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 42
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The commissioners selected June I as the time for the election, when Ness City was made the permanent county seat, and the following offi- cers were chosen: County clerk, James H. Elting; treasurer, B. F. Garrett; register of deeds, J. A. Taylor; sheriff, Gilmore Kinney ; coro- ner, Dr. B. F. Crosthwaite; surveyor, L. E. Knowles; superintendent of public instruction, F. A. Goodrich; attorney, Cyrus Corning; clerk of the district court, N. W. Shaw; probate judge, J. K. Barnd; com- missioners, John S. Lightner, William Harding and Samuel C. Kagrice.
The first newspaper was the Ness County Pioneer, established at Clarinda in 1879 by Henry S. Bell. A number of fraternal orders and a Farmers' Alliance were organized about 1880. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. was begun in 1886 and reached Ness City early in Jan., 1887.
The number of acres under cultivation in 1880 was about 20,000. The number in 1910 was 380,330. The value of farm products in the latter year was $1,514,924, of which winter wheat, the largest crop, amounted to $361,000; corn, $250,000; sorghum, $110,000; oats, $95,661; tame grasses, $176,197; Kafir corn, $78,177; live stock sold for slaughter, $138,779; eggs, $61,869; and dairy products nearly $100,000.
The county is divided into 10 townships: Bazine, Center, Eden, For- rester, Franklin, High Point, Johnson, Nevada, Ohio and Waring. The postoffices are Arnold, Bazine, Beeler, Brownwell, Francis, Laird, Man- teno, Ness City, Nonchalanta, Ransom, Riverside and Utica. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. crosses east and west in the center through Ness City, and the Missouri Pacific crosses the northern part east and west.
The general surface is nearly level, the rise from the streams being (II-23)
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so gradual that the bottom lands are not clearly defined. The timber belts along Walnut creek and its south fork are from 30 to 40 rods in width and contain ash, cottonwood, elm, hackberry and box-elder. Walnut creek, the principal stream, flows east through the center of the county, its north and south forks uniting near the center. The Paw- nee fork of the Pawnee river enters on the south central border, flows northeast a short distance, thence east and southeast into Hodgeman county. Magnesian limestone of the best quality and sandstone are abundant. Gypsum exists in small quantities.
The assessed valuation of property in 1910 was $10,835,619. The population in the same year was 5,883, which was an increase of 1,348 over the population of 1900.
Netawaka, a village of Jackson county, is located on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Netawaka township, 10 miles north of Holton, the county seat. All lines of business are represented. There are banking facilities, express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural mail routes. The population in 1910 was 339. The name means "Fair view" and is the only one in the county of Indian significance. The first settler on the town site was B. F. Baughn, who began the building of the Netawaka House. The town was laid out in 1866 and Edward W. Kenyon, the pioneer merchant, opened the first store in 1868. He was the first station agent and agent for the Kicka- poo lands in charge of the Union Pacific R. R. He was also the first postmaster. A grist mill was built by A. J. Evans in 1881.
Neuchatel, a hamlet of Nemaha county, is located in the township of the same name in the extreme southwest corner of the county, 18 miles from Seneca, the county seat, and 4 miles from Onaga, Pottawatomie county, from which place it receives mail. The Neuchatel settlement was made by French and Swiss immigrants and in 1870 Jules Leroux started the publication of a paper devoted to communism, printed in the French language and called The Star of Kansas. In 1876 he took the publication to Iowa.
Neutral, a hamlet in Cherokee county, is located on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. 7 miles south of Columbus, the county seat. It has a flour mill, a general store and an express office. Its mail is dis- tributed from Columbus. The population in 1910 was 76.
Neutral Lands .- The tract known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands- originally the Osage Neutral Lands-is situated in the southeast corner of Kansas, comprising all the present county of Cherokee, nearly all of Crawford, and a strip about 6 miles wide across the southern part of Bourbon county. In extent, this tract is 50 miles long from north to south and 25 miles in width, the eastern boundary being the line which separates Kansas from Missouri. It was first described in the treaty with the Osages in 1825, when it was intended to serve as a barrier between the Osage tribe and the whites, neither the Indians nor the white men to settle thereon, from which fact it took the name of neutral land.
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Article 2 of the treaty made with the Cherokees at New Echota, Ga., in 1835, expressed apprehension that not enough land had been set apart for the accommodation of the whole Cherokee nation, and provided for the conveyance to the Cherokees of "the tract of land situated between the west line of the State of Missouri and the Osage reservation, begin- ning at the southeast corner of the same and runs north along the east line of the Osage lands 50 miles, to the northeast corner thereof; and thence to the west line of the State of Missouri; thence with said line south 50 miles; thence west to the place of beginning-estimated to contain 800,000 acres of land."
From the time this treaty was concluded the tract was called the Cherokee Neutral Land. Notwithstanding it was Cherokee land, white settlers went upon it about the time Kansas was organized as a ter- ritory, and in Aug., 1861, the tract was invaded by a Confederate band commanded by John Mathews and some sixty families were driven out. The following month the Sixth Kansas dispersed the gang and Mathews was killed. On July 19, 1866, a treaty was concluded between the Cherokees and the United States, article 17 of which provided that "The Cherokee nation hereby cedes, in trust, to the United States the tract of land in the State of Kansas which was sold to the Cherokees by the United States under the provisions of the second article of the treaty of 1835, and also that strip of land ceded to the nation by the fourth article of said treaty, which is included in the State of Kansas; and the Cherokees consent that said lands may be included in the lim- its and jurisdiction of the said state. The lands herein ceded shall be surveyed as the public lands of the United States are surveyed, under the direction of the commissioner of the general land office, and shall be appraised by two disinterested persons. And the secretary of the interior shall, from time to time, as such surveys and appraisements are approved by him, after due advertisements for sealed bids, sell such lands to the highest bidders for cash, in parcels not ex- ceeding 160 acres, and at not less than the appraised value.
Provided, that nothing in this article shall prevent the secretary of the interior from selling the whole of said Neutral Lands in a body to any responsible party, for cash, for a sum not less than $800,000."
The last provision was amended to read "that nothing in this article shall prevent the secretary of the interior from selling the whole of said lands not occupied by actual settlers at the date of the ratification of the treaty, not exceeding 160 acres to each person entitled to pre- emption under the preemption laws of the United States, in a body, to any responsible party, for cash, for a sum not less than one dollar per acre."
On Aug. 30, 1866, James Harlan, then secretary of the interior, sold the lands to the American Emigrant company. Two days later Mr. Harlan was succeeded by Orville H. Browning, who set aside the con- tract with the American Emigrant company on an opinion of the United States attorney-general that it was void because made on time
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and not for cash as the treaty stipulated. The settlers on the tract then demanded of Senator Pomeroy and Congressman Clarke that they use their influence to prevent another sale of the land. Both made prom- ises, but in spite of that fact, on Oct. 9, 1867, Browning sold the land to his brother-in-law, James F. Joy, representing the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad. In March, 1868, the settlers made a demand for the right to purchase their holdings at the lawful price of public lands, and everywhere the validity of Joy's title to the lands was ques- tioned. The American Emigrant company had not relinquished its claim and the settlers were alarmed at the prospects of long and tedious litigation before their titles could be assured. Trouble on this score was averted, however, by a supplemental treaty on April 27, 1868, “to enable the secretary of the interior to collect the proceeds of the sales of said lands and invest the same for the benefit of said Indians, and for the purpose of preventing litigation and of harmonizing the con- Aicting interests of the said American Emigrant company and of the said James F. Joy."
Technically, the treaty set aside the Joy sale, but authorized the as- signment of the American Emigrant company's interests to Joy. Eu- gene F. Ware says: "This was necessary so as to scoop in the land occupied in the meantime by about 3,000 people under the public land law. The law gave a homestead on five years' occupation, but service in the army was counted in, and the soldier who had served three years got title in two years, but with the right to buy the land at $1.25 per acre. The 'treaty' ratified by the senate cut off these rights from all settlers coming in after July 19, 1866."
The supplemental treaty was ratified by the United States senate on June 6, 1868, when the interests of the American Emigrant company were assigned to James F. Joy, and four days later the treaty was pro- claimed by the president. On Dec. 18, 1868, notice was given to all persons "who had settled and continued to live on the lands between Aug. 11, 1866, and June 10, 1868, that they might make entry of the lands before a certain time, and thus prevent the sale of the lands to other purchasers." The survey of the railroad was commenced early in 1869, and then the trouble began in earnest. The settlers organized the "Land League," later known as the "Neutral Land Home-protect- ing Corps," to resist the encroachments of a corporation under what they believed to be an illegal sale of the public lands. At first, the principal object of the organization was to keep a delegate in Wash- ington to look after the interests of the settlers, but as the railroad company became more aggressive in prosecuting what it conceived to be its legal rights, many acts of violence were committed in the name of the "League." A land office established at Baxter Springs by Joy was raided in Feb., 1869, and in April, when J. W. Davis attempted to open a land office for the railroad company at Columbus, he was given notice to leave the town-a mandate he lost no time obeying. By the last of May the situation had become so threatening that Gov. Harvey
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issued a proclamation enjoining the people to commit no unlawful acts, and asked Gen. Schofield to send a detachment of United States troops into the Neutral Lands to preserve order. Troops accordingly were sent into Crawford and Cherokee counties on June 10, 1869.
Early in the legislative session of 1870 the house appointed a com- mittee of five to visit the troubled district and ascertain if the presence of soldiers was actually necessary. A majority of the committee re- ported in favor of the governor and recommended that the troops be kept there until the question was settled. Notwithstanding their presence, the anti-Joy people burned the office of the Girard Press on July 15, 1871. This paper was edited by Dr. Warner, who had been employed by Joy to publish it in the support of his claim. This was the last act of violence.
In the meantime two suits had been filed in the Federal courts-one against a settler named Holden and the other against Dr. Warner, with the understanding that the title to the lands should be settled by the decision in the two cases. In May, 1870, the circuit court decided in favor of Joy. An appeal to the United States supreme court was then taken, and in Nov., 1872, that court, in a unanimous opinion, upheld the decision of the lower court. The settlers then bought their lands through Joy, and in Feb., 1873, the troops were withdrawn.
Neville, a country postoffice in Sherman county, is located in Grant township 20 miles northwest of Goodland, the county seat, and 15 miles north of Ruleton, the postoffice from which it receives mail and the nearest shipping point.
New Albany, one of the incorporated towns of Wilson county, is lo- cated in Fall River township near the west line of the county, on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. and 6 miles west of Fredonia, the county seat. It has banking facilities, a newspaper (the X-Ray), a monthly publication for teachers, flour mills, express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The popula- tion in 1910 was 213. The vicinity was settled in 1864 and the first store started the next year by Hall & Mooney. Mr. Mooney entered the claim on which the town is located. The postoffice was established in 1866 with William Hall as postmaster. The mail had to be brought from old Belmont in Woodson county at private expense. Jackson & Hickson set up the first sawmill on Fall River in 1866, and the next year added a grist mill. School district No. 9 was organized at this point in 1866 and the first school was taught by James Hanegan in 1867. Another mill, with two burr stones, one for corn and one for wheat, was built by Wauder, Chase & Co. A town company was formed in 1871 with William Stivers, president; William Hall, treas- urer, and P. W. Mackey, secretary. Dr. Mackey was the first physician in the place. Several new business enterprises were started and churches and lodges organized in the '70s. The railroad was built in 1879. The New Albany bridge was constructed in 1892 at a cost of $5,000, and the one at Johnson's ford, a little below, was built in 1902.
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New Almelo, a hamlet in Norton county, is located on the Solomon river 22 miles southwest of Norton, the county seat, 12 miles south of Clayton, the postoffice from which it receives its mail, and 6 miles west of Lenora, the nearest shipping point.
New Cambria, a little town of Saline county, is located in Cambria township, 7 miles northeast of Salina. It has three railroads-the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Union Pacific. There are telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 212. It is the principal trading and shipping point for a rich agricul- tural district in that section of the county.
New Chillicothe, a hamlet in Dickinson county, is located in the north- eastern corner 15 miles from Abilene, the county seat, and 10 miles north of Chapman, the postoffice from which it receives mail by rural route. The population in 1910 was 20.
New Haven Colony .- (See Beecher Rifle Church.)
New Lancaster, a hamlet of Miami county, is situated near Middle creek about 12 miles southeast of Paola, the county seat. It has rural delivery from Fontana and in 1910 had a population of 126. The town was laid out in 1860 and it is supposed that the first school in the county avas taught near the present town in 1858.
Newman, a station on the Union Pacific R. R., in Jefferson county, is located in Kentucky township 13 miles southwest of Oskaloosa, the county seat, and II miles east of Topeka. It has express and telegraph offices and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 60. This town was laid out in 1867 by H. L. Newman, who with a man by the name of Haston, opened a store that year. A postoffice was estab- lished with A. A. Haston postmaster.
New Orleans Exposition .- (See Expositions.)
New Salem, a village in Cowley county, is located on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. in Richland township, 8 miles northeast of Winfield, the county seat. It has express and telegraph offices and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 80.
New Sam Gaty .- On April 18, 1861, a steamboat called the "New Sam Gaty" arrived at Leavenworth from St. Louis flying a Confederate flag. That was four days after the surrender of Fort Sumter and the excitement was intense throughout the North. As soon as the news of the arrival of the steamer spread people rushed to the levee and in a short time an immense crowd had assembled, demanding that the cap- tain of the Gaty he summarily dealt with for thus displaying the flag of treason. Seeing that the people were in no mood for trifling, and concluding that "discretion was the better part of valor," the captain hauled down the ensign and raised the Stars and Stripes. Wilder says "This was the decisive day for Leavenworth."
Newspapers .- In the winter of 1833-34 Jotham Meeker set up a print- ing press at the Shawnee Baptist mission, in what is now Johnson county, Kan. It was an old-fashioned press of the most primitive
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type, operated by hand, and was used by Mr. Meeker for printing books and tracts in the Indian language. On March 1, 1835, he published the first number of the Shaw-wau-nowe Kesauthwau (Shawnee Sun), which was the first newspaper-if it can properly be called such-ever printed within the limits of the present State of Kansas. It is not known how many numbers of this paper were published by Mr. Meeker, as it was issued at irregular intervals, under great difficulties, and probably never had a regular paid subscription list.
' The first newspaper in the English language was the Leavenworth Herald, which made its appearance on Sept. 15, 1854. The type for the initial number was set under an old elm tree on the levee near the cor- ner of Cherokee street. William H. Adams and Lucien J. Eastin were the proprietors and publishers, the latter being the editor. The Herald was a strong pro-slavery advocate. Holloway says: "Its tone was at first upright and manly, but it soon gave way to party pressure, and became very ultra and bitterly partisan." Early in the year 1859, Wil- liam H. Gill, a military storekeeper at Fort Leavenworth, purchased an interest in the paper and assumed the editorial management. Asso- ciated with him in this work was Ward Burlingame. A daily edition was started on May 17, 1859, and under the new control the political policy of the paper was much more conservative. In 1860 it urged the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas by the Democratic party for the presidency. Some time in the spring or summer of that year the Herald was acquired by W. P. Fain, formerly United States marshal, and in the fall it passed into the hands of R. C. Satterlee, B. R. Wilson and C. W. Helm. In June, 1861, Mr. Satterlee was shot and killed by Col. Anthony, and on June 27 the Herald expired.
About the time the Leavenworth Herald appeared, John and Joseph L. Speer prepared the copy for a free-state paper, to be called the Kansas Pioneer. Being without type or press, they took their manu- script to a paper in Kansas City called the Enterprise, which was edited by Judge Story, a rank pro-slavery man, who refused to print the paper. They then tried to get Adams & Eastin of the Leavenworth Herald to print an issue, but were again refused. John Speer then went to his old home at Medina, Ohio, where the first number was printed, though it bore the date of "Lawrence, Kan. Ter., Oct. 15, 1854." Upon his re- turn from Ohio, Speer found out that a pro-slavery paper published at Kickapoo had adopted the name "Pioneer," so he changed the name of his paper to the Kansas Tribune, the first number of which was pub- lished at Lawrence dated Jan. 5, 1855. S. N. Wood became a partner, and in Nov., 1855, the Tribune was removed to Topeka. In Feb., 1857, Speer sold out to Ross Bros., who returned in Sept., 1858, and were suc- ceeded by Shepherd & Cummings. Under various owners and editors, the Tribune continued until 1868, when it suspended publication.
In connection with the Tribune there is an interesting and thrilling bit of Kansas history, and that was the publication of what is known as "John Speer's Defy." The first territorial legislature passed a law
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providing that any person writing, printing or publishing any denial of the right to hold slaves in the Territory of Kansas should be sub- ject to imprisonment for not less than two years, and fixed the 15th of Sept., 1855, as the date when the law should go into effect. On that day Mr. Speer devoted a full page of the Tribune to his "Defy," which was printed in display type under the headline: "The Day of Our Enslavement !! " This was followed by the section of the law inflicting the penalty of imprisonment, after which Mr. Speer continued: "Now we do assert and we declare, despite all the bolts and bars of the in- iquitous legislature of Kansas, that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory. And we will emblazon it upon our banner in letters so large and language so plain that the infatuated invaders who elected the Kansas legislature, as well as that corrupt and ignorant legislature itself, may understand it-so that, if they cannot read, they may spell it out, and meditate and deliberate upon it; and we hold that the man who fails to utter this self-evident truth, on account of the in- solent enactment alluded to, is a poltroon and a slave, worse than the black slaves of our persecutors and oppressors. The constitution of the United States, the great Magna Charta of American liberties, guar- antees to every citizen the liberty of speech and the freedom of the press! And this is the first time in the history of America that a body claiming legislative powers has dared to attempt to wrest them from the people. And it is not only the right, but the bounden duty of every freeman to spurn with contempt and trample under foot an enactment which thus basely violates the right of freemen. For our part we do and shall continue to utter this truth so long as we have the power of utterance, and nothing but the brute force of an overpowering tyranny can prevent us."
On Oct. 21, 1854, appeared the first number of the Herald of Free- dom. It was issued by G. W. Brown and was dated at Wakarusa, Kan., though it was printed in Pennsylvania. The second number was published at Lawrence on Jan. 6, 1855. Cutler says: "The Herald of Freedom was the first paper printed as a Kansas paper, and the first paper printed at Lawrence, although the date of its second issue, the first printed on Kansas soil, was later than that of the Tribune, as the latter was antedated."
Cutler's statement that the second issue of the Herald of Freedom was the first paper "printed on Kansas soil" is obviously an error, as the fact is well established that the Leavenworth Herald was printed on Kansas soil the previous September. There seems to be some con- troversy as to which was really the first paper printed in Lawrence. josiah Miller and R. G. Elliott issued the first number of the Kansas Free State some time in Jan., 1855, and a writer in the Kansas His- torical Collections (vol. 10, p. 191) says it was the first paper pub- lished in Lawrence.
The offices of both the Herald of Freedom and the Free State were destroyed by the raid of May 21, 1856. The latter was revived by Mr
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Elliott and published for a short time at Delaware. The Herald of Freedom was reestablished in Nov., 1856, and was published without in- termission until in 1869, when it suspended.
In the meantime the Kickapoo Pioneer, a rabid pro-slavery paper, be- gan its existence in Nov., 1854, with A. B. Hazzard as editor and pro- prietor. This was the paper that appropriated the name John Speer had selected for the Kansas Tribune. The Pioneer continued for some three years, when it perished for want of support, the fate that often befalls a newspaper in a new country.
On Feb. 3, 1855, Dr. John H. Stringfellow and Robert S. Kelly is- sued at Atchison the first number of the Squatter Sovereign, a paper with strong pro-slavery sentiments. It had formerly been published at Liberty, Mo., under the name of the Democratic Platform. In the spring of 1857 it was purchased by S. C. Pomeroy, Robert McBratney and F. G. Adams, who changed its policy and published it as a free- state paper until the fall of the same year, when Mr. Pomeroy became the sole owner. Soon afterward he sold the paper to O. F. Short, who in turn sold it in Feb., 1858, to John A. Martin. Mr. Martin changed the name to the Atchison Champion and on March 22, 1865, began the pub- lication of a daily edition. On Aug. 11, 1868, the paper was consolidated with the Free Press, which had been established by F. G. Adams in May, 1864, and the name Champion and Press was adopted, with John A. Martin and Frank' A. Root as publishers. Mr. Root retired in the spring of 1869. Subsequently the word Press was dropped and the publication continued under the old name of Champion.
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