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 76
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St. Theresa, a country postoffice in Wichita county, is located 12 miles northwest of Leoti, the county seat and nearest shipping point. The population in 1910 was 20.
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Salem, a hamlet of Jewell county, is located in Richland township about 10 miles northeast of Mankato, the county seat, and about the same distance east of Burr Oak. It gets mail by rural delivery from Isbon. Salem was laid off in 1872 and was at one time one of the im- portant little towns of the county. The population in 1910 was 51.
Salemsburg, an inland hamlet of Saline county, is located in Smoky View township, about 12 miles south of Salina, the county seat, and about 4 miles from Smolan, from which place it receives mail by rural route. The population in 1910 was 35.
Salina, the metropolis of central Kansas and judicial seat of Saline county, is located 115 miles west of Topeka, on the Smoky Hill river about 8 miles west of where it is joined by the Saline. It is one of the leading cities of Kansas, especially in a manufacturing and jobbing way. Its tributary territory includes not only several counties in the central part of the state, but also three or four tiers of counties as far west as the state line. This is partly due to the railroad facilities with which Salina is provided. Four lines -- the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe-center here, affording transportation facilities in all direc- tions. In appearance Salina is a spacious, well built and well kept town. The streets are wide, paved and clean. The buildings are of good size and substantial, some of them costly. Shade trees line some of the business streets as well as those in the residence districts. Among the manufacturing establishments are a $50,000 alfalfa mill, flour mills, vitrified brick plant, planing mill, glove factory, foundry, machine shops, sunbonnet factory, creamery, carriage and wagon works, cigar fac- tories, body brace factory, oil refinery, agricultural implement works, cold storage plant, razor strop factory, broom and mattress factories, etc. The wholesale and jobbing interests represent an investment of $3,- 000,000, and an annual distribution of $8,000,000 worth of goods. There are 2 state and 2 national banks, one of which is a United States depos- itory. In the way of educational institutions there are a hospital and training school for nurses, four colleges, the Salina Wesleyan, the Salina Wesleyan business college, Shelton's school of telegraphy, and the St. John's Military school, 6 newspapers-two daily, two semi-weekly and two weekly-a $15,000 Carnegie library, a yearly Chautauqua assembly, an opera house which will accommodate 3,000 people, and excellent graded and high schools. Some of the best buildings include a $75,000 Federal building, a $60,000 convention hall, and a $50,000 cathedral. Salina is a good lodge town, and has 14 churches. Oak Park adds greatly to the attractiveness of the place. There are ample express and telegraph accommodations, and the international money order postoffice has six rural routes. The population in 1910 was 9,688.
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Salina was founded by Col. W. A. Phillips, in 1858. Being practically the only settlement in Saline county until after the war, the early history of Salina is included in the county history. (See Saline County.) The original town company, chartered by the territorial legislature in 1859,
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was composed of W. A. Phillips, A. M. Campbell, James Muir, Robert Crawford and A. C. Spillman. The survey was not completed until 1862, when there were only about a dozen families in the town. Very little progress was made prior to the coming of the first railroad, the main line of the Union Pacific, which was built as far as Salina in 1867. The early business men were George Pickard, A. M. Campbell and H. L. Jones. Their chief trade was among the Indians, whom they furnished with provisions, ammunition and a poor grade of whiskey. The immigrants for Pike's Peak, New Mexico and other Western points furnished considerable business in the early '6os. With the coming of the railroad four new additions were made to the original plat of the city. They were the Phillips, Jones, Calkins and the "Depot" addi- tions. The shanties and log cabins were replaced by neat frame and stone buildings, a school house and churches were built. C. R. Under- wood set up a combination grist and sawmill in 1867. The court-house was built in 1871, Salina having been made the county seat in 1860. A disastrous fire occurred on Christmas day, 1871, in which $20,000 worth of property in the business part of the town was destroyed. The build- ings thereafter were built of stone and brick. The next year Salina be- came the trading place for the cattle men. This class of business helped it in a financial way but had its undesirable features. A number of new additions were made in the '7os and several manufacturing plants and other buildings were put up. In 1874, aside from the grasshopper dis- aster, which was common to all Kansas, Salina was swept by a de- structive fire, in which property to the extent of $25,000 was destroyed. Fire limits were then described by an ordinance and frame buildings forbidden to be erected within those limits. Improvements continued and by 1880 the town took on a metropolitan appearance. Large stone and brick business buildings with plate glass fronts, fine public build- ings and parks, good school and magnificent church edifices were erected.
Salina became a city of the third class in 1870, with C. H. Martin as the first mayor. In 1878 it was declared a city of the second class. The first newspaper was the Salina Herald, established in 1866 by J. F. Hanna. The Salina Journal was begun in 1871 by W. H. Johnson and M. D. Sampson. In 1895 another fire occurred destroying considerable property. In 1903, the great flood, which damaged every river town in Kansas, did much damage to Salina.
Saline County, one of the central counties of the state, is the fourth county south from Nebraska, and the eighth from the Missouri river, the 6th principal meridian forming its eastern boundary line. It is bounded on the north by Ottawa county; on the east by Dickinson; on the south by McPherson, and on the west by Ellsworth and Lincoln. The name Saline was given to the river, and later to the county on ac- count of the salt marshes in this section.
The earliest settlements were not permanent. The first one of which there is any authentic account was made by Preston B. Plumb, after-
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wards United States senator. He came into the county in 1856 with a Mr. Hunter and Maj. Pierce and the three projected a town at the mouth of the Saline river which they called Mariposa. The place was soon afterward abandoned, a cabin and a well being the extent of the improvements. In the same year the territorial legislature chartered what was known as the "Buchanan Town company," of which Richard Mobley, a pro-slavery man and later a member of the Lecompton consti- tutional convention, was president. This company was to have several thousand acres of land. A site was selected near the mouth of the Solo- mon river in Saline county, and a town was laid off in 1857. Eight log cabins were built, but only two were ever occupied. On the death of his child, Mr. Mobley abandoned the town project and Saline county was without a settler. However, a permanent settlement was made the next year by Col. W. A. Phillips, who in 1857, with a companion by the name of Smith, had made a tour into the valleys of the Saline and Solo- mon rivers on foot. In Feb., 1858, he returned with A. M. Campbell and James Muir. Passing the sites of the two former settlements, they made their way up the Smoky Hill river to where the stream turns due south, and there founded the town of Salina. The next month two brothers named Schipple, who had erected a cabin on the Saline that winter, came and settled on their claim. The first merchant in the county was George Pickard, who built a store and brought a small stock of goods to Salina. The latter was an arduous task. On arriving at the Solomon river with his goods he found the government bridge had been washed out by the floods, as were the bridges over the Saline and Smoky Hill. He constructed a raft of skins and timbers, with which he succeeded in getting his goods over, but not without considerable dam- age. A number of new settlers arrived during the year, most of them settling in or near Salina. Among them was a Dr. Graw, a German from Illinois, who in the absence of any other method of surveying, measured off with a string a piece of land, which he supposed to be a mile square, on the Saline, and proposed to build a town by the name of Grawville, but abandoned the idea.
At this time all the territory west of the 6th principal meridian was called the "Arapaho district." Saline county was included in this un- organized territory until Feb., 1859, when the legislature passed an act organizing and defining the boundary lines of five counties, of which Saline was one. The same act designated as a board of commissioners A. C. Spillman, Israel Markley and Charles Holtzman. These men met in April, 1860, eletted Charles Holtzman, chairman; A. C. Spillman, clerk; and the officers were sworn in by Hugh M. Morrison, the first justice of the peace. Salina was named by the act as the temporary county seat. In May, the commissioners met again and divided the county into two townships-Elm Creek and Spring Creek-and ordered an election to be held in July, 1860. At this election the following offi- cers were chosen : D. L. Phillips, Israel Markley and Charles Holtzman, commissioners ; Jacob Cass, treasurer, and L. F. Parsons, sheriff.
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In the year 1859 many improvements were made in Salina, Israel Markley being the prime mover in building enterprises. That spring a perfect stream of emigrants for Pike's Peak passed through the county. The stage line for New Mexico also came this way, and Salina being the farthest town west became quite a supply station for trav- elers. A hotel was built by Col. Phillips, with lumber which he hauled from Kansas City. The settlers being very much in need of a grist inill and a sawmill, Col. Phillips set up a combination grist and sawmill at a great financial loss to himself.
When the Civil war broke out, nearly all the able-bodied men in Sa- lina enlisted on the Union side. Among those who entered the army W. A. Phillips rose to the rank of colonel; L. F. Parsons went in as sec- ond lieutenant and came out as captain; and D. L. Phillips was mus- tered in as a private and mustered out as first lieutenant. During the war two raids were made into Saline county. The first was by the Indians in the early part of 1862. The settlers heard of their coming in time to gather at Salina, where a stockade had been built. The red men had determined upon killing every settler in the Smoky Hill val- ley. A number of ranches west of Salina were attacked and the ranch- men killed, but when the Indians reached Salina and found the settlers ready for them they changed their course without molesting the stock- ade. The second raid was by a band of white desperadoes in the fall of that year. They rode into Salina, taking the citizens by surprise, and not meeting with any resistance, limited their outrages to pillage. They destroyed everything in the way of fire-arms that they could not take with them; appropriated everything of value they found in resi- dences and business places; and took 20 horses and 6 mules, the prop- erty of the Kansas Stage company. One horse was accidentally over- looked and this one was used by R. H. Bishop to carry the news of the raid to Fort Riley. A detachment of soldiers was sent out but the bush- whackers had escaped "to parts unknown."
The first election at which a full county ticket was chosen was held under the state law in Nov., 1861, and resulted as follows: Commis- sioners, Henry Whitley, G. Schippel and R. H. Bishop; probate judge, A. A. Morrison; sheriff, John McReynolds; treasurer, Ransom Calkin; county clerk, H. H. Morrison; register of deeds, H. H. Flagg; as- sessor, Robert McReynolds; surveyor, James R. Mead; coroner, Robert Crawford ; justices of the peace, Daniel Alverson and Peter Giersch.
During the war Saline county, in common with other parts of the state, made no progress. As soon as the soldiers returned, however, new life came into the western settlements. Up to that time the settlement of Saline county was limited to the vicinity of Salina. In 1865 Ernst Hohneck located about 9 miles west of Salina and established a ranch store where Bavaria now stands. In April, 1869, a large colony from the Western Reserve in Ohio settled at this point. They were under the leadership of John Thorp, and the township was named after their state. By 1868 there were settlers in every part of the county, and that
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year saw a large increase in the population. In August word reached Salina of the Indian raids in the Republican, upper Saline and Solomon valleys, where they were murdering and outraging settlers on every hand. Gov. Crawford was telegraphed and arrived on the next train. A company of 60 men was raised as fast as they could be armed. Gov. Crawford took command and proceeded to the seat of trouble. He went north into Ottawa county, visited Minneapolis and Delphos, where he sent out a scouting party of 2 men-M. J. Mills and M. D. Simpson- the main body retiring to Asherville. The scouts went as far as Fort Sibley in Republic county, and then, seeing no Indians, joined the main body at Asherville. After burying several men who had been scalped, and several children whose bodies had been fastened to the ground by arrows, the company returned to Salina and disbanded.
Two large colonies-one of Swedes numbering 75, who bought 20,000 acres in the southern part of the county, and another of Illinois people numbering 60, who located in Smoky View and Smolan townships- were added to the strength of the frontier, and enabled Saline county to make rapid strides in improvements. The next year the Ohio colony came, and in 1870 a colony of 75 under the leadership of Eric Forse, located in Falun township. Three new postoffices were established in that year: Brookville, in Spring Creek township, J. W. Hogan, post- master; Falun, Eric Forse, postmaster; and Salemburg, in Smoky View township, J. P. Clarkson, postmaster. Hohneck, in Ohio township, had been established in 1867, with Ernst Hohneck as postmaster, and Sa- lina in 1861, with A. M. Campbell, postmaster. Before the postoffice was established at Salina, there was no office west of Fort Riley. The Saline county people had their mail forwarded from Lawrence, and it never reached them oftener than once in two weeks.
The first Saline county people to be married were A. M. Campbell and Christina A. Phillips, in 1858. There being no minister or justice of the peace in the vicinity, they were obliged to travel 60 miles to Riley county to be married. The first white child born in the county was their daughter, Christina Campbell, born in Oct., 1859.
Saline county is divided into 19 civil townships, the dates of organiza- tion being as follows: Elm Creek, 1860; Spring Creek, 1860, disorgan- ized in 1862 and reorganized in 1869; Cambria, 1878; Dayton, 1877; Eureka, 1860; Falun, 1873; Glendale, 1880; Greeley, 1879; Gypsum, 1871; Liberty, 1872; Ohio, 1871; Pleasant Valley, 1875; Smoky Hill, 1871; Smoky View, 1874; Smolan, 1874; Solomon, 1867; Summit, 1880; Walnut, 1869; Washington, 1874. Some of the early towns which have disappeared from the map were Crown Point, Dry Creek, Gypsum Creek, Pliny, Poheta and Torry. The towns and postoffices in 1910 were Sa- lina, Assaria, Bavaria, Bridgeport, Brookville, Falun, Gypsum, Kipp, Mentor, New Cambria, Salemsburg, Smolan, Strickler and Wonderly.
The surface of the county is level bottom lands, rolling prairie and highlands, having about an equal area of each. The Saline and Smoky Hill rivers meet near the eastern line and the bottom lands along their
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banks form a basin through the central part of the county, the sides of which are much higher on the north than on the south. There is a range of high hills near the southern boundary called "Smoky Hill Buttes"; an elevation on the north called "North Pole Mound,"; one 8 miles east of Salina known as "Iron Mound," and in the west rises "Soldier Cap." Limestone, sandstone, gypsum and salt are found in considerable quantities. The Solomon river flows across the north- eastern part of the county; the Saline enters on the northern boundary and flows southeast; the Smoky Hill enters from the south, flows north to Salina and from there east about 8 miles, where it is joined by the Saline. The smaller streams are the Gypsum, Hobbs, Dry, Spring, Mulberry and Buckeye creeks.
The area is 720 square miles, or 460,000 acres, about two-thirds of which are under cultivation. The total value of farm products for 1910 was more than $4,000,000. The corn crop was worth $1,250,000; wheat over $500,000; animals marketed amounted to over $1,000,000; the as- sessed valuation of property was about $42,000,000. The population in 1910 was 20,338, which makes the wealth per capita about $2,000.
Saline county is well supplied with railroads. The first one built was the Union Pacific, which reached Salina in 1867. The main line enters in the northeast and crosses the county into Ellsworth, passing through Salina, where two branches diverge, one going south, and the other northwest. A branch of the same road passes through the northeastern corner. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific enter from Solomon and terminate at Salina. The Mis- souri Pacific enters in the southeastern part of the county and diverges at Gypsum, one branch running to Salina and the other southwest into McPherson county. Another branch of the Missouri Pacific enters in the southwest and crosses northeast to Salina.
Saline River, the principal tributary of the Smoky Hill river, has its source in the southwestern part of Thomas county. For the first 60 miles its general course is almost due east across the southern part of Thomas and Sheridan counties. It then turns slightly to the south, continuing a general eastward course, however, across the northern part of Graham and Ellis counties; thence across Russell county a lit- tle north of the center; eastward through Lincoln county; across the southwest corner of Ottawa, where it turns sharply to the southeast and empties into the Smoky Hill a few miles below the city of Salina, in Saline county. Schoolcraft mentions a legendary tin mine on the south side of the Saline "about 40 miles west of the Pottawatomie coun- try." The total length of the stream is about 250 miles. It is not navigable and has no large tributaries.
Salt .- The salt industry was 100 years old in America when the salt beds of Kansas were discovered. About the middle of the 17th century when New York state was mostly Indian reservations, the Jesuit mis- sionaries heard of certain springs which were regarded with supersti- tion and said to contain demons. Investigation of these springs resulted
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in the manufacture of salt from them by the Indians and traders. In 1788 a systematic manufacture of salt was pursued near Syracuse, and the next year 200 barrels were produced from this region. Later a salt premium was offered by the state for any salt produced on the New York reservation. In 1878 rock salt was discovered beneath the surface, and the manufacture of salt from brines became a great industry in central New York. Salt is now produced in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Nevada, Utah, California and Kansas.
In Kansas there are large areas which contain salt on the surface, or within drilling distance of the surface, but the most valuable and important district is in the central part of the state, extending from the northern to the southern boundary. The salt is found first as brines in salt marshes, where it is left on the surface by evaporation in the dry season, producing the so-called salt plains. Second the rock salt, which is found at varying distances beneath the surface. Third the greater part of the Permian and coal measure shales, in the eastern part of the state contain so much salt and other minerals that water obtained from deep wells is quite strongly saturated.
The University geological survey of Kansas says the salt marshes are found in a zone trending a little east of north and west of south from Republic county to Barber county, and to the Cimarron river in Okla- homa. One of the earliest marshes known, and one of the first described, is the Tuthill marsh in the southern part of Republic county. This marsh, which covers about 1,000 acres, is thus described: "When the sun is bright and shines upon the encrusted soil, in the distance the ap- pearance is like that of a chain of lakes, and indeed a much closer inspec- tion is necessary to destroy the illusion. A stream of fresh water flows in from the east, but disappears, nor does it dissolve very much saline matter in its course. The saline incrustation is usually thick after a period of drought but ordinarily it is thin and in some places plumose, as if brought to the surface by the moisture of the soil. Mr. Tuthill was the pioneer salt manufacturer. His process was to collect salt scales from over the marsh and dissolve them in water, after the earthy im- purities settled, to siphon off the clear brine, evaporate it to dryness to recover the salt. When the weather was unfavorable to the formation of salt scales he pumped brine from small wells. The brine was evap- orated in large kettles in accordance with the process of the times. Mr. Tuthill marketed his salt at Manhattan in the early '6os and is said to have received 10 cents a pound for it. Mr. Tuthill's marsh and other similar marshes of the state were of great value to hunters in early times. They would come here to 'jerk' their buffalo meat. In case they were in too great a hurry to wait to evaporate the brine and get the crystalized salt they would dip the meat and hides into the strongest pool of brine and then dry them in the sunshine or by the fire. When a considerable quantity of meat was to be 'jerked' they would cut it into long strips, boil the brine in kettles hung over a fire of buffalo chips, dip the meat into the strong hot brine and lay it out to dry in
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the sunshine or on a lattice work made of green poles supported on four posts, with a fire under it. In this way 200 or 300 pounds could be cured in 5 or 6 hours."
Previous to the admission of Kansas into the Union the salt marshes were thought to be of great value and by act of Congress 12 salt springs with 6 sections of land adjoining a contiguous as may be to each were granted to the state. (Admission act, Sec. 3.) These reserves became part of the endowment of the state normal school. In 1863 the legisla- ture passed an act to encourage the manufacture of salt, by paying a premium of 10 cents per bushel "for the first 10,000 bushels of mer- chantable salt," actually manufactured and to be sold; Provided, "that such premium shall not be paid upon less than 500 bushels at a time." There was during this early period great faith in the prospect of pro- ducing salt from springs, marshes and wells. A salt spring near Solo- mon City, Dickinson county, attracted the attention of prospectors and in 1867 C. W. Davis, of New Bedford, Mass., drilled a well there which produced excellent brine. Other wells were drilled with good results, and the National Salt company was organized. It obtained salt by solar evaporation.
In a report on salt Mr. Hay says that in the years preceding 1888 the National Solar Salt company was the sole reason that Kansas was placed on the list of salt producing states. The most important salt marshes as enumerated by Mr. Hay in 1893 were: 1-Geuda springs on the line of Cowley and Sumner counties; 2-Some miles northwest from No. I in Sumner county ; 3-The great marsh in the northeast part of Stafford county; 4-The little marsh south by east from No. 3, Staf- ford county ; 5-On Rattlesnake creek, Lincoln county ; 7 and 8 -- Great and Little marshes on Salt creek in Mitchell county; 9-On Plum creek, 4 miles northeast of Beloit; 10-On Big Marsh creek, in Cloud, Republic and Jewell counties; II-In Little Marsh creek, in northwest Cloud county ; 12-Tuthill's marsh, in southeast Republic county.
In 1884 natural gas was discovered in Ohio, and by 1886 the great gas excitement pervaded Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana. Memories of gas wells near Paola and Iola influenced many Kansans. to drill for gas. Drillings in the central part of the state, at Lyons, Kanopolis, Hutchinson and Kingman, failed to find gas but revealed deposits of rock salt, starting the salt industry in that region. Analysis of salt from these localities showed it to be of very pure quality. The elements consisted of sodium chloride, 99.70 per cent. to 99.78 per cent .; insoluble residue, .02 per cent. ; magnesium chloride, .03 to .05 per cent .; cent .; calcium sulphate, .08 to .17 per cent .; sodium sulphate, .00 to .10 per cent .; calcium chloride, .oo to .16 per cent,, the salt being more than 997/2 per cent. pure. Plants were erected for its manufacture and pro- duction. The depth of the shafts for the mining of salt varied from 700 to 1,065 feet, and usually were 7 by 16 feet in size, allowing space for transportation and ventilation. These mines ship large quantities of salt for salting stock, hides, packing, for use in ice cream freezers, (II-41)
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