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 112
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The educational work of the W. C. T. U. has been an important factor in holding up the highest ideals in politics and civic work, and many of the better laws with regard to women and children and for the protection of the youth against vice is directly traceable to the efforts of this body. The organization founded the Beloit Industrial School for Girls, and although they turned the institution over. to the state after running it successfully for a year, the W. C. T. U. women have always taken a personal interest in it. The organization in 1911 had a membership of 10,000 women in Kansas and their 1911 convention declared for universal suffrage for women, a law against "white slavery," a law to restrict the procreation of the socially unfit, viz : epileptics, habitual inebriates, vene- reals, imbeciles and degenerates, and the appointment of a superintendent of the department of purity in art and literature to keep in touch with the picture shows and vaudevilles to the end that these agencies be made educative in a helpful way.
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Women's Clubs .- In Kansas Women's clubs have an aggregate mem- bership of about 10,000 women, half of whom are affiliated through their city, county or district federations, or through their individual clubs, with the Kansas Federation of Women's clubs. The movement began with the organization of the Social Science club of Kansas and Western Missouri at a convention held in Leavenworth in 1881. The object was to raise the standard of women's education and attainments, enlarge lier opportunities and promote the intellectual growth of the members. The meetings were held semi-annually. There were seven departments, philanthropy and reform, education, sanitary science, natural science, domestic economy, history and civil government, including literature and art and archaeology. There were 100 members representing the fol- lowing towns : Leavenworth, Lawrence, Atchison, Paola, Topeka, Wyan- dotte. Manhattan, Ottawa, Olathe, Emporia, Osawatomie, Parsons, Kan- sas City, Mo., and St. Joseph, Mo., and individual members from ten other towns.
Mary Tenney Gray was the first president, Mrs. C. H. Cushing was elected to the office in 1883, and the other presidents who held office while Kansas and western Missouri belonged to the same organization were: Mrs. E. H. Allen, of Kansas City, Mo .; Miss Sarah Brown, of Lawrence, and Mrs. Noble Prentis, of Topeka. During the '8os indi- vidual clubs were formed all over Kansas for study, philanthropy, re- form, civic improvement and similar objects. In 1890 the general feder- ation invited the Social Science club to become affiliated with the general club work and this was done. In 1893, at its convention at Newton, this club expanded into the Social Science Federation and opened its doors to clubs as well as to individual members. Nine clubs affiliated at once, viz: Quenemo, Emporia, Kansas City, Mo., Burlington, Fort Scott, Ottawa, Kingman, Kansas City, Kan., and Olathe. Yearly study courses were offered by the federation, but their use was optional. The bureau of reciprocity was established, whereby the best papers in each club were sent in to the bureau, the best one in each department being selected for the next year's program at the federation annual meeting, the remainder becoming the property of the bureau to be loaned to other clubs wishing information on the subjects treated in the papers. In 1895 Kansas sepa- rated from western Missouri and Mrs. L. B. Kellogg was the first presi- dent of the state organization. The other presidents of the Kansas Social Science Federation were in their order, Mrs. Laura E. Scammon, Mrs. Willis Lord Moore, Mrs. J. C. McClintock, Mrs. S. R. Peters, Mrs. James Humphrey, Mrs. W. A. Johnston and Mrs. J. M. Lewis, of Kingsley, during whose administration the name was changed to the Kansas Fed- eration of Women's Clubs.
The decade from 1895 to 1905 was a period of rapid growth in federa- tion matters. Clubs were formed all over the state, and in the larger towns and cities the number of individual clubs being anywhere from 6 to 30, they began to form into city federations, and the clubs in the small towns into district federations. The state federation had a vice-
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president for each Congressional district, who looked after the club interests in the districts until they were organized. The Kansas City, Kan., federation was one of the first city organizations. It is called the council of clubs and in 1896 it secured an ordinance to turn all the dog taxes and pound fees for stray animals over to a public library fund. Other clubs followed the example and a number of new libraries were founded in the state by this and other methods. The federation estab- lished the traveling library, which today is an important institution in the state, and also the traveling art gallery. In 1896 there were 30 clubs in the state federation, in 1897 there were 62, the next year, 81, with a membership of 3,000 women representing 52 cities, in 1899 there were 103 clubs representing 60 cities and a membership of 3,600, and in 1900 the membership of the federated clubs had reached 4,500.
The First district federation was organized in 1901, the Second in 1902, the Third in 1898, the Fourth in 1902, the Fifth in 1900, the Sixth in 1902, the Seventh in 1896, the Eighth in 1937, and the Osage county federation in 1899.
In 1902 a conference committee of state charities and corrections was added to the standing committees of the federation. The membership that year was 6,000. A legislative department was established in 1903. The next year saw the high tide of the interest in federation matters. A membership of 7,500 had been attained and the number of affiliated clubs was 326. The name was changed to the Kansas State Federation of Women's Clubs. The department of education secured scholarships in all the leading colleges of the state and started a loan fund to assist young women to gain a higher education. Mrs. May Belleville Brown, of Salina, was the first president to be elected under the new name ; Mrs. Eustice Brown, of Olathe, was elected in 1907; Mrs. C. C. Goddard, of Leavenworth, in 1909, and Mrs. A. D. Atkinson, of Parsons, in 1911. An industrial and child labor, and a civil service reform department were added in 1907. The federation maintains a tent at each Chautauqua in the state and provides daily programs. There are standing committees for each of the following departments: Art, music, literature, education, library extension, forestry, waterways, civil service reform, industrial. child labor, legislative, household economics, civics and health.
Women's Relief Corps .- (See Grand Army of the Republic. )
Womer, an inland hamlet of Smith county, is located 15 miles north- east of Smith Center, and 13 miles north of Bellaire, from which post- office it receives mail by rural route. The population in 1910 was 14.
Wonderly, a little station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Saline county, is located in Liberty township, 18 miles from Salina, the county seat. It receives mail from Bridgeport by rural delivery. The popula- tion in 1910 was 20.
Wonsevu, an inland hamlet in Chase county, is located on Cedar creek in the township of that name, 20 miles southwest of Cottonwood Falls, the county seat, and 10 miles southeast of Cedar Point, the near-
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KANSAS HISTORY
est railroad station and shipping point, and the postoffice from which the Wonsevu mail is distributed. There are two general stores. The popu- lation, according to the census of 1910, was 57.
Wood, Samuel Newitt, one of the men who played an important part in the stirring events of early Kansas history and for many years assisted in making her laws, was born at Mount Gilead, Ohio, Dec. 30, 1825, the son of Quaker parents, from whom he imbibed his anti-slavery senti- ments at an early age. He received the ordinary common school educa- tion of the locality where he was born and reared, and while still a inere youth became greatly interested in politics and the burning ques- tions of the day. In 1844, although too young to vote, he was chairman of the liberal party central committee of his county. Four years later he supported Martin Van Buren, the Free-soil candidate for president. One of the lines of the underground railroad passed near his home in Ohio, Mr. Wood being one of the conductors on the route. In 1859. on his return from a trip with some negroes, he made the acquaintance of his future wife, Margaret W. Lyon. He taught school and at the same time read law and was admitted to the bar on June 4, 1854. Long before that time he had determined to cast his lot with Kansas to assist in her admission to the Union free from the taint of slavery, and two days after being admitted to practice, he was on his way to the territory. Early in July he located on a claim 4 miles west of Lawrence. Mr. Wood imme- diately entered into the political and social life of the locality and became an acknowledged local leader of the free-state party. He was one of the men who rescued Jacob Branson from Sheriff Jones, an act which brought on the Wakarusa war (q. v.) ; was a delegate to the Pittsburgh, Pa., convention which organized the Republican party in 1856; to the Philadelphia convention the same year, and to the Leavenworth consti- tutional convention in 1858. The following year he removed to Chase county ; represented Chase, Morris and Madison counties in the terri- torial legislatures of 1860 and 1861 ; was a member of the first state sen- ate in 1861 and again in 1867; was a member of the house in 1864, 1866, 1876 and 1877, and speaker during most of the last session. In 1864 he was appointed brigadier-general of the state militia, and in 1867 judge of the 9th judicial district. For two years he was in Texas ; was one of the original stockholders of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad ; was part owner of the Kansas Tribune of Lawrence in the '5os; established the first newspaper at Cottonwood Falls-the Kansas Press; and at Council Grove-the Council Grove Press. He was later connected with the Kansas Greenbacker of Emporia, the Topeka State Journal, the Woodsdale Democrat and the Woodsdale Sentinel of Stevens county. He was always a reformer or a progressive in politics, and was a mem- ber of the Republican, Greenback, Labor and Populist parties. He was killed on June 23, 1891, by Jim Brennen, as the result of a county seat fight in Stevens county.
Woodbine, an incorporated city of the third class in Dickinson county, is located in Liberty township on Lyons creek and on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., 23 miles southeast of Abilene, the county seat.
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It has a bank, 2 flour mills, 2 grain elevators, all lines of mercantile estab- lishments, a hotel, telegraph and express offices, and a money order post- office with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 300.
Woodlawn, a hamlet of Nemaha county, is located in Capioma town- ship, 14 miles southeast of Seneca, the county seat, and II miles from Sabetha, from which place it receives mail. Woodlawn was started in 1881 by W. L. Challis, who erected a four-story mill fully equipped with machinery, which became so popular that it became the nucleus around which grew up a little town. A store was opened by W. N. Taylor and a private postoffice established, which became a government postoffice in 1882. A hotel of nine rooms was built and a drug store opened. The place had 50 inhabitants in 1910.
Woodlief, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Franklin county, is located in the Marais des Cygnes valley on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., about 4 miles northeast of Ottawa, the county seat, from which it has rural free delivery. In 1910 the population was 15.
Woodruff, a little town in Phillips county, is located in Granite town- ship on Prairie Dog creek and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R., about 20 miles north of Phillipsburg, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (The Budget), a hotel, an alfalfa mill, all lines of retail establishments, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 200.
Woodsdale, a rural postoffice in Stevens county, is located about 10 miles north of Hugoton, the county seat. It has mail daily and one rural route. This is the remains of the town founded by Col. Samuel N. Wood and a number of other gentlemen in 1886, which they laid off as near the center of the county as possible, north of the sand hills. It was a candidate in one of the most bitterly fought and bloody county seat contests in the state. (See Stevens county.)
Woodson County, one of the counties created by the first territorial legislature of 1855, is located in the third tier of counties from the Mis- souri state line, and in the third tier from the Oklahoma line. It is bounded on the north by Coffey county ; on the east by Allen; on the south by Wilson, and on the west by Greenwood. At the time it was created and named it contained very little of its present territory, but occupied almost the identical land which is now Wilson county. In 1857 the counties of the third tier were crowded northward until Wood - son occupied about the same territory as at present. In 1861 a slice was cut off the southern part and given to Wilson. By act of the legis- lature in 1868 the boundaries of Woodson county were defined as fol- lows: "Beginning at the southwest corner of Anderson county ; thence south to the south line of township 26 south ; thence west to the east line of Greenwood county ; thence north to the corner of township 23 south of range 13; thence east to the place of beginning."
The county was named in honor of Daniel Woodson, territorial secre- tary. In common with the territory of that section Woodson county was
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KANSAS HISTORY
not open to settlement until 1860. However, this did not keep out im- migration entirely, so eagerly were the lands taken up by the white men. The lands of Woodson county belonged to the New York In- dians, who never lived on them, maintaining only a temporary head- quarters at Fort Scott. The government finding that the Indians de- clined to settle upon the lands offered them for sale in 1860 and they were eagerly taken up by white settlers. As nearly as can be ascer- tained the first permanent settlement of white men within the county was made in 1856. It is impossible to know who was first, the following having located in that year: David Cooper in Toronto township; Reu- ben Daniels in Belmont township, and John Coleman in Owl Creek township. A trading post was established in 1856, by D. B. Foster, at Belmont, where he carried on traffic with the Osage Indians. Among those who came in 1857 were John Chapman, Jack Caven, John Wool- man and a few others who located where Neosho Falls now stands; William Stockbrand, August Toddman and August Lauber, in Center township; and Thomas Sears in Liberty township.
The first school in the county was taught in Toronto township in 1858. Neosho Falls also had a school the same year. The first churches were the Methodist and the Baptist organized in 1859. The first busi- ness outside of the trading post was a store which was opened at Neosho Falls in 1857 by Peter Stevens, who was the first postmaster in the county, and had charge of the Neosho Falls postoffice established in that year. The first birth was that of Eliza Jane Tassel in 1857. The first marriage was between Dr. S. J. Williams and Miss Eva Fender.
Woodson county did its duty by the government during the Civil war. In Nov., 1861, a company of soldiers for service in the Union army was organized at Neosho Falls with B. F. Goss as captain and I. W. Dow as first lieutenant. This was part of what was called the Iola battalion and was consolidated with others to form the Ninth Kansas cavalry, which took part in a number of engagements in Missouri and Arkansas.
The board of supervisors in Woodson county, consisting of I. W. Dow, G. J. Caven and William Phillips, with Charles Cameron clerk of the board, met at Neosho Falls, in May, 1858, and ordered that all official county business be transacted at that place. N. G. Goss & Co. donated a jail building to the county for so long a time as Neosho Falls should remain the county seat. In 1865, the county officers being with- out a suitable headquarters, Dow's Hall was rented at $36 per year. In 1867 an election was called to select a permanent county seat. The con- testing towns were Neosho Falls, Center, Coloma and the site of Yates Center, which was entered in the list merely under its section, town and range description. Neosho Falls received 129 votes and Yates Center 118. At the second election held in Sept., 1868, Neosho Falls received 313 votes and Chellis, 199. The question was not revived again until 1873, when the vote stood as follows: Defiance, 506; Kalida, 530; Wal- drip, I. This made Kalida, which was 2 miles south of Yates Center,
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the county seat. Defiance was 6 miles east, and in the election held the next year it was victorious. In 1875 another election was called in which Neosho Falls and Yates Center were again the contestants. The first ballot gave no majority. The second ballot, which was hotly con- tested, was taken in Sept., 1876, and resulted in favor of Yates Cen- ter. The matter was never brought up again.
In the early days Woodson county like the other pioneer districts was a lively place in which to live. Men were shot for mere whims, most of the murders being committed for property or in drunken quarrels. One of the most notorious of the ruffians that infested the community was "Bully Smith," who had a long string of crimes laid at his door. and finally "died with his boots on" in California.
Efforts to build railroads in Woodson county began in 1867, but were unsuccessful for a number of years, owing to the failure of bonds to carry. Several different roads made propositions during the latter '6os and the 'jos but all were turned down by the people. The first road to be built was the St. Louis, Fort Scott & Wichita (now the Missouri Pacific), which crosses the central part of the county in a northeasterly direction, passing through Toronto, Yates Center, Durand and Piqua. Another line of the same road enters the county from Kansas City and runs south to Yates Center, where it connects with the first line. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. crosses the county from the north- east corner to Yates Center, and a third line of the Missouri Pacific runs north from Wilson county. A line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe also crosses the southwest corner, and a line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas crosses the northeast corner, passing through Neosho Falls.
In 1858 the county supervisors organized five townships: Neosho Falls, Liberty, Owl Creek, Belmont and Verdigris. There are at present 9 townships as follows: Belmont, Center, Everett, Liberty, Neosho Falls, North, Owl Creek, Perry and Toronto. The towns and villages are Yates Center, Burt, Coloma, Cookville, Finney, Griffin, Keck, Lo- mando, Neosho Falls, Piqua, Ridge, Rose, Toronto and Vernon.
The surface of Woodson county is largely upland, especially toward the center, being the bluffs which rise from the Neosho river which crosses the northeastern corner, and from the Verdigris which crosses the southwest corner. Owl and Turkey creeks are the principal tribu- taries of the Neosho, and Sandy and Buffalo creeks of the Verdigris. The bottom lands along these streams average one and one-half miles in width, and comprise about 10 per cent. of the area of the county. The principal native timbers which grow along the streams in belts of from one-fourth to one mile in width are oak, cottonwood, hickory, black wal- nut, elm, hackberry, honey-locust, pecan, sycamore, box-elder and ma- ple. Limestone and sandstone are found in commercial quantities, and large shipments are made from the quarries to other parts of the country. Potter's clay and brick clay exist in considerable quantities and thin veins of coal have been found. The surrounding counties are oil and
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KANSAS HISTORY
gas producing districts and it is believed that Woodson is underlaid with these products.
The total area of the county is 504 square miles or 322,560 acres, of which nearly three-fourths have been brought under cultivation. The value of the farm products are very nearly $2,000,000 annually. Corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and Kafir corn are the leading field crops. Animals for slaughter, butter, eggs, poultry and dairy products contribute a large sum to the total output. The total valuation of property in 1910 was upwards of $15,000,000 and the population was 9,450.
Woodson, Daniel, first secretary and several times acting governor of the Territory of Kansas, was born in Albemarle county, Va., May 24, 1824. He was reared on a farm, received a limited education in the common schools of that period, and while still a boy began learning the printer's trade. He became an expert compositor, took an active interest in political affairs, developed considerable ability as a writer on questions of public policy, and in time was made editor of the Lynch- burg Republican, one of the influential Democratic newspapers of the Old Dominion. His editorials attracted wide attention, and were no doubt largely responsible for his appointment as secretary of Kan- sas Territory in 1854. In October of that year he arrived at Leaven- worth, and the remainder of his life was passed in the Territory and State of Kansas. At different times during his term as secretary he was called upon to exercise the functions of the chief executive. The first of these was in the spring of 1855, while Gov. Reeder was absent from the territory. After Gov. Reeder's removal he acted as governor until the arrival of Gov. Shannon. Again in the spring of 1856 he served as gov- ernor while Gov. Shannon was in St. Louis, and after the latter's resig- nation he acted as governor until the arrival of Gov. Geary. From March 12 to April 16, 1857, Gov. Geary having retired from the office, he once more discharged the executive duties. On April 1, 1857, he was appointed receiver of the Delaware land office, but continued to act as governor until the 16th, as above stated, when he was succeeded as secretary by Frederick P. Stanton. His record as receiver of the land office is that of an efficient and painstaking official. Upon retiring from this position he engaged in farming for about twelve years in Leavenworth county. At the end of that time he removed to Parker, Montgomery county, where he established a newspaper. This venture proved to be unsuccessful from a financial point of view, and he entered the employ of the Coffeyville Journal. For twelve years he served as city clerk of Coffeyville. Mr. Woodson was a strong pro-slavery man in the early days of Kansas' existence, and he sometimes did things that aroused the wrath of the opposition. He was always conscientious, however, in the discharge of his official duties as he saw them, and there was never a word against his habits in private life. He died on Oct. 5, 1894, at the home of his son at Claremore, Ind. Ter., where he had gone in the hope of regaining his health.
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Woodson's Administration .- At five different times during the ter- ritorial regime, Secretary Woodson was called upon to serve as acting governor. His administration, aggregating about six months, is there- fore divided into five periods. The first of these was from April 17 to June 23, 1855, while Gov. Reeder was absent in the East ; the second was from Aug. 16 to Sept. 7, 1855, after the removal of Gov. Reeder and until the arrival of Gov. Shannon ; the third was from June 24 to July 7, 1856, while Gov. Shannon was in St. Louis ; the fourth, from Aug. 18 to Sept. II, 1856, marking the time intervening between the retirement of Gov. Shannon and the arrival of Gov. Geary; and the fifth and last was from March 12, 1857, when Gov. Geary gave up the office, to April 16, when Frederick P. Stanton succeeded Woodson as secretary of the territory.
Between April 17 and June 23, 1855, the executive minutes show but two official acts on the part of the acting governor. One of these, on May 29, was the filing of the returns of the special election of May 22, for Gov. Reeder's consideration upon his return, and the other was the issue of an executive warrant upon a requisition from the governor of the State of Indiana.
The second period of his administration was fraught with greater consequences. On June 8, 1855, more than six weeks before the removal of Gov. Reeder, a free-state meeting assembled at Lawrence, but ad- journed to the 25th, when ringing resolutions were adopted in favor of making Kansas a free state; urging the people to make freedom the only issue ; denouncing as a gross outrage the conduct on the part of the peo- ple of Missouri in the election of March 30, 1855, and declaring in favor of the appointment of a free-state executive committee. One of the resolutions declared that the people of Kansas had the right to invoke the aid of the general government against the lawless course of the slavery propaganda, and another that. "In reply to the threats of war so frequently made in our neighboring state, our answer is 'We are ready'."
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