, with their knitting in their hands, to listen to the deliberations of that body and try to have the word "male" left out of the franchise clause. The word "male" was put in the Wyandotte constitution and ever since that time the efforts of the best and most intelligent women of Kansas have been directed toward having it stricken out. A limited school suffrage was extended the women in 1861. In 1867 the legislature submitted a con- stitutional amendment for full suffrage for women. It had to divide honors with an amendment for negro suffrage and the Impartial Suffrage Association was formed at Topeka on April 3, 1867, with some prominent persons as leaders. Gov. S. J. Crawford was president ; Lieut .- Gov. Nehe- miah Green, vice president; Samuel N. Wood, corresponding secretary ; Miss Minnie Otis, recording secretary ; and John Ritchie, treasurer. Lucy Stone Blackwell, Henry B. Blackwell and Mrs. C. H. I. Nichols made speeches. The organization declared for both amendments. Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Olympia Brown and George Francis Train were among the outside enthusiasts who labored in Kansas during a hotly contested campaign. Had they given their attention wholly to the woman sttffrage amendment it might have won, but the double load proved too heavy and both amendments lost, woman suffrage being defeated by a vote of 19,857 to 9,070.
The first strictly woman suffrage convention on record was held at Topeka on Feb. 4, 1869, and an effort was made to revive the cause. But the women were disheartened and all organized effort died out for nearly ten years. In 1874 the prohibition party declared for suffrage. The first organization preparatory for the second campaign was formed at Lin- coln, Lincoln county. It was called the Equal Suffrage Association and began in 1879 with 3 members, Mrs. Anna C. Wait, Mrs. Emily J. Biggs and Mrs. Sarah E. Lutes. Mrs. Wait, who was elected in 1911 president of the Sixth district Equal Suffrage Association, is probably the oldest continuous worker in the cause, having been actively engaged in suffrage work in Kansas since 1867. In 1884 the Lincoln county organization sent Helen M. Gougar to Washington, D. C., as a delegate from Kansas to work for the 16th amendment to the Federal constitution to allow women the ballot, the negroes having had their inning.
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The newspapers and histories record that a state woman suffrage association was formed on June 25, 1884. The women named it the "Equal Suffrage Association ;" Mrs. Hetta P. Mansfield was made pres- ident. and Mrs. Anna C. Wait, vice-president at large. The Greenback party endorsed woman suffrage that year. In 1885 a bill was intro- duced into the legislature to grant municipal suffrage. The women sent in petitions containing about 7,000 names, but the bill was defeated. The second annual convention of the Equal Suffrage Association was held in October of that year and Mrs. Anna C. Wait was elected president. The State Grange endorsed suffrage that year. Miss Bertha Ellsworth of Lincoln county was made state organizer and preparation was made for another attempt to secure municipal suffrage which was successful mn 1887. At the next annual convention Laura M. Johns was elected president of the association and held office until after the campaigns of 1893 and 1804.
The suffrage amendment was submitted for the second time by the legislature of 1893 and came up for a vote at the general election in 1894. when Populism was at its zenith in the state. Susan B. Anthony. Anna Shaw, Rachel Childs, Carrie Chapman Catt, Elizabeth Yates, Mary Ellen Lease. Mrs. Anna Diggs, Dr. Eva Harding, Laura M. Johns, and Mrs. Anna C. Wait were among the leaders of the campaign. On a threat of withdrawing their aid from the state, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Shaw Forced the Kansas women against their own judgment to take the fatal step of asking the endorsement of the political parties. The Populist women secured the endorsement of their party in its convention, but the Republican party refused. The fate of the amendment then depended on the fortunes of the Populist party. The Republican women formed a Republican club and seemed to be more interested in that party than in their own measure. A paper was published by them, a copy of which is in the historical collections, and it contains not a single word on the suffrage question. Some of these women were officers of the Equal Suf- frage Association and it was charged that they turned a part of the suf- frage equipment, and even suffrage funds, over to Republican propaganda work. The amendment was lost by a vote of 130,139 10 95.302.
Following the defeat Mrs. Kate Addison was elected president and link up the task of reconstructing the association and planning educa- tional work on suffrage. For a long time the outlook was discouraging. The women did not believe it expedient to ask for an amendment soon again but scarcely a legislature met without some sort of suffrage bill being introduced. In 1900 a delegation comprised of Mrs. Anna Diggs. Dr. Eva Harding and Mrs. Frank Doster were sent to Washington. D. C .. to assist in lobbying for a 16th amendment to the national consti- tuition. In 1902 the Kansas suffrage forces came under the leadership of a young and enthusiastic woman in the person of Helen Kimber. She was a woman of ideas, but was unable to arouse the women of the state to the point of carrying them out, and all that was accomplished during her administration was purely educational and preparatory. In 1905
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Sadie P. Gresham was elected president. The presidential suffrage bill was defeated in the legislature of that year, also in 1907 and at the special session of 1908, when Mrs. Lilla Day Monroe was president of the asso- ciation, and again in 1909.
It was then decided again to introduce a bill to submit the suffrage amendment for the third time and preparation was begun months in advance. Catherine Hoffman of Enterprise called a meeting of the execu- tive board in Dec., 1909, to make plans for the work in the legislature. The suffrage headquarters in the state house were opened with Lilla Day Monroe chairman of the campaign committee, and the campaign was launched through the columns of the Club Member which was the official organ of the Equal Suffrage Association. This paper was published each week and during the legislative session as much oftener as the exigencies of the campaign required. Through the efforts of the suffrage women over the state and the Women's Christian Temperance Union organiza- tion over one hundred petitions aggregating not less than 25,000 names were sent to the legislature of 1911. The amendment passed the house by a majority of 94 to 28, and received the required two-thirds vote in the senate. The presidential suffrage bill was defeated. The amendment will be passed upon by the voters in 1912.
Women's Christian Temperance Union .- This organization originated in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1873, as a result of a lecture by Dr. Dio Lewis in which he suggested that the women form praying bands and visit the saloons holding prayer service. The idea was at once put into practical application and in a few months had spread all over the country. It took special hold in Kansas, where the women were active in the tem- perance movement from the first. In a year's time the women decided that prayer was not sufficient for the occasion and met in Chautauqua, N. Y., where the national Women's Christian Temperance U'nion was organized in 1874, with Miss Francis E. Willard as president. At once local unions began to be organized in Kansas and Miss Willard appointed Miss Amanda Way to act as leader in this state until it should be organ- ized. Miss Way called and presided over the meeting held in 1878 at Bismarck Grove at Lawrence, where the Kansas Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized. Mrs. M. B. Smith was elected presi- dent and served for two years. Her successor, Mrs. Drusella Wilson, of Lawrence, served for three years, through the campaign for state pro- hibition, which was brought to a successful termination in 1880.
The W. C. T. U. was an efficient factor in carrying the amendment, as it was organized in every part of the state. Mrs. Wilson, accompanied by her husband, traveled more than 3,000 miles by carriage and held 300 public meetings in school houses and churches during 1879-1880. Mrs. Laura B. Fields, who was president from 1882 till 1884, was termed by Miss Willard "one of the gentlest of brave leaders." Mrs. Fannie Rastall, elected in 1885, was noted for her business ability and was called from the presidency of the Kansas W. C. T. U. to the business management of the Union Signal in 1891. She was succeeded by Mrs. Sophia Grubb, (II-59)
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who served for two years. Mrs. Lurenda B. Smith, who was elected in 1894, carried the organization through the trying times when the law was more or less openly violated, and when Kansas had to fight the national government to maintain state prohibition. Mrs. Ella W. Brown, elected in 1897, was the first woman to receive the degree of LL. D. from the Kansas University. She practiced law in Holton. During the ad- ministration of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Hutchinson (1900 to 1910), the organi- zation had a large growth, doubling its membership and influence for good. The present incumbent of the presidential office, Mrs. Lillian Mitchner, was elected at the convention in 1910, which voted to make equal suffrage the principal work of the entire organization until it should be won in Kansas, and her efforts have been largely in that direction, both in the legislature and among the voters.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union is divided into six main departments, which in turn are subdivided as follows: I-Organization, which includes work among foreigners and miners and work among colored people; II-Prevention, which deals with heredity and with medical temperance ; III-Educational, the largest and most important department, deals with scientific temperance instruction in schools and colleges, summer assemblies, temperance work in Sunday schools, tem- perance literature, presenting the cause to influential bodies, education through the press, anti-narcotics, W. C. T. U. institutes, school savings banks, medal contests, Union Signal, and Young Crusader; IV-Evan- gelistic, which covers prison work, cooperation with missionary societies, systematic giving, rescue work, juvenile court work, work among rail- road employers, sailors and soldiers, Sabbath observance, mercy, and purity in art and literature; V-Social, which includes the flower mis- sions, fairs, open air and social meetings; VI-Legal, a very important department, carrying on active propaganda work along the lines of legis- lation, equal suffrage, peace, petition work in favor of various laws, and measures and Christian citizenship.
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