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 54
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tion to bond the county for $2,000 for the relief of the destitute was voted down at the November election. Several car loads of provisions and coal were received from the outside. In 1876 the first steam roller mill in the county was built at Larned.
In 1873 the county was divided into three townships. There are now 14, viz: Ash Valley, Brown's Grove, Conkling, Garfield, Grant, Keysville, Larned, Logan, Pawnee, Pleasant Ridge, Pleasant Valley, River, Valley Center and Walnut. The postoffices are Burdett, Frizell, Garfield, Larned, Point View, Ray, Rozel and Sanford. The main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. enters in the northeast and crosses southwest through Larned, where a branch diverges and runs west into Hodgeman county. A branch of the Missouri Pacific enters in the east and terminates at Larned.
The general surface is an undulating prairie, nearly level south of the Arkansas. The bottom lands comprise 25 per cent. of the total area, and along the Arkansas are 4 miles in width. The belts of native timber are very thin, but there are some artificial plantings. Magnesian and com- inon limestone are in the north, and sandstone of a good quality is quarried near Larned. Potter's clay and ocher exist in small quantities. The Arkansas river enters in the south and flows northeast into Bour- bon county. The Pawnee river enters in the west and flows east to Larned where it empties into the Arkansas. There are a number of creeks.
Pawnee is one of the principal wheat counties in the state, that crop in 1910 being worth to the farmers $3,505,632. Corn the same year brought $328,075 ; oats, $86,503 ; Kafir corn, $107,190; animals sold for slaughter, $237,023; eggs and poultry, over $200,000; dairy products. nearly $200,000. The total value of farm products in 1910 was $4,169,- 735. The value of live stock on hand was $3,277,604. The land was not farmed until 1874, but was used exclusively for pasturing live stock. The assessed valuation of property in 1873 was $377,954; in 1876, $927,- 359; in 1882, $1,092,869, and in 1910, $22,419,895.
The population in 1873 was estimated at 150. In 1882 it was 4,323; ini 1890 it was 5,204; in 1900, before the county had scarcely recovered from the hard times, the population was 5,084, and in 1910 it was 8,859. The average wealth per capita according to these figures is over $2,500.
Pawnee Republic .- After the Pawnee' Indians ceded their lands in Nebraska and Kansas and removed to new hunting grounds, the site of the Pawnee village on the Republican river, where Lieut. Pike lowered the Spanish colors and raised the American flag, was for many years a inatter of conjecture. Dr. Elliott Coues, in his history if the 'Pike ex- pedition, says in a foot-note on page 410: "I must emphasize here the fact that I have failed in every attempt to locate the' precise site of the Pawnee village. One would suppose it well known; I find that it is not, and I have yet to discover the ethnographer or geographer who can point it out. Correspondence addressed to persons now living in
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the vicinity was as fruitless as my exploration of the sources of offi- cial knowledge in Washington, where several friends interested them- selves in my behalf to no purpose. I knew of no closer indication than that afforded by Gregg's map of 1844. This letters 'Old Pawnee Vil- lage' on the south bank of the Republican, half way between longitude 98° and 99° west, and thus, as I judge, about the present town of Red Cloud, Webster county, Neb."
The actual site of the village was discovered by a woman-Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson-in 1875, while going with a party to the Repub- lican river on a fishing excursion. In the autumn of the previous year Mrs. Johnson had visited her father in the East, and while there had a conversation with him concerning the 40th parallel and the Indian village where Pike planted the United States flag. Mrs. Johnson gives the following account of her discovery: "As we were driving across the country we came to a piece of ground that was like last year's cir- cus grounds-up and down, up and down, as if we were really going over the edges of the rings. I had Pike on my mind, and I made them stop and let me out, and went over the ground and found the little embankments which had been around the wigwams, and all arranged in streets as orderly as any city thoroughfare."
Through the efforts of Mrs. Johnson the Pawnee Republic Historical society was organized and a more critical examination of the ground was made. Various relics, such as fragments of pottery, flint and stone implements, bits of copper and iron, pipes, bones of animals, etc., were found, as well as other evidences that the place had once been the site of a populous Indian village. At the annual meeting of the board of directors of the Kansas State Historical Society on Jan. 21, 1896, J. C. Price, of Republic, exhibited some of these relics, and the board adopted the following resolution, which was offered by Secretary Adams: "Re- solved, That a committee of this board be appointed to cooperate with the Pawnee Republic Historical Society in definitely determining that location, and in recommending such action as may be deemed advisa- ble toward suitably marking the place by monument or otherwise."
Franklin G. Adams, E. B. Cowgill and Noble L. Prentis were ap- pointed on the committee, and a thorough examination of Pike's re- ports, maps, etc., was undertaken. In his report for Oct. 1, 1806, Pike stated that the village was in latitude "about 39° 30' north." His census of the village showed 508 warriors, 550 women, and 560 children, besides 44 lodges of roving bands, all belonging to the Pawnee republic. His encampment was on an eminence on the opposite side of the river from the village-a condition nowhere along the Republican river so well complied with as in the site discovered by Mrs. Johnson, which the investigators finally concluded was the correct one. Under date of March I, 1896, Dr. Coues wrote to G. T. Davies, secretary of the Pawnee Republic Historical Society, as follows : "You will see by the large map, which I sent, and which, I believe, is now in Mrs. Johnson's hands, that I trailed Pike directly to White Rock, and all your present research con-
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firms the impressions I formed at the time, though I did not venture to commit myself to final conclusions."
Dr. Coues also stated in the letter that his doubts were due to the location as given on Gregg's map, which he was satisfied was in error, and in a letter to Mrs. Johnson expressed his unqualified opinion that she had found the real site of the Pawnee village. Supported by all this evidence and opinion, Mrs. Johnson and her husband purchased the village site, described in the deed as "Beginning at a point 6 chains west of the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of section 3, town- ship 2, south, of range 5, west; thence west 16 chains; thence north 7 chains; thence east 16 chains, and thence south 7 chains to the place of beginning, and containing II.2 acres more or less."
This tract, which is situated in White Rock township of Republic county, almost due south of Republic City, was presented to the state by the purchasers in 1901, and the legislature which accepted the gift made an appropriation of $3,000 for the erection of a monument to mark the site. (See also the articles on Pike's Expedition, Stanley's Adminis- tration and Hoch's Administration.)
Pawnee River, also called the Pawnee fork of the Arkansas river, rises in the northwest corner of Gray county. For the first 15 or 20 miles its course is almost due north. Near the little village of Emi- nence, Finney county, it turns abruptly eastward; crosses the line be- tween Finney and Hodgeman counties about 8 miles south of the north- ern boundary of those counties; flows thence northeast into Ness county ; thence southeast across the corner of Hodgeman county, and thence by a somewhat sinuous course eastward through Pawnee county, empties its waters into the Arkansas river at Larned. Its principal tributary is Buckner creek. A number of interesting events occurred in the valley of this stream in early days. In 1854, soon after Kansas was organized as a territory, about 1,500 Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Osage Indians gathered on the Pawnee to make war on the whites. They started eastward toward the settlements, but about 100 miles west of Fort Riley were met by a hunting party of about 100 Sacs and Foxes and were driven back with heavy loss.
Pawnee Rock .- This historic landmark is located in the southwest corner of Barton county and is distant about 100 yards from the old Santa Fe trail. The rock is at the southern extremity of a bluff that ex- tends several miles in a northwesterly direction from the Arkansas river. It overlooks the country in the valleys of the Arkansas, Ash and Wal- nut for many miles. It is less than a mile distant from the town of Pawnee Rock. Originally the rock was much larger than at present, a great deal of stone having been taken from it and made use of by set- tlers. During the period of the Santa Fe trade this rock was a fa- vorite stopping place for travelers, the rock affording an ideal protec- tion against hostile Indians. According to Henry Inman, the name was given the rock on account of a fight with Pawnee Indians in which Kit Carson took part. Cutler's History of Kansas says the name attached
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from the fact that the various tribes of Pawnees met in general council on the top of it.
The Woman's Kansas Day club became interested in the preserva- tion of this landmark, and through their efforts Benjamin P. Unruh, on May 25, 1908, executed a deed, his intention being to convey to the state 5 acres of land on which Pawnee Rock was located. By a mutual
PAWNEE ROCK.
mistake the description of land in the deed fixed the location at 380 feet too far north; and on June 29, 1909, Mr. Unruh and his wife exe- cuted a new deed to the state for the purpose of correcting the error in the former one. The description of the tract is now as follows: "Commencing at a point 2,290 6-10 feet north of the northeast corner of block 3 in the city of Pawnee Rock, on the west side of the exten- sion of Center street in said city and running thence west 465 feet, thence north 380 feet, thence east 465 feet, and thence south 380 feet to the place of beginning, said land adjoining on the north the certain 5-acre tract conveyed by the said Benjamin P. Unruh to the State of Kansas by deed dated June 29, 1909, and recorded at page 371 of volume 47 of the deeds and records in the office of register of deeds of Barton county; Kansas."
' . To correct the above error Representative William P. Feder of Bar- ton county in the legislature of I911 introduced House Joint Resolution No. It which authorized the state to execute a 'deed in favor of Mr. Unruh conveying to him the 5 acres erroneously deeded. " 2 .
."The legislature of 1909 passed an act making an appropriation for the expenses of keeping up and maintaining the historic spot of Pawnee Rock: The act provided for the appointment of a board of trustees fimder whose management and. direction the appropriation of $500 was
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to be expended during the ensuing two years. A provision in reference to a roadway to the park was made. The legislature of 1911 also made provision for the care of the site.
Pawnee Rock, one of the incorporated towns of Barton county, is lo- cated near the historic Pawnee Rock, on the Santa Fe trail. It is a sta- tion on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 14 miles southwest of Great Bend, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the Herald), about two dozen retail stores, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population according to the census of 1910 was 458. The town was founded in 1874 by the Arkansas Valley Town company.
Pawnee Station, a money order post village of Bourbon county, is located on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. about 12 miles southwest of Fort Scott, the county seat. It is a supply point for the nearby farming district. In 1910 it had a population of 87. The railroad name is Anna.
Pawnee Trail .- According to the late James R. Mead of Wichita, the Pawnee Indians of Nebraska had a regular route of travel from their home on the Platte river, into Kansas, entering the state near the north- east corner of Jewell county; thence running south across Mitchell and Lincoln counties; thence across the northwest corner of Ellsworth county to the big bend of the Arkansas, and from there wherever Indian camps could be found.
Paxico, a little town in Wabannsee county, is located on Mill creek in Newbury township and on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., 8 miles east of Alma, the county seat. It has a hotel, a bank, a flour mill, telegraph and, express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 400. The town was started at the Strong Mill, one mile east, in 1879. A postoffice was established and named Paxico in honor of the Indian medicine man, Pashqua, who had owned the land. When the railroad came through in 1886 the store and postoffice at Paxico were moved to the present site, and a little town by the name of Newbury was also moved to this place.
Peabody, the second largest town in Marion county, is located in Cat- lin and Peabody townships, on Doyle creek, and at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroads,.17 miles south of Marion, the county seat. It is one of the most progressive little cities in Kansas. It has electric lights, water- works, fire department, opera house, a public library occupying a neat stone structure built for the purpose, a creamery, a wind-mill factory, 2 .banks, and one weekly newspaper (the Peabody Gazette). Some of the largest shipments of hogs and cattle in the state are made, from this point. The town is supplied with express and telegraph offices and has an international money order postoffice with five rural routes. ; The population according to the census of 1910 was 1,416.
. . The first settlement in the vicinity of Peabody was made in 1870, in anticipation of the railroad. which came through the next year. The
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town was platted in June, 1871, and named in honor of F. H. Peabody, of Boston, formerly president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad company, who built a fine library building and donated it to the city. F. H. Hopkins was made postmaster in Feb., 1871, and until July carried the mail to and from Florence. By that time regular trains were running. The first number of the Peabody Gazette was issued by J. P. Church in 1873. The Shaft, a weekly publication, had been es- tablished by W. H. Morgan in 1871. Mr. Morgan later combined the two under the name Gazette, which is still published. The organization of the town as a city of the third class took place in 1879. The Marion County Agricultural Association located its fair grounds at Peabody about 1880.
Peacecreek, an inland hamlet of Reno county, is located at the head- waters of Peace creek, 28 miles west of Hutchinson, the county seat, and 6 miles north of Sylvia, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., the nearest railroad station and shipping point, and the postoffice from which its mail is distributed by rural delivery.
Pearl, a hamlet in Dickinson county, is located on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R. 12 miles southeast of Abilene, the county seat. It has a grain elevator, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 35.
Peck, a little town in Sedgwick county, is located on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroads in Ohio township, 15 miles south of Wichita, the county seat. It has a bank, a grain elevator, telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 150.
Peffer, William A., United States senator, was born on a farm in Cumberland county, Pa., Sept. 10, 1831, of Dutch parents. From his tenth to fifteenth year he attended the public schools seven months each winter, and then began to teach a small district school. He fol- lowed that profession until he caught the gold fever in 1850, when he went to California, and there made considerable money, returning to Pennsylvania in 1852. There he married Sarah Jane Barber and soon after removed to Indiana. He engaged in farming near Crawfordsville until he met with reverses, when he determined to go farther west, and soon after opened a farm in Morgan county, Mo. In Feb., 1862, he went to Illinois to get away from guerrilla warfare, and the following August hie enlisted as a private in the Eighty-third Illinois infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in March, 1863. During the three years of his service he was engaged principally in the performance of de- tached duty as quartermaster, adjutant and judge-advocate of a military commission, as depot quartermaster in the engineering department at Nashville, Tenn. He was mustered out on June 26, 1865. Having studied law as opportunity afforded, he settled at Clarksville, Tenn., at the close of the war and began the practice of that profession. In 1870 he came to Kansas and took up a claim in Wilson county. Two years later he removed to Fredonia and established the Fredonia Journal, a
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weekly newspaper, at the same time continuing his law practice. He next went to Coffeyville and established the Coffeyville Journal. In 1874 he was elected to the state senate as a Republican and served one term. He was delegate to the Republican national convention in 1880, and that year he removed to Topeka, where he assumed control of the Kansas Farmer, which he purchased later. In 1890 he joined the Farm- ers' Alliance movement and the following year the People's party elected him to the United States senate, where he served one term. Mr. Peffer is a member of the Episcopal church, a Master Mason and belongs to the Knights of Labor.
Peketon County, now extinct, was created by the act of Feb. 21, 1860, which provided that "all territory west of the 6th principal meridian, and south of township 16, in Kansas Territory, be erected into a county, to be known by the name of Peketon county." The northeast corner of Peketon county was identical with the northeast corner of the pres- ent county of McPherson, from which point straight lines ran west and south to the territorial boundaries, hence the county embraced consid- erably over one-fourth of the present State of Kansas. The temporary seat of justice of the county was located at Beach Valley. Ashel Beach. A. C. Beach and Samuel Shaff were appointed commissioners to divide the county into election precincts and make arrangements for the first election, which was to be held at the time of the regular spring election in March, 1860.
The only mention of Peketon county in any of the documents in the archives of the Kansas Historical Society, is a letter from John F. Dodds to Samuel Wood, dated "Kiowa, Peketon county, Kansas, May 10, 1864." In 1867 Marion county was enlarged to include Peketon, which then disappeared.
Pekin, an inland hamlet of Reno county, is located 15 miles west of Hutchinson, the county seat, and 5 miles north of Abbyville, on the "cut off" of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., which is the near- est railroad station and shipping point and is the postoffice from which its mail is distributed by rural delivery. The population according to the census of 1910 was 40.
Pelathe, "The Eagle," a Shawnee Indian, was a friend of the white man. Of the many instances of heroism recorded in Kansas history, 110 deed was more heroic than that of Pelathe in the summer of 1863. He arrived at Kansas City about midnight on Aug. 20, and learned that Quantrill, the guerrilla leader, had crossed the border into Kansas and was on his way to Lawrence. While a number of men felt the neces- sity of warning the people of Lawrence, they realized that the time was too short to convey the warning. Pelathe begged the privilege of mak- ing the effort, and about I o'clock a. m. of the 21st mounted on a Ken- tucky thoroughbred mare belonging to Theodore Bartles, set out for Lawrence. So well acquainted was he with the country that he ignored the trails and struck a bee line for the menaced city. Gradually in- creasing his speed, mile after mile flew by, until he noticed that his
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steed was failing and that a short halt was absolutely necessary. At a small stream he stopped, washed the foam from the mare's mouth, allowed her to drink a small quantity of water, rubbed her dry with the handkerchief he wore around his neck, then mounted again and rode forward at terrific speed. Again his mount showed signs of failing, when, with the resourcefulness of his race, he cut gashes in her shoul- ders and rubbed gunpowder in the wounds. Smarting under the treat- ment, the mare rushed forward at mad speed for a few miles and then dropped dead. Pelathe continued on foot with that swiftness peculiar to his tribe until he reached an encampment of the Delawares, where he appropriated an Indian pony and rode on to Lawrence, only to find that he was too late, the sound of the firing coming to his ears before he reached the city, while the ascending smoke told plainly the story of destruction.
Pelathe joined in the pursuit of Quantrill with some 15 or 20 Delaware Indians, and soon aftterward went to Fort Smith, where he was em- ployed by the Federal government as a scout. On one of his expeditions he was attacked by some of Stand Watie's band in the hills west of Fayetteville, but he sold his life dearly, killing three Cherokees and wounding others before being killed himself.
Penalosa, one of the little villages of Kingman county, is located in Eureka township on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 16 miles northwest of Kingman, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices, a good iocal trade, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes The population in 1910 was 200.
Penalosa, Don Diego Dionisio de, was governor of New Mexico from 1661 to 1664. According to his own account, he left Santa Fe on March 6, 1662, on an expedition to Quivira. With him were 80 Span- iards, Friar Michael de Guevara, guardian of the convent at Santa Fe, and Friar Nicholas de Freytas, guardian of the convent of San Ildefonso, the latter being the historian of the expedition. Evidently Penalosa intended to travel in state, and with as much comfort as circumstances would permit, as Freytas says he took with him "36 carts of various sizes, well provided with provisions and munitions, and a large coach, a litter, and two portable chairs for his person, and six 3-pounders, 800 horses and 300 mules."
Much of Freytas' descriptions is so vague and indefinite that it is a difficult matter to trace the route followed by Penalosa, that is if any such expedition ever was made. He starts out by saying they moved eastward from Santa Fe for a distance of 200 leagues, "all through pleasing, peaceful and most fertile fields so level that in all of them no mountain, or range, or any hill was seen." The Spanish league is a little more than 21/2 miles. No one acquainted with the geography of the southwest can imagine a journey of 500 miles eastward from Santa Fe without encountering a hill of some sort. At the end of the 200 leagues, the expedition came to a "high and insuperable ridge which is near the sea," and eight leagues beyond this lay the great city of Quivira. After
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marching through March, April, May, and the kalends of June they came to a large river called the "Mischipi," and here they found a nation of Indians which Freytas calls the Escanxaques, with whom a treaty of peace was made.
With an Escanxaque escort the expedition then proceeded up the border of a river until they saw a range of hills "covered with smokes, by which they gave notice of the arrival of the Christian army, and soon after we dcisovered the great settlement or city of Quivira, situ- ated on the wide-spread prairies of another beautiful river which came from the range to enter and united with that we had hitherto followed."
Seventy caciques or chiefs came out to welcome Penalosa, who issued an order forbidding the Escanxaques to enter the city, because they wanted to destroy it. When he turned back on June II, the Escanxa- ques "came out to meet him with arms in their hands," and as they had been reinforced to 7,000 men, they seemed determined to enter the city of the Quivirans. They refused to listen to Penalosa and a fight ensued, in which 3,000 Indians were killed in three hours and the rest fled. For his foresight in undertaking the expedition, and his valor in vanquishing the refractory Indians, Freytas says Penalosa received new orders from the king "the title of Duke thereof, Marquis of Farara, and that of Count of Santa Fe de Penalosa, which he has so well merited."
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