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 7
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The crew of a keel boat engaged in the fur trade frequently consisted of as many as 100 men and was called a "brigade," this number includ- ing many hunters and trappers who were not regular boatmen. Every boat carried a swivel (small cannon) and the crew went armed. Among the appliances used for ascending rivers were the cordelle, pole, oar and (II-5)
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sail. The cordelle was a strong line, frequently 300 yards long, fastened to the mast by which the boat was pulled up stream by a force of 20 to 30 men. The poles were used where the water was shallow, and the oars where it became necessary to cross from one side of the river to the other. The sail was seldom used. A distance of about 15 miles a day was considered a good day's work, requiring the most arduous labor from all hands from daylight to dark to accomplish.
Keelville, a hamlet in Cherokee county, is located in the southwestern corner of the county, 13 miles from Columbus, the county seat, and 6 miles from Faulkner, the nearest railroad station and the postoffice from which its mail is distributed. The population in 1910 was 45.
Keene, a small hamlet in Wabaunsee county, is located 16 miles east of Alma, the county seat, and 8 miles south of Maplehill, the postoffice from which its mail is distributed. It has one general store.
Keighley, a village in Butler county, is located on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R., 16 miles southeast of Eldorado, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice and some local trade. The population in 1910 was 75.
Kellerman, William Ashbrook, botanist, author and lecturer, was born at Ashville, Pickaway county, Ohio, May I, 1850. He graduated at Cornell University with the class of 1874, and in 1881 received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Zurich. Soon after graduating at Cor- nell he became an instructor in natural science in the Wisconsin State Normal School, where he continued for five years. From 1883 to 1891 he was professor of botany and zoology in the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and for four years was botanist at the state experi- ment station. He was also the state botanist of Kansas for some time. In 1891 he went to the Ohio State University, where he continued his labors until his death. He was the founder and editor of the Journal of Mycology and the Mycological Bulletin; was the author of Flora of Kansas, Elementary Botany, Phyto Theca, and Spring Flora of Ohio, and was frequently called on to lecture before scientific and literary soci- eties. He died in the spring of 1908 in a Guatemala forest, whither he had been leading botanical expeditions for several years.
Kelley, Harrison, soldier and member of Congress, was a native of Ohio, born in Montgomery township, Wood county, May 12, 1836. He was reared on a farm and obtained his education in the common schools. When twenty-two years of age he moved to Kansas, where he arrived in March, 1858, and took up a claim. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Fifth Kansas cavalry; was repeatedly promoted through the grades to captain, and served in that capacity with Company B, Fifth cavalry, for two years. When mustered out of the service at the close of hostilities, he returned to his homestead. Mr. Kelley took an interest in all public questions and local politics and represented his district for one term in the state legislature. In 1865 he was appointed brigadier-general of the Kansas state militia and three years later the governor appointed him one of the board of directors for the state peni-
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tentiary, where he served five years. He was receiver of the United States land office in Topeka and subsequently became assessor of inter- nal revenue. Owing to his experience and years of public service, he was appointed chairman of the live stock sanitary commission of Kan- sas, and treasurer of the state board of charities. In 1888 he was elected on the Republican ticket to fill the vacancy in the United States house of representatives, occasioned by the resignation of Thomas Ryan. Mr. Kelley died at Burlington, Kan., July 24, 1897.
Kellogg, a hamlet in Cowley county, is a station on the Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe, and the Missouri Pacific railroads, and is located in Vernon township, 6 miles west of Winfield, the county seat. It has a grain elevator, a general store, a grocery store, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 52.
Kelly, a village of Nemaha county, is located in Harrison township, on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 9 miles southeast of Seneca, the county seat. It has banking facilities, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 250.
Kelso, a village in Morris county, is located in Neosho township on the river of the same name, and is a station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., 6 miles northwest of Council Grove, the county seat. It has about a dozen business houses, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 76. Downing is the railroad name.
Kendall, a village in Hamilton county, is located in Kendall township, and is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 12 miles southeast of Syracuse, the county seat. It has several stores, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 75. Kendall was the first county seat. On Feb. 1, 1886, it had ro houses, and on April 21 of the same year it had over 200. (See Hamilton County.)
Kennekuk, the prophet of the Kickapoo Indians about the time that tribe came to Kansas, has been described as "a tall, bony Indian, with a keen black eye, and a face beaming with intelligence." He was a heredi- tary chief, as well as a professed preacher or prophet of a sect he orig- inated. He claimed to receive his knowledge, and the direction for his teachings, from the Great Spirit. The teaching of the white mission- aries he regarded as an innovation upon the original belief of the In- dians, and consequently he opposed their work. Among the precepts he set forth for his followers was total abstinence from the use of intox- icating liquors. He died about 1856 or 1857 from small-pox. After his death some 30 or 40 of his faithful followers remained with his body, hoping to see the fulfillment of his prophecy that "in three days he would rise again," and all contracted the disease and died.
Kennekuk, a hamlet in the extreme northwestern part of Atchison county, is located about 2 miles southeast of Horton, the nearest rail- road town. It is one of the first places in the county where whites located permanently, an early mission being established here among the Indians. The town was platted in 1858 by William Wheeler and for
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some years flourished, being on one of the great wagon highways to the west, during the period of emigration in the late '40s and '50s, but when the railroads were built it sank into insignificance and today has a popu- lation of only about 30. Mail is received by rural delivery from Horton.
Kenneth, a post village of Johnson county, is situated on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 10 miles southeast of Olathe, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express facilities and in 1910 had a population of 30.
Kensington, one of the incorporated towns of Smith county, is located in Cedar township on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., 14 miles west of Smith Center, the county seat. It has 2 banks, a weekly newspaper (the Mirror), a large number of retail stores, 4 churches, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order post- office with three rural routes. It was settled in 1888. Kensington be- came a city of the third class in 1900. The population in 1910 was 497.
Kent, a hamlet of Reno county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 7 miles east of Hutchinson, the county seat, from which postoffice its mail is distributed by rural delivery.
Keokuk, a Sauk chief, was born on Rock river, Ill., about 1780. It is said his mother was a French half-breed. He was therefore not a chief by heredity, but arose to that position through sheer ability. When a young man he became a member of the Sauk council, and later was made the tribal guest keeper. He was ambitious, and, while always involved in intrigue, never exposed himself to his enemies, but cunningly played one faction against the other for his personal advantage. At the time of the Black Hawk war he "broke the feeble bond of political union" between the Sauks and Foxes, which left the chief Black Hawk with a force entirely too small to hope for success. At the close of the war Keokuk came to the front in the negotiations with the representatives of the United States, and by playing into their hands was recognized by the government as the head chief of the Sauk tribe. His chieftainship was treated with ridicule by the Indians, be- cause he was not of the ruling clan, but in the negotiations at Wash- ington, D. C., he won the regard of both the Sauks and Foxes, when in a debate he vanquished the Sioux and other northern tribes and estab- lished the claim of the Sauks and Foxes to the territory now comprising the State of Iowa. He was fond of debate, cool, deliberate and logical, and though he disliked the Foxes he managed to retain his power until his death in Kansas in 1848. His remains were afterward taken to Keokuk, Iowa, where a monument has been erected to his memory by the citizens, and a bronze bust of Keokuk stands in the national capital at Washington. After his death his son, Moses Keokuk, became chief. He died at Horton, Kan., in Aug., 1903.
Kepple, a hamlet in Wichita county, is located in Edwards township, 15 miles north of Leoti, the county seat and most convenient railroad station. Its mail is distributed from Sunnyside.
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Kickapoo, one of the oldest towns in Leavenworth county, is located on the Missouri river and the Missouri Pacific R. R. 7 miles from the city of Leavenworth. It was laid out in July, 1854, by citizens of Weston and Platte county, Mo., and was intended as a rival to Leavenworth. The town grew rapidly for awhile, but the location of the county seat at Leavenworth and the large outfitting trade there finally proved too much to be overcome, and its growth practically ceased. The population in 1910 was 200. Kickapoo has a money order postoffice, several gen- eral stores, churches, a public school, etc. By the act of Feb. 26, 1864, the legislature authorized the name of Kickapoo City changed to Steuben, and the name of Kickapoo township changed to Steuben town- ship, but for some reason the act never became effective and the old names still appear on the modern maps.
Kickapoo Cannon .- "Old Kickapoo" is a trophy of the Mexican war, but whether it was a gun taken to the war by Gen. Kearney's Army of the North or was captured from the Mexicans is uncertain. In 1848 the military authorities at Santa Fe gave it as a protection against the Comanche Indians, then on the warpath, to a party in charge of a train returning from New Mexico to the Missouri river via the Santa Fe trail. The train had no fight with the Comanches, but by the time it had reached the Arkansas river, so many of the animals had been stampeded by the Indians, that the men were obliged to abandon a portion of their outfit including this cannon. Later that year, another train returning under the charge of a citizen of Weston, Mo., bearing the historical name of John Brown, brought the cannon to Fort Leaven- worth to be delivered by him to the military authorities there, but no officer there would give Brown a satisfactory receipt for the cannon, and he took it to his home in Weston. Later he donated it to the city where for several years it was employed in saluting steamboats on their arrival, celebrating the 4th of July and the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans.
In the spring of 1856, as preparations began for the campaign which resulted in the sacking of Lawrence, the gun was stolen from the city of Weston, taken across the river and put in possession of the Kickapoo Rangers, a military organization with headquarters at the town of Kickapoo in Leavenworth county. After the assault on Lawrence, the cannon was taken by the Rangers to Kickapoo, and there remained until in 1858, when the free-state men of Leavenworth seized it, kept it in con- cealment for some time, and afterwards openly at Leavenworth as a trophy. In the course of time, by an accident in connection with the sinking of the shaft of the first Leavenworth coal mine, the cannon was burst. Later it was brought into the collections of the Kansas State Historical Society.
Kickapoo Mission .- (See Missions.)
Kickapoo Rangers .- Holloway's History of Kansas (p. 408) says the northern division of the territorial militia was known as the "Kickapoo Rangers." The name must have been adopted late in 1855 or early in
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1856, for on May 21, 1856, after the militia had entered Lawrence, David R. Atchison made a speech, liberally punctuated with profanity, in which he said: "Boys, this day I am a Kickapoo Ranger. This day we have entered Lawrence with Southern rights inscribed on our banner, and not one abolitionist dared to fire a gun. And now, boys, we will go in again with our highly honorable Jones, and test the strength of that Free-State hotel, and teach the Emigrant Aid company that Kansas shall be ours. Boys, ladies should, and I hope will, be respected by every gentleman. But, when a woman takes upon herself the garb of a soldier by carrying a Sharp's rifle, she is no longer worthy of respect. Trample her under your feet as you would a snake. . . . If one man or woman dare stand before you, blow them to hell with a chunk of cold lead."
Gihon says the Kickapoo Rangers numbered 250 or 300 men, and that at the time the militia was disbanded by Gov. Geary on Sept. 15, 1856, they were commanded by "Col." Clarkson. That afternoon the rangers forded the Kansas river at Lecompton on their way to the northern part of the territory, where they belonged. Says Gihon: "This party was mounted and well armed, and looked like as desperate a set of ruffians as were ever gathered together. They still carried the black flag, and their cannon, guns, swords and carbines were yet decorated with the black emblems of their murderous intentions."
This description was written by a free-state partisan, but it gives a pretty definite idea of the character of the Kickapoo Rangers. On their way back to their homes some of the party left the main body and killed David C. Buffum, a free-state man. (See Geary's Administra- tion.)
Kicking Bird, a Kiowa chief, was the grandson of a Crow Indian who was captured and adopted by the Kiowas, his adoption being due to his great bravery and wisdom in councils. The Indian name of Kicking Bird was Tene-angpote. On Aug. 15, 1865, he signed an agreement with representatives of the United States to accept a reservation near the present city of Wichita, Kan., and he was a party to the treaty which was made at Medicine Lodge on Oct. 21, 1867, fixing the boundaries of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation in the present State of Oklahoma. When the government, in 1873, failed to carry out the agreement to release certain Kiowa chiefs then imprisoned in Texas, Kicking Bird lost faith in the United States and was preparing to join an expedition against the Tonkawa tribe and the white buffalo hunters, when he found out that his rival chief, Lone Wolf, was about to join the hostile Indians to commit depredations upon the frontier settle- ments. He gave up his own expedition and induced about two-thirds of the Kiowa tribe to remain at the Fort Sill agency. In the negotiations which followed he was treated as the head chief of the tribe. Kicking Bird was a man of positive character and labored for the welfare of his people. He aided in the establishment of the first school among the Kiowas in 1873. His death occurred suddenly on May 5, 1875, and it
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was thought by some that he had been poisoned by some of his ene- mies. His name-Kicking Bird-was adopted as a pseudonym by Mil- ton W. Reynolds, the Kansas writer.
Kidderville, a country postoffice in Hodgeman county, is located in North Roscoe township, 17 miles northwest of Jetmore, the county seat. It has mail tri-weekly. The population in 1910 was 38. There are a number of cattle breeders in the vicinity.
Killcreek, a hamlet in Osborne county, is located between Little Medicine and Kill creeks, 13 miles southwest of Osborne, the county seat, and 9 miles in the same direction from Bloomington, the nearest railroad station and shipping point, whence it receives mail by rural route. The population in 1910 was 18.
Kimball, one of the thriving little towns of Neosho county, is located in Grant township on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., about 8 miles northeast of Erie, the county seat. It has express and telegraph offices and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 165. The plat was filed in May, 1888, under the name of Dalton, but the postoffice and station have always been called Kimball.
Kimeo, a hamlet in Washington county, is located 16 miles south of Washington, the county seat, and 9 miles in the same direction from Greenleaf, the postoffice from which its mail is distributed by rural route. The population in 1910 was 50.
Kincaid, one of the incorporated towns of Anderson county, is located in Rich township on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the Missouri Pacific railroads, 18 miles by rail southeast of Garnett. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the Dispatch), 5 churches, schools, and all the general lines of business enterprise, express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with three rural routes. The population according to the census of 1910 was 426.
King, Henry, journalist, was born at Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio, May II, 1842, a son of Selah W. and Eliza (Aleshire) King. He received a good, practical education in the public schools of his native state ; married Miss Marie Louise Lane on Nov. 17, 1861, and served for four years in the Union army during the Civil war. His wife is a rela- tive of former Gov. Nance of Nebraska. After the war he engaged in newspaper work at Quincy, Ill., and after a year or two there removed to Topeka, Kan., where he occupied editorial positions on the Record, the Commonwealth and the Capital. He was founder and first editor of the Kansas Magazine, the first number of which was issued in Jan., 1872, and to which he contributed a number of interesting articles on various subjects. In 1883 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., and accepted a position on the staff of the Globe-Democrat. In 1897 he was made managing editor of that paper, a position he still holds in 1911.
Kingery, a country postoffice in Thomas county, is located in the township of the same name 25 miles southwest of Colby, the county seat. It has tri-weekly mail.
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Kingman, the judicial seat of Kingman county, is located north of the central part of the county on the Ninnescah river and on two lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads. It is a fine little business city with good buildings and well-kept streets. There are 3 banks with a total capitalization of $125,000, a new court- house, one of the largest flour mills in southwest Kansas, which has a capacity of 600 barrels of flour per day and a storage capacity of 170,000 bushels of wheat, 2 elevators, 2 schools, 4 churches, an ice plant, a creamery, an ice cream factory with a daily capacity of 400 gallons, 3 hotels, 15 miles of water mains, a number of business houses, an elec- tric light plant, a sewer system, a fire department, a carpet factory, cereal mill, and an opera house. The water supply comes from natural springs of unusual purity. A salt mine which produces the crystal rock salt is in operation 2 miles away. The principal shipments are salt, live stock, grain, flour and produce. There are 2 newspapers published weekly (the Courier and the Journal). The town is supplied with tele- graph and express offices and has an international money order post- office with four rural routes. The population according to the census of 1910 was 2,570.
Kingman was founded by two brothers, J. K. and F. S. Fical, who took adjoining claims in 1873. It was laid out in March, 1874, Jesse McCarty acting as the surveyor. The first building was the Kingman House put up by H. L. Ball. A small frame school house was erected and also a mercantile establishment. Two or three residences were erected. The first attorney was George E. Filley, who came in 1877. In 1878 a party of several men came from Hutchinson, formed them- selves into a town company, and laid out a large addition to Kingman on the south side of the river. Several good buildings were erected, most of which were later moved to the north side. The first bank was estab- lished in 1881 by Gassard Bros. and H. S. Strohm.
Kingman County, in the south central part of the state, is located in the second tier from the Oklahoma state line, and is bounded on the north by Reno county ; on the east by Sedgwick and Sumner; on the south by Harper and Barber, and on the west by Barber and Pratt. It was named for Samuel A. Kingman, who was chief justice of the Kansas supreme court at the time it was organized.
The first settler is said to have been W. H. Childs, who came from Michigan in 1872, though some accounts place the date as 1874, and that of the first settlement as Feb., 1873, when Martin Updegraff located on the Chikaskia river 20 miles south of the present city of Kingman. A few months later half a dozen others settled in the county, among whom were J. K. and F. S. Fical and Charles Barr. Early in 1874 W. H. Childs, H. L. Ball, A. D. Culver, H. S. Bush and W. P. Brown located at Kingman and took claims in the vicinity. W. H. Mosher located at the head of Smoot creek, and a number of families located on the Ninnescah. Late in the summer the settlements were threatened by the Indians. Mr. Fical was commissioned as captain and
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W. H. Childs as lieutenant to organize a military company to repel any attack. When the commissions arrived there were no men to organize, all the residents having fled. They returned as soon as the scare was over.
During the years of 1874 and 1876 there were few new people. A large number came in 1877 and every part of the county was settled. The last of the buffalo disappeared in that year. Heavy rains in the spring swelled the streams so that they became impassable and the set- tlers being shut off from supplies were threatened with famine. For several days parched corn was the only food, and even this gave out before the flood subsided.
The organization of the county took place in Feb., 1874, when there were not more than 20 bona fide settlers. Gov. Thomas A. Osborne designated Kingman as the temporary county seat and appointed the following officers: J. Harmony, county clerk; and J. K. Fical, J. M. Jordan and G. W. Lacey county commissioners. The officers met at Kingman on March 5, and as J. K. Fical withdrew, W. C. Frink was appointed in his place. A special election was called for April 7, to vote on the issuing of bonds to the amount of $70,000, for court-house, bridges and general expenses. It was ordered also that county and township officers should be elected at this time, and a permanent county seat chosen. The election resulted in the choice of the following officers : H. L. Ball, J. K. Fical and G. W. Lacy, commissioners ; J. Har- mony, clerk; F. S. Fical, sheriff; J. M. Jordan, treasurer ; W. P. Brown, county attorney ; George Pitts, probate judge; G. A. Whicher, county superintendent ; W. J. Harmony, register of deeds; W. P. Brown, coro- ner; R. R. Wilson, surveyor; and G. A. Whicher, district clerk. King- man was made the permanent county seat and the bonds were authorized. These bonds were printed but were canceled and destroyed the next spring. Two efforts were later made to have the county seat removed from Kingman. One was in 1878, when a town called Akron was started in the eastern part of the county. A petition was presented to the com- missioners asking for an election to relocate the county seat, and when this petition was denied, the town of Akron was abandoned. The other attempt was in 1881, when the people in the southeastern part of the county succeeded in having an election called. The competing points were Kingman and Dale City, a point about 7 miles to the southwest. Kingman won by a majority of 85 votes.
The first child born in Kingman county was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Fical, whom they named Ninnescah, born in 1873. The first marriage was in Nov., 1875, between Jesse McCarty and Cecilia Capi- tolia Scribner, the ceremony being performed by W. H. Mosher, a jus- tice of the peace. The first school was opened in 1874 with only 5 pupils, Miss Ada Crane, teacher. The first farming was done by Charles Barr in 1873. Six years later there were 76,000 acres under cultivation. The first water-mill was built by Starling Turner in 1879, at a cost of $20,000. The Mercury, the first newspaper, was established in 1878 by
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