USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
84
THE NORTHERN TIER.
true exponents of the "noblest passions that can govern the human mind."
In addition to the emoluments of a civil office, there is doubtless another influence that ministers to the ambition of subordinate Federal office-holders-a fancy or suspicion that they are regarded by their neighbors and friends as superior in intellect and judgment, possessing a prophetic insight into the most profound subjects, and entitled to a goodly portion of the hero-worship that pervades all classes of society.
It was not the seductive influence of official position, nor a high-toned ambition to serve my country, but the potential charm of a lucrative salary, coupled with a desire to enjoy life for a time among the homestead settlers on the frontier, and to assist in the development of a neglected portion of the State, that induced me, in August, 1870, to accept the posi- tion of Receiver of the land office subsequently located at Concordia.
In addition to the preemption law of 1841, the homestead law of May 20, 1862, with amendments, had been in force several years, and had proved a success in settling up the frontier with actual, bona fide settlers. The law required settlement, residence, and cultivation, thus preventing specu- lators from acquiring title to large tracts of land. One of the noblest acts of the then fully dominant party, was the
85
REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
enactment of the homestead law, by which a settler, for the sum of eighteen dollars, with five years' residence on and cultivation of a tract, could acquire title to a quarter-section of land. A number of families were enabled to secure homes in one vicinity, and thereby could support schools and churches, and establish the various social relations.
The hardships and vicissitudes of the settlers were often greater than the people of the Eastern States imagined. It was natural for those in the thickly-settled New England and Middle States, surrounded with facilities for comfort and luxury, to imagine that a homestead-settler, by procuring a quarter-section of land for a mere nominal sum, in the midst of an extensive prairie, surrounded with nature's embellish- ments, was a fortunate being, who with a few days' labor could convert his new possession into a garden of beauty and fields of plenty. Hence the landless in those States were in- duced to make the trial by the gratuitous advice of friends, and elaborate articles in newspapers, culminating in the mem- orable words of an eminent journalist-"Go West!" After careful observation, together with practical experience, I have no hesitancy in asserting that the man who takes his family to the frontier, and with them resides five years on a home- stead, and fulfills the requirements of the law as to cultiva- tion and improvements, pays a valuable consideration for the
86
THE NORTHERN TIER.
land. The men and women who compose the homestead set- tlers on the frontier deserve the approbation and charitable sympathy, not only of those who conduct the Government, but of the entire people of the older States. To them the nation is indebted for the rapid advancement of civilization westward into the wild waste, and the development of the nation's domain of uncultivated prairies, capable of yielding vast returns of wealth in time of peace, and power in times of public danger.
It became necessary to the welfare of the nation that the Indians and buffalo should be driven westward and the coun- try developed, in order to secure homes for the immigrants from Europe, induced to seek our shore by the liberal pro- vision of our free government; and the homestead law has proved a success to the satisfaction of its framers, in causing the prairies to be checkered with school houses and churches, while agricultural pursuits have rapidly changed the face of the country into cultivated fields and homelike landscapes.
The land office having been established at Concordia, it became necessary to have a building erected for its accommo- dation. At the close of the September term of court in Troy, in 1870, armed with my official papers as Receiver, I shook the dust of Troy from my feet, bade adieu to my friends, with a sigh of regret at parting with the members of the Northern
87
REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
Kansas bar, with whom I had been so long associated, and started westward to a new field of labor on the frontier. My starting seemed unpropitious. Soon after the train left Atchi- son a violent rain storm set in, and after I arrived at Water- ville, the then terminus of the road, the rain continued to pour down in torrents the entire night. The small streams rose rapidly, and Coon creek seemed little less than a foam- ing cataract. The rain would cease for a brief period, seem- ingly only to renew its fury after the interval. There was no public conveyance from Waterville west. My only de- pendence was to secure some kind of private conveyance; and after repeated trials I succeeded in inducing a party to take me to Clyde, on the Republican river, by paying him a suffi- cient sum to have secured a passage in a steamship across the Atlantic. The vehicle was an old - fashioned farm wagon, that looked as though it might have been used in the last century, drawn by a pair of small ponies, whose lack of flesh and emaciated condition denoted that they had been fed at least once a week. The roads were in the worst possible con- dition, with the mud averaging from six to ten inches deep, of the consistency and tenacity of shoemakers' wax. Out of compassion for the ponies I walked more than half the way, and with at least five pounds of mud clinging to each boot,
88
THE NORTHERN TIER.
I trudged wearily along, my gait resembling that of a con- vict wearing a ball and chain.
A commercial traveler, selling "Fairbanks's scales," was. my traveling companion, going to Clyde in the interest of his employers. His conversation was frequently interrupted by his sudden exclamations about the mud, accompanied with expressive adjectives of questionable morality, to be succeeded by sundry stanzas of some fugitive old song of by-gone days, such as-
"Now summer blinks on flowery braes, And o'er the crystal streamlet plays, Come let us spend the lightsome days In the Birks of Aberfeldy."
Near the close of the day we reached Peach creek, twenty- four miles from Waterville, where one of the ponies became so exhausted that we were obliged to remain over night with a hospitable settler.
The next day was a repetition of the previous one, with the addition of a rain during the night to increase the depth of the mud, and add to our discomfort in traveling. With numerous halts to pry the wagon-wheels out of the mud, late in the afternoon we arrived at Clyde. At that place I met two acquaintances-one a State Senator, the other the editor of the Republican Valley Empire, the only newspaper pub- lished in the Republican valley above Junction City.
89
REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
After a friendly greeting and social introductions, my friends procured another team, and a number of the citizens of Clyde accompanied me to Concordia. It was arranged that we should go as far as Sibley that evening, spend the night there, and cross the river to Concordia the next morn- ing. Among the number was Judge B-, a lawyer, whose weight (avoirdupois) was a trifle less than three hundred pounds. Whole- souled, humorous, benevolent and kind, with a never- ending fund of anecdotes, he was one of the liveliest and most genial traveling companions I had met in the West. His wit and anecdotes, being inexhaustible, revived my drooping spirits, and dispelled the gloomy fore- bodings augmented by my trip from Waterville to Clyde. Near sunset we arrived at Salt creek, and found the bridge washed out, and a plank laid across the stream for foot- passengers.
The glories of a Kansas autumn day were about to be enveloped with the mantle of twilight; the sun was disap- pearing beyond the western plains, flooding them with its- golden beauty, until the commingling of emerald and sapphire dazzled the eye with its beauty; the rippling waters of Salt creek glittered and sparkled as the last lingering rays of the sun fell upon them, and they flowed onward to mingle with the current of the Republican.
90
THE NORTHERN TIER.
The only way to cross the stream was to lead the horses across on the plank, in single file, and separate the compo- nent parts of the wagon, convey the several parts across, and put them together on the other shore. It was a difficult task, but rendered less discouraging by the wit and rollicking humor of the Judge.
In due time we arrived at Sibley, where we were enter- tained with that genuine hospitality that is the prominent trait in every household among the homestead settlers on the frontier. Early on the following morning we made prepar- ations to cross the Republican river, to the town site of Concordia. The river was high-in places overflowing its banks-and the raging flood bore on its surface a large amount of drift-wood, and portions of trees were plunging onward in the swift current. The only means of crossing was an old skiff, the owner of which would permit but one of us to enter and cross with him each trip. It seemed a dangerous voyage, even in that manner. After a brief con- sultation it was decided that the Judge should make the first trip across in the skiff, and if the craft did not sink with him in it, it would be safe for the others. It was agreed that when the skiff had passed beyond the main current, if the Judge considered it safe for either of us to attempt to cross, he was to give us a signal by waving his hat. He sat calmly
91
REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
in the craft until it passed the middle of the river, when he waved his hat in triumph, and sang the well-known lines of the beautiful song-
"A life on the ocean wave, And a home on the rolling deep."
In due time we were all safely transferred across the river.
Upon announcing that the land office was permanently located at Concordia, the members of the town company be- came enthusiastic; selections for building sites were in order, and the excitement increased as the prospect of seeing their beautiful town site occupied by dwellings and business houses in the near future grew brighter. Preparation was immedi- ately made for the erection of a building for the land office. At that time there were only three small cabins on the town site, the land -office building, when completed, being the fourth; but as notice had to be given of the opening of the office for business, it was not opened until the sixteenth of January, 1871.
A custom that prevailed on the frontier at that time was that, upon the completion of any building, either for a busi- ness house or residence, it must be dedicated with a dancing- party, at which the young and middle-aged, married and single, among the settlers, participated with that social hilarity characteristic of frontier life. Upon the completion
92
THE NORTHERN TIER.
of the land-office building, it was resolved by the young peo- ple and the members of the town company to have a dancing- party in the building, and invitations to attend were sent to the settlers in the surrounding country. As time had dragged heavily while waiting for the appointed time to open the office for business, I attended the party. To all the invitations by the gentlemen to join in the dance I refused, and protested that I could not dance. I saw a consultation among the ladies, but I little suspected that a playful conspiracy was being arranged, of which I was to be the victim, until it was announced by the floor manager that the next dance would be a quadrille, and the ladies would choose their partners. A lady politely requested me to join her in dancing the quad- rille. What could I do? With no experience at dancing, it seemed impossible to comply with her request, and it would have been impolite to decline it. In the midst of my con- fusion the lady politely and pleasantly informed me that it was the desire of those present that I should join in the dance, and the mischievous smile that embellished her coun- tenance banished my indecision, and we sought our position among the dancers forming for the quadrille.
Reader, did you ever dance? If so, and you remember your first attempt, you can appreciate my situation as I stood there waiting for the music and the prompter to announce,
93
REPUBLICAN LAND DISTRICT.
"All to places!" aware that I should commit sad mistakes, and doubtless sadly mar the pleasure of others. Think of a man wearing number ten mud boots going gracefully through the movements, counter- movements and promenades of a quadrille, without previous training or experience! At length,
"Music arose with its voluptuous swell,"
And the clarion voice of the prompter rang out, "Balance all!" The graceful movements of my partner, when com- pared with my clumsy endeavors, seemed like a fairy before a statue. In vain did I try to imitate the others. There appeared to be power of cohesion between my boots and the cottonwood floor. How I managed to go through the quad- rille without interfering with the movements of others, is a mystery. I overheard my partner telling another lady that, "The Receiver may be posted in land business, but he is not a success as a dancist."
When the refreshments were brought in, the floor manager announced that the Rev. Romulus Pintus Westlake would preach in the building on the following Sunday. Rather an inappropriate time and place for such an announcement, but pardonable, under the circumstances, on the frontier.
After supper the dancing continued, and during the small hours of the night I retired; and as I stepped out of the
94
THE NORTHERN TIER.
building on the prairie grass, I heard a coyote on the hill where the school house now stands, blending his tuneless, discordant yelping with the echo of the night wind, forming a striking contrast with the music of the violin within the building. As I listened to the coyote's doleful complainings, I speculated on his probable future, concluding that ere long the greyhounds of some sporting immigrant would contest his hereditary right to pour forth his long-drawn howlings nightly on a part of the town site of Concordia.
CHAPTER 8.
THE SERMON.
The Rev. Romulus Pintus Westlake was not one of the straight-jacket, camp-meeting relics, whose sublime piety ignores a smile or a joke on Sunday, or whose week - day sanctity forbids story-telling and innocent amusements. On the contrary, he was a genial, social companion-witty, eccen- tric, humorous, and void of pride or selfishness. He enjoyed a good story, and could relate many laughable ones; withal, however, possessing an excellent moral character, of good habits, and temperate in all things save eating. He relished a good dinner, and if there was any one faculty in which he excelled, it was in his capacity for measuring the quantity as well as testing the quality of provisions at meal-time. He would close a sermon abruptly at sound of the dinner-bell. I had doubted the truth of the irreverent tradition that at- tributes to preachers a special fondness for poultry, until I saw the major portion of a large roasted fowl suddenly dis- appear before the conquering appetite of the Rev. Romulus. His wit and eccentricity were of that character that, had
(95)
96
THE NORTHERN TIER.
he flourished during the reign of Charles the First, his ser- vices would have been in request as a court jester. His be- nevolence and charity to the poor were unbounded, and none left his cabin unsupplied.
His birth-place and juvenile residence was in Virginia, near the head-waters of the Kanawha, among the foot-hills on the western slope of the Alleghany mountains. His early education was limited, partly owing to lack of facil- ities, and partly to his inability to properly value the daily confinement in the log school-house of the district, as com- pared with the pleasure of extracting raccoons and rabbits from their retreats among the rocks or hollow trunks of de- cayed trees, or of lounging in the shade of the green old woods that skirted his native hills, or of gathering chestnuts in autumn, as they fell from the expanding burrs and rattled down the side of the mountain. Like all boys reared amid mountain scenery and forest shade, he was fond of fishing and hunting. To recline lazily on the bank of a mountain stream, fishing-rod in hand, or climb the ragged woodland hills, and listen eagerly for the long-drawn yelp of the fox- hound, furnished him more genuine pleasure than the mo- notonous recitations of the school-room; and many hours were thus spent that should have been devoted to study.
He inherited and adhered to the traditional theory of his
97
THE SERMON.
ancestors concerning the influence of the moon upon vegeta- tion, and believed that unless garden-seeds, potatoes and other vegetables were planted before or after certain changes of the moon, they would not produce a crop; he also held that a cabin should be shingled, or an old-fashioned rail- fence built, only during certain phases of the moon, the proper time being ascertained by resort to the dust-covered almanac suspended from the convenient nail driven into the cabin wall adjacent to the family clock.
He was a firm believer in the ground-hog as a prognosti- cator of the weather-maintaining that, on the second day of February in each year, the animal emerged from his bur- row, and if he saw his shadow, immediately returned to his winter-quarters for six weeks, during which period winter would continue to wrap the earth in its icy mantle.
He also believed in another tradition or theory of his an- cestors, commonly called " water witchcraft," which was prac- ticed by holding a forked stick in the hands and meandering about the premises in the vicinity of the spot selected for a well, the stick-holder maintaining that, when he arrived at the spot beneath which was a vein of water, the stick would indicate it, and by the number of its revolutions would also indicate the depth of the water below the surface. He car-
7
98
THE NORTHERN TIER.
ried this superstition into practice with success among the credulous settlers in the vicinity of his homestead cabin.
He dated his church-membership from an exciting camp- meeting on a tributary of the Kanawha, when a young man, after he had "sown and harrowed in his wild oats." He served his country faithfully during the war of the Rebellion, and doubtless was entitled to be designated by some one of the military titles indiscriminately bestowed upon politicians and men of notoriety in Kansas. I am unable to learn in what capacity he served in the army, whether as chaplain or private. I infer, however, that he was in the cavalry service, from an illustration I heard him employ once in a sermon. His text was: "He pawetli in the valley, and smelleth the battle afar off." Said he, "My text revives my recollection of an occurrence that happened when I was in the army, at the Battle of the Wilderness. My horse smelled the battle 'afar off,' and notwithstanding all my exertion at spurring and thumping the heels of my army shoes against his flanks, he would not move forward; and finally, smelling the battle stronger, he wheeled and carried me so far to rear that I did not overtake my command until the battle was ended; and I came near being court-martialed and punished for cowardice, all owing to my horse smelling 'the battle afar off.' He was like some church-members who remain in the rear, while the
99
THE SERMON.
minister and zealous members are firing along the whole line at the front."
A Virginian by birth, a Christian by practice, a wit by na- ture, and eccentric beyond the ordinary development of oddity in the make-up of man, he was a popular preacher and cir- cuit rider on the frontier.
Judging from the irregular boundaries of his circuit, the distance he traveled, and the promptness with which he ful- filled each appointment, I infer that he was either converted by, or was a disciple of that eccentric preacher, Lorenzo Dow. He was not handsome in feature, but he had a musical voice, which, added to his eloquence, eccentricity, zeal and enthusi- asm, secured his popularity as a preacher among the settlers.
His eloquence, when he could control it, was of a high order, but the balance-wheel of his mind was of so little force that there seemed to be a total absence of the power of continuity ; and frequently when preaching he would follow his text and pursue his subject logically, with powerful elo- quence and convincing pulpit oratory, for a short time, when suddenly his ideas seemed to expand and diverge from his subject, and scatter in all directions. At such periods in his sermons, his voice rolled in stately measures from the pulpit, his wit sparkled, and his anecdotes and illustrations
100
THE NORTHERN TIER.
embraced all subjects between the two extremes of the sub- lime and the ridiculous. He would institute a comparison between the tents of Israel and the sod-roofed "dug-outs" of the homestead settlers, or liken Judas Iscariot to a " first- class dead-beat of the nineteenth century." His eloquence would flash out for a moment like a brilliant meteor across the western sky, and disappear amid the gloom of incoherent reasoning, random assertions and irrelevant illustrations. His sermons, though serio-comic, disclosed sufficient traits of his character to demonstrate the fact that his religious life was void of bigotry, selfishness or prejudice, so frequently concealed beneath the cloak of sanctity.
He was independent in politics, and bitterly opposed to human slavery, and believed the negroes would make better citizens and Christians than the Indians. He had suffered some by Indian depredations, and had an inveterate hatred towards that degenerate race.
He was opposed to attributing the grasshopper devastations and other destructive agencies to Providence, and to use his own language, "There was attributed to Providence, fre- quently, by disappointed men and women, more than is con- tained in the catalogue of inflictions."
He enjoyed life, always viewed the bright side of the pic-
101
THE SERMON.
ture even in misfortune, never borrowed trouble, but always encouraged faith and hope when poverty and suffering crossed the threshold of the settlers.
Such is a brief description of the Rev. Romulus Pintus Westlake, who was announced to preach in the land office building on the following Sunday. He appeared at the ap- pointed time, and the settlers for miles around came to hear him.
Upon inquiry it was ascertained that there was not a Bible in the village, and the preacher had failed to bring one, and likewise had forgotten his text, but intimated his ability to find it if he had a Bible. After reflecting a moment, he re- membered detached portions of the passages, but had forgotten the exact language, or the order in which they appeared in Holy Writ. After the usual preliminary ceremonies, he pro- ceeded substantially as follows :
"My friends and fellow-travelers in this wild frontier region -the land of our adoption-my Christian duty impels me to appear before you and present to you that brightest jewel among the gifts bestowed upon man- kind (the gospel ), as taught by those who have gone before me-the 'lat- chets of whose shoes I am unworthy to unloose.' The regard I have for the truth compels me to admit that I have forgotten the chapter and verse, as well as the exact language of my text; but as near as I remember, it is about as follows: 'Disturb not the old landmarks, though you be hewers of wood and drawers of water;' from which I deduce and supply the fol- lowing as the foundation of my remarks on this occasion: 'Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may.' The text clearly demonstrates that
102
THE NORTHERN TIER.
those who uttered it had an eye to business, temporal as well as spiritual, Whether Solomon was right in forbidding the removal of the old land- marks, or Joshua in imposing the duty of hewers of wood and drawers of water upon the conquered Canaanites, is a question too profound for a common preacher on the frontier, and I accept all Bible teaching as true, as I find it, without adding to or subtracting from it one jot or tittle.
"But being without a Bible, I am compelled to use a figure of speech on which to base my sermon-hence my subject, 'Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may; but disturb not the old landmarks in doing so.' Judging all the homestead settlers by myself, they are all more or less 'hewers of wood and drawers of water,' in a physical and moral p'int of view; differing from the hewers and drawers of old time in this, that the homestead settlers are free and independent, in a free country, while the old-time hewers and drawers were bondmen, or slaves. That part of the text that commands, 'Disturb not the old landmarks,' might be applied to the monuments and corner-stones erected by the surveyors when this coun- try was surveyed, but I apply it to the moral and religious landmarks estab- lished by the church in its early days.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.